Batu’s Ryazan Gambit: on new Interpretations of the Messages from “The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan by Batu” in Modern Research

Research objective: A critical analysis of several positions and theses presented in the article by A.V. Mayorov “Woman, diplomacy and war: Russian princes in negotiations with Batu on the eve of the Mongol invasion”. Research materials: Russian chronicles, “The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan by Batu”, “Praise to the Ryazan Princes”, materials of the Discharge department, “Letter about the Image of the life of Tartars” by friar Julian, “Collection of Chronicles” by Rashid al-Din, “History of the Conqueror of the World” by Ata-Melik Juveini, “The Secret History of the Mongols”, “Yuan Shi” (History of the Yuan Dynasty), “History” by George Pachymeres, The Bible. The books of Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments. Results and novelty of the research: On the basis of the analysis of the written sources and information presented in a number of scientific studies, the author concludes that the thesis of A.V. Mayorov on the compliance with historical realities of the information presented in the “Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan by Batu” is insufficiently argumented. The researcher’s hypotheses about the purposeful policy of Batu aimed at the peaceful inclusion of the principalities of Northeastern Russia into the state system of the Mongol Empire, and the simultaneous provocation of the ruling elites of the Ryazan Principality to a military conflict through the murder of prince Fyodor Yuryevich, contain a number of logical contradictions and are not confirmed by information from both Russian chronicles and foreign sources on the Mongol Western Campaign.