Straddling the Eurasian continent, Russia is a very important country in the world, which originated in Novgorod on the Vashi Trade Route, and then conquered Kiev and its surrounding areas on its basis, and then gave birth to an Eastern European monarchy with East Slavs as the main body, that is, Kievan Rus' state.
It was during the Time of Kievan Rus' that the Russian nation gradually formed and began to convert to Orthodoxy, absorbing and learning from The Byzantine civilization. From the time of Grand Duchess Origal to the "Baptism of Rus" during Vladimir I, the Orthodox Church finally included Kievan Rus' in its sphere of influence. However, in the middle of the 11th century Kievan Rus' fell into feudal wars, splitting into more than a dozen principalities and conquering each other. Coinciding with the Mongol expedition to the west, they conquered almost the entire Kievan Rus' region like a plough, and the Russians were under the rule of the Mongol Golden Horde for 243 years.
In Russian historiography, there have long been European scholars who call this history the "Mongol shackles" and see it as a disgrace that hindered Russia's embrace of Western civilization. However, with the great revival of East Asia, especially China, Russia's national strategy gradually shifted from looking west to taking care of both Asia and Europe, and its domestic historiography began to gradually change its tone, more inclined to use "Mongol dependency" to refer to the period of golden Horde rule. In 1206, Temujin was revered as Genghis Khan at the source of the Hannan River, and subsequently established the Great Mongol State. In 1236, Battus conquered Central Asia and Europe, and was called the "Whip of God" by The Europeans who feared them, calling it the Mongol Tatars.
The so-called Mongolian Tatars, of which Mongolia certainly refers to the Mongol tribes, Tatars in the European population is the collective name of the Turkic nomadic ethnic groups in the Eurasian steppe. In fact, in the context of Chinese, the Tatars refer to the nomadic ethnic groups in the desert steppes, and like the Tatars in the European population, they refer to barbaric and uncivilized ethnic groups. In this way, in 1238, the Mongol Tatars took advantage of the internecine slaughter of the various Kievan Rus' principalities and broke through each other, and established the Golden Horde in the small town of Salai at the mouth of the Volga River. Two years later, Kiev fell, and the Russians were plunged into a long period of foreign domination.
The early reign of the Golden Horde had two distinct sides, on the one hand, the khanate would send a large number of tax teams every year to collect heavy taxes and take cruel measures against russians who refused to pay taxes; on the other hand, the princes and nobles of the various principalities adopted a policy of gentle appeasement and continued to continue their ruling privileges. These princes and nobles only needed to submit to the rule of the Golden Horde to obtain canonizations from the Golden Horde, at the cost of providing free military resources and financial support in the event of an invasion by foreign enemies. This mode of rule, which was both feudal and divided, became the basic order of the Kievan Rus' principalities and the Golden Horde.
However, it was in the midst of these Kiev principalities that a small, once inconspicuous principality gradually rose to prominence and became the mainstay of resistance to the rule of the Golden Horde, the Muscovite Principality. The Muscovite Principality was located in the northeast of Kievan Rus' at that time, not only far from Kiev, but also far from Salai, the capital of the Golden Horde. Such geographical areas showed that the Muscovite Principality was a relatively safe place, not susceptible to the political influence of the Golden Horde and other nomadic groups. More importantly, the Muscovite Principality, similar to Novgorod, the first state of the East Slavs, was located at a necessary point for caravans, above the transport hub. This prompted the Muscovite Principality to collect commercial taxes on the basis of geographical convenience, thus slowly accumulating its own strength.
For a long time, the grand dukes of the Muscovite principality were in Taoguang, on the one hand, constantly attracting a large number of residents who had fled from other principalities to gather strength, on the other hand, they won the trust of the Golden Horde by bribing and bribing, and even the Golden Horde had married the Muscovite principality. The most outstanding person to do this was Ivan I, who used the trust of the Golden Horde to accumulate gold and took out a large amount of gold and silver jewelry to lobby the wives, children, and officials around the Golden Horde, thus earning the nickname "Ivan the Money Bag".
Moreover, since the Mongol Tatar conquest did not affect the social status of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Ivan I also built a luxurious garrison in Moscow, and respectfully invited the Orthodox Patriarch from the long-dilapidated city of Kiev to Moscow, and from then on Moscow was not only the richest place among the principalities, but also the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church. In 1328, Ivan I was crowned by the Golden Horde and was given the title of "Grand Duke of Vladimir and All Rus'" and could preside over counterinsurgency, taxation and other affairs on behalf of the Golden Horde, and from then on, the Muscovite Principality, which received the double blessings of the Orthodox Patriarch and the Golden Horde, began to preach and suppress rebellion in the name of the Golden Horde, and annexed other principalities in a dignified manner.
After Ivan I, Dmitry succeeded him as Grand Duke of Moscow, and his economic and military power was further inflated, causing the Envy of the Golden Horde. Prior to this, construction of the Kremlin in Moscow began in 1356, marking the rise of a new power. While the Rus' states were annexed to the Muscovite Principality and obeyed the orders of the Grand Duke of Moscow, the Golden Horde was infighting, changing 14 khans from 1360 to 1380, which gradually gave Dmitry the idea of getting rid of the Golden Horde. So in 1380, the confrontation between the Golden Horde and the Muscovite Principality intensified, and the Golden Horde's Mamai Khan led an army of 200,000 (in addition to Lithuania, another old enemy of the Muscovite Principality) to fight a decisive battle with the Muscovite Principality, and the two sides fought fiercely in the Kulikovo steppe, which ended with the defeat of the Golden Horde, the killing of Mamai Khan, and the respect of Dmitry by all Russia as the "master of the Don River". Henceforth, the Grand Duke of Moscow could be permanently hereditary to Vladimir and grand duke of All Russia without the canonization of the Golden Horde.
The Kulikovo Armageddon was crucial to the Russians' struggle for independence, but it was not completely free from the influence of the Golden Horde. The 36-year reign of Vasily Dmitryevich, Dmitry's son, in 1425, gradually erased the wounds of war, but the Muscovite principality fell into a long division for 20 years from her death in 1425 until 1446. After Ivan III ascended the throne, the Muscovite principality annexed the Duchy of Yaroslavl and the Principality of Rostov, further expanding its power, and in 1480, 100 years after the Decisive Battle of Kulikovo, a fierce battle with the Golden Horde on the ice of the Ugra River was known as the "Ugra River Confrontation" (due to Ivan III's cessation of tribute to the Golden Horde in 1478). The battle ended with the defeat of the Golden Horde and the fall of Ahmad Khan, but was eventually hunted down and killed by the Russian army. From then on, the Muscovite Principality ruled all of Russia and successfully broke away from the Golden Horde's rule over the Russians for more than two hundred years.
For a long time, Russian and European scholars generally believed that the Golden Horde hindered Russia's communication with European civilization, so they called the Golden Horde period "Mongol shackles". However, in recent years, more and more people have gradually looked at the problem from the macro level of world historical development, and gradually agreed that the Golden Horde objectively saved Russians from the invasion of Islamic civilization and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, thus preserving the reality of Russian Orthodox civilization. Moreover, it was in the course of their rebellion against their common enemy, the Golden Horde, that the various principalities of Rus were able to put aside their past and eventually led to the establishment of a unified Russian nation and state.
To sum up, russians were "baptized" in the early days of Kievan Rus' during the time of Vladimir I, converted to Orthodox Christianity, and enshrined it as the state religion. However, after entering the 11th century, Kievan Rus fell into a situation of feudal division, which coincided with the Mongol Tatars' western expedition to establish the Golden Horde. During the reign of the Golden Horde, the Muscovite Principality rose to prominence by collecting merchant taxes from its privileged location as a transportation hub. Ivan I was then given the title of "Grand Duke of Vladimir and All Rus' " by the Golden Horde , and was able to act on behalf of the Golden Horde in counterinsurgency and taxation. Ivan I also built a new luxurious residence in Moscow and invited the Orthodox Patriarch to relocate from Kiev to Moscow. With the strength of the Muscovite Principality, the Golden Horde fought two wars with it in 1380 and 1480, with the Battle of Kulikovo allowing the Grand Duke of Moscow to inherit the title of Vladimir, and the confrontation on the Ugra River prompted the Russians to completely free themselves from the shackles of the Golden Horde.