Crusader invasion. Alexander Nevskiy

Russia, weakened by the Mongol-Tatar yoke, found itself in a very difficult situation when a threat from the Swedish and German feudal lords hung over its northwestern lands. After the seizure of the Baltic lands, the knights of the Livonian Order approached the borders of the Novgorod-Pskov land. In 1240 the Battle of the Neva took place - a battle between Russian and Swedish troops on the Neva River. Prince of Novgorod Alexander Yaroslavovich utterly defeated the enemy, for which he received the nickname Nevsky. Alexander Nevsky led the united Russian army, with which he set out in the spring of 1242 to liberate Pskov, which had been captured by the German knights by that time.

In pursuit of their army, the Russian squads went to Lake Peipsi, where on April 5, 1242, the famous battle took place, called the Battle of the Ice. As a result of a fierce battle, the German knights were utterly defeated.
The importance of Alexander Nevsky's victories with the aggression of the crusaders can hardly be overestimated. If the crusaders succeeded, the forcible assimilation of the peoples of Russia in many areas of their life and culture could take place. This could not have happened in almost three centuries of the Horde yoke, since the general culture of the nomadic steppe inhabitants was much lower than the culture of the Germans and Swedes. Therefore, the Mongol-Tatars were never able to impose their culture and way of life on the Russian people.