Moscow Uprising of 1382

a major antifeudal, national liberation uprising by urban dwellers and peasants.

After the battle of Kulikovo in 1380, a large Mongol-Tatar army led by Khan Tokhtamysh launched a sudden offensive aimed at restoring the Golden Horde’s recently shaken domination of Russia. Upon learning of the approach of the Mongol-Tatars, the prince of Moscow, Dmitrii Donskoi, traveled to Kostroma to recruit a new militia. As most of Moscow’s feudal lords began to abandon the city, the citizenry gathered in the veche (assembly) and successfully seized power. A defense of the Kremlin was organized and it was forbidden to leave the city. Evidently by invitation of the veche, the defense was led by the Lithuanian prince Ostei.

On Aug. 23, 1382, Tokhtamysh laid siege to the city. The Muscovites repulsed an assault, using firearms for the first time in Russia. But Vasilii and Semen Dmitrievich, princes of Suzdal’-Nizhegorod who had joined Tokhtamysh, treacherously persuaded some Muscovites to open the city gate. This allowed the enemy to break into the city on Aug. 26, 1382, and lay it waste. Twenty-four thousand persons perished, yet in the same year Moscow witnessed the revival of the antifeudal and national liberation struggle.