This summary by the distinguished French academician, M.
Rambaud--our leading authority in Russian history with its
related studies--presents, with sufficient clearness, the
character and tendency of Russia in the thirteenth century,
when she was invaded and subjugated by Asiatic hordes.
The Polovtsi asked the Christian princes for help against the Mongols
and Turks, who were their brothers by a common origin. "They have
taken our country," said they to the descendants of St. Vladimir;
"to-morrow they will take yours." Mstislaf the Bold, then Prince of
Galitch, persuaded all the dynasties of Southern Russia to take up
arms against the Tartars: his nephew Daniel, Prince of Volhynia,
Mstislaf Romanovitch, Grand Prince of Kiev, Oleg of Kursk, Mstislaf of
Tchernigof, Vladimir of Smolensk, and Vsevolod, for a short time
Prince of Novgorod,[57] responded to his appeal.
To cement his alliance with the Russians, Basti, Khan of the Polovtsi,
embraced orthodoxy. The Russian army had already arrived on the Lower
Dnieper, when the Tartar ambassadors made their appearance. "We have
come, by God's command, against our slaves and grooms, the accursed
Polovtsi.
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