The Mongol Conquest of Rus'

This chapter discusses some controversial and unresolved questions with regard to the history of the Mongol conquest of Rus’. The Battle of the Kalka River is usually perceived as the first clash between the Russians and the Mongols, serving as a kind of prologue to the conquest of Rus’ that followed a decade and a half later. In 1235, the Mongol rulers, led by their Qa’an, Ogodei, decided on a military expedition to conquer lands in Europe (The Great Western Campaign). After invading Volga Bulgharia (1236), the Mongol armies led by Chinggis Khan’s grandson Batu came to the borders of Rus’. The spring of 1239 saw the beginning of the Mongol conquest of south Rus’. The scanty and contradictory accounts of the Russian chronicles make it impossible to get a complete and reliable picture of the events.