Stand Up For Yourself

By 1480, the Russian principalities had been paying more-or-less regular tribute to the Mongols and their successors for well over 200 years.  Ivan III, Prince of Moscow decided that was damn well long enough.  The Golden Horde (the Mongol successor state in Eastern Europe) was, of course, rather fond of the practice of having bags of gold dropped off every now and then, and so did not take this news well.  The Khan of the Golden Horde readied his troops, and marched against the Russians.

The two forces encountered each other in October of 1480 on opposite banks of the Ugra River.  The initial attempt by Khan Ahmed of the Horde to cross the river was rebuffed after a few days of skirmishing, so Ahmed decided to wait for additional troops to arrive from his ally, Casimir IV of Poland-Lithuania.  Meanwhile, Ivan III needed time to reconcile with his brothers, who were plotting against him while his army was occupied.

So, both sides bided their time, Ahmed waiting for Casimir and Ivan negotiating with his brothers, and then gathering their forces after coming to agreement, the whole time sitting just across the river from one another.  This situation persisted for weeks, and winter began to set in.  Ivan, not wanting to risk an assault across the river, decided to retreat to a winter camp a ways back from the banks.  Ahmed, seeing the no forces were coming from Poland (Casimir was involved in his own civil war), and suspecting that the Russians were luring him into a trap across the river, decided to retreat as well.     

The Russians decided that this totally counted, and celebrated their glorious victory against the Horde.  For his part, Ahmed was soon killed in battle against a rival Mongol faction.  The "Great Stand on the Ugra River" marked the end of Mongol influence in Russia - two armies stood across the river from each other, and then both went home without a fight.