Abstract Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe. Relationship problems. Southern Russia and the steppe

Dmitry Rasovsky. Polovtsy, Torks, Pechenegs, Berendeys. Moscow: Lomonosov, 2016.

An extensive literature is devoted to the relationship between Ancient Russia and the steppe peoples. First of all, it is necessary to highlight the fundamental work of Sergei Solovyov "The History of Russia from Ancient Times", the last, twenty-ninth volume of which was published in 1879, after the death of an outstanding historian. Academician Boris Rybakov also made a significant contribution in the work “The Birth of Russia”, where, based on chronicle sources and archaeological research, he expressed original and sometimes controversial views on “where did the Russian land come from?” And, of course, as the most popular and well-known work of Lev Gumilyov should be noted " Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe”, published in 1989. If Rybakov, who knew the living and dead languages perfectly, to justify the autochthonism of the Slavs, that is, the originality of their residence in the territories of Ancient Russia, “sinned”, not being a linguist, linguistic analysis, then Gumilyov, who knew languages poorly, went the other way. He, relying on his original ideas about ethnogenesis, passionarity, etc., which are close mostly to the lay reader, unusually convincingly thought out those circumstances that were not mentioned in the sources, creating his own fascinating picture of the world at the end of the first millennium of our era.

Dmitry Alexandrovich Rasovsky's book "Polovtsy, Torks, Pechenegs, Berendeys" is a work of an academic historian, at times, so to speak, a bit dry for the average reader, and consists of messages prepared for publication, with which Rasovsky spoke from 1927 to 1939 at the famous Seminarium Kondakovianum. Initially, Rasovsky's messages, like other speakers, were published with the assistance of the President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk, and with the financial support of the American Arabist and financier Charles Crane. Krein, known (among other things) for having bought bells from the monastery belfry after the sack of the Danilov Monastery and donated them Harvard University, invested in publications. And he did not lose: everything that was published under the “heading” of “Seminarium Kondakovianum” was in great demand both in the professional and in the “amateurish” environment of the Russian emigration.

The Seminarium Kondakovianum itself or the Seminar to them. N.P. Kondakova united emigre scholars who studied mainly the history of Byzantium and Ancient Russia, Russian art and iconography. The seminar was established after the death of the outstanding scientist Nikolai Pavlovich Kondakov in February 1925, and it existed in Prague until 1945. True, since 1930 the seminar was already the Kondakov Institute, and the Seminarium was held within the framework of the Institute. It is worth noting that although the Institute declared the principle of non-participation in any political actions, nevertheless, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, it enjoyed the patronage of the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia von Neurath. But Dmitry Rasovsky, apparently, took the capture of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich without much enthusiasm ...

... Born in Moscow in 1902 and left Russia in 1919, Rasovsky was part of a close circle of scientists who collaborated with Kondakov in the last years of his life. Rasovsky defended his doctoral dissertation at Charles University, and worked at the Institute until 1938. When a branch of the Institute was founded in Belgrade under the patronage of Prince Paul, Rasovsky moved there and died during the first German bombardment of the city in April 1941.

The scientific legacy of Dmitry Alexandrovich Rasovsky must be considered in line with the common heritage of emigrant Eurasianism. Despite the fact that Rasovsky, like his teacher Kondakov, was a "fact-worshipper", he was influenced by such Eurasians as Pyotr Savitsky, Nikolai Trubetskoy and, in particular, Georgy Vernadsky. Which is natural - before leaving for the United States in 1927, Vernadsky was one of the directors of the Seminarium Kondakovianum. Although commitment historical facts and reliance on chronicle sources did not allow Rasovsky to fully accept the provisions of Eurasianism, overshadowed by mysticism, he was close to them in what Savitsky called "a sense of the continent." In other words, it is close to the perception of the Eurasian continent as a space of mixing, remelting different cultures and peoples into a kind of common formation, opposite in its deepest essence to the cultures and peoples of the West.

Rasovsky's book consists of three parts: "Polovtsy", "On the role of black hoods in the history of Ancient Russia", "Pechenegs, Torks and Berendeys in Russia and Ugria"; and the most interesting part is the "Polovtsy".

The literature devoted to the Turks and their role in history is great, but it was the Polovtsy, according to the author, who "did not have any luck in historiography." Therefore, Rasovsky took it upon himself to describe the history of the Polovtsy from the first mention of the Turks in Chinese sources of the 2nd century BC. before the appearance in the 9th-11th centuries of those nomads whom most authors already identify directly with the Polovtsians. The history of the Polovtsy as presented by Rasovsky is a fascinating read, although at times it becomes difficult to keep in mind the variety of names of the Turkic tribes, the places of their initial settlement, and the routes of their movement to the west.

Nevertheless, reading turns into a fascinating process, especially when the author shares with the reader his vision of the breadth of coverage of the Turkic peoples and the Cumans, in particular, the spaces of Eurasia. Rasovsky describes how in the 10th century the Polovtsians come into contact with the Khazars, how they “break into Europe with great pressure and in ten or fifteen years take possession of the entire steppe space to the borders of Byzantium and Ugria (i.e. Hungary - D.S. )". Then the inevitable happens - the clash of the Polovtsy with Russia: “In 1061, the Polovtsy, in the first military clash with the Russians on the Dnieper left bank, inflicted a defeat on them -“ this was the first evil on the Russian land from the filthy and godless enemies.

Rasovsky has his own version of the reasons for the Polovtsian attack on Russia. He believes that, in addition to the "usual" desire for prey, the Polovtsians sought to punish the Russians for taking under their protection another Turkic tribe, the "black hoods" and, most importantly, the Pechenegs, the former enemies of Russia, who were forced to conclude an alliance with Russia and actually agree to its supremacy. Be that as it may, the clashes with the Polovtsy that followed the first invasion lasted almost 200 years, until, crushing everyone and everything, the Central Asian tribes led by the Mongols invaded Europe.

Rasovsky notes that the Polovtsians "for their entire historical life did not go beyond the steppes and did not create any state outside them. When the “Polovtsian field” was taken over by the Tatars, the majority of the Polovtsy found themselves “in the position of slaves of the new conquerors, or went to other steppes, the Pannonian ones, in order to exchange Tatar slavery for the service of the Hungarian kings”. The two-century struggle of "forest and steppe", Russia and the Polovtsy, did not lead to the victory of one of the parties. Skirmishes with Russia were of the usual nature in those days - "so that the swords in the scabbard do not rust." However, neither the constant attacks of the Polovtsians on Russia, nor their participation in the wars between the princes in one coalition, then in another, nor family ties Polovtsy with the strongest princely houses (Vladimir Monomakh in 1117 married his son Andrei to the granddaughter of the famous Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan) for the Russian princes, according to Rasovsky, they were never more important than their own internecine strife.

For the reader, a man of the 21st century, of particular interest is the appearance of those with whom his distant ancestors fought a thousand years ago. This interest is also fueled by cinema: a significant part of the "couch experts" did not agree with the creators of the film "Viking", in which the Pechenegs had clearly Mongoloid features. The Polovtsy, who came to Russia later than the Pechenegs, were the descendants of the Kimak Turks who lived in the upper reaches of the Irtysh. Rasovsky writes that "all sources describing appearance Polovtsy, unanimously agree in characterizing them as a tall, slender, beautiful and fair-haired people. At the same time, there was also a “three-fold homogenization of the Polovtsy”, which led to the formation of a unique ethnic group that combined Mongoloid and Caucasoid features. At the same time, Nizami, a classic of Persian poetry, noted the beauty of Polovtsian women and the whiteness of their skin. Rasovsky, on the other hand, cites The Tale of Igor's Campaign, which mentions the captured "Polovtsian red girls" and that place in the Trinity Chronicle, which speaks of beautiful Polovtsian women as gifts from the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan to the Russian princes.

Rasovsky, however, admits that skepticism about the existence of a "white Asian race" is justified. Under the influence of Eurasian views, using the authority of the Persian historian of the 11th century Gardizi, who noted the non-Turkic features of the Polovtsians, Rasovsky writes that “red-hairedness, blue-eyedness and white skin color” were also inherent in other ancient peoples Central Asia. And he immediately agrees that when the Polovtsy entered the Black Sea steppes in the 11th century, they "were already pure Turks in language, and typical nomads in culture."

Describing the "black hoods" ("black hats" from the Turkic "karakalpak", black cap - D.S.), Rasovsky opens pages of history unknown to the general reader. “Klobuks” or “their filthy ones” were fragments of nomadic tribes that the Polovtsians expelled from their places of permanent nomadism. Having received independence for the service of the Russian princes, the opportunity to preserve their identity, the "hoods" began this service with recent decades XI century. Referring to the Lavrentiev and Ipatiev chronicles, Rasovsky claims that the army of Prince Yaropolk Vladimirovich, the son of Monomakh, had almost thirty thousand “hoods”. They turned out to be the most combat-ready, along with the troops sent by the Hungarian king (which, ironically, consisted entirely of Polovtsy), when Yaropolk entered into an internecine war with the Chernigov prince Vsevolod Olgovich in 1138. True, Rasovsky warns against exaggerating the location of the "hoods" to the employers, the Russian princes, and advises the reader to keep in mind that the endless wars on the territory of Slavic Russia "due to the large number of Asians who took part in them - let it not seem like a paradox - acquired an eastern, Asian character ".

In the last part of the book, Rasovsky explores the influence of the Pechenegs and other Turks on two neighboring public education- to Russia and Ugria. If for Russia the Pechenegs were constant enemies, then in the West they more often entered the service of the Hungarian kings and participated in campaigns against rich Byzantium. The Hungarian kings often sent the Pechenegs far beyond the kingdom to help their allies, and the Turkic army was famous throughout Europe: for example, in 1132 the Turks participated in the campaign of Emperor Conrad II in Italy.

Approximately the same picture was in Russia, with the difference that the Turks, even settling within the Russian principalities, "did not assimilate with the Russians." Assimilation began only in the 13th century, when both the Slavs and their enemy-friends the Turks came under pressure. Mongolian khans.

Batu's invasion put an end to the first stage of the complex interaction between "forest and steppe". The contradictory role of the first Turkic nomads in the formation of Russia was played out, and Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rasovsky puts an end to it. He did not have time to trace the further joint fate of the Russians and the Turks.

Even in the first year of the history department, the author came up with the idea to fill the gap in world history by writing the history of peoples who lived between cultural regions: Western Europe, the Levant (Middle East) and China (Far East). The task turned out to be extremely difficult; it could not be solved without the help of geography, because the boundaries of the regions repeatedly moved over the historical period, the ethnic content of the Great Steppe and neighboring countries often changed both as a result of the processes of ethnogenesis, and because of the constant migrations of ethnic groups and the displacement of some worldviews by others. The physical and geographical situation did not remain stable either. In the place of forests, steppes and deserts arose both due to climatic fluctuations and because of the predatory impact of man on the natural environment. As a result, people had to change the systems of economic activity, which, in turn, influenced the nature of social relationships and cultures. Yes, and cultural ties brought diversity to the worldview of the population of the Eurasian continent, in each era - specific.

All these components of the historical process are so closely interconnected that it is impossible to omit any of them, but if we add chronological, genealogical, sociological, etc. clarifications to them, it turns out that the book turns out to be a collection of various information and, informing the reader “what and who?” will not contain an answer to the questions: “how?”, “why?” and "what's what?", for the sake of which its mark was undertaken. Obviously, to solve the problem, it is necessary to apply suitable research methods.

To describe the events taking place in Eastern Eurasia, a three-level presentation technique was applied. Most small parts, necessary to clarify the course of events, were described in the article by traditional methods historical research. These articles - historical, geographical and archaeological - had to be written more than a hundred.

The second level - generalization - gave life to special monographs (Hunnu. M., 1960; Huns in China. M., 1974; Ancient Turks. M., 1967; Searches for a fictitious kingdom. M., 1970; Discovery of Khazaria. M., 1966 ). All of them were also performed using traditional techniques, with one exception - they were written not in academic language, but in a “funny Russian style”, which increased the comprehensibility of the text and expanded the circle of readers.

However, the main goal was not achieved, because the question was left unanswered: where are the "beginnings and ends", that is, the boundaries, of historical and geographical phenomena? Therefore, it was necessary to specially analyze the theory of the origin and disappearance of ethnic groups against the backdrop of a changing natural environment. Only after this did it become possible to move from describing history to understanding it as a series of regular processes of the biosphere and the sociosphere. But since the biosphere, like the entire surface of the Earth, is mosaic, collisions of ethnogenesis with each other are inevitable. Then there was a need for another book, namely this very one, now offered to the reader. But is the task worth the amount of work required to solve it? It's worth it, and here's why.

In the history of mankind, not all epochs are illuminated equally. Where the processes of sociogenesis, ethnogenesis and noogenesis (development of culture) proceeded without disturbance from hostile neighbors, it was easy for historians. During clashes between ethnic groups or states, the tragic consequences were simply recorded and one of the parties was declared guilty of the disasters of the other. But where the entire outline of history took place in the zone of antagonistic contact, it is very difficult to catch a pattern; therefore, these sections of history have either remained unwritten or written extremely cursorily and superficially. It's a pity, because it was these eras that had importance not only for their participants, but also for world history.

These include the period of IX-XII centuries. in South Eastern Europe. Here there were contacts between the Slavs and the Rus, nomads with settled people, Christians with pagans, Khazars with Jews. Everything was mixed up and confused until Vladimir Monomakh brought clarity with an armed hand, after which it finally became clear where they were and where they were strangers.

And here the philistine question constantly arises: why study processes that we cannot control? Is there any practical sense in this, justifying labor costs and material losses? Let's answer with examples! People do not know how to control earthquakes or the paths of cyclones, but seismography and meteorology help to escape from natural disasters and, conversely, to use favorable conditions with the greatest effect. After all, it is not all the same in a tsunami, which we cannot prevent, to go to a nearby mountain or let the ocean wave wash itself to the bottom. For the sake of one's own salvation, it is necessary to study volcanic activity, as spontaneous as ethnogenesis.

Formulation of the problem

The principle of ethnogenesis is the extinction of the impulse due to entropy, or, which is the same, the loss of the drive of the system due to resistance environment, ethnic and natural, - does not exhaust the variety of historical and geographical collisions. Of course, if ethnic groups, and even more so their complicated structures - superethnoi, live in their ecological niches - enclosing landscapes, then the ethnogenesis curve reflects their development quite fully. But if there are large migrations associated with social, economic, political and ideological phenomena, and even with different passionary tension of the ethnic groups participating in the events, then a special problem arises - a break or a shift in the direct (orthogenic) directions of ethnogenesis, which is always fraught with surprises, as usually unpleasant and sometimes tragic.

If in such collisions the ethnos does not disappear, then the process is restored, but the exogenous impact always leaves scars on the body of the ethnos and the memory of losses, often irreparable. Superethnic contacts give rise to violations of regularity. They should always be taken into account as zigzags, the very presence of which is necessary. integral part ethnogenesis, because no one lives alone, and relations between neighbors are varied.

With the interaction of two systems, the problem is easily solved by the opposition “we are our enemies”, but with three or more, it is difficult to get a solution. Namely, three ethnocultural traditions collided in Eastern Europe in the 9th–11th centuries, and only in the 12th century. the zigzag of history was overcome, after which a cultural flourishing began with a passionary decline, that is, the inertial phase of ethnogenesis. This is a unique variant of ethnic history, and that is why it is of interest in a number of aspects, which will be discussed below.

The evolutionary theory of Darwin and Lamarck was proposed to explain speciation, and ethnogenesis is an intraspecific and specific process. For this reason, the application of the principles of evolution to ethnic phenomena is unlawful.

Ethnic processes are discrete (discontinuous), and exceptions to this rule - persistent (solid, stable) - do not prolong their life, but stop it, as Faust stopped the moment; but then Mephistopheles grabbed him! This means that such a solution to the problem of immortality is contraindicated for a dynamic ethnos.

For a relic persistent ethnos, in addition to complete isolation, three ways are possible: 1) wait until the neighbors exterminate (elimination); 2) join the living superethnos during the change of phases and become stronger in it (incorporation); 3) crumble differently (dispersion). All three variants can be traced in just one century - XII. This century is, as it were, an intermission between the breaking of the world of Islam, the resuscitation of Byzantium and the childish rampage of "Christian" Europe, pompously called the "Crusades". Here it is easy to trace the variations in the ratio of Russia and the Steppe. The most remarkable historians of the 18th-19th centuries were engaged in this, as a result of which one should familiarize themselves with their ideas, but, of course, from the point of view of ethnology, because this new science has already shown what it is capable of. And the main thesis of ethnology is dialectical: a new ethnos, young and creative, arises suddenly, breaking the dilapidated culture and soulless, that is, having lost the ability to create, the life of the old ethnoi, whether they are relics or simply obscurants; in a thunderstorm and a storm, he asserts his right to a place under the sun, in blood and torment he finds his ideal of beauty and wisdom, and then, aging, he collects the remains of antiquities, which he once destroyed. This is called rebirth, although it is more correct to say "degeneration". And if a new impetus does not shake up the decrepit ethnic groups, then they are in danger of becoming relics. But the shocks are repeated, albeit randomly, and humanity exists in its diversity. This will be our conversation with the reader.

Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich

106. Friends and Enemies of the Great Steppe

The superethnos, conventionally called by us "Hunnish", included not only the Huns, Xianbeis, Tabgaches, Turkuts and Uighurs, but also many neighboring ethnic groups of a different origin and diverse cultures. The mosaic nature of the ethnic composition did not at all prevent the existence of integrity, which opposed itself to other superethnoi: ancient China (IX century BC - V century AD) and early medieval China - the Tang Empire (618–907), Iran with Turan (250 BC - 651 AD), the caliphate, i.e., the Arab-Persian superethnos, Byzantium (Greek-Armenian-Slavic integrity) and Romano-Germanic Western Europe; Tibet stood apart, which, in combination with Tangut and Nepal, should also be regarded as an independent superethnos, and not a periphery of China or India. All these superethnic entities interacted with the Great Steppe, but in different ways, which greatly influenced the nature of culture and variations in the ethnogenesis of both the steppe and neighboring superethnoi. What was the difference between these contacts? Solving the problem by traditional methods is simple, but useless. You can list all the wars and peace treaties, as well as inter-tribal strife, which, by the way, has already been done, but this will be a description of the ripples on the surface of the ocean. After all, states are at war, that is, social entities, and not ethnic groups, entities of natural origin, as a result of which they are more conservative. Wars often go on within the ethnic system, and a “bad peace” is maintained with strangers, which is not always better than a “good quarrel”. Therefore, it is advisable to choose a different path. Complimentarity is the mechanism on the basis of which the destinies of interacting ethnic systems, and sometimes individual persons, are not just passed, but are carried out. Let's clarify this concept.

Positive complementarity is unaccountable sympathy, without attempts to restructure the structure of the partner; It's about accepting him for who he is. In this variant, symbioses and incorporations are possible. Negative - this is an unaccountable antipathy, with attempts to rebuild the structure of the object or destroy it; it is intolerance. With this option, chimeras are possible, and in extreme collisions - genocide. Neutral is tolerance caused by indifference: well, let it be, there would be only benefit, or at least there would be no harm. This means a consumer attitude towards a neighbor or ignoring him. This option is typical for low levels passionary tension. Complementarity is a natural phenomenon that does not arise on the orders of a khan or a sultan and not for the sake of merchant profits. Both can, of course, correct the behavior of contacting persons guided by considerations of profit, but cannot change a sincere feeling, which, although at the personal level and is as diverse as individual tastes, but at the population level acquires a strictly defined meaning, because frequent deviations from norms are mutually compensated. Therefore, the establishment of mutual likes and dislikes between superethnoi is legitimate. It is easiest to get lost in the little things and lose the thread of Ariadne - the only thing that can lead you out of the labyrinth of conflicting information, variations and coincidences. This thread is a selection of political collisions and zigzags of worldviews at the personal level, because the sources were the authors, that is, people, and superethnoi - systems three orders of magnitude higher.

The ancient Chinese treated the Huns with undisguised hostility. This was especially clearly manifested in the 4th century, when the Huns, pressed by drought, settled in Ordos and Shanxi, on dried-up fields abandoned by farmers. The Chinese so mocked the steppe dwellers that they brought them to an uprising. The Chinese treated the Tibetans and Xianbeis in the same way; they did not spare the mestizos either, but since there were many of them, they survived near the ruins of the Great Wall, on the border of the steppe and Chinese superethnoi.

Passionary push of the VI century. exacerbated this hostility, turning it into enmity. The renewed Chinese of the Bei-Qi and Sui dynasties exterminated the last descendants of the steppes, and they raised the Tang dynasty to the shield and retained the old tribal name - Tabgachi, although they began to speak Chinese.

The Tang Empire is similar to the kingdom of Alexander the Great, but not in the phase of ethnogenesis, but in idea. Just as Alexander wanted to unite the Hellenic and Persian cultures and create a single ethnic group from them, so Taizong Li Shimin tried to combine the "Celestial Empire", that is, China, the Great Steppe and Sogdiana, relying on the charm of humane power and enlightened Buddhism. It would seem that this grandiose experiment should have succeeded, since the Uighurs, Turks and Sogdians, who were pressed by the Arabs, were ready to sincerely support the empire. But Chinese loyalty was hypocritical, as a result of which the Tang dynasty fell in 907, and the Tabgach ethnic group was exterminated in less than one century (X century).

But the traditions survived the people. The baton of the "third force", equally alien to both China and the Steppe, was picked up in the east by the Khitans, and in the west, more precisely, in the Ordos, by the Tanguts. Both of them repeatedly smashed China and fought fiercely in the north: the Khitan - with the Zubu (Tatars), the Tanguts - with the Uighurs, "so that the blood flowed like a murmuring stream."

However, when the passionary push of the XII century. elevated the Mongols over Asia, the conquered Tanguts, Khitans and Jurchens survived and became subjects of the Mongol khans, and the Uighurs and Tibetans received privileges and became rich. When the Chinese of the Ming dynasty won, the Tanguts were gone, and the Western Mongols - the Oirats - barely fought back in the 15th-16th centuries.

But you can not consider the Chinese villains! They considered their historical mission to be civilizing, accepting into their superethnos those who were willing to become Chinese. But in the case of stubborn resistance, complementarity became negative. The Turks and Mongols had to choose between losing their lives and losing their souls.

The Iranian group of ethnic groups - Persians, Parthians, Chionites, Alans, Ephthalites - constantly fought with the Huns and Turks, which, of course, did not dispose them to each other. The exception was the enemies of the Sarmatians - the Scythians, from whom, as the discoveries of P.K. Kozlov and S.I. Rudenko showed, the Huns borrowed the famous animal style - the image of predatory animals hunting for herbivores. But, alas, the details of the history of such an ancient period are unknown.

In the VI century. the Khazars became allies and true friends of the Turkuts, but the fall of the Western Turkut Khaganate and the coup in Khazaria did not allow the Khazars to realize the favorable opportunity and develop a victory over the Persians and Chionites, thanks to which both of them managed to recover.

Nevertheless, the influence of Persian culture on the Great Steppe took place. Zoroastrianism is not a proselytizing religion, it is only for noble Persians and Parthians. But Manichaeism, persecuted in Iran, the Roman and Chinese empires and in the early Christian communities, found shelter among the nomadic Uighurs and left traces in the Altai and Transbaikalia. The supreme deity retained its name - Hormusta (by no means Aguramazda), which, in combination with other details, indicates the congeniality of the ancient Iranians and the ancient Turks. The victory of the Muslim Arabs changed the color of time, but until the 11th century. Iranian ethnic groups - Daylemites, Saks and Sogdians - defended their culture and traditions in the fight against the Turks. They died heroically, without tarnishing their ancient glory: the Arabs and the Turks retained deep respect for the Persians, so there is no reason or reason to consider the Turkic-Persian complimentary as negative.

The relations of the Turks with the Arabs in the Middle East were somewhat different. Muslims demanded a change of faith: in those days, this meant that Kok-Tengri (Blue Sky) had to be called Allah (the Only One). The Turks willingly accepted such a replacement, after which they occupied important positions if they were ghulam slaves, or received pastures for sheep if they remained free pastoralists. In the latter case, a symbiosis arose, with mutual tolerance and even respect, although the cultured Persians found the Turks "rude".

Acute collisions arose only in extreme cases, for example, during the suppression of uprisings of the Zinjs or Karmats, during wars with the Daylemites and during palace coups. But even here, many Arabs and even Persians preferred the Turks to sectarians and robbers. And when the Seljuk Turkmens drove the Greeks beyond the Bosporus, and the Mamluk Cumans threw the crusaders into the Mediterranean, mutual understanding was restored, and the renewed superethnos found the strength to assert itself.

Byzantium interacted with the nomads in two ways: in their homeland, the Greeks used the help of the Turks in the 7th century, the Pechenegs - in the 10th century, the Polovtsy - in the 11th-13th centuries, in a foreign land, where the Nestorians who emigrated from Byzantium converted many Mongolian and Turkic tribes to Christianity , part of the settled Uighurs and part of the Khorezmians, and Orthodox missionaries baptized Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia, there was no longer a restrained symbiosis, but incorporation: the baptized Turks were accepted as their own. The last Cumans, betrayed by the Hungarians, found refuge from the Mongols in the Empire of Nicaea.

Apparently, a similar positive complementarity should have taken place in Ancient Russia. And so it was, as we shall soon see.

Unlike Eastern Christians, Western Christians - Catholics - treated the Eurasian steppes in a completely different way. In this they resemble the Chinese rather than the Persians, Greeks and Slavs. At the same time, it is important that political conflicts between both superethnoi were episodic and much less significant than the wars of the Guelphs with the Ghibellines. There was simply a belief that the Huns and Mongols are dirty savages, and if the Greeks are friends with them, then the Eastern Christians are "such heretics that God himself is sick." But the European knights constantly fought with the Spanish Arabs and Berbers in Sicily, but treated them with full respect, although the Africans deserved it no more than the Asians. It turns out that the heart is stronger than the mind.

And finally Tibet. In this mountainous country, there were two worldviews: the ancient Aryan cult of Mithra - Bon - and various forms of Buddhism - Kashmiri (Tantrism), Chinese (chan-Buddhism of contemplation) and Indian: Hinayana and Mahayana. All religions were proselytizing and spread in the oases of the Tarim Basin and in Transbaikalia. In Yarkend and Khotan, the Mahayana, quickly supplanted by Islam, was established, in Kucha, Karashahr and Turfan, the Hinayana, peacefully coexisting with Nestorianism, and in Transbaikalia, Bon, the religion of the ancestors and descendants of Genghis, gained sympathy. Bon got on well with Christianity, but the Mongols and Tibetans did not accept Chinese teachings, even Chan Buddhism. This cannot be accidental, so the complementarity of the steppes with Tibet was positive.

As you can see, the manifestation of complementarity does not depend on state expediency, economic conjuncture, or the nature of the ideological system, because complex dogma is inaccessible to the understanding of most neophytes. And yet, the phenomenon of complementarity exists and plays in ethnic history, if not a decisive, then a very significant role. How to explain it? The hypothesis of biofields with different rhythms, that is, frequencies of oscillation, suggests itself. Some coincide and create a symphony, others - a cacophony: this is clearly a natural phenomenon, and not the work of human hands.

Of course, one can ignore ethnic likes or dislikes, but is it advisable? After all, here lies the key to the theory of ethnic contacts and conflicts, and not only in the III-XII centuries.

The Turko-Mongols were friends with the Orthodox world: Byzantium and its satellites - the Slavs. They quarreled with the Chinese nationalists and helped the Tang empire, or, what is the same, the Tabgachi ethnic group, to the best of their ability, with the exception of those cases when, under imperial court in Chang'an, Chinese literates prevailed.

The Turks got along with the Muslims, although this led to the formation of chimeric sultanates, more among the Iranians than among the Arabs. On the other hand, the Turks stopped the aggression of Catholic Romano-Germanic Europe, for which they still suffer criticism.

On these invisible threads, the international situation around the shores of the Caspian Sea was built before the Mongols' attack. But even after Mongolian campaigns the constellation has changed only in details, by no means fundamental, which can be verified by any reader familiar with elementary universal history.

From the book Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich

106. Friends and Enemies of the Great Steppe The superethnos, conventionally called by us "Hunnish", included not only the Huns, Syanbeis, Tabgaches, Turkuts and Uigurs, but also many neighboring ethnic groups of a different origin and diverse cultures. The mosaic nature of the ethnic composition is by no means

From the book Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich

129. Friends and Enemies When Toghrul, Khan of the Keraites, learned that the Mongols had elected Temujin, the son of his anda and, in this sense, his nephew, as Khan, he showed complete pleasure. To the envoys who notified him of the election of Temujin, he said: “It is fair that they put him in the khanate

From the book Aryan Russia [Heritage of ancestors. Forgotten gods of the Slavs] author Belov Alexander Ivanovich

The Polovtsy are the new masters of the great steppe A few words must be said about the Polovtsy themselves. Until the 19th century, historians believed that the name "Polovtsy" comes from the Russian word for "field". The habitat of the Polovtsy was called the Polovtsian land. However, the historian late XIX century A. Kunik believed

From the book In Search of a Fictional Kingdom [L / F] author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich

Map 1. Tribes of the Great Steppe from the 8th to the 10th centuries. General remark. In the 8th century dominance over the Great Steppe passed from the Turks to the Uighurs (747) and then to the Kyrgyz (847), but the boundaries of the kaganates are omitted on the map (see L. N. Gumilev, Ancient Turks. M., 1967). Attention paid to location

From the book Millennium around the Caspian [L/F] author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich

84. Friends and Enemies of the Great Steppe The superethnos, conventionally called by us "Hunnish", included not only the Huns, Syanbeis, Tabgaches, Turkuts and Uighurs, but also many neighboring ethnic groups of a different origin and diverse cultures. The mosaic nature of the ethnic composition is by no means

From the book Wormwood of the Polovtsian field by Aji Murad

THE WORLD OF THE GREAT STEPPE

From the book World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 2: Medieval Civilizations of the West and East author Team of authors

NOMADERS OF THE GREAT STEPPE AND THE GREAT MIGRATION OF PEOPLES The so-called era of the Great Migration of Peoples became a conditional boundary between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In relation to Europe, it is customary to talk about it in connection with the invasions of the Roman Empire by barbarian tribes.

From the book Secrets of Great Scythia. Historical Pathfinder's Notes author Kolomiytsev Igor Pavlovich

Mirages of the Great Steppe For the time being, we will mentally move from the west of the Great Steppe to its center. More precisely - to the Urals. It was here, on the eastern slopes of these mountains in 1985, that an archaeological expedition led by the Chelyabinsk historian Gennady Zdanovich discovered

From the book World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 3: The World in Early Modern Times author Team of authors

CHINESE GREATNESS, ITS CRITICISM AND THE FATE OF THE GREAT STEPPE Under Emperor Kangxi, whose reign can be compared with his older contemporary Louis XIV, China began to recover from the horrors of the civil war and the Manchu conquest.

From the book In Search of a Fictional Kingdom [Yofikation] author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich

Map 1. Tribes of the Great Steppe from the 8th to the 10th centuries. General remark. In the 8th century dominance over the Great Steppe passed from the Turks to the Uighurs (747) and then to the Kyrgyz (847), but the boundaries of the kaganates are omitted on the map (see L.N. Gumilyov, Ancient Turks. M., 1967). Attention paid to location

From the book Empire of the Turks. great civilization author Rakhmanaliev Rustan

Religions of the Great Steppe Let us trace the process of penetration of religions into the Great Steppe in the time period from the III century. and, looking ahead, to the 11th century. At all times, every single person, being lonely, felt defenseless. Belonging to a family or

author

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The ethnolinguistic situation in the Great Steppe at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD e. During the I millennium BC. e. - the first half of the 1st millennium AD e. the settled population and nomadic tribes in the strip of steppes and mountains between the Lower Volga region and Altai were predominantly speakers of Indo-European languages.

From the book Studies and Articles author Nikitin Andrey Leonidovich

"Swans" of the Great Steppe All textbooks of Russian history mention the Polovtsy as something self-evident and well-known. They can be found on the pages of historical novels and on the stage of opera houses. And it always turns out that the Polovtsians are the fiends of hell, worst enemies

From the book History of the Turks by Aji Murad

Kipchaks. Ancient History of the Turks and the Great Steppe Murad ADZHITHE KIPCHAKS An Ancient History of the Turkic People and the Great SteppeThe Steppe is our Homelandand the Altai is our cradleIntroductionMany people, in fact billions of them around the Earth, speak Turkic languages today, and have done so since the beginnings of history, from snow-swept Yakutia in Northeast Asia to temperate Central Europe, from chilly Siberia to torrid India, and even in a

From the book Wormwood my way [compilation] by Aji Murad

The World of the Great Steppe gold ring from Pietroassa, dating back to 375. An attempt to read them in ancient Turkic shows a very specific one: “Win,

The influence of the Jews on the history of the Khazar Khaganate. The peculiarity of the life of the Pechenegs after the conclusion of the Russian-Byzantine peace in 971. The main periods in the development of Russian-Polovtsian relations. Construction of an approximate model of the relationship between Russia and the steppe.

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St. Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine

Department of organization, economics and management of veterinary business

ESSAY

By discipline:Story

Subject: Russia and the steppeIX- first thirdXIIIcenturies)

Performed:

Sergeeva D. BUT.

Checked:

Igumnov E.V.

Saint Petersburg 2016

INTRODUCTION

1. PEOPLES OF THE STEPPE

1.1 Khazars

1.2 Pechenegs

1.3 Cumans

CHAPTER 2. RUSSIA AND THE STEPPE. RELATIONSHIP PROBLEM

2.1 Favorable aspects of relationships

2.2 Conflicts and enmity of Russia and the steppe

2.3 Influence of the centuries-old neighborhood

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

History is written and rewritten every day. Every person tries to interpret any of the events that have ever happened, “for himself”, for his feelings and attitude. Therefore, in libraries for many centuries, a huge amount of scientific, artistic, and journalistic literature has accumulated. Often, authors contradict each other, expressing polar opinions on the same issue.

The theme "Russia and the steppe" is not completely new. Although the events considered below refer to a period of time quite far from the 21st century, their relevance does not disappear, and a lot of controversial facts and opinions have already accumulated about them. Sometimes authors manage to contradict not only themselves, but also common sense in search of questions of truth. How, for example, is it generally possible to answer unambiguously one of the main questions - "Russia and the steppe - friends or enemies?" In the research work presented below, the problem of the relationship between Russia and the steppe from the 9th to the beginning of the 13th centuries was considered. At the same time, the goal was not to answer the question "friends or foes?" in the format of a subjective opinion, but rather try to find arguments “for and against” to both positions, adhering to neutrality, and also capture not only the designated historical framework, but also trace the sequence of the most important events that occurred before the specified period. This, however, does not mean that the work is focused on all the peoples of the steppe who had contact with the Slavs. In the period of interest, the most significant steppe neighbors were the Khazars, Pechenegs and Polovtsy. They will be discussed below.

For this, specific tasks were formulated, namely:

1. Studying the history of the most remarkable peoples of the steppe of the 9th - 13th centuries (Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy)

2. Building an approximate model of the relationship between Russia and the steppe

1. PEOPLES OF THE STEPPE

1.1 Xazars

Among all the peoples that inhabited the steppe in the 9th century, it is especially necessary to single out the Khazar. The incredible history of the Khazars, who managed to rise from the position of one of the numerous nomadic tribes of the Ogur group to the influential Khazar Khaganate, is certainly interesting and deserves special attention.

The emergence of a strong and influential Khazar Khaganate was a slow process. The first settlements of the Khazars were in the lower reaches of the Terek and along the banks of the Caspian Sea. At that time, the water level in the sea was much lower than today, and therefore the territory of the Volga delta extended much more extensively and reached the Buzachi peninsula (an extension of Mangyshlak). The region, rich in fish, forests and green meadows, was an incredibly beautiful find for the Khazars, who migrated to these places from the territory of modern Dagestan. The Khazars brought with them and sowed Dagestan grapes to their new homeland, which still remains one of the few evidences of their resettlement in these lands.

Relations with the Turks are closely connected with the process of the rise of the Khazars. In the middle of the 7th century. The state of the Khazar Khaganate arises, headed by a kagan (khakan) and a governor bek. The militant Turkic khans and beks headed Khazaria, becoming a kind of stronghold of defense (in the 7th-8th centuries, the Khazars were forced to go to war with the Arabs advancing through the Caucasus). The onslaught of southern enemies eventually had a considerable impact on
the geopolitical history of Khazaria - its population moved to safer areas of the Don and Volga regions. The emergence of the new Khazar capital Itil, located in the lower reaches of the Volga, marks the beginning of the so-called "reorientation to the north."

1- Gumilyov L.N. From Russia to Russia. - St. Petersburg: Lenizdat, 2008, p. 31-33

The influence of the Jews strongly affects the history of the Khazar Khaganate. The policy of the state is changing, now all forces are concentrating on active international trade. Beneficial relations with China are under close scrutiny and direct control of the Jews. The caravans that followed from China to the West most often belonged to this enterprising people, so that in the Volga region untold wealth, silks, and slaves accumulated. S.F. Platonov wrote: "Itil and Sarkel (on the Don) were huge markets where Asian merchants traded with European ones and Mohammedans, Jews, pagans and Christians converged at the same time."

By the 9th century, the Jews had long since gotten rid of the Turkic military nobility and used the military services of Gurgan. Al-Mas "udi in his work "The Book of Warning and Review" ("Kitab at-tanbih wa-l-ishraf") reports that the Khazar king in Itil had Russ and Slavs, who also formed part of the Khazar army2 "The conditions for all the mercenaries were the same and very simple: high pay and obligatory victories. However, this glorious time of service for the Rus ends incredibly sadly - with the death of the entire duzhina on a campaign against the Daylemites in 913. But a little earlier, the threat is brewing from the north. And now it will begin consideration of the most important events of the 9th century - the confrontation between the Old Russian state and the Khazars.

The Khazars spread their power to the west, conquer the Volga Bulgars and conquer the Crimea and Kyiv after the events of the 7th-8th centuries, and for some time the Slavic tribes of the Polyans, Severyans, Radimichi and Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazar Khagan. In The Tale of Bygone Years, this event is noted in very lively terms: “the meadows, having consulted, gave a sword from the smoke. And the Khazars took them to their prince and to their elders and said to them: “Behold,

2- Melnikova E.A. Ancient Russia in the light of foreign sources. - M.: Logos, 1999, p. 221-222 we seized a new tribute. They also asked them: “From where?” They answered: "In the forest on the mountains above the Dnieper River." Again they said: “And what did they give?” They showed the sword. And the Khazar elders said: “This is not a good tribute, prince: we found it with weapons sharp only on one side, that is, sabers, and these weapons are double-edged, that is, swords: they will someday collect tribute from us, and from other lands."

Knyazky I.O. that “the Khazar yoke was not particularly difficult and fearless for the Dnieper Slavs. On the contrary, depriving Eastern Slavs external independence, it brought them great economic benefits. Well, it's really hard to disagree with that. As mentioned above, the Khazars actively established trade, and by the 9th century they had long ceased to be the Turkic tribe that they were at the very beginning of their journey. The nomadic way of life gave way to a sedentary one, life and crafts changed. Therefore, the Slavs only nominally lost because of obedience to the Khazars, but in reality the Russians were drawn into an environment so favorable for own development that it is very difficult to deny the undoubted advantages of such interaction.

Neither the attacks of the Arabs nor the campaigns of the Persians were reflected in the Slavs either. Khazaria served as a powerful shield against these threats for its northern neighbors. So the relations between the Slavs and the Khazars can hardly be unambiguously called unfavorable for both sides, especially since in the 9th - 10th centuries. Khazaria was one of the richest countries in Europe. But the power of the Khazar Khaganate gradually weakened due to complicated relations with Byzantium, where the adoption of Judaism by the Khazar elite was very cold, and then also because of the continuous struggle with the nomadic hordes of the Magyars and Pechenegs, and the threat from the south did not disappear. Part of Khazaria even went to the Arabs, and soon an even more serious conflict with the strengthened Kievan Rus was brewing.

Summing up subsequent events, it should be noted that Kyiv after the death of 3-Knyazky I.O. Russia and the steppe. - M.: 1996, p. 17-18

Igor, who was collecting tribute for the Khazars in the Drevlyane land, was most concerned not with the war with Byzantium, which Khazaria diligently kindled, but with confrontation with the Khaganate itself. Princess Olga even went to Constantinople in order to acquire a strong ally in the person of the Greeks. There she was baptized in 955 (according to other sources - in 946). And it was her son Svyatoslav who managed to inflict such a blow on the Khazar Khaganate, from which he was never destined to recover. Remarkably, the allies of Kyiv in the campaign of 964-965. Pechenegs and Guzes perform. A young strong prince along the Oka and the Volga reaches the capital of Khazaria, cuts off all the ways from Itil. It is important to note that the Khazar population proper fled much earlier to the Volga delta, which was impassable for any non-indigenous inhabitant, and left its Jewish exploiters to certain death. Thus, several centuries of oppression of the Khazars, the adoption of a new religion and excessive confidence in the complete inviolability of the power of the Jews turned into a bad side.

On the Terek River, Svyatoslav takes another Khazar city - Semender, which did not escape even with a citadel. And the grandiose campaign against Khazaria ends with the capture of Sarkel. Of course, not all of the Jewish-Khazar population was destroyed: in the Kuban, in the northern Crimea and Tmutarakan, it still held a dominant position and financial influence. But the main thing for Kievan Rus was the return of independence, which the state gained after this glorious campaign. But only having freed itself from one enemy, Russia gained another. This time, another Turkic people, the Pechenegs, begin to threaten the steppe borders.

1.2 PChechenegs

In the 8th - 9th centuries, an alliance of nomadic tribes - the Pechenegs - formed on the territory of North Asia. Although in other states they are called differently: in Europe and Greece - "patsinaks" or "pachinakites", the Arabs say - "bejnak" and "badzhana", the name "Pecheneg" could occur, according to S.A. Pletneva, on behalf of the hypothetical leader of the union of tribes - Beche4.

But the Pechenegs were not destined to live in Asia for long, already at the end of the 9th century they were forced out of their native places both by climatic changes and by the neighboring tribes of Kimaks and Oghuz. However, for the hardy Pechenegs, the conquest of the lands of Eastern Europe does not cause any particular difficulties. The nomads, who are constantly looking for new places for pastures, engaged in cattle breeding and capable of riding their strong horses day and night, pushed back the Hungarians and occupied the territory from the Danube to the Volga, becoming forever the neighbors of Russia, Byzantium and Bulgaria. The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus writes in great detail about their settlement and customs.

In the X - XI centuries. the Pechenegs were at the "tabor" stage of nomadism, i.e. moved from place to place large groups- childbirth. Managed
such groups of tribal nobility, headed by the "archon" (leader, khan). Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus wrote: “After the death of these<архонтов>power was inherited by their cousins, for they had established a law and an ancient custom, according to which they could not transfer dignity to children or to their brothers; it was enough for those who owned it that they ruled during their lives. Summarizing the above, one can see that the Pecheneg society had a patriarchal-clan structure5.

The appearance of such a strong union of nomads at hand extremely excited the neighboring states. But the rulers were not only afraid of their raids, they were more horrified by temporary alliances with other neighbors. So both Byzantium and Russia tried to keep on their side, albeit an unreliable, but powerful ally in the person of the Pechenegs. The latter constantly rushed from one side to the other: so in 968 they unsuccessfully besieged Kyiv, and already in 970 they took part in the battle of Arcadiopol on the side

4- Pletneva S.A. Pechenegs, Torks and Cumans in the South Russian steppes. - MIA, No 62. M.-L., 1958, p.226

5- Knyazky I.O. Russia and the steppe. - M.: 1996, p. 40-57

Svyatoslav Igorevich. After the conclusion of the Russian-Byzantine peace in 971, the Pechenegs again take the hostile side towards Russia, and in 972 they even kill Svyatoslav Igorevich at the Dnieper rapids. The Tale of Bygone Years says: “And Kurya, the Pecheneg prince, attacked him, and they killed Svyatoslav, and took his head, and made a cup from the skull, bound him, and drank from it.”

During the short reign of Yaropolk (972-980), Russian-Pecheneg clashes do not occur, which, however, more than pays off under the next Prince Vladimir the Holy. First, against the backdrop of strengthening the borders of the empire in the Lower Danube (through the efforts of John Tzimisces, and then Vasily II the Bulgar Slayer), then the final formation of the Kingdom of Hungary beyond the Carpathians in the Middle Danube, the campaigns of the Pechenegs were very complicated. But Russia, although it strengthened its military strength, was the closest neighbor, which made it the most accessible state for attack. The Kyiv prince fought them in 993, and in 995, and in 997. This truly “heroic” period in the history of Russia left behind many legends, epic heroes and various legends. But the raids of the Pechenegs were so frequent that, in an attempt to strengthen the borders of Russia, Vladimir had to act quickly and thoughtfully. N.M. Karamzin wrote about this: “Wishing to more conveniently educate the people and protect southern Russia from the robbery of the Pechenegs, Grand Duke founded new cities along the rivers Desna, Oster, Trubezh, Sula, Stern and populated them with Novgorod Slavs, Krivichi, Chud, Vyatichi.

During civil strife in Russia, the Pechenegs take the side of Svyatopolk the Accursed, and after only once more (in 1036) they approach Kiev during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, but suffer a crushing defeat. It should be noted that in 1038, most of the Pecheneg tribes were forced to move beyond the Danube to the Byzantine Empire under the pressure of Torks (bonds), which for a short time become the strongest nomads, until the new Polovtsy tribe displaces them too, for a long time taking dominance over the vast expanses of the steppe territories. Khazar Khaganate Polovtsian steppe

1.3 Ptins

From the middle of the 9th century until the Mongol invasion, the Polovtsy ruled the steppe. This people did not leave behind any material objects. Unless the stately stone idols (either idols, or tombstones, or just milestones on the road), made by the steppe dwellers very carefully and in detail, remind of those times when a nomadic tribe could grow overnight, become powerful, disintegrate, and then disappear forever6. But the impact on neighboring states, meanwhile, the Polovtsian people had a colossal. Russian history, the history of the Kingdom of Hungary, Byzantium, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Latin Empire of the Crusaders, Georgia and even Mameluke Egypt will find many important events associated with this tribe.

It is difficult to clearly and clearly answer the question of where, how and why this tribe came. Knyazky I.O. comments on this as follows: “The Polovtsian people were the western branch of the Kipchaks, from the middle of the 11th century. occupying vast expanses of the Eurasian steppes. Since that time, the steppe space from the Lower Danube to the Irtysh has been called Desht-i-Kipchak - the Kipchak steppe. The question of the origin of the Polovtsy is one of the most difficult problems in the history of the Turkic nomadic peoples”7. It is interesting that the close connection of the Polovtsy and the Turks resulted in a mixture of customs and legends, and in general awarded the former with many of the cultural heritage that developed during the time of the Khazar Khaganate.

Researchers even argue about what the Polovtsy looked like. The fact is that the eastern branch of the Polovtsy was called "kuns", which means "light", and the western branch - "sars", and this word has a similar meaning in the Turkic language.

6 - Pletneva S.A. Polovtsian stone statues. M., 1974, p.17,18,21

7 - Knyazky I.O. Russia and the steppe. - M.: 1996, p. 40-41

But their customs and rituals were different. Was it one Caucasian fair-haired people? Or are they still characterized by the appearance of the Mongoloid race? It is quite possible that one branch of the Polovtsy, like other nomads, changed the main phenotype of appearance during their advance across the steppe, having collected many features. Or maybe the name “light, yellow” was given for completely different reasons.

One way or another, pushing other peoples, two branches of the Polovtsian people alternately come to the steppes Northern Black Sea. Here, subsequently, the Polovtsian land was divided into White Kumania (western Cumans-Sars) and Black Kumania (eastern Cumans-Kuns). By the way, it is precisely with the borders of Black Cumania that the spread of stone statues, which have already been reported above, coincides. In the steppes between the Bug and the Dniester, “wild Cumans” roamed, and on the territory of the Lower Danube, an association of Polovtsians from the Danube developed. However, neither the first nor the last became states.

In Russian chronicles, the fact of the arrival of nomads did not remain undescribed. The first appearance of the Polovtsy on the borders with the steppe dates back to 1055. Then peace was concluded between Vsevolod and the nomads, but just a few years later, in 1061, the Polovtsy again came to Russia, now with a raid, but they were defeated.

A successful campaign was first made by the Polovtsy-Kuns, who came later than their fellow Sars, under the leadership of Sokal (Iskal). At this time, certain military-political alliances were actively concluded among the tribal nobility in the Polovtsian land. At the time of the campaigns in Russia, they were already quite strong and reliable, the Polovtsy were actively moving to the form of early feudal relations. 20s - 60s XII century; second half of the 12th century; the end of the XII - the first decades of the XIII centuries. (before the Mongol invasion) 8.

At first, the Polovtsy were lucky in the offensive, which they actively used. Only the campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh managed to put an end to this period, and Russia itself went on the offensive, having greatly succeeded. In the second period, the Polovtsy ceased to develop the southern Russian steppes, occupying certain territories no longer as nomads, but on a permanent basis. Relations between the Russian population and the Polovtsy are becoming closer, the steppe people are participating in the internecine struggle in Russia, marriage alliances are being concluded between Russian princes and Polovtsian princesses. Conflicts break out less and less frequently, and during the fourth period, war and skirmishes cease altogether. During the first campaign of the Mongols in Eastern Europe in the Battle of Kalka, Russians and Polovtsy even fight on the same side, although they are defeated.

CHAPTER 2. RUSSIA AND STEPPE. RELATIONSHIP PROBLEM

2.1 Bfavorable aspects of relationships

Certainly useful (although not always pleasant) for any nation is a collision with completely different customs and culture. Even before the formation of Ancient Russia, part of the Eastern Slavs experienced the influence of the steppes. Among the positive aspects of the relationship, it is necessary to highlight the economic benefits that became available to part of the Slavic tribes after falling under the rule of the Khazar Khaganate. The tribute was not burdensome, but entering the Asian market allowed the Slavs to develop trade relations much faster and more actively than before.

But peoples clashed not only in peaceful life. As part of the Khazar troops, it was often possible to meet Slavic mercenaries, to whom, subject to success in military campaigns, such a life brought fame and money. Later, when Kievan Rus got stronger, it was possible to get rid of the influence of the Khazar Khaganate almost immediately, which once again confirms the not too strong power of the Khazars over their northern neighbors.

The Pechenegs, who came after the Khazars, were a much more terrible force. But if it was possible to win them over to their side, as the princes in Russia regularly tried to do, then they became a powerful, albeit not very faithful, support in various raids and confrontations. And also regular raids of nomads forced the princes to build new cities and strengthen existing ones, which, albeit a little, contributed to the strengthening of Kievan Rus.

The Polovtsy deserve special mention. When the first years of the raids ended, family and military-political alliances between Russia and the Polovtsian land became something commonplace. Both peoples, especially on the borders with each other, changed a lot both externally and internally. Knowledge, customs, and sometimes religion - all this was adopted by the inhabitants of Russia and the Polovtsy from each other. And such relationships most often lead to favorable consequences: each developed to the extent that the culture of the other allowed it, while introducing something of its own.

It is worth noting, however, that for the Russians, the Polovtsy most often remained steppe pagans, "filthy" and "cursed." The status of the Russian princes was higher, the noble princesses from Russia never left for the steppe, did not become the wives of the Polovtsian khans (with some exceptions). Relatively peaceful relations helped to avoid raids and robbery, but did not make the Polovtsians and Russians friends for a century.

The same can be said about all steppes in general. Complete trust was hardly possible in the face of frequent conflicts or ordinary raids, so it is true that Russia was in contact with the Steppe, but never stopped looking after its neighbors.

2.2 Toconflicts and enmityRwuxi and steppes

Although it was mentioned above that the tribute to the Khazar Khaganate was not burdensome, nevertheless, the Slavs did not want to be under the rule of another people. And when, already in the days of Kievan Rus, it was possible to get rid of the oppression of the Khazars, the Pechenegs who came to replace them caused more concern and caused more damage to the Old Russian land. Constant skirmishes with the Pechenegs could not but deplete the physical strength of the people, just as they could not but make them morally weaker. Not every time the Kiev princes managed to win over the steppes to their side, so Russia was in a constant state of tense expectation, on whose side the Pechenegs would take this time.

Looting, burning villages, capturing - all this no doubt terrified the neighbors of the Pechenegs, and also forced the rulers to try to solve this problem. And the strengthening of the borders of Russia nevertheless contributed to the fact that the Pechenegs were less and less able to win big victories, more and more they switched to small skirmishes, until the developing state became too strong an opponent for them.

The Polovtsy were another wave of fears from Russia, and did not subsequently become a completely friendly people. At first, their raids heavily devastated the borders of Kievan Rus, but then they managed to do this almost completely at first, and then finally stopped. But all alliances were concluded only out of a desire not to give the Polovtsy a chance to renew hostility. The princes of Kiev were in no way guided by benevolence, but only by the need to maintain peace. The constant fear of an offensive from the side of the steppe made the Russian people intolerant of strangers, moreover, of pagans. It is unlikely that even several centuries of the world could correct the ingrained concepts and stereotypes.

2.3 ATinfluence of centuries-old neighborhood

Neighborhood with the steppe brought a lot of joy and grief to Russia. Constant conflicts weakened the state, but on the other hand made it more resilient, forcing the princes to become more far-sighted in politically, and the common people are wiser in everyday matters, because some skills could be learned from the steppes. And trading with them became a common practice, and in general, soon a Russian person could hardly imagine himself without this dangerous, but profitable neighborhood.

It is impossible to exclude a certain influence of the steppe both on cultural, economic, political features, and on, for example, phenotypic ones. Over the many years of close contacts, peoples have changed so much both internally and externally that this stage of history has become quite important. Russia was at enmity with the steppe and traded with it, the peoples killed each other, and entered into marriages. The versatility of relations is so obvious that it would be strange to evaluate it unambiguously. At all times, everything is measured by profit. When it was convenient, Russia and the steppe became friends, and when the importance of the world disappeared and an opportunity arose to betray such a “friend”, the opponent, without hesitation, “stabbed” a knife in his back.

The survival of peoples was much more important than morality, more precisely, modern ideas about it. We must not forget that in those days a lot could depend on whether one hundred or two hundred Pechenegs would come to the rescue, whom he would marry Kyiv prince etc. And the means always justified the end. The goal is to keep power in your hands, the earth under your feet and your head on your shoulders, fighting against a many-sided enemy.

CONCLUSION

The considered history of the Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy only brings modern man closer to understanding some historical processes. We see the result, which was, moreover, described by the winners, and passed on to one of the interested parties. The evidence is laconic or completely ambiguous, so to attempt to interpret it would be to ruin any possibility of correct interpretation.

Analyzing the problem of relationships, it would be most correct to say: each did what was most beneficial to him in the presence of the other, until a better opportunity was provided. Russia sought to weaken the enemy, to make peace with him, or to attack and destroy him herself. The steppe acted more bloodthirsty, but, in fact, almost the same way.

Prolonged neighborhood changed both sides. Not for the better or for the worse, but simply changed, forcing you to adapt to the hourly changing friend, enemy, neighbor, or simply the world around you. Sometimes the gains were incredibly great and good, and the losses so terrible that it would be too difficult to single out a greater evil or benefit.

One thing is clear for sure - without the influence of the steppe, Russia would never have become the state that it was by the beginning of the XIII century. Many of its own problems, of course, could bring it closer to a similar state, but the steppes have made such a significant contribution to the development and certain fall of their neighbor that it is unacceptable to belittle their influence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Knyazky I.O. Russia and the steppe. - M.: 1996

2. Pletneva S.A. Khazars. - M.: Nauka, 1986

3. Pletneva S.A. Pechenegs, Torks and Cumans in the South Russian steppes. - MIA, No 62. M.-L., 1958

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Abstract Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe. Relationship problems. Southern Russia and the steppe

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