King Tokhtamysh. The meaning of the word tokhtamysh in a brief biographical encyclopedia

There were many historical events associated with the name of Khan Tokhtamysh. Someone doubts some of them (but not official science), for example, the battle on the Kulikovo field - was it ?! We will try to highlight these events and the life of this person.

TOKHTAMYSH (died in 1406, the year of birth is not exactly established) - Khan of the Golden Horde, son of Tui-Khoja oglan - a descendant of Khan Jochi (the eldest son of Genghis Khan). Tokhtamysh's father, the emir of Mangyshlak, was killed by the ruler of the White Horde, Urus Khan. In the 70s of the 14th century, after a short civil strife, Tokhtamysh was defeated by Urus Khan in a decisive battle and was forced to flee to the possessions of Tamerlane.

By this time, the Jochi ulus included two independent states with their own khans - Golden Horde and White Horde. Urus Khan, ruling the White Horde, tried to unite both parts of the ulus and become their sole khan. In the early seventies, Tuykhodzha-oglan refused to participate in a military campaign against the Golden Horde and was executed for this. Undoubtedly, the same fate awaited Tokhtamysh, but he managed to escape and in 1376 arrived in Samarkand - to Tamerlane, the lord of Maverannahr.

Tamerlane, a very prudent politician, was very afraid of the unification of the Horde and had long been looking for a reason to intervene in the affairs of the Jochi ulus, so the fugitive Horde prince became a gift of fate for him. Tokhtamysh was treated kindly, received an army and immediately went to win back the throne of Urus Khan. In the very first battle, Kutlug-Bugi, the son of Urus Khan, died, but this did not help Tokhatmysh - his army was defeated. The next campaign also ended in failure. The enraged Urus Khan demanded that Tamerlane extradite the fugitive traitor, but Tamerlane refused and led the campaign against Urus Khan himself. His army reached Sygnak, the capital of the White Horde, but severe frosts forced Tamerlane to postpone the conquest of the Horde.

Khan Tokhtamysh on the throne

A decisive battle did not take place in the spring either - Urus Khan died unexpectedly, his son Toktakia became the ruler, then Timur-Melik oglan, and Tamerlane considered it necessary to send Tokhtamysh against the Horde again. In 1378, Timur-Melik, who did not enjoy the special respect of the Horde, was defeated, and Tokhtamysh sat on the throne of the White Horde, dreaming, like his predecessors, of uniting the entire Jochi ulus under his hand.

The Golden Horde was then controlled by the temnik Mamai, and Tokhtamysh entered the fight against him when Mamai lost most of the troops in battles. In the spring of 1380, Tokhtamysh managed to capture the entire ulus, together with the capital of the Golden Horde, Saray-Berke. Having destroyed Mamai himself and the remnants of his army in the battle, the new ruler of the Horde sent an embassy to Russia. Dmitry Donskoy received the ambassadors of Tokhtamysh with honor, sent gifts to the new khan, but did not go for a label for a great reign.

Short peace with Russia

For another two years, the Horde and Russia lived in peace. With the accession of Tokhtamysh, civil strife also ceased in the Horde: the new khan began to diligently restore the former power of the state. By the way, it was during his reign that the Golden Horde cities of the Lower Volga region revived. But the Golden Horde considered the conquest of rich Russian lands to be a priority, and Khan Tokhtamysh did not want to recognize the independence of Russia. For a campaign against the Russian principalities, an ally was quickly found in the person of the Lithuanian prince Jagiello, who had previously supported Mamai.

In 1381, ambassadors were again sent to Moscow to call Dmitry Donskoy to the Horde. The prince refused to go, and he also refused to pay tribute to the Horde. At the beginning of the next summer, Khan Tokhtamysh began his campaign against Moscow. They moved from the western bank of the Volga - the Ryazan and Suzdal principalities.

The Ryazan prince Oleg did not fight the Horde, instantly recognizing their power and agreeing to pay tribute. To confirm his peacefulness, he sent his own sons to Tokhtamysh as hostages.
The Suzdal prince Dmitry Konstantinovich managed to conclude a deal with the Horde: he gave guides in exchange for an oath not to plunder his possessions. Thanks to his guides, a huge army of the Horde crossed the Oka without difficulty, and most importantly, very quickly.
Soon an ambassador from Tver Prince Mikhail arrived to Tokhtamysh to inform him of his obedience.

Tokhtamysh was interested in the Moscow principality, which was greatly weakened after the battle with Mamai, and on August 23 his army besieged Moscow. The three-day siege did not bear fruit, although the Horde detachments managed to defeat the Moscow suburbs. According to the chronicles, Muscovites defended themselves fiercely - arrows flew from the walls to the Horde army, molten resin poured, stones rained down. It became clear that Moscow could not be taken by force, and Tokhtamysh used a trick.

On August 26, Khan's envoys went to Muscovites, among whom were two Russian princes - Vasily and Semyon, sons of Dmitry Suzdal and brothers of Dmitry Donskoy's wife. Khan offered Moscow to pay a ransom for lifting the siege. A truce was concluded, and Ostei, the Lithuanian prince who led the defense of the city, gave the order to open the gates. To greet Tokhtamysh and negotiate, Ostey and the noble citizens left the city - and were immediately killed suddenly, and the Horde cavalry broke into Moscow.

The city was plundered and burned to the ground, and cavalry detachments of the Horde scattered throughout all Moscow lands, plundering and burning all the villages. Tokhtamysh received a rebuff only on the way to Novgorod - near Volokolamsk, Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave with his retinue and local militia entered the battle and inflicted great damage on the Horde. Not expecting anything like this, Tokhtamysh hastily moved the army back. On the way to the Horde, he did not fail to plunder the possessions of the Ryazan prince.

Dmitry Ivanovich, returning to the capital, shed bitter tears over the Moscow ashes. He immediately began to call the scattered inhabitants from the forests, to restore Moscow and clear it of corpses; moreover, he ordered to give a ruble for eighty bodies to the people involved in the burial. 300 rubles were distributed; consequently, the number of those buried extended to 24,000; yes, besides, many people were burned in a fire or drowned in the river, where they rushed for fear of the barbarians. And if we determine the number of Muscovites taken into captivity at twenty or twenty-five thousand, then we have to admit that Moscow and its environs lost 50-60 thousand of their population after Tokhtamysh's campaign.

Enmity between Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane

Having celebrated the victory over Russia, Tokhtamysh got a third wife. Khogai-bek was the daughter of Hadji-bek, who ruled the Kyrk-Or fortress, the center of one of the uluses of the Golden Horde. In this marriage, Tokhtamysh had a girl named Janike-khanum. When Janika was about sixteen years old, Edigey, the future emir of the Nogai Horde, married her. The reason for this marriage was political considerations: Edigey himself had no relation to the Genghis Khan dynasty, which means that he had no right to claim the throne of the Horde, and Janike could give birth to Genghisid sons for him.

Tokhtamysh no longer undertook a serious campaign against Russia - he was too busy with the conflict with his recent patron Tamerlane. They became open enemies after Tokhtamysh began minting coins with his own name in Khorezm in 1383. Two years later, he invaded the regions of Western Iran and Transcaucasia and plundered the Iranian city of Tabriz, leaving it with huge booty and almost a hundred thousand captives. Wanting to acquire allies, Tokhtamysh even sent ambassadors to Egypt, which was at enmity with Tamerlane (you understand the geography of relations!).

In the same 1385, Tamerlane and Tokhtamysh began to fight for Khorezm and the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. At first, Tamerlane tried to restore former relations, but the Horde Khan, who once swore almost filial loyalty to him, no longer needed Tamerlane. In 1387, he went on a campaign against the center of the state of Tamerlane - Maverannahr, but only reached Bukhara, and his former patron responded by destroying the commercial city of Urgench. A year later, Tokhtamysh gathered a huge army, which included Russian squads, but the battle on the Syr Darya River was unsuccessful for the Horde. In 1391, the constant threat from Tokhtamysh got tired of Tamerlane, and he came to the Horde steppes (the territory of modern Kazakhstan) with a myriad army. Tokhtamysh's son-in-law Edigey went over to the side of Tamerlane, thanks to which the Horde army thinned out considerably. The enraged Tokhtamysh considered not only him, but also his daughter a traitor, and took revenge as best he could - he killed his mother Janike, his wife Togai-bek.

Tokhtamysh evaded the decisive battle and led his soldiers to the Middle Volga. Tamerlane overtook the enemy in the summer and utterly defeated, but the Horde Khan with a small retinue managed to escape. The victors did not seriously pursue him, and this was Tamerlane's big mistake - for three years Tokhtamysh gathered an army and started the war again. Once again, Tamerlane tried to negotiate peace, Tokhtamysh did not recognize his authority, and Tamerlane's patience snapped. In April 1395, in the valley of the Terek River, the army of Tokhtamysh was defeated in a bloody battle, after which Tamerlane marched through the territory of the Golden Horde with fire and sword. The remnants of Tokhtamysh's army went to the Crimea, where they ruined Kafa, a trading and very rich city, but this campaign was the last success of the Horde Khan. According to some sources, a year later he managed to become the ruler of the Tyumen Khanate - but for a very short time.

Yedigei, Tamerlane's new henchman in the Horde, placed Timur-Kutlug, the nephew of Urus Khan, on the throne. The former khan of the Golden Horde was given asylum in Kyiv by Vitovt, a Lithuanian prince who dreamed of gaining political influence over the Horde. In 1399 Vitovt set out on a campaign against the Horde. Together with his army, there were several thousand soldiers of Tokhtamysh, to whom the Lithuanian promised the throne of the Horde. In the battle on the Vorskla River, the united army of Vitovt was defeated and almost completely destroyed by the Horde led by Edigei and Timur-Kutlug. The winners took a ransom from Kyiv, plundered the southern possessions of Lithuania and attached them to the Nogai Horde - a new state, the heir to the Golden Horde, defeated by Tamerlane.

Tamerlane reasoned that Tokhtamysh was finished, but Edigey chased his father-in-law for several more years. It was difficult to catch the fugitive khan, whose small detachment was engaged in robbery in the steppe, especially since Tokhtamysh, on reflection, decided to make peace with Tamerlane and in the winter of 1405 sent an envoy to him, offering an alliance against Edigei. Tamerlane was going to conquer China and needed soldiers, and therefore showed a favorable interest in the negotiations. Most likely, he understood that Tokhtamysh did not repent of anything at all, but simply wanted to push off his two recent enemies. But in any case, the reconciliation of Tamerlane and Tokhtamysh did not happen - in February, the great emir of Maverannahr died. His heirs began to enthusiastically divide the vacant throne, not thinking about either China or the Horde.

After the death of Tamerlane, the name of Khan Tokhtamysh no longer appears in written sources, but, in all likelihood, he was killed in 1406 - presumably in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Tyumen. But his daughter Janike Khanum, after the death of her husband Edigei, managed to become a very prominent political figure involved in the birth of an independent Crimean Khanate.

Khan Tokhtamysh is one of the most hated figures in the memory of the Russian people, but this does not make his personality any less interesting, if only because for many years he was a rather serious enemy of Tamerlane himself, the great conqueror, before whom both Asia and Europe trembled.

And note that this article did not contain the word “Tatars” ... Is it true that everything that is stated here is also not possible to say. It turned out to be rather an academic version in which a large number of familiar place names and historical names met. But what were the true relationships within the Horde, the relationship between the Horde and Russia - the researchers still have a chance to find out.

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It turned into a serious ruin for the Horde and the weakening of the khan's power. What was not slow to take advantage of the guardian of the Grand Duke Dmitry of Moscow, Metropolitan Alexei. Using the need of the next khan in Russian silver, he managed, in exchange for financial support, to receive a khan's letter certifying that the great reign is the hereditary right of the Moscow princes from the dynasty of Ivan Kalita. Thus, the political tradition of Kievan Rus was finally abolished. It was replaced by a completely new principle of hereditary, dynastic monarchy.
But the sons of Khan Dzhanibek, carried away by the extermination of each other, eventually lost power in Saray. Khan Navrus, the last of the surviving sons of Janibek, was killed by his own nobles, who defected to the side of the Khan of the Blue Horde Khyzr. The latter brought his Siberian regiments and captured the entire Volga region. Here is what Gumilyov writes about this:

“The khans of the Blue Horde had little connection with Saray. If the White Horde, which bordered on the Jagatai ulus and the Muslim part of Central Asia, without enthusiasm, but still converted to Islam, then the Blue Horde, which, as we remember, in Western Siberia, apparently had no idea about Islam at all. The nobles surrounding the khans were called there not “emirs”, but “toyaba” (this word cannot be translated, it is only clear that it means the military aristocracy, the commanding staff of the army, which was not subjected to any cultural influences - neither Christianization nor Islamization). And therefore, soon the territorial integrity of the Golden Horde was lost: the Kama Bulgars, Mordovians and Guzes, who lived on Yaik, separated, and the remaining territory split into two parts.("From Russia to Russia")

Khyzr was killed six months later, and his descendants ruled in Saray, who began to own the eastern part of the Ulus Jochi, and Khan Mamai established himself in the Black Sea region. It was at this time that the son of Emir Mangyshlak, who was killed by the Khan of the White Horde Urus, declared himself, arguing for power with the descendants of Khizr. They called him Tokhtamysh. It was he who led the resistance of the Blue Horde beks to the offensive of Urus Khan, which aimed at Sarai. Tokhtamysh lost the decisive battle, escaping, rushed to the Syr Darya, under a hail of arrows, wounded, swam across the river and got to the other side. There he was picked up by the people of Iron Lame - Timur. Tokhtamysh was fed, his wound was bandaged, dressed, and then introduced to Timur himself. Tamerlane, who was at enmity with Urus Khan, accepted the fleeing Horde prince with due honors and recognized him as the ruler of Sugnak.
Taking advantage of the fact that Urus Khan, who by that time had captured the capital of the Golden Horde, was delayed in the Volga region, Tokhtamysh, with an army received from his new overlord, opposed the son of Urus Khan Kutlug Buk. He died in the first battle, but his troops won. Tokhtamysh fled to Samarkand. Having received news of his son's death in battle, Uruskhan hurried back to Sugnak and sent a messenger to Tamerlane demanding that Tokhtamysh be handed over to him. In 1377, after the death of Urus Khan, Tokhtamysh finally captured Sugnak and subjugated the White Horde (the territory of present-day Kazakhstan). In 1378, Tokhtamysh captured Saray, the capital of the Golden Horde, and declared himself a great khan.

The defeat of Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo field in 1380 made it much easier for Tokhtamysh to assert his own power over the entire territory of the Ulus Jochi. Mamai tried to resist Tokhtamysh, but was defeated in 1381 near the Kalka River. After this defeat, most of the Horde princes and temniks, who still recognized Mamai as their leader, went over to the side of the winner.

With the victory over Mamai, Tokhtamysh became the ruler of both the eastern and western parts of the Jochi ulus - in fact, one of the most powerful rulers of that time. Naturally, he considered it his duty to restore the power of the Golden Horde over Russia. Tokhtamysh informed the Grand Duke Dmitry of Moscow, as well as other Russian grand and specific princes, of his victory over their common enemy Mamai. Neither Dmitry Donskoy nor other Russian princes considered it necessary to pay Tokhtamysh a personal visit; however, they all sent kilichs to the new khan with congratulations and numerous gifts.

“Although these actions could be regarded as the restoration of the vassal dependence of the Russian princes, Tokhtamysh realized that the Russians did not intend to comply with their previous obligations in relation to the Golden Horde. His next step, therefore, was to send an extraordinary envoy to Moscow to confirm his authority. The envoy only reached Nizhny Novgorod, where he was not allowed to continue on his journey. The failure of this mission convinced Tokhtamysh that war was the only way to force Moscow to obey. He immediately began preparations for an attack on Russia.

In 1382 Tokhtamysh organized a raid on Moscow. Having crossed the Volga and the Oka, the Tatars suddenly appeared under the walls of the city. Most of the Moscow boyars, clergy, soldiers, as always in the summer, left Moscow for nearby villages. Only the Grand Duchess and Metropolitan Cyprian remained in Moscow. Cyprian was instructed to defend the city, but, not being a military man, the metropolitan could not organize the defense and left Moscow. However, as soon as he left the capital, disagreements began among the people. The rich wanted to follow the prince to safety. The commoners wanted to stay and resist the invaders.
Not trusting any of the local boyars, the veche chose the Lithuanian prince Ostey as governor of the Moscow army, whom the Nikon Chronicle calls the grandson of Olgerd. He managed to restore order in the city and began hasty preparations for defense. On August 23, 1382, Tokhtamysh's army appeared at the walls of the city. The Muscovites now seemed united in their decision to fight. The chronicler, however, notes the difference in attitude between the "good people" who prepared for death by praying to God, and the "bad people" who ruin the cellars of the rich and strengthen themselves with alcohol. For three days and three nights, the Horde furiously stormed the city, but they could not take it. Then Tokhtamysh decided to act by deceit and on August 26 offered a truce, asking only for "small gifts" for lifting the siege. The two princes of Suzdal who accompanied him swore the sincerity of this proposal.

“Muscovites were naive enough to believe them. When the gates opened, and the procession of the Moscow nobility, led by Prince Ostei, came out to greet the Khan, the Mongols attacked them and killed everyone. At this time, other detachments of the Mongols rushed into the city. A terrible massacre and robbery followed. The winners seized the grand ducal treasury and the wealth accumulated by the boyars and wealthy merchants. Precious golden vessels and crosses, jeweled fabrics and other artistic values were seized from the churches.”(Vernadsky. "Mongols and Russia")

The rumor about the treacherous attack of Tokhtamysh quickly reached the outskirts of Moscow lands. Those who could not fight left for the Tver principality, since Tokhtamysh categorically forbade his troops to attack the Tver lands. The Moscow boyars, quickly gathering vigilantes, began to attack the Tatar detachments, which were scattered throughout the volosts. Tokhtamysh, seeing that he had to fight seriously, immediately withdrew, abandoned captured Moscow, crossed the Oka to the Ryazan principality, robbed it and then went home.

The clash with Tokhtamysh greatly weakened the position of Grand Duke Dmitry. Tver decided to take advantage of the situation. But the attempts of Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich of Tver to receive a great reign from the khan were not successful: Dmitry sent his son, Prince Vasily, to the Horde, and he managed to keep the great reign for Moscow. True, Tokhtamysh left Vasily Dmitrievich in the Horde as a hostage, but already in 1385 he managed to escape.

Meanwhile, relations between Tokhtamysh and Timur deteriorated. Timur, although he was listed as the overlord of Tokhtamysh, was not Genghisid by birth. In addition, his Islamization policy caused rejection of the Blue Horde beks, who prevailed in Tokhtamysh's entourage. Here is what Gumilyov writes about this:

“The people of Tokhtamysh demanded to speak out against the aggression of the Muslims, who were seizing region after region in Western Siberia. In addition, according to the will of Genghis Khan, the entire Khorezm oasis belonged to the descendants of Jochi. And in 1383 Tokhtamysh made the first attempt to gain independence - he tried to take Khorezm from Timur. For some time he succeeded, but later Timur regained the Khorezm oasis. Since that time, a war began between two cultures: the steppe Eurasian and Islamic, whose representative was Timur, who restored the former power of the Muslim armies.("From Russia to Russia")

In 1385, Tokhtamysh dealt a new blow to Timur's possessions. The troops of Tokhtamysh passed through the Darial Gorge and captured Tabriz in Azerbaijan, which, again, according to the division of Genghis, should have belonged to the Juchi ulus. Timur drove off the Tatar army, capturing many of them. Trying to delay the decisive clash, he returned the freedom of the captives and sent them under escort to their native steppes. But he failed to change the course of further events.

Two years later, Tokhtamysh, having gathered a rather large force, threw them across the Kazakh steppe and, passing through the Bet-pak-Dala desert, passing Khojent and Samarkand, reached Termez. On the way, the khan robbed all the villages that were there, but did not take a single fortress: they were reliably fortified. Timur, who was fighting in Persia at that time, returned to Central Asia with the selected units of his army in a forced march. Tokhtamysh began to retreat, but Timur overtook him in Fergana and defeated him, after which Tokhtamysh fled with the remnants of his troops to Western Siberia.

In 1391, the struggle between Tokhtamysh and Timur entered a decisive stage. Irritated by Tokhtamysh's devastating raids on Maverannahr, Timur decided to follow his adversary into his own domain. In February 1391, after careful preparation, he concentrated an army (said to be 200,000 men) on the Syr Darya and assembled a kurultai, which approved his plans, and at which his commanders received their final instructions. In April, the army reached Sary Su in Kazakhstan, where there was enough water, and stopped to rest. Realizing the historical importance of his campaign, Timur ordered a record of his stay here to be carved on a nearby rock (April 28, 1391).

In May, Timur led an army north to the upper Tobol region, where, according to intelligence, part of Tokhtamysh's army was based. However, by the time Timur's soldiers reached Tobol, Tokhtamysh's troops retreated west to Yaik. It was obvious that Tokhtamysh wanted to avoid a decisive battle as much as Timur wanted to give it. While Timur hurriedly followed Yaik, Tokhtamysh retreated once more; and only on the middle Volga, in the region of Samara, Timur's troops overtook the main camp of their enemy. This time an organized retreat was impossible for Tokhtamysh; he was forced to accept the battle on June 18, 1391 on the banks of the Kondurcha River, a tributary of the Soka (which, in turn, is an eastern tributary of the Volga north of modern Samara). The bloody battle ended with the complete defeat of Tokhtamysh's army. Tokhtamysh himself fled with a small retinue. The victors captured huge booty. By the end of the year, Timur returned in triumph to his capital, Samarkand.

It soon became clear that Timur underestimated the personality and capabilities of Tokhtamysh. Although the latter lost the entire eastern part of the Jochi ulus (to the east of Yaik), he still controlled its western part, the Golden Horde itself. Most of the Golden Horde princes and nobility remained faithful to their khan. Much depended on the attitude of Moscow and Lithuania towards Tokhtamysh. In order to keep Moscow on his side, Tokhtamysh was forced to radically change his policy towards Russia. Instead of maintaining a balance between the four Russian grand principalities, he now saw his only chance to maintain control over Eastern Russia in concessions to the most powerful principality - Moscow. Grand Duke Vasily immediately took advantage of the new situation and annexed, with the consent of the khan, the entire Grand Duchy of Nizhny Novgorod.

Tokhtamysh sent ambassadors to the king of Poland, Jagiello, demanding to confirm his loyalty and agree to pay tribute from Kyiv, Podolia and some other Western Russian regions. He also renewed relations with the Mamluks, in which he still hoped to find allies against Timur.

Strongly encouraged by his diplomatic achievements, having recruited and trained a new army, Tokhtamysh decided to continue a limited offensive against Timur in the Caucasus. In the autumn of 1394, his troops passed Derbent and appeared in the Shirvan region, ruining everything in their path. Learning of this, Timur sent an ambassador demanding that Tokhtamysh withdraw his troops and once again recognize Timur's suzerainty. Tokhtamysh refused. A final showdown between the two rulers became inevitable.

Timur moved towards Tokhtamysh, and both troops met on the Terek, where a bloody battle took place. Timur won, and he himself fought in the ranks of the soldiers. Tokhtamysh was forced to flee. And Timur moved on, passed through the Caspian steppes and invaded the center of the Golden Horde - the Volga-Don interfluve.

“The talented commander Bek-Yaryk-oglan fought bravely against Timur. He managed to withdraw his troops to the Dnieper, but Timur threw one of his best commanders there - Emir Osman. Osman surrounded the steppes on the banks of the Dnieper. However, Bek-Yaryk escaped again and with part of his army rushed to the east, because he had no other way: Lithuania, hostile to the Tatars, was located to the west. Only near the Russian city of Yelets did Emir Osman overtake Bek-Yaryk. Emir laid siege to Yelets. Defended by Russian-Tatar troops, the city resisted fiercely, but eventually fell. And again Bek-Yaryk-oglan with his eldest son broke through the ranks of the besiegers and went to Russia. Timur was so impressed by the courage, steadfastness and loyalty of the Tatar leader that, having captured his family, he ordered that they be sent after the hero under escort so that no one would offend women and children.(Gumilyov. "From Russia to Russia")

Now Timur intended to go further into Russia and capture Ryazan and Moscow. He probably would have succeeded if it were not for the uprising in the rear among the Circassians, Ossetians and Tatars. Timur had to turn back. Having passed Perekop, he collected tribute on the Crimean peninsula and fed his army. And although the rebellious Circassians burned the steppes north of the Kuban, Timur's troops managed to pass through the scorched steppe, inflict a severe defeat on the Circassians and forced them to take refuge in the mountains. Having passed the Derbent passage and entering Azerbaijan, Timur liquidated the fortresses of the rebels in Transcaucasia and in the Elburz mountains, and then returned to Samarkand.

But Timur's victorious wars did not end there. He had to fight fiercely with the Ottoman Turks, and in 1402 he defeated the Ottoman Sultan Bayazet with his hitherto invincible infantry - the Janissaries. Then Timur approached the walls of Smyrna, occupied by the crusading garrison of the Knights of St. John. The Turks besieged Smyrna for 20 years and could not take it, and Timur took the fortress by storm in a few days. When Venetian and Genoese ships arrived at Smyrna with help and supplies for the besieged, Timur's soldiers threw them from catapults with the heads of the knights of the Order of John.

As soon as Timur retired to Samarkand, the stubborn Tokhtamysh rushed back to the Kipchak steppes and tried to restore his power. First he went to the Crimea, which, apparently, he decided to make his main base. Due to its geographical position, the Crimean peninsula can be defended even from a superior enemy. During the defeat of 1395, the Genoese seized power in the Crimea. Tokhtamysh attacked the Genoese forces and took Kaffa by storm, where he probably captured considerable wealth. He certainly needed money to rebuild his army and state. At first he was successful, and soon he issued a call to all the Horde nobility and princes who had not yet returned to him for this work. By 1398 he felt strong enough to reassert his control over Russia and sent an envoy to Prince Oleg of Ryazan. At this moment, however, turmoil began again in the Golden Horde.

During Timur's retreat from the Volga region, some officers of Tatar origin (Murza Edigey and Prince Koreichak from the White Horde) asked Timur for permission to stay in the steppes and were released. Timur entrusted them with the task of streamlining the Tatar Horde. Thus, new rulers established themselves in the Golden Horde defeated by Timur. True, the son of Urus Khan from the White Horde, Tsarevich Koreychak, a young and rather energetic man, died after a while, and power passed to his cousin, Temir-Kutlug. Tokhtamysh captured Sarai, but Temir-Kutlug defeated him and entered into a close alliance with Murza Edigei, whom he appointed the ruler of the court, in fact, the head of the government. Both sent ambassadors to Timur to bring him assurances of vassal loyalty. Meanwhile, Tokhtamysh, at the head of several thousand soldiers who remained loyal to him, galloped to Kyiv and asked the Grand Duke Vitovt to help him keep the throne. Timur Kutlug also sent ambassadors there demanding that Tokhtamysh be handed over. Vytautas thus faced a serious problem. After a meeting with the panorama of the Grand Duchy, he decided to take the side of Tokhtamysh. Apparently, Vytautas hoped, using Tokhtamysh as a puppet khan, to establish his suzerainty over the entire Golden Horde.
Having made a decision, Vitovt began a thorough preparation for the campaign. He turned for help to both Poland and the knights of the Teutonic Order. The king of Poland, Jagiello, agreed to provide several military formations, but much less than Vytautas expected. In order to get the support of the knights, Vitovt ceded to them part of the territories of the Zhmud tribe. For these reasons, they agreed to send a selected and well-armed detachment to participate in the campaign. We have no information about Vitovt's negotiations with Moscow, but, in any case, Moscow remained neutral. Grand Duke Vasily of Moscow certainly had good reason to be suspicious of his father-in-law's intentions. In 1395, Vitovt captured Smolensk and imprisoned most of the specific princes of this principality. Since Smolensk was not subject to Moscow, the Grand Duke of Moscow was concerned about the strengthening of Lithuanian control over it. Even more threatening was Vitovt's intention to establish his suzerainty over Novgorod. In 1398, he agreed with the Teutonic Order on a joint campaign against Pskov and Novgorod. If successful, the knights received Pskov, and Vitovt - Novgorod. Now these plans have been canceled due to a new turn in Horde affairs.

The bulk of Vitovt's forces in the steppe campaign of 1399 consisted of the Lithuanian and Western Russian army and the Tatars of Tokhtamysh. The Lithuanian-Russian army was well organized and armed with cannons. The rulers of the Golden Horde also prepared well for the war. Instead of waiting for the enemy deep in the steppes, Timur Kutlug and Yedigey decided to advance towards the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the direction of Kiev. In early August 1399, two warring armies met on the banks of the Vorskla (a tributary of the Dnieper). A fierce battle raged for several hours. Vitovt's troops seemed to be on the verge of victory over the Horde army under the command of Edigei, when the reserve detachments of Timur Kutlug attacked the Lithuanians from the rear. The Tatars of Tokhtamysh were the first to take the fight, and soon the whole army of Vitovt was crushed. Pursuing the remnants of the defeated army of Vitovt, Timur Kutlug went straight to Kyiv and pitched his camp in front of the city. Kyiv had to pay a ransom of 3,000 rubles.

“Tokhtamysh returned to the steppes with a small detachment of faithful adherents and began a guerrilla war against Edigey. After being defeated in several skirmishes, he moved east and found refuge in Tyumen in western Siberia. From there, he sent an ambassador to his former overlord Timur, once again asking for protection and offering an alliance against Edigey. Timur graciously received the ambassador Tokhtamysh in the city of Otrar in January 1405. Timur then stood on the threshold of his new campaign against China. He was no doubt worried about the rapid rise of Edigey's forces and, to prevent the possibility of Yedigey attacking Central Asia during his absence, he was glad to use Tokhtamysh against Yedigey, as he had used Yedigey against Tokhtamysh ten years earlier. Neither Timur nor Tokhtamysh was destined to take advantage of the fruits of their new union. Timur died in Otrar on February 18, 1405. Tokhtamysh apparently died in Tyumen at about the same time or shortly thereafter. In any case, his name is not mentioned after this date in the sources available to us."(Vernadsky. "Mongols and Russia")

Tokhtamysh

T okhtamysh - khan of the Golden Horde, one of the descendants of the eldest son of Jochi (X, 564); was first Zayaitsky Khan. After the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh, with the help of (see), seized the throne of the Golden Horde and sent ambassadors to the Russian princes with the news of his accession. The princes received the ambassadors with honor and, in turn, sent ambassadors with gifts for the new khan. Wanting to disperse the fear that attacked the Tatars after the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh ordered the Russian guests to be robbed and their ships seized, and in 1382 he himself went to Moscow with a large army. The Nizhny Novgorod prince, having learned about the campaign of Tokhtamysh and wishing to save his land from ruin, sent his sons Vasily and Semyon to him. , guided by the same motives, showed him the fords on the Oka River. the Tatars were taken by surprise. He left Moscow and went first to Pereyaslavl, and then to Kostroma to gather troops. When Tokhtamysh took Serpukhov, in Moscow, due to its complete helplessness, a rebellion arose. The Lithuanian prince came to the aid of Muscovites. On August 24, 1382, Tokhtamysh approached Moscow. For two days Muscovites and Lithuanians stubbornly defended themselves. Tokhtamysh took Moscow by cunning, sending the princes of Nizhny Novgorod, who swore that Tokhtamysh would not do anything bad to the Muscovites if they surrendered. On August 26, Moscow surrendered. The promise was not fulfilled: many people were killed, the city was plundered. After that, the Tatars took Pereyaslavl, Vladimir, Yuriev, Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk and other cities near Moscow. Dimitry Donskoy left for Kostroma, the Metropolitan took refuge in Tver. The prince of Tver sent an ambassador to Tokhtamysh with a declaration of obedience. It seemed that the Russian land had lost all the fruits of the Battle of Kulikovo and would again fall under the full power of the Tatars. It happened differently: one of the Tokhtamyshev detachments accidentally stumbled upon the Moscow detachment, which was under the command of the prince, near Volok. The Tatars were defeated. This caused the retreat of Tokhtamysh. On the way back, he plundered the Ryazan land. The successor of Dimitry Donskoy, bought a label in the Horde for the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod. Tatars several times made small raids on Russian soil, plundered Ryazan, Vyatka; but Tokhtamysh could not undertake a large and serious campaign against Moscow, since at that time he entered into a struggle with Timur (see), to whom he owed the Kipchak throne. In 1395 Tokhtamysh was defeated by Timur on the banks of the Terek; he was deprived of the throne and forced to wage a constant struggle with the khans appointed by Timur. In 1407 Tokhtamysh was killed by a temnik (see).

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The ruler of Mangyshlak, an influential prince under Khan Urus. After Tui-Khodja was executed by order of Urus for disobedience, young Tokhtamysh, fearing for his life, fled to Samarkand in 1376 to the ruler of Maverannahr Timur. In the 1370s, with his help, he established himself in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River and became the Zayaitsky Khan. In 1377, Tokhtamysh, with the support of Tamerlane's troops, set about conquering the Golden Horde. However, in the very first battle, despite the death of the White Horde prince Kutlug-Buga, the son of Urus, he was defeated and fled to.

By April 1380, Tokhtamysh managed to capture the entire Golden Horde up to Azov, including the capital, Sarai.

In 1380, taking advantage of the defeat of Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo, still with the help of Tokhtamysh, on the 4th attempt, he seized power in the Golden Horde and stopped internal unrest.

Having mastered the throne of the Golden Horde, Tokhtamysh sent ambassadors to the Russian princes with the news of his accession. The princes received the ambassadors with honor and, in turn, sent ambassadors with gifts for the new khan. Wanting to disperse the fear that attacked the Tatars after the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh ordered the Russian guests to be robbed and their ships seized, and in 1382 he himself went to Moscow with a large army.

The Nizhny Novgorod prince, having learned about the campaign of Tokhtamysh and wanting to save his land from ruin, sent his sons to him and. , guided by the same motives, showed him the fords on the river. Ok. the Tatars were taken by surprise. He left Moscow and went first to Pereyaslavl, and then to Kostroma, to gather troops. When Tokhtamysh took Serpukhov, in Moscow, due to its complete helplessness, a rebellion arose. The young Lithuanian prince Ostei came to the aid of the Muscovites with a small retinue, and he led the defense.

On August 24, 1382, Tokhtamysh approached Moscow with a large army. For two days Muscovites and Lithuanians stubbornly defended themselves. Then Tokhtamysh decided to take Moscow by cunning, sending Nizhny Novgorod princes Vasily Kirdyapa and Semyon Dmitrievich to negotiations. The princes swore that Tokhtamysh would have mercy on the Muscovites and would not do anything bad to them if they surrendered. He would only like to see the Kremlin from the inside.

On August 26, 1382, Muscovites believed and opened the Spassky Gate, and paid for it with their lives. In total, 24 thousand Muscovites who defended the city were killed. Princes, boyars and military leaders were killed. Prince Ostei was also killed.

Tokhtamysh took everything he could from Moscow. Nobody could stop him. There was no one - neither the Grand Duke, nor the army. The Tatars took out all the gold reserves. In the cathedrals and churches of the Kremlin, all the icons, precious church utensils, gold and diamond reserves of the metropolitans were torn off. All goods of merchants (jewelry, furs, fabrics, etc.) were taken out. The property of the boyar houses in the Kremlin and the archives of the princely administration were partially burned, partially looted. The rest was taken to the Horde. But this was not enough. The Tatars ravaged the entire principality: they took Pereyaslavl, Vladimir, Yuryev, Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk and other cities near Moscow, robbed them completely, and drove the inhabitants into captivity. Dimitry Donskoy went to Kostroma, Metropolitan Cyprian took refuge in Tver. The prince of Tver sent an ambassador to Tokhtamysh with a declaration of obedience. It seemed that the Russian land had lost all the fruits of the Battle of Kulikovo and would again fall under the full power of the Tatars. It happened differently: one of the Tokhtamyshev detachments accidentally stumbled upon the Moscow detachment, which was under the command of Prince Vladimir Andreevich near Volok. The Tatars were defeated. This caused the retreat of Tokhtamysh.

The Tatars went back through the Ryazan principality, which was friendly to them. Despite friendship, loyalty and obedience, the Tatars devastated the Ryazan land.

During the first seven years of his reign, Tokhtamysh managed to restore the unity of the Golden Horde.

The successor of Demetrius Donskoy, in 1393 bought in the Horde from Tokhtamysh a label for Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod.

Tatars several times made small raids on Russian soil, plundered Ryazan, Vyatka; but Tokhtamysh could not undertake a large and serious campaign against Moscow, since at that time he entered into a struggle with, to whom he owed the throne. In 1383 Tokhtamysh captured Khorezm only to lose it immediately. Fearing the transition of Transcaucasia and Western Iran under the rule of the enemy, Tokhtamysh undertook an invasion of this region in 1385. Having captured Tabriz and plundered it, the khan retreated with rich booty; among the 90,000 captives was the poet Kamol Khujandi.

In 1391, he defeated the Horde Khan on Kondurcha, and in 1395 Tokhtamysh suffered an even more severe defeat on the banks of the Terek; he was deprived of the throne and forced to wage a constant struggle with the khans appointed by Timur.

Soon, with the assistance of Emir Edigey, reigned on the Golden Horde throne, having defeated Tokhtamysh, who after that fled with his family to Kyiv to the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Tokhtamysh was accepted by Vitovt, who wanted to use him as a conductor of his political influence in the Horde.

He began to prepare a large-scale campaign against the Tatars with the aim of placing Tokhtamysh on the throne of the Golden Horde, who, with a detachment of several thousand Tatars, also took part in the campaign. Speaking against the Horde, Vitovt in 1399 set up camp on the Vorskla River, and, frightened by the large number of the enemy, asked for peace. In the meantime, Edigey with his troops arrived at the river and broke off the negotiations, persuading them to continue the fight.

The battle began on 12 August. After the fight between the Khan's Murza and the Lithuanian knight Syrokomli, which ended in the victory of the latter, the Lithuanian army began crossing the river. Having crossed, he saw that the Tatars were retreating to the steppe, using their usual tactics since the time of Genghis Khan - a feigned retreat, and, forgetting all precautions, ordered the Lithuanian, Polish and German cavalry at his disposal to attack the enemy. As a result, heavy riders after galloping 10-12 km soon tired the horses and practically stopped. At this time, the Tatars surrounded them from all sides and began to fire from afar, without coming into close contact, with bows and crossbows. Dense fire was conducted primarily on horses unprotected by armor. The knights on foot were completely helpless. Having defeated the Lithuanian cavalry, the Tatars quickly returned to the rest of the Lithuanian army and, on the tail of the remnants of the retreating Lithuanian cavalry, which caused panic in the ranks of the infantrymen, broke into the Lithuanian camp.

Despite the large number of the Lithuanian army and its good equipment (including the presence of artillery, the use of which turned out to be ineffective against mobile horsemen, as well as squeakers and crossbows), the army could not resist and was utterly defeated. Most of the generals died, including 18 princes. A massacre began, part of the Lithuanians tried to escape by crossing the Vorskla to the opposite bank, but they mostly died, struck from afar by Tatar arrows.

The first to flee from the battlefield were the troops of Tokhtamysh, who perfectly understood the impossibility of confronting light Tatar arrows in a wide and waterless steppe. He himself was wounded and barely escaped, almost drowning in Vorskla. His younger brother also survived. The German and Polish knights, having suffered small losses (the Teutons - 4 knights, and the Poles - 12), also escaped, hiding from the battlefield in time. The Horde pursued the remnants of the troops to Kyiv itself, but they could not take the city itself. Pursuing the retreating enemy, the Nogays of Edigei devastated the Kievan and Lithuanian lands, their forward detachments reached as far as Lutsk, betraying the area to fire and sword. Kyiv, at the cost of a huge ransom (3,000 Lithuanian hryvnias), managed to pay off the Nogai attack, which threatened him with ruin.

Tokhtamysh fled to Siberia, where he still had many supporters. There he seized power in the Tyumen yurt (1400). Tokhtamysh finally lost his political influence, but in recent years he began to lean towards peace, to which he even sent an embassy. Therefore, Edigei did not leave Tokhtamysh alone and fought him for a long time with varying success.

In 1405 he died, and Tokhtamysh in the 16th battle with Edigey and Chokre (Chekri), already under the Khan, in 1406 was finally defeated and killed. Tokhtamysh had 13 sons who avenged the death of their father. In 1420, Edigey died in a battle with the sons of Tokhtamysh.

The meaning of the word TOKHTAMYSH in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia

TOKHTAMYSH

Tokhtamysh - Khan of the Golden Horde, one of the descendants of the eldest son of Jochi (X, 564); was first Zayaitsky Khan. After the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh, with the help of Timur (see), took possession of the throne of the Golden Horde and sent ambassadors to the Russian princes with the news of his accession. The princes received the ambassadors with honor and, in turn, sent ambassadors with gifts for the new khan. Wanting to disperse the fear that attacked the Tatars after the Battle of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh ordered the Russian guests to be robbed and their ships seized, and in 1382 he himself went to Moscow with a large army. The Nizhny Novgorod prince, having learned about the campaign of Tokhtamysh and wishing to save his land from ruin, sent his sons Vasily and Semyon to him. Oleg Ryazansky, guided by the same motives, showed him the fords on the Oka River. Dimitry Donskoy was taken by surprise by the Tatars. He left Moscow and went first to Pereyaslavl, and then to Kostroma to gather troops. When Tokhtamysh took Serpukhov, in Moscow, due to its complete helplessness, a rebellion arose. The Lithuanian prince Ostei came to the aid of the Muscovites. On August 24, 1382, Tokhtamysh approached Moscow. For two days Muscovites and Lithuanians stubbornly defended themselves. Tokhtamysh took Moscow by cunning, sending the princes of Nizhny Novgorod, who swore that Tokhtamysh would not do anything bad to the Muscovites if they surrendered. On August 26, Moscow surrendered. The promise was not fulfilled: many people were killed, the city was plundered. After that, the Tatars took Pereyaslavl, Vladimir, Yuriev, Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk and other cities near Moscow. Dimitry Donskoy left for Kostroma, Metropolitan Cyprian took refuge in Tver. Prince of Tver Mikhail Alexandrovich sent an ambassador to Tokhtamysh with a statement of humility. It seemed that the Russian land had lost all the fruits of the Battle of Kulikovo and would again fall under the full power of the Tatars. It happened differently: one of the Tokhtamyshev detachments accidentally stumbled upon the Moscow detachment, which was under the command of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, near Volok. The Tatars were defeated. This caused the retreat of Tokhtamysh. On the way back, he plundered the Ryazan land. The successor of Demetrius Donskoy, Vasily III, bought a label in the Horde for the principality of Nizhny Novgorod. Tatars several times made small raids on Russian soil, plundered Ryazan, Vyatka; but Tokhtamysh could not undertake a large and serious campaign against Moscow, since at that time he entered into a struggle with Timur (see), to whom he owed the Kipchak throne. In 1395 Tokhtamysh was defeated by Timur on the banks of the Terek; he was deprived of the throne and forced to wage a constant struggle with the khans appointed by Timur. In 1407, Tokhtamysh was killed by the temnik Edigey (see).

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012