In 1242 the Knights invaded Novgorod, one of the precursors of the Russian state, intent on converting the Russians to western Catholicism. The Battle of Lake Peipus, or Battle of the Ice was won decisively by Alexander Nevsky and the Russians, as memorialized in the beautifully filmed propaganda piece by Eisenstein. The boundary between the Baltic States and Russia remains the border between western Christianity and Orthodoxy.
In 1410 the Knights were defeated in the Battle of Grunwald, losing to the rising Polish-Lituanian power. Eventually, they were relegated to a few possessions in the Holy Roman Empire.