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Mongol Society at the Beginning
of the Thirteenth Century.
The Formation of the Mongol State

p At the beginning of the thirteenth century a powerful Mongol state grew up in Asia. This was a turbulent period, which saw the Mongol hordes embarking on enormous military campaigns, bringing untold suffering and devastation to the peoples they conquered.

p The Mongols came from the steppe-lands north of China. The majority of the Mongol tribes were nomadic pasturalists. Initially theirs had been a primitive clan society, but by the twelfth century the clan patterns had weakened and chieftains or khans had seized power and concentrated wealth in their hands. These khans rallied to their service the lesser nobles and poor peasants. The wealth of the khans and their vassals was gleaned from the work of the simple peasants, who were obliged to give their masters their best livestock for slaughter and their best dairy cattle, take their masters’ herds out to pasture and endure long periods of military service.

p At the beginning of the thirteenth century a Mongol state of an early feudal type began to take shape. An important role in this new state was played by the nukut—armed retainers in the service of the khans, who later became their vassals. The nobles strengthened their power with the support of the nukut. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the khans all rallied to the support of Temujin (c. 1155-1227), leader of the Mongols of the steppe-lands who in 1206 was elected tribal leader or Great Khan and adopted the name Jenghis Khan.

p Jenghis Khan united the whole of Mongolia under his power and mustered an enormous army. Every Mongol was an accomplished equestrian warrior and within a short space of time a cavalry army of unprecedented size had been mustered. The army consisted of groups numbering ten thousand men, divided into units 218 of a thousand, each composed of ten sub-units of a hundred. The Mongol soldiers were almost invulnerable to arrows of their enemies, armed as they were with helmets and armour made of hard leather, bows and arrows and sharp sabres and all astride their fleet-footed horses. Their military strategy was also of an extremely high standard. After conquering northern China Jenghis Khan was able to consolidate his domain considerably. Chinese engineers instructed the Mongol troops in siege tactics and the use of battering-rams and experienced Chinese administrative officials reorganised the state bureaucratic apparatus. Later the Mongols were to conquer southern China as well. Special missile weapons were used for throwing heavy stones and pots of burning oil over town walls. The Mongol army constituted a formidable threat to the rest of the world, being well-armed, extremely mobile and united under a single leader.

Jenghis Khan soon conquered the peoples of Siberia, such as the Buryats living on the shores of Lake Baikal, the Yakuts and the Oirots in the Altai foothills. After these annexations Jenghis Khan led his army on to conquer Central Asia and Transcaucasia.

Jenghis Khan’s Conquests in Central Asia
and Transcaucasia

p In Central Asia Jenghis Khan was to find himself face to face with rich cities and peoples of an ancient civilisation. These lands had been settled since time immemorial. The local population lived mainly in the fertile valleys and their main occupations were agriculture, stockbreeding and fruit and vegetable growing. The farmers of Central Asia had long since mastered effective irrigation techniques which they made use of to extend their lands under cultivation. They had also built rich cities, where the arts and crafts had taken deep root, such as Samarkand and Merv. The masons and architects of this part of the world were famous for their skill.

p When Central Asia found itself threatened by invasion from the Mongolian Tartars its peoples were already living in a society with well-established feudal patterns. Local chieftains were virtually independent and there was no strong central power in the area. This made it much easier for Jenghis Khan to conquer these lands.

p Jenghis Khan’s host thrust through this area into the state of Khorezm, seizing towns and villages, plundering, wiping out the local population and taking men and women into captivity as slaves. The peoples of Central Asia put up a bold resistance to the invaders. There were strong garrisons in every town and in 219 Samarkand there were even 20 war elephants. However the gates of this city, like those of many others, were opened to Jenghis Khan by traitors. In Samarkand Jenghis Khan took about thirty thousand craftsmen prisoner and distributed them among his retinue as slaves. He employed similar tactics in other cities as well. The rich city of Merv and many others were seized and ravaged.

p The lack of unity among the local nobles facilitated the Mongol conquest considerably, since it weakened resistance to the invaders.

p After annexing Central Asia at the beginning of the thirteenth century, Jenghis Khan led his army on to Georgia. The peoples of Transcaucasia put up a long struggle for their freedom, but finally their resistance too was broken. Mongolia subjugated the peoples of Armenia and Georgia, whose culture was more advanced than that of their conquerors. The Mongols captured and enslaved skilled Georgian and Armenian craftsmen, artisans and scholars. The Mongolian yoke dealt a heavy blow at the culture of the peoples of Transcaucasia. Many cities were destroyed and the Georgians and Armenians were compelled to pay their new masters crippling tribute. The Mongols as well as demanding a tenth part of each man’s property also gathered an additional tax from each farm: 3 bushels of corn, 12 gallons of wine, 10 pounds •of rice, three sacks, two cords, a silver coin and a horse-shoe. Those who were unable to pay were condemned to slavery.

Once they had firmly established their rule in Transcaucasia the Mongol khans entrusted the collection of taxes to the local princes who were to bring the tribute to their Mongolian overlords. Mongolian rule in Transcaucasia was to last for almost two hundred years, up till the end of the fourteenth century.

The Mongolian Invasion of Russian Territory

p The conquest of Central Asia and Transcaucasia by the Mongol army brought it to the doorstep of Rus. Jenghis Khan’s forces crossed the Caucasus mountains and made their way into the steppes of southern Russia. Here they were confronted by the Polovtsi nomads who turned to the Russian princes for help. "Today they will massacre us and tomorrow it will be your turn if you do not come to our aid,” were the words of their envoys. The princes decided to join forces against Jenghis Khan and set out to meet him in battle in Polovtsi territory.

p The battle took place in May 1223 on the river Kalka, a small river which flows into the Azov Sea not far from the mouth of the Don. The Russian forces were routed. The Mongol khans 220 covered the bodies of the wounded and prisoners with boards, sat down on them and held a great feast to celebrate their victory. This was the first appearance of the Mongols (or Tartars as the Russians called them) in Russia. This time they did not go on to consolidate their victory, but instead withdrew into Asia and nothing was heard of them for twelve years.

p When Jenghis Khan died he was succeeded by his son Ogdai, who sent his nephew Khan Batu (d. 1255) to conquer Europe. The threat of destruction and enslavement hung over the whole of Europe.

p At that time there was no united Russian state. The ma)onty of the Russian princedoms were small and weaker than the princedom of Vladimir or Novgorod. Feudal disintegration in Rus undermined the chances of effective resistance to outside enemies. Rus fell a prey to this terrible foe because she was disunited and her armies lacked cohesion.

p In 1236 Batu’s horde crossed the steppe-lands bordering on the Caspian, invaded the kingdom of the Volga Bulgars and captured their capital city, Bulgar. From there they advanced on Rus. In the winter of the following year (1237) Batu crossed the Volga with his enormous army and marched on the princedom of Ryazan. After bitter fighting Ryazan surrendered and was burnt to the ground. A similar fate was suffered by other princedoms who 221 preferred to "wait and see" rather than join with their neighbours to face the common foe. Thus Vladimir and other towns of the princedom of Suzdal fell to the enemy.

p Moscow was also burnt down by the Mongol hordes. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (1187-1238) went out to face the enemy with all his soldiers and a mass of peasants on the banks of the river Sit but it was too late. The Russians lost this battle too and their prince was slain on the field.

Gradually Batu became master of the whole of the Dnieper valley. In 1240 his hordes marched on Kiev and laid siege to the city. Batu was so impressed by the beauty of this city, the silhouette of its fine buildings and the golden domes of its churches shining in the sun, that he decided to take it without destroying it and proposed to the men of Kiev that they surrender without a fight. They refused, preferring to fight to the death, and during the subsequent siege almost the whole of the city was burnt down and •destroyed-

The War of the Russian and Baltic Peoples
Against the German and Swedish Invaders

p One disaster was to be followed by another. While Batu was marching on the scattered Russian princedoms from the East another mighty enemy appeared in the north-west and marched on Novgorod. German knights began to advance towards Russia, eager to seize new lands and peasants to work them. They enslaved the Baltic peoples and seized their land. In Livonia, at the mouth of the Dvina they built the fortress of Riga, which was to become the main stronghold of the cruel oppressors, the Order of the Brothers of the Sword.

p Another alliance of knights, the Order of the Teutonic Knights, started to threaten the Lithuanians from the West. Soon the Teutonic Knights joined forces with the Brothers of the Sword and together they turned on Pskov and Novgorod.

p Taking note of this state of affairs aggressive factions among the landed nobles of Sweden were also stirred to action. They were overjoyed to hear of the Mongol invasion, thinking that now that Rus was being overrun from the East by the Tartars they could march in from the North and gain more land while the country was in such a vulnerable position.

p In 1240 the Swedish ruler Jarl Birger landed on the banks of the Neva with his troops. The Russian army rallied on St. Sophia Square in Novgorod and the Prince’s soldiers were joined by part of the city guard. Prince Alexander Yaroslavich (1220-1263) led the Novgorod army out to meet Birger’s forces. The two armies 222 met at the Neva: the Russians took the Swedes by surprise and wholesale slaughter ensued. In the course of the battle Prince Alexander came face to face with Birger and "made a mark on his. face with his sharp spear”. The young warrior Savva made hi& way to Birger’s goldroofed tent and cut down its pole: the tent collapsed before the assembled armies and the Russians rejoiced. The fierce battle on the river Neva ended in a Russian victory, in honour of which Prince Alexander was hailed from then on as Alexander Nevsky.

p Meanwhile the German knights were not sitting idle. They marched on Rus with an enormous army. In April 1242 the famous, battle on the ice of Lake Chudskoye (Lake Peipus) took place, to go down in history as the "Slaughter on the Ice”. The Germans deployed their forces in a narrow wedge formation so as to pierce the Russian line of attack and cut their army in two. At the head of the German army heavily-armoured cavalry advanced; behind them came infantry with spears and swords flanked by cavalry.

p Alexander Nevsky saw through the enemy’s plan, and concentrated his main forces not in the centre but on the flanks. He lured the enemy on to attack his army in the centre and then closed in on them from the flanks with his main forces. A massacre ensued and the ice was soon red with blood. The German knights were routed, the few survivors being taken prisoner.

These victories under Alexander Nevsky were of great significance and kept north-west Rus intact, saving it from enslavement by the German and Swedish barons.

Rus Under the Tartar Yoke

p While Rus succeeded in beating off her enemies in the northwest she was less fortunate against the Mongol invasion under Batu. Much of the country was to suffer under the Tartar scourge, and even Novgorod, although the Tartars did not advance that far, was obliged to pay them tribute.

p Rus was now under the yoke of the Tartar khans, which was to last for more than two hundred years—from the middle of the thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth. The state founded by Khan Batu was called the Golden Horde. Batu set up his capital in the town of Sarai on the Volga (not far from presentday Astrakhan). Later the capital was moved further up the Volga (to a site not far from present-day Volgograd). The new capital was called Novy (New) Sarai. The state of the Golden Horde incorporated part of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Volga valley, the Crimea, the Dnieper valley and the whole of north-east Rus.

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p The Tartar conquerors demanded exorbitant tribute from the Russian people, a tenth part of all their property. In addition they also demanded tribute in the form of grain, livestock and money. All this was collected by the khan’s baskaks or tribute collectors. Those who were unable to pay or who refused were taken as slaves.

p “He who has no money, loses his child,
He who has no child, loses his wife,
He who has no wife, loses his head,"

sang the Russians in a song about their alien masters.

p The slightest resistance to their rule the Tartars answered with wholesale plunder and slaughter. The Tartar yoke meant much cruel suffering and bloodshed.

p The Russian princes lost their independence and were made subject to the Tartar khan. They were compelled to ride to pay homage to the khan at the capital of the Golden Horde bringing him costly gifts, in order to receive from him a patent or yarlyk confirming them in office. The khan himself nominated the Grand Prince. Once independent Rus was now a dominion of the Golden Horde. Tartar rule hindered the cultural, social and political development of Rus, turning it into a backward country.

The Mongols undertook a number of expeditions further west, invading Poland, Hungary and even penetrating as far as Venice. However, Rus’ struggle against the Tartar-Mongol yoke, which spent the energies and resources of the conquerors, saved Western Europe from a similar fate.