History
(For background, see Expansion of Russia 1500-1800.)
The Crimean Tatars' invasions of Russia (Muscovy) began in 1507, after the death of Moscow's grand duke Ivan III, when the Crimean Khanate attacked the Russian towns of Belev and Kozelsk.
In the 16th century the border of the Wild Steppes was near the city of Ryazan, near the Oka River, a tributary of the Volga, and close to the Yelets river, a tributary of the Don river, near Sosna. The main path to Moscow was the Muravsky Trail, going from the Crimean Isthmus of Perekop up to Tula between the basins of the Dnieper and Severskiy Donets rivers. Penetrating for about 100–200 kilometers into Russian territory, the Tatars would turn back only after extensive looting and kidnapping. Captives were sent to the Crimean city of Caffa to be sold.
Every spring, Moscow mobilized up to 65,000 soldiers for border service. The defensive lines consisted of a circuit of fortresses and cities.
To protect from invasions by the Nogai Horde in the region between the Volga and Irtysh rivers, the Volga cities of Samara (1586), Tsaritsyn (1589), and Saratov (1590) were founded.
The Russian population in the border regions suffered heavily from these invasions. This depopulation, in combination with the inability of Russian settlement in southern regions where the climate was more conducive to agriculture, hindered Muscovy's social and economic development.
The most dangerous invasions occurred in 1517, 1521 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan), 1537 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan, the Lithuanians, and the Turks), 1552, 1555, 1570–72 (supported by Sweden), 1589, 1593, 1640, 1666–67 (supported by Poland-Lithuania), 1671, and 1688.
Read more about this topic: Russo-Crimean Wars
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