Yuri II of Vladimir

A hillfort named Obran Osh (Ashli) at the site of future stone Kremlin, a small Russian wooden hillfort is founded by Grand Prince Yury II in 1221 after the destruction of the Mordvin Inäzor Obram in 1220.

Located at the confluence of two most important rivers of his principality, the Volga (Mordvin "Rav" or "Rava") and the Oka, Obran Osh is renamed.

Its name literally means Lower Newtown to distinguish it from the older Veliky Novgorod. (With a current population of 1,250,615, it is today the fifth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.)

The Rus princes have ignored the Cumans’ warnings for almost a year, as the Rus have suffered from Cuman raids for decades, but when news reaches Kiev that the Mongols are marching along the Dniester River, the Rus respond.

Mstislav gathers an alliance of the Kievan Rus' princes including Mstislav III of Kiev and Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal, who promise support.

The Rus princes then begin mustering their armies and going towards the rendezvous point.

The move by the Rus' army is detected by the Mongols, who are on the east side of the Dnieper River waiting for reinforcements from Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son, who is campaigning around the Aral Sea.

Jochi, however, has become ill, which means no reinforcements will be coming.

At the same time, the Rus' attempt to trap the Mongols.

The Princes of Galich and Volhynia transport their armies south down the river, while the Princes of Kiev and Chernigov advance north up the river, and the army of Kursk advances from the front.

At the same time, the Cumans attempt to attack the Mongol army's rear.

When Jebe learns of this, he sends ten envoys to the Prince of Kiev.

The envoys state that the Mongols have no feud with Rus and are only attacking the Cumans; they add that the Mongols are marching east, away from the Rus' cities.

Mstislav of Kiev has the envoys executed, and the Mongols respond by sending another set of ambassadors, who declare war.

When Jebe and Subutai hear of the Rus' movements, they begin moving east, away from Rus', which is the only direction in which they can move.

However, they leave a rearguard of one thousand under the command of an officer, Hamabek, to report of the Rus movements.

Soon, Mstislav the Bold reaches the river opposite the rearguard, and it becomes apparent that no Prince had been appointed commander-in-chief.

Thus, all the Princes can act as they pleased.

Eventually, Mstislav crosses the river under heavy arrow fire.

When the Rus' land, however, their numbers are far superior, and the Mongols are killed to the last man.

The Mongol army, after drawing out the Rus armies for nine days in a feigned retreat, turns to face their pursuers along the Kalka River (the river's location is currently unknown, but it is thought to be the Kalchik River which flows into the Sea of Azov.

Three princes are captured and later killed at the battle site, and six more are killed in headlong pursuit back to the Dnieper River.

The chronicles name which princes took part and which died, but not much more in terms of the size of armies or casualties.

As to the actual battle itself, the chronicles report that the Polovtsy broke and ran without having fought and that their flight through the Russian ranks led to mass confusion and resulted in their slaughter by the Mongols.

The armies of Volhynia and Kursk make a gap in their line so that the fleeing Cumans can retreat.

However, the Mongol heavy cavalry charges through the newly formed gap.

The army of Chernigov, which is not aware that the battle had started, is advancing when they collide head-on with the retreating Cumans.

The Mongol cavalry takes advantage of the confusion in the Chernigov line and attacks, causing the line to collapse.

This, in turn, leads to the death of Prince Mstislav of Chernigov.

At the same time, the Mongol wings close around the shattered Rus' army, cutting off its retreat.

The surrounded Rus' are hit by volley after volley, accompanied by occasional cavalry charges.

As the Mongols are carrying this annihilation out, some of the army—led by Mstislav the Bold—manages to cut their way through the Mongol ring and escape.

Of the Rus' princes, the wounded Daniel of Volhynia and Mstislav the Bold manage to escape the battle by cutting loose all the boats on the Dnieper River the can find so they cannot be pursued.

Mstislav of Kiev arrives to see what remains of the Rus' army fleeing.

He retreats with his contingent of ten thousand men to his stockaded camp, on a hill by the Dnieper.

The pursuing Mongol army catches up with Mstislav of Kiev's forces and starts to besiege the camp.

Mstislav of Kiev and the Kievan army have managed to hold out for three days, but the prince decides to surrender to one of Jebe's allies, named Ploskanea, on the condition that he and his army will be able to return unharmed to Kiev.

Once in control of the camp, the Mongols slaughter the Kievan army and take Mstislav of Kiev and several other nobles prisoners.

The Mongols execute them in the traditional Mongol manner reserved for royalty and nobility; without shedding blood.

Mstislav and his nobles are buried and suffocated under the Mongol general's victory platform at the victory feast.

The battle has been a very costly defeat for the Rus' princes, given that many of the Rus principalities have lost much of their armies, with the notable exception of Vladimir-Suzdal, whose prince, Yuri II, had sent a small unit that arrived too late to take part in the disastrous battle.

What the Rus' feared would happen does not as the Mongols pursue the Prince of Galich and plunder a few towns in the south before turning around.

The Mongol army crosses the Volga River near modern-day Volgograd and …

…passes through Volga Bulgaria, where they are defeated in an ambush by the Bulgars.

The Mongol army encounters the Bulgars in another battle in which they route the Bulgars, then follow this up by attacking the Kankali Cumans, who had supported their fellow Cumans in the Caucasus a year before.

They fight against the Cuman army near the Ural Mountains, defeating and killing the Khan before making them pay tribute.

Following this victory, the Mongols had turned east to meet Genghis Khan and the rest of the Mongol army in the steppes to the east of the Syr Darya River.

The importance of the expedition is immense.

The expedition is history's longest cavalry raid, with the Mongols riding fifty-five hundred miles (eight thousand nine hundred kilometers) in three years.

Subutai also stations numerous spies in Russia, who will provide frequent reports on what is happening in Europe and Russia.

The defeat at the Kalka River had left the Kievan principality at the mercy of invaders, but the Mongol forces had retreated, not to reappear for thirteen years, during which time the princes of Rus' have gone on quarreling and fighting as before, until they are startled by a new and much more formidable invading force.

The main Mongol force, headed by Jochi's sons, and their cousins, Möngke Khan and Güyük Khan, arrive at Ryazan in December 1237.

Ryazan refuses to surrender, and the Mongols sack it.

The Principality is completely overrun with almost the whole princely family killed and the capital completely destroyed; it will later be moved to another location.

Batu moves into central Russia in 1238 to subdue the Western Russian principalities.

Besieging Vladimir, he finally overruns it on February 8, 1238.

A great fire destroys thirty-two limestone buildings on the first day alone, while the family of Grand Prince Yuri II perishes in a church where they had sought refuge from the flames.

The grand prince himself manages to escape.

Yuri’, after the Mongols sack his capital, flees across the Volga northward to Yaroslavl', where he hastily musters an army.

He and his brothers then turn back toward Vladimir in hopes of relieving the city before the Mongols take it, but they are too late.

Yuri sends out a force of three thousand men under Dorozh to scout out the Mongols’ position; whereupon Dorozh returns saying that Yuri and his force are already surrounded.

As he tries to muster his forces, he is attacked by the Mongol force under Burundai and flees, but is overtaken on the Sit River and dies there along with his nephew, Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl'.

The battle marks the end of unified resistance to the Mongols and inaugurates two centuries of the Mongol domination of modern day-Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Major cities such as Torzhok and …