Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Dec 2014)
The Second Plague Pandemic in the Golden Horde and Its Consequences
Abstract
The article reviews the reasons for origin and consequences of spreading for the second plague pandemic in the Golden Horde. By applying scientific data from biology, climatology, medicine, and history, authors come to a conclusion that a large number of natural plague pestholes existed initially in the Ulus of Jochi. Numerous historical sources mentioned plague outbreaks but all of them were of purely local character. The bubonic type of plague characterized by a longer period of illness and an insignificant number of lethal episodes was spread more widely. In the mid-40s of the 14th century a new form of disease, the lung plague, came into existence. It was corpse blackening of the deceased from this type of plague that gave name to the whole pandemic – the “Black Death”. The speed of its progress and spreading significantly exceeded those of the bubonic type and 100% of mortality was recorded among the diseased. However, as historical data show, the outbreak of the lung plague continued in the territory of the Golden Horde from 1346 to 1349. In their article authors prove that one of the most important reasons for the emergence of the lung type was the change in migration flows of Eurasian rodents caused by depletion of nutritional resources in the steppe and serious climatic changes. All other outbreaks of the Black Death are viewed as continuation of the first wave of the disease and their emergence is explained through activity of two natural pestholes (the Relict North-Western and the Lower Volga ones). Consequences of the the first wave were much less substantial for the Ulus of Jochi than those of the following outbreaks (in 1364, 1374, and 1395). The main consequences of the next waves of the disease were: final establishment of 4 political centers (Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Bulgar and the Crimean uluses, and the Blue Horde) striving for political leadership in the territory of the former Golden Horde; establishment of a new ethnic group of the Volga Tatars; and strengthening of Islam’s position in the region.
