The Mongols in Russia

by Jeremiah Curtin

Trumpets on both sides now sounded for action, and the great battle began. At midday they were fighting breast to breast; face to face. Lances broke as if reeds; arrows came as numerous as raindrops. Dust dimmed the sun; people fell like grass when scythes are cutting. A horse was killed under Dmitri; he mounted another. Later he was seen on foot, limping and wounded. After that no man beheld him till the battle was over.

When the Russians began the struggle, they had the Dubik on the west and the Smolka on the east at the left, and looked themselves toward the south. Bobrok and Vladimir retired to the forest and hid there, as they had been commanded. On the left wing from which they had withdrawn, was the Nizni prince. The Mongols moved at midday on the center, where stood the Grand Prince’s standard. In the first ranks were the valiant boyars, Simeon Melik and Nikolai Velyaminoff. The sun was in the face of the Russians; the wind was against them. The Mongols had the sunlight on their shoulders; their faces were shaded; the wind was on their side and helped them. The main force and weight of the enemy was hurled at the “great regiment” in the center, rather more towards its left flank. On the right wing it was easier for the Russians, despite the superior and growing force of the enemy. Mamai’s tent, commanding the field, was on the height called Red Hill (Krasno Gora); from there he followed the battle, and sent reinforcements, which rushed with great shouts to the places appointed; and for miles in the width and the length of it the whole field of Kulikovo groaned with the giant battle.

The sound of the terrible conflict rose and fell from edge to edge of the land, like deep bursts of thunder. No matter how the Mongols were cut down with swords, raised on spears, or hewn with axes, they pressed into every place. Legion rushed in after legion, numerous as in Batu’s day; a multitude so great that in places they were troubled by their own immense numbers. At times they were so crowded, that, throwing away weapons, they [[388]]fought empty-handed, and falling, were trampled. After a time, it seemed that the Mongols were conquerors. Half the field on the left of the Russians appeared to be won by Mamai’s men; but the Russians remembered how their ancestors had died on the Kalka; and praying, “O God, do not suffer us to perish like our fathers on the Kalka,” they sprang up again. “And it was a wonder,” said an eye-witness, “to see how those thousands fought on the Kulikovo.” Each man tried to surpass the other. But the foe was not second in valor. At two o’clock the battle was raging in all its fury and its terror. Neither could conquer the other; attack and resistance were equal. Then Mamai’s warriors stormed at the center, and, though driven back, rushed again to the onset and displaced the left wing of the enemy.

Mamai, from Krasno Gora, saw the Russian ranks weaken, saw that banners and flags had gone down in great numbers, and he sent his last strong reserve forward. The left wing was torn from the center. There remained but a few wretched remnants of the regiments from Nizni, and the center itself held its place with terrible effort. Andrei, son of Olgerd, had to send from the right wing part of his forces to strengthen the center, now ready to separate into fragments. Passing around the rear, behind the men fighting under Brenko, this reinforcement came out where the left wing had been forced from the center, and the rent was repaired by its coming. The balance of the battle was established. The Vladimir and Suzdal regiments had been brought to disorder, because in their ranks were men without training, taken recently from the plough. These, thinking that the end had come, were breaking. Now they rallied, and, under the valiant Timofei Velyaminoff, they prevented the Mongols from winning. The struggle at that point had grown desperate. The Mongols in their turn were thrown into disorder, and fell back after suffering a pitiless slaughter. All on the Russian side were encouraged by this new advantage, and they paid back the enemy with mighty strokes.

Thus the battle raged on till three o’clock, when came the moment of greatest intensity. Mamai, looking from his height, was quivering from excitement, anxiety, and anger. Doubt in the power at his disposal was beginning to seize him, when all at once an immense shout of joy was sent up by the Mongols. The center had been displaced by Mamai’s men. Toward the Don the Russian [[389]]line had given away very sensibly. The right Russian wing kept its position from the height, the left wing could not be discovered; only Mongol troops were visible on that part of the field. Simeon Melik and Nikolai Velyaminoff were both dead. The “great regiment” was almost annihilated.

After shattering Timofei Velyaminoff and Brenko forces, the Mongols turned toward the left wing, They found little resistance there from the forces of the Bailozero princes, and still less from those of Dmitri of Nizni. Thus the whole Russian left and center were pushed more and more from their original positions by the enemy, and driven toward the Don.

The right wing had suffered less from the Mongols,—even had the advantage.

The sons of Olgerd not only repulsed the extreme Mongol left, but advanced on it. They were held back, however, by the fact that the center could not advance with them. The entire center was overborne and pushed back by the immense force of Mongols, but still it did not let itself be broken. Then Pskoff troops and others were sent to support the left wing. The two sons of Olgerd repelled every onset from horsemen, till at last, though not moving forward, they found themselves in advance of all other forces. At four after midday, the great standard of the Grand Prince went down, and nearly at the same time Brenko died. Judging by his dress, the Mongols took him for the Grand Prince, and shouts of triumph filled all the battle-field. The princes of Bailozero had fallen. There also, among the piles of dead, lay the two princes Tarusski, and many others. But the struggling army made the enemy pay dearly for every step they gained; they fought breast to breast, and retreated, it might be said, advancing one step and falling back two, to advance then another step. The field was covered with bodies, the body of a Russian on the body of a Mongol. The Russian power was failing, yielding, falling back,—on the point of breaking.

Mamai was triumphant. From the height of Red Hill the left wing and the center of the Russian army seemed broken into fragments.

All this was seen by Vladimir and Bobrok of Volynia from their ambush. “Why are we idle so long?” asked Vladimir, reproaching Bobrok, and eager to rush into action. Bobrok restrained him, [[390]]and followed every movement with the utmost care and anxiety. Men sent by him to watch from the tree-tops gave details. “Wait, wait a little longer,” said Bobrok. Meanwhile the turn made by the Russians was so great that, facing them always, the Mongols came at last to present their rear ranks to the regiments in ambush, while the Russian left wing was almost where it had stood at the opening of the battle. The right wing had repulsed all attacks and remained in its original position. The men in ambush were enraged at Bobrok. “Why are we here? What are we doing?” “Why do we wait to see our comrades slaughtered?” “If we begin at the wrong time,” said Bobrok, “all will be lost.” When at last he saw that the moment had come, he said: “Pray to the Lord now, my brothers. This is the moment!”