Mythology and the realities of the Battle of Molodi

Abstract

Historical events are constantly becoming an object of speculations. The battle of Molodi was also falsified. The siege, in the description of Russian researches, turned out into a heavy field of battle, the organized withdrawal of troops, turned into the disorganized rout on a limited distance (up to 2 km.) in front of the gulyay-gorod, where the writers gathered “a large Tatar army”. Bright scenes of the fight and heavy losses of the Crimean Tatars became canonical, almost always complemented by stories of “destructions” and “ruins” among them. Referring to the sources shows that this is a lie. Russian contemporaries of the battle did not associate the Khan’s retreat with heavy losses. They explained it to “God’s mercy” or fear offensive new Moscow troops. Sources do not report “panic” and “catastrophe” during the assault on August 2. A study of data on the Crimean Tatar aristocracy shows that it did not suffer catastrophic damage in 1572. The political elite of the Crimean Khanate is aware of the loss of the Mangyt Karachi Bek Divey Bey. According to the official Russian estimates, a small part of the Crimean nobility was lost. There was no “ruins” and “destruction” of the troops of Devlet I Giray in the battle of Molodi.

Keywords

• battle of molodi
• military history
• crimean tatars
• crimean khanate
• russia
• falsification of history