The steppe where the Nogai Tatars roam. Nogai steppe Nogai steppe

STEPPE YES STEPPE AROUND ... (or how to get rid of depressive thoughts) After we found the root of evil, after we understood what kind of anxiety lies at the basis of our depression, and changed our attitude to the traumatic event that caused us we have this anxiety

Nogai steppe- an arid treeless plain in the east of the North Caucasus between the Terek and Kuma rivers. The region is located on the territories of the Stavropol Territory, northern Dagestan and the Chechen Republic. The name comes from the ethnonym Nogais.

The vegetation is xerophytic and halophytic, often on sandy soils.

• 1 Climate
• 2 Soils
• 3 Hydrography
• 4 Desertification
• 5 Notes
• 6 Literature

Climate

The climate of the Nogai steppe is continental, arid, with an annual precipitation of less than 300 mm. average temperature warm period (April - October) + 18-19 ° C, cold period (November - March) from 0 to 2 ° C. Absolute minimum -33 °C (January, February), maximum +42 °C (August). Summers are hot, winters are characterized by a minimum amount of precipitation (about 40 mm on average), which is why the snow cover is weakly expressed.

Soils

The steppe is characterized by meadow-chestnut and light-chestnut soils of varying degrees of salinity. As a result of deflationary processes, predominantly saucer-shaped depressions are often found, occupied by lakes and solonchaks. Separate areas are occupied by weakly fixed sands.

Hydrography

There is no permanent river network. Groundwater, although lying at a shallow depth, is saline and unsuitable for drinking. There are sources of geothermal waters on the territory. Farming here is possible only with artificial irrigation. Irrigation uses water from two river systems relating to the internal runoff basin.

desertification

The Nogai steppe is a zone of transhumance. Soviet time over one million heads of small and large cattle from the mountainous regions of Dagestan, as well as Chechnya, Ingushetia, were annually distilled or imported by transport to the Nogai steppe and neighboring steppe expanses for wintering, North Ossetia and Georgia.

During the period of “developed socialism”, the steppes began to be widely developed for their year-round use. as a result of unreasonable economic practices, about 70% of all pastures in the region turned out to be knocked down to a medium, strong and very strong degree, and 25% of the lands turned out to be littered with herbs harmful and poisonous to animals.

The southern and southeastern parts of the Nogai steppe, intensively used for pastures, turned into sandy deserts. In the past, to strengthen the sands, grasses (sandy oats, etc.) were sown here, pine, juniper and yew plantations were created, which are preserved in a very small amount in the southern part of the steppe. Now these works are abandoned. Due to desertification and economic activity One of the visiting cards of the Nogai steppe - saigas - was lost.

Notes

1. TSB: Nogai Steppe
2. 1 2 Eldar Eldarov. Nogai steppe on the website of the Russian Geographical Society
3. 1 2 3 4 Nogai Steppe: Dagestan Republican Branch of the Russian Geographical Society
4. mprdag.ru/attachments/045_econogay.doc
5. Saiga no longer live in the Nogai steppe

Literature

• Dobrolyubsky A. O. Nomads in the west of the Black Sea steppes in the X-XVIII centuries (historical and archaeological research). - Abstract of diss. ... Doctor of Historical Sciences. - St. Petersburg: IIMK RAN, 1991. - 34 p.

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In the north of Dagestan, the Nogai steppe is located; it occupies almost a fourth of the republic. For a long time, the Nogai steppe had a great economic importance not only for Dagestan. Peasant farms from Georgia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia brought cattle here for the winter. The warm steppe made it possible to find shelter in the cold season and unique species animals. After the start of the Chechen war, the Nogai steppe also acquired strategic importance - the only road connecting Dagestan with the territories of neighboring Russian subjects ran through it. The peoples living in the north of modern Dagestan took care of the steppe, since it remained a source of life for them. AT last years Dagestan scientists drew attention to significant natural changes on the territory of the Nogai steppe.

Magomed Musaev: Judging by the data provided to us by the Caspian Institute biological resources Dagestan Scientific Center Russian Academy Sciences, according to expert opinion and research, the territory of the arid zone of southern Russia, which includes the arid lands of the Republic of Dagestan, Kalmykia, Chechnya, Stavropol, Volgograd, Astrakhan regions, covering more than 25 million hectares, are regions of ecological disaster. AT recent decades here, as a result of the irrational use of land, the ecological background has deteriorated sharply, vast arrays of developed sands and malicious salt marshes have formed, and new centers of desertification have appeared. For this reason, the capacity of pastures and the productivity of farmland have decreased many times over. The programs developed and proposed by various research institutes and design organizations to combat desertification of lands do not give tangible results. As for the special resolutions of the Council of Ministers Russian Federation and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Dagestan to combat desertification of black lands and Kizlyar pastures, they were not fully implemented due to lack of funding.

Oleg Kusov: Magomed Musaev talks about the ecological crisis in the north of Dagestan with Zalibek Zalibekov, director of the Caspian Institute of Geological Resources of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Magomed Musaev: Zalibek Gadzhievich, there are many environmental problems in Dagestan, but, in my opinion, the Nogai problem, the problem of desertification of the Nogai steppe, is the most neglected, the most difficult. Or is it not?

Zalibek Zalibekov: It's exactly like that. The Nogai steppe, which covers more than one million hectares, is now in the stage of an ecological crisis. There is an increase in the aridity of the climate, a decrease in the amount of precipitation, therefore, the load per unit area is growing. According to our institute, the increase in the density of livestock, population, industrial facilities, road facilities increases by 5-10% annually. It cannot be without a limit. Therefore, at present, the problem of the Nogai steppe is the negative impact on the process of land desertification. Land desertification processes have the following essence: not any degradation is considered desertification, desertification occurs simultaneously with the degradation of all biological resources, wildlife, vegetation, soil cover, which entails the loss of the biologically active layer of the earth. What processes are taking place here? Firstly, the organic matter of the soil is lost - humus, secondly, the biomass of plants decreases, thirdly, the penetration of the root system of vegetation, concentrated in a one and a half meter thick vivo, decreases to a depth of one meter. All these processes together represent the problem of desertification.

There was an association of species diversity of vegetation, completely disappeared certain types representatives of commercial animal fauna. And, most importantly, wind erosion, which used to manifest itself in individual years, now it manifests itself everywhere, and there is an increase in the activity of sand movement. Therefore, at present, the processes of desertification have increased so much, the backfilling of settlements in the Nogai region has begun. Half of the houses are practically covered with sand, in order to open them, to give people the opportunity to live, more drastic measures are needed than the agrotechnical or zootechnical ones that were before. Now this problem of desertification has moved from sectoral problems to the category of a problem of general national economic significance. If ten years ago the desertification centers were in the zone of the Tereklinsky sands, now it is moving to the south, closer to Kizlyar, to Kochubey. These are coastal sands, Terek, they also begin to fall asleep settlements located in the coastal zone. Therefore, now the fight against desertification has acquired national economic significance.

Since we are talking about flat Dagestan, the processes of flooding and drying up of the coastal strip as a result of changes in the level regime of the Caspian Sea are also of considerable importance. In 1992-1994, the flooded territories were gradually freed from water, but these territories intensified the processes of salinization and shelling. Here I want to emphasize so that everyone understands: flooding and drying up is not a tragedy for Dagestan. Because the historical and geological processes of raising and lowering the level of the Caspian Sea have been repeated for many centuries, and they will continue to continue. This is not a tragedy. The tragedy is that we do not take this feature into account. We must declare this zone a nature protection, protected area and there we can either graze livestock or settle people or build farms or something else. Fishing farms, fishing complexes should be banned. Because at any time, the Caspian is an inland reservoir, which develops according to its laws, it can give a surge to rise or give a surge to a decrease.

Oleg Kusov: Desertification of the northern territories of Dagestan has negative impact and on animal world region.

Zalibek Zalibekov: When desertification occurs, the upper horizons are exposed, and saline layers of rock come to the surface. When this is carried by the wind, saline rocks in adjacent areas will cause surface salinization. Now this process of diffusing material, if earlier it was just the movement of sands, now this material also contributes to clogging. I, as a representative of biological science, want to note that it is of no small importance for the flat zone that we are practically losing commercial species of animals, especially saigas, roe deer and other species that are rare animals and are listed in the Red Book of the Federation and internationally. More than 10 thousand heads of saigas used to live on the territory of Dagestan, now they migrate to Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region, and in Dagestan, if one and a half to two thousand are left, this is at best.

Oleg Kusov: Doctors have established that in the Nogai steppe it is quite favorable climate for a person.

Magomed Musaev: In the Nogai steppe there are such recreational resources, that is, a person feels good, his cheeks turn pink, his health improves. Is there such a thing?

Zalibek Zalibekov: There is. This is due to sand accumulations, accumulation of sandy material in the form of hillocks, sand mountains, dunes, and so on. In these places, where a solarium is usually taken in sanatoriums, when a person lies on the sand, the sand accumulates a very large amount of moisture, or rather, condenses, it is in an accumulated state. This moisture is gradually transferred when the person lies down. Therefore, on sandy deposits, sandy mounds, sand hills, sand dunes, the amount of warm air and moisture that is always released during the day differs from those areas where the territory is represented by clay or other types of deposits.

Oleg Kusov: Desertification has become a problem for many countries that are joining forces to combat it. natural disaster. Since Russia is in no hurry to get involved in this process, Dagestan scientists suggest that the authorities of the republic independently establish contacts with the participants international agreement on the joint fight against desertification.

Zalibek Zalibekov: Internationally, very great importance given to the fight against desertification. 115 countries have signed the convention to combat desertification, each year they allocate a certain amount for this purpose. Russia has not signed, but Russia can join - this is tantamount to signing. The leaders of the government and financial authorities justify that Russia is going through a period of transitional economy, so we refrain from signing. But, given this circumstance, the people's assembly of the republic, the government and other republican organizations need to raise the issue of signing international convention to combat desertification. Then we go to common system organization that finances this, and we can systematically fight desertification.

Now no funds are allocated, separate funds are allocated for private farmers or there are several farms, for the forestry, but this does not make a difference. Therefore, now the main organizational task is to fight for the fact that the problem of desertification, Russia signed the convention on the initiative of Dagestan, Astrakhan region, Kalmykia and other republics located in the Southern Federal District. Some areas are islands, for example, our base, the forestry, there are separate areas where you can show an example of how to improve desert lands. Thus, we are armed, we have methods, ways, by investing certain funds, we can stop the movement of this process.

Magomed Musaev: As I understand it, in simple terms, the problem of the Nogai steppe is mainly directly related to the predatory behavior of a person, with a huge load that a person makes, and not some natural phenomena.

Zalibek Zalibekov: I did not use the word "predatory", I would say momentary interests. When farms increase the number of sheep, they are happy that they have an increase. They do not know that by doing so they are creating just such a prerequisite, such a factor of deprivation of productivity, of the stability of the vegetative soil cover. Extensive farming, and without taking into account the specifics of vegetation cover, soil cover and partly of the animal world.

Oleg Kusov: Ecological catastrophe can bring many disasters not only current generation but also to our descendants.

Magomed Musaev: It would be appropriate to cite the opinion of the Dagestan journalist Gasan Gasanov: "Dagestan, and even more so the Nogai region, is a small spot on the vast map of Russia. However, one should not forget that even the largest boat can sink, alas, even from a small hole." They say that there was once a flowering land on the site of the present Sahara, in those distant times people had no idea what soil degradation and erosion were, they plowed, sowed, destroying the fragile fertile layer of the earth. In the end, a vast part of the African continent turned into an endless desert, now only saving oases remind people that there was once life there. Unfortunately, humanity has not yet learned not to repeat fatal mistakes.

Oleg Kusov: In the Stavropol Territory, scientists are seriously alarmed by the state of archaeological sites that are of great value to the world and national history. According to experts, about 30 thousand archeological monuments have been recorded in the region, but a third of them have been lost forever.

Lada Ledeneva: For the entire centuries-old history of the existence of mankind, it is the territory of the North Caucasus that has preserved the largest number of monuments of history, archeology and culture. From the time of the Stone Age to the era of the late Middle Ages, a variety of tribes lived here, they left behind a rich cultural heritage - these are architectural monuments, landscape monuments, archeological monuments, necropolises, magnificent examples of garden and park culture. However, if architectural monuments or, for example, military graves, as a rule, have a user who enters into a protective obligation with the Ministry of Culture and carries out restoration work, archeological monuments, although they are under state protection, in fact do not belong to anyone. Many of them have not yet been mapped and their existence is known only with the start of construction work, when the ancient Scythian burial mound is completely or partially destroyed. Says the head of the department for the protection of objects of historical and cultural heritage Ministry of Culture of the Stavropol Territory Alla Bogdanova.

Alla Bogdanova: The Stavropol Territory is located in such a place that it is very rich in archeological monuments. It can be said that only a few percent of them have been identified. Because the discovery of monuments is an expensive job and, as a rule, this money has not been financed for ten years. In recent years, 530 objects have been identified, mainly archeological monuments. Their condition is precisely what worries us most of all at the present time. It is not always easy to keep track of when unauthorized work on the development of these monuments begins, that is, when laying roads, a pipeline, an oil pipeline. Over the past year, we have had more than ten cases of appeals to the prosecutor's office of the Stavropol Territory on the facts of the destruction of burial mounds, criminal cases have been opened. It is archeological monuments that suffer the most in our country, and most of all examples of the destruction of archaeological monuments. Burial mounds, burial grounds, settlements, there are also many subspecies.

Lada Ledeneva: AT recent times Increasingly, ancient burials are becoming an object of ruin and easy money for the so-called "black archaeologists." Totally agree last month The Ministry of Culture of the Stavropol Territory sent materials to the prosecutor's office on the facts of the destruction of two Scythian burial mounds. One of them - Goryachevodsky - was demolished during the construction of the market square, the other Voroskolessky, in the Andropovsky district, became the object of ruin and vandalism by local residents. Says archaeologist, director of the Stavropol enterprise for the protection of monuments "Heritage" Andrei Belinsky.

Andrey Belinsky: This is one of the largest mounds on the territory, it is up to ten meters high, we know it very well, it was registered. In just a few weeks, the robbers went through the mines to a depth of ten meters. This is one of the mounds of the large Vorskolesskaya group. Now we know its dating, because after we inspected this mine, we took analyzes of the coal that was found at the bottom, and now it dates back to about the third millennium BC. That is, this mound is more than five thousand years old. The robbers were probably hoping to find something. As a result, they destroyed the constructions of the mound, along the way the burials of the Sarmatian time were looted, this is somewhere in the first century AD. For the time being, the preliminary dating may be such, because fragments of bones and several shards of vessels remained there. Naturally, nothing was found, because such rich monuments are extremely rare. The scientific significance and significance of it as a monument, the monument was destroyed quite badly. We had to leave with several detachments of the expedition, which are working in the region, in order to fill up this pit. AT this moment a criminal case is being filed to search for the criminals who committed this. There are such facts not only in the Andropovskaya region, there are such facts in the Svetlograd region, in the Budenovsky region there was a similar situation several years ago.

Lada Ledeneva: Literally seven years ago, about three hundred archaeological sites were known in the Stavropol Territory. Today, there are about 30,000 of them in the database of the Nasledie enterprise, despite the fact that about a third of them have been irretrievably lost to posterity.

Andrey Belinsky: Approximately over the past three generations, even two generations, when powerful technology appeared, when a person got the opportunity to use technology to change the landscape, including destroying archeological monuments, everything that has been accumulated by generations over several tens of thousands of years has now been destroyed, I I think 20-30 percent. If such rates continue, then we will be left without a past, I think, in three or four generations. That is, these will be crumbs, according to which you can restore how people used to live, than they lived. And, most importantly, we will lose the scientific information that is not recoverable. We can restore the ecology that was then, by the composition of spores and pollen, which were preserved in ancient burials. We can restore the diet according to the chemical composition of bones ancient man, his illnesses, including knowing oneself.

Lada Ledeneva: A similar situation has developed in neighboring Karachay-Cherkessia.

Andrey Belinsky: In Karachay-Cherkessia, over the past 7-8 years, up to 30% of kurgan archeological monuments have been plundered. This is actually a terrible situation, many have already paid attention to it, including Academician Piotrovsky at the federal council spoke about this to the President of the Russian Federation.

Lada Ledeneva: Today, an antique market has developed in Russia, which requires constant saturation. Many exhibits obtained by "black archaeologists" on the territory of the republics of the North Caucasus go abroad.

Andrey Belinsky: I returned from an international conference in the city of Krakow. In the city of Krakow, on the main street, among other things, military items, during the war, and so on, Scythian arrows and coins are sold. I, just knowing, ask: these are Scythian arrowheads of the 4th century. I address him in Russian, knowing that they can bring either from us or from the Crimea. And then the coins stand, they sell coins for 15 zlotys. All this was taken out of the Crimea across the border, it is quite possible that it was taken out, there are the same things on Taman. It somehow passes through the border, there is a bargain. You need to understand that this phenomenon exists and you need to take it very seriously.

Lada Ledeneva: As explained to me in the Ministry of Culture of the Stavropol Territory, it is very difficult to fight the barbaric destruction of monuments. Firstly, due to insufficient funding at all levels, secondly, due to the practical invulnerability of black archaeologists, and thirdly, these responsibilities are not assigned to public organizations, as before, but on law enforcement agencies, which so far find this task difficult.

Alla Bogdanova: For law enforcement work on the protection of monuments is a relatively new direction in cultural activity. You know that the society for the protection of monuments has been doing this for many years. It is difficult to punish "black archeologists". Firstly, besides the fact that they are difficult to catch, secondly, the legal framework is rather weak. What can be said when the Society of Treasure Hunters is officially registered in our country?

Andrey Belinsky: Practically since 1995, the federal budget has not allocated a penny for the creation of such a system for the certification of archeological monuments. I think that the situation should somehow change. We should not become a third world country, where for many years, as in Latin American countries, an insane amount of archeological monuments has been exported. We must not come to this. Because it is a sign of civilization when a people, a state, guards its past. If this does not happen, then we are simply not the country that can claim its status as a civilized state.

The collapse of a single people left a deep imprint in the culture of the Kazakhs. “The famous lament in the steppes about the separation of the Nogays and Kazakhs is still played by steppe musicians and sheds tears from the old aksakals”

There is a sad kui about this, which usually begins with the words: “When Khan Ormanbet died, when the ten-tribe Nogai Horde split, this is how the Kazakhs and Nogais mourned the separation.”

Ruzbikhan, emphasizing that the Shibanid state, the Kazakh Khanate and the Nogai Horde were formed on a single ethnic basis, wrote: “Three tribes are classified as Uzbeks, which are the most glorious in the possessions of Genghis Khan. Now one [of them] is the Shibanites... The second tribe is the Kazakhs, who are famous all over the world for their strength and fearlessness, and the third tribe is the Mangyts.”

The interest of Kazakh historians in the history of the Nogai people is not accidental, but natural. History of the Kazakhs and Nogays in the XV-XVI centuries. in fact, it is the history of a single people. Common origin, common language, identical economy, lack of natural geographical boundaries and cultural barriers contributed not to isolation, but to close interaction and unlimited ties between the steppe population. And the current situation that arose after the collapse of the USSR makes scientists turn to the search for their roots, to the problem of self-identification.

The Nogai are also known as the Mangyts - the inhabitants of the Nogai Horde, they called their state the Mangyt Yurt. The earliest references to the Nogai and the Nogai Horde are found in Turkish, Russian, Western European sources. The Nogai Horde is located on the territory of the left bank of the Lower Volga, Southern Urals, Western and Central Kazakhstan, at the end of the XV-XVI centuries. was one of the leading political forces in Eurasia.

The founder of the ruling dynasty in the Nogai Horde is an outstanding figure of the Golden Horde Edige, the actual ruler of the ulus. After the death of Yedigei in 1420, his son Gazi, who distinguished himself by cruelty, became the successor to the board in the Mangyt yurt. In 1428 the emirs killed him and left the Horde. With the departure of emirs and tribal leaders to Siberia, the Mangyt yurt fell into decay. The sons and grandsons of Edige dispersed. The population migrated to the Uzbeks, then to Central Asia.

In the Mangyt yurt, together with younger son Edige Nuraddin, only a small part of the nomads remained. The dominance of Nuraddin over the Mangyt yurt caused sharp discontent on the part of representatives of other eminent families.

The final formation of the Nogai Horde took place under the son of Nuraddin Vokkas. Vokkas was one of the main persons under Abulkhair Khan and even became his senior emir. However, anticipating the weakening of the Uzbeks, in 1447 he separated from Abulkhair and returned to the Mangkyt yurt.

The Nogai Horde (the capital Saraichik) declared itself as an independent state by the beginning of the 16th century, having strengthened due to the split of the Uzbek union. Then many of the tribes that were previously part of the Uzbek union joined the Nogais. “The Nogai Horde included tribes: Mangkyts, Noimans, Kungarts, Kypchaks, Mines, Toguchans, Kolachs, Alchins, Chublaks, Konklyks, Keraits, Kiyats and others.”

During the collapse of the khanate of Abulkhair, Abbas, the son of Vokkas, together with the sons of Haji-Mohammed, played an active role in capturing the eastern possessions of Abulkhair at the mouth of the Syrdarya, Amudarya and the upper reaches of the Irtysh. In the XVI century. the possessions of the Mangyt beks bordered in the northwest on the Kazan Khanate along the rivers Samara, Kinel and Kinelchek. In the northeast, the Nogai Horde bordered on the Siberian Khanate. On South Altai mountains were the border line separating the Kazakh Khanate from the Nogai Horde. The eastern neighbors of the Nogai Horde were the Kazakh Khanate and the Khanates of Central Asia.

Relations between the Nogais and the Kazakh dynasties also developed in a difficult way, there were fierce wars between them. In the first quarter of the 16th century, Kasim Khan conquered all the steppes beyond the Volga. The Uzbek states, on the other hand, served mainly as a haven for refugees from the Nogai state - beks and murz, who failed in the internecine struggle.

At the end of the 40s. In the 16th century, Yusup became a Nogai bek. His attitude towards Russia was negative. Yusup planned a campaign on Russian lands, but each time these plans were frustrated, often through the fault of Yusup's brother Ismail, who strove for positive relations with Russia. At the end of 1554, Yusup died, apparently not without the participation of his brother, and Ismail became a bek.

The death of Yusup was only the beginning of the disasters that befell the Nogai Horde. The war between Ismail and his nephews (children of Yusup) lasted several years and was characterized by unprecedented bitterness and death. a large number nomads. Only in 1557, Ismail managed to finally establish himself on the throne. On top of all the disasters, a terrible famine and epidemics hit the Horde. As a result, the Nogai Horde was never again able to achieve the power that it had before the turmoil of the 50s. 16th century Bek's subjects began to flee to the right - Crimean - side of the Volga. The split of the Nogai Horde led to the resettlement of part of the Nogais in the area of ​​the Crimean Khanate.

Map of Muscovy traveler Herberstein, 1549

20–30s 17th century became the period of the last wave of migration of the population from the Nogai Horde to the Kazakh Khanate. “As a result of several waves of migrations of the 16th-17th centuries, the Nogai element was firmly entrenched in the composition of the Kazakh ethnos. The presence of this element was especially noticeable in the west of Kazakhstan, where the Nogai and Mangytai groups remained until the beginning of the 20th century. An undoubted incentive for assimilation was the fact that the younger zhuz was entirely located on the former territory of the Nogai Horde. Tynyshpaev wrote that “while the Kirghiz of the Elder Horde do not know the Golden Horde at all, and in the Middle Horde only Kipchaks and Argyns remember something about it, all the legends and epics of the Alchyns speak only about the former life of the Golden Horde and Nogays. That the Younger Horde was part of the Nogai is beyond any doubt.

The collapse of the Nogai Horde into several parts practically broke the former social ties that connected the population of the two states. Cultural differentiation began. The Nogai uluses, which mainly roamed the plains of the Northern Black Sea region, that is, in a significant part of the territory of modern Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and southern Russia, found themselves in the orbit of influence of the Crimean Khanate and the Crimean Tatars.

In 1783, after the liquidation of the Crimean Khanate, the Russian authorities planned to resettle the Nogais in the interfluve of the Volga and the Urals. But the Nogai nobility, having decided that they wanted to exterminate them in this way, refused to leave the Kuban and raised an uprising, which was brutally suppressed. The entire steppe between the Don and the Kuban was deserted.

In the 50s. 19th century Most of the Russian Nogays moved to the Ottoman Empire. Since the 60s of the nineteenth century, the process of including the Nogais in the legal and socio-economic field has been going on. Russian state. In 1897 in Russian Empire there were only about 64 thousand Nogais, mainly living in the territory of the Kuban, Terek, Dagestan regions and the Stavropol province and everywhere making up a small percentage of the population. For comparison, according to the same census, over four million Kazakhs were counted, and they were the majority in the territory of Akmola, Semipalatinsk, Turgay, Ural, Syrdarya, Semirechensk regions, as well as the Mangyshlak district of the Transcaspian region and the Bukeev Horde, belonging to the Astrakhan province.

By the middle of the twentieth century, the Nogai were divided between the Karachay-Cherkess, Chechen, Dagestan republics and the Stavropol Territory.

Kidirniyazov Daniyal Saidakhmedovich, professor of the Dagestan scientific center RAS

Kidirniyazov Daniyal Saidakhmedovich, professor of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Makhachkala, Russian Federation), is a well-known scientist, a specialist in the medieval history of the Nogais. D.S. Kidirniyazov - Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a well-known specialist in the North Caucasus in the field of medieval history of the Nogai Horde, the North Caucasus and Dagestan. In science, he went from a graduate student of the Department of the Pre-Soviet Period of the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Dagestan Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences to a leading researcher in the Department of Ancient and Medieval History of the Institute of the Institute of Aesthetics of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor in the specialty "National History".

Daniyal was born on October 5, 1952 in the village of Kurdyukovskaya, Shelkovsky District, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and grew up in a Chechen-Ingush environment. After leaving school he tied his life path with historical science. Being the son of the Nogai people, Daniyal Saidakhmedovich devoted his life, his scientific works to the history of his people, who roamed the Eurasian expanses in the Middle Ages, leaving a noticeable mark on the history of Kazakhstan, Russia and Dagestan. Work on this topic allowed Daniyal Saidakhmedovich in 2001 to defend his doctoral dissertation “Nogais in the XV-XVIII centuries. (Political, economic and cultural aspects of relations with neighboring countries and peoples)”.

Among the scientific interests of Daniyal Saidakhmedovich are not only the problems of the historical past of the Nogai people, but also wide range issues, among which of particular interest is the topical and topical problem of Caucasian studies today - the place, role and significance of Dagestan in the Caucasian policy of the three rival powers: Ottoman Empire, Shah of Iran, then the Russian Empire in a difficult and fateful period for the peoples of Dagestan.

D.S. Kidirniyazov with the director of the Institute of State History B.G. Ayagan (Astana)

The scientist actively participates in international scientific conferences held both in Russia and in the post-Soviet republics. D.S. Kidirniyazov actively cooperates with foreign colleagues. Thanks to close ties with the Kazakh historian B.G. Ayagan (Astana) held a meeting with a team of scientists from the Institute of State History. Historians have raised sharp questions about Nogai history: why the Nogai Horde broke up, what were the relationships between the Nogai Murzas and the Kazakh khans, and other issues. When asked what difficulties the Nogai experience in learning their native language, the professor noted that the Nogai language is taught at school in two versions: there is a Nogai language in primary school and there is an optional study of the Nogai language.

Scientists were interested in the total number of Nogais. According to the professor, according to the official census, Nogais make up 105,000 people. Although in fact their number is much larger. For example, in Crimea they are recorded as Crimean Tatars, and there is a mercantile reason for this: Crimean Tatars receive certain subsidies from the state.

Currently, the Nogais live compactly on the territory of six constituent entities of the Russian Federation: the Astrakhan region, the Stavropol Territory, Dagestan, the Chechen Republic, Karachay-Cherkessia, Crimea.

The meeting with the scientist left a heavy impression. The Nogai Horde in the Middle Ages was a powerful state, with which all neighbors were considered. Nogai murzas played an important role in the royal courts. But for several centuries, only memories and place names remained from it. The once united people fell apart. The brothers killed each other. The tribes were leaving native land, migrated in search of a better life. Avoiding Russian subjugation, they were forced to go under the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. Resisting pressure from the Russian authorities, they raised an uprising in 1783, which was drowned in blood. Could all this have been avoided? I don't know, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. But it teaches, by the example of other peoples, what can happen to a nation if there is no unity in it. We must strive to preserve our social stability and national unity.

The Nogai steppe is a rather extensive semi-desert in the north-west of Dagestan with an area of ​​about 9.5 thousand km2. The territory is a flat sandy plain, mostly lying below the level of the world's oceans. The sandy soil here is covered with a rather thin fertile layer, the destruction of which in the last century has acquired the character of an ecological catastrophe.

The climate of the Nogai steppe is continental and very dry. hot summer, with dry winds. Winter is characterized by minimal precipitation, which is why the snow cover is weakly expressed. Fog is not uncommon in winter. Spring is characterized by a rapid rise in temperature and dryness.

It is characterized by meadow-chestnut and light-chestnut soils of varying degrees of salinity. There are saucer-shaped depressions occupied by lakes and salt marshes. Separate areas are occupied by weakly fixed sands. There is practically no cultivated agricultural land. There are only household plots with small orchards and orchards. The entire territory is traditionally used as winter pastures for distant pastures by residents of the mountainous regions of the republic. In recent years, summer grazing has also increased. On the one hand, this is the desire of local residents to develop personal subsidiary plots, and on the other hand, the result global change climate, which was expressed here in a noticeable moistening of soils and a corresponding increase in their phytoproductivity.

The vegetation of the steppe is not rich and is mainly wormwood-saltwort. Small areas with meadow and swamp vegetation are formed near artesian wells. The fauna of Nogai is also not rich. Along with mammals typical of the dry steppes - gopher, hamster, steppe ferret, hare, eared hedgehog - there are such representatives of the deserts and semi-deserts of Central Asia as different types of jerboas, combed gerbil and midday, earth hare, corsac fox.

But the feathered world is richer. Of the birds of prey here you can meet the imperial eagle, the steppe eagle, the steppe buzzard, various falcons and owls. Little bustard, quail, gray partridge, demoiselle crane, larks and many other species nest. Here, on large reservoirs, you will certainly meet beautiful steppe ducks, waders, various gulls and terns. For reptiles, the steppe agama, sandy boa, and lizard snake are characteristic. Loose sands are a favorite place for foot-and-mouth and roundheads.

Alas, the saiga can be considered the lost visiting card of the animal world of the Nogai steppe. This artiodactyl animal from the group of antelopes is something between a goat and a deer. Unlike their relatives, the saiga is not so graceful. For a good instinct, he has developed nasal cavity with movable nostrils. The nose is strongly blown out, which protects the respiratory tract well from dust, and in winter from frost. There used to be a lot of saigas in the Nogai steppe. They roam, moving from one pasture to another, feeding on herbs, wormwood and saltwort. In spring, during the breeding season, females gather in large herds in places remote from human settlements and distant pastures, with relatively high and dense herbage. This is where newborn saiga calves hide from predators, in particular, from their constant companions - wolves. In recent decades, humans have become the most dangerous enemy for saigas. The main interest for poachers was saiga horns, suitable for the production of a medicinal preparation such as pantocrine. The Nogai antelope is becoming easy prey for hunters who now have rifles with telescopic sights. That is why she disappeared from the Nogai steppe, only occasionally, in harsh winters, she comes to us from the steppes of Kalmykia. To protect against the destruction of Nogai saigas, it is necessary to start with an inventory of the population of the existing herd. This problem is best solved by photographing from space.

15 km west of the village of Kochubey and 45 km northeast of the administrative center of the Nogai district of the village of Terekli-Mekteb, there is a wetland - salty, sometimes drying up lakes Big and Small Manych. Both lakes are fed by the waters of the Sukhokumsky canal and the drains of nearby artesian wells, rainwater. When the lakes dry up in dry years, a layer of salt up to 5 cm thick is exposed on the surface. The surrounding territories are predominantly saltwort-sagebrush semi-desert. Around the lakes and in wetlands there are small thickets of sarsazan, tamarisk. The site and surrounding areas serve as nesting and congregation sites. different types birds, 5 species of which are listed in the Red Book of Russia: little bustard, demoiselle crane, crowberry, stilt and avocet.

The life of birds on the lake cannot be called free: the lands around are actively used for grazing, occasionally water bodies are visited locals for swimming and relaxation. Now the main trouble for Manychsko-ozernoe natural complex is unregulated grazing around water bodies in the midst of bird nesting and periodic drying of lakes during the dry period. The threat of their complete drying up is becoming real due to the increase in water consumption from the Sukhokum Canal.

More than half of all winter pastures of the republic are concentrated in the Nogai steppe. In Soviet times, more than a million heads of small and large cattle from the mountainous regions of Dagestan, as well as Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Georgia, were annually distilled here or brought by transport. Now a much smaller herd winters here from September to April. Hundreds of barns and many machine repair stations have been built for livestock breeders. With a grazing rate of "one head per hectare", here this figure increased to 4 sheep per hectare. It was established that as a result of unreasonable economic practices, about 70 percent of all pastures in the region were knocked down to varying degrees, and 25 percent of the land turned out to be littered with herbs that were harmful and poisonous to animals.

The southern and southeastern parts of the Nogai steppe gradually turned into sandy deserts. To strengthen the sands, grass crops were previously carried out here, now this work has been abandoned. Another reason for exhaustion soil resources steppes are a careless approach to the implementation of oil and gas production. In its western and northwestern parts, this led to the withdrawal of at least 80 thousand hectares of pasture land from economic circulation. Large deposits of highly mineralized hydrothermal waters - Yuzhno-Sukhokumskoye, Terekli-Mektebskoye, Kochubeevskoye - are exploited without management. Within their limits, the soil and subsoil horizons are poisoned by chemically active waste waters. The road and transport network is being formed very irrationally in the steppe. Its area now exceeds the normative requirements by 2-3 times.

The collapse of the USSR and the formation of a market economy, on the one hand, weakened the anthropogenic pressure on the steppe, but, on the other hand, deprived it of state support. What is needed now is a fundamental change in the entire existing system of land use in the Nogai steppe.