History of the origin of the Kumyks. Myths, fairy tales, legends and traditions

Johann Blaramberg

Topographical, statistical, ethnographic and military description of the Caucasus

EASTERN CAUCASUS. KUMYKS

The origin of the Kumyks and a brief summary of the history of this people

There is no single point of view on the origin of the Kumyks. According to the scientist Klaproth, they are the descendants of the Khazars, so famous in medieval historical chronicles; One of the Kumyk tribes is still called “Shezars”. According to other scientists, the Kumyks are Tatars who settled in the Caucasus long ago and transformed into a powerful tribe called “Kumyks” and “Kazi-Kumyks” (we will talk about these latter later).

When the famous Tamerlane appeared, the Kumyks submitted to this conqueror, like the Mam-Kat tribes, as Sheref-ad-din says, speaking about Tamerlane’s last campaign against Khan Tokhtamysh. From this we can conclude that the Kumyks who acted on the side of Tamerlane may have been descendants of the Kipchaks or one of the tribes of the Golden Horde. Ptolemy mentions the Kama people, or Kamaks, who lived in the places where the Kumyks are now settled.

Modern Kumyks speak a Turkic dialect, which differs from the dialect of the Nogais; For a long time they have been professing Sunni Islam and, although in morals, customs, and clothing they are similar to the highlanders, as a result of mixing with them, they consider themselves Tatars by origin.

The first contacts of Russia with the Kumyk rulers date back to 1614; the archives mention a certificate of fidelity dating back to this year, sent by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to the Kumyk Khan Giray and his brothers; The following year another document is dated, containing information about the subordination of the Kumyks to Russia. In any case, it can be assumed that even before this time, some Kumyk tribes were already dependent on Russia, in particular in 1594, when during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich a city was founded near Koisu, as well as in 1604, when under Boris Godunov fortresses on the Sunzha, in Enderi and in the vicinity of Tarka.

In the same year, the Kumyks rebelled and, uniting with the Circassians and Lezgins of Dagestan, forced the valiant commander Buturlin to retreat beyond the Terek and leave the above-mentioned fortresses. Nevertheless, the Kumyks continued to maintain friendly relations with Russia until 1722, when Peter I undertook a campaign in Persia; then the Kumyks rebelled again, they attacked the Russians, but were defeated and punished for their betrayal by the plunder of the settlement of Enderi, which then numbered up to three thousand houses. From that time on, the Kumyks were loyal to our government and were calm and submissive all the time.

The territory of the Kumyks is located between the Terek, Aksai, Koysu rivers and the Caspian Sea, which is its eastern border. To the north it is separated from the Kizlyar region by swamps in the lower reaches of the Terek; in the west it is located on both banks of the lower Aksai up to the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt fortress, located on the right bank of the Terek; in the south it borders with Dagestan and the areas occupied by the Salatavs, Aukhovs and Kachkalyks. The southern branch of the Sulak River, called “Kuru-Koisu” (Dry Koisu), separates the Kumyks from the territory of the Tarkian Shamkhals.

The greatest extent of the Kumyk territory from west to east, from the Amir-Adji-Yurt fortress to Cape Agrakhan, is 120 versts; from north to south, from the ancient Terek (meaning the old riverbed) to Sulak - 60 versts, which is a total area of ​​7200 square versts.

Once Gudermes was the western border of the Kumyk territory; it flows into the Sunzha fifteen miles above its confluence with the Terek. But when the Chechens descended from their mountains, the Kumyk khans settled some of them on their territory at the foot of the spurs of the Caucasus, between Sunzha and Aksai. The Chechens who settled there under certain conditions began to be called Kachkalyks (six villages). Then, with the arrival of new tribesmen, their numbers increased, and although the Kumyk khans still consider them their vassals, in fact, the Kachkalyks, later taking advantage of the weakening of the Kumyk khans, regained their independence. Thus, the entire territory between Gudermes and the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt fortress can be considered as an integral part of the territory occupied by Chechen tribes.

Rivers, territory and soil quality

The territory of the Kumyks is irrigated by the following rivers: Aksai (White Water), both banks of the Aksai belong to the Kumyks from the old settlement of Aksai to the confluence of the Aksai and the Terek. The Yamansu and Yaraksu streams flow into Aksai. The small river Kasma, or Aktash, crosses the central part of the territory of the Kumyks; it flows from the Lezgin mountains, from the Salatav ledge, and at the foot of the Khana-Kaitau and Saukh-Bolak mountains many small streams flow into it; when it flows into the Caspian Sea, it is lost in the swamps. Left bank of Koi-su (Ram Water) ( Koyun - ram, su - water (Turkic) ) from the settlement of Chir-Yurt also belongs to the Kumyks. Sulak and Agrakhan - two branches of the Koisu - are rich in fish; significant catches are recorded here.

The territory of the Kumyks consists mainly of vast plains, turning into swamps closer to the Caspian Sea; the southern part is mountainous, representing spurs of the Lezgin and Dagestan mountains, known here as the “Tavlinsky Mountains”. The valleys and plains serve as pastures for numerous herds; villages are located near rivers. The soils of this region are considered the most fertile in the entire North Caucasus. The climate here is warmer than in other areas located at the same latitude; grapes ripen well in gardens, in the forests there are many kinds of wild fruit trees, etc. finally, rice is cultivated in the fields. Both banks of Koisu are covered with forest.

The lowlands at the mouth of this river are overgrown with reeds, but there are also rich pastures, which in general abound in this region, as well as lands suitable for agriculture.

Kumyks are divided into three tribal groups: Aksai Kumyks, Andreevsky and Kostek Kumyks. In addition to the Kumyks themselves, Nogais also live there. The Kumyks live sedentary lives, the Nogais lead a nomadic life, and all their wealth consists of numerous herds of sheep. To pay taxes to their masters, the Kumyk khans, the Nogais obtain the money necessary for this by selling sheep and wool; in addition, as tribute they give annually 2-3 sheep from every hundred. These Nogais represent the remnants of the Greater and Lesser Hordes of the Nogais, which we have already spoken about above and will speak about later.

There are also many Armenians engaged in trade and Georgians living in the territory of the Kumyks.

The main settlement of the Aksai Kumyks is Aksai, numbering 800 houses, it is located on the right bank of the river of the same name, 20 versts from the Terek and 70 versts from Kizlyar. The territory of the Aksai settlement belongs to five ruling families of the same clan, their names: Alibekovs, Akhmatkhankaplanovs, Eldarovs, Utsmievs and Arslanbekovs. The last family is the most ancient and once owned a small state unit of the Kachkalyks, which later became independent. Many Chechens and other highlanders come to the Aksai settlement to conduct trade business. The dwellings of the khans were once surrounded by stone walls with towers and were adapted for stubborn defense. Opposite Aksai on the left bank of the river is the Tash-Kichu fortress.

The main settlement of the Andreevsky Kumyks is Enderi, or Andreevka, a large village of 1,500 houses, 30 versts from Aksay and 90 versts from Kizlyar, located on the right bank of the Aktash in the place where it flows down from the mountains. This place is very picturesque, there are several mosques built of stone; The houses of the khans are also built of stone, they are surrounded by stone walls with towers for defense. The location of this village is very convenient: it is located between the Aktash River and its two tributaries - the Achi and Chumli rivers. Endery, one might say, closes the mountain pass. In the vicinity of this village there are also several convenient places that were used to build the Vnezapnaya fortress northwest of Enderi on the left bank of the Aktash. This fortress is of great importance because it guards the exit from the mountains and inspires respect among the Circassians.

The most powerful khan families in Enderi are the Kazanalipovs, Aidemirovs, Temirovs, Alishevs, and Murtazali-Adzhievs. The origin of the village of Andreevka (Enderi) is described as follows. After the collapse of Ermak's Cossack army, a significant part of the Cossacks, united by Ataman Andreev, took refuge in the Caspian Sea, where they took up piracy. Later, this ataman Andreev with three hundred Cossacks discovered the remains of an ancient fortified city; He stayed there with his comrades, strengthened the means of defense, and with his stay there gave the name to the settlement - Andreevka (Enderi). In vain did the Kumyks and mountaineers try to drive them out of there; the Cossacks stayed there until 1569, until, by decree of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, they were transferred to the Terek, where their descendants, called the Greben Cossacks, still live.

It is still possible to find the remains of an earthen fortress opposite the village of Enderi on the left bank of the Aktash as it emerges from the mountains - this indicates that the advantageous position of this place was noticed by those who once occupied it.

Before the Russian conquest, the village of Enderi was the main market for the sale of prisoners of war, whom the mountaineers brought there. We will return to this trade in a separate section.

Kosteki, or Kostyukovka, is the main settlement of the region with the same name; this is a large village of 650 houses, located on the left bank of the Koisu River, which abounds here with all kinds of fish; Even Kizlyar herring (Shamakhi) is found here.

The Kumyk khans of the Alishev family, who own the area, receive the largest income from fishing, which is mainly leased by Armenians and Russian traders. Sulphurous thermal waters were found not far from the village of Kosteki. Dozens of different springs have been spotted on Kumyk territory.

Kazi-Yurt is located on the left bank of the Koysu, where the river begins to branch. This village serves as a transit point on the way from Kizlyar to Tarki.

Chir-Yurt is located on the right bank of the Koysu, it is located on the ledge that the river forms as it turns to the west; Chir-Yurt is a transit point on the way from Enderi to Tarki.

The Amir-Adji-Yurt fortress stands on the right bank of the Terek and is the westernmost point of the border of this territory.

Population

Here is the population of these three areas: Aksai settlement - 8 thousand souls; Enderi settlement - 28 thousand souls; Kosteki settlement - 2 thousand 800 souls.

Total: 38 thousand 800 souls, which can field 4 thousand 500 armed infantry.

Ethnographic details

The Kumyk rulers occupy a place immediately behind the Kabardian ones and, with the exception of these latter, are the most prominent in the Caucasus. The Persian Shahs and Russian Tsars once chose the shamkhals of Tarki among them, and the Aksayev khans still maintain family ties with the Tarki shamkhals and the khans of Avaria.

The entire territory of this region, without exception, is the property of the families of the Kumyk khans. These khans have their own peasants who have passed on to them by inheritance, but they do not dare to sell them, but annually receive a cartload of wood from each family and worker for one day during sowing, harvesting and haymaking; other than this, peasants do not pay any tax. Uzdeni, who have subjects, consider themselves subordinate to the khan, on whose territory they live, but nevertheless they do not pay any rent, just like the peasants.

Peasants have the right to leave one owner in order to come under the protection of another. It follows that the richest khan is the one who has a large territory and a larger number of peasants. Uzdeni and peasants are obliged to accompany their khan during predatory campaigns and to war.

Kumyk khans can marry the daughters of uzdens and even the daughters of their subjects, but in this case their children have no right of inheritance. Khan's daughters marry only khans. They also have a custom of kalym, following the example of other mountain peoples. The most revered khans have 2-3 wives, but the law allows you to have up to 7 wives.

All Kumyks are Muslims of the teachings of Omar (Sunnis). The clergy enjoys special respect among them, especially from the people; it is represented by two groups - the Qadis (there are only three of them) and the mullahs. The Qadiyas receive annually from each family in their district two measures of millet or wheat and one sheep out of every hundred; mullahs contain qadis. Those who have visited Mecca are treated with special respect, as throughout the Caucasus, these people are called “hajiyas”, or “pilgrims”.

Internecine feuds and quarrels are considered by the megkema - a church court in which the clergy sits, sometimes khans are present there.

The khans' income is supplemented by rent for the land, which is given for use to the Lezgins, who graze cattle there during the cold season. Taxes on transit trade also go to the khan's treasury.

We have already mentioned the excellent quality of the soil and its remarkable fertility. The Kumyks grow mainly wheat and millet, preferring millet, which gives them excellent harvests. Everywhere there are fields sown with millet, crossed by numerous irrigation canals, called here “tatauli”. Barley is grown in smaller quantities; In the area where the Kostek Kumyks live, rice is also cultivated. Vegetable crops, although they grow successfully here, generally provide little income.

The Kumyks are rich in numerous herds of cattle bred for wool; herds of sheep and goats are sent to the mountains for the whole summer. The Kumyks keep huge herds - several hundred horses each, their best breed is called “Chepalovskaya”, it is very valued in the Caucasus. Herds of Chepalovsk horses belong to Aksaev Khan Kaspulat. A huge number of horses are sold to Russians every year.

Kumyk men are prone to laziness and inaction; they are only slightly engaged in trade, which is mainly concentrated in the hands of the Armenians. Their women are more industrious and make excellent carpets called "burmet"; linen woven from plain, coarse cotton, and silk fabrics for personal use.

In Kizlyar, Kumyks sell timber and firewood, as well as poles for vineyards. They extract salt from Lake Turali, located on the territory of the Shamkhals, and exchange it for millet and wheat. The Kumyk khans maintain close relations with the Chechens, in addition, they have long had trade ties with the Kabardians and Lezgin tribes living in the snow-capped mountains of the North Caucasus.

The Kumyks are generally more civilized than their neighbors, and only secretly take part in their robberies.

Like other mountain peoples, the Kumyks also sometimes give their sons to be raised by foreigners - the Atalyks. From the age of 7-8, the young Khan's son goes on long horseback rides with his guardian; The saddle is made in such a way that the child cannot fall. The boy, together with his teacher-atalyk, spends whole days in the saddle in order to contrive to steal a horse or a cow; if he succeeds and the owner of the livestock does not catch it immediately, he keeps the animal for himself and the next day he can no longer hide his theft; if the owner manages to catch it, the thief must return the animal. Then he only feels shame for his awkwardness.

The custom, common to the entire Caucasus, of giving children into the hands of foreigners, pursues a political goal of great significance, since the atalyk teacher then becomes a member of the family of the legal father and these family relations extend not only to representatives of the same clan, but to all representatives of the people, to which the atalyk belongs, throughout the Caucasus, so that amid the hostility that reigns between them, they always seek and find means to receive support and help.

Kumyks never go on military campaigns for long periods of time, like other highlanders, and are not absent from home for more than two or three weeks. They follow no order when marching, but gather in small groups, each of which follows its own leader. In the camp they are also located at their own discretion, without, however, moving too far from their khan. The latter is accompanied by a herd of sheep or several heads of cattle to feed the khan himself and his retinue; the rest are required to have - each their own - food supplies, which, as a rule, are a small bag of millet or wheat tied to the saddle. Although the Kumyks have a reputation as good horsemen and brave people, they are still not nearly as brave as the Kabardians and Chechens.

The Kumyks make their own gunpowder and weapons. Daggers made in the village of Enderi are in great demand throughout the Caucasus; They buy lead from the Russians.

There are some obstacles on the roads in this region: rivers, descending from the mountains, flow through vast valleys, which then give way to wetlands; Most of the rivers have a muddy and clayey bottom, and they can only be crossed by bridges. In addition, the entire area is cut by an incredible number of irrigation canals - tatauli, especially in the vicinity of settlements; finally, the forests found there are very dense and overgrown with thorny bushes, which makes them practically impassable; there are only narrow paths along which you cannot go far into the interior for fear of tearing your clothes or getting hurt. A significant part of the lowlands and valleys is covered with forests.

On the sale of prisoners in the Caucasus

We have already said when we talked about the settlement of Enderi (Andreevka) that this place is famous for the trade in captives, and although this trade stopped there 20 years ago, as well as the export of slaves to Turkey, thanks to the harsh measures of our government, it will be of interest to look at some details concerning this trade, and to give some idea of ​​how it took place.

The trade in prisoners was carried out in the Caucasus according to the law of war: those who were captured in battles were sold, and since the highlanders still live in constant friendship with some and in a state of constant war with other neighbors, there was always something to support this trade, which, apparently , has existed there since a very long time. During the reign of Emperor Justinian I, the Abkhazians deliberately stole boys from their neighbors to sell to Constantinople, where they were sold at a very high price, and therefore merchants literally flooded Constantinople with these victims of eastern voluptuousness, which then led to the prohibition of this trade by Justinian. At a later time, there is no information that any mountaineers of the Caucasus themselves brought slaves to Constantinople for sale.

The custom of turning prisoners of war into slaves and selling them as property is not only very ancient, but also, in general, very widespread in many countries. Only with the advent of Christianity in Europe did this shameful trade disappear, with the exception of Russia, where this practice passed on to the descendants of prisoners of war, known as serfs and serfs, who, before the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, were never mixed with peasants or even indentured servants; these two categories of the population were considered free in Russia. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, after the conquest of Kazan, forbade peasants to change their place of residence and move from one place to another, as a result of which slavery of peasants gradually began to be established in Russia. But still, in the Russian Empire there is no primitive law that allows the master to sell his peasants separately from the land to which they are attached. Boltin clearly proved that personal slavery and the sale of peasants were established in Russia due to the habit of observing custom, which was later enshrined in law ( Boltin. Notes on the history of Russia by Leclerc. T. 1. P. 328-337, 474-475; T. 2. P. 206-213.).

The small digression we made about the past situation of Russian peasants explains to some extent what we observed on this matter in the Caucasus, since, comparing the situation of Russian peasants with those of the Caucasus, we see that the demarcation line between peasants and yasyrs (slaves) ) in the Caucasus is much less erased than in Russia. Although the masters of the mountaineers can also abuse the right that they have over the peasants, they nevertheless can sell them only if they want to punish them for some crime, for example, for theft, murder, and this is done with their consent neighbors and the khan to whom they obey; therefore, the Uzdeni of this region very rarely sell their peasants, especially since according to custom this action is considered reprehensible.

At first, cases were quite rare when parents sold their children because of poverty or, less often, because of cruelty. However, as historical facts show, some victims of parental cruelty were then able to achieve high positions in the countries where they were sold - in Egypt or Turkey. Such examples are quite numerous. Sultan Barkok was of Circassian origin, he founded in 1382 the second Mamluk dynasty, called the Borgite or Circassian dynasty, which ruled until the 16th century.

Some of the Egyptian rulers and many of the Turkish pashas were of the same origin. If you consider what a fortune it was for the mountaineers to receive the sum of 100-200 ducats, which they received for especially beautiful boys and girls, it is not surprising and understandable that such a temptation was impossible to resist. In addition, fathers often sold their children in order to feed the younger ones and prevent them from being kidnapped by neighbors, which could always happen and was something to be feared if the children were beautiful and well-built. It must, however, be admitted, for the consolation of mankind, that these two sources of trade—the sale of peasants by their masters, and the sale of children by their parents—were not the basis of the slave trade. This trade was carried out by other means, which we will now focus on.

During strife between two tribes, custom allowed mutual raids on enemy territory, which were carried out either in small detachments or alone with the aim of kidnapping people and animals in revenge for grievances suffered; The mountaineers call it "baranta". This civil war supplied many prisoners; the richest and most famous were bought by their relatives, the rest were sold or left as house slaves, in the latter case they were used in the household or they worked as shepherds. These raids are still carried out today, and since the mountaineers can no longer sell their prisoners to the Turks, they sell them to each other if they do not want to keep them as their own slaves. Our captured soldiers were treated this way: they were either forced to work as shepherds, or used to cultivate fields, collect brushwood and other tasks.

The mountaineers raided the territory of their Christian neighbors, especially Georgia. Their main task was to capture prisoners; their raids on the right bank of the Kuban and the left bank of the Terek pursued the same goal, and we have already talked about how they captured individuals and transported them to the mountains (see the section on the Chechens).

In Mingrelia and Guria, the mountain princes and uzdeni obtained captives for themselves using the barant method and, in order to satisfy their passion for gold, even sold their own slaves. King Solomon I legally prohibited the sale of captives in Imereti, and since the establishment of Russian protectorate over Georgia, the Lezgins were no longer able to capture many prisoners in this country.

Secret kidnapping of people in peacetime from neighbors or even acquaintances was considered commendable for a brave mountaineer, as long as this theft never became known. Otherwise, retaliatory measures were taken and blood feud was declared, which ended in the death of one of the two opponents. Quite often there were cases when a friend kidnapped his friend’s son or daughter in order to sell him in Anapa or Sukhum-Kala, and this theft became known only many years later, when fate returned the kidnapped person to his homeland.

Thanks to these three sources, which we just talked about, a large number of captives were obtained, who, passing from hand to hand, ended up in Anapa, Kodos, Isgauri, Sukhum-Kale, Poti and Batum for sale to Turkish traders, who took them to Constantinople , and from there to Egypt and the ports of the Levant.

The best-built men were chosen for Egypt to replenish the number of Mamluks. The most beautiful girls were sold at high prices to the rich for the pleasures of the harem, while ugly or poorly built captives of both sexes were sold at fairly reasonable prices as simple slaves for domestic and hard physical work.

Volney says that the price of men varied in Egypt depending on their nationality and decreased in the following order: Circassians, Abkhazians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Germans, etc. The highlanders themselves followed approximately the same order, and , based on the physical strength, beauty and good physique of a person, the price of a captive decreased in this order: Circassians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Abkhazians.

Among women, preference has always been given to beautiful Circassian women. The Mamluks did not marry Coptic girls, they bought their compatriots for themselves, but, as Volney noted, due to the Egyptian climate, the Mamluks degenerated into the second generation, so the beys were forced for a long time to staff this military militia with young people from the Caucasus in order to have brave cavalry , thanks to which they could maintain their power. The French invasion of Egypt and later the betrayal of Mehmet Ali led to the disappearance of this purchased militia.

Since most of the captives were too far from the shores of the Black Sea and sending them to one of the ports of this basin was associated with great difficulties, two large markets for the sale of slaves were set up in the Caucasus itself, namely in Enderi (which we have already discussed above) and in Dzhari, the main settlement of the Dzharo-Belokan region, inhabited by Lezgins. It was to these two markets that captives were brought, who were then bought by Turkish traders and sometimes Armenians. From Enderi the prisoners were transported, handcuffed in two, through the lands of the Chechens, Ingush, and Circassians, along Russian posts to Anapa. This journey was made under the protection of a convoy with a sufficient number of soldiers and passed along secret paths. The carefully guarded women rode horses and the men walked; on the road they were well fed to maintain strength on the journey. Once upon a time, captives were transported in this way from Enderi to Crimea through the Kuma and Kuban steppes and Taman, from there they were taken to Constantinople, but this road was closed to them when the Crimean peninsula became part of Russian territory.

The Lezgins transported captives from Jari through Georgia along secret mountain paths and through forests to Akhaltsikhe, and from there to Batum and Poti. To increase the number of their captives, they divided, passing through Georgia, into several groups, one of which exported prisoners, and the rest scattered throughout Georgia to capture new captives. As a rule, they tried to return to their hearths before the onset of winter, otherwise, if the cold season found them in Akhaltsikhe, they entered the service of the pasha of this pashalyk:!, but with the condition that they would be allowed to raid Georgia, Imereti , Mingrelia, to kidnap people; they were never refused permission to do so. Thus, friendly ties between the Lezgins from the Dzharo-Belokan region and the Akhaltsikhe pashalyk were maintained to the destruction of Georgia, right up to its admission to Russia. These ties were completely interrupted only when Russia took possession of this pirate lair (Akhaltsikhe was taken by storm on August 15, 1828, the Dzhari region was annexed to the Russian Empire on March 1, 1830). The number of slaves annually sold to the Turks in the ports of the eastern coast of the Pontus Euxine before the admission of Georgia to Russia is estimated at three thousand people. Later, this number decreased significantly as a result of the fact that the mountaineers began to encounter obstacles while passing through the military lines in the Caucasus and along this chain. This shameful trade finally ceased after the conclusion of the Treaty of Adrianople, according to which Russia took possession of Akhaltsikhe and the entire eastern coast of the Pontus Euxine. Turkish vessels approaching these shores from time to time to trade are, in most cases, discovered and driven away or destroyed by our ships before they can even receive their cargo.

Having given some information about the sale of slaves in the Caucasus, we will say a few words about how this trade was carried out in Enderi until 1818 - the time when General Ermolov captured this settlement, built the Vnezapnaya fortress nearby and put an end to this trade.

The Russian government, which until this time could not completely prevent the sale of slaves in Enderi, nevertheless adopted several laws with which it tried to alleviate the plight of Christian slaves.

The inhabitants of Enderi, having bought captives brought by Chechens, Lezgins and other highlanders, sold them in the same place to the residents of Kizlyar or took them to this city to sell them there under certain conditions that applied to all captives, whether they were Christians or not (Russians subjects were an exception).

A resident of Kizlyar, buying one of the prisoners, wrote down his name and the name of the prisoner with the city police and indicated the ransom amount. From that moment on, 24 silver rubles were deducted from the total amount annually as payment for the prisoner’s work, in addition, the owner was obliged to feed and clothe him; the prisoner remained in the service of the owner until the entire ransom amount was paid. After this, the captive became free and could choose the lifestyle that he liked, he enjoyed all the rights of a nonresident settler. Thus, if his price reached 240 rubles in silver, he had to work for 10 years to become free.

Most of these captives were Georgians, Mingrelians, and Armenians, but there were also mountaineers captured during the Baranta, or children sold by their parents due to poverty. Since the usual price for a captive was about 150-200 silver rubles, the captive received freedom after 6-8 years. This trade greatly enriched the inhabitants of Enderi, and the inhabitants of Kizlyar also had great benefits from this trade, since they took advantage of the current state of affairs to obtain workers for their vineyards for a very reasonable fee.

IN in the distance, in the pink fog of the rising sun, something vague and huge could be seen among the steppe: either a blue forest or a frozen cloud. But it was not a forest. And not a cloud.
“Yakhsay,” the driver said indifferently. And I felt my heart pound.

The houses have already appeared. There are many low houses with sloping roofs, with huge verandas, surrounded by gardens. Now the chimneys were clearly visible, above which white clouds of smoke hung... But the heart did not let up, looking for a way out.

Aul Aksai is the homeland of my ancestors. My great-grandfather Abdusalam Adzhiev was born here (May my ancestors forgive me, because according to Kumyk customs I do not have the right to call my elders by their full name. How else can we tell our story?), and everyone rejoiced at his appearance: they tirelessly fired guns into the air, pranced, They celebrated for several days in a row, as custom dictated - a man was born! Here, to Aksai, my great-grandfather brought his first wife - a Chechen beauty from the Bitroev family, Batiy, and in total he had four wives, Batiy was the eldest. They named their firstborn Abdurahman, in honor of my great-great-grandfather, then they had eleven more children, but only six survived. Among them is Salah, my grandfather. But Salah’s children no longer knew their native Aksai. Uncle Enver was born in St. Petersburg, because that’s where my grandfather studied to become an engineer, and that’s where he got married. My father saw the light in Temir-Khan-Shur, the then capital of Dagestan, where a young family of an engineer settled briefly after St. Petersburg, because my grandmother graduated from the conservatory, was a pianist, and she would have missed the company in Aksai. Back then, the environment was very important...

Since then, so much water has flowed under the bridge. Our Aksai apple tree scattered its fruits far away. When I went to the village, I didn’t know about her generosity, I didn’t even guess - in our house, like in many other houses, it was not customary to remember. Never! Nothing!

I was born and raised in Moscow, graduated from the university, defended my dissertation, traveled the length and breadth of the country, and all my life I believed that the history of the Adzhiev family began after 1917... The illness dragged on for a long time.

When you visit there, you will involuntarily think: is it true that Dagestan is called the “country of mountains”? Only half of the republic is mountainous, the other half is the Kumyk Plain, where the land seems to be smoothed by the winds, as if open to the sun - open, hospitable, kind. The people who have lived here for centuries are the same.

Steppe Dagestan... What is known about it now? And in general, has anyone outside of Dagestan heard of the Kumyks - my ancient people with a broken fate? But just a hundred years ago our language was the language of communication throughout the North Caucasus. People from distant mountain villages came to our villages to learn the Kumyk language and culture...

I understand that it is extremely difficult to talk about your people - you always run the risk of either missing something or, more likely, exaggerating. Therefore, I will talk more about my family, which was once very noble and respected in Dagestan, about the Adzhievs, about what was done to them. Unfortunately, our family shared the fate of the Kumyk people. And this, alas, is not an exaggeration.

Brockhaus and Efron, or rather their famous Encyclopedic Dictionary, cannot be accused of bias. Me - you can. Therefore, I will start my “Kumyk” story from this classical dictionary.

“Kumyk songs reflect the moral character of the Kumyk - judicious and observant, with a strict concept of honor and loyalty to one’s word, responsive to the grief of others, loving his land, prone to contemplation and philosophical reflection, but able to have fun with his comrades. As a more cultured people, the Kumyks have always enjoyed great influence on neighboring tribes.”

This is what they wrote about my ancestors in the 19th century.

The Adzhievs are a family of warriors, hereditary military, so the man’s name was given the prefix “sala” - Abdusalam-sala. The love for weapons, for horses, for open space came to them with mother’s milk, and left only with the soul... After all, the ancestors of all Kumyks were free Polovtsians - proud steppe nomads.

Here I will step away from my genealogy to look at the fertile soil that fed our roots, raised them: the Polovtsian layer of our history is too powerful not to notice it. Who are the Polovtsians? Where?

Today's official science claims that the Kumyks - as a people - appeared only in the 13th century. Scientists of the last century thought differently, believing that the ancestors of modern Kumyks were Polovtsians. Nowadays, the same view is shared by the prominent Soviet ethnographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, who generally read the entire Russian history in a new way, rightly starting it from the Polovtsian page.

I am inclined to share the point of view of L.N. Gumilev, which may seem controversial to some. It attracts me because it does not limit the history of many peoples, including the Kumyks, to only a few centuries.

There lived an unusual people. Wandering. The stone corridors of the cities seemed cramped and stuffy to him, and people preferred mobile homes - wagons. The Polovtsian city grew quickly, and quickly disappeared, moving with a creak to a new location. Stone houses, the nomads believed, were harmful to health. And inconvenient for traveling.

The Polovtsians did not keep chronicles. They conveyed their deep feelings and memories in songs.

Free, like the wind, they swept through life, leaving almost no material traces on the road of time... And how can you blame the wind for its temper, for the fact that it is what it is?

But time erases recorded sounds, which is why more is known about the Polovtsy from the memories of neighbors, from modest archaeological finds, which are also too fragmentary to paint pictures of their free life. And yet where did they come from?

Even a thousand years BC, near Altai, in the very center of Asia, there lived tribes of “light-skinned, light-eyed, fair-haired” who captured the imagination of the ancient Chinese - apparently due to the dissimilarity with their appearance. The Chinese called them Dinlins, and other peoples called them Kurykans. What did they call themselves? Unknown. Possibly Kipchaks. Apparently, they were relatives of the Cimmerians and Scythians, who once lived in the same places.

By the way, the word “Polovets” in Old Russian means yellow, straw color, the color of “polova”. There is a word “kuman”, which their western neighbors called the Cumans and which also means yellow. There is also the Turkic word “saryk”, which some of their eastern and southern neighbors called the Polovtsians, the meaning is still the same - yellow, white, pale.

Among the Kumyks, many are similar to the “fair-skinned, light-eyed, fair-haired” neighbors of the ancient Chinese. I could offer a description of my appearance or the appearance of my sister, and these descriptions would exactly fit into those left by the ancient Chinese, Persians, Egyptians, Russians and other neighbors of the Cumans. Even details such as short legs or a wide nose are the same...

But how did pale-faced Asians get to the steppes of Europe and even to Egypt? Ooh, there's a whole story here.

The time has come - and slowly, like a glacier, the Polovtsian tribes moved from the foothills of Altai. A terrible force began to move. The nomads crushed the former owners of the steppe - the tribes of Sarmatians, Alans, Pechenegs - and claimed for themselves a huge space from Lake Balkhash to the Danube. These lands were then called Desht-i-Kipchak. “Polovtsian field”—they later talked about them in Rus'.

In the north, the Polovtsian field approached the Moscow River, its western lands were called “Ukraine” or “outskirts”.

As such, there was no state border, of course, because there was no one to border with - there was no Rus', it only appeared in the 9th-10th centuries. So south of the Moscow River and east of the Danube formerly lay Polovtsian lands.

For example, there was the village of Tula, where gunsmiths lived. The word "tula" in Turkic meant "quiver filled with arrows." It was with filled quivers that the steppe warriors left here. In those days, samovars were apparently made there with success... By the way, the word “Moscow” is also probably ours, Turkic, at least such an assumption was made.

Needless to say, a restless neighbor lived close to the Rurikovichs, who gathered the forest inhabitants, the Slavs, into the Russian state. Farmers and nomads could not live in peace for long. But they never quarreled for a long time.

Anything could happen. The Polovtsians burned Russian villages and cities and drove away captives into slavery. However, they also defended young Rus'! Without the Polovtsian squads, Alexander Nevsky would hardly have become “Nevsky”; the lightly armed Polovtsians helped him win the battle. Even in the fiercest battle on Kalka, the troops of the Polovtsian khans and Russian princes stood side by side against the black Mongol clouds. They stood, but did not survive.

Which of the allies faltered in the Battle of Kalka is an eternal mystery of history. However, not the Cumans. The steppe people, full of dignity, despised death - all ancient historians spoke about this with one voice. They never ran from the battlefield; they would rather commit suicide in case of defeat, but they just didn’t run. Pride wouldn't allow it.

The Polovtsian warriors rushed to the attack with menacing cries. Their battle tactics have been honed over centuries. The Polovtsians were in no way inferior to the Mongols, because our people essentially did not know any peaceful activities, only wars, continuous wars... However, they lost.

And they paid in full for the defeat: the most beautiful Desht-i-Kipchak turned into a stable of the Mongol Empire, from where the conquerors, like horses, lassoed live goods for the slave markets of the East.

Let us finally give what is due: with themselves, with their fate, the Polovtsians, together with the Russians, closed the Mongols’ path to Europe, took upon themselves the main burden of the Mongol yoke, and saved others at the cost of their own death. But for some reason history is both mute and deaf to them: it left nothing except the words “filthy Tatar.”

Fate turned away from the proud children of the steppe. True, in the 14th century they still held sabers in their hands, and almost even captured the great conqueror Tamerlane, who descended on Desht-i-Kipchak. The conqueror of the East, lame Timur, escaped, losing many people. But the Polovtsians were no longer enough for more.

To avoid the Mongol lasso, some hid in the steppe, others moved away from the orphaned Desht-i-Kipchak. It was then, in the 13th-14th centuries, that the first Cumans, Kuns, Kumaks appeared in Hungary; in the Caucasus, Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars... New Turkic-speaking peoples seemed to have descended to Earth anew. The blood of the Polovtsians, although not only it, flows in the veins of many residents of the Volga region, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Most Turkic peoples have “Kypchak” tribes and clans.

Our blood flows in Russians too. The bearers of three hundred Russian surnames are Russified Polovtsians, many of whom have become the pride of Russia. Kutuzov, Turgenev, Chaadaev, Aksakov. How many others? Even the seemingly “purely Russian” surnames are Kablukov, Musin, Mukhanov, Tarakanov, Kopylov, Mordasov - and they are of our origin. I learned about this from N. Baskakov’s curious book “Russian surnames of Turkic origin,” which immediately became a bibliographic rarity.

The Russification of the Polovtsians took place in the 15th-16th centuries, reaching its zenith after Peter’s Azov campaigns, when the exhausted, bloodless, unable to defend itself steppe finally fell to Russia... And disappeared.

The history of the Cumans did not last long in the Middle East. And she also disappeared, she also sank into oblivion.

At the slave market in Damascus, little was given for a boy named Baybars - just a handful of silver dinars. The boy was strong, dexterous, fair-haired, like his peers, other slaves. But not so beautiful. One of his eyes was covered with a thorn. But the other eye was blue, as the medieval parchment later revealed. Polovtsian boys in Egypt were raised to be warrior-slaves, or Mamelukes. The steppe people were not suitable for work.

The one-eyed boy did not grow up as a simple Mameluke. His art knew no bounds. He received the nickname Abul-Futuh, which means “father of victory.” In the East, as you know, they don’t throw such lofty nicknames. With a small army of slaves, Baybars took revenge on the Mongols for the fate of his people: he defeated them on the land of Egypt. The horde's movement south was drowned in its own blood.

The Mamelukes saved the ancient country of the pyramids, and as the strongest, Baybars sat on its throne. During 17 years of rule, he conquered both the lands of Palestine and Syria, then he was replaced on the throne of the Mameluke Empire by the Polovtsian slave Kalaun, whose dynasty ruled for another 103 years. Then the Mameluke dynasty of Barkuk came to the palace, but no longer a pure Polovtsian, but a Circassian. For another 135 years the same hand ruled in Egypt. Only in the late Middle Ages did the Polovtsians finally lose themselves, becoming part of the Arab people... The influx of slaves from the north dried up.

The “Polovtsian” pages of the history of the Kumyks are sad and bloody. But they were! They were paid for in full. And the more incomprehensible is the position of official science, which claims that only in the 13th century we, the Kumyks, appeared as a people. Well, we weren’t there before?! It turns out that we have neither traditions nor customs, because we have no ancestors?!

The evening cool had already begun to waft from the mountains when Russian soldiers appeared on the road from Vladikavkaz. On horseback and on foot, they approached Aksai in a line. In the village they were not surprised at their arrival: everyone knew that Russia had gone to war in the Caucasus. The year 1817 began.

The conquerors in Dagestan saw nothing but contempt. Of course, this is a powerful weapon, but there are few of it, and there was no other one in Aksai. Daggers and sabers were clearly inferior to cannons and rifles. The wise Aksai people started a game with a superior enemy: following the example of their ancestors, they adopted the tactics of luring, waiting, and forced peace. Just like the Polovtsians!

It is unknown who proposed this only correct tactic at that time, maybe even my great-great-grandfather Abdurahman, he was a military man and, moreover, not the last person in Aksai.

Until 1825, forced neutrality was somehow observed. The Aksai people were silent, gritting their teeth. However, this year, for some reason, the guests felt like they were the masters of Aksai and began to give orders. The patient Kumyks could not bear this.

I don’t rule out that everything happened in the house of Abdurakhman’s father, whose name is Asev, unless, of course, I’m mistaken. The guests again brazenly allowed themselves something. A dagger flashed in the hands of Mullah Adji - and there were two fewer generals in Russia.

The soldiers who arrived in time threw the daredevil on bayonets, but the Aul residents did not make a mistake - they instantly cut out every single enemy. Insults are not forgiven in Dagestan.

The bloody Aksai began to seethe, day and night everyone was waiting for the Russians to respond. And General Ermolov did it - the Cossacks erased the aul, they would have cut down its inhabitants, but the “Tatars,” as the Russians then called the Kumyks, disappeared into the dense thickets of reeds that began behind the aul and stretched for many miles along the Kumyk Plain.

They didn’t even send a chase for the Aksai people. “They themselves, like dogs, will die of malaria,” the Cossacks decided, turning their horses.

They didn't die. Survived. They found a dry place among the swamps, built houses from adobe, laid out arable land and every year conquered space from the reeds. The new village was also named Aksai.

I can quite accurately describe the area and the village itself in those years, I know something about its inhabitants. Where? From Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. He visited Aksai. And there is a rumor that Bela is ours, from Aksai. She could very well be Abdurakhman’s sister, and Azamat his brother... What to do, there are all kinds of relatives.

And the fact that Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin lived in a fortress nearby is also quite true. I found the name of the fortress - Tashkechu.

“Our fortress stood on a high place,” recalled Maxim Maksimych, “and the view from the rampart was beautiful: on one side a wide clearing, dug by several beams, ended in a forest that stretched to the very ridge of the mountains; here and there behind it villages were smoking, herds were walking; on the other, a small river ran, and adjacent to it were dense bushes that covered siliceous hills that connected with the main chain of the Caucasus.”

It's like that. The same wide clearings, pitted with beams, the small Aksai River, bushes. I also saw them, though not from the saddle of a horse, but from the window of a car. Kind Aksai people took me to the ruins of the fortress.

However, there was no forest that stretched, according to Lermontov, all the way to the mountain range. This is a very important detail; its absence was confusing. To be honest, I couldn’t believe that a forest once grew in the dry, scorched steppe surrounding Tashkechu; the nature here is too deserted now.

But later, in Moscow, in the library, I became convinced that my doubts were in vain. Here’s what one traveler wrote about those places at the beginning of the 20th century: “You enter an old beech section of the forest, you are immediately overcome by some kind of dampness and darkness. Huge beeches stand, blocking out the sky with an impenetrable canopy and preventing the sun’s rays...” Beech forests alternated with walnut groves.

It turns out that these wonderful forests have now been cut down. Only here and there were lonely white larches left. The lakes, estuaries, swamps, and flood plains where Pechorin hunted are also gone—the “great mass of living creatures” has disappeared.

In general, an environmental disaster came to the land of Aksai. This is now, but then, in the last century, the Aksay people lived among a different nature and according to different laws, respecting the traditions of their ancestors. Eh, if today’s Kumyks remembered the smell of emshan, the white bitter wormwood herb from distant Dasht-i-Kipchak, a smell that excites the blood (I know from myself) and deprives one of peace, then they would not allow anyone to spoil their land.

Sing our songs to him,
When he doesn’t respond to the song,
Tie the emshan steppe into a bun
And give it to him and he will return.

This is Maikov. The poet put the parting words to the messenger into the mouth of the Polovtsian khan Syrchan, who called his brother Otrok to return to his native steppes.

And again I will return to the Adzhiev family. In the early 30s, my great-great-grandfather Abdurakhman got married, he got married beautifully, as it should be, it turned out to be a royal wedding. How many wives did he have? Don't know. The Koran allows no more than four. What was the name of the eldest wife? I also don’t know for sure yet, her family called her Kavush, she was from the Tarkovsky family, the daughter of a Kumyk Shamkhal. The king, that is.

It’s impossible not to say something about these relatives of mine. Their family descends from the sixth son of Genghis Khan, Shamkhal was the first in Dagestan to accept the highest title of Russian nobility. Peter I came to their ancestral village of Tarki. Unfortunately, this family died out during Soviet times. An outstanding film director of our time, Kumyk Andrei Tarkovsky was the last Shamkhal.

Abdurakhman Adzhiev and Princess Tarkovskaya lived a glorious life. My great-grandfather Abdusalam was born to them in Aksai.

The Adzhiev brothers, as befits real men, became warriors. They served in the Russian army because, according to the Ganja Treaty, signed in 1835 by Russia and Persia, the Kumyks who lived in the lands from Sulak to Terek began to belong to Russia, and others living south of Sulak to Persia.

Far from being a beardless young man, Abdusalam put on his officer’s uniform. Before serving, he graduated from Cairo Muslim University and went to Mecca. He was one of the most educated people in Dagestan. Smart, reasonable. A real mualim. So the service was successful for the time being.

My great-grandfather had a very firm and confident hand, three magnificent officer’s crosses are the best confirmation of this. He chopped the enemy to the saddle. His younger brother, Abdul-Vagab, did the same.

The brothers were of grenadier height, and the concept of honor and loyalty lived in their blood. For the art of warriors and for the highest decency, the Adzhiev brothers served in His Majesty's Own convoy. So the “Kumyk” research led me from Aksai to St. Petersburg, to the secrets of the imperial court...

His Majesty's own convoy was formed in 1828 from Caucasian highlanders, among them was General Asev Adzhiev, my great-great-great-grandfather. But this formation was not yet called a convoy; according to documents, it was listed by the Life Guards as a Caucasian-Mountain platoon. This platoon immediately received the rights and benefits of the old guard.

Since 1832, the convoy included a team of Cossacks, “the bravest and most distinguished,” as written in the order. By 1856, there were four platoons in the convoy... I understand that the convoy is a topic for a separate conversation, and in order not to deepen it yet, I will again refer to the truthful Encyclopedic Dictionary of that good old time.

“In 1856, the convoy was reorganized, and the following were formed: 1. Life Guards Caucasian squadron of His Majesty’s Own convoy, consisting of four platoons: Georgians, highlanders, Lezgins and Muslims. The team (platoon) of Georgians was ordered to be composed of Orthodox young people from the noblest princely and noble families of the Tiflis and Kutaisi provinces; mountaineers - from the most noble and influential mountain families; Lezgins - from the most noble Adjarian and Lezgin families of the Caspian region; Muslims - from the most honorable families of the khans and beks of Transcaucasia...” The convoy belonged to the Imperial headquarters.

The Adzhiev brothers at one time commanded convoy platoons. Abdusalam guarded Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Among others, the Persian prince Riza-Quli-Mirza served in the convoy, and, apparently, the Adzhievs had very friendly relations with him, otherwise how can one explain that the brother of the Persian Shah married the Adzhievs’ sister; in 1873 he was “expelled from the convoy and promoted to colonel” - this is what is written in the order that I managed to find in the convoy files, which are stored in the Military Historical Archive.

The Adzhievs became related not only to the Persian Shah, which, however, was not considered then something out of the ordinary. People simply lived, communicating with their equals. Great-grandfather Abdusalam gave one of his daughters, the beautiful Umaidat, to the Lezgin khan Beibalabek Sultanov from the village of Akhty.

And immediately a false idea, a stereotype hammered into our consciousness, paints us a kind of savage from the southern Dagestan mountains. In vain. Khan graduated from the Sorbonne and lived with his young beautiful wife in Paris for almost 15 years, where he practiced medicine.

No, the Caucasus was never a wild, backward region; it had its own, very high culture, to which all people, be it a prince or a simple shepherd, obeyed. A strict concept of honor, sacred feelings for traditions, for ancestors made it possible to call all Caucasians real Caucasians, no matter what nation they belong to.

After the assassination of the Tsar in 1881, the convoy disbanded.

Great-grandfather from St. Petersburg was sent as the commander of the distant fortress of Nazran, which was located in Chechnya, near his native Aksai. Next came a letter about secret surveillance. Although supervision was not required - everyone knew Abdusalam as an absolutely honest person. Colonel Adzhiev quickly left his supervised position and, fortunately he had a higher Muslim education, took the place of naib in the large Kumyk village of Chiryurt. Why didn't he want to live in Aksai? I guess there were reasons for that.

Apparently, they were irritated by local customs. He clenched his teeth painfully when he learned that relatives forced his young wife to milk a cow or bake bread. And she milked and baked, as required by the custom of the younger ones obeying the elders. She milked it, rolling up her lace cuffs, imported from Paris. She baked, flavoring the dough with tears... But that was not why Abdusalam stole his Batiy and came to Aksai.

Another thing can be assumed. Batiya had an excellent command of French, English, Russian, and worse Kumyk. Not bad for a Chechen girl! She read a lot. And she, who knew little about Kumyk life, perceived any remark as an insult. “Can you imagine,” she was probably indignant, “he corrects my Russian pronunciation, forgetting that I was the first in the Caucasus to know what a “zavalinka” is...” In a word, Aksai, although it was called the most cultural Kumyk aul, did not seem so to everyone . My great-grandfather, who still remembered everyday life in St. Petersburg, never settled down there.

Some kind of unearthly, inhuman power was in him; they say about such people that they are marked by Allah. When he walked down the street, passers-by turned away or hid. They say that one day a huge Caucasian shepherd dog attacked him, but he didn’t move a single step, but only looked at her with his heavy gaze. The poor dog fell to the ground and, whining pitifully, crawled away. And the great-grandfather calmly moved on.

With his confident calm and prudence, he suppressed those around him, subjugated them to himself, and brought others into awe. They were afraid of him. And they secretly did not love her, being careful not to clearly express their dislike.

Abdusalam soon found Chiryurt too cramped. He and his family moved to Rostov, then returned to Dagestan. After St. Petersburg, life was uncomfortable. After all, my great-grandfather was still absolutely indifferent to fame, to money, to wealth. Until the 20th century, the Kumyks held a person in high esteem, or rather, his origin, and not a tight wallet. The prince could be poorer than the shepherd, and this would not bother anyone. He is a prince. And that says it all. What the Kumyks feared most was not poverty, but shame.

Sitting in a cart whose owner was of low class was considered the greatest shame. Or - in the presence of others, sit next to your wife. Or - enter the kitchen... And here there was a whole set of unwritten laws and rules.

And Allah forbid if the prince, even by accident, did some kind of housework or housework, there were people for this, entire classes of Chagars, Terekemen residents and slaves. The shame primarily fell on them, who failed to help the prince in time, who had his own responsibilities to the people.

In Kumyk villages, society was previously very strictly divided into classes. After the princes came the Sala-Uzdeni - professional warriors who were also forbidden to work; in peacetime they protected the princely person from all sorts of troubles.

In this division of society into classes, the Kumyks repeated the Polovtsians, with the only difference that they called the sala-uzden murza or divey-murza. But their duties absolutely coincided, as, indeed, those of all other classes.

And here’s what’s curious, what makes you think: among the Kumyks, selling, doing business, as they would say now, was considered the biggest shame. Touching money, especially children, was prohibited. For this purpose, the Kumyks allowed Jews into their villages, who were also good artisans, and Talysh, excellent gardeners. The mountaineers grazed the cattle - tavlu...

For a self-respecting Kumyk prince, the ability to obtain military trophies was considered a good deed. You also need to know how! Beautifully rob a passing caravan, gracefully steal a herd of horses from the Cossacks - isn’t it a worthy occupation for a self-respecting man?

True, then it was customary to give the loot to guests, friends, relatives right or left, and the successful robber - “a connoisseur of fine manners” - had nothing left... A custom that goes back centuries.

And an equally long tradition is that of slaves. Even in the 19th century, sensualists bought them for the first reprisal; in Endrei-aul there was even a special market where slaves were brought from all over the Caucasus. Then it was customary to give a slave to a slave or to release her on all four sides, if it was her will... I was told that great-grandfather Abdusalam did not turn away from this ancient custom. And at 70 years old, his huge heart was so ardent and tender that even young beauties could fit in it, among them the granddaughter of Shamil, who became the fourth wife of his great-grandfather.

A dashing horse, a falcon, guests, gifts, holidays, troubles and, of course, women cared about other princes much more than the fertility of the lands. It was the height of complacency, but it was worth living for.

Nature gave its fruits, brought good incomes, they rejoiced at them. Glory to Allah, who gave the world day and night: the Kumyks never had a division into rich and poor before. For everyone there was a day measured out by the Almighty - some were lighter, some were darker.

Only a person with a broad soul, in which there is a place for relatives, friends and guests, of course, was called a rich man. A rich man is a person who has a sea of ​​​​thoughts and feelings; people were drawn to him like a spring. Great-grandfather Abdusalam - by Kumyk standards - was considered a rich man.

He did not have any special fortune, but people respected him - in any house, starting from the shamkhal, they rejoiced at him as an excellent interlocutor. What else does a good person need?

In 1902, on the eve of his 70th birthday, Abdusalam Adzhiev, a man prone to philosophical reflection, who often thought about the meaning of life, went to Yasnaya Polyana to see another person prone to philosophical reflection and gave him a burka. They were talking. From Leo Tolstoy, great-grandfather went to Mecca for the second time...

It’s bad to walk in Aksai without galoshes, especially after rain. The streets are not asphalted or even paved. Luckily it doesn’t rain here often.

Our family village is no longer Kumyk. No one's place, like a stray dog, he huddles in the steppe. They came in large numbers to it from everywhere. And the Kumyks - some were evicted, some left on their own. There is not a single Kumyk region left in Dagestan! Everything was destroyed.

Now they don’t sing songs in our villages; the speech heard there is different. In Aksai, however, there are still several Kumyk neighborhoods preserved, where there is at least some semblance of the former - clean, well-groomed, neat. And so - dirt all around. And the stink. “Wow, we didn’t know that such a friendship of peoples would work,” one elder told me from the bottom of his heart.

And in our village there is a central square and an ancient mosque, which great-grandfather Abdusalam and great-great-grandfather Abdurahman went to. True, no one could show me their house - did they forget or didn’t want to disappoint?

Near the mosque stood today's aksakals - barefoot boys from those distant times when my great-grandfather came here to the mosque. I looked at them, at the most respectable aksakals, with special love and respect - after all, they already lived then, in his time; they carry a grain of his time. Happy.

The elders stood in black hats, black clothes, all in soft leather boots and narrow-toed galoshes. They stood just as their fathers and grandfathers had once done, and talked just as slowly and with dignity.

Chickens were running around the square, two cows were slowly nibbling on a bush. And if it weren’t for our car, left at the bridge, then one might well have thought that the 19th century was long gone, and the 20th never came in Aksai.
- Salaam Alaikum.
- Vaaleikum salaam...

Of course, no one remembered anything about my grandfather or great-grandfather, but everyone suddenly became very animated, suddenly began to look at me and whisper: “Ah-wah-wah.”

My Moscow ignorance! What a shame, is this how they talk to elders on the fly, and on such a delicate topic...

Dear Aksay residents, truly well-mannered people, without hesitation for a long time, took me to a photo studio, they photographed it nearby, in a shed, and then showed me the old Kumyk cemetery, which approached the river itself and was very neglected - there were only two or three monuments left on ground overgrown with weeds. Sheep and chickens were busy in the weeds.

On one of the monuments, I learned from worn-out Russian letters that the body of Prince Mirza, killed in 18, rests here... There was a women’s monument nearby, but it stood silent - all the letters were erased.

In Kumyk cemeteries, you can see from afar where a man is buried and where a woman is buried - by the shape of the monument. For men's, a ball is usually cut out. If a very noble person dies, a flag is strengthened over his grave or a mausoleum is installed.

At the end of the cemetery, behind the bushes, hidden from worldly eyes, there is a ziyarat, which means a holy place. Not everyone is allowed to enter there; Allah will punish the infidel if he even thinks of approaching.

Throwing the gate back onto the dusty fence, we read a prayer as expected and only then quietly entered. You can't talk.

Greenery. Two mausoleums. Several graves. Here is the eternal rest of the most honorable Aksay residents. One of them was Shamil’s assistant, his right hand. Before each grave we read a prayer... And I was surprised how many Adzhievs there were - I have never seen my last name so often in my entire life.

But neither my grandfather’s grave nor my great-grandfather’s grave was here. Their peace is not in Aksai...

Abdusalam died in 1929, having seen a lot during his long 96 years. He died in Temir-Khan-Shura, which had already become Buinaksk. They buried him quietly, because he lived quietly in a modest house on Dakhadayev Street. I saw this house, then the mufti took it over.

As I was told, in his last years, my great-grandfather read all day long. He talked with books, as if with living souls from another world - after all, guests now looked into the house extremely rarely.

The main interlocutor was, of course, the Koran. And also, among others, the magazine “Around the World”, which has been subscribed to and kept since Sytin’s times.

Tired of reading, my great-grandfather went for walks every day: one long and two short. Wearing a black Circassian coat, a hat with a red top, soft boots and always a cane, he always, invariably, performed his exercise in any weather. His tall, officer-like, slender figure appeared on the boulevard at the same hours, and they used it to check the time.

But he went to the mosque extremely rarely - he could not hear the semi-literate reading and interpretation of the Koran. The words and voice of the new mullahs who came to replace the old mosque servants were alien to his ears. Great-grandfather now prayed only at home, communicating with God in silence.

At home, he always put an elegant Turkish fez on his head, always demanded that there be flowers on his table - best of all, forget-me-nots - and always strictly observed customs.

He died without understanding why so many Kumyks were shot - his relatives and friends, who had done absolutely nothing reprehensible, but, on the contrary, were very decent people. Or why were his grandchildren, my father and uncle, forbidden to study? (They, however, later studied to be engineers, but not in Dagestan and lived their lives away from him.) Or - why... Oh, how many of these “whys” befell the unfortunate great-grandfather!..

By a lucky coincidence, he himself was not touched. No, they spared him not because of his age and gray hair. Then they shot at both old people and babies.

In his house, an orphan abandoned by Tavlu’s parents, named Makhach and last name Dakhadayev, lived for a long time as a shepherd. Why did great-grandmother Batiy like this boy with a huge lichen on his head? It was no coincidence that the great-grandmother was called a clairvoyant; she raised a kind man in the kitchen, gave him money for his studies - he responded with kindness.

Having become the governor of the new government in Dagestan, Makhach (Makhachkala, the former port of Petrovsk, the capital of Dagestan is named after him.) issued a “safe conduct letter” to the Adzhievs: someone’s caring hand rewrote Abdusalam’s service record, confusing dates, events, names, and someone else’s wise lips whispered about some mythical Turk, from whom our family supposedly descends.

They even mixed up our last name on purpose. More correctly, according to the Kumyk tradition, we should have been spelled Asev-Adzhievs, like all our other relatives... No, only thanks to Allah we survived - he awarded our family with great-grandmother Batiy.

True, they survived unconscious, having forgotten the language, customs, and traditions of the Kumyks (I’m talking about myself!). What to expect from life away from your homeland? From your people? And still. The voice of blood spoke within me. I hope it will speak to my sons too.

I even shuddered when I recently found papers in the Military Historical Archive written in Abdusalam’s hand—exactly the same handwriting in my son, who was also of grenadier height, served in the army and also in a convoy. An incredible coincidence! However, today's convoy is guarding prisoners. Service is not chosen, it is assigned by fate...

I will certainly continue my search for my roots, no matter what - after all, this is the discovery of myself. A person must take care of his roots, otherwise the apple tree will dry up and the people will disappear.

Kumyks (self-name - kumuq) are a people in the Russian Federation - 277.2 thousand people, of which 231.8 thousand are in Dagestan, 9.9 thousand in Chechnya, 9.5 thousand in North Ossetia. Kumyks are a people of the Turkic tribe, belonging to its Pontic branch, living in Dagestan, north of Derbent, along the coast, between the Terek and Sulak rivers.

Some believe that the Kumaks occupied the coast of the Caspian Sea from ancient times and were known to Ptolemy under the name Kami, Kamaki, Klaproth sees in them the descendants of the Khazars, and Vambery admits that they settled in the places they now occupy during the prosperity of the Khazar kingdom, i.e. in the 8th century.

In terms of language and way of life, all Kumyks currently represent one ethnographic whole, but this can hardly be said regarding their origin. Local legends, in connection with the many surviving ethnographic terms, lead to the conclusion that at least some of the Kumyks were formed from very diverse elements, which is partly confirmed by the physical appearance of the inhabitants of this plane.

The fact that the Kumyks occupying the Kumyk plane included Kabardians is evidenced by their history. Although back in 1559 Agim, the prince of the Tyumen Kumyks, accepted Russian citizenship, and under Tsars Fyodor Ioannovich and Boris Godunov, fortresses were built here to protect against, nevertheless, local legends claim that 300 years ago the Kumyks were ruled by the shamkhal of the city of Tarki. After the death of Shamkhal Andiy, his eldest sons did not allow his third son Sultan-Muta, born from a woman who did not belong to the princely family, to participate in the inheritance. Sultan-Mut fled to Kabarda, recruited a detachment of several hundred people there and forced his brothers to cede part of their father's possessions to him. With his Kabardians, Sultan-Mut settled in Endrei, which quickly grew to the size of a large eastern city.

Located near the route from Persia to Russia, it became a trading center, mainly for the trade in child slaves. In 1604, the Kumyks rebelled and forced the Russian garrison to retire beyond the Terek. During this disturbance, according to legend, Sultan Mut fell. In 1722, during the campaign of Peter I to Persia, the Russians destroyed Endrei, which could no longer recover from this blow; in 1725 the city of Tarki was devastated by the Russians. At the same time, the fortress of the Holy Cross was founded on Sulak.

In the 19th century, the Kumyks generally belonged to the peaceful mountaineers, remaining loyal to Russia. Previously, the Kumyks were divided into many classes. At their head were biys or princes, followed by chanka or princely children from unequal marriages, then sala-uzdeni or independent nobles, uzdeni or noblemen who were in vassal relations to the princes, chagars or farmers, some of whom were free, others were depending on the princes and uzdens and paid them quitrents or cultivated their lands, and finally, coolies or slaves.

In the 1860s, the dependence of some classes on others was abolished, and representatives of the unprivileged classes were allocated land on a communal basis. The Kumyks were divided into a class of landowners - owners and people. The Kumyks are all Sunni Muslims and lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Traditional occupations: arable farming (wheat, barley, millet, rice, corn), cattle breeding (cattle, sheep, horses), as well as gardening, horticulture, viticulture, fishing, beekeeping, trade, salt and oil extraction, hunting. Home trades and crafts: cloth making, cotton weaving, carpet weaving (traditional women's occupations), leather, metal, wood, stone processing (men's occupations)

The customs and morals of the Kumyks are generally similar to the customs and morals of other Caucasian highlanders, but they do not look at customs as an inviolable shrine and easily allow deviations from them. Reconciliation in blood matters is arranged quite simply and easily. Kunakism among the Kumyks almost does not exist; the influence of kinship is limited to two or three generations. The traditional views of the Caucasian mountaineers on predation as an act of youth do not enjoy unshakable authority among the Kumyks. The main type of family is small with subordination to the eldest in age (a man, less often a woman), although the family council plays a large role in resolving important issues.

Traditional housing: ground turluch, adobe with a flat gable roof and stone with a flat roof (one-story, one-and-a-half stories, two-story). Food: flour, meat and dairy dishes - shorpa (soup), khinkal (a type of dumplings), kurze (dumplings), dolma , pilaf, shish kebab, sauce, porridge, numerous varieties of halva, pies, scrambled eggs, bread, as well as drinks (airan, sherbet, tea). Traditional mountain clothing is in some places replaced by European-cut dress.

They speak Kumyk language. Dialects: Buynak, Kaitag, Piedmont, Terek, Khasa-Vyurt. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. The Kumyk song reflects the moral character of the Kumyk - judicious and observant, with strict concepts of honor and loyalty to a given word, responsive to the grief of others, loving his land, prone to contemplation and philosophical reflection, but also able to have fun with his comrades . As a more cultured people, the Kumyks have always enjoyed great influence on neighboring tribes.

Thanks to someone, Dagestan is now called the “country of mountains,” but this statement is clearly erroneous. Mountain birds fly only over half of the republic's territory. Over the other half - to the north and east of the mountains, especially above the Kumyk Plain - steppe eagles soar in the sky.

Of course, this is a geographical allegory, but it very accurately defines the area of ​​residence of the Kumyks - the northern foothills of the republic and the entire steppe Dagestan.

The Kumyks are a Turkic-speaking people, whose history, unfortunately, still retains many blank spots. Which, however, is also typical for other peoples who have lived in the steppe zone of Europe and Asia since ancient times: very few traces of the material culture of the steppe people are known to historians and archaeologists.

According to one version, the Kumyks are the surviving Cumans. However, such a statement does not apply to all Kumyks.

The fact is that Kumyk society in Dagestan is traditionally divided into two, and the “watershed” has long been along the Sulak River.

Differences are observed not only in the language, but also in the appearance of the northern and southern Kumyks. Northern Kumyks, those who come from the Cumans, are usually fair-haired and blue-eyed (blue-eyed). Their appearance fully corresponds to the original meaning of the Old Russian word “Polovtsian” - yellow, straw, the color of chaff.

The southern Kumyks are more like the Kipchaks; their faces have more characteristic Asian features, they are usually dark-haired and dark-eyed, with “Mongolian” eyes.

The history of the Kumyks is the history of the south of our country. As Arab travelers noted in ancient times: “Dasht-i-Kipchak was a country that stretched in length for 8 months of travel, and in width for 6 months of travel. Allah knows best!” "Dasht" means "steppe".

Work, work, work all your life... A true elder is one who has something to bequeath to his descendants.

“Dasht-i-Kipchak” is the land of the Turkic-speaking people. Or “Polovtsian Field”, as they later talked about it in Rus'.

It so happened that the steppe people, the Polovtsians, entered the history of Russia with the reputation of “wild nomads”, “backward people”. Is it deserved? Arab and Byzantine sources speak of the Polovtsy as a developed and cultured people.

It would be reckless to reduce the interaction of ancient Russian and Polovtsian cultures to violence and confrontation alone. The depth and complexity of ancient connections is evidenced by the fact that more than 300 familiar Russian surnames are of Turkic origin. Including the following: Suvorov, Kutuzov, Turgenev, Chaadaev, Aksakov...

Today's Kumyks are Muslims and Sunnis. But it was not always so. Before Russia conquered the Caucasus, Christianity dominated among the peoples of Dagestan. There was a time when a Catholic bishop was appointed from Rome for the Caspian region. The remains of temples are still preserved, and crosses are found on the sites of ancient cemeteries.

Christianstao began to spread in the Caucasus around the 3rd AEK, and among the peoples of Desht-i-Kipchak - a little later. This was especially facilitated by iconoclasm, which in the 8th century shook up Byzantium and led to flows of icon worshipers to neighboring states, mainly to the north.

The religious situation among the Turkic-speaking peoples has changed more than once throughout their history. Under the pressure of the Arab Caliphate in the middle of the 8th century, Islam (the Shiite branch) began to spread, but it did not take root in the Christian environment. Through the Polovtsians in the 10th century, Christianity apparently came to pagan Rus'.

The 13th century was fatal for the ancestors of the Kumyks - then the Mongol invasion began. The state of Dasht-i-Kip-chak, not bound by the unity of spirit and faith, split: Catholics and Orthodox, Old Believers and Doukhobors, Shiites and pagans united around their gods in the face of impending danger.

It was in the 13th century, as traditional science claims, that the Polovtsy people “disappeared”, and - what it still doesn’t explain! - other peoples appeared. In Crimea - Crimean Tatars; in the Danube steppe - Cumans, Kumaks, Gagauzes, Kuns; in the North Caucasus - Karachais, Balkars, Kumyks.

The 19th century Encyclopedia wrote the following:

“Kumyk songs reflect the moral character of the Kumyk - reasonable and observant, with a strict concept of honor and loyalty to his word, responsive to the grief of others, loving his land, prone to contemplation and philosophical reasoning, but able to have fun with his comrades. As a more cultured people, the Kumyks have always enjoyed great influence on neighboring tribes.".

It is unlikely that such a description could be given to the descendants of a wild, backward people.

Kumyk life to this day retains features reminiscent of the traditions of their ancestors. For example, the description of cooking among the Polovtsians (Arab travelers told about it) is interesting. Any Kumyk today recognizes his national dishes in these recipes.

For example, roll out the dough thinly, cut it into small squares, and then boil it in broth and eat it, after flavoring it with sour milk and garlic. The Kumyks call this dish khinkal. And it is prepared exactly the same as a thousand years ago.

The Kumyks bake bread the same way as the Polovtsians - in the oven, from sour dough. None of the peoples of Dagestan makes such bread. Thousands of years ago, the steppe people prepared a miracle - this is still the name of a special Kumyk pie with cottage cheese or cheese, or with grass. To make it, as before, “nothing is needed except water, salt and dough.”

Kumyk national cuisine is very simple and satisfying; the lifestyle of the steppe required precisely this kind of Spartan cuisine from people.

Kumyk villages have a strict “quarter” layout. In each quarter there lives either one clan, or people of the same class, or the same nationality. At least that was the case until recently.

Among the northern Kumyks, the villages were called “Yurt”, and among the southern ones - “Kent” (the old history is still preserved on the maps of Dagestan: Khasavyurt, Babayurt, Kayakent, Yangikent...). They had Jewish and Talysh quarters. Jews were engaged in trade and small handicrafts, and the Talysh were always considered the best master gardeners in the Caucasus.

The so-called one-sided development prevailed, the streets were laid straight and level. It was customary to place outbuildings in the back of the yard, and either the house itself or the garden came to the fore. Kumyk villages looked exceptionally neat.

True, the Kumyks have never been distinguished by sophistication in architecture. The main building material of the northern Kumyks was adobe - unfired brick made of clay and straw. The southern Kumyks used natural stone, which was usually used unprocessed.

The only exception, perhaps, was the village of Tarki - the capital! - where the Kumyk Shamkhal, the supreme ruler, used to live.

Unfortunately, modern barbarians have destroyed all the beautiful buildings that until recently delighted people. Such buildings of the 17th-19th centuries as the Shamkhal-Shah-Wifi Palace, the Khan's Palace and other works of architects can only be judged by the enthusiastic reviews of contemporaries.

The interior decoration of the Kumyk courtyard, both before and now, suggests that practicality and convenience come first in everyday life, and only then beauty.

It was customary to divide the house into two parts. The first, working one, was called “tavchu”; it was cleaned without any fuss. A copper boiler hung above the hearth; it was heated black, so there was a hole in the ceiling of the house - a chimney. And under this hole it was customary to place a basin of water at night so that an attacker would not throw a burning brand or break into the house.

Now in Kumyk houses the tavchu is completely different - modern, but the habit of putting a basin of water at night or leaving the light on in some places, they say, has been preserved. Just in case!

It was customary to place ovens for baking bread in the yard. In villages, such “uyy pech” were laid out one for several families, but families were always from their own quarter.

The other half of the house was allocated for housing. And the larger the house, the larger this half was, in which the best room was called the kunatskaya. This is a centuries-old tradition, which was noticed by Arab travelers in the Middle Ages.

Previously, carpets were laid on the floor, usually thin, lint-free, which in Dagestan were made only by Kumyk craftswomen. The Kumyks ate and slept on the floor. In every home there was a whole ritual of making beds, arranging mattresses, blankets and pillows. Only women did this.

In general, housework responsibilities have always been divided very strictly. As a rule, the man was responsible for everything that was done outside the house and outside the yard. Everything inside the house is the woman's lot. Especially the dishes, which were previously given almost cult significance.

Special shelves for dishes were installed in the house. Separately for porcelain - festive and everyday - and for copper. In simple families, copper utensils were considered a symbol of wealth; sometimes they replaced money: the more of it there was, the more respected the family became. The bride was judged by the number of copper utensils. Sometimes all kinds of copper products hung on the wall in the house from floor to ceiling. It was customary to decorate homes with weapons... Only towards the end of the 19th century did European culture begin to penetrate into the life of the Kumyks and change their previous life beyond recognition.

It is useless to look now, for example, even for elements of national clothing among the Kumyks. Is it possible that women, especially older ones, have still retained some of their clothing from earlier times? For example, scarves. The Kumyk national scarf is a delicate work of art. Just like a hat, the shape of which and its decoration could tell a dedicated person a lot about the owner... Now all this is history, like discreet jewelry, like daggers, previously mandatory for any self-respecting man.

Desht-i-Kipchak - the Polovtsian Field - finally ceased to exist after the Azov campaigns of Peter I. Then the mass Russification of the Polovtsians began, painful as all processes of this kind.

The descendants of the ancient Kipchaks - that is, a significant part of the modern population of Central Russia - live unaware of their recent history (only two centuries!), of their cultural and genetic roots, which nourished and always nourish any people.

Candidate of Economic Sciences M. ADZHIEV

Kumyks are one of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Dagestan, belonging to the oldest Caspian anthropological type in the North Caucasus of a large Caucasian race in some groups with an admixture of the Caucasian type. They speak the Kumyk language, which is one of the old written literary languages ​​of Dagestan. It is included in the Kipchak subgroup of Turkic languages, but it also contains more ancient elements of the language of the Scythians (8th-3rd centuries BC), Cimmerians (8th century BC), Huns (IV century AD). BC), Bulgars, Khazars (V-X centuries) and Oghuz (XI-XII centuries), indicating that the Kumyk people are one of the historical successors of these ethnic groups, formed on a local autochthonous basis. The Kumyk language has the following dialects: Buynak, Kaitag, Piedmont, Khasavyurt and Terek, the latter is also represented in Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. The literary language developed on the basis of the Khasavyurt and Buynak dialects. 99% of Kumyks consider the language of their nationality to be their native language (1989). The Russian language is also widespread (74.5% of Kumyks speak it fluently).

The tribes that played a certain role in the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks, to one degree or another, used Albanian and runic ancient Turkic graphics. There is information that the writing system for the Dagestan Huns (Savirs) was created by Byzantine-Armenian missionaries; in the Khazar period, a new writing system was created based on the Greek alphabet; in addition, the Khagans - the leaders of the Khazars - used the Hebrew alphabet in correspondence. In connection with the Arab conquests, the penetration of Islam and Islamic culture into the region from the 8th-10th centuries. here the Arabic script is gradually spreading, which has undergone reform and adapted to the sound system of local languages, including Kumyk (adjam). In 1929, the Kumyk language was translated into Latin script, and since 1938 - into Russian. At the end of the nineteenth century. The first printed books in the Kumyk language were published. At the same time, the handwritten Arabographic tradition has a much earlier distribution; its monuments include, for example, “Derbend-name” (late 16th century) - one of the first original sources on the history of the peoples of Dagestan.

Kumyks live on their ancestral territory - the Kumyk Plain and in the adjacent foothills from the Terek River in the north to the Bashlychay and Ulluchay rivers in the south. They are the largest of the Turkic ethnic groups of the North Caucasus and the third largest among the peoples of Dagestan, accounting for 13% of the republic's population. The total number of Kumyks in Russia and the CIS countries is about 350 thousand people, incl. in Dagestan 278.6 thousand people. (as of 01/01/2001). The natural increase over the last decade is about 15%. More than half (52%) of the Kumyks are settled in 8 rural administrative districts of the Republic of Dagestan. In the Kumtorkalinsky district there are 67.5% of them, in the Karabudakhkentsky district - 62%, in the Buynaksky district - 55%, in the Kayakentsky district - 51%, in the Babayurtsky district - 44%, in the Khasavyurtsky district - 28.5%, in the Kizilyurtsky district - 13.6%, in the Kaitagsky district - 9% of the population districts. In Makhachkala they make up 15% of the population, in Buinaksk - a third, Khasavyurt - a quarter and Kizilyurt - a fifth of the population. In Izberbash - 17% and Kaspiysk - 10%. There are less than one percent of Kumyks in Derbent. Some of the Kumyks are settled in urban-type settlements: in Tarki - 91% of the population, Tyube - 36%, Leninkent - 31.3%, Kyakhulay - 28.6%, Alburikent - 27.6%, Shamkhal - 26.8%, Manaskent - 24.9%.

Outside of Dagestan, more than 20% of all Kumyks are located in the CIS. In relatively large groups, numbering more than 10 thousand people, Kumyks live in the Gudermes and Grozny regions of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Mozdok region of the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania. A small part of the Kumyks are settled in the Stavropol region, the Tyumen region (more than 3 thousand people), as well as in the republics of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan (about 4 thousand people in total), in Turkey, Jordan and some other countries of the world.

Starting approximately from Khazar times to the first third of the 20th century. the language of the future Kumyks, and then the Kumyk language itself, which emerged in the pre-Mongol era, served as the language of interethnic communication in the North-Eastern Caucasus. The Kumyk language was, in addition, the official language of correspondence with the Russian tsars and representatives of the Russian administration; it was studied in gymnasiums and colleges in Vladikavkaz, Stavropol, Mozdok, Kizlyar, Temir-Khan-Shura, etc.

The ancestors of the Kumyks, obviously, were part of the state associations of the Scythians, Cimmerians, Huns, Savirs, Barsils, Bulgars; The Khazars and Kipchaks played a particularly important role in the history of the Kumyks.

The formation of the Kumyk people with its current Kypchak language dates back to the 12th-13th centuries. Kumyks already in the second half of the 19th century. were a relatively highly consolidated people with developed ethnic characteristics: the spread of a single endo-ethnonym (reflecting a high level of self-awareness and self-identification according to the “us - them” principle, as well as the degree of intra-ethnic cohesion) and language, the presence of a single cultural core, the regularity of trade, economic and cultural relationships etc. The process of ethnocultural consolidation did not eliminate the division into ethnographic groups (Bragun, Buynak, Kayakent, Mozdok, Khasavyurt Kumyks) and subethnic groups (Bashlyntsy, Kazanishchentsy, Endireevtsy, etc.), which retained some specific features in culture, way of life, language, folklore, etc. d. The traditions of statehood that developed during the medieval period were continued in subsequent times, when in the 18th-19th centuries. there were such political formations as the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Mehtulin Khanate, the Zasulak Kumykia - the Endireevsky, Kostek and Aksaevsky possessions, in present-day Chechnya - the Bragun principality; Southern Kumyks were part of the Kaitag Utsmiystvo. A special place was occupied by the Tarkov Shamkhal (Shavkhal), whose sovereignty was recognized by other Kumyk and other rulers. Socially, Kumyk society also consisted of nobles, uzdens of various categories, peasants of varying degrees of dependence, etc.

After the final annexation of Kumykia to Russia, supreme power was concentrated in the hands of the tsarist military command.

From the 16th century Close trade and diplomatic relations between the Kumyks and Russia are recorded, which intensified with the construction of the Terek town (1589) at the mouth of the Terek. At the beginning of the nineteenth century. Kumykia was annexed to Russia. After the formation of the Dagestan region (1860, center of Temir-Khan-Shura), the political power of the shamkhal, khans and biys was virtually eliminated; instead of the previous possessions, districts were created: from the Kaitag utsmiystvo and Tabasaran the Kaitago-Tabasaran district was formed, from the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Mehtulin Khanate and the Prisulak naibstvo - the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district of the Dagestan region; On the territory of the Endireevsky, Aksaevsky and Kostek possessions, the Kumyk (later Khasavyurt) district of the Terek region is formed. Kumyks made up the main population (more than 60%) of the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky and Khasavyurt districts, and in the Kaitago-Tabasaran district - approx. 15% of the population. In 1920 When the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created, the Khasavyurt district became part of the republic, i.e. The administrative unity of most of the territory inhabited by the Kumyks was restored (with the exception of the Bragun and Mozdok ones).

Since ancient times, the leading branch of the Kumyk economy has been agriculture, especially grain farming. The Kumyks knew a three-field farming system with alternating crops; Using artificial development, gardening, melon growing, vegetable gardening and viticulture were obtained. The second most important sector of the national economy was livestock farming, the development of which was facilitated by the availability of a good feed supply. Livestock farming was predominantly stationary. Residents of Mountainous Dagestan rented winter pastures on the plain (kutans) from the Kumyks, while the Kumyks used the summer pastures of the mountaineers under the same rental conditions. These regulated centuries-old traditions largely contributed to the formation of a community of economic interests of the inhabitants of Dagestan, a rational division of labor, and the elimination of interethnic conflicts based on land claims.

The most important trade routes in the Eastern Caucasus passed through Kumykia, in particular the Great Silk Road. The Kumyk Plain was the main breadbasket for many regions of Dagestan - all this led to the significant development of trade and the economy of the Kumyks; The processes of involving lowland Dagestan into the all-Russian market and the penetration of capitalist relations are intensifying.

The main type of settlement among the Kumyks is the village - yurt, gent, avul; the latter term is more often used to refer to neighborhoods. On the territory of Kumykia there were many ancient and medieval cities (Semender, Belendzher, Targu, Enderi, etc.), most of the modern Dagestan cities are located here (Makhachkala, Buynaksk, Khasavyurt, etc.). As a result of large-scale resettlement activities carried out by the leadership of Dagestan in the 1950-1970s, more than 350 thousand highlanders were resettled from the mountains to the plains, in addition, some of the highlanders (more than 100 thousand people) moved independently. All this led to the fact that the Kumyks lost a significant part of the land on their ancestral territory, lost their compactness of residence, and turned into an ethnic minority facing the problem of self-preservation as an ethnic group.

In the 19th century The main type of Kumyk family was the small family, although in some places undivided families or family communities of up to 25-30 people remained. All family members were subordinate to the head, who, as a rule, was a man, senior in age and enjoying unquestioned authority; however, when deciding important issues, the main role was played by the family council, which included all adult men and some older women.

From the 8th-12th centuries, Sunni Islam with all its inherent features became widespread among the Kumyks. There is information that before this period Christianity, and among the elite of Khazaria, Judaism also became widespread. Obviously, the early penetration of Islam into the region is due to the fact that the pagan beliefs of the Kumyks have been preserved relatively poorly; the institution of shamanism as such is practically not recorded, although the rudiments of similar institutions (halmach, etne) have been preserved. Folklore and ethnographic material allows us to talk about the worship of the Kumyk tribes to the supreme god Tengiri, deities and spirits of the Sun, Moon, Earth and Water, etc. Visitors, oral stories, ritual songs and others about demonological creatures have been preserved - Al-basly (an ugly woman), Suv-anasy (Mother of Water, she can drown bathers), Temirtyosh, Baltatesh, Kylychtyosh (they have an ax blade sticking out of their chest or sabers), Syutkatyn (obviously a goddess, the spirit of rain and fertility), Basdy-ryk (can strangle people in a dream), Sulag (a voracious creature), etc. Muslim mythology became widespread among the Kumyks, which partially layered on pagan beliefs and transformed them “to please.” Thus, in funeral rituals and poetry, along with Muslim regulations (especially in the burial process), ideas about the afterlife, elements of pagan beliefs, as well as some rituals and songs, were preserved: shagyalai - a kind of lamentation and ritual “dance” around the deceased, a ritual dedication to a deceased horse, etc. Currently, there is an increasing role of Muslim, and partially pagan, beliefs and rituals.

Ornamental art reached a significant level among the Kumyks. Thus, in old-type houses, great importance was attached to carved ornaments that decorated the wooden parts of the house and gates.

Kumyk pile and lint-free carpets, felt carpets, mats, and saddle bags were distinguished by their originality and high artistic qualities. The Kumyk people created highly artistic examples of folklore. The heroic epic includes “Yyr (song) about Minkyullu”, which dates back to ancient times and is similar in a number of characteristics to the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, “Yyr about Kart-Kozhak and Maksuman” - a monument of the Kumyk Nart epic, “Yyr about Javatbiye”, which, like the Oghuz epic about Grandfather Korkut, tells of the hero’s struggle with the angel of death Azrael, etc. The Nart epic also became widespread. “The Tale of the Battle of Anji” reflects the period of the Arab-Khazar wars.

Calendar-ritual poetry is represented by songs of calling rain (Zemire, Syutkatyn, etc.), autumn songs (Gyudyurbay, Gyussemey, etc.), songs of welcoming spring (Navruz), etc.

Kumyk dance, which had about 20 variants, belongs to the Lezginka type; it is distinguished by a number of features characteristic of developed choreography.

Kumyk literature began to take shape in the 14th-15th centuries. (Ummu Kamal, Baghdad Ali, Muhammad Avabi, etc.), however, it reached a significant level at the end of the 18th-19th centuries, when such major poets as A. Kakashurinsky, Yirchi Kazak, M.-E. Osmanov and others appeared. Enlightenment and revolutionary-democratic literature is being developed (N. and Z. Batyrmurzaevs, G.B. Beybulatov, A. Akaev, K. Jamaldin, A. Dadav, etc.). A.-P. Salavatov, Yu. Gereev, A. Magomedov, B. Astemirov (one of the founders and the first chairman of the Dagestan Writers' Union), A. G. Ibragimov, A. Akavov, A. made a huge contribution to the development of Dagestan Soviet literature. -V. Suleymanov, A. Adzhamatov, A. Adzhiev, A. Kurbanov, Kh. Sultanov, I. Kerimov, M.-S. Yakhyaev, M. Atabaev and others. On the paternal side, the outstanding Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky and his son is the world famous film director Andrei Tarkovsky.

The Kumyk Theater, which is the first of the national theaters of Dagestan, was created in 1930. Such outstanding Dagestan actors played on its stage as People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the Stanislavsky Prize B. Muradova, People's Artists of the RSFSR and DASSR A. Kurumov, T. Gadzhiev , G. Rustamov and others. I. Kaziev makes a significant contribution to the development of Dagestan cinema.

Among the masters of performing arts, T. Muradov, I. Batalbekova, Z. Aleskenderov, G. Bekbolatov, B. Ibragimova, B. Elmurzaeva, U. Arbukhanova and others were and are very popular. At the origins of Dagestan, in particular Kumyk, professional music were T.-B. Beybulatov and T. Muradov, their traditions are now successfully continued by N. Dagirov, K. Shamasov, Kh. Batyrgishiev and others.

Speaking about sports, it should be mentioned that the world famous wrestler and circus artist Al-Klych Khasaev (Rubin), who defeated Ivan Poddubny, came from the Kumyk village of Buglen, as well as Sali Suleiman Kazanishchensky, Ali Kazbek, N. Nasrullaev, A. Nasrullaev, S. .Absaidov, M.-G.Abushev, Z.Gaydarbekov, A.Porsukov and others.

During the years of Soviet power, Dagestan medicine achieved significant success, highly qualified personnel grew up (from the Kumyks - corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences R.P. Askerkhanov, dozens of doctors and candidates of science).

Astronomical knowledge was also quite well developed among the Kumyks, as evidenced by the presence of the names of many planets and constellations, a number of which served practical purposes: determining the cardinal directions, time of year, day, etc.

Speaking about the contribution of the Kumyks to the development of science, we note such prominent scientists as: Muhammad Avabi (author of “Derbend-name”), Alikulikhan Valeh Dagestani (1710-1756, compiler of the anthology “Garden of Poets”, containing information about 2594 poets X-XVII centuries), Ahmed-Sahib Kaplan (1859-1920, politician, author of more than 10 monographs on the history and politics of Turkey), Abu-Sufyan Akayev (1872-1931, outstanding educator, scientist, poet, book publisher, public figure) , Gaidar Bammatov (1890-1967, major political figure, author of a major work on the history and culture of the Muslim world “Faces of Islam” and numerous other works), Muzhetdin Khangishiev (1905-1971, major aircraft designer, head of department at the design bureau Tupolev, twice laureate of the USSR State Prize), Murad Kaplanov (1915-1980, chief specialist in space technology, chief expert on color television technology, twice laureate of the USSR State Prize), N. Bammatov (coordinating scientist on world culture issues at the UN) , T.-B. Bammatov (general aircraft designer of France, a major specialist in the development of international aviation), Fakhretdin Kirzi-oglu (member of the Academy of Turkic History, one of the leading historians of Turkey, author of numerous monographs on the history of the ancient Caucasus and the Middle East), Yashar Aydemir (professor at the University of California, prominent physicist), S.Sh. Gadzhieva (prominent ethnographer, author of many fundamental works), etc.

For many centuries, the Kumyks, like other peoples of Dagestan, had to fight for independence and the preservation of their statehood and their lands. This activity was led by outstanding sons of the Kumyk people, among whom it should be noted, for example, Sultan-Muta Endireevsky, a prince who, in particular, inflicted a crushing defeat on the troops of the tsarist governor Buturlin in 1604, about which N. Karamzin wrote that “this battle. .. cost us from 6 to 7 thousand soldiers and erased the traces of Russian possession in Dagestan for 118 years”; Ahmed Khan Dzhengutaevsky, who led the struggle of the Dagestanis against the Iranian Shah Nadir (XVIII century); Khasaikhan Utsmiev, general of the Russian army, friend of M.-F. Akhundov, A. Dumas, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, who resolutely protested against the humiliation and colonization of the Caucasus and was eventually forced to commit suicide...

During the turbulent years of the revolution and civil war, such prominent figures who stood at the helm of events of that time, such as U. Buynaksky, J. Korkmasov, G. Bammatov, N. Tarkovsky, S.-S. Kazbekov, often found themselves on opposite sides of the “barricades”. Z. Batyrmurzaev and others.

In the battles with the fascist invaders from among the Kumyk people (on the eve of the war, numbering only 100 thousand people), six were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (including Abdulkhakim Ismailov - Hero of Russia, who, together with two comrades, was the first to hoist the Victory Banner over the defeated Reichstag), two Kumyks became full Knights of the Order of Glory, many thousands of Kumyks were awarded other high awards for the heroic defense of their homeland.

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P. Kalininsky, Kirzavod and Yangi-Yurt microdistricts of Mozdok in the Mozdok region) and in Chechnya (Grozny and Gudermes districts - the villages of Vinogradnoye and Braguny). They are the second largest national minority in the Chechen Republic (after the Russians) and the fourth in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (after the Russians, Ingush and Armenians).

503.1 thousand people live in Russia in 2010, of which 431.7 thousand people live in Dagestan.

Number and settlement

The Kumyks are the second largest Turkic-speaking people in the Caucasus after the Azerbaijanis, while being the largest Turkic people in the North Caucasus and the third largest people of Dagestan. The territory of their traditional settlement is the Kumyk plane, the western coast of the Caspian Sea and the foothills of Dagestan.

Number of subjects of the Russian Federation

The subject of the Russian Federation	2002	2010
	Number	Number
Dagestan	365 804	431 736
Tyumen region	12 343	18 668
Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug	9 554	13 849
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug	2 613	4 466
North Ossetia	12 659	16 092
Chechnya	8 883	12 221
Stavropol region	5 744	5 639
Moscow	1 615	2 351
Moscow region	818	1 622
Astrakhan region	1 356	1 558
Rostov region	1 341	1 511
Volgograd region	895	1 018
subjects with a Kumyk population of more than 1000 people are shown

Ethnonym

The origin of the ethnonym “Kumyk” (“K’umuk”) is not entirely clear. Most researchers (Bakikhanov, S.A. Tokarev, A.I. Tamai, S.Sh. Gadzhieva, etc.) derived the name from the Polovtsian ethnonym Kimaki or from another name for the Kipchaks - Kuman. According to P.K. Uslar, in the 19th century. in the North Caucasus, the terms Kumyk or Kumuk were used to refer to the Turkic-speaking inhabitants of the plain. In Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, only Kumyks were referred to by the terms kumyk and kumuq. B. A. Alborov derived the ethnonym “Kumyk” from the Turkic word “kum” (sand, sandy desert). In turn, Y. A. Fedorov, based on written sources of the 8th-19th centuries, wrote that the ethnonym “gumik - kumyk - kumukh” is an indigenous Dagestan toponym associated with the Middle Ages.

In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, based on the works of the famous ethnographer and specialist on the Caucasus, Sakinat Khadzhieva, the following version of the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks was indicated:

Ancient tribes took part in the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks - the aborigines of North-Eastern Dagestan and alien Turkic-speaking tribes, especially the Kipchaks, whose language was adopted by the aborigines.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: 30 volumes / Ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M.: Sov. encyclical, 1969 – 1978

The most famous Caucasus expert Leonid Lavrov questioned the version of the “Turkishness” of the Kumyks:

It is unlikely that the Kumyks were Turkicized Dagestanis, as some claim. Rather, their ancestors should be considered the Kipchaks, Khazars and, perhaps, other Turks of the early Middle Ages. It would be advisable to find out whether the Kamaks who lived in Northern Dagestan at the beginning of our era are related to them

The great Russian orientalist Vladimir Minorsky put forward his version of the origin of the Kumyks:

The final formation of the Kumyk ethnos took place in the 12th-12th centuries.

In the territory of settlement of the Kumyk people, there were several states, of which the most famous were the Kingdom of the Huns, Dzhidan, and Tarkov Shamkhalate.

Anthropological type

Anthropologically, the Kumyks represent the Caspian subtype of the Caucasian race. This also includes Azerbaijanis, Kurds of Transcaucasia, Tsakhurs, and Muslim Tats. The Caspian type is usually considered as a variety of the Mediterranean race or the Indo-Afghan race.

Ancient tribes took part in the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks - the aborigines of North-Eastern Dagestan and alien Turkic-speaking tribes, especially the Kipchaks, whose language was adopted by the aborigines. According to anthropological characteristics and the main features of culture and life, the Kumyks are close to other mountain peoples of Dagestan.

20th century studies

Soviet anthropologists classified the Kumyks as a Caucasian race and pointed out the anthropological similarities of the Kumyks with other peoples of Dagestan, contrasting them with the Mongoloid peoples. As Soviet and Russian anthropologist Valery Alekseev notes, the Caspian type, whose representatives include the Kumyks, in Dagestan almost always appears in a mixed form and therefore the peoples of central Dagestan cannot be included among the typical representatives of this variety. Regarding the Kumyks, he writes that they “they have the darkest pigmentation, which, in all likelihood, indicates the intensive participation of the Caspian type in the formation of their anthropological characteristics” .

Language

Among the dialects of the Kumyk language, Kaitag, Terek (Mozdok and Bragun Kumyks), Buynak and Khasavyurt are distinguished, and the latter two formed the basis of the literary Kumyk language.

The Kumyk language is one of the old written literary languages ​​of Dagestan. During the 20th century, the writing of the Kumyk language changed twice: the traditional Arabic script was replaced in 1929, first by the Latin alphabet, then in 1938 by the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatar and Karaite languages ​​are closest to the Kumyk language. .

The Russian language is also common among the Kumyks.

Religion

Believing Kumyks profess Sunni Islam. Most Kumyks belong to the Shafi'i madhhab, some to the Hanafi. In February 1992, as a result of a split in the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Dagestan, the Kumyk Spiritual Administration of Muslims was formed in Makhachkala.

Economy

Kumyks are a people of settled agricultural culture. Traditional for them are arable farming, gardening, viticulture, cultivated since the 8th-9th centuries. Historically, they were also involved in cattle breeding. The land of the Kumyks can rightfully be called the breadbasket of all of Dagestan; over 70 percent of the republic’s economy is concentrated here. Almost all industry is concentrated here (instrument making, mechanical engineering, canning, winemaking, etc.). Rice growing and fishing are developed. The subsoil is rich in oil, gas, mineral springs, raw materials for building materials (glass sand, gypsum, gravel, pebbles, etc.). There are considerable recreational resources (Caspian coast, mud and mineral springs with medicinal properties). These include hydrogen sulfide (Talgi), hydrocarbonate-sodium (Kayakent), chloride, calcareous, etc.

Culture

European traveler of the 18th century. Johann Anton Gildenstedt gave a description of the life of the Kumyks of that time:

Everyone is engaged in agriculture and some cattle breeding. Their grain plants: wheat, barley, millet, oats and mainly rice, they also cultivate cotton quite often, but mostly silk is only for their own needs. Fishing is of greater importance to them than to other Tatars, and they make their subsistence easier by catching sturgeon and other fish. Many Armenians live among them, in whose hands there is a small trade in supplies [necessary] for life - Kumyk products and other necessary [things]. Their dwellings and villages, like the rest of the Caucasian ones described many times, are made of light checkered buildings with willow wickerwork.

Literature and theater

In the folk memory of the Kumyks, examples of epic (heroic, historical and everyday songs, songs of didactic content (yyr'y), fairy tales, proverbs, riddles) and lyrical (quatrain song (“saryn”) and “yas” (lamentation, lamentation) or "yas-yyr") poetry. In the pre-revolutionary period, Kumyk literature was influenced by Crimean Tatar and Tatar literature, and after the 1917 revolution the influence of Azerbaijani literature increased somewhat. In the first years of Soviet power, Kumyk literature continued traditional themes: the emancipation of man, the spiritual awakening of the people, the fight against ignorance, etc.

Cloth

Men wore thin tunic-like shirts, trousers, Circassian coats, beshmets and sheepskin coats, and women wore dresses, leather shoes, galoshes and socks, and the clothes were decorated with silver buckles, buttons, and a belt. Polsha dresses, consisting of a lower dress made of thin plain silk and an upper dress made of dense fabric with embroidery, embroidered scarves made of fine wool and silk scarves - “gulmeldas” with a characteristic pattern. Modern clothes are mainly of an urban type.

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Notes

2. . Retrieved December 24, 2009. .
11. . State Committee of Statistics of Ukraine.
12. (.rar)
13. . belstat.gov.by. .
14. (Latvian.)
15. see Terek Kumyks
16. :
29. Ageeva, R. A. What kind of tribe are we? Peoples of Russia: names and destinies. Dictionary-reference book. - Academia, 2000. - pp. 190-191. - ISBN 5-87444-033-X.
30. Uslar P.K. Ethnography of the Caucasus. Linguistics. 4. Lak language. Tiflis, 1890, p. 2.
31. G.S. Fedorov-Guseinov. History of the origin of the Kumyks. - Makhachkala: Dagestan book publishing house "Kumyk" - in Turkic (Kipchak) "expelled"., 1996. - P. 138-139.
32. N.G. Volkova. Names of Kumyks in Caucasian languages ​​// Ethnic onomastics. - M.: Nauka, 1984. - P. 23-24.
33. Languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR: in 5 volumes. Turkic languages. - M: Nauka, 1966. - T. 2. - P. 194.
34. Races and peoples. Vol. 26. - Science, 2001. - P. 78. - ISBN 5-02-008712-2.
35. Smirnov K. F. Archaeological research in Dagestan in 1948-1950. // Brief. message IMC XIV, 1952, p. 95-96
36. G.S. Fedorov-Guseinov. History of the origin of the Kumyks. - Makhachkala: Dagestan Book Publishing House, 1996. - P. 18.
37. S. A. Tokarev. Ethnography of the peoples of the USSR: historical foundations of life and culture. - Moscow University Publishing House, 1958. - P. 229.
38. Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold. Essays. - Science, 1968. - T. 5. - P. 213.
39. Sakinat Shikhamedovna Gadzhieva. Kumyks: historical and ethnographic research. - Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1961. - T. 5. - P. 44.
40. Lavrov L.I. Historical and ethnographic essays of the Caucasus. Leningrad. 1978. pp. 37-38.
41. V.F.Minorsky. History of Shirvan and Derbend X - XI centuries. - Eastern Literature Publishing House, 1963. - P. P. 145.
42. . Peoples of Russia. Encyclopedia. Moscow, Great Russian Encyclopedia 1994. .
43. // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron
44. . "Demoscope". .
45. . "Demoscope". .
46. Yu. Kulchik, Kh. Dzhabrailov.. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HUMANITIES AND POLITICAL STUDIES. .
47. . "Demoscope". .
48. V. P. Alekseev. Geography of human races // Selected items in 5 volumes. T. 2. Anthropogeography. - M.: “Science”, 2007. - P. 188. - ISBN 978-5-02-035544-6.
49. Kumyks- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
50. Peoples of the Caucasus / Under the general. ed. S.P. Tolstova. - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960. - T. 1. - P. 422.
51. Alekseev V. P. Favorites. Origin of the peoples of the Caucasus. - Science, 2009. - T. 5. - P. 228-229. - ISBN 978-5-02-035547-7.

    Original text(Russian)

    The distribution of the Caspian group of populations in Dagestan falls on the central, eastern and southern regions. In other words, it is represented among the Lezgin-speaking peoples, among the Dargin-Kaitags and Kumyks. However, it has already been noted that neither by the color of hair and eyes, lighter than in the Azerbaijani groups, nor by the size of the zygomatic diameter, noticeably larger than in Azerbaijan, the peoples of central Dagestan cannot be included among the typical representatives of the Caspian type. In Dagestan, this type almost always appears in a mixed form, showing either in pigmentation, or in the width of the face, or in both of these characteristics taken together, a certain approximation to the Caucasian group of populations. Thus, the territory of Dagestan represents the periphery of the Caspian-type area, and, consequently, the formation of the anthropological composition of the listed peoples is the result of mixing of representatives of the Caspian and Caucasian groups of populations, varying in intensity. This, apparently, explains the local differences in the anthropological type of the Kumyks, Dargins and Lezgin-speaking peoples. The Kumyks have the darkest pigmentation, which, in all likelihood, indicates the intensive participation of the Caspian type in the formation of their anthropological characteristics; some Lezgin-speaking groups are moving closer to the Caucasian peoples.

52. Pieter Muysken.. - John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2008. - Vol. 90. - P. 74. - ISBN 9027231001, 9789027231000.

    Original text(Russian)

    Languages ​​used at present or in the past as lingua franca in the Caucasus
    Azeri in Southern Daghestan
    Kumyk in Northern Daghestan
    Avar in Western Daghestan
    Nogay in Northern Daghestan
    Circassian in Western Daghestan
    Russian across the Caucasus (since the second half on the 19th c.)
    ...
    Until the beginning of the 19th century Turkic Kumyk, beside Avar and Azeri, served as one of the Lingua francas in foothill and lowland Daghestan, whereas in Northern Daghestan this role was sometimes played by Nogay.

53. Kumyk language // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. : Soviet encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
54. Kumyk encyclopedic dictionary. Makhachkala. 2012. P. 218.
55. (Russian), Institute of Religion and Politics.
56. Yarlykapov A. A. Religious beliefs // Peoples of Dagestan / Rep. ed. S. A. Arutyunov, A. I. Osmanov, G. A. Sergeeva. - M.: “Science”, 2002. - P. 68. - ISBN 5-02-008808-0.
58. Johann Anton Gildenstedt.. - St. Petersburg Oriental Studies, 2002. - P. 255.
59. // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
60. KUMYK LITERATURE // Literary encyclopedia.
61. (Russian), Literary encyclopedia.
62. Nina Stepanovna Nadyarnykh.. - Science, 2005. - P. 164.
63. (Russian), kino-teatr.ru.
64. Lev Mironovich Mints.. - Olma Media Group, 2007. - P. 276. - ISBN 5373010537, 9785373010535.

Links

Literature

• Adzhiev A. M., M.-R. A. Ibragimov. Kumyks // Peoples of Russia. Encyclopedia. M.: Scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", 1994. P. 214-216. ISBN 5-85270-082-7
• Kumyks // Peoples of Russia. Atlas of cultures and religions. - M.: Design. Information. Cartography, 2010. - 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-287-00718-8.
• // / Council of the Administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Public Relations Department; Ch. ed. R. G. Rafikov; Editorial Board: V. P. Krivonogov, R. D. Tsokaev. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - Krasnoyarsk: Platinum (PLATINA), 2008. - 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-98624-092-3.

More than 10 million people From 1 to 10 million people From 500 thousand to 1 million people From 200 thousand to 500 thousand people From 100 thousand to 200 thousand people From 30 thousand to 100 thousand people From 10 thousand to 30 thousand people

An excerpt characterizing the Kumyks

- Well, I’ll tell you now. You know that Sonya is my friend, such a friend that I would burn my hand for her. Look at this. - She rolled up her muslin sleeve and showed a red mark on her long, thin and delicate arm under the shoulder, much above the elbow (in a place that is sometimes covered by ball gowns).
“I burned this to prove my love to her.” I just lit the ruler on fire and pressed it down.
Sitting in his former classroom, on the sofa with cushions on his arms, and looking into those desperately animated eyes of Natasha, Rostov again entered that family, children's world, which had no meaning for anyone except for him, but which gave him some of the best pleasures in life; and burning his hand with a ruler to show love did not seem useless to him: he understood and was not surprised by it.
- So what? only? - he asked.
- Well, so friendly, so friendly! Is this nonsense - with a ruler; but we are forever friends. She will love anyone, forever; but I don’t understand this, I’ll forget now.
- Well, what then?
- Yes, that’s how she loves me and you. - Natasha suddenly blushed, - well, you remember, before leaving... So she says that you forget all this... She said: I will always love him, and let him be free. It’s true that this is excellent, noble! - Yes Yes? very noble? Yes? - Natasha asked so seriously and excitedly that it was clear that what she was saying now, she had previously said with tears.
Rostov thought about it.
“I don’t take back my word on anything,” he said. - And then, Sonya is such a charm that what fool would refuse his happiness?
“No, no,” Natasha screamed. “We’ve already talked about this with her.” We knew you would say this. But this is impossible, because, you know, if you say that - you consider yourself bound by the word, then it turns out that she seemed to say it on purpose. It turns out that you are still forcibly marrying her, and it turns out completely different.
Rostov saw that all this was well thought out by them. Sonya amazed him with her beauty yesterday too. Today, having caught a glimpse of her, she seemed even better to him. She was a lovely 16-year-old girl, obviously loving him passionately (he did not doubt this for a minute). Why shouldn’t he love her now, and not even marry her, Rostov thought, but now there are so many other joys and activities! “Yes, they came up with this perfectly,” he thought, “we must remain free.”
“Well, great,” he said, “we’ll talk later.” Oh, how glad I am for you! - he added.
- Well, why didn’t you cheat on Boris? - asked the brother.
- This is nonsense! – Natasha shouted laughing. “I don’t think about him or anyone else and I don’t want to know.”
- That's how it is! So what are you doing?
- I? – Natasha asked again, and a happy smile lit up her face. -Have you seen Duport?
- No.
– Have you seen the famous Duport the dancer? Well, you won't understand. That's what I am. – Natasha took her skirt, rounding her arms, as they dance, ran a few steps, turned over, made an entreche, kicked her leg against the leg and, standing on the very tips of her socks, walked a few steps.
- Am I standing? after all, she said; but couldn’t help herself on her tiptoes. - So that’s what I am! I will never marry anyone, but will become a dancer. But do not tell anyone.
Rostov laughed so loudly and cheerfully that Denisov from his room became envious, and Natasha could not resist laughing with him. - No, it’s good, isn’t it? – she kept saying.
- Okay, don’t you want to marry Boris anymore?
Natasha flushed. - I don’t want to marry anyone. I'll tell him the same thing when I see him.
- That's how it is! - said Rostov.
“Well, yes, it’s all nothing,” Natasha continued to chatter. - Why is Denisov good? – she asked.
- Good.
- Well, goodbye, get dressed. Is he scary, Denisov?
- Why is it scary? – asked Nicholas. - No. Vaska is nice.
- You call him Vaska - strange. And that he is very good?
- Very good.
- Well, come quickly and drink tea. Together.
And Natasha stood on tiptoe and walked out of the room the way dancers do, but smiling the way only happy 15-year-old girls smile. Having met Sonya in the living room, Rostov blushed. He didn't know how to deal with her. Yesterday they kissed in the first minute of the joy of their date, but today they felt that it was impossible to do this; he felt that everyone, his mother and sisters, looked at him questioningly and expected from him how he would behave with her. He kissed her hand and called her you - Sonya. But their eyes, having met, said “you” to each other and kissed tenderly. With her gaze she asked him for forgiveness for the fact that at Natasha’s embassy she dared to remind him of his promise and thanked him for his love. With his gaze he thanked her for the offer of freedom and said that one way or another, he would never stop loving her, because it was impossible not to love her.
“How strange it is,” said Vera, choosing a general moment of silence, “that Sonya and Nikolenka now met like strangers.” – Vera’s remark was fair, like all her comments; but like most of her remarks, everyone felt awkward, and not only Sonya, Nikolai and Natasha, but also the old countess, who was afraid of this son’s love for Sonya, which could deprive him of a brilliant party, also blushed like a girl. Denisov, to Rostov’s surprise, in a new uniform, pomaded and perfumed, appeared in the living room as dandy as he was in battle, and as amiable with ladies and gentlemen as Rostov had never expected to see him.

Returning to Moscow from the army, Nikolai Rostov was accepted by his family as the best son, hero and beloved Nikolushka; relatives - as a sweet, pleasant and respectful young man; acquaintances - like a handsome hussar lieutenant, a deft dancer and one of the best grooms in Moscow.
The Rostovs knew all of Moscow; this year the old count had enough money, because all his estates had been remortgaged, and therefore Nikolushka, having got his own trotter and the most fashionable leggings, special ones that no one else in Moscow had, and boots, the most fashionable, with the most pointed socks and little silver spurs, had a lot of fun. Rostov, returning home, experienced a pleasant feeling after some period of time trying on himself to the old living conditions. It seemed to him that he had matured and grown very much. Despair for failing to pass an exam according to the law of God, borrowing money from Gavrila for a cab driver, secret kisses with Sonya, he remembered all this as childishness, from which he was now immeasurably far away. Now he is a hussar lieutenant in a silver mentic, with a soldier's George, preparing his trotter to run, together with famous hunters, elderly, respectable. He knows a lady on the boulevard whom he goes to see in the evening. He conducted a mazurka at the Arkharovs’ ball, talked about the war with Field Marshal Kamensky, visited an English club, and was on friendly terms with a forty-year-old colonel whom Denisov introduced him to.
His passion for the sovereign weakened somewhat in Moscow, since during this time he did not see him. But he often talked about the sovereign, about his love for him, making it felt that he was not telling everything yet, that there was something else in his feelings for the sovereign that could not be understood by everyone; and with all my heart he shared the general feeling of adoration in Moscow at that time for Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, who in Moscow at that time was given the name of an angel in the flesh.
During this short stay of Rostov in Moscow, before leaving for the army, he did not become close, but on the contrary, broke up with Sonya. She was very pretty, sweet, and obviously passionately in love with him; but he was in that time of youth when there seems to be so much to do that there is no time to do it, and the young man is afraid to get involved - he values ​​​​his freedom, which he needs for many other things. When he thought about Sonya during this new stay in Moscow, he said to himself: Eh! there will be many more, many more of these, somewhere, still unknown to me. I’ll still have time to make love when I want, but now there’s no time. In addition, it seemed to him that there was something humiliating for his courage in female society. He went to balls and sororities, pretending that he was doing it against his will. Running, an English club, carousing with Denisov, a trip there - that was another matter: it was befitting of a fine hussar.
At the beginning of March, the old Count Ilya Andreich Rostov was preoccupied with arranging a dinner at an English club to receive Prince Bagration.
The Count in a dressing gown walked around the hall, giving orders to the club housekeeper and the famous Theoktistus, the senior cook of the English club, about asparagus, fresh cucumbers, strawberries, veal and fish for Prince Bagration's dinner. The Count, from the day the club was founded, was its member and foreman. He was entrusted by the club with arranging a celebration for Bagration, because rarely did anyone know how to organize a feast in such a grand manner, hospitably, especially because rarely did anyone know how and want to contribute their money if they were needed to organize the feast. The cook and housekeeper of the club listened to the count's orders with cheerful faces, because they knew that under no one else could they profit better from a dinner that cost several thousand.
- So look, put scallops, scallops in the cake, you know! “So there are three cold ones?...” asked the cook. The Count thought about it. “No less, three... mayonnaise times,” he said, bending his finger...
- So, will you order us to take large sterlets? - asked the housekeeper. - What can we do, take it if they don’t give in. Yes, my father, I forgot about it. After all, we need another entrée for the table. Ah, my fathers! “He grabbed his head. - Who will bring me flowers?
- Mitinka! And Mitinka! “Ride off, Mitinka, to the Moscow region,” he turned to the manager who came in at his call, “jump off to the Moscow region and now tell Maximka to dress up the corvée for the gardener. Tell them to drag all the greenhouses here and wrap them in felt. Yes, so that I have two hundred pots here by Friday.
Having given more and more different orders, he went out to rest with the countess, but remembered something else he needed, returned himself, brought back the cook and the housekeeper, and again began to give orders. A light, masculine gait and the clanking of spurs were heard at the door, and a handsome, ruddy, with a black mustache, apparently rested and well-groomed from his quiet life in Moscow, entered the young count.
- Oh, my brother! “My head is spinning,” the old man said, as if ashamed, smiling in front of his son. - At least you could help! We need more songwriters. I have music, but should I invite the gypsies? Your military brethren love this.
“Really, daddy, I think Prince Bagration, when he was preparing for the Battle of Shengraben, bothered less than you do now,” said the son, smiling.
The old count pretended to be angry. - Yes, you interpret it, you try it!
And the count turned to the cook, who, with an intelligent and respectable face, looked observantly and affectionately at father and son.
- What are young people like, eh, Feoktist? - he said, - the old people are laughing at our brother.
“Well, Your Excellency, they just want to eat well, but how to assemble and serve everything is not their business.”
“Well, well,” the count shouted, and cheerfully grabbing his son by both hands, he shouted: “So that’s it, I got you!” Now take the pair of sleighs and go to Bezukhov, and say that the count, they say, Ilya Andreich sent to ask you for fresh strawberries and pineapples. You won't get it from anyone else. It’s not there, so you go in, tell the princesses, and from there, that’s what, go to Razgulay - Ipatka the coachman knows - find Ilyushka the gypsy there, that’s what Count Orlov was dancing with, remember, in a white Cossack, and bring him back here to me.
- And bring him here with the gypsies? – Nikolai asked laughing. - Oh well!…
At this time, with silent steps, with a businesslike, preoccupied and at the same time Christianly meek look that never left her, Anna Mikhailovna entered the room. Despite the fact that every day Anna Mikhailovna found the count in a dressing gown, every time he was embarrassed in front of her and asked to apologize for his suit.
“Nothing, Count, my dear,” she said, meekly closing her eyes. “And I’ll go to Bezukhoy,” she said. “Pierre has arrived, and now we’ll get everything, Count, from his greenhouses.” I needed to see him. He sent me a letter from Boris. Thank God, Borya is now at headquarters.
The Count was delighted that Anna Mikhailovna was taking on one part of his instructions, and ordered her to pawn a small carriage.
– You tell Bezukhov to come. I'll write it down. How is he and his wife? - he asked.
Anna Mikhailovna rolled her eyes, and deep sorrow was expressed on her face...
“Ah, my friend, he is very unhappy,” she said. “If what we heard is true, it’s terrible.” And did we think when we rejoiced so much at his happiness! And such a lofty, heavenly soul, this young Bezukhov! Yes, I feel sorry for him from the bottom of my heart and will try to give him the consolation that will depend on me.
- What is it? - asked both Rostov, the elder and the younger.
Anna Mikhailovna took a deep breath: “Dolokhov, Marya Ivanovna’s son,” she said in a mysterious whisper, “they say he has completely compromised her.” He took him out, invited him to his house in St. Petersburg, and so... She came here, and this head-off man is behind her,” said Anna Mikhailovna, wanting to express her sympathy for Pierre, but in involuntary intonations and a half-smile, showing sympathy for the head-off man, like she named Dolokhov. “They say that Pierre himself is completely overwhelmed by his grief.”
“Well, just tell him to come to the club and everything will go away.” The feast will be a mountain.
The next day, March 3, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 250 members of the English Club and 50 guests were expecting their dear guest and hero of the Austrian campaign, Prince Bagration, for dinner. At first, upon receiving news of the Battle of Austerlitz, Moscow was perplexed. At that time, the Russians were so accustomed to victories that, having received the news of defeat, some simply did not believe it, while others sought explanations for such a strange event in some unusual reasons. In the English Club, where everything that was noble, with correct information and weight gathered, in December, when news began to arrive, nothing was said about the war and about the last battle, as if everyone had agreed to remain silent about it. People who gave direction to the conversations, such as: Count Rostopchin, Prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, Valuev, gr. Markov, book. Vyazemsky, did not show up at the club, but gathered at home, in their intimate circles, and Muscovites, speaking from other people’s voices (to which Ilya Andreich Rostov belonged), were left for a short time without a definite judgment about the cause of war and without leaders. Muscovites felt that something was wrong and that it was difficult to discuss this bad news, and therefore it was better to remain silent. But after a while, as the jury left the deliberation room, the aces who gave their opinions in the club appeared, and everything began to speak clearly and definitely. The reasons were found for the incredible, unheard of and impossible event that the Russians were beaten, and everything became clear, and in all corners of Moscow the same thing was said. These reasons were: the betrayal of the Austrians, the poor food supply of the army, the betrayal of the Pole Pshebyshevsky and the Frenchman Langeron, the inability of Kutuzov, and (they said on the sly) the youth and inexperience of the sovereign, who entrusted himself to bad and insignificant people. But the troops, Russian troops, everyone said, were extraordinary and performed miracles of courage. Soldiers, officers, generals were heroes. But the hero of heroes was Prince Bagration, famous for his Shengraben affair and his retreat from Austerlitz, where he alone led his column undisturbed and spent the whole day repelling an enemy twice as strong. The fact that Bagration was chosen as a hero in Moscow was also facilitated by the fact that he had no connections in Moscow and was a stranger. In his person due honor was given to a fighting, simple, without connections and intrigues, Russian soldier, still associated with the memories of the Italian campaign with the name of Suvorov. In addition, in bestowing such honors on him, the displeasure and disapproval of Kutuzov was best shown.
“If there were no Bagration, il faudrait l"inventer, [it would be necessary to invent him.] - said the joker Shinshin, parodying the words of Voltaire. No one spoke about Kutuzov, and some scolded him in a whisper, calling him a court turntable and an old satyr. Throughout Moscow repeated the words of Prince Dolgorukov: “sculpt, sculpt and stick around,” who was consoled in our defeat by the memory of previous victories, and Rostopchin’s words were repeated about the fact that French soldiers must be excited to battle with pompous phrases, that one must reason logically with the Germans, convincing them that It is more dangerous to run than to go forward; but that the Russian soldiers must only be held back and asked: be quiet! From all sides new and new stories were heard about individual examples of courage shown by our soldiers and officers at Austerlitz. He saved the banner, he killed 5 French , he alone loaded 5 cannons. They also said about Berg, who did not know him, that he, wounded in his right hand, took his sword in his left and went forward. They didn’t say anything about Bolkonsky, and only those who knew him closely regretted that he died, leaving a pregnant wife and an eccentric father.

On March 3, in all the rooms of the English Club there was a groan of talking voices and, like bees on spring migration, scurried back and forth, sat, stood, converged and dispersed, in uniforms, tailcoats and some others in powder and caftans, members and guests of the club . Powdered, stockinged and booted footmen in livery stood at every door and strained to catch every movement of the guests and members of the club in order to offer their services. Most of those present were old, respectable people with wide, self-confident faces, thick fingers, firm movements and voices. This kind of guests and members sat in well-known, familiar places and met in well-known, familiar circles. A small part of those present consisted of random guests - mainly young people, among whom were Denisov, Rostov and Dolokhov, who was again a Semyonov officer. On the faces of the youth, especially the military, there was an expression of that feeling of contemptuous respect for the elderly, which seems to say to the old generation: we are ready to respect and honor you, but remember that after all, the future belongs to us.
Nesvitsky was there, like an old member of the club. Pierre, who, at the orders of his wife, had let his hair grow, had taken off his glasses and was dressed fashionably, but with a sad and despondent look, walked through the halls. He, as everywhere else, was surrounded by an atmosphere of people who worshiped his wealth, and he treated them with the habit of kingship and absent-minded contempt.
According to his years, he should have been with the young; according to his wealth and connections, he was a member of the circles of old, respectable guests, and therefore he moved from one circle to another.
The most important old men formed the center of the circles, to which even strangers respectfully approached to listen to famous people. Large circles were formed around Count Rostopchin, Valuev and Naryshkin. Rostopchin talked about how the Russians were crushed by the fleeing Austrians and had to make their way through the fugitives with a bayonet.
Valuev confidentially said that Uvarov was sent from St. Petersburg in order to find out the opinion of Muscovites about Austerlitz.
In the third circle, Naryshkin spoke about a meeting of the Austrian military council, in which Suvorov crowed the rooster in response to the stupidity of the Austrian generals. Shinshin, who was standing right there, wanted to joke, saying that Kutuzov, apparently, could not learn this simple art of cock-crow from Suvorov; but the old men looked sternly at the joker, letting him feel that here and today it was so indecent to talk about Kutuzov.
Count Ilya Andreich Rostov, anxiously, hurriedly walked in his soft boots from the dining room to the living room, hastily and in exactly the same way greeting important and unimportant persons whom he knew all, and occasionally looking for his slender young son with his eyes, joyfully resting his gaze on him and winked at him. Young Rostov stood at the window with Dolokhov, whom he had recently met and whose acquaintance he valued. The old count approached them and shook Dolokhov's hand.
- You are welcome to me, you know my fellow... together there, together they were heroes... A! Vasily Ignatich... is very old,” he turned to a passing old man, but before he could finish his greeting, everything began to stir, and a footman who came running, with a frightened face, reported: “You’re here!”
The bells rang out; the sergeants rushed forward; The guests scattered in different rooms, like shaken rye on a shovel, crowded into one heap and stopped in the large living room at the door of the hall.
Bagration appeared at the front door, without his hat and sword, which, according to club custom, he left with the doorman. He was not in a smushkov cap with a whip over his shoulder, as Rostov saw him on the night before the Battle of Austerlitz, but in a new narrow uniform with Russian and foreign orders and with the Star of St. George on the left side of his chest. Apparently, before lunch, he had cut his hair and sideburns, which changed his face unfavorably. There was something naively festive on his face, which, in combination with his firm, courageous features, even gave a somewhat comic expression to his face. Bekleshov and Fyodor Petrovich Uvarov, who had arrived with him, stopped at the door, wanting him, as the main guest, to go ahead of them. Bagration was confused, not wanting to take advantage of their politeness; There was a stop at the door, and finally Bagration still walked forward. He walked, not knowing where to put his hands, shyly and awkwardly, along the parquet floor of the reception room: it was more familiar and easier for him to walk under bullets across a plowed field, as he walked in front of the Kursk regiment in Shengraben. The elders met him at the first door, telling him a few words about the joy of seeing such a dear guest, and without waiting for his answer, as if taking possession of him, they surrounded him and led him into the living room. In the doorway of the living room there was no way to pass from the crowded members and guests, crushing each other and trying over each other’s shoulders, like a rare animal, to look at Bagration. Count Ilya Andreich, the most energetic of all, laughing and saying: “Let me go, mon cher, let me go, let me go,” pushed through the crowd, led the guests into the living room and seated them on the middle sofa. The aces, the most honorable members of the club, surrounded the new arrivals. Count Ilya Andreich, again pushing through the crowd, left the living room and a minute later appeared with another foreman, carrying a large silver dish, which he presented to Prince Bagration. On the platter lay poems composed and printed in honor of the hero. Bagration, seeing the dish, looked around in fear, as if looking for help. But in all eyes there was a demand that he submit. Feeling himself in their power, Bagration resolutely, with both hands, took the dish and angrily, reproachfully looked at the count who was presenting it. Someone helpfully took the dish out of Bagration’s hands (otherwise he seemed to intend to keep it like that until the evening and go to the table like that) and drew his attention to the poems. “Well, I’ll read it,” Bagration seemed to say and, fixing his tired eyes on the paper, he began to read with a concentrated and serious look. The writer himself took the poems and began to read. Prince Bagration bowed his head and listened.
"Glory to Alexander age
And protect us Titus on the throne,
Be a terrible leader and a kind person,
Ripheus is in his fatherland and Caesar is on the battlefield.
Yes, happy Napoleon,
Having learned through experience what Bagration is like,
Alkidov doesn’t dare bother the Russians any more...”
But he had not yet finished the verses when the loud butler announced: “The food is ready!” The door opened, a Polish voice thundered from the dining room: “Roll out the thunder of victory, rejoice, brave Ross,” and Count Ilya Andreich, looking angrily at the author, who continued to read poetry, bowed to Bagration. Everyone stood up, feeling that dinner was more important than poetry, and again Bagration went to the table ahead of everyone. In the first place, between the two Alexanders - Bekleshov and Naryshkin, which also had significance in relation to the name of the sovereign, Bagration was seated: 300 people were seated in the dining room according to rank and importance, who was more important, closer to the guest being honored: as naturally as water spills deeper there, where the terrain is lower.
Just before dinner, Count Ilya Andreich introduced his son to the prince. Bagration, recognizing him, said several awkward, awkward words, like all the words he spoke that day. Count Ilya Andreich joyfully and proudly looked around at everyone while Bagration spoke with his son.
Nikolai Rostov, Denisov and his new acquaintance Dolokhov sat down together almost in the middle of the table. Opposite them, Pierre sat down next to Prince Nesvitsky. Count Ilya Andreich sat opposite Bagration with other elders and treated the prince, personifying Moscow hospitality.
His labors were not in vain. His dinners, fast and fast, were magnificent, but he still could not be completely calm until the end of dinner. He winked at the barman, whispered orders to the footmen, and, not without excitement, awaited each dish he knew. Everything was amazing. On the second course, along with the gigantic sterlet (when Ilya Andreich saw it, he blushed with joy and shyness), the footmen began popping the corks and pouring champagne. After the fish, which made some impression, Count Ilya Andreich exchanged glances with the other elders. - “There will be a lot of toasts, it’s time to start!” – he whispered and took the glass in his hands and stood up. Everyone fell silent and waited for him to speak.
- Health of the Emperor! - he shouted, and at that very moment his kind eyes were moistened with tears of joy and delight. At that very moment they started playing: “Roll the thunder of victory.” Everyone stood up from their seats and shouted hurray! and Bagration shouted hurray! in the same voice with which he shouted on the Shengraben field. The enthusiastic voice of young Rostov was heard from behind all 300 voices. He almost cried. “The health of the Emperor,” he shouted, “hurray!” – Having drunk his glass in one gulp, he threw it on the floor. Many followed his example. And the loud screams continued for a long time. When the voices fell silent, the footmen picked up the broken dishes, and everyone began to sit down, smiling at their shouts and talking to each other. Count Ilya Andreich stood up again, looked at the note lying next to his plate and proposed a toast to the health of the hero of our last campaign, Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, and again the count’s blue eyes were moistened with tears. Hooray! the voices of 300 guests shouted again, and instead of music, singers were heard singing a cantata composed by Pavel Ivanovich Kutuzov.
“All obstacles for the Russians are in vain,
Bravery is the key to victory,
We have Bagrations,
All enemies will be at your feet,” etc.
The singers had just finished when more and more toasts followed, during which Count Ilya Andreich became more and more emotional, and even more dishes were broken, and even more shouting. They drank to the health of Bekleshov, Naryshkin, Uvarov, Dolgorukov, Apraksin, Valuev, to the health of the foremen, to the health of the manager, to the health of all club members, to the health of all club guests, and finally, separately to the health of the founder of the dinner, Count Ilya Andreich. At this toast, the count took out a handkerchief and, covering his face with it, completely burst into tears.

Pierre sat opposite Dolokhov and Nikolai Rostov. He ate a lot and greedily and drank a lot, as always. But those who knew him briefly saw that some big change had taken place in him that day. He was silent the entire time of dinner and, squinting and wincing, looked around him or, stopping his eyes, with an air of complete absent-mindedness, rubbed the bridge of his nose with his finger. His face was sad and gloomy. He seemed to not see or hear anything happening around him, and was thinking about something alone, heavy and unresolved.
This unresolved question that tormented him, there were hints from the princess in Moscow about Dolokhov’s closeness to his wife and this morning the anonymous letter he received, in which it was said with that vile playfulness that is characteristic of all anonymous letters that he sees poorly through his glasses, and that his wife’s connection with Dolokhov is a secret only to him. Pierre decidedly did not believe either the princess’s hints or the letter, but he was now afraid to look at Dolokhov, who was sitting in front of him. Every time his gaze accidentally met Dolokhov’s beautiful, insolent eyes, Pierre felt something terrible, ugly rising in his soul, and he quickly turned away. Unwittingly remembering everything that had happened with his wife and her relationship with Dolokhov, Pierre saw clearly that what was said in the letter could be true, could at least seem true if it did not concern his wife. Pierre involuntarily recalled how Dolokhov, to whom everything was returned after the campaign, returned to St. Petersburg and came to him. Taking advantage of his carousing friendship with Pierre, Dolokhov came directly to his house, and Pierre accommodated him and lent him money. Pierre recalled how Helen, smiling, expressed her displeasure that Dolokhov lived in their house, and how Dolokhov cynically praised the beauty of his wife, and how from that time until his arrival in Moscow he was not separated from them for a minute.
“Yes, he is very handsome,” thought Pierre, I know him. It would be a special delight for him to dishonor my name and laugh at me, precisely because I worked for him and looked after him, helped him. I know, I understand what salt this should give to his deception in his eyes, if it were true. Yes, if it were true; but I don’t believe, I don’t have the right and I can’t believe.” He recalled the expression that Dolokhov's face took on when moments of cruelty came over him, like those in which he tied up a policeman with a bear and set him afloat, or when he challenged a man to a duel without any reason, or killed a coachman's horse with a pistol. . This expression was often on Dolokhov's face when he looked at him. “Yes, he’s a brute,” thought Pierre, it doesn’t mean anything to him to kill a man, it must seem to him that everyone is afraid of him, he must be pleased with this. He must think that I am afraid of him too. And really I’m afraid of him,” thought Pierre, and again with these thoughts he felt something terrible and ugly rising in his soul. Dolokhov, Denisov and Rostov were now sitting opposite Pierre and seemed very cheerful. Rostov chatted merrily with his two friends, one of whom was a dashing hussar, the other a famous raider and rake, and occasionally glanced mockingly at Pierre, who at this dinner impressed with his concentrated, absent-minded, massive figure. Rostov looked at Pierre unkindly, firstly, because Pierre, in his hussar eyes, was a rich civilian, the husband of a beauty, generally a woman; secondly, because Pierre, in the concentration and distraction of his mood, did not recognize Rostov and did not respond to his bow. When they began to drink the sovereign's health, Pierre, lost in thought, did not get up and take the glass.