Modern descendants of the Polovtsians. Polovtsi - steppe nomads

... Polovtsian camp. Evening. Polovtsian girls dance and sing a song in which they compare a flower hungry for moisture with a girl hoping for a date with her beloved. Khan Konchak offers the captured Prince Igor freedom in exchange for a promise not to raise the sword against him. But Igor honestly says that if the khan lets him go, he will immediately gather the regiments and strike again. Konchak regrets that he and Igor are not allies, and calls the captives and captives to amuse them. The scene "Polovtsian Dances" begins. First, the girls dance and sing (chorus "Fly away on the wings of the wind"). The choreographic action is staged on the amazing beauty and melodic arias of the Polovtsian girl and Konchakovna. Then the general dance of the Polovtsians begins. The action ends with a general climactic dance ...

The Polovtsi are mentioned or described in detail in a huge amount of historical literature, from Russian chronicles to Byzantine treatises, in the Lay of Igor's Host, in medieval Arab authors and, of course, in detailed (as far as possible) recent studies. I will refer interested readers to the magnificent work of S.A. Pletneva "Polovtsy" (publishing house "Science", M., 1990) edited by academician BA Rybakov, where, in the author's preface, a summary of the most significant studies on this issue is given. There is no point in retelling them here, the task of this essay is completely different. Namely, using the methods and approaches of DNA genealogy, try to understand, or at least outline the outline of a solution to the issue, where do the descendants of the Polovtsians live now, in our days, and who were their ancestors, those same Polovtsians, by tribal affiliation?

History, or rather, its perception by the "popular masses", often turns out to be unfair to certain populations, ethnic groups, super-ethnic groups, nationalities. Yes, history was not made with white gloves. Russian princes were indiscriminate (at first glance) in their military alliances with other princes, Russians and non-Russians, and at the head of their troops and often in temporary collaboration with other princes, khans, murzas, emirs, kagans and other military leaders, they put a huge number of their own Russians in the name of their military-political goals, as well as just like that, because of family troubles, in the course of revenge for past insults and humiliations, and for many other reasons. The Polovtsi also fell into the kaleidoscope of this historical mosaic. They were friends with some Russian princes and were at enmity with others. They tied family ties with the Russian princes, they were father-in-law, sons-in-law, fathers and children, died along with the Russian troops on the battlefields, fighting side by side, back to back, on one side, and also against them. In general, like the overwhelming majority of other tribes, ethnic groups, peoples in those days, as, indeed, at any time, right up to the present day.

But if you read the epics and chronicles, then the Polovtsians, on the whole, turn out to be "enemies of the Russian people", and sworn enemies at that. What is one Tugarin Zmeevich worth ... This is a historical person, the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan. For the first time, news about him appears in the writings of the Byzantine princess Anna Comnena (1083-1155), the granddaughter of the Emperor Alexei Komnenos, she calls him Togortak. She described the arrival of the Polovtsian troops to the aid of Christian Byzantium against the Pechenegs in the early 1090s. The Pechenegs were defeated by the Cumans, and in 1094, after a series of (unsuccessful) battles with the Cumans, Prince Svyatopolk made peace with them, “ singing his wife, daughter Tugorkanu, Polovtsian prince» ( Complete collection Russian chronicles, II, 1962, p. 216). In 1095, a fatal quarrel broke out between the Polovtsians and the Pereyaslavl prince Vladimir Vsevolodich, who ordered the execution of two influential Polovtsian ambassadors who came with a proposal for peace, and they were killed insidiously, even before the negotiations began. The war began again, and the next year, after an almost two-month siege of Pereyaslavl, under the onslaught of troops led by Prince Vladimir " fleeing there was a foreigner, and their prince Tugorkan was killed by the son and his son, and the princes of the other tribe were killed"(PSRL, II, 1962, p. 222). Svyatopolk found the body of his father-in-law on a slash field, and buried it: “ on the morning of the morning, Tugorkan was dead, and taking Svyatopolk, like a father-in-law and an enemy, and brought it to Kyev, a cellar and on Berestove».

21 years later, Vladimir Monomakh married his son Andrei to Tugorkan's granddaughter. Tugarin, so to speak, our Zmeevich. And George, the future Yuri Dolgoruky, married the daughter of another Polovtsian khan. This is how the Nikon Chronicle tells about the events of a little earlier: “ Volodar came with the Polovtsy to Kiev, forgetting the good deeds of his lord prince. Vladimir, taught by a demon. Vladimir, then, in Pereyaslavtsy on the Danube: and there was great confusion in Kiev. And Aleksandr Popovich is going out to meet them, and kill Volodar and his brother and kill many Polovtsians, and drive away others in the field.". Here Vladimir Monomakh, Volodar Peremyshlsky and Alexander Popovich appear, speaking in ancient epics under the name of Alyosha Popovich (link).

Omitting the subsequent complex history of the relationship of the Russian principalities with the Polovtsy, which were also different - Don, Dnieper, Bugodnistrian, Crimean (especially at the end of the 12th century), Lukomorian (the Lukomorian Polovtsian association apparently included the Crimean Polovtsy), eastern, Cumans (western Polovtsy), Ciscaucasian - recall that at the beginning of the XIII century. a relative balance was established between the Russian principalities and the Polovtsian nomads. Russian princes stopped organizing raids and campaigns on the steppes, and the Polovtsians - on Russian lands. The last time the Polovtsians approached the walls of Kiev together with Prince Izyaslav was in 1234. This was after the Battle of Kalka (1223), where the "Tatar-Mongols" defeated the combined Russian-Polovtsian troops.

I am taking "Tatar-Mongols" here in quotation marks, because this name is a remake. It is not known whether the Mongols were there at all, and they began to be called Tatars only later. Tatars as applied to those times are a purely collective term. Probably, it is more correct to call those military formations Turkic, but the majority of the Polovtsians were also Turks, so there is confusion here too. The name "Mongols" took root in that context because there was no confusion, since there were no Mongols themselves (except, probably, a small number, like other minor ethnic groups in that army). So there was no one to be confused with.

But it is worth considering the reasons and nature of the formation of the united Russian-Polovtsian army, because this will complement the picture of the interaction of these two ethnic groups. The fact is that the Polovtsians met the "Mongols" earlier than the Russians, and realized that they had met with a formidable force, accompanied by cunning and cunning. Let us give the floor to the Arab historian Ibn-al-Athir (1160-1233), who used the term "Tatars", or so it was translated into Russian, and he called the Polovtsy the name "Kipchaks" adopted in Arabic and Persian manuscripts:

« The Tatars moved through these areas, in which there are many peoples, including Allans, Lezgins and (various) Turkic tribes ... Attacking the inhabitants of this country, which they passed by, they arrived at the Allans, a numerous people, to whom the news of them had already reached. They (Allans) used all their efforts, gathered a crowd of Kipchaks and fought with them (Tatars). Neither side prevailed over the other. Then the Tatars sent to the Kipchaks to say: “We and you are of the same clan, and these Allans are not yours, so you have nothing to help them; your faith is not like theirs, and we promise you that we will not attack you, but we will bring you as much money and clothes as you want; leave us with them. " The deal between them was settled on the money they would bring, on clothes, etc .; they (the Tatars) really brought them what had been pronounced, and the Kipchaks left them (Allan). Then the Tatars attacked Allan, made a beating between them, rampaged, robbed, took prisoners and went to the Kipchaks, who quietly dispersed on the basis of the peace concluded between them, and learned about them only when they descended on them and invaded their land.».

In Russian-speaking historical literature this is called - in an emotional and artistic vein - “the first betrayal of the Polovtsians,” although unfortunately there have been plenty of such betrayals in history from all sides. Nevertheless, the Polovtsians learned their lesson. In addition, the "Tatars" took back everything that they had given in the form of a bribe, plus much more.

In this historical evidence, given by almost a contemporary of events, attention is drawn to the fact that the Alans and the Polovtsians are "different." We know that the Polovtsians were mainly Türkic-speaking, and the Alans, most likely, were "Iranian-speaking", that is, carriers of Indo-European languages. Judging by many data, but more often interpretations, both of them took part in the ethnogenesis of a number of Caucasian peoples, and we will return to this later.

So, the "Tatars", and in fact the united Central Asian Turkic army, not only defeated the Alans and Polovtsians, but occupied their vast pastures, moved through the Taman Peninsula to the Crimea and began plundering its rich cities. Speaking modern language, large geopolitical changes began to grow. The Polovtsi darted across the steppe, some went to the Caucasus mountains, some went to “the country of Russians,” as the ancient Arab historian writes, some went to the Volga or took refuge in the swamps. The chronicle from 1224 reads: “ ... the Polovtsian who came running to the Rus land, and the Russian prince who spoke to them: ... if you don’t help us, we will now be cut by byh, and you will be cut out the next morning"(PSRL, II, 1962, p. 740-741). At a meeting in Kiev, Russian princes and Polovtsian khans decided to meet the "Tatars" in battle. Moreover, "one of the most influential Polovtsians," Grand Duke"Basty hastily adopted the Christian religion, obviously wanting to demonstrate his complete unity with the Russian princes." The "Tatars" sent ambassadors to the Russian princes with a proposal not to interfere in the confrontation between the "Tatars" and the Polovtsians, and promised not to touch the Russian cities in the event of Russian neutrality. But the princes already knew how the same recent proposal to the Polovtsy from the same "Tatars" ended, and they did not find anything better than to execute the ambassadors.

The result is known. In April 1224 the united Russian and Polovtsian regiments were defeated on the Kalka River. Before that, they destroyed the forward patrols of the "Tatar" troops, the commander Ganibek was killed. Let us give the floor again to Ibn al-Athir: “ They (the Tatars) turned back. Then the Russians and Kipchaks had a desire (to attack) them; believing that they had returned out of fear of them and out of powerlessness to fight them, they zealously began to persecute them. The Tatars did not stop retreating, and they chased in their tracks for 12 days, (but) then the Tatars turned to the Russians and Kipchaks, who noticed them only when they had already stumbled upon them; completely unexpected, because they considered themselves safe from the Tatars, being confident in their superiority over them. They did not have time to get ready for battle, when the Tatars with significantly superior forces attacked them. Both sides fought with unprecedented tenacity and the battle between them lasted several days».

Historians note two circumstances (among others, of course). The first is that the Russian and Polovtsian squads fought side by side, next to the regiment of the son of Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich, the regiment of the son of Khan Konchak fought, both died in the battle - both they and their regiments. Second, that in the end the Polovtsians could not withstand the onslaught of the enemy and fled from the battlefield. And this, according to historians, was one of the main reasons for the defeat. “This is how the second betrayal of the Polovtsians took place,” according to the historian Pletneva.

The next wave of "Tatar-Mongols" that followed a few years later (1228-1229), and seven years later the next (in which one of the commanders was Batu Khan, or Baty in Russian literature) actually destroyed the Polovtsy as an ethnic group. Part went to the Caucasus, part to Hungary, Bulgaria, part to Russia. Some researchers see the descendants of the Polovtsians in the part of the Cossacks who now live in the south of Russia and Ukraine. After the devastation of the Russian lands, Batu returned to the steppe with an army to finish off the Polovtsians. This was accomplished by the complete and purposeful destruction of the Polovtsian aristocracy. As historians note, after this methodically performed operation, from the middle of the XIII century. stone Polovtsian statues were no longer erected in the steppes - there were no customers or performers left.

It should be noted that a certain role in the resettlement of some of the Polovtsians to the Caucasus was played by the Georgian king David the Builder, who sent ambassadors to the Polovtsians with a proposal to resettle the subjects of Khan Atrak. " According to the Georgian chronicle, 40 thousand Polovtsians came with Khan Atrak, including 5 thousand elite fighters.". For other reasons, only 5 thousand of those "elite" arrived in Georgia. " David resettled the Polovtsy who crossed the Daryal along the southern and eastern borderlands and in Kartliya, whose population was almost completely destroyed during the invasions of the Seljuks. Khan Atrak became a court favorite. His influence was based not only on the strength of the soldiers, but also on family relations with the king: he gave his daughter Gurandukht to him.».

As can be seen from the above, it is unlikely that the Polovtsians can be regarded only as "cursed basurmans", "filthy Polovtsians", "Polovtsians, like a brood of cheetahs" (The Word about Igor's regiment), which could be addressed in one form or another to any Russian principality, heaped mountains of corpses of his compatriots, although in those days there was no concept of "compatriots". In fact, at that time there was still no single Russian ethnos, if we understand the ethnos (among other definitions) as “a sense of a single destiny”. The Polovtsi were not only enemies, but also fighting brothers of the Russians in numerous battles, and this brotherhood was sealed with blood shed together against a common enemy.

According to S.A. Pletnev, " both the Polovtsians and in Russia had many people who knew the language of another people well. Mothers and nannies of Russian princes and boyar children were often Polovtsian: they sang Polovtsian songs to the children, spoke with them in native language... The guys grew up bilingual. It was the same with ordinary people in all principalities bordering on the steppe. Thousands of Russians lived in the Polovtsian camps: wives, maids, slaves, prisoners of war».

And now it is time to move on to an additional deciphering of the concept of "brotherhood", which may be unexpected for many. A number of ancient sources, including Byzantine, tell of the Cumans as blue-eyed and blond people. Chinese sources called them "yellow-headed", that is, again, fair-haired - despite the fact that the Chinese are usually black-haired, like most of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia. Actually, the very Russian word "Polovtsy", according to a number of researchers, means "yellow-headed", from the word "sex". Some researchers associate them with Dinlins, light-headed Caucasians, and trace their origin from the second half of the 1st millennium BC, from the period of the Warring States (480-221 BC) in Northern China, and who then, at the end of the 1st millennium BC, they moved to the steppes of southern Siberia (for more details, see the new book by Klyosov and Penzev, which will soon be out of print). They were also called Kimaks, and in the 1st millennium AD. they were Turkic-speaking. The map below shows the migration route of the Kimaks-Dinlins-Kipchaks-Polovtsians during the 1st millennium AD.

So, fair-haired, blue-eyed Caucasians, although there were definitely Mongoloids among them when their ancestors took Mongoloid women as wives. So the general anthropology here can be varied, but it is important to know that there were Caucasians there. Further more. Archaeological studies of the burials showed that the Kipchaks-Polovtsians laid their dead with their heads to the east and west. It - characteristic feature carriers of the haplogroup R1a, that is, the genus R1a - men on the right side (head to the west), women on the left (head to the east), all facing south. This is how the dead were laid in the burial of R1a carriers in Germany (Eulau), the Corded Ware culture, dated 4600 years ago; in burials of the catacomb culture (from the Dniester to the Volga, II millennium BC); parts of the ancient pit culture ( steppe strip from the Urals to the Dniester, 5600-4300 years ago, that is, IV-III thousand BC; early Maikop culture in the foothills of the North Caucasus; Koban culture; in part of the burials of the Karakol archaeological culture of the Bronze Age (II millennium BC) in the Altai Mountains (Haak et al, 2008; Klyosov and Penzev, 2014, and references therein).

If this is so, then it turns out that the Polovtsians (or a significant part of them) were of the same genus, R1a, with a significant part of the Russian Slavs, or ethnic Russians (now the ethnic Russians of the south of Russia - Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol regions - the content of the haplogroup R1a reaches 67 %). The language, apparently, is different, Turkic, but the genus is the same. How did it happen?

Those who are familiar with my publications on DNA genealogy in the past few years know that the carriers of the haplogroup R1a, who arrived on the Russian Plain about 5000 years ago from Europe, apparently from the Balkans, parted in their part into several migration flows approximately 4500 years ago. On the Russian Plain, the Russians remained, mainly haplogroups R1a-Z280 and R1a-M458 (the latter were formed after the departure of the Aryans, about 4050 years ago), the Aryans of the subclade R1a-Z93 left. Perhaps, along with the subclade Z93, the carriers of the subclade Z280 also left, but they have not yet appeared where the descendants of R1aZ93 mainly live, namely in southern Siberia, in Hindustan, on the Iranian plateau, in the Middle East. Either they (Z280) have not yet been found there in noticeable quantities, or their genus has been suppressed even during the Aryan migrations - or later.

So, those carriers of the Z93 subclade (it can be called a haplogroup with the same reason, these concepts are interchangeable, based on the context), which went far to the east, to the Minusinsk Basin, Altai, northern and northwestern China, Mongolia, are known to us now under many names, including collective name the Scythians are the most common. But it may well include the Dinlins, the Kipchaks, and the Polovtsians, and other, listed variants of the Polovtsians. Alans - also commonly referred to the Scythians, but their language is different than that of many other Scythians. Judging by the data received, there were Scythians Türkic-speaking, and there were "Iranian-speaking", if we follow the current linguistic classification. It turns out that the speakers of R1a-Z93 left to the east with their Aryan language, aka "Indo-European", aka "Iranian", and it was brought to India and Iran. And those who went further east, to Central Asia, switched to the Turkic languages. But the male haplogroup, the Y chromosome, remains the same, R1a. Thus, the migration of Kimak-Dinlins-Kipchak-Polovtsy during the 1st millennium AD. from Central Asia to the west, to the southern European steppes, Crimea, the Black Sea region - this was a return migration of carriers of the haplogroup R1a, the descendants of the Aryans, to their ancient lands.

How can I check this? In this essay I will focus on that part of the Polovtsians who migrated to the Caucasus, fleeing the "Tatar-Mongols", and if the logic of the above is correct, then their modern descendants with a good probability continue to speak the Turkic languages ​​and have the haplogroup R1a with its subclade Z93 ...

And there are such. These are the Karachai-Balkars of the same haplogroup R1a-Z93. They are a third of the entire people, more precisely, its male part.

The Karachais are a Turkic-speaking people of the North Caucasus, they speak the Karachai-Balkar language of the Kypchak group. The number is about 230 thousand people, of which about 220 thousand live in Russia (mainly in Karachay-Cherkessia, also in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol Territory), the rest are mainly in Turkey, Syria, the USA, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan.

There are about 150 thousand Balkars, who actually represent a single people with the Karachais, of whom about 113 thousand live in Russia, the rest are in the same place as the Karachais. Historians place the Alans, Bulgars, Kobanians (representatives of the Mountain Koban culture of the Caucasus) at the basis of the origin of the Karachais and Balkars. Some archaeologists attribute the earliest material signs of the Karachay-Balkars to the 13-14 centuries. AD, that is, approximately 700-800 years ago, although ethnonyms and literary sources allow dating to be dated to the 4th-6th centuries, that is, 1700-1500 years ago. As will be shown below, this is generally consistent with the data of DNA genealogy.

Let's move on to this data. The figure below shows a tree of 12-marker Karachay-Balkarian haplotypes. It generally characterizes the Y-chromosomal structure of the (male) population. It can be seen that even at 12 markers, the tree is quite clearly divided into haplogroups. In general, the dominant haplogroup is R1a, its 31%. In second place, with a slight lag, is haplogroup G2a, 27%. The third is haplogroup J (14%), of which almost all haplotypes belong to the J2 subclade (with a bias towards the Balkars). In total, this is almost three quarters of all studied haplotypes.

The rest of the haplogroups - E1b (among the tested - all Karachais), I2a (all Karachais, half of them - one family), Q1a (almost all Balkars), R1b (most Balkars), T (only three of the tested, and two of them are from one families) - occupy only a single percentage each, in aggregate, about a quarter of all studied haplotypes. Often such small - in quantitative terms - formations are mistaken for recent aliens, but this is far from the case. These may be ancient autochthonous tribes, but relatively recently past the bottleneck of the population (pestilence, extermination in wars, etc.), and therefore their number is small. This is also studied by DNA genealogy methods, as will be shown below. An example is haplogroup R1b among (mostly) Balkars.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a DNA genealogical analysis of the Karachais and Balkars, and to answer two main questions - (1) the origin of the main clans (haplogroups) of the Karachai-Balkar people, namely which Eurasian migrations and when over time formed the Karachai-Balkar ethnic fusion, and (2) when the common ancestors of the most influential (princely) clans of Karachais and Balkars lived, and from where they (or their ancestors) could have come to the Caucasus.

A tree of 229 12-marker haplotypes constructed according to the data of the Karachay-Balkarian FTDNA project. Of these, haplogroup R1a - 71 haplotypes, haplogroup G - 62 haplotypes, haplogroup J - 31 haplotypes. These are 31%, 27% and 14%, respectively, for a total of 72%. On the tree there are 145 haplotypes of the Karachais, 64 haplotypes of the Balkars (based on how the people who presented the haplotype called themselves), and 19 haplotypes related to them, according to those who submitted the haplotypes to the database (from other countries).
Haplogroup R1a
Let's start with the most quantitatively represented haplogroup. Most of them belong to the Z93 subclade of the R1a haplogroup. This is the southeastern, Aryan branch of the haplogroup, its carriers passed along the main migration routes of the ancient Aryans - to the south, through the Caucasus to Mesopotamia and further to the Arabian Peninsula (apparently, the Mitannian Aryans of Syria had the same subclade of haplogroup R1a), to the southeast , to Central Asia, and then as the Avestian Arians passed in the middle of the II millennium BC. to the Iranian plateau, to the east and further to India at the same time, in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, becoming Indo-Aryans, and further east, to southern Siberia, becoming Altai Scythians, during the Pazyryk culture and later. All of them mainly (but not only) were carriers of the R1a-Z93 subclade, like the Karachais and Balkars. The question is - at what stage of history did this subclade become Karachay-Balkarian? When? How?

The most obvious answer, to which the first part of this essay leads, is the Polovtsian subclade. The Kipchaks-Polovtsians, as part of the Scythian super-ethnos, brought their subclade R1a-Z93 to the North Caucasus 750-800 years ago, and their ethnos eventually took shape in the Karachai-Balkarian ethnos, preserving the Kipchak-Polovtsian language. But one can hardly expect that the common ancestors of the Karachai-Balkars lived only 750-800 years ago. After all, this is only a visit to the Caucasus, and some DNA lines really could go from that time. But on the whole, the common ancestor of those who arrived in the Caucasus could have lived much earlier. In principle, he could live as he liked deep into time, up to the time of the Dinlins (in the middle of the 1st millennium BC) and earlier, but experience shows that during long migrations, the common ancestor shifts in time to more recent times, and only what time it takes depends on a lot of factors. This should be clear.

Let's try to get closer to the answers to these questions by constructing a tree of the R1a-Z93 subclade based on the available 285 haplotypes in an extended 67-marker format, among which there are haplotypes of the princely families of the Krymshamkhalovs, Dudovs, Chipchikovs, Kodzhakovs, Temirbulatovs, Karabashevs and others. On the same tree, there are many haplotypes from the Arab countries of the Middle East, India, as well as Bashkortostan, and many European and Asian countries. Some of them are random, isolated, some form rather large groups with ancient common ancestors. All this constitutes a system in which the Karachai-Balkarian haplotypes are embedded, and shows the general connections between populations. The task is to decipher and correctly interpret the connections.

In the next figure, only the branches of the Bashkirs and Karachais-Balkars are marked, Arabs and Indians occupy many other branches, as well as Western Europeans, Russians, Tatars and other carriers of the Z93 subclade. Most of the Karachais, in whom deeper subclades were determined, belong to the subclade R1a-Z93-L342.2-Z2124Z2123, in which, with this writing, the ancestral chain of tribes is reflected, if you call them that. Each tribe below in this chain was formed from a superior one, and dispersed throughout the world. In the subclade Z2123, in addition to the Karachais, there are their closest "relatives" in this tribe from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, England, Spain, Germany, Iraq, India, Pakistan, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, Yemen, Azerbaijan (about the composition of the Z2123 subclade, see below). It is clear that the subclade was formed thousands of years ago, and its descendants scattered around the world, eventually arriving in the Arab countries of the Middle East and noticeably multiplying there. The fact is that according to modern data, the Z93 subclade went southeast from Europe about 5500-5000 years ago, through the Caucasus about 4500-4000 years ago, and across the Middle East about 4000-3500 years ago. But if we take into account the transition of the Polovtsians to the Caucasus, then this is already 750-800 years ago, after a long migration from Central Asia. So the European Z2123 are definitely reverse migrations, or simply the consequences of sporadic emigration. Their presence in India, Pakistan, Iran is most likely the consequences of sea crossings and coastal voyages between these regions and the Middle East. Or the consequences of the visits of the Scythians from Central Asia to those lands.

The subclade Z2124, parental to the “Karachai” Z2123, is just as diverse. Its speakers currently live in England, Sweden, Holland, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Moldova, which in general again shows the direction ancient migration haplogroup R1a-Z93L342.2, parental to Z2123. It can be seen that it is difficult to find the ancestors of the Karachais in this way, and we will go the other way, see below.

A tree of 285 67-marker haplotypes of haplogroup R1a-Z93, built according to the IRAKAZ-2014 database, with the addition of several haplotypes of the Karachay-Balkarian FTDNA project.
Let's take a closer look at the Karachai section of the haplotype tree in an enlarged view:

Assignment of haplotypes (names are given as indicated in the Karachay-Balkarian Project and the IRAKAZ-2014 database):

It should be noted that Abaza is a representative of the Abazin people, Yuldash is from Bashkortostan, but by haplotypes they are part of the Karachai group. Therefore, it should be admitted that haplotypes here are a more direct characteristic, in comparison with the region or "officially recognized" ethnicity. According to the data shown, the ancestors of one and the other were Karachais, if this is not refuted by deep snips (see below). Not yet.

The highlighted numbers of haplotypes and surnames belong to the same branch with the base (ancestral) haplotype, which in what follows we will call the Krymshamkhalovs' branch:

13 25 15 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 12 19 23 17 16 17 19 35 38 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13

All seven haplotypes of the branch had a total of 31 mutations from the specified base haplotype, which gives 31/7 / 0.12 = 37 → 38 conditional generations (25 years each), that is, 950 ± 195 years from the common ancestor of the entire branch. This is the 11th century, plus or minus two centuries. Does not contradict the Polovtsian times. Here 0.12 is the mutation rate constant for the 67-marker haplotype (in mutations for 25 years), the arrow is the correction for recurrent mutations (Klyosov, 2009). In principle, this time, within the limits of the calculation error, corresponds to the time of the possible movement of the Polovtsians to the Caucasus from the Crimea or from the Ciscaucasia.

The double branch in the figure above also consists of seven haplotypes. But since its two subbranches consist of a different number of haplotypes (four and three), the calculation will have to be carried out separately, since the “weights” of the subbranches are different. A branch of four haplotypes has a base haplotype

13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 12 19 24 16 16 17 19 35 39 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 15 23 21 12 12 11 13 11 11 12 13

And only 6 mutations (highlighted) differ from the previous one. All four haplotypes of the subbranch contain 22 mutations from the base haplotype, which gives 22/4 / 0.12 = 46 → 48 conditional generations, that is, 1200 ± 280 years from the common ancestor. Six mutations between both base haplotypes breed their ancestors by 6 / 0.12 = 50 → 53 conditional generations, that is, by about 1325 years, and their the common ancestor lived approximately (1325 + 1200 + 950) / 2 = 1740 years ago, that is, approximately at the beginning of our era.

The subbranch of three haplotypes does not give good statistics, although it is possible to work with the 67x3 = 201 allele. The base haplotype of this subbranch is as follows:

13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 13 19 24 16 16 19 20 36 38 14 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 13 11 11 12 13

All three haplotypes of the subbranch contain 9 mutations from the base haplotype, which gives 9/3 / 0.12 = 25 → 26 conditional generations, that is, 650 ± 220 years from the common ancestor. Ten mutations between both base haplotypes (subbranches of 3 haplotypes and a branch of 7 haplotypes) breed their ancestors by 10 / 0.12 = 83 → 91 conditional generations, that is, by about 2275 years, and their the common ancestor lived approximately (2275 + 650 + 950) / 2 = 1940 years ago, that is, again around the beginning of our era, given that these estimates have an error of plus or minus two centuries. In general, this does not contradict the estimates given in the introduction to this study.

It is interesting to compare the Karachai R1a haplotypes with the Bashkir haplotypes, since they also belong to the Z93 subclade. Basic haplotype of Bashkir haplotypes

13 24 16 11 11 15 12 12 12 13 11 31 – 15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 31 12 15 15 15 – 11 12 19 23 16 15 19 20 36 38 14 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 10 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13

It differs very significantly from the Karachai ones, namely by 20 mutations (noted) when compared with the base haplotype of the branch of the Krymshamkhalovs and related ones. The common ancestor of the Bashkir haplotypes lived 1400 ± 200 years ago (96 mutations per 15 haplotypes), but at such a large distance from the Karachai haplotypes (20 / 0.12 = 167 → 200 conditional generations, that is, about 5000 years) their the common ancestor lived (5000 + 950 + 1400) / 2 = 3675 years ago. This is the late time of the Aryan migrations (and their descendants, the early Scythians) across the Russian plain and the Trans-Urals.

Genomic analysis of a representative of the Karachais and Bashkirs showed that they belong to different subclades of the Z93-Z2123 group. It turned out that the subclade Z2123 consists of at least five of the following subclades, which include representatives of Pakistan (Y2632), India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (Y47), India (Y875), Bashkirs and Indians (Y934), and Karachais (YP449). Such an unusual at first glance combination of Bashkirs and Indians in one subclade suggests that the Aryans during their migrations in the III-II millennium BC. passed through the territory of present-day Bashkortostan, left there the descendants of the subclade Z93-L342.2-Z2124-Z2125-Z2123-Y934, and brought it to India. Or it could be the Scythians, the descendants of the Aryans. The Karachais are another direction of migration, to the Caucasus, with the formation of the subclade Z93-L342.2-Z2124Z2125-Z2123-YP449. Snip YP449 has a carrier of the central haplotype of the Krymshamkhalovs' branch in the figure above.

Previously, we described the basic haplotype of the Arabs of the haplogroup R1a, with a common ancestor who lived 4050 ± 500 years ago (Rozhanskii and Klyosov, 2012)

13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 30 –15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 32 12 15 15 16 – 11 12 19 23 16 16 18 19 34 38 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 11 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13

And another basic Arabic haplotype of the same haplogroup, but a different branch, with a common ancestor only 1075 ± 150 years ago:

13 25 16 10 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 33 12 15 15 15 – 12 11 19 23 16 15 16 20 35 37 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 11 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 15 11 12 12 13

The first, more ancient one, differs from the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalovs' branch (see above) by only 8 mutations, the second, more recent, by 20 mutations. For the basic Bashkir haplotype, there is also a difference of 20 mutations (see above). This already shows that the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalovs is closer to the ancient Arab and Bashkir haplotypes (more precisely, to the common ancestors of the ancient Arab and Bashkir haplotypes) than to relatively recent ones. Let's check it out.

Eight mutations of the difference between the two basic 67-marker haplotypes are equivalent to 8 / 0.12 = 67 → 72 conditional generations (25 years each), that is, approximately 1800 years, which places the common ancestor of the Arab haplotypes and the Crimean Shamkhalov branch by approximately (1800 + 4050 + 950) / 2 = 3400 years ago. Around the same time when the common ancestor of the Krymshamkhalov and Bashkir haplotypes lived (about 3675 years ago). Twenty mutations of the difference are equivalent to 20 / 0.12 = 167 → 200 conditional generations, that is, approximately 5000 years, and the common ancestor of this late Arabian branch and the branch of the Crimean Shamkhal veins is approximately (5000 + 1075 + 950) / 2 = 3500 years ago. As you can see, the data converge quite reproducibly, within the limits of the calculation error, and show that the Krymshamkhalovs' branch is unlikely to descend from Arab ancestors, especially during the period of Islamization, only 1300 years ago. It should be noted that at such long distances in time as 3500-4000 years ago, the calculation error is 10-15%, that is, 4050 ± 500, 3400 ± 400, 3500 ± 400 years ago, that is, all these values ​​overlap within errors. This is because the number of mutations in haplotypes is not an absolute and predetermined value, and is subject to small statistical fluctuations, like any statistical value. But, of course, the difference between 3500 ± 400 and 1300 ± 150 years can in no way be explained by statistics. These are differences of a different rank.

The other two sub-branches in the figure above (in the upper part) are further away from the ancient Arabic base haplotype, namely by 10 and 12 mutations. But this gives almost the same times to common ancestors within the calculation error - 3760 and 3740 years, respectively. In other words, all Karachai branches identified so far diverge from the same or close ancestors of the R1a haplogroup, from which both Bashkir and Arabian haplotypes diverge. They did not descend from one another, they just have common ancient ancestors. So the question of the origin of the Krymshamkhalovs and their Karachai relatives along the branches of the haplogroup R1a from the Arabs can be considered closed for now. But the origin from the Polovtsians is much more likely.

Since the Ashkenazi Jews, according to some assumptions (so far unproven), descended from the Khazars, we will check, just in case, this, at first glance, very strange hypothesis about the possibility of the origin of the Krymshamkhalovs' branch from the Khazar Jews. Basic haplotype of Jews of haplogroup R1a (the same subclade Z93) with a common ancestor 1300 ± 150 years ago (Rozhanskii and Klyosov, 2012):

13 25 16 10 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 30 - 14 9 11 11 11 24 14 20 30 12 12 15 15 - 11 11 19 23 14 16 19 20 35 38 14 11 - 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 14 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 13 10 11 12 13

The difference with the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalovs' branch is 22 mutations (equivalent to a distance of 5600 years), which places the common ancestor of the Ashkenazi Jews of haplogroup R1a and the Krymshamkhalovs approximately (5600 + 1300 + 950) / 2 = 3925 years ago. This is the same common ancestor, both Bashkirs, Jews, Arabs, and Karachais (branches of the Krymshamkhalovs), who is equidistant in relation to all of them. In all likelihood, this is the ancient Aryan ancestor of the haplogroup R1a-Z93, from which the Scythians of the same haplogroup, the Arabs, and the Indians, and the Iranians - all this is one common genus, spread over the millennia along the branches and fractional subclades-snips. For the Bashkirs, this is snip Y934, for the Jews Y2630, for the branch of the Krymshamkhalovs YP449.

Thus, there are two main methodological ways to show commonality or difference in DNA genealogical lines - either to compare basic haplotypes and calculate the lifetimes of common ancestors, or to compare deep snips. It is optimal, of course, to do both, but so far this is a rarity, since there is little data on deep snips. Among the Karachais - only one representative. But this turned out to be enough to draw fundamental conclusions.

Now about the Alans. On the one hand, the time of the appearance of the main branches of the Karachais of the haplogroup R1a, at the beginning of our era, agrees with the beginning of the mention of Alanic tribes in written sources - namely, from the 1st century AD, and it is in the Ciscaucasia. If we consider only this evidence, then the issue can be solemnly closed, recognizing the Alans as the direct ancestors of the Karachais. But then it should be recognized that the Ossetians, in whom the haplogroup R1a is practically absent, have practically no relation to the Alans, with the exception, perhaps, of their ancient military elite, for which there is no DNA data. Actually, I have already described it. Further, then it should be recognized that the common ancestor of the Bashkirs and Karachais of the haplogroup R1a with a dating of about 3675 years ago (and SNP Z2123) was also the ancestor of the Alans, which is quite simple to recognize, these are all Aryan-Scythian lines, one genus R1a. The revealed parallels seem somewhat unexpected, but on reflection they are quite natural.

It is too early to put an end to these considerations. The problem is that linguists and archaeologists have their own considerations, and a reasonable consensus with the DNA genealogy data is needed. Here the Ossetians abruptly drop out of the Alanian concept, they have a haplogroup mainly - two-thirds for the Digors and three-quarters for the Ironians - this is haplogroup G, for the Scythians, apparently, it is unusual, but there is no data for such a definite conclusion yet. There are, rather, general considerations. According to them, the Alans were hardly the ancestors of the overwhelming majority of today's Ossetians. Most likely, the Polovtsians were not them, especially since the ancient historians distinguish between the Alans and the Polovtsians. Above, we noted historical evidence of how the "Tatars" successfully divided the Polovtsy and Alans on the basis that they are different, and eventually defeated both.

On the other hand, haplogroup G is common for Ossetians and a quarter of Karachay-Balkars, but this is a rather distant relationship, stretching back thousands of years. There are practically no descendants of the Polovtsians of haplogroup R1a among the Ossetians. Simply put, Karachai-Balkars and Ossetians are very distant male relatives.

As a result, the Alans in this system simply "freeze". As already noted, judging by the testimony of ancient historians, the Alans and Polovtsians - different nations, or different ethnic groups. If both have the main haplogroup R1a, then it should differ in both subclades. They cannot be distinguished at the R1a level. But there are no data on deep subclades in the Karachay-Balkarians yet, with the exception of a few Z93-L342.2-Z2124-Z2125-Z2123-YP449 (snippet YP449 has a carrier of the central haplotype of the Crimean branch). If the Karachais-Balkars reveal another deep snip of the haplogroup R1a, it may refer to the Alans, but this is almost impossible to prove until a DNA analysis of fossil skeletal remains is carried out, for which it has been proved with good reliability that these are Alans or Polovtsians, or someone then another. There is no such data yet.

Haplogroup G2a
Haplogroup G2a is typical for the northwestern and central Caucasus, and manifests itself in two main subclades - G2a1 and G2a3. Among the Ossetians, for example, the former prevails, both among the Ironians and the Digors, and accounts for 90% or more of all carriers of haplogroup G. For the Georgians, the share of the latter rises to a third of all carriers of G, among the Abkhazians equally, among the Circassians and Shapsugs the second subclade predominates (more than 90% of the Shapsugs). So the "swing" of these two subclades in the Caucasus reaches almost absolute extreme points.

Among the Karachais and Balkars, the first subclade almost absolutely prevails (90%), as well as among the Ossetians (for this you should look at the tree above, there is a spreading branch G2a1 on the top right, and a small branch G2a3 below). But it is somewhat different than that of the Ossetians, if we consider the haplotypes, and this leads to the conclusion that the ancestors of the haplogroup G2a1 among the Ossetians and Karachais were different. This is a somewhat unexpected conclusion, but quite reliable. Let's see. Below is the base haplotype of the Ossetian subclade G2a1, its age is only 1375 ± 210 years, approximately the 7th century, give or take a couple of centuries:

14 23 15 9 15 17 11 12 11 11 10 28 – 17 9 9 12 11 25 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 11 11 19 21 15 15 16 18 37 38 12 9 – 11 8 15 16 8 11 10 8 12 10 12 21 22 14 10 12 12 15 8 13 21 22 15 13 11 13 10 11 11 13

And here is the basic haplotype of the Karachais:

14 22 15 10 15 17 11 12 11 12 10 29 – 17 9 9 11 11 24 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 10 10 20 21 15 15 15 18 36 38 11 10 – 11 8 15 16 8 11 10 8 12 10 12 21 22 14 10 12 12 15 8 13 21 22 16 13 11 13 10 11 11 13

The common ancestor with this haplotype lived 3650 ± 510 years ago, that is, much earlier than the common ancestor of the Ossetians. Between the two basic haplotypes, Karachais and Ossetians, there are 13 mutations, which divides their common ancestors by 13 / 0.12 = 108 → 121 conditional generations, that is, by about 3025 years, and their the common ancestor lived (3025 + 1375 + 3650) / 2 = 4025 years ago. These are the times of the arrival of carriers of the haplogroup G2a to the Caucasus from Europe, which will be discussed below.

Thus, the Karachai and Ossetian genus G2a1 have a common ancestor more than 4 thousand years ago, and since then their DNA lines have only diverged. It is clear that these lines have nothing to do with the Alans, they are much older.

Confirmation of this position can be obtained by comparing the Karachai base haplotype with the base haplotype of the G2a1 haplogroup throughout the northwestern and central Caucasus (only 37 marker haplotypes were available):

14 22 15 10 15 17 11 12 11 12 10 29 –17 9 9 11 11 24 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 10 10 19 21 15 15 15 18 37 38 11 10

His common ancestor lived more than 4 thousand years ago, that is, within the margin of error at the same time as the common ancestor of the Karachai haplotypes of the G2a1 group lived. Perhaps it was the same ancestor. Two mutations of the difference on 37-marker haplotypes breed common ancestors by only 2 / 0.09 = 22 conditional generations, that is, by 550 years. Indeed, the common ancestor of the 37-marker haplotype shown above throughout the northwestern and central Caucasus (Ossetians, Shapsugs, Georgians, Circassians, Abkhazians) lived 4875 ± 500 years ago.

Where did haplogroup G2a come from in the Caucasus more than 4 thousand years ago? It appeared, by all indications, from Europe, where they found a number of ancient burials dated 5-7 thousand years ago, the analysis of DNA of which from bone remains showed the haplogroup G2a. These burials were in Spain, France, Germany. By the way, the "ice man Otzi", who was killed in the Alpine mountains on the border of Austria and Italy 4550 years ago, also had a haplogroup G2a. The study of fossil haplotypes and their modern descendants showed that during the III millennium BC. v Western Europe almost all haplogroups disappeared " Old Europe”, Namely G2a, E1b-V13, I1, I2, R1a, and they appeared, all passing through the bottlenecks of populations, that is, practically zeroed out, outside Central Europe. R1a fled to the Russian Plain, appearing there about 4600 years ago, I1 - to the British Isles, to Scandinavia, to the Russian Plain, I2 - to the Danube and the British Isles, and the same subclade split into two halves between these territories, E1b - to the Balkans and North Africa. The G2a left Europe and, apparently, through Asia Minor, went to Anatolia, Iran and the Caucasus. It was in the same III millennium BC.

Why did they all run, or, more neutrally speaking, moved such great distances? A hint is given by the fact that it was in the III millennium BC. western and central Europe. They didn’t run anywhere, the populations didn’t get through the bottlenecks, and they populated Europe very quickly by historical standards, starting from 4800 years ago, when the bell-beaker culture (main haplogroup R1b) began populating Europe from the Pyrenees, and after a few hundred years they were already on the territory of modern Germany. As a result of this invasion of Erbins, the carriers of G2a moved to the Caucasus. This is the history of the appearance of the genus G2a in the Caucasus. The Karachais of this haplogroup have been living on their land ever since.

The ancient surnames of the Suyunchevs (Sunshevs), Shakhmanovs, Uruzbievs have a haplogroup G2a1. Comparison of their haplotypes showed that they are actually relatives, albeit very distant, and their common ancestor lived 3325 ± 1300 years ago. Such a large error in the calculations is due to the fact that all three families identified only 12-marker haplotypes for themselves, and there were seven mutations between them. This already shows that they are by no means close relatives to each other, but by and large relatives belonging to the same large genus-haplogroup.

Haplogroup J2
This haplogroup is expressed in the Balkars in comparison with the Karachais. Since it is in this sample of only 27 haplotypes (most of which have only a 12-marker format) from different subclades that have not been identified, DNA analysis can only be very approximate. But since a more detailed DNA genealogical analysis of the haplotypes of the Northwestern Caucasus has already been carried out (Klyosov, 2013), and the Karachai-Balkarian haplotypes show the same patterns, general conclusions can be drawn. The share of haplogroup J2 among the Karachai-Balkarians is about the same as among the Ossetians-Digors, that is, small, about 12%. The origin of these haplotypes is very ancient, with common ancestors about 7 thousand years ago and older, and the source of these ancient migrations was in Mesopotamia. This is, apparently, evidence of ancient Uruk migrations to the Caucasus.

Haplogroup R1b
This haplogroup is small among Karachais and Balkars, and it is mainly found among Balkars. It is noteworthy that almost all R1b haplotypes belong to an unusual group that is not found in Europe, and, apparently, is an archaic rudiment of some very ancient common ancestor. Her base haplotype

13 22 14 11 14 15 12 12 13 14 13 32 – 16 9 9 11 11 24 15 19 31 13 15 17 17 – 10 10 20 25 16 17 16 19 34 37 12 10 – 11 8 16 16 8 10 10 8 10 10 12 22 23 17 10 12 12 16 8 12 24 20 14 12 11 13 11 11 13 12 (Balkarian)

Extremely different (mutations highlighted) from the most common base European haplotype R1b-P312, with an age of about 4200 years ago:

13 24 14 11 11 14 12 12 12 13 13 29 - 17 9 10 11 11 25 15 19 29 15 15 17 17 - 11 11 19 23 15 15 18 17 36 38 12 12 - 11 9 15 16 8 10 10 8 10 10 12 23 23 16 10 12 12 15 8 12 22 20 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 12 (European, P312)

There are 43 mutations (!) Between them, which makes their common ancestors 43 / 0.12 = 358 → 546 conditional generations, or approximately 13650 years. The basic haplotype of the Balkars itself is relatively recent, its carrier lived 1300 ± 255 years ago. It is clear that this branch passed the population bottleneck, and miraculously survived around the 8th century AD. This places the ancient ancestor of the Balkar (and European) haplotypes at (13650 + 4200 + 1300) / 2 = 9600 years ago. At that time, haplogroup R1b migrated between the Urals and the Middle Volga, but it may have already come to the Caucasus. There is practically no data from that time. In any case, this is one of the oldest DNA dating in the Caucasus.

In conclusion, it should be noted that consideration of the Karachai and Balkarian haplotypes and haplogroups from the point of view of DNA genealogy made it possible to identify the ancient migrations of the main clans that make up the Karachai-Balkar people, and to place the origin of a number of ancient princely clans in the context of the origin of the Karachai-Balkar people. The data obtained allow us to assume with good reason that a third of the Karachais descended from the Polovtsians of the R1a haplogroup, and dismiss the Arab origin of the Krymshamkhalovs' branch. Of course, the results obtained should be carefully discussed together with historians, archaeologists, linguists, ethnographers, in order to reach a certain consensus. While representatives of the listed disciplines are far from it, and, perhaps, independent data of DNA genealogy will help to move the current stalemate.

Anatoly A. Klyosov,
Doctor of Chemistry, Professor

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We all know from history that in ancient times the Russians often fought with the Polovtsians. But who are these Polovtsians? After all, now in the world there is no people with such a name. And yet, their blood, perhaps, flows even in ourselves ...

"Unfortunate" people

It is not known exactly where the ethnonym "Polovtsy" came from. At one time, there was a version that it was associated with the word "field", because these peoples lived in the field, steppe. Modern historians, for the most part, believe that the word "Polovtsian" came from "sexual" - "yellow-white, yellowish, straw". Most likely, the hair of the representatives of this people was light yellow, straw color. Although this is strange for the Turkic tribes. The Polovtsians themselves called themselves Kipchaks, Kimaks, Kumans ...

It is interesting that the word "Kipchak" (or, as the speakers themselves pronounced it, "Kypchak") means "ill-fated" in Turkic dialects. Most likely, the ancestors of the Kipchaks were the tribes of the Sirs, who roamed in the IV-VII centuries in the steppes between the Mongolian Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. There is evidence that in 630 they formed a state called Kipchak, which was later destroyed by the Uighurs and the Chinese.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the Polovtsian tribes came from the Trans-Volga region to the Black Sea steppes, then crossed the Dnieper and reached the lower reaches of the Danube. Thus, they managed to populate the entire territory from the Danube to the Irtysh, which was called the Great Steppe. Eastern sources even call it Desht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe).

From raids to the Golden Horde

Starting from the second half of the 11th century, the Polovtsians continually raided Russia, devastating the land, taking cattle and property, and taking local residents prisoner. Border principalities - Pereyaslavskoye, Severskoye, Kievskoye, Ryazanskoye - suffered the most from the Polovtsian attacks.

At the beginning of the XII century, the troops of the princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to push the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, beyond the Volga and the Don. Subsequently, they made most population of the Golden Horde. It was from them, according to historians, that the Tatars, Kyrgyz, Gagauz, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogays, Kumyks, Bashkirs, Karachais, Balkars came.

Where to look for the descendants of the Polovtsians?

During the existence of the Golden Horde, Russian princes often married Polovtsian princesses. The beginning of this tradition was laid by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Vsevolod, who in 1068 married Anna, the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan, who went down in history as Anna Polovetskaya. His son Vladimir Monomakh also married a Polovtsian woman. Kiev prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was married to the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan, Yuri Dolgoruky - to the daughter of Khan Aepa, Rurik, the son of the Great Kiev Prince Rostislav Mstislavich - to the daughter of Khan Belok, son of Novgorod-Seversk

th Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, the hero of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" Vladimir - on the daughter of Khan Konchak, Prince Galitsky Mstislav Udatny - on the daughter of Khan Kotyan, who, by the way, became the grandmother of Alexander Nevsky!

So, mother vladimiro-suzdal

Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky, the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, was a Polovtsian. The study of his remains was supposed to serve as confirmation or refutation of the theory about the Caucasian appearance of the Polovtsians. It turned out that there was nothing Mongoloid in the appearance of the prince. Anthropologically believed

m data, they were typical Europeans. All descriptions indicate that the “Kipchaks” had blond or reddish hair, gray or blue eyes ... Another thing is that in the process of assimilation they could mix, for example, with the Mongols, and their descendants already acquired Mongoloid features.

Where did the Polovtsians get their Caucasian features? One of the hypotheses says that they were the descendants of the Dinlins, one of the most ancient nations of Europe, who, as a result of migration processes, mixed with the Turks.

Today, among the Nogai, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Kirghiz, there are descendants of tribes with the generic names "Kipchak", "Kypshak", "Kypsak" with similar genetic haplogroups. Among the Bulgarians, Altai, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kirghiz there are ethnic groups with the names "Kuman", "Kuban", "Cuba", which some historians attribute to a part of the Polovtsian tribes. The Hungarians, in turn, have ethnic groups "Plavtsy" and "Kunok", which are descendants of related tribes - the Polovtsy and the Kuns.

A number of researchers believe that distant descendants of the Polovtsians are also found among Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and even Germans.

Thus, the blood of the Polovtsians can flow in many peoples not only in Asia, but also in Europe, and even Slavic, not excluding, of course, the Russians ...

Descendants of the fierce Polovtsians: who they are and how they look today.

The Polovtsi are one of the most mysterious steppe peoples that went down in Russian history thanks to the raids on the principalities and the repeated attempts of the rulers of the Russian lands, if not to defeat the steppe inhabitants, then at least to come to an agreement with them. The Cumans themselves were defeated by the Mongols and settled over a large part of Europe and Asia. Now there is no people who could directly trace their genealogy to the Polovtsians. And yet they certainly have descendants.

Polovtsi. Nicholas Roerich.

In the steppe (Deshti-Kipchak - Kipchak, or Polovtsian steppe) lived not only the Polovtsians, but also other peoples, who are sometimes united with the Polovtsians, sometimes considered independent: for example, the Cumans and Kuns. Most likely, the Polovtsians were not a "monolithic" ethnic group, but were divided into tribes. Arab historians of the early Middle Ages distinguish 11 tribes, Russian chronicles also indicate that different Polovtsian tribes lived west and east of the Dnieper, east of the Volga, near the Seversky Donets.

Map of the location of nomadic tribes.

Many Russian princes were the descendants of the Polovtsians - their fathers often married noble Polovtsian girls. Not so long ago, a dispute broke out about how Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky actually looked. According to the reconstruction of Mikhail Gerasimov, in his appearance, Mongoloid features were combined with Caucasoid ones. However, some modern researchers, for example, Vladimir Zvyagin, believe that there were no Mongoloid features in the appearance of the prince at all.

What Andrei Bogolyubsky looked like: reconstruction made by V.N. Zvyagin (left) and M.M. Gerasimov (right).

What did the Polovtsians themselves look like?

Khan Polovtsy reconstruction.

There is no consensus among researchers on this score. In the sources of the XI-XII centuries, the Polovtsians are often called "yellow". Russian word also, probably, comes from the word "sexual", that is, yellow, straw.

Armor and weapons of the Polovtsian warrior.

Some historians believe that among the ancestors of the Polovtsians were the "dinlins" described by the Chinese: people who lived in southern Siberia and were blond. But the authoritative researcher of the Polovtsi Svetlana Pletneva, who has repeatedly worked with materials from the mounds, does not agree with the hypothesis about the "fair hair" of the Polovtsian ethnic group. “Yellow” can be the self-name of a part of a nationality, in order to distinguish itself, to oppose the rest (in the same period, there were, for example, “black” Bulgarians).

Polovtsian town.

According to Pletneva, the bulk of the Polovtsians were brown-eyed and dark-haired - these are Turks with an admixture of Mongoloid. It is quite possible that among them there were people of different types of appearance - the Polovtsians willingly took as wives and concubines of Slavs, however, not of princely families. The princes never gave their daughters and sisters to the steppe dwellers. In the Polovtsian nomad camps there were also Rusichs who were captured in the battle, as well as slaves.

Polovets from Sarkel, reconstruction

Hungarian king of the Cumans and the "Cuman Hungarians"
Part of Hungary's history is directly related to the Cumans. Several Polovtsian families settled on its territory already in 1091. In 1238, pressed by the Mongols, the Polovtsians under the leadership of Khan Kotyan settled there with the permission of King Bela IV, who needed allies.
In Hungary, as in some other European countries, the Polovtsians were called "Cumans". The lands on which they began to live were named Kunság (Kunsag, Kumania). In total, up to 40 thousand people arrived at the new place of residence.

Khan Kotyan even gave his daughter to Bela's son Istvan. He and the Polovtsian Irzhebet (Ershebet) had a boy Laszlo. For his origin he was nicknamed "Kun".

King Laszlo Kun.

According to his images, he did not look like a Caucasian without an admixture of Mongoloid features. Rather, these portraits remind us of the reconstruction of the external appearance of the steppe inhabitants familiar from history textbooks.

Laszlo's personal guard consisted of his fellow tribesmen, he appreciated the customs and traditions of his mother's people. Despite the fact that he was officially a Christian, he and other Cumans even prayed in Cuman (Cuman).

The Cuman Polovtsians gradually assimilated. For some time, until the end of the 14th century, they wore national clothes, lived in yurts, but gradually adopted the culture of the Hungarians. The Cuman language was supplanted by the Hungarian language, the communal lands became the property of the nobility, who also wanted to look "more Hungarian". The Kunshag region in the 16th century was subordinated to Ottoman Empire... As a result of the wars, up to half of the Kipchak Polovtsians perished. A century later, the language completely disappeared.

Now the distant descendants of the steppe dwellers do not differ in any way from the rest of the inhabitants of Hungary - they are Caucasians.

Polovtsi in Bulgaria

Polovtsi arrived in Bulgaria for several centuries. In the XII century, the territory was under the rule of Byzantium, the Polovtsian settlers were engaged in cattle breeding there, trying to enter the service.

An engraving from an ancient chronicle.

In the 13th century, the number of steppe dwellers who moved to Bulgaria increased. Some of them came from Hungary after the death of Khan Kotyan. But in Bulgaria they quickly mixed with the locals, adopted Christianity and lost their special ethnic traits. Possibly, Polovtsian blood is now flowing in a certain number of Bulgarians. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to accurately identify the genetic characteristics of the Polovtsians, because there are plenty of Turkic features in the Bulgarian ethnic group due to its origin. Bulgarians also have a Caucasian appearance.

Bulgarian girls.

Polovtsian blood in Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Uzbeks and Tatars

Polovtsian warrior in the captured Russian city.

Many Cumans did not migrate - they mixed with the Tatar-Mongols. The Arab historian Al-Omari (Shihabuddin al-Umari) wrote that, having joined the Golden Horde, the Polovtsians switched to the position of subjects. The Tatar-Mongols who settled on the territory of the Polovtsian steppe gradually mixed with the Polovtsians. Al-Omari concludes that after several generations the Tatars began to look like the Polovtsians: “as if from the same clan (with them),” because they began to live on their lands.

Subsequently, these peoples settled in different territories and took part in the ethnogenesis of many modern nations, including Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Kirghiz and other Turkic-speaking peoples. The types of appearance for each of these (and those listed in the title of the section) nations are different, but each has a share of Polovtsian blood.

Crimean Tatars.

The Polovtsi are also among the ancestors of the Crimean Tatars. The steppe dialect of the Crimean Tatar language belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages, and the Kypchak is a descendant of the Polovtsian. The Cumans mixed with the descendants of the Huns, Pechenegs, and Khazars. Now the majority of Crimean Tatars are Caucasians (80%), steppe Crimean Tatars have Caucasian-Mongoloid appearance.

In the eighth century, in the writings of multilingual authors, the name of the tribe appeared, which was called Polovtsy in Russia, the Comans in Central Europe, and the Kipchaks in the East. Muslim historians and Russian chroniclers know the Kipchaks-Polovtsians as a numerous, strong tribe, whose name the entire Great Steppe began to be called. For the first time the ethnonym "Kipchak" was recorded on a stone from the Selenga (759). The Iranian aristocrat Ibn Khordadbek in the Book of Ways and Provinces, written 846 - 847, gives the name of the Karluks and Kipchaks. So, for the first time in Muslim sources, mentions of the two largest tribal unions appeared, perhaps the most significant for the subsequent ethnic history of the Kazakh steppes. In the 8-10th centuries. the predominance of Kimaks and Kipchaks, first in the Altai, in the Irtysh and Eastern Kazakhstan, becomes a determining factor in this vast steppe region. The collapse of the Kimak state at the beginning of the 11th century. and the displacement of a part of the Kipchaks to the west in the Aral and Volga regions constituted the main content of the new phase of the Kimak-Kipchak settlement. During this period, five main groups of Kipchak tribes were finally formed:

- Altai-Siberian;
- Kazakh-Ural (including the so-called "Saksin", ie Itil-Yaik group);
- Podonskaya (including the Ciscaucasian subgroup);
- Dnieper (including the Crimean subgroup);
- Danube (including the Balkan subgroup);

In addition, separate groups of Kipchaks are also known in Fergana and East Turkestan, Kashgaria. The period under consideration, according to Academician M. Kozybayev, is the time of the separation of ethnic groups from the Turkic tribes. In relation to Kazakh history, this period is called the Oguz-Kipchak era. In the 10th century, from the many tribal unions of Slavs, Romano-Germans, Turks, etc., settling the Eurasian space, the process of separation of ethnic groups begins. So, the Russian people appear in the West. According to the above author, at this time the Kipchak people were formed in the Great Steppe. We know L. Gumilyov's statement that in the 11th century. the Turks, as a superethnos, come to their decline. It was at this moment that the Kipchaks entered the historical arena. Here is what Mashkhur Zhusip Kopeev writes about this in his chronicle: “In the West - Syrdarya, in the East - Irtysh, in the South - Semirechye, in the North - Volga. The space between these four rivers was called the Deshti Kipchak, where 92 Kipchak clans were settled. " The Kipchaks, having removed the combined ethnonym “Turk” from the stage of history, themselves turned into a super-ethnos, into the core of other Turkic tribes.

The famous Persian poet, traveler, preacher Nasiri Khosrov in 1045 was the first and for centuries to call the lands from Altai to Itil (Volga river) Deshti Kipchak “The Kipchak steppe”. Half a century passed, and the Black Sea steppes became the Polovtsian Field of the Russian chronicles, and at the beginning of the 14th century. Persian historian Hamdallah Kazvini explained that the Volga-Donetsk steppes, formerly called the Khazar steppe, have long become the Kipchak steppe. In the 12th century, the Kipchaks turned into a formidable force that thrilled the entire Arab, Persian, Slavic, Romano-Germanic world. In 1055, a wave of movements of new steppe tribes rolled to the borders of Russia. All of them are associated with the Kipchaks. But in new places this general ethnopolitical term "Kipchak" did not take root. In Russia, the name balls "yellow", "sexual" were translated into the Slavic name, and from here all the newcomers received the name Polovtsy, and the steppe began to be called the Polovtsian Field. Then they reached the Volga, Don, Dnieper and Dniester. In 1071, the Kipchaks, having reached Asia Minor, conquered the city of Anatoli, thereby laying the foundation for the Ottoman Turks. In just 30 years, the Kipchaks reached the Carpathians, Danube and the Balkan Mountains. Those who went beyond the Danube, the Hungarians called them by the name of the Kuns, but at the same time their other name appeared as Kuns.

It is interesting to note that about a quarter of a million Magyar Kipchaks now live in Hungary. According to Istvan Konyr Mandoku, one of the major researchers, for various socio-political and historical reasons, they moved from the middle reaches of the Irtysh, the vicinity of the Aral Sea and other areas of the 9-13th centuries. In particular, it is known that during the invasion of Genghis Khan, and then Batu, under the leadership of Khan Kodan, part of the Kipchaks moved to Hungary. Today the Magyars (Hungarian Kipchaks) live in two zones. The Eastern call themselves the Great Kipchaks, the Western - the Small Kipchaks. The former include the clans Ulas, Toksaba, Zhalayyr, Kereyt, Naiman, Bayandur, Pechene, Konyruli (hence the name of the researcher Istvan Konyr, who refers himself to the descendants of the Great Kipchaks). Small Kipchaks include clans: shortan, tortuyl, taz, zhylanshyk, buryshuly, kuyr, etc. It is also important that this scientist specially focuses on the fact that the Kipchak is not the name of any one clan. Kipchak is the name of the peoples that became part of the state of Deshti Kipchak. The great poet Magzhan Zhumabaev in his work "Flame" writes that after the Huns, our ancestors, the Kipchaks, reached the Alpine and Balkan Mountains. As Mahmud Kashgari proves, the Kipchaks, Oguzes and other tribes that were part of this tribal union spoke a surprisingly pure Turkic language. Thus, he turned into mutual language for all Turkic tribes that were part of the Kipchak Union.

In the literature, there are statements that the Kipchaks are the core of the future Kazakh ethnos (protokazakh). However, academician M. Kozybaev considers this understanding to be insufficiently deep. He is of the opinion that in the 11-12 centuries. the Kipchak people were formed. The basis for this, according to the author, can be a single settlement area, the Turkic tribes developing together, a common language formed by a nomadic, semi-nomadic way of life, a single cultural and spiritual attitude to the world, military democracy, common military actions - all this gives rise to a common worldview and basic qualities people. According to historical sources, the names "Kipchak" and "Kazakh" appeared at the same time. So, some authors believe. Nevertheless, the problem of the origin of the Kazakh people has not yet been sufficiently studied; many aspects of the most complex ethnogenetic process in the vast territory of Kazakhstan are not clear. In science, there are different assumptions about the nature of the ethnonym "Kazakh" and about when the Kazakh nationality was formed. It is obvious that the fact of the addition of the Kazakh nation is not an accidental or one-time act. Ethnic processes that determined the formation of the Kazakh nation go back to antiquity and the Middle Ages, the era of the birth of statehood on the territory of Kazakhstan. Undoubtedly, the genetic connection of the medieval population of Kazakhstan - from the Turks, Turgeshes, Karluks, Oguzes, Karakhanids, Karakhytays to Kipchaks, Naimans, Cyreites, Usuns and others, who became ethnic components of the Kazakh people.

Polovtsy (Kipchaks, Kumans), Russian name Turkic-speaking nomadic people of Mongoloid origin, who came in the 11th century from the Volga region to the Black Sea steppes. The main occupation of the Polovtsians was nomadic cattle breeding. By the 12th century, craft specialties began to stand out among them: blacksmith, furrier, shoemaker, saddlery, archer, tailor. The Polovtsi lived in yurts, and in winter they camped on the banks of the rivers. They believed in good and evil spirits, they erected monuments to the dead - stone statues. In the 11th century, the Polovtsians were at the stage of decomposition of the primitive system. Separate family clans were isolated from them, the heads of which were called beys. Families united in clans headed by beks. The clans united in hordes, led by soltans. Several hordes formed a tribe led by the khan. The Polovtsians had the right to blood feud. Predatory raids on the lands of neighboring peoples were an important element of social life. The Polovtsian army consisted of light and heavy cavalry and was distinguished by great mobility. Women often took part in the battles. In 1054, the Russians first encountered the Polovtsy, who repeatedly attacked the Russian lands, inflicting heavy defeats on the troops of the Kiev princes (in 1068, 1092, 1093, 1096). The Cumans made campaigns to Hungary (1070, 1091, 1094) and Byzantium (1087, 1095). In 1091, they helped the Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenus defeat the Pechenegs in the Gebr River valley. At the beginning of the 12th century, the Kiev princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to organize a series of victorious campaigns against the Polovtsians (1103, 1106, 1107, 1109, 1111, 1116), as a result of which only a small horde of Khan Sarchak remained to roam in the Don region. His brother the Youth with 40 thousand Polovtsians went to the Caucasus to the Georgian king David the Builder, who used them in the fight against the Seljuks. The Polovtsian campaign to the Volga-Kama Bulgaria in 1117 had no success. After the death of Vladimir Monomakh (1125), the Polovtsy consolidated again on the Don. Many Russian princes married noble Polovtsian women, settled Polovtsians within Russia and used them as a military force. In the 1170-1180s, the Polovtsian onslaught against Russia intensified. However, the campaigns of the troops of the Russian princes undermined their military power. In 1223, the Cumans were defeated by the Mongols twice - in the North Caucasus and in the battle on the Kalka River, where the Cumans were allies of the Russian princes. As a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, some of the Polovtsians became part of the Golden Horde, and some moved to Hungary. The struggle of the Russian people with the Polovtsians is reflected in the annals and in the "Lay of Igor's Host."

We all know from history that in ancient times the Russians often fought with the Polovtsians. But who are these Polovtsians? After all, now in the world there is no people with such a name. And yet, their blood, perhaps, flows even in ourselves ...

"Unfortunate" people

It is not known exactly where the ethnonym "Polovtsy" came from. At one time, there was a version that it was associated with the word "field", because these peoples lived in the field, steppe. Modern historians, for the most part, believe that the word "Polovtsian" came from "sexual" - "yellow-white, yellowish, straw". Most likely, the hair of the representatives of this people was light yellow, straw color. Although this is strange for the Turkic tribes. The Polovtsians themselves called themselves Kipchaks, Kimaks, Kumans ...

It is interesting that the word "Kipchak" (or, as the speakers themselves pronounced it, "Kypchak") means "ill-fated" in Turkic dialects. Most likely, the ancestors of the Kipchaks were the tribes of the Sirs, who roamed in the IV-VII centuries in the steppes between the Mongolian Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. There is evidence that in 630 they formed a state called Kipchak, which was later destroyed by the Uighurs and the Chinese.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the Polovtsian tribes came from the Trans-Volga region to the Black Sea steppes, then crossed the Dnieper and reached the lower reaches of the Danube. Thus, they managed to populate the entire territory from the Danube to the Irtysh, which was called the Great Steppe. Eastern sources even call it Desht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe).

From raids to the Golden Horde

Starting from the second half of the 11th century, the Polovtsians continually raided Russia, devastating the land, taking cattle and property, and taking local residents prisoner. Border principalities - Pereyaslavskoye, Severskoye, Kievskoye, Ryazanskoye - suffered the most from the Polovtsian attacks.

At the beginning of the XII century, the troops of the princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to push the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, beyond the Volga and the Don. Subsequently, they made up the majority of the population of the Golden Horde. It was from them, according to historians, that the Tatars, Kyrgyz, Gagauz, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogays, Kumyks, Bashkirs, Karachais, Balkars came.

Where to look for the descendants of the Polovtsians?

During the existence of the Golden Horde, Russian princes often married Polovtsian princesses. The beginning of this tradition was laid by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Vsevolod, who in 1068 married Anna, the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan, who went down in history as Anna Polovetskaya. His son Vladimir Monomakh also married a Polovtsian woman. The Kiev prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was married to the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan, Yuri Dolgoruky - to the daughter of Khan Aepa, Rurik, the son of the Great Kiev Prince Rostislav Mstislavich - to the daughter of Khan Belok, son of the Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich, the hero of the Lay of the Regiment of Igor - on the daughter of Khan Konchak, Prince Galitsky Mstislav Udatny - on the daughter of Khan Kotyan, who, by the way, became the grandmother of Alexander Nevsky!

So, the mother of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, was a Polovtsian. The study of his remains was supposed to serve as confirmation or refutation of the theory about the Caucasian appearance of the Polovtsians. It turned out that there was nothing Mongoloid in the appearance of the prince. According to anthropological data, they were typical Europeans. All descriptions indicate that the “Kipchaks” had blond or reddish hair, gray or blue eyes ... Another thing is that in the process of assimilation they could mix, for example, with the Mongols, and their descendants already acquired Mongoloid features.

Where did the Polovtsians get their Caucasian features? One of the hypotheses says that they were the descendants of the Dinlins, one of the most ancient nations of Europe, who, as a result of migration processes, mixed with the Turks.

Today, among the Nogai, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Kirghiz, there are descendants of tribes with the generic names "Kipchak", "Kypshak", "Kypsak" with similar genetic haplogroups. Among the Bulgarians, Altai, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kirghiz there are ethnic groups with the names "Kuman", "Kuban", "Cuba", which some historians attribute to a part of the Polovtsian tribes. The Hungarians, in turn, have ethnic groups "Plavtsy" and "Kunok", which are descendants of related tribes - the Polovtsy and the Kuns.

A number of researchers believe that distant descendants of the Polovtsians are also found among Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and even Germans.

Thus, the blood of the Polovtsians can flow in many peoples not only in Asia, but also in Europe, and even Slavic, not excluding, of course, the Russians ...