Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich managed to save Russia in a critical era
An outstanding commander, hero of the Battle of the Neva and the Battle on the Ice, Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky was a wise ruler and an experienced diplomat. The political path he chose did not allow Russia to disappear, and for many centuries determined the vector of development of our state.
Alexander Yaroslavich was born on May 13, 1221 in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. He was the direct heir of the great Kiev princes, Vladimir, the Baptist of Russia and Yaroslav the Wise, among his famous ancestors Yuri Dolgoruky and Vsevolod the Big Nest.
By the time of the beginning of the state activity of Alexander Nevsky, the situation in Russia was catastrophic. The invasion of Mongol nomads in 1237-1238 caused colossal damage to the Russian lands. Cities and villages were devastated, thousands of peasants and artisans were overwhelmed, trade relations between cities ceased. The Mongols absorbed the eastern and southern neighbors of Russia - the Volga Bulgarians, Polovtsians, Pechenegs, Torks and Berendeys. A similar fate awaited the Russians.
To some extent, the former structures of princely power, with the inclusion of the Golden Horde, were preserved by the father of Alexander Yaroslavich, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. After his death, his son Alexander had to continue this line. But besides the Mongol question, the prince had to solve the German question.
"The enmity of the German tribe with the Slavic belongs to such world historical phenomena," according to the historian Nikolai Kostomarov, "of which the beginning is inaccessible to research, because it is hidden in the darkness of prehistoric times."
The Livonian Order, which had one of the most powerful rulers of Europe, the Pope as its patron, launched an offensive on the Slavic lands in the first half of the 13th century. This offensive was not a simple attempt by one state to expand its territory at the expense of another, it was a real crusade, in which knights from all over Europe participated, and which set as its goal the political, cultural and religious enslavement of North-Western Russia.
In addition to the Livonian Order, the Russian lands were threatened by the young Lithuanian state and Sweden. The Novgorod reign of Alexander Yaroslavich fell precisely during the period of serious foreign policy complications in the north-west of Russia. And the appearance of the prince on the historical stage was already regarded by his contemporaries as providential.
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“Without God's command there would be no reign of him,” the chronicle says.
The young prince's political intuition prompted him to make the right decision, to refuse the illusory help against the Mongols of the West, which Pope Innocent IV offered on certain conditions. It was obvious that agreements with the West could not lead to a positive result. At the beginning of the 13th century, European rulers laid bare their true intentions when, instead of liberating the Holy Land from the infidels, in 1204 they captured Orthodox Constantinople.
Alexander will resist any attempts by his western neighbors to take advantage of the Mongol invasion and take possession of Russian lands. In 1240 he will defeat the Swedes on the Neva, and for this brilliant victory he will receive the name Nevsky, in 1241 Alexander Yaroslavich will knock out the invaders from Koporye, in 1242 - from Pskov and defeat the army of the Livonian Order and the Dorpat bishop on the ice of Lake Peipsi.
As Kostomarov notes, Alexander Nevsky saved the Russians from the fate of the Baltic Slavs, conquered by the Germans, and strengthened the northwestern borders of Russia.
Having secured the western borders of Russia, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich set to work in the east. He traveled to the Horde four times to enlist the support of the khan. It was impossible to resolve the eastern issue by military means, the forces of the nomads significantly exceeded the forces of the Russians, so Alexander Yaroslavich chose the diplomatic path.
“By his prudent policy,” the historian Vladimir Pashuto wrote about Prince Alexander Nevsky, “he saved Russia from the final ruin of the nomads' armies. Armed struggle, trade policy, electoral diplomacy, he avoided new wars in the North and West, a possible, but disastrous for Russia, alliance with the papacy and rapprochement of the curia and crusaders with the Horde. He gained time, allowing Russia to grow stronger and recover from the terrible devastation."
The balanced policy of Alexander Nevsky saved Russian Orthodoxy from mutation - union with Rome, allowed the Church to continue its mission in Russian lands and even beyond its borders, in 1261, with the mediation of the Grand Duke, even the Sarai diocese was formed with a see in Sarai-Batu, the capital of the Golden Horde …
According to the historian Georgy Vernadsky, thanks to the preserved Orthodoxy "as a moral and political force of the Russian people" the emergence of the Russian kingdom was possible.
The Russian Orthodox Church, highly appreciating the life feat of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, glorified him in the face of saints.
Kirill Bragin