The River Ugrá near the village of Popovka, about thirty miles northwest of where the river empties into the Oka at Kaluga — the Oka leads to the Volga and thence to the Caspian Sea. Although the Ugra is not wide its voluptuous meanders are lined with forests and tumbled meadows, and any mediaeval army plunging into it was at an immediate disadvantage. Crossing the river when it was frozen hard in winter would have been easier, but for reasons that historians still do not find entirely clear Akhmat did not stay long enough to try it.
Introduction
Back in 1238-1240, Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, had swept across Rus’ with his Tartar ‘Golden Horde’, laying waste to Kiev and forcing other cities to pay tribute. For years the extortion went on, while neighbouring Poland and Lithuania either sided with the Horde or threatened a conquest of their own. In 1480 Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, decided enough was enough.
DURING the fifteenth century the Golden Horde had gradually divided into three independent Khanates, viz. the Crimean, the Kazan, and the Golden Horde. The Crimean Khanate and the Golden Horde were continually at war with each other, and Ivan III took advantage of this and refused to pay tribute. Khan Akhmat* of the Golden Horde sent envoys to collect it, and, as these were murdered in Moscow, he marched his army into Russia, and at the same time entered into an alliance with Casimir IV of Lithuania.*
Ivan met the Tartars on the banks of the Ugra,* but was afraid to give battle, and the two armies remained facing each other all through the autumn.* When the winter began, the Tartars, from want of winter clothing, were forced to turn south, and Akhmat was soon after murdered by one of his captains.* A few months later the Golden Horde was completely destroyed by Mengli Ghirei, the Crimean Khan,* and thus Russia was freed from the yoke of the Tartars in 1480.
Emended
From ‘A Short History of Russia’ (1915), by Lucy Cazalet (1870-1956). One minor emendation has been made.
* Ahmed Khan bin Küchük (1465-1481).
* Casimir IV Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. In the event, Casimir never came to Akhmat’s aid, abandoning him just as he had abandoned the Westward-looking politicians of Great Novgorod nine years earlier: see ‘We are Free Men of Novgorod’.
* The Great Stand took place about 100 miles southwest of Moscow, just northwest of where the River Ugra flows into the River Oka near Kaluga.
* Altered from ‘all through the summer and autumn’, as Akhmat’s troops did not gather at the River Ugra until the 6th of October 1480, though they had been manoeuvring since June. Fighting began on the 8th. The standoff lasted until November the 28th.
* Ibak Khan, prince of the Khanate of Sibir, murdered Akhmat on the 6th of January 1481. Cazalet gives the onset of winter as the reason for the withdrawal but modern historians still find it baffling. It was neither the first nor the last time that Moscow would be saved by a mysterious lack of enthusiasm among her enemies. See The Theotokos of Vladimir.
* In 1502, Mengli I Giray defeated Sheikh Ahmed (1499-1502) and ended forever the Horde’s threat to the Crimea Khanate, since 1475 a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Sheikh Ahmed fled to Lithuania but was imprisoned in Kaunas by his imagined allies. He proved to be the last ruler of the Great Horde.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate her ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
In 1480, Grand Prince Ivan of Moscow decided he must face down the Golden Horde, which had been extorting tribute from Moscow and other Russian cities for two centuries. That autumn, his army confronted the Horde across the River Ugra, and to his surprise in late November the Horde simply melted away, never to trouble Moscow again. (57 / 60 words)
In 1480, Grand Prince Ivan of Moscow decided he must face down the Golden Horde, which had been extorting tribute from Moscow and other Russian cities for two centuries. That autumn, his army confronted the Horde across the River Ugra, and to his surprise in late November the Horde simply melted away, never to trouble Moscow again.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, despite, not, ought, until, whereas, whether.
About the Author
Lucy Cazalet née Hopper was born in Moscow in 1870. Together with her husband Frederick, also Moscow-born, she managed the historic Muir and Mirrielees department store on Theatre Square, now known as TsUM, and was something of an authority on pewter and porcelain. After the Revolution of 1917, the couple and their children escaped to England, where Lucy died in 1956. Her book, published in 1915, is testimony to the desire to improve relations between Imperial Russia and the British Empire in the Edwardian age.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Few. Have. Three.
2 Battle. Destroy. Refuse.
3 Face. March. Yoke.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Adjectives Find in Think and Speak
For each word below, compose sentences to show that it may be used as an adjective. Adjectives provide extra information about a noun, e.g. a black cat, a round table, the early bird etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Same. 2 Late. 3 Latest. 4 Free. 5 Monthly. 6 Gradual. 7 Independent. 8 Forceful. 9 Golden.
Variations: 1.show whether your adjective can also be used as e.g. a noun, verb or adverb. 2.show whether your adjective can be used in comparisons (e.g. good/better/best). 3.show whether your adjective can be used in attributive position (e.g. a dangerous corner) and also in predicate position (this corner is dangerous).
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1.
After.
2.
Begin.
3.
Few.
4.
Late.
5.
Later.
6.
Refuse.
7.
Remain.
8.
Take.
9.
Want.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding im-.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
brts (5+1)
aborts. berates. berets. brats. brutes.
bruits.
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