Daniil Dmitrievich Cholmsky

Daniil Cholmski on the National Monument Thousand Years of Russia

Daniel von Cholm ( Russian Даниил Дмитриевич Холмский , scientific transliteration Daniil Dmitrievič Holmskij ; † 1493) was a Russian prince, boyars and general from the house of Cholmsky . He was one of the most famous military leaders in the reign of Ivan the Great .

Life

Daniil Cholmski was the son of Dmitri Yuryevich Cholmski. The Rurikiden family of the Cholmskis was a branch line of the princes of Tver , who ruled the subducal principality of Cholm . After 1460 he entered the service of Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow . He gained fame in 1468 after defeating the Volga Tatars at Murom when he carried out an unexpected attack from the besieged city. However, since hostilities with the Tatars continued, Moscow launched a campaign against Kazan . Kholmsky commanded the Russian vanguard, defeated Khan Ibrahim and helped him sign a peace treaty with Moscow after his surrender in the besieged city. The treaty obliged the Khan to release all Russian prisoners of the past few decades and to establish friendly relations with Moscow.

In 1471, Kholmsky led Ivan's campaign against Novgorod . After two victories against the Novgorodians at Korostyn and Staraya Russa , he achieved a decisive victory in the Battle of the Schelon , which decisively shaped the balance of power between the two sides and made the early capture of the Novgorod Republic by Moscow possible.

In the summer of 1472, Kholmsky was at the head of the army that campaigned against Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde . He had sacked the border town of Alexin , but did not risk an open battle with Kholmsky afterwards and withdrew into the steppe. The next year, Kholmsky came to the aid of the allied Pskov Republic , which was attacked by the Knights of the Livonian Order . The intervention of Cholmski's army forced the knights to sign a peace treaty that obliged them to withdraw from Russian territories and granted Russian merchants free trade rights in the Baltic States . The chroniclers later called the treaty Daniel's Peace . For this achievement, Ivan III raised. Kholmsky to the rank of boyar .

Soon afterwards, however, Cholmski had to defend himself against allegations by court rivals that he was planning high treason . Only the support of the clergy and a guarantee of 2,000 rubles, which eight respected Moscow nobles deposited for him, helped to regain the trust of the Grand Duke.

During the second campaign against Novgorod in the autumn of 1477, Daniil Cholmski led the main body of the Moscow army across the ice of Lake Ilmen and managed to encircle Novgorod within one night. The city then had to Ivan III. surrender.

In the late autumn of 1480, Cholmsky took part in the famous standing on the Ugra , where, as one of the commanders on the Russian side, he organized the expansion of the defensive positions. He thus had an important personal part in the final shaking off of the Tatar yoke over Russia.

In 1487 he once again led a Moscow army against Kazan and took the besieged city on July 9th. The result was the dethroning of the hostile Khan and the enthronement of the Moscow-friendly Mohammed Emin.

In 1492 he took part in the war with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and helped small Russian principalities of the Upper Oka to assert their independence from Lithuania. Daniil Cholmski died the following year.

His son Wassili Danilowitsch Cholmski was also a successful general.

literature

• Н.С. Борисов: Русские полководцы XIII-XVI веков. zw-observer.narod.ru (Russian)