Политическая цензура и историческая пропаганда в монгольских государствах XIII — начала XIV веков на примере сюжета о взятии Ургенча
Political Censorship and Historical Propaganda in the Mongolian States of the 13th — early 14th Centuries, as Illustrated by the Story of the Capture of Urgench

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to analyze how various sources reflected the events of the siege and assault of Urgench by the Mongols in 1220—1221. It has long been established in historiography that the sources written in the Mongol Empire or in its independent uluses under the rule of the Toluids described this event extremely tendentiously. Therefore, texts describing the fall of the Khwarezmian capital are divided into two categories: sources independent of Toluid propaganda and censorship, such as an-Nasawi and Juzjani, and sources from the “imperial circle.” According to sources of the first group, the siege and assault of Urgench until the very end of hostilities was led by the eldest son of Genghis Khan, Jochi. Messages from sources in the second group were created under political censorship, the main purpose of which in this case was to question Jochi’s leadership in these events. The reason for such close attention of the authors of these accounts to this issue was the idea that existed in the Mongol Empire of the system of “merits” and “misconducts” of individuals before Genghis Khan, as the legal basis for the status of their descendants and the validity of their hereditary claims. At the same time, sources capable of confirming “merit” or “misconduct” included certain categories of official historical texts.

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