The Golden Horde ceased to exist. Golden Horde - the true history of Russia

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

In its heyday it was a strong commercial and trading state, providing stability in large territories 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, denoted either independent states or Mongolian armies, depending on the situation.

It is believed that the name "Golden Horde" came from the steppe system of designating 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 set up to mark the place of his future capital on the Volga. Although accepted as true in the nineteenth century, this theory is now considered apocryphal.

There were no written monuments created before the 17th century (they were destroyed) that would mention such a state as the Golden Horde. In earlier documents, the state Ulus Jochi (Juchiev ulus) appears.

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

Mongolian origins of the Golden Horde

Until his death in 1227, Genghis Khan bequeathed to divide between his four sons, including the eldest Jochi, who died before Genghis Khan.

The part that Jochi received - the westernmost lands where the hooves of the Mongol horses could step, and then the south of Rus' were divided between the sons of Jochi - the lord of the Blue Horde Batu (west) and Khan Orda, the lord of the White Horde (east).

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

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

The Blue Horde of Batu Khan annexed lands in the west, raiding Poland and Hungary after the battles of Legnica and Mukha.

But in 1241, the great Khan Udegei 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 marched west again.

In 1242, Batu set up his capital at Saray, in his possessions on the lower reaches of the Volga. Shortly before this, the Blue Horde split - Batu's younger brother Shiban left Batu's army to create his own 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 Mongols-warriors of Batu constituted the upper class of 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 a khan, elected by a kurultai (a cathedral of the Mongol nobility) among the descendants of Batu Khan. The post of prime minister was also held by an ethnic Mongol, known as the “prince of princes” or beklerbek (bek over beks). Ministers were called viziers. Local governors or Baskaks were responsible for collecting tribute and repaying popular discontent. Ranks, as a rule, were not divided into military and civilian.

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

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

Vassals and allies of the Golden Horde

The Horde collected tribute from its subordinate peoples - Russians, Armenians, Georgians and Crimean Greeks. The territories of the Christians 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 quite soon even received the privilege of traveling around the principalities and collecting tribute for the khans. In order to maintain control over Russia, Tatar commanders carried out regular punitive raids on Russian principalities (the most dangerous in 1252, 1293 and 1382).

There is a point of view, widely spread by Lev Gumilyov, that the Horde and the Russians entered into an alliance for defense against fanatical Teutonic knights and pagan Lithuanians. Researchers point out that Russian princes often appeared at the Mongol court, in particular, Fedor Cherny, Prince of Yaroslavl, who boasted of his ulus near Sarai, and Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod, 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.

Saray was actively trading with the shopping centers of Genoa on the Black Sea coast - Surozh (Soldaya or Sudak), Kaffa and Tana (Azak or Azov). Also, the Mamluks of Egypt were the Khan's longtime trading partners and allies in the Mediterranean.

After the death of Batu in 1255, the prosperity of his empire continued for a whole century, until the assassination of Janibek in 1357. The White Horde and the 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 in order to keep Rus' weak and divided. In the fourteenth century, the rise of Lithuania in northeastern Europe challenged Tatar control over Rus'. 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 the next decade, with an average of one new khan a year in power. By the 1380s, Khorezm, Astrakhan and Muscovy tried to escape from the power of the Horde, and the lower part of the 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 the second victory over the Tatars. Mamai soon lost power, and in 1378 Tokhtamysh, a descendant of the Horde Khan and the 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 their capital in Samarkand.

In the first decades of the fifteenth century, power was held by Idegei, the vizier who defeated Vytautas of Lithuania in 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 Kasim Khanate, the Kazakh Khanate, the Uzbek Khanate and the Crimean Khanate, which divided the last remnant of the Golden Horde.

None of these new khanates was stronger than Muscovy, which by 1480 finally freed itself from Tatar control. The Russians eventually took over 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 the Russian service.

In 1475 the Crimean Khanate submitted, and by 1502 the same fate befell what was left of the Great Horde. The Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in the south of Rus' during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but they could neither defeat her nor take Moscow. The Crimean Khanate was 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.

The phenomenon of the Golden Horde still causes serious controversy among historians: some consider it powerful medieval state, according to others, it was part of the Russian lands, and for others it did not exist at all.

Why Golden Horde?

In Russian sources, the term "Golden Horde" appears only in 1556 in the "Kazan History", although this phrase is found among the Turkic peoples much earlier.

However, the historian G.V. Vernadsky argues that in the Russian chronicles the term "Golden Horde" originally referred to the tent of Khan Guyuk. The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta wrote about the same, noting that the tents of the Horde khans were covered with plates of gilded silver.
But there is another version, according to which the term "golden" is synonymous with the words "central" or "middle". It was this position that the Golden Horde occupied after the collapse of the Mongolian state.

As for the word "horde", in Persian sources it meant a mobile camp or headquarters, later it was used in relation to the whole state. In ancient Rus', an army was usually called a horde.

Borders

The Golden Horde is a fragment of the once powerful empire of Genghis Khan. By 1224, the Great Khan divided his vast possessions between his sons: one of the largest uluses with a center in the Lower Volga region went to his eldest son, Jochi.

The borders of the Juchi ulus, later the Golden Horde, were finally formed after the Western campaign (1236-1242), in which his son Batu participated (according to Russian sources, Batu). In the east, the Golden Horde included the Aral Lake, in the West - the Crimean Peninsula, in the south it neighbored Iran, and in the north it ran into the Ural Mountains.

Device

The judgment of the Mongols, solely as nomads and pastoralists, should probably become a thing of the past. The vast territories of the Golden Horde required reasonable management. After the final isolation from Karakorum, the center of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde is divided into two wings - western and eastern, and each has its own capital - in the first Sarai, in the second Horde-Bazaar. In total, according to archaeologists, the number of cities in the Golden Horde reached 150!

After 1254, the political and economic center of the state completely transferred to Sarai (located near modern Astrakhan), whose population at its peak reached 75 thousand people - by medieval standards, quite Big City. The minting of coins is being established here, pottery, jewelry, glass-blowing craft, as well as smelting and metal processing are developing. Sewerage and water supply were carried out in the city.

Sarai was a multinational city - Mongols, Russians, Tatars, Alans, Bulgars, Byzantines and other peoples peacefully coexisted here. The Horde, being an Islamic state, tolerated other religions. In 1261, the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and later the Catholic bishopric.

The cities of the Golden Horde are gradually turning into major centers of caravan trade. Here you can find everything - from silk and spices, to weapons and precious stones. The state is also actively developing its trade zone: caravan routes from Horde cities lead both to Europe and Rus', as well as to India and China.

Horde and Rus'

In national historiography for a long time the main concept characterizing the relationship between Rus' and the Golden Horde was the "yoke". We were painted terrible pictures of the Mongol colonization of Russian lands, when wild hordes of nomads destroyed everyone and everything in their path, and the survivors were turned into slavery.

However, in the Russian chronicles the term "yoke" was not. It first appears in the works of the Polish historian Jan Długosz in the second half of the 15th century. Moreover, the Russian princes and Mongol khans, according to researchers, preferred to negotiate rather than devastate the lands.

L. N. Gumilyov, by the way, considered the relationship between Rus' and the Horde an advantageous military-political alliance, and N. M. Karamzin noted the most important role of the Horde in the rise of the Moscow principality.

It is known that Alexander Nevsky, having enlisted the support of the Mongols and insured his rear, was able to expel the Swedes and Germans from northwestern Rus'. And in 1269, when the crusaders besieged the walls of Novgorod, the Mongol detachment helped the Russians repulse their attack. The Horde sided with Nevsky in his conflict with the Russian nobility, and he, in turn, helped her resolve inter-dynastic disputes.
Of course, a significant part of the Russian lands was conquered by the Mongols and subjected to tribute, but the scale of the devastation is probably greatly exaggerated.

The princes, who wanted to cooperate, received the so-called "labels" from the khans, becoming, in fact, the governors of the Horde. The burden of duty for the lands controlled by the princes was significantly reduced. No matter how humiliating vassalage was, it still retained the autonomy of the Russian principalities and prevented bloody wars.

The Church was completely freed by the Horde from paying tribute. The first label was given to the clergy - Metropolitan Kirill Khan Mengu-Temir. History has preserved the words of the khan for us: “We favored the priests and blacks and all the poor people, but with their right heart they pray to God for us, and for our tribe without sorrow, bless us, but do not curse us.” The label ensured freedom of religion and inviolability of church property.

G. V. Nosovsky and A. T. Fomenko in the "New Chronology" put forward a very bold hypothesis: Rus' and the Horde are one and the same state. They easily turn Batu into Yaroslav the Wise, Tokhtamysh into Dmitry Donskoy, and transfer the capital of the Horde, Saray, to Velikiy Novgorod. However, official history more than categorically tuned to this version.

Wars

Without a doubt, the Mongols were best at fighting. True, they took for the most part not by skill, but by number. conquer space from Sea of ​​Japan to the Danube, the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants were helped by conquered peoples - Polovtsy, Tatars, Nogais, Bulgars, Chinese and even Russians. The Golden Horde was not able to keep the empire within its former limits, but you cannot deny it militancy. The maneuverable cavalry, numbering hundreds of thousands of horsemen, forced many to capitulate.

For the time being, it was possible to maintain a delicate balance in relations between Russia and the Horde. But when the appetites of the temnik Mamai were in earnest, the contradictions between the parties resulted in the legendary battle on the Kulikovo field (1380). Its result was the defeat of the Mongol army and the weakening of the Horde. This event completes the period of the "Great Jail", when the Golden Horde was in a fever from civil strife and dynastic troubles.
The turmoil stopped and power was strengthened with the accession to the throne of Tokhtamysh. In 1382, he again goes to Moscow and resumes the payment of tribute. However, exhausting wars with the more combat-ready army of Tamerlane, in the end, undermined the former power of the Horde and for a long time discouraged the desire to make aggressive campaigns.

In the next century, the Golden Horde gradually began to "crumble" into parts. So, one after another, the Siberian, Uzbek, Astrakhan, Crimean, Kazan Khanates and the Nogai Horde appeared within its borders. The weakening attempts of the Golden Horde to carry out punitive actions were stopped by Ivan III. The famous "Standing on the Ugra" (1480) did not develop into a large-scale battle, but finally broke the last Horde Khan Akhmat. Since that time, the Golden Horde formally ceased to exist.

The Golden Horde was formed in the Middle Ages, and it was a really powerful state. Many countries tried to support with him a good relationship. Cattle breeding became the main occupation of the Mongols, and they knew nothing about the development of agriculture. They were fascinated by the art of war, which is why they were excellent riders. It should be especially noted that the Mongols did not accept weak and cowardly people into their ranks.

In 1206, Genghis Khan becomes a great khan, whose real name is Temujin. He managed to unite many tribes. Possessing a strong military potential, Genghis Khan with his army defeated the Tangut kingdom, Northern China, Korea and Central Asia. Thus began the formation of the Golden Horde.

It lasted for about two hundred years. It was formed on the ruins and was a powerful political formation in Desht-i-Kypchak. The Golden Horde appeared after it died; it was the heir to the empires of nomadic tribes in the Middle Ages. The goal set by the formation of the Golden Horde was to take possession of one branch (northern) of the Great Silk Road.

Eastern sources say that in 1230 a large detachment, consisting of 30 thousand Mongols, appeared in the Caspian steppes. It was a site of nomadic Polovtsy, they were called Kypchaks. Many thousands went to the West. Along the way, the troops conquered the Volga Bulgars and Bashkirs, and after that they captured the Polovtsian lands.

Genghis Khan assigned Jochi to his eldest son as an ulus (region of the empire) in the Polovtsian lands, who, like his father, died in 1227. A complete victory over these lands was won by the eldest son of Genghis Khan, whose name was Batu. He and his army completely subjugated the Ulus of Jochi and stayed on the Lower Volga in 1242-1243.

During these years it was divided into four destinies. The Golden Horde was the first of these, a state within a state. Each of the four had its own ulus: Kulagu (this included the territory of the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf and the territory of the Arabs); Jagatai (included the area of ​​present-day Kazakhstan and Central Asia); Ogedei (it consisted of Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, Northern China and Transbaikalia) and Jochi (this is the Black Sea and the Volga region). However, the ulus of Ogedei was the main one. In Mongolia, there was the capital of the common Mongol empire - Karakorum. All state events took place here, the leader of the kagan was main man throughout the united empire.

The Mongolian troops were distinguished by militancy, initially they attacked the Ryazan and Vladimir principalities. Russian cities again turned out to be a target for conquest and enslavement. Only Novgorod survived. In the next two years, the Mongol troops captured all of what was then Rus'. During the fierce hostilities, he lost half of his troops.

The Russian princes were separated at the time of the formation of the Golden Horde and therefore suffered constant defeats. Batu conquered Russian lands and imposed tribute on the local population. Alexander Nevsky was the first who managed to negotiate with the Horde and temporarily suspend hostilities.

In the 60s, there was a war between the uluses, which marked the collapse of the Golden Horde, which the Russian people took advantage of. In 1379, Dmitry Donskoy refused to pay tribute and killed the Mongol generals. In response, the Mongol Khan Mamai attacked Rus'. It began in which the Russian troops won. Their dependence on the Horde became insignificant and the Mongols troops left Rus'. The collapse of the Golden Horde was completely completed.

The Tatar-Mongol yoke lasted for 240 years and ended with the victory of the Russian people, however, the formation of the Golden Horde can hardly be overestimated. Thanks to the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the Russian principalities began to unite against a common enemy, which strengthened and made the Russian state even more powerful. Historians estimate the formation of the Golden Horde as an important stage for the development of Rus'.

Mongol-Tatar state, founded in the early 40s. 13th century Khan Batu (1208-1255) - the son of Khan Jochi - in the lower reaches of the Volga River (Ulus Jochi). The capital was the city of Sarai-Batu (in the area of ​​modern Astrakhan). At the beginning of the XIV century. the capital was moved to Saray-Berke (near modern Volgograd). The composition included Western Siberia, Volga Bulgaria (Bulgaria), North Caucasus, Crimea and other territories.

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GOLDEN HORDE

Ulus Jochi) - feud. state-in, founded in the beginning. 40s 13th c. Khan Batu (1236-1255), son of Khan Jochi, the ulus to-rogo (allocated in 1224) included Khorezm, Sev. Caucasus. As a result of the campaigns of Batu in 1236-40, the regions of the Volga Bulgarians, the Polovtsian steppes (see Desht-i-Kipchak), Crimea, and Zap. Siberia. The power of the Z. O. khans extended to the territory. from lower Danube and Finnish Hall. on W. to bass. Irtysh and lower. Ob in the East, from the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas and Lake. Balkhash in the south to the Novgorod lands in the region of the North. Arctic Ocean in the north. However, the indigenous Rus. the lands were not included in the Z. O., but were in vassal dependence on it, paid tribute and obeyed the orders of the khans in a number of important political. questions. Z. O. existed until the 15th century. In east. sources of state-in naz. Ulus of Jochi, in Russian. annals - Z. O. The center of Z. O. was Nizh. The Volga region, where, under Batu, the city of Sarai-Batu (near modern Astrakhan) became the capital, in the 1st half. 14th c. the capital was moved to Saray-Berke (founded by Khan Berke (1255-1266), near present-day Volgograd). Initially, Z. O. was in a certain subordination to led. mong. Khan, from the time of Batu's brother Khan Berke, she became completely independent. ZO was an art. and unstable state. association. The population of Z. O. was variegated in composition. Volga Bulgarians, Mordovians, Russians, Greeks, Khorezmians, and others lived in settled areas. the bulk of the nomads were Turks. the tribes of the Polovtsy (Kipchaks), Kanglys, Tatars, Turkmens, Kirghiz, etc. The Mongols themselves in the 13th and 1st half. 14th century gradually accepted the Turks. languages. Societies level. And cultural development ZO population was also different. The nomadic population was dominated by semi-patriarchal, semi-feudal. relations, in districts with a settled population - a feud. relationship. After the conquests, accompanied by monstrous destruction and human. victims, ch. the goal of the Golden Horde rulers was to rob the enslaved population. This was achieved through severe requisitions. The lands that were in vassal dependence on the Z.O. paid tribute, the collection of which was often accompanied by predatory raids. The peasant farmers of the Z. O. (“sabanchi”) paid “kalan”, that is, rent in kind, a tax on cultivated land. plots, collection from vineyards, arts. irrigation - from ditches, paid emergency taxes, as well as fees in favor of officials. In addition, they carried road, bridge, underwater and other duties. There was probably a labor rent, which was performed by the peasant sharecroppers ("urtakchi"). Nomads, as well as farmers who had livestock, paid "kopchur" - a tax on livestock in kind. The burden of taxation was intensified in connection with the spread in the Western Oblast of the tax collection system, which led to mass abuses. Main part of the land and pastures was concentrated in the hands of the Mong. feud. nobility, in favor of a swarm, and the working population bore duties. Craft. The production of Z. O. nomads took the form of domestic crafts. In the cities of ZO there were various crafts with production for the market, but the producers were, as a rule, artisans of the conquered regions. Even in Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berk, craftsmen were taken out from Khorezm, Sev. Caucasus, Crimea, as well as newcomers Russians, Armenians, Greeks, etc. Many cities in the conquered territories, devastated by the Mongols, were in decline or completely disappeared. Large centers, ch. arr. caravan trade, there were Sarai-Batu, Sarai-Berke, Urgench, the Crimean cities of Sudak, Kafa (Feodosia); Azak (Azov) on the Azov m., etc. At the head of the state were khans from the house of Batu. In particularly important cases, political life, kurultai were convened - congresses of military feuds. nobility led by members of the ruling dynasty. State affairs were led by a beklyare-bek (prince over princes), separate branches ("sofas") - by a vizier and his assistant (naib). Darugs were sent to the cities and regions subordinate to them, ch. duty to-rykh was the collection of taxes, taxes, tributes. Often, along with the darugs, military leaders were appointed - Baskaks. State. the device was worn by the paramilitary. character, because military. and adm. positions are usually not divided. The most important positions were occupied by members of the ruling dynasty, princes ("oglans"), who owned appanages in Z. O. and the troops at the head of the left and right wing. From the environment of the runs (noins) and tarkhans came out the main. command cadres of the troops - temniks, thousanders, centurions, as well as bakauls (officials who distributed military maintenance, booty, etc.). The fragile nature of the state. associations Z. O., as well as the development of the feud. relations that have strengthened the position of large feudal lords and created the ground for internecine struggle between them, and especially growth will free. the struggle of conquered and dependent peoples became Ch. the reasons for the weakening, and then the collapse and death of Z. O. Already during its formation, Z. O. was divided into uluses that belonged to 14 sons of Jochi: 13 brothers were semi-independent. sovereigns subordinate to the top. power of Batu. Decentralization tendencies appeared after the death of Khan Mengu-Timur (1266-82), when the feud began. war between the princes of the house of Jochi. Under the khans of Tuda-Mengu (1282-87) and Talabuga (1287-91), the actual. Temnik Nogai became the ruler of the state. Only Khan Tokhta (1291-1312) managed to get rid of Nogai and his supporters. After 5 years, a new turmoil arose. Its termination is associated with the name of Khan Uzbek (1312-42); under him and his successor Khan Dzhanibek (1342-1357) Z. O. reached max. military rise. power. ZO was at that time one of the strongest states in the Middle Ages. There was a centralization of power. The former uluses were turned into regions headed by emirs. The strengthening of the power of the khans was also expressed in the termination of the convocation of kurultai. Military the forces under Uzbek numbered up to 300,000 hours. However, the unrest that began in 1357 with the murder of Dzhanibek testified to the beginning of its collapse. From 1357 to 1380, more than 25 khans were on the throne of the Golden Horde. Troubles in ZO reached the stage when it more and more often ceased to be a state from the center. power. In the 60-70s. actual Temnik Mamai became the ruler with the help of dummy khans, who subjugated the lands west of the Volga, including the Crimea. In the lands east of the Volga, there was a struggle between Genghisids from the house of Batu and the house of his brother Ichen. In the beginning. 60s 14th c. Khorezm fell away from Z. O., where the state of the Sufis was formed; Poland and Lithuania seized lands in the bass. R. Dnieper, separated Astrakhan. Mamai had, in addition, to face the increased alliance of Russian. kn-in, headed by Moscow, the dependence of which on Z. O. became formal (cessation of payment of tribute). Mamai's attempt to weaken Rus' again by organizing a huge predatory campaign led to the defeat of the Tatars by the united Russians. troops in the Battle of Kulikovo 1380. In the 80-90s. 14th c. general political the situation temporarily developed in favor of Z. A. Under Khan Tokhtamysh (1380-95), the unrest stopped, and the center. power began to control the main. territory Z. O. Tokhtamysh in 1380 defeated the army of Mamai on the river. Kalke, in 1382 went to Moscow, captured him by deceit and burned him. But this was only a temporary success. After strengthening his power, he opposed Timur (Tamerlane) and made a number of campaigns against Maverannahr, Azerbaijan, and Iran. But in the end, the row will devastate. campaigns (1389, 1391, 1395-96) Timur defeated the troops of Tokhtamysh, captured and destroyed the Volga cities, including Saray-Berke, robbed the cities of Crimea, etc. Z. O. was struck, from which she was already couldn't recover. The last attempt to revive the power of Z.O. is associated with the name of Edigei, who for a short time managed, relying on dummy khans, to subjugate most of the Z.O. leading to the complete collapse of Z. O. In the beginning. 20s 15th c. the Siberian Khanate was formed, in the 40s. - Nogai Horde, then the Kazan Khanate (1438) and the Crimean Khanate (1443), and in the 60s. - Kazakh, Uzbek and Astrakhan khanates. In the 15th century significantly weakened the dependence of Rus' on Z. O. In 1480, Akhmat, Khan of the Great Horde, who was for some time the successor of Z. O., tried to achieve obedience from Ivan III, but this attempt ended unsuccessfully. In 1480 Russian. the people finally freed themselves from the Tat.-Mong. yoke. The Great Horde ceased to exist at the beginning. 16th century Lit .: Tizenhausen V., Collection of materials related to the history of the Golden Horde, v. 1, St. Petersburg, 1884; Nasonov A. N., Mongols and Rus', M.-L., 1940; Grekov B. D. and Yakubovsky A. Yu., Golden Horde and its fall, M.-L., 1950; Safargaliev M. G., The collapse of the Golden Horde, Saransk, 1960; Merpert N. Ya. (and others), Genghis Khan and his legacy, "ISSSR", 1962, No 5. V. I. Buganov. Moscow. -***-***-***- Golden Horde in the second half of the 13th century.

When determining the historical-geographical and ethnic origins of the Golden Horde, it is important to clarify the terminology used in historical literature. The phrase "Mongol-Tatars" arose in Russian historical science in the 19th century. Initially, the "Tatars" were one of the Mongol-speaking tribes united at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. Temuchin (Temujin, later Genghis Khan). After a series of conquests by Genghis Khan, "Tatars" began to be called in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Russian and Western European sources of the 13th-14th centuries. all nomadic tribes (including non-Mongolian ones), united and subjugated by him. During this period, several states arose in Eurasia, in which the Mongols formed the organizing and leading basis. They retained their self-name - the Mongols, but the surrounding peoples continued to call them Tatars. During the existence of the Golden Horde, its ethnic base - the Mongols assimilated by the Turkic-speaking Polovtsians - was referred to in Russian chronicles only as Tatars. In addition, several new Turkic-speaking peoples formed on its territory, which eventually adopted the ethnonym "Tatars" as a self-name: Volga Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Siberian Tatars.

Mongolian tribes in the XII century. occupied the territory bounded by Altai, the Gobi Desert, the Greater Khingan Range and Lake Baikal. The Tatars lived in the area of ​​​​the Buir-nor and Dalai-Nor lakes, the Uryankhats inhabited the northeastern regions of Mongolia and, the Khungirats occupied the southeastern part of Mongolia, the Taichiuds (Taichzhiuds) were located along the Onon River, the Merkits roamed along, and the Kereites and Naimans - further to west. Between and the Yenisei in the taiga zone lived Oirats, "people of the forests."

The population of Mongolia in the XII century. It was subdivided according to the way of life into forest and steppe. The forest peoples lived in the taiga and taiga zones and were mainly engaged in hunting and fishing. Most of the tribes led a nomadic pastoral economy. The Mongols lived in yurts, collapsible or mounted on carts. A wagon with a yurt was transported by bulls; in the parking lots, such wagons were located in a ring. Horses, cows, sheep and goats were bred, and camels in smaller numbers. hunted and, to a limited extent, engaged in sowing, mainly millet.

The formation and collapse of the empire of Genghis Khan

The camps of the Temuchin family itself, related to the Taichiuds, were located between the rivers Onon and Kerulen. In the internecine struggle at the turn of the XII-XIII centuries. Temujin subjugated all the Mongol tribes and at the kurultai of 1206 he was proclaimed Genghis Khan (later this title was fixed as a name). After that, the surrounding peoples were subordinated -, and the "forest peoples" of the southern Baikal region. In 1211, the Mongols conquered the Tangut state, and then, within a few years, northern China. In 1219-1221 the state of Khorezmshah was conquered, which occupied Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Iran, and the middle Indus basin, after which Genghis Khan himself returned to. He sent his commanders Zhebe and Subetai-baatur with a large detachment to the north, commanding them to reach eleven countries and peoples, such as: Kanlin, Kibchaut, Bachzhigit, Orosut, Machjarat, Asut, Sasut, Serkesut, Keshimir, Bolar, Raral ( Lalat), cross the high-water rivers Idil and Ayakh, and also reach the city of Kivamen-kermen.

Already at the beginning of the XIII century. the association headed by Genghis Khan included non-Mongolian tribes (Uigurs, Tanguts,). The ethnic diversity of the concepts of "Mongols", "Tatars" intensified with the inclusion of the population of the northern, Tangut state into the Mongol state, Central Asia, Northern . By the 20s. 13th century The Mongolian state covered the space from Manchuria to the Caspian Sea and from the middle Irtysh to the middle Indus. It was an association of multilingual peoples located on various levels socio-economic and political development. After the death of Genghis Khan (1227), the empire was divided among his descendants into uluses.

Ulus- the Mongols have a tribal association subordinate to the khan or leader, in a broad sense - all subject people, as well as the territory of nomads. With education Mongolian states this term is increasingly used in the sense of "state" in general or an administrative-territorial unit.

The ulus of the Great Khan, which included China, Tibet, the Baikal region and the south of Eastern Siberia, was ruled by the son of Genghis Khan Ugede (Ugedei). The capital of the ulus was in Karakorum and its ruler, initially - in fact, and later - formally, was the head of all Mongolian states. Ulus Zhagatai occupied Central Asia: the middle and upper reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, Lake Balkhash, Semirechye, Tien Shan and the Takla Makan desert. The descendants of Hulagu received Northern Iran and gradually expanded their possessions to the whole of Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Transcaucasia. The eldest son of Genghis Khan, Jochi, got the western outskirts of the Mongol empire: Altai, the south of Western Siberia to the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh and part of Central Asia between the Caspian and Aral, as well as Khorezm (lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya).

The folding of the main state territory of the Golden Horde

Under the name "ulus of Jochi" (options "ulus of Batu", "ulus of Berke", etc.) in eastern sources, the state is known, which in Russians is referred to as the "Horde" (the term "Golden Horde" appeared in the annals only in the second half of the 16th century, after the disappearance of the state). Jochi's son Batu Khan managed to expand the territory of his ulus. As a result of aggressive campaigns from the autumn of 1236 to the spring of 1241, the Polovtsian nomad camps, Volga Bulgaria, and most of the Russian principalities were conquered and devastated. After that, the Mongols invaded the territory of Hungary, where they also won a number of victories, were defeated in, and then reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Despite the successes, by this time Batu's troops were significantly weakened, which served main reason his return by 1243 to the Black Sea steppes. From this moment, a new state originates.

The "core" of the Golden Horde, its territorial basis was the steppe zone of Eastern Europe - the Black Sea, Caspian and North Kazakhstan steppes up to the Siberian river Chulyman (Chulym) - known in the Middle Ages in the East as Desht-i-Kipchak. In the second half of the XIII century. the boundaries of the Horde were gradually established, which were determined both by natural geographical points and by the borders of neighboring states. In the west, the territory of the state was limited by the lower reaches of the Danube from its mouth to the southern Carpathians. From here, the border of the Horde stretched across thousands of kilometers to the northeast, passing almost everywhere along the forest-steppe belt and rarely entering the forest zone. The foothills of the Carpathians served as a border with, then in the middle reaches of the Prut, Dniester and Southern Bug, the Horde lands came into contact with the Galician principality, and in Porosie with the Kiev region. On the left bank of the Dnieper, the border from the lower reaches of the Psel and Vorskla went to Kursk, then turned sharply to the north (sources report that the Russian city of Tula and its environs were directly controlled by the Horde Baskaks) and again went south to the sources of the Don. Further, the territory of the Horde captured forest areas, reaching in the north to the line of the source of the Don - the confluence of the Tsna and Moksha - the mouth of the Sura - the Volga near the mouth of the Vetluga - the middle Vyatka -. There is no specific information about the northeastern and eastern borders of the state in the sources, however, it is known that the Southern Urals, the territory to the Irtysh and Chulaman, the foothills of Altai and Lake Balkhash were in his possession. In Central Asia, the border stretched from Balkhash to the middle reaches of the Syr Darya and further west to the south of the Mangyshlak peninsula. From the Caspian to the Black Sea, the possessions of the Horde reached the foothills of the Caucasus, and the coast served as the natural border of the state in the southwest.

Within the outlined borders, there was direct power of the Golden Horde khans in the middle of the 13th-14th centuries, however, there were also territories that were dependent on the Horde, which was expressed mainly in the payment of tribute. The dependent territories included the Russian principalities, with the exception of the northwestern ones (Turovo-Pinsky, Polotsk and their internal appanages, which in the second half of the 13th century became part of Lithuania), for some time the Bulgarian kingdom, politically fragmented by this time, and the Serbian kingdom . The southern coast, where several Genoese colonies were located, was also a territory semi-dependent on the Horde. In the XIV century. the khans managed to capture for a short time some areas southwest of the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan and northern Iran.

The population of the Golden Horde was distinguished by great diversity. The bulk were Polovtsians (Kipchaks), who lived, as before the arrival of the Mongols, in the Black Sea and Caspian steppes. In the XIV century. the newcomer Mongols gradually disappeared into the Kipchak environment, forgetting their language and script. This process is vividly described by one Arab contemporary: “In ancient times, this state was the country of the Kipchaks, but when the Tatars took possession of it, the Kipchaks became their subjects. Then they (Tatars) mixed and intermarried with them (Kipchaks), and the earth prevailed over the natural and racial qualities of them (Tatars), and they all became like Kipchaks, as if they were of the same (with them) clan, because the Mongols settled on the land of the Kipchaks, married with them and remained to live in their land (the Kipchaks). Assimilation was facilitated by the community economic life Polovtsians and Mongols, nomadic cattle breeding remained the basis of their way of life even during the period of the Golden Horde. However, the khan's authorities needed cities to obtain maximum income from crafts and trade, so the conquered cities were restored rather quickly, and from the 50s. 13th century began the active construction of cities in the steppes.

The first capital of the Golden Horde was Saray, founded by Khan Batu in the early 1250s. Its remains are located on the left bank of the Akhtuba near the village of Selitrennoye, Astrakhan Region. The population, reaching 75 thousand people, were Mongols, Alans, Kipchaks, Circassians, Russians and Byzantine Greeks, who lived apart from each other. Saray al-Jedid (in translation - the New Palace) was founded upstream of the Akhtuba under Khan Uzbek (1312-1342), and later the capital of the state was moved here. From the cities that arose on the right bank of the Volga, highest value had Ukek (Uvek) on the outskirts of modern Saratov, Beldzhamen on the Volga-Don lane, Khadzhitarkhan above modern Astrakhan. In the lower reaches of the Yaik, Saraichik arose - an important transit point for caravan trade, in the middle Kum - Madzhar (Madzhary), at the mouth of the Don - Azak, in the steppe part of the Crimean peninsula - Crimea and Kyrk-Er, on the Tura (a tributary of the Tobol) - Tyumen (Chingi - Tura). The number of cities and towns founded by the Horde in Eastern Europe and adjacent Asian territories, known to us from historical sources and explored by archaeologists, there were much more. Only the largest of them are named here. Almost all cities were ethnically diverse. Another characteristic feature Golden Horde cities had a complete absence of external fortifications, at least until the 60s. 14th century

Immediately after the defeat of the lands of the Volga Bulgaria in 1236, part of the Bulgar population moved to the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Mordvins also left for Rus' before the Mongols came here. During the existence of the Golden Horde in the Lower Kama region, the bulk of the population, as before, was the Bulgars. The old Bulgarian cities of Bulgar, Bilyar, Suvar, etc. have been preserved here (before the foundation of Saray, Batu used Bulgar as his residence), and also gradually rises to the north of the Kama. The process of mixing the Bulgars with the Kipchak-Mongolian elements led to the emergence of a new Turkic ethnic group - the Kazan Tatars. The forest area from the Volga to Tsna was inhabited by a settled Finno-Ugric population, mainly. To control it, the Mongols founded the city of Mokhshi on the Moksha River near the modern city of Narovchat in the Penza region.

As a result of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the composition and number of the population in the southern Russian steppes changed. Relatively populated and economically developed lands became depopulated. The first decades of the existence of the Horde on its northern territories the Russian population lived in the forest-steppe zone. However, over time, this zone becomes more and more empty, Russian settlements here fall into decay, and their inhabitants leave for the territory of Russian principalities and lands.

The westernmost part of the Horde from the Dnieper to the lower Danube before the Mongol invasion was inhabited by Polovtsy, wanderers and a small number of Slavs. From the middle of the XIII century. the surviving part of this population joined the Kipchak-Mongolian ethnos, and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region and the Crimean peninsula were a nomadic area. There were few stationary settlements in this territory, the most significant of them was the Slavic Belgorod on the Dniester estuary, revived by the Mongols with the Turkic name Ak-Kerman. In the North Caucasus, the Horde khans waged a long struggle with local tribes who fought for their independence -, Alans,. This struggle was quite successful, so the real possessions of the Horde reached only the foothills. The largest settlement here was the ancient Derbent. A large number of cities continued to exist in the Central Asian part of the Horde: Urgench (Khorezm), Dzhend, Sygnak, Turkestan, Otrar, Sairam, etc. There were almost no settled settlements in the steppes from the lower Volga to the upper reaches of the Irtysh. Bashkirs settled in the Southern Urals - nomadic cattle breeders and hunters, and Finno-Ugric tribes settled along the Tobol and the middle Irtysh. The interaction of the local population with the newcomer Mongolian and Kipchak elements led to the emergence of the ethnic group of Siberian Tatars. There were also few cities here, except for Tyumen, Isker (Siberia) is known on the Irtysh, near modern Tobolsk.

Ethnic and economic geography. Administrative-territorial division.

The ethnic diversity of the population was reflected in economic geography Hordes. The peoples that were part of it, in most cases, retained their way of life and economic activities, therefore, nomadic cattle breeding, agriculture of settled tribes, and other industries were important in the economy of the state. The khans themselves and representatives of the Horde administration received most of their income in the form of tribute from the conquered peoples, from the labor of artisans who were forcibly relocated to new cities, and from trade. The last article was very great importance Therefore, the Mongols took care of the improvement of trade routes that passed through the territory of the state. The center of the state territory - Lower - connected the Volga route with Bulgaria and the Russian lands. In the place closest to the Don, the city of Beljamen arose, to ensure the safety and convenience of merchants crossing the lane. To the east, the caravan road went through the Northern Caspian Sea to Khiva. Part of this route from Saraichik to Urgench, which ran through desert waterless regions, was very well equipped: at a distance approximately corresponding to a day's march (about 30 km), wells were dug and caravanserais were built. Khadzhitarkhan was connected by land road with the city of Madzhar, from which there were routes to Derbent and Azak. The Horde communicated with Europe both by water and land routes: along the Northern Black Sea and the Danube, from the Crimean Genoese ports through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean Sea. The Dnieper route has largely lost its significance compared to the previous period.

In administrative-territorial terms, the Horde was divided into uluses, the boundaries of which were not clear and permanent. In general, this concept itself in the period under review is increasingly used in the sense of a spatial unit, although initially the “ulus” was also understood as the entire population given by the khan under the control of any person. It is known that since the 1260s. until 1300, the western part of the Horde from the lower Danube to the lower Dnieper was the ulus of Nogai's temnik. Although these territories, formally considered part of the Horde, were given to Nogai by Khan Berke, their dependence on the center was nominal. Nogai enjoyed virtually complete independence and often had a significant influence on the Sarai khans. Only after the defeat of Nogai by Khan Tokta in 1300 was the center of separatism eliminated. The northern steppe part of the Crimean peninsula was the Crimea ulus. The steppes between the Dnieper and the Volga are referred to in the sources as the Desht-i-Kipchak ulus. It was ruled by officials of the highest rank - beklyaribeks or viziers, and the space of the entire ulus was divided into smaller units, which were under the control of lower level chiefs - ulusbeks (a similar system existed in all administrative-territorial units of the Horde). The territory to the east from the Volga to Yaik - the Sarai ulus - was the place of nomads of the Khan himself. The ulus of the son of Juchi Shiban occupied the territories of modern Northern and Western Siberia to the Irtysh and Chulym, and the ulus of Khorezm - the area southwest of the Aral Sea to the Caspian Sea. To the east of the Syr Darya was Kok-Orda (Blue Horde) with its center in Sygnak.

The listed names refer to the largest uluses of the Golden Horde known to us, although smaller ones also existed. These administrative-territorial units were distributed by khans to relatives, military leaders or officials at their own discretion and were not hereditary possessions. The cities of the Golden Horde were special administrative units controlled by officials appointed by the khan.

Disintegration of the Horde

The reduction of the territory of the Horde began at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. The defeat of Nogai in 1300 weakened the military power of the state in the west, as a result of which the Danubian lowland was lost, captured by the Kingdom of Hungary and the emerging Wallachian state.

60s–70s 14th century - the time of internal strife and the struggle for power in the Horde itself. As a result of the rebellion of Temnik Mamai in 1362, the state actually split into two warring parts, the border between which was the Volga. The steppes between the Volga, Don and Dnieper, and the Crimea were under the rule of Mamai. The left bank of the Volga with the capital of the state, Sarai al-Dzhedid, and the surrounding areas formed a counterweight to Mamai, in which the capital aristocracy played the main role, on the whims of which the Sarai khans who changed quite often depended. The line passing along the Volga, which split the Golden Horde, existed quite steadily until 1380. Mamai managed to capture Saray al-Jedid in 1363, 1368 and 1372, but these seizures were short-lived and did not eliminate the split of the state. Internal strife weakened the military and political power of the Horde, in connection with which more and more new territories began to fall away from it.

In 1361, the ulus of Khorezm broke away, which had long been the bearer of separatist tendencies. It formed its own ruling dynasty, which did not recognize the power of Saray. The separation of Khorezm caused major damage to the Horde, not only politically, but also economically, since this region occupied key position in international caravan trade. The loss of this economically developed ulus noticeably weakened the positions of the Sarai khans, depriving them of an important support in the struggle against Mamai.

Territorial losses continued in the west as well. In the 60s. 14th century in the Eastern Carpathian region, the Moldavian principality was formed, which captured the Prut-Dniester interfluve, destroying the Golden Horde settlements here. After the victory of Prince Olgerd over the Mongols in the battle near the Blue Waters River (now Sinyukha, the left tributary of the Southern Bug), around 1363, Lithuania began to penetrate into Podolia and the right bank of the lower Dnieper.

The victory of the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich over Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 allowed Khan Tokhtamysh to restore the relative unity of the Horde, but two campaigns of Timur (Tamerlane) in 1391 and 1395. dealt her a devastating blow. Most of the Golden Horde cities were destroyed, in many of them life died out forever (Saray al-Jedid, Beljamen, Ukek, etc.). After that, the collapse of the state became a matter of time. At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. in the Trans-Volga region, the Horde is formed, occupying the steppes from the Volga to the Irtysh, from the Caspian and Aral Seas to Southern Urals. In 1428–1433 an independent Crimean Khanate was founded, which initially occupied the Crimean steppes and gradually captured the entire peninsula, as well as the Northern Black Sea region. By the mid 40s. 15th century the Kazan Khanate was formed and separated on the middle Volga and the lower Kama, and in the 1450s-60s. in the Ciscaucasian steppes, a khanate was formed with a center in Khadzhitarkhan (Russian sources call this city Astrakhan). In the XV century. at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh with the center in Chingi-Tur (Tyumen), the Siberian Khanate gradually formed, initially dependent on the Nogai Horde. The remnants of the Golden Horde - the Great Horde - until 1502 roamed the steppes between the upper reaches of the Seversky Donets and the Volga-Don perevoloka.