The problem of ethnic ties between the Altai and West Siberian regions in the Middle Ages (based on ethnonymy, folklore and traditional culture)

Abstract

The article examines the ethnonymy and folklore data preserved by modern Siberian and Altai Turks, which implies fairly active ethnic ties between the Altai and West Siberian regions. The great migration of peoples, founding Turkic state formations, then the empire Genghis Khan and the Mongol expansion, and at the last phase – the annexation of Western Siberia to the Moscow State became the key stages in the turkification process of the Western Siberia territory. The ethnonyms and toponyms preserved in the territory inhabited by the Siberian Tatars, such as Yerlan, saryestek, taz, etc., indicate a fairly early penetration of the Turkic/Kipchak ethnic component into Western Siberia. In the folklore of the Altaians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz, there are epic tales Alyp Manash(s), Kozy Korpesh and Bayan-Sulu, Marat-biy, and Ak Kubek that are common to these peoples. The ethnocultural ties of the Siberian-Altai area during the Middle Ages are reflected in the common Turkic folklore heritage. The author draws attention to the fact that, despite the fact that a stable tradition has developed in the Siberian literature to consider Altai as the ancestral homeland of the Siberian Turks from where various Turkic tribes came and spread further west, this issue is far from unambiguous. According to the author, the processes of interaction between Siberian Tatars and Altaians had a multi-vector character at different historical stages. Moreover, in the period after Moscow conquered the Siberian Khanate, there was an active movement in the eastern direction, which was reflected in the appearance of new Turkic groups in the Altai