Alexander Nevsky may regard Catholicism as a more tangible threat to Russian national identity than paying tribute to the Mongol Khan, who has scant interest in Russian religion and culture.

He may have intentionally kept Russia as a vassal to the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute), but the Muscovite state is clearly no match for the army of the Blue Horde.

Nevsky may simply have wished protect, through diplomatic means, the scattered Russian principalities from repeated invasions by the Mongol army.

Nevsky, who had recently taken monastic vows and been given the religious name of Alexis, dies on November 14, 1263 in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back to Novgorod from Sarai, the capital of the Blue Horde.