The Russian principalities and the struggle against invaders

Part of the Mongol army that had conquered the Khwarazmian state routed the army of the Russian princes on the river Kalka in 1223. In 1237–1242 Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu Khan led a great campaign into eastern Europe: first he conquered the Russian principalities, then raided Poland and Hungary and reached the Balkans. Feudal fragmentation helped the Mongols: the towns of the Volga region, Ryazan and Vladimir fell, then Kyiv in 1240. In the conquered lands Batu Khan formed the Khanate of the Golden Horde; its first capital, Sarai-Batu, lay on the lower Volga. To speed up tax collection he gave Prince Yaroslav a yarlyk (charter) to rule the principality of Vladimir. The Mongol conquest harmed the economic and cultural development of Rus. At the same time the Russian lands were under pressure from the West: German knights had taken the Estonian lands of the Baltic coast and approached the Novgorod–Pskov border, and Swedish lords invaded along the Neva in 1240. Alexander Yaroslavich, prince of Novgorod, defeated the Swedes on the Neva on 15 July 1240 (hence the nickname Nevsky) and in April 1242 won a victory over the German knights on Lake Peipus (Chud) — the fight known as the “Battle on the Ice”.