Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast. I'm your host Mark Shouse.

Episode 9. Vassili the First and Vassili the Blind.

Last week we told the story of the Russian hero, Dimitri Dunskoi, who died at the young age of 39,

no doubt due to the many battle scars, because of the stress of trying to throw off the Mongol yoke.

This week we recant the story of Dimitri's son and grandson, Vassili the first and second. Vassili the first, also known in some texts as Basil, was a brilliant but cautious leader.

He continued his father's policy of acquiring land from Moscow, and during his long stable

reign from 1389 to 1425, he was in almost constant conflict with Lithuania and at times with the golden horde.

Still he was successful in adding territory to his realm, like adding Nizhny Novgorod,

not to be confused with Novgorod proper, but he added this city

state to his holdings when the Mongols were off doing other things.

He tried grabbing lads lands from Novgorod itself in 1398, but was repulsed.

In 1401, he tried again, but met with the same failure.

Moscow at this time developed an ideology,

which they believed was a prophecy which revolved around their religion.

They believed two things which set them apart from their rival city states like Novgorod, Piskov, and Tiar.

They believed that their orthodoxy, their Christianity, was a special chapter in a long unbroken chain of command from Rome to

Constantinople to Moscow and the second belief was that they Moscow its rulers, were God's chosen bearers of this destiny.

To the monastic leaders, when Constantinople was alive, and in Christian hands it was not part of the Christian Empire, it was the Christian Empire.

But more on Constantinople later.

Six years into Vassili's reign in what must have been a terrifying sight, a huge Mongol army

with the feared Tamir Lane at the head invaded Russia.

Tamir Lane, as he is known to Westerners, or Timur, was a Mongol Khan who wanted to return the tribe to its glory years,

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