Meshchera as a Point of Political Interaction

What is it about?

Meshchera (also known in the historiography as the Kasimov Khanate, in diplomatic sources as the Meshcherskiy iurt) played a special, very specific role in the relations between Muscovy and the Tatar Khanates during the fifteenth through sixteenth centuries. As a kind of frontier zone, it was situated within Muscovy and the Muscovite Grand Prince possessed authority over it, but at the same time, it became widely regarded as a Tatar iurt. For instance, in Crimean eyes, it was a iurt of the Girays and the Shirin clan. It became for some Crimean servitors a home-away-from-home, a colony of sorts, where they came to serve a Gireiid dynast and enjoy material support and opportunities for campaigning. Certain of Nur-Daulet's (initially a Crimean, then a Kasimov khan) followers moved back and forth between Meshcherskii Gorodok (the capital of Meshchera) and the Crimea. This Tatar enclave, which also served as a pattern for other Tatar enclaves of this type (Kashira, Serpukhov, Zvenigorod, Romanov et cetera), became an integral part of the Steppe appanage system. Muscovite and Tatar political histories overlapped at this point. Although the Kasimov Khanate was not large in size, it figured very prominently in relations between Muscovy (Russia) and the Steppe Khanates, such as Kazan and the Crimean, as well as the Great and the Nogay Hordes. It, like other iurts of this sort, often acted as a bridge and arbiter of conflict between Orthodoxy Christians and Muslims. The existence of such Tatar enclaves within Muscovite territory influenced Muscovy’s status within the whole of the Later Golden Horde space.

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Why is it important?

In 1893 the historian Frederick Jackson Turner advanced his Frontier Thesis - that the American frontier produced American democracy, because of the impact of the process of moving frontier line on pioneers. The primary result of the process was American democracy, along with egalitarianism, a lack of interest in high culture, and violence. During the 1970s another American historian, J. Wieczynski, interpreted medieval Russian history in terms of Turner’s Frontier Thesis. According to Wieczynski, Russian colonization to the east and south established Russia’s own frontier. In the context of such a frontier thesis, during the 1980s and 1990s, historiography of Muscovite Eastern policy emphasized the study of Russia’s Eastern border in the sixteenth century as a place of encounter and interaction between different cultures and civilizations. I propose that the notion of an “Eastern border of the Muscovite state” should be expanded to include political, social, and cultural meaning, which deprives the geographical factor of its leading role. Cultural and political exchange does not require that a place of exchange be situated within a frontier zone. The only requirement is that members of different cultures participate in the process, regardless of where it occurs. Tatar enclaves of Muscovy facilitated such a multi-cultural exchange. The following article will examine the phenomenon of Tatar enclaves as frontier zones of social, political, and cultural contact between the Tatars and the Russians, especially the Khanate of Kasimov. First I will examine two zones that preceded the creation of the Kasimov Khanate, Chervlenyi Iar in Riazan’ and Nizhnii Novgorod. Then I turn to Meshchera, including, in turn, its relations with Muscovy, the Crimean Khanate, the Kazan Khanate, and the Nogay Horde. I also discuss a later enclave, Romanov. Finally, I draw conclusions about the significance of the enclaves for Muscovite history.

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