Slavs in the Danube and the Balkans from the middle of the 7th century
By the middle of the VII century. the Slavization of the Balkans was over.
The Slavs were actively involved in the economic development of the occupied regions, for example, the tribe of the Velegisites from the Thebes and Demetriads sell the besieged Thessalonica already in the 70s of the 7th century. corn.
We see the following Slavic tribal unions in the eastern part of the Balkans: in the Byzantine province of Scythia - the union of the northerners, in Lower Moesia and partly Thrace the union of "seven tribes", as well as in Moesia - the Timochans and Moravians, where the cheers or presenters lived is not known. To the south, in Macedonia, the following sklavinia are: draguvites (dragovites) or druhuvites, sagudats, strumians (strumenes), runkhins (rikhnids), smolyans. In Dardania and Greece, the union of four tribes: Vayunits, Velegesites, Milentsi (Milians) and Ezerites (Ezerites), in the Peloponnese - Milling and Ezerites.
After the fall of the power of the "nomadic empire" of the Avars over the Slavs and after the migration of them and the Ants to the territory of Byzantium beyond the Danube, the "democratic" tribal structure was completely preserved - "each lived in his own family." Moreover, there is friction between the tribes and a complete lack of desire for unification.
Despite the fact that in the 70s of the VII century. The Accident intensified again, and even part of the Croats and Serbs, as well as the Slavs who settled in Macedonia, fell under its rule, the Kaganate no longer had the strength to make long campaigns towards Constantinople, but only to wage border wars. The Avar forces were undermined by the Slavs, the Samo state and the uprisings of the Bulgars (Bulgarians) who lived in Pannonia in the 30s of the 7th century: some of them migrated to related tribes in the steppes of Eastern Europe, and a small part, some, to Italy, others, under the leadership of a certain khan Kuvrat, nephew of Organa, to the north of Macedonia, although archaeological traces of the Turkic-Bulgarians are not visible here (Sedov V. V.).
In such conditions, among the Slavic tribes, for which, after the resettlement, more favorable living and economic conditions developed, the process of forming an early state or supra-tribal power structure stopped.
Proto-Bulgarians at the beginning of the 7th century
By the time the first Bulgarian kingdom was created, the Bulgarian tribes proper roamed or lived in a vast territory from the Caspian Sea to Italy.
In the framework of the established tradition, we will call that part of them that came to the lower reaches of the Danube Proto-Bulgarians.
These tribes, the heirs of the Huns, were subordinate to the Türkic Kaganate. And if in Italy or Pannonia there were only small groups of them, then the steppes of the Azov and Black Sea regions were densely populated.
At the same time, when the Bulgars or Bulgarians were fighting the Avars, in 634, after liberation from the rule of the Turkic Kaganate, Khan Kubrat or Kotrag from the Dulo (Dulu) dynasty founded Great Bulgaria. The unification of the Black Sea hordes took place during a civil war in the Western Turkic Kaganate (634 - 657), which could not react to these events (Klyashtorny M. G.). These nomadic tribes lived a tribal life and were at the first, "tabor" stage of nomadism. Although they had a "capital" - aul - on the site of Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula.
Note that historians continue the dispute about whether one person Kubrat (or Kuvrat) and a certain Krovat, Organa's nephew who fought with the Avar Kaganate, or different, but these historical figures, firstly, are spaced in time, and secondly, in space, the power of the Avars could not extend in any way to the lands of the Azov and Black Sea regions and was limited to Pannonia and nearby lands.
Therefore, we can say that these leaders only have similar names.
After the death of Kubrat in the 40s, who lived in the Azov region, the Bulgarians, divided, according to legend, between his five sons, could not provide adequate resistance to their kindred Khazars, headed by the Turkic clan of the Khagans - Ashins.
Clashes between the hordes took place in the North Caucasus, and the victory was on the side of the Khazars. The fate of the Bulgarian tribes was different: part of the Bulgarians went to the north and created the state of the Volga Bulgars, some remained under the rule of the Khazars, receiving the name "Black Bulgarians", these are the ancestors of the modern Balkars. Khan Asparukh, the third son of Kubrat, led his horde to the Danube and fortified in the Danube delta (Artamonov M. I., Pletneva S. A.). Patriarch Nicephorus wrote:
“The first son named Bayan (Vatvaian or Batbayan), in accordance with his father's will, remained in the great-grandfather's land until now ·, the second, called Kotrag, crossing the Tanais River, settled opposite them. The fourth, having crossed the Istra River, is located in Pannonia, which is now under the Avars, and became subordinate to the local tribe. The fifth, who settled in Pentapol at Ravenna, turned out to be a tributary of the Romans."
The third son, Asparukh, settled, according to a number of researchers and translators, between a certain river Ogla (Olga?) And the Danube, on the left side of the Danube, this swampy place represented "great security from enemies." Other researchers believe that this is not about the Ogl River, which cannot be identified, but about the territory:
"Settled near Istra, reaching a place convenient for residence, called in their language Oglom (most likely from‘aul), inaccessible and insurmountable for enemies. " (Translation Litavrin V. V.)
This is the territory of the lower reaches of Seret and Prut, and this happened in the 70s of the 7th century.
Once here, the horde of Asparukh, after a respite, immediately began to raid across the Danube, to lands that, despite all the vicissitudes, remained under the control of the Byzantine Empire.
In 679, the Bulgarians crossed the Danube and plundered Thrace; in response, Constantine IV himself (652-685) opposed them. By this time, the empire had been waging a war for almost seventy-five years, first with Sassanian Iran, and then with the Caliphate, two years earlier it had signed a peace treaty for thirty years with the Arabs, this made it possible for the Basileus to pay attention to other problem border territories. Constantine "ordered all the fema to be transported to Thrace," the question remains what was meant by the term "fema" in this particular case: the fema as a military district or a fema is a consolidated detachment of the district, and the second question is whether these military units were only from Thrace or this there were indeed all "femas", that is, also from Asia.
The empire's fleet enters the Danube. The army crossed the Danube, presumably in the area of modern Galati (Romania). The Bulgarians, like the Slavs once, frightened by the forces of the empire, took refuge in swamps and some fortifications. The Romans spent four days in idleness, without storming the enemy, which immediately gave courage to the nomads. Vasilevs, due to aggravated gout, leaves for the waters in the city of Mesemvria (modern Nessebar, Bulgaria).
But military happiness is changeable, and chance often frustrates brilliant plans and undertakings. Gripped by inexplicable fear, the cavalry spread a rumor that the basileus had fled. And the general flight begins, seeing this, the Bulgarian horsemen found themselves in their element: they pursue and exterminate the fleeing enemy. In this battle, all the units of Thrace fell, and now the path through the Danube was free. They cross the Danube, reach Varna and discover beautiful lands here.
It should be noted that Slavic schools have already been located in these places. Most likely, after the clashes with the Avars in 602, the Ant tribes, from which information about the alliance of the "Seven Tribes" (seven tribes) and the northerners came down to us, settled here. Most likely, there were other tribes whose names were not reflected in the sources.
Archaeologists show that the settlement of the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria by the Slavs took place in the 20s of the 7th century. As was usual for the Byzantine Empire, she tried to streamline relations with the new migrants, and perhaps they were or became "federates" of the empire, i.e. allied tribes.
This was extremely important for Byzantium, since in the conditions of incessant wars already from the middle of the 6th century. the line between catalog stratiots and other categories (for example, federates) is erased and recruitment for the war is hired from any categories of persons liable for military service.
So, the Proto-Bulgarians or Bulgars ended up on new lands. There are different versions of how the seizure of lands inhabited by Slavic tribes took place: peacefully or by agreement (Zlatarsky V., Tsankova-Petkova G.), without military action (Niederle L., Dvornik F.). Researchers note the different status of the Sclavinians who fell under the rule of the Bulgarians: it is believed that the northerners interacted with them on a contractual basis, had their own leaders, this is how their archon Slavun (764/765) is known, although they were moved to new habitats, in While the Slavs from the "Seven Tribes" were subjects or had a "pact" with the Probolgars, again the interaction within the term "pact" has different meanings. According to another assumption, the northerners were one of the tribes of the "Seven Tribes" union, whose name was preserved, and this tribe was resettled from other allied tribes in order to weaken their union (Litavrin G. G.).
But if Theophanes the Preacher uses the term “conquering” in relation to the Slavs, then Patriarch Nikifor “subdued the Slavic tribes living in the vicinity”: the data of sources leave no doubt that we are, of course, talking about hostilities. Fighting here, the Bulgarians conquer the Slavs: the union of seven tribes and northerners, then, they capture the territory from the Black Sea to Avaria, along the Danube. Litavrin G. G., despite the fact that he considered the power of the Proto-Bulgarians soft, notes:
“For almost a century, sources have been silent about any independent political activity of the Slavs within Bulgaria. They, as infantry units of the Khan's troops, participated in his campaigns, making no attempt to show ethnic solidarity with the Slavs living outside Bulgaria."
If earlier the nomads attacked the territory of the sedentary peoples and left for the steppe, this time they are resettled by the whole people on the territory of the sedentary peoples.
Asparukh's horde was at the first, "tabor" stage of nomadism. It was extremely difficult, and most likely almost impossible to do in the area of the Danube estuary, where they settled in the 70s. VII century, but it was impossible to roam freely in the captured provinces of Moesia, archaeologists note the appearance of permanent camps and burial grounds, only at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century, “in particular, the Novi Pazar burial ground” (Pletneva SA).
Khan Asparukh, as Patriarch Nicephorus wrote, resettles entire Slavic tribes to the Avar and Byzantine borders. They retained a certain autonomy, since they were borderline (Litavrin G. G.).
In August 681, Byzantium recognized the Bulgarian conquests in the provinces of Scythia and both Moesia, and began to pay tribute to them. This is how a state was formed - the First Bulgarian Kingdom, which was established in the Balkans.
Nomadic "state" in the Balkans
What was this early political formation?
The Bulgarian or Proto-Bulgarian tribal union was essentially an army of one people or a nation-army. The khan was not just a khan, but a "khan of the army."
The whole world was divided into “their own state”, in Turkic “el”, and those who needed to be destroyed or enslaved. Primitive military-administrative activities underlie the administration of the Proto-Bulgar Turks. Note that the Sclavinia did not have such. Such despotic government was an important cementing factor of the new state, or, in scientific terms, a potestary pre-class association, which, once it fell into the sphere of interests of the Byzantine Empire, immediately began to undergo erosion. But at the initial stage, the way of nomads prevailed. Although in the first period of coexistence, the conquering Bulgarians and the conquered Slavs lived and were governed from a single center, with the exception of some autonomous Sklavinia, brutal military discipline and organization changed the way of the Slavs.
Based on his idea of the "state", the khan built relations with the subordinate peoples through their heads, we do not know who it was among the Slavs in the region, therefore it is not worth arguing that these were exclusively princes, "archons". Given the level of development of Slavic society during this period, it could also be the heads of clans (elders, etc.). And it was with the heads of the tribes that the Khan communicated, the fact that he treated them completely despotically is beyond doubt, so, even in 811, Khan Krum "forced" the leaders of the Slavs to drink from a bowl made from the head of Basileus Nikifor I.
Note that despotism for this period is not an evaluative category, but the essence of governance.
Political events in the Balkans in the 7th - early 9th centuries
In the Balkans, in the regions adjacent to Constantinople, both the Slavs, subordinated to the proto-Bulgarians, and the free glories of Macedonia and Greece become the key opponents of the Romans.
During the absence of the Arab threat, Byzantium was constantly fighting against them. But in conditions when the process of the state among the Slavs slowed down, they could not provide a proper rebuff to the enemies.
In 689, Justinian II Rinotmet (Noseless) (685–695; 705–711) began a war against the Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, apparently, the Slavs were located very close to Constantinople, as he was forced to make his way to Thessallonica, on the way, discarding the "great hordes of Slavs" and fighting the Bulgarians, he transported some of the captured Slavs with their families to the Opsikiy Fema, to Asia Minor, and he himself barely broke through the ambushes of the Bulgarians.
But after losing power, he was forced to turn to Tervel (701-721), the successor of Asparukh, for help. Khan, to his advantage, helped Justinian II regain his throne, for which he received the royal utensils and the title of "Caesar", the second after the emperor in the Byzantine hierarchy.
But Justinian II, due to his psychological characteristics, forgot about the help of the khan and opposed him on a campaign. With him was the fleet and the Thracian cavalry. The troops were stationed near the city of Anhialo (Pomorie, Bulgaria). Proto-Bulgarians, experienced and attentive warriors-riders, took advantage of the lack of clear command on the part of the emperor, the carelessness of the Roman soldiers, "like animals, … suddenly attacked the Roman herd" and completely defeated the equestrian Byzantine army. Justinian fled in disgrace from them on a ship to the capital.
After the death of Justinian II, the Arabs besieged in 717-718. Constantinople, while they landed on the European part of the territory. First, the successes of the fleet and the "secret" Greek fire, then frosts, diseases and the fortress of the city walls and soldiers brought the enemy to defeat. Tervel, on the basis of a treaty of friendship with the Roman Empire, assisted its capital during the Arab siege, killing 22 thousand Arabs, according to Theophanes the Byzantine. And in the same year, the Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs from Greece took part in the conspiracy of the former emperor Anastasius II (713-715), who with the khan went on a campaign to Constantinople, but the Proto-Bulgarians betrayed him, having received significant gifts.
At the same time, the Bulgarians (and the Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs are now called by this name) are participating in campaigns against Byzantium (the raid of 753). In the empire itself, the Slavization of entire regions is taking place, which began during the period of domination of the Avar Kaganate, for example, after the plague of 746-747. The Peloponnese became completely Slavic, the Slavs figure among the highest officials of the empire, for example, the patriarch of Constantinople was the eunuch Nikita.
But at the same time, pressure begins on the Slavs who have settled within the empire, their resettlement to other territories.
The iconoclastic emperor Constantine V (741-775), taking advantage of a respite on the eastern front, immediately launched an offensive in Europe, conquering the Slavs in Macedonia and on the Greek border in 756. These were the lands of the tribes of the Dragovites or Drugovites and Sagudats.
In 760, he made a new campaign, or rather a raid on the Bulgarian borders, but in the 28.7 km long Vyrbish mountain pass the Bulgarians organized an ambush for him, most likely, the Slavs experienced in this matter were its direct executors. The Byzantines were defeated, the strategy of the Thrakisian fema perished, the Bulgarians got weapons, and they begin retaliatory hostilities. The pressure of Byzantium was probably associated with the strife that took place in Bulgaria. In the course of it, intermediate success was on the side of one of the clans, a representative of which, Taurus, became a khan at the age of 30. The Slavs, obviously his opponents, fled to the emperor. He, in turn, set out by sea and by land against the Proto-Bulgarians. Taurus attracted 20 thousand allies to his side, most likely these were the Slavs, who did not obey the Proto-Bulgarians, but were independent Slavs, and with these forces he began a battle that lasted all day, the victory was on the side of the Romans. The battle took place on June 30, 763, Vasileus celebrated a triumph, and the captured Proto-Bulgarians were executed.
The civil strife in Bulgaria continued, and its victims were Taurus and his chiefs, who admitted defeat, but who took the throne Sabin (763-767), who tried to conclude an agreement with the Romans, was accused of treason and fled to the Vasilevs, the Bulgarians elected a new khan - Pagan, during whose arrival for peace negotiations in Constantinople the Byzantines secretly seized the leader of the northerners "Slavun, who did a lot of evil in Thrace." Together with him they seized the apostate and the leader of the robbers, Christian, who was brutally executed. Whether he was a Slav or not, it is difficult to say, yes, perhaps a person who just adopted Christianity could hardly be a Greek, but Theophanes the Byzantine is silent about his ethnicity. Bulgaria, as an ideologically weak union, gradually fell under the influence of the empire: probably there was a struggle between parties (clans), supporters of Byzantium helped to capture its opponents, they helped to bring the family and relatives of Sabina into the empire. The capture of the archon of frontier glory is possibly due to the fact that he was not loyal to the khan and he turned a blind eye to this incident, the destruction of the strong and playing an independent role of the leader of the Slavic tribe was only in his hands.
Byzantium and Bulgaria are trying to capture the independent glories of the eastern Balkans; this movement, as we saw above, began under Justinian II.
In 772, the Romans, having collected a huge army, opposed 12 thousand protobolar, who planned to conquer the Slavic tribes and resettle them to Bulgaria. With a sudden raid, the army of Constantine V defeated the army of Bulgarian boilers and captured it, making a triumph.
In 783, the logofet Stavrakiy, by order of Vasilisa Irina, made a campaign against the Slavs. The troops were directed against the Slavs of Greece and Macedonia, to conquer the Smolyans, Strimonians and Rinchians of southern Macedonia and the Sagudats, Vayunits and Velegesites in Greece and the Peloponnese. “Having passed to Thessalonica and Hellas,” wrote Theophanes the Confessor, “he subdued everyone and made them tributaries of the kingdom. He also entered the Peloponnese and delivered to the kingdom of the Romans many prisoners and booty."
Some of the Slavs, for example, in the Peloponnese, were subordinated only in the 10th century; these are the Miling and Ezerite tribes. The Slavic tribes, previously free and collecting tribute from the Greeks, were assigned a tribute - a "pact" in the amount of 540 nomism for milling, 300 nomism for the ezerites.
But the conquest of other tribes could be in the form of a "pact", perhaps only on the terms of payment of tribute and, most likely, participation in hostilities while maintaining autonomy. The empire was in dire need of fighting reserves. So, in 799, a certain "archon", the head of the border unit and the leader of the Slavs of Velzitia or Velegesitia - Velegesites (the region of Thessaly and the city of Larissa), Akamir, participates in a conspiracy to overthrow Irina, therefore, he was quite tightly integrated into the higher echelons authorities, if he could act in such an important matter.
But the Slavs, who settled in the Peloponnese near the city of Patras, began to pay tribute to the metropolitan of the city, “they deliver these supplies according to, - wrote Constantine Porphyrogenitus, - to the distribution and complicity of their community”, i.e. on the terms of autonomy.
The new emperor, who seized the throne by force, Nicephorus I Genik (802 - 811), acting on the principle of "divide and conquer", carried out the resettlement of part of the femdom troops from the East to the border territories of the Slavs, and this was precisely what caused a movement among the Slavic tribes, which before this received tribute from the surrounding city and autochthonous inhabitants, the Greeks. In 805 the Slavs of the Peloponnese revolted.
Obviously, this policy did not inspire enthusiasm among the Bulgarian kingdom, in 792 the Bulgarians defeated the young emperor Constantine VI, son of Irina, capturing the entire royal train, and the new Khan Krum (802 - 814), after the reforms, significantly strengthened his forces … In 806 Vasileus made an unsuccessful campaign to Bulgaria, in 811 he repeated it. Vasilevs plundered the capital of Pliska, everything that he could not take away he destroyed: he killed both children and cattle. On offers by Krum peace, he refused. Then the warriors of Krum, most likely the Slavs, erected wooden fortifications on the way of the Romans, all in the same Vyrbishsky passage. A huge army was ambushed and defeated, the emperor was beheaded:
“Krum, having chopped off Nicephorus's head, hung it on a pole for several days for viewing by the tribes who came to him and for the sake of our shame. After that, taking it, exposing the bone and shackling it with silver from the outside, he forced, exalted, to drink from it the archons of the Slavs."
Genesis of the Slavic state
The synthesis and mutual cultural exchange between the conquerors and the conquered can be observed in all periods of history, but the key factor of this period was violence and the principle of "woe to the vanquished" was fully implemented.
The victory of the Proto-Bulgarians provided them with the unconditional right to dispose of the life and death of the conquered Slavic tribes, and the fact that the Slavs prevailed numerically did not matter. Otherwise, proceeding from the “symbiosis” and “coexistence”, it is difficult to explain the flight of the Slavic tribes on the territory of Byzantium from the Proto-Bulgarians: “in 761-763. up to 208 thousand Slavs left Bulgaria”.
The warrior people in the person of the khan collected tributes, moved the Slavic tribes to the borders of their possessions, used the conquered as labor for the construction of fortifications, in particular, during the construction of the grandiose first capital of the nomads. So, on the site of the settlement of Pliska, a huge winter aul with a total area of 23 sq. km, the length of the shaft was 21 km, there were smaller winter roads nearby, several other winter roads were on the territory of Lesser Scythia.
An important task, especially for nomadic rulers, was "increasing the number of their subjects." “Since the formation of the Bulgarian state,” noted G. G. Litavrin, - centralized exploitation was undoubtedly the dominant form of withdrawal of surplus product from free communes and townspeople."
And given the fact that the main rural population consisted of Slavs, this was done by collecting a "pact" - tribute from them in favor of the conquering tribe (V. Beshevliev, I. Chichurov).
Of course, from the point of view of the formational approach of the Proto-Bulgarians, of course, it is not necessary to speak about any state, especially about an early feudal state, they stood on the way to the state, at the stage of "military democracy", and nothing more. The advantage of the Proto-Bulgarians, like the Avars over the Slavs, was exclusively technological (military). This was the prevalence of nomads over farmers standing at the same level of development, and with the concentration of forces, such steppe tribal associations could even measure their strength with sharply more developed peoples, such as Byzantium.
Like most of the "nomadic states", an important factor in Bulgaria was the process of the settling of warriors-horsemen on the ground, in conditions when it was impossible to "camp" nomadism. On the one hand, he, this factor, strengthened the amorphous structure of the "nomadic empire", and on the other hand, contributed to the disappearance of the "people's army" of horsemen, which was the key to the success of the nomadic "state". In the end, the khan was the khan of the army-people. For about one hundred - one hundred and fifty years, the domination of the Bulgar Turks or Protobolar was absolute. According to archaeological data, ethnic dualism was present until the beginning of the 9th century. (Sedov V. V.). Real symbiosis begins only from the moment when the already settled Proto-Bulgarians are assimilated by the Slavs, who had an overwhelming numerical superiority. As we wrote above, the proximity of a powerful Byzantine civilization influenced the collapse of the Bulgarian, Turkic community, where the leaders of the Proto-Bulgarian tribes began to acquire "their own interests", contrary to the interests of the "warrior people", during the "civil wars" (VIII century), as it seems, many representatives of the nobility died, Slavic leaders began to claim their place. If in the Accident the process of settling of the dominant nomadic people did not take place, then due to the geographical features (small area for nomadism) and political, proximity to the capital of the world - Constantinople, this happened with the Proto-Bulgarians. Thus, the transformation of the nomadic "state" into a Slavic state began after a serious period of time, not less than 150 years after the beginning of living in one territory, where the key factor was the decrease in the value of the military power of the Proto-Bulgarian ethnic group and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Slavic ethnic group.
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