Where was the capital of the Golden Horde? Golden Horde (Ulus Jochi)

Original taken from terrao in The Hidden Heritage of the Golden Horde

IN modern Russia much is not “Russian” at all, but only a legacy of the Golden Horde, but no one knows this except narrow specialists. And sometimes even specialists cannot recognize this heritage.

I will give just one striking example: a double-headed eagle was rowing. In Russia it is generally accepted that it was introduced by Ivan III during his marriage to Sophia Paleologus. This is not so, since the double-headed eagle was previously the coat of arms of the Golden Horde; it was minted on Horde coins centuries before Ivan III. Many examples of such coins are given in the book by V.P., published in 2000. Lebedev “Corpus of coins of the Crimea as part of the Golden Horde (mid-XIII - early XV centuries).”

Let me also remind you that many Russian historians, out of a desire to belittle the Tatars, deliberately call the Horde a “Khanate” and its rulers “Khans,” although in fact Golden Horde was a kingdom and was ruled by kings (then the Horde split into several kingdoms). In 1273, long before the wedding of Moscow Prince Ivan III with Sophia Paleologus, the ruler of the Horde Nogai married the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Michael Paleologus - Euphrosyne Paleologus. And he accepted Orthodoxy (as well as the double-headed Byzantine eagle as the official coat of arms of the Horde).

The Golden Horde also had another coat of arms, which “migrated” to the famous hat of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, to the Bukhara orders, to the coat of arms Russian region and the coats of arms of its cities, and even on the coat of arms and flag of Tajikistan, where - surprisingly - they do not suspect this!

We will begin our investigation with a short note in the journal “Science and Life”...

FROM ASTRAKHAN TO BUKHARA

In No. 6 for 1987, the journal “Science and Life” published an article “Coats of arms of the cities of the Astrakhan and Saratov provinces.” It said:

“For the first time, the Astrakhan emblem - “wolf in a crown” appears on state seal Ivan IV in the 70s. XVI century ...But at the same time another version of the Astrakhan coat of arms is known: a crown and a saber under it. Historians also attribute the imprint of the voivodeship seal with such a design to XVI century. This version of the emblem was further developed and was used in drawing up the coat of arms of the Astrakhan province.

There is an interesting hypothesis about the origin of the symbolism of the Astrakhan coat of arms by historian A.V. Artsikhovsky. Based on a detailed comparison of a number of images of the Astrakhan coat of arms on monuments of the 16th-17th centuries with the emblem on the so-called “Bukhara Star” - an order used by the Bukhara emirs, the scientist concludes that they all have one prototype - some local Turkic tamga, various comprehended by Russian Astrakhan governors and Bukhara emirs. Moreover, the former see a crown and a saber here, and the latter see an ornamental motif.

Artsikhovsky identifies the upper element of the design on the star with a crown, and the lower element with a saber. The question arises: what does the Bukhara emirs have to do with it? The fact is that the descendants of the Astrakhan khans founded a dynasty in Bukhara, which ruled from 1597 to 1737, and could well have preserved the ancient emblem of their ancestors.”

So, here is the coat of arms of Astrakhan (Fig. 3) and the coat of arms of the Astrakhan region (Fig. 4). The trefoil is striking as the main element of the crown, and even more this trefoil is emphasized on the coats of arms of the 16th-17th centuries, which clearly resembles the emblem on the “Bukhara Star” (Fig. 5, Bukhara emblem at the bottom right).

The history of the creation of the orders of the Bukhara Emirate begins in 1868, when a peace treaty was signed, according to which Bukhara became a Russian protectorate. During the reign of the Bukhara Emir Muzaffar from the Uzbek Mangyt clan, the first awards appeared in the Bukhara Emirate. In 1881, he established the Order of Noble Bukhara, which had only a star. In literature, the Order of Noble Bukhara is most often referred to as a “star” (sometimes as the “Order of the Rising Star of Bukhara”). There was an inscription on the order Arabic script(“Reward of the capital of Noble Bukhara”) and the date of the beginning of the emir’s reign. The new award was awarded to Emperor Alexander II of Russia and later Nicholas II.

In the center of this order (Fig. 6 and 7) there is some sacred symbol(tamga), which, apparently, the Bukhara emirs actually brought from Astrakhan. In principle, history confirms the hypothesis of historian A.V. Artsikhovsky.

1230 - Appearance of the Mongol troops of Batu Khan (Batu) in the Caspian steppes.
1242-1243 - Founding of the Horde on the Lower Volga by Batu Khan.
XIV century - The collapse of the Golden Horde and the formation of the Astrakhan kingdom with its center in the city of Astrakhan (Ashtrakhan, Adzhitarkhan).
1553 - Astrakhan Tsar Abdurakhman concluded a treaty of friendship with the Moscow Prince Ivan IV (the Terrible).
1554 - Astrakhan king Yamgurchi concluded an alliance with Turkey and Crimea.
1554 - Perfidious occupation of the Astrakhan kingdom by the troops of Ivan the Terrible.
1554 - Prince Derbysh-Ali was placed on the throne.
1555 - Attempts by Derbysh-Ali to free himself from vassal dependence on Moscow.
1556 - Capture of the Astrakhan-Perevoloka border area by a detachment of Ataman L. Filimonov.
1556 - Forced annexation of the Astrakhan kingdom to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
1556 - Flight of the last Astrakhan kings to Bukhara.
1557 - The title of the Astrakhan Tsar began to be used by the Moscow Prince Ivan the Terrible.

And another significant detail: Astrakhan became a regional center (the capital of the Astrakhan kingdom, and then the capital of the province under Russia) only during the period of feudal fragmentation in the Horde. And before that, the main city of this region, and the entire territory of present-day Russia and other lands, was another local locality- city of TSAREV. It was founded around 1260 as the capital of the Golden Horde and was called Sarai-Berke. IN Russian Empire The coat of arms was approved on June 20, 1846. In the scarlet field there is a golden wall with seven teeth and above it a golden cross placed on the moon (Fig. 8).

It is quite logical to assume that the symbol distorted on the current coat of arms of the Astrakhan region and preserved on the Bukhara order is the tanga of Saraya-Berke (possibly Batu), which later passed to the Astrakhan kingdom. That is, the symbol means the Golden Horde, and not specifically the land of Astrakhan. That's why it's valuable.

In any case, this symbol, similar to a trefoil, also appears on the crown crowning the serpent on the Coat of Arms of Kazan, the capital of the Kazan Horde (Fig. 9) - “A black serpent under a crown of gold, Kazan, red wings, a white field.”

He is also on the crown of the Moscow autocrats. Historian O.I. Zakutnov wrote in the essay “History of Astrakhan Heraldry”:

“The crown of the “Astrakhan Kingdom”, or the hat of the first outfit of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, was made in 1627, instead of the heavy crown of Monomakh, and was called “Astrakhan”. It consists of three triangular concave gold boards, decorated with enamel and precious stones, brought together at the top under the crown. At the bottom, the hat is decorated with a crown of 6 cross-shaped through cufflinks, also decorated with stones. The cap has a crown consisting of three arches, the spaces between which are filled. Above this crown is another one, similar to it, but smaller. The hat is crowned with an emerald.”

Let me clarify that the “crown of Monomakh” is also the Horde “crown”. In 1339, for betraying Rus', the Horde king Uzbek gave it to his Moscow slave Ivan Kalita (by the way, he began to introduce Islam into the Horde; before that the Horde was Orthodox). This skullcap has nothing to do with Monomakh.

As for the “Astrakhan Cap” of Mikhail Fedorovich (Fig. 10), which is also depicted on the current coat of arms of the Astrakhan region, it was so revered by the Moscow rulers and was considered the main one, because it was actually the CROWN OF THE KINGS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE. It came to the Muscovites through the Astrakhan kingdom from Batu himself and his capital of the Golden Horde, Saray-Berke (now the city of Tsarev). What art historians call on it “three triangular concave gold boards, decorated with enamel and precious stones” is the image of the tamga of the Golden Horde, which was later the coat of arms of the Astrakhan kingdom, and then became the coat of arms of the Horde kings who fled from there and became Bukhara emirs, and then it came to the Bukhara Order. This is the same symbol.

What it means is no longer clear. Artsikhovsky was never able to answer this question. Tamga is a tribal sign among Turkic and some other peoples. As a rule, a descendant of a certain clan borrowed the tamga of his ancestor and added to it additional element or modified it. The most common tamga is among nomadic Turkic tribes. In particular, among the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Nogais, etc. The use of tamga has been known since ancient times, even among the Scythians, Huns, and Sarmatians. Tamgas are also known among many peoples of the northwestern Caucasus, the Abkhazians. Tamga was used to mark horses, camels and other livestock that were the common property of the clan, or objects (weapons, ceramics, carpets, etc.) made by members of the clan. The image of tamga can be found on coins. Here, for example, are the ancient Turkic tamgas (Fig. 11).

In Russia - of course - they prefer to “hush up” this topic. Why Mikhail Fedorovich considered the “Astrakhan Cap” the most prestigious headdress for himself as the Tsar of the Horde-Russia - not a single historian asks. Because it turns out to be absurd: they write in books about some “ Horde yoke“, and the rulers of Moscow themselves wear purely Horde “crowns”: then several of their generations wore the skullcap of Tsar Uzbek (out of shame called the “Monomakh’s cap”), then later it was replaced by the “Astrakhan cap” - as something “more significant”. Like, regal. For from the kings of the Horde. So, all of Russia (which is the New United Horde) is from these kings of the Horde - and not at all from Kievan Rus.

TAMGA OF THE GOLDEN HORDE - COAT OF ARMS OF TAJIKISTAN

It is interesting that the Astrakhan kings who fled to Bukhara left this region with their sacred symbol of the capital of the Golden Horde, Saraya-Berke - but there, as in Russia, the meaning of the symbol has long been forgotten.

A certain Tajik Shukufa raised the topic on a local website: “The country needs new symbols!” She writes:

“This may not seem entirely patriotic to some, but our state symbols don’t touch me, they don’t grab me. What is the meaning of symbols such as flag, coat of arms, anthem, monuments and so on? It seems to me that the main purpose of these symbols is to unite the people of each country, strengthen patriotism and motivate people to do something for the benefit of their state and nation. Another important purpose of symbols is to represent and symbolize the country and nation abroad as best as possible.

It seems to me that the symbols we have today cannot cope with the above role. These symbols are very weak, somewhat trivial and unoriginal. In my opinion, they do not have any clearly expressed semantic content. These are just pictures that do not convince anyone of anything and in most cases mean nothing.”

It’s funny to read this: after all, the only “problem” is that the person does not know the CONTENT of the symbol. In the same way, many Belarusians here also did not know (and others still do not know) the content of the “Pahonia” coat of arms; they consider it either “fascist” or Lietuvis, when in fact it is purely Orthodox and purely Belarusian.

Shukufa writes: “This is what our flag looks like (Fig. 12). This flag is problematic for several reasons. Firstly, there are many different versions regarding the meaning of its colors and the number of stars. The presence of such a huge number of interpretations has led to the fact that many of us still cannot understand what exactly the flag, crown and stars mean. A symbol that should be understood by everyone at once and in the same way instead causes confusion. I once attended a meeting of a committee of the Majlisi Namoyandagon, where deputies (!) argued about the meaning of the colors of the flag. What can we say about us mere mortals?”

I don’t know what the stars mean, but the “crown” is the tamga from the Bukhara Order, also known as the tamga of the Golden Horde.

Shukufa: “We have the same problems with our coat of arms (Fig. 13). There are too many elements in it that carry many different meanings. It's like a salad that has tried to cram too many different ingredients into it. This salad is nice to look at, but not particularly nice to eat. It is interesting that in 1992-1993 our republic had such a coat of arms (Fig. 14). It looked much more presentable than the current version."

Both coats of arms have the same symbol - the same tamga, the meaning of which the resident of Tajikistan does not know. In this regard, I agree with her, because the situation is generally paradoxical. Here's what Wikipedia says:

“According to researcher V. Saprykov [Saprykov V. New coat of arms and flag of Tajikistan // “Science and Life” No. 10, 1993. pp. 49-51], “three protrusions in the crown depicted on the coat of arms indicate the regions of the republic - Khatlon , Zarafshan, Badakhshan. Each of them individually is not yet a country. Only united into a single whole do they represent Tajikistan. The crown has another meaning: the word “taj” in translation means “crown”. In a broader sense, the concept of “Tajiks” can be interpreted as “Khalki Tojdor”, that is, a crown-bearing people. In other words, the crown plays the role of a unifying principle, without which there is and cannot be a certain state.”

As they say, insanity grew stronger...

“Wikipedia”: “Researcher M. Revnivtsev [Revnivtsev M.V. On the issue of the hidden symbolism of the flag and coats of arms of the Republic of Tajikistan. Flags of Tajikistan. VEXILLOGRAPHIA], in his own interpretation of the state symbols of Tajikistan, turns to the religion of Zoroastrianism, which dates back to the first Tajik state of the Samanids in the 9th-10th centuries and which, he claims, was popular among the Tajik intelligentsia both during the years of Soviet power and to the present day.

According to M. Revnivtsev, the “crown” depicted in the center of the state flag and in the upper part of the coat of arms of Tajikistan includes three stylized images of lamps - three sacred unquenchable fires, which are the object of religious worship in Zoroastrian temples. The central element of the “crown” symbolizes the world Mount Hara, located in the center of the World, and the curved golden arc at the bottom of the emblem personifies the “bridge of retribution” Chinvat, on which on the Day of Judgment Zarathushtra will separate the souls of the righteous from the sinners.”

This is generally a triumph of insanity. Wikipedia only offers these two versions. Wikipedia does not know that the “crown” is actually a symbol from the “Order of the Rising Star of Bukhara” in 1881. And, naturally, he does not know about the hypothesis of the historian A.V. Artsikhovsky, how this tamga of the Astrakhan kingdom became a symbol of the Bukhara emirs.

At the same time, the versions of Saprykov and Revnivtsev seem simply ridiculous.

SICKLE UNDER THE CROSS

So, let's sum up some intermediate results. Let’s leave the Tajiks aside (let them decide for themselves; perhaps the origin of the country’s coat of arms from the Golden Horde does not seem acceptable to them) and return to Artsikhovsky’s research. In 1946, he based his assumption on the gradual evolution of the coat of arms of Astrakhan that the “eastern curved saber” was originally a lunar crescent. An educated guess is considered a hypothesis. But I believe that this hypothesis has already become a theory, since it is confirmed by many other facts.

Let's look again at the coat of arms of the capital of the Golden Horde - the city of Tsarev, also known as Sarai-Berke (Fig. 8). The upper part of the coat of arms - according to Artsikhovsky - is a distorted tamga (crown) with a crescent moon under it. At the same time, in the image of the sign closest to the source (Fig. 5 below right) under top part trefoil crossbar. And in this case, doesn’t the cross with a sickle depicted in the lower part of Tsarev’s coat of arms seem like a “tautology”?

And here I will try to propose my hypothesis. What is a cross with a sickle anyway? This is the same stylized trefoil of this tamga with the moon under it!

How can I draw this symbol in a simplified way without drawing three petals (the side petals have branches to the sides, the central crossbar has branches, they stand on a semicircular base, with a sickle underneath)? A simplified version is this: three petals are drawn with dashes, with an arc at the base. But this is the second symbol on the double coat of arms of Tsarev, the capital of the Golden Horde. It turns out: the lower symbol is identical to the upper one.

Unfortunately, today no one knows why and how the cross with a sickle became the coat of arms in 1846 former capital Golden Horde. This is for now" white spot"in history. But besides the connection with the tamga-shamrock, there are other facts that complement the picture.

A cross with a sickle at the bottom and a sun in the middle was a common religious symbol in the days before the split of Christianity, which resulted in the separation of adherents of Islam. This split was really consolidated only in the 11th century, but in Asia there was a special Nestorian faith that deified power. She is half Christian, half Muslim. This faith was professed by the Genghisids, including Batu’s son Sartak, who was related by blood to Alexander Nevsky. Then, obviously, Moscow adopted Horde Orthodoxy (later, precisely for this reason, Moscow was an autocephalous church for 140 years - which is a record for Christianity, it was not recognized and was never recognized until its fall by Byzantium, which recognized only the Russian Orthodox Church Kyiv, Polotsk, Tver, Pskov, Novgorod).

When the initially Orthodox king of the Horde, Uzbek (sources did not preserve his Orthodox name from birth), introduced Islam into the Horde at the beginning of the 14th century due to political intrigues, dozens of representatives of the Chingizids fled to Muscovy with their numerous entourage, who did not want to refuse from Orthodox Nestorianism. Then Moscow became half populated by these “high migrants,” which gave them a special status in the Horde.

These Chingizid migrants and their Tatars, who fled from Saray-Berke to Moscow, had to pray somewhere. So churches are being erected in the Moscow Kremlin and in the surrounding area, where a cross with a crescent rises - either a stylized trefoil of the Sarai-Berke tamga, or a symbol of the Nestorian faith, uniting Christianity and Islam. What we still see in the Moscow Kremlin (Fig. 15, 16, 17, 18).

At the same time, in the autocephalous religion of Muscovy (not recognized as a Christian community by Byzantium for 140 years!), until the second half of the 16th century, they did not understand the differences between Christianity and Islam; they equally revered the Bible (not translated into Russian) and the Koran. Historians - based on current concepts - are surprised to note that during the time of the Horde’s rule over Moscow and then Moscow’s rule over the Horde, there was NOT A SINGLE RELIGIOUS CONFLICT, not even a dispute, between them. That is, FAITH WAS ONE.

It turns out that we are united under the sign of a cross on a sickle, under the sign of the tamga of the capital of the Golden Horde, Saray-Berke, aka Tsarev of the Arkhangelsk region.

HISTORICAL PARALLELS-PARADOXES

What is surprising about this whole story is this.

Around 1260, in most of the territory of the current CIS, only two great states that were then forming remained to exist. This is the kingdom of the Golden Horde with its capital in Tsarev - then Sarai-Berke. And the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - with its capital in Novogrudok. Both capitals were announced around the same time. Then, for many centuries, these two geopolitical monsters of the era - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Horde - fought with each other, because they were neighbors - there were no other countries between them.

But how similar are the historical and ideological myths of Russia and Belarus! Not mirror, but rather anti-mirror. In Russia they refuse to recognize Tsarev (Saray-Berke) as the capital of the country at that time. They say that Moscow has always been the capital of Horde-Russia. Even during the period of the “Horde yoke.”

Similarly, in Belarus, ideologists want to “forget” that the first capital of the “hostile Muscovy-Horde” of Lithuania was Novogrudok. Where can this fact be taken from our history? Apologize on the topic of “integration” for this to Sarai-Berke, the capital of Russia at that time? Like, forgive me for not having become Horde-Russia yet.

The history of our great-grandfathers is not “to blame” for the fact that it does not correspond to some current fashionable and completely erroneous views on how “it was there”, drawn only from the current realities of the day. “How we would like to see our history today” is one thing. But what the story actually was is completely different.

And it will inevitably emerge, just as in the well-known proverb an awl always gets out of the bag...
Author: Vadim DERUZHINSKY “Analytical newspaper “Secret Research”, No. 7, 2013

MOGHULISTAN (XIV- beginning of XVI centuries)

Economic situation.

Urban culture developed especially rapidly during the reign of Khan Erzen. He built mosques and madrassas in the cities of Otrar, Sauran, Djend and Barshynlykent. Turned the city of Sygnak into the main one shopping mall between Central Asia and Eastern Dasht-i-Kipchak. There were close economic ties between the cities.

The foothills of Altai and Ulytau were used as summer pastures.

1. State formation, territory.

South-eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as a result of the collapse of the Chagatai ulus. The founder is Emir Puladchi from the Dulat tribe. In 1348, he elevated Togluk-Timur, a descendant of Chagatai, to the throne. The goal of Puladchi is the final separation of Mogulistan from Transoxiana and the creation of an independent khanate. The leading role in the state is to know the Dulat tribe. The capital is Almalyk.

2. Ethnic composition. Dulats, Kanlys, Uysuns, Argyns, Zhalairs, Baaris, Barlases are Turkic-speaking tribes, Turkicized Mongolian tribes.

3. Public administration. Ulus control system. Ulusbeg is a title assigned to the head of the Dulats. Islam is the state religion. (forced conversion).

4 Political history. Togluk-Timur tried to establish his power in Central Asia, restoring the Chagatai ulus. In 1360-1361 made two trips to Transoxiana (victory). He elevated his son Ilyas-Khoja to the Khan's throne of Transoxiana.

After the death of Togluk-Timur, Emir Timur, who involuntarily recognized his power over himself, rose up to fight against Ilyas-Khoja. Several battles, defeat of Ilya-Khoja. June 22, 1365 Near Tashkent, the Battle of Batpakta (“mud battle”) - about 10 thousand people died on both sides. Victory of Ilyas-Khoja, flight of Emir Timur. Siege of Samarkand by the army of Ilyas-Khoja, fierce resistance of the inhabitants. An epidemic of horse plague in the army, the retreat of the Moguls.

Civil strife, weakening of the state. Campaigns of Emir Timur against Mogulistan: 1371-1372 (reached Almalyk), 1375-1377. (reached the Charyn River). Timur won the battle with the Mogul military leader Kamar ad-din. Campaigns 1380-1390 Khan Khizr-Khoja recognized the power of Emir Timur. Moghulistan regained its independence only after the death of Emir Timur in 1405. during the reign of Muhammad Khan. He intervened in the internecine struggle of the descendants of Emir Timur.

Internecine struggle between Zhunus and Yesen-Buga. With the support of the emirs of the Dulat tribe, Yesen-Buga took the khan's throne (1433-1462). The final collapse occurred under Khan Abd ar-Rashid (grandson of Zhunus). The territory of Zhetysu went to the Kazakh Khanate.

1. Saray-Batu (Old Saray)(Lower Volga, Akhtuba river, settlement near the village of Selitrennoye, Kharabalinsky district, Astrakhan region, Russia). The city was founded by Batu Khan in 1254. Destroyed in 1395 by Tamerlane.
The settlement near the village of Selitrennoye, left over from the first capital of the Golden Horde - Sarai-Batu ("city of Batu"), is striking in its size. Spread over several hillocks, it stretches along the left bank of the Akhtuba for more than 15 km. The city grew very quickly. At the beginning of the 14th century, it was the capital - with continuous rows of houses, with mosques (of which 13 were cathedrals), with palaces, the walls of which sparkled with mosaic patterns, with reservoirs filled clear water, with extensive markets and warehouses. Actually high hill The Khan's palace towered above the bank of Akhtuba. According to legend, the khan's palace was decorated with gold, so the entire state began to be called the Golden Horde. And even today in the area of ​​the village of Selitrennoye you can find tiles with bright oriental ornaments, coins of the 13th-14th centuries, fragments of ceramics, clay water pipes. The city had its own ceramics, foundries, and jewelry workshops.

2. Saray-Berke (New Saray)(now the village of Tsarev, Leninsky district, Volgograd region, Russia). The city was built by Khan Berke in 1262. Since 1282 - the capital of the Golden Horde. Destroyed in 1396 by Tamerlane. In 1402, the capital was restored, but could no longer achieve its former splendor and splendor.

3. Saraichik (Small Sarai)(now - the village of Saraychikovskoye, Makhambet district, Guryev region, Kazakhstan). The city was formed at the end of the 13th century. as a trade and economic center of the Golden Horde on the trade route from the Volga region to Central Asia (Khorezm). In 1395 it was destroyed by Tamerlane. Restored in the 30-40s of the 15th century. From the second half of the 15th century. became the capital of the Nogai Horde. Completely destroyed by the Russians in 1580, on the eve of the conquest of Siberia.

Chronological table
reign of the khans of the Golden Horde 1236-1481

The chronological table is based on the book by William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin, a prominent scientist who died tragically in 1999, Tatars and Rus'. 360 years of relations in 1238-1598. Chapter 1.1.(M. "International Relations" 2000). The table is the first attempt (according to the author) in historical literature to give a consolidated, complete, clear idea of ​​the number (number), sequence of shifts, reliable names and period of power all the supreme rulers of the Horde throughout the history of its existence.
This book contains a lot of interesting and important data. Unfortunately, it was published in only 1,500 copies. and is unlikely to be available to a wide readership. I will try to present it as fully as possible as part of the reference book.
For greater clarity of the presentation on the Internet, we had to slightly change the appearance of the table, preserving all its contents. A number of notes have been added by me [Note Shishkina S.P.]

Thus, over the entire history of the Horde of 245 years, it was ruled by 64 khans, who ascended the throne a total of 79 times. Of the 64 khans, 12 were purely regional, sitting in their own fiefs (yurts), 4 were mixed (they came from the regions to Sarai) and only 48 were all-Horde. This statistics explains the discrepancies among historians in calculating the number of khans. The Horde was ruled twice by 10 khans, three times by Urus Khan and 5 times by Ulu-Muhammad (Muhammad the Great).

Average length of stay on the khan's throne for individual periods:
I. For the descendants of the Batu family, for the first 120 years of the Horde (1236-1359) - 10 years;
II. During the 20-year turmoil (1359-1379) - less than 1 year (approx. 9 months);
III. During the period of restoration of the unity of the Horde (1380-1420) - 2 years;
IV. During the period of division of the Horde into the Western and Eastern parts (1420-1455) - 4 years 4 months;
V. During the period of the Great Horde (1443-1481) - 13 years;

The capitals of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu (Old Sarai) and Sarai-Berke (New Sarai) are the most famous cities of the Golden Horde. The culture and art of the Golden Horde are closely connected with the culture of these ancient capitals.

Due to the orientation of the khans of the Golden Horde towards Islam and urban life of the Central Asian-Iranian type, a vibrant urban culture flourished in the steppes where the capitals of the Golden Horde were founded. It was a culture of watering bowls and mosaic panels on mosques, a culture of Arab astrologers, Persian poetry and Islamic spiritual learning, interpreters of the Koran and algebraic mathematicians, exquisitely fine ornamentation and calligraphy. At the same time, the high culture of the craft city of the Golden Horde was combined with phenomena that were an echo of the deeply archaic religious art of the nomads.

The cities of the Golden Horde in their heyday were a mixture of Central Asian mosques and minarets, tiles and glazed dishes with wooden log houses and yurts of nomads. The mixed culture of the Golden Horde city was manifested in house-building and architecture. Thus, along with buildings of the Islamic type, row houses had many features borrowed from Central Asia: often the wall was built from panel wooden structures, placed on a brick plinth. In appearance The square house had a number of features from a nomadic yurt. Often before massive brick houses the entrance was built in the form of a pavement, bounded by L-shaped walls, which can be found in the architecture of the 13th century. in Mongolia, etc. Heating systems such as kanas were borrowed from the regions of Central Asia, and the type of underground hypocausts - from Volga Bulgaria.

In the cities of the Golden Horde lived Polovtsians, Bulgarians, Slavs, people from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Crimea, etc. It was with their hands that this urban culture was created. In the cities of the Golden Horde, a literary language developed, the so-called "Volga Turks", on which several literary works that have come down to us were created. Delicacy of feelings delicate aroma flowers, the beauty of women were glorified in this language, and at the same time in this literature there were many democratic motives, expressions of popular thoughts and wisdom.

The cities of the Golden Horde were filled with imported artistic products, and although they are not a product of the Golden Horde’s own decorative art, they show high level life, aesthetic needs, reflect to some extent the rather eclectic taste of its population.

Initially, the main political center of the Golden Horde, its capital was Sarai-Batu or Old Sarai (the village of Selitrennoye, Astrakhan region) - a city built by Khan Batu (1243-1255) in 1254 (according to V. Rubruk). As a result of the internecine struggle of the khans and Timur’s campaign (1395) the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu, was badly damaged. The city of Saray-Batu was finally destroyed in 1480.

In Sarai-Batu there were many palaces, mosques, craft quarters, etc. Near the monumental buildings, archaeologists also found traces of yurts, which were probably used in the summer. In the vicinity of the capital there was a large necropolis.

One of the palaces in the city of Saray-Batu consisted of 36 rooms with different purposes. The 1 m thick walls were laid without a foundation. The walls of the front rooms were painted floral patterns, the floors were laid with red square and hexagonal bricks, held together with white alabaster mortar. The central hall of the palace in Sarai-Batu had an area of ​​200 square meters. m, its walls were decorated with mosaic and majolica panels with gilding. A bathhouse with underground heating was attached to the palace; there was also a bathroom, in the middle of which there was a square bathtub made of brick. Water came into it through a water supply system made of clay pipes, and there was also a combined bathroom.

The city of Saray-Berke (New Saray, Saray Al-Jedid) on the river. Akhtube (Tsarevskoe settlement near Volgograd) is the capital of the Golden Horde, built around 1260 by Khan Berke (1255 - 1266), Batu’s brother. The beginning of the Islamization of the Golden Horde is associated with the name of Khan Berke. Under Khan Berke, the Golden Horde became virtually independent of the Mongol Empire. The heyday of the city of Saray-Berke occurred in the first half of the 14th century. After 1361, Saray-Berke was repeatedly captured by various contenders for the khan's throne. In 1395 the city was destroyed by Timur.

As a result of archaeological excavations, multi-room palaces of the nobility were discovered in New Sarai built from baked bricks, with wide walls, with a floor raised on a powerful substructure, with a long facade, decorated at the corners in the Central Asian style with two decorative towers-minarets and with a deep portal in the form of a niche, with polychrome painting on the plastered walls.

The khans of the Golden Horde brought scientists, astronomers, theologians, and poets from Central Asia, Iran, Egypt and Iraq. In New Sarai lived the famous doctor from Khorezm Noman ad-Din, about whom they said that “he studied logic, dialectics, medicine” and was one of the most educated people of its time. We can judge the development of astronomy and geodesy in New Sarai from the finds of fragments of an astrolabe and quadrants.

What Saray-Batu and Saray-Berke had in common was the development small (maximum 6 by 6 m) one-room residential buildings, square in plan, with walls made of wood or mud brick. In the middle of the house along three walls in the shape of the letter “P” there was a warm bed (kan) with a firebox at one end and vertical chimney in another. In the capitals of the Golden Horde there was a water supply system, a system of city pools and fountains to supply residents with water, and sewerage drains were laid from wooden pipes, there were also public toilets (separate for women and men).

A.A. Sharibzhanova.

Reprinting the article as a whole or in parts is prohibited. A hyperactive link to this article must include information about the author of the article, the exact title of the article, and the name of the site.

The site's correspondent visited an amazing civilization of the past - the ancient city of Sarai-Batu, the capital of the Golden Horde.

Where did the Russian princes go for labels to reign during the Horde? Where was the same Sarai from where the khans ruled Russia for two and a half centuries? In fact, there were several Sarayevs and they were all located here, in the Astrakhan region, not far from one another.

Oasis in the steppe

A dusty narrow road cuts through the endless steppe. Sometimes you come across villages with low, unsightly houses. Skinny cows wander along the sides of the road - they have not yet become plump after winter. We turn under the homemade sign “Sarai-Batu” and... sharply brake: tulips have begun to bloom in the steppe. Red and yellow lights flicker here and there. And gophers literally jump out from under your feet. Seeing people, some shoot into holes with reddish arrows, others freeze on tree stumps and wait to see if something tasty will fall through.

From the fog on the hill, the outline of an ancient city suddenly appears. This is the same “Sarai-Batu”. In fact, the ancient city was a little further, just 5 km from here, and archaeologists are working there. And we arrived at the cultural and historical complex, which, to be honest, is not the Khan’s former headquarters at all, but its scenery created by filmmakers for the film “Horde”.

The audio guide corrects historical inaccuracies. The story flows from the speaker on the minaret and is accompanied by the hubbub of the eastern city.

But the combination of the authentic spirit of the place of the former capital of the Horde and medieval buildings completely immerses you in the realities of that time. It’s no wonder that every year more and more people want to plunge into this atmosphere - over 20 thousand people are received here during the season.

There were caravanserais, villages and cities became

“This is the main square,” the director of the complex, Alexander Bondarenko, tells me. “The tourist season has just begun, and when I arrived, the audio guide was still silent. – Look, there are two bundles of brushwood at the gates of the Khan’s palace. Before a foreigner could get to the khan, he had to undergo purification by fire. Prince Mikhail of Tver refused, considering the custom offensive, and he was killed. Nearby is a guard booth. Only the most worthy and noble could guard the khan. An ordinary security guard had a higher status than a thousand-man in the army.

Main square / Elena Skvortsova

Chigir (wheel for raising water) at the ditch / Elena Skvortsova

The historical part of the excursion was prepared by professional historians, and there really is a lot of interesting facts. So, the Tatars, it turns out, knew how to heat their houses in the manner central heating and make heated floors in them, had running water and a semblance of sewerage, they had entire streets of artisans who settled “in workshops”, they even learned how to make glass and invented cast iron, and merchants were offered to use “travel letters of credit” (the prototype of modern banks). .. And their caravanserais - something like modern hotels - differed in the “number of stars”: from economy class to “all inclusive”. If caravanserais were built not in the city, but along the road, then they were located at a distance of 25 km from each other (a day's journey of a loaded camel). Later, almost all modern villages and towns in the Astrakhan region grew from these “hotels.”

Complex "Saray-Batu" / Elena Skvortsova

“We have a smaller copy here,” Sergei Frolov enters the conversation. He is one of the animators: the complex organizes competitions in archery and crossbow shooting, battle reconstructions, etc. – And the real city, together with its outskirts, occupied 36 square meters. km. But our town also stands on the same Ashuluk (a tributary of the Volga) as the real one, and also on the highest cliff (15 m) - the Khan’s palace...

The hills keep the memory of the palaces

But it’s not just the scenery that attracts tourists here. Here the air itself is filled with history. After all, she is literally underfoot. And there, to the site of a real ancient city, travelers are definitely brought.

The village of Selitrennoye is 130 km north of Astrakhan, in the steppe. Immediately outside the outskirts, up the broken path, the car with difficulty climbs to the high bank of Ashuluk, and we find ourselves on a hill, under which is the palace of the Khan of the Uzbek Golden Horde. It’s hard to believe: the hilly and empty steppe stretches as far as the eye can see. Only nearby is a flock of sheep, grazed by Kazakhs in old Zhiguli cars, and a huge shepherd dog.

It is also difficult to believe that 7 centuries ago the life of one of the largest cities of that time was seething here. By the way, the correct name for Saray-Batu is Saray-al-Jadid (or new Saray). Trade caravans passed through it in an endless series from end to end of the Great Silk Road, about 75 thousand inhabitants lived there. By the way, in London and Paris at that time there were no more than 25 thousand people.

This is how a caravanserai is presented in the “Saray-Batu” complex / Elena Skvortsova

It’s even harder to believe that the blooming steppe is just excavations mothballed for the winter by archaeologists. Soon they will begin a new season, and instead of sheep and tulips, the outlines of palaces, mosques, houses of citizens and workshops of artisans will appear here.

Second Barn

“This year marks the half-century anniversary of these excavations,” says archaeologist Dmitry Vasiliev. – For a long time it was believed that this was the same Sarai, the first mention of which appeared in 1254, in the book of Guillaume de Rubruk. He was returning to Europe through the Lower Volga region and visited Sarai, calling it Batu’s headquarters. But in the 2000s, in-depth numismatic and other studies were carried out. And scientists came to the conclusion that the Sarai that the Franciscan writes about was most likely located near the village of Krasny Yar (this is a little closer to modern Astrakhan), and the Sarai near Selitrenny was built later, in the 30s of the 14th century, during the reign of Khan of Uzbek. The city existed for 60 years and was conquered by Tamerlane. He took away many artisans for the construction of Samarkand. That is, the old part of modern Samarkand was built by the same people as Saray-al-Jadid.

Arched entrances to places where slaves were kept / Elena Skvortsova

– The Tatars called their capital, which was located in the northern part of the Volga delta, either simply Sarai, or Sarai-al-Makhrusa (God-protected), - restores historical truth Vasiliev. – When the khan moved the city from Krasny Yar to Selitrennoe, the Sarai in the lower reaches began to be called Iski (old) Sarai, and the one that was built up the river was called the new one - Sarai-al-Jadid.

And the familiar names Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke, the archaeologist continues, arose much later - in the 19th century. At that time, the history of the Golden Horde was not properly studied. Apparently, this is why the name of Berke (Batu’s brother), who died long before the founding of the New Saray, appeared here. But the historically established tradition remained to call Sarai like this: the first is Batu, the second is Berke.

Genuine antiquity

Exhibits from the excavations - genuine antiques - can be seen right there, in Selitrennoye. Or in the Astrakhan Museum, or in Moscow - in the State historical museum.

“Our branch is in Selitrennoye,” says Elizaveta Kazakova, head. Department of History of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve. “We take small exhibitions there and conduct excursions around the steppe.

“It would be nice to open and preserve the excavation, and not fill it up again,” Vasiliev dreams. – After all, over half a century, several large estates, a khan’s palace, two baths, a large cathedral mosque, several workshops have been excavated in Saray-al-Jadid... In a good way, they need to make a solid museum there under open air. This alone requires government funding. But he’s not there.

Did you know this?

The descendants of Beklyaribek Mamai (he is often mistakenly called khan) were serving princes in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Glinsky princes descend from the son of Mamai, Mansur Kiyatovich.

Elena Glinskaya became the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III. Their son was the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible - the great-great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, who defeated Mamai. Thus, ironically, in Ivan the Terrible the blood of both Mamai and Dmitry united.

Residential areas / Elena Skvortsova

/How to get there

The Sarai-Batu complex operates from April to October. The exception is June, when the midge period begins.

1 You can get there yourself by car - it’s 135 km from Astrakhan - and buy a ticket. Or you can book a tour on the complex’s website – www.saray-baty.ru: 150 rubles. entrance ticket, the average price of a three-course lunch is 250 rubles. Additional entertainment for a fee (paintball, archery, visit to the torture chamber, camel riding, etc.). They can also send a car for you - either for one or for a group (from 4 thousand rubles).

2 Or you can buy a tour in Astrakhan or Volgograd at any of the local travel agencies. In the first case, the trip (without lunch) will last 5–7 hours and cost 700–900 rubles; in the second, the excursion will take 15 hours and cost 1800 rubles.

Today in Izvestia almost a page (as the page is called in the newspaper) is devoted to my text about the discovery of the so-called Old Saray (or simply Saray) - the capital of the Golden Horde. The sensation is that it turns out that in the 1320s it was flooded by the Caspian Sea, the city had to be moved, and this is how New Saray arose near the current village of Selitrennoe in the Astrakhan region.
I give here the author's version. The newspaper had to make a simpler introduction, plus there were significant cuts. The discovery was made by my friend Sasha Pachkalov, a historian, thanks to whose kindness Izvestia reported this before not just all the usual media, but even before the official scientific publication.

Ultimate Barn

Evgeniy Arsyukhin

Map from a school history textbook. Rus' is a tiny red speck in the left corner. Black letters march across the gigantic space, painted in swamp color - “Golden Horde”. The swamp has surrounded Moscow, Vladimir, Novgorod, and in a moment it will swallow it up. I won't allow this. I take a red pencil. I draw two bold arrows from Moscow - to the very heart of the Horde. To the capitals, Sarai Batu and Sarai Berke. In my imagination - Russian tanks, they burst into the enemy's lair. The soldiers do not spare cartridges - “this is for Kozelsk”, “this is for Alexander Nevsky”. And get it for Moscow, you filthy Mongol!
Pachkalov grew up using the same textbook. But he didn’t have a red pencil at hand. What I wanted to grind into lead powder intrigued him. I began to study the Horde. And so, he put me to shame - he poked me in the wrong place, he said, with a pencil. That's not where the Horde had its capital.
But I'm not ashamed of my hatred. Why am I worse than my people? The Russians have been exterminating the Horde for centuries. Look how they mocked the word. “Saray” means “palace” in Turkic. And in Russian? By chance, do you think?

Horde on the Hudson

Doesn't Mongolianism weigh on you? Princes killed in a dream do not appear? - I ask Pachkalova.
Everything, I think, confused me. Where there:
- I grew up in Volgograd. The boys collected Horde coins in jars. Beautiful: with camels, hares, flowers. What a misfortune: they say they are savages - and what coins are there, I thought. I decided they were lying. Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, Simbirsk - all stand on old Tatar fortifications. There is nothing shameful in history.
Pachkalov lectures in Germany. And in the USA, at Columbia University, right in Manhattan, in the very belly of that Atlantic Horde. He says Americans are interested. There he announced that he had found the original Barn. Plump overseas studious, fed on choice hamburgers, listen to stories about the village of Krasny Yar near Astrakhan. Where Sarai was.
“Imagine,” Pachkalov says to the audience, “Residents of Krasny Yar don’t even know that it was here that Batu’s palace stood, that Alexander Nevsky visited here, that Saint Michael of Tverskoy died...
I don’t even know how Americans imagine this Krasny Yar. Russians have better associations. Midday heat. Dusty streets. Flies swarm around ripened watermelons. Selmag hasn't arrived - what are we going to drink? They say that tourists will come to the dance - these are all fishing from tents. Let's go and have a look.
Are there a lot of sleepy towns in America? And every American boy has a dream - to suddenly find a pirate treasure outside the outskirts. But there are no longer any buried piastres in the richest country in the world. And in impoverished Russia - in bulk. So the future historians of Columbia University come to listen to the happy Russian. And the Russian is so happy that he himself is scared. It would be nice to do some decent excavations in this Krasny Yar. Open the reserve. Yes, for what kind of shit?

Curse of the Rose Garden

So what's up with this Barn? Why are there two of them on the school map, but both are wrong?
Let's talk about Carthage first. It was destroyed. The Romans razed not only the walls, but also the memory of the capital of a hostile state. And a century later, both the name and the city returned. Failure, police officer Valeria. Learn from us.
The Russians killed their Carthage in good faith. The bricks were also stolen - and the town was quite large. They say it takes half a day from end to end on a camel. It’s clear that the streets are narrow and you won’t be able to speed up. And yet: more London.
When historians began to rewind the tape of time two hundred years ago, two large settlements became candidates for Sarai. Selitrennoe - in the Astrakhan region, on the bank of Akhtuba (in the Middle Ages the Volga flowed here), and Tsarev near Volgograd. Here and there there is a bare field, but in the ground are the foundations of the capital's swing. And from coins and old books, historians knew that there was just a Sarai, and there was also some kind of New Sarai. So Selitrennoye became Saray, or Saray Berke, and Tsarev became New, or Saray Batu. “Batu” and “Berke” - they were invented for the catchphrase, there is no such thing in the annals.
And then the structure began to crack. Tsarev turned out to be a gigantic palace, which over the course of the play became overgrown with villas for the nobility and birdhouses for servants. The settlement was called Gulistan, that is Rose Garden. Selitrennoe, as it turned out, is the New Barn.
What about the Old Barn, the real one? With the one who stood up immediately after the conquest of Rus'? Where did the humiliated, defeated Russian princes rush to bow? Where did the numbers come to us from - and counted, counted people by their heads, like cattle, in order to collect tribute? They thought he would be found somewhere on the outskirts of Selitrennoye. The settlement is gigantic. A few years ago, the last hope burst. They dug directly in the modern village of Selitrennoye, under houses and in vegetable gardens. Nothing. Until the 1340s there was a bare field here. The barn has evaporated.

Monument to Batu

The Caspian Sea is breathing. It advances and retreats. To Pachkalov this fact seemed significant. But he did not understand what could be squeezed out of him. I didn’t understand until I found an eyewitness account in an old book: the capital of the Golden Horde was swallowed up by the sea. And there was also a prophecy. Allegedly, a certain Catholic monk “predicted” that Sarai would disappear into the waves. Perhaps the monk was cheated at the market. We know these predictions. All my life they were done after the fact. So it actually flooded.
Stop. Wasn’t Saray right on the Caspian Sea? The thought is bold. The Horde people are nomads. Their sea is the steppe. But they are also consummate traders. A port wouldn't hurt them.
Well, near the modern village of Krasny Yar a settlement was found, which was founded exactly when Sarai was supposed to be built. And which died as soon as the New Barn appeared. But that's not all. One chronicle says: Batu stood up in Kandak. And next to Krasny Yar is the village of Kondakovka. Pachkalov rummaged through the chronicles - there had never been any Kondakov landowners. So, fact by fact - I put together a mosaic. The main thing is the coins, of course. Until recently in Krasny Yar they were collected right in the dust on the road. There are dates on the coins. The dates are very ancient. From the conquest of Rus' - to Khan Janibek, who, as we know for sure, moved to New Saray.
There are no such coincidences. This is not a coincidence either. Little digging was done at Krasny Yar. But they meticulously studied the old Horde cemetery on the outskirts of the village, on Mayachny Bugre. The finds amazed us with their provocative richness. Contrary to widespread fables about tons of treasures that the Horde siphoned out of Rus', the Horde lived modestly and died even more modestly. And here is gold that passed through the hands of good jewelers.
- Is Father buried there?
“Batu was buried somewhere in the steppe, the grave was disguised, just like the grave of Genghis Khan,” Pachkalov disappoints, “So it’s unlikely.” But all the following khans... Berke, the intriguer of a universal scale, Toqta, the shaker of the world... Consider that we have found their bones. Just without a sign.
The bones there are more interesting than gold. There are, of course, Mongols. There are Buddhists. The Catholics are there (no wonder the Pope’s ambassadors found a Franciscan monastery in Sarai). The Chinese are being sought. The same ones who became advisers to the khans of the Horde. We taught them how to take taxes and write laws. They also advised us to buy grain cheaply in good years and hide it, and sell it in famine at the same price so that people don’t have to worry about it. In the 20th century, economists rediscovered this simple technique, dubbed it “interventions,” and it was introduced in Russia in 2001. Like unprecedented know-how.
And there are Russian bones, with a cross on the chest. Who are they, slaves? It doesn't look like it. There was a diocese in Sarai. The church was Orthodox with a monastery. The Metropolitan rode around on a camel. In the evening the mosques call for prayer - and the church rings its bells and also gathers people for prayer. When Sarai was flooded, the metropolitanate moved to New Sarai. And when the Horde was broken, Metropolitan Saraisky was given land near the Moscow River, opposite Kozhevennaya Sloboda, where Paveletsky Station is now. Krutitskoye Compound, weren't you? There are mansions from the 17th century, as if covered in green glazed tiles. From afar it looks like the mausoleums of Samarkand. Here's a piece of Sarai in the center of Moscow. Only “digested”, passed through our tastes. Although we still need to figure out where ours are and where ours are not.
Take the legend of Kitezh. The glittering city sinks under water overnight. There is no answer as to where this comes from in our folklore. Nothing was drowning in Rus', and what was there to drown in? We don't have any seas. Now imagine: in front of the brilliant khans and arrogant Murzas, who imagine themselves to be the center of civilization, waves rise, eat up the walls of palaces, and a maddened mob rushes through the streets, which have turned into canals.
“Maybe it wasn’t like that,” Pachkalov cools down, “Not in one night, but over several years... But still: the sea is coming!” Of course, it was a monstrous shock. Of course, it remains in my memory.

Down with sedition

Something is wrong here, the reader will say. In anyone's memory? For them, for the Horde, maybe. But Kitezh is primordial. Why mix?
History is grimacing, a well-known fact. Take a closer look at the faces she makes. Here is Russia - why is it like this and not another? After all, the soil and climate (albeit colder) are like in Europe. But already in the 15th century, a western traveler crosses our border and finds himself in another world. This is not the east. Not the West. Something great. Why is this so?
I will not anger those who believe in our exceptionalism. It’s just that, having found one answer (“we are so special”), you don’t need to calm down.
They say that St. Basil's Cathedral is a reproduction of the Kul-Sharif mosque in captured Kazan. Is the cathedral a monument to the fall of the Kazan Khanate, this fragment of the Horde, for nothing? The cathedral is too much, says Pachkalov. There are more interesting ideas.
“The Golden Horde of its heyday,” he argues, “produced, of course, a stunning impression on the Russian princes. Returning home, they asked a question...
- Why is Russia not America? - I interrupt, - that is, not the Horde?
- Yeah! And they tried to build “something similar”, even when the Horde had disappeared.
What exactly?
Under Uzbek and Janibek, when the Horde rose, the khans managed something unprecedented: to raise middle class. This is in the Middle Ages! Look at the treasures from that time. There are few very small ones, but almost no very large ones. From one hundred to five hundred silver coins, like a carbon copy. Fifty years will pass, the Horde will groan, torn apart by the separatists, and now there will be a different picture: in one treasure there are tens of thousands, in another there are two or three miserable cut-off dirhams. There are no middle peasants! There are oligarchs, and there is poverty.
Russian princes strove for reasonable equality. Like all normal rulers of all times. They saw: the people in the Horde lived well while the sovereign was strong. As soon as the Murzas crushed him, his subjects also suffered. Conclusion? Beat the specific ones! Uglich, Serpukhov, Novgorod.
Ivan the Terrible brought the program to the point of absurdity. I interrupted everyone, things are not going well. I decided to place a Horde member on the throne, a native Genghisid, Simeon Bekbulatovich. I didn’t sit for a year. The people still didn’t understand. But if the Horde’s covenants were wrapped in Russian fur coats, it turned out as if they had thought of it themselves. Until the slogan “in unity there is strength,” for example.
The Horde learned how to make coins. The word “money” comes from there, from near the village of Krasny Yar. A lot of money with Arabic letters has been discovered in the ground around Moscow, and how much more is hidden. Before Peter, copper coins were called “pul” in Rus'. This term is found on barn copper coins. Moreover, with an indication of how much pula to give for silver money. If you play with the course - “sikir bashka” (two Horde words at once). And on Russian first money there is a severed head next to an axe.
These are the lessons learned. But others did not want to assimilate. Tolerance, for example. Remember, in Sarai: a Franciscan monastery, an Orthodox metropolis, a Buddhist datsan, a bunch of mosques. Or maybe, who knows, there was a synagogue? Rus': in the 17th century it was forbidden to build bell towers in a “tent” (it reminds me of a minaret, you see), only Catherine allowed mosques. No minarets.
“Well, after all, they weren’t sent to the stake, like in Europe,” argues Pachkalov.
“They could have strangled me,” a good argument! Although... “Soon Muscovites will wear turbans and begin to look like Turks,” a Western traveler wrote about the Russian capital during the times of Ivan the Terrible. Apparently, there was “undercurrent Islamization” going on. It didn't reach the turban. Open display is not our style. Little by little is another matter.
So Ivan introduced the oprichnina. The idea is purely eastern, remember at least the “pure Ayars” from Syria who opposed the “unclean ones”. Grozny also decided to divide the country into light and darkness. On the “right” side - everything is good, eastern, Horde. And what is “oprich” - inert, backward, Russian. And the idea was: for the “light” side to grow, and the “dark” side to shrink. Yes, corruption ruined everything. The guardsmen became arrogant.
Years passed, Peter decided to play tricks. Built a New Barn, St. Petersburg, Europe will now be here! And, they say, he seriously wanted to cut off Asia from the power, let him float as best he can. But that's the joke of history. If Moscow had sunk like that Sarai, like the Kitezh of our fairy tales, maybe it would have happened. But Petersburg is drowning. Baltika does not accept it.
We are already flying into space. And everything is “out of the blue.” Now, the modernization was planned, however, in the reserve. And we are fighting against “destinations” - in the 90s the reins were loosened, the governors were happy, but not for long. Maybe life was good to the common man in 1300. Is it really possible to remember this for 700 years? This happens. If there is nothing else to remember. Or if the memory is short. The main thing now is that the Barn is not buried. We can. They fight the pea with extra feather bed. And the more feather beds, the softer the body.