In Central Asia Jenghis Khan was to find himself face to face with rich cities and peoples of an ancient civilisation. These lands had been settled since time immemorial. The local population lived mainly in the fertile valleys and their main occupations were agriculture, stockbreeding and fruit and vegetable growing. The farmers of Central Asia had long since mastered effective irrigation techniques which they made use of to extend their lands under cultivation. They had also built rich cities, where the arts and crafts had taken deep root, such as Samarkand and Merv. The masons and architects of this part of the world were famous for their skill. 

When Central Asia found itself threatened bv invasion from the Mongolian Tartars its peoples were already living in a society with well-established feudal patterns. Local chieftains were virtually independent and there was no strong central power in the area. This made it much easier for Jenghis Khan to conquer these lands. 

Jenghis Khan's host thrust through this area into the state ot Khorezm, seizing towns and villages, plundering, wiping out the local population and taking men and women into captivity as slaves. The people of Central Asia put up a bold resistance to the invaders. There were strong garrisons in everv town and in Samarkand there were even twenty elephants. However the gates of his city, like those of many others, were opened to Jenghis Khan by traitors. In Samarkand Jenghis Khan took about 30.000 craftsman prisoner and distributed them among his retinue as slaves. He employed similar tactic another cities as well. The reach city of Merv and many others were seized and ravaged. 

The lack of unity among the local nobles facilitated the Mongol conquest considerably, since it weakened resistance to the invaders. 

After annexing Central Asia at the beginning of the thirteenth century, Jenghis Khan led his army on to Georgia. The peoples ol Transcaucasia put up a long struggle for their freedom, but finally their resistance too was broken. Mongolia subjugated the peoples of Armenia and Georgia, whose culture was more advanced than that of their conquerors. The Mongols captured and enslaved skilled Georgian and Armenian craftsmen, artisans and scholars. The Mongolian yoke dealt a heavy blow at the culture of the peoples of Transcaucasia. Many cities were destroyed and the Georgians and Armenians were compelled to pay their new masters crippling tribute. The Mongols as well as demanding a tenth part of each man's property also gathered an additional tax from each farm: 3 bushels of corn, 12 gallons of wine, 10 pounds of rice, three sacks, two cords, a silver coin and a horse-shoe. Those who were unable to pay were condemned to slavery. Once they had firmly established their rule in Transcaucasia the Mongol khans entrusted the collection of taxes to the local prince who were to bring the tribute to their Mongolian over- lords. Mongolian rule in Transcaucasia was to last for almost two hm ears, up till the end of the fourteenth century. 

The conquest of Central Asia and Transcaucasia by the Mongol armv brought it to the doorstep of Rus. Jenghis Khan's forces the Caucasus mountains and made their way into the ; of southern Kievan Rus. Here they were confronted by the Polovtsi nomads who turned to the Kievan princes for help. " Today they will massacre us and tomorrow it will be your turn if you do not come to our aid," were the words of their envoys. The princes decided to join forces against Jenghis Khan and set meet him in battle in Polovtsi territory. 

The battle took place in May 1223 on the river Kalka, a small river which flows into the Azov Sea not far from the mouth of the Don River. The Slavonian forces were routed. The Mongol khans covered the bodies of the wounded and prisoners with boards, sat down on them and held a great feast to celebrate their victory. This was the first appearance of the Mongols (or Tartars as the Russians called them) in Russia. This time they did not go on to consolidate their victory, but instead withdrew into Asia and nothing was heard of them for twelve years. 

When Jenghis Khan died he was succeeded by his son Ogdai, who sent his nephew Khan Batu (d. 1255) to conquer Europe. The threat of destruction and enslavement hung over the whole of Europe. 

At that time there was no united Russian state. The majority of the Russian princedoms were small and weaker than the princedom of Vladimir or Novgorod. Feudal disintegration in Rus undermined the chances of effective resistance to outside enemies. Rus fell a prey to this terrible foe because she was disunited and her armies lacked cohesion. 

In 1236 Batu's horde crossed the steppe-lands bordering on the Caspian, invaded the kingdom of the Volga Bulgars and captured their capital city, Bulgar. From there they advanced on Rus. In the winter of the following year (1237) Batu crossed the Volga River with his enormous army and marched on the princedom of Ryazan. Alter bitter fighting Ryazan surrendered and was burnt to the ground. A similar fate was suffered by other princedoms who preferred to "wait and see" rather than join with their neighbours to face the common toe. Thus Vladimir and other towns of the princedom of Suzdal fell to the enemv. 

Moscow was also burnt down by the Mongol hordes. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (1187-1238) went out to face the enemy with all his soldiers and a mass of peasants on the banks of the river Sit but it was too late. The Eastern Slavs lost this battle too and their prince was slain on the field. 

Gradually Batu became master of the whole of the Dnieper valley. In 1240 his hordes marched on Kiev and laid siege to the city. Batu was so impressed by the beauty of this city, the silhouette of its fine buildings and the golden domes of its churches shining in the sun, that he decided to take it without destroying it and proposed to the men of Kiev that they surrender without a fight. They refused, preferring to fight to the death, and during the subsequent siege almost die whole of the city was burnt down and destroyed. 

Rus Under the Tartar Yoke 

While Rus succeeded in beating off her enemies in the north-west she was less fortunate against the Mongol invasion under Batu. Much of the country was to suffer under the Tartar scourge, and even Novgorod, although the Tartars did not advance that far, was obliged to pay them tribute.

 Rus was now under the yoke of the Tartar khans, which was to last for more than two hundred years—from the middle of the thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth. The state founded by Khan Batu was called the Golden Horde. Batu set up his capital of Sarai on the Volga VolSa (not far from present-day Astrakhan). Later the capital was moved further up the Volga (to a site not far from a present-day  Volgograd). The new capital was called a New Sarai. The state of the Golden Horde incorporated part a Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Crimea, the Dnieper valley, and whole of north-east Rus. 

The Tartar conquerors demanded exorbitant tribute from the Slavonian people, a tenth part of all their property. In addition they also demanded tribute in the form of grain, livestock and money. All this was collected by the khan's baskaks or tribute collectors. Those who were unable to pay or who refused were taken as slaves. 

"He who has no money, loses his child,
He who has no child, loses his wife,
He who has no wife, loses his head," -
sang people in a song about their alien masters. 

The slightest resistance to their rule the Tartars answered with wholesale plunder and slaughter. The Tartar yoke meant much cruel suffering and bloodshed. 

The Slavic princes lost their independence and were made subject to the Tartar khan. They were compelled to ride to pay homage to the khan at the capital of the Golden Horde bringing him costly gifts, in order to receive from him a patent or "yarlyk" confirming them in office. The khan himself nominated the Grand Prince. Once independent Rus was now a dominion of the Golden Horde. Tartar rule hindered the cultural, social and political development of Rus, turning it into a backward country.

The Mongols undertook a number of expeditions further west, invading Poland, Hungary and even penetrating as far as Venice. However, Rus' struggle against the Tartar-Mongol yoke, which spent the energies and resources of the conquerors, saved Western Europe from a similar fate.

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