The Firebird and the Bear: 600 Years of the Russian Artillery

Six hundred years ago, on August 23rd, 1382, which equates to September 1st in the modern calendar, the forces of the Mongol Khan Tokhtamysh attacked the city of Moscow. It was a punitive raid; two years before, the Grand Prince of Moscow, Dimitry Ivanovich, had rebelled against his suzerain lords, the 'Tartar-Mongols', as the Russians call the inheritors of Genghis Khan's Empire. He had defeated the Tartar-Mongol Khan Mamay at the bloody battle of Kulikovo field near the Don river in 1380, for which he is known to posterity as 'Dimitry of the Don'. The city withstood Tokhtamysh's assault for four days, but was eventually taken, although by a ruse rather than by storm. Prince Dimitry, who had been in the north of his dominions amassing a relief force, hastened back to his capital of Moscow. He found it a smouldering ruin, and wept at the destruction and loss of life. He ordered those bodies still unburied to be interred, for a fee of one ruble for every eighty corpses. The exchequer paid out 300 rubles, so we can be sure that about 24,000 corpses were buried at that time. Once again, one of the armies of the steppe nomads had fulfilled its mission with brutal efficiency.