Rurik dynasty diagram with dates. Modern genogeographical studies of the Rurikovich pedigree

The last representative of the Rurik dynasty on the Russian throne was Vasily Shuisky, overthrown back in 1610. However, during its almost eight-hundred-year reign, the dynasty managed to grow and leave many descendants both in Rus' and abroad. Many modern celebrities are direct descendants of the Rurikovichs.

Barack Obama

In the 11th century, a daughter Prince of Kyiv Yaroslav the Wise - Anna - married the French king Henry I. They had four children. Thus, many descendants of the French Capetian dynasty, to which Henry belonged, are also descendants of the Rurikovichs.

It is to Anna Yaroslavna that the pedigree of Barack Obama goes back. His mother, Stanley Anne Dunham, was a descendant of the Scottish King William I the Lion. He, in turn, was the great-great-grandson of Anna and the great-great-great-grandson of Yaroslav the Wise.

Benedict Cumberbatch

The British actor, who became famous throughout the world thanks to his role as Sherlock Holmes in the recent BBC film adaptation, also has royal roots.

Cumberbatch is a descendant of King Edward III of England. The monarch's mother, Isabella, was the daughter of the French king Philip IV the Fair from the Capetian dynasty, and, accordingly, also descended from the Kyiv princess Anna Yaroslavna.

By the way, an interesting fact: recently researchers from the Ancestry portal found out that Benedict Cumberbatch is also a distant relative of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer who created the image of Sherlock Holmes.

Pyotr Tolstoy

Former television journalist and current State Duma deputy Pyotr Tolstoy is not only the great-great-grandson of the writer Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, but also a descendant of the Rurikovichs on several sides. Among his ancestors are princes Ivan Kalita and Roman Mstislavich.

Other descendants

Many noble families in Russia also descended from the Rurikovichs. The Obolenskys, Gagarins, Lobanovs-Rostovskys and others trace their ancestry through the direct male line to the rulers of Rus'. In addition, Winston Churchill, Otto von Bismarck, Alexandre Dumas, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Jean-Paul Sartre were distantly related to the Rurikovichs.

The Rurik family was in power in Russia for seven centuries. He left behind noble descendants and a lot of mysteries.

1. The Rurikovichs ruled for 748 years - from 862 to 1610.

2. Almost nothing is known for certain about the founder of the dynasty - Rurik.

3. Until the 15th century, none of the Russian tsars called themselves “Rurikovich”. The scientific debate about the personality of Rurik began only in the 18th century.

4. The common ancestors of all Rurikovichs are: Rurik himself, his son Igor, grandson Svyatoslav Igorevich and great-grandson Vladimir Svyatoslavich.

5. The use of a patronymic as part of a family name in Rus' is a confirmation of a person’s connections with his father. Nobles and simple people They called themselves, for example, “Mikhail, Petrov’s son.” A special privilege was the addition of the ending “-ich” to the patronymic, which was allowed to people with high birth. This is how the Rurikovichs were called, for example, Svyatopolk Izyaslavich.

6. Vladimir the Saint had from different women 13 sons and at least 10 daughters.

7. Old Russian chronicles began to be compiled 200 years after the death of Rurik and a century after the baptism of Rus' (the appearance of writing) on ​​the basis of oral traditions, Byzantine chronicles and the few existing documents.

8. The largest statesmen from the Rurikovichs were the Grand Dukes Vladimir the Holy, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod Big Nest, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the Third, Vasily the Third, Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

9. For a long time, the name Ivan, which is of Jewish origin, did not extend to the ruling dynasty, however, starting with Ivan I (Kalita), it is used to refer to four sovereigns from the Rurik family.

10. The symbol of the Rurikovichs was a tamga in the form of a diving falcon. The 19th century historian Stapan Gedeonov associated the very name of Rurik with the word “Rerek” (or “Rarog”), which in the Slavic tribe of Obodrits meant falcon. During excavations of early settlements of the Rurik dynasty, many images of this bird were found.

11. The families of the Chernigov princes trace their origins to the three sons of Mikhail Vsevolodovich (great-great-grandson of Oleg Svyatoslavich) - Semyon, Yuri, Mstislav. Prince Semyon Mikhailovich of Glukhov became the ancestor of the princes Vorotynsky and Odoevsky. Tarussky Prince Yuri Mikhailovich - Mezetsky, Baryatinsky, Obolensky. Karachaevsky Mstislav Mikhailovich-Mosalsky, Zvenigorodsky. Of the Obolensky princes, many princely families later emerged, among which the most famous are the Shcherbatovs, Repnins, Serebryans, and Dolgorukovs.

12. Among the Russian models from the time of emigration were princesses Nina and Mia Obolensky, girls from the most noble princely family of the Obolenskys, whose roots go back to the Rurikovichs.

13. The Rurikovichs had to abandon dynastic preferences in favor of Christian names. Vladimir Svyatoslavovich was already given the name Vasily at baptism, and Princess Olga was given the name Elena.

14. The tradition of a direct name originates in the early genealogy of the Rurikovichs, when the Grand Dukes bore both a pagan and a Christian name: Yaroslav-George (Wise) or Vladimir-Vasily (Monomakh).

15. The historian counted 200 wars and invasions from 1240 to 1462.

"Calling of the Varangians"

16. One of the first Rurikovichs, Svyatopolk the Accursed, became an anti-hero of Russian history due to accusations of murdering Boris and Gleb. However, today historians are inclined to believe that the great martyrs were killed by the soldiers of Yaroslav the Wise, since the great martyrs recognized Svyatoslav’s right to the throne.

18. The remains of Yaroslav the Wise, whose research could answer the question of the origin of the Rurikovichs, disappeared without a trace.

19. In the Rurik dynasty there were two categories of names: Slavic two-basic ones - Yaropolk, Svyatoslav, Ostromir and Scandinavian ones - Olga, Gleb, Igor. Names were assigned a high status, and therefore they could belong exclusively to a grand ducal person. Only in the 14th century did such names come into general use.

20. Since the reign of Ivan III, the version of the origin of their dynasty from the Roman Emperor Augustus has become popular among the Russian Rurik sovereigns.

21. In addition to Yuri, there were two more “Dolgorukys” in the Rurik family. This is the ancestor of the Vyazemsky princes, a descendant of Mstislav the Great Andrei Vladimirovich Long Hand and a descendant of Saint Michael Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Prince Ivan Andreevich Obolensky, nicknamed Dolgoruky, the ancestor of the Dolgorukov princes.

22. Significant confusion in the identification of the Rurikovichs was introduced by the ladder order, in which, after the death of the Grand Duke, the Kiev table was occupied by his closest relative in seniority (and not his son), the second in seniority relative, in turn, occupied the empty table of the first, and so on princes moved in order of seniority to more prestigious tables.

23. Based on the results of genetic studies, it was assumed that Rurik belonged to the N1c1 haplogroup. The area of ​​settlement of people of this haplogroup covers not only Sweden, but also the regions modern Russia, the same Pskov and Novgorod, so the origin of Rurik is still unclear.

24. Vasily Shuisky was not a descendant of Rurik in the direct royal line, so the last Rurikovich on the throne is still considered the son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich.

25. Ivan III’s adoption of the double-headed eagle as a heraldic sign is usually associated with the influence of his wife Sophia Paleologus, but this is not the only version of the origin of the coat of arms. Perhaps it was borrowed from the heraldry of the Habsburgs, or from the Golden Horde, who used a double-headed eagle on some coins. Today double headed eagle appears on the coats of arms of six European states.

26. Among the modern “Rurikovichs” there is the now living “Emperor of Holy Rus' and Third Rome”, he has “ New Church Holy Rus'", "Cabinet of Ministers", " The State Duma", "Supreme Court", "Central Bank", "Ambassadors Plenipotentiary", "National Guard".

27. Otto von Bismarck was a descendant of the Rurikovichs. His distant relative was Anna Yaroslavovna.

28. The first American president, George Washington, was also Rurikovich. Besides him, 20 more US presidents were descended from Rurik. Including father and son Bushi.

29. One of the last Rurikovichs, Ivan the Terrible, on his father’s side was descended from the Moscow branch of the dynasty, and on his mother’s side from the Tatar temnik Mamai.

30. Lady Diana was connected with Rurik through the Kyiv princess Dobronega, daughter of Vladimir the Saint, who married Polish prince Casimir the Restorer.

31. Alexander Pushkin, if you look at his genealogy, is Rurikovich through his great-grandmother Sarah Rzhevskaya.

32. After the death of Fyodor Ioannovich, only his youngest - Moscow - branch was stopped. But the male offspring of other Rurikovichs (former appanage princes) by that time had already acquired surnames: Baryatinsky, Volkonsky, Gorchakov, Dolgorukov, Obolensky, Odoevsky, Repnin, Shuisky, Shcherbatov...

33. The Last Chancellor Russian Empire, the great Russian diplomat of the 19th century, friend of Pushkin and comrade of Bismarck, Alexander Gorchakov was born into an old noble family descended from the Yaroslavl Rurik princes.

34. 24 British Prime Ministers were Rurikovichs. Including Winston Churchill. Anna Yaroslavna was his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

35. One of the most cunning politicians XVII century, Cardine Richelieu, also had Russian roots - again through Anna Yaroslavna.

36. In 2007, the historian Murtazaliev argued that the Rurikovichs were Chechens. “The Rus were not just anyone, but Chechens. It turns out that Rurik and his squad, if they are really from the Varangian tribe of Rus, then they are purebred Chechens, moreover, from the royal family and speaking their native Chechen language.”

37. Alexander Dumas, who immortalized Richelieu, was also Rurikovich. His great-great-great-great...grandmother was Zbyslava Svyatopolkovna, the daughter of Grand Duke Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, who was married to the Polish king Boleslav Wrymouth.

38. The Prime Minister of Russia from March to July 1917 was Grigory Lvov, a representative of the Rurik branch descending from Prince Lev Danilovich, nicknamed Zubaty, a descendant of Rurik in the 18th generation.

39. Ivan IV was not the only “formidable” king in the Rurik dynasty. His grandfather, Ivan III, was also called “Terrible,” who, in addition, also had the nicknames “justice” and “great.” As a result, Ivan III received the nickname “great”, and his grandson became “formidable”.

40. “Father of NASA” Wernher von Braun was also Rurikovich. His mother was Baroness Emmy, née von Quisthorn.

Semyon Stall, russian7.ru

Recent studies of the gene pool of Rurik's descendants have revealed the presence of a Y chromosome with the N1c1d1 haplotype. This subclade of haplogroup N formed in the southeastern part of the Baltic about three thousand years ago and is characteristic of the inhabitants of the modern Baltic states, Finland and southern Scandinavia. Having learned the results of these studies, supporters of the Norman theory triumphed, declaring that now genetics itself confirms their assumptions. However, all the studied Rurikovichs are not descendants of Rurik at all. This is how it really was.
It was autumn 945. Prince Igor has just paid another tribute to the Khazars. Six years earlier, the Khazar governor Pesach ravaged Kyiv and restored Khazar rule in Rus', interrupted in 882 Prophetic Oleg. Under the terms of the treaty, the Russians were forced to fight the enemies of Khazaria. So, in 941, Igor was forced to organize a campaign against Constantinople, which ended in the defeat of the Russian fleet, and in 943, make a campaign against Caucasian Albania, during which the city of Berdaa was captured, and all the booty after its plunder was given to the Khazars upon their return.
However, in addition to this, Rus' again had to pay an annual tribute to Khazaria, and this year the Khazars considered the tribute insufficient. Igor had to go to the people again and ask again for more honey and skins for the Khazar tribute. So he returned to the land of the Drevlyans again.
The Drevlyans represented the ancient Slavic tribe. However, having moved to the territory of the present Zhitomir region, the Drevlyans mixed with the autochthons, who belonged to a number of tribes close to modern Finns. Their princes were elected, and it is not surprising that one day a descendant of those same autochthons became a prince.
That year, Prince Mal ruled in the Drevlyan land. According to one version, this name is the Semitic name Malchus distorted by the chronicler. In accordance with this version, his mother was a Khazar woman and gave her son such a strange name for the Russian ear.
However, the Russian linguist and researcher of Russian chronicles, professor at St. Petersburg University Alexey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (1864–1920), established that Mal is an abbreviation of the Scandinavian name Malfred. Thus, according to Shakhmatov, Mal was a Viking.
It was this same Mal or Malchus who lured Igor’s squad into an ambush. The ancient Slavs had this custom: if someone kills a prince, he becomes a prince. So Oleg, having killed Askold and Dir, freely occupied Kyiv throne. This is what Malchus hoped to do. Having killed the prince, he took possession of everything he had, including Igor’s wife Olga. But Olga did not intend to become the wife of the man who killed her husband. Therefore, having played a comedy with a wedding, Olga killed all these Drevlyans along with their prince. But the Russian person has two enemies - conscience and pity. Succumbing to one of these feelings, Olga took pity on the child - the daughter of the Drevlyan prince, who was also called Malka.
This same Malka, whom Olka affectionately called Malusha, made a dizzying career at Olga’s court, achieved the position of housekeeper and even dragged Olga’s son Svyatoslav into bed, after which, revealing herself to be pregnant, she retired to Budyatin. She was accompanied by Dobrynya, called her brother, but since he was not Malkovich, but Nikitich, he was more like a cousin. This is the same Dobrynya Nikitich who was right hand Vladimir in all his endeavors and whom Vladimir revered “like a father.” Or maybe not “how”? And maybe from him this same Malka gave birth to the future baptist of Rus', Prince Vladimir? If this is so and if Dobrynya was the son or nephew of Mal-Malfred, then the Scandinavian haplogroup in the Y-chromosome of the Rurikovichs becomes quite understandable and all the Rurikovichs are in fact not Rurikovichs, but Dobrynichs. http://www.anaga.ru/genotip-ryurikovichej.html

The male Y-chromosome DNA is not involved in gene recombination and is passed on almost unchanged from father to son, so a group of scientists led by Polish researcher Andrzej Bajor and others conducted a study of the Y-chromosome DNA in about 25 people who consider themselves descendants of Rurik. Also included in the list on the website were people who turned out to have haplotypes close to the Rurikovichs. The overwhelming majority of these people have a common ancestor with them, after all, significantly earlier than Rurik’s life, and for such people the designation “proto-Rurikovich” was invented. Full list consisted of 191 people. The study was published on FamilyTreeDNA, the world's largest genetic database, with 293,266 people on record as of early 2010.
The first to be examined was Prince D. M. Shakhovskoy (professor at the Russian Orthodox Institute in Paris). His haplogroup N-M178 was established (previously it was designated N3a, then N1c1), which is geographically Mongolian and linguistically Finno-Ugric in origin. Then they examined A.P. Gagarin (professor from St. Petersburg), his cousin G. G. Gagarin, Prince N. D. Lobanov-Rostovsky from England, N. Rzhevsky from Smolensk, who also belonged to haplogroup N1c1. All of them belonged to the branch of descendants of Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh. In total, of the 191 people examined, haplogroup N1 was identified in 130 people (68%), including the descendants of princes Trubetskoy (Canada), Putyatin (Russia), Kropotkin (Russia), Khilkov (Russia), Khovansky (Russia) and Golitsyn (Russia). Also, 114 people (60%) underwent an extended test using 67 markers, from which Bayor identified 15 standard matching markers, which he considers to be the Rurikovich haplotype (in addition to the SMGF standard for the presence of 9 matching markers to determine the haplogroup).
Haplogroup N1c is found in 60% of Finns in Finland and 40% of the Baltic states (about the same among Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and East Prussian Germans). Approximately 16% of residents of the central regions of Russia have haplogroup N1c (see Gene pool of the Slavs), it is most common among the descendants of Finno-Ugric tribes and is often found, along with R1a and I1, in northern Russia.
The theory that Rurik is a close relative of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas was not confirmed, although the examined descendants of Gediminas belong to the same haplogroup N-L550 (the common ancestor of the two of them lived no later than 2000 years ago).
Also during the study, haplogroup R1a1 was discovered in some princes. Many of them belonged to the family of descendants of the Chernigov prince Oleg Svyatoslavich (grandson of Yaroslav the Wise). For example, Prince Volkonsky, Prince Obolensky and Prince Baryatinsky turned out to be close relatives to each other on the Y chromosome, which is not surprising, since they are considered descendants of Oleg Svyatoslavich, but they all had haplogroup R1a1. This haplogroup made up approximately 50% of the population about 5,000 years ago of Eastern Europe. However, the haplotypes closest to the indicated princes are found not in Eastern, but in Central Europe.
Thus, modern corporation Rurikovich (recognized as such by the Russian Assembly of Nobility) belongs to at least two different DNA haplogroups: N1c1 (most branches descended from Monomakh), R1a1 (Tarussky branch, from Yuri Tarussky). There are at least 3 more Rurikovichs recognized by the Russian Assembly of Nobility, belonging to other haplogroups that do not coincide with each other. Thus, if we can say about the two above-mentioned branches that they originate from at least Vladimir Monomakh and Yuri Tarussky, respectively, then about the “restless” haplotypes we cannot say anything about when their ancestors began to consider themselves Rurikovich and Why.
To explain the fact that there are two different haplogroups among the alleged descendants of Rurik, A. Bayor puts forward the version that haplogroup R1a1 could have been introduced into the Rurik line during wars and captures of cities. However, taking into account that the discrepancy appeared in the generation of sons-grandsons of Yaroslav the Wise, that is, Vsevolod Yaroslavich - Vladimir Monomakh and Svyatoslav Yaroslavich - Oleg Svyatoslavich - the sources do not know events in which the wives of the mentioned princes were or could be subjected to military violence.
According to S. S. Aleksashin, it is haplogroup R1a1 that is the original haplogroup of the Rurikovichs, while haplogroup N1c1 appeared as a result of infidelity to Yaroslav the Wise by his wife Ingigerda (Irina), whose “secret love” for the former Norwegian king Olaf II is spoken of in the Scandinavian sagas - namely as a result of this love, presumably, Vsevolod Yaroslavich, the father of Vladimir Monomakh, appeared (Ingigerda and Olaf met in 1029, during Olaf’s trip to Rus'; Vsevolod was born in 1030). This version, however, does not take into account the fact that haplogroup N1c1 also belongs to the descendants of the Rurikovichs, who descend from another son of Yaroslav the Wise, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (Puzyna and Masalsky). In addition, for the majority of descendants of the Rurikovichs who have haplogroup R1a1, a common ancestor who lived at a suitable time is not inferred. Only Volkonsky, Obolensky and Baryatinsky are related to each other, whose ancestor lived about 800 years ago, that is, during the time of Yuri Tarussky.
Historian E.V. Pchelov explains the haplogroup of the descendants of the Tarusa princes, which is different from the rest of the Rurikovichs, by the genealogical addition of the local dynasty of Verkhovsky rulers to the offspring of the Chernigov prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich. For more information about the problem of falsification of Verkhne-Oka princely genealogies, see Genealogy of the Chernigov princes.
According to S.V. Dumin, expressed in a report at the XVII Savyolov Readings (2010), this haplotype discrepancy may be due to the absence of St. Mikhail of Chernigov male heirs and the transfer of the throne in this principality through the female line; at the same time, the Verkhovsky princes could preserve the real tradition of origin, although distorted in genealogies; Moreover, Yuri Tarussky could be the son-in-law or grandson (son of the daughter) of St. Mikhail.
Like this with light hand our modern genetic scientists, history is closely intertwined with different DNA haplogroups. On the other hand, it’s interesting to suddenly find out that Yaroslav the Wise did not escape the fate of a deceived husband, although this came to light 987 years later and this makes him neither hot nor cold...

Rurikovich - descendants of Rurik, who became the first known prince in the chronicles ancient Rus'. Over time, the Rurik family split into several branches.

The birth of a dynasty

The Tale of Bygone Years, written by the monk Nestor, tells the story of the calling of Rurik and his brothers to Rus'. The sons of the Novgorod prince Gostomysl died in the wars, and he married one of his daughters to a Varangian-Russian, who gave birth to three sons - Sineus, Rurik and Truvor. They were called by Gostomysl to reign in Rus'. It was with them that the Rurik dynasty began in 862, which reigned in Rus' until 1598.

The first princes

In 879, the summoned prince Rurik died, leaving a young son Igor. While he was growing up, the principality was ruled by Oleg, a relative of the prince through his wife. He conquered everything Principality of Kiev, and also built diplomatic relations with Byzantium. After Oleg's death in 912, Igor began to reign until he died in 945, leaving two heirs - Gleb and Svyatoslav. However, the eldest (Svyatoslav) was a three-year-old child, and therefore his mother, Princess Olga, took the reign into her own hands.

Having become a ruler, Svyatoslav was more interested in military campaigns and in one of them he was killed in 972. Svyatoslav left three sons: Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir. Yaropolk killed Oleg for the sake of autocracy, while Vladimir first fled to Europe, but later returned, killed Yaropolk and became ruler. It was he who baptized the people of Kiev in 988 and built many cathedrals. He reigned until 1015 and left behind 11 sons. After Vladimir, Yaropolk began to reign, who killed his brothers, and after him Yaroslav the Wise.

Yaroslavichy

Yaroslav the Wise reigned in total from 1015 to 1054 (including breaks). When he died, the unity of the principality was disrupted. His sons divided Kievan Rus into parts: Svyatoslav received Chernigov, Izyaslav - Kyiv and Novgorod, Vsevolod - Pereyaslavl and the Rostov-Suzdal land. The latter, and subsequently his son Vladimir Monomakh, significantly expanded the acquired lands. After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the disintegration of the unity of the principality was finally established, each part of which was ruled by a separate dynasty.

Rus' is specific

Feudal fragmentation is growing due to the laddered right of succession to the throne, according to which power was transferred according to seniority to the prince's brothers, while the younger ones were given to them in cities of lesser importance. After the death of the main prince, everyone moved according to seniority from city to city. This order led to internecine wars. The most powerful princes launched a war for Kyiv. The power of Vladimir Monomakh and his descendants turned out to be the most influential. Vladimir Monomakh leaves his possessions to three sons: Mstislav, Yaropolk and Yuri Dolgoruky. The latter is considered the founder of Moscow.

The fight between Moscow and Tver

One of known descendants Yuri Dolgoruky was Alexander Nevsky, under whom an independent Moscow principality arose. In an effort to increase their influence, the descendants of Nevsky begin a fight with Tver. During the reign of the descendant of Alexander Nevsky, the Moscow Principality became one of the main centers of the unification of Rus', but the Tver Principality remained outside of its influence.

Creation of the Russian State

After the death of Dmitry Donskoy, power passes to his son Vasily I, who managed to preserve the greatness of the principality. After his death, a dynastic struggle for power begins. However, under the reign of Dmitry Donskoy's descendant Ivan III, the Horde yoke ends and the Principality of Moscow plays a decisive role in this. Under Ivan III, the process of forming a unified Russian state was completed. In 1478, he appropriated the title “Sovereign of All Rus'”.

The Last Rurikovichs

The last representatives of the Rurik dynasty in power were Ivan the Terrible and his son Fyodor Ivanovich. The latter was not a ruler by nature, and therefore, after the death of Ivan the Terrible, the state was essentially ruled by the Boyar Duma. In 1591, Dmitry, another son of Ivan the Terrible, dies. Dmitry was the last contender for the Russian throne, since Fyodor Ivanovich had no children. In 1598, Fyodor Ivanovich also died, with whom the dynasty of the first Russian rulers, who had been in power for 736 years, was interrupted.

The article mentions only the main and most prominent representatives of the dynasty, but in fact there were much more descendants of Rurik. The Rurikovichs made an invaluable contribution to the development of the Russian state.

Adam and Eve from a geneticist's point of view

Konstantin Severinov, an expert in molecular biology, explains how linguists have helped biologists discover where humanity comes from, who mitochondrial Eve is, and whether she met Adam

In order to analyze where people come from, you can use, oddly enough, not genealogical, but linguistic approaches - the procedure for finding the root of living people and life on Earth in general is very similar to the procedure for determining the root of some modern languages belonging to the same group.

Each individual person - living now or who lived previously - from the point of view of genetics can be considered as a very long text. This text is our genome. This genetic message consists of simple language- the language of deoxyribonucleic acid, the alphabet of which contains only four letters: A, G, C and T. Using these letters, a text of approximately three billion letters is composed, arranged in a certain order. In this text it is written in genetic language that this is, for example, Kostya Severinov or someone else. Three billion letters is a lot; so many letters would be contained in a book a thousand times larger than War and Peace.

It is obvious that we are all not only more or less similar, but also different. This difference is due to the fact that among the three billion letters that make up the genome of each individual person, there are a number of differences. The number of such "typos" between any two human individuals is approximately 0.1% of total number letters That is, between two specific individuals there will be a difference of approximately three million positions.

African origins of man

If we take a genetic text that says that this is, for example, a chimpanzee, then there will also be about three billion letters, but the number of differences between the average chimpanzee and the average human will not be 0.1%,

as between people, but 1%. However, overall the text is still very similar. The genetic text of other mammals will be more different, but will still be very similar to ours.

The genomes of various organisms are now being determined every day.

and are compared with each other. The approach is identical to how linguists look for a root, say Slavic languages. They compare languages ​​and highlight the most similar ones. So, Ukrainian is more similar to Russian than everyone

of them individually is similar to Czech. In this way, family trees are built, on which the tongues coming out are shown in the form of branches.

from a common root, and the closer the branches are to each other, the closer the languages ​​that are designated by these branches. Geneticists also build such trees, and in an interesting way It turns out that the genetic tree of life has one root.

It is more convenient to compare genetic texts of people if you use small areas DNA is several thousand letters long and is found in special organelles in our cells called mitochondria. Mitochondria and the DNA contained in them are transmitted only through maternal line. That is, we get our mitochondria from our mother, our mothers get them from their mothers, and so on. If we start comparing these texts, it turns out that the greatest diversity of mitochondrial DNA, greatest number“typos” in these similar texts are concentrated in Africa, somewhere where modern Ethiopia is. That is, people there are the most diverse. And in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania they are more similar to each other - often more similar than the inhabitants of neighboring African villages.

The simplest explanation for this is unexpected fact is that ancient people originally lived and evolved (that is, they became more diverse and acquired typo mutations in their DNA) in Africa,

and then some small groups of these people, constituting only a small part of the total diversity, left (or perhaps were expelled) from their original habitat and eventually spread across the planet, populating first Europe, then Asia and Oceania, and then the Americas.

A closer analysis shows that there were several such exoduses from Africa. Gradually, the descendants of these people changed and accumulated additional typo mutations. But still, they all as a group represented only a small subset of all that genetic diversity, all those typos that came out of the original place. On the other hand, the typos that the settlers acquired were absent in Africa itself - after all, the likelihood of independently obtaining the same typo is very small.

What was Eva like?

The fact that we all come from Africa is beyond any doubt, but the exact answer to the question of when this exodus or exoduses occurred is not entirely clear. But in any case, the migration began no earlier than one hundred and fifty thousand years ago. This estimate is derived from the concept of Mitochondrial Eve, which itself has nothing to do with the fact that we are all from Africa, but states that all the mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA of living people can be traced back to a single woman who lived in Africa for about a hundred years. fifty thousand years ago.

As already mentioned, mitochondria are inherited through the maternal line, that is, only the mother gives mitochondria to both boys and girls. Let's do a little mental experiment: look at all the multitude of people who now live on the planet - every man and every woman, of course, had a mother, and it is easy to understand that the number of mothers who gave birth to all people is less than the number of people who are now living. Moving in this way from each generation to the previous one, we will gradually reduce the number of mothers needed to produce the next generation, and, moving along such a cone, we will very quickly come to the conclusion that there had to be one and only one woman, - this is the so-called mitochondrial Eve, whose mitochondria served as the source of all people living today, and she lived one hundred and fifty thousand years ago.

Of course, we don’t know what she was like, this Eve, but we know what mitochondrial DNA she had, what the sequence of her DNA was, just as we know about the Proto-Indo-European language not because someone speaks it now, but because , that it can be reconstructed from modern languages ​​that originate from it. It is important to understand that Eve was by no means the only woman of her time and generally did not stand out among her contemporaries. She was neither more beautiful nor more sexy, productive or intelligent than other women of her time. All we know is that she had at least two daughters, and one of the daughters had a mistake, a typo in the mitochondrial DNA, so that it became different from her sister's mitochondrial DNA, and each of the sisters left female descendants who, in turn, had daughters.

Meeting of Adam and Eve

The question naturally arises about a man to whom all humanity can be reduced. He is called, accordingly, Adam. The exact same situation arises with him: from school course In biology, we know that a boy can only get the Y chromosome from his dad. And just as we bring out Eve, we can bring out Adam. This is a certain man who, on the direct paternal line, is the source of all Y chromosomes in all living men. But if you calculate when this person lived, it turns out about fifty thousand years ago. That is, Eve is older than Adam. This is explained by the fact that a man can have more children than a woman, which allows the Y chromosome to spread faster than mitochondrial DNA. Adam, too, was not famous for anything special, he is simply the source of the Y chromosomes of all men living today.