Slavic gene and R1a mutation - who are the Slavic Slavs

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Nowadays, genetics has become a serious aid to archeology in terms of the study of the ancient history of mankind. Genetic data are especially valuable in those cases when it comes to the study of the origin of peoples, their settlement on continents, mixing with other peoples. But, unfortunately, genetic data are not of exclusively scientific interest for everyone. The fashionable discussion of the results of genetic research today sometimes turns into an instrument of speculation, which is not always conscientious.

Russians are not Slavs

In Ukraine, the theory that Russians are not Slavs at all, but a people who arose from mixing the Finno-Ugrians with the Tatars, and by a strange accident speaks Russian (Slavic) language, is very fashionable now. At the same time, the supporters of this idea rely on some research that was carried out by scientists from the laboratory of human population genetics at the Medico-Genetic Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The study of the gene pool of the Russian people, as it were, showed that the Russians are the same Finns. So, there is no talk of any brotherhood of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. Of course, the "debunkers of myths" about the unity of the Eastern Slavs do not forget about the Tatars, where can we go without them! A really interesting scientific problem about the degree of kinship of peoples, who have long coexisted in the vastness of Eastern Europe, thus moves to the level of political squabbles.

Russians are the most "Slavic Slavs"

This idea is implanted by another category of myth-makers, who think that the "aging" of the age of the people contributes in some way to its authority and status in the world. Supporters of this myth equate the Russians and the Slavs in general, and then go even further, declaring the complete identity of the Russians and the notorious Indo-Aryans, thus obtaining "Ruso-Aryans" or "Slavic-Aryans". Having built this intricate logical chain, one can make statements about, for example, that our ancestors, the ancient Russians, they are also Proto-Slavs, lived throughout the territory of modern Russia, including Siberia, as well as in India, Iran and, in general, around the world. Moreover, the authors of this theory also rely on the research of geneticists! Only this time we are talking about American scientists. At the same time, the pseudo-scientific nature of the constructions of the supporters of these two theories cannot hide the obvious: in both cases, behind conversations about genes, DNA and haplogroups "ears stick out" of long-standing concerns about "blood purity". In one case, the people are contemptuously denied the right to bear the proud name of the Slavs on the grounds that they consist, they say, of half-breeds, in the other, on the contrary, the people are declared the most pure-blooded people in the world.

So is there a Slavic gene?

Strictly speaking, there is no Slavic gene, just like the 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 conditionally represented as a piece of DNA molecule - much older than any people on earth. Nevertheless, geneticists distinguish a haplogroup that is characteristic of representatives of the Slavic peoples. A haplogroup is a set of nucleotides of the male Y-chromosome, which is passed from generation to generation without any changes for millennia. It is transmitted exclusively through the male line. So, about four and a half thousand years ago, on the Central Russian Plain, a boy was born with a haplogroup somewhat different from that of his father. The genetic classification of the father's haplogroup looks like this: R1a. Modern genetics assigned the R1a1 classification to the mutated son's haplogroup. This mutation turned out to be very tenacious. And at present, the owners of the R1a1 haplogroup make up 70% of the population of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and they are also the majority in other Slavic countries. Actually, this very set of nucleotides is, in a sense, a biological marker of Slavism. But, of course, in our days there can be no talk of some "pure" peoples who have avoided mixing with other ethnic groups. Therefore, the Slavs are also very heterogeneous. Along with this very haplogroup R1a1, many peoples have left their genetic trace in them. Among the Russian population, in fact, about 14% are carriers of the haplogroup characteristic of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which is quite natural, because 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 popular saying "scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar", is extremely rare in Russians - only one and a half to three percent, Ukrainians also have a little - about five percent. But among Ukrainians, almost 37% of the population owns haplogroups characteristic of the Balkans, which, again, is quite natural due to geographical proximity and frequent contacts. The inhabitants 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 the Western European peoples, the Bulgarians have a fair Thracian trace, which the ancient inhabitants of this region endowed with the newly arrived South Slavic tribe. The people are not determined 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.