Dress
Rehearsal for Master and Margarita.
The Rise and
Fall of the Golden Horde.
A Historical
Note Ending.
And
so, once again, just as in the case of St. Alexander Nevsky and his anda
Sartak, son of Batu-Khan, Prince Dmitry Donskoy must have used the idea of how
to divert the Tatar forces from the plunder of Russian lands. The idea of his
time, pertaining specifically to the situation with Khan Tokhtamysh -- and no
matter who put it out first -- was to use Tokhtamysh’s privileged status as a
Genghiside against the great Tamerlane, who was superior to Tokhtamysh in all
respects, but did not have this status.
Talking
about the Russian trump card! Judging by the behavior of Tokhtamysh toward his
benefactor, and Tamerlane’s outraged response, the trump card did work to its
maximum capacity. Not only was the biggest enemy of Russia at the time,
Tokhtamysh, diverted from any further devastation of the Russian land, but the
great Tamerlane, under different circumstances an even bigger threat, would
become an implicit Russian ally, in their common animosity toward the Khan of
the Golden Horde, and toward the bane of the Russians, the Golden Horde itself.
Having
defeated Tokhtamysh and destroyed the Golden Horde, Tamerlane didn’t turn
against the Russians next. He felt compelled to prove himself the true heir of
Genghis Khan. After the great Khan’s death in 1227, his incredibly vast empire
had effectively broken up into a number of uluses, and using the pretext of
Tokhtamysh’s betrayal, it was now Tamerlane’s task to reconstitute the Mongol
Empire. It is actually easy to understand how he would become obsessed with the
idea of proving to all his supporters and detractors that he did not have to be
a Genghiside, that in performing his historical feat of the regeneration of
Genghis-Khan’s Empire ,he was equal to the Father of the Mongols, and thus
better than any of his direct descendants.
In
1398, Tamerlane started a military expedition with his large army against
modern-day Pakistan and India, ruled at the time by the Great Moguls, his
indirect relatives. In 1399, having reached the Ganges River, Tamerlane
prudently chose not to go any farther, and returned to Samarkand bringing in huge
spoils.
Then,
in the same year 1399, Tamerlane embarked on a major campaign against Persia,
where the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid got in his way. Having subjugated parts of
Iran, Tamerlane decided to make a detour to the Ottoman Empire, where in the
battle of Ankara he took the Ottoman Sultan prisoner in 1402, and put him in a
cage.
In
1404, Tamerlane decided to embark on a major expedition into China, but his
campaign was stopped short by Tamerlane’s death at the age of 69, in February
1405. Quelle belle mort! The great man’s body was embalmed and brought back to
Samarkand, where his magnificent tomb would become the most spectacular
monument of the city.
***
The
Tatar invasion of Russia left an indelible imprint on Russian history. From the
beginning, an enormous wave of Tatar assimilation into the Russian mainstream
culture was taking place. On the other hand, the opposite trend of a Russian
assimilation into Tatar customs and habits never materialized. Just as the
great Tamerlane feared and himself avoided, --- despite all its political weaknesses,
the Russian culture proved dominant and triumphed over the culture of the
invaders.
On
the other hand, the Russians were never racist-minded. Anybody who would accept
the religion of Russian Christian Orthodoxy through official baptism under the
auspices of the Russian Church, was considered Russian, whether a Tatar or a
Mongol, or a Turk, or an African Negro, or a Westerner, or anybody else.
Russian
history knows many noble Russian Families originating with Tatar Khans, Murzas,
etc. The Princely Family of Yusupov used to be one of the oldest and most
respected in Russia. Tsar Boris Fedorovich Godunov, made world-famous by A. S.
Pushkin and M. P. Mussorgsky, was of Tatar origin. Many other last names of
Russian princes and noblemen reveal their unmistakable Tatar roots.
In
the world of literature and arts, N. M. Karamzin, known as the father of
Russian historiography, took his name from his Tatar ancestor Kara-Murza. The
Russian poet Gavrila Derzhavin was a Tatar. The mother of V. A. Zhukovsky, the
famous Russian poet and tutor of the future Tsar-Liberator Alexander II, had
been a captive Turkish woman brought into Russia as a prisoner from the
Russo-Turkish Wars.
The
famous Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova, dubbed “Anna of All Russia,” had Khan Akhmat of the Golden Horde as her ancestor.
In
today’s Russia, Tatars constitute an important and highly respected group of
artists and writers, sportsmen, businessmen and public officials. A Tatar woman
Elvira Nabiullina is currently the brilliant Head of Russia’s Central Bank, one
of the most powerful women in the world, according to Forbes, and Banker of the
Year 2015, so named by the magazine Euromoney.
Having
been born in Chechnya, then moving to the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan, and
spending my youth in Bashkorstan, I lived among these people, and was a witness
to the process of ethnic assimilation on both sides, as intermarriages between
Russians of both sexes and Chechens, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, and Tatars where
commonplace, as were bonds of friendship among these groups. The Russian Federation
boasts of nearly 200 ethnic groups living together under one national roof in
almost general harmony.
This
is a sign of great national strength. All these diverse groups contribute to
the growth and advancement of science, technology, arts, and general culture.
This is the
end of my historical detour into the role of the Golden Horde in Russian
history.
My regular
chapter A Dress Rehearsal for Master and
Margarita will continue at a later date.
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