Introduction 2 1. Alexander at the head of the state 3 2. Alexander Nevsky as a military leader 10 Conclusion 23 References 25

Introduction

Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263) - an outstanding statesman and commander of Ancient Rus', Prince of Novgorod (1236-1251), Grand Duke of Vladimir (1252-1263). Son of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. One of the most beloved national heroes of the Russian people. The military leadership of Alexander Nevsky entered the golden fund of the history of Russian and world military art. The largest military leader of his time, Alexander Nevsky creatively used established methods of warfare, strove for surprise and decisiveness in the attack, took into account the characteristics of the terrain and time of year, the strengths and weaknesses of his own and enemy troops, smashed the enemy piece by piece, and consolidated military and political successes. Alexander Yaroslavich proved himself not only as a great commander, but also as a far-sighted politician and diplomat. In 1251, he concluded a peace treaty with Norway, finally strengthening the northwestern borders of Rus'. He pursued a balanced policy towards the Mongols, especially after he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, he sought to avoid conflicts in order, just in case, to secure the rear in the fight against the German knights, who were always ready to impose a war on Rus' on two fronts. The purpose of this work is to study the history of Russia during the period of Alexander Nevsky. Objectives of the work: - evaluate Alexander as a statesman; - consider the military achievements of A. Nevsky.

Conclusion

The military leadership of Alexander Nevsky entered the golden fund of the history of Russian and world military art. The largest military leader of his time, Alexander Nevsky creatively used established methods of warfare, strove for surprise and decisiveness in the attack, took into account the characteristics of the terrain and time of year, the strengths and weaknesses of his own and enemy troops, smashed the enemy piece by piece, and consolidated military and political successes. Alexander Yaroslavich proved himself not only as a great commander, but also as a far-sighted politician and diplomat. In 1251, he concluded a peace treaty with Norway, finally strengthening the northwestern borders of Rus'. Alexander Nevsky is a great commander who was able to combine the military experience accumulated by previous generations, add new things to it, drawn from the largest victories (the Battle of the Neva and the Battle of the Ice), and create Russian military art, which became famous throughout Europe, and not only, show on what the mighty Russian spirit is capable of. He pursued a balanced policy towards the Mongols, especially after he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, he sought to avoid conflicts in order, just in case, to secure the rear in the fight against the German knights, who were always ready to impose a war on Rus' on two fronts. Alexander Nevsky is a great commander who was able to combine the military experience accumulated by previous generations, add new things to it, drawn from the largest victories (the Battle of the Neva and the Battle of the Ice), and create Russian military art, which became famous throughout Europe, and not only, show on what the mighty Russian spirit is capable of. Alexander Nevsky is a great politician of the medieval type, who put the interests of the state above his personal interests and the interests of individual segments of the population and because of this achieved a lot. He was a great ruler who, in the most difficult and seemingly hopeless time, provided the country with ten years of peaceful life. Alexander Nevsky is a great politician of the medieval type, who put the interests of the state above his personal interests and the interests of individual segments of the population and because of this achieved a lot. He was a great ruler who, in the most difficult and seemingly hopeless time, provided the country with ten years of peaceful life. During the Great Patriotic War, the image of Alexander Nevsky was an inspiration for many fighters. The Order of Alexander Nevsky was established, which was awarded to commanders who managed to solve major combat missions with a small force. One day, the government of St. Petersburg held a competition for the best memorial dedicated to the Battle of the Neva. It turned out that this theme of feat excites many artists - almost thirty works were presented. The self-made association “Neva Battle” was born, whose activities were aimed at restoring memorials of the Neva Battle, such as the church in honor of the Holy Blessed and Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, which was previously located on the site of the Neva Battle. I note that the church was destroyed during the Second World War, and before it, on the site of the Battle of the Neva, there always stood a small wooden temple, which consolidated the memory of the Russian people about this battle. The temple was repeatedly burned by the enemy and was rebuilt several times.

Bibliography

1. Zuev, M. N. History of Russia: study. allowance / M. N. Zuev. - M., 2011. - 479 p. 2. History of Russia. IX-XX centuries: textbook / ed. G. A. Ammon, N. P. Ionicheva. - M., 2006. - 740 p. 3. Kirillov, V.V. History of Russia: study. allowance / V.V. Kirillov. - M., 2011. - 640 p. 4. Munchaev, Sh.M. History of Russia: / Sh.M. Munchaev, V.M. Ustinov. - M.: Nauka, 2009. - 520 p. 5. Potaturov, V. A. History of Russia / V. A. Potaturov, G. V. Tugusova, M. G. Gurina. - M., 2002. - 720 p. 6. Begunov Yu.K. Chronicle of the life and work of Alexander Nevsky // Prince Alexander Nevsky and his era. St. Petersburg, 1995. pp. 206–209 7. Pashuto V.T. Alexander Nevsky // ZhZL. M., 1974. P. 10 8. Kuchkin V.A. To the biography of Alexander Nevsky // The most ancient states on the territory of the USSR. 1985. M., 1986. pp. 71–80

Gorsky Anton Anatolievich- Doctor of Historical Sciences. Leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Works at the Institute's Center for the History of Ancient Rus'. Author of several monographs, incl. the just released “Moscow and the Horde” (M.: “Nauka”, 2000).

Alexander Nevskiy. Left side of the triptych
"For the Russian Land." Artist Yu.P. Pantyukhin, 2003

Alexander Nevskiy- one of those names that is known to everyone in our Fatherland. A prince covered in military glory, honored with a literary story about his deeds soon after his death, canonized by the church; a man whose name continued to inspire generations living many centuries later: in 1725 the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established, and in 1942 the Soviet Order of Alexander Nevsky (the only Soviet order named after a figure of the Russian Middle Ages). For most Russians, his name evokes an association with the image created by N. Cherkasov in S. Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky”.

Alexander was born in 1221 in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. His father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, was the third son of one of the most powerful Russian princes of the late 12th - early 13th centuries. Vsevolod the Big Nest, son of Yuri Dolgoruky, grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Vsevolod (who died in 1212) owned North-Eastern Russia (Vladimir-Suzdal land). Yaroslav (born in 1190) received from his father the Principality of Pereyaslavl, which was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. Yaroslav's first wife was Konchak's granddaughter (daughter of his son, Yuri Konchakovich). Around 1213, Yaroslav married a second time (his first wife died or the marriage was dissolved for some reason - unknown) - to Rostislav-Feodosia, daughter of the Novgorod (later Galician) prince Mstislav Mstislavich (in the literature often referred to as "Udaly" based incorrectly understood definition of the prince in the message about his death as “lucky”, i.e. lucky). In 1216, Yaroslav and his older brother Yuri fought an unsuccessful war against Mstislav, were defeated, and Mstislav took his daughter from Yaroslav. But then the marriage of Yaroslav and Mstislava was renewed (the statement often found in literature about Yaroslav’s marriage after 1216 with a third marriage to a Ryazan princess is erroneous) and at the beginning of 1220 their first-born Fyodor was born, and in May 1221 - Alexander.

In 1230, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, after a difficult struggle with the Chernigov prince Mikhail Vsevolodich (grandson of Svyatoslav of Kyiv "The Tale of Igor's Host") established himself as the reign of Novgorod the Great. He himself preferred to live in his ancestral Pereyaslavl, and left the princes Fyodor and Alexander in Novgorod. In 1233, Alexander remained the eldest of the Yaroslavichs - 13-year-old Fedor unexpectedly died on the eve of his wedding. “And who does not favor this: the wedding has been arranged, the honey has been brewed, the bride has been brought, the princes have been invited; and there will be a place of joyful mourning and lamentation for our sins,” the Novgorod chronicler wrote on this occasion.

In 1236, Yaroslav Vsevolodich left Novgorod to reign in Kyiv (which continued to be considered the nominal capital of all Rus'). Alexander became an independent Novgorod prince. It was in Novgorod that he was in the winter of 1237-1238, at a time when disaster befell North-Eastern Rus': the hordes of the Mongol Empire, led by the grandson of its founder Genghis Khan Batu (Batu), devastated the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. 14 cities were taken, including the capital, Vladimir. In a battle with one of the Tatar (in Europe, including Rus', the Mongol conquerors were called “Tatars”) detachments on the river. In the city, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodich, the elder brother of Yaroslav, died.

After the Mongol troops returned to the Volga steppes in the spring of 1238, Yaroslav Vsevolodich came from Kyiv to the devastated Vladimir and occupied the main princely table of North-Eastern Rus'. After this, in 1239, he took vigorous action to strengthen his influence in neighboring lands. Yaroslav defeated the Lithuanian troops that captured Smolensk, and installed a prince allied with him here; made a successful campaign in Southern Rus'. In line with this policy, there was an agreement on the marriage of Yaroslav’s eldest son with the daughter of the ruler of a large Western Russian center - Polotsk. In 1239, the wedding of Alexander and the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav took place. And the following summer, 1240, an event occurred that brought Alexander his first military glory.

In the first half of the 13th century. Swedish feudal lords launched an attack on the lands of the Finnish tribes and took possession of southwestern Finland. Attempts to advance further to the East would inevitably lead to a clash with Novgorod, which owned the mouth of the Neva and the coast of Lake Ladoga. And in 1240, for the first time since 1164, the Swedish army entered the Neva from the Gulf of Finland. They were led, perhaps, by Jarl (the second most important title in Sweden after the king) Ulf Fasi (the reliability of information from later sources that the Swedish forces were commanded by Birger, later the de facto ruler of Sweden, is doubtful). It is unlikely that the Swedes’ goal was to march on Novgorod itself; most likely, their task was to strengthen themselves at the mouth of the Neva in order to cut off access to the sea for the Novgorod land and deprive them of the opportunity to resist the Swedes in the fight for eastern Finland. The moment for the attack was chosen well: the military forces of the princes of North-Eastern Rus', which often came to the aid of the Novgorodians in external wars, were weakened as a result of heavy losses suffered during Batu's campaign of 1237-1238.

What experience of participation in military campaigns 19-year-old Alexander had by this time is unknown. It is possible that he took part in his father’s campaign in 1234 against the German crusading knights who settled in the first third of the 13th century. on the lands of the Baltic tribes - the ancestors of the Estonians and Latvians, a campaign that ended in a successful battle for the Russians on the river. Emajõgi in South-East Estonia. It is possible that Alexander also took part in his father’s actions against the Lithuanians in 1239. But, in any case, for the first time he had to act independently, make decisions himself and take leadership of military actions.

Having received news of the appearance of the Swedish army, the Novgorod prince could take a wait-and-see attitude, send a request for military assistance to his father in Vladimir, and try to gather a militia from the inhabitants of the Novgorod land. But Alexander made a different decision: to immediately attack the enemy with only his squad and a small detachment of Novgorodians. “God is not in power, but in truth,” said, according to the author of the Life of Alexander, the prince, setting off on a campaign.

On Sunday, July 15, 1240, the Russian army suddenly attacked the numerically superior Swedes, who were camped near the confluence of the Izhora River with the Neva. The enemy, taken by surprise, suffered heavy losses. The second most important Swedish military leader (called “voevoda” in the Russian chronicle) and many noble warriors died. According to the Life of Alexander, the prince himself fought with a representative of the enemy army and wounded him in the face with a spear. The battle stopped, apparently, with the onset of darkness, and the Swedes were able to bury the dead. Under the cover of darkness, the remnants of the enemy army boarded ships and sailed home.

At the end of the same 1240, the German knights-crusaders began aggression against the Novgorod land. During the first third of the 13th century. Knights of the Order of the Sword captured the lands of the Baltic tribes - Estonians, Livs and Latgalians. The Order's possessions came into close contact with the borders of Rus' (along the Narva River and Lake Peipsi). From the end of the 10s, direct clashes began. After the defeats suffered by the crusaders from Yaroslav Vsevolodich in 1234 and, especially, from the Lithuanians at Siauliai in 1236 (where almost all the knights of the sword died - 49 people), the Order of the Sword Bearers merged with the Teutonic Order settled in East Prussia (1237 .). The part of the united Order, which received reinforcements from Prussia and Germany, located on the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia, became known as the Livonian Order. Not content with conquering the Baltic tribes, the crusaders tried to expand into Russian lands. As with the invasion of the Eastern Baltic, the papal throne in Rome stood behind the Order. The conquest of the Baltic peoples was sanctified by the idea of ​​converting them to Christianity, the war with Russia was justified by the fact that its inhabitants were, from a Catholic point of view, “schismatics” - adherents of the Eastern, Orthodox version of Christianity. At the end of 1240, the Germans captured Izborsk, a city on the western border of the Novgorod land. Then they defeated the army of the large semi-independent center of Pskov, and, thanks to a subsequent agreement with part of the Pskov boyars, occupied the city. In the North-West of the Novgorod Land, the Germans settled in the Koporye churchyard (east of the Narova River near the Gulf of Finland). The entire western part of Novgorod's possessions was ravaged by German troops.

The situation was complicated by the fact that at the height of the German offensive, in the winter of 1240-1241. Prince Alexander quarreled with the Novgorod boyars and went to his father in Pereyaslavl along with his “court” (squad). The political system of Novgorod had certain specific features that were different from the system of other Russian lands. Here, the local boyars represented a significant force, who invited princes from different lands to the Novgorod table at their discretion. Often princes who did not get along with the local nobility were forced to leave Novgorod. This also happened to Alexander (sources do not report the reasons for the conflict).

Meanwhile, German detachments began to appear already 30 versts from the city, and the Novgorodians sent an embassy to Yaroslav Vsevolodich asking for help. Yaroslav sent the second eldest of his sons, Andrei, to them. Soon, apparently, it became clear that he could not properly organize a rebuff, and a new embassy was sent to Yaroslav, headed by the Novgorod archbishop with a request to send Alexander to reign in Novgorod again. And “Yaroslav gave birth to his son Alexander again.”

Alexander Nevsky in the Horde. Mural painting in the Alexander Nevsky Church
School Council of the Holy Governing Synod in St. Petersburg

Returning to Novgorod, Yaroslavich actively got down to business. He directed his first blow (1241) to Koporye, a stronghold of the invaders. The fortress built here by the enemy was taken. Alexander brought some of the captured Germans to Novgorod, and released some; at the same time, he ordered the traitors from the Finnish-speaking Vodi and Chudi tribes who had gone over to the enemy’s side to be hanged. At the beginning of the next year, 1242, the prince with his retinue, an army from Novgorod and a detachment led by his brother Andrei, sent by his father to help from the Suzdal land, moved to the lands of the Order. At the same time, he blocked the roads connecting German possessions with Pskov, and then occupied the city with a sudden blow. The Germans who were in Pskov were captured and sent to Novgorod. Having crossed the border of the Order's possessions, Alexander sent forward a reconnaissance detachment led by the brother of the Novgorod posadnik (the highest official of Novgorod from among the local boyars). This detachment ran into the order's army. In the ensuing battle, the leader of the detachment, Domash Tverdislavich, died, some of the soldiers died or were captured, others fled to Alexander. After this, the prince retreated onto the ice of Lake Peipus (the natural border between the Novgorod and order possessions) and took up a position near the eastern shore.

On April 5, 1242, Saturday, the order's army attacked the Russians. Having formed a wedge (in Russian sources of that time this formation is called a “pig”), the Germans and “Chud” (Estonians) managed to break through the defensive line made up of lightly armed soldiers, but were attacked from the flanks by cavalry detachments (obviously, the squads of Alexander and Andrey) and suffered complete defeat. Alexander's warriors pursued the fleeing enemy seven miles across the ice to the western shore of the lake.

According to the Novgorod chronicle, in the battle “Pade Chudi beshisla” (countless multitude), and there were 400 Germans; in addition, another 50 Germans were captured and brought to Novgorod. The Livonian source - "Rhymed Chronicle" - names other casualty figures: 20 knights killed and 6 captured. This discrepancy, however, is most likely not due to an overestimation of enemy losses in the first case and an underestimation of “our own” losses in the second. Actually, the knights of the Order constituted the best equipped and trained part of the German army, but numerically very insignificant: according to the same Chronicle, during the campaign against Pskov in 1268, out of every hundred warriors, only one was a knight of the Order. In addition to the knights, their military servants, warriors of the Bishop of Dorpat, and probably detachments of German colonist townspeople took part in the battle. The Russian source gives an approximate total number of German losses; in Livonian we are talking only about order knights. According to researchers, in 1242 there were only about a hundred knights in Livonia, while a significant part of them fought with the Baltic tribe of Curonians. Thus, the losses of 26 people killed and captured were apparently about half of the number of knights who participated in the Battle of the Ice, and about a quarter of the total number of knights of the Livonian Order.

In the same year, the Germans sent an embassy to Novgorod asking for peace: the Order renounced all claims to Russian lands and asked for an exchange of prisoners. A peace treaty was concluded.

While the war with the Order was going on in the North of Rus', tragic events were unfolding in the South. At the end of 1240, Batu's army invaded Southern Rus', captured Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, Kyiv, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, and many other cities. Having ravaged the southern Russian lands, Batu moved to Central Europe. Hungary and Poland were devastated. Mongolian troops reached the Czech Republic and the shores of the Adriatic. Only at the end of 1242 did Batu return to the Volga region. Here the western ulus of the Mongol Empire was formed - the so-called. Golden Horde. As conquerors, the Mongols began to impose their sovereignty on the Russian princes. The first to be summoned to Batu’s headquarters in 1243 was Alexander’s father, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodich, the strongest of the Russian princes at that time, who had not fought with the Tatars (during their campaign against North-Eastern Rus' he was in Kyiv, and during the campaign to Southern Rus' - in Vladimir). Batu recognized Yaroslav as the “eldest” of the Russian princes, confirming his rights to Vladimir and Kiev, the ancient capital of Rus'. But the Golden Horde was still part of a huge empire that stretched from the Carpathians to the Pacific Ocean. And Yaroslav was forced in 1246 to go to Mongolia, to the capital of the great khan - Karakorum - for approval.

Alexander, meanwhile, continued to reign in Novgorod. In 1245, the Novgorod land was raided by the Lithuanians, who reached Torzhok and Bezhichi. The prince chased after them and defeated them in several battles - at Toropets, Zhizhitsy and Usvyat (within the Smolensk and Vitebsk principalities); Many Lithuanian "princes" were killed.

On September 30, 1246, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, Alexander’s father, died in distant Mongolia. He was poisoned by the mother of the great Mongol Khan Guyuk Turakina, who was hostile to Batu, whose protégé in the eyes of the Karakorum court was Yaroslav. After this, Turakina sent an ambassador to Alexander with a demand to appear in Karakorum. But Alexander refused.

In 1247, Svyatoslav Vsevolodich, the younger brother of Yaroslav, became the Grand Duke of Vladimir (in accordance with the ancient Russian tradition of inheriting princely power, according to which brothers were given preference over sons). Alexander, according to the redistribution of tables, got Tver in North-Eastern Rus' (at the same time he retained the Novgorod reign). But at the end of the same year, the prince, together with his brother Andrei, went to Batu. Obviously, the Yaroslavichs appealed to the act of the khan's grant to their father, which gave his sons priority rights over their uncle to the great reign of Vladimir (later only the descendants of Yaroslav Vsevolodich claimed it). From Batu both went to Karakorum, from where they returned to Rus' only at the end of 1249.

While Alexander was in the steppes, two messages were sent to him by Pope Innocent IV. The idea of ​​contacts with Alexander Yaroslavich arose among the papal curia in connection with two circumstances. Firstly, his father met in Karakorum with the Pope's ambassador, Plano Carpini, and agreed, according to the latter, to accept the patronage of the Roman Church. Secondly, from Plano Carpini the pope learned of Alexander’s refusal to submit to the great Khansha. In his message to the prince dated January 22, 1248, the pope insisted that he follow the example of his father and asked, in the event of a Tatar offensive, to notify about it “the brothers of the Teutonic Order residing in Livonia, so that as soon as this (the news) reaches through their brothers to our knowledge, we could immediately think about how, with God’s help, we could show courageous resistance to these Tatars.”

The papal bull was apparently delivered to Alexander while he was at Batu’s headquarters in the lower reaches of the Volga. The Novgorod prince gave an answer, the text of which has not reached us, but judging by the content of the pope's next message (dated September 15, 1248), this answer was evasive or even mostly positive regarding the acceptance of the patronage of the Roman Church. Apparently, being in an uncertain position at Batu’s court, the prince wanted to maintain the opportunity to choose depending on the results of his trip. In his second letter, Innocent IV gave a positive response to Alexander’s proposal to build a Catholic cathedral in Pskov and asked to receive his ambassador, the Archbishop of Prussia. But the bull did not have time to reach the addressee - he was already on his way to Karakorum.

The new ruler Ogul-Gamish (widow of Guyuk) recognized (in 1249) Alexander as the “oldest” among the Russian princes: he received Kyiv. But at the same time, Vladimir went to Andrey. Thus, the inheritance of Yaroslav Vsevolodich was divided into two parts. Alexander chose not to go to distant Kyiv, which suffered greatly from the Tatar defeat in 1240, and continued to reign in Novgorod. Meanwhile, ambassadors from the pope came to him for a final answer to the proposal to convert to Catholicism. The prince responded with a decisive refusal.

Andrei Yaroslavich, having settled in Vladimir, entered into an alliance with the strongest prince of Southern Rus', Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, marrying his daughter, and tried to conduct (like his father-in-law at that time) a policy independent of the Golden Horde. This opportunity was apparently given to him by the grant of the Vladimir reign by the Karakorum court, hostile to Batu. But in 1251, Batu’s friend and protégé Munke became the Great Khan. This freed the hands of the Golden Horde Khan, and the next year he organized military actions against Andrei and Daniel. Batu sent Kurimsy’s army against the Galician prince, who did not achieve success, but against Andrei-Nevryuy, who ravaged the outskirts of Pereyaslavl. The Vladimir prince fled, finding refuge in Sweden (he later returned to Rus' and reigned in Suzdal). In the same year, even before Nevryuy’s campaign, Alexander went to Batu, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir, and upon his return (after Andrei’s expulsion) sat down in Vladimir.

From 1252 until his death in 1263, Alexander Yaroslavich was the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Having settled here, he took steps to secure his rights to Novgorod. Previously, the Novgorod boyars could invite princes from different Russian lands - Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Chernigov. Since the time of Alexander, a new order was established: Novgorod recognized as its prince the one who occupied the grand-ducal table in Vladimir. Thus, having become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Alexander retained the Novgorod reign. There he left his eldest son Vasily, but not as an independent prince, but as his governor.

The Novgorod boyars did not immediately accept the new order. In 1255, supporters of an independent Novgorod reign expelled Vasily Alexandrovich from the city and invited Alexander’s younger brother Yaroslav (in 1252, a former ally of Andrei, who fled to Pskov and reigned there until 1255). Alexander moved to Novgorod in war, but did not storm the city, but preferred the path of negotiations. At first, he demanded to hand over his opponents from among the Novgorod nobility (Yaroslav fled from the city when Alexander approached). The Novgorodians agreed to recognize Alexander as their prince, but on the condition that they forgive the leaders of the rebellion. Finally, the prince softened his demands, limiting them to the removal of the objectionable mayor; this was done, Alexander entered the city, and peace was restored.

The next year, 1256, the Swedes tried to build a city on the eastern, Russian bank of the river. Narova. Alexander was then in Vladimir, and the Novgorodians sent to him for help. Having heard about the gathering of Russian troops, the Swedes abandoned their idea and sailed “overseas”. The prince, having arrived in Novgorod, set off on a campaign, and at first did not tell the Novgorodians who went with him what his goal was. It turned out that he planned to strike at southeastern Finland, captured by the Swedes in 1250. The campaign turned out to be generally successful: the strongholds of the Swedes in the land of the Finnish tribe Em were destroyed. But it was not possible to eliminate Swedish power over this part of Finland for a long time - after the departure of Russian troops, the Swedish administration restored its rule.

In 1257, the Mongol Empire carried out a population census in North-Eastern Rus' to streamline the taxation system. Alexander Yaroslavich, who then made a trip to the Horde, was forced to agree to conduct a census, maintaining his line of peaceful relations with the Tatars and recognition of the supreme suzerainty of the ruler of the Golden Horde and the great Mongol Khan. From the Suzdal land, the Tatar "numerals" went to Novgorod. The prince accompanied them with a military detachment. In the city, upon news of the Tatar demands for payment of tribute, a rebellion began, supported by Vasily Alexandrovich, who was still governor there. The Novgorodians did not give “tithes and tamgas” to the Tatar ambassadors, limiting themselves to gifts to the “Caesar” (Great Khan). Alexander and his detachment dealt with the rebels: he expelled Vasily from Pskov (where he fled when his father approached) and sent him to the Suzdal land, and to those who incited him to disobey, “cut his own nose, and took out the eyes of others.” In 1259, the Novgorodians, fearing a Tatar invasion, nevertheless agreed to the Horde census. But when the Tatar ambassadors, accompanied by Alexander, began to collect tribute, a rebellion broke out in Novgorod again. After a long confrontation, the Novgorodians finally conceded. Following the Tatars, Alexander also left the city, leaving his second son Dmitry as governor.

In 1262, an uprising broke out in several cities of North-Eastern Rus' - Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, as a result of which the tribute collectors sent by the Great Khan were killed or expelled. There was no punitive campaign from the Golden Horde: its khan Berke at that time sought independence from the Great Khan’s throne, and the expulsion of the Great Khan’s officials from Rus' corresponded to his interests. But in the same year, Berke started a war against the Mongol ruler of Iran, Hulagu, and began to demand that Russian troops be sent to his aid. Alexander went to the Horde to “pray people from their troubles.” Before leaving, he organized a large campaign against the Livonian Order.

After the Battle of the Ice in 1242, the crusaders did not disturb the Russian lands for 11 years. But in 1253 they violated the peace treaty and approached Pskov, but were repulsed by the Pskovians and the Novgorodians who came to the rescue. In subsequent years, the knights tried to increase the pressure on Lithuania, but failed: in 1260, near Lake Durbe, the army of the emerging Lithuanian state, led by its ruler Mindaugas, inflicted a crushing defeat on the combined forces of the Teutonic and Livonian orders (150 knights alone died). The defeat of the crusaders caused a series of uprisings of the Baltic peoples they conquered. Under these conditions, Alexander entered into an alliance with Mindaugas, and the two winners of the Order began to prepare a joint attack on Livonia from two sides: Russian troops were to move to Yuryev (formerly an ancient Russian city established by Yaroslav the Wise in the land of the Estonians; captured by the crusaders in 1234 and called Dorpat; now Tartu), and the Lithuanian ones - to Wenden (now Cesis).

In the fall of 1262, Russian troops set out on a campaign. They were commanded by Alexander Yaroslavich's son Dmitry and brother Yaroslav (who had by that time reconciled with Alexander and reigned in Tver). Along with the Russian forces went the army of the Lithuanian prince Tovtivil, who was reigning in Polotsk at that time. Yuryev was taken by storm. But the coordinated campaign did not work out: the Lithuanian troops set out earlier and had already moved away from Vendel when the Russians approached Yuryev. Having learned about this after the capture of the city, the Russian troops returned to their land. However, the campaign once again demonstrated the strength of the Order’s two opponents - Northern Rus' and Lithuania.

Alexander arrived in the Horde for almost a year. His mission, apparently, was a success: there is no information about the participation of Russian troops in the wars of the Golden Horde against Hulagu. On the way back to Rus' in the fall of 1263, the 42-year-old Grand Duke fell ill and died on November 14, 1263 in Gorodets on the Volga, having taken monastic vows before his death. On November 23, Alexander’s body was buried in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Vladimir. In his funeral speech, Metropolitan of All Rus' Kirill said: “My children, understand that the sun of the land of Suzdal has already set!”

In the literature one can find the assumption that Alexander, like his father, was poisoned by the Tatars. In the sources, however, this version of his death is not found. In principle, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a long stay in unusual climatic conditions could affect the health of a person who was already middle-aged by the standards of that time. In addition, Alexander, apparently, was not distinguished by iron health: under 1251, the chronicle mentions a serious illness that almost brought him to the grave at the age of thirty.

After Alexander's death, his younger brother Yaroslav became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Alexander's sons received: Dmitry - Pereyaslavl, Andrey - Gorodets. The younger, Daniel (born in 1261) after some time became the first Moscow prince and from him went the dynasty of Moscow great princes and kings.

If the official (secular and ecclesiastical) assessment of the personality of Alexander Nevsky has always been panegyric, then in historical science his activity has been interpreted ambiguously. And this ambiguity naturally follows from the visible contradiction in the image of Alexander. Indeed: on the one hand, he is undoubtedly an outstanding commander who won all the battles in which he participated, combining determination with prudence, a man of great personal courage; on the other hand, this is a prince forced to recognize the supreme power of a foreign ruler, who did not try to organize resistance to undoubtedly the most dangerous enemy of Rus' of that era - the Mongols, and, moreover, helped them establish a system of exploitation of Russian lands.

One of the extreme points of view on Alexander’s activities, formulated in the 20s of the last century by the Russian emigrant historian G.V. Vernadsky, and recently mainly repeated by L.N. Gumilyov, comes down to the fact that the prince made a fateful choice between orientation to the East and orientation to the West. By entering into an alliance with the Horde, he prevented the absorption of Northern Rus' by Catholic Europe and, thereby, saved Russian Orthodoxy - the basis of its identity. According to another point of view, defended by the English historian J. Fennell and supported by the domestic researcher I.N. Danilevsky, it was Alexander’s “collaborationism” towards the Mongols, his betrayal of the brothers Andrei and Yaroslav in 1252 that became the reason for the establishment of the yoke of the Golden Horde in Rus'.

So, did Alexander really make a historical choice, and can one and the same person be both a hero and a collaborator-traitor?

Taking into account the mentality of the era and the peculiarities of Alexander’s personal biography, both of these points of view look far-fetched. The suzerainty of the Horde immediately acquired a certain semblance of legitimacy in the worldview of the Russian people; its ruler was called in Rus' by a higher title than any of the Russian princes - the title “tsar”. The dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde in its main features (including the collection of tribute) began to take shape back in the 40s of the 13th century. (at a time when Alexander reigned in Novgorod and did not directly influence Russian-Tatar relations); in the 50s there was only a streamlining of the system of economic exploitation. After the death of his father in 1246, when Alexander became the strongest prince in Northern Rus', he really faced a choice: maintain peaceful relations with the Horde, recognizing the supreme suzerainty of the khans over Russia (already recognized by this time by all significant princes of both Northern and Southern Rus') and resist the Order, or begin resistance to the Tatars, concluding an alliance with the Order and the religious head of Catholic Europe standing behind it - the Pope (the prospect of a war on two fronts to the prince, who spent most of his life in Novgorod, near the Horde border, should have seemed unacceptable, and quite fair). Alexander hesitated before returning from a trip to Karakorum and firmly chose the first option only in 1250. What was the reason for the prince’s decision?

Of course, one should take into account the general wary attitude towards Catholicism and the personal experience of Alexander, who in 1241-1242, at the age of twenty, had to repel the attack on the Novgorod land of German crusaders supported by Rome. But these factors were also in effect in 1248, however, then the prince’s response to the pope’s message was different. Consequently, something that emerged later tilted the scales against the pope’s proposal. It can be assumed that four factors had an impact:

1) During his two-year trip across the steppes (1247-1249), Alexander was able, on the one hand, to become convinced of the military power of the Mongol Empire, and on the other, to understand that the Mongol-Tatars did not claim to directly seize Russian lands, being content with recognition vassalage and tribute, and are also distinguished by religious tolerance and do not intend to encroach on the Orthodox faith. This should have favorably distinguished them in the eyes of the prince from the crusaders, whose actions were characterized by the direct seizure of territory and the forced conversion of the population to Catholicism.

2) After Alexander returned to Rus' at the end of 1249, information should have reached him that the rapprochement with Rome of the strongest prince of Southern Rus', Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, turned out to be useless for the cause of defense against the Tatars: the anti-Tatar crusade promised by the pope did not take place.

3) In 1249, the de facto ruler of Sweden, Earl Birger, began the final conquest of the land of Emi (Central Finland), and this was done with the blessing of the papal legate. Since ancient times, the land had been part of the sphere of influence of Novgorod, and Alexander had reason to regard what happened as an unfriendly act towards him on the part of the curia.

4) The mention in the bull of September 15, 1248 of the possibility of establishing a Catholic episcopal see in Pskov inevitably should have caused negative emotions in Alexander, because Previously, the bishopric had been established in Yuryev, captured by the Germans, and therefore the proposal to establish one in Pskov was associated with the annexationist aspirations of the Order, recalling the more than one-year stay of Pskov in 1240-1242. in the hands of the crusaders. Thus, the prince’s decision to stop contacts with Innocent IV was associated with the realization of the futility of rapprochement with Rome to confront the Horde and with obvious manifestations of selfish motives in the pope’s policies.

But what happened in 1252? According to information from early chronicles and the life of Alexander, this year the Novgorod prince went to the Horde. After this, Batu sent an army under the command of Nevryuy against Andrei Yaroslavich; Andrei fled from Vladimir first to Pereyaslavl, where his ally, the younger brother of Alexander and Andrei Yaroslav Yaroslavich, reigned. The Tatars, who approached Pereyaslavl, killed Yaroslav’s wife, captured his children “and the people were merciless”; Andrey and Yaroslav managed to escape. After Nevryuy left, Alexander arrived from the Horde and settled in Vladimir.

The following interpretation of these events has become widespread in historiography: Alexander went to the Horde on his own initiative with a complaint against his brother, and Nevruy’s campaign was a consequence of this complaint. At the same time, authors who have a positive attitude towards Alexander always tried to speak about what happened with restraint, not to focus attention on these facts, while J. Fennell interpreted the events of 1252 without any constraint: “Alexander betrayed his brothers.” Indeed, since Nevruy’s campaign was caused by Alexander’s complaint, then there is no escape (if, of course, we strive for objectivity) from the recognition that it was Alexander who was to blame for the devastation of the land and the death of people, incl. his daughter-in-law; Moreover, no reference to higher political considerations can serve as a serious justification. If the above interpretation of the events of 1252 is correct, Alexander Yaroslavich appears as an unprincipled person, ready to do anything to increase his power. But is it true?

Alexander's complaint against his brother is not mentioned in any medieval source. There is a message about it only in V.N. Tatishchev’s “Russian History”; it was from there that it passed into the works of later researchers. According to Tatishchev, “Alexander complained about his brother Grand Duke Andrei, as if he had seduced the khan, taking a great reign under him, as if he were the eldest, and gave him his father’s cities, and did not pay the khan in full for his exits and tamgas.” In this case, the uncritical judgment that Tatishchev quotes “apparently an early source that was not included in the chronicles” is unjustified. The use in “Russian History” of sources that have not reached us is likely, but relates to other periods (primarily the 12th century). At the same time, Tatishchev’s work contains many additions that are research reconstructions, attempts to restore what the source “did not say”: unlike later historiography, where the text of the source is separated from the researcher’s judgments, in “Russian History” they are not differentiated , which often gives rise to the illusion of mentioning unknown facts where there is a guess (often plausible) by a scientist. This is the case under consideration. Article 1252 by Tatishchev generally repeats verbatim one of the sources he had - the Nikon Chronicle. The exception is the passage above. It represents a completely logical reconstruction: since Nevruy’s campaign took place after Alexander’s arrival in the Horde, and after the campaign he occupied the table that belonged to Andrei, it means that the campaign was caused by Alexander’s complaint against his brother; analogies of such developments are found in the activities of the princes of North-Eastern Rus' of a later time. Thus, we are not talking about the source’s message, but about the researcher’s guess, uncritically accepted by subsequent historiography, and the question is whether the sources provide a basis for such an interpretation of events.

Andrei Yaroslavich, apparently, really pursued a policy independent of Batu, but in his actions he relied on such weighty support as the label for the reign of Vladimir, received in 1249 in Karakorum from the khansha Ogul-Gamish, hostile to Batu. But in 1251, Batu managed to place his protege Munke on the Karakorum throne, and the next year he organized two campaigns simultaneously - Nevryuy against Andrei Yaroslavich and Kuremsy against Daniil Romanovich. Thus, Nevruy’s campaign was clearly a planned action as part of actions against the princes who did not obey Batu, and not a reaction to Alexander’s complaint. But, if we consider the latter a myth, then for what purpose did Alexander go to the Horde?

In the Laurentian Chronicle (the oldest of those containing a story about the events of 1252), the facts are presented in the following sequence: first it is said that “Prince Oleksandr of Novgorod and Yaroslavich released him as a Tatar and released him with great honor, giving him seniority among all his brothers,” then the Tatar campaign against Andrei is told, after which the arrival of Alexander from the Horde to Vladimir is narrated. Since he returned to Rus' undoubtedly after the “Nevryuev’s army”, the words “let go and with honor”, ​​etc. should be attributed to the same time. Before telling about the Tatar campaign, the chronicler says: “Andrya’s prince Yaroslavich decided to run away with his boyars rather than serve as the Tsar.” We are clearly talking about a decision made not at the time of Nevryu’s attack (then the question was not “serve or flee,” but “fight or flee”), but earlier. Most likely, Andrei’s “duma” with the boyars took place after the Vladimir prince received a demand to come to the Horde. Batu, having finished with internal Mongolian affairs, decided to reconsider the decision on the distribution of the main tables in Rus', adopted in 1249 by the former Karakorum court, hostile to him, and summoned both Alexander and Andrei. The first obeyed the khan's demand. Andrei, after consulting with his boyars, decided not to go (perhaps he did not count on a successful outcome of the trip because of the favor shown to him in 1249 by the government of the now deposed and murdered Great Khansha). After this, Batu decided to send a military expedition against Andrei, as well as against another prince who did not obey him - Daniil of Galitsky, and to issue Alexander a label for the great reign of Vladimir. It should be noted that Nevruy’s campaign was a much more “local” enterprise than the campaigns against the princes who disobeyed Sarai in the early 80s. XIII century and in 1293 (“Dudenev’s Army”): only the outskirts of Pereyaslavl and, possibly, Vladimir were devastated. It is possible that such “limitation” was a consequence of Alexander’s diplomatic efforts.

In general, it can be stated that in the actions of Alexander Yaroslavich there is no reason to look for some kind of conscious fateful choice. He was a man of his era, acting in accordance with the worldview of the time and personal experience. Alexander was, in modern terms, a “pragmatist”: he chose the path that seemed most beneficial to him for strengthening his land and for him personally. When it was a decisive battle, he fought; when an agreement with one of Rus'’s enemies seemed most useful, he agreed to an agreement. As a result, during the period of the great reign of Alexander (1252-1263) there were no Tatar raids on the Suzdal land and only two attempts to attack Rus' from the West (Germans in 1253 and Swedes in 1256), which were quickly stopped. Alexander achieved recognition by Novgorod of the suzerainty of the Grand Duke of Vladimir (which became one of the factors due to which North-Eastern Rus' later turned into the core of the new Russian state). His preference for the Vladimir table over the Kyiv table was a decisive event in the process of moving the nominal capital of Rus' from Kiev to Vladimir (since it turned out that it was Vladimir who was chosen as the capital by the prince, recognized as the “oldest” in Rus'). But these long-term consequences of Alexander Nevsky’s policy were not a consequence of his changing the objective course of events. On the contrary, Alexander acted in accordance with the objective circumstances of his era, acted prudently and energetically.

Notes

Kuchkin V.A. About the date of birth of Alexander Nevsky // Questions of history. 1986. No. 2. The date indicated is usually incorrect.

Novgorod first chronicle of the older and younger editions. M. - L. 1950 (hereinafter - NPL). pp. 54-57.

See: Kuchkmn V.A. About the date of birth of Alexander Nevsky; aka. To the biography of Alexander Nevsky // The most ancient states on the territory of the USSR. 1985. M., 1986.

NPL. pp. 69-72.

NPL. pp. 74-77; Complete collection of Russian chronicles (hereinafter referred to as PSRL). T. 1. Stb. 460-467.

PSRL. T. 1. Stb. 469; T. 2. Stb. 782-783; Gorsky A.A. Russian lands in the XIII-XIV centuries: ways of political development. M., 1996. P. 25.

NPL. P. 77.

See: Shaskolsky I.P. The struggle of Rus' against crusader aggression on the shores of the Baltic in the XII-XIII centuries. L., 1978. S. 171-178.

See: Kuchkin V.A. Alexander Nevsky - statesman and commander of medieval Rus' // Alexander Nevsky and the history of Russia. Novgorod, 1996. pp. 13-14; the same in: Domestic history. 1996. No. 5. P. 24. Authors seeking to present the Battle of the Neva as an insignificant clash (Fennell J. The Crisis of Medieval Rus'. 1200-1304. M., 1989. P. 142-144; Danilevsky I.N. Russian lands through the eyes of contemporaries and descendants (XII-XIV centuries). M., 2001. pp. 183-184) do not take into account this goal of the Swedes; Meanwhile, the Swedes had not previously attempted fortress construction on the Neva, and the next one would be made only sixty years later, in 1300.

NPL. pp. 72-73.

Begunov Yu.K. Monument of Russian literature of the 13th century. "The Word about the destruction of the Russian land." M. – L., 1965. P. 188.

V. A. Kuchky

A huge thickness of years separates us from the era of Alexander Nevsky. To people of the 20th century, the famous prince is better known from historical novels, fictionalized biographies, paintings by Henryk Semiradsky, Nicholas Roerich, Pavel Korin, and the film by Sergei Eisenstein. However, a complete scientific biography of Alexander Nevsky has not yet been written. And it is difficult to write.1 The fact is that very little evidence of Alexander’s activity during his lifetime has been preserved, and his posthumous characteristics suffer from annoying laconicism, incompleteness, and even just various kinds of inaccuracies and errors. It would seem a simple question - who was the mother of Alexander Nevsky. In the Life of the Prince, compiled by his contemporary, a monk of the Vladimir Nativity Monastery around 1264, but not in 1282-83, as stated in most modern publications and studies,2 it seems clear about the birth of Alexander: “and Prince Alexander was born from the father of the merciful and man-loving, and even more so meek, Prince the Great Yaroslav and from his mother Theodosius.”3 Nevsky’s mother is even named by name - a rare case in reports of the births of ancient Russian princes. However, nothing is reported about the origin of Theodosia. In Russian historical science, it was recognized for a long time that Theodosia was the daughter of the Toropets prince Mstislav Mstislavich Udatny, i.e. Lucky, who later was the Novgorod prince for a long time, then reigned in Galich and became famous as a brave and talented commander However, in 1908, a major specialist in the field of princely genealogy N.A. Baumgarten wrote an article where he argued that Theodosia was the daughter of the Ryazan prince Igor Glebovich, who died back in 1195. According to N.A. Baumgarten, Theodosia became the third wife the father of Alexander Nevsky of Pereyaslavl (Pereyaslavl Zalessky) Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and the mother of all his children / This point of view was shared by historians for several decades, who trusted the authority of the author more than the system of his evidence.6 And the system turned out to be flawed - In fact, none sources do not indicate the birth of daughters in the family of Igor Glebovich of Ryazan. There were five sons, but no daughters. According to N.A. Baumgarten, Theodosia married Yaroslav in 1218, that is, when she was at least 23 years old. For the Middle Ages, this is the age of an overripe girl, since girls were usually married off when they were 12-17 years old. It is also known that the wife of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the mother of his sons, willingly stayed with her husband in Novgorod and lived for a long time! there alone, she took monastic vows at the Yuriev Monastery, died there and was buried there. She showed no interest in Ryazan. At the same time, her daughter-in-law (yatrova), the wife of Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, a princess from Murom by birth, having decided to become a nun, went to a monastery in her homeland in Murom “to join her brothers.”7 The complete indifference of Alexander Nevsky’s mother to Ryazan, together with other testimony from sources, speaks of that she "was not a Ryazan princess, but was the daughter of Prince Mstislav Mstislavich. Her baptismal name was Theodosia, but in everyday life she was called by the pagan name Rostislav. It was Rostislav-Feodosia who became the mother of all the sons of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich).8

The Pereyaslavl prince had nine of them. The chronicles preserved news of the births of only the first and last sons of Prince Yaroslav. When the other seven were born is unknown. The ninth son of Yaroslav, Vasily, was born in 1241.9 And the news of the birth of the first-born in the family of Yaroslav and Rostislava concludes in the Laurentian Chronicle in the article of 6727: “The same summer, a son was born to Yaroslav and his name was called Theodore.”10 6727 year of the chronicle, calculated from t n. creation of the world, which, according to the Bible, occurred 5508 years before the birth of Christ, March." The chronicle article marked this year describes the events that happened in March - December 1219 and January - February 1220. His name is little Fedor Yaroslavich could have received either in honor of Fyodor Stratelates, or in honor of Fyodor Tiron. The memory of the ethics of the two most revered Fyodorov in Rus' was celebrated on February 8 (Fedor Stratelates) and February 17 (Fedor Tiron), in other words, Fyodor Yaroslaich should have been born in February. This is consistent with the place where his birth was recorded in article 6727 of the Laurentian Chronicle. It is the last one there and should1 describe the events of January-February 1220. Thus, we can firmly say that the elder brother of Alexander Nevsky was born in February 1220. And although in In 1995, the public of our country celebrated the 775th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Nevsky, he could not have been born in 1220. When was Alexander born?

The oldest surviving paintings of the sons of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich indicate Alexander either in the first place as the eldest son, or in the second. It all depends on the nature of the paintings themselves. If they record all the sons born to Yaroslav, then they indicate Alexander in second place.12 In first place, naturally, Fedor. If the paintings speak of the sons of Yaroslav who survived the conquest of Russian lands by Batu, then! they place Alexander in first place,13 which is also true: Feodor died before the Mongol invasion. Based on the testimony of the oldest lists of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich’s sons, it should be admitted that Alexander was his second son. Since Yaroslav's eldest son Fyodor, as an independently acting person, is mentioned for the first time in the chronicle together with Alexander, one can think that there was not a big age difference between the brothers, for example, 3-4 years. Alexander was born, most likely, the next summer after Fedor.

The surviving seals of Alexander Nevsky on the front side have an image of an equestrian or foot warrior, accompanied by the inscription “Alexander”, and on the reverse side there is also a warrior and the inscription “Fedor”. On the front side of the seals was depicted the heavenly patron of Prince Alexander, on the back - his father, who was baptized Fedor in honor of Feodor Stratelates.14 In honor of which Alexander the warrior did the parents of the future winner of the Battle of the Neva name? At one time, N.P. Likhachev expressed the idea that in honor of Alexander of Egypt. V.L. Yanin will not support this guess, leaving the question open. Indeed, the solution to the issue proposed by N.P. Likhachev raises objections. In the ancient (before the 13th century) Byzantine and Slavic minologies, 21 Saint Alexanders are mentioned, but only four of them were warriors. Alexander of Egypt was commemorated on July 9 along with two other saints: Patermuphius and Coprius, whose memory was celebrated on this day first; on September 28, the memory of another warrior Alexander was celebrated, but together with 30 other saints. Nevsky’s parents could hardly have named their son Alexander after the saint, who was celebrated together with other saints and was not even the main one among them. Moreover, in the princely name book of pre-Mongol Rus', the name Alexander was very! rare, his stretchers are only three Rurikovich. Obviously, Alexander Yaroslavich got his name from that Alexander warrior, whose memory was especially celebrated. Two more saints may be named here. On June 10, the memory of the warrior was celebrated! Alexander and the Virgin Antonina, and May 13 is the memory of the warrior Alexander of Rome. Celebration of the latter was much more widespread. A contemporary of Nevsky noted that in 1243 there was a sign that occurred in May “in memory of the holy martyr Alexander”

This meant Alexander Rimsky. Obviously, of the two possible heavenly patrons of Alexander Nevsky, Alexander of Rome should be preferred. And in this case, the time of birth of Alexander Nevsky should be May 13, 1221,16 and the anniversary date of his appearance on. the light of an outstanding figure of the 13th century should be celebrated in 1996.

The first indirect chronicle news about Alexander dates back to 1223. Under this year, the Novgorod chronicle reports: “Prince Yaroslav went with the princess and the children to Pereyasla.”17 Among these children of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, most likely, was Alexander.

The first direct mention of Alexander dates back to 1228. Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who continued to rule in Novgorod, at the end of the summer of 1228, left the city for his Pereyaslavl, leaving in Novgorod “his two sons, Theodore and Alksandr, with Fedor Danilovitsem, with tiunom Yakimom "-18 8-year-old Fyodor and 7-year-old Alexander were left as their father's governors, but in fact they had to act on the prompts of the Yaroslav boyars - Fyodor Danilovich and tiun Yakim. The reign of the little prince Alexander and his brother did not last long. Already on February 20, 1229, the Yaroslavichs fled from Novgorod, fearing the unrest that had begun in the city.19

However, in January 1231, Yaroslav again left his two eldest sons in Novgorod as governors. They replaced their father during his absences from Novgorod in 11 Koreaslavl.20

In the summer of 1233, during preparations for the wedding, 13-year-old Fyodor Yaroslavich unexpectedly died.21 Now Alexander has become! eldest among his brothers -

In 1236, Alexander's father! Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, taking advantage of the fact that a fierce struggle broke out for Kyiv between the southern Russian princes, in which the Kievans themselves suffered most of all, left Novgorod and, with the help of the Novgorodians, became a prince in Kiev.22 But Yaroslav did not want to lose control over Novgorod. Instead of himself, he left his eldest son Alexander on the Novgorod table. Tom was already 15 years old, according to the ideas of those times, he was already an adult, he had experience of ruling in Novgorod, but now he could reign completely independently, not always listening to the advice of his father’s boyars. In the very first years of his rule in Novgorod, Alexander had to face a number of serious problems.

These problems concerned the relationship between Novgorod and its western neighbors. On the northwestern borders, Novgorod and the prince who ruled there had to deal with the Kingdom of Sweden, in the west - with the German Order of the Sword and various German bishoprics in the Baltic states, which had significant military power. The southwestern borders of Novgorod were constantly violated by the forces of the strengthening Lithuanian state.

Conflicts between Novgorod and Sweden began in the middle of the 12th century, when the Swedish kings began an attack on the tribes inhabiting Finland. In those days, this country! Not all of it was populated - Its southwestern part was inhabited by the Suomi tribe, which the ancient Russian people called Sumy, and the Swedes and other Western European peoples called Finns. The interior regions of southern Finland, the region of neutral Finnish lakes, were inhabited by another large Finnish tribe - the Heme, or Em in Old Russian, the Tavasts in Swedish. The Novgorodians had long-standing contacts with the Em tribe. Gradually extending its power to the Baltic tribes of the Od, Chud-Ests, Ves (Vepsians), Izhora, Livs, Korelas, the Novgorod Republic came into contact with it. By attracting the nascent local nobility to their side, the Novgorod boyars began to subjugate the Yem, forcing this tribe to pay tribute. True, Novgorod's rule was limited to this. Novgorod had no fortified strongholds or religious centers from which to spread Christianity among the pagans in the land of this tribe. This circumstance was used by the Swedish feudal lords when, having established their dominance over the Sumy tribe, they in the 40s of the 12th century. moved their activities to the interior regions of southern Finland, inhabited by Eju. Unlike the Novgorod one, the Swedish expansion into the Finnish lands had a slightly different character. The Swedish feudal lords did not limit themselves to receiving tribute, they sought to gain a foothold in new lands, erecting fortresses there, subordinating the local population to the incoming administration, introducing Swedish legislation, ideologically preparing and consolidating all this by forcibly converting the Tavasts to Catholicism. Initially, Em very favorably perceived the propaganda of Swedish missionaries, hoping with Swedish help to get rid of paying tribute to Novgorod, which, in turn, caused the campaigns of Alexander Nevsky’s father, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, against Em in 1226-1228, but when the Swedes began to introduce their own order and destroy local pagan temples, this Finnish tribe responded with an uprising."

The scale, nature and partly the time of this uprising can be judged by the bull of the famous Pope Gregory IX dated December 9, 1237, addressed to the head of the Swedish Catholic Church, Archbishop Jarler of Uppsala: “As your letters that have reached us report, the people called Tavasts, who was once converted to the Catholic faith by the labor and care of you and your predecessors, now through the efforts of the enemies of the cross, his close neighbors, is again converted to the error of the former faith and, together with some barbarians and with the help of the devil, is destroying by the roots the young planting of the Church of God in Ta -vastia. Minors, for whom the light of Christ shone at baptism, they forcibly deprive of this light and kill them; some adults, after having their entrails removed, are sacrificed to demons, while others are forced to spin around trees until they lose consciousness; some priests are blinded, and others of their number have their hands and other members broken in the most cruel way, the rest, wrapped in straw, are burned; Thus, by the rage of these pagans, the Swedish rule is overthrown, which is why the complete fall of Christianity can easily occur if the help of God and his apostolic throne is not resorted to.

But, so that God-fearing men would be all the more willing to rise up against the advancing apostates and barbarians, who want to bring the Church of God into decline with such great losses, who are destroying the Catholic faith with such disgusting cruelty, we entrust your brotherhood with an apostolic letter: wherever in the said state or There were no Catholic men in the neighboring islands so that they would raise the banner of the cross against these apostates and barbarians and expel them with strength and courage, prompted by beneficent teaching.”24

Of course, in the papal message, designed to be read in churches with numerous believers, the colors were condensed, but from the pope’s address it indisputably follows that a major uprising against Swedish rule took place in the land, and that in order to suppress it, the Roman Church is organizing a crusade of “God-fearing men” , that the Tavasts opposed the Swedes not alone, but “through the efforts of their close neighbors, ... together with some barbarians.” The Emi's immediate neighbors were the Sumi and Korel tribes. If the Sumi lands had been under the rule of the Swedish crown and the influence of the Catholic Church for a long time, this tribe could not help the Emi-Tavasts, then the Korela remains. But Korela was part of the Novgorod state, and Korela’s intervention meant the intervention of Novgorod, which sought to regain its position in the Emi lands. When did such intervention take place?

The bull of Gregory IX was drawn up on the basis of letters from the Archbishop of Visalia, in turn based on reports from the latter's subordinate Bishop Thomas of Finland. The pope received messages from the head of the Swedish church, most likely from his legate William of Modena, who arrived in the Baltic states in the summer of 1237.25 Consequently, the uprising in Tavastia occurred before the summer of 1237, but not long before that, since otherwise the appeal to dad lost its meaning. And the “efforts of the enemies of the cross, close neighbors” of the Emi, directed against the penetration of the Swedes into the Emi lands, took place somewhat earlier than the uprising, i.e., approximately in 1236-1237. In other words, opposition from Novgorod to Swedish expansion to the east occurred at the beginning of the reign of Alexander Yaroslavich in Novgorod. No matter how one evaluates the efforts of the Novgorod Republic aimed at preserving its influence in the Emi lands, it is clear that it was impossible to do without the support and approval of these efforts from the princely authorities. The young prince made decisions, and responsible decisions.

Relations with the Baltic Germans were different at that time. The Germans appeared in the lands of the Eastern Baltic in the 80s. XII century, at first simply preaching Christianity, and then, making sure that the local population was difficult to Christianize, they began to back up their preaching with armed force. At the beginning of the 13th century. an associate of the Riga bishop Albert Theoderich founded the Order of the Sword Bearers in the Baltic States, recognized by Pope Innocent III by a bull of October 20, 1210.26 After this, through the efforts of the Sword Bearers - “monks in spirit, fighters in arms” - German possessions in the Baltic States began to rapidly expand. The Order and the Bishop of Riga managed to seize lands along the lower and middle reaches of the river. Dvina, which belonged to or was controlled by the Russian Principality of Polotsk.27 In 1210, the knights transferred hostilities to the lands of the Estonians, where Novgorod the Great also had possessions. In 1224, the Swordsmen, together with the troops of the Bishop of Riga, captured the main stronghold of Novgorod in the Chud (Estonian) land - Yuryev (modern Tartu).28 The subsequent fierce struggle led in 1234 to a peace agreement between the Germans and Novgorod, beneficial for the Russian side.29 The treaty of 1234 crowned the efforts of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, then reigning in Novgorod, to prevent a German attack on the Novgorod and Pskov lands -

When Alexander came to the Novgorod table, the treaty of 1234 continued to be in effect. Neither the crusaders nor the Novgorodians took any hostile actions against each other. Written in Vladimir on the Klyazma immediately after the death of Alexander Nevsky, his Life reports Alexander's earliest contact with the Order of the Swordsmen. A contemporary of the prince reported that once upon a time, “someone strong from the Western country, who is called the servant of God, came to Alexander, and saw his wondrous beauty... named Andreyash.”30 Since the arrival of Andreyash was explained in the Life solely by the desire of the knight look at the Russian prince, many scientists believed that the whole episode was a simple conjecture of the author of the Life, who sought to glorify Nevsky in various ways. However, a contemporary of Alexander Yaroslavich, knight Andreyash, existed in reality. We are talking about Andreas von Velven, who in 1241 held the high post of Livonian vice-master. According to the German researcher F. Be-ninghoven, Andreas von Velven was a knight of the Order of the Sword.31 In the Life, the arrival of a knight “from the Western country” is spoken of before the story of the Battle of the Neva. Consequently, Andreas' meeting with Alexander took place between 1236, when Alexander became the prince of Novgorod, and 1240, when the Battle of the Neva took place. During the period 1236-1240. the only time when the Order of the Swordsmen had to conduct important negotiations with the Novgorod prince was 1236. The Order was preparing a large campaign against the Lithuanians and was looking for allies. Judging by the Life of Alexander Nevsky, Andreas’s visit did not produce any results. According to the author of the Life, the sword-bearer only marveled at the age of the prince, which is very significant, since in 1236 Alexander was very young, “and went home. German sources confirm that the Novgorodians did not take part in the German campaign against the Lithuanian lands, but they did take part Pskovites. The Novgorod Chronicle also testifies to the latter.32 Obviously, Alexander did not support the Order with the forces of Novgorod and ciiЈfcfi squads for the reason that at that time there was already a struggle for the subjugation of the Emi-Tavasts. On the other hand, he did not prevent the Order from being helped Pskovites. Thus, normal relations with the Order, stipulated by the treaty of 1234, were preserved, and therefore the participation of the Order’s “God-fearing men” in that crusade against the Tavasts, which, at the request of the Swedish bishops, was called for by the Pope, was difficult. Prince Alexander turned out to be quite realistic and far-sighted.

The campaign against Lithuania, organized by the Order of the Swordsmen in 1236, ended in the severe defeat of the German crusaders and their allies from the Lithuanian prince Vykinta. In the Battle of Soule, the Master of the Order and 48 knights, not counting the infantry, fell. The Order of the Swordsmen virtually ceased to exist. Its remains in 1237 were urgently united with the Teutonic Order and subordinated to it. Teutonic Order, founded by German crusaders in Jerusalem in 1191, in the late 20s. XIII century At the request of the Polish prince Konrad of Mazowiecki, he moved to the Chelmin land and began to conquer the lands of the Lithuanian Prussian tribe. After merging with it the Order of the Sword, the Teutonic Order became the most powerful force of German crusaders in the Baltic states. It was this order that Alexander Nevsky subsequently had to deal with.

Prince Alexander had to endure serious upheavals at the beginning of 1238. A few months earlier, Mongol hordes fell on the eastern Russian lands. Having taken the Ryazan and Pron principalities, they transferred hostilities to the possessions of the princes - the descendants of Vsevolod the Big Nest. In January-February 1238, they subjugated the Grand Principality of Vladimir, the Pereyaslav Principality of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the principalities of Yuryev, Rostov, Yaroslavl and Uglitsky.34 Alexander’s uncle, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich, together with his brother Svyatoslav and three nephews, concentrated forces in a camp on the shore the small river City, a tributary of the river. Mologi. He waited for the arrival of his brother Yaroslav's regiments, but they did not appear. But the Mongols unexpectedly arrived. In a fierce battle they gained the upper hand. Grand Duke Yuri was killed, the Rostov prince Vasilko was captured, and the rest of the Russian princes fled.35 Batu transferred hostilities to the territory of the Novgorod Republic. After a long siege, he took Torzhok in early March 1238 and went to Novgorod along the Seliger route. But at Ignach Krest the Mongols stopped and turned back.36 Alexander did not help either Grand Duke Yuri when he was in the City, or the inhabitants of Torzhok. Whether this was an independent decision of the young prince, whether this was the position of the Novgorodians, who did not want to weaken their forces in the fight against a formidable enemy on foreign territory, or whether such were the intentions of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who continued to rule in Kyiv, it is difficult to say. The latter seems more likely, since Yuri was waiting at the river. Siti “his brother Yaroslav from the shelf,”37 i.e. he had an agreement with Yaroslav, which he did not fulfill.

In the summer of 1239, Batu took the southern Pereyaslavl principality, and then one of the largest ancient Russian principalities - Chernigov.38 His troops did not leave Rus', paralyzing the actions of the Russian princes who had not yet been defeated. The Lithuanians took advantage of this. In 1239 they captured Smolensk. Realizing that hostilities could easily spread to the Novgorod lands, Alexander strengthened the Lithuanian border by setting up defensive towns along the river. She-loni.39 However, these fears were not justified. in autumn

1239 Alexander's father Yaroslav, who became after the 1st century on the river. City Yuri, the Grand Duke of Vladimir, drove the Lithuanians out of Smolensk40 and thereby prevented their possible attack on Novgorod.

Trouble came to the Novgorodians from the other side. In the summer of 1240, the fleet of the Swedish king Erik Lespe invaded the Novgorod borders. The timing for the invasion was chosen very well. Batu still did not leave the Russian borders; his search in the winter of 1239/1240 captured another Russian principality - Murom and again devastated the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.41 The Novgorodians and their prince Alexander had no one to expect serious military assistance from. In fact, if we analyze the composition of the princes who occupied the Novgorod table from 1136, when Novgorod achieved independence from the Kiev princes and became a republic, and until 1236, when Alexander occupied the Novgorod table, then this composition turns out to be essentially unchanged - Only princes from Chernigov, Suzdal, Kiev and Smolensk sat on the Novgorod table.42 Obviously, only these principalities could support Novgorod militarily, and only they were able to provide material assistance to the Novgorodians during crop failures and famines that often occurred in the Novgorod land at that time. But in 1240, the Chernigov principality lay in ruins, the Suzdal land and the Smolensk principality were greatly devastated, Kyiv remained untouched by Batu, but he was preparing for defense against an obvious Mongol siege. With its opponents, Novgorod was left alone against many.

News of the appearance at the mouth of the river. The Neva of the Swedish fleet was received in Novgorod in a timely manner. Having learned about this, in Novgorod they decided that the goal of the campaign of the Swedes and the Norwegians who sailed with them, Sumi and Emi, was Ladoga. This has already happened in Novgorod history. In 1164, 55 Swedish augers entered the Neva, ascended it to Lake Ladoga and reached Ladoga. True, the siege of the city for the arriving Swedish army ended in great failure. Novgorod chroniclers described this in detail.43 In 1240, the Novgorodians considered that the Swedes wanted to repeat, but without the old mistakes, the operation of 1164. Prince Alexander, hastily gathered his squad and part Novgorod army, immediately set out for Ladoga. The Russian regiments most likely were mounted and could reach Ladoga in about 3-4 days. However, the Swedes did not appear at Ladoga. The calculations of the Novgorodians and Prince Alexander turned out to be false, the enemy pursued completely different goals than in 1164. The Swedish ships stopped near the mouth of the Neva at the mouth of another river - Izhora, the left tributary of the Neva. The Swedes’ stay in this place, and the stay for many days, is not explained in any way in sources and in the works of subsequent historians. Only in the earliest fragment of the Life of Alexander Nevsky, preserved by the Laurentian Chronicle of the 14th century, is it reported that in his report to Alexander, who was moving against the Swedes, the elder of the Izhora land (the Izhora tribe inhabited the banks of the Neva in those days and was subordinate to Novgorod) Pelguy-Philip pointed to the Swedish “camps” and obrytya.”44 “Obyrytya” are battle ditches. Obviously, the Swedes’ plans included the construction in the Izhora land in a strategically important place of the same stronghold as they built in the lands of the Sumi and Emi-Tavasts. The mouth of the Neva was of strategic interest to the Swedes in later times. In 1300 they tried to build a fortress here at the confluence of the Neva River in the village of Okhtn. built it, calling it Landskrona, but this mighty Crown of the Earth, as the Russian chronicler accurately translated the Swedish name, was completely destroyed by Russian troops the next year.45 Let us return, however, to the events of 1240. Not finding the Swedes at Ladoga, Alexander moved west to the mouth of the Neva, strengthening his army with a detachment of Ladoga residents. Having received from Pelguy clarifying information about the location of the Swedish camp, having managed not to be detected, Alexander struck an unexpected blow at the camp. It was Sunday, July 15, relatively early - half past nine in the morning according to modern time, 4" when Russian regiments fell on the unsuspecting Swedes. Their sudden appearance caused panic among the Swedes. Some of them rushed to the ships stationed on the left bank of the Neva, others tried to cross to the left bank of the river. Izhora. The leader of the Swedish army tried to resist, forming those who remained in battle formations, but it was all in vain. Constantly attacking, the Russians forced them to flee. The Vladimir biographer of Alexander Nevsky preserved vivid stories about the participants in the battle and individual combat episodes. Suffering heavy losses, the Swedes nevertheless managed to get to their ships, load the bodies of the most noble warriors who had fallen onto them, and hastily sail to sea. The first major military clash of the young Novgorod prince ended in complete triumph. The Novgorod chronicler noted that on the Russian side, along with the people of Ladoga, “20 men... or me (less)” fell. Rus'. 1200-1304,” based on the number of those killed on the Russian side, wrote that the Battle of the Neva was an ordinary battle and Alexander’s victory in it was “small.”49 However, the chronicle speaks only of losses among noble and free men, and the figure it named is 20 the person turns out to be not so small. For example, during Batu’s capture of Torzhok in 1238, only 4 noble New Torzhites were killed.50 In 1262, during the assault on the German city of Yuryev, Russian regiments lost 2 noble warriors51, etc. Of course, the Battle of the Neva was inferior in scale to the battles of Borodino or Waterloo, but for the 13th century it was a major battle in which several thousand people took part.52 The victory on the Neva did not allow the Swedish feudal lords to gain a foothold on the banks of the Neva, close access to the sea to Novgorod and other Russian lands, isolate the lands of Izhora and Corel. However, very soon this military success was overshadowed by other events.

A month and a half after the Battle of the Neva, the combined forces of the Teutonic Order, the Danish king, the Dorpat (Yuriev) bishop and the Russian prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, who served the Germans, captured the Pskov border fortress of Izborsk with an unexpected blow. The Pskov army that came out to defend Izborsk was defeated, its governor Gavrila Gorislavich fell in battle. The crusaders besieged Pskov. Not receiving help from anywhere, the Pskovites were forced to capitulate on September 16, 1240. Two German Vogts were planted in Pskov. They were supported by an influential part of the Pskov population, led by the boyar Tverdila Ivankovich. But there were also many dissatisfied with the established German domination. Some of them fled to Novgorod with their families.

Strange events happened there. Alexander Nevsky left Novgorod, having quarreled with the Novgorodians.54 The causes of the conflict have not been revealed either by the chronicle or by historians. Meanwhile, they can be indicated. Having expelled the Swedes from the banks of the Neva, Prince Alexander nevertheless did not in any way prevent the capture of Pskov by German and Danish feudal lords. Naturally, this caused sharp discontent among some Novgorodians and especially the Pskovites who fled to Novgorod. However, after the Neva victory, Alexander was unable to resist the aggression of new enemies. The victory over the Swedes was achieved mainly by the forces of Prince Alexander himself. It is not for nothing that the Novgorod chronicler, writing about 20 Russian men who died in the battle, noted the death of only 4 Novgorodians. The compiler of the Life of Alexander, naming the six brave men of the Battle of the Neva, pointed to only two Novgorodians. The rest represented Alexander's squad, one of them was killed. It is quite obvious that the main burden of the Neva battle fell on the shoulders of the princely squad and it was she who suffered the greatest losses. And with a greatly weakened squad, not receiving help from other Russian principalities, the prince-defender of the Novgorod Republic was simply unable to fulfill his duties. Mutual accusations became so acute that Alexander was forced to leave Novgorod and go to his father in Peredelavl. The Germans immediately took advantage of this. In the winter of 1240/1241, they captured the Chud and Vodsk possessions of Novgorod, built a fortress in Koporye and, fighting the Novgorod territory itself, approached a distance of 30 versts from Novgorod itself.55 An immediate threat to the city arose. At the same time, it turned out that the Novgorodians were not able to cope with the ever-increasing German aggression on their own. The need to invite a new prince to the Novgorod table became obvious.

The Novgorodians had little choice. They were forced to ask the same Yaroslav Vsevolodovich for help. He sent them another son, Andrei, instead of Alexander. But even under him, German attacks on the Novgorod lands continued. Moreover, attacks by Estonians and Lithuanians were added to them. Then the Novgorodians decided to ask Yaroslav for Alexander again instead of Andrei. The request was granted.

Alexander entered Novgorod in March 1241. He acted carefully and clearly. Gathering all the Novgorod forces, Ladoga, Korel, Izhora, he moved to Koporye. The fortress erected by the Germans was taken and destroyed, traitors from among the Vodi and Estonians were hanged, hostages were taken, but some who supported the Germans were pardoned.67 Thus ended the year 1241.

At the beginning of 1242, Alexander received military assistance from his father. Brother Andrei came to him with the Vladimir regiments. Now it was possible to fight the actual German possessions. Alexander and Andrey invaded the Peipus land. Having cut all the routes that connected the Order and the German bishoprics in the Baltic states with Pskov, Alexander captured Pskov with an unexpected blow from the west.88 Now his rear was secured. Returning again to the land of the Estonians, he began to devastate it. However, the Germans had already begun to gather forces. Their troops near the town of Mooste near the river. Luts managed to defeat Alexander's vanguard under the command of Domash Tverdislavich, the brother of the Novgorod mayor, and the Dmitrov governor of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich Kerbet.59 Domash fell in battle. This defeat forced Alexander Nevsky to retreat to Lake Peipsi.

The crusaders and their auxiliary troops began to pursue the RUSSIAN regiments. Alexander positioned his army “on Uzmen near Vorontey Kameni.”60 The Germans formed their battle formations in a “pig” formation, led by heavily armed knightly cavalry, and rushed towards the Russian regiments. Alexander strengthened the flanks of the regiments, and placed archers in front of the troops, who shot the crusader cavalry from a distance.61 However, the Germans managed to break through the line of Russian warriors. The battle became extremely stubborn. In the end, the auxiliary troops of the crusaders, recruited from the Estonians, could not stand the battle and fled. The Nemii also ran after them. The victory of the Russian regiments on April 5, 1242 on the ice of Lake Peipsi was complete. In the same year, the Germans sent an embassy to Novgorod, which made peace with Prince Alexander. The Order abandoned all its conquests of 1240-1241. in Novgorod land, released Pskov hostages and exchanged prisoners

The terms of this agreement were effective even in the 15th century. The Order remembered the victory of Alexander Nevsky in the Battle of the Ice for a long time.

Alexander's talent as a commander, which was so clearly demonstrated in the military actions of 1240-1242, strengthened the prince's authority in political affairs. In Novgorod, where Alexander Yaroslavich continued to reign, for many years the question of replacing him with another prince was not raised. Alexander himself accurately fulfilled his functions as the military defender of the Novgorod Republic. When in 1245 the Lithuanians unexpectedly attacked the lands of Torzhok and Bezhetsky Verkh, which belonged to Novgorod, Alexander, at the head of his squad and the Novgorodians, successfully repelled this raid, and then only with his squad defeated the Lithuanians at Zhizhich and Usvyat.

The rule in Novgorod for the time being allowed Alexander Nevsky to avoid any contacts with the Mongols, who in the summer of 1242 established their power over most of the Russian principalities. However, a close connection with Vladimir Russia, where his father, uncle Svyatoslav, as well as the descendants of the elder Vsevolodovich Konstantin, ruled, made relations with the Horde inevitable. In 1245, Alexander’s father, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, went there. The capital of the Mongol Empire was then Karakorum on the river. Orion in Mongolia. Yaroslav made a long journey, lived for some time at the court of the great Khan Guyuk, until one day he was invited to her by Guyuk’s mother Turakin. She gave him food and drink from her own hands, but after this reception Yaroslav died. His strangely blue body indicated that he had been poisoned. This happened on September 30, 1246." Yaroslav's relatives had to decide which of them would become the Grand Duke of Vladimir. At the Khan's court in Karakorum, it was believed that the most authoritative (and dangerous for Karakorum) in Rus' was Yaroslav's eldest son Alexander. Turakina was sent to him his messengers, inviting Alexander to come to the khan’s court and receive his father’s land, while at the same time hatching secret plans to kill Nevsky, but Alexander, sensing danger, did not go to Guyuk.66 The question of Yaroslav’s heir was decided at the congress of Russian princes in Vladimir in 1247 Yaroslav's brother Svyatoslav became the Grand Duke of Vladimir, who distributed various principalities to Yaroslav's children. Alexander received the Tver principality bordering Novgorod and remained the prince of Novgorod.67 However, Alexander’s brothers were dissatisfied with the division made by their uncle. One of the Yaroslavichs, Mikhail Khorobrit, soon drove Svyatoslav from the Vladimir table and took it himself. But he did not remain Grand Duke for long: in 1248 he was killed in a clash with the Lithuanians on the river. Protve.68 Another Yaroslavich Andrei, who was older than Mikhail in age, was also dissatisfied with the division, but he did not resort to force, but went to Batu in 1247 in order to, with his support, occupy the Vladimir table. This turn of affairs forced Alexander, who had more rights to his father’s inheritance than his brothers, to follow Andrei to the Horde. Batu did not independently resolve the issue of the possessions of Andrei and Alexander, but sent them to Karakorum.69 By that time, certain political changes had apparently occurred there. Batu did not get along with Khan Guyuk and his mother Turaniva; he did not go to Karakorum himself and followed with apprehension the decisions of the Great Khanyuk court regarding the Russian ulus. 70 Having clearly detained Andrei and Alexander, who left Rus' at different times, Batu released them to Karakorum, perhaps when Khan Gu-yuk died and Turakin lost power.71 Thus, Alexander avoided the danger that threatened him in 1246. And after all, big troubles awaited him in Karakorum. There the brothers were judged in a very peculiar way: Alexander, as the elder brother, received Kyiv and “the entire Russian land,” and Andrei received the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.72 Outwardly, everything was decent. Formally, Alexander received more than his brother; Kyiv was considered a more significant city than Vladimir. But this was the case in pre-Mongol times. In the 40s XIII century Kyiv was a settlement of 200 households,73 and the “Russian Land”, which was part of the Kyiv territory, was devastated. Moreover, before his death, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich reigned not in Kyiv, but in Vladimir, and the eldest son was supposed to receive his father’s inheritance. However, in Karakorum they decided differently, apparently fearing the strengthening of the most authoritative prince in North-Eastern Rus'. Given this distribution of tables, the position of Andrei Yaroslavich is unclear: whether he himself sought the reign of Vladimir, and then he acted clearly against Alexander, or obediently followed the decisions of the Mongols. The latter seems more likely

The brothers returned to Rus' at the end of 1249. Alexander spent several months in Vladimir. The chronicle reports that when the Uglitsky prince Vladimir Konstantinovich died in the winter of 1249/1250 in Vladimir, “Prince Alexander and with his brothers” mourned him and saw him off from the Golden Gate. That same winter, another prince died in Vladimir - Vladimir Vsevolodovich of Yaroslavl. The funeral procession heading from Vladimir to Yaroslavl was accompanied by Alexander, Rostov Prince Boris, his brother Belozersk Prince Gleb and their mother. Vladimir Vsevolodovich died “in memory of St. Theodore,”74 i.e. in February 1250."Stay in Vladimir, the capital city of Andrei Yaroslavich, from the end of 1249 to February 1250 of Alexander Nevsky, his brothers, the princes of Uglitsky, Yaroslavl , Rostov, Belozersk suggests that upon the return of the two senior Yaroslavichs from Karakorum1 a congress of Russian princes was convened in Vladimir, at which issues of relations with foreign authorities and the distribution of tables between the princes in the present and future were to be discussed. that no quarrels ensued between the princes, Andrei did not interfere with his elder brother’s rather long stay in his capital, the princes managed to agree on the division of power and their rights. Only after this, in 1250, Alexander returned to reign in Novgorod.75 His reign there continued without any excesses and upheavals.Only when in Rus' it became known about the ascension to the Karakorum table in 1251 of the new great khan Mengu (Munke), Batu's protege,76 Alexander Nevsky again went to the Horde (1252). The purpose of his trip, apparently, was to obtain the Great Reign of Vladimir. It is possible that this action was previously discussed by Alexander with his brothers and other princes during his stay in Vladimir in 1249/1250. After his departure, Andrei and Yaroslav Yaroslavich rebelled against the Mongols, hoping that a change of khan in Karakorum would allow them to get rid of interference Hordes in Russian affairs. According to the chronicle, the Vladimir Grand Duke Andrei and those who supported him did not want to “serve as Caesar,”77 that is, Mengu and Batu. However, their calculations did not come true. A supporter of Mengu Batu sent troops to Rus' led by Nevryu, who suppressed the uprising. Andrei fled to Sweden, Yaroslav remained in Rus'.

These events, described in various chronicles with some nuances, have given historians reason to believe that Alexander Nevsky, having waited until his brother Andrei raised a bold rebellion against foreign oppression, insidiously took advantage of the circumstances and achieved in the Horde the right to the Vladimir grand-ducal table, sending Rus' Horde punitive expedition under the command of Nevryuy.78 However, the oldest description of the events of 1252, preserved by the Laurentian Chronicle, says that Alexander went to Batu to obtain rights to the Vladimir grand-ducal table before Andrei's speech. In this case, Nevsky could act according to the old agreement with the princes about the grand-ducal table, especially since his brother Andrei received his father’s inheritance from the hands of the khan’s power, and not according to the ancient Russian norms of princely inheritance, bypassing his older brother. After Alexander left for the Horde, Andrei, apparently, opposed the khans, hoping to retain the great reign of Vladimir, but he miscalculated. Even before Nevsky returned, he fled Rus'. Alexander, having sat down on the Vladimir table, forced another troublemaker, brother Yaroslav, to exchange his Pereyaslavl principality for his Tver principality.79 With this action, Alexander further strengthened his position as a Grand Duke.

Although Andrei Yaroslavich found refuge in Sweden, which, having finally conquered the Em-Tavasts in 1249, thereby entered into very tense relations with Novgorod and Alexander Nevsky, who reigned there, the latter managed not to turn his brother into a sworn enemy, but to make him his ally. Alexander called Andrei back to Rus', allocating to him the Suzdal principality from his great principality of Vladimir.80 In 1257, Andrei, as a sovereign prince, went with Alexander to the Horde to honor Khan Ulag-chi.81

In addition to the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, Novgorod still remained under the rule of Alexander Nevsky. True, now Nevsky no longer reigned there himself, but kept his eldest son Vasily as governor. The Novgorodians, free to choose princes, were dissatisfied with this circumstance. In 1255, they expelled the young prince from the city, inviting Yaroslav Yaroslavich, who had left his Tver principality, to join them from Pskov. Alexander immediately gathered his regiments and marched with them against Novgorod.

The Novgorodians also decided to fight, but the matter was resolved peacefully. Prince Yaroslav was forced to leave the city, Vasily was returned to the Novgorod table, the mayor was changed, people who supported Alexander Nevsky came to rule Novgorod

This connection with the powerful prince helped Novgorod stop the attempt of the Swedish feudal lords and, apparently, the Vogt of Vironia (a region of Northern Estonia, subordinate to the Danish king) Dietrich von Kivel (Didman of the Russian chronicle) to build a stronghold on the eastern bank of the river, which belonged to Novgorod. Narovs.83 Based here, the Swedes and the Danish feudal lord expected to launch an attack on Votland and Ingria, i.e., the lands of Vod and Izhora, which were part of the Novgorod Republic. Having learned about the actions of the Swedes and Didman, the Novgorodians sent ambassadors asking for military assistance to Vladimir to Alexander Nevsky and began to assemble their own militia. When this became known to the Swedes and von Kivel, they hastily boarded ships and fled overseas. Alexander led his regiments to Novgorod, but there were no more opponents. Then the prince undertook a campaign against Koporye, and from there he headed to the land of Emi, conquered by the Swedes 7 years earlier. Nevsky's campaign against this tribe in 1256, the last military campaign of the commander, took place in harsh winter conditions, but ended successfully.85 Sweden's position in the land of Emi turned out to be weakened, and the attention of the Swedish feudal lords was switched from Novgorod to Finland.

Upon returning to Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky was forced to go with other Russian princes to the Volga Horde to honor Khan Ulagchi. At the end of the same 1257, the Grand Duke of Vladimir had to deal with the Mongols once again. Officials from Karakorum arrived in Rus', carrying out, on the orders of the Great Khan, the calculation and imposition of taxes on the entire population under his control.86 If for the residents of North-Eastern Rus' the collection of various taxes and levies by the Mongols became commonplace, then for Novgorod such payments were new and unpleasant. When the rumor reached the Novgorodians that the Mongols would take tamga and tithes from them, the city became terribly excited. The son of Alexander Nevsky, Vasily, who ruled them, was on the side of the Novgorodians. Alexander was forced to help foreigners. His arrival with his followers in Novgorod in the winter of 1257/1258 ended with the expulsion of his son Vasily from Novgorod and the cruel torture of people who encouraged him to oppose the Mongols and his father. Alexander probably took over the administration of Novgorod, exercising his power through his own governors. Nevertheless, the prince failed to completely pacify the Novgorodians. When in the winter of 1259/1260 *. Mongol soldiers arrived in Novgorod for the second time, and strong unrest began again here, which did not develop into an armed struggle only because of Alexander’s intervention. He apparently managed to find some kind of compromise that satisfied the Novgorodians.

In the early 60s. XIII century The Volga Horde separated from the Mongol Empire, becoming a sovereign state.89 The discord between the Karakorum and Saransk governments was immediately taken advantage of in Rus'. In many Russian cities there were uprisings against the imperial officials sitting there. Alexander Nevsky supported these speeches, sending out letters with the call to “beat the Totars.” In Sarai they turned a blind eye to these actions, since it was about eliminating the power structure that had turned into an alien structure. However, having become independent, the Sarai khans began to lack armed forces. During the existence of the unified Mongol Empire, such a deficiency was covered by the mobilization of the population subject to the Mongols into the Mongol troops. Sarai Khan Berke followed the beaten path. In 1262, he demanded a military recruitment among the inhabitants of Rus', since there was a threat to his possessions from the Iranian ruler Hulagu-91. Alexander Nevsky was forced to go to the Horde in order to somehow soften the khan’s demands. Berke detained the Russian prince in the Horde for several months.92 There Alexander fell ill. Already sick, he left for Rus'. Having reached Gorodets on the Volga with difficulty, the prince realized that he could not get to Vladimir. On the afternoon of November 14, 1263, he became a monk, and by the evening of the same day he died.93 Nine days later, the prince’s body was taken to the capital Vladimir and, in front of a large crowd of people, was buried in the Big Nest Monastery of the Nativity, founded by Alexander’s grandfather Vsevolod.94

The life of Alexander Nevsky ended early. He was not even forty-three years old. But this life from adolescence was filled with major events, complex diplomatic negotiations, bold campaigns, and decisive battles. As a commander, Alexander Nevsky hardly has any equal among other princes of medieval Rus'. But he was a man of his era, whose character bizarrely combined cruelty towards traitors and disobedient people with the denial of the internecine princely struggle and the desire to alleviate the situation of a people conquered by foreign conquerors. It is especially worth emphasizing the fact that Alexander, unlike his grandfather, father, siblings, even his own children, never took part in bloody internecine battles. There were internal conflicts; in order to resolve them, Alexander gathered troops, but it never came to open action , was decided by the threat of force, not force itself. It is quite obvious that this was a conscious policy of Alexander Nevsky, who understood perfectly well that in the conditions of the post-Batu pogrom of Russian lands and foreign domination, internal wars, even in the event of a complete victory of one of the parties, could only lead to a general weakening of Rus' and the destruction of its working and military-capable population . The biographer of Alexander Nevsky, who wrote his Life, who was not only a “witness” of the prince’s growing up, but also an eyewitness of at least the consequences of the Mongol conquest, specifically drew attention to the fact that Nevsky, having become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, “I will raise churches, use the cities, destroy people “The wives are taken to their own homes.”95 Ensuring borders, maintaining the integrity of the territory, caring for its population - these are the main features! the activities of Prince Alexander during this critical period of Russian history. If we speak briefly about Alexander Nevsky, then we must say in the words of the 13th century chronicler: “work for Novgorod and for the entire Russian land.”96

1 Even in the recently compiled “Chronicle of the Life and Work of Alexander Nevsky,” where, it would seem, the latest research concerning the biography of the famous prince should have been taken into account, facts are given! that do not find support in the sources. Thus, the birth of Alexander Nevsky is dated May 30, 1220; the rite of princely tonsure - by 1223, the place of tonsure is indicated by the Spassky Cathedral in Pereyaslavl, although early sources do not contain such facts, but they report that Alexander’s father Yaroslav spent almost the entire 1223 in Novgorod, and without him tonsure would hardly were possible; in 1238 Alexander was not the Prince of Dmitrov and Tver; in October 1246, he could not bury his father in Vladimir, because on September 30 of that year he died in Karakorum, from where his body could not be delivered to Vladimir in a month; there is no data indicating that Alexander received Pereyaslavl, Zubtsov and Nerekhta in 1247; the second marriage of Alexander Nevsky, dated in the “Chronicle of Life and Activities” to the autumn of 1252, is clearly unreliable, and it is not explained how Alexander married Daria, the daughter of the Ryazan prince Izyaslav Vladimirovich, who is unknown to sources and who, if she existed in reality , should have been at least 35 years old (4 years older than her husband), etc. See: Begunov Yu. K. Chronicle of the life and work of Alexander Nevsky. // Prince Alexander Nevsky and his era. St. Petersburg, 1995, p. 206-209.

2 About the time of writing two types of the older edition of the Life of Alexander Nevsky, see: Kuchki n V. A. The Mongol-Tatar yoke in the coverage of ancient Russian scribes (XIII - first quarter of the XIV century). // Russian culture in the conditions of foreign invasions and wars. X - beginning of XX century. M., 1990, issue. !:, With. 36-39.

3 Running at the new Yu. K. Monument of Russian literature of the 13th century. "The Word about the destruction of the Russian land." M.-L., 1965, p. 160.

4Baumgarten N.A. To the genealogy of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir, Mother of Alexander Nevsky. // Chronicle of the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow. M., 1908, issue. 4 (16), p. 21-23.

5 She was accepted, in particular, by such a major biography researcher

Alexander Nevsky, like D.T. Pashuto - see: Pashu then V, T. Alexander Nevsky. ZhZL. M., 1974, p. 10.

6 Novgorod first chronicle of the older and younger editions. Edited and with a foreword by A. N. Nasonov. M.-L., 1950 (hereinafter - NPL), p. 61, 66, 78, 79, under 6731, 6736, 6748 and 6752.

7 Complete collection of Russian chronicles (hereinafter referred to as PSRL), vol. I, L., 1926-1928, stb. 450, under 6736

8 For more information about the mother of Alexander Nevsky, see: KuchkinV. A. K

biography of Alexander Nevsky. // The most ancient states on the territory of the USSR. 1985. M ., 1986, With. 71-80.

9 PSRL, T. I,STB. 470,. "" There, Stb. 444.

10 Berezhkov N. G., Chronology of Russian chronicles. M., 1963, p. 106.

12 PSRL, vol. XXIV, Ptg., 1921 p. 227. The list was compiled at the end of the 15th century,

13 PSRL, vol. I, stb. 469.

14 Ya Nin V.L. Actual seals of Ancient Rus' X-XV centuries, vol. II, M.„ 1970, p. 7-8.

15 NPL, p. 79.

16 For more information about the time of birth of Alexander Nevsky, see: Kuchki n V.A. About the date of birth of Alexander Nevsky. // Questions of History, 1986, No. 2. V.K. Ziborov also leans towards the date of May 13 as the birthday of Alexander Nevsky, who, in support of his opinion, pointed to some literary parallels between the Life of Alexander Nevsky and the service to Alexander of Rome. Unfortunately, our 1986 note about the time of birth of Alexander Nevsky remained unknown to V.K. Ziborov, See; Ziborov V.K. About a new copy of the seal of Alexander Nevsky. // Prince Alexander Nevsky and his era, p. 149-150.

17 NPL, p. 61.

Prince Alexander Nevsky. Materials of scientific and practical conferences of 1989 and 1994. Rep. ed.: Yu. K. Begunov and A. N. Kirpichnikov. St. Petersburg, 1995. 111 p. (Administration of the Kolpinsky district of St. Petersburg, Kolpitsa). Contents: Part one. Opening speech by the head of the Kolpinsky district administration V.D. Kolosov (P. 4). Kirpichnikov A.N. Prince Alexander Nevsky. History and modernity (pp. 5–8). Begunov Yu.K. Alexander Nevsky and Russian statehood (pp. 8-12). Dubov I.V. The role of the historical and cultural environment in the formation of the personality of Alexander Nevsky (pp. 12–19). Krivosheev Yu.V. Russian princes and Horde khans (P. 19–21). Maiorov A.B. Alexander Nevsky and Daniil Galitsky (On the issue of the relationship of Russian princes with the Tatars) (pp. 21–24). Sazanov S. About the monastic name of Alexander Nevsky (pp. 25–27). Shishkin A.A., Gulyaev Yu.N. Alexander Nevsky and Golenishchev-Kutuzov (P. 27–30). Sorokin P.E. From the history of wooden churches in Ust-Izhora (pp. 31–33). Toropov G.V. Izhora legend (pp. 33–35). Sushko A.M. Alexander Nevsky in the works of Evgeny Orlov (pp. 35–38).

Part two. Alexander Nevsky: personality and deeds. Materials of the scientific and practical conference. Leningrad. December 6, 1989 Martyugov G.M. Memorial of the Neva Battle in Ust-Izhora (P. 40). Appeal to compatriots in connection with the 750th anniversary of the Battle of the Neva (P. 41–42). Begunov Yu.K. Alexander Nevsky and modernity (pp. 42–48). Kirpichnikov A.N. 750th anniversary of the Battle of the Neva and its historical significance (pp. 48–55). Lebedev G.S. The Swedish crusades in Finland, Ingria and Karelia are the chapter of the prehistory of St. Petersburg (pp. 55–61). Sh as necklace I.P. Battle on the Neva (to the 750th anniversary) (P. 61–69). Ziborov V.K. Monuments of Old Russian writing - the main source of our knowledge about the era of Alexander Nevsky (P. 69–73). Gumilev L.N. Alexander Nevsky and Eastern Christianity (pp. 73–78). Degtyarev A.Ya. Can the battle location be changed? (pp. 78–82). Rozov A.A. Memorial complex “Battle of the Neva” (P. 83–85). Begunov Yu.K., Sapunov B.V. History of the relics and cancer of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky (P. 85–90). Applications. Comp. Yu.K. Begunov. The Tale of the Battle of the Neva from the Life of Alexander Nevsky, First Edition. 1280s. Reconstruction text. Chronicle story about the battle on the Neva. From the 14th century Synodal list of the 1st Novgorod Chronicle, senior edition. Tree of memory. A. Maikov. In Gorodets in 1263. Chronology of the life and work of Alexander Nevsky. Brief bibliography (pp. 91-109).

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“Alexander stationed his army “on Uzmen at the Voronya stone.” The Germans formed their battle formations in a “pig” formation, at the head of which moved the heavily armed knightly cavalry, and rushed towards the Russian regiments. Alexander strengthened the flanks of the regiments, and placed archers in front of the troops, who shot the crusader cavalry from a distance. However, the Germans managed to break through the line of Russian warriors.

The battle became extremely stubborn. In the end, the auxiliary troops of the crusaders, recruited from the Estonians, could not stand the battle and fled. The Germans also ran after them. The victory of the Russian regiments on April 5, 1242 on the ice of Lake Peipsi was complete. In the same year, the Germans sent an embassy to Novgorod, which made peace with Prince Alexander. The Order abandoned all its conquests of 1240-1241. in the Novgorod land, released the Pskov hostages and exchanged prisoners. The terms of this agreement were valid even in the 15th century. The Order remembered Alexander Nevsky’s victory in the Battle of the Ice for a long time.”

“Alexander Nevsky’s life ended early. He was not even forty-three years old. But this life from adolescence was filled with major events, complex diplomatic negotiations, bold campaigns, and decisive battles. As a commander, Alexander Nevsky hardly has any equal among other princes of medieval Rus'. But he was a man of his era, whose character bizarrely combined cruelty towards traitors and disobedient people with the denial of the internecine princely struggle and the desire to alleviate the situation of a people conquered by foreign conquerors. It should be especially emphasized that Alexander, unlike his grandfather, father, siblings, and even his own children, never participated in bloody internecine battles. There were internal conflicts; To solve them, Alexander gathered troops, but the matter did not come to open action; the threat of using force, and not force itself, decided. It is quite obvious that this was a conscious policy of Alexander Nevsky, who understood perfectly well that in the conditions after Batu’s pogrom of Russian lands and foreign domination, internal wars, even in the case of complete victory of one of the parties, could only lead to a general weakening of Rus' and the destruction of its labor and military capabilities. population. The biographer of Alexander Nevsky, who wrote his Life, who was not only a “witness” of the prince’s growing up, but also an eyewitness of at least the consequences of the Mongol conquest, specially drew attention to the fact that Nevsky, having become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, “raised churches, used up cities, dissolved people.” take them to their homes.” Securing borders, preserving the integrity of the territory, caring for its population - these were the main features of the activities of Prince Alexander during that critical period of Russian history. About Alexander Nevsky, we can briefly say in the words of a 13th century chronicler: “work hard for Novgorod and for the entire Russian land.”

"National history". M., 1996. No. 5. P. 18-33.