An important direction in understanding the historical events and cultural features of the ancient and medieval nomads of the Eurasian steppe belt is the purposeful study of the military sphere of life of nomadic society. The international scientific and practical conference "The role of Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the development of world military art", held on April 22-23, 2010 in Almaty by the Kazakh Research Institute for the Cultural Heritage of Nomads of the Ministry of Culture, was devoted to discussing topical problems and achievements of scientists - archaeologists, orientalists, historians - from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia In the framework of the annual scientific readings dedicated to the memory of the famous Kazakh scientist-ethnographer N. E. Masanov. Many leading experts in the field of weapons studies and military history of medieval Turkic and Mongolian nomadic peoples were invited to the conference.

The readings were opened by the director of the Kazakh Research Institute for Cultural Heritage Nomadov I. V. Erofeeva. Representatives of state bodies of Kazakhstan and well-known foreign scientists addressed the conference participants with greetings. A. M. Khazanov (Wisconsin, USA), a well-known nomad specialist, sent his greetings to the conference and wished it successful.

The first report "Military affairs of the Turkic peoples of Western Siberia in the Late Middle Ages" was made by the author of this report Yu. S. Khudyakov (Novosibirsk).

It presents the results of studying the weapons complexes of the Turkic nomadic ethnic groups that inhabited the southern regions of Western Siberia and Altai in the late Middle Ages. The authors analyzed the evidence of cross-cultural contacts, mutual influence and interaction between the Turkic and Mongolian ethnic groups and ethnic groups and the Russian population in this region of Eurasia.

The report of M. H. Abuseitova (Almaty) "Written and archival materials on the history of weapons of the nomads of Eurasia" contained valuable information about ethnographic and visual materials stored in some famous museums of European countries. The authors analyzed the ethnographic collections from the foundation of the Swiss traveler to Central Asia Henri Moser, which are currently stored in the Bern Historical Museum. Among the items of this collection there are items of weapons and military equipment of Kazakhs: a belt with powder flasks, a multuk-an old gun on bipods, a bow and arrow, a leather spear and quiver, battle axes and sabers. The Guimet Museum in Paris houses a painting by the Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione, who was in China in the middle of the XIX century. This canvas depicts the arrival in Beijing of the Kazakh Khan Ablai's ambassadors, who present a gift to the Manchu Emperor Qianlong. The collected materials are of great interest to modern researchers of military affairs of the Kazakhs of the late Middle Ages and Modern times.

G. V. Kubarev's speech (Novosibirsk) " The influence of the military art and armament complex of Central Asian nomads in Europe (in the light of the Avar migration and the creation of the first Turkic Khaganate)" gave some thoughts on the Central Asian origins of Avar armament during the existence of the Avar Khaganate. According to the speaker, these items include iron armor plates with cut edges and knee daggers. These suggestions sparked a lively discussion. Speakers noted that such plates and daggers were common in different cultures during the early and advanced Medieval periods, so they could not relate only to the Avar culture. Some daggers depicted on stone sculptures were incorrectly identified by the speaker as cranked daggers, since their handles are curved in the opposite direction.

S. A. Nefyodov (Yekaterinburg) dedicated the report "The Mongolian Bow and the Mongol Conquests" to the role of remote combat weapons in the military affairs of the medieval Mongols. He gave some information on the military history of Eurasia from the Indo-European campaigns at the turn of the Bronze Age to the wars of the XIX century. Each successful conquest was based on the invention of a new type of weapon. Among such inventions, he attributed the Mongolian bows, which, according to his ideas, were twice as strong in tension as the Hungarian bows and shot at a longer distance than the Turkic ones. No one but the Mongols themselves, the speaker believes, was able to shoot with Mongolian bows. With their help, the Mongols were able to carry out their conquests. This hypothesis raised objections from a number of specialists who were directly involved in the study of military affairs of the medieval Mongols. They noted that bows of the" Mongolian type " appeared among the nomads of Central Asia in the early Middle Ages, and in the Mongolian era they became very widespread.

A well-known expert on the military history of the Eurasian nomads M. V. Gorelik (Moscow) made a report "Polovtsian military nobility in the Golden Horde service". He proposed to distinguish the Polovtsians proper, among whom he attributed the Kumans, Sars and Kuns, from the Kipchaks, who, in his opinion, appeared in Eastern Europe only as part of the troops of Batu Khan. Among the burials of the Polovtsian khans, he attributed rich Polovtsian burials from Taganchi and Chingul. Based on the materials of excavations of Polovtsian burials, they identified different categories of Polovtsian military leaders and batyrs who served the khans of the Golden Horde.

A. K. Kushkumbayev (Kokshetau, Kazakhstan) spoke about some elements of the military art of the late medieval nomads of the Kazakh steppes, noting the peculiarities of the structure of military organization in the use of techniques of round-up hunts in the military art of nomads.

Report by L. A. Bobrov (Novosibirsk) It was devoted to the development of military affairs in the" last nomadic empire " - the Dzungarian Khanate in the second half of the XVII - first half of the XVIII century. The speaker noted the important role of military reforms and the development of firearms in Dzungaria during the period under review.

The presentation of B. J. Aubekerov (Almaty) contained an analysis of landscape and geographical factors in the formation of military strategy and tactics of conducting military operations by the nomads of Kazakhstan in Modern times. According to the speaker, the military leaders of the Kazakh troops of uchi-

They took into account the features of the relief and landscape during the preparation of the Anrokai battle, in which the Kazakh army defeated the Dzungars. He noted that during a certain period of the Kazakh-Dzungarian wars, a significant part of the territory of the Kazakh steppes up to the Sarysu River in Central Kazakhstan was part of Dzungaria.

D. B. Saparaliev (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) spoke about the military art of the Kyrgyz of the Tien Shan in the XVIII-XIX centuries based on the analysis of Russian archival documents. The archives of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan contain reports and reports of the Russian military, which contain information about the military affairs of the ancestors of the modern Kyrgyz, in particular about military operations between the Kyrgyz and the Dzungars.

The topic of the joint report of L. A. Bobrov and Yu. S. Khudyakov (Novosibirsk) is the peculiarities of the military art of the Kazakhs of the XVII-XVIII centuries. Some types of weapons and tactical methods of conducting military operations characteristic of the Kazakh troops in Modern times were considered. The spread of long - handled battle axes (ai-balta) among Kazakh warriors could have been caused by the need to break through the metal coating of the protective weapons of the Dzungarian and Central Asian warriors.

V. P. Nikonorov, a specialist in the history of military affairs of the ancient peoples of Central Asia (Saint Petersburg), analyzed the contribution of Central Asian nomads to the development of military affairs in the countries of ancient civilization on the example of Iran of the Parthian era. The speaker substantiates the significant role of Parnoi nomads in the development of military affairs of the population of Parthia and Hyrkania, and later the whole of Iran. According to the researcher, the entire striking power of the Parthian army consisted in armored cavalry. The Parthian army included detachments of mounted archers and armored horsemen. Cataphracts were formed from the aristocracy and made up no more than a tenth of the Parthian cavalry. The Parthian word" horseman "meant" nobleman." The Parthian army was divided according to a decimal system similar to that of the Nomads. The speaker also analyzed some elements of Parthian bladed weapons - staples for threading belts and carrying long horseman swords.

The joint report of R. Sala and J. M. Deom (Almaty, Italy, Belgium) was devoted to the study of mud - brick structures-tortkuli in Central Asia and their functional purpose among nomadic peoples of this region. The researchers studied the Tortkuli ancient settlements in the northern Prityanshan region. According to the speakers, such monuments allow us to characterize the "military aspect of nomadic life" and the process of sedentarization of nomads. They attributed the time of appearance of such monuments in the study area to the VI century BC. By the beginning of the VII century AD, such monuments are distributed throughout the Semirechye region. At the same time, the speakers refer to the processes of "Tang urbanization" and" Sughd urbanization " in this area. The heyday of Tortkuli, in their opinion, dates back to the reign of the Karakhanids. During the Mongol period, many ancient settlements were abandoned. In the XVIII century, a new phase of development of Tortkuli began in connection with the Dzungarian occupation.

The report of Yu. A. Motov (Almaty) presented information on the use of artillery in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in Modern times. The speaker noted that the article published earlier by A. M. Belenitsky was devoted to the same topic. According to the speaker, in 1852, a Russian military detachment under the command of Captain Blaramberg stormed the Ak-Masjid fortress, which was the artillery base of the Kokand Khanate. During this assault, the besieged fired at the Russian soldiers with clay pear-shaped balls, cast-iron balls wrapped in lead, incendiary shells made of tightly rolled sheep skins.

Zh. A. Ermekbayev's speech (Almaty) was devoted to the contribution of Ch. Ch. Valikhanov to the study of military affairs of the nomads of Kazakhstan. The speaker analyzed two articles by an outstanding Kazakh scientist and educator of the XIX century, one of which describes the manufacture of gunpowder by Kazakhs, and the other describes different types of weapons of Kazakhs. In his opinion, these works used and analyzed information from a number of authors, including D. P. Haverdovsky, A. K. Gaines, M. Y. Kittara and other contemporaries. Major General of the Russian Army A. K. Heine compiled a description of the Kazakhs ' weapons, which was later analyzed by other scientists. These materials were used by Ch. Ch. Valikhanov.

Speaker K. Kussainuly (Almaty) He also focused on the analysis of valuable ethnographic materials collected by Ch. Valikhanov, among which were rare manuscripts, weapons and household items of the Kazakhs. The speaker mentioned the ethnographic materials collected by the Polish exile A. Januszkiewicz.

T. T. Dalayeva (Almaty) studied the military functions of Kazakh khans and sultans in the XVIII-XIX centuries. She researched the materials of J. R. R. Tolkien. Koestl, I. I. Kraft and Baron Igelstrom on the Kazakhs. According to the speaker, the main function of the Khan's power among the Kazakhs was to organize the armed forces to protect them from external enemies. As an example, the report cited the activities of Abulkhair, who was originally sultan, and after his victories was elected khan.

S. S. Saifullayeva (Almaty) spoke about the hotbeds of resistance of the Kazakhs of the Syrdarya region during the Russian conquest of Central Asia.

A. M. Arys (Almaty), representing the sports federation "Altyn-Zhebe-Golden Arrow", made a report on the activities of this public organization aimed at reviving the national traditions of Kazakhs, including the restoration of traditional Kazakh archery.

In conclusion, I. V. Erofeeva (Almaty) made a presentation of the collection of materials of the previous scientific conference.

The conference was an important event in scientific life for researchers of the problems of military history of medieval nomads of the Eurasian steppes from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. It demonstrated the persistence of a steady interest among scientists-archaeologists, historians, ethnographers and Orientalists-in the history of weapons, fortification and other aspects of the study of the military art of medieval Turkic and Mongolian nomadic peoples.

Permanent link to this publication: