Which prince and in what year defeated the Polovtsy completely? and got the best answer

Answer from Antonia Reimer[guru]

Answer from Natasha Kuznetsova[newbie]
Mstislav Svyatoslavich 1223

Answer from sensei.[active]
In 1103 and 1113, Svyatopolk Yaroslavich and Vladimir Monomakh carried out victorious campaigns against the Polovtsy, which eventually moved further away from the Russian. lands and for a long time did not disturb Russia with their raids.
In 1184, the Kiev princes inflicted the biggest defeat on the Dnieper grouping. Thanks to the selfless actions of the Russian avant-garde, commanded by Vladimir Glebovich Pereyaslavsky, the Polovtsian army was surrounded. Thousands of Polovtsy were taken prisoner, more than a dozen of their "princes" with Khan Kobyak at the head. .
The common threat of Mongol conquest made the Russians and Polovtsy allies in 1223. The final defeat of the Polovtsy by the Mongols was the end of them as an independent people in the historical arena. The Kipchaks scattered over all neighboring countries. Kotyan, although he survived after Kalka, again met with the Mongols in 1237 and migrated to Hungary, where he was killed, and his fellow tribesmen went beyond the Danube and reached Macedonia, where the city of Kumanovo is still located.

Answer from Who[newbie]
In 1103 and 1113, Svyatopolk Yaroslavich and Vladimir Monomakh carried out victorious campaigns against the Polovtsy, which eventually moved further away from the Russian. lands and for a long time did not disturb Russia with their raids.
In 1184, the Kiev princes inflicted the biggest defeat on the Dnieper grouping. Thanks to the selfless actions of the Russian avant-garde, commanded by Vladimir Glebovich Pereyaslavsky, the Polovtsian army was surrounded. Thousands of Polovtsy were taken prisoner, more than a dozen of their "princes" with Khan Kobyak at the head. .
The common threat of Mongol conquest made the Russians and Polovtsy allies in 1223. The final defeat of the Polovtsy by the Mongols was the end of them as an independent people in the historical arena. The Kipchaks scattered over all neighboring countries. Kotyan, although he survived after Kalka, again met with the Mongols in 1237 and migrated to Hungary, where he was killed, and his fellow tribesmen went beyond the Danube and reached Macedonia, where the city of Kumanovo is still located.

Answer from Timofey Tsimbalyuk[newbie]
In 1103 and 1113, Svyatopolk Yaroslavich and Vladimir Monomakh carried out victorious campaigns against the Polovtsy, which eventually moved further away from the Russian. lands and for a long time did not disturb Russia with their raids.
In 1184, the Kiev princes inflicted the biggest defeat on the Dnieper grouping. Thanks to the selfless actions of the Russian avant-garde, commanded by Vladimir Glebovich Pereyaslavsky, the Polovtsian army was surrounded. Thousands of Polovtsy were taken prisoner, more than a dozen of their "princes" with Khan Kobyak at the head. .
The common threat of Mongol conquest made the Russians and Polovtsy allies in 1223. The final defeat of the Polovtsy by the Mongols was the end of them as an independent people in the historical arena. The Kipchaks scattered over all neighboring countries. Kotyan, although he survived after Kalka, again met with the Mongols in 1237 and migrated to Hungary, where he was killed, and his fellow tribesmen went beyond the Danube and reached Macedonia, where the city of Kumanovo is still located.
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The Polovtsy remained in the history of Russia as the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries from the times of internecine wars. The tribes worshiping the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.

"Kumans"

In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torques, met a detachment of new nomads, previously unknown in Russia, led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new "acquaintances" received the Russian name "Polovtsy" and the future neighbors dispersed.

Since 1064, in Byzantine and since 1068 in Hungarian sources, Cumans and Kuns are mentioned, also previously unknown in Europe.

They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and insidious allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in a fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Kumans, Kuns, who appeared and disappeared at the same time, did not go unnoticed, and the questions of who they were and where they came from still worry historians.

According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which was called differently in different parts of the world.

Their ancestors, the Sars, lived on the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630.

The survivors went to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they received a new name "Kipchaks", which, according to legend, means "ill-fated" and as evidenced by medieval Arab-Persian sources. However, both in Russian and in Byzantine sources, the Kipchaks are not found at all, and a people similar in description is called "Kumans", "Kuns" or "Polovtsy". Moreover, the etymology of the latter remains unclear. Perhaps the word comes from the old Russian “polov”, which means “yellow”. According to scientists, this may indicate that this people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the eastern and had a Mongoloid appearance). According to another version, the term "Polovtsy" could come from the familiar word "field", and designate all the inhabitants of the fields, regardless of their tribal affiliation.

The official version has many weaknesses.

If all nationalities initially represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then how to explain that neither Byzantium, nor Russia, nor Europe knew this toponym? In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they did not hear about the Polovtsians or Cumans at all.

Archeology comes to the aid of the unofficial version, according to which, the main archaeological finds of the Polovtsian culture - stone women erected on mounds in honor of the soldiers who fell in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsy and Kipchaks. The Cumans, despite their worship of the sky and the cult of the mother goddess, did not leave such monuments.

All these arguments "against" allow many modern researchers to move away from the canon of studying the Polovtsians, Cumans and Kuns as one and the same tribe. According to Yury Evstigneev, Candidate of Sciences, the Polovtsy-Sars are Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.

Weapons of civil strife

The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a "good neighbor" of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of sudden raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, swept away an unprepared enemy in their path. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, throwing a bunch of arrows at the enemy at a gallop. They went "raid" through the cities, robbing and killing people, driving them into captivity.

In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in new technologies for that time, such as, for example, heavy crossbows and "liquid fire", which they borrowed, obviously, from China since their life in Altai.

However, as long as centralized power was maintained in Russia, thanks to the order of succession to the throne established under Yaroslav the Wise, their raids remained only a seasonal disaster, and certain diplomatic relations even began between Russia and the nomads. There was a lively trade, the population communicated widely in the border areas. Among the Russian princes, dynastic marriages with the daughters of the Polovtsian khans became popular. The two cultures coexisted in a fragile neutrality that could not last long.

In 1073, the triumvirate of the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, to whom he bequeathed Kievan Rus, broke up. Svyatoslav and Vsevolod accused their older brother of conspiring against them and striving to become "autocratic", like his father. This was the birth of a great and long turmoil in Russia, which the Polovtsy took advantage of. Without taking sides to the end, they willingly took the side of the man who promised them big "profits". So, the first prince who resorted to their help, Oleg Svyatoslavich (whom his uncles disinherited), allowed the Polovtsy to rob and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.

Subsequently, the call of the Cumans as allies in the internecine struggle became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson, Oleg Gorislavich, expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, he also got Moore, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav from there. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories.

In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then Prince of Pereslavl, the Lubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone had to own his "fatherland". Even the prince of Kiev, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially fixed in Russia with good intentions. The only thing that even then united the Russian lands was a common fear of the Polovtsian invasions.

Monomakh's War

The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, during whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide was temporarily stopped. Chronicles, which, however, actively corresponded under him, tell about Vladimir Monomakh as the most influential prince in Russia, who was known as a patriot who spared neither strength nor life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom stood his brother and his worst enemy - Oleg Svyatoslavich, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against the nomads - to fight on their own territory.

Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, the Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian "lava" broke on the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppes, did not allow them to run away on their famous light-winged horses. Even the time of the campaign was thought out: until early spring, when the Russian horses, which were fed with hay and grain, were stronger than the Polovtsian horses that were emaciated on pasture.

Monomakh's favorite tactics also gave an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense at the expense of footmen, since by attacking the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the main blow, the Russian cavalry went around from the flanks and hit the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle.

Vladimir Monomakh needed just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands to rid Russia of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, Monomakh sent his son Yaropolk with an army beyond the Don, on a campaign against the nomads, but he did not find them there. The Polovtsy migrated away from the borders of Russia, to the Caucasian foothills.

On guard for the dead and the living

The Polovtsians, like many other peoples, have sunk into oblivion of history, leaving behind "Polovtsian stone women" who still guard the souls of their ancestors. Once they were placed in the steppe to "guard" the dead and protect the living, and were also placed as landmarks and signs for fords.

Obviously, they brought this custom with them from their original homeland - Altai, spreading it along the Danube.
"Polovtsian women" is far from the only example of such monuments. Long before the appearance of the Polovtsians, in the 4th-2nd millennium BC, such idols were placed on the territory of present-day Russia and Ukraine by the descendants of the Indo-Iranians, and a couple of thousand years after them, by the Scythians.

"Polovtsian women", like other stone women - not necessarily the image of a woman, among them there are many male faces. Even the very etymology of the word "woman" comes from the Turkic "balbal", which means "ancestor", "grandfather-father", and is associated with the cult of veneration of ancestors, and not at all with female beings.

Although, according to another version, stone women are traces of a past matriarchy, as well as a cult of veneration of the mother goddess among the Polovtsians (Umai), who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the bowl for sacrifices, and the chest, which is also found in men, and is obviously associated with the feeding of the clan.

According to the beliefs of the Polovtsy, who professed shamanism and tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with a special power that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Polovtsian passing by had to make a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to enlist its support. Here is how the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsy, describes this ceremony:

“And the back of the Kipchaks bends before the idol. The rider lingers before him, and, holding his horse back, He stoops an arrow, stooping among the grasses, Every shepherd, driving away the flock, Knows That it is necessary to leave the sheep in front of the idol.

Article content:

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

The history of the people, how it arose

Polovtsy (Polovtsy, Kipchaks, Cumans) are nomadic tribes, the first mention of which dates back to 744. Then the Kipchaks were part of the Kimak Khaganate, 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 had swallowed them up. But the Polovtsy decided not to stop there, and by the beginning of the 11th century, thanks to their militancy, they had come close to the borders of Khorezm (the historical region of the Republic of Uzbekistan).

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

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

Lifestyle and social organization

Their socio-political organization was a typical military-democratic system. All the 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 khans, who were also the heads of certain kurens (small divisions of the clan).

The wealth obtained in the campaigns was divided among the representatives of the local elite participating in the campaign. Ordinary people, unable to feed themselves, fell into dependence on aristocrats. The poor men were engaged in cattle grazing, while the women served the local khans and their families.

There are still disputes about the appearance of the Polovtsy, and 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. Among them, of course, were dark-haired representatives.

War with the Polovtsy

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

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

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

These were difficult times for Russia. Endless raids on the villages ruined the already simple economy of the peasants. Women were taken prisoner, and they became servants, children were sold into slavery.

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

Campaign of the Seversky Prince Igor

Sometimes the princes of Kiev went with an offensive war against the enemy. Such events usually ended in victory and inflicted great damage on the Kipchaks, cooling their ardor for a while and enabling the border villages 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, united with other princes, went out with an army to the right tributary of the Don. Here they encountered the main forces of the Polovtsy, a battle ensued. But the numerical superiority of the enemy was so palpable 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 could not carry out his plan, as he was captured, and many soldiers died.

It all ended with the fact that the Polovtsy were able to destroy the city of Rimov, one of the major 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 unequivocal data on the genetic similarity of the Kipchaks with some peoples living now.

There are small ethnic groups that are considered distant descendants of the Polovtsy. They are found among:

1. Crimean Tatars;
2. Bashkir;
3. Kazakhs;
4. Nogaytsev;
5. Balkars;
6. Altaians;
7. Hungarians;
8. Bulgarian;
9. Polyakov;
10. Ukrainians (according to L. Gumilyov).

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

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

Video about nomadic peoples

In this video, historian Andrey Prishvin will tell you how the Polovtsians arose on the territory of ancient Russia:

The Polovtsy remained in the history of Russia as the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries from the times of internecine wars. The tribes worshiping the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.

"Kumans"

In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torques, met a detachment of new nomads, previously unknown in Russia, led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new "acquaintances" received the Russian name "Polovtsy" and the future neighbors dispersed.

Since 1064, in Byzantine and since 1068 in Hungarian sources, Cumans and Kuns are mentioned, also previously unknown in Europe.

They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and insidious allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in a fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Kumans, Kuns, who appeared and disappeared at the same time, did not go unnoticed, and the questions of who they were and where they came from still worry historians.

According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which was called differently in different parts of the world.

Their ancestors, the Sars, lived on the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630.

The survivors went to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they received a new name "Kipchaks", which, according to legend, means "ill-fated" and as evidenced by medieval Arab-Persian sources. However, both in Russian and in Byzantine sources, the Kipchaks are not found at all, and a people similar in description is called "Kumans", "Kuns" or "Polovtsy". Moreover, the etymology of the latter remains unclear. Perhaps the word comes from the old Russian “polov”, which means “yellow”. According to scientists, this may indicate that this people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the eastern and had a Mongoloid appearance). According to another version, the term "Polovtsy" could come from the familiar word "field", and designate all the inhabitants of the fields, regardless of their tribal affiliation.

The official version has many weaknesses.

If all nationalities initially represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then how to explain that neither Byzantium, nor Russia, nor Europe knew this toponym? In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they did not hear about the Polovtsians or Cumans at all.

Archeology comes to the aid of the unofficial version, according to which, the main archaeological finds of the Polovtsian culture - stone women erected on mounds in honor of the soldiers who fell in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsy and Kipchaks. The Cumans, despite their worship of the sky and the cult of the mother goddess, did not leave such monuments.

All these arguments "against" allow many modern researchers to move away from the canon of studying the Polovtsians, Cumans and Kuns as one and the same tribe. According to Yury Evstigneev, Candidate of Sciences, the Polovtsy-Sars are Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.

Weapons of civil strife

The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a "good neighbor" of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of sudden raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, swept away an unprepared enemy in their path. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, throwing a bunch of arrows at the enemy at a gallop. They went "raid" through the cities, robbing and killing people, driving them into captivity.

In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in new technologies for that time, such as, for example, heavy crossbows and "liquid fire", which they borrowed, obviously, from China since their life in Altai.

However, as long as centralized power was maintained in Russia, thanks to the order of succession to the throne established under Yaroslav the Wise, their raids remained only a seasonal disaster, and certain diplomatic relations even began between Russia and the nomads. There was a lively trade, the population communicated widely in the border areas. Among the Russian princes, dynastic marriages with the daughters of the Polovtsian khans became popular. The two cultures coexisted in a fragile neutrality that could not last long.

In 1073, the triumvirate of the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, to whom he bequeathed Kievan Rus, broke up. Svyatoslav and Vsevolod accused their older brother of conspiring against them and striving to become "autocratic", like his father. This was the birth of a great and long turmoil in Russia, which the Polovtsy took advantage of. Without taking sides to the end, they willingly took the side of the man who promised them big "profits". So, the first prince who resorted to their help, Oleg Svyatoslavich (whom his uncles disinherited), allowed the Polovtsy to rob and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.

Subsequently, the call of the Cumans as allies in the internecine struggle became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson, Oleg Gorislavich, expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, he also got Moore, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav from there. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories.

In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then Prince of Pereslavl, the Lubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone had to own his "fatherland". Even the prince of Kiev, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially fixed in Russia with good intentions. The only thing that even then united the Russian lands was a common fear of the Polovtsian invasions.

Monomakh's War

The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, during whose great reign the practice of using Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide was temporarily stopped. Chronicles, which, however, actively corresponded under him, tell about Vladimir Monomakh as the most influential prince in Russia, who was known as a patriot who spared neither strength nor life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom stood his brother and his worst enemy - Oleg Svyatoslavich, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against the nomads - to fight on their own territory.

Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, the Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian "lava" broke on the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppes, did not allow them to run away on their famous light-winged horses. Even the time of the campaign was thought out: until early spring, when the Russian horses, which were fed with hay and grain, were stronger than the Polovtsian horses that were emaciated on pasture.

Monomakh's favorite tactics also gave an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense at the expense of footmen, since by attacking the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the main blow, the Russian cavalry went around from the flanks and hit the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle.

Vladimir Monomakh needed just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands to rid Russia of the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, Monomakh sent his son Yaropolk with an army beyond the Don, on a campaign against the nomads, but he did not find them there. The Polovtsy migrated away from the borders of Russia, to the Caucasian foothills.

On guard for the dead and the living

The Polovtsians, like many other peoples, have sunk into oblivion of history, leaving behind "Polovtsian stone women" who still guard the souls of their ancestors. Once they were placed in the steppe to "guard" the dead and protect the living, and were also placed as landmarks and signs for fords.

Obviously, they brought this custom with them from their original homeland - Altai, spreading it along the Danube.
"Polovtsian women" is far from the only example of such monuments. Long before the appearance of the Polovtsians, in the 4th-2nd millennium BC, such idols were placed on the territory of present-day Russia and Ukraine by the descendants of the Indo-Iranians, and a couple of thousand years after them, by the Scythians.

"Polovtsian women", like other stone women - not necessarily the image of a woman, among them there are many male faces. Even the very etymology of the word "woman" comes from the Turkic "balbal", which means "ancestor", "grandfather-father", and is associated with the cult of veneration of ancestors, and not at all with female beings.

Although, according to another version, stone women are traces of a past matriarchy, as well as a cult of veneration of the mother goddess among the Polovtsians (Umai), who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the bowl for sacrifices, and the chest, which is also found in men, and is obviously associated with the feeding of the clan.

According to the beliefs of the Polovtsy, who professed shamanism and tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with a special power that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Polovtsian passing by had to make a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to enlist its support. Here is how the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsy, describes this ceremony:

“And the back of the Kipchaks bends before the idol. The rider lingers before him, and, holding his horse back, He stoops an arrow, stooping among the grasses, Every shepherd, driving away the flock, Knows That it is necessary to leave the sheep in front of the idol.

The lesson was really tough. The Donetsk Cumans, defeated by Vladimir Monomakh, fell silent. There were no invasions on their part either next year or the year after. But Khan Bonyak continued his raids, although without the former scale, cautiously. In the late autumn of 1105, he suddenly appeared at the Zarubinsky ford, not far from Pereyaslavl, robbed the Dnieper villages and villages and quickly retreated. The princes did not even have time to collect the chase. In the next 1106, the Polovtsy attacked Russia three times already, but the raids were unsuccessful and did not bring prey to the steppes. First, they approached the town of Zarechsk, but were driven away by the Kiev squads. According to the chronicler, the Russian soldiers drove the Polovtsians "to the Danube" and "took away a whole lot." Then Bonyak "fought" near Pereyaslavl and hastily retreated. Finally, according to the chronicler, "Bonyak and Sharukan the Old and many other princes came and stood near Lubn." The Russian army moved towards them, but the Polovtsy, not accepting the battle, "ran, grabbing horses."

These raids did not pose a serious danger to Russia, they were easily repulsed by the princely squads, but it was impossible to underestimate the Polovtsian activity. The Polovtsy began to recover from the recent defeat, and it was necessary to prepare a new big campaign in the steppe. Or, if Bonyak and Sharukan are ahead, it is worthy to meet them on the borders of the Russian land.

In August 1107, a large Polovtsian army besieged Luben, Sharukan brought with him the surviving Don Polovtsy, Khan Bonyak - the Dnieper, they were joined by the khans of other Polovtsian hordes. But in the Pereyaslavl fortress since the summer there were squads of many Russian princes who had gathered at the call of Vladimir Monomakh. They rushed to the aid of the besieged city, crossed the Sula River on the move and suddenly hit the Polovtsians. Those, without even putting up battle banners, rushed in all directions: some did not have time to take horses and fled to the steppe on foot, leaving full and looted booty. Monomakh ordered the cavalry to relentlessly pursue them, so that there would be no one to attack Russia again. Bonyak and Sharukan escaped with difficulty. The pursuit continued until the Khorol River, through which, sacrificing the soldiers covering his flight, Sharukan managed to cross. The booty of the winners was a lot of horses that will serve the Russian soldiers gloriously in future campaigns in the steppe.

The political significance of this victory was great. In January 1108, the khans of the large horde of Aepa, who roamed not far from the borders of Kievan Rus, proposed to conclude an agreement on peace and love. The treaty was accepted by the Russian princes. As a result, the unity of the khans fell apart, and conditions were created for the final defeat of Sharukan and his allies. But the preparation of a new all-Russian campaign in the steppe required considerable time, and Sharukan could not be given a break. And in the winter of 1109, Vladimir Monomakh sent his governor Dmitry Ivorovich to the Donets with a Pereyaslav cavalry squad and footmen on a sleigh. He was ordered to find out exactly where the Polovtsian camps were in winter, whether they were ready for summer campaigns against Russia, how many warriors and horses remained with Sharukan. The Russian army was supposed to devastate the Polovtsian towers so that Sharukan would know that he would not have peace in winter while he was at enmity with Russia.

Voivode Dmitr fulfilled the order of the prince. Pedestrians in sledges and warriors on horseback quickly passed through the steppes and in early January were already on the Donets. There they were met by the Polovtsian army. The voivode put up a tested close formation of pawns against the Polovtsian cavalry, against which the attack of the archers broke, and the flank attacks of the cavalry combatants again completed the rout. The Polovtsy fled, leaving their tents and property behind. Thousands of wagons and many prisoners and cattle became the prey of Russian soldiers. No less valuable were the information brought by the governor from the Polovtsian steppes. It turned out that Sharukan stands on the Don and gathers strength for a new campaign against Russia, exchanges messengers with Khan Bonyak, who is also preparing for war on the Dnieper.

In the spring of 1110, the united squads of princes Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh and David advanced to the steppe line, stood near the city of Voinya. The Polovtsy also went there from the steppe, but, unexpectedly meeting the Russian army ready for battle, turned back and got lost in the steppes. The Polovtsian invasion did not take place.

A new campaign in the steppe was being prepared for a long time and in detail. Again, the Russian princes met on Dolobskoye Lake to discuss the plan of the campaign. The governor’s opinion was divided: some suggested waiting for the next spring to move to the Donets in boats and horses, others - to repeat the winter sleigh campaign of governor Dmitry, so that the Polovtsians could not migrate south and fatten their horses on the spring pastures, weakened during winter starvation. The latter were supported by Vladimir Monomakh and his word was decisive. The start of the trip was scheduled for the very end of winter, when the frosts subsided, but there was still an easy toboggan run.

At the end of February, armies from Kiev, Smolensk, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky and other cities converged in Pereyaslavl. The great Kievan prince Svyatopolk arrived with his son Yaroslav, the sons of Vladimir Monomakh - Vyacheslav, Yaropolk, Yuri and Andrei, David Svyatoslavich Chernigov with his sons Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, Rostislav, the sons of Prince Oleg - Vsevolod, Igor, Svyatoslav. For a long time so many Russian princes did not gather for a joint war. Again, numerous rati of pawns, who had shown themselves so well in past campaigns against the Polovtsy, joined the princely cavalry squads.

On February 26, 1111, the army set out on a campaign. On the Alta River, the princes stopped, waiting for the late squads. On March 3, the army reached the Suda River, having covered about one hundred and forty miles in five days. Considering that footmen and large sleigh carts with weapons and supplies were moving along with the cavalry squads, such a pace of the campaign should be recognized as very significant - thirty miles for a day's march!

Walking was hard. The thaw began, the snow melted quickly, the horses could hardly pull the loaded sledges. And yet, the speed of the campaign almost did not decrease. Only a well-trained and hardy army was capable of such transitions.

On the Khorol River, Vladimir Monomakh ordered to leave the sleigh convoy, reload weapons and supplies into packs. They proceeded lightly. The Wild Field began - the Polovtsian steppe, where there were no Russian settlements. The army overcame the thirty-eight-verst transition from Khorol to the Psel River in one day's march. Ahead was the Vorskla River, on which the Russian governors knew convenient fords - this was very important, since the full-flowing spring rivers represented a serious obstacle. Horse guards rode far ahead of the main forces to prevent an unexpected attack by the Polovtsians. On March 7, the Russian army came ashore on the Vorskla. On March 14, the troops reached the Donets, repeating the winter campaign of voivode Dmitr. Further lay the "unknown land" - the Russian squads had not yet gone so far. Polovtsian horse patrols flashed ahead - the horde of Khan Sharukan was somewhere close. Russian soldiers put on armor, adopted the battle order: "brow", regiments of the right and left hands, guard regiment. And so they went on, in battle order, ready at any moment to meet the Polovtsian attack. Donets was left behind, Sharukan appeared - a steppe city, consisting of hundreds of wagons, tents, low adobe houses. The Polovtsian capital for the first time saw enemy banners under its walls. Sharukan obviously did not prepare for defense. The shaft around the city was low, easily overcome - apparently, the Polovtsy considered themselves completely safe, hoping that they were reliably protected by the expanses of the Wild Field ... The inhabitants sent ambassadors with gifts and requests not to ruin the city, but to take a ransom, which Russian princes appoint.

Vladimir Monomakh ordered the Polovtsy to hand over all their weapons, release the captives, and return the property stolen in past raids. Russian squads entered Sharukan. This happened on March 19, 1111.

Only one night the Russian army stood in Sharukan, and in the morning they went further, to the Don, to the next Polovtsian town - Sugrov. Its inhabitants decided to defend themselves by coming out with weapons on an earthen rampart. Russian regiments surrounded Sugrov from all sides and bombarded him with arrows with burning tarred tow. Fires started in the city. Crazed Polovtsy rushed through the burning streets, trying to cope with the fire. Then the attack began. With heavy logs-rams, Russian soldiers broke through the city gates and entered the city. Sugrov fell. The robber nest, from which dashing bands of Polovtsian horsemen flew out for the next raid, ceased to exist in past years.

There was only half a day's march to the Don River ... Meanwhile, guard patrols discovered a large concentration of Polovtsians on the Solnitsa River (Tor River), a tributary of the Don. A decisive battle was approaching, the result of which could only be victory or death: the Russian army had gone so far into the Wild Field that it was impossible to escape from the fast Polovtsian cavalry in the event of a retreat.

The day came on March 24, 1111. Dense crowds of Polovtsians appeared on the horizon, throwing forward the tentacles of light horse patrols. The Russian army adopted a battle order: in the "brow" - the Grand Duke Svyatopolk with his people of Kiev; on the right wing - Vladimir Monomakh and his sons with Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Suzdal, Belozersk, Smolensk residents; on the left wing - Chernigov princes. The tried-and-tested Russian combat formation with an invincible phalanx of infantry in the center and fast cavalry squads on the flanks...

This is how Vladimir Monomakh fought in 1076 with the knightly cavalry in the Czech Republic - spearmen in the center and cavalry on the flanks - and won. So he built an army in the last big campaign against the Polovtsy and also won. So, many years later, another glorious hero of the "Yaroslav's family" - Alexander Nevsky - will arrange his regiments when he brings his soldiers to the ice of Lake Peipsi to push back the German knight dogs ...

Only towards the end of the day the Polovtsy gathered to attack and rushed in huge crowds to the Russian system. The experienced Sharukan abandoned the usual Polovtsian tactics - hitting the "brow" with a horse wedge - and advanced along the entire front so that the horse squads of the princes could not help the pawns with flank attacks. A fierce slaughter began immediately both in the "brow" and on the wings. Russian soldiers with difficulty restrained the Polovtsian onslaught.

Probably, the khan made a mistake, having built the battle in such a way. His warriors, many of whom did not have armor, were not accustomed to "direct combat", to close hand-to-hand combat and suffered huge losses. The Russians held out and began to slowly move forward. It was getting dark quickly. The Polovtsy, realizing that it was not possible to crush the Russian army with a frantic onslaught, turned their horses and galloped off into the steppe. This was the success of the Russian princes, but it was not yet a victory: many Polovtsian horsemen escaped and could continue the war. This is how Vladimir Monomakh assessed the situation, sending a guard regiment after the Polovtsy. Sharukan will gather his steppe army somewhere, you need to find out where ...

Only one day the Russian regiments stood on the battlefield. Guard patrols reported that the Polovtsy were again gathering in crowds near the mouth of the Solnitsa. The Russian regiments set out on a campaign and marched all night. The fires of the huge Polovtsian camp were already flickering ahead.

The morning of March 27, 1111 came. Both armies again stood against each other. This time, Sharukan did not look for luck in the terrible “direct battle”, in which the Russians turned out to be invincible, but tried to surround the regiments of the princes on all sides in order to shoot the warriors from the bows from a distance, taking advantage of the speed of the Polovtsian horses and huge numerical superiority. But Vladimir Monomakh did not allow his army to be encircled and he himself resolutely moved forward. This was a surprise for the Polovtsian commanders: usually the Russians waited to be attacked, and only after repelling the blow, they moved on to counterattacks. The Polovtsians were forced to accept the "direct battle" again. The leader of the Russian army imposed his will on the enemy. Again, the Polovtsian cavalry fell upon the center of the Russian system, and again the spear-bearing pawns held out, giving the cavalry squads the opportunity to hit the flanks. The Pereyaslav squad under the banner of Vladimir Monomakh fought in the decisive areas of the battle, instilling fear in the enemies. Horse squads of other princes broke into the Polovtsian ranks, tore apart the Polovtsian system. In vain did the khans and thousands of men rush about, trying to control the battle. The Polovtsy huddled together in discordant crowds, randomly moved across the field, beaten by Russian combatants invulnerable in their armor. And the spirit of the Polovtsian army broke, it rolled back, to the Don ford. Terrified by this spectacle, fresh Polovtsian thousands stopped on the other side of the Don. Horse squads relentlessly pursued the retreating Polovtsy, ruthlessly cutting them down with long swords. Ten thousand warriors of Khan Sharukan found their death on the Don coast, many were captured. The destruction was complete. Now the khan is not up to raids on Russia ...

The news of the victory of the Russian princes on the Don thundered through the Polovtsian steppes. Khan Bonyak was frightened, took his Dnieper Polovtsy away from the Russian borders, and in Russia it was not even known where he was and what he was doing. The remnants of the Don Cumans migrated to the Caspian Sea, and some even further - beyond the Iron Gates (Derbent). Great silence came on the steppe border of Russia, and this was the main result of the campaign. Russia received a long-awaited respite.