Great Stand on the Ugra River
The Great Stand on the Ugra River (Russian: Великое стояние на Угре) or the Standing on the Ugra River,[2] also known as the Battle of the Ugra,[3] was a standoff in 1480 on the banks of the Ugra River between the forces of Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, and Grand Prince Ivan III of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.[4]
After Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde,[3] Akhmat Khan led an army towards Moscow, leading to a standoff between the two armies on the banks of the river.[5] Akhmat Khan waited for his Lithuanian reinforcements to arrive, but they never did,[5][6] with one Mongol attempt to cross the river failing due to Russian fire,[5] leading to Akhmat Khan to retreat.[7] Both armies departed after little fighting.[6][8]
In Russian historiography, it has been interpreted as the end of the "Tatar yoke" in Russia,[9][10][7][11] though some historians believe that the event itself was insignificant and did not change Russo-Tatar relations.[12][13] Nevertheless, the event is usually regarded as the end of nominal Tatar suzerainty over Russia.[14][15][4][16]
Background[edit]
The main Russian defence line ran along the Oka River from Kaluga east toward Nizhny Novgorod. At Kaluga the Oka bends sharply from north to east and the defense line was extended westward along the Ugra River. The land west and south of Kaluga was claimed by Lithuania. At this time Ivan III was uniting the lands north of the Oka. At the same time the Golden Horde was breaking up and the steppe remnant came to be called the Great Horde. Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland-Lithuania was allied with the Great Horde,[17] while Muscovy was allied with the Crimean Khanate against the Horde. In 1472 Akhmed of the Great Horde raided the Oka at Aleksin but was driven off. In 1476 Russia officially stopped paying tribute to the Tatars. In late 1479 Ivan quarreled with his brothers, Andrey Bolshoy and Boris of Volotsk, who began intriguing with Casimir. This internal conflict may have influenced Akhmed's decision to attack.
Reasons for Akhmed's withdrawal[edit]
Nikolay Karamzin wrote: "It should have been an odd image: two armies ran away from each other, not pursued by anyone", but it is now clear that the two withdrawals were independent. Ivan's motive is clear, but Akhmed's motives are a matter of guesswork.[23] Casimir's failure to appear was clearly important. Nesin thinks that a major factor was the end of Ivan's quarrel with his brothers and the resulting additional troops. The impending Russian winter was a consideration. The longer the standoff lasted, the more troops Ivan could bring up, while Akhmed's reserves were few and far away. The Tatar horses, and the sheep they drove with them for food, gradually consumed the local fodder. There are reports of disease in his army. Akhmed may have thought Ivan's withdrawal was a ruse to draw him into an ambush, a common steppe tactic. Even if there were no ambush, he would have to fight an army in a prepared position, or try to bypass it. The Tatars preferred hit-and-run raids and Akhmed may not have wished to attack a concentrated army. The sources do not explain why he did not try to outflank the Russian line by moving west. His wise, but seemingly cowardly, withdrawal probably contributed to his death a few months later.
Aftermath[edit]
On 6 January 1481, Akhmat Khan was killed in a clash with the Nogais under Ibak Khan, a princeling from the Khanate of Sibir. In 1502, Crimea destroyed the Great Horde as an organization, thereby removing the buffer between Russia and Crimea and leading to a series of Russo-Crimean wars that lasted until 1784.
For the next century, relations between the Russians and Mongols continued to rapidly change, with both launching incursions and attacks against each other. In 1521, the Crimean Khanate plundered southern Russia and almost reached Moscow. Both Russia and Lithuania allied with different khanates before moving to another.[24]
According to Russian historiography, the event marked the end of Russian dependency on Tatar overlords.[2][25] On the other hand, some modern historians regard the confrontation as indecisive, and not having a significant effect on Muscovite–Tatar relations.[25] Charles Halperin mentioned that "Moscow had probably ceased paying tribute to the Great Horde sometime in the 1470s" yet continued formal relations for 20 more years and continued to pay tribute of some sort to other khanates at times.[26] Janet Martin dismissed the significance of the standoff as "embellished".[27] However, one significant change was that no Russian prince needed to ask for permission again from a Tatar khan to rule.[28]
Some of the earliest Russian sources mentioning the event include: