Battle of the Vorskla River
The world of such a war did not know!
So bravely did not fight
Iskander, that Rum owned,
So bravely did not fight
Rustam himself - so what was he brave!
Husband of Genghis, whose father Uzekei,
They say it was:
Flame carved out of stones
Water carved out of the sands
He cut out the blood from their husbands.
He cut the spirit out of enemies,
But when Idegei struck,
All together he was stronger! .. "
Tatar folk epic "Idegey"
Song of the Eleventh
Coat of arms of the Golden Horde
After the campaign Aksak-Timur in 1395-1396. on the Lower Volga region, the North Caucasus and the Crimea, it seemed that the Golden Horde, once powerful and great, was slowly dying. The cities of the Volga region lay in ruins. The adjusted life of the Tatar empire was disrupted. Hunger began, the plague broke out again. The united state has practically ceased to exist. Khan Toktamysh and his people roamed in the steppes of the Dnieper and the Crimea. He fled from Aksak-Timur, and then hid from his rivals in the hope of retaining at least some of his possessions. There was a distemper. There was a fierce struggle for power. Who was stronger, he became the ruler. It seemed that the great state that had once shaken Western Europe and Asia would never rise from the ruins and be reborn. And oh, how the neighbors hoped! But these hopes did not come true. At the last moment, when the country was already hanging over the precipice, there were forces that stopped the death of the Golden Horde on the very edge.
Tatar Karachibek Idegei became the head of the Beks and Emirs of Kok-Orda. In a short time, he stopped the strife and brought Khan Timur-Kutlug to power. All the Volga region, the North Caucasus and Bulgaria were subordinated to one ruler. In 1398, he broke into the Crimea and defeated Tokhtamysh, who was forced to flee to the Dnieper. A year before the astonished gaze of neighboring states, the Great Ulus rose from the ashes like a phoenix bird and began to gain strength.
In the spring of 1399 of the year, Khan Tokhtamysh clearly saw the strengthening of the positions of his enemies, headed by Idegei, and there was no more terrible power in Dasht-Kipchak than the power of a revived empire. Tokhtamysh urgently travels to Vilna to negotiate with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt and proposes to divide Russia in exchange for help in the fight against Idegei. The proposal of Tokhtamysh turned out to be very opportune, since Vitovt had long been carrying out a plan to capture part of Russia. In exchange for assistance in the war with Idegei, Tokhtamysh promises to recognize the rights of the Grand Duke of Lithuania to the Moscow principality, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and Ryazan. He himself demands that Sarai, Kazan, Khadzhi-Tarkhan, Azak, the Trans-Volga steppes, the Nogai Horde, Kok-Orda be left behind him and return the throne of the Khan of the Golden Horde. Favorably agreeing to these conditions, Vitovt confidently stated: “And I'll take the Germans myself!”
Though the negotiations were secret, but their essence became known in remote countries and capitals of Europe and Asia, and everyone was anxiously awaiting news from Vilna. Owing to Vitovt's ingenious intrigues in Eastern Europe, a new balance of forces could have emerged. If Vitovt manages to put his protege in Ulus Juchi, then he and the Order will be able to crush Moscow, the last obstacle to the unification of the Russian principalities around Lithuania. The Golden Horde will sink into oblivion, and Lithuania will become the most influential and powerful state, and Vitovt - the master of the fate of Europe. Only Moscow and the Horde could resist this.
Idegei could not remain indifferent to the clouds, thickening over his country. The collection of troops was announced. Having no desire to fight with Lithuania, Idegei turned to Vitovt with a message, wanting to remind who actually rules in the Golden Horde and who owns the Russian lands: "Give me the fugitive Toktamysh, he is my enemy, I can not stay alone, knowing that he is alive and lives with you - these were his words." For a long time there was no answer. But here the dusty and exhausted messenger arrived at headquarters. He was immediately taken to Idegey’s tent, where he conveyed Vitovt’s answer: “I will not extradite the king Tokhtamysh, but I want to see the king Timur-Kutlug myself!” With such a rude answer, he wanted to show the great Karachibek Idegei that he should not interfere in the affairs of the born masters.
The forward units of both troops met on the Vorskla River. While the main forces were pulling in, Timur-Kutlug decided to hold talks. The ambassador, sent to Vitovt, referred the Khan's question: “Why did you come to me? I have not taken your land, neither your cities nor your villages. ” To which the Lithuanian prince replied: “God conquered all the land for me, submit to me and you, be my son, and I will be your father, and give me every year tribute and dues, but if you do not want to be a son, you will be a slave, and all your horde will be given to the sword! ". Hearing such a response, Khan’s advisors began to dissuade him from the battle and Timur-Kutlug faltered.
At this time, Idedei finally arrived in the Horde camp with his army. As soon as he heard about what had happened, he went into a frenzy and rushed into the tent, where the frightened khan and his emirs consulted. Right at all, Idegey began to sharply accuse Khan of faint-heartedness: "It is better for us to accept death than to be subordinate!" Idegey sent the emirs into his tumens and, removing the khan, took command in his own hands. It was decided to continue negotiations with Vitovt “one-on-one”.
Author M.V. Gorelik, 2012
The leaders met at a shallow river. The prince, full of strength, heroic addition and aging, low Tatar karachibek saw each other and had the opportunity to speak without strangers. Anticipating a major victory, Vitovt did not make any concessions, and each delay only convinced him of the weakness of the Horde. Idegey, however, went to Vorskla not to divide the Golden Horde with Tokhtamysh and Vitovt, but to assert its great power. He, who had been striving for power all his life, could not retreat alive and proudly answered the Lithuanian prince: “You rightly took our Khan as a sons, because you are older than him. But think for yourself: as I am older than you, so you are younger than me, and it befits me to be a father to you, and you to be my son; and tribute and tribute every summer I pay with all your reign; and in all your reign chased my stamp on your money! ” Vitovt choked with anger, hearing such an insult. Silently, he jumped on his horse and rushed to his troops to immediately prepare for battle.
12 August 1399 of the year came in history as the date of the most terrible and bloody battle of the Middle Ages.
Idegey built his army in six large corps, which were divided into three regiments (kula) numbering up to two or three thousand horsemen. Each wing carried the banner of his emir. Standards of emirs of the right and left wing of the Horde stood out on the flanks, and in the center the banner of the famous ancestor of the Tatars was hoisted.
Here we briefly stop to talk about this banner. At one time, the South-Chinese Ambassador Meng-hung, in his “Notes on Mongol-Tatars”, discovered and translated by Russian academician V.P. Vasilyev, left the following description of the banner of the First All-Tatar Tsar, elected by his people: “As a sign of Genghis’s presence, they spread a large banner, all white: besides this there are no other banners and banners ... Chingiz uses only one white banner on 9 tails: in the middle of it there is a black moon: it dissolves when they go camping. They say that besides him, only some of the commanders-in-chief have one banner each. ”
So, at the sight of this banner, over the slender ranks of the Horde army, the battle cry “Uranus!” Resounded. The reserve regiment under the command of Idegey himself was sheltered in a ravine, behind a large regiment. A light cavalry was advanced, usually armed with bows. Against the army of Idegey, the banners of the Russian-Lithuanian-Tatar army were lined up. Before the formation of the Allied rati, light bombers, arquebuses and a crossbowmen system were installed. The troops froze, getting ready for battle, and the generals toured the battle formations of their units, turning to their people. But then the trumpet trumpets chimed, drummed drums, cymbals struck, and the lava of the Tatar cavalry rushed forward. A cloud of arrows crumbled the front line of the allied forces, a little more - and the cavalry was supposed to crush the front line of the enemy. But they were met at close range by volley of cannons and crossbows. The Tatar cavalry, losing the dead and wounded, turned to the right on the move, sweeping along a curving arc along the enemy. Tohtamysh's horsemen jumped out of the ranks after them. Then, rocking the flags, slowly and menacingly, the main forces of the Russian-Lithuanian-Tatar army moved in, forming a wedge. Towards them, dropping their spears, trotted horde kula rushed, also lining up with a smashing wedge. Two armies, thousands of people screaming at each other!
At the moment of the collision, there was a terrible roar from the cod of broken spears, broken armor, wheezing of horses and death screams of the wounded. One by one the shelves disappeared in this bustling, deadly stream, and only by cutting banners could one determine which side was gaining the upper hand. As a mighty wave beat on the granite coast, so the two armies came together, but none could defeat the other force.
The battle went on for several hours, on the flanks of the horse-drawn Russian-Lithuanian banners began to crowd the Horde. The whole sky was clouded with dust and ears laid from a terrible hum. From the ranks of the fighting every now and then escaped mad horses, carrying the dead and wounded away. The army of the Horde people trembled, the enemy began to press them. Vitovt, in order to consolidate success, throws into battle his last reserves - Polish, German and Lithuanian knights. The large regiment of the Golden Horde arched like a bow, whose string was about to burst. However, what seemed to be the beginning of the retreat of the Horde was actually a skillful maneuver of Idegey. And when all the forces of Vitovt were drawn into this "meat grinder", fresh tumens and personal guard Murza Idegei brought their power to the flanks of the Russian-Lithuanian army, crushing everything in their path and going to the rear of the allied army. Confusion arose in its ranks, and Vitovt's troops began to retreat, and after the heavily armed cavalry of the Tatars struck, the ranks of the retreating were swept away and indiscriminate flight began. Now, no one thought about resistance. The remnants of the allied army, trying to save their lives, threw carts, weaponwounded. One of the first to escape was Prince Vitovt and Khan Toktamysh. It was a complete rout.
Almost the entire Russian-Lithuanian army was killed in battle or during flight. The Russian chronicle tells with bitterness that seventy-four princes died, “and other commanders and great boyars, Christians, and Lithuania, and Russia, and Lyakhs, and many Germans killed - who can count?” In this bloody battle, the whole color of Russian died - Lithuanian princes who helped Vitovt to create the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russian, and earlier fought under the banner of Dmitry Donskoy.
Vitovt hastened to conclude a peace treaty with Idegei, which prescribed the expulsion of Tokhtamysh from Lithuania, the payment by Kiev, Lutsk, and also the whole of southern Russia of a huge indemnity. After this defeat, the Lithuanian prince could no longer claim to be the unifier of Russia under the wing of Lithuania and pursue an active policy. Once again, the Tatar shield saved the Russian principalities from the Lithuanian-Polish sword.
Now that Idegei reached the pinnacle of power, he tried to revive the great empire, the Golden Horde. As a talented military leader and politician, the Ulug Karachibek Idegei achieved success both in domestic and foreign policy, among which was the defeat of the descendants of Aksak-Timur in 1405.
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