Kondurcha

The Kondurcha flows through the country east of the Volga to join the Sok near Samara. Its valley is remembered for a great encounter between the armies of Timur and Tokhtamysh, khan of the Golden Horde. The surrounding grasslands furnished pasture for horses and lay on the approaches to the wealthy towns of the middle Volga.

On 18 June 1391 Timur met Tokhtamysh's army in the Kondurcha region. Tokhtamysh attempted to turn his enemy's flanks, but Timur committed reserves and forced the Horde army from the field. The defeated khan escaped and later recovered power, only to suffer another defeat at Timur's hands in 1395. The first battle marked a severe blow in a struggle that weakened the Golden Horde and reshaped the politics of the steppe.