The mystery of Russian character: what the Horde taught us ...

Weekend reading, food for thought, a theme for disputes on the channel for those who like to think macro-categories of civilizational scale. I suggest today to try to comprehend formation of Russian statehood with the center in Moscow through a prism of relations with "collective Horde" of Ulus of Genghis Khan. And counterbalance to take mutual influence of the states of the Western Europe on each other. To see fundamentally different endpoints of the historical path.

Europe-Asia

After the collapse of the USSR, the "Horde heritage" of the key territories of Siberia, the North Caucasus and the Volga region, and the Far East gave stability to independent Russia. Not only that, these lands are (compared to the indigenous principalities of the "Rus") dominant in area. Civilization experiment of the last Rurikovich with the Volga region, who managed to build here the first multi-ethnic region in the Moscow kingdom, later gave fruits of Russia's advancement to the East and South. With the model of special management of multi-ethnic society with preservation of national cultures.

The case is rare for the late Middle Ages, when the bloody feud of the ruins of the Great Horde with each other suddenly began to fade, and sometimes stopped for many decades. And the Tatars, dozens of other peoples, the Great Russians first looked out for each other, and then to get along within the framework of one statehood. The historiography of Russia has always paid little attention to this aspect, the topic was turned to the "European belonging" of Russia at the behest of the imperial house of Romanovs, who were embarrassed by the "Asianness" and relations with the Horde.

The most damage was done by floundering around the term "Tatar-Mongol yoke". With complete oblivion of the fact that (firstly) it did not exist. And secondly, it was the reconciliation of settled Russians with nomads of the Great Steppe that became the main factor of the imperial Russian statehood. "Yoke" can be recognized only a brief period of the second half of the XIII century, further the process went along the path of building a unified state with the center in Moscow, with a difficult breakdown of Old Russian forms of the previous social organization.

The way up to 1480 was successfully passed, the real Russia with its special economic, political and spiritual life, administrative system and military organization was forged. It is thanks to the close relationship with the Horde. It became the first strict teacher of foreign policy, mistakenly substituted by "the struggle of the Russian people for independence". Yes, sometimes relations sparked, punitive expeditions of the steppe invaded Russia, but they were isolated.

During the rest of the time of peaceful coexistence, Russians were not focused on clarifying relations with their steppe neighbor, but rather resisted the creeping German and Lithuanian expansion. The struggle was not so much fought by force of arms, it was not even politically, but more on the cultural front. The Horde here was a stabilizing factor, its existence has forced careless Rurikovich to be engaged in strengthening of one-man power, to become stronger. To receive the Horde label on board, in Sarai did not like to speak with weak, but generic, preferring such - impudent and thin-born at times.

The policy of steppe "divide and rule" up to the end of XIV century worked perfectly well, princes could find justice and right (or corrupted) court only in the Horde. Moreover, they constantly had to seek protection from the threats of the breakaway South-Western Russia, which fell under the wing of Lithuania and Poland. That is why North-Eastern Rus launched unification processes with great speed, centralization had a military character for protection from external enemies. And in the back tingled spears of steppes, with whom it was necessary to get along and negotiate almost every year.

The result was an unusual for feudalism relationship of principalities, their short-term or situational alliances. With complete equalization of social and economic "horizontals", even when there were no political and economic grounds for cooperation. This model of survival saved Russia from military defeat and absorption by a more aggressive "western neighbor". The people got used to living in a state of perpetual threat and confronting always a more numerous opponent.

Then happened unnoticed everyday news "Standing on the Ugra", the Horde forever lost the right to vote in the domestic and foreign policy of the future Moscow Kingdom, twenty years later, the accumulated energy in 1502 overturned the remnants of the former greatness of the Great Horde, the tight spring straightened and Russia rushed "to the sunrise". The longest and largest in the history of mankind territorial expansion of one single state happened. For 150 years it reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Not a bad result after the "yoke", don't you think?

But it is not about the expansion itself, Russia is the only power of our time that has the invaluable experience of almost painless integration of the Great Neighbor, which for centuries was a mortal threat. It was this antagonism that became the core of the construction of a special type of sovereign statehood. When huge nomads of the Horde came to the service of the Russian Tsar, starting with the "faithful Tatars" of Tsarevich Kasim. And further the process has already acquired a large-scale character.

The uniqueness of Russia's expansion is the fact that there are no even temporary borders with the former Horde, it was erased only once under Ivan III and further was determined by eye, without having time to firmly grow fortresses, guards or Zasyeznye Lines. It seemed that the peaceful life had settled down, but the steppe tribesmen had another confusion and started to move further to the East. And where is it, that notorious "civilization border"? ... even the tsar-father doesn't know. Wherever Russian did not come, everywhere became a factor of stability and unifier without problems of mutual integration.

Another world

Old Europe knew no "yoke" in its own history, except for a brief moment (711-718) when the Arabs conquered all of Spain. Then came a long status quo, step by step the Spaniards regained their lands, consolidating them with the forced Christianization of the Muslim and Jewish population. And after the fall of the Emirate of Granada in 1492 began the construction of a modern nation-state, Gibraltar divided two huge civilizational worlds .

Other Europeans were more lucky, they did not have to be engaged in extermination of historical opponents on own ground. To draw a parallel to Russia and the Horde, how not to remember the Hundred Years War for understanding. England and France did not manage to absorb each other, as did not resist. And Slavic peoples of Balkans did not manage to assimilate organically Turkish rule, and when Ottomans have weakened - have arranged ethnic cleansing, mutual beatings in Greece, on Danube and Asia Minor. Russia and the Horde never faced such religious or ethnic divisions.

The attempt to present the "Great Run to the Sun" on the part of the Russians as a kind of religious war with the Besermen and Basurmans does not find historical confirmation, the expansion was carried out without slogans "let us stand for the Christian faith". But in relations with the West, since the time of Ivan III, a clear ideologeme appears, which was not used in the East: we are the God-chosen people, power is also from God, and in general, after the fall of Byzantium, "Moscow is the Third Rome, there will never be a fourth".

It was in this somewhat strange civilizational model that Russia entered into a centuries-long rivalry with the West and the Ottoman Empire. With an inner core of mobilization of all forces, forged precisely in the times of the Horde. With a logic incomprehensible to the West: Russia was never "neither subdued nor subjugated", although it was for a long time dependent on Sarai.

It was the steppe men who taught the Russians to control their own destiny under the constant threat of conquest. The population of cities and towns, villages and farms, the church and the aristocracy (with all mutual claims) considered themselves "Russian people". And when it became unbearable from external trials, they always continued the struggle and were sure to win.

Let's talk

The times of princes-adventurers with their "I'm coming to you" in a clear field ended in burnt Ryazan, ruined Vladimir, taken on the Tatar spear Kiev. There came a rethinking of the catastrophe of the defeat from Batu Khan, understanding: such a force cannot be broken in direct combat, the numerical advantage is too great, and the Horde is too powerful resources. So began to form "Russian character" and statehood. The alloy of readiness to yield infinitely long to the superior enemy and to go on the offensive at the first convenient case.

The Horde kindly gave Russia enough time to social forges forged a new Russian man, from the last mortal - to the Grand Duke and schemer. And when Khan Uzbek accepts the state religion Islam in Golden Horde, assimilation of Russian elite in structure of Horde seriously stalled. But this fact did not prevent after the collapse of the "yoke" to include Tatar aristocrats in the Russian nobility. From the wisdom acquired over the centuries, not otherwise.

At first Northeast Russia was hanging by a thread, almost 120 years doomed to martyrdom, the khans of Golden Horde did not cost anything to enter into a conspiracy with the main opponents of the Russian principalities, the united efforts of the landsknechts of the Papal See and steppe cavalry to solve the "Russian question".

From generation to generation, being between the hammer and the anvil first shaped a general sense of moral superiority with vivid religious overtones of the martyred people, and then came the realization of their own weaknesses. The ability to use the sword and diplomacy with equal success, to seek contradictions between the powers that be, came to the fore.

Nothing prevented princes from raising the people to an armed struggle with the Horde marauders, exterminate their races to the last stableboy. And then quietly go to Sarai, talk to the Great Khan, receive labels for reigning and return home with impunity. The ability to continuously feud with different ulus of the Golden Horde and at the same time to negotiate with the rest of the Chingizids became the most important element of relations between Russia and the Horde during the century after Batyi's invasion. In this way invaluable experience of patience was gained.

After rise of the Moscow Princedom at the end of the first quarter of XIV century the period of deaf defense of Russia ends, diplomacy of Russ in "gold period" of history of Horde with Great Khans Uzbek and Janibek have put forward Simeon Proud and Ivan Red in leaders among other Rurikovich. And Kulikovo battle became a century period of transition of Russia in counteroffensive. Without sharp movements, in delicate balance of force and diplomatic receptions. With frequent purchase of sabers of steppe men for the decision of foreign policy problems in the West or inside Russia.

Step by step getting rid of the formal Horde dependence (transfer of power directly to sons without kneeling trips to Sarai), reducing the size of the "Horde output" or appropriating it to themselves, the Moscow Grand Princes reached the victory on the Ugra River. And after the unification of the Great Russian lands after the annexation of Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and Ryazan, the flywheel of Russian military expansion and diplomacy launched a series of wars with the West and the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the annexation of the Crimea by Catherine the Great.

If here there were terrible pogroms of the times of the Livonian War, the Great Troubles and the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great, in the East things were going steadily forward. As if the Russians could not stop in "gaining independence" from the Horde, defeated in 1502. The main Horde lands became part of Russia during the first hundred years after the "Standing on Ugra", only Crimea, cut off by the waterlessness of the Great Steppe for two centuries still drank Russian blood with devastating raids.

But its fate was predetermined, Russian Grand Dukes, tsars and later emperors gained experience of complete absorption of the former metropolis. Starting with the settlement of the Tatars on the southeastern borders of the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Vasily II, then the absorption of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates, the subjugation of the Siberian and Nogai Horde. And when the problem of the Crimeans was solved, the last Ulus of the Horde fell, in the XVIII-XIX centuries Russia came to the Kazakh steppe and oases of Central Asia. With intentionally embedded former Horde Volga and Siberia.

Are we brothers?

Well-read people expect me to mention Georgi Vernadsky and Lev Gumilev. They had an original angle of view on such a rapid development of the lands of the Horde, conducted with unprecedented thoroughness and organic incorporation of the Tatar aristocracy into the Russian nobility. Indeed, it was a phenomenon. The mentioned scientists believed: there is a common Eurasian root of Russian and steppe (Horde) civilizations. It emerged after Batyi's campaigns within the framework of exchanges with the Golden Horde, or the "Tatar-Mongol yoke" did not exist in the form as it is taught by traditional historiography.

Gumilev's conception is interesting and even scandalous, he was sure in strong pre-Horde foundation of relations of Ancient Russia and Great Steppe. That is why the departure from the arena of the Great Khans became for the former Ulus of Genghis Khan absolutely unnoticeable, the emergence of the Russian state did not cause rejection among the multinational subjects, the long-standing symbiosis of the Horde and Russian aristocracy was taken for granted.

One can even agree, if we look at the European path of historical development. The old lady had no such experience, there Reconquista and any expansion was bloody and cruel, "woe to the vanquished" in full swing. Repression and genocide the conquered experienced in full measure. And the attempt to organize the Kingdom of Heaven in the Middle East choked in blood because of fanatical crusaders.

And strange Russians did without blood, allegedly irreconcilable struggle "for independence from the Horde yoke" with a snap of fingers turned into a mass transition of the steppe aristocracy to their service, their lands organically included in their own power and thanks to this they were able to get a huge human and material resource to clarify relations with the West and the Ottomans.

About what kindly Ivan III has informed after "standing on Ugra" to Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire Maximilian I in 1490, having offered to help by military force against Poles and Czechs muddying water. So Russia got involved in European squabbles as an independent player. And became the only state where the settlement of the Great Russians outside the historical lands did not require the expulsion of "foreigners", there was enough land for everyone who wanted it.

Mighty steppes, who had been a mortal threat to Russia for at least a hundred years, could not withstand the test of "copper pipes", became corrupted and decayed from within, undermined by small but frequent defeats on the battlefield. Having scratched under their malakhayas, they quietly passed under the hand of bearded "foresters". Something similar only met in Antiquity, when the former satrapies of Persia calmly passed into the subjection to the Hellenes of the Diadochos of Alexander the Great.

God-guided.

In ancient times, people proceeded from mystical considerations, believed in the divinely chosenness of the winner. It seems that Russians did exactly the same. Invasion of Batu perceived "God's punishment" for internecine strife and injustice of numerous princes, and having overcome by longsuffering more powerful and dangerous enemy ... believed in own full redemption, which became historical experience. Not planning, how exactly, in what terms it is possible to solve foreign policy problems of gigantic scale, let the Lord manage.

That is why the entire foreign policy of Russia for centuries was "one step behind", buying a ticket for a train that has left. The historical experience itself predetermined such a thing, why make a fuss, one should wait and it will work itself out. Even lazy movement towards a certain goal does not imply the setting of clear and understandable to the people priorities, which allowed the European Minich to make a precise diagnosis:

"The Russian state has the advantage over all others that it is governed directly by the Lord God Himself. Otherwise it is impossible to explain how it exists at all".

I agree unconditionally, but let's carefully leave divine intervention aside. But as soon as Russia faces an insurmountable wall that cannot be broken through by force, some deep mechanisms of "denial of existing reality" are activated. And the toggle switch automatically flips to the "nothing is impossible" mode in the long term. Let's be patient, crawl back into the wilderness by "Scythian tactics," and there we will figure out how to bloody the enemy's face. Even if the God-fighters turn out to be blatant, we will repent just in case.

When Russians began to consider themselves "special", without saying it out loud? Maybe after the Kulikovo Field, as Soviet historians assured us. Or maybe after the final consolidation of the lands around Moscow after the internecine war of the late 15th century. But, most likely, after the Council of Ferraro-Florence in 1438-1445 and the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It was then that the phenomenon called today "ideology" emerged.

and somewhere to rethink the legacy of ancient Russia.

And Grand Princes and the first tsars demand more and more historical legitimacy. Bringing out own divinely chosenness from Vladimir Monomakh, ostensibly having received a royal crown from the Byzantium emperor. The Horde is already looked at through the prism of just such legitimacy of the Chingizids and obvious usurpers, which were appointed by Mamai or the Horde Khan Akhmat. And the famous message of Vassian in 1480, the confessor of the Grand Duke of Moscow, is already an instruction: war with the Horde is necessary, because their power is "not from God". Even Batyi's clan was named as impostor, so there it is.

So the Russian army went to the Ugra River as if to a holy war. Opposing the Horde, the true tsar became the divinely chosen defender of the Christian faith. And in a few years a certain ideal of the Orthodox Christian state with the center in Moscow was formed. The image becomes so attractive for Christians and even Muslims that the Tatars and Russian freemen flowed under the hand of Ivan III.

Are we the Horde?

No, of course not. But, exactly close interaction with it became the reason of occurrence and a basis of Russian statehood. It outlined the contours of centuries-old foreign policy culture of Russia. In order not to spread the thought over the tree (for thoughtful interpretation in comments), I will try to formulate as compactly as possible the main features of the so-called Russian World:

-No one is not an enemy to the Russian state, but a neighbor of varying degrees of danger

-Russian is able to realize his own temporary weakness and to be able to retreat. Even the fall of the capital (always fatal for Europeans) is not a reason to recognize defeat, as long as the people are ready to fight

-The Russian state weakly distinguishes between diplomatic and military components of any confrontation, easily able to forgive even a mortal enemy strictly according to Christ's commandments

-Russians never set foreign policy goals on the basis of strictly analyzing the current balance of power and means, preferring to get into a fight, and then let "God will manage".

-The Russian state never knows where to stop, as the concept of "civilizational boundary" does not fit in the head after the full integration of the Horde, Russian-Turkish wars, foreign campaigns and the fall of the main European capitals before the might of Russian arms.

-Russians are convinced of their own exclusivity and godhood, but the concepts of messianism are categorically rejected

-Despite the construction on a formal basis of any model of organization of society, whether it is a cosplay from the West or a civilizational experiment of the Bolsheviks, in any incomprehensible or threatening situation Russians return to the former ideas, traditions and habits of centralization of society and conviction in the invincibility of the whole people.

Thanks to the Horde, as they say...