Черкесские воины на границе Улуса Джучи в Среднем Поднепровье
The Circassian Warriors on the Border of Juchi Ulus in the Middle Dnieper Basin

Summary/Abstract: The origin of the name of Cherkassy city, located on the right bank of the Dnieper river, has always been of interest for the historians. The legends that were popular in the historical literature of the 16th—18th centuries AD provided the following information: 1) the ethnic name Cherkass appeared in the Middle Dnieper basin as early as the 12th century AD; 2) the Cherkassy fortress was founded in the 13th—14th centuries AD by the refugees-“Circassians” who had migrated to the Middle Dnieper basin from the Five Mountains area in the Northern Caucasus.The last hypothesis is of a special interest because the archeological data and the information provided by George Pachymeres allow to consider that in the second half of the 13th century AD the Golden Horde ruler Nogay could transmigrate the Adyghes from the Northern Caucasus and settle them in the Middle Dnieper basin. As a result of this migration, initially Cherkassy settlement could be founded there.Besides, in the Ros’ river basin near Yablonovka village the tumuli were excavated. According to the last data, in the second half of the 13th century AD these tumuli were created by the migrants from the North-Western Caucasus where the Circassians lived. It was the result of Mongol rulers’s policy to strengthen the north-western border of the Golden Horde. These migrants were well-armed cavalrymen.

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