What is the steppe
Definition 1
Steppe is a treeless natural complex formed in temperate conditions continental climate, in which herbaceous forms of vegetation predominate.
Many writers have described the beauty and vastness of the steppe, its generosity and grandeur. The life and way of life of entire peoples are connected with the steppe. And we cannot help but pay attention to this natural complex.
Geographical location of the steppe zone
The steppe zone occupies the south of the East European Plain and Western Siberia, foothills North Caucasus. From west to east, the steppe zone stretches in a continuous strip to Altai. As we move further east, we will encounter steppe landscapes in the intermountain basins of Southern Siberia (Kuznetsk, Minusinsk, Tuva basins, basins of Transbaikalia).
Unlike most natural zones, forest-steppe and steppe do not occupy a continuous strip from the western edge of the continent to the eastern. They appear in the southern regions temperate zone at some distance from the coast.
Relief and climate of the steppe
It was the relief and climate that determined this peculiarity of the geographical location of the steppe. The relief of the steppe zone is represented by hilly plains on platform areas of the earth's crust. In some areas, rock formations of the platform's foundation—tectonic shields—come to the surface.
The steppes warm up well in summer. Average July temperatures are $+21°$С-$+25°$С. Average January temperatures decrease from west to east from $-5°$C on the East European Plain to $-25°$C in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The amount of precipitation decreases from west to east from $600$ mm per year in the European part of Russia, to $200$ mm in the central regions of Siberia. The increase in continentality is associated with the dominant western transport in temperate latitudes air masses. The relief facilitates the unhindered movement of winds in all directions. That’s why there are often blizzards and dust storms in the steppe. Penetrating arctic air can bring prolonged cold spells.
Precipitation occurs mainly in spring. Winters, as a rule, have little snow. In summer, droughts often occur, which are intensified by dry winds from the Central Asian regions.
Features of soils in the steppe zone of Russia
In conditions of rising temperatures and decreasing humidity, chernozems were formed on loess-like loams - the most fertile soils in our country. Climatic conditions contribute to the development of decay processes and the accumulation of humus in the upper layers of the soil, and the abundance of herbaceous vegetation provides the supply of plant remains for the accumulation of humus. In the north of the zone and in the Kuban, the thickness of the humus horizon can reach $100$ cm. In the southern regions of the steppe zone, southern chernozems have been formed, with a thickness of the humus layer up to $25$ cm. Even further south, in conditions of rising temperatures and a further decrease in precipitation, chernozems are being replaced by chestnut soils. They are less fertile and need moisture. There are areas of salt marshes and saline soils.
Flora and fauna of the steppe zone
The steppes are the kingdom of herbaceous vegetation. In the north the zones are common forb-grass steppes , and in the southern regions - fescue-feather grass . Typical representatives of the steppe flora are: meadow timothy, bluegrass, thinlegs, wormwood, feather grass, wild oats, clover, meadow rank . Forests can form in steppe ravines and river valleys.
Herbaceous vegetation is an excellent food source for many species of rodents. Found in the steppe gophers, voles, hamsters, marmots, pikas, mole rats, field mice (not to be confused with voles). They, in turn, serve as the main food for weasels, ferrets, wild cats, wolves and foxes , for birds of prey ( hawk, harrier, buzzard, owl ). In river valleys and on the shores of lakes they live herons, cranes, ducks .
Note 1
The largest bird of the steppe zone is bustard .
Birds of the passerine order are widely represented. Amphibians are also found everywhere ( toads, frogs ) and reptiles ( lizards, snakes, vipers ).
The role of the steppe in human life
It is difficult to overestimate the role of the steppe in the life of mankind. Initially, the indigenous inhabitants of the steppe regions were called steppe dwellers. They were engaged in nomadic cattle breeding. Later the steppes began to open up. Agriculture developed. This led to a radical transformation of everything natural complex. The number and species diversity of wild plant and animal species has decreased significantly. New, introduced species and varieties of plants were cultivated.
Plowing of huge areas in conditions strong winds threatens wind erosion and soil loss in general. Dust storms of $1957, 1968, and 1993 caused huge losses. Soil particles from our steppes were brought to Central Europe.
Note 2
To combat dust storms in the steppes, a network of wind-protective forest belts and artificial forests has been created. To combat drought, a network of irrigation canals has been created. Much attention today is paid to preserving the species diversity of flora and fauna in untouched virgin areas of the steppe.
Now the anthropogenic landscape has changed the appearance of nature and, in many ways, microclimates. That European steppe, located in the strip between 52 and 48° northern latitude, which will be discussed below, no longer exists, but unlike the Golden Horde, the cenosis of the steppe was studied in detail by biologists, and in general terms it was presented
Its features are not difficult to figure out.
It was no coincidence that only nomads, but not farmers, lived in the steppe in ancient times and the Middle Ages. It is no coincidence that in the Middle Ages the Great Steppe before the Golden Horde was not a country of cities. The climate of the Eurasian steppes is harsh and poorly suited not only for agriculture, but also for human life.
The steppe is characterized by seasonal and daily temperature contrasts with strong overheating of the earth in summer and sharp cooling in winter, and a large daily difference in day and night temperatures. “The steppe climate differs from the climate of other landscape zones primarily in its striking inconstancy,” writes Vyacheslav Mordkovich, “Life between drought and flood, heat and cold is the usual state of steppe-type ecosystems. Climatic contrasts are also manifested by alternating frosty days and thaws in winter, sudden cold snaps in summer, or the same unexpected warming (up to 30°C) in early spring in April, when the snow has not yet completely melted.” In summer, the “cold shower” gives way to sweltering heat and drought. “Even in the middle of summer there are cold snaps like in the tundra. The average daily air temperature in July can suddenly drop from 30 to 7°C... It only takes 2-3 hours for the surface temperature of the steppe soil to jump from 16 to 42°C. The daily range of air temperatures in the steppe reaches 31°C even in the middle of summer” (The Fate of the Steppes, pp. 129, 140, 142).
Almost all falling atmospheric moisture (80%) in the steppe occurs in summer months, and extremely unevenly: in June-July from Moldova to the Don there is drought. From the third ten days of September, all Eurasian steppes are immersed in hibernation either due to lack of heat, or water, or both. Sometimes all the moisture can fall in one big summer shower and quickly evaporate due to the heat, and the rest of the time there is dryness, because of which trees do not grow in the steppe, there is little succulent herbs and people's tongues dry out in their mouths. Plants can use no more than one fifth of the moisture that falls in the steppe. Severe droughts recur in the steppe every 3-4 years. It is no coincidence that the agriculture of the nomads was reduced to spring sowing and leaving the field, returning to it only in the fall, collecting a meager harvest, if there was any.
The steppe climate of our continent is determined by the region high pressure, which stretches in a narrow tongue to the west from the Siberian anticyclone, passing along a conditional line connecting the cities of Kyzyl - Uralsk - Saratov - Kharkov - Chisinau - Sekeshfe-
hervar. This conventional line is called the Great Climatic Axis of Eurasia. The axis serves as a wind break on the mainland. In winter, to the north of it, where the forest-steppe and forest zone is located, where farmers lived in the Middle Ages, warm winds blow from the west and southwest, carrying precipitation. To the south, where the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts are located, where dry and cold northeastern and eastern winds prevail, only nomads lived in the Middle Ages.
“The narrow tongue from the area of high atmospheric pressure and the steppe, closely associated with this peculiar climatic phenomenon, pierces Europe like a cold blade. In countries with a mild climate, lush, vibrant landscapes and comfortable human life, the steppes allow frosts, droughts, plant and animal species that can endure harsh external conditions, and in the VII-XII centuries. - armies of nomads,” writes Vyacheslav Mordkovich.
The direction of the winds is dictated by the movement of air flows in anticyclones clockwise, from the center, where Atmosphere pressure high, to the outskirts, where it is lower. In January, a strong pressure difference between the Atlantic and Siberia creates a powerful air draft from the center of Asia to the Atlantic Ocean. This frosty “draft” chooses its path between hills and mountains along flat, low spaces.
Territories north of the Great Climatic Axis of Eurasia receive more precipitation in winter than those south of it. Deep snow cover protects the soil from excessive freezing. In spring there is not only a lot of water, but the peculiarity of the flood is that the water does not immediately run into the rivers, but gradually seeps into the soil, moistening it. To the south of the Great Climatic Axis of Eurasia, water quickly evaporates in the spring, without having time to seep into the frozen soil. Steppes receive water no less than forest ecosystems in the spring when snow melts, and in the summer from heavy rains. However, the period of abundant moisture in the steppes is quickly replaced by drought (The Fate of the Steppes, pp. 27-28, 30, 33 - 35).
We can say that life in the steppe depends on water. As Igor Ivanov clearly stated in a special report at the seminar “Man and Nature - Problems of Socio-Natural History”, the richness of species and the intensity of life of the steppe throughout its history - from the Pleistocene to the Holocene - was determined not so much by cooling and warming and the thickness of the humus layer, but by the level of moisture (see also Ivanov 1997-1). It is no coincidence that the steppe cities of the Golden Horde grew up on rivers.
The steppe biocenosis is designed in such a way as to preserve moisture and phytomass as much as possible during dry periods. Stanislav Mordkovich and Sergei Balandin write the following about the structure of soils and the life activity of plants and animals in this direction.
Mordkovich: “A typical profile of mature chernozem looks like this. A three- to four-centimeter layer of steppe felt lies on the surface. Its basis is formed by dead, but not yet decomposed, above-ground parts of steppe plants... Under the steppe felt there is turf - a horizon 3-7 cm thick, densely permeated with living and dead roots... It is very dense and elastic, like a trampoline. It is difficult for even a very strong digger to break through it with a shovel. When plowed, the turf horizon is completely destroyed... Below the turf follows the actual black humus horizon with a thickness of 35 to 130 cm.”
Balandin: “Moderate human intervention, be it grazing or mowing for hay, leads to thriving plant communities.” Steppe felt (litter) reduces evaporation and improves the water regime of the upper soil horizons. “Steppe felt inhibits the development of turf grasses, and at the same time promotes the settlement and growth of rhizomatous grasses. In conditions of weakened competition from turf grasses, there is an opportunity for the development of shrubs and even some tree species. In addition, steppe felt retains the seeds of fruit-bearing plants, which literally “hang” in its thickness and, not reaching the soil, die... Under natural conditions, the accumulation of a thick layer of litter is prevented by the consumption of part of the plants by numerous animal phytophages and occasional steppe fires caused by lightning strikes . ... The litter is constantly being disturbed, broken by hooves. At the same time, the seeds of many plants have the opportunity to penetrate the soil; some of them are simply trampled into the ground, which greatly facilitates their germination... Before human settlement of the Eurasian steppes, herds of saigas and wild horses - tarpans - grazed in them... In addition, rodents, as well as some insects, made their contribution.”
Mordkovich: “Continuous migrations are a necessary condition for the survival of large animals in a steppe-type landscape... Prairies and steppes cannot be completely eaten by ungulates,
thanks to their continuous movements. On the move, herbivores do not have time to eat all the grass at once, but only bite off the tops of the plants...
Migrations do not occur chaotically, but in accordance with the main vectors of environmental conditions in the steppe landscape zone, i.e. from north to south and back, or in the direction from west to east. In winter, heavy snowfalls in the north of the steppe zone make dry grass (rags), which ungulates feed on at this time of year, inaccessible. Therefore, they are forced to move to the south, where dry standing grass is more accessible. In summer, drought forces herbivores, and then predators, to migrate to the northern or western regions of the steppe zone.:.
The herd lifestyle makes it easier to obtain food, especially in winter time When the herd walks in a column, the strongest males are in front, breaking the snow crust with their strong hooves. From these diggings, young members of the herd can easily get grass debris... If the ungulates, with the enormous density of their population, were evenly distributed throughout the entire space of the steppe or prairie, they would eat the entire above-ground mass of plants in a few days, not giving it the opportunity to grow back” (Fate steppes, pp. 43, 75-76, 87-88, 90).
But the ungulates were not distributed evenly throughout the entire steppe; predators prevented this under natural conditions. They forced the herds to constantly move, they forced strong males to be located on the periphery of the herd in order to protect the young, females and weak individuals. They regulated the number of mammals by natural selection.
Before humans, the steppe was in a state of stable homeostasis. As Sergei Balandin figuratively writes, “The steppe, like a good Turkmen carpet, needs to be trampled on” (The Fate of the Steppes, p. 76). The more ungulates trample the steppe, the more grass there is. But the steppe cannot be trampled indefinitely, although the recreational possibilities of the steppe biome are amazingly great: “the surface of the steppe, compacted by cattle to a state reminiscent of asphalt pavement, already three years after the removal of the grazing load restores its original shape...” (The Fate of the Steppes, p. 134 ).
The appearance of humans made steppe homeostasis less stable for a number of reasons. Steppe cities were created from scratch. The people who settled them did not know how to behave in the steppe,
They knew that the skills developed by their ancestors in other natural conditions could be of disservice in a new place. Often the nomads also did not know the new steppe. It seemed to them incomparably richer than their former native places, but they did not know the limits of its capabilities, followed by an environmental crisis or a local environmental disaster.
These boundaries are determined primarily by a general universal pattern: the physical mass of livestock in a completely anthropogenic landscape or the total mass of domestic and wild animals in a not completely anthropogenic landscape cannot exceed the mass of wild ungulates that were here before humans. In addition, to maintain the ecological balance of the steppe biocenosis great importance has the ratio of individual animal species to their total number. From time to time, as was the case in Ryn-Peski in the 19th century. or today's Mongolia, pastoralists fall into the ecological “trap” of exceeding the proportion of sheep and goats in the total population.
Man protected the weakest ungulates - sheep - from predators. And sheep exert the strongest pressure on the earth, both literally and figuratively. The sheep, unlike large ungulates, moves slowly and tramples the ground thoroughly. In sheep pens, unlike cow pens, you won’t see even a blade of grass. The pressure of small sheep's hooves per unit area is four times higher than the pressure of the tracks of a medium tank (The Fate of the Steppes, p. 164). If large ungulates only bite the grass, then a sheep, according to the popular Buryat expression, “cuts its hair.”
In modern Buryatia, the reduction in the number of sheep immediately resulted in a decrease in the rate of soil degradation (Panarin, p. 100). As evidenced by the study of the environmental disaster in the Volga-Ural interfluve in the 19th-20th centuries, carried out by Igor Ivanov, crisis phenomena there were provoked by a sharp increase in the number of livestock (from 200 thousand to 5 million heads), in which 77% were sheep (Ivanov 1995, p. 181). In the Caspian region, the steppe is preserved at a density of less than 0.7 sheep per hectare, with more than one desert (Miroshnichenko, p. 40). For Kalmykia, the following ratio is accepted: with a population of 300 thousand people, 1 million sheep (69%),
200 thousand horses (13.8%), 200 thousand cows (13.8%), 50 thousand camels (3.4%) (Vinogradov et al., p. 103).
The environmental disaster in the Caspian region clearly shows that traditional cattle breeding is not guaranteed against crises, although most often it does not come to a crisis. It’s another matter if the steppe becomes overgrown with cities, attracting nomads with their herds. The same phenomenon is possible here as at watering places, near which nothing grows anymore.
In other words, even medieval urbanization is fraught with a violation of at least the local ecological balance in the steppes. However, the very existence of the Golden Horde - taking into account its borders, the characteristics of climatic zones, and the underdevelopment of medieval infrastructure - objectively required local concentration in the steppes - the geographical center of the state, not only of administrative and economic management, but of livestock and industry, which placed an additional burden on the biocenosis of the steppe.
Research materials from the Quaternary period and numerous archaeological finds indicate that people lived in the steppe regions of Eurasia in distant prehistoric times - much earlier than in the forest zone.
Opportunities for prehistoric man to live here arose at the border of the Neogene and Quaternary periods, that is, about 1 million years ago, when the southern steppes became free from the sea. From then until the present time, land has been spreading on the site of the Ukrainian steppes (Berg, 1952).
In the Lower Volga region, in the layers of the middle part of the so-called Khazar stage of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, the remains of the elephant Trogonteria - the immediate predecessor of the mammoth, horse, modern type, donkey, bison, camel, wolf, fox, saiga - were found and carefully studied. The presence of these animals indicates the predominantly steppe nature of the fauna belonging to the Dnieper-Valdai interglacial. At least it has been proven that at this time the steppe fauna occupied the south of Eastern Europe and part of Western Siberia up to 57° N. sh., where landscapes with rich herbaceous vegetation predominated.
The coexistence of prehistoric man and steppe animals in this zone led to the emergence of cattle breeding, which, in the words of F. Engels, became the “main branch of labor” of the steppe tribes. Due to the fact that the pastoral tribes produced more livestock products than others, they “stood out from the rest of the barbarian masses; this was the first major social division of labor” (Marx K., Engels F. Soch. Ed. 2. T. 21, p. 160).
In the history of the economic development of the steppes, two periods are distinguished - nomad-pastoral and agricultural. A reliable monument of the early emergence and development of cattle breeding and agriculture is the famous Trypillian culture in the Dnieper region. Archaeological excavations of the tribal settlements of Trypillians dating back to the end of the 5th millennium BC. e., it was established that the Trypillians grew wheat, rye, barley, raised pigs, cows, sheep, and were engaged in hunting and fishing.
Among natural conditions, favorable for the emergence of animal husbandry and agriculture among the Trypillians, the famous archaeologist A. Ya. Bryusov (3952) calls the climate and chernozem soils. According to research by A. Ya. Bryusov, the tribes of the Pit-Catacomb culture, who lived in the steppes between the Volga and Dnieper, already in the 3rd millennium BC. h. master cattle breeding and agriculture. The bones of sheep, cows, horses, and millet seeds are widespread in the burials of this time.
In the studies of A.P. Kruglov and G.E. Podgaetsky (1935), as well as in other works on the Bronze Age, three cultures are distinguished - the Yamnaya, the Catacomb and the Timber. The Yamnaya culture, the most ancient, was characterized by hunting, fishing and gathering. The next catacomb culture, which was most developed in the eastern part of the steppe Black Sea region, was pastoral and agricultural; during the period of the Timber-frame culture - the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. - pastoralism is further intensifying.
Thus, in search of new sources of life in the steppe, man came to domesticate valuable animal species. The steppe landscapes provided a solid basis for the development of cattle breeding, which among the local peoples was the main branch of their labor.
Nomadic cattle breeding, developed in a primitive communal tribal system, existed in the steppes since the end of the Bronze Age. This period lasted until improved tools made it possible to prepare food for the winter and engage mainly in cattle breeding. But already in the 5th century. BC e. the southern Ukrainian steppes become the main source of supplying Athens with bread and raw materials. Cattle breeding is giving way to agriculture. Fruit growing and viticulture appeared. However, agriculture with the creation of settled settlements in the Black Sea steppes in ancient centuries was of a local nature and did not determine the overall picture of environmental management in the steppes of Eurasia.
The most ancient inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region were the Scythian peoples. In the 7th-2nd centuries. BC e. they occupied the territory between the mouths of the Don and Danube. Among the Scythians, several large tribes stood out. Scythian nomads lived along the right bank of the lower Dnieper and in the steppe Crimea. Between Ingul and the Dnieper, Scythian farmers lived interspersed with nomads. Scythian plowmen lived in the Southern Bug basin.
Some of the earliest information about the nature of the Eurasian steppes belongs to the geographers of ancient Greece and Rome. The ancient Greeks back in the 6th century. BC e. came into close contact with the Scythians - inhabitants of the Black Sea and Azov steppes. It is customary to refer to the famous “History of Herodotus” (about 485-425 BC) as the earliest geographical source. In the fourth book of “History” the ancient scientist describes Scythia. The Scythians' land is “flat, abundant in grass and well watered; the number of rivers flowing through Scythia is perhaps only slightly less than the number of canals in Egypt” (Herodotus, 1988, p. 324). Herodotus repeatedly emphasized the treelessness of the Black Sea steppes. There were so few forests that the Scythians used animal bones instead of firewood. “This whole country, with the exception of Hyleia, is treeless,” Herodotus claimed (p. 312). By Hylea, apparently, they meant the richest floodplain forests along the Dnieper and other steppe rivers at that time.
Interesting information about Scythia is available in the works of Herodotus’s contemporary, Hippocrates (460-377 BC), who wrote: “The so-called Scythian desert is a plain, abundant in grass, but devoid of trees and moderately irrigated” (quoted from : Latyshev, 1947, p. 296). Hippocrates noted that the Scythian nomads remained in one place for as long as there was enough grass for herds of horses, sheep and cows, and then moved to another section of the steppe. With this method of using steppe vegetation, it was not subject to harmful livestock slaughter.
In addition to grazing, the Scythian nomads influenced the nature of the steppes with fires, especially on a large scale during wars. It is known, for example, that when the army of the Persian king Darius moved against the Scythians (512 BC), they used the tactics of a devastated land: they stole cattle, filled up wells and springs, and burned out grass.
From the 3rd century. BC e. to the 4th century n. e. in the steppes from the river From Tobol in the east to the Danube in the west, Iranian-speaking Sarmatian tribes related to the Scythians settled. The early history of the Sarmatians was connected with the Sauromatians, with whom they formed large tribal alliances led by the Roxolani and Alans.
The nature of the Sarmatian economy was determined by nomadic cattle breeding. In the 3rd century. n. e. The power of the Sarmatians in the Black Sea region was undermined by the East German tribes of the Goths. In the 4th century. The Scythian-Sarmatians and Goths were defeated by the Huns. Some of the Sarmatians, together with the Goths and Huns, participated in the subsequent so-called “great migrations of peoples.” The first of them - the Hun invasion - struck Eastern Europe in the 70s. IV century The Huns are a nomadic people who formed from Turkic-speaking tribes, Ugrians and Sarmatians in the Urals. The steppes of Eurasia began to serve as a corridor for the Hunnic and subsequent invasions of nomads. The famous historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the Huns were constantly “roaming around different places, as if eternal fugitives... Arriving at a place abundant with grass, they arrange their wagons in the form of a circle... having destroyed all the food for the livestock, they again carry, so to speak, their cities, located on carts... They crush everything that gets in their way " (1906-1908, pp. 236-243). The Huns carried out their military campaigns across southern Europe for about 100 years. But having suffered a series of failures in the fight against the German and Balkan tribes, they gradually disappear as a people.
In the middle of the 5th century. in the steppes of Central Asia, a large tribal union of the Avars arises (Russian chronicles call them obra). The Avars were the vanguard of a new wave of invasions of Turkic-speaking peoples to the west, which led to the formation in 552 of the Turkic Khaganate - an early feudal state of steppe nomads, which soon broke up into hostile each other, eastern (in Central Asia) and western (in Central Asia and Kazakhstan) parts.
In the first half of the 7th century. in the Azov region and the Lower Volga region, a union of Turkic-speaking proto-Bulgarian tribes formed, which led to the emergence in 632 of the state of Great Bulgaria. But already in the third quarter of the 7th century. the union of the Proto-Bulgarians collapsed under the onslaught of the Khazars - the Khazar Khaganate arose after the collapse of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 650.
By the beginning of the 8th century. The Khazars owned the Northern Caucasus, the entire Azov region, the Caspian region, the western Black Sea region, as well as steppe and forest-steppe territories from the Urals to the Dnieper. The main form of farming in the Khazar Kaganate for a long time nomadic cattle breeding continued. The combination of rich steppe expanses (in the Lower Volga, Don and the Black Sea region) and mountain pastures contributed to the fact that nomadic cattle breeding acquired a transhumance character. Along with cattle breeding, the Khazars, especially in the lower reaches of the Volga, began to develop agriculture and horticulture.
The Khazar Khaganate lasted for more than three centuries. During his reign in the Trans-Volga steppes, as a result of the mixing of nomadic Turks with Sarmatian and Ugro-Finnish tribes, a union of tribes called the Pechenegs was formed. Initially, they wandered between the Volga and the Urals, but then, under the pressure of the Oguzes and Kipchaks, they went to the Black Sea steppes, defeating the Hungarians who wandered there. Soon the Pecheneg nomads occupied the territory from the Volga to the Danube. Pechenegs like united people ceased to exist in XIII-XIV. b., partially merging with the Cumans, Turks, Hungarians, Russians, Byzantines and Mongols.
In the 11th century The Polovtsians, or Kipchaks, a Mongoloid Turkic-speaking people, come from the Volga region to the southern Russian steppes. The main occupation of the Polovtsians, like their predecessors, was nomadic cattle breeding. Various crafts were widely developed among them. The Polovtsians lived in yurts and camped on the banks of rivers in winter. As a result of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, part of the Cumans became part of the Golden Horde, while the other part migrated to Hungary.
For many centuries, the steppe was home to nomadic Iranian-speaking, Turkic, and in some places Mongolian and East Germanic peoples. Only the Slavs were not here. This is evidenced by the fact that in the common Slavic language there are very few words associated with the steppe landscape. The word “steppe” itself appeared in the Russian and Ukrainian languages only in the 17th century. Before this, the Slavs called the steppe a field (Wild Field, Zapolnaya River Yaik - Ural), but the word “field” had many other meanings. Such common now steppe Russian names as “feather grass”, “fescue”, “tyrsa”, “yar”, “beam”, “yaruga”, “korsak”, “jerboa” are relatively late borrowings from Turkic languages.
During the “Great Migration,” the steppes of Eastern Europe were largely devastated. The blows inflicted by the Huns and their followers caused a significant decrease in the size of the settled population, in some places it completely disappeared for a long time.
With the formation of the Old Russian state with its capital in Kyiv (882), the Slavs firmly settled in the forest-steppe and steppe landscapes of Eastern Europe. Separate groups of Eastern Slavs, without forming compact masses of the population, appeared in the steppe even before the formation of the Old Russian state (for example, in Khazaria, in the lower reaches of the Volga). During the reign of Svyatoslav Igorevich (964-972), the Russians dealt a crushing blow to the hostile Khazar Kaganate. Kyiv possessions spread to the lower reaches of the Don, the North Caucasus, Taman and Eastern Crimea (Korchev-Kerch), where the ancient Russian Tmutarakan principality arose. Rus' included the lands of the Yases, Kasogs, Bezes - the ancestors of modern Ossetians, Balkars, Circassians, Kabardians, etc. On the Don, near the former village of Tsimlyanskaya, the Russians settled the Khazar fortress of Sarkel - the Russian White Vezha.
Populating the steppe regions of Eastern Europe, the Slavs brought their specific culture here, in some places assimilating the remnants of the ancient Iranian population, the descendants of the Scythians and Sarmatians, who by this time were already heavily Turkified. The presence of remnants of the ancient Iranian population here is evidenced by the preserved Iranian names of the rivers, the peculiar Iranian hydronymy, which is visible through the younger Turkic and Slavic layers (Samara, Usmanka, Osmon, Ropsha, etc.).
In the first half of the 13th century, Tatar-Mongol hordes fell on the steppes of Eurasia right up to the Danube plains of Hungary. Their rule lasted for more than two and a half centuries. Constantly making military campaigns against Rus', the Tatars remained typical steppe nomads. Thus, the chronicler Pimen met them across the river in 1388. Bear (the left tributary of the Don): “there are so many Tatar herds, as if the mind is superior, sheep, goats, oxen, camels, horses...” (Nikon Chronicle, p. IV, p. 162).
For several millennia, the steppe served as an arena for great migrations of peoples, nomads, and military battles. The appearance of steppe landscapes was formed under the strong pressure of human activity: unstable grazing of livestock in time and space, burning of vegetation for military purposes, development of mineral deposits, especially cuprous sandstones, construction of numerous burial mounds, etc.
Nomadic peoples contributed to the movement of steppe vegetation to the north. In the flat areas of Europe, Kazakhstan, and Siberia, for many centuries, nomadic pastoralists not only came close to the strip of small-leaved and broad-leaved forests, but also had their summer nomads in the southern part, destroyed forests and contributed to the advancement of steppe vegetation far to the north. Thus, it is known that Polovtsian nomads were near Kharkov and Voronezh and even along the river. Prone in the Ryazan region. Tatar herds grazed to the southern forest-steppe.
In dry years, the southern outposts of forest vegetation were filled with hundreds of thousands of livestock, which weakened the biological position of the forest. Cattle, trampling meadow vegetation, brought with them the seeds of steppe cereals, adapted to trampling. Meadow vegetation gave way to steppe vegetation - a process of steppeification of the meadows, their “fescubization,” took place. A typical grass of the southern steppes, resistant to trampling, fescue, moved further and further to the north.
The annual spring and autumn fires set by nomadic and sedentary peoples had a great impact on the life of the steppe. We find evidence of the widespread distribution of steppe fires in the past in the works of P. S. Pallas. “Now the entire steppe from Orenburg almost to the Iletsk fortress has not only dried up, but also the Kyrgyz people have burned it bare,” he wrote in his diary in 1769. And in subsequent travels, P. S. Pallas repeatedly describes steppe fires: “The night before my departure it was visible throughout the horizon on the northern side of the river. Miass is glowing from the fire that has been going on for three days in the steppe... Such steppe fires are often visible in these countries throughout the last half of April” (Pallas, 1786, p. 19).
The importance of fires in the life of the steppe was noted by E. A. Eversmann, an eyewitness to these phenomena (1840). He wrote: “In the spring, in May, steppe fires, or fires themselves, are a wonderful sight, in which there is good and bad, both harm and benefit. In the evening, when it gets dark, the entire vast horizon, on the flat, flat steppes, is illuminated from all sides by fiery stripes that are lost in the flickering distance and even rise, raised by the refraction of rays, from under the horizon” (p. 44).
With the help of firewood, the steppe nomadic peoples destroyed the thick dry grass and stems left over from the autumn. In their opinion, old rags did not allow young grass to emerge and prevented livestock from reaching the greens. “For this reason,” noted Z. A. Eversmann, “not only nomadic peoples, but also arable peoples set fire to the steppes early spring, as soon as the snow melts and the weather begins to warm up. Last year’s grass, or rags, quickly catches fire, and the flame flows with the wind until it finds food” (1840, p. 45). Observing the consequences of fires, E. A. Eversmann noted that places not affected by fire have difficulty sprouting grass, while scorched areas are quickly covered with luxurious and dense greenery.
E. A. Eversmann is echoed by A. N. Sedelnikov and N. A. Borodin, speaking about the significance of spring fires in the Kazakh steppe: “The steppe presents a gloomy picture after the fires. Everywhere one can see a black, scorched surface, devoid of any life. But not even a week will pass (if the weather is good) before it will become unrecognizable: windflowers, oldworts and other early plants first turn green in islands, and then cover the steppe everywhere... Meanwhile, unburned places cannot overcome last year’s cover until the summer and stand deserted, deprived of green vegetation" (1903, p. 117).
The benefit of fires was also seen in the fact that the resulting ash served as an excellent fertilizer for the soil; burning out arable lands and fallow lands, the peasant fought with weeds; finally, fires destroyed harmful insects.
But the harm of fires to forest and shrub vegetation was also obvious, since young shoots burned out to the very roots. In reducing the forest cover of our steppes, steppe fires played an important role. In addition, entire villages, grain reserves, haystacks, etc. often suffered from them. Some damage was caused to animals, and primarily to birds nesting in the open steppe. Nevertheless, this ancient, centuries-honored custom of the steppe nomads was, in conditions of extensive cattle breeding, a unique method of improving wormwood and wormwood-grass pastures.
The steppe, with its unstable harvests, was a source of new military invasions. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppes of Eurasia they learned to use horses in warfare. Large military operations were carried out in the open expanse of the steppe: Numerous hordes of steppe nomads, well versed in the art of equestrian combat, enriched by the military experience of the conquered countries and peoples of Eurasia, actively participated in shaping the political situation and culture of China, Hindustan, Iran, Western and Central Asia, Eastern and Southern Europe.
On the border of forest and steppe, hostilities constantly arose between forest and steppe peoples. In the minds of the Russian people, the word “field” (“steppe”) was invariably associated with the word “war”. Russians and nomads had different attitudes towards the forest and steppe. Russian state tried in every possible way to preserve forests on its southern and south-eastern borders, even creating unique forest barriers - “notches”. For military purposes, “fields” were burned to deprive the enemy of rich grassy areas for horses. In turn, the nomads destroyed forests in every possible way and made treeless passages to Russian cities. Fires both in forests and in the steppe were a constant attribute of military operations on the border of forest and steppe. The fires were again covered with meadow vegetation, and a significant part with forest.
The steppes also occupy an important place in the history of the Russian people. In the fight against steppe nomads in the first centuries of our era, the consolidation of Slavic tribes took place. Campaigns in the steppe contributed to the creation in the VI-VII centuries. ancient Russian tribal unions. Even M.V. Lomonosov admitted that “among the ancient ancestors of the present Russian people... the Scythians are not the last part.” At the junction of forest and steppe arose Kievan Rus. Later, the center of the Russian state moved to the forest zone, and the steppe with its indigenous Turkic population was, in the figurative expression of the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, “the historical scourge of Russia” until the 17th century. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. The steppes became the place of formation of the Cossacks, which settled in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Don, Volga, Ural, and the North Caucasus. Somewhat later, Cossack settlements appeared in the steppes of Southern Siberia and Far East.
Steppe landscapes played an extremely important role in the history of human civilizations. During the interglacial and postglacial periods, the steppe served as a universal source of food resources. The wealth of steppe nature - fruits, berries, roots, game, fish - was saved ancient man from starvation. In the steppe, domestication of ungulates became possible. Fertile chernozem soils gave rise to agriculture. The Scythians were the first farmers in the steppes of Eurasia. They grew wheat, rye, barley, and millet. By engaging in agriculture and cattle breeding, the inhabitants of the steppes not only fully provided for their own needs, but also created reserves of plant and livestock products.
The steppe has largely contributed to solving humanity's transport problems. According to most researchers, the wheel and cart are the invention of the steppe peoples. The expanse of the steppe awakened the need for rapid movement; domestication of the horse became possible only in the steppe, and the idea of the wheel was apparently a gift from the steppe plants “tumbleweeds.”
For many centuries, along the steppe corridor stretching from Central Asia to the south of Central Europe, people migrated and there was a global cultural exchange between various civilizations. In the burial grounds of nomadic peoples, examples of the life and art of Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Iran, Byzantium, Urartu, China, and India are found.
Powerful flows of matter and energy move along the steppe corridor even today. Grain and livestock products, coal, oil, gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals are mined in steppe landscapes and transported in both latitudinal and longitudinal directions. The world's longest railways, highways and powerful pipelines were built in an open and accessible landscape. Human migrations along the steppe roads do not stop either. Only in this century two powerful waves of migrations swept the steppe zone.
In 1906-1914. 3.3 million people moved from the central regions of Russia and Ukraine to the steppes of the Trans-Urals, Northern Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia. This movement of the rural population to permanent residence in sparsely populated free lands was caused by agrarian overpopulation and the agrarian crisis.
In 1954-1960 In the steppe zone of the Urals, Siberia, the Far East and Northern Kazakhstan, 41.8 million hectares of virgin and fallow lands were plowed. To develop them, at least 3 million people moved from densely populated areas of the country to the steppes. Nowadays, the natural resources of steppe landscapes play a decisive role in the economy of Ukraine, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga region, the Southern Urals, Kazakhstan, and Southern Siberia.
Having played an exceptional role in the history of mankind, the steppe was the first of all other types of landscape to be on the verge of complete loss of its original appearance and anthropogenization - a radical economic restructuring and replacement with agricultural landscapes.
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Mongolia is a country with one of the lowest population densities in the world. Less than three million people live in an area the size of two Frances, a million of whom live in the capital.
So it turns out that you can drive around Mongolia for a very long time in any direction, and only occasionally come across small clusters of whitening yurts along the way. Two-thirds of the population live in the steppe and lead a nomadic lifestyle, regularly moving to a new place in search of pastures for livestock.
Cattle breeding, whatever one may say, is a key activity for the steppe inhabitants - it provides them with meat, milk (from which, by the way, they have learned to cook a lot), wool, and skins. Typically, one family has different types of animals - it could be a herd of sheep and goats, a pen with cows and calves, or several horses.
The first time we found ourselves visiting a Mongolian family, in a yurt, was at the beginning of our trip, thanks to the people who gave us a lift and were on their way to see their friends. At that time, we had little idea of how nomadic people lived, what their life was like, and what a real yurt looked like from the inside.
No matter how trivial it may sound, their way of life has remained virtually unchanged since ancient times, and even more so since the reign of Genghis Khan. But nevertheless, civilization has reached here - there is an energy-saving light bulb, a TV with a satellite dish, a motorcycle or a truck in almost every yurt.
Horses as transport are still very relevant, because in many places there is nothing else to drive, and it is convenient to herd the herd. The riders we met did not use saddles. But this is somehow dashing
We were lucky to see the process of assembling a yurt for moving to a new place literally in the very first family we found ourselves with. In the evening everything was still in place, no fuss or getting ready. But in the morning, within two hours, a well-coordinated family team completely dismantled the yurt and put it in the back of a truck along with all its belongings.
There are different sizes of yurts - divided by number components walls (we saw from 4 to 6). You can collect more if you want.
The basic furnishings in all yurts are the same - in the center there is a stove with a chimney and a table, along the walls there are beds, most often two. There are also additional beds on the floor, because often a large family lives in one yurt, and everyone needs to fit in.
Many of the cabinets are the same, probably a traditional design.
The floor is partially or completely covered with pieces of linoleum or carpet, sometimes just dirt in parts. In yurts they don’t take off their shoes; they wear street shoes.
Be sure to have a cabinet or wall with photographs of all relatives, children, and grandchildren. Images of the Dalai Lama are also quite common :)
The doors are low, we hit our heads several times. There are no locks, not even latches, only if the yurt is located near a city or village.
You either make a yurt yourself or buy it. Translated into rubles, its cost is about 40,000.
They live, as mentioned above, by livestock farming, selling meat and dairy products. Men tend herds of sheep, cows, yaks, goats or horses. Often the animals graze on their own, and in the evening they are herded to the yurts, where they sleep.
There are small pens in which calves or foals are kept, and mothers are brought to them in the morning and evening to feed the young. After the child has eaten, the remaining milk is milked.
Women also have something to do:) They make cheese, kefir, sour cream, and butter from milk.
In each yurt we saw several basins full of milk at one or another stage of its preparation.
Meat is not prepared in large quantities; more than one carcass is not kept in a yurt.
Smoke over the stove:
Men in the steppe often wear national clothes - over jeans and a T-shirt. It’s comfortable - it doesn’t blow, you can put everything you need in your bosom, and you’ve probably gotten used to it. We saw men different ages in such clothes, so these are not relics of the older generation :)
Women also wear them, but less often. Although a woman's dress has at least one important practical advantage - you can go to the toilet in the steppe anywhere. There are no bushes!
Each family keeps several dogs, which must protect them from strangers (this is unlikely, given the lack of locks), and from wolves (a very real threat, sheep are periodically dragged). All the dogs we met barked very loudly, but when we met them they turned out to be very cute creatures :)
They don’t like cats, they practically don’t even have cats in the city. We once saw, in a yurt, a cute, well-fed cat with very smooth fur. Of course, so much milk!
The people are very hospitable, you can easily enter any yurt if something happens, or you just need to ask something. They will help you in any way they can and give you some tea.
By the way, their tea is completely different - milk, a little bit of shavings and salt. Drink it hot.
Since I still don’t like milk, Roma gets two servings. They also drink kumiss, which tastes like milk kvass. For a snack – bread and butter, sprinkled with sugar! As in childhood
Every yurt has artz - dried salted homemade cottage cheese. It whitens teeth very well! They also make a sweet one - arold. In the first yurt we were given a bag of artza and a large jar of homemade butter - we ate it for two weeks :)
There is also this thing - they remove the top from the basin in which sour cream is made and fold it in half. They eat it with bread.
From what we had a chance to try - sweet milk rice (my portion went to Roma), soup from horns with meat (the horns are for me, the meat is not for me :), homemade noodles with meat (similar).
We heard that Mongolians drink a lot. We drank moonshine vodka only once - in the evening in the yurt, in the family circle, in very moderate quantities. They prepare it themselves from milk and drink it warm.
In our understanding, there were no plates either, they eat from high saucers, and they drink tea from them.
Many products are from Russia and Ukraine - familiar labels are found everywhere - Yanta, Alenka, Zolotaya Smechka.
Few people know Russian, even the older generation. That is, meeting a person who speaks Russian is quite possible, but most likely it will not be the first person you meet, and not even the second.
In general, at first Roma was very freaked out that no one understood him. He was abroad for the first time, he had not yet learned sign language, and he sincerely tried to speak to them in Russian, slowing down the pace of speech and pronouncing the words clearly (well, so that it would be clearer for them)
Apparently his desire was so great that suddenly, quite by chance, we began to meet people who understood our language and spoke it. Almost everyone who gave us a lift, with whom we stayed, whom we met - Mongols, Poles, French, Americans - everyone could more or less clearly express themselves in the great and powerful
I would also like to say something about children. Firstly, they give birth to at least two or three, often more. It's good to be a child in Mongolia!
He has his own steppe, his own horse, his own animals. He is not forced to wash his hands before eating, he is not scolded for torn pants or spilled sugar, no “Don’t go there, you’ll fall, Don’t go there, you’ll run him over.” He can do whatever he wants. He spends his days running around the steppe, riding a bicycle, chasing sheep back and forth.
No stress, hassle or pain (good immunity, not spoiled by medications).
Simple, happy people who don’t bother with conventions and don’t sweat the small stuff. They don't need roads or internet, they have everything they need.
Traveling through the Mongolian steppe is a great place and an original way to reassess your values and dispel stereotypes imposed by society. We loved it and recommend it to everyone!
The steppe is a flat landscape zone located in the temperate and subtropical zones of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Steppes are common on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.
Unfortunately, this type of natural landscape is gradually disappearing from the face of the earth. There are many reasons: plowing of the land, poaching, intensive grazing, fires.
General characteristics of the steppe
The steppes are characterized by an almost complete absence of trees. The exceptions are artificial plantings along paved roads and forest belts near water bodies. But it grows in the steppe a large number of herbaceous plants and bushes.
However, it is worth remembering that a flat treeless area with humid climate is no longer a steppe. This is a zone of swampy meadows, and in the north, under such conditions, tundras are formed.
Natural areas of the steppes
Stepnaya natural area located between forest-steppe and semi-desert. The steppe is a treeless space completely covered with grass. The grasses form an almost closed carpet.
Steppe plants are distinguished by their ability to tolerate drought and heat. As a rule, the leaves of steppe plants are small, grayish or bluish-green. Many plants have the ability to curl up their leaves during drought to prevent evaporation.
Since the steppes occupy vast areas, plant species are very diverse. First of all, forage plants are of great importance for humans: clover, alfalfa, corn, sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke. Beets, potatoes, as well as grains: oats, barley, millet.
Among the steppe plants there are also medicinal herbs and honey plants.
Animals of the steppes are not much different from the fauna of deserts and semi-deserts. They also have to adapt to hot summers and frosty winters. The most common ungulates are antelopes and saigas, and the most common predators are foxes, wolves and manulas. There are many rodents (gophers, jerboas, marmots), reptiles and insects. Steppe eagles, bustards, larks, and harriers are commonly found among steppe birds. Most bird species fly to warmer climes in winter.
Many steppe animals and birds are on the verge of extinction and are listed in the Red Book.
Types of steppes
Types of steppes are distinguished depending on the ratio of cereals and herbaceous plants.
. Mountain- characterized by lush forbs. An example is the mountain steppes of the Caucasus and Crimea.
. Meadow, or forbs - the largest number of species of steppe plants grow here. Meadow steppes are in contact with forests, and their soils are rich in black soil. Most of the steppes of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia belong to this species.
. Xerophilous- with an abundance of turf grasses, mainly feather grass. This type of steppe is often called feather grass. For example, the southern steppes in the Orenburg region.
. Desert, or deserted. There is a lot of wormwood, tumbleweed, twigs and ephemerals here. This is what the once rich, mixed-grass steppes of Kalmykia have become, which as a result of human activity are gradually turning into deserts.
Steppe climate
The main feature of all steppes is aridity. The climate type is from moderate continental to sharply continental. The average annual precipitation rarely exceeds 400 mm. Windy weather prevails in the steppes, and summer is characterized by a large number of sunny days. Winters have little snow, but snowstorms and blizzards are frequent.
Another feature of the steppes is the sharp difference in day and night temperatures, since at night the temperature can drop by 15-20ºC. These conditions make steppes similar to deserts.
Dust storms often occur in the steppes, which affect soil erosion and lead to the formation of gullies and ravines.
Soils of temperate steppes climatic zone are very fertile and are actively used in agriculture. The basis is black soil, only closer to the southern latitudes chestnut soils are found.
IN different countries the steppes have their own name. In Australia and Africa it is savanna, in South America- llanos and pampas, or pampas, in North America - prairies, and in New Zealand - tussocks.
In Europe, steppes have been preserved mainly in protected areas. But in Siberia there are still virgin steppes - Kuraiskaya, Chuiskaya.
For 1 sq. km of steppe space is inhabited by more insects than people in the whole world.
The largest birds live in the steppes. In Russia there are bustards, and in Africa there are ostriches.
