These overtures were met with scorn and distrust, and the Asiatics advanced on Moscow, ravaging and burning as they progressed. Dimitri fled to Kostroma to assemble a new army, but the Mongol commander marched straight on the capital which he took by surprise, entered and sacked. The other towns of Souzdal suffered the same fate. Gloom universal again fell upon Russia, the people being once more enslaved.
When the Tartar host returned toward the east, Dimitri gathered up the fragments of his former power, turned his attention toward the punishment of the western princes who had deserted him in his struggle against the usurper. In spite of its afflictions, Easter Russia, so far recovered that, when Dimitri died, the principality was by far the most considerable of the states of the Northeast. He established the principle of inheritance in the direct line and caused his collateral heirs to recognize the rights of his eldest son Vassilli, or Basil, to the throne.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
