Kumandins
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Russia
|
2,892 |
| Languages | |
| Altai | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Altay | |
The Kumandins also known as the Kumandy, Kumanda, Qumandy and Qumanda are a people indigenous to Central Asia. They reside mainly in the Altai Republic of the Russian Federation.
According to the 1926 census, 6,335 Kumandins lived within the territory of Russia. In the 2010 census, the number was only 2,892, but possibly the 1926 census included some related peoples. Some Kumandins, living on the banks of the Biya River, from the Kuu River downstream, almost to the city of Biysk, and along the lower course of the river Katun River, by 1969 were conflated with the ethnic Russian population.
Omeljan Pritsak claimed that kuman- in the name of the Kumandins is identical in meaning to the names given to other Turkic peoples, such as Kipchak and Polovets (a Slavic term for Cumans).
However, the seoks (tribes) of the Kumandins have varying origin myths; L. Potapov proposed that they were originally a federation of peoples from different backgrounds: nomadic steppe pastoralists (such as the Cumans), taiga hunters (Chuvash), deer pastoralists (Nenets), and fishers (Tatars).
"[The] Kumans belonged to the Kuman-Kipchak confederation (Polevetses of the Rus annals, Comans of Byzantine sources, Folban of German annals) [and] during the period from the end of the 800s to 1230s CE spread their political influence in the broad steppes from Altai to Crimea and Danube. Irtysh with its adjoining steppes (at least below the lake Zaisan) was in the sphere of that confederation. Members of the confederation undoubtedly also were the ancestors of the present Kumandy and Teleuts, which is evidenced by their language that like the language of the Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba Tatars belongs to the Kypchak group."
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