Mamai's Battle

The prose of Daniel Lukich Mordovtsev is, above all, not the work of an analyst, but an “historical handbook,” “history in portraits.” The writer is more like a historian of histories—a historiographer, a “chronicler.” It’s precisely the possibility of getting acquainted with events of the past, depicted in a fictionalized form, that attracted and continues to attract many, many readers to his work.

It is known with what respect Daniel Mordovtsev regarded his contemporary, the outstanding historian N. I. Kostomarov. Yet even with this scholar the writer agreed not with everything: he argued against Kostomarov’s evaluations of the role of the individual in history and against downplaying the merits of some historical figures. For instance, after Kostomarov’s claim that the Moscow prince Dmitry—called Donskoy after the Battle of Kulikovo—lay almost the entire time of that battle, stunned at its very beginning, under some tree situated far enough from the battlefield…

“Of course,” Mordovtsev wrote in the story “Mamaevo Destruction,” “it was a tree mentioned in one of the legends, ‘remarkable’ against the background of the absence of trees in all the other legends… But it is the only one in all the legends—it is not yet a document.” Mordovtsev, in this tale, portrays Prince Dmitry not only as an organizer, but also as an active participant in the greatest battle in Russian history.

We invite you to get acquainted with the audio version of this brilliant work by Daniel Mordovtsev and to feel the unique atmosphere of the time when Russian lands for several centuries served as Europe’s reliable shield, blocking invasions from the East.