by Daniil Pelymov
[REGNUM] In July, restoration work was underway at the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin: the floor slabs above the burial site of the Grand Dukes had sunk, threatening to destroy the tombs.
During the excavations, three sarcophagi were found, one of which belonged to the holy and faithful Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. The authenticity of the remains was confirmed by anthropological research, the archaeological appearance of the burial, and a comprehensive set of historical data.
Patriarch Kirill blessed the examination of the relics by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and the placement of three fragments in three reliquaries for veneration by the faithful.
Dmitry Donskoy's personality in national memory has long transcended the standard biography of a medieval ruler. His image is, above all, a symbol of uncompromising defense of the Fatherland, military victory over a superior systemic enemy, and the assertion of state sovereignty. It's no wonder his name was inscribed on tanks during the Great Patriotic War.
The official canonization of the prince in 1988, timed to coincide with the millennium of the Baptism of Rus', went beyond the confines of a church act and became a state recognition of his merits as a builder of an independent Russia.
At the end of the summer of 1380, the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir, Dmitry Ivanovich, took a step that turned the entire geopolitical reality of Eastern Europe upside down.
By announcing a general assembly of Russian regiments in Kolomna, he de facto annulled the previous status quo in relations with the Golden Horde. The Battle of Kulikovo was only a few weeks away, but the major mental and political victory was achieved when the disparate appanages agreed to march under a single Muscovite banner.
POLITICAL LEGACY
To understand the scale of Dmitry Ivanovich's accomplishments, it is necessary to reconstruct the historical abyss in which Moscow found itself in the mid-14th century.
The future conqueror of Mamai was born in 1350 and inherited the Moscow throne at the age of nine. The death of his father, Ivan II the Red, triggered an immediate systemic crisis. The model of stability built by Ivan Kalita was based on personal diplomacy and loyalty to the Horde, but the new prince's youth nullified these achievements.
The neighboring principalities immediately went on the offensive. The title to the Grand Duchy of Vladimir was immediately seized by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich. Moscow risked forever losing its status as a pan-Russian center and becoming a secondary fiefdom.
At this critical moment, the Moscow boyars and Metropolitan Alexy, who assumed the role of regent, played a key role. But as Dmitry Ivanovich matured, he increasingly took over the reins of power, demonstrating a pragmatism and ruthlessness that was astonishing for a young man.
By the age of thirteen, the young prince had not only regained the Vladimir yarlyk through diplomatic pressure and direct military threat, but had also personally traveled to Vladimir to assume the throne. This was the first clear signal to his neighbors: Moscow had no intention of relinquishing its leadership.
Dmitry had to solve three strategic problems simultaneously: eliminate the ambitions of Tver and Ryazan, stop the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the west, and develop a fundamentally new defense doctrine in relations with the Golden Horde, which at that time was plagued by civil strife.
ARCHITECT OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN DEFENSE
Realizing that a large-scale military clash with external forces was only a matter of time, Dmitry Ivanovich began a radical modernization of, in modern terms, the defense industry.
After a devastating fire in 1365, which destroyed the previous wooden fortifications, the prince made a decision unprecedented in scale and expense: to build the first stone Kremlin in Moscow. Construction, which began in 1367, proceeded at a rapid pace. In record time, a colossal amount of limestone was delivered from quarries near Moscow to Myachkovo.
The emergence of the white-stone fortress radically altered the military-political balance in Eastern Europe. Moscow became a first-class citadel, the assault of which required incomparable human and time resources from the enemy.
The effectiveness of this "strategic investment" was immediately confirmed. In 1368, 1370, and 1372, the Lithuanian prince Olgerd launched large-scale campaigns against Moscow, ravaging undefended settlements, but, approaching the walls of the new Kremlin, he encountered an insurmountable barrier. The expansive "Lithuanian Empire" failed precisely because of the Moscow prince's engineering and financial decisions.
At the same time, Dmitry Ivanovich harshly crushed the separatism of the appanage rulers within Rus'. Moscow's main domestic opponent remained the Tver Principality, which regularly relied on Olgerd's military assistance and the Horde's diplomatic resources.
In 1375, when Prince Mikhail of Tver once again attempted to challenge Moscow's authority, Dmitry Ivanovich mobilized a massive coalition, including regiments from Yaroslavl, Rostov, Suzdal, and other lands. This massive army laid siege to Tver, forcing its complete capitulation.
The signed treaty forever changed the hierarchy of Russian rulers. The Prince of Tver officially recognized himself as the "younger brother" of the Prince of Moscow and pledged to participate in all of his foreign policy actions, including potential defensive and offensive wars against the Horde.
This was Dmitry's most important achievement: he eliminated the internal front and created the legal basis for the formation of a unified all-Russian army. Land defense ceased to be the private concern of individual cities; it became a collective responsibility under the auspices of Moscow.
BREAKING THE HORDE'S DICTATORSHIP
Before Dmitry Ivanovich, the relations between the Russian principalities and the Golden Horde were built solely on the logic of subordination, tribute payments, and diplomatic maneuvering. The Moscow prince was the first to move from passive defense to a long-term strategic offensive.
In the 1370s, the temnik Mamai seized de facto power in the Horde. Not a Chingizid, he had no legal claim to the khan's throne, but he exercised tight control over the empire's western uluses. To maintain his personal power, Mamai needed to restore the previous level of financial revenues from Rus', which Moscow had virtually ceased to pay by that time.
The first serious clash occurred in 1378 on the Vozha River in the Ryazan lands. The Tatar army, commanded by Murza Begich, attempted to punish Moscow for its economic and political boycott. Dmitry Ivanovich personally led the Russian regiments, employed a clever tactical formation, and engaged the enemy in a head-on battle at the river crossing. The Horde cavalry was utterly routed and put to flight.
The Battle of the Vozha proved to all Russian society that the tactics of steppe raids were vulnerable in the face of disciplined infantry and heavy cavalry acting according to a unified plan.
Mamai could not accept the loss of his authority. In the summer of 1380, he assembled a gigantic coalition, including not only the steppe hordes but also mercenaries from Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Volga region. At the same time, Mamai formed an alliance with the new Lithuanian prince Jagiello and the Ryazan prince Oleg.
The enemy's plan was to unite their forces on the Oka and stage a demonstrative defeat of Moscow, returning Rus' to a state of complete submission similar to that of the 13th century.
Dmitry Ivanovich acted preemptively, demonstrating outstanding qualities as a military leader. Having declared a general assembly in August, he did not wait for the enemies to unite their armies on Russian territory. The Moscow prince's strategic plan was to march swiftly to meet Mamai, cross the Oka, and engage in a decisive battle on neutral territory before the Lithuanians arrived.
The victory at Kulikovo demonstrated the absolute superiority of the Russian military school, the flexibility of tactical thinking, and the personal courage of the prince, who refused to remain in the rear, donned the armor of a simple warrior, and fought in the vanguard regiment alongside his soldiers.
The "Zadonshchina" records the true scale of this victory and the terrible price Moscow paid for the right to remain sovereign. The chronicler recounts the words of the surviving participants in the battle, surveying the field after Mamai's defeat:
"And the Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich said: "Count, brothers, how many voivodes are missing among us, and how many young men?" Then Mikhail Andreevich, the Moscow boyar, answers Prince Dmitry Ivanovich: "Lord Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich! We are missing forty great Moscow boyars, twelve Belozersk princes, thirty Novgorod boyars, twenty Kolomna boyars, forty Pereyaslavl boyars, twenty-five Kostroma boyars, thirty-five Vladimir boyars, fifty Suzdal boyars, seventy Ryazan boyars, forty Murom boyars, thirty Rostov boyars, twenty-three Dmitrov boyars, sixty Zvenigorod boyars, fifteen Uglich boyars.
"And two hundred and fifty thousand of our entire army perished. And God had mercy on the Russian land, but countless Tatars fell."
The chronicle of these losses vividly illustrates the price Northeastern Rus' paid for leaving the Horde political system. A significant portion of the former military aristocracy fell at Kulikovo Field, yet it was precisely this sacrifice that cemented the new all-Russian elite.
From that moment on, Moscow's right to leadership was based not on the khan's charters, but on a common military feat that forever linked the once-competing cities with the logic of a single state.
"HE KNEW RUSSIA AND THE STATE'S INTERESTS"
In the Orthodox tradition, princes are recognized as saints not for their monastic ascetic feats, but for their selfless fulfillment of their public duty. This is a recognition of the sacredness of service to society, the protection of one's people from physical destruction, and the preservation of civilizational identity.
Therefore, the canonization of Dmitry Donskoy by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church restored spiritual and historical justice, paid tribute to one of the fathers of Russian statehood, preserving the memory of his deeds many hundreds of years later.
Dmitry Donskoy ruled the country during an era when the very survival of the East Slavic super-ethnos was in question. His canonization is a national marker of the legitimacy of the harsh, centralizing policies pursued by Moscow. Church and secular recognition cemented the prince's status as a national leader whose historical authority is impeccable and beyond question.
Even the most severe blow dealt by fate later—the sudden raid of the legitimate Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382, the burning of Moscow, and the forced resumption of tribute payments—could not nullify Dmitry Ivanovich’s strategic achievements.
The psychological system of the Horde's dictatorship was broken forever. Rus' realized that the Tatars could be defeated, and the Horde realized that the outright liquidation of the Muscovite state was no longer within its power.
The prince's main political outcome is reflected in his last will and testament. For the first time in Russian history, Dmitry Ivanovich transferred the Grand Duchy of Vladimir to his eldest son, Vasily, as his personal, Muscovite patrimonial estate, completely ignoring the need for the khan's permission or sanction for succession.
A quiet revolution took place: Moscow legally secured its status as the capital of Rus', regardless of the opinion of the Horde.
In his "History of the Russian State," Nikolai Karamzin characterizes the prince's image as imprinted on the national consciousness, emphasizing that his colossal authority rested on deep popular support and a clear understanding of national interests:
"None of Yaroslav the Great's descendants, except for Monomakh and Alexander Nevsky, was as beloved by the people and boyars as he was, for his generosity, love for the glory of the fatherland, justice, and kindness. Raised amid the dangers and turmoil of war, he lacked the knowledge gleaned from books, but he knew Russia and the good of the state."
The Grand Duke died early, at the age of 38, exhausted by the physical wounds he sustained at Kulikovo Field and the enormous strain. He left behind a fundamentally different order of relations in Eastern Europe.
Before his rise to power, Rus' was a conglomerate of weak, intimidated, competing autonomous regions, currying favor with external powers for short-term gain. After his rise, it became a centralized state, recognizing its historical right to complete independence and possessing sufficient military might to defend it.
It was precisely this will, which transformed disparate appanages into a single monolith, that makes Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy one of the fundamental supporting figures on whom Russia's historical self-awareness and sovereignty rest to this day.