Tugorkhan (1028-1096)

Tugorkhan (Togortak) (1028-July 19, 1096) - Polovtsian khan, the closest associate of Bonyak. Together with Bonyak, he united under his authority several Western Polovtsian hordes.

The earliest news about Tugorkhan, as well as about Khan Bonyak, is found in the writings of Byzantine princess Anna Komnena. At that time the Pechenegs, advancing to the Balkans under the pressure of the Polovtsians, invaded the Byzantine possessions, not content with the lands assigned to them on the northern border of the empire. The Polovtsian khans Tugorkhan and Bonyak, who came with troops to Byzantium in 1091, responded to the appeal of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for help. Neither the Byzantines nor the Polovtsians trusted each other, however, the battle between the Polovtsians and the Pechenegs ended in a complete rout of the latter.

"The consequence of this victory was the complete physical destruction of the entire Pecheneg horde. Many of them fell on the battlefield, others met death in captivity. The prisoners were so numerous that one Roman soldier had 30 captive Pechenegs. Fearing that at night, when the tired Greeks are asleep, the Pechenegs will be able to free themselves, the Byzantine military commander Sinesia ordered them all to be killed. In the morning the emperor learned about this event and almost ordered the execution of the prisoner - only the ardent intercession of the other generals saved Sinesia. But the very action so amazed even the barbarians who had seen the species that in the morning the frightened Polovtsians withdrew from the camp full of corpses and hurried to their native steppes, fearing that the Byzantines would somehow manage to kill them. Komneno had even to send for them chase, Anna Komnena - Alexiada. Book 8, chapters 5, 6. P.236, 238.) ".

The Polovtsians, frightened by the cruelty of the battle, retreated to the Danube, where they were defeated by the Hungarians and left for the Dnieper steppes.

In 1093, in alliance with Bonyak, Turgokhan waged a war with Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, which ended in the complete defeat of the Grand Prince of Kiev, who was forced to conclude peace in 1094 and marry Tugorkhan's daughter. In 1095, together with Bonyak, Turgokhan went on a campaign to Byzantium, which ended in failure: more than half of the warriors who had gone to Byzantium perished, and all the booty was taken away in one of the battles with the imperial army pursuing them. Together with Kurya Khan he invaded the Principality of Pereyaslavl, on May 30, 1096, and besieged Pereyaslavl, but was defeated on July 19 by the troops of Svyatopolk and Vladimir Monomakh in the Battle of the Trubezh River. Tugorkhan together with his son died in battle. Svyatopolk considered it his duty to find the corpse of his father-in-law on the battlefield and to bury him in a grave near Berestove.

Genealogic information
Some researchers call the extinguished Lithuanian-Russian princely family of the Polovtsi-Rozhinovsky and through them the nobles of the Polovtsov family as descendants of Tugorkan.

Folklore
In the annals of Russia the name of Tugorkhan along with Bonyak is mentioned with special antipathy. Tugorkhan found reflection in folklore as the enemy of Russia. So, he is repeatedly mentioned in bylina under the name of Tugarin or Tugarin Zmeyevich.

Literature

 * Плетнёва С. А. Половцы. — М.: Наука, 1990.