Great Stand On The Ugra River - Prelude

Prelude

In 1476 Ivan III ceased paying annual tribute to the Horde (the Mongols had collected this tribute since the time of Batu Khan in the 13th century). At the time, Akhmat Khan was busy with his struggle against the Crimean Khanate and did not do anything seriously except to demand tribute and send a Mongol noyan to Moscow. By 1480 Muscovy and Crimea were in alliance against the Great Horde and Poland-Lithuania under Casimir IV. On the Lithuanian side, this was partly provoked by the Muscovite annexation of Novgorod in 1478.

In early 1480 the Teutonic Order of Livonia subjected the western borders of Russia to multiple attacks. In that year Livonia attacked Pskov and the following year Moscovy invaded Livonia, resulting in a series of treaties. In January 1480, Ivan's brothers Boris Volotsky and Andrey Bolshoy became dissatisfied with his growing princely authority and turned against him. Akhmat Khan decided to take advantage of the political discontent and in June 1480 sent a reconnaissance unit to investigate the right bank of the Oka river. In autumn his army started to advance towards Moscow, he passed through the Lithuanian territories of his ally king Casimir and stood on the Lithuanian-Muscovite border on the river Ugra. In the face of such grave danger, the Russian boyars fractured into two groups: one, led by okolnichies Oschera and Mamon, wanted Ivan III to flee; the other wanted to fight the Horde. It could be that Ivan's final decision to face the Horde was affected by the Russians who had demanded action on the part of the Grand Prince.