The Polovtsians remained in the history of Rus' as the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries during the internecine wars. The tribes that worshiped the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.
Who are the Polovtsians?
In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torks, met a detachment of new, previously unknown in Rus', nomads led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new “acquaintances” received the Russian name “Polovtsy” and the future neighbors went their separate ways. Since 1064, Byzantine and 1068 in Hungarian sources mention the Cumans and Kuns, also previously unknown in Europe. They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and treacherous allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Cumans, and 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 concern historians to this day.
According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which were called differently in different parts of the world. Their ancestors, the Sars, lived in the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630. The remnants went to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they received their new name “Kipchaks,” which, according to legend, means “ill-fated.” They are mentioned under this name in many medieval Arab-Persian sources. However, in both Russian and Byzantine sources, Kipchaks are not found at all, and people similar in description are called “Cumans”, “Kuns” or “Polovtsians”. 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 these people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the east 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 can one explain that this toponym was unknown to Byzantium, Rus', or Europe? In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they had not heard at all about the Polovtsians or Cumans. 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 soldiers who died in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsians 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 Cumans, Cumans and Kuns as the same tribe. According to the candidate of sciences, Evstigneev, the Polovtsy-Sarys are the Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.
Weapons of civil strife
The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a “good neighbor” of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of surprise raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, and swept away an unprepared enemy on their way. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, showering the enemy with heaps of arrows as they galloped. They raided cities, robbing and killing people, taking them captive.
In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in new technologies for that time, such as heavy crossbows and “liquid fire,” which they apparently borrowed from China since their time in Altai.
However, as long as centralized power remained 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. There was brisk trade, the population communicated widely in the border areas. Dynastic marriages with the daughters of Polovtsian khans became popular among Russian princes. 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 an “autocrat” like their father. This was the birth of a great and long unrest in Rus', which the Polovtsians took advantage of. Without completely taking sides, they willingly sided with the man who promised them big “profits.” Thus, the first prince who resorted to their help, Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, who was disinherited by his uncles, allowed them to plunder and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.
Subsequently, calling the Cumans as allies in internecine struggles became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson Oleg Gorislavich expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, and he took Murom, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav from there. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories. In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then still the Prince of Pereslavl, the Lyubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone should own their own “fatherland”. Even the Kiev prince, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially consolidated in Rus' with good intentions. The only thing that united the Russian lands even then was a common fear of Polovtsian invasions.
Monomakh's War
The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, under whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide temporarily ceased. Chronicles, which were actually actively copied during his time, tell of him as the most influential prince in Rus', who was known as a patriot who spared neither his strength nor his life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom his brother and his worst enemy, Oleg Svyatoslavich, stood, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against the nomads - to fight on their own territory. Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian “lava” crashed against the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppe inhabitants, did not allow them to escape on their famous light-winged horses. Even the timing 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, which were emaciated on pasture.
Monomakh’s favorite tactics also provided an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense through foot soldiers, since by attacking, the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the brunt of the attack, the Russian cavalry went around the flanks and struck in the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle. For Vladimir Monomakh, just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands were enough to rid Rus' of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, 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 Polovtsians migrated away from the borders of Rus', to the Caucasian foothills.
“Polovtsian women,” like other stone women, are not necessarily images of women; among them there are many men’s faces. Even the etymology of the word “baba” 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 creatures. Although, according to another version, stone women are traces of a bygone matriarchy, as well as the cult of veneration of the mother goddess, among the Polovtsians - Umai, who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the sacrificial bowl, and the chest, which is also found in men and is obviously associated with feeding the clan.
According to the beliefs of the Cumans, who professed shamanism and Tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with special powers that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Cuman passing by had to offer a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to gain its support. This is how the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsian, describes this ritual:
“And the Kipchak’s back bends before the idol...
The rider hesitates before him, and, holding his horse,
He bends down and thrusts an arrow between the grasses,
Every shepherd who drives away his flock knows
Why should one leave a sheep in front of an idol?
Polovtsy Polovtsy (Cumans, Kipchaks) are the people of the Turkic tribe, who once formed one whole with the Pechenegs and Torks (when they lived in the steppes of Central Asia); in Petrarch's papers a dictionary of the Polovtsian language has been preserved, from which it is clear that their language is Turkic, which is closest to the Quattro-Turkish. P. came to the southern Russian steppes following the Pechenegs and soon ousted both of them. From this time (2nd half of the 11th century) until the Mongol-Tatar invasion, they carried out constant attacks on Rus', especially southern Russia - they devastated lands, plundered livestock and property, took away a lot of prisoners, whom they either kept as slaves or sold in slave markets Crimea and Central Asia. Their attacksP. they did it quickly and suddenly; Russian princes tried to recapture their captives and cattle when they returned to their steppe. The border principality of Pereyaslavl suffered most from them, then Porosye, Seversk, Kiev, and Ryazan regions. Sometimes Rus' ransomed its prisoners from P. To defend its southern borders, Rus' built fortifications and settled on the borderlands of allied and peaceful Turks, known as black hoods. The center of the Black-Klobutsky settlements was Porosye, on the southern border of the Kyiv principality. Sometimes the Russians waged an offensive war with the Polovtsians, undertaking campaigns deep into the Polovtsian land; one of such campaigns was the campaign of the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Igor Svyatoslavich, in 1185; but they brought more glory than benefit. The Polovtsian people split into several tribes, which were named after their leaders. Thus, the chronicle mentions the Voburgevichs, Ulashevichs, Bosteeva, Chargova children. P. were excellent steppe riders and had their own military system. Their main occupation was cattle breeding (breeding cattle, horses, camels), and therefore they moved from one place to another; Their situation was difficult during the harsh winters. They obtained gold and silver partly by robbery, partly by trade. They did not build P. cities, although Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev are mentioned in their land and belonged to them in the 13th century. Sudak. The Polovtsian khans lived a luxurious life, but the people generally lived simply and unpretentiously; his main food was meat. milk and millet, favorite drink - kumiss. GraduallyP. were exposed to the cultural influence of Rus', sometimes adopted Christianity; Their khans received Christian names. In general, however. P.were pagans. According to Rubrukvis, they built mounds over the ashes of their dead and placed stone women on top of them. In the half of the 13th century. P. were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars. Some of them moved to Transcaucasia, some to Russia, some to the Balkan Peninsula (Thrace, Macedonia) and Asia Minor, some to Hungary; the Hungarian king Bela IV accepted P., who came under the leadership of Khan Kotyan (father-in-law of Daniil Romanovich of Galicia); the heir to the Hungarian throne, Stephen V, married Kotyan’s daughter, and in general P. took a prominent position in Hungary. Finally, part of P. moved to Egypt, where they also settled well in the army; some Egyptian sultans were of Polovtsian origin. See P.V. Golubovsky, “Pechenegs, Turks and Cumans before the Tatar invasion” (Kyiv, 1884); article by prof. Aristov "About the Polovtsian Land" (in "Izvestiya Nezh. Ist.Phil. Institute"). D. Bag-th snake (Eryx) - a genus of snakes from the subfamily Erycinae family. boas (Boidae), distinguished by a very short, mobile and non-curling tail, covered with small scales and a head not delimited from the body with a rounded muzzle, with a distinct longitudinal groove on the chin and the absence of pits on all labial scutes; The front jaw teeth are only slightly longer than the back teeth. From 5 to 6 species characteristic of the Palearctic Himalayan regions and: living in very dry sandy areas of steppes and deserts. The most common species is the Turkish snake (Eryx jaculus s.turcicus), 66 - 77 cm long, bright yellowish-gray on top, with an oblique black stripe on both sides of the head; black checkers, located in four longitudinal rows along the entire length of the body, merge with each other; the underside is mostly one-color straw-yellow. Distributed from the Balkan Peninsula to the Altai Mountains to the east and to Egypt and Algeria to the west. It buries itself in the sand, lying in wait for prey, which consists mainly of lizards, which it strangles before swallowing. T. Ya.
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .
See what “Polovtsians” are in other dictionaries:
- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (part of it went to Hungary) ... Modern encyclopedia
- (Kipchaks) Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in early 1055. 13th century The most dangerous attacks were in con. 11th century Stopped after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16.… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
CUMANS, Cumans, units. Polovtsian, Polovtsian, husband. Turkic people, related to the Pechenegs, in the 11th and 12th centuries. AD repeatedly attacked Kievan Rus. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Cumans, ev, units. vets, vtsa, husband. A group of tribes of Turkic origin that roamed the southeast of Europe in the 11th century. 13th century | wives Polovtsian, I. | adj. Polovtsian, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. The most dangerous attacks were at the end of the 11th century; ceased after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16;... ... Russian history
Cumans- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (some of them went to Hungary). ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
It is proposed to merge this page with the Kipchaks. Explanation of reasons and discussion on the Wikipedia page: Towards unification / October 23, 2011. The discussion lasts one week (or longer if it is going slowly). Date... Wikipedia
Ev; pl. East. An ancient people of the Turkic linguistic group, nomadic in the southeast of Europe at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 13th century; representatives of this people. The fight against the Polovtsians. ◁ Polovtsian, vtsa; m. Polovchanka, and; pl. genus. nok, dat. nkam; and. Polovtsian, oh, oh. P.… … encyclopedic Dictionary
Kipchaks, Cumans, cf. century Turkic people groups. In the 10th century occupied the territory North Zap. Kazakhstan, bordering on the East with the Kimaks, on the South with the Oguzes, and on the West with the Khazars. They split into a number of tribes and led a nomadic lifestyle. All R. 10th century, moving after... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
Kipchaks, Kypchaks, Cumans, the Russian name for a mostly Mongoloid Turkic-speaking people who came around the 11th century. from the Volga region to the Black Sea steppes. P.'s main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding. By the 12th century. P. begins to stand out... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Books
- Cumans in Hungary. Historical sketch, Pyotr Vasilievich Golubovsky. A brief research work, which the author originally intended as an appendix to his study “Pechenegs, Torques and Cumans before the Tatar Invasion,” 1884. The brochure contains rare…
The Polovtsy remained in the history of Rus' the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries during the internecine wars. Tribes who worshiped the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.
"Cumans"
In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torks, met a detachment of new, previously unknown in Rus', nomads led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new “acquaintances” received the Russian name “Polovtsy” and the future neighbors went their separate ways.
Since 1064, Byzantine and 1068 in Hungarian sources mention the Cumans and Kuns, also previously unknown in Europe.
They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and treacherous allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Cumans, and 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 concern historians to this day.
According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which were called differently in different parts of the world.
Their ancestors - the Sars - lived in the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630.
The survivors headed to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they received a new name “Kipchaks”, which, according to legend, means “ill-fated” and as evidenced by medieval Arab-Persian sources.
However, in both Russian and Byzantine sources, Kipchaks are not found at all, and people similar in description are called “Cumans”, “Kuns” or “Polovtsians”. 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 these people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the east 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.
If all nationalities initially represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then how can we explain that this toponym was unknown to Byzantium, Rus', and Europe? In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they had not heard at all about the Polovtsians or Cumans.
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 soldiers killed in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsians 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 Cumans, Cumans and Kuns as the same tribe. According to Candidate of Sciences Yuri Evstigneev, the Polovtsy-Sarys are the Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.
Weapons of civil strife
The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a “good neighbor” of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of surprise raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, and swept away an unprepared enemy on their way. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, pelting the enemy with a bunch of arrows as they galloped. They raided cities, robbing and killing people, taking them captive.
In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in technologies that were new for that time, such as heavy crossbows and “liquid fire,” which they apparently borrowed from China since their time in Altai.
However, as long as centralized power remained 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. There was brisk trade and the population communicated widely in the border areas. Dynastic marriages with the daughters of Polovtsian khans became popular among Russian princes. 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 an “autocrat” like their father. This was the birth of a great and long unrest in Rus', which the Polovtsians took advantage of. Without completely taking sides, they willingly sided with the man who promised them big “profits.”
Thus, the first prince who resorted to their help, Oleg Svyatoslavich (who was disinherited by his uncles), allowed the Polovtsians to plunder and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.
Subsequently, calling the Cumans as allies in internecine struggles became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson, Oleg Gorislavich, expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, and he took Murom, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav from there. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories.
In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then still the Prince of Pereslavl, the Lyubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone should own their own “fatherland”. Even the Kiev prince, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially consolidated in Rus' with good intentions. The only thing that united the Russian lands even then was a common fear of Polovtsian invasions.
Monomakh's War
The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, under whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide temporarily ceased. Chronicles, which, however, were actively copied during his time, talk about Vladimir Monomakh as the most influential prince in Rus', who was known as a patriot who spared neither his strength nor his life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom his brother and his worst enemy, Oleg Svyatoslavich, stood, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against the nomads - to fight on their own territory.
Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian “lava” crashed against the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppe inhabitants, did not allow them to escape on their famous light-winged horses. Even the timing 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, which were emaciated on pasture.
Monomakh’s favorite tactics also provided an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense through foot soldiers, since by attacking, the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the brunt of the attack, the Russian cavalry went around the flanks and struck in the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle.
For Vladimir Monomakh, just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands were enough to rid Rus' of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, 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 Polovtsians migrated away from the borders of Rus', to the Caucasian foothills.
On guard of the dead and the living
The Polovtsians, like many other peoples, have sunk into the oblivion of history, leaving behind the “Polovtsian stone women” who still guard the souls of their ancestors. Once upon a time they were placed in the steppe to “guard” the dead and protect the living, and were also placed as landmarks and signs for fords.
Obviously, they brought this custom with them from their original homeland - Altai, spreading it along the Danube.
“Polovtsian Women” is far from the only example of such monuments. Long before the appearance of the Polovtsians, in the 4th-2nd millennium BC, such idols were erected on the territory of present-day Russia and Ukraine by the descendants of the Indo-Iranians, and a couple of thousand years after them - by the Scythians.
“Polovtsian women,” like other stone women, are not necessarily images of women; among them there are many men’s faces. Even the etymology of the word “baba” 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 creatures.
Although, according to another version, the stone women are traces of a bygone matriarchy, as well as the cult of veneration of the mother goddess among the Polovtsians (Umai), who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the sacrificial bowl, and the chest, which is also found in men and is obviously associated with feeding the clan.
According to the beliefs of the Cumans, who professed shamanism and Tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with special powers that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Cuman passing by had to offer a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to gain its support. This is how the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsian, describes this ritual:
“And the Kipchak’s back bends before the idol. The rider hesitates before him, and, holding his horse, He bends down and thrusts an arrow between the grasses. Every shepherd driving away a flock knows that it is necessary to leave the sheep in front of the idol.”
(Cumans,Kipchaks ) - the people of the Turkic tribe, who once formed one whole with the Pechenegs and Torks (when they lived in the steppes of Central Asia); in Petrarch's papers a dictionary of the Polovtsian language was preserved, from which it is clear that their language is Turkic, closest to Eastern Turkish. The Polovtsians came to the southern Russian steppes following the Pechenegs and Torks and soon ousted both of them. From that time (2nd half of the 11th century) until the Mongol-Tatar invasion, they carried out constant attacks on Rus', especially southern Russia - they devastated lands, plundered livestock and property, took away a lot of prisoners, whom they either kept as slaves or sold. in the slave markets of Crimea and Central Asia. The Polovtsians made their attacks quickly and suddenly; Russian princes tried to recapture their captives and livestock when they returned to their steppe. The border principality of Pereyaslavl suffered most from them, then Porosye, Seversk, Kiev, and Ryazan regions. Sometimes Rus' ransomed its prisoners from the Polovtsians. To defend its southern borders, Rus' built fortifications and settled allied and peaceful Turks, known as black hoods, on the borderlands. The center of Chernoklobutsky settlements was Porosye on the southern border of the Kyiv principality. Sometimes the Russians waged an offensive war with the Polovtsians, undertaking campaigns deep into the Polovtsian land; one of these campaigns was the campaign of the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Igor Svyatoslavich, in 1185; but they brought more glory than benefit. The Polovtsian people split into several tribes, which were named after their leaders. Thus, the chronicle mentions the Voburgevichs, Ulashevichs, Bosteeva, Chargova children. The Polovtsians were excellent steppe riders and had their own military system. Their main occupation was cattle breeding (breeding cattle, horses, camels), and therefore they moved from one place to another; Their situation was difficult during the harsh winters. They obtained gold and silver partly by robbery and partly by trade. The Polovtsians did not build cities, although Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev are mentioned in their lands and belonged to them in the 13th century. Sudan. The Polovtsian khans led a luxurious life, but the people generally lived simply and unpretentiously; His main food was meat, milk and millet, his favorite drink was kumiss. Gradually, the Polovtsians were exposed to the cultural influence of Rus', sometimes accepting Christianity; Their khans received Christian names. In general, however, the Cumans were pagans. According to Rubrukvis, they built mounds over the ashes of their dead and placed stone women on top of them. In the half of the 13th century. The Polovtsians were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars. Some of them moved to Transcaucasia, some to Rus', some to the Balkan Peninsula (Thrace, Macedonia) and Asia Minor, some to Hungary; the Hungarian king Bela IV received the Polovtsians, who came under the leadership of Khan Kotyan (father-in-law of Daniil Romanovich Galitsky); the heir to the Hungarian throne, Stephen V, married Kotyan's daughter, and in general the Cumans occupied a prominent position in Hungary. Finally, part of the Polovtsians moved to Egypt, where they also settled well in the army; some Egyptian sultans were of Polovtsian origin. See P. V. Golubovsky, “Pechenegs, Torques and Polovtsy before the Tatar invasion” (Kyiv, 1884); article by prof. Aristov “About the Polovtsian Land” (in “Izvestiya Nizh. Ist.-Phil. Institute”).
The Polovtsy remained in the history of Rus' the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries during the internecine wars. Tribes who worshiped the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.
In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torks, met a detachment of new, previously unknown in Rus', nomads led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new “acquaintances” received the Russian name “Polovtsy” and the future neighbors went their separate ways.
Since 1064, Byzantine and 1068 in Hungarian sources mention the Cumans and Kuns, also previously unknown in Europe. They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and treacherous allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Cumans, and 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 concern historians to this day.
According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which were called differently in different parts of the world. Their ancestors - the Sars - lived in the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630. The survivors headed to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they received a new name “Kipchaks”, which, according to legend, means “ill-fated” and as evidenced by medieval Arab-Persian sources.
However, in both Russian and Byzantine sources, Kipchaks are not found at all, and people similar in description are called “Cumans”, “Kuns” or “Polovtsians”. 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 these people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the east 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.
If all nationalities initially represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then how can we explain that this toponym was unknown to Byzantium, Rus', and Europe? In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they had not heard at all about the Polovtsians or Cumans.
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 soldiers who died in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsians 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 Cumans, Cumans and Kuns as the same tribe. According to Candidate of Sciences Yuri Evstigneev, the Polovtsy-Sarys are the Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.
Weapons of civil strife
The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a “good neighbor” of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of surprise raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, and swept away an unprepared enemy on their way. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, showering the enemy with heaps of arrows as they galloped. They raided cities, robbing and killing people, taking them captive.
In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in technologies that were new for that time, such as heavy crossbows and “liquid fire,” which they apparently borrowed from China since their time in Altai.
However, as long as centralized power remained 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. There was brisk trade and the population communicated widely in the border areas. Dynastic marriages with the daughters of Polovtsian khans became popular among Russian princes. 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 an “autocrat” like their father. This was the birth of a great and long unrest in Rus', which the Polovtsians took advantage of. Without completely taking sides, they willingly sided with the man who promised them big “profits.” Thus, the first prince who resorted to their help, Oleg Svyatoslavich (who was disinherited by his uncles), allowed the Polovtsians to plunder and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.
Subsequently, calling the Cumans as allies in internecine struggles became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson, Oleg Gorislavich, expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, and he took Murom, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav from there. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories.
In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then still the Prince of Pereslavl, the Lyubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone should own their own “fatherland”. Even the Kiev prince, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially consolidated in Rus' with good intentions. The only thing that united the Russian lands even then was a common fear of Polovtsian invasions.
Monomakh's War
The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, under whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide temporarily ceased. Chronicles, which, however, were actively copied during his time, talk about Vladimir Monomakh as the most influential prince in Rus', who was known as a patriot who spared neither his strength nor his life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom his brother and his worst enemy, Oleg Svyatoslavich, stood, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against the nomads - to fight on their own territory.
Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian “lava” crashed against the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppe inhabitants, did not allow them to escape on their famous light-winged horses. Even the timing 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, which were emaciated on pasture.
Monomakh’s favorite tactics also provided an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense through foot soldiers, since by attacking, the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the brunt of the attack, the Russian cavalry went around the flanks and struck in the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle.
For Vladimir Monomakh, just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands were enough to rid Rus' of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, 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 Polovtsians migrated away from the borders of Rus', to the Caucasian foothills.
On guard of the dead and the living
The Polovtsians, like many other peoples, have sunk into oblivion of history, leaving behind “Polovtsian stone women” who still guard the souls of their ancestors. Once upon a time they were placed in the steppe to “guard” the dead and protect the living, and were also placed as landmarks and signs for fords. Obviously, they brought this custom with them from their original homeland - Altai, spreading it along the Danube.
“Polovtsian Women” is far from the only example of such monuments. Long before the appearance of the Polovtsians, in the 4th-2nd millennium BC, such idols were erected on the territory of present-day Russia and Ukraine by the descendants of the Indo-Iranians, and a couple of thousand years after them - by the Scythians.
“Polovtsian women,” like other stone women, are not necessarily images of women; among them there are many men’s faces. Even the etymology of the word “baba” 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 creatures. Although, according to another version, the stone women are traces of a bygone matriarchy, as well as the cult of veneration of the mother goddess among the Polovtsians (Umai), who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the sacrificial bowl, and the chest, which is also found in men and is obviously associated with feeding the clan.
According to the beliefs of the Cumans, who professed shamanism and Tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with special powers that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Cuman passing by had to offer a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to gain its support. This is how the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsian, describes this ritual:
“And the Kipchak’s back bends before the idol.
The rider hesitates before him, and, holding his horse,
He bends down and thrusts an arrow between the grasses,
Every shepherd who drives away his flock knows
Why should one leave a sheep in front of an idol?
The Mongol invasion was unexpected for the Polovtsians and Russians. They united against a common enemy. A battle took place near the Kalka River in 1223, in which the army of Russians and Polovtsians was defeated. Most of the Polovtsians were forced to leave the Polovtsian steppe and move to Hungary, Transcaucasia, the Balkans and Byzantium.
It is believed that the Polovtsians, who went to the North Caucasus, laid the foundation for the formation of the Karachay, Balkan and Kumyk ethnic groups. The Polovtsians who settled in Hungary were completely assimilated. In Byzantium and Bulgaria, the Cumans were used as a military force.
The Horde, who captured the Polovtsian steppe, gradually merged with the remnants of the Polovtsians, and the Polovtsians, in turn, became part of the Golden Horde. Therefore, we can assume that the Polovtsians participated in the ethnogenesis of such peoples known today as the Tatars, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Bashkirs, Uzbeks, Gagauz and other Turkic-speaking peoples.
It should be recognized that the Polovtsians played an important role in the formation of the Russian state. And it would be wrong to talk about them as enemies of Ancient Rus'. And today the historical roots of many nationalities inhabiting Russia lead to Polovtsian camps.
During the formation of the Golden Horde (mid-13th century), the Cumans assimilated the Mongol conquerors and passed on their language to them. Later, the Kipchak language formed the basis of the Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Bashkir, Karachay-Balkar, Nogai, Kazakh, Karakalpak, Kumyk and some other languages.
Cumans and the Second Bulgarian Kingdom
The Polovtsians had a significant influence on the Bulgarian kingdom and were a reliable ally of the Bulgarians during the formation of the second kingdom. The Cumans were participants in the most famous battles of the Bulgarian kings from the Asen dynasty, were allies in the best years of the second Bulgarian kingdom and were one of the peoples assimilated by the Bulgarians in the Middle Ages.
The first mention of the Cumans in Bulgaria occurs in 1186, when Tsar Ivan Asen I suddenly crossed the Danube with a large auxiliary army of the Cumans, thereby disrupting the suppression of the Bulgarian uprising by Emperor Isaac II Angel. In 1190, Isaac II Angel sent a special fleet, the purpose of which was to prevent the Cumans from coming to the aid of the besieged Bulgarians. However, the rumor that the blockade of the Danube had been broken and the Cumans had crossed the Danube sowed panic among the Byzantines and contributed to the further defeat of the imperial troops. During the reign of the younger brother of Tsars Asen and Peter - Kaloyan, the Polovtsy, in addition to allies, became subjects, occupied the highest positions in the state, and participated in government. Kaloyan’s wife was the daughter of a Polovtsian khan, and her Polovtsian brother Manastre was a Bulgarian commander, one of Kaloyan’s closest associates.
In 1204, the Hungarian King Imre complained to Pope Innocent III that Tsar Kaloyan was using a “pagan army” against him, meaning the Cumans.
The Cumans also took a decisive part in the famous Battle of Adrianople, in which the troops of the IV Crusade were defeated and the emperor of the Latin Empire was captured.
“Ioannis, king of Blakia, went to the aid of those who were in Andrinople, with a huge army: he brought with him blaks, and hillocks, and almost forty thousand cumenes, who were non-Christians...”
In this battle, the Polovtsian cavalry played a decisive role: having made two luring maneuvers for two days in a row, the Polovtsians managed to call in the heavy cavalry of Count Louis de Blois, followed by the entire knightly cavalry. The Polovtsians managed to lure them to places where the Bulgarians were waiting for them in ambush. Thus the entire knightly army perished.
The Polovtsy managed to arrive at the last moment to the small army of Ivan Asen II in the Battle of Klokotnitsa, famous for the Bulgarians, in 1230. Thus, they once again entered their name into the hall of fame, since Ivan Asen II managed to defeat the Epirus army, which was many times larger in number of soldiers, and captured the next emperor - the despot of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos and his entire family.