Torks

Torks 

(also Ghuz or Ghuzz Turks; in Russian, torki, guzy, or uzy), a group of nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes that split off from the Oghuz tribal union. By the middle of the 11th century the Torks had pushed out the Pechenegs and established themselves in the southern Russian steppes.

In A.D. 985, the Torks joined the Kievan prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich in his campaign against the state of Bulgaria on the Volga. In 1060, having engaged the combined armies of the Russian princes, the Torks were routed. Some of them settled on the borders of the Kiev and Pereiaslavl’ principalities; the largest number resettled along the Ros’ River (a tributary of the Dnieper), where the city of Torchesk was built. In the war against the Polovtsy, the Torks fought on the side of the Russian princes. In the 12th century they joined the tribal union of the Chernye klobuki (so named after their black hoods). Gradually the Torks passed to a settled way of life and took up farming. Some became slavicized, while those who remained in the steppes as nomads later merged withthe Polovtsy.