The battle on the Kalka or how the three Mstislavs were defeated by the insidious Tuvan bagatur.

One of the advice of the wise Confucius says "Look for the future in the past. What you are witnessing has already happened and will happen more than once." Now, when the attention of the whole world is riveted on the heroic defense of Mariupol, it will be useful to recall the events that took place almost 800 years ago in May 1223 in the steppes not far from modern Mariupol, on the Kalka River (the modern name is Kalchik) and completely changed the course of history in Eastern Europe. The battle between the Mongol army and the combined forces of the Polovtsy and the principalities of Kievan Rus ended in the complete defeat of the allies. The Mongol army broke through from the territory of Transcaucasia after the conquest of the Khorezmshah empire, with the goal of defeating the Polovtsy and reconnaissance of routes to the West for the main army of the Mongols.
The army was led by the best commander of Genghis Khan Subedei Bagatur, who
belonged to the Uryankhai tribe, as the Mongols who lived in the forests were called, the former ancestors of the modern Buryats and Tuvans (the current Minister of Defense of Russia, Shoigu, is also a Tuvan). As modern Russian historians prove, Subedei was a native of the Tuvan Uriankhians, his name in the Tuvan reading - Sumeetei means "adviser", or "mentor" (of warriors). This was the best strategist of the Mongolian army, known for his cunning. His goal was to divide the enemies by giving some of them a false sense of security and then smash them one by one. So he managed to defeat the Polovtsians and the peoples of the North Caucasus one by one. He also succeeded in the battle of Kalka. Realizing the danger, the princes of Kievan Rus responded to the call of the Polovtsy for help. The map shows the principalities that provided their troops for a campaign in the steppe. The squads of 22 princes and Polovtsy participated in the campaign, formally the leadership of the campaign belonged to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Mstislav the Old, in reality the troops were divided into several contingents under the command of Mstislav of Kyiv, Mstislav of Chernigov and Mstislav Udatny Galitsky, the Polovtsians had their own command. At the insistence of Udatny, the Mongol ambassadors were killed, which made a clash inevitable. And then Subedey, contrary to the Mongol laws, sends new ambassadors who meet with Mstislav Udatny, promising not to touch his possessions - the Galician principality. After the first clashes, the allied army, inspired by the apparent weakness of the Mongol army, advancing from the island of Khortitsa on the Dnieper, reached the Kalka River. The battle began with an attack by the Polovtsians, and then by the Galician-Volyn troops on the main forces of the Mongols. They were overturned by the Mongols and fled without even informing the Chernigov and Kyiv princes, who were forced to join the battle without even building troops. Without pursuing the troops of Mstislav Udatny and Prince Daniel of Volyn (the future Daniel of Galicia), the Mongols directed their entire blow at the forces of the Kyiv and Chernigov princes, who were defeated and died. The Galician prince initially wanted to get himself all the laurels of the winner, and when this failed, he did not consider it necessary to help the allies. The result of such actions was the death of 12 princes and 90 percent of the troops, and the worst thing was the return of the Mongols with the main forces a few years later. Kievan Rus was destroyed, and Muscovy eventually emerged from the northern ulus of the Golden Horde. These events are a bitter lesson. If someone in Ukraine or the European Union believes that the events in Mariupol are somewhere far away from him, let him have no doubts - the Moscow heirs of Subedei, if they are not stopped, will destroy and kill until they reach the "last sea". You can purchase weapons from the period of the struggle against the Tatar-Mongol invasion in section of Medieval weapons and armaments .