/4656416837_3b0c018ca0_b.jpg)
Kulikovo Field is a historic locality on the
watersheds of the Oka-Don interfluve, which is an extensive
geographical object with steppe vegetation. It the site of which of
the battle site of September 8, 1380 between the united forces of
the Russian princes under the leadership of the Grand Duke of Moscow
Dimitri Ivanovich and the army of the Golden Horde of temlyrbek
Mamaia of the Golden Horde. Battle ended in defeat of the
Tatar-Mongolian troops and their Italian allies. The area of the
place of direct combat collision according to the newest
reconstructions is about 2 - 3 km².
The place of the
historical battle, beginning from the end of the XVIII - beginning
of the XIX century, was traditionally localized by the place of the
confluence of Nepryadva and Don near the village of Monastyrshchino
(Kimovsky district of the Tula region). In recent years, on the
basis of an integrated study of written sources (monuments of the
Kulikovo cycle), their new reading in connection with historical
geography, scientific data has appeared, allowing to revise the
canonical approach (the work of Professor S.N. Azbelev and other
researchers) and include the annalistic landmark of the legendary
Mamayev Battle “On the Don, on the mouth of the Nepriadvy River” to
its source from Volov Lake (Volovsky District of the Tula Region).
The place of the historical battle, starting from the
end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, was traditionally
localized at the confluence of the Nepryadva and the Don near the
village of Monastyrshchino (Kimovsky district of the Tula region).
In recent years, on the basis of a comprehensive study of written
sources (monuments of the Kulikovo cycle), their new reading in
connection with historical geography, scientific data have appeared that
make it possible to revise the canonical approach (the works of
Professor S. N. Azbelev and other researchers) and attribute the
chronicle landmark of the legendary Mamaev battle “on the Don, at the
mouth of the Nepryadva River” to its source from Lake Volovo (Volovsky
district of the Tula region).
Historians and archaeologists
explain the absence of significant finds of military equipment on the
battlefield by the fact that in the Middle Ages these things were very
expensive, therefore, after the battle, all items were carefully
collected. A similar explanation appeared in popular science
publications in the mid-1980s, when for several field seasons, starting
from the anniversary year of 1980, a large number of finds related to
the great battle had not been made at the canonical site, and this
urgently needed an explanation.
In the early 2000s, the
hypothetical scheme of the Battle of Kulikovo, first compiled and
published by I.F. Afremov in the middle of the 19th century, and after
that became official for 150 years, was redrawn. Instead of a picture of
epic proportions with a construction front length of 7-10 versts,
practically with the southern orientation of the Russian army, when the
midday sun was supposed to shine in the eyes of the soldiers, a
relatively small forest clearing was localized, sandwiched between the
openings of the ravines. Its length was about 2 kilometers with a width
of several hundred meters.
The use of modern electronic metal
detectors for a continuous survey of this area made it possible to
collect representative collections of hundreds and thousands of
shapeless metal fragments and fragments for each field season. In Soviet
times, agricultural work was carried out on this field, and ammonium
nitrate that destroys metal was used as a fertilizer. Nevertheless,
archaeological expeditions manage to make finds of historical interest:
a sleeve, a spear base, a chain mail ring, a fragment of an ax, parts of
a fringe of a sleeve or a chain mail hem made of brass; armor plate (?)
(according to the classification developed by Toderman on the basis of a
unique collection of 24 complete plate armor from Visby, it has no
analogues), which was attached to the base of a leather strap.
In addition to being mentioned in the monuments of the
Kulikovo cycle, Kulikovo field is well known from Russian chronicles and
documents of the 16th-17th centuries, of which the most famous and
repeatedly published, starting from the last quarter of the 18th
century, is the Book of the Big Drawing (KBCh) preserved in several
lists.
The last scientific edition of this handwritten monument,
unique in its informativeness, taking into account all the discrepancies
known at that time, was carried out with the direct participation of K.
N. Serbina in the publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences in
1950. Various lists of the KBCh in the course of the clerical activity
of the 17th century in the Moscow Discharge Order and in the voivodship
offices on the ground were repeatedly supplemented and refined, as a
result of which, in their totality, there is a very detailed description
of the Kulikovo field.
According to these descriptions, the
Kulikovo field was the natural northern border of the vast undeveloped
Wild Field in the form of an extended ridge of hills within the Oka-Don
interfluve with steppe vegetation on the hills, and forest-steppe in the
lowlands. The main watershed between the Oka and Don basins, the Oka-Don
watershed, stretches as a chain of uplands (the so-called Alaun heights)
from the borders with the Orel region to the borders with the Ryazan
region. It is divided into several interfluve plateaus, each of which
has its own name: Raevskoe, Gorbachevskoe and Volovskoe plateau.
Many rivers with their tributaries originate from this watershed - the
Beautiful Mecha, Nepryadva, Upa, Plova (Plava), Solova, Zusha, Chern,
Ista, Snezhed and others. In the center, on the Volovsky plateau, there
is Volovo Lake (of karst origin), and Muravsky Way crosses this
territory from north to south.
Currently, the Kulikovo field
territorially belongs to the Kimovsky, Kurkinsky and Bogoroditsky
districts of the Tula region.
The vastness of the Kulikovo field has always caused
serious difficulties in the exact scientific localization of a specific
place of the historical battle. The epic scales of hypothetical
reconstructions of the 19th century with a regimental formation front
width of 7-10 miles, inspired by the realities of the relatively recent
Battle of Borodino, in reality had no scientific basis. Modern
archaeologists and researchers have come to the conclusion that the area
of direct combat collision is insignificant, not exceeding 1.5-2 km².
From chronicle sources it is known that the battle took place "on
the Don at the mouth of Nepryadva." The place of the battle was between
the Don and Nepryadva, that is, between the right bank of the Don and
the left bank of the Nepryadva. Since on the eve of the celebration of
the 600th anniversary of the battle in 1980 it was not possible to find
material evidence of this event in the traditional place (on the right
bank of the Nepryadva), in the early 1980s, historian V. A. Kuchkin and
geochemist K. P. Florensky proposed their version of localization the
battlefield on the left bank, which is fundamentally different from the
established canonical views of the early 19th century. This new
interpretation showed the complete absence of scientific substantiation
of the traditional version, which is replicated only due to historical
inertia.
Only in subsequent years, with the help of
paleogeographic methods, did scientists establish that near the Don "on
the left bank of the Nepryadva at that time there was a continuous
forest." A similar situation emerged on the right bank, where the
forest-free spaces were narrow clearings not exceeding 2-3 kilometers in
length. Mass movements of cavalry in such conditions would be
impossible. This gave rise to a contradiction between the available
sources and the prevailing views on the problem.
According to one
of the later book legends of the 19th century, which has no documentary
evidence, Emperor Peter I, visiting the construction of locks on Ivan
Ozero, Don and Shat during the construction of the Ivanovo Canal,
examined the site of the Battle of Kulikovo and ordered that the
remaining oaks of the so-called "Green Oak Brava" be branded so they
don't get cut.
Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev became the first
explorer of his section of the Kulikovo field. He purposefully bought
old items of weapons and personal Christian piety from Tula junk dealers
and antique dealers, which he represented as found at the supposed site
of the battle. Based on his collection, he created an exposition of two
rooms, in which he placed chain mail, sabers, reeds, spearheads and
flintlock pistols of various times on the walls.
He also
undertook field studies of the alleged battle site and tried to link the
course of the battle with the real terrain, suggesting that Mamai's
headquarters during the battle be considered the largest and most
beautiful hill on his land, which in the middle of the 19th century
received the name Red. "Red hills" historians and local historians of
the Tula province called the alleged places of ancient pagan temples -
hills with large stone limestone blocks lying on top.
On the
initiative of the father and son of the Nechaevs, the Tula governor V.F.
Vasiliev in 1820 petitioned Emperor Alexander I to create a monument to
Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field.
In 1836, Nicholas I
approved the sketch of the iron obelisk by Alexander Bryullov. On
September 8, 1850, the monument was inaugurated in the presence of the
governor, representatives of the nobility, clergy and many peasants.
With a large gathering of people on September 8, 1880, on the day of
the 500th anniversary of the battle, next to the monument to Dmitry
Donskoy on the Kulikovo field, after a memorial service, a military
parade with artillery salute was held.
By the beginning of the
20th century, among the Tula clergy, the idea arose of building a church
of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the Kulikovo field. The creation of the
temple project was entrusted to the architect Alexei Shchusev, who
completed the work in 1911. The temple was under construction for four
years (1913-1917). The completion of construction was prevented by the
events of October 1917 and the civil war. The temple was closed and
gradually fell into disrepair. During the civil and especially the Great
Patriotic Wars, the Monument-Column to Dmitry Donskoy received
significant damage.
In the mid-1960s, on the initiative of local
historians, excursions began to be held at the memorial complex on Red
Hill, and then a branch of the Tula Regional Museum of Local Lore (TOKM)
was created. In the late 1960s, work began on the restoration of
monuments and landscaping. A huge amount of restoration work was carried
out after the adoption of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of
the RSFSR "On the preparation of the celebration of the 600th
anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo." According to the memoirs of
Valentin Falin, by that time desolation reigned on the Kulikovo field:
“My wife and I decide to lay flowers at the scene of action in
memory of the feat of Dmitry Donskoy and his squad. We got to Tula by
car. We ask the guard policeman how easy it is to get to Kulikovo field.
In response, we hear: “What kind of field is this?” We overcame potholes
and detours. Before my eyes is a picture that is not inspiring - thank
God, Shchusev's allegorical structures did not collapse, despite the
lack of proper care. We are interested in what kind of ridiculous
buildings are there in the distance. Turned out they were pigs. Right,
it's a shame for the state. I am writing a note to M. A. Suslov, at the
same time reporting what the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin has
been turned into and how things were with the burials of Peresvet and
Oslyabi. On the graves of two monks-heroes, whose battle with the Tatar
batyrs opened the Battle of Kulikovo, the Dynamo plant installed
compressors. Scandal. Under the pressure of Suslov, something was
corrected, although they did not manage to patch up the holes by the
anniversary.
- S. Chapnin, E. Strelchik. “You can separate the Church
from the state, but you cannot separate the Church from the people” //
Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. - M .: Publishing house of the
Moscow Patriarchate, 2013. - July (No. 7).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
had the same impressions about visiting the Kulikovo field, which he
described in his autobiographical story "Zakhar-Kalita" (1963).
Before the anniversary, the churches of St. Sergius of Radonezh on Red
Hill and the Nativity of the Virgin in the village of Monastyrshchina,
the monument to Dmitry Donskoy were restored, and work on the
improvement of the memorial on Red Hill was completed.
In 1996,
by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Kulikovo
Field State Military-Historical and Natural Museum-Reserve was
established on Kulikovo Field.
Since 1997, the annual
international military-historical festival "Kulikovo Field" has been
held on the Kulikovo Field, dedicated to the anniversaries of the Battle
of Kulikovo and ammunition from the time of the Battle of Kulikovo, the
Patriotic War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War.
The railway
station "Kulikovo Pole" of the South-Eastern Railway, located 23 km
south of it, was named in honor of the historical place.