The Mongols in Russia

by Jeremiah Curtin

The death of Nevski fell on Russia like a thunderbolt. It was a national calamity expected by no man, for with all his great services Nevski died when only forty-two years had passed over him. Even when burying him people could not believe that he had left them forever. His name, his very coffin seemed sacred.

When the great Peter had founded St. Petersburg on the Neva, concluded peace with the Swedes and restored the ancient patrimony of Ijora, he brought Nevski’s bones to the capital, where they repose in the monastery of Alexander Nevski, and are honored at present and will be for the ages to come as relics of a saint and a hero. There is no better saint in the whole Russian calendar, and no greater statesman or warrior in its history than Alexander Nevski. By his wisdom and by his policy of yielding with apparent [[290]]resignation to the tyranny of the Mongols, he suppressed revolts which would have perhaps brought about the abolition of native government, with the substitution of Mongol for Russian princes. Such substitution would have endangered the language, religion and race of the Russian people. This had to be avoided at every sacrifice. No man knew the relative strength of the Mongols and Russians better than Alexander Nevski; no man was more devoted to Russia than he; no man was more respected by his own; therefore his words had weight, and when he explained that resistance would be ruin and submission was the only road to salvation the people believed and obeyed him. In this way he rescued Novgorod and many another city from utter destruction, and saved the lives of untold thousands. Above all his influence remained; it curbed passion and instilled patience and courage into the minds of men, and the knowledge that violence only made the yoke more oppressive.

About the time of Nevski’s death, Moscow began to increase in size and importance. Daniel, his youngest son, received this town, then very small, and a few villages around it, as his inheritance.

In Yuri Dolgoruki’s principality of Vladimir was laid the foundation of Moscow, and all that distinguished Vladimir from Rostoff and Suzdal distinguished Moscow in a higher degree. The advantage of Vladimir over earlier cities consisted in this, that there were none of those “ancient strong families” which held themselves separate from others. The Vladimir principality was settled by people who had come from many places and established themselves there during that historical period when out of a varied multitude of Slav stocks and families were formed one Russian people. This from the very first was the place of all Russia, this was Vladimir’s distinction. This must be said in a higher degree touching Moscow, the youngest and most recent of places subjected to Yuri, and formed later than others into a well-ordered region. When Dolgoruki’s inheritance had become a strong state under princes succeeding him, the cities therein became so assimilated to Vladimir that they recognized no longer the pretensions to primacy of Rostoff and Suzdal. In the days of Big Nest the appellation Great Russia was connected somewhat loosely with Vladimir. This appellation, before which not only [[291]]Rostoff and Suzdal yielded, but Lord Novgorod, was forced to incline, became permanently connected with Moscow, when that city rose to power finally. If, after the death of Andrei Bogolyubski, Rostoff and Suzdal boyars insisted on calling Vladimir an adjunct, they could not pretend that Moscow depended on the boyars of any place, since Yuri Dolgoruki had raised it against boyars in general. The tradition was that Moscow had been founded by Dolgoruki, and then seized from him by boyars with violence which he punished with immediate death.

The distinction of Vladimir rule lay in the fact that the power of the prince acted firmly. Dolgoruki, and still more his son Andrei Bogolyubski, put an end to boyar control, which in other principalities was strong, and in some of them absolute, almighty. The struggle of boyars to uphold the ancient, and for them useful order of rule, their struggle for exceptional rights above other men, had in the Vladimir land dropped to the place and the character of intrigue and of treason, against which the people rose almost unanimously. The power of the prince thus appeared with single effect, and the people hastened to make it a state power. By precisely this aid of the people Big Nest had overcome the proud and powerful “great ones,” who stood against the “small people.” He had ended every claim of the boyars, claims hostile to all rule which favored the people. He had earned the love of earth-tillers and other workers by the fact that he permitted no town or district to be governed through boyar authority, but sent his own faithful servants to manage, and went himself yearly with his family and trusted persons to see what was taking place, and to personally give justice to all men. These servants differed greatly from boyars; they were just as much subject to the Vladimir prince as were the rest of the people. It was for their profit to strengthen and support the native prince who was ruling.

In the Vladimir principality the whole social structure was built upon land. The interests of all coincided. All, from small to great, earth-tillers, artisans, clergy, merchants, warriors up to the prince himself, formed one solid power, and this was Great Russia. When Big Nest, near the end of his life, was opposed by his eldest son, Constantine, and resolved on a radical change, he turned for support to the people. He desired strength from the whole land as a unit. He did not assemble simply boyars in [[292]]an affair of such magnitude, he did not turn to his confidants only, he called boyars, merchants, and all classes of people. Such a union of the prince and the people ruled by him was confirmed by kissing the cross, and was a pledge of future union and consequent greatness. This union was the special distinction, and formed the main force of Great Russia. This belonged not to Rostoff and Suzdal, where, through ties with Great Novgorod and the old time, the boyar spirit was still strong. Not to the earliest cities did the trait belong at its best, but to later places, and most of all to the youngest, for this trait depended much on the general success attained not immediately, but slowly, with pain and great labor, by the princes of Vladimir, and later on by the princes of Moscow.

At first while they were bringing into Vladimir the new type of rule to replace the old boyar order, the men pushed aside and driven out opposed it in every way possible. They complained of the prince’s agents and servants, they invented keen sayings against this new system. At that time none of the powerful men of the ancient order were reconciled with the new, and some fled from the country. But in the days of Daniel, son of Nevski, when Moscow was becoming prominent, the complete solidarity of prince and people, and the devotion of the people to an established princely line, became the chief trait of Moscow, the coming capital of Russia. The sturdy, industrious, persistent and peace-loving people were delighted to have the youngest son of Nevski, who was but two years of age when his father died, as Prince of Moscow and the country surrounding it. That region invited new settlers, who came in large numbers from all sides, because there was peace there and order, while north and south was disturbance and turmoil. This great advantage of being a peaceful and modest place was at that time the preëminence of Moscow, where Daniel, who alone of all the brothers had inherited the “sacred virtues” of his father, ruled quietly and unobserved.

Following Nevski’s death in 1263, there was a dreary interval during which the princes struggled for the possession of Vladimir. Nevski was succeeded by Andrei, his brother, who lived only a few months. Yaroslav of Tver, brother of Andrei, then became Grand Prince. In the early years of his reign the people of Novgorod were involved in a stubborn war with Danes and the Knights of Livonia. During these troubles they lived in peace with [[293]]Yaroslav, but in 1270 they rose against him, and he was forced to ask aid of the Mongols. They promised assistance, and had sent forward a considerable army when, through the influence of Vassili, Yaroslav’s brother, it was suddenly recalled. The Grand Prince and his warriors then marched alone against Novgorod, but at the instance of the Metropolitan of Kief, he made peace with the rebellious boyars.

In 1272 Yaroslav died, and was succeeded by Vassili, who lived somewhat less than three years. Then Dmitri, son of Nevski, became Grand Prince. While the principality was thus passing from the possession of one prince to that of another, the Mongols were taking full advantage of the quarreling, confusion and disorder brought about by constant change. They pillaged the provinces near by, and in 1278 burned Ryazan.

In 1281 Dmitri’s brother, Andrei, conspired against him, and going to the Horde obtained, through bribes and flattery, the title of Grand Prince. Troops were sent from Sarai, and dependent princes were ordered to join their forces to Andrei’s and march against Dmitri, but they refused. Because of this refusal, Andrei’s own warriors lost courage and deserted him, and he fled. The Mongols, meanwhile, ravaged Murom and many large towns. Pereyaslavl resisted and received dire punishment. It was sacked and most of the people were slaughtered.