Rus' and the steppe

Book on the complex relations of the Slavs with nomads

Dmitry Rasovsky. Polovtsy, Torki, Pechenegs, Berendei. M.: Lomonosov, 2016.

Extensive literature is devoted to the relationship of ancient Rus' and the steppe peoples. First of all, the fundamental work of Sergei Solovyov “The History of Russia since ancient times” should be distinguished, the last, twenty -ninth volume of which was released in 1879, after the death of an outstanding historian. Academician Boris Rybakov also made a significant contribution in the work of “Birth of Rus'”, where, on the basis of chronicle sources and archaeological surveys, he expressed original and at times controversial views on “Otkoy, is there a Russian land?” And, of course, as the most popular and famous should be noted Lev Gumilyov’s work “Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe”, published in 1989. If Rybakov, who knew well -living and dead languages, to substantiate the autochthus of the Slavs, that is, the origin of their residence in the territories of Ancient Rus', “sinned”, not being a linguist, linguistic analysis, then Gumilev, who knew weakly, went in a different way. He, based on his original and close to the unprofessional reader of the idea of ​​ethnogenesis, passionarity, etc., unusually convincingly thought out those circumstances that were not preserved in sources, creating an exciting picture of the world of the end of the first millennium of our era.

The book of Dmitry Alexandrovich Rasovsky “Polovtsy, Torquo, Pechenegs, Berendei” is the work of the academic historian, at times, so to speak, dry for an ordinary reader, and consists of messages prepared for the press with which Rasovsky from 1927 to 1939 spoke at the famous Seminarium Kondakovianum. Initially, Rasovsky’s messages, as well as other speakers, were published with the assistance of President Czechoslovakia Tomash Masarik and the financial support of the American Arabist and financier Charles Crane. Crane, known (among other things) by the fact that after the plunder of Danilov, the monastery bought bells from the monastery belfry and gave them to Harvard University, invested in the publication. And he did not lose: everything that was printed under the “cap” “Seminarium Kondakovianum” was in great demand in the professional and “amateurish” environment of Russian emigration.

Seminarium kondakovianum itself or seminar named after N.P. Kondakova united by emigrant scientists who have studied mainly the history of Byzantium and ancient Rus', Russian art and iconography. The seminar was established after the death of the outstanding scientist Nikolai Pavlovich Kondakov, in February 1925, and he existed in Prague until 1945. True, since 1930, the seminar has already been the Kondakov Institute, and Seminarium was held as part of the institute. It is worth noting that although the institute declared the principle of non-participation in any political actions, nevertheless, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, he enjoyed the patronage of the Bohemia Reichsprotector and Moravia von Neurat. But Dmitry Rasovsky, apparently, took the third Reich of Czechoslovakia without much enthusiasm ...

... Born in Moscow in 1902 and left Russia in 1919, Rasovsky entered the tight circle of scientists who collaborated with Kondakov in the last years of his life. Rasovsky defended his doctoral dissertation at Karlovy University, and worked at the institute until 1938. When a branch of the institute was founded in Belgrade, under the patronage of Prince Paul, Rasovsky moved there and died during the first bombardment of the city in April 1941.

The scientific heritage of Dmitry Alexandrovich Rasovsky must be considered in the main inheritance of the emigrant Eurasianism. Despite the fact that Rasovsky, like his teacher Kondakov, was a “factual worship”, he experienced the influence of such Eurasians as Peter Savitsky, Nikolai Trubetskoy and, especially, George Vernadsky. Which is natural - before the departure in the United States in 1927, Vernadsky was one of the directors of Seminarium Kondakovianum. Although commitment to historical facts and support on the annalistic sources did not allow Rasovsky to completely accept the positions of Eurasianism, autumnismism, he was close to him in what Savitsky called the “sensation of the continent”. In other words, it is close to the perception of the Eurasian continent as a mixture space, the remelting of different cultures and peoples into a kind of general education, opposite to the cultures and peoples of the West.

Rasovsky’s book consists of three parts: “Polovtsy”, “On the role of black hoods in the history of Ancient Rus'”, “Pechenegs, Torki and Berendei in Rus' and in Ugria”; And the most interest is part of the "Polovtsy".

The literature dedicated to the Turks and their roles in history is great, but it was the Polovtsy, according to the author, "did not be lucky in historiography." Therefore, Rasovsky took on the work of stateing the history of the Polovtsy from the first references to the Turks in Chinese sources of the II century BC. Before the appearance of those nomads in the IX-XI centuries, which most authors already identify directly with the Polovtsy. The history of the Polovtsy in the presentation of Rasovsky is an exciting reading, although at times it becomes difficult to keep in memory the variety of the names of the Turkic tribes, the places of their initial resettlement, the routes of their movement to the west.

Nevertheless, reading turns into an exciting process, especially when the author shares his vision of the latitude of coverage of the Turkic peoples and Polovtsy in particular the spaces of Eurasia. Rasovsky describes how the Polovtsy enters into contact with the Khazars in the 10th century, how they “burst into Europe with huge pressure and at ten to fifteen years master the whole steppe space to the boundaries of Byzantium and Ugria (i.e. Hungary-D.S.)”. Further, the inevitable clash of the Polovtsy with Russia: “In 1061, the Polovtsy in the first military clash with the Russians on the Dnieper Left Bank inflicted them -“ the first evil to the Russian land from filthy and godless enemy ”.

Rasovsky has its own version of the reasons for the Polovtsy attack on Rus'. He believes that, in addition to the “familiar” desire for prey, the Polovtsy sought to punish the Russians for accepting another Turkic tribe, “black clouds” and, most importantly, the Pechenegov, the former enemies of Rus', which were forced to conclude a union and actually agree to its dominance. Be that as it may, followed by the first invasion of the clash with the Polovtsy lasted almost 200 years, until, crushing everyone and everything, the Central Asian tribes led by the Mongols invaded by the Mongols.

Rasovsky notes that the Polovtsy "in their entire historical life did not go beyond the limits of the steppes and did not create any state outside them." When the Tatars took possession of the Polovtsian field, the majority of the Polovtsy turned out to be “in the position of slaves among the new conquerors, or went to other steppes, the Pannonsky, in order to exchange Tatar slavery to the service of the Hungarian kings.” The two -century struggle “Forest and Steppe”, Rus' and Polovtsy, did not lead to the victory of one of the parties. Skiing with Russia was ordinary in those days - "so that the swords in the scabbard were not rusted." However, neither the Polovtsy constant attacks on Rus', nor their participation in the wars between the princes in one coalition, then in the other, nor the Kino's family ties with the most powerful princely houses (Vladimir Monomakh married the son of the famous Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan in 1117), according to Rasovsky’s opinion, they were not more important than their own between the Electoisians.

For the reader, a person of the 21st century, the appearance of those with whom his distant ancestors fought a thousand years ago is of particular interest. This interest is also heated by a cinema: a significant part of the “sofa experts” did not agree with the creators of the film “Viking”, in which the Pechenegs clearly had Mongoloid features. The Polovtsians who came to Rus' later were descendants of the Turks-Kimakov, who lived in the upper reaches of the Irtysh. Rasovsky writes that "all sources describing the appearance of the Polovtsy unanimously converge in the characterization of them as a people of a growth, slender, beautiful and fair -haired." At the same time, there was also a “triple rejuvenation of the Polovtsy”, which led to the formation of a unique ethnic group, which combined Mongoloid and Caucasian features. At the same time, the classic of Persian poetry with the Nizami noted the beauty of Polovtsian women and the whiteness of their skin. Rasovsky quotes the “Word about Igor’s Regiment”, which mentioned the “Red Girls of the Polovtsian” and the place of the Trinity Chronicle, which speaks of beautiful Polovites as the gifts of the Polovtsian khan Kitty for Russian princes.

Rasovsky, however, admits that the skepticism is justified in relation to the existence of the “white Asian race”. Under the influence of Eurasian views, using the authority of the Persian historian of the XI century, Gardzi, who noted non -jurk features among the Polovtsy, Rasovsky writes that “redhead, blue -eyed and white skin color” were also inherent in other ancient peoples of Central Asia. And he immediately agrees that when the Polovtsy in the XI century entered the Black Sea steppes, they "were already pure Turks in the language, and in culture - typical nomads."

Describing “black clobs” (“black hats” from the Turkic “Karakalpak”, the Black cap - D.S.), Rasovsky opens the page of history unknown to the wide reader. “Clubs” or “their filthy” were fragments of nomadic tribes, which the Polovtsy expelled from the places of their permanent nomads. The independence, the opportunity to maintain identity, “clouds” began this service from the last decades of the XI century, who received the Russian princes. Referring to the Lavrentievsky and Ipatiev annals, Rasovsky claims that there were almost thirty thousand “clouds” as part of the troops of the prince of Yaropolk Vladimirovich, the son of Monomakh. They turned out to be the most combat -ready, along with the troops sent by the Hungarian king (who, in the irony of fate, without exception from the Polovtsy), when Yaropolk entered the Interulity War with the Chernihiv prince Vsevolod Olgovich in 1138. True, Rasovsky warns from the exaggeration of the location of the “clobs” to the employers, the Russian princes, and advises the reader to keep in mind that the endless wars in the territory of Slavic Rus' “by many Asians participated in them - may this not seem to be an oriental, Asian character”.

In the last part of the book, Rasovsky explores the influence of the Pechenegs and other Turks on two neighboring state formations - on Rus' and Ugria. If the Pechenegs were permanent enemies for Rus', then in the West they more often entered the service of the Hungarian kings and participated in campaigns in rich Byzantium. The Hungarian kings often sent the Pechenegs far beyond the kingdom to help the allies, and the Turkic army enjoyed fame throughout Europe: for example, in 1132 the Turks participated in the campaign of Emperor Konrad II to Italy.

About the same picture was in Rus', with the difference that the Turks, even sitting within the Russian principalities, "did not assimilate with the Russians." Assimilation began only in the XIII century, when both the Slavs and their friends-men of the Turks fell under the press of the Mongol khans.

The invasion of the Batu put an end to the first stage of the complex interaction of the “forest and the steppe”. The contradictory role of the first Turkic nomads in the formation of Rus' was played out, and Dmitry Alexandrovich Rasovsky puts an end. He did not manage to trace the further joint fate of the Russians and the Turks.