Empire of Genghis Khan: borders, campaigns of Genghis Khan. Temujin (Genghis Khan): history, descendants

There is evidence that before the era of Genghis Khan, most of the Mongolian nomads had Caucasoid features. Even Genghis Khan himself, according to the descriptions, had blond hair, eyes and a beard. But in the process of conquest, the Mongols mixed with the peoples of the lands they conquered, which contributed to the formation of new ethnic groups. First of all, these are the Mongols proper, then the Crimean, Siberian and Kazan Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, partly Uzbeks, Turkmens, Ossetians, Alans, Circassians. Then the Ural Khanty and Mansi, Siberian indigenous peoples - Buryats, Khakasses, Yakuts. In the genotype of all these peoples there are features that are commonly called Mongoloid. It is also possible that the blood of the Mongol-Tatars flows in modern Japanese, Chinese, Koreans. However, researchers believe that among Tuvans, Altaians and Khakass, for example, the type of appearance is closer to Caucasoid than Eastern peoples. And this can serve as an indirect confirmation of the "Caucasoid" ancestors of the Mongol-Tatars. There is also a version that many European nations have Mongolian roots. These are Bulgarians, Hungarians and even Finns.

On the territory of Russia there is a people whose representatives consider themselves direct descendants of Genghis Khan - these are the Kalmyks. They claim that their ancestors were Genghisides - the elite at the court of Genghis Khan. Some Kalmyk clans allegedly descend from Genghis Khan himself or his closest relatives. Although, according to another version, the Kalmyk cavalry simply served the Genghisides. But who can now say for sure?

Thus, the descendants of the Mongol-Tatars can be scattered not only throughout Asia, but also in Europe. Nationality - in general, the concept is quite arbitrary.

The greatest commander of all times and peoples, Temujin, known as Genghis Khan, created the largest empire in world history, occupying vast territories of Eurasia from the Black Sea to the Sea of ​​Japan. The hordes of the Mongols swept the ancient empires off the face of the Earth, subordinating everyone to the laws of Genghis Khan. I wonder if the invincible warrior had descendants, and if so, who are they?

Scientists have not yet been able to establish the exact burial place of the founder of the Mongol Empire. Many archaeological expeditions were organized to various regions of Mongolia and China, where presumably he could be buried. Researchers have put forward various versions about the location of the burial, but none of them has received final confirmation.

It is clear that the absence of the remains of Genghis Khan makes it difficult to find his descendants. How can this problem be solved? Scientists gave the answer - with the help of a genetic study of the chromosomes of a large ethnic group of people and the establishment of the fact of kinship among them.

Biological processes

Scientists have done a lot research on the genetic identification of the descendants of Genghis Khan. Then, when analyzing the DNA of the peoples of Mongolia and Central Asia, it was found that the male population of this territory often has a certain, repeatedly repeated version of the Y-chromosome.

We know that in each human cell there are 46 chromosomes, or 23 pairs of them, and of these 23, only one is responsible for the sex of a person. The Y chromosome is purely male. As you know, approximately half of the spermatozoa carry the X chromosome, and the second - the Y, while the egg contains only the X chromosome. That is why the sex of the unborn child depends only on which of the spermatozoa will fertilize the female cell.

If it is an X chromosome, then a girl will be born, since the female sex is characterized by a pair of XX chromosomes. If it is a Y chromosome, then a boy will be born, respectively, since the male sex is characterized by a pair of XY chromosomes. Each family, related in the male line, has its own individual, different from the rest of the Y-chromosome.

Chromosome research

Based on this, scientists were able to do the work, as a result of which it was found that about 16 million inhabitants of Mongolia and Central Asia are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Y-xpo-mosome - live connection people of the present with their common ancestors. This method of calculating great ancestors - the people who left the genetic imprint on millions - has long been used by scientists.

Millions of people are branches of a common family tree. Theoretically, genetics allows you to go to its roots, to a single great-ancestor. If the Y chromosome remained absolutely unchanged from generation to generation, we would be able to calculate it. However, this is not possible due to chromosome mutations that occur from century to century.

Mutations

The fact is that so-called safe mutations sometimes appear in the human Y chromosome, which are inherited by all its descendants. In this way, these offspring of the mutation are marked as a stigma. This does not allow us to calculate our single ancestor, "scientific" Adam, but makes it possible to find the descendants of many historical figures. However, it is worth making a reservation that safe mutations of the chromosome can occur, and then their trace in the gene pool will disappear, for example, if a person has no sons or his sons have only daughters.

But if the trace is not lost, it is possible to trace the expansion or migration in a certain territory, where a group of people connected by family ties moved. In the case of Genghis Khan, scientists concluded that 16 million people in Central Asia are relatives, since their Y chromosomes contain the same mutations.

The concentration of enormous power over vast territories allowed Genghis Khan to forever leave a mark on the gene pool of these peoples. So he almost literally became the father of millions.

At first glance, insignificant, changes in the structure of chromosomes gradually accumulate with each new generation, and now they have made it possible to calculate that this common ancestor of many representatives of Asian peoples lived about a thousand years ago (plus or minus 300 years).

Another important fact: mutations are found mainly in Mongolia, and their age is about a thousand years! These coincidences forced scientists to turn to history.

800 years ago

Who could "reward" millions of people with his chromosome? Who could be the ancestor who left such a large offspring, carrying his Y-chromosome to this day? Scientists come to the conclusion that it could only be Genghis Khan. According to historical sources, he lived about 800 years ago. The Great Khan had a numerous harem and a huge offspring. Genghis Khan had only five officially recognized sons, but genetic studies suggest that there were many more.

In addition, Genghis Khan conquered just those territories in which modern Mongols and other Asian peoples now live, among whom a special version of the Y chromosome was found. According to elementary scientific calculations, in 300 years Genghis Khan would have to have five million descendants, and in 800 years - much more.

In addition, if we trace the historical migrations of peoples, as a result of which the mixing of blood occurred only with certain ethnic groups, this Y chromosome could not spread to other geographical territories. All these calculations lead to the conclusion that the great-ancestor of 16 million Asians could only be great khan or one of his direct descendants. Such results were given by world studies.

They are also in Russia

Similar studies were carried out by a group of geneticists led by Professor I.A. Zakharov and on Asian territory Russian Federation. The study involved 1437 men, distributed across 18 ethnic groups, who inhabit the territory of the former Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. These are, in addition to the Mongols, the Altai Kazakhs, Teleuts, Khakasses, Tuvans, Tajiks, Buryats, Evenks, Kalmyks, Persians, Russians and other peoples. Human hair follicles were used as genetic material for the study.

They were taken, as a rule, from male schoolchildren and students, and among them were selected those who were sure that their fathers and grandfathers belonged to the same people as they did, and were not persons of a different nationality.

The results of these studies showed that about 30 thousand direct heirs of Genghis Khan live in Russia. Moreover, most of the "blood of Genghisides" is contained in the gene pool of the Altai Kazakhs - 8.3%. From 1.7 to 3.4 percent of the genetic influence of Genghis Khan was found among the inhabitants of Kalmykia, Altai, Tuva and Buryatia.

But on the territory of historical Russia, as scientists say, during the initial study, no traces of the genes of the great khan were found. Now geneticists are studying the genomes of modern Russians more deeply, so new discoveries are ahead. However, there are already scientifically established Interesting Facts- Turning to history, one can trace that many Moscow genealogies date back to the Mongol-Tatar khans and princes from the time of the Mongol yoke.

For example, the Chaadaev clan descended from Chagadai, one of the five officially recognized sons of Genghis Khan. It is also curious that the Glinsky boyars descended from the legendary Mamai, awarding such kinship to Ivan IV the Terrible, a descendant of Dmitry Donskoy in the male line.

So the blood of those who stood to the death against each other on the Kulikovo field, united in one of the darkest figures in Russian history.

George TUZ
Secrets of the twentieth century

One of the greatest figures in world history, playingto herGenghis Khan is considered to play an important role in the development of not only individual countries, but the whole world.

It is from the founder of the Mongol Empire that the ruling dynasty originates, which determined the life of the peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Volga region and the Middle East - Genghisides.

Genghis Khan and Islam

Having become the head of a single Mongolian state in 1206, Genghis Khan set a course for an active foreign policy, namely, the conquest of neighboring territories, including the khanates of Central Asia, who professed Islam. After the capture of Muslim territories, Genghis Khan did not try to impose his own beliefs on the local population and respected the spiritual component of the conquered peoples. In addition, a considerable number of his close associates were Muslims, although he himself remained faithful to the religion of his ancestors, who worshiped heaven, earth, fire, souls and the deity Tengri.

Believers also treated the conqueror with respect, since he did not encroach on their rights and respected the interests of others. It was this fact that played an important role in the fact that the Chingizids will be revered in the states once conquered by their ancestor for centuries.

In fairness, it is worth noting that some historians at different times put forward the version that Genghis Khan himself converted to Islam. However, according to the official version, the Muslim religion was adopted as a state religion a little later.

Descendants of the great conqueror

Despite the fact that Genghis Khan had several wives, only the descendants of his first wife, Borte, are considered Genghis Khan, from whom Genghis Khan had 4 sons: Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei and Tolui.

In the last years of the reign of Genghis Khan, a long process of disintegration of the Mongol Empire began. This led to the formation of independent states, in each of which the descendants of one of the sons of Genghis Khan were entrenched. Thus began the process of branching of the Chingizids into independent dynasties.

Ulus Jochi

The eldest son of Genghis Khan - Jochi became the ruler of the state of Ulus Jochi, which is better known as Golden Horde. Formally, it was under the auspices of Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire. Over time, Ulus Jochi begins to gain more and more independence and at the end of the 13th century becomes independent.

Among the first descendants of Jochi, Khan Batu (Batu), who went down in history as a conqueror, is considered the most famous Kievan Rus. In addition, another son of Jochi, Berke, converted to Islam half a century before it was declared the state religion under Uzbek Khan.

Throughout the history of the Golden Horde, the empire was shaken by constant internecine wars between the descendants of Jochi, which subsequently led to the collapse united state and the formation of new ones: the Siberian, Uzbek, Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean, Kazakh, Kasimov khanates and the Nogai Horde.

Genghisides settled in all parts of the Golden Horde, becoming the founders of new dynasties. The founder of the family of Kazan khans - Ulu-Muhammad and his son Kasim (the founder of the Kasimov Khanate) were descendants of the 13th son of Jochi - Tukay-Timur. The Siberian and Uzbek khans were representatives of the Shibanid clan - the descendants of the fifth son of Jochi, Shiban. The Crimean ruling dynasty of the Gireys also traced its lineage from the son of Jochi - Tukay-Timur.

The importance of descent from Genghis Khan was also reinforced by the fact that only Genghisides in the Central Asian states had the right to bear the title of khan. It is for this reason that the legendary commander Tamerlane, despite the conquest large territories, bore the title of emir only. And only after he became related to the Genghisides, he became a full-fledged ruler.

Chagatai ulus

The second son of Genghis Khan received from his father Central Asia, as well as some nearby territories. The Chagatai ulus included the lands of modern Kyrgyzstan, parts of Kazakhstan, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khujand, Khiva, northwest China, eastern part Turkmenistan, as well as a number of other territories.

The Chagatai ulus was also torn apart by the internecine war of the brothers, in which representatives of other Genghisid dynasties took part (in particular, the descendants of Ogedei and Jochi). The absence of centralized power led to the fact that the Chagatai ulus lasted only a little over a hundred years.

The rulers of the ulus tried to create a single state, but even the adoption of a single religion - Islam at the official level in 1326 did not contribute to this. As a result, by the middle of the 14th century, the Chagatai state broke up into a number of khanates, the largest of which were Moghulistan and Maverannahr, which a couple of centuries later were enslaved by the Jochids. Thus, the Chagatai ruling dynasties lost their control over Central Asia.

Hulaguids

The descendants of the 3rd and 4th sons of Genghis Khan - Ubedei and Tolui ruled the Mongol Empire. At the same time, the 3rd son of Tolui, Hulagu, had practically no chance of ascending the throne, as his two older brothers did, and decided to create his own state, in which his descendants would rule exclusively. This is how the Hulaguid State appeared on the world map, which was officially recognized as the Mongol Khan, and Hulagu himself received the title “ilkhan” (“ruler of the tribe”).

The emergence of a new state in the Middle East became possible due to the defeat of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 by the Mongol army. The central regions of the Caliphate, including the capital, Baghdad, came under the control of the Mongols. It was these lands that Hulagu received. The Ilkhanid state included the territories of modern Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, part of Afghanistan, and part of Turkey.

However, the new state lasted about 80 years, after which it broke up into small public entities in which Genghisides continued to play a significant role and occupied high government posts.

Famous descendants of Genghis Khan

1. Suleiman the Magnificent

The most famous descendant of Genghis Khan in the Muslim world, we can call the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the great commander and conqueror Suleiman the Magnificent, also known by the nickname "Kanuni". His mother, Hafsa Sultan, was the daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray, who was a Chingizid. Suleiman himself began his ascension to the throne also in the Crimea, where he led the sanjak during the reign of his grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II.

During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power, it included such territories as: Rhodes, Belgrade, Hungary, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Iranian Azerbaijan, Iraq, South Arabia, Yerevan, Nakhichevan, Georgia and so on.

Suleiman also went down in history as a bloodthirsty ruler who executed two of his sons, one of whom, shehzade Mustafa, was especially loved by the people and it was on him that the inhabitants of the empire had great hopes.

2. Ivan the Terrible (?)

There is a version that the Russian Tsar Ivan IV was a descendant of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Supporters of this opinion argue that the grandson of Khan Mamai, a participant in the Battle of Kulikovo, Alexa converted to Christianity in 1390 and was named Alexander. His son, John, served at the court of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, for which he was granted the title of Prince of Glinsky in 1399. John Glinsky, who ruled the cities of Glinsk and Poltava, was the great-grandfather of Elena Glinsky, wife Basil III and mother of Ivan the Terrible. Another argument in favor of this version is the appearance of the Russian Tsar, which can hardly be called Slavic. Black hair, slightly narrowed and brown eyes, as well as similarities with the legendary ancestor in some facial features, give reason to assert that Ivan Vasilyevich was a descendant of Genghis Khan.

3. Simeon Bekbulatovich

A contemporary of Ivan IV - Sain-Bulat Khan (Grand Duke Simeon Bekbulatovich) was the great-grandson of Khan of the Golden Horde Akhmat. His father, Bek-Bulat, after the fall of the Astrakhan Khanate, served as a local prince. Sain-Bulat himself was appointed by Ivan the Terrible Khan of Kasimov, and in 1573, at his insistence, he was baptized and began to bear a new name.

In 1575, Ivan IV formally abdicated in favor of Simeon, although in fact he remains the head of state. Simeon Bekbulatovich after that acquires the title " Grand Duke of all Rus'." He was endowed with the powers of the king and lived in the residence of Ivan the Terrible, who retired to Petrovka. Simeon held the post of formal head of Rus' for 11 months, after which he was appointed Grand Duke of Tver.

With the beginning of the Time of Troubles in Rus', turmoil begins in the life of the “former tsar”. After the death of Fedor, the son of Ivan IV, Simeon was considered as one of the contenders for the throne, which did not please his main competitors. Last years Simeon Bekbulatovich spent in permanent exile, and in January 1616 he died.

4. Muhammad Sheibani

The genealogy of the ruler of the Bukhara Khanate and the founder of the Sheibanid dynasty goes back to one of the sons of Jochi - Shiban. His main merit was the creation of a single state in Central Asia through the unification of Maverannahr, Khorasan and the state of the Timurids. In addition, his reign was the heyday of the Bukhara Khanate and, in particular, its capital, Samarkand.

5. Kasim Khan

Not less than successful ruler became the Khan of the Kazakh Khanate Kasym, under which his state reaches its highest peak. His genealogy also went back to the eldest son of Genghis Khan - Jochi. He ruled for only 10 years, which, according to the framework of world history, is an insignificant period. However, this decade was a period of revival of the Kazakh Khanate, expansion of its territory, population growth. It was under Kasym Khan that the state began to be considered a significant player in the region, and the Europeans recognized its influence.

6. Tadzhetdin Yalchigol

The well-known Tatar poet and historian Tadzhetdin Yalchigol is also considered a descendant of Genghis Khan on the branch of his eldest son Jochi. His works have survived to this day, the most famous of which is considered to be "Tarawihi Bulgaria". In it, he describes the history of the Volga Bulgaria, and also puts forward his own idea of ​​the history of this state. According to his version, the founders of the city of Bulgar were Iskander of Rumi (Alexander the Great) and his mentor - Socrates. Yalchygol puts forward the version that the first king of Bulgaria - Guftar was the son of Socrates from a local girl.

7. Ahmed Tevfik Pasha

One of the most famous Genghisides in the history of Turkey was Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, the last Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, who headed the government three times. He is considered a descendant of the Crimean Khan's family of Gireys, leading a pedigree from Genghis Khan. Each of his tenures as Grand Vizier did not last more than 2 years, and he himself witnessed the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire.

8. Chokan Valikhanov

A well-known Kazakh scientist, ethnographer, officer of the General Staff was also a descendant of Genghis Khan. Russian Empire Chokan Valikhanov. He was the great-grandson of the famous Kazakh Khan - Abylay, who ruled in the XVIII century. Valikhanov actively studied the history and customs of the peoples of Central Asia. In particular, he was the first to record and translate individual chapters of the Kyrgyz epic Manas.

On Wednesday, May 21, 2008, I watched the program “Overcoming Chaos. Lev Gumilyov. And I became convinced that I didn’t know much about him, although I often talked with him in his apartment in Novogireevo and walked for hours in the vicinity when he came to Moscow. Of course, we are the geopolitical, political and spiritual heirs of Genghis Khan, he is in our destiny as a beacon and inspirer, and Lev Nikolaevich felt this with all his guts, like me. And my friend and one of the teachers Vsevolod Nikanorovich Ivanov (1888-1971), a great Russian patriot, a white resistance figure, and then a Harbin emigrant and after Great War Khabarovsk writer, - gave me a complete manuscript of the treatise "We", in which he substantiates our Eurasian essence. And it turns out that we are connected with Genghis Khan (1162-1227) not only historically, but in many ways genetically.

Olga Orlova and Alexander Markov prepared wonderful material on this topic. Perhaps Peter Chaadaev was a descendant of Genghis Khan:

“Historical events leave their mark not only in cultural monuments, but also in our genes. And today geneticists use latest methods in order to learn new details of the ancient past. One such study is the search for the descendants of Genghis Khan. Corresponding member speaks about this research Russian Academy Sciences Ilya Zakharov-Gesehus.

- Tell us about the research related to the search for the so-called descendants of Genghis Khan, which are carried out by geneticists.

– This is connected with our research in Tuva. This part of the Russian Federation borders with Mongolia and is quite isolated both historically and geographically from other regions. In this most interesting territory for a biologist, for a geneticist, we conduct various studies. And one of them is related to the study of what is called the human gene pool, that is, the genetic characteristics of certain population groups, peoples, in this case, Tuvans and other Turkic-Mongolian peoples who live near Tuva. Here is the study of the gene pool of these peoples and led us to the search for the descendants of Genghis Khan.

- Why did you decide to look for the descendants of Genghis Khan?

- I must explain who are the descendants of Genghis Khan. This whole story began in 2002 or 2003, when, in a very serious scientific journal published an article by a large group of researchers led by a geneticist from Oxford University, Christyler Smith, and in this article it is stated that they managed to find probable descendants of Genghis Khan in Asia, and in a very in large numbers, according to their calculations, almost 200 million.

I must explain how this is done, as we have worked with the same method. The fact is that genes that are located on chromosomes are transmitted from ancestors to descendants, and most of the genes and chromosomes are mixed. Each of us receives them from our father and mother, respectively from one grandfather, another grandfather, one grandmother, another grandmother, and so on. However, there are two elements of the human genome, genetic material, which are transmitted one strictly through the female line, and the second is the so-called Y-chromosome, which is strictly transmitted through the male line from father to son, women never have it.

It is transmitted more strictly than the surname. The Y chromosome carries very few genes, but it makes each of us a man, there are some genes that make the embryo develop in the direction of the male. Each person, more precisely, each male line has its own version of the Y-chromosome, which is slightly different from the others.

Of course, we all come from some kind of Adam, but over the past 100-150 thousand years since the emergence of mankind, changes and mutations accumulate in the chromosomes - and therefore the y-chromosome is quite diverse in modern humanity. So, this international group of scientists, conducting a study of the peoples of Asia from Korea to Georgia, along with rare individual variants, discovered one variant, which was very numerous everywhere, most of all in Mongolia. And as you move away from Mongolia, less and less. And when it was calculated with what frequency this option was encountered on the studied material, and the number of people belonging to a particular ethnic group, people was calculated, it turned out that in Central, Eastern, Central Asia, about 200 million men have the same or almost the same Y chromosome. It has been suggested that these are male-line descendants of Genghis Khan.

- Why did geneticists decide that these were the descendants of Genghis Khan?

- An ordinary person in a few centuries is unlikely to leave such a number of great-great-great-grandchildren. Genghis Khan, as you know, in addition to his beloved wife, had 500 concubines, and his four sons from his beloved wife, obviously, also had sons, each (at least those sons who became khans) also had harems. And the Genghisides, as historians testify, ruled in the states of Asia for a very long time.

Then they converted to Islam, and if before the adoption of Islam they had harems, then even more so after. That is, the Genghisides ruled for a very long time. And having harems, of course, they could leave a huge number of sons. The simplest calculations show that in a few centuries, even if each man of this kind left only four sons, in 400 years there would be two to three hundred million. So it's possible.

But why exactly Genghis Khan? The scientists who made this assumption had three indirect arguments. First, the territory where they met this variant of the y-chromosome fits very well into the boundaries of the empire of Genghis Khan. These genes were not found among the Koreans, who were later conquered by the Mongols, they were not found in the Transcaucasus among the Armenians, Georgians, they were not found among the Turkmens either, but they were found from Manchuria to the Aral Sea - this is just the border of the first conquests of Genghis Khan and his sons. This is the first.

Secondly, genetic methods can be used to calculate how many years or generations ago the progenitor of one kind or another lived. When such calculations were made, it turned out that the progenitor of this gigantic family, according to their calculations, lived a thousand plus or minus three hundred years ago, and Genghis Khan was born about 900 years ago. The timing is also the same.

And, finally, the third argument is that every fourth Mongolian has exactly this variant of the Y-chromosomes, in men of other nations it is much less common. But there is a small Hazara people who live in Pakistan and consider themselves, according to legend, to be a descendant of Genghis Khan, the Khazarians of this variant of the y-chromosome turned out to be even more than the Mongols, although they are territorially separated by several thousand kilometers.

/ MY COMMENT: Actually, the Hazaras live mainly in Afghanistan and partly in Iran, because they are Shiites, and there are very few of them in Pakistan /

You are naming huge numbers. How did you find out that 200 million people have this particular gene?

- Two hundred million, of course, they did not check. Usually they check, say, a hundred men from each ethnic group, Mongols, Chinese, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and so on, and determine the percentage of men who have this variant of the Y chromosome. Let's say the Mongols have 25%. It is known how many the population of Mongolia is, I do not remember, let's say, 3 million. Further, the simplest calculation of how many carriers of this chromosome should be in Mongolia.

How is the genetic material obtained?

- Genetic material is taken randomly, scientists try to take non-relatives, of course. Usually they take blood for analysis, from which DNA is isolated, and then modern methods molecular genetics, this DNA isolated from blood cells is being studied. In particular, the molecular features of the y chromosome are being studied, which should have 12-16 markers, that is, look like something like a barcode, with which all goods are now marked, and each product has a different barcode. And these 12-16 markers in the y chromosome make it possible to distinguish me from a descendant of Genghis Khan.

This is a rather expensive procedure available to well-equipped laboratories. To analyze one hundred people, you need ten thousand dollars worth of reagents in addition to equipment. Of course, I repeat, not two hundred million were studied, this is a recalculation based on the percentage that they met in certain peoples.

- Who is interested in finding the descendants of Genghis Khan?

– Firstly, the people themselves, especially those who suspect their khan origin. And second, of course, historians should be interested. In particular, there is a very curious historical mystery. Genghis Khan, as I said, had 4 sons from his beloved wife - these are Jochi, Jaghatai, Ogedei and Tolui. So, probably, many watched the film "Mongol", this film increased interest in Genghis Khan and his descendants. This film presents: Jochi was born after the beloved wife of Genghis Khan was in captivity. There were doubts in the family about his origin, about who his father was. And the rest of the sons, when the division of the inheritance of Genghis Khan took place, disputed the primacy of Jochi, although Genghis Khan recognized him as his son from the very beginning.

So, the development of these studies, taking into account the genealogies of those people who know their origin, would make it possible to figure out in this matter whether Jochi was really the son of Genghis Khan. And by the way, his grandson was Batuy or Batu, the son of Jochi and, accordingly, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Accordingly, who conquered Rus' - the descendants of Genghis Khan or the descendants of another person.

- Did geneticists find out whether Jochi was the son of Genghis Khan or not?

– This group of scientists, whose work I am talking about, they conducted these studies without taking into account the origin of the bloodlines of people. And they had no information about who the Genghisides they allegedly found come from. In addition, they studied the population of China, Mongolia, the former Soviet Central Asia, but not a single people of Russia was covered by them.

- What did the search for the descendants of Genghis Khan lead to in Russia?

- From the very beginning, unlike other geneticists, we began to take not blood, but hair, hair follicles as a material, which is much easier to take samples, and save, transport, and maintain. People, of course, are not very willing to give their blood, certain security measures are required. And I probably took at least a thousand samples of hair, and I never encountered a person refusing. In the bulbs, in the roots of the hair, there is enough DNA for analysis, if everything is done subtly. This is a feature of our work, which allowed us to cover a very large material.

We started from Tuva, but then we collected material in the regions bordering Tuva - Gorny Altai, Buryatia, Khakassia, received material from Mongolia for comparison, and a very interesting sample was collected in Kalmykia. Kalmyks, as you know, at the end of the 17th century came to North Caucasus from Western Mongolia and by their ethnic origin they are connected precisely with the Mongols. The Russians were also taken for comparison. And in total, one and a half thousand men were studied - material collected, except for the Mongols, on the territory of Russia.

Based on this material, 12 presumably Genghisides were found. But the material was collected for several years, when we did not even think of conducting these studies. When it turned out that we could identify such men, it was very interesting to get to know them, to learn something about them. And a few years after collecting the material, I had to travel again to the same regions or republics and try to find those people from whom the material was taken four or five or even more years ago. I didn't always succeed, but I got to know several Genghisides.

A student in Kalmykia and his father know nothing about their origin. The Kalmyks were evicted after the war, the father was born on Sakhalin and the family memory was lost.

There is a family in Tuva with whom we met, met several times, re-taken material from relatives in the male line, everything was confirmed. It turned out that the grandfather young man, from which the study of this family began, as a child in the late 1930s, together with his brother and sister, he was taken to Tuva from Mongolia (then these were two relatively independent states) and adopted into different Tuvan families.

It is known that in Mongolia in the 1930s there were mass repressions against the clergy, the Mongolian aristocracy, the descendants of the khans, and simply rich people. And the fact that three small children were taken away and sent to be raised in another country obviously indicates that something seriously threatened this family. It can be assumed that this was due to an origin that is now impossible to determine. And they don't know where they come from. These were such interesting meetings.

In Moscow, we randomly took a sample from a Kazakh who works at the Academy of Sciences, and he also turned out to be of this origin. But here the story got confused, because he belongs to the family of the Kiriites. This is a Kazakh family, the Kazakhs know their origin well. There is a fairly large tribal group that originates from Genghis Khan. But this kind of Kiriites does not consider themselves connected with Genghis Khan. Moreover, the Kiriites or Keraites are a tribe that lived next to the tribe of Genghis Khan. Either they fought with him, then they united, but for a long time they existed in parallel. Therefore, now one of our tasks is to collect more material on the Kiriites and try to figure out that they are all like that or that this Kazakh “Chingizid” we found has a special origin. Let's do it, the research is not finished.

Among the Russians, we did not find the descendants of Genghis Khan - this is not surprising, of course. Maybe they are, but it's rare. Although two hundred Russian men have been studied, Genghisides were not found among them. But some well-known noble families, according to family legend, trace their origin to the Tatar khans. The most famous is Chaadaev. It is believed that this surname comes from Chagadai, the son of Genghis Khan. The philosopher Chaadaev did not have children, but the Chaadaevs still exist, we must find them and try to conduct an appropriate analysis. Thus, our research led to the fact that we found several alleged descendants of Genghis Khan in Russia.

What labs do you go to for DNA testing?

- I just recently spoke with our Moscow specialists, who in Russia can do such an analysis, it turned out that no one. But my partners with whom I work are Miroslava Derenko and Boris Molyarchuk, they work far away, in Magadan, but they constantly cooperate with European laboratories and have a very well equipped laboratory in Magadan, they have mastered these methods. They prepare the material in their laboratory and travel to the European laboratory every year, so that the extracted DNA is analyzed in a well-equipped European laboratory.

- Analysis of the y-chromosome allows you to select the descendants of a person, for example, Genghis Khan, - only in a direct male line, from father to son. But Genghis Khan had not only sons, but also daughters, the sons of Genghis Khan also had daughters. If you calculate like this, then in total there should be many times more descendants of Genghis Khan.

- Not much, but several times more. I said above that, apart from the y-chromosome, all the rest of the genetic material of Genghis Khan in his streams over these centuries is so diluted that the genes of Genghis Khan in homeopathic doses are contained in the genetic set of even his descendants and mixed, of course.

- When the study is completed, it will be possible to draw a map of the settlement of the descendants of Genghis Khan. Are such maps of interest to historians?

- A message flashed that the Chinese were going to look for the descendants of Confucius, since this is a very honored sage and quite a lot of Chinese consider themselves descendants of Confucius. If such work is really planned, of course, they will study and compare the Y-chromosome. For example, Tamerlane was not Genghisides. His descendants, who also left a mark on history, had harems, of course. The search for the descendants of Tamerlane is, apparently, a very real task and should cover the territory of Afghanistan, where it is difficult to collect material, Pakistan, northern India and our former Central Asian republics. There it is quite real and, probably, historically justified.

- According to your experience and the experience of your colleagues, do people easily go to this kind of research, give material?

- I did not encounter any difficulties. During my trips, I usually turn to schools, national lyceums, gymnasiums - and school authorities, when I say, without mentioning Genghis Khan, that we are conducting genetic research, I have not received a refusal either in Gorny Altai, or in Khakassia, or in Tuva . Students are always taught something about genetics. The only problem is that the boys in these schools usually have short hair, and taking the hair from the boys, which we are especially interested in now, is a technically difficult task. True, solvable, but difficult.

- And what kind of research would be interesting, where women and the genetic material of women are involved?

– I will give a very vivid example from the works of European scientists. There is the so-called mitochondrial DNA, an element of the genome that is passed down through the female line. In Iceland, which was inhabited by the Vikings, there was no autochthonous population. And then there was no migration, no one else went there, the population is stable, church books have been kept since the 10th century. So, a study of the origin of the Icelanders showed that in the male line they descend from the Scandinavians, and in the female line from the population of Great Britain. The Scandinavian Vikings arrived in Iceland not directly, but through England. And they didn’t bring their women to England, but the women were picked up in England or Scotland, which they partially conquered, and from there they moved to Iceland. Therefore, the Icelanders as an ethnic group have such a dual origin.