What part of the mongol empire included a large part of what is today western Russia?

Answer 1

In western Russia, Volga Bulgaria, or Volga-Kama Bolghar, (an Islamic Bulgar state which had been established by conquest in the area of the river Volga) and the Rus of Kiev came under the ulus of the Golden Horde or Ulus of Jochi. The Rus of Kiev was a state which before the Mongol invasion controlled lands from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea in western Russia and is regarded as the precursor of Russia.

An ulus was a unit of the Mongol Empire, which was subdivided among the descendants of Genghis Kahn. By the late 13th century the various ulus became independent states called Khanates. This ulus stretched to the northwest of China across Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Ural mountains, the Caucasus Mountains and the Ukrainian steppes.

The term Golden Horde was first used in the 14th century to indicate the residence of the Khans, the rulers of the Mongol empire and the various ulus. Its use with reference to the Ulus of Jochi was adopted by Slavic sources. It first appeared in Russian chronicles in the 16th century. Golden may have referred to either to the yellow tents of the Mongol army or to the wealth of the Kahn. Horde may have referred to the Mongolic word ordu, which meant palace or camp headquarters. The Mongolic word for yellow also meant centre/central. Therefore, the name may have meant central camp. The Ulus of Jochi, which was founded by Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Kahn, in the 1240s. It was also subdivided into an eastern and western wing, which were dubbed by Slavic sources Blue Horde and White Horde respectively. In western sources the Ulus of Joshi was called Tartaria of Kipchak.

Ulus of Jochi declared itself independent in the 1270s and became known as the Kipchak Khanate. This Ulus became Turkicised. The creation of the Mongol Empire involved an alliance between Mongol and Turkic peoples who lived in Central Asia, to the west of Mongolia. They spoke Turkic languages. The Turks who invaded Turkey were original form this part of Asia and spoke a Turkic language. This Ulus also adopted Islam. In the 15th c., the Kipchak Khanate broke into Kazan Khanate (1438, in the area of the former Volga Bulgaria) Crimean Khanate (1443, along the northern coast of the Black Sea), Nogai Horde (ca. 1445, in the northeast of the Caspian Sea), Astrakhan Khanate (1459, around the mouth of the river Volga) Great Horde Khanate (1466,) and Siberian Khanate (1490, western Siberia).