Kazakh historian Zhaksylyk Sabitov stated that corruption existed in the Golden Horde, but in those times bribes and payoffs were perceived as ordinary gifts. He said this in a podcast by Armanzhan Baitasov, as reported by infohub.kz.
According to the historian, bribes in the Golden Horde were treated quite differently than today. They were considered signs of attention and respect.
"The first travelers who went through the Mongol Empire were greatly surprised because gifts were practically extorted from them. Everyone wanted to get something from them. If envoys came from Europe, and some of them were not very wealthy, gifts were still extorted from them," he said.
Bribery was also used to resolve political issues. For example, Russian princes regularly brought money to the Horde to obtain a patent for the grand principality.
"When Russian princes traveled to the Golden Horde, they needed to solve a problem, for example, who would become the Grand Prince of Vladimir. And each of them brought money to solve this problem in their favor," Sabitov added.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that such actions should not be called corruption in the modern sense, since the structure of the state in that era was fundamentally different.