When you begin to read and understand historical events yourself, with historical figures, heroes, it suddenly turns out that a significant part of all this appears at all not the same as we are told about it at school, as they write in popular books and shown in films. And the fault here is not even artistic embellishment, but the historically established practice of exaltation, giving greater significance to a certain event, personality within the framework of the entire convoy of history. This can be seen both in Russian and in world history in general.
For example, what will a man in the street say about such a historical hero, canonized, about Dmitry Donskoy? “He rallied scattered Russia and threw off the Tatar-Mongol yoke, defeating Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo field” - that's what the majority will say.
Did you know that everything in this statement is not quite so … or even not at all so!
It is worth starting with what the princes Daniel of Moscow, Ivan Kalita, Simeon the Proud created, collected, and strengthened the young Moscow principality.
The brother of Simeon the Proud, Ivan II, who had already received a powerful principality, was a so-so prince. They write about him: "The period of the reign of Ivan the Red was a period of relative weakening of Moscow and the strengthening of its neighbors and opponents." And when he died, under the ten-year-old boy Dmitry, Metropolitan Alexy became regent. Moreover, this is a rather surprising case in history, when the church leader-regent was engaged in the real management of Vladimir Russia. It was he who knocked the khan out of the label for the great reign of a ten-year-old child. It was he who, until his death (and he died at the age of 85, when Dmitry was already about thirty years old), was engaged in strengthening the Moscow principality (taming Mikhail Tverskoy), subjugating the princes, established the procedure for the transfer of power in Russia (hereditary grand reign for the Moscow princes) and much more.
At the same time, it is logical to imagine Dmitry was a selfish, notorious teenager, for whom everything was decided by the Metropolitan and the boyars up to 28 years old (and he died, by the way, at 39 years old). It pissed him off. And he is the Grand Duke! All the time he was trying to steer someone or decide something, but of course he was not allowed. Then all of this will be triggered by his impulsive, harmful government decisions for the country, when he will be left without the supervision of the Metropolitan.
Well, okay, it's more psychology and particular. The main thing here is that Dmitry Donskoy did practically nothing to rally and strengthen Vladimir Rus' (well, maybe except that he actively received and arranged various princes from all sides in Moscow). Almost everything was done before by his ancestors and Metropolitan Alexy.
Promotional video:
Further, the victory on the Kulikovo field. In general, the Tatars led by Dmitry were beaten up to the Kulikovo field. This was not in the first (battle on Vozha). Did you know that the experienced prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Bobrok, who recently arrived in Moscow from the Lithuanian side, was the governor of the Kulikovo field. It was Bobrok who came up with the battle plan, it was he who led the ambush regiment into the decisive battle. Dmitry did not take part in the planning and implementation of the battle itself. Where was Dmitry? And he, all the time thirsty for battle (before his boyars were not allowed to fight himself), handed the banner and princely armor to his friend Brenko (who, by the way, was overtaken and killed by the Tatars, mistaking for the Grand Duke, overturning the left wing of the Russian army), and he himself rushed into the front line regiment. Where and how he fought there, of course, it is not known,but a day after the end of the battle he was found piled with corpses and without a single wound on his body.
So think about the contribution of Dmitry Donskoy to the victory at the Kulikovo field. No, of course the prince was loved by the people, he was a symbol, they followed him, but nothing more.
And what about "thrown off the Tatar-Mongol yoke, etc., etc."? Well, you probably know that two years later, after the victory on the Kulikovo field, Khan Tokhtamysh (who had not won a single big battle in his entire life) suddenly laid siege to Moscow. All the boyars and princes managed to flee from the city and the deceived townspeople opened the gates. The city was burned, thousands of people were killed and taken away to the full. But not only that, after that Vladimirskaya Rus for a long time paid a huge tribute to the Tatar khans and went for grand-ducal labels.
But Dmitry Donskoy, on business and without business, fought with Prince Mikhail of Tver and Prince Oleg of Ryazan (against whom he was always offended, and fought with him on the slander of his boyars). At the same time, after the Kulikov field, the Moscow races were defeated by Oleg (the rats were not led by Dmitry). What kind of cohesion of Rus can we talk about here?
Needless to say, a few years after the death of the Metropolitan, after the Battle of Kulikovo, the state and religious affairs of the Moscow principality as the Great Vladimir principality were in a deep enclosure, everything was falling apart. Only now they did not miss the label in the Horde for a great reign for a lot of money, there was no metropolitan in Russia (leapfrog of the successive Kantakuzin, Pimen, Dionysius). The boyars whispered one thing or the other in the prince's ears, and the only thing he could do was to exclaim "that Father Alexy would be alive." And now remember that he died at the age of 39, so actually nothing else and not having time.
As a result, it is very difficult to connect Dmitry Donskoy with the rallying of Russia, victory at the Kulikovo field, and getting rid of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Is not it? If, of course, you attribute to him everything that happened during his reign in Vladimir Russia, then I agree. But I got the impression that the main achievement of Dmitry Donskoy is that he did not mess up too much during his short reign and did not destroy much of what was built before him.
Tell us, what is the "historical weight" of the great hero, Orthodox saint Dmitry Donskoy, what have I missed?
