Russian history 33: Tatars and Batu Khan

When the role of Kiev was overtaken by new centres, Novgorod, Vladimir and Galich, in the fist half of the XIII century, Tatars came to Rus. They were totally unfamiliar and unexpected. A chronicler wrote: "The pagans came and nobody knows who they are and where they come from and what their language is and what their religion is."

The motherland of Tatars was Mongolia. Dispersed tribes were united by khan Temuchin, who took the title of Genghis Khan (The Great Khan). In 1213, he started his conquests by occupying the northern China, then he moved westwards and reached the Caspian sea and Armenia, bringing destruction and terror everywhere. The vanguard of Tatars went from the southern shores of the Caspian sea through Caucasus mountains into the steppes to north from Black sea, where they met the Polovtsians. Polovtsians asked knyazes of southern Rus for assistance. Knyazes of Kiev, Chernigov and Galich (all named Mstislav) agreed to help, thinking that if Tatars subjugate Polovtsians they will become even stronger. For a number of times, the Tatars sent ambassadors to the Russian army saying that they are not in war with Rus, that their only enemies are Polovtsians, but the knyazes kept on going till they met Tatars on river Kalka (1223). Knyazes were defeated. Tatars tortured and killed the captured knyazes and warriors, than turned backwards and disappeared.

Some years later, in 1227, Genghis Khan died and split his conquered lands between his sons, but giving the supreme power to one of them, Ugede. Ugede sent his nephew Batu, son of Juchi, to conquer the western lands. With a horde of Tatars, Batu crossed river Ural (old name Yayik). On Volga, he defeated the Volga Bulgars and sacked their capital the Great Bulgar. Having crossed Volga, in the end of 1237 he came to the duchy of Ryazan, ruled by Olgoviches, the descendants of knyaz Oleg (see chapter 18). Batu Khan demanded for tribute — "one tenth of everything", but he was refused. Ryazan asked other Russian knyazes for help, but nobody came and they had to withstand the Tatars alone. Tatars overcame, burnt and sacked the whole province, kiled or enslaved the population and moved northwards. They devastated Moscow and entered the duchy of Rostov and Suzdal. The grand prince of Vladimir, Yuri Vsevolodovich, left his capital Vladimir and went to the north-west to collect an army (see February 7 in Russian history). Tatars seized Vladimir, killed the family of the knyaz, burnt the city and devastated the remaining towns of the duchy. They met knyaz Yuri on river Sit' (a tributary of Mologa, which is in its own turn a tributary of Volga). On March 4, 1238, Russians were defeated again and Tatars moved to Tver and Torzhok and entered the lands of Novgorod. They turned back in around 150 kilometres from Novgorod and headed to the steppes. On the road, they had to spend a lot of time during the siege of the city Kozelsk, which fell after an unusually long and brave defence. So, in 1237-1238, Batu Khan conquered the north-western Rus.

Later, Batu Khan began the conquest of the southern Rus from his camps on the lower Don and Volga. In 1239 he sacked Pereyaslavl and Chernigov and in 1240 he attacked Kiev. In the end of 1240 Tatars took Kiev after a cruel battle. From Kiev, they moved to Volyn' and Galich, captured them, crossed the Carpathian mountains and entered Hungary and Poland. After a brave rebuff he met in Czechia, they turned backwards and founded a new province of the Tatar empire, the Golden Horde, in the steppes. A new city Sarai, founded on the lower Volga, became the capital of the Golden Horde.

February 7 in Russian history

1238: Batu Khan captures Vladimir. Only three months earlier, the knyaz of Vladimir Yuri, son of Vsevolod (known as Bolshoye Gnezdo, the Big Nest) refused to send troops to help knyaz of Ryazan, Yuri Igorevich. Tens of Russian knyazes competed for their own lands and refused to co-operate to save the country. Ryazan was completely destroyed in December, 1237. Vladimir lost the key ally on the South. Now, on the 5 February, Batu Khan camped near the walls of Vladimir. Knyaz Yuri left the city to his sons Vsevolod and Mstislav and the chieftain Pyotr Oslyadkovich and left to gather an army that would be able to withstand the Tatars. Batu Khan offered Vladimir to surrender, promising to spare the life of another Yuri's son, Vladimir Yurievich, who was captured a week ago in Moscow. The leaders of the city refused and Vladimir Yurievich was killed with swords. Vsevolod and Mstislav attempted to offer a ransom and went out of the gates with rich gifts, but Batu Khan ordered to kill them, too. They were killed in front of the Golden Gates of Vladimir, the main gates of the city. On February 6, the Tatars were preparing the attack and on February 7 they broke the walls, entered the city, sacked and burnt it. The citizens of Vladimir attempted to hide in the Uspensky cathedral with its thick stone walls, but the Tatars put huge fires around the cathedral and all the people died. A month later, knyaz Yuri and his new army lost the battle on river Sit'. I visited Vladimir this summer and saw these Golden Gates (I am still writing a story of this trip and will post it as soon as I finish it). The Uspensky cathedral was rebuilt and it still exists. The remains of the city walls are there, too.

1920: Bolsheviks executed one of the leaders of the White Guard, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. A brilliant naval officer, participant of polar expeditions, geographer, commander of the Black Sea fleet, he became a prominent political figure, a leader of the counter-revolutionary movement. In 1918, he was appointed the military and naval minister of the so called Siberian government of Russia in Omsk. Two months later, he organized a coup and proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. In 1919, his troops began to lose the war to the Bolsheviks and Kolchak attempted to move his government to Irkutsk. Part of the railroad from Omsk to Irkutsk was controlled by the Czech Legion, who promised him safe passage, but instead they arrested him. The French representative of the Entente in Siberia, Maurice Janin, who controlled the Czech Legion, handed him over to a leftist organization called Political Centre in Irkutsk. The organization was created by bolsheviks especially to give impression that Janin contacted SRs, not bolsheviks. Immediately after they got Kolchak, the Political Centre was disbanded and Kolchak became a prisoner of Cheka. As a payment for Kolchak, bolsheviks allowed Janin to take a large amount of gold from Siberia. The White Army troops led by Vladimir Kappel attempted to save Kolchak, but the Bolsheviks executed him on a direct order from Moscow after two weeks of "investigation". His body was thrown into a small river Ushakovka.

February 2 in Russian history

1238: Batu Khan seized and burnt Moscow. Batu Khan was a grandson of Chingiz Khan and the founder of the Blue Horde, later transformed into the Golden Horde. The most detailed account of the seizure of Moscow is given in Lavrentiev chronicle: "On the same winter Tatars took Moscow and killed the chieftain Philip Nyanko for the true Christian faith, and took knyaz Vladimir, son of Yuri, with hands, and killed people from old to little ones; and the burnt the town and the sacred churches, and all monasteries and villages, and left, having taken large loot." Anyway, there is another source -- some sheets, glued into a copy of Nikanorov chronicle. These sheets were copied by Johann-Werner Pause in the first half of XVIII century from a lost chronicle and were not explored sufficiently until late 1970s. This text reports: "Tatars came from there (from Kolomna. DM) to Moscow and beat it incessantly. The chieftain Filip Nyanskin sat on his horse and all his army with him, crossed themselves, opened the gates and, shouting, attacked the Tatars. And the Tatars, seeing the great force, were frightened and started to run. And tsar Batu then with great force stepped onto the chieftain and captured him alive, and dissected his body in parts and strewn it all over the field, and the town of Moscow was burnt and sacked, and all people and babies were killed."

1701: Peter I issued "The Decree about construction of six 16-gun ships on Ladoga lake." These ships became the first ships of the Russian Baltic fleet.

1943: The end of the battle of Stalingrad, sometimes called the bloodiest battle in the history. Frankly, I see no reason to describe it, since it is covered extensively in many books and online sources. For a brief introduction, see (I was perplexed by one sentence in the article: "The battle was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties on both sides." German civilian casualties in the middle of Russia?) Instead, I will copy an article I posted at the Sima Qian Studio forum a year and a half ago when I visited Volgograd. See the next post in this blog.