Novgorod had chosen Misha as posadnik, but he had been murdered during the disturbance. They now selected Michael; a third man, Jiroha, was appointed as commander to succeed Klim, who had been driven from Novgorod. The people begged [[286]]Nevski not to leave them without a prince. Many Novgorod men had recently visited Vladimir; some of these had gone on errands, and some had been sent by Nevski to see how obedience was rendered the Mongols in that city. Hearing from the people there all the terrors of Nevruya’s “promenade” they knew well the meaning of a Mongol census invasion. Some of these men, on returning, informed their friends that if Novgorod would not yield to the census, a Mongol host would come quickly, and bring woe to the city; others reported dread tidings: Mongol forces were marching already. Novgorod grew quiet at once, and the leading citizens decided to permit the census to be taken. Because of this decision, Nevski was able to satisfy the Mongols, and he begged them not to delay or defer, but to carry out the Khan’s will immediately. They consented, but required that the Grand Prince himself should stay with them.
When the census officials appeared to begin their work again in Novgorod and districts around it, the promise to yield was as if it had never been given. When the officials stepped out of sleighs, and were assigned the best houses to live in, and the Mongols made ready to pass from street to street, and from house to house, an ominous murmur went up throughout Novgorod. In all districts near the city there was disturbance and uproar. Men ridiculed the Mongols, and spoke evil words to their faces. The censors, in alarm, asked Nevski to protect them. He sent guards to their houses, and among these the son of the posadnik. But neither posadnik nor commander had meaning for Novgorod malcontents. Not only were common people terribly excited, but the chief men fell into two parties opposed to each other. The Khan’s officials threatened to abandon their task altogether. Nevski was forced to stay with them always. The people grew still more excited: “We will die for Holy Sophia!” was their watchword. The Mongol officials turned to the boyars, repeating suggestively: “Permit us to take the census, or we will leave Novgorod!” The boyars laid all blame on the people. The Mongols turned then to Nevski, with these words: “Why should we stay here longer? Your people will kill us.” On the square louder and louder were heard threatening voices. “Let us resist to the death! Whoso is just let him join us!” The crowd of people felt sure of their rights and complained: “The rich command [[287]]to count our heads. They make everything easy for themselves, but evil for small folk.” There was a roar throughout the city: “We will die for justice!” All at once a report was spread that the Mongols were to move on the Kremlin from two points. There was a rush to the cathedral from all parts, and a cry rose: “Let us go to Saint Sophia. We will lay down our heads there!”
Meanwhile the Mongols were only thinking of how to save themselves. Nevski, greatly fearing lest the people might kill them, did not think it wise to detain them longer. Not merely had they not finished the census, they had barely begun it. Still, in spite of the turmoil, no riot took place in that boisterous Novgorod, accustomed to disorder and bloodshed. No “pagan eater of raw flesh” was attacked, either inside its walls or beyond them.
At the beginning of 1259, new envoys from the Horde arrived at Vladimir, men so important that even the people remembered their names, which were Berkai and Kasatchik. They were sent to command the Khan’s men, and to finish the census in Novgorod. Again Nevski was forced to accompany census officials. On the way to Novgorod he joined with his own forces Rostoff regiments, and also the regiments of Suzdal. Berkai and Kasatchik had demanded this aid to protect them. They approached the city with a great force of warriors. This time the Novgorod men were alarmed, but they yielded only when they found resistance to be vain. The new envoys did not return to the Horde till the work had begun in their presence and they felt sure that their subordinates would be able to complete it. These men went along each street from house to house, describing accurately all the land, houses, goods, and people.
But Novgorod showed a no less desperate opposition than earlier, an opposition which was strong, protracted and stubborn. Both sides were prepared for a bloody conclusion. On one side was the dense population of a city in which all carried weapons; on the other the armies of the Grand Prince and the Khan’s commanders. Two almost equal forces stood opposed to each other, and had reached the utmost bounds of excitement. They had come to that moment beyond which a bloody encounter must take place. But at this critical juncture an idea flashed on Nevski which averted the peril. He begged the Khan’s envoys [[288]]to go from Novgorod, and he would assume all responsibility. They did this, and then he declared to the people that he had exhausted all means and methods of saving them. He would leave them now to the Khan, they might meet his anger in their own way. Thereupon he commanded his troops to leave the city immediately, and he himself walked forth from the fortress. The Novgorod men had waited for his order to the troops to attack them, and now to their amazement he had commanded those troops to march out of the city. This command produced terror. All bowed down at once before Nevski, and implored him not to leave them. They promised to yield to his will absolutely. This ended the trouble. The Mongols were recalled, and their work began in good earnest. Later on the delight of Great Novgorod was unbounded when the Khan’s agents finished the census, and vanished.
The struggle and anxieties of this period, ending with the completion of the Novgorod census, took much time and strength from Nevski. Only in 1260 was there, as the chronicler tells us, “any peace for Christians.”
In the beginning of 1261, Nevski’s youngest son, Daniel, was born to him. After that year the prince had no respite from suffering.
The worst of the Mongol yoke was not that every man’s head, and every horn and hoof of his cattle was registered, not that Mongol inspectors were stationed in all parts of the country; the heaviest weight of the yoke came when the Khan farmed Russian taxes to men from Khiva, Turkestan and Bukhara. Among partners and aids of those tax-farmers were Jews and Armenians, persons of various languages and religions. These traders in tribute, a people unheard of in Russia till that time, began a work which greatly intensified Mongol oppression. They became real torturers, squeezing the last copper coin from the people. They imposed grinding interest for arrears of tribute. They were worse than the most cruel usurer. Men who were unable to pay they sold into slavery or beat savagely with whips and clubs. This terror extended from end to end of the country. From those galling oppressions came riots. The riots were suppressed most unsparingly, and with bloodshed. No longer could safety and peace be connected with any place. There were disorders in Suzdal, in Pskoff, even in Pereyaslavl Beyond the Forest. [[289]]
These uprisings were not against Mongols directly. The people beat tax-farmers and their assistants, not the Khan’s men, hence the Khan could not be angry in the same degree; still his anger might be looked for, and reports were often current that regiments from the Horde were marching “to pacify” Russia.
At this juncture news came that Germans, the Knights of Livonia, were advancing with a numerous force to attack Pskoff. Nevski sent his own personal troops to Dmitri, his son, Prince of Novgorod at that time, and ordered his brother, Yaroslav of Tver, to go also; he went then to the Horde to try to save the Russian people from some of their new and great afflictions. The gifts which he took with him were more valuable than any he had given earlier, and his petitions were the simplest, and the most reasonable. But at the Horde they gave Nevski to understand that they were dissatisfied. They let him know that they were not pleased with him personally. Berkai was different from what he had been while Batu was still living or while he was struggling with Sartak for mastery. He was curbed now by no man; besides, he was angered by military failure beyond the Caucasus, where he was warring with Hulagu, his strong cousin. He detained Nevski without need all that winter, then he detained him during the following summer, and only late in autumn could the prince set out for home, sick and broken, to die before reaching Vladimir. He came to Nizni-Novgorod, and when they brought him to Gorodets his last hour was near. At that place he took the monk’s habit, and on November 14, 1263, his life left him.