The entry of Mongol-speaking tribes into the wider historical arena changed the linguistic situation in the Central Asian steppes, but it is unlikely that it brought any decisive changes to the balance between man and nature that developed in the territory of present-day Mongolia long before its settlement by the Mongols. It was not nature that was forced to adapt to its new masters, but, on the contrary, they themselves had to adapt their lives to new conditions. Of course, this took some time. The issues of changing the adaptive strategy, developing new ways of exploiting natural resources, and the spiritual reflection of these processes in Mongolian culture are of considerable interest, but have not yet received proper coverage. In this article, we do not claim to be the final solution to this difficult task, limiting ourselves only to a selection and initial analysis of available materials. Keywords: Mongols before Genghis Khan, nature management, migration, adaptation, Ergune-Kun, Three Rivers, Burkhan-Khaldun. The most important sources of knowledge about the life of the Mongol tribes before their unification under the rule of Genghis Khan are the "Secret Legend of the Mongols" by an unknown author, the" Collection of Chronicles " by Rashid ad-Din, records of Chinese historians, as well as archaeological data. He collected and commented on the materials contained in Chinese sources in the first quarter of the 20th century. Wang Guo-wei in his work " Menggu shilao jiaozhu si zhong "("Four types of historical materials about the Mongols with commentaries"). In our country, the information accumulated by world science about pre-Genghis Mongols by 1980 was summarized by E. I. Kychanov [Kychanov, 1980, pp. 136-148]. Five years earlier, an article by L. R. Kyzlasov devoted to the way of life and economy of the Mongol tribes before their unification by Genghis Khan was published (Kizlasov, 1975, pp. 170-177). The pre-Imperial period of Mongolian history is discussed ... Читать далее