North-Eastern, or Vladimir-Suzdal Russia In the XII century. as a result of princely strife and Polovtsian devastation, the decline of Kievan Rus begins. The troubles of Kiev life caused the movement of the population from the center of what was then Russia, Kyiv, to its outskirts, i.e. to

Campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars 1237-1239 to North-Eastern Russia led to hitherto unprecedented devastation of the country, the mass destruction of the population, the destruction of many cities. The words of the chronicler, who described Batu's invasion, that "there is no place, no everything (i.e., villages - V.K.), or villages of tats seldom, where you did not fight on the Suzhdal lands", although, perhaps, and written late, on the whole, correctly reflected the picture of the horrific pogrom and desolation of the earth. And after Batu, the Horde khans repeatedly organized cruel punitive expeditions to the Russian North-East. They took on a particularly wide scope in 1252, 1281 and 1293.

The foreign yoke led not only to the political subordination of the Russian princes to the Karakorum and Saray rulers, the disruption of the historical ties between the northeastern principalities and the principalities of the southern "Russian Land", the strengthening of the isolation of Novgorod and Pskov, the cessation in the first decades of the foreign domination of church and urban construction in the North-Eastern Russia, but also to the conservation of its territory, and within the latter - to the decline of a number of old principalities and to the emergence and rise of new state formations that determined the further historical fate of Russia. As a hopeless anachronism, the judgments of a major Russian historian of the late 19th - early 20th centuries are now perceived, who proposed to forget "for a while that before the first generation of the Vsevolodovichs left the stage, Russia was conquered by the Tatars ... The phenomena that we observe in Suzdal land after this defeat (we are talking about the processes of feudal fragmentation. - V.K.), consistently, without interruption, develop from the conditions that began to operate even before the defeat, in the XII century. In fact, during the period of Mongol domination, the formation of the territories of the principalities of North-Eastern Russia took place under the indirect, and sometimes direct influence of the Horde.

Unfortunately, the course of this process until the end of the XIII century. covered in historiography very sparingly, and modern researchers do not pay any attention to it at all, thereby incompletely and inaccurately assessing the consequences of the Batu conquest for the Russian lands. Their well-known justification is the extreme lapidarity of sources, mainly chronicles, which, like other areas of ancient Russian culture, experienced the withering effect of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Nevertheless, even S.M. Solovyov, trying to explain the rise of Moscow in the post-Mongolian period, drew attention to the influx of population into the Moscow principality not only from the South, but "and from the nearest regions - Ryazan, Tver, Rostov, constantly less safe .. ." . Perhaps this idea of ​​S.M. Solovyov became the starting point for M.K. Lyubavsky, who did a lot to study the historical geography of the East European Plain during the Middle Ages and outlined the right path to clarify the specifics of the territorial development of North-Eastern Russia in the Horde period. According to M.K. Lyubavsky, after the invasion of Batu and under the influence of subsequent campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars, the population began to move from the east and the center of Suzdal to its more militarily safe western outskirts: Tver and Moscow. Thus, the reason for the rapid strengthening of not only the Moscow, but also the Tver principality was revealed, already in the last third of the 13th century. who began to play a major political role in the Russian Northeast. The same demographic factor led to the emergence and development of two new, unknown in the pre-Mongolian period, northeastern Russian principalities, formed on the border of the old Suzdalytsina. The geography of political centers in the Northeast has changed. This predetermined the territorial basis, which later became the basis for the unification of the country.

The opinion of M.K. Lyubavsky about the reasons for the growth of Moscow and Tver was joined by such a cautious researcher as A.E. Presnyakov. However, in the subsequent time, the conclusion of M.K. Lyubavsky was not properly evaluated and developed. While stating the fruitfulness of the explanation proposed by M.K. Lyubavsky for the rise of the so-called "junior cities" in North-Eastern Russia after the Mongol-Tatar invasion, at the same time, one cannot help but point out the incomplete and insufficient analysis of the material carried out by the researcher. As a result, some of the conclusions of M.K. Lyubavsky do not always seem to be justified, and even directly erroneous. The latter refers to the definition of the main directions of the campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars and the associated displacement of the population of North-Eastern Russia, the time of the emergence and stabilization of various principalities here, not only Moscow and Tver.

Obviously, in order to obtain a true picture of the evolution of the state territory of North-Eastern Russia in the post-Mongolian period, it is necessary to study the data relating to all the principalities of this region without exception. Such a study should be preceded by a list of those cities and regions that in the XIII century. became objects of military attacks by the Mongol-Tatars. Then the peculiarities of the political map of the Russian North-East of the 13th-century kovets will become clear.

Description of the north-eastern cities and territories related to them, during the XIII century. experienced the blows of the Mongol-Tatar armies, is quite extensive.

Stolny Vladimir was taken and robbed four times by the Mongol-Tatars. In 1238, the fortifications of the city were partially destroyed (probably the walls of the New City), partially damaged by fire (Pechersky city). The Assumption Cathedral was set on fire and plundered, the population was slaughtered. With a high degree of probability it can be assumed; that Vladimir or its districts also suffered in 1252, when the Grand Duke of Vladimir Andrei Yaroslavich refused, according to the chronicle, to "serve as cesarean", i.e. khanam. Vladimir was the residence of Andrei, and the Horde expedition directed against him, of course, could not but undertake some kind of repression against the population of the capital and its environs, in particular against the boyars who supported their prince. In 1281, the places near Vladimir were plundered by the Mongol-Tatars, who came with Prince Andrei Alexandrovich to the Grand Duke Dmitry, Andrei's elder brother. Finally, in 1293, Duden's army, brought by the same Andrei Alexandrovich, "Volodimer took and robbed the churches, and the bottom of the wonderful honey otter (in the Assumption Cathedral. - V.K.), and books, and icons, and honest crosses, and sacred vessels, and all sorts of patterned plunder, and villages and volosts, and churchyards, and monasteries of war ... ".

The small town of Volok Lamsky was first captured by the Mongol-Tatars in 1238. In 1293, the detachments of Duden and the troops of Andrei Alexandrovich "Take the Volok, and people from the forests know" .

Galich Mersky, apparently, suffered from the Mongol-Tatars in 1238, when the hordes of Batu "plunged everything along the Volz even to Galich Mersky".

In the same campaign, Gorodets Radilov on the Volga was also taken by the Mongol-Tatars.

Gorokhovets Mongol-Tatars "pozhgosha" in the autumn of 1239

During the invasion of Batu and in the "Dyudenev's army" Dmitrov and Moscow were captured, moreover, Duden with the troops of the allied Russian princes "took all of Moscow, both volosts and villages."

Pereyaslavl Zalessky experienced heavy blows from the Mongol-Tatars. In 1238 the city was captured by the troops of Batu. In 1252, the Mongol-Tatars, who had overtaken Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich, who was disobedient to him, near Pereyaslavl, "spread across the earth ... and the people were driven (captured. - V.K.), to the horse and cattle." In 1281, the Mongol-Tatars "near Pereyaslavl created everything empty and robbed people." No wonder that in 1293, with rumors about Duden's army, the population of Pereyaslavl and neighboring volosts fled. The Mongol-Tatars stood at Pereyaslavl "for many days, but there are no people, they got out of Pereyaslavl".

It is sometimes believed that during the Batu invasion, Rostov escaped the sad fate of other Russian cities and did not suffer from the Mongol-Tatars. They judge so on the basis of the phrase of the Novgorod I chronicle of the older version: "Rostov and Suzhdal were scattered apart." But the given names in this case do not designate cities, but Rostov and Suzdal detachments that were on the City River as part of the troops of Grand Duke Yuri and fled from defeat. The capture of Rostov by the Mongol-Tatars in 1238 is reported by the Laurentian Chronicle. In 1281, the Mongol-Tatar army devastated the neighborhood of Rostov, robbed Rostov villages.

Ancient Suzdal was devastated three times. In 1238, the Mongol-Tatars "took Suzhdal and plundered the Holy Mother of God, and burned the prince's court with fire and burned the monastery of St. Dmitry, and plundered the rest." In 1281 they devastated the environs of Suzdal, and in 1293 Duden's army "took the whole city".

The Mongol-Tatars first appeared in Tver in 1238. Here they killed the son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. In 1281, they, according to the chronicle, "near Tfiri created an empty place." In 1293, Khan Toktomer undertook a special campaign against Tver and "inflict a great burden on people, oh slaughter, and oh oh full lead ...".

Torzhok was taken by the Mongol-Tatars only once - in 1238.

Direct evidence of the capture of Uglich by the Horde troops is found in the annals under 1293. It is possible that Uglich suffered from the Mongol-Tatars even earlier in 1238. The Laurentian Chronicle reports that after the capture of Pereyaslavl, Batu's regiment "from that whole country and many cities, all that even to Torzhok ... ". Uglich was probably among the "many cities". In any case, the archaeological survey of the settlements near Uglich indicates their desolation in connection with the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars.

There is no doubt that Yuryev was among the "many cities" captured by Batu. Through it there was a road from Vladimir to Pereyaslavl. In 1238, the last two cities were taken by the Mongol-Tatars. Yuryev, lying between them, could not avoid this fate. In 1281, the Mongol-Tatars robbed the surroundings of Yuryev, and in 1293, the city itself was captured by Duden's army.

The Mongol-Tatars reached Yaroslavl, which was relatively far in the north, only once - in 1238.

As the above material shows, Vladimir, Pereyaslavl Zalessky, Suzdal, Yuryev, and also Tver were subjected to the most frequent attacks by the Mongol-Tatars. Geographically, these cities can be divided into two groups. One group consists of the first four cities. All of them lay in the very center of the ancient Rostov-Suzdal land, in its most fertile, rich and habitable part. Apart from Rostov, it was these cities that were the largest in North-Eastern Russia in pre-Mongolian times; the political and military power of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes was based on their possession. Therefore, it is far from accidental that the blows of the Mongol-Tatars were directed primarily to Vladimir, Pereyaslavl, Suzdal and Yuryev. Old, long-colonized and densely populated areas were periodically destroyed. Thus, the material basis of the power of the princes of North-Eastern Russia, especially the eldest of them, the Grand Duke of Vladimir, was undermined, the possibility of their strengthening, the desire to unite and repulse the conquerors were radically suppressed. On the part of the Mongol-Tatars, this was a well-thought-out policy aimed at maintaining and strengthening their dominance over the Russian lands.

Tver is clearly separated from this group. It is no less than the central region, was subjected to in the XIII century. Mongol Tatar attacks. These attacks on the westernmost principality of North-Eastern Russia were aimed at reducing the power of the Tver princes, whose political significance was in the last third of the 13th century. has seriously increased. The princes of Tver even dared to openly fight the Horde. However, the Mongol-Tatar invasions of the Tver territory did not lead to its desolation and depopulation. The fact is that since the 40s of the XIII century. the onslaught of Lithuania on the western Russian lands intensified, and the population of these lands began to move east to the regions of Tver, partly Moscow.

The campaigns of Batu and the subsequent punitive expeditions of the Mongol-Tatars had a noticeable impact on the formation of the territories of the principalities of North-Eastern Russia in the second half of the 13th century. In the 70s of the XIII century. in the North-East, there were 14 principalities instead of 6 that existed by 1237. To this it must be added that the territories of the two largest of them, Vladimir, which remained the main one, and Pereyaslavsky, merged together as a result of the fact that Yaroslav Pereyaslavsky, after the death of his brother Yuri Vsevolodovich on the City River, who turned out to be the eldest among the descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest, in 1238 became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. However, in the same 1238, he handed over Suzdal to his brother Svyatoslav, and Starodub to his brother Ivan. The process of transformation of the former Vladimir and Pereyaslav lands began, which led to the emergence of new principalities. All the details of this process, including such important ones as the exact composition of the newly formed principalities, the dates of their appearance and disappearance, due to the fragmentation of sources, are not always determinable, but on the whole this process is fixed quite clearly by the entire set of data.

The Starodub principality remained with Ivan Vsevolodovich and his family. In the 13th century, precisely under 1276 and 1281, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich is mentioned, in whom they rightfully see the son of Ivan Starodubsky. In the XIV century. the descendants of Prince Ivan appear with quite definite nicknames Starodubsky, for that time serving as evidence of the existence of the Starodub principality.

As for the Principality of Suzdal, its fate was more complicated. First of all, it is necessary to find out what the transfer of Suzdal to Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich meant. In the previous chapter it was said that in 1212/13 Prince Svyatoslav received from his brother Grand Duke Yury Yuryev of Poland. He owned this principality until 1237. The transfer of Suzdal into his hands in 1238 cannot but raise the question of whether Suzdal was given to Svyatoslav instead of Yuryev or whether it was given to Yuryev.

A.V. Ekzemplyarsky believed that Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich simultaneously owned both Yuryev and Suzdal, and Suzdal became the center of his reign. A.E. Presnyakov considered Suzdal as some kind of special possession of Svyatoslav, received by him as the heir to the Vladimir Grand Duke's table. A.E. Presnyakov did not determine the status of the Yuryev territory at that time.

The conclusion of A.V. Ekzemplyarsky is based on a misunderstanding. He believed that in 1242 Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich decorated the St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev, and from this he deduced the fact that the latter belonged to Svyatoslav. In fact, the decoration of the St. George's Cathedral dates back to 1234. There are no direct reports from the post-Mongol period linking Prince Svyatoslav with the St. George's Principality in the chronicles. By analogy with Starodub, one must think that in 1238 Suzdal became the capital city of Svyatoslav. The Yuryev principality became part of the possessions of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. However, this only lasted a few years.

When on September 30, 1246, Grand Duke Yaroslav, poisoned by the Mongol-Tatars, died, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich took the Vladimir throne. He "planted his nephews in the city, as if Yaroslav had ordered them from his father." Yaroslav had seven sons, and the very fact of endowing each of them with a principality meant the fragmentation of the old Vladimir-Pereyaslav territory into a number of smaller possessions. Yaroslavichi were dissatisfied with the distribution of tables between them by their uncle. In 1247, Prince Andrei Yaroslavich went to Batu, apparently to work on expanding his homeland. He was followed by Alexander Nevsky. And their brother Mikhail Khorobrit in 1248 drove Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from the great reign and himself became the prince of Vladimir. In the winter of 1248/49, Mikhail died in a battle with the Lithuanians, and at the end of 1249, Alexander and Andrei returned to Russia from Karakorum. The Mongol-Tatars "ordered Oleksandrovy Kiev and the whole Russian land, and Andrey went to Volodimer on the table." The transfer of Kyiv and Southern Russia to Nevsky was, apparently, a fiction. Alexander Yaroslavich preferred Novgorod the Great, untouched by the Mongol-Tatars, to this region plundered by the Mongol-Tatars. There he stayed until 1252, when he received a label for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir and "the eldership in all his brothers." Andrey Yaroslavich, who risked ceasing to serve as "cesarean", was deprived of the Vladimir table and was forced to seek refuge in Sweden.

Stormy events of the late 40s - early 50s of the XIII century. in North-Eastern Russia, apparently, they were accompanied by frequent movements of princes, the emergence and liquidation of principalities, but with the reign of Alexander Nevsky in Vladimir, the political situation basically stabilized.

From 1250, the news about the trip of Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich with his son Dmitry to the Horde has been preserved. Although the purpose of the trip is hidden in the annals, such trips of Russian princes with their sons-heirs to the khans were usually made when it came to securing their fatherland principalities for the Rurikovichs. Obviously, by 1250 Svyatoslav already possessed such a principality. Since the great-grandson of Svyatoslav bore the nickname Yuryevsky, one can think that in 1250 Svyatoslav no longer owned the Suzdal, but the Yuryevsky principality. Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich could part with the Principality of Suzdal either in 1247, when, having become the Grand Duke, he ceded it to one of his nephews, or in 1248, when he lost the reign of Vladimir. In any case, Svyatoslav turned into a Yuryev prince, apparently as a result of the events of 1248. Thus, Suzdal was in the hands of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich until about 1247-1248. Whether the reunification of the territories of Suzdal and the great Vladimir principalities took place in 1247, or whether the principality of Suzdal continued to function, but already under the rule of one of the Yaroslavichs, is difficult to say. It is indisputable, however, that later, in the second half of the 13th century, the Suzdal principality existed. Evidence of this is the news of 1264 about the death of Prince Andrei Yaroslavich of Suzdal and the message under 1279 of the death of Andrei's son Prince Yuri of Suzdal and his burial in Suzdal in the Cathedral Church of the Virgin.

Prince Andrei, who fled in 1252 from the Mongol-Tatars "over the sea", by 1257 was already in Russia. In that year, he went to the Horde and returned, together with Alexander Nevsky and Boris Rostovsky, "to his homeland." Apparently, Andrei's trip to the khan was caused by the need to establish a principality for him, and specifically Suzdal. Suzdal was supposed to be allocated to him by the Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich. If so, then it must be assumed that until 1257 Suzdal was part of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. And since Alexander became the Grand Duke in 1252, we can assume that at least in 1252-1257. Suzdal territory was a single whole with Vladimir. From what has been said, it follows that the Suzdal principality as an independent political unit during 1238-1257. existed intermittently. And only in 1257 it finally separated from the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.

The history of another old center of North-Eastern Russia - Pereyaslavl - for the first 10-15 years of the Horde yoke also presents a lot of obscurity. True, at one time A.V. Ekzemplyarsky was convinced that the Principality of Pereyaslav was still during the life of his father, i.e. between 1238 and 1246, received Alexander Nevsky. In his opinion, "Pereyaslavl, after the formation of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, was, as it were, a necessary accessory of this latter: the great princes planted in it either their sons, or their closest relatives ...". And the eldest son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich Alexander, according to A.V. Ekzemplyarsky, "sat in Pereyaslavl not only with his father, but also with the great princes - his successors", owned Pereyaslavl "until he took the grand prince's table".

The observations and conclusions of A.V. Ekzemplyarsky were supported and developed by A.E. Presnyakov. He came to the conclusion that in the post-Mongolian time, the Pereyaslav principality was constantly transferred down the descending line to the eldest of the sons of the Grand Duke, who was the successor of his father on the table of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. "The close and long-term connection of the Pereyaslav table with the great reign," summarized A.E. Presnyakov, "left a special seal on the attitude of the princes towards Pereyaslavl and gave it a somewhat exceptional significance."

Meanwhile, the idea of ​​researchers about the belonging of the Pereyaslav principality to Alexander Yaroslavich in 1238-1252. is based on the only chronicle news of 1240, moreover, in the edition of the later chronicle codes. If we turn to the earliest annalistic monument that preserved this message, then the following text is read there: “In the same summer, the same winter, Prince Oleksandr went out of Novgorod to his father in Pereyaslavl with his mother and wife and with all his household, painting with Novgorodians". The very terminology of the message (“to my father in Pereyaslavl”, and not “to myself in Pereyaslavl”), the departure of the elder Yaroslavich to Pereyaslavl with his mother, for whom it is more natural to stay in a grand-ducal city, and not in the center of a specific reign, the absence of any representatives of "their court" of Prince Alexander say that Pereyaslavl did not belong to Nevsky, but to his father, Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.

It is characteristic that a contemporary of Alexander Yaroslavich, who compiled his biography, called Alexander the Great "fatherland" Novgorod the Great, but did not mention Pereyaslavl at all.

The message of the Novgorod I Chronicle of the senior edition about the repulsion of the Lithuanian attack on Torzhok and Bezhitsa in 1245 is also indicative: In the morning, Alexander came from Novgorod, and the father was full of everything ... ". Thanks to this record, it turns out that Tver and Dmitrov, the constituent parts of the Pereyaslav principality of the pre-Mongol period, were ruled by the governors Yavid and Kerbet. Their non-participation in the subsequent military actions of Alexander Nevsky, who besieged Toropets and then pursued the fleeing Lithuanians, indicates that they were not governors of Alexander, but of his father, Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Consequently, the Pereyaslav territory did not belong to Alexander, but was part of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.

The three testimonies cited indicate that Pereyaslavl and the territory of the former Principality of Pereyaslavl were held by Yaroslav Vsevolodovich under his own hand and during his lifetime were not transferred to any of his sons.

From the fourth evidence, one can extract direct data about the lot of Alexander Nevsky. The contractual letter of the Tver prince Mikhail Yaroslavich with Novgorod the Great, drawn up between November 1296 and February 1297, contains the following clause: "And who will be the old people in Torzhka and Volots, but shamed Tfri under Oleksandr and under Yaroslav, tm tacos and eat, but disgrace them to mine ". Obviously, the charter mentions people who "disgraced" Tver when it became the center of an independent principality. From this point of view, the mention in the ending of Father Mikhail Yaroslav Yaroslavich, who at one time sat on the Tver table, is quite understandable. But earlier, Yaroslav was named Alexander in the charter, and it is impossible not to see Yaroslav's older brother Alexander Nevsky in him. It becomes obvious that he was the first prince of Tver.

Since in 1245 Tver was ruled by the governor of the Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, it must be assumed that the Tver principality was formed after the named date. Apparently, Tver was received by Alexander according to his father's will, realized in 1247 by Grand Duke Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. It was not for nothing that Alexander was destined for the westernmost part of the Vladimir territory: it directly connected with the lands of Veliky Novgorod, where Alexander reigned.

As for his brother Yaroslav, who is still unanimously accepted by all researchers as the first prince of Tver, the earliest record where he is called the prince of Tver dates only to 1255. The oldest news about his possessions draws him as a prince of a completely different principality.

Above, we have already cited the chronicle story under 1252 about the "running" of the Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich in front of the Mongol-Tatars, who almost seized him at Pereyaslavl. The Grand Duke managed to escape. Then the Mongol-Tatars began to plunder the environs of Pereyaslavl, "and Princess Yaroslavl Yasha and the children of Izimash and the voivode Zhidoslav that ubish and the princes (yn) yu ubish and the children of Yaroslavl were sent to the full" . From this text, A.E. Presnyakov concluded that Pereyaslavl belonged to Andrei. But if Yaroslav's wife and his children were in Pereyaslavl or in the Pereyaslavl district, then this is the surest indication that Pereyaslavl was his residence.

Yaroslav could receive Pereyaslavl in 1247 according to his father's will or later, in 1248-1249, by agreement with his brothers, Grand Dukes Mikhail or Andrei. But after the approval of Alexander Yaroslavich in Vladimir, Pereyaslavl becomes part of the great reign, and in 1263 Nevsky bequeathed the Principality of Pereyaslav to his eldest son Dmitry. Consequently, at some point after 1252, Yaroslav was deprived of the Pereyaslav table. Apparently, a violent exchange took place between Alexander and Yaroslav: Alexander took Pereyaslavl for himself, re-incorporating it into Vladimir territory, and gave Yaroslav his ancestral principality of Tver. Later, the Principality of Tver was established for Yaroslav Yaroslavich and his descendants, and the Principality of Pereyaslav - for the older descendants of Alexander Nevsky.

Under 1280, the chronicle reports that "prince Davyd Kostyantinovich, grandson of Yaroslavl, Galich and Dmitrov" died. The nickname of the prince testifies to the existence of the Galicia-Dmitrovsky principality, composed quite artificially of two centers separated by long distances: Dmitrov, formerly part of the Pereyaslav principality, and Galich Mersky, which was part of the Vladimir grand-princely territory. Following the researchers, the formation of this principality can be attributed to 1247, when Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich distributed "grads" to his nephews. Apparently, then Konstantin Yaroslavich received Dmitrov and Galich. In any case, the unusual geography of his son's possessions indirectly testifies to their early formation, since it was in the first years after the Batu invasion from the devastated North-Eastern Russia that it was not easy to carve out territorially compact destinies. Mentions under 1334 and 1335 princes Boris Dmitrovsky and Fyodor Galitsky testify that between 1280 and 1334. The Galicia-Dmitrovsky principality broke up in two, respectively, to its two centers.

The formation of the Moscow principality also belongs to the post-Mongolian period.

During the XII - the first decades of the XIII century. Moscow was part of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. As shown by M.N. Tikhomirov, in the second half of the XII - the beginning of the XIII century. there is an undoubted economic growth of Moscow. The latter circumstance explains the actions of the fourth son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, Vladimir, who in 1213 made an attempt to gain a foothold in Moscow, giving her preference over Yuryev of Poland, allocated to him by his father's row. Nevertheless, Moscow did not then become the capital of an independent principality. The chronicle emphasizes that Vladimir captured the city of "his brother" Yuri Vladimirsky, that Moscow was "his own city" to Yuri. In addition, Vladimir was in Moscow for only a few months. In subsequent times, Moscow is still part of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.

Mikhail Yaroslavich Khorobrit, the son of the already mentioned Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, is considered the first Moscow prince. It is quite possible that under him Moscow really became the center of an independent principality. However, one cannot categorically insist on this. The fact is that the opinion of researchers about Mikhail Khorobrit as the first Moscow prince is based on the texts of the Novgorod IV Chronicle and the Tver collection, where Mikhail is called Moscow. Compared with the text of the Novgorod IV chronicle, the text of the Tver collection is clearly secondary. Consequently, the oldest is the message of the Novgorod IV Chronicle: "the princes of Suzdalstia beaten Lithuania at Zubtsev. And Mikhail Yaroslavich of Moscow was killed by Lithuania at Porotv." In the main source of the Novgorod IV chronicle - the Novgorod-Sophia code of the 30s of the XV century. This news, apparently, was not. It is absent in the lists of the Sophia I Chronicle of the senior edition, in almost all the lists of the Sophia I Chronicle of the junior edition, and in the Synodal List No. 154 Mikhail is not called Moscow. There was no message about the death of Khorobrit in one of the additional sources of the Novgorod IV chronicle - the Sophia time book, reflected in the Novgorod I chronicle of the younger version. It could have got into the Novgorod IV chronicle from the Rostov dominion's code of the time of Archbishop Ephraim. Until now, this Rostov code has not reached. As far as can be judged from the abridged Rostov code of the late 15th century, the news of Mikhail's death was in the Rostov Chronicle. But it is difficult to say whether Khorobrit was called the Moscow prince in the code of Ephraim. In the mentioned Rostov vault of the end of the 15th century. there is no such definition. It is also not in the record of the death of Mikhail in the Lavrentiev and Simeon chronicles. In addition, the Novgorod IV Chronicle calls Mikhail Moscow after his own report on the capture of the table of the great reign of Vladimir by him, i.e. when Mikhail was no longer Moscow, but Vladimir prince. In the latter connection, it is noteworthy that Mikhail, who was killed on the Protva River, was buried not in Moscow, but in Vladimir. Therefore, it is impossible to draw an indisputable conclusion about the reign of Mikhail Horobrit in Moscow on the basis of the message of the Novgorod IV Chronicle. It is possible that Mikhail Yaroslavich was called Moscow by later scribes.

However, if we accept the version of Khorobrit as the first Moscow prince, his reign in Moscow should have been very short. Moscow, apparently, went to him under the section of 1247. Mikhail died in the winter, at the end of 1248 or the beginning of 1249. Before that, he drove his uncle Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from the great reign and sat on the Vladimir table himself. If you believe the message of the Novgorod IV Chronicle, Svyatoslav occupied the grand prince's table for one year. It follows from this that Mikhail Khorobrit could reign in Moscow for no more than a year.

After Khorobrig, the sources in Moscow do not mention princes. In all likelihood, the city with the territory drawn to it became part of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In any case, Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich, who allocated the Moscow principality as an inheritance to his youngest son Daniel, was in charge of Moscow.

But the two-year-old Daniel did not become a Moscow prince in 1263. This can be judged on the basis of one news of the Tver Chronicle. It mentions a letter, which in fact was a diplomatic note, sent by Prince Ivan Mikhailovich of Tver to Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich in 1408 regarding joint actions against Lithuania. The letter contained a curious reference to the fact that Daniil Alexandrovich, the ancestor of Vasily of Moscow, was raised by Ivan Mikhailovich's ancestor Yaroslav Yaroslavich, whose tiuns spent seven years in Moscow. There can hardly be any doubt about the authenticity of this message, included in an important official document. Yaroslav Yaroslavich was not only the prince of Tver. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, he sat on the Grand Duke's table in Vladimir and occupied it for seven years until his death. It was these seven years that the letter of Ivan Tversky had in mind. From the message of the letter it follows that during his great reign, Yaroslav kept Moscow under his rule, and it was ruled by the grand ducal governors - tiuns. Consequently, the final separation of the Moscow principality from the Vladimir principality occurred no earlier than the 70s of the XIII century. In any case, Daniil Alexandrovich as a Moscow prince was mentioned for the first time in 1283.

Annalistic news of 1265 testifies to the existence of the Kostroma principality. Kostroma belonged to Vasily Yaroslavich, son of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. He probably received it during the distribution of principalities by Svyatoslav in 1247. Then Vasily was less than six years old, and it is possible that in fact Kostroma became the center of a special principality a little later, around the middle of the 50s of the XIII century. In the 70s of the XIII century. the prince of Kostroma was already playing an active political role in the affairs of North-Eastern Russia. In 1272, Vasily Kostroma became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and then, after an armed struggle with his nephew Dmitry Alexandrovich, established himself in Novgorod the Great. However, with the death of Vasily Yaroslavich in January 1277, the Principality of Kostroma ceased to exist, and its territory was reunited with the territory of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In 1293, Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich made an attempt to re-separate the Kostroma principality from the Vladimir lands, but this principality, headed by his son Ivan, lasted at most a few months, after which Kostroma again became part of the grand duke's possessions.

In the east of Suzdalytsin, the Gorodets principality was formed. The first news about him refers to 1282. But since the third son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei, was the prince of Gorodets, it should be assumed that Gorodets was allocated to him by his father's will. Therefore, the formation of the Gorodetsky principality should be attributed to the period between 1263 and 1282. In addition to Gorodets, this principality included Nizhny Novgorod and, probably, Unzha.

Among the possessions of the descendants of the eldest son Vsevolod the Big Nest Constantine in the post-Mongolian period, a new state formation also appeared.

After the death in 1238 of the Rostov prince Vasilko Konstantinovich, the Belozersky principality stood out from his possessions. Under 1251, the Laurentian Chronicle reports that "pokha Glb on Beloozero in his fatherland" . We are talking here about the youngest son of Vasilko, who was born in 1237. It is quite plausible to assume that Vasilko himself singled out Beloozero from the Rostov principality to the diaper Gleb. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Gleb went to Beloozero precisely in 1251, when, according to the concepts of those times, he became an adult (he was 13 years old) and could take possession of the fatherland bequeathed to him.

Gleb's older brother Boris received Rostov. But in 1277, after the death of Boris, Gleb became the prince of Rostov. The principality of Rostov was then held by Boris's sons Dmitry and Konstantin. At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. Rostov Principality included Rostov and Ustyug. The ownership fate of Beloozero is rather vague. The son of Gleb Belozersky, Mikhail, was buried not in his native city, but in Rostov. Even during his lifetime, Beloozero fell into the hands of Dmitry, the eldest son of Boris of Rostov, Dmitry, apparently as a result of a violent capture in 1279. Under the division of 1286 with his brother Konstantin, Dmitry received Uglich and Beloozero, and Konstantin - Rostov and Ustyug. However, later Rostov and Ustyug were in the hands of Dmitry. Constantine was in charge of Uglich: in 1292 he put his son Alexander there. In all likelihood, the brothers changed ownership. In this case, Beloozero should have gone to Konstantin and remained with him even when, after the death of Dmitry in 1294, he settled in Rostov, inheriting the lands of his brother. About stay in the XIII century. on Beloozero there is no information about the grandson of the Belozersky prince Gleb Vasilkovich Fedor. It is possible therefore that the Belozersky principality was resumed only in the 14th century, when Fyodor Mikhailovich married in the Horde and reinforced his paternal rights with the help of the Horde.

On the Uglich table, which became escheated after the death in 1283 of the youngest son of the first Uglich prince Vladimir Konstantinovich Roman, at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century. sitting, apparently, the son of the Rostov prince Konstantin Borisovich Alexander.

After the suppression of the male line of the Vsevolod Konstantinovich family, the Yaroslavl principality was taken over by the offspring of the Smolensk princes Fedor Rostislavich, who married about 1260 Vsevolod's granddaughter Maria Vasilievna. Yaroslavl fell out of the common patrimony of the Konstantinoviches. It was preserved by the offspring of Fedor Smolensky.

For the post-Mongol period of the XIII century. It is important to note one circumstance that influenced the formation of the territories of various principalities of North-Eastern Russia. Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, his brothers and sons, as well as their descendants did not seek the lands that once belonged to Konstantin Vsevolodovich of Rostov. For their part, the Konstantinoviches did not claim any possessions of the Yaroslavichs and the younger Vsevolodovichs. There is a strict delimitation of the territories that were the fatherlands of two large princely branches. It seems that the only exception was the capture in 1293 of Pereyaslavl by Prince Fyodor Rostislavich of Yaroslavl. However, he occupied it with the consent of Andrei Alexandrovich Gorodetsky, who became Grand Duke. Prince Fedor held Pereyaslavl for about a year. Then the city was returned to his stepfather, Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich. But it is possible that as a result of the capture of Pereyaslavl territory in 1293. the Yaroslavl princes left the lands near the Great Salt and Nerekhta, as evidenced by the data of the 15th-17th centuries.

So, in the period from 1238 to 1300, eight new principalities appeared in North-Eastern Russia: Starodub, Suzdal, Tver, Galicia-Dmitrov, Kostroma, Moscow, Gorodetsky and Belozersky. Two of them - Suzdal and Starodub - existed in the pre-Mongol period, though for a rather short time. Therefore, it would be more accurate to talk about the renewal of these two principalities. But the remaining six first became such in post-Mongol times.

The geography of the new state formations is highly indicative. In the central part of the old Rostov-Suzdal land, only three principalities were formed: Starodub, Suzdal and Dmitrov (part of the Galicia-Dmitrovsky principality). Of these, only one is completely new - Dmitrovskoye. The remaining five principalities and the Galician part of the Galician-Dmitrovsky principality arose on the outskirts of the ancient Suzdal region, covering its territorial core with a wide horseshoe from the west (Moscow, Tver), north (Beloozero, Kostroma, Galich) and east (Gorodets). (See fig. 4).

Such an arrangement of new princely centers in the Russian North-East in the post-Mongolian period (until the end of the 13th century) is far from accidental. As shown above, the Mongol-Tatar attacks in the second half of the XIII century. mainly the central regions of North-Eastern Russia were exposed. A natural consequence of the Horde campaigns undertaken from the south was the flight of the Russian population to places that were safer from the Mongol-Tatar invasions.

Already the invasion of Batu caused a certain displacement of the population. Under the threat of foreign conquest, a significant part of the inhabitants of the cities and villages of Suzdal fled to the north-west, to Novgorod the Great. Evidence of this is the bitter and figurative picture of the beating of people who tried to get away from Batu from Torzhok by the "Sereger way" to Novgorod. According to the Novgorod chronicler, the Mongol-Tatars "all people are better, like grass." Death from the Mongol-Tatar saber on the "Seregersky path" was apparently found not only by residents of nearby places, but also by refugees from the interior regions of Vladimir-Suzdal Russia. Another part of the population of the Suzdal region fled to the north, to the area of ​​Beloozero. Bishop Kirill of Rostov waited out Batyev's pogrom there. Of course, he was not alone in fleeing to Beloozero; other residents of Rostov went there with him.

In the subsequent time, the outflow of the population from the central regions of Vladimir-Suzdal Russia continued. Above, information was already given about the departure of the population of Pereyaslavl and its environs before Dudenev's army. Archaeological study of rural settlements along the river. Klyazma and to the north of it, i.e. within the Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereyaslav and Yuryev territories, allows us to conclude that most of them were abandoned no later than the 13th century. At the same time, archeological data testify to the influx of population into the regions of the Yaroslavl Volga region, Moscow, Tver, the Sheksna River. A vivid story about how, during the invasion of Duden in the fall of 1293, people fled to Tver from different places, the chronicle has preserved: The testimony of written sources thus confirms the fact that the population left the center to the west, to the Principality of Tver. The population of the eastern outskirts also increased. In 1274, when Serapion was appointed bishop of Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod was named among the three main cities of his diocese. At the same time, such large cities as Pereyaslavl and Moscow, which were also under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Vladimir lord, were not mentioned. And if Nizhny Novgorod was considered as one of the main cities of the bishopric, then this, of course, is an indirect indicator of population growth in this area. In the 60-70s of the XIII century. the role of Kostroma in the Volga trade increased noticeably. So, in 1270, merchants were detained here, returning with goods to Novgorod the Great. The growth of the commercial importance of Kostroma was to a certain extent associated with an increase in the population in the Volga region.

The influx of population into the "locations" safe from the Mongol-Tatars, not only the western ones, as M.K. Lyubavsky believed, but also the northern and eastern outskirts of the old Rostov-Suzdal land contributed to the rise of these outskirts. The princes and the boyars found here a sufficient number of payers of feudal duties and soldiers for their squads. The result was the formation of new, peripheral principalities, called upon to play their historical role in the fate of the Russian North-East. The Grand Duke of Vladimir, who had traditional political seniority, diplomatic and military prerogatives among the princes - the descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest, was no longer able to maintain his power, disposing only of the territory of the Vladimir Grand Duchy, which was greatly reduced by the last third of the 13th century. After the death of Alexander Nevsky in 1263, the struggle for the Grand Duke's table was led and it was occupied by Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich of Tver, Prince Vasily Yaroslavich of Kostroma, Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich of Pereyaslavl, and his brother Andrey Gorodetsky. Since the mid-90s of the XIII century. Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich actively intervenes in the fight for the table of the great reign. It is extremely indicative that, apart from the prince of Pereyaslavl, all other applicants and holders of a high title represented the principalities that arose on the periphery of the Suzdal region in the post-Mongolian period. The participation of the Tver, Kostroma, Gorodetsky and Moscow princes in the struggle for the Vladimir heritage indicates that in the second half of the 13th century. the political significance of the most ancient cities of the Volga-Oka interfluve goes into the irrevocable past. There is an objective process of changing the territorial basis for the consolidation of the northeastern principalities. The advantages of the geographical position of Tver, Kostroma, Gorodets and Moscow, which were the result of demographic changes in North-Eastern Russia caused by the Mongol-Tatar yoke, undoubtedly favored the fact that these cities, in contrast to all the others, were able to successfully claim the role of the center around which in the future, the whole of North-Eastern Russia could unite.