Why didn't Tamerlane go to Rus'? Yu. Loschits

After the devastating campaigns of the Golden Horde khans, the Russian lands were drained of blood. They would not have withstood the impending invasion of Tamerlane. However, it never took place. Let's try to imagine what the results of the Iron Lame's campaign against Rus' could have been.

Tamerlane (Timur in Arabic) was born for conquest. Let's take a look at his banner, inside of which there were three ovals. They say they symbolized the parts of the world that submitted to the conqueror - Europe, Asia and Africa. Of course, it’s said loudly (he never made it to Africa), although Tamerlane’s ambitions and self-confidence cannot be denied.

He crushed strong armies Turkish Sultan Bayazid and Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, fought in the territories of China, Persia, India and Asia Minor, expanding the borders of his empire from the Caspian to the Arabian Sea. The court chronicler of Tamerlane, Giyassaddin Ali, even claimed that his master reached the lands of the Franks.

Other subjects of Tamerlane flattered him even more, assuring future readers of the chronicles that in his campaign to the north their ruler had reached “the limits of the sixth climate.” According to the ideas of Islamic scientists, the world was divided into seven climates: the first was the equator, the seventh was the pole. The sixth, according to this logic, should have corresponded to the Arctic.

The real picture of Tamerlane's conquests was apparently not so large-scale. However, historians suggest that in the conditions of the war with Tokhtamysh, the Central Asian commander could well have conducted military operations on the lands of the ancient Russian principalities. Intending to destroy Golden Horde, Tamerlane probably expected to inflict damage on her tributary - Rus'.

To Rus'

Mamai, defeated by Dmitry Donskoy, turned out to be not the last, nor the most terrible enemy of Rus'. In 1382, Moscow was burned by another Horde khan, Tokhtamysh, who again forced the Moscow prince to pay tribute. However, here the Iron Lame entered the political arena, whose plans did not include the revival of the power of the Golden Horde.

In 1388, Tamerlane dealt with the rebellious Khorezm city of Urgench, and two years later he sent his army towards Tokhtamysh. The confrontation between the rulers of the two empires lasted for five years, which was framed by the battles of 1390 and 1395, and in both of them Tamerlane crushed Tokhtamysh.

During the war with the Golden Horde, Tamerlane moved up the Volga and, according to historians, reached present-day Saratov. All along the way, the Horde lands were subjected to devastation and ruin. But did the Central Asian warrior have any intention of moving further into the heart of Russian lands?

Arab chronicles say that Tamerlane went further and invaded the Moscow principality. And he not only invaded, but also plundered Moscow. “There were whole packs of beavers, a countless number of black sables, so many ermines that you couldn’t count them,” the chronicler describes the spoils. The author was especially struck by Russian women, whom he compared to roses.

After the Moscow pogrom, according to an Arab source, the conqueror turned south, plundering cities along the way and destroying non-believers. The final destination of this campaign was the capital of the Horde, Sarai, the chronicler assures.

Historians cast great doubt on the words of the Arab writer, since there are no other sources confirming Tamerlane’s capture of Moscow. The commander really intended to reach the Russian capital, but he never got there, historians are sure.

God's will

Russian chroniclers have their own point of view on these events. They report that the formidable conqueror was stopped by the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which was brought to Moscow with a religious procession before the planned campaign of a huge Turkic army. The chronicle says that Tamerlane had a dream in which the Mother of God called on him to leave the Russian land. According to another version, Tamerlane went to Vladimir, but such a vision forced him to turn back.

There is also an Arab legend that says that the Islamic preacher Khizr appeared to Tamerlane and ordered him not to fight, but only to demonstrate his strength. According to legend, Tamerlane threw a two-year-old stallion into the city wall, and when the wall collapsed, the commander shouted so “that the soldiers lost their tongues from fear and a terrible pallor covered their entire faces.”

However, perhaps Arab sources talk about the siege of another Russian city - Yelets, which at that time was the outskirts of the Ryazan lands. Tamerlane's army of thousands easily captured the weakly defended fortress, after which it remained standing in place under the cold autumn rains. Only after two weeks had passed, Tamerlane decided to return the army to Samarkand.

Not for the sake of war

Historians still cannot find an unambiguous explanation for Tamerlane’s act, but they are almost sure that if he decided to go to Rus', the consequences for our state could be catastrophic. Considering the scope and power of Tamerlane’s empire, which was little inferior to the Golden Horde in its heyday, the “great emir” could gather an army of at least 200 thousand people. This is exactly how many, according to Tamerlane himself, took part in the campaign against the Golden Horde.

The Russian state, which had not yet recovered from the Mongol invasion and was mired in civil strife, actually did not have the strength to oppose anything to the armada of the Iron Lame. Tokhtamysh's campaign against Moscow in August 1382, during which the khan was able to ravage the central regions of the great reign without clashing with his united forces and then achieve the renewal of his dependence on the Golden Horde, confirmed the inability of the Russian state to resist large-scale aggression.

The Russian principalities did not threaten Tamerlane's empire in any way, and therefore the commander had no need to carry out punitive campaigns. The only thing he needed was funds to maintain an army of thousands. The Arab chronicler Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi describes the large booty taken by Tamerlane in the Russian lands, but does not report military operations against the local population, although the meaning of his “Book of Victories” (“Zafar-name”) is a description of the exploits of Tamerlane himself and the valor of his warriors .

It can be assumed that Tamerlane’s further campaign against Rus' would have been caused not by the desire to prove his military superiority, but by the intention to obtain rich booty. If the besieged city had not capitulated, the conqueror would probably have treated it as he did with the conquered Urgench - razed it to the ground, and planted the deserted place with barley. The townspeople would most likely have faced the sad fate of the inhabitants of Iranian Isfahan, some of whom were beheaded by Tamerlane’s soldiers, and the other part crushed to death by horses.

The main blow of Tamerlane’s army would have fallen on the rich lands of Moscow and Vladimir, but the rich jackpot in the form of Pskov and Novgorod would hardly have gone to the conqueror. The harsh climate, natural obstacles in the form of forests and swamps would have blocked the path of the Iron Lame army, just as half a century ago they had stopped the advance of the Mongol horde. As a result, the cities of North-Western Rus', given the weakened Principality of Moscow, would probably have quite quickly integrated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Shackled by a military campaign in China, Persia, India and Asia Minor, Tamerlane would hardly have kept significant forces in Russian lands. Sooner or later, the united princes would have repulsed the conqueror. Tamerlane was interested in the Great Silk Road, which passed through the southern territories of his empire. It was for the convenience of controlling rich caravans that he destroyed the northern branch of the Silk Road and redirected it through his lands. The greatness and wealth of Samarkand is the best evidence of the success of the commercial enterprise of the “great emir”.

Son of Dmitry Donskoy and Evdokia of Suzdal, Grand Duke Moscow 1389–1425

Vasily in the reign of Dmitry Donskoy

After the invasion of Tokhtamysh (1382), the Moscow prince again had to recognize himself as a tributary of the Horde. This was also prompted by betrayal of the all-Russian cause of the large neighboring principalities, Ryazan, Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod and Tver. Immediately after Tokhtamysh’s campaign, the son of Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Semyon, Boris Gorodetsky and Mikhail Tverskoy went to bow to the Horde. At the same time, the Tver prince renewed his requests that the Tatars give him the label for the great reign, taking it away from Moscow. To prevent his harassment, Dmitry Donskoy sent his eldest son Vasily to the Horde (1383), who thereby took his first prominent part in politics. The Khan left the great Vladimir table for the Moscow prince; however, he kept 12-year-old Vasily Dmitrievich with him, demanding 8,000 rubles in compensation for him.

Moscow, devastated by Tokhtamysh, had to pay a large tribute to the Tatars - the khan probably demanded payment for previous years. For this purpose, half a ruble was collected from each village. Young Vasily Dmitrievich was held in the Horde for two years, but then he managed to escape from there to the southwest of Rus', to Podolia. From Podolia, Vasily went to Wallachia, and then to Germany. In Lutsk, he met the later famous Vytautas, who, however, was not yet the prince of all Lithuania, but owned only the Grodno inheritance, spending time in constant struggle with the murderer of his father, Jagiello. Vitovt betrothed his daughter Sophia to Vasily. Vasily spent about two years traveling. It is not clear that his flight from the Horde brought any punishment from the khan to Moscow. IN last years Dmitry Ivanovich again began to maintain his reign independently of the Tatars and, it seems, limited himself to only a light tribute to them. Despite the devastation of Moscow by Tokhtamysh in 1382 (which happened more thanks to surprise), the Kulikovo victory did not pass without leaving a mark on the relations between Rus' and the Horde.

Beginning of the reign of Vasily I (1389)

In 1389, Dmitry Donskoy died at the age of 39, and 17-year-old Vasily I became the prince of Moscow. At the very beginning of the reign of Vasily I, he had some kind of disagreement with his cousin Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo. The latter left Moscow and with his boyars went to Serpukhov, and from there to Torzhok. But soon the agreement was restored and sealed by an agreement, according to which the uncle again recognized himself as the assistant to the Grand Duke, and Vasily I assigned Volok and Rzhev to Vladimir’s inheritance (which he later changed to Gorodets, Uglich, etc.). Then Vasily married Sofia, the daughter of Vitovt, who had been engaged to him several years ago. Whether this engagement was unpleasant to Dmitry Donskoy or for some other reason, only the marriage took place after his death. The grand ducal boyars went for the bride to the capital of the Prussian Order, Marienburg. In Moscow, the wedding of Vasily I and Sophia was performed by Metropolitan Cyprian (1390), who, after the death of Dmitry and his rival Pimen, who died in Constantinople, returned to the northern metropolis. Family ties between the Moscow princes and the Lithuanian house of Gediminas had existed before, but so far had not entailed important consequences. The marriage of Vasily I with Sophia at first also did not foretell anything special. Sofia's father was then away from his fatherland, continuing the fight with his cousin, Jagiel. Hardly anyone imagined that it was not Jagiello, but Vytautas, who would soon become the Grand Duke of Lithuania and turn out to be a dangerous neighbor for Moscow.

Annexation of Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow (1392)

Vasily almost immediately took an important step towards gathering North-Eastern Rus', annexing a large and rich Nizhny Novgorod. The Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince, father-in-law of Dmitry Donskoy and father of the mother of Vasily I, Dmitry Konstantinovich, died in 1383, darkening the end of his life with servility to the Tatars who ravaged Moscow. The sons and brother of Dmitry Konstantinovich raised a dispute in the Horde about the Nizhny Novgorod table. Tokhtamysh resolved the dispute in favor of Dmitry's brother, Boris Konstantinovich. In 1391, Vasily I went to the Horde to visit Tokhtamysh. He was not only confirmed by the khan in the dignity of the Grand Duke, but also sought a label for the reign of Nizhny Novgorod as the grandson of Dmitry Konstantinovich on his mother’s side. Tokhtamysh did not immediately agree to the petition of Vasily I. But the Moscow prince, as the chronicle puts it, smartened up royal advisers so that they would ask the khan for him. Tokhtamysh gave in and gave Vasily I a label for Nizhny Novgorod, Gorodets, Murom, Meshchera and Tarusa.

However, the transfer of these cities to Moscow took place not only “for bribes,” but also for more important reasons. Prince Boris, who settled in Nizhny Novgorod by the will of Tokhtamysh, was expelled from there in 1387 by his nephews - the sons of Dmitry Konstantinovich, Vasily Kirdyapa and Semyon. It was these two brothers-in-law of Dmitry Donskoy who in 1382 convinced Muscovites to voluntarily open the Kremlin to the Tatars of Tokhtamysh. Kirdyapa and Semyon falsely promised then that no harm would be done to the residents of Moscow, but the Tatars, having entered the city, killed more than 20 thousand people there. Leaving Nizhny in 1387, Boris prophesied to his nephews that they would cry because of their enemies. After a long litigation in the Horde, Boris again obtained from the Khan (1392) a label for Nizhny, and gave Suzdal to his nephews. However, immediately after this, Vasily I of Moscow appeared in the Horde, who convinced Tokhtamysh that the princely unrest in Nizhny would not stop and that only the transfer of the city to the power of a strong Moscow could put an end to it. Not only the money of Vasily I, but also the concern for maintaining order in the vassal “Russian ulus” prompted the khan to agree to this petition. Vasily I, as the grandson of Dmitry Konstantinovich on his mother’s side, also had considerable inheritance rights to Nizhny Novgorod.

When returning to Rus', the Grand Duke was accompanied by the royal ambassador with a Tatar detachment: he was supposed to introduce Vasily I to new possessions. But the Russian princes at that time were no longer so dependent on the khans that they would obediently cede their hereditary inheritances on a simple order. It was left to Vasily I himself to carry out the new Khan's label on the transfer of Nizhny to Moscow. He took measures for this in advance: the Moscow prince had already prepared a strong boyar party in Nizhny Novgorod in his favor. The Nizhny Novgorod boyars were tired of the strife between Boris and his nephews, and Vasily additionally influenced the boyars with promises of money and favors. Being the grandson of Dmitry Konstantinovich, Vasily I in the eyes of the people of Nizhny Novgorod was not so much an invader as a close relative of their princely house. The separation of Nizhny Novgorod from the great reign of Vladimir had not yet had time to take deep roots among the people; The memory of Alexander Nevsky, the ancestor of the princes of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, was still fresh. A significant part of the druzhina-boyar class preferred to serve the stronger Moscow prince; and the population hoped, under the protection of Vasily I, to receive more peace from the neighboring Tatars, Mordovians and the constant strife of their own princes.

Vasily I went to Moscow, and sent the Khan’s ambassador with his boyars to Nizhny. Hearing about this, Boris Konstantinovich gathered his boyars and squad and with tears reminded them of their recent oath to him. The eldest boyar, Vasily Rumyanets, assured the prince that they were all ready to lay down their heads for him, but meanwhile he himself had already transferred himself to Vasily’s side and was only trying to deceive Boris. When the Khan's ambassador with the Moscow boyars approached Nizhny, Boris did not want to let them into the city; but Rumyants presented them as ambassadors who came to reinforce the peace, and convinced the prince to accept the embassy. The Tatars and Muscovites entered the city. Citizens flocked to the meeting, and the ambassadors announced to them that the city was passing into the power of Vasily I of Moscow. In vain Boris called the boyars and his squad. “Mr. Prince, do not rely on us; We are no longer yours! - Blush told him. Boris and his few well-wishers among the boyars were taken into custody and sent to Moscow cities. Vasily I installed his governors in Nizhny (1392). The annexation of a large inheritance did not cost Moscow a drop of blood at first. Suzdal still remained in the possession of the Nizhny Novgorod princely branch, where Boris was released. Two years later he died. But his nephews, the sons of Dmitry Konstantinovich Vasily Kirdyapa and Semyon, who betrayed Moscow in 1382, stubbornly defended their hereditary rights to Nizhny Novgorod and could not be satisfied with the Suzdal inheritance alone, which they had to share with the sons of Boris Konstantinovich.

The struggle of Vasily I for Nizhny Novgorod with the princes of Suzdal

After the death of their uncle, Vasily Kirdyapa and Semyon went to the Horde to ask Tokhtamysh for help. But he himself soon lost his kingdom in the fight against Timur. Then the Suzdal princes began to seek help against Moscow from the Tatar rulers of Kama Bulgaria. One day Semyon Dmitrievich attacked Nizhny along with Tsarevich Yeytyak, who had a thousand Tatars. The governors of Vasily I who were sitting here fought off the besiegers for three days. The latter made peace and confirmed it with an oath, but then treacherously broke into the city and plundered it. Semyon Dmitrievich, who had previously helped Tokhtamysh to capture Moscow with a false oath, together with his brother, again justified himself by saying that it was not he who had broken the oath, but the Tatars. However, he could not hold out in Nizhny for more than two weeks, and fled from here, having heard about the campaign of the large Moscow army, under the command of Vasily I’s brother, Yuri Dmitrievich. This army followed Semyon's allies to their land, and avenged the sack of Nizhny with a pogrom of the Tatar cities of the Great Bolgars, Zhukotin, Kazan, Kermenchuk. For three months the army of Vasily I fought in Kama Bulgaria and returned with great booty (1399). Two years later, Moscow governors captured the wife and children of Semyon Dmitrievich, who were hiding in Mordovia. To help out his family, Semyon stopped running around the Tatar places, made peace with Vasily I and retired to Vyatka, where he soon died. “This prince,” the chronicle notes, “suffered a lot of misfortune and languor in the Horde and in Rus', seeking his patrimony; for eight years in a row he served four khans, raising an army against the Grand Duke of Moscow.” His brother Kirdyapa also made peace with Vasily I and temporarily received Gorodets from him, where he died.

With the death of these princes, however, the struggle for Nizhny did not end: it was continued by their cousins, the sons of Boris Konstantinovich - and with the help of the same Tatar rulers of Kama Bulgaria. Once they, together with the princes of Bulgaria and Zhukotin, defeated the brother of Vasily I, Peter Dmitrievich, near the Volga village of Lyskova (1411). Around the same time, the most restless of these brothers, Daniil Borisovich, sent his boyar Semyon Karamyshev and the Tatar prince Talych into exile against the city of Vladimir; they had one and a half hundred Tatars and the same number of Russians. Vladimir was poorly fortified at that time. At noon, when the citizens were falling asleep as usual, the Tatars, sneaking through the forest, suddenly appeared from behind the Klyazma. They plundered the settlement, and then burst into the city and rushed to the Assumption Cathedral to seize its jewelry. The Assumption sacristan, Patrick, a Greek by birth, locked the doors; he took as many expensive utensils as he could collect and hid it all in the upper secret chambers; then he went down, took away the stairs and began to pray in front of the image of the Virgin Mary. The enemies broke down the doors, tore the vestments from the icons and robbed everything they could, and they began to torture Patricius, interrogating where the rest of the treasures were hidden. They put him on a hot frying pan, hammered wood chips into his nails, tore off his skin, cut through his legs, threaded a rope through them and tied him to the horse's tail; but the courageous Patrick died without opening the secret passage. Having robbed the city, the enemies set it on fire and left with a large load and booty. The prisoners later said that the Tatar and Russian enemies of Vasily I captured so much booty in Vladimir that many clothes and things could not be taken away, they were piled up and burned, and the gold and silver were divided among themselves by measures. Daniil Borisovich soon captured Nizhny Novgorod. Vasily I managed to expel him from there only in 1417.

So, the bloodless acquisition of Nizhny Novgorod at the beginning later cost Vasily I a lot. Enmity and anxiety from the Suzdal princes continued almost until the end of Vasily’s reign. These princes retained Suzdal and, it seems, Gorodets. Vasily I, apparently, left local princes in Murom and Tarusa for the time being. Only Nizhny Novgorod he considered such an important point that he kept his governors there.

Timur and Tokhtamysh

Moscow and Lithuania were helped to collect Rus' brutal wars who marched between the Tatars in the era of Vasily I. Tokhtamysh, restored the unity of the Golden Horde, which had broken up under Mamai into two khanates - on this and that side of the Urals. But Tokhtamysh’s high opinion of his power prompted him to enter into a fight with the ruler of Central Asia, Timur (Tamerlane), to whom he owed his accession to Sarai. As a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, Tokhtamysh considered Timur a usurper who had no legal right to rule the former Jagatai ulus. He saw in Timur a second Mamai, hoping to overthrow him too. Tokhtamysh attacked the border lands of Timur. Timur in 1392 moved to Yaik, and from there to the Volga. In the Volga steppes he gave great battle The Golden Horde Khan, who also gathered large forces from the Tatars, Kama Bulgarians, Circassians, and Alans. In a stubborn battle, Timur gained the upper hand. The defeated Tokhtamysh escaped to the right side of the Volga, and his hordes covered the steppe with corpses at a distance of 200 miles. Tamerlane limited himself to plundering the Golden Horde and went back. After his removal, Tokhtamysh continued to rule in the Horde and soon recovered from his defeat. It is possible that it was these events that made it easier for Vasily I to receive a label for the reign of Nizhny Novgorod.

Timur. Reconstruction based on the skull of M. Gerasimov

Border clashes between Timur and Tokhtamysh continued. Three years later, Timur, who had already conquered all of Persia, crossed the Derbent Passage to the north from the Caucasus and met with Tokhtamysh off the banks of the Terek. In this second gigantic battle, the Tatars of Tokhtamysh had already upset the left wing of the enemy army and penetrated all the way to Timur, who barely escaped death. However, some of Tamerlane’s commanders managed to get behind the enemy’s rear, and Tokhtamysh, despairing of success, fled.

Threat of Timur's invasion of Rus' (1395)

This time Timur pursued him far to the north and brutally ravaged the Golden Horde, as far as the Volga in the east and the Dnieper in the west. Part of Timur's troops entered the south of the Ryazan principality. The city of Yelets with its entire population became their victim (1395).

The news of the approach of the terrible Timur threw Northern Russia into confusion. Vasily I hastened to gather the northern militia and, entrusting Moscow to his uncle Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, he himself stood with an army near Kolomna on the banks of the Oka, preparing to die or repel the invasion. The clergy and people fervently prayed for the aversion of disaster. At the request of Vasily I, Metropolitan Cyprian sent to Vladimir for the icon of the Mother of God, once brought by Andrei Bogolyubsky from Kyiv. The Metropolitan and Vladimir Andreevich and the people solemnly greeted this precious shrine outside the city walls; then they placed it in the Assumption Church. The retreat of Timur's Tatars, who soon went back to the south, was attributed to the intercession of the Mother of God. Upon returning to Moscow, Vasily I, in memory of the deliverance, built a temple in honor of the Mother of God and founded a monastery with it (Sretensky). Since then, the Russian Church has set the feast of the Presentation on August 26, the day the icon was brought to Moscow.

The autumn cold and bad weather, as well as the poverty of the country, greatly influenced Timur’s decision to stop the campaign to the north and turn south to Sea of ​​Azov. There he destroyed the rich Azov, a warehouse of Genoese and Venetian goods; defeated the Cherkesovs and Alans and headed to Georgia; but, having heard about the rebellion of the Astrakhan Tatars, in the middle of winter, he appeared before Astrakhan. The city was taken and destroyed. Having plundered the Golden Horde capital Sarai, Timur went back to Asia.

The blow dealt to the Horde was so severe that Vasily I could expect a quick end Tatar yoke. However, events soon showed that this hope was premature.

Capture of Smolensk by Vitovt (1395)

Meanwhile, Vasily I's father-in-law, Vytautas, obtained from the Polish king Jogaila a concession to himself the title of Grand Duke of Lithuania. Taking advantage of the weakening broken by Tamerlane Horde, Vitovt began to expand his state to the east and made a very important acquisition there: he captured Smolensk.

But Yuri Svyatoslavich remained free. His father-in-law Oleg Ryazansky stood up for his rights. In the war that followed, both sides invaded the borders of their neighbor and devastated them, but the odds tilted in favor of Lithuania. In this struggle, Vasily I also took the side of Vytautas from the old Moscow rivalry with the Ryazan princes. In 1396, he, together with Metropolitan Cyprian, personally came to Smolensk to meet his father-in-law, Vytautas, and celebrated Easter with him. Vasily I sent to dissuade Oleg from going to Lithuania and promised to reconcile him with Vytautas. In the autumn of the same year, Vitovt attacked the Ryazan land with large forces and left it to devastation; Moreover, “the Lithuanians put people in the streets and flogged them with swords.” Directly from the Ryazan land he visited Vasily I in Kolomna, where he feasted with him.

Vytautas' campaign against the Tatars and the Battle of Vorskla (1399)

Tamerlane, having defeated Tokhtamysh, gave the Golden Horde to one of the sons of his former rival, Urus Khan. The old Murza Edigei, who served for some time under Timur, began to overthrow and erect the Sarai khans and rule in their name. Soon he placed Tsarevich Timur Kutluy on the throne. Tokhtamysh with a large detachment of Tatars loyal to him fled to the Prince of Lithuania, father-in-law of Vasily I Vitovt. Vitovt decided to restore Tokhtamysh to the Horde throne and turn the Horde into a vassal state of Lithuania. When Kutluy demanded the extradition of Tokhtamysh, Vitovt announced crusade against him. Pope Boniface IX gave all participants in this campaign absolution from their sins. Up to fifty henchmen of the appanage princes of Lithuania united with Vitovt and Southwestern Rus', a significant Tatar detachment of Tokhtamysh and several hundred armored Teutonic knights. The army had cannons and squeaks. In July 1399, Vitovt set out to the southeast, hoping to outshine the thunder of the Battle of Kulikovo of Dmitry Donskoy with great deeds. Vasily I also contributed to Lithuania’s campaign against the Tatars: with the above-mentioned 1399 invasion of Volga Bulgaria, he drew back part of the Horde forces.

The seventy-thousand-strong Lithuanian army crossed the Dnieper and met the horde of Timur Kutlui on the banks of the Vorskla River. Edigei soon arrived with new forces to help Kutluy. Prudent people advised Vytautas to make peace due to the great superiority of the Tatars (who were said to number up to 200 thousand). But the ambitious prince ordered his army to leave the camp, fenced with carts with iron chains, cross Vorskla and begin the battle.

The battle broke out on August 12, 1399. The Tatars surrounded the Christian knights, killed their horses and forced them to defend themselves on foot. Clumsy, clumsy guns did little harm to the light Tatar cavalry, which quickly maneuvered. Vitovt pushed back Edigei, who was standing in front of him, but Timur Kutluy went to the rear of the Christians and decided the victory. Tokhtamysh and the Tatars were the first to flee; Vitovt followed him. Among those who fell on the battlefield were the Olgerdovichs Andrei Polotsky and Dmitry Koribut Bryansky (who bravely fought with Dmitry Donskoy against the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field) and Prince Gleb of Smolensk. The father-in-law of Vasily I did not match Dmitry Donskoy's military leadership abilities. The Tatars pursued those fleeing to Kyiv. Timur Kutluy took a large payback from this city, “3000 rubles, and even 30 rubles from the Pechora Monastery.” The barbarians devastated the Kyiv and Volyn regions all the way to Lutsk. Tokhtamysh died several years later in southern Siberia - according to some reports, at the hands of Edigei himself.

Attempt of the Ryazan people to recapture Smolensk from Lithuania (1401–1402)

The defeat at Vorskla, having temporarily weakened the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, forced Vitovt to abandon plans for new conquests in the border Moscow lands, which he cherished, despite his close relationship with Vasily I. The failure of Lithuania immediately affected the fate of the Smolensk reign.

The Smolensk people, burdened by the Lithuanian rule established in 1395, entered into relations with their natural-born prince Yuri Svyatoslavich, who lived in Ryazan with his father-in-law Oleg. In 1401, Oleg of Ryazan appeared near Smolensk and announced to the citizens that if they did not accept Yuri, he would ruin their city. Some Smolensk residents stood for Vitovt, others for Yuri. The latter side prevailed, and in August the Smolensk people opened the gates to Yuri, who immediately killed the main supporters of Vytautas. Oleg was going to take away from Lithuania its conquests in the region of the northerners and Vyatichi, related to the Ryazanians. Planning to strengthen himself with these conquests in order to compete with Vasily I of Moscow, Oleg sent his son Rodoslav to capture Bryansk. But Vitovt sent an army against the Ryazanians under the command of Olgerd’s son, Simeon Lugven, and the prince of Starodubsky, Alexander Patrikievich. Near Lyubutsk the Ryazan people suffered a severe defeat (1402). Rodoslav was captured and then languished in prison for three years. The elderly Oleg could not bear this heavy blow and died.

Vytautas reoccupies Smolensk (1404)

Vasily I benefited from the failure of Moscow's rivals, the Ryazans. In the spring of 1404, Vitovt besieged Prince Yuri in Smolensk. The Lithuanian party there was now strengthened due to outrage at Yuri's cruelty. The latter began to ask Moscow for help against Lithuania. Arriving in Moscow, Yuri begged Vasily I to defend him from Lithuania, promising to be his faithful assistant. Vasily hesitated and hesitated to raise arms against his father-in-law. Probably, the energetic Sofya Vitovtovna also had a strong influence on him. Vitovt took advantage of Vasily I’s hesitation and Yuri’s absence, again approached Smolensk, and the boyars surrendered the city to him in the summer of the same 1404. He also partly executed and partly expelled many of his opponents, but tried to attract residents with various benefits and turn them away from Yuri. The news of the capture of Smolensk aroused indignation in Moscow, which fell on Yuri. He hastened to leave Vasily I for Novgorod, where he received control of several cities.

Vasily I and Sophia Vitovtovna (drawing on the sakkos of Metropolitan Photius)

War of Vasily I with Vytautas (1406–1408)

In these events, the main concern of Vasily I was to prevent the strengthening of Ryazan, which was dangerous for Moscow. Therefore, he partly contributed to the return of Smolensk to Vitovt. However, this policy of Vasily soon gave the opposite result: Vitovt, who had recovered from the defeat at Vorskla, himself became a rival of Moscow and in his claims to rule over the Novgorod-Pskov lands. Already in 1405, Vitovt attacked the Pskov region, took the city of Kolozhe, beat and captured many people. The Novgorodians, as usual, either did not get to Pskov in time with their help or completely refused it. The Pskovites turned to the Grand Duke of Moscow. Vasily I finally realized the danger that threatened from Lithuania, broke the peace with his father-in-law and sent regiments to fight the neighboring Lithuanian lands. For three years (1406-1408) the war between father-in-law and son-in-law was renewed annually. Three times Vasily I and Vytautas attacked each other with a large army, but each time they avoided a decisive battle and dispersed. Their last meeting took place in September 1408 on the Ugra River, which formed the border of their possessions. Having stood against each other, the two great princes made peace, according to which each remained with what he had. Vitovt after that did not make more serious attempts either against Moscow, or against Novgorod and Pskov. During this war, Vasily I, although he did not make any acquisitions, kept Vytautas from further seizures in the north and east of Rus'.

Svidrigailo

The war had other consequences. Many noble Russians and Lithuanians, dissatisfied with Vytautas, took advantage of his break with Moscow and sought refuge with Vasily I. There were especially many people from the Chernigov and Seversk regions. Among them, the native brother of the Polish king Jagiello (and cousin of Vytautas), the appanage Seversky prince Svidrigailo Olgerdovich, came to Vasily I (in 1408), who claimed to depose Vytautas from the great reign of Lithuania and occupy it himself. Vasily I gave Svidrigail several important cities to feed, namely Vladimir, Pereyaslavl, Yuryev, Volok Lamsky, Rzhev and half of Kolomna. Such generosity towards a foreigner aroused the displeasure of the Northern Russians, especially since during the subsequent invasion of Edigei, Svidrigailo, instead of the brave defense expected of him, shamefully fled back to Lithuania, robbing Serpukhov on the road. Maybe he, having been deceived in his calculations about the breadth of help from Vasily I against Vytautas, thus revealed his displeasure with the Moscow prince. In Lithuania, Svidrigailo was captured and taken into custody in the city of Kremenets.

The fate of Yuri Smolensky

Yuri Svyatoslavich Smolensky did not stay long in Novgorod, and when Vasily I broke up with Vytautas, he again appeared in Moscow along with the former appanage prince Semyon of Vyazemsky. Vasily I gave them Torzhok to feed, but then the violent temper of the former Smolensk prince led him to a heinous crime. He was inflamed with passion for the beautiful Juliana, the wife of his comrade Semyon Vyazemsky. Having met decisive resistance from the virtuous Juliana, he killed her and her husband. This aroused general indignation against Yuri. Having left Torzhok, after several months of wandering, he took refuge in one of the Ryazan monasteries, and here he soon ended his life.

Relations between Moscow and Novgorod under Vasily I

During the reign of Vasily I, relations between Moscow and Novgorod were also difficult. During the “turmoil on the metropolitan throne” at the end of the reign of Vasily’s father, Dmitry Donskoy, the Novgorodians almost ceased to recognize the supreme power of Moscow - both in the secular and ecclesiastical sense. The Novgorod veche in 1384 decided not to give the metropolitan the right to come to Novgorod with the Supreme Church Court, not to go to him for such a court and to Moscow, but to grant it to the Novgorod archbishop himself. The Novgorod mayors and the thousand, according to this veche resolution, were supposed to administer civil courts without regard to Moscow. In this sense, the “final charter” was written, to which the veche swore an oath.

Novgorod stopped paying Moscow the “black forest” (grand ducal tribute). Novgorod freemen plundered Moscow lands. Dmitry Donskoy in 1386 undertook a large campaign against Novgorod and forced the resumption of payments to the “black forest”, but the issue of metropolitan courts was never resolved. It rose again under Vasily I, when Cyprian, who restored the unity of the metropolis, established himself in Moscow. In the winter of 1391 Cyprian arrived in Novgorod. Archbishop John, the clergy and people met the metropolitan there with honors. But when Cyprian demanded that the Novgorodians destroy the final document and give him the supreme metropolitan court, he received a decisive refusal.

“We have already kissed the cross to stand on this as one person,” answered the Novgorodians.”

“Give me the letter,” said Cyprian, “I will remove the kiss of the cross from you and forgive you.”

But the citizens stood their ground. After a two-week stay, the Metropolitan angrily left Novgorod and imposed excommunication on him.

War of Vasily I with Novgorod in 1393

The Novgorodians sent an embassy to Constantinople to Patriarch Anthony with a complaint about this excommunication and a request to approve their decision. They say that the ambassadors threatened the patriarch that if he refused, the Novgorodians would convert to Latinism. However, Anthony knew that this threat came from the boyar party alone and was not serious in view of the people's devotion to Orthodoxy - and he rejected the requests. In 1393, the ambassadors of Vasily I came to Novgorod and, together with the black forest, demanded the issuance of a charter about the church court. The Novgorodians continued to persist and started a war with Moscow. But when the army of Vasily I, having captured Torzhok, began to devastate the Novgorod possessions, the veche again agreed to the black forest, sent the controversial letter to the metropolitan and paid him another 350 rubles for lifting the excommunication.

War of Vasily I with Novgorod 1397–1398

This success incited Vasily I to launch an attack on Novgorod from the other side. The Dvina land or Zavolochye has long attracted Moscow. Its possessions from the Belaozero side under Vasily I cut like a wedge between Zavolochye and the Novgorod region itself. In cases of quarrels between Novgorod and Moscow, its relations with the Dvina colonies almost always suffered; Moscow detachments ravaged and plundered the Dvina churchyards. Oleg Ryazansky Novgorod Finally, they themselves began to be burdened by Novgorod rule, tribute, and oppression of the elders appointed from Novgorod. The same thing was repeated here as in Pskov: some of the local boyars and merchants began to think about Dvina independence, about the overthrow of Novgorod rule, finding in this support from Vasily I. The struggle of parties, seething in Novgorod itself, was reflected in its colonies: those who were dissatisfied were often left Novgorod for Zavolochye. Vasily I decided to take advantage of this and repeat the method by which he had recently taken possession of the Nizhny Novgorod reign. With bribes and promises of benefits, he persuaded many wealthy Zavolochans to abandon Novgorod and succumb to Moscow. In 1397, the Dvinians kissed the cross of Vasily I. The main accomplices of the Muscovites in this matter were the Dvina boyars Ivan Nikitin and his brothers Anfal, Gerasim and Rodion. The Novgorod mayors or governors themselves, Ivan and Konon, betrayed Novgorod and went over to the side of Moscow. These traitors captured and divided among themselves many lands that belonged to Novgorod, its boyars and even the archbishop. In the next 1398, Vasily I gave the entire Dvina land a new charter, which granted the Dvinians almost duty-free trade in Moscow possessions. He sent Prince Fyodor of Rostov here as governor. Vasily I did not limit himself to Zavolochye alone: ​​the Moscow army captured other places: Volok Lamsky, Torzhok, Vologda and Bezhetsky Verkh. Only after the occupation of these suburbs did Vasily I send a declaration of war to Novgorod, citing unimportant border clashes.

Novgorod tried to enter into negotiations and sent an embassy to Moscow with Bishop John at its head, with a request to return the volosts. When this embassy returned from Vasily I without success, the Novgorodians showed strong military enthusiasm, aroused by the boyars, who were threatened by the loss of lands beyond Volok. They kissed the cross at the veche to be all at one. Archbishop John B. Vasily I and Sophia Vitovtov blessed the army of Novgorod, which set out on a campaign against the detachments of Vasily I and the Dvinians. First, she attacked the Belozersk region of the Grand Duke. The Novgorodians burned old Belozersk, and took the payback from the New Town; then the Kubensky volosts and the outskirts of Vologda fought and besieged Ustyug. Their troops ravaged the lands of Vasily I almost all the way to Galich Mersky. They took so many captives that their ships could not lift all the prisoners; Therefore, some of them were released for ransom, and some were abandoned on the road. The Novgorod army besieged Ustyug. The Dvinians began to ask for mercy and received it by betraying their leaders. The governor, Prince Fyodor of Rostov, who was placed here by Vasily I, was released by the Novgorodians, having only taken away from him all the duties that he managed to collect from the Dvina land. The Novgorodians executed their former posadniks, allies of Vasily I, Ivan and Konon, and sent Ivan Nikitin and his three brothers to Novgorod for trial. They took 300 rubles as payback from the Moscow guests, and 2,000 rubles and 3,000 horses from the Orelets Dvinians. In the winter of the same 1398, the army safely returned to Novgorod. Here the eldest of the Nikitin brothers, Ivan, was overthrown from the Volkhov Bridge; Gerasim and Rodion begged for mercy, promising to take haircuts; Anfal fled.

Vasily I did not expect to meet such energetic resistance, and, relying on the resources of the Dvinians themselves, he did not send an army to help them. He agreed to peace, returned all the captured cities to Novgorod and removed his governors from them.

However, the troubles in Zavolochye did not end there. The above-mentioned Dvina boyar Anfal, who escaped, was already in next year again raised a rebellion against Novgorod, plundered and destroyed the estates of the boyars of the opposing party with the military help of Vasily I. However, this time the Dvina boyars themselves, remaining loyal to Novgorod, pacified the Anfal rebellion. A similar incident was repeated in 1417: two boyars who left Novgorod, Zhadovsky and Razsokhin, again with the support of Vasily I, gathered freemen in Vyatka and Ustyug, and, going down the Dvina, began to rob and burn the riverine volosts. But the Dvina boyars scattered the robbers this time too. After the rebellion of 1398, ties between Novgorod and Zavolochye became stronger, to the displeasure of Vasily I. The Novgorodians valued this region, which provided the main object of their trade - fur-bearing animals, and took care to strengthen it for themselves with benefits, strengthening colonization and sending governors with sufficient squads. The region became so strong that it itself repelled the Swedes and Norwegians who sailed to the Dvina by the White Sea in 1419 and 1446. In the same 1446, the Dvina governors went east to pacify Ugra, which did not want to pay tribute.

Throughout the reign of Vasily I, Novgorod fluctuated between Moscow and Lithuania. The Novgorodians kept the governors of Vasily I, but did not find it difficult to accept various exiled princes from time to time and give them suburbs to feed. So the Litvins Patricy Narimuntovich and Semyon Lugveny Olgerdovich lived with them, then the famous Yuri Svyatoslavich, expelled from Smolensk by Vitovt, then his son Fedor. Because of the latter, Jagiello and Vytautas threatened the Novgorodians with war (1412), reproaching them for refusing to go with Lithuania to the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 with the Germans. This last reproach shows that Lithuania was trying to turn Novgorod into its own, and not Moscow’s henchman. The situation on the western borders of Moscow under Vasily I was difficult, and his relationship with Vytautas did not alleviate the difficulties.

Invasion of Edigei (1408)

Troubles in the Golden Horde encouraged Vasily I to achieve complete independence from it. He almost stopped paying tribute, under the pretext of popular poverty, and completely stopped going to Sarai. Vasily I was not there either under Temir Kutluy or during the entire eight-year reign of Shadibek. Meanwhile, during its war with Vytautas, Moscow received an army to help from the khan. And when Edigei elevated Kutluev’s son Bulat Bey to the place of Shadibek, Vasily I did not go to bow to the new khan, and also gave refuge to his rivals, the two sons of Tokhtamysh. This bolder policy in relation to the Horde was in connection with the change of persons at the Moscow court. The old boyars, associates of Dmitry Donskoy, died or lost influence; Vasily I surrounded himself with young and less experienced boyars. From childhood they were imbued with the glory of the Kulikovo victory and neglected the Tatar power. At the head of this party of young boyars was the favorite of Vasily I - Ivan Fedorovich, the son of the founder of the Romanov family, Fyodor Koshka.

But the khans did not at all think of abandoning their claims to Rus', especially since other princes, Tver, Ryazan, Suzdal, continued to travel to the Horde. Edigei helped Vasily I against Vytautas in order to weaken the forces of both rivals. When they made peace, the Tatars planned to return Vasily I to dependence on the Horde with a crushing blow. Like Tokhtamysh, Edigei decided to act with a sudden raid. Knowing that Vasily I in the Horde itself had bribed well-wishers who would notify him of preparations for the campaign, Edigei resorted to a trick. He announced that he was going to fight Lithuania, and sent a messenger to Vasily I, informing him that Khan Bulat was going against Vytautas to take revenge on him for his insults to Moscow. The letter only required Vasily to send one of his brothers or noble boyars to the khan with an expression of respect. The Grand Duke sent a certain boyar Yuri, who met Edigei on a campaign and was immediately taken into custody, so that he could not notify his prince of anything (winter 1408). The Tatars were already approaching Moscow when Vasily I found out about this. There was no time to gather the army anymore. Vasily with his wife and children took refuge in Kostroma, and entrusted the capital to his uncle Vladimir Andreevich the Brave and two brothers, Andrei and Peter. To complicate the siege, the authorities immediately ordered the burning of the settlements. Citizens, having given up caring about their property, thought only about their own salvation. From the suburbs and surrounding villages, some of the residents scattered in flight, while others crowded at the city gates, seeking refuge within the city walls. The mob, as usual, took advantage of the disorder and indulged in robbery.

On December 1, the Tatar army appeared. Seeing that the Muscovites were not ready to resist in the field, Edigei disbanded troops to burn and plunder Moscow cities and volosts. Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Dmitrov, Serpukhov, Nizhny and Gorodets were devastated. The Tatars scoured the Moscow land like predatory wolves and took thousands of prisoners, so that, according to the Russian chronicle, sometimes one Tatar drove in front of him about forty prisoners, tied up in a pack like dogs. In pursuit of Vasily I, Edigei dispatched Tsarevich Begiberdei with an army of thirty thousand. But it did not have time to catch up with the prince. Meanwhile, the elderly Vladimir the Brave, left by Vasily I in Moscow, managed to restore order in the capital and organize a defense. Solid walls, equipped with cannons, arquebuses and stone-throwing machines, provided reliable protection. They defended themselves with numerous warriors, for their number was increased by the people who had come running.

Edigei settled in the village of Kolomenskoye and led the siege from there. He sent an order to Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Tverskoy to rush to him with his militia. But Ivan acted quite cleverly. He set out on a campaign with a small squad, walked slowly, reached Klin, and from here, under the pretext of illness, turned back. Knowing that famine would inevitably come in the capital, Edigei announced to Vasily I that he would stand at least all winter. But suddenly a messenger from Khan Bulat galloped from Sarai, who asked Edigei to hurry to the Horde, where he was almost overthrown by one of his rivals. Obviously, the Kipchak Khanate was already so depleted of strength that, upon leaving for Moscow, there was no one to protect Sarai from some rebellious prince. And Vasily I was not idle: he gathered the northern army to help the capital. Edigei demanded 3,000 rubles in monetary compensation from the Muscovites for his retreat. Moscow knew nothing about his difficulties in the Horde and paid this amount. Edigei hastily left Russia, burdened with a huge load. This invasion cost Vasily I and Rus' dearly: from the Don to Beloozero and Galich, the country was devastated. Many residents who escaped Tatar captivity in the forests and wilds died there from hunger and cold.

After his invasion, Edigei sent Vasily I a letter with a calculation of his wines: Vasily I accepted the sons of Tokhtamysh; mocked the royal ambassadors; refused to personally appear in the Horde and send his boyars there. “Before,” writes Edigei, “you had a boyar, Fyodor (Cat), who was kind to the Horde; and now your favorite is his son Ivan. And you wouldn’t listen to young people, but listen to the oldest boyars, and then your state wouldn’t go bankrupt. When someone offends you, from the Russian princes or from Lithuania, you ask us for help. And he wrote about his ulus that it was impoverished and there was no way out. And it was all you who lied. We heard that you collect a ruble from two plows. If everything had been as before, then this evil would not have been done to your ulus, and your Christians would have remained intact.”

Moscow and the Horde at the end of the reign of Vasily I

But even after Edigeev’s invasion, Vasily I was in no hurry to recognize himself as a Tatar tributary. Only when Edigei himself was expelled from Sarai and Tokhtamysh’s son Dzhelaledin Sultan, Vitovt’s ally and patron of the Suzdal princes who were at enmity with Vasily I, reigned there, did the latter decide to personally go to the Horde with gifts. During his stay there, Dzhelaledin was killed by his own brother Kerimberdey (1414), who, on the contrary, was an enemy of Vytautas and a friend of Vasily. Vasily I's tributary relations with the Horde resumed, although Kerimberdey was soon overthrown by his own brother, and the Horde unrest did not stop.

Russian Church in the era of Vasily I

The church events of the second half of the reign of Vasily I were also important. They were closely related to the rivalry between Moscow and Lithuania. Vytautas with even greater energy pursued the policy of his predecessors to oppose the ecclesiastical subordination of Southern and Western Rus' to the Metropolitan of Moscow. Neither the Galician-Volyn kings nor the Grand Dukes of Lithuania accepted the transfer of the metropolitan capital from Kyiv to Moscow. They tried to return her to Kyiv or get a separate metropolitan for their regions. Because of this, in the 14th century the joint appearance of two or three Russian metropolitans was repeated more than once. At the beginning of the reign of Vasily I, Cyprian, who outlived his Moscow rivals (Mitya and Pimen), again united the Eastern and Western Russian churches under one head. Although he was also in Moscow, he knew how to retain Vytautas’s favor. Cyprian often visited the Western Russian flock under Lithuanian rule, stayed there for a long time, went on dates with Vytautas and even Polish king Jagiel. Lately Cyprian spent his life mainly in the village of Golenishchevo near Moscow, where he indulged in translations and writings. Here he died on September 16, 1406.

At that time, the long peaceful relationship between Vasily I and Vytautas had already broken down. A war began between them, and Vytautas began to openly petition in Constantinople for a separate Lithuanian-Russian metropolis, proposing Bishop Theodosius of Polotsk as a candidate for the Kyiv See. The Patriarch rejected this proposal and appointed the Morean Greek Photius as Cyprian's successor to Moscow (in 1408). He was not as skilled a diplomat as his predecessor. He arrived to Vasily I only in 1410 and initially devoted most of his attention to the organization of the metropolitan house, many of whose villages and lands were devastated during the Edigeev invasion or captured by the boyars. With his zealous concern for the return of the stolen property, Photius made himself ill-wishers at the court of Vasily I, and during his trips to Western Rus' and there he turned many against himself through extortions. Vytautas decided to take advantage of the displeasure of the Western Russian clergy towards Photius and established a separate metropolitanate.

Vitovt’s choice fell on Gregory Samvlak (or Tsamblak, actually Semivlakh), who arrived from Bulgaria or Moldovan-Wallachia, distinguished by his learning and bookishness, like Cyprian (according to some news, he was even the latter’s nephew). The Byzantine emperor and patriarch again refused to approve the division of the Russian Metropolis. This refusal is all the more understandable because around that time the son and co-ruler of Emperor Manuel Palaeologus, John, married Anna Vasilievna, daughter of Vasily I of Moscow. Vytautas then followed the example of the ancient Russian great princes, Yaroslav I and Izyaslav II, as well as the Serbs and Bulgarians: he gathered a synod of Western Russian bishops in Novogorodka of Lithuania and persuaded them to conciliarly install Gregory on the Kiev-Lithuanian metropolitanate (1415?). Vitovt complained that the emperor and the patriarch were supplying Russian metropolitans “for a bribe”; spoke about the thefts of the “protégé of Vasily I,” Photius. The bishops issued a conciliar letter in which they justified the defection from Photius, although they confirmed their unity with the Greek Church. Supported by Vasily I, Photius responded with a district message to his flock, where, on the basis of church canons, he protested against the division of the Russian Church. Photius wrote messages to Kyiv and Pskov (which Lithuania was winning over to its side) in which he threatened with excommunication anyone who accepted Gregory’s blessing.

It is possible that Vytautas had another thought when electing Samvlak: being a Catholic himself, he wanted to please the pope and lay the foundation for an ecclesiastical union between the Western Russian Church and the Roman Church. They say that this plan was developed during the patriarchate of Cyprian, and the latter did not show strong resistance to it. During the election of Tsamblak, the famous Council of Constance took place. Vitovt ordered Tsamblak to go there with Western Russian bishops and boyars. But Tsamblak turned out to be a zealous champion of Orthodoxy and, according to the chronicles, even tried to convert Vytautas from Latin to Orthodoxy. It is not known how reliable this chronicle news is, but, probably, precisely because of his zeal for Orthodoxy and the displeasure of the population at the division of the Russian Church, Tsamblak soon left the Western Russian metropolis (1419). Vytautas no longer bothered about choosing a successor for him, but made peace with Vasily I and Photius. The unity of the Russian Church was restored for a time.

Articles and books about Vasily I

Article "Vasily I" in Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus-Efron (author – E. Belov)

Article “Vasily I Dmitrievich” in the book by K. Ryzhov “All the monarchs of the world. Russia". M., 1998

D. Ilovaisky. Collectors of Rus'. M., 1996. Chapter “Vasily of Moscow and Vitovt of Lithuania”

The history of the war between Emir Timur (Tamerlane) and the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh has been quite well studied. Much less is known about one of its important episodes associated with the military expedition to the Dnieper.

This was already the third war between the rulers of the two most powerful states of that time. In 1391, Tamerlane had already defeated Tokhtamysh in the battle on the Kondurcha River, but a few years later the Golden Horde Khan managed to restore the combat capability of his army and again challenge the great conqueror. The two Turkic empires had little space in the Eurasian expanses. One of the states had to die.

In addition to the problems between states, there was also the problem of personal relationships between the two Turks. The fact is that Tokhtamysh was a khan from the Chingizid family, who had ruled the Golden Horde for almost a century and a half. As for Timur, he was just an emir who began his career as a mercenary for the Central Asian beys and paved the way to power with the sword. Obviously, to bend the knee before Timur, according to the concepts of the Golden Horde, was unworthy for their khan.

Timur's military operations in 1395 were somewhat reminiscent of the famous raid on Khazaria by the Arab commander Muhammad ibn Marwan in 737. Then the Arabs, having passed through Transcaucasia, defeated the Khazar army in the North Caucasus and began to pursue it, occupying territories in the basin of the Don, Seversky Donets and Lower Volga rivers.

The situation was similar during the campaign of 1395. Just like Marwan’s army, Timur’s troops marched in two columns: through Georgia and along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The decisive battle took place in April. Three days later, on the Terek River, the Golden Horde army of Tokhtamysh suffered a crushing defeat. One of its reasons, according to the Arab historian Ibn Arabshah, was discord among the command of the army of the Golden Horde. The khan's attempts to establish interaction and control of the troops were unsuccessful. The “Genealogy of the Turks” clearly states that “this defeat went to Toktamysh Khan due to the inclination of his great emirs towards Timur Gurgan.” Immediately after the result of the battle became obvious, Tokhtamysh and a group of supporters fled to the north.

Unlike the campaign of 1391, when, after the victory at Kondurch, Timur did not pursue the Golden Horde Khan, this time the emir set a more ambitious goal - the complete defeat of the Ulus of Jochi, turning it into a weak and completely dependent state. Before the start of the campaign, Timur carried out a total mobilization in his state, concentrating almost all the forces at his disposal in the direction of the main attack. At the same time, he left most of the empire unprotected.

After the victory in the Battle of Terek, the emir sent part of his troops to Samarkand to protect the capital from a possible attack by Timur's many enemies. The remaining armies followed in the footsteps of Tokhtamysh. According to I. Mirgaleev, at the very end of the battle, Tokhtamysh held a meeting of his emirs, at which a retreat plan was developed. According to this plan, one of the commanders of the Golden Horde, Udurk, with part of the army retreated to the Caucasus mountains to cut off the supply routes to Timur’s troops. This forced the Central Asian commander to go back and defeat Udurk.

The remnants of Tokhtamysh's armies went to the Dnieper and Crimea. As for the khan himself, he disappeared with a small part of the army into the “wooded area” in the north.

Timur moved to the Don, then his troops turned towards the Dnieper. “Heading against the right wing of the ulus of Jochi Khan, he (Timur) moved into that boundless steppe to the Uzi (Dnieper) River and appointed Emir Osman to the guard detachment, who, taking guides, bravely set off on the road. Having reached the Uzi River, in the area of ​​​​Mankerman (Kiev) he robbed Bek-Yaryk-oglan and some of the people of the Uzbek ulus who were there and conquered most of them, so that only a few, and even with only one horse, were able to escape... Turning from the Uzi River, Timur happily headed towards the Russians,” reports Sharaf ad-din Yezdi.

Bek-Yaryk-oglan was the emir of the western ulus of the Golden Horde, who had serious economic and human resources at his disposal. The destruction of these resources was the main goal of Timur's campaign.

After the Battle of Blue Waters (1362), the Principality of Kiev was in the zone of influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, there is no need to talk about complete control of the Lithuanians over this territory. According to B. Cherkas, in the 90s of the 14th century, in the steppe zone between the Dnieper and Vorskla there was a Mankerman (Kiev) ulus, which Kyiv itself was not part of.

The raid of Timur's army on the Dnieper region was short-lived and was in the nature of a demonstration of force in relation to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, whose army was in full readiness in Smolensk.

Having dealt with Bek-Yaryk-oglan, Timur moved further north. Perhaps initially his plans included the destruction of all the principalities of north-eastern Rus', primarily the most powerful of them - the Grand Duchy of Moscow. But having reached the lands of the Ryazan principality and defeated the city of Yelets, Timur unexpectedly turned his army back. Moving south, the horde swept away a number of the most important economic and political centers, including the capital of the Ulus of Jochi - Sarai.

There were several reasons that prompted the emir to abandon the war with Moscow. Timur knew well that his troops would have to wage war in a wooded area, with an already mobilized enemy, having in the rear the Lithuanian army of Vytautas, at that time an ally of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily. In addition, after the capture of Yelets, it became clear that the population of the region was too poor, tortured by extortions and numerous wars. His robbery was a futile endeavor. And finally, the main factor that prompted Timur to abandon the campaign was that Lithuania and Moscow themselves posed a serious danger to the Golden Horde.

Almost immediately after Timur left, Tokhtamysh’s state plunged into the abyss of civil strife. Lithuania and Moscow tried to take advantage of this. But in the Battle of Vorskla (1399), the Lithuanian prince Vytautas suffered a crushing defeat from Tamerlane’s protege, Khan Timur Kutlug. This event prolonged the agony of Ulus Jochi for a whole century.

Tamerlane returned from the Eastern European campaign in triumph. New battles and great conquests awaited him ahead.

Other materials from the “History of Islam in Ukraine” series can be found at.

Alexander Stepanchenko specially for “Islam in Ukraine”

The full name of the great conqueror of antiquity, who will be discussed in our article, is Timur ibn Taragai Barlas, but in literature he is often referred to as Tamerlane, or the Iron Lame. It should be clarified that he was nicknamed Iron not only for his personal qualities, but also because this is how his name Timur is translated from the Turkic language. The lameness was the result of a wound received in one of the battles. There is reason to believe that this mysterious commander of the past is involved in great blood which spilled in the 20th century.

Who is Tamerlan and where is he from?

First, a few words about the childhood of the future Great Khan. It is known that Timur-Tamerlane was born on April 9, 1336 on the territory of the current Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz, which at that time was a small village called Khoja-Ilgar. His father, a local landowner from the Barlas tribe, Muhammad Taragai, professed Islam, and raised his son in this faith.

Following the customs of those times, from early childhood he taught the boy the basics of military art - horse riding, archery and javelin throwing. As a result, barely reaching maturity, he was already an experienced warrior. It was then that the future conqueror Tamerlane received invaluable knowledge.

The biography of this man, or rather, that part of it that has become the property of history, begins with the fact that in his youth he gained the favor of Khan Tughlik - the ruler of the Chagatai ulus, one of Mongolian states, on whose territory the future commander was born.

Appreciating Timur's fighting qualities, as well as his extraordinary mind, he brought him closer to the court, making him his son's tutor. However, the prince’s entourage, fearing his rise, began to build intrigues against him, and as a result, fearing for his life, the newly-minted teacher was forced to flee.

Leading a squad of mercenaries

The years of Tamerlane's life coincided with the historical period when it was a continuous theater of military operations. Fragmented into many states, it was constantly torn apart by civil strife among local khans, who were constantly trying to seize neighboring lands. The situation was aggravated by countless robber gangs - jete, who did not recognize any authority and lived exclusively by robberies.

In this environment, the failed teacher Timur-Tamerlane found his true calling. Having united several dozen ghulams - professional mercenary warriors - he created a detachment that, in its fighting qualities and cruelty, surpassed all other surrounding gangs.

First conquests

Together with his thugs, the newly-minted commander made daring raids on cities and villages. It is known that in 1362 he stormed several fortresses that belonged to the Sarbadars - participants in the popular movement against Mongol rule. Having captured them, he ordered the surviving defenders to be walled up in the walls. This was an act of intimidation to all future opponents, and such cruelty became one of the main traits of his character. Very soon the whole East learned about who Tamerlane was.

It was then that in one of the battles he lost two fingers of his right hand and was seriously wounded in the leg. Its consequences lasted until the end of his life and served as the basis for the nickname - Timur the Lame. However, this did not prevent him from becoming a figure who played in the last quarter of the 14th century significant role in the history of not only Central, Western and South Asia, but also the Caucasus and Rus'.

His military talent and extraordinary audacity helped Tamerlane conquer the entire territory of Fergana, subjugating Samarkand and making the city of Ket the capital of the newly formed state. Further, his army rushed to the territory belonging to present-day Afghanistan, and, having ravaged it, stormed the ancient capital of Balkh, whose emir, Huseyn, was immediately hanged. Most of the courtiers shared his fate.

Cruelty as a weapon of intimidation

The next direction of attack of his cavalry was the cities of Isfahan and Fars, located south of Balkh, where the last representatives of the Persian Muzaffarid dynasty ruled. The first on his way was Isfahan. Having captured it and given it to his mercenaries for plunder, Timur the Lame ordered the heads of the dead to be placed in a pyramid, the height of which exceeded the height of a person. This was a continuation of his constant tactics of intimidating his opponents.

It is characteristic that the entire subsequent history of Tamerlane, the conqueror and commander, was marked by manifestations of extreme cruelty. It can be partly explained by the fact that he himself became a hostage to his own politics. Leading a highly professional army, the Lame had to regularly pay his mercenaries, otherwise their scimitars would turn against him. This forced us to achieve new victories and conquests by any means available.

The beginning of the fight against the Golden Horde

In the early 80s, the next stage in Tamerlane’s ascent was the conquest of the Golden Horde, or, in other words, the Dzhuchiev ulus. From time immemorial, it was dominated by the Euro-Asian steppe culture with its religion of polytheism, which had nothing in common with Islam, professed by the majority of its warriors. That's why fighting, which began in 1383, became a clash not only of opposing armies, but also of two different cultures.

Ordynsky, the same one who made a campaign against Moscow in 1382, wanting to get ahead of his enemy and strike first, undertook a campaign against Kharezm. Having achieved temporary success, he also captured a significant territory of what is now Azerbaijan, but soon his troops were forced to retreat, suffering significant losses.

In 1385, taking advantage of the fact that Timur and his hordes were in Persia, he tried again, but this time he failed. Having learned about the invasion of the Horde, the formidable commander urgently returned his troops to Central Asia and completely defeated the enemy, forcing Tokhtamysh himself to flee to Western Siberia.

Continuing the fight against the Tatars

However, the conquest of the Golden Horde was not yet completed. Its final defeat was preceded by five years filled with incessant military campaigns and bloodshed. It is known that in 1389 the Horde khan even managed to insist that Russian squads support him in the war with Muslims.

This was facilitated by the death of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy, after which his son and heir Vasily was obliged to go to the Horde for a label to reign. Tokhtamysh confirmed his rights, but subject to the participation of Russian troops in repelling the Muslim attack.

Defeat of the Golden Horde

Prince Vasily gave his consent, but it was only formal. After the defeat caused by Tokhtamysh in Moscow, none of the Russians wanted to shed blood for him. As a result, in the very first battle on the Kondurcha River (a tributary of the Volga), they abandoned the Tatars and, crossing to the opposite bank, left.

The conquest of the Golden Horde was completed by the battle on the Terek River, in which the troops of Tokhtamysh and Timur met on April 15, 1395. Iron Lame managed to inflict a crushing defeat on his enemy and thereby put an end to the Tatar raids on the territories under his control.

Threat to Russian lands and campaign against India

They were preparing their next blow to the very heart of Rus'. The goals of the planned campaign were Moscow and Ryazan, who until then did not know who Tamerlane was and paid tribute to the Golden Horde. But, fortunately, these plans were not destined to come true. The uprising of the Circassians and Ossetians, which broke out in the rear of Timur's troops and forced the conqueror to turn back, prevented this. The only victim then was the city of Yelets, which was on his way.

Over the next two years, his army made a victorious campaign in India. Having captured Delhi, Timur's soldiers plundered and burned the city, and killed 100 thousand defenders who were captured, fearing a possible rebellion on their part. Having reached the banks of the Ganges and capturing several fortified fortresses along the way, the army of thousands returned to Samarkand with rich booty and a large number of slaves.

New conquests and new blood

After India, the turn has come Ottoman Sultanate submit to the sword of Tamerlane. In 1402, he defeated the hitherto invincible Janissaries of Sultan Bayezid, and took him prisoner. As a result, the entire territory of Asia Minor came under his rule.

The Ionite knights, who held the fortress in their hands for many years, were also unable to resist Tamerlane’s troops. ancient city Smyrna. Having previously repelled the attacks of the Turks more than once, they surrendered to the mercy of the lame conqueror. When Venetian and Genoese ships with reinforcements arrived to their aid, the victors threw the severed heads of the defenders from the fortress catapults.

A plan that Tamerlane could not implement

The biography of this outstanding commander and evil genius of his era ends with the last ambitious project, which was his campaign against China, which began in 1404. The goal was to seize the Great Silk Road, making it possible to receive taxes from passing merchants and thereby replenish their already overflowing treasury. But the implementation of the plan was prevented by sudden death, which ended the life of the commander in February 1405.

The great emir of the Timurid empire - under this title he entered the history of his people - was buried in the Gur Emir mausoleum in Samarkand. A legend is associated with his burial, passed down from generation to generation. It says that if Tamerlane’s sarcophagus is opened and his ashes are disturbed, then the punishment for this will be a terrible and bloody war.

In June 1941, an expedition from the USSR Academy of Sciences was sent to Samarkand to exhume the remains of the commander and study them. The grave was opened on the night of June 21, and the next day, as is known, the Great Patriotic War began.

Another interesting fact. In October 1942, cameraman Malik Kayumov, a participant in those events, meeting with Marshal Zhukov, told him about the fulfilled curse and offered to return Tamerlane’s ashes to their original place. This was done on November 20, 1942, and on the same day a radical turning point in the Battle of Stalingrad followed.

Skeptics are inclined to argue that in this case there were only a number of accidents, because the plan for an attack on the USSR was developed long before the opening of the tomb by people who, although they knew who Tamerlane was, but, of course, did not take into account the spell that hung over his grave. Without entering into controversy, let's just say that everyone has the right to have their own point of view on this matter.

Conqueror's family

Of particular interest to researchers are the wives and children of Timur. Like all eastern rulers, this great conqueror of the past had a huge family. He had 18 official wives alone (not counting concubines), the favorite of which is considered to be Sarai-mulk khanum. Despite the fact that the lady with such a poetic name was barren, the master trusted her with the upbringing of many of his sons and grandchildren. She also went down in history as the patroness of art and science.

It is quite clear that with such a number of wives and concubines there was also no shortage of children. Nevertheless, only four of his sons took the places befitting such high birth and became rulers in the empire created by their father. In their person, the story of Tamerlane found its continuation.

The Battle of Kulikovo encouraged the Russian people in the fight against the Tatars, taught them to defeat the formidable khans of the Golden Horde, but did not yet rid our land of Tatar rule. After Mamai, Khan Tokhtamysh began to rule the Horde, who wanted to take revenge on Dmitry Donskoy for his glorious victory and unexpectedly invaded the Russian land with strong Tatar hordes. Before the Grand Duke had time to gather an army, Tokhtamysh had already appeared under the walls of Moscow, took Moscow by deception and terribly devastated it, robbed it and left with many prisoners. In order to save the Russian land from such devastation in the future, the Grand Duke again pledged to regularly pay tribute to Tokhtamysh. Thus, he managed to settle his relationship with Tokhtamysh. But soon after the death of Dmitry Donskoy, a new terrible thunderstorm from the Asian steppes began to approach the Russian land. There, at the end of the 14th century, another powerful conqueror appeared, nicknamed Tamerlane. Having conquered many Asian kingdoms, Tamerlane subsequently conquered Persia and led his huge hordes along the western shores of the Caspian Sea to the mouths of the Volga. From here, in 1395, he sent Tokhtamysh, Khan of the Golden Horde, to demand submission and tribute. Tokhtamysh, instead of answering, opposed him with the entire Horde, but was defeated.

When Moscow learned that Tokhtamysh had been defeated by Tamerlane and his army was scattered, everyone rejoiced, thinking that Tamerlane would again retire to the Asian steppes. But to the horror of all Rus', the formidable conqueror moved from the mouth of the Volga to the north, and his hordes soon appeared on the Volga, in the Saratov steppes. Then Tamerlane approached Yelets, took it, ravaged it, burned it and camped near it, intending to move further.

Only then did everyone understand that the Russian land would have to endure new disasters. Everyone knew that about half a million nomads of different tribes were going to Rus' with Tamerlane, and everyone expected death. There was only hope for God's mercy, and everyone rushed to churches to repent on the eve of imminent death and pray to God for the salvation of the Russian land. The young Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich gathered an army, convened the governors who fought under the banners of his father Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field, and began to confer with them and the boyars. At this council, it was decided that the grand ducal army should stand at the border of the Moscow principality, near Kolomna, and wait for the enemy here.

Having made such a decision and entrusting the guard of the capital to his uncle Vladimir the Brave, Grand Duke Vasily moved with his army to Kolomna and there awaited news of the approach of Tamerlane’s hordes.

At this time, God inspired Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich with a good idea: to calm the alarmed residents of Moscow by transferring to the capital the ancient miraculous icon of the Mother of God, once brought to Vladimir by the prince. The Grand Duke wrote to Metropolitan Cyprian in Moscow and asked him to send for the icon to Vladimir. The Metropolitan hastened to fulfill the wishes of the Grand Duke, and an honorary embassy of the highest clergy and grand-ducal boyars went to Vladimir. The miraculous icon was taken from the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral and solemnly carried to Moscow. This procession was a touching sight! Countless crowds of people came out onto the road from everywhere, everyone fell to their knees in front of the icon, everyone cried out to it with tears: “Mother of God! Save the Russian land! All of Moscow came out to meet the icon, many miles from the city. As soon as the icon marching towards Moscow appeared in the distance, everyone fell prostrate before it with tears of joy and quiet hope in its miraculous power.

Less than two weeks had passed since the day when the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God was solemnly brought into Moscow and placed in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, when the joyful news came from Kolomna to Moscow. Tamerlane turned his hordes from Yelets to the south and hastily moved away from the Russian borders!

Ancient chroniclers preserved a wondrous legend. They say that on the very day and hour when Moscow residents met the miraculous icon of Vladimir, Tamerlane was dozing in his tent near Yelets and had a terrible dream. I introduced myself to him high mountain, whose top was hidden in the clouds. The saints in shining robes with golden staffs in their hands descended from this mountain, and above them in a radiant radiance walked the Heavenly Lady, surrounded by the darkness of formidable warriors, who all rushed at Tamerlane at once.

In trepidation, he woke up from sleep, gathered his nobles and began to ask them to interpret the meaning of the dream. Some of the nobles explained to Tamerlane: “The Heavenly Lady whom you saw in your dream is none other than the Mother of God, the protector of Christians.” “If so, then we won’t be able to defeat them!” - Tamerlane exclaimed and ordered his hordes to immediately leave the borders of Rus'.

When the joyful news about the removal of Tamerlane's hordes reached Kolomna, the Grand Duke thanked God for the mercy shown to the Russian land, disbanded the army and hurried with his retinue to Moscow. Upon returning to Moscow, Vasily Dmitrievich built a stone church of the Mother of God and a monastery on the very spot where the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was greeted by the metropolitan, the clergy and citizens of Moscow. Since the same 1395, the Russian Church has decided to celebrate forever on August 26 the feast of the Presentation of the Mother of God in memory of the fact that the Russian land then owed its salvation from the terrible invasion of Tamerlane to the grace of God alone. The monastery, built at the meeting place of the icon, was named Sretensky.