Battle of the Sit River explained

Conflict:Battle of the Sit River
Partof:Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'
Date:4 March 1238
Place:Modern day Yaroslavl Oblast
Result:Mongol victory
Combatant1:Mongol Empire
Combatant2:Vladimir-Suzdal
Commander1:Burundai
Commander2:Yuri II
Strength1:At least one tumen (10,000) of nomadic cavalry
Strength2:More than 3,000, mostly infantry
Casualties1:Light[1]
Casualties2:Nearly Entire Force

The Battle of the Sit River took place on 4 March 1238 between the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan and the Suzdalians under Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'. It was fought in the northern part of the present-day Sonkovsky District of Tver Oblast of Russia, close to the selo of Bozhonka.

Battle

After the Mongols sacked his capital of Vladimir on the Klyazma, Yuri fled across the Volga northward, to Yaroslavl, where he hastily mustered an army.[2] He and his brothers then turned back toward Vladimir in hopes of relieving the city before the Mongols took it, but they were too late. Yuri sent out a force of 3,000 men under Dorozh to scout out where the Mongols were; whereupon Dorozh returned saying that Yuri and his force was already surrounded. As he tried to muster his forces, he was attacked by the Mongol force under Burundai and fled, but was overtaken on the Sit River and died there along with his nephew, Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl.[3]

Aftermath

The battle marked the end of unified resistance against the Mongols, and inaugurated two centuries of the Mongol domination of Russia.

Sources

58.0686°N 37.8519°W

Notes and References

  1. http://wordweb.ru/2007/12/12/tajjna-bitvy-na-reke-sit.html Sergei Ershov. Taina Bitva na reke Sit'
  2. Book: The Cambridge history of Russia. Maureen Perrie . Maureen Perrie. 2006. Cambridge University Press. 9780521812276. 10.1017/CHOL9780521812276. 77011698.
  3. Robert Michell and Neville Forbes, eds. The Chronicle of Novgorod (London: Camden Society, 1914), 83; Janet Martin, Medieval Russia 980–1584 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 138–139.