Dmitry Donskoy
Dmitry Donskoy beat a Mongol army in open battle at Kulikovo in 1380, and watched Moscow burn two years later. He came to the Moscow throne at nine and grew up during the Horde's long internal collapse, when khans were being made and murdered at a rate that broke its capacity to enforce. That gave him room his grandfather Ivan Kalita never had. He built the first stone kremlin at Moscow, refused tribute to Mamai - a general who ruled through puppet khans and was not of the line of Genghis, which mattered - and beat a Mongol force at the Vozha river in 1378. Mamai came back in 1380 with a large army and an arrangement with Lithuania. Dmitry crossed the Don to fight before the allies could join, which is where his name comes from, and met him on the field of Kulikovo in September. The battle was long, close, and decided by an ambush regiment held in the woods until the Russian line was nearly broken. Sergius of Radonezh had blessed the campaign, which gave it the character of a religious war and made it the founding story of Russian national feeling. It changed less than the story suggests: Mamai was destroyed, but Tokhtamysh, a legitimate Genghisid, promptly took the Horde, and in 1382 he took Moscow by promising the citizens terms and then sacking the city and burning it with the population inside the churches. Dmitry resumed paying tribute. What did not reverse was the demonstration that the Horde could be beaten.
- Lived: 1350 CE – 1389 CE
- Nationality: Russian
- Roles: ruler, military
