In 1243, after returning to the Polovtsian steppe within the borders of his father’s ulus, which had significantly increased due to the conquered lands and was still part of the Great Mongol Empire, Batu Khan created a new state entity, which was called “Ulu Ulus”. In Russian chronicles this state was usually called “Horde”, in European chronicles - “Tataria”, and in Arab and Persian sources the old name of this territory was much more often used - “Dasht-i-Kipchak”, that is, the Polovtsian steppe. The name of this state, widespread in scientific and educational literature, “Golden Horde,” first appeared only in the “Kazan Chronicler,” which was created in the middle of the 16th century, when this state had long ceased to exist.

The new state formation, the capital of which was the city of Sarai-Batu, founded in the lower reaches of the Volga, included the Polovtsian steppe, Crimea, the Lower and Middle Volga region, the Southern Urals and Western Siberia. All the lands of the devastated Russian principalities, contrary to popular belief, were not included in this state, because: 1) they were not occupied by Mongol troops and 2) the Mongols did not create a permanent administration here, maintaining the previous order of government. Practically all Russian lands were forced to recognize vassalage from the Horde, the main elements of which were: 1) receiving khan's labels, that is, special written letters for great and appanage reigns and 2) paying tribute in the form of a “Horde exit”, or “black forest”. Thus, the familiar concept of “Tatar-Mongol yoke” (“barbarian yoke”), introduced into “scientific” circulation at the end of the 15th-16th centuries. Polish diplomat and chronicler J. Dlugosz and professor of the University of Krakow M. Miechowski, and then, at the beginning of the 19th century, reanimated by H. Kruse, P.N. Naumov and N.M. Karamzin, needs a serious reassessment, but not at all like the one proposed by modern “Eurasianists”. In particular, their recognized “gurus” L.N. Gumilev and V.V. Kozhinov constantly wrote that the Horde tribute was not a form of vassal dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde, but the usual payment for the hiring of first-class Horde cavalry by the Russian princes in the fight against the Catholic West. Moreover, the constant motive of their numerous publications was that under the Tatars the Russian people lived as freely as before the mythical Mongol invasion, the “horrors” of which were exorbitantly inflated under the pen of ancient Russian chroniclers.

These speculations of modern “Eurasianists” are largely related to the fact that question about the real size of the Horde tribute has not yet been fully developed in historical literature. The main reason for this situation is distrust of the unique data of the first Russian historian V.N. Tatishchev, who had at his disposal chronicles that have not reached us. One of these codes contained direct evidence that the “Horde exit” to Sarai amounted to “half a hryvnia per plow, and in the plow there are two men working.” One of the largest Soviet historians, Academician B.D. Grekov, who wrote together with the famous orientalist professor A.Yu. Yakubovsky’s classic work “The Golden Horde and Its Fall” (1950) agreed that the tax unit of the “Horde exit” was indeed the “plow”, but he doubted that it could only be processed by two plowmen. A close relationship between the area of ​​arable land, the number of draft animals and working hands has always been assumed. In particular, in one of the Novgorod letters it was explained that “there are two horses in the plow, and a harness for the third,” and in another Novgorod charter it was said that “three plows are burning, and one person on one horse is yelling(plows - E.S.), and whoever rides three horses and shouts the third himself, otherwise it’s a plow.” It is reliably known that the average land plot, which could be cultivated by 2-3 plowmen on horseback, was approximately 7-8 acres of land, and the average gross grain harvest from such a plow was about 160-220 poods per year.

It is not difficult to assume that the half-hryvnia mentioned in the chronicle was a severed part of the entire Novgorod hryvnia, or the so-called ruble, which would soon become the main unit of account throughout medieval Rus'. As established by Professor N.P. Pavlov, at the beginning of the 15th century. One ruble could buy approximately 90-250 poods of grain. Thus, the annual Horde tribute from one “plow” in the amount of one ruble was a real robbery, which left practically no opportunity for simple reproduction of a natural product, so one can only wonder how people survived during the years of Horde rule.

It is also well known that the “plow” was not the only form of taxation of Russian lands. The same Novgorod charters contain a list of equivalent replacements for the “plow tribute” for the fishing population of the Novgorod lands, in particular “yard”, “house”, “net”, “smithy”, “shop”, etc. Professor V.V. Kargalov, who studied this issue in detail, counted 14 types of different tributes in the form of yasak (soft junk), tamga (trade duty), kharaj (plow duty) and others. The “Horde exit” was often expressed both in military service and in the maintenance of numerous Tatar embassies, which lived for months in Rus', charging the so-called “tuska”, the amount of which was not regulated at all. Therefore, the maintenance of such embassies was often more expensive than the “black forest” itself, and it was this “tusk” that was the cause of many anti-Horde uprisings in Rus'.

Concerning the annual amount of the “Horde exit”, which was paid from all Russian lands, there is no reliable data on this matter in the chronicles. However, in the “Spiritual Charter” of the specific Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich, dated 1402, it was directly stated that the Grand Duke annually sent a tribute of 5,000 silver rubles to Sarai. A major specialist in the history of Russian-Horde relations, author of the fundamental monograph “Mongols and Rus'”, Professor A.N. Nasonov doubted the reliability of this evidence and believed that the size of the “black forest” was significantly higher than the indicated amount. Another well-known specialist on this issue, Professor V.A. Kuchkin believed that the size of the annual Horde tribute was about 15,000 silver rubles. A similar point of view was expressed by Professor A.G. Kuzmin, who paid special attention to the fact that the silver content of the then Moscow ruble was equivalent to the Novgorod hryvnia, therefore reasonably believed that over the past century the size of the Horde tribute had grown significantly and was actually about 3000 kilograms of silver per year. Taking into account the fact that Rus'’s own silver production did not yet exist and its entire volume came to Rus' only as a result of foreign trade exchange, this amount was simply colossal.

This is what Horde domination in Rus' actually looked like, and these facts are not so deeply hidden that they would go unnoticed, including by our home-grown “Eurasians.” However, they prefer not to do this, which once again proves the speculative nature of their “scientific” constructions, and at the same time demonstrates their disrespect for the memory of their ancestors.

2. Political situation in North-Eastern Rus' in the second half of the XIII - early XIV centuries.

Batu's return to the Polovtsian steppe chronologically coincided with the political crisis in the Mongol state, which was associated with the death of the great Khan Ogedei (1229-1241). The new contender for the khan's throne, Khan Guyuk, met with severe opposition from other descendants of Genghis Khan, including the influential Khan Batu, who refused to recognize his rights to his father's throne. Therefore, the actual control of the empire was concentrated in the hands of his mother, the great Khatun Turakina (1241-1246), who was a cunning, powerful and treacherous woman. She treated Batu with obvious hostility and he, obviously, paid her in the same coin. In any case, he invariably refused all calls from Karakorum to come to the new kurultai for the election of the Great Khan, citing his ill health.

Judging by the description of Batu, which was contained in the famous “History of the Mongols” by the papal legate Plano Carpini, he was indeed unwell. Therefore, even then he was forced to shift part of his power to his eldest son Sartak, although he still held the main threads of control in his hands. Naturally, difficult relations with Karakorum required Batu to strengthen his rear, which forced him to change his previous method of maintaining dominance in the conquered Russian lands and move from direct repression to Mongol-type diplomacy, the main element of which was the well-known principle of “divide and conquer.”

According to the new orders established in the Horde, all Russian princes were now confirmed in Sarai, so in 1243 the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1238-1246) was summoned there. His first visit to Sarai ended quite happily, since he not only confirmed his rights to the great Vladimir throne, but also received the label for the great reign of Kiev. And although Kyiv, lying in ruins, was virtually depopulated, it was still the center of the Russian metropolitanate, and this circumstance was especially important for Yaroslav. According to many historians (A. Nasonov, A. Kuzmin, A. Gorsky), Batu preferred his candidacy because he trusted much less other contenders for the grand-ducal throne, in particular Mikhail Chernigovsky and Daniil Galitsky, who even then began to actively contact the Roman throne and European monarchs.

However, already in the summer of 1245 “Grand Duke Yaroslav, with his brother and son, went to the Tatars to see the Batyevs,” from where he soon left for Karakorum to confirm his rights to the grand princely throne. By the time of his arrival in the capital of the Mongol Empire, a kurultai of the Mongol nobility had finally taken place here, at which Guyuk (1246-1248) was elected the new great khan. Chronicle sources do not contain information about the meeting of Prince Yaroslav with the Great Khan, but it is reliably known that at a reception with Khatun Turakina, he was poisoned and died shortly after leaving Karakorum. Probably, the death of the Grand Duke was due to the fact that the Mongols suspected him of having connections with Catholic emissaries, since a similar fate was in store for the Chernigov prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich, who was summoned by Batu to Sarai, where, under the pretext of his refusal to undergo the pagan rite of worship of fire and Mongol idols was brutally executed.

In Vladimir itself, the grand-ducal throne was occupied by the younger brother of the murdered Yaroslav, Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (1246-1250), who moved here from Pereyaslavl, which was completely devastated by the Tatars during the second campaign against Rus'. How he obtained his father’s throne is not entirely clear, but, probably, in the capital of the Mongol Empire this unauthorized seizure of power was not recognized, since soon, on the orders of Khan Guyuk, the sons of the late prince Alexander and Andrey were summoned to Karakorum. By the time of their arrival, power in the empire had changed again and the widow of the great khan, Ogul Gaymysh (1248–1251), became the real ruler in Karakorum. This time the grand ducal label was divided, since the elder brother, Prince Alexander of Novgorod received the label for the great reign in Kyiv, and the younger brother, Prince Andrey of Suzdal, received the label for the great reign in Vladimir. Having violated the khan's will, Alexander did not go to devastated Kyiv, but returned to Novgorod, although he retained the grand ducal title and de jure became the “oldest” prince in Rus'.

Immediately after these events, another round of struggle for power began in Karakorum, in which Batu Khan took an active part. Probably, these circumstances diverted his attention from the western possessions of his ulus, where a military-political alliance of two Russian princes soon arose. In 1250, Grand Duke Andrei married the daughter of the Galician-Volyn prince Daniil Ustinia and became one of the leaders of the “anti-Horde union”, which strongly supported the Catholic West. It was then that, on the initiative of Pope Innocent IV, negotiations began with Daniel and Andrew on organizing a grandiose crusade against the Mongols, but on the condition that the head of the Russian metropolis, Kirill, would sign a union with the papal throne to unite the two churches. Negotiations with the papal legates clearly dragged on, since the papal ambassadors did not give real guarantees of military support for the Russian princes.

Meanwhile, a new great khan, Mongke (1251–1259), was elected in Karakorum, who was elevated to the khan’s throne with the active support of Batu. This circumstance freed his hands and allowed him to switch his attention to the conquered Russian lands, where a real threat to the rule of the Mongols arose. In 1252, on his direct orders, the Kuremsa temnik, having received military detachments from Sarai, attacked Galician-Volyn Rus. Daniil of Galicia managed to repel the Mongol invasion and defend his Carpathian cities, although he still lost a number of steppe lowland lands.

Simultaneously with the invasion of Kuremsa, Batu sent the army of Temnik Nevryu to North-Eastern Rus'. The circumstances and reasons for this campaign are still not entirely clear, since different chronicles present completely different versions of the events that took place. In the lost lists of the Nikon and Rostov Chronicles it was said that Alexander Nevsky traveled to Sarai " and complained about his brother Grand Duke Andrei, as if he had seduced the khan, taking a great reign under him, as if he were the eldest, and had given him his father’s cities, and did not pay the khan in full for his exits and tamgas. The Khan became angry with Andrei and ordered Nevrui Saltan to go to Andrei and bring him before him.” Many historians (S. Solovyov, V. Kargalov, V. Egorov) took this chronicle article as truth, but did not attach serious importance to it. A number of authors, on the contrary, clinging to this chronicle article, made far-reaching conclusions with diametrically opposed assessments. Almost all “Eurasians” (G. Vernadsky, L. Gumilyov) immediately came up with a whole theory that Alexander Nevsky became the founder of the Russian-Mongolian military alliance, which laid a solid foundation for the saving symbiosis of the Russian-Turkic (Eurasian) civilization, which successfully repelled aggression Catholic West. Their liberal opponents (J. Fennell, A. Sakharov, I. Danilevsky), on the contrary, immediately nailed Alexander Nevsky to the “pillory of history,” dubbing the Grand Duke a traitor to Russian national interests and a faithful servant of the Horde.

Not a single surviving chronicle contains the above text, therefore, even in the century before last, a number of historians (N. Karamzin, M. Pogodin) rightly doubted the reliability of this information, and the “Eurasian” N.A. Klepinin even spoke out in defense of Alexander Nevsky. Moreover, as established by authoritative historians (A. Kuzmin, A. Gorsky), this chronicle text clearly contradicted the well-known fact that “exit” and “tamga” began to be collected from Russian lands only after the Mongol “ The census takers conducted their first census. There are other arguments in favor of supporters of this version. In particular, the Novgorod First and Ipatiev Chronicles do not report anything at all about the invasion of Nevryuy, and according to the Rogozhsky chronicler and the Sofia chronicle, “Nevryuyev’s army” was in 1251, that is, exactly a year before Alexander Nevsky’s trip to the Horde. Therefore, logically, the invasion of Nevruy, like the invasion of Kuremsa, was a direct reaction to the military alliance of princes Daniel and Andrey. Moreover, as N.A. correctly noted. Klepinin and A.G. Kuzmin, his uncle, Prince Svyatoslav, who was expelled by him from the grand-ducal throne, had more reason to report Prince Andrei to the Horde. Apparently, it was he who “laid out” his obstinate nephew during a visit to Sarai in 1250.

As is known, unlike Prince Daniel, Prince Andrei failed to recapture the “Nevryuev army”, and the Mongols destroyed many volosts and cities of North-Eastern Rus', first of all, the family nest of all Yaroslavichs, the city of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Having suffered a crushing defeat, he fled “overseas” and his further fate is not entirely clear. According to some chronicles, Prince Andrei was killed in some battle with the Germans or Estonians. According to other chronicle sources, in 1255 he returned to Rus' “And Alexander received him with love, and wanted to give him Suzdal, but did not laugh at the king,” did not dare to give his brother the Suzdal throne. Finally, according to third chronicle evidence, in 1256 “Prince Andrey went to Gorodets and to the Nizhny Novgrad princedom. Prince Boris Vasilkovich of Rostov went to the Tatars with many gifts to ask for Andrei. Likewise, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich sent his ambassadors to the Tatars with many gifts to ask for Andrei. Prince Boris Vasilkovich of Rostov was at Ulavchiy’s and gave gifts, and received him with much honor, and asked forgiveness for Andrey, and returned with much honor to his homeland.”

Whatever the further fate of Andrei, but immediately after his flight from Vladimir in 1252. “the idea of ​​​​Olexandr, Prince of Novgorod and Yaroslavich to the Tatars, and released him with great honor, giving him seniority among all his brothers as prince.” Returning to the capital Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky was solemnly greeted by Metropolitan Kirill and “citizens with crosses, and there was joy in the city of Volodymeri and throughout the entire land of Suzhdal.” Despite such an enthusiastic reception, captured by the chronicler, the entire period of the reign of Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky (1252-1263) turned out to be very difficult for the Russian lands, since it was he who had to make a fateful choice between the West and the Horde.

In 1255, Khan Batu died in Sarai, and his eldest son Sartak went to Karakorum, where the great Khan Mongke recognized his rights to his father’s throne. However, returning to the lands of his “Ulu Ulus”, he unexpectedly died. The reliable reasons for his death are still shrouded in mystery, but the Eastern chronicles contain a completely reliable version that he became a victim of another struggle for power and was poisoned by his own uncle, Khan Berke. However, power in Sarai did not go to him, but to Batu’s widow, Khatun Burakchin, who became regent under her young grandson Ulagchi (1255–1257). But after the unexpected death of the baby, she was executed, and power in Sarai was seized by Berke (1257–1266), who was in hostile relations with the Great Khan Mongke.

Most historians (B. Grekov, A. Kuzmin, A. Gorsky, V. Egorov) rightly believe that Berke’s confirmation on the Khan’s throne was a turning point in the entire system of previous relations between the Horde and Rus' that developed under Batu. The reason for the change in these relations was that “The same winter, a number of people arrived, and counted the entire land of Suzhdal, and Ryazan, and Murom, and installed foremen, and centurions, and thousanders, and temniks, and went to the Horde.” Immediately after this census, a fundamentally new management system was created in Rus', led by the Mongolian Baskaks, whose main function was strict control over the collection of Horde tribute from all subject Russian lands.

In 1258, the Mongols tried to conduct a similar population census in the Novgorod lands, but this was not done immediately, because when “Evil news came from Rus' that the Tatars wanted tamgas and tithes on Novgorod, and people were in confusion.” Despite the fact that together with the Mongolian Baskaks they came "men for numbers" from the Grand Duke himself, his eldest son, Prince of Novgorod Vasily Alexandrovich, “having listened to the evil adviser of the Novgorodians,” raised a rebellion against the Mongols and the grand ducal servants. As a result “The numbers, with great anger, came to the Grand Duke Alexander, saying and wanting to go to the Horde.” What could have followed these threats is not difficult to predict, since the memory of the terrible “Nevryuev Army” was still very fresh. Therefore, the Grand Duke “I know I’m in trouble, I called the brethren and barely begged the khan’s ambassadors” don't go to Sarai. Moreover, Alexander Yaroslavich himself, together with his younger brother Andrei Yaroslavich and his nephew Boris Vasilkovich, escorted the Mongol enlisted men to Novgorod.

As a result, the Novgorod prince Vasily fled to Pskov, but the Novgorodians themselves refused to submit to the will of the Horde and only “She gave many gifts to the khan and his ambassador, and sent them away in peace.” Alexander Nevsky tried to reason with his obstinate fellow countrymen, but the Novgorodians rebelled, and a new uprising broke out in the city, during which his henchman, the Novgorod mayor Mikhalko Stepanich, was killed. The Grand Duke, fearing a new invasion of the Tatars, was forced to harshly suppress the uprising of the Novgorod smerds, execute the young prince’s advisers, and send him under strong guard to Suzdal. In 1259, the numbers returned to Vladimir again, and then, accompanied by the Grand Duke, headed to Novgorod, where “having destroyed the entire land of Novogorod and Pskov, nothing like priestly reproach.”

After a complete census of the population, the collection of “black forest” from the subject Russian lands was left to the Muslim merchants - the Besermen, who were always accompanied by Mongol armed detachments. As a rule, tribute collectors did not stand on ceremony with the tax-paying population “and in the volost they committed a lot of evil, taking away Tuska with the Okan Tatars.” It was this “tusk” that most outraged the Russian people, and this kind of illegal extortion in the form of provisions and housing would be the main reason for all anti-Mongol uprisings in Rus'. In particular, already in 1262 “from fierce languor, impatient of the violence of the filthy,” Powerful uprisings broke out in Rostov, Suzdal and other Russian cities, during which both the Horde Baskaks themselves and the Mongols accompanying them were killed.

Some modern authors (J. Fennell, R. Skrynnikov, I. Danilevsky) argued that it was Alexander Nevsky, being a faithful henchman of the Horde khans, who, with the help of punitive detachments sent from Sarai, harshly suppressed all protests of the townspeople. This conclusion is purely speculative, since there is no such information in all chronicles. Probably closer to the truth are those historians (A. Nasonov, A. Kuzmin) who believed that it was possible to avoid a new Horde invasion of Rus' only because the tribute collectors came from Karakorum, with which Berke actually broke off all relations. In addition, it was then that Berke entered into a fight with his cousin, Khan Hulagu, so he really hoped to receive impressive help from the Russian princes in the form of a large military contingent for the campaign in Northern Persia.

As a result, Khan Berke considered it sufficient to summon only the Grand Duke himself to Sarai, because “The need is great for the foreigners, and they are persecuting Christians, ordering them to fight with them. The great prince Alexander went to the princess to pray for the people from that misfortune.” Berke was unable to receive a Russian military contingent, and just in case, he left Alexander Nevsky in Sarai. Only the next year the Grand Duke was released, but in November 1263 he died in the border town of Gorodets. Such a sudden death of the Grand Duke gave rise to many different versions, including the completely reasonable assumption that the Mongols themselves poisoned him. Naturally, such a version did not fit into the concept of the “Eurasians”, so Professor L.N. Gumilyov accused insidious Catholic agents of poisoning the Grand Duke, who then had a hand in the death of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Mindaugas, with whom Alexander Nevsky just a year ago concluded a military alliance against the Crusaders.

The reign of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky became an integral part of the historical memory of the Russian people. For almost a quarter of a century, during the most difficult period of Russian history, with the sword and skillful diplomacy he defended Holy Rus' from mortal threats from both the West and the East. He did not know major defeats either on the battlefield or in the diplomatic field, and his descendants should be judged not so much by the results he achieved, but by the difficult obstacles that he had to overcome. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the nameless author of his “Life” was sincere in his lament: “Oh, woe to you, poor man! How can you write the death of your master! How can your eyes not fall along with your tears! How can your heart not burst from the bitter tightness! My children, you understand, the sun of the land of Suzdal has already set!”

After the death of Alexander Nevsky, all his sons - Vasily, Dmitry, Andrei and Daniil were still very young and foolish, so Khan Berke transferred the label for the great reign to his younger brother, the Tver prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich (1264-1271). It was under him that the khan’s throne in Sarai was occupied by another grandson of Genghis Khan, Mengu-Timur (1266–1282), under whom “Ulu Ulus” finally fell away from Karakorum and became a sovereign state. What was the nature of Sarai’s relationship with the conquered Russian lands during that period is not entirely clear, since some chronicles say that “ was weakened in Rus' by Tatar violence,” and the Russian Orthodox Church was given the first “tarhan letter”, which freed it from paying “black forest” to Sarai. Other chronicles tell us that it was under Khan Mengu that the previous system of governance flourished, and the Mongol armed detachments accompanying the Baskaks began to regularly perform police functions that were unusual for them.

Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavich was unusually far from solving both current problems and understanding the most important long-term tasks. Already in 1270, he had an acute conflict with the Novgorodians, who, having gathered at a meeting, told him: “We can’t tolerate your violence, come on, prince, give us good, and we’ll get ourselves a prince.” Yaroslav sent his eldest son Svyatoslav to the Novgorodians, agreeing “to be corrected according to the entire will of Novgorod”, however, the obstinate Novgorodians were adamant and again told him: “Prince, we don’t want you, leave us kindly, otherwise, we’ll drive you away and we don’t want you.”

Having received such an unequivocal answer, Yaroslav sent his proxies to Sarai, who accused the Novgorodians of not respecting the Grand Duke, not giving “exit” to the Horde, and blaspheming the Great Khan. Naturally, this denunciation outraged Mengu, who began preparing a new campaign against Rus'. The situation was able to defuse the Kostroma prince Vasily Yaroslavich, who went to Sarai and convinced the Great Khan that the conflict with the Novgorodians arose solely through the fault of his older brother. An actual split occurred in the Horde itself, since the influential temnik Nogai, who ruled in its western uluses, broke away from Sarai and began to skillfully play on the contradictions of different political elites both in the Horde itself and in the conquered Russian lands. A number of appanage princes of the southeast and northeast of Rus' recognized him as their overlord.

In 1271, Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavich died "coming from the Horde" and the label for the great reign was given to his younger brother Vasily Yaroslavich (1272–1276), who also had an acute conflict with the Novgorod prince Dmitry Alexandrovich. At first, the parties tried to resolve it peacefully, but this failed. Then in 1272–1273. Together with the Tver prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich and the “Khan Tatars”, the Grand Duke twice went on campaigns to the Novgorod Pyatina, where the Russian-Horde army subjected Volok, Bezhetsk and Vologda to total plunder. Only after this pogrom did the Novgorodians bow their heads before the Grand Duke and recognize his rights to the Novgorod throne.

In 1275, the Mongols conducted a new census of Russian lands. One of the chronicles contained fairly accurate information about the size of the tribute that the Russian lands paid to Sarai: “Great Prince Vasily went to the Horde to the khan. When the great prince came to the Horde and brought a due tribute from all over the land, half a hryvnia per plow, and in the plow there were two working men, and there were many gifts, and a person came out, and the khan received him with honor, but he said: “The yasak is small, but There are many people in your land, why don’t you give from everyone?” The great prince is being overwhelmed by the number of former Baskaks. And the Khan commanded that new numbers be sent throughout the Russian land with great cities, so that people would not hide it.”

Soon after visiting the Horde, Vasily Yaroslavich also died suddenly and his successor on the grand-ducal throne was his recent rival, the rogue prince Dmitry Alexandrovich (1276-1281), who also regained the Novgorod throne. The beginning of his great reign did not foretell any serious threats, but within five years a new bloody strife broke out, which had extremely dire consequences for all Russian lands. In 1281, his younger brother, Gorodets prince Andrei Alexandrovich went to Sarai, “seeking for himself a great reign under his elder brother.” Having presented the elderly Khan Mengu with rich gifts, he achieved the desired label and, together with the Tatar army, moved to Rus'. While Prince Andrey on the borders of Rus' was calling other Russian princes under his banners, the Mongol armies of Kavdygay and Alchedai went to Murom, Vladimir, Yuryev, Suzdal and Pereyaslavl, where “You have made everything empty and plundered people, men and wives, and children and babies, and plundered all that property and made it full.” In this situation, Grand Duke Dmitry with his court and small retinue fled to the Novgorod lands and stopped in Koporye, preparing to flee overseas if necessary. Soon he changed his plans and went south, to Khan Nogai, who had long been in hostile relations with Sarai. Meanwhile, the Mongols continued the total plunder of Russian lands near Rostov, Tver and Torzhok, where “ devastated cities, volosts, villages, graveyards, monasteries, and churches.” As a result of the pogrom, Prince Andrei managed to establish himself in Vladimir, but his elder brother did not recognize his rights to the grand-ducal throne and continued to fight against him. In 1283, having received military support from Nogai, Dmitry returned to the Vladimir throne, and Andrei went back to Gorodets.

The second period of the reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich (1283-1294) chronologically coincided with a new round of struggle for power, but in Sarai itself, which in Russian chronicles received a very capacious and sonorous name - “zamyatnya”. This intense struggle for the khan’s throne went on for almost eight years, until Khan Tokhta (1290–1312) established himself on it, with the active support of Nogai, and real dual power was de facto established in the Horde.

In 1293, the Gorodets prince went to Sarai and, as the nameless chronicler narrates, “By the crown of Andrei, the prince of the crown prince with other princes against Dmitry the prince with complaints, and the prince released his brother Duden with a multitude of troops against Dmitry. Oh, there was a lot of dirty tricks the peasants took from innocent cities: Volodymer, Moscow, Dmitrov, Volok and other cities, leaving the whole land empty, and Dmitry ran into Pskov.” The destruction carried out by the Tatars was similar in scale to the terrible invasion of Batu, so the authority of the newly-crowned Grand Duke was seriously undermined in all Russian lands, including among many appanage princes and influential church hierarchs. Therefore, shortly after "Dyuden's army" Prince Andrey “I’ll come to Torzhek” and reconcile myself with my brother “Dmitry”, However, the next year he died suddenly and the label for the great reign was again given to Andrei.

Throughout the entire period of his reign, Andrei Alexandrovich (1294-1304) was constantly at enmity with other Russian princes. The most acute conflict between them arose in 1296-1297, when at the princely congress in Vladimir a united coalition of appanage princes led by the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich, the Pereyaslavl prince Ivan Dmitrievich and the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich opposed him. The divisions at this congress turned out to be so strong that both sides were ready to take up arms again and call on the Tatars for help. It didn’t come to a new Tatar pogrom, and they were able to come to an agreement. What the compromise was reached is not entirely clear, since there is no information on this matter in the chronicles. But a number of famous historians (A. Nasonov, A. Gorsky) suggested that the basis of this compromise was the preservation of the right of these princes to independently collect tribute, which they received from Khan Nogai, considering him their legal overlord.

3. Lands of Southern and Southwestern Rus' in the second half of the XIII - mid-XIV centuries.

Batu's invasion did not destroy the main elements of statehood in Southern and Southwestern Rus', and the principalities-lands that existed here survived for a relatively long time, from fifty (Principality of Polotsk) to one hundred and fifty (Principality of Smolensk) years. But almost all of these lands came under the rule of the Golden Horde. As you know, back in 1243, Batu Khan handed over the label for the great reign to the Vladimir prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was recognized as the “oldest” prince in Rus'. A visible expression of this “eldership” was the possession of the ancient capital of Rus', where “I will support Kiev Yaroslav with my boyar Eikovich Dmitry.” Kyiv de jure still remained the main political center of Rus', but the Grand Duke himself, having installed a governor there, was constantly in Vladimir, which suffered much less from the horrors of the Mongol invasion. In 1249, after the death of Yaroslav, his eldest son Alexander Nevsky received a new khan's label in Karakorum "Kyiv and the entire Russian land" but upon returning to Rus', he left for the Novgorod throne, and, like his late father, installed his governor in the “metropolitan” Kyiv.

The further fate of the Kyiv throne is poorly covered in the sources. Based on indirect data, it can be assumed that before the beginning of the 1290s. The Kyiv princes were the successors of Alexander Nevsky on the grand-ducal table, which was under the patronage of Temnik Nogai, the ruler of the western part of the Golden Horde, which actually fell away from the Horde khans who ruled in Sarai. In 1294, after Andrei Alexandrovich, a follower of the Horde Khan Tokhta, received the Grand Duke's label, his rival Nogai did not allow the Grand Duke's governors into Kyiv under his control, and he temporarily found himself under the rule of representatives of the Putivl branch of the Chernigov princely house. At the same time, Kyiv finally lost its role as a metropolitan residence, since in 1299 “Metropolitan Maxim, not tolerating Tatar violence, left the metropolis and fled from Kyiv and all of Kiev fled, and the metropolitan went to Bryansk and then to the Suzhdal land.”

The first direct reliable news about the new Kiev prince dates back only to 1331, but his name remained unknown, since all the attempts of a number of modern Ukrainian historians (F. Shabuldo, L. Voitovich) to see in him either Fyodor Svyatoslavich or Fyodor Gediminovich, either Stanislav Ivanovich, or some other mythical characters, are very unconvincing. It is also not entirely clear when the Principality of Kiev was finally subordinated to Lithuania. Ukrainian historians (F. Shabuldo, G. Ivakin, L. Voitovich) for obvious reasons connect this event with the defeat of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Ivanovich in the battle with Prince Gediminas on the Irpen River in 1324. But most historians (V. Antonovich, A. Gorsky) believes that this happened immediately after the victory of the Great Lithuanian Prince Olgerd over the Tatars, which he won at the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362. It was then that one of his eldest sons, Vladimir Olgerdovich (1362-1398), descendants, sat on the Kiev throne which became representatives of two famous princely dynasties of Slutsky and Belsky.

After the Mongol invasion, the territory of the neighboring Pereyaslavl principality, which was located on the southernmost borders of the Polovtsian steppe, came under the direct authority of Sarai, so the local prince Svyatoslav, the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, immediately left the Monomashich family table for North-Eastern Rus'. There is no news in the sources about other Russian princes who ruled on the local table, therefore, most likely, it was ruled by the Khan’s Baskaks. This continued until the Lithuanian prince Olgerd annexed these territories to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1362.

In the Chernigov land, after the invasion of the Mongols, political fragmentation sharply intensified and new princely tables were assigned to different branches of the Olgovichi. In particular, the Novosilsky, Karachevsky and Tarussky principalities arise in the northeast, in the southeast the Vorgolsky and Lipovichsky principalities are added to the pre-existing Kursk and Rylsky principalities, and in the northwestern, forested part, more protected from Tatar raids, the Bryansk principality arises . It was here, in Bryansk, in the 1260s. The political center of the Chernigov land moved and the local prince Roman Mikhailovich (1263-1288), and then his son Oleg Romanovich (1288-1307), secured the throne. Metropolitan Maxim of Kiev also moved here in 1299. However, the possibility of integrating all the principalities of South-Eastern Rus' under the auspices of Bryansk was soon lost.

According to many historians (A. Nasonov, A. Kuzmin, A. Gorsky), most likely, the main role here was played by the fact that the Bryansk princes were part of a coalition of Russian princes who were guided by Nogai’s temnik. But in 1300, the rebellious temnik was killed and his winner, the Horde Khan Tokhta, transferred Bryansk to the possession of the Smolensk prince Alexander Glebovich (1297-1313), and gave Chernigov to the loyal Kozel prince Svyatoslav Mstislavich (1300-1310). The princely table in Chernigov was never assigned to any of the branches of the Olgovichi, and in 1356 most of the Chernigov lands also went into the possession of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In the north-eastern part of the Chernigov lands, the appanage principalities of the Rurikovichs were preserved, where the famous Russian princely dynasties of the Mezetskys, Obolenskys, Volkonskys, Dolgorukovs, Baryatinskys, Vorotynskys, Bolkhovskys, Mosalskys, Gorchakovs, Repnins, Shcherbatovs and others were subsequently formed.

In Southwestern Rus', as a result of the unification of the Galician and Volyn lands under the rule of Grand Duke Daniil Romanovich (1238–1264), a strong state entity was formed that managed to avoid any significant political fragmentation. Initially, Prince Daniil, like other Russian princes, recognized the power of Batu. But in 1252, having repelled the invasion of Kuremsa, he broke away from the Horde, and already in 1254, hoping to receive real help from Catholic Europe, he accepted the royal title from the hands of Pope Innocent IV. However, the European monarchs, together with the Roman archpastor, as always, deceived Prince Daniel and after the new invasion of the Temnik Burundai in 1259, he again had to admit dependence on the Horde.

After Daniel's death, seniority in the dynasty passed to his younger brother Vasilko (1238-1269), who continued to reign in Vladimir. Stolny Galich went to his eldest son Lev Danilovich (1264-1301). After the death of Vasilko Romanovich, his vast Volynian possessions were inherited by his eldest son Vladimir Vasilkovich (1269-1289), who, together with his cousin, Prince Leo, in the 1270s-1280s. constantly fought with the Hungarians, Poles and Yatvingians. After the death of Vladimir, Prince Leo established himself on his throne and until the end of his days he single-handedly ruled the vast territory of the entire Galician-Volyn Rus.

After Lev’s death, the Galician-Volyn throne passed to his eldest son Yuri Lvovich (1301–1308), who in 1303 obtained recognition from the Patriarch of Constantinople of a separate Little Russian Metropolis, since Metropolitan Maxim of Kiev had long since moved to North-Eastern Rus'. Canonically, this metropolis continued to be subordinate to the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus', whose residence was first Vladimir and then Moscow. In 1305, Prince Yuri, like his grandfather, took the title of “King of Little Rus'”. Moreover, we note, it is “Little Rus'”, and not “Ukraine”, as modern candidates of Ukrainian sciences are trying to present. It was from here that the very name of that part of the Russian people came - Little Russians, who lived on the territory of Galician and Kievan Rus.

After his death, the Galicia-Volyn principality passed into the joint possession of his two sons Andrei Yurievich and Lev Yurievich, who, relying on the Teutonic knights and Mazovian princes, began the fight against the Golden Horde and Lithuania, which ended with their death in 1323. Polish chroniclers claimed, that their heir to the princely throne was Prince Vladimir Lvovich (1323-1325), who was the last representative of the Romanovichs in Southwestern Rus', but Russian chronicles do not confirm the fact of the reign of this prince.

After the end of the Rurik dynasty, the son of the Mazovian prince Troyden, Yuri II Boleslav (1323–1340), became the king of “Little Rus'”, who restored relations with the Horde khan Uzbek and recognized dependence on the Horde. While maintaining peace with Lithuania and the Teutonic Order, he simultaneously spoiled relations with Hungary and Poland, and in 1337, together with the Mongols, he marched on Krakow. The death of Yuri II put an end to the independence of the Galician-Volyn principality and ended with its division between its neighbors. In Volyn, the son of the great Lithuanian prince Gediminas Lubart (1340-1383) was recognized as the ruling prince, and in Galicia the noble boyar Dmitry Detko (1340-1349) became his governor. After his death, the Polish king Casimir III the Great (1333-1370) seized the Galician lands and began a war with the Lithuanians for Volyn, which ended only in 1392. The result of this war was the entry of Galicia and Hill into the Polish Kingdom, and Volyn into the Great principalities of Lithuania and Russia. Therefore, the pathetic attempts of the current Ukrainian independentists to present Galician-Volyn Rus as the second cradle of Ukrainian statehood do not stand up to any criticism, since this statehood has completely dissolved on the territory of more powerful neighboring states.

The question of why North-Eastern Rus' became the center of gathering Russian lands was for a long time overshadowed by a more private the problem of the reasons for the rise of Moscow. This problem is the key one. Of course, these reasons were completely objective in nature, and were not the malicious intent of the “damned Muscovites”, because:

1) Unlike the Chernigov, Smolensk and Galician-Volyn princes, the princes of North-Eastern Rus' almost did not participate in the devastating internecine war of the 1230s, which claimed the lives of many Russian princes, boyars and warriors.

2) By the middle of the 13th century. The princes of the Suzdal branch managed to establish control over the Novgorod reign, which objectively turned out to be a more profitable all-Russian table than Galich, and even more so Kyiv, devastated by the Tatars.

3) Unlike Galicia and Volyn, which directly bordered Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and the Horde, North-Eastern Rus' did not come into contact with Lithuania until the beginning of the 15th century. between them a kind of “buffer” was maintained in the form of the Smolensk principality.

4) It was the Vladimir princes who were recognized as the “oldest” princes in Rus' in the Horde itself, and already in the 14th century. The title “Grand Duke of All Rus'”, previously applied only to the Kyiv princes, officially passed to the great princes of Vladimir.

5) An important factor was the transfer to Vladimir and then to Moscow of the metropolitan throne, which was occupied by the “Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'.”

6) The termination of the Romanovich dynasty, as one of the branches of the all-Russian princely dynasty of the Rurikovichs, to which the Horde itself probably had a hand, played a negative role in the history of Galicia-Volyn Rus'.

Domestic history: Cheat sheet Author unknown

14. FORMS OF DEPENDENCE OF Rus' ON THE GOLDEN HORDE

Economic dependence on the Horde of North-Eastern and North-Western Rus' was expressed in the removal of artisans to Horde centers and cities, the payment of a very burdensome regular tribute (“Horde exit”), ruinous additional taxes, as well as the existence of a special service organization of direct producers who must were to provide for all the needs of the ambassadors, messengers, and special representatives who came from the khan to Rus'. Political dependence was manifested primarily in the fact that the decisive condition for the legitimacy of the power of any sovereign prince (great or appanage) was the khan's grant (label). The heredity of princely tables within the borders of local Rurik dynasties was then an important, but still less significant factor in the legitimacy of the power of monarchs. Russian princes were also obliged to participate with their troops in the campaigns of the rulers of the Golden Horde.

Historically, the forms of Horde control have been variable. The first, which existed for a relatively short time, was the institution of direct representatives of the khan (“baskaks”). Then the method of indirect control was adopted. The most striking example is the former Vladimir-Suzdal land. The Grand Duke's table in Vladimir was not hereditarily assigned by the khans to any one line of descendants of Grand Duke Vsevolod the Big Nest. The prince who received the label on him was personally responsible to the khan for the correct payment of the exit by all the princes, their timely participation in the Horde military campaigns, their loyalty to the Saransk ruler, etc. As a reward, he received the right to govern and judge the population of the territories of the Vladimir table, the right to deliver the exit from all principalities and lands to the Horde, the princely table in Veliky Novgorod (a close relative and their governors were usually sent there), the status of the “eldest” prince. Throughout most of the 14th century. The Great Reign of Vladimir became the object of fierce rivalry between the Moscow, Tver, and then Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal princely dynasties, which made it easier for the khans to function as arbiters.

The victory of the Moscow Rurikovichs (they united in their hands the territories of the Moscow and Vladimir great principalities) became the reason for the last change: from the end of the 14th century. all the great and independent principalities of North-Eastern Rus' began to communicate directly with the Horde regarding the payment of tribute, and to receive khan's labels, and on other issues.