The diversity of nationalities is simply amazing. There are fewer and fewer representatives of certain original tribes. The ethnicity of most ancient peoples can now only be learned from history books or rare photographs. The nationality of the Tungus is also practically forgotten, although these people still inhabit a fairly vast area of ​​Siberia and the Far East.

Who is this?

For many, it will be a discovery that the Tungus is the former name of the Evenki people, who are currently one of the most numerous in the Far North. They were called Tungus from the first century BC until 1931, when the Soviet government decided to rename the nation. The word “Tungus” comes from the Yakut “tong uss”, which means “frozen, frozen genus”. Evenki is a Chinese name derived from “evenke su”.

At the moment, the population of the Tungus nationality is about 39 thousand people in Russia, the same number in China and another approximately 30 thousand in Mongolia, which makes it clear: this people is quite numerous, despite the peculiarities of its existence.

What do these people look like (photo)

The Tungus in general are rather unprepossessing: their figure is disproportionate, as if pressed to the ground, and their height is average. The skin is usually dark, brownish in color, but soft. The face has pointed features: sunken cheeks, but high cheekbones, small, dense teeth and a wide mouth with large lips. Hair of dark color: from dark brown to black, coarse but thin. Both women and men braid them in two braids, less often in one, although not all men grow long hair. After the age of thirty, the male part of the people grows a sparse beard and a thin strip of mustache.

The entire appearance of the Tungus quite clearly conveys their character: harsh, wary and stubborn to the extreme. At the same time, everyone who met them claims that the Evenks are quite hospitable and generous, it is not their rule to worry too much about the future, they live one day at a time. Talkativeness is considered a great disgrace among the Tungus: they openly despise such people and avoid them. Also, among the Tungus people it is not customary to say hello and goodbye; only in front of foreigners they take off their headdress, making a slight bow, and immediately put it on their head, returning to their usual restrained behavior. Despite all the difficulties of existence, the Evenks live on average 70-80 years, sometimes even a hundred, and almost until the end of their days they maintain an active lifestyle (if the disease does not kill them).

Where do the Tungus live?

Despite the fact that the number of Evenks is small compared to other nationalities, their places of residence are quite extensive and occupy the entire space of the Far East from the Far North to the middle of China. To more accurately imagine where the Tungus people live, we can designate the following territories:

• In Russia: Yakutsk region, as well as the Krasnoyarsk region, the entire Baikal basin, Buryatia. There are small settlements in the Urals, the Volga region and even the North Caucasus region. That is, most of Siberia (Western, Central and Eastern) has settlements on its territories where the Tungus lived.
• Evenki Autonomous Khoshun, which is partially located on the territory of Mongolia and a little in China (Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces).
• The Selenga aimak on the territory of Mongolia includes the Khamnigans - a group of Tungusic origin, but who mixed their language and traditions with Mongolian culture. Traditionally, the Tungus never build large settlements, preferring small ones - no more than two hundred people.

Features of life

It seems clear where the Tungus live, but what kind of life did they have? As a rule, all activities were divided into men's and women's, and it is extremely rare that someone does “not their” work. Men, in addition to cattle breeding, hunting and fishing, made products from wood, iron and bone, decorated them with carvings, as well as boats and sleds (sleighs for winter driving on snow). Women prepared food, raised children, and also tanned skins and made magnificent items of clothing and household items from them. They also skillfully sewed birch bark, making from it not only household items, but also parts for the tent, which was the main home for nomadic families.

The sedentary Evenks increasingly adopted habits from the Russians: they cultivated vegetable gardens, raised cows, and the nomadic Tungus tribes continued to adhere to old traditions: they ate mainly the meat of deer (sometimes horses), wild animals and birds killed during the hunt, as well as all kinds of mushrooms and berries, which grow in abundance in their habitats.

Main occupation

The Tungus nation is conventionally divided into several groups based on their way of life:

• Nomadic reindeer herders, who are considered true representatives of their people. They do not have their own stable settlements, preferring to wander, as many generations of their ancestors did: some families traveled a distance of a thousand kilometers on reindeer in one year, following the grazing of their herds, which were the main way of subsistence along with hunting and fishing. Their position in life is quite simple: “My ancestors roamed the taiga, and I must do the same. Happiness can only be found along the way.” And nothing can change this worldview: neither hunger, nor disease, nor deprivation. The Tungus usually went hunting in groups of two or three people, using spears, spears (for large animals like a bear or elk), as well as bows and arrows and all kinds of traps for small animals (usually fur-bearing ones) as weapons.

• Sedentary reindeer herders: they live in the largest numbers in the area of ​​the Lena and Yenisei rivers. Basically, this version of life occurred due to numerous mixed marriages, when the Tungus took Russian women as wives. Their lifestyle is nomadic in the summer: they herd reindeer, sometimes adding cows or horses to the herd, and winter in houses run by women during the nomadic men. Also in winter, the Evenks trade in fur-bearing animals, carve amazing products from wood, and also make various household items and clothing from leather.
• The coastal Evenks are considered a dying group; they are no longer actively engaged in reindeer herding and at the same time do not try to use the technological innovations of civilization. Their life mainly revolves around fishing, collecting berries and mushrooms, sometimes farming and hunting small animals, often fur-bearing animals, whose skins they exchange for vital things: matches, sugar, salt and bread. It is in this group that the highest percentage of deaths from alcoholism is due to the fact that these Tungus could not find themselves in modern society due to their great attachment to the traditions of their ancestors.

Wedding customs

Even in the last century, the Evenks widely practiced an interesting pre-marital custom: if a man likes a certain woman and wants to express his affection, he comes to her with the words: “I’m cold.” This means that she must provide him with her bed to keep him warm, but only twice. If he comes for the third time with such words, this is already a direct hint at the wedding, and they openly begin to torture him, determine the size of the bride's bride price and discuss other wedding subtleties. If a man does not express a desire to get married, then he is very persistently escorted to the door, forbidding him to appear again with this woman. If he resists, then they may well shoot an arrow at him: the Tungus nationality is famous for its ability to convince insolent people.

Kalym usually consists of a herd of deer (about 15 heads), numerous skins of sables, arctic foxes and other valuable animals; they may also ask for money. For this reason, the richest always had the most beautiful Tungus girls, while the poor were content with those who did not ask for too much ransom for their ugly daughter. By the way, the marriage contract was always drawn up on behalf of the girl’s father; she herself did not have the right to choose. It happened that at the age of eight, a girl in the family was already engaged to some adult man who had already paid the bride price and was waiting for her to reach puberty. Polygamy is also widespread among the Evenks; only the husband is obliged to provide for all his women, which means he must be rich.

Religion

The Tungus people initially adhered to shamanism; in China and Mongolia they sometimes practiced Tibetan Buddhism, and only in the last few decades Evenki Christians began to appear. Shamanism is still widespread throughout the territory: people worship various spirits and treat diseases with the help of incantations and shamanic dances. The Tungus hold the Spirit of the Taiga in special esteem, whom they depict as a gray-haired old man with a long beard, who is the guardian and owner of the forest. There are many stories among local residents that someone saw this Spirit while hunting, riding on a large tiger and always accompanied by a huge dog. In order for the hunt to be successful, the Evenks depict the face of this deity using a peculiar design in the form of notches on the bark of a special tree and sacrifice only part of the killed animal or porridge from cereals (depending on what is available). If the hunt is unsuccessful, the Spirit of the Taiga gets angry and takes all the game away, so he is revered and always behaves respectfully in the forest.

In fact, among the Tungus, the belief in spirits was very strong: they fervently believe that various spirits can inhabit people, animals, homes and even objects, therefore various rituals associated with the expulsion of these entities were widespread and practiced among some residents before our days.

Beliefs associated with death

The Tungus people believe that after death a person’s soul goes to the afterlife, and those souls who did not get there due to improper burial rituals become ghosts and evil spirits that send damage to relatives, illnesses and various troubles. Therefore, the funeral ceremony has several important points:

• When a husband dies, the wife must immediately cut off her braid and place it in her husband’s coffin. If the husband loved his woman very much, then he can also cut off his hair and put it under her left arm: according to legend, this will help them meet in the afterlife.
• The entire body of the deceased is smeared with the blood of a freshly slaughtered deer, allowed to dry, and then dressed in the best clothes. Next to his body are all his personal belongings: a hunting knife and all other weapons, a mug or bowler hat that he took with him on the hunt, or deer drives. If a woman died, then it was all her personal belongings, right down to a scrap of fabric - there was nothing left to avoid incurring the wrath of the spirit.

• They build a special platform on four pillars, called Geramcki, usually about two meters high above the ground. It is on this platform that the deceased and his belongings are placed. A small fire is lit under the platform, on which the fat and lard of the deer is smoked, and its meat is also boiled, which is divided among everyone and eaten with loud lamentations and tears for the deceased. Then the platform is tightly packed with animal skins and firmly hammered with boards, so that under no circumstances will wild animals reach the corpse and eat it. According to legend, if this happens, then the angry soul of a person will never find peace, and everyone who carried the deceased to the platform will die in the hunt, torn to pieces by animals.

End of the ritual

Exactly one year later, the last ritual of the funeral is carried out: a rotten tree is selected, from the trunk of which the image of the deceased is cut out, dressed in good clothes and placed on the bed. Next, all neighbors, relatives and those who knew the deceased are invited. Each invited person from the Tungus people must bring a delicacy, which is offered to an image made of wood. Then the deer meat is boiled again and offered to everyone, especially to the image of the deceased. A shaman is invited, who begins his mysterious rituals, at the end of which he takes the stuffed animal out into the street and throws it as far as possible (sometimes it is hung on a tree). After this, the deceased is never mentioned, considering that he has successfully reached the afterlife.

Even the Tungus people, so unfamiliar to most people, have many important moments in their history that they are proud of:

• During the formation of Soviet power in 1924-1925, the very kind and peace-loving Tungus took up arms en masse to defend their territories: all adult men up to the age of seventy stood shoulder to shoulder against the bloody terror of the Red Army. This is an unprecedented case in the history of a people famous for their good nature.
• Over the entire centuries-old existence of the Tungus people, not a single species of flora and fauna has disappeared in the territory of their residence, which indicates that the Evenks live in harmony with nature.
• What a paradox: it is the Tungus that are now under threat of extinction, because their numbers are rapidly declining. In many districts of their residence, the birth rate is half as high as the death rate, because these people, like no other, honor their ancient traditions, not retreating one step from them under any circumstances.

Inhabitants of Tartary. Nicholas Witsen. Tungus (Daurian) far right

Tunguska tribe - a special variety of the Mongoloid race, widely spread over a vast territory, from the borders of Central China in the north to the very coast of the Arctic Ocean and from the shores of the Yenisei in the west right up to the coast of the North Japan and Okhotsk Sea, and containing a number of separate tribes of different names: Manchus, Solons, Daurs, Tungus proper, Manegrs, Birars, Golds, Orochons, Olchis, Orochs, Oroks, Negdas, Samagirs, Kiles, Lamuts, Dalgans, Asis, etc. Their homeland is considered to be the North. Manchuria, where from time immemorial (the legendary data of the "Bamboo Chronicle" bring them into the historical arena under the name of sushens, who appeared with gifts to the court of Shun in 2225 BC) were in continuous relations and clashes with China and Korea and the nomads of Mongolia. Reliable historical data of Chinese writers depict them under the name Ilau, first as a hunting tribe, and then as having mastered the beginnings of agricultural and pastoral culture. The eternal struggle with their neighbors creates from them in northern Manchuria a warlike tribe, united in inter-tribal alliances, which played a huge historical role in the fate of the middle kingdom for a number of centuries (see Manchuria, history). Three times the Tungus tribe seized power over China, giving it its own dynasties: Liao (907-), Jin (-) and, finally, in the 17th century, the dynasty that still reigns in China. Since the 17th century The Manchu branch of the Tungus tribe adopted its current name, Manchus. The movement of the Mongols under the leadership of Genghis Khan that followed the accession of the Jin dynasty caused a migration of peoples, which had a huge impact on the fate of the northern branch of the Tungus tribe. The Mongolian Buryat tribe, which penetrated to the sources of the Amur and to Lake Baikal, ousted the Turkic tribe of the Yakuts from the shores of this latter, who, having retreated to the Lena Valley, met in the north with numerous Tungus tribes; the latter, after a long bloody struggle, were forced to retreat - one part moved west all the way to the Yenisei, the other to the far north to the very coast of the Arctic Ocean, the third to the east, along the right tributaries of the Lena to the Stanovoy Range, the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Amur Territory, meeting here with related branches of the southern branch of the Tungus tribe. The scattered nature of the tribe over a vast territory and the inevitably associated assimilation processes of both a somatic nature (marriages with other nationalities, absorption of alien elements) and a cultural nature could not but influence the change in the indigenous type of the tribe and the major differentiation in language. The Manchus who suffered the most in this regard were significantly Chineseized physically and even more culturally, having lost almost their native language, which in their time had risen to the level of literary language. Other peoples of the Tungus tribe also more or less changed their type, assimilating first with the Mongols, then with the Turks, then with the Palaisians. Nevertheless, the heterogeneous branches of the Tungus tribe completely preserved their related unity, mainly due to the commonality of the language, which suffered very little from differentiation according to territorial dialects, differentiation, which alone should have formed the basis for the classification of individual branches of the Tungus tribe. Unfortunately, due to the lack of linguistic material, such a classification is still premature. The only attempt belongs to Schrenk, in relation, however, only to the Amur region. He divides the modern Tungus peoples of this region into four groups: 1) Daurs and Solons, Tungus tribes with a more or less strong Mongol admixture, 2) Manchus, Golds and Orochs, 2) Orochons, Manegras, Birars, Kile (along the Kur River) and 4) Olcha (on the Amur), Orok (Sakhalin), Negda, Samagirs. The first two groups form the southern, or Manchurian, branch, the last two are branches of the northern Siberian branch, which spread all the way to the Yenisei, to the Arctic Ocean and Kamchatka. This classification cannot have any serious significance because some peoples from one and the other branch, namely the Orochs, Oroks and part of the Golds, call themselves by the common name Nani (Sternberg), therefore, cannot be attributed to different branches. For now, the following classification in relation to the historically established nomenclature would be quite satisfactory: 1) Manchus, characterized by a strictly defined territory and economic culture (agriculture, cattle breeding). According to their geographical location, they can be classified as Solons and Daurs, Manegras, Birars, and partly Golds, who were for a long time under Manchu influence; 2) the Tungus proper, or Siberian Tungus, whose characteristic feature is a nomadic way of life and reindeer herding, and 3) small peoples, mostly marginal, each bearing an independent name: Olchi, Oroch, Orok, Negda, Samagir, Lamut, Orochon, etc. ., many of whom left their nomadic lifestyle and turned to fisher-hunters. Representatives of the second group, actually called Tungus, are taken as the main type of tribe. They are characterized by Schrenk on the basis of Middendorff's observations, his own and many others as follows. They are usually of average or slightly below average height, with a relatively large head, broad shoulders, slightly short extremities and small arms and legs. Like all the peoples of the north, they are wiry, thin, muscular, and there are no obese people among them. Eyes dark; The hair on the head is black, straight, and coarse. The skin color is more or less yellowish-brown, the facial hair is very scanty and short, the eyebrows are usually sharply defined, sometimes arched. The structure of the head and face, although partly softened, is decidedly Mongolian; the skull is always wide, sometimes very high. The face is usually somewhat elongated in length, wide at the cheeks, tapering towards the forehead; The cheekbones are prominent, although not as strong as those of real Mongols. The eye sockets are large, the eyes are set obliquely, narrow. The distance between the eyes is wide; the nose at the root is wide, flat, often flattened, later slightly raised, small and thin. The lips are thin, the upper lip is rather long, the chin is round, the jaw is somewhat prognathic. The general facial expression reveals good nature, laziness and carelessness. Unlike the Tungus proper, representatives of another large branch - the Manchus - have sharper and rougher features, a more curved and thicker nose, fleshier lips, a larger mouth, a more rectangular head, and are usually of greater stature. Daurs and Solons differ sharply in their tall stature and strong physique. Small T. tribes, to a greater or lesser extent, approach one of these two types, falling into Mongolian, Russian, Turkic, and Palaeasian, for example. Olcha, assimilated with the Gilyaks and partly with the Ainu. Anthropological study of the T. tribe began in the 18th century. since Blumenbach's time. Various measurements of skulls were made by Behr, Welker, Virchow, Huxley, Maliev, Schrenk, Uyfalvi, I. Mainov and others. Cf. L. Schrenk, "Reisen und Forschungen im Amurlande" (vol. Ш, issue 1, St. Petersburg, ); I. I. Mainov, “Some data about the Tungus of the Yakut region” (Proceedings of the East Siberian Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, No. 2, Irk.); Deniker "Les races et peuples de la terre" (P., ).

The measurement results turned out to be different and give reason to conclude that there are two different types. Recius, R. Wagner, Behr, Huxley recognized the Tungus dolichocephals, and Ber in terms of the head indicator (76: width to length ratio) brought them closer to the Germans. According to Welker, on the contrary, they - brachycephals, most of all approaching the Buryats. Schrenk, Winkler, Gikish, Topinar find them moderately brachycephalic(Schrenck has 5 brachycephals and 2 mesocephals and, in addition, all platycephals; average index: 82.76). On the other hand, I. Mainov brings them closer to the Finns and gives the following table of averages: northern Tungus (Yakut region), according to Mainov, - 81.39; southern Tungus (Yakut region), according to Mainov, - 82.69; Manchus of Shibin (Poyarkov) - 82.32; Manchus (Uyfalvi) - 84.91. The same researcher, who made numerous measurements on the living among the Tungus in the Yakut region, decisively distinguishes between two completely different racial elements, delimited by the line of the Ayansky tract: the northern one, characterized by very short stature (average 154.8), a high percentage of moderately dolichocephalic (63. 64%), almost complete absence of brachycephaly, moderate cheekbones; on the contrary, the southern element, directly adjacent to the Amur region, is distinguished by good average height (163.1), strong physique, almost complete moderate brachycephaly, eyes not particularly narrow, cut straight or almost straight, thick eyebrows, short, almost straight and not particularly with a thick nose, in everything, thus most likely reminiscent of the Manchus. And it is precisely this latter author who considers the characteristic T. type, and attributes the features of the northern type entirely to the influence of Palaisians. In contrast to Middendorf and Shrenk, I. Mainov considers the indigenous features of the T. tribe to be non-Mongolian. Deniker, on the contrary, takes the T. tribe for the northern subrace of the Mongolian tribe, characterized by mesocephaly or mild subdolichocephaly, an oval or round face, prominent cheekbones - a type common in Manchuria, Korea, Northern China, Mongolia, and in general he takes the Tungus for a mixture of Mongols with paleasians. However, the question of the influence of these latter on the entire Tungus tribe must be considered very problematic. About the Tungusic language - see.

The second campaign against Tangut and the death of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan still had an enemy - his tributary, the Tangut king, who several years ago refused to send an auxiliary corps against Khorezmshah. The old khan, of course, did not forget this treachery, especially since from that day on, every day, according to the ceremony he established, he was informed before lunch and dinner that the Tangut kingdom had not yet ceased to exist, which best characterizes his characteristic perseverance in pursuing his intended goals.

After a short rest among his people and in the family of his main wife Borte, the tireless Mongol khan at the end of 1225 set out on a new campaign to punish the rebellious vassal. Of course, it was not just stubbornness or a simple thirst for revenge that guided him in this new military enterprise. Genghis Khan knew how to restrain his personal impulses if necessary and was too subtle a politician to base matters of national importance on them alone. He understood perfectly well that without the final subjugation of Tangut one could not count on lasting success in the conquest of the Chinese states of Jin and Song, especially the latter, since a hostile Tangut army could always pose a threat to the flank and rear of the Mongol armies operating on the Chinese plain.

During preparations for this campaign, Genghis Khan, hoping to take advantage of the rich resources of the conquered Jin regions, especially bread and textiles, was surprised when he was informed that there was nothing of this in reserves. On this occasion, senior military leaders reported that, due to the lack of benefit for the state from the settled Chinese population, they should be exterminated completely, and their lands should be turned into pastures for nomads. Yelu Chutsai rebelled against this, explaining all the benefits that can be extracted from the hardworking settled population by skillfully imposing direct and indirect taxes on them, and immediately presenting a brief draft of such taxation. Genghis Khan agreed with him and ordered the project to be carried out.

In February 1226, Genghis Khan entered the Tangut land, betraying it to fire and sword. The campaign was a complete success. The Tangut king was defeated in the field, his capital, Jinxia, ​​was besieged. The opportunity opened up, while continuing the siege with one part of the army, with the other to invade from the east into the lands still remaining under the rule of the Jin emperor and, thus, give an energetic impetus to the Chinese campaign, which had been protracted after the death of Mukhali. This was probably one of the reasons why the elderly Mongol monarch took personal command of the army assigned to the Tangut expedition and why this latter was brought to the impressive figure of 130,000 people. However, death put a limit to Genghis Khan's further endeavors.

Back in the winter of 1226/27, during a round-up hunt for wild horses, he fell from his horse, which, being frightened by something, shied away, and after this incident the old khan felt unwell. The convened military council decided to suspend the campaign until the emperor recovered, disbanding the army to their homes. The reason given for this decision was that the Tanguts, as a sedentary people, cannot migrate anywhere, so it will always be possible to take on them again. But Genghis Khan did not agree with this decision, rightly pointing out that such a withdrawal of the army could be attributed by the enemy to the weakness of the Mongols, and this would give him new strength to continue the fight.

“I swear by the Eternal Blue Sky,” he exclaimed, “I’d rather die, but demand an account from the Tangut king!”

Thus the war continued. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan's health was increasingly declining. In the summer of 1227, ambassadors from the Jin emperor arrived to him asking for peace. Feeling that he was no longer destined to personally lead his army against this sworn enemy, and foreseeing the inevitable friction that would arise in the supreme government for the first time after his death, he agreed to conclude the requested peace, deciding in his thoughts that it would be only a temporary truce until normal order is restored in the state.

At the same time, his indefatigable mind worked towards finding the best ways to deal in the future a mortal blow to the enemy to whom he had just granted peace. Already on his deathbed, he gives the following instructions to his sons and commanders:

“The best Jin troops are located at Tongkuan (a fortress on the Yellow River, covered on all sides by inaccessible terrain). There it will be difficult to destroy them through a surprise attack. If we ask the Song state for the free passage of our troops (through its territory), then in view of the constantly hostile relations between the states of Song and Jin, there will probably be agreement on this. In this case, we must send an army through Tang and Teng (in Southern Henan), and from there push straight to Ta-lian (otherwise Bian-lian, the southern capital of the Jin Empire) ". The Emperor of Jin will then be forced to hastily bring up troops from Tongkuan. When they, numbering several tens of thousands, arrive to the rescue, the people and horses after a march of 1000 li (li - 1/2 verst) will be so exhausted that they will not be combat-ready. Then it is possible will destroy them for sure."

Immediately, the dying man, in anticipation of even more distant events, gave those around him clear directives on the methods of waging war with the next enemy - the Song power. “Never forget,” he added on this occasion, “that the soul of any undertaking is that it be completed.”

At this time, the besieged Tangut capital was brought to the extreme; The head of state, who was hiding in it, invited Genghis Khan to surrender the city, promising to appear in person after a month to express his submission. Genghis Khan pretended to accept the conditions, and to lull the enemy’s vigilance, he called him his son. However, at the same time, sensing the approach of the end, he forbade the news of his death to be made public until the final reprisal against the Tangut king. When the last one appears, capture him and kill him with his entire retinue.

Soon after these last orders, the formidable ruler breathed his last at the age of 72. Just before his death, which followed in 1227 on the full moon of the month of the "Pig" of the year of the "Pig", he last called his sons Ogedei and Tuluy, as well as his grandson Yesunke-Aka, the son of the recently deceased Jochi, to his bed and expressed his last will to them in the following words:

“O children! Know, contrary to expectation, that the time of my last campaign and transition has approached by the power of the Lord and the help of Heaven. I conquered and finished (strengthened) for you, children, a kingdom of such a vast width that from its center in each direction there will be one year’s journey ". Now my will is this: in order to defeat enemies and exalt friends, be of one opinion and one person, in order to live pleasantly and easily and enjoy the kingdom. Make Ogedei Khan your heir. You must not change my Yasa after my death, so that there is no unrest in kingdom."

The khan’s choice of his third son, Ogedei, as heir, is explained by a family decision that took place before setting off on this campaign, at the suggestion of the khan’s concubine Yesui, who said to the khan: “King, are you going beyond the mountains and rivers, to distant countries for battle? If you happen to leave an unpronounceable name in itself, which of your four sons will you command to be master? Announce this to everyone in advance!"

Then the eldest son, Jochi, was taken away from the right to the throne by the second son, Chagatai, hinting at his dubious origin (their mother Borte gave birth to him after being captured by the Merkits); Chagatai was deprived of the right to be the heir to the throne by Jochi, saying that, apart from his tough disposition, he had no talents.

Then Chagatai proposed to appoint Ogedei as heir, saying that he was calm, reasonable and respected by all of them; Chinggis Khan and the entire family council approved his candidacy, so that after Ogedei, a worthy person from the house of Chingisov would be re-elected as heir, since Ogedei himself said at the council that he doubted the merits of his sons to the throne. This decision of the family council authorized the election of the khan with all the consequences that led to the collapse of the empire. This decision was made before the campaign against Khorezm, and Genghis Khan confirmed it, saying: “My words are unchanged, I will not allow them to be violated.”

We see how this decision was carried out by the heirs of Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan's letter for the approval of his son as heir to the throne says: “Genghis Khan left instructions to elect and approve in advance an heir from the legal heirs of the one who is worthy to inherit and to whom management can be entrusted.” These instructions of Genghis Khan were kept in the Golden Box in the iron room (palace archive).

His body, at his request, was taken to his homeland amid crying and lamentations and interred on Mount Burkhan-Khaldun, which had repeatedly saved his life in his youth. “He came from the corruptible world and left the throne of the kingdom to a glorious family,” Rashid ad-Din tells us.

Regarding the reasons for the death of Genghis Khan, in addition to the official version of falling from a horse while hunting wild horses, there are several others, but they all agree on the date of his death, 1227, and that he did not die a natural death. Thus, in Marco Polo, Genghis Khan dies from an arrow wound to the knee. At Plano Carpini - from a lightning strike.

According to a widespread Mongolian legend, which the author also heard, Genghis Khan allegedly died from a wound inflicted by the Tangut Khansha, the beautiful Kurbeldishin Khatun, who spent her only wedding night with Genghis Khan, who took her as his wife by right of the conqueror after the capture of the capital of the Tangut kingdom. Having left his capital and harem, the Tangut king Shidurho-Khagan, distinguished by cunning and deceit, allegedly persuaded his wife, who remained there, to inflict a mortal wound with her teeth on Genghis Khan during their wedding night, and his deceit was so great that he sent advice to Genghis Khan, so that she would first be searched “down to her fingernails” in order to avoid an attempt on the Khan’s life. After the bite, Kurbeldishin Khatun seemed to rush into the Yellow River, on the banks of which Genghis Khan stood at his headquarters. This river was then called Khatun-muren by the Mongols, which means “river of the queen.” This incident is also hinted at in the following funeral lamentation of Prince Kiluken.

There is a Mongolian legend that when the body of Genghis Khan was being transported to Mongolia on a cart, it once got very stuck in a swamp. Then Prince Kiluken from the Sunid tribe began to lament like this: “O wonderful lion, who appeared among the people from the blue Sky Tengri, my Bogdo Khan! Or do you want to leave your people and stay here? O my Bogdo! Your wife is there at the wonderful place of her birth , your strong government, the strength of your laws, your subjects - all there! Your beloved wives, your golden tent, your faithful people - all there! Your homeland, the river in which you were washed, the fertile Mongol people, the bearers of your glory, the princes and nobles: Delyun-Boldoh on the Onon River, the place of your birth - everything is there! There are your bunchuks, drums, goblets, trumpets and pipes, your golden palace, which contains everything that has a name - the meadows on Onon, where you ascended to the throne of the Arulads - everything is there! Your excellent faithful wife Borte, a happy country, a great people; Boorchu and Mukhali, two faithful friends - everything is there! Your unearthly wife Khutan-Khatun, her harp, flutes and other musical instruments, yours the other two wives - Jisoo and Jisoo-gen - are all there! Or because this country is warm, or because there are many defeated Tanguts here, or because Kurbeldishin Khatun is beautiful, do you want to leave your Mongols? And if we were no longer destined to save your precious life, then we will be able to bring your remains, sitting like jasper, to your homeland, show them to your wife Borte and satisfy the desire of all the people!”

After these persuasion, the body of Genghis Khan with the cart was freed from the sucked swamp and moved to his homeland. It rests on Mount Burkhan-Khaldun to this day; attempts by European travelers to find the final resting place of the greatest conqueror of all centuries and peoples were unsuccessful, since no gravestones were placed so that the cemetery would not be plundered. This place is overgrown with dense forest. Of the children of Genghis Khan, buried there, on Mount Burkhan-Khaldun: his youngest son, his father’s favorite Tului, with his children Munke Khan, Kublai Khan, Arig-Buga and their other children. Other grandchildren of Genghis Khan from Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei, their children and family have cemeteries in other places. The guardians of this large forbidden place are the beks of the Uriankhai tribes.

He died in a camp setting, just as simply as he had lived his whole life. The head of the most extensive state in the world, which occupied 4/5 of the Old World, the ruler of about 500 million souls, and therefore, according to the concepts of his age, the owner of untold wealth, he shunned luxury and excess until the end of his days. After the conquest of Central Asia, the officers of his army acquired excellent Turkish chain mail and began to wear valuable Damascus blades. But Genghis Khan, despite the fact that he was a passionate lover of weapons, fundamentally did not follow their example and generally remained alien to the influence of Muslim luxury. He continued to wear the clothes of a nomad and adhere to steppe customs, bequeathing to his heirs and the entire Mongolian people not to change these customs in order to avoid the corrupting influence on the morals of Chinese and Muslim cultures.

He did not have such personal needs, to which he, like other crown-bearers spoiled by happiness, would sacrifice the highest goals of his policy. His whole life was devoted to the implementation of his highest ideal - the creation of a One World Kingdom, which would at the same time be the ideal of the military culture of the Mongols of the 13th and 14th centuries.

Lieutenant Colonel Rank cites the following reviews, summarizing the fair judgments of Genghis Khan by some of his contemporaries, in contrast to the misleading views of him as a bloodthirsty monster that prevailed then and have survived to this day.

“He died, unfortunately, because he was an honest and wise man,” Marco Polo says about him.

“He established peace,” says Joinville, a 13th-century French historian.

“The last judgment,” notes the author who cited these reviews, “seems paradoxical when you think about the incessant wars waged by the Unyielding Emperor, but, in essence, it is accurate and deeply true... In this sense, he really established peace in the universe; peace , which lasted about two centuries, at the cost of wars that in total did not last even two decades. Genghis Khan sought an alliance with Christianity. If this alliance had materialized, then there is no doubt that Islam, taken in pincers (by the Crusaders and Mongols). .. would be crushed... Economic, social and political ties between the Western world and the Far East would not tolerate constant interruptions from a worldview hostile to Europe. All civilizations of the Old World would achieve mutual understanding and penetration. Christianity failed to understand this...

This Conqueror of the World was, above all, its inexorable revivalist. With iron and fire, he opened the ancient world paths for the march of future civilization. In this sense, the Damned has a right to a place in Humanity."

“The Destroyer” also destroyed the barriers of the Dark Ages, says another European writer about Genghis Khan. - He opened new paths for humanity. Europe came into contact with the culture of China. At his son's court, Armenian princes and Persian nobles interacted with Russian grand dukes. The opening of paths was accompanied by an exchange of ideas. Europeans developed a lasting curiosity about distant Asia. Marco Polo goes there after Rubruk. Two centuries later, Vasco da Gama sailed to open the sea route to India. In essence, Columbus set off in search not of America, but of the land of the “Great Mogul”.

However, according to the same writer, Europe, i.e. the same “Christianity”, Genghis Khan did not understand. Since he waged his wars not for religion, like Mohammed, and not for personal or state aggrandizement, like Alexander the Great and Napoleon, the Europeans were baffled by this. The explanation of this mystery lies in the simplicity of the Mongolian character. Unlike Napoleon, he was not in the least degree a fatalist; Likewise, it did not occur to him to appropriate to himself, like Alexander the Great, the attributes of God.

The ideal of Genghis Khan was the creation of a United Kingdom of Humanity, since only then - as he rightly thought - mutual wars would stop and conditions would be created for the peaceful prosperity of humanity both in the field of spiritual and material culture. The life of one person turned out to be too short to accomplish this enormous task, but Genghis Khan and his heirs almost achieved this task when they had 4/5 of the world in their state - the Mongolosphere.

Evenki, or Tungus (self-name Evenkil, which became an official ethnonym in 1931; the old name is Tungus from Yakut. toҥ uus) are the indigenous people of the Russian Federation (Eastern Siberia). They also live in Mongolia and northeast China. Separate groups of Evenks were known as Orochens, Birars, Manegrs, Solons. The language is Evenki, belongs to the Tungus-Manchu group of the Altai language family. There are three groups of dialects: northern, southern and eastern. Each dialect is divided into dialects.

Geography

The Evenks inhabit a vast territory from the Yenisei in the west to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the east. The southern border of settlement runs along the left bank of the Amur and Angara. Administratively, the Evenks are settled within the borders of the Irkutsk, Amur, Sakhalin regions, the republics of Yakutia and Buryatia, the Krasnoyarsk, Transbaikal and Khabarovsk territories. Evenks are also present in the Tomsk and Tyumen regions. In this gigantic territory, they do not constitute the majority of the population anywhere; they live in the same settlements together with Russians, Yakuts, Buryats and other peoples.

Difference in theories of origin

A.P. Okladnikov

The luminaries of Soviet anthropology – A.P. Okladnikov and G.M. Vasilevich - Transbaikalia was considered the ancestral home of the Tungus. This theory was very influential in the second half of the 20th century and had many followers. However, some of them proposed their own versions of the ethnogenesis of the Evenks within the framework of this theory.

So, V.A. Tugolukov also considers Transbaikalia (as well as the northern Amur region) to be the ancestral home of the Evenks, but at the same time, citing written sources, he claims that the immediate ancestors of the modern Tungus were the Uvan tribes. These tribes, along with the Mohes and Jurchens, in his opinion, came from one people - Khi (the researcher believes that it was from the combination of these two ethnonyms - “Uvan” and “Khi” - that the self-name “Evenki” came about). According to the hypothesis of V.A. Tugolukov, in the 12th-13th centuries. The Tungus, under pressure from the Jurchens, migrated from the Amur region and Transbaikalia to Siberia, where they mixed with the local population, resulting in the appearance of modern Evenks.

A supporter of the Transbaikal theory of the origin of the Tungus was also the famous Far Eastern archaeologist E.V. Shavkunov. He calls the ancient ancestors of the Tungus the bearers of Karasuk-type cultures who migrated to Southern Siberia and Transbaikalia (and at the turn of the century - to the regions of the Upper Amur region, to the south of Manchuria and Primorye) from the depths of Central Asia. The Transbaikal theory is also supported by modern researcher E.I. Derevianko. While reconstructing the culture of the already mentioned above-mentioned ancestors of the Tungus-Manchu peoples - the Mohes, she showed that their ancestral home was not the south of the Far East, but the Eastern Transbaikalia, the Upper Amur and the northeastern part of Mongolia.

Or is it from the south?

However, among scientists there were other opinions about the origin of the Evenks. Thus, a graduate of the Blagoveshchensk Pedagogical Institute (now BSPU), now academician A.P. Derevianko, who initially adhered to Okladnikov's hypothesis, later changed his mind. Based on new archaeological data, he came to the conclusion that the origin of the Tungusic ethnic group occurred at the end of the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. on the territory of Dongbei (Manchuria) and Middle Amur. In his opinion, it was at this time that certain Neolithic tribes moved up from the lower reaches of the Amur, displacing some of the indigenous inhabitants of the middle Amur to the north, into the taiga zone, where the final formation of the culture of the northern Tungus (Evenks) took place.

The works of the famous anthropologist V.P. are especially harshly opposed to the “northern” theory of the origin of the Evenks. Alekseev, where it is noted that the rather meager hunting economy in Siberia could not cause excessive settlement and, consequently, the resettlement of the Tungus to the south (in the Amur region and Primorye).

Based on archaeological materials, V.P. Alekseev, in a sense, returns to the old point of view of S.M. Shirokogorova about the southern ancestral home of the Tungus peoples. In his opinion, the ancestors of the Tungus were farmers, but due to population growth they were forced to develop northern territories and switch to hunting. So, the opinions of scientists are divided. Until now, despite the abundance of archaeological, linguistic and ethnographic data, researchers agree on only one thing - the origin of the Evenks remains a mystery to this day.

Number

The number of Evenks at the time of their entry into Russia (XVII century) was estimated at approximately 36,135 people. The most accurate data on their number was provided by the 1897 census - 64,500, while 34,471 people considered Tungusic their native language, the rest - Russian (31.8%), Yakut, Buryat and other languages.

According to the results of the 2002 census, 35,527 Evenks lived in the Russian Federation. Of these, about half (18,232) lived in Yakutia.

• In China, according to the 2010 census, the number of Evenks and Orochons combined was 39,534. They form two of the 56 officially recognized nationalities of the PRC.
• In Mongolia in 1992, there were up to a thousand Evenks living, however, they may no longer speak their own language.

History of the Evenks

The origin of the Evenks is connected with the Baikal region, from where they apparently settled over a vast region at the beginning of the second millennium AD. Western groups of Evenks live in the Tomsk Ob region, northern ones - to the coast of the seas of the Arctic Ocean, eastern ones - on the Okhotsk coast and in the Amur region, southern ones - in China and Mongolia.

By the time they became part of the Russian state (17th century), the Evenks were divided into patrilineal exogamous clans; led a nomadic lifestyle, engaged in reindeer herding, hunting, and partly fishing. In terms of religion, from the beginning of the 17th century they were considered Orthodox, but retained forms of pre-Christian beliefs (shamanism). In 1930, the Evenki National District was formed within the Krasnoyarsk Territory. During Soviet times, Evenki writing was created and illiteracy was eliminated. Many nomadic Evenks switched to sedentary life. In addition to traditional occupations, the Evenks develop agriculture, animal husbandry, and fur farming.

Until 1931, the Evenks, together with the Evens, were known as the Tungus. Along with the common ethnonym, individual territorial divisions of the Evenks and their ethnographic groups have their own names: Orochon (“reindeer” in Transbaikalia and the Amur region), Ile (hunters and reindeer herders of the Upper Lena and Podkamennaya Tunguska), kilen (from Lena to Sakhalin), solon ( “upstream”, part of the Amur Evenki), Khamnigan (Mongol-Buryat designation for Evenki cattle breeders), in addition - Birars, Samagirs, Manegirs, Murchens.

In ethnocultural terms, the Evenks are not united. This is reflected in written sources where “foot”, “wandering” and “nomadic” Tungus are mentioned. The differences are based on the economic activities of various territorial groups of Evenks - reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen. The cultural identity of individual Evenki groups was formed under the influence of neighboring peoples: Samoyeds, Yakuts, Buryats, and the peoples of the Amur.

The Evenks have pronounced Mongoloid features, with weak pigmentation, which corresponds to the Baikal anthropological type of the North Asian race. The southern Evenki groups exhibit an admixture of the Central Asian type. The Evenki language is part of the northern (Tungus) subgroup of the Tungus-Manchu group of languages. The wide distribution of Evenks determines the division of the language into dialect groups: northern, southern and eastern.

The breadth of settlement, interethnic contacts, and the initial multi-component composition of the Evenks allow us to speak of their lack of ethnic unity. The Evenki settlement area is usually divided along the conventional Baikal-Lena border. The cultural differences between the Evenks of these territories are significant and are reflected in many cultural components: the type of reindeer herding, tools, utensils, tattoo traditions, anthropological features (Baikal anthropological type in the east and Katangese in the west), language (Western and Eastern groups of dialects), ethnonymy.

Social structure

Evenki communities united in the summer to jointly herd reindeer and celebrate holidays. They included several related families and numbered from 15 to 150 people. Forms of collective distribution, mutual assistance, hospitality, etc. were developed. Until the 20th century. a custom (nimat) has been preserved, obliging the hunter to give part of the catch to his relatives. Until the 17th century up to 360 paternal clans were known, numbering on average 100 people, connected by a common origin and a common cult of fire. They were usually called by the name of the ancestor: Samagir, Kaltagir, etc. at the head of the clan - an authoritative elder - a leader (“prince”), the best hunter-warrior among the young, a shaman, a blacksmith, rich reindeer herders. At the end of the 19th century. Evenks roamed in groups - in winter 2-3 families, in summer - 5-7. The nomadic group included both related families and unrelated ones. Tribal exogamy and collective farming were preserved. Old clans split into smaller new ones.

Main activities

The main occupations of the Yenisei Evenks are taiga reindeer herding, hunting, and, to a lesser extent, seasonal fishing. Reindeer husbandry was mainly of transport importance. Small herds of 25–30 animals predominated. Reindeer were used for packing, for riding, and milked. Fishing had an auxiliary significance; they caught with fixed nets, wicker snouts in locks, spears, and hooks.

The Evenks hunted by stealth, by driving on skis, with a dog, riding on deer, in a pen with holes, fences, with a decoy deer, decoys, a net, lying in wait at a watering hole and a crossing.

Objects of hunting: wild deer, elk, bear, fur-bearing animals (sable, squirrel, etc.), upland game. They used a bow, a crossbow, a spear, traps, and nooses; from the 18th century – firearms and traps. A unique hunting weapon is the koto, or utken, a large knife with a long handle, used as a weapon against bears and for clearing thickets.

Home processing of hides, bones, horns, and birch bark (among women) was developed; they made household utensils from wood and birch bark, wove nettles from nettles, and were blacksmiths. In Transbaikalia and the Amur region they partially switched to settled agriculture and cattle breeding.

Currently, artistic bone and wood carving, metal working (men), bead embroidery (silk among the Eastern Evenks), fur and fabric appliqué, and birch bark embossing (women) are developed as folk crafts.

Winter camps consisted of 1–2 tents, summer camps - up to 10, and during holidays - several dozen. The chum (du) had a conical frame made of poles, covered with skins in winter, and with vices (sewn together with strips of specially prepared birch bark) in summer.

When migrating, the frame was left in place. A fireplace was built in the center of the tent, and above it there was a horizontal pole for the cauldron.

The semi-sedentary Evenks made a stationary conical structure covered with larch bark (golomo). In some places, semi-dugouts, log dwellings borrowed from the Russians, the Yakut yurt-booth, and in Transbaikalia - the Buryat yurt were also known. Outbuildings – pile decks, log barns and storage sheds on low stilts, hanging sheds.

Evenki clothing consists of rovduzh or cloth natazniks (kherki), leggings (aramus), and a swing caftan made of reindeer skin; underneath it was worn a bib made of fur strips and tied at the back. The women's bib was decorated with beads. Men wore a belt with a knife in a sheath, women - with a needle case, tinderbox and pouch. Clothes were decorated with strips of goat and dog fur, fringe, horsehair, and metal plaques.

Later, the summer caftan began to be made from cloth, and the winter caftan from reindeer skins. In winter, a scarf made from the tails of fur-bearing animals was wrapped around the neck and head. The Ilympian Evenks wore bonnet-shaped hats trimmed with fur. To the south of the Lower Tunguska, it was common for men to wear scarves folded into a wide rope and tied around their heads. Summer shoes were made from leather, cloth, rovduga; winter - made of reindeer fur. Until the 19th century It was customary to tattoo the face. The traditional hairstyle is long hair tied at the top and wrapped with beaded braid.

The basis of the traditional food of the Evenks is meat of wild animals and fish. They preferred boiled meat with broth, fried meat and fish, crushed dried meat brewed with boiling water and mixed with blueberries, smoked meat with lingonberries, thick meat soup with blood, blood sausage, winter soup made from dried meat seasoned with flour or rice with crushed bird cherry, boiled fish, mashed with raw caviar.

The fish was dried - they made yukola, and from the dried fish they made flour (porsa). In winter they ate stroganina made from fish and burbot liver. Grain and flour had been known for a long time, but they began to bake bread under the influence of the Russians. In the summer they consumed berries, saran roots, wild garlic and onions. The main drink is tea, sometimes with reindeer milk, lingonberries, and rose hips. They smoked leaf tobacco.

At the end of the 19th century. Among the Evenks, small families predominated. Property was inherited through the male line. Parents usually stayed with their youngest son. Marriage was accompanied by the payment of bride price (teri) or labor for the bride. The marriage was preceded by matchmaking, the period between them sometimes reached one year. Until the beginning of the 20th century. levirate (marriage to the widow of an older brother) was known, and in rich families - polygamy (up to 5 wives).

Folklore

Folklore included improvised songs, mythological and historical epics, tales about animals, historical and everyday legends, etc. The most popular among the Evenks are myths and tales about animals. Their heroes are animals, birds and fish living in the Siberian taiga and its reservoirs. The central figure is a bear, a common tribal deity, the progenitor of the Evenks. The epic was performed as a recitative; listeners often took part in the performance, repeating individual lines after the narrator. Separate groups of Evenks had their own epic heroes.

There were also constant heroes - comic characters - in everyday stories. Among the musical instruments known are the jew's harp, the hunting bow and others, and among the dances there is a round dance performed to the accompaniment of song improvisation. The games were in the nature of competitions in wrestling, shooting, running, etc. Artistic bone and wood carving, metal working (men), bead embroidery, silk embroidery among the Eastern Evenks, fur and fabric appliqué, birch bark embossing (women) were developed. .

Shamanism

The idea of ​​shamans is completely reconciled with any system of beliefs in spirits, since for its existence to be possible, all that is necessary is the belief that there are people who are capable of perceiving and infusing themselves at will with spirits who enter into special communication with people through such a medium. Therefore, the idea of ​​shamans and shamanism under different names and forms can gain recognition and spread among the most culturally diverse nationalities. In the development of the idea of ​​shamans and shamanism, one can observe various stages and forms, and some phenomena, for example, in Russian sectarianism, in some medieval religious mystical movements, should be considered as the result of the development of purely shamanistic ideas.

The main spirits of the Tungus

1. Buga. All Tungus, except the Manchus, have an idea of ​​a single eternal being who resides everywhere and eternally and bears a name phonetically close to Buga. The Tungus use the same term to define the entire world, including earth, water, sky and everything that exists. Buga does not interfere in the affairs of people, but is the creator and distributor of everything that exists, and they turn to him in very rare and important cases, such as the division of clans, etc. There is no physical idea of ​​him and he is not depicted (This may indicate to its considerable antiquity.). Due to these features, its significance in ordinary life is small.
2. Spirit of the Sky. Of greater importance is the spirit of the sky, which among different nationalities has different names: Dagachan, Dzhulaski, Buga, Enduri (The rendering of these terms is not phonetically accurate. Unfortunately, technical conditions do not allow us to give an accurate transcription of non-Russian words.), etc. The concept of it is Some Tungus sometimes merge with the Bug, but his activities in relation to man are closer and he largely controls all people in their public and personal life. He is predominantly beneficent, but if he is angry for inattention, he punishes a person, depriving him of success in hunting, growth of the herd, etc., without causing harm to the active person, he only deprives him of his help. It is probably not of Tungus origin, since both in name and in many of its functions it is an alien creation.
3. Spirit of the Earth found only among those Tungus who are familiar with agriculture and borrowed from the Chinese, like the spirit of the underworld, a world also recognized by not all Tungus, bearing a non-Tungus name and borrowed from the Chinese and Lamaists - the Mongols and Manchus.
4. Spirit of the taiga. The spirit of the taiga plays a completely different role. This anthropomorphic creature, a gray-haired old man, lives in the taiga and is the owner, distributor of wild animals among people, etc. He gives good luck, happiness in the hunt. In rare cases, it turns out to be the cause of the disease, but the intervention of the shaman helps. In this case, some nationalities make his image on paper, and then he falls into the group of burkan or sevaki, usually his image is made in the taiga, at the site of a successful hunt and, especially on the passes of large ridges. An image of eyes, nose, mouth and beard is made with notches on a tree cleared of bark. This spirit has a wife, who, although she does not have special functions, is depicted with him. According to some, this couple has two more children who also do not play a special role. Sacrifices are made to him either from a freshly killed animal, or from rice, millet (buda) and other cereals, if the given nationality has them.

For him, one white stallion or deer is singled out from the herd or herd, on which he has the opportunity to ride, on which no packs are placed, and which, if necessary, serves as a mediator in relations with the spirit. The names of this spirit vary. So, some call it ichchi (Yakut), others call it Dagachan, others call it bayan amii, fourth call it boynacha (Mongolian), and still others call it magun. From which it is clear that the name of this spirit was borrowed by some nationalities. Some of the listed features, such as sacrifices made of rice and millet, sacred white stallions, etc., were also borrowed from non-Tungus peoples.

1. Enduri. The Manchus and other Tungus peoples in contact with them have a number of spirits called enduri. These spirits can have a variety of functions and partly they cover (Among the Manchus, the spirit of Bug is included in the same group, but he is credited with less power and significance than the Buga of other Tungus.) already listed. So, there is enduri of arable land, rivers and water in general, the bowels of the earth, dishes, weapons, trade, individual crafts, etc.

Knowledge about them is gleaned mainly from Chinese books. It is interesting to note only the female spirit, which gives souls to children, living in the southeast and bearing other names in addition to enduri. As assistants to this spirit, there are some other spirits that contribute to the successful physical education of children. There are many of these spirits and they often have an independent meaning and role and are not associated with the main spirit, which is absent among those peoples who are further from the influence of the Manchus. These, so to speak, children's spirits called alyukan, kangan, etc. protect children and their non-interference makes it possible for other spirits to harm children.

1. Small spirits of taiga, hills, etc. The group of spirits inhabiting the taiga, steppe, mountains, streams, and stone deposits is very extensive. These spirits have different names, different origins and in relation to a person can have different meanings and influences. From this group there are especially many spirits called by some Tungus arenki. In all likelihood, arenki are the souls of the dead, left unburied - people who froze, crashed on rocks, and generally died from accidents.

These spirits cannot cause significant harm to a person. Only one visible manifestation of them is known - light, such as moving swamp lights, luminescence and phosphorescence. In the taiga, they sometimes frighten people with noise, especially whistling. Sometimes they throw small pebbles, branches, etc. at a person. All incomprehensible noises and movements in the taiga are attributed to them. Sometimes an arenki tries to get closer to a person, but a shot from a gun is enough to drive him away. If there are a lot of people, the arenki does not show much activity. They are especially active when a person is drunk. Individual arenks do not have names.

1. Bon or Ibaga. The creature Bon (Tungus) or Ibaga (Manchu) stands out completely. It is known especially widely to the population living in Manchuria and Mongolia, especially near the city of Mergen.

Unlike all other spirits, Bon has a body, dark red blood, is heavily covered with hair, has an underdeveloped lower jaw or is completely lacking it, and comes from the dead. In dry summers there are especially many of them, but not in winter. Actually, there is no need to consider them as spirits. According to the interpretation of the Tungus, if the soul of an unburied person enters an already buried corpse, then the corpse comes to life. If we remember that a person has three souls, namely: a soul that remains at the grave, a soul that passes into another person, and sometimes an animal and a soul that goes into the world of the dead, then with a corpse there may be one first soul. If the soul of another person moves into a corpse, which has not yet had time or cannot enter the world of the dead, then the corpse comes to life, but does not have all the data for normal human existence, since its second soul is absent and a complete resurrection cannot occur.

As a general rule, such bons are destroyed, especially willingly by dogs, since bons sometimes cause harm to them when they meet people. At night they rush at sleeping people, fight with them, scare them, strangle them, etc. But a Bon woman can sometimes even give birth to pregnancy in the grave (If this is a Tungus burial, then the grave is often made suspended, on pillars in an unsealed coffin. The Manchus usually the coffin is covered with earth only in a small mound) if the buried person was pregnant.

1. Ancestral spirits. There is also a significant group of spirits, which the Manchu Tungus call sirkul. Actually, by this name they define all spirits that bring evil, if the spirit is definitely unknown, i.e. it is a burkan or one of the shamanic spirits or an ancestor, etc. Mainly this term refers to ancestor spirits if they are unknown by name . If people are selfish in general, then ancestors especially, and they seek certain benefits from living people, for example, sacrifices, signs of respect, etc. If they are not given attention, then they are capable of causing harm, interfering with the success of the hunt, the productivity of the herd and even the health of relatives. Therefore, periodic sacrifices are arranged for them, during which special prayers are offered (appeasement and petition to the spirits). Ancestors can be quite close and known to a person, and then they are named, and if they are significantly distant ancestors, then they are called by a common name - ancestors.

Instead of a conclusion

Adaptation to natural environmental conditions presupposes, in addition to biological adaptation, the development of the most adequate model of life support. Among the Tungus, this model of the most complete satisfaction of all the needs of society was worked out over the course of many generations and took the following forms.

• A nomadic way of life, subject to natural cycles and passing along established routes through areas of permanent settlements and associated hunting, fishing and grazing lands.
• Combined hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry as a long-term continuous process of economic development of land.
• The change of nomadic and sedentary periods of life as a way of seasonally shifting development of land, during which the dominance of the extractive industries of the economy changed to one or another source of natural products.
• Consolidation in the religious and ethical practice of withdrawing from natural reserves exactly the amount of resources that would not undermine the reproductive foundations of nature.

Tungus.

Having barely crossed the Yenisei, the Russians met one of the most widespread tribes of the mountain taiga and forest-tundra - the Tungus. They played a special and important role in the history of Siberia and its neighboring Asian countries. They created their own original culture.

Tungus, as they were called in the 17th century. the ancestors of modern Evenks, Evens and Negidals, are the main core of all peoples united in the Tungus-Manchu linguistic group.

The name “Tungus” has been known to Russians since the 16th century, and the self-name “orochen” in the Amur region75 (“orochel” - on the Okhotsk coast and “even” - in the Angara region76) has been known since the 17th century. By the time of initial contact with the Russians, the Tungus had mastered almost the entire Siberian mountain taiga from the Yenisei to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, part of the forest-tundra and tundra west of the Lena.

The deep antiquity of the settlement of the Tungus in the Yenisei taiga is evidenced by the Tungus origin of the name Yenisei, which existed even before the 17th century.77 Having borrowed this name, the Samoyeds (Nenets) only added to it the designation “yam” - “big river” (Enzya-yam).

In addition, three quarters of the names of the rivers in the Podkamennaya and Nizhnyaya Tunguska basins, which are called Katanga in Evenki, are also of Tunguska origin.

The Sym River in the 17th century. recorded by the Evenki name Chirombu. The name Turukhan is also Evenki. Groups of Tungus-speaking tribes lived in the Lower and Middle Amur region, where they mixed with local aborigines. It is remarkable that back in the 17th - 18th centuries. A number of Tungus-speaking groups preserved remnants of the ancient pre-reindeer herding way of life of their ancestors, foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga who did not have deer.

Hunting was carried out mainly alone. A group of two or three people hunted a large animal when it was necessary to drive it towards the shooter, as well as small artiodactyls crossing rivers when they moved to new places. The main hunt was for meat animals; fur-bearing animals were killed along the way.

The first hunt was feeding, so there was a special attitude towards it. Stories about successful hunters who grabbed a running animal by the leg or, after stabbing a bear, threw it over their head and stabbed another, spread far across the taiga. Legends say about such a hunter that he “will not allow a four-legged animal to run past, nor will he allow a winged bird to fly over him.”

Meat animals were needed for subsistence, and fur animals were needed for exchange and obtaining items they did not have, which they could do without, as well as for paying tribute to the Buryats (Angaria region), Mongols (Transbaikalia) and Yakuts (Lena). Meat, as well as excess fish, was sun-dried and dried over a fire to be turned into flour.

When hunting, the Tungus used bows, spears, and used crossbows and nooses. They chased the animal or beat it on watering paths from ambush in trees and in boats. To track the beast, they camouflaged themselves by covering themselves with the skin from the head of a deer, and sometimes from a whole one. All kinds of wooden traps associated with a semi-sedentary lifestyle were not typical for them (the mouths were borrowed by groups of lake Evenks who led a sedentary lifestyle).

Wandering hunters caught fish using bows and spears. In winter, old people speared fish through holes, and in summer, fishermen fished from a boat. On small rivers they made constipations and installed troughs and “muzzles” in them. Many men took part in the fishing.

The walking Tungus, who found themselves in the lake regions (Transbaikalia, Baikal, lakes west of the upper reaches of the Vilyuy), on large rivers (Yenisei, Angara, Lena, Olekma, Amur) and on the rivers of the Okhotsk coast, rich in fish, settled and began to engage in fishing, not leaving the hunt. But these Tungus made up only a small part, and their way of life could not be characteristic of everyone.

In the mountain taiga, fishing had the same importance as gathering: they feasted on fish, like berries, in certain seasons. Therefore, neither in legends, nor in traditions, nor in the folk calendar, fishing and reindeer herding were reflected.

The home occupations of all Tungus were divided into men's and women's.

Men's activities included the manufacture of products from wood, bone and metal, as well as the manufacture of birch bark boats (birch bark was sewn by women), dugout boats and sleds.

Women tanned skins, sewed them into clothes, shoes, tires for tents, and household items. They processed birch bark and made dishes from it, as well as “vices” - birch bark panels for tents and for birch bark boats. Men knew how to decorate wooden, bone and metal things with patterns, women - rovduga, birch bark and fur. Women were responsible for caring for children and preparing food.

The hunters lived in cone-shaped dwellings, the frame of which was covered with larch bark and panels sewn from rovduga (chum-du) birch bark. According to legends, among the eastern Evenks, a more ancient dwelling, typical for the life of a wife, was a chum-chorama, in which the smoke hole also served as an entrance in winter.

As later legends say, the tradition of exiting through a smoke hole was preserved only during military clashes, when the hero jumps out of the chum through it. In places where the Tungus lived close to cattle and horse breeders, with whom they were often in hostile relations, a pile dwelling was placed next to the cone-shaped dwelling. It housed family members during the hunter's absence. They pulled up a log ladder, protecting themselves from attacks by enemies, who often kidnapped the wives and children of hunters.

The wandering lifestyle and hunting influenced the character and many aspects of the life of the Tungus. They determined a love for new places and ease of movement and settlement, developed observation, the ability to navigate in foreign terrain, endurance, courage and strength, without which it was impossible to move in mountainous areas.

Hunting is associated with the habit of not accumulating anything, so the Tungus did not have wars with aggressive goals. The legends emphasize that the wife does not need to take clothes when she goes to her husband’s place - he will easily get an animal for clothes. After defeating the enemy, the winners did not take any property. This is also noted by Arab sources of the 10th (Gardizi) and 12th centuries. (Marvazi) from hunters from the right tributaries of the Angara, where the road from the Kyrgyz land to the Kurykan passed.78

Tungus.

The wandering lifestyle was also reflected in the suit, which had to be light, not restrict movement and dry quickly. Therefore, it was composite (a caftan with a bib covering the chest, natazniks with leggings and high boots). Any part of it could be dried separately by the fire. The food was what the hunter obtained (meat of birds and wild animals). The social organization was characterized by paired associations of parts of clans and large families, which survived among the Aldan and Central Amur Evenks until the 20th century.79

In paired family associations, clan traditions and clan institutions dominated. The first law was exogamy, therefore, according to legend, when two people met, they were first asked about their place of birth, name, origin and father's name.

The marriage was an exchange; they also married women given as vira after defeating their opponents. There were cases where they married enemy women taken after the clash.

All hunters of the eastern taiga had a strong ban on the marriage of their women with their western enemies, horse metallurgists. “When was it that a resident of the taiga married a woman to the enemy Chuluro Selergun,” the legends say.80

Settlement in the taiga by separate families forced young people to embark on long journeys in order to find themselves a “companion,” a “friend” from another clan or another tribe.

For example, according to legends, hunters from the Upper Amur region found wives in the east among different tribes: the Sivirs and Khitans, as well as other aborigines who lived by the sea.

The second law was mutual assistance both between members of the same clan and between families in a relationship of property. A man who took a wife took upon himself the responsibility of protecting his wife's brother and father if they were attacked by an enemy.

In each paired association, according to legend, the strongest, bravest hunter stood out - the gatakta, who could feed the entire group with his prey. If he met all the requirements (he was smart, resourceful, had life experience), then during the conflict he became a military leader (soning, inichon, kurivon).

In addition, each association had one or two shamans. The purpose of a shaman is to treat the sick, to find out who “killed” a person when he died a natural death (natural death was always presented as violent: the deceased person was allegedly killed by a member of another clan). The shaman pointed to the killer, and a detachment of men went to take revenge: it was necessary to kill only one person, a member of the clan indicated by the shaman. The shaman could also “kill” people; he “ate” the souls of his enemies. And such a case also led to a military clash.

The legends also speak about the religious ideas of the Tungus. Spirits are mentioned - the owners of places and houses. There is an idea of ​​a word as something living, having a spirit - muhun (mukhulken touren), which can do whatever the one who uttered the word wants.

The blacksmith, who was also a bow maker, lived alone at equal distances from the families of the clan, “in the middle” of the association. He made bows, arrows, swords, armor and metal jewelry to order. During his work, the customer provided him with food. Teenagers and old men acted as watchmen, who, sitting in trees or on rocks, watched for the approach of the enemy when they could expect him to come.

Wars between such associations were frequent, so legends about clashes were preserved among almost all Evenki groups in large numbers. There were many reasons for this. The most common reasons were failure to hand over the betrothed girl, refusal of matchmaking, or murder of the matchmaker; Very rare reasons were a quarrel, insult and damage to the shaman's costume.

Only the most recent legends, which arose in the 19th century, mention battles to seize property.

The most ancient form of wrestling was a duel between two sonings. After this there was a battle between squads of archers and swordsmen. According to the legends of the Sym Evenks, all the warriors watched the duel between the two Sonings. Sometimes they helped their soning; for example, one of the legends says: “They set up the swords of the Sonings of Nara and Shintavul. Nara's sword was stuck into the ground more firmly. The Sonings ran towards the swords from a certain distance. While Nara was pulling the sword out of the ground, Shintavul grabbed the sword and slashed at his hand.”

Frequent skirmishes led to the development of a whole series of rules: women, children and old people were not killed, only men could fight, old men and women who accidentally fell under the arrow caused annoyance.

The victors had to take care of women and children if all the men of the opponents were killed.

When leaving, they left marks on the trees along their path so that the avenger could find them in the future.

The Sonings, having grown old, tried to find ways to be killed by their opponents. Some of them even gave their arrows to their enemies, while others offered to eat the heart so that strength and dexterity would transfer to them. “Kill me, eat my heart. By eating my heart, you will become strong like me, and no one will kill you,” says soning Shintavul.

Before starting a duel or clash, it was necessary to warn the enemy, then tease him with offensive words or gestures in order to arouse anger.

Before the start of the battle, the units fired a special arrow, declaring war, and shouted words, the meaning of which had long been forgotten (“Khimilgek! Khavun!”). [see, for example, the fairy tale “Battles at Chadobets”]

Some of the eastern Tungus, according to legend, exchanged arrows before the fight and agreed on the distance to shoot at each other. They dodged the fired arrow in different ways. The Western Tungus bounced away from the fired arrow, while the Eastern Tungus caught it with the center of their bow. The following statement by the warriors before the fight was typical: “If I have to kill you, then I will kill you without regret. If I have to be killed, I will die without asking for mercy.”

This tradition also applied to battles between detachments, when before the battle they proposed to fight until everyone was killed. According to the legends of the Western Tungus, it was forbidden to kill a wounded enemy without closing his open eyes. It was necessary to throw something at the person lying down and then kill him.

When detachments clashed, the battlefield was designated on the river. One detachment was located on a high bank, the other on a low bank. The troops made fires before the battle. The legends reflecting later clashes say that before the battle the troops arranged protection in the form of a fence of sledges covered with fur carpets, and for the convenience of the battle, the trunks of all the trees on the site where the battle took place were cleared of bark (this was observed among the descendants of the Angara Tungus ). The site was dug in with a rampart (Barguzin and Bauntov Tungus) or surrounded by a fence (Amgun-Okhotsk). Families remained in the middle of the square, protected by a fence.

And finally, according to legend, when an attack was carried out on the camp of one farm, then, seeing the approaching enemy, a man with birch bark in his hand jumped into the river and released the birch bark there, while he himself swam under the water in the opposite direction and waited, sitting in the bushes. In winter, the man and his family migrated, cutting through the ice on their way and masking the ice holes. The enemy, pursuing the fugitive, fell into an ice hole. Sometimes, when leaving the enemy, they hung their caftan and hat on a stump and turned in the other direction.

The women, taken away by the victors, knowing that the remaining men would come to their rescue, at night cut the bowstrings of their enemies, made holes in their boats, “ran away under the snow,” hid in hollows, in the voids of scree, and on the branches of trees. They hung dry shoes and food on trees for the men who would come to their rescue. Much of what is presented here echoes cases recorded in Russian written sources of the 17th century.

Legends also tell about the Amur neighbors of the walking Tungus - the Sivirs and Khitans, whose language is close to the Tungus. They lived in wooden Aigur houses with several chambers, but next to the house they had a choram tent (with an exit through a smoke hole) and a pile dwelling for women.

They were also hunters of the mountain taiga, but they had horses, and some of them kept deer for meat, which only lived near the camps in the summer, escaping from the midges of the smokers. The deer were milked. Some Sivir hunters also had riding deer, which the Evenks usually killed, mistaking them for wild ones.

There were contacts between the Evenks, Sivirs and Khitans, while marriages with Western horse tribes who used metal were prohibited for all hunters. A hunter, having married a Khitan or Sivir girl, spent two years in her family, then went with his wife to their own places. The wife always led a caravan of deer to her husband. Thus, the foot hunter became a deer hunter. He often installed two tents at home: for himself - a cone-shaped one and for his wife - a choram (yaranga in design).

Legends preserved by the descendants of the ancient Angara-Baikal Tungus tell of attacks on them by the Korendo tribe (possibly Kurykan), who lived near Lake Baikal and took the Evenks into captivity. Making captives wives, they left them to live on the way from the Korendo to the Tungus. A trace of the Tungusic name of this people remained in the name of one of the upper tributaries of the Angara Iya - Korendo.

The next group with which the Angara Tungus had relationships were the Yeniseis: Kets, Asans, Kotts (in the legends Dyandri, Nyandri, Ngamendri; Dyandri in Ket “people”).

They lived next to the Tungus. Toponymy also testifies to this. And in the north there were short Churis, “who skinned deer with stockings, were hunters and fishermen, kept many dogs and ate dog meat. From connections with them, the descendants of the Angara Tungus retained many words and grammatical elements in the language. Traces of them remained the cult of the raven, some details of objects in material culture, a number of general subjects in folklore and general toponymy.

The wandering lifestyle of Tungus hunters, even on foot, led them to resettlement down the Angara-Yenisei and along the Lena from the Angara-Baikal region. This resettlement occurred before the appearance of the suffix “ki” in the self-name “Evenki” (the term “Even” was preserved among the descendants of the Angara Tungus in the 19th century, and among the Sym people it was remembered in 1930).

Moving north, they took with them the name “Lamut” or “Lamkan ~ Namkan”, literally “Baikalian”, later “Primorets”. And the name of Baikal itself - Lamu - was transferred to the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The names of the clans were carried to the lower reaches of the Lena and to the Okhotsk coast: “Shalgan” - “on foot”, “Shaman” (in the Yakut vowel “Samai”), “Bayakshin” (on Indigirka and Okhota in the 17th century).81

Of exceptional importance in the life of the Tungus was the emergence of reindeer husbandry, which caused the spread of reindeer herders throughout the taiga.

The Upper Amur Tungus, who developed the Oro area (above Albazin), have long been called “Orochens” (i.e., residents of Oro). According to legends, some of them tamed a wild deer and taught it to stand by the fires, escaping from the taiga midges. Thus, as the stories go, the deer became semi-domesticated. In the summer they lived near people, and in the winter they went deep into the forests.

These legends are widespread among the Evenks and Evens from the Ejen clan, east of the Aldan-Uchur-Selemdzha line. However, language data show that horse riding among the Tungus arose under the influence of pastoral Mongolian tribes.

Thus, “saddle” in the Evenki language is emegin, in Evenk it is emgun, in Mongolian it is emegel, emel. “Saddle covering”, “saddle sewn into bags”, “bags” in the Evenki language - komdan, khomdan, kom, in the Mongolian language khom - “saddle pad under a camel’s saddle”. “A rug for an unupholstered saddle” in the Evenki language is tenine, in the Mongolian language ten is “sweat pad”. “Mark” among the Evenks is khim ~ im, in the Mongolian language - im. “To be single” in both languages ​​is an act.

Reindeer herders could only roam in the mountainous part of the Amur region, since the geographical conditions of the Amur Valley are unsuitable for reindeer herding. The deer, trampling down the mossy pastures, moved further along the spurs of the Khingan, Yablonovy and Stanovoy ridges to new pastures, and their owners had to follow them.

Thus, the location of the mountain ranges determined the direction of settlement of the Tungus deer groups - Orochen. Reindeer herders entered into mutual marriages with foot hunters - Evenks and Evens (Lamkan-Namkans) and handed over reindeer to them. This is also reflected in the legends of the Evens.

Some of the Orochens went to Sakhalin and, retaining reindeer herding, became part of the Oroks.

Others, having reached the Amur through Amgun and having lost their reindeer, moved to Anyui and further to Tumnin. Here they became part of the Orochi.82

Spreading along the spurs of the Verkhoyansk ridge, the reindeer herders reached the Lena and crossed it in the tundra.

Yakuts in the 13th century. We already encountered reindeer Tungus on the Lena. If reindeer groups settled throughout the Middle Lena basin long before the Russians arrived in Siberia, then reindeer herders penetrated Olenek and the basins of all three Tunguskas shortly before the arrival of the Russians. Here, as in the north, the reindeer Tungus were at first enemies (buleshel) of the indigenous people.

The spread of the reindeer Tungus to the west from Olenek and Vilyui was reflected in legends: among these Evenki at the beginning of our century two periods were still remembered - the time of the cannibal Changits and the time of wars, when deer appeared. The arrival of reindeer herders introduced into the ethnographic complex and language of the indigenous Evenks many features characteristic of the Tungus of the Middle Amur region.

If foot hunters moved on foot even in cases where they had reindeer, which were used to transport only household belongings (mothers carried children in cradles), then reindeer moved on reindeer on horseback or on a sled.

I. Ide saw such a sled among Yakut traders in the 17th century. The design of this sled and the seating on it are the same as that of the Evenks of Southern Yakutia in our time. Since this sled is low and short, with two and three pairs of arched hooves, one can think that it was borrowed by the Tungus from Aboriginal dog breeders and adapted for reindeer.

In Transbaikalia, where the Tungus came into contact with the Mongols and Buryats, in whose languages ​​the suffix “chen” forms the name of the figure, the name “murchen” (“horse breeder”) appeared, along with this the name “orochen” took on the meaning of “reindeer breeder.” Under the influence of the steppe Mongol herders, the Tungus groups apparently became Orochens and switched from a walking lifestyle to cattle breeding. This follows from the vocabulary related to it.

Among the Mongols, the Tungus became acquainted with fabrics that were initially used only for decorating rovduzh clothing, with hot forging of metal and with tools such as blacksmith bellows. Having become cattle breeders, the Transbaikal Tungus began to hunt on horses and lost their “ponyaga” - a back board and skis.

From their southern neighbors, the Orochens borrowed a leather cover, which they pulled over a frame while crossing rivers, and were transported in a leather boat. Along the steppes they made constant migrations from summer roads to winter roads. Under the influence of their neighbors - the Mongols and Buryats, these Tungus in the steppes of the Amur region began to engage in goat hunting, when from 50 to 200 people went out. They surrounded the herds of goats and hit them with arrows. Cattle breeders added fish and vegetable foods to meat foods. Flour was made from dried saran tubers. Like the Mongols, they prepared wine - araku - from fermented mare's milk. Cottage cheese and cottage cheese were made from cow's milk.

Cattle breeding became the impetus for the resettlement of the Tungus to the south across the steppe areas. Continuing to retain their original self-names - “Evenks” and “Orochens”, they received new names - “Ongkors”, “Solons”, “Khamnigans”.

The movement of the Tungus tribes from Transbaikalia to the east led to great changes in the population of the lower reaches of the Amur, which probably began even before the organization of the Jurchen state. Representatives of different clans of Tungus-Evenks (Ejen, Samar, Kilen) gradually joined the aboriginal tribes here.

The newcomers lost their reindeer, adopted a sedentary lifestyle and many elements of their culture from the natives of the Lower Amur, but retained the basis of the language, some elements of religion and the main objects of general Tungus culture - a cone-shaped tent for fishing, skis, a birch bark boat, shoes, some elements of a caftan with a bib , surviving as ritual clothing, and a cradle.

Thus, by the time of initial contact with the Russians, the Tungus, scattered over the vast expanses of Siberia, while maintaining to one degree or another the original commonality of language and culture, were divided into a number of groups that differed in the peculiarities of their economy and way of life. As for their social system, all Tungus did not go beyond the boundaries of patriarchal-tribal relations.

Notes

75 Du Ha1de. Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l "Empire de la chine et dela Tartaru chinoise. Paris, 1735, t. IV, pp. 64-68.

76 Colonial policy of the Moscow state in Yakutia in the 17th century. L., 1936, p. 95.

77 G.F. Miller. History of Siberia, vol. I. M.-L., 1937, p. 184; t. I, 1941, p. 39.

78 Sat. “Materials on Evenki (Tungus) folklore”, Leningrad, 1936, pp. 41-44;

A. P. Okladnikov. Eastern Siberia in the 9th-12th centuries. “Essays on the history of the USSR”, M-L., 1958, pp. 461-479;

Marvazi. China on the Turks and India. Translation von Minorsky. London, 1942;

V.V. Bartold, Kyrgyz. Frunze, 1927.

79 S. Shirokogoroff. Social organization of the northern Tungus. Shanghai, 1929.

80 Historical folklore of the Evenks. L., 1966; Sat. “Materials on Evenki (Tungus) folklore”, Leningrad, 1936.

81 G.M. Vasilevich. 1) Essays on dialects of the Evenki language. L., 1948;

2) Ethnographic observations and linguistic records of A.L. Chekanovsky. Sat. "A.L. Chekanovsky", Irkutsk, 1962;

3) Ethnonym Saman → Samay among the peoples of Siberia. "Soviet ethnography", No. 3, 1965.

82 G.M. Vasilevich. 1) The self-name orochen, its origin and distribution. “News of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences,” series of social sciences, No. 3, 1963;

2) Types of reindeer husbandry among the Tungus in connection with the problem of their settlement in the taiga. Report at the VII International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences, M., 1964.

History of Siberia from ancient times to the present day in five volumes.
Volume one. Ancient Siberia."Science", Leningrad branch. Leningrad, 1968.
Chapter eight (clause 6). The peoples of Siberia before joining the Russian state, pp. 395-402

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