WI: Golden Horde replace Russia

I have to concur with Ran. The best chance by far for the Golden Horde to absorb the Russian Principalities instead of leaving them as cash-cow vassals would have been if they converted to Orthodoxy themselves.

That being said, Timur sacking Sarai in 1395 and breaking the unity of said state forever did not help (nor did the prolonged civil wars beforehand). Without those, the Place could have kept the Russian principalities disunited and marginal for quite some time

HTG
 
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