Eurasian Steppe#Kazakh Steppe (Central Steppe)

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The Eurasian Steppe extends for 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) from the Carpathian Basin to the western edge of Manchuria. It is bounded on the north by the forests of European Russia and Asian Russia or Siberia. There is no clear southern boundary although the land becomes increasingly dry as one moves south.

The Pannonian Steppe is the westernmost part of the Eurasian Steppe, separated from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe by the Carpathian Mountains. It is found in modern-day Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

File:Hortobagy-ziehbrunnen.jpg|A draw well in Hortobágy National Park, Hungary

File:DNV Devinska Kobyla.jpg|Devínska Kobyla, Bratislava, Slovakia

File:Thebner Kogel sl14.jpg|The Pannonian steppe in Devínska Kobyla, Bratislava, Slovakia

The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is the main European end of the Eurasian Steppe and begins near the mouth of the Danube, stretching northeast almost to Kazan and then southeast to the southern tip of the Ural Mountains. Its northern edge was a broad band of forest steppe which has now been obliterated by the conversion of the whole area to agricultural land. In the southeast the Black Sea–Caspian Steppe extends between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea to the Caucasus Mountains. On the north shore of the Black Sea, the Crimean Peninsula has some interior steppe and ports on the south coast which link the steppe to the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin.

File:Філія ЛПЗ НАНУ "Стрільцівський степ" Stipa tirsa (ЧКУ).jpg|The Pontic–Caspian steppe near Krynychne, Ukraine.

File:Обитатели Азово-Сивашского заповедника на Бирючем острове.jpg|The Pontic–Caspian steppe in Henichesk, Ukraine.

File:MD.GE.Bugeac - sector de stepă în nordul Bugeacului (I) - apr 2018.jpg|Steppes in Gagauzia, Moldova.

File:MD.GE.Dezghingea - sector de stepă în nordul Bugeacului (II) - apr 2018.jpg|Steppes in Gagauzia, Dezghingea, Moldova.

The steppe narrows around the southern end of the Ural Mountains, about 650 km (400 mi) northeast of the Caspian Sea, forming the Ural-Caspian Narrowing, that joins the Pontic-Caspian Steppe in Europe with the Kazakh Steppe in Central Asia.

File:Уральские горы - panoramio (1).jpg|Wooded Ural Mountains of Beloretsky District, Russia

File:Гуси на Нугушском водохранилище.jpg|Bashkiriya National Park, southern end of the Ural Mountains, Russia

File:Bashkiria's mountains.jpg|Bashkiriya National Park, Ural Mountains, Russia

The Kazakh Steppe makes up most of the Eurasian Steppe in Central Asia. It extends from the Urals to Dzungaria. To the south, it grades off into semi-desert and desert which is interrupted by two great rivers, the Amu Darya (Oxus) and Syr Darya (Jaxartes), which flow northwest into the Aral Sea and provide irrigation for agriculture. In the southeast is the densely populated Fergana Valley and west of it the great oasis cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara along the Zeravshan River. The southern area has a complex history (see Central Asia and Greater Iran), while in the north, the Kazakh Steppe proper was relatively isolated from the main currents of written history.

File:Astana-steppe-7748.jpg|The steppe in Akmola Region, Kazakhstan.

File:Step.JPG|The steppes in Akmola Province, Kazakhstan.

File:Вторичная ковылковая степь на залежи на террасе Аягоза вблизи Аягоза в Восточно-Казахстанской области.JPG|The Kazakh Steppe in the Ayagoz District, Kazakhstan.

File:Steppe of western Kazakhstan in the early spring.jpg|The Kazakh Steppe in the early spring.

Along the former Sino-Soviet border, mountains extend north almost to the forest zone, separating the Central Steppe from the Eastern Steppe, leaving only limited grassland in Dzungaria. This discontinuous section of the Eurasian steppe connects the great steppes of Central Asia and East Asia.

The east-west Tian Shan Mountains divide the steppe into Dzungaria in the north and the Tarim Basin to the south. Dzungaria is bounded by the Tarbagatai Mountains on the west and the Mongolian Altai Mountains on the east, neither of which is a significant barrier. Dzungaria has good grassland around the edges and a central desert. It often behaved as a westward extension of Mongolia and connected Mongolia to the Kazakh Steppe. To the north of Dzungaria are mountains and the Siberian forest. To the south and west of Dzungaria, and separated from it by the Tian Shan mountains, is an area about twice the size of Dzungaria, the oval Tarim Basin. The Tarim Basin's arid conditions make it unsuitable for sustaining a nomadic population. However, along its periphery, rivers descend from the mountains, creating a circle of cities that thrived on irrigation agriculture and engaged in east-west trade. The Tarim Basin formed an island of near civilization in the center of the steppe. The Northern Silk Road went along the north and south sides of the Tarim Basin and then crossed the mountains west to the Fergana Valley. At the west end of the basin the Pamir Mountains connect the Tian Shan Mountains to the Himalayas. To the south, the Kunlun Mountains separate the Tarim Basin from the thinly peopled Tibetan Plateau.

File:Тувинские просторы.jpg|Uvs Lake Basin, Tuva Republic, Russia.

File:Летний день на озере Дус-Холь.jpg|Dus-Khol lake, Tuva Republic, Russia.

File:Dus-Khol lake outskirts.jpg|The grassland in Tuva Republic, Russia.

File:Dus-Khol lake 3.jpg|Dus-Khol lake, Tandinsky District, Tuva Republic, Russia.

The Mongolian-Manchurian Steppe is the main part of the Eurasian Steppe in East Asia. It covers large parts of Mongolia and the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. The two are separated by a relatively dry area marked by the Gobi Desert. South of the Mongol Steppe is the high and thinly peopled Tibetan Plateau. The northern edge of the plateau is the Gansu or Hexi Corridor, a belt of moderately dense population that connects China proper with the Tarim Basin. The Hexi Corridor was the main route of the Silk Road. In the southeast the Silk Road led over some hills to the east-flowing Wei River valley which led to the North China Plain.

South of the Khingan Mountains and north of the Taihang Mountains, the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe extends east into Manchuria as the Liao Xi steppe. In Manchuria, the steppe grades off into forest and mountains without reaching the Pacific. The central area of forest-steppe was inhabited by pastoral and agricultural peoples, while to the north and east was a thin population of hunting tribes of the Siberian type.

File:Участок Адон-Челон.JPG|The Daurian forest steppe

File:Khövsgöl Aimag17.JPG|The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland in the Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.

File:Khövsgöl Aimag12.JPG|Grass steppe in the Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.

File:Сопки на севере озера Зун-Торей.jpg|Daursky Nature Reserve in the southern part of the Zabaykalsky Krai in Siberia, Russia, close to the border with Mongolia.

File:Grasslands-menggu.JPG|The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland in Inner Mongolia, China.

Big mammals of the Eurasian steppe were the Przewalski's horse, the saiga antelope, the Mongolian gazelle, the goitered gazelle, the wild Bactrian camel and the onager.{{cite iucn|author=King, S.R.B.|author2= Boyd, L.|author3= Zimmermann, W. |author4= Kendall, B.E. |name-list-style=amp |year= 2015|title= Equus ferus ssp. przewalskii |errata=2016 |page= e.T7961A97205530 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T7961A45172099.en|access-date=29 October 2018}}{{cite iucn |author=IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group |year= 2023|title= Saiga tatarica |page= e.T19832A233712210 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T19832A233712210.en |access-date=29 December 2023}}{{cite iucn|author=IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group |year= 2016 |title= Procapra gutturosa |errata= 2017 |page= e.T18232A115142812 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T18232A50193126.en |access-date=29 December 2023}}{{cite iucn |author=IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group |date=2017 |title=Gazella subgutturosa |volume=2017 |page=e.T8976A50187422 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T8976A50187422.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}{{cite iucn |author=Hare, J. |year=2008 |title=Camelus ferus |page=e.T63543A12689285 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T63543A12689285.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}{{cite iucn |author=Kaczensky, P. |author2=Lkhagvasuren, B. |author3=Pereladova, O. |author4=Hemami, M. |author5=Bouskila, A. |year=2020 |title=Equus hemionus |page=e.T7951A166520460 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T7951A166520460.en |access-date=11 November 2021}} The gray wolf, corsac fox, Pallas's cat and occasionally the brown bear are predators roaming the steppe.{{cite iucn |author=Boitani, L. |author2=Phillips, M. |author3=Jhala, Y. |date=2023 |title=Canis lupus |amends=2018 |page=e.T3746A247624660 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T3746A247624660.en |access-date=29 December 2023}}{{cite iucn |author=Murdoch, J.D. |year=2014 |title=Vulpes corsac |page=e.T23051A59049446 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-2.RLTS.T23051A59049446.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1080/09397140.1999.10637777|title = On the distribution and status of the Brown Bear,Ursus arctos, and the Asiatic Black Bear, U. thibetanus, in Iran|journal = Zoology in the Middle East|volume = 18|pages = 5–8|year = 1999|last1 = Gutleb|first1 = Bernhard|last2 = Ziaie|first2 = Hooshang}}{{cite journal |last1=Lorestani |first1=Niloufar |last2=Hemami |first2=Mahmoud-Reza |last3=Rezvani |first3=Azita |last4=Ahmadi |first4=Mohsen |title=Ecological niche models reveal divergent habitat use of Pallas's cat in the Eurasian cold steppes |journal=Ecology and Evolution |date=December 2022 |volume=12 |issue=12 |page=3 |doi=10.1002/ece3.9624 |pmid=36532134 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366295153 |access-date=27 March 2024|pmc=9750817 |bibcode=2022EcoEv..12E9624L }} Smaller mammal species are the Mongolian gerbil, the little souslik and the bobak marmot.{{cite iucn|author=Batsaikhan, N. |author2= Tsytsulina, K. |year= 2016 |title= Meriones unguiculatus |errata= 2017 |page= e.T13171A115110851 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T13171A22432999.en |access-date=29 December 2023}}{{cite iucn |author=Cassola, F. |year=2017 |title=Spermophilus pygmaeus |page=e.T20490A22264478 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T20490A22264478.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}{{cite iucn|author=Tsytsulina, K.|author2= Zagorodnyuk, I.|author3= Formozov, N. |author4= Sheftel, B. |year= 2016 |title= Marmota bobak |errata=2017 |page= e.T12830A115106780 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T12830A22258375.en |access-date=29 December 2023}}

Furthermore, the Eurasian steppe is home to a great variety of bird species. Threatened bird species living there are for example the imperial eagle, the lesser kestrel, the great bustard, the pale-back pigeon and the white-throated bushchat.{{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/asia_strategy/pdf_downloads/grasslandsGO1.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-05-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808154007/http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/asia_strategy/pdf_downloads/grasslandsGO1.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-08 }}

File:Przewalski mongolie.jpg|Przewalski horse

File:Yawning corsac fox.jpg|Corsac fox

File:Saiga tartarica.jpg|Saiga antelope

File:Asiatic Wild ass.jpg|Onager

The primary domesticated animals raised were sheep and goats with fewer cattle than one might expect. Camels were used in the drier areas for transport as far west as Astrakhan. There were some yaks along the edge of Tibet. The horse was used for transportation and warfare. The horse was first domesticated on the Pontic–Caspian or Kazakh steppe sometime before 3000 BC, but it took a long time for mounted archery to develop and the process is not fully understood. The stirrup does not seem to have been completely developed until 300 AD (see Stirrup, Saddle, Composite bow, Domestication of the horse and related articles).

Parts of the Eurasian steppe experience an ecological regime shift in form of woody plant encroachment, such as the Black Sea-Kazakhstan steppe, the Tibetan Plateau steppe, and the Central Asian steppe. This process involves the gradual increase of shrubs at the expense of grasses.{{Cite journal |last1=Tu |first1=Ya |last2=Yao |first2=Zhenyu |last3=Guo |first3=Jianying |last4=Yang |first4=Liu |last5=Zhu |first5=Yuanjun |last6=Yang |first6=Xiaohui |last7=Shi |first7=Zhongjie |last8=Indree |first8=Tuvshintogtokh |date=June 2024 |title=Predicting the potential risk of Caragana shrub encroachment in the Eurasian steppe under anthropogenic climate change |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0048969724040737 |journal=Science of the Total Environment |volume=944 |language=en |pages=173925 |doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173925|pmid=38866162 |bibcode=2024ScTEn.94473925T }}

The World Wide Fund for Nature divides the Eurasian steppe's temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands into a number of ecoregions, distinguished by elevation, climate, rainfall, and other characteristics and home to distinct animal and plant communities and species and distinct habitat ecosystems.

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Alai–Western Tian Shan steppe (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)
• Altai steppe and semi-desert (Kazakhstan)
• Baraba steppe (Russia)
• Daurian forest steppe (China, Mongolia, Russia)
• Gissaro-Alai open woodlands (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan)
• Emin Valley steppe (China, Kazakhstan)
• East European forest steppe (Moldova, Romania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria)
• Kazakh forest steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
• Kazakh Steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
• Kazakh Uplands (Kazakhstan)
• Mongolian-Manchurian grassland (China, Mongolia, Russia)
• Pontic–Caspian steppe (Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine)
• Sayan Intermontane steppe (Russia)
• Selenge–Orkhon forest steppe (Mongolia, Russia)
• South Siberian forest steppe (Russia)
• Tian Shan foothill arid steppe (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)
• Pannonian Steppe{{cite book|title=Annales historico-naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici|author=Természettudományi Múzeum (Hungary)|year=1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cOrRAAAAMAAJ&q=%22pannonian+steppe%22+pannonian+basin}} (Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia)

{{div col end}}

{{see also|Nomad studies}}

File:Por-Bazhyn aerial view 2007 before excavation.JPG]]

File:Jurty na stepie pomiędzy Ułan Bator a Karakorum 03.JPG]]

The major centers of population and high culture in Eurasia are Europe, the Middle East, India and China. For some purposes it is useful to treat Greater Iran as a separate region. All these regions are connected directly or indirectly by the Eurasian Steppe route which was an active predecessor of the Silk Road. The latter started in the Guanzhong region of China and ran west along the Hexi Corridor to the Tarim Basin. From there it went southwest to Greater Iran and turned southeast to India or west to the Middle East and Europe. A minor branch went northwest along the great rivers and north of the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. When faced with a rich caravan the steppe nomads could either rob it, or tax it, or hire themselves out as guards. Economically, these three forms of taxation or parasitism amounted to the same thing. Trade was usually most vigorous when a strong empire controlled the steppe and reduced the number of petty chieftains preying on trade. The silk road first became significant and Chinese silk began reaching the Roman Empire about the time that the Emperor of Han pushed Chinese power west to the Tarim Basin.

File:Traktor, szántás, Alföld.jpg (Alföld), Hungary]]

File:Пал восточнее Державинска.jpg, Kazakhstan]]

The nomads would occasionally tolerate colonies of peasants on the steppe in the few areas where farming was possible. These were often captives who grew grain for their nomadic masters. Along the fringes there were areas that could be used for either plowland or grassland. These alternated between one and the other depending on the relative strength of the nomadic and agrarian heartlands. Over the last few hundred years, the Russian steppe and much of Inner Mongolia has been cultivated. The fact that most of the Russian steppe is not irrigated implies that it was maintained as grasslands as a result of the military strength of the nomads.

According to the most widely held hypothesis of the origin of the Indo-European languages, the Kurgan hypothesis, their common ancestor is thought to have originated on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The Tocharians were an early Indo-European branch in the Tarim Basin. At the beginning of written history the entire steppe population west of Dzungaria spoke Iranian languages. From about 500 AD the Turkic languages replaced the Iranian languages first on the steppe, and later in the oases north of Iran. Additionally, Hungarian speakers, a branch of the Uralic language family, who previously lived in the steppe in what is now Southern Russia, settled in the Carpathian basin in year 895. Mongolic languages are in Mongolia. In Manchuria one finds Tungusic languages and some others.

Tengrism was introduced by Turko-Mongol nomads. Nestorianism and Manichaeism spread to the Tarim Basin and into China, but they never became established majority religions. Buddhism spread from the east of India to the Tarim Basin and found a new home in China. By about 1400 AD, the entire steppe west of Dzungaria had adopted Islam.{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}} By about 1600 AD, Islam was established in the Tarim Basin while Dzungaria and Mongolia had adopted Tibetan Buddhism.

{{further|History of the eastern steppe|History of the central steppe|History of the western steppe}}

{{Original research section|date=September 2014}}

{{See also|Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol military tactics and organization}}

Raids between tribes were prevalent throughout the region's history.{{cn|date=May 2021}} This relates to the ease with which a defeated enemy's flocks and herds can be driven away, making raiding profitable. In terms of warfare and raiding, in relation to sedentary societies, the horse gave the nomads an advantage of mobility. Horsemen could raid a village and retreat with their loot before an infantry-based army could be mustered and deployed. When confronted with superior infantry, horsemen could simply ride away, retreat and regroup. Outside of Europe and parts of the Middle East, agrarian societies had difficulty raising a sufficient supply of war horses and often had to enlist cavalry from their nomadic enemies (as mercenaries). Nomads could not easily be pursued onto the steppe{{huh?|date=May 2021}} since the steppe could not easily support a land army. If the Chinese sent an army into Mongolia, the nomads would flee and come back when the Chinese ran out of supplies. But the steppe nomads were relatively few and their rulers had difficulty holding together enough clans and tribes to field a large army. If steppe nomads conquered an agricultural area they often lacked the skills to administer it. If they tried to hold agrarian land they gradually absorbed the civilization of their subjects, lost their nomadic skills and were either assimilated or driven out.{{cn|date=May 2021}}

{{See also|Han–Xiongnu War|Hungarian invasions of Europe|List of Mongol and Tatar attacks in Europe|Tatar slave raids in East Slavic lands|Kazakh-Dzungar Wars}}

File:Kalandozasok.jpg

Along the northern fringe of the Eurasian steppe, nomads would collect tribute from and blend with the forest tribes (see Khanate of Sibir, Buryats).{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} Russia paid tribute (compare yasak) to the Golden Horde

{{cite book

| last1 = Halperin

| first1 = Charles J.

| year = 1985

| chapter = Economic and Demographic Consequences

| title = Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kPwX2dW-V6sC

| series = History Russian studies

| edition =

| location = Bloomington

| publisher = Indiana University Press

| publication-date = 1987

| page = 78

| isbn = 9780253204455

| access-date = 17 May 2021

| quote = The Russian peasantry felt the Tatars' economic oppression much more than the Russian aristocracy and indeed the Russian princes profited from the exploitation of their people. The grand princes were in charge of collecting tribute for the Mongols, and this proved so profitable that the throne was more than worth the large bribes the khan required before awarding it.

}}

from about 1240 to 1480.

{{cite book

| last1 = Uspensky

| first1 = Gleb

| title = The Insider's Guide to Russia

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CRMsAQAAMAAJ

| series = Insiders' Guide Travel Series

| year = 1993

| publisher = Hunter Publishing

| publication-date = 1993

| page = 44

| isbn = 9781556505584

| access-date = 17 May 2021

| quote = [...] Russia [...] in 1480, stopped paying tribute to the now-shaky and fragmented Golden Horde.

}}

South of the Kazakh steppe the nomads blended with the sedentary population, partly because the Middle East has significant areas of steppe (taken by force in past invasions) and pastoralism. There was a sharp cultural divide between Mongolia and China and almost constant warfare from the dawn of history until the Qing conquest of Dzungaria in 1757.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} The nomads collected large amounts of tribute from the Chinese and several Chinese dynasties were of steppe origin. Perhaps because of the mixture of agriculture and pastoralism in Manchuria its inhabitants, the Manchu knew how to deal with both nomads and the settled populations and therefore were able to conquer much of northern China{{when?|date=May 2021}} when both Chinese and Mongols were weak.{{Original research inline|date=December 2020}}

The steppe culture of Russia was shaped in Russia through cross-cultural contact mostly by Slavic, Tatar-Turkic, Mongolian and Iranian people.{{Cite book|title= The steppe tradition in international relations : Russians, Turks and European state-building 4000 BCE-2018 CE|last= Neumann, Iver B. |others=Wigen, Einar, 1981-|isbn=9781108420792|edition= First|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |pages=198–250|oclc=1053859731|date = 2018-07-19}}{{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=H9qJAgAAQBAJ&q=Ryazan+scythian&pg=PA297|title= Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations|last1= Blench|first1= Roger|last2= Spriggs |first2=Matthew|date=2003-09-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134828777|language=en}}{{qn|date=May 2021}} Rus' rulers would ally themselves by marriage with fellow-steppe peoples.

{{cite book

| title = Histoire Russe

|year = 1992| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TgVpAAAAMAAJ

| publisher = University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh

| publication-date = 1992

| page = 11

| issn =

| access-date = 17 May 2021

| quote = The marriages of Rus' princes to the daughters of the Polovtsy khans [...].

}}

In addition to ethnicity, also instruments such as the domra,{{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=s5dIDwAAQBAJ&q=Famintsyn,+while+acknowledging+an+%E2%80%9COriental%E2%80%9D+origin+of+the+Russian+domra&pg=PT213|title= Turkic Soundscapes: From Shamanic Voices to Hip-Hop|last1= Sultanova |first1= Razia|last2=Rancier|first2=Megan|date=2018-01-19|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 9781351665957 |language= en}} traditional costumes such as the kaftan. Russian Cossack and tea culture were strongly influenced by the culture of Asian nomadic peoples.{{Cite book|title=The economy and material culture of Russia, 1600-1725|last=Hellie, Richard.|date=1999|publisher= University of Chicago Press|isbn=0226326497|location=Chicago|pages=352–353|oclc=39655294}} The Eurasian steppes play a major role in Eastern Europe history and the steppes are a subject of many Slavic as well as Russian folk-songs.{{Citation|last=Алексей Мочалов ღ романса трепетные звуки|title=Степь да степь кругом /русская народная песня/ Russian folk song/ Steppe all around |date=2013-12-18 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzo_XL5C8xI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/Mzo_XL5C8xI |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|access-date=2019-06-11}}{{cbignore}}{{Citation|last=NIK KIRIN|title="Ах ты, степь широкая".[HD].|date=2013-04-08|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0yCBmFKpc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104235209/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0yCBmFKpc |archive-date=2014-11-04 |url-status=dead|access-date=2019-06-11}}{{Cite web |last= Олег Семёнов|title=Пелагея и Кубанский казачий хор – Любо, братцы, любо! (2019 HD)|website=YouTube |date= 2019-03-30|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7E2Gv4tOQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/Gy7E2Gv4tOQ |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|access-date=2019-06-11}}{{cbignore}}

{{div col|colwidth=25em}}

• Thracians 15th-3rd centuries BC
• Chorasmia 13th–3rd centuries BC
• Cimmerians 12th–7th centuries BC
• Magyars 11th century BC – 8th century AD
• Scythians 8th–4th centuries BC
• Sogdiana 8th–4th centuries BC
• Issedones 7th–1st century BC
• Massagetae 7th–1st century BC
• Thyssagetae 7th–3rd century BC
• Donghu 7th – 2nd century BC
• Dahae 7th BC-5th century AD
• Saka 6th–1st centuries BC
• Sarmatians 5th century BC – 5th century AD
• Bulgars 7th century BC–7th century AD{{cite web|url=http://turkic-languages.scienceontheweb.net/Proto_Turkic_Urheimat.html|title=The Proto-Turkic Urheimat and the Early Migrations of Turkic Peoples|access-date=April 20, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224111409/http://turkic-languages.scienceontheweb.net/Proto_Turkic_Urheimat.html|archive-date=December 24, 2013}}
• Transoxiana 4th century BC – 14th century AD
• Xiongnu 3rd century BC – 2nd century AD
• Iazyges 3rd century BC – 5th century AD
• Yuezhi 2nd century BC – 1st century AD
• Tauri
• Wusun 1st century BC – 6th century AD
• Xianbei 1st–3rd centuries
• Goths 3rd–6th centuries
• Vandals 2nd–5th centuries
• Visigoths 3rd–5th centuries
• Franks 3rd–8th centuries
• Huns 4th–8th centuries
• Ostrogoths 4th–8th centuries
• Early Slavs 5th-10th centuries
• Alans 5th–11th centuries
• Avars 5th–9th centuries
• Hepthalites 5th–7th centuries
• Eurasian Avars 6th–8th centuries
• Göktürks 6th–8th centuries
• Sabirs 6th–8th centuries
• Khazars 7th–11th centuries
• Onogurs 8th century
• Pechenegs 8th–11th centuries
• Bashkirs 10th century-present day
• Kipchaks and Cumans 11th–13th centuries
• Crimean Goths
• Mongol Empire 13th–14th centuries
• Chagatai Khanate 13th–15th centuries
• Golden Horde 13th–15th centuries
• Kazakh Khanate 15th–19th centuries
• Cossacks, Kalmyks, Crimean Khanate, Volga Tatars, Nogais and other Turkic states and tribes 15th–18th centuries
• Russian Empire 16th–20th centuries
• Soviet Union 20th century
• Gagauzia, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Xinjiang 20th–21st centuries

{{div col end}}

{{Portal|Asia|Europe}}

• Eurasian nomads
• Great Hungarian Plain
• Izyum Trail
• Little Hungarian Plain
• Steppe Route

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Barthold |first=W. |title=Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion |translator-last=Minorsky |translator-first=T. |location=New Delhi |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers |year=1992}}
• {{cite book |last=Christian |first=David |title=A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia |volume=1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=1998}}
• {{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=Joseph F. |title=Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia |editor-first=Beatrice |editor-last=Forbes Manz |location=Aldershot, Hampshire |publisher=Variorum |year=1995 |chapter=The Mongols: ecological and social perspectives}}
• {{cite book |author-link=René Grousset |last=Grousset |first=René |title=The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia |translator-first=Naomi |translator-last=Walford |place=New Brunswick, NJ |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1970}}
• {{cite book |author=John of Plano Carpini |chapter=History of the Mongols |editor-first=Christopher |editor-last=Dawson |title=Mission to Asia |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2005 |pages=3–76}}
• {{cite journal |last=Krader |first=Lawrence |title=Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |volume=11 |issue=4 |year=1955 |pages=301–326|doi=10.1086/soutjanth.11.4.3628907 |s2cid=130062187 }}
• {{cite book |author-link=Owen Lattimore |last=Lattimore |first=Owen |chapter=The Geographical Factor in Mongol History |editor-first=Owen |editor-last=Lattimore |title=Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers 1928–1958 |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1962 |pages=241–258}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Denis Sinor |last=Sinor |first=Denis |chapter=The Inner Asian Warrior |editor-first=Denis |editor-last=Sinor |series=Collected Studies Series |title=Studies in Medieval Inner Asia |location=Aldershot, Hampshire |publisher=Ashgate |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-86078-632-0}}
• {{cite book |last=Sinor |first=Denis |chapter=Horse and Pasture in Inner Asian History |editor-first=Denis |editor-last=Sinor |series=Collected Studies Series |title=Inner Asia and its Contacts with Medieval Europe |location=London |publisher=Variorum |year=1977}}

{{commons}}

• [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/jird.2012.27 "The importance of the Eurasian steppe to the study of international relations"] in Journal of International Relations and Development

{{coord missing|Russia}}

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Category:Ecoregions of Asia

Category:Ecoregions of Europe

Category:Eurasia

Category:Geography of Central Asia

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Category:Geography of Europe

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