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Dmitry Donskoy: biography
Dmitry I Ivanovich Donskoy (under this name he will go down in history), was born in 1350. He was destined to become the Grand Duke of Moscow at the age of 9, after the death of his father Ivan the Red. Four years later, he also managed to annex the title of Prince Vladimir.
Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow became the guardian and chief adviser in political affairs. The Monk Sergius of Radonezh also exerted a beneficial influence on the young prince.
Merits of Dmitry Donskoy
Glory came to the grandson of Ivan Kalita on September 21, 1380 after a battle with the Tatars on the Kulikovo field. The prince entered the battlefield as an ordinary soldier. He gave his gilded armor to the boyar Mikhail, and he donned the usual chain mail. After the battle, the prince was found unconscious among the bodies of the fallen soldiers. Mamai fled shamefully.
Sergius of Radonezh blesses Grand Duke Dimitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo
A brilliant victory over the outnumbered Horde was won thanks to the talent of the leader of the Russian troops. The commander used the ambush regiment at the right time.
The Russians won a landslide victory. After crossing the deep Don at that time, Dmitry gave the order to dismantle the bridges. Since the place of the battle was in the upper reaches of the Don. For the entire Russian people, he became Dmitry Donskoy, a selfless fighter against the Tatar yoke.
According to legend, before the main battle, two horsemen-heroes left for the Kulikovo field to measure their strength. From the side of the Golden Horde, it was an experienced and hitherto invincible Chelubey. From the side of the Russian troops – a monk from the boyar family Alexander Peresvet.
Both drove their spears into each other, while Chelubey was knocked out of the saddle. Mortally wounded Peresvet was carried by a faithful horse to the location of the Russian troops.
But in 1382 Khan Tokhtamysh took revenge for the defeat of the Golden Horde army and defeated Moscow. Again it was necessary to pay tribute and kneel to ask for a label for the great reign. It was possible to finally overthrow the Tatar-Mongol yoke only a hundred years after the Battle of Kulikovo.
The whole life of the Grand Duke passed in the struggle with the Lithuanians, with the Mongol-Tatars and with the Russian princes-rivals.
Over the three decades of his reign, the borders of the Moscow principality were significantly expanded. A new white brick Kremlin was built. The troops of the Lithuanian prince Olgerd soon fell under its walls.
The Grand Duke succeeded in elevating the role of Moscow in the unification process of the disparate Russian lands.
The personal life of the prince
At the age of 12, the young prince entered into his first marriage. As scientists assume, his wife died in 1364 from the then raging plague. For the second time, the prince married at the age of seventeen to the beautiful Nizhny Novgorod princess Evdokia. Dmitry Ivanovich had 12 children (of whom only four were girls).
After the marriage with Evdokia, who was 13 years old, the long-term confrontation between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod ended.
Dmitry Donskoy combined Christian piety, talent for government and military valor.
The Grand Duke was succeeded by his eldest son. Vasily I no longer needed to bow to the Golden Horde to accept the reign. And this was the merit of his father.
Dmitry Donskoy, in his short 38 years of life, managed to bring a lot of benefits to the Russian people. In 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Dmitry Donskoy.
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