Horde Vykhod

(in Russian, ordynskii vykhod), a tribute paid by the Russian lands from the second half of the 13th to the 15th century to the Mongol-Tatar khans, the rulers of the Golden Horde. The tribute was collected from all Russians except the clergy. Nonpayment was considered disobedience and was harshly punished by such measures as deprivation of property or removal into slavery. The amount of the tribute varied with the “needs” of the khans.

In the second half of the 13th century the horde vykhod was generally collected by Muslim tax farmers. The excessive nature of the tribute and the outrages committed by the baskaks (khan’s representatives and tax collectors) and the tax farmers gave rise to numerous popular uprisings (in 1257 and 1259 in Novgorod the Great, in 1262 and 1289 in Rostov, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Suzdal’, and other cities). In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the Mongol-Tatars gave the Russian princes the right to collect the horde vykhod. As a rule, the Russian princes handed over the collected tribute to the grand prince of Vladimir, who in turn passed it on to the khan of the Golden Horde. In the 14th century, the grand princes of Tver’, Riazan’, and, perhaps, Nizhny Novgorod also were permitted to pay the tribute directly to the khan. The Russian princes used the right to collect the horde vykhod to enrich themselves and strengthen their power. After the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the tribute was no longer paid regularly. To all intents and purposes, payment ceased in the 1470’s. Khan Ahmad’s attempt to force Ivan III to pay the tribute ended in the overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.