| Summary: | Background. The relevance of this topic is determined by Russia's belonging to the world of Eurasian civilizations, whose role has been belittled against the background of historical events in Europe. Meanwhile, large-scale processes took place in the Southern Urals in the XIV century, about which there is too little information not only in the educa-tional literature, but also in specialized publications. These include the campaign of the Ti-murid troops against the Golden Horde in 1391 and its culmination – the Battle of Kondurcha. These events laid the prerequisites for the final collapse of the Jochi Ulus, which in its turn accelerated the process of liberating Russian lands from the Horde dependence. Comparative analysis has shown that the battle on the Kondurcha River, which took place on June 18, 1391 and ended with the victory of Tamerlane's troops, in its scale and political consequences, not only was not inferior in compare with such widely covered in scientific and popular science literature battles as the Battle of Crecy, Poitiers, Kosovo Field, Grunwald, but also surpassed them. In addition, in this battle the ruler of Maverannahr for the first time widely used advanced techniques of military thought, which gained popularity on-ly in subsequent eras. Consequently, a detailed study of the Battle of Kondurcha, which dif-fered from most medieval battles not only in scale, but also in a variety of tactical techniques, will allow us to trace the genesis of the world military art. In addition, the relevance of the topic is determined by the role of the South Ural region in the political and socio-economic life of the Golden Horde. This special role was determined by the location of the Southern Urals in the very center of the Jochi ulus, which made it a link not only between the yurts subordinate to Batu and his descendants, but also between the Golden Horde and other parts of the Mongol Empire, including Maverannahr. The purpose of the study is to study the Timurid’s campaign to the Golden Horde in 1391. Materials and methods. Sources on this problem should be divided into three large groups: written, archaeological and toponymic sources. Among the first group, it is necessary to highlight the works of Persian and Arab authors, Russian chronicles, Bashkir legends. It is necessary to note that in most modern works on the history of the Timurid Empire and the Golden Horde, the authors' desire to attract as many sources as possible is traced, while their criticism fades into the background. That is why monographs and scientific articles provide information about the fantastic number of Tamerlane's army: 300–400 thousand warriors. To avoid such situa-tions, we used a different method: we divided the sources presented above into two groups – primary (main) and secondary (additional). Among the primary sources we have attributed works written by contemporaries or direct participants in the events, whose works describe in detail the campaign we are interested in using fragments from the works of Tamerlane's contemporaries. They play a key role in our study. Secondary sources include materials that are indirectly related to the problem under consideration, or created several decades after the events described without relying on a reliable primary basis. They are used by us only to supplement the information contained in the primary written sources. Among the main sources we have attributed the works of Persian authors Nizam-ad-Din Shami and Sharaf-ad-Din Abu Yazdi, which received the same name "Zafar-name" ("The book of Victories"); "The Code of Timur" is a political and legal document compiled by Tamerlane and re-flecting his views on the management of the state and the army, "The miracles of predestination in the destinies of Timur", written by the Arab author Ibn Arabshah in the first half of the XV century; "The label of the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh to the Polish King Jagiello" 1392–1393. To secondary sources we attributed information from the Nikon chronicle; "The Tale of Aksak-Temir"; Bashkir folk legends "The last of the Sartaev fami-ly" and "Idukai and Muradim". Items of offensive and defensive weapons belonging to the turn of the XIV–XV centuries should be attributed to archaeological sources: sabres found in the Western Orenburg region and in the Novo-Kumak burial ground (in the area of modern Orsk); a helmet found on the bank of the Kargalka river. The alleged fortified camp of Tamerlane belongs to the same group, the remains of which are located several km away from the confluence of the Sok River and the Kondurcha River. Thanks to these sources, we can get information about the complex of weapons of the opposing sides and reconstruct the route of Tamerlane's troops. The analysis of toponyms allowed us to put forward a number of assumptions about the localization of the key events of the Chagatai-Golden Horde confrontation in 1391. Results. We managed to reconstruct the route of the of Tamerlane's troops campaign to the Golden Horde in 1391, based on the study of a com-plex of sources. An approximate localization of its key events was established. Topographic analysis of the terrain elements in combination with data from written and toponymic sources allowed us to determine the alleged location of the Battle on Kondurcha river. The assessment of the mobilization capabilities of the opposing sides, the method of analogies, the data of the "Timur Code" gave us the opportunity to determine the approximate number of the opposing armies. Reconstruction of the location of the troops and the course of the Kondurchinskaya Battle revealed innovative tactical techniques used by Tamerlane in the battle with Tokhtamysh. Conclusions. Thanks to a comprehensive analysis of sources, the study of topographic elements of the terrain and the determination of the maximum possible speed of movement of troops, we were able to establish that the key part of the route of the Timurid troops associated with the first major clashes of the opposing sides passed through the territory of the modern Orenburg region, and not Bashkiria, as indicated in a number of scientific papers. Information about the presence of Tamerlane's troops on the territory of the latter, contained in Bashkir legends, should be associated not with the campaign itself, but with the raids organized by the Timurids after the Battle on Kondurcha. Also, it should be noted that the number of Tamerlane's army could not exceed 80 thousand people. Tokhtamysh had about the same number of soldiers. The place of the decisive battle of the Golden Horde and Chagatai should be sought in the Samara region on the border of the Elkhovsky and Sergievsky districts, near the villages of Krasnye Doma, Gornostayevka, Nikitinka, Bolshye Picherki. The victory of the Timurid troops in the Kondurchinskaya Battle was due to the use of advanced tactical techniques by Tamerlane, which significantly influenced the military art of the Late Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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