Battle of the Vozha River (1378)

Battle of the Vozha River
	Part of Mongol invasion of Rus'
	; ]]
Date	August 11, 1378
Location	Vozha River (Ryazan Oblast); 54°38′25″N 39°14′50″E / 54.64028, 39.24722
Result	Russian victory
Belligerents
Grand Duchy of Moscow	The Golden Horde
Commanders and leaders
Dmitri Ivanovich of Moscow	Murza Begich †
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown	Almost entire army killed

Battle of the Vozha River (Russian Битва на реке Воже) was a battle fought between the Grand Principality of Moscow and the Golden Horde on August 11, 1378.

Background

In the spring of 1376 the Russian army, led by Dmitri of Volyn invaded the area of the Mongol controlled territory along the Volga River, took 5,000 rubles from the custom officials of Mamai and installed Russian customs officials. In 1376, Arab-Shah, khan of the Blue Horde, destroyed the Principality of Novosil, but was able to avoid an encounter with the army sent by the Grand Principality of Moscow along the Oka River. In 1377, after the defeat in the Battle of the Pyana River, the forces of Arab-Shah destroyed the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod and the principality of Ryazan. After another successful raid of Arab-Shah on the Russian frontier, the next year Mamai decided to attack the Grand Principality of Moscow.

Course of the battle

The Russians were led by Prince Dmitri Ivanovich of Moscow who has not yet received his nickname Donskoi. The Tatars were commanded by murza Begich. The two armies met near the river Vozha, a tributary of the Oka. After successful reconnaissance Dmitri managed to block the ford which the Tatars intended to use for the crossing of the river. He occupied a good position for his troops on a hill. The Russians' formation had a shape of a bow with Donskoy leading the center the flanks under the command of Timofey Velyaminov and Andrei of Polotsk.

After waiting a long time, Begich decided to cross the river and to encircle the Russians from both sides. However, the attack of the Tatar cavalry was repelled and the Russian went over to a counter-attack. The Tatars left their tracks and began retreating in disorder, many of them drowned in the river. Begich himself was killed.

Consequences

The battle of the Vozha River was the first important victory of the Russians over a big army of the Golden Horde. It had a big psychological effect before the famous Battle of Kulikovo because it demonstrated the vulnerability of the Tatar cavalry which was unable to overcome tough resistance or withstand determined counter-attacks. For Mamai, the defeat of Vozha meant a direct challenge by Dmitri which caused him to start a new unsuccessful campaign two years later.

Victims

Among the persons killed in the battle are:

Dmitri Monastyrev
Nazar Danilovich Kusakov

Memory

In honor of the victory in 1379 Grand Prince Dmitri Donskoy built the Assumption Cathedral in Kolomna

References

Битва на реке Воже.avi - Film reconstitution of the battle on You Tube

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Battle of the Vozha River (1378). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.