The Great City of the Volga Bulgars burned
Editorial contextA year before they reached Rus, the Tatars came 'from the eastern lands' and took the 'glorious Great City' of the Volga Bulgars, a Muslim trading state on the middle Volga. The chronicler says they killed everyone, took a great quantity of goods and burned the city. The Great City is usually identified by historians with Bilyar.
That same autumn the godless Tatars came from the eastern lands into the Bulgar land, and took the glorious Great City of the Bulgars, and slew them with weapons from old man to youth to the infant at the breast, and took a great quantity of goods, and burned their city with fire, and captured all their land.
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Original wording
Тое же осени придоша отъ всточныя страны въ Болгарьскую землю безбожніи Татари, и взяша славный Великый городъ Болгарьскый, и избиша оружьемъ отъ старца и до унаго и до сущаго младенца, и взяша товара множство, а городъ ихъ пожгоша огнемъ, и всю землю ихъ плѣниша.
About Tatars (Mongols under Batu); Volga Bulgars
Keep in mind
Reported from Suzdal at a distance; 'from old man to infant' is a stock phrase for a massacre.
The baskak's two settlements empty overnight
Editorial contextAkhmat had founded two 'slobodas' (tax-free trading settlements) in the Kursk land and left two brothers to guard and fortify them. After a Rus prince ambushed their men, the brothers fled to Kursk and on the next day the whole of both settlements scattered. It is a rare glimpse of settlements founded under Horde protection inside Rus, and of how fragile they were.
That same year, after Easter on St Thomas Sunday, those two besermen brothers fled to Kursk, and on the morrow, Monday, all that sloboda ran away, and the other one too; and so both besermen slobodas dispersed.
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Original wording
Того же лѣта, по Велицѣ дни въ недѣлю Фомину, побѣгоста 2 братеника та бесерменина къ Курьску, а на заутрѣи въ понедѣльникъ побѣже вся свобода та, и другая; и тако розоидошася обѣ свободѣ бесерменьскиѣ.
About Akhmat's 'besermen' (Muslim) settlers; Rus princes of Rylsk and Lipovichsk
Keep in mind
The manuscript spells sloboda as 'svoboda'.
The stone cathedral that became a furnace
Editorial contextWhen the new town fell, the bishop, the grand prince's wife, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, boyars and townspeople shut themselves in the stone Cathedral of the Mother of God, built by the Suzdal princes. The Tatars set it on fire. Then they forced the doors, killed the survivors and stripped the wonder-working icon of its gold, silver and gems. The passage shows a Rus-built stone church and who ruined it.
The Tatars forced open the church doors, and saw some who had perished by fire, and others they put to death with weapons; they plundered the holy Mother of God [cathedral], and stripped the wonderful icon adorned with gold and silver and precious stones
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Original wording
Татарове же силою отвориша двери церковныя, и видѣша овы огнемъ скончавшася, овы же оружьемъ до конца смерти предаша; святую Богородицю разграбиша, чюдную икону одраша, украшену златомъ и серебромъ и каменьемъ драгымъ
About Tatars (Mongols); Bishop Mitrofan and the princely family of Vladimir
A patent from Batu: 'be the eldest of all princes'
Editorial contextFive years after the conquest the grand prince rode 'to the Tatars, to Batu', and sent his son Konstantin on to the Great Khan ('Kan') in Mongolia. Batu received him with honour and named him senior over all Rus princes. The chronicle records the start of the system in which Rus princes held their thrones by the khan's word.
Grand Prince Iaroslav went to the Tatars, to Batu, and sent his son Konstantin to the Kan; Batu honoured Iaroslav with great honour, and his men, and let him go, saying to him: 'Iaroslav! be thou the eldest of all princes in the Russian nation.'
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Original wording
Великый князь Ярославъ поѣха въ Татары къ Батыеви, а сына своего Костянтина посла къ Канови; Батый же почти Ярослава великою честью, и мужи его, и отпусти й, рекъ ему: «Ярославе! буди ты старѣй всѣмъ княземъ въ Русскомъ языцѣ.»
About Batu, khan of the Golden Horde; Grand Prince Iaroslav Vsevolodich
Bow to the fire and the idols
Editorial contextWhen Mikhail of Chernigov came to Batu's camp, Batu ordered him to bow to fire and to 'their idols'. Mikhail refused, mocked the idols as deaf, and was killed. The episode matches western reports that visitors had to pass between fires and honour Mongol felt images, and it made Mikhail a Russian saint.
Batu sent to Prince Mikhail, ordering him to bow down to fire and to their idols; but Prince Mikhail did not submit to their command, but reproached him and his deaf idols, and so he was stabbed to death without mercy by the impious ones
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Original wording
посла Батый къ Михаилу князю, веля ему поклонитися огневи и болваномъ ихъ; Михайло же князь не повинуся велѣнью ихъ, но укори й и глухыя его кумиры, и тако безъ милости отъ нечестивыхъ заколенъ бысть
About Batu; Prince Mikhail of Chernigov
Keep in mind
Told as a martyr story; the fuller hagiographic version is in later chronicles.
The census: tens, hundreds, thousands and ten-thousands
Editorial contextThe Horde sent census takers who counted the Suzdal, Riazan and Murom lands and set up officers over tens, hundreds, thousands and ten-thousands, the Mongol decimal system, before returning to the Horde. Clergy were not counted, in line with the Mongol practice of exempting religious men from tax.
That winter the census takers came, and counted all the Suzdal land, and the Riazan and the Murom, and appointed chiefs of ten, of a hundred, of a thousand and of ten thousand, and went off to the Horde; only they did not count abbots, monks, priests, choir clergy, whoever looks to the holy Mother of God and to the bishop.
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Original wording
Тое же зимы пріѣхаша численици, исчетоша всю землю Суждальскую, и Рязаньскую, и Мюромьскую, и ставиша десятники и сотники и тысящники и темники, и идоша въ ворду, толико не чтоша игуменовъ, черньцовъ, поповъ, крилошанъ, кто зрить на святую Богородицю и на владыку.
About Mongol census officials ('chislenitsy') of the Golden Horde
Tax farmers driven out by the town assemblies
Editorial contextThe Horde's tribute had been farmed out to Muslim merchants, who bought the right to collect it and charged interest. In 1262 the towns called their assemblies (veche) and drove them out of Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal and Iaroslavl. The same entry tells of a renegade monk, Zosima, who became a Muslim under a Tatar official named Kutlubii and was killed in Iaroslavl.
[God] put fury into the hearts of the Christians, who, not bearing the violence of the pagans, summoned the veche and drove them out of the towns, out of Rostov, out of Vladimir, out of Suzdal, out of Iaroslavl; for those accursed besermen had bought up the tribute, and from that they worked great ruin on the people
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Original wording
вложи ярость въ сердца крестьяномъ, не терпяще насилья поганыхъ, изволиша вѣчь, и выгнаша изъ городовъ, изъ Ростова, изъ Володимеря, изъ Суждаля, изъ Ярославля; окупахуть бо ти оканьніи бесурмене дани, и отъ того велику пагубу людемъ творяхуть
About Muslim ('besermen') tax farmers working for the Horde; townspeople of Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Iaroslavl
The baskak's warning: heads tied to saddle straps
Editorial contextAfter a quarrel with the local princes, the baskak Akhmat had captured boyars killed, their bodies hung on trees without heads and right hands, and told pilgrims to spread the message that anyone who disputes with his baskak will end the same way. His men then tied the heads to their saddle straps. The Laurentian text starts mid-story because leaves are missing from the manuscript.
'You are guests and pilgrims, you travel through the lands; say this: whoever will hold a dispute with his baskak, so it will be with him.' And whatever common people were seized, with wives and children, he sent all of them away. And he ordered the corpses of those boyars hung up on the trees, cutting off the head and the right hand; and the besermen began to tie the boyars' heads to their saddle straps
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Original wording
«вы есте гости, а паломници, ходите по землямъ; тако молвите: хто иметь держати споръ съ своимъ баскакомъ, тако ему будеть;» а что изъимано людій черныхъ и съ женами и съ дѣтми, то все попровадилъ прочь. А трупья бояръ тѣхъ повелѣ по деревью извѣшати, отъимая голову и правую руку; и начаша бесурмене вязати головы боярьскыя къ торокомъ
About Akhmat, Muslim baskak (tax agent) of the Kursk land, and his 'besermen'
Keep in mind
The opening of the story is lost in the codex; the chronicler blames Rus sins and princely feuds as much as the baskak.
'Unknown peoples': who are these Tatars?
Editorial contextThe first Suzdal notice of the Tatars admits that nobody knows who they are, where they came from, what language they speak or what faith they hold. People called them Tatars, Taumens or Pechenegs, while bookish men tied them to a prophecy of Methodius of Patara. The chronicler adds that he writes them down only 'for the memory of the disaster of the Rus princes' at the Kalka.
there appeared peoples whom no one clearly knows: who they are and whence they came out, and what their language is, and of what tribe they are, and what their faith is; and they call them Tatars, and others say Taumens, and others Pechenegs, and others say that these are the ones of whom Methodius, bishop of Patara, bears witness
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Original wording
явишася языци, ихже никтоже добрѣ ясно не вѣсть, кто суть и отколѣ изидоша, и что языкъ ихъ, и которого племени суть, и что вѣра ихъ; и зовуть я Татары, а инии глаголють Таумены, а друзіи Печенѣзи, ини глаголють, яко се суть, о нихъ же Меѳодій Патомьскый епископъ свѣдѣтельствуеть
About Tatars (the Mongol army of Jebe and Subutai)
Keep in mind
The editors note that other chronicles read 'Taurmens' (Turkmens). The Methodius link is a book legend, not anything the Mongols said of themselves.
The end-of-time peoples of Pseudo-Methodius
Editorial contextStraight after naming the Tatars, the chronicler quotes the prophecy he thinks explains them: peoples driven into the desert by Gideon would come out at the end of time and conquer everything from the east to the Euphrates and from the Tigris to the Black Sea, except Ethiopia. He hedges at once: 'God alone knows who they are.' This is the same book legend that western writers linked to Gog and Magog.
for thus Methodius said: that toward the end of time those whom Gideon drove out will appear, and they will capture all the land from the east to the Euphrates, and from the Tigris to the Pontic Sea, except Ethiopia.
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Original wording
тако бо Меѳодій рече: яко къ скончанью временъ явитися тѣмъ, яже загна Гедеонъ, и поплѣнять всю землю отъ встока до Ефранта и отъ Тигръ до Понетьскаго моря, кромѣ Еѳіопья.
About Tatars (Mongols), read as an apocalyptic nation
Keep in mind
A prophecy the chronicler read in a book, offered as one guess among several.