Mongols the Impact of the

Mongols The Impact of the Invading Mongols on Kievan Rus The lands of Central Asia and Eastern Europe have been occupied by innumerable powers, ravaged by countless invaders and governed by countless alliances. None would be so expansive and successful though as the Mongols, who under the rulership of the Khan's, spread their power and influence quickly and easily across a remarkable expanse of land.

Likewise, they would hold sway over this expanse for no less than the three ensuing centuries, serving as the inflection point by which the future nations of Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and other in the region would be divided, governed, populated and ethnically defined. At the time of its rise to prominence, the Mongolian Empire would be the first truly unifying force in the region's history, for better and worse.

Prior to its emergence, the Eurasian expanse had been known as the Kievan Rus, and was a general region governed by an always precarious set of alliances that had reached a point of splintering during the 13th century. This internal vulnerability coincided with the evolution of a new and unanticipated enemy. According to Dutch (1998), "by 1206 Temuchin had done what no other tribal leader had ever done before: assemble all the Mongol tribes under a single ruler.

At a ceremony in that year he was given the title Khan of Khans and the honorific name by which he is better known to history - Genghis Khan. What separates Genghis Khan (1162-1227) from all his predecessors is that Genghis extended his authority over a vast region and created institutions to perpetuate Mongol power." (Dutch, 1) This extension of authority would be a prime directive for the Mongols, whose first invasion of the Kievan Rus region came in 1223.

The Mongols would easily rout an alliance of Kievan princes and nomadic border tribes, humbling the Slavic peoples who inhabited the land and introducing them to their eventual conqueror in Genghis Khan's grandson. According to the text provided by Nicolle & Shpakovskii (2001), based on a series of deaths in the family and his place in the line of inheritance, "Batu, inherited the western ulus, which included all western lands as far as Mongol horses had trod.

This became the 'Golden Horse.'" (Nicolle & Shpakovskii, 1) After a brief and successful invasion, and a subsequent regrouping, Batu would return in full force more than a decade later, bringing with him a scope of transition and carnage that still leave their imprint on modern Russia and its neighbors. Indeed, the sheer casualty rates imposed upon the conquered lands may be said to have impacted the psyche of the people thusly invaded, defeated and occupied.

According to White (2009), rumors of the atrocities visited upon the Russians and central Asians by the marauding conquest of the Mongols are greatly exaggerated, producing something of an unrealistic picture of the devastation faced by the populations of Russia. White denotes that it is "estimated that 15 million died in the Mongols' five-year invasion of central Asia." (White, 1) However, White goes on to cite the only modest body of evidence to cast doubt on these figures.

Indeed, arguments to suggest that these numbers are inaccurate derive from a place of speculation rather than empiricism, suggesting that evidence to refute the scale of supposed carnage is limited or wholly unavailable.

White quotes a biographer of Genghis Khan named Weatherford, who derided that "more conservative scholars place the number of dead from Genghis Khan's invasion of central Asia at 15 million within five years [which] would require that each Mongol kill more than a hundred people." (White, 1) However, White makes the argument that this logic is not only absent of supporting evidence but that further, it is not particularly compelling.

Such is to say that our reflection on the Mongols does not suggest it is inherently improbable that individual Mongols would be capable of this over the course of half-a-decade. In any event, it can be said that the scale of destruction caused by the Mongols was quite substantial, and that this would have a psychological impact with formative implications to the Russians. In a sense, this denotes that we are not as much concerned with the reality of these casualty numbers so much as the impression created by them.

This would be a humbling and dark time in Russian history. Indeed, whether the casualty reports are accurate, exaggerated or fully fabricated, the Mongolians would effectively dismantle in its entirety the fragile balance of authority amongst a splintering Kievan Rus alliance. And in order to do so, the Mongolians would destroy in their wake every major city in the Rus territory.

As Racey (2000) would report, the return of Batu Khan's forces for a second invasion would mark the end of the monarchical alliances comprising the vast region of territories now known as Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Accordingly, Racey denotes that "a fairly clear marker for the beginning of the campaigns was in 1236, when Batu conquered the Volga Bulgars in southwestern Russia. The kingdom of Georgia fell in the same year. In late December of the following year, the Mongols under Batu captured the Russian city of Riazan.

The city of Vladimir fell in February of 1238, and then Batu began to attack the northern realms of the Kievan Rus', one of the oldest Russian kingdoms, eventually settling his army by the River Don for about a year." (Racey, 1) This would initiate a new phase in the history of the region, in which a stable Mongolian rule persisted and in which this ruling forced adopted what history characterizes as a relatively liberal administration of these lands.

The destruction experienced by those who initially attempted in vain to ward of their invading conquerors would be a misleading prelude to an extended rule in which the Mongols did not employ aggressive military occupation, did not impose religious uniformity and, in eventuality, allowed for the delegation of authority to local and regional leaders.

The decisive totality of the Mongolian invasions would seem to have effectively dissuaded from any sense of defiance to the new authority, and over the course of centuries, the relative autonomy which this mode of rulership would allow to regions would disincline tendencies toward resentment and rebellion. Moreover, the Mongols had so successfully exploited a history of infighting between ethnically diverse peoples in Kievan Rus that the fragile power previously held by them was now totally dismantled.

With the largest implication of its conquering being the region's responsibility to pay tribute to its conqueror. It would be at this juncture that the future of the region would begin to come into focus. Batu Khan's invasion was thorough above all else. He dispatched his armies into smaller units which levied a coordinated attack on all the major cities of Kievan Rus. All were destroyed, and with the tolls levied upon the defeated by their conquerors, many of these would never be rebuilt.

According to IC (2005), "for the next century or so, very little seems to have happened in Russia. In fact, given the tribute demanded by the Tatars, there wasn't much money available for building, campaigns, or anything else of that sort. With the Tatars off to the southwest, the northeastern cities gradually gained more influence -- first Tver, and then, around the turn of the 14th century, Moscow.

As a sign of the city's importance, the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred to the city, making it the spiritual capital of Russia" (IC, 1) It is at this juncture that we can begin to observe the emergence of a modern Russian state. The Mongols had dismantled an alliance that spread its authority artificially across a region of nuance. By conquering this region and subsequently declining to occupy it, the Mongols allowed for the natural emergence of regional demarcations.

Moreover, by leaving in ruin and disarray the cities of the Kievan Rus alliance, the Mongols paved the way for the distinct nation states that would come of these regions. It is thus that even in spite.