I'm a Russian peasant whose principality has just been conquered by the Mongols, however my village has been left unharmed. Will this change anything in my day to day life?

by LovecraftsDeath
[deleted]

Some things would definitely change, but how much they would change would vary drastically.

I'm going to assume that the army which has just overthrown your region is the army of Subutai during the great trek west (~1236-1242).

The village as a whole would be greatly affected. The mongols often took a significant amount of tribute and supplies from defeated enemies and this often led to economic hardship and starvation even when there were no battles. Aside from this life would go on in a relatively normal fashion. The mongols were content to allow conquered peoples to practice their cultures and religion provided they didn't show any signs of resistance (this could most clearly be seen in the Middle East during the invasions of Khwarezm and the caliphate around Baghdad). If they resisted however the response was often extremely brutal.

In addition young men were often conscripted into the mongol army and compelled to act as infantry/the first wave in many pitched battles. Expectedly they didn't have great equipment and faced extremely high casualty rates. Few of them ever returned home and those who attempted to escape were violently executed as an example of why escape was a terrible idea. In exchange for these conscripts the mongols would usually leave a smallish garrison of old and injured warriors and they would become the effective rulers of the towns of their enemies. In the cases of major cities these garrisons would be led by former Noyans (generals) and even Orloks (leaders of armies).

Over time though the conquered regions would recover from these losses and gradually come to be considered as a part of the empire. When this happened trade tended to flourish (due to the safety provided by the mongol riders) and many regions ended up being wealthier than they had before the mongols came once their populations had recovered from famine and conscription.

I'm sure that I'm overlooking a number of other small changes that would occur but those are the main points.