Mongol conquest of Eastern Europe
The route of the first Mongol expedition in Russia - 1223
Date 1223, 1236–1240 Location Modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Result Decisive Mongol victory resulting in principalities of Kievan State becoming vassals of the Mongol Golden Horde.
Belligerents
Mongol Empire	Vladimir-Suzdal Galicia-Volhynia Novgorod Republic Principality of Ryazan
Commanders and leaders
Batu Khan Mongke Khan Subutai Jebe Burundai Berke Orda Guyuk Khan	Mstislav Mstislavich Yuri II of Vladimir Mstislav III of Kiev Dmitro Daniel of Galicia
Strength
20,000 in 1223 In 1236, More than 35,000 Mongols+More than 40,000 Turkic auxiliaries	80,000 in 1223
Casualties and losses
More than 7,000	500,000 (6-7% of the population of Rus)[1]

The Mongol invasion of Rus was resumed on 21 December 1237 marking the resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked the medieval powers of Poland, Kiev, Hungary, and miscellaneous tribes of less organized peoples. The European invasion, heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River (1223) was fought between the scout forces of just the two Mongolian generals Subutai and Jebe, whose reconnaissance unit met in battle with the combined force of several Rus' princes.

After fifteen years of peace, the Rus' invasion was followed by Batu Khan's full-scale invasion of Rus' and points west during 1237 to 1240, which only ended with a Mongol succession crisis.

The invasion, facilitated by the breakup of Kievan Rus' in the 12th century, had incalculable ramifications for the history of Eastern Europe, including the division of the East Slavic people into three separate nations (modern day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus).^[2] and the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Background[link]

As it was undergoing fragmentation, Kievan Rus' faced the unexpected eruption of an irresistible foreign foe coming from the mysterious regions of the Far East. "For our sins", writes the Rus' chronicler of the time, "unknown nations arrived. No one knew their origin or whence they came, or what religion they practiced. That is known only to God, and perhaps to wise men learned in books".^{[citation needed]}

The princes of Rus' first heard of the coming Mongol warriors from the nomadic Cumans. Previously known for pillaging settlers on the frontier, the nomads now preferred peaceful relations, warning their neighbors: "These terrible strangers have taken our country, and tomorrow they will take yours if you do not come and help us". In response to this call, Mstislav the Bold and Mstislav Romanovich the Old joined forces and set out eastward to meet the foe, only to be routed in 1223 at the Battle of the Kalka River, a defeat remembered to this day in Russia and Ukraine.

Although this defeat left the Kievan principality at the mercy of invaders, the Mongol forces retreated and did not reappear for thirteen years, during which time the princes of Rus' went on quarreling and fighting as before, until they were startled by a new and much more formidable invading force.

Invasion of Batu Khan[link]

Sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan in February, 1238: a miniature from the sixteenth century chronicle

The vast Mongol hordes of around 35,000 mounted archers, commanded by Batu Khan and Subutai, crossed the Volga River and invaded Volga Bulgaria in the autumn of 1236. It took them a year to extinguish the resistance of the Volga Bulgarians, the Kipchaks/Cumans and the Alani.

In November 1237, Batu Khan sent his envoys to the court of Yuri II of Vladimir and demanded his submission. A month later, the hordes besieged Ryazan. After six days of bloody battle, the city was totally annihilated. Alarmed by the news, Yuri II sent his sons to detain the invaders, but they were soundly defeated. Having burnt down Kolomna and Moscow, the horde laid siege to Vladimir on February 4, 1238. Three days later, the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal was taken and burnt to the ground. The royal family perished in the fire, while the grand prince retreated northward. Crossing the Volga, he mustered a new army, which was totally annihilated by the Mongols in the Battle of the Sit River on March 4.

Thereupon Batu Khan divided his army into smaller units, which ransacked fourteen cities of modern-day Russia: Rostov, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kashin, Ksnyatin, Gorodets, Galich, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yuriev-Polsky, Dmitrov, Volokolamsk, Tver, and Torzhok. The most difficult to take was the small town of Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Vasily, son of Titus, and inhabitants resisted the Mongols for seven weeks, killing 4,000. As the story goes, at the news of the Mongol approach, the whole town of Kitezh with all its inhabitants was submerged into a lake, where, as legend has it, it may be seen to this day. The only major cities to escape destruction were Novgorod and Pskov. The Mongols were advancing to Novgorod but unexpectedly turned back at the site mentioned as Ignach Cross, of which the exact location is not known. Refugees from southern Rus' moved mostly to the northeast, in the forested region with poor soils between the upper Volga and the Oka Rivers.

In the summer of 1238, Batu Khan devastated the Crimea and pacified Mordovia. In the winter of 1239, he sacked Chernigov and Pereyaslav. After many days of siege, the horde stormed Kiev in December 1240. Despite the resistance of Danylo of Halych, Batu Khan managed to take two of his principal cities, Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi. The Mongols then resolved to "reach the ultimate sea", where they could proceed no further, and invaded Hungary and Poland.

Chinese siege engines were used by the Mongols under Tului to raze the walls of Russian cities.^[3]

The age of the Tatar yoke[link]

Prince Michael of Chernigov was passed between fires in accordance with ancient Turco-Mongol tradition. Batu Khan ordered him to prostrate himself before the tablets of Genghis Khan. The Mongols stabbed him to death for his refusal to do obeisance to Genghis Khan's shrine.

This time the invaders came to stay, and they built for themselves a capital, called Sarai, on the lower Volga. Here the commander of the Golden Horde, as the western section of the Mongol empire was called, fixed his golden headquarters and represented his sovereign the grand khan who lived with the Great Horde in the Orkhon Valley of the Amur. Here they had their headquarters and held parts of Rus in subjection for nearly three centuries. All of Russian states submitted to the Mongol rule, including Novgorod, Smolensk, Galich and Pskov.^[4]

The term by which this subjection is commonly designated, the Mongol or Tatar yoke, suggests ideas of terrible oppression, but in reality these nomadic invaders from Mongolia were not such cruel, oppressive taskmasters as is generally supposed.^[5] In the first place, they never settled in the country, and they had little direct dealing with the inhabitants. In accordance with the admonitions of Genghis to his children and grandchildren, they retained their pastoral mode of life, so that the subject races, agriculturists, and dwellers in towns, were not disturbed in their ordinary avocations.

In religious matters they were extremely tolerant. When they first appeared in Europe, they were shamanists, and as such they had naturally no religious fanaticism. After they adopted Islam they remained as tolerant as before,^[6] and the khan of the Golden Horde, who first became a Muslim, allowed the Rus to found a Christian bishopric in his capital. Nogai Khan, half a century later, married a daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and gave his own daughter in marriage to a Rus prince, Theodor the Black. Some modern Russian historians (most notably, the Soviet era historian and "Neo-Eurasianist" ideologist Lev Gumilev) even postulate there was no invasion at all. According to them, the Rus princes concluded a defensive alliance with the Horde in order to repel attacks of the fanatical Teutonic Knights, which posed a much greater threat to Rus religion and culture.

These represent the bright side of Tatar rule. It had its dark side also. So long as a great horde of nomads was encamped on the frontier, the country was liable to be invaded by an overwhelming force. Fortunately, these invasions were not frequent but when they occurred they caused an incalculable amount of devastation and suffering. In the intervals the people had to pay a fixed tribute. At first it was collected in a rough-and-ready fashion by Tatar tax-gatherers, by about 1259 it was regulated by a census of the population, and finally its collection was entrusted to the native princes, so that the people were no longer brought into direct contact with the Tatar officials.

Impact on development[link]

The influence of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus' was uneven. Colin McEvedy (Atlas of World Population History, 1978) estimates the population of European Russia dropped from 7.5 million prior to the invasion to 7 million afterwards.^[1] Centers such as Kiev never recovered from the devastation of the initial attack. The Novgorod Republic continued to prosper, however, and new entities, the rival cities of Moscow and Tver, began to flourish under the Mongols. Indeed, Moscow's eventual dominance of northern and eastern Rus was in large part attributable to the Mongols. After the prince of Tver joined a rebellion against the Mongols 1327, his rival prince Ivan I of Moscow joined the Mongols in crushing Tver and devastating its lands. By doing so he eliminated his rival, allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to move its headquarters to Moscow, and was granted the title of Grand prince by the Mongols. As such, the Muscovite prince became the chief intermediary between the Mongol overlords and the Rus lands, which paid further dividends to Moscow's rulers. While the Mongols often raided other areas of Rus, they tended to respect the lands controlled by their principal collaborator. This, in turn, attracted nobles and their servants who sought to settle in the relatively secure and peaceful Moscow lands.^[7]

Although Russian forces defeated the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, Mongol domination of parts of Rus territories, with the requisite demands of tribute, continued until the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480.

Certainly, it can be (and often is) argued that without the Mongol destruction of Kievan Rus' that Moscow, and subsequently the Russian Empire, would not have risen. Trade routes with the East came through the Rus lands, making them a center for trade from both worlds. In short, the Mongol influence, while destructive in the extreme to their enemies, had a significant long term effect on the rise of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Influence on Rus' society[link]

Historians have debated the long-term influence of Mongol rule on Rus society. The Mongols have been blamed for the destruction of Kievan Rus', the breakup of the ancient Rus nationality into three components, and the introduction of the concept of "oriental despotism" into Russia. Historians also credit the Mongol regime with an important role in the development of Muscovy as a state. Under Mongol occupation, for example, Muscovy developed its mestnichestvo hierarchy, postal road network, census, fiscal system, and military organization.^[8]

A significant number of historians consider the oppression of Rus' by the Mongols to be the major cause of what is sometimes called "the East-West gap" - approximately 200 years delay in introducing major social, political and economical reforms and scientific innovations in Russia compared to Western Europe. Specifically, the isolation from the West may have caused Russia's later non-involvement in the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and failure to develop a middle class.^[9]

The period of Mongol rule over Russia included significant cultural and interpersonal contacts between the Russian and Mongolian ruling classes. By 1450, the Tatar language had become fashionable in the court of the Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasily II, who was accused of excessive love of the Tatars and their speech, and many Russian noblemen adopted Tatar surnames (for example, a member of the Veliamanov family adopted the Turkic name "Aksak" and his descendents were the Aksakovs)^[10] Many Russian boyar (noble) families traced their descent from the Mongols or Tatars, including Veliaminov-Zernov, Godunov, Arseniev, Bakhmetev, Bulgakov (descendents of Bulgak) and Chaadaev (descendents of Genghis Khan's son Jagatay). In a survey of Russian noble families of the 17th century, over 15% of the Russian noble families had Tatar or Oriental origins.^[11] The Mongols brought about changes in economics power of states and overall trade. In the religious sphere, St. Paphnutius of Borovsk was the grandson of a Mongol baskak, or tax collector, while a nephew of khan Bergai of the Golden Horde converted to Christianity and became known as the monk St. Peter Tsarevich of the Horde^[12]

In the judicial sphere, under Mongol influence capital punishment, which during the times of Kievan Rus had only been applied to slaves, became widespread and the use of torture became a regular part of criminal procedure. Specific punishments introduced in Moscow included beheading for alleged traitors, branding of thieves (with execution for a third arrest). Penal law in western Europe in the Middle Ages was even harsher, however, than Mongol and Russian law.^[13]

The Russian language adopted numerous words from Mongol and Turkic. Such words include dengi (money), kazna (treasury), tamozhnia (customhouse), barysh (profit), bashmak (shoe) and yarlyk (decree).^[14]

Successors of the Golden Horde[link]

The Golden Horde was succeeded by the Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean, and Siberian khanates, as well as the Nogai Horde, all of which were eventually conquered by the Russian Empire.

See also[link]

• Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria
• Tatar invasions
• Mongol occupation of Eastern Europe

References[link]

•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.—Russia.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Sources[link]

Full Collection of Russian Annals, St. Petersburg, 1908 and Moscow, 2001, ISBN 5-94457-011-3.

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Mongol conquests
Expansion of the Mongol Empire
Date 1206-1324 Location Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, Southwest Asia, Eastern Europe Result Mongol victory and the fall of Mongol Empire
Belligerents
Jin Dynasty Dali Kingdom Western Xia Song Dynasty Khwarizmian Empire Persia Kievan Rus Volga Bulgaria Goryeo Georgia Poland Hungary Croatia Bulgaria Serbia Byzantium Kamakura Shogunate Vietnam Champa Myanmar Java Ayyubid dynasty Anatolia Abbasid Caliphate Mamluk Sultanate Sultanate of Rûm	Mongol Empire * Yuan Dynasty * Chagatai Khanate * Golden Horde * Ilkhanate
Commanders and leaders
Al-Musta'sim Hōjō Tokimune Al Mansur Qalawun Thihathu Bela IV of Hungary George IV of Georgia Brativoj and Butko Julijanov Danilo of Halych Muhammad II of Khwarezm Tran Hung Dao Henry II the Pious Jayakatwang of Java and other	Genghis Khan Ogedei Batu Khan Möngke Khan Hulagu Kublai Khan Subutai Burundai Nogai Khan Orda Khan Muqali Kitbuqa Jebe Noyan Bayan and other

Mongol invasions progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire which covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe by 1300.

The Mongol Empire emerged in the course of the 13th century by a series of conquests and invasions throughout Central and Western Asia, reaching Eastern Europe by the 1240s. The speed and extent of territorial expansion parallels the Hunnic/Turkic conquests of the Migration period (the 6th century Turkic Khaganate).

The territorial gains of the Mongols persisted into the 15th century in Persia (Timurid dynasty) and in Russia (Tatar and Mongol raids against Russian states), and into the 19th century in India (the Mughal Empire).

Central Asia[link]

Genghis Khan forged the initial Mongol Empire in Central Asia, starting with the unification of the Mongol and Turkic central Asian confederations such as Merkits, Tartars, Mongols, and Uighurs. He then continued expansion of the Empire via invasion of the Khwarezmid Empire in what is modern-day Khorazm, Uzbekistan.

Large areas of Islamic Central Asia and northeastern Iran were seriously depopulated,^[1] as every city or town that resisted the Mongols was subject to destruction. In Termez, on the Oxus: "all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain". Each soldier was required to execute a certain number of persons, with the number varying according to circumstances. For example, after the conquest of Urgench, each Mongol warrior – in an army group that might have consisted of two tumens (units of 10,000) – was required to execute 24 people.^[2]

West Asia[link]

The Mongols conquered, either by force or voluntary submission, the areas today known as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and parts of Turkey, with further Mongol raids reaching southwards as far as Gaza into the Palestine region in 1260 and 1300. The major battles were the Siege of Baghdad (1258), when the Mongols sacked the city which for 500 years had been the center of Islamic power; and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the Muslim Egyptian Mamluks, were for the first time able to stop the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut, in the northern part of what today is known as the West Bank. One thousand northern Chinese engineer squads accompanied the Mongol Khan Hulegu during his conquest of the Middle East.^[3][4]

The Mongols were never able to expand farther than the Middle East due to a combination of political and geographic factors, such as lack of sufficient grazing room for their horses.

East Asia[link]

Genghis Khan and his descendants invaded China, and forced Korea to become a vassal through an invasion of Korea. They attempted an invasion of Japan and Vietnam. Their biggest conquest was in conquering China and setting up their own Yuan Dynasty, though it was eventually overthrown by the native Han Chinese in 1368, who launched their own Ming Dynasty.

Europe[link]

The Mongols invaded and destroyed Kievan Rus, also invading Poland and Hungary, among others. Over the course of three years (1237–1240), the Mongols destroyed and annihilated all of the major cities of Eastern Europe with the exceptions of Novgorod and Pskov.^[5]

Giovanni de Plano Carpini, the Pope's envoy to the Mongol Great Khan, traveled through Kiev in February 1246 and wrote:

"They [the Mongols] attacked Rus, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Rus; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery."^[6]

Political divisions and vassals[link]

The Mongol world, ca. 1300. The gray area is the later Timurid empire.

The early Mongol Empire was divided into five main parts^[7] and various appanage khanates. The most prominent sections were:

• Mongolia, Southern Siberia and Manchuria under Karakorum;
• North China and Tibet under Yanjing Department;
• Khorazm, Transoxiana and the Hami Oases under Beshbalik Department
• Persia, Georgia, Armenia, Cilicia and Turkey (former Seljuk ruled parts) under Amu Dar'ya Department
• Golden Horde, which was further subdivided into 10 provinces.^[8]

When Genghis Khan was campaigning in Central Asia, his general Muqali (1170–1223) attempted to set up provinces and establish branch departments of state affairs. Genghis's successor Ogedei abolished them, instead dividing the areas of North China into 10 routes (lu, 路) according to the suggestion of Yelü Chucai, a prominent Confucian statesman of Khitan ethnicity. Ogedei also divided the empire into separate Beshbalik and Yanjing administrations, while the Headquarters in Karakorum directly dealt with Manchuria, Mongolia and Southern Siberia. Late in Ogedei's reign, an Amu Darya administration was established. Under Mongke, these administrations were renamed Branch Departments.

Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, made significant reforms to the existing institutions. He established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271 and assumed the role of a Chinese emperor. The Yuan forces seized South China by defeating the Southern Song Dynasty, and Kublai became the emperor of all China. The territory of the Yuan Dynasty was divided into the Central Region (腹裏) and places under control of various Xing Zhongshusheng (行中書省, "branch secretariats") or the Xuanzheng Institute (宣政院).

Vassals and tributary states[link]

The Mongol Empire at its greatest extent included all of modern-day Mongolia, China, parts of Burma, Romania, Pakistan, much or all of Russia, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus, Cilicia, Anatolia, Georgia, Armenia, Persia, Iraq, and Central Asia. In the meantime, many countries became vassals or tributary states of the Mongol Empire.

European vassals[link]

• A number of Russian states, including the Republic of Novgorod, Pskov and Smolensk,^[9] Batu khan attempted to invade in 1239, but could not reach the northern part of Russia due to the marshlands surrounding city-states such as Novgorod and Pskov. However, due to the combined effects of Mongol threats, invasion by the Teutonic order, and diplomacy by Alexander Nevsky, Novgorod and later Pskov accepted the terms of vassalage. By 1274, all remaining Russian principalities had become subject to the Horde of Mongke-Temur.

• Second Bulgarian Empire^[10] During the end of the Mongol invasion of Europe, the Bulgarians under Ivan Asen II tried to destroy Mongol tumen. But Kadan's raids through Bulgaria on his retreat from Central Europe induced the young Kaliman I of Bulgaria to pay tribute and accept Mongol suzerainty. A 1254 letter from Bela IV to the pope indicated that the Bulgarians were still paying tribute to the Mongols at that time.

• Kingdom of Serbia.^[10] Around 1288 Milutin launched an invasion to pacify two Bulgarian nobles in today's north-east Serbia, in the Branicevo region. However, those nobles were vassals of the Bulgarian prince of Vidin Shishman. Shishman attacked Milutin but was defeated and Milutin in return sacked his capital Vidin. But Shishman was a vassal of Nogai Khan, de facto ruler of the Golden Horde. Nogai Khan threatened to punish Milutin for his insolence, but changed his mind when the Serbian king sent him gifts and hostages. Among the hostages was his son Stefan Dečanski who managed to escape back to Serbia after Nogai Khan's death in 1299.

Southeast Asian and Korean vassals[link]

• Đại Việt (Vietnam).^[11] After the Vietnamese captured the Mongol envoys sent to negotiate safe passage in order to attack Southern China, Mongol forces invaded the Trần Dynasty in 1257. The Mongols routed city defenders and massacred inhabitants of the capital Thăng Long (Hanoi). King Than Tong agreed to pay tribute to Mongke Khan if he would spare his country. When Kublai Khan demanded full submission of the Tran family, Mongol darughachis were well received,^[12] though the relationship between the two states deteriorated in 1264. After a series of invasions in 1278-1288, the king of Đại Việt (Trần Dynasty) accepted Mongol suzerainty. By that time, each side had suffered heavy losses due to the large but ineffective wars.

• Champa.^[11] Although King Ve Indrawarman of Champa expressed his desire to accept Yuan rule in 1278, his son and subjects ignored his submission. In 1283, Mongol army was driven from the country and their general was killed, even though they repeatedly defeated all Champa forces in open battle. The king of Champa started sending tribute two years later to avoid further Mongol invasions.

• Khmer empire.^[11] In 1278, a Mongol envoy was executed by the Khmer king. An envoy was sent again to demand submission while the Yuan army was besieging the fortress in nearby Champa. After this second envoy was imprisoned, 100 Mongol cavalry were sent into Khmer territory. They were ambushed and destroyed by the Khmer. Later, the King of the Khmer Empire asked a pardon and sent tribute in 1285, as he found his country in a position among belligerent neighbors and an enraged Kublai Khan.

• Sukhothai Kingdom and Chiangmai or Taiyo. When Kublai Khan sent Mongol forces to protect his vassals in Burma, Thai states, including Sukhotai and Taiyo, accepted Mongol supremacy. King Ramkhamhaeng and other Thai and Khmer leaders visited the Yuan court to show their loyalty several times.^[13]

• The Kingdom of Goryeo. The Mongol invasions of Korea consisted of a series of campaigns by the Mongol Empire against Korea, then known as Goryeo, from 1231 to 1270. There were six major campaigns at tremendous cost to civilian lives throughout the Korean peninsula, ultimately resulting in Korea becoming a vassal of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty for approximately eighty years.^[14] The Mongol Empire and the Kingdom of Goryeo tied with marriages as Mongol and Korean royalty intermarried. A Korean princess became the Qi Empress through her marriage with Ukhaantu Khan, and their son, Biligtü Khan of Northern Yuan, became a Mongol Khan. King Chungnyeol of Goryeo married a daughter of Kubilai Khan, and marriages between Mongols and Koreans continued for eighty years. The Goryeo dynasty survived under Mongolian influence until King Gongmin began to push Mongolian garrisons back starting in the 1350s.

Middle East vassals[link]

• The Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli^[15] - The small Crusader state paid annual tributes for many years. The closest thing to actual Frankish cooperation with Mongol military actions was the overlord-subject relationship between the Mongols and the Franks of Antioch and others. Mongols lost their vassal and ally Franks with the fall of Antioch in 1268 and Tripoli in 1289 to the Mamluks.

• The Empire of Trebizond- The Seljuks and the military forces of Trebizond were defeated by the Mongols in 1243. After that, Kaykhusraw II, the Sultan of Iconium was compelled to pay tribute and supply annually horses, hunting dogs, and jewels. The emperor Manuel I of Trebizond, realizing the impossibility of fighting the Mongols, made a speedy peace with them and, on condition of paying an annual tribute, became a Mongol vassal. The empire reached its greatest prosperity and had opportunity to export the produce of its own rich hinterland during the era of Ilkhans. But with the decline of Mongol power in 1335, Trebizond suffered increasingly from Turkish attacks, civil wars, and domestic intrigues.^[16]

Tributary states[link]

• The indigenous people of Sakhalin. The Mongol forces made several attacks on Sakhalin, beginning in 1264 and continuing until 1308.^[17] Economically, the conquest of new peoples provided further wealth for the tribute-based Mongol Dynasty. The Nivkhs and the Oroks were subjugated by the Mongols. However, the Ainu people raided Mongol posts every year.^[18] The native Gǔwéi people finally accepted Mongol supremacy in 1308, and made tributary visits to Yuan posts for the next a few decades.

• The Byzantine empire.^[19] When an Egyptian diplomat was arrested by emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, Sultan Baibars insisted his ally Berke Khan attack the Greek empire. In the winter of 1265, Nogai Khan led a Mongol raid on Byzantine Thrace with his vassal Bulgaria. In the spring of 1265 he defeated the armies of Michael and freed the diplomat and former Seljuk sultan Kaykaus II. Instead of fighting, most of the Byzantines fled. Michael managed to escape with the assistance of Italian merchants. Thrace was subsequently plundered by Nogai's army, and the Byzantine emperor signed a treaty with Berke of the Golden Horde, giving his daughter Euphrosyne in marriage to Nogai. Michael also sent much valuable fabric to the Golden Horde as tribute thereafter. But the court of Byzantium had good relationships with both the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate as allies.

• Small states of Malay Peninsula. Kublai sent envoys to surrounding nations to demand their submission in 1270-1280. Most such states in Indo-China and Malay acquiesced. According to Marco Polo, those subjects paid tribute to the Mongol court, including elephants, rhinoceroses, jewels and a tooth of Buddha. One notable scholar identified that these acts of submission were more ceremonial in some regard. During the Mongol invasion of Java in 1293, small states of Malay and Sumatra submitted and sent envoys or hostages to them. Native people of modern Taiwan and Philippines helped the Mongol armada but they were never conquered.

Timeline[link]

• 1205–1209 conquest of Western China
• 1207 conquest of Siberia
• 1211–1234 conquest of Northern China
• 1213–1235 conquest of Jin dynasty
• 1218–1220 conquest of Central Asia and Eastern Persia
• 1220-1223, 1235-1330 invasions of Georgia and the Caucasus
• 1220–1224 of the Cumans
• 1223–1236 invasion of Volga Bulgaria
• 1231–1259 invasion of Korea
• Mongol invasion of Europe
  • 1237–1242 invasion of Rus
  • 1239-1240 invasion of Ciscaucasia
  • 1241 invasion of Poland (Battle of Legnica)
  • 1241 invasion of Hungary
  • 1241 invasion of Austria and Northeast Italy
  • 1241–1242 invasion of Croatia
  • 1242 invasion of Serbia and Bulgaria
• 1241-1244 invasion of Anatolia
• 1251-1259 invasion of Persia, Syria and Mesopotamia
• 1257, 1284, 1287 invasions of Vietnam
• 1258 invasion of Baghdad
• 1258-1259 invasion of Galych-Volhynia, Lithuania and Poland
• 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut
• 1260 Mongol raid raid against Syria
• 1264-1265 raid against Bulgaria and Thrace
• 1264-1308 invasion of Sakhalin Island
• 1271 raid against Syria
• 1274, 1281 invasions of Japan
• 1274 raid against Bulgaria
• 1275, 1277 raids against Lithuania
• 1277 battle of Abulustayn
• 1277 invasion of Myanmar
• 1279 invasions of Southern China
• 1281 invasion of Syria
• 1284-1285 invasion of Hungary
• 1285 raid against Bulgaria
• 1287 invasion of Myanmar
• 1287-1288 raids against Poland
• 1293 invasion of Java
• 1297 - 1308 Chagatai Khanate - Delhi Sultanate War
• 1299 invasion of Syria
• 1222-1327 Mongol invasions of India
• 1300 Mongol invasion of Myanmar
• 1300 Mongol invasion of Syria
• 1303 Invasion of Syria
• 1307 Mongol invasion of Gilan
• 1312 Mongol invasion of Syria
• 1324, 1337 Mongol raids against Thrace

See also[link]

• Battle of Ain Jalut
• List of Tatar and Mongol raids against Russian states
• Tatar invasions
• Total war and the Mongol Empire
• Mongol military tactics and organization
• Battle of the Kalka River
• Mongol Occupation of Eastern Europe
• Mongol and Tatar states in Europe

References[link]

External links[link]

• Worldwide death toll
• The Destruction of Kiev
• Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and Iraq
• Central Asian world cities?
• The Mongol invasion: the last Arpad kings
• The Tran Dynasty and the Defeat of the Mongols

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Saint Alexander Nevsky
An icon of Alexander Nevsky
Born	(1220-05-30)30 May 1220 Pereslavl-Zalessky, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia)
Died	14 November 1263(1263-11-14) (aged 43) Gorodets, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia)
Honored in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	1547 by Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Vladimir; Pereslavl-Zalessky, Saint Petersburg
Feast	23 November (Repose) 23 May (Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl 30 August (Translation of relics)
Attributes	Robed as a Russian Great Prince, often wearing armor.
Patronage	Soldiers, Borders of Russia

Alexander Nevsky (Russian:  Алекса́ндр Яросла́вич Не́вский​ (help·info), Aleksandr Yaroslavich Nevskiy; pronounced [ɐlʲɪˈksandr jɪrɐˈslavʲɪtɕ ˈnʲefskʲɪj]; 30 May 1220 – 14 November 1263, proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolite Macarius in 1547^[1]) was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over the German and Swedish invaders while employing collaborationist policies towards the powerful Golden Horde.

Great victories[link]

From Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander found in the Second Pskovian Chronicle, circa 1260–1280, comes one of the first known references to the Great Prince:

"By the will of God, prince Alexander was born from the charitable, people-loving, and meek the Great Prince Yaroslav, and his mother was Theodosia. As it was told by the prophet Isaiah: 'Thus sayeth the Lord: I appoint the princes because they are sacred and I direct them.' "... He was taller than others and his voice reached the people as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom the Egyptian Pharaoh placed as next to the king after him of Egypt. His power was a part of the power of Samson and God gave him the wisdom of Solomon ... this Prince Alexander: he used to defeat but was never defeated ..."^[2]

Monument in Ust-Izhora, traditional site of the Battle of the Neva.

Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the fourth son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of Vladimir. In 1236, however, he was summoned by the Novgorodians to become kniaz' (or prince) of Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish, German and Muslim invaders. After the Swedish army had landed at the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva, Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on 15 July 1240 and defeated them. The Neva battle of 1240 saved Rus' from a full-scale enemy invasion from the North. Because of this battle, 19-year-old Alexander was given the sobriquet "Nevsky" (which means of Neva). This victory, coming just three years after the disastrous Mongol invasion of Rus, strengthened Nevsky’s political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. He would soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.

After Pskov had been invaded by the crusading Livonian Knights, the Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander. In spring of 1241 he returned from his exile, gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by the master of the Order, Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden. Nevsky faced the enemy on the ice of the Lake Peipus and defeated the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights during the Battle of the Ice on 5 April 1242.

Alexander’s victory was a significant event in the history of the Middle Ages. Foot soldiers of Novgorod had surrounded and defeated an army of knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick armour, long before Western Europeans learned how foot soldiers could prevail over mounted knights. Nevsky's great victory against the Livonian Brothers apparently involved only a few knights killed rather than hundreds claimed by the Russian chroniclers; decisive medieval and early modern battles were won and lost by smaller margins than is seen in contemporary conflicts. Strategic considerations aside, Alexander's victory was an important milestone in the development of Muscovite Russia.

Politician[link]

After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen Russia’s Northwest. He sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Russia and Norway in 1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Russians in 1256.^[3]

The envoys of the Roman Pope attend Alexander Nevsky

Nevsky proved to be a cautious and far-sighted politician. He dismissed the Roman Curia’s attempts to cause war between Russia and the Golden Horde, because he understood the uselessness of such war with the Tatars at a time when they were still a powerful force. Historians seem to be unsure about Alexander’s behavior when it came to his relations with Mongols. He may have thought that Catholicism presented a more tangible threat to Russian national identity than paying a tribute to the Khan, who had little interest in Russian religion and culture. It is also argued that he intentionally kept Russia as a vassal to the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute). Nevsky tried to strengthen his authority at the expense of the boyars and at the same time suppress any anti-Mongol and anti-Muscovite uprisings in the country (Novgorod uprising of 1259).

According to the most plausible version, Alexander’s intentions were to prevent scattered principalities of what would become Russia from repeated invasions by the Mongol army. He is known to have gone to the Horde himself and achieved success in exempting Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with other peoples.

Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde and refusal of co-operating with western countries and church as an important turn to the east for the Russians.^[4]

Grand Prince of Vladimir[link]

Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, Alexander was installed as the Grand Prince of Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in 1252. A decade later, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back from Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. Prior to his death, he took monastic vows and was given the religious name of Alexis.

From the Second Pskovian Chronicle:

"Returning from the Golden Horde, the Great Prince Alexander, reached the city of Nizhniy Novgorod, and remained there for several days in good health, but when he reached the city of Gorodets he fell ill ... Great Prince Alexander, who was always firm in his faith in God, gave up this worldly kingdom ... And then he gave up his soul to God and died in peace on 12 November, [1263] on the day when the Holy Apostle Philip is remembered ...

Burial of Alexander Nevsky

At this burial Metropolitan Archbishop Cyril said, 'My children, you should know that the sun of the Suzdalian land has set. There will never be another prince like him in the Suzdalian land.'

And the priests and deacons and monks, the poor and the wealthy, and all the people said: 'It is our end.' "^[2]

Though he died in Gorodets, Alexander was laid to rest in the city of Vladimir, in the Great Abbey at The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God.

Marriage and children[link]

According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of Polatsk and Vitebsk, in 1239. Her name is not given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or Alexandra (possibly birth and marital names respectively). They had at least five children:

• Vasily Aleksandrovich, Prince of Novgorod (c. 1239–1271). He was betrothed to Princess Kristina of Norway in 1251. The marriage contact was broken. Kristina went on to marry Felipe of Castile, a son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen.
• Eudoxia Aleksandrovna. Married Konstantin Rostislavich, Prince of Smolensk.
• Dmitry of Pereslavl (c. 1250–1294).
• Andrey of Gorodets (c. 1255 – 27 July 1304
• Daniel of Moscow (1261 – 4 March/5 March 1303).

He married a second wife named Vasilisa shortly before his death. They had no known children.

Alexander's legacy[link]

Decoration of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Some of Alexander's policies on the Western border were continued by his grandson-in-law, Daumantas of Pskov, who was also beatified in the 16th century.

In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the Life of Alexander Nevsky (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.

Veneration of Alexander Nevsky as a saint began soon after his death. The remains of the prince were uncovered in response to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in the year 1380, and found to be incorrupt. He was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. His principal feast day is 23 November. By order of Peter the Great, Nevsky’s relics were transported to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg where they remain to this day. A second feast day was instituted on 30 August in commemoration of this event. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.

Military Order[link]

On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During the Great Patriotic War, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also a Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881 and then ceased to exist when a People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.

Sergei Eisenstein's envisioning of Alexander Nevsky forms the background of this Soviet poster from World War II.

In 1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, Alexander Nevsky, on Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. At Joseph Stalin's insistence,^{[citation needed]} the film was rushed into theaters and the resulting sound recording was notably disappointing, while the visual images were quite impressive, especially the spectacular battle on the ice. In the film, Nevsky used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition ^[5]

Alexander's proverbial phrase (actually, paraphrased Math.26:52) "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," has become a slogan of Russian patriots. There is a long tradition of Russian naval vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the nineteenth century screw frigate Alexander Neuski and a nuclear submarine currently being built for the Russian Navy.

Alexander Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous churches are dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral at Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia; a church in Belgrade, Serbia; and a church in Tbilisi, Georgia.

On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia’s history by popular vote, as reported by the Kommersant Newspaper.

In December 2008, Alexander was voted the greatest Russian in the Name of Russia television poll.^[6]

See also[link]

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral—an incomplete listing of Eastern Orthodox cathedrals which bear his name.
• Nevsky Avenue
• Famous military commanders
• Rulers of Russia family tree

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Isoaho, Mari. The Image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint (The Northern World; 21). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 90-04-15101-X).
• "Tale of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander [Nevsky]" in Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, ed. Serge Zenkovsky, 224-235 (New York: Meridian, 1974)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander Nevsky

• Repose of St Alexander Nevsky Orthodox icon and synaxarion (23 November)
• Alexander Nevsky: politics under Mongol domination.
• Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl (23 May)
• Translation of the relics of St Alexander Nevsky (30 August)
• St Alexander on Nevsky Prospekt.
• Alexander Nevsky's listing in Medieval Lands by Charles Cawley.
• The Kommersant Newspaper: Russia’s Hero is Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky (24 September 2008)
• Interfax news agency: Orthodox believers found heaven guardians for Russian secret service (22 September 2008)