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Ice battle
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Ice battle
In the first half of the XIII century, in the north west of Russia, weakened by the Mongol Tatar invasion, the aggression of the German knights of the Livonian Order was a great danger.
They made an alliance with the Swedish and Danish knights about a joint attack on Russia.
Prince Alexander Yaroslavich ruled in Novgorod since 1236.
In 1240, when the aggression of the Swedish feudal lords against Novgorod began, he was not even 20 years old.
He participated in his father's campaigns, was well read and had an idea of war and the art of war.
But he didnot have much experience of his own yet.
However, 21 (July 15) 1240 a small squads of Ladoga and of the militia he had a sudden and swift attack, defeated the Swedish army, landed at the mouth of the Izhora river (where it flows into the river).
For the victory in the battle of the Neva in which the young Prince proved himself a skillful military commander, has taken a personal valor and heroism, he was nicknamed "Nevsky".
But soon, due to the machinations of the Novgorod nobility, Prince Alexander left Novgorod and went to reign in Pereyaslavl Zalessky.
The defeat of the Swedes on the Neva did not completely eliminate the danger hanging over Russia.
Already in the early autumn of 1240, the Livonian knights invaded the Novgorod possessions, occupied the city of Izborsk.
Soon Pskov shared his fate.
In the same autumn of 1240, the Livonians captured the southern approaches to Novgorod, invaded the lands adjacent to the Gulf of Finland and created the Koporye fortress here, where they left their garrison.
It was an important springboard that allowed controlling the Novgorod trade routes along the Neva River, planning further progress to the East.
After that, the Livonian aggressors invaded the very center of the Novgorod possessions, captured the Novgorod suburb of Tesovo.
In their raids, they approached Novgorod by 30 kilometers.
Ignoring past grievances at the request of the Novgorodians, Alexander Nevsky returned to Novgorod at the end of 1240 and continued the fight against the invaders.
The following year, he recaptured Koporye and Pskov from the knights, returning most of their western possessions to the Novgorodians.
But the enemy was still strong and the decisive battle was ahead.
In the spring of 1242, a Livonian order intelligence service was sent from Dorpat (Yuryev) in order to probe the strength of the Russian troops.
About 18 kilometers south of Dorpat, the Order's reconnaissance detachment managed to defeat the Russian "dispersal" under the command of Domash Tverdislavich and Kerebet.
It was a reconnaissance detachment moving ahead of Alexander Yaroslavich's troops in the direction of Dorpat.
The surviving part of the detachment returned to the prince and reported to him about what had happened.
The victory over a small detachment of Russians inspired the Order's command.
He had a tendency to underestimate the Russian forces, a conviction was born in the possibility of their easy defeat.
The Livonians decided to give the Russians a battle and for this they marched from Dorpat to the south with their main forces, as well as their allies, led by the master of the order himself.
The main part of the troops consisted of armored knights.
The battle on Lake Peipsi, which went down in history as the "Ice Battle", began on the morning of April 5, 1242.
At sunrise, noticing a small detachment of Russian riflemen, the knight's " pig " rushed at him.
The riflemen took the brunt of the "iron regiment" and with courageous resistance noticeably upset its progress.
After all, the knights managed to break through the defensive formations of the Russian "chela".
A fierce hand to hand fight ensued.
And at the very height of it, when the "pig" was completely involved in the battle, at the signal of Alexander Nevsky, the regiments of the left and right hands hit its flanks with all their might.
Not expecting the appearance of such Russian reinforcements, the knights were confused and began to retreat little by little under their powerful blows.
And soon this retreat took on the character of a disorderly flight.
Then, suddenly, a mounted ambush regiment rushed into battle from behind cover.
The Livonian troops suffered a crushing defeat.
The Russians drove them on the ice for another 7 versts to the western shore of Lake Peipsi.
400 knights were destroyed and 50 were captured.
Some of the Livonians drowned in the lake.
The Russian cavalry pursued those who escaped from the encirclement, completing their defeat.
Only those who were in the tail of the "pig" and were on horseback managed to escape: the master of the order, the commanders and the bishops.
The significance of the victory of the Russian troops under the leadership of Prince Alexander Nevsky over the German "dog knights" was truly historical.
The Order requested peace.
The peace was concluded on the terms dictated by the Russians.
The Order's ambassadors solemnly renounced all encroachments on the Russian lands that were temporarily seized by the Order.
The movement of the Western invaders to Russia was stopped.
The western borders of Russia, established after the Ice Battle, lasted for centuries.
The ice battle has also gone down in history as a wonderful example of military tactics and strategy.
Skilful construction of the battle order, a clear organization of the interaction of its individual units, especially infantry and cavalry, constant reconnaissance and consideration of the enemy's weaknesses in the organization of the battle, the right choice of place and time, good organization of tactical pursuit, the destruction of most of the superior enemy all this has defined the Russian military art as advanced in the world.
Material from the site
FROM ANCIENT RUSSIA TO THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
The location of the troops on April 4, 1242 before the battle.
The battle began on April 5, 1242.
Encirclement and defeat of the knight's army on April 5, 1242.
(Battle schemes according to G. N. Karaev).
THE BATTLE OF LAKE PEIPUS
"The Ice Battle"
In the first third of the XIII century, a terrible danger loomed over Russia from the West, from the Catholic spiritual orders of chivalry.
After the foundation of the Riga fortress at the mouth of the Dvina River (1198), frequent clashes began between the Germans on the one hand, the Pskov and Novgorod residents on the other.
In 1237, the knights were monks of two orders.
Teutonic and Swordsmen, created a single Livonian Order and began to carry out widespread forced colonization and Christianization of the Baltic tribes.
The Russians helped the pagans of the Baltic states, who were tributaries of Veliky Novgorod and did not want to be baptized by Catholic Germans.
After a series of minor skirmishes, it came to war.
In 1237, Pope Gregory IX blessed the German knights to conquer the indigenous Russian lands.
In the summer of 1240, German crusaders, gathered from all the fortresses of Livonia, invaded the Novgorod land.
The invading army consisted of Germans, medvezhans, Yurievites and Danish knights from Revel.
With them was a traitor — Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich.
They appeared under the walls of Izborsk and took the city by storm.
Pskov residents rushed to the rescue of their fellow countrymen, but their militia was defeated.
There were more than 800 people killed alone, including Voivode Gavrila Gorislavich.
Following the tracks of the fugitives, the Germans approached Pskov, crossed the river.
Great, they broke up their camp under the very walls of the Kremlin, set fire to the posad and began to destroy churches and surrounding villages.
For a whole week they kept the Kremlin under siege, preparing for an assault.
But it didnot come to that: the Pskov resident, Mikhail Ivanovich, handed over the city.
The knights took hostages and left their garrison in Pskov.
The appetite of the Germans was growing.
They have already spoken: "We reproach the Slovenian language... to ourselves", that is, we will subjugate the Russian people.
In the winter of 1240-1241, the knights again appeared uninvited guests in the Novgorod land.
This time they captured the territory of the Wod tribe, to the east of the river.
Narova, "you have done everything and put a tribute on them."
Having captured the "Vodskaya Pyatina", the knights captured Tesov (on the Oredezh River), and their detours appeared 35 km from Novgorod.
Thus, in the hands of the Germans there was a vast territory in the area of Izborsk Pskov Sabel Tesov Koporye.
The Germans already considered the Russian border lands their property in advance; the pope "transferred" the Neva coast and Karelia under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Ezel, who concluded a contract with the knights: he reprimanded himself a tenth of everything that the land gives, and left everything else — fishing, mowing, arable land — to the knights.
Then the Novgorodians remembered about Prince Alexander.
The bishop of Novgorod himself went to ask the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, to let his son go, and Yaroslav, realizing the danger of the threat coming from the West, agreed: the matter concerned not only Novgorod, but the whole of Russia.
Alexander organized an army of Novgorodians, Ladozhans, Karelians and Izhorians.
First of all, it was necessary to decide on the method of action.
Pskov and Koporye were in the hands of the enemy.
Alexander understood that a simultaneous performance in two directions would disperse the forces.
Therefore, having identified the Kopor direction as a priority the enemy was approaching Novgorod — the prince decided to strike the first blow at Koporye, and then liberate Pskov from the invaders.
In 1241, the army under the command of Alexander set out on a campaign, reached Koporye, captured the fortress "and the hail erupted from the base, and they themselves the German is beaten, and some are brought to Novgorod with him, and let others go, be merciful more than measure, and vozhan and chudtsev perevetnikov (that is, traitors) are hanged (hanged)."
Vodskaya Pyatina was cleared of the Germans.
The right flank and rear of the Novgorod army were now safe.
In March 1242, the Novgorodians again set out on a campaign and soon were already near Pskov.
Alexander, believing that he did not have enough strength to attack a strong fortress, was waiting for his brother Andrey Yaroslavich with the Suzdal ("nizovsky") squads, which soon came up.
The Order did not have time to send reinforcements to its knights.
Pskov was surrounded, and the knight's garrison was captured.
Alexander sent the Order's governors in chains to Novgorod.
70 noble brothers of the order and many ordinary knights were killed in the battle.
After this defeat, the Order began to concentrate its forces within the Dorpat bishopric, preparing an offensive against the Russians.
The order gathered a great force: here were almost all its knights with a" meister " (master) at the head, "with all their biskupy (bishops), and with all the multitude of their language, and their power, whatever there is in this country, and with the help of the queen", that is, there were German knights, the local population and the army of the Swedish king.
Alexander decided to move the war to the territory of the Order itself.
"And they went," the chronicler reports — " to the German land, although they took revenge on the Christian blood."
The Russian army marched on Izborsk.
Alexander sent forward several reconnaissance detachments.
One of them, under the command of the brother of the posadnik Domash Tverdislavich and Kerbet (one of the "nizovsky" voivodes), came across German knights and Chud (Estov), was defeated and retreated; at the same time Domash was killed.
Meanwhile, intelligence found out that the enemy had sent a small force to Izborsk, and its main forces were moving to Lake Peipsi.
The Novgorod army turned to the lake, "the Germans and Chud poidosha on them."
The Novgorodians tried to repel the German knights ' roundabout maneuver.
Having reached Lake Peipsi, the Novgorod army found itself in the center of possible enemy movement routes to Novgorod.
Now Alexander decided to give battle and stopped at Lake Peipsi to the north of the Uzmen tract, near the island of Voroniy Kamen.
"Howling Grand Duke Alexander was filled with the spirit of ratna, byahu bo their heart is like a lion", they were ready to "lay down their heads".
The forces of the Novgorodians were little more than a knight's army.
"According to the various data available in the chronicle, it can be assumed that the army of the German knights was 10-12 thousand, and the Novgorod army was 15-17 thousand people."
{Razin EA.
Decree.
op .
p. 160.)
According to L. N. Gumilev, the number of knights was small — only a few dozen; they were supported by foot mercenaries armed with spears, and the allies of the Order — the Livs.
(Gumilev L. N.
From Russia to Russia. M., 1992. p. 125.)
At dawn on April 5, 1242, the knights formed a "wedge", or "pig".
In chain mail and helmets, with long swords, they seemed invulnerable.
Alexander built the Novgorod army, about the order of battle of which there is no data.
It can be assumed that this was a "regimental row" with a guard regiment in front.
Judging by the chronicle miniatures, the order of battle was facing the rear to the steep, steep eastern shore of the lake, and Alexander's best squad took refuge in an ambush behind one of the flanks.
The chosen position was advantageous because the Germans, advancing on open ice, were deprived of the opportunity to determine the location, number and composition of the Russian army.
Having exposed long spears, the Germans attacked the center ("brow") of the Russian battle order.
"Here the banners of the brothers penetrated the ranks of the riflemen (guard regiment. - Ed.), it was heard how swords were ringing, and it was seen how helmets were cut, the dead fell from both sides."
A Russian chronicler writes about the breakthrough of the Novgorod regiments by the enemy: "The Germans and chyud probishasya pig through the regiment."
However, having stumbled upon the steep shore of the lake, the sedentary, armored knights could not develop their success.
On the contrary, the knights ' cavalry crowded together, as the rear ranks of the knights pushed the front ranks, which had nowhere to turn for battle.
The flanks of the Russian battle order ("wings") did not allow the Germans to develop the success of the operation.
The German "wedge" was caught in a pincer.
At this time, Alexander's squad struck from the rear and completed the encirclement of the enemy.
"The army of the brothers was surrounded."
Warriors who had special spears with hooks pulled the knights off their horses; warriors armed with "zasapozhnikami" knives disabled the horses, after which the knights became easy prey.
"And that sich was evil and great by a German and a chudi, and there was a trusk from a copy of a break, and a sound from a sword sich, as if the lake was frozen to move, and did not see the ice, covered with blood."
The ice began to crack under the weight of the heavily armed knights knocked down in a pile.
Some knights managed to break through the encirclement, and they tried to escape, but many of them drowned.
The Novgorodians pursued the remnants of the knight's army that had fled in disarray across the ice of Lake Peipsi up to the opposite shore, seven versts.
The pursuit of the remnants of the defeated enemy outside the battlefield was a new phenomenon in the development of Russian military art.
Novgorodians did not celebrate the victory "on the bonfire", as was customary before.
The German knights were completely defeated.
More than 500 knights and "countless" other troops were killed in the battle, 50 "deliberate voivodes", that is, noble knights, were captured.
All of them followed the winners ' horses on foot to Pskov.
In the summer of 1242, the "order brothers" sent envoys to Novgorod with a bow: "We have come to Pskov, Vod, Luga, Latygola with a sword, and we are retreating from everything, and what we have captured is full of your people( prisoners), and we will replace them with those, we will let your people in, and you will let our people in, and we will let Pskov full."
The Novgorodians agreed to these conditions, and peace was concluded.
The "ice battle" was the first case in the history of military art when heavy knight cavalry was defeated in a field battle by an army consisting mostly of infantry.
The Russian order of battle ("regimental row" in the presence of a reserve) turned out to be flexible, as a result of which it was possible to encircle the enemy, whose order of battle was a sedentary mass; the infantry successfully interacted with its cavalry.
The victory over the army of the German feudal lords was of great political and military strategic importance, delaying their offensive to the East Drang nach Osten which was the leitmotif of German politics from 1201 to 1241.
The northwestern border of the Novgorod land was reliably secured just at the time when the Mongols were returning from a campaign in Central Europe.
Later, when Batu returned to Eastern Europe, Alexander showed the necessary flexibility and agreed with him to establish peaceful relations, eliminating any reason for new invasions.
The materials of the book were used: "One hundred great battles", M. "Veche", 2002
Read more:
Potresov V. A.
In the footsteps of the legendary battle.
30.05.2010
Potresov V. A.
About the" disenchanted "Alexander Nevsky under the brand "Historia Rossica".
04.06.2010
...Where the Ice Battle took place.
(About the opening of the Museum of the History of the expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences to clarify the place of the Ice battle).
Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (biographical materials).
Russia in the XIII century (chronological table).
The Life of Aleksand Nevsky (document).
Literature:
1. Zverev Yu.
The ice battle took place: on land / / Equipment and weapons.
- 1995.
- No. 1. - pp.
20-22.
2. The history of military art / Under the total.
edited by P. A. Rotmistrov.
.
- M " 1963.
- Vol. 1. - pp.
76-77.
3. The history of naval art / Ed. by R. N. Mordvinov.
- M., 1953.
- T. I.-pp.
89-94.
4. Kirpichnikov A. N.
The Ice battle of 1242: A new understanding / / Questions of history.
- 1994.
- No. 5. - pp.
162-166.
5. Marine atlas.
Descriptions for maps.
- M., 1959.
- T. Z, part 1 — - pp.
60-61.
6. Marine Atlas/Ed. G. Levchenko — - M., 1958.
- Vol. 3, part 1 — - L. 3, 4.
7. The story of the life of Alexander Nevsky / / Military stories of Ancient Russia.
- M., 1985.
pp.
120-135.
8. Trusman Yu.
I.
About the place of the Ice battle in 1242 / / Journal of the Ministry of National Education.
- 1884.
- No. 1. - pp.
44-46.
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