Mamai (or Mamay) was a powerful military commander of Golden Horde in the 1370s, who resided in the western part of this nomadic state, which is now the Southern Ukrainian Steppes and the Crimean Peninsula. He split apart from Khans of the Golden Horde, trying to establish his own state.

Mamai, holding military rank of tumenbashy (tyomnik, тёмник in Russian — commander of 10,000 troops, loosely equivalent to a modern general) was not Chingiz Khan's descendant and thus ineligible for the Saray throne. In 1378–1380 he tried to force Russians to pay annual tribute to him instead of the Golden Horde.

After being badly defeated by Russians at the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), Mamai was assassinated in Kaffa (Crimea) by the Genoese, who could not forgive the total waste of a military unit of Genoese crossbowmen who were slaughtered by the Russians. The memory of Mamai has endured for centuries. Contemporary Russian has an expression like Mamai passed to describe an utter mess.

One of his sons later escaped to Lithuania, and, serving Grand Prince Vytautas the Great, received the title of Prince of Hlinsk with multiple estates around the modern city of Poltava (Ukraine). This legendary events could take place in the 1400s, although the first documented mention of the Hlinski princes is made in 1437. Mikhail Hlinski was the most illustrious member of the family: he studied at the German university, took part as a knight in the Italian Wars, was the most powerful man in Lithuania in the 1500s, but later emigrated with his brothers to Muscovy and helped the Russians to retake the city of Smolensk. His niece Yelena Glinskaya was married to Vasily III, Grand Prince of Moscow, and Ivan the Terrible was her son.

See also

• Mamayev Kurgan, a hill and a memorial complex in present-day Volgograd