More Genghis Khan from Mongolia
<http://baabar.mn/article/levgumilevtatariin>
<http://eagle.mn/r/87902>
<http://www.unen.mn/a/109694>
<http://taiz.mn/4600.html>

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| Lev Gumilyov: "There was no Tatar oppression" ..

| In 2008, a memoir was published about Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov, a
| Russian historian, nationalist, geographer, and thinker. L. Gumilyov's
| writings on nations, their origins, development, and weaknesses, and
| their interrelationships with environmental and climatic features and
| changes ..

Lev Gumilyov <https://bit.ly/3hWW0jl> is one of the key figures in what
may be called Romantic Eurasianism in Russia. The Russian Eurasianism is
basically linked with the idea of big importance of Asia for Russia, but
there are different approaches within this direction of thought (for
example, freaky Dugin bulgily carries this Eurasia banner). Gumilyov was
not a freak, but somehow his ideas managed to inspirit a kind of counter-
historical sect on the post-Soviet space.

The Gumilyov's romantic narratives suggest Russian + Turkic + Mongolic
cultural closeness, cooperation and "harmony" allegedly since the very
ancient times. This over-idealization leads to misuderstanding of many
historical facts, but it looks attractive for many (of various ethnic
groups) in Russia from the modern perspective. It somewhat resembles
the contemporary Chinese trend of softening of China's history through
the narrative of family of all ethnic groups in their joint cooperation.

I think one should appreciate and keep the present day mild situation,
but when it comes to history, it's better to avoid romantization because
any myths and falsities, even if looking suitable and useful today,
still can produce ugly side effects. One more thing is that those who
tend to overidealize something, often tend in turn to demonize something
else. Gumilyov demonized Khazaria, for example.

To understand the Gumilyov's character one should know that he suffered
quite a lot in the USSR. His parents were from Russian educated class,
and the both wrote poetry and imaginative literature. The Bolsheviks
executed Gumilyov's father in the early 1920s, for nothing. His mother
was born in Ukraine's Odessa, and her family kept an unverifiable family
legend about their distant ancestor from the Golden Horde. The Russian
Empire in the early 20 century was morally depressed, so that many were
looking for Something Different. The poetess adopted a Tatar-sounding
pseudonym <https://bit.ly/2Sz69Ir>, which looked more provocative and
romantic in her view. Presently, Akhmatova is recognized as a notable
poetess of the Soviet period, but during the USSR she was in disgrace,
and many of her relatives were repressed. Lev Gumilyov - her son - was
repressed too. He spent about 15 years in the Soviet gulags.

Gumilyov inherited the pro-Tatar romanticism from his mother's attitude.
The repression by the Soviets only strengthened his inclination to don't
follow an authoritative tradition but rather think more bold on his own.
However, this courage, coupled with the cynicism he had learned within
the gulags, also led him to disregard facts. Since his and his family's
spirit was more linked with "brave romanticism" rather than with sober
and meticulous science, it drove him to interesting "new looks". But he
also promoted unrealistic or counter-realistic concepts, ignoring even
obvious contradictions with solid facts.

Most of professional historians in Russia do not recognize Lev Gumilyov
as an accurate and credible history researcher, still some of his ideas
are valuable when applied to fields of less specific knowledge.

One of the Gumilyov's notorious frauds was that he denied catastrophic
character of the Mongol invasion of Russia and sought to play it down to
the level of ordinary feudal wars. This idea flatly contradicts the data
of archaeological researches, which found an unprecedented level of
destruction and extermination during the invasion as well as an extreme
depopulation and impoverishment, and significant primitivization of
culture in the centuries next after the invasion. This is indisputable.

Gumilyov's works were published in the USSR, in the late Soviet period,
and they met due criticism from many other historians. In the 1990s,
after the end of the USSR and start of rampant commercialization of
everything, book publishers discovered commercial value of his writings,
and his monographs were widely printed and sold. "The official Soviet
historians were lying to you, and now you will know the truth!" While
accurate historical books might look tedious for mass audience, the
Gumilyov's texts are written charismatically in simple language, with
references that give an image of serious science (although it may happen
that the sources Gumilyov referred to said something different to what
he wrote himself while referring to them).

Currently, the Gumilyov-related enthusiasm in Russia has become less
noticeable against what was in the 1990s and 2000s, because people
eventually better learn facts, but there still are many staunch fans of
his counter-realistic theories. Gumilyov remains a popular figure in
the Central Asia, where regional "nationally minded" thinkers don't tend
to be critical to his ideas. And the modern Mongolian nationalists also
are enthusiastic to employ him in favor of their cult of Genghis Khan.

Gumilyov also wrote about China's history, so some Chinese might know
him or be interested to read his works about China, but his major love
were the Turkic and Mongolic peoples and the steppe nomads in general.

* * *

| The Mongol Empire of the thirteenth century consisted of the Golden
| Horde, the Chagatai, the Great Yuan, the Ilkhanate, and the Mogul
| Empire. The Mongols (known as Tatars-Mongols) of the Golden Horde,
| which had existed in Russia at that time, from 1223 to 279 years,

The Mongol Empire had effectively collapsed already in 1266. It was huge
in territorial size, but very short-living. Nomadic clans were inspired
by the prospects of seizure of wealths and expansion, and this common
motivation allowed to keep them as united troops under central command,
but after the onslaught had been exhausted, the empire immediately began
to lose its integrity. Some loose coordination was then restored in the
14th century, but it became more nominal rather than actual. The Mongol
Empire had ceased to exist as a large and integral entity already in the
late 13th century.

| - At that time, Russia's external situation was very complicated and
| internal regulation was lost. There was danger from the west. The
| Germans began to occupy the Baltic states, and Denmark provided the
| resources to attack Russia's northwest. ..

Internal regulation was lost because everything was destroyed by the
invaders. The external situation had become more complicated because the
western neighbours saw Russia significantly weakened due to the
destructions. That's why they intencified the hostile activities in the
Novgorod-Baltic area.

The Tatars provided help to the Russian troops for resistance against
the Europeans, but in this way they simply sought to protect Russia as a
kind of their 'property'.

| - The Mongols attacked, but there was no policy of aggression or
| oppression. The Mongols did not leave a permanent military base in
| the victorious cities of Russia, Hungary, and Poland. ..

The invaders faced an uncomfortable geo-climatic environment and such a
cultural system that was unfamiliar and alien to their native lifestyle
and to what they learned from the Chinese. They had succeded in conquest
but didn't know how to manage these people. They were unable to maintain
a direct rule and couldn't keep permanent bases within Russia. So they
had to finally rely on the native rule and be content with the vassalage
relationship. Hungary and Poland were able to withstand or reinstate
themselves because they better provided their central coordination of
resistance, whereas Russia had to pay for its "fragmentation".

| Due to the fact that different ethnic groups were free to marry
| each other, many hybrids called Mongolian Tatars were formed.
| Among the 65 named hybrids are many famous historians and philosophers,
| such as Aksakov, Alyabyev, Chaadaev, Shakhovskaya, Sheremetyev, Karamzin,
| Milyukov, and Tatishchev.

Of the listed surnames, only the Karamzins noble family is clearly from
the Tatars, and it's known that it was originated at the time when
Moscow was incorporating the Volga Tatars, in the 16th century. The rest
are either natives with Turkic-sounding sobriquets or simply non-Turkic.
The most mysterious is Chaadaev surname, which linguistic origin is,
really, most likely Mongolic, but it's also known that the forefather of
the family switched to Russia from Lithuania-Poland in the 15th century.

Generally, it's simplistic to think that all Tatar(-like) elements were
brought to Russia with the 13th century invasion. Russia lived for more
than 200 years in neighbourship with Volga Bulgaria (in the east) and
with the various Turkic steppe nomads (in the south(-east)). And even
before the Russia's arrival closer to the steppes, the local East Slavs
and Finns, that later became the Russians, were in various interactions
with the Turkic people(s). So the Russians knew many Turkic words and
might use them as bynames. There were persons of Turkic origin among the
regular or non-regular Russians, - some from the captives taken during
wars, some from the allied and 'domesticated' nomadic clans (the proto-
Cossacks) which were residing in the southern borderland. Marriage to
women taken from the steppe wasn't uncommon. People from Volga Bulgaria
as well appeared in Russia as merchants and artisans.