The Mongol invasion was a pivotal point in the history of the Russian lands. The Mongol onslaught marked the end of Kievan Rus' as a viable and integrated political entity. The city of Kiev itself, sacked and ravaged, lost its political, commercial, and, ultimately, ecclesiastical centrality. The presence of the Mongols, acting as a mallet driving a wedge into already visible fracture lines, created gaping political and cultural fissures between the southwestern and northeastern principalities. Although individual princes maintained close ties, marked by marriages and alliances, within a century ofthe Mongols’ arrival, the southwestern lands became attached to Lithuania and Poland, while the northeastern principalities, under Golden Horde dominance, began the process that transformed them into the state of Muscovy.
The precise nature of the Mongol influence over that process has been the subject of wide-ranging debate. At one extreme are the classic views shaped by the Russian historians S. M. Solov' ev and V. O. Kliuchevskii, who saw little or no Mongol imprint on the development of Muscovy. At the opposite extreme is the position that Mongol domination had deep and enduring effects. But the character of the observed effects, how they were transmitted, and when they manifested themselves are also all topics of debate. These issues, encompassed in an examination of the development of the northeastern Russian lands into the state of Muscovy while under the dominance of the Golden Horde, will be explored in this and the following chapter.
Dynastic recovery
One of the most immediate and serious political effects of the Mongol invasion was the decimation of the northeastern Riurikid princes. The reigning prince in Vladimir-Suzdal', Iurii Vsevolodich, three of his sons, and two sons of his late brother Konstantin Vsevolodich, the former prince of Vladimir (1212—i8) and prince of Rostov, had all been killed at the battle on the Sit' River in 1238. One of the most urgent tasks for the surviving members of the dynasty was to redistribute themselves throughout their devastated realm.
As they did so, they clung to the patterns of dynastic succession that had been established during the Kievan era. Thus, the grand princely throne was quickly assumed by lurii’s younger brother laroslav Vsevolodich, who in turn delegated portions of his domain to his other surviving brothers. Sviatoslav ruled in Suzdal' and had jurisdiction over its associated towns of Nizhnii Novgorod and Gorodets, while Ivan became prince of Starodub. In addition, laroslav placed his son Alexander Nevsky in Novgorod.
Even as they reorganized and reaffirmed their dynastic rule, the Riurikids had to defer to their new suzerains, the Mongols. laroslav’s succession, although in conformity with dynastic tradition, had to be and was confirmed by Khan Batu. When laroslav went to Sarai the second time in 1245, however, he was obliged to travel to the Mongol capital of Karakorum. He did not survive the journey. Upon learning of laroslav’s death (September 30, 1246), his brother Prince Sviatoslav of Suzdal' succeeded him (1247).
One of Sviatoslav’s first acts was to divide his domain still further. While leaving the Rostov lands to the descendants of Konstantin Vsevolodich and Starodub to Ivan’s direct heirs, he parceled out the territories of Vladimir to his nephews, the sons of laroslav, evidently in accordance with their late father’s wishes. So, for example, a principality consisting of Galich (located northeast of the city of Vladimir) and Dmitrov (located west of Vladimir) was assigned to Konstantin laroslavich; laroslav laroslavich became the prince of Tver', and Vasily laroslavich, although only six years old in 1247, was officially named the prince of Kostroma.
It may have been his dissatisfaction with his allotment, the size and location of which are unknown, that prompted one of laroslav’s sons, Andrei, to challenge his uncle. Because the chronicles offer differing accounts, the chain of events associated with his action is
Not precisely clear. Nevertheless, it is evident that the Mongols played a determining role in the ultimate dispensation of the throne.
One version of Andrei’s actions indicates that in 1248 he seized the throne of Vladimir from his uncle. Such an act would have both violated dynastic norms and defied Mongol authority. Another version omits that event, but records that at about that time Andrei and his elder brother Alexander Nevsky made trips to the Horde; from there they were sent on to Karakorum. On their return in 1249, Andrei occupied the Vladimir throne; Alexander had been accorded southern Rus' including, at least nominally, Kiev. Sviatoslav then also presented himself at the Horde. The details and results of his trip are unknown; he died in February 1253 without recovering Vladimir.
After Mongke became the new great khan (1251), however, all the Russian princes were obliged to go to Sarai for a renewal of their patents. Alexander did so. But Andrei refused to make the journey, and immediately after Alexander’s visit the Tatars launched simultaneous campaigns against both Andrei in Vladimir and Andrei’s father-in-law, Daniil of Galicia. Defeated by the Mongols in their first venture into northeastern Rus' in fifteen years, Andrei fled through Novgorod to Sweden. Alexander, having been thus assisted by the Tatars, assumed the throne of Vladimir.
By the end of Alexander’s reign (d. 1263), even more appanage principalities, i. e., principalities that would be inherited within a single branch ofthe dynasty, had been carved out ofVladimir-Suzdal' . Suzdal' itself, whose status after Sviatoslav became grand prince in I247 is unclear, was given to Andrei upon his return from exile in 1255. lur'ev Pol'skii became the domain of the deposed Sviatoslav and his heirs. Alexander’s son Dmitry claimed Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii, while Moscow was evidently set aside for his youngest son, the two-year-old Daniil.
Although the territories of Vladimir were divided into appanages ruled by the descendants of laroslav Vsevolodich, the principality of Rostov remained the domain of the heirs of Konstantin. The only one of Konstantin’s sons to have survived the Mongol invasion died in I249, thus predeceasing his uncle, Prince Sviatoslav (d. I253 ). Konstantin’s line had become ineligible for succession by the time the usurper Andrei was displaced. Thus, when the Vladimir throne passed with the Mongols’ approval to Alexander Nevsky, he was also the eldest surviving eligible member of his generation, hence the legitimate heir in the view of the dynasty.
Konstantin’s grandsons, the same princes who, as discussed in chapter 5, Had become so closely attached to the Golden Horde and had spent so much time at Sarai, retained the principality of Rostov. It included the northerly lands of Iaroslavl', Uglich, Ustiug, and Beloozero. Here too a pattern of subdivision was followed. As early as 1238, Beloozero was detached from Rostov; the latter was inherited by Konstantin's grandson, Prince Boris Vasil'kovich; the former became the appanage principality of Prince Gleb Vasil'kovich.
Iaroslavl' also was soon separated from Rostov. The male line of Konstantin's second son, who had received Iaroslavl', died out in 1249. But rather than revert to the prince of Rostov, Iaroslavl' was transferred through Konstantin’s great-granddaughter to her husband, Prince Fedor Rostislavich. The elder of his two sons by his second wife, the daughter of Khan Mengu-Timur, inherited the principality, which through the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also fragmented into multiple appanages.
The pattern of fragmentation within the northeastern Rus' lands continued and provided the basis for characterizing the era between the fall of Kiev and the rise of a centralized Muscovite state as the appanage period. Subjugated by the Mongol khans and ruling ever smaller principalities, the Riurikid dynasty appeared to be exercising sharply reduced power as the appanage period unfolded. But some of the political tradition of Kievan Rus' survived. The grand prince, located at Vladimir rather than Kiev, represented dynastic unity; the dynasty preserved the cohesion of the realm by continuing to honor its senior member with that position, subject to the khan’s approval. Furthermore, just as the multiplication and dispersal of princes had practical value during the Kievan era, so the practice was functional during the critical decades following the Mongol invasion. With the capital city of Vladimir sacked, its population dispersed, and its resources depleted, the princes ofthe dynasty, distributing themselves among relatively small principalities, were able to carry out their responsibilities for defense, economic recovery, and political and fiscal administration with some effectiveness.
The western frontier
Defense of their lands from external foes was foremost among the obligations of the Riurikid princes. Defeat by Batu and severe losses sustained in battles against the Mongols did not prevent the surviving Rus' princes from fulfilling that duty. With their southern and eastern frontiers stabilized by the presence of the powerful Mongol forces, the Rus' faced competitors only on their western borders. They had three main neighbors in the northwest: the Swedes, the German knights (the Order of the Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic Knights), and the Lithuanians. At the time the Mongols were invading from the south and east, the Rus' also faced aggression from these neighbors on their northwestern frontier. Alexander Iaroslavich, who acquired the name Nevsky during one of his battles against them, was chiefly responsible for defending this frontier.
Much of the instability in the area may be attributed to the activities of the German knights. In 1202, the Order of the Brothers of the Sword was founded to conduct a crusade against the pagan Balts and Finns, who dwelled in the Livonian lands lying to the west of the Rus' principalities. Further west, the Teutonic Order similarly launched a crusade in 1230 against Prussian tribes that neighbored Poland. In 1237, shortly after a defeat by Lithuanians, the surviving members of the Brethren merged with the Teutonic Order. Together they placed pressure on the Lithuanian tribes that geographically divided the two sections of the Order; they also targeted the Orthodox Rus'. In response to German pressures Mindovg, who became prince in 1238 and died in 1263, unified, defended, and expanded Lithuanian territories. The Rus', therefore, faced Lithuanian pressures as well as those from the Germans and Swedes.
The most famous battles in defense ofthe northwestern Rus' lands were the victories of Prince Alexander Iaroslavich against the latter two opponents. The first of these was the Battle of the Neva, fought against the Swedes. Novgorod and Sweden were competitors both for dominance over Finnic tribes north of the Novgorod lands and for control over access to the Gulf of Finland. The Swedish attack on the Neva River in July 1240 was one of a long series of hostile encounters over these issues, not, as is sometimes asserted, a full-scale campaign timed to take advantage of the Russians’ adversity and aimed at conquering the entire Novgorodian realm. Nevertheless, Alexander’s victory there was celebrated and became the basis for his epithet Nevsky.
Also in i240, German knights captured a fortress southwest of Pskov, occupied the city itself, and in the following winter began to establish themselves in lands west of Novgorod, near the Gulf of Finland. In response to appeals from Novgorod, Grand Prince Iaroslav sent Alexander, who with his brother Andrei expelled the knights from Pskov and advanced westward to engage them in a decisive battle. In April 1242, Alexander’s army not only defeated the Teutonic Knights at the frozen Lake Peipus (Lake Chud'), but permanently halted the Germans’ eastward advance.
The battles are described in the vita or life of Alexander, which emphasizes the heroic nature ofhis military ventures and has become a basis for the claim that western aggression, representing the expansionist interests of the Catholic Church, was potentially as threatening to the Russian lands as the Mongol invasion. The implication is that Alexander, unable to expel both, chose to submit to and cooperate with the Mongols while concentrating his military might against his foes in the west. The vita, however, was written in the early 1280s on the basis of information supplied by Metropolitan Kirill who had been both concerned with preserving the integrity of his Church and, as noted in the previous chapter, favorably inclined toward Prince Alexander. Many scholars, therefore, judge its account of these events, and hence the seriousness of the western “threat” to the lands of Rus', to be exaggerated.
These episodes nevertheless illustrate how Grand Prince laroslav, while still reeling from the immediate aftermath of the Mongol invasion, continued to regard the protection of the Rus' lands and resources as a fundamental obligation, which he and his heirs honored. Later, even after Alexander Nevsky was awarded Kiev by the great khan at Karakorum, he returned to Novgorod, which he served as prince and continued to defend until with the aid of the Mongols he overthrew and replaced his brother Andrei as grand prince of Vladimir (1252).
The Riurikid princes were less effective in resisting Lithuanian expansion. Although Alexander Nevsky successfully defended Smolensk and Novgorod from Lithuanian attacks in 1239 and i245 respectively, neither he nor his successors could prevent the Lithuanians from absorbing Polotsk, where Mindovg’s nephew became prince, or the western lands of the Turov principality.
Relations between Galicia-Volynia and Lithuania were more complex and variable. Prince Daniil, as discussed in the last chapter, was engaged in building a coalition against the Mongols. In conjunction with that policy he entered into an alliance with Mindovg, who, like Daniil, had been issued a royal crown by the pope. Their union was sealed by ties of marriage (c. 1251, 1254), and Daniil’s son Roman ruled for several years in Novgorodok, which had been Mindovg’s base. But when relations between Daniil and the Mongols became hostile (1256-60), Mindovg abandoned him and arrested Roman. Daniil, reversing his position, joined the Mongols in a campaign against Lithuania; nevertheless, the Mongols also ordered Daniil to destroy his fortifications. Leaving his brother to carry out the Mongol order, Daniil once again fled to Poland and Hungary.
The southwestern Rus' principalities of Galicia and Volynia continued to be entangled with Lithuania as well as Hungary and Poland after Daniil’s death in 1264. But it was not uncommon in the 1270s for the Tatars to assist Daniil’s heirs in their campaigns against their western neighbors. When Nogai and Telebuga conducted their campaigns in Hungary in 1286 and 1287, troops from Galicia and Volynia joined them. By that time, however, the unity and power of the two principalities were declining. Tatar troops passing through and wintering in Galicia and Volynia during those campaigns destroyed agricultural fields and looted the region. Unable to protect their lands, the Rus' princes lost credibility and authority, and Mongol officials became more directly involved in the southwestern principalities, especially during the height of Nogai’s power, than they did in the northeast.
Not long afterward, however, as the Sarai khans consolidated their authority after Nogai’s death, their grip on the western principalities relaxed. By the end of the thirteenth century, Daniil’s son Lev (d. 1301) and grandson lurii (d. 1308) were temporarily able to recombine the Volynian and Galician lands. But it was Poland and the rapidly expanding state ofLithuania that ultimately not only replaced the Riurikid princes, but also competed effectively and successfully with the Mongols for control over the region. Poland absorbed Galicia by 1349; Lithuania gradually acquired the remainder of the southwestern lands, including Kiev. The divergence of the southwestern from the northeastern Rus' principalities that had become apparent before the Mongol invasion was thus intensified; the two sectors that had previously formed Kievan Rus' split apart.
Economic recovery
The Riurikid princes were also deeply concerned with and involved in the economic recovery of their lands. Although there is some dispute over the scale of devastation caused by the Mongol invasion, there is little question that the towns and regions that were in the direct path of the Mongol armies suffered extreme social and economic disruption. The demands from their new suzerains to pay tribute and provide military and artisan conscripts both compounded the strains on Rus' society and pressured their rulers to foster and develop their remaining resources.
Recovery was a slow process. John Fennell has argued that the very ability of Prince Alexander Nevsky to mount campaigns to defend the Novgorod lands should be regarded either as an indicator that the damage to the Rus' lands was not as great as is often concluded or that they recovered very rapidly.1 That activity, however, may well be a reflection of the segmented nature of the defensive system established by the Riurikid princes during the Kievan era and perpetuated after the Mongol invasion as much as a sign of continued military robustness and vigor. In any case, other indicators suggest that economically and socially the Rus' lands, including those undamaged physically, were under severe stress for decades following the invasion.
In his study on the construction of masonry monuments in the northern Russian principalities, David Miller has shown that in the quarter-century following the invasion only one small masonry church was built near Vladimir. Even in Novgorod, which had not initially been harmed by the Mongol armies, construction of such buildings was suspended for over a quarter of a century, and then only two projects were undertaken between 1263 and 1287. It was not until a full half-century had passed that Suzdalia and Novgorod had economically recovered sufficiently to accumulate funds and labor to build churches, fortresses, and other major masonry structures.
In southwestern Rus' the situation was not immediately so grim. Prince Daniil of Galicia and Volynia was able to construct the new fortifications that the Mongols shortly afterward obliged him to dismantle. Daniil also founded new towns and encouraged commerce. He moved his capital city to Kholm, located northeast of Vladimir in Volynia, and developed that town into a vital cultural center. But the prosperity of southwestern Rus' was curbed when the Mongols, after conducting their campaign against Lithuania with the aid of Prince Daniil, returned to Volynia (1259-60); it was at this time that Prince Daniil left for Hungary and Poland, leaving his brother to fulfill the Mongol order to dismantle their recently built fortifications.
Fennell, Crisis of Medieval Russia, p. 89.
The consequences of the renewed Mongol incursions of the 1280s further disrupted the economy and compounded the difficulties associated with the political fragmentation that had begun after Daniil’s death (1264).
In the northern principalities, the princes devoted themselves to economic recovery almost immediately after the Mongol invasion. Prince laroslav Vsevolodich, who as noted became prince ofVladimir upon the death of his brother lurii at the battle on the Sit' River, tried to rebuild Vladimir and encourage its inhabitants to return to that city. Subsequent Mongol raids, however, provoked additional flight, and Vladimir never fully recovered its former glory. But other princes were more successful. Flight from the former capital and other similarly devastated cities resulted in an influx of population in more protected settlements, notably Moscow and Tver', and stimulated their growth.
The commercial center of Novgorod was central to the recovery of the Rus' lands. Its trade with the Scandinavian and German merchants of the Baltic provided a critical means of acquiring profits and wealth, not only for the Novgorodians directly engaged in trade, but also for the princes who ruled Novgorod and those who controlled the supplies of goods it exported abroad. During the late thirteenth and into the fourteenth centuries, Novgorod’s foreign trade focused increasingly on German merchants who arrived regularly, twice a year, from Riga, Revel', Dorpat, and Liibeck. They conducted their trade activities at Peterhof, the commercial enclave they had established in Novgorod at the end of the twelfth century. By the fourteenth century Peterhof exceeded the importance of the older Scandinavian commercial court in Novgorod, St. Olaf. Novgorod merchants brought batches of fur pelts and blocks of wax to Peterhof. German merchants affiliated with the Hanseatic League and trade representatives of the Teutonic Order purchased those goods with a variety of their own: fine Flemish woolen cloth, beer and wine, salt and herring, metal products and tools. The most important item they brought to Novgorod, however, was silver.
The Golden Horde benefited from and encouraged Novgorod’s trade, as did the Rus' princes. Grand Prince laroslav laroslavich, who succeeded Alexander Nevsky, also removed Alexander’s son Dmitry to become prince of Novgorod. Despite some conflict between laroslav and the city, the prince became actively involved in
Novgorod’s trade. His policies were influenced by those of Mengu-Timur, whose reign as khan at Sarai (1266/67-81) overlapped with laroslav’s reign as grand prince (1263-71/72).
Mengu-Timur encouraged the commercial development of the Golden Horde. He authorized the Genoese to found a trading colony at Caffa on the Black Sea coast and thereby forged the link between the Great Silk Road from China through Sarai to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Following Mengu-Timur’s example and directives, laroslav, even as he was repulsing a German military advance on Novgorodian territory in 1269, joined local Novgorodian officials to negotiate treaties with Gotland, Ltibeck, Riga, and other German towns. The treaties, concluded in i269, established the rules that governed visits of foreign merchants to Novgorod.
Novgorod’s ability to conduct its trade depended upon its ability to acquire supplies of fur pelts and wax. The luxury pelts in demand in the thirteenth and first part of the fourteenth centuries came from the distant northeastern sectors ofthe Novgorodian lands. They had to be transported along lengthy trade routes that followed the Vychegda, North Dvina, and Sukhona Rivers. Safe passage on these internal trade routes was critical to the success of Novgorod’s foreign commerce.
Towns along those routes were economically revitalized as a result of Novgorod’s trade; they also gained political importance. Ustiug is a prime example. It was located on the northern outskirts of the Rostov principality near the mouth of the lug River. That position was commercially strategic. The Iug River flowed into the Sukhona, which joined the Vychegda not far downstream to form the North Dvina River. From Ustiug it was possible to control traffic along all three rivers. Thus, despite its remote location, Ustiug’s domination of the rivers connecting Novgorod with its fur hinterlands gave it both economic and political value. While construction of new buildings and the economic health it symbolized still languished in many other regions, Ustiug by 1290 could boast an elaborate new Church of the Assumption. The church’s completion was celebrated with the arrival of the bishop of Rostov, a dignitary who brought expensive gifts from the princes of Rostov and consecrated the church.
Other towns gradually became involved in commerce. There was demand for Rus' products not only in northwestern Europe, but also in Sarai. Having become accustomed to northern luxury goods, such
As sable and ermine pelts that had been part of early tribute payments, Mongol khans, beys, and other notables continued to encourage Rus' princes to bring offerings of such goods as well as European products in the form of gifts and bribes. Similar items were brought as commercial items to the Sarai market, where they were exchanged for salt and Oriental goods. The Russian goods were transported from the far north through Ustiug to Rostov, Tver', and later Moscow for shipment to the Volga. They were then carried down the river to Sarai. From there they were frequently reexported as diplomatic gifts and commercial commodities along the Mongol caravan routes, westward to Egypt or through Italian colonies on the Crimean coast to southern Europe as well as eastward to India and China. Demand for Russian goods emanating from both the khan’s court and the commercial marketplace at Sarai served as a stimulant for Russian recovery.
It was on the basis of improving commercial conditions, prompted by both European and Mongol demand for Russian luxury goods, that the more visible signs of recovery became evident by the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Those signs appeared earliest precisely in towns most closely associated with the reviving trade. The construction at Ustiug has been noted. Novgorod was also able in this period to accrue enough wealth to build a costly fort at Kopor'e in i28o and the Church of St. Nicholas at Lipna, a masonry structure, in the city of Novgorod in 1292. David Miller has demonstrated that the number of masonry structures erected in Novgorod during the next century and a half far exceeded that built in any other northern Russian town.2 The products of this sustained burst of construction activity expressed the commercial vitality and wealth of the city as well as a unique style in church architecture, distinguished by the buildings’ small size, square shape, single domes, trefoil roof lines, limestone slab construction, and singular grace.
Tver', located on the upper Volga, was among the first of the northeastern Rus' towns to demonstrate an economic resurgence. In Tver', Prince laroslav laroslavich’s primary seat, construction work on the Church of the Transfiguration was resumed in the late thirteenth century. In other northeastern towns ofSuzdalia, monumental building was once again underway by the 1320s.
Miller, “Monumental Building as an Indicator of Economic Trends in Northern Rus',” pp. 369, 373, 383-385.
Intradynastic competition and the golden horde
Following the Mongol invasions the Riurikid princes, with the few noted exceptions, accommodated themselves to the presence of the Golden Horde. But even as they oriented themselves toward Sarai, they also continued to fulfill their traditional functions. They sought to protect their principalities from other invaders and to revitalize the lands devastated by the Mongol onslaught.
The Riurikid princes also continued to engage in their intradynastic rivalries. After 1238, the city ofVladimir itselflost population, wealth, and dominance. But among the northeastern princes the position of grand prince of Vladimir remained a coveted prize. In their quest for that position the Riurikids exploited the presence of the Golden Horde. Individual princes attempted to secure support from powerful Tatars and to use their influence and even military might to achieve recognition as the senior prince within the dynasty and attain the title grand prince ofVladimir.
Initially, the khans of the Golden Horde did not radically alter the political framework of the Rus' lands. The Riurikid dynasty remained in power, and during the second half of the thirteenth century dynastic tradition continued to determine seniority. But the princes’ trips to the Horde to receive their patents were not simply symbolic gestures. Succession to the grand princely throne as well as to patrimonial appanage seats depended upon approval by the khans. Until the early fourteenth century, however, the Tatars tended to confirm the candidate generated by Riurikid principles of succession. But then Mongol authority superseded tradition. With the Golden Horde khans supporting them, the princes of Moscow were able to become the grand princes ofVladimir.
Because the Riurikid princes’ authority required and was also reinforced by patents from the khans, the latter were in a position to adjudicate the succession disputes that arose among the Riurikid princes. When disagreements arose during the Kievan era, they were commonly resolved by intradynastic warfare. After the Golden Horde had been formed, the Russian princes appealed to a higher authority, the Mongol khan, to settle their disputes. The Mongols functioned in this capacity when they confirmed Prince Andrei, who had overthrown his uncle Sviatoslav, as prince ofVladimir. They did so again when they removed Andrei in favor of Alexander Nevsky. By the time of that decision there was little conflict between dynastic tradition and
Mongol authority. After the death of Sviatoslav, the rightful though dispossessed prince, the confirmation of Nevsky, the legitimate heir, by the Mongols amounted to a restoration of the traditional patterns of succession.
The Mongol khan resolved another succession dispute after Alexander Nevsky died. Alexander’s brothers Andrei and Iaroslav, the prince of Tver', vied for the post of grand prince of Vladimir. Khan Berke, bypassing the unreliable Andrei, issued the patent to Iaroslav, who reigned until his death during the winter of 1271-72. laroslav’s reign was then followed, in accordance with the traditional pattern, by that of his younger brother Vasily, prince of Kostroma
(1272-77).
Both Iaroslav and Vasily, like their brother Alexander Nevsky, fully accepted the khan as their suzerain. In return, they were able to employ Tatar forces in pursuit of their own military and political objectives. In 1269, according to the Novgorod chronicler, the grand baskak of Vladimir, Amragan, accompanied the Rus' princes and regiments in an expedition against Revel' (in Estonia). In 1275, Tatars and Rus' cooperated in an unsuccessful campaign against Lithuania. Similarly, in 1272, Grand Prince Vasily became embroiled with his nephew Dmitry Aleksandrovich in a dispute over Novgorod, whose wealth, highly valued by the Horde, was becoming a critical factor in a grand prince’s ability to retain the Horde’s favor. Vasily had Tatar troops at his disposal when he pressed his claim to the city’s throne. As a result, Dmitry ceded Novgorod to his uncle in 1273, and regained it only when he became grand prince of Vladimir in 1277.
That succession also followed traditional patterns. Upon the death of Vasily, the last member of his generation, the position of grand prince passed to the next generation. According to dynastic guidelines, Dmitry, Alexander Nevsky’s eldest surviving son, was the rightful heir, and he indeed inherited the throne.
The Rus' princes were not passive in the succession process. On the contrary, while recognizing Tatar authority over the succession, they actively sought Tatar favor. Following the example of Alexander Nevsky, some, including his brothers and the Rostov princes, were able to enhance their own positions within the Rus' lands by faithfully and exactingly carrying out the Sarai khan’s demands. As they established close ties with influential members of the Golden Horde, some Rus' princes also learned to manipulate internal Horde politics to their own advantage. Other Rus' princes, however, did not always simply cooperate with their Mongol suzerain, but exploited Mongol politics to pursue their own political ambitions.
An opportunity to do so presented itself in the last quarter of the century, when during the reigns of khans Tuda-Mengu and his successors Telebuga and Tokhta, the horde was politically divided. Competing Russian princes took advantage of the situation to gain political and military support from opposing Mongol leaders in return for their pledges of allegiance and tribute. The Russian princes were thus able, as in the pre-Mongol era, to pursue their own rivalries with military might borrowed from their nomadic neighbors of the steppe.
The figure who divided the Golden Horde was Nogai. Leader of the Mangkyt clan and himself a descendant ofJuchi, Nogai emerged during the reign of Mengu-Timur (1266/67-81) as a powerful military commander with virtually autonomous control over the western territories of the Golden Horde, i. e., the lands west of the Dnieper reaching to the lower Danube. Nogai’s influence was such that he engaged in direct interaction with Byzantium, Egypt, and Hungary and conducted military expeditions as far west as Serbia, Transylvania, and Hungary. When Tuda-Mengu succeeded his brother Mengu-Timur, Nogai’s power as clan leader, Horde elder, and military commander was so great that he has been characterized both as a “virtual co-ruler” with the khan and as an independent ruler.43 Nogai continued to play a powerful role when Tuda-Mengu, having personally converted to Islam (1283), delegated much of his authority and responsibility to his nephew Telebuga.
Horde politics became complicated after Tuda-Mengu actually abdicated in favor of Telebuga (1287). Telebuga had a strong rival in the person of Mengu-Timur’s son, Tokhta. But personal political rivalries were exacerbated by consequences of conflicts elsewhere in the Mongol Empire. Telebuga failed in his military campaigns against the Ilkhans to gain control of Azerbaijan (1288, 1290). And, even further away, conflicts between the Chagatai branch of the empire and Kubilai Khan disrupted the empire’s trade routes, on which the Golden Horde relied. Under these stressful conditions Tokhta’s supporters grew stronger, and Telebuga prepared to arrest their leader. Tokhta fled to Nogai, who gave him sanctuary, cooperated with him in the murder of Telebuga (1291), and then helped him secure the throne at Sarai. Tokhta, however, soon turned against his patron. After one unsuccessful campaign against him (1293 or 1294), Tokhta launched another in 1299. Nogai was killed during that encounter. The tribes that had made up Nogai’s Horde reassimilated into Tokhta’s; the Golden Horde was reunited.
The political discord within the Horde began shortly after Dmitry Aleksandrovich had succeeded to the grand principality of Vladimir (1277). As the Horde divided, his political rivals were able to take advantage of the situation. Each side in the ensuing Russian conflict was able to gain Tatar support by appealing to one of the competing camps within the Horde.
From the beginning of his reign Dmitry demonstrated more independence from Sarai than his uncles had. It is not clear that he ever actually received a patent from Mengu-Timur. He did not join his brother Andrei, prince of Kostroma and Gorodets, and the Rostov princes, who went to the Horde in i277 to participate in the Golden Horde’s campaign in the North Caucasus. And in 1281, when Tuda-Mengu became khan and the other Rus' princes presented themselves to him to renew their patents, Dmitry was diverted to Novgorod and failed to appear at Sarai.
Tuda-Mengu promptly transferred the Vladimir throne to the next eligible member of the dynasty, Andrei. The new grand prince, supported by Tatar troops supplemented by those of the Rostov clan and Prince Fedor of laroslavl’, conducted what has been described as a devastating campaign in northeastern Rus', including the districts of Vladimir, Suzdal', Pereiaslavl', and even some territories belonging to the Rostov princes themselves.
Dmitry fled. But he quickly received support from Nogai, who issued his own patent to Dmitry. Nogai also sent his forces back to Rus' and ousted Andrei from both Vladimir and Novgorod, which had in the meantime also accepted Andrei as its prince. In return Dmitry pledged his allegiance and, evidently, the tribute payments from his domain to Nogai. The episode illustrates how the Rus' princes took advantage of the divisions within the Horde to pursue their own rivalries. Andrei and the Rostov princes, including Prince Fedor of laroslavl', remained closely associated with the Sarai khan. Dmitry, evidently supported by Metropolitan Kirill, successfully withstood the challenge from his brother Andrei and Tuda-Mengu by obtaining support from the khan’s rival, Nogai.
The situation remained relatively stable with Dmitry on the throne until Tokhta assumed the Sarai throne in 1291. By the time he made his first attempt to curb Nogai’s power (c. 1293), the divisions among the Rus' princes were more pronounced. Whereas Andrei, Fedor of laroslavl', and the Rostov princes had made the journey to pay homage to Tokhta and receive confirmation of their patents from him, Dmitry and his supporters, Princes Mikhail laroslavich of Tver' and Daniil of Moscow, did not. Tokhta sent an army to the Rus' lands to assist Andrei and Prince Fedor in the removal of Dmitry from Vladimir. The cities of Vladimir, Moscow, and Tver' were all attacked, and the countryside was ravaged. Dmitry once again fled, but the conflict over the throne of Vladimir was resolved only with his death in 1294. Andrei then became the undisputed grand prince of Vladimir.
But in contrast to the Horde, which reunified under Tokhta, the Riurikids of northeastern Rus' remained divided. Although Andrei enjoyed both dynastic legitimacy and Tokhta’s support and his position as grand prince was secure, he faced repeated challenges from a coalition made up of Mikhail of Tver' , Daniil of Moscow, and Dmitry's son Ivan, who retained the principality of Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii, which his father had also ruled. Possession of the principality of Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii became one of the prime sources of conflict between the two factions.
The point of contention was whether Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii should be regarded as a separate appanage principality, to be inherited within a distinct branch of the dynasty, or as an appendage of the grand principality, to be ruled by the grand prince of Vladimir. Andrei, claiming it for the grand principality, attempted to extend his authority there. It was this event that prompted the 1296 assembly of Rus' princes, attended by Nevrui, the Mongol plenipotentiary sent by Khan Tokhta, and the bishop of Sarai. At the meeting called to consider the issue, the factions within the dynasty were clearly discern-able. Fedor of laroslavl' and Prince Konstantin of Rostov supported Andrei. Princes Mikhail of Tver' and Daniil of Moscow, who were joined by the “men” or boyars of Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii, opposed him. The princes’ decision was to leave Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii under the rule of Ivan Dmitr'evich. When Andrei nevertheless tried to seize it later that year and again in 1298, the forces of Tver' and Moscow repeatedly blocked him.
Moscow emerged as the most diligent protector of Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii. At a second princely conference, held in 1300, Daniil was again instrumental in preventing its transfer to Andrei. But the grand prince persisted. When Ivan Dmitr' evich died two years later, he sent his officers to Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii while appealing to Tokhta for a patent. Once more Daniil intervened. His forces quickly ejected Andrei’s agents, occupied the city, and physically prevented the grand prince from taking control of it. Finally, in I303 , when Daniil died, Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii gave its throne to his son, lurii. Andrei again appealed to Tokhta, and again a princely assembly was convened under the watchful eye of Tokhta’s emissary. But that body too denied Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii to Andrei. The principality remained in the hands of lurii Daniilovich, a possession of the Moscow branch of the dynasty. Only several decades later, when lurii’s brother Ivan I Kalita died, was Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii once again considered a component of the grand principality.
The dispute between Alexander Nevsky’s two sons, Princes Dmitry and Andrei, reveals another change that was beginning to take place in the Russian political arena. Before their conflict, Mongol hegemony had scarcely interfered with the norms of dynastic succession. But Andrei, who saw an opportunity to take advantage of his elder brother’s poor relations with Sarai and hasten his own succession, sought to employ Mongol might to upset those norms. His bid for the grand princely throne was illegitimate in the terms of dynastic tradition and was, accordingly, opposed by a significant portion of the Riurikid princes. And neither of his patrons, Khan Tuda-Mengu or Khan Tokhta, was either powerful or determined enough to overcome that opposition and establish a new basis of legitimacy, derived exclusively from the authority and favor of the khan, at least as long as Dmitry and his allies had the support of Nogai. Andrei was successful only after Dmitry’s death in 1294, when he had not only the khan’s support, but also the dynasty’s acceptance.
Andrei and his Mongol mentors failed to remove unambiguously the rightful heir; the khan, certainly under circumstances of dual power within the Horde, was not prepared to overrule dynastic tradition as the basis for the grand prince’s legitimacy. But the challenge to traditional dynastic principles, implicit in Andrei’s quest for the throne, did not disappear. On the contrary, it manifested itself even more forcefully during the first quarter of the fourteenth century, when a new rivalry for the grand princely throne developed between the princes of Tver' and Moscow. As their conflict reached its conclusion, legitimacy based on the Riurikid custom of generational rotation was discarded in favor oflegitimacy based on the might and decree of the Chingisid khan. The Muscovite princes, beneficiaries of this change, were established as the grand princes of Vladimir. Through them the Golden Horde consolidated its authority over the lands of Rus' even more firmly.
The rivalry between Moscow and tver' (1304-1327)
Andrei died in 1304. At that time a dispute arose between Mikhail of Tver' and Iurii Daniilovich of Moscow and now Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii over the position of grand prince of Vladimir. Tokhta granted the patent to Mikhail, a decision that was once again consistent with Riurikid traditions. Mikhail was Andrei’s younger cousin, a member of his generation; both were grandsons of laroslav Vsevolodich. Iurii, on the other hand, represented the next generation. Furthermore, his father Daniil, who had died in 1303, had never been grand prince of Vladimir. Iurii was the prince of Pereiaslavl' Zalesskii, namesake of the southern Pereiaslavl' that had been the seat of the designated heir of the grand principality. But, according to Riurikid practices and traditions, he had no legitimate claim to the Vladimir throne.
The conflict for the throne that ensued between the Tver' and Moscow lines thus took on a new dimension. It not only reflects Mongol influence in the succession process. Its outcome also represents a deviation from the longstanding rules guiding succession and defining eligible princes. According to all the traditional rules, the Moscow line was ineligible. But new factors were becoming more important than the old traditions. The presence of the Mongols gave each prince who sought the dominant position within the Rus' lands opportunities to gain the Horde’s support. As baskaki were replaced by special envoys, responsibility for maintaining order and, perhaps even more importantly, for collecting and delivering tribute fell increasingly to the Rus' princes. The prince who could best perform those tasks won the favor of the khan. During the course of the Moscow-Tver' rivalry in the early decades of the fourteenth century, succession to the grand princely throne came to depend not on the dynasty’s customs, but on the khan’s approval. His choice was determined in large part by demonstrations of reliable service to him. Eventually the Moscow princes convinced the khans that they could perform those services better than their rivals.
The contest between Tver' and Moscow was played out over several decades and included dramatic episodes of court intrigue, highway robbery, murder, and war. The highlights of the political contest may be summarized in the following manner. When Mikhail of Tver' received the patent for the grand principality of Vladimir from Khan Tokhta, he faced stubborn opposition from his nephew Iurii of Moscow, against whom he waged two military campaigns (1305, 1308) to force compliance. When Tokhta died and Uzbek became khan in 1313, Mikhail returned to the Horde and remained at Uzbek’s court for two years. Iurii took advantage of the opportunity to enhance his political power, particularly in Novgorod. When he learned of Iurii’s activities, Mikhail convinced Uzbek to send military forces back to Russia with him so that he could reestablish his authority; Iurii was ordered to appear before Uzbek. But while Mikhail was recovering control over Novgorod (1316), Iurii was ingratiating himself with Uzbek. The prince of Moscow married the khan’s sister, and returned to Russia with his wife, Uzbek’s special envoys, an army, and the patent to rule the grand principality of Vladimir.
In 1317 Iurii, commanding a grand army drawn from all the northeast Rus' principalities and supported by the Tatar contingent led by the Mongol general Kavgadii, advanced against Mikhail. But the Tver' forces won the battle; the Tatar detachment evidently did not fully participate. While Iurii retreated to Novgorod, Mikhail captured both Kavgadii and his rival’s wife, the sister of the khan, who died while in his custody.
There are different versions of what happened next. Essentially, Kavgadii, although treated with respect and released by Mikhail, returned to the Horde and accused Mikhail of three crimes: he had fought against the khan’s envoy and thus had defied Uzbek’s authority; he had withheld tribute; and he was responsible for the death of Uzbek’s sister. Iurii too arrived at the Horde with an array of princes and notables from the Suzdalian and Novgorodian lands. Although they may well have gathered to accompany Uzbek on a campaign against the Ilkhans for control over Derbent, Iurii’s ability to assemble such a force confirmed his value to the khan and did not
Help Mikhail’s cause. When Mikhail finally arrived at Uzbek’s court, he was tried for the named offenses, found guilty, and executed on November 22, 1318. lurii, both benefiting from and depending on Uzbek’s favor, remained grand prince of Vladimir for the next four years.
If Uzbek had expected that by appointing lurii to be grand prince of Vladimir he would have a reliable agent who could effectively maintain order in the Rus' lands while overseeing the collection and delivery of tribute and troops to the Horde, he was probably disappointed. Iurii evidently encountered lingering resistance to his rule and had some difficulty collecting the tribute due the Horde. While lurii spent a great deal of his time in Novgorod, Uzbek found it necessary to send four expeditionary forces to the northeastern Russian lands in just the last two years of lurii’s reign (1320-22). Although reported to have been excessively destructive, the Mongol forces were intended to maintain Uzbek’s grand prince, keep order, and collect taxes.
Lurii’s ineffective performance presented Prince Dmitry of Tver', son of the late Mikhail, with an opportunity to capture the grand princely throne. In 1322, while lurii was in Novgorod, Dmitry made a journey to the Horde and received the patent for Vladimir from Uzbek. lurii, taking with him a treasury he had evidently accumulated while in Novgorod, embarked on his own trip to the Horde. But he was waylaid by Dmitry’s brother, Aleksandr Mikhailovich, who stole lurii’s treasury. With nothing to offer Uzbek, lurii fled to Pskov and again took refuge in Novgorod.
In 1325, lurii finally completed his journey to the Horde. There Prince Dmitry murdered him. The Mongol khan Uzbek, finding this crime uncivilized and intolerable, promptly arrested Dmitry and executed him the following year. He named Dmitry’s brother, Aleksandr Mikhailovich, the new grand prince of Vladimir.
The next and final dramatic episode in this saga occurred in 1327. At that time the inhabitants of Tver' staged an uprising against the Mongol Chol-khan, who headed a Tatar force sent by Uzbek to that city. Uzbek’s purpose and Chol-khan’s mission are unclear. While some scholars argue that Chol-khan had been sent deliberately to provoke a crisis in Tver' because the Mongol court perceived that principality as too powerful, Charles Halperin has suggested quite plausibly that his purpose was to oversee conscription and collection of revenue, which the Horde required in preparation for another campaign against the Ilkhans of Persia over Azerbaijan.44 WHatever the intention, Chol-khan’s methods infuriated the Tverites, who massacred the Tatars.
This time it was the prince of Moscow, lurii’s brother Ivan Daniilovich, who was able to take advantage of Aleksandr’s difficulties in fulfilling his obligations to the Horde. Ivan presented himself to Uzbek and returned with a Tatar force. Joined by Prince Aleksandr Vasil'evich of Suzdal', Ivan and the Tatars marched against Tver', sacked the city as well as other towns in the principality, and forced Aleksandr and his brothers to flee. Aleksandr found refuge in Pskov in 1327, but when Metropolitan Feognost excommunicated the entire populace of the city for allowing him to remain among them, he went to Lithuania (1329). In 1331, however, he returned to Pskov, which he ruled until 1337. He then made a trip to the Horde and was restored to the throne of Tver'. Two years later Aleksandr and his son were recalled to the Horde and executed.
The sack of Tver' and Aleksandr’s flight marked an end to this phase of the Tver' princes’ participation in the competition for the grand principality of Vladimir. Only once more, in the 1370s, would a Tver' prince attempt, unsuccessfully, to acquire the title. That episode will be discussed in the next chapter.
The grand principality was given to Ivan of Moscow, known as Ivan I Kalita. Although many chronicles indicate he received the patent in i328,it is more probable that he shared power with Prince Aleksandr of Suzdal', who officially held the title of grand prince of Vladimir, and that Ivan became grand prince only in 1331, when, following Aleksandr’s death, he appeared before the khan bearing valuable gifts and pledging to deliver future tribute payments. Neither Aleksandr of Suzdal' nor Ivan Daniilovich of Moscow had any claim to the grand princely throne, according to the traditional dynastic rules of succession. By the time the Tver' princes had been eliminated from the competition in 1327, succession to the grand principality depended strictly upon the favor and authority of the Golden Horde. Beginning with Ivan Kalita the position remained in the hands ofthe Daniilovichi, the princes of Moscow.
The rise of Moscow (1327-1359)
Both the principality and the city of Moscow were relatively small in the early fourteenth century. With its wooden fortress or kremlin surrounded by earthen ramparts, artisan quarters, and agricultural settlements, the city of Moscow had a modest rustic character. It hardly appeared as a likely successor to the opulent Kiev or the mighty Vladimir, much less the obvious victor in a competition with Tver', which in 1317 had demonstrated its superiority over the combined strength of the other Russian principalities.
But the Muscovite princes acquired several advantages over their rivals. Scholars have pointed to a variety of factors, ranging from the location of Moscow to the personal characters of its rulers, to account for their success. Some also credit Moscow’s improved political fortunes to a manipulative policy adopted by the Golden Horde to bolster Moscow, a relatively weak principality, as a counterweight to Tver', which had been demonstrating its mounting power; the policy, they surmise, aimed at keeping all the Rus' principalities divided and docile. To understand how Moscow became the dominant center in northeastern Rus' during the second quarter of the fourteenth century, however, it is essential to appreciate two basic factors.
The first concerns the domestic situation of the Daniilovichi. Quite simply, the Daniilovichi were illegitimate rulers in terms of dynastic traditions. The second factor concerns the role of the Golden Horde. Because the Daniilovichi lacked dynastic legitimacy, they depended heavily on the Mongol khan as the sole source of their authority. These two factors determined and explain the policies of Ivan I Kalita (1331-40) and his sons and successors, Semen (134053) and Ivan II (1353-59). Those policies included submission to the Golden Horde and the assertion of dominance over Novgorod. They also focused on fostering new domestic sources of support, on fashioning new bases of legitimacy.
Dynastic illegitimacy
Each of these policies had its roots in the issue of legitimacy. The remainder of the dynasty did not easily accept the Daniilovichi. Both Iurii and Ivan had become grand prince because Khan Uzbek had selected them, and he had done so when unusual circumstances had limited his alternatives. The trial and execution of the legitimate prince Mikhail of Tver' had paved the way for lurii to become grand prince. Uzbek was not, however, satisfied with Iurii’s performance and, after Iurii’s death, he hesitated for years before returning the grand principality to the Daniilovichi. The Horde finally supported Ivan Daniilovich. But the dynasty’s reluctance to accept the Danii-lovichi as legitimate heirs would continue to plague them and influence their policies.
Details concerning Ivan’s opponents or the manner in which they expressed their dissent are scant. It appears, however, that after i337, when Aleksandr Mikhailovich was allowed to return to Tver' from Pskov, a coalition that regarded him as the proper member of the dynasty to be grand prince formed around him. The coalition included the princes ofBeloozero and Iaroslavl'. As members of the Rostov clan, they had been eliminated from the succession cycle. Their ancestor, Prince Konstantin Vsevolodich, it will be recalled, had died before rotating into the post of grand prince of Vladimir. Despite their close relations with the khans of the Golden Horde, the Rostov princes had accepted a secondary political role within the lands of Rus' . They were, therefore, perhaps among the most offended when the Daniilovichi ignored the very principle that they had honored and which had disqualified them. They were perhaps among the most outraged when, unlike Prince Fedor of Iaroslavl' who had married Khan Mengu-Timur’s daughter, Iurii Daniilovich took advantage of his marriage to Uzbek’s sister and then manipulated the khan and his court notables with gifts and bribes to gain the grand princely throne.
The Rostov princes also had more concrete grounds for resentment against Ivan Daniilovich. In 1322, that prince had accompanied the khan’s envoy, Akhmyl, whose forces had ravaged Iaroslavl' and Rostov territories. Only five years later, when Ivan led the expedition to punish Tver' for its uprising in 1327, his armies again devastated the lands of Rostov. As a result of that incident, according to the fifteenth-century vita of St. Sergei (Sergius) of Radonezh, many inhabitants of the Rostov area lost their property and means of livelihood and were forced to migrate.
Whatever the princes’ reasons for supporting Aleksandr, when Khan Uzbek summoned the prince of Tver' to the Horde in 1339, he also ordered his allies, the princes ofBeloozero and Iaroslavl', to present themselves. By the end of this visit, Aleksandr had been executed. The fate of the prince ofBeloozero was not recorded. The prince of laroslavl' persisted in his opposition to the Daniilovichi.
In 1340, hejoined forces with the two Princes Konstantin, of Tver' and of Suzdal', to appeal to the khan against the succession of Ivan’s son, Semen. The chronicles, referring evasively to a quarrel over the grand principality, do not elaborate on the cause of the dispute. But a review of a dynastic chart suggests their case was founded, once again, on the traditional rules of succession. Konstantin Mikhailovich of Tver' was the son of one grand prince and brother of two others. He was a member of the same generation as Ivan Kalita. According to the principles ofgenerational rotation, he was not only eligible for the throne, but was the rightful heir. Semen, in contrast, represented the next generation. His right to inherit the throne was furthermore clouded by the fact that although his father had been grand prince, his grandfather Daniil had not. Certainly, his assumption of the throne before Konstantin Mikhailovich violated the traditional dynastic principles of succession.
Semen’s other opponent, Prince Konstantin of Suzdal', also had a vague claim to the throne. He was the brother ofPrince Aleksandr of Suzdal', who had been selected by Khan Uzbek to be grand prince of Vladimir in 1328, three years before Ivan Kalita acquired that position. Although a member ofthe same generation as Semen, he could make a case that, due to the fact that his brother’s reign as grand prince had preceded Ivan Kalita’s, he had seniority over Semen. Their arguments did not impress Uzbek, who issued the patent to Semen Ivanovich of Moscow, or his successor Janibek, who confirmed it.
The dynasty accepted the khan’s ruling, but not Daniilovich legitimacy. In 1353, Grand Prince Semen, his two sons, and his brother Andrei all died of the plague, known as the Black Death. Semen’s other brother, Ivan, was the only surviving member of the Daniilovich clan. He received the patent from Sarai, but only over renewed objections from Novgorod and from Prince Konstantin of Suzdal' and Nizhnii Novgorod; the latter principality had merged with Suzdal' in 1341 with the approval of Khan Janibek and had grown in strength and wealth over the preceding decade.
Their lack of dynastic legitimacy forced the Daniilovichi to depend exclusively on the khan’s favor to hold the position as grand prince. As a result, they served the Horde faithfully. Prince Iurii Daniilovich’s not entirely successful efforts to serve Khan Uzbek have been noted. His brother Ivan also maintained a submissive posture.
The Horde frequently. Beginning with the trip in 1331—32, when he received the patent for the grand principality, he made four or five trips before his death in 1340. If A. N. Nasonov’s estimate that each journey involved at least six months is correct, then he spent a substantial portion of his reign engaged in paying his respects and tribute to the khan and, perhaps, receiving counsel and instructions from Horde officials.45 Representatives from the Horde were also in evidence at Ivan’s court.
Grand Prince Semen continued the practice, making six visits to the Horde during his thirteen-year r
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