The Restoration of the Economy After
the Mongol Devastation. The Rise of Muscovy
p The Mongol invasion wrought untold havoc with the economy of the Russian lands. Many towns and villages had been burnt down and destroyed. Thousands of farmers were killed or taken away into captivity and countless Russian families were deprived of their breadwinners. Skilled craftsmen had been led away to the Golden Horde and the apprenticeship of their would-be successors was interrupted: this all led to a steep decline in the arts and crafts. The tribute for the Tartars bled the land dry, especially since the fear of slavery hung over the heads of those who could not pay. In short, Mongol rule seriously held up Russian economic development.
p Gradually patterns of everyday life became more normal, particularly once the princes themselves were made responsible for the collection of tribute. The khan’s baskaks now received the tribute from the princes and themselves appeared less frequently in the towns and villages.
p It was of course feudal patterns of agriculture which reasserted themselves. As before, the princes and the boyars owned the land and the large mass of the peasants were dependent on their masters. Gradually the three-field system was reintroduced, and stockbreeding started to develop. Ironsmiths, blacksmiths, tanners and potters returned to their work.
p Just as before, the peasants who worked their masters’ land paid them quit-rent partly in kind—grain, oats, livestock, poultry —and partly in money, and also carried out labour services. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the majority of the peasants were working on a quit-rent basis. The monasteries which had recently become landowning institutions played an increasingly important role. A new form of agricultural unit appeared—the sloboda: princes made tracts of hitherto uncultivated land exempt from taxes and labour service for a set period and invited new hands to come and work them.
225p A new form of landownership also emerged: princes gave the men in their service plots of land which were in their possession for as long as they worked for them. The temporary owners of these plots, or pomeshchiki, were also obliged to rally to the prince’s banner with a detachment of properly armed cavalry and foot soldiers in times of war; when they left the prince’s service, the prince would then give the land to someone else in his service. Thus, there developed a class of loyal servants of central power, the pomeshchiki. These economic developments were vital factors contributing to the formation of a united Russian state.
p Gradually Moscow started to rise up again out of its ashes and ruins. It gradually became a more prosperous city and the power of its princes grew. The area around Moscow possessed all the important conditions necessary for agricultural and industrial development. These lands were a traditional centre for arable farming. The local inhabitants were experienced cultivators, ironsmiths, potters, masons and tanners. Moscow was also favourably situated from the point of view of defence: the Tartar cavalry had found it difficult to reach the city, surrounded as it was by thick woods. The neighbouring princedoms—those of Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod—acted as buffers against its enemies. This led peasants from many districts to come and settle in Muscovy.
p Moscow was situated at the junction of important trade routes linking the West and the Volga valley. The merchants of Novgorod travelled via the Moskva river to the Oka and on to the Volga to trade with the Golden Horde. Another trade route led southwards via the Don and the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. By this time Italian merchants from the rich town of Genoa had already come to settle in the Crimea. The tolls from the merchant vessels which used these waterways went to the princes of Muscovy and brought them considerable wealth. Muscovy occupied a central position among the various Russian princedoms and soon became the nucleus of the Russian lands. During the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky it was still part of the domain of the prince of Vladimir. It did not become independent until the thirteenth century.
p The first prince of independent Muscovy was the son of Alexander Nevsky, Prince Daniil Alexandrovich (1261-1303). He extended the princedom by wresting the town of Kolomna from the princes of Ryazan. His son then won the town of Mozhaisk from the princes of Smolensk. Kolomna lay at the confluence of the rivers Moskva and Oka and Mozhaisk on the upper reaches of the Moskva. Thus by the early fourteenth century the princes of Muscovy had become the virtual masters of the whole of the Moskva basin.
p Soon afterwards Ivan I (who reigned till 1340) became Prince of Muscovy. Known as Ivan Kalita (Moneybags), he was renowned 226 for his avarice and amassed great riches. He expanded his domains at the expense of the minor princes in the neighbouring lands, and succeeded in coming to terms with the rulers of the Golden Horde, paying them frequent visits and bringing gifts to them and their wives. The latter soon came to know that whenever Ivan Kalita came to their part of the world that meant that there would be a great deal of gold and silver to be had. At this time the Tartar attacks on Russian lands were much less frequent than before. The people were able to reap their crops and ply their trades in peace.
Alexander, Prince of Tver (1301-1339), was appointed Grand Prince of Rus by the Tartar khans. In 1327 the Tartar envoy Cholkhan came to Tver to collect tribute. An uprising took place and Cholkhan was slain. The khan then sent troops from the Golden Horde to punish the insubordinate men of Tver and put Ivan in charge of the expedition. Tver was sacked and razed and Ivan became the next Grand Prince (1328). During Ivan’s reign the power of Muscovy increased considerably and Moscow became a flourishing, beautiful city.
Uprisings Against the Rule of the Golden Horde.
The Battle of Kulikovo Field (1380)
p On more than one occasion uprisings against the Mongol conquerors broke out in Russian lands.
p In the winter of 1259 the Tartar tax-collectors came to Novgorod to register the city’s population for the purposes of collecting tribute. The working people of Novgorod protested at this, refused to let the khan’s envoys into the city, and slew them. The resistance of the people of Novgorod proved extremely hard to quell. In 1262 uprisings against the Tartars broke out in many cities. The bells rang out and the people assembled in the central squares of the cities of Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Pereyaslavl and Yaroslavl; they drove their oppressors from their gates. Those who complied with the Tartar demands were killed. The Tartars meted out cruel punishment to the insurgent cities. However, Alexander Nevsky paid a special visit to the Golden Horde and succeeded in saving the cities from destruction by placating the khan with rich gifts.
p In 1289 the people of Rostov drove the Tartar oppressors out of the city and seized the money and valuables which they had collected. In the second half of the thirteenth century the working people of the Kursk princedom turned the tax-collector out of their town and sacked the local Tartar settlement.
p In the fourteenth century Muscovy rose to new prominence while the Golden Horde grew appreciably weaker. In the middle 227 of the century the throne changed hands fourteen times in twenty years in the Golden Horde, since many of the khans were slain by ambitious rivals.
p In the second half of the fourteenth century the Tartar commander Mamai (d. 1380) succeeded in rallying all the Tartars behind him, at a time when Muscovy had already ceased to submit meekly to all commands from the khan. Mamai decided that a confrontation was required to bring his unruly subjects to heel: 228 he mustered an enormous army and concluded a military alliance with Lithuania.
p In August 1380 Mamai began to advance towards Moscow.
Ivan I’s grandson, Dmitry Ivanovich, Prince of Muscovy (1350-1389), rallied an army. In face of this terrible enemy many of the Russian princes chose to forget their private feuds and the armies of the Rostov, Yaroslavl, and Byelozersk princes joined forces. The decisive factor in this situation was that the common people of Rus took up arms against the Tartars: from all corners of the land came peasants and craftsmen armed with boar-spears, cudgels and axes. The Russian army numbered 150,000. They marched to the Don, crossed it and then deployed their forces on the Kulikovo Field at the mouth of the small river Nepryadva, a tributary of the Don. The battlefield encompassed an area of four square miles and the fighting was fierce and bloody. The Russian resistance was weakening when suddenly Russian reserves emerged from ambush and hurled themselves against the Tartars. Mamai’s army was routed. The few survivors of his host fled from the battlefield. Prince Dmitry was given the title of Dmitry Donskoi in honour of this victory, the first major Russian victory against the Tartar khans. It demonstrated to the princes that their strength lay in unity. The Battle of Kulikovo Field did not do away with the Tartar yoke once and for all, but it considerably weakened their rule, and inspired new hopes in the Russian people.
The First Steps Towards the Unification of a Russian State
p The rulers of Muscovy continued to extend their domains. They annexed the lands of the rich Nizhny Novgorod princedom, Nizhny Novgorod (present-day Gorky) had grown up on the banks of the Volga: the town was a Russian frontier post and an important trade centre, visited by many Eastern merchants. Particular success in the unification of the Russian lands under Muscovy was achieved in the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505) who was to become ruler of a united Rus. In 1478 Ivan incorporated the independent and heroic city of Novgorod into the princedom of Muscovy. Ivan III also captured many of Novgorod’s former possessions including the town of Vologda. The lands of the Komi people on the river Vychegda were also annexed to Muscovy.
p The most important factor facilitating the unification of the Russian state was the renewed energy and diligence of the working people. This enabled Rus to recover from the devastation wrought by the Tartars, raise up towns and villages out of ruins and ashes, cultivate abandoned fields and virgin land and reestablish trades and crafts which had fallen into decline. This industry and application laid the foundation for resistance to the 229 230 foreign rulers. By renewing and enhancing the country’s economy the people furthered the unification of the patchwork of petty feudal states.
p Ivan III bound many lands to Muscovy either by means of treaties or force of arms. Many of the petty princes were well aware of Ivan’s power and preferred to profess their allegiance to him rather than be conquered. Thus, the princes of Yaroslavl acknowledged Ivan as their liege-lord and handed their possessions over to him. When Ivan’s troops approached Tver many of the petty princes in that part of Rus came over to Ivan one after the other with the request to be admitted to his service. The federation of the powerful princedom of Tver and Muscovy was an important event since earlier Tver had been Moscow’s main rival for domination of the Russian lands.
p The nobles of Lithuania also took note of these events in Rus and some of them joined the service of Ivan III, which meant that their extensive estates also became part of the Russian state, lands that had once been part of Kiev Rus. In Ivan Ill’s reign fighting over these lands broke out between Lithuania and Rus, but Rus retained her hold over them.
The power of Rus grew steadily. A strong Russian state emerged from the patchwork of petty princedoms, a state that could no longer tolerate the Mongol yoke.
Final Liberation from the Mongol Yoke
p At the end of the fifteenth century the Golden Horde grew weaker and weaker and started to break up. In the reign of Ivan III Rus no longer paid tribute or homage to the khans. No further tribute was paid to the Tartars after 1476.
p The Tartar Khan Ahmed made a final attempt to subjugate the Russians again. In 1480, he led his troops to the banks of the river Oka at its confluence with the Ugra. However, he failed in his attempt to cross the river, being driven back by the Russians after four days of heavy fighting. The Tartar army stood for a long time on the bank of the river reluctant to attack the formidable Muscovite army of Ivan III. Neither side opened battle. In November Khan Ahmed retreated and withdrew to the Golden Horde, realising that he was no longer in a position to subjugate Rus. This was the last sally made by the Tartars to demand tribute. Mongol rule over Rus was at an end; the country finally won its independence in 1480.
p Meanwhile Moscow became an ever larger and more impressive city, reflecting the grandeur of the new united realm. A new stone palace was built in Moscow and thick stone walls were built round the fortress of Kremlin. Ivan III summoned the celebrated Italian 231 architect Aristotle Fieravanti to his court to supervise the building of the five-domed Cathedral of the Dormition (Uspensky Sobor) within the Kremlin walls. Towers were built along the walls of the new Kremlin and Fieravanti’s pupils built the famous Rusticated Palace (Granovitaya Palata) for ceremonial receptions in honour of foreign envoys, so named because the main fa9ade is faced with rusticated stone blocks. Many talented Russian craftsmen from various parts of the realm were working in Moscow at that time making of it a noble capital city.
p The Roman Emperors had the tradition of adding to their name the title Caesar. Ivan III decided to do likewise, and adopted the title of Tsar (the Russian derivation of Caesar). Ivan also adopted the coat of arms of the Byzantine Empire, the double eagle, which was to remain the coat of arms of the Russian Empire under the tsars right up until the February revolution of 1917.
p A large number of ambassadors from foreign lands visited the courts of Ivan III and Vassily III (1479-1533), from the German Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, Denmark, Venice and Turkey. A new tradition of ceremonial receptions grew up.
The first of the princes of Muscovy to call himself Tsar was Ivan III but his grandson Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584) was the first to have himself crowned in the Uspensky Cathedral with due pomp and circumstance, and declare himself "Tsar of All the Russias".
Notes