К вопросу о цивилизационном влиянии Зо­лотой Орды и Османской империи на русские княжества

Abstract

Research objectives: To study sixteenth-century Russian society’s adoption of the traditions of the Golden Horde and Ottoman Empire in the field of autocratic governance, finance, military affairs, etc. Research materials were selected on the basis of their comparative nature. These are Russian chronicles along with Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Chinese texts. Archaeological evidence has been used as well in the study. Results and novelty of the research: The question regarding the “principle of delayed action”, raised by Vernadsky, was the first objective of study. According to this principle, the Mongol influence had a major effect not during the period of Russian dependence on the Golden Horde, but even after the establishment of an independent state. Many historians have referred to this principle when explaining the origin of the Russian autocracy and other state institutions, such as the pomest’e. The main historiographical problem regarding this interpretation has been the lack of sources from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Sources, such as notes by foreigners, appear at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and these sources speak about the unlimited power of the great princes. Thus, the autocracy of the sixteenth century was generally considered to have been the result of Mongol influence. To begin with, the author investigated the question of the origin of pomest’e. He discovered the detailed similarities between Russian pomest’e and Turkish timar. He then established that Russian pomest’e and Russian censuses were copies of the Turkish timar and defter. Thus, borrowings from Turkish practices and a palpable Turkish influence were discovered. This Turkish influence supplanted the remnants of the Mongol influence, and the “principle of delayed action” has been demonstrated to be unfeasible. The author showed that the origin of the Russian autocracy was associated with the Turkish influence, and not with the Mongol one. However, the Russian military system was certainly borrowed from the Tatars and Mongols.