Mysteries of Battle on the Ice Do we really know what happened? Zhuravleva Anna Form 9 Gymn.45

Previous Events In 1237 Pope Gregory proclaimed the Second Crusade to Finland. A year later King Waldemar II and Master of the Teutonic Order Herman Blake decided to battle against Russ with the help of Swedes. Swedes were repelled near the Neva river on the 15th of July, 1240. The Order invaded the territory of Russ in 1240. Russian troops fought against Livonian knights.

Lake Peipsi. At the dawn of April 5, 1242 the German army made the form of a wedge. It was called "pig iron“ in Euroupe. The best knights of the Order were at the apex of the wedge. The German wedge broke through the center of the Russian army. Some soldiers ran away. However, the Russians counterattacked enemy’s flangs and took the enemy in a pincer movement. The Germans began to retreat. In some places, the ice broke down because of heavy outfit of the Germans, and many Teutons sinked in the water.

Cryptic Battle On The Ice A lot of books were written about Battle on the Ice. They have itemized details, maps, schemes etc. However there is still a big number of questions about this great battle.

Countless Soldiers The First Chronicle of Novgorod reports that 400 knights were killed in the battle, and 50 knights were captured, the Chud were beaten "without number." Western historians, such as John Fennell, doubt: "If the chronicler believes these 450 soldiers were knights, then this number is a major exaggeration, because at the time when the battle took place, two orders were only a little more than a hundred of the knights. " Anatoly Bakhtin believes that chroniclers of the time glossed over a real battle. It is funny to hear that there were 18 thousand Russians and Teutonic army included 15 thousand soldiers. At the end of the 13th century Novgorod’s population was a little bit more than 14 thousand. That’s why our troops could be only about 2 thousand men. Teutonic Oreder had about 280 knights. The most part of them were fighting in Palestine.

Nazaruck V. M., 1984

Heavy Fasion A. Bakhtin asserts that nobody sinked in the Lake Peipsi in 1240. Teutonic armor weight were comparable with weapons of Russian soldiers. The same chain mail, shield, sword. Only helmets differed. In addition, there was no plate horse at this time. Heavily armed knights were not so much. The equipment of equestrian knight was quiet expensive. Pskov, for example, which was caught by Livonians could have only two such full-armored soldiers. Of course, they were always with their servants, but even including them the number of such army could not be more than 15-20 soldiers, equestrian knights were only 5-7 people. There was one knight for one castle of the Livonian Institution. There were about 90 castles in the interval from 1230 to 1290. It is easy to calculate the number of Order troops.

Serov V.A.,1942

404 – Not Found The place of the battle is still unknown. Historians had been looking for it from the middle of the XIX century. And some of them name the western shore of Lake Peipsi as the place of the battle , the others - the western bank of Pskov, some think that Russians and Teutonics fought at some place of the Warm lake. Ten scientists tried to find the place of great battle. But only Estonian Paklar led a special search outside, the others were trying to find an answer in the quiet of their offices. As a result, suppositional battlefields are situtated within the territory of about one hundred kilometers between each other!

Borisov A.I.,

What have we got now? We do not know anything for sure about Battle on the Ice, do we? Of course, my answer is “no”. We all know that Battle on the Ice is one of the important battles in Russian history. It is true.

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