Some historians believe that the Brodniks stood at the origins of the Russian Cossacks. Until the 13th century, they played an important role in Russian history, and then they seem to have evaporated. Nobody knows for certain where.
Guardians of the Ferries
If scientists are still arguing about the ethnic origin of the roaming people and the territory of their settlement, then the researchers are unanimous about their main type of activity. Both Lev Gumilyov and Nikolai Kotlyar write that the roaming people were responsible for crossings and dragging on rivers over a large area from the Danube to the Don region. Presumably it was a very profitable business.
The records of the Arab commander Marwan, who in 736 with a military campaign passed the whole Khazaria and between the Don and the Volga met large tribes of horse breeders, who also controlled the river crossings, can testify to the occupation of the brodniks.
Historian Vladimir Pashuto believed that the roamers were a nomadic people, but the studies of Lev Gumilyov and Igor Froyanov do not confirm this assumption. So, Lev Gumilev in his work "Discovery of Khazaria" writes that during the expedition undertaken by him in 1965, on the coast of the Tsimlyansk Sea, he discovered obvious evidence of their settledness. “The finding of a half of a spindle worn on a spindle shows that this was not a military camp, where women used to spin wool. It was a settled settlement of brodniks not far from the depression where birches and aspens grow and the water is half a meter from the surface."
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Ancestors of the Cossacks
One of the versions of the origin of the Cossacks takes it to the roaming people. Indirectly, this is evidenced by the fact that it was the wanderers who were the first to wear stripes on their pants. This tradition has been preserved among the Cossack wax. So, the Don Cossacks wear red stripes, the Transbaikal ones - yellow, the Ural ones - blue.
The historian Nikolai Kotlyar points out that the roaming people participated in the formation of the first southern Cossacks, who especially notes that the very processes of formation of both one and the second community are very similar: as a rule, fugitive people who flocked to the Polovtsian steppes became roaming.
In addition, the Brodniks were Orthodox. This is evidenced by the fact that the commander of Ploskyne took the oath to Mstislav Romanovich in 1223; the fact that the Mohammedans were "unfaithful" to the Mohammedans, and also the fact that Pope Gregory IX tried to persuade them to convert to Catholicism, who in 1227 sent his missionaries "to the Cumans and to the neighboring country of the Rogues."
Ethnicity
Scientists argue about the ethnicity of the Brodniks to this day. Most likely, they were not a separate ethnic group, but both Kotlyar and Pashuto do not reject the version that the roamers belonged to the Slavs.
Foreign chroniclers also confirm this. The Byzantine historian Nikita Choniates, in a speech delivered in 1190, ranked the rovers as Tauroscythians. It is interesting that Western historians of that time called the Russians Tavro-Scythians. That is, the Byzantine did not attribute the rovers either to the Comans (Polovtsians) or to the Vlachs.
Most likely, we can speak mainly of the Old Russian ethnic character of the rovers. This version is adhered to, for example, by the historian Fyodor Uspensky.
Battle of Kalka
The Brodniks played a decisive role in the Battle of Kalka, which took place on May 31, 1223. Brodniki fought on the side of the Tatars. The Don Brodniks, together with the Caucasian Circassians, were the backbone of the third tumen of the Mongol-Tatars. Even before the battle, they provided high-quality, timely reconnaissance, and also took part in the negotiation process.
After the battle, the Brodnikovskiy voivode Ploskinya even persuaded the remnants of the Russian army to surrender. On behalf of the Mongols, he promised the Russian troops that the surviving Russians would be released for the ransom. However, the Mongol-Tatars did not keep their promises. The surrendered Russian princes were put under the "dastrahan". The "dance on the bones" began.
After the battle on Kalka, the Brodniks became tributaries of the Mongol-Tatars
This is evidenced by the letter of the Hungarian king Bela lV to Pope Innocent (1254). It says that the Tatars "forced to pay tribute to Russia, Kumaniy, Brodnikov, Bulgaria." Brodniks continued to serve the crossings and paid tribute.
The mystery of disappearance
After the XIII century, mentions of the roaming people disappear from the historical chronicle. Their fate is not known for certain. Perhaps they gradually disappeared as a result of constant clashes with the nomadic Tatar ulus: perhaps they joined the troops of Tokhtamysh in the 14th century, or they were destroyed by the Ottomans in the 15th century.
Most likely, they assimilated with the emerging Cossacks. The already mentioned Lev Gumilyov adhered to this version.
Alexey Rudevich