Recently, historians are increasingly asking the question: was there really a Mongol-Tatar yoke? Indeed, the Russian lands lived under the rule of the Horde for 240 years, but for some reason no one spoke of any yoke at that time.
The ruin of the Russian land
The invasions of Batu's troops in 1237-1240 are considered to be a catastrophe of such destructive force that the country was thrown back in its development hundreds of years ago. What kind of development is there if Russia groaned under the yoke of wild nomads for almost 250 years?
Russian historians who studied the Mongol invasion in the 18th and 19th centuries seized on the figures and facts given by medieval Western authors. In particular, it is said about the half-million horde of Batu, which fell on the divided principalities. There was no way to resist such a force.
But the Russians did not submit without a fight, for which the Mongols perpetrated a monstrous pogrom. Then came decades of humiliation and shame. Even the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo did not allow throwing off the hated yoke completely, and for another hundred years Moscow paid tribute to the Mongols.
Batu robbed and burned cities that resisted. In the end, he took and ruined Kiev, which put an end to old Russia. The urban population was partly killed, partly taken into slavery. Written tradition and stone architecture were suppressed for decades. Kiev, Vladimir, Chernigov, Galich and dozens of other cities lay in ruins.
This is the generally accepted version. Let's try to figure it out.
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Lost cities
Modern science cannot determine the location of 42 relatively large Russian cities known before the invasion of Batu and killed during it. They, like old Ryazan, were wiped off the face of the earth. For comparison: after the conquest of Khorezm by the Mongols, more than 150 cities "disappeared", and in China there are more than a thousand of them. It turns out that Russia suffered much less than China and Khorezm.
In fact, Batu did not have any 500 thousandth army. In the best case, 60 thousand sabers. Moreover, there were no more than half of the Mongols among them. One can argue whether it is realistic to feed the 500,000-strong army in winter. But each soldier of Batu led one spare horse and one pack horse. And it is absolutely impossible to feed one and a half million horses on a winter trip. Such a number of horses is even difficult to imagine.
However, among the Mongols (in contrast to the Russians) everything was counted and recorded. Since the 1220s, it was determined that Russia was withdrawing to the Jochi ulus.
Jochi is the unloved son of Genghis Khan, so he was given a modest inheritance - there was a country that had not yet been conquered. Neither Jochi, nor his successor Batu could collect more than 30 thousand sabers. Something was thrown by the relatives who participated in the campaign. Another 30 thousand were probably recruited from the conquered peoples.
Could the Mongols with such forces inflict catastrophic damage to Russia, whose population was then about 12 million? Definitely not. Certainly the ruin was less than in France during the Hundred Years War.
Suitcase without handle
The Mongols were not at all eager to fight with Russia. Batu had to persuade the Great Kurultai three times. Twice the rulers of other uluses refused to help him. He did not even dream of conquering the warlike Russian princes on his own.
Only in 1235 did the kurultai sanction a campaign against Russia. To do this, Batu had to appeal to the laws of revenge. He recalled that in 1223, the Kiev, Chernigov and Galician princes, being allies of the Polovtsy, killed the Mongol ambassadors who offered them peace. According to Genghis Khan's Yasa, the murder of ambassadors is the worst sin. The Mongols then defeated the Russian regiments on the Kalka River, but that was not enough - both the descendants and subjects of the criminals were subject to punishment.
In 1237 the Mongols captured Ryazan and moved on. They plundered and destroyed everything they could, but hardly bypassed a tenth of Russia. Somewhere they passed by, seeing strong fortifications. In many cities, the invaders were paid off. Such large centers as Smolensk, Turov, Polotsk, Pinsk, Pskov, Novgorod were not touched by the Mongols at all.
The only really important result of Batu's campaigns was the destruction of Kiev in 1240. The center, for which the Russian princes constantly fought, disappeared. It turned out that, apart from the desire to occupy the Kiev throne, nothing else unites them.
I must say that the Mongols considered Russia not a very profitable acquisition - a kind of suitcase without a handle, which is both hard to carry and a pity to leave.
There are many cities here, each of which must be assaulted. Here is a militant free population, whose martial skills were not inferior to the Mongol. And most importantly, compared to Khorezm, China and Persia, the Russian lands in those years were depressingly poor.
Batu initially did not seek to establish control over the defeated principalities. Convinced that the Russians were demoralized, he turned his army on Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. In Hungary, the Mongols staged such a pogrom that Russia did not know, but they did not have enough strength for further. And Batu had to return to the steppe between the Dnieper and the Volga and try to get at least some benefit from the Russian lands.
Sly Baty
It turned out to be not that easy. While Batu went to Europe and recovered his strength, the Russian princes paved the way to the capital of the Mongol Empire - Karakorum. The first was the prince of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.
A year after him, seven princes traveled to Karakorum. At the same time, no one called them there - they themselves felt the strength in the Mongols and asked for help against their neighbors. Or they tried to persuade the Mongols to resolve disputes that constantly arise between the Russian princes.
At first, the great khans demanded only the recognition of political dependence. In practice, this meant that the Russian princes had to supply troops if the Mongols ordered it. There was no question of any tribute.
The Mongols did not interfere in the order of inheritance, allowed the princes to pursue an independent foreign policy, did not oppress the Orthodox Church. And the internal structure of the principalities did not interest them at all. In addition, in Russia for all 250 years of the "yoke" nowhere and never was there a permanent Mongol garrison.
Batu was the first to talk about tribute. But he acted very carefully. Galician prince - in exchange for tribute - promised help against Hungary, Vladimir prince - against Novgorod. By the way, the Mongols never deceived the Russian rulers. But in Karakorum they learned about the "left income" and ordered to conduct a population census.
However, Batu himself sabotaged the census. He did not want to send income to the distant Karakorum, preferring to negotiate with the princes on the ground, and even entered into a confrontation with the great Khan Guyuk.
As a result of complex intrigues, Alexander Nevsky received the label for the great reign. He and Batu had a complete understanding. The Mongol cavalry took part in Alexander's campaigns against Lithuania, for this the prince, as best he could, ensured peace in Russia - so as not to compromise Batu in the eyes of the great khan.
Of course, getting a label in the Horde was humiliating. But taking a vassal oath in itself cannot be called a yoke. In Europe, sometimes situations arose that were much more humiliating for the rulers. The German emperor Henry IV, for example, on his knees begged forgiveness from the Pope. But nobody talks about the “papal yoke”.
Settlement of accounts
Much is written about the cruel reprisals of the Mongols against the Russian princes summoned to the Horde. But in 250 years the "yoke" killed or poisoned nine princes. A lot or a little - judge for yourself. But it must be borne in mind that in some cases, as, for example, with Alexander Nevsky, the involvement of the Mongols in the poisoning is doubtful.
From time to time, the Mongols organized campaigns in the Russian principalities. But three-quarters of them were provoked by the princes themselves, wishing to settle scores with their neighbors. In fact, they went to Sarai - the capital of the Golden Horde - to complain about each other. The Horde, naturally, intervened, guided by their own ideas of justice.
At the same time, the Russians themselves said: "Moscow led the Horde to Smolensk", "Prince Alexander threatened the Novgorodians with the Horde", "Vasily Kostromskaya led the Horde to defend against Novgorod" or "Prince Dmitry of Rostov led the Tatars to Ryazan." The Horde made several campaigns to punish the princes for non-payment of tribute.
But from the beginning of the XIV century, Sarai shifted the collection of tribute to “the oldest of the Russian princes,” that is, the owner of the grand ducal label. The Horde tribute collectors - the Baskaks - disliked the Russian population, so, as they say, their services had to be abandoned. And the princes who were collecting tribute (at different times - Vladimir, Tver, Moscow), could delay payments for three, or even five years. And they could have sent less than the agreed amount.
The punishment was followed only once: Ivan Kalita in 1328 "led the Horde to Tver." From this began the rise of Moscow, which took a course towards an alliance with the Horde.
Silver for the union
The question arises: did Russia pay a big tribute? According to the results of the Horde census in the North-East of Russia in 1275, it was "half a quarter from the plow." With a standard weight of a silver hryvnia of 150 grams, it turns out that the Vladimir-Suzdal land paid about 1.5 tons of silver. At the same time, 4.5 tons were charged annually from three sparsely populated provinces in northern China. The Song empire, which had not yet been conquered by the Mongols, occupied the southern part of China, was paid off with an annual tribute of 7.5 tons of silver.
The volume of tribute did not increase even later, when rubles came into use. The Tver and Novgorod princedoms in 1321 paid 2000 rubles in silver, the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal land - 1500 rubles, Moscow under Dmitry Donskoy - 1280 rubles. For comparison: Astrakhan alone (not Russian, but a Horde city) gave 1,800 rubles annually.
Whatever you think, the entire Rus dependent on the Horde paid 14 thousand rubles, or 1.5 tons of silver per year. In 1380, this money could buy 16 thousand tons of rye. This was enough to feed the troops of 10-12 thousand sabers. The amount of tribute turns out to be not at all ruinous, given that in return the Russian princes acquired a strong ally in the fight against the expansion of the Catholic West.
Bishopric of Sarai
In Karakorum, Russia eventually ceased to be noticed at all. Actually, the princes stopped going there - especially after 1262, when the Golden Horde separated from the Mongol Empire.
The relations of North-Eastern Russia with Sarai grew stronger. Even the fact that Khan Berke converted to Islam did not prevent this. At the same time, he not only did nothing to plant a new religion in Russia, but also allowed the opening of a courtyard of the Vladimir Metropolitan in Sarai, and then to establish the bishopric of Sarai.
Those Russian principalities (southern and northwestern), which refused an alliance with the Tatars, were seized by Lithuania and Poland, and their fate turned out to be sad. Lithuanian and Polish garrisons appeared there, the lands were redistributed in favor of the Lithuanian and Polish aristocracy, the population became Catholic, and the Orthodox over time became second-class people. The Mongols, on the other hand, adhered to a policy of tolerance and non-interference in religious affairs.
Anticipating such a development of events, Alexander Nevsky and went to an alliance with the Horde. This policy has fully justified itself. In the West, the Mongols were panicked. In 1268, the Teutons and Danes crossed the Narov to capture Novgorod. A detachment of 500 Horde men immediately came to help the Russians. The knights, not even knowing the exact number of the Mongols, turned back. And in 1274 the Smolensk people forced their prince to submit to the Horde, and the Lithuanians immediately took their army away from the city. In the XIV century, the participation of the Horde cavalry in the campaigns of the Russian princes became a common, quite common phenomenon.
The Mongols themselves demanded serious military assistance from the Russians only four times: once against the Alans, once again against the Hungarians, and twice against Lithuania. In all other cases, it was a matter of purely allied relations. Often Mongols and Russians fought side by side for some "Ryazan inheritance", and even for the khan throne. And they fought against the same mixed - Russian-Horde squad.
And in 1359, unrest began in the Horde - "The Great Jam". For 20 years 25 khans were replaced. In such a situation, the vassalage of Russia became purely nominal. The tribute could not be paid for 10 years, customs offices appeared on the borders of the Russian lands. And after the Battle of Kulikovo, the khans stopped interfering in the order of the transition of the great reign. Now the Moscow princes simply passed on the title of the Grand Duke by inheritance.
Made in Europe
Since then, Russian troops have suffered defeats from the Horde several times. For example, in 1382 Tokhtamysh burned down Moscow. But each time the terms of reconciliation were more and more profitable. In 1472 the Tatar Khan Akhmat was defeated by Ivan III at Aleksin. And eight years later, the Horde did not even dare to join the battle on the Ugra. The question of paying tribute was closed forever.
According to the official version, it was then - in 1480 - that the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” came to an end. Which did not leave a single Mongolian place name, not a single law. And nowhere in the annals is it said about yoke. It turns out that the Russian chroniclers of the "cruel heel of the Mongols" did not notice for 240 years.
The very concept of "yoke" was introduced into everyday life by Polish and Lithuanian diplomats. Jan Dlugosh in 1479 spoke about the "barbarian yoke" in Russia. In 1571, after a trip to Moscow, the Pole Daniel Prinz wrote about the "Tatar yoke" (over time, the word "Mongol" was forgotten, and the Europeans were well acquainted with the Crimean Tatars).
At the same time, Russian sources mention the yoke only from the end of the 17th century, and Russian historians - starting with Nikolai Karamzin.
The version stuck: it was easier to explain the lag behind Western Europe, which Peter I overcome with great difficulty. But why did the Poles and Lithuanians come up with all this? Of course, not out of sympathy for the oppressed and devastated Russia. In the XV-XVII centuries, they fought with Moscow for the unification of the Russian lands. So the residents of the border territories were offered a choice: either an enlightened Europe, or the Tatar yoke. Current politics influenced the perception of history. However, this is common.
Artem PROKUROROV