REVIEW OF THE MONOGRAPH: SELEZNEV YU.V. RUSSKIE KNYAZ’YA PRI DVORE KHANOV ZOLOTOY ORDY (RUSSIAN PRINCES AT THE COURT OF THE GOLDEN HORDE)

This article contains a review of the monograph by Yu.V. Seleznev published in early 2017 and dedicated to the relations of Russian princes with the Golden Horde's khans and their status among the Golden Horde's nobility. This work is the first comprehensive study in the historiography of this issue for all two and a half centuries of the Tartar domination. The monograph was published for the first time in 2013 and served as the basis for a doctoral dissertation, which Seleznev defended in 2015. The book was reprinted with certain changes in 2017. The book commendably contains an abundance of factual material through the use of diverse sources and strands of historiography. Seleznev examines the social terminology of Golden Horde-Russian relations, the structure of the Golden Horde's nobility and the trips of princes to the Horde, drawing attention not only to the status of the great Vladimir and Moscow princes, but also that of other great and appanage princes. He makes a significant contribution to the resolving the debate regarding the nature of the Golden Horde's domination in Rus' by examining in detail the relationship of the Russian princes with the Golden Horde's authorities in different years. The book's author proposed to divide the Golden Horde's “yoke” into seven periods characterized by “changes in the degree of sovereignty and jurisdiction of the khan in relation to Russian principalities”. The author of this review agrees with the main conclusions of the book under review, but at the same time he notes some reservations and criticisms, which do not, however, reduce the academic caliber of the monograph.