Modern Yakuts. Yakutsk: how equipment and people behave in severe cold
So, the most frequent question that I am asked about Yakutia is: how does the equipment behave there in such a frost?
Everything is clear with cars. They are not silenced. If you muffle, then you will not start. A constantly running engine burns 1,500 rubles worth of gasoline per day, if you don’t drive much. To save money, people rent warm garages (15,000 rubles) or, as I wrote in previous reports, cover the car with a warm Natasha cover - in this case, the engine can be started once an hour for several minutes to maintain the temperature. If the car is frozen, then it's okay: in Yakutia there is a special service when they come to you with a heat gun, cover the car with an awning and warm it up. It costs from 1500 to 3000 rubles. But the wheels, if you leave the car for a long time in the cold, become square, and at first the car drives like on a bad road.
It's easy with a camera. I had a Nikon D5 with a 2500 mAh lithium-ion battery. For 2 days and about 1000 shots, he sat down by 20%. Even a few hours in -40 frost did not prevent him from actuating the shutter. In general, "Nikon" showed itself perfectly, the characteristics of the camera did not change in the cold.
I shot the video on the Sony FDR-X3000. Her batteries were simpler, and in the cold they lasted for 3-5 minutes, after which the camera died, and the batteries were sent to warm up in gloves.
"iPhone" also does not particularly hold in the cold, even in your pocket.
As for people, the frost does not interfere much. The locals, of course, are used to it. It is difficult for an unprepared person to speak at first, as every breath burns, but then you get used to it! The main thing is to dress warmly.
01. Aeroflot flight lands early in the morning, the difference with Moscow is 6 hours, just like in Japan. 
02. The Yakutsk airport is in the fog, everything is in the fog because of the frost! The captain of the aircraft happily reports that it is -45 outside and the weather is fine. 
03. Nothing is visible in the city, at all. I don't understand how people drive here. At the same time, locals say that this is not a heavy fog yet, everything is generally in milk. 
04. Yakutsk is usually covered in fog during severe frosts, although in summer and autumn this is also not the rarest occurrence. This is facilitated by the location of the city, which stands in the Tuymaada valley. 
05. On the highway it can be difficult to overtake someone, because the exhaust gases turn into a permanent cloud behind the car, because of which nothing is visible. 
06. Cars drive carefully, and people, taking advantage of the sluggishness of drivers, cross the road anywhere. 
07. Fog is coming to Yakutsk. The city itself is not particularly interesting. Instead of developing as an original tourist center, Yakutsk has collected all the mistakes of Russian urban planning. Here and random buildings, and an abundance of inappropriate advertising, and miserable yards. 
08. But because of the fog, all this horror is not visible. I'm afraid to come in the summer;) 
09. Gasoline prices 
10. Yakut 
11. The main monument of the city, which reminds that Yakutia is not Russia! 
12. All wires, houses, trees are covered with a layer of frost, it lasts until spring. 
13. From this, the city is very smart all winter. 
14. By the way, if you rise a little higher, the fog dissipates. 
15. Original naming) Unlike other national republics, most Yakuts have ordinary Russian names and surnames. You make an appointment with some Ivan Vasilyevich Yegorov and you think to see a Russian peasant, but no! 
16. As I said, Yakutsk does not hesitate to collect and reproduce the mistakes of modern Russian cities. 
17. Actual announcements 
18. Another local feature 
19. There is much more frost on bushes and trees near intersections due to exhaust gases. 
20. Last time I wrote that in Yakutsk they don’t think about people and don’t make warm stops. Really think and stop began to do! They are simply combined with stores, but I did not immediately notice. There are several rows of chairs at the bus stop. 
21. The screen shows the arrival time of the bus. 
22. On another monitor, the image from the camera is displayed so that you can see when your bus has approached and you can get off. Interesting idea, I haven't seen this before. 
23. With transport, unfortunately, everything is sad. Almost everywhere miserable PAZiki. 
24. And there are few warm stops, basically everything looks like this: 
25. And so: 
27. As in Kazakhstan, in Yakutia they like to make steps to buildings from polished stone or slippery tiles, and then lay a carpet. It would be cool if not miserable Soviet carpets were laid, but bright carpets with a national pattern. I suggest that the mayor's office of Yakutsk invite artists (there are many of them in Yakutsk itself), make a corporate print and order unique carpets. It will be cool - the Kazakhs will envy! 
28. Frost covers not only trees, but also buildings and poles. 
29. But pedestrians are not covered. 
30. Sign 
31. In winter, roads are covered with sand, which makes the city very dirty in spring. 
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34. Yakutsk is an important port on the Lena River. Since there are very few roads and railways in the vast region, and flights are very expensive, river transport is indispensable. 
35. In winter, when rivers are ice-bound, ships are repaired, replacing old worn-out metal with new and durable one. 
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40. Most ships for repair are placed on special pedestals. 
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43. Some vessels remained on the water and "froze" into the river. 
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45. To repair them, the freezing technique is used. 
46. To do this, ice cubes are periodically sawn out around the area of the vessel to which access is needed. When the ice surface hardens, the next layer is sawn out, and so on. In the end, it turns out such an ice niche in which it is possible to repair the ship. 
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49. And this is an ice slide in a cave, which was once the repository of the State Reserve. It was dug in the late 1980s for strategic purposes. True, it was not gold that was stored here, but products. 
50. Ice figures of a woolly rhinoceros and a cave lion, which were once found on the territory of Yakutia. 
51. This is the throne room of Chiskhan. And Chiskhan is the Yakut Santa Claus. 
52. In addition to the rhinoceros and the cave lion, I met Zhirinovsky here. 
53. Wernick is resting on an ice bed 
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56. Picturesque Yakutsk 
57. Sorry, but it's time to fly away! 
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Let's talk about modern Yakutia.
Yakuts live in cities, urban-type settlements and seasonal villages. In recent years, a large and necessary work has been done to enlarge small scattered Yakut villages and camps.
Now 600-800 people and more live in settlements and villages. Most of the settlements were built anew on the places of former residence. As a rule, these settlements are well planned and remote from production facilities. In such villages there is always a school, a hospital, a cultural center, a library, a cinema, a radio center, a telephone exchange, a bathhouse, a post office, and shops.
The villages vary in size. The largest are the centers of districts and state farms, the smaller settlements are the centers of collective farms, commercial farms, dairy and livestock farms. Only in some places on fishing grounds or pastures are seasonal villages preserved.
In the countryside, the Yakuts have - they keep cows, horses, poultry, cultivate vegetable gardens. On the estate, in addition to a residential building, there are outbuildings - a barn, a barn, sheds, a summer kitchen. The estate is fenced. Often near the house you can see the traditional Yakut hitching post.
A modern one is a log house covered with a plank or iron roof, with a porch, a glazed veranda, with large windows. The windows are decorated with carved platbands. The house stands on a foundation, the floor and ceiling are insulated. The house is divided by partitions into several rooms and a kitchen. Such houses are heated by stoves, but household gas has already appeared in a number of villages.
The interior of the house of the Yakut livestock breeder has changed: it does not differ from the city. Modern furniture, bookshelves, carpets, TVs, tape recorders, computers, curtains on the windows, flowers on the windowsills. But along with modern utensils, wooden utensils, leather vessels for koumiss, traditional knives with bone handles, caskets, measures for gunpowder, horsehair products are preserved.
Modern clothing has almost completely replaced the traditional one. Antique shoes, especially winter ones, turned out to be more resistant. Winter fur boots are worn not only by reindeer herders, hunters, but also by city dwellers. They are warm, light, hygroscopic - dry quickly. They also wear soft leather boots. They are worn with cloth or felt stockings. Instead of insoles, dry grass, specially prepared, is put into boots every day.
Traditional clothes are worn on holidays mostly by older women. Some of them also kept winter fur coats, covered with fabric, with mittens attached to the sleeves. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in vintage clothing. This is probably due to the rapid growth of amateur art, in the repertoire of which dances in folk costumes occupy the main place.
In towns and villages, men and women, Yakuts and Russians, buy fur boots. Fur boots are sewn not only from deer, but also from cow and horse skins. No less popular are fur mittens and pointed fur hats. Young women and girls prefer fox and fox fur hats in modern styles.
The Yakuts (pronunciation with an emphasis on the last syllable is common among the local population) are the indigenous population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Self-name: "Sakha", in the plural "Sakhalar".
According to the results of the 2010 census, 478 thousand Yakuts lived in Russia, mainly in Yakutia (466.5 thousand), as well as in the Irkutsk, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. The Yakuts are the most numerous (almost 50% of the population) people in Yakutia and the largest of the indigenous peoples of Siberia within the borders of Russia.
Anthropological appearance
Purebred Yakuts are more similar in appearance to the Kirghiz than to the Mongols.
They have an oval face, not high, but a wide and smooth forehead with rather large black eyes and slightly sloping eyelids, the cheekbones are moderately pronounced. A characteristic feature of the Yakut face is the disproportionate development of the middle facial part to the detriment of the forehead and chin. The complexion is swarthy, has a yellow-gray or bronze tint. The nose is straight, often with a hump. The mouth is large, the teeth are large yellowish. The hair is black, straight, coarse, hairy vegetation is completely absent on the face and other parts of the body.
Growth is not high, 160-165 centimeters. Yakuts do not differ in muscle strength. They have long and thin arms, short and crooked legs.
The movements are slow and heavy.
Of the sense organs, the hearing organ is best developed. The Yakuts do not distinguish at all from one another some colors (for example, shades of blue: violet, blue, blue), for which there are not even special designations in their language.
Language
The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of the Altai family, which has groups of dialects: central, Vilyui, northwestern, Taimyr. There are many words of Mongolian origin in the Yakut language (about 30% of words), there are also about 10% of words of unknown origin that have no analogues in other languages.
According to its lexical and phonetic features and grammatical construction, the Yakut language can be classified among the ancient Turkic dialects. According to S.E. Malov, the Yakut language is considered pre-written by its construction. Consequently, either the basis of the Yakut language was not originally Türkic, or it separated from the Türkic proper in remote antiquity, when the latter experienced a period of enormous linguistic influence of the Indo-Iranian tribes and further developed separately.
At the same time, the language of the Yakuts unequivocally testifies to its similarity with the languages of the Turkic-Tatar peoples. The Tatars and Bashkirs, exiled to the Yakutsk region, had only a few months to learn the language, while the Russians needed years for this. The main difficulty is the Yakut phonetics, which is completely different from Russian. There are sounds that the European ear begins to distinguish only after a long habituation, and the European larynx is not able to reproduce them quite correctly (for example, the sound "ng").
The study of the Yakut language is difficult due to a large number of synonymous expressions and the indefiniteness of grammatical forms: for example, there are no genders for nouns and adjectives do not agree with them.
Origin
The origin of the Yakuts can be reliably traced only from about the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. It is not possible to establish exactly who the ancestors of the Yakuts were, and it is also impossible to establish the time of their settlement in the country where they are now the predominant race, their place of residence before resettlement. The origin of the Yakuts can be traced only on the basis of linguistic analysis and the similarity of the details of everyday life and cult traditions.
The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts should, apparently, begin with the era of the early nomads, when cultures of the Scythian-Siberian type developed in the west of Central Asia and in southern Siberia. Separate prerequisites for this transformation on the territory of Southern Siberia go back to the 2nd millennium BC. The origins of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts can be traced most clearly in the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains. Its carriers were close to the Saks of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This pre-Turkic substrate in the culture of the peoples of the Sayano-Altai and the Yakuts is manifested in their household, in things developed during the period of early nomadism, such as iron adzes, wire earrings, copper and silver torcs, leather shoes, wooden choron goblets. These ancient origins can also be traced in the arts and crafts of the Altaians, Tuvans and Yakuts, who retained the influence of the "animal style".
The ancient Altai substrate is also found among the Yakuts in the funeral rite. This is, first of all, the personification of a horse with death, the custom of installing a wooden pillar on the grave - a symbol of the "tree of life", as well as the presence of kibes - special people who were engaged in burials, who, like the Zoroastrian "servants of the dead", were kept outside the settlements. This complex includes the cult of the horse and the dualistic concept - the opposition of the deities aiyy, personifying good creative principles and abaahy, evil demons.
These materials are consistent with the data of immunogenetics. Thus, in the blood of 29% of the Yakuts examined by V.V. Fefelova in different regions of the republic, the HLA-AI antigen, found only in Caucasian populations, was found. It is often found in the Yakuts in combination with another HLA-BI7 antigen, which can be traced in the blood of only two peoples - the Yakuts and the Hindi Indians. All this leads to the idea that some ancient Turkic groups took part in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, perhaps not directly the Pazyryks, but, of course, associated with the Pazyryks of Altai, whose physical type differed from the surrounding Caucasoid population by a more noticeable Mongoloid admixture.
The Scythian-Hunnic origins in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts further developed in two directions. The first can be conditionally called "Western" or South Siberian, it was based on the origins worked out under the influence of the Indo-Iranian ethnoculture. The second is "Eastern" or "Central Asian". It is represented, albeit not numerous, by the Yakut-Xiongnu parallels in culture. This "Central Asian" tradition can be traced in the anthropology of the Yakuts and in religious ideas associated with the koumiss holiday yyakh and the remnants of the cult of the sky - tanara.
The ancient Turkic era, which began in the 6th century, was in no way inferior to the previous period in terms of territorial scope and grandeur of its cultural and political resonance. This period, which gave rise to a generally unified culture, is associated with the formation of the Turkic foundations of the Yakut language and culture. A comparison of the culture of the Yakuts with the ancient Turkic showed that in the Yakut pantheon and mythology, precisely those aspects of the ancient Turkic religion that developed under the influence of the previous Scythian-Siberian era were more consistently preserved. The Yakuts have preserved a lot in their beliefs and funeral rites, in particular, by analogy with the ancient Turkic stones-balbals, the Yakuts set up wooden posts-poles.
But if among the ancient Turks the number of stones on the grave of the deceased depended on the people killed by him in the war, then among the Yakuts the number of columns installed depended on the number of horses buried with the deceased and eaten on his funeral feast. The yurt, where the person died, was torn down to the ground and a quadrangular earthen fence was obtained, similar to the ancient Turkic fences surrounding the grave. In the place where the deceased lay, the Yakuts put an idol-balbal. In the ancient Turkic era, new cultural standards were developed that transformed the traditions of the early nomads. The same regularities characterize the material culture of the Yakuts, which, therefore, can be considered as a whole Turkic.
The Turkic ancestors of the Yakuts can be referred in a broader sense to the number of "Gaogui Dinlins" - Teles tribes, among which one of the main places belonged to the ancient Uighurs. In the Yakut culture, many parallels have been preserved that point to this: cult rites, the use of a horse for conspiracy in marriages, and some terms associated with beliefs. The Teles tribes of the Baikal region also included the tribes of the Kurykan group, which also included the Merkits, who played a certain role in the development of the pastoralists of the Lena. The origin of the Kurykans was attended by local, in all likelihood, Mongolian-speaking pastoralists associated with the culture of slab graves or the Shiweis and, possibly, the ancient Tungus. But still, in this process, the leading role belonged to the newcomer Turkic-speaking tribes, related to the ancient Uighurs and Kyrgyz. The Kurykan culture developed in close contact with the Krasnoyarsk-Minusinsk region. Under the influence of the local Mongol-speaking substratum, the Turkic nomadic economy took shape in semi-sedentary pastoralism. Subsequently, the Yakuts, through their Baikal ancestors, spread cattle breeding in the Middle Lena, some household items, forms of dwellings, clay vessels, and probably inherited their main physical type.
In the X-XI centuries, Mongolian-speaking tribes appeared in the Baikal region, on the Upper Lena. They began to live together with the descendants of the Kurykans. Later, part of this population (the descendants of the Kurykans and other Turkic-speaking groups who experienced a strong linguistic influence of the Mongols) went down the Lena and became the core in the formation of the Yakuts.
In the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, the participation of the second Turkic-speaking group with the Kipchak heritage is also traced. This is confirmed by the presence in the Yakut language of several hundred Yakut-Kypchak lexical parallels. The Kipchak heritage seems to be manifested through the ethnonyms Khanalas and Sakha. The first of them had a probable connection with the ancient ethnonym Khanly, whose carriers later became part of many medieval Turkic peoples, their role in the origin of the Kazakhs is especially great. This should explain the presence of a number of common Yakut-Kazakh ethnonyms: odai - adai, argin - argyn, meirem suppu - meiram sopy, eras kuel - orazkeldy, tuer tugul - gortuur. The link connecting the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is the ethnonym Saka, with many phonetic variants found among the Turkic peoples: juices, saklar, sakoo, sekler, sakal, saktar, sakha. Initially, this ethnonym, apparently, was part of the circle of Teles tribes. Among them, along with the Uighurs, Kurykans, Chinese sources also place the Seike tribe.
The kinship of the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is determined by the presence of cultural elements common to them - the burial rite with the skeleton of a horse, the manufacture of a stuffed horse, wooden cult anthropomorphic pillars, jewelry items basically associated with the Pazyryk culture (earrings in the form of a question mark, hryvnia), common ornamental motifs . Thus, the ancient South Siberian direction in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts in the Middle Ages was continued by the Kipchaks.
These conclusions were mainly confirmed on the basis of a comparative study of the traditional culture of the Yakuts and the cultures of the Turkic peoples of the Sayano-Altai. In general, these cultural ties fall into two main layers - the ancient Turkic and medieval Kypchak. In a more conventional context, the Yakuts converge along the first layer through the Oguz-Uigur "language component" with the Sagay, Beltir groups of the Khakas, with the Tuvans and some tribes of the North Altaians. All these peoples, except for the main cattle-breeding, also have a mountain-taiga culture, which is associated with fishing and hunting skills and techniques, the construction of stationary dwellings. According to the "Kipchak layer", the Yakuts are moving closer to the southern Altaians, Tobolsk, Baraba and Chulym Tatars, Kumandins, Teleuts, Kachin and Kyzyl groups of Khakasses. Apparently, elements of Samoyed origin penetrate into the Yakut language along this line, and borrowings from the Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages into Turkic are quite frequent to designate a number of tree and shrub species. Consequently, these contacts are connected mainly with forest "gathering" culture.
According to available data, the penetration of the first pastoral groups into the basin of the Middle Lena, which became the basis for the formation of the Yakut people, began in the 14th century (possibly at the end of the 13th century). In the general appearance of material culture, some local sources associated with the early Iron Age, with the dominant role of the southern foundations, are traced.
The newcomers, mastering Central Yakutia, made fundamental changes in the economic life of the region - they brought cows and horses with them, organized hay and pasture farming. Materials from archaeological monuments of the 17th-18th centuries recorded a successive connection with the culture of the Kulun-Atakh people. The clothing complex from the Yakut burials and settlements of the 17th-18th centuries finds its closest analogies in Southern Siberia, mainly covering the Altai and Upper Yenisei regions within the 10th-14th centuries. The parallels observed between the Kurykan and Kulun-Atakh cultures seem to be obscured at this time. But the Kypchak-Yakut connections are revealed by the similarity of the features of material culture and the funeral rite.
The influence of the Mongolian-speaking environment in the archaeological monuments of the XIV-XVIII centuries is practically not traced. But it manifests itself in the linguistic material, and in the economy it constitutes an independent powerful layer.
From this point of view, settled pastoralism, combined with fishing and hunting, dwellings and household buildings, clothing, footwear, ornamental art, religious and mythological beliefs of the Yakuts are based on the South Siberian, Turkic platform. And already oral folk art, folk knowledge was finally formed in the Middle Lena basin under the influence of the Mongolian-speaking component.
The historical traditions of the Yakuts, in full agreement with the data of archeology and ethnography, connect the origin of the people with the process of resettlement. According to these data, it was the alien groups, headed by Omogoy, Elley and Uluu-Khoro, that formed the backbone of the Yakut people. In the face of Omogoy, one can see the descendants of the Kurykans, who belonged to the Oguz group in terms of language. But their language, apparently, was influenced by the ancient Baikal and alien medieval Mongol-speaking environment. Elley personified the South Siberian Kipchak group, represented mainly by the Kangalas. Kipchak words in the Yakut language, according to the definition of G.V. Popov, are mainly represented by rarely used words. From this it follows that this group did not have a tangible impact on the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language of the Old Turkic core of the Yakuts. The legends about Uluu-Khoro reflected the arrival of Mongolian groups to the Middle Lena. This is consistent with the assumption of linguists about the residence of the Mongolian-speaking population in the territory of the modern "akaya" regions of Central Yakutia.
According to available data, the formation of the modern physical appearance of the Yakuts was completed no earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. on the Middle Lena on the basis of a mixture of alien and aboriginal groups. In the anthropological image of the Yakuts, it is possible to distinguish two types - a rather powerful Central Asian, represented by the Baikal core, which was influenced by the Mongolian tribes, and the South Siberian anthropological type with an ancient Caucasoid gene pool. Subsequently, these two types merged into one, forming the southern backbone of modern Yakuts. At the same time, thanks to the participation of the Khori people, the Central Asian type becomes predominant.
Life and economy
The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukagirs, the Olekminskys are strongly acculturated by the Russians.
The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called "horse people") and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive. Haymaking was known even before the arrival of the Russians.
Fishing was also developed. They caught fish mainly in summer, in winter they caught fish in the hole, and in autumn they organized a collective seine fishing with a division of prey between all participants. For the poor who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgoths and others.
Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare) was known, later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horse chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.
There was also gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), only raspberries were not used from berries, which was considered impure.
Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century and was very poorly developed until the middle of the 19th century. Its spread (especially in the Olekminsky district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.
The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, and, from the 19th century, carving on mammoth ivory, were developed.
They traveled mainly on horseback, transporting goods in packs. There were known skis lined with horse kamus, sledges (silis syarga, later - sledges like Russian wood firewood), usually harnessed to bulls, in the north - straight-dust reindeer sleds. The boats, like the Uevenks, were birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; later sailing boats-karbass were borrowed from the Russians.
dwelling
Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (ooh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, to the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (hoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof as the dwelling, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings.
Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. There was a conical building made of poles covered with birch bark (urasa), in the north - with turf (kalyman, holuman). Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.
Cloth
Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is the women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth, and with a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.
Food
The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's milk - curdled milk (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat soup. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsky district.
Religion
Traditional beliefs were based on shamanism. The world consisted of several tiers, Yuryung ayy toyon was considered the head of the upper one, Ala buurai toyon and others were considered the head of the lower one. The cult of the female deity of fertility Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, cows were sacrificed in the lower one. The main holiday is the spring-summer koumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.
Orthodoxy spread in the XVIII-XIX centuries. But the Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, master spirits. Elements of totemism have also been preserved: the clan had a patron animal, which was forbidden to be killed, called by name.
In the north-east of Siberia, by the arrival of the Russians, a prominent place in terms of the level of development of culture and numbers among other tribes was occupied by the pastoralists Yakuts (Sakha). By the time the Russians arrived, the main group of Yakuts inhabited the triangle formed by the middle course of the Lena, Aldan and Amgoya. Small groups of them lived on the Yana and Olekma rivers, at the mouth of the Vilyui and in the Zhigansk region. In total, according to Russian documents, there were 25-26 thousand Yakuts. According to the most complete list in the yasak book, there were 35 "volosts", which corresponded to the number of Yakut clans and tribes. By the arrival of the Russians, the Yakuts were an ethnic entity with a single language, common territory and culture. In terms of language and culture, the Yakuts are, as it were, an island of Turkic-speaking peoples, the northernmost Turkic people in the world. In their legends, including those recorded at the beginning of the 18th century. Yakov Lindenau, speaks of the flight of the ancestors of the Yakuts from the Baikal region to the north. According to legend, the last settlers from the south came here at the end of the 16th century. led by Badzhey, the grandfather of the well-known toyon Tygyn in the legends.
In the fight against the harsh nature of their new homeland, the Yakuts lost much of what they had before. They had sheep (hoi), camels (tebien) in the south, but, as you know, in Yakutia, sheep and camels do not withstand the local climate. The Yakuts also lost their written language, which legends speak of. According to some versions of the legends, Ellyai-Botur lost his letters during his flight down the Lena, and according to others, Omogoy-bay kept his letters in a bag; when he sailed along the Lena on a dark night, during a storm they drowned in the river.
The fact that the ancestors of the Yakuts knew writing is evidenced by the writings on the rocks of the river. Lena A.P. Okladnikov discovered inscriptions with runic signs on the right bank of the Lena on the Shishkinsky rocks, near the Yakut vzvoz, they are also to the north, not far from Verkholensk, against the village. Davydov. Scribe near the village. Davydovo deciphered by A.N. Bernshtam as the Yakut word "alkatim" - "I blessed". There are writings of almost the same content on the right bank of the Lena, opposite Fr. Written. The world's northernmost monument of runic writing was discovered by A.P. Okladnikov on the left bank of the river. Lena, below with. Sinsk, 200 km from the city of Yakutsk, near the village. Petrovskaya, already in Central Yakutia.
In the heroic epic of the Yakuts - olonkho, folk singers created the image of Seerkeen Sesen. In most legends, Seerkeen Sesen is represented as a highly experienced and highly intelligent, gray-haired and gray-bearded old man. He came from the Aiyy Aimakha tribe. Narrators imagined him sitting behind stone tablets or writing with an eagle pen. The bogatyrs from the Aiyy tribe, in difficult and complicated cases, usually turned to him for advice and received an exhaustive answer from him. The image of Usun Durantayi Suruksut (the scribe Long Durantayi) is displayed in the olonkho. He is dressed in white. His clothes are decorated with floral ornaments. He was the clerk of Yuryung Aiyy-toyon, the "supreme god-creator" (literally: the white creator - toyon). In many olonkhos, the decisions of the gods and heavenly plans are written in blood on trihedral or tetrahedral stone pillars. These stone tablets evoke steles with ancient Turkic runic inscriptions. In the language of the Yakut people there are the terms "letter" and "letters" - "suruk" and "bichik". Both words in the same meaning were preserved among other Turkic-Mongolian peoples.
In the north, the Yakuts lost not only their written language, but also the agricultural skills that their ancestors, who lived near the lake, owned. Baikal. However, even in the depths of Yakutia, they retained their herds of cattle and herds of horses, their language and their culture.
The Yakuts smelted iron from ore and knew how to make axes, knives, palm trees, cauldrons, spear and arrowheads, chain mail (kuyakhs), blacksmith accessories (hammer, anvil) and other tools and household items. Blacksmithing has become a special professional craft. The blacksmith among the Yakuts was surrounded by honor, and he was considered stronger than the shaman. The Yakuts believed that his craft and art were created by more powerful spirits than the shaman's, that the blacksmith wielded the mighty power of fire and could kill the shaman.
The main wealth of the Yakuts was cattle. Horses were ridden and harnessed to sledges. Koumiss was made from mare's milk. Cattle and horses were slaughtered for meat. Butter and other dairy products were made from the milk of cattle. The skin of cattle and horses was used for dressing clothes and shoes. Crockery, ropes, belts and other items were made from it. Horse hair was widely used.
In the conditions of a long and severe winter, cattle cannot do without hay, and the Yakuts had to produce fodder for cattle, but the horses hibernated on pasture. Hay was cut with iron and bone scythes (khotur). Haymaking forced me to a semi-sedentary life. In the summer we went to sayylyks, i.e. to summer pastures. In winter, they migrated to kystyks (winter roads), which were built near mowing places. Some Yakuts had, in addition to summer pastures, also spring and autumn pastures. The Yakuts lived scattered and built yurts at a great distance from one another.
Hunting and fishing were important branches of the Yakut economy. Many poor Yakuts, who did not have livestock, ate only fish, meat of animals and birds. Fish were caught with hair nets and nets. "Muzzles" and constipation were also used. The endless forests of Yakutia were rich in game. The Yakuts hunted sables, foxes, squirrels, ermines, hares and other fur-bearing animals. They sewed warm clothes from sable, fox, wolf, hare and other furs. Hunting for elk, bear, wild deer and other animals was also developed. In the Yakut epic, most of the heroes are not only cattle breeders, but also hunters. In the Yakut pantheon, one of the main places was occupied by the god of hunters, the spirit - the owner of the forest Bai Bayanay. Hunting methods varied. Some of them were borrowed from the eternal hunters of the taiga - Tungus, Yukagirs and other peoples of the North.
Materials of archaeological excavations depict the domestic life of the Yakuts. The dwellings of the ancient Yakuts - the Kyrgys-Yoteks - were located near rich rivers and lakes. The bones of a horse and a cow, a reindeer, and large fish were found in them. These dwellings were similar to the late Yakut yurt-booth. Outside, the ancient yurt looked like a truncated tetrahedral pyramid. The frame of the yurt consisted of pillars with beams that served as a support for the walls of obliquely placed poles or planks. The ceiling was sloped on two sides. Outside, the yurt was smeared with clay in summer, and in winter with cow dung or covered with turf, earth was poured on top of the ceiling. Inside the yurta-booth there was a hearth smeared with clay or a fireplace made of clay and poles. Cattle were placed in the same yurt, fenced off from the residential part with poles or chopping blocks. Along with yurts-balagans, the Yakuts had birch bark dwellings - urases and light huts in which they lived in the summer.
During the excavations of the ancient dwellings of the Yakuts, ancient Yakut ceramics were also found. Neither the Tungus, nor the Yukaghirs, nor the Lamuts (Evens), and even the Buryats, the inhabitants of the Baikal region, did not make pottery before the arrival of the Russians. Only the Yakuts made pots and other utensils from clay.
In the language and epic of the Yakuts there are hints that they had elements of statehood in the distant past, or at least that they were part of the orbit of the ancient steppe states. Such are the words "bai" ("rich"), "darkhan" ("tarkhan"), "khan", "tygyn" (from the word "tegin"). All this gave rise to A.P. Okladnikov to conclude that the ancestors of the Yakuts, even in their southern homeland, knew khans, bays, darkhans, tegins and other people of their kind, distinguished by their wealth, nobility, power and having the title of "tegins". A.P. Okladnikov admits the possibility that in the beginning there was a tribal organization - a union of tribes, headed by the descendants of Badzhey, the last of them was Tygyn and his descendants, the Kangalas princes. However, by the arrival of the Russians, this union, in his opinion, fell apart. Tygyn, according to A.P. Okladnikov, tried to forcibly revive the union of the Yakut tribes, but to no avail. Memories of his wars with other tribes are legends about the "time of wars" - kyrgys yuiete.
The Yakuts were divided into tribes and clans by the arrival of the Russians. Large groups, like the Kangalas, Megins, Baturus, Bogonians and Namts, consisted of 2-5 thousand people. each, probably, were tribes, and smaller ones, such as the Betyuns, Cherikteians, Nakars, Dyupsins (Dubchins), Bayagan-Tays, were clans. Yakut clans were exogamous. The head of the family was a man. The dominant form of marriage among the Yakuts was a pair, patrilocal marriage, when the wife passed into the clan of her husband. A man gave cattle for his wife to her parents. The main economic unit was a separate small family. Polygamy was not forbidden.
In the heroic epic of the Yakuts - olonkho, historical legends and in Russian documents of the 17th century. there are no indications of the existence of tribal administration and tribal authority, except for the authority of the toyon - the ancestor. However, it is possible that there were tribal governing bodies, in particular the authority of the elders of the clan. The oral tradition has preserved numerous stories and legends about inter-clan clashes, battles of heroes, bloody wars and participants in historical events. Of course, in these stories and legends there is a lot of fabulous, exaggerated and embellished, but they are based on genuine events from the life of the people.
Each clan and tribe sang and glorified their knights, their heroes. The Kangalas people told such legends about Tygyn, the Bogonians - Bert-khara, the Amgins - about Omollon, the Cherikteans - about Lakha Batyr, the Namtsy - about Chorbogor Batyr, the Betyunians - about Tieteibit Bootur. There are especially many legends about Tygyn.
The causes of inter-clan wars were blood feuds, personal insults, enmity and rivalry between heroes, seizures of cattle and women. Often they ended in single combat of heroes, recognition of superiority - “aat ylyy” (“taking away the name and glory”). The battle was led by the ancestors (toyons), the main warriors were the heroes. From a young age, the heroes were taught military affairs and trained. Before the battle, the shamans performed the rituals of invoking the spirit of war - ilbis tardyy, instilling a warlike spirit into the heroes and the ritual of washing weapons with blood - sebi khannyy.
Historical legends tell, for example, about the inter-clan war between the Betyuns and the Nakhars. The Bethune shaman summoned the spirit of war and instilled it in the hero Tieteibit Bootur. The hero became possessed, with great difficulty they threw a lasso over him, screwed him to one larch and put on a shell, gave him a spear and a palm tree, then let him go. Freed, Thiatabit Bootur " ran to the Kharyya-laakh area, where he caught the Nakharians sleeping at the overnight stop, and began to kill and cut everyone from the edge". The bogatyr of the bayagantai Madygy Törönöy also became obsessed after the spirit of war was instilled in him: “ They tied him and tied him with ropes to seven trees. And, putting on him an armored helmet and relying clothes, giving him all the necessary weapons in his hands, they let him go, and the man ran in the direction where the battle was supposed". The participants in the battles were armed with bows of various sizes, arrows in a quiver, iron spears, and a palm tree. The bogatyrs wore a shell and a helmet, and war horses were also covered with armor. There are indications in Russian documents that the Yakuts built defensive structures from wood and earth.
In general, the tribal system of the Yakuts before the arrival of the Russians was at the stage of decomposition. The clan consisted of the tribal elite, free members of the clan - ordinary community members and slaves. At the head of the clan was the ancestor - toyon. He stood out from the tribal elite, and, apparently, in tribes and large clans, the ancestors became not by choice, but by inheritance. Often military leaders, knights of the clan, whom shamans and clan meetings dedicated to heroic deeds, solemnly put on battle armor on the hero, sacrificed cattle or even captured enemies to the god of war Ilbis. Toyons had up to 300-900 heads of cattle, enjoyed authority and wielded power. They were surrounded by servants - chakhardar, which consisted of slaves and domestic servants.
The Yakuts knew slaves, apparently, even before moving to the Middle Lena. The Yakut word "kulut" (slave) is derived by linguists and historians from the word "kul", which is often found in ancient Turkic runic texts, which means the same as in the Yakut language "kulut", i.e. "slave", "slave". Heroes of the Yakut epic - olonkho, kuluts were also mentioned in historical traditions and legends.
Turning into a slave one's impoverished kinsman, capturing enemies during an inter-clan war, issuing a kinsman or relative into slavery as a ransom for blood, i.e. blood feud was replaced by the transfer of a relative into slavery - all this was the source of slavery. There was also “nursing”, when the wealthy Yakuts fed and clothed the orphans or the poor. Such a "nurturer" was close to a slave. Slaves performed household chores, went hunting and took part in inter-clan wars, carried out various assignments of the master. The master had the right to sell the slave, give him as a bride's dowry (enne kulut), and beat him. In most cases, the slaves did not have any household, they lived in the yurt of the master or near him. However, there are facts showing that in a number of cases the slaves had their own families and lived separately from the master. It follows that slavery among the Yakuts had the character of family patriarchal slavery. In general, the Yakuts had few slaves. According to the yasak book of 1648-1649, out of 1497 yasak payers, there were only 57 slaves. A primitive pastoral economy could not serve as a basis for the massive use of slave labor, and even more so for turning it into the basis of production. Ancient patriarchal slavery could not develop into slavery of the ancient type. It is, according to A.P. Okladnikov, remained a way of life " and besides, not paramount in terms of share in production relations».
The main producers of material goods were ordinary community members. Among them there was a property inequality, and they did not constitute a homogeneous social group. Wealthy members of the community were close to toyons. Poor relatives who did not have livestock lived near taiga lakes and were engaged in hunting and fishing; them in Russian documents of the middle of the 17th century. called "balyksyty". Being under the rule of the ancestor - toyon, they were economically dependent on him, although they were personally free. Documents from the 17th century mention is made of "hasaas" - the giving of dairy cattle by the rich to the poor for milking and "wastuur" - for food; this is one of the most common forms of exploitation among the steppe peoples.
There was no tribal ownership of cattle, which constituted the main wealth of the Yakuts, and “ livestock among the Yakuts played such a predominant role in the exchange that in essence it has already turned into a universal equivalent, i.e. got money function».
In the Yakut folklore and documents of the first half of the 17th century. there are no indications of private ownership of fishing and hunting grounds and pastures. They were used freely not only by all members of the clan, but also by strangers. For example, on sable lands in the middle of the 17th century. Yakuts and Tunguses hunted freely, even from Central Yakutia they went to hunt Vilyui, Yana, Olekminsk, hunted in the basins of the Zeya, Indigirka and Amur rivers. The situation was different with the hayfields. The ancestor himself or the council of elders allocated hay plots from the land of the clan to individual families. Historical legends say that the leader of the Ergis had nine sons, they were settled at the direction of their father: Sabyryky's son was settled in the Kytyl area, Neryungnen - in Alar, Tuereyya - in Saadahyyaabyt. The ancestor of the Malzhegarians " ordered his five sons to live in different places. Sabya determined the eldest son of Kalteeki to live on about. Toyon Aryy, the second son of Sokh-khor Durai, offered to take a quarter of Fr. Toion Aryy and settle on the rivers Kateme, Kharyyalaakh and Besteeh. He ordered two sons to live in Khatyn Aryy and Khara Aryy. He forced the fifth son to settle further than the brothers, on the coast of the Lena in the areas of Isit and Kytyl Dyura».
The ancient Yakut spiritualized nature, he was surrounded by countless spirits. Mountains and forests, lakes and rivers, trees and grass, animals and domestic animals, fire and yurt, etc. - everything has ichchi - spirits. According to the idea of a person of that time, some evil spirits are abaasy, and others are good ones - aiyy, patrons and protectors of humans and domestic animals. Both need to please and achieve the mercy of the spirits. In order not to disturb and anger them, a person must observe a huge number of prohibitions. In order not to disturb the spirit of the earth, the spirits of grasses and trees, you can not shout and make noise in the spring. In order not to stir up evil spirits, one should not shout loudly at night and late at night in winter. In order not to frighten the spirits of the lake and the fish, one should not express one's delight loudly when one sees a lot of fish in the net, "muzzle" and seine. In order not to offend the spirit of fire, one should not spit and throw dirty things into the fire. Passing a large tree, passing a river, climbing a mountain, one must leave something as a gift to the spirits (cane, stick, rope, horse hair, wool), otherwise there will be misfortune on the way. There were various prohibitions in food, in hunting, in conversation, in relationships between people, in the family, in work.
Intermediaries between the world of people and spirits were shamans and shamans, white and black. White shamans communicated with good spirits and served bright patron deities, while black shamans communicated with evil spirits. In one of the descriptions of the beginning of the XVIII century. read: " The Yakut people, as usual, have shamans. And the shamans have a dress, which, during shamanism, is hung around with iron pipes; and between the tubes, and along the dale, and along the arms, paddle straps half a yard wide; yes, they give sacrifices to demons for the sick, they beat cattle without exuding blood, they eat meat themselves, and hang skins with bones on trees».
Each clan had its own cult. Preserved surviving ancient form of religion - totemism. " Every genus Stralenberg wrote, has and keeps as sacred a special creature, like a swan, a goose, a crow, and that animal that the clan considers sacred, he does not eat, but others can eat it».
The dead were buried in trees and in above-ground tombs. The dead lay in a hollowed-out log. Outside built a quadrangular frame. When the burial was carried out in the ground, the dead were placed in a log and covered with large pieces of birch bark yurt (uras). The Yakuts buried their dead in the best and most expensive clothes. A bow, arrows in a quiver, a palm tree, a pike, meat in an iron cauldron, oil in birch bark dishes, chorons for koumiss, a saddle were placed next to the deceased - everything that the deceased might need in his afterlife. Historical traditions speak of burials with a horse and a slave, but no such graves have yet been discovered.
The majestic monument of the ancient culture of the Yakuts are the heroic poems about the exploits of the heroes - olonkho. Olonkho, apparently, developed at a time when the ancestors of the Yakuts lived in the south in close contact with the ancestors of the Sayan-Altai tribes and with the ancient Mongols. Different olonkho used to exist in all Yakut uluses. Folk rhapsodes knew several tens of olonkho with the size of 10-20 thousand lines. In olonkho, a majestic image of nature is created with bright colors. In many olonkho, the struggle of the titans ends with the creation of the worlds - upper, middle and lower. The upper world is inhabited by gods headed by Yuryung Aiyy-toyon, and in some places by abaasy (cannibals, monsters). In the middle world lives a human tribe (aiyy dyono), in some places - abaasy. The lower world is inhabited only by the Abaasy tribes, led by Arsaan Duo-lay. Among the celestials, Dyylga Khan, the deity of fate and fate (otherwise called Chyngys Khan, or Odun Khan), Iyekhsit - the patron goddess of people and cattle, Aiysyt - the goddess of childbearing, Ilbis Khan - the god of war and his children Ilbis kyysa and Osol uola, deity of thunder - Syunko-khaan Shuge toyon. The life of the celestials is similar to the life of the people of the middle world. In some olonkho, Yuryung Aiyy-toyon (the supreme deity) convenes meetings of the gods, and in many olonkho he makes the decision alone. In addition to those listed, the most revered were Aan Alakhchyn khotun - the goddess of the ancestral land (homeland), Bayanay - the god of the forest and hunters, Aan Darkhan-toyon or Khatan Timieriye - the god of fire, Khompo-ruun Hotoy aiyy - the god of birds, Kydai Bakhsy - the god of blacksmiths.
The olonkho depicts the pastoral economy of the Yakuts, their domestic life, work and cares, their family life. The olonkho features a paired family, exogamous and patrilocal marriage. The protagonist of the olonkho is a hero, an idealized image of a knight or an ancestor. According to the decision of the gods, or Dylga-khan - the god of fate, or Aiyy-toyon himself, the hero from the aiyy tribe is obliged to protect his tribe from the abaasy heroes. The main reasons for the battles are the protection of the hero of the aiyy of his kind, his bride or sister from the hero abaasy, blood feud and the fulfillment of the decision of the gods. In many olonkhos, the hero goes to get himself a wife. On the way, he overcomes fiery seas, high mountains, enters into a struggle with mythological creatures and other obstacles, finally, he arrives in the country of his future wife and enters into a struggle with his rival, the abaasy hero.
Olonkho reflects the period of the tribal system among the Yakuts and the period of its decomposition. The bogatyrs have neither an army nor a military organization; in most cases, the battle takes place in the form of a duel between two bogatyrs. Unlike the feudal epic, the olonkho bogatyrs, as a result of victory, do not seize lands, livestock and do not become rulers of other peoples and tribes. Having defeated his opponents, the hero marries. On the way back, he travels with his wife alone, or with them go slaves, servants and his wife's cattle as a dowry. Often, on the way to his homeland, the hero meets various obstacles and performs feats. Upon returning to his homeland, he breeds a lot of livestock and produces a large offspring, lives a rich and peaceful life, his descendants inherit his wealth.
The rich oral creativity of the Yakuts was not limited only to heroic poems - olonkho. There were fairy tales, and historical legends, and legends, songs, proverbs, sayings, riddles. The Yakuts loved to embroider clothes and shoes with beautiful patterns, decorate dishes and furniture, military weapons and tools, horse harnesses and a birch bark yurt-uras with ornaments. In spring and summer, the Yakuts gathered for a holiday - ysyakh in honor of the spirits - the owners of nature and heavenly gods. During this holiday, various competitions and sports games, songs and dances were arranged.
The Yakut people were in constant communication with the surrounding Tungus tribes. The Yakuts traded with them. Often marriages were concluded between them, production skills were mutually adopted.
On the vast territory of Yakutia, the pace of economic and social processes was not the same. But if we take a general look at the Yakut society before the arrival of the Russians, it becomes clear that the patriarchal system was already at the last stage of decomposition. The separation of the family, private ownership of livestock, the use of individual families by the hayfields of the clan, the inheritance of property by children, the emergence of hereditary nobility led to the fact that the clan broke up into classes, into exploiters and exploited, into the tribal elite and free community members.
Such was the Yakut society when an extremely important historical event took place in the life of the Yakuts - their accession to the Russian state.
