During more than nine months the Khan’s will in this case was not uttered, and some had good hopes for Dmitri, but on September 15, 1326, Dmitri was executed, and the body of the Tver prince was taken to his native city, where they placed it at the side of Prince Michael, his father.
Though Uzbek had ordered the execution of Dmitri, Alexander, Dmitri’s brother, was made Grand Prince. But Alexander’s [[312]]power was not lasting. Before twelve months had passed it had ended.
In 1327, Uzbek sent Cholkhan, his cousin, to Tver. With him came warriors, princes and merchants. Cholkhan occupied Alexander’s palace, and his warriors were quartered on the people. They committed violence, as was usual on every such occasion, and there was much feeling against them in Tver. It was reported among Russians that the Mongols intended to kill the Tver prince, his friends, and his family, and clear the throne for Cholkhan, who would at once put Mongol princes in every part of Russia, and force his religion on Christians.
Early one morning a deacon was leading to water a young mare in good flesh; some Mongols rushed to take the beast from him,—they wished to kill, cook, and eat her. The deacon struggled and shouted; people ran up to help him; more Mongols hurried to the spot, and a fight began which developed and extended till it filled the city. Church bells were tolled. Cholkhan was roused and rushed forth to the battle. At sunrise all Tver was raging in a desperate conflict. The Grand Prince himself took part, and pushed into the thickest of the struggle. Both sides fought all day fiercely, and only toward evening did Alexander force Cholkhan and his men to the palace, where the Mongols quickly barred every entrance. But Alexander did not spare his father’s palace; he fired it with his own hands, and Cholkhan and his Mongols were burned to death in it. All Mongol merchants were slain; the Tver men spared not one of them; even those who had lived a long time in the city received neither quarter nor mercy. They were burned in their houses, or drowned in the river.
Such was the punishment inflicted on Cholkhan, Uzbek’s cousin. When Uzbek heard of this massacre, his anger blazed up furiously against the rebels, and in grief over Cholkhan. He sent at once for the Prince of Moscow. Ivan delayed not. It seems that his obedience and ready arrival at Sarai surprised even the Khan. Ivan found every one in great alarm. The Mongols thought that all Russia had risen in revolt and refused further obedience. When the true condition was explained, Uzbek gave the Moscow prince a part of his army to punish the insolent Tver men. He sent with him also Mongol princes and five commanders, each leading ten thousand warriors. In fact he gave an army [[313]]sufficient to conquer a kingdom. His order was to destroy the Tver principality.
No man had ever seen Uzbek in such convulsions of anger. He roared like a lion. Not a Tver prince was to be left alive. The whole Russian land must be harassed. Ivan was to slaughter his own countrymen to avenge Mongols. Vassili, a Ryazan prince summoned recently for judgment, was beheaded at once. Later on, when Mongol warriors were at work, the head of another prince fell at the Khan’s capital. During the summer of 1328, there was great bloodshed throughout all Vladimir. The legions which came with Ivan, led by Turlyak, were so numerous that no Russian power could withstand them. Tver and other towns were leveled. All people who did not flee were either slain or taken captive. Alexander and his brothers fled to Novgorod, but Novgorod, greatly alarmed, would not allow them to remain in the city, and they fled to Pskoff. When the Khan’s warriors approached Novgorod, Ivan sent envoys from himself and Turlyak. The Novgorod men showed the envoys all honor, paid tribute and made presents. The city sent then an embassy to Uzbek, and implored Ivan to conduct it. “Go thou to the Horde,” begged they, “and declare the obedience of Novgorod.” The prince consented. Constantine of Tver, Ivan’s cousin, joined the embassy, for Ivan had promised to intercede in his favor.
It would be difficult to estimate what suffering that outbreak in Tver brought on Russia; how much torture and anguish that desperate affair cost the people. The Khan was waiting for news with impatience; when it came, it was so terrible that he was satisfied. The smoking ruins of Tver towns and settlements seemed to him a splendid reminder and a hint strong enough to keep down the disobedient. Tver, Kashin, and all towns in Torjok and the Tver principality were turned into ashes. People had been destroyed or taken captive wherever hands or weapons could reach them. Only those who fled to gloomy forests, where they hid among wild beasts, survived that dreadful visitation. In time they came back to their places, and began to work anew, but all were in dire need and poverty, for their lands were as a desert.
The campaign successfully ended, the Mongols went home with much wealth and many captives. They not only seized cattle, [[314]]horses, and property, but took the wives and daughters of Russians, and the men who were able to labor. They took everything that pleased them, wherever they found it. Those who complained or resisted were cut to pieces immediately. But Moscow and all its lands were free from Mongol rapacity and massacre.
In the autumn of 1328, Ivan went to the Horde to report that the Khan’s demand was accomplished. With him were the Novgorod envoys and Feodor Kolenitsa, their chief man, also Constantine, the Tver prince. Uzbek met all very graciously, and received Ivan with much honor. He gave him the Grand Principality, adding lands also to Moscow, and granting everything that the prince asked for; he gratified Kolenitsa as well. But he commanded them all to the last man to seek out Alexander and bring him to the Horde to receive the Khan’s sentence.
After the countless quarrels between princes, and the Mongol raids which did not cease for even one year during five decades after the death of Alexander Nevski, the peace which now began, when Nevski’s grandson, Ivan, became Grand Prince of Vladimir, must have seemed a miracle. And for many a day it remained in the minds of the people as a wonderful benefaction. This lasting peace was the great event of Ivan’s reign. All knew that he had Uzbek’s confidence. Russian princes saw that the Khan granted whatever Ivan asked of him. They saw this even before, but when Constantine, brother of the fugitive Alexander, was confirmed in Tver through Ivan’s influence, all were convinced of Uzbek’s friendship for him, none more firmly than the Novgorod envoys, who had visited the Horde with the Grand Prince.