In my research I’ve found some interesting things like the rise of the Orthodox Church to its powerful and influential place. I’ve also found that Moscow was a relatively small city that was burned to the ground before the Mongols came. But I haven’t really been able to find much in the way of cultural impacts, and I was wondering if anyone more knowledgeable on the topic knew anything. Or if anyone is able to find some sources that I haven’t been able to find. Any help and discussion would be greatly appreciated.
I also have noticed that there isn’t a lot of direct influence, like adoption of religions or traditions since the mongols didn’t occupy Russia like they did China or Persia.
As for how the Golden Horde affected the way of thinking as well as the cultural memory of the Russians, I suppose Charles J. Halperin's works like Russia and the Golden Horde (1987) (especially its chapter VI, titled as "The Russian "Theory" of Mongol Rule") should be your departure point.
Halperin analyzes some pieces of medieval Russian chronicle as well as literature, and if you cannot read them in original language, you can check the availability of the English translation in another previous post of mine here, What are some good primary sources from Mongolian Russia (from around 1240 to 1400)?
I'm not sure whether the key text like The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan (Повесть о разорении Рязани Батыем) is easily available to you in English (at least Zadonschchina (Задонщина) should be found in the classical reader, Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, trans. Serge Zenkovsky).
It is also important to keep in mind that the contemporary and later views of the Russians to the domination of the Mongols have often differed, and the discourse of so-called Tatar Yoke had formed not only in the actual period, but later especially in early modern period when Moscow consolidated and conquered successor states of the Golden Horde like the Khanate of Kazan.
Ostrowski, Donald. Moscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998: is another seminar work, analyzing several possible elements in longer term.
On the other hand, have you also checked John Meyendorf, Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations in the Fourteenth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982, for the basic religious background of the period?
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