Battle of the Kalka

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Battle of the Kalka
Part of: Mongolian Expansion
date May 28. bis 31 May 1223
place on the Kalka , today's Ukraine
output Mongol victory
Parties to the conflict

Mongols

Rus Kipchaks' coalition of princes
Commander

Jebe
Subutai

Mstislaw von Halytsch
Mstislaw III. von Kiev †
Mstislaw II. von Tschernigow † u. a.

Troop strength
20,000-30,000 30,000-80,000
losses

unknown, low

10,000 or more

The Battle of the Kalka was fought from May 28 to 31, 1223 between a Mongolian army under the generals Subutai and Jebe and a force from Halych , Kiev and numerous other principalities of the Rus and their Kipchak allies. The battle, which took place on the Kalmius River (formerly Kalka ) in what is now Ukraine , ended in the heavy defeat of the Allied army and is viewed by many historians as a prelude to the Mongol invasion of the Rus .

Starting position

In the course of the campaign against the Khorezm empire and the persecution of its ruler, the Jebes and Subutais armed forces reached Azerbaijan and Georgia. After overcoming the Derbent fortifications , the Mongols finally reached the North Caucasian plains, where they defeated the allied Caucasians and Kipchaks in 1222, then plundered the southern Russian steppe and reached the Crimean peninsula , where Soldaia was devastated in the first half of 1223 . In the course of these actions, it was also about that of the Russians the Mongols Polowzians Kiptchaks mentioned as suspected allies to punish the just defeated khwarazmian dynasty.

Kotjan (also: Kotian or Köten ), the defeated ruler of the Kipchaks, had meanwhile turned to his son-in-law, Mstislav von Halych, for help, and he followed the request for help along with other Russian princes, including those of Kiev and Chernigov . The princes of the Rus had the Mongolian ambassadors, who demanded the extradition of the fugitive Kipchaks, whom they now regarded as Mongolian subjects, murdered without further ado and then began the campaign against the Mongolian army.

procedure

After the Allied army had crossed the Dnieper and defeated Mongolian outposts , their main army faked a flight and was pursued by the Allied forces for nine days, according to the sources. A battle then broke out on the Kalka River, whereby the Kipchaks lost it early on, according to the sources, and caused chaos during their escape in the camp of the Rus army, which, due to its heterogeneous composition, was not well-coordinated militarily and tactically. During the battle that followed, the Russian forces could no longer cope with the confusion, hindered themselves and finally turned to flee as well, being pursued by the Mongols as far as the Dnieper. Only Prince Mstislaw III. from Kiev, who with his fighters had taken a position secured by palisades on a hill above the Kalka , withstood the attackers for three days. On May 31, the fighting, which had degenerated into real carnage, ended. Among the numerous Russian fighters killed were at least six princes, including Mstislav II von Tschernigow and his son. The princes who were captured by Mongolia, including Mstislaw III. of Kiev, were killed by the Mongols, according to their custom that the blood of a prince should not be shed in the earth, as follows:

“But they took the princes and crushed them by laying them under… boards, but they themselves sat on top of them for lunch. This is how they ended their lives. "

Army strengths and losses

The figures on troop strengths are controversial in the literature, especially since no primary source provides precise information. Most historians assume a numerical superiority of the army of the allies because the Mongol army, estimated at a maximum of 30,000 men, was only a part of the army that was sent against the Khorezm Shah. Leo de Hartog estimates the Mongol army to be at most 20,000 men, that of the allies at around 30,000. The historian Richard Gabriel, however, assumes 23,000 men on the Mongolian side and 80,000 on the side of the allies.

Information on the number of fallen soldiers is not available for the victorious Mongolian side, but it is generally assumed that the Mongols suffered only minor losses. The sources unanimously report that the losses suffered by the allies were horrific by comparison, although the figure of 60,000 deaths given in a chronicle is almost certainly highly inflated. The number of around 10,000 killed Rus warriors mentioned in the Nestor Chronicle is probably closer to the truth , which would still have been an extraordinarily large number for medieval standards. The fact that the Russian army suffered great losses is finally recorded in the Novgorod Chronicle , where it can be read that only every tenth man returned home.

consequences

After their victory, the Mongols no longer advanced into the territories of the old Russian principalities, but moved home via the areas north of the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea . After crossing the Syrdarya , the troops of Jebes and Subutais finally rejoined the main Mongol army at the end of 1223 or beginning of 1224.

Historians rate this advance by the Mongols mainly as a campaign of exploration and loot or as a punitive expedition directed against the Kipchaks . The Battle of the Kalka also marks the first meeting between a Mongolian and a European army and is regarded as a kind of prelude to the Mongolian conquest of the old Russian principalities that followed soon after.

Sources and literature

Sources (selection)

  • The Chronicle of Novgorod. 1016-1471. Translated from the Russian by Robert Michell and Nevill Forbes. With an Introduction by C. Raymond Beazley and an Account of the Text by AA Shakhmatov (= Camden 'Third Series, Vol. XXV). London 1914. ( Digitized ; PDF; 17.6 MB)

Secondary literature

  • Leo de Hartog: Genghis Khan. Conqueror of the World. IB Tauris, London 1989, ISBN 1-85043-139-6 .
  • Richard Gabriel: Subotai The Valiant. Genghis Khan's Greatest General. Praeger Publishers, Westport 2004, ISBN 0-275-97582-7 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ See for example Chronicle of Novgorod , p. 64f.
  2. ↑ See for example Chronicle of Novgorod , pp. 65f.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Hartmut Rüß: The old Russian principalities under the rule of the Golden Horde. In: Johannes Gießauf and Johannes Steiner (eds.): 'Lord over the peoples in the felt wall tents'. Steppe empires from Attila to Chinggis Khan. Proceeds from the International Symposium at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (September 28/29, 2006) (= Grazer Morgenländische Studien 7), Graz 2009, ISBN 978-3-902583-05-5 , p. 81.
  4. ↑ See de Hartog (1989), pp. 118 and 120.
  5. ↑ See Gabriel (2004), pp. 98 and 100.
  6. ↑ Chronicle of Novgorod , p. 66.
  7. ↑ Rüß (2009), p. 81.