The unification of the Russian lands

Although the Mongol conquest had cost Rus dearly, economic life did not stop altogether: crafts and trade revived and ties between regions grew. The need to fight an outside enemy, including the khans of the Golden Horde, also pushed the lands toward union. At the start of the 14th century Tver and Moscow rose as new centres, and they fought hard for the right to collect tribute on the basis of the khan’s yarlyk; several princes died at Mongol hands. This struggle was settled in Moscow’s favour under Ivan Kalita (1325–1340). Prince Dmitry Ivanovich beat a Mongol force on the Vozha in 1378, and in September 1380 he defeated the army of the commander Mamai on the Kulikovo Field by the Don, which earned him the name “Donskoy”. Yet two years later, in 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh again made Moscow submit. Amir Temur’s victories over the Golden Horde, at Kunduzcha in 1391 and on the Terek in 1395, and the ruin of the Horde’s cities greatly weakened the Golden Horde, which later made it easier for Rus to free itself from the Horde. Finally, under Ivan III in 1480, Moscow stopped paying tribute to the Horde and the long Mongol rule came to an end.