Source: David MacKenzie and Michael W. Curran, A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
The Mongol impact, assert the Eurasian historians, proved highly beneficial to the Russians. “The
Tatars [Mongols] defended Russia from Europe,” sparing it from conquest by the West. After the
conquest Mongols and the people of Rus [Russia] coexisted in harmony and peace. From their
conquerors the Rus adopted typical Turanian [Asian] character traits: steadiness, conviction, strength,
and religiosity, all of which promoted the development of the Muscovite state. The Mongols assured to
Rus secure commercial and cultural relations with the Orient; they enhanced the position of the
Orthodox church. In the mid-13th century Alexander Nevskii prince of Novgorod, faced with a fateful
choice, wisely chose the East over the West: “Alexander saw in the Mongols a friendly force in a cultural
sense that could assist him to preserve and consolidate Russian cultural identity from the Latin West.”
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