1480 standing. Standing on the river Ugra (1480). "God preserve your kingdom and give you victory"
Standing on the river Ugra- hostilities that took place from October 8 to November 11, 1480 between Khan Akhmat and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, who was in alliance with the Crimean Khanate. It is believed that it was standing on the Ugra River that put an end to the Mongol-Tatar yoke in the north and northeast of Rus', where the process of establishing an independent Russian state was eventually completed.
Standing on the river Ugra is short.
Background.
In 1472, Khan Akhmat approached the Grand Duchy of Moscow, but the Horde soldiers met the Russian army and could not cross the Oka. The Horde's army burned the city of Aleksin and killed its entire population, but in the end the Horde was forced to retreat, and attacked the Moscow principality. In 1476, Grand Duke Ivan III refused to pay tribute to the Golden Horde (according to other sources, this happened in 1472, as a result of which Khan Akhmat attacked the Moscow principality), and in 1480 declared the independence of Rus' from the Horde.
Khan Akhmat, who was busy with the war with the Crimean Khanate, was able to start active operations against the Moscow principality only in 1480. The Horde entered into an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king and agreed to help in the war against Rus'. In the same 1480, his brothers rebelled against Ivan III.
Hostilities.
In the autumn of 1480, taking advantage (the civil strife of the princes and an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king), Khan Akhmat attacked the Moscow principality with the main forces.
Ivan III began to draw Russian troops to the banks of the Oka. The troops of the Horde, meanwhile, unhindered through the Lithuanian territory, where they were even accompanied by local guides. But Khan Akhmat did not wait for help from Casimir IV, the Polish-Lithuanian king, since the allies of Ivan III, the Crimean Tatars, attacked Podolia.
Khan Akhmat decided not to go to the Oka, in front of the Russians; he went through the Lithuanian lands to the Russians, which were separated by the Ugra River. Ivan III, having learned this, sent Ivan Ivanovich and Andrei the Less to the banks of the Ugra.
On September 30, 1480, Ivan III gathered a council in Moscow, where he received an order to defend Russian territory. Soon the brothers of Ivan III announced the end of the rebellion and joined with their regiments the army stationed at the Oka.
On October 3, Ivan III went to the famine of Kremenets with a small detachment, and sent the rest of the Russian troops to the banks of the Ugra.
The Tatars, in order to cover their rear, ravaged the upper reaches of the Oka for 100 kilometers.
On October 8, 1480, Khan Akhmat tried to cross the Ugra, but Ivan the Young, son of Ivan III, repulsed the attack. For several days, under the fire of Russian artillery, the Horde tried to cross to the other side, but to no avail. The troops of Ivan III organized a defense on their shore, the Tatars stood on their own. The great "standing on the Ugra" began. Neither side dared to launch a full attack.
Negotiations began. Akhmat demanded obedience from the princes and the payment of tribute for 7 years. Ivan III sent an ambassador with gifts and a rejection of the tribute demand. Khan did not accept gifts. It is likely that Ivan III was simply playing for time, since the troops of Andrei the Great and Boris Volotsky were already on the way, and the ally of Khan Akhmat fought off the Crimean Khan and could not help the Horde. Also, the horses of the Tatars used up the supply of food, and an epidemic broke out among the Tatars themselves. Everything at that moment was on the side of the Russians.
Akhmat mobilized the Great Horde to win the battle. Upon learning this, Ivan III singled out a small detachment and sent it to the possessions of Akhmat for sabotage.
Having received information about the impending attack of the Crimean Tatars, as well as sabotage in the rear, lacking food, at the end of October he began to withdraw his troops. On November 11, 1480, Khan Akhmat decided on a complete retreat. The Horde yoke was overthrown, and the Moscow principality gained independence. On January 6, 1481, Khan Akhmat was killed, and civil strife began in the Great Horde.
Ivan III tears the khan's charter and tramples the basma in front of the Tatar ambassadors in 1478. Artist A.D. Kivshenko.
In the memory of the Russian people, the difficult period of history, called the "Horde yoke", began in the 13th century. tragic events on the Kalka and City rivers, lasted almost 250 years, but ended triumphantly on the Ugra River in 1480.
The significance of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 has always been attached great attention, and Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich, who received an honorary prefix to the name "Donskoy" after the battle, is national hero. But other historical characters showed no less heroism, and some events, perhaps undeservedly forgotten, are commensurate in their significance with the battle on the Don. The events that put an end to the yoke of the Horde in 1480 are known in historical literature under common name"Standing on the Ugra" or "Ugorshchina". They represented a chain of battles on the border of Rus' between the troops of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat.
The battle on the Ugra River, which put an end to the Horde yoke.
Miniature from the Obverse chronicle. 16th century
In 1462, the eldest son of Vasily II the Dark Ivan inherited the throne of Moscow. As the head of the foreign policy of the Moscow principality, Ivan III knew what he wanted: to be the sovereign of all Rus', that is, to unite all the lands of the northeast under his rule and put an end to the Horde dependence. Towards this goal, the Grand Duke went all his life and, I must say, successfully.
 Sovereign of All Rus' Ivan III Vasilievich the Great. Titular. 17th century |
By the end of the 15th century, the formation of the main territory of the Russian centralized state was almost completed. All capitals of specific principalities Northeast Rus' bowed their heads before Moscow: in 1464 the Yaroslavl principality was annexed, and in 1474 - Rostov. Soon the same fate befell Novgorod: in 1472, in part, and in 1478 completely, Ivan III crossed out the separatist tendencies of part of the Novgorod boyars and liquidated the sovereignty of the Novgorod feudal republic. The main symbol of Novgorod liberty - the veche bell - was removed by him and sent to Moscow. |
The historical words uttered at the same time by Ivan III: “Our state of the Grand Dukes is this: I will not be a bell in our fatherland in Novgorod, there will not be a posadnik, but we will keep our reign” became the motto of Russian sovereigns for several centuries to come.
Map. Campaigns of Ivan III.
While Moscow State matured and grew stronger, the Golden Horde had already broken up into several independent state entities that did not always coexist peacefully with each other. First, the lands of Western Siberia with the center in the city of Chinga-Tura (present-day Tyumen) separated from it. In the 40s. in the territory between the Volga and the Irtysh to the north of the Caspian Sea, an independent Nogai Horde was formed with its center in the city of Saraichik. A little later, Kazan (1438) and Crimean (1443) appeared on the lands of the former Mongol Empire around the borders of its successor - the Great Horde, and in the 60s. - Kazakh, Uzbek and Astrakhan khanates. The throne of the Golden Horde kingdom and the title of great khan were in the hands of Akhmat, whose power extended to the vast territories between the Volga and the Dnieper.
During this period, the relationship between the uniting North-Eastern Russia and the disintegrating Horde was uncertain. And in 1472, Ivan III finally stopped paying tribute to the Horde. The campaign of Akhmat Khan in 1480 was the last attempt to return Rus' to a position subordinate to the Horde.
The right moment was chosen for the campaign, when Ivan III was in a dense ring of enemies. In the north, in the Pskov region, the Livonian Order robbed, whose troops, under the leadership of Master von der Borch, captured vast territories in the north of the country.
From the west, the Polish king Casimir IV threatened war. The unrest that arose within the state was also directly connected with the Polish threat. The Novgorod boyars, relying on the help of Casimir and the Livonians, organized a conspiracy to transfer Novgorod to the rule of foreigners. At the head of the conspiracy was Archbishop Theophilus, who enjoyed great influence among the Novgorodians. In addition, the brothers of Ivan III, the specific princes Andrei Bolshoi and Boris Volotsky, rebelled in Moscow, demanding an increase in the territory of the appanages and strengthening their influence on the government. Both rebellious princes asked Casimir for help, and he promised them all kinds of support.
The news of the new campaign of the Horde reached Moscow in the last days of May 1480. The Printing Chronicle about the beginning of the invasion says: a single thought with Casimer, the king bo and led him to the Grand Duke ... ".
Having received the news of the performance of the Horde, the Grand Duke had to take retaliatory measures, both diplomatic and military.
The creation of a coalition with the Crimean Khanate, directed against the Great Horde, began by Ivan III shortly before the start of the invasion. On April 16, 1480, the Moscow embassy headed by Prince I.I. Zvenigorodsky-Zvenets went to the Crimea. In Bakhchisarai, the Moscow ambassador signed an agreement on mutual assistance with Khan Mengli Giray. The Russian-Crimean alliance was defensive and offensive in relation to Kazimir and defensive in relation to Akhmat. “And on Akhmat the king,” the Crimean Khan wrote to Ivan III, be with you for one. If Tsar Akhmat comes against me, and to you, my brother, Grand Duke Ivan, let your princes go to the horde with ulans and princes. And then Akhmat the tsar and me Mengli-Giray the tsar go to Akhmat the tsar or let his brother go with his people.
An alliance with Mengli-Girey was concluded, but the complexity of the situation on the border of the Crimea and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as well as the relative weakness of Mengli-Girey as an ally, did not allow hope to prevent Horde aggression only through diplomatic means. Therefore, for the defense of the country, Ivan III took a number of actions and of a military nature.
By the beginning of Akhmat's invasion, a deeply echeloned system of defensive structures existed on the southern borders of the Muscovite state. This Zasechnaya line consisted of fortress cities, numerous notches and earthen ramparts. When it was created, all possible protective geographical properties of the area were used: ravines, swampy swamps, lakes and especially rivers. The main line of defense of the southern borders stretched along the Oka. This part of the Zasechnaya line was called the "Oka coastal discharge".
The service for the protection of the Oksky border was introduced by Ivan III into compulsory service. Here, to protect the borders of the principality, peasants went in turn from not only nearby, but also distant villages. During the invasions of the Horde, this foot militia had to withstand the first onslaught and keep the enemy at the border lines until the main forces approached. The principles of frontier defense were also developed by the Grand Duke's military administration in advance. The surviving "Mandate to the Ugric Governors" clearly shows this.
Fragment of the diorama "Great Standing on the Ugra River". Diorama Museum. Kaluga region, Dzerzhinsky district, with. Palaces, Vladimir Skete of the Kaluga St. Tikhon Hermitage.
In late May - early June, the Grand Duke sent a governor with armed detachments to the Oka region to help the troops who were constantly serving in the southern "Ukraine". The son of Ivan III Ivan Molodoy was dressed up in Serpukhov. Andrey Menshoi, the brother of the Moscow prince, went to Tarusa to prepare the city for defense and organize a rebuff to the Tatars. In addition to them, in Russian chronicles, as one of the leaders of the defense of the Zasechnaya line, a distant relative of Ivan III, Prince Vasily Vereisky, is mentioned.
The measures taken by the Grand Duke turned out to be timely. Soon, separate enemy patrols appeared on the right bank of the Oka. This fact was reflected in the annals: “Tatars came captive to Besput and otidosha.” The first blow, apparently made for reconnaissance purposes, was struck at one of the right-bank Russian volosts near the Oka, which was not covered by a water barrier from attacks from the steppe. But seeing that the Russian troops took up defensive positions on the opposite bank, the enemy withdrew.
The rather slow advance of Akhmat's main forces allowed the Russian command to determine the possible direction of Akhmat's main attack. The breakthrough of the Zasechnaya line was supposed to pass either between Serpukhov and Kolomna, or below Kolomna. The nomination of the Grand Duke's regiment under the leadership of the voivode Prince D.D. Kholmsky to the place of a possible meeting with the enemy ended in July 1480.
The decisiveness of Akhmat's goals is indicated by specific facts reflected in chronicle sources. The army of Akhmat, in all likelihood, included all the available military forces of the Great Horde at that time. According to the chronicles, together with Akhmat, his nephew Kasim, and six other princes, whose names were not preserved in the Russian chronicles, spoke. Comparing with the forces that the Horde put up earlier (for example, the invasion of Edigey in 1408, Mazowshy in 1451), we can conclude about the numerical strength of Akhmat's troops. We are talking about 80-90 thousand soldiers. Naturally, this figure is not exact, but it gives a general idea of the scale of the invasion.
The timely deployment of the main forces of the Russian troops on the defensive lines did not allow Akhmat to force the Oka in its central sector, which would allow the Horde to be in the shortest direction to Moscow. Khan turned his army to the Lithuanian possessions, where he could successfully solve a dual task: firstly, to connect with the regiments of Casimir, and secondly, without much difficulty to break into the territory of the Moscow principality from the Lithuanian lands. There is direct information about this in Russian chronicles: “... go to the Lithuanian lands, bypassing the Oka River, and waiting for the king to help or strength.”
Akhmat's maneuver along the Oka line was timely discovered by Russian outposts. In this regard, the main forces from Serpukhov and Tarusa were transferred to the west, to Kaluga and directly to the banks of the Ugra River. Regiments were also sent there, going to reinforce the grand ducal troops from various Russian cities. So, for example, the forces of the Tver principality, led by governors Mikhail Kholmsky and Joseph Dorogobuzh, arrived at the Ugra. To get ahead of the Horde, to reach the banks of the Ugra before them, to occupy and strengthen all the places convenient for crossing - such a task was faced by the Russian troops.
Akhmat's movement towards the Ugra was fraught with great danger. Firstly, this river, as a natural barrier, was significantly inferior to the Oka. Secondly, going to the Ugra, Akhmat continued to remain in close proximity to Moscow and, with a quick crossing of the water line, could reach the capital of the principality in 3 horseback crossings. Thirdly, the entry of the Horde into the borders of the Lithuanian land pushed Casimir to speak out and increased the likelihood of the Horde joining the Polish troops.
All these circumstances forced the Moscow government to take emergency measures. One of these measures was the holding of the council. The son and co-ruler of the Grand Duke Ivan Molodoy, his mother, Prince nun Martha, his uncle, Prince Mikhail Andreyevich Vereisky, Metropolitan of All Rus' Gerontius, Archbishop Vassian of Rostov and many boyars took part in the discussion of the current situation. The council adopted a strategic plan of action aimed at preventing the invasion of the Horde into Russian lands. It provided for the simultaneous solution of several tasks of different nature.
Firstly, an agreement was reached with the rebellious brothers to end the "hush". The termination of the feudal rebellion significantly strengthened the military-political position of the Russian state in the face of the Horde danger, depriving Akhmat and Casimir of one of the main trump cards in their political game. Secondly, it was decided to transfer Moscow and a number of cities to a state of siege. So, according to the Moscow Chronicle, "... in the siege in the city of Moscow, Metropolitan Gerontius sat down, and the Grand Duchess Monk Martha, and Prince Mikhail Andreevich, and the governor of Moscow Ivan Yuryevich, and a lot of people from many cities." A partial evacuation of the capital was carried out (Ivan III's wife Grand Duchess Sophia, young children and the state treasury were sent from Moscow to Beloozero). The population of the Oka cities was partially evacuated, and the garrisons in them were strengthened by the sovereign's archers from Moscow. Thirdly, Ivan III ordered an additional military mobilization on the territory of the Moscow Principality. Fourthly, it was decided to raid the Russian troops on the territory of the Horde to carry out a diversionary strike. For this purpose, a ship's army was sent down the Volga under the leadership of the serving Crimean prince Nur-Daulet and Prince Vasily Zvenigorodsky-Nozdrovaty.
On October 3, the Grand Duke set off from Moscow to the regiments guarding the left bank of the Ugra. Arriving at the army, Ivan III stopped in the city of Kremenets, located between Medyn and Borovsk and located in close proximity to a possible theater of operations. According to the Moscow Chronicle, he "... a hundred on Kremenets with small people, and let all the people go to the Ugra to his son, Grand Duke Ivan." The occupation of a position located 50 km in the rear of the troops deployed along the banks of the Ugra provided the central military leadership with reliable communication with the main forces and made it possible to cover the path to Moscow in the event of a breakthrough of the Horde detachments through the barriers of the Russian troops.
Sources have not preserved the official annalistic report on the "Ugorshchina", there are no paintings of regiments and governors, although many military ranks have been preserved from the time of Ivan III. Formally, the head of the army was the son and co-ruler of Ivan III, Ivan Molodoy, who was accompanied by his uncle, Andrei Menshoi. In fact, military operations were led by the old experienced commanders of the Grand Duke, who had extensive experience in waging war with nomads. Prince Danila Kholmsky was a great governor. His associates were no less famous commanders - Semyon Ryapolovsky-Khripun and Danila Patrikeev-Shenya. The main grouping of troops was concentrated in the Kaluga region, covering the mouth of the Ugra. In addition, Russian regiments were deployed along the entire lower reaches of the river. According to the Vologda-Perm chronicle, the grand princely governors "... a hundred along the Oka and along the Ugra at 60 versts" in the section from Kaluga to Yukhnov.
the main task regiments scattered along the river bank, was to prevent the enemy from breaking through the Ugra, and for this it was necessary to reliably protect places convenient for crossing.
The direct defense of the fords and stiles was entrusted to the infantry. In places convenient for crossing, fortifications were erected, which were guarded by permanent outposts. The structure of such outposts included infantrymen and a “fiery outfit”, consisting of archers and artillery servants.
A slightly different role was assigned to the cavalry. Small horse patrols patrolled the coast between the outposts and maintained close contact between them. Their task also included the capture of enemy scouts who were trying to find out the location of Russian troops on the banks of the Ugra and reconnoiter convenient places for crossing the river. Large cavalry regiments hurried to the aid of the outposts standing at the crossings, as soon as the direction of the enemy's main attack was determined. Attacking or reconnaissance campaigns were also allowed on the opposite coast occupied by the enemy.
Thus, on a broad front along the Ugra River, a positional defense was created with active attacks by cavalry detachments. Moreover, the main force located in the fortified defense nodes at the crossing sites was infantry equipped with firearms.
The mass use of firearms by Russian soldiers during the "standing on the Ugra" is noted by all chronicles. Squeakers were used - long-barreled guns that had aimed and effective fire. The so-called mattresses were also used - firearms for firing stone or metal shot at close quarters by enemy manpower. "Fiery outfit" widely and with most useful could be used in a positional, defensive battle. Therefore, the choice of a defensive position on the banks of the Ugra, in addition to an advantageous strategic position, was also dictated by the desire to effectively use a new type of troops in the Russian army - artillery.
The tactics imposed on the Horde made it impossible for them to use the advantages of their light cavalry in flanking or flanking maneuvers. They were forced to act only in a frontal attack on the Russian notches, to go head-on on the squeakers and mattresses, on the close formation of heavily armed Russian soldiers.
Chronicles report that Akhmat marched with all his forces along the right bank of the Oka River through the cities of Mtsensk, Lubutsk and Odoev to Vorotynsk, a town located not far from Kaluga near the confluence of the Ugra into the Oka. Here Akhmat was going to wait for help from Casimir.
But at that time, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, at the insistence of Ivan III, began hostilities in Podolia, thereby partially drawing the troops and the attention of the Polish king to himself. Busy with the fight against the Crimea and the elimination of internal turmoil, he was unable to assist the Horde.
Without waiting for the help of the Poles, Akhmat decided to cross the river himself in the Kaluga region. The Horde troops reached the crossings on the Ugra on October 6-8, 1480 and launched hostilities in several places at once: » .
Opponents met face to face, only the Ugra river surface separated them (in the widest places up to 120-140 m). On the left bank, at the crossings and fords, Russian archers lined up, squeakers and mattresses with gunners and squeakers were located. Regiments of noble cavalry in armor shining in the sun, with sabers, were ready to hit the Horde if they managed to cling to our shore somewhere. The battle for the crossings began at one o'clock on October 8 and continued along the entire line of defense for almost four days.
Russian voivodes used the advantages of their troops to the maximum advantage in small arms and shot the Horde still in the water. They never managed to cross the river in any area. A special role in the battles for the crossings was played by the “fiery outfit”. Cannonballs, shot and buckshot inflicted significant damage. Iron and stone were pierced through wineskins, which were used by the Horde for the crossing. Deprived of support, horses and riders were quickly exhausted. Those who were spared by the fire went to the bottom. The Horde, floundering in cold water, became a good target for Russian shooters, and they themselves could not use their favorite technique - massive archery. The arrows that flew across the river at the end lost their destructive power and practically did not harm the Russian soldiers. Despite huge losses, the khan drove his cavalry forward again and again. But all attempts by Akhmat to cross the river from the move ended in vain. “The tsar cannot take the bank and retreat from the river from the Ugra for two miles and a hundred in Luz,” reports the Vologda-Perm Chronicle.
A new attempt to carry out the crossing was made by the Horde in the area of the Opakov settlement. Here, the conditions of the terrain made it possible to covertly concentrate the cavalry on the Lithuanian coast, and then relatively easily cross the shallow river. However, the Russian governors closely followed the movement of the Tatars and skillfully maneuvered the regiments. As a result, at the crossing, the Horde was met not by a small outpost, but by large forces that repelled Akhmat's last desperate attempt.
The Russian army stopped the Horde at the border lines and did not let the enemy through to Moscow. But the final turning point in the fight against the invasion of Akhmat has not yet come. The formidable Horde army on the banks of the Ugra retained its combat readiness and readiness to resume the battle.
Under these conditions, Ivan III began diplomatic negotiations with Akhmat. The Russian embassy headed by the Duma clerk Ivan Tovarkov went to the Horde. But these talks showed the fundamental incompatibility of the parties' views on the possibility of reaching a truce. If Akhmat insisted on the continuation of the Horde's rule over Russia, then Ivan III considered this requirement as unacceptable. In all likelihood, the negotiations were started by the Russians only in order to somehow stretch out the time and find out the further intentions of the Horde and their allies, as well as to wait for the fresh regiments of Andrei the Great and Boris Volotsky, hurrying to help. Ultimately, the negotiations did not lead to anything.
But Akhmat continued to believe in the successful completion of the undertaken campaign against Moscow. In the Sofia Chronicle there is a phrase that the chronicler put into the mouth of the Horde Khan at the end of unsuccessful negotiations: “God grant you winter, and the rivers will all become, otherwise there will be many roads to Rus'.” The establishment of an ice cover on the border rivers significantly changed the situation for opposing sides and not in favor of the Russians. Therefore, the Grand Duke adopted new operational and tactical decisions. One of these decisions was the transfer of the main Russian forces from the left bank of the Ugra River to the northeast to the area of the cities of Kremenets and Borovsk. Here, to help the main forces, fresh regiments recruited in the north were moving. As a result of this redeployment, the front extended in length was liquidated, which, with the loss of such a natural defensive line as the Ugra, was significantly weakened. In addition, a powerful fist was formed in the Kremenets area, the rapid movement of which would have made it possible to block the road of the Horde on a possible path of attack on Moscow. The withdrawal of troops from the Ugra began immediately after 26 October. Moreover, the troops were withdrawn first to Kremenets, and then even further inland, to Borovsk, where the troops of his brothers who arrived from Novgorod land were waiting for the Grand Duke Ivan III. The transfer of the position from Kremenets to Borovsk was most likely done because the new location of the Russian troops covered the path to Moscow not only from the Ugra, but also from Kaluga; from Borovsk it was possible to quickly move troops to the middle course of the Oka between Kaluga and Serpukhov, if Akhmat decided to change the direction of the main attack. According to the Typographic Chronicle, "... the great prince came to Borovsk, saying like - and we will put up a battle with them on those fields."
The area near Borovsk was very convenient for a decisive battle in the event that Akhmat nevertheless decided to cross the Ugra. The city was located on the right bank of the Protva, on the hills with good overview. The densely forested area near Borovsk would not allow Akhmat to fully use his main striking force - numerous cavalry. The general strategic plan of the Russian command did not change - to fight a defensive battle in favorable conditions for themselves and prevent the enemy from breaking through to the capital.
However, Akhmat not only did not make a new attempt to cross the Ugra and join the battle, but on November 6 he began to retreat from the Russian lines. On November 11, this news reached the camp of Ivan III. Akhmat's retreat route passed through the cities of Mtsensk, Serensk and further to the Horde. Murtoza, the most energetic of Akhmat's sons, made an attempt to ruin the Russian volosts on the right bank of the Oka. As the chronicler writes, two villages in the Aleksin region were captured. But Ivan III ordered his brothers to move forward without delay to meet the enemy. Having learned about the approach of the princely squads, Murtoza retreated.
It ended ingloriously last trip Great Horde to Rus'. On the banks of the Oka and Ugra, a decisive political victory was won - in fact, the Horde yoke, which had weighed over Russia for more than two centuries, was actually overthrown.
On December 28, 1480, Grand Duke Ivan III returned to Moscow, where he was solemnly greeted by jubilant citizens. The war for the liberation of Rus' from the Horde yoke was over.
The remnants of Akhmat's army fled to the steppes. Rivals immediately came out against the defeated khan. This struggle ended in his death. In January 1481, in the Don steppes, exhausted by a long and fruitless campaign, the Horde lost their vigilance and were overtaken by the Nogai Khan Ivak. The murder of Akhmat by Murza Yamgurchey led to the instant disintegration of the Horde army. But the decisive factor that led Akhmat to death, and his horde to defeat, was, of course, their defeat in the autumn campaign of 1480.
The actions of the Russian command, which led to victory, had some new features that were no longer characteristic of specific Rus', but of a single state. First, the strict centralization of leadership in repelling the invasion. All command and control, determination of the lines of deployment of the main forces, selection of rear positions, preparation of cities in the rear for defense, all this was in the hands of the head of state. Secondly, maintaining constant and well-established communications with the troops at all stages of the confrontation, timely response to a rapidly changing situation. And lastly, the desire to operate on a wide front, the ability to gather forces into a fist in the most dangerous sectors, high maneuverability of troops and excellent intelligence.
The actions of the Russian troops during the autumn campaign of 1480 to repel the invasion of Akhmat is a bright page in the military history of our country. If the victory on the Kulikovo field meant the beginning of a turning point in Russian-Horde relations - the transition from passive defense to an active struggle to overthrow the yoke, then the victory on the Ugra meant the end of the yoke and the restoration of the full national sovereignty of the Russian land. This is the largest event of the 15th century, and Sunday, November 12, 1480 - the first day of a completely independent Russian state - is one of the most important dates in the history of the Fatherland. PSPL. T.26. M.-L., 1959.
Monument to the Great Standing on the Ugra River. Is located in Kaluga region on the 176th km of the Moscow-Kyiv highway near the bridge over the river. Opened in 1980
Authors: V.A. Frolov. M.A. Neimark and E.I. Kireev.
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See: Chronicle collection, called the Patriarchal or Nikon Chronicle. complete collection Russian chronicles (hereinafter - PSRL). T. XII. SPb., 1901. S. 181.
Cit. Quoted from: Boinskie tales of Ancient Rus'. L., 1985, S. 290.
Kalugin I.K. Diplomatic relations of Russia with the Crimea in the reign of Ivan III. M., 1855. S. 15.
Discharge book 1475-1598 M., 1966. S. 46.
Military stories of Ancient Rus'. S. 290.
Moscow chronicle. PSPL. T.25. M.-L., 1949. S. 327.
Tver chronicle. PSPL. T.15. SPb., 1863. Stb. 497-498.
Moscow chronicle. S. 327.
Cherepnin L.V. The formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries. M., 1960. S. 881.
Moscow chronicle. S. 327.
Bologodsko-Perm chronicle. PSPL. T.26. M.-L., 1959. S. 263.
Typographic Academic Chronicle. PLDP. Second half of the 15th century M., 1982. S. 516.
Bologodsko-Perm chronicle. S. 264.
Sofia-Lvov chronicle. PSPL. T.20, part 1. St. Petersburg, 1910-1914. S. 346.
Boin's stories of Ancient Russia. S. 290.
Yuri Alekseev, Senior Researcher
Research Institute of Military History
Military Academy of the General Staff
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
After the resounding victory at the Kulikovo field, the Russian principalities were in the dependence of the Horde for another century, and only the events of the autumn of 1480 decisively changed the situation. Two troops converged on the Ugra River. When the battle was over, Russia (precisely Russia, no longer Rus', - the new name of our state is found in sources from the 15th century) finally freed itself from what we used to call the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
The fateful events of 1480 were evaluated by both contemporaries and scientific descendants. The ancient chroniclers called them a bright bloodless victory, emphasizing the good way to achieve it - the defeat of Akhmat was therefore “bright” because it was obtained without blood, and most importantly, it led to the end of the “dark” and protracted dependence on the Horde rulers. And already in modern times, historians, who were impressed by the story of a long confrontation between two armies separated by a narrow frozen river, came up with the formula “Standing on the Ugra”.
Gone in the twilight of centuries are the knots of dangerous contradictions hidden behind this catchy turn of phrase, the tension associated with mobilization, and the military operations themselves, the participants in the months-long drama themselves, their characters and positions. Two dates, 1380 and 1480, symbolizing the beginning and end of the last stage in the struggle for Russian freedom from foreign power, turned out to be tightly connected in historical memory. And even in this “pair”, the 1380th always turns out to be at the forefront: the “loudly boiling” battle on Nepryadva overshadows the less noisy campaign of 1480. Behind the battle of Kulikovo, in addition to the chronicle texts, there is a whole train of works (mostly mythologized): the lives of the saints, and in particular Sergius of Radonezh, "Zadonshchina", and above all "The Legend of the Battle of Mamaev", which lived a long and difficult life in manuscript literature of the 16th-18th centuries. But about standing on the Ugra - there is not a single special non-annalistic text. Only a small chapter of the Kazan History drew the attention of readers of the late 16th and subsequent centuries to the invasion of Akhmat. So the events of 1480 clearly need a detailed story.
Secret treaty
The official chronicler at the Moscow court later likened Akhmat's campaign against Rus' to Batu's invasion. In his opinion, the goals coincided: the khan was going to "destroy the churches and captivate all Orthodoxy and the Grand Duke himself, as it was under Batu." In this comparison, of course, much is exaggerated. Horde rulers have long been accustomed to the regular collection of tribute, and the one-time devastation of Rus' simply could not become a serious goal for them. And yet, in a deep sense of the scale of the threat, the chronicler is right. The campaign that was being prepared was among the lengthy campaigns of conquest that were detrimental to the country, and not the semi-predatory fleeting raids that were customary in the 15th century. And it seemed even more dangerous because it was expected to confront two allied states at once. It is unlikely that already in the early spring of 1480, Moscow knew about the details of the secret treaty concluded between the Great Horde and Lithuania, but did not doubt the fact of its existence. The advisers of Ivan III knew about the unusually long stay of the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir in the Lithuanian part of the possessions - from the autumn of 1479 to the summer of 1480 (his functions of managing the principality did not seem to require such a long delay there). News was also received about the sending of Kazimir's ambassador to the Great Horde and, most likely, about the royal intention to hire several thousand horsemen in Poland. Finally, in Moscow they were firmly aware of the relationship of the king with the rebellious appanage princes - the brothers of Ivan, offended by his oppression and "injustice" in the distribution of the conquered Novgorod lands.
The military potential of Akhmat himself was not a secret either. There are no exact statistics about him in the sources, but a simple listing of the princes of Genghis Khan's blood who went on a campaign with the Khan is impressive - about a dozen. According to Eastern chronicles, the forces of the Great Horde reached 100 thousand soldiers, and in the mid-1470s, the khan's ambassadors in Venice promised on occasion to put up against Ottoman Empire and a 200,000 strong army.
The essence and seriousness of the great-power claims of the Horde can be clearly seen in his message to the Turkish Sultan (1476). In two words, he equates himself with the "brightest padishah", calling him "his brother." Three - determines its status: "the only" of Genghis Khan's children, that is, the owner of the exclusive right to the lands and peoples, once conquered by the great conqueror. Of course, Akhmat's real request was more modest - he actually claimed only the legacy of the Golden Horde. But isn't that also the hardest task? And he started doing it. In July 1476, his ambassador in Moscow demanded the arrival of Ivan III "to the tsar in the Horde", which meant Akhmat's intention to return to the most stringent forms of political subordination of Rus': the ulusnik must personally beat the brow of the khan's mercy, and he is free to favor (or not favor) his label for a great reign. And of course, a return to the payment of a large tribute was implied. The Moscow prince ignored the demand to go personally, sending an ambassador to the Horde, and the intentions of the Tatar ruler became completely clear to him from now on.
Later, in the same year 1476, Akhmat captured the Crimea and put his nephew Dzhanibek on the throne, and displaced the traditional dynasty, Girey. In general, these two branches of the Genghisids vied to death for hegemony over the countries into which the Golden Horde had disintegrated. And then - such a decisive blow. In addition, Akhmat indirectly encroached on the authority of the Sultan, who had just conquered the Genoese colonies in the Crimea and accepted the Gireys under his official protection.
True, a year later, the unlucky Dzhanibek himself was expelled from the Crimea, and in the struggle for the throne, the brothers Nur-Daulet and Mengli-Giray clashed. But the defeat of Akhmatova's protege became possible only because the khan was busy with other things and in another place. In the late 1470s, he led a coalition that decisively defeated the Uzbek Sheikh Hayder. One of the consequences of this victory was the subordination to Akhmat of his other nephew, Kasym, who at one time independently ruled in Astrakhan (Khadzhi-Tarkhani). So the lower reaches and the middle reaches of the Volga by 1480 were again united under one hand. His army grew noticeably in numbers and was favored by unchanging military success. In those days, such a bunch of "assets" was worth a lot.
Russian artillery was first successfully used in field battles in October 1480. Cannons of the 16th century
In addition, fate, as already mentioned, sent the khan a powerful ally: in 1479, his ambassador returned from Lithuania with Casimir's personal representative and with a proposal for joint military operations. They were supposed to open at the turn of spring and summer of 1480. And soon another joy happened, which a new friend hurried to convey to Akhmat somewhere in March-April: the brothers of Ivan III "came out of the earth with all their might", separated themselves from the eldest in the family. In this situation, could Akhmat have doubts about an easy triumph? In addition, the “unfaithful ulusnik” Ivan finally “insolent”: he stopped paying tribute on time and in full.
Sources do not tell us anything about how “procedurally” and when exactly the Russian prince formalized the elimination of economic and state dependence on the Horde. It is possible that there were no special ceremonies. The last ambassador Akhmata visited Moscow in the summer of 1476 and went back in September with the Moscow ambassador. Most likely, Ivan III stopped paying "exit" in 1478. And the plot itself, connected with the rupture of vassal relations, gave rise to at least two famous historical myth. The first one was written by Baron Sigismund Herberstein, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Russia in the 1520s. He wrote - almost certainly from the words of Yuri Trakhaniot, treasurer of Vasily III and the son of a noble Greek who came to Rus' with Sophia Paleolog, which, in fact, glorifies this plot. Allegedly, the imperial niece almost daily reproached her husband for participating in the humiliating ceremonies of meetings of the Horde ambassadors and persuaded him to say he was sick (meanwhile, it is impossible to imagine the imperious Ivan patiently listening to his wife's reproaches, no matter how fair they may seem to him, it is impossible). The second "feat" of Sophia was to destroy the house for the Horde ambassadors in the Kremlin. Here she allegedly showed cunning: in a letter “to the Queen of the Tatars,” she referred to a vision according to which she was supposed to build a church on this site, and asked to give her the yard, backing up the petition with gifts. The princess promised, of course, to provide the ambassadors with another room. She received a place for a temple, erected a church, but she did not keep her promise ... All this, of course, is evidence of Herberstein's ignorance of the routine of life in the grand-ducal family, and even simple facts! To which queen did Sophia write? How could all this have happened without Ivan's knowledge? And with all that, is it worth forgetting that the representative of the Palaiologos dynasty was primarily occupied with her main business - almost every year to give birth to her husband's children? ..
 Ivan III breaks the Khan's charter |
The second myth is younger (the last quarter of the 16th century), more colorful and even more fantastic. Sophia is forgotten, Ivan III is in the foreground. The author of "Kazan History" in two small chapters depicts the exploits of the sovereign prince in the conquest of Novgorod, and then pays tribute to him in the Horde issue. Here are the khan's ambassadors, who arrived with the mysterious "parsun base", asking for tribute and dues "for the past summers." Ivan, “no little fear of the tsar’s fear,” takes “bazma to the parsun of his face” (who would know exactly what it is!), spits on it, then “breaks it”, throws it to the ground and tramples on it with its feet. The visitors are ordered to be executed - all but one. The pardoned must tell his khan about what happened, and in the meantime the Grand Duke will begin to prepare for a decisive battle.
However, let us return to the objective situation in the country in 1479-1480. Let's try to understand whether Russian politicians deliberately tried to oppose anything to the growing threat. Not only did they try, but they managed to do something. The choice was small and predictable: the hostile course of the Horde and Lithuania towards Moscow could not change dramatically. Another thing is that specific circumstances greatly modified it. The probability of Lithuanian aggression was moderated by the most complex intertwining of interests of the king and his family, hostile to Lithuania "party" of the crown nobility, various groups of Lithuanian magnates. However, these favorable difficulties for Russia did not eliminate the need to remain on the alert. Ivan's government remained: a small victorious raid on Kazan in 1478 strengthened the ruling circles of the Kazan Khanate in the decision to remain loyal to Moscow. Was also active search own potential allies. In the late 1470s, contacts were established with the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great. A rapprochement on anti-Lithuanian soil suggested itself, besides, it was reinforced by the prospect of marriage between the heir prince Ivan Ivanovich the Young and Stefan's daughter, Elena. However, by 1480 all these prospects remained only prospects. Things were more successful with the Crimean Khanate. The first negotiations with Mengli-Giray took place as early as 1474, and even then it was about a full-fledged union treaty, but the khan was still not ready to openly call Casimir his enemy (the inertia of almost forty years of close ties with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania affected). Then, as we already know, the Gireevs were overthrown, but they managed to regain power, and in the autumn of 1479 in Moscow, after a long diplomatic game, the brothers of the Crimean Khan, Nur-Daulet and Aidar, ended up in Russia either in the status of guests of honor, or in the position sort of hostages. Thus, a powerful lever of pressure on Bakhchisaray appeared in the hands of the diplomats of Ivan III. In April 1480, the Russian ambassador was already carrying to the Crimea a clear text of an agreement with named "enemies" - Akhmat and Kazimir. Over the summer, Giray vowed to uphold the treaty, launching a strategic coalition that lasted 30 years and ended up producing bountiful results for both sides. However, the Horde was already advancing on Rus', and to use good relations with the Crimeans in the confrontation with them failed. Moscow had to repel the military threat on its own.
Akhmatovo kingdom
The exact date of birth of the Great Horde or "Takht Eli" ("Throne Power"), the largest public education from those formed during the collapse of the Golden Horde does not exist. In the chronicles of the 15th century, this name is mentioned when describing the events of 1460, when the Khan of the Great Horde, Mahmud, stood “aimlessly” under the walls of Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, and in the Nikon Chronicle, the Great Horde is mentioned even earlier: under 1440, when describing another strife in the tribe of the clan Jochi. With a slight degree of conventionality, we can say that "three daughters of the mother of the Golden Horde": the Great Horde, the Crimean and Kazan Khanates - were born in the second half of the 1430s - mid-1440s. In 1437, Khan Kichi (Kuchuk)-Muhammed defeated and ousted Khan Ulug-Muhammed from Desht-i-Kipchak. The latter, after a fleeting raid on Moscow in 1439, goes east and by 1445 becomes the first Khan of Kazan. Shortly after 1437, Kichi-Muhammed removed from the Crimea the grandson of Tokhtamysh, Khan Seyid-Ahmed, who had gone to nomads southwest of the Lower Dnieper. But Kichi-Muhammed failed to gain a foothold in the Crimea - in 1443, with the help of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Hadji Giray, who had previously tried to separate from the Horde, became the head of the Crimean Khanate. The Great Horde, whose khans exercised jurisdiction over the principalities of North-Eastern Rus', lasted a little over 50 years. Only one of its rulers made campaigns in Central Asia, Crimea, against the Moscow principality, sent diplomats to Istanbul, Venice, Krakow, Vilna, Moscow. We are talking about Akhmet (Akhmat of Russian chronicles). In 1465, he succeeded his elder brother Mahmud on the throne. In the 1470s, he managed to concentrate most of the tribes under his rule. Great Steppe up to the Trans-Volga region (including part of the Nogai). Under him, the Great Horde occupied the maximum territory, and the borders became stable for a short time. In the north, the Horde bordered on the Kazan Khanate, in the south it owned the flat expanses of the North Caucasus, the steppe expanses from the Volga to the Don and from the Don to the Dnieper (and at times its lower right bank). The failure of the invasion of 1480 turned out to be fatal for Akhmet: in the winter of 1481, he was killed during a surprise attack on his headquarters by the Siberian Khan Ibak and Nogai Murzas, and his property and booty went to the winners. After that, the Great Horde could no longer revive its former power. In 1502, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey inflicted a severe defeat on Shikh-Ahmed, her last ruler.
"Foreign Invasion"
The official chronicler attributed the beginning of Akhmatov's campaign to the spring of 1480, and April is calculated according to indirect indications. However, for those distant times, the movement of individual military detachments along different routes is difficult to determine. Migration from the Trans-Volga region, for example, could be complicated by the late opening of the Volga. Be that as it may, the Russian guards in the Wild Field worked well, they learned about the start of hostilities in Moscow in time, which was important in two respects: for the rapid mobilization of all resources and the correct movement of their troops. The movement of the Horde detachments to the lower reaches of the Don meant that the first blows would fall on the fortresses in the middle reaches of the Oka - from Tarusa to Kolomna.
In general, the campaign of 1480 is usually reduced to the October events on the Ugra. But this is not true - then what about the strange enumeration of the points of movement of the Horde army in most chronicles? Why is Lubutsk, which does not fit into the route, in the same row with Mtsensk, Odoev and Vorotynsk (these cities record traffic from the southeast to the northwest)? Whose detachments captured and devastated the Besputu parish on the Tula river of the same name? Finally, why did the Grand Duke order to “burn” the “town of Koshra” (Kashira, much east of the Ugra)? One has only to admit some obvious facts, and bewilderment disappears. Obviously, waiting for an ally with troops, Akhmat did not stand idle: his forward detachments probed the Russian forces along the banks of the Oka, simultaneously engaging in robbery and capturing live prey. One of these raids was the capture of Besputa. The signal in Moscow was taken correctly. Urgently, the first governors went to the Shore (that is, to the fortified cities of the left bank of the Oka), a little later, Prince Andrey Menshoi, a younger brother loyal to Ivan, set out for Tarusa (his specific city), and he led the largest detachments led "with many governors" to Serpukhov Ivan Ivanovich Young. It happened on June 8th. Khan was in no hurry.
The slow advance of the Horde in those days is understandable. First and at first main reason- the need after a harsh winter to feed the horses on fresh grass. The next one is the need to “probe” the strength and location of the Muscovites, to find them weak spots. And, finally, gradually coming to the fore and already impatiently waiting for Casimir with the army. The Russian governors, of course, also needed fresh information about the maneuvers of the enemy - it forced Ivan to make a decision: to go with the main forces to Kolomna in July, “obliquely” from the Horde movement, so that for the time being a stable remote confrontation was established between the main armies, punctuated only by skirmishes of forward detachments.
There was another new circumstance that required considerable organizational efforts: for the first time in history, the Russians went to war with field artillery. Therefore, special groups of people who were responsible for transporting heavy cannons and squeakers took part in the campaign. This means that the criteria for choosing the place of battle in the defense of the water line also changed - now it was necessary to take into account the capabilities of artillery.
Over time, the tension in the opponents' stakes grew, and, apparently, in mid-September, the khan decided to move to the left bank of the upper Oka. By doing this, he wanted to achieve two goals: to come close to the then Lithuanian territory, to quickly and finally clarify the issue of allied help, and most importantly, to find with the help local residents a road for covert detour of the Moscow troops. It was then that the Horde appeared near Lubutsk, once again probing the defense of the Russian army. Probably Akhmat by that time already guessed the answer to one of his questions: the Lithuanians would not come.
The Russian command quickly learned about the movement of the Horde to the north and assessed the risk of their breakthrough through the Ugra. Somewhere in the middle of the twentieth of September, Ivan ordered the transfer of almost all the available forces, led by Ivan Molody, Prince Dmitry Kholmsky (an outstanding governor of that time) and Andrei Lesser to the left bank of a small river, and on September 30 he appeared in Moscow.
According to chronicles, Ivan III arrived in Moscow for advice with his mother, hierarchs and the boyars who remained in the capital on September 30th. Ambassadors from the brothers were also waiting for him. Yesterday's rebels, unable to agree with the Pskovites on the defense of Pskov from the Livonian Order, in a situation of formidable invasion, considered it good to join the eldest in the family in exchange for land additions. The cessation of the conflict was quickly resolved, and the closest relatives of the sovereign hurried to the Ugra with their troops.
Much more difficult is the case with ordinary citizens. These perceived the sudden arrival of Ivan III as a manifestation of fear of the Horde, and the measures to prepare the city for the siege as a sign of Akhmat's imminent approach. From the gathered crowd of Muscovites, reproaches and accusations flew against the Grand Duke, and Archbishop Vassian, having publicly accused his spiritual son of a cowardly flight, offered to save the situation by leading the rati himself. Passions ran so high that Ivan chose to leave for Krasnoye Selo.
Such a reaction was provoked by the position of a number of people close to Ivan III, who considered military happiness to be changeable and offered “not to fight the sovereign” (Akhmat), but to find forms of dependence in negotiations that are not too burdensome for Rus'. But such an approach ran counter to the patriotic upsurge in Moscow, which was vividly expressed in the words of Vassian. As a result, the general council of all authoritative clergy and secular persons in the city recommended that the prince continue the confrontation, strengthening the army on the Ugra with reinforcements and, most importantly, with his personal presence. And now the Grand Duke with new detachments is heading to Kremensk. The final phase of the confrontation had begun. On October 3, the main Russian forces completed the redeployment and took up positions for 50-60 kilometers along the left bank of the Ugra. They had another 3-4 days to prepare for battle. The Ugra is noticeably narrower than the Oka, its current is fast, and in a number of places the channel is squeezed by steep slopes. It was more difficult for the Horde to deploy a large cavalry here, but if several detachments came out to the water's edge at the same time, the crossing itself through the water line should not have delayed the troops for a long time. However, theoretical calculations ceased to be relevant on October 8, when the Horde launched a general offensive in order to force a decisive battle on the Russians by crossing the river. The descriptions of this maneuver in the annals are unusually stingy, which is quite understandable: in the October days of 1480, there were no historiographers on the Ugra, so the records were made from the words of the participants in that battle - many years later.
However, it is noted, firstly, the accuracy of firing from cannons and bows by the Russians and ... the complete failure of the vaunted Horde archers. Most likely, artillery also produced a great psychological effect. The second sign of the battle is its extraordinary duration: only its first phase lasted four days, and in several sectors at the same time. The third feature is the successful, as it turned out, the disposition of the Russians, who had time to think it over. Akhmat failed to push back the Muscovites from the river, break through their front, and put to flight, and after October 11 he was forced to stop the offensive. After some time, however, the last attempt was made to break through to the left bank of the river near Opakov, but this skirmish ended unsuccessfully for the Horde. On the same days, Ivan III came to Kremensk, sending reinforcements to the Ugra. From now on, one of the opposing sides was steadily gaining a feeling of imminent victory (in the middle of the twenties, the Ivanov brothers with troops also arrived in Kremensk). The other side was discouraged and suffered from the unusually long conduct of hostilities on foreign soil in the coming winter.
Against this backdrop, negotiations began. Until now, it is not entirely clear who took the initiative - most likely, all the same, the Moscow prince, which immediately caused a new attack of suspicion and a new controversy in Moscow itself. Here, on the border of the Moscow Principality and Lithuania (the Ugra had long served as a frontier between them), the situation looked different. At first, the khan, as usual, demanded the maximum: the personal visit of the Grand Duke and, of course, a large tribute. There was a refusal. Then Akhmat wished that at least the son and co-ruler of Ivan III, Ivan the Young, would come, but this “wish” was not fulfilled either. Akhmat, in turn, tried to "threaten" the imminent winter, when "the rivers will all stop, but there will be many roads to Rus'." And it is true: on October 26, the river began to become covered with ice, and the Russian detachments, on the orders of the Grand Duke, retreated in an organized manner to Borovsk. So it seemed more expedient: according to the sovereign prince and governor, it was on those fields that it was more profitable to fight a general battle in cold weather. In the capital, again, rumors of flight began to spread. Apparently, it was then that a popular idea arose, which was later reflected in the chronicles - about two armies fleeing from each other and not being persecuted by anyone. It is unlikely that Akhmat’s detachments also “fled”: they left the Ugra on November 11 “along the queen’s power, fighting its land for treason, and its castles and graveyards, and taking countless people into captivity, and others wasted.” Without waiting for Casimir's help, Akhmat plundered the territories in the upper reaches of the Oka (Odoev, Belev, Mtsensk). They didn’t get to Ivan - at least they took revenge on their treacherous ally ... Thus ended the “standing on the Ugra”, which for the most part did not take place on the Ugra at all, and most importantly, it hardly belonged to the category of “standings”.
Rus' from Nepryadva to Ugra
The victory of Dmitry Donskoy over the ruler of the right wing of the Golden Horde Mamai on the Kulikovo field in 1380 did not draw a line under the one and a half century dependence of North-Eastern Rus' on the Horde. It is unlikely that the prince himself set such a goal - he fought, “not sparing his life”, with an “illegal ruler”, who threatened his country with “everlasting ruin”. The historical meaning of the victory was different: after Nepryadva, it became clear that only Moscow could be the center of the struggle for independence from the Horde after 1380. In the meantime, after the devastating campaign of the "legitimate king", Khan Tokhtamysh, in 1382, when many cities of the Moscow principality, including the capital, were ruined, payments to the Horde increased and half-forgotten forms of dependence revived. At the same time, Tokhtamysh himself transferred the territory of the Vladimir Grand Duchy (non-inherited table) to the “patrimony” of the Grand Duke of Moscow, which meant the refusal of the shed rulers from the traditional practice of the XIII-XIV centuries of playing off the Ruriks in the struggle for a table in Vladimir. Timur dealt crushing blows to Tokhtamysh in 1391 and 1395, when the latter’s troops “ironed” the most developed regions of the Horde for several months. It seemed that thanks to them, Rus' would quickly be freed from the power of the "Golden Horde kings." It seemed that the Horde would not economically recover from the pogrom, the strife of the descendants of Khan Jochi would complete the work begun by Timur ... But the nomadic states surprisingly quickly regenerated their military potential (and it was great), while the presence of rival Horde groups only increased the danger of new trips to Rus'. In the 1430s-1450s, tribute was sometimes paid to two khans, and sometimes for objective reasons (lack of “legalized” subordination to one or another khan) it was not paid. So gradually there was an understanding of its optionality. For more than a quarter of a century, two lines of the Moscow Rurik dynasty were engaged in a deadly struggle for the main table (1425-1453), all the Moscow princes, almost all the principalities and states of North-Eastern Rus', the Horde rulers joined it. The victory of the Grand Duke Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark, who emerged from the strife blinded, led to consolidation on a national scale. It is also important that the princes learned to see in the khans not only the source of their power and the personification of dependence, but also the rival rulers in international sphere and on the battlefield. The rich experience of military confrontation with the Horde brought up two generations of Russian soldiers, who became “usual” to resist the Horde detachments. Fight them in the border zones (1437, winter of 1444-1445), repulse attacks on the left bank of the middle reaches of the Oka (1450, 1455, 1459), or “besiege” in Moscow (1439, 1451). There were defeats, moreover, painful ones: in July 1445, Vasily II was captured. But they already believed in the possibility of a military victory over the Horde. Ivan III Vasilievich was the last Grand Duke to receive sanction to reign in the Horde, and the first to overthrow the power of the Khan. And the society turned out to be ready for a decisive battle, it was no longer the temporary rulers who were “illegal”, they were the Chingizid khans themselves. Their power over the Orthodox sovereign from now on became illegal, intolerable. Thus stretched the thread of one fate, one great task - from Nepryadva to Ugra.
Sweet taste of victory
Having disbanded the main forces in Borovsk, at the end of November 1480, the Grand Duke with his son, brothers, governors and court returned to the capital. Molebens and ceremonies followed, however, not particularly pompous - the Nativity fast came. Many people realized the significance of what had happened: even warnings were heard to the “kind and courageous” from the “foolish madness”, after all, they “bragged” that it was they who “delivered the Russian land with their weapons” - a humble Christian was not supposed to think like that. This means that the self-esteem, pride in participation in the great victory has risen so high. The feasts died down, the brothers of the sovereign prince, Andrei Bolshoi and Boris, received the promised additions. Ivan III had special joys: by spring the news came that Akhmat had been killed, and in October 1481 his wife gave him a third son, Dmitry. But there were also consequences that echoed in a few years, and sometimes in decades.
What was left behind the winners of 1480? Almost 250 years of addiction - sometimes severe, sometimes more moderate. In any case, the Horde invasions and huge dues influenced the development medieval city in North-Eastern Rus', changing the vector of the socio-political evolution of society, because the townspeople, both economic and political force the country of the XIV-XVI centuries was clearly not enough. Agriculture also suffered, for a long time shifted to lands protected by forests and rivers with infertile soils, the formation of estates-seigneuries slowed down. Only from the middle - the second half of the XIV century, the service boyars come to life: in the XIII - beginning of the XIV century, this elite layer was reduced many times due to deaths on the battlefield or extremely harsh living conditions. The dominance of the Horde not only slowed down, but threw back the progressive development of the country. After 1480 the situation changed dramatically. Of course, relations with Rome, Venice, the Teutonic Order started back in the 1460s-1470s, but now Russia is entering into a close diplomatic dialogue with almost two dozen states - old and new partners, and many of them were ready to "be friends against" the Jagiellons (primarily Casimir) and, moreover, to recognize the "legitimacy" of Moscow's claims to Kiev and the lands of the "Orthodox Russians" in Lithuania, and also to accept the titles of the Moscow sovereign. And these titles, used by Moscow diplomats, fixed the equality of Ivan III in status with the leading monarchs of Europe, including the emperor, which meant the recognition of Russian sovereignty in the then familiar international forms.
There were also practical consequences: two Russo-Lithuanian wars at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries reduced the territory of Lithuania by more than a quarter and pushed the borders of Russia apart. Oriental policy brought no less significant results - since 1487, for almost 20 years, the Moscow sovereign "planted from his own hand" khans on the throne in Kazan. Vyatka finally obeyed, and at the end of the century the first "Moscow" campaign for the Urals took place. As if by chance, in 1485 the Grand Duchy of Tver became part of the state (its prince fled to Lithuania). Under the complete political and military control of Moscow were Pskov and the Ryazan principality. The last third of the 15th century was the time of the country's economic upsurge, the era of the formation of the sovereign Russian state: in February 1498, by decision of Ivan III, the "great principalities" (Moscow, Vladimir and Novgorod) were crowned as his co-ruler and heir, Dmitry, the grandson, the son of the deceased in 1490 by Grand Duke Ivan the Young. Since then, supreme power has been hereditary and the only source of its legitimacy is the reigning monarch. The origins of Russia as a state leaving the Middle Ages in the early modern times lie in a country that found itself after the events of 1480.
Defense of Moscow from the troops of Tokhtamysh. In August 1382, the Horde took and plundered the city, killing 24 thousand people.
One can also rejoice at the direct fruits of victory. In 1382, after the Battle of Kulikovo, Moscow was devastated and burned, hundreds of books burned in the Kremlin churches, and the dead Muscovites were buried in common "skudelitsy". In 1485, a fundamental restructuring of the entire Kremlin began. In just twenty small years the former white-stone medieval castle turned into the residence of the monarch of a mighty state with powerful fortifications, a complete set of palatial stone buildings, central institutions, cathedrals and court cathedrals. This grandiose construction, which required large expenses, was carried out largely thanks to the victory on the Ugra, after which Russia was finally freed from paying tribute. And if we add the mighty upsurge of the arts, culture in general, which came at the end of the 15th century, the conclusion is unambiguous: the historical consequences of the victory on the Ugra are wider, more diverse and fundamental than the victory on Nepryadva.
Vladislav Nazarov
In 1472, Khan Akhmat gathered more troops and moved to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, at Tarusa, the khan encountered a large Russian army, which repelled all attempts by Akhmat to cross the Oka. Then, furious that the campaign failed, the khan burned the city of Aleksin and killed all its population. It is believed that in 1476 the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. However, the annals do not record the exact date of termination of payments, so this issue is still a subject of controversy among researchers. For example, there is a mention in the Vologda-Perm chronicle: allegedly during negotiations in 1480, Akhmat reproached Ivan III for not paying tribute for the ninth year. From this we can conclude that the payments stopped just before the battle of Aleksin.
Be that as it may, the Horde did not receive tribute for a long time. But Akhmat was busy fighting the Crimean Khanate, so he paid attention to the Grand Duchy of Moscow only in 1480. He entered into an agreement with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV, who promised the khan military support. In addition, Akhmat believed that, due to the circumstances, it was a good time for the campaign. Since the beginning of 1480, the Pskov lands were subjected to attacks by the Livonian Order. The master of the order gathered "such a force of the people against the Russian, which no master has ever collected, either before him or after." The 100,000-strong army came to Russian lands, but all they could do was burn out the suburbs of Pskov. In addition, at that time, Ivan III's relations with his brothers deteriorated.
Boris Volotsky and Andrei Bolshoy rebelled against the Moscow prince, dissatisfied with his strengthening. Andrei Bolshoi accused Ivan of taking all the lands for himself after the death of the Dmitrovsky prince, without giving anything to his brothers. Then the Grand Duke of Moscow decided to punish Boris Volotsky for daring to leave for his brother. Andrew refused to give him up. The brothers decided to seek support in the fight against Ivan from Casimir IV, but nothing came of it. Only the threat of an invasion by the Khan of the Horde forced the Moscow prince to make concessions, and the brothers reconciled.
Fragment of the diorama "Great standing on the river Ugra". (regnum.ru)
In the meantime, Akhmat decided to take advantage of the situation and sent a detachment to reconnoiter the right bank of the Oka, and in the autumn he already gathered the main forces and advanced to the borders of the principality. “The same summer, the evil-named Tsar Akhmat ... went to Orthodox Christianity, to Rus', to the holy churches and to the Grand Duke, boasting of destroying the holy churches and capturing all Orthodoxy and the Grand Duke himself, as if under Batu Besh.” Having learned about the campaign of the Tatar Khan, the boyar elite split.
The wealthiest and most powerful boyars, led by Ivan Oshchera and Grigory Mamon, advised Ivan III to flee, while the rest insisted on the need to fight the Horde. The people were tired of oppression and demanded decisive action from the prince. Perhaps this was the key factor that pushed Ivan III to the offensive. The Grand Duke of Moscow began to concentrate his forces to the banks of the Oka: he sent his brother Andrei the Less to his fiefdom, Tarusa, and his son Ivan the Young to Serpukhov. Ivan III himself stood up with the troops at Kolomna and began to wait for further developments. On the same day they delivered to Moscow miraculous icon Mother of God of Vladimir, since it was believed that it was she who saved Rus' from the troops of Tamerlane in 1395.
Meanwhile, Akhmat moved freely through the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Vorotynsk. There he was supposed to receive help from King Casimir IV, but did not wait for reinforcements. Ivan III entered into an agreement with the Crimean Tatars, and they attacked Podolia, thereby pulling the Lithuanian army back. Left without support and knowing that Russian troops were waiting for him on the Oka, Akhmat decided to enter Russian territory through the Ugra, the left tributary of the Oka. When Ivan III found out about these plans, he immediately sent his son Ivan and brother Andrei the Less to Kaluga. The Grand Duke himself, on September 30, went from Kolomna to Moscow for a council with the metropolitans and boyars. They were unanimous: “To stand firmly for Orthodox Christianity against bezsermenstvo”. Then Ivan III also received help from his brothers, with whom he was at enmity. He sent Andrei Bolshoy and Boris Volotsky with troops to the Oka. With his army, Ivan III approached Kremenets, where he remained standing with a small detachment, and sent the main forces to the Ugra. The Russian army stretched along the river bank for 60 versts.
"Standing on the Ugra", a miniature of the chronicle. XVI century. (wikiwand.com)
Khan made several attempts to cross the Ugra, but they were all stopped. Then the troops of Akhmat retreated two miles from the Ugra and stood in Luz. The troops of the Grand Duke of Moscow took up a defensive position on the opposite bank of the river. "Standing on the Ugra" began. Despite the fact that there were occasional skirmishes, none of the opponents dared to launch a serious attack. Negotiations began. Khan Akhmat demanded that Ivan III himself or his son come to bow to him, in addition, he insisted on paying tribute for past years. The Moscow prince sent the son of the boyar Ivan Tovarkov to the khan with gifts.
The negotiations failed, as Ivan III refused to pay the debt, in turn, Akhmat did not accept the gifts. Probably, the Moscow prince tried to buy time with these negotiations. First, he waited until the troops of his brothers arrived in time for him. Secondly, the khan's army was not ready for a long stay, since they used sheep as provisions, and a large number of horses and cattle devastated all the food supplies in the district due to a long stay in one place. The Russian army was supplied with grain and flour from the princely reserves. Thirdly, taking advantage of the absence of the khan in the Horde, Ivan III decided to send a small but combat-ready detachment there. The prince believed that since the khan took almost all the troops with him and did not leave significant reserves of troops at home, then large forces for the operation would not be required. The detachment was led by Prince Vasily Nozdrevaty, who was supposed to go down the Oka, then along the Volga and, with the support of the Crimean prince Nur-Devlet, commit a devastating sabotage in the possessions of Akhmat.
Painting "Camp of the Russian militia". (icvl.ru)
The onset of cold weather and the upcoming freezing of the river forced the Moscow prince to change tactics. On October 28, he decided to withdraw troops to Kremenets and concentrate them at Borovsk, where he hoped to give Khan Akhmat a decisive battle in a favorable situation. However, Akhmat found out that a sabotage detachment was operating against him in the rear, which was supposed to capture and plunder the capital of the Horde. Khan decided not to follow the Russian troops and hurried home. On November 11, he went back to the Horde, destroying and plundering Lithuanian cities along the way in revenge on Casimir IV for unprovided assistance. From the outside, it looked rather strange that both troops almost simultaneously turned around and left the Ugra. In Rus', this was attributed to the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, and the Ugra began to be called the “belt of the Virgin”.
Grand Duke Ivan III returned to Moscow with all his troops, "and rejoiced, and all the people rejoiced with great joy." For the Moscow prince, such an outcome of "standing" was quite favorable. He did not suffer significant losses and did not have to pay tribute and debts for previous years. "Standing" put an end to the Mongol-Tatar yoke and made the Russian state free. Quite differently, these events were perceived in the Horde. Akhmat, who initiated the campaign himself, eventually returned home empty-handed. It was tantamount to defeat. On January 6, 1481, the khan was killed as a result of a surprise attack by the Tyumen Khan Ibak. It is assumed that Ibak entered into an agreement with Ivan III. After the death of Akhmat, an internecine war began in the Great Horde, which led to the collapse of the state.
The final stage in the overthrow of the Horde yoke, which lasted almost 2 centuries, was Great standing on the river Ugra. However, in contemporary literature little attention is paid to this opposition. Much more famous is the Battle of Kulikovo, but it is precisely standing on the river Ugra ended complete overthrow of the Horde yoke.
Causes and prerequisites for standing on the Ugra in 1480
In 1480 there was Great standing on the river Ugra. The decisive events of this confrontation took place in October-November, but preparatory work, especially from the side of the Horde, began much earlier. In fact, the entire year 1480 was a military year for Russia, when the whole country was preparing for a decisive battle to overthrow the Horde yoke.
The evidence that the Horde was starting a major campaign against Moscow became clear as early as the beginning of March 1480. It was at this time that not far from the Oka River, which at that time was the border southwestern territory Russian state, a small detachment of the Horde was seen, which was defeated by governors from Moscow. But this appearance of the Mongol-Tatars was sure sign the fact that Khan Ahmed is gathering forces for a campaign against Rus'.
At that time, the famous Golden Horde lost its former status and integrity. It was torn apart by local khans into many separate syndicates within the country. Each independent territory received the name Horde, but the geographical location of this khanate was also added to it. The largest fragment of the great Golden Horde was the Great Horde. It was she who ruled Khan Ahmed. The chroniclers say that Ahmed gathered all the troops he had to march on Moscow. Literally the entire male population of the Horde was summoned to march on Moscow.
Why did the confrontation happen, which marked great standing on the river Ugra? And why did it happen exactly in 1480? The answer to these questions is simple. Khan Ahmed could never have had a better moment to march on Moscow. After all, it was at this time that Prince Ivan III of Moscow was in a quarrel with his brothers Andrei and Boris, who threatened that their troops would leave for the service of Prince Casimir of Lithuania. At the same time, Kazimir and his army invaded the territory of Pskov. As a result, in the event of an attack by Khan Ahmed, Prince Ivan 3 threatened to get bogged down not only in a war with him, but also with the prince of Lithuania, and with his brothers, who wanted to strengthen their power in the country.
Preparation of the parties for the battle of 1480
From the spring of 1480, a strong army began to be assembled throughout the Russian land, which could withstand the size of the army of Khan Ahmed. Ivan 3, realizing that he would have to fight not only with Khan Ahmed, but also with Prince Casimir, began looking for an ally. This was the Crimean Khan Mengi Giray. He promised that in the event of an attack on Rus' by the Horde and Lithuanians, the Crimean Khan would send his troops into the territory of the Principality of Lithuania, thereby forcing Casimir to return to his possessions. After that, Ivan 3 made peace with the brothers, who provided him with their troops, for a joint fight against Khan Ahmed. It happened on October 20, when it was already underway.
The course of the great standing on the Ugra River
In August 1480, news spread through Rus' that Ahmed was moving with a huge army to the southern borders of Rus', but it was moving not to the north, but to the west, which indicated Khan Ahmed's intention to attack Rus' from the Lithuanians so that they could help him with troops .
Only at the beginning of October 1480, the Horde army approached the borders of Rus' and began great standing on the river Ugra. The Russian army was located in the Kaluga region, in the town of Kremenets, from where it could respond in a timely manner to all enemy movements, and also blocked the path to Moscow. This position of the troops allowed the governors of Prince Ivan 3 to quickly respond to any maneuvers of the light cavalry of Khan Ahmed.
Standing on the river Ugra 1480 continues. Russian troops do not seek to go on the attack. The troops of the Great Horde are looking for, but until a certain time unsuccessfully, good fords to force the river. Most of the fords, of which there were a sufficient number on the Ugra River, were not suitable for crossing the river with cavalry, since the gently sloping banks gave a clear advantage to the Russian army. Only a place near the mouth of the Ugra was suitable for the transition, where the enemy stood. Ivan 3 does not rush the battle also because of the fact that every day Ahmed's army runs out of food and hay for horses. In addition, winter was approaching, which also had to play for the Russians.
During October 1480, the army of Khan Ahmed tried several times to ford the Ugra River, but to no avail. This was mainly due to the fact that the Mongols used the old tactic - to shower the enemy with arrows, and then chop them up in a horse attack. Standing on the river Ugra 1480 The Horde did not have the opportunity to attack like that, since the powerful armor of the Russian infantrymen and the long range between the banks made the arrows safe for the Russian troops. And the wading horse attacks were easily repulsed by the Russians at the expense of good weapon, as well as the use of artillery, which mainly consisted of cannons and squeakers. This artillery was called "armor".
After failed attempts to ford the Ugra, Khan Ahmed began to wait for the cold weather to cross the river on ice. As a result, almost the entire October 1480 lasted great standing on the river Ugra. But by October 22, the Ugra River began to be covered with a crust of ice. Winter came earlier than usual that year. Prince Ivan 3 decided to retreat to the city of Borovsk and there give the enemy a decisive battle.
October 26, 1480 Ugra rose. The Russians were waiting for the attack of the Horde at any moment, but it still did not follow. On November 1, 1480, Russian scouts brought news to Borovsk that the army of Khan Ahmed had retreated and set off back to the steppe. This is how it ended great standing on the river Ugra. Together with him, the Horde yoke in Rus' ended.
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