What territories were included in the Golden Horde. The history of the formation of the golden horde. An excerpt characterizing the Golden Horde
The phenomenon of the Golden Horde still causes serious controversy among historians: some consider it a powerful medieval state, according to others it was part of the Russian lands, and for others it did not exist at all.
Why Golden Horde?
In Russian sources, the term "Golden Horde" appears only in 1556 in the "Kazan History", although this phrase is found among the Turkic peoples much earlier.
However, the historian G.V. Vernadsky argues that in the Russian chronicles the term "Golden Horde" originally referred to the tent of Khan Guyuk. The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta wrote about the same, noting that the tents of the Horde khans were covered with plates of gilded silver.
But there is another version, according to which the term "golden" is synonymous with the words "central" or "middle". It was this position that the Golden Horde occupied after the collapse of the Mongolian state.
As for the word "horde", in Persian sources it meant a mobile camp or headquarters, later it was used in relation to the whole state. In ancient Russia, an army was usually called a horde.
Borders
The Golden Horde is a fragment of the once powerful empire of Genghis Khan. By 1224, the Great Khan divided his vast possessions between his sons: one of the largest uluses with a center in the Lower Volga region went to his eldest son, Jochi.
The borders of the Juchi ulus, later the Golden Horde, were finally formed after the Western campaign (1236-1242), in which his son Batu participated (according to Russian sources, Batu). In the east, the Golden Horde included the Aral Lake, in the West - the Crimean Peninsula, in the south it neighbored Iran, and in the north it ran into the Ural Mountains.
Device
The judgment of the Mongols, solely as nomads and pastoralists, should probably become a thing of the past. The vast territories of the Golden Horde required reasonable management. After the final isolation from Karakorum, the center of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde is divided into two wings - western and eastern, and each has its own capital - in the first Sarai, in the second Horde-Bazaar. In total, according to archaeologists, the number of cities in the Golden Horde reached 150!
After 1254, the political and economic center of the state completely transferred to Sarai (located near modern Astrakhan), whose population at its peak reached 75 thousand people - by medieval standards, a rather large city. Here coinage is being established, pottery, jewelry, glass-blowing, as well as smelting and metal processing are developing. Sewerage and water supply were carried out in the city.
Sarai was a multinational city - Mongols, Russians, Tatars, Alans, Bulgars, Byzantines and other peoples peacefully coexisted here. The Horde, being an Islamic state, tolerated other religions. In 1261, a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church appeared in Saray, and later a Catholic bishopric.
The cities of the Golden Horde are gradually turning into major centers of caravan trade. Here you can find everything - from silk and spices, to weapons and precious stones. The state is also actively developing its trade zone: caravan routes from Horde cities lead both to Europe and Russia, as well as to India and China.
Horde and Russia
In Russian historiography, for a long time, the main concept characterizing the relationship between Russia and the Golden Horde was the “yoke”. We were painted terrible pictures of the Mongol colonization of Russian lands, when wild hordes of nomads destroyed everyone and everything in their path, and the survivors were turned into slavery.
However, in the Russian chronicles the term "yoke" was not. It first appears in the works of the Polish historian Jan Długosz in the second half of the 15th century. Moreover, the Russian princes and Mongol khans, according to researchers, preferred to negotiate rather than devastate the lands.
L. N. Gumilyov, by the way, considered the relationship between Russia and the Horde an advantageous military-political alliance, and N. M. Karamzin noted the most important role of the Horde in the rise of the Moscow principality.
It is known that Alexander Nevsky, having enlisted the support of the Mongols and insured his rear, was able to expel the Swedes and Germans from northwestern Russia. And in 1269, when the crusaders besieged the walls of Novgorod, the Mongol detachment helped the Russians repulse their attack. The Horde sided with Nevsky in his conflict with the Russian nobility, and he, in turn, helped her resolve inter-dynastic disputes.
Of course, a significant part of the Russian lands was conquered by the Mongols and subjected to tribute, but the scale of the devastation is probably greatly exaggerated.
The princes, who wanted to cooperate, received the so-called "labels" from the khans, becoming, in fact, the governors of the Horde. The burden of duty for the lands controlled by the princes was significantly reduced. No matter how humiliating vassalage was, it still retained the autonomy of the Russian principalities and prevented bloody wars.
The Church was completely freed by the Horde from paying tribute. The first label was given to the clergy - Metropolitan Kirill Khan Mengu-Temir. History has preserved the words of the khan for us: “We favored the priests and blacks and all the poor people, but with their right heart they pray to God for us, and for our tribe without sorrow, bless us, but do not curse us.” The label ensured freedom of religion and inviolability of church property.
G. V. Nosovsky and A. T. Fomenko in the "New Chronology" put forward a very bold hypothesis: Russia and the Horde are one and the same state. They easily turn Batu into Yaroslav the Wise, Tokhtamysh into Dmitry Donskoy, and transfer the capital of the Horde, Saray, to Veliky Novgorod. However, the official history of this version is more than categorical.
Wars
Without a doubt, the Mongols were best at fighting. True, they took for the most part not by skill, but by number. The conquered peoples - Polovtsy, Tatars, Nogais, Bulgars, Chinese and even Russians helped the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants to conquer the space from the Sea of Japan to the Danube. The Golden Horde was not able to keep the empire within its former limits, but you cannot deny it militancy. The maneuverable cavalry, numbering hundreds of thousands of horsemen, forced many to capitulate.
For the time being, it was possible to maintain a delicate balance in relations between Russia and the Horde. But when the appetites of the temnik Mamai were in earnest, the contradictions between the parties resulted in the legendary battle on the Kulikovo field (1380). Its result was the defeat of the Mongol army and the weakening of the Horde. This event completes the period of the "Great Jail", when the Golden Horde was in a fever from civil strife and dynastic troubles.
The turmoil stopped and power was strengthened with the accession to the throne of Tokhtamysh. In 1382, he again goes to Moscow and resumes the payment of tribute. However, exhausting wars with the more combat-ready army of Tamerlane, in the end, undermined the former power of the Horde and for a long time discouraged the desire to make aggressive campaigns.
In the next century, the Golden Horde gradually began to "crumble" into parts. So, one after another, the Siberian, Uzbek, Astrakhan, Crimean, Kazan Khanates and the Nogai Horde appeared within its borders. The weakening attempts of the Golden Horde to carry out punitive actions were stopped by Ivan III. The famous "Standing on the Ugra" (1480) did not develop into a large-scale battle, but finally broke the last Horde Khan Akhmat. Since that time, the Golden Horde formally ceased to exist.
As a result of aggressive campaigns, three western uluses of the Mongol empire founded by Genghis Khan were formed, which for some time depended on the great Khan of the Mongols in Karakorum, and then became independent states. The very separation of the three western uluses within the Mongol Empire created by Genghis Khan was already the beginning of its disintegration.
The ulus of Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan, included Semirechye and Maverannahr in Central Asia. The ulus of Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, became the lands of modern Turkmenistan, Iran, Transcaucasia and the Middle Eastern lands up to the Euphrates. The separation of the Khulagu ulus into an independent state took place in 1265.
The largest western ulus of the Mongols was the ulus of the descendants of Jochi (the eldest son of Genghis Khan), which included Western Siberia (from the Irtysh), Northern Khorezm in Central Asia, the Urals, the Middle and Lower Volga regions, the North Caucasus, Crimea, the lands of the Polovtsians and other Turkic nomadic peoples in the steppe spaces from the Irtysh to the mouth of the Danube. The eastern part of the Jochi ulus (Western Siberia) became the yurt (destiny) of the eldest son of Jochi - Horde-Ichen - and later received the name of the Blue Horde. The western part of the ulus became the yurt of his second son, Batu, known in Russian annals as the Golden Horde or simply the Horde.
The main territory of these states was the countries conquered by the Mongols, where there were favorable natural conditions for nomadic pastoralism (lands in Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the Northern Black Sea region), which led to their long-term economic and cultural stagnation, to the replacement of a developed agricultural economy by nomadic pastoralism, and together with and to a return to more archaic forms of the socio-political and state system.
Socio-political system of the Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was founded in 1243 upon the return of Batu Khan from his campaign in Europe. Its original capital was built in 1254, the city of Sarai-Batu on the Volga. The transformation of the Golden Horde into an independent state was expressed under the third khan Mengu-Timur (1266 - 1282) in the minting of a coin with the name of the khan. After his death, a feudal war broke out in the Golden Horde, during which one of the representatives of the nomadic aristocracy, Nogai, rose to the occasion. As a result of this feudal war, that part of the Golden Horde aristocracy that adhered to Islam and was connected with the urban trading layers won the upper hand. She nominated the grandson of Mengu-Timur Uzbek (1312 - 1342) to the khan's throne.
Under Uzbek, the Golden Horde turned into one of the largest states of the Middle Ages. During the 30-year reign, Uzbek firmly held all power in his hands, cruelly suppressing any manifestation of the independence of his vassals. The princes of numerous uluses from the descendants of Jochi, including the rulers of the Blue Horde, implicitly fulfilled all the requirements of Uzbek. The military forces of Uzbek numbered up to 300 thousand soldiers. A number of raids of the Golden Horde on Lithuania in the 20s of the XIV century. temporarily stopped the advance of the Lithuanians to the east. Under Uzbek, the power of the Golden Horde over Russia was further strengthened.
The state system of the Golden Horde at the time of its formation was of a primitive nature. It was divided into semi-independent uluses headed by the Batu brothers or representatives of local dynasties. These vassal uluses had little to do with the khan's administration. The unity of the Golden Horde rested on a system of cruel terror. The Mongols, who formed the core of the conquerors, soon found themselves surrounded by the vast majority of the Turkic-speaking population they conquered, primarily the Polovtsians (Kipchaks). Already by the end of the XIII century. the Mongolian nomadic aristocracy, and even more so the ordinary mass of the Mongols, became so Turkicized that the Mongolian language was almost ousted from the official documentation by the Kypchak language.
The administration of the state was concentrated in the hands of the Divan, which consisted of four emirs. Local government was in the hands of the regional rulers, directly subordinate to the Divan.
The Mongolian nomadic aristocracy, as a result of the harsh exploitation of serfs, nomads and slaves, turned into owners of huge land wealth, livestock and other valuables (their income of Ibn Battuta, an Arab writer of the 14th century, determined up to 200 thousand dinars, i.e. up to 100 thousand rubles), by the end of the reign of Uzbek, the feudal aristocracy again began to exert a huge influence on all aspects of government and after the death of Uzbek took an active part in the court struggle for power between his sons - Tinibek and Dzhanibek. Tinibek ruled for only about a year and a half and was killed, and the khan's throne passed to Janibek, who was more acceptable as a khan for the nomadic aristocracy. As a result of court conspiracies and turmoil at the end of the 50s, many princes from the Uzbek clan were killed.
The decline of the Golden Horde and its collapse
In the 70s of the XIV century. as a result of the process of feudal fragmentation, the Golden Horde was actually divided into two parts: in the regions west of the Volga, the temnik Mamai ruled, and in the eastern regions, Urus Khan. The temporary restoration of the unity of the Golden Horde took place under Khan Tokhtamysh in the 80s and 90s, but this unity was also illusory, since in fact Tokhtamysh became dependent on Timur and his plans for conquest. Timur's defeat of Tokhtamysh's troops in 1391 and 1395 and the sack of Saray finally put an end to the political unity of the Golden Horde.
The complex processes of feudal fragmentation led in the second half of the 15th century. to the final disintegration of the Golden Horde into the Kazan Khanate. The Astrakhan Khanate, the Great Horde proper, and the Crimean Khanate, which since 1475 became a vassal of Sultan's Turkey.
The collapse of the Golden Horde and the formation of the Russian centralized state created all the conditions for the complete elimination of the heavy Mongol-Tatar yoke and its consequences.
B.A. Rybakov - "History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the XVIII century." - M., "Higher School", 1975.
When historians analyze the reasons for the success of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, they name the presence of a powerful khan in power among the most important and significant reasons. Often, the khan became the personification of strength and military power, and therefore he was feared by both the Russian princes and representatives of the yoke itself. What khans left their mark on history and were considered the most powerful rulers of their people.
The most powerful khans of the Mongol yoke
During the entire existence of the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde, many khans have changed on the throne. Especially often the rulers changed during the great zamyatne, when the crisis forced the brother to go against the brother. Various internecine wars and regular military campaigns confused the family tree of the Mongol khans a lot, but the names of the most powerful rulers are still known. So, which khans of the Mongol Empire were considered the most powerful?
- Genghis Khan because of the mass of successful campaigns and the unification of lands into one state.
- Batu, who managed to completely subjugate Ancient Russia and form the Golden Horde.
- Khan Uzbek, under whom the Golden Horde reached its greatest power.
- Mamai, who managed to unite the troops during the great memorial.
- Khan Tokhtamysh, who made successful campaigns against Moscow, and returned Ancient Russia to the forced territories.
Each ruler deserves special attention, because his contribution to the history of the development of the Tatar-Mongol yoke is huge. However, it is much more interesting to tell about all the rulers of the yoke, trying to restore the family tree of the khans.
Tatar-Mongol khans and their role in the history of the yoke
The name and years of the reign of the Khan | His role in history |
|---|---|
Genghis Khan (1206-1227) | And before Genghis Khan, the Mongol yoke had its own rulers, but it was this khan who managed to unite all the lands and make surprisingly successful campaigns against China, North Asia and against the Tatars. |
Ogedei (1229-1241) | Genghis Khan tried to give all his sons the opportunity to rule, so he divided the empire between them, but it was Ogedei who was his main heir. The ruler continued his expansion into Central Asia and Northern China, strengthening his position in Europe as well. |
Batu (1227-1255) | Batu was only the ruler of the ulus of Jochi, which later received the name of the Golden Horde. However, the successful Western campaign, the expansion of Ancient Russia and Poland, made Batu a national hero. Soon he began to spread his sphere of influence over the entire territory of the Mongolian state, becoming an increasingly authoritative ruler. |
Berke (1257-1266) | It was during the reign of Berke that the Golden Horde almost completely separated from the Mongol Empire. The ruler focused on urban planning, improving the social status of citizens. |
Mengu-Timur (1266-1282), Tuda-Mengu (1282-1287), Tula-Bugi (1287-1291) | These rulers did not leave a big mark on history, but they were able to isolate the Golden Horde even more and defend its rights to freedom from the Mongol Empire. The basis of the economy of the Golden Horde was a tribute from the princes of Ancient Russia. |
Khan Uzbek (1312-1341) and Khan Janibek (1342-1357) | Under Khan Uzbek and his son Dzhanibek, the Golden Horde flourished. The offerings of the Russian princes were regularly increased, urban planning continued, and the inhabitants of Sarai-Batu adored their khan and literally worshiped him. |
Mamai (1359-1381) | Mamai had nothing to do with the legitimate rulers of the Golden Horde and had no connection with them. He seized power in the country by force, seeking new economic reforms and military victories. Despite the fact that Mamai's power was growing stronger every day, problems in the state were growing due to conflicts on the throne. As a result, in 1380 Mamai suffered a crushing defeat from the Russian troops on the Kulikovo field, and in 1381 he was overthrown by the legitimate ruler Tokhtamysh. |
Tokhtamysh (1380-1395) | Perhaps the last great khan of the Golden Horde. After the crushing defeat of Mamai, he managed to regain his status in Ancient Russia. After the march on Moscow in 1382, tribute payments resumed, and Tokhtamysh proved his superiority in power. |
Kadir Berdi (1419), Hadji-Muhammed (1420-1427), Ulu-Muhammed (1428-1432), Kichi-Muhammed (1432-1459) | All these rulers tried to establish their power during the period of the state collapse of the Golden Horde. After the beginning of the internal political crisis, many rulers changed, and this also affected the deterioration of the country's situation. As a result, in 1480, Ivan III managed to achieve the independence of Ancient Russia, throwing off the shackles of centuries of tribute. |
As often happens, a great state falls apart due to a dynastic crisis. A few decades after the liberation of Ancient Russia from the hegemony of the Mongol yoke, the Russian rulers also had to go through their dynastic crisis, but that's a completely different story.
The Golden Horde was one of the most powerful states, which controlled vast territories. And yet, by the beginning of the 15th century, the country began to lose its power, and sooner or later, all crises of power had to end with the collapse of the state.
Scientists are still carefully studying the reasons for such a rapid decomposition of the state system of the Golden Horde and the consequences of this event for Ancient Russia. Before compiling a historical essay on the process of decomposition of the state of the Mongols, it is necessary to talk about the reasons for the future collapse of the Golden Horde.
In fact, the crisis in the country has been observed since the middle of the XIV century. It was then that regular wars for the throne began, and the numerous heirs of Khan Janibek argued over power. What reasons influenced the future destruction of the state system?
- The absence of a strong ruler (with the exception of Tokhtamysh), capable of keeping the country from internal crises.
- From the endXIV century, the decomposition of the state was observed, and many khans hastened to form their own independent uluses.
- The territories subject to the Mongols also began to rebel, feeling the weakening of the Golden Horde.
- Regular internecine wars led to the fact that a very serious economic crisis was observed in the country.
After Tokhtamysh handed over the throne to his heirs, a dynastic crisis resumed in the country. The pretenders to the throne could not decide which of them was obliged to head the state. If, however, the throne was still occupied by one of the heirs, he could not guarantee the literacy of the ongoing political and economic reforms. All this affected the state of the state.
The process of destruction of the Golden Horde
Historians are sure that for early feudalism, the process of disintegration is an inevitable reality. Such a disintegration also occurred with Ancient Russia, and in the 15th century it began to be clearly manifested in the example of the Golden Horde. The khans and their heirs have long been looking for ways to separate and praise their own power. That is why, from the beginning of the 1400s, many territories that belonged to the Golden Horde achieved independence. What khanates appeared during this period?
- Siberian and Uzbek Khanates (1420s).
- Nogai Horde (1440s)
- Kazan and Crimean Khanate (1438 and 1441 respectively).
- Kazakh Khanate (1465).
Of course, each khanate aspired to complete independence, wanting to achieve their rights and freedoms. In addition, the economic issue of dividing the tribute coming from Ancient Russia became important.
Kichi-Mohammed is considered the last full-fledged ruler of the Golden Horde. After his death, the state actually ceased to exist. For a long time, the Great Horde was considered the dominant state, but it also ceased to exist in the 16th century.
Consequences of the collapse of the Golden Horde for Ancient Russia
Of course, the princes of Ancient Russia had long dreamed of becoming independent from the Golden Horde. When the country was going through a period of great confusion, the Russian princes had an excellent chance to achieve independence.
At that time, Dmitry Donskoy was able to defend the rights of Russian princes on the Kulikovo field and achieve independence. In the period from 1380 to 1382, Russian princes did not pay tribute, but with the invasion of Tokhtamysh, humiliating payments resumed.
After the death of Tokhtamysh, the Golden Horde again began to experience a crisis, and Ancient Russia perked up. The size of the tribute began to decrease slightly, and the princes themselves did not seek to pay it as diligently as before.
The last blow for the Horde was that a prince appeared in the Russian lands, capable of uniting all the troops under his banner. Ivan III became such a prince. Immediately after gaining power, Ivan III refused to pay tribute.
And if the Golden Horde only experienced the crisis of early feudalism, then Ancient Russia was already emerging from this stage of development. Gradually, separate territories united under common banners, realizing the power of their strength together, and not apart. In fact, it took Ancient Russia exactly 100 years (1380-1480) to obtain final independence. All this time, the Golden Horde was very "fever", which led to its final final weakening.
Of course, Khan Akhmat tried to return the territories under his control, but in 1480 Ancient Russia gained its long-awaited independence, which was the last blow for the once powerful state.
Of course, not every country can withstand the economic and domestic political crisis. The Golden Horde lost its former power due to internal conflicts, and soon ceased to exist altogether. However, this state had a huge impact on the course of international history, and on the course of the history of Ancient Russia in particular.
The history of the formation of a new Western Mongolian state - the Golden Horde, especially its first stage, is not sufficiently reflected in the sources. The only source at the disposal of researchers is the news of the Laurentian Chronicle about the arrival of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich at Batu's headquarters in 1243. "about his fatherland". At the same time, the annals do not indicate the location of Batu's headquarters. Only in the Kazan Chronicle, compiled much later, there are some indications that give the right to assume that the original headquarters of Batu was not in the area of the future Saray, but somewhere within the Kama Bulgars.
The Russian chronicles, speaking of the arrival of Grand Duke Yaroslav at Batu's headquarters, do not report how long he stayed with Batu, and only note that Yaroslav was released after September 1243. (taking into account the old calendar account, he arrived in the summer of the same year -1242). If so, then we can presumably date the beginning of the formation of the Golden Horde in 1242, when Batu, as the head of the new state, began to receive Russian princes and began to give them labels for reigning. Russian chronicles, describing the receptions of Russian princes by Batu, consider him as the head of a fully formalized state already in 1243-44.
As if competing with Karakorum, the official residence of the great khans, Batu began to build his city of Saray on the Volga - the capital of the new state of the Golden Horde. There are geographical descriptions of the Golden Horde, compiled by Arab writers of the 14th-15th centuries. ; A Chinese map of the Mongolian states, drawn up in the 14th century, has also been preserved, but still there is not enough data on the state borders of the Golden Horde at the time of its formation. Based on the available materials of the 14th century. the territory of the Golden Horde for this period can only be determined in summary. With minor changes, these same boundaries can be adopted for the 13th century. Arab geographers 14th-15th centuries. indicate the approximate state border of the Dzhuchiev Ulus under Uzbek as follows: his kingdom lies in the northeast and extends from the Black Sea to the Irtysh in length by 800 farsakhs, and in width from Derbentado Bulgar by about 600 farsakhs. According to the Chinese map of 1331, the Ulus of Uzbek included: part of present-day Kazakhstan with the cities of Dzhend, Barchakend, Sairam and Khorezm, the Volga region with the city of Bulgar, Russia, Crimea with the city of Solkhat, the North Caucasus, inhabited by Alans and Circassians
Map of the Golden Horde
Polovtsian warrior
Bulgar, Polovtsian warriors and a noble cookie.
Thus, the descendants of Jochi owned a vast territory covering almost half of Asia and Europe - from the Irtysh to the Danube and from the Black and Caspian Seas to the "country of darkness". None of the Mongol possessions formed by the descendants of Genghis Khan could compare with the Golden Horde either in terms of the vastness of its territory or in terms of population.
Speaking about the peoples conquered by the Mongols, it is necessary to dwell on the Tatars, also conquered by the Mongols among other peoples.
In historical science, equality between the Tatars and the Mongols is quite often put, they talk about the Tatar conquest and the Tatar yoke, without distinguishing the Tatars from the Mongols. Meanwhile, the Tatar tribes speaking the Turkic language differed from the Mongols, whose language was not Turkic. Perhaps, once there was some similarity between the Mongols and Tatars, there was some linguistic relationship, but by the beginning of the 13th century. very little of it remains. In the Secret History, the Tatars are regarded as irreconcilable enemies of the Mongol tribes. This struggle between the Mongol and Tatar tribes is described in detail both in the “Secret Legend” and in the “Collection of Chronicles” by Rashid ad-din. Only towards the end of the 12th century. The Mongols managed to win. The Tatar tribes, turned into a slave-serf, or a simple warrior of the Mongol feudal lords, differed from the Mongols in their poverty.
When the Golden Horde was formed, the Polovtsians conquered by the Mongols began to be called Tatars. Subsequently, the term "Tatars" was assigned to all Turkic tribes enslaved by the Mongols: Polovtsy, Bulgars, Burtases, Mazhars and the Tatars themselves.
During the formation of the Golden Horde, the Dzhuchiev ulus was divided among the 14 sons of Dzhuchi in the form of hereditary possessions. Each of the Batu brothers, who was at the head of the ulus, considered himself the sovereign of his ulus and did not recognize any authority over himself. So it happened later, when the state began to disintegrate into new state associations, but in the first period of the existence of the Golden Horde, there was still a conditional unity of the entire Dzhuchiev ulus. Nevertheless, each of them carried a certain duty in favor of the khan and served him.
After the death of Batu, Berke was nominated to the throne. The reign of Khan Berke includes, firstly, the census (1257-1259) of the entire taxable population of Russia and in other uluses, and secondly, the establishment of a permanent military-political organization of the Mongols in each ulus subordinate to the Mongols in the person of tenants, centurions, thousanders and temniks. A. N. Nanosov refers to the same period the emergence of the Basque Institute in Russia.
The legal registration of the independence of the Dzhuchiev ulus from the great khans was the minting of its own coin with the name of the khan. But the transformation of the Golden Horde into an independent state was reflected not only in the minting of coins. In 1267 Mengu-Timur was the first of the khans to give a label to the Russian clergy, freeing the metropolitan from a number of duties and regulating the relationship of the Russian church with the khans of the Golden Horde. The Khan's label addressed to the Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavich about the opening of the “way” for German merchants from Riga to the unimpeded passage of the inhabitants of Riga through the Novgorod land to the Golden Horde has also been preserved. 
Russian knight and black hoods
Pechenegs
Heavy Mongol Warrior Equipment 
The princes, who were at the head of separate uluses - hordes, under Khan Uzbek became an obedient weapon of the Khan and the Khan's administration. Sources no longer report on the convocation of kurultai. Instead, conferences are convened under the khan, in which his closest relatives, wives and influential temniks took part. Meetings were convened both on the family issues of the khan and on issues of state administration. In the latter case, they were passed by a council (divan), consisting of four ulus emirs appointed by the khan himself. The existence of anything similar to this institution before Uzbek is not indicated in the sources. Of these four emirs who were part of the council, the function of two of its members is more or less clearly defined - bekleribek (prince of princes, senior emir) and vizier, of which the first was in charge of military affairs, led the temniks, thousands of thousands, etc., the second was the vizier - civil affairs of the state. Since the Golden Horde, like all feudal states, was primarily a military-feudal state, therefore, the head of the military department was given preference over a civilian one.
In connection with the centralization of state administration under Khan Uzbek, there must have been a streamlining of local authorities. Initially, during the formation of the Golden Horde, there was a decentralization of power. Now, when the centralization of power took place, the former uluses were transformed into regions headed by regional chiefs-emirs.
The rulers of the region enjoyed extensive power in their areas. Representatives of the noble families of the feudal aristocracy, mostly from the same family, were usually appointed to these positions, and by inheritance they held the position of rulers of the regions.
Summing up the political development of the Golden Horde state over the first hundred years of its existence, we can conclude that this rather primitive state association, as it was when Batu was founded, had turned into one of the largest states of the Middle Ages by the time of the reign of Khan Uzbek.
Relations with Russian states
Invasion of RussiaCampaigns against Russia began after the emergence of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. But the invasion to the west was preceded by a reconnaissance campaign of the 30,000th Mongol army led by Subudai and Jebe. In 1222, this army broke through Persia into Transcaucasia, along the coast of the Caspian Sea entered the Polovtsian steppes. The Polovtsian Khan Kotyan turned to the Russian princes for help. Russian squads and Polovtsy met the conquerors on the river. Kalka, where the battle took place on May 31, 1223. The inconsistency in the actions of the Russian princes allowed the conquerors to win. Many Russian soldiers and the princes who led them died in the steppes. But the Mongol-Tatars returned through the Volga region to Central Asia. The attack on Eastern Europe by the forces of the “Juchi ulus”, where Batu now ruled, began in 1229. The Mongolian cavalry crossed the river. Yaik and invaded the Caspian steppes.
The conquerors spent five years there, but did not achieve noticeable success. Volga Bulgaria defended its borders. The Polovtsian camps were pushed back beyond the Volga, but not defeated. The Bashkir people continued to resist the conquerors. In the winter of 1236/37, the Mongol-Tatars ravaged and devastated the Volga Bulgaria, in the spring and summer of 1237 they fought already on the right bank of the Volga with the Polovtsians and in the foothills of the North Caucasus - with the Alans, conquered the lands of the Burtases and Mordovians. At the beginning of the winter of 1237, the hordes of Batu gathered near the borders of the Ryazan principality. The Hungarian traveler Julian, who traveled on the eve of the invasion near the Russian borders, wrote that the Mongol-Tatars “are waiting for the earth, rivers and swamps to freeze with the onset of winter, after which it will be easy for the whole multitude of Tatars to defeat all of Russia, the country of Russians” . Indeed, the conquerors launched an offensive in winter and tried to move with convoys and siege weapons-vices on the ice of the rivers. However, the Mongol-Tatars did not succeed in “easily conquering Russia”. The Russian people put up stubborn resistance to the Mongol-Tatars.
The Ryazan prince met the conquerors at the borders of his principality, but was defeated in a stubborn battle. The remnants of the Ryazan army took refuge in Ryazan, which the Mongol-Tatars managed to take only on December 21, 1237, after continuous six-day assaults. According to legend, Batu's army, which moved further north, was attacked by Evpaty Kolovrat with a small detachment of brave men. The detachment died in an unequal battle.
The next battle took place near Kolomna, where the great Prince of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich sent a significant army led by his eldest son. And again there was a "great slaughter". Only a huge numerical superiority allowed Batu to win. On February 4, 1238, Batu's army laid siege to Vladimir, destroying Moscow along the way. The Grand Duke left Vladimir before the siege and went beyond the Volga, to the river. Sit (a tributary of the Mologa) to raise a new army. The townspeople of Vladimir, young and old, took up arms. Only on February 7, the Mongol-Tatars, breaking through the wooden walls in several places, broke into the city. Vladimir fell.
In February, the army of Batu was divided into several large armies, which went along the main river and trade routes, destroying the cities that were centers of resistance. According to chroniclers, 14 Russian cities were destroyed during February. March 4, 1238 on the river. The city was killed by the grand ducal army, surrounded by the Mongol commander Burundai. Yuri Vsevolodovich was killed. The next day, Torzhok fell - a fortress on the border of the Novgorod land. But Batu Khan failed to organize an attack on Novgorod. His troops were tired, suffered heavy losses, and were scattered over a vast area from Tver to Kostroma. Batu ordered to retreat to the steppe.
On the way back, in March and April 1238, the conquerors once again "raided" through the Russian lands, subjecting them to terrible devastation. The small town of Kozelsk put up unexpectedly strong resistance to Batu, under which the Mongol-Tatars lingered for almost two months. All the brave defenders of Kozelsk perished. Batu Khan called Kozelsk "Evil City" and ordered to destroy it, seeing many dead Mongol-Tatar warriors under its walls.
From the summer of 1238 until the autumn of 1240. the conquerors remained in the Polovtsian steppes. But they did not find the desired rest there. The war with the Polovtsians, Alans and Circassians continued. The population of the Mordovian land rebelled, and Batu had to send a punitive army there. Many Mongol-Tatars died during the assaults on Chernigov and Pereyaslavl-South. Only in the autumn of 1240 the conquerors were able to start a new campaign to the west.
The first victim of the new invasion was Kyiv, the ancient capital of Russia. The defenders of the city, led by the thousand Dmitri, died, but did not surrender. Other Russian cities also stubbornly defended themselves; some of them (Kremenets, Danilov, Kholm) fought off all the assaults of the Tatars and survived. Southern Russia was ruined. In the spring of 1241, the conquerors left the Russian lands for the West. But soon they returned to their steppes, not having achieved great success. Russia saved the peoples of Central Europe from the Mongol conquest. 
Russian traitor shows the way to the Horde
Kyiv warrior without armor
Heavy and medium Horde warriors attack the Russian
Political influence on Russia. Labels of the Horde khans as a fact of suzerain-vassal relations
The Mongol khans did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian principalities. However, the new great Vladimir prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich had to recognize the power of the Horde Khan. In 1243, he was summoned to the Golden Horde and forced to accept from the hands of Batu a “label” for a great reign. This was a recognition of dependence and the legalization of the Horde yoke. But in fact, the yoke took shape much later, in 1257, when a census of the Russian lands was carried out by Horde officials - “numerals” and a regular tribute was established. In Russian cities, tribute tax-farmers appeared - Bezermen and Baskaks, who controlled the activities of Russian princes. According to the “denunciations” of the Baskaks, a punitive army came from the horde and dealt with the recalcitrant. On the threat of punitive campaigns for any attempts of disobedience, the power of the Golden Horde over Russia was kept.
Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (1252 - 1263) pursued a cautious and far-sighted policy towards the Golden Horde. He tried to maintain peaceful relations with the khan in order to prevent new devastating invasions and restore the country. He paid the main attention to the fight against crusader aggression and managed to secure the northwestern border. Most of his successors continued the same policy.
A brief collection of khan's labels is one of the few surviving act sources that show the system of Tatar-Mongol rule in North-Eastern Russia.
The question of the influence of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the establishment of the Horde dominion on the history of Russia has long been one of the debatable ones. There are three main points of view on this problem in Russian historiography. Firstly, it is the recognition of the very significant and predominantly positive impact of the conquerors on the development of Russia, which prompted the process of creating a unified Muscovite (Russian) state. The founder of this point of view was N.M. Karamzin, and in the 30s of our century it was developed by the so-called Eurasians. At the same time, unlike L.N. Gumilyov, who in his studies painted a picture of good-neighborly and allied relations between Russia and the Horde, they did not deny such obvious facts as the devastating campaigns of the Mongol-Tatars on Russian lands, the collection of heavy tribute, etc. .
Other historians (among them S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky, S. F. Platonov) assessed the influence of the conquerors on the inner life of ancient Russian society as extremely insignificant. They believed that the processes that took place in the second half of the 13th - 15th centuries either organically followed from the trend of the previous period, or arose independently of the Horde.
Finally, many historians are characterized by an intermediate position, as it were. The influence of the conquerors is regarded as noticeable, but not determining the development of Russia (at the same time, it is unambiguously negative). The creation of a single state, according to B. D. Grekov, A. N. Nasonov, V. A. Kuchkin and others, happened not thanks to, but in spite of the Horde.
The Horde sought to actively influence the political life of Russia. The efforts of the conquerors were aimed at preventing the consolidation of Russian lands by opposing some principalities to others and weakening them mutually. Sometimes the khans went for these purposes to change the territorial and political structure of Russia: at the initiative of the Horde, new principalities were formed (Nizhny Novgorod) or the territories of the old ones were divided (Vladimir).
The struggle of Russia with the Mongol yoke, its results and consequences
The struggle against the Horde yoke began from the moment it was established. It took place in the form of spontaneous popular uprisings, which could not overthrow the yoke, but contributed to its weakening. In 1262, in many Russian cities, there were protests against the tax-farmers of the Horde tribute - the Besermen. The Besermen were expelled, the princes themselves began to collect tribute and take it to the Horde. And in the first quarter of the 14th century, after repeated uprisings in Rostov (1289.1320) and Tver (1327), the Baskaks also left the Russian principalities. The liberation struggle of the masses brought its first results. The Mongol-Tatar conquest had extremely difficult consequences for Russia. The Batu pogrom was accompanied by massacres of Russian people, many artisans were taken prisoner. Cities that experienced a period of decline were especially affected. Many complex crafts disappeared, and stone construction stopped for more than a century. The conquest inflicted enormous damage on Russian culture. But the damage inflicted by the conquerors of Russia was not limited to the “Batu pogrom”. The entire second half of the thirteenth century. filled with Horde invasions. "Dyudenev's army" in 1293, in its devastating consequences, resembled the campaign of Batu himself. And only for the second half of the XIII century. Mongol-Tatars 15 times undertook large campaigns against North-Eastern Russia.
But it was not only military attacks. The Horde khans created a whole system of robbing the conquered country through regular tribute. 14 types of various "tributes" and "burdens" exhausted the economy of Russia, prevented it from recovering from the ruin. The leakage of silver, the main monetary metal of Russia, hindered the development of commodity-money relations. Mongol-Tatar conquest. Long delayed the economic development of the country. 
Russian Horde and Lithuanian warriors
Prince with a squad
Russian soldiers under fire from the Tatars
The cities, the future centers of capitalist development, suffered the most from the conquest. Thus, the conquerors, as it were, preserved for a long time the purely feudal nature of the economy. While the Western European countries, having escaped the horrors of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, were moving to a more advanced capitalist system, Russia remained a feudal country.
As already mentioned, the impact on the economy was expressed, firstly, in the direct destruction of the territories during the Horde campaigns and raids, which were especially frequent in the second half of the 13th century. The heaviest blow was inflicted on the cities. Secondly, the conquest led to the systematic siphoning off of significant material resources in the form of the Horde “exit” and other extortions, which bled the country bled.
The consequence of the invasion of the XIII century. was the strengthening of the isolation of the Russian lands, the weakening of the southern and western principalities. As a result, they were included in the structure that arose in the 13th century. early feudal state - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Polotsk and Turov-Pinsk principalities - by the beginning of the XIV century, Volyn - in the middle of the XIV century, Kiev and Chernigov - in the 60s of the 14th century, Smolensk - at the beginning of the XV century.
As a result, Russian statehood (under the suzerainty of the Horde) was preserved only in North-Eastern Russia (Vladimir-Suzdal land), in Novgorod, Murom and Ryazan lands. It was North-Eastern Russia from about the second half of the 14th century. became the core of the formation of the Russian state. At the same time, the fate of the western and southern lands was finally determined. Thus, in the XIV century. the old political structure ceased to exist, which was characterized by independent principalities-lands, ruled by different branches of the princely family of Rurik, within which there were smaller vassal principalities. The disappearance of this political structure also marked the disappearance of the Kievan state that had developed in the 9th-10th centuries. ancient Russian nationality - the ancestor of the three currently existing East Slavic peoples. On the territories of North-Eastern and North-Western Russia, the Russian (Great Russian) nationality begins to take shape, on the lands that became part of Lithuania and Poland, the Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalities.
In addition to these "visible" consequences of the conquest in the socio-economic and political spheres of ancient Russian society, significant structural changes can also be traced. In the pre-Mongolian period, feudal relations in Russia developed in general according to a pattern characteristic of all European countries: from the predominance of state forms of feudalism at an early stage to the gradual strengthening of patrimonial forms, although more slowly than in Western Europe. After the invasion, this process slows down, and state forms of exploitation are conserved. This was largely due to the need to find funds to pay for the “exit”. A. I. Herzen wrote: “It was at this unfortunate time that Russia allowed Europe to overtake itself.”
The Mongol-Tatar conquest led to the strengthening of feudal oppression. The masses fell under a double oppression - their own and the Mongol-Tatar feudal lords. The political consequences of the invasion were very severe. The policy of the khans was to incite feudal strife in order to prevent the country from uniting. 
The siege of Kyiv by the Mongol-Tatars
Mongolian warrior in Russia
The collapse of the Golden Horde, the Tatar states of the Volga region and Siberia
The unity of the Dzhuchiev ulus, which rested not so much on economic ties as on the despotic power of the khans of the Golden Horde, was violated during a twenty-year feudal civil strife that began in the second half of the 14th century. The restoration of the unity of the state during the reign of Khan Tokhtamysh was a temporary phenomenon associated with the implementation of Timur's political plans, it was violated by him himself. Those weak economic ties that rested on caravan trade, for the time being, could serve as a link between individual uluses. As soon as the ways of caravan trade changed, weak economic ties were not enough to maintain the unity of the uluses. The state began to disintegrate into separate parts, with its own separate, local centers.
Western uluses began to gravitate towards Russia, Lithuania, while maintaining ties, although weak, with the Mediterranean trade through the Crimea, others, like Astrakhan, gravitated towards the Caucasian world and the East. On the Middle Volga there was a process of isolation of the former Kama Bulgars; The Siberian yurt of the khans of the Golden Horde, like other areas of the Golden Horde east, increasingly strengthened economic ties with the Central Asian world. With the weakening and cessation of caravan trade, general economic ties were lost between individual areas that gravitated towards individual local centers, which in turn led to the growth of separatist movements among local feudal lords. The local feudal aristocracy, no longer relying on the khans, whose power locally has lost all authority, begins to seek local support, supporting one or another representative of the Jochid family.
The Tatar feudal aristocracy of the western uluses united around Uluk-Mukhammed, proclaiming him their khan. We see the same picture in the eastern uluses, since the rise of Edigei, who broke ties with the western uluses. Most of the khans nominated by Edigei, whom he opposed to the sons of Tokhtamysh, were in fact the khans of the eastern uluses, and not of the entire Golden Horde. True, the power of these khans was nominal. The temporary worker himself managed the affairs, uncontrollably managing all the affairs of the eastern uluses and maintaining the unity of these uluses. After the death of Edigei, the same phenomena begin in the eastern uluses that the western uluses also experienced. Here, as in the west, several khans appeared at the same time, claiming the eastern uluses of the Golden Horde.
The Kazakh Khanate, formed in the 60s of the XV century. on the territory of the former ulus of Orda-Ichen and partly of the ulus of Chegotai, in contrast to the state of the Uzbeks, it remained a nomadic state. The Kazakhs, in contrast to their kindred Uzbek tribes, who settled shortly after the invasion of Central Asia, remained nomads. Historian of the early 15th century. Ruzbakhani, who left us a detailed description of the nomadic way of life of the Kazakhs, soon after the formation of the Kazakh ulus wrote: Each sultan stands in some part of the steppe in a place that belonged to the rider, they live in yurts, breed animals: horses, sheep and cattle, return for winter camps to the banks of the Syr Darya River.
With the formation of the Uzbek Kazakh Khanate, most of the nomads of the Golden Horde, who lived in the eastern half of the state, fell away from the Dzhuchiev ulus. In the rest of the ulus, the process of formation of new state associations of the Siberian Khanate and the Nogai Horde was also going on.
The history of the Uzbek and Kazakh khanates is more or less studied in our literature and is still being studied by historians of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which cannot be said about the Nogai Horde and especially the history of the Siberian Khanate.
One of the main reasons for the poor knowledge of the early history of the Siberian Khanate, of course, lies in the scarcity of historical sources. Neither Arab writers, who were primarily interested in the events that took place in the western uluses of the Golden Horde, nor Persian authors, who showed interest mainly in the events that took place in the Central Asian possessions of the Golden Horde, left no information about the early history of Siberia, except for the mention in these sources of the name "Ibir-Siberia", either in the meaning of the country, or the city, which later gave the name to the whole region. The Bavarian Shiltberger, who visited Siberia in 1405-1406, gives very little information about the place of the Siberian yurt in the system of the Golden Horde. The areas that were part of the Siberian Khanate were also little subjected to archaeological study. The Siberian chronicles, the only source for studying the history of the Siberian Khanate due to their relatively late writing, have major shortcomings, especially in the question of the formation of the Siberian Khanate.
From the analysis of the "Collection of Chronicles" and the Siberian Chronicle, it follows that the founder of the Siberian Khanate was a descendant of Shaiban Hadji-Mykhammed, who was proclaimed Khan of Siberia in 1420 or 1421 with the support of Edigei Mansur's son. Tatar historian of the 19th century. Shikhabutdin Marjani, who had other materials that did not reach our time, slightly different from those materials that the compiler of the “Collection of annals” had, writes: “The Siberian state is the state of Hadji-Mohammed, the son of Ali. The residence of his state was from the Tobol fortress 12 versts above , in the city of Isker, otherwise called Siberia. Mahmutek, proclaimed khan after the murder of his father, secured this fortress and the territories adjacent to it for his successor and turned it into the Siberian Khanate, which became a significant Tatar state under Khan Ibak.
What were the boundaries of the Siberian Khanate under Hadji Muhammad and his immediate successors, we do not know. By the time of Yermak's campaign, the Siberian Khanate occupied a rather vast territory in Western Siberia. The borders of the Khanate stretched from the eastern slopes of the Ural Range, capturing the basins of the Ob and Irtysh, included almost the entire Shayban ulus and a significant part of the Orda-Ichen ulus. In the west, it bordered on the Nogai Horde in the region of the Ufa River, in the Urals - on the Kazan Khanate, in the northwest, along the Chusovaya and Utka rivers, it bordered on Perm. To the North, its border stretched to the Gulf of Ob itself; in the north of the Gulf of Ob, the eastern border of the Siberian Khanate went along the Nadim and Pim rivers to the city of Surgut, and then turned south along the Irtysh River; in the area of the Ob River, it went somewhat east of the Irtysh, covering the Baraba steppe. In the 16th century, during the fall of the Siberian Khanate, in the city of Tantur on the Om River, there was a governor of Kuchum, Barabe-Buyan bek, in the settlement of Chinyaevsky on Lake Chani, a protege of Kuchum also sat. In the south, the Siberian Khanate, in the upper reaches of the Ishim and Tobol rivers, bordered on the Nogai Horde.
These total boundaries of the Siberian Khanate in the XVI century. must have remained in the same form throughout its history. The vast territory of the Siberian Khanate differed from other Tatar states that formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde. It was sparsely populated, even in the 16th century. under the rule of Yediger, the Siberian Khanate consisted of 30,700 ulus "black people". The Tatar population itself, which constituted the ruling stratum, stood out in the form of separate islands among the mass of the local population - Mansi and Voguls, hostile to the Tatar aristocracy and their khans. The Siberian Khanate, as noted by S. V. Bakhrushin, was a typical semi-nomadic kingdom, divided into a number of tribal uluses poorly soldered together, united by the Tatars in a purely external way. Siberian Tatars, being nomadic herdsmen, hunters and trappers, have always needed agricultural products, urban handicrafts. Usually, receiving them from Central Asia, the Siberian Tatars were economically dependent on the neighboring Uzbek khanates; the internal weakness of the Siberian Khanate made it dependent on the neighboring Nogai princes and murzas, who exercised political influence on them.
In more favorable conditions, in the sense of studying its history, there was another Tatar state - the Nogai Horde, which was also formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde. If the sources on the history of the Siberian Khanate have come down to us in a very limited form and represent separate, unrelated, fragmentary information, then a rather significant amount of data has been preserved on the history of the Nogai Horde.
The Nogai Horde, which finally took shape in an independent state in the 40s. XVI century, especially began to intensify in connection with the weakening and defeat of the Uzbek union. Then many of the tribe, formerly part of the Uzbek union, joined the Nogais. During the collapse of the horde of Abulkhair, Abbas, together with the sons of Haji-Mohammed, played an active role in capturing the eastern possessions of Abulkhair at the mouth of the river. Syr-Darya, Amu-Darya and the upper reaches of the Irtysh. In the XVI century. The possessions of the Mangyt princes bordered in the north-west with the Kazan Khanate along the rivers Samarka, Kinel and Kinelchek. Here were their summer pastures ("summer"). Bashkirs and Ostyaks, who lived near the river. Ufa, they paid tribute to the Nogais. In the northeast, the Nogai Horde bordered on the Siberian Khanate. According to G. F. Miller, the area lying southeast of Tyumen is called the Nogai steppe. The well-known Kazakh scientist of the first half of the 19th century, Chokan Valikhanov, considered the Altai Juras as a border line separating the Kazakh Khanate from the Nogai Horde. In the first half of the XVI century. The Nogais roamed along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, along the shores of the Aral Sea, near the Karakum, Barsunkum and along the northeastern shores of the Caspian Sea. The Nogai Horde differed from other Tatar states not so much in the size of its territory as in the large number of ulus people. Matvey Mekhovsky calls it "the most numerous and largest horde", Matvey Mekhovsky's messages are confirmed by act material of the middle of the 16th century. Nogai prince in the 30s of the XVI century. could have up to 200,000 soldiers, even without the participation of the military people of some Nogai Murzas. Usually, among the Tatars, military people made up 60% of the total population, therefore, a prince who had 200 thousand soldiers could have 300-350 thousand people. True, the figure of 200 thousand refers to the 16th century, but if we take into account that during the formation of the Nogai Horde, Edigey also had a two hundred thousandth army, then we can assume that the number of ulus people of the Nogai princes was significant in an earlier period.
Despite the population, the Nogai Horde was an amorphous state entity. It was divided into numerous semi-independent uluses subordinated to the Nogai Murzas. Uluses were very loosely connected with each other. The Nogaev murzas, who were at the head of large or small uluses, only conditionally recognized the Nogai princes as their "elder brothers", each murza called himself "sovereign in his state".
Being one of the largest state formations that arose on the ruins of the Golden Horde, the Nogai Horde differed from other newly formed Tatar states in its internal weakness and fragmentation. The weakness of the internal system and the state fragmentation of the Nogai Horde is explained by the natural nature of the Nogai nomadic economy, little affected by commodity-money relations. 
There were many nations and many types of armor in the Horde
Mongolian horse archers on Lake Peipsi
Horde heavy cavalryman and crossbowman 14th century
Sources of Mongolian Law, Great Yasa
By the very beginning of the 13th century, there is a record of Genghis Khan’s instructions on various issues of the state and social system, known in literature under the name “Yasa” (“Yasa of Genghis Khan”, “Great Yasa”). It was the only written source of Mongol law in the 13th century. The nature of these instructions vividly illustrates the despotic power of Genghis Khan. Of the 36 excerpts of Yasa that have come down to us, 13 deal with the death penalty. "Yasa" threatened with death anyone who dared to call himself a khan without being elected by a special kurultai. Death was threatened to those who would be caught in a deliberate deceit, who would go bankrupt three times in trading affairs, who would help a captive against the will of the captor, who would not give up a fugitive slave to the owner, who would refuse to help another in battle, who would arbitrarily leave the post entrusted to him, who would convicted of betrayal, theft, perjury, or disrespect for elders, "Yasa" also bears significant traces of the shamanistic ideas of the Mongols of that time. Military discipline was not in last place: "Head off the shoulders of those who do not return to duty and do not take their original place." The court was the priority of the administrative power.
In addition to the Yasa of Genghis Khan, customary law was widely used, regulating mainly civil relations (inheritance, family law.
In the future, there is a transition to feudal law, the legalized enslavement of arats: if an arat leaves to wander of his own free will, put him to death ”- Esur-Temur (14-15 centuries). The main work that tells about the Golden Horde law is "The Secret Legend".