Batu moves into central Russia in 1238 to subdue the Western Russian principalities.

Besieging Vladimir, he finally overruns it on February 8, 1238.

A great fire destroys thirty-two limestone buildings on the first day alone, while the family of Grand Prince Yuri II perishes in a church where they had sought refuge from the flames.

The grand prince himself manages to escape.

Yaroslav, following the battle death of his older brother, leaves Kiev for Vladimir, where he is crowned grand prince.

The metropolitan of the Orthodox Church moves in 1299 to the city of Vladimir in the wake of the Mongol invasion, and Vladimir-Suzdal' replaces Kievan Rus as the religious center.

Historians have debated the long-term influence of Mongol rule on Russian society.

The Mongols have been blamed for the destruction of Kievan Rus', the breakup of the "Russian" nationality into three components, and the introduction of the concept of "oriental despotism" into Russia, but most historians agree that Kievan Rus' was not a homogeneous political, cultural, or ethnic entity and that the Mongols merely accelerated a fragmentation that had begun before the invasion.

Historians also credit the Mongol regime with an important role in the development of Muscovy as a state.

Under Mongol occupation, for example, Muscovy develops its postal road network, census, fiscal system, and military organization.

Kievan Rus' also leaves a powerful legacy.

The leader of the Rurik Dynasty has united a large territory inhabited by East Slavs into an important, albeit unstable, state.

After Vladimir accepts Eastern Orthodoxy, Kievan Rus' comes together under a church structure and develops a Byzantine-Slavic synthesis in culture, statecraft, and the arts.

On the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus', those traditions are adapted to form the Russian autocratic state.

Alexander Nevsky, since becoming grand prince of Vladimir, has pursued a policy of cooperation with Russia’s Mongol overlords, who have reciprocated by abandoning demands for Russian troops and by withdrawing tax collectors.

Nevsky leads his army to Finland in 1256 and successfully routs the Swedes, who have made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Russians.

The late Novgorodian Prince Alexander Nevsky is canonized locally in Vladimir in 1380.