The foreign policy development of Russia in the 13th century is brief. Russian princes of the late XIII - early XIV centuries

The history of Russia in the 13th century is marked mainly by the struggle against external invasions: the southwestern Russian lands were invaded by Batu Khan, and the North-Eastern was faced with danger coming from the Baltic.

By the beginning of the 13th century, it had a strong influence on the Baltic states, so the Polotsk land established close contacts with its inhabitants, which consisted mainly in collecting tribute from the local population. However, the Baltic lands also attracted German feudal lords, namely representatives of the German spiritual and knightly orders. The invasion of the German crusader knights (they were called so because they had an image of a cross on their clothes) into the southeastern Baltic began after the Vatican proclaimed a crusade to these lands.

In 1200, the crusaders, led by the monk Albert, captured the mouth of the Western Dvina, and a year later they founded the fortress of Riga, and Albert became the first archbishop of Riga. The Order of the Sword-bearers was also subordinate to him (there was an image of a sword and a cross on the cloaks of these knights), which in Russia was simply called the Order or the Livonian Order.

The population of the Baltics resisted the invaders, because. planting Catholicism with a sword, the crusaders exterminated the local residents. Russia, fearing the onset of the crusaders on their lands, helped the Baltic states, pursuing their own goals - to maintain influence on these lands. The local population supported the Russians, because. the tribute collected by the princes of Polotsk and Novgorod was preferable to the dominance of the German knights.

Meanwhile, Sweden and Denmark were active in the east of the Baltic. On the site of modern Tallinn, the Danes founded the Revel fortress, and the Swedes wanted to establish themselves on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, on the island of Saarema.

In 1240, a Swedish detachment under the command of one of the king's relatives appeared in the Gulf of Finland and, having passed along the Neva River, stood at the mouth of the Izhora River, where a temporary camp was set up. The appearance of the Swedes was unexpected for the Russians. At that time, the 19-year-old son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, great-grandson, Alexander, ruled. During 1239, he built fortifications on the Shelon River, south of Novgorod, fearing an attack from this side by the Lithuanian prince Mindovg.

However, having received news of the attack by the Swedes, Alexander decided to go on a campaign with one squad. The Russians unexpectedly attacked the Swedish camp on July 15, 1240.

The Swedes were defeated and fled, having lost the opportunity to establish themselves on the banks of the Neva and Lake Ladoga, and Alexander Yaroslavovich received the nickname "Nevsky", with which he entered.

Nevertheless, the threat from the Livonian knights remained. In 1240, the Order captured (which became possible due to the betrayal of the posadnik) Izborsk, the Novgorod fortified settlement of Koporye. In Novgorod, the situation was complicated by the fact that after the battle on the Neva, Alexander quarreled with the Novgorod boyars and went to Pereyaslavl to his father. But soon the Novgorod veche again invites him to the throne in connection with the strengthening of the German threat. The decision of the boyars turned out to be correct, Alexander recaptured Koporye from the Order in 1241, and then. On April 5, 1242, the famous battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipus, which, due to the events that took place, was called the Battle of the Ice. Mother Nature came to the aid of the Russians. The Livonian knights were clad in metal armor, while the Russian soldiers were protected by plank armor. As a result, the April ice simply collapsed under the weight of the Livonian horsemen clad in armor.

After the victory on Lake Peipus, the Order abandoned attempts to conquer Russian lands and plant the "true faith" in Russia. went down in history as a defender of Orthodoxy. The Mongols, unlike the German knights, were religiously tolerant and did not interfere in the religious life of the Russians. That is why the Orthodox Church perceived the Western danger so keenly.

In 1247 Prince Yaroslav, the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, dies. The throne was inherited by his brother Svyatoslav. However, the sons of Yaroslav - Alexander Nevsky and Andrei are not satisfied with the state of affairs and come to the Horde to receive a label for reigning. As a result, Alexander receives the great reign of Kiev and Novgorod, and Andrei - the principality. Svyatoslav tried to defend his rights, but achieved nothing and died in 1252.

In the same year, already Alexander, dissatisfied with such a division of power, came to the Horde to inform the khan that Andrei was withholding part of the tribute from him. As a result, the Mongol punitive troops moved to Russia, which invaded Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Galicia-Volyn land. Andrei fled to Sweden, and Alexander became the Grand Duke.

During his reign, Alexander sought to prevent anti-Mongolian uprisings. In 1264 the prince dies.

The great reign was in the hands of the younger brothers of the prince - Yaroslav of Tver, and then Vasily Kostroma. In 1277, Vasily dies, and the son of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Pereyaslavsky, receives the Vladimir principality. But after 4 years, his brother Andrei Gorodetsky receives a label from the Khan for reigning and drives Dmitry out of Vladimir. A fierce struggle for reign begins between the brothers.

In order to gain the upper hand over each other, the brothers turned to the help of the Mongols, as a result, during their reign (for 1277-1294), 14 cities were devastated (the Pereyaslav principality, the patrimony of Dmitry, was especially hard hit), many regions of North-Eastern Russia , near Novgorod.

In 1294 Dmitry Alexandrovich died. After 8 years, his son Ivan died childless. Pereyaslavl passed to the youngest of the sons of Alexander Nevsky - Daniil of Moscow.

Thus, the 13th century in the history of Russia is one of the bloodiest centuries. Russia had to fight simultaneously with all the enemies - with the Mongols, with the German knights, and besides, it was torn apart by internal strife of the heirs. For 1275-1300. the Mongols made fifteen campaigns against Russia, as a result, the Pereyaslavl and Gorodetsky principalities weakened, and the leading role was transferred to new centers - and.

Relations with Russia. The development of Russia and Poland took place in parallel. Already at a very early stage of their relationship, wars and conflicts happened much more often than alliances and cooperation. The reason for this was the civilizational choice made by their rulers with a difference of 20 years. In 966, Mieszko I adopted Christianity according to the Western model, and in 988, Prince Vladimir - according to the Eastern one. In medieval Europe, there was no concept of ethnic solidarity: the main criterion in determining "friend or foe" was religious affiliation. Different faith predetermined the hostility of the two kindred Slavic peoples. However, there were also more utilitarian reasons. Russia and Poland were in conflict over the Cherven lands (now Western Ukraine). After the victories of Vladimir in 981 and Yaroslav the Wise in 1030-1031, these territories were ceded to Kiev.

Poles also participated in Russian strife. In 1018, Boleslav I the Brave supported his son-in-law Svyatopolk the Accursed in the fight against Yaroslav the Wise and for some time even took possession of Kiev - however, the rebellious citizens soon expelled the Poles. In 1069, similar events took place: Izyaslav Yaroslavich, expelled by his brothers from Kyiv, fled to Poland to his nephew Boleslav II the Bold, who made a trip to Russia and restored his uncle to the throne. Occasionally, Russians and Poles entered into military alliances, as, for example, in 1076, when the Smolensk prince Vladimir Monomakh and the Volyn prince Oleg Svyatoslavich made an alliance with Boleslav II against the Czechs.

In 1237 (the beginning of the Batu invasion of the Russian principalities). The history of the two Slavic states continued to develop in parallel in the future. In 1138, after the death of Bolesław III Wrymouth, a specific period began in Poland, just as it had a few years earlier in Russia. In the XIII century, Poland entered as a conglomerate of warring principalities: Kuyavia, Mazovia, Sandomierz, Silesia and others. A characteristic feature of Polish feudalism was the tradition of veche meetings (the prototype of future Sejms), which were necessary to establish control over the appanage prince by the feudal lords. In the 1230s, the unifying trend was associated with the names of the Silesian princes - Henry the Bearded and Henry the Pious. However, the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars and the defeat of the Polish army in the battle of Legnica in 1241 led to a new round of strife and civil strife.

Livonian Order

Where did it come from. In the VIII-XIII centuries, the Germans waged an irreconcilable struggle with the Slavic tribes for the expansion of their lands to the east. To conquer the Slavic neighbors, and later the pagan Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes of Livonia (present-day Latvia and Estonia), knightly orders were created and crusades were carried out. In 1202, the Order of the Sword was created. The knights subjugated the Livonian tribes and founded a number of fortress cities to control these lands, including Revel (present-day Tallinn). The swordsmen also fought with the Novgorodians and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1236, in the battle of Siauliai, they suffered a crushing defeat from the Lithuanians - 48 knights and the master of the order were killed. In 1237, the Order of the Swordsmen joined the Teutonic Order, which moved from Palestine to Prussia, and became its Livonian branch.

Relations with Russia. The Livonian Order claimed not only the Baltic lands: the knights sought to spread their faith (and with it the power) further to the northeast - the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, Izhora land, Pskov, and eventually Novgorod. The Novgorod troops, in turn, inflicted a number of defeats on the Livonian knights. In 1242, Alexander Nevsky defeated the knights in the Battle of the Ice, and in 1253, his son Vasily, at the head of the Novgorod and Pskov troops, continued his father's work. Somewhat less well known is the Battle of Rakovor in 1268, during which, according to the chronicler, the Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir troops defeated the Livonians and Danes. It is worth noting that the confrontation was not widespread and permanent. In particular, in 1224, the Pskov boyars concluded an agreement with the Order of the Swordsmen, according to which they refused an alliance with Novgorod, promised not to interfere in Novgorod-German conflicts and recognized the order as allies in the event of an attack by the Novgorodians on Pskov.

In 1237. Pope Gregory IX and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Hermann von Salza performed the ceremony of joining the remnants of the Order of the Sword to the Teutonic Order. The emerging Livonian Order lasted until 1562, and in the 14th-16th centuries, in fact, turned into an independent state on the territory of the Baltic states.

Lithuanian principality

Where did it come from. The consolidation of the tribes of the Southern Baltic refers to
to the 11th-13th centuries. The Lithuanian tribe became the core of the new state, uniting around itself the tribes of Aukshtaits, Samogitians (in the Russian tradition - Zhmud) and partly Yotvingians and Semigallians. Mindovg (ruled in the middle of the 13th century) is considered the founder of the Principality of Lithuania. The emergence of the state was a response to the expansion of the Order of the Sword, the Teutonic Order, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian principalities into the Baltic states. Unlike its northern neighbors - the Livs, Latgalians and Estonians, who quickly fell under the rule of the Livonian knights, Lithuania managed for quite a long time not only to maintain its independence and pagan faith, but also to become a powerful force in Eastern Europe.

Relations with Russia. In the Tale of Bygone Years (XII century), Lithuania is mentioned among the peoples who paid tribute to Russia. Military campaigns in the Baltic States were made by Vladimir, who imposed tribute on the Yotvingians. With the beginning of strife in Russia, the tribes of the Southern Baltic, apparently, first paid tribute to the prince of Polotsk, but already in the 1130s, their dependence on Russia ceased. Moreover, taking advantage of the weakening of the Russian lands, Lithuania turned to active expansion. At the end of the 12th century, the Principality of Polotsk fell under its rule. Thus, from the very moment of its appearance, the Slavic component was present in the Lithuanian state. In the future, the inhabitants of Polotsk, Vitebsk and a number of other smaller principalities became the core of the formation of the Belarusian people, in whose ethnogenesis Lithuanian domination played a significant role. In the XII-XIII centuries, the Lithuanians made numerous trips to Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod and the Galicia-Volyn principality.

In 1237. The Mongol invasion and the subsequent decline of the Russian lands played into the hands of the ambitious plans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was at this time that Prince Mindovg succeeded in finally uniting the state and initiating Lithuanian expansion into Russian lands. In the XIV century, most of modern Belarus passed under the rule of Lithuania, and in 1362, after the victory of Prince Olgerd over the Tatars in the Battle of Blue Waters, most of modern Ukraine (including Volhynia, Kiev and Seversk lands). Now up to 90 percent of the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy were Slavs. The Tatar yoke was abolished in the conquered lands, and the pagan Lithuanians were tolerant of Orthodoxy. Thus, Lithuania became one of the possible centers for the unification of Russia. However, in the war with Moscow (1368-1372), the Lithuanian prince Olgerd was defeated and recognized the right of Dmitry Donskoy to a great reign. Already the new Lithuanian ruler, the son of Olgerd Jagiello, converted to Catholicism and began to oppress the interests of the Russian boyars and the Orthodox clergy. In 1385, under the terms of the Union of Krevo, having married Queen Jadwiga, Jagiello also became the Polish king, in fact uniting these two states under his rule. Over time, the Baltic tribes for the most part adopted Catholicism, and the predominantly Orthodox Slavic population of the country found itself in a difficult and unequal situation.

Volga Bulgaria

Where did it come from. During the Great Migration of Peoples (4th-6th centuries), along with the Huns, many other Turkic peoples, in particular the Bulgars, ended up in Europe. After the collapse of the Great Bulgaria (the state that briefly united the Bulgar tribes ceased to exist around 671), one of the hordes led by Khan Kotrag moved from the Black Sea steppes to the north and settled in the region of the Middle Volga and Kama. There, the Turks managed to take a leading position in the multi-ethnic state formations of the 8th-9th centuries, the most active of which were Bulgar and Bilyar. At the same time, another Bulgar horde under the command of Khan Asparuh subjugated the Slavs in the east of the Balkan Peninsula. As a result of the merger of these two ethnic components, the Bulgarian state appeared. The section of the Volga, which was controlled by the Bulgars, was part of the Volga trade route, which connected Northern Europe with the Arab Caliphate and other countries of the East. This ensured their well-being, but dependence on the Khazar Khaganate hindered the process of the formation of the Bulgarian statehood until the beginning of the 10th century. As an eyewitness, the traveler and writer of the early tenth century Ibn Fadlan testifies, the formation of an independent political tradition in Bulgaria was associated with the adoption of Islam around 922.

Relations with Russia. Prince Svyatoslav "helped" the Bulgars to free themselves from the power of the Khazar Khaganate, having defeated the Khazar capital Sarkel in 965. During the tenth century, Kievan Rus repeatedly organized campaigns against the Volga Bulgaria (in 977, 985, 994 and 997) - one of these campaigns (probably in 985) ended with the signing of a peace treaty in Kyiv. According to the Russian chronicles, in 986 the Bulgarian embassy came to the capital of Ancient Russia not only to strengthen friendly relations, but also with the offer of their religion - Islam. For the Volga Bulgaria, Russia was both the main trading partner and the main competitor in the Western markets; Islamization opened up leverage for manipulating the neighbor's economy. The refusal of Prince Vladimir was taken calmly by the Bulgars, since trade relations were a priority in relations between the Bulgars and Kiev. In 1006, the "partnership agreement" was renegotiated on new terms: Prince Vladimir gave the Bulgars the right to free trade in the cities along the Volga and Oka, Russian merchants received the same opportunities on the territory of Volga Bulgaria.

The aggravation of the Bulgaro-Russian conflict fell on the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky and Andrei Bogolyubsky. The final point in the frontier confrontation was put by Vsevolod the Big Nest: in 1183 he destroyed the new Bulgarian capital, the city of Bilyar. This campaign showed the clear superiority of Russia, which continued the colonization of the Volga-Oka basin. The rivalry of the princes of North-Eastern Russia and Volga Bulgaria for the Mordovian lands continued later. The last armed conflict dates back to 1228-1232.

Even the presence of a common formidable enemy did not lead to the reconciliation of recent trade partners, and now foreign policy rivals.

In 1237. The troops of Batu Khan swept away the Volga Bulgaria - by 1240 it was finally conquered and became part of the Golden Horde. By the 15th century, the Bulgars had actually restored their state, which was called the Kazan Khanate.

Polovtsy

Where did you come from. Polovtsy - that's what their Russian contemporaries called them
in the 11th-13th centuries, in Europe and Byzantium they were known as Cumans, and in Persia and Arab countries as Kipchaks. It was a people of Turkic origin, originally occupying territories from the South-Eastern Urals to the Irtysh River. Since the Polovtsians were an unliterate people, science draws information about their early history mainly from the works of Arab travelers. From the beginning of the XI century, they moved to the West, participating in the next "migration" of the Turks to the fat western pastures, and pushed the Pechenegs and Torks Torquay- one of the Turkic tribes that roamed the Black Sea steppes
in the X-XIII centuries., with which the Russian princes had already managed to establish relatively peaceful neighborly relations by this time.

Relations with Russia. The first major clash occurred in 1068 on the Alta River, during which the united army of the sons of Yaroslav the Wise was defeated. After that, the raids of the Polovtsy acquired a regular character. The Russian princes were forced to adapt to such a neighborhood, and some were especially "successful" in this. In particular, Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, in an attempt to return the Chernigov throne that belonged to him by right, hired the Polovtsy to fight against uncles Vsevolod and Izyaslav - in the end, Oleg got his way and allowed the Polovtsy to plunder the city. The confrontation peaked in the 1090s and was associated with the name of Oleg's cousin Vladimir Monomakh. In 1094, the Polovtsy inflicted the first and last defeat on Vladimir Monomakh, forcing the prince to leave Chernigov to Oleg Svyatoslavich, but already in 1096 Monomakh struck back, defeating the Polovtsian army near the walls of Pereyaslavl. During the battle, Khan Tugorkan died, whose image, the worst enemy of Russia, was reflected in folklore: he is believed to be mentioned in epics under the name of Tugarin the Serpent, or Tugarin Zmeevich. As a result of numerous campaigns, Monomakh drove the Polovtsy deep into the steppe beyond the Don and Volga, and also destroyed twice (in 1111 and 1116) the main city of the nomads, Sharukan. After the death of Vladimir Monomakh in 1125, the Polovtsy again became active participants in the internecine struggle of the Russian princes: as a rule, they supported the Suzdal and Novgorod-Seversky princes in military campaigns. In 1169, the Polovtsy in the ranks of the troops of Andrei Bogolyubsky participated in the sacking of Kyiv.

Russian princes, for their part, also participated in the Polovtsian strife. Thus, in 1185, Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, the protagonist of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, set out on a campaign in the steppe against the horde of Khan Gzak (Gza), supporting the claims of his matchmaker, Khan Konchak. The last joint military venture of the Russian princes and the Polovtsian khans against the Mongol army of Jebe and Subedei ended in failure on the Kalka River on May 31, 1223.

In 1237. The Polovtsy were defeated by the troops of Batu in 1236-1243. Many Polovtsy were driven into slavery, most of them disappeared into the Turkic population of the Golden Horde, subsequently contributing to the formation of such ethnic groups as Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Balkars, Karachays, Crimean Tatars. The other part, headed by Khan Kotyan, was first accepted on favorable terms by the Hungarian king White IV, and after the death of their leader in 1241, they migrated to Bulgaria.

Mongols

Where did you come from. The Mongolian state arose at the beginning of the 13th century in the steppes of southern Siberia, south of Lake Baikal, on the border with China. The Mongol tribes were united by Temujin, named in 1206 at the kurultai (a meeting of the Mongol nobility) by Genghis Khan - the great khan. He created an army of many thousands, based on severe discipline, and gave the Mongols laws - Yasu. During his first campaigns, Genghis Khan subjugated the surrounding tribes of the Great Steppe, including the Tatars, who were almost completely destroyed. This ethnonym was preserved primarily thanks to the Chinese, who called all nomadic tribes to the northwest Tatars, as the Romans once called barbarians all those who lived outside the empire.

During his campaigns, Genghis Khan conquered the Qin Empire (North-Western China), the Central Asian Kara-Kitai kingdom, and the state of Khorezm in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya. In 1220-1224, several detachments of the Mongols, led by the commanders Dzhebe and Subedei, pursuing the Shah of Khorezm Muhammad, invaded Transcaucasia, defeated the Alans tribes and inflicted several defeats on the Polovtsians.

Relations with Russia. In 1223, the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan asked for help from his son-in-law, the Galician prince Mstislav Udaly. At the congress of princes in Kyiv, it was decided to provide assistance to the Polovtsy: this was required by allied and family ties, besides, the Mongols directly threatened the Black Sea interests of the Russian lands. Regiments led by Mstislav of Kiev, Mstislav of Chernigov, Mstislav Udaly and Daniil Romanovich Galitsky set out for the steppe. However, the congress did not elect a chief military leader. The Russian-Polovtsian army was divided, each prince fought on his own, and Mstislav of Kyiv did not enter the battlefield at all, hiding with his army in the camp. The battle on the Kalka River, which took place on May 31, 1223, ended in complete defeat for the Russian-Polovtsian coalition. Six princes were killed, and from the ordinary soldiers, according to the chronicler, only one in ten returned. However, the defeat did not force the Russian principalities, carried away by internecine strife, to take any measures in case of a repetition of the invasion.

In 1237 a huge Mongol army stood on the borders of the Russian lands, waiting for the order of their new overlord, Khan Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, to attack Ryazan and Vladimir. The Volga Bulgaria had just been erased from the political map of the world, the Mordovian and Burtas lands were devastated. In the winter of 1237-1238, the Mongol hordes moved to Russia. The princes did not even attempt to convene a congress to gather an all-Russian army. In a short time, Ryazan and Vladimir, Tver and Torzhok, Kyiv and Chernigov, Galich and Vladimir-Volynsky were subjected to defeat and plunder.

In 1243, the Russian princes were summoned to the Horde, where they recognized vassal dependence on the Mongol state, which until 1266 was part of the Mongol Empire, and later separated. The “yoke” consisted in the payment of tribute, the need to receive special permits from the khans - labels confirming the rights of the princes to manage their lands, and occasionally in the participation of Russian troops in the Mongol campaigns.

The invasion of Batu and long-term tributary relations with the horde weakened Russia, undermined its economic potential, made contacts with Western countries difficult and indirectly led to the fact that a significant part of the southwestern and northwestern principalities was captured by Poland, Lithuania and Hungary. At the same time, a number of historians point to the important role of the "yoke" in the development of Russian statehood, overcoming fragmentation and uniting the lands around Moscow.

Byzantine Empire

Where did it come from. Byzantium, a colony of the Greek city of Megara, was founded in the 7th century BC on the shores of the Golden Horn Bay at the confluence of the Bosphorus Strait with the Sea of ​​Marmara. The city was located at the crossroads of trade routes: in particular, through the city, to which Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD, the shortest land route connecting Europe and the Middle East, via militaris, passed. Roman emperors traveled along this road to the eastern provinces of the country, along it in the Middle Ages the crusaders went to conquer Jerusalem, the Great Silk Road and the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” passed through Byzantium. In 395, after the division of the Roman Empire, Constantinople became the capital of its eastern part. Feeling like the civilizational successors of Rome, the Byzantines called themselves Romans, and their country - the Roman (Roman) Empire. In neighboring countries they were called Greeks, and their country was called the Greek kingdom: the Romans spoke Greek and belonged to Greek culture. Byzantium reached its heyday in the middle of the 6th century under the emperor Justinian. Then the empire included Egypt and North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Mediterranean islands, the Apennine Peninsula and the southern part of the Pyrenees. Later wars with the Persians, Lombards, Avars and Slavs weakened Byzantium. Large territories were conquered from the Romans by the Arabs in the 7th century. Since that time, for the Byzantines, the lands located to the north of the Black Sea coast acquired great importance.

Relations with Russia. Tsargrad (this is how Constantinople was called in the Russian chronicles) was, perhaps, the most important of the neighbors of the Russian lands at an early stage of state development. The famous path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” led there, around which the ancient Russian proto-state arose at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. They traded with Byzantium, fought, concluded peace treaties and dynastic marriages. During the period of the formation of the ancient Russian state, it is clearly seen that the main direction of expansion was the south. Its reason was the desire to establish control over trade routes, and the main goal of the raids was Tsargrad. Byzantine sources record raids in the 830s and 860 (in the Russian chronicle tradition, this campaign is associated with the Kiev princes Askold and Dir). They were continued by the first Russian princes, who at the end of the 9th century managed to unite Novgorod and Kyiv under their rule and establish control over the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”. Some historians deny the fact of Prince Oleg's campaigns against Constantinople, since they were not reflected in Byzantine sources, but it is definitely impossible to dispute the signing of Russian-Byzantine treaties: in 907 - on the right to duty-free trade in Constantinople and 911 - on peace, friendship and free hiring Russian squads for the Byzantine service. Prince Igor achieved less success in relations with the Romans, violating his allied obligations, he undertook two not very successful campaigns against Constantinople - as a result, in 944 a new Russian-Byzantine treaty was concluded on less favorable terms.

Skillful Greek diplomacy more than once used the Russian princes for their own purposes: in the late 960s, Prince Svyatoslav intervened on the side of the Romans in the Bulgarian-Byzantine conflict, and in 988, Prince Vladimir assisted the co-emperors Vasily II and Constantine VII in suppressing the rebellion of the commander Focky Wards. These events are associated with the most important civilizational choice made by Prince Vladimir - Orthodoxy. Thus, another important aspect appeared in Russian-Byzantine relations - strong and long-term cultural and religious ties were established. The Kyiv Metropolitan was appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, often he was a Greek. Byzantine church art for a long time became a model for Russian masters: Russian frescoes and icons imitated Byzantine ones (and many were even created by Tsargrad icon painters), and churches of Hagia Sophia were erected in Kyiv and Novgorod - reflections of the Constantinople shrine.

The XII century was the time of the weakening of Byzantium. She survived heavy defeats from the Seljuk Turks and Pechenegs, in the Mediterranean the Greeks were pressed by the Italian trading republics - Venice and Genoa, the Normans conquered Southern Italy, and the crusader allies - Byzantine Syria. Under such conditions, ties with Russia acquired decisive importance for Constantinople. Thus, in the "Word on the Destruction of the Russian Land" Vladimir Monomakh is portrayed as a strong ally, before whom Byzantium fawned. After the beginning of the specific period in Russia, the relations of the Greeks with different lands developed differently. So, for example, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality for a long time remained an ally of Byzantium,
and Galicia-Volyn, on the contrary, often conflicted with it.

In 1237. The result of a long crisis in Byzantium was the fall of Constantinople, in 1204 captured and plundered by the Venetians during the Fourth Crusade. For 60 years, the empire disappeared from the political map of the world. Only in 1261 it was restored by the Nicene emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. The last 200 years of its history were spent in the fight against the Serbs in the Balkans and the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor. In 1453, Constantinople was taken by storm by the Turks, after which the empire finally ceased to exist.

The most complete reference table main dates and events in the history of Russia from the 13th to the 14th century. This table is convenient to use for schoolchildren and applicants for self-study, in preparation for tests, exams and the exam in history.

In the 13th century, Kievan Rus ceased to exist as a single state. The fate of the western and eastern Russian lands turned out to be different.

In the middle of the 13th century, most of the Russian principalities were conquered by the Mongol troops who came from the east. Russian princes began to pay tribute to the khan of the new Mongolian state of the Golden Horde. The Khan of the Horde decided which of the Russian princes would become the Grand Duke. This permission was called the “label for reigning”.

Mongol domination in Russia lasted more than 200 years. One of the results of this domination was the creation by the Russian princes in the 15th century of a new state with its capital in Moscow.

From the west, Novgorod and Pskov lands were attacked by Swedish, German and Lithuanian troops in the 13th century. These capture attempts were repulsed. As a result, the population of the northern and eastern Russian lands remained Orthodox and fell under the influence of the khans of the Golden Horde, and did not come under the influence of the Catholic Church and European kings.

The southern and western Russian lands after the collapse of Kievan Rus came under the influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then the Commonwealth. In these lands, the influence of the Catholic Church grew.

Subsequently, the struggle for the western lands of the former Kievan Rus between the Russian state and European states took place with varying success. Today, part of these lands is part of Russia, part is part of Belarus and Ukraine.

This period became one of the blackest in the history of the principalities of Kievan Rus. At the beginning of the new century in Russia, a constant struggle continued between multiple principalities. Constant wars led to the ruin and decline of cities, to a reduction in population and to the weakening of all of Russia as a whole. Even in the face of the general threat that the Golden Horde became, the Russian principalities did not unite into a single state, and therefore could not give a worthy rebuff.

The Polovtsy, who had previously been at war with the Russian princes, were the first to be attacked by a cruel enemy. They could not stand against them alone, so they turned to the rulers of the eastern Russian principalities. However, their combined forces were not enough to repel the great threat. The united army did not have a unified command, the princes acted according to their own reasoning and most of all cared for their own benefit. In 1223, the battle on the Kalka River (modern Donetsk region of Ukraine) was lost. Then the Mongols reached only the edges of the Russian lands.

In 1237, Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, entered the Ryazan principality with his army, starting the conquest of Russia. Yuri Vsevolodovich tried to stop his opponents, but the princes from the southern Russian principalities and the Novgorod army did not come to his aid, so in 1238 he was defeated. Subsequently, Batu captured and imposed tribute on almost all the eastern, southern and central territories of the former Kievan Rus. The most powerful Russian principality at that time was Novgorod Russia, but it had its own problems. The Swedes and the Teutonic knights opposed him and the allied Lithuanian principality. The terrible enemy was defeated thanks to the skillful actions of Prince Alexander, the son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the ruler of Vladimir. The Novgorodians turned to him for help, and by joint efforts they first defeated the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva, after which Alexander received his famous nickname. After 2 years, there was a battle that went down in history as the Battle of the Ice, during which the Teutonic knights suffered a crushing defeat in battle with Alexander's army.

In the same period, the Galician principality began to weaken, which had previously successfully repulsed the Tatars' raids on their lands. Despite some successes, in general, Russia in the 13th century, briefly described in this section, fell into decline. Most of it was under the rule of foreign invaders, who slowed down its development for several centuries. Only a few centuries later, the Moscow principality managed to defeat other Russian principalities in the struggle, get rich with fire, sword and deceit and capture almost the entire territory of the former Kievan Rus, and throw off the yoke of the Golden Horde.