Unknown history of Russia: “Battle of Molody. Great Molodino battle Defeat devlet weight 1572
Ivan Sheremetev
Dmitry Khvorostinin
120 thousand
Cossacks, noble cavalry
and service Livonian Germans, German mercenaries and Cossacks M. Cherkashenin, as well as, possibly, a trooper army (militia)
about 12 thousand drowned in the Oka
Battle of the Young or Molodin battle- a major battle that took place between July 29 and August 2, 1572, 50 versts south of Moscow, in which Russian troops under the leadership of the voivode Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops proper, Turkish and Nogai detachments, met in battle. Despite the significant numerical superiority, the Turkish-Crimean army was put to flight and almost completely killed.
In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi is comparable to the Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. The victory in the battle allowed Russia to maintain its independence and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Russian kingdom and the Crimean Khanate, which abandoned its claims to the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates and henceforth lost most of its power. Battle of Molodin is the result of the most distant military campaign of Turkish troops to Europe.
Since 2009, a reenactment festival has been held at the scene, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the battle.
Political situation
Expansion of Muscovite Rus
However, Devlet Girey was sure that Russia would not recover from such a blow and could itself become an easy prey, besides, hunger and a plague epidemic reigned within its borders. In his opinion, the only thing left to do was to deliver the final blow. All year after the campaign against Moscow, he was engaged in the preparation of a new, much larger army. Active support was provided by the Ottoman Empire, which provided him with several thousand soldiers, including 7 thousand selected janissaries. From the Crimean Tatars and Nogais, he managed to collect about 80 thousand people. Possessing a huge army at that time, Devlet Girey moved to Moscow. The Crimean Khan has repeatedly stated that “ goes to Moscow for the kingdom". The lands of Muscovite Rus were already divided in advance among the Crimean murzas. The invasion of the Crimean army, like Batu's campaigns of conquest, raised the acute question of the existence of an independent Russian state.
On the eve of the battle
This time the Khan's campaign was incomparably more serious than an ordinary raid. On July 27, the Crimean-Turkish army approached the Oka and began to cross it in two places - at the confluence of the Lopasnya river along the Sen'kin ford, and above Serpukhov along the stream. The first place of the crossing was guarded by a small guard regiment of "boyars' children" under the command of Ivan Shuisky, which consisted of only 200 soldiers. The Nogai vanguard of the Crimean-Turkish army under the command of Tereberdey-Murza fell on him. The detachment did not flee, but entered into an unequal battle, but was scattered, having managed, however, to inflict great damage on the Crimeans. After that, the Tereberdey-Murza detachment reached the outskirts of modern Podolsk near the Pakhra River and, having cut all the roads leading to Moscow, stopped in anticipation of the main forces.
The main positions of the Russian troops were at Serpukhov. Gulyai-gorod consisted of shields in half a log the size of a log wall, fortified on carts, with loopholes for shooting and arranged in a circle or in a line. Russian soldiers were armed with squeaks and cannons. To distract, Devlet Girey sent a two thousandth detachment against Serpukhov, while he himself, with the main forces, crossed the Oka in a more distant place near the village of Drakino, where he collided with the regiment of voivode Nikita Romanovich Odoevsky, who was defeated in a difficult battle. After that, the main army moved to Moscow, and Vorotynsky, having removed the troops from the coastal positions, moved in pursuit of him. It was a risky strategy: it was assumed that the khan would not want to put his army in "two fires" and, since he did not know what the garrison of Moscow was, he would first have to destroy the Russian army "clinging to the tail". The siege of a well-fortified city, even with a small garrison, but with numerous cannons, was a long undertaking and the khan could not leave behind a strong enemy threatening carts and small detachments. In addition, there was the experience of the previous year, when the governor Ivan Belsky managed to lock himself in Moscow, but could not prevent the arson of the posadov.
The composition of the Russian army
According to the regimental painting of the "coastal" regiment of Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky, the Russian army had in its composition (according to there was also a left-hand regiment on the Lopasna River: governors Prince Ondrey Vasilyevich Repnin and Prince Peter Ivanovich Khvorostinin):
| Voivodship regiment | Composition | Number of |
|---|---|---|
| Large regiment: | ||
| Total: 8255 the man and the Cossacks of Mikhail Cherkashenin | ||
| Right Hand Regiment: |
|
|
| Total: 3590 | ||
| Forward regiment: |
|
|
| Total: 4475 | ||
| Guard regiment: |
|
|
| Total: 4670 | ||
| Total: 20 034
human and the Cossacks of Mikhail Cherkashenin at the Big Regiment |
||
Battle progress
The Crimean army was fairly stretched out and while its forward units reached the Pakhra River, the rearguard only approached the village of Molodi, located 15 kilometers from it. It was here that he was overtaken by an advanced detachment of Russian troops under the leadership of the young governor of the oprichnina, Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin. A fierce battle broke out, as a result of which the Crimean rearguard was practically destroyed. This happened on July 29th.
After that, what Vorotynsky had hoped for happened. Learning about the defeat of the rearguard and fearing for his rear, Devlet Giray deployed his army. By this time, the gulyai-town had already been deployed near Molodya in a convenient place located on a hill and covered by the Rozhaya River. Khvorostinin's detachment was alone with the entire Crimean army, but, having correctly assessed the situation, the young voivode was not taken aback and with an imaginary retreat lured the enemy to Gulyai-Gorod. With a quick maneuver to the right, leading his soldiers to the side, he brought the enemy under the deadly artillery and squeaky fire - “ many Tatars were beaten". In gulyai-gorod there was a large regiment under the command of Vorotynsky himself, as well as the Cossacks of Ataman Cherkashenin who arrived in time. A protracted battle began, for which the Crimean army was not ready. In one of the unsuccessful attacks on Gulyai-Gorod, Tereberdey-Murza was killed.
After a series of small skirmishes on July 31, Devlet Girey launched a decisive assault on the city of Gulyai, but it was repulsed. His army suffered heavy losses, including the Crimean Khan's adviser Divey-Murza was taken prisoner. As a result of heavy losses, the Crimeans retreated. The next day the attacks stopped, but the position of the besieged was critical - there were a huge number of wounded in the fortification, the water was running out.
Aftermath of the battle
A foundation stone in memory of the victory in the Battle of Molodi.
After an unsuccessful campaign against the Russian kingdom, Crimea lost almost all its combat-ready male population, since, according to customs, almost all combat-ready men were obliged to participate in the campaigns of the khan. In general, the battle at the village of Molodi became a turning point in the confrontation between Moscow Russia and the Crimean Khanate and the last major battle between Russia and the Steppe. As a result of the battle, the military power of the Crimean Khanate, which had been threatening the Russian lands for so long, was undermined. The Ottoman Empire was forced to abandon plans to return the middle and lower Volga region to its sphere of interests, and they were assigned to Russia.
Ruined by the previous Crimean raids in 1566-1571. and natural disasters of the late 1560s. , fighting on two fronts, Moscow Russia was able to withstand and maintain its independence in an extremely critical situation.
Serious research on the Battle of Molodi began only at the end of the 20th century.
see also
Literature
- Buganov V.I. Documents about the battle at Molody in 1572. // Historical archive, no. 4, pp. 166-183, 1959
- Buganov V.I. The Tale of the Victory over the Crimean Tatars in 1572 // Archaeographic Yearbook for 1961. M., 1962.S. 259-275. (The Battle of Molodi is presented day by day)
- Burdey G. D. Battle of Molodino in 1572 // From the history of inter-Slavic cultural ties. M., 1963.S. 48-79 Uchen. app. ... T. 26
- Bulanin D. M. The story of the Battle of Molody.
- Andreev A.R. Unknown Borodino: Battle of Molodino in 1572. - M., 1997,
- Andreev A.R. History of Crimea. - Moscow, 2001.
- Skrynnikov R. G. Oprichnina terror // Uchen. app. LGPI them. A. I. Herzen. 1969.Vol. 374, pp. 167-174.
- Kargalov V.V. Dmitry Khvorostinin // Moscow governors of the XVI-XVII centuries. / V.V. Kargalov. - M .: OOO "TID" Russian word-RS ", 2002. - 336, p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-94853-007-8(in lane)
- Kargalov V.V. Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky
In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi is comparable to the Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. The victory in the battle allowed Russia to maintain its independence and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Russian kingdom and the Crimean Khanate, which abandoned its claims to the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates and henceforth lost most of its power. Battle of Molodin is the result of the most distant military campaign of Turkish troops to Europe.
The battle took place between July 29 and August 2, 1572, 50 versts south of Moscow, in which the Russian troops under the leadership of the voivode Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops proper, Turkish and Nogai detachments, clashed in battle. Despite the significant numerical superiority, the Turkish-Crimean army was put to flight and almost completely killed.
Background. March of the Crimean Tatars in 1571 and the burning of Moscow
With the support of the Ottoman Empire and in agreement with the newly formed Rzeczpospolita, the Crimean Khan Devlet Girey in May 1571 with an army of 40,000 made a devastating campaign against the Russian lands. Bypassing with the help of defectors the notch lines on the southern outskirts of the Russian kingdom (a chain of fortifications called the "belt of the Most Holy Theotokos"), he reached Moscow and set its suburbs on fire. The city, built mainly of wood, was almost completely burned down, with the exception of the stone Kremlin. It is very difficult to determine the number of victims and those taken prisoner, but, according to estimates of various historians, it amounts to tens of thousands. After the fire of Moscow, Ivan IV, who had previously left the city, offered to return the Astrakhan Khanate and was almost ready to negotiate the return of Kazan, and also tore down the fortifications in the North Caucasus.
However, Devlet Girey was sure that Russia would not recover from such a blow and could itself become an easy prey, besides, hunger and a plague epidemic reigned within its borders. In his opinion, the only thing left to do was to deliver the final blow. All year after the campaign against Moscow, he was engaged in the preparation of a new, much larger army. Active support was provided by the Ottoman Empire, which provided him with several thousand soldiers, including 7 thousand selected janissaries. From the Crimean Tatars and Nogais, he managed to collect about 80 thousand people. Possessing a huge army at that time, Devlet Girey moved to Moscow. The Crimean Khan has repeatedly stated that "he is going to Moscow to reign". The lands of Muscovite Rus were already divided in advance among the Crimean murzas. The invasion of the Crimean army, like Batu's campaigns of conquest, raised the acute question of the existence of an independent Russian state.
March of the Crimean Tatars in 1572
In 1572, the Moscow state was devastated by famine (a consequence of crop failures caused by drought and cold), and the plague epidemic continued. In the Livonian War, the Russian army suffered a heavy defeat at Reval, most of the army was in the Baltic and on other western borders. The Russian capital seemed to the Crimeans an easy prey. Its old fortifications were destroyed by fire, and the new ones, hastily erected, could not completely replace them. Military setbacks shook Russian rule in the Volga and Caspian regions.
3a back of the Crimeans stood the largest military power in Europe - the Ottoman Empire. In such a situation, the khan hoped not only to seize the Middle and southern Volga region from Russia, but also to seize Moscow and thereby restore the long-standing dependence of Russia on the Tatars. On the eve of the invasion, Devlet I ordered to paint the counties and cities of Russia between the Murzes. The Turkish sultan sent a large detachment of janissaries to the Crimea to take part in the campaign of conquest against Russia. The Crimean Khan's allies were many Adyghe princes from the North Caucasus.
In anticipation of a new invasion, by May 1572, the Russians had gathered on the southern border a united oprichnina and zemstvo army of about 12,000 noblemen, 2035 archers, and 3,800 Cossacks ataman Mikhail Cherkashin. Together with the militias of the northern cities, the army numbered a little more than 20 thousand people. At the head of the army were the voivode Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky and the oprichnina voivode Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Khvorostinin.
There was a numerical superiority on the side of the Crimeans. The invasion was attended by from 40 to 50 thousand horsemen from the Crimean army, the Great and Small Nogai hordes, up to 7 thousand Turkish janissaries. The khan had Turkish artillery at his disposal.
The Russian command located the main forces near Kolomna, covering the approaches to Moscow from Ryazan. But it also took into account the possibility of a repeated invasion from the south-west, from the Ugra region. In this case, the command moved the forward regiment of Prince Khvorostinin to the extreme right flank in Kaluga. Contrary to tradition, the forward regiment outnumbered the right and left hand regiments. Khvorostinin was assigned a mobile river detachment to defend the crossings across the Oka. Ivan the Terrible himself, like last year, left Moscow, this time towards Veliky Novgorod.
The invasion began on 23 July 1572. The mobile Nogai cavalry rushed to Tula and on the third day tried to cross the Oka above Serpukhov, but was repulsed from the crossings by the Russian guard regiment. Meanwhile, the khan with his entire army went to the main Serpukhov crossings across the Oka. The Russian commanders were waiting for the enemy beyond the Oka River in heavily fortified positions.
Faced with a solid Russian defense, Devlet I renewed the attack in the Senkin ford area above Serpukhov. On the night of July 28, the Nogai cavalry dispersed two hundred nobles who were guarding the ford, and captured the crossings. Developing the offensive, the Nogai went far to the north overnight. In the morning, Prince Khvorostinin arrived in time to the place of the crossing with an advanced regiment. But, faced with the main forces of the Crimean army, he evaded the battle. Soon the right-hand regiment attempted to intercept the attackers in the upper reaches of the Nara River, but was driven back. Devlet I Girey went to the rear of the Russian army and began to move unhindered to Moscow along the Serpukhov road. The rearguards were commanded by the sons of the khan with numerous and elite cavalry. The advanced Russian regiment followed the Crimean princes, waiting for an opportune moment.
Before the battle
This time the Khan's campaign was incomparably more serious than an ordinary raid. On July 27, the Crimean-Turkish army approached the Oka and began to cross it in two places - at the confluence of the Lopasnya river along the Sen'kin ford, and above Serpukhov along the stream. The first place of the crossing was guarded by a small guard regiment of "boyars' children" under the command of Ivan Shuisky, which consisted of only 200 soldiers. The Nogai vanguard of the Crimean-Turkish army under the command of Tereberdey-Murza fell on him. The detachment did not flee, but entered into an unequal battle, but was scattered, having managed, however, to inflict great damage on the Crimeans. After that, the Tereberdey-Murza detachment reached the outskirts of modern Podolsk near the Pakhra River and, having cut all the roads leading to Moscow, stopped in anticipation of the main forces.
The main positions of the Russian troops were at Serpukhov. Gulyai-gorod consisted of shields in half a log the size of a log wall, fortified on carts, with loopholes for shooting and arranged in a circle or in a line. Russian soldiers were armed with squeaks and cannons. To distract, Devlet Girey sent a two thousandth detachment against Serpukhov, while he himself, with the main forces, crossed the Oka in a more distant place near the village of Drakino, where he collided with the regiment of voivode Nikita Romanovich Odoevsky, who was defeated in a difficult battle. After that, the main army moved to Moscow, and Vorotynsky, having removed the troops from the coastal positions, moved in pursuit of him. It was a risky tactic, since all the hope was pinned on the fact that by "grasping the tail" of the Crimean army, the Russians would force the khan to turn around for battle and not go to defenseless Moscow. However, the alternative was to overtake the khan on a side path, which had little chance of success. In addition, there was the experience of the previous year, when the governor Ivan Belsky managed to arrive in Moscow before the Crimeans, but could not prevent her arson.
Forces of the parties
Devlet Girey: 140 thousand Crimean Tatars, Turkish Janissaries and Nogays
Vorotynsky and Khvorostinin: about 20 thousand archers, Cossacks, noble cavalry and service Livonian Germans, 7 thousand German mercenaries, about 5 thousand Cossacks M. Cherkashenin, as well as, possibly, a trooper army (militia)
Battle progress
The battle took place in the area of the village of Molody, 45 miles from Moscow. The Crimeans could not withstand the blow and fled. Khvorostinin "domchal" the Crimean guard regiment to the very Khan's headquarters. Devlet I was forced to send 12 thousand Crimean and Nogai horsemen to help his sons. The battle was growing, and the main voivode Vorotynsky, in anticipation of an attack, ordered to establish a mobile fortress - "gulyai-gorod" near Molodya. A large regiment of Russians took refuge behind the walls of the fortress.
The multiple superiority of the enemy forces forced Khvorostinin to retreat. But at the same time, he carried out a brilliant maneuver. His regiment, retreating, dragged the Crimeans to the walls of the "walk-gorod". Volleys of Russian cannons firing point-blank wreaked havoc on the advancing cavalry and forced them to turn back.
During the day, most of the Crimean army stood behind Pakhra, and then turned back to Molody. The center of the Russian defensive positions was a hill, on the top of which was the "walk-city". At the foot of the hill behind the Rozhai River, there were 3 thousand archers to support the voivode "on beckers".
The Crimeans quickly overcame the distance from Pakhra to Rozhai and attacked the Russian positions with their entire mass. The archers perished on the battlefield, every single one, but the soldiers who had settled in the "walk-city" repulsed the cavalry attacks. The attackers suffered heavy losses, but the food supplies in the "walk-city" ran out.
After a two-day lull, Devlet I Girey resumed the assault on the "walk-gorod" on August 2. Towards the end of the day, when the onslaught began to weaken, the voivode MI Vorotynsky with his regiments left the "gulyai-gorod" and, advancing along the bottom of the ravine behind the fortifications, secretly went to the rear of the attackers. The defense of the "gulyai-gorod" was entrusted to Prince D.I. At the agreed signal, Khvorostinin fired a volley from all guns, then "climbed" out of the fortress and attacked the enemy. At the same moment, Vorotynsky's regiments fell on the Crimeans from the rear. The Crimeans could not withstand the blow and rushed to run. Many of them were killed and taken prisoner. Among those killed was the khan's son. On the next day, the Russians continued to pursue the enemy and defeated the rearguards left by the khan on the Oka.
The Battle of Molody (or Molodin battle) is a major battle that took place between July 29 and August 2, 1572 near the village of Molodi near Serpukhov (not far from Moscow). The battle brought together the Russian army under the command of princes Mikhail Vorotynsky and Dmitry Khvorostinin and the army of the Crimean khan Devlet I Girey, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops, Turkish and Nogai detachments. And although the Crimean Turkish army had a significant numerical superiority, it was completely defeated.
The Russians used effective defense tactics in the battle in a mobile fortress made of wooden shields - the gulyai-gorod, and strikes into the front and rear of the enemy exhausted in five days of battles. In that battle, Davlet-Girey lost almost the entire male population of the khanate. However, the Russians did not undertake a campaign against the Crimea in order to finish off the enemy, because the principality was weakened by the war on two fronts.
Background
1571 - Khan Davlet-Girey took advantage of the fact that the Russian troops left for, destroyed and plundered Moscow. Then 60,000 people were taken prisoner by the Tatars - this is, in fact, almost the entire population of the city. A year later (1572) the khan wanted to repeat his raid, hatching an ambitious plan to annex Muscovy to his dominions.
On the eve of the battle
The Russian army met the Tatar cavalry on the Oka on July 27, 1572. For two days, battles were going on for the crossings, in the end the dashing Nogai were able to break through the extended defense at Senka ford. Voivode Dmitry Khvorostinin rushed to close the breakthrough with his forward regiment, but was late. The main forces of the Tatars have already crossed and, having broken the regiment of the governor Nikita Odoevsky that blocked the way, went along the Serpukhov road to Moscow.
It should be noted that although Khvorostinin was listed in the oprichnina, for the most part he was not engaged in murder in the capital. Throughout all these years, he fought with the Tatars on the southern borders, where he earned a reputation as perhaps the best military leader in Russia: as the English traveler Ambassador Fletcher later wrote, Khvorostinin is "their main husband, most used in wartime." His military talent was so great that he allowed Dmitry Ivanovich to make a brilliant career for his art. Although it is Khvorostinin who holds a kind of record - in history he remained the "champion" in terms of the number of parochial litigations filed against him, no one else was so often put in command of the army bypassing more noble applicants.
Not having time to prevent a breakthrough, Khvorostinin relentlessly followed the Tatars, waiting for an opportunity. After him, abandoning the baggage train, he set off in pursuit and Vorotynsky with the main forces - it was in no way possible to let the Tatars go to Moscow.
Balance of forces
Russian army:
Big regiment - 8255 people and Mikhail Cherkashenin's Cossacks;
Right hand regiment - 3590 people;
Left hand regiment - 1651 people;
Forward regiment - 4475 people;
Guard regiment - 4670 people;
In total, more than 22 thousand soldiers were gathered under the arm of Prince Vorotynsky.
Crimean Tatars:
60,000 horsemen, as well as numerous detachments of the Big and Small Nogai hordes.
Battle of Molodi
The moment was presented to Khvorostinin only 45 versts from Moscow, near the village of Molody - by attacking the rearguard of the Tatar troops, he was able to inflict a heavy defeat on the Tatars. After that, the khan stopped the offensive on the capital, having decided first to get rid of the Russian army "clinging to the tail". The main forces of the Tatars were able to easily overturn the regiment of Khvorostinin, but he, retreating, carried the Tatar army to the deployed Vorotynsky "gulyai-gorod" - that is how Wagenburg was called in Russia, a mobile fortification formed by wagons chained into a circle. While retreating, Khvorostinin walked under the very walls of the "gulyai-gorod", and the Tatars who rushed after the Tatars were met by the Russian artillery hidden in the fortification, which pretty much wiped out the pursuers. The embittered Tatar army moved on to attack.
This was the prelude to the decisive battle - most of the Tatars went to storm the "walk-city", the rest fought in the field with the noble militia. The Suzdal son of the boyar Temir Alalykin distinguished himself - he was able to capture one of the most high-ranking Crimean nobles Diveya-Murza, the head of the Mangit family, the second most famous after the ruling Gireys. The Russians nevertheless repulsed the onslaught, but in the morning they were in for a surprise - no continuation of the assault followed. The Tatar army, taking advantage of the superiority in numbers, took the Russian army in a ring and stood still in anticipation.
It was not difficult to guess their intentions - the Tatars found out that the Russian army had abandoned the baggage train and were left without supplies, and given that the encirclement ring also made it difficult to supply the troops with water, it was only necessary to wait. Wait until the exhausted Russians are forced to leave the fortifications in order to take the battle in an open field. With such a large difference in the number of troops, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. The captive Divey-Murza, mocking, told Vorotynsky that if he were free, he would be able to extricate the enemy from the "walk-city" in 5-6 days.
Gulyai-gorod (wagenburg)
Siege
The siege, disastrous for the Russian army, lasted for two days, and in the "regiment he taught to be hunger as a people and a great horse", ate dead horses. The Moscow governor Prince Tokmakov was able to save the army of Vorotynsky. In the capital, which was very close (now Molodi is a village in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region), of course, they knew what a desperate situation the Russian army was in. The cunning Moscow voivode sent Vorotynsky a "false letter", which said that they should "sit fearlessly," because a huge Novgorod army, led by Tsar Ivan IV himself, is coming to the rescue. In reality, the letter was not addressed to Vorotynsky, but to the Tatars. The Moscow messenger was captured, tortured and executed; he paid with his life for disinformation.
And in the morning the Tatars did not turn back, as Tokmakov had hoped, but they nevertheless abandoned the idea of starving out the Russian army and resumed active actions.
Storming the "walk-city"
On August 2, the Tatars threw all their forces into the assault on the "walk-gorod". After several unsuccessful attacks, the khan ordered his soldiers to dismount and, under the leadership of the Janissaries, attack Wagenburg on foot. This last onslaught was terrible, the Tatars and Turks, having poured out the hillsides with killed soldiers, were able to get to the very walls of the makeshift fortress. They chopped off the walls of the carts with sabers, trying to overturn them: "... and the Tatars came to the walk and were seized from the city behind the wall with their hands, and then they beat many Tatars and cut off countless hands."
Monument to the Battle of Molodino
Defeat of the Tatars at the Battle of Molody
And then an event occurred that decided the outcome of this fateful battle. As it turned out, Vorotynsky, taking advantage of the fact that the entire Tatar army was concentrated on one side of the hill, undertook an extremely risky maneuver. He left Khvorostinin to command the defense of the "walk-town", and he himself, with the "big regiment", passing unnoticed along the bottom of the ravine, went to the rear of the Crimean Horde. Two blows followed at the same time - as soon as Vorotynsky struck from the rear, immediately "from walking the city, Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin from the archers and the Germans left" and attacked from his side. Having got "in the pincers", the army of Devlet-Giray could not stand it and fled. Both detachments of Russians: Vorotynsky's zemstvo and Khvorostinin's oprichnik rushed after them - to finish them off.
It wasn't even a rout - a massacre. The Tatars were driven to the Oka, and because the absolute majority of the Krymchaks had a chance to flee on foot, the losses were enormous. The Russians not only whipped the retreating, but also almost completely cut out the two thousandth rearguard left to guard the crossing. In the battle of Molody, almost all the janissaries perished, the khan's army lacked most of the murzas, the sons of the kalga, the second person in the khanate, were hacked to death. In the battle at Molodi, the son, grandson and son-in-law of Devlet-Girey himself were killed, "and many murzas and totar were caught alive." No more than 15,000 survivors returned to Crimea.
Consequences of the Molodino battle
So this battle ended, which bled the Crimean Khanate for many decades. The invasions of Russia ceased for almost 20 years. In our time, this battle is half-forgotten, although in its significance for Russia it is not inferior to either the Battle of Borodino or the Battle of Borodino.
The entire Russian land greeted the winners with jubilation. Already on August 6, the messengers were able to reach the emperor and thanksgiving prayers began in the Novgorod churches. Russia was saved. She was saved by a miracle.
Returning to the capital by the end of August, he canceled it.
On the Don and Desna, the border fortifications were moved to the south for 300 km, after a short time, under Fedor Ioannovich, Voronezh and a new fortress in Yelets were laid - they began to develop the rich black earth, previously belonging to the Wild Field.
This day in history:
The Battle of Molody (Molodin battle) is a major battle that took place in 1572 near Moscow, between the Russian troops led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Gerei, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops proper, Turkish and Nogai detachments. ..
Despite the twofold numerical superiority, the 120,000-strong Crimean army was utterly defeated and put to flight. Only about 20 thousand people were saved.
In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi was comparable to the Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. It preserved the independence of Russia and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Moscow state and the Crimean Khanate, which renounced its claims to Kazan and Astrakhan and henceforth lost a significant part of its power ...
Prince Vorotynsky managed to impose a protracted battle on Devlet-Girey, depriving him of the advantages of a sudden powerful blow. The troops of the Crimean Khan suffered huge losses (according to some sources, almost 100 thousand people). But the most important thing is irreplaceable losses, since the main combat-ready population of Crimea took part in the campaign.
The village of Molodi became a cemetery for a significant part of the men of the Crimean Khanate. Here the whole color of the Crimean army, its best soldiers, fell. The Turkish janissaries were completely exterminated. After such a brutal blow, the Crimean khans no longer even thought about raiding the Russian capital. The Crimean-Turkish aggression against the Russian state was stopped.
“In the summer of 1571, they were waiting for the raid of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. But the guardsmen, who were instructed to keep the screen on the banks of the Oka, in the majority did not go into service: to fight against the Crimean Khan was more dangerous than to plunder Novgorod. One of the captured boyar children gave the khan an unknown path to one of the fords on the Oka.
Devlet-Girey managed to bypass the screen of the zemstvo troops and one oprichnina regiment and force the Oka. Russian troops barely had time to return to Moscow. But Devlet-Girey did not besiege the capital, but set fire to the posad. The fire spread over the walls. The entire city burned down, and those who took refuge in the Kremlin and in the adjoining fortress Kitay-Gorod suffocated from the smoke and "fire heat". Negotiations began, at which the Russian diplomats received secret instructions agreeing, as a last resort, to a refusal from Astrakhan. Devlet-Girey also demanded Kazan. In order to finally break the will of Ivan IV, he prepared a raid for the next year.
Ivan IV understood the seriousness of the situation. He decided to put at the head of the troops an experienced commander who was often in disgrace - Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. Both zemstvo and oprichniks were subordinate to his command; they were united in service and within each regiment. This united army in the battle near the village of Molodi (50 km. South of Moscow) utterly defeated the army of Devlet-Girey, which was almost twice its size. The Crimean threat was eliminated for many years. "
History of Russia from ancient times to 1861. M., 2000, p. 154
The battle that took place in August 1572 near the village of Molodi, which is about 50 km from Moscow, between Podolsk and Serpukhov, is sometimes called "Unknown Borodino". The battle itself and the heroes who participated in it are rarely mentioned in Russian history. Everyone knows the Battle of Kulikovo, as well as the Moscow prince Dmitry who led the Russian army, who received the nickname Donskoy. Then the hordes of Mamai were defeated, but the next year the Tatars again attacked Moscow and burned it. After the Molodinsky battle, in which the 120,000-strong Crimean-Astrakhan horde was destroyed, the Tatars' raids on Moscow ceased forever.
In the XVI century. Crimean Tatars regularly raided Muscovy. They burnt cities and villages, drove away the able-bodied population into captivity. At the same time, the number of overwhelmed peasants and townspeople was many times greater than the military losses.
The culmination was in 1571, when the army of Khan Devlet-Girey burned Moscow to the ground. People were hiding in the Kremlin, the Tatars set fire to it too. The whole Moskva River was littered with corpses, the current stopped ... In the next, 1572, Devlet-Girey, as a true Chingizid, was not just going to repeat the raid, he decided to revive the Golden Horde, but to make Moscow its capital.
Devlet-Girey said that he was "going to Moscow for the kingdom." As one of the heroes of the Molodinsky battle, the German oprichnik Heinrich Staden, wrote, “the cities and districts of the Russian land were all already painted and divided between the Murzas who were under the Crimean tsar; it was determined which one should keep. "
On the eve of the invasion
The position of Russia was difficult. The consequences of the devastating invasion of 1571, as well as the plague epidemic, were still felt. The summer in 1572 was dry and sultry; horses and cattle died. The Russian regiments were experiencing serious difficulties in supplying food.
Economic difficulties were intertwined with complex internal political events, accompanied by executions, disgraces, which began in the Volga region with uprisings of the local feudal nobility. In such a difficult situation, preparations were under way in the Russian state to repel the new invasion of Devlet-Girey. On April 1, 1572, a new system of border service began to operate, taking into account the experience of last year's struggle with Devlet-Giray.
Thanks to reconnaissance, the Russian command was promptly informed about the movement of the 120-thousandth army of Devlet-Girey and its further actions. The construction and improvement of military defensive structures, primarily located along a large stretch along the Oka, proceeded rapidly.
Having received news of the impending invasion, Ivan the Terrible fled to Novgorod and wrote a letter from there to Devlet-Girey offering peace in exchange for Kazan and Astrakhan. But it did not satisfy the khan.
Battle of Molody
In the spring of 1571, the Crimean Khan Divlet Girey, at the head of a 120-thousand-strong horde, attacked Russia. The traitor Prince Mstislavsky sent his people to show the khan how to bypass the 600-kilometer Zasechnaya line from the west.
The Tatars came from where they were not expected, they burned down the whole of Moscow - several hundred thousand people died.
In addition to Moscow, the Crimean Khan ravaged the central regions, carved out 36 cities, collected the 100-thousandth full and left for the Crimea; on the way, he sent a knife to the tsar, "so that Ivan would stab himself."
The Crimean invasion was like the Batu pogrom; the khan believed that Russia was exhausted and would no longer be able to resist; Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars revolted; in 1572 the horde went to Russia to establish a new yoke - the khan's murzas divided the cities and uluses among themselves.
Russia was really weakened by a 20-year war, hunger, plague and the terrible Tatar invasion; Ivan the Terrible managed to collect only a 20-thousandth army.
On July 28, a huge horde crossed the Oka and, throwing back the Russian regiments, rushed to Moscow - however, the Russian army followed, attacking the Tatar rearguards. The khan was forced to turn back, the masses of Tatars rushed to the Russian forward regiment, which fled, luring the enemies to the fortifications, where the archers and cannons were located - it was a "gulyai-gorod", a mobile fortress made of wooden shields. Volleys of Russian cannons firing point-blank stopped the Tatar cavalry, it fled, leaving piles of corpses on the field, but the khan again drove his soldiers forward.
For almost a week, with interruptions to remove the corpses, the Tatars stormed the "walk-gorod" near the village of Molodi, not far from the modern city of Podolsk, dismounted horsemen approached the wooden walls, rocked them - "and here many Tatars beat and cut off countless hands."
On August 2, when the onslaught of the Tatars weakened, the Russian regiments left the "gulyai-gorod" and attacked the exhausted enemy, the horde turned to panicky flight, the Tatars pursued and hacked to the banks of the Oka - the Crimeans had never suffered such a bloody defeat.
The Battle of Molodi was a great victory for the autocracy: only absolute power could gather all forces into one fist and repel a terrible enemy - and it is easy to imagine what would have happened if Russia had been ruled not by the tsar, but by the princes and boyars - the times of Batu would have been repeated.
Having suffered a terrible defeat, the Crimeans did not dare to show themselves on the Oka for 20 years; the uprisings of the Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars were suppressed - Russia won the Great War for the Volga region. On the Don and Desna, the border fortifications were pushed back to the south by 300 kilometers, at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Yelets and Voronezh were laid - the development of the richest black earth lands of the Wild Field began.
The victory over the Tatars was achieved to a large extent thanks to pishchal and cannons - weapons that were brought from the West through the "window to Europe" cut by the tsar (?). This window was the port of Narva, and King Sigismund asked Queen Elizabeth of England to stop the arms trade, for “the Moscow sovereign daily increases his power by acquiring items that are brought to Narva.” (?)
V.M. Belotserkovets
Foreign voivode
The Oka River served as the main support line, the harsh Russian borderland (borderland) against the invasions of the Crimeans. Annually, up to 65 thousand soldiers acted on its shores, who carried out guard duty from early spring to late autumn. According to contemporaries, the river “was fortified more than 50 miles along the bank: one against the other were filled with two palisades four feet in height, one from the other at a distance of two feet, and this distance between them was filled with earth dug behind the rear palisade ... The shooters, thus, could hide behind both palisades and shoot at the Tatars when they crossed the river. "
The choice of the commander-in-chief was difficult: there were few people suitable for this responsible position. In the end, the choice fell on the zemstvo governor, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky, an outstanding military leader, "a strong and courageous husband and exceedingly skillful in regiments."
Boyarin Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky (c. 1510-1573), like his father, from a young age devoted himself to military service. In 1536, 25-year-old Prince Mikhail distinguished himself in the winter campaign of Ivan the Terrible against the Swedes, and after a while - in the Kazan campaigns. During the siege of Kazan in 1552, Vorotynsky at a critical moment managed to repel the attack of the defenders of the city, lead the archers and capture the Arskaya tower, and then, at the head of a large regiment, seize the Kremlin by storm. For which he received the honorary title of the sovereign, servant and governor.
In 1550-1560. M.I. Vorotynsky supervised the construction of defensive structures on the southern borders of the country. Thanks to his efforts, the approaches to Kolomna, Kaluga, Serpukhov and other cities were strengthened. He established a guard service, repelled the attacks of the Tatars.
Selfless and devoted friendship to the sovereign did not rid the prince of suspicions of treason. In 1562-1566. humiliation, disgrace, exile, dungeon fell to his lot. In those years, Vorotynsky received an offer from the Polish king Sigismund-Augustus to go to serve in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But the prince remained loyal to the sovereign and Russia.
In January-February 1571, servicemen, boyar children, village residents, and village heads came to Moscow from all border towns. By order of Ivan the Terrible M.I. Vorotynsky had to, after questioning those summoned to the capital, write down from which cities, in which direction and at what distance to send patrols, in which places the guards should stand (indicating the territory served by the patrols of each of them), in which places the border heads should be “for protection from the arrival of military people ", etc.
The result of this work was the "Order on the village and guard service" left by Vorotynsky. In accordance with it, the border service must do everything possible "to make the outskirts more careful", so that military people "do not come to the outskirts unknown", to accustom the guards to constant vigilance.
Another order of M.I. Vorotynsky (February 27, 1571) - on the establishment of places of parking for sentinel village heads and on giving them detachments. They can be considered the prototype of Russian military regulations.
Knowing about the upcoming raid of Devlet-Giray, what could the Russian commander oppose to the Tatars? Tsar Ivan, referring to the war in Livonia, did not provide him with a sufficient number of troops, giving Vorotynsky only the oprichnina regiment; at the disposal of the prince were regiments of boyar children, Cossacks, Livonian and German mercenaries. In total, the number of Russian troops was about 60 thousand people.
12 Tumens marched against him, that is, twice the army of the Tatars and Turkish Janissaries, who also carried artillery.
The question arose, what tactics to choose so that with such small forces not only to stop, but also to defeat the enemy? Vorotynsky's leadership talent manifested itself not only in the creation of a border defense, but also in the development and implementation of a battle plan. In the latter, another hero of the battle played a crucial role? Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin.
So, the snow had not yet melted from the banks of the Oka, as Vorotynsky began to prepare for a meeting with the enemy. Border pillars and notches were made, Cossack patrols and patrols were constantly plying, tracking down the "Sakma" (Tatar trace), forest ambushes were created. Local residents were involved in the defense. But the plan itself was not yet ready. Only general features: to drag the enemy into a viscous defensive war, deprive him of maneuverability, confuse him for a while, wear out his strength, then force him to go to the "walk-town", where he will give the final battle.
Gulyai-gorod is a mobile fortress, a mobile fortified post, built of separate wooden walls, which were placed on carts, with loopholes for firing cannons and rifles. It was erected by the Rozai River and was of decisive importance in the battle. "If the Russians did not have a walk-town, the Crimean Khan would have beaten us," recalls Staden, "he would have taken us prisoner and bound everyone to the Crimea, and the Russian land would have been his land."
The most important thing in terms of the upcoming battle is to force Devlet-Girey to go along the Serpukhov road. And any leak of information threatened the failure of the entire battle, in fact, the fate of Russia was being decided. Therefore, the prince kept all the details of the plan in the strictest confidence, even the nearest commanders for the time being did not know what their commander was planning.
The beginning of the battle
Summer has come. At the end of July, the hordes of Devlet-Giray crossed the Oka just above Serpukhov, in the area of Senkinoy ford. Russian troops took up positions near Serpukhov, having fortified themselves with the gulyai-city.
Khan bypassed the main Russian fortifications and rushed to Moscow. Vorotynsky immediately withdrew from the ferries at Serpukhov and rushed after Devlet-Girey. The forward regiment under the command of Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin overtook the rearguard of the Khan's army near the village of Molodi. The small village of Molodi at that time was surrounded by forests on all sides. And only in the west, where there were gentle hills, did the men cut down the trees and plow the land. On the elevated bank of the Rozhai River, at the confluence of the Molodka River, there was a wooden Church of the Resurrection.
The advanced regiment overtook the Crimean rearguard, forced it to join the battle, attacked and defeated. But he did not stop there, but pursued the remnants of the defeated rearguard right up to the main forces of the Crimean army. The blow was so strong that the two tsarevichs, who were in charge of the rearguard, told the khan that it was necessary to stop the offensive.
The blow was so unexpected and powerful that Devlet-Girey stopped his army. He realized that there was a Russian army behind him, which must be destroyed in order to ensure an unhindered advance towards Moscow. The Khan turned back, Devlet-Girey risked getting involved in a protracted battle. Accustomed to deciding everything with one swift blow, he was forced to change the traditional tactics.
Finding himself face to face with the main forces of the enemy, Khvorostinin dodged the battle and with an imaginary retreat began to lure Devlet-Girey to the gulyai-town, behind which was already a large regiment of Vorotynsky. The advanced forces of the khan came under crushing fire from cannons and squeaks. The Tatars retreated with heavy losses. The first part of Vorotynsky's plan came true brilliantly. The rapid breakthrough of the Crimeans to Moscow failed, the Khan's troops entered a protracted battle.
Everything could be different, throw Devlet-Girey all your forces at once on the Russian positions. But the khan did not know the true power of Vorotynsky's regiments and was going to test them out. He sent Tereberdey-Murza with two tumens to capture the Russian fortification. They all fell under the walls of the gulyai-gorod. Small skirmishes continued for two more days. During this time, the Cossacks managed to sink the Turkish artillery. Vorotynsky was seriously alarmed: what if Devlet-Girey abandons further hostilities and turns back so that he can start all over again next year? But that did not happen.
Victory
A stubborn battle took place on July 31st. Crimean troops began an assault on the main position of the Russians, equipped between the rivers Rozhai and Lopasnya. “The matter was great and the slaughter was great,” the chronicler says about the battle. In front of the Gulyai-gorod, the Russians scattered peculiar metal hedgehogs, on which the legs of the Tatar horses were breaking. Therefore, the rapid onslaught, the main component of the Crimean victories, did not take place. The powerful throw slowed down in front of the Russian fortifications, from where cannonballs, buckshot and bullets fell. The Tatars continued to attack. Fighting off numerous attacks, the Russians went over to counterattacks. During one of them, the Cossacks captured the main adviser of the khan - Divey-Murza, who was in charge of the Crimean troops. The fierce battle lasted until the evening, and Vorotynsky had to make great efforts not to bring the ambush regiment into battle, not to find it. This regiment was waiting in the wings.
On August 1, both troops gathered for the decisive battle. Devlet-Girey decided to do away with the Russians with his main forces. In the Russian camp, supplies of water and food were running out. Despite the successful hostilities, the situation was very difficult.
The decisive battle took place the next day. The khan led his army to the city of Gulyai. And again he could not seize the Russian fortifications on the move. Realizing that infantry was needed to storm the fortress, Devlet-Girey decided to unseat the riders from their horses and, together with the Janissaries, throw the Tatars on foot to attack.
Again an avalanche of Crimeans poured into the Russian fortifications.
Prince Khvorostinin led the defenders of the Gulyai-gorod. Tormented by hunger and thirst, they fought fiercely and fearlessly. They knew what fate awaited them if they were captured. They knew what would happen to their homeland if the Crimeans succeeded in breaking through. German mercenaries fought just as bravely side by side with the Russians. Heinrich Staden led the artillery of the Gulyai-gorod.
The Khan's troops approached the Russian fortress. The attackers in a rage even tried to break the wooden shields with their hands. The Russians cut off the tenacious hands of the enemies with their swords. The intensity of the battle intensified, and a turning point could come at any moment. Devlet-Girey was completely absorbed in one goal - to take possession of the Gulyai-gorod. For this, he drew all his strength into the battle. Meanwhile, Prince Vorotynsky managed to imperceptibly lead his large regiment along a narrow ravine and hit the enemy in the rear. At the same time, Staden fired a volley from all guns, and the defenders of the Gulyai-city, led by Prince Khvorostinin, made a decisive sortie. The warriors of the Crimean Khan could not withstand the blows from both sides and fled. So the victory was won!
On the morning of August 3, Devlet-Girey, who had lost his son, grandson and son-in-law in the battle, began a quick retreat. The Russians were on their heels. The last fierce battle broke out on the banks of the Oka, where the 5-thousandth rearguard of the Crimean people covering the crossing was destroyed.
Prince Vorotynsky managed to impose a protracted battle on Devlet-Girey, depriving him of the advantages of a sudden powerful blow. The troops of the Crimean Khan suffered huge losses (according to some sources, almost 100 thousand people). But the most important thing is irreplaceable losses, since the main combat-ready population of Crimea took part in the campaign. The village of Molodi became a cemetery for a significant part of the men of the Crimean Khanate. Here the whole color of the Crimean army, its best soldiers, fell. The Turkish janissaries were completely exterminated. After such a brutal blow, the Crimean khans no longer even thought about raiding the Russian capital. The Crimean-Turkish aggression against the Russian state was stopped.
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The Battle of Molody (Molodin battle) is a major battle that took place in 1572 near Moscow, between the Russian troops led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet I Gerei, which included, in addition to the Crimean troops proper, Turkish and Nogai detachments. ..
Despite the twofold superiority in numbers, the 120,000-strong Crimean army was utterly defeated and put to flight. Only about 20 thousand people were saved. In terms of its significance, the Battle of Molodi was comparable to the Kulikovo and other key battles in Russian history. It preserved the independence of Russia and became a turning point in the confrontation between the Moscow state and the Crimean Khanate, which renounced its claims to Kazan and Astrakhan and henceforth lost a significant part of its power ...
“In the summer of 1571, they were waiting for the raid of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. But the guardsmen, who were instructed to keep the screen on the banks of the Oka, in the majority did not go into service: to fight against the Crimean Khan was more dangerous than to plunder Novgorod. One of the captured boyar children gave the khan an unknown path to one of the fords on the Oka. Devlet-Girey managed to bypass the screen of the zemstvo troops and one oprichnina regiment and force the Oka. Russian troops barely had time to return to Moscow. But Devlet-Girey did not besiege the capital, but set fire to the posad. The fire spread over the walls. The entire city burned down, and those who took refuge in the Kremlin and in the adjoining fortress Kitay-Gorod suffocated from the smoke and "fire heat". Negotiations began, at which the Russian diplomats received secret instructions agreeing, as a last resort, to a refusal from Astrakhan. Devlet-Girey also demanded Kazan. In order to finally break the will of Ivan IV, he prepared a raid for the next year. Ivan IV understood the seriousness of the situation. He decided to put at the head of the troops an experienced commander who was often in disgrace - Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky. Both zemstvo and oprichniks were subordinate to his command; they were united in service and within each regiment. This united army in the battle near the village of Molodi (50 km. South of Moscow) utterly defeated the army of Devlet-Girey, which was almost twice its size. The Crimean threat was eliminated for many years. " History of Russia from ancient times to 1861. M., 2000, p. 154
The battle that took place in August 1572 near the village of Molodi, which is about 50 km from Moscow, between Podolsk and Serpukhov, is sometimes called "Unknown Borodino". The battle itself and the heroes who participated in it are rarely mentioned in Russian history. Everyone knows the Battle of Kulikovo, as well as the Moscow prince Dmitry who led the Russian army, who received the nickname Donskoy. Then the hordes of Mamai were defeated, but the next year the Tatars again attacked Moscow and burned it. After the Molodinsky battle, in which the 120,000-strong Crimean-Astrakhan horde was destroyed, the Tatars' raids on Moscow ceased forever.
In the XVI century. Crimean Tatars regularly raided Muscovy. They burnt cities and villages, drove away the able-bodied population into captivity. At the same time, the number of overwhelmed peasants and townspeople was many times greater than the military losses.
The culmination was in 1571, when the army of Khan Devlet-Girey burned Moscow to the ground. People were hiding in the Kremlin, the Tatars set fire to it too. The whole Moskva River was littered with corpses, the current stopped ... In the next, 1572, Devlet-Girey, as a true Chingizid, was not just going to repeat the raid, he decided to revive the Golden Horde, but to make Moscow its capital. Devlet-Girey said that he was "going to Moscow for the kingdom." As one of the heroes of the Molodinsky battle, the German oprichnik Heinrich Staden, wrote, “the cities and districts of the Russian land were all already painted and divided between the Murzas who were under the Crimean tsar; it was determined which one should keep. "
On the eve of the invasion
The position of Russia was difficult. The consequences of the devastating invasion of 1571, as well as the plague epidemic, were still felt. The summer in 1572 was dry and sultry; horses and cattle died. The Russian regiments were experiencing serious difficulties in supplying food.
Economic difficulties were intertwined with complex internal political events, accompanied by executions, disgraces, which began in the Volga region with uprisings of the local feudal nobility. In such a difficult situation, preparations were under way in the Russian state to repel the new invasion of Devlet-Girey. On April 1, 1572, a new system of border service began to operate, taking into account the experience of last year's struggle with Devlet-Giray.
Thanks to reconnaissance, the Russian command was promptly informed about the movement of the 120-thousandth army of Devlet-Girey and its further actions. The construction and improvement of military defensive structures, primarily located along a large stretch along the Oka, proceeded rapidly.
Having received news of the impending invasion, Ivan the Terrible fled to Novgorod and wrote a letter from there to Devlet-Girey offering peace in exchange for Kazan and Astrakhan. But it did not satisfy the khan.
Battle of Molody
In the spring of 1571, the Crimean Khan Divlet Girey, at the head of a 120-thousand-strong horde, attacked Russia. The traitor, Prince Mstislavsky, an ambassador of his people to show the khan how to bypass the 600-kilometer Zasechnaya line from the west. The Tatars came from where they were not expected, they burned down the whole of Moscow - several hundred thousand people died. In addition to Moscow, the Crimean Khan ravaged the central regions, carved out 36 cities, collected the 100-thousandth full and left for the Crimea; on the way, he sent a knife to the tsar, "so that Ivan would stab himself." The Crimean invasion was like the Batu pogrom; the khan believed that Russia was exhausted and would no longer be able to resist; Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars revolted; in 1572 the horde went to Russia to establish a new yoke - the khan's murzas divided the cities and uluses among themselves. Russia was really weakened by a 20-year war, hunger, plague and the terrible Tatar invasion; Ivan the Terrible managed to collect only a 20-thousandth army. On July 28, a huge horde crossed the Oka and, throwing back the Russian regiments, rushed to Moscow - however, the Russian army followed, attacking the Tatar rearguards. The khan was forced to turn back, the masses of the Tatars rushed to the Russian forward regiment, which fled, luring the enemies to the fortifications, where the archers and guns were located - that was. Volleys of Russian cannons firing point-blank stopped the Tatar cavalry, it fled, leaving piles of corpses on the field, but the khan again drove his soldiers forward. For almost a week, with interruptions to remove the corpses, the Tatars stormed the "walk-gorod" near the village of Molodi, not far from the modern city of Podolsk, dismounted horsemen approached the wooden walls, rocked them - "and here many Tatars beat and cut off countless hands." On August 2, when the onslaught of the Tatars weakened, the Russian regiments left the "gulyai-gorod" and attacked the exhausted enemy, the horde turned to panicky flight, the Tatars pursued and hacked to the banks of the Oka - the Crimeans had never suffered such a bloody defeat.
The Battle of Molodi was a great victory autocracy: only absolute power could gather all forces into one fist and repel a terrible enemy - and it is easy to imagine what would have happened if Russia had been ruled not by the tsar, but by princes and boyars - the times of Batu would have repeated. Having suffered a terrible defeat, the Crimeans did not dare to show themselves on the Oka for 20 years; the uprisings of the Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars were suppressed - Russia won the Great War for the Volga region. On the Don and Desna, the border fortifications were pushed back to the south by 300 kilometers, at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Yelets and Voronezh were laid - the development of the richest black earth lands of the Wild Field began. The victory over the Tatars was achieved to a large extent thanks to pishchal and cannons - weapons that were brought from the West through the "window to Europe" cut by the tsar. This window was the port of Narva, and King Sigismund asked Queen Elizabeth of England to stop the arms trade, for "the Moscow sovereign daily increases his power by acquiring items that are brought to Narva."
V.M. Belotserkovets
Foreign voivode
The Oka River served as the main support line, the harsh Russian borderland (borderland) against the invasions of the Crimeans. Annually, up to 65 thousand soldiers acted on its shores, who carried out guard duty from early spring to late autumn. According to contemporaries, the river “was fortified more than 50 miles along the bank: one against the other were filled with two palisades four feet in height, one from the other at a distance of two feet, and this distance between them was filled with earth dug behind the rear palisade ... The shooters, thus, could hide behind both palisades and shoot at the Tatars when they crossed the river. "
The choice of the commander-in-chief was difficult: there were few people suitable for this responsible position. In the end, the choice fell on the zemstvo governor, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky, an outstanding military leader, "a strong and courageous husband and exceedingly skillful in regiments." Boyarin Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky (c. 1510-1573), like his father, from a young age devoted himself to military service. In 1536, 25-year-old Prince Mikhail distinguished himself in the winter campaign of Ivan the Terrible against the Swedes, and after a while - in the Kazan campaigns. During the siege of Kazan in 1552, Vorotynsky at a critical moment managed to repel the attack of the defenders of the city, lead the archers and capture the Arskaya tower, and then, at the head of a large regiment, seize the Kremlin by storm. For which he received the honorary title of the sovereign, servant and governor.
In 1550-1560. M.I. Vorotynsky supervised the construction of defensive structures on the southern borders of the country. Thanks to his efforts, the approaches to Kolomna, Kaluga, Serpukhov and other cities were strengthened. He established a guard service, repelled the attacks of the Tatars.
Selfless and devoted friendship to the sovereign did not rid the prince of suspicions of treason. In 1562-1566. humiliation, disgrace, exile, dungeon fell to his lot. In those years, Vorotynsky received an offer from the Polish king Sigismund-Augustus to go to serve in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But the prince remained loyal to the sovereign and Russia.
In January-February 1571, servicemen, boyar children, village residents, and village heads came to Moscow from all border towns. By order of Ivan the Terrible M.I. Vorotynsky had to, after questioning those summoned to the capital, write down from which cities, in which direction and at what distance to send patrols, in which places the guards should stand (indicating the territory served by the patrols of each of them), in which places the border heads should be “for protection from the arrival of military people ", etc. The result of this work was the "Order on the village and guard service" left by Vorotynsky. In accordance with it, the border service must do everything possible "to make the outskirts more careful", so that military people "do not come to the outskirts unknown", to accustom the guards to constant vigilance.
Another order of M.I. Vorotynsky (February 27, 1571) - on the establishment of places of parking for sentinel village heads and on giving them detachments. They can be considered the prototype of Russian military regulations.
Knowing about the upcoming raid of Devlet-Giray, what could the Russian commander oppose to the Tatars? Tsar Ivan, referring to the war in Livonia, did not provide him with a sufficient number of troops, giving Vorotynsky only the oprichnina regiment; at the disposal of the prince were regiments of boyar children, Cossacks, Livonian and German mercenaries. In total, the number of Russian troops was about 60 thousand people. 12 Tumens marched against him, that is, twice the army of the Tatars and Turkish Janissaries, who also carried artillery. The question arose, what tactics to choose so that with such small forces not only to stop, but also to defeat the enemy? Vorotynsky's leadership talent manifested itself not only in the creation of a border defense, but also in the development and implementation of a battle plan. In the latter, another hero of the battle played a crucial role? Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin.
So, the snow had not yet melted from the banks of the Oka, as Vorotynsky began to prepare for a meeting with the enemy. Border pillars and notches were made, Cossack patrols and patrols were constantly plying, tracking down the "Sakma" (Tatar trace), forest ambushes were created. Local residents were involved in the defense. But the plan itself was not yet ready. Only general features: to drag the enemy into a viscous defensive war, deprive him of maneuverability, confuse him for a while, wear out his strength, then force him to go to the "walk-town", where he will give the final battle. Gulyai-gorod is a mobile fortress, a mobile fortified post, built of separate wooden walls, which were placed on carts, with loopholes for firing cannons and rifles. It was erected by the Rozai River and was of decisive importance in the battle. "If the Russians did not have a walk-town, the Crimean Khan would have beaten us," recalls Staden, "he would have taken us prisoner and bound everyone to the Crimea, and the Russian land would have been his land."
The most important thing in terms of the upcoming battle is to force Devlet-Girey to go along the Serpukhov road. And any leak of information threatened the failure of the entire battle, in fact, the fate of Russia was being decided. Therefore, the prince kept all the details of the plan in the strictest confidence, even the nearest commanders for the time being did not know what their commander was planning.
The beginning of the battle
Summer has come. At the end of July, the hordes of Devlet-Giray crossed the Oka just above Serpukhov, in the area of Senkinoy ford. Russian troops took up positions near Serpukhov, having fortified themselves with the gulyai-city. Khan bypassed the main Russian fortifications and rushed to Moscow. Vorotynsky immediately withdrew from the ferries at Serpukhov and rushed after Devlet-Girey. The forward regiment under the command of Prince Dmitry Khvorostinin overtook the rearguard of the Khan's army near the village of Molodi. The small village of Molodi at that time was surrounded by forests on all sides. And only in the west, where there were gentle hills, did the men cut down the trees and plow the land. On the elevated bank of the Rozhai River, at the confluence of the Molodka River, there was a wooden Church of the Resurrection.
The advanced regiment overtook the Crimean rearguard, forced it to join the battle, attacked and defeated. But he did not stop there, but pursued the remnants of the defeated rearguard right up to the main forces of the Crimean army. The blow was so strong that the two tsarevichs, who were in charge of the rearguard, told the khan that it was necessary to stop the offensive.
The blow was so unexpected and powerful that Devlet-Girey stopped his army. He realized that there was a Russian army behind him, which must be destroyed in order to ensure an unhindered advance towards Moscow. The Khan turned back, Devlet-Girey risked getting involved in a protracted battle. Accustomed to deciding everything with one swift blow, he was forced to change the traditional tactics.
Finding himself face to face with the main forces of the enemy, Khvorostinin dodged the battle and with an imaginary retreat began to lure Devlet-Girey to the gulyai-town, behind which was already a large regiment of Vorotynsky. The advanced forces of the khan came under crushing fire from cannons and squeaks. The Tatars retreated with heavy losses. The first part of Vorotynsky's plan came true brilliantly. The rapid breakthrough of the Crimeans to Moscow failed, the Khan's troops entered a protracted battle.
Everything could be different, throw Devlet-Girey all your forces at once on the Russian positions. But the khan did not know the true power of Vorotynsky's regiments and was going to test them out. He sent Tereberdey-Murza with two tumens to capture the Russian fortification. They all fell under the walls of the gulyai-gorod. Small skirmishes continued for two more days. During this time, the Cossacks managed to sink the Turkish artillery. Vorotynsky was seriously alarmed: what if Devlet-Girey abandons further hostilities and turns back so that he can start all over again next year? But that did not happen.
Victory
A stubborn battle took place on July 31st. Crimean troops began an assault on the main position of the Russians, equipped between the rivers Rozhai and Lopasnya. “The matter was great and the slaughter was great,” the chronicler says about the battle. In front of the Gulyai-gorod, the Russians scattered peculiar metal hedgehogs, on which the legs of the Tatar horses were breaking. Therefore, the rapid onslaught, the main component of the Crimean victories, did not take place. The powerful throw slowed down in front of the Russian fortifications, from where cannonballs, buckshot and bullets fell. The Tatars continued to attack. Fighting off numerous attacks, the Russians went over to counterattacks. During one of them, the Cossacks captured the main adviser of the khan - Divey-Murza, who was in charge of the Crimean troops. The fierce battle lasted until the evening, and Vorotynsky had to make great efforts not to bring the ambush regiment into battle, not to find it. This regiment was waiting in the wings.On August 1, both troops gathered for the decisive battle. Devlet-Girey decided to do away with the Russians with his main forces. In the Russian camp, supplies of water and food were running out. Despite the successful hostilities, the situation was very difficult.
The decisive battle took place the next day. The khan led his army to the city of Gulyai. And again he could not seize the Russian fortifications on the move. Realizing that infantry was needed to storm the fortress, Devlet-Girey decided to unseat the riders from their horses and, together with the Janissaries, throw the Tatars on foot to attack.
Again an avalanche of Crimeans poured into the Russian fortifications.
Prince Khvorostinin led the defenders of the Gulyai-gorod. Tormented by hunger and thirst, they fought fiercely and fearlessly. They knew what fate awaited them if they were captured. They knew what would happen to their homeland if the Crimeans succeeded in breaking through. German mercenaries fought just as bravely side by side with the Russians. Heinrich Staden led the artillery of the Gulyai-gorod.
The Khan's troops approached the Russian fortress. The attackers in a rage even tried to break the wooden shields with their hands. The Russians cut off the tenacious hands of the enemies with their swords. The intensity of the battle intensified, and a turning point could come at any moment. Devlet-Girey was completely absorbed in one goal - to take possession of the Gulyai-gorod. For this, he drew all his strength into the battle. Meanwhile, Prince Vorotynsky managed to imperceptibly lead his large regiment along a narrow ravine and hit the enemy in the rear. At the same time, Staden fired a volley from all guns, and the defenders of the Gulyai-city, led by Prince Khvorostinin, made a decisive sortie. The warriors of the Crimean Khan could not withstand the blows from both sides and fled. So the victory was won!
On the morning of August 3, Devlet-Girey, who had lost his son, grandson and son-in-law in the battle, began a quick retreat. The Russians were on their heels. The last fierce battle broke out on the banks of the Oka, where the 5-thousandth rearguard of the Crimean people covering the crossing was destroyed.
Prince Vorotynsky managed to impose a protracted battle on Devlet-Girey, depriving him of the advantages of a sudden powerful blow. The troops of the Crimean Khan suffered huge losses (according to some sources, almost 100 thousand people). But the most important thing is irreplaceable losses, since the main combat-ready population of Crimea took part in the campaign. The village of Molodi became a cemetery for a significant part of the men of the Crimean Khanate. Here the whole color of the Crimean army, its best soldiers, fell. The Turkish janissaries were completely exterminated. After such a brutal blow, the Crimean khans no longer even thought about raiding the Russian capital. The Crimean-Turkish aggression against the Russian state was stopped.
Laurels for the hero
The history of Russian military affairs was replenished with the greatest victory in the art of maneuvering and interaction of the branches of the armed forces. She became one of the most brilliant victories of Russian arms and nominated Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky to the rank of outstanding commanders.
The Molodino battle is one of the brightest pages of the heroic past of our homeland. The Molodin battle, which lasted for several days, in which the Russian troops used original tactics, ended in a major victory over the numerically superior forces of Devlet-Girey. The Battle of Molodino had a strong impact on the foreign economic position of the Russian state, especially on Russian-Crimean and Russian-Turkish relations. Selim's defiant letter, in which the Sultan demanded Astrakhan, Kazan and the vassal subordination of Ivan IV, was left unanswered.
Prince Vorotynsky returned to Moscow, where he was given a magnificent meeting. There was less joy on the faces of Muscovites when Tsar Ivan returned to the city. This greatly offended the sovereign, but he did not show his mind - the time had not yet come. Evil tongues added fuel to the fire, calling Vorotynsky an upstart, greatly belittling his participation and importance in the battle. Finally, the prince's servant, who robbed him, denounced his master, accusing him of witchcraft. Since almost a year has passed since the great victory, the king ordered the arrest of the commander and subject to the most severe torture. Having failed to achieve recognition in witchcraft, Ivan IV ordered the exile of the disgraced prince to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. On the third day of the journey, 63-year-old Mikhail Vorotynsky died. They buried him in the cemetery of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery.
Since that time, the mention of the Molodinsky battle, about its significance for Russia, and the very name of Prince Vorotynsky, were under a cruel tsarist ban. Therefore, many of us are much more aware of Ivan the Terrible's campaign against Kazan than the event of 1572 that saved Russia.
But time will put everything in its place.
Heroes will remain heroes ...
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