New waves of steppe people, Pechenegs, Torques, Cumans. Where have all the people gone? Pechenegs, Cumans and Mongols

As they say, “the Prophetic Oleg is going to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars.” Were they really below the Slavs in terms of development? What do we even know about this people?

Let's get answers to these questions together.

The Mystery of the Vanished People

Thanks to mentions in written sources of the Kievan Rus period, we know that Prince Svyatoslav destroyed the main cities of the Khazar Kaganate.

Sarkel, Semender and Itil were destroyed, and the position of the state was undermined. After the 12th century nothing is said about them at all. The latest information available suggests that they were captured and subjugated by the Mongols.

Until this time - from the 7th century - Khazaria was spoken of in Arab, Persian, and Christian sources. Its kings have enormous influence in the territories North Caucasus and Caspian steppes near the mouth of the Volga. Many neighbors paid tribute to the Khazars.

Until now, this people is shrouded in mystery, and many information does not agree. Researchers have difficulty getting through the national specifics of eyewitness accounts.

The Arabs have one measure of distance and time, the Turks have completely different ones, add here Byzantine, Jewish, Slavic and Khazar concepts. The names of cities are often given in one paragraph in an Islamic manner, in another in Hebrew or Turkic. That is, it is quite possible that there were more or fewer cities, since it has not yet been possible to completely compare ethnonyms. As well as discovering the remains of all major settlements.

Judging by the correspondence, the result is complete confusion and nonsense. In the king’s descriptions, the cities are huge, 500 kilometers long, and the provinces are tiny. Perhaps, again, this is a feature of the nomadic distance measure. The Khazars, Pechenegs, and Polovtsians counted the journey in days and distinguished the length of the road in the mountains and on the plain.
How did it really happen? Let's figure it out gradually.

Origin hypotheses

In the middle of the 7th century, in the vast expanses of flat Dagestan, in the Eastern Ciscaucasia, a hitherto unknown, but very strong people- Khazars. Who is this?

They call themselves “Kazars”. The word, according to most researchers, comes from the common Turkic root “kaz”, which denotes the process of “nomadism”. That is, they can simply call themselves nomads.

Other theories concern Persian ("Khazar" - "thousand"), Latin (Caesar) and Turkic ("enslave") languages. In fact, we don’t know for sure, so we’re adding this question to the list of open ones.

The origin of the people themselves is also shrouded in mystery. Today, the majority still considers it Turkic. What tribes claim to be the ancestors?

According to the first theory, these are the heirs of the Akatsir tribe, one part once great empire Huns.

The second option is that they are considered migrants from Khorasan.
These hypotheses have little evidence.

But the next two are quite strong and are confirmed by some facts. The only question is which sources are more accurate.

So, the third theory classifies the Khazars as descendants of the Uyghurs. The Chinese in their chronicles refer to them as the "Ko-sa people." During the collapse of the Hunnic Empire, taking advantage of the weakening of the Avars, some of the Oguzes went west. The self-names of the groups are translated as “10 tribes”, “30 tribes”, “white tribes”, and so on.

Were there Khazars among them? Who can confirm this? It is believed that these people were among them.

In the process of resettlement, they find themselves in the Northern Caspian region and Kuban. Later, with growing influence, they settled in the Crimea and near the mouth of the Volga.

With the advent of cities, crafts developed. Jewelers, blacksmiths, potters, tanners and other craftsmen form the basis for domestic trade.

The nobility and the ruling elite, as well as the army, lived off plunder and tribute from conquered neighbors.

In addition, a significant source of income came from duties and taxes on goods transported through the territory of the Kaganate. Since the history of the Khazars is inextricably linked with the east-west crossroads, they simply could not help but take advantage of the opportunities.

The route from China to Europe was in the hands of the Kaganate; navigation along the Volga and the northern part of the Caspian Sea was under state control. Derbent has become a wall separating two warring religions - Orthodoxy and Islam. This gave an unprecedented opportunity for the emergence of intermediary trade.

In addition, Khazaria became the largest transit point in the slave trade. Captured northerners were well sold by the Persians and Arabs. Girls are like concubines for harems and servants, men are like warriors, housekeepers and other hard labor.

Also, the state minted its own coins in the 10th and 11th centuries. Although it was an imitation of Arab money, a noteworthy point is that in the inscription “Muhammad is a prophet” on Khazar coins, the name “Moses” was written.

Culture and religion

Researchers obtain the main information about the people from original written sources. With nomadic tribes such as the Khazars, Pechenegs, and Cumans, things are more complicated. An ordered set of any documents simply does not exist.
And scattered inscriptions of a religious or everyday nature do not carry much meaning. From them only grains of information are obtained.

How much do we learn about a tribe's culture from the inscription "made by Joseph" on a pot? Here you will only be able to understand that pottery and some linguistic traditions were widespread, for example, the belonging of names to different peoples. Although this is not entirely true. This vessel could simply be bought and brought, for example, from Byzantium or Khorezm.

In fact, only one thing is known. The “foolish Khazars” included several nationalities and tribes who spoke Slavic, Arabic, Turkic and Jewish dialects. The elite of the state communicated and kept documentation in Hebrew, and the common people used runic writing, which leads to the hypothesis of its Turkic roots.

Modern researchers believe that the closest existing language to the Khazar language is Chuvash.

Religions in the state were also different. However, by the era of the decline of the Kaganate, Judaism became increasingly predominant and dominant. The history of the Khazars is thoroughly connected with it. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the “peaceful coexistence of faiths” came to an end.

Even riots began among Jewish and Muslim neighborhoods major cities. But in this case, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad were attacked.

We can hardly judge the state of things at the bottom of society due to the lack of any sources, except for a few brief mentions. But more on that later.

Khazar documents

Amazing sources about the state of affairs in the state, its history and structure came to us thanks to one Spanish Jew. A Cordoba courtier named Hasdai ibn Shafrut wrote a letter to the Khazar king asking him to tell him about the Khaganate.

This action was caused by his surprise. Being a Jew himself, and a highly educated one at that, he knew about the absent-mindedness of his fellow tribesmen. And here merchants visiting from the east talk about the existence of a centralized, powerful and highly developed state, in which Judaism predominates.

Since diplomacy was among Hasdai’s duties, he acted as an ambassador and turned to the kagan for truthful information.

He still received an answer. Moreover, it was written (rather dictated) by “Melekh Joseph, son of Aaron,” the Kagan of the Khazar Empire himself.

In the letter he provides a lot of interesting information. The greeting states that his ancestors had diplomatic ties with the Umayyads. Next, he talks about the history and structure of the state.

According to him, the ancestor of the Khazars is the biblical Japhet, the son of Noah. The king also tells a legend about the adoption of Judaism as the state religion. According to it, a decision was made to replace the paganism that the Khazars had previously professed. Who could do this in the best possible way? Of course the priests. A Christian, a Muslim and a Jew were invited. The last one turned out to be the most eloquent and outdid the rest.

According to the second version (not from the letter), the test for the priests consisted of deciphering unknown scrolls, which by “lucky chance” turned out to be the Torah.
Next, the Kagan talks about the geography of his country, its main cities and the life of the people. They spend the spring and summer as nomads, and return to their settlements during the cold season.

The letter ends with a boastful remark about the position of the Khazar Kaganate in the role of the main deterrent that saves Muslims from the invasion of northern barbarians. Rus' and the Khazars, it turns out, were at great odds in the 10th century, which led to death

Where have all the people gone?

And yet, Russian princes such as Svyatoslav and Oleg the Prophet could not completely destroy the entire people. The Khazars had to stay and assimilate with the invaders or neighbors.

In addition, the army of mercenaries of the Kaganate was also not small, since the state was forced to maintain peace in all occupied territories and confront the Arabs and Slavs.

To date, the most plausible version is the following. The empire owes its disappearance to a combination of several circumstances.

Firstly, the rise in the level of the Caspian Sea. More than half the country ended up at the bottom of the reservoir. Pastures and vineyards, homes and other things simply ceased to exist.

Thus, pressed natural disaster, people began to flee and move to the north and west, where they encountered opposition from their neighbors. So the Kyiv princes had the opportunity to “take revenge on the foolish Khazars.” The reason was long ago - the taking of people into slavery, duties on

The third reason, which served as a control shot, was the confusion in the conquered tribes. They sensed the weakness of the oppressors' position and rebelled. Provinces were gradually lost one after another.

As the sum of all these factors, the weakened state fell as a result of the Russian campaign, which destroyed three main cities, including the capital. The prince's name was Svyatoslav. The Khazars were unable to oppose worthy opponents to the northern pressure. Mercenaries do not always fight to the end. Your life is more valuable.

The most plausible version of who the surviving descendants are is as follows. During assimilation, the Khazars merged with the Kalmyks, and today they are part of this people.

Mentions in literature

Due to the small amount of surviving information, works about the Khazars are divided into several groups.

The first one is historical documents or religious controversy.
The second is a fiction based on the search for the missing country.
The third is pseudo-historical works.

Basic characters- Kagan (often as a separate character), Tsar or Bek Joseph, Shafrut, Svyatoslav and Oleg.

The main theme is the legend of the adoption of Judaism and the relationship between peoples such as the Slavs and Khazars.

War with the Arabs

In total, historians identify two armed conflicts in the 7th and 8th centuries. The first war lasted about ten years, the second - more than twenty-five.

The confrontation was between the Khaganate and the three caliphates, which were in the process historical development replaced each other.

In 642, the first conflict was provoked by the Arabs. They invaded the territory of the Khazar Kaganate through the Caucasus. Several images on vessels have survived from this period. Thanks to them, we can understand what the Khazars were like. Appearance, weapons, armor.

After ten years of unsystematic skirmishes and local conflicts, the Muslims decided to launch a massive attack, during which they suffered a crushing defeat at Belenger.

The second war was longer and more prepared. It began in the first decades of the eighth century, and continued until 737. During this military conflict, Khazar troops reached the walls of Mosul. But in response, Arab troops captured Semender and the Kagan's headquarters.

Similar clashes continued until the 9th century. After this, peace was concluded in order to strengthen the positions of Christian states. The border passed behind the wall of Derbent, which was Khazar. Everything to the south belonged to the Arabs.

Rus' and the Khazars

The Khazars were defeated by the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav. Who will deny this? However, the fact reflects only the ending of the relationship. What happened during the couple of centuries preceding the conquest?

The Slavs are mentioned in the chronicles as separate tribes (Radimichi, Vyatichi and others), which were subordinate to the Khazar Kaganate until they were captured by the Prophetic Oleg.

It is said that he imposed a lighter tribute on them with the only condition that they would not pay the Khazars now. This turn of events undoubtedly caused a corresponding reaction from the empire. But the war is not mentioned in any source. We can guess about it only by the fact that peace was concluded and the Rus, Khazars and Pechenegs went on joint campaigns.

This is such an interesting and difficult fate ended up with this people.

The Pechenegs appeared in Eastern European steppes at the end of the 9th century. Actually, the new flow of Asian immigrants was not a single ethnic group, but a union of tribes, a kind of conglomerate, diverse and multilingual. But it received its common name from the Pecheneg tribes (there were eight of them), who were in the vanguard of this Turkic-speaking (possibly with a small admixture of Ugrians) stream and who quantitatively constituted more than half of it (Artamonov M.I., 1962, 345).

The Pecheneg culture was quite high for nomads. Swords, clay jugs decorated with intricate, lush ornaments, ornamented bone bow linings, buckles and pendants for belts were found in the mounds they filled. The harness of Pecheneg horses is not much different from the modern one; it includes hard bits with bits, saddle girths and, most importantly, stirrups, which made it possible to shoot a bow without leaving the saddle.

The Pechenegs were previously part of the Khazar Kaganate and broke away from it as soon as it began to weaken. Having escaped the persecution of the former ruler, they moved to the west and south. At the beginning of the 10th century. these wanderers of the steppes had already reached the Crimea, where they captured the Bosporus and Chersonese, pushing out the Khazars. Obviously, the peninsula suited them very well, since many stopped here (the bulk of them went west, further to the Dnieper) and began to settle down quite thoroughly. They concluded at the beginning of the 10th century. alliance treaties with Byzantium and Russia, which, however, did not interfere with future wars. Byzantium nevertheless tried in every possible way to please the Crimean Pechenegs and support them both economically and politically. The emperors benefited from friendship with the warlike and numerous steppe inhabitants, who formed a barrier against penetration of the Russians into the Byzantine possessions, for the latter were more dangerous: not limiting themselves to the plunder of small settlements, they threatened Constantinople, organized joint campaigns in which they opposed the Greeks, such as, for example, in 944, Varangians, Rus, Polyans, Slovenians and Krivichi. According to the conclusions of the Soviet historian, the alliance with the Pechenegs of Crimea in general “was the center of the Byzantine system of maintaining political balance in the 10th century” (Levchenko M.V., 1940, 156). But, judging by Russian chronicles, the Pechenegs fought with Russia not only by agreement with Byzantium and together with its army, but also on their own initiative, and more than once. In one of these wars, the famous Prince Svyatoslav fell, from whose skull the Pecheneg Khan Kurya made himself a ritual cup.

In the middle of the 11th century. four Pecheneg hordes roaming the Black Sea region disintegrated. At the end of the century, they tried to unite again into a tribal union and even moved together against Byzantium, but this was their last major campaign. The emperor attracted the Polovtsians to his side and, surrounding the Pechenegs, staged a terrible massacre, where more than 30 thousand of them died. This was a decisive blow; the ethnic group was never able to rise again. Some of the Pechenegs left Crimea for the southern steppes, to the valley of the Ros River and to Belaya Vezha; There is obviously not much left.

The Pechenegs had almost no influence on the Crimean population - both due to the brevity of their stay there and the inability to compete with the powerful cultural influence more developed Byzantine neighbors in Crimea. On the other hand, the Pechenegs differed from other conquerors in that they not only did not destroy the classical antiquities of Taurida, but over time they “began to value” them, acquiring a taste for settled cultural life (Lashkov F.F., 1881, 24).

Moreover, they adopted many of the socio-economic achievements of the Crimeans of that time. If they came here as nomads, and at a rather low, camp stage of development (it is characterized by military democracy and weak property differentiation), then soon, having mastered the steppe and foothills, they began to quickly move on to agriculture. Some of the Pechenegs moved to port cities, where they also showed unexpected abilities by engaging in trade. Moreover, there are many known Pecheneg merchants who conducted large-scale transit trade between Byzantium and Kherson, on the one hand, and Russia and the Volga Khazaria, on the other. There is information that the Pecheneg trading houses even ousted the indigenous Chersonesites from the most promising area of ​​their interests - trade with the East (ibid., 25).

The Polovtsians, or Kipchaks (named after one of the largest Polovtsian tribes), appeared in the Crimea in the 10th - 11th centuries, coming from the regions of the Volki (Idil) and Ural (Dzhaik) rivers. These were the same as the Pechenegs, nomads; by origin they also had a certain degree of kinship. Both of them belonged mainly to the Turks. From the skeletons found in the burials, we see that they were round-headed (brachycranial) Caucasoids, some with minor Mongoloid features. The Polovtsians were mostly fair-haired and blue-eyed, which made them different from the dark-haired Pechenegs. In the 11th century The bulk of the Polovtsians converted to Islam.

At first, after arriving in Crimea, the Cuman-Kypchaks continued to wander and organize devastating raids - mainly against Rus' and Byzantium. And they achieved great success: on the one hand, Byzantium had to learn from bitter experience that it was more profitable to be friends with them than to fight, on the other hand, the Russians were never able to go deeper into the Polovtsian possessions in the entire 11th century. Political Polovtsian-Byzantine connections were carried out mainly through Chersonesos, although the capital of the Crimean Polovtsians was Sudak (Sugdeya).

The Polovtsian horde flourished in Crimea much longer than the Pechenegs - until the start of the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the 13th century.46 The main emigration began after the Battle of Kalka, but many, especially merchants and farmers who mixed with local tribes and had adopted Christianity by that time, remained. Then they suffered the fate of so many tribes that inhabited Crimea in ancient times, and they finally merged with the local population, leaving no memory even in the facial features of the indigenous Crimeans; as was said, both were Caucasians.

But very remarkable monuments of Polovtsian material culture remained. In the northwestern Crimea, massive stone sculptures of the so-called Polovtsian women are still found half-hidden by the ground, or even under the arable layer. This is a magnificent genre of art, and a strictly individual one. The ancient masters highly stylized their creations, they arranged them according to a general model (a straightened figure with a jug pressed with both hands to the stomach), but they knew how to achieve, despite the canons, a portrait resemblance. These statues reflected living history people, even changes in their appearance - the “women” of the Caucasian plains acquired in the 14th century. a hump on the nose (a trace of interethnic mixing with Georgians), while Crimean ones retain the noble simplicity and clarity of the old Polovtsian type. And one more trace, unfortunately less durable than the statues. Until 1944 in Crimea there were settlements with the toponymic component "Kipchak". Nowadays these are villages with such mediocre names, invented without reference to history, as Gromove, Rybatskoye, Samsonovka, etc., etc. ...

From the spiritual heritage of the Polovtsians, we can name the examples of oral Arabic folklore common to the Islamic world that they brought to the Crimean soil, such as “Leila and Majnun”, “Yusuf and Zuleika”, later “Ashik-Gharib”, anecdotes about Khoja Nasreddin and others, enriching the Crimean folk cultural tradition.

Among these first Muslims of Crimea was in the XII - XIII centuries. The first monument of the Crimean Tatar language was created - the dictionary "Code Cumanicus". It is recognized that the language of the Crimean Kipchak of that period was more developed and perfect than the dialects of the hordes that came to Crimea later (see below), in which a variety of Turkic and Mongolian elements were mixed, and therefore it was the Kipchak language that served as the basis for the formation of written and literary Crimean Tatar language (Fazyl R., Nagaev S., 1989, 136).

Polovtsy Polovtsy (Cumans, Kipchaks) are the people of the Turkic tribe, who once formed one whole with the Pechenegs and Torks (when they lived in the steppes of Central Asia); in Petrarch's papers a dictionary of the Polovtsian language has been preserved, from which it is clear that their language is Turkic, which is closest to the Quattro-Turkish one. P. came to the southern Russian steppes following the Pechenegs and soon ousted both of them. From this time (2nd half of the 11th century) until the Mongol-Tatar invasion, they carried out constant attacks on Rus', especially southern Russia - they devastated lands, plundered livestock and property, took away a lot of prisoners, whom they either kept as slaves or sold in slave markets Crimea and Central Asia. Their attacksP. they did it quickly and suddenly; Russian princes tried to recapture their captives and cattle when they returned to their steppe. The border principality of Pereyaslavl suffered most from them, then Porosye, Seversk, Kiev, and Ryazan regions. Sometimes Rus' ransomed its prisoners from P. To defend its southern borders, Rus' built fortifications and settled on the borderlands of allied and peaceful Turks, known as black hoods. The center of the Black-Klobutsky settlements was Porosye, on the southern border Principality of Kyiv . Sometimes the Russians waged an offensive war with the Polovtsians, undertaking campaigns deep into the Polovtsian land; one of such campaigns was the campaign of the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Igor Svyatoslavich, in 1185; but they brought more glory than benefit. The Polovtsian people split into several tribes, which were named after their leaders. Thus, the chronicle mentions the Voburgevichs, Ulashevichs, Bosteeva, Chargova children. P. were excellent steppe riders and had their own military system. Their main occupation was cattle breeding (breeding cattle, horses, camels), and therefore they moved from one place to another; Their situation was difficult during the harsh winters. They obtained gold and silver partly by robbery, partly by trade. They did not build P. cities, although Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev are mentioned in their land and belonged to them in the 13th century. Sudak. The Polovtsian khans lived a luxurious life, but the people generally lived simply and unpretentiously; his main food was meat. milk and millet, favorite drink - kumiss. GraduallyP. were exposed to the cultural influence of Rus', sometimes adopted Christianity; Their khans received Christian names. In general, however. P.were pagans. According to Rubrukvis, they built mounds over the ashes of their dead and placed stone women on top of them. In the half of the 13th century. P. were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars. Some of them moved to Transcaucasia, some to Russia, some to the Balkan Peninsula (Thrace, Macedonia) and Asia Minor, some to Hungary; the Hungarian king Bela IV accepted P., who came under the leadership of Khan Kotyan (father-in-law of Daniil Romanovich of Galicia); the heir to the Hungarian throne, Stefan V, married Kotyan’s daughter, and in general P. took a prominent position in Hungary. Finally, part of P. moved to Egypt, where they also settled well in the army; some Egyptian sultans were of Polovtsian origin. See P.V. Golubovsky, “Pechenegs, Turks and Cumans before the Tatar invasion” (Kyiv, 1884); article by prof. Aristov "About the Polovtsian Land" (in "Izvestiya Nezh. Ist.Phil. Institute"). D. Bag-th snake (Eryx) - a genus of snakes from the subfamily Erycinae family. boas (Boidae), distinguished by a very short, mobile and non-curling tail, covered with small scales and a head not delimited from the body with a rounded muzzle, with a distinct longitudinal groove on the chin and the absence of pits on all labial scutes; The front jaw teeth are only slightly longer than the back teeth. From 5 to 6 species characteristic of the Palearctic Himalayan regions and living in very dry sandy areas of steppes and deserts. The most common species is the Turkish snake (Eryx jaculus s.turcicus), 66 - 77 cm long. , bright yellowish-gray above, with an oblique black stripe on both sides of the head; black checkers, located in four longitudinal rows along the entire length of the body, merge with each other; the underside is mostly one-color straw-yellow. Distributed from the Balkan Peninsula to the Altai Mountains to the east and to Egypt and Algeria to the west. It buries itself in the sand, lying in wait for prey, which consists mainly of lizards, which it strangles before swallowing. T.Ya.

Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what “Polovtsians” are in other dictionaries:

- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (part of it went to Hungary) ... Modern encyclopedia

- (Kipchaks) Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in early 1055. 13th century The most dangerous attacks were in con. 11th century Stopped after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16.… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

CUMANS, Cumans, units. Polovtsian, Polovtsian, husband. Turkic people, related to the Pechenegs, in the 11th and 12th centuries. AD repeatedly attacked Kievan Rus. Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Cumans, ev, units. vets, vtsa, husband. A group of tribes of Turkic origin that roamed the southeast of Europe in the 11th century. 13th century | wives Polovtsian, I. | adj. Polovtsian, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. The most dangerous attacks were at the end of the 11th century; ceased after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16;... ... Russian history

Cumans- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (some of them went to Hungary). ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

It is proposed to merge this page with the Kipchaks. Explanation of reasons and discussion on the Wikipedia page: Towards unification / October 23, 2011. The discussion lasts one week (or longer if it is going slowly). Date... Wikipedia

Ev; pl. East. Ancient Turkic people language group, who roamed the southeast of Europe at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 13th centuries; representatives of this people. The fight against the Polovtsians. ◁ Polovtsian, vtsa; m. Polovchanka, and; pl. genus. nok, dat. nkam; and. Polovtsian, oh, oh. P.... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Kipchaks, Cumans, cf. century Turkic people groups. In the 10th century occupied the territory North Zap. Kazakhstan, bordering on the East with the Kimaks, on the South with the Oguzes, and on the West with the Khazars. They split into a number of tribes and led a nomadic lifestyle. In mid. 10th century, moving after... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Kipchaks, Kypchaks, Cumans, the Russian name for a mostly Mongoloid Turkic-speaking people who came around the 11th century. from the Volga region to the Black Sea steppes. P.'s main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding. By the 12th century. P. begins to stand out... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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• Cumans in Hungary. Historical sketch, Pyotr Vasilievich Golubovsky. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Brief research work, which the author originally intended as an appendix to his...

The Pechenemgi are a union of nomadic tribes that supposedly formed in the 8th-9th centuries. The Pechenezh language, according to a number of scientists (N.A. Baskakov), belonged to the Oguz subgroup of the Turkic language group.

According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, some of the Pechenegs called themselves Kangars. At the end of the 9th century, those of them who bore the name “Patzynak” (Pechenegs), as a result of climatic changes (drought) in the steppe zone of Eurasia, as well as under pressure from neighboring tribes of Kimaks and Oguzes, crossed the Volga and ended up in the Eastern European steppes, where they had previously roamed Hungarians. Under them, this land was called Levedia, and under the Pechenegs it received the name Padzinakia. Around 882 the Pechenegs reached Crimea. At the same time, the Pechenegs came into conflict with the princes of Kievan Rus Askold (875 - this clash is described in later chronicles and disputed by historians), Igor (915, 920). After the collapse of the Khazar Khaganate (965), power over the steppes west of the Volga passed to the Pecheneg hordes. During this period, the Pechenegs occupied territories between Kievan Rus, Hungary, Danube Bulgaria, Alania, Mordovia and the Oguzes who inhabited Western Kazakhstan. The hegemony of the Pechenegs led to the decline of sedentary culture, since the agricultural settlements of the Transnistrian Slavs and Don Alans were ravaged and destroyed. In 968 the Pechenegs besieged Kyiv, but were defeated. In 970 they took part in the battle of Arcadiopolis on the side Prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav Igorevich, but after the conclusion of the Russian-Byzantine peace (July 971), a new Russian-Pecheneg conflict began to brew. In 972, the Pechenegs of Prince Kuri killed Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich at the Dnieper rapids, and from his skull they made a cup according to Scythian custom.

These are the military customs of the Scythians. They do the same with the heads of their enemies (but not all of them, but only the most fierce ones). First, the skulls are sawed off down to the eyebrows and cleaned. The poor man only covers the outside of the skull with rawhide cowhide and uses it in this form. Rich people first cover the outside of the skull with rawhide, and then cover the inside with gold and use it instead of a cup.

In the 990s, there was a new deterioration in relations between Russia and the Pechenegs. Grand Duke Vladimir defeated them (993) at Trubezh, but in 996 he himself was defeated at Vasilyev. Vladimir built fortresses with a warning system on the steppe border to effectively counter the Pecheneg invasions.

By the 11th century, pressed by the Polovtsians, the Pechenegs roamed 13 tribes between the Danube and the Dnieper. Around 1010, discord arose among the Pechenegs. The Pechenegs of Prince Tirah converted to Islam, while the two western tribes of Prince Kegen (Belemarnids and Pahumanids, totaling 20,000 people) crossed the Danube into Byzantine territory under the scepter of Constantine Monomakh and in Dobrudja adopted Byzantine-style Christianity. The Byzantine emperor planned to make them border guard. However, in 1048, huge masses of Pechenegs (up to 80,000 people) under the leadership of Tirah crossed the Danube on ice and invaded the Balkan possessions of Byzantium.

The Pechenegs took part in the internecine war between Yaroslav the Wise and Svyatopolk the Accursed on the side of the latter. In 1016 they took part in the battle of Lyubech, in 1019 in the battle of Alta (both times unsuccessfully).

The last documented Russian-Pecheneg conflict was the siege of Kyiv in 1036, when the nomads besieging the city were finally defeated by an army that arrived in time Grand Duke. Yaroslav used a dismembered formation along the front, placing the Kyivans and Novgorodians on the flanks. After this, the Pechenegs ceased to play an independent role, but acted as a significant part of the new tribal union of the Berendeys, also called the Black Klobuks. The memory of the Pechenegs was alive much later: for example, in literary work The hero Chelubey, who began the Battle of Kulikovo with a duel, is called a Pecheneg.

In 1048 the Western Pechenegs settled in Moesia. In 1071, the Pechenegs played an unclear role in the defeat of the Byzantine army near Manzikert. In 1091, the Byzantine-Polovtsian army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Pechenegs near the walls of Constantinople.

The Pechenegs are described as Caucasians, brunettes, who shaved their beards (according to the Arab Ahmed ibn Fadlan). Within the Caucasoid race, the Pechenegs can be classified as Pontids, since they also had short stature and narrow faces. However, the Pechenegs did not constitute any special anthropological type, different from neighboring peoples. The Tale of Bygone Years reports that a Kievite could easily get lost among the Pechenegs:

“And people from the opposite side of the Dnieper gathered in boats and stood on the other bank, and it was impossible for any of them to get to Kyiv, or from the city to them. And the people in the city began to grieve and said: “Is there anyone who could get over to the other side and tell them: if you don’t approach the city in the morning, we will surrender to the Pechenegs.” And one youth said: “I can pass.” The townspeople were delighted and said to the youth: “If you know how to get through, go.” He left the city, holding a bridle, and walked through the Pecheneg camp, asking them: “Has anyone seen a horse?” For he knew Pechenezh, and they took him for one of their own (PVL, l?to 6476)"

PECHENEGS AND CUMANS

The Pechenegs appeared in the Eastern European steppes at the end of the 9th century. Actually, the new flow of Asian immigrants was not a single ethnic group, but a union of tribes, a kind of conglomerate, diverse and multilingual. But it received its common name from the Pecheneg tribes (there were eight of them), who were in the vanguard of this Turkic-speaking (possibly with a small admixture of Ugrians) stream and who quantitatively constituted more than half of it (Artamonov M.I., 1962, 345).

The Pecheneg culture was quite high for nomads. Swords, clay jugs decorated with intricate, lush ornaments, ornamented bone bow linings, buckles and pendants for belts were found in the mounds they filled. The harness of Pecheneg horses is not much different from the modern one; it includes hard bits with bits, saddle girths and, most importantly, stirrups, which made it possible to shoot a bow without leaving the saddle.

The Pechenegs were previously part of the Khazar Kaganate and broke away from it as soon as it began to weaken. Having escaped the persecution of the former ruler, they moved to the west and south. At the beginning of the 10th century. these wanderers of the steppes had already reached the Crimea, where they captured the Bosporus and Chersonese, pushing out the Khazars. Obviously, the peninsula suited them very well, since many stopped here (the bulk of them went west, further to the Dnieper) and began to settle down quite thoroughly. They concluded at the beginning of the 10th century. alliance treaties with Byzantium and Russia, which, however, did not interfere with future wars. Byzantium nevertheless tried in every possible way to please the Crimean Pechenegs and support them both economically and politically. The emperors benefited from friendship with the warlike and numerous steppe inhabitants, who formed a barrier against penetration of the Russians into the Byzantine possessions, for the latter were more dangerous: not limiting themselves to the plunder of small settlements, they threatened Constantinople, organized joint campaigns in which they opposed the Greeks, such as, for example, in 944, Varangians, Rus, Polyans, Slovenians and Krivichi. According to the conclusions of the Soviet historian, the alliance with the Pechenegs of Crimea in general “was the center of the Byzantine system of maintaining political balance in the 10th century” (Levchenko M.V., 1940, 156). But, judging by Russian chronicles, the Pechenegs fought with Russia not only by agreement with Byzantium and together with its army, but also on their own initiative, and more than once. In one of these wars, the famous Prince Svyatoslav fell, from whose skull the Pecheneg Khan Kurya made himself a ritual cup.

In the middle of the 11th century. four Pecheneg hordes roaming the Black Sea region disintegrated. At the end of the century, they tried to unite again into a tribal union and even moved together against Byzantium, but this was their last major campaign. The emperor attracted the Polovtsians to his side and, surrounding the Pechenegs, staged a terrible massacre, where more than 30 thousand of them died. This was a decisive blow; the ethnic group was never able to rise again. Some of the Pechenegs left Crimea for the southern steppes, to the valley of the Ros River and to Belaya Vezha; There is obviously not much left.

The Pechenegs had almost no influence on the Crimean population - both due to the short duration of their stay there and the inability to compete with the powerful cultural influence of their more developed Byzantine neighbors in Crimea. On the other hand, the Pechenegs differed from other conquerors in that they not only did not destroy the classical antiquities of Taurida, but over time they “began to value” them, acquiring a taste for settled cultural life (Lashkov F.F., 1881, 24).

Moreover, they adopted many of the socio-economic achievements of the Crimeans of that time. If they came here as nomads, and at a rather low, camp stage of development (it is characterized by military democracy and weak property differentiation), then soon, having mastered the steppe and foothills, they began to quickly move on to agriculture. Some of the Pechenegs moved to port cities, where they also showed unexpected abilities by engaging in trade. Moreover, there are many known Pecheneg merchants who conducted large-scale transit trade between Byzantium and Kherson, on the one hand, and Russia and the Volga Khazaria, on the other. There is information that the Pecheneg trading houses even ousted the indigenous Chersonesites from the most promising area of ​​their interests - trade with the East (ibid., 25).

The Polovtsians, or Kipchaks (named after one of the largest Polovtsian tribes), appeared in the Crimea in the 10th - 11th centuries, coming from the regions of the Volki (Idil) and Ural (Dzhaik) rivers. These were the same as the Pechenegs, nomads; by origin they also had a certain degree of kinship. Both of them belonged mainly to the Turks. From the skeletons found in the burials, we see that they were round-headed (brachycranial) Caucasoids, some with minor Mongoloid features. The Polovtsians were mostly fair-haired and blue-eyed, which made them different from the dark-haired Pechenegs. In the 11th century The bulk of the Polovtsians converted to Islam.

At first, after arriving in Crimea, the Cuman-Kypchaks continued to wander and organize devastating raids - mainly against Rus' and Byzantium. Moreover, they achieved great success: on the one hand, Byzantium had to learn from bitter experience that it was more profitable to be friends with them than to fight, on the other hand, the Russians were never able to go deeper into the Polovtsian possessions in the entire 11th century. Political Polovtsian-Byzantine connections were carried out mainly through Chersonesos, although the capital of the Crimean Polovtsians was Sudak (Sugdeya).

The Polovtsian horde flourished in Crimea much longer than the Pechenegs - until the start of the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the 13th century. The main emigration began after the Battle of Kalka, but many, especially merchants and farmers who mixed with local tribes and had converted to Christianity by that time, remained. Then they suffered the fate of so many tribes that inhabited Crimea in ancient times, and they finally merged with the local population, leaving no memory even in the facial features of the indigenous Crimeans; as was said, both were Caucasians.

But very remarkable monuments of Polovtsian material culture remained. In the northwestern Crimea, massive stone sculptures of the so-called Polovtsian women are still found half-hidden by the ground, or even under the arable layer. This is a magnificent genre of art, and a strictly individual one. The ancient masters highly stylized their creations, they arranged them according to a general model (a straightened figure with a jug pressed with both hands to the stomach), but they knew how to achieve, despite the canons, a portrait resemblance.

These statues reflected the living history of the people, even changes in their appearance - the “women” of the Caucasian plains acquired in the 14th century. a hump on the nose (a trace of interethnic mixing with Georgians), while Crimean ones retain the noble simplicity and clarity of the old Polovtsian type. And one more trace, unfortunately less durable than the statues. Until 1944, there were settlements in Crimea with the toponymic component “Kipchak”. Nowadays these are villages with such mediocre names, invented without reference to history, such as Gromove, Rybatskoye, Samsonovka, etc., etc. ...

From the spiritual heritage of the Polovtsians, we can name the examples of oral Arabic folklore common to the Islamic world that they brought to the Crimean soil, such as “Leila and Majnun”, “Yusuf and Zuleika”, later “Ashik-Gharib”, anecdotes about Khoja Nasreddin and others, enriching the Crimean folk cultural tradition.

Among these first Muslims of Crimea was in the XII - XIII centuries. The first monument of the Crimean Tatar language was created - the dictionary "Code Cumanicus". It is recognized that the language of the Crimean Kipchak of that period was more developed and perfect than the dialects of the hordes that came to Crimea later (see below), in which a variety of Turkic and Mongolian elements were mixed, and therefore it was the Kipchak language that served as the basis for the formation of written and literary Crimean Tatar language (Fazyl R., Nagaev S., 1989, 136).

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