Occupied territory of the Golden Horde. What was the state of the Golden Horde?

In 1483, the fall of the Golden Horde occurred - the largest state in Eurasia, which for two and a half centuries terrified all neighboring peoples and bound Rus' with the chains of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This event, which influenced the entire future fate of our Motherland, had such great importance, that this should be discussed in more detail.

Ulus Jochi

The works of many Russian historians are devoted to this issue, among whom the monograph by Grekov and Yakubovsky “ Golden Horde and its fall." In order to more fully and objectively cover the topic that interests us, we will, in addition to the works of other authors, use this very interesting and informative book.

From historical documents that have reached us, it is known that the term “Golden Horde” came into use no earlier than 1566, that is, more than a hundred years after the death of this state itself, which was called Ulus Jochi. Its first part is translated as “people” or “state”, while the second is the name of the elder and here’s why.

Son of a Conqueror

The fact is that once the territory of the Golden Horde was part of the united Mongol Empire with its capital Karakorum. Its creator and ruler was the famous Genghis Khan, who united various Turkic tribes under his rule and horrified the world with countless conquests. However, in 1224, feeling the onset of old age, he divided his state between his sons, providing each with power and wealth.

He transferred most of the territory to his eldest son, whose name was Jochi Batu, and his name became part of the name of the newly created Khanate, which was subsequently significantly expanded and went down in history as the Golden Horde. The fall of this state was preceded by two and a half centuries of prosperity based on the blood and suffering of enslaved peoples.

Having become the founder and first ruler of the Golden Horde, Jochi Batu entered our history under the slightly changed name of Khan Batu, who in 1237 threw his cavalry to conquer the vast expanses of Rus'. But before he ventured on this very risky undertaking, he needed absolute freedom from the tutelage of his formidable parent.

Continuing his father's work

After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, Jochi gained independence and, with several victorious but very grueling campaigns, increased his wealth and also expanded the inherited territories. Only after this, Khan Batu, feeling ready for new conquests, attacked Volga Bulgaria, and then conquered the tribes of the Polovtsians and Alans. Next in line was Rus'.

In their monograph “The Golden Horde and Its Fall,” Yakubovsky and Grekov point out that it was in battles with the Russian princes that the Tatar-Mongols exhausted their strength to such an extent that they were forced to abandon the previously planned campaign against the Duke of Austria and the King of Czech. Thus, Rus' unwittingly became the savior Western Europe from the invasion of the hordes of Khan Batu.

During his reign, which lasted until 1256, the founder of the Golden Horde made conquests unprecedented in scale, conquering a significant part of the territory modern Russia. The only exceptions were Siberia, the Far East and the regions Far North. In addition, Ukraine, which surrendered without a fight, came under his rule, as well as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In that era, hardly anyone could admit the possibility of a future fall of the Golden Horde, so the empire created by the son of Genghis Khan must have seemed unshakable and eternal. However, this is not an isolated example in history.

Greatness that has sunk into centuries

Its capital, called Sarai-Batu, matched the state. Situated about ten kilometers north of modern Astrakhan, it amazed the foreigners who entered it with the luxury of its palaces and the polyphony of its oriental bazaars. Newcomers, especially Russians, often appeared in it, but not of their own free will. Until the fall of the Golden Horde in Rus', this city was a symbol of slavery. Crowds of captives were brought here to slave markets after regular raids, and Russian princes also came here to receive khan's labels, without which their power was considered invalid.

How did it happen that the Khanate, which conquered half the world, suddenly ceased to exist and sank into oblivion, leaving no traces of its former greatness? The date of the fall of the Golden Horde can hardly be named without a certain degree of convention. It is generally accepted that this happened shortly after the death of its last khan, Akhmat, who launched an unsuccessful campaign against Moscow in 1480. His long and inglorious stay on the Ugra River was the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. The following year he was killed, and the heirs were unable to keep their possessions intact. However, let's talk about everything in order.

The beginning of the great turmoil

It is generally accepted that the history of the fall of the Golden Horde dates back to 1357, when its ruler from the Chingizid clan (direct descendants of Janibek) died. After him, the state plunged into the abyss of chaos caused by a bloody struggle for power between dozens of contenders. Suffice it to say that only in the subsequent Over a four-year period, 25 supreme rulers were replaced.

To top off the troubles they took very dangerous character separatist sentiments that existed among local khans who dreamed of complete independence in their lands. Khorezm was the first to separate from the Golden Horde, and Astrakhan soon followed its example. The situation was aggravated by the Lithuanians, who invaded from the west and captured significant territories adjacent to the banks of the Dnieper. This was a crushing and, importantly, not the last blow received by the previously united and powerful Khanate. They were followed by other misfortunes, from which I no longer had the strength to recover.

Confrontation between Mamai and Tokhtamysh

Relative stability in the state was established only in 1361, when, as a result of a long struggle and various kinds intrigues, power in it was seized by a major Horde military leader (temnik) Mamai. He managed to temporarily put an end to the strife, streamline the flow of tribute from previously conquered territories and raise the shaky military potential.

However, he also had to wage a constant struggle against internal enemies, the most dangerous among whom was Khan Tokhtamysh, who was trying to establish his power in the Golden Horde. In 1377, with the support of the Central Asian ruler Tamerlane, he began a military campaign against the troops of Mamai and achieved significant success, capturing almost the entire territory of the state up to the Northern Azov region, leaving his enemy only the Crimea and the Polovtsian steppes.

Despite the fact that in 1380 Mamai was already, in fact, “ political corpse", the defeat of his troops in the Battle of Kulikovo caused swipe according to the Golden Horde. The militarily successful campaign of Khan Tokhtamysh himself against Moscow, undertaken two years later, could not correct the situation. The fall of the Golden Horde, previously accelerated by the separation of many of its remote territories, and in particular the Ulus Horde-Dzhanin, which occupied almost the entire territory of its eastern wing, became inevitable and was only a matter of time. But at that time it still represented a single and viable state.

Great Horde

This picture changed radically in the first half of the next century, when, as a result of strengthening separatist tendencies, independent states arose on its territory: the Siberian, Kazan, Uzbek, Crimean, Nogai, and a little later the Kazakh khanates.

Their formal center was the last island of a previously endless state called the Golden Horde. Now that its former greatness was irretrievably gone, it became the seat of the khan, only conditionally endowed with supreme power. Its formidable name is also a thing of the past, giving way to a rather vague phrase - the Great Horde.

The final fall of the Golden Horde, the course of events

In traditional Russian historiography, the final stage of the existence of this once largest Eurasian state is attributed to the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries. As can be seen from the above story, it was the result of a long process, which began with a fierce struggle for power between the most powerful and influential khans who ruled certain regions of the state. Separatist sentiments, which grew stronger year after year in the circles of the ruling elite, also played an important role. All this ultimately led to the fall of the Golden Horde. His “death agony” can be briefly described as follows.

In July 1472, the ruler of the Great (formerly Golden) Horde, Khan Akhmat, suffered a brutal defeat from the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. This happened in a battle on the banks of the Oka, after the Tatars plundered and burned the nearby city of Aleksin. Encouraged by the victory, the Russians stopped paying tribute.

Khan Akhmat's campaign against Moscow

Having received such a noticeable blow to his prestige and, moreover, having lost most of his income, the khan dreamed of revenge and in 1480, having gathered a large army and having previously concluded an alliance treaty with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV, he set out on a campaign against Moscow. Akhmat's goal was to bring the Russians back to their former obedience and resume their payment of tribute. It is possible that if he had managed to carry out his intentions, the year of the fall of the Golden Horde could have been postponed by several decades, but fate would have decided otherwise.

After passing through the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the help of local guides and reaching the Ugra River - the left tributary of the Oka, flowing through the territories of Smolensk and Kaluga region- the khan, to his chagrin, discovered that he had been deceived by his allies. Casimir IV, contrary to his obligation, did not send military assistance to the Tatars, but used all the forces at his disposal to solve his own problems.

Inglorious retreat and death of the Khan

Left alone, Khan Akhmat on October 8 made an attempt to cross the river on his own and continue the attack on Moscow, but was stopped by Russian troops stationed on the opposite bank. The subsequent forays of his warriors were also unsuccessful. Meanwhile, there was an urgent need to find a way out of this situation, since winter was approaching, and with it the inevitable lack of food in such cases, which was extremely disastrous for horses. In addition, food supplies for the people were running out, and there was nowhere to replenish them, since everything around had long been looted and destroyed.

As a result, the Horde were forced to abandon their plans and shamefully retreat. On the way back, they burned several Lithuanian cities, but this was just revenge on Prince Casimir who deceived them. From now on, the Russians withdrew from their obedience, and the loss of so many tributaries accelerated the already inevitable fall of the Golden Horde. The date November 11, 1480 - the day when Khan Akhmat decided to retreat from the banks of the Ugra - went down in history as the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which lasted almost two and a half centuries.

As for himself, who, by the will of fate, became the last ruler of the Golden (at that time only the Great) Horde, he too would soon have to leave this mortal world. At first next year he was killed during a raid on his headquarters by a detachment of Nogai cavalry. Like most eastern rulers, Khan Akhmat had many wives and, accordingly, a large number of sons, but not one of them was able to prevent the death of the Khanate, which, as is commonly believed, happened at the beginning of the next - the 15th century.

Consequences of the fall of the Golden Horde

Two most important events late XV and early XVI centuries. - the complete collapse of the Golden Horde and the end of the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke - are in such a close connection that they ultimately led to common consequences for all previously conquered peoples, including, of course, the Russian land. First of all, the reasons that caused them to lag behind in all areas of development from the countries of Western Europe that were not subject to the Tatar-Mongol invasion are a thing of the past.

With the fall of the Golden Horde, prerequisites appeared for the development of the economy, which was undermined due to the disappearance of most crafts. Many skilled craftsmen were killed or driven into slavery without passing on their skills to anyone. Because of this, the construction of cities was interrupted, as well as the production of various kinds of tools and household items. Agriculture also fell into decline, as farmers left their lands and went to remote areas of the North and Siberia in search of salvation. The fall of the hated Horde gave them the opportunity to return to their former places.

The revival of national culture, which during the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was in the process of degradation, became extremely important, as eloquently evidenced by the cultural and historical monuments that have survived since then. And finally, having emerged from the power of the Horde khans, Rus' and other peoples who had gained freedom gained the opportunity to resume the interruptions long period international connections.

The Golden Horde has long been reliably associated with the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the invasion of nomads and a dark streak in the history of the country. But what exactly was this state entity?

Start

It is worth noting that the name familiar to us today arose much later than the very existence of the state. And what we call the Golden Horde, in its heyday, was called Ulu Ulus (Great Ulus, Great State) or (state of Jochi, people of Jochi) after the name of Khan Jochi, the eldest son of Khan Temujin, known in history as Genghis Khan.

Both names quite clearly outline both the scale and origin of the Golden Horde. These were very vast lands that belonged to the descendants of Jochi, including Batu, known in Rus' as Batu Khan. Jochi and Genghis Khan died in 1227 (possibly Jochi a year earlier), the Mongol Empire by that time included a significant part of the Caucasus, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, Rus' and Volga Bulgaria.

The lands captured by the troops of Genghis Khan, his sons and commanders, after the death of the great conqueror, were divided into four uluses (states), and it turned out to be the largest and strongest, stretching from the lands of modern Bashkiria to the Caspian Gate - Derbent. The Western campaign, led by Batu Khan, expanded the lands under his control to the west by 1242, and the Lower Volga region, rich in beautiful pastures, hunting and fishing grounds, attracted Batu as a place for residence. About 80 km from modern Astrakhan, Sarai-Batu (otherwise Sarai-Berke) grew up - the capital of Ulus Jochi.

His brother Berke, who succeeded Batu, was, as they say, an enlightened ruler, as far as the realities of that time allowed. Berke, having adopted Islam in his youth, did not instill it among the subject population, but under him diplomatic and cultural connections with a number of eastern states. Trade routes running by water and land were actively used, which could not but have a positive impact on the development of the economy, crafts, and arts. With the approval of the khan, theologians, poets, scientists, and skilled craftsmen came here; moreover, Berke began to appoint visiting intellectuals, not well-born fellow tribesmen, to high government posts.

The era of the reign of the Khans of Batu and Berke became a very important organizational period in the history of the Golden Horde - it was during these years that the state administrative apparatus was actively formed, which remained relevant for many decades. Under Batu, simultaneously with the establishment of the administrative-territorial division, the possessions of large feudal lords took shape, a bureaucratic system was created and a fairly clear taxation was developed.

Moreover, despite the fact that the khan’s headquarters, according to the custom of their ancestors, roamed the steppes for more than half a year together with the khan, his wives, children and a huge retinue, the power of the rulers was as unshakable as ever. They, so to speak, set the main line of policy and resolved the most important, fundamental issues. And the routine and particulars were entrusted to officials and the bureaucracy.

Berke's successor, Mengu-Timur, entered into an alliance with the other two heirs of Genghis Khan's empire, and all three recognized each other as completely independent but friendly sovereigns. After his death in 1282, a political crisis arose in the Ulus of Jochi, since the heir was very young, and Nogai, one of Mengu-Timur’s main advisers, actively sought to gain, if not official, then at least actual power. For some time he succeeded in this, until the matured Khan Tokhta got rid of his influence, which required resorting to military force.

Rise of the Golden Horde

Ulus Jochi reached its peak in the first half of the 13th century, during the reign of Uzbek Khan and his son Janibek. Uzbek built a new capital, Sarai-al-Jedid, promoted the development of trade and quite actively propagated Islam, not disdaining to punish rebellious emirs - regional governors and military leaders. It is worth noting, however, that the bulk of the population was not obliged to profess Islam; this concerned mainly high-ranking officials.

He also very harshly controlled the Russian principalities then subject to the Golden Horde - according to the Litsevoy chronicle, nine Russian princes were killed in the Horde during his reign. So the custom of princes summoned to the khan’s headquarters for proceedings to leave a will gained even more solid ground.

Uzbek Khan continued to develop diplomatic ties with the most powerful states at that time, acting, among other things, in the traditional way of monarchs - establishing family ties. He married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, gave his own daughter to the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich, and his niece to the Egyptian sultan.

At that time, not only the descendants of the soldiers of the Mongol Empire lived on the territory of the Golden Horde, but also representatives of the conquered peoples - Bulgars, Cumans, Russians, as well as people from the Caucasus, Greeks, etc.

If the beginning of the formation of the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde in particular went mainly through an aggressive path, then by this period the Ulus of Jochi had turned into an almost completely sedentary state, which had extended its influence over a significant part of the European and Asian parts of the mainland. Peaceful crafts and arts, trade, the development of sciences and theology, a well-functioning bureaucratic apparatus were one side of statehood, and the troops of the khans and the emirs under their control were another, no less important. Moreover, the warlike Genghisids and the top of the nobility continually conflicted with each other, forming alliances and conspiracies. Moreover, holding conquered lands and maintaining the respect of neighbors required a constant display of military force.

Khans of the Golden Horde

The ruling elite of the Golden Horde consisted mainly of Mongols and partly Kipchaks, although in some periods educated people from Arab states and Iran found themselves in administrative positions. As for the supreme rulers - khans - almost all holders of this title or applicants for it either belonged to the clan of Genghisids (descendants of Genghis Khan), or were connected with this very extensive clan through marriage. According to custom, only the descendants of Genghis Khan could be khans, but ambitious and power-hungry emirs and temniks (military leaders close in position to the general) continually sought to advance to the throne in order to place their protégé on it and rule on his behalf. However, after the murder in 1359 of the last of the direct descendants of Batu Khan - Berdibek - taking advantage of the disputes and infighting of the rival forces, an impostor named Kulpa managed to seize power for six months, posing as the brother of the late khan. He was exposed (however, the whistleblowers were also interested in power, for example, the son-in-law and first adviser of the late Berdibek, Temnik Mamai) and killed along with his sons - apparently, to intimidate possible challengers.

Separated from the Ulus of Jochi during the reign of Janibek, the Ulus of Shibana (west of Kazakhstan and Siberia) tried to consolidate its positions in Saray-al-Jedid. More distant relatives of the Golden Horde khans from among the eastern Jochids (descendants of Jochi) were also actively engaged in this. The result of this was a period of turmoil, called the Great Rebellion in Russian chronicles. Khans and pretenders replaced each other one after another until 1380, when Khan Tokhtamysh came to power.

He descended in a direct line from Genghis Khan and therefore had legitimate rights to the title of ruler of the Golden Horde, and in order to back up his right with force, he entered into an alliance with one of the Central Asian rulers - the “Iron Lame” Tamerlane, famous in the history of conquests. But Tokhtamysh did not take into account that a strong ally could become a most dangerous enemy, and after his accession to the throne and a successful campaign against Moscow, he opposed his former ally. This became a fatal mistake - Tamerlane responded by defeating the Golden Horde army and capturing Largest cities Ulus-Juchi, including Sarai-Berke, walked like an “iron heel” through the Crimean possessions of the Golden Horde and, as a result, caused such military and economic damage that it became the beginning of the decline of the hitherto strong state.

Capital of the Golden Horde and trade

As already mentioned, the location of the capital of the Golden Horde was very favorable in terms of trade. The Crimean possessions of the Golden Horde provided mutually beneficial shelter for the Genoese trading colonies, and sea trade routes from China, India, Central Asian states and southern Europe also led there. From the Black Sea coast it was possible to get along the Don to the Volgodonsk portage, and then by land to the Volga coast. Well, the Volga in those days, like many centuries later, remained beautiful by water for merchant ships to Iran and the continental regions of Central Asia.

Partial list of goods transported through the possessions of the Golden Horde:

• fabrics – silk, canvas, cloth
• wood
• weapons from Europe and Central Asia
• corn
• jewelry and precious stones
• furs and leather
• olive oil
• fish and caviar
• incense
• spices

Decay

The central government, weakened during the years of unrest and after the defeat of Tokhtamysh, could no longer achieve the complete subjugation of all previously subject lands. The governors ruling in remote destinies grasped the opportunity to get out from under the hands of the Ulus-Juchi government almost painlessly. Even at the height of the Great Jam in 1361, the eastern Ulus of Orda-Ezhen, also known as the Blue Horde, separated, and in 1380 it was followed by the Ulus of Shibana.

In the twenties of the 15th century, the process of disintegration became even more intense - the Siberian Khanate was formed in the east of the former Golden Horde, a few years later in 1428 - the Uzbek Khanate, and ten years later it separated Khanate of Kazan. Somewhere between 1440 and 1450 - the Nogai Horde, in 1441 - the Crimean Khanate, and last of all, in 1465 - the Kazakh Khanate.

The last khan of the Golden Horde was Kichi Mukhamed, who ruled until his death in 1459. His son Akhmat took the reins of government already in the Great Horde - in fact, only a small part remaining from the huge state of the Chingizids.

Coins of the Golden Horde

Having become a sedentary and very large state, the Golden Horde could not do without its own currency. The state's economy was based on a hundred (according to some sources, one and a half hundred) cities, not counting many small villages and nomadic camps. For external and internal trade relations, copper coins - pulas and silver coins - dirhams were issued.

Today, Horde dirhams are of considerable value for collectors and historians, since almost every reign was accompanied by the release of new coins. By the type of dirham, experts can determine when it was minted. Pools were valued relatively low, moreover, they were sometimes subject to a so-called forced exchange rate, when the coin was worth less than the metal used for it. Therefore, the number of pools found by archaeologists is large, but their value is relatively small.

During the reign of the khans of the Golden Horde, the turnover of their own, local Money, and their place was taken by Horde money. Moreover, even in Rus', which paid tribute to the Horde but was not part of it, pools were minted, although they differed in appearance and cost from those of the Horde. Sumy was also used as a means of payment - silver ingots, or more precisely, pieces cut from a silver rod. By the way, the first Russian rubles were made in exactly the same way.

Army and troops

The main strength of the Ulus-Juchi army, as before the creation of the Mongol Empire, was the cavalry, “light in march, heavy in attack,” according to contemporaries. The nobility, who had the means to be well equipped, formed heavily armed units. Lightly armed units used the fighting technique of horse archers - after inflicting significant damage with a volley of arrows, they approached and fought with spears and blades. However, impact and crushing weapons were also quite common - maces, flails, six-fingers, etc.

Unlike their ancestors, who made do with leather armor, at best reinforced with metal plaques, the warriors of Ulus Jochi for the most part wore metal armor, which speaks of the wealth of the Golden Horde - only the army of a strong and financially stable state could arm itself in this way. At the end of the 14th century, the Horde army even began to acquire its own artillery, something that very few armies could boast of at that time.

Culture

The era of the Golden Horde did not leave any special cultural achievements for humanity. Nevertheless, this state originated as the seizure of sedentary peoples by nomads. The own cultural values ​​of any nomadic people are relatively simple and pragmatic, since there is no possibility of building schools, creating paintings, inventing a method of making porcelain, or erecting majestic buildings. But moving largely to sedentary lifestyle life, the conquerors adopted many of the inventions of civilization, including architecture, theology, writing (in particular, the Uyghur writing for documents), and the more subtle development of many crafts.

Russia and the Golden Horde

The first serious clashes between Russian troops and Horde troops date back approximately to the beginning of the existence of the Golden Horde as an independent state. At first, Russian troops tried to support the Polovtsians against a common enemy - the Horde. The Battle of the Kalka River in the summer of 1223 brought defeat to the poorly coordinated squads of Russian princes. And in December 1237, the Horde entered the lands of the Ryazan region. Then Ryazan fell, followed by Kolomna and Moscow. Russian frosts did not stop the nomads, hardened in campaigns, and at the beginning of 1238 Vladimir, Torzhok and Tver were captured, there was a defeat on the Sit River and a seven-day siege of Kozelsk, which ended with its complete destruction - along with its inhabitants. In 1240, the campaign against Kievan Rus began.

The result was that the remaining Russian princes on the throne (and alive) recognized the need to pay tribute to the Horde in exchange for a relatively quiet existence. However, it was not truly calm - the princes, who intrigued against each other and, of course, against the invaders, in the event of any incidents, were forced to appear at the khan’s headquarters to report to the khan about their actions or inactions. By order of the khan, the princes had to bring their sons or brothers with them as additional hostages of loyalty. And not all princes and their relatives returned to their homeland alive.

It should be noted that the rapid seizure of Russian lands and the inability to overthrow the yoke of the invaders was largely due to the disunity of the principalities. Moreover, some princes were able to take advantage of this situation to fight their rivals. For example, the Principality of Moscow strengthened by annexing the lands of two other principalities as a result of the intrigues of Ivan Kalita, Prince of Moscow. But before this, the Tver princes sought the right to a great reign by all means, including the murder of the previous Moscow prince right at the khan's headquarters.

And when, after the Great Jame, internal turmoil began to increasingly distract the disintegrating Golden Horde from pacifying the rebellious principalities, the Russian lands, in particular, the Moscow Principality, which had strengthened over the past century, began to increasingly resist the influence of the invaders, refusing to pay tribute. And what is especially important is to act together.

At the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the united Russian forces won a decisive victory over the army of the Golden Horde led by Temnik Mamai, sometimes mistakenly called the khan. And although two years later Moscow was captured and burned by the Horde, the rule of the Golden Horde over Russia came to an end. And at the beginning of the 15th century, the Great Horde also ceased to exist.

Epilogue

To summarize, we can say that the Golden Horde was one of the largest states of its era, born thanks to the militancy of nomadic tribes, and then disintegrated due to their desire for independence. Its growth and flourishing occurred during the reign of strong military leaders and wise politicians, but, like most aggressive states, it lasted relatively short-lived.

According to a number of historians, the Golden Horde had not only Negative influence on the life of the Russian people, but also unwittingly helped the development of Russian statehood. Under the influence of the culture of rule brought by the Horde, and then to counteract the Golden Horde, the Russian principalities merged together, forming a strong state, which later turned into the Russian Empire.

The Golden Horde (in Turkish - Altyn Ordu), also known as the Kipchak Khanate or Ulus Yuchi, was a Mongol state established in parts of modern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Mongol Empire in the 1240s. It existed until 1440.

During its heyday, it was a strong commercial and trading state, ensuring stability in large areas of Rus'.

Origin of the name "Golden Horde"

The name “Golden Horde” is a relatively late toponym. It arose in imitation of the “Blue Horde” and “White Horde”, and these names, in turn, meant, depending on the situation, independent states, then the Mongol armies.

It is believed that the name "Golden Horde" came from the steppe system of marking the main directions with colors: black = north, blue = east, red = south, white = west and yellow (or gold) = center.

According to another version, the name came from the magnificent golden tent that Batu Khan erected to mark the site of his future capital on the Volga. Although this theory was accepted as true in the nineteenth century, it is now considered apocryphal.

There are no surviving written monuments created before the 17th century (they were destroyed) that would mention such a state as the Golden Horde. The state of Ulus Dzhuchi (Dzhuchiev ulus) appears in earlier documents.

Some scholars prefer to use another name, the Kipchak Khanate, because various derivatives of the Kipchak people were also found in medieval documents describing this state.

Mongol origins of the Golden Horde

Before his death in 1227, Genghis Khan bequeathed it to be divided among his four sons, including the eldest Jochi, who died before Genghis Khan.

The part that Jochi received was the westernmost lands where the hooves of Mongolian horses could set foot, and then the south of Rus' was divided between the sons of Jochi - the ruler of the Blue Horde Batu (west) and Khan Horde, the ruler of the White Horde (east).

Subsequently, Batu established control over the territories subject to the Horde, and also subjugated the northern coastal zone Black Sea, including the indigenous Turkic peoples in its army.

In the late 1230s and early 1240s, he led brilliant campaigns against the Volga Bulgaria and against the successor states, multiplying the military glory of his ancestors many times over.

Khan Batu's Blue Horde annexed lands in the west, raiding Poland and Hungary after the battles of Legnica and Mucha.

But in 1241, the Great Khan Udegey died in Mongolia, and Batu broke off the siege of Vienna to take part in a dispute over the succession. From then on, the Mongol armies never went west again.

In 1242, Batu created his capital in Sarai, in his possessions in the lower reaches of the Volga. Shortly before this, the Blue Horde split - younger brother Batu Shiban left Batu's army to create his Horde east of the Ural Mountains along the Ob and Irtysh rivers.

Having achieved stable independence and created the state that today we call the Golden Horde, the Mongols gradually lost their ethnic identity.

While the descendants of the Mongol warriors Batu made up top class society, most of the population of the Horde consisted of Kipchaks, Bulgar Tatars, Kirghiz, Khorezmians and other Turkic peoples.

The supreme ruler of the Horde was the khan, elected by the kurultai (the council of the Mongol nobility) among the descendants of Batu Khan. The position of prime minister was also occupied by an ethnic Mongol, known as the “prince of princes” or beklerbek (bek above the beks). The ministers were called viziers. Local governors or baskaks were responsible for collecting tribute and resolving popular discontent. The ranks, as a rule, were not divided into military and civilian.

The Horde developed as a sedentary rather than a nomadic culture, and Sarai eventually becomes a densely populated and prosperous city. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the capital moved to Saray-Berke, located much higher upstream, and became one of the largest cities medieval world with a population estimated by Encyclopædia Britannica at 600,000.

Despite Russian efforts to convert the population of Sarai, the Mongols adhered to their traditional pagan beliefs until Uzbek Khan (1312-1341) adopted Islam as the state religion. The Russian rulers - Mikhail Chernigovsky and Mikhail Tverskoy - were reportedly killed in Sarai for their refusal to worship pagan idols, but the khans were generally tolerant and even liberated the Russian Orthodox Church from taxes.

Vassals and allies of the Golden Horde

The Horde collected tribute from its subject peoples - Russians, Armenians, Georgians and Crimean Greeks. Christian territories were considered peripheral areas and were of no interest as long as they continued to pay tribute. These dependent states were never part of the Horde, and the Russian rulers soon even received the privilege of traveling around the principalities and collecting tribute for the khans. To maintain control over Russia, Tatar military leaders carried out regular punitive raids on Russian principalities (the most dangerous in 1252, 1293 and 1382).

There is a point of view, widely disseminated by Lev Gumilev, that the Horde and the Russians entered into an alliance for defense against the fanatical Teutonic knights and pagan Lithuanians. Researchers point out that Russian princes often appeared at the Mongol court, in particular Fyodor Cherny, the Yaroslavl prince who boasted of his ulus near Sarai, and the Novgorod prince Alexander Nevsky, a sworn brother of Batu's predecessor, Sartak Khan. Although Novgorod never recognized the dominance of the Horde, the Mongols supported the Novgorodians in the Battle of the Ice.

Barn led active trading with shopping centers of Genoa on Black Sea coast- Surozh (Soldaya or Sudak), Kaffa and Tana (Azak or Azov). Also, the Mamluks of Egypt were long-time trading partners of the khan and allies in the Mediterranean.

After Batu's death in 1255, the prosperity of his empire continued for a century, until the assassination of Janibek in 1357. The White Horde and Blue Horde were actually united into a single state by Batu's brother Berke. In the 1280s, power was usurped by Nogai, a khan who pursued a policy of Christian unions. The military influence of the Horde reached its peak during the reign of Uzbek Khan (1312-1341), whose army exceeded 300,000 warriors.

Their policy towards Rus' was to constantly renegotiate alliances to keep Rus' weak and divided. In the fourteenth century, the rise of Lithuania in northeastern Europe challenged Tatar control of Russia. Thus, Uzbek Khan began to support Moscow as the main Russian state. Ivan I Kalita was given the title of Grand Duke and given the right to collect taxes from other Russian powers.

The Black Death, the bubonic plague pandemic of the 1340s, was a major contributing factor to the eventual fall of the Golden Horde. After the assassination of Janibek, the empire was drawn into a long civil war that lasted throughout the next decade, with an average of one new khan per year coming to power. By the 1380s, Khorezm, Astrakhan and Muscovy attempted to break free from Horde rule, and the lower Dnieper was annexed by Lithuania and Poland.

Who was not formally on the throne, tried to restore Tatar power over Russia. His army was defeated by Dmitry Donskoy at the Battle of Kulikov in his second victory over the Tatars. Mamai soon lost power, and in 1378 Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Horde Khan and ruler of the White Horde, invaded and annexed the territory of the Blue Horde, briefly establishing the dominance of the Golden Horde in these lands. In 1382 he punished Moscow for disobedience.

The mortal blow to the horde was dealt by Tamerlane, who in 1391 destroyed the army of Tokhtamysh, destroyed the capital, plundered the Crimean shopping centers and took the most skilled craftsmen to his capital in Samarkand.

In the first decades of the fifteenth century, power lay with Idegei, the vizier who defeated Vytautas of Lithuania at the great Battle of Vorskla and turned the Nogai Horde into his personal mission.

In the 1440s the Horde was destroyed again civil war. This time it broke up into eight separate khanates: the Siberian Khanate, the Qasim Khanate, the Kazakh Khanate, the Uzbek Khanate and the Crimean Khanate, dividing the last remnant of the Golden Horde.

None of these new khanates was stronger than Muscovy, which by 1480 was finally free of Tatar control. The Russians eventually captured all of these khanates, starting with Kazan and Astrakhan in the 1550s. By the end of the century it was also part of Russia, and the descendants of its ruling khans entered Russian service.

In 1475 the Crimean Khanate submitted, and by 1502 the same fate befell what remained of the Great Horde. Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in the south of Rus' during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but were unable to defeat it or take Moscow. The Crimean Khanate remained under Ottoman protection until Catherine the Great annexed it on April 8, 1783. It lasted longer than all the successor states of the Golden Horde.

As long as strong-willed and energetic khans ruled in Sarai, the Horde seemed to be a powerful state. The first shake-up occurred in 1312, when the population of the Volga region - Muslim, merchant and anti-nomad - nominated Tsarevich Uzbek, who immediately executed 70 Chingizid princes and all noyons who refused to betray the faith of their fathers. The second shock was the murder of Khan Janibek by his eldest son Berdibek, and two years later, in 1359, a twenty-year civil strife began - the “great jam.” In addition to this, in 1346 the plague raged in the Volga region and other lands of the Golden Horde. During the years of the “great silence”, calm left the Horde.

For the 60-70s. XIV century The most dramatic pages in the history of the Golden Horde occur. Conspiracies, murders of khans, strengthening of the power of the Temniks, who, rising together with their henchmen to the khan’s throne, die at the hands of the next contenders for power, pass like a quick kaleidoscope before their amazed contemporaries.

The most successful temporary worker turned out to be Temnik Mamai, who long time appointed khans in the Golden Horde (more precisely in its western part) at his own discretion. Mamai was not a Genghisid, but married the daughter of Khan Berdebek. Having no right to the throne, he ruled on behalf of dummy khans. Having subjugated the Great Bulgars, the North Caucasus, Astrakhan, and the mighty Temnik by the mid-70s of the 14th century. became the most powerful Tatar ruler. Although in 1375 Arabshah captured Sarai-Berke and the Bulgars broke away from Mamai, and Astrakhan passed to Cherkesbek, he still remained the ruler of a vast territory from the lower Volga to the Crimea.

“In these same years (1379), writes L.N. Gumilev, a conflict broke out between the Russian Church and Mamai. In Nizhny Novgorod, on the initiative of Dionysius of Suzdal (bishop), Mamai's ambassadors were killed. A war broke out, which went on with varying degrees of success, ending with the Battle of Kulikovo and the return of Chingizid Tokhtamysh to the Horde. In this war, which was imposed by the church, two coalitions took part: the chimeric power of Mamaia, Genoa and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, i.e. The West, and the bloc between Moscow and the White Horde is a traditional alliance, which was started by Alexander Nevsky. Tver avoided participating in the war, and the position of the Ryazan prince Oleg is unclear. In any case, it was independent of Moscow, because in 1382 he, like the Suzdal princes, fought on the side of Tokhtamysh against Dmitry”... In 1381, a year after the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh took and destroyed Moscow.

The “Great Jam” in the Golden Horde ended with the coming to power in 1380. Khan Tokhtamysh, which was associated with the support of his rise by the great emir of Samarkand Aksak Timur.

But it was precisely with the reign of Tokhtamysh that events that turned out to be fatal for the Golden Horde were connected. Three campaigns of the ruler of Samarkand, the founder of the world empire from Asia Minor to the borders of China, Timur crushed the Jochi ulus, cities were destroyed, caravan routes moved south into Timur’s possessions.

Timur consistently destroyed the lands of those peoples who sided with Tokhtamysh. The Kipchak kingdom (Golden Horde) lay in ruins, the cities were depopulated, the troops were defeated and scattered.

One of Tokhtamysh’s ardent opponents was the emir of the White Horde from the Mangyt tribe Edigei (Idegei, Idiku), who took part in Timur’s wars against the Golden Horde. Having linked his fate with Khan Timur-Kutluk, who with his help took the Golden Horde throne, Edigei continued the war with Tokhtamysh. At the head of the Golden Horde army in 1399, on the Vorskla River, he defeated the united troops of the Lithuanian prince Vitovt and Tokhtamysh, who fled to Lithuania.

After the death of Timur-Kutluk in 1399, Edigei actually became the head of the Golden Horde. For the last time in the history of the Golden Horde, he managed to unite all the former uluses of Jochi under his rule.

Edigei, like Mamai, ruled on behalf of dummy khans. In 1406 he killed Tokhtamysh, who was trying to settle in Western Siberia. In an effort to restore the Jochi ulus within its former borders, Edigei repeated the path of Batu. In 1407, he organized a campaign against Volga Bulgaria and defeated it. In 1408, Edigei attacked Rus', ravaged a number of Russian cities, besieged Moscow, but could not take it.

Edigei ended his eventful life by losing power in the Horde at the hands of one of Tokhtamysh’s sons in 1419.

The instability of political power and economic life, frequent devastating campaigns against the Bulgar-Kazan lands of the Golden Horde khans and Russian princes, as well as what broke out in the Volga regions in 1428 - 1430. The plague epidemic, accompanied by severe drought, did not lead to consolidation, but rather to the dispersion of the population. Whole villages of people then leave for safer northern and eastern regions. There is also a hypothesis of a socio-ecological crisis in the steppes of the Golden Horde in the second half of the 14th - 15th centuries. - that is, a crisis of both nature and society.

The Golden Horde was no longer able to recover from these shocks, and throughout the 15th century the Horde gradually split and disintegrated into the Nogai Horde (beginning of the 15th century), Kazan (1438), Crimean (1443), Astrakhan (1459), Siberian (late 15th century). century), the Great Horde and other khanates.

At the beginning of the 15th century. The White Horde split into a number of possessions, the largest of which were the Nogai Horde and the Uzbek Khanate. The Nogai Horde occupied the steppes between the Volga and the Urals. “The ethnic composition of the population of the Nogai and Uzbek khanates was almost homogeneous. It included parts of the same local Turkic-speaking tribes and the alien Mongol tribes that underwent assimilation. On the territory of these khanates lived the Kanglys, Kungrats, Kengeres, Karluks, Naimans, Mangyts, Uysuns, Argyns, Alchins, Chinas, Kipchaks, etc. In terms of their economic and cultural levels, these tribes were very close. Their main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding. Patriarchal-feudal relations prevailed in both khanates.” “But there were more Mangyt Mongols in the Nogai Horde than in the Uzbek Khanate.” Some of her clans sometimes crossed to the right bank of the Volga, and in the northeast they reached Tobol.

The Uzbek Khanate occupied the steppes of modern Kazakhstan east of the Nogai Horde. Its territory extended from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and the Aral Sea north to Yaik and Tobol and northeast to the Irtysh.

The nomadic population of the Kipchak kingdom did not succumb to the influence of the ethno-noosphere of either the Russians or the Bulgars, having gone to the Trans-Volga region, they formed their own ethnic group with their own ethno-noosphere. Even when part of their tribes pulled the people of the Uzbek Khanate to Central Asia towards a settled life, they stayed in the steppes, leaving behind the ethnonym Uzbeks, they proudly called themselves - Kazak (Kazakh), i.e. a free man, preferring the fresh wind of the steppes to the suffocating life of cities and villages.

Historically, this gigantic half-state, half-nomad society did not last long. The fall of the Golden Horde, accelerated by the Battle of Kulikovo (1380) and the brutal campaign of Tamerlane in 1395, was as quick as its birth. And it finally collapsed in 1502, unable to withstand the clash with the Crimean Khanate.

Reasons for the collapse of the Golden Horde

Note 1

The beginning of the collapse of the Golden Horde is associated with "Great Remembrance" which began in $1357 with the death of Khan Janibeka. This state entity finally collapsed in the $40s of the $15th century.

Let us highlight the main reasons for the collapse:

1. Lack of a strong ruler (with the exception of a short time Tokhtamysh)
2. Creation of independent uluses (districts)
3. Growing resistance in controlled territories
4. Deep economic crisis

The Horde's destruction begins

As noted above, the beginning of the decline of the Horde coincided with the death of Khan Janibek. His numerous descendants entered into a bloody feud for power. As a result, for a little over $2$, decades of “zamyatni” were replaced by $25$ of khans.

In Rus', of course, they took advantage of the weakening of the Horde and stopped paying tribute. Military clashes soon followed, the grandiose result of which was Battle of Kulikovo$1380$ year ended for the Horde under the leadership of Temnik Mom, I terrible defeat. And, although two years later a strong khan came to power Tokhtamysh returned the collection of tribute from Rus' and burned Moscow; the Horde no longer had the previous power.

Collapse of the Golden Horde

Central Asian ruler Tamerlane in $1395$ he completely defeated Tokhtamysh and installed his governor in the Horde Edigeya. In $1408, Edigei made a campaign against Rus', as a result of which many cities were plundered, and the payment of tribute, which had stopped in $1395, resumed again.

But there was no stability in the Horde itself; new unrest began. Several times with the help of the Lithuanian prince Vytautas The sons of Tokhtamysh seized power. Then Timur Khan expelled Edigei, although he put him at the head of the Horde. As a result, in $1419, Edigei was killed.

In general, the Horde ceased to exist as a single state association after the defeat by Tamerlane. Since the $1420s, the collapse has accelerated sharply, as another turmoil led to the ruin of economic centers. Under the current conditions, it is quite natural that the khans sought to isolate themselves. Independent khanates began to appear:

• The Siberian Khanate emerged in $1420-1421
• The Uzbek Khanate appeared in $1428
• The Kazan Khanate arose in $1438
• The Crimean Khanate appeared in $1441
• The Nogai Horde took shape in the $1440s.
• The Kazakh Khanate appeared in $1465

Based on the Golden Horde, the so-called Great Horde, which formally remained dominant. The Great Horde ceased to exist at the beginning of the 16th century.

Liberation of Rus' from the yoke

In $1462, Ivan III became Sovereign Grand Duke of All Rus'. His priority foreign policy there was complete liberation from the remnants of the Horde yoke. After $10$ years he became the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat. He set out on a campaign against Rus', but Russian troops repulsed Akhmat’s attacks, and the campaign ended in nothing. Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Great Horde. Akhmat could not immediately withdraw a new army against Rus', since he was fighting the Crimean Khanate.

Akhmat's new campaign began in the summer of $1480. For Ivan III, the situation was quite difficult, since Akhmat enlisted the support of the Lithuanian prince Casimir IV. In addition, Ivan's brothers Andrey Bolshoi And Boris at the same time they rebelled and left for Lithuania. Through negotiations, the conflict with the brothers was resolved.

Ivan III went with his army to the Oka River to meet Akhmat. Khan did not cross for two months, but in September $1480 he nevertheless crossed the Oka and headed to Ugra River, located on the border with Lithuania. But Casimir IV did not come to Akhmat’s aid. Russian troops stopped Akhmat's attempts to cross the river. In November, despite the fact that the Ugra was frozen, Akhmat retreated.

Soon the khan went to Lithuania, where he plundered many settlements, avenging the betrayal of Casimir IV. But Akhmat himself was killed during the division of the loot.

Note 2

Traditionally, the events of Akhmat’s campaign against Rus' are called "standing on the Ugra River". This is not entirely true, because clashes took place, and quite violent ones, during Akhmat’s attempts to cross the river.

Be that as it may, after the “standstill,” Rus' finally got rid of the $240-year-old yoke.