Where did the Polovtsians come from, how did they become an instrument in the internecine feud in Russia, and where did they eventually go?
Where did the Polovtsians come from
The formation of the Polovtsian ethnos took place according to the same laws for all the peoples of the Middle Ages and antiquity. One of them is that the people who gave the name to the entire conglomerate are not always the most numerous in it - due to objective or subjective factors, they move to a leading position in the emerging ethnic massif, becoming its core. Polovtsi did not come to an empty place. The first component that merged into the new ethnic community here was the population that was previously part of the Khazar Kaganate - the Bulgarians and Alans. A more significant role was played by the remnants of the Pechenezh and Guz hordes. This is confirmed by the fact that, firstly, according to anthropology, outwardly the nomads of the X-XIII centuries did not differ much from the inhabitants of the steppes of the VIII - early X centuries, and secondly,an extraordinary variety of funeral rites is recorded in this area. The custom that came exclusively with the Polovtsians was the construction of sanctuaries dedicated to the cult of male or female ancestors. Thus, from the end of the 10th century in this region, there was a mixing of three kindred peoples, a single Turkic-speaking community was formed, but the process was interrupted by the Mongol invasion.
Polovtsi - nomads
The Polovtsians were a classic nomadic pastoralist people. In the herds there were cattle, sheep, and even camels, but the main wealth of the nomad was the horse. Initially, they led a year-round so-called camp nomadism: finding a place rich in food for cattle, they located their dwellings there, but when the food was depleted, they went in search of a new territory. At first, the steppe could provide for everyone painlessly. However, as a result of demographic growth, the urgent task has become the transition to a more rational economy - seasonal nomadism. It presupposes a clear division of pastures into winter and summer ones, the folding of territories and routes assigned to each group.
Promotional video:
Dynastic marriages
Dynastic marriages have always been a tool of diplomacy. The Polovtsians were no exception. However, the relationship was not based on parity - the Russian princes willingly married the daughters of the Polovtsian princes, but did not send their relatives in marriage. An unwritten medieval law worked here: the representatives of the ruling dynasty could be married only to an equal. It is characteristic that the same Svyatopolk married the daughter of Tugorkan, having suffered a crushing defeat from him, that is, being in a weaker position. However, he did not give up his daughter or sister, but he himself took a girl from the steppe. Thus, the Polovtsians were recognized as an influential, but not equal force.
But if the baptism of the future wife seemed even a godly deed, then “betrayal” of one's faith was not possible, which is why the Polovtsian rulers did not manage to get the daughters of Russian princes to marry themselves. There is only one known case when a Russian princess (the widowed mother of Svyatoslav Vladimirovich) married a Polovtsian prince - but for this she had to run away from home.
Be that as it may, by the time of the Mongol invasion, the Russian and Polovtsian aristocracy were closely intertwined with kinship ties, the cultures of both peoples were mutually enriching.
Polovtsi were a weapon in internecine feud
The Polovtsi were not the first dangerous neighbor of Russia - the threat from the steppe always accompanied the life of the country. But unlike the Pechenegs, these nomads met not with a single state, but with a group of principalities at war with each other. At first, the Polovtsian hordes did not strive to conquer Russia, content with small raids. Only when in 1068 the combined forces of the three princes were defeated on the Lyte (Alta) river, did the power of the new nomadic neighbor become apparent. But the danger was not realized by the rulers - the Polovtsians, always ready for war and plunder, began to be used in the struggle against each other. Oleg Svyatoslavich was the first to do this in 1078, bringing in the "nasty" to fight Vsevolod Yaroslavich. Later, he repeatedly repeated this "technique" in the internecine struggle, for which he was named the author of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" Oleg Gorislavich.
But the contradictions between the Russian and Polovtsian princes did not always allow them to unite. Vladimir Monomakh, who was himself the son of a Polovtsian woman, fought especially actively against the established tradition. In 1103, the Dolob Congress took place, at which Vladimir managed to organize the first expedition to the enemy's territory. The result was the defeat of the Polovtsian army, which lost not only ordinary soldiers, but also twenty representatives of the highest nobility. The continuation of this policy led to the fact that the Polovtsians were forced to migrate away from the borders of the Rus
After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the princes again began to bring the Polovtsians to fight with each other, weakening the military and economic potential of the country. In the second half of the century, there was another surge of active confrontation, which was led in the steppe by Prince Konchak. It was to him that Igor Svyatoslavich was captured in 1185, which is described in the "Lay of Igor's Regiment". In the 1190s, raids became less and less, and at the beginning of the 13th century, the military activity of the steppe neighbors also subsided.
The further development of relations was interrupted by the Mongols who came. The southern regions of Rus were endlessly exposed not only to raids, but also to the "drives" of the Polovtsians, which ruined these lands. After all, even the simple movement of the army of nomads (and there were cases when they went here and with the entire economy) destroyed crops, the military threat forced merchants to choose other paths. Thus, this people contributed a lot to the displacement of the center of the country's historical development.
Polovtsi were friends not only with Russians, but also with Georgians
The Polovtsians were noted for their active participation in history not only in Russia. Expelled by Vladimir Monomakh from the Northern Donets, they partially migrated to the Ciscaucasia under the leadership of Prince Atrak. Here Georgia turned to them for help, constantly being raided from the mountainous regions of the Caucasus. Atrak willingly entered the service of King David and even became related to him, having given his daughter in marriage. He did not bring with him the entire horde, but only a part of it, which later remained in Georgia.
From the beginning of the 12th century, the Polovtsians actively penetrated the territory of Bulgaria, which was then under the rule of Byzantium. Here they were engaged in cattle breeding or tried to enter the service of the empire. Apparently, these include Peter and Ivan Aseni, who raised an uprising against Constantinople. With the tangible support of the Cuman detachments, they managed to defeat Byzantium, in 1187 the Second Bulgarian Empire was founded, the head of which was Peter.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the influx of Polovtsians into the country increased, and the eastern branch of the ethnos had already participated in it, bringing with it the tradition of stone sculptures. Here, however, they quickly Christianized, and then disappeared among the local population. For Bulgaria, this was not the first experience of “digesting” the Turkic people. The Mongol invasion "pushed" the Polovtsians to the west, gradually, from 1228, they moved to Hungary. In 1237, more recently, the powerful prince Kotyan turned to the Hungarian king Bela IV. The Hungarian leadership agreed to provide the eastern outskirts of the state, knowing about the strength of the approaching army of Batu.
The Polovtsi roamed the territories assigned to them, causing discontent in neighboring principalities, which were subjected to periodic robberies. Bela's heir Stefan married one of Kotyan's daughters, but then, under the pretext of treason, executed his father-in-law. This led to the first uprising of freedom-loving settlers. The next riot of the Polovtsians was caused by an attempt at their violent Christianization. Only in the XIV century they completely settled, became Catholics and began to dissolve, although they still retained their military specifics and even in the XIX century they still remembered the prayer "Our Father" in their native language.
We do not know anything about whether the Polovtsians had writing
Our knowledge of the Cumans is rather limited due to the fact that this people never created their own written sources. We can see a huge number of stone statues, but we will not find any inscriptions there. We get information about this people from its neighbors. The 164-page notebook of a missionary-translator of the late XIII - early XIV century "Alfabetum Persicum, Comanicum et Latinum Anonymi …", better known as "Codex Cumanicus" stands apart. The time of the appearance of the monument is determined by the period from 1303 to 1362, the Crimean city of Kafu (Feodosia) is called the place of writing. By origin, content, graphic and linguistic features, the dictionary is divided into two parts, Italian and German. The first is written in three columns: Latin words, their translation into Persian and Polovtsian languages. The German part contains dictionaries, grammar notes,Polovtsian riddles and Christian texts. The Italian component is more essential for historians, since it reflected the economic needs of communication with the Polovtsians. In it we find such words as “bazaar”, “merchant”, “money changer”, “price”, “coin”, listing of goods and crafts. In addition, it contains words that characterize a person, city, nature. The list of Polovtsian titles is of great importance.
Although, in all likelihood, the manuscript was partially rewritten from an earlier original, it was not created at one time, why it is not a "slice" of reality, but it still allows us to understand what the Polovtsians were doing, what goods they were interested in, we can see their borrowing of Old Russian words and, which is very important, to reconstruct the hierarchy of their society.
Polovtsian women
A specific feature of the Polovtsian culture was stone statues of ancestors, which are called stone or Polovtsian women. This name appeared because of the emphasized breast, which always hangs on the stomach, which obviously carried a symbolic meaning - feeding the genus. Moreover, a fairly significant percentage of male statues have been recorded, which depict a mustache or even a beard, and at the same time there is a breast identical to the female.
The 12th century is the period of the heyday of the Polovtsian culture and the mass production of stone statues; there are also faces in which a striving for portrait resemblance is noticeable. Making idols from stone was expensive, and the less wealthy members of society could only afford wooden figures, which, unfortunately, did not come down to us. The statues were placed on the tops of mounds or hills in square or rectangular sanctuaries built of flagstone. Most often, male and female statues - the ancestors of the kosh - were placed with faces to the east, but there were shrines with a cluster of figures. At their foot, archaeologists found the bones of rams, and once discovered the remains of a child. It is obvious that the cult of ancestors played a significant role in the life of the Polovtsians. For us, the importance of this feature of their culture is that it allows us to clearly define where the people roamed.
Attitude towards women
In Polovtsian society, women enjoyed considerable freedom, although they also had a significant part of the responsibilities at home. There is a clear gender division of spheres of activity both in craft and in cattle breeding: women were in charge of goats, sheep and cows, men were in charge of horses and camels. During military campaigns on the shoulders of the weaker sex, all the worries about the defense and economic activities of the nomads were heaped. Perhaps sometimes they had to become the head of the kosha. At least two female burials were found with rods of precious metals, which were symbols of the leader of a larger or smaller association. At the same time, women did not stay away from military affairs. In the era of military democracy, girls took part in general campaigns, the defense of a nomad during the absence of a husband also presupposed the presence of military skills. A stone statue of a heroic girl has reached us. The size of the statue is one and a half to two times larger than the common one, the chest is "tucked up", in contrast to the traditional image, covered with elements of armor. She is armed with a saber, a dagger and has a quiver for arrows, nevertheless her headdress is undoubtedly female. This type of warrior is reflected in Russian epics under the name Polyanyts.
Where did the Polovtsians go
Not a single nation disappears without a trace. History knows no cases of complete physical extermination of the population by alien invaders. The Polovtsians did not go anywhere either. In part, they went to the Danube and even ended up in Egypt, but the bulk remained in their native steppes. For at least a hundred years, they retained their customs, albeit in a modified form. Apparently, the Mongols forbade the creation of new sanctuaries dedicated to the Polovtsian warriors, which led to the emergence of "pit" places of worship. In a hill or a mound, depressions were dug, not visible from afar, inside which the pattern of placing the statues, traditional for the previous period, was repeated.
But even with the end of this custom, the Polovtsians did not disappear. The Mongols came to the Russian steppes with their families, and did not migrate to the whole tribe. And the same process happened with them as with the Polovtsians centuries earlier: having given a name to a new people, they themselves dissolved in it, having absorbed its language and culture. Thus, the Mongols became a bridge from the modern peoples of Russia to the annalistic Polovtsy.
Garkavets A. N. Codex Cumanicus: Polovtsian Prayers, Hymns and Riddles of the 13th – 14th centuries.
M., 2005.
Druzhinina I. P., Chkhaidze V. N., Narozhny E. I. Medieval nomads in the Eastern Azov region.
Armavir, M., 2011.
