Category Archives: Mongols

Siege of Kazan 1552, Part 1

Muscovy and her Asiatic neighbours 1400s-early 1500s
The story of the complex relationship between the Russians and their southern and eastern neighbours in 1400s-early 1500’s. Those neighbours were the successor states of the once mighty Mongol-Tatar empire known as the Golden Horde; the khanates of Kazan, Crimea, Siberia, the Great Horde and Nogay Horde. These relationships were at least as important to Muscovy as those with her western neighbours. Pictured: QolSharif Mosque in the city of Kazan, Russia

Battle of Kulikovo 1380 Part 2

In September 1380 Grand Prince Dmitri of Moscow led an army which confronted an invasion force of Mongols on the banks of the River Don. After his victory he became known to history as Dmitri Donskoi, and a great Russian hero. But to what extent is it justified to portray Dmitri as a symbol of Russian resistance against Tatar repression?