The Polovtsy remained in the history of Rus' as the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries from the times of internecine wars. The tribes that worshiped the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.
Who are the Polovtsy?
In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torques, met a detachment of new nomads, previously unknown in Rus', led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, new "acquaintances" received Russian name"Polovtsy" and future neighbors dispersed. Since 1064, in Byzantine and since 1068 in Hungarian sources, Cumans and Kuns are mentioned, also previously unknown in Europe. They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and insidious allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in a fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Kumans, Kuns, who appeared and disappeared at the same time, did not go unnoticed, and the questions of who they were and where they came from still worry historians.
According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which was called differently in different parts of the world. Their ancestors, the Sars, lived on the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630. The rest went to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they got their new name "Kipchaks", which, according to legend, means "ill-fated". Under this name they are mentioned in many medieval Arab-Persian sources. However, both in Russian and in Byzantine sources, the Kipchaks are not found at all, and a people similar in description is called "Kumans", "Kuns" or "Polovtsy". Moreover, the etymology of the latter remains unclear. Perhaps the word comes from the old Russian “polov”, which means “yellow”. According to scientists, this may indicate that this people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the eastern and had a Mongoloid appearance). According to another version, the term "Polovtsy" could come from the familiar word "field", and designate all the inhabitants of the fields, regardless of their tribal affiliation.
The official version has many weaknesses. Firstly, if all the above-mentioned peoples initially represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then in this case, how to explain that neither Byzantium, nor Rus', nor Europe, this toponym was unknown. In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they did not hear about the Polovtsians or Cumans at all. Archeology comes to the aid of the unofficial version, according to which, the main archaeological finds of the Polovtsian culture - stone women erected on mounds in honor of the soldiers who fell in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsy and Kipchaks. The Cumans, despite their worship of the sky and the cult of the mother goddess, did not leave such monuments.
All these arguments "against" allow many modern researchers to move away from the canon of studying the Polovtsians, Cumans and Kuns as one and the same tribe. According to the candidate of sciences, Evstigneev, the Polovtsy-Sars are the Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechie.
Weapons of civil strife
The Polovtsy were by no means intended to remain a “good neighbor” Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of sudden raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, swept away an unprepared enemy in their path. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, at a gallop bombarding the enemy with a bunch of arrows. They went "raid" through the cities, robbing and killing people, driving them into captivity.
In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in new, for that time, technologies, such as heavy crossbows and "liquid fire", which they borrowed, obviously, from China since the days of living in Altai.
However, as long as centralized power was maintained in Rus', thanks to the order of succession to the throne established under Yaroslav the Wise, their raids remained only a seasonal disaster, and certain diplomatic relations even began between Russia and the nomads. A lively trade was carried on, the population communicated widely in the border regions Among the Russian princes, dynastic marriages with the daughters of the Polovtsian khans became popular. The two cultures coexisted in a fragile neutrality that could not last long.
In 1073, the triumvirate of the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, to whom he bequeathed Kievan Rus, fell apart. Svyatoslav and Vsevolod accused their older brother of conspiring against them and striving to become "autocratic", like his father. This was the birth of a great and long turmoil in Rus', which the Polovtsy took advantage of. Without taking sides to the end, they willingly took the side of the man who promised them big "profits". So, the first prince who resorted to their help, Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, whom his uncles disinherited, allowed them to rob and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.
Subsequently, the call of the Cumans as allies in the internecine struggle became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson Oleg Gorislavich expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, he also got Murom, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories. In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then Prince of Pereslavl, the Lubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone had to own his "fatherland". Even Kyiv prince, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially fixed in Rus' with good intentions. The only thing that even then united the Russian lands was a common fear of the Polovtsian invasions.
Monomakh's War
The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, during whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide was temporarily stopped. Chronicles, which, however, actively corresponded with him, tell about him as the most influential prince in Rus', who was known as a patriot who spared neither strength nor life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom stood his brother and his worst enemy - Oleg Svyatoslavich, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against nomads - to fight on their own territory. Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, the Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian "lava" broke on the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppes, did not allow them to run away on their famous light-winged horses. Even the time of the campaign was thought out: until early spring, when the Russian horses, which were fed with hay and grain, were stronger than the Polovtsian horses that were emaciated on pasture.
Monomakh's favorite tactic also gave an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense at the expense of footmen, since by attacking the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the main blow, the Russian cavalry went around from the flanks and hit the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle. Vladimir Monomakh needed just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands to rid Rus' of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. IN last years Monomakh sent his son Yaropolk with an army beyond the Don, on a campaign against the nomads, but he did not find them there. The Polovtsy migrated away from the borders of Rus', to the Caucasian foothills.
"Polovtsian women", like other stone women - not necessarily the image of a woman, among them there are many male faces. Even the very etymology of the word "woman" comes from the Turkic "balbal", which means "ancestor", "grandfather-father", and is associated with the cult of veneration of ancestors, and not at all with female beings. Although, according to another version, stone women are traces of a matriarchy that has gone into the past, as well as a cult of veneration of the mother goddess, among the Polovtsians - Umai, who personified the earthly principle. The only one required attribute- hands folded on the stomach, holding a bowl for sacrifices, and a chest, which is also found in men, and is obviously associated with feeding the family.
According to the beliefs of the Polovtsy, who professed shamanism and tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with a special power that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Polovtsian passing by had to make a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to enlist its support. Here is how the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsy, describes this ceremony:
“And before the idol the Kipchak back bends...
The rider hesitates before him, and, holding his horse,
He stoops an arrow, bending down, among the grasses,
Every shepherd who drives the flock knows
Why leave a sheep in front of an idol?
Polovtsy (11-13th centuries) - a nomadic people of Turkic origin, who became one of the main serious political opponents of the princes Ancient Rus'.
At the beginning of the 11th c. The Polovtsy moved out of the Trans-Volga region, where they had lived before, towards the Black Sea steppes, displacing the tribes of the Pechenegs and Torks along the way. After crossing the Dnieper, they reached the lower reaches of the Danube, occupying the vast territories of the Great Steppe - from the Danube to the Irtysh. In the same period, the steppes occupied by the Polovtsy began to be called the Polovtsian steppes (in Russian chronicles) and Desht-i-Kypchak (in the chronicles of other peoples).
Name of the people
The people also have the names "Kipchaks" and "Kumans". Each term has its own meaning and appeared in special conditions. So, the name “Polovtsy”, generally accepted on the territory of Ancient Rus', came from the word “stripes”, which means “yellow”, and came into use due to the fact that the early representatives of this people had blond (“yellow”) hair.
The concept of "Kipchak" was first used after a serious internecine war in the 7th c. among the Turkic tribes, when the loser nobility began to call themselves "Kipchak" ("ill-fated"). The Cumans were called the Polovtsy in Byzantine and Western European chronicles.
History of the people
The Polovtsy were an independent people for several centuries, but by the middle of the 13th century. became part of the Golden Horde and assimilated the Tatar-Mongol conquerors, passing on to them part of their culture and their language. Later, on the basis of the Kypchan language (which was spoken by the Polovtsy), Tatar, Kazakh, Kumyk and many other languages were formed.
The Polovtsy led a life typical of many nomadic peoples. Their main occupation was cattle breeding. In addition, they were engaged in trade. A little later, the Polovtsy changed their nomadic lifestyle to a more sedentary one, certain parts of the tribe were assigned certain land plots where people could run their household.
The Polovtsy were pagans, professed Tangerianism (worship of Tengri Khan, the eternal radiance of the sky), worshiped animals (in particular, the wolf was, in the understanding of the Polovtsy, their totem ancestor). Shamans lived in the tribes, who performed various rituals of worshiping nature and the earth.
Kievan Rus and Cumans
The Polovtsy are very often mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles, and this is primarily due to their difficult relationship with the Russians. Starting from 1061 and up to 1210, the Polovtsian tribes constantly committed cruelty, plundered villages and tried to seize local territories. In addition to many small raids, one can count about 46 major Polovtsian raids on Kievan Rus.
The first major battle between the Polovtsy and the Russians took place on February 2, 1061 near Pereyaslavl, when the Polovtsian tribe raided Russian territories, burned several fields and robbed the villages located there. The Polovtsians quite often managed to defeat the Russian army. So, in 1068 they defeated Russian army Yaroslavichi, and in 1078, during the next battle with the Polovtsian tribes, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich died.
The troops of Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh (who later led the all-Russian campaigns of Rus' against the Polovtsy) and Rostislav also fell from the hands of these nomads during the battle in 1093. In 1094, the Polovtsy reached the point that Vladimir Monomakh was forced to leave Chernigov by force. However, the Russian princes constantly collected retaliatory campaigns against the Polovtsy, which sometimes ended quite successfully. In 1096, the Polovtsy suffered their first defeat in the struggle against Kievan Rus. In 1103 they were again defeated by the Russian army under the leadership of Svyatopolk and Vladimir and were forced to leave the previously occupied territories and go to serve in the Caucasus to the local king.
The Polovtsy were finally defeated in 1111 by Vladimir Monomakh and the Russian army of many thousands, which launched a crusade against its longtime opponents and invaders of Russian territories. To avoid final ruin, the Polovtsian tribes were forced to go back across the Danube and into Georgia (the tribe was divided). However, after the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the Polovtsy were able to return again and began to repeat their early raids, but very quickly went over to the side of the Russian princes warring among themselves and began to take part in the permanent on the territory of Rus', supporting one or another prince. Participated in raids on Kyiv.
Another major campaign of the Russian army against the Polovtsy, which was reported in the annals, took place in 1185. In the well-known work The Tale of Igor's Campaign, this event is called a massacre with the Polovtsy. Igor's campaign, unfortunately, was unsuccessful. He failed to defeat the Polovtsy, but this battle entered the annals. Some time after this event, the raids began to fade away, the Polovtsians split up, some of them converted to Christianity and mixed with the local population.
End of the Cuman tribe
The once strong tribe, which brought a lot of inconvenience to the Russian princes, ceased to exist as an independent and independent people around the middle of the 13th century. The campaigns of the Tatar-Mongol Khan Batu led to the fact that the Polovtsians actually became part of the Golden Horde and (although they did not lose their culture, but, on the contrary, passed it on) ceased to be independent.
Descendants of the ferocious Polovtsians: who are they and what do they look like today.
The Polovtsians are one of the most mysterious steppe peoples, which entered Russian history thanks to raids on principalities and repeated attempts by the rulers of Russian lands, if not to defeat the steppe people, then at least to negotiate with them. The Polovtsy themselves were defeated by the Mongols and settled over a significant part of the territory of Europe and Asia. Now there is no people who could directly trace their ancestry to the Polovtsians. And yet they certainly have descendants.
Polovtsy. Nicholas Roerich.
In the steppe (Dashti-Kipchak - Kipchak, or Polovtsian steppe) lived not only the Polovtsy, but also other peoples, who are either united with the Polovtsians, or 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 tribes of the Polovtsy lived west and east of the Dnieper, east of the Volga, near the Seversky Donets.
Location map of nomadic tribes.
Many Russian princes were 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 Andrey Bogolyubsky looked like: reconstruction by V.N. Zvyagin (left) and M.M. Gerasimov (right).
What did the Polovtsy themselves look like?
Khan Polovtsy reconstruction.
There is no consensus among researchers on this matter. 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 Polovtsy were the “Dinlins” described by the Chinese: people who lived in Southern Siberia and were blondes. But the authoritative researcher of the Polovtsy Svetlana Pletneva, who has repeatedly worked with materials from the mounds, does not agree with the hypothesis of the "fairness" of the Polovtsian ethnos. “Yellow” can be a self-name of a part of the 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 Mongoloidity. It is quite possible that among them were people of different types of appearance - the Polovtsians willingly took Slav women as wives and concubines, though not of princely families. The princes never gave their daughters and sisters to the steppes. In the Polovtsian pastures there were also Russians who were captured in battle, as well as slaves.
Polovtsian from Sarkel, reconstruction
The Hungarian king from the Polovtsians and the "Polovtsian Hungarians"
Part of the history of Hungary is directly connected with the Cumans. Several Polovtsian families settled on its territory already in 1091. In 1238, pressed by the Mongols, the Polovtsy, led by 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 "Kumans". The lands on which they began to live were called Kunság (Kunshag, Kumaniya). 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 at all like a Caucasian without an admixture of Mongoloid features. Rather, these portraits remind us of those familiar from textbooks on the history of the reconstruction of the external appearance of the steppes.
Laszlo's personal guard consisted of his fellow tribesmen, he appreciated the customs and traditions of the people of his mother. Despite the fact that he was officially a Christian, he and other Cumans even prayed in Cuman (Polovtsian).
The Cumans-Cumans 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 Hungarian, 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 Polovtsy-Kipchaks died. A century later, the language completely disappeared.
Now the distant descendants of the steppes do not outwardly differ from the rest of the inhabitants of Hungary - they are Caucasians.
Cumans in Bulgaria
Polovtsy arrived in Bulgaria for several centuries in a row. In the XII century, the territory was under the rule of Byzantium, the Polovtsian settlers were engaged in cattle breeding there, tried to enter the service.
Engraving from an ancient chronicle.
In the XIII 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 features. It is possible that Polovtsian blood flows in a certain number of Bulgarians now. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to accurately identify the genetic characteristics of the Polovtsy, because there are plenty of Turkic features in the Bulgarian ethnos due to its origin. Bulgarians also have a Caucasoid 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 Golden Horde, Polovtsy moved 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 (with them) clan”, because they began to live on their lands.
In the future, these peoples settled in different territories and took part in the ethnogenesis of many modern nations, including the 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 in each there is a share of Polovtsian blood.
Crimean Tatars.
The Polovtsy 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 Kypchak is a descendant of the Polovtsian. The Polovtsy mixed with the descendants of the Huns, Pechenegs, Khazars. Now the majority of Crimean Tatars are Caucasians (80%), steppe Crimean Tatars have a Caucasoid-Mongoloid appearance.
It has long been believed that the Polovtsian is the enemy of the Russian land, since representatives of this tribe were seen in repeated raids on the lands of our state. However, historians know episodes of the neighboring existence of the Polovtsian tribes and Slavs, as well as their joint campaigns against, for example, the Hungarians, the Volga Bulgars, the Mongols, etc. people.
Were the ancestors of the Polovtsy Chinese?
The meaning of the word "Polovtsian" in Old Russian indicates that the Slavs called people either who came from the steppes (from the word "field"), or who had a yellowish skin tone (from the word "polov" - "yellow").
Indeed, the ancestors of the Cumans were nomads living in the steppes between the Eastern Tien Shan and the Mongolian Altai, whom the Chinese called the Seyanto people. In that area there was ancient state, formed in 630, which, however, was quickly destroyed by the Uighurs and the same Chinese. After that, the inhabitants of these places changed their family name "Syrs" to "Kipchaks", which meant "unfortunate, unfortunate", and went to the Irtysh and to the eastern steppes of Kazakhstan.
Interpretations of the nineteenth century and the opinion of D. Sakharov
The meaning and interpretation of the word "Polovtsian" is also interpreted by some experts as derived from the word "fishing", which means hunting (in the sense of property and people), as well as from the word "full" - captivity, where the representatives of the Slavs were taken away.
In the nineteenth century (in particular, E. Skrizhinskaya and A. Kunik) identified the name of these tribes with the root "pol", meaning half. As the above researchers suggested, the inhabitants of the Dnieper, located on the right bank, called the nomads who came from the other side of the river, "from this floor." The academician generally considered all the proposed versions unconvincing. He thought that the mystery of the origin of the name of this tribe would never be solved, since the Cuman Kipchaks left a minimal amount of their own written documents.
Polovtsy is not a separate tribe
Today it is believed that the Polovtsian is a representative of a conglomeration of nomadic tribes, and these data are based on the fact that in the eleventh century AD the Kipchak people were conquered by the Mongol-speaking tribes of the Kumosi-Kimaks, and then migrated to the west along with representatives of the Mongoloid tribes - the Kidans. By the end of the thirties of the eleventh century, this combination of peoples captured the steppes between the Volga and the Irtysh and approached the borders of the ancient Russian state.
"Yellow" people came to the borders of Rus'
About who the Polovtsy are from the point of view of documentary Russian history, she first gave explanations in 1055. According to this manuscript, “light, yellow” people came to the borders of the Pereslavl kingdom, which made it possible to assign the generalized name “Polovtsy” to the Kipchaks and Mongoloid tribes.
The newly arrived peoples settled in the Sea of Azov, the course of the Lower and Northern Don, where stone "women" were found, which, as scientists believe, were installed by nomadic tribes in memory of their ancestors.
Who are the Polovtsy of those times in terms of religious teachings? It is believed that among this nomadic tribe, the cult of ancestors was originally practiced, which was realized through the installation of stone statues on high sections of the steppe, on watersheds in special sanctuaries. At the same time, direct burials were not always nearby. In the Polovtsian graves, the burial of the deceased was often common along with household items and the carcass (stuffed animal) of his war horse.
Two thousand stone idols and a minimum of writing
A mound was piled over the graves of people outstanding by the standards of the Polovtsy. In later periods, when the Kipchaks were conquered by the Muslims, some of the pagan monuments were destroyed. To date, in the territory modern Russia about 2,000 stone "women" (from "balbal" - "ancestor") have been preserved, which are still considered to have the power to increase the fertility of the earth, restore nature. These monuments survived many centuries, including the period of Christianization of the Polovtsians. Pagans, Muslims, Christians - that's who the Polovtsy are in different periods development of this group of peoples.
They shot down birds with an arrow on the fly
After the appearance on the territory of the steppes of Eastern Europe in the XI century AD. The Polovtsy did not stop in this area and continued to settle further, since this was facilitated by the presence of such a powerful means of transportation of that time as a horse, and good weapons in the form of a bow.
The Polovtsian is first and foremost a warrior. From an early age, the children of these tribes were taught horseback riding and combat techniques, so that later they would join the koshun - a militia from the same clan. Dozens of people or three or four hundred could enter the koshun, who attacked the enemy like an avalanche, surrounded him with a ring and covered him with arrows. In addition to complex, technically advanced bows for that time, the Polovtsy possessed sabers, blades, and spears. They wore armor in the form of rectangular iron plates. Their military prowess was so high that a rider could shoot down any flying bird while galloping with a bow.
Camp kitchen... under the saddle
Who are the Polovtsy in terms of their way of life? These peoples were typical nomads, very unpretentious even by the standards of that time. Initially, they lived in covered wagons or felt yurts, fed on milk, cheese and raw meat, which was softened under the saddle of a horse. From raids they brought loot and captives, gradually adopting knowledge, habits and customs from other cultures. Despite the fact that the origin of the word is not found precise definition, which means Polovtsian, was felt by many peoples of that time.
The Polovtsians had someone to adopt cultural traditions from, since the nomadic tribes of the Kipchaks in the twelfth century reached the Ciscaucasian steppes (the headquarters of the Polovtsian khans was on the Sunzha River), visited Pomorie, Surozh and Korsun, Pomorie, Tmutarakan, made a total of about 46 raids to Rus', in which they often won, but were also defeated. In particular, around 1100 AD. about 45 thousand Kipchaks were forced out by the Rusichs to the Georgian lands, where they mixed with the local peoples.
The Polovtsian habits of grabbing everything and everyone who came to hand led to the fact that by a certain time, part of the nomadic peoples had learned to build dwellings for the winter, where even stoves were equipped in the likeness of Russian heating elements. Primitive leather garments were decorated with ribbons on the sleeves, like the Byzantine nobles, signs of organization appeared among the tribes.
Polovtsian kingdoms were no less than European
By the time of their conquest by the Mongol-Tatar troops in the XIII century, the Polovtsian hordes were associations, the strongest of which were the Don and Transnistrian. In those days, the Polovtsian was a representative of the people who lived in a territory that was not inferior in size to European kingdoms. These quasi-state formations prevented the passage of caravans on the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks", carried out independent raids on Rus' and were active until the 90s of the twelfth century, after which the Kipchaks fought mainly in Russian squads during the inter-princely strife of that time.
So how can you answer the question of who the Polovtsians are? From ancient history it can be concluded that this people, despite some primitiveness, played an important role in shaping the political map of the world of that time and in the formation of various nationalities, including modern ones.
Polovtsy, they are also Kipchaks, they are also Cumans (in the Western version), a warlike steppe people who lived in the neighborhood, including with our ancestors - Kievan Rus. This neighborhood was very turbulent and many times there were wars between the Polovtsians and Russia, and sometimes the Russian princes even used them in their princely civil strife, often the Polovtsian khans married their daughters to our princes. In a word, the relationship of Kievan Rus with the Polovtsy has always been contradictory from enmity to friendship. For the last time, former bosom enemies / friends united in front of a new formidable enemy - the Mongol-Tatar invasion, but alas, they could not resist, Rus' was destroyed and plundered to the ground, while the Polovtsians were partially destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars, partially mixed with them, partially fled to the West, where they settled on the territory of Hungary, entering the service of the Hungarian king.
Origin of the Cumans
But how did it all begin and where did the Polovtsy come from? Answering these questions is not so easy, given the fact that the Polovtsy themselves did not leave written evidence of themselves, all that we know about this people comes from the stories of Russian and Bulgarian chroniclers, and Hungarian historians.
For the first time on the pages of history, the Polovtsy emerge in 1055, when Prince Pereyaslavl Vsevolod Yaroslavovich, returning from a campaign against the Torques, met this hitherto unseen nomadic tribe led by Khan Bolush. However, the first meeting was peaceful, the new nomads were called "Polovtsy", under which they entered our history.
A little later, in 1064-1068, the same nomadic tribe, already under the name of Cumans or Kuns, begins to be mentioned in Byzantine and Hungarian historical chronicles.
However, none of the available historical sources does not give an answer about the reliable origin of the Polovtsy, this question is still the subject of discussion among historians. There are several versions of this. According to one of them, the homeland of the Polovtsy is the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. Their ancestors lived there around the 5th century, the nomadic tribe of the Sary, who, being defeated, went to the steppes of modern eastern Kazakhstan. There they received the nickname "Kipchaks", which means "ill-fated." So gradually migrating to the West, the Polovtsy ended up on the borders of Kievan Rus.
As for the origin of the name "Polovtsy", according to one version, it comes from the Old Russian word "polov", which means "yellow" and serves as a description of the appearance of these nomads. According to another version, the name "Polovtsy" comes from the familiar word "field", they say, in the old days all nomads were called inhabitants of the fields - Polovtsy, regardless of their tribal affiliation.
What did the Polovtsy look like? Like that.
History of the Cumans: Cumans and Kievan Rus
The Polovtsy, the new southern neighbors of Kievan Rus, soon turned from good neighborliness to outright hostility, making devastating raids on the cities and villages of Rus. Being excellent riders and well-aimed archers, they suddenly attacked, bombarding the enemy with a bunch of arrows. Robbing, killing, taking people into captivity, they also quickly retreated back to the steppe.
Nevertheless, while dynastic centralized power existed in Kievan Rus, the Polovtsian raids were only a temporary unpleasant phenomenon, larger walls were erected to protect against them, castles were built, and military squads were strengthened.
On the other hand, intensive trade was conducted between the Polovtsy and Russia, and even diplomatic relations were established, which were supposed to be strengthened by dynastic marriages - so the Polovtsian khans often gave their daughters in marriage to Russian princes. But interestingly, this principle worked only in one direction, since the Russian princes themselves did not marry their daughters to the Polovtsian khans. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, the main of which is that the Polovtsians were not Christians, and if the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan, marrying our prince, simultaneously accepted Christianity, then in the minds of the people of that time, an additional charitable deed was performed. But it was no longer possible to marry the baptized daughter of a Russian prince to a “non-Christ”.
Fragile neutrality between the Polovtsians and Rus cracked at the seams with the onset of the first great Kievan Rus: the sons of Yaroslav the Wise: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, as usual, began a struggle for power. The Polovtsy at first, as they would say in our time, “stocked up on popcorn” watching the princely strife from their steppes, until a certain prince Oleg Svyatoslavovich, the nephew of the sons of Yaroslav the Wise, invited them directly to participate in the “fun”. In his struggle for power with his uncles, he used the Polovtsy as the main military force, at the same time allowing them to maraud plenty on the lands of Rus'. For his worthless act, Oleg Svyatoslavovich received the nickname "Oleg Gorislavovich."
Soon the tradition of involving Polovtsy in princely civil strife became bad habit many princes, until they faced the real danger of losing their own territories. Only Vladimir Monomakh could put an end to the princely and Polovtsian outrages, who, firstly, stopped the princely civil strife, and secondly, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Polovtsy themselves. To fight them, Vladimir Monomakh chose a new effective tactic - to attack them on their own territory, for the first time he went on a campaign to the Polovtsian steppes.
Unlike the Polovtsy, who were dangerous with their sudden cavalry raids, the Russian soldiers were stronger in open battle, as a result, the Polovtsian light cavalry crashed into a close-knit formation of foot soldiers. Then the fleeing Polovtsian riders were successfully finished off by Russian horsemen. Even the time of the campaign against the Polovtsy was not chosen by the prince by chance, in early spring, when the Polovtsian horses, emaciated during the winter on grazing, were not so frisky, which gave another additional advantage in the fight against them.
A few more additional campaigns by Prince Vladimir Monomakh in the Polovtsian steppes for a long time discouraged them from raiding Russian lands, however, over time, under his successors, the Polovtsian invasions resumed.
Subsequently, Igor Svyatoslavovich, Prince of Seversk, undertook another famous campaign against the Polovtsy. But as we know, Prince Igor's campaign against the Polovtsy ended unsuccessfully and became the basis for the tragic historical epic "The Tale of Igor's Campaign".
All conflicts with the Polovtsy had to be forgotten when a new terrible threat came from the east, the Mongol-Tatar horde. The lands of the Polovtsians were the first to be under attack, and they turned to the Russian princes for help. And now the combined forces of the Russians and Polovtsy on the one hand, and the Mongol-Tatar horde on the other, converged in the legendary battle on the Kalka River (modern Donetsk region), which resulted in a crushing defeat for our troops and Polovtsian allies. After that, the Polovtsy scattered, some of them fled to the west, where they settled on the territory of Hungary.
Late history of the Cumans
Having fled to the territory of Hungary, the once powerful Polovtsian Khan Kotyan turned to the Hungarian king Bela IV with a request to provide the Polovtsians with the eastern outskirts of the kingdom as lands in exchange for faithful service and military assistance. Aware of the impending Mongol-Tatar threat, Bela agreed and even married his son and successor to the Hungarian throne, Prince Stefan, to one of Kotyan's daughters. True, Stephen later executed his Polovtsian father-in-law under the pretext of treason, which caused an uprising of Polovtsian refugees.
And although the Polovtsy caused a lot of anxiety and discontent, both among the Hungarian nobility and ordinary Hungarians, including because of predatory raids (the old nomadic habits are not so easy to get rid of), nevertheless, they began to gradually assimilate with the Hungarians. Finally, their adoption of Christianity in the Catholic version contributed to the acceleration of assimilation. True, there were also conflicts here, so from the Hungarian historical chronicles we know that the complete Christianization of the Polovtsy was preceded by several uprisings of nomads who did not want to accept the new faith.
The last mention of the Polovtsy dates back to the reign of the Hungarian king Sigismund Luxembourg, who used Polovtsian mercenaries in some of his military adventures.
Polovtsy in the historical computer game Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Culture and religion of the Polovtsy. Polovtsian women.
The culture of the Polovtsy, like many other nomadic peoples, cannot boast of its richness and diversity, but, nevertheless, it left its traces - the Polovtsian stone women. These women are perhaps the only cultural trace left by the Polovtsians in history.
Scientists historians are still arguing about the purpose of the Polovtsian women, it is believed that according to the Polovtsian beliefs they were called upon to “guard” the dead and protect the living. Moreover, it is interesting that the Polovtsian women are not necessarily stone images of a woman, among them there are many male faces, and indeed in Turkic etymology the word "baba" goes back to the word "babal" - "ancestor". That is, the Polovtsian women represent not so much the veneration of women as the veneration of ancestors, and they are a kind of protective amulets from the souls of dead people.
All this is consistent with the pagan religion of the Polovtsy, which was a mixture of shamanism with tengrism (worship of the sky). Souls of the Dead in Polovtsian beliefs, they were endowed with a special power, capable of both helping and harming the living. The conductor and mediator between the world of the living and the world of the dead was a person with special spiritual abilities - a shaman, whose importance in Polovtsian society was very great.
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