Russian History Essay

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Russia and the Mongol yoke: How bad was it?

The Mongol invasion forever changed the culture of Russia. It brought to an end the period known as the 'Kievan Rus' as the Mongols took control and "captured, sacked, and destroyed Kiev, the symbolic center of Kievan Russia."[footnoteRef:1] The Mongol invasion certainly changed Russia irrevocably: it is not simply that some of the measures of the Mongols were oppressive in nature, but that the autocratic methods of control used by the Mongols were later adopted by Russian leaders, and led to the development of a Russian form of government that was profoundly different from that of Russia's European neighbors. The 'Mongol yoke' ironically produced what we think of now as 'Russian culture.' [1: Dustin Hosseini, "The Effects of the Mongol Empire on Russia," Vestnik: The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies. 12 Dec 2005. Available: http://www.sras.org/the_effects_of_the_mongol_empire_on_russia [17 Apr 2013]]

Russia has long been criticized for its autocratic system of government, in comparison to other nations of similar industrialized status. While this is often traced back to the czars, it is important to remember that before the Mongol invasion Russia had a somewhat democratic system of government. "Comprised of all free male citizens, the veche (?

) was a town assembly that met to discuss such matters as war and peace, law, and invitation or expulsion of princes to the veche's respective town; all cities in Kievan Russia had a veche.[footnoteRef:2]" The veche provided a popular, democratic forum in which people could air their concerns. But this system of localized control was completely destroyed by the Mongols, who exercised centralized authority over the cities they dominated. The Mongols created a hierarchical system of institutionalized bureaucracy to ensure that their empire was a profitable one. The Mongols ruled by military and civilian leaders first known as basqaqi (? ) and later by darugi (?

), respectively.

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Initially, "the basqaqi were given the responsibility of directing the activities of rulers in the areas that were resistant or had challenged Mongol authority" and after resistance was contained, they were replaced by darugi who were "were stationed in Sarai, the old capital of the Golden Horde located not far from present-day Volgograd."[footnoteRef:3] [2: Hosseini, 2005] [3: Hosseini, 2005]

The reason for this control was partially to establish a census, which further supported the creation of a system of institutionalized central government control. "The census served as the primary purpose for conscription as well as for taxation. This practice was carried on by Moscow after it stopped acknowledging the Horde in 1480. The practice fascinated foreign visitors to Russia, for whom large-scale censuses were still unknown."[footnoteRef:4] Even after the Mongols were defeated after two and one-half centuries, the census was maintained by the czars as a useful means to extract taxes on a regular basis from both the poor and the rich.[footnoteRef:5] [4: Hosseini, 2005] [5: Peter Stearns. et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 1992), 460]

Without the Mongols, it is unlikely that the infamous Russian system of serf labor would have developed. Initially, serfdom was designed to protect peasants from the Mongols, but it gradually became a system of enrichment for the aristocrats, rather than a mutually beneficial agreement between the haves and have-nots of Russia. The efficacy of the census and the Mongol's taxation policies "fell particularly heavily on the Russian peasantry, who had to yield up their crops and labor to both their own princes and the Mongol overlords. Impoverished and ever fearful of the lightning raids of Mongol marauders, the peasants fled to remote areas or became, in effect, the serfs of the Russian ruling class in return for protection."[footnoteRef:6] In contrast to Western Europe, which….....

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