Pages: 243-258 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp265243258

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongol administration in Kiev and the Kievan Land was multiethnic and multireligious. Its key figures were Dmitr Eikovich, commander of a thousand and the baskak Mikhey, of Rus’ and Alan origin, respectively. This composition reflected the standard Mongol practice of extensively recruiting representatives of various subject peoples and polities to participate in conquests and administer newly annexed territories during the creation of a universal empire. The presence and activities of the commander of a thousand and the baskak defined a new political reality in which the Kievan Land became part of the vast Mongol Empire. As a result of the conquest, targeted resettlement, and the census of the tax-paying population, the borders of the Kievan Land expanded southward to the Tiasmin River. The members of the papal embassy to the Mongols, led by Plano Carpini, who described the new political situation in Southern Rus’, had not initially planned to travel to the Great Khan’s court. Their journey was expected to end in Kiev or at the southern border of the Kievan Land. However, once they found themselves in the winter steppe, where the Mongols controlled all logistics and means of subsistence, they were compelled to comply with Mongol demands and ultimately became the first Westerners to travel across the entire Mongol Empire.

Keywords: Mongol conquest, Kiev and Kiev land, thousand’s commander Dmitr Eikovich, Baskak Mikhey, John de Plano Carpini

Information about author:

Alexander Maiorov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Emb., 7/9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-8212-7467