Battle of Kulikovo 1380 AD - Mongol tide turns - Russia rises

 

After their defeat at the Battle of Kalka River in 1223, the fragmented and politically divided principalities of the Kievan Rus were at the mercy of the Mongol hordes.

 In a series of disastrous invasions shortly after Kalka, the Mongols were able to eventually subjugate the Principalities and initiate a period in Rus history that will later be described as the “Mongol yoke”.

 Mongol rule will continue largely unchallenged for almost a century, until the mid-14th century, when a gifted Russian leader would arise.

 His name was Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, Prince of Moscow.

 From the mid 13th century, the Rus principalities were part of the western regions of the Mongol empire, also known as the Golden Horde.

 The small regional principality of Moscow was growing in power and was also challenging its neighbours over territory.

 But in no way did the ruling dynasty challenged the authority of the Mongols who legitimized the right of each prince to rule in the name of the great Khan.

 What the Muscovites did instead was actually strive to achieve a better position for themselves within the context of the Mongol empire.

 However, the Mongols were not immune to internal strife and by the mid 14th century, the Rus had almost recovered from the initial invasion while the Golden horde was in decline.

 In 1359, the Khan of the golden horde was overthrown, ushering in decades of chaos and uncertainty, as usurpers and claimants to the throne rose and fell on an almost annual basis.

 Amidst the chaos of civil war, a Mongol warlord who went by the name of Mamai took power in the western part of the Golden Horde and became the virtual power broker in Sarai (Golden Horde’s capital city).

 Since Mamai was not a descendant of Ghenghis Khan, his grip on power was tenuous and uncertain, so he instead stood as regent behind several brief holders of the throne.

 Nonetheless, Mamai was for most of the 1360s-70s the decision-maker on matters concerning the Rus princes.

 In 1362, Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow appealed to Mamai for the governorship of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, which was at the time the most prestigious of the Rus principalities.

 Initially, Mamai granted it to him, but then he decided to grand it to Prince Mikhail of Tver, possibly because Moscow was unable to pay the tribute.

 And thus in 1368, the conflict between Moscow and Tver began.

 With the help of Lithuania, Prince Mikhail attempted to march to the city, but the Moscow army simply did not let the new “Grand Prince” to enter Vladimir.

 The campaign of the Lithuanian army also ended in failure so the Grand Duchy was returned to Dmitry.

 According to the truce with Lithuania in 1372, the throne of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir was now recognized as the hereditary possession of the Moscow Princes.

 But Mamai’s situation was precarious and he was in constant need of generous amounts of tribute to buy influence and power for his struggles in Sarai.

 Believing that Mikhail would be more capable of producing tribute, Mamai eventually gave his support for the throne of Vladimir to him.

 In 1375, Dmitry Donskoy decided to take matters into his own hands and besieged Tver with a huge army.

 Despite Dmitry’s incursions, Mamai was unable to help, so Mikhail was forced to surrender, accepting Dmitry’s dominance over the Duchy and agreeing to help Moscow in case of war against the Mongols.

 This was a unique development in the history of the principalities because it was the first time since the Mongol conquest that Rus princes were deciding matters on their own in defiance of the will of the Khans in Sarai.

 The clash between Mamai and Dmitry seemed inevitable.

 In the following years, the Mongols raided Dmitry’s allies while Dmitry campaigned against them, besieging the city of Bolghar in 1377.

 Mamai continued attempts to re-affirm his authority and control over the tributary lands of the Golden Horde, and in 1378 he sent an army to enforce Dmitry’s obedience and compliance, but the Prince of Moscow was able to crush this force at the battle of the Vozha River.

 The political and military situation that Dmitry faced was complex and delicate.

 His military operations against Mamai initially were not an outright attempt to free the Rus principalities of the Mongol yoke, but rather to secure for himself a better position with Sarai.

 But the underlying situation was unchanged, Dmitry was still a vassal of the Mongols, and his operations against them notwithstanding his reasons or goals risked provoking a serious retaliation.

 Things were not looking great for Mamai either.

 In 1378, his unstable grip on power devolved into a full-blown crisis.

 A rising Mongol warlord named Tokhtamysh, who dreamt of emulating his ancestors and aspired to seize control of the golden horde managed to capture Sarai.

 At that point, Mamai’s struggle for supremacy transformed into a struggle for survival.

 Facing a direct challenge to his position from Tokhtamysh, he needed to deal with the insubordination of Dmitry who had already injured his prestige by defeating one of his generals.

 The prince now became a volatile source of desperately needed revenue.

 Swift and decisive action against Dmitry was the only choice that Mamai had if he wanted to demonstrate his resolve to the rest of the Golden Horde and restore the status quo in the Rus principalities.

 In 1380, despite the threat from Tokhtamysh, Mamai sent Dmitry a demand for an exceptionally large amount of tribute.

 The Prince obliged and began gathering the funds, but Mamai nevertheless began mustering a huge army, intending to destroy the power base of the unruly prince, and capture Moscow.

 In preparation for the invasion the cunning Mongol general, entered into an alliance with the Princes of Lithuania and Ryazan, almost completely enveloping Dmitry inside a net of hostile states.

 Faced with this threat, Dmitry realized that the time for negotiations was over.

 He could now either surrender and face the consequences of his past incursions or stand his ground and attempt to fight off the invaders.

 It is unclear whether his intentions were to fight for complete independence from the Mongol yoke or attempt to use Mamai’s temporary weakness to assert himself as the undisputed ruler of the principalities and consolidate his grip on Moscow.

 In June 1380, Dmitry Donskoy acted decisively by issuing an immediate call to arms to all of his allies and began consolidating his forces at Kolomna.

 At the same time, the armies of Lithuania, Ryazan and Mamai were marching on Moscow from three sides.

 Time was running out for the Grand Prince of Moscow.

 Shortly afterwards, Dmitry’s competent scouts were able to give him a detailed account of his enemy’s mobilization.

 The news was not great as Mamai’s forces already outnumbered him even without the Ryazan and Lithuanian reinforcements.

 On the 2nd of September, Mamai’s army encamped south of the Don River, near Kulikovo.

 Knowing the terrain beforehand, the Grand Prince forced marched his army to reach the battlefield before Mamai was able to cross the river.

 Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy now had to make the most important decision of his life.

 Either to wait behind the River Don and fight the combined might of his enemies defensively or cross the River and attack Mamai’s forces now before they could be reinforced.

 He also knew that once he crossed the Don, his army would be committed and had to fight for keeps.

 Late on the 7th of September, in a thick morning fog, the Russian forces forded the Don and at dawn on the next morning began to deploy.

 Dmitry would fight.

 The Mongol army was uncharacteristically inept with its scouting during that morning and they were still recovering from their long march when it became obvious that the Russians were forming battle lines.

 Mamai soon gave the order and his troops marched to meet the enemy formations.

 The army of Dmitry Donskoy was organized into three main lines.

 A patrol regiment of scouts was deployed along the front of the army.

 A second advance regiment which was composed mainly of infantry.

 And a third and main regiment formed up on either side of Dmitry’s personal guard.

 Dmitry had also deployed two small detachments on each side of his force to guard his flanks.

 His final line of defence was his trump card, a reserve or ambush force of elite cavalrymen that he concealed behind the line of his troops in an oak grove to the east, commanded by his friend and ally Prince Vladimir from Serpukhov.

 He intended to use this force at the key moment of the battle.

 Estimations about the size of Dmitry’s army vary, but in all probability it did not exceed 30.000 men.

 The Mongols deployed similarly.

 Mamai divided his army into three main lines.

 His first line was also composed of light Mongol-Tatar cavalry

 Behind them, he placed a frontline made up of heavy cavalry and a core of Genoese heavy infantry intermixed with crossbowmen.

 His last line was made up of mixed Mongol-Tatar cavalry and infantry, and on each flank, he placed two small regiments of auxiliaries.

 Mamai would not take part in the battle himself, establishing his headquarters atop a hill from where he could watch the battle and issue orders.

 A small detachment of Genoese heavy infantry was positioned near the base of the hill for his own protection.

 The size of the Mongol army is likewise uncertain, but it was slightly larger than the Russian force numbering around 40 to 50.000 men.

 The battle began when the advanced detachment of Mamai charged against the first line of Russian sentries, supported with crossbow fire from the Genoese behind them.

 The fight was brief and bitter, but the Mongol numbers eventually began to tell and Dmitry’s first line retreated slowly and in good order, reaching the advance regiment behind them.

 Responding to this development, Mamai ordered his second line forward including the heavy Genoese infantry positioned at the centre.

 Here the battle was brutal and hand to hand.

 Thousands of men were locked in close quarters, swinging at each other with all kinds of weapons while trying to avoid death from blows that were coming from every angle.

 The Russian line eventually started to pivot when its weaker left flank began to gradually give way.

 Mamai observed the situation and ordered a unit of Mongol light cavalry to charge the eastern flank of the engaged enemy line.

 Seeing this, the commander of the left detachment advanced slightly to threaten the Mongol flanking force, while not fully engaging since this would have left the entire Russian left flank exposed.

 Despite this manoeuvre, the combined pressure of the Mongol infantry and charge of the flanking cavalry proved too much for the second Russian line and it too was forced to retreat, merging with the last and main Russian regiment, where Dmitry himself was posted.

 For Mamai this must have seemed as the crucial point of the battle.

 Observing Dmitry’s personal banner, he immediately ordered his heavy cavalry to converge on his position, knowing full well that once the leader of the Rus coalition was killed, the battle would be over.

 The battle now devolved into an enormous brawl, with the entire line engaged in ferocious medieval combat.

 It is said that so many men fell on both sides that the battlefield turned into a bloody swamp.

 But the Mongol commander still kept a strong reserve force just for this moment.

 Believing that the entire Russian line was now engaged he ordered his last reserve to attack the exposed Russian left flank.

 The Mongol cavalry swept through the field and smashed into the exposed flank of their enemy.

 Dmitry’s army was almost spent, the devastating flanking attack was more than it could bear and began to crumble.

 Just as the battle was turning into a Mongol triumph, on the eastern side of the field, out of the woods a cavalry trumpet was heard.

 It was the ambush regiment led by Prince Vladimir, charging from the woods just at the right moment.

 The timing of the counter charge was perfect, taking the Mongols completely by surprise.

 The elite and fresh cavalrymen of Vladimir smashed into the exposed flanks of the engaged Mongols.

 It was the drop that spilled the cup, and panic soon spread among the Mongol army.

 The triumphant Russians chased after the retreating horde for almost 50 km’s, while Mamai himself was only barely able to escape with his life.

 Casualties are generally unknown, but they were heavy for both sides.

 Dmitry’s army had probably lost a third of their total number, while the Mongol army was utterly devastated.

 Despite the magnitude of Dmitry’s triumph, his troubles were far from over since he would soon have to face yet another Mongol warlord.

 After his defeat, Mamai retreated back to his base at Crimea and attempted to recruit another army, this time to face his rival Tokhtamysh.

 But he was crushed near Kalka river and murdered soon afterwards.

 Tokhtamysh would soon resume hostilities, initiating a retaliatory campaign against Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy.

 The spent and battered Muscovite army was unable to face yet another even greater invasion, and the Grand prince together with his family fled north-east to Kostroma.

 Tokhtamysh’s army besieged Moscow for three days, with the city eventually falling to subterfuge when the Mongol general persuaded the defenders to open their gates.

 What followed was a general massacre of the population while the city was burned.

 The victor of Kulikovo was forced to pay tribute to the new overlord of the Golden Horde.

 Even though the battle of Kulikovo was not enough to free the Rus principalities from the “Mongol Yoke”, it was the first significant victory that they achieved against a seemingly unbeatable foe and a beacon of hope that will be recalled a century later when the last remnants of the Golden Horde would finally be expelled from Russian lands.