After Prince Constantine had strengthened Nizni-Novgorod, and built a stone church there, no warriors came from Moscow to threaten him, but that was not through any weakness in Moscow. Ivan did not hide his displeasure at Novgorod for supporting Constantine at the Horde, and withholding the tribute. Novgorod complained against the Moscow metropolitan at Tsargrad, and had relations with Olgerd. Ivan was well aware of this. It was known that he was preparing to chastise Novgorod, and that many of the other princes were ready to march with him. Constantine, not daring to disobey an order from the Khan to make peace with the Grand Prince, sent envoys to Moscow. Those envoys were joined by others from Novgorod. Thus Ivan, without warring, won peace at last from all opponents, Novgorod paid the tribute, and received the tax officials who had been appointed by Moscow in Simeon’s time.
In the popular mind there was later a wonderful tradition concerning the days of Ivan the Mild; that serious and even dreadful period when all feared destruction. There had been demands for fresh tribute, and there were ominous reports from the Horde, [[345]]when, as the tale runs, this message came to the Grand Prince: “Send thy chief priest (the metropolitan) to us quickly. We hear that God listens to his prayers always. Let him cure our Tsaritsa.” The metropolitan answered: “That is beyond my measure.” Encouraged, however, by the Grand Prince, and trusting in God, he went to the Horde and found that Taidula, the Khan’s wife, was blind, in addition to other ailings. He declared that he was not a physician of the body, but that whoso asks with faith him God will not despise, and he prayed over the sick woman. She was cured and there was great rejoicing at the Horde. Taidula made the metropolitan a present of much value, a ring with her seal on it. By putting this seal to papers, he could give them the power of the Khan’s patent. Such was the faith in Alexis. But he hurried from the Horde, for trouble came quickly. Taidula’s husband was no longer Khan, but her son Berdibek, who had seized the place of his father, Chanibek. Chanibek had been able to keep together for a short time the inheritance of Uzbek, his father, by killing his two brothers. He had ruled the Horde in the old way and extended his power from the Volga to the Aral, and beyond the river Terek to Persia. Terrible to his Mohammedan subjects, he was kind to Russian Christians. He reigned, however, only eighteen years.
Not long before Chanibek’s death, there rose in the Horde a strong personage, Tavlug Bey, who disliked Chanibek and did not cease to whisper to Berdibek, the Khan’s son: “It is time for thee to sit on the throne. It is time for thy father to leave it.” Through various devices he was able to bring the Horde magnates to that way of thinking. When in 1358 his perfidious advice was accepted, Chanibek died by strangulation.
Berdibek’s accession forced the princes to go to the Horde for fresh confirmation. On gaining power the new Khan killed all his brothers—there were twelve of them. There was now great trouble in Russia, a new demand was made for tribute. From Moscow came a request for Alexis the metropolitan to go to the Horde and soothe Berdibek’s anger. So he hastened back, and was there probably when Berdibek’s brothers were murdered. It is undoubted that the metropolitan was able to influence Berdibek, and save the Russian Church from taxation.
Ivan the Mild died November, 1359, at the age of thirty-three, [[346]]after a reign of six years. Now too died Berdibek, who had ruled a little more than a year. Then evil gave birth to new evil, one conspiracy succeeded another, parricide was followed by fratricide; one Khan took the place of another on a blood-reeking throne, and over each one the chronicler utter these words: “He received the reward of his actions.”
Berdibek was followed by Kulpa, who ruled six months and five days, then “the judgment of God did not suffer him longer.” He and his two sons were assassinated by Nurus, but not long could Nurus hold the throne, for Hidjrbek of the Blue Horde on the Yaik intrigued against him. He was given up to Hidjrbek, and he and his sons were murdered. Hidjrbek was murdered by his son, Timur Khoja, in 1361. One month and seven days later Timur Khoja was slain in a revolution effected unexpectedly by a new man, Mamai. This Mamai surpassed in a short time all others to such a degree that the bloody revolution made by him put an end to uprisings.
Mamai’s adherents, who were in the Don region, separated from those of Sarai on the Volga, and rose against Timur Khoja. This parricide feared death in Sarai, and fled from the left to the right bank of the Volga, where he perished most wretchedly.
Mamai placed now in his own Horde a new Khan, Abdul; but the Sarai men proclaimed Hidjrbek’s brother, Murad; thus the original Volga Horde became divided, and the seeds of destruction were sown. About that time Kildybek, who declared himself to be Chanibek’s son, and a grandson of Uzbek, began war as a third Khan, and killed many prisoners, after which he himself was killed. Khan Murad now made an effort to unite the two Hordes. He attacked Mamai, and slew many warriors, but did not succeed in his purpose. There were now two Khans, Abdul was made Khan by Mamai on the right bank of the Volga, and Murad was Khan on the east of that river, “and those two Khans were in enmity always.”
The division of the Horde brought great unrest and disturbance in Russia, not because Prince Dmitri, the heir to the Grand Principality, was a boy, but because at the Horde there was no one in permanent possession. Though the Moscow boyars had sent an envoy, they did not decide that Dmitri should go to either rival. This delay gave the Suzdal princes some advantage. The [[347]]Moscow men, hearing of Hidjrbek’s accession, took their Dmitri, who was nine years of age, to the Horde at Sarai and presented him to the Khan. But their journey was not successful. Troubles increased at the Horde. There was no time for talking with Hidjrbek. The great point was to escape at the earliest moment.
Taking advantage of the turmoil of Sarai, Dmitri, son of Constantine, the late Suzdal ruler and prince in Nizni-Novgorod, settled in Vladimir, and declared himself Grand Prince, trying thus to restore to Vladimir its old-time prestige and position as capital. This namesake of Dmitri of Moscow, and some years later his father-in-law, had been advised by Andrei, his elder brother, to avoid the Grand Principality. “The Khan wants gifts,” said Andrei. “Dmitri of Moscow is the natural heir, and will get his own a little later.” But Dmitri of Suzdal would not wait; he gave immense gifts to the Horde, and got the patent. By this time many of the Russian princes had become accustomed to the idea that the Grand Principality belonged to the Moscow princes. Novgorod men, however, were well satisfied with the son of Constantine, Moscow’s opponent, but no other people were pleased with him; even in Tver they preferred the Moscow prince, and no later than 1362 Dmitri of Moscow received the patent.