In 1570, the military party gained the upper hand in Crimea. Russia was devastated by famine and plague. The Tsarist army suffered defeats at Revel and Moscow. The Russian capital seemed an easy prey to the Tatars. Its old fortifications were destroyed by fire, and new ones, hastily erected, could not completely replace them. Military failures shook Russian rule in the Volga and Caspian regions. The Nogai horde finally broke vassal relations with Moscow and joined the anti-Russian coalition. The conquered peoples of the Volga region began to move and tried to overthrow the power of the tsar.
Many Adyghe princes from the North Caucasus became allies of Crimea. Behind the Crimeans stood the largest military power in Europe - the Ottoman Empire. In such a situation, the khan hoped to tear the Middle and Lower Volga regions away from Russia, burn and plunder Moscow. The Sultan sent a special mission to Crimea to participate in the campaign against Rus'.
In anticipation of a new invasion, by May 1572, the Russians had gathered about 12,000 nobles, 2,035 archers and 3,800 Cossacks on the southern border. Together with the militias of the northern cities, the army numbered a little more than 20,000, and with the fighting serfs - more than 30,000 warriors. The Tatars had a numerical superiority. Between 40,000 and 50,000 horsemen from the Crimean, Greater and Lesser Nogai hordes took part in the invasion.
Khan had Turkish artillery at his disposal.
The Russian command positioned the main forces near Kolomna, reliably covering the approaches to Moscow from Ryazan. But it also took into account the possibility of a second invasion of the Tatars from the southwest, from the Ugra region. In this case, the command moved the governor, Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin, with an advanced regiment to the extreme right flank in Kaluga. Contrary to tradition, the advanced regiment was superior in numbers to the regiments of the right and left hands. Khvorostinin was assigned a mobile river detachment to defend the crossings across the Oka.
The Tatars invaded Rus' on July 23, 1572. Their mobile cavalry rushed to Tula and on the third day tried to cross the Oka River above Serpukhov, but was repulsed from the crossing by a Russian guard regiment. Meanwhile, the khan with the entire horde reached the main Serpukhov crossings across the Oka. Russian commanders were waiting for the enemy beyond the Oka River in well-fortified positions.
Having encountered strong Russian defenses, the khan resumed his attack in the area of Senkina Ford above Serpukhov. On the night of July 28, the Nogai cavalry dispersed two hundred nobles guarding the ford and captured the crossings. Developing the offensive, the Nogais went far to the north overnight. In the morning, Khvorostinin and the advanced regiment arrived at the Tatar crossing point. But, faced with the main forces of the Tatars, he avoided battle. Soon the right-hand regiment tried to intercept the Tatars in the upper reaches of the Nara River, but were driven away. Khan Devlet-Girey went to the rear of the Russian army and began to move unhindered towards Moscow along the Serpukhov road. The Tatar rearguards were commanded by the sons of the khan with numerous selected cavalry.
The advanced regiment followed the princes, waiting for a favorable moment. When such a moment came, governor Khvorostinin attacked the Tatars. The battle took place near the village of Molodi, 45 versts from Moscow. The Tatars could not withstand the blow and fled.
Khvorostinin drove the Tatar guard regiment to the Khan's headquarters. To improve the situation, Devlet-Girey was forced to send 12,000 Crimean and Nogai horsemen to help his sons. The battle grew, and the chief governor, Vorotynsky, in anticipation of the Tatars, ordered the installation of a mobile fortress - a “walk-city” near Molodya. The warriors took refuge behind the walls of the fortress, preparing for battle.
The threefold superiority of enemy forces forced Khvorostinin to retreat. But at the same time he pulled off a brilliant maneuver. His regiment, retreating, carried the Tatars to the walls of the “walk-city”. Volleys of Russian cannons fired at point-blank range brought devastation to the ranks of the Tatar cavalry and forced them to turn back.
The defeat at Molodi forced Devlet-Girey to suspend his attack on Moscow.
During the day, the Tatars stood behind Pakhra, waiting for the Russians to approach. But they did not resume attacks. Then the Tatars turned back from Pakhra to Molodi. The governors achieved undeniable success, forcing the khan to move away from Moscow and take the battle at the position they had chosen.
The center of the Russian defensive positions was a hill, on the top of which stood the “walk-city”, surrounded by hastily dug ditches. A large regiment took refuge behind the city walls. The remaining regiments covered his rear and flanks, remaining outside the fortifications. At the foot of the hill, beyond the Rozhai River, 3,000 archers stood to support the governor “on the arquebuses.”
The Tatars quickly covered the distance from Pakhra to Rozhai and attacked the Russian positions in their entire mass. Every single one of the archers died on the battlefield, but the warriors entrenched in the “walk-city” repelled the cavalry attacks with strong cannon and rifle fire.
Concerned about the failure, the main Tatar governor, Divey-Murza, went out on reconnaissance and approached the Russian positions. Here he was captured by the “frisky” boyar children.
The bloody battle continued until the evening of July 30. The Tatar losses were extremely high. The leader of the Nogai cavalry, Tereberdey-Murza, and three noble Crimean Murzas were killed. Having failed to achieve success, the khan stopped his attacks and within two days brought his disorganized army into order.
The Russians won the battle, but success threatened to turn into failure. When the thinned-out regiments took refuge in the “Walk-Gorod,” their food supplies quickly dried up, and in the army “there was great hunger for people and horses.”
After a two-day lull, Devlet-Girey resumed the assault on the “walk-city” on August 2, sending all his horse and foot regiments to it. The attack was led by the Khan’s sons, who received orders to “knock out” Divey-Murza from the Russians at all costs. Despite the losses, the Tatars persistently tried to overthrow the unstable walls of the “walk-city”, “they were taken from the city by the wall with their hands, and then many Tatars were beaten and their hands were cut off countless times.” Towards the end of the day, when the onslaught of the Tatars began to weaken, the Russians undertook a bold maneuver, which decided the outcome of the battle. Voivode Mikhail Vorotynsky with his regiments left the “walk-city” and, moving along the bottom of the ravine behind the fortifications, secretly went to the rear of the Tatars.
The defense of the “walk-city” was entrusted to Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin, who received all the artillery and a small detachment of German mercenaries.
At the agreed signal, Khvorostinin fired a salvo from all guns, then “climbed out” of the fortress and attacked the enemy. At the same moment, Vorotynsky’s regiments fell on the Tatars from the rear. The Tatars could not withstand the sudden blow and began to flee.
Many of them were killed and captured. Among those killed were the son of Khan Devlet-Girey and his grandson. Many noble Crimean and Nogai Murzas fell into the hands of the governors.
The day after the victory, the Russians continued to pursue the enemy and defeated the rearguards left by the khan on the Oka and numbering up to 5,000 horsemen. According to long-established tradition, the glory of the victory over the Tatars is entirely attributed to the chief governor, Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky. Kurbsky praised him, but in restrained terms: “The man is strong and courageous, very skilled in regimental arrangements.” The prince distinguished himself under the walls of Kazan, but he did not have any major independent victories. The appointment of Vorotynsky as commander-in-chief was connected primarily with local laws - the nobility of the governor. The real hero of the Battle of Molodi, it seems, was the young oprichnina governor, Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin, who formally held the post of second governor of the advanced regiment. His exceptional services in the wars with the Tatars were pointed out by an informed contemporary, Giles Fletcher. Two years before the Battle of Molodi, Khvorostinin inflicted a strong defeat on the Crimeans near Ryazan. But his military talent was fully revealed during the war with the Tatars in 1572. It was Khvorostinin who defeated the Tatar rearguards on July 28, and then took command of the “walk-city” during the decisive battle on August 2.
The Battle of Molodi in 1572 is one of the most significant events in the military history of the 16th century. Having defeated the Tatar horde in an open field, Rus' dealt a crushing blow to the military power of Crimea. The death of the selected Turkish army near Astrakhan in 1569 and the defeat of the Crimean Horde near Moscow in 1572 put a limit to Turkish-Tatar expansion in Eastern Europe.
The victory of the united zemstvo-oprichnina army over the Tatars was brilliant.
When creating this post, photos of the military-historical reconstruction were used. Festival “Battle of Molodinsk”
The Battle of Molodi (or Battle of Molodi) was a major battle that took place between July 29 and August 2, 1572 near the village of Molodi near Serpukhov (near Moscow). The battle brought together the Russian army under the command of princes Mikhail Vorotynsky and Dmitry Khvorostinin and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops, Turkish and Nogai detachments. And although the Crimean-Turkish army had a significant numerical superiority, it was completely defeated.
The Russians used effective defense tactics in the battle in a mobile fortress made of wooden shields - the walk-city - and attacks in the front and rear of the enemy, exhausted in five days of battles. In that battle, Davlet-Girey lost almost the entire male population of the Khanate. However, the Russians did not then undertake a campaign against the Crimea to finish off the enemy, because the principality was weakened by a war on two fronts.
Background
1571 - Khan Davlet-Girey took advantage of the fact that Russian troops had gone to Russia, destroyed and plundered Moscow. Then the Tatars took 60,000 people captive - this is essentially almost the entire population of the city. A year later (1572), the khan wanted to repeat his raid, hatching an ambitious plan to annex Muscovy to his possessions.
On the eve of the battle
The Russian army met the Tatar cavalry on the Oka River on July 27, 1572. For two days there were battles for the crossings, in the end the dashing Nogais were able to break through the extended defense at Senka Ford. Voivode Dmitry Khvorostinin rushed to close the breakthrough with his advanced regiment, but was too late. The main forces of the Tatars had already crossed and, having defeated the regiment of governor Nikita Odoevsky that blocked the path, they went along the Serpukhov road to Moscow.
It should be noted that Khvorostinin, although he was listed in the oprichnina, was for the most part not engaged in murder in the capital. Throughout all these years, he fought with the Tatars on the southern borders, where he earned a reputation as perhaps the best military leader in Rus': as the English traveler Ambassador Fletcher later wrote, Khvorostinin is “their main husband, the one most used in wartime.” His military talent was so great that it allowed Dmitry Ivanovich to make a brilliant career for his artistry. Although, it is Khvorostinin who also holds a kind of record - in history he remained the “champion” in the number of parochial lawsuits filed against him; no one else was so often put in command of an army, bypassing more noble contenders.
Not having time to prevent a breakthrough, Khvorostinin relentlessly followed the Tatars, waiting for an opportunity. Following him, abandoning the convoy, Vorotynsky and his main forces set off in pursuit - there was no way the Tatars could be allowed to get to Moscow.
Balance of power
Russian army:
Large regiment - 8255 people and Cossacks of Mikhail Cherkashenin;
Right hand regiment - 3590 people;
Left hand regiment - 1651 people;
Advanced regiment - 4475 people;
Guard Regiment - 4670 people;
In total, more than 22 thousand soldiers were gathered at the hand of Prince Vorotynsky
Crimean Tatars:
60,000 horsemen, as well as numerous detachments of the Greater and Lesser Nogai hordes.
Progress of the Battle of Molodi
The moment presented itself to Khvorostinin only 45 versts from Moscow, near the village of Molodi - having attacked the rearguard of the Tatar troops, he was able to inflict a heavy defeat on the Tatars. After which the khan stopped the attack on the capital, deciding first to deal with the Russian army “clinging to the tail.” The main forces of the Tatars were able to easily overthrow Khvorostinin’s regiment, but he, retreating, carried the Tatar army to the “walk-city” deployed by Vorotynsky - that’s what the Wagenburg was called in Rus', a movable fortification that is formed by carts coupled in a circle. Retreating, Khvorostinin passed under the very walls of the “walk-city”, and the Tatars rushing after them were met by Russian artillery hidden in the fortification, which pretty much mowed down their pursuers. The embittered Tatar army moved to attack.
This was the prelude to the decisive battle - most of the Tatars went to storm the “walk-city”, the rest fought in the field with the noble militia. The Suzdal son of the boyar Temir Alalykin distinguished himself - he was able to capture one of the highest-ranking Crimean nobles, Diveya-Murza, the head of the Mangit family, second in nobility after the ruling Gireys. The Russians nevertheless repulsed the onslaught, but in the morning a surprise awaited them - there was no continuation of the assault. The Tatar army, taking advantage of its superiority in numbers, encircled the Russian army and froze in anticipation.
It was not difficult to guess their intentions - the Tatars found out that the Russian army had abandoned the convoy and was left without supplies, and taking into account the fact that the encirclement made it difficult to supply the troops with water, they just had to wait. Wait until the exhausted Russians are forced to leave the fortifications in order to fight in an open field. With such a large difference in the number of troops, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. The captive Divey-Murza, mockingly, told Vorotynsky that if he were free, he could drive out the enemy from the “walk-city” in 5-6 days.
Gulyai-city (Wagenburg)
Siege
The siege, disastrous for the Russian army, lasted for two days, and in “the regiments hunger taught them to be people and great horses,” they ate the dead horses. The Moscow governor, Prince Tokmakov, was able to save Vorotynsky’s army. In the capital, which was very close (now Molodi is a village in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region), of course, they knew what a desperate situation the Russian army was in. The cunning Moscow governor sent Vorotynsky a “false letter”, which said to “sit fearlessly,” because a huge Novgorod army led by Tsar Ivan IV himself was coming to help. In reality, the letter was addressed not to Vorotynsky, but to the Tatars. The Moscow messenger was captured, tortured and executed, and he paid with his life for disinformation.
And in the morning, although the Tatars did not turn back, as Tokmakov had hoped, they still abandoned the idea of starving out the Russian army and resumed active operations.
Assault on the “Walk-City”
On August 2, the Tatars threw all their strength into the assault on the “Walk-Gorod”. After carrying out several unsuccessful attacks, the khan ordered his soldiers to dismount and, under the leadership of the Janissaries, attack the Wagenburg on foot. This last onslaught was terrible; the Tatars and Turks, having lined the slopes of the hill with killed soldiers, were able to get to the very walls of the improvised fortress. They cut down the walls of the carts with sabers, trying to overturn them: “... and the Tatars came to the walk and took them from the city behind the wall with their hands, and here they beat many Tatars and cut off countless hands.”
Monument to the Battle of Molodin
Defeat of the Tatars at the Battle of Molodi
And then an event occurred that decided the outcome of this fateful battle. As it turned out, Vorotynsky, taking advantage of the fact that the entire Tatar army was concentrated on one side of the hill, undertook an extremely risky maneuver. He left Khvorostinin in command of the defense of the “walk-city”, and he himself with the “large regiment”, passing unnoticed along the bottom of the ravine, went to the rear of the Crimean Horde. Two attacks followed at the same time - as soon as Vorotynsky struck from the rear, immediately “Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin came out from the Streltsy and the Germans while walking in the city” and attacked from his side. Having fallen into the pincers, Devlet-Girey’s army could not stand it and ran. Both detachments of Russians: the zemstvo Vorotynsky and the guardsman Khvorostinin rushed after them to finish them off.
It was not even a defeat - a massacre. The Tatars were driven to the Oka, and because the vast majority of the Crimeans had to escape on foot, the losses were huge. The Russians not only cut down the retreating troops, but also almost completely cut out the two-thousand-strong rearguard left to guard the crossing. In the Battle of Molodi, almost all the Janissaries died, the Khan’s army was missing most of the Murzas, and the sons of Kalga, the second person in the Khanate, were hacked to death. In the Battle of Molodi, the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet-Girey himself were killed, “and many Murzas and Totars were caught alive.” No more than 15,000 survivors returned to Crimea.
Consequences of the Battle of Molodin
This is how this battle ended, which bled the Crimean Khanate for many decades. The invasions of Rus' stopped for almost 20 years. In our time, this battle is half-forgotten, although in its significance for Russia it is not inferior to either the Battle of Borodino.
The winners were greeted with jubilation by the entire Russian land. Already on August 6, the messengers were able to reach the sovereign and thanksgiving prayers began in Novgorod churches. Russia was saved. She was saved by a miracle.
And having returned to the capital by the end of August, he canceled it.
On the Don and Desna, border fortifications were moved to the south 300 km; after some short time, under Fyodor Ioannovich, Voronezh and a new fortress in Yelets were founded - they began to develop the rich black earth land, which had previously belonged to the Wild Field.
Molodi, 50 versts south of Moscow |
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Decisive victory of the Russian army |
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Opponents |
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Opponents |
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Khan Devlet I Giray |
Mikhail Vorotynsky Ivan Sheremetev Dmitry Khvorostinin |
Strengths of the parties |
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About 40 thousand 120 thousand |
About 20 thousand archers, Cossacks, noble cavalry and Livonian German servicemen |
Military losses |
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about 15 thousand died in the battle, about 12 thousand drowned in the Oka 100 thousand |
Unknown. |
Or Battle of Molodinskaya- a major battle that took place between July 29 and August 2, 1572, 50 versts south of Moscow, in which Russian troops under the leadership of the governor Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops themselves, Turkish and Nogai detachments, fought. Despite more than twofold numerical superiority, the 40,000-strong Crimean army was put to flight and almost completely killed.
In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi is comparable to Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. Victory in the battle allowed Russia to maintain its independence and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Muscovite state and the Crimean Khanate, which abandoned its claims to the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and henceforth lost most of its power.
Since 2009, a reenactment festival has been held at the site of the events, dedicated to the anniversary of the battle.
Political situation
Expansion of Muscovite Rus'
In 1552, the Russian army took Kazan, and four years later, in an effort to gain access to the Caspian Sea, they succeeded in conquering the Astrakhan Khanate. Both of these events caused a very negative reaction in the Turkic world, since the fallen khanates were allies of the Ottoman Sultan and his Crimean vassal. In addition, new spaces opened up for the Moscow state for political and trade expansion to the south and east, and the ring of hostile Muslim khanates that had constrained Rus' for several centuries was broken. Offers of citizenship from the mountain and Circassian princes were not slow to follow, and the Siberian Khanate recognized itself as a tributary of Moscow.
This development of events greatly worried the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. The raiding economy, which made up most of the economy of the Crimean state, came under threat as Muscovite Rus' strengthened. The Sultan was concerned about the prospects of stopping the supply of slaves and booty from the southern Russian steppes, as well as the safety of the Crimean vassals. The goal of Ottoman and Crimean policy was to return the Volga region to the orbit of Ottoman interests and restore the former ring around Muscovite Rus'.
Livonian War
Encouraged by his success in reaching the Caspian Sea, Ivan the Terrible intended to win access to the Baltic Sea, since the isolation of the Moscow state was largely due to its geographical isolation from the main trade routes and centuries-old lack of access to the sea. In 1558, the Livonian War began against the Livonian Confederation, which was later joined by Sweden, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. At first, events developed well for Moscow: under the attacks of the troops of princes Serebryany, Kurbsky, and Adashev in 1561, the Livonian Confederation was defeated, most of the Baltic states came under Russian control, and the ancient Russian city of Polotsk, in which one of the oldest Orthodox dioceses was located, was recaptured.
Soon, however, luck gave way to a series of defeats. In 1569, as a result of the Union of Lublin, the position of the Moscow state became more complicated, since it had to withstand the increased strength of its rivals. Taking advantage of the presence of most of the Russian troops in the Baltic states, and the tense internal situation associated with the introduction of the oprichnina, the Crimean Khan made numerous raids on the southern borders of Moscow lands, including an unsuccessful campaign against Astrakhan.
Crimean raid on Moscow in 1571
Song about the Crimean invasion
Tatars to Rus' in 1572
And not a strong cloud has clouded,
and the thunder thundered loudly:
Where is the dog of the Crimean king going?
And to the powerful kingdom of Moscow:
“And now we will go to stone Moscow,
and we’ll go back and take Rezan.”
And how will they be at the Oka River,
and then they will begin to erect white tents.
“And think with your whole mind:
Who should sit with us in stone Moscow,
and to whom we have in Volodymer,
and who should sit with us in Suzdal,
And who will keep Rezan Staraya with us,
and to whom we have in Zvenigorod,
and who should sit with us in Novgorod?”
Divi-Murza's son Ulanovich comes out:
“And you are our sovereign, the Crimean king!
And you, sir, can sit with us in stone Moscow,
And to your son in Volodymer,
And to your nephew in Suzdal,
and to my relatives in Zvenigorod,
and the stable boyar will keep Rezan Staraya,
And for me, sir, perhaps the New City:
I have light-good-days lying there, father,
Divi-Murza son of Ulanovich."
The voice of the Lord will call from heaven:
“You are different, dog, Crimean king!
Do you not know the kingdom?
And there are also Seventy Apostles in Moscow
of the Three Saints,
There is still an Orthodox Tsar in Moscow!”
You ran, dog, Crimean king,
not by the way, not by the road,
not according to the banner, not according to the black!
(Songs recorded for Richard James in 1619-1620)
With the support of the Ottoman Empire and in agreement with the newly formed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray in May 1571, with an army of 40 thousand, made a devastating campaign against Russian lands. Having bypassed the abatis lines on the southern outskirts of the Russian kingdom with the help of defectors (a chain of fortifications called the “belt of the Most Holy Theotokos”), he reached Moscow and set fire to its suburbs. The city, built mainly of wood, was almost completely burned down, with the exception of the stone Kremlin. The number of victims and those taken captive is very difficult to determine, but, according to various historians, it is in the tens of thousands. After the fire of Moscow, Ivan IV, who had previously left the city, offered to return the Astrakhan Khanate and was almost ready to negotiate the return of Kazan, and also tore down fortifications in the North Caucasus.
However, Devlet Giray was sure that Rus' would not recover from such a blow and could itself become an easy prey, moreover, famine and a plague epidemic reigned within its borders. In his opinion, all that remained was to strike the final blow. For the entire year after the campaign against Moscow, he was engaged in forming a new, much larger army. The Ottoman Empire provided active support, providing him with several thousand soldiers, including selected Janissaries. He managed to gather about 40 thousand people from the Crimean Tatars and Nogais. Possessing a huge army at that time, Devlet Giray moved towards Moscow. The Crimean Khan repeatedly stated that “ goes to Moscow for the kingdom" The lands of Muscovite Rus' were already divided in advance between the Crimean Murzas. The invasion of the Crimean army, as well as Batu’s campaigns of conquest, raised the acute question of the existence of an independent Russian state.
On the eve of the battle
The head of the border guard in Kolomna and Serpukhov, which consisted of only 20 thousand soldiers, was Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky. Under his leadership the oprichnina and zemstvo troops were united. In addition to them, a detachment of 7 thousand German mercenaries sent by the tsar, as well as Don Cossacks, joined Vorotynsky’s forces. A hired detachment of thousands of “Kaniv Cherkasy”, that is, Ukrainian Cossacks, arrived. Vorotynsky received instructions from the Tsar on how to behave in case of two scenarios. In case Devlet Giray moved to Moscow and sought battle with the entire Russian army, the governor was obliged to block the old Muravsky Way for the khan and rush to the Zhizdra River. If it became obvious that the Crimeans were interested in the traditional quick raid, robbery and equally quick retreat, Vorotynsky was to set up ambushes and organize “partisan” actions. Ivan the Terrible himself, as last year, left Moscow, this time towards Veliky Novgorod.
This time the Khan's campaign was incomparably more serious than an ordinary raid. On July 27, the Crimean-Turkish army approached the Oka and began to cross it in two places - at the confluence of the Lopasny River into it along the Senkin Ford, and upstream from Serpukhov. The first crossing point was guarded by a small guard regiment of “children of the boyars” under the command of Ivan Shuisky, consisting of only 200 soldiers. The Nogai vanguard of the Crimean-Turkish army under the command of Tereberdey-Murza fell upon him. The detachment did not take flight, but entered into an unequal battle, but was scattered, however, managing to inflict great damage on the Crimeans. After this, Tereberdey-Murza’s detachment reached the outskirts of modern Podolsk near the Pakhra River and, having cut all the roads leading to Moscow, stopped waiting for the main forces.
The main positions of the Russian troops, reinforced by Gulyai-gorod, were located near Serpukhov. Gulyai-Gorod consisted of half-a-log shields the size of a log house wall, mounted on carts, with loopholes for shooting, and arranged in a circle or in a line. Russian soldiers were armed with arquebuses and cannons. To distract, Devlet Giray sent a detachment of two thousand against Serpukhov, while he himself with the main forces crossed the Oka River in a more remote place near the village of Drakino, where he encountered the regiment of governor Nikita Romanovich Odoevsky, who was defeated in a difficult battle. After this, the main army moved towards Moscow, and Vorotynsky, having removed his troops from coastal positions, moved after him. This was a risky tactic, since all hope was placed on the fact that by “grabbing the tail” of the Crimean army, the Russians would force the khan to turn around for battle and not go to defenseless Moscow. However, the alternative was to overtake the Khan along a side route, which had little chance of success. In addition, there was the experience of the previous year, when the governor Ivan Belsky managed to arrive in Moscow before the Crimeans, but could not prevent it from being set on fire.
Composition of the Russian army
According to the regimental list of the “coastal” regiment of Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky, the Russian army consisted of:
Voivodeship Regiment |
Number |
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Large regiment: |
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Total: 8255 the man and the Cossacks of Mikhail Cherkashenin |
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Right Hand Regiment: |
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Total: 3590 |
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Advanced Regiment: |
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Total: 4475 |
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Guard Regiment: |
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Total: 4670 |
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Total: 20 034
person |
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Progress of the battle
The Crimean army was fairly stretched out and while its advanced units reached the Pakhra River, the rearguard was only approaching the village of Molodi, located 15 kilometers from it. It was here that he was overtaken by an advanced detachment of Russian troops under the leadership of the young oprichnina governor, Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin. A fierce battle broke out, as a result of which the Crimean rearguard was practically destroyed. This happened on July 29.
After this, what Vorotynsky hoped for happened. Having learned about the defeat of the rearguard and fearing for his rear, Devlet Giray deployed his army. By this time, a walk-city had already been developed near Molodei in a convenient location, located on a hill and covered by the Rozhaya River. Khvorostinin’s detachment found itself face to face with the entire Crimean army, but, having correctly assessed the situation, the young governor was not at a loss and lured the enemy to Walk-Gorod with an imaginary retreat. With a quick maneuver to the right, taking his soldiers to the side, he brought the enemy under deadly artillery and squeal fire - “ many Tatars were beaten" In Gulyai-Gorod there was a large regiment under the command of Vorotynsky himself, as well as the Cossacks of Ataman Cherkashenin who arrived in time. A protracted battle began, for which the Crimean army was not ready. In one of the unsuccessful attacks on Gulyai-Gorod, Tereberdey-Murza was killed.
After a series of small skirmishes, on July 31, Devlet Giray launched a decisive assault on Gulyai-Gorod, but it was repulsed. His army suffered heavy losses, including the capture of the adviser to the Crimean Khan, Divey-Murza. As a result of large losses, the Crimeans retreated. The next day the attacks stopped, but the situation of the besieged was critical - there were a huge number of wounded in the fortification, and the water was running out.
On August 2, Devlet Giray again sent his army to attack. In a difficult struggle, up to 3 thousand Russian archers were killed defending the foot of the hill at Rozhaika, and the Russian cavalry defending the flanks also suffered serious losses. But the attack was repulsed - the Crimean cavalry was unable to take the fortified position. In the battle, the Nogai Khan was killed, and three Murzas died. And then the Crimean Khan made an unexpected decision - he ordered the cavalry to dismount and attack the Gulyai-city on foot together with the Janissaries. The climbing Crimeans and Ottomans covered the hill with corpses, and the Khan threw in more and more forces. Approaching the plank walls of the walk-city, the attackers cut them down with sabers, shook them with their hands, trying to climb over or knock them down, “and here they beat many Tatars and cut off countless hands.” Already in the evening, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy was concentrated on one side of the hill and carried away by the attacks, Vorotynsky undertook a bold maneuver. Having waited until the main forces of the Crimeans and the Janissaries were drawn into a bloody battle for Gulyai-Gorod, he quietly led a large regiment out of the fortification, led it through a ravine and struck in the rear of the Crimeans. At the same time, accompanied by powerful volleys of cannons, Khvorostinin’s warriors made a sortie from behind the walls of the city. Unable to withstand the double blow, the Crimeans and Turks fled, abandoning their weapons, carts and property. The losses were enormous - all seven thousand Janissaries, most of the Crimean Murzas, as well as the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet Giray himself died. Many high Crimean dignitaries were captured.
During the pursuit of the foot Crimeans to the crossing of the Oka River, most of those who fled were killed, as well as another 5,000-strong Crimean rearguard left to guard the crossing. No more than 10 thousand soldiers returned to Crimea.
As the Novgorod Chronicle reported:
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Yes, that month of August 6 on Wednesday, the sovereign’s joy, they brought Crimean bows and two sabers and saadachki arrows to Novgorod... and the Crimean Tsar came to Moscow, and with him were his 100 thousand and twenty, and his son Tsarevich, and his grandson, yes his uncle, and the governor Diviy Murza - and God help our Moscow governors over the Crimean power of the tsar, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky and other governors of the Moscow sovereign, and the Crimean tsar fled from them inappropriately, not on any path, not on roads, in a small squad; and our commanders of the Crimean Tsar killed 100 thousand on Rozhai on the rivers, near Resurrection in Molody, on Lopasta, in the Khotyn district, there was a case with Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky, with the Crimean Tsar and his governors... and there was a case from Moscow fifty miles away. |
Aftermath of the battle
After an unsuccessful campaign against the Russian kingdom, Crimea lost almost its entire combat-ready male population, since according to customs, almost all combat-ready men were obliged to participate in the Khan’s campaigns. In general, the battle of the village of Molodi became a turning point in the confrontation between Muscovite Rus' and the Crimean Khanate and the last major battle between Rus' and the Steppe. As a result of the battle, the military power of the Crimean Khanate, which had threatened Russian lands for so long, was undermined. The Ottoman Empire was forced to abandon plans to return the middle and lower Volga region to its sphere of interests and they were assigned to Russia.
Devastated by previous Crimean raids of 1566-1571. and the natural disasters of the late 1560s, the internal terror of the tsarist oprichnina, Muscovite Rus', fighting on two fronts, was able to withstand and maintain its independence in an extremely critical situation.
On the Don and Desna, border fortifications were moved south 300 kilometers, a short time later Voronezh and a new fortress in Yelets were founded - the development of rich black earth lands that previously belonged to the Wild Field began.
According to some reports, 10 months after the battle, Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky died after torture, in which Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible took part, but this fact remains unconfirmed (at the same time, the name of Vorotynsky is not mentioned in the “Synodik of the Disgraced”, moreover, on one of the documents of 1574 bears the prince's signature).
Serious research on the topic of the Battle of Molodi began to be undertaken only at the end of the 20th century.
This day in history:
The Battle of Molodi (Molodinskaya Battle) is a major battle that took place in 1572 near Moscow, between Russian troops led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Gerey, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops themselves, Turkish and Nogai detachments. ..
Despite the double numerical superiority, the 120,000-strong Crimean army was completely defeated and put to flight. Only about 20 thousand people were saved.
In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi was comparable to Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. It preserved the independence of Russia and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Moscow state and the Crimean Khanate, which abandoned its claims to Kazan and Astrakhan and henceforth lost a significant part of its power...
Prince Vorotynsky managed to impose a protracted battle on Devlet-Girey, depriving him of the benefits of a sudden powerful blow. The troops of the Crimean Khan suffered huge losses (according to some sources, almost 100 thousand people). But the most important thing is the irreparable losses, since the main combat-ready population of Crimea took part in the campaign.
The village of Molodi became a cemetery for a significant part of the men of the Crimean Khanate. The whole flower of the Crimean army, its best warriors, lay down here. The Turkish Janissaries were completely exterminated. After such a brutal blow, the Crimean khans no longer thought about raiding the Russian capital. The Crimean-Turkish aggression against the Russian state was stopped.
“In the summer of 1571, they were expecting a raid by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. But the oprichniki, who were tasked with holding a barrier on the banks of the Oka, for the most part did not go to work: fighting against the Crimean Khan was more dangerous than plundering Novgorod. One of the captured boyar children gave the khan an unknown route to one of the fords on the Oka.
Devlet-Girey managed to bypass the barrier of zemstvo troops and one oprichnina regiment and cross the Oka. Russian troops barely managed to return to Moscow. But Devlet-Girey did not besiege the capital, but set fire to the settlement. The fire spread through the walls. The entire city burned down, and those who took refuge in the Kremlin and in the adjoining fortress of Kitay-Gorod suffocated from the smoke and “fire heat.” Negotiations began, at which Russian diplomats received secret instructions to agree, as a last resort, to abandon Astrakhan. Devlet-Girey also demanded Kazan. In order to finally break the will of Ivan IV, he prepared a raid for the next year.
Ivan IV understood the seriousness of the situation. He decided to put at the head of the troops an experienced commander who had often been in disgrace - Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. Both zemstvos and guardsmen were subordinate to his command; they were united in service and within each regiment. This united army in the battle near the village of Molodi (50 km south of Moscow) completely defeated the army of Devlet-Girey, which was almost twice its size. The Crimean threat was eliminated for many years.”
History of Russia from ancient times to 1861. M., 2000, p. 154
The battle, which took place in August 1572 near the village of Molodi, about 50 km from Moscow, between Podolsk and Serpukhov, is sometimes called “Unknown Borodino”. The battle itself and the heroes who participated in it are rarely mentioned in Russian history. Everyone knows the Battle of Kulikovo, as well as the Moscow prince Dmitry, who led the Russian army, and received the nickname Donskoy. Then the hordes of Mamai were defeated, but the next year the Tatars again attacked Moscow and burned it. After the Battle of Molodin, in which the 120,000-strong Crimean-Astrakhan horde was destroyed, Tatar raids on Moscow stopped forever.
In the 16th century Crimean Tatars regularly raided Muscovy. Cities and villages were set on fire, the able-bodied population was driven into captivity. Moreover, the number of captured peasants and townspeople was many times greater than the military losses.
The culmination was in 1571, when the army of Khan Devlet-Girey burned Moscow to the ground. People hid in the Kremlin, the Tatars set it on fire too. The entire Moscow River was littered with corpses, the flow stopped... The next year, 1572, Devlet-Girey, like a true Genghisid, was going to not only repeat the raid, he decided to revive the Golden Horde, and make Moscow its capital.
Devlet-Girey declared that he was “going to Moscow for the kingdom.” As one of the heroes of the Battle of Molodin, German oprichnik Heinrich Staden, wrote, “the cities and districts of the Russian land were all already assigned and divided among the Murzas who were under the Crimean Tsar; it was determined which one should hold.”
On the eve of the invasion
The situation in Russia was difficult. The effects of the devastating invasion of 1571, as well as the plague, were still being felt. The summer of 1572 was dry and hot, horses and cattle died. The Russian regiments experienced serious difficulties in supplying food.
Economic difficulties were intertwined with complex internal political events, accompanied by executions, disgraces, and uprisings of the local feudal nobility that began in the Volga region. In such a difficult situation, preparations were underway in the Russian state to repel a new invasion by Devlet-Girey. On April 1, 1572, a new border service system began to operate, taking into account the experience of last year’s struggle with Devlet-Girey.
Thanks to intelligence, the Russian command was promptly informed about the movement of the 120,000-strong army of Devlet-Girey and his further actions. The construction and improvement of military-defensive structures, primarily located over a long distance along the Oka, proceeded quickly.
Having received news of the impending invasion, Ivan the Terrible fled to Novgorod and wrote a letter from there to Devlet-Girey offering peace in exchange for Kazan and Astrakhan. But it did not satisfy the khan.
Battle of Molodi
In the spring of 1571, the Crimean Khan Divlet Giray, at the head of a 120,000-strong horde, attacked Rus'. The traitor Prince Mstislavsky sent his men to show the khan how to bypass the 600-kilometer Zasechnaya line from the west.
The Tatars came from where they were not expected, burned all of Moscow to the ground - several hundred thousand people died.
In addition to Moscow, the Crimean Khan ravaged the central regions, cut out 36 cities, collected a 100,000-strong army and went to Crimea; from the road he sent the king a knife “so that Ivan would kill himself.”
The Crimean invasion was similar to Batu's pogrom; Khan believed that Russia was exhausted and could no longer resist; the Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars rebelled; In 1572, the horde went to Rus' to establish a new yoke - the Khan's Murzas divided cities and uluses among themselves.
Rus' was truly weakened by the 20-year war, famine, plague and the terrible Tatar invasion; Ivan the Terrible managed to gather only a 20,000-strong army.
On July 28, a huge horde crossed the Oka and, throwing back the Russian regiments, rushed to Moscow - however, the Russian army followed, attacking the Tatar rearguards. The Khan was forced to turn back, the masses of Tatars rushed towards the Russian advanced regiment, which took flight, luring the enemies to the fortifications where archers and cannons were located - it was a “walk-city”, a mobile fortress made of wooden shields. Volleys of Russian cannons firing at point-blank range stopped the Tatar cavalry, it retreated, leaving piles of corpses on the field, but the khan again drove his warriors forward.
For almost a week, with breaks to remove the corpses, the Tatars stormed the “walk-city” near the village of Molodi, not far from the modern city of Podolsk, dismounted horsemen approached the wooden walls, rocked them - “and here they beat many Tatars and cut off countless hands.”
On August 2, when the onslaught of the Tatars weakened, the Russian regiments left the “walk-city” and attacked the weakened enemy, the horde turned into a stampede, the Tatars were pursued and cut down to the banks of the Oka - the Crimeans had never suffered such a bloody defeat.
The Battle of Molodi was a great victory for the autocracy: only absolute power could gather all forces into one fist and repel a terrible enemy - and it is easy to imagine what would have happened if Russia had been ruled not by a tsar, but by princes and boyars - the times of Batu would have been repeated.
Having suffered a terrible defeat, the Crimeans did not dare to show themselves on the Oka for 20 years; The uprisings of the Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars were suppressed - Russia won the Great War for the Volga region. On the Don and Desna, border fortifications were pushed south 300 kilometers; at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Yelets and Voronezh were founded - the development of the richest black earth lands of the Wild Field began.
The victory over the Tatars was achieved to a large extent thanks to arquebuses and cannons - weapons that were brought from the West through the “window to Europe” (?) cut by the tsar. This window was the port of Narva, and King Sigismund asked the English Queen Elizabeth to stop the arms trade, because “the Moscow sovereign daily increases his power by acquiring items that are brought to Narva.”(?)
V.M. Belotserkovets
Border voivode
The Oka River then served as the main support line, the harsh Russian border against the Crimean invasions. Every year, up to 65 thousand soldiers came to its shores and carried out guard duty from early spring until late autumn. According to contemporaries, the river “was fortified for more than 50 miles along the bank: two palisades, four feet high, were built one opposite the other, one at a distance of two feet from the other, and this distance between them was filled with earth dug out behind the rear palisade ... The shooters could thus hide behind both palisades and shoot at the Tatars as they swam across the river.”
The choice of commander-in-chief was difficult: there were few people suitable for this responsible position. In the end, the choice fell on the zemstvo governor, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky, an outstanding military leader, “a strong and courageous man and extremely skilled in regimental arrangements.”
Boyarin Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky (c. 1510-1573), like his father, devoted himself to military service from a young age. In 1536, 25-year-old Prince Mikhail distinguished himself in the winter campaign of Ivan the Terrible against the Swedes, and after some time in the Kazan campaigns. During the siege of Kazan in 1552, Vorotynsky at a critical moment managed to repel the attack of the city’s defenders, lead the archers and capture the Arsk Tower, and then, at the head of a large regiment, storm the Kremlin. For which he received the honorary title of sovereign servant and governor.
In 1550-1560 M.I. Vorotynsky supervised the construction of defensive structures on the southern borders of the country. Thanks to his efforts, the approaches to Kolomna, Kaluga, Serpukhov and other cities were strengthened. He established a guard service and repelled attacks from the Tatars.
Selfless and devoted friendship to the sovereign did not save the prince from suspicions of treason. In 1562-1566. he suffered humiliation, disgrace, exile, and prison. In those years, Vorotynsky received an offer from the Polish king Sigismund Augustus to go to serve in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But the prince remained faithful to the sovereign and Russia.
In January-February 1571, service people, boyar children, village residents, and village heads came to Moscow from all border towns. By order of Ivan the Terrible M.I. Vorotynsky was supposed to, having questioned those summoned to the capital, describe from which cities, in which direction and at what distance patrols should be sent, in which places the guards should stand (indicating the territory served by the patrols of each of them), in which places the border heads should be located “for protection from the arrival of military people”, etc.
The result of this work was the “Order on village and guard service” left by Vorotynsky. In accordance with it, the border service must do everything possible “to make the outskirts more careful,” so that military people “do not come to the outskirts unknown,” and accustom the guards to constant vigilance.
Another order was issued by M.I. Vorotynsky (February 27, 1571) - on establishing the parking places for stanitsa patrol heads and assigning detachments to them. They can be considered a prototype of domestic military regulations.
Knowing about the upcoming raid of Devlet-Girey, what could the Russian commander oppose to the Tatars? Tsar Ivan, citing the war in Livonia, did not provide him with a sufficiently large army, giving Vorotynsky only the oprichnina regiment; The prince had at his disposal regiments of boyar children, Cossacks, Livonian and German mercenaries. In total, the number of Russian troops was approximately 60 thousand people.
12 tumens marched against him, that is, an army twice as large as the Tatars and Turkish Janissaries, who also carried artillery.
The question arose, what tactics to choose in order to not only stop but also defeat the enemy with such small forces? Vorotynsky's leadership talent was manifested not only in the creation of border defenses, but also in the development and implementation of a battle plan. Did another hero of the battle play a crucial role in the latter? Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin.
So, the snow had not yet melted from the banks of the Oka when Vorotynsky began to prepare to meet the enemy. Border posts and abatis were made, Cossack patrols and patrols were constantly running, tracking down the “sakma” (Tatar trace), and forest ambushes were created. Local residents were involved in the defense. But the plan itself was not yet ready. Only general features: drag the enemy into a sticky defensive war, deprive him of maneuverability, confuse him for a while, exhaust his forces, then force him to go to the “walk-city”, where he will give the final battle.
Gulyai-Gorod is a mobile fortress, a mobile fortified point, built from separate wooden walls that were placed on carts, with loopholes for firing cannons and rifles. It was erected near the Rozaj River and was decisive in the battle. “If the Russians did not have a walk-city, then the Crimean Khan would have beaten us,” recalls Staden, “he would have taken us prisoner and taken everyone bound to the Crimea, and the Russian land would have been his land.”
The most important thing in terms of the upcoming battle is to force Devlet-Girey to go along the Serpukhov road. And any leak of information threatened the failure of the entire battle; in fact, the fate of Russia was being decided. Therefore, the prince kept all the details of the plan in the strictest confidence; even the closest commanders for the time being did not know what their commander was up to.
Start of the battle
Summer has come. At the end of July, the hordes of Devlet-Girey crossed the Oka River just above Serpukhov, in the area of Senka Ford. Russian troops occupied positions near Serpukhov, fortifying themselves with the Gulyai-city.
Khan bypassed the main Russian fortifications and rushed towards Moscow. Vorotynsky immediately withdrew from the crossings at Serpukhov and rushed after Devlet-Girey. The advanced regiment under the command of Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin overtook the rearguard of the Khan's army near the village of Molodi. The small village of Molodi at that time was surrounded on all sides by forests. And only in the west, where there were gentle hills, did the men cut down the trees and plow up the land. On the elevated bank of the Rozhai River, at the confluence of Molodka, stood the wooden Church of the Resurrection.
The leading regiment overtook the Crimean rearguard, forced it into battle, attacked and defeated it. But he did not stop there, but pursued the remnants of the defeated rearguard right up to the main forces of the Crimean army. The blow was so strong that the two princes leading the rearguard told the khan that it was necessary to stop the offensive.
The blow was so unexpected and strong that Devlet-Girey stopped his army. He realized that there was a Russian army behind him, which must be destroyed in order to ensure unhindered advance to Moscow. Khan turned back, Devlet-Girey risked getting involved in a protracted battle. Accustomed to solving everything with one swift blow, he was forced to change traditional tactics.
Finding himself face to face with the main forces of the enemy, Khvorostinin avoided the battle and, with an imaginary retreat, began to lure Devlet-Girey to the walk-city, behind which Vorotynsky’s large regiment was already located. The Khan's advanced forces came under crushing fire from cannons and arquebuses. The Tatars retreated with heavy losses. The first part of the plan developed by Vorotynsky was brilliantly implemented. The rapid breakthrough of the Crimeans to Moscow failed, and the khan’s troops entered into a protracted battle.
Everything could have been different if Devlet-Girey had immediately thrown all his forces into the Russian positions. But the khan did not know the true power of Vorotynsky’s regiments and was going to test them. He sent Tereberdey-Murza with two tumens to capture the Russian fortification. They all perished under the walls of the Walking City. Minor skirmishes continued for two more days. During this time, the Cossacks managed to sink Turkish artillery. Vorotynsky was seriously alarmed: what if Devlet-Girey abandoned further hostilities and turned back to start all over again next year? But that did not happen.
Victory
On July 31, a stubborn battle took place. Crimean troops began an assault on the main Russian position, located between the Rozhai and Lopasnya rivers. “The matter was great and the slaughter was great,” the chronicler says about the battle. In front of the Walking Town, the Russians scattered peculiar metal hedgehogs, on which the legs of the Tatar horses broke. Therefore, the rapid onslaught, the main component of the Crimean victories, did not take place. The powerful throw slowed down in front of the Russian fortifications, from where cannonballs, buckshot and bullets rained down. The Tatars continued to attack. Repelling numerous attacks, the Russians launched counterattacks. During one of them, the Cossacks captured the Khan’s chief adviser, Divey-Murza, who led the Crimean troops. The fierce battle continued until the evening, and Vorotynsky had to make great efforts not to introduce the ambush regiment into battle, not to detect it. This regiment was waiting in the wings.
On August 1, both troops were preparing for the decisive battle. Devlet-Girey decided to put an end to the Russians with his main forces. In the Russian camp, supplies of water and food were running out. Despite the successful military operations, the situation was very difficult.
The next day a decisive battle took place. The Khan led his army to Gulyai-Gorod. And again he was unable to capture the Russian fortifications on the move. Realizing that infantry was needed to storm the fortress, Devlet-Girey decided to dismount the horsemen and, together with the Janissaries, throw the Tatars on foot to attack.
Once again, an avalanche of Crimeans poured into Russian fortifications.
Prince Khvorostinin led the defenders of the Gulyai-city. Tormented by hunger and thirst, they fought fiercely and fearlessly. They knew what fate awaited them if they were captured. They knew what would happen to their homeland if the Crimeans succeeded in a breakthrough. German mercenaries also fought bravely side by side with the Russians. Heinrich Staden led the artillery of the city.
The khan's troops approached the Russian fortress. The attackers, in rage, even tried to break the wooden shields with their hands. The Russians cut off the tenacious hands of their enemies with swords. The intensity of the battle intensified, and a turning point could occur at any moment. Devlet-Girey was completely absorbed in one goal - to take possession of the Gulyai-city. For this, he brought all his strength into the battle. Meanwhile, Prince Vorotynsky managed to quietly lead his large regiment through a narrow ravine and hit the enemy in the rear. At the same time, Staden fired a volley from all guns, and the defenders of the walk-city, led by Prince Khvorostinin, made a decisive sortie. The warriors of the Crimean Khan could not withstand the blows from both sides and fled. Thus the victory was won!
On the morning of August 3, Devlet-Girey, who had lost his son, grandson and son-in-law in the battle, began a rapid retreat. The Russians were on their heels. The last fierce battle broke out on the banks of the Oka, where the 5,000-strong Crimean rearguard covering the crossing was destroyed.
Prince Vorotynsky managed to impose a protracted battle on Devlet-Girey, depriving him of the benefits of a sudden powerful blow. The troops of the Crimean Khan suffered huge losses (according to some sources, almost 100 thousand people). But the most important thing is the irreparable losses, since the main combat-ready population of Crimea took part in the campaign. The village of Molodi became a cemetery for a significant part of the men of the Crimean Khanate. The whole flower of the Crimean army, its best warriors, lay down here. The Turkish Janissaries were completely exterminated. After such a brutal blow, the Crimean khans no longer thought about raiding the Russian capital. The Crimean-Turkish aggression against the Russian state was stopped.
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How it was
In 1569, 17,000 selected Janissaries, reinforced by Crimean and Nogai cavalry, moved towards Astrakhan. But the campaign failed: the Turks were unable to bring artillery with them, and they were not used to fighting without guns...
Reconnaissance in force:
In 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray, in alliance with the Ottoman Empire and the sworn enemy of Rus', the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the head of a 40,000-strong army invaded Muscovy. Having bypassed (with the help of traitors) the southern barriers, he reaches Moscow and burns it to the ground.
After such a successful raid by Devlet-Girey and his burning of Moscow, Ivan the Terrible tore and tore, and in Istanbul they rubbed their hands: reconnaissance in force showed that the Russians do not know how to fight, preferring to sit behind the fortress walls. But if the light Tatar cavalry was not capable of taking fortifications, then the experienced Turkish Janissaries were able to do this very well.
Decisive march:
In 1572, Devlet Giray assembled a military force unprecedented at that time - 120,000 people, including 80 thousand Crimeans and Nogais, as well as 7 thousand of the best Turkish Janissaries with dozens of artillery barrels - essentially special forces, elite troops with extensive experience in warfare and capture of fortresses. Going on a campaign, Devlet Giray declared that he was “going to Moscow for the kingdom.” He was not going to fight, but to reign! It never occurred to him that anyone would dare to oppose such a force.
The “division of the skin of the unkilled bear” began in advance: Murzas were appointed to the still Russian cities, governors were appointed to the not yet conquered Russian principalities, Russian land was divided in advance, and merchants received permission for duty-free trade.
All the men of Crimea, young and old, gathered to explore new lands.
A huge army was supposed to enter Russian borders and remain there forever.
And so it happened...
On July 6, 1572, the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray led the Ottoman army to the Oka River, where he came across a twenty-thousand-strong army under the command of Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky.
Devlet Giray did not engage in battle with the Russians, but turned up along the river. Near Senkin Ford, he easily dispersed a detachment of two hundred boyars and, having crossed the river, moved along the Serpukhov road to Moscow.
Decisive Battle:
Oprichnik Dmitry Khvorostinin, who led a detachment of five thousand of Cossacks and boyars, sneaked on the heels of the Tatars and on July 30, 1572 received permission to attack the enemy.
Rushing forward, he trampled the Tatar rearguard into the road dust to death and crashed into the main forces at the Pakhra River. The Tatars, taken aback by such impudence, turned around and rushed at the small detachment of Russians with all their strength. The Russians took to their heels, and the enemies, rushing after them, pursued the guardsmen all the way to the village of Molodi...
And then an unexpected surprise awaited the invaders: the Russian army, deceived on the Oka, was already here. And she didn’t just stand there, but managed to build a walk-city - a mobile fortification made of thick wooden shields. From the cracks between the shields, cannons struck the steppe cavalry, arquebuses thundered from the loopholes cut into the log walls, and a shower of arrows poured over the fortification. A friendly volley swept away the advanced Tatar detachments, like a hand sweeping pawns off a chessboard...
The Tatars mixed up, and Khvorostinin, turning his Cossacks around, rushed into the attack again...
The Ottomans, wave after wave, stormed the fortress that had come from nowhere, but thousands of their cavalry, one after another, fell into a cruel meat grinder and copiously drenched the Russian soil with their blood...
On that day, only the falling darkness stopped the endless murder...
In the morning, the Ottoman army discovered the truth in all its terrifying ugliness: the invaders realized that they had fallen into a trap - the strong walls of Moscow stood ahead along the Serpukhov road, and the escape routes to the steppe were blocked by iron-clad guardsmen and archers. Now for the uninvited guests it was no longer a question of conquering Russia, but of getting back alive...
The Tatars were furious: they were accustomed not to fight with the Russians, but to drive them into slavery. The Ottoman Murzas, who had gathered to rule the new lands, and not die on them, were also not amused.
By the third day, when it became clear that the Russians would rather die on the spot than allow the uninvited guests to leave, Devlet Giray ordered his soldiers to dismount and attack the Russians along with the Janissaries. The Tatars understood perfectly well that this time they were not going to rob, but to save their own skin, and they fought like mad dogs. It got to the point that the Crimeans tried to break the hated shields with their hands, and the Janissaries gnawed them with their teeth and chopped them with scimitars. But the Russians were not going to release the eternal robbers into the wild to give them the opportunity to catch their breath and return again. Blood flowed all day, but by evening the walk-town continued to stand in its place.
In the early morning of August 3, 1572, when the Ottoman army launched a decisive attack, Vorotynsky’s regiment and Khvorostinin’s guardsmen completely unexpectedly hit them in the back, and at the same time, a powerful volley from all guns fell from Walk-Gorod on the storming Ottomans.
And what started out as a battle instantly turned into a beating...
Result:
In a field near the village of Molodi, all seven thousand Turkish Janissaries were cut down without a trace.
Not only the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet-Girey himself died under Russian sabers near the village of Molodi - there Crimea lost almost its entire combat-ready male population. He was never able to recover from this defeat, which predetermined his entry into the Russian Empire.
Despite the almost fourfold superiority in manpower, almost nothing remained of the Khan’s 120,000-strong army - only 10,000 people returned to Crimea. 110 thousand Crimean-Turkish invaders found their death in Molodi.
The history of that time did not know such a grandiose military disaster. The best army in the world simply ceased to exist...
Let's summarize:
In 1572, not only Russia was saved. In Molodi, all of Europe was saved - after such a defeat, there could no longer be any talk of the Turkish conquest of the continent.
The Battle of Molodi is not only a grandiose milestone in Russian history. The Battle of Molodi is one of the greatest events in European and World history.
Perhaps that is why it was so thoroughly “forgotten” by the Europeans, for whom it is important to show that it was they who defeated the Turks, these “shakers of the Universe,” and not some Russians...
Battle of Molodi? What is this anyway?
Ivan groznyj? We remember something, “tyrant and despot”, it seems...
Speaking of the “bloody tyrant and despot”:
“Complete nonsense” includes “Notes on Russia” by the Englishman Jerome Horsey, which claims that in the winter of 1570 the guardsmen killed 700,000 (seven hundred thousand) inhabitants in Novgorod. How this could happen, with the total population of this city being thirty thousand, no one could explain...
Despite all the efforts, no more than 4,000 deaths can be attributed to the conscience of Ivan the Terrible during all his fifty years of rule.
This is probably a lot, even if we take into account that the majority honestly earned their execution through treason and perjury...
However, in the same years, in neighboring Europe in Paris, more than 3,000 Huguenots were slaughtered in JUST ONE night (!!!), and in the rest of the country - more than 30,000 in two weeks. In England, by order of Henry VIII, 72,000 people were hanged, guilty only of being beggars. In the Netherlands during the revolution, the number of corpses exceeded 100,000...
No, Russia is definitely far from European civilization...