Rus’/Russia and the Mongols: Some Remarks on the Historical Meaning and the Present Debate of the Mongol-Tatar yoke

The Mongol conquests and the following domination have long been the subject of historical reevaluation by the scientific community. The spread and progressive specialization of Mongolian studies of the latest decades have also affected the western- most of the four khanates resulted from the division of the Empire: the ulus Jochi, better known as Golden Horde. Russia’s territorial vastity, its proximity to Western Europe, and its multicultural characters have all attracted the historians’ attention to the Mongol era. By retracing the crucial historiographical passages, from nineteenth-century studies to the present day, this article aims to provide a broad and updated perspective of how the scientific debate has developed internationally and its relationship with the macro-levels of the Russian society today: from politics to public opinion.