GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. CCXLVI.

Dress Rehearsal for Master and Margarita.

The Rise and Fall of the Golden Horde.

A Historical Note Continued.

 

The decline of the Golden Horde started immediately after the death of Uzbek Khan. The Grand Prince of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy precipitated the Horde’s “dying gasp,” as N. I. Kostomarov called it, by his victory over Mamai on the river Don. But the “gasping” Horde was still capable of devastating random incursions into the Russian land. And, as we shall see from the great Tamerlane’s military campaigns against the Horde, it would take a lot of time and effort, plus Tamerlane’s prodigious skills, to overcome this “dark multitude.” Tamerlane had indeed gathered a huge army for this job. He delivered three consecutive blows to Tokhtamysh, each time weakening the latter considerably.

Tamerlane mounted three campaigns against Tokhtamysh: in 1391, 1392, and 1395. But it was only in the third campaign that he brought the whole of his strength upon his enemy, demonstrating his might and intelligence of a true military commander. These three painstaking efforts show us that no matter what, and even against such a brilliant foe as Tamerlane, the Horde was a tough nut to squash.

In that decisive year 1395, Tamerlane led his troops against Tokhtamysh in a wide arch, so that no enemy troop would be able to strike him from the rear. He pursued Tokhtamysh relentlessly, wiping out his whole settlements, until they were turned into deserts.

Thus Tamerlane was pursuing retreating Tokhtamysh armies into the Caucasus, where the famous Battle of the River Terek took place. But even afterwards he was chasing the remnants of the enemy army.

It may surprise the reader, but coming into the vicinity of the Russian lands during his campaigns, and one of his scout troops actually pillaging a minor Russian settlement on the Don, Tamerlane chose not to advance against the Russians any further, even though it is a historical fact that Moscow was expecting a Tamerlane invasion in 1395.

But let us keep in mind the fact that Tamerlane’s goal was to defeat and pillage the Golden Horde, rather than the Russians, who were actually his allies in this mission.

Tamerlane had excellent intelligence service, sending his spies in all directions, and being always up to date. He was aware that the Russians made poor vassals, that they had their Orthodox religion and would not change it under any circumstances. He knew that the Russians believed in their destiny. He also realized that the blue-eyed, light-haired white people had a culture of their own, and would be influencing his people with it. Another curious detail: Russian prisoners sold into slavery fetched far less money than other kinds, because they were known to make constant efforts to escape and frequently succeeded, which meant lost money to their owners.

And so, bypassing the Russian lands, Tamerlane continued to pursue Tokhtamysh into the Caucasus. He was running the remnants of Tokhtamysh's army like a herd of stupid rams to slaughter, and there, on the Terek River, the decisive last battle took place. After which he pursued the Tatars to the Dnepr River and also visited Crimea, where he slaughtered both Tatars and Genoan and Venetian merchants.

Tamerlane destroyed the Northern path of the Great Silk Road to China, which had gone through the territory of the Golden Horde, making it rich, but now deprived of its principal income. What remained was only the Southern path through Uzbekistan and other territories constituting Tamerlane’s domain and now directing the Great Silk Road merchant’s fees and taxes into his, Tamerlane’s coffers.

That is why in Uzbekistan today a majestic monument to Tamerlane stands in the center of Tashkent, replacing the Soviet-era monument to Karl Marx, which must have been shipped to Kiev after that…

I happened to live for several years in the famous Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, and even in Soviet times the shops were awash in high-quality Chinese goods; magnificent rugs, fur coats, woolen clothing, all in good taste, to say the least. A more modern version of Tamerlane’s Uzbek route of the Great Silk Road, I must add.

In so far as their hospitality goes, the Uzbeks are second to none, but this is going to be one of the subjects in my chapter A Swallow’s Nest of Luminaries, where my guest will be yet another famous person of Oriental origin…

The great cities of Samarkand and Bukhara boast of magnificent buildings thanks to Tamerlane, who made Samarkand the capital of his Empire, and brought skilled artisans and architects from the Middle East to rebuild it into one of the architectural wonders of the world. Over the course of the next half-millennium, these cities suffered some damage and destruction, but were meticulously restored by the best Russian archaeologists in the 20^th century.

Practicing Moslems and tourists from around the world like to visit these sights, remarkable for their cultural and general historical significance. The most memorable sight of all in Samarkand happens to be – you guessed it! – the great Tomb of Tamerlane.

And so, instead of annexing Russian lands to his Empire, alongside the territories of the Golden Horde, Tamerlane did no such thing. The Golden Horde had now become, in the words of the Russian historian N. I. Kostomarov, a Horde “in its last gasp” and also a “wreckage” of its former glory.

 

To be continued…