[3] Many other principalities and urban centres in the northwest and southwest escaped complete destruction or suffered little to no damage from the Mongol invasion, including Galicia–Volhynia, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and probably Rostov and Uglich.

[1][4][5][6] The campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223, which resulted in a Mongol victory over the forces of several principalities as well as the remnants of the Cumans under Köten.

Even those principalities who avoided physical conquest, were eventually forced to accept Mongol supremacy in the form of tribute – as in the case of Galicia-Volhynia, Polotsk and Novgorod – if not outright vassalage, of the Golden Horde, until well into the 14th century.

In The Secret History of the Mongols, the only reference to this early battle is: Then he (Genghis Khan) sent Dorbei the Fierce off against the city of Merv, and on to conquer the people between Iraq and the Indus.

[citation needed]The Secret History of the Mongols reports that Ögedei sent Batu, Büri, Möngke, and many other princes on a campaign to help Subutai, who was facing a strong resistance from various peoples and cities under Genghis Khan's command.

Over the course of several years, the Rus' and the Bulgars normalized relations, which allowed the Volga Bulgaria to devote all its forces to preparing to repel the alleged Mongol invasion.

[citation needed] Immediately prior to the invasion, Friar Julian from Hungary had travelled to the eastern border of the Rus' and learned of the Mongol army, which was waiting for the onset of winter so that they could cross the frozen rivers and swamps.

[15] Thereupon Batu Khan divided his army into smaller units, which ransacked fourteen cities of northeastern Rus': Rostov, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kashin, Ksnyatin, Gorodets, Galich, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yuryev-Polsky, Dmitrov, Volokolamsk, Tver, and Torzhok.

[16] The most difficult to take was the small town of Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Vasily, son of Titus Mstislavich, and inhabitants resisted the Mongols for seven weeks, killing 4,000.

[citation needed] Major principalities and urban centres which escaped destruction or suffered little to no damage from the Mongol invasion included Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and probably Rostov and Uglich.

While Kiev and its grand prince was still formally acknowledged as senior amongst the principalities of Rus', frequent internecine dynastic feuding among rival claimants had left the city weakened.

Indeed, by the time Kiev fell to the Mongols, the head of the city's defenses owed allegiance to Prince Daniel of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia.

The chronicler writes: “And nothing could be heard above the squeaking of his carts, the bawling of his [Batu’s] innumerable camels, and the neighing of his herds of horses, and the Land of Rus’ was full of enemies."

[1] Historian Serhii Plokhy relates the description of one Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, an ambassador of Pope Innocent IV who passed through Kiev six years later: "When we were journeying through that land, we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground".

The Tartars then resolved to "reach the ultimate sea", where they could proceed no further and invaded Hungary (under Batu Khan) and Poland (under Baidar and Kaidu).

[19] Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, the pope's envoy to the Mongol Great Khan, traveled through Kiev in February 1246 and wrote: They [the Mongols] attacked Russia, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Russia; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death.

Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery.

[3] Moscow drew people and wealth, developed trade links, and established an autocratic political system which exerted a powerful influence on Russian society.

By doing so, he eliminated his rival, allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to move its headquarters to Moscow, and was granted the title of Grand Prince by the Mongols.

[23] Although a Russian army defeated the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the Mongol domination of Russian-inhabited territories, with the requisite demands of tribute, continued until the Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480.

The pre-Mongol period was considered the heyday of culture, crafts, and trade in ancient Rus', but after the invasion, many cities fell into decay, and stone construction was halted for a long time.

The production of complex crafts, such as glass jewelry, Cloisonné enamel, niello, granulation, and polychrome glazed ceramics stopped.

[26] As a result of the invasion many people were forced to flee in front of the advancing tumens of Batu, and in northeastern Rus', residents of the Vladimir-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities sought refuge in more northern lands beyond the Volga.

In fact, just a year after the fall of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, the number of returnees was so great that Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich was able to gather a large army among them for a campaign against the Lithuanians.

As a result, many of their inhabitants gradually moved either to the vicinity of Moscow and Tver, or to the north in regions such as Yaroslavl, Galich, Veliky, Ustyug, and more.

[3] The Mongols have been blamed for the destruction of Kievan Rus' and the breakup of a "Russian" nationality into three components, and the introduction of the concept of "oriental despotism" into Russia.

[3] Under Mongol occupation, for example, Muscovy developed its mestnichestvo hierarchy, postal road network (based on Mongolian ortoo system, known in Russian as "yam", hence the terms yamshchik, Yamskoy Prikaz, etc.

[31] In the judicial sphere, under Mongol influence capital punishment, which during the times of Kievan Rus' had only been applied to slaves, became widespread, and the use of torture became a regular part of criminal procedure.

[32] Donald Ostrowski argues that Muscovy's adoption of Mongol institutions and practices may demonstrate the pragmatism of the Muscovite leaders, which enabled them to eventually "triumph over their competitors in northeastern Rus'".

[33] According to Charles J. Halperin (2011), Fomenko and Nosovskii's popular pseudohistorical Novaia khronologiia (New Chronology), which received some attention in the early 1980s, arose out of "the dilemma of the Mongol conquest in Russian historiography": embarrassment among defensive Russian nationalists who object to "Russophobic" arguments that Russia acquired "barbarian" customs, institutions, and culture from uncivilized nomads.