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

The southern part of Russia The security zone of Russia with internal cordons, which includes the Caucasian region: Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, South

Steppe At the beginning of the first millennium BC. NS. the Greeks begin to explore the shores of the Black Sea. Previously, it was believed that the path to it was blocked by the insidious Symplegades - colliding rocks that crushed the ships sailing between them. This place at one time with great difficulty

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

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

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

It is worth mentioning separately about the Polovtsians. When the first years of the raids ended, kinship and military-political alliances between Russia and the Polovtsian land became something commonplace. Both peoples, especially on the borders with each other, changed greatly both externally and internally. Knowledge, customs, and sometimes religion - the inhabitants of Russia and the Polovtsians adopted all this from each other. And such relationships most often lead to favorable consequences: each developed to the extent that the culture of the other allowed it, while bringing something of his own.

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

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

Another important area foreign policy Kiev princes had a "steppe policy" - the protection of the borders of Russia from nomads. The Pechenegs became a serious opponent. The first mentions of them in the chronicles refer to the years of Igor's reign.

In 969 the Pechenegs laid siege to Kiev. Svyatoslav, who fought in the Balkans, made a rapid transition and defeated them. In the 90s of the X century. there is a new onslaught of the Pechenegs. It is known that to fight them, Vladimir I (980_1015) went to Velikiy Novgorod... It was then that the prince erected fortifications in the south of the country, along the Desna, Ostr, Trubezh, Sula, Stugna rivers. The German missionary Brun, who was with the Pechenegs in 1007, recalled that Vladimir accompanied him to the very borders of Kievan Rus, "which he protected from the Pechenegs with the largest palisade over a very large space." Under 1036, the chronicles place the last message about the Pechenegs' raid on Kiev. Yaroslav (who was in Novgorod) came with a strong army; According to legend, on the place where Yaroslav defeated the Pechenegs, the St. Sophia Cathedral was built.

After the battle, the attacks of the Pechenegs on Russia cease. The remnants of the Pechenegs migrated to the southwest. To the south of Kiev, nomadic Türks began to settle (Torks, Berendei, Pechenegs), who recognized themselves as subjects of the Kiev prince. "Black hoods" (as they were called in Russia) became a kind of "watchmen" in the south.

But from 1037 Russia was threatened by new Turkic nomadic tribal associations - the Polovtsians. Kiev no longer played a leading role in the fight against the Polovtsi. She goes to the prince of Pereyaslavl South - Vladimir Monomakh. From 1061 to 1210, Russia endured 46 large raids of the Polovtsians. 34 times the Polovtsians participated in the internecine wars of the Russian princes. Every year 1/15 of the Russian lands were ruined. The most successful campaigns against the Polovtsians were those in which the united squads of the Russian princes participated (1109-1110 - "Don campaign" - Prince Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh, Davyd - "the Polovtsians were defeated in the depths of their steppes"). At the beginning of the XIII century. the forces of the Polovtsians have dried up. But new enemies will approach the borders of Russia.

Russia and Europe

During the times of Kievan Rus, trade, cultural, diplomatic ties were established with European countries - Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, England, etc. Marriages were also concluded between representatives of the Kiev princely house and European dynasties, which reflected the growth of political power and international authority of Rus. So, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise Anna was married to the French king Henry I, Elizabeth - to the Norwegian king Harald, Anastasia - to the Hungarian king Andrew.

The sons of the English king Edmunt lived at the court of Yaroslav the Wise. Yaroslav's grandson, Vladimir Monomakh, was married to the daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon king Harald - Gita.

Message
On the topic: “Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe.
Relationship problems. "

Work completed
first year student
group GRM-12
Shipulina Anastasia.

Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe. Communication problems.
Description of the Khazar country. Landscapes, like ethnic groups, have their own history. Delta of the Volga until the 3rd century was not like the one that exists today. Then the clear waters of the Volga flowed across the dry steppe among the high Baer hillocks, flowing into the Caspian Sea much further south than later. The Volga was still shallow at that time, flowed not along the modern channel, but to the east: through Akhtuba and Bu-zan and, possibly, flowed into the Ural depression, connected to the Caspian by a narrow channel. From this period there are monuments of the Sarmatian-Alan culture, that is, the Turanians. The Khazars then still huddled in the lower reaches of the Terek. The Volga carried all these muddy waters, but its channel in the lower reaches turned out to be narrow for such streams. Then a delta of the modern type was formed, extending to the south almost to the Buzachi peninsula (north of Mangyshlak). The desalinated shallow waters began to feed huge schools of fish. The banks of the channels were overgrown with dense forest, and the valleys between the hillocks turned into green meadows. The steppe grasses, having remained only on the tops of the mounds (vertical zoning), retreated to the west and east (where the Bakh-Temir and Kigach channels are now), and a lotus blossomed in the core of the azonal landscape that had arisen, frogs sang, herons and gulls began to nest. The country has changed its face.
Then the ethnic group that inhabited it also changed. Steppe Sarmatians left the banks of the canals, where mosquitoes haunted the livestock, and wet grasses were unusual and even harmful for them. But the Khazars spread along the then coastline, which is now 6 m below the level of the Caspian Sea. They acquired the richest fishing grounds, places for hunting for waterfowl and grazing for horses on the slopes of the beers' hillocks. The Khazars brought grape cuttings with them and bred it in their new homeland, which they inherited without bloodshed, by the accidental grace of nature. In very harsh winters, the grapes died, but they were replenished again and again with Dagestan varieties, for the connection between the Tersk and Volga Khazaria was not interrupted. The warlike Alans and Huns, who dominated the Caspian steppes, were not dangerous for the Khazars. Life in the delta is concentrated around the ducts, and they are a labyrinth in which any stranger gets lost. The current in the channels is fast, along the banks there are dense thickets of reeds, and it is not possible to get out on land everywhere. Any cavalry that tried to penetrate the Khazaria would not be able to quickly force the channels surrounded by thickets. Thus, the cavalry was deprived of its main advantage - maneuverability, while the locals, who knew how to understand the labyrinth of channels, could easily seize the initiative and deliver unexpected blows to the enemies, being themselves elusive.
It was even more difficult in winter. Ice on fast rivers is thin and rarely, in very cold winters, can withstand a horse and a man at arms. And to fall through the ice in winter, even in a shallow place, meant freezing in the wind. If the detachment stops and lights fires to dry out, then the pursued enemy manages to hide during this time and hit the pursuer again. Khazaria was a natural fortress, but, alas, surrounded by enemies. Strong at home, the Khazars did not risk going out into the steppe, which would be very useful to them. The more diverse the landscapes of the territory on which the economic system is created, the more prospects for the development of the economy. The Volga delta is by no means monotonous, but not suitable for nomadic cattle breeding, although the latter, as a form of extensive farming, is very beneficial to people, because it is not labor-intensive, and to nature, because the number of livestock is limited by the amount of grass. For nature, nomadic life is harmless.
The Khazars did not live in the steppes and, therefore, were not nomads. But they also took from nature only excess. The larger the target, the easier it is to hit.
Therefore, we will enclose our plot - the tragedy of the Khazar ethnos - within the framework of the history of neighboring countries. Of course, this story will be presented "in total", because for our topic it has only an auxiliary meaning. But on the other hand, it will be possible to trace the global international ties that permeated little Khazaria through and through, and to catch the rhythm of natural phenomena in the biosphere, the ever-changing foremother of all living things. Then the history of culture will sparkle with all colors. Russian kaganate. At the turn of the VIII and IX centuries. the Khazars stopped at the border of the Rus land, the center of which was in the Crimea. Rus at this time showed considerable activity, making sea raids on the shores of the Black Sea. Around 790 they attacked the fortified city of Surozh (Sudak), and then spread to the southern coast and in 840 took and plundered Amastrida, a wealthy trading city in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). But in 842, according to the contract, the Russians returned part of the booty and freed all the prisoners. “Everything lying on the shores of the Euxinus (Black Sea) and its coast was ravaged and devastated by the Ross fleet in raids (the people“ grew up ”- the Scythian, living near the Northern Taurus, rough and wild). And he put the very capital in terrible danger. " In 852 the Rus took the Slavic city of Kiev.
On June 18, 860, the Russians besieged Constantinople on 360 ships, but on June 25 they lifted the siege and went home. There was no more successful campaign of the Rus against Byzantium; all later ended in defeats (with the exception of the 907 campaign, which the Greeks themselves did not know about). The thought suggests itself that it was then that a trade agreement was concluded, which was later attributed to Oleg by the chronicler. But this is only an assumption, the verification of which is not included in our task. Further events did not turn out in favor of the Russians. Soon after 860, there was, apparently, not a very successful war with the Pechenegs, who this year could only act as mercenaries of the Khazar king. In Kiev, "there was a famine and great lamentation," and in 867 Orthodox missionaries, sent by Patriarch Photius, converted some of the Kievites to Christianity. This meant peace and union with Byzantium, but full conversion did not materialize due to the resistance of renewed paganism and aggressive Judaism. However, the Kiev Christian colony survived. For one hundred and twenty years she grew and strengthened in order to say the decisive word at the right moment, which she uttered in 988.
In the IX century. the Russian state had few friends and many enemies. One should not think that neighbors are necessarily the most dangerous enemies. Rather, on the contrary: constant petty skirmishes, vendetta, mutual raids for the purpose of robbery, of course, cause a lot of trouble to individual people, but, as a rule, they do not lead to wars of destruction, because both sides see people as opponents. On the other hand, foreigners, representatives of other super-ethnic groups, regard opponents as objects of direct action. So, in the 19th century, Americans paid a premium for the scalp of an Indian. And in the X century. super-ethnic differences were not tempered even by the tone of humanity that took place in the 19th century. Therefore, wars between super-ethnic entities that adorned themselves with pompous confessional labels were fought mercilessly. Muslims declared "jihad" against sins and massacred men in the captured cities, while women and children were sold in slave bazaars. The Saxon and Danish knights without exception exterminated the lutich and vigorous, and the Anglo-Saxons also dealt with the Celts. But the conquerors could not expect mercy if military happiness turned away from them. At first, Russia was relatively lucky. For three quarters of the 9th century, exactly when the activity of the Western European super-ethnos was growing, the Bulgarians held back the Greeks, the Avars - the Germans, and vigorous - the Danes. The Norwegian Vikings rushed to the west, because the paths "from the Vikings to the Greeks" and "from the Vikings to the Khazars" passed through the narrow rivers Lovat or Mologa, through the watersheds, where the boats had to be dragged by hand - "dragging", while being completely separated from homeland - Norway. Conditions for a war with the local population were extremely unfavorable.

With the resulting balance of political forces, the Khazar Jews won. They made peace with the Magyars, directing their warlike energy against the peoples Western Europe, where the last Carolingians were least worried about the safety of their peasants and feudal lords, as a rule, dissatisfied with the imperial regime. The Khazar government managed to make the Tivertsy its allies and was caught, thereby providing an important trade route for Jewish merchants from Itil to Spain. Finally, in 913, the Khazars, with the help of the Guzes, defeated those Pechenegs who lived on Yaik and Emba and controlled the section of the caravan route from Itil to China. The last unresolved task for the Khazar government was the Russian Khaganate with its center in Kiev. The war with the Rus was inevitable, and complete victory promised incalculable benefits for the Itil merchant organization, but, of course, not for the enslaved Khazars, who did not take part in this activity. The rulers held them tightly in subjection with the help of mercenary troops from Gurgan and forced them to pay huge taxes. Thus, they constantly expanded the exploited territory, increasing their incomes and increasingly breaking away from the peoples subordinate to them. Of course, the relationship between this merchant octopus and Russia could not be cloudless. Hints of clashes began in the 9th century, when the Khazarian government built the Sarkel fortress against Western enemies.
In 947 Olga went north and imposed a tribute on the churchyards along Mete and Luga. But the left bank of the Dnieper remained independent from Kiev and, apparently, in alliance with the Khazar government. It is unlikely that the Khazar Tsar Joseph was pleased with the transfer of power in Kiev from the hands of the Varangian king to the Russian prince, but he did not repeat the Passover campaign. The Khazar king Joseph considered it good to refrain from marching to Russia, but the delay did not go to his advantage. Olga went to Constantinople and was baptized there on September 9, 957, which meant the conclusion of a close alliance with Byzantium, the natural enemy of the Jewish Khazaria. An attempt to drag Olga to Catholicism, that is, to the side of Germany, undertaken by Bishop Adalbert, who arrived in Kiev in 961 on the instructions of the Emperor Otgon, was unsuccessful. From that moment on, Tsar Joseph lost hope for peace with Russia, and this was natural. The war began, apparently, immediately after Olga's baptism.
The supporters of the Khazar king at that time were the Yases (Ossetians) and Kasogs (Circassians), who occupied in the 10th century. steppes of the North Caucasus. However, their loyalty to the Jewish government was questionable, and their zeal was close to zero. During the war, they behaved very sluggishly. The Vyatichi, the Khazar tributaries, behaved in about the same way, and the Bulgarians generally refused to help the Khazars and were friends with the Guzes, the enemies of the Khazar king. The latter could only hope for the help of the Central Asian Muslims.
The year 964 found Svyatoslav on the Oka, in the land of the Vyatichi. The war between the Rus and the Khazar Jews was already in full swing, but the Kiev prince did not dare to attack through the Don steppes, controlled by the Khazar cavalry. The power of the Russians of the 10th century was in boats, and the Volga was wide. Without unnecessary clashes with the Vyatichi, the Russians cut down and adjusted the boats, and in the spring of 965 they descended along the Oka and Volga to Itil, to the rear of the Khazar regular troops who were waiting for the enemy between the Don and the Dnieper. The trip was impeccably thought out. The Rus, choosing a convenient moment, went ashore, replenished food supplies, not disdaining plunder, returned to their boats and sailed along the Volga, not fearing a sudden attack by the Bulgarians, Burtases and Khazars. What happened next is anyone's guess.

At the confluence of the river. Sargsu Volga forms two channels: western - the Volga proper and eastern - Akhtuba. Between them lies the green island on which Itil stood, the heart of the Jewish Khazaria. The right bank of the Volga is a loamy plain; perhaps the Pechenegs came there. The left bank of the Akhtuba is sand dunes, where the guzes were the owners. If part of the Russian boats went down the Volga and Akhtuba below Itil, then the capital of Khazaria turned into a trap for the defenders with no hope of salvation. The advancement of the Russians down the Volga proceeded by auto-alloy. And therefore it is so slow that the local residents (Khazars) had time to escape into the impassable thickets of the delta, where the Russians could not find them, even if they decided to look. But the descendants of the Jews and Turks displayed ancient courage.
The resistance to the Rus was led not by Tsar Joseph, but by an unnamed kagan. The chronicler is laconic: "And having been fighting, Svyatoslav won the gozar and took their city." Hardly any of the defeated survived. And where the Jewish king and his confidants, fellow tribesmen fled, is unknown. This victory decided the fate of the war and the fate of Khazaria. Centre complex system disappeared and the system disintegrated. Numerous Khazars did not put their heads under Russian swords. They didn't need it at all. They knew that the Russians had nothing to do in the Volga delta, and the fact that the Russians had saved them from oppressive power was only pleasant to them. Therefore, the further campaign of Svyatoslav - along the well-worn road of the annual migrations of the Turkic-Khazar Khan, through the “black lands” to the middle Terek, that is, to Semender, then through the Kuban steppes to the Don and, after the capture of Sarkel, to Kiev - passed without hindrance. The Khazar Jews, who survived in 965, scattered along the outskirts of their former state. Some of them settled in Dagestan (Mountain Jews), others in Crimea (Karaites). Having lost contact with the leading community, these small ethnic groups turned into relics, getting along with numerous neighbors. The disintegration of the Judeo-Khazar chimera brought them, like the Khazars, peace. But besides them, there were Jews who did not lose the will to fight and win and found shelter in Western Europe.
The friendship between Kiev and Constantinople, established by Princess Olga, was useful for both sides. Back in 949, 600 Russian soldiers took part in the landing on Crete, and in 962 the Russians fought in the Greek troops in Syria against the Arabs. There Kalokir, who served in the troops of his country, made friends with them; and there he learned Russian from his comrades in arms.
The inhabitants of Chersonesos have long been famous for their love of freedom, which was expressed in eternal quarrels with the authorities. Scolding the Constantinople government was a sign of good form for them and, perhaps, entered into a stereotype of behavior. But neither Chersonesos could live without the metropolis, nor Constantinople - without its Crimean outpost, from where grain, dried fish, honey, wax and other colonial goods were brought to the capital. Residents of both cities got used / to each other and did not pay attention to trifles. Therefore, when Nikifor Focke needed an intelligent diplomat with knowledge of the Russian language, he gave Kalokir the dignity of a patrician and sent him to Kiev. This need arose due to the fact that in 966 Nikifor Foka decided to stop paying tribute to the Bulgarians, which Byzantium undertook to pay under an agreement of 927, and instead demanded that the Bulgarians not let the Hungarians through the Danube to plunder the provinces of the empire. The Bulgarian Tsar Peter objected that he had made peace with the Hungarians and could not break it. Nikifor considered this a challenge and sent "the Yalokir to Kiev, giving him 15 centinarians of gold, so that he would induce the Rus to raid Bulgaria and thus force her to yield." In Kiev, the proposal was most welcome. Svyatoslav and his pagan companions have just returned from a campaign against the Vyatichi. Here again there was an opportunity to fuse him for a while. Olga's government was delighted.
Prince Svyatoslav was also pleased, for there were Christians in power in Kiev, who were by no means attractive to him. He felt much better on the hike. Therefore, in the spring of 968, Russian boats sailed to the mouth of the Danube and defeated the Bulgarians who were not expecting an attack. There were few Russian soldiers - about 8-10 thousand, but the Pechenezh cavalry came to their aid. In August of the same year, the Rus defeated the Bulgarians near Dorostol. Tsar Peter died, and Svyatoslav occupied Bulgaria up to Philippolis. This was done with the full approval of the Greeks who traded with Russia. Back in July 968, Russian ships were stationed in the harbor of Constantinople.
During the winter of 968-969, everything changed. Kalokir persuaded Svyatoslav, who settled in Pereyaslavets, or Malaya Preslav, on the banks of the river. Varna, put him on the throne of Byzantium. There were chances for this: they did not like Nicephorus Foku, the Russians were brave, and the main forces of the regular army were far away, in Syria, and were connected with a tense war with the Arabs. After all, the Bulgarians managed to bring the noseless Justinian into the Blachernae Palace in 705 in a less favorable situation! So why not take a chance? And Svyatoslav thought about the futility of returning to Kiev, where his Christian enemies, at best, would have sent him somewhere else. Bulgaria adjoined the Russian land - the territory of the street. The accession to Russia of Eastern Bulgaria, which overlooked the Black Sea, gave the pagan prince a territory where he could be independent from his mother and her advisers.
In the spring of 969, the left-bank Pechenegs laid siege to Kiev. For Olga and the people of Kiev, this was completely unexpected, because the reason for the violation of the peace was unknown to them. Kiev found itself in a desperate situation, and the troops that Voivode Pretich had led along the left bank to the rescue of the elderly princess were clearly not enough to repel the enemy. But when the Pechenezh leader entered into negotiations with Pretich, it turned out that the war was based on a misunderstanding. The princess's party did not even think about a war with Byzantium, and "retreating from the hail of the pechenzi", otherwise it was impossible even to water the horses in the Lybedp river. However, Svyatoslav was uncomfortable in Kiev. Nestor attributes this to his quarrelsome nature, but one must think that the situation was much more tragic. On July 11, Olga died and was buried according to the Orthodox rite, and her grave was not marked, although they cried for her "... we all cry great people." In other words, Olga behaved like a secret Christian, and there were many Christians and pagans in Kiev. Passions ran high. What Svyatoslav did after the death of his mother, the chronicle does not report, or rather, is silent. But from subsequent events it is obvious that Svyatoslav not only left Kiev, but was forced to leave it and go into the Danube occupation army, which was commanded by his loyal companions:
Olga's grandchildren were planted on the princely tables: Yaropolk - in Kiev, Oleg - in the Drevlyansky land, and Vladimir, the son of the housekeeper Malusha, who was captured during the conquest of the Drevlyans. - in Novgorod, because no one wanted to go there because of the violent disposition of the Novgorodians. But for Svyatoslav himself there was no place in his native land. This is not speculation. If Svyatoslav in July 969 was going to fight the Greeks, he would not lose momentum. If he felt firm ground under his feet, he would return the army from Bulgaria. But he did neither ... and a losing streak began.
The great schism of the churches in 1054 isolated the Russian Westernizers from the Catholic countries, for the conversion to Latinism began to be viewed in Kiev as apostasy. But Yaroslav, his son Izyaslav and grandson Svyatopolk, in need of money, patronized the Kiev colony of German Jews, who communicated the Kiev princes with Catholic Europe. The money that went into the prince's treasury, the Jews received from the local population, grieving that the Jews "took away all the crafts of Christians and under Svyatopolk had great freedom and power, through which many merchants and artisans went bankrupt" 2. The same source reports that the Jews "deceived many into their law," 3 but how to interpret this information is unclear. Most likely this is a libel, but the very fact of religious disputes and discrediting Orthodoxy is confirmed by another author - Theodosius of Pechersky, who used to argue with Jews in private conversations, "because he wanted to be killed for confessing Christ." 4. That his hopes were not unfounded, we will see later, but his role in supporting Izyaslav and the respect of the people saved Theodosius from the crown of martyrdom. This whole split into several parties, under which sub-ethnic differences were covered, deserves attention, because only under Vladimir Monomakh did the triumph of Orthodoxy in Russia come. Orthodoxy united the ethnic groups of Eastern Europe, although this spiritual unity was accompanied by political disunity, which will be discussed below. Yaroslav the Wise died in 1054 as a Kiev kagan - the winner of the Poles, Yatvingians, Chudi and Pechenegs, a legislator, educator and liberator of the Russian Church from Greek domination, but he did not leave the country in peace. On the contrary, both on the borders and inside the Russian land, events flowed along by no means foreseen channels. It was unexpected that, despite the grandeur of the territory subordinated to Kiev, Yaroslav could not defeat the small principality of Polotsk. On the contrary, he yielded to the Polotsk prince Bryachislav, the grandson of Vladimir, Vitebsk and Usvyat, which did not give him the desired peace. Only in 1066 the children of Yaroslav - Izyaslav and his brothers - defeated Vseslav Bryachislavich of Polotsk on the river Nemige, and then, having invited him to negotiations in Smolensk, they seized and imprisoned him in a log house without a door, i.e. a prison) in Kiev. Liberated by the rebellious Kievites on September 15, 1068, Vseslav reigned in Kiev for seven months, and then, under pressure from the superior forces of the Polish king Boleslav, returned to Polotsk and, after several setbacks, defended the independence of his hometown. Equally unexpected was the appearance on the southern border of Russia in 1049. Guzes, or Torks, former allies of Svyatoslav, now enemies. The war with the Torks dragged on until 1060, when they were defeated by a coalition of Russian princes and driven back to the Danube. In 1064 the Torks tried to cross the Danube and gain a foothold in Thrace, but widespread diseases and the rivalry of their sworn enemies, the Pechenegs, forced the Torks to return and seek refuge from the Kiev prince. Settled along the southern border of Rus, on the right bank of the Dnieper, the Torks became loyal allies of the Volyn princes against the third nomadic ethnic group that followed in their footsteps - the Polovtsians. These must be said in more detail, but for now let's consider the internal political situation in Russia.
The government of Olga, Vladimir and Yaroslav, relying on the Slavic-Russian subethnos - the descendants of the Polyans, brought together a huge territory - from the Carpathians to the Upper Volga and from Ladoga to the Black Sea, subjugating all the ethnic groups that lived there. With the death of Yaroslav the Wise, it turned out that the Kiev ruling group could no longer rule alone and was forced to switch to the principle of federation, although power remained the privilege of the princes of Rurik's house. The princes-heirs settled in the cities of seniority: Izyaslav - in Kiev and Novgorod, Svyatoslav - in Chernigov and the Seversk land, Vsevolod - in Pereyaslavl with a "makeweight" from the Rostov-Suzdal land, Vyacheslav - in Smolensk, Igor - in Vladimir-Volynsky. The chronicle, conveying the public opinion of contemporaries about the capture of Vseslav, condemns Izyaslav for betrayal and considers the alliance with the Poles as a betrayal of the motherland called "Ryad Yaroslavl", the inheritance of the throne went from the elder brother to the next, and after the death of all brothers - to the elder nephew. The emergence of the Cumans. All Turkic ethnic groups of the XI century. were "old people." They appeared together with the Huns and Sarmatians in the 3rd century. BC. passed all phases of ethnogenesis and turned into homeostatic relics. It would seem that they were doomed, but the opposite happened. The Persian historian Ravandi wrote to the Seljuk Sultan Kai-Khusrau in 1192-1196: “... in the lands of the Arabs, Persians, Byzantines and Rus the word (in the sense of“ predominance ”belongs to the Turks, fear of whose swords lives firmly in the hearts of neighboring peoples As early as the middle of the century, the former Ghaznavid official Ibn-Hassul in his treatise against the Deilemites lists the “lion-like” qualities of the Turks: courage, loyalty, endurance, lack of hypocrisy, dislike of intrigue, immunity to flattery, passion for robbery and violence, pride, freedom from unnatural vices, refusal to do domestic manual work (which was not always observed) and the desire for command posts. "
All this was highly appreciated by the settled neighbors of the nomads, because among the listed qualities there were not those that are associated with increased passionarity: ambition, sacrificial patriotism, initiative, missionary work, upholding identity, creative imagination, striving to reorganize the world. All these qualities have remained in the past, among the Hunnic and Türküt ancestors, and the descendants have become plastic and therefore desirable in the states, exhausted from the atrocities of their own subpassionaries. The moderate passionarity of the Turks seemed to the Arabs, Persians, Georgians, Greeks a panacea. But the Turkic ethnic groups did not get along with each other at all. The steppe vendetta carried away the heroes without bringing victory, for grown-up youths stood up instead of those killed. Passionate ethnic groups could have won and retained their success, but centuries passed, and they were not and were not foreseen. But the situation was completely different on the western outskirts of the Great Steppe, for the Russians in the XI century. were in the inertial phase of ethnogenesis, that is, they were more passionate than the Turkic nomads, who strove to the banks of the Don, Dnieper, Bug and Danube from the steppe, which was drying up throughout the 10th century.
As already noted, the steppe between Altai and the Caspian Sea was a field of constant clashes between three ethnic groups: Guzes (Torks), Kangls (Pechenegs) and Kumans (Polovtsians). Until the X century. forces were equal, and all rivals held their territories. When in the X century. Since a severe age-old drought struck the steppe zone, the Guzes and Kangly, who lived in the Ural dry steppes, suffered from it much more than the Cumans who lived in the foothills of Altai and on the banks of the high-water Irtysh. The streams falling from the mountains and the Irtysh allowed them to preserve the livestock and horses, that is, the foundation military power nomadic society. When, at the beginning of c. steppe vegetation (and pine forests) began to spread again to the south and south-west, the Cumans moved after it, easily breaking the resistance of the drought-exhausted Guzes and Pechenegs. Their way to the south was blocked by the Betpak-Dala desert, and in the west they opened the road to Doi and the Dnieper, where the grass steppes are located, exactly like those in their native Baraba. By 1055, the victorious Polovtsy reached the borders of Russia. First, the Polovtsians entered into an alliance with Vsevolod Yaroslavich, since they had a common enemy - Torki (1055). But after the victory over the Torks, the allies quarreled, and in 1061 the Polovtsian prince Iskal defeated Vsevolod. Presumably, both sides viewed the conflict as a border skirmish, but nevertheless the steppe roads became unsafe, communication between Tmutarakan 'and Russia became difficult, and this entailed a number of important events. The Polovtsi did not all migrate to the west. Their main settlements remained in Siberia and Kazakhstan, to the shores of Zaisan and Tengiz lakes. But as always happens, the most active part of the population left, which, after victories over the Guzes and Pechenegs, faced Russia. Mongols and Tatars in the XII century The northeastern part of Mongolia and the adjacent regions of the steppe Transbaikalia were divided among themselves by the Tatars and Mongols. To understand the history of the Mongols, one should firmly remember that in Central Asia an ethnic name has a double meaning: 1) the direct name of an ethnic group (tribe or people) and 2) collective for a group of tribes that make up a certain cultural or political complex, even if the tribes included in it of different origins. This was noted by Rashid-ad-Din: “Many clans supplied greatness and dignity in the fact that they considered themselves to be Tatars and became known under their name, just as the Naimans, Jalair, Onguts, Keraits and other tribes, which had each their definite name, called themselves Mongols out of a desire to transfer the glory of the latter to themselves; the descendants of these clans imagined themselves from ancient times bearing this name, which in reality did not exist. " Based on the collective meaning of the term "Tatars", medieval historians considered the Mongols as part of the Tatars, since before the XII century. hegemony among the tribes of Eastern Mongolia belonged to the latter. In V. Tatars began to be considered as part of the Mongols in the same broad sense of the word, and the name "Tatars" in Asia disappeared, but the Volga Turks, subjects of the Golden Horde, began to call themselves that. At the beginning of c. the names "Tatars" and "Mongol" were synonyms because, firstly, the name "Tatars" was familiar and well-known, and the word "Mongol" was new, and secondly, because numerous Tatars (in narrow sense words) constituted the vanguard of the Mongol army, since they were not spared and were placed in the most dangerous places. There their opponents faced them and got confused in their names: for example, Armenian historians called them Mungal Tatars, and the Novgorod chronicler in 1234. writes: “In the same summer, because of our sins, I didn’t know if I’m not aware of them, no one knows their good: who is, and has run out of weariness, and that their language, and which tribe are, and that their faith: but I am the Tatars ... "It was the Mongol army.
There is an opinion, apparently correct, that the strongest wins in a military clash, if there are no attendant circumstances. It is permissible to introduce an adjustment for the randomness of military happiness, but only within the limits of one battle or skirmish; for big war this is not essential, because the zigzags on a long journey are mutually compensated.
But what about the Mongol conquests? The numerical superiority, the level of military equipment, the habit of local natural conditions, the enthusiasm of the troops were often higher among the opponents of the Mongols than among the Mongol troops themselves, and in the courage of the Jurchens, the Chinese, Khorezmians, Ku-Mans and Rusich were not inferior to the Mongols, but one swallow does not spring. In addition, a small number of Mongol troops fought simultaneously on three fronts - Chinese, Iranian and Polovtsian, which in 1241 became Western European. How could they gain victories in c. and why did they begin to suffer defeat in the XIV century? In this regard, there are various assumptions and considerations, but the main reasons were considered some kind of special malice of the Mongols and their hypertrophied inclination to plunder.
The accusation is banal and, moreover, clearly tendentious, because it is presented at different times. different nations... And not only the townsfolk are guilty of this, but also some historians. As you know, we live in a changeable world. The natural conditions of the regions of the earth's land are unstable. Sometimes the habitat of an ethnic group befalls a century-old drought, sometimes - a flood, even more destructive. Then the biocenosis of the host region either dies or changes, adapting to new conditions. But people are the top link in the biocenosis. This means that everything noted applies to them. But this is not enough. Historical time, in which we live, act, love, hate, differs from linear, astronomical time in that we discover its existence due to the presence of events connected in causal chains. These chains are well known to everyone, they are called traditions. They arise in various regions of the planet, expand their ranges and break off, leaving monuments to descendants, thanks to which these logomics learn about extraordinary, "strange" people who lived before them.
Turning points of the era. The methodology we have adopted for distinguishing between levels of research allows us to make an important observation: ethnic history moves unevenly. In it, along with the smooth entropic processes of ascent, prosperity and gradual aging, moments of radical restructuring, breaking of old traditions are found, something new, unexpected suddenly arises, as if a powerful impetus shook the usual set of relations and mixed everything, like a deck of cards interfere. And after that, everything is settled and for a thousand years it goes on as usual.
With too much detail on the move
etc.................