Polovets is ... Find out who the Polovtsians are

It has long been believed that the Polovtsian is the enemy of the Russian land, since representatives of this tribe were seen in multiple raids on the lands of our state. However, historians know the episodes of the neighboring existence of the Polovtsian tribes and Slavs, as well as their joint campaigns against, for example, the Hungarians, Volga Bulgars, Mongols, etc. Material evidence that reveals the secrets of this nomadic tribe has remained quite small, but also it is possible to trace the peculiar History of the Polovtsian people.

The ancestors of the Polovtsians were Chinese?

The meaning of the word "Polovets" in the Old Russian language indicates that the Slavs called people like that or came from the steppes (from the word "field") or had a yellowish shade of skin (from the word "sex" - "yellow").

Indeed, the ancestors of the Polovtsians were nomads who lived in the steppes between the Eastern Tien Shan and the Mongolian Altai, which the Chinese called the Seiyanto. In that region, there was an ancient state formed in 630, which, however, was quickly destroyed by the Uighurs and the same Chinese. After that, the residents of these places changed the generic name of "Syrah" to "Kipchaks", which meant "unhappy, unhappy", and went to the Irtysh and the eastern steppes of Kazakhstan.

The interpretations of the nineteenth century and the opinion of D. Sakharov

The meaning and interpretation of the word "Polovets" is also interpreted by some specialists as derived from the word "fishing", which means hunting (in terms of property and people), and also from the word "full" - captivity, to which the representative of the Slavs was taken.

In the nineteenth century (in particular E. Skryzhinskaya and A. Kunik) identified the names of these tribes with the root "half", meaning half. As suggested by the above researchers, residents of ancient Kiev, who was on the right bank of the Dnieper, called nomads who came from the other side of the river, "with this floor." Academician D. Likhachev 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 Kipchaks-Polovtsians left the minimum number of their own written documents.

Polovtsy is not a separate tribe

Today, it is believed that the Polovec is a representative of the conglomeration of nomadic tribes, and these data are based on the fact that in the eleventh century AD the Kipchak people were subdued by the Mongolian tribes of Kumosi-Kimaki, and later migrated westward with representatives of the Mongoloid tribes - the Khitan. By the end of the thirties of the eleventh century, this set 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 Russia

About that, who such Polovtsy from the point of view of documentary Russian history, for the first time has given explanations Ипатьевская the chronicle in 1055. According to this manuscript, people "bright, yellow" came to the borders of the Pereslavl kingdom, which made it possible to give the Kipchaks and Mongoloid tribes a generalized name "Polovtsy".

The newly arrived peoples settled in the Azov Sea, the Lower and Northern Don, where stone "women" were found, which scientists believe were established by nomadic tribes in memory of their ancestors.

Who are the Cumans of those times in terms of religious teachings? It is believed that in the midst of 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 there. In the Polovtsian graves, the burial of the deceased was often extended along with household objects and carcass (stuffed) of his warhorse.

Two thousand stone idols and a minimum of writing

Over the graves of outstanding by the standards of Polovtsy people poured a mound. In later periods, when the Kipchaks were conquered by Muslims, part of the pagan monuments was exterminated. To date, about 2,000 stone "babas" have been preserved on the territory of modern Russia (from "balbal" to "prachshur"), which are still considered to have the strength to increase the fertility of the earth, restore nature. These monuments survived many centuries, including the Christianization of the Polovtsians. Pagans, Muslims, Christians - these are the Polovtsians in different periods of development of this set of peoples.

They shot down birds on the fly

After the appearance on the territory of the steppes of eastern Europe in the XI century AD. The Polovtsi did not stop in this area and continued to settle further, the benefit of this was the presence of such a powerful vehicle of the time as a horse, and good archery.

The Polovtsian is first and foremost a warrior. Children of these tribes from a small age were taught horse riding and fighting techniques, so that later they entered the koshun - the militia from one kind. The koshun could include dozens of people or three or four hundred, who attacked the enemy in an avalanche, surrounded it with a ring and filled them with arrows. In addition to complex, technically advanced for that time, the Polovtsians had sabers, blades, and spears. They wore armor in the form of rectangular plates of iron. Their military skill was so high that a galloping horseman could be shot down by any flying bird.

Camp kitchen ... under the saddle

Who are the Polovtsians in terms of their way of life? These nationalities were typical nomads, very unpretentious even by the standards of that time. Initially, they lived in covered wagons or felt yurts, ate milk, cheese and raw meat, which softened the horses under the saddle. From the raids they brought looted goods and prisoners, gradually adopting knowledge, habits and customs from other cultures. Despite the fact that the origin of the word did not find an exact definition of what the Polovtsian means, many people of that time experienced on themselves.

To adopt the cultural traditions of Polovtsi was from whom, since the nomadic tribes of the Kipchaks reached the Ciscaucasian steppes in the 12th century (the rate of the Polovtsian khans was on the river of Sunzha), they visited Pomorye, Surozhe and Korsun, Pomorye, Tmutarakan, made a total of about 46 raids To Russia, in which they were often defeated, but also were defeated. In particular, around 1100 AD. About 45 thousand Kipchaks were driven out by Rusich to Georgian lands, where they mingled with local nationalities.

The Polovtsian habits of snapping everything and everyone who fell under their arm led to the fact that by a certain time a number of nomadic peoples had learned to build dwellings for the winter, where even furnaces in the likeness of Russian heating elements were equipped. Primitive clothes from leather were decorated with ribbons on their sleeves, like those of Byzantine nobles, signs of organization appeared among the tribes.

The Polovtsian kingdoms were no less than European

By the time of its conquest by the Mongol-Tatar troops in the XIII century, the Polovtsian hordes were associations, the strongest of which were the Don and the Transnistrian. In those days the Polovtsian was a representative of the people who lived in a territory that was not inferior in size to the European kingdoms. These quasi-state entities prevented the passage of caravans along 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 predominantly in the Russian squads during the inter-princely wars of that time.

So how can you answer the question about who are the Polovtsians? From ancient history, we can conclude that this people, despite some primitiveness, played an important role in shaping the political map of the world at that time and in the formation of various nationalities, including modern ones.