Russia Defeats Mongols at Kulikovo: Yoke Weakens

Grand Prince Dmitry of Moscow led a Russian coalition army of roughly 150,000 men against a Tatar-Mongol force of comparable size on the Kulikovo Field, near the confluence of the Don and Nepryadva Rivers, on September 8, 1380. The Battle of Kulikovo was the first major Russian victory against the Golden Horde in over a century of Mongol domination, and it established Moscow as the center of Russian resistance and the nucleus of the future Russian state. Dmitry, who earned the honorific "Donskoy" (of the Don) for the victory, was 29 years old. The Golden Horde, the western successor state of the Mongol Empire, had controlled Russia since the devastation of the Mongol invasion in 1237-1240. Russian princes paid tribute to the Khan, held their thrones at Mongol pleasure, and competed with each other for the Khan's favor. By the 1370s, however, the Horde was weakened by internal power struggles, and a warlord named Mamai, who was not of the Genghisid royal line, had seized effective control. Moscow's refusal to increase its tribute payments provoked Mamai to assemble an army to punish the upstart principality. Dmitry gathered forces from across the Russian principalities and advanced south to meet Mamai on ground of his choosing. He positioned his army with the Don River at its back, eliminating any possibility of retreat, and concealed a reserve force in the woods on his left flank. When the Tatar cavalry broke through the Russian center in heavy fighting, the hidden reserve smashed into the Mongol flank, routing Mamai's army. Casualties on both sides were enormous, and Dmitry himself was found barely conscious on the battlefield, his armor battered but his body protected. Kulikovo did not end Mongol rule over Russia. The Horde under Tokhtamysh sacked Moscow just two years later in 1382, and Russian princes continued paying tribute for another century. But the battle shattered the myth of Mongol invincibility in Russian minds and established the idea that a united Russian force could defeat the occupiers. Moscow's leadership of the coalition cemented its position as the preeminent Russian principality, and Kulikovo occupies a place in Russian national consciousness comparable to the Battle of Tours in French history.