Russians and Ukrainians - who are the Slavs? Sensational discovery by scientists: The secret of the Russian gene pool has been revealed. Slavic genetics.
Where did the Russians come from? Who was our ancestor? What do Russians and Ukrainians have in common? For a long time, the answers to these questions could only be speculative. Until geneticists got down to business.
Adam and Eve
Population genetics deals with the study of roots. It is based on indicators of heredity and variability. Geneticists have discovered that all of modern humanity can be traced back to one woman, whom scientists call Mitochondrial Eve. She lived in Africa more than 200 thousand years ago.
We all have the same mitochondrion in our genome - a set of 25 genes. It is transmitted only through the maternal line.
At the same time, the Y chromosome in all modern men is also traced back to one man, nicknamed Adam, in honor of the biblical first man. It is clear that we are only talking about the closest common ancestors of all living people; their genes came to us as a result of genetic drift. It is worth noting that they lived at different times - Adam, from whom all modern males received their Y chromosome, was 150 thousand years younger than Eve.
Of course, it’s a stretch to call these people our “ancestors,” since out of the thirty thousand genes that a person possesses, we have only 25 genes and a Y chromosome from them. The population increased, the rest of the people mixed with the genes of their contemporaries, changed, mutated during migrations and the conditions in which people lived. As a result, we received different genomes of different peoples that subsequently formed.
Haplogroups
It is thanks to genetic mutations that we can determine the process of human settlement, as well as genetic haplogroups (communities of people with similar haplotypes who have a common ancestor who had the same mutation in both haplotypes) characteristic of a particular nation.
Each nation has its own set of haplogroups, which are sometimes similar. Thanks to this, we can determine whose blood flows into us and who our closest genetic relatives are.
According to a 2008 study conducted by Russian and Estonian geneticists, the Russian ethnic group genetically consists of two main parts: the inhabitants of Southern and Central Russia are closer to other peoples who speak Slavic languages, and the indigenous northerners are closer to the Finno-Ugric peoples. Of course, we are talking about representatives of the Russian people. Surprisingly, there is practically no gene inherent in Asians, including the Mongol-Tatars. So the famous saying: “Scratch a Russian, you will find a Tatar” is fundamentally wrong. Moreover, the Asian gene also did not particularly affect the Tatar people; the gene pool of modern Tatars turned out to be mostly European.
In general, based on the results of the study, in the blood of the Russian people there is practically no admixture from Asia, from the Urals, but within Europe our ancestors experienced numerous genetic influences from their neighbors, be they Poles, Finno-Ugric peoples, peoples of the North Caucasus or ethnic group Tatars (not Mongols). By the way, haplogroup R1a, characteristic of the Slavs, according to some versions, was born thousands of years ago and was common among the ancestors of the Scythians. Some of these Proto-Scythians lived in Central Asia, while others migrated to the Black Sea region. From there these genes reached the Slavs.
Ancestral home
Once upon a time, Slavic peoples lived on the same territory. From there they scattered around the world, fighting and mixing with their indigenous population. Therefore, the population of current states, which are based on the Slavic ethnic group, differ not only in cultural and linguistic characteristics, but also genetically. The further they are geographically from each other, the greater the differences. Thus, the Western Slavs found common genes with the Celtic population (haplogroup R1b), the Balkans with the Greeks (haplogroup I2) and the ancient Thracians (I2a2), and the Eastern Slavs with the Balts and Finno-Ugrians (haplogroup N). Moreover, the interethnic contact of the latter occurred at the expense of Slavic men who married aboriginal women.
Despite the many differences and heterogeneity of the gene pool, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians clearly fit into one group on the so-called MDS diagram, which reflects genetic distance. Of all the nations, we are closest to each other.
Genetic analysis makes it possible to find the above-mentioned “ancestral home where it all began.” This is possible due to the fact that each migration of tribes is accompanied by genetic mutations, which increasingly distort the original set of genes. So, based on genetic proximity, the original territorial one can be determined.
For example, according to their genome, Poles are closer to Ukrainians than to Russians. Russians are close to southern Belarusians and eastern Ukrainians, but far from Slovaks and Poles. And so on. This allowed scientists to conclude that the original territory of the Slavs was approximately in the middle of the current settlement area of their descendants. Conventionally, the territory of the subsequently formed Kievan Rus. Archaeologically, this is confirmed by the development of the Prague-Korchak archaeological culture of the 5th-6th centuries. From there the southern, western and northern waves of Slavic settlement had already begun.
Genetics and mentality
It would seem that since the gene pool is known, it is easy to understand where the national mentality comes from. Not really. According to Oleg Balanovsky, an employee of the Laboratory of Population Genetics of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, there is no connection between national character and the gene pool. These are already “historical circumstances” and cultural influences.
Roughly speaking, if a newborn baby from a Russian village with a Slavic gene pool is taken directly to China and raised in Chinese customs, culturally he will be a typical Chinese. But as far as appearance and immunity to local diseases are concerned, everything will remain Slavic.
DNA genealogy
Along with population genealogy, today private directions for studying the genome of peoples and their origins are emerging and developing. Some of them are classified as pseudo-sciences. For example, Russian-American biochemist Anatoly Klesov invented the so-called DNA genealogy, which, according to its creator, “is a practically historical science, created on the basis of the mathematical apparatus of chemical and biological kinetics.” Simply put, this new direction is trying to study the history and time frame of the existence of certain clans and tribes based on mutations in male Y chromosomes.
The main postulates of DNA genealogy were: the hypothesis of the non-African origin of Homo sapiens (which contradicts the conclusions of population genetics), criticism of the Norman theory, as well as the extension of the history of the Slavic tribes, which Anatoly Klesov considers the descendants of the ancient Aryans.
Where are such conclusions from? Everything is from the already mentioned haplogroup R1A, which is the most common among the Slavs.
Naturally, such an approach gave rise to a sea of criticism, both from historians and geneticists. In historical science, it is not customary to talk about the Aryan Slavs, since material culture (the main source in this matter) does not allow us to determine the continuity of Slavic culture from the peoples of Ancient India and Iran. Geneticists even object to the association of haplogroups with ethnic characteristics.
Doctor of Historical Sciences Lev Klein emphasizes that “Haplogroups are not peoples or languages, and giving them ethnic nicknames is a dangerous and undignified game. No matter what patriotic intentions and exclamations it hides behind.” According to Klein, Anatoly Klesov's conclusions about the Aryan Slavs made him an outcast in the scientific world. How the discussion around Klesov’s newly announced science and the question of the ancient origins of the Slavs will further develop remains anyone’s guess.
0,1%
Despite the fact that the DNA of all people and nations is different and in nature there is not a single person identical to another, from a genetic point of view we are all extremely similar. All the differences in our genes, which gave us different skin colors and eye shapes, according to Russian geneticist Lev Zhitovsky, amount to only 0.1% of our DNA. For the remaining 99.9% we are genetically the same. Paradoxical as it may seem, if we compare various representatives of the human races and our closest relatives, chimpanzees, it turns out that all people differ much less than chimpanzees in one herd. So, to some extent, we are all one big genetic family.
28.05.2016 - 11:32
Probably, no other people on Earth has as many myths about its history as the Russians. Some say that “there are no Russians”, others - that Russians are Finno-Ugric, not Slavs, others - that we are all Tatars in the depths, if you scratch us, others repeat the mantra that Rus' was founded by the Varangians...
Professor of Moscow State University and Harvard Anatoly Klyosov refuted most of these myths. The new science of DNA genealogy and its research based on the analysis of genetic data helped him in this, writes KP.ru.
No matter how much you scratch, you won’t find a Tatar
- Anatoly Alekseevich, I would like to get an answer: “So where did the Russians come from?” So that historians, geneticists, ethnographers can gather and tell us the truth. Is science able to do this?
Where did the Russians come from? - there cannot be an exact answer to this question, since Russians are a big family, with a common history, but separate roots. But the question of the common Slavic origin of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians is closed by DNA genealogy. The answer has been received. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians have the same roots - Slavic.
- What kind of roots are these?
The Slavs have three main genera, or haplogroups (a scientific synonym for the concept of “genus”). Judging by DNA genealogy data: the dominant clan of Slavs are carriers of haplogroup R1a - they are about half of all Slavs in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland.
The second largest genus is the carriers of haplogroup I2a - the southern Slavs of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, up to 15–20% of them in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.
And the third Russian genus - haplogroup N1c1 - descendants of the southern Balts, of which in modern Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia there are about half, and in Russia on average 14%, in Belarus 10%, in Ukraine 7%, since it is farther from the Baltic.
The latter are often called Finno-Ugric people, but this is incorrect. The Finnish component there is minimal.
- What about the saying: “Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar”?
DNA genealogy does not confirm it either. The share of “Tatar” haplogroups among Russians is very small. Quite the opposite - the Tatars have many more Slavic haplogroups.
There is practically no Mongol trace, a maximum of four people per thousand. Neither the Mongols nor the Tatars had any influence on the Russian and Slavic gene pool.
Eastern Slavs, that is, members of the R1 genus - a on the Russian Plain, including Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians - are descendants of the Aryans, that is, ancient tribes who spoke the languages of the Aryan group, lived from the Balkans to the Trans-Urals, and partly moved to India, Iran , Syria and Asia Minor. In the European part of Russia, the ancestors of the Slavs and ethnic Russians separated from them approximately 4,500 years ago.
- Where did Russians come to Russia from?
Presumably the Eastern Slavs came to the Russian Plain from the Balkans. Although no one knows exactly their paths. And successively Tripoli and other archaeological cultures were founded here. All these cultures are, in fact, Rus cultures, because their inhabitants are the direct ancestors of modern ethnic Russians.
Nationalities are different, but the people are one
- What genetic data do you have for Ukraine?
If you compare Russians and Ukrainians based on the “male” Y chromosome, they are almost identical. Yes, and by female mitochondrial DNA too. The data for Eastern Ukraine is simply identical, without any “practically”.
There are slight differences in Lviv, there are fewer carriers of the “Baltic” genus N1c1, but they exist there too. There is no difference in the origin of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians; these are historically the same peoples.
- What do Ukrainian scientists think about this?
Unfortunately, the “scientific” historical materials that are sent to me from Ukraine can be described in one word: horror. Either Adam is from Ukraine, or Noah’s Ark landed there, apparently at Mount Hoverla in the Carpathians, or some other “scientific news”. And everywhere they try to emphasize the difference between Ukrainians and Russians.
- Sometimes the genus R1a, still dominant in Russia and Ukraine, is called “Ukrainian”. This is true?
Rather, they called it a few years ago. Now, under the pressure of DNA genealogy data, they have already realized the mistake, and those who made the name have slowly “swept it under the rug.” We have shown that the genus R1a appeared approximately 20 thousand years ago, and in Southern Siberia. And then the parent haplogroup was found on Lake Baikal, dating back 24 thousand years ago.
So the R1a genus is neither Ukrainian nor Russian. It is common to many peoples, but numerically it is most pronounced among the Slavs. After their appearance in Southern Siberia, R1a carriers traveled a long migration route to Europe. But some of them remained in Altai, and now there are many tribes there that continue to belong to the R1a genus, but speak Turkic languages.
- So, are Russians a separate nation from the rest of the Slavs? And are Ukrainians an “invented” nationality or a real one?
Slavs and ethnic Russians are simply different concepts. Ethnic Russians are those for whom Russian is their native language, who consider themselves Russian, and whose ancestors lived in Russia for at least three or four generations. And the Slavs are those who speak languages of the Slavic group, these are Poles, and Ukrainians, and Belarusians, and Serbs, and Croats, and Czechs with Slovaks, and Bulgarians. They are not Russians.
And Ukrainians in this sense are a separate nation. They have their own country, their own language, citizenship. There are differences in culture.
But as far as the people, the ethnic group, their genome is concerned, you will not find any differences from the Russians. Political boundaries often separate related peoples. And sometimes, in fact, one people.
The Varangians left no traces on us
- There is a generally accepted “Norman” theory, which we all studied in school. She claims that Rus' was founded by the Scandinavian Varangians. Is there a trace of their DNA in the blood of Russians?
One can name the names of many scientists, starting with Mikhail Lomonosov, who rejected this “Norman” theory. And DNA genealogy completely refuted it. I examined thousands of DNA samples from all over Russia and from Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and nowhere did I find any noticeable presence of Scandinavians. Out of thousands of samples, only four people were found whose ancestors included a Scandinavian by DNA.
Where did these Scandinavians go then? After all, some scientists write that their number in Rus' was tens, or even hundreds of thousands. When you report this data to supporters of the “Norman” theory, they, speaking in Russian, “pretend to be rags.” Or they simply state that “DNA genealogy data cannot be trusted.” The “Norman” theory is a concept more of ideology than of science.
- Where did this version about the Varangians - the founders of Rus' - come from?
The Russian Academy of Sciences was originally created by German scientists. And in their historical theories there was practically no place for the Slavs. Lomonosov fought with them, wrote to Empress Catherine II, pointing out that the German Miller wrote such a Russian history, where there was not a single good word about Rus', and all the exploits were attributed to the Scandinavians. But in the end, this theory of “Normanism” still became part of the flesh and blood of Russian historical science.
The reason is simple - the “Westernism” of many historians, and the fear that they will be considered “nationalists” if they honestly study the history of the Slavs. And then - goodbye Western grants.
Also, some scientists talk about a certain Finno-Ugric substrate in the Russian people. But DNA genealogy does not find this substrate! However, this is repeated and repeated.
There is no "white race"
- There seems to be no doubt that Russian culture is part of European culture. But genetically Russians are a European, “white race”? Or, as Blok wrote, “yes, we are Scythians, yes, we are Asians”? Is there a border between Russians and Europe?
First of all, there is no “white race”. There are Caucasians. Using the term “white race” in science is bad manners.
The Scythians possessed haplogroup R1a, but most are believed to have had a Mongoloid appearance. So Blok was partly right, only in relation to the Scythians, but his “we” is a poetic fantasy. It is difficult to determine the boundaries of races, especially in the modern world, where there is active mixing of peoples. But it’s easier to separate the Slavs from the rest of the Europeans. Note, not only Russians, but Slavs in general.
There is a fairly clear boundary between the predominance of haplogroups R1a and R1b - from the former Yugoslavia to the Baltic. To the West, R1b predominates, and to the East, R1a. This border is not symbolic, but quite real. Thus, Ancient Rome, which reached Iran in the south, could not overcome it in the north.
For example, recently, north of Berlin, in the territory of the early Slavic Lusatian archaeological culture, where almost all settlements still have Slavic names, evidence of a grandiose battle that took place 3200 years ago was found. According to various sources, thousands of people took part in it.
The world press has already dubbed it the “First World War of Civilization,” but no one knows who those warriors were. And DNA genealogy along migration routes shows that this was apparently a battle between the early Slavs of haplogroup R1a against carriers of haplogroup R1b, which is now carried by 60% of men in Central and Western Europe. That is, the ancient Slavs defended their territories 3200 years ago.
- Can genetics look not only back, but also forward? What awaits the gene pool of Europe, the gene pool of Russians in the next 100 years, your forecast?
As for Europe, we can conclude that its gene pool will change under the pressure of migrants. But no one will publish an article about this there; it will be considered politically incorrect. For example, the press in the USA did not say a single word about the New Year's events in Cologne, because according to their concepts, such news incites hatred towards migrants.
In Russia there is much more freedom in science; in Russia many issues are freely discussed and the authorities are criticized. In the USA this is almost impossible. I worked both at Harvard as a professor of biochemistry and at large American biomedical companies, and I know how things are. If some scientific conclusions turn out to go against US policy, such things will not be published in the West. Even scientific journals.
As for Russia, don’t expect anything dramatic. The Russian gene pool will remain, and everything will be fine with it. And if we remember that our history is not black or white, but all of it, without exception, is ours, then everything will be fine with the country.
Interviewed by Yulia Alyokhina
By nature, the genetic code of all people is structured in such a way that everyone has 23 pairs of chromosomes, which store all the hereditary information inherited from both parents.The formation of chromosomes occurs at the time of meiosis, when, in the process of crossing over, each randomly takes approximately half from the maternal chromosome and half from the paternal chromosome; which specific genes will be inherited from the mother and which from the father is not known, everything is decided by chance.
Only one male chromosome, Y, does not participate in this lottery; it is entirely passed from father to son like a relay baton. Let me clarify that women do not have this Y chromosome at all.
In each subsequent generation, mutations occur in certain areas of the Y chromosome, called loci, which will be transmitted to all subsequent generations through the male gender.
It was thanks to these mutations that it became possible to reconstruct the genera. There are only about 400 loci on the Y chromosome, but only about a hundred are used for comparative haplotype analysis and genera reconstruction.
In the so-called loci, or they are also called STR markers, there are from 7 to 42 tandem repeats, the overall pattern of which is unique for each person. After a certain number of generations, mutations occur and the number of tandem repeats changes up or down, and thus on the general tree it will be seen that the more mutations, the older the common ancestor for a group of haplotypes.
The haplogroups themselves do not carry genetic information, because Genetic information is located in autosomes - the first 22 pairs of chromosomes. You can see the distribution of genetic components in Europe. Haplogroups are just markers of days gone by, at the dawn of the formation of modern peoples.
What haplogroups are most common among Russians?
Peoples |
Human |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs. |
|||||||||
| Russians(north) | 395 | 34 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 35 | 2 | 1 | |
| Russians(center) | 388 | 52 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 1 | |
| Russians(south) | 424 | 50 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 10 | 5 | 3 | |
| Russians (All Great Russians) | 1207 | 47 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Belarusians | 574 | 52 | 10 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 3 | Russians, Slavs, Indo-Europeans and haplogroups R1a, R1b, N1c, I1 and I2In ancient times, about 8-9 thousand years ago, there was a linguistic group that laid the foundation for the Indo-European family of languages (at the initial stage, most likely these were haplogroups R1a and R1b). The Indo-European family includes such linguistic groups as the Indo-Iranians (South Asia), the Slavs and Balts (Eastern Europe), the Celts (Western Europe), and the Germans (Central, Northern Europe).Perhaps they also had common genetic ancestors, which about 7 thousand years ago, due to migrations, ended up in different parts of Eurasia, some went to the south and east (R1a-Z93), laying the foundation for the Indo-Iranian peoples and languages (largely taking part in the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples), and some remained on the territory of Europe and marked the beginning of the formation of many European peoples (R1b-L51), including the Slavs and Russians in particular (R1a-Z283, R1b-L51). At different stages of formation, already in ancient times there were intersections of migration flows, which was the reason for the presence of a large number of haplogroups among all European ethnic groups. Slavic languages emerged from the once unified group of Balto-Slavic languages (presumably the archaeological culture of the Late Corded Ware). According to the calculations of linguist Starostin, this happened approximately 3.3 thousand years ago. Period from the 5th century BC to IV-V century AD can be considered conditionally Proto-Slavic, because The Balts and Slavs had already separated, but the Slavs themselves did not yet exist; they would appear a little later, in the 4th-6th centuries AD. At the initial stage of the formation of the Slavs, probably about 80% were haplogroups R1a-Z280 and I2a-M423. At the initial stage of the formation of the Balts, probably about 80% were haplogroups N1c-L1025 and R1a-Z92. The influence and intersection of migrations of the Balts and Slavs was present from the very beginning, therefore in many ways this division is arbitrary, and in general reflects only the main trend, without details. Iranian languages belong to the Indo-European languages, and their dating is as follows - the most ancient, from the 2nd millennium BC. to the 4th century BC, middle - from the 4th century BC. to the 9th century AD, and the new one - from the 9th century AD. Until now. That is, the most ancient Iranian languages appeared after the departure of some of the tribes who spoke Indo-European languages from Central Asia to India and Iran. Their main haplogroups were probably R1a-Z93, J2a, G2a3. The Western Iranian group of languages appeared later, around the 5th century BC. Thus, the Indo-Aryans, Celts, Germans and Slavs in academic science became Indo-Europeans, this term is the most adequate for such a vast and diverse group. This is completely correct. In the genetic aspect, the heterogeneity of Indo-Europeans both in Y-haplogroups and autosomes is striking. Indo-Iranians are characterized to a greater extent by the Western Asian genetic influence of BMAC. According to the Indian Vedas, it was the Indo-Aryans who came to India (South Asia) from the north (from Central Asia), and it was their hymns and tales that formed the basis of the Indian Vedas. And, continuing further, let’s touch on linguistics, because the Russian language (and related Baltic languages, for example, Lithuanian as part of the once existing Balto-Slavic linguistic community) is relatively close to Sanskrit along with the Celtic, Germanic and other languages of the large Indo-European family . But genetically, the Indo-Aryans were already largely Western Asians; as they approached India, the Veddoid influence also intensified. So it became clear that haplogroup R1a in DNA genealogy - this is a common haplogroup for part of the Slavs, part of the Turks and part of the Indo-Aryans (since naturally there were representatives of other haplogroups among them), part haplogroup R1a1 during migrations along the Russian Plain they became part of the Finno-Ugric peoples, for example the Mordovians (Erzya and Moksha). Part of the tribes (for haplogroup R1a1 this is subclade Z93) during migrations they brought this Indo-European language to India and Iran approximately 3500 years ago, that is, in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. In India, through the works of the great Panini, it was transformed into Sanskrit in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, and in Persia-Iran, the Aryan languages became the basis of a group of Iranian languages, the oldest of which date back to the 2nd millennium BC. These data are confirmed: DNA genealogy and linguistics correlate here. Extensive part haplogroups R1a1-Z93 in ancient times they merged with the Turkic ethnic groups and today largely mark the migrations of the Turks, which is not surprising in view of the antiquity haplogroup R1a1, while representatives haplogroup R1a1-Z280 belonged to the Finno-Ugric tribes, but when the Slavic colonists settled, many of them were assimilated by the Slavs, but even now, among many peoples, such as the Erzya, the dominant haplogroup is still R1a1-Z280. Was able to provide us with all this new data DNA genealogy, in particular, approximate dates of migrations of haplogroup carriers in the territory of the modern Russian Plain and Central Asia in prehistoric times. So scientists to all Slavs, Celts, Germans, etc. gave the name Indo-Europeans, which is true from a linguistic point of view. Where did these Indo-Europeans come from? In fact, there were Indo-European languages long before the migrations to India and Iran, throughout the Russian Plain and as far as the Balkans in the south, and as far as the Pyrenees in the west. Subsequently, the language was spread to South Asia - both to Iran and India. But in genetic terms there are much fewer correlations. “The only justified and currently accepted in science is the use of the term “Aryans” only in relation to tribes and peoples who spoke Indo-Iranian languages.” So in which direction did the Indo-European flow go - to the west, to Europe, or vice versa, to the east? According to some estimates, the Indo-European language family is about 8,500 years old. The ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans has not yet been determined, but according to one version it could be the Black Sea region - southern or northern. In India, as we already know, the Indo-Aryan language was brought about 3500 years ago, presumably from the territory of Central Asia, and the Aryans themselves were a group with different genetic Y-lines, such as R1a1-L657, G2a, J2a, J2b, H, etc. Haplogroup R1a1 in Western and Southern EuropeAnalysis of 67 marker haplotypes haplogroup R1a1 from all European countries made it possible to determine the approximate route of migration of the ancestors of R1a1 in the direction of Western Europe. And calculations showed that throughout almost all of Europe, from Iceland in the north to Greece in the south, haplogroup R1a1 had one common ancestor approximately 7000 years ago!In other words, the descendants, like a baton, passed on their haplotypes to their own descendants from generation to generation, diverging in the process of migrations from the same historical place - which presumably turned out to be the Urals or the Black Sea lowland. On the modern map these are countries mainly of Eastern and Central Europe - Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia. But the range of more ancient haplotypes of the haplogroup R1a1 leads east - to Siberia. And the lifetime of the first ancestor, which is indicated by the most ancient, most mutated haplotypes, is 7.5 thousand years ago. In those days there were no Slavs, no Germans, no Celts. Central and Eastern EuropePoland, the common ancestor of R1a1 lived about 5000 years ago (mainly the subclade R1a1-M458 and Z280). For the Russian-Ukrainian - 4500 years ago, which practically coincides within the accuracy of calculations.And even if four generations are not a difference for such periods. In modern Poland haplogroup R1a1 on average 56%, and in some areas up to 62%. The rest are mainly Western European haplogroup R1b(12%), Scandinavian haplogroup I1(17%) and Baltic haplogroup N1c1 (8%). In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a common Proto-Slavic ancestor lived 4,200 years ago. The total is not much less than that of the Russians and Ukrainians. That is, we are talking about settlement in the territories of modern Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia - all within literally a few generations, but more than four thousand years ago. In archaeology, such dating accuracy is completely unthinkable. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia descendants haplogroup R1a1 about 40%. The rest have mostly Western European R1b(22-28%), Scandinavian I1 and Balkan haplogroup I2a(18% in total) In the territory of modern Hungary, the common ancestor of R1a1 lived 5000 years ago. There are now up to a quarter of the descendants of haplogroup R1a1. The rest have mainly the Western European haplogroup R1b (20%) and the combined Scandinavian I1 and Balkan I2 (total 26%) haplogroups. Considering that Hungarians speak the language of the Finno-Ugric group of languages, the most common haplogroup of which is N1c1 in the ancient Hungarian rich burials of the Magyars, the remains of men with the haplogroup are mainly found N1c1, who were the first leaders of the tribes who participated in the formation of the empire. In Lithuania and Latvia, the common ancestor is reconstructed to a depth of 4800 years. Today there are mainly subclade Z92, Z280 and M458. The most common among Lithuanians is the Baltic haplogroup N1c1, reaching 47%. In general, Lithuania and Latvia are characterized by the South Baltic subclade L1025 of haplogroup N1c1. In general, the situation is clear. I will only add that in European countries - Iceland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Lithuania, France, Italy, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Moldova - the common ancestor lived 5000-5500 years ago , it is impossible to establish more precisely. This is a common ancestor haplogroup R1a for all listed countries. The pan-European ancestor, so to speak, not counting the Balkan region shown above, the possible ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans about 7500 years ago. Share of carriers haplogroup R1a1 in the following countries varies, from 4% in Holland and Italy, 9% in Albania, 8-11% in Greece (up to 14% in Thessaloniki), 12-15% in Bulgaria and Herzegovina, 14-17% in Denmark and Serbia, 15-25% in Bosnia and Macedonia, 3% in Switzerland, 20% in Romania and Hungary, 23% in Iceland, 22-39% in Moldova, 29-34% in Croatia, 30-37% in Slovenia (16% in in the Balkans as a whole), and at the same time - 32-37% in Estonia, 34-38% in Lithuania, 41% in Latvia, 40% in Belarus, 45-54% in Ukraine. In Russia, Eastern European haplogroup R1a, as I already mentioned, on average 47%, due to the high share of the Baltic haplogroup N1c1 in the north and north-west of Russia, but in the south and center of Russia, the share of different subclades of haplogroup R1a reaches 55%. Turks and haplogroup R1a1The haplotypes of ancestors are different everywhere, and different regions have their own subclades. The peoples of Altai and other Turks also have high percentages of haplogroup R1a1; among the Bashkirs, subclade Z2123 reaches 40%. This is a daughter line from Z93 and can be called typically Turkic and not related to the migrations of Indo-Iranians.Today a large number haplogroup R1a1 located in the Sayan-Altai region, among the Turkic population of Central Asia. Among the Kyrgyz, reaching 63%. You can’t call them either Russians or Iranians. It turns out to name all haplogroup R1a1 a single name - gross exaggeration, at least, and at most - ignorance. Haplogroups are not ethnic groups; the linguistic and ethnic affiliation of the carrier is not recorded on them. Haplogroups also have no direct relationship to genes. The Turks are mainly characterized by various subclades Z93, but in the Volga region there are also R1a1-Z280, possibly passed on to the Volga Turks from the Volga Finns. Haplogroup R1a1-Z93 is also characteristic of Arabs in moderate frequency, and for Levites - a subgroup of Ashkenazi Jews (the CTS6 subclade was confirmed in the latter). This line already at the very early stages took part in the ethnogenesis of these peoples. Territory of initial distribution haplogroup R1a1 in Europe, this is probably the territory of Eastern Europe and possibly the Black Sea lowland. Before this, probably in Asia, possibly in South Asia or Northern China. Caucasian R1a1 haplotypesArmenia. Age of the common ancestor of the haplogroup R1a1- 6500 years ago. Mainly also the subclade R1a1-Z93, although there is also R1a1-Z282.Asia Minor, Anatolian Peninsula. A historic crossroads between the Middle East, Europe and Asia. It was the first or second candidate for an "Indo-European ancestral home." However, the common ancestor of haplogroup R1a1 lived there about 6,500 years ago. It is clear that, judging by the haplotypes, this ancestral home could practically be in Anatolia, or the original Indo-Europeans were carriers haplogroup R1b. But there is a high probability of low representation of individuals from Turkey in the general database of haplotypes. So, both Armenians and Anatolians - all have either the same ancestor, or ancestors very close in time, within several generations - this is the subclade Z93 and Z282 *. It should be noted that 4500 years before the common ancestor of the R1a1-Z93 haplogroup in Anatolia is in good agreement with the time of the appearance of the Hittites in Asia Minor in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC, although many R1a1-Z93 lineages could have appeared there after the migrations of Turkic peoples to the peninsula already in our era. Alexey Zorrin *** . | |
Strictly speaking, no Slavic gene, just like a Turkic or Finnish, or Germanic or any other gene, does not exist. Genes are structural and functional units of genetic material, a hereditary factor that can be conventionally represented as a segment of a DNA molecule - much older than any people on earth. However, geneticists identify a haplogroup that is characteristic of representatives of Slavic peoples. A haplogroup is a set of nucleotides on the male Y chromosome that is passed on from generation to generation without any changes for thousands of years. It is transmitted exclusively through the male line. So, approximately four and a half thousand years ago, on the Central Russian Plain, a boy was born with a slightly different haplogroup than his father. The genetic classification of the father's haplogroup looks like this: R1a. Modern geneticists assigned the classification R1a1 to the son’s mutated haplogroup. This mutation turned out to be very tenacious. And currently, holders of haplogroup R1a1 make up 70% of the population of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and are also the majority in other Slavic countries. Actually, this very set of nucleotides is, in a certain sense, a biological marker of Slavism. But, of course, in our days there can be no talk of any “pure” peoples who have avoided mixing with other ethnic groups. Therefore, the Slavs are also very heterogeneous. Along with this same haplogroup R1a1, many peoples left their genetic mark on them. Among the Russian population, indeed, about 14% are carriers of the haplogroup characteristic of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which is completely natural, since the Finno-Ugric tribes are the ancient inhabitants of the lands where Russia is now located. But the haplogroup characteristic of the Mongols, contrary to the common saying “scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar,” is extremely rare among Russians - only from one and a half to three percent, and among Ukrainians also a little - about five percent. But among Ukrainians, almost 37% of the population are owners of haplogroups characteristic of the Balkans, which, again, is quite natural due to geographical proximity and frequent contacts. Residents of other Slavic countries also have their own characteristics. In Belarus, for example, there are many carriers of haplogroups characteristic of the peoples of the Baltic group, the Czechs and other Western Slavs are closer to Western European peoples, the Bulgarians have a fair Thracian trace, which was gifted to the alien South Slavic tribe by the ancient inhabitants of this region. A people is determined not by genes, but by language, traditions, religion and everything else that we call culture. Therefore, the concept of “Slavic gene” should still be attributed to the field of poetic metaphors, and not science
