Few people know about this battle … Why ???.. In 1572 the greatest battle took place, which determined the future of the Eurasian continent and the entire planet for many centuries to come. In that battle that claimed more than a hundred thousand lives …
Few people know about this battle … Why ??? …
In 1572, the greatest battle took place, which determined the future of the Eurasian continent and the entire planet for many centuries to come.
In that battle, which claimed more than a hundred thousand lives, not only the fate of Russia was decided - it was about the fate of the entire European civilization.
But few people, besides professional historians, know about this battle …
Why???…
Promotional video:
Because, in Europe's opinion, this victory was won by the “wrong” ruler, “wrong” army and “wrong” people …
How it was
… In 1572, Devlet Girey gathers an unprecedented military force at that time - 120,000 people, including 80 thousand Crimeans and Nogays, as well as 7 thousand of the best Turkish Janissaries with dozens of artillery barrels - in fact, special forces, elite troops with extensive experience in warfare and the capture of fortresses.
The "carve-up of the skin of an unkilled bear" went ahead: Murza were appointed to the still Russian cities, governors were appointed to the still unconquered Russian principalities, the Russian land was divided in advance, and merchants received permission for duty-free trade.
A huge army was to enter the Russian borders and stay there forever.
And so it happened …
On July 6, 1.572, the Crimean Khan Devlet Girey brought the Ottoman army to the Oka, where he stumbled upon a twenty thousand army under the command of Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky.
Devlet Giray, did not engage in battle with the Russians, but turned up along the river. Near Sen'kina ford, he easily dispersed a detachment of two hundred boyars and, having crossed the river, moved along the Serpukhov road to Moscow.
The decisive battle
Oprichnik Dmitry Khvorostinin, who led a detachment of five thousand of Cossacks and boyars, sneaked on the heels of the Tatars and on July 30, 1.572, he received permission to attack the enemy.
Rushing forward, he trampled the Tatar rearguard into the road dust to death and ran into the main forces at the Pakhra River. The Tatars, taken aback by such impudence, turned around and rushed at the small detachment of Russians with all their might. The Russians rushed to their heels, and the enemies, rushing after them, pursued the guardsmen to the very village of Molodi …
And then an unexpected surprise awaited the invaders: the Russian army, deceived on the Oka, was already here. And not just stood, but managed to build a gulyai-gorod - a mobile fortification made of thick wooden shields. Cannons hit the steppe cavalry from the cracks between the shields, squeaks rattled from the loopholes cut in the log walls, and a shower of arrows poured over the fortification. A friendly volley swept away the leading Tatar detachments, like a hand that swept away pawns from a chessboard …
The Tatars mixed, and Khvorostinin, having deployed his Cossacks, again rushed to the attack …
Wave after wave of the Ottomans went to storm the fortress that had come from nowhere, but thousands of them, one after another, fell into a cruel meat grinder and abundantly filled the Russian land with their blood …
On that day, only the descending darkness stopped the endless murder …
In the morning, the Ottoman army discovered the truth in all its terrifying ugliness: the invaders realized that they had fallen into a trap - in front of the Serpukhov road stood the strong walls of Moscow, and the oprichniks and archers, chained in iron, blocked the escape routes to the steppe. Now for the uninvited guests it was no longer a question of conquering Russia, but of getting back alive …
The Tatars were in a rage: they were used not to fight the Russians, but to drive them into slavery. The Ottoman murzas, who had gathered to rule the new lands, and not die on them, were also not laughing.
By the third day, when it became clear that the Russians would rather die on the spot than allow the intruders to get away, Devlet Girey ordered his soldiers to dismount and attack the Russians along with the Janissaries. The Tatars understood perfectly well that this time they were not going to rob, but to save their own skin, and fought like mad dogs. It got to the point that the Crimeans tried to break the hated shields with their hands, and the janissaries gnawed at them with their teeth and chopped them down with scimitars. But the Russians were not going to release the eternal robbers free to give them the opportunity to catch their breath and return again. Blood poured all day, but by evening the city continued to stand in its place.
Early in the morning of August 3, 1572, when the Ottoman army launched a decisive attack, Vorotynsky's regiment and Khvorostinin's guardsmen unexpectedly hit them in the back, and at the same time a powerful volley from all guns fell on the storming Ottomans from Gulyai-Gorod.
And what started out as a battle instantly turned into a beating …
Outcome
On the field near the village of Molody, all seven thousand Turkish janissaries were chopped up without a trace.
Not only the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet-Girey himself perished under Russian sabers near the village of Molodi - there the Crimea lost almost the entire combat-ready male population without exception. From this defeat, he could not recover, which predetermined his entry into the Russian Empire.
Despite the almost fourfold superiority in manpower, almost nothing was left of the 120-thousandth army of the khan - only 10 thousand people returned to the Crimea. 110 thousand Crimean Turkish invaders found their death in Molodi.
The history of that time did not know such a grandiose military disaster. The best army in the world has simply ceased to exist …
Summary
In 1572, not only Russia was saved. All of Europe was saved in Molodi - after such a defeat, there could be no talk of Turkish conquest of the continent.
The Battle of Molody is not only a grandiose milestone in Russian history. The Battle of Molodi is one of the greatest events in European and World history.
Perhaps that is why it was so thoroughly "forgotten" by the Europeans, for whom it is important to show that it was they who defeated the Turks, these "shakers of the Universe", and not some Russians …
Battle of Molodi? What is this anyway?
Ivan the Terrible? We remember something, "tyrant and despot", it seems …
Bloody tyrant and despot
The "Notes on Russia" by the Englishman Jerome Horsey, which claims that in the winter of 1.570, the guardsmen killed 700,000 (seven hundred thousand) residents in Novgorod can be attributed to "complete delirium". How this could happen, given the total population of this city of thirty thousand, no one could explain …
With all his efforts, no more than 4,000 dead can be attributed to Ivan the Terrible's conscience for all his fifty years of rule.
Probably, this is a lot, even if we consider that the majority honestly earned themselves executions by treason and perjury …
However, in the same years in neighboring Europe in Paris in ONLY ONE night (!!!) more than 3,000 Huguenots were massacred, and in the rest of the country - more than 30,000 in two weeks. In England, by order of Henry VIII, 72,000 people were hanged, only guilty of being beggars. In the Netherlands, during the revolution, the number of corpses exceeded 100,000 …
Aleksei Smorchkov