ERM - Tape 107 - The City And The Tsar and Genghis Khan by Harold Lamb
TAPE No. 107 - By Ella Rose Mast
THE CITY AND THE TSAR
PETER THE GREAT AND HIS MOVE TO THE WEST 1648-1762
We are trying to unravel the history of a people of the east, especially that which led to Communism in the Soviet Union in 1917. Again we turn to the storyteller Harold Lamb as we again trace some of this history of Ancient Asia, out of which came this 'ARYAN MAN'. We have seen that one mighty Conqueror after another held sway over great dominions for a time, and that Genghis Khan and his sons led their Hoards from the Steppes into Europe in their drive for world power. In each of these drives by these mighty Conquerors, there was a mixing of blood of the people which has had an effect on the way they think and the way the people act even in the generations to come. Since this was a breaking of God's Law the consequences are always unescapable.
In our time we saw the rise of Communism in Russia which changed the picture in that area, and we have told you how that came about, but as you understand this you also know that the area called Russia today has been overrun with various races and mixed races at least every since the coming to earth of Aryan Man. After the Mongols came no more against Europe then we find that Aryan Royalty again turned eastward seeking to gain a foothold in Russia. The great Mongol Conquerors did their thing seeking power over people, but the Aryan Man has always been searching for land, a homeland to build their homes, this is the difference in Asiatic Conquerors and the Western man.
In this time we are interested in then it was the Romanovs who were seeking a homeland and they came eastward looking for such a home. The greatest of this Royal family would be Peter, the son of Alex, and later he would be called 'Peter the Great' because after three generations of rule by this Royal family, then Peter tried in one generation to lift this land of the Rus to a cultural equality with Europe.
The Ancient Kremlin which Peter found as a young lad was a city with an inner section where the Rituals and Ceremonies were carried out with many factions in the Ruling family, each contending for the place of power. In the outskirts of the city was much poverty where the people were taxed as was the whole country so as to maintain Royalty in their rule over the land. The Kremlin was in the city of Moscow on the River Moskva from which it acquired its name. In this city also lived great wealthy MERCHANTS who tried to use that wealth to control the Nobility. It was from Ancient Rus that there came the Volga, the Dvina, and the Dnieper Rivers over which the Kremlin held dominion. East of Moscow and beyond the Volga lay a land of scattered settlements never totally under Moscow's control, although considered as such. Always the question was asked even in those days..would Moscow succeed in dominating that area, or would the hinterland of this great continent reject and eventually destroy this city of Moscow and its Kremlin?
It was in the 1600's that the Aryan's were pushing out from Europe for more homeland, and as many went to the west, also some went to the east, and they took Moscow and the Kremlin from the Mongols, and set in place the rule of the Christian Tsars. The Mongols retreated back to the Steppes although they would not bow completely to this Aryan Rule.
According to history Europe had been locked in a 30 year war which ended in 1648..Protestant against Catholic..and the German States were the battle ground. The results was that 2/3 of the German population was wiped out, and hunger and plague was effecting the rest of her people. During those 30 years however Moscow had been unaffected by that war by isolating herself from Europe. They had chosen a new Dynasty to rule in the Kremlin, it was a young boy only 16 years old, which was lame as well, and his name was Michael Romanov. The boy Tsar would be only a figurehead as always in the Kremlin, although proclaimed as a true servitor of THE MOST HIGH. The young Tsar was a Christian of the Catholic faith and in his 19th., year was married to a girl by the name of Maria, from one of the so called 'Great' families of the city. Both of the young people were considered very religious. To the grandfathers of the Regime this meant that they would receive Divine protection for their troubled lives in this far east troubled land of conflict, for they remembered the stories of the coming of the Steppe Mongols.
Moscow was far behind the civilization in Europe, only the horse-relay post in the road seemed to be modern, but this had been acquired from the Mongols. Looking at this great city with its many buildings, and Christian symbols, the young Tsar thought that this city would surely become 'The Jerusalem' in place of the old city in Judea now in the hands of the Turks. With the loss of Antioch and then Constantinople surely it must be God's Will that the symbol...JERUSALEM..pass on her Glory to his city of Moscow. The young Tsar knew that somewhere toward the setting sun in the west reigned another mighty Potentate of the Religious world..this being the Pope of the Vatican, then to the east was another..the Dalai Lama in his Citadel of Tibet. As he read this book 'Chronicle of Earth' by the Lithuanian, explaining the earth, and the fortunes of its people since the flood, he came to the conclusion that JERUSALEM..by God's Will, was an everlasting City. However he did not realize that he himself was also as much a prisoner inside the Kremlin walls as was the Pope in the Vatican, or the Dalai Lama in Po-tala.
This young ruler did not understand that discontent of the people he supposedly ruled. He did not know that their suffering was mostly hidden from him, and he prayed daily that he would not make the mistakes his grandfather had made, but he knew not how to change things or to relieve the famine in the land, or to lift the life style of Moscow's common people.
Many different types of people lived in this land of Rus which the young Tsar was said to rule over. For the Cossacks in the south were said to be mainly Christians. And they were great adventurers. It was a Cossack who was able to travel through ice and snow until he reached the Pacific Ocean at the Bering Straits, while others found their way unto the Great Wall of China. They were considered as..'a free Brotherhood'..'free wandering men' who dealt in furs and all kinds of trade. They could not be controlled, by even their Christian brethren who dwelt in the Kremlin.
Ancient Monasteries were scattered all over the territory of Rus, and here they worked their own land and fortified their own buildings while taking pains to report to Moscow smaller holdings of land and peasantry than they actually possessed. Thus it went throughout all of the settlements until Moscow was existing, but not governing. The Mongols seemed to be afraid of the Cossack people, although they admired them, thus they left them alone. There were always small wars over Asia in those times, thus the Tsar claimed a great territory but he did not govern it, in the true sense of the word.
This was life under the Tsars of Rus until a young man by the name of Peter was called to the throne. A treaty was then signed between the Chinese and the Moscovite Tsar, and this treaty established territory lines and those lines then held for 150 years. With a lessening of tension, then from Europe came these called 'Old Believers', who streamed east into the southern Barraba Steppes near the Altai Mountains. They then built churches in the land and into them went those hidden Ikons they had treasured for so long. Here children were born who would now hear a church bell, and see roads built and civilization established. The Jesuits disputes continued between the Catholic of the Old Byzantine era, and those who were Protestants from northern Europe.
Moscow became a land gate of Commerce between Poland and China, and other points to the east and many Merchants and their caravans came and went through this land gate. Being sent to Siberia was a form of punishment even back in those days and this process thus mixed the seed of Russia a bit more. There were squabbles in the Royal family as different ones would try to reach for power, and some not Catholics lived outside of Moscow. There were Lutherans, thus the Religious war continued now in the land of Rus.
Peter the boy Tsar hated the Kremlin and when old enough went outside its walls to live as much as was allowed, into the suburbs of Moscow where he could talk to these foreigners who now came and went through this land gate. As he grew older he entered the Kremlin only when required as the Tsar. He loved to go to the war house of the Kremlin and look through the many curious things he found there. As to an education, he had a tutor but was not taught as other children were taught and this would greatly hinder him as he grew older. He became interested in sailing, and he loved to go to the shipyards and use the tools available there. He acquired a smattering of the High Dutch language mixed with German, and a few English and Latin words. The River, and the Pereiailavl Lake meant release for this teenager, here he could point an astrolabe at a distant star on the horizon and use his own hands to turn the bow of his own ship to a new course. This was so much better than going to the Kremlin to put on musty regalia, to stand or sit through exhausting ceremonies.
Eventually this young Tsar had a cabin built with an emblem of the Eagle over the doorway...overlooking the lake, and one summer spent there he worked at building a Yacht, using a Dutch design. There was an old Moscovite custom which required Royal Princes to grow up attended by their own crude court of other 'boyars' sons, and their own armed service. In Peter's case these companions were a ragged crew consisting of a few young Nobles, many grooms, dog boys, falconers and such. Their main sport was gang fights with clubs, stones, and fists.
By the time he was 22 years of age this young Tsar was 6'8" tall. He had been Tsar of Russ..in name..for five years, but had stayed in this time within the orbit of the Kremlin, the Transfiguration cottage, the river, and the lake. Actually young Peter was a grown man who seemed to be playing the games of a boy of 14. He knew no better life, did not know just how to get out of the trap he seemed to be in. He had acquired a young friend named Francois Lefort, a Frenchman, who now suggested that Peter go to Archangel and there he could inspect some sea going vessels, and even make a trial voyage on the white sea.
The bearded heads in the Kremlin were shaken, no great Master of Moscow ever ventured to Archangel, to the edge of the frozen sea. Orders were issued from Moscow, but others went on the Adventures to unknown lands.
Francois Lefort was a young adventurer and Peter had a new home built for his friend, and there his friend entertained on a grand scale. Peter would appear here when he chose to meet the many people who came looking for this young Tsar who was the Grand Master of Rus. The reigns of government remained in the hands of a Patriarch in the Kremlin as always, for this young Tsar was not trained in the ways of the government. In fact as Peter traveled between the Kremlin and the Cabin at the river, whether he knew it or not he was trying to build for himself a nitch of his own outside of the Kremlin, and in the process he was trying to change the Kremlin into something else. Where he found that he could not change this Ancient Citadel, he would desert it and build a city for himself somewhere else. In fact this Ancient city of Moscow had not in two centuries changed very much whereas outside the city the modern world of that time existed, but was not recognized by the Ancient Citadel.
The choice of Archangel for the journey was surprising at first because it was but a crude sea port, a jumping off place facing the Arctic waters. However if Peter had made this voyage to the Caspian, his future, and the trend of Russian development might have taken a different course. But Peter went to Archangel, on the White Sea, and there he found Dutch Seamen sheltered in log cabins, who told him of amazing voyages under the midnight sun and of voyages through passage ways through drifting ice flows. He heard of and searched for a way by sea to the coast of Cathay, and he soon learned that he was not very capable in steering a bark on this wild sea.
Word then came to young Peter that his mother had died, and he hurried south, but after three days among the throng at the Kremlin, again he was leaving. The heavy sleep of Arctic lights improved his health, and there he sang in the choir of the little 'Sleeping Virgin Church' and he enjoyed it very much. Here he seemed so alive and men here at Archangel were nothing like the Arch Priests of the Kremlin who sat around arguing about 'Holy Writ' or Ambassadors who hid 'God knew what' thoughts behind flowery compliments.
Peter in these months when he was truant from his own government he was turning to the west, for he talked to westerners such as Finns, and Swedish officers who came to Archangel by sled, while back in Moscow they were more interested in the east, in traveling caravans to the Pacific, to China, and those riches brought back in furs.
Peter decided to march with his army to the south to open the mouth of the Don River which they had lost in the days of Khan, but here Peter would know that he had much to learn as a Conqueror. He sent for experts in the west and in time was able to free the mouth of the Don and to fortify the city of Azor and here a new colony was established from the Cossack people.
For the job in the east, Moscow gave the title of fur checker to Vladimir Atlasor also a Cossack. The new land to the east was called Kamchatka and was guarded by a war-like people. It was said that they cherished an Ancient Manuscript that no one could read which had washed up by the sea in some fashion known only to God. This expedition to the east captured this Manuscript and it turned out to be Japanese, and was a map showing the Islands to the south, as well as those to the north which we know as the Aleutian Islands. The expedition when it returned reported that this was a wild, untamed land, but it would also now be claimed by the nation of Rus, which knew nothing about this land beyond the mists of the Aleutian Islands although the Dutch and others had maps of America.
In returning once more to Moscow, Peter lost his will for any more campaigns, and he did not enjoy the intrigue in the Royal Kremlin which was always going on. Here the old tensions once more gripped him and his friends then urged him to make a trip into the west to get away from this political upheaval of the Kremlin.
In the Spring of 1697 A.D., the tour of Europe began, and Peter went incognito. Peter may have been a tsar but he had the mind of a boy, and the manners of a bear at a table, plus those strange convulsions when things troubled him. He now seemed very uneducated, being only able to speak of ship building or fire arms.
At Amsterdam he felt more at home, he questioned experts, and labored with the ship builders. Here he learned to master simple instruments such as the Compass and Plane. The young Tsar was becoming a self taught man and he realized that it was English who could teach him the building of ships FROM PLANS. He was now getting a sense of the west, trying to understand its thoughts, its skills. There was also a concealed purpose on the part of those who were paying for this western trip which was to gain support in western Europe for Moscow's war against the Turks in the south.
In Moscow there was much discontent with this Tsar who did not live in the Kremlin and act according to the thinking of the 'Old Believers'. Those felt that this western trip into mostly Protestant Europe must end before the Tsar turned from their old way in the Religious world. However when he returned to the east they realized they had not restrained him soon enough. As he returned to Moscow..with a smooth face..he proceeded to clip the beards of those who served him. He had also failed in his mission to gain support for his drive against the Turks mainly because he did not know how to handle himself in the Great Banquet Halls of the Royalty of the West, but he had inspected the ice free ports of the Baltic as well as the sea ports from Riga to London, and always he thought of ways to secure the land in the south, which he had so far not been able to do.
Peter was also out of his element when he faced the boy king of Sweden, who had been trained for his part in this drama whereas Peter had no such education, and now he must learn the hard way by experience. The Boy King and his army had been making raids into the east, and these assaults must be stopped. Peter would fire some of his advisors and again as punishment, people would be shipped off to Siberia, where this mixing of races continued.
As the Swedish army was repulsed, then the Russian ships now came out through the port of Neva to the Finish Gulf, and the Baltic Sea, and now Rus had her 'way to the sea'. Here a new port was built and Christened as 'Alexander's Port', the stockade fort was named for the Tsar himself....Petersburg. A cottage was built for Peter, and here he was able to enlist the services of the Swedish officer he had ordered nursed back to health.
The city of Petersburg began to grow, it was to be greater than Archangel with a Port free of ice six months of the year, and with an opening into the Baltic Sea where his fleet...To be..could sail. As Peter pressed on building his city, the 'Old Believers' in the Kremlin thought that the Anti-Christ had come in the form of their Tsar. But nothing could stop Peter in his drive against great odds to build this city where no one had succeeded before. The Ancient Variags (Aryans), the first rulers of Rus, had at one time held this end of the Baltic. Their Dragon Ships with their red sails had put into these rivers. Now they were gone but there were roads to be built, iron to be found, stones to be cut for the great Council House, and the young Tsar must see that all things were accomplished to his liking.
Further to the south the town of Narva came into Rus' hands, but Peter did not stop the project of his new city. It was rumored that the Swedes under their boy King were moving against Moscow, but it was at the City of Petersburg where Peter would make his stand, outside the Archaic Kremlin which he hated. He was so tired of this intrigue, the rituals of the Kremlin, and he so wished to change those living styles of the rulers and the poverty of the rest of the people, yet he seemed not to understand that he in his style of living was a product of just such a lifestyle. As the struggle with the Swedes continued, Peter seemed to see his army being repulsed, and yet as Moscow appealed to the west for help, no help came and finally the Swedes were defeated and their hold on the Baltic was loosened.
As Peter continued building his new city, the actual rulers in the Kremlin began to realize that Peter planned to move the Headquarters of government, and to rule Rus from there after abandoning Holy Mother Moscow. This of course brought about a revolt in the higher circles but Peter continued with his plans. He was turning more and more to western ways as he formed a new alignment of small Baltic powers such as Denmark and tiny Prussia among them. He married the only son of his marriage to a Princess who was the daughter of the Queen of Poland to cement this alliance. He had succeeded in forming his connection to the west but in the south defeat came closing the door to the south and the land of Rus was thus tied to the northern portion of Europe...to mostly Protestant Europe.
Peter by his dislike of the life style of the Kremlin had not tarried long by the side of the young girl he had married, in that early arranged marriage as all marriages were arranged in those days in the circles of Royalty. He had this son by his marriage, but he saw little of him until he decided to marry him to the Princess from Poland, another arranged marriage. The woman the Tsar had always by his side was an Aryan, altho not of Royalty, and her name was Catherine, and it was this lady who had always had a great influence on the Tsar. Peter had several children by this lady and in 1712 he decided to marry Catherine, to make their relationship legitimate. He had tried to blot out the memory of the girl Eudoxia of his teenage marriage, he never spoke to her, and she on her part had entered a nunnery. The son of this marriage was very religious being thus trained by his mother, and now married seemed to have no thoughts but live in the Kremlin in his own house. Priests of the 'Old Believers' came to him at night with their complaints about his father. They were stirring trouble, saying that Peter was no Tsar, and now he had married a commoner. Alexis was a true Nobleman they said, but he was married to a Noble born girl it was true, but she was a Lutheran and a German and considered by the 'Old Believers' as a heretic.
Peter, seeing the hint of rebellion being stirred, moved his son Alexis to the Baltic area where he was separated from his coterie at Moscow, and being weak and resentful then Alexis turned to the taverns for entertainment. He then began sending notes to the Kremlin which his father would intercept. In his notes to the 'Old Believers' in the Kremlin young Alexis made many remarks about his father and his step mother as well as about the city which Peter was building. Thus between father and son there came a great gulf. Young Alexis was a weakling, perhaps there was too much in-breeding in the Houses of Royalty for history tells of many such found in the Royal Houses.
Peter, whether he knew it or not, had all his life been searching for an identification with his God. He had found relief in singing in choirs of the smaller churches. He also knew that it would be impossible to impose the Lutheran faith upon the 'Old Believers', upon the Orthodox Christianity of Moscow, but the second church built in Petersburg was a Lutheran church. To Peter this idea of an individual being able to come to His God without the assistance of a Priest...making this a personal matter between the individual and his God, not dependent upon a Priestly Hierarchy whether in Rome or in Constantinople appealed to Peter. In Petersburg the Protestant sect was not quarantined as it was in Moscow, and now he had married this son to a Lutheran girl, thus Peter was turning to the west for many reasons. Then all of a sudden there was an accident and Alexis was dead. His son of that first marriage was no more and the 'Old Believers' in the Kremlin must look for a new face in their drive to secure someone in place of Peter who would keep in tact all the old ways.
As time went on in this century Peter noticed that Documents from the west bore less and less frequently the word..'Moscow'..instead the name was Russia, and Peter was becoming the Tsar of Russia. It seemed to Peter that if he would give western schooling to the Slavic minds he could raise his subjects to the level of the Westerners, but even this seemed to fail unless something was done to supply the tools to use this new wisdom, and this he set about to do. Libraries were established, a school of medicine was established and professors arrived from Leyden, and then from Scotland. A house of Comedy appeared in the Red Square, and interpreters came to explain the Opera to the audience.
In Petersburg a Marine Academy was soon teaching navigation and Naval Science to other sons of the gentry. Soon the Marine Academy had a Scientist from Paris, and to have more books printed then a Printing Press was fostered and paid for, and a more simple Russian Alphabet was designed. In this new type, the first Newspaper was published. Peter was changing the Central Government to a Swedish model. His thinking was that surely this would work just as the Swedish vessels worked better than did the Russian vessels. Throughout the land of Russia there was a murmuring...'We have a German army, a Dutch navy, and now a Swedish government.'
Peter was not to be deterred, and in the scientific field a reward was established for any 'finds' in the earth, or in the water, any unusual bone or stone, or old inscriptions on stones, iron or copper, and anything Ancient not in use was to be brought into the headquarters at Petersburg. And things started coming in including a two headed calf, a 12 fingered baby, an albino woman, and records were kept, and galleries were built and from Paris came a Marble Venus, finer than the one in Florence, Italy, for this one had all its limbs whole. Peter was determined that Petersburg should further the education, not of the Archaic days, or the Byzantine Church, but of Europe.
The dark past of Moscow was being abandoned as 1000 of the great families were removed to Petersburg, where great stones were used to pave the streets. Nothing like this had been seen before in Russia although some said Paris had such streets.
At last the great Russian fleet was putting to sea each summer from the gulf of Finland to cruise the Baltic and blockade the Swedish coast. Oh, there were disasters and mishaps but under the determination of Peter the window to the west opened wide because now his fleet ruled the Baltic Sea, even England who had ships beyond the Horizon approved of the Peace brought to that area by Peter who had devoted 21 years to this victory over the sea, and over the western powers which stood in his way, but it was the heroic endurance of his people which had accomplished his dream. Now; the Senate of his nation gave him the name of 'Peter the Great', and 'Father of the Fatherland'. Yet to Peter even this still smelled musty...remember Moscow had replaced Constantinople in the Christian world as the Imperial City of the East. Constantinople was now the city of the Turks, why not now a new title...'Emperor of all Russia?'
In Moscow itself, and in the Kremlin, although Peter had tried to change the rituals and life styles by stopping the servitude of women, and he even tried to change the Ancient marriage custom by which father decided the betrothals of his children. After their marriage he and Catherine seemed to be drifting further and further apart. He learned that Catherine was building a fund for herself with Amsterdam Bankers, but he did not object. What was worrying Peter was...who would take up his cause when he passed on? Of his offspring there was only Catherine's girls, but no woman had ever ruled in Russia.
Then disaster struck in Petersburg, a great flood came and the water came up to the houses and then to the upper floors of the houses and the city of Petersburg was almost destroyed.
In the ten years before this, families had been migrating to the south and east very quietly. They would pack their belongings into carts or sleds and hitch up a horse, and tie the cow behind the cart and they vanished from that north land. They sometimes paused to help a Christian family gather in their crops and then move on to an unoccupied piece of land. Out in the wild lands a new cabin would be put together in a month, while the soil was turned over for seeding. In their migrations these families made their way on past the old Volga region. By the year 1718 the records showed that in Archangel 10 out of every 100 people of this population had vanished. In Kazan 10 out of every 100 just vanished. Old ways were hard to change, old religious 'fasts' amounting to 15 weeks besides every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year was something Peter had not been able to change although much sickness resulted from these 'fasts'. Peter had not been able to change the old religious rituals, even as they effected his navy, and army. In his drive to change the government, the new often reverted to the old customs.
Peter, it seemed, was now giving up in his drive to change Ancient Rus into a modern nation like in the west. He now turned his thoughts to the south and east, and led in person, an invasion of southern Asia. He was bound for the Caspian area, although no one had advised him that this move would be profitable. He had seen Japanese from their homeland Islands, and had talked about surveying Siberia, he was now interested in these far off places from which came silk, and gold, and fabric not seen here before, and he also understood that beyond the further sea there was a new land far off to the east.
Up unto now the only government that Siberia had was the military commanders who were scattered throughout the area in wooden forts. Peter had appointed a friend by the name of Gagarin as Governor of this far off area. But this friend now betrayed and was quietly in the process of enriching himself. Peter finds out that his friend has even destroyed the records so that he is not found guilty, but Peter now knows that he must pay more attention to the hinterland, thus his trop to the South and the East was arranged.
It was necessary that Peter clear the Volga end of the Baltic, which was the Caspian trade axis. After all, there were many Christians, Georgian and Armenian people occupying the fertile valleys of the Caucasus Mountains. For a long time Armenian Patriarchs and Merchants had been arguing that a state be formed in the Caucasus around the cities of Irivan, Tabriz, and Shamakhi. Much trade from the east passed through the hands of the Armenians, and this trade was indispensable to Russia. Peter was successful in clearing the southern end of the nation, and with this completed he again turns back to the north to see what else needs to be done before his life is through.
Although Peter and Catherine had been married some years ago, Catherine had never been crowned. Thus a coronation gown was now made ready and a crown, then in May of 1724, Catherine was crowned in the Great Cathedral in Moscow as the 'Old Believers' watched and shook their heads. Peter feels that there should be a passageway from Archangel to the Pacific and that must be found before he reign over his nation has ended. He is not feeling well, but he plans an expedition to the east, and two ships are to be constructed for the journey, but on January 27, 1725., Peter the Great, who had done so much to try to change his nation died without naming a Successor.
Now; the drive is on to find someone to assume the title of Tsar, as some wanted to name the young boy..the son of Alexis, as the successor to his grandfather. Catherine had other ideas and she assumed the title of Empress, and for 17 months she carried on, ordering jewels from Asia, and gilded carriages lined with silk, but she was never allowed to visit Karlsbad, mush less Paris, and intrigue continued in Moscow to find a ruler who would truly govern this nation which Peter had tried to being into the Western World. Then suddenly Catherine died, and those at work to find a successor went into the cell where Catherine had placed Eudoxia (Peter's first wife) and they bowed to her as Tsaritsa'. The white haired Eudoxia was told that her grandson now ruled the land as Peter II. She was taken to the Palace in Moscow and there installed and would live out her days.
The struggle for power was on, and the young Tsar Peter II., was no more than a figurehead, a token of authority. Great families were now moving back to Moscow, to take their place in this great struggle for power. Plans were made for the Coronation of this 14 year old boy...Peter II., but he was never to rule in Russia for he died of Small Pox before he could become ruler, and again there was a question of who would rule the nation.
The shy, mystical and sometimes brutal Peter 'the Great' had been devoted to Russia, he had sacrificed himself, had labored with his hands and tried to turn his nation to the west so that it would advance. It was thus years after his death before you begin to see the fruits of his labor. It was the young sons of old families who had become devoted to Peter as a man. They...then decided that not what Peter had done, but what he had taught these young men by example how to work as individuals for something which was beyond themselves.
But this Dynasty was now over, therefore who would be the ruler of all of Rus? The Old Guard prevailed and brought back Anna Icanovna a Romanian to rule, and under her rule more Russians were sent to Siberia than ever before. She appointed a German to head the government for her, and together they milked the nation of its wealth, and tried to tear down what Peter had built. Then Anna died and the German and his family were sent to Siberia.
The next ruler of Russia was Elisabeth Petrovna the daughter of Peter and Catherine. She was a different type of ruler, and in 1760 the Russian Armies entered Berlin and stripped it of all its war material. After that, all of Europe recognized that Russia had become a Great Power. The next year Elisabeth Petrovna died and again the country was in a great struggle as they tried to name a successor. One year later a German Dynasty took control of 'the City', and in place of the male remnants of the Royal Romanovs...a young woman by the name of Sophia Augusta Frederica, the daughter of a Lutheran Prince was named as ruler of Russia. This Lady was 'christened'...Catherine Alexeievna, but was better known as Catherine 'the Great', and this German woman made herself autocrat of all the Russian territory. Thus Truly now Russia turned to the west, and the dream of Peter 'the Great' began to unfold into reality. In 1772 the Northeast portions of Poland fell to the Russian drive, in the first partition of that nation. Petersburg was rebuilt and renamed Petrograd, and then Leningrad. (You will remember that in 1776 as America fought her war of liberation that it was the Russian ships which warned away any of Europe who would interfere in this struggle.)
There are two lines of thought as the Tsar Peter..in one is 'Peter the Great' who turned his nation to the west, thus a great reformer to others he was a great Orgre, and his people paid a great price. Yet Moscovy became the Russian Empire, and it advanced until it took its place in history as finally the Tsar of Russia, the Kaiser of Germany, and the King of England were all relatives. Truly Russia had entered the western world, taking her place in western history. This territory had been overrun by the Mongols, and the changing of power in the Hierarchy had been constant yet now Rus stood at her place in history as a nation to be counted in the Western World. She was still ruled by the Tsars, and the rule was not perfect, but when Kings rule then there is not the freedom which was found in America after the Revolution. Russia would then find herself in 1917...once more to be overrun by the Barbarians of the east since Lenin was out of that mixture of cross-breeding, and this would bring her into the Communist orbit, which would also last for 70 years before it is finally crumbling. Today in 1991 again the struggle is on as to who will rule this great land of so many different people. Will Russia again take her place in the western camp or will she be pushed back into captivity once again? This is the great question of today as we see the struggle going on for power in that nation and over the world.
GENGHIS KHAN---------by Harold Lamb
Book Review by E.R.M.
The great Mongol conqueror of the Steppes of Asia--who even came west into Christian Europe---Who was he? And why did he come West, and what was his background? For the answer to some of these questions, we turn to the great story teller, Harold Lamb.
We recall that in 320 B.C., Alexander the Great of Greece, marched Eastward to try to unravel a bit of the past of this Aryan race of which he was a part. Reaching the Eastern end of his drive, he sent scouts beyond the mountain passes of Northern India and received back reports that there was a great Mongol hoard beyond those passes, and came to the conclusion that those passes should be blocked to contain this Mongol hoard to keep them from overrunning this Western World which at that time meant the Mid-East, the Mediterranean area.
Alexander the Great was following a dream. He was hunting for the ‘Place of Beginning’ of his race. From what he had learned in his schooling, he knew they had come from somewhere in the East, although they were very different from the Chinese. And now he knew they were also different from the Mongols of the Steppes, just as they were different from many people who lived in the area he had set out to conquer.
Our author was also interested in these many things. And he went to the East to learn and did a great study in the Library in Lebanon, then eventually wrote this book ‘Genghis Khan’ along with many others which came from his studies.
Today to understand this great Mongol conqueror, we also go back in time--check the background of this conqueror, and learn just why he believed as he did and acted as he did.
Even before the time of Alexander the Great, these Mongol hoards in the Steppes of Asia were increasing. And at that time, 320 B.C., they had a leader who was attempting to bind all the different groups under one head. As this would be accomplished, then later, they would begin to reach out beyond their area. From the scripture, we learned of the raids on ancient Israel (Aryan) people, and how some of the spoils taken home were always Israel girls and women. This was always the custom of the Mongols. We also know from old records, and of course from the Swift Ministry, that the Japhet (son of Noah) people went to the East after the flood of that time. There being so outnumbered--then after many generations--they would fall from view as their ‘SEED’ was mixed with the Mongol people and others of the World Order. However, we also find from old records that there were still pockets of Aryans still existing in the East, long, long after the great migrations to the west. Remember that Alexander the Great found one of these pockets of Aryans in the High Himalayas. And he married a golden haired Princess from this group.
This book review begins in the Steppes of Asia. But we are also to remember that it is outlined so clearly in the Scriptures that as the Adamites mixed with people of the World Order physically, that the children of such a union were NOT CHILDREN OF HIS SPIRIT. Thus, here in the Steppes, a baby boy was born into a Mongol family and this child has some connection to the Aryan race--physically. Thus, here in the 13th Century in a corner of the Northern Gobi Desert, this little son was born. And this child--a mixture of races--was to become Genghis Khan the great Mongol Conqueror.
Here in this difficult land of the Steppes, children were not hardened by suffering, they were born to it. When weaned from their mothers milk, they were expected to begin to manage for themselves. The places nearest to the fire in the family tent were reserved for the grown warriors and guests. The women could sit on the left side, but at a distance, while the boys and girls had to fit in wherever they could. Thus, it is in the areas of food. And in the Spring, when horses and cows began to give milk in quantities, all was well. There were sheep also and they grew fatter and were butchered for food. Game was more abundant also at this time, and everything went into the cooking pots. The able bodied men took the first portion, the aged men and women were next in line. And the children fought for what was left with very little going to the dogs. In the long cold winters, the cattle grew lean, and so did the children. But they learned early to hunt for themselves. Learned to ride by clinging to the wool on the backs of the sheep.
When this baby boy was born there in the Steppes, he was named Temujin, meaning ‘finest steel,’ or in Chinese ‘Supreme earth man.’ He was also named for a conqueror that had gone before him. He was born in a tent made of felt stretched over a framework of wattled rods with an opening at the top for the smoke to exit. The inside was covered with white lime and ornamented with pictures. When on the move, as these Nomads traveled in search of food and loot, they traveled in carts drawn by a dozen or more oxen. The carts carried this domed tent which was their official home.
Each of the Chieftains of the Mongol Khan had their own ornamented Yurts (carts) in which the women and their children lived. It was the duty of the girls to keep the fires burning in the firepots of the carts, as well as to help manage the oxen who pulled the carts. One family would have many carts with the shafts of one cart tied to the axis of another. And they would creak and roll in this fashion over the level grassland. In these carts were the family treasures, carpets, loot from caravans, chests filled with women’s garments, inlaid silver and their weapons hung on the walls. These consisted of short Turkish scimitars, spears, ivory or bamboo bow cases, arrows of different lengths, and weights and perhaps a round shield of tanned leather which was lacquered over.
Young Temujin, the youthful Genghis Khan, took his place doing the many duties which the boys of the family were required to do. Thus, we saw him fishing the streams they passed in their treks from summer to winter pasture. The boys were in charge of the horse herds. They were to ride after lost animals to search for new pasture, and always watch the skyline for raiders from other tribes. They learned to ‘Keep in the saddle’ for several days at a time, and going without food sometimes for three or four days. When food was plentiful, they would make up for ‘lost time.’ For recreation, there was horse racing when in camp. Racing out into the prairie twenty miles and back, or wrestling matches where bones were freely broken.
As young Temujin grew, he seemed to have great physical strength. And he had the ability to figure ahead of time. He became the leader of the young wrestlers. He could handle a bow and arrow as well, but not better than his brother ‘Kassar’ who was called the ‘Bow man.’
Since girls and women were brought back from raids, there were many half brothers in the camps. And thus, much competition even in families. The mother of Temujin was a beautiful woman. Her name was ‘Houlum.’ She had been carried off by the father of Temujin from a neighboring tribe on her wedding ride to the tent of her betrothed husband. Al the men from this household knew that some day men from her tribe would come to avenge this wrong.
As Temujin grew to young manhood, he was conscious of his strength and of his right to leadership, for he was the first born of Yesukai the Valiant. This Khan (ruler) of the great Mongols, was master of forty thousand tents. This young Mongol also knew that he came from very distinguished stock called ‘the grey eyed men.’
Young Temujin learned that the Mongols were able to maintain their lifestyle because they were most of the time--on the move. The Chinese to the south, were more numerous. But they had built cities and towns and settled down. Whereas the Mongols would raid and run and hide out. The Mongols believed that only the fierce and warlike would dominate mankind.
Young Temujin is described as good to look at. But remarkable for the strength of his body. He was tall with high shoulders. His skin was a whitish tan. His eyes were green, or blue gray in the iris with black pupils. He had long reddish brown hair which he work in braids down his back.
One evening, Temujin and his father were spending the night in the tent of a strange warrior and the boy’s attention was attracted to a girl in the tent. And Temujin asked his father if he could have her for a wife when she was older, as of now, she was only nine years of age. The next morning, Temujin stayed behind to get acquainted with his future bride--a girl by the name of Bourtai--a name also leading back to the ancestors of this tribe of ‘grey-eyed people. Temujin was now thirteen years of age, just entering young manhood as defined in that lifestyle.
A few days later, a Mongol came for Temujin saying his father lay dying, that he had been poisoned when spending the night in the tent of an enemy, of his own Khan. Temujin rode as hard as his horse could carry him, but when he arrived, his father was dead. This was a great tragedy for the Clan since ‘Houlun’ could not hold the Clan together, and Temujin the young Mongol now seated on the white horse skin was only thirteen years of age. It would now be a battle for survival as the foes of the Mongol would take advantage of the death of Yesukai to avenge themselves upon his son.
In the times of his great grandfather on down through the time of his father, these Kakka Mongols had enjoyed a kind of overlord position in the Northern Gobi Desert area. They had taken the best of the grazing land from Lake Baikul eastward to the range of mountains known as the Khingan on the border of modern Manchuria. Here grass was plentiful, water abundant, and life a bit easier for the Mongols who had followed Kabul Khan the great grandfather on down to Yesukai the father of Temujin. Life being the survival of the fittest in these areas, now the outlying Mongol tribes would try to take from this thirteen year old, this prized land.
Temujin did not flee. And after a bit of mourning, he set about this task of leadership since he now had younger brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters to feed as well as his mother and the other women. There was also a division within this clan as one of the descendants, himself also a descendent of the ‘grey-eyed’ men, was trying to persuade some of Temujin’s clan to follow him. As the enemy closed in, the boys and girls of the clan fled--the hunters close on their heels. Temujin’s mother would not be harmed since she was a relative of the hunters. After days of pursuit, Temujin became so hungry, he tried to lead his horse through the enemy lines and was captured. A yoke was put across his shoulders and his wrists were ties to it. He was put in a tent with only one guard. And that night in the tent, he struck the guard with the end of the ‘kang’, then ran to the river they had crossed the day before. He sunk down in the water under the rushes near the bank. And he noticed that those who searched for him---one of the warriors saw him. Then hesitated and went on without betraying him. The boy followed the men back to camp and found his way to the tent of the man who did not betray him. This warrior removed the yoke from Temujin and helped him escape, telling him to go to his mother and his brothers. Finding again, his own people, Temujin led them by night and the cunning of their young leader grew. He never fled form his ancestral grazing land. He visited the scattered settlements of his Khan and demanded tithe to provide for his mother, and he received it.
This young Mongol leader could have gone to the ‘Karaiits’--those people who had for their leader, a priest called ‘Prestor John’ in remembrance of the mystical Prestor John of Asia. Temujin’s father and Toghrul, the Provider Chieftain of the Karaiits, had made this agreement. But Temujin would not go as a beggar since an oath of comradeship was more binding in High Asia than the pledge of a king. He would not make use of this agreement, and use this master of cities, and strange wonders until he could appear as an ally, not as a fugitive.
Temujin was determined to be master of his heritage. And at the age of seventeen, he went to look for Bourtai to carry her off as his first wife now age 13. She departed from her tent village astride one of Temujin’s ponies, her servants following bearing a sable cloak for the mother of Temujin. This young girl would be singled out for a destiny above that of other women. History would know her as Bourtai Fidjen, the Empress, the mother of three sons who ruled later a dominion greater than Rome.
Temujin would now take this sable cloak by wishes of his mother, to the camp of the Karaiits. This clan was made up of mostly Nestorian Christians. And it was said that both Andrew and Thomas had come as Disciples of these (Aryan) Christians, who held the river lands where the city of Urga is now located---and brought the message of the atonement. These people had built cities and lived in this one place for a long time. (This was located at the southern end of the Aral Sea.) While in this encampment, Temujin was reminded of the friendship between his father and the powerful leader of these Nestorian Christians. Temujin did not ask for aid at this time, but would remember it was available.
Temujin’s troubles were not long in coming. The Merkets of the Northern Plains, a people from whom Houlun had been stolen, next raided the camp. Temujin was able to get to this horse and get away. But this time, Bourtai, his young wife fell to the raiders. In their camp, she was given to a kinsman of the man who had lost Houlun some years before. Temujin now turned to the Karaiits for help. And the two forces struck the camp where Bourtai was being held. Hearing the famous shout of her husband, Bourtai came running. Although he could not be sure of Bourtai’s first born son, still Temujin’s devotion to her was unmistakable. And he made no distinction between this son, and other sons by her. He had children by other wives, but the children of Bourtai were his most cherished companions.
With the protection of the Karaiits on the west, this helped Temujin become established as a Khan, which now numbered their strength at 13,000 warriors. Yet they were still not secure when en route from summer out in a long slow line of cattle, sheep and carts, when the enemy from the east came upon the horizon. To flee would mean to sacrifice the women, cattle and all their possessions. To fight meant being out numbered and surrounded. Immediately, Temujin saw all his warriors mounted, and in a line of attack. One flank would be protected by the woods, the other flank, he formed into a hollow square and drove the cattle and carts with the women and boys into this square and armed them with bows.
The enemy advanced in squadrons five deep. And Temujin met them with his Mongols in lines of ten deep. Here occurred one of those terrible Steppe struggles. The enemy charged, then scattered and formed and charged again and again. As long as the daylight held, they charged. But when nightfall came, Temujin had won a decisive victory. This young red haired leader of the Mongols had fought his first pitched battle and won. He could now carry with pride the Ivory Horn Baton shaped like a small Mace. His prayers however, were for heaven to send him men to aid him. And after this battle, the men would now come to follow this young clansmen, now called the Conqueror.
To Temujin’s camp came young Nomads known throughout the Gobi Desert areas as the ‘Raging Torrents.’ All were young. Two of them mere boys at the time. Later they would make history as Chepe Noyon and Subotai Bahadur the Valiant. In fact, Chepe Noyon was a youth from the hostile clan, but after the surrender, he came to Temujin to ask for a horse, and he offered to fight any man among the Mongols. His request was granted and he was given a white horse. He managed to cut his way through the Mongols and escaped. But later returned saying he wanted to serve the Khan. Much later, Chepe Noyon would gather 1000 horses on his raids and would send them as a gift to Temujin showing he had not forgotten the incident which spared his life.
Subotai was more impetuous than young Chepe, but more like the Khan in grimness of purpose. The rest of the young warriors showing characteristics of leadership, were given definite position in their assembly. Cunning and patience was the essence of the Mongol character. And this was all taken into consideration as Temujin picked his leaders. The brave but foolhardy would look after the carts and all important supplies. The stupid merely tended the herds.
These young Chieftains who came to the standards of the head Mongol, Temujin, were unruly as others before them had been. And it took grim determination to control these young warriors. 100,000 tents now followed this red headed Khan who was not thirty years of age. He had taken his heritage and now with his sons riding beside him, he meant to hold it. He set about this task with the great patience he possessed.
At this time, the 12th Century was drawing to a close. The Karaiits in their cities on the caravan route from the northern gates of Cathay to the west, held what might be called the balance of power between the Chinese and the Mongols, and themselves.
Temujin, remember, had a right in the physical world to claim adoption by the elder ‘Prestor (Priest) of the Karaiits. (Christian Aryans) After all, you remember, that some Aryan seed in violation of Divine Law was sown among the Mongols in the east. Now Temujin would use the knowledge of astrology, and such of the Christian (Aryans) to help him subdue the Chinese of the Far East.
At this time, merchants were traveling all over that area. And because of their nature as those who stir trouble, there was further need of this union between the Karaiits and Temujin. China was now restless as were the Tartars of the north, the Buddhists, and the Muhammadans also, who cherished a warm religious hatred for these Christian Karaiits. Thus, when the Muhammadans struck, Temujin sent the young ‘Raging Torrents’ to aid those in the Prestor John area.
All of eastern Asia was now at war. Temujin and the Karaiits working together, struck the hoards of the Tartars who came to make war. And they were victorious. Temujin now watched his sons go forth with Chepe Noyon to war. Chepe had a weakness for sable boots and silvered mail which he had plundered from a wandering Cathyan merchant. Juchi (the guest) born under the shadow, the eldest son of Temujin, now rode with Chepe Noyon. Some of those in the Karaiit camps were also becoming restless. They finally rebelled and in the struggle the aged Priest and his son were killed. Some of the Karaiits now joined the Mongol camp. And now Temujin had people under his control who knew how to build cities, and to trade with the outside world.
Temujin called together all the councils of his people here in high Asia. At this council, the purpose was to select one man to lead all these people. They chose Temujin. And the council decided he must have a new title. And his name thus became Genghis Khan the greatest of rulers, the Emperor of all men. Many now said that Genghis Khan was a gift from the gods. In this instance, if you are thinking along the lines that prophecy must be fulfilled, perhaps, after all, the breaking of the Divine Law leads to punishment which also leads on thru generations and coming generations. Genghis Khan treated the concept of religion indulgently and now a motley array of Priesthoods trailed after his camp.
Marco Polo tells us that before a battle, Genghis Khan would demand that astrologers take their readings, but he paid more attention to the Nestorian Christian’s prophecy than others. He also ordered that all men now must believe in ONE GOD, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the sole Giver of goods and property, of life, and death, whose power over all things was absolute. This seemed to be an echo of somewhere in his past, or the teaching of the Nestorians. However, he never enforced any strict religions belief. He did however, demand obedience to himself, a binding together of the Nomad Klans, and the merciless punishment of wrong doing. A man’s spoken word was regarded as a solemn matter and respected. All the outlaying clan took orders directly from his headquarters. The orders were delivered by common carrier. There were no thieves, no brawls, among the Mongols any more. In fact, all the ‘Riders of High Asia’--the Uguers, the Karaiits, the Yakka Mongols, the ferocious Tartars, the Merkites---all were now gathered into a single gigantic clan under the leadership of this red haired Genghis Khan. He alone had the eloquence to stir their deep seated egotism. And he announced ‘the Yassa’ which was his code of laws with which he would hold his kingdom together.
Very carefully, Genghis Khan picked the commanders of the armies. The eleven Commanders under him were Chepe Noyon, his sons, and other carefully picked men. Remember, that Genghis Khan was a first generation mixture of Aryan and Mongol. He was now setting on the trail of the Trading Route between East and West. He was receiving reports of the riches of the Christian West, from these merchants. But he was also a very shrewd commander and he knew he just ready his forces for a strike against ancient China first. Behind that wall was a civilization that had existed for some 5000 years with written records going back thirty centuries. And he dared not leave this at his back as he turned to the West.
In China lived slaved, peasants, scholars, soldiers, beggars, Mandarins, the Son of Heaven, their ruler, and a court called ‘The Cloud of Heaven.’ People called Barbarians had come down from the north a century before, and were now absorbed into the population. Time did not seem to matter much in ancient Cathay. The city was as though asleep. Cathay had demanded tribute from the Nomad Mongol tribes, but seemed not to notice when it was not paid. In fact, the Emperor now asked for assistance to quell a disturbance further south and Genghis Khan sent Chepe Noyon and a calvary division to help. Then when the men returned, they now had a good outline of this land beyond the Great Wall of China.
Wai Wang, the new ruler of Cathay was a stubborn man who thought he was safe behind the Great Wall. He of course, had underestimated the cunning of the Mongol Conqueror. Chepe Noyon had discovered traders (merchants) will, for a profit, to help the Mongols.
The strike against the Golden Empire came in the spring of the year. Then in the fall, the Mongols went back to the Gobi. In the spring, they are back again. And this went on for several years. Genghis Khan was then wounded, but was back again in the spring with a different line of attack. Now people within the Walls opened the gates to the Mongols and were rewarded for their treachery. And agreement was made between the Chinese and the Mongols, and a lady of the ruling family was given to the Mongol leader as the Golden Emperor fled to the south leaving chaos behind.
Temujin was not fifty-five years of age. His grandson Kubalai had been born back at home headquarters. The Great Khan now sent younger men to do the fighting. And many of the Chinese now came to serve the Great Genghis Khan. As he turned his attention to the West, the years of privation were over. Vast stables now housed in winter the great horse herds with the mark of Genghis Khan. Granaries guarded against famine, millet, and rice for men, and hay for horses.
Merchants now came to the headquarters of the Khan. And Genghis Khan did not try to haggle with them. If they tried to cheat him, he took their goods. On the other hand, if they gave everything to the Khan, he gave them gifts worth more than their goods were worth. These merchants talked constantly about the land to the West. Especially about the Christian West of Europe. The Khan listened, altho he did not trust those he considered traitors, in the lands they came from.
Of all his sons from many wives, Genghis Khan recognized only the four born to Bourtai as his heirs. He had watched them grow, and had given them different positions in his kingdom. Their children, his grandsons, he also watched with interest. Kubalai,--he kept near him. For eventually, this grandson would reign from the China Sea to Mid-Europe.
At this time Genghis Khan knew that beyond the ranges of his western border, existed fertile valleys where the snow never fell and rivers never froze. Now, he knew that people lived in cities there more ancient than his own. For it was from these cities that merchants now came through two mountain passes. He now knew that Conquerors had come before and stopped at those mountain passes because of their ruggedness. He also knew that the Mohammed Shah ruled from Spain to India. And he learned that the main defense of this Empire in the West was a chain of great cities along the River Bokhara, the center of Islam’s Academies and Mosques---Samarkand of the lofty walls and pleasure gardens. Balkh and Herat, the heart of Khorassan were in the way of a western advance.
To turn to defeat this great west then Genghis Khan must leave a vast Empire behind him for several years which must be governed, even from the other side of the mountain ranges. He set about picking the men for this job very carefully. And when satisfied with the results, he turned his attention to the problem of transporting a well equipped army through those rugged mountains.
In the Spring of the year, he gave the order for the horde to gather in the pasture lands of the southwest of the Mongol land. Each man was to bring a string of 400 to 500 horses. Great herds of cattle were then driven to this pasture and fattened during the summer months. When it dawned on this Great Khan that he might not live to return to this headquarters, he gave orders that upon his death the ‘Yassa’--his code of laws, should continue to guide the Mongols.
The Horde then moved out slowly driving the cattle herds before them. Juchi, the eldest son and his army were sent to join Chepe Noyon and his group on the other side of the Tian Shan Range as one wing of this great march. Snow came early which was a bad omen. Rivers had to be crossed. Soon, this would be on ice. Slowly, this great Mongol horde dropped through the gorges and on to the pass through which all Nomads had come---out of High Asia. By now, most of the cattle had been eaten, the stores of hay had vanished, the carts were left behind, and only the most hardy of the camels survived. The Mongols forged for food. But if that failed, they opened a vein in a horse and drank a small quantity of blood, then closed the vein. Before the snow melted, the Mongol horde was out on the western Steppes. On lean horses, to be sure, but they had covered 1200 miles of their march and this they had done in the winter time. Then the various divisions of this great Mongol army began to close up. Officers would gallop back and forth between commands and scouts were sent out from each column.
Juchi and Chepe Noyon had already had a pitched battle with the Muhammadans ‘under the roof of the world.’ This war had left the Muhammadans in disarray. And the war was not raging on a front of 1000 miles. At last, the Shah took refuge in his fortified cities, but still the Mongols kept coming. And the took the Shah alive and sent him to Genghis Khan where he was promptly put to death. Then they came to Samarkand. And as Juchi and Chepe Noyon were advancing from the east, then Genghis Khan and his men moved in from the west and the great city of Samarkand was in a trap. The ruler of this city had fled to the south, taking his family with him. But all the treasures of Samarkand were then sent back to the Mongol kingdom. Food for the horses and men were now plentiful and the Mongol horde then turned north to raid Georgia in the Russian territory. This brought out the Russian warriors. And they came, 82,000 of them---sturdy horsemen who had been fighting with the Mongols for years. The Mongols drew back from the Dnieper River for nine days as they studied these Russian warriors. And then they struck. And the Russian army was destroyed.
Chepe Noyon and Subotai with their armies were preparing to cross the Dnieper River in to Europe when Genghis Khan ordered these leaders to rendezvous some 2000 miles to the east. After all, this had been an amazing march. A band of men from the place where the sun rises, overrode the earth to the Caspian Gates, carrying destruction and sowing death among the people as they passed. The leaders then returned to their master arriving sound and hale, loaded with booty, all in less than two years. But these Mongol Chieftains now knew the location of rivers and the type of people living in these lands through which they had passed. And later, they would come again to invade Europe. Tuli the youngest son of Genghis Khan, had invaded Persia, and wrought death and destruction upon people, and cities. As a group, the Mongols had also subdued the Muhammadans.
Genghis Khan, to hold his growing Empire together, now formed what in the United State, was known as the ‘Pony Express.’ These men rode the trails night and day, coming and going from the great headquarters of Genghis Khan. Merchants had come from Venice to speak with the great Khan, but he kept them waiting until the last battle with the Muhammadans was over. He knew what they wanted, but he also knew he must not rush his conquest of the west until the Muhammadans were subdued.
As the commanders came back to headquarters, Subotai was a little late in coming from Easter Europe. But the Eagles were returning to their Camelot of this Mongol Emperor. They came bringing covered wagons drawn by long haired yaks, strings of camels. And Chalagai came with a string of 1000 horses. Juchi came, but was then sent back to his battleground along the Volga River. And little Kubalai, now nine years of age, was initiated into the tribe in a big ceremony.
Two areas now remained in Asia, not under the thumb of the Khan. One was the ruler of Hai, down Tibet way. While the other was in southern China. Subotai was sent to Hia. The struggle here was soon over and then Genghis Khan and his army turned south to help finish the China struggle. While in southern China, he received word that his son Juchi had been killed. The old Mongol Khan sent for his son Tuli who was near to come to be with him. This man, Genghis Khan was ill, but he was also leaving his sons the greatest Empire now in the known world. And the most destructive of armies. But he had also now lost one of his sons in this battle. The days passed and Genghis Khan was now dying and after his death, he would be taken home to be buried under the tall trees he had selected years before as his resting place.
For two years, the Klan was busy with events at headquarters and in the Empire. And finally, the oldest son of Juchi by the name of Ogolai was now to become by the wishes of his departed grandfather to become the Genghis Khan of the Mongols. This Mongol father had taken from the world what he wanted for his sons and he did this by the method of warfare, because he knew no other way. What he did not want, he destroyed because he did not know what else to do with it.
You will remember that Subotai had penetrated into Middle Europe before being called back to the Great Council, and then the death of Genghis Khan. Then under the Khan-ship of Ogolai, the son of Juchi, then Batu now marched west to take possession of all the land galloped over by Subotai in 1223. And from 1238-1240, Batu (the Splendid) overran the Volga clans, Russian cities, and the Steppes of the Black Sea. Finally, storming Kiev and sending raiding parties into southern Romania. By March, 1241, the Mongol headquarters was north of the Carpathian Mountains between modern Lemberg and Kiev.
Subotai was once more directing this campaign and was now confronted by an army of Christian Knights out of Poland and Bavaria. These were the Teutonic Knights and Templars. Some were out of France as well. All had volunteered to stop this invasion of Barbarians from the Steppes of Asia. The king of Bohemia was now mobilizing an army from Austria, Saxony, and Brandenburg. The Galacians and others were preparing to defend their lands in the Carpathian Mountains and further west the Hungarians were gathering. Subotai and Batu seemed to be perfectly aware of the preparations of these Christian kings, but this was not the case on the other side.
In the spring as soon as the ground was dry, the Mongols moved, dividing their forces into four army corps. One was under the grandsons of Genghis Khan (Kaidu and Baibars) and this group struck the army of the Poles, and defeated them then moved on to meet the next wave of resistance. The Hungarians were vanquished, and three divisions of the Mongols then threaded through the Carpathian Mountains while the right flank entered Hungary wiping out the smaller armies in their path. By the beginning of April of that year, the great battle was shaping up. The Christian Knights---100,000 men---were moving to head off this Mongol horde. The great battle commenced and it lasted all day. And the Knights stood and fought and died on the field, but the Mongols broke through the ranks and moved on. They stormed Perth and fired the suburbs of Gran. They advanced into Austria, and turned to the south to avoid the hosts of Germans and Bohemians coming down. In less than two months, they had overrun Europe from the headquarters of the Elbe to the Sea, and defeated three great armies, and a dozen smaller ones. Then the HAND OF GOD seemed to intervene. Ogotai, the head Khan died and the summons came for the return of all the Mongols to the Gobi. But they had advanced nearly 6000 miles from their homeland. Then Subotai and Tuli both were killed. And Batu was said to be content with his Golden City on the Volga and the incoming Mongols into Europe stopped.
In the middle of the 13th Century, the Mongols took over the dominion of Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, and Mongol seed was mixed into this area. Even the land of the Karaiits was overrun. But not destroyed as was other land which they passed through. It is said that the Nestorian Christians had gained victory over the Muhammadans in Georgia and in the Caucasus region, and were also associated with both Armenia and India. They were reported to be scattered from Armenia to Cathay. In their largest city, Karakorum, their king, according to Marco Polo, was the actor of the shadowy role of Prestor John. The land of the Khazar kingdom (Jews) was also overrun by the Mongols. These mixed race people had accepted Judaism as their religion in 900 A.D. And in this way became listed as Jews. Later, they would come in waves into the Christian West.
Always, it is the same story---the power of anti-Christ thrown against the Christian world. Later in history, then Lenin would be established as ruler over Russia replacing a Christian Tsar. But Lenin was himself also out of this background of Asia, and the Mongol hordes. Asia and then Europe has always been a melting pot of violence since Adam and Eve came out of the Garden into that area of the Tarim Basin, and then started their migration. After the Mongol hordes quit coming west, then eventually the Christian West would once more move back into the Asiatic field in Russia, before the coming of Communism to stop that advance. Thus it is that even today, it is a land that has known much trouble, even today.
(End of Genghis Khan)
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