Polovtsy. Russian-Polovtsian wars Polovtsian wars

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Polovtsy (Polovtsians) are a nomadic people who were once considered the most warlike and powerful. The first time we hear about them is in history lessons at school. But the knowledge that a teacher can give within the framework of the program is not enough to understand who they are, these Polovtsians, where they came from and how they influenced the life of Ancient Rus'. Meanwhile, for several centuries they haunted the Kyiv princes.

History of the people, how they came into being

Polovtsy (Polovtsians, Kipchaks, Cumans) are nomadic tribes, the first mention of which dates back to 744. At that time, the Kipchaks were part of the Kimak Kaganate, an ancient nomadic state that formed on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. The main inhabitants here were the Kimaks, who occupied the eastern lands. The lands near the Urals were occupied by the Polovtsians, who were considered relatives of the Kimaks.

By the middle of the 9th century, the Kipchaks achieved superiority over the Kimaks, and by the middle of the 10th century they absorbed them. But the Polovtsians decided not to stop there and by the beginning of the 11th century, thanks to their belligerence, they moved close to the borders of Khorezm (the historical region of the Republic of Uzbekistan).

At that time, the Oghuz (medieval Turkic tribes) lived here, who, due to the invasion, had to move to Central Asia.

By the middle of the 11th century, the Kipchaks submitted to almost the entire territory of Kazakhstan. The western borders of their possessions reached the Volga. Thus, thanks to active nomadic life, raids and the desire to conquer new lands, the once small group of people occupied vast territories and became one of the strongest and richest among the tribes.

Lifestyle and social organization

Their socio-political organization was a typical military-democratic system. The entire people were divided into clans, the names of which were given by the names of their elders. Each clan owned land plots and summer nomadic routes. The heads were the khans, who were also the heads of certain kurens (small divisions of the clan).

The wealth obtained during the campaigns was divided among representatives of the local elite participating in the campaign. Ordinary people, unable to feed themselves, became dependent on the aristocrats. Poor men were engaged in herding livestock, while women served as servants of local khans and their families.

There are still disputes over the appearance of the Polovtsians; the study of the remains continues using modern capabilities. Today scientists have some portrait of these people. It is assumed that they did not belong to the Mongoloid race, but were more like Europeans. The most characteristic feature is blondness and reddishness. Scientists from many countries agree on this.

Independent Chinese experts also describe the Kipchaks as people with blue eyes and “red” hair. There were, of course, dark-haired representatives among them.

War with the Cumans

In the 9th century, the Cumans were allies of the Russian princes. But soon everything changed; at the beginning of the 11th century, Polovtsian troops began to regularly attack the southern regions of Kievan Rus. They plundered houses, took away captives, who were then sold into slavery, and took away livestock. Their invasions were always sudden and brutal.

In the middle of the 11th century, the Kipchaks stopped fighting the Russians, as they were busy at war with the steppe tribes. But then they took up their task again:

In 1061, the Pereyaslavl prince Vsevolod was defeated in a battle with them and Pereyaslavl was completely destroyed by nomads;
After this, wars with the Polovtsians became regular. In one of the battles in 1078, the Russian prince Izyaslav died;
In 1093, the army gathered by three princes to fight the enemy was destroyed.

These were difficult times for Rus'. Endless raids on villages ruined the already simple farming of the peasants. Women were taken captive and became servants, children were sold into slavery.

In order to somehow protect the southern borders, the residents began to build fortifications and settle there the Turks, who were the military force of the princes.

Campaign of Seversky Prince Igor

Sometimes the Kyiv princes went on an offensive war against the enemy. Such events usually ended in victory and caused great damage to the Kipchaks, briefly cooling their ardor and giving the border villages the opportunity to restore their strength and life.

But there were also unsuccessful campaigns. An example of this is the campaign of Igor Svyatoslavovich in 1185.

Then he, uniting with other princes, went out with an army to the right tributary of the Don. Here they encountered the main forces of the Polovtsians, and a battle ensued. But the enemy’s numerical superiority was so noticeable that the Russians were immediately surrounded. Retreating in this position, they came to the lake. From there, Igor rode to the aid of Prince Vsevolod, but was unable to carry out his plans, as he was captured and many soldiers died.

It all ended with the fact that the Polovtsians were able to destroy the city of Rimov, one of the large ancient cities of the Kursk region, and defeat the Russian army. Prince Igor managed to escape from captivity and returned home.

His son remained in captivity, who returned later, but in order to gain freedom, he had to marry the daughter of a Polovtsian khan.

Polovtsy: who are they now?

At the moment, there is no unambiguous data on the genetic similarity of the Kipchaks with any people living today.

There are small ethnic groups considered to be distant descendants of the Cumans. They are found among:

Crimean Tatars;
Bashkir;
Kazakhov;
Nogaitsev;
Balkartsev;
Altaytsev;
Hungarians;
Bulgarian;
Polyakov;
Ukrainians (according to L. Gumilev).

Thus, it becomes clear that the blood of the Polovtsians flows today in many nations. The Russians were no exception, given their rich joint history.

To tell about the life of the Kipchaks in more detail, it is necessary to write more than one book. We touched on its brightest and most important pages. After reading them, you will better understand who they are - the Polovtsians, what they are known for and where they came from.

Video about nomadic peoples

In this video, historian Andrei Prishvin will tell you how the Polovtsians arose on the territory of ancient Rus':

Polovtsy (11-13th centuries) are a nomadic people of Turkic origin, who became one of the main serious political opponents of the princes of Ancient Rus'.

At the beginning of the 11th century. The Polovtsians moved out from the Volga region, where they had lived before, towards the Black Sea steppes, displacing the Pecheneg and Torque tribes along the way. After crossing the Dnieper, they reached the lower reaches of the Danube, occupying vast territories of the Great Steppe - from the Danube to the Irtysh. During the same period, the steppes occupied by the Polovtsians began to be called the Polovtsian steppes (in Russian chronicles) and Dasht-i-Kypchak (in the chronicles of other peoples).

Name of the people

The people also have the names “Kipchaks” and “Cumans”. Each term has its own meaning and appeared under special conditions. Thus, the name “Polovtsy”, generally accepted on the territory of Ancient Rus', came from the word “polos”, which means “yellow”, and came into use due to the fact that the early representatives of this people had blond (“yellow”) hair.

The concept of “Kipchak” was first used after a serious internecine war in the 7th century. among the Turkic tribes, when the losing nobility began to call itself “Kipchak” (“ill-fated”). The Polovtsians were called “Cumans” in Byzantine and Western European chronicles.

History of the people

The Polovtsy were an independent people for several centuries, but by the middle of the 13th century. became part of the Golden Horde and assimilated the Tatar-Mongol conquerors, passing on to them part of their culture and their language. Later, on the basis of the Kypchan language (spoken by the Polovtsians), Tatar, Kazakh, Kumyk and many other languages were formed.

The Polovtsians led a life typical of many nomadic peoples. Their main occupation remained cattle breeding. In addition, they were engaged in trade. A little later, the Polovtsians changed their nomadic lifestyle to a more sedentary one; certain parts of the tribe were assigned certain plots of land where people could run their own households.

The Polovtsians were pagans, professed Tangerianism (worship of Tengri Khan, the eternal sunshine of the sky), and worshiped animals (in particular, the wolf was, in the understanding of the Polovtsians, their totem ancestor). In the tribes there lived shamans who performed various rituals of worshiping nature and the earth.

Kievan Rus and the Cumans

The Polovtsians are very often mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles, and this is primarily due to their difficult relations with the Russians. Starting from 1061 and until 1210, the Cuman tribes constantly committed cruel acts, plundered villages and tried to seize local territories. In addition to many small raids, one can count about 46 major Cuman raids on Kievan Rus.

The first major battle between the Cumans and the Russians took place on February 2, 1061 near Pereyaslavl, when the Cuman tribe raided Russian territories, burned several fields and plundered the villages located there. The Polovtsians quite often managed to defeat the Russian army. So, in 1068 they defeated the Russian army of the Yaroslavichs, and in 1078, during the next battle with the Polovtsian tribes, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich died.

The troops of Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh (who later led the all-Russian campaigns of Rus' against the Polovtsians) and Rostislav during the battle in 1093 also fell at the hands of these nomads. In 1094, the Polovtsians went so far as to force Vladimir Monomakh to leave Chernigov. However, the Russian princes constantly organized retaliatory campaigns against the Polovtsians, which sometimes ended quite successfully. In 1096, the Cumans suffered their first defeat in the fight against Kievan Rus. In 1103, they were again defeated by the Russian army under the leadership of Svyatopolk and Vladimir and were forced to leave the previously captured territories and go into service in the Caucasus to the local king.

The Polovtsians were finally defeated in 1111 by Vladimir Monomakh and a Russian army of thousands, which launched a crusade against their longtime opponents and invaders of Russian territories. To avoid final ruin, the Polovtsian tribes were forced to go back across the Danube and into Georgia (the tribe was divided). However, after the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the Polovtsians were able to return again and began to repeat their earlier raids, but very quickly went over to the side of the Russian princes fighting among themselves and began to take part in permanent battles on the territory of Rus', supporting one or another prince. Participated in raids on Kyiv.

Another major campaign of the Russian army against the Polovtsy, which was reported in the chronicles, took place in 1185. In the famous work “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” this event is called the massacre of the Polovtsy. Unfortunately, Igor's campaign was unsuccessful. He failed to defeat the Polovtsians, but this battle went down in the chronicles. Some time after this event, the raids began to fade away, the Cumans split up, some of them converted to Christianity and mixed with the local population.

The end of the Cuman tribe

The once strong tribe, which caused a lot of inconvenience to the Russian princes, ceased to exist as an independent and independent people around the middle of the 13th century. The campaigns of the Tatar-Mongol Khan Batu led to the fact that the Cumans actually became part of the Golden Horde and (although they did not lose their culture, but, on the contrary, passed it on) ceased to be independent.

In the year 6619 (1111) ... And on Sunday, when they kissed the cross, they came to Psel, and from there they reached the Golta River. Here they waited for the soldiers, and from there they moved to Vorskla, and there the next day, Wednesday, they kissed the cross and placed all their hope on the cross, shedding copious tears. And from there they crossed many rivers and came to the Don on Tuesday of the sixth week of Lent. And they put on armor, built regiments, and moved towards the city of Sharukan. And Prince Vladimir ordered the priests, riding in front of the army, to sing troparia and kontakion in honor of the Holy Cross and the canon of the Holy Mother of God. And in the evening they drove up to the city, and on Sunday people came out of the city with bows to the Russian princes and brought out fish and wine. And they spent the night there. And the next day, Wednesday, they went to Sugrov and, having started, lit it, and on Thursday they moved from the Don; on Friday, the next day, March 24th, the Polovtsians gathered, built their regiments and went into battle. Our princes, placing their hope in God, said: “Death is here for us, so let us stand strong.” And they said goodbye to each other and, raising their eyes to heaven, called on the Most High God. And when both sides came together and a fierce battle ensued, God on High turned his gaze, filled with anger, on the foreigners, and they fell before the Christians. And so the foreigners were defeated, and many of our enemies, adversaries, fell before the Russian princes and warriors on the Degei stream. And God helped the Russian princes. And they gave praise to God that day. And the next morning, when Saturday came, they celebrated the resurrection of Lazarus, the day of the Annunciation, and, having given praise to God, spent Saturday and waited for Sunday. On Monday of Holy Week, the foreigners again gathered many of their regiments and moved, like a huge forest, in thousands of thousands. And the Russian regiments surrounded. And the Lord God sent an angel to help the Russian princes. And the Polovtsian regiments and the Russian regiments moved, and the regiments came together in the first battle, and the roar was like thunder. And a fierce battle ensued between them, and people fell on both sides. And Vladimir with his regiments and Davyd began to advance, and, seeing this, the Polovtsians fled. And the Polovtsians fell in front of Vladimirov’s regiment, invisibly killed by an angel, which many people saw, and their heads, invisibly<кем>cut, fell to the ground. And they defeated them on Monday of Holy Week, the month of March on the 27th. Many foreigners were killed on the Salnitsa River. And God saved his people. Svyatopolk, and Vladimir and Davyd glorified God, who had given them such a victory over the filthy, and they took a lot of cattle, and horses, and sheep, and many captives they grabbed with their hands. And they asked the captives, saying: “How did this happen: you were so strong and so numerous, but you could not resist and soon fled?” They answered, saying: “How can we fight with you, when some others rode over you in bright and terrible weapons and helped you?” These could only be angels sent by God to help Christians. It was the angel who gave Vladimir Monomakh the idea to call his brothers, the Russian princes, against the foreigners...

So now, with God’s help, through the prayers of the Holy Mother of God and the holy angels, the Russian princes returned home to their people with glory, which reached all distant countries - to the Greeks, to the Hungarians, Poles and Czechs, even to Rome it reached the glory To God always, now and forever, amen.

MAIN CHARACTER - MONOMACH

Salnitsa (Russian-Polovtsian wars, XI-XIII centuries). A river in the Don steppes, in the area of which on March 26, 1111, a battle took place between the united army of Russian princes under the command of Prince Vladimir Monomakh (up to 30 thousand people) and the Polovtsian army. The outcome of this bloody and desperate, according to the chronicle, battle was decided by the timely strike of the regiments under the command of princes Vladimir Monomakh and Davyd Svyatoslavich. The Polovtsian cavalry tried to cut off the Russian army's path home, but during the battle they suffered a crushing defeat. According to legend, heavenly angels helped Russian soldiers defeat their enemies. The Battle of Salnitsa was the largest Russian victory over the Cumans. Never since the campaigns of Svyatoslav (10th century) have Russian warriors gone so far into the eastern steppe regions. This victory contributed to the growing popularity of Vladimir Monomakh, the main hero of the campaign, the news of which reached “even Rome.”

CRUSADE IN THE STEPPE OF 1111

This trip started out unusual. When the army prepared to leave Pereyaslavl at the end of February, the bishop and priests stepped in front of them and carried out a large cross while singing. It was erected not far from the gates of the city, and all the soldiers, including the princes, driving and passing by the cross received the blessing of the bishop. And then, at a distance of 11 miles, representatives of the clergy moved ahead of the Russian army. Subsequently, they walked in the army train, where all the church utensils were located, inspiring Russian soldiers to feats of arms.

Monomakh, who was the inspirer of this war, gave it the character of a crusade modeled on the crusades of Western rulers against the Muslims of the East. The initiator of these campaigns was Pope Urban II. And in 1096, the first crusade of the Western knights began, which ended with the capture of Jerusalem and the creation of the knightly Kingdom of Jerusalem. The sacred idea of liberating the “Holy Sepulcher” in Jerusalem from the hands of infidels became the ideological basis of this and subsequent campaigns of Western knights to the East.

Information about the crusade and the liberation of Jerusalem quickly spread throughout the Christian world. It was known that Count Hugo Vermendois, brother of the French king Philip I, son of Anna Yaroslavna, cousin of Monomakh, Svyatopolk and Oleg, took part in the second crusade. One of those who brought this information to Rus' was Abbot Daniel, who visited at the beginning of the 12th century. in Jerusalem, and then left a description of his journey about his stay in the crusader kingdom. Daniel was later one of Monomakh’s associates. Perhaps it was his idea to give the campaign of Rus' against the “filthy” the character of a crusade invasion. This explains the role assigned to the clergy in this campaign.

Svyatopolk, Monomakh, Davyd Svyatoslavich and their sons went on a campaign. With Monomakh were his four sons - Vyacheslav, Yaropolk, Yuri and nine-year-old Andrei.…

On March 27, the main forces of the parties converged on the Solnitsa River, a tributary of the Don. According to the chronicler, the Polovtsians “set out like a boar (forest) of greatness and darkness,” they surrounded the Russian army from all sides. Monomakh did not, as usual, stand still, waiting for the onslaught of the Polovtsian horsemen, but led the army towards them. The warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The Polovtsian cavalry in this crowd lost its maneuver, and the Russians began to prevail in hand-to-hand combat. At the height of the battle, a thunderstorm began, the wind increased, and heavy rain began to fall. The Rus rearranged their ranks in such a way that the wind and rain hit the Cumans in the face. But they fought courageously and pushed back the chela (center) of the Russian army, where the Kievans were fighting. Monomakh came to their aid, leaving his “right-hand regiment” to his son Yaropolk. The appearance of Monomakh's banner in the center of the battle inspired the Russians, and they managed to overcome the panic that had begun. Finally, the Polovtsians could not stand the fierce battle and rushed to the Don ford. They were pursued and cut down; No prisoners were taken here either. About ten thousand Polovtsians died on the battlefield, the rest threw down their weapons, asking for their lives. Only a small part, led by Sharukan, went to the steppe. Others went to Georgia, where David IV took them into the service.

The news of the Russian crusade in the steppe was delivered to Byzantium, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Rome. Thus, Rus' at the beginning of the 12th century. became the left flank of Europe's general offensive to the East.

THE ELUSIVE OIL

Salnitsa is mentioned in the chronicle... in connection with the famous campaign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1111, when Konchak’s grandfather, the Polovtsian Khan Sharukan, was killed. This campaign was analyzed by many researchers, but no unanimous opinion was developed on the issue of localizing Salnitsa.

The name of the river is also found in some lists of the “Book of the Big Drawing”: “And below Izyum, the Salnitsa River fell into Donetsk on the right side. And below that is Raisin.” Based on these data, V.M. made the first attempt to localize the river mentioned in connection with the campaign of Monomakh in 1111. Tatishchev: “it flows into the Donets from the right side below Izyum.”

In connection with the events of 1185, a similar attempt was made by N.M. Karamzin: “Here the Sal River, which flows into the Don near the Semikarakorsk village, is called Salnitsa.”

In the famous article by P.G. Butkov, where, for the first time, significant attention was paid to many aspects of the geography of Igor Svyatoslavich’s campaign, Salnitsa is identified with the river. Butt. M.Ya. Aristov identified Salnitsa, mentioned in connection with the events of 1111 and 1185, with Thor. Later this opinion was joined by D.I. Bagalei, V.G. Lyaskoronsky. V.A. Afanasiev. M.P. believed approximately the same. Barsov, localizing Salnitsa “not far from the mouth of Oskol.”

K.V. Kudryashov localized the river. Salnitsa in the Izyum region. V.M. Glukhov rightly noted that the mention in the Ipatiev Chronicle (“poidosha to Salnitsa”) could not relate to a small river and the chronicler “could not take it as a geographical landmark.” Famous expert on antiquities of the Podontsov region B.A. Shramko believed that we were talking about two different rivers. V.G. Fedorov, on the contrary, identifies according to V.M. Tatishchev both Salnitsa.

Having analyzed the main hypotheses in detail and put forward additional arguments, M.F. The Hetman clarified that Salnitsa is the old name of the river. Sukhoi Izyumets, flowing into the Seversky Donets opposite the Izyumsky mound.

L.E. Makhnovets distinguishes two Salnitsa rivers: the one mentioned in the description of Monomakh’s campaign in 1111, the scientist with the reservation “obviously” identifies with the river. Solona - the right tributary of the Popilnyushka (the right tributary of the Bereka), and the Salnitsa, associated with Igor’s campaign, traditionally - with the nameless river near Izyum.

In the latest research by Lugansk historian V.I. Podov substantiates the so-called southern version of the location of the theater of military operations. Having identified both Salnitsa, the researcher now localizes one river in the Dnieper basin, believing that this is the modern river. Solona is the right tributary of the river. Volchya flowing into Samara...

It seems to us that the sought-after Salnitsa could be the tributary of the Tor Krivoy Torets. Its upper reaches and the upper reaches of Kalmius are very close, starting from the same hill - the watershed of the Dnieper and Don basins, along which the Muravsky Way passed. Kalmius or one of its tributaries should then be identified with Kayala.

,
Vladimir Monomakh, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich,
Roman Mstislavich et al.

Russian-Polovtsian wars- a series of military conflicts that lasted for about a century and a half between Kievan Rus and the Polovtsian tribes. They were caused by a clash of interests between the ancient Russian state and the nomads of the Black Sea steppes. Another side of this war was the strengthening of contradictions between the fragmented Russian principalities, whose rulers often made the Polovtsians their allies and used Polovtsian troops in internecine wars.

As a rule, three stages of military operations are distinguished: the initial (second half of the 11th century), the second period associated with the activities of the famous political and military figure Vladimir Monomakh (first quarter of the 12th century), and the final period (until the middle of the 13th century) (it was part of the famous campaign of the Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich, described in “The Tale of Igor’s Regiment”).

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By the middle of the 11th century. A number of important changes have occurred in the region under consideration. The Pechenegs and Torques, who ruled the “Wild Steppe” for a century, weakened by the struggle with their neighbors - Russia and Byzantium, failed to stop the invasion of the Black Sea lands by newcomers from the Altai foothills - the Polovtsians, also called Cumans. The new owners of the steppes defeated their enemies and occupied their nomadic camps. However, they had to take upon themselves all the consequences of their proximity to neighboring countries. Long years of clashes between the Eastern Slavs and the steppe nomads developed a certain model of relations into which the Polovtsians were forced to fit into.

Meanwhile, the process of disintegration began in Rus' - the princes began to wage an active and ruthless struggle for inheritance and at the same time resort to the help of strong Polovtsian hordes to fight competitors. Therefore, the emergence of a new force in the Black Sea region became a difficult test for the inhabitants of Rus'.

Balance of forces and military organization of the parties

Not much is known about the Polovtsian warriors, but their military organization was considered by contemporaries to be quite high for their time. The main force of the nomads, like any steppe inhabitants, were light cavalry units armed with bows. Polovtsian warriors, in addition to bows, also had sabers, lassos and spears. Rich warriors wore chain mail. Apparently, the Polovtsian khans also had their own squads with heavy weapons. It is also known (from the second half of the 12th century) about the use by the Polovtsians of military equipment - heavy crossbows and “liquid fire”, borrowed, perhaps, from China from the time of their life in the Altai region, or in later times from the Byzantines (see Greek fire ).

The Polovtsians used the tactics of surprise attacks. They acted mainly against weakly defended villages, but rarely attacked fortified fortresses. In field battles, the Polovtsian khans competently divided their forces, using flying detachments in the vanguard to start the battle, which were then reinforced by an attack from the main forces. Thus, in the person of the Cumans, the Russian princes faced an experienced and skillful enemy. It was not for nothing that the longtime enemy of Rus', the Pechenegs, were completely defeated by Polovtsian troops and scattered, practically ceasing to exist.

Nevertheless, Rus' had a huge superiority over its steppe neighbors - according to historians, the population of the ancient Russian state in the 11th century was already over 5 million inhabitants, while there were several hundred thousand nomads. The successes of the Polovtsians were due, first of all, to the disunity and contradictions in their camp opponents.

The structure of the Old Russian army in the era of fragmentation changed significantly compared to the earlier period. Now it consisted of three main parts - the princely squad, personal detachments of aristocratic boyars and city militias. Russian military art was at a fairly high level.

11th century

The truce did not last long. The Polovtsians were preparing a new attack on Rus', but this time Monomakh forestalled them. Thanks to the foray into the steppe of the army under the command of the governor Dmitry, having found out that several Polovtsian khans were gathering soldiers for a large campaign against Russian lands, the Pereyaslavl prince invited the allies to attack the enemy themselves. This time we performed in winter. On February 26, 1111, Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, Vladimir Monomakh and their allies, at the head of a large army, moved deep into the Polovtsian nomads. The army of the princes penetrated as far into the steppes as never before - all the way to the Don. The Polovtsian cities of Sharukan and Sugrov were captured. But Khan Sharukan brought the main forces out of the attack. On March 26, hoping that the Russian soldiers were tired after a long campaign, the Polovtsians attacked the allied army on the banks of the Salnitsa River. In a bloody and fierce battle, victory again went to the Russians. The enemy fled, the prince's army returned home without hindrance.

After Vladimir Monomakh became the Grand Duke of Kyiv, Russian troops made another major campaign in the steppe (led by Yaropolk Vladimirovich and Vsevolod Davydovich) and captured 3 cities from the Polovtsians (). In the last years of his life, Monomakh sent Yaropolk with an army across the Don against the Polovtsians, but he did not find them there. The Polovtsians migrated away from the borders of Rus', to the Caucasian foothills.

XII-XIII centuries

With the death of Monomakh's heir Mstislav, the Russian princes returned to the practice of using the Polovtsians in civil strife: Yuri Dolgoruky brought the Polovtsians under the walls of Kyiv five times during the wars with Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich, then with their help Izyaslav Davydovich of Chernigov fought against Rostislav Mstislavich of Smolensk, then the troops of Andrei Bogolyubsky and the Polovtsians were expelled from Kiev by Mstislav Izyaslavich (1169), then Rurik Rostislavich of Smolensk defended Kiev from the Olgovichi and Polovtsians (1181), then Kiev, under the rule of Roman Galician, was defeated by Rurik, the Olgovichi and the Polovtsy (1203), then the Polovtsians were used by Daniil Volynsky and Vladimir R. Yurikovich Kiev against the Hungarians, and then the Olgovichi against them in the civil strife of the mid-1230s.

The resumption of campaigns of Russian princes in the steppes (to ensure the security of trade) is associated with the great Kyiv reign of Mstislav Izyaslavich (-).

Usually Kyiv coordinated its defensive actions with Pereyaslavl (which was in the possession of the Rostov-Suzdal princes), and thereby a more or less unified Ros-Sula line was created. In this regard, the importance of the headquarters of such a common defense passed from Belgorod to Kanev. The southern border outposts of the Kyiv land, located in the 10th century on Stugna and Sula, have now advanced down the Dnieper to Orel and Sneporod-Samara

In the early 1180s, a coalition of South Russian princes led by Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich of Kyiv inflicted a decisive defeat on the Polovtsian Khan Kobyak, he was captured along with 7 thousand of his soldiers, and Khan Konchak on Khorol (according to traditional dating July 30, 1183 and 1 March 1185, according to the results of a comparative analysis of chronicles by N. G. Berezhkov, July 30 and March 1, 1184, respectively).

In the spring of 1185, Svyatoslav left for the northeastern lands of the Chernigov principality, preparing go to the Don against the Polovtsians for the whole summer, and the Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich undertook a separate campaign in the steppes (this time unsuccessful, unlike the campaign of the previous year). The army of the Seversky prince set out on a campaign on April 23, 1185. On the way, Igor was joined with his squads by his son Vladimir Putivlsky, nephew Svyatoslav Rylsky, Igor’s brother, Prince Kursky and Trubchevsky

Vlad Grinkevich, economic commentator for RIA Novosti.

Exactly 825 years ago, the troops of Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich and his brother Vsevolod set out on a campaign against the Polovtsian Prince Konchak. The unsuccessful campaign of the brothers was not particularly significant from a military-political point of view, and could have remained an ordinary episode of numerous Russian-Polovtsian wars. But the name of Igor was immortalized by an unknown author, who described the prince’s campaign in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Polovtsian steppe

At the beginning of the 11th century, Turkic tribes, called Polovtsians in Russian sources (they did not have a single self-name), invaded the Black Sea steppes, displacing the Pechenegs, exhausted by a long confrontation with Russia and Byzantium. Soon the new people spread throughout the Great Steppe - from the Danube to the Irtysh, and this territory began to be called the Polovtsian steppe.

In the middle of the 11th century, the Polovtsians appeared at the Russian borders. From this moment the history of the Russian-Polovtsian wars begins, stretching over a century and a half. The balance of power between Rus' and the steppe in the 11th century was clearly not in favor of the latter. The population of the Russian state exceeded 5 million people. What forces did the enemy have? Historians talk about several hundred thousand nomads. And these hundreds of thousands were scattered throughout the Great Steppe. Contrary to popular belief, the concentration of nomads in a limited area is very problematic.

The economy of nomadic peoples was only partially reproducing, and largely depended on finished products of nature - pastures and water sources. In modern horse breeding, it is believed that one horse requires an average of 1 hectare of pasture. It is not difficult to calculate that the long-term concentration in a limited territory of even several thousand nomads (each had several horses at his disposal, not counting other livestock) was a very difficult matter. Things were not going well with military technology either.

Metallurgy and metalworking have never been the strengths of nomads, because to process metals you need to master the technology of burning charcoal, building refractory furnaces, and have fairly developed soil science. All this has little to do with the nomadic way of life. It is no coincidence that even in the 18th century, the peoples of nomadic states, for example, the Dzungars, exchanged not only iron but also copper products with the Chinese and Russians.

However, several thousand, and sometimes several hundred, albeit poorly armed, but battle-hardened steppe inhabitants were enough to carry out lightning raids and dashing robberies, from which the weakly protected village settlements of the southern Russian principalities suffered.

It quickly became clear that the nomads were unable to resist a numerically superior and, most importantly, better equipped enemy. On November 1, 1068, the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, with only three thousand soldiers on the Snova River, defeated a twelve thousand Polovtsian army and captured Khan Shurkan. Subsequently, Russian troops repeatedly inflicted crushing defeats on the steppes, capturing or destroying their leaders.

Politics is dirtier than war

There is a saying - its authorship is attributed to various famous military leaders: “a fortress is strong not by its walls, but by the firmness of its defenders.” World history shows quite clearly that nomads managed to capture sedentary states only when they were in a state of decline, or when the aggressors found support in the enemy camp.

From the middle of the 11th century, Rus' entered a period of fragmentation and civil strife. The Russian princes at war with each other were not averse to resorting to the help of the Polovtsian hordes to settle scores with political rivals. The central government became a pioneer in this not very noble cause: in the winter of 1076, Vladimir Monomakh hired nomads for a campaign against Vseslav of Polotsk. Monomakh's example turned out to be contagious, and the Russian princes willingly used Polovtsian detachments to ruin the estates of their competitors. The Polovtsians themselves benefited most from this; they became so strong that they began to pose a real threat to the entire Russian state. Only after this did the contradictions between the princes fade into the background.

In 1097, the Lyubechsky Congress of Princes decided: “let each one keep his own estate.” The Russian state was legally divided into appanages, but this did not prevent the appanage princes from joining forces to strike a blow at the common enemy. At the beginning of the 1100s, Vladimir Monomakh began a large-scale campaign against the nomads, which lasted more than 10 years and ended with the almost complete destruction of the Polovtsian state. The Polovtsians were forced out of the Great Steppe into the foothills of the Caucasus.

Who knows, maybe this is where the history of the people called the Polovtsians would have ended. But after the death of Monomakh, the warring princes again needed the services of the nomads. Revered as the founder of Moscow, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky leads the Polovtsian hordes to the walls of Kyiv five times. Others followed his example. History repeated itself: brought and armed by the Russian princes, the nomadic tribes became so strong that they began to pose a threat to the state.

Fate's grin

Once again, leaving behind their differences, the princes united to jointly push back their enemy allies into the steppe. In 1183, the allied army led by the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich defeated the Polovtsian army, capturing Khan Kobyak. In the spring of 1185, Khan Konchak was defeated. Svyatoslav went to the Chernigov lands to gather an army for the summer campaign, but the ambitious Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor and his brother, the Chernigov prince Vsevolod, wanted military glory, and therefore at the end of April they began a new separate campaign against Konchak. This time, military luck was on the side of the nomads. For the whole day, the brothers' squads held back the pressure of a numerically superior enemy. “Ardent Tour” Vsevolod single-handedly fought with a whole detachment of enemies. But the bravery of the Russians was in vain: the princely troops were defeated, the wounded Igor and his son Vladimir were captured. However, having escaped from captivity, Igor took revenge on his offenders by carrying out a series of victorious campaigns against the Polovtsian khans.

The tragedy of the Russian-Polovtsian wars lies elsewhere. After 1185, the Polovtsians found themselves weakened and no longer dared to take independent action against Rus'. However, the steppe people regularly invaded Russian lands as mercenary troops of Russian princes. And soon the Polovtsians will have a new master: they first became prey, and soon the main striking force of the Tatar-Mongol army. And again, Rus' will have to pay dearly for the ambitions of its rulers, who rely on foreigners in the name of selfish goals.