The Battle of Kalka River. The Mongols invade Russia. (May 31st, 1223)
Nomads from the steppes of Eurasia have since the time of antiquity presented a challenge to many of the civilizations that encountered them. From the ancient Iranian Scythians giving the ancient Greeks and Romans problems on the frontiers of their sphere of influence. To the later Huns, Avars, Magyars and Turks among others coming in successive waves from the East to West. All left their imprint on almost everyone who encountered them. This was by and large due to a style of warfare many had not yet mastered, mounted archery. A form of light cavalry that doubled as early mounted infantry. The steppes were an ideal place for equestrian warfare and it is believed to be one of the first places horse domestication took place. Horses were used in cavalry elsewhere over the ages but on the steppes, those nomads who mastered horse riding and combined it with archery proved very difficult to counter in battle until the age of gunpowder later begin to obscure this type of warfare. More than any other migration of nomads from the steppe, the Mongols were most successful in their conquests and lasting influence on the world writ large. They would establish an empire that would be the world’s largest contiguous empire, albeit as a continual and united empire it was short lived, but even later in its varied sub divisions it would be influential.
The Mongols arose from what is modern day Mongolia, sandwiched between Northern China and Eastern Russia (Siberia). The Mongols were in fact made of a number ethnolinguistically related troops that inhabited a variety of environments and terrain from forested valleys to deserts and most famously the sprawling and rolling hilly terrain of the steppe. In this environment, Mongols bred and raised their most important asset, the horse. The Mongol horse was not the heaviest nor the fastest horse in the world, especially in comparison to others but it was one of the most robust endurable horses in existence and this would be a difference maker for the Mongols. This robust stamina was the result of breeding and existing on the diverse terrain of Mongolia’s forests, mountains, deserts and grasslands. The grasslands provided them their sustenance and the Mongol horse was able to travel great distances and adapt to many climates and types of geography due to the tests on its endurance at home. In turn, the Mongol horse provided the Mongol warrior unprecedented distances traveled in any season and type of weather.
The Mongols in addition to their horses specialized in horse mounted infantry, they held regular archery contests to practice marksmanship and even learned to shoot arrows on horseback while facing in reverse. More impressively, they timed loosening the arrow while all the horse’s hooves were off the ground at once as this improved accuracy and had a steadying effect on the trajectory of the projectile. Mongols would adapt other styles of warfare too, including some heavy cavalry with heavier armor and lances and swords, they also developed infantry consisting of archers and artillery for sieges but their most effective form of warfare proved to be horse mounted archers. The Mongol bow was known as a composite bow, not especially large but made of flexible bone and sinew mixtures making them more flexible and robust when compared to the wooden large longbows of Europe and elsewhere.
The Mongols were somewhat divided for centuries living as many different tribes but in the late 12th century would unite under the rise of a warlord whose father was murdered when he was a boy and then raised in times of captivity and freedom in harsh conditions. His name was Temujin Borjigin or better known to history as Genghis Khan. He managed to unite the Mongol tribes through warfare and diplomacy and in addition to being a capable warrior he proved to be an even more adept politician and leader of men. He would unite the Mongol tribes into a more singular polity that would become the Mongol Empire, reigning as the Great Khan or Emperor. His main focus was the unity and stability of his people. He set many of the core tenets that defined the Mongol Empire. Genghis believed in a relatively meritocratic society, one where individuals with excellent skill sets could rise to important positions within the empire regardless of dint of birth. His major caveat was they must be loyal. Loyalty and hospitality went hand in hand with merit. Violations of this code of ethics was to the Mongols the ultimate insult. Genghis not only implemented his meritocracy among the Mongols but among the various peoples they would encounter and come to conquer. Various military specialists along with artisans and talent in a variety of fields would be utilized. He also established a level of religious and domestic tolerance.
The Mongol Empire wasn’t typically one of direct mass occupation and colonization like in the ancient Roman sense. The Mongols tended to make vassals of the peoples they conquered and ruled with varying degrees of direct or indirect rule. The internal policy and cultural practices of subjugated peoples were respected with some degree of occupation and Mongol presence so long as the tenets of loyalty and respect to the Great Khan were adhered to. More overtly this meant vassal leaders had to pay their monetary tribute or tax, attend meetings when summoned and provide auxiliary troops when demanded by the Khan, so long as this was obeyed, typically the Mongols left everyone to their day to day devices. When matters were deemed to be of interest to the Khan he and his subordinates would typically demand the vassal adhered to their summons, if disobedient they would be punished. The Mongols sought to rule through fear and intimidation and to pacify enemies through mind games and a fearsome reputation that would keep their vassals and opponents in line. To resist was to be subjected to near total anhilation on the battlefield and within sacked settlements. The Mongols are believed to have killed peoples in the tens of millions during their various conquests and military expeditions. 10-15 million in the Iranian plateau alone are believed to have been killed. Nevertheless, tolerance was again practiced so long as the Mongol code of honor and loyalty were respected. Buddhism, Islam & Christianity among others were all found to be practiced by those under the Mongol yoke with religion varying widely by region. In time the Mongol Empire spanned from the Korean Peninsula in the East to the reaches of Poland and Hungary in the West and from the steppes Central Eurasia in the North to the jungles of northern Vietnam in the South. The Mongols themselves started out practicing a form of paganist shamanism that incorporated animal and ancestral worship as well as worship to a great sky god, it was known as Tengrism. This religion would be relatively common among the various steppe peoples over the ages.
Genghis Khan had famously by the early decades of the 13th century and in quick fashion conquered much of China and Central Asia with his 4 sons serving as subordinates along with other capable generals known as Noyans. Genghis had also done much to establish capable military force that played to the Mongols best strengths which mirrored the robust qualities of their horses. For starters the Mongols needed a system of command which allowed for greater mobility and tactical flexibility. It needed to adapt to many environments and cover great distances and rely on a lot of initiative. A structure delineating the number of men in a particular unit of the army in sizes of tens (arban), hundreds (zuun), thousands (mingghan) and then tens of thousands (tumen). This allowed the armies to have a clear command structure that was numerically consistent generally and could have operational flexibility and divide into groups for varied purposes, small groups for infiltration, reconnaissance and skirmishing. While larger bodies of troops would strategically divide as needed to cover more ground and operate separately but yet supportive of the greater mission. Mongol troops provided their own horses, roughly 3-4 on campaign and took turns using the horses over great distances, this rotation allowed each horse to cover ground while not exerting as much force with a human on it, allowing the other to replenish for use in battle and to replace those lost. The soliders lived off horse’s milk and even blood to help with their food. Plentiful grasslands on the steppe, kept their horses stocked with endless food supplies. The Mongols emphasized mobility on a strategic and tactical level. Their horses due to their robust nature could cover 100 miles in a day in suitable terrain whereas most armies of the day could only cover a fraction of that coverage. Mongols also emphasized intelligence, often years in advance of a campaign, learning through trade on the intercontinental trade routes of the Silk Road all they could about the culture and military prowess of peoples in faraway lands. The Mongols gathered this data and used it to calibrate how effective opponents would be against their own tactics.
Mongol tactics were indeed built around horse archery and indeed played to their particular strengths, speed, deception, surprise and psychological warfare at which they were adept. One psychological element was to attack opponents in winter as a preferred time of year. Usually, armies were used to a limited fighting season due to the difficulties of travel during very rainy or snowy weather. The Mongols dealt this if it meant they could use the element of surprise to their advantage and fight and army piece meal, destroying smaller components not concentrated due to an unexpected arrival and forced to proceed more slowly in bad conditions. Mongols also preferred to avoid melee combat or close contact, hence the emphasis on archery which allowed them to fire multiple arrows from a distance. Though the Mongols would finish off an enemy in close contact with their more heavy cavalry, their lancers kept in reserve until the right moment. Their best known tactic was one that combined deception with the horses physical prowess for stamina and the psychological upset of throwing the enemy off-guard. It was known as a feigned retreat. The Mongols typically were more lightly armored than many of their opponents, their armor was more flexible in material overall. However their horses might not be faster or more powerful in terms of speed but in terrain of their choosing the Mongol horses’ stamina would turn the table of their enemy. By pretending to retreat a certain distance an encouraged enemy usually would pursue, sometimes a few miles and sometimes for days on end. Leading the enemy to ground of the Mongols choosing, then suddenly using well planned signals from banners and coordinated music, the Mongols would do an about face on the now exhausted opponent who would usually be unsupported and isolated from the rest of their army, allowing the Mongols to attack them. By the time the rest of the exhausted opposing army caught up, their vanguard would be destroyed and the more active Mongols got a second wind that would create fear and confusion in the enemy sending them into a rout. The Mongols would this repeatedly on campaign after campaign with almost always the same result...victory. Finally, the Mongols preferred flanking maneuvers and the ability to surround the enemy rather than straight ahead attacks which put them at a disadvantage against more heavily armored enemies. Flanking and surrounding the enemy demoralized them, threw them off balance and physically wore them down to the point where they could be exhausted and picked off at the leisure of the Mongols. The Mongols were very systemic but adaptable in their wearing down of the enemy as reflected in these tactics. Much like a predator hunts prey.
In 1219 ,the Mongols conquered the Khwarezmian Empire, a Turco-Persian polity in Central Asia. The campaign lasted three years before Genghis returned to Mongolia in success. One of his trusted generals named Jebe planned to venture further west in an exploratory campaign to prep for further Mongol invasions later, Genghis approved of this and Jebe and another Noyan by the name of Subutai marched westward toward the Caucasus Mountains and the Kingdom of Georgia which they ravaged using an army consisting of roughly 20,000 troops. They fell back to Azerbaijan and planned to head to Baghdad before heading north once more in the spring of 1221.
Hiring local guides, Jebe and Subutai’s army crossed the wintry mountains which caused many deaths to exposure from the cold but nevertheless they made it through and onto familiar terrain, the steppes of modern southern Russia and Ukraine. The Mongols encountered a confederation of various Caucasian peoples supported by the Turkic Cumans. The battle that ensued was indecisive, the Mongols then met with the Cumans and convinced the Turks that they would share the spoils of war with their fellow steppe nomads in exchange of the Cumans to abandon their allies which they did, leaving with a loaded baggage train of treasure. The Mongols from their killed off the last of the Caucasian peoples resistance and then pursued the Cumans only to attack them from behind. The remnants of which they chose to pursue. In the meantime, the Venetians from Italy which had trading posts on the Black Sea sent an emissary to make peace with the Mongols. They agreed to destroy any non-Venetian European trading posts in exchange for intelligence of European peoples and armies in particular which the Venetians were happy to supply. Indeed the Mongols attacked Venice’s rival fellow Italian Republic, that of Genoa, destroying Genoese trading posts in the area. Meanwhile, the Cuman had retreated to the Rus in Kiev where they sought refuge and alliance against the Mongols. Warnings which the Rus ignored for over a year, finding the Cumans who frequently warred with the Rus not especially trustworthy. The Rus for their part were a confederation of East Slavic tribes that had over the course of the centuries and with former Viking leadership in years long gone fused into a bunch of princely states headed by Kiev above all others, collectively they were known as the Rus or Kievan Rus. These were the precursors to the modern Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian peoples.
By 1223 word now reached the Prince of Kiev Mstislav III, that the Mongols were advancing towards Kiev with the goal of dealing with the Cumans. Mongol ambassadors arrived to negotiate handing over the Cumans in exchange for goods from the Mongols. The Rus killed the ambassadors and sent their corpses back to the Mongols, violating the code of ethics in which hospitality was always to be accepted and reciprocated or else punishment would be needed. The Rus were now determined to drive off the Mongols who saw their feud with the Cumans as troublesome to their borders, despite the Mongols saying the matter shouldn’t concern the Rus. Kiev reached out to the other princely-cities of the Rus to form an alliance against the Mongols, they would be supported by the Cumans.
The Mongols had hoped for reinforcements from Jochi, son of Genghis Khan but these would not be forthcoming due his own illness. Instead the Mongols decided to retreat eastward which forced the Rus and the Cumans to decide what to do. They decided to pursue the Mongols. Jebe and Subutai decided to leave a rearguard to serve as a sacrifice, this small force of 1,000 men were defeated by the Rus. A minor victory which only encouraged the Rus further to pursue the Mongols. What the Rus did not realize in their hastened pursuit was that were being lured into the Mongols feigned retreat over the course of several slow going days, believed to be nine total. It wasn’t until they reached the Kalka River, a small tributary of the Dniester that the tides would turn.
The Battle of the Kalka River would take place on May 31st, 1223 but its details are not very specified in terms of tactics and maneuvers. The basic idea was that the Mongols has forded to east bank of the river while the Rus and Cumans pursued from the west bank all the while firing arrows fired facing backwards, slowing the Rus advance. The Mongols would await for the Rus to give a good portion of their vanguard across the river before their about face which saw them launch an attack of surprising speed ferocity which transitioned from the horse archer attack to heavier cavalry attack. The Cumans were said to have fled right away and with the Rus vanguard quickly eradicated. Meanwhile, the Rus were still in the process of crossing the river, the various Rus princes and their armies possibly numbering 80,000 total didn’t travel altogether, instead they arrived on the battlefield in gradual succession. To the newcomers surprise, their fellow Rus & Cumans were in a panicked retreat westward. They formed an open gap to allow the retreating Cumans to ride through. The Mongols exploited this by riding through themselves and them enveloping the already retreating Rus and the new reinforcements who had no time to prepare. Only Mstislav the Bold of all the Rus princes managed to fight his way out of the Mongol trap. Meanwhile a number of Rus formed a encircled enclosure on a nearby hill to provide a beacon of help to those fleeing. The Mongols quickly surrounded this enclosure and bombarded it smoke bombs to cause confusion and showered it with arrows driving up casualties. The Rus in the camp surrendered only for the Mongols to massacre them. The Mongols took Mstislav III of Kiev and are said to have wrapped him in a carpet and placed him and other Rus nobles under a wooden victory platform upon which the Mongols sat atop them and feasted and toasted their victory while their collective weight crushed the air out of the Rus nobility’s lungs, killing them.
The Rus feared a Mongol attack on Kiev proper as a follow up but it never materialized. Nevertheless, the Rus and Europe at large had its first and hardly last taste of the Mongol Empire. Instead of attacking Kiev, the Mongols proceeded east and made vassals of some other Cumans and the related Volga Bulgars, another Turkic group of tribes. Before they met up with the rest of the Mongol army elsewhere. Genghis Khan was reportedly quite happy with the exploits of Jebe and Subutai and lauded praise on them for achieving the longest cavalry raid in history of 5,500 miles total drawn out over 3 years. Jebe would pass away shortly after this campaign and Genghis himself would die in 1227 with the succession of the empire divided among his sons rather than just one son, though nominally his son Ogedei was the next Great Khan, after which the empire would increasingly fracture. Meanwhile Subutai, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest generals of all time, learned a lot about the Europeans for the first time and instead of conquering them, gained valued information for a later date and later battles, with the long term goal of conquering the Rus and Europe beyond...
