Campaign 332 - Kulikovo 1380. The Battle that Made Russia (2019).pdf

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KULIKOVO 1380
The battle that made Russia
MARK GALEOTTI
ILLUSTRATED BY DARREN TAN
CAMPAIGN 332
KULIKOVO 1380
The battle that made Russia
MARK GALEOTTI
ILLUSTRATED BY DARREN TAN
Series Editor Marcus Cowper
CONTENTS
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
The Mongol conquest
n
The rise of Moscow
n
Dmitry and Mamai
n
Mamai’s move
A note about sources
5
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
Rus' commanders
n
Golden Horde commanders
17
18
OPPOSING FORCES
Dimitry’s army of detachments
n
The Golden Horde
n
Logistics
23
OPPOSING PLANS
The battlefield
n
Dmitry’s gamble
n
Mamai’s hammer
37
THE BATTLE
Dmitry across the Don
n
Over the Don
n
Readying Mamai’s host
n
The battle of champions
The initial clash
n
Battle is joined
n
A bloody afternoon
n
Ambush!
n
The rout
47
AFTERMATH
Donskoy triumphant
n
Mamai’s downfall
n
Moscow burns...
n
...But Moscow also triumphs
79
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
The invisible battlefield
n
Kulikovo today
n
A shrine to Russia
87
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
94
95
Muscovite holdings
Other Russian territories
0
Ustyug
100 miles
0
100km
Beloözero
Volk
h
ov
The Principalities of the Rus’
Vologda
NOVGOROD REPUBLIC
Galich
Bezhichi
Uglich
Yaroslavl
Kostroma
Torzhok
Tver
Pereyaslavl
Dmitrov
Yurev
Suzdal
Vladimir
Moscow
Rostov
Vol
ga
Rzhev
Starodub
Nizhny Novgorod
Vol
g
a
Murom
Ok
a
sk
Mo
va
LITHUANIAN LANDS
Tarusa
N
er
Dniep
Smolensk
Pereyaslavl-Ryazan
Gorodets
Meshchersky
Kozelsk
GRAND PRINCIPALITY
OF RYAZAN
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
‘I want to tell you, brethren, about the battles of the recent war, about how
the battle on the Don between Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and all
Orthodox Christians and the infidel Mamai and the godless sons of Hagar
[Muslims] came about.’
The Tale of the Rout of Mamai
On 8 September 2005, Alexy II, 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus’,
and thus primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, declared a jubilee year
to commemorate the battle of Kulikovo. Fought against the Mongol-Tatar
armies of the Golden Horde exactly 625 years earlier, this was described
in the patriarch’s address as the battle that ‘saved the nations of Europe by
shielding them from the threat of foreign invasion.’ That might be something
of a stretch, given that by this time the Golden Horde was already in decline.
It might also appear a strange choice, to honour the 625th anniversary of
anything, but the point was to combine these celebrations with those of the
60th anniversary of the end of World War II, another conflict in which the
Russians like to feel they saved Europe with their blood and bones. Kulikovo,
1380, and what they call the Great Patriotic War, 1945, are arguably the
bookends marking the start and the end – or at least the latest chapter – of
Russia’s own history as a great, military nation.
The battle of Kulikovo became a powerful symbol of Russian unity and
capacity, even if two years later a punitive expedition would see Moscow
burned; after all, the legend is often more important than the reality. Dmitry,
prince of Moscow, became known as ‘Dmitry Donskoy’ ‘Dmitry of the Don’,
for his role in this battle, close to that mighty river’s banks. More generally,
it became part of Moscow’s claims to dominate the Rus’, and later part
of the Russian nation’s founding myths, of how it freed itself from foreign
domination and emerged as a Eurasian power and Europe’s defender alike.
THE MONGOL CONQUEST
‘In the same year, for our sins, there came unknown tribes. No one knew who
they were, or their origin, faith, or tongue… Only one Russian warrior in ten
lived through this battle; in returning to their homelands, many of these were
killed by the Cumans for their horses and clothes. In such a way, did God
bring confusion upon us, and an endless number of people perished.’
The
Novgorod First Chronicle
5

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