Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century

101 The reference is to a branch of the Rurik dynasty, the princes of the Principality of Tver which existed in Russia in the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries. In the struggle for power with Prince Yury Danilovich of Moscow (see Note 100), Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver (1271-1318) was defeated and killed in the camp of Uzbek Khan.

102 The episcopal scat of the primate was finally transferred to Moscow in 1328.

103 In 1492 Ivan III sent a deed to Sultan Bajazet If containing a protest against the harassment of Russian merchants in the Turkish possessions.. Having received no answer from the Sultan (his envoy was detained in Lithuania), Ivan III sent his own man, ambassador Mikhail Pleshcheyev, to Turkey with instructions to confirm the claims contained in the 1492 deed and to “stand on his feet not knees” during the audience. Pleshcheyev’s mission was successful. Sultan Bajazet II promised not to put obstacles in the way of Russian merchants within the Ottoman Empire.

104 The Golden Horde practically ceased to exist in the second quarter o t e fifteenth century due to internecine strife and the liberation movement of the subject peoples, especially the Russian people (see notes 99 and 109). It was succeeded by a Tartar state; the Big Horde, which sprang up on the lower reaches of the Volga; the Nogai (Nogay) Horde, which occupied the territory from the Volga to the li-tysh River, virtually separated front the Golden Horde, at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century; the final separation took place in 1426-40.

105 Tiniour (Tamerlane) dealt crushing blows to the Golden Horde in his three big campaigns (1389, 1391, 1394-95).

106 Marx means the free Cossack communities formed on the southern and south-eastern outskirts of the Moscow state in the second half of the fifteenth century by the peasants who had fled from the landowners, an(] the townsmen. They were used for defence purposes.

107 The Crimean Khanate separated from the Golden Horde in 1443 as a result of a prolonged struggle; in 1475 it became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

108 Ivan III ceased paying tribute to the Big Horde (see Note 104) in 1476.

109 The disintegration of the Golden Horde (see Note 104) and especially the heroic struggle of the Russian people were the principal factors which led to the liberation of the Grand Principality of Moscow from the Tartar-Mongol yoke. The events which culminated this struggle are presented by Marx inaccurately. Khan Akhmat launched two campaigns against Moscow: in 1472 and in 1480. In 1472 he captured the town of Aleksin but was forced to retreat before the Russians. In 1480 Khan Akhmat’s troops were confronted by strong Russian detachments on the River Ugra (known as “Standing on the Ugra”). Khan Akhmat was forced to retreat in October and November and on January 6, 1481 he was killed by the Nogay Khan Ivak. The “Standing on the Ugra” put an end to the 240-year Tartar-Mongol yoke over Russia.