Sary-Aka's embassy
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Sary-Aka's embassy (Russian: Посольство Сарайки) was a mission from the commander of the Blue Horde Mamai sent to the Russian eastern border province of Nizhny Novgorod in 1374 to undermine the influence of the Prince of Moscow in his struggle for supremacy among the Russian provinces due to his open opposition to Mongol authority in Russia. The embassy was ambushed and the survivors were imprisoned in the wooden fort of Nizhny Novgorod until 31 March 1375, when Sary-Aka along with the rest of the Tatars were massacred by the Russians.
Sary-Aka's embassy was dispatched by Mamai, a military commander of the Blue Horde, which ruled over lands in what is now the southern Ukrainian steppes and the Crimean Peninsula, to Nizhny Novgorod in 1374. The ambassador was accompanied by a military troop that constituted one thousand of men-at-arms. The same year the detachment was assaulted by the Russian troops to the south of Nizhny Novgorod with most of its members killed. The survivors were captured and imprisoned in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin along with the ambassador himself, although they were allowed to stay together and keep their weapon with them. In March 1375 a congress of Russian princes took place in Pereslavl-Zalessky town in Yaroslavl Oblast. It was moderated by the Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of Vladimir Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. Among the others the congress was attended by warlords of the Principality of Ryazan, Oleg Ivanovich, and of Nizhny Novgorod and Suzdal, Dmitri Konstantinovich of Suzdal. The Grand Prince of Tver Mikhail II did not attend.
During the congress, the decision was taken for a consolidated effort of the Russian warlords against the dominance of Mamai. To secure the safety of the meeting the eldest son of Dmitri Konstantinovich of Suzdal, Vasiliy Kirdyapa, was ordered to dispatch an armed force to Nizhny Novgorod to take the surviving members of Sary-Aka's embassy and disarm them on 31 March 1375.
The massacre of the embassy
Sary-Aka either anticipated the threat or was warned in advance so he ordered the captured Tatar battlers to break out of the prison located next to the Dmitrovskaya Tower and occupy the courtyard of the local bishop nearby. After the Tatars assumed a defensive position they injured and killed many local denizens with their bows and also took Dionysius, the bishop of Suzdal as a hostage. Some contemporary sources claim Sary-Aka shot an arrow into the bishop that failed to hit him but barely scratched the gown. Being enraged with the assault on the bishop, local citizens along with the garrison sieged the courtyard and eventually massacred all the Tatars.
