In the article «How Russians and Polovtsians became allies against the Mongol-Tatars» we wrote that «the Polovtsians always gave Russians only trouble: they attacked, killed, burned, robbed, deceived, let down, betrayed …»
There is a saying: who betrayed once will betray again. It is just suitable for characterising these Turkic-speaking nomads.
The ancestors of the Polovtsians — the Sary («yellow hair») roamed in the IV-VI centuries in the steppes between the Mongol Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. In the VII century among 15 Uigur tribes they were included in the Turkic Kaganate («united possessions of the Turkic Khans»). The considerable part of the Sars nobility was destroyed by Uigurs, and the remnants of Sars moved away to the upper reaches of Irtysh and steppes of East Kazakhstan. The Sars took the endo-ethnonym (self-name) «Kipchak» («unfortunate», i.e. «tribe with an unfortunate fate»). As exoethnonyms (external names) to the Saras at different times and by different peoples were applied: Kumans (Byzantines), Tatars (Europeans), Kuns (Hungarians). Turkic-speaking tribes called them Sary-Kypchak («yellow Kypchaks»). Russians called Sary-Kipchaks either Sarochins (so called them Russians, apparently, with a feed of Berendeys-black-armed («frontiersmen» of southern Russia), which in due time were neighbours Prachuvash-Bulgarian-Huns (Chuvash word combination SARĂ ÇYN means «yellow man»), or Polovtsians (from POLOVY — «straw-yellow» [hair]). European contemporaries noted that the Kipchaks were very similar in appearance to the Russian Slavs: the same fair-haired people, but the hair has a more reddish-salmon hue. Another difference between the Russian Slavs and the Kipchaks was that the Russians had a more relief, athletic type of physique, while the Kipchaks were more dense and squat.
In VIII century Kipchaks were in the Kimak Kaganate, bordering in the east with Kimaks, in the south with Oguzes and in the west with Khazars. In the middle of IX century Kipchaks achieved hegemony over Kimaks, and by the middle of X century absorbed them. At the beginning of the XI century, the Kipchaks from the Volga region advanced to the Black Sea steppes, displacing the Pechenegs and Torks, then the rest of the Kipchaks came close to the north-eastern borders of Khorezm, displacing the Oguzes from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and forcing them to move to Central Asia and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea coast. Then the Kipchaks crossed the Dnieper and reached the lower reaches of the Danube, thus settling the entire Great Steppe from the Danube to the Irtysh, which from that time in the Eastern sources began to be called Desht-i-Kipchak («Kipchak steppe»). By the middle of XI century Kipchaks subordinated almost all vast territory of Kazakhstan, except for Semirechye. Their eastern border remained on the Irtysh, their western limits reached the Volga, in the south — the area of the Talas River, and the northern border was the forests of Western Siberia.
Since the second half of the XI century Polovtsians constantly attacked Russia. First of all, on Pereyaslavl, Kiev and Ryazan principalities. Kipchaks each time devastated Russian lands, took away prisoners and cattle. In 1061 Pereyaslavl prince Vsevolod Yaroslavovich was defeated by Iskal Khan. In 1068 Polovtsy in battle on the river Alta defeated the united army of Yaroslavichs: Izyaslav, prince of Kiev, Svyatoslav, prince of Chernigov, Vsevolod, prince of Pereyaslavl. In 1078 in the battle with Polovtsians at Nezhatina Niva Prince of Kiev Izyaslav Yaroslavich, the eldest son of Yaroslav the Wise, died. The large-scale Polovtsian invasion of Russia began in 1093, after the death of the Grand Prince of Kiev Vsevolod Yaroslavich. His eldest son Svyatopolk, the new prince of Kiev, called his cousins — Vladimir Vsevolodovich, prince of Chernigov and Rostislav Vsevolodovich, prince of Pereyaslavl. Despite the fact that the princes placed their main forces on the flanks (Svyatopolk on the right, Vladimir on the left, Rostislav in the centre), the Polovtsians, thanks to greater manoeuvrability, managed to change in the course of the battle the direction of the main blow in such a way that first the Kievians were defeated, then the Chernigovites. In the battle on the river Stugna Russian cohorts were defeated, many were captured and sold into slavery. Svyatopolk fled to Kiev. A part of Polovtsians began to ruin the lands, and a part began to besiege the border fortress Torchesk. Defenders of Torchesk have sent to Svyatopolk with the request for the help. Svyatopolk with Kiev forces went out to meet the enemies and fought with them on Zhelani, where 2/3 of Kiev troops were killed. After another victory the Polovtsians returned to Torchesk — the defenders of the city, exhausted from a long siege, surrendered and were taken prisoner, and the city was burnt. In 1095 the Polovtsians forced the inhabitants of the town of Yuriev to go to the north, beyond the river Stugna. Some time later Svyatopolk and Monomakh once again fought with the Polovtsians at Khalep, 40 kilometres south of Kiev, where for the first time no one won. Svyatopolk in 1094 has concluded with Polovtsians the peace and has taken in a wife daughter of the Polovtsian khan. In 1096 Svyatopolk was attacked by his Polovtsian father-in-law Tugorkan, who nevertheless fell in battle with the united cohorts of Svyatopolk and Monomakh on the river Trubezh. As a rule, Russian diplomacy did not lead to anything: the Polovtsians took bribes, but a year later they came again for military booty! In the morning of July 20, 1096 the horde of Khan Bonyak literally «grew from under the ground» at the walls of Kiev, and the guards barely had time to slam the Golden Gate in front of the very nose of the enemy: the Kipchaks, angered by the failure, robbed the surrounding monasteries.
Since 1095 the idea of the organisation of the united campaign to the Polovtsian steppe became a consistent goal of separate Russian princes. In 1096 Polovtsian khans attacked Russian lands: Bonyak — Kiev, Tugorkan — Pereyaslavl, Kurya — Ustye. On 30 May there was a famous battle on the river Trubezh: the Russian attack was very successful: the Cumans fled, in their absolute majority having perished in pursuit. This was the first victory of Russian troops over the Cumans hordes.
In 1111, after the congress in Uvetichi, «all the brothers» (Svyatopolk, Monomakh, Davyd, Oleg and Yaroslav) gathered with their cohorts on the river Zolotche in order to take joint action for the final neutralisation of the right-bank Polovtsians. Terrified Polovtsians have sent ambassadors with the request for peace. Polovtsians have been forced out on Caucasus, behind Volga and Don. Since 1125, after Vladimir Monomakh’s death Polovtsians again began to actively participate in the internecine struggle of Russian princes, participated in the defeat of Kiev in 1169 and in 1203. Then came a short period of peaceful stagnation.
In 1222, by order of Genghis Khan, Mongolian tumens of the strongest Temniks («generals») Dzhebe and Subedei began the «Eastern campaign», the purpose of which was to subdue the Alans and Polovtsians. The auxiliary purpose of expedition was reconnaissance of forces and tactics of Russian.
In 1222 the Polovtsians concluded an alliance with the Alans for joint struggle against the Mongols, but they themselves broke the alliance agreement: in 1223 after the Mongols’ appeal and receiving gifts from them and promising «we will not touch you, because you are also steppe people» the Polovtsians yielded to the Mongols’ entreaties and left the Alans to their fate. The Mongol army defeated the Alans and invaded the Cumans steppes! And in fact together Alans and Polovtsians could give Mongolian 2 tumens a good repulse!
After that Alans (Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes of Scythian-Sarmatian origin), who after the Great Migration of Peoples created their early feudal state in the central Pre-Caucasus, had to hide in the mountains of the Central Caucasus and Transcaucasia. There, one group of Alans, with the participation of local tribes, gave rise to the Ossetians.
Then Polovtsians have been crushed by Mongols on Don (1223).
Then Polovtsians and Russians have been broken by Mongols on Kalka (1223).
Then Polovtsians have been broken by Mongols on Ural (1229).
After the Western campaign of Batyi in 1236-1241 the Polovtsians ceased to exist as an independent ethno-political unit.
But the Kipchaks made up the bulk of the Turkic population within the Golden Horde. Kipchaks contributed to the formation of such ethnic groups as Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Uzbeks, Tatars, Bashkirs…. In addition, a part of Kipchaks ended up in Transcaucasia, in Russia, Bulgaria, Byzantium, Egypt…. The Kipchaks survived. And even assimilated many peoples.
But how much grief was Alans and Russ because of betrayal of Kipchaks, «unfortunate» Kipchaks!