Battle of the Sit River

Battle of the Sit River
Part of Mongol invasion of Rus
Bishop Cyril finds headless body of Grand Duke Yuri on the field of battle of the Sit River.
Date March 4, 1238 Location Modern day Yaroslavl Oblast Result Decisive Mongol victory
Belligerents
Mongol Empire	Vladimir-Suzdal
Commanders and leaders
Burundai	Yuri II †
Casualties and losses
Heavy[1]	Entire Force

The Battle of the Sit River was fought in the northern part of the present-day Sonkovsky District of Tver Oblast of Russia, close to the selo of Bozhonka, on March 4, 1238 between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Rus' under Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus. After the Mongols sacked his capital of Vladimir, Yuri fled across the Volga northward, to Yaroslavl, where he hastily mustered an army. He and his brothers then turned back toward Vladimir in hopes of relieving the city before the Mongols took it, but they were too late. Yuri sent out a force of 3,000 men under Dorozh to scout out where the Mongols were; whereupon Dorozh returned saying that Yuri and his force was already surrounded. As he tried to muster his forces, he was attacked by the Mongol force under Burundai and fled but was overtaken on the Sit River and died there along with his nephew, Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl.^[2] The battle marked the end of unified resistance to the Mongols and inaugurated two centuries of the Mongol domination of modern day-Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

References

This article incorporates material from the public domain 1906 Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

1. Sergei Ershov. Taina Bitva na reke Sit'
2. Robert Michell and Neville Forbes, eds. The Chronicle of Novgorod (London: Camden Society, 1914), 83; Janet Martin, Medieval Russia 980-1584 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 138-139.

Coordinates: 58°04′07″N 37°51′07″E / 58.06861°N 37.85194°E