I strongly 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, frankly, I am very tired of the details of complex Russian history from the beginning to the Mongols. I want, firstly, to take a break on this matter and look at how they fought at this time, which we described in the milestones of Russian history, and what interesting things happened there on the military fields. In a word, once again to the great battles! There were a lot of them there. I’ll tell you honestly: all these Mstislavichs and Yaroslavichs have openly screwed up. There are so many of them - I didn’t even know. And everyone has the same last name. Yes. I'm confused. You can't tell them apart even by last name. Then, if you want, I’ll tell you the secret of how easy it is to remember them, that is, of course, not easy, but possible to remember, because simply learning 18 generations of Rurikovichs in a row is unrealistic, unless, of course, you are an autist with a phenomenal memory. I know special techniques. To the extent that in pre-revolutionary Russia everyone was forced to learn this, generations of various lazy dunces developed special systems for how to memorize them, and I think that many managed to do it. Everything is much simpler there - they just need to be divided into territorial districts, because the first Rurikovichs from Rurik, if there was one, to Yaroslav the Wise, there is nothing to teach there - there were few of them. Well, then you just need to look from Yaroslav to see who settled in which city, and you will immediately understand that this is Chernigov - the Olgovichs live here, and this is Smolensk - the Rostislavichs live here, well, this, of course, is Vladimir - the Yuryevichs Dolgorukovichs live here, and so on. And so approximately, it is clear that it will be quite difficult to keep this in mind all the time, but at least approximately it will be possible to understand that the Mstislavichs are those, the Yuryeviches are these, 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 discord in the nest of Vsevolod the Big Nest, where his chicks pecked, for good reason. This is a battle that ended one of the grandiose strife in the North-East and North-West of Rus', in which very large forces came together for their time, and these forces were in fact as great, for their time, I emphasize, as in the chronicles news, and even in the people's memory there remains a large echo of this. And even, as researchers of chronicles say, a certain number of epics and, possibly, some kind of druzhina songs, legends, i.e. were compiled. military stories on this matter. Because, apparently, some of the later chronicles contain fragments of these same squad songs that told, like “The Tale of Igor’s Host,” about this battle. Naturally, since everything big is seen only from afar, as soon as the chronicles began to distance themselves from the event by 150-250-300 years, interesting details began to emerge that were not present in the original editions of the story about this battle. Sorry, I’ll make an important remark: 300 years ago is like clarifying some details of the Battle of Poltava now, right? Something like this. Those. So you were sitting, picking your mustache with a pen, and suddenly you realized that not everything was clean in the Battle of Poltava. I'll clarify now. Now I’ll clarify, yes. Accordingly, I found a descendant of a participant in the Battle of Poltava - it is clear that the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of his great-great-great-great-grandfather would definitely not lie, and asked: what was it like there? Grandfather told me. Grandfather told... Yes, and, what is typical, 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 I could very well tell, in fact, only it was not the grandfather who took part in this battle, but the grandfather of the grandfather of the grandfather of the grandfather, it went through so many transmission links that, frankly speaking, it is difficult to judge the quality of the information at the output. This is of great value as 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 meters, because nothing can be changed there. Yes, if you change something, then everything will fall apart, everything will break. So, regarding this very battle of Lipitsa: this is, among other things, not only one of the most beloved battles of the developed Middle Ages of Rus' for the medieval authors themselves, who, apparently, frankly speaking, admired these years of the pre-Mongol knightly era, the highest dawn of the Russian appanage principalities , but this is also the favorite battle of Russian military historians and historians in general, because if you take the entire corpus of chronicle information about this, you can glean such details that you will generally stagger. There, it turns out, if you look at the entire complex of chronicles, it turns out there was infantry there - that’s what it says: “footmen,” and on both sides, some opposing and other opposing colleagues, it turns out, there was infantry. They recruited the people's militia from all villages and pre-peshtsevs, i.e. driving people away from the villages, and 9,233 people were killed there on the losing side. A lot of! It's not a lot, it's a monstrous amount! This is approximately the same 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 fooled. Do not remember that. What does the word “bastard” mean in a military sense? A bastard is someone who drags along. Actually: s-wolf, this is usually s-vita. Those. as for example, in our country, when I was still asceticizing in the church, they liked to say that there is a bishop there and so-and-so is his bastard, i.e. his retinue. Thus, everyone found it very funny, and everyone understood that the man spoke in the old Russian manner, and did not want to offend this bishop at all, and especially his people. Those. then this word did not have any negative connotation? None, it’s just someone who comes in together. So, if 9,200 people were killed, and at the same time 60 were taken prisoner in total, then that means 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 17-18 centuries a considerable number, because, for example, at 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, directly says that this figure that we calculated, and he calculates exactly about 20-30 thousand people on one side, this is the figure only for those who participated in the battle, and if we take those who guarded the convoy , cooks, sutlers, then you can safely increase it 2-3 times. Not bad. In a word, a very interesting battle, which is interesting not only for the twists and turns of history that took place around it, not only for what happened on the battlefield, but also for the example of working with sources, how it developed over time, i.e. as people did it a long time ago, as people did it recently, and as we do it now. The oldest story about the Battle of Lipitsa was preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which was finally prepared 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 Lipitsa River. Isn't this Lipetsk? No. This, in fact, the fight did not take place there, it was all tied to the civil strife in North-Eastern Rus', as I said when, I’ll tell you more about this a little later, but I’ll just remind you, this is why we talked about this more than once, when Vsevolod died More than that, Gnezdo, his sons Yuri and Konstantin quarreled over the great reign and involved in their quarrel everyone who could be involved from all sides, including the Novgorodians, Smolensk, Belozero, Murom residents. .. As they say now, they pulled it up. They brought everyone along 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, at least the children of those who participated there were definitely strong and alive. Again, most likely, some kind of records were kept about this, because in fact the battle was very big, it was necessary to provide for all the people, i.e. there should have been some correspondence sent out, at least some bills for food, i.e. people could at least use the archives that had not yet been burned. Our archives were all burning wonderfully, but at that time, perhaps, there was still something left. The next chronicle story is the Fourth Novgorod Chronicle and the Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle, as well as the well-known Sofia First Chronicle - this all dates back to the 40-50s of the 15th century. It’s more interesting there, there’s more detail there. Just there, information suddenly appears about foot soldiers who were driven out of villages. This is not in the early story, but 250 years after the events, the chronicler-monk, apparently, brought the reality that existed in the first half of the 13th century in accordance with his ideas, because in the middle of the 15th century this same army with carry it with you. Could it be that he found some document that reached him and, without referring to it, cited this? Naturally, he would not refer, of course. The fact is that all these stories, if you turn them into textual research, are based on the message of the First Novgorod Chronicle, they retell it in one way or another, and sometimes quote it directly or indirectly. And suddenly some details appear there. This means that the first Novgorod chronicle was a protograph, and it is very doubtful that any particular documents fell into the hands of the chronicler 250 years later regarding the same thing that the chronicler had in the middle of the 13th century. It looks, to put it mildly, strange, something like how Stalin’s historian writes about the Battle of Borodino: and they placed heavy machine guns on the flanks, because obviously, there’s nowhere to go without them. Because for a Stalinist historian it would have been funny, but for a medieval person it was absolutely normal, because if suddenly a large-caliber machine gun had been invented in the 15th century, he would have rightfully placed them on the Lipetsk Field. Well, because they exist, and the ancestors were clearly no worse, on the contrary - the ancestors were definitely smarter, because the great-grandfather’s testaments are wow! That is, they, of course, would have had heavy machine guns on the flanks, for sure. All that the chroniclers could use, as I have already said, is most likely not some documents, these are some legends that reached that time, and their own logic is 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 exactly the same way as an event of the 14th century is depicted, in the same material culture, in the same armor. They will definitely 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? This is some kind of nonsense. Unthinkable! Therefore, he is always on horseback, with a spear - this was absolutely normal for a medieval person. We haven’t thought about the fact that 300 years ago things might have been different. It could only be better because earlier. But it got worse. And it only got worse. And in the Tver Chronicle in general, already from the 16th century, and in the Ermolin Chronicle, and in the Moscow Chronicle of the late 15th century, interesting figures suddenly begin to slip through, because in the First Novgorod Chronicle there are also figures, and they are clearly inflated - it’s like “10 thousand people" does not mean 10 thousand people, but simply "a lot." Here was the prince, he had a lot of people, but then the prince came, he had 500 people - this means that he just had a few of them. Those. there were a lot and a little, you can’t take these figures as documented evidence of exactly how many there were, how much salary they allocated. Those. in fact, this one had more, and this one had less. Yes, and this one has much more, and this one has much less - like this. And God knows how many of them there were exactly. Based on this message, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about what really happened. So, in later chroniclers a very interesting figure appears, in particular the number of losses - 9233 people. Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov, in his book “Search for the Author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which I recently showed, wrote that it is scary to read the chronicler’s messages: “On the field on which the chicks of Vsevolod’s Big Nest met, when the battle died down, they collected and counted 9,233 warriors were killed, while the groans of the wounded and dying echoed across the field. "This whole beautiful quote - Boris Alexandrovich simply took and honestly retold, correctly translating into Russian what was written in the chronicler. And there it is written: they collected the corpses, counted them - it turned out that there were 9,200 of them, and then it was said that the groans of the wounded and dying could be heard. That is, it is very difficult to imagine that they collected 9,200 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 don’t care anymore. But here it’s exactly the opposite. This just means that these are chronicle news that were compiled after a very large amount of time by non-eyewitnesses and, most likely, by people who do not understand anything at all about military affairs. Moreover, it is not very important to them , how exactly it is described, it is important to 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 over their father’s inheritance, while killing a bunch of people who were are 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 problem, this is not good. Moreover, of course, the Novgorod Chronicle is entirely on the Novgorod side, naturally, because all this is described from an extremely Novgorod-centric position, that where St. Sophia is, there is Novgorod, and those who are against Novgorod, if this is not unambiguously evil, then they are mistaken and erring people who need to have their mistakes pointed out in a tangible way. We need help. Yes, we need help. So, it all started with the fact that Vsevolod the Big Nest laid down the nuclear power plant. a bomb under the hundred-year-old foundation of the Yuryevich state by abandoning time-honored universal democratic procedures and disdaining the democratic right of the ladder, trying to transfer power to his own son in a totalitarian manner. Voluntary. Totalitarian voluntarist transfer of power to his own son. And he handed it over, but to the wrong person, 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 the new capital was Vladimir. Konstantin, who was closely associated with the Rostov boyars, did not want to go to Vladimir, and his younger brother Yuri sat in Vladimir, in the capital, who had no right to his father’s throne not only according to flattering concepts, but also according to any concepts at all. Smart Vsevolod Bigger Nest legitimized his power through an agreement with the Vladimir veche, but when he died, it suddenly turned out that his older 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 had figs in their pockets, right? Well, it’s not a big deal, the point is that when Constantine came with an army, it suddenly turned out that there was no point in fighting? It’s not necessary, and in general, in the end Yuri was forced to leave Vladimir. Well, of course, he remembered this, pulled up all the younger brothers he could reach, namely Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Ivan Vsevolodovich and, of course, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - the future father of Alexander Nevsky, then he was still a very young man. He was born in 1191, which gives us 1212, 1213 and 1216, i.e. he was quite a bit old. He was young, hot-tempered and ready for behind-the-scenes 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 Novgorod factor, because Novgorod, firstly, 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 was very much dependent on its southeastern neighbors. At the time of the events described, it was ruled by Mstislav Mstislavich Udaloy (Udatny) - a famous activist of the Russian Middle Ages, a great warrior, in general, one of the real “knights” of the Russian squads, who was very loved, who enjoyed very great authority not only in Novgorod. So, in 2015, Mstislav Mstislavich, apparently unwittingly, threw a huge armful of firewood into the furnace of the war flaring up in the north-east of Rus', because he told the people of Kiev that “I have a weapon in Rus', and you are free in princes ", i.e. he has business in Rus', and you can choose your own prince, because you really can. In Rus' it is clear - he went to Kyiv to place the next prince on the Kiev throne, because at that time our favorite Rurik Rostislavich, who sat on the Kiev throne 7 times and eventually sat 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 Kyiv once again, and the Novgorodians, who loved Mstislav very much, without any exaggeration, because if the prince himself left Novgorod like that, not that the Novgorodians showed him the way, and he himself left, this This means that he most likely won’t return there a second time, well, only if he doesn’t conquer it, of course. Neither he nor his children, in general, this is such a fact of contempt, especially since, apparently, a number, i.e. Mstislav did not serve the term under the agreement, but still the Novgorodians valued him very much and decided to tie Mstislav to Novgorod if possible, and they took and invited to reign the Pereyaslavl-Zalessky prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was married to Mstilav’s daughter - Rostislava Mstislavovna Rurikovich. But here they didn’t guess, because despite the fact that he was a relative of Mstislav, he was, frankly speaking, a difficult person, and he immediately began to bring Novgorod to his hand, because this was the son of Vsevolod, the grandson of Yuri, therefore grandnephew of Andrei Bogolyubsky, he was used to the Novgorodians obeying, but they did not obey because they themselves invited him. This, as it seemed to them, was a completely different time, both Vsevolod and Andrei had already died - they could not be bent over the knee. Well, Yaroslav, without hesitation, immediately... No such luck! And immediately, there were well-wishers there who began, as the Novgorod Chronicle again tells us, to engage in denunciations against each other, and Yaroslav immediately began to sort out these denunciations and punish them with terrible force. Firstly, he deposed the thousand's Yakun, the thousand's prime minister, and plundered his court, and he did not let the Novgorodians plunder, but he plundered it himself, which in general was terribly simple for the Novgorodians; they had to rob, of course. What disrespect for beautiful folk customs! Yes, and they took the mayor Yakun’s wife hostage, so that if he suddenly decides to do something else, then let him know that this will definitely result. What could they do with her as a hostage? They could have killed him as a relative of an enemy of the people. But in the end, Yakun ended up in Novotorzhsk and was going to complain, and to whom - Yaroslav. Well, after that Yaroslav put him in prison along with his wife. With his wife. Well, naturally, with his wife, with Yakun’s wife. Of course, this was done not only by Yaroslav himself, but also by a bunch of his officials who came from Vladimir. They brought the Novgorodians, who in general were brought in very easily, simply in an elementary way. Half a turn. In general, they didn’t even need to be brought to an end, you just had to wait - they would have happened sooner or later, there was always a riot there once every five years. But Yaroslav made every effort, and again, apparently, he also had his father’s damaged genes, he also planted a bomb under his own rule - this was Prusskaya Street in Novgorod, this was the Novgorod Rublyovka, a lot of noble boyars lived there, and they They simply killed the prince’s henchman, the official Ostrat, and his son Lugota Ostratovich, after which suddenly Yaroslav realized that he had gone too far and went to Torzhok himself. And in Torzhok, apparently, he planned 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 perfectly pulled off such a trick in his Suzdal land. Why not do it 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: Novgorodians are unhappy - we block Torzhok, and bread does not arrive 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 died. There was a famine in Novgorod, and it was absolutely dependent on food supplies. Yaroslav did not allow the bread that went to Novgorod through Torzhok to pass through, and all the merchants who came from Novgorod were arrested and imprisoned right there in Torzhok. Moreover, the Novgorodians, of course, realized that they needed to do something about this, and in general they needed to put up with it, because everyone could die 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 chronicle there is a whole list of them, who came to the prison for no reason. By lawlessness. This was heard by Mstislav, who did all his business in Kyiv 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 men 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 speaking, they had nowhere to go. Thus, Mstislav turned out to be a potential supporter of one of the warring parties in the northeast of Rus'. It is absolutely clear that Yaroslav acted like this in Novgorod absolutely not in vain, because he carefully chose the side for whom to speak: for Yuri, the younger heir, who fought against the eldest heir of Constantine, or to speak for Constantine. Yaroslav himself was the head of a very strong Pereyaslavl-Zalessky principality; it was very strong, but far from the strongest principality. Far from the strongest. Those. if he had acted only with the forces of his principality for one or another candidate, he could have lost, and having lost, he could have found 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 field more troops. Therefore, he needed an absolutely submissive Novgorod. Moreover, if the candidate supported by Yaroslav had won, with such help he would have ended up in debt to Yaroslav himself, because it is clear that if Yaroslav puts up such regiments in Pereyaslavl, and such a large regiment is put up by, for example, Yuri, and They win, then Yaroslav turns out to be just a small helper, without whom it would probably have been harder, but in the end they managed. And if he had deployed Novgorod troops, then this would be 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 field. 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 already said, drove Yaroslav out of Novgorod, because it is clear that when Mstislav came there and resumed his ranks with the Novgorodians, Yaroslav remained in Torzhok no longer employed, no longer a prince. He immediately turned out to be automatically the enemy of the one whom Yaroslav chose as his allies. By that time, Yaroslav had made up his mind - Yuri Vsevolodovich became his ally. And Novgorod was thus drawn directly into the conflict. In addition, the people of Smolensk, 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 clearly depend on the nature of mobilization. Mobilization took place from February 11 to March 1, 1216. This turns out to be about a month - 28 days. Considering that they came to Mstislav’s side... firstly, Konstantin Vsevolodovich, of course, came up, most importantly, with the Rostov regiments. Konstantin, Mstislav, from Smolensk Vladimir Rurikovich with the Smolensk regiment, and Vsevolod Mstislavich - this is the son of the cousin of the Udal himself, i.e. the current ruling prince in Kyiv, Mstislav Romanovich the Old, exactly that same negative hero in the Battle of Kalka, which we talked about not so long ago. This is a very fast mobilization, it was 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 remote places and gathered quickly. Those. it was necessary to first send out letters to everyone, these letters had to be received, and even if they immediately agreed, and there was no long diplomatic correspondence - so they received letters, sent messengers that yes, the command was accepted, we are entering. These are very rapid actions, only cavalry could gather so quickly, and feudal cavalry, professional warriors who were constantly ready for battle - what in the 16-17th century was called “elective army”, i.e. selected army, i.e. those who could go on a campaign, on a long journey. 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 written in the chronicle, brought with him 10 thousand people to Rzhev, who besieged. Rzhev resisted with the efforts of a garrison of 100 people, as the chronicler again tells us. Moreover, this is exactly the message of the First Novgorod Chronicle. It is clear that 100 people would never have held 10 thousand people, especially since Rzhev was not a powerful city at all, it was a very small fortress at that time. It just shows that there were more of these, and much less of these. Moreover, you can still believe in a garrison of 100 people, but in the army of the younger brother of 10 thousand people - this is an unrealistic figure, it’s just a message that there are many of them, that’s all. It was not possible to take Rzhev, Mstislav set out from Novgorod, and Prince Vladimir, who was in Pskov at that time, joined him, and the Pskov army set out. Those. Novgorodians and Pskovians performed together. Yes, I’ll say right away that except for those people who were engaged in denunciations, and when Yaroslav was kicked out of Novgorod, they simply ran away to him, i.e. there, up to 5 boyar corporations from Novgorod were pulled to Yaroslav, fearing the gratitude of their expressive fellow citizens. Mstislav set out on a campaign and recaptured Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from near Rzhev. Mstislav Udaloy/Udatny, they are all Mstislavs, Vladimirs, Mstislavichs, so I will periodically say again and again that Mstislav is Udaloy. With Novgorodians. So the Novgorodians kicked out Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich from near Rzhev and went further to the Suzdal land towards Yuri’s headquarters. Moreover, Mstislav, of course, was a knight, even the chronicle says that this simply cannot be ignored, which means it was indeed a very bright, noticeable, well-documented move - he offered peace. Suddenly. No, well, again, Mstislav was in fact such a powerful commander of the classical knightly medieval type with all his inherent advantages and disadvantages that if he defeated the enemy, he first of all, of course, offered him peace, especially since he was a close relative , after all, he fought with his son-in-law. Yes, and his son-in-law had a daughter, actually his own, with whom, of course, nothing bad could happen, because after all, this was a feudal war, and just like that, to kill or do anything else bad with his own wife, because of what - because of the war? So what are you talking about? But nevertheless, Rostislava Mstislavovna was with Yaroslav. Moreover, Yaroslav, digressing 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 it took me a while to remember. I sat in Novotorzhka and thought: something is missing - either I didn’t turn off the iron, or... where is my wife? He was a loving husband, yes. Very! He was just a little busy. But since Yuri was the eldest in the Vsevolodovich coalition by that time, because it is clear that Konstantin was on the side of Mstislav the Udal, or rather, Mstislav the Udal was on the side of Konstantin, Yuri said that he was not ready to make peace, because he needed take power in the Vladimir-Suzdal land into his own hands, because his dad appointed him as heir, pawning an atomic bomb under the hundred-year-old power of the Yuryevichs. 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 nobly extend a hand to him with an offer of peace is one thing, but to rob is completely different, to rob is good. Of course, there were skirmishes, in particular, on March 25, Yaroslav's patrols attacked the guard of Mstislav Udatny, which, as the chronicle says, consisted of 100 people, which, of course, is very unlikely. What is a "watchman"? Reconnaissance, long-distance travel. And most likely, these are the same people who were engaged in robbery, because reconnaissance and robbery go hand in hand: now you scout, look, and then you rob. Always on the job. 100 people is a lot for such a detachment, but perhaps there really were 100. A clash occurred, 7 warriors were killed and 33 were captured, and Yaroslav himself by that time fled to Tver, 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 very 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 followed the principle and was not ready to put up with anyone. On the third hand, Konstantin and the Rostovites, apparently, he was indeed under the strong influence of the Rostov boyars, he could not allow this at all, and he himself could not allow, naturally, his younger brother to sit on his father’s throne, and the Rostovites could not allow after all, Vladimir became the first city in Suzdal land. And all this twisted the spring so tightly that it had to straighten only in a decisive collision. At the same time, Mstislav Udaloy once again tried to resolve the matter peacefully, the last, so to speak, Chinese attempt. He sent a certain Sotsky Larion, also known from the First Chronicle of Novgorod, with a proposal of this kind: “Novgorod is mine, but you in vain captured the men of Novgorod, robbed a lot of property, and the Novgorodians cry out in tears at you, and they complain to me about insults from you. “Release the prisoners, son, and return the Novgorod volost - so we will make peace and will not shed blood in vain.” This is the address - “son”, i.e. son, vocative case - for Yaroslav it was, of course, insulting, because he, of course, 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. I have your husbands, you came from afar, but came out like fish from dry land.” This suggests that Mstislav did not want to solve the matter with a big massacre until the very end. After which they sent messengers to the rest of the Vsevolodovichs - Yuri, Svyatoslav and Ivan: “Brothers, we are all of Vladimirov’s tribe and did not come here for war and ruin, not to take away your homeland, but we are seeking peace, still according to the law of God and the Russian Truth. Give eldership to the older brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you also hate God, otherwise nothing can redeem you.” So, they turned to Russian Pravda, although in a somewhat strange form, because, by and large, according to the right of the ladder, this throne should have been occupied not by Vsevolod’s eldest son, but by his elder brother or elder relative. But nevertheless, they turned to Russian Pravda. At this point Yuri was offended and replied: “Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but he doesn’t know how he will leave here.” Those. very cocky. “And tell brother Konstantin: overcome us, then the whole land will be yours.” At this time, the troops that had advanced from the described principalities converged near the Lipitsa River. There was a military council, two military councils - in one camp and in another camp, we, frankly speaking, do not know exactly how this happened, because almost all 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, boyar Ratibor said: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav, it never happened, neither under your fathers, nor under your grandfathers, nor under your great-grandfathers, that anyone entered the strong Suzdal land with an army and came out of it intact Yes, even if the whole Russian land came against us - Galicia and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then they won’t do anything with you, but what about these regiments, we’ll throw saddles at them.” 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: “When the goods have come into your hands, you will have armor, horses and ports (ports are clothes, not pants). And whoever takes a person alive will be killed himself, even if his mantles are embroidered with gold - kill him too. Let us not leave a single one alive. If anyone escapes from the regiment, we will seize him, otherwise we will hang and crucify them. Well, which of the princes falls into the hands, we will talk about them later." That is, only relatives were ordered not to be killed, everyone else was ordered to be put under the knife. That is, this is what in the Middle Ages in Western Europe was called "bad war ", because the feudal war was a good war, because if you surrendered, you were taken prisoner, and in the end, it was not at all necessary to kill a noble warrior - "a mantle sewn with gold" - well, only if it so happened 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 that. Very rarely did a “bad war” happen when, for example, they did not take prisoners. This was generally considered a violation of military honor, and it was, in a good way, impossible to do this, especially since the Christian Church, both Orthodox and Catholic, did not welcome this, but nevertheless, it happened with very , as a rule, dramatic events 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, something absolutely terrible with total beatings, torture, and bullying. Well, here they motivated people: if “you’re from the regiment,” i.e. If you escape from the ranks, we will either hang you or crucify you; if you do not kill the prisoner, we will kill you. Kill everyone except princes! Yes, and of course, this very clearly demonstrates how things were generally decided in the Middle Ages during the era of the highest dawn of feudalism: all the princes, having gathered in council, first divided the lands of their enemies, as if they had already won. This is not because they are so self-confident, it is because if they had not determined in advance who would get what, they could fight right or just before the battle, or act uncoordinated during the battle, in general, something bad would definitely happen It happened. Those. It was they who showed farsightedness in general, they were very perspicacious, that they gathered in a tent and wrote down who would get which piece of the pie, it doesn’t matter whether we win or not, but so that everything is fair. Now we’ll come to an agreement, and then we’ll fight. This is how historians usually calculate the strength of the parties, which for me is generally extremely significant. Here they write: “It is known that with Mstislav Udatny, 5 thousand Novgorodians approached Rzhev, which in Vasily Nikolaevich Tatishchev’s account turned into 500 horsemen, and 900 Pskovites marched on the city of Zubtsov. These figures seem quite realistic, and based on them, it is possible to carry out further calculations." 5000 Novgorodians - these numbers do not seem real: this is a long march, this is not a fight near Novgorod itself. This means that people on horseback must perform. If they are on horses, it means 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 of the elected army on horseback was able to supply 3,300 people in total, despite the fact that there specifically a system of local land allocation had already been established for many decades in a row, when landowners were seated according to villages, i.e. The army came out not only from the cities, but also from the countryside, because that was where the landowners were concentrated. Here there was no system of local administration, firstly, there was no, and secondly, there were clearly fewer people living than in the 16th century, at least no more than in the 16th century, and the army could only come out from the city, because there were landowners in the countryside , especially in the Novgorod land, there was practically none at all, because, as I have already said 20 times and will say again, at this time a village is 1-3 houses, less often 5, it is simply impossible to feed a professional warrior and his horse there, impossible. Therefore, all warriors come 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 march in the largest campaign of the Russian army in general in medieval history during total mobilization, when everyone was swept away: the sick, crippled, crippled, old , young - all this noble cavalry went to fight. And here there are 5,000 people - if you take into account how many cities at that time, at the beginning of the 13th century, there were in the Novgorod land, even if they were swept away from everywhere, everything down to the garrison warriors who carried out not regimental, but city service, it would hardly have accumulated that many . But since we see that this is a rather rapid maneuver, it could only be cavalry, and there were even fewer of them. How much, I’ll say a little later, I’m just swearing at such clearly inflated figures, “which you can completely trust and build on from them” - that’s impossible! “The Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod, (meaning the famine in Novgorod) should have fielded a larger army, but it could hardly be significantly superior to Mstislav’s army.” It happened - does this mean they didn’t turn off the tap? No, no, nothing was blocked for the Smolensk residents, they couldn’t be blocked, but for the Novgorodians they could and were blocked, and there, on top of everything else, “there was great scum,” i.e. frost that destroyed the crops. In general, when counting the city regiment and the prince’s squad, they roughly reduce it to 6,000 people - why?! God forbid, I don’t know where this figure came from. Why not 9 or 4? These are absolutely voluntaristic premises that have no basis at all, i.e. there are 5,000 people in Novgorod, but there was famine there, so in Smolensk there are a little more, that’s why there are 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 general 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. Just a lot more. It was variegated in composition, but much larger. If, according to the system that is offered to us, we add up all the forces of Mstislav Udatny and Konstantin Vsevolodvich, it turns out together with the Belozersk people who approached the Rostovites and who were no more than 1000, as the author graciously tells us, then the army could be up to 16 thousand soldiers. Then another method of calculation is proposed: it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav had 17. A banner means a banner, like a military unit. Firstly, this is known from a rather late message; nothing like this is said in the First Novgorod Chronicle, but then we are told that individual military 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 warriors, we can roundly give the number of Yuri’s forces at 70 thousand, and Yaroslav’s at 9-13 thousand people. To put it mildly, in the 13th century 10 people did not fit into a spear anywhere at all. It would be good if there were 3 of them along with the knight. All this can be reduced by three times at once - firstly. Secondly, I also don’t know where 20-150 copies in one banner came from. Why not 10? Why not 300? Those. at a minimum, this is fortune telling on coffee grounds, and these grounds are made from the cheapest Nescafe, and they are trying to tell us to think that it 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 were mercifully given 5,000 people, because 10 thousand near Rzhev, what the chronicle tells us they brought is a clear exaggeration, not 10, but 5. And thus, the size of the army is 21 thousand - 30 thousand people for the Vsevolodovichs versus 16 thousand for Mstislav the Udaly and Konstantin Vsevolodovich. Well this is the size of a good 17th century battle that could have happened. 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. Are there practically Mongol invasion forces here? Yes, that is this is practically a Mongol invasion force, a little smaller. If we take everyone together, then it will be about 40, 46 thousand people - this is approximately that, even more than what the Mongols could theoretically bring to Rus'. 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 here in one place. I almost forgot, excuse me, this is important: on the side of the Yaroslavichs there was a corps of proto-Cossack wanderers. In general, there is no need to think that these were some kind of poor people. These were rogue warriors, rogue boyars, rogue princes, i.e. These were professional military men, they simply found themselves uprooted from their society or some conditionally closed corporation. Ronin. Yes, here are the ronins. How many of them there were is absolutely unclear; we don’t even have approximate reference data to calculate the number of wanderers. But this is just some kind of hired contingent. I propose to approach calculations “from a shovel”, as archaeologists do. Those. We know exactly from the chronicles which cities sent service corporations to battle and which princes went out to battle with their squads. We know the sizes of most of these cities, but I personally don’t know about the medieval 13th century Rostov, I found all the other cities, what size they were. We remember that approximately, based on approximation data, of course, i.e. averaging data from excavations in Novgorod and Kyiv, where there are 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 one family of an average of 5 people lived in one estate. 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 approximately 25% of it from useful development, because these are streets, public places, all kinds of squares, marketplaces, i.e. where people do not live, and leave 75% for the development 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. There were also fortresses, of course. In the fortress, the number of professional warriors was much greater, because people did not live there, they served there. And here’s what we get: first, let’s look at the scoundrels, from the point of view of the Novgorod Chronicle - at the Vsevolodovichs. Yuri Vsevolodovich is the Grand Duke of the big city of Rostov, well, the maximum that he could lead with him was 200-300 professional warriors. And this is really a lot, because, let me remind you, in 1514, this is documented objective data, near Smolensk and Orsha, the Grand Duke of Moscow, the sovereign of All Rus', set up a court of 220 horsemen in total. Rich! He couldn't scrape together any more. Therefore, I, of course, strongly... take framework restrictions, because regarding the squads, we do not know exactly how many people they consisted of, especially since they probably made up different numbers at different times, because they probably could have included some mercenaries who were specially invited to take part in the fight. Do you remember the movie "Gang of New York"? At the very beginning, when they are walking, they meet such a fucking healthy Irishman with a club and invite him to fight together, he immediately asks: “How much for your head? How much, how much? That’s it, I’m with you.” Now, apparently, something like that could have happened here, i.e., apparently, the size of the princely squad was not a constant. Therefore, I give the most framework restrictions, of course, on the larger side, because 300 people - I probably overestimated it. 200 people - more like the truth. In general, I’ll stop at 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 a city of professional military men. 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 them. Only 400 people left Suzdal. Again, we do not know whether small towns participated or not, i.e. 200-400. Vladimir, of course, was a gigantic city - 145 hectares, more than 20 thousand people lived there. It turns out that Vladimir himself could field a city regiment of 500 fighters. Again, around Vladimir there were a considerable number of specific towns that could also field a contingent. Again, we do not know whether they exhibited them or not, because there is not a word about this in the chronicle. It says there: Suzdal residents, Vladimir residents - that’s what it says. Those. the people of Suzdal and Vladimir definitely took part in this, and God knows who else participated, but from 500 to 100 people - what Vladimir himself, not the entire Vladimir land, but Vladimir himself could put up - that’s about 1000 people. Again, I emphasize right away - this is an elected army, i.e. what is immediately capable of a long campaign is not even the entire cavalry military force that Vladimir had, but the best fighters. It turns out that there are a total of 700-1400 people from Suzdal and Vladimir together. Yaroslav, Prince of Pereyaslavl, but he was, of course, much thinner at that time than Yuri Vsevolodovich, so I voluntarily counted him a squad of 100 people. Pereyaslavl itself was 40 hectares in size, i.e. he could have 150 people from the city itself, or 300 people from the entire Pereyaslavl principality, because, again, all the other cities were much smaller. There Dmitrov 2.3 hectares, 800 people lived there, thus, i.e. 80 people could leave it in the worst case scenario, 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 again assigned him 100 squad members. I give all the princes, except the great, great ones, a hundred. Well, the Murom residents left a gigantic metropolis measuring 3 hectares - 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 region, a rather crowded city - 500-600 people could actually leave from there. And Ivan Vsevolodovich, who would later become 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 a prince without an inheritance could only count on some uncle of his, 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 counted 100. And a certain number of mercenary wanderers either from the Dnieper, or from the Danube region, where, in fact, the chronicles place these same wanderers. How many there were, God knows, maybe 500, maybe 1000 people, we don’t know. The total is a minimum of 2300 people, a maximum of 3650 people, plus 500-1000 wanderers. Those. at the maximum this is 4650 people - this is what the coalition of the younger Vsevolodovichs put up. This, moreover, is the maximum, the maximum limitation; this land physically could not set more. Novgorodians and Smolensk: Konstantin Vsevolodovich is another Grand Duke, together with Rostov, I also assigned him 200 people, and Rostov 500-1000 people, because the city was still big, 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 Grand Duke, but he is such a famous warrior that people from everywhere could reach out to him in search of luck, fame and money and other goodies that are useful for any warrior, so I also assigned him 200 people. 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 come out of Novgorod itself, plus, as a rule, the archbishop’s squad, the so-called. the lord's regiment - at least 100 more people, because the Novgorod bishop was one of the richest feudal lords not only of Novgorod, but of the entire Russian land, and could afford it. Those. 600 people could have left at this time from Novgorod itself for the electoral army, and if we take all the specific cities from the gigantic 15-hectare Ladoga to Staraya Russa, then just Russa, 1200-1300 people could have left at most at this time. Again, you need to take into account that there was a famine there at that time, and apparently not everyone lived to see the war. Vladimir Rurikovich - 100 people, and Smolensk, a big city - 100 hectares, i.e. 400 people from the city itself could have marched and 800 people, I believe, from the entire Smolensk province, because all the other cities were dramatically smaller than Smolensk, simply dramatic - small fenced settlements of 0.63 - 1.5 - 2 hectares. Pskov, they told us, fielded 500 people - perhaps 600 people from all over the Pskov land even came out, because we know that in the Polotsk campaign the Pskovians were able to field exactly 600 people in a forged army. Those. Pskov itself, based on its size, could field up to 300 people, Pskov land up to 600. And Vladimir Mstislavich Pskovsky - 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 gathered for a decisive confrontation and which created the legend of a gigantic battle. And in fact, in the memory of the participants, and especially the descendants, this battle was truly gigantic. Well, if everyone could, then it is truly gigantic. Because, as a rule, there was nothing like this in the strife of the Russian princes, this is too much, because in the strife, as a rule, squads took part most often, city regiments participated much less often. But here whoever they could was swept away from everywhere. And when we say that this is not 30 thousand, but 3 thousand, they will immediately tell us: why are you lying to us, it says about a great battle, but here there are 3 thousand people - what kind of great battle is this? Well, I apologize, more than a million people took part in the Kursk Bulge, and about 100 thousand people took part 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 move away from Borodin for another 600 years, why the numbers should remain the same, I absolutely do not understand. And why, given that this 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 don’t need to look at the size, the size in this case doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is the result, because Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky managed to kill 20 German knights and take 6 prisoner, and ensure peace for 30 years in a strategic direction. It was also a great battle, although the forces involved were, to put it mildly, incomparable. So, Suzdal residents, i.e. A coalition of scoundrels, the younger Vsevolodovichs, dug in on a hill behind the river and began to wait for the enemies to approach. Actually, this mountain is still preserved - Avdovaya Mountain, there it is about 200 m in height and is separated from the other side by a ravine along which a small stream flows. Forces from one side and the other began to approach this very Avdova Mountain. On April 20, most of the participants gathered, and, as expected, small skirmishes began - first one, then another jumped over the ravine, jumped on, apparently, there was some kind of archery fire of varying degrees of intensity. But again, if we speak in the language of the discharge books of the 16th century, “they were poisoned like that all day, but there was no filmed battle.” So they were poisoned all day, and the removable, i.e. There was no decisive hand-to-hand combat. And only on the 21st, an experienced commander, apparently this was the idea of ​​Mstislav the Udaly, he ordered the military camp to be closed, i.e. The Suzdal residents, looking from their mountain, might have thought that they were leaving, and now they would perform 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 open battle. Again, they were at the very top of the mountain, it was difficult to fight with them. The usual battle formation is described in the chronicle 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 already said, it’s just convenient: it’s intuitively clear that you have a body with a head - this is a central regiment, a right hand and a left hand, with which you do something there, so you have two regiments - right and left. It's simple to understand and easy for you to manage. The Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav the Udaly stood up, 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 are 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, Belozersk and Pskov residents, stood. Apparently, there really weren’t 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 Belozersts to himself, because these are people from his principality, from a distant suburb, but still his, why would they be taken into a large regiment? Because, let me remind you once again, all these people were built in the same way as they lived - in corporations, and Beloozero and Rostov belonged to the same corporation, which was led by the Rostov prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich. What we see here: we see that the flanks are very much weaker than the center, because even Rostov, which sent serious troops, is much smaller than what Novgorod put up, especially reinforced by the squad of Mstislav the Udal. Those. Are you measuring this strictly by the number of people? Yes, sure. It is by the number of people that it turns out to be a powerful central column and two relatively weak flanks. Moreover, they are unevenly frail - we end up with a left flank with the Rostovites that is frailer than the center, but quite representative, but the right flank is nothing, because there are forces there that are incomparable with either the center or the left flank. For us - people brought up on Delbrück, on Razin, on various films, we are inclined 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 strengthens, the weaker flank of the enemy breaks through, everything ends in encirclement and kesselschlacht, a battle in the cauldron. But here everything is different, this is the Middle Ages - absolutely the opposite logic: the center had to be 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 the troops were concentrated, which could be gradually brought into battle. And there, naturally, was a large banner and commander-in-chief. Those. the commander-in-chief could directly give orders to his men, rather than sending an order somewhere to the flank through a messenger. The messenger could simply not arrive, or the commander-in-chief could visually miss something important, and in the Middle Ages, again, the 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 turn them back. Those. as soon as the knight's cavalry goes on the attack, it is completely in the hands of its commander. What will the commander think to himself? Does he even remember the plan they drew up the day before, doesn’t he remember the plan? Suddenly they hit him on the head with a mace - he will forget everything or even die. Those. most likely you had to count 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 from encirclement they were supposed to be saved by transverse attacks 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 repelled the attacks of those who made their way through the flank. In general, they could have counted on something like this in an earlier time. The Vsevolodovich bastards who climbed down Avdova Mountain were lined up like this: Yuri Vsevolodovich and the Suzdalians stood opposite the Novgorodians in the center, i.e. Suzdal and Vladimir residents, again we see the most powerful regiment in the center, i.e. the most representative units that exist stand opposite the largest regiment the enemy has. Opposite the Rostovites stood the smaller brethren - as they say directly in the chronicle - Ivan Vsevolodovich and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich with their squads and guys from Yuryev-Polsky, and also, apparently, with wanderers. The rabble-rousers. Rabbets, yes, but this still does not come from the word “rabble”, but rather “to wander”, “vagabonds”. Well, on the other side stood the main ringleader of all this disgrace and the one who served as the reason for the war, i.e. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who with his Pereyaslavl residents, town residents, Murom residents, Davyd Yuryevich’s squad... I apologize - it was he who had the wanderers under his command, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Yes, exactly - he was with the wanderers. And we also see that the distribution 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, 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. Moreover, you need to understand that since this is the capital, the best warriors lived there, i.e. These are elite units. Mstislav Udaloy made a speech, as expected. He asked the question: “And go to battle, whoever wants, on foot, whoever wants, on horseback.” Here he apparently played tricks on the Novgorodians, because he clearly saw that in front of them there was a ravine and a stream, and to climb there on horseback was simply suicide. But the Novgorodians were weakly led and said: “We don’t want to die on horses, 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 Koloksha. I apologize, they fought for Mstislav the Great, not for Yaroslav the Wise, of course, so 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 in the original story of the Novgorod First Chronicle, which was as close as possible to the events, there is not a word about this. It is said that the Novgorodians all got off their horses and threw off their boots, remaining barefoot, so that it would be more comfortable to climb the ravine, because the boots, who have seen authentic, made or genuine, archaeologically found leather boots of the 13th century, are thin leather soles, they are 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 ground is soggy, it’s just slippery, but barefoot is completely the opposite. Especially if your nails are not trimmed. Yes, but considering that they had been on a hike for quite a long time, counting since February, they probably didn’t cut their nails on purpose and so they started clinging and clinging. Again, in the later chronicle it is said that they dismounted, that there was infantry from both 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 stratagem that it is specifically indicated that the Novgorodians dismounted from their horses, i.e. they were all on horseback. 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 of the strongest part of the army decided the battle, and only then it was possible to play with 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 that 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, having formed a wall of shields, putting out their cavalry spears, they were able to hold back the attack of the cavalry of the Vladimir and Suzdal people, who naturally got stuck in the Novgorod formations. And then Mstislav Udatny said his famous phrase that - and they stood on their horses behind - that we would not betray our people, after which all the cavalry that was there simultaneously struck through the ravine. And here, of course, Mstislav’s tactical genius manifested itself, because as soon as a fight began there, and this cavalry got stuck 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 transport the cavalry across the ravine and attack the enemy directly. The wanderers were the first to run, as usual. The most courageous and courageous, yes, professional military men. Many have already received the money, so now they should 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 right through the enemy’s lines on horseback three times, chopping everyone with an ax that was on a belt loop in his hand. Here, three times. And Konstantin did the same. That is, they performed heroic feats like this, but seeing Yaroslav’s flight, they all ran. “On the white horse back and forth..” Yes, yes, yes. Everyone ran, apparently, the names of such heroes as Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich are associated with these princes, because in 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, and are mentioned repeatedly right up to the battle on the Kalka River, where, by the way, sooner or later almost all the participants in this disgrace, with rare exceptions, will end up. They all fought on the side of Mstislav Udatny - both Dobrynya and Alexander, though Popovich. Well, who doesn’t know: Alexander and Alexey are the same root words from “Alex”, so they could eventually be transformed into Alyosha, into Alexey Popovich. “Alyosha” is literally a “fool”, aka “loch”. What the Novgorod First Chronicle tells us: “The Novgorodian killed on the mortar Dmitr Plskovichin (i.e., Pskovite), Anton Kotelnik, Ivanka Pribyshinitsya oponnik. And in the corral (i.e., while they were chasing) Ivanka Popovitsya, Smyun Petrilovitsya, a tributary of the Tyrsk ", i.e. In total, 5 Novgorodians and 1 Smolensk resident died, and 9233 people were killed on that side. Well, it is clear that these were some prominent people who were listed; everyone else, of course, would not have been listed, but this is how this very battle happened in two steps: the first was an infantry attack, under the cover of an infantry attack, crossing cavalry ravine and cavalry attack with all forces, i.e. one step is a classic medieval battle, which stands out from the general classics only in that Mstislav hurried the Novgorodians. Those. again he was in a hurry - i.e. These were all horsemen, and mostly, of course, they were heavy cavalry, almost or directly equivalent to the squad. Those. when this entire crowd of Novgorodians walked up the ravine, you need to understand that these were all professional warriors in armor, who, only that they had taken off their boots to make it easier to climb up. Accordingly, shields, swords, axes, helmets - this was an armored phalanx that went on the attack that it 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, and ended up in Pereyaslavl. Of course, they wanted to humiliate him because he ran to Pereyaslavl in his underpants, despite it being April. Dressed as a woman, with a fake beard. Continuously changing shoes in the air. Well, Yuri lost miserably to his older brother Konstantin, was expelled from the great reign to his appanage, and ended up in Moscow in the end. True, we all remember that later 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 until the arrival of the Mongols. They tortured the guy, damn it. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was a very clever courtier, he was the first to make friends with the Tatars, raised his great son Alexander Yaroslavich, went to distant Karakorum twice, did not return the second time - he was poisoned there, apparently. Almost like I was 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 eventually became one, he visited Novgorod again as a prince. The trip to Karakorum was almost like now, probably, flying to the moon, something like that. Because it was possible not to return back, not because they would kill you, but simply because it was so long that you might not live to see the return trip or die on the way back. It was very far away. But I visited there just like that and, apparently, I saw a lot on my life’s path. Well, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, needless to say, is also a legendary figure. I list them all literally one by one: Mstislav Udaloy, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich - these 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, we see: for the Russian classical Middle Ages of the pre-Mongol period, 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. It was an extremely rare battle in feudal Rus' that deployed such regiments. How it all ended - almost nothing. People just got into fights and decided on narrowly local tactical problems - who would sit on what throne. Mstislav defended the Novgorodians, rescued all the people from captivity, as promised, and opened the supply of bread - i.e. he's great, 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 blood, because, of course, there, taking into account the 3600 and 3600 people who met each other on the field, they clearly did not beat 20 people there. For the feudal Middle Ages, this was, in any case, a big loss. There is almost no result. And there is a complete failure of diplomacy. We couldn't agree. They couldn’t come to an agreement, and what’s more, some people didn’t really want to come to an agreement. The already experienced Mstislav Udaloy wanted to negotiate. Everyone else... You even need to understand that it doesn’t matter how old he is, when he finds himself in power, he ceases to be a person - this is a function. He had to be specially trained to engage in, for example, diplomacy. Neither Yaroslav, who later became a great diplomat, nor Yuri wanted to negotiate, they wanted to fight. Well, in this form, Rus' approached the Mongol invasion, when even within the recently united Vladimir-Suzdal principality bloody fights began naturally, when the entire Vladimir-Suzdal land could field about 3-4 thousand people in total. So princely separatism established the defense of the all-Russian plan in the best possible way, frankly speaking. Those. They were ready for the arrival of the Mongols, and in general, at the first, of course, appearance of forces that numbered in the tens of thousands, this whole system immediately took shape under the Mongols. Well, nothing else could have happened, apparently. Those. children's fairy tales about how they needed to unite, but they just quarreled - well, they would unite, and what would happen? Well, they connected. And then they separated again. They simply had no reason to unite - neither political nor, most importantly, economic, because each specific city of more or less large size was absolutely economically self-sufficient, it did not need anyone. “Everyone took his own inheritance, raised chickens and sat in it, guarding his own inheritance, without work.” Right. Vysotsky? Yes. I looked at the root, yes. Cool! Well, as usual, it looks, to put it mildly, strange - these given figures are so many, so many, and then repeat that 9 thousand were killed - well, somehow this... Why are they before your purely scientific approach to such things weren't paying attention? The fact is that this is a relatively modern know-how that makes its way from archeology to military history with a creak, because we all live by cliches. About 15 years ago I myself... I heard the word “Battle of Lipitsa”, and I immediately remembered what I had read, and I immediately understood: there are 20-30 thousand on one side, 16-18 thousand on the other side - and I immediately forgot about it . Well, the Battle of Lipitsa - and the Battle of Lipitsa. Well, that’s it, these are ideas that are simply instilled, which are very difficult to fight, because even the very intelligent researcher I talked about and quoted 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 strengths of the parties, it is immediately clear that the person is captive of some cliches, because he cannot imagine that less than 5-6 thousand people left Smolensk, because he imagines Smolensk, again , not as a reproach, this is simply 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 it was in the 13th century. And we all can’t imagine what these cities really looked like, we just haven’t seen any of them. We do not have a single city of the 13th century. Our consciousness has nothing to operate with, because, as is known, consciousness cannot come up with what it does not know. All the ideas that are in our heads 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. a gigantic modern city where we visited. We have never seen a medieval town; we simply can’t 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 can imagine how big it really is. All. Here are 270 hectares - this is Novgorod. Well, let's think now, again, taking a tape measure, measuring all the estates, taking the arithmetic average, estimating how many people lived there, and from the chronicle data about the princely families, well known, and about the number... and 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, let’s calculate how many hectares there were, how many hectares were inhabited - again, an archaeologist can easily calculate this, and we’ll understand what kind of mobilization capacity 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 Rus'. Exactly. Thank you, Klim Sanych, very interesting. That's all for today. Until next time.

The history of pre-Mongol Rus' is full of princely strife. However, not a single battle of that time made such an impression on the chroniclers with its scope and ferocity as the Battle of Lipitsa in 1216. This battle quickly became overgrown with legends and can rightfully be considered the peak of civil strife of the pre-Tatar period.

THE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT

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

The enmity that broke out between the sons of the Vladimir prince Vsevolod the Big Nest was rooted in orders made by himself shortly before his death in 1212. Recognizing his eldest son Konstantin as his successor, his father demanded that in return he cede his inheritance in Rostov to his brother Yuri. But Konstantin did not agree, “even if we take Volodymer to Rostov.” Then Vsevolod publicly disowned his eldest son from the inheritance in favor of Yuri, and after that Konstantin “raised his eyebrows with anger at his brothers, and especially at Yuri.” In this dispute, he had reliable support in the person of the boyars and the “city men” of Rostov the Great - traditionally considering their city to be the “oldest” in the Zalessk land, they did not want to submit to their “suburb” Vladimir. The thirty-year-old Rostov prince himself enjoyed the love and respect of his subjects, who believed that “God had granted 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 wise with spiritual conversations, often honoring books with diligence and doing everything according to what is written.”

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

Meanwhile, in 1215, Mstislav Mstislavich, who reigned in Novgorod, was nicknamed for his success in his numerous military enterprises Udatny(later historians changed the nickname to “Udaloy”) , was invited by the Krakow prince Leshko to participate in the campaign against Galich, captured by the Hungarians. At the assembled meeting, the prince announced to the Novgorodians: “I have business in Rus', and you are free to be princes,” after which, together with his 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 their general disposition towards the departed Mstislav, they proposed inviting 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 deal with 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 Novotorzh mayor Foma Dobroshchinich were sent in chains to Tver, the courtyard of the thousand Yakun was destroyed and his wife was captured. When Yakun came to complain with the mayor, Yaroslav ordered his Christopher to be arrested at the same time. Outraged residents of Prusskaya Street killed the prince's henchmen Ovstrat and his son Lugota, after which Yaroslav left Novgorod in anger. He retired to Torzhok, leaving behind his governor 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” rose in power, humiliating the “oldest” city. He planned to “turn Torzhok into Novgorod.” Torzhok, which lay on the border with Suzdal land, was a trading hub on the way to Novgorod and was always the object of the aspirations of the Suzdal princes. Having settled in it, Yaroslav blocked the supply of food to Novgorod and thereby aggravated the disaster that befell him. The fact is that the frost destroyed the grain in the Novgorod land and this caused a famine that was terrible in its consequences. Kad of rye rose in price to 10 hryvnia, and Kad of oats - to three. Parents gave their children into slavery for feeding. “Oh woe beha! There’s a corpse in the city, a corpse in the streets, a corpse in the field; it’s impossible for a psy to eat a man,” exclaims the chronicler. The prince simply starved the city, not letting a single cart of grain pass there. The Novgorodians sent three embassies to Yaroslav - first Smena Borisovich, Vyacheslav Klimyatich and Zubts Yakun, then the mayor Yuri Ivankovich with Stepan Tverdislavich and other men, and then Manuil Yagolchevich with his last speeches. But the prince took all the ambassadors into custody, without giving any other answer. He only sent a certain Ivoraich Diarrhea there to take Princess Rostislava Mstislavna out of 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 men and Novgorod volosts, or I will lay my head for Veliky Novgorod!” This program was enthusiastically accepted by Novgorodians. "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 the priest of the Church of St. John in Torgovshchina, Father Yuri. Apparently, he hoped that Yaroslav would not dare to treat a 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, as the Nikon Chronicle reports, and after it V.N. Tatishchev, Mstislav demanded that his son-in-law live honestly with his wife and not let his concubines offend her, and otherwise send her back to his father. Yaroslav really did not dare to seize the priest, but he took it out on the Novgorodians who fell into his hands - all of them were shackled and sent into captivity throughout the Zalesse cities, and their property was confiscated. In total, according to the chroniclers, up to 2,000 people were imprisoned (the figure is probably greatly exaggerated). Yaroslav also took active actions against his father-in-law who interfered in his affairs - they sent 100 people to “send Mstislav out of Novgorod.” Yaroslav himself began constructing guards on all the routes and gathering forces to resist the Novgorodians.

However, the “guides” he sent, 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 to begin: “Let’s go, brothers, let’s look for our husbands, your brothers, let’s return your volosts, so that the New Trade will not be Great Novgorod, nor Novgorod Torzhok. Where St. Sophia is, here is Novgorod; and in many ways God and in small things God and truth! " The Novgorodians were inspired by the consciousness of their rightness, by the hatred of the famous knight prince, like Mstislav Udatny. Earlier, in 1210, he had already freed them from the disliked Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, the younger brother of their current oppressor, and even the powerful Vsevolod the Big Nest could not prevent this. Mstislav’s personality itself, which was given an apt and succinct description by N.I. Kostomarov, instilled hopes for success and subsequent feats of arms. He called the prince “a model of character that could only have been developed by the living conditions of the pre-Tatar appanage period” and said that he was “a defender of antiquity, a guardian of the existing, a fighter for truth... He was the best man of his time, but did not cross that line ", which the spirit of previous centuries assigned to itself; and in this respect, his life expressed the society of his time."

PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN

Mstislav Mstislavich, as an experienced military leader, acted quickly and decisively. Taking advantage of his authority and family connections, he managed to put together a strong anti-Suzdal coalition in the shortest possible time, from February 11 to March 1. His brother, the Pskov prince Vladimir Mstislavich, and his cousin Vladimir Rurikovich, the prince of Smolensk, firmly promised him their support. Vsevolod Mstislavich, the son of another cousin of Udatny, Prince of Kyiv Mstislav Romanovich, was also supposed to arrive with his retinue. What made this ally especially valuable was the fact that Vsevolod was the brother-in-law of Konstantin Rostovsky, of whose discord 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 his brothers for help, and first of all to Yuri. Behind Yuri stood all the power of the Suzdal land. The brothers responded to the call. Yuri immediately begins gathering troops, and until then he sends an army led by his younger brother Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich to Yaroslav. Even the hostile Konstantin responded, sending his son Vsevolod with a small squad to Yaroslav - he did not want to reveal his plans ahead of time and preferred to first observe the development of events.

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

Walking along the Seliger path, the army entered the Toropetsk volost - the homeland of Mstislav Udatny. The troops moved on sleighs on the ice of rivers and lakes, sending small detachments-corrals to healing - obtain 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 or drive them into captivity. As a result, those who set out from the starving Novgorod quickly “were filled with karma, both themselves and their horses.”

Meanwhile, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, at the head of a large force (according to the chronicler’s clearly inflated estimate of up to 10 thousand), laid siege to Rzhev, where Yarun Vasilyevich, the thousand-man Yarun Vasilyevich, locked himself in 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, quickly attacked 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 this, the combined forces advance along the Volga to the mouth of Kholokholny, where they set up a camp.

The army entered the Suzdal land and was ready to strike. Having successfully started the campaign, the knightly Mstislav Udatny now considered it not shameful for himself to repeat peace proposals to the enemy - after Svyatoslav’s escape 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 answered the ambassadors, “let’s go, of course, go: even a hare goes for blood. But one of our men will get a hundred.”

Having received this answer, the allies gathered for a council. Some of them wanted to go straight to Torzhok and finish off Yaroslav with one blow, but Mstislav thought differently: “If we go to Torzhok, we will devastate the Novgorod volost, and that will be worse for us than the first. Better, brothers, let’s go to Yaroslav’s volost. He will not leave our volost and there we’ll see what God gives.” It was decided to go to Pereyaslavl, the birthplace of Yaroslav. Mstislav Udatny had one more reason for choosing this particular path. “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 “pozhgosha villages” - the destruction of enemy volosts was considered military valor and was one of the main means of waging war. Yaroslav, taking with him prisoners, as well as his supporters from the Novgorodians - “the oldest men ... of Novgorod and the younger ones by choice” - as well as the entire Torzhok militia, went to Tver, trying to get to Pereyaslavl before the enemy army blocked the road there . The watchman he sent drove only 15 miles and returned with the news that the allied army was ahead. The allies did not know about his movement and were justifiably afraid of the strike of Yaroslav’s warriors on their paddocks. The news about Yaroslav was delivered by the brave Yarun. On Annunciation on March 25, walking at the head of an advance detachment, he ran into an enemy guard of 100 people, attacked it and put it to flight. In the battle, 7 of Yaroslav’s warriors 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 army “are not afraid to go to prosperity.”

Yaroslav's further flight from Tver to Pereyaslavl made it pointless for the Allies to attempt to capture this city. Instead, they took new steps to strengthen their ties with Konstantin Vsevolodovich. The Smolensk boyar Yavolod was sent to him in Rostov. Vladimir Pskovsky with a mixed Pskov-Smolensk detachment escorted the envoy to the Rostov borders. At the same time, he captured the town of Kosnyatyn. Mstislav Udatny with the main forces, meanwhile, continued to slowly move along the Volga ice, sending out corrals to devastate the surrounding area. His warriors burned out the volosts along the Shosha and Dubna rivers. Having again united with the Pskovians, the allied army marched all the way to the mouth of the Mologa, destroying everything in its path.

On Mologa, the allied princes were met by the Rostov governor Eremey at the head of a detachment of 500 soldiers. He conveyed the message of Constantine: “I am glad to hear your coming; and behold, 500 men of the army will help you; and send my brother-in-law Vsevolod (Mstislavich) to me with all the speeches.” Vsevolod immediately drove off to Rostov to complete the negotiations, and the army continued on its way, but in cavalry order - the Volga opened up and the sleigh train had to be left in place.

On Great Saturday, April 9, 1216, the army arrived at the “Fortification on the River Sarah near St. Marina,” where Prince Konstantin and his retinue approached. Here he finally joined the coalition and kissed the cross. The princes celebrated Easter at the Settlement.

The Sarskoe 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 significance as a fortress. In the 13th century it was a powerful castle on a narrow, elongated ridge, surrounded on three sides by a bend of the Sary 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 in the last clash between Konstantin and Yuri, when “bravely, leaving Rostov, Prince Yuryev howl beat them, who were beaten by him near Rostov on the Ishna River and near Ugodichi in the meadow, many pits of bones were laid.” Popovich’s joining the allied army was important not only because of his combat skills, but also because of the enormous authority that the Rostov prince enjoyed among the squad. 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 Belozersk army called by Konstantin. The Novgorodians hoped to capture Yaroslav in Pereyaslavl, however, approaching the city in Fomina week (April 15), they took a prisoner who reported that the hated prince had already left with the Pereyaslavl regiment to Vladimir. Then Mstislav and Konstantin moved further and soon became a camp at Yuryev-Polsky, and the Rostovites settled in a separate camp on Lipitsa. It turned out that the allies were only slightly ahead of the enemy - the huge Suzdal army, almost not having time to occupy Yuryev, stood on the bank of the Gza River.

Yuriev-Polskaya, founded in 1152 by the great grandfather of the Vsevolodichs, Yuri Dolgoruky, was located in a densely populated and wealthy region of the Suzdal opole region, in the lowland of the left bank of the Koloksha not far from where the Gza flows into it. The fortress of the town was protected by a four- to six-meter ring rampart, as well as a ditch that reached a width of 28 m. Two gates led into the citadel - the northern Rostov and 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.

The information about the Suzdal army that the allied princes had made a terrifying impression. Therefore, hoping to gain time before Vladimir Pskovsky arrived, they started new negotiations with the enemy. They probably hoped to try to sow discord in the enemy’s camp - the Novgorodians did not consider Yuri Vsevolodovich their enemy and therefore sent Larion from the village 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 eldest brother. We ask you, reconcile with your eldest brother, give him eldership according to his righteousness, and tell Yaroslav to release the Novgorodians and Novoroshans. 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 my brother Yaroslav.”

Then the same Larion was sent with peaceful speeches to Yaroslav. Mstislav Udatny conveyed to his son-in-law: “Novgorod is mine. But you seized the men of Novgorod for no reason, you robbed a lot of goods and the Novgorodians, crying, cry out to God against you and complain to me about insults from you. You, son, release the prisoners, and the Novgorod volost return. So let's 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 maliciously: “We don’t want peace; your men are with me; you came from afar, but came out like fish to dry land.”

Upon Larion’s return, the allies equipped a third embassy, ​​this time addressing both Vsevolodichs: “Brothers, we are all the tribe of Vladimirov and came here not for war and ruin, not to take away your homeland, but we are looking for peace. You are according to the law of God and Truth "Give eldership to the Russian brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you hate God, and nothing can atone for that."

Yuri answered the envoys: “Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but does not know how he will leave here. If our father himself could not judge me and Konstantin, then should Mstislav be our judge? And tell brother Konstantin: overcome us, then 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! Lesser brothers are in your will, but according to my fortune-telling, it would be better for you to take the world and give eldership to Constantine. Don’t look what There are fewer of them. The princes of the Rostislav tribe are wise, honest and brave, and their men, Novgorodians and Smolensk, are daring in battle. And about Mstislav Mstislavich, you yourself know that courage was given to him more than anyone else. And doesn’t Konstantin now have 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 fellow diners. Yuri cooled down, especially since completely different speeches were heard from everywhere. The general mood was expressed by the “brave and crazy” boyar Ratibor, who stated: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav! It never happened, neither under your fathers, nor under your grandfathers, nor under your great-grandfathers, that anyone would enter an army into the strong Suzdal land and come out of it intact. Even if the whole Russian land came against us - Galicia, and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then they wouldn’t do anything to us. And what about these regiments, we’ll throw saddles at them! "

Inspired, Yuri and Yaroslav gave the governors a strict 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. Even if the mantle will be sewn with gold, "Kill him, so we won't leave a single one alive. If anyone escapes from the regiment, we won't kill him, but we'll grab him, or hang or crucify them. And whoever of the princes falls into the hands, we'll talk about them later." By prohibiting the capture of even noble opponents, the Suzdal leaders openly violated the existing rules of warfare. This command of theirs, apparently, became known to the allied army even before the start of the battle. The warriors of Udatny and Konstantin realized that in a foreign land they had no one to expect mercy from and, in turn, became embittered.

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

STRENGTHS OF THE PARTIES

By medieval standards, the armies that took part 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 information in the chronicles is contradictory and unreliable.

It is known that with Mstislav Udatny, 5,000 Novgorodians approached Rzhev (in V.N. Tatishchev’s account they turned into 500 horsemen), and 900 Pskovites marched to Zubtsov. These figures seem quite realistic and, based on them, further calculations can be made. The Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod, should have fielded a larger army, but it is unlikely that it could significantly exceed Mstislav’s army. After all, the Smolensk people had even less time to gather than the Novgorodians, and they could not gather the forces of the entire land. Apparently, the city regiment and the prince’s squad set out on the campaign, the total number of which can be roughly reduced to 6,000. The army of Yuri and Yaroslav had an overwhelming numerical superiority, which can be seen from how the allies were delighted with the approach of even the Belozersk army on the eve of the battle, which was so small, that it was not even mentioned separately in the general disposition - it fell under the command of Vladimir Mstislavich, who brought her, and merged with his Pskovites. From here it is logical to assume the forces of the Rostovites in the region of 3,000, and the Belozersts - no more than 1,000. In general, therefore, the allied army could have had up to 16,000 soldiers at its disposal.

Regarding their opponents, it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav - 17. Under banners here, obviously, not only the banners themselves are meant, but also individual combat units - units of 20-150 spears led by a boyar, city foreman or petty prince. Considering that the composition of one spears In addition to the commander, there were 10 more soldiers, we can roundly give the number of Yuri’s forces at somewhere around 7-10 thousand, and Yaroslav’s at 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 to Rzhev with Svyatoslav and Mikhail Borisovich is clearly exaggerated. Otherwise, it is unlikely that they would have retreated so hastily and practically without a fight in front of less than six thousand Mstislav and Vladimir. As a result, the army of Vsevolodichs on Lipitsa can be estimated at somewhere between 21 and 30 thousand people. Its composition was more varied than that of the allied army. Yuri commanded the Suzdal people - here was “the whole strength of the Suzdal land: they were driven from the villages and to the foot.” Under the command of Yaroslav were his Pereyaslavl residents, town residents, Murom residents (led by Prince Davyd Yuryevich), a small number of fugitive Novgorodians and Novorot residents, as well as fairly large forces Brodnikov – The chronicle names them on an equal footing with the named contingents. Regarding them, it should be noted that, contrary to popular belief, they did not at all represent “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 mercenary soldiers, immigrants from the Lower Danube, the Russian population of which lived in fishing, river trade and piracy. Their military detachments were often led by Galician boyars ("Galician expulsions"), experienced in combat, or even rogue princes. The composition of the regiments of the “lesser brethren” is not revealed in the chronicles, but, apparently, here, in addition to the personal squads of Ivan and Svyatoslav, there was a militia of the Suzdal land “from the settlements”, reinforced by heroes like Yuryata and Ratibor. This can be concluded from the fact that it was this flank that turned out to be the weak point in the Vsevolodich battle line and showed the least resistance in the battle.

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

Among the warriors of the allied army, the chronicle names such heroes as Alexander Popovich, Dobrynya Zolotoy 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 certain “Iev Popovich and his servant Nestor, great brave men,” whose death in battle was mourned by Mstislav Udatny himself. This gave grounds to assert that Alexander Popovich had a heroic brother, Job or Ivan. However, there is clearly a distortion of the original text of the earlier Novgorod Chronicle, where “Ivanka Popovitsa” was mentioned among the dead Novgorodians.

In conclusion of the review, it should be noted that when naming the number of troops, the chroniclers most likely meant only “combat units” that directly participated in the battles, not including the supply guards and camp staff. Taking into account these forces, the total number of troops should be increased two to three times.

BATTLE

Having received a challenge to battle, Mstislav Udatny immediately sent for Konstantin. The allied princes discussed the current situation and again brought Konstantin Vsevolodovich to the kiss of the cross on the fact that he would not change the agreement and would not go over to his brothers. Following this, on the same night from April 19 to 20, the Novgorod and Smolensk regiments left the camp and moved to Lipitsa. As they approached, shouts of welcome arose in the Rostov camp and trumpets sounded. This caused alarm among the Suzdal residents - later the Novgorodians even claimed that their enemies, for all their numbers, almost fled from this nightly commotion. On the morning of April 20, the allied armies entered the Lipitskoye field in battle formation. But there was no enemy here.

The Suzdal residents also left the camp while it was still dark. But, having reached the Lipitsa Plain, they did not stop there, as agreed, but crossed the forest and ascended to a hill convenient for defense, called Avdova Mountain. Perhaps, having heard the battle trumpets of the Rostovites, Yuri and Vsevolod suspected their enemies of trying to deliver a sudden night attack and defeat them on the march. One way or another, but, having climbed Mount Avdova, they strengthened their position with wattle and stakes (“every place was braided with wattle and stakes were stuck”) and kept their warriors in battle formation until dawn behind the shields.

Having determined the location of the enemy, the allies, in turn, took up positions on Yuryeva Mountain, separated from Avdova by a deep overgrown ravine. Along the bottom of this “wild” flowed a small Tuneg stream. Vladimir Pskovsky and the Belozersk people had not yet appeared, and therefore the allies attempted to gain time by resuming negotiations. Three princely men set off from Yurovaya Mountain to Avdova with the words to Yuri: “Give peace, but if you don’t give peace, then retreat further to level ground and we will attack you, or we will retreat to Lipitsa, and you will cross.” But Yuri, fearing a catch, answered: “I don’t accept peace and I won’t retreat. You came here through our entire land on a long road, so can’t you cross this wilds, this small stream!”

It was impossible to wait any longer. Mstislav sent hunters from the squad of “youth” to fight the Suzdal people in the “wilds”. The day turned out to be windy and cold, the warriors were tired from the night march, so the skirmishes were sluggish. It is to these battles that one of the stories about the exploits of Alexander Popovich probably relates, clearly reflecting the knightly morals of that time. One of the Suzdal governors went down into the ravine to the stream and exclaimed in a “military voice,” challenging the Rostov knight to a duel: “The shield is scarlet, I am going with this.” Hearing this, Popovich sent squire Torop to the Suzdal resident with his scarlet shield - “a fierce serpent is written on it.” Torop, showing the enemy his master’s coat of arms, asked: “What do you want from this shield?” “I want the one who is following him,” answered the fighter. The challenge was accepted.

“And Toropets drove to Oleksandr, saying: “Tobi, sir, is calling.” And Oleksandr, grabbing the shield, went beyond the river and said to him: “Take off.” And so the greyhound got together. throat and turn your weapon, he said to him: “What do you want?” And he said: “Sir, I want life.” And Alexander said: “Go, plunge into the river three times and be with me.” And he plunged and came to him. And Alexander said: “Go to your prince and tell him: “Olexander Popovich orders you to give up the estate of the Grand Duke, or we will take it from you ourselves. Bring me the answer, otherwise I will find you among the regiments!” The Suzdalian went to the top of Avdova Mountain and returned with a refusal.

By dusk the fights in the lowland had died down. The leaders of the allied army discussed further actions and on the morning of April 21, the troops began to close their camp in order to march directly to Vladimir. Noticing movement in the enemy’s camp, the Suzdal regiments moved forward threateningly, emerging from behind their field fortifications. It became clear that Yuri and Yaroslav would not miss the opportunity to strike in the enemy’s rear, preventing him from preparing for battle. The movement of troops was immediately stopped. At this time, the Belozersk people, led by Vladimir Mstislavich, finally arrived. His arrival delighted and encouraged the allies. The Novgorodians were returned to their original positions in order to restrain the impulse of the Suzdal army, and the princes gathered for a meeting. Konstantin pointed out the danger of leaving occupied positions: “When we go past them, they will take us to the rear, and my people are not daring to fight, they will disperse to the cities.” Everyone was inspired by the words of Mstislav Udatny: “Brothers, the mountain will not help us and will not defeat us. Look at the power of the honorable cross and the truth: let’s go to them!” So the decision was made to attack the Suzdalians head-on, despite their numerical superiority and convenient position for defense.

The regiments began to turn towards battle. The usual battle formation of the Russian army was a three-part division into a large regiment (chelo) and flanking regiments of the right and left hands. In this case, the allies also did not deviate from traditions. The Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav Udatny stood in the center. On his right hand were the Smolensk people of Vladimir Rurikovich; on the left are the Rostovites of Konstantin, the Belozersk and Pskovites of Vladimir Mstislavich. A small detachment of Vsevolod Mstislavich merged with the Novgorodians. The left flank was also strengthened by the presence of Rostov heroes there.

The regiments of the Vsevolodichs, who came out from behind their fortifications and somewhat descended the slope of Avdova Mountain, also prepared for battle. Yuri, at the head of the Suzdalians, stood against the Novgorodians. The right flank, opposite the Rostovites and Pskovites, was occupied by the “lesser brethren” - Ivan and Svyatoslav; left - Yaroslav at the head of the united forces of Pereyaslavl residents, town residents, Brodniks, as well as Murom residents of Davyd Yuryevich. 60 trumpets and tambourines played in Yuri's regiments; 40 trumpets and tambourines encouraged Yaroslav's troops.

Mstislav Udatny, riding around the ranks of warriors, spoke: “Brothers! We have entered a strong land. Let us look at God and stand strong, without looking back; if you run, you will not leave. Let us forget, brothers, wives, children and our homes. Who should not die? Go to battle whoever wants, whether on foot or on horseback.”

“We don’t want to die on horseback, we will fight on foot, like our fathers on Koloksha!” - answered the Novgorodians. The battle, the memories of which so inspired them, took place back in 1096 and in it, thanks to the actions of the Novgorod infantry, Mstislav the Great, Udatny’s great-grandfather, defeated his enemy Oleg Svyatoslavich. And now the Novgorodians dismounted, threw off their boots and outer clothing, and with a loud cry began to run down the slope of Yurovaya Mountain. The Smolensk people followed their example, although, as the Novgorod chronicler did not fail to answer, having taken off their shoes, they still wrapped their feet. Smolyan was led by the governor Ivor Mikhailovich, and the princes at the head of the horse squads slowly followed them. It was inconvenient to go down the steep slope on horseback - the horse under Ivor stumbled and the governor rolled to the ground. But his pawns continued the attack without waiting for him to rise. Picking up speed, the Novgorodians immediately flew up the slope of Avdova Mountain and attacked the enemy, first showering them with sulitsa, and then fighting hand-to-hand “with cues and axes.” Descending into the “wild” and ascending the mountain, the Novgorodians took a little to the right and as a result, their main blow fell precisely on the regiments of Yaroslav, whom they hated. Probably, Yaroslav's forces were somewhat pushed forward from the general line of the Suzdal army - due to the terrain or greater haste when leaving the camp. Having cut into the ranks of the enemy with a terrible cry, the attackers pushed the enemy back and even cut off one of Yaroslav’s banners. However, the Novgorodians had to fight, climbing the mountain, and confront the forces of both Yuri and Yaroslav at once. Therefore, after the first successful onslaught, their attack was repulsed. However, they were already supported from behind by the Smolensk people, and Ivor Mikhailovich, having caught up with his regiment, organized and led a secondary onslaught. With him the pawns reached the second Yaroslav banner.

Seeing the desperate battle, Mstislav Udatny cried out, addressing the mounted warriors who had already crossed Tuneg: “God forbid, brothers, to hand over these good people!” - and led them into an attack through the ranks of his own infantry. At the same time, the left flank of the allied army began to move. Konstantin and Vladimir Pskovsky attacked the younger Vsevolodichs. The slope of Avdova Mountain here was more gentle, and the warriors of Ivan and Svyatoslav were less resistant. As a result, Konstantin and his knights fell into the regiments of his younger brothers, “he divided them and, knocking them out of place, turned them towards the Suzdalians.” In this onslaught, Alexander Popovich met with the “mad boyar” Ratibor and he, despite all his boasting, was defeated by him in a duel. The same fate befell another Suzdal hero, Yuryata.

Meanwhile, Mstislav Udatny, armed with a battle ax with a strap on his wrist, drove three times, “cutting people,” through the regiments of Yuri and Yaroslav, accompanied by Vladimir Rurikovich and selected warriors. The Nikon Chronicle claims that in the heat of battle Mstislav encountered Popovich, who allegedly did not recognize the prince and almost cut him with a sword, but recognizing him, gave him advice: “Prince, do not dare, but stand and watch; head, you will be killed, and what are others and where should they go?” But this episode should undoubtedly be classified as later speculation. It is unlikely that such an experienced warrior as Popovich would not have recognized his own leader even in the heat of battle. And even more incredible is the advice he gave to the prince to “stand and watch” on the sidelines - such behavior would have been simply unthinkable for a prince of the 13th century, especially one like Mstislav Mstislavich, who became famous equally for his skill as a commander and for his military prowess.

The battle lasted from the morning until almost noon and for some time its outcome remained unclear: “And the slaughter of evil happened, one wanted to show his courage in front of the other and defeat the enemy. Here one could hear the breaking of spears, the groaning of ulcers, the trampling of horses, behind which there was nothing military "We can't speak to each other, we can't hear the commands of the commanders, and we can see nothing from the dust in front of us. Blood was pouring everywhere and falling on both sides in the place there was so much that no one could go further or back. No one wanted to give in." .

Judging by the Novgorod chronicle, the outcome of the battle was decided by the stubborn onslaught of the Novgorodians with some support from the Smolensk people (the actions of Constantine’s left wing are not even mentioned there). Yaroslav's warriors trembled and fled, and looking at them, Yuri also “shouldered away.” However, a different picture emerges from the words of V.N. Tatishchev, who conveyed the Rostov point of view. Apparently, the regiment of Konstantin and Vladimir of Pskov cut through the right wing of the enemy army opposing it and reached the flank and rear of Yuri’s Suzdalians. The people of Suzdal, who were subjected to the powerful onslaught of Mstislav Udatny from the front, found themselves between two fires, and Yaroslav’s warriors were already giving in under the pressure of the Novgorodians and Smolensk. The result was a general flight of the Vsevolodich army, accompanied by its mass beating. Experienced Mstislav, however, realized that the battle was not over yet and the enemy could well gain the upper hand using his numerical superiority. Therefore, he loudly gave the order to his triumphant warriors: “Brothers, do not rush at the convoy, but beat them. When they return, they will destroy us!” The Novgorodians did not need to be persuaded to continue the massacre, but the Smolensk people, as the Novgorod chronicler did not fail to note, “attacked the goods and robbed them of the dead.” However, panic-stricken and deprived of command, the Suzdal regiments could no longer stop. As usual in medieval battles, the losing army suffered the main losses during its flight. Of the fleeing Suzdal residents, “many of the footstrokes were in the river, and some were wounded from the dead.” The screams of the wounded and killed were heard in Yuryev itself. The Novgorodians gave no mercy to the enemy. Yaroslav himself barely escaped persecution. To make his escape easier, he threw his chain mail and his family’s gilded helmet with a chased image of St. Archangel Michael into the nearest hazel thickets, and he rushed off towards Pereyaslavl. Yuri did the same, galloping to Vladimir by noon of the same day, when the finishing off of his army was just completed on Lipitsa. He rushed to his capital "on the fourth horse, and three souls, in the first shirt, and even threw out the lining."

The winners got the entire convoy, all the banners, battle trumpets and tambourines of the Vsevolodians, but only 60 prisoners. The death toll was enormous, although difficult to determine. Chronicle news is very unreliable. According to them, in this fierce battle, only 5 Novgorodians and 1 Smolensk fell ("Novgorod killed on the mortar Dmitry Plskovichin, Anton Kotelnik, Ivanka Pribyshinitsya oponnik. And in the pen Ivanka Popovitsya, Smyun Petrilovitsya, a tributary of the Tyrsky"); The enemies lost 9,233 people killed. The later Nikon Chronicle gives the losses of the allies at 550, and the losses of the Suzdalians at 17,200 people, specifying in both cases: “except for foot soldiers.” V.N. Tatishchev estimates the losses of both sides at 2,550 and 17,250 people, respectively, and he adds that most of the killed and wounded were among the Smolensk people, because where they advanced, the mountain was steep and uneven. The later figure of 17,200 is clearly unreliable and one can completely believe the Novgorodians regarding 9,233 killed enemies. But the losses of the allies, of course, could not be limited to the figure of 6 people, and here the more likely number is close to the 2,550 killed by Tatishchev.

Rice. 2. Scheme of the Battle of Lipitsa

Rice. 3. Place of the Battle of Lipitsa and troop movements

RESULTS

Mstislav Udatny did not order to pursue the fleeing, which the chronicler attributes to his Christian love for mankind. Otherwise, in his opinion, “Prince Yuri and Yaroslav could not have left. And the city of Vladimir would have been expelled.” Instead, the allies stood at the scene of the massacre all day. It was necessary to collect trophies, provide assistance to the wounded, and put our own army in order. In any case, there was nowhere to rush: the job was done, the enemy suffered a crushing defeat, and finishing off the defeated was not in the custom of Mstislav Udatny.

Yaroslav rushed to Pereyaslavl on the fifth horse, driving four. He was choked by anger - “he hasn’t had his fill of blood yet.” On the move, he ordered all the Novgorodians and Smolyans, “who came as a guest,” to be thrown into cramped cellars. As a result, up to 150 Novgorodians suffocated to death in the dungeon and only 15 Smolensk residents, held in custody in Gridnitsa, survived. This senseless and cruel reprisal adds another striking touch to the understanding of the character of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.

Having noticed Yuri from the walls of Vladimir, the townspeople initially took him for the princely messenger of victory. But then they recognized with horror their prince in a lone half-dressed horseman who galloped along the walls and shouted: “Fortify the city!” There was general confusion and crying. By evening, the surviving warriors, wounded and naked, began to flock to Vladimir.

The next morning, April 22, Yuri convened a meeting, calling on the “brothers of Vladimir” to shut themselves within the city walls and prepare to fight back. “Prince, Yuri!” the townspeople answered him. “Who will we close ourselves with? Our brothers are beaten, others are captured, and those who came running are unarmed. With whom will we fight?” The dejected prince asked them at least not to hand him over to either Mstislav or Konstantin, promising to leave the city himself.

On Sunday, April 22, the allied army approached Vladimir and besieged it. On the first night of the siege, a fire broke out in the city. The Novgorodians wanted to take advantage of this and launch an attack, but the chivalrous Mstislav held them back. The next night the fire repeated and burned until dawn. The Smolensk people were now eager to storm, but Vladimir Rurikovich followed Mstislav’s example and forbade them to do so. The princes apparently did not consider that the pogrom of the city after the victory had actually been won would bring them any honor. In addition, they still had to establish Constantine on the Vladimir throne, and the city burned and plundered during the assault was a bad gift to an ally. Moreover, Yuri did not try to resist. On Wednesday he sent a messenger with the words: “Do not approach the city today, tomorrow I will leave it.” On Thursday, April 28, he and his brothers Ivan and Svyatoslav left the city gates and, appearing before the allied princes, said: “Brothers! I hit you with my forehead, you give me life and bread, and my brother Constantine is in your will.” He brought rich gifts with him and received peace. Konstantin solemnly entered Vladimir, and Yuri was given possession of Radilov-Gorodets. Having loaded his family onto the boats and boats, Yuri Vsevolodovich went down the river, finally exclaiming in the cathedral at his father’s tomb: “God judge my brother Yaroslav, he brought me to this.”

Yaroslav, unlike his brother, did not wait for the enemy to approach his city. He appeared in Constantine’s camp on May 3, on the outskirts of Pereyaslavl, and humbly begged for intercession: “Brother and lord, I am in your will, do not hand me over to either my father-in-law Mstislav or Vladimir, feed me bread yourself.” Yaroslav sent rich gifts to other princes and Novgorodians. Mstislav Udatny did not even want to see his son-in-law, only demanding that he return his daughter. Later, Yaroslav “sent many times with a prayer to Mstislav, asking his princess: Prince Mstislav would not be given to him.” The surviving Novgorod prisoners finally received freedom.

The war is over. The allies dispersed to their cities. Novgorod once again defended its liberties; Mstislav Udatny and his brothers gained honor and glory by defeating the strongest enemy and protecting the offended; Konstantin restored justice in the inheritance of power in the Zalessk land, and the Rostovites once again showed strength to their “suburb” Vladimir. However, only a few years passed and the results of the grandiose battle faded away, as if it had never happened.

Constantine died already in 1219, bequeathing the Vladimir throne to the same Yuri Vsevolodovich. Mstislav Udatny left Novgorod already in 1218, going south “to look for Galich,” and remained there. Soon he had to suffer the first and most terrible defeat in his life - on Kalka, from the Tatars, unknown to anyone. Rostov knights Alexander Popovich and Dobrynya Zolotoy Belt, after the death of their patron Konstantin, left for Kyiv, fearing Yuri's revenge, and also died on Kalka along with all the heroes who were there, covering the retreat of the defeated Russian army. Tysyatsky Yarun accompanied Mstislav Udatny on his further campaigns and commanded the Polovtsian cavalry on Kalka. Vladimir Rurikovich Smolensky also fought and survived there. Yuri Vsevolodovich did not participate in this unhappy campaign, but the Tatars overtook him in his own possessions - he fell in the winter of 1238 in the battle of the City along with the eldest son of his rival brother, Prince Vasily Konstantinovich of Rostov. The mayor of Veliky Novgorod at that time was Stepan Tverdislavich, once a prisoner of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Yaroslav, the most repulsive personality of the Lipitsa epic, outlived all his contemporaries. After the Tatar ruin, he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, the first of all Russian princes to come to bow at Batu’s headquarters, accepted the label for reign from the hands of the khan and died on the way back from Karakarum itself in 1246. Among his sons were Alexander Nevsky and Daniil of Moscow. His descendants ultimately inherited all of Rus'.

Literature

Information about the Battle of Lipitsa is contained in the chronicles: Novgorod I, Novgorod IV, Nikon, Vologda-Perm, Tver, Voskresensk, as well as in the “Russian History” by V. N. Tatishchev, who used later lost chronicle sources.

PSRL, vol. 3, 4, 7, 10, 15.

Tatishchev V. N. Russian history. – Book 3, 4. – M-L., 1963.

Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. Ser. "Lit. monuments". – M., 1974. (in the appendix to the publication of epics there are excerpts from chronicles containing mentions of both heroes).

A description and analysis of the events associated with the battle, the characteristics of the participants and the areas and settlements mentioned in the description are contained in a number of historical works, starting with N. M. Karamzin:

Karamzin N. M. History of Russian Goverment. – T. 3.

Solovyov S. M. History of Russia from ancient times. - Book 2.

Kostomarov N. I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. – Vol. 1. Dominion of the house of St. Vladimir.

Slavic Chronicles. Comp. A. I. Tsepkov. – St. Petersburg, 1996.

Romanov B. A. People and customs of Ancient Rus'. – M., 1990.

Leontyev A. E. Sarskoye settlement. – M., 1975.

Averin I.“Those who despise death” // Motherland. 1997. No. 9. pp. 34-36. (the work is dedicated to wanderers)

Fennell D. The crisis of medieval Rus'. 1200-1304 – M., 1989.

An overview of military affairs and characteristics of weapons of the described period, taking into account archaeological data, is contained in the well-known works:

Kirpichnikov A. N. Old Russian weapons. – Issue 1. Swords and sabers IX-XIII centuries. – SAI E1-36. – M., 1966.

Kirpichnikov A. N. Old Russian weapons. – Issue 2. Spears, sulitsa, battle axes, maces, flails of the 10th-13th centuries. – SAI E1-36. – M., 1966.

Kirpichnikov A. N. Old Russian weapons. – Issue 3. Armor, a complex of military equipment of the 9th-13th centuries. – SAI E1-36. – M., 1966.

Kirpichnikov A. N. Military affairs in Rus' in the XIII-XV centuries. – M., 1976.

Medvedev A.F. Weapons of Novgorod the Great. – MIA No. 65. – M., 1959.

Medvedev A.F. Hand-held throwing weapons (bow, arrows and crossbow). VIII-XIV centuries – SAI E1-36. – M., 1966.

Helmet of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich // ZRAO. T. IX. Issue 1-2. 1899.

For primary sources about the Battle of Lipitsa, see also:

Lurie Ya. S. The story of the Battle of Lipitsa in 1216 in the chronicles of the XIV-XVI centuries. // TODRL, vol. XXIV. – L., 1979. – pp. 96-115.

Publication:
XLegio © 2002

Battle of Lipitsa (April 21, 1216)

The history of pre-Mongol Rus' is full of princely strife. However, not a single battle of that time made such an impression on the chroniclers with its scope and ferocity as the Battle of Lipitsa in 1216. This battle quickly became overgrown with legends and can rightfully be considered the peak of civil strife of the pre-Tatar period.

chronicler

THE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT

The war, the outcome of which was decided by the Battle of Lipitsa, was generated by two reasons - enmity between the Novgorodians and the Vladimir land and strife between the Vladimir-Suzdal princes themselves.
The enmity that broke out between the sons of the Vladimir prince Vsevolod the Big Nest was rooted in orders made by himself shortly before his death in 1212.

Vsevolod Yurievich

Recognizing his eldest son Konstantin as his successor, his father demanded that in return he cede his inheritance in Rostov to his brother Yuri. But Konstantin did not agree, “even if we take Volodymer to Rostov.” Then Vsevolod publicly disowned his eldest son from the inheritance in favor of Yuri, and after that Konstantin “raised his eyebrows with anger at his brothers, and especially at Yuri.” In this dispute, he had reliable support in the person of the boyars and the “city men” of Rostov the Great - traditionally considering their city to be the “oldest” in the Zalessk land, they did not want to submit to their “suburb” Vladimir. The thirty-year-old Rostov prince himself enjoyed the love and respect of his subjects, who believed that “God had granted 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 wise with spiritual conversations, often honoring books with diligence and doing everything according to what is written.”

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

Meanwhile, in 1215, the prince of Novgorod, Mstislav Mstislavich, nicknamed Udatny for his success in his numerous military enterprises (later historians changed the nickname to “Udaly”), was invited by the Krakow prince Leshko to participate in the campaign against Galich, captured by the Hungarians. At the assembled meeting, the prince announced to the Novgorodians: “I have business in Rus', and you are free to be princes,” after which, together with his 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 their general disposition towards the departed Mstislav, they proposed inviting his son-in-law, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who ruled in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, to reign.

Yaroslav Vsevolodovich

The choice, however, was not a good one. Yaroslav, a stubborn and cruel man, immediately began to deal with his true

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 Novotorzh mayor Foma Dobroshchinich were sent in chains to Tver, the courtyard of the thousand Yakun was destroyed and his wife was captured. When Yakun came to complain with the mayor, Yaroslav ordered his Christopher to be arrested at the same time. Outraged residents of Prusskaya Street killed the prince's henchmen Ovstrat and his son Lugota, after which Yaroslav left Novgorod in anger. He retired to Torzhok, leaving behind his governor 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” rose in power, humiliating the “oldest” city. He planned to “turn Torzhok into Novgorod.” Torzhok, which lay on the border with Suzdal land, was a trading hub on the way to Novgorod and was always the object of the aspirations of the Suzdal princes. Having settled in it, Yaroslav blocked the supply of food to Novgorod and thereby aggravated the disaster that befell him. The fact is that the frost destroyed the grain in the Novgorod land and this caused a famine that was terrible in its consequences. Kad of rye rose in price to 10 hryvnia, and Kad of oats - to three. Parents gave their children into slavery for feeding. “Oh woe beha! There is a corpse in the city, a corpse in the streets, a corpse in the field; it is impossible for a human being to be eaten by a psy,” the chronicler exclaims. The prince simply starved the city, not letting a single cart of grain pass there. The Novgorodians sent three embassies to Yaroslav - first Smena Borisovich, Vyacheslav Klimyatich and Zubts Yakun, then the mayor Yuri Ivankovich with Stepan Tverdislavich and other men, and then Manuil Yagolchevich with his last speeches. But the prince took all the ambassadors into custody, without giving any other answer. He only sent a certain Ivoraich Diarrhea there to take Princess Rostislava Mstislavna out of 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 men and Novgorod volosts, or I will lay my head for Veliky Novgorod!” This program was enthusiastically accepted by Novgorodians. "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 the priest of the Church of St. John in Torgovshchina, Father Yuri. Apparently, he hoped that Yaroslav would not dare to treat a 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, as the Nikon Chronicle reports, and after it V.N. Tatishchev, Mstislav demanded that his son-in-law live honestly with his wife and not let his concubines offend her, and otherwise send her back to her father. Yaroslav really did not dare to seize the priest, but he took it out on the Novgorodians who fell into his hands - they were all shackled and sent into captivity throughout the Zalesse cities, and their property was confiscated. In total, according to the chroniclers, up to 2,000 people were imprisoned (the figure is probably greatly exaggerated). Yaroslav also took active actions against his father-in-law who interfered in his affairs - they sent 100 people to “send Mstislav out of Novgorod.” Yaroslav himself began constructing guards on all the routes and gathering forces to resist the Novgorodians.

However, the “guides” he sent, 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 to begin: “Let’s go, brothers, let’s look for our husbands, your brothers, let’s return your volosts, so that the New Trade will not be Great Novgorod, nor Novgorod Torzhok. Where St. Sophia is, here is Novgorod; and in many ways God and in little things God and truth! " The Novgorodians were inspired by the consciousness of their rightness, by the hatred of the famous knight prince, like Mstislav Udatny.

Mstislav Mstislavich Udatny

Earlier, in 1210, he had already freed them from the disliked Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, the younger brother of their current oppressor, and even the powerful Vsevolod the Big Nest could not prevent this. Mstislav’s personality itself, which was given an apt and succinct description by N.I. Kostomarov, instilled hopes for success and subsequent feats of arms. He called the prince “a model of character that could only have been developed by the living conditions of the pre-Tatar appanage period” and said that he was “a defender of antiquity, a guardian of the existing, a fighter for truth... He was the best man of his time, but did not cross that line ", which the spirit of previous centuries assigned to itself; and in this respect, his life expressed the society of his time."

PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN

Mstislav Mstislavich, as an experienced military leader, acted quickly and decisively. Taking advantage of his authority and family connections, he managed to put together a strong anti-Suzdal coalition in the shortest possible time, from February 11 to March 1. His brother, the Pskov prince Vladimir Mstislavich, and his cousin Vladimir Rurikovich, the prince of Smolensk, firmly promised him their support. Vsevolod Mstislavich, the son of another cousin of Udatny, Prince of Kyiv Mstislav Romanovich, was also supposed to arrive with his retinue. What made this ally especially valuable was the fact that Vsevolod was the brother-in-law of Konstantin Rostovsky, of whose discord 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 his brothers for help, and first of all to Yuri. Behind Yuri stood all the power of the Suzdal land. The brothers responded to the call. Yuri immediately begins gathering troops, and until then he sends an army led by his younger brother Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich to Yaroslav. Even the hostile Konstantin responded, sending his son Vsevolod with a small squad to Yaroslav - he did not want to reveal his plans ahead of time and preferred to first observe the development of events.

“On the 1st day of the month of March, on Tuesday after 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.

Walking along the Seliger route, the army entered the Toropetsk volost, the estate of Mstislav Udatny. The troops moved on sleighs along the ice of rivers and lakes, sending out small corral detachments to procure 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 or drive them into captivity. As a result, those who set out from the starving Novgorod quickly “were filled with karma, both themselves and their horses.”

Meanwhile, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, at the head of a large force (according to the chronicler’s clearly inflated estimate of up to 10 thousand), laid siege to Rzhev, where Yarun Vasilyevich, the thousand-man Yarun Vasilyevich, locked himself in 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, quickly attacked 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 this, the combined forces advance along the Volga to the mouth of Kholokholny, where they set up a camp.

The army entered the Suzdal land and was ready to strike. Having successfully begun the campaign, the knightly Mstislav Udatny now considered it not shameful for himself to repeat peace proposals to the enemy - after Svyatoslav’s escape 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 answered the ambassadors, “let’s go, of course, go: even a hare goes for blood. But one of our men will get a hundred.”

Having received this answer, the allies gathered for a council. Some of them wanted to go straight to Torzhok and finish off Yaroslav with one blow, but Mstislav thought differently: “If we go to Torzhok, we will devastate the Novgorod volost, and that will be worse for us than the first. Better, brothers, let’s go to Yaroslav’s volost. He will not leave our volost and there we’ll see what God gives.” It was decided to go to Pereyaslavl - the fatherland of Yaroslav. Mstislav Udatny had one more reason for choosing this particular path. “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 “pozhgosha villages” - the destruction of enemy volosts was considered military valor and was one of the main means of waging war. Yaroslav, taking with him prisoners, as well as his supporters from Novgorod - “the oldest men ... of Novgorod and the young by choice” - as well as the entire Torzhok militia, went to Tver, trying to get to Pereyaslavl before the enemy army blocked the road there . The watchman he sent drove only 15 miles and returned with the news that the allied army was ahead. The allies did not know about his movement and were justifiably afraid of the strike of Yaroslav’s warriors on their paddocks. The news about Yaroslav was delivered by the brave Yarun. On Annunciation on March 25, walking at the head of an advance detachment, he ran into an enemy guard of 100 people, attacked it and put it to flight. In the battle, 7 of Yaroslav’s warriors 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 army “are not afraid to go to prosperity.”

Yaroslav's further flight from Tver to Pereyaslavl made it pointless for the Allies to attempt to capture this city. Instead, they took new steps to strengthen their ties with Konstantin Vsevolodovich. The Smolensk boyar Yavolod was sent to him in Rostov. Vladimir Pskovsky with a mixed Pskov-Smolensk detachment escorted the envoy to the Rostov borders. At the same time, he captured the town of Kosnyatyn. Mstislav Udatny with the main forces, meanwhile, continued to slowly move along the Volga ice, sending out corrals to devastate the surrounding area. His warriors burned out the volosts along the Shosha and Dubna rivers. Having again united with the Pskovians, the allied army marched all the way to the mouth of the Mologa, destroying everything in its path.

On Mologa, the allied princes were met by the Rostov governor Eremey at the head of a detachment of 500 soldiers. He conveyed the message of Constantine: “I am glad to hear your coming; and behold, 500 men of the army will help you; and send my brother-in-law Vsevolod (Mstislavich) to me with all the speeches.” Vsevolod immediately drove off to Rostov to complete the negotiations, and the army continued on its way, but in cavalry order - the Volga opened up and the sleigh train had to be left in place.

On Great Saturday, April 9, 1216, the army arrived at the “Fortification on the River Sarah near St. Marina,” where Prince Konstantin and his retinue approached. Here he finally joined the coalition and kissed the cross. The princes celebrated Easter at the Settlement.
The Sarskoe 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 significance as a fortress. In the 13th century it was a powerful castle on a narrow, elongated ridge, surrounded on three sides by a bend of the Sary 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 in the last clash between Konstantin and Yuri, when “bravely, leaving Rostov, Prince Yuryev howl beat them, who were beaten by him near Rostov on the Ishna River and near Ugodichi in the meadow, many pits of bones were laid.” Popovich’s joining the allied army was important not only because of his combat skills, but also because of the enormous authority that the Rostov prince enjoyed among the squad. 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 Belozersk army called by Konstantin. The Novgorodians hoped to capture Yaroslav in Pereyaslavl, however, approaching the city in Fomina week (April 15), they took a prisoner who reported that the hated prince had already left with the Pereyaslavl regiment to Vladimir. Then Mstislav and Konstantin moved further and soon became a camp at Yuryev-Polsky, and the Rostovites settled in a separate camp on Lipitsa. It turned out that the allies were only slightly ahead of the enemy - the huge Suzdal army, having almost managed to occupy Yuryev, stood on the bank of the Gza River.

Yuriev-Polskaya, founded in 1152 by the great grandfather of the Vsevolodichs, Yuri Dolgoruky, was located in a densely populated and wealthy region of the Suzdal opole region, in the lowland of the left bank of the Koloksha not far from where the Gza flows into it. The fortress of the town was protected by a four to six meter ring rampart, as well as a ditch that reached a width of 28 m. Two gates led into the citadel - the northern Rostov and 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.

The information about the Suzdal army that the allied princes had made a terrifying impression. Therefore, hoping to gain time before Vladimir of Pskov arrived, they started new negotiations with the enemy. They probably hoped to try to sow discord in the enemy’s camp - the Novgorodians did not consider Yuri Vsevolodovich their enemy and therefore sent Larion from the village 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 eldest brother. We ask you, reconcile with your eldest brother, give him eldership according to his righteousness, and tell Yaroslav to release the Novgorodians and Novoroshans. 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 my brother Yaroslav.”
Then the same Larion was sent with peaceful speeches to Yaroslav. Mstislav Udatny conveyed to his son-in-law: “Novgorod is mine. But you seized the men of Novgorod for no reason, you robbed a lot of goods and the Novgorodians, crying, cry out to God against you and complain to me about insults from you. You, son, release the prisoners, and the Novgorod volost return. So let's 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 maliciously: “We don’t want peace; your men are with me; you came from afar, but came out like fish to dry land.”

Upon Larion’s return, the allies equipped a third embassy, ​​this time addressing both Vsevolodichs: “Brothers, we are all the tribe of Vladimirov and came here not for war and ruin, not to take away your homeland, but we are looking for peace. You are according to the law of God and Truth "Give eldership to the Russian brother Konstantin. You yourself know that if you don’t love your brother, then you hate God, and nothing can atone for that."

Yuri answered the envoys: “Tell Mstislav that he knows how he came, but does not know how he will leave here. If our father himself could not judge me and Konstantin, then should Mstislav be our judge? And tell brother Konstantin: overcome us, then 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! Lesser brothers are in your will, but according to my fortune-telling, it would be better for you to take the world and give eldership to Constantine. Don’t look what There are fewer of them. The princes of the Rostislav tribe are wise, honest and brave, and their men, Novgorodians and Smolensk, are daring in battle. And about Mstislav Mstislavich, you yourself know that courage was given to him more than anyone else. And doesn’t Konstantin now have 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 fellow diners. Yuri cooled down, especially since completely different speeches were heard from everywhere. The general mood was expressed by the “brave and crazy” boyar Ratibor, who stated: “Princes Yuri and Yaroslav! It never happened, neither under your fathers, nor under your grandfathers, nor under your great-grandfathers, that anyone would enter an army into the strong Suzdal land and come out of it intact. Even if the whole Russian land came against us - Galicia, and Kiev, and Smolensk, and Chernigov, and Novgorod, and Ryazan, and even then they wouldn’t do anything to us. And what about these regiments, we’ll throw saddles at them! "

Inspired, Yuri and Yaroslav gave the governors a strict 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. Even if the mantle will be sewn with gold, "Kill him, so we won't leave a single one alive. If anyone escapes from the regiment, we won't kill him, but we'll grab him, or hang or crucify them. And whoever of the princes falls into the hands, we'll talk about them later." By prohibiting the capture of even noble opponents, the Suzdal leaders openly violated the existing rules of warfare. This command of theirs, apparently, became known to the allied army even before the start of the battle. The warriors of Udatny and Konstantin realized that in a foreign land they had no one to expect mercy from and, in turn, became embittered.

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

STRENGTHS OF THE PARTIES

By medieval standards, the armies that took part 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 information in the chronicles is contradictory and unreliable.

It is known that with Mstislav Udatny, 5,000 Novgorodians approached Rzhev (in V.N. Tatishchev’s account they turned into 500 horsemen), and 900 Pskovites marched to Zubtsov. These figures seem quite realistic and, based on them, further calculations can be made. The Smolensk land, which did not suffer the same disaster as Novgorod, should have fielded a larger army, but it is unlikely that it could significantly exceed Mstislav’s army. After all, the Smolensk people had even less time to gather than the Novgorodians, and they could not gather the forces of the entire land. Apparently, the city regiment and the prince’s squad set out on the campaign, the total number of which can be roughly reduced to 6,000. The army of Yuri and Yaroslav had an overwhelming numerical superiority, which can be seen from how the allies were delighted with the approach of even the Belozersk army on the eve of the battle, which was so small, that it was not even mentioned separately in the general disposition - it came under the command of Vladimir Mstislavich, who brought her, and merged with his Pskov people. From here it is logical to assume the forces of the Rostovites in the region of 3,000, and the Belozersts - no more than 1,000. In general, therefore, the allied army could have had up to 16,000 soldiers at its disposal.

Regarding their opponents, it is known that Yuri had 13 banners, and Yaroslav - 17. By banners here, obviously, we 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 warriors, we can roundly give the number of Yuri’s forces at somewhere around 7-10 thousand, and Yaroslav’s at 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 to Rzhev with Svyatoslav and Mikhail Borisovich is clearly exaggerated. Otherwise, it is unlikely that they would have retreated so hastily and practically without a fight in front of less than six thousand Mstislav and Vladimir. As a result, the army of Vsevolodichs on Lipitsa can be estimated at somewhere between 21 and 30 thousand people. Its composition was more varied than that of the allied army. Yuri commanded the Suzdal people - here was “the whole strength of the Suzdal land: they were overtaken from the villages and to the foot.” Under the command of Yaroslav were his Pereyaslavl residents, town residents, Murom residents (led by Prince Davyd Yuryevich), a small number of fugitive Novgorodians and Novoroshans, as well as fairly large forces of wanderers - the chronicle names them on an equal footing with the named contingents. Regarding them, it should be noted that, contrary to popular belief, they did not at all represent “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 mercenary soldiers, immigrants from the Lower Danube, the Russian population of which lived in fishing, river trade and piracy. Their military detachments were often led by Galician boyars ("Galician expulsions"), experienced in combat, or even rogue princes. The composition of the regiments of the “lesser brethren” is not revealed in the chronicles, but, apparently, here, in addition to the personal squads of Ivan and Svyatoslav, there was a militia of the Suzdal land “from the settlements”, reinforced by heroes like Yuryata and Ratibor. This can be concluded from the fact that it was this flank that turned out to be the weak point in the Vsevolodich battle line and showed the least resistance in the battle.

Both armies had in their ranks famous knights-heroes, each of whom led his own small squad. Thus, the famous Alexander Popovich, in addition to the servant Torop, led “70 other brave men of the same city” into the field. Bogatyrs in Rus' were then called God's people (for comparison, the knights-monks of the Teutonic Order among Russians bore the name of God's nobles), which indicates the special status that these knights occupied in society.

They could serve one or another prince or city, but at the same time retained a certain independence, which, ultimately, led in 1219 to their joint decision to serve only the Grand Duke of Kyiv, as the traditional head of the entire Russian land.

Among the warriors of the allied army, the chronicle names such heroes as Alexander Popovich, Dobrynya Zolotoy 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 certain “Iev Popovich and his servant Nestor, great brave men,” whose death in battle was mourned by Mstislav Udatny himself. This gave grounds to assert that Alexander Popovich had a heroic brother, Job or Ivan. However, there is clearly a distortion of the original text of the earlier Novgorod Chronicle, where “Ivanka Popovitsa” was mentioned among the dead Novgorodians.

In conclusion of the review, it should be noted that when naming the number of troops, the chroniclers most likely meant only “combat units” that directly participated in the battles, not including the supply guards and camp staff. Taking into account these forces, the total number of troops should be increased two to three times.

BATTLE

Having received a challenge to battle, Mstislav Udatny immediately sent for Konstantin. The allied princes discussed the current situation and again brought Konstantin Vsevolodovich to the kiss of the cross on the fact that he would not change the agreement and would not go over to his brothers. Following this, on the same night from April 19 to 20, the Novgorod and Smolensk regiments left the camp and moved to Lipitsa. As they approached, shouts of welcome arose in the Rostov camp and trumpets sounded. This caused alarm among the Suzdal residents - later the Novgorodians even claimed that their enemies, for all their numbers, almost fled from this nightly commotion. On the morning of April 20, the allied armies entered the Lipitskoye field in battle formation. But there was no enemy here.

The Suzdal residents also left the camp while it was still dark. But, having reached the Lipitsa Plain, they did not stop there, as agreed, but crossed the forest and ascended to a hill convenient for defense, called Avdova Mountain. Perhaps, having heard the battle trumpets of the Rostovites, Yuri and Vsevolod suspected their enemies of trying to deliver a sudden night attack and defeat them on the march. One way or another, but, having climbed Mount Avdova, they strengthened their position with wattle fences and stakes (“every place was braided with wattle fences and stakes were stuck in place”) and until dawn they kept their warriors in battle formation behind their shields.

Having determined the location of the enemy, the allies, in turn, took up positions on Yuryeva Mountain, separated from Avdova by a deep overgrown ravine. Along the bottom of this “wild” flowed a small Tuneg stream. Vladimir Pskovsky and the Belozersk people had not yet appeared, and therefore the allies attempted to gain time by resuming negotiations. Three princely men set off from Yurovaya Mountain to Avdova with the words to Yuri: “Give peace, but if you don’t give peace, then retreat further to level ground and we will attack you, or we will retreat to Lipitsa, and you will cross.” But Yuri, fearing a catch, answered: “I don’t accept peace and I won’t retreat. You came here through our entire land on a long road, so can’t you cross this wilds, this small stream!”

It was impossible to wait any longer. Mstislav sent hunters from the squad of “youth” to fight the Suzdal people in the “wilds”. The day turned out to be windy and cold, the warriors were tired from the night march, so the skirmishes were sluggish. It is to these battles that one of the stories about the exploits of Alexander Popovich probably relates, clearly reflecting the knightly morals of that time. One of the Suzdal governors went down into the ravine to the stream and exclaimed in a “military voice,” challenging the Rostov knight to a duel: “The shield is scarlet, I am going with this.” Hearing this, Popovich sent squire Torop to the Suzdal resident with his scarlet shield - “a fierce serpent is written on it.” Torop, showing the enemy his master’s coat of arms, asked: “What do you want from this shield?” “I want the one who is following him,” answered the fighter. The challenge was accepted.

“And Toropets drove to Oleksandr, saying: “Tobi, sir, is calling.” And Oleksandr, grabbing the shield, went beyond the river and said to him: “Take off.” And so the greyhound got together. throat and turn your weapon, he said to him: “What do you want?” And he said: “Sir, I want life.” And Alexander said: “Go, plunge into the river three times and be with me.” And he plunged and came to him. And Alexander said: “Go to your prince and tell him: “Olexander Popovich orders you to give up the estate of the Grand Duke, or we will take it from you ourselves. Bring me the answer, otherwise I will find you among the regiments!” The Suzdalian went to the top of Avdova Mountain and returned with a refusal.

By dusk the fights in the lowland had died down. The leaders of the allied army discussed further actions and on the morning of April 21, the troops began to close their camp in order to march directly to Vladimir. Noticing movement in the enemy’s camp, the Suzdal regiments moved forward threateningly, emerging from behind their field fortifications. It became clear that Yuri and Yaroslav would not miss the opportunity to strike in the enemy’s rear, preventing him from preparing for battle. The movement of troops was immediately stopped. At this time, the Belozersk people, led by Vladimir Mstislavich, finally arrived. His arrival delighted and encouraged the allies. The Novgorodians were returned to their original positions in order to restrain the impulse of the Suzdal army, and the princes gathered for a meeting. Konstantin pointed out the danger of leaving occupied positions: “When we go past them, they will take us to the rear, and my people are not daring to fight, they will disperse to the cities.” Everyone was inspired by the words of Mstislav Udatny: “Brothers, the mountain will not help us and will not defeat us. Look at the power of the honorable cross and the truth: let’s go to them!” So the decision was made to attack the Suzdalians head-on, despite their numerical superiority and convenient position for defense.

The regiments began to turn towards battle. The usual battle formation of the Russian army was a three-part division into a large regiment (chelo) and flanking regiments of the right and left hands. In this case, the allies also did not deviate from traditions. The Novgorodians and the squad of Mstislav Udatny stood in the center. On his right hand were the Smolensk people of Vladimir Rurikovich; on the left are the Rostovites of Konstantin, the Belozersk and Pskovites of Vladimir Mstislavich. A small detachment of Vsevolod Mstislavich merged with the Novgorodians. The left flank was also strengthened by the presence of Rostov heroes there.

The regiments of the Vsevolodichs, who came out from behind their fortifications and somewhat descended the slope of Avdova Mountain, also prepared for battle. Yuri, at the head of the Suzdalians, stood against the Novgorodians. The right flank, opposite the Rostovites and Pskovites, was occupied by the “lesser brethren” - Ivan and Svyatoslav; left - Yaroslav at the head of the united forces of Pereyaslavl residents, town residents, Brodniks, as well as Murom residents of Davyd Yuryevich. 60 trumpets and tambourines played in Yuri's regiments; 40 trumpets and tambourines encouraged Yaroslav's troops.

Mstislav Udatny, riding around the ranks of warriors, spoke: “Brothers! We have entered a strong land. Let us look at God and stand strong, without looking back; if you run, you will not leave. Let us forget, brothers, wives, children and our homes. Who should not die? Go to battle whoever wants, whether on foot or on horseback.”
“We don’t want to die on horseback, we will fight on foot, like our fathers on Koloksha!” - answered the Novgorodians. The battle, the memories of which so inspired them, took place back in 1096 and in it, thanks to the actions of the Novgorod infantry, Mstislav the Great, Udatny’s great-grandfather, defeated his enemy Oleg Svyatoslavich. And now the Novgorodians dismounted, threw off their boots and outer clothing, and with a loud cry began to run down the slope of Yurovaya Mountain. The Smolensk people followed their example, although, as the Novgorod chronicler did not fail to answer, having taken off their shoes, they still wrapped their feet. Smolyan was led by the governor Ivor Mikhailovich, and the princes at the head of the horse squads slowly followed them. It was inconvenient to go down the steep slope on horseback - the horse under Ivor stumbled and the governor rolled to the ground. But his pawns continued the attack without waiting for him to rise. Picking up speed, the Novgorodians immediately flew up the slope of Avdova Mountain and attacked the enemy, first showering them with sulitsa, and then fighting hand-to-hand “with cues and axes.”

Descending into the “wild” and ascending the mountain, the Novgorodians took a little to the right and as a result, their main blow fell precisely on the regiments of Yaroslav, whom they hated. Probably, Yaroslav's forces were somewhat pushed forward from the general line of the Suzdal army - due to the terrain or greater haste when leaving the camp. Having cut into the ranks of the enemy with a terrible cry, the attackers pushed the enemy back and even cut off one of Yaroslav’s banners. However, the Novgorodians had to fight, climbing the mountain, and confront the forces of both Yuri and Yaroslav at once. Therefore, after the first successful onslaught, their attack was repulsed. However, they were already supported from behind by the Smolensk people, and Ivor Mikhailovich, having caught up with his regiment, organized and led a secondary onslaught. With him the pawns reached the second Yaroslav banner.

Seeing the desperate battle, Mstislav Udatny cried out, addressing the mounted warriors who had already crossed Tuneg: “God forbid, brothers, to hand over these good people!” - and led them into an attack through the ranks of his own infantry. At the same time, the left flank of the allied army began to move. Konstantin and Vladimir Pskovsky attacked the younger Vsevolodichs. The slope of Avdova Mountain here was more gentle, and the warriors of Ivan and Svyatoslav were less resistant. As a result, Konstantin and his knights fell into the regiments of his younger brothers, “he divided them and, knocking them out of place, turned them towards the Suzdalians.”

In this onslaught, Alexander Popovich met with the “mad boyar” Ratibor and he, despite all his boasting, was defeated by him in a duel. The same fate befell another Suzdal hero, Yuryata.

Meanwhile, Mstislav Udatny, armed with a battle ax with a strap on his wrist, drove three times, “cutting people,” through the regiments of Yuri and Yaroslav, accompanied by Vladimir Rurikovich and selected warriors. The Nikon Chronicle claims that in the heat of battle Mstislav encountered Popovich, who allegedly did not recognize the prince and almost cut him with a sword, but recognizing him, gave him advice: “Prince, do not dare, but stand and watch; head, you will be killed, and what are others and where should they go?” But this episode should undoubtedly be classified as later speculation. It is unlikely that such an experienced warrior as Popovich would not have recognized his own leader even in the heat of battle. And even more incredible is the advice he gave to the prince to “stand and watch” on the sidelines - such behavior would have been simply unthinkable for a prince of the 13th century, especially one like Mstislav Mstislavich, who became famous equally for his skill as a commander and for his military prowess.

The battle lasted from the morning until almost noon and for some time its outcome remained unclear: “And the slaughter of evil happened, one wanted to show his courage in front of the other and defeat the enemy. Here one could hear the breaking of spears, the groaning of ulcers, the trampling of horses, behind which there was nothing military "We can't speak to each other, we can't hear the commands of the commanders, and we can see nothing from the dust in front of us. Blood was pouring everywhere and falling on both sides in the place there was so much that no one could go further or back. No one wanted to give in." .

Judging by the Novgorod chronicle, the outcome of the battle was decided by the stubborn onslaught of the Novgorodians with some support from the Smolensk people (the actions of Constantine’s left wing are not even mentioned there). Yaroslav's warriors trembled and fled, and looking at them, Yuri also “shouldered away.” However, a different picture emerges from the words of V.N. Tatishchev, who conveyed the Rostov point of view. Apparently, the regiment of Konstantin and Vladimir of Pskov cut through the right wing of the enemy army opposing it and reached the flank and rear of Yuri’s Suzdalians. The people of Suzdal, who were subjected to the powerful onslaught of Mstislav Udatny from the front, found themselves between two fires, and Yaroslav’s warriors were already giving in under the pressure of the Novgorodians and Smolensk. The result was a general flight of the Vsevolodich army, accompanied by its mass beating. Experienced Mstislav, however, realized that the battle was not over yet and the enemy could well gain the upper hand using his numerical superiority. Therefore, he loudly gave the order to his triumphant warriors: “Brothers, do not rush at the convoy, but beat them. When they return, they will destroy us!” The Novgorodians did not need to be persuaded to continue the massacre, but the Smolensk people, as the Novgorod chronicler did not fail to note, “attacked the goods and robbed them of the dead.” However, panic-stricken and deprived of command, the Suzdal regiments could no longer stop. As usual in medieval battles, the losing army suffered the main losses during its flight. Of the fleeing Suzdal residents, “many of the footstrokes were in the river, and some were wounded from the dead.” The screams of the wounded and killed were heard in Yuryev itself. The Novgorodians gave no mercy to the enemy. Yaroslav himself barely escaped persecution. To make his escape easier, he threw his chain mail and his family’s gilded helmet with a chased image of St. Archangel Michael into the nearest hazel thickets, and he rushed off towards Pereyaslavl.

helmet of Yaroslav Vsvolodovich

Yuri did the same, galloping to Vladimir by noon of the same day, when the finishing off of his army was just completed on Lipitsa. He rushed to his capital "on the fourth horse, and three souls, in the first shirt, and even threw out the lining."

The winners got the entire convoy, all the banners, battle trumpets and tambourines of the Vsevolodians, but only 60 prisoners. The death toll was enormous, although difficult to determine. Chronicle news is very unreliable. According to them, in this fierce battle, only 5 Novgorodians and 1 Smolensk fell ("Novgorod killed on the mortar Dmitry Plskovichin, Anton Kotelnik, Ivanka Pribyshinitsya oponnik. And in the pen Ivanka Popovitsya, Smyun Petrilovitsya, a tributary of the Tyrsky"); The enemies lost 9,233 people killed. The later Nikon Chronicle gives the losses of the allies at 550, and the losses of the Suzdalians at 17,200 people, specifying in both cases: “except for foot soldiers.” V.N. Tatishchev estimates the losses of both sides at 2,550 and 17,250 people, respectively, and he adds that most of the killed and wounded were among the Smolensk people, because where they advanced, the mountain was steep and uneven. The later figure of 17,200 is clearly unreliable and one can completely believe the Novgorodians regarding 9,233 killed enemies. But the losses of the allies, of course, could not be limited to the figure of 6 people, and here the more likely number is close to the 2,550 killed by Tatishchev.

RESULTS

Mstislav Udatny did not order to pursue the fleeing, which the chronicler attributes to his Christian love for mankind. Otherwise, in his opinion, “Prince Yuri and Yaroslav could not have left. And the city of Vladimir would have been expelled.” Instead, the allies stood at the scene of the massacre all day. It was necessary to collect trophies, provide assistance to the wounded, and put our own army in order. In any case, there was nowhere to rush: the job was done, the enemy suffered a crushing defeat, and finishing off the defeated was not in the custom of Mstislav Udatny.
Yaroslav rushed to Pereyaslavl on the fifth horse, driving four. He was choked by anger - “he had not yet had his fill of blood.” On the move, he ordered all the Novgorodians and Smolyans, “who came as a guest,” to be thrown into cramped cellars. As a result, up to 150 Novgorodians suffocated to death in the dungeon and only 15 Smolensk residents, held in custody in Gridnitsa, survived. This senseless and cruel reprisal adds another striking touch to the understanding of the character of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.

Having noticed Yuri from the walls of Vladimir, the townspeople initially took him for the princely messenger of victory. But then they recognized with horror their prince in a lone half-dressed horseman who galloped along the walls and shouted: “Fortify the city!” There was general confusion and crying. By evening, the surviving warriors, wounded and naked, began to flock to Vladimir.

The next morning, April 22, Yuri convened a meeting, calling on the “brothers of Vladimir” to shut themselves within the city walls and prepare to fight back. “Prince, Yuri!” the townspeople answered him. “Who will we close ourselves with? Our brothers are beaten, others are captured, and those who came running are unarmed. With whom will we fight?” The dejected prince asked them at least not to hand him over to either Mstislav or Konstantin, promising to leave the city himself.

On Sunday, April 22, the allied army approached Vladimir and besieged it. On the first night of the siege, a fire broke out in the city. The Novgorodians wanted to take advantage of this and launch an attack, but the chivalrous Mstislav held them back. The next night the fire repeated and burned until dawn. The Smolensk people were now eager to storm, but Vladimir Rurikovich followed Mstislav’s example and forbade them to do so. The princes apparently did not consider that the pogrom of the city after the victory had actually been won would bring them any honor. In addition, they still had to establish Constantine on the Vladimir throne, and the city burned and plundered during the assault was a bad gift to an ally. Moreover, Yuri did not try to resist. On Wednesday he sent a messenger with the words: “Do not approach the city today, tomorrow I will leave it.” On Thursday, April 28, he and his brothers Ivan and Svyatoslav left the city gates and, appearing before the allied princes, said: “Brothers! I hit you with my forehead, you give me life and bread, and my brother Constantine is in your will.” He brought rich gifts with him and received peace. Konstantin solemnly entered Vladimir, and Yuri was given possession of Radilov-Gorodets. Having loaded his family onto the boats and boats, Yuri Vsevolodovich went down the river, finally exclaiming in the cathedral at his father’s tomb: “God judge my brother Yaroslav, he brought me to this.”

Yaroslav, unlike his brother, did not wait for the enemy to approach his city. He appeared in Constantine’s camp on May 3, on the outskirts of Pereyaslavl, and humbly begged for intercession: “Brother and lord, I am in your will, do not hand me over to either my father-in-law Mstislav or Vladimir, feed me bread yourself.” Yaroslav sent rich gifts to other princes and Novgorodians. Mstislav Udatny did not even want to see his son-in-law, only demanding that he return his daughter. Later, Yaroslav “sent many times with a prayer to Mstislav, asking his princess: Prince Mstislav would not be given to him.” The surviving Novgorod prisoners finally received freedom
The war is over. The allies dispersed to their cities. Novgorod once again defended its liberties; Mstislav Udatny and his brothers gained honor and glory by defeating the strongest enemy and protecting the offended; Konstantin restored justice in the inheritance of power in the Zalessk land, and the Rostovites once again showed strength to their “suburb” Vladimir. However, only a few years passed and the results of the grandiose battle faded away, as if it had never happened.

Constantine died already in 1219, bequeathing the Vladimir throne to the same Yuri Vsevolodovich. Mstislav Udatny left Novgorod already in 1218, going south “to look for Galich,” and remained there. Soon he had to suffer the first and most terrible defeat in his life - on Kalka, from the Tatars, unknown to anyone.

Rostov knights Alexander Popovich and Dobrynya Zolotoy Belt, after the death of their patron Konstantin, left for Kyiv, fearing Yuri's revenge, and also died on Kalka along with all the heroes who were there, covering the retreat of the defeated Russian army. Tysyatsky Yarun accompanied Mstislav Udatny on his further campaigns and commanded the Polovtsian cavalry on Kalka. Vladimir Rurikovich Smolensky also fought and survived there. Yuri Vsevolodovich did not participate in this unhappy campaign, but the Tatars overtook him in his own possessions - he fell in the winter of 1238 in the battle of the City along with the eldest son of his rival brother, the Rostov prince Vasily Konstantinovich. The mayor of Veliky Novgorod at that time was Stepan Tverdislavich, once a prisoner of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Yaroslav, the most repulsive personality of the Lipitsa epic, outlived all his contemporaries. After the Tatar ruin, he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, the first of all Russian princes to come to bow at Batu’s headquarters, accepted the label for reign from the hands of the khan and died on the way back from Karakarum itself in 1246. Among his sons were Alexander Nevsky and Daniil of Moscow. His descendants ultimately inherited all of Rus'.

In the summer of 1808, the peasant woman Larionova, “while in the bushes to pluck nuts, saw something glowing in a hummock near a walnut bush.” This “something” turned out to be an ancient gilded helmet, under which lay a rolled-up coat of chain mail.

This happened near the village of Lykovo, on the banks of the Koloksha River, in the Vladimir province, not far from the city of Yuryev-Polsky.

The find was transferred to St. Petersburg, to the President of the Academy of Arts A. N. Olenin, who suggested that the armor was left by Yaroslav Vsevolodovich on April 22, 1216 during the Battle of Lipitsa.

Now the helmet found by Larionova is displayed in a display case of ancient military armor in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. In addition, a copy of it adorns the head of Alexander Nevsky - Cherkasov in Eisenstein's film.

And although Alexander Nevsky was born already when the helmet lay on the bank of Koloksha, the famous commander still has rights to it: after all, he was the son of the owner of this helmet - Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, one of the sons of Prince Vladimir Vsevolod the Big Nest, the first among the princes of the North. Eastern Rus', who accepted the title of grand duke.

A little background

After the death of Vsevolod the Big Nest on April 15, 1212, according to his will, supreme power, along 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 subjugate his older brother in an internecine struggle. After this, the Suzdal princes set about restoring their influence in Northern Rus', 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 Rus'.

Novgorod recognized Yaroslav, Yuri's brother and his faithful supporter in the Vladimir-Suzdal troubles, as prince. But he was unable to gain a strong foothold in Novgorod and moved to Torzhok, a joint possession of Novgorod and the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Yaroslav organized a trade blockade of Novgorod, captured more than 2,000 Novgorod merchants and sent them in chains to their cities.

At the height of this conflict, the Rostislavichs appeared on the scene again. By that time, their representative, Mstislav Romanovich, became the Grand Duke of Kyiv. The warlike 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 raiding the Toropetskaya volost of Mstislav 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 set out on a campaign against Yaroslav. With them came the Pskovites, led by Vladimir, the brother of Mstislav and the prince of Pskov. Mstislav and Vladimir ousted the Suzdalians from the Toropets region and united with the Smolensk troops of Vladimir Rurikovich, Prince of Smolensk, and Vsevolod, son of the Kyiv 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 Rostislavichs hid this fact from their troops for quite a long time and even longer from their enemies.

The situation finally became clear on April 9, Easter, when the Novgorod-Pskov-Smolensk army reached the southern shore of Lake Nero, on the northwestern shore of which Rostov was located. On the Settlement on the bank of the Sary River, which flows into Lake Nero, near the Church of St. Marina (the modern tract “St. Marya”, also known as “Mountain of Saint Mary”, is located 30 km southwest of Rostov on the Sarah River near the village of Filimonovo), The Rostislavichs met with Konstantin Rostovsky and entered into a final agreement.

General view from “Mount St. Mary” to the left bank of the river. Sarah. Photo from 2015. The village of Kalistovo and the village are visible. Spas-Smerdino

The princes expressed wild joy, hugged and kissed the cross as a sign of the inviolability of the union - “and went to Pereyaslavl, fighting. When they were at the Settlement on the Sarah River near the Church of St. Marina on Easter on April 9, Prince Konstantin came to them with the Rostovites. And they were delighted to meet, and kissed the cross, and sent Vladimir of Pskovsky and his squad to Rostov, and they themselves, having arrived on Fomina’s week with regiments, stood opposite Pereyaslavl».

At this time, mass mobilization was carried out throughout the Vladimir-Suzdal land. In medieval wars, they often sought mobility and called up, first of all, those people who had horses, even if they were not fighting horses. Due to the seriousness of the situation, in April 1216 everyone was called up, including those on foot. Troops from the domains of Yuri himself, his younger brothers, Murom residents, town residents, brodniki (border residents) gathered in Vladimir. Around mid-April, Yuri marched with an impressive army to the northwest. Yaroslav walked towards him from Pereyaslavl with his soldiers. The brothers united at Yuryev Polsky, located on the flat lowland of the left bank of the Koloksha River, at the confluence of the Gza River (the chronicle Kza) into it. 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 towards Vladimir from Rostov or Pereyaslavl.

Progress of the battle

The battle itself took place on April 21. It was preceded by small skirmishes between young warriors. The Rostislavichs fought skirmishes with the Suzdalians in the valley between the mountains, Yuryeva and Vdovya (Avdova), on which the main forces of the opposing sides relied.

Two versions have been preserved about the formation of armies. According to a brief report of the Novgorod First Chronicle, Mstislav and the Novgorodians fought with Yaroslav's regiment, and Yuri stood against Constantine. According to chronicles of the 15th-16th centuries, Vladimir Smolensky placed his shelves from the edge. He was opposed by Yaroslav with his troops, Murom residents, town residents and wanderers. Next was Mstislav with the Novgorodians. Yuri positioned himself opposite them “with all the land of Suzdal.” On the second flank opposite each other were Konstantin with the Rostovites and the warriors of Yuri’s younger brothers. It is also reported that Yuri had 13 banners, 60 trumpets and tambourines, and Yaroslav had 17 banners, 40 trumpets and tambourines. The banner (banner) corresponds to the unit. The chroniclers do not specify from which flank the description of the formation begins. They probably didn't know it themselves. However, some assumptions can be made. It is known that after the battle, the vanquished fled first to the southwest, towards Yuryev. This indicates that the Smolyans occupied the right flank, since the decisive role in the defeat of Yuri was played by the attack of the Smolensk and Novgorodians, who overturned one wing of the enemy.

Smolensk and Novgorodians attacked the enemy on foot through a ravine, and Mstislav invited the Novgorod militia to choose whether to fight on foot or on horseback. The Novgorodians dismounted and took off their shoes. Young Smolensk followed their example, Vladimir Smolensky sent the rest behind the infantry on horseback under the leadership of Ivor Mikhailovich.

The heavily armed cavalry squads of the princes moved behind. Mstislav was pleased with the choice of the Novgorodians. From a purely military point of view, it was more convenient for the infantry to move up the slope, slippery from the rains. Yaroslav and, probably, Yuri had infantry in front. It was quite logical to use infantry against it, and not to lose horses and people of selected squads. Other motives were no less important. Militiamen are often psychologically unstable in battle, and it is easier for a rider to succumb to the temptation to flee. It is difficult for an infantryman to escape the pursuit of cavalry, which provides additional incentives for resistance. It is significant that the Novgorodians and Smolensk residents wanted to get off their horses themselves. They were as determined as their princes.

On the way to Avdova Mountain, the infantrymen had to overcome thickets and Suzdal barriers. Ivor's riders were stuck after their leader's horse stumbled and he himself fell to the ground. The Smolensk infantry, not paying attention to this, continued to rush forward. Her path was blocked by the Suzdal infantry, which, according to most chronicles, was armed with cues (maces) and axes. According to the Nikon Chronicle, infantrymen on both sides fought with sulits (javelins) and axes. Archeology confirms that in the northern and central zone of Rus' 11-12 centuries. battle axes ranked first in popularity among the middle and poor segments of the population. The Smolensk infantrymen screamed and attacked Yaroslav's infantry. The Suzdal residents could not withstand the furious onslaught and fled, throwing away their weapons. Those fleeing were exterminated. The Smolyans cut down one of Yaroslav’s banners. It probably belonged to the cavalry. Ivor's horsemen climbed the hill along the path laid out by the infantry and entered the battle. They defeated another enemy detachment and cut down the second banner. The situation in the center of the chronicle is silent, which indicates more modest achievements of the Novgorodians.

At this moment, at the call of Mstislav, the princely equestrian squads went into battle. The cavalry of Mstislav, Vladimir Smolensky and Vsevolod passed through their infantry and attacked the Suzdal horsemen. On the left flank, the regiments of Vladimir of Pskov and Konstantin of Rostov approached and entered the battle. From descriptions of other ancient Russian battles it is known that heavily armed horsemen first used spears, and if they broke, they used swords. When talking about the Battle of Lipitsa, the chronicles are silent about the details of the equestrian battle. This usually means that events unfolded according to a standard pattern. Some details are given for Mstislav, as they are atypical for a rider. He did not use a sword, but an ax secured to his hand with a pavorosa (belt). Mstislav rode through enemy regiments three times, which is quite common in medieval mounted battles. Detachments of horsemen converged and galloped through each other, trying to hit the enemy warriors they encountered. Then they turned around and attacked again.

In the end, victory remained with the Rostislavichs and their allies. First, the troops opposing the Smolensk and Novgorodians ran, followed by the rest. The Novgorodians and Smolensk residents reached the convoy, and the Smolensk residents began to plunder it. Mstislav managed to attract the Novgorodians with him and began finishing off the enemy. A massacre of those fleeing followed. The bodies of the dead and wounded littered the ground all the way to Yuriev. Some of the fugitives took refuge in the city, many drowned in the river. Then some of the vanquished rushed to the northwest, to Pereyaslavl, others to the southeast, to Vladimir, and, according to the Nikon Chronicle, also to Suzdal. The leaders, Yuri and Yaroslav, raced ahead of everyone, driving one horse after another.

According to the first Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, the Novgorodians lost only 5 people in the battle. Of these, Dmitr Pskovityanin, Onton Kotelnik and Ivanka Pribylshchinich oponnik (opona - blanket) died during the assault on the heights, and Ivanka Popovich and Semyon Petrilovich, the Terek tribute collector, died during the pursuit. In the Novgorod first chronicle of the younger edition, the last two dead are combined into one. It is alleged that Yuri and Yaroslav lost a huge number of people. In the chronicles, which used data from the code of the early 15th century, information about 5 dead Novgorodians is repeated, to which one Smolensk resident is added. The losses of the Vladimir-Suzdal soldiers are estimated at 9233 dead and 60 prisoners. Other information is contained in the Nikon Chronicle. The five dead Novgorodians are the already familiar Dmitry Pskovite, nicknamed Yellow, Anthony Cherny, Ivan Pribytok, and Ivan Popovich. Ivan Popovich's servant Nestor is added to them. The total number of killed horsemen from Novgorod, Smolyan, Rostov and Pskov is determined to be 550 people, not counting the infantry. Prince Yuri and his brothers allegedly had 17,200 people killed, not counting the infantry. Tatishchev, a historian of the 18th century, repeats the data of the Nikon Chronicle for the Suzdal residents, but estimates the losses of the victors at 2,550 killed. It is impossible to verify whether the historian took this information from an unsurvived manuscript or made a mistake.

Results and consequences of the battle

The Battle of Lipitsa dramatically changed the political situation in northeast Rus'. Yuri's attempts to organize defense in Vladimir met with a decisive refusal from the city's population. On Sunday, April 24, the winners approached Vladimir, and on Tuesday, April 26, Yuri left the gate and submitted to his older brother. Constantine was recognized as the Grand Duke of Vladimir. He left Yuri Radilov Gorodok (Gorodets) on the Volga. On Friday of the 4th week after Easter, April 29, Constantine and his allies headed towards Peryaslavl, where Yaroslav settled. He also was unable to defend himself and on Tuesday followed Yuri’s example.

The civil strife in the north of Rus' ended, a new rise was laid for the Principality of Vladimir: already in 1219 it restored its influence in Ryazan, in 1221 - in Novgorod, replacing the Smolensk princes in active actions in the Baltic states against the Order of the Swordsmen, and achieved peace terms from the Volga Bulgarians " still as it was under Yuri’s father and uncle"(S. M. Solovyov).

Novgorod isolated itself from Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' for some time, and the Smolensk princely family strengthened its leading position in Rus' for several years.

According to Doctor of Historical Sciences I. Ya. Froyanov, “ victory in the Battle of Lipetsk is the most important milestone in Novgorod history. It was a turning point in the relations of Novgorod with the princes of the Vladimir-Suzdal land. More than half a century of their onslaught was stopped. In a long and stubborn struggle, the Novgorodians defended the right of “freedom in the princes,” acquired by them as a result of the events of 1136, which ended the rule of Kyiv over Novgorod, and repelled attempts to transform the Novgorod reign into viceroyalty. All this was consolidated by the placement of Constantine on the Vladimir grand-ducal table... All this affected the evolution of the princely power itself in Novgorod itself: more favorable conditions arose for the connection of the local state organization with the princely power, which took shape in one of the institutions of the supreme power of the Novgorod Republic. Thanks to the Lipitsa victory, Novgorod not only defended its independence, but retained its position as the main city in the volost, while defending its territorial integrity».

Before Batyev's invasion , which radically changed the situation both in Rus' and throughout Eastern Europe for centuries, had 20 years left...

XI. ANDREY BOGOLYUBSKY. VSEVOLOD THE BIG NEST AND HIS SONS

(continuation)

Battle of Lipitsa. - Konstantin, Grand Duke.

Battle of Lipitsa 1216. Miniature from the Front Chronicle of the 16th century

The Suzdal army was located near the city of Yuryev-Polsky on the banks of the Gza River, which flows into Koloksha. Under the city itself, Mstislav stood with the Novgorodians, and further on the banks of the Lipitsa stream - Konstantin with the Rostovites. Consequently, here, almost in the very middle of the Suzdal land, almost the entire military force of Northern Rus' converged.

The troops of George and Yaroslav turned out to be incomparably more numerous than the enemies: they gathered from their volosts everyone they could, city and rural residents, horse and foot. The chronicler says that Grand Duke Yuri had 17 banners, 40 trumpets and the same number of tambourines; Yaroslav has 13 banners, and 60 trumpets and tambourines.

Since the campaign, Mstislav Mstislavich sent to the prince with a proposal to make peace. But Yaroslav, proud of the large number of his army, answered:

“I don’t want peace; if you’ve already gone, then go, and there won’t be one of yours among our hundred.”

“You, Yaroslav, with strength; and we with the cross,” the Mstislavich brothers told him to say.

Standing near Yuriev, the Mstislavichs again tried to start negotiations and sent Sotsky Larion first to Grand Duke George with the words:

“We bow to you; we have no quarrel with you, but we have a quarrel with Yaroslav.”

“I am one brother with Yaroslav,” said Yuri.

They sent the same Larion to Yaroslav.

“Release the Novgorodians and Novotori, gate the captured volosts, make peace with us, and don’t shed blood.”

“I don’t want peace. You walked far, but found yourself like a fish in a dry place,” was the answer.

They send Larion again, remind them of their close relationship and offer peace on the condition that the younger brothers give eldership to Constantine and plant him in Vladimir, taking the rest of the Suzdal land for themselves.

“If our father did not rule with Constantine, then should you reconcile us? Let him defeat us, then the whole earth will be his,” Yuri ordered to say.

However, among the Suzdal boyars there were prudent people who did not approve of this civil strife and violation of the rights of seniority. One of them, Tvorimir, addressed the princes with such a speech when they were feasting in a tent with their entourage.

“Prince Yuri and Yaroslav! I would guess that it is better to take the world and give eldership to Constantine. Rather than look at the fact that their army is small compared to our regiments. The princes of Rostislavl are wise and brave tribe; and their men, Novgorodians and Smolnyans, are daring battle; Mstislav Mstislavich you yourself know what courage God gave him in front of all his brothers.”

I didn’t like this speech. Among Yuri's boyars there was a saint who assured that the enemy had never emerged intact from the strong land of Suzdal; let at least the entire Russian land rise to it. “And we’ll throw saddles at these,” added the boastful flatterer. His words were more to the heart of the young, inexperienced princes. Having convened a squad and military commanders, they, according to the Novgorod chronicler, ordered not to spare the enemies in the battle; even if anyone had a mantle embroidered with gold, kill them too; and take only booty, that is, horses, weapons, clothes. The chronicler adds that Yuri and Yaroslav dreamed of their power so much that they began to divide almost all Russian lands among themselves, and even ordered letters to be written about which of them would get Novgorod, who would get Smolensk, who would get Galich. And they sent their opponents to call for battle to the Lipitsa tract.

Having exhausted peaceful means, Mstislav and Konstantin decided to resort to the judgment of God, strengthened themselves with mutual oaths and went to the indicated place. Yaroslav and Yuri occupied some Avdov mountain; Opposite them on another mountain, called Yuryeva, stood Mstislav and Konstantin. In the hollow between them the Tuneg stream flowed and there was a wilderness and swampy area overgrown with small forest. The Rostislavichs in vain asked the Suzdal princes to go out to a flat, dry place for battle. Not only did they not move, but they also strengthened their camp with fences and stakes. Young people on both sides came out and started a battle; the main forces did not move. Bored with waiting, Mstislav suggested going straight to the capital Vladimir. But Constantine was afraid to move past the enemies: “They will hit us in the rear,” he said, “and my people are not daring to fight; they will scatter to their cities.” Mstislav agreed with him and decided to fight with all his might. “The mountain will not help us and the mountain will not defeat us,” he said, “let us go against them with the hope of the cross and our truth.” And he organized the regiments for battle.

Udaloy himself with his squad, with the Novgorodians and Vladimir of Pskov stood in the middle; On one wing he placed Vladimir Rurikovich with the Smolnyans, and on the other, Konstantin with the Rostovites. The Battle of Lipitsa took place early in the morning on April 23. Previously, Mstislav addressed a short speech to the Novgorodians, rousing them with courage, and asked them how they wanted to fight - on horseback or on foot. “We don’t want to die on horseback,” the Novgorodians exclaimed, “but, like our fathers on Koloksha, we will fight on foot.” Then they dismounted and took off their “ports” (outer clothing) and boots. (True descendants of the Slavs, about whom writers of the 6th century noted that they love to fight lightly, in one shirt, in loose shirts.) However, these measures turned out to be useful; since we had to walk through the swampy wilds and then climb the mountain. Armed with cues and axes, the Novgorodians attacked the enemies with a shout; Smolny residents followed them. The Suzdal residents met them in thick crowds and a stubborn battle ensued. Mstislav shouted to his brother Vladimir: “God forbid that good people should be betrayed.” And with his horse squad he hurried to the aid of the Novgorodians; and behind him Vladimir and the Pskovites. The daring man took the ax hanging from his belt in his hand and, striking right and left with it, drove through the Suzdal regiments three times; after which he made his way to the goods (camp). Recruited mostly from people unaccustomed to battle, the Suzdal militia could not withstand the rapid onslaught and became upset. Yaroslav's regiments were the first to run. Yuri still held out against the Rostovites, but his regiments finally gave back. There was still danger from the greed of the victors, who prematurely rushed to rob the enemy's convoy. Mstislav shouted to them: “Brothers of Novgorod! Do not stand by the goods; but be diligent in the battle; if (the enemies) turn on us, they will crush us.” The Novgorodians listened to him; and the Smolensk residents rushed mainly to plunder and fleece the dead. However, the victory was complete. The chronicle numbers 9,233 people who fell on the battlefield alone, in addition to those wounded and killed while fleeing in rivers and swamps. Their screams and moans reached the city of Yuryev. The fugitives went by different roads, some to Vladimir, others to Pereyaslavl, and others to Yuryev.

Yuri Vsevolodovich ran to the capital Vladimir. Having a corpulent build, he killed three horses, and only on the fourth he drove them to the city, wearing only a shirt; The saddle lining was thrown away for ease. The people of Vladimir, seeing a horseman galloping in the distance from the city walls, thought that it was a messenger from the Grand Duke with news of victory. "Ours prevailed!" – there was a joyful cry between them. Imagine their sadness and despondency when they recognized the great prince himself in the rider, who began to ride around the walls and shout: “Fortify the city!” Groups of fugitives from the battlefield began to arrive behind him, some wounded, some almost naked; their groans increased the confusion. This went on all night. In the morning Yuri called a meeting.

“Brothers of Vladimir!” he told the people, “let’s shut ourselves up in the city; maybe we’ll fight them off.”

“Prince Yuri!” the citizens answered. “Who will we shut ourselves up with? Some of our brothers were beaten, others were taken, the rest came running without weapons; who will we stand with?”

“I know all this. So do not hand me over to my brother Konstantin, or Volodymyr, or Mstislav; but let me leave the city of my own free will.”

Citizens promised to fulfill his request. Obviously, the large number of regiments brought to the Battle of Lipitsa was very costly for the Suzdal land, which was not distinguished by its dense population. Mostly old people, women, children, monks and clergy remained in the capital city. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich ran to his Pereyaslavl in the same way, driving several horses along the way. But he not only shut himself up in this city, but also gave vent to his anger against the Novgorodians. He ordered to seize in Pereyaslavl and its environs the Novgorod guests who had come to his land for the sake of trade, and to lock them up so closely that many suffocated from lack of air. Several Smolensk guests were also captured; but, having been specially imprisoned, they all remained alive.

If the vanquished had been diligently pursued, neither Yuri nor Yaroslav would have escaped captivity, and Vladimir himself would have been taken by surprise. But the Rostislavl tribe, as the Novgorod chronicler noted, was merciful and good-natured. The victors stood at the site of the massacre all day; and then they quietly moved towards Vladimir-on-Klyazma and camped under it. There were fires in the city; and the prince’s courtyard itself caught fire. The Novgorodians and Smolensk residents wanted to take advantage of this and asked for an attack. The Rostislavichs remained true to their kindheartedness: Mstislav did not let the Novgorodians in, and his brother Vladimir did not let the Smolensk residents in. Perhaps Konstantin Rostovsky also resisted this disastrous attack for the city. Finally, Yuri came out with a bow and many gifts and surrendered to the will of the victors. The Rostislavichs placed Constantine on the grand-ducal table; and Yuri received Radilov Gorodets on the Volga for his food. He quickly got ready and sat down in the perch with his family and servants. Vladyka Simon also went with him from Vladimir. Before leaving, Yuri went to pray at the Assumption Cathedral and venerate his father’s coffin. “God judge my brother Yaroslav for bringing me to this,” he said, shedding tears. Then the clergy and citizens with crosses came out to meet Constantine, solemnly seated him on his father’s table and swore allegiance. He treated his allies to viri and presented them with great gifts. It still remained to humble the hard-hearted Yaroslav. But when the allies moved towards Pereyaslavl, this prince did not dare to defend himself, but rode out to meet them and surrendered into the hands of his elder brother, asking him to reconcile him with his father-in-law. Konstantin really began to intercede for Yaroslav and managed to beg peace for him. However, Mstislav did not want to enter Pereyaslavl and accept refreshments from his son-in-law. He encamped outside the city; took the gifts and took away all the detained Novgorodians who remained alive, as well as those who were in Yaroslav’s squad; He also demanded his daughter, Yaroslav’s wife, whom, despite her husband’s pleas, he took with him to Novgorod.

It is curious that this internecine war, so inglorious for the Suzdal residents, is barely mentioned in Suzdal, or so-called. Lavrentievsky, vault. The news about it was preserved in the Novgorod Chronicles, in more detail than others - in the Fourth, from where it passed into the later Sophia, Voskresensky, Tverskaya, Nikonovsky and Tatishchev vaults. In the latter, the events, especially the Battle of Lipitsa, are already very decorated and with florid speeches of the characters; By the way, the so-called. "brave", i.e. heroes, Alexander Popovich with his servant Torop, Ryazan resident Dobrynya Golden Belt and Nefediy Dikun (Nikon. and Tversk.); Consequently, the heroic epic has already been partly mixed in here. Although these events are told in Novgorod under 1216, it seems to me that the one in Lavrent is more reliable. 1217, which is more consistent with the general course of affairs in Rus' and with some other news. Gr. Uvarov “Two battles of 1177 and 1216 according to chronicles and archaeological research” (Antiquities of Moscow. Archaeol. Ob. M. 1869).