The princes of Riazan, Murom, and Pronsk moved against the godless and engaged them in a battle. The struggle was fierce, buf the godless Mohammedans [non-Christian] emerged victorious with each prince fleeing toward his own city. Thus angered, the Tartars now began the conquest of the Riazan land with great fury. They destroyed cities, killed people, burned and took [people] into slavery. On December 6, [1237,] the cursed strangers approached the capital city of Riazan, besieged if, and surrounded it with a stockade. The princes of Riazan shuf themselves up with the people in the city, fought bravely, but succumbed. On December 21, [1237,] the Tartars took the city of Riazan, burned it completely, killed
Prince lurii Igorevich, his wife, slaughtered other princes, and of the captured men, women, and children, some they killed with their swords, others they killed with arrows and |then| threw them into the fire; while some of the captured they bound, cut and disemboweled their bodies. The Tartars burned many holy churches, monasteries, and villages, and took their property.
Then the Tartars went toward Kolomna. From Vladimir, Grand Prince lurii Vsevolodovich sent his son. Prince Vsevolod, against them; with him also went Prince Roman Igorevich of Riazan with his armies. Grand Prince lurii sent his military commander, Eremei Glebovich, ahead with a patrol. This group joined Vsevolod's and Roman Igorevich's forces at Kolomna. There they were surrounded by the Tartars. The struggle was very fierce and the Russians were driven away to a hill. And there they |the Tartars] killed Prince Roman Igorevich Riazanskii, and Eremei Glebovich, the military commander of Vsevolod lurievich, and they slaughtered many other men. Prince Vsevolod, with a small detachment, fled to Vladimir. The Tartars [then] went toward Moscow. They took Moscow and killed the military commander Philip Nianka, and captured Vladimir, the son of Prince lurii; they slaughtered people old and young alike, some they took with them into captivity; they departed with a great amount of wealth.
Source: Pohwe Sobranie Rossiiskikh letopisei (Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles), in Basil Dmytryshyn, Medieval Russia; A Source Book 900-1700 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1973), 108.
World History
