In 1239 the whole Russian land, if not yet under Mongols, looked on that doom as inevitable. There was such panic terror that men lost proper use of their faculties. All that interval from December, 1237, when Ryazan was destroyed, till December, 1240, was a time of destruction and captivity, and the end came only when there was nothing to destroy, and all the treasures of Russia were in Mongol hands. For the people these three years were merged in one unit of time, filled with anguish, terror and despair. It might be said that they had lost the sense and the power to count seasons. That Russian land, which in the days of Yaroslav the Lawgiver and Monomach his grandson had so easily overcome its enemies, and which in the days of Big Nest, Monomach’s nephew, in spite of all its divisions and conflicts, still preserved some appearance of oneness, existed no longer. On the San and the Dniester there was the same terror of Mongols as on the Desna and the Dnieper. From the north, from Vladimir, from Novgorod, no regiments appeared, and none were expected; no prince came with help, and no man was looking for him. The whole land was as silent as a grave or a desert. The Mongols had not captured Novgorod, but this was because they considered it as subject to Vladimir. They had been sated with bloodshed, and looked on the Vladimir region as thoroughly subjected. To avoid further evil, Novgorod had to connect itself absolutely with Vladimir, and with it carry the weight of the burden. Besides, the distant north was a country without attraction for Mongols. Beyond Novgorod lived the Chud people (Fins), whose lands extended to the shores of the Frozen Ocean. The Mongols did not consider that Novgorod could be the center of a region dangerous to their dominion, hence they left the old capital of Rurik uninjured. If they had had reason to punish Novgorod they would have razed it as they razed Ryazan and Vladimir. The Kief campaign was undertaken by Batu on a scale that was enormous; with him went his brothers and relatives: Kuyuk, son of the Grand Khan, was there, and Mangu and Baidar, grandsons of Jinghis Khan, also a multitude of famous commanders,—Burundai, Subotai and others. The whole army consisted of more than five hundred thousand men. After finishing with Russia, Batu intended to pass into Hungary and destroy that country. He had sent a demand for obedience already, and a reprimand to the king for receiving Kotyan with his Polovtsi, whom Batu looked on as slaves who had fled from their master.