The end, the beginning read: Khazar Kaganate-1. Under the rule of the Rachdonites. / Khazar Kaganate-2. Tribute with the blood of warriors.
Times change
After a series of betrayals, the Slavic-Russian alliance known as the Russian Khaganate suffered heavy losses and stopped paying tribute to the Rachdonite Jews with the blood of its soldiers. This was also facilitated by the death of Prince Igor of Kiev, his wife, Princess Olga, became the head of the kaganate, and it must be admitted that she did business perfectly. Prince Svyatoslav, being with his mother, at the age of 3, set out on his first military campaign and began the battle, throwing a spear towards the enemy.
Since then, he has not let go of the weapon. The management of the kaganate did not interest him and all the affairs were still led by his mother. His passion was hunting, and his life was military campaigns. In Kiev, the warrior prince was growing up, gaining strength and military experience. Together with him, the squad grew and gained strength and experience. Svyatoslav lived, drank, ate and slept with them, in the same conditions - it was a single combat organism, aimed exclusively at war.
Of course, the Khazar Kaganate knew about all this, but arrogance, arrogance and hope in Muslim mercenaries did not allow the Jewish elite to recognize the mortal danger hanging over them. The foreign policy situation also contributed to this - the situation of the Jewish community of Itil became more complicated. Not only trade with Baghdad ceased, but Chinese trade suffered damage, and there was also a fierce war in France - between the last Carolingians (patrons of the Jews) and the dukes of Ile-de-France.
Svyatoslav Igorevich in the conquered Khazaria.
Based on these circumstances, the Khazar king Joseph considered it good to refrain from marching to Russia, but the delay did not do him any good. Olga went to Constantinople and was baptized there on September 9, 957, which meant the conclusion of a close alliance with Byzantium, the natural enemy of Judaic Khazaria. An attempt to drag Olga to Catholicism, that is, to the side of Germany, undertaken by Bishop Adalbert, who arrived in Kiev in 961 on the instructions of Emperor Otto I, was unsuccessful. From that moment on, Tsar Joseph lost hope for peace with Russia, and this was natural. The war began, apparently, immediately after Olga's baptism.
Promotional video:
I'm going to "you"
The sluggish war apparently proceeded in border skirmishes and mutual raids, but Svyatoslav and his squad grew, strengthened, rallied and gained combat experience in campaigns. The time has come for revenge for the betrayal. In all the surrounding lands, it was announced that the prince was recruiting a large squad of hunters for a campaign. Considering the authority and reputation of the prince, there was no shortage of those willing. But Svyatoslav did not recruit a large army, the best were selected and there were only 20,000 soldiers. We did not take the convoy, we went on light.
The Pechenegs were called to the allies in agreement with Byzantium. The campaign was being prepared in the strictest secrecy - only the prince's close associates knew where and whom they would go to fight. And it worked. The trek was impeccably thought out. The 964th year found Svyatoslav on the Oka, in the land of the Vyatichi. The war between the Rus and the Khazar Jews was already in full swing, but the Kiev prince did not dare to attack through the Don steppes, controlled by the Khazar cavalry.
Map of the campaign of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich against the Khazars.
Without unnecessary clashes with the Vyatichi, having replenished the army with the selected hunters, the Rus cut down and adjusted the boats, and in the spring of 965 they descended along the Oka and Volga to Itil, to the rear of the Khazar regular troops who were waiting for the enemy between the Don and the Dnieper. When it flows into the Sarysu River, the Volga forms two channels: the western one - the Volga proper and the eastern one - Akhtuba. Between them lies a green island on which Itil stood, the heart of the Jewish Khazaria.
The allied cavalry of the Pechenegs and Guzes approached from their shores and Itil was trapped. The boats walked slowly, giving time to hide for all who wished to escape the battle. And there were such people - the Jewish elite, together with the Bek, managed to escape, leaving their own foreign people and country to perish. But simple descendants of Jews and Turks displayed ancient courage. The resistance to the Rus was led not by Tsar Joseph, but by an unnamed kagan.
Of course, they had no chance. Itil fell and was wiped off the face of the earth in the most literal sense. There was no one to pay the mercenaries and they left without engaging in battle. The black Khazars, seeing that they were not interested in the prince and he, by and large, does good for them - destroying the parasites who became the head of their state, they practically did not put up resistance and left, hiding from the war. Therefore, the further campaign of Svyatoslav - along the well-worn road of the annual migrations of the Turkic-Khazar Khan, through the “black lands” to Semender, then through the Kuban steppes to the Don and, after the capture of Sarkel, to Kiev - passed without hindrance.
Monument to Prince Svyatoslav in the Belgorod Region.
Prince-pardus
The impetuous rush of the Kiev prince freed not only the Slavic-Russian tributaries of the Jews-Rakhdonites and ordinary Khazars. The matter turned out to be much more global: the blocked financial flow played a role in weakening the Carolingian dynasty in France, the Caliph in Baghdad weakened and lost control even over Egypt (not to mention “other Africa” and Arabia), a new Song dynasty gained strength in China. Slave markets around the world experienced incredible decline - the strength and power of Jewish merchants were losing ground all over the world.
The dispersed Khazars decided to return to their lands only having enlisted the support of Khorezm and accepted Islam for this. As soon as the Khazars got a little stronger, the younger son of Svyatoslav, Prince Vladimir, "visited" them together with his army and imposed a tribute. It happened already in 985.
And the Khazar victor himself with his retinue could not and did not want a peaceful life. Having fulfilled his sacred goal and defeating the "snake biting its own tail", he understood that it was dangerous to remain in the Russian lands. As a result, having divided his possessions between his sons, he went to fight for himself a new state. But this is a completely different story….
Death of Prince Svyatoslav.
Afterword
Judean Khazaria fell, but those who ruled in it fled and found refuge in other countries. The story of the fight with the "snake" is not over …
But many were able to convince that the coat of arms of Ukraine is a stylized falcon …