Kiev Falls to Batu Khan: Mongols Dominate Rus
Batu Khan's Mongol army besieged and sacked Kiev on December 6, 1240, using catapults, battering rams, and overwhelming numbers to breach the city's walls. The garrison fought street by street until the last defenders retreated to the Church of the Tithes, which collapsed under the weight of people seeking refuge on its roof. The city was virtually destroyed. A papal envoy who passed through six years later described seeing 'countless skulls and bones of dead men' and 'hardly two hundred houses standing.' Kiev had been the cultural and political capital of the Kievan Rus' federation, the largest state in medieval Europe. Its destruction ended that era permanently. The surviving Russian principalities, including Moscow, became vassals of the Golden Horde for the next 240 years, paying tribute and accepting Mongol authority over their rulers.
December 6, 1240
786 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Kiev
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Mongols
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Batu Khan
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Mongol invasion of Rus
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Danylo of Halych
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Voivode Dmytro
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Mongol invasion of Rus'
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falls
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Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'
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Kyiv
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Siege of Kiev (1240)
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Mongols
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Batu Khan
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Golden Horde
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Mongol Empire
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Massaker
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