Interest in the history of the peoples inhabiting the shores of the Black Sea, their way of life and traditional clothing is now very great. In Turkey, reliable sources of material for historical research Old works of painting, including book miniatures, are used.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the gallery of portraits of Ottoman padishahs in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul - although, strictly speaking, not all of them are truly portrait images.

There is no gallery that would depict the khans of Crimea; and yet the Crimean Khanate, which existed from the middle of the 15th century. to 1783 initially as independent state, then as a vassal Ottoman Empire, left a noticeable mark both in the history of the Turkish state and in Ottoman art.

Perhaps the first image of the Crimean Khan in an Ottoman illustrated book is the miniature “Bayezid II receives Mengli-Girey in the Shah’s tent during the campaign against Moldavia in 1484.” from "Hüner-name" by Seyid Lokman - a book kept in Topkapi.

Mengli-Girey ibn Hadji-Girey is one of the most famous Crimean khans, the son of the founder of the Khanate, an ally of Moscow Prince Ivan III, and then his son Vasily. Three times, with interruptions, he occupied the Crimean throne: in 1466-1467, 1469-1474 and 1478-1515.

It was during his reign that Crimea began to become dependent on the Turks: after 1475, when the Ottomans conquered the Genoese Cafa (modern Feodosia), the southern coastline of the peninsula began to belong to the Porte, and the khans who owned the rest of the territory became vassals of the Sultan, obliged to accept participation in his military enterprises.

On May 1, 1484, Bayazid II set out on a campaign against Moldavia and already captured Kilia on July 15. On July 24, Ottoman troops besieged Akkerman on the Dniester, which was taken on August 3 with the help of fifty thousand Crimean troops. The miniature shows Bayezid dressed in a green caftan trimmed with white fur. Similar robes of the Sultan have been preserved in museum collections.

Mengli-Girey, sitting on a low stool, is dressed in a dark blue robe, embroidered with gold and belted with a red sash, and in a red caftan. On the head is a low Tatar hat, trimmed with fur. Among the Crimean Tatars, this hat survived unchanged until the 19th century.

Both rulers are wearing red leather boots - by the way, in museums there are similar leather boots from the second half of the 16th century. Mengli-Girey has a mustache, a wide thick beard, thin eyebrows, and slightly slanted eyes. In the miniature there is another Crimean, behind Mengli. This is probably the khan's brother and his kalga - heir to the throne - Yamgurchi.

He was Mengli's right hand until the khan's son, Muhammad-Girey, grew up and became a kalga. Yamgurchi is wearing a blue caftan, over a pink robe embroidered with gold, and a hat almost the same as his brother’s. The brothers' facial features are very, very similar.

As part of "Suleiman-name" - an illustrated biography of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman Kanuni "The Lawgiver", nicknamed in Europe the Magnificent, we have come to know the image of the grandson of Mengli-Girey, Devlet-Girey (1551-1577) - the destroyer of Rus', who burned in May 1571. Moscow, the khan from whom Ivan the Terrible fled in fear. The miniature depicts the reception by Sultan Suleiman in 1551 of Devlet-Girey, who had just ascended to the Crimean throne.

The action takes place in the chamber of the Topkapi Palace on the other side of the Bab-us-Saadet gate - “Holy of Holies”. Suleiman, seated on a hexagonal throne, extends his hand to the khan for a kiss.

Devlet-Girey wears a traditional Crimean high white hat with a fur trim and a black caftan. The caftan is decorated with a chintemani pattern of Chinese origin, which was extremely popular at the Ottoman court in the 16th century.

The series of double wavy lines and the composition of their three circles symbolize the strength and power of the tiger and leopard inherent in the khan.

The Khan is also wearing a robe, possibly a gift from the Sultan. A robe presented as a gift or sent along with a drum and a banner is a sign of the padishah’s approval of the Crimean ruler on the throne.

Khans were usually given a caftan called kapaniche: covered on top with exquisite and expensive fabric, for example, satin, and lined with fur on the inside, it had long sleeves, wrapped in front and fastened with buttons decorated with precious stones.

This is how P. A. Levashov, who was in the diplomatic service in Istanbul in the late 60s - early 70s, writes about it. XVIII century: “Kerim-Girey, the Tatar Khan, who was in exile on the island of Cyprus, arrived on October 17 in Constantinople... he was given excellent honors and great gifts were given, such as: a feather showered with diamonds and called sorghum, which they themselves The sultans wear on their turbans, also a dagger with a handle decorated with various precious stones, a high-quality watch with diamonds and several bags of money for the crew; in addition, he was wearing a fur coat, called a boar, which is given only to princes of the blood or viziers for extraordinary merits" .

Devlet-Girey's miniature shows a rather sparse drooping mustache. There is no doubt that the artist conveyed the authentic, well-known appearance of the ruler. Next to the khan are four viziers of Suleiman and two servants-bodyguards.

The entrances to the reception ward and adjacent rooms are guarded by guards. In the lower register of the miniature (outside the chamber) a group of Crimeans in hats with forked brims (traditional Tatar headdresses) is depicted - the retinue of Devlet-Girey. Struck by the luxury of the Ottoman court, the Tatars gesticulate and exchange impressions.

Thanks to the works of Ottoman miniaturists, we have the opportunity to find out what the sons of Devlet-Girey looked like. The first to rule after the death of his father was his son Muhammad-Girey II, nicknamed Semiz, i.e. “Fat”, for his obesity (1577-1584).

A miniature depicting Muhammad-Girey is included in another biography of Sultan Suleiman; The author of the book was Lokman bin Husayn al-Ashuri. A copy of this work, completed in 987 AH (1579), is now kept in Dublin, in the Chester Beatty Library.

The illustration depicts the crossing of the Danube by Ottoman and Crimean military formations in 1566 during the campaign against the Hungarians. Turkish warriors are depicted at the top of the composition, Crimean Tatars at the bottom. The drawing is accompanied by poetic lines.

Judging by the miniature, Muhammad-Girey does not at all live up to his nickname. However, let's not forget that he will ascend to the throne of his fathers only after 11 long years, which, together with the subsequent years of his reign, will produce such a sad change in his appearance. By 1583, Muhammad-Girey had already become so obese that he was unable to sit in the saddle and moved in a cart drawn by six or eight horses.

The practice of involving the Crimean Tatars in military operations in Europe by the Ottoman padishahs was first tested by Bayezid II. Since then, the padishahs often enjoyed the assistance of the khans, and the Tatars began to actively participate in the military operations of the Ottomans. An episode of one of these campaigns is depicted in miniature, recreating the events of the time when Turkish army made an expedition to punish Petru Raresh, the governor of “Kara-Bogdania,” as the Ottomans called Moldova.

The campaign began with the solemn departure of the Sultan from Istanbul on July 8, 1538. According to Lutfi Pasha, the vizier of Suleiman Kanuni, from Adrianople (Edirne), where Suleiman arrived on July 18, a Sultan’s firman was sent to Khan Sahib-Girey, which prescribed the following: “And You also come prepared for war against Kara-Bogdania."

The Ottoman and Crimean troops met in early September on the plain near the city of Iasi very solemnly, as shown in the figure. The miniature in the upper register depicts a Tatar army under the command of Sahib-Girey.

Crimean warriors have pointed helmets with plumes, spears with triangular flags on the shafts. This elite units; ordinary warriors wore pointed felt caps.

Mikhalon Litvin, a Lithuanian author of the 16th century, who was in Crimea on an embassy mission, described the clothing and headdress of the Crimeans this way: “The Tatars have long tunics without folds or gathers, comfortable, light for riding and fighting; their white pointed felt hats are not made for beauty; their height and shine give crowds [of Tatars] a formidable appearance and frighten enemies, although almost none of them wear helmets."

This evidence is fully confirmed, for example, by the image of a Lithuanian Tatar in a soft, most likely felt cap on a Polish copy of a French drawing.

When meeting near Iasi, the Ottoman troops lined up in parade fired three volleys from rifles and cannons, which were supposed to stun the Tatars, who, according to the Ottoman chroniclers, had never heard such monstrous thunder.

Sultan Suleiman received the greetings of the khan and his escort, sitting on a horse. On the same day, Sahib-Girey and his retinue were introduced to the Sultan, honored with a kiss on his hand and generously presented with gifts. At the end of the celebrations there was a rich feast. After a victorious campaign, showered with favors, Sahib-Girey was released to the Crimea in October 1538.

Let us now return to Muhammad-Girey, whose obesity became one of the reasons - although not the main one - of the protracted crisis on the peninsula, the death of several of his relatives, the war with the Ottomans and, ultimately, his own death. But first things first. In 1583, Muhammad-Girey refused to personally participate in the Persian campaign of Sultan Murad III (1574-1595).

It is difficult to say what was more in Semiz’s refusal to fulfill the overlord’s command: unwillingness to endure the hardships of war, hope for liberation from vassalage, or fear for his life. So, the khan put his brother and heir Adil-Girey at the head of the Crimean army. The warlike and loving Adil-Girey did not return from the campaign.

His tragic fate formed the basis of the Crimean poem "Adil-Sultan". The hero of the poem, Adil, was sent by the Ottoman Sultan along with his army through the Caucasus against the Persian Shah. The campaign ended in failure, and Adil himself was captured.

In captivity, he behaved extremely frivolously and started a love affair with the ladies from the Shah's harem, for which, as one would expect, he was killed. This plot much later inspired the outstanding Turkish writer Namyk Kemal to write the novel “Jezmi”, which, however, remained unfinished.

Adil-Girey

Of course, a romantic character and a real person are not the same thing. However, episodes from the life of the epic hero-lover have much in common with the adventures of the real Adil-Girey. (see big picture)

On a miniature from “Shuja”t-name” by Asafi Pasha (1586) - epic poem on Turkish- Adil and his beloved, a captive princess from the Safavid dynasty, are sitting on a carpet in a richly decorated tent, in front of them are fruits, snacks and drinks.

A servant serves food, and near the tent one can see the falconers and falconers, who are responsible for the khan’s favorite pastime - hunting with birds of prey.

The same Adil is also depicted in the Ottoman miniature from the “Shahinshah-nama” by the well-known Lokman bin Husayn al-Ashuri - an epic poem in Farsi dedicated to Sultan Murad III.

A copy of this work from 989 AH (1581) is kept in Istanbul. The miniaturist presented a tragic moment - the execution of Adil in Shamakhi. Adil-Girey is kneeling in a simple belted robe, next to him is a Persian executioner, cutting off the head of a scion of the Crimean dynasty.

Meanwhile, while Adil-Girey was busy with war and love, the angry Porte sent a firman to the khan with the order to immediately come to the aid of the Ottoman troops.

The descendant of Genghis Khan allegedly replied: “Well, are we Ottoman beys?”, believing that his title does not give the padishah the right to address him with orders as a simple bey (prince). Murad III, however, did not forgive the disobedient.

It fell to the hero of the Persian campaign, commander Osman Pasha Ozdemir Oglu, to punish the arrogant fat man.

At first, happiness seemed to smile on Muhammad-Girey. He, with an army of forty thousand, besieged Osman Pasha, who came with three thousand soldiers, to Kafa.

But the khan, alas, turned out to be not one of those fat people about whom N.V. Gogol wrote: “Fat people never occupy indirect places, but all direct ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crack and will bend under them, but they will not fly off.” Muhammad-Girey, despite his weight, still flew off.

The siege of Kafa, which promised Muhammad-Girey an easy victory, ended in disaster. A miniature from the already familiar “Shuja” t-name” of Asafi Pasha (1586) depicts the scene of the battle near the walls of Kafa.

It depicts Osman Pasha (there are two inscriptions on the fortress walls - “kalei Kefe”, i.e. “Kafa fortress”, and “Osman Pasha”), some Firengi * allied to the Ottomans (probably the remnants of the Genoese), shooting from the walls of Kafa.

The headdresses of Tatar warriors are typical: in addition to low hats trimmed with fur, they wear round-topped (“Mongolian”) low caps with forked brims. The army of Muhammad-Girey is clearly defeated: severed body parts and a head are lying on the ground.

The arrival of the Ottoman fleet at the city walls, which delivered the new Crimean Khan - the future Islam Giray III, finally decided the matter. Muhammad-Girey lifted the siege, a conspiracy broke out in his army, and he fled beyond Perekop to the Nogais. However, Muhammad’s brother Alp-Girey, obedient to the Turks, overtook the fugitive, who was strangled along with his son.

Devlet-Girey

Portrait gallery of the Crimean monarchs of the 16th century. completes the portrait of another son of Devlet-Girey - perhaps the brightest of the brothers, Gazi-Girey II.

He ruled the peninsula twice: in 1588-1597 and 1597-1608. (the break was caused by the seizure of the throne by his brother Feth-Girey). Gazi-Girey was, perhaps, the most outstanding of the galaxy of Crimean khan-poets and wrote beautiful poetry, using the literary pseudonym "Gazayi".

However, often in Ottoman miniatures there are nameless Crimean rulers, who were simply called “Tatar khans” (Tatar Hani). Such images most likely were not portraits, but conveyed a generalized image of the Crimean Khan and characteristic details of his appearance. That is why they are also quite interesting.

In one of the miniatures, the bearded khan is depicted kneeling. His headdress with the already familiar sorghuch feather is interesting; a similar headdress, with an explanation - “Tatar crown”, is also depicted in a drawing by an unknown Turkish author of the 17th century. In another illustration, the khan’s hairstyle is extremely interesting, reminiscent of what in Russia was called “under the pot”; hair is combed in the middle.

We see another nameless Crimean Khan in a miniature in the album of an unknown artist (possibly a Pole who lived in Istanbul), who made drawings of Turkish costumes around 1779.

The album comes from the collection Polish king Stanisław August and is currently kept in the engraving cabinet of the University Library in Warsaw. The khan's headdress is a rectangular green cap, trimmed with brown fur and decorated with an aigrette with feathers.

The familiar kapaniche caftan made of brown fur is trimmed with red satin or thin cloth. The large collar and sleeve trim are also made of fur, and the front is decorated with braid.

Under the cape you can see a richly embroidered robe, which was worn mainly by the Crimean khans and their sons, as well as the Tatar nobility; A dagger is tucked into a leather belt with an elegant buckle. Boots with large tops made of gilded morocco. A bow and quiver hang on the left shoulder, and a saber on a golden sword belt.

It is hardly worth looking for any specific Crimean Khan in this character. The author of the drawing probably sought to convey a generalized image of the Crimean sovereign, and it must be said that he knew the details of clothing and weapons well. This is all the more interesting because European masters were rarely distinguished by such precision.

Mirza Ali-Girey, the son of the khan who helped the Turks during the siege of Vienna in 1683, in the 1684 engraving by Jacob Sandrart (kept in the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw) looks more like an ancient hero than a real warrior. Joseph Brodsky once remarked: “In fact, we can only talk seriously about the history of costume.”

Perhaps the poet was somewhat categorical in this case. But one cannot help but admit that to talk seriously about historical costume means to talk about history itself.

Having drunk to the fullest extent of cosmopolitanism and liberal-subject disbelief in their own strengths, suppressing, just in case, all attempts to pronounce, read, write, publish the word “Russian”, the political elite came to the need, no, ran into the need to resuscitate such an archaic, such an uncomfortable and rough, such a dangerous and unpredictable social trend as patriotism.

But, since the word “ideology” has been completely erased from state legal circulation, the actions and volitional decisions of the top are not correlated with the concept of “ideology,” just as it is impossible to correlate the philosophical debate “What comes first: the chicken or the egg” with a bluish chicken carcass on a market counter .

And since the scientific and ideological approach to solving the problem of strengthening patriotic sentiments in society is not available to the elite, a wide variety of, sometimes exotic, ways of raising the patriotic spirit are used. For example, the creation of the Ministry of Patriotism. Well, maybe not ministries, but certainly the departmental structure “Rospatriotism”.

Actually, this method of solving almost any Russian problem has ceased to be exotic. Somehow he has become so familiar that it does not cause bewilderment among most Russians. The authorities, it seems, do not know any other ways to solve pressing government problems other than creating another budget-absorbing state structure.

However, since the Ministry of Stupidity has already been created, it needs to be occupied with something. So that at least a little justifies the investment of budget funds. The Soviet game “Zarnitsa” is good, but it makes sense when it makes sense, that is, it is filled with meaning and content. Otherwise, it will certainly turn into a scout movement, but this is no longer patriotism, but another round of liberal servility and loyal love for a foreign homeland and culture.

So I propose to occupy the Russian state agency “Rospatriotism”, and with it the “young, unfamiliar tribe”, with the important and necessary task of clearing the rubble native history, restoring her true face, real facts and historical justice, true exploits and glory, forgotten and deliberately hidden heroes. And this is where the truly Russian patriotic game “Zarnitsa” can find new life and new, lively and interesting development.

And to spark interest, I’ll tell you about a small episode of our native history, which, at the whim of several generations of the elite, remains known only to a small circle of specialists and lovers of Russian history.

The year was 1572. For several years in a row, the Russian land has been torn by plague and famine. The plague was brought from Europe by “Aglitsky” trading people, but Russia, with its bathhouses and habit of cleanliness, quite successfully resisted it. But four consecutive lean years of famine took their toll - the plague wiped out almost three-quarters of the population. Almost everyone seemed to have died out. The Tatars drove young women and children into slavery, and killed everyone else. The south of the country was so deserted that, according to a contemporary, a Jewish money changer and slave buyer sitting on Perekop, observing the endless lines of captives, asked in amazement: “Are there still people left in that country?”

Those who still had the strength and means to move, by the spring of 1571, were drawn closer to Moscow, hoping to find bread, shelter and protection there from the endless raids of the Crimean Tatars, who were insolent before their eyes. But in May 1571, the Crimean Khan with 40 thousand troops, taking advantage of the betrayal of the boyars and the conspiracy with Poland, approached Moscow and did not take it by storm, but set it on fire. Sovereign Ivan IV Vasilyevich (not Grozny, he became Terrible no earlier than the 18th century) barely managed to carry off his legs and the remains of the treasury to Novgorod.

Moscow burned completely, tens of thousands of people died in the fire. There was no one left to protect her. On way back The Tatar army massacred 36 Russian cities, destroyed hundreds of thousands of Russian people, drove tens of thousands into captivity, where Jewish resellers sold them into slavery in Istanbul.

It seemed that nothing could save Rus' from dismemberment and ruin. It seemed as if the state no longer existed. The sovereign was forced to enter into humiliating negotiations with the Crimean Khan and promise him the Astrakhan Khanate in exchange for a respite from the raids. However, Khan Devlet I Giray no longer wanted the Astrakhan or Kazan Khanates; he boldly and boastfully wrote to the king that he was now only interested in his head and his throne. To top it off, the khan sent the king a dagger so that “Ivan would stab himself.”

In the summer of 1572, the khan again gathered an army of 120 thousand mounted warriors - Tatars and Nogais, 33 thousand Turks with artillery and 7 thousand Turkish Janissaries. The Khan was so confident of an easy and quick victory that even before the start of the campaign he gave away Russian lands and cities to his relatives, in-laws and close Murzas.
For the defense of Moscow, which had not yet been restored after last year’s fire, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich was able to gather the oprichnina and zemstvo troops numbering just over 20 thousand people, which in itself was a miracle. Exact lists of those who stood up under the command of Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky to defend the capital in the summer of 1572, numbering 20,034 people, and an unknown number of those who arrived from the Don to help the Cossacks of Mikhail Cherkashin (from two to three thousand people) have been preserved.

All this “border” army, armed with cannons and arquebuses, and the zemstvo with pitchforks, scythes and axes, stood on the Oka River in the area of ​​​​Kolomna and Serpukhov, 50 versts from Moscow.

On July 27, the Crimean-Turkish army approached the Oka and began crossing it in two places - near the village of Drakino (upstream of Serpukhov) and at the confluence of the Lopasni River into the Oka, at Senka Ford.

Here the enemy’s road was blocked by a detachment of 200 “children of the boyars” under the command of Ivan Shuisky. They were attacked by a 20,000-strong vanguard of the Crimean-Turkish army under the command of Murza Teberdei Bey. The enemies outnumbered the defenders of the crossing a hundredfold, despite this, none of the Russians ran. The waters of the Oka turned red from the spilled blood.

All 200 young warriors, the flower and hope of the Russian boyars, laid down their heads in battle at the crossing, holding back the onslaught of the enemy; many enemies fell under their blows.

The surviving remnant of Teberdey-Murza's detachment reached the Pakhra River (not far from modern Podolsk) and stood in anticipation of the main forces, cutting off all roads leading to Moscow. He was no longer capable of more, being pretty battered in the battle at Senka Ford.
In the battle near Drakin, the detachment of commander Divey-Murza defeated the regiment of governor Nikita Odoevsky, thereby opening a direct road to Moscow. Khan rushed to the capital. Prince Vorotynsky did not wait for the enemy to burn the city; he withdrew his troops from the coastline and moved in pursuit.

The Crimean army was pretty stretched out. If its advanced units stood on the Pakhra River, then the rearguard was just approaching the village of Molodi (15 kilometers away), where on July 29 it was overtaken by an advanced detachment of Russian troops under the leadership of the young and brave oprichnina governor Dmitry Ivanovich Khvorostinin. A fierce battle broke out, as a result of which the Crimean rearguard was completely defeated.

Having learned about the defeat of his rearguard and fearing an attack from the rear, Khan Devlet Giray was forced to stop his breakthrough to Moscow and deploy his entire army. Khan decided to first defeat Vorotynsky’s army, which became an unexpected obstacle to the Crimean plans. Without its defeat, the Crimean ruler could not achieve his goal of destroying Rus'.

Dmitry Khvorostinin's detachment found himself face to face with the entire Crimean army. But, correctly assessing the situation, the young prince was not at a loss and with an imaginary retreat lured the enemy to the line of defensive structures, the so-called Walk-city, which by that time had already been deployed on the banks of the Rozhai River (now Rozhai), in which there was a large regiment under the command of Vorotynsky himself . A protracted battle began, for which the Tatars were not prepared.
For a couple of days, maneuver skirmishes took place in the area from Pakhra to Molodi. In them, Devlet Giray probed Vorotynsky’s positions, fearing the approach of troops from Moscow.

When it became clear that the Russian army had nowhere to wait for help, the khan attacked Gulyai-Gorod on July 31. The assault was repulsed; the Tatars, having suffered significant losses, were forced to retreat. Among others, the adviser to the Crimean Khan, Divey-Murza, was killed.
The next day, August 1, the attacks stopped, but the situation in the besieged camp was critical - many were wounded, supplies and water were almost gone.

On August 2, Devlet Giray again led his army to storm, regardless of losses, he decided to capture Gulyai-city at any cost, but the attack was again repulsed - the Crimean cavalry could not take the fortified position located on the hill. For this it was necessary to have a large number of infantry. And then the Crimean Khan made a decision that was unexpected for the steppe inhabitants - he ordered the cavalry to dismount and attack the Gulyai-city on foot together with the Janissaries. Having waited until the main forces of the Crimeans (including the Janissaries) were drawn into a bloody battle for Gulyai-Gorod, Voivode Vorotynsky quietly led out a large regiment, led it through a ravine and struck in the rear of the Tatar army. At the same time, Khvorostinin’s guardsmen also went on the attack from behind the walls of Gulyai-Gorod. Unable to withstand the double blow, the Crimeans and Turks, who were not used to fighting on foot, ran. Panic turned the formidable warriors into an uncontrollable, frightened herd. The battle turned into a regular massacre. The Russians pursued the remnants of the Tatars to the crossing of the Oka River, where their 5,000-strong rearguard guarding the crossing was completely destroyed.
By nightfall the carnage died down.

The losses among the Tatar army were enormous: all seven thousand Janissaries, most of the Tatar Murzas, as well as the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet Giray himself were killed. Many high Crimean dignitaries were captured. The remnants of the army were “accompanied” to the very border, mercilessly destroyed.

Of the 120 thousand army, no more than 10 thousand soldiers reached Crimea...
This is how Khan Devlet I Giray’s campaign against Rus' ended ingloriously.

As for the results of this battle, it was the last major battle between Russia and the Steppe. Crimea, having received a powerful blow at Molodi, was unable to recover from the defeat - the entire combat-ready male population of Crimea was destroyed.
Also, the Ottoman Murzas and Janissaries were almost completely destroyed.
The victory was hard won by the 5,000-strong oprichnina army under the command of Dmitry Khvorostinin. Almost no one was left alive.

In the fall of 1572, the oprichnina was officially abolished - all the oprichnina were killed in that unequal battle in the summer of 1572.

According to their own historical consequences, scale, and heroism of the victors, the Battle of Molodi is not only not inferior, but also significantly superior to many historical battles known to us, be it the Battle of Kulikovo or Borodino.

However, this battle has fallen out of our memory, and it is not in history books. But we must remember those to whom we owe our lives, what we are. The names of Vorotynsky, Khvorostinin, Shuisky, Cherkashin are not known to almost anyone in our country, except for a narrow circle of specialists. Low bow to you, our ancestors, for this greatest victory Russian spirit and Russian weapons!
In 2012, the 440th anniversary of that great battle and that great victory.
Also in 2012, the Rospatriotism Agency was created.

Tatiana Lukashonok,
Stavropol Territory, Pyatigorsk

In 1570, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey demanded that the tsar restore the independence of Kazan and Astrakhan and resume paying tribute to the Crimea, threatening otherwise to ruin everything Moscow state. The Khan's message remained unanswered, and in the fall, Russian patrols on the notch line near Donkov and Putivl notified Ivan the Terrible of an unusual movement in the steppe. The Tatars were somewhere very close. Every day the guard detachments could be convinced of their still invisible presence. At times the sky, on the line of the steppe edge, darkened from the dust they raised or was illuminated at night by distant lights; During the day, the watchmen happened to stumble upon sakma - traces of numerous cavalry: beaten grass, earth dug up by horses' hooves and strewn with fresh horse apples, or hear the splashing and neighing of herds in the distance. Then slight clashes with the Crimeans began to occur here and there. And although the Tatars appeared everywhere in small numbers and immediately disappeared when they saw the Moscow warriors, Grozny rode out with the entire oprichnina army to the Oka coastline. However, a three-day stay in Serpukhov and familiarization with the reports from the patrols calmed the tsar. At the military council they were sentenced to go back to Moscow, since “all the villagers in all the places where they said they saw people and noticed up to 30 thousand (Tatars - S. Ts.), and even then they lied!” As subsequent events showed, the Russian command underestimated the enemy's strength; however, the khan, having learned about the arrival of the tsarist army, did not dare to attack the Moscow borders and took the horde to the Crimea for the winter.

In the spring of 1571, the Crimean Horde reappeared at the abatis line. This time, Devlet Giray was joined by the Nogai and even Moscow’s ally, the Kabardian prince Temryuk (the tsar’s father-in-law). Nevertheless, the khan acted cautiously: he intended to reach Kozelsk and, having devastated the Russian borderland with a wide raid, go to the steppe. But as soon as the horde reached Molochnye Vody, Moscow defectors began to come to Devlet Giray in large numbers - boyar children from the zemshchina and newly baptized Tatars. Oprichnina pogroms and disasters pushed them to treason recent years, because of which the military forces of the Moscow state seemed to many to be irreparably undermined. The defectors urged the Khan not to confine himself to a simple border raid, but to go deep into Russia - to Moscow. The Galician son of the boyar Bushui Sumarokov said that “in Moscow and in all cities there was a great low water season and a great pestilence for two years, and due to the low water season and the pestilence, the military people and the mob died out, and the sovereign executed many other people in his disgrace, and the sovereign lives in Sloboda, and the military people are in the Germans (in Livonia - S. Ts.). And there are no people in the assembly against you (Khan - S. Ts.). The boyar's son Kudeyar Tishenkov asserted the same thing: that although the Tsar and the guardsmen were "wanted" in Serpukhov, there were few people with him, and he had "no one to stand with" against the Khan.

In May, the zemstvo governors, princes Belsky, Mstislavsky, Vorotynsky, and the boyars Morozov and Sheremetev, as usual, occupied the banks of the Oka. Ivan hurried to their aid with the oprichnina army. On the way to Serpukhov, the tsar ordered the execution of the governor of the Advanced Regiment, Prince Mikhail Cherkassky (Saltankul), the son of Prince Temryuk. It is unlikely that this murder was simply revenge or a precautionary measure. A participant in the campaign, the German guardsman Heinrich Staden, definitely says that Prince Mikhail Cherkassky entered into treasonous relations with the khan.

The zemstvo governors expected that the horde would move along the Myravsky Way to Tula and Serpukhov. But the traitor Kudeyar Tishenkov showed the khan a workaround - along the Pork Road. He swore on his head that this road was not guarded by the governors and the khan could easily follow it straight to Moscow. Unfortunately, the traitor turned out to be right. Having listened to his advice, Devlet-Girey unhinderedly “climbed” the Ugra and went to the rear of the zemstvo army stationed at the shoreline of the Oka. What was even worse was that the oprichnina and zemstvo troops were cut off from each other. The flanking maneuver was successful for the khan mainly due to the small number of the Russian army, which was unable to cover all the crossings. The main Moscow army left for Livonia last fall to besiege Revel. Subsequently, speaking with the Polish ambassadors about the reasons for the failure, Grozny complained: “There were forty thousand Tatars, but only six of mine, is that exactly?”

Devlet-Girey's actions came as a complete surprise to the Russian command. In this critical situation, Ivan decided to leave the army. The tsar explained his step by saying that he had not been warned by the zemstvo governors about the movements of the horde: “Seven governors with many people went ahead of me, and they didn’t let me know about the Tatar army... but they would have lost at least a thousand of my people, and I would have had two They brought the Tatars, and I would have considered it a great thing, but I would not have been afraid of the Tatar power.” The easiest way to explain the king’s act was cowardice, as most historians have done. In fact, there was no cowardice - Ivan did the same as all the Moscow princes did before him when they felt they lacked the strength to repel the Tatar invasion: in this case, they abandoned the capital and went north to gather regiments (in the same way they “cowarded” , for example, Prince Dmitry Donskoy - after the victory on the Kulikovo Field - when he allowed Khan Tokhtamysh to burn Moscow). Kutuzov’s textbook expression says that “Russia is not lost with the loss of Moscow.” Moreover, Grozny did not even think about “losing” Moscow; On his orders, the oprichnina army joined the zemstvo army to defend the capital together.

The governors hastily led the army to Moscow. The Tatar cavalry pressed from behind, causing significant losses to the Russians: thus, the Guard Regiment of the Oprichnina Army was completely defeated. In the skirmishes, the chief governor, Prince Ivan Belsky, was wounded. May, 23rd Russian army took refuge behind the Moscow fortifications, occupying the southern and south-eastern quarters of the city. The Tatars stood near the city and burned the royal courtyard in the village of Kolomenskoye and all the grain stored in the villages near Moscow.

May 24 was the Feast of the Ascension; the weather was calm and clear. The warriors were preparing to repel the attack, but the Tatars did not dare to attack and only tried to set fire to the settlements. Probably, the troops, with the help of Muscovites, would have been able to cope with the fires, but suddenly “a storm arose with such a noise, as if the sky had collapsed.” The flames began to spread throughout the village with terrifying speed. At first, to the sounds of the alarm sounding from all the churches and monasteries, people were still trying to fight the fire; but when the bells, one after another, began to fall from the belfries engulfed in flames and fall to the ground, an indescribable panic reigned in the city, which was greatly facilitated by explosions in the powder magazines of the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod, from which “two walls of the Kremlin were torn out.” Muscovites jumped out of their houses and rushed to the northern gate, where there was still neither fire nor Tatars. “The streets were so full of people that there was nowhere to squeeze through,” writes an eyewitness. An unimaginable crush arose at the gate, people “walked in three rows over each other’s heads, and those at the top crushed those who were under them.” The warriors, mingling with the crowd, fled along with everyone else; they died not from enemy weapons, but from fire and suffocation. Staden claims that after the fire “not even 300 combat-ready people were left alive.” Those who tried to sit out in cellars and basements faced inevitable death from terrible heat. Later, in one such basement, behind an iron door, dozens of charred bodies were found - and this despite the fact that the room was flooded with water that reached the knee! It was possible to escape from the fire only in the Kremlin, where Metropolitan Kirill hid the shrine (images, crosses and other church utensils) and the treasury in the Assumption Church. But the Moscow authorities locked the Kremlin at the start of the fire and did not let anyone in. Nevertheless, inside the Kremlin, the wounded governor Prince Ivan Belsky, the court doctor Arnolf Linzey, 25 English merchants and many more people died from the “fire heat”. The Tatars who tried to rob the townspeople's houses and courtyards also suffocated and burned.

The fire raged for six hours (according to other news, the fire lasted three hours) and subsided on its own, destroying everything that could burn, including the oprichnina palace of the king, the construction of which cost enormous amounts of money. “After the fire,” says Staden, “there was nothing left in the city - not cats, not dogs.” In the midst of the smoking ruins, littered with piles of charred corpses of people and animals, stood one dilapidated Kremlin.

There was nothing to profit from in Moscow. The next day, Devlet-Girey, who observed the fire from the vicinity of the village of Kolomenskoye, without ever entering Moscow, led the horde back to the steppe along the Ryazan road. Along the way, he “wasted the entire Ryazan land from the Grand Duke...”. Such devastation has not been remembered here since the time of Batu. The flourishing land was turned into desert. “The Ryazan land is such a beautiful country,” writes one foreigner who visited it shortly after the Crimean raid, “that I have never seen anything like it. If a peasant sows 3-4 quarters, then he barely has enough strength to reap the harvest. The earth is fat... In this country there are many linden trees, and in them there are bees and honey... "; now “most of the courtyards and forts stand empty in it, the rest have been burned.” The Tatars ravaged 36 cities south of the Oka. The Crimean ambassador to Poland spoke about the fabulous booty captured by the khan on this campaign; among other things, he assured that the Tatars captured 60,000 prisoners in Rus' and killed the same number of people.

It seemed that the biblical prophecy that a divided kingdom would not stand was coming true. But the Russian land survived.

To be continued…

The Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey did not forget the slap in the face that he received from Tsar Ivan during Danila Adashev’s campaign against the Crimea. Khan prepared for a long time to strike back, but when he struck, the blow turned out to be irresistible. Having secured the support of the Turkish Sultan Selim II and the neutrality of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Devlet-Girey invaded Russian borders. The khan's main hope was, first of all, speed and surprise. Khan's intelligence played a big role here, since through traitors and defectors Devlet-Girey was well aware of the difficulties that the Russian state faced at that moment.

The Khan knew that famine had come to the country and an ulcer was raging, that Tsar Ivan was mercilessly dealing with the most intelligent commanders. A clear example here was the fate of Danila Adashev, since the storm of the Crimean Tatars laid his head on the chopping block. And the foreign policy situation was developing very well for Devlet-Girey. The Livonian War was in full swing, the best Russian regiments were fighting in the west, and the Crimean military leaders understood that there might not be a better moment for an invasion. In the spring of 1571, the khan led the Tumen to Moscow.

Having learned about the invasion, Russian governors I. D. Belsky, I. F. Mstislavsky and M. I. Vorotynsky began to withdraw their regiments to the Oka River in order to block the horde’s path to the capital at the natural water line, but did not have time to do this. With the help of traitors, Devlet-Girey bypassed the abatis line and crossed the Oka River near Kromy, where he was not expected. At this time, Ivan IV was in Serpukhov with the oprichnina army. The most reasonable action on his part was to rush to Moscow and organize the defense of the capital, but the sovereign did not do this. Either he did not believe in the combat effectiveness of his guardsmen, or he was simply frightened and panicked when he learned about the breakthrough of the horde.

Abandoning Moscow to the mercy of fate, the tsar ran to Alexandrov Sloboda, and from there to Yaroslavl. The capital found itself without an army, without a governor and without any protection at all, and Devlet-Girey was already only thirty miles away. But the governors managed to deploy the regiments from Kolomna and bring them to Moscow on May 23, before the horde arrived. Advance detachments of the Krymchaks appeared in the vicinity of the capital the next morning, and then the khan himself arrived and settled in the village of Kolomenskoye. In Moscow they were preparing for battle, but the governors made a grave tactical mistake - instead of meeting the enemy on the outskirts of the capital, they drove the troops into the Moscow outskirts, where there were full of refugees.

Ivan Belsky with the Great Regiment stood on Varlamovskaya Street, and Ivan Mstislavsky on Yakimovskaya. Mikhail Vorotynsky positioned his regiment on Tagansky Meadow, and Vasily Temkin and the guardsmen stood behind the Neglinnaya River. Devlet-Girey carefully studied the location of the Russian troops and drew the appropriate conclusions. He did not storm Moscow, but simply ordered the suburbs where the Russian troops were stationed to be set on fire, since all the houses there were wooden. It flared so much that even the Crimeans were surprised. And then a whirlwind arose and the whole city turned into a huge bonfire.

The Russian army, with the exception of the Vorotynsky regiment, found itself in a fire trap. There was no talk of resisting the enemy; everyone, from the commanders to the simple warriors, thought only about their own salvation. The soldiers mixed with the residents of the settlement, the crowd poured into the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod to escape the fire. Prince Belsky lost command over the troops, galloped off to his courtyard and hid in the basement. Only on Tagansky Meadow, where the regiment of Prince Vorotynsky was stationed, cannon and squeak fire thundered, there the sovereign’s people repulsed the attacks of the Krymchaks. In other places, the Tatars tried to penetrate Moscow, but fire blocked their path. Three hours later, with the exception of the Kremlin, the city burned completely.

Seeing the scale of the disaster and the huge ashes instead of a prosperous city, Devlet-Girey did not even begin to storm the last stronghold of the Muscovites, realizing that his soldiers had nothing left to profit from. Khan led the horde to Crimea. An ambassador was sent to Ivan IV, who humiliated the tsar in every possible way and demanded that Astrakhan and Kazan be given back. The Emperor had already moved to Rostov, but was so frightened that he agreed to transfer Astrakhan to Devlet-Girey. Subsequently, Tsar Ivan began to look for the culprits of such a monstrous defeat, and since the governor Belsky suffocated from smoke in his own basement, the tsar placed all the blame on Mstislavsky and sent the boyar into disgrace.

Khan, who committed mischief on the Izyumsky Way

In the history of the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, generally controversial, the year 1571 stands out, in which the ruler of Russia, despite his nickname, could not avoid the greatest humiliation, which largely influenced his subsequent policies.

After the collapse of the Golden Horde, several groups existed around the emerging Russian state. state entities, remaining after the fall of the Tatar-Mongol Empire.

Almost all of them were in hostile relations with the Russian state and carried out regular raids on Russian border territories, robbing, killing and capturing civilians. Such raids contributed to the widespread development of the slave trade in the khanates formed on the ruins of the Golden Horde.

With the strengthening of the Russian state, Russian monarchs began to solve the problem of restless neighbors. Under Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates were annexed to Russia.

The icon “Blessed is the army of the Heavenly King,” painted in memory of the Kazan campaign of 1552. Source: wikipedia.org

Another serious opponent of Russia was the Crimean Khanate, the head of which in 1551 was Khan Devlet-Girey, appointed Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Devlet-Girey was an irreconcilable opponent of Rus', and after the fall of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates he actively sought to restore their independence.

The confrontation between Russia and the Crimean Khanate will last for many years and will take place with varying degrees of success. The legendary words from the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” about the Crimean Khan, who commits outrages on the Izyum Highway, are the pure truth.

In the first period of his reign, Ivan the Terrible, who took Kazan and Astrakhan, quite successfully repelled Devlet-Girey’s attempts to ruin the Russian lands.

War and internal strife

The situation changed radically after Russia entered the Livonian War, the purpose of which was to secure access to the Baltic Sea for our state. The war, which was initially successful for the Russians, eventually resulted in a protracted conflict that ended in failure for Russia.

Devlet-Girey, taking advantage of the distraction of the main Russian military forces to westward, began to carry out devastating raids on the southern Russian lands almost every year.

The internal Russian conflict did not allow one to cope with this threat - Ivan the Terrible, who sought to strengthen the autocracy, encountered resistance from the Boyar Duma, which sought to limit the powers of the monarch.

Ivan the Terrible began to directly interpret failures in the Livonian War as evidence of internal treason.

To combat the boyar opposition, the institution of oprichnina was introduced - the tsar himself took under his personal control a number of lands, on which a special royal army was formed to fight the traitors. An army was formed from young nobles, who were opposed to the noble boyars. At the same time, all other lands of the state that were not included in the oprichnina were called “zemshchina” and even received their own king - the Tatar prince Simeon Bekbulatovich, appointed by Ivan the Terrible.

The oprichnina army led by the tsar launched terror against the opponents of Ivan the Terrible, both imaginary and real. In 1570, at the peak of the oprichnina, Novgorod was destroyed, accused of trying to go over to the side of the enemy.

During this period, the creators and leaders of the oprichnina themselves fell under the flywheel of repression. At the same time, the fighting qualities of the oprichnina army, accustomed not to war, but to punitive actions, were extremely low, which will clearly manifest itself in 1571.

Russian disaster

In the spring of 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, having gathered a large army, numbering, according to various estimates, from 40 to 120 thousand Crimean Horde and Nogais, set out on a campaign against Rus'.

A year before, Prince Vorotynsky assessed the state of the guard service on the southern borders of Rus' as extremely unsatisfactory. However, the initiated reforms did not manage to change the situation.

The main forces of the Russian army continued to fight in the Livonian War, and no more than 6,000 warriors tried to prevent Devlet-Girey’s army. The Crimean Tatars successfully crossed the Ugra, bypassed the Russian fortifications on the Oka River and struck the flank of the Russian army.

The warriors, unable to withstand the blow, retreated in panic, opening the way to Moscow for Devlet-Girey. Ivan the Terrible himself, having learned that the enemy was already several miles from his headquarters, was forced to flee to the north.

It is known that initially Devlet-Girey did not set the task of advancing to Moscow, however, having learned about the weakness of the Russian army and the weakening of Rus' as a whole due to several lean years, the Livonian War and the oprichnina, he decided to take advantage of the favorable situation.

By May 23, Devlet-Girey’s army approached Moscow. All that the few Russian troops managed to do was take up defensive positions on the outskirts of Moscow. Ivan the Terrible was not in the capital.
All Saints Bridge and the Kremlin at the end of the 17th century. Painting by Apollinary Vasnetsov Photo: Public Domain

The only safe place was the Kremlin, which the Crimean Tatars could not take without heavy guns. However, Devlet-Girey did not try to storm the fortress, on May 24 he began plundering the unprotected part of the settlement, where traders, artisans and refugees were located, flocking from the cities through which the Crimean army had previously passed.

The Tatars virtually robbed and set fire to estates with impunity. A strong wind scattered the fire throughout the city, resulting in a fire that engulfed the whole of Moscow. Explosions occurred in cellars in the city, collapsing part of the fortress walls. The fire penetrated the Kremlin, iron rods burst in the Faceted Chamber, and the Oprichnina Courtyard and the Tsar's palace were completely burned down, where even the bells melted.

The wounded commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, Prince Belsky, burned in the basement of a Kremlin house.

Triumph of Devlet-Girey

Survivors of this nightmare wrote that crowds of people rushed in panic to the city gates farthest from the Tatars, trying to escape. Some suffocated in the smoke, others burned in the fire, others were crushed to death in a mad stampede, others, fleeing the fire, threw themselves into the Moscow River and drowned, so that soon it was literally filled with the corpses of the unfortunate.

After three hours of fire, Moscow was practically burned to the ground. The next day, Devlet-Girey went back with the booty and captives, destroying Kashira along the way and ravaging the Ryazan lands. The defeated Russian army was unable to pursue him.

Contemporaries wrote that just cleaning up the corpses of Muscovites and refugees who died in the capital on May 24, 1571 took two months. The city being restored had to be populated by people who were resettled from other cities.

Assessing the damage from the invasion is extremely difficult. According to foreigners, by 1520 at least 100,000 people lived in Moscow, and as of 1580 this number was no more than 30 thousand.

Up to 80 thousand inhabitants of Rus' became victims of the Crimean invasion, and up to 150 thousand were taken captive. A number of historians consider these figures to be overestimated, however, the losses were colossal.

Shocked and humiliated, Ivan the Terrible was ready to transfer the Kazan Khanate to Devlet-Girey, but refused to return the independence of Kazan. At the same time, disappointed in the guardsmen, Ivan the Terrible began to curtail the policy of mass repression. Soon even the mention of the word “oprichnina” was prohibited.

The incredible success, however, stunned not only Ivan the Terrible, but also Devlet-Girey. Having received the nickname “Took the Throne” after a military campaign, he declared his intention not only to take possession of Astrakhan, but also to subjugate the entire Russian state.

Counter attack

Foundation stone in memory of the victory in the Battle of Molodi in 1572. Photo: wikipedia.org

In 1572, fulfilling his plans, Devlet-Girey moved to Rus' with a 120,000-strong Crimean-Ottoman army. Having overcome small Russian outposts on the Oka River, he rushed to Moscow.

However, this time the Russians were ready to meet a dangerous enemy. In the Battle of Molodi, which lasted from July 29 to August 2, 1572, the Russian army under the command of governor Mikhail Vorotynsky, Dmitry Khvorostinin and Ivan Sheremetyev defeated the forces of Devlet-Girey.

The Russians, having fewer forces, proved themselves to be much more skilled warriors than the Crimean Tatars, who clearly overestimated their strength after the raid of 1571.

The defeat was complete - those who fled from the battlefield drowned in the Oka, pursued by the Russian cavalry. Among the dead were many Crimean nobility, including the Khan's son, grandson and son-in-law. Many of Devlet-Girey’s associates were captured.

In fact, the Crimean Khanate lost its male combat-ready population. Devlet-Girey no longer carried out raids on Rus', and his successors limited themselves only to forays of small detachments into the border territories.

The Russian shame of 1571 was avenged, but will never be forgotten.