He divided all his possessions among his sons. Eldest son Jochi, inherited a huge expanse of land from the headwaters of the Syr Darya to the mouths of the Danube, which, however, still had to be largely conquered. Jochi died before the death of his father and his lands came into the possession of five sons: Horde, Batu, Tuk-Timur, Sheiban and Teval. The Horde stood at the head of the tribes roaming between the Volga and the upper reaches of the Syr Darya, Batu received the western possessions of the Jochi ulus as his inheritance. The last khans of the Golden Horde (from 1380) and the khans of Astrakhan (1466 - 1554) came from the Horde clan; The Batu family ruled the Golden Horde until 1380. The possessions of Khan Batu were called the Golden Horde, the possessions of the Khan of the Horde - the White Horde (in Russian chronicles the Blue Horde).
Golden Horde and Rus'. Map
We know relatively little about the reign of the first Khan Batu. He died in 1255. He was succeeded by his son Sartak, who, however, did not rule the Horde, since he died on the way to Mongolia, where he went to obtain approval for the throne. The young Ulakchi, appointed as Sartak's successor, also soon died and then Batu's brother Berkay or Berke (1257 - 1266) ascended the throne. Berkay was followed by Mengu-Timur (1266 – 1280 or 1282). Under him, Jochi’s grandson, Nogai, who dominated the Don steppes and partially captured even the Crimea, gained significant influence on the internal affairs of the Khanate. He is the main sower of unrest after the death of Mengu-Timur. After civil strife and several short reigns, in 1290 the son of Mengu-Timur Tokhta (1290 - 1312) seized power. He enters into a fight with Nogai and defeats him. In one of the battles, Nogai was killed.
Tokhta's successor was the grandson of Mengu-Timur Uzbek (1312 - 1340). The time of his reign can be considered the most brilliant in the history of the Golden Horde . The Uzbek was followed by his son Janibek (1340 – 1357). Under him, the Tatars no longer sent their own Baskaks to Rus': the Russian princes themselves began to collect tribute from the population and take them to the Horde, which was much easier for the people. Being a zealous Muslim, Janibek, however, did not oppress those who professed other religions. He was killed by his own son Berdibek (1357 – 1359). Then turmoil and a change of khans begin. Over the course of 20 years (1360 - 1380), 14 khans were replaced in the Golden Horde. Their names are known to us only thanks to the inscriptions on the coins. At this time, a temnik (literally the chief of 10,000, generally a military leader) Mamai rises in the Horde. However, in 1380 he was defeated by Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field and was soon killed.
History of the Golden Horde
After the death of Mamai, power in the Golden Horde passed to the descendant of Jochi’s eldest son, Horde (some news, however, call him a descendant of Tuk-Timur) Tokhtamysh(1380 – 1391). Batu's descendants lost power, and the White Horde united with the Golden Horde. After Tokhtamysh, the darkest period begins in the history of the Golden Horde. The struggle begins between the Tokhtamyshevichs and the henchmen of the great Central Asian conqueror Timur. The enemy of the first was the Nogai military leader (temnik) Edigey. Having great influence, he constantly intervenes in civil strife, replaces khans and finally dies in the fight with the last Tokhtamyshevich on the banks of the Syr Darya. After this, khans from other clans appear on the throne. The Horde is weakening, its clashes with Moscow are becoming less and less frequent. The last khan of the Golden Horde was Akhmat or Seyyid-Ahmed. The death of Akhmat can be considered the end of the Golden Horde; his numerous sons, who stayed on the lower reaches of the Volga, formed Khanate of Astrakhan, which never had political power.
The sources for the history of the Golden Horde are exclusively Russian and Arab (mainly Egyptian) chronicles and inscriptions on coins.
The Horde is a phenomenon that simply has no analogues in history. At its core, the Horde is a union, an association, but not a country, not a locality, not a territory. The Horde has no roots, the Horde has no homeland, the Horde has no borders, the Horde has no titular nation.
The Horde was not created by a people, not a nation, the Horde was created by one man - Genghis Khan. He alone came up with a system of subordination, according to which you can either die or become part of the Horde, and with it rob, kill and rape! That is why the Horde is a ford, an association of criminals, scoundrels and scoundrels, who have no equal. A Horde is an army of people who, in the face of fear of death, are ready to sell their homeland, their family, their surname, their nation, and together with members of the Horde like themselves, they will continue to bring fear, horror, pain to other peoples
All nations, peoples, tribes know what a homeland is, they all have their own territory, all states were created as a council, a veche, a council, as an unification of a territorial community, but the Horde did not! The Horde has only a king - the khan, who commands and the Horde carries out his command. Whoever refuses to fulfill his command dies, whoever begs for life from the Horde receives it, but in return gives his soul, his dignity, his honor.
First of all, the word “horde”.
The word “horde” meant the headquarters (mobile camp) of the ruler (examples of its use in the meaning of “country” begin to appear only in the 15th century). In Russian chronicles, the word “horde” usually meant an army. Its use as the name of the country has become constant since the turn of the 13th-14th centuries; before that time, the term “Tatars” was used as the name. In Western European sources, the names “country of Komans”, “Comania” or “power of the Tatars”, “land of the Tatars”, “Tataria” were common. The Chinese called the Mongols “Tatars” (tar-tar).
So, according to the traditional version, a new state was formed in the south of the Euro-Asian continent (the Mongolian power from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean - the Golden Horde, alien to the Russians and oppressing them. The capital is the city of Sarai on the Volga.
Golden Horde (Ulus Jochi, self-name in Turkic Ulu Ulus - “Great State”) - a medieval state in Eurasia. In the period from 1224 to 1266 it was part of the Mongol Empire. In 1266, under Khan Mengu-Timur, it gained complete independence, retaining only formal dependence on the imperial center. Since 1312, Islam became the state religion. By the middle of the 15th century, the Golden Horde split into several independent khanates; its central part, which nominally continued to be considered supreme - the Great Horde, ceased to exist at the beginning of the 16th century.
Golden Horde ca. 1389
The name “Golden Horde” was first used in Rus' in 1566 in the historical and journalistic work “Kazan History,” when the state itself no longer existed. Until this time, in all Russian sources the word “Horde” was used without the adjective “golden”. Since the 19th century, the term has been firmly established in historiography and is used to refer to the Jochi ulus as a whole, or (depending on the context) its western part with its capital in Sarai. Read more → Golden Horde - Wikipedia.
In the Golden Horde proper and eastern (Arab-Persian) sources, the state did not have a single name. It was usually designated by the term “ulus”, with the addition of some epithet (“Ulug ulus”) or the name of the ruler (“Berke ulus”), and not necessarily the current one, but also the one who reigned earlier.
So, we see, the Golden Horde is the Jochi Empire, the Jochi Ulus. Since there is an empire, there must be court historians. Their works should describe how the world shook from the bloody Tatars! Not all the Chinese, Armenians and Arabs can describe the exploits of the descendants of Genghis Khan.
Academician-orientalist H. M. Frehn (1782-1851) searched for twenty-five years but did not find, and today there is nothing to please the reader with: “As for the actual Golden Horde narrative written sources, we have no more of them today than in the time of H. M. Frena, who was forced to state with disappointment: “in vain for 25 years I searched for such a special history of the Ulus of Jochi” ...” (Usmanov, 1979. P. 5). Thus, there are not yet in nature any narratives about Mongolian affairs written by the “filthy Golden Horde Tatars.”
Let's see what the Golden Horde is in the minds of A.I. Lyzlov's contemporaries. The Muscovites called this horde Golden. Its other name is the Great Horde. It included the lands of Bulgaria and the Trans-Volga Horde, “and along both countries of the Volga River, from the city of Kazan, which was not yet there then, and to the Yaik River, and to the Khvalissky Sea. And there they settled and created many cities, also called: Bolgars, Bylymat, Kuman, Korsun, Tura, Kazan, Aresk, Gormir, Arnach, Great Sarai, Chaldai, Astarakhan” (Lyzlov, 1990, p. 28).
The Trans-Volga, or “Factory” Horde, as foreigners called it, is the Nogai Horde. It was located between the Volga, Yaik and “Belya Voloshki”, below Kazan (Lyzlov, 1990, p. 18). “And those Ordinans tell stories about their beginnings. As if in those countries, from nowhere, there was a certain widow, a famous breed among them. This woman once gave birth to a son from fornication, named Tsyngis...” (Lyzlov, 1990, p. 19). Thus, the Mongols-Tatars-Moabites spread from the Caucasus to the northeast, beyond the Volga, from where they later moved to Kalka, and from the south from Minor Tataria, Christian wanderers, considered the main heroes of this battle, approached Kalka.
Empire of Genghis Khan (1227) according to the traditional version 
The state must have officials. They exist, for example the Baskaks. “Baskaks are like atamans or elders,” A.I. Lyzlov explains to us (Lyzlov, 1990, p. 27). Officials have paper and pens, otherwise they are not bosses. The textbooks say that princes and priests (officials) were given labels to rule. But Tatar officials, unlike modern Ukrainian or Estonian ones, learned the Russian language, that is, the language of the conquered people, in order to write the documents issued to the poor fellows in “their” language. “We note... that... not a single one of the Mongol written monuments has survived; Not a single document or label has been preserved in the original. Very little has reached us in translations” (Polevoy, T. 2. P. 558).
Well, okay, let’s say that when they were freed from the so-called Tatar-Mongol yoke, to celebrate, they burned everything written in Tatar-Mongolian. Apparently this is a joy, you can understand the Russian soul. But the memories of the princes and their associates are another matter - settled, literate people, aristocrats, who went to the Horde every now and then, lived for years (Borisov, 1997, p. 112). They had to leave notes in Russian. Where are these historical documents? And although time does not spare documents, it ages them, but it also creates them (see the end of lecture 1 and lecture 3, the end of the paragraph “Birch bark letters”). After all, for almost three hundred years... we went to the Horde. But there are no documents!? Here are the words: “Russian people have always been inquisitive and observant. They were interested in the life and customs of other peoples. Unfortunately, not a single detailed Russian description of the Horde has reached us” (Borisov, 1997, p. 112). It turns out that Russian curiosity has dried up on the Tatar Horde!
The Tatar-Mongols carried out raids. They took people captive. Contemporaries of these events and descendants painted pictures about this sad phenomenon. Let's consider one of them - a miniature from the Hungarian chronicle “The Hijacking of a Russian Full in the Horde” (1488):
Look at the faces of the Tatars. Bearded men, nothing Mongolian. Dressed neutrally, suitable for any nation. On their heads there are either turbans or caps, just like those of Russian peasants, archers or Cossacks.
The hijacking of a Russian full to the Horde (1488)
There is an interesting “memo” left by the Tatars about their campaign in Europe. On the tombstone of Henry II, who died in the Battle of Liegnitz, a “Tatar-Mongol” is depicted. In any case, this is how the drawing was explained to the European reader (see Fig. 1). The “Tatar” really looks like a Cossack or a Streltsy.
Fig.1. Image on the tombstone of Duke Henry II. The drawing is given in the book Hie travel of Marco Polo (Hie comlete Yule-Cordier edition. V 1,2. NY: Dover Publ., 1992) and is accompanied by the inscription: “The figure of a Tatar under the feet of Henry II, Duke of Silesia, Krakow and Poland, placed at the grave in Breslau of this prince, killed in the Battle of Liegnitz, April 9, 1241" (see: Nosovsky, Fomenko. Empire, p. 391)
Did they really not remember in Western Europe what the “bloodthirsty Tartars from the countless hordes of Batu” looked like!? Where are the Mongol-Tatar features of narrow-eyed people with a sparse beard... Did the artist confuse the so-called “Russian” with a “Tatar”!?
In addition to “regulatory” documents, other written sources remain from the past. For example, from the Golden Horde there remained grant acts (yarlyki), khan's letters of a diplomatic nature - messages (bitiks). Although for Russians the Mongols, as true polyglots, used Russian, there are documents in other languages addressed to non-Russian rulers... In the USSR there were 61 labels; but historians, busy writing textbooks, by 1979 had “mastered” only eight, and partially six more. There was (as it were) not enough time for the rest (Usmanov, 1979, pp. 12-13).
And in general, there are practically no documents left not only from Juchisva Ulus, but also from the entire “great empire”.
So what is the actual history of the Russian Empire, which claims brotherhood, unity and kinship with about 140 nations (
Introduction
Chapter II. Social order
Chapter III. Right of the Golden Horde
Conclusion
Introduction
At the beginning of 1243, a new state was formed in Central Eurasia - the Golden Horde - a power formed as a result of the collapse of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, on the territory of medieval Kazakhstan, as well as Rus', Crimea, the Volga region, the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Khorezm. It was founded by Batu Khan (1208-1255), the grandson of Genghis Khan as a result of the conquests of the Mongols.
This is how it is called in Russian chronicles and chronicles, in some Tatar historical narratives, including in “Idegei”. “Golden Horde” (“Altyn Urda”) meant a gilded headquarters, the residence of the ruler of the state: for the early period it was a “golden” tent, and for the developed, urban era it was a gilded khan’s palace.
In the works of Arab-Persian historical geography, this state is mainly called “Ulus Jochi”, “Mongol State” (“Mogul Ulus”) or “Great State” (“Ulug Ulus”), some authors also use the word “Horde” in the concept of headquarters Khan, the center of the state. There was also a traditional name “Dasht-i-Kipchak”, because the central lands of this state belonged to the Kipchaks-Polovtsians.
The Golden Horde occupied a huge territory not only for those times, but also from a modern point of view: from the Irtysh River and the western foothills of the Altai in the east and to the lower reaches of the Danube River in the west, from the famous Bulgar in the north to the Caucasian Derbent Gorge in the south. This huge state itself was still divided into two parts: the main, western part, i.e. the Golden Horde itself, was called “Altyn Urda, Ak Urda” (White) Horde, and the eastern part, which included the western territories of modern Kazakhstan and Central Asia, was called Kok (Blue) Horde. This division was based on the former ethnic border between the Kipchak and Oguz tribal unions. The words “golden” and “white” were simultaneously synonyms, complementing each other.
If the creators of the Golden Horde state were mainly the Mongol elite of the Chingizids, who were soon assimilated by the local population, then its ethnic basis was made up of the Turkic-speaking tribes of Eastern Europe, Western Siberia and the Aral-Caspian region: Kipchaks, Oguzes, Volga Bulgars, Madjars, remnants of the Khazars, some other Turkic ethnic formations and, undoubtedly, the Turkic-speaking Tatars, who moved from Central Asia to the west in pre-Mongol times, and also who came in the 20s - 40s of the 13th century as part of the armies of Genghis Khan and Batu Khan.
This entire gigantic territory was quite homogeneous in landscape terms - it was mainly steppe. Feudal law was also in effect in the steppe - all the land belonged to the feudal lord, to whom ordinary nomads obeyed.
The Mongol period is one of the most significant eras in all of Russian history. The Mongols ruled over all of Rus' for about a century, and even after their power in Western Rus' was limited in the mid-fourteenth century, they continued to exercise control over Eastern Russia, albeit in a milder form, for another century.
This was a period of profound changes in the entire political and social structure of the country, especially in Eastern Rus'. This period in the history of our country should be given as much attention as possible.
The main goal of the course work is to study one of the greatest states of the 13-15 centuries - the Golden Horde.
Chapter I. State system of the Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a feudal state of the developed Middle Ages. The highest power in the country belonged to the khan, and this title of head of state in the history of the entire Tatar people is associated mainly with the period of the Golden Horde. If the entire Mongol Empire was ruled by the dynasty of Genghis Khan (Genghisids), then the Golden Horde was ruled by the dynasty of his eldest son Jochi (Juchids). In the 60s of the 13th century, the empire was actually divided into independent states, but legally they were considered uluses of Genghis Khan.
Therefore, the system of state governance, established during his time, practically remained until the end of the existence of these states. Moreover, this tradition continued in the political and socio-economic life of those Tatar khanates that were formed after the fall of the Golden Horde. Naturally, some transformations and reforms were carried out, some new government and military positions appeared, but the entire state and social system as a whole remained stable.
Under the khan there was a divan - a state council, consisting of members of the royal dynasty (oglans-princes, brothers or other male relatives of the khan), large feudal princes, high clergy, and great military leaders.
Large feudal princes are noyons for the early Mongol period of the times of Batu and Berke, and for the Muslim, Tatar-Kipchak era of Uzbek and his successors - emirs and beks. Later, by the end of the 14th century, very influential and powerful beks with the name “Karacha-bi” appeared from the largest families of Shirin, Baryn, Argyn, Kipchak (these noble families were also the highest feudal-princely elite of almost all Tatar khanates that arose after the collapse Golden Horde).
At the divan there was also the position of bitikchi (scribe), who was essentially a secretary of state who had significant power in the country. Even large feudal lords and military leaders treated him with respect.
All this high elite of government is known from Eastern, Russian and Western European historical sources, as well as from the labels of the Golden Horde khans. The same documents record the titles of a large number of other officials, various government officials, medium or small feudal lords. The latter included, for example, tarkhans, who were exempt from taxes and duties for one or another public service, receiving so-called tarkhan labels from the khan.
A label is a khan's charter or decree that gives the right to government in individual uluses of the Golden Horde or states subordinate to it (for example, labels for the reign of Russian princes), the right to conduct diplomatic missions, other important government affairs abroad and within the country and, of course , to the right of land ownership by feudal lords of various ranks. In the Golden Horde, and then in the Kazan, Crimean and other Tatar khanates, there was a system of soyurgals - military fief ownership of land. The person who received the soyurgal from the khan had the right to collect in his own favor those taxes that previously went to the state treasury. According to Soyurgal, land was considered hereditary. Naturally, such great privileges were not given just like that. The feudal lord, who received legal rights, had to provide the army with an appropriate amount of cavalry, weapons, horse-drawn transport, provisions, etc. in wartime.
In addition to labels, there was a system of issuing so-called paizov. Paiza is a gold, silver, bronze, cast iron, or even just a wooden tablet, also issued on behalf of the khan as a kind of mandate. The person who presented such a mandate locally was provided with the necessary services during his movements and trips - guides, horses, carts, premises, food. It goes without saying that a person with a higher position in society received a gold paizu, and a simpler person received a wooden one. There is information about the presence of paits in the Golden Horde in written sources; they are also known as archaeological finds from the excavations of Saray-Berke, one of the capitals of the Golden Horde.
In the Ulus of Jochi there was a special position of the military bukaul, which was responsible for the distribution of troops and the dispatch of detachments; He was also responsible for military maintenance and allowances. Even ulus emirs - in wartime temniks - were subordinate to Bukaul. In addition to the main bukaul, there were bukauls of individual regions.
The clergy and, in general, representatives of the clergy in the Golden Horde, according to the records of labels and Arab-Persian historical geography, were represented by the following persons: the mufti - the head of the clergy; sheikh - spiritual leader and mentor, elder; Sufi - a pious, pious person, free from bad deeds, or an ascetic; qadi - a judge who decides cases according to Sharia, that is, according to the code of Muslim laws.
The Baskaks and Darukhachi (Darukha) played a major role in the political and social life of the Golden Horde state. The first of them were military representatives of the authorities, military guards, the second were civilians with the duties of a governor or manager, one of whose main functions was control over the collection of tribute. The position of baskak was abolished at the beginning of the 14th century, and darukhachi, as governors of the central government or heads of administrations of darug regions, existed even during the period of the Kazan Khanate.
Under the baskak or under the daruhach there was the position of tribute, i.e. their assistant in collecting tribute - yasak. He was a kind of bitikchi (secretary) for yasak affairs. In general, the position of bitikchi in the Ulus of Jochi was quite common and was considered responsible and respected. In addition to the main bitikchi under the khan's divan-council, there were bitikchi under the ulus divans, who enjoyed great power locally. They could, for example, be compared with the volost clerks of pre-revolutionary Russia, who performed almost all government work in the outback.
There were a number of other officials in the system of government officials who are known mainly by khan's labels. These are: “ilche” (envoy), “tamgachy” (customs officer), “tartanakchy” (tax collector or weigher), “totkaul” (outpost), “guard” (watch), “yamchy” (postal), “koshchy” (falconer), “barschy” (leopard keeper), “kimeche” (boatman or shipbuilder), “bazaar and torganl[n]ar” (guardians of order at the bazaar). These positions are known by the labels of Tokhtamysh in 1391 and Timur-Kutluk in 1398.
Most of these civil servants existed during the periods of the Kazan, Crimean and other Tatar khanates. It is also very noteworthy that the vast majority of these medieval terms and titles are literally understandable to any modern person who speaks the Tatar language - they are written like this in documents of the 14th and 16th centuries, and they still sound like this today.
The same can be said about the various types of duties that were levied on the nomadic and sedentary population, as well as about various border duties: “salyg” (poll tax), “kalan” (quitrent), “yasak” (tribute), “herazh” "("haraj" is an Arabic word meaning a 10 percent tax on Muslim peoples), "burych" (debt, arrears), "chygysh" (exit, expense), "yndyr haky" (payment for the threshing floor), "barn is small "(barn duty), "burla tamgasy" (residential tamga), "yul khaky" (road toll), "karaulyk" (fee for guard duty), "tartanak" (weight, as well as tax on import and export), "tamga "(there is a duty there).
In the most general form, he described the administrative system of the Golden Horde back in the 13th century. G. Rubruk, who traveled the entire state from west to east. His sketch of the traveler contains the basis of the administrative-territorial division of the Golden Horde, defined by the concept of “ulus system”.
Its essence was the right of nomadic feudal lords to receive from the khan himself or another large steppe aristocrat a certain inheritance - an ulus. For this, the owner of the ulus was obliged to field, if necessary, a certain number of fully armed soldiers (depending on the size of the ulus), as well as to perform various tax and economic duties.
This system was an exact copy of the structure of the Mongol army: the entire state - the Great Ulus - was divided in accordance with the rank of the owner (temnik, thousand-man, centurion, foreman) - into definite-sized destinies, and from each of them, in case of war, ten, hundred , a thousand or ten thousand armed warriors. At the same time, uluses were not hereditary possessions that could be transferred from father to son. Moreover, the khan could take away the ulus completely or replace it with another.
In the initial period of the existence of the Golden Horde, there were apparently no more than 15 large uluses, and rivers most often served as the borders between them. This shows a certain primitiveness of the administrative division of the state, rooted in old nomadic traditions.
The further development of statehood, the emergence of cities, the introduction of Islam, and closer acquaintance with Arab and Persian traditions of governance led to various complications in the domains of the Jochids, with the simultaneous withering away of Central Asian customs dating back to the time of Genghis Khan.
Instead of dividing the territory into two wings, four uluses appeared, led by ulusbeks. One of the uluses was the personal domain of the khan. He occupied the steppes of the left bank of the Volga from its mouth to the Kama.
Each of these four uluses was divided into a certain number of “regions”, which were uluses of feudal lords of the next rank.
In total, the number of such “regions” in the Golden Horde in the 14th century. was about 70 in number of temniks. Simultaneously with the establishment of the administrative-territorial division, the formation of the state administration apparatus took place.
The Khan, who stood at the top of the pyramid of power, spent most of the year at his headquarters wandering across the steppes, surrounded by his wives and a huge number of courtiers. He spent only a short winter period in the capital. The moving khan's horde headquarters seemed to emphasize that the main power of the state continued to be based on a nomadic beginning. Naturally, it was quite difficult for the khan, who was in constant motion, to manage the affairs of the state himself. This is also emphasized by sources that directly report that the supreme ruler “pays attention only to the essence of affairs, without going into the details of the circumstances, and is content with what is reported to him, but does not seek out details regarding collection and expenditure.”
The entire Horde army was commanded by a military leader - beklyaribek, that is, the prince of princes, the grand duke. Beklyaribek usually exercised military power, often being the commander of the khan's army. Sometimes his influence exceeded the power of the khan, which often led to bloody civil strife. From time to time, the power of the Beklyaribeks, for example, Nogai, Mamai, Edigei, increased so much that they themselves appointed khans.
As statehood strengthened in the Golden Horde, the administrative apparatus grew, its rulers took as a model the administration of the Khorezmshah state conquered by the Mongols. According to this model, a vizier appeared under the khan, a kind of head of government who was responsible for all spheres of the non-military life of the state. The vizier and the divan (state council) headed by him controlled finances, taxes, and trade. Foreign policy was in charge of the khan himself with his closest advisers, as well as the beklyaribek.
The heyday of the Horde state was marked by the highest level and quality of life in Europe at that time. The rise occurred almost during the reign of one ruler - Uzbek (1312 - 1342). The state took upon itself the responsibility to protect the lives of its citizens, administer justice, and organize social, cultural and economic life.
All this testifies to the well-coordinated state mechanism of the Golden Horde with all the attributes that are necessary for the existence and development of a large medieval state: central and local government bodies, a judicial and tax system, a customs service and a strong army.
Chapter II. Social order
The social structure of the Golden Horde was complex and reflected the variegated class and national composition of this predatory state. There was no clear class organization of society, similar to that which existed in Rus' and in Western European feudal states and which was based on hierarchical feudal ownership of land.
The status of a subject of the Golden Horde depended on his origin, services to the khan and his family, and his position in the military-administrative apparatus.
In the military-feudal hierarchy of the Golden Horde, the dominant position was occupied by the aristocratic family of the descendants of Genghis Khan and his son Jochi. This numerous family owned all the land of the state, it owned huge herds, palaces, many servants and slaves, innumerable wealth, military booty, the state treasury, etc.
Subsequently, the Jochids and other descendants of Genghis Khan retained a privileged position in the Central Asian khanates and in Kazakhstan for centuries, securing the monopoly right to bear the title of sultan and occupy the khan's throne.
The Khan had the richest and largest ulus type domain. The Jochids had a preferential right to occupy the highest government posts. In Russian sources they were called princes. They were awarded state and military titles and ranks.
The next level in the military-feudal hierarchy of the Golden Horde was occupied by noyons (in eastern sources - beks). Not being members of the Juchids, they nevertheless traced their genealogy back to the associates of Genghis Khan and their sons. The Noyons had many servants and dependent people, huge herds. They were often appointed by khans to responsible military and government positions: darugs, temniks, thousand officers, baskaks, etc. They were awarded tarkhan letters, which exempted them from various duties and responsibilities. The signs of their power were labels and paizi.
A special place in the hierarchical structure of the Golden Horde was occupied by numerous nukers - warriors of large feudal lords. They were either in the retinue of their lords, or occupied middle and lower military administrative positions - centurions, foremen, etc. These positions made it possible to extract significant income from the population of those territories where the corresponding military units were stationed or where they were sent, or where nukers occupied administrative positions. positions.
From among the nukers and other privileged people, a small layer of tarkhans advanced to the Golden Horde, who received tarkhan letters from the khan or his senior officials, in which their owners were granted various privileges.
The ruling classes also included numerous clergy, primarily Muslim, merchants and rich artisans, local feudal lords, clan and tribal elders and leaders, large landowners in the settled agricultural regions of Central Asia, the Volga region, the Caucasus and Crimea.
The peasantry of agricultural regions, urban artisans, and servants were in varying degrees of dependence on the state and feudal lords. The bulk of the workers in the steppes and foothills of the Golden Horde were Karacha - nomadic cattle breeders. They were part of clans and tribes and were forced to unquestioningly obey clan and tribal elders and leaders, as well as representatives of the military-administrative power of the Horde. Carrying out all the economic duties, the Karachus at the same time had to serve in the army.
In the agricultural regions of the Horde, feudal dependent peasants worked. Some of them - Sabanchi - lived in rural communities and, in addition to the plots of feudal land allocated for them, worked and carried out other duties in kind. Others - urtakchi (sharecroppers) - bonded people worked the land of the state and local feudal lords for half the harvest, and bore other duties.
Artisans driven from conquered countries worked in the cities. Many of them were in the position of slaves or people dependent on the khan and other rulers. Small traders and servants also depended on the arbitrariness of the authorities and their masters. Even wealthy merchants and independent artisans paid taxes to the city authorities and carried out various duties.
Slavery was a fairly common phenomenon in the Golden Horde. First of all, captives and residents of conquered lands became slaves. Slaves were used in craft production, construction, and as servants of feudal lords. Many slaves were sold to the countries of the East. However, most slaves, both in cities and in agriculture, after one or two generations became feudal dependents or received freedom.
The Golden Horde did not remain unchanged, borrowing a lot from the Muslim East: crafts, architecture, bathhouses, tiles, ornamental decor, painted dishes, Persian poetry, Arabic geometry and astrolabes, morals and tastes more sophisticated than those of simple nomads.
Having extensive connections with Anatolia, Syria and Egypt, the Horde replenished the army of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt with Turkic and Caucasian slaves, and the Horde culture acquired a certain Muslim-Mediterranean imprint. Egorov V.L. Golden Horde: myths and reality. - M.: Publishing house “Knowledge”, 1990. P.129.
Islam became the state religion in the Golden Horde by 1320, but, unlike other Islamic states, this did not lead to the total Islamization of its society, state and legal institutions. A feature of the judicial system of the Golden Horde, firstly, was the above-mentioned coexistence of the institutions of traditional Mongolian justice - the dzargu courts and the Muslim qadi court; At the same time, there was no conflict between seemingly incompatible legal systems: representatives of each of them considered cases within their exclusive jurisdiction.
Chapter III. Right of the Golden Horde
The judicial system of the Golden Horde has not yet become the object of independent research either by oriental historians or legal historians. The question of the organization of the court and process of the Golden Horde was only touched upon in works devoted to the history of this state, in particular in the study of B.D. Grekova and A.Yu. Yakubovsky Grekov B.D., Yakubovsky A.Yu. The Golden Horde and its fall, as well as in the work of G.V. Vernadsky “Mongols and Rus'” Vernadsky G.V. History of Russia: Mongols and Rus'.
American researcher D. Ostrovsky, in an article devoted to the comparison of the Golden Horde and Russian state legal institutions, limits himself to a brief mention of the Supreme Court of the Golden Horde. Ostrovsky D. Mongolian roots of Russian state institutions American Russian studies: Milestones of historiography in recent years. The period of Kievan and Muscovite Rus': An Anthology. Samara, 2001. P. 159..
The bodies administering justice in the Mongol Empire were: the court of the Great Khan, the court of the kurultai - a congress of representatives of the ruling family and military leaders, the court of specially appointed persons - judges-dzarguchi T. D. Skrynnikova. Legal proceedings in the Mongol Empire Altaica VII - M., 2002. P. 163-174.. All these bodies operated in the Golden Horde.
As in the Mongol Empire, the highest court was the rulers of the Golden Horde, who in the second half of the 13th century. received first actual and then official independence and accepted the title of khan. Justice as one of the functions of the khan's power was inherited by the Mongols from the ancient Turks: already in the Turkic Khaganate in the VI-IX centuries. Khagan is the highest court.
The central government in Mongolia recognized the right of the actual founder of the Golden Horde, Batu (Batu, ruled in 1227-1256) to try the noyons and officials subordinate to him, although with the proviso that “the judge of Batu is the kaan.”
Subsequent khans of the Golden Horde also actively carried out judicial functions. It was under Mengu-Timur, the grandson of Batu, in 1269. The Golden Horde officially became an independent state, and its rulers became sovereign sovereigns, one of the integral signs of whose power was the exercise of the function of the supreme judge.
Based on what legal norms did the khans make court decisions? The main source of law in the Mongol Empire and the Chingizid states were the so-called yas (laws) of Genghis Khan (collectively called the Great Yasa) and his successors - the great khans. The Great Yasa of the founder of the empire and the yasa of his successors constituted the main source of law for all bodies administering justice, including the khan. Other sources should not contradict the jars.
The Great Yasa of Genghis Khan, compiled in 1206 as an edification to his successors, consisted of 33 fragments and 13 sayings of the khan himself. The Yasa contained mainly the rules of the military organization of the Mongol army and the norms of criminal law. It was distinguished by the unprecedented cruelty of punishment not only for crimes, but also for misdeeds.
Another important source is the labels of the khans themselves. A label was any document issued on behalf of the supreme ruler - the khan and which had certain characteristics (had a certain structure, was equipped with a scarlet seal - tamga, was addressed to persons of lower position than the person who issued it, etc.). Oral and written orders and instructions of the khans were the highest law for their subjects, including the feudal nobility, subject to immediate and unquestioning execution. They were used in the practice of government bodies of the Golden Horde and senior state officials.
Not all labels were sources of law that were used to guide the administration of justice. For example, yarlyk-messages, which were not legal, but diplomatic documents, could not serve as sources of law for khans (and lower ulus judges); Nor were labels - letters of protection and letters of protection, issued in large numbers to diplomats and private individuals - sources for the court.
However, there were other labels that can be considered sources of law, and which were guided by the khans of the Golden Horde and the judges subordinate to them - these are the decrees of the rulers of various Chingizid states mentioned in historical chronicles and chronicles (for example, the “firmans” of the Persian Ilkhan Ghazan cited by Rashid ad-Din “ On the elimination of fraud and unfounded claims”, “On the award of the position of Casius”, “On claims thirty years ago”), labels-agreements with Venice that have come down to us in Latin and Italian translations. The work of Muhammad ibn-Hindushah Nakhichevan (a close associate of the Jelairid rulers of Iran) “Dastur al-Katib” (XIV century) contains labels that describe the procedure for appointing the “emir yargu” (i.e., judge) and his powers.
It is logical to assume that the khan, being the creator of law (he confirmed or repealed the decisions of his predecessors, issued his own labels and other normative and individual acts), was not bound by any norms. In making decisions, the khans were guided not only by their will, but also by written documents - jars and labels of Genghis Khan and his successors.
The difference between these sources of law was that the jars were permanent laws, which subsequent rulers were prohibited from changing, while each label was valid only during the life (reign) of the khan who issued it, and the next khan could, at his own discretion, either confirm, or cancel its action.
The Khan's court was only one, albeit the highest, judicial authority. In addition to the Khan's court, there were other courts to which he delegated judicial powers as needed. There is information that kurultai administered justice in the Golden Horde, as well as in Mongolia.
References to the kurultai court are quite rare in sources. It can be assumed that his judicial function was only a tribute to the ancient Mongol tradition and was soon reduced to nothing, as, indeed, were his other functions. This is due to the fact that these functions were transferred at the beginning of the 14th century. to the Karachibeys - the ancestral princes who became something like a “state council” under the khan of the Golden Horde.
In addition to the princes, judicial functions were also performed by darugs - governors of the regions of the Golden Horde.
The sources of law on the basis of which the princes and darugs administered justice were jars and labels, which were also binding on the khan himself. In addition, the princes could largely be guided by their own discretion, which they correlated with the political situation and the personal position of the khan.
The next judicial authority was, just like in the Mongol Empire, the court itself - “dzargu” (or “yargu”). The legal basis for the activities of dzargu courts was primarily the jars and yarlyks of the great khans and khans of the Golden Horde.
The labels appointing judges (dzarguchi) expressly require that decisions be made on the basis of Yasa. Decisions were supposed to be written down in special letters “yargu-name” (this, in principle, corresponds to the order of Genghis Khan: “Let them be written down in the Blue Painting Coco Defter-Bicic , then binding into books... court decisions”, which was carried out by a special staff of scribes - “divan yargu”. Researchers, not without reason, believe that a similar order existed in the Golden Horde.
Thus, these “Blue Paintings” are another source that guided the judges of the Golden Horde. The qadi judges, who appeared in the Golden Horde after Islam became the official religion (in the 1320s), relied on traditional Muslim sources of law - Sharia and fiqh (doctrine).
Finally, we should consider another judicial institution, the emergence of which can only be explained by the international relations of the Golden Horde: a joint court of representatives of the authorities of the Golden Horde and other states, which operated in areas where there were lively relations between merchants of the Golden Horde and other states, diplomats, etc.
First of all, this applies to the Black Sea region, which long before the emergence of the Golden Horde became a center of international trade and diplomacy. The special status of this region lay in the fact that its population lived and conducted business, as a rule, not only according to the laws of the state that was considered its overlord (which was formally the Golden Horde in the 13th-15th centuries), but also in accordance with the historical established norms of international law, business customs, which were a kind of mixture of Byzantine, Turkic, Persian, Arab and other legal systems, whose representatives had interests in the region. Accordingly, the authorities of the Golden Horde had to take these realities into account in their legislative and judicial practice.
Based on the general principles of the Great Yasa, as well as on the specific labels of the khans, the judges of the “international courts” were largely guided by their own discretion, which, like the court princes, was correlated with the current political situation and the personal position of the khan or his immediate superior - the darug, and representatives of the Italian republics, respectively, their consul and the government of the republics.
The judges' own discretion reflected a trend common at that time in the legal proceedings of the Italian trading republics: judges (official and arbitration) made decisions that corresponded to the peculiarities of the moment, giving preference to public opinion and the current situation.
To a greater extent, it reflected the principle of ijtihad accepted in Islamic law - the free discretion of a judge (later a legal scholar) in the event of silence on a given issue by a generally recognized source of law.
The law of the Golden Horde is characterized by extreme cruelty, legalized arbitrariness of feudal lords and state officials, archaism and formal uncertainty.
Property relations in the Golden Horde were regulated by customary law and were very complicated. This especially applies to land relations - the basis of feudal society. Ownership of the land and the entire territory of the state belonged to the ruling khan family of the Jochids. In a nomadic economy, land inheritance was difficult. Therefore, it took place mainly in agricultural areas. The owners of the estates, naturally, had to bear various vassal duties to the khan or the local ruler appointed by him. In the khan family, power was a special object of inheritance, and political power was combined with the right of ownership of the land of the ulus. The youngest son was considered the heir. According to Mongolian law, the youngest son generally had priority in inheritance.
The family and marriage law of the Mongol-Tatars and the nomadic peoples subject to them were regulated by ancient customs and, to a lesser extent, by Sharia. The head of the patriarchal polygamous family, which formed part of the ail, clan, was the father. He was the owner of all the family property and controlled the fate of the family members under his control. Thus, the father of an impoverished family had the right to give his children into service for debts and even sell them into slavery. The number of wives was not limited (Muslims could have no more than four legal wives). Children of wives and concubines were legally in an equal position, with some advantages for sons from older wives and legal wives among Muslims. After the death of the husband, management of all family affairs passed into the hands of the eldest wife. This continued until the sons became adult warriors.
The criminal law of the Golden Horde was exceptionally cruel. This stemmed from the very nature of the military-feudal system of the Golden Horde, the despotic power of Genghis Khan and his successors, the severity of the attitude of low general culture inherent in a nomadic pastoral society located in the very initial stage of feudalism.
Cruelty and organized terror were one of the conditions for establishing and maintaining long-term domination over the conquered peoples. According to the Great Yasa, the death penalty was imposed for treason, disobedience to the khan and other feudal lords, and officials, unauthorized transfer from one military unit to another, failure to provide assistance in battle, compassion for a prisoner in the form of helping him with food and clothing, for advice and assistance from one of the parties in a duel lying to elders in court, appropriation of someone else's slave or escaped captive. It was also imposed in some cases for murder, property crimes, adultery, bestiality, spying on the behavior of others and especially the nobility and authorities, magic, slaughter of cattle in an unknown way, urinating in fire and ashes; They even executed those who choked on a bone during the feast. The death penalty, as a rule, was carried out publicly and in ways characteristic of a nomadic way of life, by strangulation on a rope suspended from the neck of a camel or horse, or by dragging by horses.
Other types of punishment were also used, for example, for domestic murder, a ransom in favor of the victim’s relatives was allowed. The size of the ransom was determined by the social status of the murdered person. For the theft of horses and sheep, nomads demanded a tenfold ransom. If the culprit was insolvent, he was obliged to sell his children and thus pay a ransom. In this case, the thief, as a rule, was mercilessly beaten with whips. In criminal proceedings, during the investigation, witnesses were brought in, oaths were pronounced, and cruel torture was used. In a military-feudal organization, the search for an undetected or escaped criminal was entrusted to the dozen or hundreds to which he belonged. Otherwise, the entire ten or hundred were responsible.
Chapter IV. The influence of the Horde on the Russian state and law
The origins of the phenomenon of Russian imperial statehood, of which the Russian Empire was a clear embodiment, are based on a symbiosis of three components: the ancient Russian statehood of Kievan Rus, the impetus for the creation of which was the arrival of the Varangians or Normans who came from the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia to Rus'; the ideological and cultural tradition of the Byzantine Empire through Orthodox Christianity, and the imperial heritage of the Golden Horde.
The question of the influence of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the establishment of Horde rule on the history of Russia has long been a controversial one. There are three main points of view on this problem in Russian historiography.
Firstly, this is a recognition of the very significant and predominantly positive impact of the conquerors on the development of Rus', which pushed the process of creating a unified Moscow (Russian) state. The founder of this point of view was N.M. Karamzin, and in the 30s of the last century it was developed by the so-called Eurasians. At the same time, unlike L.N. Gumileva, Gumilyov L.N. “Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe,” which in its research painted a picture of good neighborly and allied relations between Rus' and the Horde, did not deny such obvious facts as the ruinous campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars on Russian lands, the collection of heavy tribute, etc.
Other historians (among them S.M. Solovyov, V.O. Klyuchevsky, S.F. Platonov) assessed the impact of the conquerors on the internal life of ancient Russian society as extremely insignificant. They believed that the processes that took place in the second half of the 13th - 15th centuries either organically followed from the trends of the previous period, or arose independently of the Horde.
Finally, many historians are characterized by a sort of intermediate position. The influence of the conquerors is regarded as noticeable, but not determining the development of Rus' (and definitely negative). The creation of a unified state, according to B.D. Grekov, A.N. Nasonov, V.A. Kuchkin and others, happened not thanks to, but in spite of the Horde.
In relation to Rus', the conquerors were content with its complete subjugation, establishing the institution of Baskaks-tax collectors on the ancient Russian lands, but without changing the social structure. Subsequently, tax collection became the responsibility of local Russian princes, who recognized the power of the Golden Horde.
The Horde sought to actively influence the political life of Rus'. The efforts of the conquerors were aimed at preventing the consolidation of Russian lands by pitting some principalities against others and weakening them mutually. Sometimes the khans went to change the territorial and political structure of Rus' for these purposes: on the initiative of the Horde, new principalities were formed (Nizhny Novgorod) or the territories of old ones were divided (Vladimir).
It was the Golden Horde state system that became the prototype of Russian imperial statehood. This was manifested in the establishment of an authoritarian tradition of government, a strictly centralized social system, discipline in military affairs and religious tolerance. Although, of course, there were deviations from these principles in certain periods of Russian history.
In addition, medieval Kazakhstan, Rus', Crimea, the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Khorezm and other lands subject to the Horde were involved in the financial system of the Golden Horde empire, which was at a higher level. The conquerors created an effective, centuries-old Yam system of communications and a network of postal organizations in a large part of Eurasia, including the territory of Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Mongol conquest radically changed the social structure of Ancient Rus'. The princes were converted into subjects - governors of the great khan of the Golden Horde. According to Mongolian state law, all conquered land was recognized as the property of the khan, and the princes - the khan's governors were only the owners of the land and tax-paying people within the will of the khan. This is how the Mongols looked at the Russian lands, which were subject to the free disposal of the conqueror.
Having deprived the appanage Russian states of political independence and dominating them from afar, the conqueror left intact the internal state structure and the law of the Russian people, and, among other legal institutions, the clan order of succession to princely power. But during the era of Mongol rule, the Russian prince, defeated in the struggle for a disputed patrimonial inheritance, had the opportunity to call his rival to the court of the khan and bring the Tatar army against him if he managed to win over the Horde in his favor. So, Alexander Nevsky, defending his right to the Vladimir table, went to the Horde and begged the khan to give him seniority over all his brothers on Suzdal land.
The khans of the Golden Horde often acted as international arbiters, resolving disputes between their vassal rulers in the Caucasus, the Middle East, and Rus'. One of the well-known examples is the submission of a dispute about the Moscow Great Table to Khan Ulug-Muhammad in 1432: despite the decision made by the Moscow princely house not to involve the Jochids in internal contradictions, the boyar of Grand Duke Vasily II Ivan Vsevolozhsky - the de facto ruler of the Moscow Grand Duchy - resorted to to the khan's court and managed to achieve a decision in favor of his patron, appealing not to the “dead letter of his father” (unlike Yuri Zvenigorodsky, the uncle and opponent of Vasily II), but to the “salary, deuterem and label” of the khan himself.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow was divided into districts, which were under the rule of the princes. Counties were divided into camps or black volosts, where princely chiefs or volostels ruled. The camps were divided into cook , which were governed by elected elders or centurions.
In the 16th century Although there was a steady increase in the power of the Moscow sovereigns, who, by force of arms, absorbed such fragments of the Golden Horde as the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian (on Tobol) khanates, the Moscow state experienced a strong onslaught from the Crimean Khanate, and which stood the then powerful Ottoman Empire. The Crimean Tatar hordes reached the outskirts of Moscow and even captured the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda - the residence of the winner of Kazan, Astrakhan and the Siberian Khanate on Tobol - the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. This struggle for hegemony in the Eurasian heritage of the Golden Horde dragged on until the end of the 17th century, when the Muscovite state stopped paying tribute, albeit irregularly, the so-called “wake”, to the Crimean Khanate. And this happened during the reign of Tsar Peter I, who transformed the Moscow state into the Russian Empire.
The policy of the Russian Empire towards the nomadic peoples and successor states of the Golden Horde, until they had not yet become subjects of the Russian crown, in particular the Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs, Crimean Tatars, largely bore the stamp of fear, at least until the beginning of the 19th century, since the times of the Golden Horde rule before the possible unification of these peoples.
The final point in this centuries-old competition in favor of the Russian state was set at the end of the 18th century, when the last Turkic states - the heirs of the Golden Horde - the Nogai Horde, the Kazakh and Crimean khanates became part of the Russian Empire. Only the Khanate of Khiva remained outside Russian control on the territory of the Khorezm oasis. But in the second half of the 19th century, Khiva was conquered by Russian troops and the Khanate of Khiva became a vassal principality within Russia. History has taken another turn in a spiral - everything has returned to normal. The Eurasian power was reborn, albeit in a different guise.
golden horde right state
Conclusion
The goal of the course research was achieved by implementing the assigned tasks. As a result of the research conducted on the topic “Government and legal system of the Golden Horde (XIII-XV centuries)” a number of conclusions can be drawn:
The origins of the Chingizid institution go back to the 13th century in the Great Mongolian Ulus, created by Genghis Khan and repeating the situation of the birth of the new power elite of its predecessor - the Turkic Kaganate of the 6th century, when a ruling class appeared, no longer associated with any one tribe. The Genghisids were a supra-tribal grouping of the highest aristocracy that regulated the system of power relations within the states that were the successors to the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire was a highly organized state, where there was a unified and strong order over a vast territory.
The Golden Horde was created by the descendants of Genghis Khan in the first half of the 13th century. Its territory extended from the banks of the Dniester in the West to Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan in the East, also including at some stages of its history a number of Middle Eastern, Caucasian and Central Asian regions. At the beginning of the 16th century. The Golden Horde broke up into a number of states - the Crimean, Kazan, Astrakhan khanates, the Nogai Horde, etc., which were the heirs of the political, state and legal traditions of the Golden Horde. Some of these states existed for quite a long time: the Kazakh khanates - until the middle of the 19th century, and the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva - until the beginning of the 20th century.
The Golden Horde was one of the largest states of the Middle Ages, whose possessions were located in Europe and Asia. Its military power constantly kept all its neighbors in suspense and was not challenged by anyone for a very long time.
A huge territory, a large population, a strong central government, a large combat-ready army, skillful use of trade caravan routes, extorting tribute from conquered peoples, all this created the power of the Horde empire. It grew stronger and stronger in the first half of the 14th century. experienced the peak of its power.
Justice in the Golden Horde generally corresponded to the level of development of the court in various countries of the world - both European and Asian. The peculiarities of the court of the Golden Horde are explained both by the uniqueness of the legal consciousness of its society and by the combination of a number of other factors - the influence of the traditions of the regions over which the power of the Juchids extended, the adoption of Islam, nomadic traditions, etc.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion and the yoke of the Golden Horde that followed the invasion played a huge role in the history of our country. After all, the rule of the nomads lasted for almost two and a half centuries, and during this time the yoke managed to put a significant imprint on the fate of the Russian people.
The Mongol-Tatar conquests led to a significant deterioration in the international position of the Russian principalities. Ancient trade and cultural ties with neighboring states were forcibly severed. The invasion dealt a strong destructive blow to the culture of the Russian principalities. Numerous monuments, icon paintings and architecture were destroyed in the fire of the Mongol-Tatar invasions.
While the Western European states, which were not attacked, gradually moved from feudalism to capitalism, Rus', torn apart by the conquerors, retained the feudal economy.
This period in the history of our country is very important, since it predetermined the further development of Ancient Rus'. The true beginning of the greatness of Russia, as a great state, with all the significance of Kievan Rus, was laid not on the Dnieper, not by the Slavs and Varangians, and not even by the Byzantines, but by the Horde.
Due to historical circumstances, ancient Russian statehood did not develop to the imperial level, but followed the path of fragmentation and fell under the onslaught of the Turkic-Mongol nomads of the Great Steppe, who created the world Eurasian power - the Golden Horde, which became the forerunner of the Russian Empire.
List of used literature
1. Barabanov O. N. Arbitration court in the Genoese community of the 15th century: Judicial practice of Bartolomeo Bosco // Black Sea region in the Middle Ages. Vol. 4. St. Petersburg, 2000.
Vernadsky G.V. What the Mongols gave Russia//Rodina.-1997.- No. 3-4.
Grekov B. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu. The Golden Horde and its fall. - M., 1998. Vernadsky G.V. History of Russia: Mongols and Rus'. - M., 2000.
Grigoriev A.P., Grigoriev V.P. Collection of Golden Horde documents of the 14th century from Venice. - St. Petersburg, 2002.
Gumilev L.N. Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe. - M., 1992.
Egorov V.L. Golden Horde: myths and reality. - M.: Publishing house “Knowledge”, 1990.
Ostrovsky D. Mongolian roots of Russian government institutions // American Russian Studies: Milestones of Historiography of Recent Years. The period of Kievan and Muscovite Rus': An Anthology. - Samara, 2001.
Skrynnikova T.D. Legal proceedings in the Mongol Empire // Altaica VII. - M., 2002.
Soloviev K. A. Evolution of forms of legitimacy of state power in ancient and medieval Rus'. // International historical journal. - 1999. -No. 2.
Fakhrutdinov R.G. History of the Tatar people and Tatarstan. (Antiquity and Middle Ages). Textbook for secondary schools, gymnasiums and lyceums. - Kazan: Magarif, 2000.
Fedorov-Davydov G.F. Social structure of the Golden Horde. - M., 1993
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History of the Golden Horde.
Education of the Golden Horde.
Golden Horde It began as a separate state in 1224, when Batu Khan came to power, and in 1266 it finally left the Mongol Empire.
It is worth noting that the term “Golden Horde” was coined by the Russians, many years after the Khanate collapsed - in the middle of the 16th century. Three centuries earlier, these territories were called differently, and there was no single name for them.
Lands of the Golden Horde.
Genghis Khan, Batu’s grandfather, divided his empire equally between his sons - and in general its lands occupied almost the entire continent. Suffice it to say that in 1279 the Mongol Empire stretched from the Danube to the coast of the Sea of Japan, from the Baltic to the borders of present-day India. And these conquests took only about 50 years - and a considerable part of them belonged to Batu.
Dependence of Rus' on the Golden Horde.
In the 13th century, Rus' surrendered under the pressure of the Golden Horde.. True, it was not easy to cope with the conquered country; the princes sought independence, so from time to time the khans made new campaigns, ravaging cities and punishing the disobedient. This went on for almost 300 years - until in 1480 the Tatar-Mongol yoke was finally thrown off.
Capital of the Golden Horde.
The internal structure of the Horde was not very different from the feudal system of other countries. The empire was divided into many principalities, or uluses, ruled by minor khans, who were subordinate to one great khan.
Capital of the Golden Horde during the time of Batu it was in the city Saray-Batu, and in the 14th century it was moved to Saray-Berke.
Khans of the Golden Horde.
The most famous Khans of the Golden Horde- these are those from whom Rus' suffered the most damage and ruin, among them:
- Batu, from which the Tatar-Mongol name began
- Mamai, defeated on the Kulikovo Field
- Tokhtamysh, who went on a campaign to Rus' after Mamai to punish the rebels.
- Edigei, who made a devastating raid in 1408, shortly before the yoke was finally thrown off.
Golden Horde and Rus': the fall of the Golden Horde.
Like many feudal states, the Golden Horde eventually collapsed and ceased to exist due to internal turmoil.
The process began in the middle of the 14th century, when Astrakhan and Khorezm separated from the Horde. In 1380, Rus' began to rise, having defeated Mamai on the Kulikovo Field. But the biggest mistake of the Horde was the campaign against the empire of Tamerlane, who dealt a mortal blow to the Mongols.
In the 15th century, the Golden Horde, once strong, split into the Siberian, Crimean and Kazan khanates. Over time, these territories were subject to the Horde less and less, in 1480 Rus' finally emerged from under oppression.
Thus, years of existence of the Golden Horde: 1224-1481. In 1481, Khan Akhmat was killed. This year is considered to be the end of the existence of the Golden Horde. However, it completely collapsed during the reign of his children, at the beginning of the 16th century.
In 1483, the fall of the Golden Horde occurred - the largest state in Eurasia, which for two and a half centuries terrified all neighboring peoples and bound Rus' with the chains of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This event, which influenced the entire future fate of our Motherland, was of such great importance that it should be discussed in more detail.
Ulus Jochi
The works of many Russian historians are devoted to this issue, among whom the monograph by Grekov and Yakubovsky “The Golden Horde and Its Fall” enjoys great success among readers. In order to more fully and objectively cover the topic that interests us, we will, in addition to the works of other authors, use this very interesting and informative book.
From historical documents that have reached us, it is known that the term “Golden Horde” came into use no earlier than 1566, that is, more than a hundred years after the death of this state itself, which was called Ulus Jochi. Its first part is translated as “people” or “state”, while the second is the name of the elder and here’s why.
Son of a Conqueror
The fact is that once the territory of the Golden Horde was part of the united Mongol Empire with its capital Karakorum. Its creator and ruler was the famous Genghis Khan, who united various Turkic tribes under his rule and horrified the world with countless conquests. However, in 1224, feeling the onset of old age, he divided his state between his sons, providing each with power and wealth.
He transferred most of the territory to his eldest son, whose name was Jochi Batu, and his name became part of the name of the newly created Khanate, which was subsequently significantly expanded and went down in history as the Golden Horde. The fall of this state was preceded by two and a half centuries of prosperity based on the blood and suffering of enslaved peoples.
Having become the founder and first ruler of the Golden Horde, Jochi Batu entered our history under the slightly changed name of Khan Batu, who in 1237 threw his cavalry to conquer the vast expanses of Rus'. But before he dared to undertake this very risky undertaking, he needed complete freedom from the tutelage of his formidable parent.
Continuing his father's work
After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, Jochi gained independence and, with several victorious but very grueling campaigns, increased his wealth and also expanded the inherited territories. Only after this, Khan Batu, feeling ready for new conquests, attacked Volga Bulgaria, and then conquered the tribes of the Polovtsians and Alans. Next in line was Rus'.
In their monograph “The Golden Horde and Its Fall,” Yakubovsky and Grekov point out that it was in battles with the Russian princes that the Tatar-Mongols exhausted their strength to such an extent that they were forced to abandon the previously planned campaign against the Duke of Austria and the King of Czech. Thus, Rus' unwittingly became the savior of Western Europe from the invasion of the hordes of Batu Khan.
During his reign, which lasted until 1256, the founder of the Golden Horde made conquests unprecedented in scale, conquering a significant part of the territory of modern Russia. The only exceptions were Siberia, the Far East and the Far North. In addition, Ukraine, which surrendered without a fight, came under his rule, as well as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In that era, hardly anyone could admit the possibility of a future fall of the Golden Horde, so the empire created by the son of Genghis Khan must have seemed unshakable and eternal. However, this is not an isolated example in history.
Greatness that has sunk into centuries
Its capital, called Sarai-Batu, matched the state. Situated about ten kilometers north of modern Astrakhan, it amazed the foreigners who entered it with the luxury of its palaces and the polyphony of its oriental bazaars. Newcomers, especially Russians, often appeared in it, but not of their own free will. Until the fall of the Golden Horde in Rus', this city was a symbol of slavery. Crowds of captives were brought here to slave markets after regular raids, and Russian princes also came here to receive khan's labels, without which their power was considered invalid.
How did it happen that the Khanate, which conquered half the world, suddenly ceased to exist and sank into oblivion, leaving no traces of its former greatness? The date of the fall of the Golden Horde can hardly be named without a certain degree of convention. It is generally accepted that this happened shortly after the death of its last khan, Akhmat, who launched an unsuccessful campaign against Moscow in 1480. His long and inglorious stay on the Ugra River was the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. The following year he was killed, and the heirs were unable to keep their possessions intact. However, let's talk about everything in order.
The beginning of the great turmoil
It is generally accepted that the history of the fall of the Golden Horde dates back to 1357, when its ruler from the Chingizid clan (direct descendants of Janibek) died. After him, the state plunged into the abyss of chaos caused by a bloody struggle for power between dozens of contenders. Suffice it to say that only in the subsequent Over a four-year period, 25 supreme rulers were replaced.
To top off the troubles, the separatist sentiments that existed among local khans, who dreamed of complete independence in their lands, took on a very dangerous character. Khorezm was the first to separate from the Golden Horde, and Astrakhan soon followed its example. The situation was aggravated by the Lithuanians, who invaded from the west and captured significant territories adjacent to the banks of the Dnieper. This was a crushing and, importantly, not the last blow received by the previously united and powerful Khanate. They were followed by other misfortunes, from which I no longer had the strength to recover.
Confrontation between Mamai and Tokhtamysh
Relative stability in the state was established only in 1361, when, as a result of a long struggle and various kinds of intrigues, the major Horde military leader (temnik) Mamai seized power in it. He managed to temporarily put an end to the strife, streamline the flow of tribute from previously conquered territories and raise the shaky military potential.
However, he also had to wage a constant struggle against internal enemies, the most dangerous among whom was Khan Tokhtamysh, who was trying to establish his power in the Golden Horde. In 1377, with the support of the Central Asian ruler Tamerlane, he began a military campaign against the troops of Mamai and achieved significant success, capturing almost the entire territory of the state up to the Northern Azov region, leaving his enemy only the Crimea and the Polovtsian steppes.
Despite the fact that in 1380 Mamai was already, in fact, a “political corpse,” the defeat of his troops in the Battle of Kulikovo dealt a strong blow to the Golden Horde. The militarily successful campaign of Khan Tokhtamysh himself against Moscow, undertaken two years later, could not correct the situation. The fall of the Golden Horde, previously accelerated by the separation of many of its remote territories, and in particular the Ulus Horde-Dzhanin, which occupied almost the entire territory of its eastern wing, became inevitable and was only a matter of time. But at that time it still represented a single and viable state.
Great Horde
This picture changed radically in the first half of the next century, when, as a result of strengthening separatist tendencies, independent states arose on its territory: the Siberian, Kazan, Uzbek, Crimean, Nogai, and a little later the Kazakh khanates.
Their formal center was the last island of a previously endless state called the Golden Horde. Now that its former greatness was irretrievably gone, it became the seat of the khan, only conditionally endowed with supreme power. Its formidable name is also a thing of the past, giving way to a rather vague phrase - the Great Horde.
The final fall of the Golden Horde, the course of events
In traditional Russian historiography, the final stage of the existence of this once largest Eurasian state is attributed to the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries. As can be seen from the above story, it was the result of a long process, which began with a fierce struggle for power between the most powerful and influential khans who ruled certain regions of the state. Separatist sentiments, which grew stronger year after year in the circles of the ruling elite, also played an important role. All this ultimately led to the fall of the Golden Horde. His “death agony” can be briefly described as follows.
In July 1472, the ruler of the Great (formerly Golden) Horde, Khan Akhmat, suffered a brutal defeat from the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. This happened in a battle on the banks of the Oka, after the Tatars plundered and burned the nearby city of Aleksin. Encouraged by the victory, the Russians stopped paying tribute.
Khan Akhmat's campaign against Moscow
Having received such a noticeable blow to his prestige and, moreover, having lost most of his income, the khan dreamed of revenge and in 1480, having gathered a large army and having previously concluded an alliance treaty with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV, he set out on a campaign against Moscow. Akhmat's goal was to bring the Russians back to their former obedience and resume their payment of tribute. It is possible that if he had managed to carry out his intentions, the year of the fall of the Golden Horde could have been postponed by several decades, but fate would have decided otherwise.
Having crossed the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the help of local guides and reaching the Ugra River - the left tributary of the Oka, flowing through the territories of the Smolensk and Kaluga regions - the khan, to his chagrin, discovered that he had been deceived by his allies. Casimir IV, contrary to his obligation, did not send military assistance to the Tatars, but used all the forces at his disposal to solve his own problems.
Inglorious retreat and death of the Khan
Left alone, Khan Akhmat on October 8 made an attempt to cross the river on his own and continue the attack on Moscow, but was stopped by Russian troops stationed on the opposite bank. The subsequent forays of his warriors were also unsuccessful. Meanwhile, there was an urgent need to find a way out of this situation, since winter was approaching, and with it the inevitable lack of food in such cases, which was extremely disastrous for horses. In addition, food supplies for the people were running out, and there was nowhere to replenish them, since everything around had long been looted and destroyed.
As a result, the Horde were forced to abandon their plans and shamefully retreat. On the way back, they burned several Lithuanian cities, but this was just revenge on Prince Casimir who deceived them. From now on, the Russians withdrew from their obedience, and the loss of so many tributaries accelerated the already inevitable fall of the Golden Horde. The date November 11, 1480 - the day when Khan Akhmat decided to retreat from the banks of the Ugra - went down in history as the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which lasted almost two and a half centuries.
As for himself, who, by the will of fate, became the last ruler of the Golden (at that time only the Great) Horde, he too would soon have to leave this mortal world. Early next year he was killed during a raid on his headquarters by a detachment of Nogai cavalry. Like most eastern rulers, Khan Akhmat had many wives and, accordingly, a large number of sons, but none of them could prevent the death of the Khanate, which, as is commonly believed, happened at the beginning of the next - the 15th century.
Consequences of the fall of the Golden Horde
Two most important events of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. - the complete collapse of the Golden Horde and the end of the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke - are in such a close connection that they ultimately led to common consequences for all previously conquered peoples, including, of course, the Russian land. First of all, the reasons that caused them to lag behind in all areas of development from the countries of Western Europe that were not subject to the Tatar-Mongol invasion are a thing of the past.
With the fall of the Golden Horde, prerequisites appeared for the development of the economy, which was undermined due to the disappearance of most crafts. Many skilled craftsmen were killed or driven into slavery without passing on their skills to anyone. Because of this, the construction of cities was interrupted, as well as the production of various kinds of tools and household items. Agriculture also fell into decline, as farmers left their lands and went to remote areas of the North and Siberia in search of salvation. The fall of the hated Horde gave them the opportunity to return to their former places.
The revival of national culture, which during the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was in the process of degradation, became extremely important, as eloquently evidenced by the cultural and historical monuments that have survived since then. And finally, having emerged from the power of the Horde khans, Rus' and other peoples who had gained freedom gained the opportunity to resume international ties that had been interrupted for a long period.