East Europe (1252 – 1395 CE): Mongol Suzerainty, Novgorod’s Fur Republic, and Lithuania’s Expansion

Geographic and Environmental Context

East Europe includes Belarus, Ukraine, and the European portion of Russia (including the sixteen Russian republics west of the Urals).

• Anchors: the forest and forest-steppe zones of the Dnieper, Volga–Oka, and Upper Dvina basins; the steppe corridor north of the Black Sea; and the Novgorod–Pskov lakelands tied to the Baltic.

• Strategic axes: Dnieper–Desna, Volga–Oka, Western Dvina, and Don; Baltic connectors through Novgorod and Pskov.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Late Medieval Warm Period yielded to the early Little Ice Age after c. 1300: longer winters, more frequent spring floods, and shorter growing seasons on the northern fringe.

• River freezes lengthened the winter over-ice transport season, facilitating fur and grain movement to urban markets.

Societies and Political Developments

• Mongol conquest and the Golden Horde (Jochid ulus):

  • The Mongol campaigns (1237–1240) dismantled the Kievan Rus’ commonwealth. Principalities survived under Horde suzerainty—paying tribute (yasak), hosting basqaq agents, and using the Horde courier system (yam).

  • The Horde’s capitals at Sarai (lower Volga) coordinated levies and trade; steppe raids remained a constant frontier pressure.

• Vladimir–Suzdal’, Tver’, and Moscow:

  • On the Volga–Oka, rival knyaz lines competed for the Horde’s patent (yarlik) to the grand princely title of Vladimir.

  • Moscow rose from a junior appanage: Ivan I “Kalita” (1325–1341) secured the tribute-collector role, attracting boyars and clergy; Dmitry Donskoy defeated Mamai’s army at Kulikovo Field (1380), a landmark of resistance, though Toqtamish burned Moscow (1382).

• Novgorod and Pskov (veche republics):

  • The Novgorod Republic remained autonomous under Horde suzerainty by avoiding direct confrontation, governed by a popular assembly (veche) and posadniks.

  • It dominated the fur–wax–honey trades and dealt with the Hanseatic League via the kontor in Toruń/Visby; Pskov emerged as a semi-independent sister republic.

• Galicia–Volhynia and the rise of Lithuania:

  • King Danylo (Daniel) of Galicia (crowned 1253) revived the southwestern Rus’ realm, but by the 14th c. the Grand Duchy of Lithuania absorbed most Rus’ lands.

  • Under Gediminas (1316–1341) and Algirdas (victory at Blue Waters, 1362), Lithuania took Kiev and the Dnieper marches; after the Union of Krewo (1385) and Christianization of Lithuania (1387), a Polish-Lithuanian dynastic bloc formed, ruling much of Belarus and Ukraine.

• Steppe frontier:

  • Rus’ principalities, Lithuanian border castles, and later Moldavian and Wallachian states contested the Black Sea approaches amid shifting Horde factions.

Economy and Trade

• Agrarian base: rye, oats, and barley dominated the forest zone; wheat and millet in the forest-steppe. Three-field rotation spread on the more southerly soils.

• Fur economy: sable, marten, squirrel, and fox from taiga and mixed forests remained the premier export through Novgorod–Hanse channels and via Volga routes to Sarai.

• Long-distance routes:

  • Volga corridor: grain, salt, fish, and crafted goods moved to the Horde markets and the Caspian.

  • Baltic corridor: Novgorod and Pskov exported furs, wax, and flax; imported silver, cloth, and salt through Hanseatic towns.

  • Dnieper–Black Sea traffic declined after the Mongol shock but partially revived under Lithuanian protection in the later 14th c.

• Urban crafts & coinage: smithing, tanning, and milling flourished in river towns; silver grivna bars and later fractional pennies circulated alongside foreign denars and Prague groschen.

Subsistence and Technology

• Agriculture & stock: ard and heavy plough on loams; horse and ox traction; beekeeping (forest apiculture) supplied wax and honey.

• Fortifications: timber-earth ramparts and later stone kremlins (e.g., Moscow’s white-stone walls from 1367) secured capitals and river nodes.

• Transport: river barges in ice-free seasons; winter sled-trains along frozen rivers and packed snow routes; Horde yam way-stations accelerated couriers and tribute convoys.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Volga–Oka–Klyazma triangle: heartland of northeast Rus’ power (Vladimir, Moscow, Tver’).

• Upper Dnieper–Pripet–Western Dvina: Lithuanian–Rus’ arteries binding Kiev, Smolensk, Polotsk, and Vilnius.

• Novgorod–Ladoga–Neva: gateway to the Baltic and Hanse.

• Steppe roads from Sarai to the Don/Lower Dnieper: conduits for tribute, trade, and raids.

Belief and Symbolism

• Orthodox Christianity: the Metropolitan’s seat shifted from Kiev to Vladimir (1299) and effectively to Moscow (1325); monastic renewal under Sergius of Radonezh (d. 1392) anchored spiritual and agrarian colonization of the northeast.

• Latin Christianity: strong in Galicia–Volhynia and later within Lithuanian–Polish spheres; cathedral foundations and mendicant houses appeared in frontier towns.

• Mission & frontier faiths: St Stephen of Perm (d. 1396) evangelized among the Komi; in steppe zones, Islam advanced within the Horde elite while popular Tengrism persisted.

• Cult and memory: chronicles, saints’ lives, and battle legends (e.g., Kulikovo) forged shared identities across fragmented polities.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Political layering: veche republics, appanage principalities, Horde suzerainty, and Lithuanian grand-ducal rule coexisted—allowing trade and church life to continue despite warfare.

• Route redundancy: when Dnieper routes faltered, Volga and Baltic corridors carried exchange; winter travel compensated for summer insecurity.

• Monastic colonization: cleared forests, drained bogs, and created agricultural oases that stabilized settlement and provided safe havens.

• Fiscal pragmatism: tribute arrangements with the Horde and yarlik politics bought breathing room for rising centers (notably Moscow).

Long-Term Significance

By 1395, East Europe had reconfigured its political geography:

• The Golden Horde still dominated the steppe; yet its internal strife and Timur’s blows (1380s–1395) weakened control.

• Lithuania ruled most southwestern Rus’ lands, while Moscow emerged as the chief collector and defender in the northeast.

• Novgorod remained a Baltic fur-empire under veche rule.

• The Orthodox Church and monastic networks provided cohesion—laying the spiritual and institutional groundwork for Muscovy’s 15th-century ascent and for a durable Lithuanian-Rus’ commonwealth across the Dnieper and Dvina.

The period between 1281/1282 (Traidenis's death) and 1289 (rule of Butegeidis) is one of the most poorly documented periods in the history of Lithuania.

The only recorded information about the Grand Duke of Lithuania during this time is a short note from 1285.

Seven Russian chronicles—Laurentian, Simeon, Typographical, Nikon, Resurrection, Avraamki, Yermolin—record the same brief story that in March or August 1285 Lithuanians, led by Grand Duke Daumantas, attacked the domain of Simeon, Bishop of Tver.

In particular, the Lithuanians attacked the Oleshnya volost of the Principality of Tver.

The location of the Oleshnya volost is unknown, but historians have identified three possibilities – Vladimir Borzakovskiy argued for the village of Aleshevo in Zubtsov uyezd, Vladimir Kuchkin argued for the area between the Sheshma and Vazuza Rivers, local historian Leletsky argued for area around the Aleshnya River, tributary oft he Gzhat River.

A day before the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus (August 6), the Lithuanian army is defeated by united forces of Tver, Moscow, Volokolamsk, Torzhok, Dmitrov, Zubtsov, and Rzhev.

Four chronicles mention that Daumantas was taken into captivity, while others say he was killed.

That is all the information that is available about Daumantas.

The reason for Daumantas' invasion of Tver is not known.

Chronicles also record another raid by the Lithuanians to Novgorod Republic in winter 1285, but it is possible that the dates were mixed up and the raid took place before Daumantas' invasion.

These two raids into Russian lands indicate a new direction in Lithuanian interests as Traidenis had concentrated on the Livonian Order, Black Ruthenia, and Galicia–Volhynia.

Historians attempted to place the two raids in the context of sibling rivalry in Novgorod between Dmitry and Andrei, sons of Alexander Nevsky, or succession in Tver by fourteen-year old Mikhail of Tver, but no definite conclusions can be made due to lack of written sources.

Daniil Aleksandrovich, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky and forefather of all the Grand Princes of Moscow, had been born in 1261 in Vladimir, the capital of the Great Vladimir principality.

One of the most junior princes in the House of Rurik, Daniel is thought to have been named after his celebrated relative, Daniel of Galicia.

His father died when he was only two years young.

Of his father's patrimonies, he had received the least valuable, Moscow.

When he was a child, the tiny principality was being governed by tiuns (deputies), appointed by his paternal uncle, Grand Prince Yaroslav III.

During the Mongol occupation and internecine wars among the Rus' princes, Daniel has created peace in Moscow without bloodshed, participating in battle only once during thirty years of rule.

(According to legend, Daniel was popular and respected by his subjects for his meekness, humbleness and peacefulness.)

Daniel had taken part in the struggle of his brothers—Dmitri of Pereslavl and Andrey of Gorodets— for the right to govern Vladimir and Novgorod, respectively.

After Dmitry's death in 1294, Daniel had made an alliance with Mikhail of Tver and Ivan of Pereslavl against Andrey of Gorodets of Novgorod.

Daniel's participation in the struggle for Novgorod in 1296 indicates Moscow's increasing political influence.

Constantine, the prince of Ryazan, had decided to capture the Moscow lands with the help of a Mongol force, but Prince Daniel had defeated it near Pereyaslavl.

In 1300, he had imprisoned the ruler of the Ryazan Principality, "by some ruse", as the chronicle says.

To secure his release, the prisoner had ceded to Daniel his fortress of Kolomna.

It is an important acquisition, as now Daniel controls all the length of the Moskva River.

His childless cousin and ally, Ivan of Pereslavl, bequeaths to Daniel all his lands, including Pereslavl-Zalessky, in 1302.

Daniel has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lord's Epiphany and to Saint Daniel.

On the right bank of the Moskva River, at a distance of five miles from the Kremlin not later than in 1282, he had founded the first monastery with the wooden church of St. Daniel-Stylite, today the Danilov Monastery.

Having become a monk, diet the age of forty-two on the 17th (4th in old style) of March in 1303.

Yury, the oldest son of Daniel, succeeds him as prince of Moscow.

His first important action is to defend Pereslavl-Zalessky against Vladimir-Suzdal’s Grand Duke Andrey III Alexandrovich (Andrey of Gorodets).

Yury, upon the death of Andrei Aleksandrovich (Aleksandr Nevsky's son), has to contest the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir with Mikhail Yaroslavich, the second son of Yaroslav III (Yaroslav Yaroslavich), the younger brother of Aleksandr Nevsky), whom he had succeeded in 1285 as prince of Tver.

While the Tverian army besieges Pereslavl and ...

…Moscow itself, …

…Mikhail goes to the Golden Horde, where the Khan, Toqta, elevates him to the supreme position among Russian princes, as is consistent with the Rota System of collateral succession that has been practiced in Rus since the time of Yaroslav the Wise.

The unlucky prince Konstantin of Ryazan had been captured by Yury's father in 1302 and had ever since been incarcerated in Moscow.

Yury now arranges his murder.

While Ryazan is shocked by such a barbarity, …

…Yury annexes the key Ryazanian fortress of Kolomna to his Moscow principlaity.

Yury also captures Mozhaisk, which had formerly belonged to the princes of Smolensk.