A person of Russian nationality. What can the shape of the nose tell about a person's character? What nationality has a snub nose?
The self-identification of the Russian people has long been hampered by the Soviet state ideology of internationalism. An additional obstacle was the defeat of genetics as a science in the Soviet Union and its replacement with Michurin's pseudoscience, according to which heredity did not exist in nature at all. The situation began to change only in the late 1960s, when American scientists published sensational results of a study of the genotype of a typical American. The result of genetic screening of the US population really went beyond academic science and caused a real shock among American citizens. It turned out that in less than 200 years of American statehood, its standard citizen - white, of Anglo-Saxon origin and Protestant religion - became genetically 30% black. The results of the Americans interested Soviet officials, so the first laboratories on human population genetics were created in the USSR. They were exclusively engaged in the study of the heredity of small nations, and most of the results obtained were immediately classified as “for official use.” Research on the titular nation could only be carried out using anthropological methods.
Entertaining anthropology
Over several decades of intense research, anthropologists have been able to identify the appearance of a typical Russian person. To do this, they had to convert to a single scale all the photographs from the photo library of the Museum of Anthropology with full-face and profile images of typical representatives of the population of the Russian regions of the country and, combining them by the pupils of the eyes, superimpose them on each other. The final photographic portraits turned out, naturally, blurry, but they gave an idea of the appearance of the standard Russian people. This was the first truly sensational discovery. After all, similar attempts by French scientists led to a result that they had to hide from the citizens of their country: after thousands of combinations from the resulting photographs of the reference Jacques and Marianne, gray faceless ovals of faces were seen. Such a picture, even among the most distant Frenchmen from anthropology, could raise an unnecessary question: is there a French nation at all?
Unfortunately, anthropologists did not go beyond creating photographic portraits of typical representatives of the Russian population in different regions of the country and did not superimpose them on each other in order to obtain the appearance of an absolute Russian person. They explained this to the “authorities” by the supposed scientific lack of information in such work, but in the end they were forced to admit that such a photograph could get them into trouble at work. By the way, “regional” sketches of Russian people were published in the general press only in 2002, and before that they were published in small editions only in scientific publications for specialists. Only in this issue “Vlast” fills this gap in Russian anthropology and for the first time publishes photographic portraits of absolutely Russian people, obtained by us by superimposing the faces of “regional” Russian people on top of each other. Now you can judge for yourself how similar they are to the typical cinematic Ivanushka and Marya.
Unfortunately, mostly black and white old archival photos of the faces of Russian people do not allow us to convey the height, build, color of skin, hair and eyes of a Russian person. However, anthropologists have created a verbal portrait of Russian men and women. They are of average build and average height, light brown-haired with light eyes - gray or blue. By the way, during the research a verbal portrait of a typical Ukrainian was also obtained. The standard Ukrainian differs from a Russian only in the color of his skin, hair and eyes - he is a dark brunette with regular facial features and brown eyes. A snub nose turned out to be absolutely uncharacteristic of an Eastern Slav (found in only 7% of Russians and Ukrainians); this feature is more typical for Germans (25%).
However, anthropological measurements of the proportions of the human body are not even the last, but the century before last, of science, which has long ago received at its disposal the most accurate methods of molecular biology, which make it possible to read all human genes. And the most advanced methods of DNA analysis today are considered to be sequencing (reading the genetic code) of mitochondrial DNA and DNA of the human Y chromosome. Mitochondrial DNA has been passed down through the female line from generation to generation, virtually unchanged since the time when the ancestor of mankind, Eve, climbed down from a tree in East Africa. And the Y chromosome is present only in men and therefore is also passed on to male offspring almost unchanged, while all other chromosomes, when transmitted from father and mother to their children, are shuffled by nature, like a deck of cards before being dealt. Thus, in contrast to indirect signs (appearance, body proportions), sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA indisputably and directly indicate the degree of relatedness of people.
Entertaining genogeography
In the West, human population geneticists have been successfully using these methods for two decades. In Russia they were used only once, in the mid-1990s, when identifying royal remains. The turning point in the situation with the use of the most modern methods to study the titular nation of our country occurred only in 2000. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research has allocated approximately half a million rubles from state budget funds for research into the gene pool of the Russian people. It is impossible to implement a serious program with such funding. But this was more of a landmark decision than just a financial decision, indicating a change in the country’s scientific priorities. For the first time in Russian history, scientists from the Laboratory of Human Population Genetics of the Medical Genetics Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, who received a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, were able to focus entirely on studying the gene pool of the Russian people, rather than small nations, for three years. And limited funding only spurred their ingenuity. They supplemented their molecular genetic research with an analysis of the frequency distribution of Russian surnames in the country. This method was very cheap, but its information content exceeded all expectations: a comparison of the geography of surnames with the geography of genetic DNA markers showed their almost complete coincidence.
Unfortunately, the interpretations of the family analysis that appeared in the media this summer (after the first publication of the data in a specialized scientific journal) could create a false impression about the goals and results of the scientists’ enormous work. As the head of the project, Doctor of Science Elena Balanovskaya, explained to Vlast, the main thing was not that the surname Smirnov turned out to be more common among Russian people than Ivanov, but that for the first time a complete list of truly Russian surnames was compiled by region of the country. At the same time, scientists had to spend a lot of time collecting Russian surnames on their own. The Central Election Commission and local election commissions flatly refused to cooperate with scientists, citing the fact that only if voter lists are kept secret can they guarantee the objectivity and integrity of elections to federal and local authorities. The criterion for including a surname in the list was very lenient: it was included if at least five bearers of this surname lived in the region for three generations. First, lists were compiled for five conditional regions - Northern, Central, Central-Western, Central-Eastern and Southern. In total, across all regions there were about 15 thousand Russian surnames, most of which were found only in one of the regions and were absent in others. When superimposing regional lists on top of each other, scientists identified a total of 257 so-called “all-Russian surnames.” It is interesting that at the final stage of the study they decided to add surnames of residents of the Krasnodar Territory to the list of the Southern region, expecting that the predominance of Ukrainian surnames of the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks evicted here by Catherine II would significantly reduce the all-Russian list. But this additional restriction reduced the list of all-Russian surnames by only 7 units - to 250 (see list). Which led to the obvious and not for everyone pleasant conclusion that Kuban was populated mainly by Russian people. Where did the Ukrainians go and were they even here at all is a big question.
The analysis of Russian surnames generally gives food for thought. Even the simplest action that “Vlast” performed—searching for the names of all the country’s leaders—yielded an unexpected result. Only one of them was included in the list of bearers of the top 250 all-Russian surnames - Mikhail Gorbachev (158th place). The surname Brezhnev occupies 3767th place in the general list (found only in the Belgorod region of the Southern region). The surname Khrushchev is in 4248th place (found only in the Northern region, Arkhangelsk region). Chernenko took 4749th place (Southern region only). Andropov is in 8939th place (Southern region only). Putin took 14,250th place (Southern region only). And Yeltsin was not included in the general list at all. Stalin's surname - Dzhugashvili - was not considered for obvious reasons. But the pseudonym Lenin was included in the regional lists at number 1421, second only to the first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.
The result amazed even the scientists themselves, who believed that the main difference between the bearers of southern Russian surnames was not the ability to lead a huge power, but the increased sensitivity of the skin of their fingers and palms. A scientific analysis of dermatoglyphics (papillary patterns on the skin of the palms and fingers) of Russian people showed that the complexity of the pattern (from simple arches to loops) and the accompanying sensitivity of the skin increases from north to south. “A person with simple patterns on the skin of his hands can hold a glass of hot tea in his hands without pain,” Dr. Balanovskaya clearly explained the essence of the differences. “And if there are a lot of loops, then such people make unsurpassed pickpockets.” However, “Vlast”, in an interview with the country’s chief geneticist, academician Sergei Inge-Vechtomov (see #24, 2004), has already warned that underestimating a person’s genetics in their career guidance has brought and continues to bring huge losses to the country. And again he draws attention to this: it is absolutely clear that from the point of view of increasing labor productivity, it is more profitable to locate thin, high-tech assembly production in the south of Russia, where the fingers of the population are best suited for assembling microprocessors, and hot industries that do not require fine motor skills of the hands (steel foundries and similar type) - in the north.
The Elusive Gene Pool
However, cheap indirect methods of studying the genetics of the Russian people (by surnames and dermatoglyphics) were only auxiliary for the first study in Russia of the gene pool of the titular nationality. His main molecular genetic results are now being prepared for publication in the form of a monograph “Russian Gene Pool”, which will be published at the end of the year by the Luch publishing house. Unfortunately, due to a lack of government funding, scientists had to carry out part of the research together with foreign colleagues, who imposed a moratorium on many results until joint publications were published in the scientific press. The reason is valid, and “Vlast”, unfortunately, cannot provide original graphs and flowcharts of DNA analysis of Russian people and their neighbors in the Russian Federation, CIS countries and some European countries. But nothing prevents us from describing these data (which are at the disposal of “Power”) in words. Thus, according to the Y chromosome, the genetic distance between Russians and Finns is 30 conventional units. And the genetic distance between Russian people and the so-called Finno-Ugric peoples (Mari, Vepsians, etc.) living on the territory of the Russian Federation is 2-3 units. Simply put, genetically they are almost identical. And the harsh statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia on September 1 at the Council of the EU in Brussels (after the denunciation by the Russian side of the treaty on the state border with Estonia) about discrimination against the Finno-Ugric peoples allegedly related to the Finns in the Russian Federation loses its substantive meaning. But due to the moratorium of Western scientists, the Russian Foreign Ministry was unable to reasonably accuse Estonia of interfering in our internal, one might even say closely related, affairs. The results of mitochondrial DNA analysis also fall under the same moratorium, according to which Russians from Tatars are at the same genetic distance of 30 conventional units that separates us from Finns, but between Ukrainians from Lvov and Tatars the genetic distance is only 10 units. And at the same time, Ukrainians from the left bank of Ukraine are genetically as close to the Russians as the Komi-Zyrians, Mordovians and Maris. You can react as you like to these strictly scientific facts that show the natural essence of the standard electorates of Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. But it will not be possible to accuse Russian scientists of falsifying these data: then the accusation will automatically extend to their Western colleagues, who have been delaying the publication of these results for more than a year, each time extending the moratorium period.
The only thing that “Vlast” can do today for the Russian people is to publish a map indicating the area where truly Russian genes are still preserved. Geographically, this territory coincides with Russia during the time of Ivan the Terrible and clearly shows the conventionality of some state borders.
In conclusion, Russian scientists asked to publish their appeal to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. “Huge megacities are, in fact, black holes that suck in the gene pool of the Russian people and destroy them without a trace,” says Dr. Balanovskaya. “Now the boundaries within which primordially Russian genes are still preserved in villages and small towns have become known "But even there, due to lack of money, mothers are giving birth to fewer and fewer children. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of huge state spending on other needs, targeted financial assistance for children for these women can save the Russian gene pool from further degradation."
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| 250 most Russian surnames
Based on the results of a study in five conventional regions of the Russian Federation, scientists compiled a list of almost 15 thousand Russian surnames. By superimposing regional lists on top of each other, the following list of the 250 most common all-Russian surnames was formed.
| Alphabetical index
Those who are too lazy to look for their last name in the ranking can find (or not find) it here
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The original article is on the website
Family plays an important role in everyone's life. Detailed information helps a person better understand himself, as well as be aware of family traditions or certain characteristics, such as genetic diseases. What actions will answer the question of how to determine your nationality by appearance?
Revealing meaning
The term “nationality” implies genetic belonging to a particular nationality. contains a huge storehouse of information from our ancestors. From the most ancient time period to this day, the genome of each family member is stored in genes.
To find out the history of your origin, you need to contact specialists. Thanks to special tests on genetic material, it is possible to trace the branch of development of ancestors and find out how to determine your nationality by appearance.
Science point of view
In men, it is possible to trace the paternal and maternal ancestral branches, since the chromosomes of the stronger sex are XY. But in women it is only possible to study the maternal line, since the genetic code of the weaker sex is XX. Using genetic material, scientists can trace the family line back to ancient people, all the way back to the Neanderthals. How to determine a person's nationality by appearance? With the help of information technology, it is possible to visualize the movement of ancestors from one continent to another. This method is effective, but financially expensive, because such an examination is not a cheap pleasure.
Visual assessment
Very often, just by looking at a person, you can immediately assume that he belongs to one of the nationalities. Some of the signs may be unreliable, but the main distinctive features can be correlated with a certain people without genetic testing.
How to determine your nationality by appearance
The method of determining nationality without special tests is visual. There is a set of appearance traits that are inherent to a particular people. It is worth noting that a “pure” representative of any nationality cannot exist. The reason for this was historical events and the globalization of the world. When the boundaries between cultures and countries are blurred, a large number of interethnic marriages appear. Children born in such a union are representatives of several nationalities, so external signs contain the history of different nations.
Distinctive features
How can you determine what nationality you are by your appearance? One of the external characteristics of interest is associated with residents of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the CIS countries. The Slavic type of appearance is characterized by above-average height and the absence of dark pigment: hair and eyes can be any color except black or brown, respectively. Scientists distinguish the following types:
- Nordid. Features: oval face, high forehead, blond hair, most often brown. Dark, but not black eyebrows, eyes with drooping eyelids, a potato nose or with slightly widening wings of the nose, expressive plump lips. Geographically, the subspecies lives in western Russia or eastern Europe.
- Baltid. Differs from the previous type in a more round face shape, close to a square. Characterized by light hair, from ashen to light brown shades. A high forehead, pale eyebrows, deep-set eyes, narrower in shape than those of Nordids, are the dominant features. The nose, widening downwards, is quite massive. Expressive but thin lips. A similar species lives in the Baltics, in western Russia.
- Europid. Refers to Western Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, that is, it is the typical appearance of a Slav. How to determine the nationality of women by appearance? This is light brown hair, a wide high forehead, dark eyebrows of a natural beautiful shape. Almond-shaped eyes, most often of a light shade, a neat chiseled nose, plump lips. The face shape is oval. Such an appearance is considered the standard of beauty and the first picture that pops up in an associative series with the phrase “Slavic appearance.”
- Uralides. A characteristic feature of this type is dark hair, from dark brown to blue-black. The forehead is slightly smaller than that of the Europid. The eyebrows are also dark. A special feature is the dark pigment, which is reflected in the color of the hair and eyes. There is a drooping eyelid. The nose is potato-shaped, and the lips are thinner than those of Europids, but no less expressive
nal. The face shape is oval, not as angular as that of the Europid.
Traits of other nationalities
Also, many are interested in the manifestation of oriental features of appearance. This question is of particular interest. How to determine the nationality of men by appearance? As a rule, these are people of average height, with a wide oval face and an expressive nose. Hair color can vary from dark brown to light brown, as can eye color. Brown and blue shades are often found, but green is considered the most common. A narrow eye shape is not typical, although it can occur in rare cases. There are 4 main groups, separated by external characteristics:
- Pontic view. Characterized by black hair and eyes, a large nose and an oval face.
- Light Caucasian appearance. Features include light skin and hair pigmentation, a wide forehead, plump lips and a protruding jaw.
- The sublapnoid appearance is characterized by an elongated, oval-shaped face with a wide forehead. Eyebrows often meet at the bridge of the nose, deep-set eyes, an upturned nose and full lips. Also a distinctive feature is an expressive chin.
- Mongoloid. It is distinguished by a narrow eye shape. Hair color is predominantly black. A pronounced nose and narrow lips.
Analysis of indicators
Thus, from the collected data, you can create a test that will help you find out how to determine your nationality by appearance:
- Height. Statistically, the Germans are taller than the Slavs, the maximum mark of a Slavic man is up to 190, for women – up to 175 cm. If the figure is exceeded, then most likely the person is closer to European nationalities, if less, then to Eastern roots.
- Body type. The Slavs are stocky, and thinness is characteristic of European nations. Eye color can vary, as, for example, light shades can be a sign of Slavic origin, but also be a feature of the inhabitants of southern Europe.
- The nose of representatives of the Eastern world is more pronounced than that of Caucasians, including Slavs.
- Lips. The thinner the lips, the more likely it is that relatives once lived in the north, in harsh conditions. The opposite situation is with those with plump lips. Most likely, such a person has Eastern blood in his family.
- Hair. A characteristic feature of the Slavs and Europeans is hair that is lighter than a dark brown shade.
You should not perceive facial features as a sign of belonging to any nationality. Determining nationality by appearance and photos is quite difficult. It is worth remembering that only DNA testing can give a 100% result. But as a study of your own family tree, this practice of recognizing facial features can lead to interesting results and help you understand the roots of your family.
It turns out that the shape of the nose plays an important role in our ability to adapt to the local climate. Photo: RG Archive
The nose is character, say physiognomists. Straight speaks of honesty, long and narrow - of conservatism, long and fleshy - calmness, kindness, eagle - business acumen and cunning, short - optimism, sociability, potato nose - phlegm, etc. Is there any kind of phlegm behind these statements? is it science? Hardly. They are based on pure empirics. But serious scientists have long been trying to understand why people have different noses? More than 200 years ago, Briton Arthur Thomson noticed that long, thin noses were found in cold climates, while short, wide noses were found in hot, humid areas. Even the concept of “Thomson’s nose rule” appeared. But what influenced the shape of the nose of entire populations - natural selection or random mutations?
To test Thomson's rule, American scientists, armed with the most modern technology, studied the noses of hundreds of volunteers. Conclusion: its shape is not an accident, it was dictated by the climate.
This is another confirmation of the many works that scientists have carried out over decades, says Andrey Evteev from the Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University. - The inhabitants of tropical Africa were usually compared with Europeans. It turned out that when a person moves from tropical latitudes to the north, the shape of the nose changes. Short and wide becomes narrow and long.
Why? The requirements for the inhaled air are different, and it must be processed. Hot - cool and ventilate, cold - heat and saturate with moisture. To heat up, the nose must be narrow and long so that the air passes more slowly and stays in contact with the warm walls of the nasal cavity for longer. Hence the predominant shape among Europeans - long and narrow. But Africans do not require heating, so the air path should be shorter and pass into the lungs quickly, without obstacles. This means that the nose is required to be short and wide. It turns out that Thomson was right: the shape of the nose was shaped by climate. And this rule of his can be elevated to law. But Russian scientists have shown that everything is not so simple.
When a person moves from the tropics to the north, the shape of the nose changes
We studied how the shape of the nose and face changes in Northern Asia during the transition from a temperate climate to a very cold one,” says Evteev. - And suddenly we discovered that Thomson’s rule was not fully observed. If during the transition from the tropics to a temperate climate the nose increased, then during the transition from a temperate climate to a severe cold one it decreases. Paradox? But at the same time the northerner’s face grew larger.
To explain, Andrei Evteev offers the following version: in severe frost the nose should not freeze, and therefore among the peoples of the Far North it is short. And in order to adapt to the cold inhaled air, the ancestors of the northern peoples gradually changed their faces. It became larger, which increased the path of air movement and the time of its contact with the warm walls. In addition, the air began to penetrate into the nasal cavity more slowly, which means it took longer to warm up. Nature came up with such systems for different peoples so that they adapt to different climates.
What is the “Russian type of appearance”? The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems. For example, what shape of nose does a Russian person have? There is more than one option here.
The myth about the snub nose of Russians
It is traditionally believed that a typical Russian nose is upturned (snub-nosed) or “potato-shaped”. This, in theory, is how Russians should differ from other Europeans.
Since the 17th century, anthropologists have tried to classify the world's population by race, based on the similarity of external features.
Let us remember the Nordic theory, which was so attractive to the ideologists of Nazism. Its ancestor is considered to be the Russian-French anthropologist Joseph Deniker, who argued that representatives of the “Nordic race” are characterized by blond hair, blue and green eyes, a straight nose, an oblong skull and pink skin.
According to him, this “race” is distributed throughout Northern Europe, northwestern Russia and the western part of the Baltic states. In turn, the Swedish anatomist Christian Schreiner wrote that this Caucasian type is most common in the central part of Scandinavia.
The sub-Nordic race, according to Deniker, is distinguished by a square face shape and an upturned nose. This includes the peoples of the eastern Baltic and northern Germany. Finally, representatives of the Oriental race are characterized by light golden or straw-yellow hair, a square face, blue or gray eyes and an upturned nose. It includes mainly Eastern Slavs and Finns.
So, in the descriptions of the “Nordic subrace” a straight nose shape appears. Whereas for Eastern European peoples, including Russians, it seems that “snub nose” is characteristic.
Meanwhile, Soviet anthropologist V.V. Bunak, in his book “The Origin and Ethnic History of the Russian People,” summing up the results of many years of scientific research, writes that in 75% of cases Russians have straight noses, while throughout Europe this number is no more than 70%. Only 16% of Russians have a convex nose, and only 10% have a concave nose.
Snub noses are generally not typical for the Eastern Slavs. Only 7% of Russians have an upturned nose. There are much more snub-nosed individuals among the Germans - more than 25%.
Moreover: Russians are one of the most “purely European” peoples. This was proven by joint research by Russian, British and Estonian geneticists, the results of which were published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.
Experts came to the conclusion that the Russian ethnic group, from a genetic point of view, consists of two parts. The first is the indigenous population of Southern and Central Russia, which reveals genetic kinship with other Slavic peoples.
The second is the population of the North, which reveals kinship with the Finno-Ugric peoples. But the connection with the Mongoloids is practically not visible. That is, we are pure Europeans.
Anthropological types of Russian appearance
In addition, there is no single concept of “Russian anthropological type”. Natives of different areas, even those with Russian roots, have slightly different appearances.
Thus, anthropologists identify several types of Russian appearance. For example, representatives of the Western Upper Volga or Klyazma type have straight noses, while representatives of the Arkhangelsk type have wide noses. Representatives of the so-called Ryazan type have straight or small snub noses. Representatives of the eastern Upper Volga type are less likely than others to have a concave nasal bridge.
Percentage
According to RAE data for 1955-1959, in 63.1% of cases Russians have a medium-wide nose, in 8.7% - a concave nasal bridge, in 16.3% - a convex one, and in 75% - a straight one. A raised base and raised nasal tip occur in 27.9% and 27.1% of cases, respectively.
Measurements of the shape of the nose, as reported by Professor I.P. Pantyukhov, summarizing the results of anthropological research, showed that Russians living in the Volga basin have generally larger noses than in the west and south of Russia. Among residents of the Vladimir region, 92% have straight noses, 5% have humped noses, and 3% have upturned noses. In the central regions of Russia, a straight nose shape is less common. There you often come across large, pear-shaped noses, as well as long noses - up to 55-56 mm.
In the south-eastern regions of Russia, flattened “Mongoloid” noses are more common, while in the north-west - narrow and long ones. And finally, in various regions of Russia, from 5 to 20% of humpbacked and convex noses are found.
So scientific research disproves some common myths about the “typically Russian” nose shape.
It is traditionally believed that a typical Russian nose is upturned (snub-nosed) or “potato-shaped”. This, in theory, is how Russians should differ from other Europeans.
Since the 17th century, anthropologists have tried to classify the world's population by race, based on the similarity of external features.
Let us remember the Nordic theory, which was so attractive to the ideologists of Nazism. Its ancestor is considered to be the Russian-French anthropologist Joseph Deniker, who argued that representatives of the “Nordic race” are characterized by blond hair, blue and green eyes, a straight nose, an oblong skull and pink skin.
According to him, this “race” is distributed throughout Northern Europe, northwestern Russia and the western part of the Baltic states. In turn, the Swedish anatomist Christian Schreiner wrote that this Caucasian type is most common in the central part of Scandinavia.
The sub-Nordic race, according to Deniker, is distinguished by a square face shape and an upturned nose. This includes the peoples of the eastern Baltic and northern Germany. Finally, representatives of the Oriental race are characterized by light golden or straw-yellow hair, a square face, blue or gray eyes and an upturned nose. It includes mainly Eastern Slavs and Finns.
So, in the descriptions of the “Nordic subrace” a straight nose shape appears. Whereas for Eastern European peoples, including Russians, it seems that “snub nose” is characteristic.
Meanwhile, Soviet anthropologist V.V. Bunak, in his book “The Origin and Ethnic History of the Russian People,” summing up the results of many years of scientific research, writes that in 75% of cases Russians have straight noses, while throughout Europe this number is no more than 70%. Only 16% of Russians have a convex nose, and only 10% have a concave nose.
Snub noses are generally not typical for the Eastern Slavs. Only 7% of Russians have an upturned nose. There are much more snub-nosed individuals among the Germans - more than 25%.
Moreover: Russians are one of the most “purely European” peoples. This was proven by joint research by Russian, British and Estonian geneticists, the results of which were published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.
Experts came to the conclusion that the Russian ethnic group, from a genetic point of view, consists of two parts. The first is the indigenous population of Southern and Central Russia, which reveals genetic kinship with other Slavic peoples.
The second is the population of the North, which reveals kinship with the Finno-Ugric peoples. But the connection with the Mongoloids is practically not visible. That is, we are pure Europeans.
Each nationality has distinctive features of appearance, character, and lifestyle. They tell them who a person is: Russian, Negro, Chinese, Jew. Representatives of the latter nation have a rich history and cultural heritage and live in many countries around the world. To identify a Jew, a description of what he looks like, knowledge of the peculiarities of his mentality and way of life will be useful.
How to distinguish a Jew: characteristic features
There are known ways to determine and recognize a person’s belonging to the nation in question. Easy - ask about it. Jews are often proud of their nationality and do not hide their origin. A person’s last name and even his character can tell about this. Another method for determining Jewish affiliation is recognizing a nation based on its appearance.
Head shape
To establish a person’s nationality, it is advisable to pay attention to the skull and face type.
The main sign of a Jew is the asymmetry of the head, in contrast to the Slavic-Russian, who has a clearly defined oval shape. For the latter, this creates a feeling of a secure, strong fit.
Jews often have an elongated head, the oval of the face is elongated, as in the photo of actor Nicolas Cage.
Asymmetry determines the types of skulls that Jews have, in addition to elongated: pear-shaped, round, compressed. The sloping back of the head is characteristic, which can be seen in the photo of the cellist, pianist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich.
In this case, the person's profile clearly shows a flat area slightly sloping backwards.
It is not uncommon for a Jew to have a round head, but it is pressed into the shoulders due to the short neck. The photo shows comedian Mikhail Zhvanetsky.
This feature is often combined with short stature and excess weight of a person.
Another characteristic of the shape of a Jew’s head is the sloping forehead, visually tilted back. Yuri Nikulin's photograph shows this anthropological feature.
Nose
The way to determine nationality by appearance is to pay attention to a person’s nose. There are varieties of typical Jewish noses: wide, drop-shaped, elongated.
The famous “shnobel” is curved at the base, reminiscent of a hook, while the wings are raised. This shape forms the number 6, which is why in anthropology the nose is called the “Jewish six.”
The sign can be seen in the photo of actor Adrien Brody.
Among the Nazis in Germany, this characteristic of the nose was considered the main way to recognize Semitic appearance. In German schools, special classes were held where children were told the signs of the Jewish nation.
However, this type of nose is also found among Russians (in Gogol, Nekrasov), so one should not judge nationality by only one external feature.
Jews are characterized by an elongated thin nose, the tip of which extends far down beyond the line of the wings, which differs from the classical shape of the Slavs. The sign is clearly visible in the photo of musician Leonid Agutin.
The Jew Zinovy Gerdt has a drop nose. This shape is characterized by a wide tip and elongation downwards.
The Jewish nose, turned up above the edge of the nostrils, is shown in the photo of actor Alexei Batalov.
Eyes
You can tell that a person belongs to Jewish nationality by looking at his eyes. A characteristic feature is their convexity, as in the photo of businessman Roman Abramovich.
When closing the eyes, the heavy eyelids are represented as part of a ball - this is the way the Germans identified Jews. They were also distinguished by the piercing gaze of a “lying man.” The signs were briefly and clearly listed in the German-sounding manual for children “Der Giftpilz”, created by Julius Streicher.
It is believed that Jews have poor eyesight: they are more likely than other peoples to suffer from color blindness and wear glasses.
Characterized by close proximity of the eyes, congenital strabismus is possible.
The color is predominantly dark, but there are also other shades, such as blue. There are blue-eyed brunettes among Jews.
Ears
A clear sign of Jewish nationality is a weakly defined, fused earlobe.
The shape of the shell is different, the contours of the lower half are often asymmetrical to the upper.
The Slavic ear is pressed to the side of the head with the middle. The Jewish one is fused with the lower and upper regions, as can be seen in the photograph of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Sometimes it seems that the shells on the bottom extend almost from the neck; they are called “saiga ears.”
Hair and beard
Among the representatives of the nation there is a variety of hair shades: from light to black. Characterized by curly, wavy strands. Jewish nationality is characterized by dark hair color: from chestnut to black.
However, blondes are not uncommon. There are more fair-haired people among Ashkenazim (German-speaking European Jews) than among other types.
Redheads are also possible, mainly Polish Jews and representatives of the nation in Russia.
An element of the hairstyle is sidelocks - grown strands at the temples. They are optional, but along with a beard and sideburns, they are considered a custom and tradition of Jewish culture.
If a person is bald, false strands attached to the headdress are used as sidelocks.
Mouth
A peculiarity of the structure of the mouth of Jews is the excessive exposure of the gums when smiling, like Andrei Makarevich.
Mobility of the lips and their asymmetry during conversation are noted.
Representatives of the nation are characterized by uneven dentition. In comparison with the Slavs, who have dense teeth, Jews have asymmetry of teeth, they are somewhat rare, as in the photo of Evgeny Evstigneev.
Last name and first name
The way to find out if there are Jewish roots is to analyze the person's last name and first name. However, you should not use the method as a fundamental one.
Characteristic endings of Jewish surnames:
- on “-man” (Liberman, Guzman);
- on “-er” (Stiller, Posner);
- on “-ts” (Katz, Schatz);
- with “-on” (Gordon, Kobzon);
- on “-ik” (Yarmolnik, Oleinik);
- with “-iy” (Vishnevsky, Razumovsky).
But their carriers are people of different origins. Endings similar to Slavic ones are possible (Soloviev). The origin of the Jewish surname is known from male and female names (Abramovich, Yakubovich, Rubinchik).
Leaving Poland, many Jews changed their surname, depending on where they were from - Vysotsky (Vysotsk village), Dneprovsky, Nevsky and so on.
There is great diversity in names. True Jewish ones (Daniil, Lev, Ilya, Yakov, Dina, Sofia) are often worn by representatives of Russian nationality.
What does a Jewish woman look like?
Jewish girls are confused with representatives of other nations, Caucasian or Mediterranean.
The distinctive features are similar to those of men, but are milder.
A purebred Jewish woman of middle and old age is usually presented as a woman with outstanding forms, a loud voice and the name Rozochka, Sarochka, and so on.
The representative of the nation is considered a caring wife and a reverent mother, overly protective of her children. However, women note negligence in everyday life, clothing and appearance, and a specific body odor. The rude manners of young and old Jewish women, who are characterized by loudness, are distinguished. Due to carelessness, they often smell of tobacco and sweat.
Face
The portrait of a Jewish woman, like a man, has characteristic national features. The hair is mostly dark. The nose is large, elongated or with a hump, plump lips.
Beautiful eyes deserve attention: slightly convex, bright and expressive.
They display eternal sadness, anxiety and worry.
Cheeks are sometimes chubby, which has been noted since childhood and persists in young girls and boys. Some sources cite excessive overfeeding of children and overprotection as the cause.
Jewish traditions include covering one's hair in public or in the presence of a male stranger.
However, today the custom is rarely observed, only in strictly orthodox circles.
Figure
A genetic feature of the body structure is considered to be wide hips, narrow shoulders, and full legs.
Jewish women predominantly have curvaceous and sensual figures, but there are also opposite types of figures.
Such women are characterized by narrow bones, dark complexion, and subtle oriental beauty.
With age, the figure often deteriorates; overly fat Jewish women are a common phenomenon. Among the reasons are childbirth, since it is considered normal for a family to have 4-5 children, which is reflected in the appearance of the body.
Circumcision
A specific way to check Jewishness is to establish the integrity of the foreskin of the male genital organ.
In fact, circumcision is not only a Jewish rite, but also a Muslim one. The difference is that in the latter case the foreskin is absent. Among the Jews, it was recommended to do the procedure partially, the area was cut off only from above.
It is believed that the manipulations among the Jews caused the gradual formation of an upward bend in the genital organ and its acquisition of a hook-shaped appearance.
Features and rules of life
The complex history of the Jews explains why they did not have their own state for so long, which left an imprint on their development and way of life. In ancient times, they were under the yoke of the Egyptians, located on land under their control. After the capture of Judea by Rome, the Jews were finally expelled by the Latin pagans and forced to spread throughout the world, beginning a two-thousand-year wandering.
The nation, which existed for more than 2 thousand years without its own state, is now spread almost everywhere. The place where most of its representatives live is Israel (43%), 39% is in the United States of America, the remaining share is in other states. Currently, the number of Jews living on earth is 16.5 million.
The question of what race the Jews belong to is complex, since they combined the features of various nations that came into contact with them, which was also reflected in the external signs of the nation. According to their anthropological type, they are classified as Caucasians of the Indo-Mediterranean race.
The nation includes half-breeds (mixing with Russians, Poles and Poles, and so on), while the true representative is considered to be a person with Jewish roots on his mother’s side. To find out if they exist, you can contact a special service that will search the archives and determine the relationship. To receive an inheritance, move to Israel, join the community, and so on, they must prove the presence of Jews in the family up to the third generation (maximum grandparents).
The peculiar behavior of representatives of a nation is a sign of belonging to it. They highlight such qualities of Jews as self-confidence, self-esteem, and pride. Psychology unites them into the concept of “chutzpah.” Jews are bad and dangerous according to the public, who consider them greedy, stingy, selfish, and rude.
An interesting fact is how Jews recognize each other. They call the sign “sorrow in the eyes.” A happy look is not typical for them.
Jews are the only people who managed to maintain their isolation, culture, and religion, despite their terrible history. Perhaps they achieved this by considering themselves better than others, living by established rules, which is why they do not attract others into their community.
However, by going through the rite of conversion, you can become a Jew even if you are not a Jew. This requires the consent of 3 rabbis, memorizing 613 commandments, learning the religious canon, taking an oath, circumcision is indicated for men.
The rules that real Jews observe are described in the book of the Torah: what they eat and drink (kosher food and drinks), use separate utensils when they are not working (on Shabbat), and so on.
Jewish blood is revealed by the characteristics of the voice timbre: high in men and low in middle-aged and older women. At the end of sentences there is a characteristic increase in tone. Signs include a senile, rattling voice that persists from childhood to the end of life. However, this feature does not prevent Jews from singing and amaze others with their talent. An example of this is Tamara Gverdtsiteli.
An important feature is the fact that Jews live long. The average life expectancy is 82 years. The reasons are developed medicine and favorable social conditions. However, the representatives of the nation themselves condition longevity on warm friendly relations, love and harmony in the family.
Jews are considered a cunning and quick-witted people. Stories and anecdotes about their intelligence and ingenuity are written and told everywhere. This also explains why the 3rd floor is called Jewish. It is convenient in terms of life: it does not rise high, it is located away from the roof. The term appeared in the USSR and is relevant for five-story buildings. To some extent, it reveals the essence of Jewishness.
Representatives of the nation are distinguished by their extraordinary intelligence and creative abilities; among them there are politicians, musicians, actors, and so on.
This determines the public opinion that a terry Jew cannot be deceived and cannot be defeated. The photo shows a young but already famous journalist and political scientist Fridrikhson Nadana Aleksandrovna.
Relations between Russians and Jews were characterized by mutual dislike; the former contemptuously called the latter Jews. However, now there is no tension between representatives of the nation, and there is a trend for the better.
Common Misconceptions
There are rumors, conjectures, and assumptions about the Jewish nation. However, not all of them are true.
- Only someone born a Jew can become a Jew.. The statement is erroneous, since a non-Jew, having undergone the rite of conversion, is recognized as a member of the community.
- Representatives of the nation have a huge nose, plump lips and black eyes. In fact, there are fair-haired or red-haired Jews with thin noses.
- An indirect sign of Jews is that they burr. This is due to the guttural pronunciation of the letter “r”, which is why it is perceived as a speech defect. However, most of them speak correctly and clearly, and burring is characteristic of people of other nationalities.
- The Jews crucified Jesus Christ. The Romans did this. The Jews denounced the son of God, and also did not prevent the execution.
- Jewish women have the largest breasts. The statement is due to the characteristics of women’s figures, but according to research, the primacy belongs to residents of Great Britain.
- Jews have the longest nose. However, more outstanding dimensions of the olfactory organ were recorded among the Turks.
- Jewish language Yiddish. Their languages are Hebrew and Aramaic. Yiddish is a form of dialect language characteristic of Ashkenazim.
Nationality is a set of character traits that have developed over centuries of history and external data that distinguish an individual from representatives of another nationality. It is noteworthy that people living in neighboring regions differ only slightly in national characteristics, while representatives of different continents differ radically. Such differences between nationalities turn into racial ones. Before determining a person’s nationality, you must know the basic characteristics in appearance by which you can distinguish representatives of different nationalities - hair and skin color, shape and shape of the nose, as well as eyes. Representatives of different nationalities also have speech differences, but they will not always allow one to determine a specific nationality, since half the world speaks English, not just the British.
National differences of Africans
The skin of Africans (or blacks) ranges in color from brown to black. Pure-blooded Africans will never have blue or gray eyes - only black or brown. The shape of the eyes can be either round or almond-shaped. The nose is slightly flattened, with wide nostrils. Representatives of the African continent have dark and, as a rule, curly hair, broad shoulders and long legs, and they are tall.
National differences of Chechens
Both Chechens and Ingushets have light skin. Eye color - brown or black, small eyes. Dark and thick hair, eyebrows fused on the bridge of the nose are distinctive features of Chechens, who also have a straight and large nose with a wide bridge. The height of representatives of this nationality is approximately average. The figure is proportional.
National differences of Georgians
Very often, belonging to a particular nationality can be determined by last name. For example, native Georgians have a surname ending in “dze”. Therefore, how to determine nationality by last name is written in the relevant literature. In addition to their surname, Georgians can be distinguished by their light skin, almond-shaped brown or black eyes, an elongated nose with a hump, and thick, pitch-black hair. Representatives of this nationality have a proportional figure; in terms of height, Georgians are usually tall people, and not only men, but also women.
National differences of Jews
Jews have light skin, often with freckles, protruding and round eyes, gray or brown in color, and they have a large nose with a downturned tip. As a rule, the edges of the nostrils of Jews are slightly raised upward. This nationality has either dark or red hair. If you need to identify a Jew from the male half of society, then take a closer look at his facial hair - it is often different in tone from that on his head. Jews are a short nation, so there are no tall people among them, and often men are characterized by below average height. The Jewish figure has a disproportionate structure - they have a wide pelvis and narrow shoulders.
National differences of Armenians
Before determining nationality by appearance, take a closer look at the eyes - perhaps an Armenian is standing in front of you if the person’s eyes are almond-shaped, wide-set, and brown in color. Armenians have fair skin and thick and curly hair. Especially in men, dense vegetation is observed throughout the body. Armenians have a long, hooked nose, medium to tall stature, and a proportional build.
National differences of the Chinese
In order to determine the nationality of a person, it is not necessary to see him in person, since you can determine the nationality from a photo. The Chinese nationality, the most numerous on our planet, is characterized by a small and narrow nose, slanted and wide-set eyes - they are black. The Chinese have yellowish or brownish skin color and short stature. The physique of representatives of this nationality is proportional. The hair of the Chinese is dark and coarse, straight, and there is practically no hair on the body of men.
National differences of the Tatars
Tatars have a yellowish skin tone and dark or red hair, and representatives of this nationality often begin to go bald at a young age. Their eyes are brown and narrow, as is their nose, which in profile practically does not protrude above the rest of their facial features. Therefore, the face of Tatars often appears flat. Proportional physique and average or below average height are the national differences of this nation.
We hope that this information has helped you in deciding the question of how to determine your nationality or the nationality of your friend or friend.
Scientists can justify why a person’s appearance depends on the climate of the area in which he lives - right down to the curly hair and skin color, but why do some peoples have hooked noses, while others living in the same conditions have They may be straight or snub-nosed, no one knows for sure.
Anthropologists shrug their shoulders - heredity, nothing else. In Russia, hump noses are traditionally distinguished by the peoples of the Caucasus. Anthropologists believe that almost 60% of the population of this mountainous region have such a nose. Georgians have the most beautiful noses, and they are proud of them.
Which peoples
And the hump also occurs among Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Ossetians, Abazins, Abkhazians, Kabardians, Balkars, Karachais, Adygs, Nogais, Dargins, Ritulians, Kumyks, Tabasarans, Talysh, Udins, Shapsugs and is often found among Avars, Ingush and Lezgins.
People from Mesopotamia and the Middle East almost always have a hump. First of all, these are Semitic peoples - Jews and Arabs, as well as Assyrians, Kurds, Yezidis, Persians, Karaites.
And if we take the Middle East, then hooked noses can be found among Pashtuns, Seraiks, Balochis, Turkomans, Circassians, and even further - in the northeast of India, live the Tibeto-Burman highlanders, who, although they belong to the Mongoloids, have copper skin and with aquiline noses they resemble Indians.
In Europe
In Europe, hook-nosed peoples live mainly in the south: these are Serbs, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Croats, Albanians, as well as Italians, who often have a straight Roman nose with a hump, Macedonians, Spaniards and now partially the French - due to mixed marriages with Arabs.
Often a hump is present in the appearance of gypsy women, which once again reminds us of the Indo-Iranian origin of this ancient people. This is also evidenced by their dark, smooth skin, black hair, as well as their language, which has much in common with Hindi.
In Russia
Humped noses can be found in Russia on the Black Sea coast - among the Greeks, among the Cossacks, who often mixed with mountain peoples, among the Krymchaks and Crimean Tatars.
Some representatives of the Bashkirs were distinguished by their original appearance. Even in the encyclopedia of Efron and Brockhaus, a special type of “forest” Bashkir was mentioned, that is, representatives of the people living in mountainous and forested areas. Unlike their brothers, they were more close to the Caucasian type, that is, they had long faces, hunchbacks, tall stature and were distinguished by a more courageous and hot-tempered disposition. It was also noted that the Bashkirs are not very different from the Tatars.
Some representatives of the Volga, Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars have a pronounced Semitic appearance, which allows us to make the assumption that they are, after all, a Semitic people. Therefore, both men and women of this nationality can have a hump on the nose, sometimes quite impressive.
Kalmyks have the same distinctive feature. About 17% of this people have hooked noses and are tall. True, some anthropologists believe that this is due to mixed marriages with Armenians, Tatars and even Kyrgyz.
Mongoloids
Despite the fact that the Mongoloid race, in theory, should have a flattened nose, many Asian peoples are distinguished by hooked noses. For example, Kazakhs believe that a real Turkic people should have a hooked nose. In the Olkhon district of the Irkutsk region there lived a whole village of Buryats who had white skin, a Roman straight nose with a hump, were tall and more reminiscent of American Indians.
This village was called Ogul, but during Soviet times it ceased to exist, and the population mixed with the rest. But in different places there are still Buryats who have a hooked nose.
Even the Yakuts, at one time considered the standard Mongoloid people, suddenly began to write that in cities and towns “every second person is narrow-faced and hook-nosed.” The Yakuts themselves associate this state of affairs again with mixed marriages. But the North American Indians originated from the Asian Mongoloids, which means that their narrow faces and hooked noses must have come from somewhere.
Russians have it too
If we talk about the titular nation, then hooked nose among Russians is more common than is commonly thought. The existing proverb “scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar” can be supplemented: either a Bashkir, or an Armenian, or a Turkish grandmother.
In Novgorod during the veche, there lived tall people with long faces and rather large noses. The noses were both straight and humped.
It is difficult to calculate how many hook-nosed people live in Russia. After all, if among the Caucasian peoples this feature is found only in half of the population, then in others it occurs either infrequently (like the Kalmyks) or rarely, like some Tatars.
The listed peoples living in Russia, including Macedonians, Hungarians, Serbs, Italians and Spaniards, but excluding Russians, Kazakhs, Yakuts and Buryats, total 13,875,631 people. Even if half of them are carriers of the hump, that's still almost seven million people.
Physiognomists believe that people who have a hump on their nose have a complex character, but are reasonable and tend to pay a lot of attention to loved ones. And for women, a hump on the nose adds aristocracy and individuality.
Russian scientists have completed and are preparing for publication the first large-scale study of the gene pool of the Russian people. "Vlast" correspondents Daria Laane And Sergey Petukhov got acquainted with the results of this study and realized that their publication could have unpredictable consequences for Russia and the world order.The self-identification of the Russian people has long been hampered by the Soviet state ideology of internationalism. An additional obstacle was the defeat of genetics as a science in the Soviet Union and its replacement with Michurin's pseudoscience, according to which heredity did not exist in nature at all. The situation began to change only in the late 1960s, when American scientists published sensational results of a study of the genotype of a typical American. The result of genetic screening of the US population really went beyond academic science and caused a real shock among American citizens. It turned out that in less than 200 years of American statehood, its standard citizen - white, of Anglo-Saxon origin and Protestant religion - became genetically 30% black. The results of the Americans interested Soviet officials, so the first laboratories on human population genetics were created in the USSR. They were exclusively engaged in the study of the heredity of small nations, and most of the results obtained were immediately classified as “for official use.” Research on the titular nation could only be carried out using anthropological methods.
Entertaining anthropology
Over several decades of intense research, anthropologists have been able to identify the appearance of a typical Russian person. To do this, they had to convert to a single scale all the photographs from the photo library of the Museum of Anthropology with full-face and profile images of typical representatives of the population of the Russian regions of the country and, combining them by the pupils of the eyes, superimpose them on each other. The final photographic portraits turned out, naturally, blurry, but they gave an idea of the appearance of the standard Russian people. This was the first truly sensational discovery. After all, similar attempts by French scientists led to a result that they had to hide from the citizens of their country: after thousands of combinations from the resulting photographs of the reference Jacques and Marianne, gray faceless ovals of faces were seen. Such a picture, even among the most distant Frenchmen from anthropology, could raise an unnecessary question: is there a French nation at all?
Unfortunately, anthropologists did not go beyond creating photographic portraits of typical representatives of the Russian population in different regions of the country and did not superimpose them on each other in order to obtain the appearance of an absolute Russian person. They explained this to the “authorities” by the supposed scientific lack of information in such work, but in the end they were forced to admit that such a photograph could get them into trouble at work. By the way, “regional” sketches of Russian people were published in the general press only in 2002, and before that they were published in small editions only in scientific publications for specialists. Only in this issue “Vlast” fills this gap in Russian anthropology and for the first time publishes photographic portraits of absolutely Russian people, obtained by us by superimposing the faces of “regional” Russian people on top of each other. Now you can judge for yourself how similar they are to the typical cinematic Ivanushka and Marya.
Unfortunately, mostly black and white old archival photos of the faces of Russian people do not allow us to convey the height, build, color of skin, hair and eyes of a Russian person. However, anthropologists have created a verbal portrait of Russian men and women. They are of average build and average height, light brown-haired with light eyes - gray or blue. By the way, during the research a verbal portrait of a typical Ukrainian was also obtained. The standard Ukrainian differs from a Russian only in the color of his skin, hair and eyes - he is a dark brunette with regular facial features and brown eyes. A snub nose turned out to be absolutely uncharacteristic of an Eastern Slav (found in only 7% of Russians and Ukrainians); this feature is more typical for Germans (25%).
However, anthropological measurements of the proportions of the human body are not even the last, but the century before last, of science, which has long ago received at its disposal the most accurate methods of molecular biology, which make it possible to read all human genes. And the most advanced methods of DNA analysis today are considered to be sequencing (reading the genetic code) of mitochondrial DNA and DNA of the human Y chromosome. Mitochondrial DNA has been passed down through the female line from generation to generation, virtually unchanged since the time when the ancestor of mankind, Eve, climbed down from a tree in East Africa. And the Y chromosome is present only in men and therefore is also passed on to male offspring almost unchanged, while all other chromosomes, when transmitted from father and mother to their children, are shuffled by nature, like a deck of cards before being dealt. Thus, in contrast to indirect signs (appearance, body proportions), sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA indisputably and directly indicate the degree of relatedness of people.
Entertaining genogeography
In the West, human population geneticists have been successfully using these methods for two decades. In Russia they were used only once, in the mid-1990s, when identifying royal remains. The turning point in the situation with the use of the most modern methods to study the titular nation of our country occurred only in 2000. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research has allocated approximately half a million rubles from state budget funds for research into the gene pool of the Russian people. It is impossible to implement a serious program with such funding. But this was more of a landmark decision than just a financial decision, indicating a change in the country’s scientific priorities. For the first time in Russian history, scientists from the Laboratory of Human Population Genetics of the Medical Genetics Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, who received a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, were able to focus entirely on studying the gene pool of the Russian people, rather than small nations, for three years. And limited funding only spurred their ingenuity. They supplemented their molecular genetic research with an analysis of the frequency distribution of Russian surnames in the country. This method was very cheap, but its information content exceeded all expectations: a comparison of the geography of surnames with the geography of genetic DNA markers showed their almost complete coincidence.
Unfortunately, the interpretations of the family analysis that appeared in the media this summer (after the first publication of the data in a specialized scientific journal) could create a false impression about the goals and results of the scientists’ enormous work. As the head of the project, Doctor of Science Elena Balanovskaya, explained to Vlast, the main thing was not that the surname Smirnov turned out to be more common among Russian people than Ivanov, but that for the first time a complete list of truly Russian surnames was compiled by region of the country. At the same time, scientists had to spend a lot of time collecting Russian surnames on their own. The Central Election Commission and local election commissions flatly refused to cooperate with scientists, citing the fact that only if voter lists are kept secret can they guarantee the objectivity and integrity of elections to federal and local authorities. The criterion for including a surname in the list was very lenient: it was included if at least five bearers of this surname lived in the region for three generations. First, lists were compiled for five conditional regions - Northern, Central, Central-Western, Central-Eastern and Southern. In total, across all regions there were about 15 thousand Russian surnames, most of which were found only in one of the regions and were absent in others. When superimposing regional lists on top of each other, scientists identified a total of 257 so-called “all-Russian surnames.” It is interesting that at the final stage of the study they decided to add surnames of residents of the Krasnodar Territory to the list of the Southern region, expecting that the predominance of Ukrainian surnames of the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks evicted here by Catherine II would significantly reduce the all-Russian list. But this additional restriction reduced the list of all-Russian surnames by only 7 units - to 250 (see list). Which led to the obvious and not for everyone pleasant conclusion that Kuban was populated mainly by Russian people. Where did the Ukrainians go and were they even here at all is a big question.
The analysis of Russian surnames generally gives food for thought. Even the simplest action that “Vlast” performed—searching for the names of all the country’s leaders—yielded an unexpected result. Only one of them was included in the list of bearers of the top 250 all-Russian surnames - Mikhail Gorbachev (158th place). The surname Brezhnev occupies 3767th place in the general list (found only in the Belgorod region of the Southern region). The surname Khrushchev is in 4248th place (found only in the Northern region, Arkhangelsk region). Chernenko took 4749th place (Southern region only). Andropov is in 8939th place (Southern region only). Putin took 14,250th place (Southern region only). And Yeltsin was not included in the general list at all. Stalin's surname - Dzhugashvili - was not considered for obvious reasons. But the pseudonym Lenin was included in the regional lists at number 1421, second only to the first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.
The result amazed even the scientists themselves, who believed that the main difference between the bearers of southern Russian surnames was not the ability to lead a huge power, but the increased sensitivity of the skin of their fingers and palms. A scientific analysis of dermatoglyphics (papillary patterns on the skin of the palms and fingers) of Russian people showed that the complexity of the pattern (from simple arches to loops) and the accompanying sensitivity of the skin increases from north to south. “A person with simple patterns on the skin of his hands can hold a glass of hot tea in his hands without pain,” Dr. Balanovskaya clearly explained the essence of the differences. “And if there are a lot of loops, then such people make unsurpassed pickpockets.” However, “Vlast”, in an interview with the country’s chief geneticist, academician Sergei Inge-Vechtomov (see #24, 2004), has already warned that underestimating a person’s genetics in their career guidance has brought and continues to bring huge losses to the country. And again he draws attention to this: it is absolutely clear that from the point of view of increasing labor productivity, it is more profitable to locate thin, high-tech assembly production in the south of Russia, where the fingers of the population are best suited for assembling microprocessors, and hot industries that do not require fine motor skills of the hands (steel foundries and similar type) - in the north.
The Elusive Gene Pool
However, cheap indirect methods of studying the genetics of the Russian people (by surnames and dermatoglyphics) were only auxiliary for the first study in Russia of the gene pool of the titular nationality. His main molecular genetic results are now being prepared for publication in the form of a monograph “Russian Gene Pool”, which will be published at the end of the year by the Luch publishing house. Unfortunately, due to a lack of government funding, scientists had to carry out part of the research together with foreign colleagues, who imposed a moratorium on many results until joint publications were published in the scientific press. The reason is valid, and “Vlast”, unfortunately, cannot provide original graphs and flowcharts of DNA analysis of Russian people and their neighbors in the Russian Federation, CIS countries and some European countries. But nothing prevents us from describing these data (which are at the disposal of “Power”) in words. Thus, according to the Y chromosome, the genetic distance between Russians and Finns is 30 conventional units. And the genetic distance between Russian people and the so-called Finno-Ugric peoples (Mari, Vepsians, etc.) living on the territory of the Russian Federation is 2-3 units. Simply put, genetically they are almost identical. And the harsh statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia on September 1 at the Council of the EU in Brussels (after the denunciation by the Russian side of the treaty on the state border with Estonia) about discrimination against the Finno-Ugric peoples allegedly related to the Finns in the Russian Federation loses its substantive meaning. But due to the moratorium of Western scientists, the Russian Foreign Ministry was unable to reasonably accuse Estonia of interfering in our internal, one might even say closely related, affairs. The results of mitochondrial DNA analysis also fall under the same moratorium, according to which Russians from Tatars are at the same genetic distance of 30 conventional units that separates us from Finns, but between Ukrainians from Lvov and Tatars the genetic distance is only 10 units. And at the same time, Ukrainians from the left bank of Ukraine are genetically as close to the Russians as the Komi-Zyrians, Mordovians and Maris. You can react as you like to these strictly scientific facts that show the natural essence of the standard electorates of Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. But it will not be possible to accuse Russian scientists of falsifying these data: then the accusation will automatically extend to their Western colleagues, who have been delaying the publication of these results for more than a year, each time extending the moratorium period.
The only thing that “Vlast” can do today for the Russian people is to publish a map indicating the area where truly Russian genes are still preserved. Geographically, this territory coincides with Russia during the time of Ivan the Terrible and clearly shows the conventionality of some state borders.
In conclusion, Russian scientists asked to publish their appeal to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. “Huge megacities are, in fact, black holes that suck in the gene pool of the Russian people and destroy them without a trace,” says Dr. Balanovskaya. “Now the boundaries within which primordially Russian genes are still preserved in villages and small towns have become known "But even there, due to lack of money, mothers are giving birth to fewer and fewer children. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of huge state spending on other needs, targeted financial assistance for children for these women can save the Russian gene pool from further degradation."
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| 250 most Russian surnames
Based on the results of a study in five conventional regions of the Russian Federation, scientists compiled a list of almost 15 thousand Russian surnames. By superimposing regional lists on top of each other, the following list of the 250 most common all-Russian surnames was formed.
| Alphabetical index
Those who are too lazy to look for their last name in the ranking can find (or not find) it here
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The original article is on the website
