Great stand on the Ugra river The Great Standoff on the Ugra river ( ' in Russian , also ' ( Ugorschina in English , derived from Ugra ) was a standoff between the forces of Akhmat , Khan of the Great Horde , and the Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia in 1480 , which resulted in the retreat of the Tatars and is often taken as the end of Tatar rule over Russia . The battle . On October 8 , 1480 Akhmat Khan planned to bypass the Oka river from the west and thus avoid Ivan ' s regiment s which were located in Kolomna , Serpukhov and Tarusa . This would allow Akhmat Khan to unite his army with Casimir ' s . Akhmat Khan ' s forces approached the Ugra river . The main Russian defense line ran along the Oka from Nizhny Novgorod to Kaluga where the Oka turns from north to east ( the Ugra extends this line to the west from Kaluga toward Lithuania ) . At the Ugra , Akhmat Khan was met by the Russian army under the joint command of Ivan Molodoy ( " Ivan Junior " , Ivan ' s son ) and Andrey Menshoy ( " Andrey Smaller One " , Ivan ' s brother ) . Akhmat ' s attempt to cross the Ugra river was rebuffed in a 4 - day battle . The Muscovite chronicle says the Russians succeeded through the use of firearms , of which the Tatars had none . The Standoff . After the battle , Akhmat then retreated to the town of Vorotynsk , where he decided to wait for Casimir ' s army . Ivan III moved his army to Kremenets and started to negotiate with the khan , in an attempt to buy some time to restore his relations with his rebellious brothers ( hence , the Great standing on the Ugra river ) . It took Ivan III four days ( from September , 30 to October , 3 ) to reconcile with his brothers and another 17 days ( until 20 October ) for his brothers ' armies to arrive at Kremenets . Unlike Dmitry Donskoy in a similar situation one hundred years before , Ivan decided not to cross the river , but to keep on his shore and bide his time . Watching the increasing Russian army and receiving no word from the Polish king , Akhmat chose not to attack the Russians . In the meantime , Casimir IV was dealing with his own country ' s internal affairs and fighting against Muscovy ' s ally , Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray , that invaded Poland while king ' s army was away . Ivan also sent a regiment under command of Prince Vasily Nozdrevaty of Zvenigorod , to encircle Akhmat . Nur Devlet Giray , brother of Mengli Giray , was in this regiment . Akhmat was probably waiting for the river to freeze so that it could be crossed , and for the arrival of Lithuanian forces . These did not arrive because of Crimean raids and internal troubles in Lithuania . When winter approached , the Tatar army was lacking supplies and was suffering from epidemics and cold weather . On October 28 , Ivan gradually started to pull his armies back to Kremenets for winter quarters . Akhmat waited for reinforcements until November 11 and then turned south . Among other reasons of Akmat ' s retreat was the possible threat of Crimean , Nogai or other attacks on his unprotected home base , a common problem in nomadic warfare . As Nikolai Karamzin wrote in his " History of Russian State " , " It should have been an odd File : two armies ran away from each other , not pursued by anyone " . The Tatar retreat was seen as a victory in Muscovy . Ivan and his armies returned to Moscow to celebrate . Results . On January 6 , 1481 Akhmat Khan was killed in a clash with the Nogais under Ibak Khan , a princeling from the Khanate of Sibir . In 1502 Crimea destroyed the Great Horde as an organization thereby removing the buffer between Russia and Crimea and leading to a series of Russo - Crimean wars that lasted until 1784 . In nationalist history , the Ugra Standoff is taken as the end of the so - called " Tatar Yoke " . Modern writers are more skeptical and see it as an important landmark in the gradual expansion of Russia and the gradual decline of the Turko - Mongol empire . Perhaps the most important result of the Russo - Crimean alliance was its effect on Lithuania . In 1480 - 1515 Muscovy ( Russia ) expanded out of its Oka - Volga cradle west to Smolensk and southwest across the Ugra and down the west side of the Oka as far as Novgorod - Seversky . Further reading . www . futurzhr . com