by Andrei BOGDANOV, Dr. Sc. (Hist.), RAS Institute of Russian History, Moscow, Russia

Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky ("Alexander of the Neva"), who lived in the thirteenth century, is No. 1 in the top list of men who have made Russian history. Such is the result of a nation-wide poll taken in 2008 by the TV channel "Russia" and the "Public Opinion" Fund.

This great man was consecrated as a saint soon after his demise. Prince Alexander Nevsky epitomizes the self-identity of the nation and its ideals of justice. His image is still our people's lodestar.

Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), though a famous warrior, did not see diehard bitter-enders in his enemies with whom he had to cross swords, for he deemed he could live with them in peace and love in the end. Halting Teutonic crusaders marching from the west, he made peace with the

Batu Khan ravaging Ryazan. A miniature from an illustrated 16th-century chronicle.

Batu Khan seizing the town of Vladimir. A miniature from an illustrated 16th-century chronicle.

Mongol tribes advancing from the east: while the crusaders were implacable and urged absolute submission, the Mongolians were tolerant of other peoples' customs and creeds—what they wanted was political obedience only. Alexander's Russ had no other choice then.

ALEXANDER'S ROOTS AND BRANCHES

Historical records have but little to say about our hero and his acts—just about ten pages of chronicles in all, not more. What we know is that Alexander was a second son to Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Pereyaslavl, which was part of the Grand Principality of Vladimir*. Other lands of this principality were in the hands of so many apanage princes. When at peace, this jumble of apanage principalities was a major political force in Russia's northeast.

North of the Vladimir Principality were the lands of the mercantile Republic of Great Novgorod**; Smolensk and adjacent territories as well as the Grand Principality of Polotsk were to the west; and the vast Principality of Chernigov lay to the south. It was a rival of Vladimir in the strife for the Kievan throne: the Kiev Principality was the "elder", most honorable in the Old Russia; for centuries many dynasties were fighting for it, and he who had won in this strife gained the Kievan throne. Yet another party to this rivalry was an association of western lands known as Galicia and Volhynia.

Alexander grew up at Pereyaslavl, a peaceful town surrounded by the well-protected lands of his Vladimir and

* See: O. Bazanova, "Sacred Sites of the Land of Vladimir", Science in Russia, No. 4, 2005. -Ed.

** See: V. Darkevich, "Republic on the Volkhov", Science in Russia, No. 5, 1998. -Ed.

Smolensk kinsmen. Brought up as a warrior, he felt belonged to the upper crust holding sway over Eastern Europe. This ruling elite comprised representatives of a variety of nations—Poles, Magyars, Swedes, Teutonic knights (crusaders) and, Polovtsians, a nomadic tribe roaming the vast plains north of the Black Sea. Like Russian princes, these motley tribes associated in alliances and took part in intestine strife among their neighbors. All set to seize land and booty, they were at perpetual war, exploiting their tribes people (on the pretext of protection) and taking alien prisoners as captive serfs.

By contrast, Alexander was a man instilled with lofty Orthodox Christian virtues not just inherited from the Byzantine, or East Roman Empire, still free and not captured by Barbarians, but, rather, home-grown, ones, springing from the loins of Christianity adopted by the Eastern Slavs and associated Finno-Ugric tribes. One of the fundamental pillars of this faith is not to foist one's religion, customs and language on other people. That was impermissible.

Orthodox churches were put up only in districts where Finnish-Ugric tribes mixed with Slavs (say, at Murom to the east). But the Orthodox creed was not imposed on Nordic tribes of Karelia and other territories to the north. As Russian subjects they paid taxes and served in Russian troops of ten moving up to the top. But at home they were ruled by tribal chiefs and elders of their own, and lived by their own laws.

THE PRINCELY POWER

The pecking order ruled supreme in his native Vladimir-Suzdal Russia. Vicegerents of the princes levied taxes, mustered peasants and townspeople for public works, and dispensed justice. Junior princes bowed to elder princes, with the Grand Prince of Vladimir being topmost as their "father". The principality's troops were strong enough to bring back war booty gained in military campaigns or wax rich in the service of Novgorod the Great.

The Principality of Novgorod the Great was the largest republic in Europe—larger in territory than France. It had many cities and towns under its rule, with Novgorod and Pskov being the biggest.

Protected by numerous strongpoints, this principality war torn asunder by internal strife. Ruled by the "golden belts" (about 30 boyar nobles, rich merchants, artisans and town chiefs, always involved in infighting), Novgorod had to invite Vladimir princes and their host to settle disputes and thus keep the Novgorodians from self-destruction and help ward off the enemy attacks outside. Novgorodians, too, were able to fight, but they were loath to spill their blood. They did it only when finding themselves between the devil and deep sea.

A very bad crop failure visited Novgorod in 1230. Famine hit the republic and areas to its north and east. Yet the "golden belts" would not desist from the infighting. Meanwhile Prince Yaroslav of Vladimir seized outlying strongholds of Novgorod and later in the year moved to the city of Novgorod, leaving his sons Alexander and Fyodor as ruling princes there. The two boys could see horrendous scenes at first hand—corpses of famine victims, bloody battles among townspeople and awful fires. The young princes proceeded vigorously against the ruffians-they ordered to execute cannibals and, at the head of armed detachments, dispersed mobs sacking homes in search of food. The two princes quelled a mutiny that flared up as the banished supporters of Prince of Chernigov burst into the city.

Alexander was twelve years old as his brother Fyodor died in 1233. He became the only ruling prince at Novgorod and started raising an army. The point is that the crusaders and banished Russians fighting on their side broke into Novgo-rodian lands after the citizens of Pskov cleared of the enemy the stronghold Izborsk bordering on Estonia. Prince Yaroslav (who assumed command of a regiment at the age 12, too) ruches to his son's assistance. In the winter of 1234 their ironclad cavalry clashed with Teutons in a snow-driven plain near the town of Yuriev (seized by Teuton knights ten years before, who turned it into a springboard in their Drang nach Osten and naming it Derpt; today, this is Tartu, Estonia).

It was a fierce battle, not a tournament. Alexander, who had just turned thirteenth, tackled a Teuton knight at a gallop and pierced him with lance. The Teutons, overwhelmed, tried to gallop across the river Omovzha (Emaiyghi), but the thin melting ice broke, and many went under (a 15th century chronicler put this episode into a tale of Alexander's famous "battle on the ice" at Lake Chudskoye in 1242). The

Teutonic knights had to cede to Prince Yaroslav and recognize his sovereign rights in Estonia. They also pledged to pay him tribute.

It was but a short breathing space, for soon the heathen Lithuanians broke in. Free and audacious, they had no grand princes to obey. What they had was a light cavalry, the best in the region, that made sulitsas bold raids against neighbors. Alexander and his skirmishes offered a stubborn resistance. Shedding their armor and armed with light swords, sulitsas and bow-and-arrow only, the engaged enemy at the approaches to the town of Toropets. A hard, blood-letting engagement it was that carried off ten Russian nobles and many rank-and file warriors (there were only few casualties in the battle against the Teutons). Alexander's tutor, who covered his prince, was slain, too. Loath to die in alien parts, the Lithuanians fled, throwing their booty, arms and as many as 300 steeds.

In 1236 Lithuanians smashed Teutonic crusaders mustered from all over Europe. This happened on a bitter battle as Saulai. The Teutonic Order sent in reinforcement that, thrusting eastward, captured the town of Drogiczin in Galitsia-Volhynia. Grand Prince Daniel of Galitsia rushed in fury against the invaders, routing them and seizing their chieftain. An eloquent episode: internecine wars with Rus that involved Poles, Magyars and Polovtsians were much more bloody than this clash. The same scenario was true of all Europe until 1237 when the treat of the great Mongol Empire* loomed large.

The Mongols had made forays into Europe even before that. In 1223 their reconnoitering detachment led by Subedei (just twenty thousand strong) smashed a joint Russian-Polovtsian force in a battle at the river Kalka. In 1237, however, the Mongolians under Batu Khan mustered a force 139 thousand strong (Batu was grandson of Genghis Khan). In 1236 they overran the state of Volga Bulgaria and in the winter of 1238, sacked and ravaged Ryazan**, Vladimir and nearly all cities of eastern Russia. But even at this stage many Russian principalities kept warring against one another.

The Mongols pushed farher west, ravaging Chernigov in 1239 and Russia's northern cities. In 1240 they seized Kiev and the Galitsia-Volhynia land. Russian princes and dukes, however, would rather paddle their own canoes no matter what.

INVINCIBLE

Alexander, the ruling prince of Novgorod, was spared by the Mongols. The Lithuanians, however, were a major menace. Meanwhile Wilhelm of Modena, a papal legate in the eastern Baltic, was most active: getting Teutonic and Danish crusaders to make peace, he masterminded a joint Swedish and German attack against Russia.

As enemy warships entered the Neva from the Gulf of Finland, Prince Alexander had but a skimpy force and was unable to rebuff the aggressors. The republic of Novgorod was in no hurry to lend support while his father, Yaroslav, ruling in Vladimir upon the death of his kinsmen, had other fish to fry in his war-ravaged land where the Mongols destroyed as good as all towns. In the meantime a large Swedish force captained by Jarl*** Ulf Fasi, the actual ruler of the kungariket, was poised for an attack on the Ladoga**** fortress so as to cut Novgorod at one fell swoop from its Finnish-Ugric domains and intercept trade routes between the Baltic and the Caspian Seas.

Yet Alexander was certain: "Not in strength is God, but in truth." This is what he said to his soldiers on coming out of the Novgorod Church of Agia Sophia where he had been praying. It was the moment of truth to him. Supported by some of the townspeople, his detachments made a beeline for the Neva where in the mouth of its

* The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. It covered a huge territory, all the way from the Danube in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east, and Novgorod in the north to Cambodia in the south. Part of this empire that ailed over Russia was known as the Golden Horde. -Ed.

** See: O. Bazanova, "Two Capitals of Grand Principality", Science in Russia, No. 1, 2010. -Ed.

*** Jarl, or earl ("ruler", "noble", "brave man")-the topmost title in the hierarchy of medieval Scandinavia originally standing for the kung's intimus vested with power. -Ed.

**** See: A. Kirpichnikov, "The Oldest Town in Rus", Science in Russia. No. 3. 2003. -Ed.

tributary, the Izhora, the enemy had pitched camp. Lagoda's garrison and local heathens joined the host, too.

Some historians are wrong when they say the prince made a surprise attack on the enemy in ingenious clandestine movements: there is no hard evidence on that in historical records. This battle—that went down in history as the battle of the Neva—began in the morning of July 15, 1240, five hours after dawn and went on until dusk when the captains disengaged their troops. This battle was fought "by the book": armed with spears, mounted warriors proceeded in vigorous attacks, they were backed by detachments of footmen replaced now and again for taking rest; archers and arbalesters hit from shelters.

Alexander inspired his soldiers. He pierced the visor of an ironclad Swedish knight, knocking him out of the saddle. Helped by a bishop, the Swede was rushed to safety, to one of the warships. Although nearly all the spears were smashed to pieces, the fighting kept up. Jacob, a huntsman from Polotsk, with sword in hand, broke into the Swedish files time and again; Sbyslav Jakunovicz of Novgorod worked with his ax. Ratmir, a manservant of the prince, was killed fighting as a foot soldier (Ratmir was one of the forefathers of the poet Alexander Pushkin). Fighting with their swords, the Russians thrust forward as far as the enemy camp. One of the druzhina (armed force), Savva, cut down the central pillar of the enemy's gorgeous gold-capped marquee. The Russians also broke through to the enemy men of war where Misha of Novgorod and his detachment sank three of them.

The Swedes managed to hold their positions. But they would rather not hazard into a land defended stubbornly like that. They buried the dead rank-and-file soldiers in a large pit, took the slain nobles to warships, and sailed off. It was a great victory, that brought Alexander the name of Nevsky ("of the Neva"). But Alexander's host sustained heavy casualties. Back in Novgorod, the prince rebuked the ruling elite for failing to send in reinforcement. But the "golden belts" would not heed the voice of reason, and the next invasion followed in August 1240. Coming events cast their shadows before them.

Ajoint force of crusaders from Germany, Denmark, Riga, Yuriev and Revel approached the town of Izborsk in a surreptitious sally and, assisted by native traitors, seized that town. The same took place in Pskov that had seen twenty-six sieges throughout its history: the treacherous boyars opened the town gate and let in the enemy. Some made common cause with them. Tverdilo, en emigre boyar, was installed as an official ruler. But the real power was exercised by German Vögte, or vicegerents, backed by a strong posse. Citizens who fled from Pskov begged the Novgorod republic for assistance, not to no avail. Failing to get troops for a campaign against the knights, Alexander quarreled with the elected authorities and, in the winter of 1240/1241, he and his family left for his native Pereyaslavl.

Meanwhile the crusaders wasted no time. They were building strong points in the locality, and their advance units showed up at the Novgorod's doorstep to cap the misery Lithuanians poured in across the open border. At the request of Novgorodians and Archbishop Spiridon (one who had blessed the prince to the battle of Neva), Alexander returned to Novgorod in the spring of 1241 to defend the republic. Getting the requested forces, he cleared its territory of the enemy. The Teutonic Order could do but little to lend support to its Baltic enclave: on April 9, 1241, its knights were defeated by the Mongols in a battle of Lignica; simultaneously, the Mongols thundered into Poland and the vast kingdom of Magyarország (Hungary).

However, Novgorod gave no troops for dislodging the enemy from Pskov. Hanging the traitors and letting the captive knights go home, Prince Alexander was biding his time until his younger brother, Andrei, could come with their father's regiments. They did come in the spring of 1242, an event that made the Novgorodian authorities raise a host of their own. Yet Alexander set out taking along the regiments of his own and those of his father's. Saddling the roads leading to Pskov and making sure that its boyars would not be able to warn the Novgorodian "golden belts", the prince

proceeded against Pskov in a blitz cavalry attack, capturing the overwhelmed Teutons and Ests in their employ. Pushing ahead, Prince Alexander expelled the enemy from the overrun lands. The shining steel of the Novgorodian regiments impressed the adversary but did not frighten him. In a coun-terstrike, the crusaders hit against the Novgorodian detachments sacking and plundering in local villages, and inflicted tangible losses on the Novgorodians.

The Russians fell back across the icebound Lake Chudskoye towards its eastern shore. Teutonic knights and soldiers of the Bishop of Yuriev, supported by crowds of Ests, rushed in hot pursuit. On April 5, 1242, this armada made a charge against Alexander's fore, but was beaten off by a detachment of mount archers. At this point the enemy formed a wedge, with heavy armed knights covering the other warriors against arrows. Building a file formed at the last moment and cutting across one of the Russian regiments, the Teutons hit flush against a tall ice-covered shore. The Novgorodian druzhina put to flight the Ests, who followed in footsteps of the Teutons, turned around and, spears in hands, dashes against the crusaders.

In this Armageddon "Battle on the Ice" Alexander did not resort to ingenious maneuvering either. The knights fell into a trap through their fault, and lost the elbowroom of spear-fighting. Many were killed in heavy cavalry charges. The Russians killed as many as 400 Germans, twenty knights including, took prisoner 50 (six knights among them) and laid low Ests "without number". Only a few managed to escape. But Alexander let all war prisoners go, and made a peace covenant with the Germans: rebuffing the onslaught, he needed peaceful frontiers in the west. Although the covenant of peace was revised in 1253, 1256 and 1262, the western borderline remained immutable.

BETWEEN MONGOLS AND CRUSADERS

In 1244, leaving in his stead Alexander as a ruling prince of Vladimir, his father Yaroslav set out with gifts for Batu Khan's headquarters. He sent another son, Konstantin, to the Mongol capital Karakorum. The guests were received with "worthy honor" due to them as princes, and as such they returned to their native land. But Prince Yaroslav was less fortunate on another occasion: two years after, he was poisoned by Mongols, in the Golden Horde capital.

Meanwhile the princes of Chernigov, Galitsia and Volhy-nia were canvassing for support in the west, from Vatican first and foremost, against the Mongols, Vatican was not loath to enter into alliance, though it lost no hope of enlisting Alexander in its service, especially after the Golden Horde had granted him a yarlyk, or a seal of approval, to the Kievan throne (1248). Prince Alexander received envoys sent by Pope Innocent IV and explained to them politely that the Russians were just as conversant in matters of faith as the Roman Catholics.

Addressing Russian princes in an assembly convened in Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky urged them to stick together, but all in vain. More than that, being on a visit to the Golden Horde headquarters, his brothers Andrei and Yaroslav rebelled against Mongolia power. But when the Khan sent a detachment to crush the rebellion, the two princes fled, one to Sweden, the other to Pskov. The grand prince is said to have invited the punitive force, though there is no historical evidence to support such innuendoes. Soon after, Alexander got both of them back, sending one to rule over the Suzdal, and the other, in the Tver Principality.

In 1253 the Pope announced a crusade against pagans and their allies, that is against Russia. Troops of Mindovg, the

prince of Lithuania, were first to cross the border (Mindovg was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1251, and awarded a royal crown in 1253 at the coast of his lands). Alexander's son Vassily defeated this force at Toropets, and the Novgorodians repelled the Germans from Pskov.

In 1255 Prince Daniel from Galitsia, also a newly-made king and Roman Catholic neophyte, joined hands with Mindovg in an attack on the Kievan Principality. Meanwhile yet another crusade brought together Danish knights resident in the Baltic, Swedes and Yemi, the Finnish tribesmen and subjects of Great Novgorod. But learning that Alexander Nevsky was heading towards them, the crusaders made themselves scarce. The prince and his druzhi-na slashed ahead as far as the Polar Circle, making short shrifts of the colonialists. As to the Yemi tribe, they renounced Roman Catholicism by a papal bulla of 1257; killing off the Catholic missionaries, they swore allegiance to Novgorod again.

HIS LAST FEAT

The worst came in 1257 as the Golden Horde launched a taxation and administration reform in its domains. Progressive in substance, their reform was terrible in its aftermath. The Mongols were out to take a general census of the population with the aim of streamlining the system of obligations and taxes imposed on the Golden Horde's subjects. Collection of taxes and administration were vested with baskaks, the officials appointed from among the local population ("centurions", "captains", and other "leaders") who were to adopt Islam.

While being in the headquarters of Berke Khan, a zealous supporter of the reform, the grand prince got bad news: the Novgorodians, hostile to this new deal, rose up in mutiny; the rebels won support from Prince Vassily, Alexander's son. Alexander had no other opinion but convince the khan he would be able to deal with the trouble-makers on his own. Only thus he could save Russia from total destruction. He rushed to Novgorod and had the ringleaders punished severally by cutting off their noses and gouging out their eyes. He had no sooner left than the citizens mutinied again, killing some of the supporters of the grand prince, including Misha, the hero of the battle of Neva. It was only in 1259 that Novgorod, threatened that it was by a war with the Principality of Vladimir and Suzdal, had to yield and agreed to a census. But it kept the baskaks out.

Things took a different turn in a western Russia. No one would help Prince Daniel of Galitsia as a Burundai-led troop moved in. To keep himself alive and in power, the newfangled Roman Catholic king let his druzhina join the Mongols in a devastating raid against the lands of Mindovg and Poles, too. Coming back, Burundai ordered Galitsian knights to raze their fortresses, and they succumbed without a murmur. Only the bold townsmen of Holm (Helm) dared to disobey and thus saved their town. The Mongol voivode approved that decision.

In 1260 the Teutonic Order, in concert with the Danes, fell upon Lithuania. But Lithuanians offered a stubborn and spirited resistance killing off huge numbers: falling in a battle at lake Durben were the order's magister, Charles, the Duke of Denmark, and 150 knight. Shortly afterwards Mindovg renounced Roman Catholicism and threw away the royal crown. Forging an alliance with Alexander, Mindovg gave him back Polotsk and Smolensk. In the autumn of the following year both joined forces and smashed the crusaders in the eastern Baltic, taking by storm the old Russian town of Yuriev.

In 1262 Prince Alexander won his greatest victory. Biding his time and waiting for the Golden Horde to break apart, he had the system of baskak requisitions abolished for good as all the towns of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality rose up in arms. Raised by the tolling of community tocsins, the Russians killed the traitors but spared the native Tatars—most of them stayed on in Russia.

But Alexander's days were numbered. Berke Khan was in dire need of wherewithal and troops to keep up the bloody war against Khulagu Khan, who had conquered Anterior Asia. The saintly grand prince, as his Life chronicle says, "begged off his people" from getting involved in Mongolian wars. It took him nearly a year to persuade his fellow citizens. He might have been poisoned in the Golden Horde capital. Be that as it may, he collapsed on his return journey. On November 14, 1263, this great man took his monastic and schema vows at Gorodets, and passed away the same night. " May Thou grant, oh God merciful, that he could see Thy face in centuries to come, for he hath labored for Novgorod and the entire Russian land," a Novgorodian chronicler wrote.