It was during the campaign of Genghis-Khan against Bokhara that his lieutenants Tehepe and Souboudai-Bagadour turned toward the northwest, overrunning a multitude of peoples, and passing the Caspian Sea by its southern shore, invaded Georgia and the Caucasus and in the southern steppes of Russia came in contact with the Slavic army. Their first contest was with the Polovosti, a tribe not yet Christianized, being upon the confines of Russia proper; but terrorized by the onward course of the Tartar hordes, they called upon the Christian princes for help.
Mstislas the Bold, at that time the Prince of Galitch, persuaded all the dynasties of Southern Russia to take up arms against the Tartars. His nephew, Daniel, the Prince of Volhynia, Mstislaf Romanovitch, the Grand Prince of Kief, Oleg of Korsk, the Prince of Tchernigof, Vladimir of Somelnsk, and Vsevolod at that time Prince of Novodlod, responded to his appeal. To make sure of his alliance with the Russians and as an evidence of sincerity in the common cause Basti the Prince of Polvostki joined the orthodox Russian Church. The Russian army had already arrived on the lower Dnieper when the Tartar ambassadors put in an appearance.
They are reported to have said "we come by God's command against our slaves and servants, the accursed Polovosti. Be at peace with us. We have no quarrel with you." The Russians promptly put the ambassadors to death.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
