It has long been believed that Polovets is an enemy of the Russian land, since representatives of this tribe were seen in repeated raids on the lands of our state. However, historians are aware of the episodes of the neighboring existence of the Polovtsian tribes and Slavs, as well as their joint campaigns against, for example, Hungarians, Volga Bulgars, Mongols, and others. Material evidence revealing the secrets of this nomadic tribe remains quite small, but they can also be used to trace a peculiar the history of the Polovtsian people.
The ancestors of the Polovtsy were Chinese?
The meaning of the word “Polovtsy” in the Old Russian language indicates that the Slavs called people that came from the steppes (from the word “field”) or had a yellowish skin tone (from the word “Polov” - “yellow”).
Indeed, the ancestors of the Polovtsy were nomads who lived in the steppes between the Eastern Tien Shan and the Mongolian Altai, which the Chinese called the Seyento people. In that area there was an ancient state, formed in 630, which, however, was quickly destroyed by the Uighurs and the same Chinese. After that, the inhabitants of these places changed the generic name “Syra” to “Kipchaks”, which meant “unhappy, ill-fated,” and went to the Irtysh and the eastern steppes of Kazakhstan.
Interpretations of the nineteenth century and the opinion of D. Sakharov
The meaning and interpretation of the word "Polovtsy" is also interpreted by some experts as derived from the word "fishing", which means hunting (in the sense of property and people), as well as from the word "full" - captivity, where the representative of the Slavs was taken.
In the nineteenth century (in particular E. Skrizhinskaya and A. Kunik), the name of these tribes was identified with the root "pol", meaning half. As suggested by the above researchers, the inhabitants of ancient Kiev, located on the right bank of the Dnieper, called the nomads who came from the other side of the river, "from the same floor." Academician D. Likhachev generally considered all the proposed versions unconvincing. He thought that the secret of the origin of the name of this tribe would never be solved, since the Kipchak-Polovtsy left a minimum number of their own written documents.
Polovtsy is not a separate tribe
Today it is believed that the Polovtsian is a representative of a conglomeration of nomadic tribes, and this data is based on the fact that in the eleventh century AD the Kipchak people were subjugated by the Mongol-speaking Kumoshi-Kimaki tribes, and then migrated to the west along with representatives of the Mongoloid tribes - Khitan. By the end of the thirties of the eleventh century, this totality 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
The Ipatiev Chronicle in 1055 first clarified who the Polovtsians are in terms of documentary Russian history. According to this manuscript, people came to the borders of the Pereslavl kingdom “bright, yellow,” which allowed the Kipchaks and Mongoloid tribes to assign the generalized name “Polovtsy”.
Newly arrived peoples settled in the Sea of Azov, the course of the Lower and Northern Don, where stone "women" were discovered, which, according to scientists, were established by nomadic tribes in memory of their ancestors.
Who are the Polovtsians of those times in terms of religious teachings? It is believed that in the environment of this nomadic tribe, the cult of ancestors was originally practiced, which was realized through the installation of stone sculptures on high sections of the steppe, on the watersheds in special sanctuaries. Moreover, immediate burials were not always nearby. In the Polovtsian graves, the burial of the deceased was often common, along with household items and the carcass (stuffed) of his war horse.
Two thousand stone idols and a minimum of writing
A mound poured over the grave of prominent Polovtsian people. In later periods, when Muslims conquered the Kipchaks, some of the pagan monuments were destroyed. To date, about 2,000 stone "women" (from "balbal" - "ancestors") have survived to the territory of modern Russia, which are still considered to have the power to increase the fertility of the earth, restore nature. These monuments survived for many centuries, including the period of the Christianization of the Polovtsy. Pagans, Muslims, Christians - these are who are Polovtsy in different periods of development of this totality of peoples.
They shot down birds with an arrow on the fly.
After the appearance on the steppes of eastern Europe in the XI century A.D. the Polovtsy did not stop in this area and continued to settle further, the benefit of this was the presence of such a powerful means of transportation of the time as a horse, and good armament in the form of a bow.
Polovtsian is primarily a warrior. From early childhood, the children of these tribes were taught horseback riding and battle techniques, so that later they would join the koshun, a militia from the same kind. Dozens of people or three or four hundred could enter the koshun, who attacked the enemy like an avalanche, surrounded him with a ring and bombarded him with arrows. In addition to the complex, technically advanced bows for that time, the Polovtsy had sabers, blades, and spears. They wore armor in the form of rectangular plates of iron. Their military skill was so high that a rider could shoot any flying bird out of a bow.
Camp kitchen ... saddle
Who are the Polovtsians in terms of their way of life? These peoples 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 were softened under the saddle of a horse. From the raids, they brought looted goods and captives, 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 Polovtsy means, many peoples of that time felt on themselves.
The Polovtsy had no one to adopt cultural traditions, since the nomadic Kipchak tribes reached the Ciscaucasia steppes in the 12th century (there was a rate of Polovtsian khans on the Sunzha River), they visited Pomorie, Sourozh and Korsuni, Pomorie, Tmutarakani, and made about 46 raids in total to Russia, in which they often won, but were also defeated. In particular, around 1100 A.D. about 45 thousand Kipchaks were ousted by Russians in Georgian lands, where they mixed with local peoples.
Polovtsian habits to grab everything and everyone who came to hand, led to the fact that by a certain time some of the nomadic peoples had learned how to build homes for the winter, where even stoves were arranged in the likeness of Russian heating elements. Primitive leather clothes were decorated with ribbons on the sleeves, like the Byzantine nobles, signs of organization appeared among the tribes.
Polovtsian kingdoms were no less than European
By the time of their conquest by the Mongol-Tatar troops in the XIII century, the hordes of the Polovtsy were associations, the most powerful of which were the Don and Transnistrian. In those days, the Polovtsian was a representative of the people who lived in a territory that was not inferior in size to European kingdoms. These quasi-state formations prevented the passage of caravans along the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", carried out independent raids on Russia and were active until the 90s of the twelfth century, after which the Kipchaks fought mainly in Russian squads during inter-princely wars of that time.
So how can one answer the question of who the Polovtsy are? From ancient history, we can conclude that this people, despite some primitiveness, played an important role in the formation of the political map of the world at that time and in the formation of various nationalities, including modern ones.