1239 18 See, for example: Buldakov VP The nature of revolutionary nationalism in Russia. - S. 209; Gatagova L. S. Interethnic relations // Russia in the early twentieth century. - M., 2002. - S. 141–142 and

• 1237, December: Old Ryazan is destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars, the entire population is destroyed; ruined Principality of Pron
• 1238, January 1: the ruin of the city of Kolomna by Batu Khan, the death of Prince Roman, governor Jeremey Glebovich and commander Kulkhan, the youngest son of Genghis Khan.
• 1238, January-March: Mongol-Tatars conquer and devastate Vladimir (see Yaropolch), Pereslavl, Yuriev, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Uglitsky and Kozelsky principalities.
• 1239: Mongol-Tatars conquer Pereyaslav and Chernigov principalities, burn Murom.
• 1240: Mongol-Tatars destroy Kyiv.
• 1241: Mongol-Tatars conquer the Vladimir-Volyn and Galician principalities.
• 1252: "Nevryu's army": a large detachment of Tatar cavalry under the command of Nevryuy breaks the prince's squad, destroys Pereslavl-Zalessky and Suzdal. “The Tatars, spreading out over the earth ... and people ran wild, leading horses and cattle to the ground, and doing a lot of evil.”
• 1254: the battle of Daniel of Galicia of the Galicia-Volyn principality with the army of Kuremsa.
• 1258: a large army appears on the borders of the Galician principality, led by Burundai, who forces Daniil of Galicia to destroy the fortresses and makes him a permanent tributary of the Horde.
• 1273: two Mongol attacks on Novgorod lands. The ruin of Vologda and Bezhitsa.
• 1275: the defeat of the southeastern outskirts of Russia, the devastation of Kursk: “Tatar evil is great and great dirty tricks and annoyance have been created by Christians, in the volosts, in the villages they rob yards, horses and cattle and weaning estates, and where someone was shot, and those who peeled naked will be let in.”
• 1274: the ruin of the Smolensk principality.
• 1277: raid on the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality
• 1278: “of the same summer the Tatars came to Ryazan, and did a lot of evil, and went away in their own way.”
• 1281: the big army of Kovdygai and Alchidai destroyed Murom and Pereslavl, ruined the environs of Suzdal, Rostov, Vladimir, Yuryev-Polsky, Tver, Torzhok.
• 1282: Mongol-Tatar raid on the Vladimir and Pereyaslav lands.
• 1283: the ruin of the Vorgol, Ryl and Lipovech principalities, the Mongols took Kursk and Vorgol.
• 1285: "Prince Eltorai Ordinsky, Temirev's son, come the army to Ryazan, and fight Ryazan, Murom, Mordovians, and do a lot of evil."
• 1287: raid on Vladimir.
• 1288: raid on Ryazan.
• 1293: “in the summer of 6801, Duden came to Russia and captured cities 14 and later,” including Murom, Moscow, Kolomna, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yuryev, Pereslavl, Mozhaisk, Volok, Dmitrov, Ugliche-Pole. “The same summer, the Tatar prince Takhtamir came from the Horde to Tver, and did a lot of hard work for people.” On the way through the Vladimir lands, this detachment is “over the cut, and over the head is full of conduct.” From Murom to Tver, the Tatars "put the whole earth empty."
• 1307: campaign against the Ryazan principality
• 1315: the ruin of Torzhok (Novgorod land) and Rostov
• 1317: sack of Kostroma, invasion of the Principality of Tver
• 1319: campaign against Kostroma and Rostov
• 1320: raid on Rostov and Vladimir
• 1321: raid on Kashin
• 1322: ruin of Yaroslavl
• 1327: after the anti-Horde uprising, the Mongol-Tatars ravage Tver and the cities of the Tver principality
• 1347: raid on Aleksin
• 1358, 1365, 1370, 1373: campaigns against the Ryazan principality
• 1367: raid on the Nizhny Novgorod principality
• 1375: raid on the southeastern outskirts of the Nizhny Novgorod principality
• 1375: raid on Kashin
• 1377 and 1378: raids on the Nizhny Novgorod principality, a campaign in the Ryazan principality
• 1382: Khan Tokhtamysh burns Moscow, tens of thousands of Muscovites died
• 1391: campaign against Vyatka
• 1395: the ruin of Yelets by the troops of Tamerlane
• 1399: raid on the Nizhny Novgorod principality
• 1408: Tatars under the leadership of Edigei ravage Serpukhov, Moscow suburbs, Pereslavl, Rostov, Yuryev, Dmitrov, Nizhny Novgorod, Galician and Belozersky lands
• 1410: the ruin of Vladimir
• 1429: Mongol-Tatars ravage the environs of Galich Kostroma, Kostroma, Lukh, Pleso
• 1439: Mongol-Tatars ravage the environs of Moscow and Kolomna
• 1443: Tatars ravage the surroundings of Ryazan, but are repelled from the city
• 1445: raid of Ulu-Muhammed's troops on Nizhny Novgorod and Suzdal
• 1449: the ruin of the southern outskirts of the Moscow principality
• 1451: the ruin of the environs of Moscow by Khan Mazovsha
• 1455 and 1459: the ruin of the southern outskirts of the Moscow principality
• 1468: the ruin of the environs of Galich
• 1472: Aleksin sacked by Akhmat's army

A total of 54 episodes in the criminal case on the genocide of the Russian people by the Tatars. The casualties and losses are incalculable.

Do you know what I'm up to? Moreover, if you look, then there is a reason for quarrels in any nation. I know about the Crimean Tatars, and I also know about the deportation. And about the interaction of Poles with Ukrainians. Only these are all reasons to earn political capital. Then people were dying, and now politicians are profiting from it. What's gross.

p.s. I do not believe in the sincerity of politicians. Are you for historical justice? Then recognize the genocide by the Tatars of the Russian people in the XII-XIV centuries, the attempted coup d'état in Russia, staged by the Poles in the XVII century. and much more. But if you don’t admit it, you won’t make capital on it ... But on the Holodomor, it’s completely.

Batu's invasion of Russia.

At the beginning of the XIII century. Mongol tribes (they were also called Tatars), nomadic in Central Asia, united into a state headed by Genghis Khan (Timuchin). The tribal nobility of the new state strove for enrichment, which led to large conquest campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars.

In 1207–1215 Genghis Khan captured Siberia and northern China;

In 1219-1221 defeated the states of Central Asia;

In 1222–1223 conquered the peoples of Transcaucasia. Having penetrated the Black Sea region, the Mongol-Tatar army met resistance from the combined forces of Russians and Polovtsy.

In the spring of 1223 on the river. The decisive battle took place in Kalka. The Mongol-Tatars won, but returned to the steppes to prepare a new campaign against Russia.

The final decision on the invasion of Eastern Europe was made in 1234. In the spring of 1236, a huge army (140 thousand people) of the Mongol-Tatars under the command of Batu (the grandson of Genghis Khan, who died in 1227) was located near the Russian borders. Nothing prevented the beginning of the invasion.

The great Tatar campaigns on Russian lands lasted three years - 1237-1240. They can be divided into two stages:

2) 1239–1240 - military operations in the south and south-west of Russia.

In the early winter of 1237 Batu's army invaded the Ryazan principality. Having defeated Belgorod and Pronsk, the Tatars besieged the capital of the principality, the city of Ryazan (December 16-21, 1237), which they took by storm and ravaged. The troops of Prince Yuri of Vladimir, who came out to meet the Mongol-Tatars, were defeated near the city of Kolomna. Yuri fled to the north to gather a new army, and Batu Khan freely approached the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, Vladimir, which, after a siege, captured on February 7, 1238. The decisive battle of the Russian troops with the Mongol-Tatars took place on March 4, 1238 on the river. Sit. It ended with the complete defeat of the Russian troops and the death of the Russian princes. After the defeat of northeastern Russia, Batu's army moved to Novgorod, but before reaching 100 miles from the city, it turned south. Novgorod was spared.

Only one city offered staunch resistance to the Mongol-Tatars. It was Kozelsk on the river. Zhizdra, who withstood the siege of Batu for 7 weeks. By the summer of 1238, the Mongol-Tatars left the Russian lands: they needed time to rest and prepare for further conquests.

The second stage of the invasion of Russia began in the spring of 1239 with the ruin of the Principality of Pereyaslav and the capture of the cities of the Principality of Chernigov (Putivl, Kursk, Rylsk, Chernigov). In the autumn of 1240, the Tatars appeared near Kyiv, which they took by storm on December 6, 1240. After the fall of Kyiv, the lands of the Volyn-Galician principality were devastated. Russian lands were conquered.

Reasons for Russian defeats in battles with Batu's army:

1) the numerical superiority of the Mongol-Tatars over the Russian squads;

2) the military art of Batu commanders;

3) the military unpreparedness and ineptitude of the Russians in comparison with the Mongol-Tatars;

4) the lack of unity between the Russian lands, among the Russian princes there was no prince, whose influence extended to all Russian lands;

5) the forces of the Russian princes were exhausted by the internecine war.

Having conquered the Russian lands, Batu returned to the Caspian steppes, where he founded the city of Sarai (100 km from Astrakhan), the capital of a new state called the Golden Horde. The Horde (Mongol-Tatar) yoke began. Russian princes had to be approved by special letters of the khan - labels.

To keep the Russians in obedience, the khans carried out predatory campaigns, used bribery, murder, and deceit. The main part of the taxes imposed on the Russian lands was tribute, or output. There were also urgent requests. To control the Russian lands, the Horde kept its governors in large cities - Baskaks and tribute collectors - Besermen, whose violence caused uprisings among the Russian population (1257, 1262). Batu's invasion of Russia 1237–1240 led to a long economic, political and cultural decline of the Russian lands.

First trip to Russia

The second campaign against Russia and Western Europe

The results of the Tatar-Mongol invasion:

Western Europe was saved from the Tatar yoke at the cost of the heroic resistance of the Russian principalities and experienced only an invasion, and then on a smaller scale.

The population of Russia has sharply decreased. Many people were killed or taken into slavery. Of the 74 ancient Russian cities known to archaeologists from excavations, more than 30 were devastated by the Tatar invasions.

The peasant population suffered to a lesser extent than the townspeople, since the centers of resistance were mainly city fortresses. The death of urban artisans led to the loss of entire professions and crafts, such as glassmaking.

The death of princes and warriors - professional soldiers - slowed down social development for a long time. Secular feudal landownership began to re-emerge after the invasion.

If all lies are removed from history, this does not mean at all that only the truth will remain - as a result, nothing may remain at all.

Stanislav Jerzy Lec

The Tatar-Mongol invasion began in 1237 with the invasion of Batu's cavalry into the Ryazan lands, and ended in 1242. The result of these events was a two-century yoke. So they say in the textbooks, but in fact the relationship between the Horde and Russia was much more complicated. In particular, the famous historian Gumilyov speaks about this. In this material, we will briefly consider the issues of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar army from the point of view of the generally accepted interpretation, and also consider the controversial issues of this interpretation. Our task is not to offer for the thousandth time a fantasy about medieval society, but to provide our readers with facts. Conclusions are everyone's business.

The beginning of the invasion and background

For the first time, the troops of Russia and the Horde met on May 31, 1223 in the battle on Kalka. The Russian troops were led by the Kyiv prince Mstislav, and Subedei and Juba opposed them. The Russian army was not only defeated, it was actually destroyed. There are many reasons for this, but all of them are discussed in the article about the battle on Kalka. Returning to the first invasion, it took place in two stages:

• 1237-1238 - a campaign against the eastern and northern lands of Russia.
• 1239-1242 - a campaign in the southern lands, which led to the establishment of a yoke.

Invasion of 1237-1238

In 1236, the Mongols launched another campaign against the Polovtsy. In this campaign, they achieved great success and in the second half of 1237 approached the borders of the Ryazan principality. The commander of the Asian cavalry was Batu Khan (Batu Khan), the grandson of Genghis Khan. He had 150,000 people under him. Subedey, who was familiar with the Russians from previous clashes, participated in the campaign with him.

Map of the Tatar-Mongol invasion

The invasion took place at the beginning of the winter of 1237. It is impossible to establish the exact date here, since it is unknown. Moreover, some historians say that the invasion did not take place in the winter, but in the late autumn of the same year. With great speed, the Mongols' cavalry moved around the country, conquering one city after another:

• Ryazan - fell at the end of December 1237. The siege lasted 6 days.
• Moscow - fell in January 1238. The siege lasted 4 days. This event was preceded by the Battle of Kolomna, where Yuri Vsevolodovich with his army tried to stop the enemy, but was defeated.
• Vladimir - fell in February 1238. The siege lasted 8 days.

After the capture of Vladimir, virtually all the eastern and northern lands were in the hands of Batu. He conquered one city after another (Tver, Yuriev, Suzdal, Pereslavl, Dmitrov). In early March, Torzhok fell, thus opening the way for the Mongol army to the north, to Novgorod. But Batu made a different maneuver and instead of marching on Novgorod, he deployed his troops and went to storm Kozelsk. The siege went on for 7 weeks, ending only when the Mongols went to the trick. They announced that they would accept the surrender of the Kozelsk garrison and let everyone go alive. People believed and opened the gates of the fortress. Batu did not keep his word and gave the order to kill everyone. Thus ended the first campaign and the first invasion of the Tatar-Mongolian army into Russia.

Invasion of 1239-1242

After a break of a year and a half, in 1239 a new invasion of Russia by the troops of Batu Khan began. This year based events took place in Pereyaslav and Chernihiv. The sluggishness of Batu's offensive is due to the fact that at that time he was actively fighting the Polovtsy, in particular in the Crimea.

In the autumn of 1240, Batu led his army under the walls of Kyiv. The ancient capital of Russia could not resist for a long time. The city fell on December 6, 1240. Historians note the special brutality with which the invaders behaved. Kyiv was almost completely destroyed. There is nothing left of the city. The Kyiv that we know today has nothing to do with the ancient capital (except for its geographical location). After these events, the invading army split up:

• Part went to Vladimir-Volynsky.
• Part went to Galich.

Having captured these cities, the Mongols went on a European campaign, but we are of little interest in it.

The consequences of the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Russia

The consequences of the invasion of the Asian army in Russia are described by historians unambiguously:

• The country was cut, and became completely dependent on the Golden Horde.
• Russia began to pay tribute to the winners every year (in money and people).
• The country fell into a stupor in terms of progress and development due to an unbearable yoke.

This list can be continued, but, in general, it all comes down to the fact that all the problems that were in Russia at that time were written off as a yoke.

This is how, briefly, the Tatar-Mongol invasion appears from the point of view of official history and what we are told in textbooks. In contrast, we will consider Gumilyov's arguments, and also ask a number of simple, but very important questions for understanding the current issues and the fact that with the yoke, as well as with relations between Russia and the Horde, everything is much more complex than it is customary to say.

For example, it is absolutely incomprehensible and inexplicable how a nomadic people, who several decades ago still lived in a tribal system, created a huge empire and conquered half the world. After all, considering the invasion of Russia, we are considering only the tip of the iceberg. The empire of the Golden Horde was much larger: from the Pacific to the Adriatic, from Vladimir to Burma. Giant countries were conquered: Russia, China, India ... Neither before nor after, no one was able to create a military machine that could conquer so many countries. And the Mongols could ...

To understand how difficult it was (if not to say that it was impossible), let's look at the situation with China (so as not to be accused of looking for a conspiracy around Russia). The population of China at the time of Genghis Khan was approximately 50 million people. No one conducted a census of the Mongols, but, for example, today this nation has 2 million people. If we take into account that the number of all the peoples of the Middle Ages is increasing by now, then the Mongols were less than 2 million people (including women, the elderly and children). How did they manage to conquer China of 50 million inhabitants? And then also India and Russia ...

The strangeness of the geography of movement of Batu

Let's return to the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Russia. What were the goals of this trip? Historians talk about the desire to plunder the country and subdue it. It also states that all these goals have been achieved. But this is not entirely true, because in ancient Russia there were 3 richest cities:

• Kyiv is one of the largest cities in Europe and the ancient capital of Russia. The city was conquered by the Mongols and destroyed.
• Novgorod is the largest trading city and the richest in the country (hence its special status). Generally not affected by the invasion.
• Smolensk, also a trading city, was considered equal in wealth to Kyiv. The city also did not see the Mongol-Tatar army.

So it turns out that 2 of the 3 largest cities did not suffer from the invasion at all. Moreover, if we consider plunder as a key aspect of Batu's invasion of Russia, then the logic is not traced at all. Judge for yourself, Batu takes Torzhok (he spends 2 weeks on the assault). This is the poorest city, whose task is to protect Novgorod. But after that, the Mongols do not go to the North, which would be logical, but turn to the south. Why was it necessary to spend 2 weeks on Torzhok, which no one needs, just to turn south? Historians give two explanations, logical at first glance:

• Near Torzhok, Batu lost many soldiers and was afraid to go to Novgorod. This explanation could well be considered logical if not for one "but". Since Batu lost a lot of his army, then he needs to leave Russia to replenish his troops or take a break. But instead, the khan rushes to storm Kozelsk. Here, by the way, the losses were huge and as a result, the Mongols hastily left Russia. But why they did not go to Novgorod is not clear.
• The Tatar-Mongols were afraid of the spring flood of the rivers (it was in March). Even in modern conditions, March in the north of Russia is not distinguished by a mild climate and you can safely move around there. And if we talk about 1238, then that era is called by climatologists the Little Ice Age, when winters were much more severe than modern ones and in general the temperature is much lower (this is easy to check). That is, it turns out that in the era of global warming in March, you can get to Novgorod, and in the era of the Ice Age, everyone was afraid of river floods.

With Smolensk, the situation is also paradoxical and inexplicable. Having taken Torzhok, Batu set off to storm Kozelsk. This is a simple fortress, a small and very poor city. The Mongols stormed it for 7 weeks, lost thousands of people killed. What was it for? There was no benefit from the capture of Kozelsk - there is no money in the city, there are no food depots either. Why such sacrifices? But just 24 hours of cavalry movement from Kozelsk is Smolensk - the richest city in Russia, but the Mongols do not even think of moving towards it.

Surprisingly, all these logical questions are simply ignored by official historians. Standard excuses are given, they say, who knows these savages, that's how they decided for themselves. But such an explanation does not stand up to scrutiny.

Nomads never howl in winter

There is another remarkable fact that the official history simply bypasses, because. it is impossible to explain it. Both Tatar-Mongolian invasions were committed to Russia in winter (or started in late autumn). But these are nomads, and nomads start fighting only in the spring to finish the battles before winter. After all, they move on horses that need to be fed. Can you imagine how you can feed the many thousands of Mongolian army in snowy Russia? Historians, of course, say that this is a trifle and you should not even consider such issues, but the success of any operation directly depends on the provision:

• Charles 12 was unable to organize the provision of his army - he lost Poltava and the Northern War.
• Napoleon was unable to establish security and left Russia with a half-starved army, which was absolutely incapable of combat.
• Hitler, according to many historians, managed to establish security for only 60-70% - he lost the Second World War.

And now, understanding all this, let's see what the Mongol army was like. It is noteworthy, but there is no definite figure for its quantitative composition. Historians give figures from 50 thousand to 400 thousand horsemen. For example, Karamzin speaks of the 300,000th army of Batu. Let's look at the provision of the army using this figure as an example. As you know, the Mongols always went on military campaigns with three horses: riding (the rider moved on it), pack (carried the rider's personal belongings and weapons) and combat (went empty so that at any moment she could fresh into battle). That is, 300 thousand people is 900 thousand horses. Add to this the horses that carried the ram guns (it is known for certain that the Mongols brought the guns assembled), the horses that carried food for the army, carried additional weapons, etc. It turns out, according to the most conservative estimates, 1.1 million horses! Now imagine how to feed such a herd in a foreign country in a snowy winter (during the Little Ice Age)? The answer is no, because it can't be done.

So how many armies did Dad have?

It is noteworthy, but the closer to our time there is a study of the invasion of the Tatar-Mongolian army, the smaller the number is obtained. For example, the historian Vladimir Chivilikhin speaks of 30 thousand who moved separately, because they could not feed themselves in a single army. Some historians lower this figure even lower - up to 15 thousand. And here we come across an insoluble contradiction:

• If there really were so many Mongols (200-400 thousand), then how could they feed themselves and their horses in the harsh Russian winter? The cities did not surrender to them in peace in order to take provisions from them, most of the fortresses were burned.
• If the Mongols were really only 30-50 thousand, then how did they manage to conquer Russia? After all, each principality fielded an army in the region of 50 thousand against Batu. If there were really so few Mongols and if they acted independently, the remnants of the horde and Batu himself would have been buried near Vladimir. But in reality, everything was different.

We invite the reader to look for conclusions and answers to these questions on their own. For our part, we did the main thing - we pointed out the facts that completely refute the official version of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. At the end of the article, I want to note another important fact that the whole world has recognized, including official history, but this fact is hushed up and published in few places. The main document, according to which the yoke and invasion were studied for many years, is the Laurentian Chronicle. But, as it turned out, the truth of this document raises big questions. Official history admitted that 3 pages of the annals (which speak of the beginning of the yoke and the beginning of the Mongol invasion of Russia) have been changed and are not original. I wonder how many more pages from the history of Russia have been changed in other chronicles, and what actually happened? But it's almost impossible to answer this question...

Somewhere far to the east, great empires were crumbling under the Mongol battering ram, and our free princes, our cities and suburbs were still freely inserting pistons into each other.

The squads of four Russian princes on the Kalka had already been crushed in the literal and figurative sense (the Mongols feasted, laying the platform directly on the prisoners), and the degree of interaction between the Russian principalities only fell every year. The Mongols are already concentrating their forces on the Volga and Don, and the Russian princes are wasting their time like puppies in careless fuss. And it is not true that the princes had no information about the concentration of the Mongols at their eastern threshold, crowds of Bulgar refugees flooded Vladimir and Ryazan. Particularly cruel feuds hit Southwestern Russia at this time, which did not end even with the beginning of the Batu invasion.

After Bogolyubsky, not one Russian prince took the risk of unifying the country - health is more expensive. Spatial extent and inconvenient transport communications have always given free princes and free cities the opportunity to dissuade such a troublesome event as convening a single army. And if you think about it - it's for the best - the army, brought down from the squads of different princes, would die, as in Kalka. After all, the squads were created not for the sake of "laying down your belly for your friends", but for the sake of the games of Rurik among themselves. Any army of the Mongols at the level of fractal geometry reflected the general Mongolian organization.

Russia River was doomed - precisely because of its "freedoms". The iron-sided, but maneuverable Tatar-Mongols, one after another, crushed the elite Russian squads, with the help of advanced siege equipment (Chinese know-how) they easily took Russian cities.

By the way, the paradox of Russian disorganization showed itself in an anecdotal way even during the Batyev pogrom. The princes, as usual, continue strife. The princes of South-Western Russia are fighting for Galich and Kyiv, but when Batu's troops approach, both the Kievan prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich and the Volhynian prince Daniil Romanovich, who had just taken possession of Galich and Kyiv, and Prince Mikhail of Chernigov escape across the cordon to Hungary and Poland. North-Eastern Russia nevertheless gave the Mongols three battles in the field, in South-Western Russia this did not happen, the resistance to the invasion there turned out to be completely disorganized and weak. Despite the annihilation of the most important centers of urban culture, in 3-4 years after the invasion, the elite managed to forget the pogrom, although the princes visited the khan's headquarters - the same Daniil Romanovich went to Galich for a label. But the Tatar-Mongols returned, as promised, again taught a lesson with the help of the Nevryuev rati (1252) and lowered the curtain over the first Russia.

The Mongols who finally returned established a truly mafia power for 240 years, which was strikingly different from their power in civilized China or cultural Iran. In Russia, it was a combination of irresponsibility (for most of it, the Mongol-Tatars did not directly rule; the Mongol-Tatar administrative system existed only in some southwestern Russian lands, which later became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and robbery. Russia has become the clearest example of a donor system.

Robbery according to the rules was carried out in the form of tribute collection. 5-7 thousand silver rubles only from the principality of Moscow - mind you, the tribute was collected in silver, although there was no silver in Russia. This means that the financial elite of that time - the Bessermen and the Italians - had a good profit. In addition, add the extortion of commemoration gifts, as well as the milking of other requisitions for the Mongolian chiefs.

Robbery without rules was carried out in the form of predatory campaigns - there were dozens of them, just look at the collection of Russian chronicles (PSRL). The captured booty was resold through the main marketers of that time - the Italians - in the Crimean ulus. Add, if the Mongols burned the field or took away the bread, this meant starvation for the village, and hide and seek in the forest more often carried a high mortality rate for the weak.

Some of the Mongol-Tatar campaigns from the time of the yoke were not inferior in destructiveness to the invasion of Batu, such as Dudenev's army of 1293. Only in the 13th century, after Batu, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky was destroyed 4 more times (1252, 1281, 1282, 1293), Murom, Suzdal and Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky - three times, Vladimir - two times and its surroundings were completely devastated three times. More like not benevolent management, but the anti-partisan operations of the Wehrmacht.

The Tatar-Mongolian authorities turned off Russia itself from world trade communications, from the world division of labor. Although the Horde itself actively participated in it. Yes, the resources stolen from Russia, including human resources, were sold and resold (and somewhere far in the west they sponsored the Renaissance), but trading operations in the Horde were almost exclusively carried out by Muslim merchants-bessermen and Italian merchants-fryagi. The Baltic-Black Sea route, which actually created Russia, was now destroying Russia. What impoverished Russia sold through Novgorod enriched only a narrow layer of Novgorod compradors and the Hanseatic corporation, which completely controlled trade in the Baltic.

The late Middle Ages and the Renaissance - this period was in Europe a time of transition to a new time, here in one bottle and the development of technology, and the accumulation of commercial capital, and the complication of social institutions. For us, this was the time of the disappearance of all complex crafts and the cessation of stone construction, as well as a return to archaic slash or shifting agriculture - only in a dense forest was it possible to hide from the Horde racketeers. It was a time of unproductive farming on the loam between the Oka and the upper reaches of the Volga, with a minimum yield of surplus product, a time of poverty. What kind of accumulation of capital is there, if only not to die of hunger. The true name of this state is Forest Rus.

Its face was two-three-yard villages with native peasants and backward agriculture, in which (to maintain soil fertility) a constant movement deep into the forest was required - farther and farther from the inhabited spaces and trade routes. Only land expansion and the burning of forests could produce a sufficient harvest with scarce laborers and poor soils. There were also opolyas, densely populated territories with fairly intensive agriculture on the border of the forest and the steppe - but it was on them that the princes collected taxes for the Mongols and it was here that the punishing blow of the Mongol cavalry fell in case of material dissatisfaction of the khans and emirs.

The whole system of Forest Russia has the character of transition, fluctuation, with fuzzy boundaries of power, sovereignty, inhabited territories.

The Tatar-Mongolian yoke was unfavorable for Russia, and here I will add in the spirit of Lao Tzu that this is precisely why it became beneficent.

The constant pressure of the external environment - the Golden Horde - strengthened the internal ties of the Russian space and led to a new type of stability.

Within the framework of the challenge-response concept created by A. Toynbee, this pressure will create a new type of Russian state with a new level of organization and public consciousness. However, Lesnaya Rus’ was left as an eternal atavism: inclusion in the international division of labor on foreign terms, relative isolation from world trade and the stay of the national core in the zone of unproductive agriculture, expensive construction, as well as production and transport, which are highly dependent on seasonal fluctuations.

Used a fragment from my essay: Alexander Tyurin. "History Formula"

Application. List of major campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars against the Russian principalities in 1237-1472.

1237, December: Old Ryazan is destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars, the entire population is destroyed; ruined Principality of Pron
1238, January 1: the ruin of the city of Kolomna by Batu Khan, the death of Prince Roman, governor Jeremey Glebovich and commander Kulkhan, the youngest son of Genghis Khan.
1238, January-March: the Mongol-Tatars conquer and devastate the Vladimir, Pereslavl, Yuriev, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Uglitsky and Kozelsky principalities.
1239: Mongol-Tatars conquer Pereyaslav and Chernigov principalities, burn Murom.
1240: Mongol-Tatars destroy Kyiv.
1241: Mongol-Tatars conquer the Vladimir-Volyn and Galician principalities.
1252: "Nevryu's army": a large detachment of Tatar cavalry under the command of Nevryuy breaks the prince's squad, destroys Pereslavl-Zalessky and Suzdal. “The Tatars, spreading out over the earth ... and people ran wild, leading horses and cattle to the ground, and doing a lot of evil.”
1258: a large army appears on the borders of the Galician principality, led by Burundai, who forces Prince Daniel Romanovich to destroy the fortresses and give an army for campaigns along with the Horde.
1273: two Mongol attacks on Novgorod lands. The ruin of Vologda and Bezhitsa.
1275: the defeat of the southeastern outskirts of Russia, the devastation of Kursk: “Tatar evil is great and great dirty tricks and annoyance have been created by Christians, in the volosts, in the villages they rob yards, horses and cattle and weaning estates, and where someone was shot, and those who peeled naked will be let in.”
1274: the ruin of the Smolensk principality.
1277: raid on the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality
1278: “of the same summer the Tatars came to Ryazan, and did a lot of evil, and went away in their own way.”
1281: the big army of Kovdygai and Alchidai destroyed Murom and Pereslavl, ruined the environs of Suzdal, Rostov, Vladimir, Yuryev-Polsky, Tver, Torzhok.
1282: Mongol-Tatar raid on the Vladimir and Pereyaslav lands.
1283: the ruin of the Vorgol, Ryl and Lipovech principalities, the Mongols took Kursk and Vorgol.
1285: "Prince Eltorai Ordinsky, Temirev's son, come the army to Ryazan, and fight Ryazan, Murom, Mordovians, and do a lot of evil."
1287: raid on Vladimir.
1288: raid on Ryazan.
1293: “in the summer of 6801, Duden came to Russia and captured cities 14 and later,” including Murom, Moscow, Kolomna, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yuryev, Pereslavl, Mozhaisk, Volok, Dmitrov, Ugliche-Pole. “The same summer, the Tatar prince Takhtamir came from the Horde to Tver, and did a lot of hard work for people.” On the way through the Vladimir lands, this detachment is “over the cut, and over the head is full of conduct.” From Murom to Tver, the Tatars "put the whole earth empty."
1307: campaign against the Ryazan principality
1315: Mongol-Tatars ravage Torzhok (Novgorod land) with the participation of the prince of Tver, as well as Rostov
1317: sack of Kostroma, invasion of the Principality of Tver
1319: campaign against Kostroma and Rostov
1320: raid on Rostov and Vladimir
1321: raid on Kashin
1322: ruin of Yaroslavl
1327: Mongol-Tatars ravage Tver and the cities of the Tver principality
1347: raid on Aleksin
1358, 1365, 1370, 1373: campaigns against the Ryazan principality
1367: raid on the Nizhny Novgorod principality
1375: raid on the southeastern outskirts of the Nizhny Novgorod principality
1375: raid on Kashin
1377 and 1378: raids on the Nizhny Novgorod principality, a campaign in the Ryazan principality
1382: Khan Tokhtamysh burns Moscow, tens of thousands of Muscovites died
1391: campaign against Vyatka
1395: the ruin of Yelets by the troops of Tamerlane
1399: raid on the Nizhny Novgorod principality
1408: Tatars under the leadership of Edigei ravage Serpukhov, the Moscow suburbs, Pereslavl, Rostov, Yuryev, Dmitrov, Nizhny Novgorod, Galician (Galich Kostroma) and Belozersky lands
1410: the ruin of Vladimir
1429: Mongol-Tatars ravage the environs of Galich Kostroma, Kostroma, Lukh, Pleso
1439: Mongol-Tatars ravage the environs of Moscow and Kolomna
1443: Tatars ravage the surroundings of Ryazan, but are repelled from the city
1445: raid of Ulu-Muhammed's troops on Nizhny Novgorod and Suzdal
1449: the ruin of the southern outskirts of the Moscow principality
1451: the ruin of the environs of Moscow by Khan Mazovsha
1455 and 1459: the ruin of the southern outskirts of the Moscow principality
1468: the ruin of the environs of Galich Kostroma
1472: the sack of the city of Aleksin and the extermination of its inhabitants by the army of Khan Akhmat

List sources:

Kargalov V. V. The liberation struggle of Russia against the Mongol-Tatar yoke // Questions of History. - 1969. - No. 2-4.
Kargalov VV Feudal Russia and nomads. — M.: 1967.
Complete collection of Russian chronicles. - 2001. - ISBN 5-94457-011-3
Kuchkin V. A. Russia under the yoke. - "Panorama", 1991. - ISBN 5-85220-101-4

You can read about the struggle of Russia with the predatory heirs of the Golden Horde in my book: Alexander Tyurin. War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible. M. 2009. Available

And, in conclusion, my answer to one characteristic question that a reader of this article on the Badnews website asked me:

www.alterinf.biz (06.03.2011 21:25)

The invasion of the "Mongols" was invented by the Millers in the 18th century as an action in the information war against Russia. At the same time, the original chronicles and other ancient Russian documents were destroyed, the Norman theory was composed, and so on.
What is known for certain?
According to Asian sources, Genghis Khan was tall, fair-haired and light-eyed.
Western European sources say nothing about narrow-eyed Asians. "Mongols" according to 3. European sources in appearance and armament are no different from Russians.
The original Russian sources have been destroyed.
In the genes of the Russian people, the Mongoloid admixture is vanishingly small.
European, we can conditionally say - the Slavic population beyond the Urals existed many centuries before Yermak's campaigns.
Elementary calculations show that the gigantic hordes of nomads simply would not be able to feed the horses. Especially in winter.
Obviously, the Horde is a regular unified Russian army.
Some kind of substitution of concepts occurred during the accession of the Ruriks.
And under Peter the 1st, history began to be rewritten from Western positions.
My answer:

We do not need either Westernism or Easternism. We are on our own, we have our own civilization. By the way, the Mongols were quite connected with the West and calmly traded with it the booty that they looted in Russia.
The Mongol-Tatar invasions, as I wrote above, are the raids of a whole conglomeration of steppe tribes, Kipchaks, Karluks, Oghuz, Mongol tribes.
This is not Miller's invention at all. The invasions of the steppes (both before the Mongols, and Batyevo, and after Baty) are extensively reflected in Russian chronicles written long before Peter; it is not a sin to look into them sometimes, since they have been published several times as the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles.
The results of the invasions were fully reflected in the physical reality - the desolation of a huge area of ​​Russian settled settlements, which became known as the Wild Field and which had to be re-populated in the 16-18 centuries.
In the 12th century Polovtsian nomad camps (Polovtsy are also Kipchaks) have already knocked out Russian settlements from part of the territories along the Donets, Don, and tributaries of the lower Dnieper. By the end of the 13th century. - the beginning of the 14th century. the border of Russian settlement passed, basically, already, much to the north, along the Oka; with only some clusters south of it, in wooded areas.
That is, the steppe and forest-steppe were lost for the settled population - this is the result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Kursk, for example, reappears only three centuries later.
Companions of Metropolitan Pimen see on the Don at the end of the 14th century only the remains of settlements - settlements. (The overall decline was estimated, for example, by Kargalov, by reducing the number of settlements and the death of the population of urban centers, such as old Ryazan, Kyiv, Vladimir, etc.).
The result of the Mongol-Tatar invasions was the formation of several states, not only the Golden Horde. But also, for example, the states of Chagatai in Central Asia, Khubilai in China, Hulagu in Iran.
The Slavs beyond the Urals, or more precisely the Eastern Indo-Europeans or Proto-Slavs (in the terminology of the ethnogenetics of Klesov), carriers of the DNA marker R1a1 - this is indeed a historical reality given to us in archaeological
cultures of Andronovo, Afanasyevskaya and others, from the times of the Bronze and Iron Ages. They really settled down to the Chinese Gansu (perhaps these are the fair-haired Dinlins from the Chinese chronicles). The Indo-Europeans Saks and Tochars lived as far as Central Asia at the beginning of our era.
But this fact by no means denies the existence of the Turks and Mongols, who underwent ethnogenesis in the northern part of Central Asia.
The change in the anthropological type of the Turks and Mongols occurred during their movement to the west. The Indo-European Tocharians may have mixed with the Turks and Mongols very early.
The Russians went to Western Siberia, of course, even before Yermak, remember only the campaigns of the Moscow army in Yugra at the end of the 15th century, which ended in the subjugation of the Yugra princes (though temporary).
The Norman theory is not at all relevant here (I personally am an anti-Normanist). Western European scribes knew very little about the Kipchaks, Mongols, etc., only indirectly. But then the poet Petrarch notices absolutely unusual narrow-eyed high-cheeked faces on the streets of Genoa, which had extensive ties with the Golden Horde (see Petrarch's letter to the Genoese Bishop Guido Setti). They were just guests from the Horde.