The Battle of Kulikovo, which took place on September 8, 1380 between the Russian army of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich and the Tatar hordes of Mamai, became a turning point in Russian history.

And although Muscovite Russia was freed from the Horde yoke for only two years as a result of the battle, the Battle of Kulikovo led to the mental unification of Russia and marked the beginning of the formation of the Great Russian nation - if they went to Kulikovo field, being Muscovites, Vladimirians, Mozhaytsy, Serpukhovites and Novgorodians, then they returned from there as Russians .

Prince Dmitry Ivanovich by Ilya Glazunov

Background of the Battle of Kulikovo

Popular uprisings against the Tatar yoke began to flare up immediately after its establishment. So, in 1259, the inhabitants of Novgorod dealt with the impudent Horde Baskaks. and in 1262 the inhabitants of Rostov the Great, Vladimir, Suzdal and many other Russian cities rose up against the oppressors. However, the Horde invariably drowned these performances in blood, since the Russian princes spoke on their side.

Many are now trying to argue that there was no Tatar yoke in Russia. The Tatars, they say, did not keep garrisons in Russian cities, but only limited themselves to punitive expeditions against the rebellious cities. Yes, indeed, they did not keep garrisons in the cities - the obedience of the Russian people to the Tatar authorities was provided by the Russian princes themselves, and therefore the Tatar yoke was doubly burdensome - they had to support not only the khan in Saray, but also the prince in the Kremlin.

The princes themselves repeatedly brought Tatar detachments to Russia, using them both to restore order in their inheritance and to attack neighboring principalities. In addition, the Tatars themselves often used some Russian princes in the fight against others. So, in 1333, the Tatars went along with the Muscovites to the Novgorod land, which refused to pay tribute in an increased amount. In 1334, together with Dmitry Bryansk, the Tatars went against the Smolensk prince Ivan Alexandrovich.
But on November 13, 1359, after the death of Ivan the Red, nine-year-old Dmitry Ivanovich becomes the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow. In the early years, Moscow was ruled on his behalf by Metropolitan Alexy, who was a supporter of an alliance with the Horde against Lithuania. Objectively, such a policy was correct: the Tatars looked at Russia only as a cash cow, and Lithuania as an object of genocide. Subjectively, such a policy of the metropolitan was due to the fact that it was Berdibek, and not some Jagiello, who issued Alexy a label confirming the release of the Russian Church from tribute and extortion.

However, in the same year, 1359, the twelfth Khan of the Golden Horde, Berdybek, was killed. The impostor Kulpa, who took his place, held out in Saray for five months and was killed by Nauryzbek, who was killed four months later by Khan Khyzyr. But in the same four months Khizyr became a victim of a conspiracy of his own eldest son Timur-Khadzhi. The latter ruled for five weeks, having only time to mint a coin with his name. In total, over the next 10 years, 25 khans were replaced in Sarai.
Temnik Mamai, who served under Berdybek as the governor of the Crimea, took advantage of this situation. This representative of the Kyyat tribe had no rights to the Horde throne, but was married to the daughter of Berdybek, the last representative of a legitimate dynasty descended from Batu. In addition, at that moment, an eight-year-old representative of the Batu family, Muhammad-Bulak, was on vacation in the Crimea.
Having proclaimed this little boy Khan, Mamai declared himself the regent of the entire Golden Horde. However, he could not control the entire Horde - Saray and the entire eastern part of the Horde were under the control of other khans, and from 1377, Timur's protégé, Chingizid Tokhtamysh, began to seize it.

Taking advantage of the situation in the Horde, called the Great Zamyatnya by the chroniclers, Prince Dmitry decided not to send tribute to Saray anymore.
But Lithuania also decided to take advantage of the situation in the Horde: the Lithuanian prince Olgerd Gedeminvich, married to the daughter of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver, murdered in the Horde, Ulyana, declared himself the liberator of Russian lands from the Tatar yoke. The halo of the liberator and the appearance similar to the Russians, as well as the Russian wife and the Orthodox religion, allowed him to take possession of Bryansk, Kyiv, Smolensk and all of Volhynia in a short time. It seemed that he was about to take over the entire former Kievan Rus, but Moscow suddenly stood in the way of his plans.
In alliance with the princes of Tver, Olgerd began a war against Dmitry. Three times the Lithuanian prince went to Moscow, but he was unable to take it. In the midst of the confrontation on May 24, 1377, the 80-year-old Olgerd died. His 15-year-old heir, Jagiello, could not only expand, but also keep most of his father's conquests - one principality fell away from Lithuania after another. And then Jagiello decided to offer an alliance against Dmitry to the recent enemies of Lithuania, the Tatars. The condition of this alliance was the support of Mamai in his claims to the Horde throne and the division of Russia between Lithuania and the Horde.

This union was most welcome for Mamai: from the very beginning of his reign, he sought to make North-Eastern Russia not just a dependent territory, but also completely occupy and annex it. In this desire, he was indulged by the Krymchak Jews (not to be confused with the Karaites) and Genoese merchants for the most part of the same nationality, sometimes covered by a pectoral Catholic cross. Both those and others intended to open trading posts in Russia in order to exchange furs for Italian glass. Hoping for future dividends, they generously credited Mamai, who managed to gather quite a significant military force. They were also interested in the ruin of Moscow for the reason that in the spring of 1376, the Russian army, led by Dmitry Mikhailovich Bobrok-Volynsky, made a trip to the middle Volga, defeated the Volga Bulgaria and, instead of Mamaev's henchmen, planted Russian customs officers there. thus, the influx of furs to the Crimean merchants decreased.

It completely dried up after the following winter, Prince Boris Konstantinovich Gorodetsky, together with his nephew Semyon Dmitrievich and the Moscow governor Sviblo, made a trip to the Mordovian land. All Bulgarian and Mordovian furs now went to Russia and were sold through Novgorod to the Hanseatic cities.

To resume the supply of furs to the Crimea, Mamai sent an army under the command of Murza Begich to Russia, but this army was utterly defeated on August 11, 1378 in the battle on the Vozha River. Begich himself also died.

Preparation of the Battle of Kulikovo

For the next two years, the opponents were preparing for a decisive battle. Finally, on July 23, 1380, the messenger Andrei Semyonovich Popov rode to Moscow with the news that the army led by Mamai himself had crossed the Voronezh River.

Letters were immediately sent to all the capitals of the Russian principalities, cities and lands: “let them be ready.” Kolomna, a fortress near the mouth of the Moskva River, was appointed the place of concentration of the main forces of the Russian army.

Soon, Russian intelligence officers Rodion Rzhevsky, Andrey Volosatov and Vasily Tupik managed to get the language, according to the testimony of which it became clear that Jagiello and Oleg Ryazansky were on the side of Mamai.

Recently, a theory has appeared suggesting that the Battle of Kulikovo did not take place on the Don at all, but right under the walls of Moscow in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Moscow Solyanka Street. From the point of view of formal logic, everything looks perfect in this theory: why chase Mamai in an open field, risking that he, bypassing the rear, will ruin defenseless Moscow? Wouldn't it be better to meet him under the walls of the city, if he goes to Moscow anyway?

However, this theory does not take into account the fact that in this case not only Mamai would come to Moscow, but also Jagiello with Oleg Ryazansky. Dmitry, on the other hand, wanted to break the opponents in parts, preempting their connection.

On the morning of August 20, the Russian army set out from Moscow along three roads. For the defense of the capital, the voivode Fedor Andreevich Koshka, a distant ancestor of the future Romanov family, was left with the army.

Russia put up against Mamai 24 thousand warriors of heavily armed infantry from city regiments, replenished with volunteer peasants, and about 12 thousand horsemen.

Knights and their war horses were covered from head to toe in iron armor. Long-range crossbows were attached to the saddles of the knights, firing iron arrows at 800–1000 m, while the Horde bow, according to my information, hit only at a distance of 150–200 m. himself in heavy armor, since, after all, he was taught military affairs from the age of three.

The footmen at arms were armed with crossbows, swords, axes and spears, and according to some information there was also a small number of squeakers that fired not only bullets, but also arrows. Infantrymen were protected by armor and chain mail with bracers, metal gloves, legguards, knee pads and greaves, plate boots, helmets with steel masks, scarlet almond-shaped shields.

The Russian rati included regiments under the command of twenty-three princes and a governor, including the Tver regiment. For various reasons, there were no regiments of Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod and, of course, Ryazan. But on the other hand, two Orthodox Lithuanian princes sent their squads - his half-brothers, who were in opposition to Jogaila. These were Andrei, who reigned in Pskov, and Dmitry, in whose inheritance Olgerd at one time allocated Bryansk and the Trubetskoy principality. This same Dmitry Olgerdovich became the ancestor of the princes Trubetskoy. It was to meet these detachments that Dmitry Ivanovich, leaving Kolomna with an army on the 24th, did not move directly towards Mamai, but first headed west along the Oka to the mouth of Lopasna. In addition, already knowing about the betrayal of Oleg Ryazansky, he did not dare to move through the center of the Ryazan principality, although the battle itself took place on Ryazan territory.

After crossing the Oka near Lopasnya, Dmitry and his commanders had to decide which of the opponents should be met first. The Grand Duke took into account that Jagiello and Oleg advanced in a narrow strip, mainly along the roads, and therefore their rati did not cause much damage to the local population. Mamai is another matter. The nomads, greedy for prey, promised great misfortunes for Russian villages, villages and villages. Therefore, having decided to beat the enemies separately, Dmitry wanted first of all to knock out the Horde from the coalition.

Dmitry Ivanovich hurried to cross the Don at an unusual time according to the then rules of war - at night. And in this risky venture there was a deep calculation: realizing that Mamai could know quite a lot about the Moscow rati from scouts, Dmitry hoped that the night crossing would exclude the possibility of a sudden attack on his rear by one of the opponents, and the next day the warriors would have time to prepare for battle.

Kulikovo field

The course of the Battle of Kulikovo

On the morning of September 8, 1380, two troops lined up on the Kulikovo field: 36 thousand Russian soldiers opposed 120 thousand of the Horde. The location of the Russian troops was covered by the Sentry Regiment of Semyon Melik, numbering up to a thousand equestrian knights in damask armor. Behind him were the Front Line and the Big Full, in the ranks of which there were 24 thousand foot warriors. Their flanks were covered by regiments of the Right and Left hands, which included 3-4 thousand heavily armed forged rati, seated in thick armor on armored horses. In the rear of the Bolshoi Regiment, Dmitry prudently deployed 3,600 reserve warriors, not far from which fluttered the grand ducal banner, protected by three hundred warriors. On the left, in the oak forest, the Ambush Regiment, consisting of 4 thousand knights Dmitry Bobrok and Vladimir Serpukhovsky, was waiting in the wings.

Mamai's army was also not purely cavalry - it also included Genoese infantrymen. They were recruited not only in the Crimean Cafe, but also in Genoa itself. Some of them were pikemen, and the rest were pavezier crossbowmen - during the loading of the crossbow, they covered themselves with a standing shield stuck into the ground, called paveza. Each of them had two crossbows, a lamellar armor and a gorget, iron bracers and a bascinet, a sword and a dagger. For every 25 people, a commander relied, who received 10 florins a month. The ordinary crossbowman received five florins.

The main weapon of light, hitting a moving target At a trot, the rider is able to develop up to 12-15 km / h. at the same time, the nomads usually started shooting from five hundred paces, rapidly approaching the enemy.

The battle began at about 11 o'clock in the morning with a duel between the Horde giant Chelubey and the Russian knight Peresvet. Both our knight and the Tatar batyr died, killing each other, after which Mamai moved his advanced detachment of 44,000 light horsemen towards the Guard Regiment. Behind him, 14-15 thousand dismounted heavily armed horsemen were preparing for an attack.

The guard regiment of Semyon sowed and for the most part destroyed the light cavalry of the Horde forward detachment, but then the main enemy forces entered the battle. The Tatars, at full gallop, crashed into the thick chains of the Muscovites, who put up their spears. The Tatar horses jumped over the spears, and the Tatar riders chopped right and left with curved sabers. individual daredevils stood with their backs to each other, put up spears, built like hedgehogs, and successfully fought back. Then the Tatars, not converging closely, began to shoot them with bows. Thus, greatly thinned, the Advance Regiment withdrew, joining the regiments of the Right and Left Hands.

On the right flank, the Russian knights successfully repulsed the attacks of the Mamaev horsemen with iron arrows. In the center of the Big and Advanced Regiments, a hail of arrows was also rained down on the approaching Horde. Volleys from 4-6 thousand crossbows tore the air every eight seconds, and in fact the enemy cavalry was in their zone of action for at least 10 minutes, and the clumsy 50-line infantry from the Genoese mercenaries - for at least 25 minutes. And those who managed to break through to the Vanguard Detachment were met by a steel bristle of spears.

On the left flank, the right wing of the Horde, reinforced by a reserve, attacked our regiment of the Left Hand, trying to go behind the lines of the Big Regiment. Here, in the front row, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich also fought. Mamai threw the weight of the reserves into battle. The Tatars, regardless of the huge losses, climbed ahead.
In the center of the fighting, fierce logging continued, the Horde partly crashed into the ranks of the Advanced and Large regiments. At the same time, under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, the thinned regiment of the Left Hand retreated back, and the grand ducal warriors of the Moscow banner entered the battle.

Mamai, seeing that the hour was not far off when the main forces of the Russians would be engulfed and surrounded, triumphed over the victory. However, in front of the enemy who had broken through, foot warriors of the reserve suddenly appeared, blocking his path with a wall of shields bristling with spears. Iron arrows fired from crossbows mowed down hundreds of Horde residents.

And at that moment, the Ambush Poly collapsed on the Horde from behind. Now the enemy, having already lost many soldiers, found himself between a hammer and an anvil - he was destroyed from three sides by Russian warriors and knights. The Horde could not bear this and rushed to run. At the same time, the heavily armed regiment of the Right Hand went on the offensive, scattering the light enemy horsemen. Now the Russians surrounded the main forces of Mamai, defeated them and went into pursuit, destroying those fleeing for almost 50 miles to the Red Sword River, covering the entire path with Tatar corpses. And on the Beautiful Sword, the same thing happened that the Mamaev warriors had already experienced on the Vozha: heavy weapons pulled to the bottom of those who wanted to cross the river.

The results of the Battle of Kulikovo

Mamai's army was completely defeated. Among the dead was Khan Mohammed-Bulak, who by that time had reached the age of 28, under which Mamai declared himself regent.

Dmitry Ivanovich himself was subsequently named Dmitry Donskoy for the Kulikovo victory, was shell-shocked and knocked off his horse, but was able to get to the forest, where he was found after the battle under a cut down birch in an unconscious state.

The Russians also got the whole huge convoy, on which Mamai kept everything that was necessary for the army, and, in addition, he hoped to take out Moscow booty on it.

Having learned about the defeat of Mamai, Jagiello, who did not have time to reach the place of the battle, turned back and returned to Lithuania in such a hurry, as if they were chasing him on the heels.

For a long time it was believed that the Russians lost almost the entire army on the Kulikovo field. However, according to military historian Dmitry Zenin, Russian losses amounted to 6% of the personnel. that is, a little over two thousand people. Mamai, on the other hand, lost more than a hundred thousand soldiers, and the Genoese infantrymen - both pikemen and paveziers - were almost completely exterminated - most of them were trampled by the horses of the fleeing Tatars.

The carts from the captured Tatar convoy were useful for loading the wounded, but on the way back, the five thousandth army of Oleg Ryazansky attacked this convoy and, having cut the wounded, took all the trophies obtained by the Russians on the Kulikovo field.

The defeated Mamai fled to the Crimea, managed to gather a new army there and again went to Russia, but on the way to the Kalka River, where in 1223 the first clash of Russia with the Tatar-Mongols took place, he met with the army of Tokhtamysh, to whom legal power passed after the death Muhammad Bulak. There was essentially no battle: Tokhtamysh's archers shot arrows across the river with leaflets promising rewards for going over to his side and punishment for those who remained on Mamai's side. In the end, abandoned by the army, Mamai again fled to the Crimea, where the Jews who lent him demanded that he return his debts. There was nothing to pay Mamai, and they sold him to Tokhtamysh for a third of the amount of the debt. At first, Mamai managed to escape, but then they decided to sell him his own nukers. They could not take him alive, and they had to kill him and offer Tokhtamysh an already dead body. Tokhtamysh generously paid off the traitors, methodically thrusting coins into their anus one after another. By order of Tokhtamysh, Mamai was buried with due honors.

Dmitry Donskoy sent a greeting message to Tokhtamysh on the occasion of his accession to the throne and sent him generous gifts, but he did not ask for a label for reigning. Therefore, Tokhtamysh in 1382 made a trip to Moscow, after a long siege he took it fraudulently and burned it to the ground. The Horde yoke in Russia was restored and lasted another century.

History of Russia from Rurik to Putin. People. Developments. Dates Anisimov Evgeniy Viktorovich

Battle of Kulikovo 1380

Battle of Kulikovo 1380

In the 1370s Mongol-Tatars constantly went to Russia. In 1377, the horde of Tsarevich Arab Shah attacked the Russian army on the Pyan River near Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian regiments did not expect an attack, the princes did not even know where the horde was. Without posting patrols, some half-dressed warriors rested carelessly, others hunted, others drank honey and mash. Many had armor lying in the wagon train, hidden in bags, the spears were not impaled on the poles, and the shields were not assembled. Guides from the Mordovians showed the Mongol-Tatars the approaches to the camp - and they suddenly hit the Russians, they were "beating, piercing and cutting." "In a daze" (confusion), the Russian troops, pursued by the Horde, fled, littering the road to Nizhny Novgorod with the bodies of the dead. The unfortunate commander Prince Ivan Dmitrievich (brother of Dmitry Donskoy's wife) threw himself into the river and drowned while crossing. On the shoulders of the Russians, the Horde broke into Nizhny Novgorod. Residents of the city on boats hurriedly crossed the river to neighboring Gorodets and watched the enemies rob and burn their hometown. The Mongol-Tatars took a huge full, and the shame of Drunk was remembered forever.

In the meantime, even in the Golden Horde itself, it was restless - the nomadic society was torn apart by feuds of clans, noble families of murzas. In the mid 1350s. The Horde has split. In 1357, Khan Dzhanibek was killed by his son Berdibek, who immediately slaughtered 12 of his half-brothers. After that, according to the Russian chronicler, "the great harrowing in the Horde" began. For 25 years (until 1381), 25 khans were replaced on the throne in the Horde!

By 1380, the situation in the Horde remained confused: part of it stood for Emir Mamai, and part for Khan Tokhtamysh from the Jochid family. The Russian princes had to appease both ... or, taking advantage of their strife, not pay tribute (“exit”) to anyone. So did the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich. He refused to answer Mamai's "request" and did not go to the Horde at his call. Formally, he acted according to the law: Mamai did not come from the Genghisides, that is, he did not belong to the royal family, but, like Dmitry, was only an emir. Moreover, in 1378, in the Ryazan land, on the Vozhzha River, Prince Dmitry defeated the "Begichev army" sent by Mamai. This battle would have been among the most brilliant victories of Russian weapons if it had not been overshadowed by an even more grandiose victory at the Kulikovo field.

After the battle on the Vozha, Mamai decided to punish the disobedient Moscow tributary with his own hands and set off on a campaign against him. Dmitry Ivanovich understood what a desperate deed he had started - to challenge the mighty and invincible Horde for 150 years now! According to legend, Sergius of Radonezh inspired him to the feat. But not only did Prince Dmitry secure the approval of the church. Having finally ruined relations with Mamai, he actively and skillfully put together a princely coalition.

For the first time since pre-Mongolian times, Prince Dmitry convened a large princely congress. At the call of the Grand Duke in November 1374, at least 150 specific princes gathered in Pereslavl-Zalessky! They agreed on joint actions against, as they would now say, "a potential adversary." But at first it was not the Horde at all, but ... Tver. In 1375, squads "from all over the Russian land" were already standing under the walls of the Russian city. Prince Michael of Tver quickly recognized the supremacy of Grand Duke Dmitry, as already mentioned above.

Soon, this experience of joint actions of allied and subject to Moscow specific princes came in handy in the fight against the Horde. In the summer of 1380, at the call of Dmitry, a huge army of 100,000 gathered in Moscow. On three roads it moved from the capital. The streets of Moscow then saw an unusual sight: to the sound of bells, priests with banners, icons and crosses, in golden robes, sprinkled thousands of soldiers passing by with holy water. “Then ... it’s not a knock that knocks, it’s not thunder,” the chronicler wrote, “then the mighty army of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich knocks, the brave Russians thunder with gilded armor and scarlet shields.” Holding back tears, Dmitry Ivanovich said goodbye to Princess Evdokia: “Wife, if God is for us, then who is against us?”

On August 26, 1380, the news spread throughout Moscow that the Russian army had crossed the Oka River, and “there was great sadness in the city of Moscow, and bitter weeping and cries and sobs arose in all parts of the city.” Everyone knew that if the army crossed the river, then the command had made the final choice: there was no way back, the battle and the death of many relatives and friends were inevitable. On September 8, 1380, as soon as the morning fog cleared, the duel between the monk Peresvet and the Tatar hero Chelubey began the battle on the Kulikovo field. Both combatants collapsed to the ground dead - according to a long-standing belief, such an outcome of a duel foreshadowed a difficult battle. Indeed, the cup of success fluctuated for a long time. At first, the Mongol-Tatars managed to break through the Russian ranks and even cut the staff of the regimental banner in the Big Regiment. It was a terrible moment - after all, every warrior in the tightness and chaos of the battle is guided by the banner of the regiment, and its disappearance means defeat, death. But the Russian soldiers did not lose heart, went on the counterattack and won. Their losses were horrendous - after the battle, the soldiers buried their dead comrades for six days.

But still, on that day, God really was on the side of Russia! Prince Dmitry was found under a fallen tree shell-shocked, but alive. It is known that he, supporting the courage of the "unexpected" (recruits), led the first attack on the enemy. A huge role in the victory was played by his cousin Vladimir Andreevich, who commanded a reserve regiment, which suddenly struck the Tatars from an ambush and thereby decided the fate of the battle. Like Prince Dmitry, Vladimir Andreevich received the nickname Donskoy.

Battle of Kulikovo 1380 In the 1370s. Mongol-Tatars constantly went to Russia. In 1377, the horde of Tsarevich Arab Shah attacked the Russian army on the Pyan River near Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian regiments did not expect an attack, the princes did not even know where the horde was. Without setting patrols, alone

The Battle of the Don, or the Battle of Kulikovo 1362-1380 Many worries, labors, anxieties and sorrows awaited Dimitri Ivanovich on the Grand Duke's throne. First, he had to subdue Dimitri Konstantinovich several times, who still aspired to be great.