In the middle of the VI century on the steppe expanses of Central Asia a powerful state was formed, the main population of which was made up of various Turkic-speaking tribes of nomadic cattle breeders — the Turkic Kipchak-Kipchak-Kaganate. In the years of its highest influence (at the end of the VI century), its vast territory stretched from the North Caucasus to Manchuria, including the territories of modern Central Asian regions, Mongolia and Northern China. Even such a power as Sassanid Iran was among the Kaganate’s tributaries. From the Byzantine Empire, the heir of ancient Rome, the Turks were able to conquer Crimea and part of the Caucasus. However, despite its formidable appearance in its best years, the nomadic power could not retain its power for too long: already in the beginning of the VII century, tribal fragmentation, which limited the power of the supreme ruler — the Kagan, led to the fact that the state split into the Western Türkic Kaganate and the Eastern Türkic Kaganate. And in VIII century and these two states broke up into smaller ones, and part of them was conquered by neighbors. However, this power played a very important role in the ethnic history of mankind: on its linguistic and cultural basis a number of ethnic groups formed from related tribes, from which the modern Turkic peoples originated, and on the basis of the ancient Turkic language common to the Kaganate the subsequent, including modern, languages of the Turkic group were formed.
In the IV — VII centuries in the steppes between two high mountain systems: the Mongol Altai and Tien Shan, who are the Kipchaks, the tribes of the Sirs, whom Chinese sources call a part of the Turkic people Uigurs, were nomadic. In the middle of VII century in the course of internecine wars other Uigur tribes partly killed, partly expelled the Sires from their native lands. The Syrs moved westward to the broad steppes in what is now eastern Kazakhstan, where the Upper Irtysh River flows. In memory of their bitter fate they, according to legend, began to call themselves Kypchaks (Kipchaks), which means «unfortunate». Since the VIII century, when the East Turkic Kaganate finally collapsed, the chiefs of the Sires began to unite under their rule a number of other Turkic tribes: the Kyrgyz, Korluks and Kimaks, who took their new name. In the X century the Kipchak ethnos was fully formed. In the XI century, the Kipchaks, seeking to expand the limits of their nomadic lands, began to settle further to the west and south-west, fighting with other heirs of the formerly united Türkic power, the Oguz tribes, who lived there. In the end, the brave and skillful warriors-Kipchaks mastered vast steppe territories from the Volga to the Tien Shan, from the forests of Western Siberia to the northern outpost of the Arab Caliphate — the Muslim region of Khorezm on the Amu Darya River. During the same period, the steppes of Central Asia were struck by a severe drought that weakened many local nomadic states. This prompted the Kipchak leaders to turn their gaze beyond the Volga to the European steppes, which were damply influenced by the Atlantic and therefore less arid. Most of them used to be possessions of the once also formidable Turkic state — Khazar Kaganate, which ceased to exist in the 10th century. Now they were inhabited by the Khazars, some of whom moved from a nomadic way of life to sedentary cattle breeding, the same Oguzes and the tribal union of the Kangli (Pechenegs), whose raids constantly disturbed the neighboring states: the Byzantine Empire and Russia. The population of the steppes of Europe was a serious opponent, but fearless Kipchaks did not stop it, and in the XI century they began the invasion of the Volga. After a persistent war, the Khazars recognized the dominance of the Kipchaks, and the Oguzes and warlike Pechenegs were forced to move to Russia and the Balkans, where they dissolved among the local peoples. Thus the Kipchak tribes mastered more than half of the vast territory of the former Turkic Kaganate: all the steppes of Europe, except for the Volga Bulgaria on the Middle Volga, almost the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan, the southern part of Western Siberia.
The Kipchaks lived in a tribal system and military democracy. The main social unit of the Kipchaks was the clan, called kuren in Russian sources. Each kuren consisted of several families with separate households — auls. Pasture nomadic lands were owned by a kuren and were called kosh. Sometimes several kurens were united in a common union, which had some features of statehood. At the head of the union was elected a chief — khan (simplified from «kagan», in turn, derived from the Chinese «ke kian — great ruler»). The communities were headed by the representatives of the richest and most respected families — the prototype of patrimonial aristocracy. Community warriors went to war under the direct leadership of junior commanders. A representative of the khan, the koshevoy, was appointed to the possessions of each family in the union. However, these proto-state unions were very unstable, they emerged and disintegrated again. The Kureni retained their virtually complete independence throughout the entire Kipchak history. Despite the breadth of their settlement, the Kipchaks failed to create their unified power. There was an institution of blood feud, when a murder of a community member could lead to a war of extermination between the kurenis. There was slavery: prisoners of war worked in the households of the warriors who captured them and served their families.
The main occupation of the Kipchaks was nomadic cattle breeding: they bred cows, horses, sheep, and how the Kipchak-Kipchaks lived, camels. In summer they grazed cattle in the northern areas of their ethnic territory, and in winter they migrated to the south. They ate meat with millet bought from settled neighbors and drank milk. The Kipchaks, like other nomads, lived in tall tent-yurts, and during the migrations, mini-yurts, where women and children sheltered from heat and cold, were set up directly on wagons. Such a yurt on wheels was called «kabit» (from Arabic «kubbat — a canopy, tent»). Centuries later, the Russian word «kibitka» was formed on the basis of this word. A woman played the main role in the household of the Kipchaks. The Kipchaks respected their women (a remnant of the primitive epoch of matriarchy) and, like other steppe nomads, carved female figures out of stone, which they installed in the steppe. These sculptures, still preserved in some places in the steppes of Europe, called in Russian «stone babas», probably had cultic significance.
Like many other ancient nomads, the Kipchaks were Tengrians, that is, they worshipped the heavenly god Tengri, whom they revered as the creator and ruler of the world. However, in addition to Tengri, the Kipchaks worshipped the goddess Umai, who personified the earthly beginning, as well as the wolf, which they considered the ancestor of their people (a remnant of primitive totemism). The wolf also constantly roamed the steppe and «grazed» herds of wild animals, so, as nomads believed, it was from him that they originated. Sometimes the Kipchaks «consulted» with wild steppe wolves before undertaking any business. The Russian chronicle reports that Khan Bonyak went out alone into the steppe the night before one of the battles and howled like a wolf. After a while, a wolf howled back from the steppe. The Khan continued howling until a chorus of wolf voices was heard in response. Returning to his warriors, the Khan said that tomorrow they would win. Which, indeed, they did. The khans exercised supreme priestly functions. However, the Kipchaks also honored kamas (shamans), who used ritual techniques to fall into a trance and as if to communicate with the world of spirits invisible to people. With the help of kams, from whose name comes the Russian word «kamlanie», the Kipchaks tried to predict the future and cured themselves of diseases.
The clothing of the Kipchaks consisted of a shirt, leather pants and caftan, the cut corresponded to the clothes of other as dressed Kipchak-Kipchak-Kovtsy-steppe peoples. Going on a military campaign, men wore clothes made of sheep skins. Before the battle, the strongest and most experienced warriors wore chain mail or armor, helmets with a face flap — a face, in the form of an evil human face. The ominous appearance of the face served to frighten the enemy. Heavy-armed warriors with formidable broadswords were the main striking force of the Kipchak army, but the majority of it was light cavalry armed with bows, darts and sabers. Each warrior could have more than a dozen horses in order to change them quickly during a campaign without slowing down the pace of movement. That is why nomadic troops moved rapidly and appeared in the enemy’s lands sometimes quite suddenly.
In military affairs, the Kipchaks placed the main emphasis on quick and calculated maneuvering of their detachments. The khan was the commander-in-chief in a military campaign. Every man in a kuren who could carry a weapon was obliged to go on a campaign. Traditionally, light cavalry was the first to attack, which, when the battle came to its peak, began to retreat, dragging away the enemy, who was seized with battle excitement. After the latter, pursuing the Kipchak vanguard, left the positions convenient for defense, heavy-armed detachments suddenly fell on him. The Kipchaks regularly honed their combat tactics in peacetime, organizing round-ups of steppe animals. Contemporaries recognized the exceptionally high tactical skill of the Kipchaks. They knew how to defend themselves: when suddenly caught by the enemy, they put their wagons, many of which were equipped with far and accurately striking crossbows, in a circle and steadfastly shot from behind them. It is also known that the Kipchaks also used siege weapons when attacking cities, such as a flammable mixture that caused devastating fires. As to whether the Kipchaks themselves built cities, historians disagree. Russian chronicles mention the towns of Sharukan (modern Kharkov), Cheshuev, Sugrov in their lands, but it is impossible to say with certainty whether they were really inhabited towns, or simply fortified strongholds, or towns founded and inhabited by other peoples who simply recognized vassal dependence on the Kipchaks.
The Kipchaks did not adapt to sedentary life, so, having conquered almost all the steppe expanses of South-Donets Steppe-Eastern Europe and modern Kazakhstan, they were content with this and no longer sought to expand their ethnic territory. The forested and mountainous regions that surrounded them did not attract them, accustomed to nomadic cattle breeding. But the warlike mentality and the sense of pride for their historical successes in conquering these steppes, then called Desht-i-Kipchak, encouraged them to continue to gain glory by force of arms. Kipchaks actively raided the neighboring powers: Byzantium and, especially, where the Kipchak Polovtsy lived, Russia, which was the most accessible to them, having a wide border with the European steppe. The purpose of these raids was simple robbery of neighbors, seizure of material values, gold and silver. As it has already been said, nomads did not seek to conquer non-steppe lands, and in order to conquer someone’s state and make it pay tribute, the Kipchaks lacked unity and organization. Also Kipchaks often served as mercenaries in the armies of the rulers of neighboring countries. They actively participated in struggle against Byzantium of Danube Bulgaria, occupied important posts at court of Khorezmshahs in Central Asia. The whole period of the history of Russia from the second half of XI to XIII centuries. inclusive why the Kipchak Polovtsy all the time fought under the sign of the fight against the Kipchak raids. Usually Kipchaks, which in Russia were called Polovtsians, plundered Russian villages and hamlets, seeking to seize the harvest, but periodically kureniye unions led by khans made campaigns on rich Russian cities. The first period of wars was especially hard for Russia: until the beginning of the XII century. However, later Russians learned to effectively resist the Kipchaks and began to make campaigns in the steppe to ruin the Kipchak nomads and deprive the Kipchaks of the opportunity to organize new raids. In 1107 and 1111 Russian prince Vladimir Monomakh made campaigns with a large army to the steppe and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Kipchaks, captured their cities of Sharukan and Sugrov, and in 1116 princes Yaropolk Vladimirovich and Vsevolod Davydovich captured three more Kipchak cities. After that, the Kipchaks mostly retreated from Russian possessions, migrating to the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. In the service of the Georgian king, the Kipchaks were able to stop the advance of the Seljuk Turks into the Caucasus. Subsequently, due to the growing feudal fragmentation in Russia, the Kipchaks resumed their invasions of Russian possessions. In the spring of 1185 the army of khan Konchak defeated on the river Kayala in the steppe basin of the Donets the retinue and militia of prince Igor Svyatoslavich, about what the oldest monument of Russian literature «Word about Igor’s regiment» tells. Then Konchak subjected the southern Russian lands to devastation, took the Russian city of Rimov. In 1198 Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest, making another campaign in the steppe, managed to push the Kipchaks away from the borders of Russian possessions. In the second half of the XII-XIII centuries the Russian-Kipchak confrontation went on with variable success. Due to the political fragmentation of both their own and the Russians, the Kipchaks were often not only enemies for the Russian princes, but also allies in their internecine wars. Often the princely strife and the Kipchak invasion seemed to merge together (in the XIII century the Kipchaks, in general, did not make a single independent campaign to Russia — only in alliance with one of the Russian princes): the Kipchak warriors ravaged the lands of only the opponents of the princes allied to them.
The Kipchaks as a nation could be proud of their military skill and freedom-loving nature. However, centuries of unquestionable dominance in the steppes from the Danube to the Irtysh and military authority in the eyes of neighboring powerful states put their vigilance to sleep. Feeling safe in their traditional way of life, the Kipchaks did not want to change anything in their habitual social organization and relations with each other. Each of the numerous kureni continued to feel himself a master and a king, khans remained mainly only military leaders, forced to reckon with the liberties of the clans that served them. For three hundred years of their power, the Kipchaks never created even a semblance of any general political association, let alone statehood. Probably, they were convinced that an independent spirit and loyalty to ancient social traditions were the basis of their prosperity. Only at the end of the 12th century, the Kipchak people began to undergo noticeable changes in their way of life, however, more related to the economic and spiritual aspects: some communities began to adopt a sedentary way of life and to accept the Christian religion. But the Kipchak traditions did not have time to be substantially restructured: already in the 20s of the XIII century they faced a new enemy, not inferior to them in armament and combat tactics, but also having centralized power and strictest military discipline — the troops of the Mongol Empire. The Kipchaks tried to resist the Mongol expansion into their lands by concluding an alliance with the Alanian kingdom in the North Caucasus. However, the Mongols, pretending to be their friends, the same free nomads, induced the Kipchak khans to dissolve the alliance, turned the Alanian kingdom into ruins, and then attacked the Kipchak nomads. Part of the Kipchak communities, trying to save their freedom and their nomads, made an alliance with Russian princes, but on May 31, 1223 the allied Kipchak-Russian troops were defeated by Mongols in the battle on the Kalka River on the territory of modern Donetsk region. A decade later, the Mongol Empire absorbed the entire vast ethnic territory of the Kipchaks, and in the early 40s of the XIII century, the Mongols devastated and forced the majority of Russian lands into vassal subjection.
After the Mongol conquest, the Kipchaks found themselves in new socio-political conditions, subordinated to the state-administrative system established by Genghis Khan. This deprived them of the opportunity to migrate freely within their former extensive boundaries. Thus isolated in limited nomads, different associations of the Kipchak clans began to develop independently, mixing with other peoples, partially or even almost completely adopting their culture. Subsequently, some Kipchak communities moved to settled life. The Kipchaks ceased to exist as a single ethnos. However, the culture of many peoples, ethnically formed in the Ulus Dzhuchi (Golden Horde) founded by the Mongols, was formed on their cultural base. The ancient Kipchak language formed the basis for the languages of many modern peoples living in the former ethnic territory of the Kipchaks and in its neighborhood: Tatars, Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs, Crimean Tatars, Karaites, Crimeans, Karachais, Balkars, Kumyks, Kyrgyz, and Altaians.