Where did the Russians come from? Who was our ancestor? What do Russians and Ukrainians have in common? For a long time, the answers to these questions could only be speculative. Until the genetics got down to business.
Adam and Eve
Population genetics is involved in the study of roots. It is based on indicators of heredity and variability. Geneticists have discovered that all of modern humanity goes back to one woman, whom scientists call Mitochondrial Eve. She lived in Africa over 200,000 years ago.
We all have the same mitochondrion in our genome - a set of 25 genes. It is transmitted only through the maternal line.
At the same time, the Y chromosome in all current men is also being raised to one man, nicknamed Adam, in honor of the biblical first man. It is clear that we are talking only about the closest common ancestors of all living people, their genes have come down to us as a result of genetic drift. It is worth noting that they lived at different times - Adam, from whom all modern males received their Y chromosome, was 150 thousand years younger than Eve.
Of course, these people can hardly be called our “ancestors”, since out of thirty thousand genes that a person possesses, we have only 25 genes and a Y chromosome from them. The population increased, the rest of the people interfered with the genes of their contemporaries, modified, mutated in the course of migrations and the conditions in which people lived. As a result, we got different genomes of different peoples that were formed later.
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Haplogroup
It is thanks to genetic mutations that we can determine the process of resettlement of humanity, as well as genetic haplogroups (communities of people with similar haplotypes, having a common ancestor, in which the same mutation took place in both haplotypes) characteristic of a particular nation.
Each nation has its own set of haplogroups, which are sometimes similar. Thanks to this, we can determine whose blood flows in us, and who are our closest genetic relatives.
According to a 2008 study carried out by Russian and Estonian geneticists, the Russian ethnos genetically consists of two main parts: the inhabitants of South and Central Russia are closer to other peoples who speak Slavic languages, and the indigenous northerners are closer to the Finno-Ugric peoples. Of course, we are talking about representatives of the Russian people. Surprisingly, the gene inherent in Asians, including Mongol-Tatars, is practically absent in us. So the famous saying: "Scratch a Russian, you will find a Tatar" is fundamentally wrong. Moreover, the Asian gene also did not particularly affect the Tatar people, the gene pool of modern Tatars turned out to be mostly European.
In general, based on the results of the study, in the blood of the Russian people there is practically no impurity from Asia, because of the Urals, but within Europe, our ancestors experienced numerous genetic influences from their neighbors, whether they were Poles, Finno-Ugrians, peoples of the North Caucasus or ethnos Tatars (not Mongols). By the way, the haplogroup R1a, characteristic of the Slavs, according to some versions, was born thousands of years ago and was frequent among the ancestors of the Scythians. Some of these Pro-Scythians lived in Central Asia, some migrated to the Black Sea region. From there, these genes reached the Slavs.
Ancestral home
Once upon a time, Slavic peoples lived on the same territory. From there they scattered around the world, fighting and mingling with their indigenous population. Therefore, the population of the current states, which are based on the Slavic ethnos, differ not only in cultural and linguistic characteristics, but also genetically. The farther they are geographically from each other, the greater the differences. So the Western Slavs found common genes with the Celtic population (haplogroup R1b), the Balkans - with the Greeks (haplogroup I2) and ancient Thracians (I2a2), the eastern ones - with the Balts and Finno-Ugric peoples (haplogroup N). Moreover, the interethnic contact of the latter occurred at the expense of Slavic men who married aboriginal women.
Despite numerous differences and heterogeneity of the gene pool, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians clearly correspond to one group on the so-called MDS diagram, reflecting the genetic distance. Of all nations, we are the closest to each other.
Genetic analysis allows you to find the above-mentioned "ancestral home, where it all began." This is possible due to the fact that every migration of tribes is accompanied by genetic mutations, which more and more distorted the original set of genes. So, based on genetic proximity, it is possible to determine the original territorial.
For example, according to the genome, Poles are closer to Ukrainians than Russians. Russians are close to southern Belarusians and eastern Ukrainians, but far from Slovaks and Poles. Etc. This allowed scientists to conclude that the original territory of the Slavs was approximately in the middle of the current area of settlement of their descendants. Conventionally, the territory of the subsequently formed Kievan Rus. Archaeologically, this is confirmed by the development of the Prague-Korczak archaeological culture of the 5th-6th centuries. From there, the southern, western and northern waves of settlement of the Slavs have already gone.
Genetics and mentality
It would seem that since the gene pool is known, it is easy to understand where the national mentality comes from. Not really. According to Oleg Balanovsky, an employee of the laboratory of population genetics of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, there is no connection between the national character and the gene pool. These are already "historical circumstances" and cultural influence.
Roughly speaking, if a newborn baby from a Russian village with a Slavic gene pool is taken immediately to China and brought up in Chinese customs, culturally he will be a typical Chinese. But, as for appearance, immunity to local diseases, everything will remain Slavic.
DNA genealogy
Along with population genealogy, private directions for the study of the genome of peoples and their origin appear and develop today. Some of them are classified as pseudo-sciences. For example, the Russian-American biochemist Anatoly Klesov invented the so-called DNA genealogy, which, in the words of its creator, "is practically historical science, created on the basis of the mathematical apparatus of chemical and biological kinetics." Simply put, this new direction is trying to study the history and time frame of the existence of certain genera and tribes based on mutations in the male Y chromosomes.
The main postulates of DNA genealogy were: the hypothesis of the non-African origin of Homo sapiens (which contradicts the conclusions of population genetics), criticism of the Norman theory, as well as the lengthening of the history of the Slavic tribes, which Anatoly Klesov considers the descendants of the ancient Aryans.
Where are such conclusions from? Everything from the already mentioned haplogroup R1A, which is the most common among the Slavs.
Naturally, this approach has given rise to a sea of criticism, both from historians and from geneticists. In historical science, it is not customary to talk about the Aryan Slavs, since material culture (the main source in this matter) does not allow determining the continuity of Slavic culture from the peoples of Ancient India and Iran. Geneticists completely object to the association of haplogroups with ethnic characteristics.
Doctor of Historical Sciences Lev Klein emphasizes that “Haplogroups are not peoples or languages, and giving them ethnic nicknames is a dangerous and unworthy game. No matter what patriotic intentions and exclamations she may hide behind. According to Klein, Anatoly Klesov's conclusions about the Aryan Slavs made him an outcast in the scientific world. How the discussion around the newly-declared science of Klesov and the question of the ancient origin of the Slavs will continue to develop is still anyone's guess.
0.1%
Despite the fact that the DNA of all people and nations is different and in nature there is not a single person identical to another, from a genetic point of view, we are all extremely similar. All the differences in our genes, which gave us different skin color and eye shape, according to the Russian geneticist Lev Zhitovsky, make up only 0.1% of our DNA. For the remaining 99.9%, we are genetically the same. Paradoxically, if we compare the various representatives of the human races and our closest relatives of chimpanzees, it turns out that all people differ much less than chimpanzees in one herd. So, to some extent, we are all one big genetic family.
