On October 8, 1480, the troops of the Great Horde under the leadership of Khan Akhmat tried to force the Ugra River in order to move towards Moscow, but were stopped by Russian warriors.

This led to the beginning of a positional struggle, which ended in November with the withdrawal of the Horde forces and the acquisition of independence by the Russian state.

The path from yoke to independence

In the middle of the 13th century, the Russian lands in a state of fragmentation were seized by the Golden Horde and forced to pay tribute on a regular basis.

The Horde khans also issued permission to the Russian princes to take the throne.

In the second half of the XIV century, the situation began to change.

An intense struggle for power began in the Horde.

Temnik Mamai, who was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, gained significant influence there, trying to rule the Horde through the minor representatives of the Chingizid dynasty under his control.

Against the background of the weakening of the Horde, the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich tried to break off the tributary relationship with the Horde.

In 1378, Russian troops defeated the Horde punitive detachment in the battle on the Vozha River, and in 1380 - the army under the command of Mamai himself on the Kulikovo field.

However, Dmitry Ivanovich, who received the nickname Donskoy, failed to achieve full independence of the state.

In 1382, the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, who had strengthened after the defeat of Mamai, by cunning seized Moscow and ravaged the lands of central Russia, after which the payment of tribute to the Horde was resumed.

In the 1470s (historians argue about the exact date of this event), the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III refused to pay tribute to the Horde.

The Golden Horde by this time split into a number of separate khanates.

However, the head of the so-called Great Horde Khan Akhmat (in some sources - Akhmed) tried to restore power over all the states that were previously part of the Golden Horde.

And control over Moscow with its wealth and army played an important role in his plans.

  • Reproduction of Sergei Prisekin's painting "The Battle of Kulikovo"

In 1472, the troops of Khan Akhmat attacked the Russian lands and burned the city of Aleksin, but after the approach of the main Moscow forces they hastily retreated.

For the next campaign against Moscow, the khan tried to find the most convenient moment.

He waited for a quarrel between Ivan III and his brothers (which arose due to the distribution of inheritances and powers), as well as Livonian aggression against the Russian lands from the northwest.

In addition, he negotiated an anti-Moscow alliance with the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV.

According to historians, no later than May 1480, Khan Akhmat with a hundred thousandth army set out for a new campaign against Moscow.

Standing on the Eel

Ivan III took active steps to repel the Horde aggression.

Russian troops stationed on the left bank of the Oka blocked the advance of the Horde forces and forced Akhmat to look for a detour through the Ugra river basin.

In late September - early October 1480, the Grand Duke reconciled with his brothers, who promised him support, and also took advantage of the contradictions that existed between the Great Horde and the Crimean Khanate, and entered into an alliance with the latter.

As a result, the Crimean troops attacked the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and distracted the attention of Casimir IV, who never provided military assistance to Khan Akhmat.

“The place where Akhmat's troops approached the Ugra provokes a discussion among historians.

The most common version says that this happened not far from the mouth of the river, from the place where the Ugra flows into the Oka.

In any case, the intelligence of Ivan III managed to determine the direction of movement of the Horde forces in time.

This made it possible for the Russian troops to prepare for defense, "Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, said in an interview with RT.

Russian warriors erected fortifications and set up outposts in the ford area across the Ugra.

An important advantage of the Russian soldiers, according to Myagkov, was the presence of firearms.

On October 8, 1480, the troops of Khan Akhmat made an attempt to force the Ugra on the move for a subsequent offensive towards Moscow.

However, this attempt, like several subsequent ones, was unsuccessful for the Horde.

Russian soldiers with strong fire from their side of the river stopped the advancing.

The struggle acquired a positional character, thanks to which it went down in history as the Standing on the Ugra River.

The potential offensive of the Horde was complicated by the fact that in addition to the shooters at the outposts, mobile detachments of Russian cavalry plying along the river bank were ready to meet them, capable of quickly arriving at any place of a possible breakthrough of the defense.

  • Armament of Russian soldiers.

    According to A.V.

    Viskovatova "Historical description of the clothing and weapons of the Russian troops"

  • © Electronic scientific-practical journal "History and Archeology"

According to historians, time played into the hands of the Russians.

The sheep, which the Horde drove with them as a supply of food, and the Horde horses quickly destroyed all the pasture in the vicinity of the Ugra.

The Russian troops (mostly infantry) did not have such difficulties with the supply - they could receive grain and flour from the warehouses of the Grand Duke.

Despite the first successes, Ivan III initiated peace negotiations and sent a messenger with gifts to Akhmat, but the khan at the beginning of the Stand was arrogant enough and began to put forward his own harsh conditions.

“Akhmat put the question in such a way that the Grand Duke himself must come to his headquarters and kneel before his horse,” Mikhail Myagkov said.

The negotiations fell through.

However, Ivan III gained time and received reinforcements.

At the end of October, Ugra was covered with ice and ceased to be an obstacle for the Horde army.

The Grand Duke took the Russian troops to Borovsk and regrouped them, preparing for the defense.

However, according to historians, Akhmat's army at this time found itself in a difficult situation.

In addition to the lack of animal feed and provisions, the khan faced the fact that his troops were not prepared for war in cold conditions.

There were no warm clothes and blankets for the horses.

Also, an epidemic of an unknown disease began among the Horde.

In addition, Ivan III sent a detachment led by Vasily Nozdrovaty-Zvenigorodsky on a campaign against the Khan's capital, Novy Saray, which remained without cover.

According to a number of testimonies, Akhmat expected some new military trick from Ivan III.

  • Fragment of the miniature "Standing on the Ugra".

    Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow (now the Museum of the History of Moscow).

  • RIA News

Khan did not want to give the Russian troops a general battle and left Ugra on November 9-11.

In retaliation for the fact that the Horde did not wait for military assistance from Casimir IV, they sacked nearby Lithuanian cities and villages.

On November 28, 1480, Grand Duke Ivan III, together with his son Ivan, who took an active part in the operation, returned to Moscow.

Akhmat could no longer repeat the campaign to the Russian lands: in 1481 he was killed by the Tyumen khan Ibak, who, according to some researchers, could act within the framework of agreements with Moscow.

“Ivan III actually won the battle without joining it.

It was a brilliant strategy and a great victory, ”Mikhail Myagkov said.

According to the historian Yevgeny Pchelov, the Stand on the Ugra played a colossal role in the history of Russia.

“Thanks to the peaceful demonstration of force by the Russian army, the khan realized that the outcome of a possible battle was ambiguous for him and decided not to risk it.

The result of this event was the termination of the dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde and their acquisition of sovereignty.

In fact, Standing on the Ugra River led to the fact that Russia gained independence, "Pchelov summed up.