Standing on the Ugra. Briefly
(Khan of the Great Horde)
According to the traditional narrative, in 1476, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde, and in 1480 he refused to recognize Rus'’s dependence on it. Despite this, according to the American historian Charles Halperin, the lack of evidence in the annals recording the exact date of the cessation of tribute payment does not allow proving that tribute was stopped being paid in 1476; The dating and the very authenticity of Khan Akhmat’s label to Grand Duke Ivan III, containing information about the termination of the payment of tribute, remains a subject of debate in the academic community. According to the Vologda-Perm Chronicle, Khan Akhmat in 1480, during negotiations, reproached Ivan III for not paying tribute for the ninth year. Based, in particular, on this document, A. A. Gorsky concluded that the payment of tribute ceased in 1472, on the eve of the battle of Aleksin.
Khan Akhmat, busy fighting the Crimean Khanate, only in 1480 began active actions against the Grand Duchy of Moscow. He managed to negotiate with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV on military assistance. Meanwhile, the Pskov land at the beginning of 1480 was attacked by the Livonian Order. The Livonian chronicler reported that Master Bernhard von der Borg:
“... gathered such a force of the people against the Russians, which no master had ever gathered, either before or after him... This master was involved in a war with the Russians, took up arms against them and gathered 100 thousand troops from foreign and native warriors and peasants; with these people he attacked Russia and burned the outskirts of Pskov, without doing anything else.” .In January 1480, his brothers Boris Volotsky and Andrei Bolshoi rebelled against Ivan III, dissatisfied with the strengthening of the power of the Grand Duke.
Course of events in 1480
Start of hostilities
Taking advantage of the current situation, Khan Akhmat organized reconnaissance of the right bank of the Oka River in June 1480, and set out with the main forces in the fall.
« That same summer, the ill-famed Tsar Akhmat... went against Orthodox Christianity, against Rus', against the holy churches and against the Grand Duke, boasting of destroying the holy churches and captivating all Orthodoxy and the Grand Duke himself, as under Batu Besha.»The boyar elite in the Grand Duchy of Moscow split into two groups: one (“ rich and potbellied money lovers"), led by the okolnichy Ivan Oshchera and Grigory Mamon, advised Ivan III to flee; the other defended the need to fight the Horde. Perhaps Ivan III was influenced by the position of the Muscovites, who demanded decisive action from the Grand Duke.
Ivan III began to gather troops to the banks of the Oka, sending his brother, the Vologda prince Andrei Menshoy, to his fiefdom, Tarusa, and his son Ivan the Young to Serpukhov. The Grand Duke himself arrived on June 23 at Kolomna, where he stopped awaiting the further course of events. On the same day, the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was brought from Vladimir to Moscow, with whose intercession the salvation of Rus' from the troops of Tamerlane was associated back in 1395.
Meanwhile, the troops of Khan Akhmat moved freely through the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, accompanied by Lithuanian guides, through Mtsensk, Odoev and Lyubutsk to Vorotynsk. Here the khan expected help from King Casimir IV, but he never received it. The Crimean Tatars, allies of Ivan III, distracted the Lithuanian troops by attacking Podolia. Knowing that Russian regiments were waiting for him on the Oka, Khan Akhmat decided, after passing through Lithuanian lands, to invade Russian territory across the Ugra River. Grand Duke Ivan III, having received information about such intentions, sent his son Ivan and brother Andrei the Lesser to Kaluga and to the banks of the Ugra. However, according to Michael Khodarkovsky pl, Khan Akhmat had no intention of using the effect of surprise and ruining the Principality of Moscow, relying instead on the traditional tactics of intimidation by a superior number of troops and forcing submission.
Standing on the Ugra
On September 30, Ivan III returned from Kolomna to Moscow " to council and thought"with the metropolitan and boyars. The Grand Duke received a unanimous answer, “ to stand firmly for Orthodox Christianity against lack of faith" On the same days, ambassadors from Andrei Bolshoi and Boris Volotsky came to Ivan III, who announced the end of the rebellion. The Grand Duke forgave the brothers and ordered them to move with their regiments to the Oka. On October 3, Ivan III left Moscow and headed to the city of Kremenets (now the village of Kremenskoye, Medynsky district, Kaluga region), where he remained with a small detachment, and sent the rest of the troops to the bank of the Ugra. At the same time, Russian troops stretched along the river in a thin line for as much as 60 versts. Meanwhile, an attempt by one of Khan Akhmat’s troops to cross the Ugra in the Opakov area failed, where it was repulsed.
Ugra near the site of historical confrontation
On October 8, Khan Akhmat himself tried to cross the Ugra, but his attack was repulsed by the forces of Ivan the Young.
« And the Tatars came and the Muscovites began to shoot, and the Muscovites began to shoot at them and squeaked away and killed many of the Tatars with arrows and saw blades and drove them away from the shore...».This happened in the area of a five-kilometer section of the Ugra, up from its mouth, to the confluence of the Rosvyanka River. Subsequently, the Horde’s attempts to cross continued for several days, were repulsed by Russian artillery fire and did not bring the desired success to the troops of Khan Akhmat. They retreated two miles from Ugra and stood in Luza. Ivan III's troops took up defensive positions on the opposite bank of the river. The famous " standing on the Ugra" Skirmishes broke out periodically, but neither side dared to launch a serious attack.
In this situation, negotiations began. Akhmat demanded that the Grand Duke himself or his son, or at least his brother, come to him with an expression of submission, and also that the Russians pay the tribute they owed for seven years. Ivan III sent Tovarkov’s boyar son Ivan Fedorovich as an embassy “ companions with gifts" On Ivan's part, demands for tribute were rejected, gifts were not accepted by Akhmat - negotiations were interrupted. It is quite possible that Ivan went towards them, trying to gain time, since the situation was slowly changing in his favor, since
On these same days, October 15-20, Ivan III received a fiery message from Archbishop Vassian of Rostov with a call to follow the example of the former princes:
« ...who not only defended the Russian land from the filthy(that is, not Christians) , but they also subjugated other countries... Just take courage and be strong, my spiritual son, as a good warrior of Christ, according to the great word of our Lord in the Gospel: “You are the good shepherd.” The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”…»Raid on New Saray
Having learned that Khan Akhmat, in an effort to achieve a numerical advantage, mobilized the Great Horde as much as possible, so that there were no significant reserves of troops left on its territory, Ivan III allocated a small but combat-ready detachment, under the command of Prince Vasily of Nozdrovaty-Zvenigorodsky, who went down the Oka in canoes , then along the Volga to its lower reaches and defeated the capital of the Great Horde, New Saray. The Crimean prince Nur-Devlet and his nukers also took part in this expedition.
End of the confrontation
The onset of cold weather and the upcoming freeze-up forced Ivan III to change his previous tactics to prevent the Horde from crossing the Ugra with a Russian army stretched over 60 miles. On October 28, 1480, the Grand Duke decided to withdraw troops to Kremenets and then concentrate them at Borovsk in order to fight there in a favorable environment. Khan Akhmat, having learned that a sabotage detachment of Prince Nozdrovaty and the Crimean prince Nur-Devlet was operating in his deep rear (perhaps he also received information about the impending attack of the Nogai Tatars), and also experiencing a lack of food, did not dare to follow the Russians at the end of October - in early November he also began to withdraw his troops. On November 11, Khan Akhmat decided to go back to the Horde. On the way back, the Horde plundered the towns and districts of 12 Lithuanian cities (Mtsensk, Serpeisk, Kozelsk and others), which was revenge on King Casimir IV for unprovided military assistance.
Results
For those who watched from the sidelines how both troops almost simultaneously (within two days) turned back without bringing the matter to a decisive battle, this event seemed either strange, mystical, or received a simplified explanation: the opponents were afraid of each other, fearing accept the battle. In Rus', contemporaries attributed this to the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, who saved the Russian land from ruin. Apparently, this is why the Ugra River began to be called the “belt of the Virgin Mary.” Grand Duke Ivan III with all his army returned to Moscow, " and all the people rejoiced and rejoiced greatly with great joy».
The results of “standing” in the Horde were perceived differently. On January 6, 1481, Khan Akhmat was killed as a result of a surprise attack by the Tyumen Khan Ibak (probably carried out with prior agreement with Ivan III) on the steppe headquarters, to which Akhmat withdrew from Sarai, probably fearing assassination attempts. Civil strife began in the Great Horde.
In the “Standing on the Ugra” the Russian army used new tactical and strategic techniques:
- coordinated actions with an ally, the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray, which diverted the military forces of the Polish king Casimir IV from the clash;
- sending by Ivan III to the rear of Khan Akhmat in the Great Horde along the Volga a detachment to destroy the defenseless khan's capital, which was a new military-tactical ploy and took the Horde by surprise;
- Ivan III's successful attempt to avoid a military clash, in which there was neither military nor political necessity - the Horde was greatly weakened, its days as a state were numbered.
The diplomatic efforts of Ivan III prevented Poland and Lithuania from entering the war. The Pskovites also made their contribution to the salvation of Rus', stopping the German offensive by the fall.
The acquisition of political independence from the Horde, along with the spread of Moscow's influence over the Kazan Khanate (1487), played a role in the subsequent transition of part of the lands under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Moscow. In 1502, when Ivan III, for diplomatic reasons, " flatteringly"Admitted himself to be the slave of the Khan of the Great Horde, its weakened army was defeated by the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray, and the Horde itself ceased to exist.
In Russian historiography, the term “Tatar yoke,” as well as the position about its overthrow by Ivan III, originates from N. M. Karamzin, who used the word “yoke” in the form of an artistic epithet in the original meaning of “a collar put on the neck” (“ bowed their necks under the yoke of the barbarians"), possibly borrowing the term from the 16th-century Polish author Maciej Miechowski.
A number of modern American researchers deny the “Standing on the Ugra” a historical significance that goes beyond an ordinary diplomatic incident, and its connection with the overthrow of the Horde yoke (like the very concept of “Tatar yoke”) is considered a historiographical myth. Thus, according to Donald Ostrovsky, although the payment of tribute was reduced by seven times, it did not stop, and the remaining changes affected only the minting of coins. He considers the accusation of passivity towards the Horde, brought against Ivan III in the “Message to the Ugra” by Archbishop Vassian, to be evidence that contemporaries did not see qualitative changes in the position of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Charles Halperin believes that in 1480 there were no texts in which the question of Russian liberation from the Tatar yoke was raised (this also applies to the “Message to the Ugra,” the dating of which to 1480 is also not indisputable).
In contrast to this opinion, V.N. Rudakov writes about a serious struggle in the circle of Ivan III between those who believed that the Grand Duke had the right to fight the “godless king” and those who denied him such a right.
Monument "Standing on the Ugra 1480"
The overthrow of the “Horde yoke”, the idea of which stems from biblical texts about the “Babylonian captivity”, and in one form or another has been found in Russian sources since the 13th century, was applied to the events of 1480 starting with the “Kazan History” (not earlier than 1560- x years). The Ugra River acquired the status of the last and decisive confrontation from historiographers of the 16th century for the reason that it was the last major invasion of the Great Horde into the lands of the Moscow Principality.
Memory
The stela “Resistance to the Tatar-Mongol Yoke” is located opposite the village of Znamenka, Ugransky district, Smolensk region, at the same time, the location of the cultural heritage site belongs to the Velikopolyevo rural settlement.
In 1980, during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Stand on the Ugra, a monument was unveiled on the bank of the river in the Kaluga region in honor of this significant event in Russian history.
Disputes about place
Historians argue about where Stoyanie was on the Ugra. They also name the area near the Opakov settlement, the village of Gorodets, and the confluence of the Ugra and Oka. “A land road from Vyazma stretched to the mouth of the Ugra along its right, “Lithuanian” bank, along which Lithuanian help was expected and which the Horde could use for maneuvers. Even in the middle of the 19th century. The Russian General Staff recommended this road for the movement of troops from Vyazma to Kaluga,” writes historian Vadim Kargalov.
Taking into account the fact that the road from Vyazma crosses the Ugra River near the village of Znamenka, Ugransky district, Smolensk region, it can be assumed that there was a Russian army or one of the detachments of the Russian army on the left bank. In any case, Khan Akhmat failed to unite with his allies. One of the reasons for this could be the actions of the Russian army to intercept strategic communications (in this case, the road from Vyazma). Thus, according to M. Nesin, the length of the Stand on the Ugra River is 60 versts (64 km) beginning in the Smolensk region and ending in the Kaluga region.
Notes
- Solovyov S. M. History of Russia since ancient times, vol. 5
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- Gorsky A. A. Rus': from the Slavic Settlement to the Muscovite Kingdom
- Collection of materials and articles on the history of the Baltic region. T.11. Riga, 1979. p.597
- Skrynnikov R. G. Saints and authorities. L., 1990
- Michael Khodarkovsky. Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800. - Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. - 290 pp. - PP. 80-81.
- Nesin M. A. On the question of the reason for the retreat of the Tatar army after standing on the Ugra // History of military affairs: research and sources. - 2015. - Special issue V. Standing on the Ugra River 1480-2015. - P.I. - pp. 110-132
- Standing on the Ugra (undefined) . www.chrono.ru. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
- Karamzin N. M. History of Russian Goverment. Volume 6
- Engel B. A., Martin J. L. B. Russia in World History (English) / Gen. ed. B. G. Smith, A. A. Yang. - Oxford-...: Oxford University Press, 2015. - P. 31. - ISBN 978-0-19-994789-8.
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- Hellie R. Service State// Encyclopedia of Russian History / Ed.-in-Chief J. R. Millar. - New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. - P. 1371. - ISBN 0-02-865907-4.
- Hellie R. The law// The Cambridge History of Russia: in 3 Vol / Ed. by M. Perrie. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. - Vol. 1: From Early Rus’ to 1689. - P. 381. - ISBN 978-0-521-81227-6.
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- Hostetler L. Imperial competition in Eurasia: Russia and China (English)// The Cambridge World History / Ed.-in-chief M. E. Wiesner-Hanks; Ed. by J. H. Bentley, S. Subrahmanyam, M. E. Wiesner-Hanks. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. - Vol. 6: The Construction of a Global World, 1400-1800 CE, Part 1: Foundations. - P. 298. - ISBN 978-0-521-76162-8.
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- Dukes P. History of Russia: Medieval, Modern, Contemporary, c. 882-1996 (English) . - 3rd Ed. - L.: Macmillan Education, 1998. - P. 45. - ISBN 978-0-333-66067-6.
- Krom M. M. Ivan III (English)// Encyclopedia of Russian History / Ed.-in-Chief J. R. Millar. - New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. - P. 688. - ISBN 0-02-865907-4.
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- Kort M. A Brief History of Russia (English). - N. Y.: Facts On File, 2008. - P. 24. - ISBN 978-0-8160-7112-8.
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- Huttenbach H.R. Muscovy’s Conquest of Muslim Kazan and Astrakhan, 1552-1556. The Conquest of the Volga: Prelude to Empire (English)// Russian Colonial Expansion to 1917 / Ed. by M. Rywkin. - L. - N. Y.: Mansell Publ., 1988. - P. 54. - ISBN 0-7201-1867-0.
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For many years, Rus' was oppressed by Tatar-Mongol rule. But gradually the situation changed. Russian rulers behaved more and more independently. In 1476, Grand Duke Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Great Horde. The Great Khan Akhmat did not immediately move his army to pacify the rebellious ruler - he was busy fighting. In 1480, the Russian state refused to completely submit to the Horde.
Akhmat Khan
Having gathered an army, Akhmat went to Moscow. The Russians understood that if Khan reached Moscow, then victory would be his. And therefore they decided to meet the horde in advance. But these events were preceded by heated debates among the Russian nobility. Part of the elite advised the Grand Duke to flee, but the Grand Duke, perhaps under the influence of the Muscovites, decided to give battle to the Khan.
Ivan III began to gather an army near the Oka River, while he himself remained in Kolomna. The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was brought to Moscow, with whose intercession the deliverance from Tamerlane’s invasion was associated.
Khan Akhmat walked through the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, accompanied by Lithuanians loyal to him, to Vorotynsk. It was here that he waited for help from King Casimir IV of Poland. But the king had his own worries. The allies of Ivan the Third, the Crimeans, raided Podolia. Therefore, Khan was forced to act alone. Having learned about the troops gathered on the Oka, he moved towards the Ugra. The Grand Duke also sent his troops there.
It is unlikely that Akhmat’s plans included the suddenness of his military maneuver. Rather, he resorted to the traditional Mongol tactic of intimidation by numbers.
In the fall, Ivan the Third arrived from Kolomna to Moscow for a council with the boyars and clergy, at which they decided to give battle to the khan. Russian squads stood along the Ugra for about 60 versts; attempts by the Tatars to cross the river were stopped by them.
Khan Akhmat withdrew his troops inland from the river, the Russians stood on the other bank. Thus began the great stand on the Ugra. The opponents still did not dare to fight. Akhmat demanded the obedience of the Moscow prince, expecting his son or brother as envoys with the tribute that the Russians owed him for the previous seven years. But the boyar’s son was sent to him for negotiations, which simply delayed time.
The situation was in favor of the Moscow prince. There were allies on the approaches, the Crimean Khan was ravaging the Lithuanian lands with might and main, preventing the Polish king from coming to the rescue of Akhmat.
Failed battle
There was one more important point. The Horde used sheep as food, since the army was mounted, the horses destroyed all the supplies around the site. The Russians received provisions from the Grand Duke's warehouses. And the main army was on foot. And most importantly, the Horde began to be decimated by a disease, which was later identified presumably as dysentery. The Russian army was not affected by the disease.
And the main strategic point is that Ivan the Third benefited from the absence of a clash, while for Akhmat the battle was vital.
The clergy also supported Ivan - Archbishop Vassian sent the prince a message of parting words. Akhmat, having gathered a huge army, left almost no reserve in the horde itself. Therefore, he sent the governor Vasily Nozdrevaty on a raid through enemy territory. The Crimean prince Nur-Devlet and his horsemen accompanied Vasily on this raid.
The coming winter changed the prince's strategy. He decided to retreat deeper into the territory, to more advantageous positions. Khan Akhmat, having learned about the raid of Prince Vasily with the Crimeans, as well as about their intentions to take the capital of the Khanate, decided not to accept battle with the squads and began to withdraw the army. Lack of food also played a significant role in this decision.
On the way back, he began to plunder Lithuanian settlements in revenge for Casimir's betrayal. In just two days, both troops left in different directions from the clash. If this was a victory on the part of the prince, then the khan definitely lost this failed battle.
Many contemporaries attributed the Khan's retreat to the intercession of the Mother of God, hence the second name of the Ugra River - the belt of the Mother of God.
Moscow greeted the prince with jubilation and celebrated the return of its troops as a victory. The Khan was greeted quite differently in Sarai, the capital of the horde. In early January, Akhmat, who left Sarai due to fear of assassination attempts, was killed by the Tyumen prince Ibak in a poorly protected headquarters, most likely at the instigation of Ivan the Third.
The Greater Horde began to be torn apart by hostility and struggle for power between the khans.
The stand on the Ugra revealed new diplomatic techniques used by the rulers of the principality. These are successful alliance treaties, which largely freed up his hands to act behind enemy lines, and the raid of Prince Vasily himself, which forced Akhmat to retreat. And, in fact, the very avoidance of a collision, which the Russians no longer needed - the days of the Horde were numbered.
It is the “standing” that is considered the final point in the Tatar-Mongol yoke, where Rus', having received not formal, but actual sovereignty, began its path as a great power.
The last invasion of Horde troops into Russian lands
The stand on the Ugra also had far-reaching consequences - part of the Lithuanian lands went to the Moscow principality. The Grand Duke was an extraordinary diplomat - he avoided conflict with the Horde until the last. Even in 1502, he calls himself a “slave” of the Horde, although in the same year it was defeated by the Crimean Khan Menli I Giray.
The concept of “Tatar yoke” was introduced by the historian Karamzin. A number of historians, mostly foreign, deny the significance of the “standing on the Ugra” event, considering it an ordinary diplomatic event. As evidence for this version, it is said that the payment of tribute, although it decreased significantly, did not stop. Arguments were also given in favor of this that in the records of contemporaries there is no evidence of liberation from the Tatars.
Other historians believed that the council of boyars and the fierce confrontation between the two parties was clear evidence that the events were more significant than a simple diplomatic clash.
The Grand Duke modestly writes about this event: “Akhmat Khan attacked me, but the all-merciful God wanted to save us from him and did so.”
The stand on the Ugra was of great importance because it was the last invasion of the Horde troops into Russian lands. In honor of the quincentenary, in 1980, a monument was unveiled at the site of these long-standing events.
This November will mark the 535th anniversary of one significant event. November 11 is not only Lachplesis Day in Latvia and the day of Zenit's first post-Soviet championship. Few people think about when the longest occupation in the history of Russia was lifted. After all, the period of the Mongol-Tatar yoke is one of the longest pages in our history. The Russians first encountered the Mongols in 1223 on the Kalka River. 13 years later, the Batyev hordes moved to Rus', destroying everything in their path. One of the most heroic episodes of the first years of the invasions was the defense of Ryazan and Kozelsk. The cartoon “The Tale of Evpatiy Kolovrat” was subsequently filmed about the defense of Ryazan, which gave Rus' one of the first national heroes, and Kozelsk can rightfully be considered the first city of Russian Military Glory, the first hero city, the “first Sevastopol” of our country. After all, a well-known fact about Sevastopol is that it withstood sieges lasting almost a year: the Crimean War - 350 days, the Second World War - 250 days. Kozelsk resisted for 1.5 months, which by those medieval standards was quite a decent period. During this time, the defenders of the city put about 5,000 Horde invaders under its walls, but eventually fell. From 1240 to 1480, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was established in Rus'. In 1380, Prince Dmitry Donskoy made a victorious start to the liberation struggle against the Horde. The moment has come when Rus' finally threw off the yoke of shameful occupation and took a deep breath, beginning to unwind its territorial flywheel.
The Ugra is a small river flowing through the territory of modern Kaluga and Smolensk regions and is a left tributary of the river. Oka, belonging to the Volga river basin. Length 400 km, basin area 15,700 km². It originates on the Smolensk Upland in the southeast of the Smolensk region. For a long time, the Ugra was a river bordering various ethno-tribal and political entities. Mentions of military and political clashes are contained in chronicles starting from 1147: this is information about Polovtsian raids, Russian-Lithuanian border conflicts, etc.
The Ugra gained its widest popularity in 1480 after the so-called Standing on the Ugra River, the confrontation between the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, which is considered the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Because of its defensive significance, the river was called the “Belt of the Virgin Mary.”
The final stage in the overthrow of the Horde yoke, which lasted for almost 2 centuries, was the Great Stand on the Ugra River. However, in modern literature little attention is paid to this confrontation. The Battle of Kulikovo is much more famous, but it was the battle on the Ugra River that ended with the complete overthrow of the Horde yoke.
Reasons and background
At that time, the famous Golden Horde lost its former status and integrity. It was torn apart by local khans into many separate syndicates within the country. Each independent territory received and retained the name Horde, but the geographical location of this khanate was also added to it. The largest fragment of the great Golden Horde was the Great Horde. It was she who was ruled by Khan Akhmat. Chroniclers say that Akhmed gathered all the troops he had to march on Moscow. Literally the entire male population of the Horde was convened for a campaign against Moscow.
The evidence that the Horde was launching a major campaign against Moscow became clear at the beginning of March 1480. It was at this time, not far from the Oka River, which at that time was the border southwestern territory of the Russian state, a small detachment of Horde soldiers was spotted, which was defeated by the governors from Moscow. But this appearance of the Mongol-Tatars was a sure sign that Khan Akhmat was gathering forces for a campaign against Rus'.
In 1480, the Great Stand on the Ugra River took place. The decisive events of this confrontation occurred in October-November, but preparatory work, especially on the part of the Horde, began much earlier. In fact, the entire year of 1480 was a war year for Russia, when the entire country was preparing for the decisive battle to overthrow the Horde yoke.
Why did the confrontation happen, which marked the great stand on the Ugra River? And why did this happen in 1480? The answer to these questions is simple. Khan Akhmat could never have had a better moment to march on Moscow. After all, it was at this time that Prince of Moscow Ivan III was in a quarrel with his brothers Andrei and Boris, who threatened to leave their army to serve the Prince of Lithuania Casimir. At the same time, Casimir and his army invaded the territory of Pskov. As a result, in the event of an attack by Khan Akhmat, Prince Ivan III threatened to get bogged down not only in a war with him, but also with the Prince of Lithuania, and with his brothers, who wanted to strengthen their power in the country.
Preparation
Relations with the Horde, which were already tense, completely deteriorated by the early 1470s. The horde continued to disintegrate; on the territory of the former Golden Horde, in addition to its immediate successor (the “Great Horde”), the Astrakhan, Kazan, Crimean, Nogai and Siberian Hordes were also formed. In 1472, Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat began a campaign against Rus'. At Tarusa the Tatars met a large Russian army. All attempts of the Horde to cross the Oka were repulsed. The Horde army managed to burn the city of Aleksin, but the campaign as a whole ended in failure. Soon (in the same 1472 or in 1476) Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Khan of the Great Horde, which inevitably should have led to a new clash. However, until 1480 Akhmat was busy fighting the Crimean Khanate.
From the spring of 1480, a strong army began to be assembled throughout the Russian land, which could withstand the size of the army of Khan Ahmed. Ivan III, realizing that he would have to fight not only with Khan Akhmat, but also with Prince Casimir, began searching for an ally. This is how the Crimean Khan Mengi-Girey became. He promised that in the event of an attack on Rus' by the Horde and Lithuanians, the Crimean Khan would introduce his troops into the territory of the Principality of Lithuania, thereby forcing Casimir to return to his possessions. After this, Ivan III made peace with his brothers, who provided him with their troops to jointly fight Khan Ahmed. This happened on October 20, when the battle on the Ugra River in 1480 was already underway.
Standing stroke
In August 1480, news spread across Rus' that Akhmat with a huge army was moving to the southern borders of Rus', but it was moving not to the north, but to the west, which indicated Khan Akhmat’s intention to attack Rus' from the Lithuanians so that they could help him with troops .
Only at the beginning of October 1480 did the Horde army approach the borders of Rus' and the great stand on the Ugra River began. The Russian army was located in the Kaluga region, in the town of Kremenets, from where it could respond in a timely manner to all enemy movements, and also blocked the path to Moscow. This position of the troops allowed the commanders of Prince Ivan III to quickly respond to any maneuvers of the light cavalry of Khan Akhmat.
The stand on the Ugra River in 1480 continues. Russian troops are not trying to go on the attack. The troops of the Great Horde are looking, but until a certain time without success, for good fords to cross the river. Most of the fords, of which there were a sufficient number on the Ugra River, were not suitable for crossing the river by cavalry, since the flat banks gave a clear advantage to the Russian army. The only place suitable for crossing was near the mouth of the Ugra, where the opponents were stationed. Ivan III does not rush the battle due to the fact that every day Akhmat’s army is running out of food and hay for horses. In addition, winter was approaching, which also had to play a role for the Russians.
During October 1480, the army of Khan Akhmat tried several times to ford the Ugra River, but to no avail. This was mainly due to the fact that the Mongols used the old tactics of throwing arrows at the enemy and then cutting them down in a mounted attack. Standing on the Ugra River in 1480 did not give the Horde the opportunity to attack like this, since the powerful armor of the Russian infantry and the long range between the banks made the arrows safe for the Russian troops. And horse ford attacks were easily repulsed by the Russians due to good weapons, as well as the use of artillery, which mainly consisted of cannons and arquebuses. This artillery was called "armor".
After unsuccessful attempts to ford the Ugra, Khan Akhmat began to wait for cold weather to cross the river on ice. As a result, the great stand on the Ugra River lasted almost the entire month of October 1480. But by October 22, the Ugra River began to become covered with a crust of ice. Winter came earlier than usual that year. Prince Ivan III decided to retreat to the city of Borovsk and give the enemy a decisive battle there.
On October 26, 1480, the Ugra rose up. The Russians were expecting an attack from the Horde at any moment, but it never came. On November 11, 1480, Russian scouts brought news to Borovsk that the army of Khan Ahmed had retreated and gone back to the steppe. Thus ended the great stand on the Ugra River. Together with him, the Horde yoke in Rus' ended.
For those who watched from the sidelines how both armies almost simultaneously (within two days) turned back without bringing the matter to battle, this event seemed either strange, mystical, or received a simplified explanation: the opponents were afraid of each other, afraid to accept battle. Contemporaries attributed this to the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, who saved the Russian land from ruin. Apparently this is why the Ugra began to be called the “belt of the Virgin Mary”. Ivan III with his son and the entire army returned to Moscow, “and rejoiced, and all the people rejoiced greatly with great joy.”
The results of “standing” in the Horde were perceived differently. On January 6, 1481, Akhmat was killed as a result of a surprise attack by the Tyumen Khan Ibak on the steppe headquarters, to which Akhmat withdrew from Sarai, probably fearing assassination attempts. Civil strife began in the Great Horde.
Other events are also associated with the Ugra River. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the territory of Pougorye was guarded by the partisans of Denis Davydov and the Yukhnovsky militia under the command of Semyon Khrapovitsky. Thanks to the active actions of the partisans, Yukhnovsky district was not occupied by the Napoleonic army.
During the Great Patriotic War, during the enemy’s attack on Moscow, the Ugra River became a natural frontier, for the capture of which bloody battles unfolded in October 1941. The most famous among these events is the defense of the bridge across the Ugra and its banks near the city of Yukhnov by a detachment of Major I. G. Starchak and cadets of the Podolsk military schools.
Here, on the Ugra, squadron commander A.G. Rogov repeated the feat of N. Gastello. His plane was hit by an anti-aircraft shell. There was no hope of salvation, and A.G. Rogov sent the burning plane to one of the fascist crossings across the Ugra. The twin-engine vehicle, having destroyed the bridge, crashed deeply into the river bottom.
One of the most tragic episodes of the Great Patriotic War is also associated with Ugra - the death of the 33rd Army of Lieutenant General M. G. Efremov, which was surrounded near Vyazma. The shock groups of the 33rd Army were unable to withstand the many times superior enemy numbers and were defeated. The seriously wounded M. G. Efremov, not wanting to be captured, shot himself. The Pavlovsky bridgehead, however, was held by the forces of the 43rd Army and remained impregnable.
During the celebration of the 500th anniversary of standing on the Ugra River in 1980, a monument was unveiled on the banks of the legendary river in honor of a significant event in Russian history that occurred in 1480 within the Kaluga region. In 1997, the Ugra National Park was established.
Ugra National Park is located in the Kaluga region, in the valleys of the Ugra, Zhizdra, Vyssa and Oka rivers. The Ugra National Park was formed in 1997 by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 148 of February 10, 1997. Since 2002, it has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
The national park is located in six administrative districts of the Kaluga region: Yukhnovsky, Iznoskovsky, Dzerzhinsky, Peremyshlsky, Babyninsky and Kozelsky. The total area of the park is 98,623 hectares (of which: 43,922 hectares are forest fund lands, 1,326 hectares are in the possession of the water fund, 53,375 hectares are land without seizure). The park consists of three sections - Ugorsky (64,184 hectares), Vorotynsky (3,171 hectares) and Zhizdrinsky (31,268 hectares), and three separate clusters. The protected zone around the park is 46,109 hectares.
The territory of the park has long been a tourist area; water routes along the Ugra, Zhizdra and Oka are very popular.
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Today, 535 years later, our history clearly proves that Russia overthrew all various types of occupation not through dialogue and negotiations, but through direct military conflict. This trend has not changed to this day. Next year will mark the 240th anniversary of the birth of the United States, whose Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, and I would like to express my deepest hope that the treacherous retaliation strike on the Yellowstone site is a matter of relatively short time. After all, quite recently, our designers released an alternative to the Soviet BZHRK - the Klap-K nuclear missile complex. Killer containers turned out to be so universal that they are not only impossible to track, but what’s more, they can even be built into a long-range truck, not to mention large transport ships. Against such weapons, the entire global American missile defense system essentially turns into a puppet barricade theater, and only some idiot will defend American interests. Therefore, Russia essentially remains to press the red button first in order to throw off the yoke of overseas occupation. Indeed, in this case, there will be no retaliatory strike from the West, and the war can be ended with just one precise hit.
The Ugra River is located on the territory of the Smolensk and Kaluga regions of Russia. The Ugra belongs to the Volga basin and flows into the Oka, being its left tributary. Ugra is known primarily due to the historical event of 1480 called: “Standing on the Ugra River.” This “stand” put an end to the Mongol-Tatar yoke and made the Moscow state completely independent.
River length: 399 kilometers.
Drainage basin area: 15,700 km. sq.
Where it flows: The source of the river is in the southeastern part of the Smolensk region on the Smolensk Upland. Almost along its entire course, the Ugra is surrounded by high banks covered with forest. In some places there are still treeless areas. In the lower reaches, sandy beaches are quite common. The Ugra, as already mentioned, flows into the Oka, 15 km above Kaluga.
Inhabitants, fishing on the Ugra: the fish in the river are basically the same as in the Oka. These are the commercial species: burbot, bream, pike, podust, roach, chub. In the lower reaches you can find pike perch, sterlet, and catfish.
Video: “Cool place. Ugra River fishing.
Feeding: the river has a mixed type of feeding. Melt water accounts for 60% of its nutrition, the river receives 30% of its nutrition from groundwater, and approximately 5% from rainwater. Due to the feeding characteristics, with a predominance of melt water, the river regime is characterized by high spring floods. Summer low water may be interrupted by rain floods. Winter low water is more stable and low.
The width of the river bed is 70-80 m. The depth at low water on the rifts is 0.4-0.6 and on the reaches up to 4 meters.
Now briefly about the so-called "standing on the Ugra River". This event occurred in 1480, as a result of the war between the Moscow prince Ivan III and the khan of the Great Horde Akhmat. Ivan III refused to pay tribute to the Horde in 1476 and was forced to accept battle.
Akhmat's attempts to cross the Oka were unsuccessful. Therefore, he made an attempt to enter from the flank. To do this, enlisting the support of the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV. Casimir himself was unable to provide military assistance, as he was distracted by Moscow's ally, the Crimean Tatars. In addition, Ivan III, taking advantage of the fact that Akhmat had gathered all his forces on the Ugra, sent a sabotage group into the Khan’s possessions with the goal of carrying out a devastating raid and possibly capturing and plundering the capital of the Horde, Sarai.
Both troops stood on the river for almost a month without engaging in a decisive battle. In the end, on October 28, 1480, Ivan III began to withdraw his troops to Kremenets and then concentrated at Borovsk, so that here in a favorable environment they would meet the Tatars if they decided to cross the river, but Akhmat did not dare and on November 11 began returning to the Horde. After these events, the Ugra River received the name “Belt of the Virgin”.
If you like historical reconstructions, you can visit the festival of historical reconstruction and fencing: “Standing on the Ugra River.”
Here is a video from the festival:
The Ugra is a left tributary of the Oka, it flows through the territory of the Kaluga and Smolensk regions. In 1480, this river was destined to become famous thanks to a battle that never took place. They say that the reason for this was the indecisiveness of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich, who hid during the military campaign in Kolomna while the Russian army was led by his son, Ivan the Young.
Plans of Khan Akhmat
The stand on the Ugra River lasted from October 8 to November 11, 1480. Khan Akhmat led a huge army to force Rus' to again pay tribute to the Mongol-Tatars. The troops of the Grand Duchy of Moscow advanced to meet him. Both military forces stood opposite each other for more than a month, but things did not go beyond small skirmishes. Fearing defeat, almost simultaneously the two armies dispersed peacefully, without ever engaging in a decisive battle.
This outcome of the confrontation was to the advantage of Ivan III, since from that moment Rus' was freed from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. However, by that time the Golden Horde no longer existed. The once powerful state split into several separate countries. The Crimean and Kazan khanates declared their sovereignty, and the Nogais also ceased to obey the former rulers. In the lower reaches of the Volga and the foothills of the Caucasus, the so-called Great Horde still existed. Since 1471, this fragment of the formerly great state was single-handedly headed by Akhmat, the youngest son of Khan Kichi-Muhammad.
The new ruler planned to return the lost lands and former greatness, restoring the Golden Horde. In 1472, he undertook his first campaign against Rus', which ended in failure. The troops of the Moscow principality did not allow the invaders to cross the Oka, stopping the offensive. Khan Akhmat realized that he was not yet ready for a big battle. He decided to gather strength and then return to Russian soil.
Then all the attention of the ruler of the Great Horde switched to the Crimean Khanate, which he tried to subjugate. And only in the summer of 1480, Khan Akhmat moved towards Moscow, having secured a promise of military assistance from Casimir IV, who was simultaneously the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Another circumstance that contributed to the attack on Rus' was the civil strife that began between Ivan III and his brothers: Andrei Bolshoi and Boris Volotsky. The Tatars were going to take advantage of the fact that there was no unity among Russians.
Dynastic struggle
Most historians positively assess the results of the activities of Ivan III Vasilyevich (1440-1505), under whom the country freed itself from the Mongol-Tatar yoke, and Moscow established itself as the capital of the Russian lands. This ruler proclaimed himself the sovereign of all Rus'. However, his brothers did not like this rise of the prince.
The first wife of Ivan III, Princess Maria Borisovna of Tver, died in her youth, giving birth to the wife of a legal heir, who remained in history as Ivan the Young (he received this nickname because he was his father’s namesake). A few years after the death of his first wife, the Grand Duke of Moscow married Sophia Paleologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. The new Grand Duchess gave birth to her wife five sons, as well as four daughters.
Naturally, two parties formed in the ruling circles: one stood up for Ivan the Young, and the other for Vasily, who was the eldest son of the second wife of the Grand Duke. The chronicles of various Russian cities even mention three high-ranking supporters of Sophia Paleologus: the princely guards Grigory Mamon and Ivan Oshera, as well as the equerry Vasily Tuchko.
Shelter in Kolomna
Being a skilled diplomat and negotiator, skillfully selecting personnel, Ivan III was not distinguished by personal courage. During Khan Akhmat's first campaign against Rus' in 1472, the Grand Duke stayed in Kolomna with his personal guard. He not only did not honor the troops with his presence, but also left Moscow, because he believed that the Tatars would win and then ruin the rebellious capital. The prince valued his safety above all else.
So in June 1480, as soon as he heard about the campaign being prepared in the Great Horde, Ivan III - out of habit - decided to sit out the hostilities in Kolomna. Residents of Moscow hoped for their prince, who was supposed to lead the fight against the invaders. But he took only a wait-and-see attitude. The troops were led towards the Tatars by the ruler’s heir, Ivan the Young, who was helped by his uncle, the appanage prince Andrei Menshoi.
In September 1480, the troops of Khan Akhmat crossed the Oka River in the Kaluga region, the invaders decided to pass through the lands that were then under the control of the Lithuanian crown. The Tatars freely reached the banks of the Ugra, beyond which the possessions of the Moscow prince began. Having learned about this, Ivan III thought that it was unsafe to remain in Kolomna, and on September 30 he returned to Moscow under the official pretext of an urgent meeting with the boyars. The aforementioned supporters of Sophia Paleologus - Vasily Tuchko, Ivan Oshchera, Grigory Mamon and a number of other boyars - began to convince the ruler that victory over the Tatars was impossible. They believed that the best thing in this situation would be to flee to save their own lives. Ivan III listened to the advice of the boyars. He settled in Krasnoye Selets, located north of Moscow, and sent his wife with children and treasury even further - to Beloozero, where the appanage prince Mikhail Vereisky ruled. Muscovites were upset by this behavior of their ruler.
Ivan III also worried about his eldest son, ordering him to leave the area of possible hostilities in order to avoid death. But Ivan the Young disobeyed his father. He declared that he must be with his army and repel the enemy.
Meanwhile, the people began to demand decisive steps from the prince in order to protect Russian lands. It is known that around October 15-20, Ivan III received a message from Rostov Archbishop Vassian with a call to show courage and fortitude. As a result, the prince nevertheless left his refuge, but never reached the area of the proposed battle, remaining with his guards in the town of Kremenets (the village of Kremenskoye, Kaluga region).
They stood and went their separate ways
Khan Akhmat did not take any active action, as he was awaiting the approach of the Polish-Lithuanian army of Casimir IV. But he never fulfilled his promise, because he was busy repelling the troops of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray, who attacked Podolia in agreement with the Russians. In addition, the squads of the rebellious brothers of Ivan III - Boris Volotsky and Andrei Bolshoi - rushed to the aid of the army of the Moscow principality. Forgetting about personal differences in difficult times, the appanage princes united their troops for a common cause.
Knowing that the entire army of Khan Akhmat was standing on the Ugra, the cautious and prudent Ivan III sent a mobile sabotage group behind enemy lines. It included Zvenigorod troops under the command of governor Vasily Nozdrevaty, as well as a detachment of the Crimean prince Nur-Devlet, sent by his father to help the Russian allies. In such a situation, Khan Akhmat did not dare to fight. He led his army home, along the way plundering and destroying 12 cities that belonged to the Lithuanian crown: Mtsensk, Kozelsk, Serpeisk and others. This was revenge on Casimir IV for not keeping his word.
Thus, Ivan III gained the glory of the collector of Russian lands. But the fate of Ivan the Young turned out to be sad. The legal heir died in 1490 under unclear circumstances. There were rumors that he was poisoned by supporters of Sophia Paleologus. The dynastic struggle was won by her son Vasily Ivanovich.
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