#history #history of Rus' #Rus
Golden ring of the CPSU Central Committee
Why was Yuryev-Polskaya not included in the Golden Ring? As ancient as Pereslavl-Zalessky, it was founded in the same year by Grand Duke Yuri Dolgoruky. Of course, it is not so rich in monasteries and churches, but still... The earthen rampart of the twelfth century has been preserved, encircling the historical center; the St. Michael the Archangel Monastery is literally mesmerizing to the eye, in which the architectural styles of several centuries converge.
And finally, there, in Yuryev-Polsky, there is the thirteenth-century St. George’s Cathedral, which occupies a special place even among the unique monuments of ancient Russian architecture.
And yet, Yuryev-Polskoy is bypassed. Which, of course, is insulting and annoying both to the authorities and to the townspeople themselves. After all, being included in a tourist route along which foreigners are transported is not only a flattering “inclusion” in the big world, but also a considerable benefit. And the money would have gone to the budget differently, and construction would have started here long ago, so as not to lose face in front of foreigners. The city would be transformed. But…
Nobody knows exactly what the reason is. Maybe it’s because the town is unprepossessing and is much inferior to neighboring Pereslavl-Zalessky and, even more so, to neighboring Suzdal. Like, we'll embarrass ourselves in front of foreigners. Although everything here is controversial. For some it is “unpretentious”, but for others it is just sweet with its quiet, almost rural way of life, not disfigured, as in some areas of Pereslavl, by reinforced concrete and coal dumps, gloomy fences, ominous frames and hangars of the so-called industrial zone.
Maybe there was a factory or workshop there working for the defense industry. Some kind of rubber or cotton pads were made for tanks or torpedoes. So they classified it and closed the city to foreigners. You know, how it was in Soviet times: no one could say a word against the defense industry. According to some radio voices, not only the directors, but also the heads of workshops of the missile factories were called by their last names and congratulated on the fulfillment of the quarterly plan, but in the city itself the newspapers did not have the right to write that this plant was a “machine-building plant.” Like, we don’t have any “mechanical engineering”.
Or maybe there were special, ideological reasons here.
Let’s imagine the corridors of power, where in the early seventies the list of cities included in the Golden Ring was “approved.” A variety of people are present at the meeting at the CPSU Central Committee, but among them, of course, there are scientists who explain and answer questions. Let us take into account that the event is ideological from the very beginning, because, firstly, there are foreigners, and secondly, history. And when they come together, vigilance increases tenfold.
And let’s imagine that, having reached Yuryev-Polsky, having listened to the story about the monastery, the museum located there, St. George’s Cathedral, a big party leader asks:
- What else is there?
Scientists, not accustomed to the quantitative criterion for assessing historical monuments, nevertheless succumb to the logic of their superiors and add:
— There is also the Lipitskoye field nearby, where the Battle of Lipitsa took place.
— What is the Battle of Lipitsa? - the boss is surprised.
- In no case! - the boss decides. “It’s not enough to tell foreigners about it yet.”
- So we won’t! — scientists and lower-ranking bosses are trying to justify themselves. “We didn’t include the Lipitskoye field in the route, and there’s nowhere to carry it and nothing to show, foreigners don’t even know about it.
- Well, yes, they don’t know! - the big boss interrupts them sarcastically. “And as soon as they get there, they’ll immediately start questioning and probing.” And then they will ring out the “voices.” No, we’ll cross out Yuriev-Polskaya! And generally speaking! - He raises his head and addresses everyone. - You need to be more careful, comrades. It’s not for you to explain what the current situation in the world is, so we must take everything into account here!
I repeat: these are my conjectures and assumptions. Possible model of possible events. Let's just say, quite probable. Because there are simply no more compelling reasons for not including Yuryev-Polsky in the Golden Ring.
The terrible massacre on Lipica
And the Battle of Lipitsa, little known to this day, or the battle on the Lipitsa River, near the city of Yuryev-Polsky, is the most terrible battle between Russians and Russians in the history of medieval Rus'.
To imagine the scale of it, we list the participants, the appanage principalities that fielded their warriors.
On the one hand - all the armed forces of the Vladimir-Suzdal Grand Duchy. “And their regiments were very strong,” notes the chronicler, “they even drove foot soldiers out of the villages.” That is, there was something like total mobilization. Vladimir, Suzdal, Murom, Pereslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Torzhok, Yuryev - they all gathered. And in that army there were not Vladimir people, but newcomers, hired ones, they called them wanderers.
The united troops of Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk and Rostov the Great took to the battlefield against the Vladimir army...
The Ryazanskys did not participate in the battle. There was no Ryazan then. The day before, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod the Big Nest burned it to the ground, leaving no stone unturned.
Ryazan always kept to itself. But if she had entered into the current feud, she would certainly have been on the side of Novgorod and against Vladimir, her sworn enemy. And this would immediately give the Novgorod-Pskov-Smolensk-Rostov army an obvious advantage, because in those days the Ryazan people were considered the most desperate warriors.
What made the confrontation especially bitter was the fact that both camps and troops were led by those who opposed each other in mortal hostility siblings - sons of Vsevolod the Big Nest.
The enmity between them began over their father's inheritance. Dying, Vsevolod the Big Nest wanted, according to custom, to transfer the great reign to his eldest son, Konstantin, giving him Vladimir, and to his second son, Yuri, Rostov. But Konstantin wanted both Vladimir and Rostov. He was driven not by greed, but by fear for his still unacquired power.
Although Vladimir was considered the capital of the Grand Duchy, Rostov is still older and more significant. He considered Yuri's reign in Rostov a threat to himself. His father became angry and deprived him of his seniority. He handed over the Grand Duke's table to Yuri. At that time, this was an extraordinary act, fraught with many consequences. And so it happened. Immediately after the death of Vsevolod in 1212, strife began. Three years of internecine war led to Lipica...
The Vladimir army was commanded by princes Yuri and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, their younger brother Svyatoslav helped them, and in the opposing united Novgorod-Pskov-Smolensk-Rostov army, together with Mstislav the Udal, their elder brother Konstantin Vsevolodovich, Prince of Rostov, set the tone, who fought for him, the eldest from the sons of Vsevolod, and rightfully inherited his father’s throne in Vladimir. And Mstislav Udaloy is no stranger either - he was the father-in-law of his enemy Yaroslav.
And yet, when the armies lined up against each other, the day before the battle, the opponents tried to come to an agreement. Ambassadors came to Yaroslav and Yuri with a proposal: “We will give eldership to Konstantin, we will plant him in Vladimir, and you will have the entire Suzdal land.” Yuri and Yaroslav gave Konstantin the following answer: “Overpower us, then the whole land will be yours.” Because they had already divided everything the day before. After the battle, the Smolensk warriors in one of the abandoned tents found a “letter” in which their oral agreement was enshrined in writing: “For me, brother Yaroslav, Vladimir land and Rostov, and for you Novgorod; and we will give Smolensk to our brother Svyatoslav, and we will give Kyiv to the Chernigov princes, and Galich to us.”
Everything was divided.
And so that their names are not abstract, let me remind you that Yuri is the same Yuri who, in twenty-one years, will not come to the aid of the Ryazan people fighting Batu. What to do, in those centuries the Ryazan and Suzdal people were sworn enemies of each other... And Yuri himself would soon die ingloriously on the City River in a battle with the same Mongol-Tatars, who, having defeated the Ryazan people, would come to Suzdal land...
And Yaroslav will subsequently give birth to a son, Alexander, who will become Nevsky. Then Yaroslav, being the Grand Duke of Vladimir after Yuri, will invite the Russian princes to call Batu “their king.” Yaroslav will be poisoned in the Horde following the denunciation of boyar Fyodor Yarunovich. Yaroslav's sons, Alexander and Andrey, will kill the slanderer. Alexander Nevsky will become the sworn brother of the Horde prince Sartak, the adopted son of Batu and will conclude an alliance between Rus' and the Horde.
And Prince Svyatoslav, after the death of Yaroslav, will become the Grand Duke of Vladimir. But not for long. He will be overthrown by Mikhail Tverskoy. He will spend the rest of his days in the Horde, seeking justice. But in history, the quiet and meek Svyatoslav will remain different - in 1234 he completed the construction of St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, not just unique, but the most mysterious creation of ancient Russian architecture...
But this will happen later, later, in two decades. In the meantime, the troops are facing each other. Some are on Avdova Gora, others are on Yuryeva Gora. Between them is the Tuneg stream. A little to the side is the Lipitsa River and the very field where they will now go and where that very battle will begin.
The impending cruelty of the slaughter was also indicated by the fact that some especially desperate warriors on the battlefield “jumped out barefoot...”. The chronicler does not comment or explain this detail. Apparently, for contemporaries it did not require explanation. I can only guess. Given the morals of that time, looting, “ripping off the dead,” that is, stripping and taking off the shoes of the dead were considered almost the norm.
And therefore, probably, by defiantly taking off his shoes, the warrior seemed to announce that he did not expect to remain alive and was going out to fight to the death. One can be confident in this assumption if we remember that some princes led their warriors with their heads naked in the most desperate battles. That is, the nobles took off their helmets, and the common people took off their boots and bast shoes...
When the slaughter ended, “one could hear the screams of the living, the wounded not to death, and the howl of those pierced in the city of Yuryev and near Yuryev. There was no one to bury the dead... For the killed warriors Yuri and Yaroslav
but the human mind cannot imagine.”
In one day, April 21, 1216, “nine thousand two hundred and thirty-three” Russian soldiers were killed in the battle on the Lipitsa Field, the chronicle says.
Russian Spas
But the chronicle does not give a definite answer: are these general losses or only one side? Then - which one? Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the Vladimir-Suzdalyev and Novgorod residents working together to clean up and count the dead. Therefore, some historians believe that these were losses only of the Vladimir army. But why Vladimirsky? After all, the author of the chronicle is from Novgorod, and he gives this figure? Why should he, what does he care about the losses of the Vladimir people?
And why would the Novgorodians count the corpses of their enemies on the battlefield down to one? This means that “nine thousand two hundred thirty-three” are Novgorodians. But if so, then how many Vladimir-Suzdal residents died that day?! After all, the losses of the vanquished are always greater. It’s scary to imagine how many Russian people were killed there. Men in their prime. Given the population size at that time, this was tantamount to a plague or pestilence. This fact speaks most clearly about the losses of the Vladimir-Suzdal residents. When Prince Yuri in one shirt, even losing his saddle, having driven three horses, on the fourth rushed to the walls of Vladimir and turned to the townspeople with a call to lock the gates and repel the enemies, they answered him: “Prince Yuri, with whom will we shut ourselves up? Our brothers have been beaten..."
However, these are words. In more detail, the scale of losses - 9233 people - can be imagined if you know: seven centuries later (!), in the 19th century (!), the population of the provincial city of Vladimir was 13,200 people!
How many people died in that Vladimir-Suzdal-Muromo-Nizhny Novgorod-Yuryevsk-Novgorod-Smolensk-Pskov-Rostov civil strife, including old men and women, constant victims of looting and fires, no one knows and will not know. In one of the published conversations L.N. Gumilyov exclaims with undisguised horror: “We didn’t lose so much during the wars with the Mongols!” However, according to information provided by the historian A.N. Nasonov, during the Mongol invasion of Galician Rus' alone, twelve thousand people died there. Analyzing these and other data, L.N. Gumilyov concludes: “It should be recognized that Batu’s campaign, in terms of the scale of destruction is comparable to an internecine war, common (emphasis added - S.B.) for that turbulent time."
Towards the end of his life, Vladimir Monomakh counted and wrote in the “Instructions” that “there were eighty campaigns in total and three great ones, and the rest I can’t even remember the smaller ones.” Of these, nineteen were against the Polovtsians, who could not be called strangers, because the Russian feuds were at the same time the feuds of their relatives, the Polovtsian khans, and vice versa. In total, eighty-three campaigns over fifty-eight years of reign. It turns out - one and a half wars for every year of conscious life.
And such a life was not led by some inflamed maniac warrior, but by a humble, deeply religious man who called: “Do not kill the right or the guilty and do not order him to be killed; if he is guilty of death, then do not destroy any Christian soul,” calling for peace from his bloody brothers, teaching children to love each other, at least “because you are brothers, from the same father and the same mother.” Here they are, brothers... Russian Savior, he’s definitely on blood. True, other nations had the same thing in those centuries. Although there was one Jew who called for building the Savior on love, everyone knows how it ended...
But even for the troubled years of Rus', that bloody feud and the Battle of Lipitsa that ended it was a particularly tragic event... And therefore one cannot but agree with L.N. Gumilyov: “It was here in 1216 that the power of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, Novgorod’s only ally in the war with the crusaders, was undermined.”
Four years of war and the Battle of Lipitsa that ended it ended with Vladimir, Pereslavl-Zalessky and other Vladimir-Suzdal cities surrendering to the mercy of the victors - Konstantin and Mstislav the Udaly. Constantine sat on the great table in Vladimir, became the Grand Duke, and Mstislav acquired himself another leaf to crown his glory as a knight and commander.
Three years later, Constantine died, and Yuri again became the Grand Duke. Everything has returned to normal... And if the reader is imbued with bitterness and regret and asks heaven: why, why were so many lives ruined? - the most correct answer would be: because times and customs were like that, and nothing can be done about it...
And foreign tourists do not go to Yuryev-Polskaya to this day. And, due to their own absence, they do not ask to be taken to the Lipitskoye Field, to tell them and show them. And there’s nothing to show there... In the lens of the video camera, a dry blade of grass trembles in the wind, behind it are brown-yellow spring ridges, last year’s hard stubble, black plowed land, a delicate green strip of winter crops. And everything else is a lush bush, rooty and strong. So he climbs from hillock to hillock, from hill to hill. The hills seem to be gone, leveled to the ground. Look, what old woman in Yuryev will still remember about Yuryev Gorka and clutch her head: either she came up with it herself, or from some unknown source it came into her tongue from her great-grandmothers. The Ice Mountain is not mentioned at all, no one has even heard of the Tuneg stream, but if he hears it, it will be mistaken for something German-Basurman, and you will break your tongue... Everything has been swallowed up and everything has been forgotten by the earth over the past eight centuries.
Of course, a monument should be erected here. Or a cross. Or a chapel. And it’s not foreigners, but our people who need to be brought here. Ours.
By the way, the story about the Battle of Lipitsa was written by a Novgorodian. He does not hide his sympathy for his own people. But the same Smolensk residents are allies of the Novgorodians, and the chronicler could at least have been more friendly towards them. But no. He writes: “The Novgorodians did not fight for the sake of booty, but the Smolensk residents rushed to the booty and stripped the dead...” But the chronicler knew that looting at that time was not considered a great sin, that both of them looted, but come on, portrayed his own as fighters only for an idea, and pilloried the Smolny residents forever. No, what we call objectivity did not exist then either.
Our people must be taken to the Lipitskoe field, our...
A number of outrages are always in sight
Leo Tolstoy, after reading “The History...” by S.M. Solovyov, wrote: “You come to the conclusion that a series of outrages have occurred in the history of Russia. But how did a series of outrages produce a great unified state?”
Tolstoy is subjective. Solovyov has not only “a series of outrages.” But Tolstoy is right in a global, universal sense. Only the historian Soloviev has nothing to do with it. And Russia too. Tolstoy's reproach must be addressed to all of humanity and to each person in particular. Human nature.
Chronicles and Chronicles of all times and peoples are wars, feuds, contentions, intrigues and fratricides of the ruling dynasties. That's where the story stands. At least it's ancient.
Try to find in it what happened in the intervals between wars and strife.
Meanwhile, in these intervals, Human Civilization was created by the minds and hands of people.
But not only historians - we ourselves do not see and do not notice. Even when evidence of creative work is before our eyes.
Here's an example. During the siege of Moscow by Tokhtamysh's troops in 1382, there were already firearms in Moscow. Something like squeaks. They were called mattresses. And there were even guns! The little-known chronicle “The Tale of the Invasion of Tokhtamysh” directly states: “Mattresses in Pushcha… guns in Pushcha.”
Passions still rage around that campaign. From beginning to end, the campaign is a mystery, a kind of medieval spy detective story, where there is twisted and re-twisted intrigue, where there are entirely double and triple agents and it is impossible to understand who works for whom, who uses whom and what interests they are pursuing. And we must also take into account that “The Tale...” has been rewritten several times over the centuries and edited in the appropriate spirit. So it's a complete puzzle. (I offer a solution to it in the chapter “The Brand of a Traitor.”)
And behind all this, the very fact that in Moscow in 1382 (!) there were firearms was completely lost for us! Perhaps they bought it in the West. And it is more likely that they already had their own gunsmiths. If bells were cast since ancient times, then trunks could also be cast. And the style of the chronicle is the most ordinary: mattresses in Pushcha, cannons in Pushcha... It seems that they were not such a curiosity back then.
And where there are guns, there is gunpowder. This means that Moscow already had its own cannon foundry and chemical production in 1382! But who knows and talks about this now?
And in the chronicle itself, guns are mentioned briefly, only in connection with the war. About wars - please, about achievements of the mind and human hands - not a word.
That's it...
Another example is Svyatoslav, Prince Yuryev-Polskaya. Who knows? He was the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest. Uncle of Alexander Nevsky. The brother of Grand Duke Yaroslav, who called on the Russian princes to recognize Batu Khan as their king. Finally, the most educated know that after the death of his brother, Svyatoslav became the Grand Duke, but he was overthrown by Mikhail Tverskoy.
And almost no one in Rus' will tell you that Svyatoslav built a temple in 1234, the likes of which have not been, are not and will not be in the history of mankind. That Svyatoslav invited (or hired, or warmed up) a genius still unknown to the world, the scale of whose personality is simply incommensurate with that time.
So, Lev Nikolaevich, the historian Soloviev has nothing to do with it. This is human nature. It's not just S.M. Solovyov, and we all need to ask: “People, why do you always and everywhere have Minikh and Bezborodko as field marshals and chancellors, and Pushkin as a chamber cadet? Or, if transferred to military ranks - Life Guards Colonel Pushkin... And if to civilian ranks - State Councilor Pushkin... Is that a lot or a little, huh?..”
And the creation of that unknown genius and little-known Svyatoslav - here it is, it has always been and is before us.
Temple
The girl draws a face with protruding ears on the gray asphalt and, so that there is no doubt who she has depicted, writes in large letters: “Vovka Nikiten is a fool, a donkey and a stupid crocodile.” Geese graze on the curly grass near the front gardens. Grandmothers talk on benches, and men take a smoke break, sitting on freshly sawn logs: firewood is already being prepared for winter. A fawn fluffy goat is tied to the church iron fence. When the owner approaches her, the goat cranes her neck and gently kisses her owner on the face.
Small town idyll. Yuryev-Polskoy. Round church square. Quiet evening.
And in the center of the square, in the center of this everyday circle of life, there is a squat stone cube with an equally massive, heavy dome - St. George's Cathedral.
The townspeople, especially those whose houses overlook the square, hardly notice it. When they were born, he was already standing here. And when their fathers were born, he was there too. And when their grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers... For them, he is part of the landscape, like the sky.
St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky is the only one in Rus'.
He himself, from the moment of birth, is a kind of artistic mystery. And the road to her decision seemed to be deliberately confused by fate.
The current cathedral was built in 1234 by Prince Svyatoslav, practically unknown in history, one of the many sons of Vsevolod the Big Nest. At the same time, he destroyed the old, seemingly dilapidated temple, erected at the founding of the city by his grandfather, Yuri Dolgoruky, and erected a new one in its place. Yes, such that a hundred years later it was taken as a model during the construction of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral.
But in the middle of the fifteenth century, something incomprehensible happened - the St. George Church in Yuryev-Polsky collapsed. Lovers of omens can remember that old, ruined church and ask: had the ancient stonework become so dilapidated in just eighty years that it had to be razed from the face of the earth? Maybe it was pride that spoke in Svyatoslav, the desire to establish himself and build his own? Even at the cost of destroying the old temple. And here, they say, is the reckoning...
Who knows now what really happened. In fact, Prince Svyatoslav was far from the most ambitious of Vsevolod’s many violent children, who drenched their native land with considerable blood. Rather, on the contrary, Svyatoslav was, compared to his brothers, quiet. In any case, the appanage town of Yuryev-Polskaya at that time played almost no role in politics, and Svyatoslav was not noted in any way in the chronicles.
In the fifteenth century, Yuryev-Polskaya was already a possession of Moscow, and therefore the architect Ermolin was sent here from Moscow with the task of restoring St. George’s Cathedral. That's what he did, assembled it from the previous blocks. But during the collapse, some blocks split, and therefore another part of them turned out to be “superfluous,” so that one or two belts are clearly missing and the current cathedral is much squat than it was at birth.
On top of that, many blocks were mixed up, which should not have been allowed in any way, because they were components of a single composition. One picture.
The point is that St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, perhaps the only one in Rus', is decorated from top to bottom with white stone carvings.
From an artistic point of view, the high reliefs of the cathedral themselves have long been recognized by all experts as “unique”, “unsurpassed”, “the pinnacle of ancient Russian art”, so it is not for me to compete with them in assessment. I'm talking about something else. About the master himself and about the themes and plots of his work.
Genius
So, let’s imagine: it’s the beginning of the thirteenth century in our yard. The town of Yuryev-Polskaya is a rather remote corner of Rus' in general and North-Eastern Rus' in particular. Not Rostov the Great and not Murom, not Suzdal and not Vladimir, especially not Novgorod and not Kyiv, not Bologna, Cambridge or Salamanca with their then universities and theological departments. However, the world of Christian culture is one. And therefore the plot-compositions “Trinity”, “Transfiguration”, “Seven Sleeping Youths of Ephesus”, “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”, “Ascension of Alexander the Great” are quite natural and understandable...
But then something not very clear begins. First of all, lions. There are many of them, all over the walls. Sorrowful, wise, grinning, philosophically pensive, reflective, with their heavy heads resting on crossed paws in a completely human pose... As if they had stepped out of ancient Persian miniatures, from the pages of the Persian epic and Persian history, in which traditionally lions are the support of the throne, a threat to everyone and everything. And here... There are still a lot of them for the Vladimir town, not the most popular and not the most characteristic animal for the local nature. Well, okay, I tell myself, the ancient Persian “lion” motifs are not a novelty, because trade has always been going on and Persian fabrics have always been valued, and long ago the lion everywhere became a symbol of power and authority. In Persia, live lions sat on either side of the throne of the king of kings. In the gospel traditions of Matthew and John, the lion becomes a symbol of the power of Christ. The lion appears on the insignia of the English and Swedish kings.
Works of art are a special matter; they can be nourished by reflected light from the depths of past centuries and by the fantasies and personal preferences of the artist or group of artists. But here is the most important fact of life: on the coats of arms of all Vladimir cities there is a lion. Lion with a cross.
It is clear that city coats of arms appeared in Russia already under Peter the Great. But long before this, the lion was a sign of the Galician (the current center of Galicia is the city of Lvov) and Vladimir-Suzdal princes...
It is probably difficult to establish exactly where the lion appeared first - on the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, erected in 1157, or on the signs of the Vladimir princes. In any case, on the personal seal of Alexander Nevsky, and he lived a century later - an equestrian warrior killing a dragon with a spear...
But neither the ancient Persian nor the late Russian sovereign lions can be compared with the Yuriev-Polish ones - mysterious, like sphinxes...
However, the angels here are also not quite ordinary. Having looked closely, I saw on their high reliefs clearly drawn details for attaching the wings to the arms! Either the author knew the myth about Icarus and Daedalus and created something based on the myth, or... However, I was carried away, I give up, because I know little about ancient Russian art and it is more than likely that I mistook traditional, constantly repeated artistic techniques for fastening details , as the museum researcher proved to me, at first even confused by the surprise of my amateurish assumption.
But among those who look at the high reliefs, there are only a few specialists, so we, mere mortals, have little right to our perception and surprise. And how can one not be surprised by these scenes, so unusual for Orthodox churches.
Later, they will be regarded by the guardians of church rules as “pagan” and even “blasphemous”, inappropriate for the decoration of churches. So they won't be there later. And this is the beginning of the thirteenth century, and there is no strict church canon for artists in Rus' yet.
Here, for example, is an incomprehensible miracle: the torso and head of a man with a narrow-eyed, high-cheekbone face - on the body of an animal. Laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, Doctor of Historical Sciences Nikolai Voronin, who devoted his entire life to studying the architecture of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, calls these creatures whale-race centaurs. But centaurs are half-humans, half-horses. But here there is nothing equine, the body and paws are like a lion. So, most likely, this is more of a sphinx than a centaur.
But in any case, one thing is clear: this man, author, artist, ancient master, knew equally well the myths about centaurs and sphinxes, if based on the legends he created something reminiscent of both. By the way, all his lions have almost human faces. Just a little tweak and you'll have the Yuriev-Polish Sphinx. And on that wall where the masks of people and animals are depicted, everything is quite clearly and consciously doubled: either a lion-man, or a lion-man, and perhaps a wolf-man...
But that's not all. On one high relief nearby there is the healer Kozma and ... a griffin. This is a monster from ancient Eastern myths - a cross, again, of a lion and an eagle.
Another bird is on another high relief. More precisely,. half-maiden, half-bird. Siren - from ancient Greek myths.
And there are also plots that I can’t understand, because I don’t have enough knowledge. But I still read books, because I live in the twenty-first century and learned people collected epics, myths of the peoples of the world, translated them into Russian and thus gave me the opportunity to learn them.
And then, I repeat, it was the thirteenth century. To be precise - one thousand two hundred and thirty. And there was no university in the town of Yuryev-Polsky, no library, no printing, and no paper either... There was a prince, there were warriors, stinkers in the smoking huts, master stone-cutters...
And there was a master, an artist, an author. The man who came up with it all. A man who knew all the myths of the countries and peoples of the then ecumene. Not only did he know. He lived in them, transformed them, translated them into the language of drawing and stone. Who was he, who was he? Is the son of a princely family, who instead of a sword took a brush and a chisel in his hands? Or maybe from the vigilantes, or even from the smerds? Where did he study, in what parts? Or a migratory bird? From the Byzantine, Macedonian, Bulgarian, nearby Lithuanian borders? How did he get here?
I look at the town, at the weeds in the ditches, at the huts and sheds, and imagine what it was like almost eight centuries ago. And one cannot help but want to shout in amazement: such a person could not have lived here at that time!
However, he was there! That's the problem!
The fog of eight centuries is dense, it is difficult, impossible to imagine this man alive and clearly, especially in the then Yuryev-Polish life. I would like to know the name, but the name is unknown. And only the centuries-old fog remains.
Well, at least we know the name of the prince who conceived and built the temple by his will. And not only his name, we can see his face with our own eyes. The mask of Svyatoslav, by the way, is from the high relief of the temple, and is now kept inside, under a glass cover. But I'm still afraid for her. In winter, the cathedral freezes through and freezes over. In the spring it thaws, and streams of water flow along the walls. There is no talk of restoration of the cathedral in modern times. And it hasn't happened before. Several high relief blocks, which turned out to be “extra” during the restoration of the cathedral in the fifteenth century, lie right on the street. So you can imagine some drunk man with a sledgehammer, who, swaggering, breaks the “stone” into pieces with three blows on a dare...
While working on the book, I called Yuryev-Polskoy and asked if the blocks were still lying on the street. But they told me that no, they are all in storage. And just as I was rejoicing, the museum attendant added that they had never been lying on the street. This is where I doubted...
And I already talked about the mask. There are no words, precious, ancient. But... Sometimes I think that if this mask were of another prince, they would immediately take it to Moscow, keep it, show it, write and talk about it. And what about Svyatoslav... He is not known to anyone or anything. If he had burned down forty villages and cities of someone, or had ten thousand Russian people strung up on the rack, then - yes, then we would have immediately recognized him as a “historical figure” and created legends around him. And so - well... Well, I built a temple. Even if it is the only one of its kind. So what. This won't surprise us.
Sergey Baimukhametov
965 - Defeat of the Khazar Khaganate by the army of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.
988 - Baptism of Rus'. Kievan Rus accepts Orthodox Christianity.
1223 - Battle of Kalka- the first battle between the Russians and the Mughals.
1240 - Battle of Neva- military conflict between the Russians, led by Prince Alexander of Novgorod, and the Swedes.
1242 - Battle of Lake Peipsi- a battle between the Russians led by Alexander Nevsky and the knights of the Livonian Order. This battle went down in history as the “Battle of the Ice.”
1380 - Battle of Kulikovo- a battle between the united army of the Russian principalities led by Dmitry Donskoy and the army of the Golden Horde led by Mamai.
1466 - 1472 - travel of Afanasy Nikitin to Persia, India and Turkey.
1480 - The final deliverance of Rus' from the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
1552 - Capture of Kazan Russian troops of Ivan the Terrible, the termination of the existence of the Kazan Khanate and its inclusion in Muscovite Rus'.
1556 - Annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate to Muscovite Rus'.
1558 - 1583 - Livonian War. The war of the Russian Kingdom against the Livonian Order and the subsequent conflict of the Russian Kingdom with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
1581 (or 1582) - 1585 - Ermak's campaigns in Siberia and battles with the Tatars.
1589 - Establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia.
1604 - Invasion of False Dmitry I into Russia. The beginning of the Time of Troubles.
1606 - 1607 - Bolotnikov's uprising.
1612 - Liberation of Moscow from the Poles by the people's militia of Minin and Pozharsky The end of the Time of Troubles.
1613 - The rise to power of the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
1654 - Pereyaslav Rada decided to reunification of Ukraine with Russia.
1667 - Truce of Andrusovo between Russia and Poland. Left Bank Ukraine and Smolensk went to Russia.
1686 - "Eternal peace" with Poland. Russia's entry into the anti-Turkish coalition.
1700 - 1721 - North War- fighting between Russia and Sweden.
1783 - Annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire.
1803 - Decree on free cultivators. Peasants received the right to redeem themselves with the land.
1812 - Battle of Borodino- a battle between the Russian army led by Kutuzov and French troops under the command of Napoleon.
1814 - Capture of Paris by Russian and Allied forces.
1817 - 1864 - Caucasian War.
1825 - Decembrist revolt- armed anti-government mutiny of Russian army officers.
1825 - built first railway in Russia.
1853 - 1856 - Crimean War. In this military conflict, the Russian Empire was opposed by England, France and the Ottoman Empire.
1861 - Abolition of serfdom in Russia.
1877 - 1878 - Russo-Turkish War
1914 - Beginning of the First World War and the entry of the Russian Empire into it.
1917 - Revolution in Russia(February and October). In February, after the fall of the monarchy, power passed to the Provisional Government. In October, the Bolsheviks came to power through a coup.
1918 - 1922 - Russian Civil War. It ended with the victory of the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the creation of the Soviet state.
* Individual outbreaks of the civil war began already in the fall of 1917.
1941 - 1945 - War between the USSR and Germany. This confrontation took place within the framework of the Second World War.
1949 - Creation and testing of the first atomic bomb in the USSR.
1961 - The first manned flight into space. It was Yuri Gagarin from the USSR.
1991 - The collapse of the USSR and the fall of socialism.
1993 - Adoption of the Constitution by the Russian Federation.
2008 - Armed conflict between Russia and Georgia.
2014 - Return of Crimea to Russia.
The history of mankind is an endless process of formation, during which for tens of thousands of years, peoples appear and disappear in the historical arena in struggle. Conduct or the Spirit, as idealist philosophers would say, tests peoples for strength, sending them tests, and the most serious test for any people is war, the invasion of other tribes that can destroy not only peoples or states, but also huge Empires as it happened more than once in history.
War is a test of a people's strength, some pass it with honor, others fail it and go to the sidelines of history, or disappear altogether. Russia had to go through many wars, many peoples and states tested our strength, but we resisted, and have been standing for thousands of years. However, it can still be noted that there are wars that had a greater influence on the formation of the national spirit, about which the memory has been preserved for centuries, and there are also forgotten battles, about which there are no memories left in the Russian soul. Despite the fact that they are all important for us, because this is our history, today I would still like to dwell on three battles of medieval Rus', which predetermined our mentality, our statehood and our entire subsequent history.
Battle on the Ice.
Date of: April 5, 1242
Scene: Western border of Novgorod land.
Characters: Princes Alexander Yaroslavovich "Nevsky", Andrey Yaroslavovich VS Andreas von Velven - Landmaster of the Livonian department of the Teutonic Order.
Historical situation: In the early forties of the XIII century. Rus' was going through difficult times. A century of bloody civil strife undermined the strength of the Russian state, and when the cruel and dangerous enemy Tatar-Mongols unexpectedly invaded its borders, the scattered small principalities were unable to give an organized, worthy rebuff. The Horde army, seasoned in many campaigns, possessing the most modern siege weapons of that time, managed to capture most of the Russian land despite the heroic resistance of its defenders. The difficult period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke began. In this difficult situation, our neighbors - the Swedes and the Livonian Order - decided to take advantage of the temporary weakness of Rus' and implement their long-cherished plans to seize our northern lands, in particular the Pskov and Novgorod regions.
Course of the battle: After an unexpected offensive, Koporye was taken by German forces, Izborsk fell, and after a week of siege, due to the betrayal of the boyars who opened the gates to the enemy, Pskov was taken by the Livonians. For Novgorod, the situation became critical, and then the city leadership turned for help to Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich, who, due to political disagreements, had previously been expelled from the settlement. The prince, seeing the danger of the situation, “despised the insult”, called his brother Andrei Yaroslavovich for help. And they, with their squads, united with boyar detachments, and detachments of the city militia, advanced to meet the enemy. In March, Alexander manages to recapture Pskov and invades the lands of the order. After the defeat of the advanced detachments, the prince decides to retreat to the ice of Lake Peipsi.
On April 5, a decisive battle took place on the lake; the Russian skirmishers were the first to enter the battle - a detachment of archers, showering the German cavalry with a hail of arrows. However, the arrows caused little harm to the heavily armed horsemen, and the Livonians crushed the infantry like a wedge, but at that time the princely squad struck from the flanks, as a result of which the combined German-Chud forces were completely defeated. During the battle, about 400 knights were killed, and about 50 were taken prisoner (the total losses, including miracles and bollards, amounted to several thousand). Ladsmeister Andreas von Velven, commander of the Livonian Teutonic Knights, fled from the battlefield with the remnants of his troops.
The result of the battle. During the Battle of the Ice and subsequent campaigns of Prince Alexander, the expansion of the Livonian Order into the Pskov and Novgorod lands was stopped for a long time. Northern Rus' retained its independence and commitment to Orthodoxy, managing to evade the ideological expansion of Catholicism. Thus, the prerequisites were created for the further resurrection of the rest of Rus', which followed precisely from the Northern lands. Due to the fact that northern Rus' survived, was not completely plundered by the Mughals like the southern regions, and did not fall under the influence of the powerful Catholic order, the very possibility of a subsequent Russian revival was preserved.
Battle of Kulikovo.
Date of: September 8, 1380
Scene: Confluence of the Nepryadva and Don rivers
Characters: Coalition of princes led by Prince of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy VS beklarbek Mamai and allies
Historical situation: 150 years after its foundation, the Mongol Empire of Khan Batu fell apart for a long time and painfully, the dynastic crisis led to the fact that the de facto ruler of the Golden Horde became the beklyarbek (corresponding to the current title of the prime minister) Mamai. However, with the support of the Central Asian ruler Tamerlane, the throne returns to the pretender from the khan dynasty - Tokhtamysh. During this intra-Tatar strife, the Russian principalities, headed by Prince Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow, suddenly declared their disobedience. At the same time, the punitive campaigns of the Tatars undertaken against the Russians ended in the defeat of the Horde troops. Mamai decides to make a last attempt to return Rus' to submission in order to use its richest resources in the fight with Tokhtamysh for the throne, and gathers an army for a big campaign.
Progress of the battle. Having learned about the approach of the Tatar forces, Dmitry Ivanovich, at the head of the united Russian troops, advances beyond the Don in order to prevent the Tatars from uniting with the Lithuanian troops, who also went on a campaign against the Moscow principality.
Mamai was taken by surprise by this decisive maneuver of the Russians, and was forced to take the battle in unfavorable conditions for himself. In addition, on the advice of the experienced military leader Dmitry Mikhailovich Bobrok-Volynsky, Dmitry Ivanovich positioned his troops in such a way that the ambush regiment was hidden from the Tatars, which at the decisive moment predetermined the outcome of the battle. The beginning of the battle was marked by a symbolic duel between the schema-monk, a former famous warrior - Peresvet and the legendary Tatar fighter Chelubey. Peresvet managed to knock Chelubey out of the saddle, but the Russian hero also received a mortal wound. At the beginning of the battle, the Tatars managed to push back the Russian forces, and part of the Moscow prince’s troops had already fled to Nepryadva, but at this critical moment an ambush regiment under the command of Dmitry Bobrok struck the Tatars in the rear and defeated the main forces of the horde. Mamai himself fled with small forces, abandoning his army to the mercy of fate, which, according to the chronicle, was driven by vigilantes 50 miles, beating them as they went.
Results of the battle. This was the first such major victory of Russian troops over the Tatars, and although Rus' would remain part of the Mongol state for another hundred years, the Battle of Kulikovo showed that the horde can be resisted, and it can be resisted only by uniting all the scattered Russian principalities into one fist. The victory of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich so inspired his contemporaries that he was given the nickname Donskoy, which stuck with him for centuries, and later the Orthodox Church even canonized him as a Saint. In medieval Russian literature, many written monuments dedicated to this significant event appeared - Zadonshchina, The Legend of the Massacre of Mamayev, The Life of Dmitry Donskoy and The Life of Sergius of Radonezh.
But the most important result of the battle on the Kulikovo Field was, as the Soviet historian L.N. Gumilev brilliantly formulated: “The army of Muscovites, Vladimir, Suzdal, etc. went to the Kulikovo Field, and the army of Russians returned, who went to live in Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal... This was the beginning of their awareness of themselves as a single entity - Russia.”
Battle of Molodi. (This battle is little known among the general public, so we will dwell on it in some detail)
Date of: July 29 – August 2, 1572
Scene: The village of Molodi 50 versts south of Moscow.
Characters: Moscow governors Dmitry Khvorostinin, Mikhail Vorotynsky VS Crimean Khan Devlet I Girey, Tereberdey-Murza, Divey-Murza.
Historical situation: Taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Muscovite kingdom were concentrated in the north, where the long Livonian War between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was going on with varying success, the Crimean Khan Devlet the First Giray raided Moscow. Taking advantage of the fact that defectors from among the Russian boyars showed the Tatars passages past the abatis line (a series of fortifications along the southern border of Rus'), the khan’s troops approached Moscow almost without fighting, and burned it, taking tens of thousands of people captive to sell them into slavery, on the way back, ruining everything that came along the way. This was the strongest blow from the steppe in the last two hundred years. The Crimean Khan was so impressed by his own success that he began to prepare another, more thorough campaign for the next year, hoping to completely capture all of Rus' and thus restore the former power of the Golden Horde. Devlet Giray was sure that after the raid of 1571, Rus' would not have time to recover and all he could do was finish off the Muscovite Kingdom. To help him, the Turkish Sultan sent a seven-thousandth corps of Janissaries, and the Nogai khans also joined the upcoming campaign. A huge army for those times gathered under the banner of Giray (according to various estimates, from 120 to 80 thousand people).
Progress of the battle. At the end of July 1572, Crimean-Nogai-Turkish troops approached the border of the Moscow kingdom. The main forces of the Russians who managed to put up a horde against the invasion - about 20,000 people, led by governor M. Vorotynsky, settled near Serpukhov. About 2,000 Tatars were thrown against them as a diversionary maneuver, and the main Horde forces crossed the Oka River somewhat to the north. When Vorotynsky found out about this, in the hope of tying the Tatars in battle, he sent after them a small cavalry detachment of the young oprichnina governor Dmitry Khvorstinin. The Russian commander hoped to have time to start a fight with the Tatars before they approached Moscow. This would force Giray to focus on destroying the group in his rear before continuing further advances towards Moscow, and thus Vorotynsky hoped to buy time for Moscow so that it could prepare for the defense, and other tsarist troops could join it.
Dmitry Khvorostinin's cavalry overtook the Tatars near the village of Molodi and completely defeated the rearguard of the Tatar army stretching over fifteen kilometers. Devlet the First turned his main forces away from Moscow and directed them towards the Russian troops in his rear, with the goal of defeating them and securing communications before laying siege to the Mother See. By this time, the main forces of Vorotynsky had managed to approach Molodi and take an advantageous position, equipping the so-called. “Walk the City” is a mobile defensive structure with loopholes for riflemen and artillery.
Despite the significant numerical advantage of the Tatar army, they were unable to take Gulyai city on the move; the devastating fire of Russian cannons and arquebuses inflicted heavy losses and the Horde were forced to roll back. Tereberdey-Murza died during the assault.
The dream of the conquest of Rus', which had already almost come true (to Moscow some 50 versts), which was so close, melted before our eyes along with the army of Devlet Giray. The Khan, in a rage, makes an unexpected decision, orders all the Tatars to dismount from their horses and storm the Russian fortifications on foot, the Horde tried to break the wooden ceilings of the city with their hands, and the besieged cut off their hands, as the chronicler picturesquely wrote about. At some point, Vorotynsky makes an unexpected decision to attack the Tatars with cavalry from the flank, quietly withdrawing them from the other side of the hill, seeing that the Tatars concentrated the assault on one side of the fortifications and were carried away by the battle. An unexpected attack from the flank of the Russian cavalry, as well as a simultaneous desperately bold attack by the defenders of the Gulyai-city, led by Dmitry Khvorostinin, sowed panic in the ranks of the Horde, which led to their complete defeat by the forces of the Muscovite kingdom.
Results of the battle: The main result of the battle was that the Russian troops, together with the Cossacks who took part in the battle of Molodi, managed to prevent the fall of Moscow. With their decisive actions, governors Khvorostinin and Vorotynsky managed to pin down the enemy and then destroy him. After the defeat in the Battle of Molodi, the Horde left the Russian lands alone for a long time, and Moscow secured its recent acquisitions - the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates. The Russian state began to move south into the Wild Field, building new fortified cities of Voronezh, Yelets, etc. drawing black soil-rich lands into its orbit of influence. But the main result of the Battle of Molodi was that the Muscovite kingdom, having survived crop failures and pestilence, fighting on two fronts, managed to survive and survive, laying down the potential that subsequently led to Russia becoming a powerful Empire inhabited by hundreds of peoples and possessing the largest territory.
8 battles of the Russians, in which the Russians defeated a many times superior enemy, acting not with numbers, but with skill, showing the famous Russian spirit.
These eight battles are by no means the entire list of Russian victories over a superior enemy, but at the moment we will only cover them.
On January 10, 1878, Russian troops and Bulgarian militias defeated Vesil Pasha’s 30,000-strong Turkish army near Shipka.
In six days of fighting at the Shipka Pass, our troops lost up to 3,350 people, that is, virtually the entire original garrison, but the Turks lost about 12 thousand people.
And the war ended with the victory of Russia and the liberation of Bulgaria.
However, this is not the only victory of the Russian army that it won over a numerically superior enemy.
1. Battle of the Neva
On July 15, 1240, the Battle of the Neva, probably known to every Russian schoolchild, took place, but not many people know that the Novgorod army was half the size of the Swedish one. The Russian warriors who attacked the crusaders were about 1,200 people, and the Swedes were about four thousand infantry and knights. Therefore, before the battle, Alexander Nevsky inspired the squad with a speech, the phrase of which has survived to this day and become popular: “Brothers! God is not in power, but in truth! We will not be afraid of the multitude of warriors, for God is with us.” As you know, the Swedes were defeated and fled; their leader, the son-in-law of the Swedish king, Earl Birger, was wounded in a duel by the Russian prince.
2. Battle of Molodi.
July 29 - August 2, 1572, Russian warriors destroyed the Tatar-Turkish-Nogai horde marching towards Moscow. More than 120 thousand Crimeans and Janissaries under the overall command of Devlet-Girey intended to conquer the Muscovite kingdom. 50 versts from Moscow they were met by 25 thousand archers, Don Cossacks and German mercenaries, led by the best Russian commanders: princes Mikhail Vorotynsky (head of the border guard), Ivan Sheremetev and oprichnina governor Dmitry Khvorostinin. During the four-day battle of Molodi, more than 110 thousand Tatars and Turkish infantry were destroyed. The son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet-Girey died under Russian sabers. This battle has no analogues in the history of military art: the Russians did not block the enemy’s path to the capital, but with a threat from the rear they forced a battle on him even before approaching it, pulled him into a meat grinder, were able to hold out and exhaust his strength, and then at the right moment inflicted a decisive blow. hit. The military power of the long-time enemy was undermined, and he was no longer able to restore his previous strength. Yes, scattered nomads complicated life on the outskirts for a long time, but there were no more trips for slaves deep into Rus'.
3. Azov seat.
On June 7, 1641, Turkish-Tatar troops under the command of the experienced commander of the Silistrian governor Huseyn Pasha besieged Azov, which was held by the Cossacks, from all sides. The fortress was besieged by 200-250 thousand cavalrymen, infantrymen, sailors and foreign mercenaries. They were opposed by about eight thousand Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. The besieged fought off several bloody and multi-day assaults. On September 26, having lost about 30 thousand people, the Turkish army retreated. The trophies of the Azov seat - the gate leaves of the fortress, two gates and the yoke of the city trading scales - are currently stored near the bell tower of the military Resurrection Cathedral of the village of Starocherkassk, Rostov region.
4. Battle of the Kalalah River.
On April 3, 1774, two Cossack regiments, totaling about a thousand people, defeated the approximately 25,000-strong Tatar horde of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. The Don Cossacks, commanded by 23-year-old Matvey Platov, gained a foothold on the top of the hill and repelled several enemy assaults. When the Cossacks ran out of cartridges, another detachment of Russian troops went to the rear of the Tatar army - a squadron of Akhtyrsky hussars and the Cossack regiment of Colonel Uvarov. “Tens of thousands of people, undoubtedly brave, suddenly trembled and, mingling like a timid herd, turned into an uncontrollable flight. Panic began - that terrible panic that unconsciously covers the masses and subordinates them only to the animal instinct of self-salvation. This was the finale, after which the entire Tatar crowd fled in different directions and there was no longer any possibility of collecting it,” this is how academician Potto described the battle. Now at the site of the battle in the Krasnogvardeisky district of the Stavropol Territory, a worship cross has been installed.
5. Battle of Shengraben.
On November 3, 1805, a 6,000-strong detachment under the command of Bagration fought off attacks by a 30,000-strong French army for eight hours. The Russian detachment not only held out, having lost 2,000 people, but also retreated in perfect order to the main parts of the army. The commander of the Russian corps, Mikhail Kutuzov, wrote to Emperor Alexander I: “Bagration joined the army, bringing with him prisoners: one colonel, two officers, fifty privates and one French banner.” As part of the small Russian detachment that showed courage and heroism, there was the Chernigov Dragoon Regiment, which for this battle received the St. George standard with the inscription “Five against Thirty,” which became the motto of the regiment for many years.
6. Battle of Klyastitsy.
On July 18-20, 1812, Russian troops under the command of Lieutenant General Peter Wittgenstein defeated the superior French forces of Marshal Oudinot and stopped the enemy's advance towards the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg. This was the first major victory of the Russian army in the War of 1812. Of the 28 thousand people, Marshal Oudinot lost 10 thousand killed and wounded, three thousand French were captured. Russian troops out of 17 thousand people lost about 4 thousand soldiers and officers. Marshal Oudinot's corps retreated beyond the Western Dvina, thus the French offensive on the capital of the Russian Empire failed. Lieutenant General Wittgenstein was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd class. The Russian emperor called him the savior of the capital. From the citizens, the Russian commander received the honorary title of Defender of Petrov's City, which was first heard in a song ending with the following words: “Praise, praise to you, hero! That the city of Petrov was saved by you!”
7. Battle of Elisavetpol.
On September 13, 1826, Field Marshal Paskevich, with 10 thousand infantry and cavalry, defeated the 35 thousand-strong Persian army, which was twice as large as the Russians in the number of guns. The Persians lost about 1,100 people captured and more than two thousand killed. The losses of Russian troops amounted to 46 killed and 249 wounded. Paskevich was awarded a golden sword decorated with diamonds, with the inscription: “For the defeat of the Persians at Elisavetpol.”
8. Battle of Sarykamysh.
December 9, 1914 - January 4, 1915, Russian troops stopped the advance of several Turkish armies under the command of Enver Pasha into the Caucasus. After the bloody battles, only about 10 thousand people out of the 90,000-strong Turkish group survived, the rest were killed or captured. The losses of the Russian troops of General Nikolai Yudenich, who numbered 63 thousand people before the start of the battle, amounted to 30,000 killed and wounded.
Invaders came from both the West and the East. They spoke different languages, they had different weapons. But their goals were the same - to ruin and plunder the country, to kill or take its inhabitants into captivity and slavery.
Today, in connection with this holiday, we decided to remember the most significant battles in the history of our Fatherland. If we forgot something, you can write it in the comments.
1. Defeat of the Khazar Kaganate (965)
The Khazar Khaganate was for a long time the main rival of the Russian state. The unification of Slavic tribes around Rus', many of which had previously been dependent on Khazaria, could not but increase tension in relations between the two powers.
In 965, Prince Svyatoslav subjugated the Khazar Khaganate to his power, and then organized a campaign against the strong tribal union of the Vyatichi, who paid tribute to the Khazars. Svyatoslav Igorevich defeated the Kagan’s army in battle and raided his entire state, from the Volga to the North Caucasus. Important Khazar cities were annexed to Rus' - the fortress of Sarkel (White Vezha) on the Don, which controlled the route from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea (now at the bottom of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir), and the port of Tmutarakan on the Taman Peninsula. The Black Sea Khazars fell into the sphere of Russian influence. The remnants of the Kaganate on the Volga were destroyed in the 11th century by the Polovtsians.
2. Battle of the Neva (1240)
The Novgorod prince was only 19 years old when, in the summer of 1240, Swedish ships, probably led by Birger Magnusson, entered the mouth of the Neva. Knowing that Novgorod was deprived of the support of the southern principalities, the Swedes, instructed from Rome, hoped, at a minimum, to seize all the lands north of the Neva, simultaneously converting both pagans and Orthodox Karelians to Catholicism.
The young Novgorod prince led a lightning attack by his squad and destroyed the Swedes' camp before they could strengthen it. When getting ready for the campaign, Alexander was in such a hurry that he did not gather all the Novgorodians who wanted to join, believing that speed would be decisive, and he turned out to be right. In the battle, Alexander fought in the front ranks.
The decisive victory over superior forces brought Prince Alexander great fame and the honorary nickname - Nevsky.
However, the Novgorod boyars feared the growing influence of the prince and tried to remove him from governing the city. Alexander soon left Novgorod, but a year later the threat of a new war forced the Novgorodians to turn to him again.
3. Battle of the Ice (1242)
In 1242, German knights from the Livonian Order captured Pskov and approached Novgorod. The Novgorodians, who had quarreled with Prince Alexander a year before, turned to him for help and again transferred power to him. The prince gathered an army, expelled the enemies from the Novgorod and Pskov lands and went to Lake Peipsi.
On the ice of the lake in 1242, in a battle known as the Battle of the Ice, Alexander Yaroslavich destroyed an army of German knights. The Russian riflemen, despite the onslaught of the Germans who were breaking through the regiments in the center, bravely resisted the attackers. This courage helped the Russians surround the knights from the flanks and win. Pursuing the survivors for seven miles, Alexander showed the firmness of the Russian army. Victory in the battle led to the signing of a peace agreement between Novgorod and the Livonian Order.
4. Battle of Kulikovo (1380)
The Battle of Kulikovo, which took place on September 8, 1380, was a turning point that showed the strength of the united Russian army and the ability of Rus' to resist the Horde.
The conflict between Mamai and Dmitry Donskoy became more and more aggravated. The Principality of Moscow strengthened, Rus' won many victories over the troops of the Horde. Donskoy did not listen to Mamai when he gave Prince Mikhail Tverskoy a label for Vladimir, and then stopped paying tribute to the Horde. All this could not help but lead Mamai to the idea of the need for a quick victory over the enemy who was gaining strength.
In 1378, he sent an army against Dmitry, but it was defeated on the Vozha River. Soon Mamai lost influence on the Volga lands due to the invasion of Tokhtamysh. In 1380, the Horde commander decided to attack the Donskoy army in order to completely defeat his forces.
On September 8, 1380, when the armies clashed, it became clear that there would be a lot of losses on both sides. The legendary exploits of Alexander Peresvet, Mikhail Brenok and Dmitry Donskoy were described in “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamaev.” The turning point for the battle was the moment when Bobrok ordered to delay the ambush regiment, and then cut off the retreat of the Tatars who had broken through to the river. The Horde cavalry was driven into the river and destroyed, meanwhile the remaining forces mixed up other enemy troops, and the Horde began to retreat in disorder. Mamai fled, realizing that he no longer had the strength to continue the fight. According to various estimates, on September 8, 1380, from 40 to 70 thousand Russians and from 90 to 150 thousand Horde troops fought in the decisive battle. The victory of Dmitry Donskoy significantly weakened the Golden Horde, which predetermined its further collapse.
5. Standing on the Ugra (1480)
This event marks the end of the Horde's influence on the politics of the Russian princes.
In 1480, after Ivan III tore up the khan's label, Khan Akhmat, having concluded an alliance with the Lithuanian prince Casimir, moved to Rus'. Seeking to unite with the Lithuanian army, on October 8 he approached the Ugra River, a tributary of the Oka. Here he was met by the Russian army.
Akhmat's attempt to cross the Ugra was repulsed in a four-day battle. Then the khan began to wait for the Lithuanians. Ivan III, in order to gain time, began negotiations with him. At this time, the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray, an ally of Moscow, attacked the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which did not allow Casimir to help Akhmat. On October 20, the regiments of his brothers, Boris and Andrei Bolshoi, came to reinforce Ivan III. Having learned about this, Akhmat turned his army back to the steppe on November 11. Soon Akhmat was killed in the Horde. So Rus' finally broke the Horde yoke and gained independence.
6. Battle of Molodi (1572)
On July 29, 1572, the Battle of Molodi began - a battle whose outcome decided the course of Russian history.
The situation before the battle was very unfavorable. The main forces of the Russian army were stuck in a fierce struggle in the west with Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was possible to gather only a small zemstvo army and guardsmen under the command of Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky and governor Dmitry Ivanovich Khvorostinin against the Tatars. They were joined by a 7,000-strong detachment of German mercenaries and Don Cossacks. The total number of Russian troops was 20,034 people.
To fight the Tatar cavalry, Prince Vorotynsky decided to use the “walk-gorod” - a mobile fortress, behind the walls of which archers and gunners took refuge. Russian troops not only stopped the enemy, which was six times superior, but also put him to flight. The Crimean-Turkish army of Devlet-Girey was almost completely destroyed.
Only 20 thousand horsemen returned to Crimea, and none of the Janissaries escaped. The Russian army, including the oprichnina army, also suffered heavy losses. In the fall of 1572, the oprichnina regime was abolished. The heroic victory of the Russian army in the Battle of Molodin - the last major battle between Rus' and the Steppe - was of enormous geopolitical significance. Moscow was saved from complete destruction, and the Russian state from defeat and loss of independence. Russia retained control over the entire course of the Volga - the most important trade and transport artery. The Nogai horde, convinced of the weakness of the Crimean Khan, broke away from him.
7. Battle of Moscow (1612)
The Battle of Moscow became the decisive episode of the Time of Troubles. The occupation of Moscow was lifted by the forces of the Second Militia, led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The garrison, completely blocked in the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod, having received no help from King Sigismund III, began to experience an acute shortage of provisions, it even reached the point of cannibalism. On October 26, the remnants of the occupation detachment surrendered to the mercy of the winner.
Moscow was liberated. “The hope of taking possession of the entire Moscow state collapsed irrevocably,” wrote a Polish chronicler.
8. Battle of Poltava (1709)
On June 27, 1709, the general battle of the Northern War took place near Poltava with the participation of 37,000-strong Swedish and 60,000-strong Russian armies. Little Russian Cossacks participated in the battle on both sides, but most fought for the Russians. The Swedish army was almost completely destroyed. Charles XII and Mazepa fled to Turkish possessions in Moldavia.
Sweden's military forces were undermined, and its army was forever left among the best in the world. After the Battle of Poltava, Russia's superiority became obvious. Denmark and Poland resumed participation in the Nordic Alliance. Soon the end of Swedish domination in the Baltic was put to an end.
9. Battle of Chesme (1770)
The decisive naval battle in Chesme Bay took place at the height of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774.
Despite the fact that the balance of forces in the battle was 30/73 (not in favor of the Russian fleet), the competent command of Alexei Orlov and the valor of our sailors allowed the Russians to gain strategic superiority in the battle.
The Turkish flagship Burj u Zafer was set on fire, followed by many more ships of the Turkish fleet.
Chesmen was a triumph for the Russian fleet, secured the blockade of the Dardanelles and seriously disrupted Turkish communications in the Aegean Sea.
10. Battle of Kozludzhi (1774)
During the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia achieved another important victory. The Russian army under the command of Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kamensky near the city of Kozludzha (now Suvorovo in Bulgaria), with an unequal balance of forces (24 thousand versus 40 thousand), was able to win. Alexander Suvorov managed to knock the Turks out of the hill and put them to flight without even resorting to a bayonet attack. This victory largely determined the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign a peace treaty.
11. Capture of Ishmael (1790)
On December 22, 1790, Russian troops under the command of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov stormed the previously impregnable Turkish fortress of Izmail.
Shortly before the war, with the help of French and German engineers, Izmail was turned into a fairly powerful fortress. Defended by a large garrison, it withstood two sieges undertaken by Russian troops without any particular difficulties.
Suvorov took command just 8 days before the final assault. He devoted all the remaining time to training soldiers. The troops trained to overcome obstacles and ramparts specially created near the Russian camp, and practiced hand-to-hand combat techniques on stuffed animals.
A day before the assault, a powerful artillery shelling of the city began from all guns. It was fired upon both from land and sea.
At 3 a.m., long before dawn, a flare was launched. This was a sign of preparation for the assault. Russian troops left the location and formed into three detachments of three columns.
At half past five the soldiers launched an attack. The fortress was attacked from all sides at once. By four o'clock the resistance was completely suppressed in all parts of the city - the impregnable fortress fell.
The Russians lost more than 2,000 soldiers killed and about 3,000 wounded in the battle. Significant losses. But they could not be compared with the losses of the Turks - they only lost about 26,000 people killed. The news of the capture of Ishmael spread throughout Europe like lightning.
The Turks realized the complete futility of further resistance and signed the Treaty of Jassy the following year. They renounced claims to Crimea and a protectorate over Georgia, and ceded part of the Black Sea region to Russia. The border between the Russian and Ottoman empires moved towards the Dniester. True, Ishmael had to be returned back to the Turks.
In honor of the capture of Izmail, Derzhavin and Kozlovsky wrote the song “Thunder of Victory, Ring Out!” Until 1816 it remained the unofficial anthem of the Empire.
12. Battle of Cape Tendra (1790)
The commander of the Turkish squadron, Hasan Pasha, managed to convince the Sultan of the imminent defeat of the Russian navy, and at the end of August 1790 he moved the main forces to Cape Tendra (not far from modern Odessa). However, for the anchored Turkish fleet, the rapid approach of the Russian squadron under the command of Fyodor Ushakov was an unpleasant surprise. Despite the superiority in the number of ships (45 versus 37), the Turkish fleet tried to flee. However, by that time, Russian ships had already attacked the front line of the Turks. Ushakov managed to remove all the flagship ships of the Turkish fleet from the battle and thereby demoralize the rest of the enemy squadron. The Russian fleet did not lose a single ship.
13. Battle of Borodino (1812)
On August 26, 1812, significant forces of the French and Russian armies clashed in the battle near the village of Borodino, 125 kilometers west of Moscow. The regular troops under the command of Napoleon numbered about 137 thousand people, the army of Mikhail Kutuzov with the Cossacks and militia that joined it reached 120 thousand. The rugged terrain made it possible to move reserves unnoticed, and to install artillery batteries on hills.
On August 24, Napoleon approached the Shevardinsky redoubt, which stood near the village of the same name, three miles in front of the Borodino field.
The Battle of Borodino began a day after the battle at the Shevardinsky redoubt and became the largest battle in the War of 1812. The losses on both sides were colossal: the French lost 28 thousand people, the Russians - 46.5 thousand.
Although Kutuzov gave the order to retreat to Moscow after the battle, in his report to Alexander I he called the Russian army the winner of the battle. Many Russian historians think so.
French scientists see the battle at Borodino differently. In their opinion, “in the Battle of the Moscow River” Napoleonic troops won. Napoleon himself, reflecting on the results of the battle, said: “The French showed themselves worthy of victory, and the Russians acquired the right to be invincible.”
14. Battle of Elisavetpol (1826)
One of the key episodes of the Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828 was the battle near Elisavetpol (now the Azerbaijani city of Ganja). The victory then achieved by Russian troops under the command of Ivan Paskevich over the Persian army of Abbas Mirza became an example of military leadership. Paskevich managed to use the confusion of the Persians who had fallen into the ravine to launch a counterattack. Despite the superior enemy forces (35 thousand against 10 thousand), the Russian regiments began to push back Abbas Mirza’s army along the entire front of the attack. The losses of the Russian side amounted to 46 killed, the Persians were missing 2,000 people.
15. Capture of Erivan (1827)
The fall of the fortified city of Erivan was the culmination of numerous Russian attempts to establish control over the Transcaucasus. Built in the middle of the 16th century, the fortress was considered impregnable and more than once became a stumbling block for the Russian army. Ivan Paskevich managed to competently besiege the city from three sides, placing cannons along the entire perimeter. “The Russian artillery acted wonderfully,” recalled the Armenians remaining in the fortress. Paskevich knew exactly where the Persian positions were located. On the eighth day of the siege, Russian soldiers burst into the city and dealt with the fortress garrison with bayonets.
16. Battle of Sarykamysh (1914)
By December 1914, during the First World War, Russia occupied a 350 km front from the Black Sea to Lake Van, while a significant part of the Caucasian Army was pushed forward - deep into Turkish territory. Turkey had a tempting plan to outflank the Russian forces, thereby cutting the Sarykamysh-Kars railway.
The tenacity and initiative of the Russians who defended Sarakamysh played a decisive role in the operation, the success of which literally hung by a thread. Unable to take Sarykamysh on the move, two Turkish corps fell into the arms of an icy cold, which became fatal for them.
Turkish troops lost 10 thousand people due to frostbite in just one day, December 14th.
The last Turkish attempt to take Sarykamysh on December 17 was repulsed by Russian counterattacks and ended in failure. At this point, the offensive impulse of the Turkish troops, suffering from frosts and poor supplies, was exhausted.
The turning point has arrived. On the same day, the Russians launched a counteroffensive and drove the Turks back from Sarykamysh. The Turkish military leader Enver Pasha decided to intensify the frontal attack and transferred the main blow to Karaurgan, which was defended by parts of the Sarykamysh detachment of General Berkhman. But here, too, the fierce attacks of the 11th Turkish Corps, advancing on Sarykamysh from the front, were repelled.
On December 19, Russian troops advancing near Sarykamysh completely surrounded the 9th Turkish Corps, frozen by snow storms. Its remnants, after stubborn three-day battles, capitulated. Units of the 10th Corps managed to retreat, but were defeated near Ardahan.
On December 25, General N.N. Yudenich became commander of the Caucasian Army, who gave the order to launch a counteroffensive near Karaurgan. Having thrown back the remnants of the 3rd Army by 30–40 km by January 5, 1915, the Russians stopped the pursuit, which was carried out in a 20-degree cold. And there was almost no one to pursue.
Enver Pasha's troops lost 78 thousand people (over 80% of their personnel) killed, frozen, wounded and captured. Russian losses amounted to 26 thousand people (killed, wounded, frostbitten).
The victory at Sarykamysh stopped Turkish aggression in Transcaucasia and strengthened the position of the Caucasian Army.
17. Brusilovsky breakthrough (1916)
One of the most important operations on the Eastern Front in 1916 was the offensive on the Southwestern Front, designed not only to turn the tide of military operations on the Eastern Front, but also to cover the Allied offensive on the Somme. The result was the Brusilov breakthrough, which significantly undermined the military power of the Austro-Hungarian army and pushed Romania to enter the war on the side of the Entente.
The offensive operation of the Southwestern Front under the command of General Alexei Brusilov, carried out from May to September 1916, became, according to military historian Anton Kersnovsky, “a victory such as we have never won in a world war.” The number of forces that were involved on both sides is also impressive - 1,732,000 Russian soldiers and 1,061,000 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies.
18. Khalkhin-Gol operation
Since the beginning of 1939, several incidents between the Mongols and the Japanese-Manchus occurred in the area of the border between the Mongolian People's Republic (on whose territory, in accordance with the Soviet-Mongolian protocol of 1936, Soviet troops were located) and the puppet state of Manchukuo, which was actually ruled by Japan. Mongolia, behind which stood the Soviet Union, announced the passage of the border near the small village of Nomon-Khan-Burd-Obo, and Manchukuo, behind which stood Japan, drew the border along the Khalkhin-Gol River. In May, the command of the Japanese Kwantung Army concentrated significant forces at Khalkhin Gol. The Japanese managed to achieve superiority in infantry, artillery and cavalry over the Soviet 57th separate rifle corps deployed in Mongolia. However, Soviet troops had an advantage in aviation and armored forces. Since May, the Japanese held the eastern bank of Khalkhin Gol, but in the summer they decided to cross the river and seize a bridgehead on the “Mongolian” bank.
On July 2, Japanese units crossed the “Manchurian-Mongolian” border officially recognized by Japan and tried to gain a foothold. The command of the Red Army brought into action all the forces that could be delivered to the conflict area. Soviet mechanized brigades, having made an unprecedented forced march through the desert, immediately entered the battle in the area of Mount Bayin-Tsagan, in which about 400 tanks and armored vehicles, over 300 guns and several hundred aircraft took part on both sides. As a result, the Japanese lost almost all of their tanks. During the 3-day bloody battle, the Japanese were pushed back across the river. However, now Moscow was insisting on a forceful solution to the issue, especially since there was a threat of a second Japanese invasion. G.K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the rifle corps. Aviation was strengthened by pilots with experience of fighting in Spain and China. On August 20, Soviet troops went on the offensive. By the end of August 23, Japanese troops were surrounded. An attempt to release this group made by the enemy was repulsed. Those surrounded fought fiercely until August 31. The conflict led to the complete resignation of the command of the Kwantung Army and a change of government. The new government immediately asked the Soviet side for a truce, which was signed in Moscow on September 15.
19. Battle of Moscow (1941-1942)
The long and bloody defense of Moscow, which began in September 1941, moved into the offensive phase on December 5, ending on April 20, 1942. On December 5, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive and German divisions rolled west. The plan of the Soviet command - to encircle the main forces of Army Group Center east of Vyazma - could not be fully implemented. The Soviet troops lacked mobile formations, and there was no experience of a coordinated offensive of such masses of troops.
However, the result was impressive. The enemy was driven back 100–250 kilometers from Moscow, and the immediate threat to the capital, which was the most important industrial and transport hub, was eliminated. In addition, the victory near Moscow had enormous psychological significance. For the first time in the entire war, the enemy was defeated and retreated tens and hundreds of kilometers. German General Gunter Blumentritt recalled: “It was now important for Germany’s political leaders to understand that the days of the blitzkrieg were a thing of the past. We were confronted by an army whose fighting qualities were far superior to all other armies we had ever encountered.”
20. Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943)
The defense of Stalingrad became one of the most fierce operations of that war. By the end of the street fighting, which lasted from August to November, Soviet troops held only three isolated bridgeheads on the right bank of the Volga; There were 500–700 people left in the divisions of the 62nd Army defending the city, but the Germans failed to throw them into the river. Meanwhile, since September, the Soviet command had been preparing an operation to encircle the German group advancing on Stalingrad.
On November 19, 1942, Soviet troops launched an offensive north of Stalingrad, and the next day - south of it. On November 23, the striking wedges of the Soviet troops met near the city of Kalach, which marked the encirclement of the enemy’s Stalingrad group. 22 enemy divisions (about 300 thousand people) were surrounded. This was the turning point of the entire war.
In December 1942, the German command tried to release the encircled group, but Soviet troops repelled this onslaught. The fighting in the Stalingrad area continued until February 2, 1943. Over 90 thousand enemy soldiers and officers (including 24 generals) surrendered.
Soviet trophies included 5,762 guns, 1,312 mortars, 12,701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 166 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 cars, 10,679 motorcycles, 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property .
21. Battle of Kursk (1943)
The Battle of Kursk is one of the greatest in the history of the Great Patriotic War, marking a radical turning point in hostilities. After it, the strategic initiative completely passed into the hands of the Soviet command.
Building on the success achieved at Stalingrad, Soviet troops launched a large-scale offensive on the front from Voronezh to the Black Sea. At the same time, in January 1943, besieged Leningrad was released.
Only in the spring of 1943 did the Wehrmacht manage to stop the Soviet offensive in Ukraine. Although units of the Red Army occupied Kharkov and Kursk, and the advanced units of the Southwestern Front were already fighting on the outskirts of Zaporozhye, German troops, transferring reserves from other sectors of the front, pulling up troops from Western Europe, actively maneuvering mechanized formations, went on a counteroffensive and re-occupied Kharkov . As a result, the front line on the southern flank of the confrontation acquired a characteristic shape, which later became known as the Kursk Bulge.
It was here that the German command decided to inflict a decisive defeat on the Soviet troops. It was supposed to cut it off with blows at the base of the arc, encircling two Soviet fronts at once.
The German command planned to achieve success, among other things, through the widespread use of the latest types of military equipment. It was on the Kursk Bulge that heavy German Panther tanks and Ferdinand self-propelled artillery guns were used for the first time.
The Soviet command knew about the enemy's plans and deliberately decided to cede the strategic initiative to the enemy. The idea was to wear down the Wehrmacht shock divisions in pre-prepared positions and then launch a counteroffensive. And we must admit: this plan was a success.
Yes, not everything went as planned and on the southern front of the arc German tank wedges almost broke through the defense, but on the whole the Soviet operation developed according to the original plan. One of the largest tank battles in the world took place in the area of Prokhorovka station, in which over 800 tanks simultaneously took part. Although Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in this battle, the Germans lost their offensive potential.
More than 100 thousand participants in the Battle of Kursk were awarded orders and medals, more than 180 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In honor of the victory in the Battle of Kursk, an artillery salute was fired for the first time.
22. Capture of Berlin (1945)
The assault on Berlin began on April 25, 1945 and lasted until May 2. Soviet troops had to literally chew through the enemy’s defenses - battles took place for every crossroads, for every house. The city's garrison numbered 200 thousand people, who had about 3,000 guns and about 250 tanks, so the assault on Berlin was an operation quite comparable to the defeat of the encircled German army at Stalingrad.
On May 1, the new chief of the German General Staff, General Krebs, informed Soviet representatives about Hitler's suicide and proposed a truce. However, the Soviet side demanded unconditional surrender. In this situation, the new German government set a course for achieving an early surrender to the Western allies. Since Berlin was already surrounded, on May 2 the commander of the city’s garrison, General Weindling, capitulated, but only on behalf of the Berlin garrison.
It is characteristic that some units refused to carry out this order and tried to break through to the west, but were intercepted and defeated. Meanwhile, negotiations between German and Anglo-American representatives were taking place in Reims. The German delegation insisted on the surrender of troops on the western front, hoping to continue the war in the east, but the American command demanded unconditional surrender.
Finally, on May 7, the unconditional surrender of Germany was signed, which was to occur at 23.01 on May 8. On behalf of the USSR, this act was signed by General Susloparov. However, the Soviet government considered that the surrender of Germany should, firstly, take place in Berlin, and secondly, be signed by the Soviet command.
23. Defeat of the Kwantung Army (1945)
Japan during World War II was an ally of Nazi Germany and waged a war of conquest with China, during which all known types of weapons of mass destruction were used, including biological and chemical weapons.
Marshal Vasilevsky was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East. In less than a month, Soviet troops defeated the million-strong Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria and liberated all of Northern China and part of Central China from Japanese occupation.
The Kwantung Army was fought by a highly professional army. It was impossible to stop her. Military textbooks include the operation of Soviet troops to overcome the Gobi Desert and the Khingan Range. In just two days, the 6th Guards Tank Army crossed the mountains and found itself deep behind enemy lines. During this outstanding offensive, about 200 thousand Japanese were captured and many weapons and equipment were captured.
Through the heroic efforts of our soldiers, the “Ostraya” and “Camel” heights of the Khutou fortified area were also taken. The approaches to the heights were in hard-to-reach swampy areas and were well protected by scarps and wire fences. The Japanese firing points were carved into granite rock.
The capture of the Hutou fortress cost the lives of over a thousand Soviet soldiers and officers. The Japanese did not negotiate and rejected all calls for surrender. During the 11 days of the assault, almost all of them died, only 53 people surrendered.
As a result of the war, the Soviet Union regained the territories lost to the Russian Empire in 1905 following the Peace of Portsmouth, but Japan has not yet recognized the loss of the Southern Kuril Islands. Japan capitulated, but a peace treaty with the Soviet Union was not signed.