About the book: 2009 / The Horde theme is the most important in medieval Russian literature. The Mongol invasion represented a turning point in the history of Rus' and was perceived in this way by contemporaries of the events and immediate descendants. The reconstruction of ideas about the Mongol-Tatars, undertaken on the basis of monuments of ancient Russian literature, made it possible to determine the most important aspects of the perception of the Horde, to trace the evolution of the views of medieval authors on the phenomenon of conquest and identify the most characteristic ways of depicting “filthy” people. Interpretation of the details of the description, containing the evaluative characteristics of the Mongol-Tatars, made it possible to identify the attitudes of consciousness of the 13th-15th centuries, which determined the coordinate system with which ancient Russian scribes approached the understanding and depiction of ongoing events.V. N. Rudakov was able to notice and clarify the Russian people’s perception of the newcomers, which predetermined the results of the invasion, the duration of the lands’ stay under the rule of the Horde khans, and the liberation from Horde rule. The key to understanding the scribe’s perception of the Tatars was the texts of historical sources missed by their predecessors: so-called commonplaces, stable formulations, quotes from the Bible and patristic literature. V.N. Rudakov is based on a system of evidence that can be verified by everyone. The conclusions are based on the most accurate identification of the meaning laid down by the author of the source in his text, which gives him the opportunity to understand his “interlocutor from the past.” This approach allowed us to see in a new way the events known to everyone from school, to see our history through the eyes of a person who “did”, which means it’s better to understand him and yourself.