The problem of the Russian-Golden Horde borderland has not yet been presented as an independent research topic. The borders of Russia with the Golden Horde remain unclear for a considerable length and are depicted on maps very roughly-dotted lines, sometimes drawn without relying on sources. Most often, the reference point is the edge of a vegetation zone that is convenient for nomadic farming. In the absence of specific data in the sources, the latter circumstance, of course, must be taken into account. We can, however, try to fill in some of the gaps and at least partially overcome the forced schematism.

With the Golden Horde, the Russian principalities had the longest border. Identifying the internal specifics and outlines of borderlands, tracing changes in the border strip, you can complete the picture of the organization of Mongol rule in Russia. The tendency to reduce the state territory of the Golden Horde, which is characteristic of the second half of the 14th century, not only reflects its internal weakening, but also clearly indicates a general strengthening of the struggle against its hated yoke. 1
On the threshold and during the formation of a centralized state, Russia did not have the strength to strengthen its borders in such a way that would ensure the security of its possessions. Such an opportunity appeared much later, when extended serif lines were arranged. However, the border in the sense of a clearly marked boundary separating the Russian and Golden Horde possessions existed in the XIII-XIV centuries. Of course, it had its own specifics, inherent in the Middle Ages and distinguished it from the border strip in the modern sense. This is evidenced by data from sources. The understanding of the border by contemporaries in the XIII and XIV centuries shows that this concept for the period under consideration is not modernization at all, but quite corresponds to the ideas of that era. In February 1246, the papal diplomat Plano Carpini, who was traveling in the Dnieper region, was stopped in the steppe by the Golden Horde outpost, whose duties included not only protecting a certain border, but also notifying the ulusbek (ruler of an administrative unit) of everything that was happening within the ulus. The latter was carried out immediately, despite the small number of escorts of the papal diplomat and his exclusively peaceful names.-

1 Egorov V. L. Development of centrifugal aspirations in the Golden Horde. - Voprosy istorii, 1974, N 8; Nazarov V. D. Rus ' ne predeem Kulikovskaya bor'i [Russia on the Eve of the Kulikovo Battle]. - Ibid., 1978, N 8; Kuchkin V. A. Formirovanie gosudarstvennoy territorii Severo-Vostochnoy Rus ' v X - XIV vv. [Formation of the State territory of North-Eastern Russia in the X-XIV centuries]. Russian principalities and lands before the Battle of Kulikovo. In: Kulikovo Battle, Moscow, 1980; Pashuto V. T., Florya B. N., Khoroshkevich A. L. Drevnerusskoe nasledie i istoricheskie sudby vostochnogo slavstva, Moscow, 1982.

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renya. Russian sources also indicate that there were clear borders in the 14th century, rather than vague "limits". When describing the route to Kulikovo Pole, the chronicles note a specific line - the Don River, beyond which the Golden Horde's possessions stretched. Since the reign of Dmitry Ivanovich, the unpunished violation of Russian borders by the Golden Horde becomes possible only in cases of direct treachery on the part of individual princes. It is enough to recall the campaign of Tokhtamysh in 1382, when the actions of the princes of Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan, who concealed the movement of the enemy army to Moscow, damaged all-Russian interests. Under Dmitry, a qualitatively new tactic was developed to prevent the enemy from reaching the borders (1376-a campaign against Great Bulgaria, 1377-a campaign against the Mordovian lands, 1378-the Battle of Vozhe, 1380-the Battle of Kulikovo). Even then, the borders did not have the character of arbitrarily set boundaries: the spiritual letters of Ivan Kalita and his son Ivan Ivanovich indicate the existence of treaty articles on the delimitation of territories with the Golden Horde.

The study of this topic requires parallel development of sources and materials describing both the Russian and Golden Horde territories. Without this approach, defining boundaries is extremely difficult. The primary role among the sources is played, however, by the Russian chronicles, which are distinguished by considerable concreteness in this matter. The specifics of the source leave a certain imprint on the geographical information contained in it. They are interspersed in various stories about the Russian-Horde clashes, trips of princes to the Khan's headquarters, and reports on internal events in the Golden Horde. When distinguishing between the Russian and Golden Horde possessions, the chronicles are the main source, since the Arab and Persian authors did not even have an approximate idea of the presence of such boundaries. However, even in the annals, such information is fragmentary and allows us to reconstruct not all sections of the border.

Drawing attention to the paucity of data in written sources, their dispersion, as well as the lack of archaeological knowledge of monuments preserved in the border zone, A. Y. Yakubovsky emphasized the particular difficulty of establishing the boundaries of the Jochi ulus, and M. G. Safargaliyev concluded that based on the available materials of the XIV century, the territory of the Golden Horde for this period can only be determined in total 2 . A number of historians have considered small sections of the border - within the limits necessary to cover the issues they study, as a rule, in order to find out the borders of a particular principality, localize specific points and, in this regard, clarify the state affiliation of the territories .3
Archaeological studies of the monuments of the XIII - XIV centuries located in the border areas are promising. The data obtained in this case directly answer the question of whether this or that region belonged to the Golden Horde state or was part of the Russian possessions. For example, B. O. Tymoshchuk, based on archaeological data, comes to the conclusion that Bukovina was not part of the Golden Horde .4
2 Grekov B. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu. Zolotaya Horda i ee padanie [The Golden Horde and Its Fall], Moscow, l. 1950, pp. 60-61; Safargaliev M. G. Raspad Zolotoy Horde. Saransk. 1960, p. 26.

3 Krotkov A. A. K voprosu o severnykh ulusakh zolotoordynskogo khanstva [On the northern ulus of the Golden Horde Khanate]. - Izvestiya Obshchestva obsledovaniya i izucheniya Azerbayana, 1928, N 5; Nasonov A. N. Mongoly i Rus. Moscow-L. 1940; his. "Russkaya zemlya" i obrazovanie territorii Drevnerusskogo gosudarstva ["Russian Land" and the formation of the territory of the Old Russian State]. Moscow, 1951; Kuchkin V. A. Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Principality in the XIII-XIV centuries. In: Poland and Russia, Moscow, 1974.

4 Timoshchuk B. O. Davnyoruska Bukovina (X-persha half of the XIV century). Kiev, 1982,

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S. A. Belyaeva's monograph on Southern Russia after the Mongol invasion contains a historical and geographical sketch based on archaeological material, which also deals with the issues of territory, notes the belonging of certain areas to Russian possessions, and lists localities .5 However, having refrained from using written sources, the author does not address the issue of delineating the Southern Russian lands from the Golden Horde, which gives the impression of blurring the borders.

Archaeological data allow in some cases to delineate with greater or lesser accuracy (depending on the coverage of the studied territory) the marginal regions of Russia and the Golden Horde, although without clearly drawing border lines. A specific difficulty is created due to the fact that the peoples surrounding the Golden Horde for a long time tried to settle as far as possible from the areas inhabited by the Mongols, which caused the appearance of "empty spaces", or neutral spaces, along the edges of the Golden Horde nomads, usually in the transitional forest-steppe zone. Such neutral spaces were occasionally used by one or the other side for economic purposes (hunting or grazing). Therefore, in some cases, we can only talk about borderlands, or outlying areas, of neighboring states. The idea of territorial limits in the understanding of nomadic Mongols was primarily associated with lands that were inconvenient or not adapted for nomadic farming. Forests and mountains were a natural hindrance in such cases. The presence of "neutral" areas along the borders of the Golden Horde, which are not inhabited by a settled population, is especially characteristic of the 13th century. - the period of the greatest scope of military operations of the Mongols in the direction of the northern and north-western borders, i.e. against Russia.

The Golden Horde was one of the largest states of the Middle Ages. Its military power allowed it to maintain its territory within the same borders throughout the 13th century and the first half of the next century, until the explosion of feudal strife in the 60s and 70s of the 14th century. In addition, in fact, the only force that opposed the Mongols at that time was Russia, which was extremely weakened after the defeat. Shackling their expansion, it suffered considerable losses. Naturally, during such a long confrontation, certain changes in the borderlands took place.

In the 13th century, since the formation of the Golden Horde, the steppes between the Dniester and the Dnieper were part of it. In the Southern Bug basin, Mongolian nomads spread northward, capturing the lower reaches of its left tributary, the Sinyukha. They reached the southern borders of the present-day Vinnytsia and Cherkasy oblasts, i.e., the middle course of the Southern Bug6. The Golden Horde territory did not extend further north. A special situation developed in the 50s of the XIII century in some districts and cities of the upper reaches of the Southern Bug and the middle course of the Dniester. These regions were not directly included in the Golden Horde territory, but at the same time they were in a different position than the adjacent possessions of the Galician princes. First of all, this applies to the town of Bakota, which previously played the role of the center of the Galician Ponizia7 . According to the Ipatiev chronicle, in the mid-50s of the XIII century.

5 Belyaeva S. A. Southern Russian lands in the second half of the XIII-XIV centuries. Kiev, 1982, pp. 27-34.

6 Molchanovsky N. Ocherk izvestiya o Podol'skoi zemli do 1434 goda [Essay of News about the Podolsk land before 1434]. Kiev, 1885, p. 153.

7 PSRL. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1908, stb. 789, 791, 793. Its ancient settlement is located on the left bank of the Dniester River, near the modern village of Bakota, Kamianets-Podilsky district, Khmelnitsky region.

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"pasha Tatar", who made the local ruler Miley a baskak. As a result, Bakota (apparently with a rural district) ceased to obey the Galician princes, which was what its ruler Miley wanted. The attempt of Prince Daniel and his son Leo to influence Miley was only temporarily successful, and the latter again began to serve the Mongols .8 Having become the administrative center of Baskachestvo with a Russian population, Bakota was a kind of intermediate, so to speak, buffer zone between the Galician and Golden Horde possessions, politically subordinate to the Mongols. It is difficult to judge how long this situation lasted, since the further fate of Bakota is not reflected in the annals. We can only assume that Daniel tried to restore his power here at the first opportunity.

Located in the upper reaches of the Bug, Bolokhovskaya land was also not directly included in the territory of the Golden Horde. The chronicle tells about the "Tatar people" who lived here and the cities "sitting for the Tatars", which, however, does not indicate the expansion of the Golden Horde territory so far to the north, but about the existence of a special region on Russian territory, administratively and politically completely subordinate to the Mongols. Obviously, the Bolokhov princes tried in this way to preserve their small possessions from encroachments by the Galician-Volhynian principality, but the orientation towards supporting the Mongols did not give the desired results, and in the 60s of the XIII century the Bolokhov land as an autonomous political unit ceased to exist9 . Thus, in the 50s and 60s of the 13th century, there were at least two special zones in the area under consideration with a Russian population and on Russian territory, but headed by an administration completely dependent on the Golden Horde.

The border line between Russia and the Golden Horde in the Dnieper basin can be drawn on the basis of the reports of Plano Carpini, who rode down the river from Kiev in February 1246. He visited "a certain village named Kanov, which was under the direct rule of the Tatars." All researchers identify this village with the modern city of Kaniv on the Dnieper River, 120 km south of Kiev. In another village, which was also visited by travelers, the" chief " was Alan named Micah. On February 19, Mikhei and Karpini set off down the frozen Dnieper riverbed and reached the first Mongolian outpost in the open steppe by the evening of February 23. [10 ] In Karpini's story, it is noteworthy that between Kiev and the Mongol nomads, from which the territory of the Golden Horde began, there was a special strip that was "under the direct rule of the Tatars", but still not included in the borders of their state. Its length from north to south was quite significant, because travelers traveled along it for at least six days, which means they covered about 200 kilometers. In addition, the village of Kanov itself was hardly located on the northern border of this strip, presumably, it passed somewhat higher along the Dnieper. Karpini does not mention the ethnic origin of the population living here, but the Mongols first met on his way much to the south of the village of Mikheya.

Most likely, it was a special buffer zone that stretched along the border strip between the Russians and Zolotoordynsky-

8 PSRL. Vol. 2, stb. 828, 829.

9 Ibid., stb. 838; Rappoport P. A. Goroda Bolokhovskoy zemli [Cities of the Bolokhov land]. - Short reports of the Institute of the History of Material Culture, 1955, issue 57, p. 59; Tereshchuk K. I. doslizatsiyu pro lokalizatsiyu Bolokhivskoi zemli V kn.: Doslidzhennya z slov'яно- руськоï археологiï. Kiev, 1976, pp. 164-175.

10 Travel to the Eastern countries of Plano Carpini and Rubruk, Moscow, 1957, pp. 67-68.

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my possessions. Its characteristic feature was the absence of a Russian princely administration, replaced by Horde baskaks or tax collectors collecting tribute. Carpini's remark about the direct power of the Mongols, which extended to this territory, largely corresponds to the Russian chronicle report about cities "sitting for the Tatars". The presence of such zones, apparently, was a characteristic phenomenon for the Russian-Horde borderlands of the second half of the XIII century, especially in the forest-steppe. Their appearance may have been caused by a sharp decline in the population here after the Mongol campaigns of 1237-1240, partly destroyed or taken prisoner, and partly moved north to more peaceful areas. On the one hand, the Russian princes who owned such estates found themselves in the neighborhood of the Mongols, which was not only fraught with complete political dependence, but also constantly threatened with economic ruin. On the other hand, the economic life of these areas was already so seriously damaged that it required a huge effort to revive it, which clearly did not correspond to the number of remaining population. As a result, some princes abandoned their estates, preferring to serve under larger rulers, as, for example, Prince Yuri Porossky did (he served under the Volyn princes Vladimir, then Mstislav) .11 His possessions in the basin of the right tributary of the Dnieper, the Ros River, passed to the Golden Horde. They were located below Kanev, i.e. in full accordance with Carpini's data, which allows us to outline the boundaries of the" buffer " zone between Russia and the Golden Horde.

It is possible to concretize and somewhat expand the limits of the intermediate zone under consideration to the north, including Pereyaslavl on the Dnieper coast. The basis for this conclusion is provided by the report of the Laurentian Chronicle about the trip of Prince Daniel to Batu Khan in 1250. Having left "in lodi" from Kiev, he reached Pereyaslavl, where he was "stretosha Tatarove". The assumption that the Mongols were here only temporarily, making their usual nomadic movements in search of good pastures, is most likely incorrect. According to Karpini, in the summer months they went up the Dnieper and Don Rivers, and by autumn they went south to the sea. Daniel's trip began on St. Dmitry's Day (October 26), and he could have been in Pereyaslavl at the beginning of November, when the Mongolian herds had already migrated to the southern latitudes. Therefore, we can assume that Daniel met in Pereyaslavl with some representatives of the Mongolian authorities who were constantly in the city. The inclusion of Pereyaslavl in a special border zone is also confirmed by the fact that the ulus of Kuremsy, where Daniel then went, was located at some distance from this city ("ottouda yokha to Kuremese" 12 ).

Carpini's story allows us to establish the northern border of the Golden Horde possessions. The trip from the village of Mikheya to the first Mongolian outpost in the steppe took five days (February 19-23), i.e. travelers could cover a distance of about 150 kilometers during this time. Unfortunately, Carpini's information does not make it possible to indicate the location of the village from which he left, since the story does not say how many days before it was driven from the City. Therefore, the location of the first Mongolian outpost can only be determined with relative accuracy. Assuming that the village of Mikhei was located two or three days ' journey south of Moscow, we can calculate that the first meeting of the Carpini with the Mongols took place in the area between the Pela and Vorsk rivers-

11 ПСРЛ. Т. 2, стб. 930; Грушевський М. Iсторiя Украïни - Руси. Т. III. Lviv 1900, c, 224.

12 PSRL. Vol. 2, stb. 806; Travel to Eastern countries, p. 70.

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ly. This conclusion is also confirmed by the fact that the northern border of the steppe zone then coincided with the lower course of the Pel. The steppe occupies the Pela and Vorskla interfluves only in their lower reaches, and further to the northeast, the lands along these rivers were not of interest to nomads. The natural features of the middle course of the Vorskla River served as a natural boundary that has long separated the Russian lands from the possessions of nomads .13
Based on Karpini's data and taking into account the nature of the landscape, the northern border of the Golden Horde territory proper on the left bank of the Dnieper can be drawn along the lower course of the Pel, followed by a retreat to the south in the middle course of the Vorskla and further east along its left bank. The area of present-day Poltava and Kharkiv was covered with forests as early as the 17th century, which were "true protection from the Tatars" 14 . The presence of significant areas occupied by dense forests here indicates (in the absence of direct evidence from sources) that the border of the Golden Horde could have passed somewhat south of Kharkiv.

The well-known chronicle account of the conflict between the Kursk princes and Baskak Akhmat in 1283-1284 allows us to judge not only the southern outskirts of the Russian lands in this region, but also the attempts of the Mongols to extend their power to them. The farmer Akhmat tried to create on the territory of the Kursk Principality the same zone that was not subordinate to the Russian administration, which was south of Kiev. For this purpose, he founded two settlements "in the fatherland of Olg, Prince Rylskago and Vorgolskago" 15 . Both settlements located directly under Kursk are located according to the found Golden Horde irrigation ceramics: 18 km east of Kursk on the right bank of the Rati River (Besedinskoe gorodishche) and near the village of Lebyazhy on the right bank of the Seim near Kursk 16 . Princes Oleg and Svyatoslav could not come to terms with the outflow of the population from their possessions and took measures to return it and destroy the settlements.

The chronicle account of the Akhmatovo settlements shows that the zone under consideration did not represent a continuous strip, but existed only in separate border areas. In creating and preserving such zones, it was not the Golden Horde nomadic aristocracy, which owned vast steppe uluses that met all the requirements of cattle breeding, that was interested, but the Horde officials who were in charge of collecting tribute and tax collectors. In this regard, it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that the tax collectors and senior officials named in the sources who ruled the Russian or buffer territory proper were of non-Mongol origin. Carpini mentions the chief of the village, Alan Mikhei; the Russian chronicle describes the tax collector.-

13 Lyaskoronsky Century Russian Hiking in the desert in the specific-Assembly time and the campaign of Prince Vytautas Tatars in 1399 - the Magazine of the Ministry of education, 1907, may, p.24.

14 Tsvetkov M. A. Izmenenie lesistosti Evropeyskoy Rossii s kontsa XVII veka po 1914 godu [Changing the forest cover of European Russia from the end of the 17th century to 1914]. Moscow, 1957, p. 19.

15 PSRL. Vol. 18. SPb. 1913, p. 19.

18 Alexandrov-Lipking Yu. A. The distant past of the Nightingale Region. Voronezh. 1971, pp. 112-117.

17 In the story about the further course of the escalated and prolonged conflict, it is interesting to mention the "Voronozhsky lesekh", attributed by the chronicler to the Russian possessions (PSRL. Vol. 1. L. 1926, stb. 482). M. A. Tsvetaev's opinion that these forests were located along the banks of the Voronezh River (uk. soch., p. 16) seems hardly correct because of its considerable distance from Kursk (more than 200 km), and besides, the assignment of the lands lying along Voronezh to the Russian territory is not only for the XIII century., but even for the XIV century is not confirmed by sources. Most likely, the Voronezh forests were located north of Kursk, where a vast forest area began, stretching in the direction of Bryansk.

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mata as "besermenina" 18 . His name indicates that he was a Muslim, most likely coming from Central Asia (in the Golden Horde, Islam became the state religion only in the XIV century, during the rule of Uzbekistan).

An unsuccessful attempt to create an intermediate Russian-Horde zone on the territory of the Kursk Principality shows that in this area the northern border of the Golden Horde passed much to the south of Kursk, within the modern Belgorod region. Usually, the lands of the Russian principalities were separated from the territory of the Golden Horde not by a clearly marked border line, but by a kind of neutral strip, which was used in economic relations alternately. This state of the border strip was reflected in later documents of the XVI-XVII centuries, when the Russian population, who developed the wall space, received extensive land plots called "yurts" for use .19 This term, clearly inherited from the Mongols, denoted a special type of land intended not for agriculture, but exclusively for hunting, fishing, beekeeping and foraging.

Changes and expansion of the territory in favor of the Russian principalities in the upper reaches of the Don, recorded by sources of the late XIV-XV centuries, allow us to use later information to reconstruct the border of the XIII century. The most important and interesting facts on this issue are reflected in the spiritual and contractual documents of the princes.

In the letter of Ivan Kalita, it was stated that the Mongols have certain rights to some Russian volosts, which they can tear away from the possessions of the Grand Duke ("Qi imut iskati Tatarovo volosts, and otoimut"). A specific list of these parishes is given in a later (circa 1358) ecclesiastical charter of Grand Duke Ivan Ivanovich. As a very real possibility, it is said here that they can "seek out from the Horde of Kolomna, Lopastensky places, or otkazny places of Ryazan", even the withdrawal of these territories from the power of the Moscow prince is allowed ("And by sin, which place will be taken away..."). The texts given show that in the XIV century on the Russian territory of the city of There were also districts whose ownership to the Moscow princes was disputed by the Golden Horde. Such a situation could have developed if in the recent past they were under the direct rule of the Mongols. This assumption is confirmed by the mention in the charter of 1390 of a special Kolomna ambassador, "if you were in your own country" 20 . The naming of Kolomna as the "hearth" of the ambassador indicates that the city was under Mongol jurisdiction as early as the 13th century and, apparently, until the reign of Ivan Kalita, it was a hereditary possession of a large feudal Golden Horde family endowed with baskach functions.

Tula, mentioned in a number of documents, is also directly related to the issue under consideration. This city appears exclusively in the treaties between the Moscow and Ryazan princes, and each time its special position and the refusal of both principalities from claims to Tula are stipulated. This was first noted in 1382 in the treaty of Dmitry Ivanovich with Prince Oleg Ivanovich of Ryazan. It confirms the preservation of the same status outside the city as it was under Janibek's wife Taidula, when Baskaks were in charge of Tula 21 . Sue

18 Travel to the Eastern countries, p. 68; PSRL. Vol. 1, stb. 481. 19 Miklashevsky I. N. On the history of economic life of the Moscow state, Moscow, 1894, p. 106.

20 Spiritual and contractual charters of the great and appanage princes of the XIV-XVI centuries (DDG). Moscow-L. 1950, pp. 8, 15, 38.

21 Ibid., pp. 29, 53, 84, 143.

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according to the text of the treaty, the Moscow and Ryazan possessions were not located in the immediate vicinity of Tula, leaving a significant area around it, connected in the south with the steppe Mongolian nomads. The reference in the treaty to Taidula suggests that after her murder in 1360, 22 the power of the Golden Horde officials in the territory of the Tula baskachestvo weakened. And this, in turn, caused clashes between Moscow and Ryazan, who claimed the Tula lands.

In a number of agreements between Moscow princes and Serpukhov Vladimir Andreevich, an article appears in which "our ordinzi and deluis" are mentioned .23 The constant inclusion of such an article in contracts with the Serpukhov prince is not accidental and indicates that this category of the population lived in the neighborhood of his possessions. The Horde and Deluis did not belong exclusively to the Serpukhov princes (for they are characterized as "ours", i.e. both contracting parties), but equally to the Moscow princes. This may indicate that they were located on lands that were not subject to the Serpukhov prince. If we take into account that the term "delui:" denoted draught people assigned to serve the Golden Horde ambassadors, 24 then we can assume that they lived within the Tula baskachestvo, bordering the Serpukhov lands in the Oka region.

Information from ecclesiastical charters and princely treaties of the XIV century indicate the existence of a zone similar to the Dnieper on Russian territory in the upper reaches of the Don and the middle reaches of the Oka. Attributing its appearance to an earlier time (the second half of the 13th century) does not contradict the available sources and even follows from the fears of Ivan Kalita and his son for the safety of apparently recently acquired lands along the left bank of the Oka, from the references to Kolomna as a Baskak "hearth" and from the presence of Baskaks in Tula. The Russian population living here was under the Golden Horde administration. The extreme northern point of this zone, obviously, was Kolomna, where there was a special baskak, or "ambassador", whose power did not extend to the Tula borders. The Kolomenskoye baskachestvo probably also included the Lopastensky Places mentioned in the book of Grand Duke Ivan Ivanovich , 25 located nearby, near the left tributary of the Oka-Lopasnya .26
The end of the Mongol administration of these lands is connected with the activities of Kalita or, at the latest, his successor Ivan Ivanovich. From the south, Kolomna baskachestvo was bordered by Tula, which occupied an area bounded on the west and north by the upper and middle reaches of the Oka River, and on the east by the Ryazan borders. Its allocation to a special territorial unit that had its own administration is confirmed by a documentary report about the Tula Baskaks 27.
22 PSRL. T. XV, issue 1. Pg. 1922, stb. 69. 23 DDG, p. 20, 31, 37. 24 Dictionary of the Russian language of the XI-XVII centuries. Issue 4. Moscow 1977, p. 211. 25 DDG, p. 15. 26 Bibliography of the question of localization of the locality of Lopasnya See: Yushko A. A. On some volosts and volost centers of the Moscow land of the XIV century. In: Ancient Rus and Slavs, Moscow, 1978, pp. 282-284. The author, identifying the locality of Lopasnya in "Lopastensky places", believes that these lands were taken from Moscow by the Ryazan people, and in return the Moscow prince received territories that previously belonged to Ryazan. However, Ivan Ivanovich's letter refers to the Ryazan territories he received "on this side of the Oka" (Moscow's left bank), from which he allocates "Lopastny places"to Vladimir. Somewhat lower down, the Moscow prince expresses concern for the fate of the "Lopastensky places": they may be taken away by the Mongols, i.e., in this case, he is the complete owner of the" Lopastensky places", which does not allow us to consider them as belonging to Ryazan. From the" Lolastensky places", which were located on the left bank of the Oka (along its tributary Lohasne), it is necessary to distinguish the locality of Lohasnya, "which is on the Ryazan side beyond the Window" (DDG, p. 29). 27 DDG, p. 8, 15, 29.

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Throughout the 14th century, this area was considered subject to the Golden Horde, which follows from the treaty of the Moscow and Ryazan princes of 1402.28 However, after the" great jam " in the Horde and the Battle of Kulikovo, the power of the Mongols here was already reduced to a minimum.

Finding out the borders of the Golden Horde with the Ryazan Principality for the XIII century is extremely difficult due to the lack of direct data. It can only be stated with a certain degree of certainty that in the south-west the Ryazan possessions at that time reached the upper reaches of the Don, without extending to its right bank, i.e., the territory of the Tula baskachestvo. The southern part of the Ryazan possessions after the defeat of 1237 did not reach the upper reaches of the Voronezh River, being limited to the interfluve of Proni and Ranova 29 . Judging by the sources of the 14th century, the interfluve between the Don and Voronezh rivers was not inhabited for a long time, representing a desert neutral zone between the Russian and Mongolian possessions. Clarification of the Russo-Golden Horde border in the 13th century based on metropolitan charters of the mid-14th century on the delimitation of the spheres of influence of the Sarai and Ryazan dioceses does not yield any results, since significant changes took place in this region, which were reflected, in particular, in the ecclesiastical and contractual princely charters.

The territory of the Ryazan Principality was bounded from the east by the Moksha and its tributary Tsna, beyond which began the areas inhabited by Mordovian tribes-forests stretching east from Moksha for 700 km up to the Volga. The width of this strip from north to south was about 300 kilometers 30 . To date, a significant number of settlements with the name Potma, which means - a distant place in the forest, the wilderness, have been preserved on the territory of Mordovia . Economically, the Mongols were not interested in such territories, but the local population throughout the history of the Golden Horde was undoubtedly under its full political influence and control. This is evidenced by the events of the XIV century, when the Mordovian feudal lords constantly took part in the military actions of the Mongols against Russia. According to Karpini, the Mongols finally conquered the Mordovian tribes only after returning from a campaign in Western Europe .32 From that moment on, all the lands of Mordovia became part of the Golden Horde state.

Currently known Mordovian archaeological sites of the XIII-XIV centuries. (ancient settlements, villages, burial grounds) allow you to draw a fairly clear outline of this territory. The western area of settlement of Mordovian tribes included the Tsna, Moksha, and Vada basins; the eastern one - the left bank of the Sura (Alatyr and Pyana basins). The northern lands included the southern part of the modern Gorky region. The administrative center of this vast region was the town of Mokhshi founded by the Mongols, the remains of which are preserved in the modern Narovchat (Penza region) 33 .

The northern border of the Golden Horde in this region in the XIII century most likely did not have a clear outline due to the extensive woodlands.

28 Ibid., p. 53.

29 Mongayt A. L. Ryazanskaya zemlya [Ryazan Land], Moscow, 1961, pp. 144-145.

30 Tsvetkov M. A. Uk. soch., p. 12.

31 Injevatov I. K. Toponymic dictionary of the Mordovian ASSR. Saransk. 1979, pp. 153-154.

32 Travels to Eastern Countries, p. 47.

33 Alikhova A. E., Zhiganov M. F., Stepanov P. D. From the ancient and medieval history of the Mordovian people. Saransk. 1959, p. 4. 36, 81 - 86, 169, 195; Stepanov P. D. Ancient monuments in the Pyany river basin. - Proceedings of the Scientific Research Institute of Language, Literature, History and Ethnography under the Council of Ministers of the Mordovian ASSR, 1974, issue 45, p. 9; Martyanov V. N. Archaeological exploration in the Mordovian ASSR and the southern districts of the Gorky region. - Ibid., 1976, issue 52, p. 157; Krotkov A. A. Uk. soch., p. 74.

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These natural conditions contributed to the advance of the Russians into the depths of the lands of the right-bank Oka. It began even before the Mongol conquest, but was somewhat slowed down by the opposition of the Volga Bulgars .34 The hard-to-reach wooded area on the right bank of the Oka River, which in the 13th century was a neutral border strip between Russia and the Golden Horde, turned into economically developed Russian possessions in the second half of the 14th century. In the north-east, this strip ended in the Volga River between the Oka and Sura rivers. From the end of the XIII and throughout the XIV century. it gradually moved away to the east, approaching the left bank of the Sura. These changes in the border strip are associated with intensive development, its development and the growth of the possessions of the Nizhny Novgorod Principality. The vast area east of Sura (modern Chuvashia) in the XIII century was completely under the rule of the Mongols. Archaeological sites attest to the activity of the Golden Horde administration here since the 13th century .35
During the first half of the 14th century, the Russian-Golden Horde border area was preserved as it was in the 13th century. At the same time, however, it is impossible to talk about its complete stability. It was in those years, when the military activity of the Mongols in the northern direction decreased in comparison with the previous time, that the Russians gradually mastered the border areas. This process is less noticeable (and, apparently, was less intense) on the line of contact between steppes and forest steppes, where Mongols constantly roamed in the summer. The development of wooded areas, where the Mongols appeared only because of special necessity, was faster. An example in this respect is the right-bank lands of the lower reaches of the Oka River, adjacent to the possessions of the Nizhny Novgorod Principality. Unfortunately, the available sources do not allow us to trace the entire process, but only its final result. The internecine struggle that unfolded in the second half of the XIV century led to the collapse of the Golden Horde, which its closest neighbors took advantage of by launching an offensive on the marginal regions of the state; the subsequent major territorial changes in the western regions of the Golden Horde were irreversible.

The Golden Horde received a significant blow in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Dniester, where in 1363 the combined army of local Mongol feudal lords was defeated by the Lithuanian Prince Olgerd in the battle of the Blue Waters River (now Sinyukha), a left tributary of the Southern Bug . One of the consequences of the battle was the liberation of Podolsk lands from paying tribute to the Golden Horde. According to the chronicle, Olgerd was not satisfied with this victory, and set out into the steppes in pursuit of scattered Mongol detachments, and his troops reached the area of the White Bank, located between the Dnieper rapids and the mouth of the Dnieper .37 The brevity of the chronicle report does not allow us to categorically state that since then the interfluve of the Dnieper and Dniester was completely freed from the power of the Mongols. However, there is no doubt that their situation in this area was extremely complicated, and their nomads were pushed back to the Black Sea region. The assertion of Lithuanian influence in this territory is evidenced by the fact that a few years later the Soviet Union was established.-

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34 Stepanov P. D. Purgasovo gorodishche. - Notes of the Research Institute under the Council of Ministers of the Mordovian ASSR, 1946, vol. 6, pp. 41-42; Smirnov A. P. Essays on the ancient and medieval history of the peoples of the Volga region and the Kama region. M. 1952, pp. 155-156.

35 Istoriya Chuvashskoy ASSR [History of the Chuvash ASSR]. 1966, p. 47-49; Fedorov - Davydov G. A. Excavations of the ancient settlement near the village of Bolshaya Toyaba of the Chuvash ASSR in 1957. - Scientific Notes of the Institute of Nuclear Research at the Council of Ministers of the Chuvash ASSR, 1960 issue 19, p. 95.

36 Florya B. N. Lithuania and Russia before the Battle of Kulikovo field. In: Kulikovo Battle, p. 149-150.

37 Molchanovsky N. Uk. soch., p. 14.

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ney Vytautas settled Toktamysh, who had fled to him, and his entourage here .38
The events of the 60s of the XIV century led to a sharp reduction in the territory of the Golden Horde in the west. Written sources do not record these land losses in a concrete form, limiting themselves to stating the most basic facts of political history. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the Mongols lost their western uluses forever after a series of major military clashes. After the 60s of the XIV century. there is no record that their possessions extended west of the Dnieper River. To the east of the Dnieper, the border strip in the XIV century coincided with the spread of the steppe and forest-steppe strip. The Russian population at that time did not try to actively develop open spaces, which was caused not only by security considerations, but also by economic traditions. To a certain extent, the stability of the Russian-Golden Horde border area was also explained by the weakening of the Mongol military expansion in the northern direction. The chronicle reports that under Ivan Kalit, "silence was great for 40 years and the throne of pogania fought the Russian land" 39 . Such a favorable situation for Russia could not but affect the change of certain sections of the border. This is especially true in the upper reaches of the Don River and the Volga-Oka interfluve.

During the XIV century, the situation of Tula and its surrounding lands did not change. There is no doubt that the Golden Horde rule over this area at the end of the XIV century (especially after the Kulikovo Battle) was largely formal in nature. The princes of Moscow and Ryazan gave each other obligations not to occupy this area. Treaties between them of 1382 and 1402 treat the status of Tula and its districts as neutral 40 . This uncertainty of the situation was explained by the desire of both Moscow and Ryazan to annex Tula to their possessions. Russian princes managed to use the "great jam" in the Golden Horde for territorial acquisitions. The change in borders can be judged by treaty documents that mention the "Tatar places" taken by Dmitry Moskovsky and Oleg Ryazansky; these territories, mainly places of settlement of Mordovian tribes, were located on the right bank of the Oka River, in the basin of the Moksha and Tsny rivers; 41 they could not have been large.

To determine the borders of the Ryazan Principality with the Golden Horde, the letters of metropolitans on the borders of the Ryazan and Sarai dioceses are used. The very appearance of such certificates can serve as evidence that there was no clear border line in this area. However, in this case, it is noteworthy that the border issue was resolved by church leaders. Obviously, the problem was not to clarify the border between the states, but to divide the spheres of influence of the two large dioceses. The crux of the matter was which of them would receive the right to a church fee from parishioners who lived within the Chervlyony Yar up to the Velikaya Vorona River, which flows through the territory of the modern Penza, Tambov and Voronezh oblasts .42
In state terms, these vast expanses could not belong to the Ryazan Principality, since even the very upper reaches

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38 Lyaskoronsky V. Uk. soch., p. 21.

39 PSRL. Vol. 18, p. 90.

40 DDG, pp. 29, 53.

41 Ibid., pp. 29, 53, 54.

42 Acts of History (AI), vol. 1. St. Petersburg, 1841, pp. 1-4. On the localization of the Chervleniy Yar, see: Nasonov A. N. "Russkaya zemlya" i obrazovanie territorii Drevnerusskogo gosudarstva, p. 213.

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The Don was already considered the territory of the Golden Horde. This follows from the chronicle report that the Battle of Kulikovo took place on the "Ordinsky lands" 43. This is also evidenced by the presence of Golden Horde settlements in the territory of the present Voronezh Region. This is indirectly confirmed by the location of the ulus with its center in the city of Mokhshi, which was located much north of Chervlyany Yar 44 . Consequently, in this case, the boundaries of the dioceses did not coincide with the state ones, which the Sarai Metropolitan did not want to accept. The boundaries of the Ryazan diocese were based on a number of letters from the metropolitans and a special decision on this issue adopted at the council in Kostroma. The letter of Metropolitan Alexey mentions the "polonyaniki" 45, which also indicates the territorial belonging of the Chervlyany Yar to the Golden Horde.

Judging by the description of Pimen's journey, the lands in the upper and middle reaches of the Don at the end of the XIV century were used in the Golden Horde only for summer nomads. Russian travelers who traveled along the Don in April 1389 first encountered the Golden Horde only in the area of Perevoz, or Perevoloka 46, that is, in the place where the Don is closest to the Volga. Seasonal movements with herds of cattle, when the entire nomadic population in the summer months went up to the north, were also mentioned by Carpini. In the 14th century, Mongolian nomads reached the upper reaches of the Don 47 . As for the Golden Horde settlements, about which Pimen does not report anything, they are well known from archaeological research and medieval maps. Perhaps, during the years of the "great jam", some of them ceased to exist, and the other was located not on the Don, but along its tributaries. In this case, the territory of permanent residence of the population of the Golden Horde in the last quarter of the XIV century was reduced, which allowed the Russians to start developing the right bank of the Don, where by that time the Yelets Principality already existed .48
South-east of the Ryazan lands, beyond Tsna, there was a significant northern ulus of the Golden Horde with its center in the city of Mokhshi. From the north, the ulus came into contact with vast forest areas inhabited by Mordovian tribes, completely dependent on the Golden Horde. According to archaeological data, they occupied forests to the south-east of the Oka River in the basins of the Vada, Moksha, Alatyr, and Pyany rivers .49 During the first half of the XIV century. The Principality of Nizhny Novgorod expanded to the east and south, where it came into contact with Mordovia .50 As a result, the most northern part of the Golden Horde's border was located in the Pyana basin, and in the first half of the 70s of the XIV century, the Russians mastered not only the left bank of this river, but also Zapyanye. Knowing about the raid of 1375 by the soldiers of the "Mamaevy horde", which in Zapyanye" all pohrabisha and pusto sotvorisha and posekosh people, and others in polon povedosh", one could assume that this area was desolate. However, under the same year, the chronicle reports another raid on Zapyanye, during which the Horde "volosts fought,

43 PSRL. T. 8. SPb. 1859, p. 38.

44 Levashova V. P. Zolotoordynskie pamyatniki v Voronezhskoy oblasti [Golden Horde monuments in the Voronezh Region]. - Proceedings of the State Historical Museum, I960, vol. 37, p. 175; Krotkov A. A. Uk. soch.

45 AI, p. 4.

46 PSRL. Vol. 11. SPb. 1897, pp. 95-96.

47 Travel to Eastern countries, p. 70; Nasonov A. N. Mongols and Rus, p. 124.

48 PSRL. Vol. 11, p. 96; DDG, p. 285.

49 Stepanov P. D. Ancient monuments in the Pyany River basin, p. 9; Martyanov V. N. Uk. soch., p. 157.

50 Kuchkin V. A. Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Principality, p. 242.

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and the outpost of Nizhnyago Novagorod was beaten, and many other people were drowned." But even the secondary pogrom did not force Nizhny Novgorod residents to abandon the economic development of Zapyanye. Judging by the description of the battle of 1377, there were still "zazhitiya" in Zapyanye, i.e. specially arranged zaimki or warehouses that served to store agricultural products collected from nearby lands51 . The territory developed by Nizhny Novgorod residents at that time was reduced to Mezhpyanye; in the upper reaches of the Pyana, the Mordovian population lived 52 .

From Pyana to the north, the border between the Russian and Golden Horde possessions passed along the Sura; its left bank was inhabited by Russians in the XIV century. On the right bank of this river, remains of settlements with well-defined features of the Golden Horde material culture have been identified, 53 which indicates that there was no Russian population here at that time. It is possible that some parts of the right bank of the Sura river were developed by the Russians in the second half of the XIV century, as indicated by the chronicle information about the sack of Zasurye in 1377 by Arapshoy54 . However, the chronicle does not contain information about the ethnicity of the population affected by this attack.

The division and reduction of the territory of the Golden Horde is not only the result of military and political events. The defeats of its troops represented only the final stages of complex and lengthy processes that took place both in the state itself and on an international scale. In the 13th century, the stability of the Golden Horde borders was promoted not only by the power of the state created by Batu, but also by the current situation in Europe, which was largely a consequence of the devastating campaigns of the Mongols in 1236-1242. This can be seen by comparing the position of the lands of North-Eastern and South-Western Russia in the second half of the XIII century. The north-eastern principalities were subjected to the most brutal, prolonged, systematic and repeated defeat, which permanently undermined their economic and cultural development and deprived them of the strength to continue the struggle resolutely. The southwestern regions did not experience such devastation and, despite the establishment of political dependence on the Golden Horde, in many respects successfully resisted its claims. This can be seen from the direct opposition of Prince Daniel of Galicia to the attempts of the Mongols to establish their power in the Russian territories (in Bakot and Bolokhov land). The chronicle shows that Daniel "kept his army with Kuremsa and Nikola was not afraid of Kuremsa." In order to secure his borders and keep Southwestern Russia under his control, Khan Berke sent a larger horde of Burun-dai to replace Kuremsa, who came "with many regiments" and "in the strength of gravity." 55 From this it is clear that when faced with a strong enemy, the Golden Horde was not easy to maintain its dominance in the captured and conquered lands.

Over the next century, major changes occurred not only in the balance of power between the Golden Horde and its neighbors, but also within the Jochid state itself, which immediately affected the size of its possessions. At this time, the Muscovite, Lithuanian, and Mol are beginning to form and actively engage in anti-Horde politics-

51 PSRL. Vol. XV, issue 1, p. 100, 112-113, 118.

52 Alikhova A. E., Zhiganov M. F., Stepanov P. D. Uk. soch.

53 Kakhovka V. F. New archaeological monuments Chuvash Pressure. - Trudy NIIYALIE pri Sovet Minsterov Chuvash ASSR. 1978, issue 80, pp. 15, 17; Fedorov-Davydov G. A. Dosaevsky hoard of Golden Horde coins. - Ibid., pp. 29, 30.

54 PSRL. Vol. XV, issue 1, stb. 119-120.

55 PSRL. Vol. 2, stb. 828-829, 838 846.

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davskoe principality. The Moscow Principality and the growing Lithuania, taking advantage of the explosion of feudal strife, defeated the overlords of the western uluses of the Golden Horde, who were left without support, forever depriving it of these lands and showing the artificiality and weak interconnection of the uluses of the Mongol state. The victory at Kulikovo Field contributed to the gradual but steady expansion of the Russian principalities at the expense of the territory of neutral or controlled by the Golden Horde regions. First of all, this applies to the right bank of the Oka River and the upper reaches of the Don. In general, the development of the states surrounding the Golden Horde led to its displacement into the steppe and to their liberation from the political power of the Horde.

Consideration of the Russian-Golden Horde border makes it possible to distinguish two features inherent in it in the XIII-XIV centuries. features. The first of them was that the border strip had a significant width on some segments. This space did not represent some kind of "contact zone" in which the fusion of neighboring cultures was planned. On the contrary, the main role of the strip was to separate the Russian and Golden Horde possessions. In natural terms, these are areas of gradual transition from steppe to forest-steppe. In other areas, the border line was defined by some natural boundary, most often by a river. A similar phenomenon was observed in wooded, relatively densely populated areas suitable for sedentary farming.

The second feature was the presence of a kind of intermediate zones that limited the Russian borders from the south, these zones were located in the territories from which most of the Russian population after the invasion of 1236-1241 moved to the more peaceful northern regions. The emergence of such zones is the result of pressure from the Golden Horde. The remaining Russian population in these borderlands was exploited. The buffer zones did not form a continuous band. Each of them was a closed domain, the power in which was in the hands of Horde feudal lords or farmers. Such zones were typical of the 13th century, when the Russian principalities were gradually recovering their weakened forces and could not pay much attention to the devastated border zone. In the 14th century, the situation changed noticeably due to the emerging trend of expanding Russian possessions to the south and as the Golden Horde weakened in general, which led it to significant territorial losses, especially in the west. All this contributed to the disappearance of intermediate zones and greater concretization of the border strip. The disappearance of such zones in the XIV century. as well as the abolition of Baskachism at this time, it testified to the onset of a new period and the formation of new forms in Russian-Golden Horde relations.

The process of shifting the border lines to the south began first of all in the wooded areas of the right bank of the Oka River and along the course of the Volga, the initiators of these shifts, the Moscow grand dukes, immediately consolidated new acquisitions in contractual and spiritual documents. Changes in the border lines in the 14th century indicated not only the strengthening of the Russian principalities, but also a noticeable weakening of the Golden Horde. The latter is clearly confirmed in the liquidation of the western uluses: the Prut-Dniester interfluve was ceded to the Moldavian Principality, and the left bank of the Dnieper was occupied by Lithuania.

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