Myths about the Battle of the Ice

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For many, the battle, according to the chronicles that took place on April 5, 1242, is not much different from the shots from Sergei Eisenstein's film "Alexander Nevsky". But was it really so?

The Battle on the Ice really became one of the most resonant events of the 13th century, reflected not only in "domestic", but also in Western chronicles.

And at first glance it seems that we have a sufficient number of documents in order to thoroughly study all the "components" of the battle.

But upon closer examination, it turns out that the popularity of the historical plot does not at all guarantee its comprehensive study.

Thus, the most detailed (and most cited) description of the battle, recorded "hot on the trail," is contained in the Novgorod First Chronicle of the older edition. And this description is just over 100 words long. The rest of the references are even more concise.

Moreover, sometimes they include mutually exclusive information. For example, in the most authoritative Western source - the Elder Livonian Rhymed Chronicle - there is not a word about the fact that the battle took place on the lake.

The lives of Alexander Nevsky can be considered a kind of "synthesis" of early chronicle references to the collision, but, according to experts, they are a literary work and therefore can be used as a source only with "great restrictions."

As for the historical works of the 19th century, it is believed that they did not bring anything fundamentally new to the study of the Battle of the Ice, mainly retelling what was already stated in the annals.

The beginning of the 20th century was characterized by an ideological rethinking of the battle, when the symbolic meaning of the victory over "German-knightly aggression" was highlighted. According to the historian Igor Danilevsky, before the release of Sergei Eisenstein's film "Alexander Nevsky", the study of the Battle on the Ice was not even included in university lecture courses.

The myth of united Russia

In the minds of many, the Battle of the Ice is a victory of the united Russian troops over the forces of the German crusaders. Such a "generalizing" idea of the battle was formed already in the XX century, in the realities of the Great Patriotic War, when Germany was the main rival of the USSR.

However, 775 years ago, the Battle of the Ice was a "local" rather than a national conflict. In the XIII century, Russia was going through a period of feudal fragmentation and consisted of about 20 independent principalities. Moreover, the policies of cities that formally belonged to one territory could differ significantly.

So, de jure, Pskov and Novgorod were located in the Novgorod land, one of the largest territorial units of Russia at that time. De facto, each of these cities was an "autonomy", with its own political and economic interests. This also applied to relations with the closest neighbors in the Eastern Baltic.

One of these neighbors was the Catholic Order of the Swordsmen, after being defeated at the Battle of Saul (Siauliai) in 1236, joined to the Teutonic Order as the Livonian Land Master. The latter became part of the so-called Livonian Confederation, which, in addition to the Order, included five Baltic bishoprics.

Indeed, Novgorod and Pskov are independent lands, which, moreover, are at enmity with each other: Pskov all the time tried to get rid of the influence of Novgorod. There can be no talk of any unity of the Russian lands in the 13th century

- Igor Danilevsky, specialist in the history of Ancient Rus

As noted by the historian Igor Danilevsky, the main reason for the territorial conflicts between Novgorod and the Order were the lands of the Estonians who lived on the western shore of Lake Peipsi (the medieval population of modern Estonia, in the majority of Russian-language chronicles figured under the name "Chud"). At the same time, the campaigns organized by the Novgorodians practically did not affect the interests of other lands in any way. The exception was the "border" Pskov, which was constantly subjected to retaliatory raids by the Livonians.

According to the historian Aleksey Valerov, it was precisely the need to simultaneously resist both the forces of the Order and the regular attempts of Novgorod to encroach on the independence of the city that could force Pskov in 1240 to "open the gates" to the Livonians. In addition, the city was seriously weakened after the defeat at Izborsk and, presumably, was not capable of long-term resistance to the crusaders.

Having recognized the power of the Germans, Pskov hoped to defend against the claims of Novgorod. Nevertheless, the forced surrender of Pskov is beyond doubt.

- Alexey Valerov, historian

At the same time, according to the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, in 1242 there was not a full-fledged "German army" in the city, but only two Vogt knights (presumably accompanied by small detachments), who, according to Valerov, performed judicial functions on the controlled lands and followed the activities of the "local Pskov administration".

Further, as we know from the chronicles, the Novgorod prince Alexander Yaroslavich, together with his younger brother Andrei Yaroslavich (sent by their father, Vladimir prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich) "expelled" the Germans from Pskov, after which they continued their campaign, going "to the chud" (i.e. e. in the lands of the Livonian Landmaster).

Where they were met by the combined forces of the Order and the Dorpat bishop.

The myth of the scale of the battle

Thanks to the Novgorod Chronicle, we know that April 5, 1242 was a Saturday. Everything else is not so straightforward.

Difficulties begin already when trying to establish the number of participants in the battle. The only figures at our disposal tell us about the losses in the ranks of the Germans. So, the Novgorod first chronicle reports about 400 killed and 50 prisoners, the Livonian rhymed chronicle - that "twenty brothers remained killed and six were taken prisoner."

The researchers believe that these data are not as controversial as they seem at first glance.

We believe that when critically assessing the number of knights killed during the Battle of the Ice, reported in the Rhymed Chronicle, it should be borne in mind that the chronicler does not speak about the losses of the crusader army in general, but only about the number of killed "brother knights", i.e. about knights - full members of the order

- from the book "Written sources about the Battle on the Ice" (Runners Yu. K., Kleinenberg I. E., Shaskolsky I. P.)

Historians Igor Danilevsky and Klim Zhukov agree that several hundred people participated in the battle.

So, on the part of the Germans, these are 35-40 knight brothers, about 160 bnechtes (on average, four servants per knight) and Estonian mercenaries ("chud without number"), who could "expand" the detachment by another 100-200 soldiers … At the same time, by the standards of the XIII century, such an army was considered a rather serious force (presumably, during the heyday, the maximum number of the former Order of the Sword Bearers, in principle, did not exceed 100-120 knights). The author of the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle also complained that there were almost 60 times more Russians, which, according to Danilevsky, although an exaggeration, still suggests that Alexander's army significantly outnumbered the forces of the crusaders.

So, the maximum number of the Novgorod city regiment, the princely squad of Alexander, the Suzdal detachment of his brother Andrei and the Pskovites who joined the campaign hardly exceeded 800 people.

We also know from the chronicles that the German detachment was built by a "pig".

According to Klim Zhukov, this is most likely not a "trapezoidal" pig, which we are accustomed to seeing on diagrams in textbooks, but a "rectangular" one (since the first description of a "trapezoid" in written sources appeared only in the 15th century). Also, according to historians, the estimated size of the Livonian army gives reason to speak of the traditional construction of the "gonfalon hound": 35 knights, making up the "gonfalon wedge", plus their units (up to 400 people in total).

As for the tactics of the Russian army, the Rhymed Chronicle only mentions that "the Russians had many riflemen" (who, apparently, constituted the first formation), and that "the army of the brothers was surrounded."

We do not know anything more about this.

All the considerations about how Alexander and Andrei built their squad are speculations and fictions coming from the "common sense" of those who write

- Igor Danilevsky, specialist in the history of Ancient Rus

The myth that a Livonian warrior is heavier than a Novgorod one

There is also a stereotype according to which the military attire of Russian soldiers was many times lighter than the Livonian one.

According to historians, if the difference in weight was, it was extremely insignificant.

Indeed, on both sides, exclusively heavily armed horsemen participated in the battle (it is believed that all assumptions about the infantrymen are the transfer of the military realities of subsequent centuries to the realities of the 13th century).

Logically, even the weight of a war horse, excluding the rider, would have been enough to break through the fragile April ice.

So, did it make sense in such conditions to withdraw troops to it?

The myth of the battle on ice and the drowned knights

Let's disappoint right away: there is no description of how the German knights fall through the ice in any of the early chronicles.

Moreover, the Livonian Chronicle contains a rather strange phrase: "On both sides, the dead fell on the grass." Some commentators believe that this is an idiom meaning "to fall on the battlefield" (version of medieval historian Igor Kleinenberg), others - that we are talking about thickets of reeds that made their way from under the ice in shallow water, where the battle took place (version of the Soviet military historian Georgy Karaev, displayed on the map).

As for the chronicle mentions that the Germans were driven "on ice", modern researchers agree that the Battle on the Ice could "borrow" this detail from the description of the later Battle of Rakovorskoy (1268). According to Igor Danilevsky, reports that the Russian troops drove the enemy seven miles ("to the Subolichi coast") are quite justified for the scale of the Rakhor battle, but they look strange in the context of the battle on Lake Peipsi, where the distance from coast to coast is in the supposed place the battle is no more than 2 km.

Speaking about the "Crow Stone" (a geographical landmark mentioned in some of the chronicles), historians emphasize that any map indicating a specific battle site is nothing more than a version. Where exactly the massacre took place, no one knows: the sources contain too little information to draw any conclusions.

In particular, Klim Zhukov is based on the fact that during archaeological expeditions in the region of Lake Peipsi, not a single "confirming" burial was found. The researcher associates the lack of evidence not with the mythical nature of the battle, but with looting: in the 13th century, iron was highly valued, and it is unlikely that the weapons and armor of the dead soldiers could lie safe to this day.

The myth of the geopolitical significance of the battle

In the view of many, the Battle of the Ice "stands alone" and is almost the only "action-packed" battle of its time. And it really became one of the significant battles of the Middle Ages, which "suspended" the conflict between Russia and the Livonian Order for almost 10 years.

Nevertheless, the XIII century is rich in other events.

From the point of view of a clash with the crusaders, they include the battle with the Swedes on the Neva in 1240, and the already mentioned Battle of Rakovor, during which the united army of seven North Russian principalities opposed the Livonian Land Mastership and Danish Estland.

The Novgorod chronicler did not exaggerate when describing the Battle of Rakovorsk in 1268, in which the combined forces of several Russian lands, themselves suffering heavy losses, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Germans and Danes: "the battle was terrible, as if neither fathers nor grandfathers had seen"

- Igor Danilevsky, "The Battle of the Ice: Change of Image"

Also, the XIII century is the time of the Horde invasion.

Despite the fact that the key battles of this era (the Battle of Kalka and the capture of Ryazan) did not directly affect the North-West, they significantly influenced the further political structure of medieval Russia and all its components.

In addition, if we compare the scale of the Teutonic and Horde threats, then the difference is calculated in tens of thousands of soldiers. So, the maximum number of crusaders who ever participated in campaigns against Russia rarely exceeded 1000 people, while the estimated maximum number of participants in the Russian campaign from the Horde was up to 40 thousand (version of the historian Klim Zhukov).