Lipitskaya battle. – Konstantin, Grand Duke of the Battle of Lipitsa

April 22(according to some sources - April 21)1216 The Novgorod army defeated the army of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes on the Lipitsa River.

The earliest surviving sources on this battle are the Novgorod First Chronicle and the Laurentian Chronicle. The oldest edition of the first of them has been preserved in the Synodal manuscript. Records about the war of 1216 are made in the handwriting of the 2nd half of the 13th century. The Novgorod chronicle covers in detail the events in Novgorod and in the regions close to Novgorod, but is less well oriented in more distant areas. In this chronicle, the Novgorodians and their prince Mstislav Mstislavich Udaloy play a decisive role in the Battle of Lipetsk. - This is a copy of 1377 from the Tver annalistic code of the early 14th century, using records from the 13th century. A brief note on the Battle of Lipetsk puts the role of Konstantin in the first place. Much more extensive information from various (including Novgorod) sources was collected at the beginning of the 15th century in the Moscow collection of Metropolitan Photius. Its content is reflected in a number of annalistic collections of the 15th and later centuries (Novgorod 4th, Moscow-Academic, Sofia 1st and other chronicles). In con. 1520 - early. In the 1530s, a huge compilation called the Nikon Chronicle was compiled. It included a number of interesting data on the losses of the fighters, as well as information about the epics that formed around the Battle of Lipetsk. The Voskresenskaya chronicle of the early 1540s contains some additional details about military operations, and also greatly reduces the glorification of the Rostislavichs, which was abused by earlier chronicles.

In 1206, the Grand Duke Vsevolod the Big Nest, about whose power the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign spoke with respect, sent his eldest son Konstantin to reign in Novgorod. According to feudal custom, he handed him a sword and a cross, saying: "Go to your city to graze your people from the opposite." Vsevolod hoped that not only the most powerful Vladimir-Suzdal principality in Russia, but also the richest and most extensive Novgorod commercial republic would now be in his hands. By uniting these lands, Vsevolod would actually establish autocracy in Russia and could put an end to feudal strife forever.

All plans of Vsevolod were destroyed in 1212 by his unexpected death. According to his will, the supreme power, together with Vladimir and Suzdal, went to his second son Yuri. This violated the rights of Vsevolod's eldest son, Konstantin, who was imprisoned in Rostov. Yuri managed to subdue his older brother in the internecine struggle. After that, the Suzdal princes set about restoring their influence in Northern Russia, which had been lost after Mstislav Udaloy from the Smolensk Rostislavichs became prince in Novgorod in the winter of 1208/9. In the spring of 1215, Mstislav was forced to leave for southern Russia. Novgorod recognized Prince Yaroslav, Yuri's brother and his faithful supporter in the Vladimir-Suzdal turmoil. This Yaroslav is also known as the father of Alexander Nevsky. He could not firmly gain a foothold in Novgorod and moved to Torzhok, the joint possession of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal land. Having occupied it, he did not let bread into Novgorod. There the famine began. Yaroslav organized a commercial blockade of Novgorod, captured more than 2,000 Novgorod merchants and sent them in chains to his cities.

Laurentian Chronicle - title page

In the midst of this conflict, the Rostislavichs reappeared on the scene. By that time, their representative, Mstislav Romanovich, had become the Grand Duke of Kiev. The militant Smolensk princes wanted to regain influence in Novgorod. Mstislav Udaloy moved north and on February 11, 1216 was received by the Novgorodians. Yaroslav's troops began raids on Mstislav's Toropetsk volost in the north of Smolensk land, and some Novgorodians ended up on the side of the Suzdalians. On Tuesday, March 1, Mstislav and the Novgorodians went on a campaign against Yaroslav. With them came the Pskovites, led by Vladimir, Mstislav's brother and the Prince of Pskov. Mstislav and Vladimir ousted the Suzdalians from the Toropetsk region and united with the Smolensk troops of Vladimir Rurikovich, Prince of Smolensk, and Vsevolod, son of Kiev Prince Mstislav Romanovich. The allies devastated Yaroslav's possessions on the upper Volga, won a small skirmish 15 versts from Tver, and began negotiations on an alliance with Konstantin of Rostov. It was the alliance with the Rostov prince that was the goal of the invasion. The Rostislavichi hid this fact for quite a long time from their troops and even longer from their enemies. The situation finally became clear on April 9, on Easter, when the Novgorod-Pskov-Smolensk army reached the southern shore of Lake Nero, on the northwestern shore of which Rostov was located. On Gorodishche at the mouth of the Sara River, which flows from the south into Lake Nero, near the church of St. Marina, the Rostislavichs met with Konstantin Rostovsky and concluded a final agreement. The princes expressed stormy joy, hugged and kissed the cross as a sign of the inviolability of the union.

Wooden fortress Torzhok. From the book by S. Herberstein

Yaroslav, who by that time had moved from Torzhok to Tver, rushed to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Yuri was in Vladimir-on-Klyazma. Mass mobilization was carried out throughout the Vladimir-Suzdal land. In ancient Russian wars, they often strove for mobility and called in the first place those people who had horses, even if they were not fighting ones. Due to the seriousness of the situation in April 1216, everyone was called, including those on foot. Troops from the possessions of Yuri himself, his younger brothers, residents of Murom, townspeople, wanderers (border residents) gathered in Vladimir. Around mid-April, Yuri set out with an impressive army to the northwest. Yaroslav walked towards him from Pereyaslavl with his soldiers. The brothers joined at Yuryev Polsky, located on a flat lowland on the left bank of the Koloksha River, at the confluence of the Gza River (annalistic Kza). Then the Suzdal army moved north, to the upper reaches of the Gza, and stood near Yuryeva Mountain and the Lipitsa tract (Lipnya of the 19th century). Here it intended to intercept the enemy, who could move on Vladimir from Rostov or Pereyaslavl. The Lipitsa tract should not be confused with the Lipitsa River of the same name (modern Lipnya). The sources of the Lipitsa River are located more than 10 kilometers east of Yuryev, near the modern village of Maloluchinskoye.

The Rostislavichi and Konstantin did not yet know about Yuri's actions. They admitted the possibility of his attack on Rostov and left Vladimir of Pskov with a retinue to protect the city. The main forces marched south and on Fomino Sunday, April 16, approached Pereyaslavl. A prisoner, captured near the city, reported Yaroslav's departure to join Yuri. On April 18, the Rostov-Novgorod-Smolensk army approached Yuryev and learned about the enemy's disposition. Mstislav and Vladimir Rurikovich remained near Yuryev, and Konstantin moved east, to the headwaters of the Lipitsa River. The maneuver was successful. The allies cut off Yuri from the capital city of Vladimir. Occupying a strategically advantageous position, they began negotiations. Their ambassador Larion tried to drive a wedge between the Suzdal princes, presenting Yaroslav as the only culprit in the war. He unsuccessfully sought the release of the Novgorod hostages and possessions. With the same success, during the second embassy, ​​Larion demanded that Yuri give up the Vladimir table to Konstantin. The Prince of Vladimir recommended that the Rostislavichs leave the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Soon, at a feast with Yuri, it turned out that some of his supporters did not want to risk a battle and were ready to give in to the demands of the enemy. Of course, there were also opposing voices. To raise the morale of his comrades-in-arms, Yuri generously promised rewards from booty in case of victory. At a secret meeting with the brothers, Yuri reached an agreement on the future division of Russia. Yuri intended to keep the Vladimir-Suzdal land for himself, give Novgorod to Yaroslav, and Smolensk to Svyatoslav. They were also going to acquire Galich in South-Western Russia, and give Kiev to their allies, the Chernigov princes.

The words of one of the Yuryev boyars addressed to Yuri and Yaroslav are known: “It was not under either your great-grandfathers, or under your grandfather, or under your father, that someone entered the strong land of Suzdal as an army and left it intact. Even if the whole Russian land gathered here, and Galician, and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, they would not be able to resist our strength. And these shelves, yes we will throw them with saddles«.

Torzhok. Meyerberg's album: Views and everyday paintings of Russia in the 17th century: Drawings from the Dresden album, reproduced from the original in full size with a map of the route of the Caesar's embassy in 1661-62. - Edition of A. S. Suvorin, 1903.

The battle of Lipitsa in 1216: a consistent version. "The first flashes of terrible events that stirred up the entire North of Russia in 1216 seemed five years earlier, when the aging Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod the Big Nest decided before his death to assign appanages to his sons. He was going to give the capital of the principality to the elder Konstantin, the next son Yuri - Rostov, Yaroslav "Pereyaslavl, Vladimir - Yuryev-Polsky, and young Svyatoslav and Ivan was thinking of appointing a guardian. 25-year-old Konstantin, Prince of Rostov since 1208, asked his father for both cities at the same time. Vsevolod refused and invited his son to a personal meeting. When he did not appear, the disgruntled parent decided on an unprecedented step: he "removed" the seniority in the family from Konstantin and, by decision of the all-zemstvo council, "handed" it to Yuri Vsevolodich. "Konstantin, hearing that, raised his eyebrows with anger at his brothers, especially at Yuri. "( Chronicle according to the Resurrection List // Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (hereinafter - PSRL), St. Petersburg 1856. V. 7. P. 117. Translation hereinafter is mine - A.A.) After see Vsevolod's death (April 13, 1212), Yuri took his place, and Konstantin remained in Rostov and did not even arrive at his father's funeral. In 1213 - 1214 Vsevolodichi tried to solve their family conflict three times by force of arms, and all three times were unsuccessful. By 1214, there was a lull in the Zalessky land: Konstantin was left alone, and all his brothers concentrated around the actual Grand Duke. The conflict received further development in the next, 1215, already in Novgorod the Great. Invited to the republic in the spring, Yaroslav Vsevolodich Pereyaslavsky ordered the faithful people of the previous Novgorod prince, Mstislav Mstislavich the Lucky (by the way, his own father-in-law), to be taken into custody. There were riots in the city. Yaroslav left the banks of the Volkhov and fortified himself on Novy Torg (modern Torzhok, Tver region). Here the prince ordered the arrest of all Novgorod merchants who were in Pereyaslav region, and also blocked the supply of Suzdal bread. An artificial famine arose in Novgorod. Driven to the extreme by poverty and high cost (February 1216), the Novgorodians enthusiastically greeted St. Sophia of Prince Mstislav Udatny, who unexpectedly appeared in the city and solemnly promised to “correct” all Novgorod grievances: “Either I will free the husbands of Novgorod and volosts, or I will lay down my head for Novgorod” (Novgorodskaya 1 chronicle of the senior and junior editions. M.-L. 1950. P.54.) . On March 1, after a brief gathering, the Novgorod army set out on a campaign. Mstislav led him far around the Novy Torg - to his own Toropets volost. Here he expected to feed the emaciated warriors and horses, and also to meet the squads of the allies of the “Rostislavl tribe” - the brother of Vladimir of Pskov and the cousin of Vladimir Rurikovich Smolensky. Around March 20, the Rostislavichi crossed the Pereyaslav line and moved down the Volga, cutting off Yaroslav from the supply bases and military contingents of the Vladimir-Suzdal land. The Pereyaslav prince was forced to move to Tver, where on March 25 the first clash between the opponents took place. Novgorodians won the victory in it. Then Mstislav sent an embassy with proposals for an alliance to the Rostov prince Konstantin Vsevolodich. On Easter, April 10, the squads of Mstislav, Vladimirov and Konstantin united at the Sarskoye settlement (15 km southwest of Rostov). The princes concluded a cross-kissing treaty against Yaroslav and the rest of Vsevolodichi. Thus, the family quarrel of 1212 continued. On April 17, the allied squads approached Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. The captured “language” reported that Yaroslav was not in the city: “I went to my brother Yuri with regiments, gathering all my strength, with [prisoners] Novgorodians and Novotorzhans” (Novgorod Fourth Chronicle (hereinafter - N4L) // PSRL. Pg. 1915. T 4, Part 1, Issue 1, P. 188). It became clear to Mstislav that he would have to fight with the entire “Big Nest”. And Vsevolodichi did not waste time in vain. Calculations of the movement of troops to the field of the Lipitsa battle show that Yuri Vladimirsky knew about the conflict between Yaroslav and the Novgorodians already in the middle - the end of February 1216. In March, the prince turned into the army almost all the combat-ready men of the principality, including peasants (today we would call this "general military mobilization" - by the way, the first case known in Russia). Even a contingent of Upper Don wanderers, the predecessors of the Cossacks, was used. The general gathering of all forces took place in Vladimir around mid-April. Around April 18-19, north of Yuryev-Polsky militia, Yuri, Svyatoslav and Ivan Vsevolodichi met with Yaroslav Pereyaslavsky. Their number at that time was enormous - 9233 people. Think. the brothers had a four - fivefold superiority over the forces of the Novgorod-Smolensk-Rostov coalition, which appeared here in the afternoon of April 19. Experienced Mstislav immediately demonstrated his military talent: he pitched his camps between Yuryev and the upper reaches of the river. Lipni (the left tributary of the Irmes, which flows into the Nerl-Klyazminskaya), i.e., south of the Vsevolodichi troops. Their communication with Vladimir was thus interrupted. Subsequent diplomatic negotiations between the princes came to nothing. Yuri and Yaroslav flatly refused to resolve the matter amicably. Almost all the chronicles also report on the feast of the brothers in the tent, the speeches of the cautious boyar Tvorimir and the boastful Ratibor, who promised to shower the Rostislavichs with saddles. There is even talk of the plans of the princes for the division of Russian cities up to and including Kiev and Galich. In my opinion, this is an invention of the Smolensk scribe of the beginning - the middle of the 15th century. In fact, the brothers were busy with something else: with a new oath, they confirmed their military-political union, and it may very well be that on the evening of April 19, the Vladimir prince received a luxurious gift from his younger brother - a ceremonial princely helmet of the 12th century, decorated with silver plates with ornaments, images of saints, Jesus Christ, as well as the inscription “Great Archangel of the Lord Michael, help your servant Theodore” (Archangel Michael is the leader of the heavenly host; Theodore is the name received by Yaroslav Vsevolodich at baptism). After that, the brothers, no doubt well acquainted with the surrounding area, sent an ambassador to the opponents, who named the place of the approaching battle - the Lipitsa tract - and they themselves immediately went to him. The 10-12-kilometer crossing and the organization of a defensive position took them all night on April 20th. In the morning, Mstislav Mstislavich, Konstantin and Vladimir Smolensky appeared with regiments on Lipitsy (a few kilometers from Yuryev). Approximately the following picture opened up to their eyes: a small (about 2 square kilometers) tract consists of three hills. The northern hill, close to Yuryev, is not occupied by the enemy. The chroniclers called it "Yuri's Mountain". Vsevolodichi are located on the second hill (the so-called "Avdova Hill"), fortified with stakes and wattle. There is a small stream between the mountains. In the hollow there are dense thickets of shrubs and young trees (annalistic "wilds"). To the east is the third hill, the name of which has not been preserved in the chronicles. There is no water barrier between this nameless hill and “Avdova Gora”, but the same low-lying “wild” and very steep descent and ascent. Thus, even before the start of the battle, Yuri and Yaroslav had two indisputable advantages - superiority in numbers and a well-equipped defensive position. Mstislav Udatny and his allies were waiting for the approach of Vladimir Pskov and contingents from the outlying Rostov lands, so they did not hurry. “And they sent a younger squad against Yaroslav's people to fight. And they fought day and night, but fought without zeal, for there was a storm that day and it was very cold” (Sophia Chronicle 1 (hereinafter - S1L) // PSRL. 1925. Vol. 5 Issue. 1. S.196-197). The far-sighted Mstislav Mstislavich quickly found a way to turn the situation to his own advantage. In the early morning of April 21, he ordered the troops to move to the third, nameless hill, from which a direct road to Vladimir opened: in this way, the prince forced the opponents to join the battle. At about 8 am, the long-awaited Rostovites arrived. By half past eight, the alignment of the regiments on both sides was completed: the squads stood in a crescent, “horns inward” from Vsevolodichi and “horns outward” from their opponents. On the left flank of the Novgorod-Rostov coalition was Vladimir Smolensky, in the center - Mstislav Udatny and Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, on the right - Konstantin and Vladimir Pskov. The right flank of “all the power of the Suzdal land” was given to Yaroslav, Yuri stood in the center, Svyatoslav and Ivan stood on the left. The professional fighters of Vsevolodichi were covered by a peasant militia, numerous, but poorly armed and poorly trained. According to the customs of that time, Mstislav Mstislavich addressed the soldiers with a speech: “Brothers, we have entered this strong land; let us stand firm, trusting in God, not looking back; if you run, you won't leave. Let's forget, brothers, houses, wives and children, and if you die - whoever wants, on foot, whoever wants - on horseback ”(Monuments of literature of Ancient Russia. XIII century. M. 1981. S. 121, 123. Fragment from the Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle (hereinafter - NKL) translated by Ya. S. Lurie). The Novgorod volunteers dismounted, threw off their excess clothes and shoes, and, armed only with axes, fiercely attacked the enemy through the lowland "wild" (about 8.30 - 9 o'clock in the morning). The barrier of the Pereyaslav peasants trembled, their first banner was knocked down. The Smolensk people entered the business, and then the princes with their men at arms. A general dump was formed, in which everything was decided by morale and professional training. On this day they were on the side of the attackers. The chroniclers tell that the soul of victory - Prince Mstislav Mstislavich - with one ax passed through the enemy regiments three times. About half past one - one o'clock in the afternoon, the allies made their way to the carts, that is, they completely violated the construction of Vsevolodichi. There was a turning point in the battle: Yaroslav and Yuri chose to flee. Others followed suit. The suppression of the last pockets of resistance probably took some more time, and the battle was over by about two o'clock in the afternoon. “The field of God's judgment”, trophies and 6 dozen prisoners were left for Mstislav, Vladimir and Konstantin. They themselves lost only six killed. “Who does not cry,” the Tver Chronicle remarks on this occasion, “hearing this bitter victory over his brothers, the groans of those pierced by spears and the voices of the wounded, still alive and screaming in pain? For there are many beaten people, the human mind cannot imagine, not only in the massacre of the heaps of the dead, but also in many places bodies lay, some dead, while others were still breathing; many of them [Vladimir and Pereyaslavl] caught and taken prisoner, wept bitter tears, seeing their dead and not buried” (Chronicle collection, called the Tver Chronicle // PSRL. St. Petersburg. 1863. T. 15. Stb. 322-323) . Terrible scenes could be observed throughout Zalesye: crowds of wounded, frightened and demoralized soldiers fled in panic from the battlefield to Yuryev, Pereyaslavl and Vladimir. Yury Vsevolodich was ahead of everyone. Having driven three horses, on the fourth he reached his capital "about noon" - according to our account, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. On the way, the overweight prince had to throw off all the burdens - weapons, chain mail and a precious helmet - a gift from his brother. He rode to the city alone, in an undershirt, and tried to organize defense there. However, “non-warlike people remained in Vladimir: priests, monks, women and children” (С1Л. С. 199; NKL. С. 124; Н4Л. С. 194). Nothing came of this venture. Yaroslav fled to his Pereyaslavl. His opponents, the Lipetsk victors, remained on the battlefield. After burying the fallen, they slowly moved towards Vladimir and reached it on Sunday, April 24th. A few days later, on the 28th, Yuri left the city and surrendered to the will of Mstislav Udatny and Vladimir Smolensky. The victors proclaimed Konstantin the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and the younger Vsevolodich was sent into exile - the small Volga town of Radilov in the backyards of the principality. The next day, the allies headed for Pereyaslavl. On May 3, Yaroslav “hit his forehead” to Konstantin and asked him to “feed him with bread” (the feudal formula of submission). The brothers made peace. Mstislav Mstislavich freed all the captive Novgorodians and Smolensk citizens, led the Novgorod defectors from Pereyaslavl, as well as his daughter Rostislava-Feodosia (wife of Yaroslav Vsevolodich). On May 5, the princes of the allied coalition, “taking their honor and glory”, went home. The war of 1216 ended. Its consequences were not long-lasting. Yuri Vsevolodich returned from exile a year and a half later and soon, after the death of Konstantin the Wise, which followed on February 2, 1218, he again sat on the Grand Duke's table. Yaroslav's wife was returned at about the same time. Thus, all the efforts of the Lipitsk winners were nullified after 2 years. Subsequent events - the "Batu pogrom" and the change in the whole system of Russian history - obscured the memories of the "glorious battle of Lipetsk" (N. M. Karamzin). The massacre would have remained the lot of only military historians (by the way, it is the second in medieval European and the first in Russian history, where the honor of victory belongs to the attacking actions of the infantry), if not for one happy event. In 1808, near the village of Lykovo in the modern Vladimir region (15 kilometers from the battlefield), two peasant women accidentally discovered a princely helmet that had been lost or hidden after the Battle of Lipitsa. The unique find ended up in the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin, where it remains to this day. Russian military archeology starts from it, it is an indisputable proof of the reality of the events described above. "Quoted by: Astaykin A. A. Lipitskaya battle of 1216: consistent version.

Dmitry Puchkov and Klim Zhukov tell an extremely curious and instructive story about one of the largest battles of Russian internecine strife of the XIII century. What they fought for, with what forces, what successes came out of it ... However, the main result of these medieval “civil wars” is not that which prince got which throne. The result was summed up by Batu Khan with his tumens literally a quarter of a century after the Battle of Lipitsa.

Dmitry Puchkov. I wholeheartedly welcome you! Klim Sanych, good afternoon.

Klim Zhukov. Good afternoon, hello everyone.

D.P. What have you prepared today?

K.Zh. I propose to start the second series about the great battles, because, to be honest, I was very tired of the details of the complex Russian history from the beginning to the Mongols. I want to take a break on this occasion and see how at that time, described by us in the milestones of Russian history, they fought, what interesting things happened on the military fields. In a word, once again to the great battles! There were many of them.

D.P. I'll tell you honestly: all these Mstislavichs and Yaroslavichs frankly pulled up. There are so many of them - I did not even know.

K.Zh. And they all have the same last name.

D.P. Yes. I'm confused.

K.Zh. You can't even tell by the last name. Then, if you want, I will reveal to you the secret of how it is possible to memorize them, because it is unrealistic to learn 18 generations of Rurikovich in a row, unless, of course, you are an autistic person with a phenomenal memory.

D.P. I know special techniques. Since in pre-revolutionary Russia everyone was forced to learn it, generations of various lazy boobies developed special systems on how to memorize them, and many coped.

K.Zh. Everything is much simpler there - they just need to be divided into territorial districts. There was nothing to learn from the first Ruriks from Rurik, if he existed at all, to Yaroslav the Wise - there were few of them. Well, then you just need to look from Yaroslav, who sat down on which city. And you will immediately understand that this is Chernigov - the Olgovichi live here, and this is Smolensk - the Rostislavichi live here, well, this, of course, is Vladimir - the Yuryevich Dolgorukovichi live here, and so on. It is clear that it will be quite difficult to keep this in mind all the time, but at least it will be approximately possible to understand that the Mstislavichs are those, these Yuryevichs, and nothing complicated.

D.P. We will try. So what do we have today?

K.Zh. Today I wanted to talk about the Battle of Lipitsa in 1216 - this is such a contention in the nest of Vsevolod the Big Nest, where his chicks hatched, how much in vain. This is a battle that summed up one of the grandiose strife in the northeast and northwest of Russia, in which very large forces converged for their time. And these forces were in fact so great - for their, I emphasize, time - that a great echo of this remained in the annals, and even in the people's memory. And even, as researchers of annalistic monuments say, a certain number of epics, squad songs, legends were compiled, i.e. military stories about it. Because, apparently, some of the later annalistic news contains fragments of just these very squad songs, like “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, which told about this battle.

Naturally, since everything big is seen only from afar, as soon as the annals began to stand back from the event for 150-250-300 years, interesting details began to appear that were not present in the original editions of the story about this battle.

D.P. Excuse me, I will make an important remark: 300 years ago - this is how to clarify some details of the Battle of Poltava now, right?

K.Zh. Approximately so. Those. you were sitting, picking your mustache with a pen, and suddenly realized that not everything was clean in the Battle of Poltava.

D.P. Now I will clarify.

K.Zh. Let me clarify, yes. I found, accordingly, a descendant of a participant in the Battle of Poltava - it is clear that the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the great-great-great-great-grandfather would definitely not lie, he asked: how was it?

D.P. Grandpa told.

K.Zh. Grandfather told me... Yes, and, what is characteristic, these are the Middle Ages, when there was no developed information culture, and therefore all information was transmitted by 99% orally. And so now grandfather will not tell us anything about Poltava, but then he could very well tell us in fact. Only it was not the grandfather who participated in this battle, but the grandfather of the grandfather of the grandfather of the grandfather - so many transmission links passed that, frankly, it is difficult to judge the quality of the output information. This is of great value as an ethnographic material, but as a historical source regarding the details of the incident itself, its value is very doubtful, and it must be approached with extreme caution.

D.P . Therefore, only skaldic poems with terrible dimensions, because nothing can be changed there.

K.Zh. Yes, if you redo something, then everything is already - everything will crumble, everything will break.

So, about this very battle of Lipica. This is, in addition to everything else, not only one of the most beloved battles of the developed Middle Ages of Russia for the medieval authors themselves, who, frankly, admired these years of the pre-Mongolian knightly era, the highest dawn of Russian specific principalities, but also this is a favorite battle of Russian military historians and historians in general . Because if you take the entire corpus of annalistic information about this, you can glean such details that you will generally stagger. There, if you look at the whole complex of chronicles, it turns out that there was infantry - that's what it says: "pedestrians." Moreover, on both sides: some opposing and other opposing colleagues, it turns out, had infantry. They recruited the people's militia from the villages and dopeshtsevs, i.e. having driven people from the villages, and 9233 people were killed there on the losing side.

D.P. Lot!

K.Zh. It's not a lot, it's a monstrous lot! This is about as much as the total number of people who came to, maybe a little less.

D.P. Isn't the word "bastard" used there? These are the ones who were dragged.

K.Zh. Do not remember that.

D.P. And what does the word "bastard" mean in a military sense?

K.Zh. The bastard is the one who drags along. Actually: s-drag, this is usually s-vita. Those. for example, when I was still ascetic in the church, they liked to say that there was such and such a bishop and his bastard, i.e. his retinue. Thus, it was very funny to everyone, and everyone understood that this man spoke in the old Russian manner, and did not want to offend this bishop at all, and even more so his people.

D.P. Those. then this word had no negative connotation?

K.Zh. None, it's just someone who comes in together. So, if 9200 people were killed, and at the same time 60 were captured in total, it means that at least 2 times more people came there, i.e. 18 thousand on the one hand, which is not only a lot for the Middle Ages, but also for the 17th-18th centuries a considerable number. Because, for example, under Poltava, Charles XII, the Swedish king, had about 16 thousand troops, 16-17 thousand, and here, you see, in the Middle Ages, cavalry managed to bring such a number. Researcher Shkrabo directly says that this figure, and he calculates about 20-30 thousand people on one side, is the number of only those who participated in the clash. And if we take those who guarded the convoy, cooks, sutlers, then we can safely increase it by 2-3 times.

D.P. Not bad.

K.Zh. In a word, a very interesting battle, which is interesting not only for the ups and downs of history that took place around it, not only for what happened on the battlefield, but also for an example of working with sources, as it developed over time, i.e. how people did it a long time ago, how people did it recently, and how we do it now.

The oldest story about the Battle of Lipica is preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which was finally made in the 1240s, or, according to other researchers, in the 1260s, i.e. this is only 35-45 years after the battle itself, i.e. when the participants could still be alive.

D.P. Let's decide right away, firstly, the date when it was ...

K.Zh. 1216 year.

D.P. And topographically - where is it?

K.Zh. This is the Lipica River.

D.P. This is not Lipetsk?

K.Zh. No. Actually, the fight did not take place there, it was all tied to civil strife in North-Eastern Russia. When Vsevolod Bolshe Gnezdo died, his sons Yuri and Konstantin quarreled for the great reign and involved in their quarrel everyone who could be involved from all sides, including Novgorodians, Smolyans, Belozersk, Murom...

D.P. As they say now, pulled up.

K.Zh. They brought everyone with them. I'll be more specific about this.

So, perhaps someone could still be alive, because although 35-45 years is a very long time for the Middle Ages, the children of those who participated there were definitely strong and alive. Again, most likely, some records were kept about this, because in fact the battle was very big, all people had to be provided, i.e. some correspondence had to be sent out, some bills for food, i.e. people could use the archives that had not yet burned down. Our archives were all miraculously burning, but at that time, perhaps, there was still something left.

The next chronicle story is the Novgorod Fourth Chronicle and the Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle, as well as the Sofia First Chronicle known - all this refers to the 40-50s of the XV century. There it is already more interesting, there it is more detailed. Just there, information suddenly appears about the pawns, who were driven from the villages. This is not in the early story, but 250 years after the events, the chronicler-monk, apparently, brought the reality that was in the first half of the 13th century in accordance with his ideas, because in the middle of the 15th carry yourself.

D.P. Couldn't it be that he found some document that came down to him, and, without referring to it, cited this?

K.Zh. Naturally, he would not refer, of course. The fact is that all these stories, if subjected to textual research, are based on the message of the Novgorod First Chronicle, they retell it in one way or another, and sometimes directly or indirectly quote it. And suddenly there are some details. This means that the Novgorod First Chronicle was a protographer, and it is very doubtful that any particular documents fell into the hands of the chronicler 250 years later relative to the same that the chronicler had in the middle of the 13th century.

D.P. It looks, to put it mildly, strange, just like a Stalinist historian writes about the Battle of Borodino: and heavy machine guns were placed from the flanks, because it’s obvious that you can’t do without them.

K.Zh. Because for a Stalinist historian it would be ridiculous, but for a medieval person it was absolutely normal, because if a large-caliber machine gun were suddenly invented in the 15th century, he would have justifiably put them on the Lipetsk field. Well, because they are, and the ancestors were clearly not worse, on the contrary - the ancestors were definitely smarter, because the great-grandfather's precepts are wow! That is, they, of course, would have heavy machine guns on the flanks, of course.

All that the chroniclers could use, as I said, is most likely not some kind of documents, these are some legends that reached that time, and their own logic - how he sees how this could happen event. Because if we look at any medieval miniature, we will see that an event, for example, that took place under Alexander the Great, is depicted on this miniature in the same way as an event of the 14th century is depicted, in the same material culture, in the same armor. Be sure to Alexander the Great will come up with a coat of arms, because everyone understands that Alexander the Great is a knight. How could a non-knight conquer everything from Greece to India? Some nonsense.

D.P . Unthinkable!

K.Zh. Therefore, he is always on a horse, with a spear - this was absolutely normal for a medieval person. We have not yet thought about the fact that 300 years ago there could be something different. It could only be better because before.

D.P. And it got worse.

K.Zh. And it only got worse. And now, in the Tver Chronicle in general, already in the 16th century, and in the Ermolinskaya Chronicle, and in the Moscow Chronicle of the late 15th century, interesting figures suddenly begin to slip. Because in the Novgorod First Chronicle there are also figures, and they are clearly overestimated - it's like the fact that "10 thousand people" does not mean 10 thousand people, but simply "a lot". Here it was the prince, he had a lot of people, but the prince immediately came, he had 500 people - this means that he had just a few of them. Those. there were many and few, these figures cannot be taken as documented evidence of how many there were exactly, how much salaries were allocated.

D.P . Those. in fact, this one had more, and this one had less.

K.Zh. Yes, and this one has a lot more, and this one has a lot less - like that. And how many there were exactly - God knows. Based on this message, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about what really happened.

So, in the later chroniclers, a very interesting figure of losses appears - 9233 people. Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov, in his book “The Search for the Author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, which I recently showed, wrote that it was scary to read the chronicler's messages: 9233 soldiers were killed, while the groans of the wounded and dying hovered over the field.

All this beautiful quote - Boris Alexandrovich simply took it and honestly retold it, correctly translating into Russian what is written in the chronicler. And it is written there: they collected the corpses, counted them - it turned out that there were 9200 of them, and then it was said that the groans of the wounded and dying were heard. Those. it is very difficult to imagine that they collected 9200 corpses and only then went to look at the wounded. First, usually, as a rule, they still collect the wounded, and then the dead - the dead do not care. And here it is exactly the opposite.

This just says that these are chronicle news, which were compiled after a very large amount of time by non-eyewitnesses and, most likely, by people who do not understand anything at all in military affairs. Moreover, it is not very important for them how exactly it is described, it is important for them what it means.

And this means exactly one thing: that this is civil strife - this is very bad, because it was people within the same family who fought to the death because of my father's inheritance, while ruining a bunch of people who were completely uninvolved in this inheritance. And the chronicler already from the XIII century indicates that, from his point of view, this is a big trouble, this is not good.

And, of course, the Novgorod Chronicle is entirely on the Novgorod side, of course, because all this is described from the extremely Novgorod-centric positions, that where St. Sophia is, there is Novgorod, and those who are against Novgorod, if this is not an unambiguous evil, then they are mistaken and misguided people who need to point out their mistakes in a material way.

D.P. Need help.

K.Zh. Yes, we need help. So, it all started with the fact that Vsevolod the Big Nest laid down the nuclear one. a bomb under the hundred-year foundation of the power of the Yurievichs by the fact that he abandoned the universal democratic procedures sanctified by centuries and despised the democratic right of the ladder, trying to transfer power to his own son in a totalitarian way.

D.P. Voluntaristically.

K.Zh. Totalitarian-voluntaristic transfer of power to his own son. And handed over. But not to that, because the eldest son Konstantin wanted to rule in Rostov. Let me remind you: Rostov is the oldest city of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, and Vladimir was the new capital. Konstantin, who was closely associated with the Rostov boyars, did not want to go to Vladimir, and in Vladimir, in the capital, his younger brother Yuri sat down, who had no right to the throne of his father, not only according to flattering concepts, but in general by any concepts.

Clever Vsevolod More Gnezdo legitimized his power through an agreement with the Vladimir Veche. But when he died, it suddenly became clear that the elder brother Konstantin was more experienced, smarter, stronger, and he was more loved in Rostov than Yuri in Vladimir. And in general, he was shown the door.

D.P. Because when the veche voted, everyone kept figs in their pockets, right?

K.Zh. Well, the point here is not a fig, the point is that when Konstantin came with an army, it suddenly turned out that fighting was for what? Do not. And in the end, Yuri was forced to leave Vladimir. Well, of course, he remembered this, pulled up all the younger brothers that he could reach, namely Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Ivan Vsevolodovich and, of course, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - the future dad, then he was still quite a young man. He was born in 1191, and these are 1212, 1213 and 1216, i.e. he was quite a few years old. He was young, ardent and ready for undercover intrigues, as well as direct clashes with enemies.

As a result, war broke out. Everything, from the point of view of international domestic Russian politics, was greatly complicated by the factor of Novgorod, because at that time Novgorod was at that time, through the efforts of Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod Bolshe Gnezdo, in the orbit of Vladimir-Suzdal politics almost completely and very much dependent on its southeastern neighbors. At the time of the events described, Mstislav Mstislavich Udaloy (Udatny) ruled there - the famous figure of the Russian Middle Ages, a great warrior, one of the real "knights" of Russian squads, who was very loved, who enjoyed very great authority not only in Novgorod. In 2015, Mstislav Mstislavich, apparently not wanting it himself, threw a huge armful of firewood into the firebox of the war flaring up in the northeast of Russia, because he told the people of Kiev that "I have a tool in Russia, and you are free princes." Those. he has business in Russia, and you can choose your own prince, because you really can.

"In Russia" is understandable - he went to Kiev to put another prince on the Kiev throne, because at that time Rurik Rostislavich, who sat on the Kiev throne 7 times and eventually sat down for the 7th time, dies. He died, and it was urgent to install a new prince. As a matter of fact, Mstislav Mstislavich Udatny went to fight for Kiev once again.

And the Novgorodians, who loved Mstislav very much, without any exaggeration, because if the prince himself left Novgorod like that, not only that the Novgorodians showed him the way, but he himself left, which means that he most likely will not return there the second time , well, only if he does not win it, of course. Neither he nor his children - this is such a fact of contempt, especially since a number, i.e. Mstislav did not sit out the term under the contract, but all the same, the Novgorodians greatly appreciated him and decided to tie Mstislav to Novgorod, if possible, they took and invited Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky to reign, who was married to Mstilav's daughter - to Rostislav Mstislavovna Rurikovich. But here they did not guess, because despite the fact that he was a relative of Mstislav, he was not an easy person and Novgorod immediately began to lead to his hand, because it was the son of Vsevolod, the grandson of Yuri, therefore, the great-nephew of Andrei Bogolyubsky, he I'm used to Novgorodians obeying. And they did not obey, because they themselves invited him. This, as it seemed to them, was already a completely different time, both Vsevolod and Andrei had already died - they could not be bent over the knee. Well, Yaroslav, without hesitation, right away ...

D.P. It wasn't there!

K.Zh. And immediately, there immediately turned out to be well-wishers who, as the Novgorod Chronicle tells us, began to denounce each other, and Yaroslav immediately began to disassemble these denunciations and punish with terrible force. Firstly, he removed the thousandth Yakun (thousand - prime minister) and plundered his yard. Moreover, he didn’t let the Novgorodians plunder, but plundered himself, which in general was terribly simple for the Novgorodians - they should have robbed, of course.

D.P. What disrespect for the fine customs of the people!

K.Zh. Yes, and the wife of the mayor Yakun was taken hostage: if he suddenly decides to do something else, then let him know that this will definitely result.

D.P. And what could they do with her, like with a hostage?

K.Zh. They could have been killed as a relative of an enemy of the people. But in the end, Yakun ended up in Novotorzhsk and was about to complain, and to whom - to Yaroslav. Well, Yaroslav then put him in jail with his wife.

D.P. With his wife.

K.Zh. Well, of course, with his wife, with Yakun's wife. Of course, not only Yaroslav himself was involved in this, but also a bunch of his officials who came from Vladimir. They brought the Novgorodians, who were generally brought very easily, simply elementary.

D.P. Half a turn.

K.Zh. In general, they didn’t even need to be brought up, you just had to wait - they themselves would have been brought down sooner or later, there was always a riot there once every five years. But Yaroslav did his best, and, apparently, he also had father's damaged genes, he also planted a bomb under his own rule. Such was the Prussian street in Novgorod, it was the Novgorod Rublyovka, a lot of noble boyars lived there, and they simply killed the princely henchman of the official Ostrat and his son Lugota Ostratovich. Then suddenly Yaroslav realized that he had gone too far, and he himself left for Torzhok.

And in Torzhok, he planned to strangle Novgorod with hunger. It is possible to assume that he had plans to make Torzhok the capital of the Novgorod land instead of Novgorod, because he was a descendant of Yuri Dolgoruky, and Yuri Dolgoruky did such a trick perfectly in his Suzdal land. And why not turn around here, especially since it’s good, Novgorod is a river-sea gate, and at the same time, the gate to Novgorod is Torzhok. Again, the old, well-established system of the Yuryevichs: the Novgorodians are unhappy - we block Torzhok, and bread does not come to you. And the bread stopped coming.

At this time, as the chronicle describes, in March 1215, "the scum was great" - the frost was great, and all the crops perished. There was a famine in Novgorod, and it was absolutely dependent on food supplies. The bread that went to Novgorod through Torzhok, Yaroslav did not let through, and all the merchants who came from Novgorod were arrested and imprisoned right there in Torzhok.

Novgorodians, of course, realized that something had to be done about it, and in general they had to put up with it, because everyone could die in the same way, in the end. They began to send ambassadors to him, and he began to arrest the ambassadors. I didn’t talk to them at all, I just arrested them and that’s it. Arrived - arrested, arrived - arrested. In the annals there is a whole list of them who went to prison for nothing.

D.P. By chaos.

K.Zh. This was heard by Mstislav, who did all his business in Kiev and returned to Novgorod on February 11, 1216. Well, Mstislav, as an experienced politician and not just a warrior, proclaimed a wonderful election program: “Either I will return the Novgorod husbands to the Novgorod volosts, or I will lay my head for the great Novgorod.” Well, the electorate, of course, accepted the program with pleasure and said in response: “We are ready for life and death with you, prince.” To put it bluntly, they had nowhere to go.

Thus, Mstislav turned out to be a potential supporter of one of the warring parties in the north-east of Russia. It is quite clear that Yaroslav in Novgorod did this absolutely not in vain, because he carefully chose the side for whom to speak: for Yuri, the younger heir, who fought against the senior heir to Konstantin, or to speak for Konstantin.

Yaroslav himself was the head of a very strong Pereyaslavl-Zalessky principality. It was a very strong, but far from the most powerful principality. Far from the strongest. Those. if he spoke only with the forces of his principality for one or another candidate, he could lose, and if he lost, he could find himself in a stupid situation. Therefore, he needed a decisive advantage, and he needed Novgorod precisely as a base of support, because Novgorod was several times larger than the Pereyalsavl-Zalessky principality and could field more troops. Therefore, he needed an absolutely submissive Novgorod.

If the candidate supported by Yaroslav had won, he would have ended up in debt to Yaroslav himself with such help, because it is clear that if Yaroslav puts up such regiments of Pereyaslavl, and such a large regiment puts up, for example, Yuri, and they win, - then Yaroslav turns out to be just a small assistant, without whom it would probably be harder, but in the end they managed. And if he put up the Novgorod troops, then this is a completely different matter, because the Novgorod city regiment and the Novgorod militia were at least no less than what the capital city of Vladimir could put up. It turns out that they are equal partners. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand such a riot of Yaroslav in relation to Novgorod.

Well, Mstislav, having expelled Yaroslav from Novgorod, resumed a row with the Novgorodians, Yaroslav remained in Torzhok no longer out of work, not a prince. He immediately turned out to be automatically an enemy of the one whom Yaroslav chooses as his allies. And Yaroslav by that time had decided: Yuri Vsevolodovich became his ally. And Novgorod, thus, was drawn directly into the conflict. In addition, the Smolensk people, Smolensk, along with their prince, were drawn into the conflict.

And here comes a very important moment for understanding - the moment of mobilization, because the type of troops that predominates in the army, especially in the medieval army, and its very strength depend on the nature of mobilization. The mobilization took a period from February 11 to March 1, 1216. Considering that, firstly, Konstantin Vsevolodovich approached the side of Mstislav, most importantly, with the Rostov regiments. Konstantin, Mstislav, Vladimir Rurikovich from Smolensk with the Smolensk regiment, and Vsevolod Mstislavich are the son of a cousin of Udaly himself, i.e. the current ruling prince in Kiev, Mstislav Romanovich the Old, just that same negative hero in the battle on the Kalka, which we talked about not so long ago.

This is a very fast mobilization - less than a month, and in the end people managed to arrive from ... and from Beoloozero, of course, they arrived, because Beloozero at that time was part of the Rostov Principality. People came from very distant places, gathered quickly. Those. it was necessary first to send out letters to everyone, these letters should have been received, and even if they immediately agreed, and there was no long diplomatic correspondence - so they received letters, sent messengers, yes, the command was accepted, we are entering. These are very swift actions, only horsemen could gather so quickly, moreover, feudal horsemen, professional warriors who were constantly ready for battle - what was called “elected army” in the 16th-17th centuries, i.e. selected army, i.e. those who could perform precisely on a long trip.

Well, Yuri Vsevolodovich, firstly, supports Yaroslav Vsevolodovich as an ally, sends an army to him led by his younger brother Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, as it is written in the annals, brought with him 10 thousand people near Rzhev, who besieged. Rzhev resisted with the efforts of a garrison of 100 people, as the chronicler again tells us. And this is just the message of the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is clear that 100 people would never have held back 10 thousand people, especially since Rzhev was not a powerful city at all, it was a very small fortress by that time. It just shows that there were more of these, and much less of these. Moreover, one can still believe in a garrison of 100 people, but in the army of a younger brother of 10 thousand people - this is an unrealistic figure, it's just a message that there are a lot of them, that's all. It was not possible to take Rzhev, Mstislav set out from Novgorod, Prince Vladimir, who at that time was in Pskov, joined him, and the Pskov army set out. Those. Novgorodians and Pskovians acted together. Yes, I’ll say right away that in addition to those people who were engaged in denunciations, and when Yaroslav was expelled from Novgorod, they ran away to him, i.e. there, up to 5 boyar corporations from Novgorod were pulled off to Yaroslav, fearing the gratitude of expressive fellow citizens.

Mstislav went on a campaign, recaptured Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from Rzhev. Mstislav Udaloy / Udatny, they are all Mstislavs, Vladimirs, Mstislavichs there, so I will periodically say again and again that Mstislav Udaloy. with Novgorodians. The Novgorodians drove out Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from under Rzhev and went further to the Suzdal land in the direction of Yuri's headquarters. Mstislav, of course, was a knight, even in the annals it is said that this simply cannot be ignored, which means that it really was a very bright, noticeable, well-documented move - he offered peace.

D.P. Suddenly.

K.Zh. Mstislav was in fact such a powerful commander of precisely the classical knightly medieval type, with all his inherent advantages and disadvantages, that if he defeated the enemy, he, of course, first of all, offers him peace. Moreover, this is a close relative, after all, he fought with his son-in-law. Yes, and his son-in-law had his own daughter, with whom, of course, nothing bad could happen, because after all this is a feudal war, and just like that, to kill or do something else bad with his own wife , because of what - because of the war? Well, what are you talking about?

But, nevertheless, Rostislava Mstislavovna was with Yaroslav. Moreover, Yaroslav is generally handsome, because when he began to choke Novgorod with hunger, his wife was in Novgorod and was starving along with all the townspeople. Then he suddenly remembered something and sent his emissaries to take her out of there. But I didn't remember right away. I sat in Novotorzhok and thought: something is missing - either I didn’t turn off the iron, or ... but where is the wife?

D.P. He was a loving husband, yes.

K.Zh. Very! He was just a little busy. But since Yuri was the senior in the Vsevolodovich coalition by that time, because Konstantin was on the side of Mstislav the Udaloy, more precisely, Mstislav the Udaloy was on the side of Konstantin, Yuri said that he was not ready to make peace, because he needed to take power in the Vladimir-Suzdal land into his own hands, because his dad appointed him heir, laying an atomic bomb under the century-old power of the Yurievichs.

And a viscous maneuverable offensive and counter-offensive, very typical for the Middle Ages, began, because very small forces that cannot even approximately form at least a semblance of a front begin to chase each other, naturally, burning everything along the way, because, having defeated the enemy near Rzhev, stretch to him nobly hand with the offer of peace is one thing, but to rob is completely different, to rob is good. Of course, skirmishes took place: in particular, Yaroslav's patrols on March 25 attacked the watchman Mstislav Udatny, who, as the chronicle says, consisted of 100 people, which, of course, is very unlikely.

D.P. What is a "watchman"?

K.Zh. Exploration, long distance. And most likely, these are the same people who were engaged in robbery, because reconnaissance and robbery go hand in hand: now you are scouting, looking - and already robbing.

D.P. All the time on the job.

K.Zh. 100 people is a lot for such a detachment, but it is possible, and in fact there were 100. There was a clash, 7 warriors were killed, and 33 were captured, and Yaroslav himself had fled to Tver by that time, then fled from Tver to Pereyaslavl, and here the understanding appeared that nothing could be solved by throwing one after another. It’s just that on the one hand, Mstislav Udaloy was offended that he was so rejected, on the other hand, Yuri went on principle and was not ready to put up with anyone, on the third hand, Konstantin and the Rostovites, apparently, were indeed under the strong influence of the Rostov boyars, he could not even allow his younger brother to sit on his father's throne, and Rostov could not allow Vladimir to become the first city in the Suzdal land. And all this twisted the spring so tightly that it had to straighten out only in a decisive collision.

At the same time, Mstislav Udaloy once again tried to solve the matter peacefully, the last, so to speak, Chinese attempt. He sent a certain Sotsky Larion, also known from the Novgorod First Chronicle, with a proposal of this kind: “My Novgorod is, and you grabbed the Novgorod husbands in vain, robbed a lot of goods, and the Novgorodians cry out crying at you, and they complain to me about insults from you. You, son, release the prisoners, and return the Novgorod volost - so we will make peace and not shed blood in vain.

This is the appeal - "son", i.e. son, vocative case - for Yaroslav, of course, it was insulting, because, of course, he was his son-in-law, i.e. younger, but he could not call him a son, especially since he was the son of the great Vsevolod. Naturally, Yaroslav did not appreciate such a peaceful initiative and replied: “We do not want peace. Your husbands are with me, you came from afar, but came out like dry fish. This suggests that Mstislav did not want to solve the matter with a big massacre until the very end.

After that, messengers were sent to the rest of the Vsevolodovichs - Yuri, Svyatoslav and Ivan: “Brothers, we are all of the Vladimirov tribe and did not come here for war and ruin, not to take away your fatherland, but we are looking for peace, nevertheless, according to the law of God and Russian Truth. Give seniority to the big brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you hate God, otherwise you can’t atone for anything.”

So, they turned to Russkaya Pravda, however, in a somewhat strange form, because, by and large, according to the law of the ladder, this throne should have been occupied not by the eldest son of Vsevolod, but by his elder brother or elder relative. But, nevertheless, they turned to Russian Truth.

Here Yuri was already offended and answered: “Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but he doesn’t know how he will leave here.” Those. very cheeky. “And tell brother Konstantin: overcome us, then all the land will be yours.”

At this time, the troops that advanced from the described principalities converged near the Lipica River. There were two war councils - in one camp and in another camp. We don’t know exactly how this happened, because almost all the messages about the remarks and decisions that were made there are late, but nevertheless it’s quite funny to read: “In the camp of Yuri Vsevolodovich and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the boyar Ratibor declared: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav , it never happened either under your fathers, or under your grandfathers, or under your great-grandfathers, so that someone entered the strong Suzdal land as an army and would leave it intact. Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then they won’t do anything with you, and what are these regiments, so we will throw them with saddles.

D.P. I recognize my brother Kolya.

K.Zh. And Yuri and Yaroslav, extremely inspired by the speeches of their officers, gave the order not to take prisoners in battle: “This product has come into your hands - you will have armor, horses and ports (ports are clothes, not pants). And whoever takes a man alive, he himself will be killed, and if he has embroidered mantles with gold, kill him too. Let's not leave a single living. If someone leaks from the regiment, we will seize him, otherwise we will hang and crucify those. Well, which of the princes falls into the hands, we will talk about those later. Those. only relatives were ordered not to kill, all the rest were ordered to be put under the knife.

Those. this is what in the Middle Ages in Western Europe was called a “bad war” because the feudal war was a good war: if you surrendered, you were taken prisoner, and in the end, it was not at all necessary to kill a noble warrior - a “golden mantle sewn” , well, only if it so happens that you collide head-on. A man surrendered, they captured him, received a ransom for him, and a year later he captured you, you surrendered, returned the ransom to him. Great, you can live like this.

Very rarely did a "bad war" happen when no prisoners were taken. This was considered a violation of military honor, and it was impossible to do so, especially since the Christian Church, both Orthodox and Catholic, did not welcome it. But, nevertheless, it happened with very, as a rule, dramatic events and strong mutual resentment. For example, the German and Swiss mercenaries never staged a “good war” between themselves. When they clashed on the battlefield, there was always some kind of total massacre, completely creepy with total beating, torture, mockery. Well, here they motivated people: if “you will be from the regiment”, i.e. if you run away from the ranks - or we will hang, or we will crucify, if you do not kill the prisoner - we will kill you yourself. Kill everyone but the princes!

And of course, this very clearly demonstrates how things were generally decided in the Middle Ages in the era of the highest dawn of feudalism: all the princes, having gathered for advice, first divided the lands of the enemies, as if they had already won. It's not because they're so self-confident. This is because if they had not determined in advance who would get what, they could fight right or right before the fight, or act inconsistently during the fight, in general, something bad would definitely happen. Those. they just showed far-sightedness, they were very far-sighted, that they gathered in a tent and painted which piece of the pie to whom, it doesn’t matter, we will win, we won’t win, but so that everything is fair. Now we will agree, and then we will fight.

Usually, historians calculate the strength of the parties in this way, which is extremely significant for me in general, they write: “It is known that 5 thousand Novgorodians approached Rzhev with Mstislav Udatny,” which, according to Vasily Nikolaevich Tatishchev, turned into 500 horsemen, and 900 Pskovians marched on the city of Zubtsov. These figures seem to be quite real, and starting from them, further calculations can be made.

5000 Novgorodians - these figures do not seem real: this is a long campaign, this is not a fight near Novgorod itself. This means that people on horseback perform without fail. If they are on horseback, then they are more or less dressed in armor - this is expensive. With the total mobilization of the entire Novgorod land, already during the famous Polotsk campaign of 1568, the entire Novgorod land was able to put 3,300 people in total to the elective cavalry army, despite the fact that for many decades a system of local layout of the land had been established there, when landowners were seated in villages, i.e. e. The army came out not only from the cities, but also from the countryside, because it was there that the landowners concentrated. Firstly, there was no system of local layout here, and secondly, there were clearly fewer people than in the 16th century, at least no more than in the 16th century, and the army could only come out of the city, because the landlords in the countryside , especially in the Novgorod land, there was practically none at all, at that time the village is 1-3 houses, less often 5, it is simply impossible to feed a professional warrior and his horse there. Therefore, all warriors come out only from cities. Here they write to us that there were 5,000 Novgorodians at the beginning of the 13th century, while only 3,300 people were able to take part in the largest campaign of the Russian army in general in the entire medieval history during total mobilization, when they swept everyone: sick, crippled, crippled, old , young - all this noble cavalry went to fight. And here 5,000 people - if you consider how many cities at that time, at the beginning of the 13th century, there were generally in the Novgorod land, even if swept away from everywhere, everything to the garrison warriors who did not carry out regimental, but city service, so many would hardly have accumulated . But we see that this is a rather swift maneuver, it could only be cavalry, and even more so there were fewer of them. How much, I’ll say a little later, I’m just swearing at such clearly inflated numbers for now, which you can trust and build on - that’s impossible!

Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod (meaning the famine in Novgorod), had to put up a larger army, but it could hardly have significantly exceeded the army of Mstislav.

D.P. It befell - this is in the sense that they did not block the krantik?

K.Zh. No, no, they didn’t block anything for the Smolensk people, they couldn’t block them, but they could block the Novgorodians, and there, in addition to everything else, “the scum was great”, i.e. frost that killed the crops.

In general, counting the city regiment and the prince's squad, they conditionally reduce to 6,000 people - why ?! That's where this figure came from, I, God forbid, I don't know. Why not 9 or 4? These are absolutely voluntaristic assumptions that have no basis at all, i.e. here in Novgorod there are 5,000 people, but there was a famine, so there are a little more in Smolensk, therefore 6,000 people. Those. this is based on an unreliable premise, on the basis of which, naturally, unreliable conclusions are drawn, because there were not 5,000 people in Novgorod, and there were not 6,000 in Smolensk either.

Well, one of the standard points and common points on which almost everyone agrees is that the army of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Yuri Vsevolodovich was much larger than the Novgorod-Smolensk-Pskov army. Directly much more. It was colorful in its composition, but much larger. If, according to such a system, which we are offered, to add up all the forces of Mstislav Udatny and Konstantin Vsevolodvich, it turns out together with the Belozersk, who approached the Rostovites and who were no more than 1000, as the author graciously informs us, then the rati could be up to 16 thousand soldiers.

Then another calculation method is proposed: it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav had 17. Banner - meaning banner, as a military unit. Firstly, this is known from a rather late message, nothing of the kind is said in the Novgorod First Chronicle, but then we are told that separate combat units are considered banners, which included 20-150 spears led by a boyar, city foreman or petty prince . Considering that the composition of one spear, in addition to the commanders, included 10 more soldiers, it is possible to give a rounded number of Yuri's forces at 70 thousand, and Yaroslav at 9-13 thousand people.

Here, to put it mildly, in the XIII century, 10 people were not included in the spear anywhere at all. Well, if there were three of them along with the knight. All this can be reduced by a factor of three at once - firstly. Secondly, where did 20-150 copies in one banner come from, I don’t know either. Why not 10? Why not 300? Those. this is fortune-telling on coffee grounds, and this grounds is made from the cheapest Nescafe, and they are trying to suggest that we think that this is Arabica.

Considering that there was still a regiment of Ivan Vsevolodovich and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - younger brothers, they are graciously released 5000 people, because 10 thousand under Rzhev, as the chronicle tells us, they brought - this is a clear exaggeration, that's not 10, but 5. And thus , it turns out the size of the army is 21 thousand - 30 thousand people for the Vsevolodovichs versus 16 thousand for Mstislav Udaly and Konstantin Vsevolodovich. Well, that's the size of the clash of a good 17th century battle that could have been. Those. it turns out that in the 17th century and at the beginning of the 13th century the dimensions of the collisions were approximately the same.

D.P. Those. here the forces of almost the Mongol invasion?

K.Zh. Yes, this is practically the force of the Mongol invasion, a little less. If we take everyone together, then this will be about 40-46 thousand people - this is about that, even more than what the Mongols could theoretically bring to Russia. And here, because Mstislav quarreled with Yaroslav over Novgorod, and Kostya and Yura over Vladimir, and they gathered their squads to decide which of them was finally right, 46 thousand people gathered in one place.

I almost forgot, sorry, this is important: on the side of the Yaroslavichs there was a corps of wanderers - proto-Cossacks. No need to think that they were some kind of beggars. These were outcast warriors, outcast boyars, outcast princes, i.e. they were professional military men, they just turned out to be expelled from their society or some kind of conditionally closed corporation.

D.P. Ronin.

K.Zh. Yes, here are the ronin. How many there were, it is absolutely incomprehensible, we do not even have approximate reference data to calculate the number of wanderers. But this is just some kind of hired contingent.

I propose to approach the calculation "from a shovel", as archaeologists do. Those. we know exactly according to the chronicles which cities put up service corporations for battles and which princes went out to battle with their squads. We know the size of most of these cities, so I personally do not know only the medieval XIII century Rostov, I found all the other cities, what size they were. Based on the approximation data, i.e. averaging the excavation data in Novgorod, Kiev, where well-preserved estates, we know that there were an average of 40 estates per hectare.

D.P. per hectare?

K.Zh. Per hectare - they were very small. It turns out that about 200 people lived on a hectare, because in one estate there lived one family, on average, of 5 people. It turns out that the maximum that could be afforded with a one-story building was 200 people per hectare. Knowing the size of the city, we can safely remove about 25% of it from useful buildings, because these are streets, public places, all sorts of squares, markets, i.e. where people do not live, and leave 75% for developments where people lived, and calculate how many people were there. Once we understand how many people were there, we can immediately understand that a maximum of 2% of them were professional warriors who could be put under arms. And, of course, there were fortresses. In the fortress, the number of professional soldiers was much larger, because people did not live there, they served there.

And this is what happens: first, let's look at the scoundrels, from the point of view of the Novgorod Chronicle - at the Vsevolodoviches. Yuri Vsevolodovich - the Grand Duke from the big city of Rostov, the maximum that he could bring with him was 200-300 professional soldiers. And this is really a lot, because, in 1514, these are documented objective data, near Smolensk and near Orsha, the Grand Duke of Moscow, the sovereign of all Russia, put up a court of 220 riders in total.

D.P. Rich!

K.Zh. He couldn't scrape together any more. I take framework restrictions, because with regard to squads, we don’t know exactly how many people they were, all the more, they probably made up different numbers at different times, because some mercenaries who were specially invited to participate in fight.

Remember the Gangs of New York movie? At the very beginning, when they go, they meet such a fucking healthy Irishman with a club and offer him to fight together, he immediately asks: “How much do you give per head? How much? That's it, I'm with you." Something like this could have happened here, that is, apparently, the size of the prince's squad was not a constant. Therefore, I give the most framework restrictions, of course, in a big way, because 300 people - I, for sure, turned it down. 200 people - more like the truth.

In general, I will focus on something like this: the Grand Duke has 200-300 people. Suzdal in the XIII century is only 49 hectares, although it is the second capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal land.

D.P. Well, roughly speaking, 50 to 200 people ...

K.Zh. Not 50, but 75% of 50. There you get the mobilization capacity of 200 people from the city of professional military. If the small towns of the Suzdal land joined, and they were much smaller than Suzdal, 1.5 2-3 hectares, 10-15 people could leave from them. That 400 people left Suzdal. Again, we do not know if the smaller towns were involved or not; 200-400.

Vladimir, of course, was a gigantic city - 145 hectares, 20 thousand people lived there. It turns out that Vladimir himself could put up a city regiment of 500 fighters. Around Vladimir there were a considerable number of specific towns that could also put up a contingent. Again, we do not know whether they exhibited them or not, because there is not a word about this in the annals. It says: Suzdal, Vladimir - that's what it says. Those. Suzdal and Vladimir residents definitely participated in this, and who else participated, God knows, but from 500 to 100 people - what Vladimir himself could, not the whole Vladimir land, but Vladimir himself put up - this is about 1000 people. Again, I emphasize right away: this is an elected army, i.e. what is immediately capable of a long-distance campaign is not even the entire cavalry military force that Vladimir had, but the best fighters. It turns out, a total of 700-1400 people from Suzdal and Vladimir together.

Yaroslav, Prince of Pereyaslav, but he was, of course, much thinner at that time than Yuri Vsevolodovich, so I counted for him a voluntaristic squad of 100 people. Pereyaslavl itself was 40 hectares in size, i.e. he had 150 people from the city itself or 300 people from all over the Principality of Pereyaslavl, because all the other cities were much smaller. Dmitrov 2.3 hectares, 800 people lived there, i.e. 80 people from it could leave in the worst case, but most likely less. Gorodets is a slightly larger city, 60 hectares, i.e. 250-500 people, i.e. or Gorodets itself or Gorodets with its surroundings.

Finally, Davyd Yurievich, Prince of Murom. I gave him 100 people of the squad. I charge a hundred to all princes, except for the great, big ones. Well, the people of Murom left the giant metropolis of 3 hectares in size - at that time Murom was exactly that size. Well, 100, well, 200 people, if they could leave from all over the principality, that's good.

Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - another 100 people, he brought a regiment from Yuryev-Polsky. Yuryev-Polsky was located in the Suzdal opolye, a rather crowded city - 500-600 people could really leave from there. And Ivan Vsevolodovich, who later became Prince Starodubsky, at that time he had no inheritance, apparently, he himself was with his retinue, and I also counted 100 people for him, although the prince without inheritance could only rely on some of his uncles, those. people personally devoted to him. If there were 50 of them, I would be very surprised. But to make it easier to count, I added 100. And a certain number of wandering mercenaries either from the Dnieper or from the Danube region, where the annals have these same wanderers. How many there were, God knows, maybe 500, maybe 1000 people, we don't know.

In total, it turns out a minimum of 2300 people, a maximum of 3650 people, plus 500-1000 roamers. Those. the maximum is 4650 people - this is what the coalition of the younger Vsevolodoviches put up. And this is the maximum, the maximum limitation, this land could not physically set more.

Novgorodians and Smolensk: Konstantin Vsevolodovich is another Grand Duke, along with Rostov, I also assigned 200 people to him, and 500-1000 people to Rostov, because the city was still large, the first capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, i.e. big old city. Those. or 500 from the city itself, or 1000 from the city and suburbs.

Mstislav Udatny is not a great prince, but he is such a famous warrior that people from everywhere could reach out to him in search of good luck, fame and money and other goodies useful for any combatant, so I also added 200 people to him. Novgorod is the largest of all the cities that participated in the conflict, and a city regiment of up to 500 people could leave Novgorod itself, plus, as a rule, the archbishop’s squad, the so-called. the sovereign regiment - another 100 people at least, because the Novgorod bishop was one of the richest feudal lords not only of Novgorod, but of the entire Russian land, and he could afford it. Those. 600 people could leave at that time from Novgorod itself to the electoral rati, and if we take all the specific cities from the giant 15-hectare Ladoga to Staraya Russa, then just Russa, 1200-1300 people could leave at most at that time. Again, it must be taken into account that there was a famine at that time, and apparently not everyone survived before the war.

Vladimir Rurikovich - 100 people, and Smolensk, a big city - 100 hectares, i.e. 400 people from the city itself could come out and 800 people, I think, from the entire Smolensk province, because all the other cities were dramatically smaller than Smolensk, just dramatically - 0.63-1.5-2 hectares small fenced settlements.

Pskov, we were told, put up 500 people - perhaps 600 people from all over the Pskov land even came out, because we know that in the Polotsk campaign the Pskovites were able to put up exactly 600 people of forged rati. Those. Pskov itself could put up to 300 people, based on the size, Pskov land up to 600.

And Vladimir Mstislavich Pskovskiy - another 100 people. Finally, Vsevolod Mstislavich - 100 people and from Beloozero, which was also a metropolis of 30 hectares, a maximum of 200 people could come. Total from 2700 to 3600 people.

D.P. Not rich.

K.Zh. These are the forces that have gathered for a decisive confrontation and which have created the legend of a gigantic battle. And in fact, in the memory of the participants, and even more so the descendants, this battle was indeed gigantic.

D.P. Well, if everyone they could, then it is really gigantic.

K.Zh. Because, as a rule, there was nothing like this in the strife of the Russian princes, it was too much, as a rule, squads participated in strife most often, city regiments participated much less frequently. And here is who they could, swept from everywhere.

And when we say that this is not 30 thousand, but 3 thousand, they will immediately tell us: well, what are you rubbing against us, it says about a great battle, and here 3 thousand people - what a great battle it is? Well, I beg your pardon, more than a million people participated in the Kursk Bulge, and about 100 thousand people participated in the Battle of Borodino. The Battle of Borodino is also great. And the Kursk Bulge is great, it just happened much later. So why, if we retreat from Borodin for another 600 years, the numbers should remain the same, I do not understand decisively. And why, given that it was even earlier than Borodino, a fight of 3,000 people against 3,000 people is not considered great, I don’t understand. After all, you need to look not at the size, the size in this case does not matter, only the result matters.

Here Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky managed to kill 20 German knights and take 6 prisoners, and ensure peace for 30 years in a strategic direction. Also a great battle, although the forces involved were, to put it mildly, incomparable.

So, the people of Suzdal, i.e. a coalition of scoundrels of the younger Vsevolodovichs dug in on a hill beyond the river and began to wait for the approach of the enemies. This mountain is still preserved - Avdovaya mountain, it is about 200 m high and is separated from the other side by a ravine along which a small stream flows. Here, forces began to approach this very Mount Avdova from one side and the other. On April 20, most of the participants gathered, and small skirmishes began - first one, then the other jumped over the ravine, jumped, apparently, there was some kind of archery of varying degrees of intensity.

But then again, speaking in the language of digit books of the 16th century, “they were poisoned all day long, but there was no removable battle.” Here they were poisoned all day, and removable, i.e. there was no decisive hand-to-hand combat. And only on the 21st, apparently, it was the idea of ​​​​an experienced commander Mstislav Udaly, he ordered the military camp to be turned off. Those. the Suzdalians, looking from their mountain, might think that they were leaving, and now they would make some kind of maneuver and might end up in a place where they were no longer waiting for them, for example, to take some city by storm. Therefore, they began to descend from the mountain, already ready for battle. Thus, they were lured into an open fight. Again, they were at the very top of the mountain, it was hard to fight them.

The usual order of battle is described in the annals as 3-membered on both sides. This is traditional not only for the Russian Middle Ages, but also for the Middle Ages in general, because there everything connected with 3 was considered sacred, and therefore correct. Well, besides, as I said, it's just convenient: it's intuitive that you have a body with a head - this is the central shelf, the right hand and the left hand, with which you do something there, so you have two shelves - right and left. It's easy to understand and easy to manage.

Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav the Udaly stood up in the forehead, if we talk about the Novgorod-Smolensk side. Those. the central regiment is large, as they would say in the 15th-16th centuries, these are the Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav the Udaly. On the right hand, apparently, are the Smolensk people and the squad of Vladimir Rurikovich, and on the left, the actual instigators of all this disgrace, the Rostovites and the squad of Konstantin Vsevolodovich. It is not clear where Vsevolod Mstislavich and Vladimir Mstislavich, the inhabitants of Belozersk and Pskov, ended up. Apparently, there were really not very many of them, and it is possible to assume that they were merged with the Novgorodians. On the other hand, I can personally assume that Konstantin Vsevolodovich took the Belozersk to him, because these are people from his principality, from a distant suburb, but all the same, why would they be taken to a large regiment? Because all these people were built in the same way as they lived - by corporations, and Beloozero and Rostov belonged to the same corporation, which was led by Rostov Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich.

What we see here: the flanks are very much weaker than the center, because even Rostov, which put up serious troops, is much less than Novgorod put up, all the more reinforced by the squad of Mstislav the Udaly.

D.P. Those. Are you measuring it strictly by the number of people?

K.Zh. Oh sure. It is precisely by the number of people that this turns out to be a powerful central column and two relatively frail flanks. Moreover, unevenly frail - we get the left flank with the Rostovites is frailer than the center, but quite representative, and the right flank is no, because there are forces incomparable either with the center or with the left flank.

For us - people brought up on Delbrück, on Razin, on different films, we tend to think that at least they should be somehow evenly made, because a greatly weakened flank is even intuitively clear, which is very dangerous. Moreover, we remember the battle of Cannae, where everything was exactly the opposite, and the battle of the Thebans and ... with the Spartans, when, on the contrary, the flank is strengthened, the weaker flank of the enemy breaks through, everything ends with the encirclement and the kesselschlacht, the battle in the cauldron.

But here everything is different, this is the Middle Ages - an absolutely reverse logic: the center should have been strong. The flanks also had to be present, but they could be much weaker than the center, and here's why: because it was in the center that troops were concentrated, which could be introduced into battle in stages. And there, of course, there was a large banner and the commander in chief. Those. the commander-in-chief could directly give orders to his people, and not send an order through a messenger somewhere on the flank. The messenger could simply not get there, or the commander in chief could visually miss something important, and in the Middle Ages an order could be given, even if it was given to the flank, only once - this is “Attack!”

D.P. Why?

K.Zh. Because they can go on the attack, but it will be almost impossible to deploy them back. Those. as soon as the knight's cavalry went on the attack, it is completely in the hands of its commander. What will the commander think? He generally like - remembers the plan that they made the day before, does not remember the plan? Suddenly they hit him on the head with a mace - he will forget everything or even die. Those. most likely it was necessary to rely on the fact that if the flank went on the attack, you would not see him again, he would fight there. Those. reserves had to be concentrated as close as possible to the commander in chief, in the center. And they had to save from the encirclement transverse strikes from the center, which could be delivered simply by turning the reserve or part of the reserve in the right direction, which we saw, for example, in the battle of Orsha in 1514, when Konstantin Ivanovich Ostrozhsky brilliantly repelled Russian attacks that broke through weak flanks. From a powerful center, from a column, he singled out detachments that repulsed the attacks of those who had made their way through the flank. In general, something like this could be expected at an earlier time.

The scoundrels Vsevolodovichi, who climbed down Avdovaya Gora, were built as follows: Yuri Vsevolodovich and the Suzdalians stood opposite the Novgorodians in the center, i.e. Suzdal and Vladimir are the most powerful regiment in the center, i.e. the most representative units that are, stand opposite the largest regiment that the enemy has. A smaller brethren stood opposite the Rostovites - as they say directly in the annals: Ivan Vsevolodovich and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich with their squads and guys from Yuryev-Polsky, and also, apparently, with roamers.

D.P. Wanderers-stragglers.

K.Zh. Rogues, yes, but it's still not from the word "rabble", but rather "wander", "tramps". Well, on the other hand, the main ringleader of all this disgrace stood up and the one who served as a pretext for war, i.e. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who, with his Pereyaslavtsy, Gorodtsy, Murom, Davyd Yuryevich's retinue ... I beg your pardon - it was he who had the roamers under Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Yes, exactly - he was with wanderers together.

And we also see that the disposition of troops is completely uneven: on the one hand, a relatively strong flank, on the other hand, a very motley set of forces, which, apparently, see each other for the first time, and a powerful center, a column - the squad of the Grand Duke, i.e. e. there are 200-300 people, a regiment from Suzdal - a very large city, a regiment from Vladimir - an even larger city - that's all in the center. And you need to understand that since this is the capital, the best vigilantes lived there, i.e. These are elite units.

Mstislav Udaloy addressed, as expected, with a speech. He asked the question: “Whoever wants to go to battle, on foot, whoever wants to, whether on horseback.” Here he, apparently, bred the Novgorodians weakly, because he perfectly saw that in front of them was a ravine and a stream, and climbing there on horseback was simply suicide. And the Novgorodians were weakly led and said: “We don’t want to die on horseback, we want to fight like our fathers on Koloksha” - this refers to the battle on Koloksha in 1096, when they fought for Yaroslav the Wise. This river is the Koloksha. I beg your pardon, they fought for Mstislav the Great, not for Yaroslav the Wise, of course, what am I saying. Nevermind. Here Mstislav and there was Mstislav. And he offered them, apparently, remembering something, he offered them such a maneuver.

A later chronicle says that the Smolensk people also dismounted, but there is not a word about this in the original, as close as possible to the events, story of the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is said that the Novgorodians all got off their horses and threw off their boots, remaining barefoot to climb the ravine more comfortably, because the boots, who saw authentic, made or genuine, archaeologically found leather boots of the 13th century, are thin leather soles, it is very slippery.

D.P. Stocking actually.

K.Zh. It's just a stocking, it's very slippery, climb in it, especially since it's the end of April, perhaps muddy ground, it's just slippery, but barefoot is quite the opposite.

D.P. Especially if the nails are not trimmed.

K.Zh. Yes, but given that they had been on the campaign for quite a long time, counting since February, they probably didn’t cut their nails on purpose, and so they went to cling, cling. Again, in the late chronicle it is said that they dismounted, that the infantry was from the side of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Yuri Vsevolodovich. Again, there is not a word about this in the early chronicle, it is precisely in the form of a military trick that it is specifically indicated that the Novgorodians got off their horses, i.e. they were all horses.

And then Mstislav ordered the attack, and the attack was opened by the central regiment, which is wild, of course, for a person who was brought up on classical tactics. It is stupid to open an attack with the center, with the strongest part of your army, but this is the Middle Ages, as a rule, at that time the first attack of the strongest part of the army decided the battle, and only then it was possible to play on the flanks. If your center attack fails, then everyone can leave completely calmly, everything is already clear. And the Novgorodians went on foot to the cavalry, which opposed them. And they turned out to be right, because it was extremely inconvenient to attack from the slope, apparently, and even on muddy ground. And they were able to hold back the oncoming attack, apparently, lining up with a wall of shields, putting up their cavalry spears, they were able to hold back the attack of the cavalry of Vladimir and Suzdal, who naturally got stuck in Novgorod formations.

And then Mstislav Udatny said his famous phrase - and they were on horseback behind - that we would not betray our people, after which all the cavalry that was at the same time hit through the ravine. And here, of course, the tactical genius of Mstislav manifested itself, because as soon as a fight began there, and the cavalry got bogged down in the infantry, it became possible to transport the main forces of the cavalry under the cover of this very foot phalanx, dismounted warriors, and it was quite large. As I said, there could be up to 1200 people there - that's a lot.

D.P. Cunning!

K.Zh. He was able to ferry the cavalry across the ravine and attack directly the enemy. The wanderers ran first, as usual.

D.P. The bravest and bravest, yes, professional soldiers.

K.Zh. Many have already received the money, so what now - to die, or what? The salary is already there. Well, yes, the wanderers eventually ran and Yaroslav's squads ran with them. And Mstislav himself, as it is said, rode through the enemy lines three times on horseback, chopping everyone with an ax, which was on a belt loop in his hand. And Konstantin did the same. That is, they accomplished heroic deeds, but seeing Yaroslav's flight, everyone ran.

D.P. "On the white horse back and forth" ...

K.Zh. Yes Yes Yes. Apparently, it is with these princes that the names of such heroes as Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich are associated, because in the later chronicles these names are mentioned, and they are mentioned, which is important, not only in connection with the story of the Battle of Lipitsa, but are mentioned repeatedly right up to the battle on the Kalka River, where sooner or later almost all the participants in this outrage will find themselves, with rare exceptions. They just fought all on the side of Mstislav Udatny - both Dobrynya and Alexander, however, Popovich. Well, who doesn’t know: Alexander and Alexei are the same root words from “Alex”, so they could eventually be transformed into Alyosha, into Alexei Popovich.

D.P. “Alyosha” is a “fool” in a hair dryer, he is also a “loh”.

K.Zh. What the Novgorod First Chronicle tells us: “Novgorod killed Dmitri Plskovichin (i.e. Pskov), Anton the kotelnik, Ivanka Pribyshinits oponnik on the mortar. And in the corral (i.e., while they were chasing) Ivanka Popovitsya, Smyun Petrilovitsya, the Tirsky tributary”, i.e. in total, 5 Novgorodians and 1 Smolyan died, and 9233 people were killed from that side. Well, it is clear that these were some prominent people, of course, they would not list all the rest. But this is how this very battle happened in two steps: the first - an infantry attack, under the cover of an infantry attack, a crossing over a cavalry ravine and an attack by the cavalry with all their might, i.e. one approach is a classic medieval battle, which stands out from the general classics only because Mstislav hastened the Novgorodians. Those. again, in a hurry - i.e. they were all horsemen, and basically, of course, it was heavy cavalry, almost or directly equivalent to retinue. Those. when this whole crowd of Novgorodians was walking up the ravine, you need to understand that they were all professional warriors in armor, who, the only thing that they took off their boots, was to make it more convenient to climb up. Accordingly, shields, swords, axes, helmets - it was an armored phalanx that went on the attack, which could, only because it was able to withstand the blow of the Vladimir-Suzdal cavalry regiments. As a result, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich escaped, as they say, in his undershirt, ended up in Pereyaslavl. They wanted to humiliate him, of course, that he ran to Pereyaslavl in his shorts, despite April.

D.P. Disguised as a woman, with a false beard.

K.Zh. Constantly changing shoes in the air. Well, Yuri lost miserably to his older brother Konstantin, was expelled from the great reign to an inheritance, ended up in Moscow as a result. True, then, anyway, Konstantin was forced to return his younger brother to Vladimir, and after his death, Yuri still became the Grand Duke of Vladimir and brought the state in perfect order before the arrival of the Mongols.

D.P. Tormented the guy, damn it.

K.Zh. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was a very clever courtier, he was the first to make friends with the Tatars, raised the great son Alexander Yaroslavich, went to distant Karakorum twice, did not return the second time - he was poisoned there, apparently.

D.P. Almost like being in New York.

K.Zh. Yes, it's not like in New York, I don't even know what to compare it with. Now we simply cannot compare the journey from Novgorod to Karakorum. Yes, of course, Yaroslav eventually returned to Novgorod, before he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and he became one in the end, he was once again a prince in Novgorod. The trip to the Karakorum was almost like flying to the moon now, about that. Because it was possible not to return back, not because they would kill you, but simply because it is so long that you might not live to see the return trip or die on the way back. It was very far.

But I have been there and, apparently, I have seen a lot on my life path. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, to be sure, is also a legendary figure. I list them all literally one by one: Mstislav Udaloy, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - they were simply legendary people in their time, only it is clear that Mstislav is older, so he became a legend earlier, and Yaroslav later.

Well, in our time, of course, it is almost impossible to overestimate the contribution of these people to Russian history. This is the first. Secondly, here we see: for the Russian classical pre-Mongolian Middle Ages, colossal forces were involved, simply colossal. How much we counted there - 2300 at the minimum and 3600 at the maximum on the one hand and 2700 and 3600, again, on the other hand. This is a lot, these are gigantic forces. An extremely rare battle in feudal Russia deployed such regiments.

How it all ended - but almost nothing. It's just that people fought, solved narrowly local tactical tasks - who will sit on which throne. Mstislav defended the Novgorodians, pulled out, as promised, all the people from captivity, opened the supply of bread - that is, he's a good guy, of course. Konstantin punished his presumptuous younger brother and the second presumptuous younger brother, and punished two more presumptuous younger brothers. As a result, a year later he was forced to return his presumptuous younger brother Yuri to Vladimir by 1217. What has he achieved? Almost nothing. Those. this is a small tactical success, achieved with monstrous bloodshed, because, of course, there, given the 3600 and 3600 people who met each other on the field, it was clearly not 20 people who beat there. For the feudal Middle Ages, this is, in any case, a big loss. Almost no result. And there is a complete failure of diplomacy.

D.P. Couldn't agree.

K.Zh. They could not agree, and moreover, some people did not really want to agree. The age-old experienced Mstislav Udaloy wanted to negotiate. Everyone else... It even needs to be understood that no matter how old he is, when he is in power, he ceases to be a man - this is a function. He had to be specially taught, to be engaged, for example, in diplomacy. Neither Yaroslav, who later became a great diplomat, nor Yuri wanted to negotiate, they wanted to fight.

In this form, Russia approached the Mongol invasion, when even within the recently unified Vladimir-Suzdal principality, bloody fights naturally began, when the entire Vladimir-Suzdal land could put up about 3-4 thousand people in total. So the princely separatism set up the defense of the all-Russian plan in the best possible way, the Mongols were ready for the arrival, and at the first appearance of forces, which already numbered in tens of thousands, this whole system immediately took shape under the Mongols.

D.P. Well, nothing else could possibly happen. Those. children's fairy tales about the fact that it was necessary to unite, but they simply quarreled - well, they would unite, and what would happen there?

K.Zh. Well, they are connected. And then they separated again. They simply had no reason to unite - neither political nor, most importantly, economic, because each specific city of a more or less large size was absolutely self-sufficient economically, it did not need anyone.

D.P. “Each one took his inheritance, raised chickens and sat in it, guarding his inheritance, out of work.”

K.Zh. Right. Vysotsky?

D.P. Yes. I looked at the root. Cool! Well, as usual, it looks, to put it mildly, strange - these figures are given - so many, so many, and immediately repeat that 9 thousand were killed - well, somehow it ... And why are they up to your purely scientific approach to such things didn't pay attention?

K.Zh. The fact is that this is such a relatively modern know-how that makes its way from archeology to military history with a creak, because we all live in clichés. I myself, 15 years ago, when I heard the word “Battle of Lipitsa”, immediately recalled what I had read and immediately understood: there were 20-30 thousand on one side, 16-18 thousand on the other side - and immediately forgot about it. Well, the Battle of Lipitskaya - and the Battle of Lipitskaya.

Well, that's all, these are ideas that are simply grafted on, which are very difficult to fight, because even a very intelligent researcher, whom I spoke about and quotes from, who, in general, revealed the internal mechanisms of this very confrontation that we talked about , pretty good. As soon as it comes to calculating the forces of the parties, it is immediately clear that a person is in captivity of some stamps, because he cannot imagine that less than 5-6 thousand people left Smolensk, because he imagines Smolensk, again , not reproachfully, it's just objectively true, within the boundaries of its modern giant Kremlin, which was built in the 16th-17th centuries. But this is not at all the Smolensk that was in the XIII century. And we all can’t imagine how these cities really looked like, we just haven’t seen a single one of them. We do not have a single city of the XIII century. Our consciousness has nothing to operate with, because consciousness cannot come up with something that it does not know. All the notions that are in the head are only a reflection or combination of what we already know. When we hear the word "city", we imagine at least some kind of Tula, i.e. gigantic modern city where we have been. We have never seen a medieval proud, our head simply cannot figure out what it is. This can be told to us by an archaeologist who would stand in this medieval city and see it, and he imagines what size it really is. Everything. Here are 270 hectares - this is Novgorod. Well, let's think now, again, taking a tape measure, measuring all the estates, taking the arithmetic mean, estimating how many people lived there, and from the annals of well-known princely families, and from the amount of inventory that we find in this estate, we can count how many people lived there, without any difficulty. And on average, we will calculate how many hectares there were, how many hectares were inhabited - again, an archaeologist can easily calculate this, and we will understand what kind of mobilization ability there was. That's all. This is how we can approximately begin to approach an objective understanding of what was actually happening at that time in Russia.

D.P. Explanatory. Thank you, Klim Sanych, very interesting. And that's all for today. See you again.

I wholeheartedly welcome you! Klim Sanych, good afternoon. Good afternoon, hello everyone. What have you prepared today? I propose to start the second series about the great battles, because, to be honest, I was very tired of the details of the complex Russian history from the beginning to the Mongols. I want, firstly, to take a break on this occasion and see how at that time, described by us in the milestones of Russian history, they fought, what interesting things happened on the military fields. In a word, once again to the great battles! There were many of them. I'll tell you honestly: all these Mstislavichs and Yaroslavichs frankly pulled up. There are so many of them - I did not even know. And they all have the same last name. Yes. I'm confused. You can't even tell by the last name. Then, if you want, I will reveal to you the secret of how easy it is to memorize them, that is, of course, not easy, but possible to remember, because simply learning 18 generations of Rurikovich in a row is unrealistic, unless, of course, you are an autist with a phenomenal memory. I know special techniques. Insofar as in pre-revolutionary Russia everyone was forced to learn it, generations of various lazy boobies developed special systems on how to memorize them, and I think that many coped. Everything is much simpler there - they just need to be divided into territorial districts, because the first Rurikovichs from Rurik, if he was at all, to Yaroslav the Wise, there was nothing to learn there - there were few of them. Well, then you just need to look from Yaroslav who settled in which city, and you will immediately understand that this is Chernigov - the Olgovichi live here, and this is Smolensk - the Rostislavichi live here, well, this, of course, Vladimir - the Yuryevich Dolgorukovichi live here, etc. And so approximately, it is clear that it will be quite difficult to keep this in mind all the time, but at least it will be approximately possible to understand that the Mstislavichs are those Yuryevichs, and nothing complicated. We will try. So what do we have today? Today I wanted to talk about the Battle of Lipitsa in 1216 - this is such a contention in the nest of Vsevolod the Big Nest, where his chicks hatched, how much in vain. This is a battle that ended one of the grandiose strife in the North-East and North-West of Russia, in which very large forces converged for their time, and these forces were in fact so great, for their time, I emphasize, as in the chronicles news, and even in the people's memory there is a great echo of this. And even, as researchers of annalistic monuments say, a certain number of epics and, possibly, some songs, legends, i.e. military stories about it. Because, apparently, some of the later annalistic news contains fragments of precisely these same squad songs that told, like "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", about this battle. Naturally, since everything big is seen only from afar, as soon as the annals began to stand back from the event for 150-250-300 years, interesting details began to appear that were not present in the original editions of the story about this battle. Excuse me, I will make an important remark: 300 years ago - this is how to clarify some details of the Battle of Poltava now, right? Approximately so. Those. here you were, picking your mustache with a pen, and suddenly realized that not everything was clean in the Battle of Poltava. Now I will clarify. Let me clarify, yes. I found, accordingly, a descendant of a participant in the Battle of Poltava - it is clear that the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the great-great-great-great-grandfather would definitely not lie, he asked: how was it? Grandpa told. Grandfather told... Yes, and, what is characteristic, these are the Middle Ages, when there was no developed information culture, and therefore all the information that was transmitted was 99% transmitted orally, and therefore now grandfather will not tell us anything about Poltava, but then he could very well tell, in fact, only it was not grandfather who participated in this battle, but grandfather grandfather grandfather grandfather, it went through so many transmission links that it’s hard to judge the quality of the output information, frankly. This is of great value as an ethnographic material, but as a historical source regarding the details of the incident itself, its value is very doubtful, and it must be approached with extreme caution. Therefore, only skaldic poems with terrible dimensions, because nothing can be changed there. Yes, if you redo something, then everything is already - everything will crumble, everything will break. So, about this very battle of Lipica: this is, in addition to everything else, not only one of the most beloved battles of the developed Middle Ages of Russia for the medieval authors themselves, who, apparently, frankly, admired these years of the pre-Mongolian knightly era, the highest dawn of Russian specific principalities , but this is also the favorite battle of Russian military historians and historians in general, because if you take the entire body of annalistic information about this, you can draw such details that you will generally stagger. There, it turns out, if you look at the whole complex of chronicles, it turns out that there was infantry - that’s what it says: “pedestrians”, and, on both sides, some opposing and other opposing colleagues, it turns out, had infantry. They recruited the people's militia from all the villages and dopeshtsevs, i.e. having driven people from the villages, and 9233 people were killed there on the losing side. Lot! It's not a lot, it's a monstrous lot! This is about as much as the total number of people who came to the Battle of Kulikovo, maybe a little less. Isn't there, isn't the word "bastard" used there? These are the ones who were dragged. Do not remember that. And what does the word "bastard" mean in a military sense? The bastard is the one who drags along. Actually: s-drag, this is usually s-vita. Those. for example, when I was still ascetic in the church, they liked to say that there was such and such a bishop and his bastard, i.e. his retinue. Thus, it was very funny to everyone, and everyone understood that this man spoke in the old Russian manner, and did not want to offend this bishop at all, and even more so his people. Those. then this word had no negative connotation? None, it's just someone who comes in together. So, if 9200 people were killed, and at the same time 60 were captured in total, then at least 2 times more people came there, i.e. 18 thousand on the one hand, which is not only a lot for the Middle Ages, but also for the 17-18th century a considerable number, because, for example, under Poltava, Charles XII, the Swedish king, had about 16 thousand troops, 16-17 thousand, and here, you see, in the Middle Ages, cavalry managed to bring such a number. Researcher Shkrabo, if I'm not mistaken, says directly that this figure that we calculated, and he calculates just about 20-30 thousand people on one side, this is the figure only of those who participated in the clash, and if we take those who guarded the convoy , cooks, marketers, then you can safely increase it by 2-3 times. Not bad. In a word, a very interesting battle, which is interesting not only for the ups and downs of history that took place around it, not only for what happened on the battlefield, but also for an example of working with sources, as it developed over time, i.e. how people did it a long time ago, how people did it recently, and how we do it now. The oldest story about the Battle of Lipica is preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which was finally made in the 1240s, or, according to other researchers, in the 1260s, i.e. this is only 35-45 years after the battle itself, i.e. when the participants could still be alive. Let's decide right away, firstly, the date when it was ... 1216. And topographically - where is it? This is the Lipica River. This is not Lipetsk? No. This, in fact, the fight did not take place there, it was all tied to civil strife in North-Eastern Russia, as I said when, I will tell you more about this a little later, but just remind you, we all the more talked about this more than once when Vsevolod died More Gnezdo, his sons Yuri and Konstantin quarreled for the great reign and involved in their quarrel everyone who could be involved from all sides, including Novgorodians, Smolyans, Belozersk, Murom. .. As they say now, they pulled it up. They brought everyone with them. I'll be more specific about this. So, perhaps someone could still be alive, because although 35-45 years for the Middle Ages is a very long time, at least the children of those who participated there were definitely strong and alive. Again, most likely, some records were kept about this, because in fact the battle was very big, it was necessary to provide for all people, i.e. there had to be some kind of correspondence, at least some invoices for food, i.e. people could at least use the archives that had not yet burned down. Our archives were all miraculously burning, but at that time, perhaps, there was still something left. The next chronicle story is the Novgorod fourth chronicle and the Novgorod Karamzin chronicle, as well as the Sofia first chronicle known - this all refers to the 40-50s of the 15th century. There it is already more interesting, there it is more detailed. Just there, information suddenly appears about the pawns, who were driven from the villages. This is not in the early story, but 250 years after the events, the chronicler-monk, apparently, brought the reality that was in the first half of the 13th century in accordance with his ideas, because in the middle of the 15th carry yourself. Couldn't it be that he found some document that came down to him, and, without referring to it, cited this? Naturally, he would not refer, of course. The fact is that all these stories, if subjected to textual research, are based on the message of the Novgorod First Chronicle, they retell it in one way or another, and sometimes directly or indirectly quote it. And suddenly there are some details. This means that the Novgorod First Chronicle was a protograph, and it is very doubtful that any particular documents fell into the hands of the chronicler 250 years later relative to the same that the chronicler had in the middle of the 13th century. It looks, to put it mildly, strange, just like a Stalinist historian writes about the Battle of Borodino: and heavy machine guns were placed from the flanks, because it’s obvious that you can’t do without them. Because for a Stalinist historian it would be ridiculous, but for a medieval person it was absolutely normal, because if a heavy machine gun were suddenly invented in the 15th century, he would have justifiably put them on the Lipetsk field. Well, because they are, and the ancestors were clearly not worse, on the contrary - the ancestors were definitely smarter, because the great-grandfather's precepts are wow! That is, they, of course, would have heavy machine guns on the flanks, of course. All that the chroniclers could use, as I said, is most likely not some kind of documents, these are some legends that reached that time, and their own logic - how he sees how this could happen event. Because if we look at any medieval miniature, we will see that an event, for example, that took place under Alexander the Great, is depicted on this miniature in the same way as an event of the 14th century is depicted, in the same material culture, in the same armor. Be sure to come up with a coat of arms for Alexander the Great, because everyone understands that Alexander the Great is a knight. How could a non-knight conquer everything from Greece to India? Some nonsense. Unthinkable! Therefore, he is always on a horse, with a spear - this was absolutely normal for a medieval person. We have not yet thought about the fact that 300 years ago there could be something different. It could only be better because before. And it got worse. And it only got worse. And now, in the Tver Chronicle in general, already in the 16th century, both in the Ermolinskaya Chronicle and in the Moscow Chronicle of the late 15th century, interesting numbers suddenly begin to slip, because the Novgorod First Chronicle also has numbers, and they are clearly overestimated - it's something like "10 thousand people" does not mean 10 thousand people, but simply "a lot". Here it was the prince, he had a lot of people, but the prince immediately came, he had 500 people - this means that he had just a few of them. Those. there were many and few, these figures cannot be taken as documented evidence of how many there were exactly, how much salaries were allocated. Those. in fact, this one had more, and this one had less. Yes, and this one has a lot more, and this one has a lot less - like that. And how many there were exactly - God knows. Based on this message, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about what really happened. So, in the later chroniclers, just a very interesting figure appears, in particular, the figure of losses - 9233 people. Even Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov, in his book “The Search for the Author of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, which I recently showed, wrote that it was scary to read the chronicler’s messages: 9233 soldiers were killed, while the groans of the wounded and dying hovered over the field. "All this beautiful quote - Boris Alexandrovich simply took it and honestly retold it, correctly translating into Russian what is written in the chronicler. And it is written there: they collected the corpses, counted them - it turned out that there were 9200 of them, and then it was said that the groans of the wounded and dying were heard. That is, it is very difficult to imagine that they collected 9200 corpses and only then went to look at the wounded. First, usually, as a rule, they collect the wounded, and then the dead - the dead do not care. And here it is exactly the opposite. This just says that these are chronicle news, which were compiled after a very large amount of time by non-eyewitnesses and, most likely, by people who do not understand anything at all in military affairs. Moreover, they are not very important how exactly it is described, it is important for them what it means. And it means exactly one thing - that this is civil strife, this is very bad, because these are people within the same family who fought to the death because of their father's inheritance, while killing a bunch of people who were completely uninvolved in this inheritance. And the chronicler, in fact, already from the 13th century indicates that, from his point of view, this is a big trouble, this is not good. And, of course, the Novgorod Chronicle is entirely on the Novgorod side, of course, because all this is described from the extremely Novgorod-centric positions, that where St. Sophia is, there is Novgorod, and those who are against Novgorod, if this is not an unambiguous evil, then they are mistaken and misguided people who need to point out their mistakes in a material way. Need help. Yes, we need help. So, it all started with the fact that Vsevolod the Big Nest laid down the nuclear one. a bomb under the centenary foundation of the Yuryevich power by the fact that he abandoned the universal democratic procedures sanctified by centuries and despised the democratic right of the ladder, trying to transfer power to his own son in a totalitarian way. Voluntaristically. Totalitarian voluntarism to transfer power to his own son. And he handed it over, but not to that one, because the eldest son Konstantin wanted to rule in Rostov, let me remind you: Rostov is the oldest city in the Vladimir-Suzdal land, and Vladimir was the new capital. Konstantin, who was closely connected with the Rostov boyars, did not want to go to Vladimir, and in Vladimir, in the capital, his younger brother Yuri sat down, who had no right to the throne of his father, not only according to flattering concepts, but in general by any concepts. Clever Vsevolod More Gnezdo legitimized his power through an agreement with the Vladimir veche, but when he died, it suddenly turned out that the elder brother Konstantin was more experienced, smarter, stronger, and he was more loved in Rostov than Yuri in Vladimir. And in general, he was shown the door. Because when the veche voted, everyone kept figs in their pockets, right? Well, the point here is not a fig, the point is that when Konstantin came with an army, it suddenly turned out that fighting was for what? No, and in general, in the end, Yuri was forced to leave Vladimir. Well, of course, he remembered this, pulled up all the younger brothers that he could reach, namely Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Ivan Vsevolodovich and, of course, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - the future pope Alexander Nevsky, then he was still quite a young man. He was born in 1191, and we get 1212, 1213 and 1216, i.e. he was quite a few years old. He was young, ardent and ready for undercover intrigues, as well as direct clashes with enemies. As a result, war broke out. Everything, from the point of view of international domestic Russian politics, was very much complicated by the factor of Novgorod, because Novgorod, firstly, was at that time, through the efforts of Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod Bolshe Gnezdo, in the orbit of Vladimir-Suzdal policy almost completely and very much depended on its southeastern neighbors. At the time of the events described, Mstislav Mstislavich Udaloy (Udatny) ruled there - the famous active Russian of the Middle Ages, a great warrior, in general, such one of the real "knights" of Russian squads, who was very loved, who enjoyed very great authority not only in Novgorod. So, in 2015, Mstislav Mstislavich, apparently not wanting it himself, threw a huge armful of firewood into the firebox of the war flaring up in the north-east of Russia, because he told the people of Kiev that "I have a tool in Russia, and you are free in the princes ", i.e. he has business in Russia, and you can choose your own prince, because you really can. In Russia, it is understandable - he went to Kiev to put another prince on the Kiev throne, because at that time our favorite Rurik Rostislavich, who sat on the Kiev throne 7 times and finally sat down for the 7th time, was dying. He died, and it was urgent to install a new prince. As a matter of fact, Mstislav Mstislavich Udatny went to fight for Kiev once again, and the Novgorodians, who loved Mstislav very much, without any exaggeration, because if the prince himself left Novgorod like that, it’s not that the Novgorodians showed him the way, but he himself left, this it means that he will most likely not return there the second time, well, only if he does not conquer it, of course. Neither he nor his children, in general, is such a fact of contempt, especially since, apparently, a number, i.e. Mstislav did not sit out the term under the contract, but all the same, the Novgorodians greatly appreciated him and decided to tie Mstislav to Novgorod, if possible, and they took and invited Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky to reign, who was married to Mstilav's daughter - Rostislava Mstislavovna Rurikovich. But here they did not guess, because despite the fact that he was a relative of Mstislav, he was, frankly, a difficult person, and he immediately began to bring Novgorod to his hand, because it was the son of Vsevolod, the grandson of Yuri, therefore great-nephew of Andrei Bogolyubsky, he was used to the Novgorodians submitting, but they did not submit, because they themselves invited him. This, as it seemed to them, was already a completely different time, both Vsevolod and Andrei had already died - they could not be bent over the knee. Well, Yaroslav, without hesitation, immediately ... It was not there! And immediately, there immediately turned out to be well-wishers who, as the Novgorod Chronicle tells us again, began to denounce each other, and Yaroslav immediately began to disassemble these denunciations and punish them with terrible force. Firstly, he deposed the thousandth Yakun, the thousandth - the prime minister, and plundered his courtyard, and he did not let the Novgorodians plunder, but plundered himself, which in general was terribly easy for the Novgorodians, they should have robbed, of course. What disrespect for the fine customs of the people! Yes, and the wife of the mayor Yakun was taken hostage, that if he suddenly decides to do something else, then let him know that this will definitely result. And what could they do with her, like with a hostage? They could have been killed as a relative of an enemy of the people. But in the end, Yakun ended up in Novotorzhsk and was about to complain, and to whom - to Yaroslav. Well, Yaroslav then put him in jail with his wife. With his wife. Well, of course, with his wife, with Yakun's wife. Of course, not only Yaroslav himself was involved in this, but also a bunch of his officials who came from Vladimir. They brought the Novgorodians, who were generally brought very easily, simply elementary. Half a turn. In general, they didn’t even need to be brought up, you just had to wait - they themselves would have been brought down sooner or later, there was always a riot there once every five years. But Yaroslav did his best, and again, apparently, he also had father's damaged genes, he also planted a bomb under his own rule - this was the Prusskaya street in Novgorod, it was the Novgorod Rublyovka, a lot of noble boyars lived there, and they they simply killed the princely henchman official Ostrat and his son Lugota Ostratovich, after which Yaroslav suddenly realized that he had gone too far and left for Torzhok himself. And in Torzhok, he planned, apparently, to strangle Novgorod with hunger. Firstly, and apparently, it is possible to assume that he had plans to make Torzhok the capital of the Novgorod land instead of Novgorod, because he was again a descendant of Yuri Dolgoruky, and Yuri Dolgoruky did such a trick perfectly in his Suzdal land. And why not turn here, especially since, well, Novgorod is a river-sea gate, and at the same time, the gate to Novgorod is Torzhok. Again, the old, well-established system of the Yuryevichs: the Novgorodians are unhappy - we block Torzhok, and bread does not come to you. And the bread stopped coming. At this time, as the chronicle describes, in March 1215, "the scum was great" - the frost was great, and all the crops perished. There was a famine in Novgorod, and it was absolutely dependent on food supplies. The bread that went to Novgorod through Torzhok, Yaroslav did not let through, and all the merchants who came from Novgorod were arrested and imprisoned right there in Torzhok. Moreover, the Novgorodians, of course, figured out that something had to be done about it, and in general they had to put up with it, because everyone can die in the same way, in the end. They began to send ambassadors to him, and he began to arrest the ambassadors. I didn’t talk to them at all, I just arrested them and that’s it. Arrived - arrested, arrived - arrested. In the annals there is a whole list of them who went to prison for nothing. By chaos. This was heard by Mstislav, who did all his business in Kiev and returned to Novgorod on February 11, 1216. Well, Mstislav, as an experienced politician, and not just a warrior, proclaimed a wonderful election program: "Either I will return the Novgorod husbands to the Novgorod volosts, or I will lay my head for the great Novgorod." Well, the electorate, of course, accepted the program with pleasure and said in response: "We are ready for life and death with you, prince." In general, frankly, they had nowhere to go. Thus, Mstislav turned out to be a potential supporter of one of the warring parties in the north-east of Russia. It is quite clear that Yaroslav in Novgorod acted in this way absolutely not in vain, because he carefully chose the side for whom to speak: for Yuri, the younger heir, who fought against the senior heir of Konstantin, or to speak for Konstantin. Yaroslav himself was the head of a very strong Pereyaslavl-Zalessky principality, it was a very strong, but far from the strongest principality. Far from the strongest. Those. if he spoke only with the forces of his principality for one or another candidate, he could lose, and if he lost, he could find himself in a stupid situation. Therefore, he needed a decisive advantage, and he needed Novgorod precisely as a base of support, because Novgorod was many times larger than the Pereyalsavl-Zalessky principality and could put up more troops. Therefore, he needed an absolutely submissive Novgorod. Moreover, if the candidate supported by Yaroslav had won, he would have ended up in debt to Yaroslav himself with such help, because it is clear that if Yaroslav puts up such regiments of Pereyaslavl, and such a large regiment puts up, for example, Yuri, and they win, then Yaroslav turns out to be just a small assistant, without whom it would probably be harder, but in the end they managed. And if he put up the Novgorod troops, then this is a completely different matter, because the Novgorod city regiment and the Novgorod militia were at least no less than what the capital city of Vladimir could put up. It turns out that they are equal partners. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand such a riot of Yaroslav in relation to Novgorod. Well, Mstislav, as I said, having driven Yaroslav out of Novgorod, because it is clear that when Mstislav came there and resumed a row with the Novgorodians, Yaroslav remained in Torzhok no longer out of work, not a prince. He immediately turned out to be automatically an enemy of the one whom Yaroslav chooses as his allies. And Yaroslav had decided by that time - Yuri Vsevolodovich became his ally. And Novgorod thus was drawn directly into the conflict. In addition, the Smolensk people, Smolensk, along with their prince, were drawn into the conflict. And here comes a very important moment for understanding - the moment of mobilization, because the type of troops that predominates in the army, especially in the medieval army, and its very strength depend on the nature of mobilization. The mobilization took a period from February 11 to March 1, 1216. It turns out, about a month - 28 days. Considering that they approached Mstislav's side ... firstly, of course, Konstantin Vsevolodovich approached, most importantly, with the Rostov regiments. Konstantin, Mstislav, Vladimir Rurikovich from Smolensk with the Smolensk regiment, and Vsevolod Mstislavich are the son of a cousin of Udaly himself, i.e. the current ruling prince in Kiev, Mstislav Romanovich the Old, just that same negative hero in the battle on the Kalka, which we talked about not so long ago. This is a very fast mobilization, it's only a month, and people eventually managed to come from ... and from Beoloozero, of course, they came, because Beloozero at that time was part of the Rostov Principality. People came from very distant places, gathered quickly. Those. it was necessary first to send out letters to everyone, these letters should have been received, and even if they immediately agreed, and there was no long diplomatic correspondence - so they received letters, sent messengers, yes, the command was accepted, we are entering. These are very swift actions, only horsemen could gather so quickly, moreover, feudal horsemen, professional warriors who were constantly ready for battle - what was called "elected army" in the 16-17th century, i.e. selected army, i.e. those who could go on a campaign, on a distant campaign. Well, Yuri Vsevolodovich, firstly, supports Yaroslav Vsevolodovich as an ally, sends an army to him led by his younger brother Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, as it is written in the annals, brought with him 10 thousand people near Rzhev, who besieged. Rzhev resisted with the efforts of a garrison of 100 people, as the chronicler again tells us. Moreover, this is just the message of the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is clear that 100 thousand people would never have held back, especially since Rzhev was not a powerful city at all, it was a very small fortress by that time. It just shows that there were more of these, and much less of these. Moreover, one can still believe in a garrison of 100 people, but in the army of a younger brother of 10 thousand people - this is an unrealistic figure, it's just a message that there are a lot of them, that's all. It was not possible to take Rzhev, Mstislav set out from Novgorod, and Prince Vladimir, who at that time was in Pskov, joined him, and the Pskov army set out. Those. Novgorodians and Pskovians acted together. Yes, I’ll say right away that apart from those people who were engaged in denunciations, and when Yaroslav was expelled from Novgorod, they simply ran away to him, i.e. there, up to 5 boyar corporations from Novgorod were pulled off to Yaroslav, fearing the gratitude of expressive fellow citizens. Mstislav went on a campaign, recaptured Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from Rzhev. Mstislav Udaloy / Udatny, they are all Mstislavs, Vladimirs, Mstislavichs there, so I will periodically say again and again that Mstislav Udaloy. with Novgorodians. Here the Novgorodians drove Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich out of Rzhev and went further to the Suzdal land in the direction of Yuri's headquarters. Moreover, Mstislav, of course, was a knight, even in the annals it is said that this simply cannot be ignored, which means that it really was a very bright, noticeable, well-documented move - he offered peace. Suddenly. No, well, again, Mstislav was in fact such a powerful commander of precisely the classical knightly medieval type with all his inherent advantages and disadvantages that if he defeated the enemy, he first of all, of course, offers him peace, especially since he is a close relative after all, he fought with his son-in-law. Yes, and his son-in-law had his daughter, in fact, his own, with whom, of course, nothing bad could happen, because after all this is a feudal war, and just like that, to kill or do something else bad with his own wife, because of what - because of the war? Well, what are you talking about? But nevertheless, Rostislava Mstislavovna was with Yaroslav. Moreover, Yaroslav, being distracted a little to the side, is generally handsome, because when he began to choke Novgorod with hunger, his wife was in Novgorod and was starving along with all the townspeople. Then he suddenly remembered something and sent his emissaries to take her out of there. But I didn't remember right away. I sat in Novotorzhok and thought: something is missing - either I didn’t turn off the iron, or ... but where is the wife? He was a loving husband, yes. Very! He was just a little busy. But since Yury was the senior in the Vsevolodovich coalition by that time, because it is clear that Konstantin was on the side of Mstislav Udaloy, more precisely, Mstislav Udaloy was on the side of Konstantin, Yuri said that he was not ready to make peace, because he needed to take power in the Vladimir-Suzdal land into their own hands, because his dad appointed him heir, laying an atomic bomb under the century-old power of the Yurievichs. And such a viscous maneuverable offensive and counter-offensive, very typical for the Middle Ages, began, because very small forces that cannot even approximately form at least a semblance of a front begin to chase each other, naturally, burning everything along the way, because, of course, having defeated the enemy under Rzhev, to extend his hand to him nobly with an offer of peace is one thing, but to rob is completely different, to rob is good. Of course, skirmishes took place, in particular, Yaroslav's patrols on March 25 attacked the watchman Mstislav Udatny, who, as the chronicle says, consisted of 100 people, which, of course, is very unlikely. What is a "watchman"? Exploration, long distance. And most likely, these are the same people who were engaged in robbery, because reconnaissance and robbery go hand in hand: now you are reconnoitering, looking - and already robbing. All the time on the job. 100 people is a lot for such a detachment, but it is possible, and in fact there were 100. There was a clash, 7 warriors were killed and 33 were captured, and Yaroslav himself had fled to Tver by that time, then fled from Tver to Pereyaslavl, and in fact, this is where it began ... there was an understanding that nothing could be solved by these same throwings one after another. It’s just that on the one hand, apparently, Mstislav Udaloy was offended that he was so rejected, on the other hand, Yuri went on principle and was not ready to put up with anyone. On the third hand, Konstantin with the Rostovites, apparently, he was indeed under the strong influence of the Rostov boyars, he could not allow it at all, and he himself could not allow, of course, his younger brother to sit on his father's throne, and the Rostovites could not allow that after all, Vladimir became the first city in the Suzdal land. And all this twisted the spring so tightly that it had to straighten out only in a decisive collision. At the same time, Mstislav Udaloy once again tried to solve the matter peacefully, the last, so to speak, Chinese attempt. He sent a certain Sotsky Larion, also known from the Novgorod First Chronicle, with a proposal of this kind: “My Novgorod is, and you grabbed the Novgorod husbands in vain, robbed a lot of goods, and the Novgorodians cry out at you crying, and they complain to me about insults from you. let the prisoners go, son, and return the Novgorod volost - so let's make peace and not shed blood in vain. Here is the appeal - "son", i.e. son, vocative case - for Yaroslav, of course, it was insulting, because, of course, he was his son-in-law, i.e. younger, but he could not call him a son, especially since he was the son of the great Vsevolod. Naturally, Yaroslav did not appreciate such a peaceful initiative and replied: “We don’t want peace. Your men are with me, you came from afar, but came out like dry fish.” This suggests that Mstislav did not want to solve the matter with a big massacre until the very end. After that, messengers were sent to the rest of the Vsevolodovichs - Yuri, Svyatoslav and Ivan: “Brothers, we are all of the Vladimirov tribe and did not come here for war and ruin, not to take away your fatherland, but we are looking for peace, nevertheless, according to the law of God and Russian Truth. Give seniority to the big brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you hate God, otherwise you can’t atone for anything. So, they turned to Russkaya Pravda, however, in a somewhat strange form, because, by and large, according to the law of the ladder, this throne should have been occupied not by the eldest son of Vsevolod, but by his elder brother or elder relative. But nevertheless, they turned to Russian Truth. Here Yuri was already offended and answered: "Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but how he will leave here, he does not know." Those. very cheeky. "And tell brother Konstantin: overcome us, then all the land will be yours." At this time, the troops that advanced from the described principalities converged near the Lipica River. There was a military council, two military councils - in one camp and in another camp, we, frankly, do not know exactly how this happened, because almost all the reports about the remarks and decisions that were made there are late, but nevertheless quite it’s funny to read: “In the camp of Yuri Vsevolodovich and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the boyar Ratibor declared: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav, it never happened under your fathers, under your grandfathers, or under your great-grandfathers, so that someone entered the army into the strong Suzdal land and would leave it whole Yes, even if the whole Russian land went to us - Galicia and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then they won’t do anything with you, but what are these regiments, so we will throw them with saddles. "I recognize brother Kolya And Yuri and Yaroslav, extremely inspired by the speeches of their officers, gave the order not to take prisoners in battle: "This product has come into your hands - you will have armor, horses and ports (ports are clothes, not pants). And whoever takes a man alive, he himself will be killed, and if he has embroidered mantles with gold, kill him too. Let's not leave a single living. If someone leaks from the regiment, we will seize him, otherwise we will hang and crucify those. Well, which of the princes falls into the hands, we will talk about those later. "That is, only relatives were ordered not to kill, all the rest were ordered to be put under the knife. That is, this is what was called" a bad war in the Middle Ages in Western Europe "because the feudal war was a good war, because if you surrendered, you were taken prisoner, and in the end, in general, a noble warrior - "sewn with a golden mantle" - it was not at all necessary to kill, well, only if it so happens that you face head-on. A man surrendered, captured him, received a ransom for him, and a year later he took you prisoner, you surrendered, returned the ransom to him. Great, you can live like that. Very rarely there was a "bad war" when, for example, they did not take prisoners. This was generally considered a violation of military honor, and it was impossible to do so, in a good way, especially since this was extremely not welcomed by the Christian Church, both Orthodox and Catholic, but nevertheless, it happened with very usually dramatic events x and strong mutual resentment. For example, German mercenaries and Swiss mercenaries never staged a "good war" between themselves. When they clashed on the battlefield, there was always some kind of total massacre, some kind of absolutely terrible with total beatings, torture, bullying. Well, here they motivated people: if you "become from the regiment", i.e. if you run away from the ranks - or we will hang, or we will crucify, if you do not kill the prisoner - we will kill you yourself. Kill everyone but the princes! Yes, and of course, this very clearly demonstrates how things were generally decided in the Middle Ages in the era of the highest dawn of feudalism: all the princes, having gathered for advice, first divided the lands of the enemies, as if they had already won. This is not because they are so self-confident, this is because if they had not determined in advance who would get what, they could fight right or immediately before the fight, or act inconsistently during the fight, in general, something bad would definitely It happened. Those. they just showed far-sightedness in general, they were very far-sighted, that they gathered in a tent and painted which piece of the pie to whom, it doesn’t matter, we will win, we won’t win, but so that everything is fair. Now we will agree, and then we will fight. Usually, historians calculate the strength of the parties in this way, which is extremely significant for me in general. Here they write: “It is known that with Mstislav Udatny 5 thousand Novgorodians approached Rzhev, which, in the presentation of Tatishchev Vasily Nikolaevich, turned into 500 horsemen, and 900 Pskovians came out against the city of Zubtsov. These figures seem quite real, and starting from them, we can carry out further calculations." 5000 Novgorodians - these figures do not seem real: this is a long campaign, this is not a fight near Novgorod itself. This means that people on horseback perform without fail. If they are on horseback, then they are more or less dressed in armor - this is expensive. With the total mobilization of the entire Novgorod land, already under Ivan the Terrible in the famous Polotsk campaign of 1568, the entire Novgorod land was able to put 3,300 people in total to the elective rati of the horse, despite the fact that there, specifically, a system of local layout of the land had been installed for many decades in a row, when the landowners were seated along villages, i.e. The army came out not only from the cities, but also from the countryside, because it was there that the landowners concentrated. Firstly, there was no system of local layout here, and secondly, there were clearly fewer people than in the 16th century, at least no more than in the 16th century, and the army could only come out of the city, because the landlords in the countryside , especially in the Novgorod land, there was practically none at all, because, as I have already said 20 times and I will say it again, at this time the village is 1-3 houses, less often 5, it is simply impossible to feed a professional warrior and his horse, impossible. Therefore, all warriors come out only from cities. Here they write to us that there were 5,000 Novgorodians at the beginning of the 13th century, while only 3,300 people were able to take part in the largest campaign of the Russian army in general in the entire medieval history during total mobilization, when they swept everyone: sick, crippled, crippled, old , young - all this noble cavalry went to fight. And here 5000 people - if you consider how many cities at that time, at the beginning of the 13th century, there were generally in the Novgorod land, even if swept away from everywhere, everything to the garrison warriors who did not carry out the regimental, but the city service, it would hardly have been so much . But since we see that this is a rather swift maneuver, it could only be cavalry, and even more so there were fewer of them. How much, I’ll say a little later, I’m just swearing at such clearly inflated numbers for now, “which you can completely trust and build on them” - that’s impossible! "Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod, (meaning the famine in Novgorod) had to put up a larger army, but it could hardly significantly exceed Mstislav's army." It befell - this is in the sense that they did not block the krantik? No, no, they didn’t block anything for the Smolensk people, they couldn’t block them, but they could block the Novgorodians, and there, in addition to everything else, “the scum was great”, i.e. frost that killed the crops. In general, counting the city regiment and the prince's squad, they conditionally reduce to 6,000 people - why ?! That's where this figure came from, I, God forbid, I don't know. Why not 9 or 4? These are absolutely voluntaristic assumptions that have no basis at all, i.e. here in Novgorod there are 5,000 people, but there was a famine, so there are a little more in Smolensk, therefore 6,000 people. Those. this is based on an unreliable premise, on the basis of which, naturally, unreliable conclusions are drawn, because there were not 5,000 people in Novgorod, and there were not 6,000 in Smolensk either. Well, one of the standard points and common points on which almost everyone agrees is that the army of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Yuri Vsevolodovich was much larger than the Novgorod-Smolensk-Pskov army. Directly much more. It was colorful in its composition, but much larger. If, according to such a system, which we are offered, to add up all the forces of Mstislav Udatny and Konstantin Vsevolodvich, it turns out together with the Belozersk, who approached the Rostovites and who were no more than 1000, as the author graciously informs us, then the rati could be up to 16 thousand soldiers. Then another calculation method is proposed: it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav had 17. Banner - meaning banner, as a military unit. Firstly, this is known from a rather late message, nothing of the kind is said in the Novgorod First Chronicle, but then we are told that separate combat units are considered banners, which included 20-150 spears led by a boyar, city foreman or petty prince . Considering that the composition of one spear, in addition to the commanders, included 10 more soldiers, it is possible to give a rounded number of Yuri's forces at 70 thousand, and Yaroslav at 9-13 thousand people. Here, to put it mildly, in the 13th century, 10 people did not enter the spear anywhere at all. Well, if there were 3 of them along with the knight. All this can be reduced by a factor of three at once - firstly. Secondly, where did 20-150 copies in one banner come from, I don’t know either. Why not 10? Why not 300? Those. at least this is fortune-telling on coffee grounds, and this grounds is made from the cheapest Nescafe, and they are trying to suggest that we think that this is some kind of Arabica. Considering that, in addition to everything else, there was a regiment of Ivan Vsevolodovich and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - younger brothers, they are graciously released 5000 people, because 10 thousand under Rzhev, what, the chronicle tells us, they brought is a clear exaggeration, that's not 10, but 5. And thus, it turns out the size of the army is 21 thousand - 30 thousand people for the Vsevolodovichs versus 16 thousand for Mstislav Udaly and Konstantin Vsevolodovich. Well, that's the size of a good battle clash in the 17th century that could have been. Those. it turns out that in the 17th century and at the beginning of the 13th century the sizes of collisions were approximately the same. Those. here the forces of almost the Mongol invasion? Yes, i.e. this is practically the force of the Mongol invasion, a little less. If we take all of them together, then this will be about 40, 46 thousand people - this is approximately that, even more than what the Mongols could theoretically bring to Russia. And here, because Mstislav quarreled with Yaroslav over Novgorod, and Kostya and Yura over Vladimir, and they gathered their squads to decide which of them was finally right, 46 thousand people gathered in one place. I almost forgot, sorry, this is important: on the side of the Yaroslavichs there was a corps of wanderers - proto-Cossacks. This, in general, does not need to think that they were some kind of beggars. These were outcast warriors, outcast boyars, outcast princes, i.e. they were professional military men, they just turned out to be expelled from their society or some kind of conditionally closed corporation. Ronin. Yes, here are the ronin. How many there were, it is absolutely incomprehensible, we do not even have approximate reference data to calculate the number of wanderers. But this is just some kind of hired contingent. I propose to approach the calculation "from a shovel", as archaeologists do. Those. we know for sure, according to the chronicles, which cities put up service corporations for battles and which princes went out to battle with their squads. We know the size of most of these cities, so I personally do not know only the medieval 13th century Rostov, I found all the other cities, what size they were. We remember that approximately, based on the approximation data, of course, i.e. averaging the excavation data in Novgorod, Kiev, where well-preserved estates, we know that there were an average of 40 estates per hectare. per hectare? Per hectare - they were very small. It turns out that about 200 people lived on a hectare, because in one estate there lived one family, on average, of 5 people. It turns out that the maximum that could be afforded with a one-story building was 200 people per hectare. Knowing the size of the city, we can safely remove about 25% of it from useful buildings, because these are streets, public places, all sorts of squares, markets, i.e. where people do not live, and leave 75% for developments where people lived, and calculate how many people were there. Once we understand how many people were there, we can immediately understand that a maximum of 2% of them were professional warriors who could be put under arms. And, of course, there were fortresses. In the fortress, the number of professional soldiers was much larger, because people did not live there, they served there. And this is what we get: first, let's look at the scoundrels, from the point of view of the Novgorod Chronicle - at the Vsevolodovichs. Yuri Vsevolodovich - the Grand Duke from the big city of Rostov, well, the maximum that he could bring with him was 200-300 professional soldiers. And this is really a lot, because, let me remind you, in 1514, these are documented objective data, near Smolensk and near Orsha, the Grand Duke of Moscow, the sovereign of all Russia, put up a court of 220 riders in total. Rich! He couldn't scrape together any more. Therefore, of course, I take strong framework restrictions, because regarding squads we don’t know exactly how many people they were, all the more, they probably made up different numbers at different times, because they, for sure, could also include some mercenaries who were specially invited to participate in the fight. Remember the movie "Gang of New York"? At the very beginning, when they go, they meet such a fucking healthy Irishman with a club and offer him to fight together, he immediately asks: "How much for a head? How much? That's it, I'm with you." Here, apparently, something like this could be here, i.e., apparently, the size of the prince's squad was not a constant. Therefore, I give the most framework restrictions, of course, in a big way, because 300 people - I, for sure, turned it down. 200 people - more like the truth. In general, I will focus on something like this: the Grand Duke has 200-300 people. Suzdal in the 13th century is only 49 hectares, although it is the second capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Well, roughly speaking, 50 to 200 people ... Not 50, but 75% of 50. There you get the mobilization capacity of 200 people from the city of professional military. If the small towns of the Suzdal land joined, and they were much smaller than Suzdal, 1.5 - 2 - 3 hectares, 10-15 people could leave from them. That 400 people left Suzdal. Again, we do not know if the smaller towns were involved or not; 200-400. Vladimir, of course, was a gigantic city - 145 hectares, 20 thousand people lived there. It turns out that Vladimir himself could put up a city regiment of 500 fighters. Again, there were a considerable number of specific towns around Vladimir that could also put up a contingent. Again, we do not know whether they exhibited them or not, because there is not a word about this in the annals. It says: Suzdal, Vladimir - that's what it says. Those. Suzdal and Vladimir residents definitely participated in this, and who else participated, God knows, but from 500 to 100 people - what Vladimir himself could, not the whole Vladimir land, but Vladimir himself put up - this is about 1000 people. Again, I emphasize right away - this is an elected army, i.e. what is immediately capable of a long-distance campaign is not even the entire cavalry military force that Vladimir had, but the best fighters. It turns out, a total of 700-1400 people from Suzdal and Vladimir together. Yaroslav, Prince of Pereyaslav, but he was, of course, much thinner at that time than Yuri Vsevolodovich, so I counted him a voluntaristic squad of 100 people. Pereyaslavl itself was 40 hectares in size, i.e. he had 150 people from the city itself or 300 people from all over the Principality of Pereyaslavl, because, again, all the other cities were much smaller. There Dmitrov is 2.3 hectares, 800 people lived there, in this way, i.e. 80 people from it could leave in the worst case, but most likely less. Gorodets is a slightly larger city, 60 hectares, i.e. 250-500 people, i.e. or Gorodets itself or Gorodets with its surroundings. Finally, Davyd Yurievich, Prince of Murom. Again, I credited him with 100 people of the squad. I charge all the princes, except for the great, big ones, by a hundred. Well, the people of Murom left the giant metropolis of 3 hectares in size - at that time Murom was exactly that size. Well, 100, well, 200 people, if they could leave from all over the principality, that's good. Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - another 100 people, he brought a regiment from Yuryev-Polsky. Yuryev-Polsky was located in the Suzdal opolye, a rather crowded city - 500-600 people could really leave from there. And Ivan Vsevolodovich, who later became Prince Starodubsky, at that time he had no inheritance, apparently, he himself was with his retinue, and I also counted 100 people for him, although the prince without inheritance could only rely on some of his uncles, those. people personally devoted to him. If there were 50 of them, I would be very surprised. But to make it easier to count, I added 100. And a certain number of wanderers-mercenaries either from the Dnieper or from the Danube region, where, in fact, the chronicles locate these same wanderers. How many there were, God knows, maybe 500, maybe 1000 people, we don't know. In total, it turns out a minimum of 2300 people, a maximum of 3650 people, plus 500-1000 roamers. Those. the maximum is 4650 people - this is what the coalition of the younger Vsevolodoviches put up. This, moreover, is the maximum, the maximum limitation, this land could not physically set more. Novgorodians and Smolensk: Konstantin Vsevolodovich is another Grand Duke, along with Rostov, I also assigned 200 people to him, and 500-1000 people to Rostov, because the city was still large, the first capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, i.e. big old city. Those. or 500 from the city itself, or 1000 from the city and suburbs. Mstislav Udatny is not a great prince, but he is such a famous warrior that people from everywhere could reach out to him in search of good luck, fame and money and other goodies useful for any combatant, so I also added 200 people to him. Novgorod is the largest of all the cities that participated in the conflict, and, as we know, a city regiment of up to 500 people could leave Novgorod itself, plus, as a rule, the archbishop’s squad, the so-called. the sovereign regiment - another 100 people at least, because the Novgorod bishop was one of the richest feudal lords not only of Novgorod, but of the entire Russian land, and he could afford it. Those. 600 people could leave at that time from Novgorod itself by the electoral rati, and if we take all the specific cities from the giant 15-hectare Ladoga to Staraya Russa, then just Russa, 1200-1300 people could leave at most at that time. Again, it must be taken into account that there was a famine at that time, and apparently not everyone survived before the war. Vladimir Rurikovich - 100 people, and Smolensk, a big city - 100 hectares, i.e. 400 people from the city itself could come out and 800 people, I think, from the entire Smolensk province, because all the other cities were dramatically smaller than Smolensk, just dramatically - in 0.63 - 1.5 - 2 hectares small fenced settlements. Pskov, they told us, put up 500 people - perhaps 600 people from all over the Pskov land even came out, because we know that in the Polotsk campaign it was precisely 600 Pskov people who were able to put up a forged rati. Those. Pskov itself could put up to 300 people, based on the size, Pskov land up to 600. And Vladimir Mstislavich Pskovskiy - another 100 people. Finally, Vsevolod Mstislavich - 100 people and from Beloozero. which was also a metropolis of 30 hectares, a maximum of 200 people could come. Total from 2700 to 3600 people. Not rich. These are the forces that have gathered for a decisive confrontation and which have created the legend of a gigantic battle. And in fact, in the memory of the participants, and even more so the descendants, this battle was indeed gigantic. Well, if everyone they could, then it is really gigantic. Because, as a rule, there was nothing like this in the strife of the Russian princes, this is too much, because the squads, as a rule, participated in the strife most often, the city regiments participated much less frequently. And here is who they could, swept from everywhere. And when we say that this is not 30 thousand, but 3 thousand, they will immediately tell us: well, what are you rubbing against us, it says about a great battle, and here 3 thousand people - what a great battle it is? Well, I beg your pardon, more than a million people participated in the Kursk Bulge, and about 100 thousand people participated in the Battle of Borodino. The Battle of Borodino is also great. And the Kursk Bulge is great, it just happened much later. So why, if we retreat from Borodin for another 600 years, why the numbers should remain the same, I do not understand decisively. And why, given that it was even earlier than Borodino, why a fight of 3,000 people against 3,000 people is not considered great, I don’t understand. After all, you need to look not at the size, the size in this case does not matter, the result matters only, because Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky managed to kill 20 German knights and capture 6, and ensure peace for 30 years in the strategic direction. Also a great battle, although the forces involved were, to put it mildly, incomparable. So, the people of Suzdal, i.e. a coalition of scoundrels of the younger Vsevolodovichs dug in on a hill beyond the river and began to wait for the approach of the enemies. Actually, this mountain is still preserved - Avdovaya Gora, there it is about 200 m high and is separated from the other side by a ravine along which a small stream flows. Here, forces began to approach this very Mount Avdova from one side and from the other side. On April 20, most of the participants gathered, and, as expected, small skirmishes began - first one, then the other jumped over the ravine, jumped, apparently, there was some kind of archery of varying degrees of intensity. But then again, if we speak in the language of 16th-century digit books, "and so they poisoned all day, but there was no removable battle." Here they were poisoned all day, and removable, i.e. there was no decisive hand-to-hand combat. And only on the 21st, an experienced commander, apparently, it was the idea of ​​​​Mstislav the Udaly, he ordered the military camp to be turned off, i.e. the Suzdalians, looking from their mountain, might think that they were leaving, and now they would make some kind of maneuver and might end up in a place where they were no longer waiting for them, for example, to take some city by storm. Therefore, they began to descend from the mountain, already ready for battle. Thus, they were lured into an open fight. Again, they were at the very top of the mountain, it was hard to fight them. The usual order of battle is described in the annals as 3-membered on both sides. This is traditional not only for the Russian Middle Ages, but also for the Middle Ages in general, because there everything connected with 3 was considered sacred, and therefore correct. Well, besides, as I said, it’s just convenient: it’s intuitive that you have a body with a head - this is the central shelf, the right hand and the left hand, with which you do something there, so you have two shelves - right and left. It's easy to understand and easy to manage. Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav the Udaly stood up in the forehead, if we talk about the Novgorod-Smolensk side. Those. the central regiment is large, as they would say in the 15-16th century, these are the Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav the Udaly. On the right hand, apparently, are the Smolensk people and the squad of Vladimir Rurikovich, and on the left, the actual instigators of all this disgrace, the Rostovites and the squad of Konstantin Vsevolodovich. It is not clear where Vsevolod Mstislavich and Vladimir Mstislavich, the inhabitants of Belozersk and Pskov, ended up. Apparently, there were really not very many of them, and it is possible to assume that they were merged with the Novgorodians. On the other hand, I can personally assume that Konstantin Vsevolodovich took the Belozersk to him, because these are people from his principality, from a distant suburb, but all the same, why would they be taken to a large regiment? Because, let me remind you again, all these people were built in the same way as they lived - by corporations, and Beloozero and Rostov belonged to the same corporation, which was led by Rostov Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich. What we see here: we see that the flanks are very much weaker than the center, because even Rostov, which put up serious troops, is much less than Novgorod put up, all the more reinforced by the squad of Mstislav the Udaly. Those. Are you measuring it strictly by the number of people? Oh sure. It is precisely by the number of people that this turns out to be a powerful central column and two relatively frail flanks. Moreover, unevenly frail - we get the left flank with the Rostovites is frailer than the center, but quite representative, and the right flank is no, because there are forces incomparable either with the center or with the left flank. For us - people brought up on Delbrück, on Razin, on different films, we tend to think that at least they should be somehow evenly made, because a greatly weakened flank is even intuitively clear, which is very dangerous. Moreover, we remember the battle of Cannae, where everything was exactly the opposite, and the battle of the Thebans and ... with the Spartans, when, on the contrary, the flank is strengthened, the weaker flank of the enemy breaks through, everything ends with the encirclement and the kesselschlacht, the battle in the cauldron. But here everything is different, this is the Middle Ages - an absolutely reverse logic: the center should have been strong. The flanks also had to be present, but they could be much weaker than the center, and here's why: because it was in the center that troops were concentrated, which could be introduced into battle in stages. And there, of course, there was a large banner and the commander in chief. Those. the commander-in-chief could directly give orders to his people, and not send an order through a messenger somewhere on the flank. The messenger could simply not get there, or the commander-in-chief could visually miss something important, and in the Middle Ages, again, an order could be given, even if it was given to the flank, only once - this is "Attack!" Why? Because they can go on the attack, but it will be almost impossible to deploy them back. Those. as soon as the knight's cavalry went on the attack, it is completely in the hands of its commander. What will the commander think? He generally like - remembers the plan that they made the day before, does not remember the plan? Suddenly they hit him on the head with a mace - he will forget everything or even die. Those. most likely it was necessary to rely on the fact that if the flank went on the attack, you would not see him again, he would fight there. Those. reserves had to be concentrated as close as possible to the commander in chief, in the center. And they had to save from the encirclement transverse strikes from the center, which could be delivered simply by turning the reserve or part of the reserve in the right direction, which we saw, for example, in the battle of Orsha in 1514, when Konstantin Ivanovich Ostrozhsky brilliantly repelled Russian attacks that broke through weak flanks. From a powerful center, from a column, he singled out detachments that repulsed the attacks of those who had made their way through the flank. In general, something like this could be expected at an earlier time. The scoundrels Vsevolodovichi, who climbed down the Avdova Gora, were built as follows: Yuri Vsevolodovich and the Suzdalians stood opposite the Novgorodians in the center, i.e. Suzdal and Vladimir, again we see the most powerful regiment in the center, i.e. the most representative units that are, stand opposite the largest regiment that the enemy has. A smaller brethren stood opposite the Rostovites - as they say directly in the annals - Ivan Vsevolodovich and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich with their squads and guys from Yuryev-Polsky, and also, apparently, with roamers. Wanderers-stragglers. Rogues, yes, but it's still not from the word "rabble", but rather "roam", "tramps". Well, on the other hand, the main ringleader of all this disgrace stood up and the one who served as a pretext for war, i.e. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who, with his Pereyaslavtsy, Gorodtsy, Murom, Davyd Yuryevich's retinue ... I beg your pardon - it was he who had the roamers under Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Yes, exactly - he was with wanderers together. And we also see that the disposition of troops is completely uneven: on the one hand, a relatively strong flank, on the other hand, a very motley set of forces that, apparently, see each other for the first time, and a powerful center, a column - the squad of the Grand Duke, those. again there are 200, maybe 300 people, a regiment from Suzdal - a very large city, a regiment from Vladimir - an even larger city - this is all standing in the center. And you need to understand that since this is the capital, the best vigilantes lived there, i.e. These are elite units. Mstislav Udaloy addressed, as expected, with a speech. He asked the question: "Whoever wants to go to battle, on foot, whoever wants to, whether on horseback." Here he, apparently, bred the Novgorodians weakly, because he perfectly saw that in front of them was a ravine and a stream, and climbing there on horseback was simply suicide. And the Novgorodians were weakly led and said: “We don’t want to die on horseback, we want to fight like our fathers on Koloksha” - this refers to the battle on Koloksha in 1096, when they fought for Yaroslav the Wise. This river is the Koloksha. I beg your pardon, they fought for Mstislav the Great, not for Yaroslav the Wise, of course, what am I saying. Nevermind. Here Mstislav and there was Mstislav. And he offered them, apparently, remembering something, he offered them such a maneuver. A later chronicle says that the Smolensk people also dismounted, but there is not a word about this in the original, as close as possible to the events, story of the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is said that the Novgorodians all got off their horses and threw off their boots, remaining barefoot to climb the ravine more comfortably, because the boots, who saw authentic, made or genuine, archaeologically found leather boots of the 13th century, are thin leather soles, it is very slippery. Stocking actually. It's simple, yes, a stocking, it's very slippery, climbing in it... especially since it's the end of April, perhaps the muddy ground, it's just slippery, but barefoot is quite the opposite. Especially if the nails are not trimmed. Yes, but given that they had been on the campaign for quite a long time, counting since February, they probably didn’t cut their nails on purpose, and so they went to cling, cling. Again, in the late chronicle it is said that they dismounted, that the infantry was also from the side of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Yuri Vsevolodovich. Again, in the early chronicle there is not a word about this, it is precisely in the form of a military trick that it is specifically indicated that the Novgorodians got off their horses, i.e. they were all horses. And then Mstislav ordered the attack, and in fact, the attack was opened by the central regiment, which, in general, is wild, of course, for a person who was brought up on classical tactics. Simply opening an attack with the center, the strongest part of your army, is stupid, but this is the Middle Ages, as a rule, at that time the first attack by the strongest part of the army decided the battle, and only then it was possible to play on the flanks. If your center attack fails, then, in general, everyone can leave completely calmly, everything is already clear. And the Novgorodians went on foot to the cavalry, which opposed them. And in general, they turned out to be right, because it was extremely inconvenient to attack from the slope, apparently, and even on muddy ground. And they were able to hold back the oncoming attack, apparently, lining up with a wall of shields, putting up their cavalry spears, they were able to hold back the attack of the cavalry of Vladimir and Suzdal, who naturally got stuck in Novgorod formations. And then Mstislav Udatny said his famous phrase that - and they were on horseback behind - that we would not betray our people, after which all the cavalry that was at the same time hit through the ravine. And here, of course, the tactical genius of Mstislav manifested itself, because as soon as a fight began there, and this cavalry got bogged down in the infantry, it became possible to transport the main forces of the cavalry under the cover of this very foot phalanx, dismounted warriors, and it was quite large. As I said, there could be up to 1200 people there - that's a lot. Cunning! He was able to ferry the cavalry across the ravine and attack directly the enemy. The wanderers ran first, as usual. The bravest and bravest, yes, professional soldiers. Many have already received the money, so what now - to die, or what? The salary is already there. Well, yes, the wanderers eventually ran and Yaroslav's squads ran with them. And Mstislav himself, as it is said, rode through the enemy lines on horseback three times, chopping everyone with an ax, which was on a belt loop in his hand. Here, three times. And Konstantin did the same. That is, they performed heroic deeds like this, but when they saw Yaroslav's flight, they all ran. "To the white horse back and forth .." Yes, yes, yes. Everyone fled, apparently, it is with these princes that the names of such heroes as Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich are associated, because in the later chronicles these names are mentioned, and they are mentioned, which is important, not only in connection with the story of the Battle of Lipitsa, but they are mentioned repeatedly up to the battle on the Kalka River, where, by the way, sooner or later almost all the participants in this disgrace will find themselves with rare exceptions. They just fought all on the side of Mstislav Udatny - both Dobrynya and Alexander, however, Popovich. Well, who doesn't know: Alexander and Alexei are the same root words from "Alex", so they could eventually be transformed into Alyosha, into Alexei Popovich. "Alyosha" is a "fool" in a hair dryer, he is also a "loh". What the Novgorod First Chronicle tells us: “Novgorodtsy killed Dmitri Plskovichin (i.e. Pskovych), Anton Kotelnik, Ivanka Pribyshinits oponnik on the scree. ", i.e. in total, 5 Novgorodians and 1 Smolyan died, and 9233 people were killed from that side. Well, it’s clear that these were some prominent people who were listed, of course, they wouldn’t list all the rest, but this is how this very battle happened in two steps: the first was an infantry attack, under the cover of an infantry attack, a crossing over the ravine of the cavalry and the attack of the cavalry with all forces, i.e. one approach is a classic medieval battle, which stands out from the general classics only because Mstislav hurried the Novgorodians. Those. again, in a hurry - i.e. they were all horsemen, and basically, of course, it was heavy cavalry, almost or directly equivalent to retinue. Those. when this whole crowd of Novgorodians was walking up the ravine, you need to understand that they were all professional warriors in armor, who, the only thing, took off their boots to make it more convenient to climb up. Accordingly, shields, swords, axes, helmets - it was an armored phalanx that went on the attack, which could, only because it was able to withstand the blow of the Vladimir-Suzdal cavalry regiments. As a result, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich escaped, as they say, in his undershirt, ended up in Pereyaslavl. They wanted to humiliate him, of course, that he ran to Pereyaslavl in his shorts, despite April. Disguised as a woman, with a false beard. Constantly changing shoes in the air. Well, Yuri lost miserably to his older brother Konstantin, was expelled from the great reign to an inheritance, ended up in Moscow as a result. True, we all remember that later, anyway, Konstantin was forced to return his younger brother to Vladimir, and after his death, Yuri still became the Grand Duke of Vladimir and brought the state in perfect order before the arrival of the Mongols. Tormented the guy, damn it. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was a very clever courtier, he was the first to make friends with the Tatars, raised the great son Alexander Yaroslavich, went to distant Karakorum twice, did not return the second time - he was poisoned there, apparently. Almost like being in New York. Yes, it's not like in New York, I don't even know what to compare it with. Now we simply cannot compare the journey from Novgorod to Karakorum, there is simply no way. Yes, of course, Yaroslav eventually returned to Novgorod, before he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and he became one in the end, he was once again a prince in Novgorod. The trip to the Karakorum was almost like going to the moon, probably. Because it was possible not to return back, not because they would kill you, but simply because it is so long that you might not live to see the return trip or die on the way back. It was very far. But I’ve been there already like this and, apparently, I’ve seen a lot on my life path. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, to be sure, is also a legendary figure. I list them all literally one by one: Mstislav Udaloy, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - they were simply legendary people in their time, only it is clear that Mstislav is older, so he became a legend earlier, and Yaroslav later. Well, in our time, of course, it is almost impossible to overestimate the contribution of these people to Russian history. This is the first. Secondly, here we see: for the Russian classical pre-Mongolian Middle Ages, colossal forces were attracted, simply colossal. How much we counted there - 2300 at the minimum and 3600 at the maximum on the one hand and 2700 and 3600, again, on the other hand. This is a lot, these are gigantic forces. An extremely rare battle in feudal Russia deployed such regiments. How it all ended - but almost nothing. It's just that people fought, solved narrowly local tactical tasks - who will sit on which throne. Mstislav defended the Novgorodians, pulled out, as promised, all the people from captivity, opened the supply of bread - that is, he's a good guy, of course. Konstantin punished his presumptuous younger brother and the second presumptuous younger brother, and punished two more presumptuous younger brothers. As a result, a year later he was forced to return his presumptuous younger brother Yuri to Vladimir by 1217. What has he achieved? Almost nothing. Those. this is a small tactical success, achieved with monstrous bloodshed, because, of course, there, given the 3600 and 3600 people who met each other on the field, it was clearly not 20 people who beat there. For the feudal Middle Ages, this is, in any case, a big loss. Almost no result. And there is a complete failure of diplomacy. Couldn't agree. They could not agree, and moreover, some people did not really want to agree. The age-old experienced Mstislav Udaloy wanted to negotiate. Everyone else... It even needs to be understood that no matter how old he is, when he is in power, he ceases to be a man - this is a function. He had to be specially taught, to be engaged, for example, in diplomacy. Neither Yaroslav, who later became a great diplomat, nor Yuri wanted to negotiate, they wanted to fight. Well, in this form, Russia approached the Mongol invasion, when even within the recently unified Vladimir-Suzdal principality, bloody fights naturally began, when the entire Vladimir-Suzdal land could put up about 3-4 thousand people in total. So the princely separatism set up the defense of the all-Russian plan in the best possible way, frankly. Those. By the time the Mongols arrived, they were ready, and in general, at the first, of course, the appearance of forces, which already numbered in tens of thousands, this whole system immediately took shape under the Mongols. Well, nothing else could possibly happen. Those. children's fairy tales about the fact that it was necessary to unite, but they simply quarreled - well, they would unite, and what would happen there? Well, they are connected. And then they separated again. They simply had no reason to unite - neither political nor, most importantly, economic, because each specific city of a more or less large size was absolutely self-sufficient economically, it did not need anyone. "Each took a lot for himself, bred chickens and sat in it, guarding his lot, out of work." Right. Vysotsky? Yes. Looked at the root, yes. Cool! Well, as usual, it looks, to put it mildly, strange - these figures are given - so many, so many, and immediately repeat that 9 thousand were killed - well, somehow it ... And why are they up to your purely scientific approach to such things didn't pay attention? The fact is that this is such a relatively modern know-how that makes its way from archeology to military history with a creak, because we all live in clichés. I myself 15 years ago ... I heard the word "Battle of Lipitsa", and I immediately recalled what I read, and I immediately understand: there are 20-30 thousand on the one hand, 16-18 thousand on the other side - and I immediately forgot about it . Well, the Battle of Lipitskaya - and the Battle of Lipitskaya. Well, that's all, these are ideas that are simply grafted on, which are very difficult to fight, because even a very intelligent researcher, whom I spoke about and quotes from, who, in general, revealed the internal mechanisms of this very confrontation that we talked about , pretty good. As soon as it comes to calculating the forces of the parties, it is immediately clear that a person is in captivity of some stamps, because he cannot imagine that less than 5-6 thousand people left Smolensk, because he imagines Smolensk, again , not reproachfully, it's just objectively so, within the boundaries of its modern giant Kremlin, which was built in the 16-17th century. But this is not at all the Smolensk that was in the 13th century. And we all can’t imagine how these cities really looked like, we just haven’t seen a single one of them. We do not have a single city of the 13th century. Our consciousness has nothing to operate with, because, as you know, consciousness cannot come up with something that it does not know. All the notions that are in the head are only a reflection or combination of what we already know. When we hear the word "city", we imagine at least some kind of Tula, i.e. gigantic modern city where we have been. We have never seen a medieval proud, our head simply cannot figure out what it is. This can be told to us by an archaeologist who would stand in this medieval city and see it, and he imagines what size it really is. Everything. Here are 270 hectares - this is Novgorod. Well, let's think now, again, taking a tape measure, measuring all the estates, taking the arithmetic mean, estimating how many people lived there, and from the chronicle data on princely families, well known, and about the number ... and from the amount of inventory that we we find in this estate, you can count how many people lived there, without any difficulty. And on average, we will calculate how many hectares there were, how many hectares were inhabited - again, an archaeologist can easily calculate this, and we will understand what kind of mobilization ability there was. That's all. This is how we can roughly begin to approach objective understanding - begin to approach! - to an objective understanding of what was actually happening at that time in Russia. Explanatory. Thank you, Klim Sanych, very interesting. And that's all for today. See you again.

Pre-Mongol Rus is full of princely strife. However, none of the battles of that time made such an impression on the chroniclers with its scope and fierceness as the battle on Lipica in 1216. This battle quickly acquired legends and can rightfully be considered the peak of civil strife of the pre-Tatar period.

ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT

The war, the outcome of which was decided by the Battle of Lipitsk, was generated by two reasons - the enmity between the Novgorodians and the Vladimir land and the strife between the Vladimir-Suzdal princes themselves.

The enmity that flared up between the sons of Vladimir Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest was rooted in orders made by him shortly before his death in 1212. Recognizing his eldest son Konstantin as his successor, the father demanded that he cede his inheritance in Rostov to his brother Yuri. But Konstantin did not agree, "although take Volodimer to Rostov." Then Vsevolod publicly disowned the eldest son from the inheritance in favor of Yuri, and after that Konstantin "raised his eyebrows with anger at his brother, more so at Yuri." In this dispute, he had a reliable support in the person of the boyars and the "husbands of the city" of Rostov the Great - traditionally considering their city "the oldest" in the Zalessky land, they did not want to obey their "suburb" Vladimir. The thirty-year-old prince of Rostov himself enjoyed the love and respect of his subjects, who believed that "God had bestowed on him the meekness of David, the wisdom of Solomon." Among other Russian princes, Konstantin Vsevolodovich was distinguished by his broad outlook, prudence and special education: "not saddening anyone, but making everyone wiser with spiritual conversations, often reading books with diligence and doing everything according to what is written."

After the death of his father, a split occurred among the brothers. Vladimir, who ruled in Moscow, supported Konstantin, and Yaroslav, Svyatoslav and Ivan supported Yuri, who in 1213 led them on a campaign against Rostov. Konstantin came forward to meet them, detaching part of the troops to defeat Kostroma, which had gone over to Yuri, which posed a threat to his rear. The troops converged on the banks of the Ishni River and for some time stood against each other, limiting themselves to small skirmishes. Not daring to attack the Rostovites, Yuri retreated, ruining the surrounding villages. His only success was the expulsion of Vladimir from Moscow to southern Pereyaslavl. Constantine kept the Great Salt and Nerocht, captured by him from Yuri and Yaroslav.

In the meantime, in 1215, Mstislav Mstislavich, who reigned in Novgorod, nicknamed Udatny for his luck in his numerous military enterprises (later historians changed the nickname to “Udaly”), was invited by the Krakow prince Leshk to participate in a campaign against Galich, captured by the Hungarians. At the meeting, the prince announced to the Novgorodians: "I have business in Russia, and you are free in the princes," after which, together with the retinue, he left to restore justice to the south. After his departure, supporters of the Suzdal princes took over in the city. Taking advantage of the general disposition towards the departed Mstislav, they proposed to invite his son-in-law, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who ruled in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, to reign. The choice, however, was not a good one. Yaroslav, a stubborn and cruel man, immediately began to crack down on his real and imaginary ill-wishers, listening to all denunciations and slander. In the latter, a certain Fyodor Lazutinich was especially successful, tirelessly slandering his enemies from among prominent citizens. Yakun Zubolomich and the Novotorzhsky posadnik Foma Dobroshchinich were sent in chains to Tver, the court of the thousandth Yakun was defeated and his wife was captured. When Yakun, together with the mayor, came to complain, Yaroslav ordered that his Christopher be arrested at the same time. The indignant inhabitants of Prusskaya Street killed the princely minions of Ovstrat and his son Lugota, after which Yaroslav left Novgorod in anger. He retired to Torzhok, leaving behind his vicegerent Khot Grigorovich.
Yaroslav decided to break the obstinacy of the Novgorodians by repeating in their land what had already happened in his homeland, where the "suburb" had risen, humiliating the "oldest" city. He planned to "turn Torzhok into Novgorod". Torzhok, lying on the border with the Suzdal land, was a trade hub on the way to Novgorod and was always the object of aspirations of the Suzdal princes. Sowing in it, Yaroslav blocked the supply of food to Novgorod and thereby aggravated the disaster that befell him.

The fact is that the frost broke the bread in the Novgorod land and this caused a terrible famine in its consequences. Rye rose in price to 10 hryvnia, and oats rose to three. Parents gave their children into slavery to be fed. "Oh, woe! A corpse along the road, a corpse along the streets, a corpse across the field; I can’t psi eat up a person," the chronicler exclaims. The prince simply starved the city, not letting a single wagon of grain into it. The Novgorodians sent three embassies to Yaroslav - first Smen Borisovich, Vyacheslav Klimyatich and Zubets Yakun, then the posadnik Yuri Ivankovich with Stepan Tverdislavich and other men, and then Manuil Yagolchevich with the last speeches. But the prince took all the ambassadors into custody, giving no other answer. He only sent a certain Ivoraich Ponos there to take Princess Rostislava Mstislavna out of the starving Novgorod. All Novgorod merchants, passing through Torzhok, ended up in princely prisons. In addition to Torzhok, the prince's troops also occupied Volok Lamsky.

In such circumstances, Mstislav Udatny returned to Novgorod on February 11, 1216. Arriving at Yaroslav's Court, he immediately proclaimed: "Either I will return the Novgorod husbands and Novgorod volosts, or I will lay my head for Veliky Novgorod!" This program was enthusiastically received by the people of Novgorod. "We are ready for life and death with you!" they answered the prince.

First of all, Mstislav equipped a new embassy to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, choosing for that priest of the Church of St. John in the Torgovshchina Father Yuri. Apparently, he counted on the fact that Yaroslav would not dare to treat the spiritual person as rudely as he did with secular ambassadors. These expectations were justified. Arriving in Torzhok, Fr. Yuri conveyed to the prince the words of his father-in-law: "My son, let go of the husbands and guests of Novgorod, leave Novy Torg and take love with me." In addition, according to the Nikon Chronicle, and after it V.N. Tatishchev, Mstislav demanded that his son-in-law live honestly with his wife and not let her offend his concubines, otherwise send her back to her father. Yaroslav really did not dare to seize the priest, but he took revenge on the Novgorodians who fell into his hands - they were all shackled and sent to prison in the Zalessky cities, and their property was confiscated. In total, according to the chroniclers, up to 2000 people were imprisoned (the figure is probably greatly inflated). Yaroslav also took active steps against his father-in-law, who interfered in his affairs - they sent 100 people to "show off Mstislav from Novgorod." Yaroslav himself took up the construction of pinpoints on all paths and gathering forces to resist the Novgorodians.

However, the "guides" sent by him, seeing the unanimity of their fellow countrymen, themselves went over to the side of Mstislav Udatny, who at the veche called for an open struggle: "Let's go, brothers, look for our husbands, your brother, we will return your volosts, but there will be no New Bargaining Great Novgorod, nor Novgorod Torzhok. Where St. Sophia is, here is Novgorod; and in many ways God and in small things God is true!" Novgorodians were inspired by the consciousness of their rightness, the hatred of the famous prince-knight, like Mstislav Udatny. Earlier, in 1210, he had already freed them from Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, who was objectionable to them, the younger brother of their current oppressor, and even the powerful Vsevolod the Big Nest could not prevent this. Instilled hopes for success and subsequent feats of arms and the very personality of Mstislav, a well-aimed and capacious description of which N. I. Kostomarov gave in his time. He called the prince "a model of character that could only be developed by the conditions of life of the pre-Tatar specific-veche period" and said that he was "a defender of antiquity, a guardian of the existing, a fighter for the truth ... He was the best man of his time, but did not cross that line which the spirit of previous ages appointed for itself; and in this respect his life was expressed by the society of his day.

CAMPAIGN PROGRESS

Mstislav Mstislavich, as an experienced military leader, acted quickly and decisively. Using his authority and family ties, he managed to put together a strong anti-Suzdal coalition in the shortest possible time, from February 11 to March 1. His brother, Prince Vladimir Mstislavich of Pskov, and his cousin Vladimir Rurikovich, Prince of Smolensk, firmly promised him their support. Vsevolod Mstislavich, the son of another cousin of Udatny, Prince of Kiev Mstislav Romanovich, was also to arrive with his retinue. Of particular value to this ally was the fact that Vsevolod was the brother-in-law of Konstantin of Rostov, about whose strife with Yuri and Yaroslav Udatny was well aware. Probably, already in February 1216, Mstislav Mstislavich had every reason to count on support from the Rostovites.

In turn, Yaroslav, realizing the seriousness of the situation, turned to the brothers for help, and first of all to Yuri. Behind Yuri stood all the power of the Suzdal land. The brothers answered the call. Yuri immediately begins to gather troops, and until then he sends an army to Yaroslav, led by his younger brother Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. Even the hostile Konstantin responded, sending his son Vsevolod to Yaroslav with a small squad - he did not want to give out his plans ahead of time and preferred to first observe the development of events.

"The month of March on the 1st day, on Tuesday of Clean Week," the Novgorod-Pskov army set out on a campaign. On Thursday, the last adherents of Yaroslav, Volodislav Zavidich, Gavrila Igorevich, Yuri Oleksinich and Gavrilets Milyatinich, fled to Torzhok with their families. They apparently warned him about the start of the war.

Following the Seliger route, the army entered the Toropets volost - the fatherland of Mstislav Udatny. Troops moved on sledges on the ice of rivers and lakes, sending out small corral detachments to live - to get food and feed for horses. Mstislav allowed the warriors to feed themselves at the expense of the population, but ordered them not to kill people and not to drive them into captivity. As a result, those who came out of the starving Novgorod quickly "fulfilled karma both themselves and the horses."

Meanwhile, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, at the head of large forces (according to the chronicler's obviously overestimated estimate of up to 10 thousand), laid siege to Rzhev, where Yarun Vasilyevich, a thousandth, locked himself and stubbornly resisted. He had only 100 warriors. The approach of the troops of Mstislav and Vladimir of Pskov forced Svyatoslav to hastily lift the siege and retreat. Together with him, the detachments of the Suzdal governor Mikhail Borisovich and the Rostov prince Vsevolod Konstantinovich, who had begun to ruin the Toropetsk volost, also left. Developing the success achieved, Vladimir Mstislavich, at the head of his 900 Pskovites, swiftly struck at the Zubtsov. The town surrendered with the approach of the army of Mstislav Udatny. Here the brothers were joined by the army of Vladimir Rurikovich, who approached on the ice of Vazuza. After that, the combined forces advance along the Volga to the mouth of the Holokholnya, where they camp.

The army entered the Suzdal land and was ready to strike. Having successfully started the campaign, the chivalrous Mstislav Udatny now considered it not shameful for himself to repeat peace proposals to the enemy - after Svyatoslav's flight from Rzhev and the fall of Zubtsov, no one would dare to accuse him of cowardice or indecision. But Yaroslav stubbornly rejected all attempts at reconciliation. “I don’t want peace,” he replied to the ambassadors, “let’s go, go, go: even a hare goes for blood. But one of yours will get a hundred.”

Having received this answer, the allies gathered in council. Some of them wanted to go straight to Torzhok and end Yaroslav with one blow, but Mstislav reasoned differently: “If we go to Torzhok, then we will devastate the Novgorod volost and it will be worse for us than the first. Better, brethren, let’s go to Yaroslav’s volost. our parish and there we will see what God will give. It was decided to go to Pereyaslavl - the fatherland of Yaroslav. For choosing this particular path, Mstislav Udatny had one more reason. "Let's go to Pereyaslavl, we have a third friend," he said to Vladimir Rurikovich, hinting at his secret relations with Konstantin.

Without turning to Torzhok, the army moved towards Tver and along the road "burning the village" - the ruin of enemy volosts was considered military prowess and was one of the main means of warfare. Yaroslav, taking with him the captives, as well as his supporters from Novgorod - "the oldest men ... of Novgorod and the young of choice", - as well as the entire militia of Torzhok, went to Tver, trying to get to Pereyaslavl before the enemy army blocked the road there .

The watchman sent by him drove only 15 versts and returned with the news that the allied army was ahead. The allies did not know about his movement and reasonably feared the blow of Yaroslav's warriors on their pens. The news about Yaroslav was delivered by the brave Yarun. On the Annunciation on March 25, walking at the head of the advance detachment, he ran into an enemy guard of 100 people, attacked it and put it to flight. In the battle, 7 warriors of Yaroslav died, and 33 were captured. From their words, it became known that Yaroslav had already taken refuge in Tver. Now, knowing this, the soldiers of the allied rati "go to life without fear."

Yaroslav's further flight from Tver to Pereyaslavl made an attempt to take this city senseless for the Allies. Instead, they took new steps to strengthen their ties with Konstantin Vsevolodovich. The Smolensk boyar Yavolod was sent to him in Rostov. Vladimir Pskovskiy with a mixed Pskov-Smolensk detachment accompanied the envoy to the Rostov borders. At the same time, they captured the town of Kosnyatyn. Mstislav Udatny with the main forces, meanwhile, continued unhurried movement on the Volga ice, sending out corrals to devastate the surroundings. His warriors burned the volosts along the Shoshe and Dubna rivers. Once again united with the Pskovites, the allied army went all the way to the mouth of the Mologa, ruining everything in its path.

On Mologa, the Rostov governor Yeremey met the allied princes at the head of a detachment of 500 soldiers. He conveyed the message of Constantine: "I am glad to hear your coming; and lo help you 500 men of the army; and send me with all the speeches of Vsevolod (Mstislavich) my brother-in-law." Vsevolod immediately left for Rostov to complete the negotiations, and the rati continued on their way, but already on horseback - the Volga opened up and the sledge train had to be left in place.
On Great Saturday, April 9, 1216, the army arrived at the "Fortification on the Sarah River near St. Marina", where Prince Konstantin also approached with his squad. Here he finally joined the coalition and kissed the cross on that. The princes celebrated Easter at Gorodische.

Sarskoye settlement - once a large Meryan tribal center - at the end of the 11th century. fell into decay due to the rise of Rostov, but retained its importance as a fortress. In the XIII century. it was a powerful castle on a narrow, elongated ridge, surrounded on three sides by the bend of the Sara River. From the floor part, the ridge was crossed by four defensive ramparts, reinforced with wooden structures. According to the surviving Rostov legend, this castle belonged at that time to the famous knight Alexander Popovich, who served Rostov and Prince Konstantin. This hero had already gained fame for himself in the past clash between Konstantin and Yuri, when "brave, leaving Rostov, Prince Yuryev howled howl, they were beaten from him near Rostov on the river Ishna and near Ugodichi in the meadow, many pits of bones were laid." The accession of Popovich to the allied rati was important not only because of his combat skills, but also because of the great authority that the Rostov prince enjoyed among the retinue. In addition to him, such famous heroes as Dobrynya the Golden Belt (Timonya Rezanich) and Nefediy Dikun joined the allies.

Before the attack on Pereyaslavl, the allied princes sent Vladimir of Pskov back to Rostov - he should have waited for the approach of the Belozersky army called by Konstantin. The Novgorodians expected to capture Yaroslav in Pereyaslavl, however, having approached the city on Fomin’s week (April 15), they took a prisoner who said that the prince they hated had already left with the Pereyaslavl regiment to Vladimir. Then Mstislav and Konstantin moved on and soon became a camp near Yuryev-Polsky, and the Rostovites settled down in a separate camp on Lipitsa. It turned out that the allies were only slightly ahead of the enemy - the huge Suzdal army, almost having time to occupy Yuryev, stood on the banks of the Gza River.

Yuryev-Polsky, founded in 1152 by the great grandfather of the Vsevolodichi, Yuri Dolgoruky, was located in a densely populated and rich area of ​​​​the Suzdal opolye, in the lowland of the left bank of the Koloksha, not far from the place where the Gza flows into it. The fortress of the town was protected by a four-six-meter ring shaft, as well as a moat, reaching a width of 28 m. Two gates led inside the citadel - the northern Rostov and the southeastern Vladimir. Having managed to capture Yuryev, Mstislav Udatny secured a powerful stronghold in the heart of the Suzdal lands just on the eve of the decisive clash.

Information about the Suzdal rati, which the allied princes had, made a frightening impression. Therefore, hoping to buy time before the approach of Vladimir Pskov, they started new negotiations with the enemy. They probably counted on trying to sow discord in the camp of the enemy - the Novgorodians did not consider Yuri Vsevolodovich their enemy and therefore sent Sotsky Larion to him with the words: "We bow to you, brother, we have no offense from you, but there is an offense from Yaroslav - and Novgorod, and Konstantin, your elder brother. We ask you, reconcile with your elder brother, give him seniority in his truth, and Yaroslav was ordered to let the Novgorodians and New Torzhans go. May human blood not be shed in vain, for this God will exact from us. " To this, Yuri firmly and briefly answered: "We are one person with brother Yaroslav."

Then the same Larion was sent with peaceful speeches to Yaroslav. Mstislav Udatny conveyed to his son-in-law: “Novgorod is mine. And you seized the Novgorod husbands for no reason, stole a lot of good and the Novgorodians, crying, crying out to God at you and complaining to me about insults from you. You, son, release the prisoners, and the Novgorod volost so let us make peace and not shed blood in vain.” But Yaroslav regarded the peace proposals as manifestations of the enemy’s weakness, and therefore answered self-confidently and gloatingly: “We don’t want peace; your husbands are with me; you came from afar, but went out like dry fish.”

Upon the return of Larion, the allies equipped a third embassy, ​​addressing both Vsevolodichs this time: “Brothers, we are all of the tribe of Vladimirov and did not come here for war and ruin, not to take away your fatherland, but we are looking for peace. You are according to the law of God and Truth Give seniority to the Russian big brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you hate God, you can’t atone for anything.

Yuri answered the messengers: “Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but does not know how he will leave here. If our father himself could not judge between me and Konstantin, then should Mstislav be our judge? the whole earth will be yours."

After the ambassadors left, Yuri called his boyars and brothers to a feast in his tent. Warlike speeches were heard from everyone, and only the old boyar Tvorimir (Andrei Stanislavich) spoke differently: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav! "there are fewer of them. The princes of the Rostislav tribe are wise, rowdy and brave, and their men, Novgorodians and Smolensk, are bold in battle. And about Mstislav Mstislavich, you yourself know that courage was given to him more than anyone else. And don't Konstantin now have the brave Alexander Popovich, his servant Torop and Dobrynya of the Golden Belt?"

Such speeches caused general indignation, and Yuri allegedly even tried to pierce the old adviser with a sword, but was restrained by his companions. Yuri cooled down, especially since completely different speeches sounded from everywhere. The general mood was expressed by the "brave and mad" boyar Ratibor, who declared: "Princes Yuri and Yaroslav! It never happened under your fathers, under your grandfathers, or under your great-grandfathers, so that someone entered the strong Suzdal land as an army and would leave it Yes, even if the whole Russian land came against us - and Galician, and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then nothing can be done with us. "

Encouraged, Yuri and Yaroslav gave the governors a tough order, forbidding them to take prisoners in battle: “Behold, the goods have come into your hands. You will have armor, horses and ports. And whoever takes a man alive will be killed himself. kill that one, so that we don’t leave a single living one. If someone from the regiment leaks out, he won’t be killed, but we’ll seize him, otherwise we’ll hang or crucify them. Forbidding the capture of even noble opponents, the Suzdal leaders openly violated the existing rules of warfare. This command of theirs, apparently, even before the start of the battle became known to the allied rati. The soldiers of Udatny and Konstantin realized that in a foreign land they had no one to expect mercy from anyone and, in turn, became hardened.

After the military council, the brothers retired to the tent and drew up a letter on the division of the possessions of their opponents, in the defeat of which they had no doubts. Yuri secured the rights to the Suzdal and Rostov lands, Yaroslav should have returned the pacified Novgorod, and Svyatoslav was judged by Smolensk. Having got a taste, the brothers also decided to give Kiev to the Chernigov princes, and take Galich for themselves. After that, a messenger was sent to the camp of Mstislav Udatny with a proposal to meet for battle on the plain near Lipica.

FORCES OF THE PARTIES

According to the medieval scale, the armies participating in the Battle of Lipitsa were huge. However, it is now impossible to accurately determine their true number, as well as the size of losses. The chronicles are contradictory and unreliable.

It is known that with Mstislav Udatny, 5,000 Novgorodians approached Rzhev (in the presentation of V.N. Tatishchev, they turned into 500 horsemen), and 900 Pskovians marched against Zubtsov. These figures seem quite real and, based on them, further calculations can be made. Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod, had to put up a larger army, but it could hardly be much superior to Mstislav's army. After all, the Smolensk people had even less time to prepare than the Novgorodians, and they could not gather the forces of the whole earth. Apparently, the city regiment and the prince’s squad set out on a campaign, the total number of which can be conditionally reduced to 6000. The army of Yuri and Yaroslav had an overwhelming numerical superiority, as can be seen from how the allies were delighted at the approach of even the Belozersky rati, which was so small, on the eve of the battle, that is not even mentioned separately in the general disposition - she fell under the command of Vladimir Mstislavich, who brought her, and merged with his Pskovians. From here it is logical to assume the strength of the Rostovites in the region of 3,000, and the Belozersk - no more than 1,000. In general, thus, up to 16,000 soldiers could be at the disposal of the allied rati.

Regarding their opponents, it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav had 17. Banners here, obviously, mean not only the banners themselves, but also individual combat units - units of 20-150 spears led by a boyar, city foreman or petty prince. Considering that in addition to the commander, one spear included 10 more soldiers, it is possible to give a rounded number of Yuri's forces somewhere in 7-10 thousand, and Yaroslav - in 9-13 thousand people. At least 5,000 soldiers were to be included in the regiment of the "lesser brethren" - Ivan and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. The chronicler's statement that 10,000 people came with Svyatoslav and Mikhail Borisovich near Rzhev is clearly exaggerated. Otherwise, they would hardly have retreated so hastily and practically without a fight before the incomplete six thousand of Mstislav and Vladimir. As a result, the Vsevolodichi army on Lipitsa can be calculated somewhere in the amount of 21 to 30 thousand people. Its composition was more colorful than that of the allied rati. Yuri commanded the Suzdal people - there was "the whole force of the Suzdal land: they were driven from the settlements and up to the footmen." Under the command of Yaroslav were his Pereyaslavtsy, Gorodtsy, Murom (led by Prince Davyd Yuryevich), a small number of fugitive Novgorodians and Novotorzhan, as well as fairly large forces of roamers - the chronicle calls them on an equal footing with the named contingents. Regarding them, it should be noted that, contrary to popular belief, they were by no means "rabble gangs of the eastern steppes, the prototype of the Cossacks." As a philological analysis of the origin of their very name, as well as a comparison of information from Russian and Hungarian chronicles, convincingly shows, these were detachments of hired soldiers, immigrants from the Lower Danube, the Russian population of which hunted fishing, river trade and piracy. Their military detachments were often led by experienced Galician boyars (“Galician exiles”), or even outcast princes. The composition of the regiments of the "lesser brethren" is not disclosed in the chronicles, but, apparently, here, in addition to the personal squads of Ivan and Svyatoslav, the militia of the Suzdal land "from the settlements", reinforced by heroes like Yuryata and Ratibor, consisted. This can be inferred from the fact that it was this flank that turned out to be the weak point in the Vsevolodichi battle line and showed the least stamina in the battle.

Both armies had in their ranks the famous heroes-bogatyrs, each of whom led his own small squad. So, the famous Alexander Popovich, in addition to the servant Torop, led out into the field "the other brave ones of the same city 70." Bogatyrs in Russia were then called God's people (for comparison, the knight-monks of the Teutonic Order bore the name of God's nobles among Russians), which indicates the special status that these knights occupied in society. They could serve this or that prince or city, but at the same time they retained a certain independence, which, ultimately, led in 1219 to their joint decision to serve only the Grand Duke of Kiev, as the traditional head of the entire Russian land.

Among the soldiers of the allied rati, the annals name such heroes as Alexander Popovich, Dobrynya the Golden Belt (aka Timonya Rezanich) and Nefediy Dikun, and from the Suzdal side - Yuryata and Ratibor, who fell at the hands of Popovich. The Nikon chronicle also names some "Iev Popovich and his servant Nestor, the greats of the brave", whose death in battle was mourned by Mstislav Udatny himself. This gave grounds to assert that Alexander Popovich had a brother-hero, Job or Ivan. However, here there is clearly a distortion of the original text of the earlier Novgorod Chronicle, where among the dead Novgorodians, "Ivanka Popovitsya" was also mentioned.

In concluding the review, it should be noted that, naming the number of troops, the chroniclers most likely had in mind only "combat units" that directly participated in the battles, not including convoy guards and camp staff. Taking into account these forces, the total number of troops should be increased two to three times.

To be continued

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