Dmitri Donskoi

Let’s set the scene for our adventure with a short lived “great prince” of some of the Russia territory.  First of all, the eastern Slavs make-up the people living in the area of what we know as Eastern Russia.  Coming out of the Middle Ages, these people would have been deemed weak had it not been for the Mongol conquest.  Don’t get me wrong, the Mongols devastated the cities of the eastern Slavs for more than two hundred years.  The thing that they did unknowingly is build the political power of the rules of the cities.  The Mongols allowed the rulers to remain in charge of their cities and their most favored retained the title of great prince.  Of course, this was in exchange for the local princes being obedient servants and tax collectors.  This is where our friend Dmitri Ivanovich Donskoi comes in.

Moscow was the home of our hereditary great princes.  Eventually, Moscovite princes destroyed their princely neighbors and even replaced the khan as supreme ruler.  It all started with “Ivan Moneybags”.  Ivan I was the extremely stingy grandfather of Dmitri.  He built a large personal fortune and increased his influence by loaning money to less frugal princes to pay their Mongol taxes.  Ivan’s most serious rival was the prince of Tver, who eventually got pounded by Ivan, the appointed commander of the large Russian-Mongol army.  Ivan also convinced the metropolitan of Kiev, the leading churchman of all eastern Slavs, to settle in Moscow.  Let’s say Ivan I set Dmitri up with some prestigious inheritance.

Dmitri, the son of Ivan II, was born in 1350.  In 1367, he married Evdokia, the daughter of the prince of Suzdal and grand prince of Nizhnigorod, a place on the north Volga River.  They had eight sons and four daughters.  Ivan II died at a young age and Dmitri came to the thrown at age nine.  Though his father and grandfather had made Moscow the leading city, it was not yet secure.  Some of his greatest threats came from his neighbors on Tver, Suzdal, Nizhni Novgorod and Ryazan.  Dmitri had to deal with maintaining his rule and also faced a greater challenge in the west.  The Tatars of Lithuania were rapidly growing in power and became a threat as they attempted expansion.  Fortunately, Dmitri had the influence of the Russian church in Moscow.  It acted as continual ideological and economical support as well as political support by the use of interdicts proclaimed by church authorities against his rival neighbors.

There’s not a lot a nine year old can do, but at age seventeen, Dmitri took more direct control.  Dmitri followed the same policies as his father and grandfather as he outmaneuvered the Tatar and attracted people to settle in the sparse regions of the domain.  This was effective because Moscow had territorial base and the more people settled the less easy it was for invaders to attain and also provided a larger population, increasing his rule.  Dmitri also attempted to restructure the army at his command.  It was made up of separate armies of the princes who agreed to engage in any given campaign.  He would pull parts of each army to create a total army under his command.  Each army was organized into polki, this was standard practice.  Dmitri would pull similar polki together to create a polki of the total army. 

Dmitri’s biggest challenge was holding off the expansion of Lithuania.  He was realistic by submitting to the Tatars when it was clear he could not stand to the power and force he faced.  He had better success at fighting the eastern battles around the south part of the Volga River.  His greatest feat was taking tribute and conducting independent policy when the Golden Horde had internal dissention.  From 1357 to 1381, the internal conflict of the Golden Horde was so great there were at least twenty-five khans.  Dmitri made great use of this turmoil to strengthen Moscow.

One of his most famous roles is when he led a Russian army on a military victory over the Mongols.  In 1378, Mamai, a general and claimant to the throne sent a small Mongol army to punish Dmitri for his increase in power and conducting his own policy.  It was defeated by Dmitri’s forces.  It became a personal battle as Maimai lead a large force against Moscow a couple years later.  Again, Dmitri met and defeated it at the Battle of Kulikovo.  Soon, Maimai was being challenged by another Mongol leader named Tokhtamysh and lost.  This led to Dmitri receiving punishment, by Tokhtamysh, for his acts against Mongols.  Eventually, Dmitri played things safe and accepted his position as tax collector and prince.  Sadly, Dmitri died at an early age in 1389, but managed to get his name in the books for bring union to a small region, defended against the east, and giving hell to the Mongols.