How the prophetic Oleg is now going
Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars,
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He doomed swords and fires;
With his retinue, in Constantinople armor,
The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.

From the dark forest towards him
There is an inspired magician,
Submissive to Perun, the old man alone,
The promises of the future messenger,
In prayers and divination spent the whole century.
And Oleg drove up to the wise old man.

"Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods,
What will happen in my life?
And soon, to the delight of neighbors-enemies,
Will I cover myself with grave earth?
Tell me the whole truth, don't be afraid of me:
You will take a horse as a reward for anyone.

"Magi are not afraid of mighty lords,
And they do not need a princely gift;
Truthful and free is their prophetic language
And friendly with the will of heaven.
The coming years lurk in the mist;
But I see your lot on a bright forehead.

Now remember my word:
Glory to the Warrior is a joy;
Your name is glorified by victory;
Your shield is on the gates of Tsaregrad;
And the waves and the land are submissive to you;
The enemy is jealous of such a wondrous fate.

And the blue sea is a deceptive shaft
In the hours of fatal bad weather,
And a sling, and an arrow, and a crafty dagger
Years spare the winner ...
Under formidable armor you know no wounds;
An invisible guardian is given to the mighty.

Your horse is not afraid of dangerous labors;
He, sensing the master's will,
That meek stands under the arrows of enemies,
It rushes across the battlefield.
And the cold and cutting him nothing ...
But you will accept death from your horse.

Oleg chuckled, but
And the eyes were clouded with thought.
In silence, hand leaning on the saddle,
He dismounts from his horse, sullen;
And a true friend with a farewell hand
And strokes and pats on the neck steep.

"Farewell, my comrade, my faithful servant,
The time has come for us to part;
Now rest! no more footsteps
In your gilded stirrup.
Farewell, be comforted - but remember me.
You, fellow youths, take a horse,

Cover with a blanket, shaggy carpet;
Take me to my meadow by the bridle;
Bathe; feed with selected grain;
Drink spring water."
And the youths immediately departed with the horse,
And the prince brought another horse.

The prophetic Oleg feasts with the retinue
At the ringing of a cheerful glass.
And their curls are white as morning snow
Above the glorious head of the mound ...
They remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together ...

“Where is my friend? - said Oleg, -
Tell me, where is my zealous horse?
Are you healthy? Is his run still easy?
Is he still the same stormy, playful?
And listens to the answer: on a steep hill
He had long since passed into a sleepless sleep.

Mighty Oleg bowed his head
And he thinks: “What is fortune-telling?
Magician, you deceitful, mad old man!
I would despise your prediction!
My horse would carry me to this day."
And he wants to see the bones of the horse.

Here comes the mighty Oleg from the yard,
Igor and old guests are with him,
And they see - on a hill, on the banks of the Dnieper,
Noble bones lie;
The rains wash them, their dust falls asleep,
And the wind excites the feather grass above them.

The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull
And he said: “Sleep, lonely friend!
Your old master has outlived you:
At the funeral feast, already close,
It's not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax
And drink my ashes with hot blood!

So that's where my death lurked!
The bone threatened me with death!”
From the dead head a grave serpent,
Hissing, meanwhile crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around the legs,
And suddenly the stung prince cried out.

Ladles are circular, foaming, hissing
At the feast of the deplorable Oleg;
Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;
The squad is feasting at the shore;
Fighters commemorate past days
And the battles where they fought together.

Analysis of the poem "Song of the Prophetic Oleg" by Alexander Pushkin

The poem "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg" was written by Pushkin in 1822, when he was in Chisinau (southern link). The source of inspiration for the poet was the chronicle evidence of the death of the ancient Russian prince Oleg. Indirect sources were folk tales and legends. Oleg was very popular in Ancient Rus'. The main positive features that characterized the great people at that time were considered courage and courage. For Oleg, the nickname Prophetic was fixed among the people, which meant respect for his mental abilities.

The work is written in the ballad genre. Pushkin gave it the character of a chronicle narrative. “Song…” is presented in a very beautiful musical language with an abundance of epithets and figurative expressions. The victorious campaigns of the prince, his courage during the battles are listed.

All colorful descriptions serve as a background for the main theme of the work - the inevitability of fate in the fate of a person. The glorified prince meets a sorcerer who knows the will of the gods. The ancient Russian Magi, even after the adoption of Christianity, enjoyed great authority for a long time. They were credited with the ability to see the future. Even Oleg, nicknamed the Prophet, respectfully addresses the elder and asks him to reveal the secret of his fate.

In the image of the sorcerer, Pushkin symbolically portrays the poet-creator, who is not subject to time and earthly power. Perhaps this is an allusion to his own exile, which is not able to influence the poet's beliefs. The proud old man rejects Oleg's reward for the prediction and reveals the harsh truth that the prince will die from his horse.

Oleg bitterly says goodbye to his comrade-in-arms. After many years, covered with victories and glory, the prince learns about the death of his horse. He curses the "deceitful old man", but dies from a snake crawling out of a horse's skull. Only before death does he realize the truth of the prediction.

Oleg's death can be regarded in two ways. This is the fulfillment of the prediction, and the revenge of the sorcerer for the desecration of his own name. Pushkin again puts in place all the rulers and bosses who consider themselves omnipotent. He reminds that no one has power over their own destiny. The ability to see, recognize millions of accidents and try to predict the future is the lot of creative people. They should not be treated with disdain, because in the hands of the Magi, poets, prophets, the key to the future.

The Song of the Prophetic Oleg, for all its artistic merits, is one of Pushkin's first attempts at a philosophical understanding of the poet's place in the life of society.

Without pursuing any other goal, as soon as my own whim, according to which, during a walk, I suddenly wanted to combine three poets: A.S. Pushkin, V.S. Vysotsky and A.A. Galich through the prophetic Oleg, either because Providence or fate often occupied their minds and they somehow united in me through this association, or because the first two lines exist in an unchanged state in all three poems by three poets, but one way or another it happened. It seems that it is necessary to say about some distinctiveness in the imagery of these poets. If Pushkin's prophetic Oleg is written without irony and with faith in historical tradition, then Vysotsky's image of the prophetic Oleg is the bearer of a certain life rule, idea, and not a historical event as such. In Galich, the prophetic Oleg is no longer a historical character and not a moralizing idea, but rather a poetic line by Pushkin, transformed into an interpretation of history as such, history in general, and not a prophetic Oleg, and specifically directed against the Marxist approach to antiquity. Below I give all three poems, although A. Galich and V. Vysotsky call them songs and sing, however,
I don't see a significant difference between a song and a poem if there is a logical meaning to the song.
* * *
The circumstances of the death of Prophetic Oleg are contradictory. According to the Kyiv version (“PVL”), his grave is located in Kyiv on Mount Shchekovitsa. The Novgorod chronicle places his grave in Ladoga, but also says that he went "beyond the sea."
In both versions, there is a legend about death from a snakebite. According to legend, the wise men predicted to the prince that he would die from his beloved horse. Oleg ordered the horse to be taken away, and remembered the prediction only four years later, when the horse had long since died. Oleg laughed at the Magi and wanted to look at the bones of the horse, stood with his foot on the skull and said: “Should I be afraid of him?” However, a poisonous snake lived in the horse's skull, which mortally stung the prince.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Song about the prophetic Oleg

Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars:
Their villages and fields for a violent raid
He doomed swords and fires;
With his retinue, in Constantinople armor,
The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.
From the dark forest towards him
There is an inspired magician,
Submissive to Perun, the old man alone,
The promises of the future messenger,
In prayers and divination spent the whole century.
And Oleg drove up to the wise old man.
"Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods,
What will happen in my life?
And soon, to the delight of neighbors-enemies,
Will I cover myself with grave earth?
Tell me the whole truth, don't be afraid of me:
You will take a horse as a reward for anyone."
"Magi are not afraid of mighty lords,
And they do not need a princely gift;
Truthful and free is their prophetic language
And friendly with the will of heaven.
The coming years lurk in the mist;
But I see your lot on a bright forehead.
Remember now you my word:
Glory to the Warrior is a joy;
Your name is glorified by victory:
Your shield is on the gates of Tsaregrad;
And the waves and the land are submissive to you;
The enemy is jealous of such a wondrous fate.
And the blue sea is a deceptive shaft
In the hours of fatal bad weather,
And a sling, and an arrow, and a crafty dagger
Spare the winner years ...
Under formidable armor you know no wounds;
An invisible guardian is given to the mighty.
Your horse is not afraid of dangerous labors;
He, sensing the master's will,
That meek stands under the arrows of enemies,
It rushes across the battlefield,
And the cold and cutting him nothing ...
But you will receive death from your horse."
Oleg chuckled - but the forehead
And the eyes were clouded with thought.
In silence, hand leaning on the saddle,
He gets down from his horse sullen;
And a true friend with a farewell hand
And strokes and pats on the neck steep.
"Farewell, my comrade, my faithful servant,
The time has come for us to part;
Now rest! no more footsteps
In your gilded stirrup.
Farewell, be comforted - but remember me.
You, fellow youths, take a horse,
Cover with a blanket, shaggy carpet;
Take me to my meadow by the bridle;
Bathe, feed with selected grain;
Drink spring water."
And the youths immediately departed with the horse,
And the prince brought another horse.
The prophetic Oleg feasts with the retinue
At the ringing of a cheerful glass.
And their curls are white as morning snow
Above the glorious head of the barrow...
They remember days gone by
And the battles where they fought together...
"Where's my comrade?" Oleg said,
Tell me, where is my zealous horse?
Are you healthy? Is his run still easy?
Is he still the same stormy, playful?"
And listens to the answer: on a steep hill
He had long since passed into a sleepless sleep.
Mighty Oleg bowed his head
And he thinks: "What is fortune-telling?
Magician, you deceitful, mad old man!
I would despise your prediction!
My horse would still carry me."
And he wants to see the bones of the horse.
Here comes the mighty Oleg from the yard,
Igor and old guests are with him,
And they see: on a hill, near the banks of the Dnieper,
Noble bones lie;
The rains wash them, their dust falls asleep,
And the wind excites the feather grass above them.
The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull
And he said: "Sleep, lonely friend!
Your old master has outlived you:
At the funeral feast, already close,
It's not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax
And drink my ashes with hot blood!
So that's where my death lurked!
The bone threatened me with death!"
From the dead head the coffin serpent
Meanwhile, hersing crawled out;
Like a black ribbon wrapped around the legs:
And suddenly the stung prince cried out.
Ladles are circular, foaming, hissing
At the feast of the deplorable Oleg:
Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;
The squad is feasting at the shore;
Fighters commemorate past days
And the battles where they fought together.

V.Vysotsky
Song about the prophetic Oleg (How the prophetic Oleg is now gathering ...)

How the prophetic Oleg is now going
Shield nailed to the gate,
When suddenly a man runs up to him
And well, lisp something.

"Oh, prince," he says for no reason at all, -
After all, you will accept death from your horse!

Well, he was just about to go to you -
Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars,
When suddenly the gray-haired magi came running,
In addition, smashing with a fume.

And they say all of a sudden
That he will accept death from his horse.

"Who are you, where did you come from? -
The squad took up the whips. -
Drunk, old man, so go hang out,
And nothing to tell stories

And speak for nothing
"

Well, in general, they did not demolish their heads -
You can't joke with princes!
And for a long time the squad trampled the Magi
With their bay horses:

Look, they say out of the blue,
That he will accept death from his horse!

And the prophetic Oleg bent his line,
Yes, so that no one made a sound.
He only once mentioned the Magi,
And he chuckled sarcastically.

Well, you have to chat for no reason at all,
That he will accept death from his horse!

"And here he is, my horse, - he has rested for centuries,
Only one skull remained! .. "
Oleg calmly laid his foot -
And he died on the spot:

An evil viper bit him -
And he accepted death from his horse.

Each Magi strives to punish,
And if not, listen, right?
Oleg would have listened - another shield
Nailed to the gates of Constantinople.

The Magi said something from this and from this,
That he will accept death from his horse!
1967

Proposed text of my proposed speech at the proposed congress of historians of the countries of the socialist camp, if such a congress were held and if I were given the high honor to make an opening speech at this congress
Alexander Galich

Half the world is in the blood, and in the ruins of the century,
And it was rightly said:
"How is the prophetic Oleg going now
Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars..."
And these ringing copper words
We repeated everything more than once, not twice.

But somehow from the stands a big man
He exclaimed with excitement and fervor:
"Once the traitor Oleg conceived
Take revenge on our Khazar brothers..."

Words come and words go
Truth follows truth.
Truths are changing, like snow in a thaw,
And let's say that the turmoil ends:
Some Khazars, some Oleg,
For some reason he took revenge!

And this Marxist approach to antiquity
It has long been used in our country,
He was quite useful to our country,
And your country will come in handy,
Since you are also in the same ... camp,
It will come in handy for you!

Reviews

I remembered the same Vysotsky: "And everyone drank not what he brought."
:)
In psychology, the most popular. Perhaps the test is a "non-existent animal", however, there are many similar ones, called projective. An installation is given to draw something, for example, an animal that never existed. A person sniffs, invents something like that, not suspecting that he always draws himself. Deciphering the drawing, it is very easy to tell about the artist)
So. Vysotsky and Galich wrote about themselves.
Pushkin is not about himself.
Because for a fee.
)

Something, Marigold, you wrapped up something almost psychoanalytic, so you can get to the point where you can treat poets and prose writers by interpreting their own works. Oleg, but it was just that the time was such that folk traditions and legends and, in general, the origins of the nation among the people were fashionable. The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Humboldt, etc. etc. As Hegel would say, that first there was the thesis-Pushkin, then the antithesis-Vysotsky, and then the synthesis-Galich. And Kant would add that a priori there was a real historical event, and then, apostoriori, the poets made their synthetic judgments .
I read here at leisure that you closed your site, due to the fact that you are no longer able to generalize something meaningful in poetry. I want to note that in poetry you don’t always need to generalize something, but rather express it privately.
"The sound is cautious and deaf,
The fruit that fell from the tree
In the midst of the silent chant
Deep silence of the forest."
O.M.
and he
"Only children's books to read,
Only children's thoughts to cherish,
Everything big is far to scatter,
Rise from deep sadness"
And finally
"And the day burned like a white page,
A little smoke and a little ash"
The ease of being, among other things, consists in the fact that a girl with a white bow does not stand on a chair to tell the guests of her parents the poem she has learned, but goes to school and sings a song that suits her mood.

Vladimir Yakovlevich Petrukhin - Doctor of Historical Sciences,

Leading Researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences,

professor at RSUH.

When it comes to the Khazars, the first thing that comes to mind is Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg", familiar from the school desk:

How the prophetic Oleg is now going

Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars.

Their villages and fields for a violent raid

He doomed swords and fires ...

The plot of Pushkin's "song" is not at all connected with the Khazars - after all, it tells about the death of Oleg from his beloved horse, but the beginning of any story is always remembered in the first place. At the time of Pushkin, they did not really know who the Khazars were, but they remembered that the beginning of proper Russian history was connected with them.

Nestor the chronicler, who told at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. about the first Russian princes and the death of Oleg, begins Russian history with a mention of the tribute that the Khazars collected from the Slavic tribes of the Middle Dnieper, and the overseas Varangians from the tribes of Novgorod land back in the middle of the 9th century. Nestor tells in the Primary Chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years", how the steppe-Khazars approached the land of the meadows - the inhabitants of Kyiv and demanded tribute from them, and the meadows gave them tribute with swords. The Khazar elders saw in this tribute an unkind sign: after all, the Khazars conquered many lands with sabers sharpened on one side, and the swords were double-edged. And so it happened - Nestor completes his story about the Khazar tribute, the Russian princes began to own the Khazars.

The annals say nothing about revenge on the Khazars by the prophetic Oleg - this is a poetic "reconstruction" of history: in fact, it was "unreasonable" to oppress the Slavs and make "violent raids". The chronicle describes the relationship between Oleg and the Khazars in a different way. Oleg was a Varangian, heir to the Novgorod prince Rurik. He was called from across the sea with his Scandinavian (Varangian) squad, nicknamed Rus, to the Novgorod land to rule there according to Slavic customs - "in a row, by right." An outstanding domestic orientalist A.P. Novoseltsev even believed that the Slavs called the Viking Varangians to Novgorod in order to avoid the Khazar threat. One way or another, the first prince sent to the south - to Tsargrad, along the famous path from the Varangians to the Greeks, his warriors, who settled in Kiev, and after the death of Rurik, Oleg went there with the young Igor Rurikovich. He appeared in Kyiv in the 880s, proclaimed the new capital "the mother of Russian cities" and agreed with the Slavic tribes - tributaries of the Khazars, that they would pay tribute to the Russian prince. It was still far from “revenge” here - the Khazars were already “avenged” by Igor’s heir Svyatoslav, who in the 960s defeated the Khazar state, and only the remains of the Khazar cities - settlements on the Don and Seversky Donets, in the North Caucasus and in the Crimea - remind of once powerful Khazar state.

Archaic mythological plot with the World Tree.

Drawing from a vessel found in a burial ground on the Lower Don.

Publication by S.I. Bezuglov and S.A. Naumenko.

Real history is incomparably richer and more interesting than this old official doctrine. The Khazars were by no means the first inhabitants of the Eurasian steppe who sought to impose tribute on farmers and townspeople. At the end of IV-V century. Europe was shocked by the Hun invasion: the ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region were destroyed, nomadic hordes rushed to Central Europe, to Rome and Constantinople, the centers of the Roman Empire. But the huge Hunnic state collapsed by the 6th century, and the Huns from Central Asia were replaced by a new wave of conquerors - the Turks, who created their own "empire" - the Turkic Khaganate. The title of the lord of this "empire" - kagan, "khan of khans", was equated with the imperial title. Then, in the 6th century, Slavs began to settle from Central Europe to the Danube and to the east - to the Dnieper and Volkhov.

.

The Khazars are first mentioned in a certain historical and geographical context as a people living in the "Hunnic limits" north of the Caspian Gates - Derbent (Bab al-abwab). The very name Khazars most researchers correlate with traditional Turkic ethnonyms such as Kazakh denoting a nomad (it is assumed that Chinese sources called them Ko-sa). Syrian Christian author of the middle of the VI century. Zechariah Rhetor in his "Chronicle" first lists the five Christian peoples of the Caucasus, to which he also refers the Huns, then gives a description of the barbarian nomads. "Anvar, Sebir, Burgar, Alan, Kurtagar, Avars, Khasar, Dirmar, Sirurgur, Bagrasik, Kulas, Abdel, Eftalit - these 13 peoples live in tents, exist on the meat of cattle and fish, wild animals and weapons." The "Hun limits" of Zechariah are given extremely broadly, if he also includes the Central Asian Ephthalites ("White Huns"), but the Khazars, obviously, close the list of nomadic peoples of the Black Sea steppes: Sebirs - Savirs, Burgars - Bulgarians, Alans - Alans, Kurtagars - Kutrigurs, Avars - Avars, Khasar - Khazars.

In the VI century. after the Huns lost their power in the Eurasian steppes, a new state association arose in Central Asia, created by the Turks, headed by their ruler - a kagan from the Ashina clan - the Turkic Khaganate. His possessions stretched from Central Asia to the Black Sea steppes and included a large number of peoples. Since then, the Turkic peoples have replaced Iranian-speaking nomads in the steppes - Sarmatians, Alans. In the 7th century The Turkic Khaganate broke up into warring groups of Turks. On the western outskirts of the Khaganate, the Turks subjugated the Hephthalites and began to threaten Iran, including in Transcaucasia, which was subject to it - it was not for nothing that the Iranian rulers of the Sassanids began to fortify Derbent in the Caspian so that the Turks would not break into Iran-controlled Armenia through the Caspian gates.

In 626, when the Avars Turks, who migrated to Central Europe in the 6th century, and their allies, the Slavs, besieged Constantinople, the Khazars were already included in the general geopolitical system - the situation of the struggle of two great powers - and acted in Transcaucasia on the side of Byzantium, then Iran. In Armenian sources, the ruler of the Khazars is called jebu hakan and is recognized as the second person in the hierarchy of the ruling layer of the Turkic Khaganate. In the era of the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate, the Bulgarian association of tribes, headed by the noble Dulo family, supported one of the Turkic groups that fought for power in the Khaganate, the Khazars supported the other; It is believed that after the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate in the middle of the 7th century. a “prince” from the Ashina clan fled to them, which gave the rulers of the Khazars the right to be called khagans (khakans).

Khazaria and neighboring regions in10th century

Map from the book: Golb N., Pritsak O.

Khazar-Jewish Documents10th century

Moscow - Jerusalem, 1997.

The nomadic Bulgarians (proto-Bulgarians) in the process of disintegration of the state of the Huns, pressed by other Turkic nomadic Aquarians, in interaction with Iranian and Ugric tribal elements from the second half of the 5th century BC. invaded the Black Sea region. Tribes of Kutrigurs, Utigurs, Saragurs, Onogurs, Ogurs (Urogs, Ogors), Barsils, Savirs, Balanjars in the 5th-7th centuries. inhabited the territory from the Lower Danube to the Eastern Sea of ​​Azov, lived in the North Caucasus, in the Caspian Sea; they fought with the Avar and Turkic Khaganates. In the first third of the 7th c. during the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate, the Onogurs, part of the Kutrigurs and others, led by Khan Kubrat (Kuvrat) from the Dulo clan, formed the association of Great Bulgaria with a center in Phanagoria (on Taman), which included the territory between the Don and Kuban and to the west up to the Middle Dnieper.

Khazar warrior. Drawing by Oleg Fedorov.

The Khazars roamed the fertile lands of the foothills of the North Caucasus - in the country of the Savirs and, no less important, were familiar with the life of ancient cities. Like any nomads, they quickly found profit in the political struggle, which, as always, was waged in the Caucasus by the great powers: in those days it was Byzantium and Iran. In the 7th century the Khazars became so strong that they began to claim dominance not only in the Black Sea steppes, but also in the Byzantine cities of Taman and the Crimea, and in Transcaucasia. A new "empire" was being formed - the Khazar Khaganate: many peoples and lands began to obey the Khagan, the ruler of the Khazars. In the North Caucasus, the Alans, the Iranian-speaking descendants of the ancient Scythians and Sarmatians, became allies and vassals of the Khazars.

In the second half of the 7th c. The Khazars, in alliance with the Alans, who settled in the Caspian steppes and in the North Caucasus, invaded the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and defeated Great Bulgaria. After that, part of the Bulgarians, incl. who switched to a settled and semi-settled way of life, remained under the rule of the Khazar Khaganate, making up, along with the Alans, most of the population of Khazaria. Another part of the Bulgarians - a horde led by Khan Asparukh, migrated to the Balkans to Byzantium (681). There, together with the Balkan Slavs, they created a new state - Danube Bulgaria. Another group of Bulgarians retreated to the interfluve of the Volga and Kama: there, by the 9th century. Volga Bulgaria (Bulgaria) was formed, nominally recognizing the power of the Khazar Khagan. In the forest-steppe, the Slavs began to pay tribute to the Khazars, who settled from the Dnieper region to the Oka and Don, including in those regions where farmers did not dare to settle until the time the Cossack villages were created. The power of the Khazars contributed to the Slavic agricultural colonization - after all, the Khazars needed bread and furs obtained in the forests of Eastern Europe.

Having subjugated the Alans, Bulgarians and other peoples of Eastern Europe, the Khazars clashed with Byzantium in its possessions in the Northern Black Sea region. At the end of the 7th-8th centuries. they captured the Bosporus, Eastern Crimea, even claimed Chersonese. But soon the Khazars and Byzantium had a common enemy - the Arab conquerors. The Arabs captured Central Asia, ousted the Khazars from the countries of Transcaucasia, and in 735 invaded the Caspian steppes. The ruler of Khazaria was forced to leave his headquarters in Dagestan - the cities of Belenjer and Semender and found a new capital in the inaccessible Volga delta. It received the same Turkic name as the Volga River: Itil, or Atil. "Jihad" approached the borders of the current Russian state at the time of the formation of Islam.

The Arabs, however, could not hold out for long in the steppes: they retreated to Transcaucasia, and Derbent remained their outpost - and the outpost of Islam. Kagan restored his power in the North Caucasus and other areas.

This power needed to be strengthened, and the construction of fortifications began in the kaganate. Fortress systems arose in the North Caucasus and on the axial river highway of Khazaria - in the Don basin. For the construction of fortresses, the traditions of both Iranian and Byzantine fortification were used. Around 840, the Byzantine engineer Petrona erected the Sarkel fortress on the Don, excavated in the middle of the 20th century. archaeologists led by the largest researcher of the Khazars - M.I. Artamonov. On the other side of the Don, fortifications were erected that controlled the crossing across the river. A powerful fortress in Khumar controlled the Kuban basin. Settlements of the Khazar time continue to be explored by S.A. Pletneva, M.G. Magomedov, G.E. Afanasiev, V.S. Flerov, V.K. Mikheev, but research has so far affected only an insignificant part of the Khazar heritage.

Fortifications. Hillfort Humara.

The fortress controlled the Kuban basin.

In recent years (since 2000), these fortresses have been studied as part of the Khazar project initiated by the Russian Jewish Congress (E.Ya. Satanovsky) and the Jewish University in Moscow (now the Higher Humanitarian School named after Sh. Dubnov - coordinators V.Ya. Petrukhin and I .A. Arzhantsev), but archaeologists have to deal primarily with saving dying archaeological sites and fixing the destruction of the Khazar fortresses on the Don, including the Right-Bank settlement near the village of Tsimlyanskaya - opposite Sarkel (V.S. Flerov). This white-stone fortress was called together with Sarkel to control the crossing over the Don - the central highway of the Khazar Khaganate. It is interesting that Kyiv, which paid tribute to the Khazars before the appearance of Russian princes there, was located, according to the Russian chronicle, on a ferry across the Dnieper. The Khazars, thus, sought to control the main river communications of Eastern Europe.

Excavations at Samosdelka. Summer 2005. Photo by E. Zilivinskaya.

But the main object of study of the Khazar project was the ancient city discovered in the Volga delta, on the island of Samosdelka near Astrakhan. There are no such cities in the entire Lower Volga region. The capitals of the Golden Horde - Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke, built here by craftsmen brought by the Mongols from Central Asia, did not exist for long - their cultural layer on the main area does not exceed 0.5 m. time - VIII-X centuries. So far, a small area has been excavated (the leaders of the excavations are E.D. Zilivinskaya and D.V. Vasiliev), but it is already clear that brick was used in the construction of buildings (the kagan himself had the right to build bricks in Khazaria), and mass finds indicate that that the population of the city was Bulgarian and Oghuz - from Central Asia. Such was the population of the city in the Volga delta, mentioned by medieval sources - in the pre-Mongolian period it was called Saksin, in the Khazar period - Itil. Itil - the capital of Khazaria, was located in the delta on the island, and perhaps its remains were finally discovered by archaeologists.

Copper belt tips depicting a leopard chasing a hare and a dragon.

XI-13th century Settlement Samosdelka. Excavations by E.D. Zilivinskaya.

Published for the first time.

With the advent of years, the economy of the Khazars became multiform and depended on the traditions of the peoples that were part of the Khaganate. The Alans, who settled not only in the North Caucasus, but also in the Don and Donets basins, were experienced farmers and knew how to build stone fortresses. Agriculture was also practiced by the Khazars, who also learned gardening, winemaking and fishing. The Khazars were residents of ancient cities - Phanagoria and Tamatarkha (Tmutarakan) on Taman, Kerch in the Crimea. The Bulgarians in the steppe preserved mainly a nomadic way of life.

Archaeological monuments of Khazaria are vivid evidence of the formation of urban civilization where previously only steppes stretched and ancient burial mounds rose. But these monuments, like any archeological monuments, are “mute”: the Khazar chronicles have not been preserved, the inscriptions made in Turkic runes are few and have not yet been deciphered. What was said about the Khazar history is known from external - foreign evidence: a treatise by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, descriptions of the Arab geographer al-Masudi and other Eastern authors.

A defensive system and an economy, even a prosperous one, were not enough to win recognition in the world, even in the early medieval period. And recognition, especially of the great powers, was necessary. During the war with the Muslim Arabs, the kagan faced a confessional problem directly. The Khazars were pagans, they worshiped the Turkic gods, and peaceful relations with the pagans were impossible both from the point of view of orthodox Islam and from the standpoint of Christianity, the state religion of Byzantium.

It is not clear how long and seriously the Khagan professed Islam imposed on him by the Arabs. History has preserved amazing written evidence about the religion of Khazaria, which was brought to us by the so-called Jewish-Khazar correspondence - several letters written in Jewish letters in the 60s. 10th century

Cordova.

The initiator of the correspondence was the dignitary (“chancellor”) of the powerful caliph of Cordoba, the Jewish scholar Hasdai ibn Shaprut. He learned from the merchants that somewhere on the edge of the inhabited world (and the North Caucasus was considered in the Middle Ages the edge of the ecumene) there is a kingdom whose ruler is a Jew. He wrote him a letter asking him to tell about his kingdom. Hasdai was answered by Tsar Joseph, the ruler of Khazaria. He spoke about the enormous size of his state, about the peoples that are subject to it, and finally about how the Khazars became Jews by faith. A distant ancestor of Joseph, who still bore the Turkic name Bulan, saw in a dream an angel of God, who called him to accept the true faith. The angel gave him victory over his enemies - this was an important demonstration of the power of the biblical God for the Khazars, and Bulan and his people converted to Judaism. Then ambassadors from Muslims and from Christian Byzantium came to the king to reason with him: after all, Bulan accepted the faith of a persecuted people everywhere. The king arranged a dispute between Muslims and Christians. He asked the Islamic qadi which faith he considered more true - Judaism or Christianity, and the qadi, who revered the Old Testament prophets, of course, named Judaism. Bulan asked the priest the same question about Judaism and Islam, and he replied that the religion of the Old Testament is more true. So Bulan established himself as the correctness of his choice.

It still remains a mystery when and where the events described in Joseph's letter took place. Therefore, of particular interest are studies within the framework of the Khazar project of new Jewish monuments on Taman, the time of the appearance of which precedes the formation of the Khaganate (S.V. Kashaev, N.V. Kashovskaya).

The letter of the Khazar king was known in the Jewish communities of Spain and was quoted as early as at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. Entire correspondence was opened for science as early as the 16th century. Isaac Akrish, a descendant of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, and published it in Constantinople around 1577. European science got acquainted with the correspondence in the second half of the 17th century, but it did not inspire confidence among researchers either in the 18th or even in the 19th century . indeed, in the Renaissance and subsequent centuries - during the formation of historical science - many hoaxes were created (this is still speculated on by the writers of "new stories", such as Academician Fomenko and his ilk). Moreover, a learned Jew could be suspected of a hoax, who was looking for periods of glory and power in the history of the persecuted people, it was not for nothing that he called the book itself with the publication of correspondence “The Voice of the Evangelist”.

But three hundred years after the publication of Akrish, when another scholarly enthusiast, the Karaite Abraham Firkovitch, collected a huge number of Jewish manuscripts in his expeditions, the attitude towards the Khazar documents changed. Among these manuscripts, the famous domestic Hebraist Abraham Garkavin discovered another - a lengthy edition of the letter of Tsar Joseph in a manuscript of the 13th century. This meant that the Jewish-Khazar correspondence was not a forgery.

In a lengthy version of his message, Joseph writes that he himself lives on the Itil River near the Gurgan Sea - there was the capital of the kaganate and the wintering quarters of the kaganate, from which, following the traditions of the nomadic nobility, he set off for the summer through the lands of his domain between the Volga and Don rivers . The king lists the “many peoples” subject to him near the Itil River: these are Bur-t-s, Bul-g-r, S-var, Arisu, Ts-r-mis, V-n-n-tit, S-v-r , S-l-viyun. Further, in the description of Joseph, the border of his possessions turns to "Khuvarism" - Khorezm, a state in the Aral Sea region, and in the south it includes S-m-n-d-r and goes to the Caspian gates and mountains. Further, the border follows to the "sea of ​​Kustandin" - "Konstatinople", i.e. Cherny, where Khazaria includes the areas of Sh-r-kil (Sarkel on the Don), S-m-k-r-ts (Tamatarkha - Tmutarakan on Taman), K-r-ts (Kerch), etc. from there the border goes north to the B-ts-ra tribe, which wanders to the borders of the Kh-g-riim region.

Right-bank Tsimlyansk settlement.

Many names of peoples who, according to Josephus, pay tribute to the Khazars, are quite reliably restored and have correspondences in other sources. The first of them - Burtases(Bur-t-s), whose name is sometimes compared with the ethnicon "mordens" (Mordva), mentioned by the Ostrogoth historian of the 6th century. Jordan. However, in the Old Russian "Word of the Destruction of the Russian Land" (XIII century), a strikingly close list of peoples already subject to Rus' is given, where the Burtases are mentioned along with the Mordovians: the borders of Rus' stretch "from the sea to the Bulgarians, from the Bulgarians to the Burtas, from the Burtas to the Chermis , from Chermis to Mordvi". In the context of Joseph's letter, this ethnicon is obviously tied to the Volga region, where the Burtases are followed by the Bulgarians (in Joseph's list - Bul-g-r), and then - S-var, a name that is associated with the city of Suvar in Volga Bulgaria.

Next ethnicon arisu is compared with the self-name of the ethnographic group Mordovians erzya(accordingly, in the Burtases they sometimes see another group of Mordovians - moksha). The name Ts-r-m-s echoes chermis ancient Russian source: these are the Cheremis, the medieval name of the Mari, a Finnish-speaking people in the Middle Volga region. The described situation, obviously, dates back to the heyday of the kaganate: in the 60s. In the 10th century, when the letter of Tsar Joseph was compiled, it was hardly possible that the peoples of the Middle Volga region, primarily the Bulgarians who had converted to Islam, depended on the dying kaganate.

The same can be said about the next group of peoples, in which they see the Slavic tributaries of Khazaria. In ethnicon V-n-n-tit usually see the name Vyatichi/Ventichi, who, according to the Russian chronicle, lived along the Oka and paid tribute to the Khazars until the liberation by Prince Svyatoslav during a campaign against Khazaria in 964-965. The next ethnicon - S-v-r - obviously means northerners living on the Desna: they were freed from the Khazar tribute by Prince Oleg, when the Russian princes settled in the Middle Dnieper. The term S-l-viyun, which completes this part of the list of tributaries, refers to the common name of the Slavs. Apparently, here we can mean the whole set of Slavic tributaries, including radimichi And polyan who, according to The Tale of Bygone Years, paid tribute to the Khazars before the appearance Russ in the Middle Dnieper in the 860s. In general, the list of tributaries, therefore, dates back to no later than the second half of the 9th century, rather to the middle of the 9th century, the heyday of the Khazar Khaganate and the construction of white-stone fortresses, including the one mentioned in the Sarkel letter (c. 840).

The legend about the adoption of Judaism by the Khazars explained a lot for historians. Naturally, the kagan did not want to accept Islam: after all, this made him a vassal of the enemy - the Arab caliph. But Christianity did not suit the ruler of Khazaria: after all, he seized the Christian lands of Byzantium. Meanwhile, in the cities of the Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region, including Phanagoria and Tamatarkh, Jewish communities lived from ancient times, experienced in communicating with the surrounding peoples. These communities also existed in the cities of the Caliphate and Byzantium: Christians and Muslims could communicate with Jews - after all, they were not pagans and revered the one God. The Kagan chose a neutral religion that honored the Holy Scriptures recognized by Christians and Muslims.

Hasdai, however, was an experienced diplomat and understood that the Khazar king was recounting the official legend of the Khazar conversion. Apparently, he turned to another correspondent - a Jew who lived within the boundaries of Khazaria (in Kerch or Taman), who presented the history of the kaganate and the conversion of the Khazars in a slightly different way. It is no longer about an angel who inspired the kagan to accept the true faith - this step of the ruler of the Khazars was honored by a pious wife from a family of Jewish refugees who escaped persecution in Armenia. This letter was discovered by the English Hebraist Schechter in 1910 in the materials of the largest collection of Jewish manuscripts, which comes from the storage (genizah) of the medieval synagogue in Cairo (Fustat). These materials were transported to Cambridge, and the letter from the anonymous Jew is called the Cambridge Document.

In modern historiography, the perniciousness of the choice of the Jewish faith is usually emphasized: only the Kagan himself and the Khazars accepted Judaism, other peoples retained their "pagan" beliefs. Historians believe that the kagan and the ruling elite of the kaganate were cut off by their faith from other subjects. The reality was still more complicated: if the kagan converted to Islam or Christianity, he would have to forcefully plant a new religion among the tribes and peoples subject to him, but Judaism did not require this.

As a result, an amazing ethno-confessional situation developed in Khazaria: according to the description of al-Masudi, in the Khazar cities, including the capital Itil, different religious communities coexisted side by side: the Jews - the kagan, his commanders bek and the Khazars, who lived in brick buildings, as well as Christians (among the subjects of the kagan there remained the Christian population of the Black Sea cities), Muslims (the guards of the kagan consisted of the Central Asian Oghuz Muslims) and pagans (Slavs and Russia). Each community had its own judges and retained autonomy. This peaceful coexistence of different religious communities was characteristic even for the ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region and for Constantinople. In Eastern Europe, the establishment of such a tradition was also an important step towards civilization.

However, a strong state pursuing an independent policy at the junction of Europe and Asia could not but arouse opposition from neighboring countries, especially since the Khazars did not leave claims to Byzantine possessions in the Black Sea region and power over the Slavs. In 860, Konstantin (Cyril) the Philosopher himself, the future first teacher of the Slavs, went on behalf of the emperor to the headquarters of the kagan to take part in another dispute about faith: the life of Constantine says that he specifically learned the Hebrew language in Chersonese for this. Obviously, the fate of Christians who found themselves under the rule of Khazaria worried Constantinople.

Another recently discovered Jewish document of the 10th century. (read by American Hebraist Norman Golb in 1962)

A letter about a debtor whom the community wants to redeem from debt bondage indicates that

that the Khazar Jews also appeared in the Slavic world.

This document comes from Kyiv and today remains the oldest Russian document.

The signatures of the trustees under this letter are surprising: along with typical Jewish names, a certain

Guests bar Kyabar Kogen.

Guests - a Slavic name, known from Novgorod birch bark letters, Kyabar - the name of one of the Khazar tribes,

Cohen - the designation of the descendants of the priestly class among the Jews. Apparently, representatives of this community (one of whom was the son of a Khazarin - kyabara), who probably spoke Slavonic, if they had Slavic names, took part (along with Muslim Bulgarians!) And in a dispute about faith, which took place already under Kiev Prince Vladimir on the eve of the baptism of Rus' in 986

Tsar Joseph in his letter described Khazaria as a powerful state, to which almost all the peoples of Eastern Europe were subordinate, but by the 60s of the 10th century. reality was far from this picture. Already by the beginning of the X century. Islam spread in Volga Bulgaria, and Christianity spread in Alanya: the rulers of these once vassal lands of Khazaria chose their own religion and the path to independence.

Khazaria itself was threatened by new hordes of nomads from the east: the Pechenegs were pushing the Hungarians allied to the Khazars in the Black Sea region (at the end of the 9th century they ended up in Central Europe - present-day Hungary), and the Oguzes were advancing from the Trans-Volga region.

But Rus' became the most dangerous rival of Khazaria in Eastern Europe. Tsar Joseph wrote in his letter: if the Khazars had not stopped the Russians on their borders, they would have conquered the whole world. Rus' really rushed through the territory of Khazaria to the main markets of the Middle Ages - to Constantinople and Baghdad. As already mentioned, Prophetic Oleg with his Varangians and Slavs, nicknamed Rus, captured Kyiv and appropriated the Khazar tribute. In 965, Prince Svyatoslav moved on the last Slavic tributaries of the Khazars - the Vyatichi, who were sitting on the Oka. He subjugated the Vyatichi and went out with an army to the Volga Bulgaria. Rus' plundered the Bulgarian cities and moved down the Volga. The Khazar Khagan was defeated, and his capital city of Itil was taken.

Then Svyatoslav moved to the North Caucasus, to the Alans (yases) and Circassians (kasogs), imposing tribute on them. Apparently, then the Khazar Tamatarkha became a Russian city - Tmutarakan, and the North Caucasus - a "hot spot" of the Old Russian state. On the way back, the prince took Sarkel, which was renamed Belaya Vezha (Slavic translation of the name Sarkel). These Khazar lands came under the rule of Russian princes.

Tsar Joseph turned out to be right in predicting the danger from the peoples whose expansion was held back by Khazaria: the Oguzes seized part of Transcaucasia (forming the ethnic basis of the Azerbaijanis), Svyatoslav's Rus' moved from Kiev to the Balkans, conquering Bulgaria and threatening Byzantium.

The remnants of the defeated Khazars quickly disappeared into this turbulent historical space, which remained the steppes and the North Caucasus. The disappearance of the Khazars, whose mention ceases by the 12th century, gave rise to many romantic and quasi-historical conceptions about their heirs, the Karaites of Crimea. Mountain Jews of the Caucasus - up to brilliant literary hoaxes, including the famous "Khazar Dictionary" by Milorad Pavich. Of particular interest is the attempt of the English writer Arthur Koestler to see in the Khazars, who fled from Eastern Europe, the "thirteenth tribe", the ancestors of European Jews - the Ashkenazim. This historically completely unfounded concept was built on a noble impulse: to prove that anti-Semitism is devoid of any historical foundations - after all, the Khazars were not Semites, but Turks. In fact, European Jews, the ancestors of the Ashkenazim, settled in the X-XII centuries. from the traditional centers of the diaspora in the Mediterranean and knew almost nothing about the Khazars. The culture of the Volga Bulgarians became the most important component of the culture of the Golden Horde. The Volga Bulgarians formed the ethnic basis for the formation of the Chuvash and Kazan Tatars.

Many legends associated with the Khazars are associated with the largest medieval Jewish cemetery in Chufut-Kale. A. Firkovich tried to date some of the monuments to the Khazar time: within the framework of the Khazar project, a complete description of the cemetery is being carried out (A. M. Fedorchuk).

The Khazars suffered the fate of their predecessors, who created their "empires" in Eurasia - the Huns and Turks: with the death of the state, social and ethnic ties were destroyed, and the ruling people also disappeared. But the historical experience of Khazaria turned out to be in demand not only in the Jewish diaspora: it was not for nothing that Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, like his son Yaroslav the Wise, was called the title kagan in the Word of Law and Grace. In the historical sense, Khazaria turned out to be the forerunner not only of the Old Russian, but also of the Russian state as a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional entity. Those beginnings of state, ethnic and confessional development, which were laid down by the Khazars, have survived to this day in Eastern Europe. Ethnic and confessional diversity, the coexistence of different peoples, religions and cultures remain the key to the further development of our country.

In the summer of 965, Prince Svyatoslav put an end to the existence of the Khazar Khaganate.

Pushkin knows

How the prophetic Oleg is now going

Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars:

Their villages and fields for a violent raid

He doomed swords and fires...

Thanks to the "Song of the Prophetic Oleg", written by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Russians at school age learn about the existence of such a people as the Khazars.

But for most acquaintance with the issue ends there. Who the Khazars are, why they are "unreasonable" and whether the claims against them from Prince Oleg were fair - the Russians are rather vaguely aware of this.

Meanwhile, the state of the Khazars was formed much earlier than the ancient Russian one, and the existence of such a concept as the “Khazar world” testifies to its influence. This term refers to the period of dominance in the Caspian-Black Sea steppes of the Khazar Khaganate, which stretched out for almost three centuries.

The Turks who took Tbilisi

As most often happens with ancient peoples, historians have several versions of the origin of the Khazars at once. The most common point of view is that the Khazars originated from a union of Turkic tribes.

Until the 7th century, the Khazars occupied a subordinate position in nomadic empires, but after the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate, they were able to form their own state - the Khazar Khaganate, which lasted more than 300 years.

Initially, the territory of the Khazars was limited to the regions of modern Dagestan north of Derbent, but then it expanded significantly, including the Crimea, the Lower Volga region, Ciscaucasia and the Northern Black Sea region, as well as the steppes and forest-steppes of Eastern Europe up to the Dnieper. At different times, the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas were called the Khazar Sea.

Chroniclers mention the Khazars as a separate powerful military force during the Iranian-Byzantine war of 602–628, during which in 627 the Khazar army, together with the Byzantines, stormed the city of Tbilisi.

These military successes, along with the weakening of the Turkic Khaganate, made it possible to create the Khazar Khaganate. A powerful army became the key to his well-being.

people of war

As a result of numerous military battles, the Khazar Khaganate turned into one of the powerful powers of the era. The most important trade routes of Eastern Europe were in the power of the Khazars: the Great Volga route, the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", the Great Silk Road from Asia to Europe. For the passage of goods, the Khazars took a tax, which provided a steady income.

The second main source of income for the Khazar Khaganate was the receipt of tribute from the tribes conquered in the course of regularly carried out raids.

Initially, the main direction of the Khazar raids was Transcaucasia, but then, under the pressure of the ever-increasing Arab Caliphate, the Khazars began to move north, where their raids affected the Slavic tribes. A number of Slavic tribes, which later formed the Old Russian state, were forced to pay tribute to the Khazars.

In the VIII century, the Khazars, having entered into a coalition with the Byzantine Empire, waged wars against the gaining strength of the Arab Caliphate. In 737, the Arab commander Marwan ibn Muhammad, at the head of a 150,000-strong army, completely defeated the army of the Khazar Khaganate, pursuing its ruler up to the banks of the Don, where the Khagan was forced to promise to convert to Islam. And although the complete transition of the Khazar Khaganate to Islam did not take place, this defeat seriously affected the further development of the state. Dagestan, where the capital of the kaganate, the city of Semender, was previously located, turned into the southern outskirts, and the center of the state moved to the lower reaches of the Volga, where a new capital, the city of Itil, was built.

Jews from the banks of the Volga

Until the middle of the 8th century, the Khazars remained pagans. However, around 740, one of the prominent Khazar commanders, Bulan, converted to Judaism. This happened, apparently, under the influence of numerous Jewish communities living at that time in the "historical territory" of the Kaganate - in Dagestan.

Over time, Judaism became widespread among the ruling elite of the Khazar Khaganate, however, according to most historians, it did not completely become a state religion. Moreover, part of the military and commercial elite of the state opposed the ruling elite, which led to confusion and political instability.

Since the beginning of the 9th century, a kind of dual power has developed in the Khazar Khaganate - nominally the country was headed by khagans from a royal family, but the real control was carried out on their behalf by "beks" from the Bulanid clan that converted to Judaism.

It was difficult to envy the Khagans of Khazaria because of the peculiar traditions that existed among this people at the time of paganism. Despite the fact that the kagan was considered the earthly incarnation of God, when he ascended the throne, he was strangled with a silk cord. Brought to a semi-conscious state, the kagan had to name the number of years during which he would rule. After this period, the kagan was killed. Saying too many years also did not save - in any case, the kagan was killed when he reached the age of 40, because it was believed that by this time he was beginning to lose his divine essence.

Farmers versus nomads

Despite cruel morals and a religion not the most common in the region, adopted by the elite, the Khazar Khaganate remained an important player in international politics.

The Khazars actively interacted with Byzantium, participated in the political intrigues of the empire, and in 732 the allied relations of the powers were sealed by the marriage of the future emperor Constantine V with the Khazar princess Chichak.

The Khazars left a particularly deep trace in the history of the Crimea, which was under their control until the middle of the 9th century, as well as in Taman, which the kaganate controlled until its fall.

A clash between the Old Russian state and the Khazar Khaganate was inevitable. Simplistically, it can be imagined as a confrontation between settled farmers and nomadic invaders.

The Old Russian state was faced with the fact that part of the Slavic tribes turned out to be tributaries of the Khazars, which categorically did not suit the Russian princes. In addition, the regular raids of the Khazars led to the destruction of the settlements of the Russians, robberies, the withdrawal of thousands of Slavs into captivity and their subsequent sale into slavery.

In addition, the control of the Khazars over trade routes prevented the communication of the Rus with other states, as well as the establishment of mutually beneficial trade relations with other countries.

The Khazars could not refuse raids on the territory of the Slavic tribes, since robberies and the slave trade by the 9th century had become the most important source of state income.

The first fighters against the "Russian threat"

In 882, Oleg became prince of Kyiv. Having gained a foothold in Kyiv, he begins to conduct methodical work to expand the territory of the state. First of all, he is interested in the Slavic tribes that are not controlled by Kyiv. Among them were those who were tributaries of the Khazars. In 884 and 885, the northerners and Radimichi, who had previously paid tribute to the Khaganate, recognized Oleg's authority. Of course, the Khazars tried to restore the status quo, but they no longer had enough strength to punish Oleg.

During this period, the Khazars, more sophisticated in diplomacy, tried to transfer the "Russian threat" to Byzantium or the states of Transcaucasia, ensuring the unimpeded passage of the Russian troops through their possessions.

True, and here it was not without deceit. An episode that occurred after the return of the Russians after one of these expeditions to the coast of Azerbaijan is indicative. The ruler of the Khazar Khaganate, having received a previously agreed part of the booty, allowed his guard, formed from Muslims, to avenge their fellow believers. As a result, most of the Russian soldiers died.

The struggle of the Old Russian state with the Khazar Khaganate continued with varying success until Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich came to power. One of the most warlike princes of Ancient Rus' decided to put an end to the Khazar raids once and for all.

Around 960, the Khazar Khagan Joseph, in a letter to the dignitary of the Cordoba Caliphate, Hasdai ibn Shafrut, noted that he was waging a “stubborn war” with the Rus, not letting them into the sea and overland to Derbent, otherwise they, according to him, could conquer all Islamic lands to Baghdad. At the same time, Joseph was sure that he was able to fight for a long time.

And then Svyatoslav came ...

In 964, during a campaign to the Oka and the Volga, Svyatoslav freed the last union of Slavic tribes, the Vyatichi, from the Khazar dependence. At the same time, it is worth noting that the Vyatichi did not want to obey Kyiv either, which resulted in a series of wars stretching for many years.

In 965, Svyatoslav with an army moved directly to the territory of the Khazar Khaganate, inflicting a crushing defeat on the troops of the Khagan. Following this, the Russians stormed the Sarkel fortress built on the banks of the Don with the help of Byzantium. The settlement came under the authority of the Old Russian state and received a new name - Belaya Vezha. Then the city of Samkerts on the Taman Peninsula was taken, which turned into the Russian Tmutarakan.

Over the next few years, Svyatoslav's army captured both capitals of the Khazar Khaganate - Itil and Semender. An end was put in the history of the once mighty state.

After Svyatoslav, the Russians retreated from the lower Volga for some time, which allowed the Khazarian Khagan, who was in exile, to return to Itil, relying on the support of the Islamic ruler of Khorezm. The payment for this support was the conversion of the Khazars to Islam, including the head of state himself.

However, this could not change the course of history. In 985, the Russian prince Vladimir again set off on a campaign against the Khazars and, having won a victory, imposed tribute on them.

From that moment on, the Khazars appear in the historical annals not as representatives of a single power, but as small groups acting as subjects of other countries. Gradually, the Khazars dissolved among other, more successful peoples.

And in memory of the “first enemy of Russia”, we were left with only historical works and Pushkin’s lines about the “unreasonable”, with whom the prophetic Oleg intended to “revenge”.

PS The Khazar fortress Sarkel, aka Belaya Vezha, was planned to be flooded in 1952 during the construction of the Tsimlyansk reservoir.

How the prophetic Oleg is now going

Take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars,

Their villages and fields for a violent raid

He doomed swords and fires;

With his retinue, in Constantinople armor,

The prince rides across the field on a faithful horse.

From the dark forest towards him

There is an inspired magician,

Submissive to Perun, the old man alone,

The promises of the future messenger,

In prayers and divination spent the whole century.

And Oleg drove up to the wise old man.

"Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods,

What will happen in my life?

And soon, to the delight of neighbors-enemies,

Will I cover myself with grave earth?

Tell me the whole truth, don't be afraid of me:

You will take a horse as a reward for anyone.

"Magi are not afraid of mighty lords,

And they do not need a princely gift;

Truthful and free is their prophetic language

And friendly with the will of heaven.

The coming years lurk in the mist;

But I see your lot on a bright forehead.

Now remember my word:

Glory to the Warrior is a joy;

Your name is glorified by victory;

Your shield is on the gates of Tsaregrad;

And the waves and the land are submissive to you;

The enemy is jealous of such a wondrous fate.

And the blue sea is a deceptive shaft

In the hours of fatal bad weather,

And a sling, and an arrow, and a crafty dagger

Years spare the winner ...

Under formidable armor you know no wounds;

An invisible guardian is given to the mighty.

Your horse is not afraid of dangerous labors;

He, sensing the master's will,

That meek stands under the arrows of enemies,

It rushes across the battlefield.

And the cold and cutting him nothing ...

But you will accept death from your horse.

Oleg chuckled - but the forehead

And the eyes were clouded with thought.

In silence, hand leaning on the saddle,

He dismounts from his horse, sullen;

And a true friend with a farewell hand

And strokes and pats on the neck steep.

"Farewell, my comrade, my faithful servant,

The time has come for us to part;

Now rest! no more footsteps

In your gilded stirrup.

Farewell, be comforted - but remember me.

You, fellow youths, take a horse,

Cover with a blanket, shaggy carpet;

Take me to my meadow by the bridle;

Bathe; feed with selected grain;

Drink spring water."

And the youths immediately departed with the horse,

And the prince brought another horse.

The prophetic Oleg feasts with the retinue

At the ringing of a cheerful glass.

And their curls are white as morning snow

Above the glorious head of the mound ...

They remember days gone by

And the battles where they fought together ...

“Where is my friend? - said Oleg, -

Tell me, where is my zealous horse?

Are you healthy? Is his run still easy?

Is he still the same stormy, playful?

And listens to the answer: on a steep hill

He had long since passed into a sleepless sleep.

Mighty Oleg bowed his head

And he thinks: “What is fortune-telling?

Magician, you deceitful, mad old man!

I would despise your prediction!

My horse would carry me to this day."

And he wants to see the bones of the horse.

Here comes the mighty Oleg from the yard,

Igor and old guests are with him,

And they see - on a hill, near the banks of the Dnieper,

Noble bones lie;

The rains wash them, their dust falls asleep,

And the wind excites the feather grass above them.

The prince quietly stepped on the horse's skull

And he said: “Sleep, lonely friend!

Your old master has outlived you:

At the funeral feast, already close,

It's not you who will stain the feather grass under the ax

And drink my ashes with hot blood!

So that's where my death lurked!

The bone threatened me with death!”

From the dead head a grave serpent,

Hissing, meanwhile crawled out;

Like a black ribbon wrapped around the legs,

And suddenly the stung prince cried out.

Ladles are circular, foaming, hissing

At the feast of the deplorable Oleg;

Prince Igor and Olga are sitting on a hill;

The squad is feasting at the shore;

Fighters commemorate past days

And the battles where they fought together.