History of Mongol Advance

The Mongol advance

In 1235 Ogedai Khan summoned a great kuriltai. Prince Juchi's second son Batu was appointed to lead an expedition into Eastern Europe. Batu would lead the army with the great Mongol general Subodai Bahadur. Their first mission was to defeat the Bulgars and Kipchaks to safeguard the Mongol communication lines at the Volga and Don rivers. In 1236 they began with Mongke attacking the Kipchaks whilst Subodai and Batu attacked the Bulgars. By autumn 1237 both had defeated their foes. The Mongols then crossed the Volga and began a campaign only a Mongol army could have taken. They began an attack on Russia in winter.

The strongest point in Russia was the city of Vladimir guarded by the Grand Duke Yuri II but the Mongols decided to outflank him and instead began a 5-day siege of Riazan. Riazan fell to much slaughter. A chronicler wrote, "no eye remained open to weep for the dead" and that "some were impaled or had nails or splinters of wood driven under their finger nails. Priests were roasted alive, nuns and maidens ravished in the churches before their relatives". Next to fall was the then minor settlement of Moscow. Vladimir then fell on February 8, 1238. Yuri died soon after as settlements along the Sit were attacked.

The Mongols then headed for the city of Novgorod but just 65 miles away they decided to turn south and headed for the Don basin. Spring had come and the bogs and marshes would have made movement for the Mongol horses impossible and roads impassable. During 1239 there was little activity but many Kipchak and Polovtsy nomads fled to Hungary under King Bela IV where they became Christian. In 1240 the Mongol army set off again capturing Chernigov before turning their attention to Kiev.

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