Russia: Marx, Lenin, and the Death of an Illusion - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 130

Figure 9.2. Ivan the Terrible
(Viktor Vasnetsov painting, 1897)
WHY THE SAYING, “SCRATCH A RUSSIAN, FIND A TARTAR”?
Ivan The Terrible's rule was from 1533 to 1584. All tyrants fear plotters and assassins,
but Ivan's fears were also grounded in Russia's history: an invasion from central Asia that
began in the early 1200s. The invaders were Mongols (who had conquered and intermar-
ried with Tartars) led by Genghis Khan. Originally called Temujin, his military successes
inspired him to take a new name, Genghis Kahn, ruler of the world. Mongol hordes (per-
haps the only Tartar word to enter the English language) swept south from Mongolia to in-
stall themselves in Peking in 1214. They then rode west with savagery calculated to induce
surrender even before their arrival. They traveled (by choice) over frozen ground on wiry
Mongolian ponies, two or three tethered behind the rider. Tartars could survive on mare's
milk mixed with horse blood. Their chief weapon was a short, bone-reinforced bow, whose
deadly range matched the famous English longbow. And before going into battle they put
on a silk shirt, woven to enmesh an arrowhead, making it easier to pull the arrow shaft out
of a wounded rider's body.
Their first invasion of Russia was in 1223. The second was in 1237, with a massive
army that fell on resisters and flayed them alive to drive home the idea that Tartars expected