|
Soviet Union [USSR] The Mongol Invasion
During its fragmentation, Kievan Rus' faced its greatest threat
from invading Mongols. An army from Kievan Rus', together with the
Turkic Polovtsians, met a Mongol raiding party in 1223 at the Kalka
River. The army of Kievan Rus' and its Polovtsian allies were
soundly defeated. A much larger Mongol force overran much of Kievan
Rus' in the winter of 1237-38. In 1240 the city of Kiev was sacked,
and the Mongols moved on to Poland and Hungary. Of the
principalities of Kievan Rus', only the Republic of Novgorod
escaped the invasion; it did, however, pay tribute to the Mongols.
One branch of the Mongols withdrew to Sarai on the lower Volga
River and established the
Golden Horde (see Glossary). From Sarai
the Golden Horde Mongols controlled Kievan Rus', ruling indirectly
through its princes and tax collectors.
The impact of the Mongol invasion was uneven. Some centers,
Kiev for example, never recovered from the devastation of the
initial attack. The Republic of Novgorod continued to prosper
unscathed, and a new entity, the city of Moscow, flourished under
the Mongols. Although a Russian army defeated the Golden Horde at
Kulikovo in 1380, Mongol domination of territories inhabited by
Russians, and demands for tribute from Russian princes, continued
until about 1480. In the early fourteenth century, however,
Lithuania pushed the Mongols from territories inhabited by
Ukrainians and Belorussians and claimed these lands. The
Lithuanians accepted the Ruthenian language (Ukrainian-Belorussian)
as the state language and maintained the judicial and
administrative practices of Kievan Rus'. The grand duke of
Lithuania became a contender for the political and cultural
heritage of Kievan Rus'. Ultimately, the traditions of Kievan Rus'
were superseded by Polish influences in Lithuania.
Historians have debated the long-term impact of Mongol rule on
Russian and Soviet society. The Mongols have been blamed for the
destruction of Kievan Rus'; the breakup of an old "Russian"
nationality into Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian components;
and the introduction of "oriental despotism" to Russia. But most
historians have agreed that Kievan Rus' was not a homogeneous
political, cultural, or ethnic entity and that the Mongols merely
accelerated its breakup, which had begun before the invasion.
Nevertheless, modern historians have tended to credit the Mongol
regime with a very important role in the development of Muscovy as
a state. Muscovy, for example, adopted its postal road network,
census, fiscal system, and military organization from the Mongols.
Kievan Rus' left a powerful legacy. Under the leadership of the
Rurikid Dynasty, a large territory inhabited by East Slavs was
united into an important, albeit unstable, state. After the
acceptance of Eastern Orthodoxy, Kievan Rus' was united by a church
structure and developed a Byzantine-Slavic synthesis in culture,
the arts, and traditions. In the western part of this area, these
traditions helped form the Ukrainian and Belorussian nationalities.
In the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus', these traditions were
adapted to form the Russian autocratic state.
Data as of May 1989
|
