All of Russia practically, had now been devastated except Volhynia and Gallicia and Novgorod in the Northwest. The two former soon fell under the Tartar yoke, and hundreds of thousands of Russians were dragged into captivity. The Russian Chronicle of the day says, "men saw wives of the aristocrats who had never known work, who, a short time before, had been clothed in rich garments, adorned with jewels and collars of gold, surrounded with slaves, now reduced to be themselves slaves of barbarians and their wives, turning the wheel of the mill and preparing their coarse food."
Karminsin, the Russian historian, in reviewing the causes which led to the complete defeat of the Russian nation, says: "Though the Tartars were not more advanced from a military point of view than the Russians, who had made war in Greece and in the West against the most warlike and civilized people of Europe, yet they had to face an enormous superiority in numbers. Bati had with him probably not less than 500,000 warriors. This immense army moved like one man. It could successfully annihilate the successive forces of the princes or the militia of the towns which only presented themselves piecemeal to its blows. The Tartars had found Russia divided against herself as the result of the fatal policy of Vladimir the Great, who had erected the principalities. Even though Russia had wished to form a solid confederation, the certain irruption of an army entirely composed of horsemen did not leave her time.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
