The Khazar tribes were not nomads. Since ancient times, they lived on the territory of modern Dagestan, on the Terek and Sulak, and since the 3rd century they spread along the entire coastline of the Caspian Sea and in the lower reaches of the Volga. Their main occupation was cattle breeding and fishing.
From the second half of the 6th century, the Khazar tribes were part of the Great Turkic Kaganate, created in 552 by the ancient Mongols - the Syanbi, who mixed with the Altai nomadic tribes. Khazar tribes occupied the territory from the Caspian steppes and from the mouth of the Volga to the Don and from the Ciscaucasia to the Azov region. Since 650, after the collapse of the Turek Kaganate, the Khazars were ruled by the Türkite dynasty of Ashina, which chose the city of Semender on the Terek River in Dagestan as its capital. By 800, Khazaria occupied the lands between the Don in the west, the Caucasus Range in the south and the Urals in the east. Two cities - the new capital Itil, located between the Volga and Akhtuba, and the Great Bulgar carried out transit trade from Great Perm to the south. Merchants, not warriors, began to occupy an important place in the population. In the second half of the 8th century, a large number of Jewish emigrants from Byzantium, who engaged in trade, appeared in Khazaria. Khazaria and Byzantium were almost always natural allies, waging long wars with the Arabs and Bulgarians.
The rule of the Khazars in the Northern Black Sea region was established in the middle of the 7th century. The Black Sea coast from the Kuban River to the Kerch Strait became the eastern border of the Khazar Kaganate. In 670 - 679, Khazaria captured almost all of Crimea, except for Tauric Chersonesos. Khazars left self-government to residents of cities, imposing tribute and trade duties on them. Tarkhan, a representative of the Khazar government, was in Sudak.
Chersonesos experienced a decline throughout the 7th century, apparently in connection with the Khazar raids on the Crimean peninsula. After 692, the deposed emperor Justinian II was exiled to Chersonesos, who soon went to the Crimean Goths in Dori, and then to the Khazar Kagan. The Khazars provided Justinian with a residence in Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula, from which Justinian sailed by sea to Simbolon (Balaklava), and from there to the Bulgarians, who helped him regain power in Constantinople. Chersonesos tried to introduce self-government in the city and in 710 the emperor Justinian II sent a punitive expedition to the southern Crimea. The Chersonesos turned to the Khazars for help and through joint efforts defeated the Byzantines. As a result, the emperor was replaced in Byzantium. With the help of the Khazars in 711, they became the exiled Armenian Phillipik Vardan. An agreement was concluded between the Byzantine Empire and the Khazar Kaganate, according to which the parties divided the Crimean peninsula among themselves: the steppe Crimea became Khazar, Byzantium belonged to the southern and southwestern Crimea with Chersonesos. In Crimea, there were already five Christian dioceses - Bosporus, Kherson, Sugdei, Gothic and Fula.
During the VIII century, Khazaria was intensively fortified in the steppe Crimea. On the site of the local settlements destroyed by them, the Khazars built their fortified centers - in Fullah, Doros, Syuyren, Kyz-Kermen, near Chufut-Kale. Khazar settlements were found on the site of the ancient cities of Tiritaki, Mirmekia, Ilurata, near the village of Alekseevka in the center of the Kerch Peninsula, near Koktebel, Feodosia. The Khazar nobility settled on the Crimean peninsula.
At the same time, intensive immigration to the Crimean peninsula of Byzantine monks and Greek icon-worshipers from Asia Minor began. Crimea, which was a marginal province of Byzantium, was a good refuge from the persecutions of the imperial government, which eradicated monasteries and destroyed icons at that time. Subsequently, the Greek population of Crimea was made up of ancient Greeks - residents of Greek colonial cities, medieval Greeks, formed as a result of the assimilation of the Taurs, Scythians and Sarmatians who hid in Crimea from the Hunnic invasion, and Archipelagic Greeks, resettled to Crimea by the decision of the Russian government at the end of the 18th century for border service. At the end of the 8th century, cave monasteries and temples were established in Crimea by monks who fled from Byzantium. The richest was the monastery of the Apostles,built during this period on the eastern side of Bear Mountain. A large cave monastery in Inkerman, a basilica on the Tepsen hill in Koktebel, monasteries in the vicinity of Belogorsk, near the village of Ternovka, the Assumption monastery near Chufut-Kale, the Kachi-Kolon monastery, Chilter-Koba are known. By this time, “cave cities” had also appeared in Crimea, built at different times and concentrated mainly in the Crimean mountains - Mangup-Doros, Kyrk-Or or Chufut-Kale, Kalamita-Inkerman, Bakla, Tepe-Kermen, Eski -Kermen, Kyz-Kermen.mainly in the Crimean mountains - Mangup-Doros, Kyrk-Or or Chufut-Kale, Kalamita-Inkerman, Bakla, Tepe-Kermen, Eski-Kermen, Kyz-Kermen.mainly in the Crimean mountains - Mangup-Doros, Kyrk-Or or Chufut-Kale, Kalamita-Inkerman, Bakla, Tepe-Kermen, Eski-Kermen, Kyz-Kermen.
The population of Crimea, especially on the Kerch Peninsula, has significantly increased, its ethnic composition has changed. The economic situation in Crimea has stabilized, agricultural production has increased, and foreign trade has grown. An ordinary residential rural house of the 8th century was built on a stone foundation of wood, plastered with clay and a thatched roof. The house consisted of residential and utility rooms with an open hearth on an earthen floor. Similar houses were found in the Baydar Valley, near the Kachi and Belbek rivers, and near Koktebel. On the Crimean peninsula, almost all the ceramics needed by the population were produced. There were several pottery centers in the Crimea - in the Chaban-Kule tract and the Kanak Balka near the village of Morskoye, above Miskhor, near the village of Trudolyubovka near Bakhchisarai. More than twenty two-tier pottery kilns have been excavated in Chaban-Kul,which are complex technical complexes of baked bricks up to four meters wide and up to five meters high. The utensils and tiles produced were sold not only throughout Crimea, but also throughout the Northern Black Sea region.
Monastery in the area of the Black River. (Inkerman).
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In the middle of the VIII century, the political position of the Byzantine Empire weakened and the Khazars decided to expand their Crimean possessions. The Khazars, who tried to seize the southern coast of Crimea, met with fierce resistance from the local population. Archaeological excavations in Crimea have recorded traces of fires and destruction in most of the villages of the foothill Crimea and its southern coast during this historical period. New settlements have appeared in the Crimean mountains, even in places where people have never lived before. In 787, the population of southern Crimea, led by Bishop John of the Gothic Diocese, revolted and liberated the capital of the Crimean Gothic Doros. The Khazars sent a punitive detachment and suppressed the uprising. Subsequently, the Goths finally came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire in 830. There was a civil war in Khazaria - she had no time for that. In 832 Chersonesus was finally annexed to the Byzantine Empire. In 840, the Byzantine emperor Theophilos created the Chersonesos fema - a special military-administrative district headed by a stratig. Fema included lands from Alupka to the Belbek River and to the lower reaches of the Alma River. The stratig of the Thema Petron created mercenary troops and border guards. Byzantine representatives on the Crimean peninsula closely followed the political situation in the Crimea and in the Northern Black Sea region, about which they constantly reported directly to the emperor. The Byzantine theme existed on the Crimean peninsula until the end of the 11th century, when the entire administrative system of the empire was reorganized. In 840, the Byzantine emperor Theophilos created the Chersonesos fema - a special military-administrative district headed by a stratig. Fema included lands from Alupka to the Belbek River and to the lower reaches of the Alma River. The stratig of the Thema Petron created mercenary troops and border guards. Byzantine representatives on the Crimean peninsula closely followed the political situation in the Crimea and in the Northern Black Sea region, about which they constantly reported directly to the emperor. The Byzantine theme existed on the Crimean peninsula until the end of the 11th century, when the entire administrative system of the empire was reorganized. In 840, the Byzantine emperor Theophilos created the Chersonesos fema - a special military-administrative district headed by a stratig. Fema included lands from Alupka to the Belbek River and to the lower reaches of the Alma River. The stratig of the Thema Petron created mercenary troops and border guards. Byzantine representatives on the Crimean peninsula closely followed the political situation in the Crimea and in the Northern Black Sea region, about which they constantly reported directly to the emperor. The Byzantine theme existed on the Crimean peninsula until the end of the 11th century, when the entire administrative system of the empire was reorganized. Byzantine representatives on the Crimean peninsula closely followed the political situation in the Crimea and in the Northern Black Sea region, about which they constantly reported directly to the emperor. The Byzantine theme existed on the Crimean peninsula until the end of the 11th century, when the entire administrative system of the empire was reorganized. Byzantine representatives on the Crimean peninsula closely followed the political situation in the Crimea and in the Northern Black Sea region, about which they constantly reported directly to the emperor. The Byzantine theme existed on the Crimean peninsula until the end of the 11th century, when the entire administrative system of the empire was reorganized.
Skete of St. Stefan in Kiziltash.
Chufut-Kale.
In 860, Constantine the Philosopher was in the Crimea for a long time, the future Cyril - the creator of the Slavic alphabet, sent from Constantinople at the head of a special mission to Khazaria to participate in the debate on faith.
The construction of fortified castles - Isars, which in the Turkic language means "wall, fortification, castle", began in the VIII century in Crimea. More than seventy feudal castles were built during the VIII-X centuries along the entire southern coast of the Crimea. Old fortresses were also renewed. Most of the Isars were located between Alushta and Laspi, on a seventy-kilometer coastline. The Alushta fortress, built by order of Justinian II, was renewed. Five kilometers west of Alushta, there was a small Isar Ai-Yori. There were castles on the Demerdzhi and Kasteli mountains. There were more than ten fortresses between Alushta and Yalta. Isar Kuchuk-Lambat stood at Partenit on Cape Plaka. Biyuk-Lambat was located six kilometers north of Ayu-Dag. Partenit, Gurzuf and Ayu-Dag also had their own fortifications. To the north of Gurzuf stood Isar on Mount Gelim-Kaya. The smallest isar, Paleokastron, was located between Massandra and Nikita, seven kilometers northeast of Yalta. Uchansu-isar stood five kilometers west of Yalta. Between Alupka and Oreanda there were fortifications on the Krestovaya, Ai-Nikola, Khachla-Kayasy mountains, Gaspra-Isar stood, Isar at the Swallow's nest, Isar Kharaks on Cape Ai-Todor, Alupka-Isar on Mount Krestovaya, there was Isar on the site of the Vorontsov Palace. On Mount Koshka above Semiiz there was a fortification of Limen-Calais - "a fortress by the bay, harbor." Kuchuk-isar and Biyuk-isar stood between Simeiz and Laspi near the village of Opolznevoe-Kikineiza. Laspi had the Ilyas-Kai fortification. There was also a fortress in Foros. All Isar fortresses were built very economically, fortifications were arranged in combination with natural conditions and local relief. Uchansu-isar stood five kilometers west of Yalta. Between Alupka and Oreanda there were fortifications on the Krestovaya, Ai-Nikola, Khachla-Kayasy mountains, Gaspra-Isar stood, Isar at the Swallow's nest, Isar Kharaks on Cape Ai-Todor, Alupka-Isar on Mount Krestovaya, there was Isar on the site of the Vorontsov Palace. On Mount Koshka above Semiiz there was a fortification of Limen-Calais - "a fortress by the bay, harbor." Kuchuk-isar and Biyuk-isar stood between Simeiz and Laspi near the village of Opolznevoe-Kikineiza. Laspi had the Ilyas-Kai fortification. There was also a fortress in Foros. All Isar fortresses were built very economically, fortifications were arranged in combination with natural conditions and local relief. Uchansu-isar stood five kilometers west of Yalta. Between Alupka and Oreanda there were fortifications on the Krestovaya, Ai-Nikola, Khachla-Kayasy mountains, Gaspra-Isar stood, Isar at the Swallow's nest, Isar Kharaks on Cape Ai-Todor, Alupka-Isar on Mount Krestovaya, there was Isar on the site of the Vorontsov Palace. On Mount Koshka above Semiiz there was a fortification of Limen-Calais - "a fortress by the bay, harbor." Kuchuk-isar and Biyuk-isar stood between Simeiz and Laspi near the village of Opolznevoe-Kikineiza. Laspi had the Ilyas-Kai fortification. There was also a fortress in Foros. All Isar fortresses were built very economically, fortifications were arranged in combination with natural conditions and local relief. Alupka-Isar on Mount Krestovaya, was an Isar on the site of the Vorontsov Palace. On Mount Koshka above Semiiz there was a fortification of Limen-Calais - "a fortress by the bay, harbor." Kuchuk-isar and Biyuk-isar stood between Simeiz and Laspi near the village of Opolznevoe-Kikineiza. Laspi had the Ilyas-Kai fortification. There was also a fortress in Foros. All Isar fortresses were built very economically, fortifications were arranged in combination with natural conditions and local relief. Alupka-Isar on Mount Krestovaya, there was an Isar on the site of the Vorontsov Palace. On Mount Koshka above Semiiz there was a fortification of Limen-Calais - "a fortress by the bay, harbor." Kuchuk-isar and Biyuk-isar stood between Simeiz and Laspi near the village of Opolznevoe-Kikineiza. Laspi had the Ilyas-Kai fortification. There was also a fortress in Foros. All Isar fortresses were built very economically, fortifications were arranged in combination with natural conditions and local relief.fortifications were built in combination with natural conditions and local relief.fortifications were built in combination with natural conditions and local relief.
In addition to the castles-Isars of local feudal lords in Crimea, there were fortified settlements-refuge of rural communities, first used to protect local residents during the war, and later turned into residential settlements. The mountains were dominated by turf, clay or tile huts with a fireplace outside. On the coast, two-storey houses were mainly built from rubble on clay or mortar with a tiled roof. The lower floors were used for economic purposes, the upper floors were living rooms. On the coast, there were also powerful stone structures in the form of towers with thick walls, which were entered through the second floor by ladders. The Crimean nobility lived in the keep-towers of castles and fortresses, in large one-story houses with several rooms under a tiled roof with covered terraces on the side of the courtyard and a high stone fence. Free rural communities of medieval Crimea were headed by councils of elders and local priests and elders. A higher social position was occupied by the "timariots" - landowners, masters of fortified "Isars" and dependent peasants. Even higher were the "toparchs" and "archons" - the chiefs of military garrisons and fortresses, managing land. Until the beginning of the XIII century, they obeyed Byzantium, and after the capture of Byzantium by the crusaders in 1204 - the sovereign prince Theodoro, the former archon of the Byzantine province - the theme of climates, who replaced the Byzantine strategist in the Crimea. Inhabitants of the steppe Crimea traditionally engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding prevailed in the mountains and on the yayls, on the coast - winemaking and viticulture, and sea crafts. During archaeological excavations in these regions of the Crimea, openers, hoes, spades, axes, grape knives were found,a large number of animal bones, horseshoes, scissors for shearing wool, spinning wheels, weaving weights, scratches, jugs, amphorae, pithos, flasks, weights for nets, anchors, fishing hooks. Most of these products are local Crimean work, which testifies to the wide development of construction and basic types of crafts on the peninsula. Imported products are also widely represented - ceramics, amphorae, products made of bone, glass, marble and metal, foreign coins, weapons testifying to the wide internal and external trade in the Crimea.which testifies to the wide development of the construction business and the main types of crafts on the peninsula. Imported products are also widely represented - ceramics, amphorae, products made of bone, glass, marble and metal, foreign coins, weapons testifying to the wide internal and external trade in the Crimea.which testifies to the wide development of the construction business and the main types of crafts on the peninsula. Imported products are also widely represented - ceramics, amphorae, products made of bone, glass, marble and metal, foreign coins, weapons testifying to a wide internal and external trade in Crimea.
Baydarskaya valley in the Crimea.
St. George Monastery near Sevastopol.
In the middle of the VIII century, the campaign of the Russians from the Don to the Crimea to Sudak is known. Russian tribes gained access to the Black Sea for two hundred years.
The phrase "Rus" or "Ros" as the name of the East Slavic people, which stood out from about the beginning of the V century from the common Slavic unity and occupied the territory between the three seas - the Black, White and Baltic, appears in the middle of the V century - in Byzantine sources as "Ros", in Arabic - like "Rus", This phrase means, obviously, the entire Old Russian people and, possibly, is associated with the name of the river "Ros" - a tributary of the Dnieper. The first tribal union of the Slavs, known as Kuyavia with its center in the Kiev region, was known already in the 6th century. Since about the 8th century, their own princes have already ruled in the lands of the Slavic tribe of Polyans.
Oleg under the walls of Constantinople (906).
The territory of the Old Russian state was formed in the 9th - 10th centuries. "Russian land" occupied the territory from the left tributaries of the Vistula to the foothills of the Caucasus and from the Taman and the lower reaches of the Danube to the shores of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. The numerous people who lived on these lands called themselves "Rus".
The founding in 862 in Novgorod of the princely dynasty of Rurikovich, which ruled for more than seven centuries, the unification in 882 under the rule of Oleg Novgorod (Northern Russia) and Kiev lands (Southern Russia) is a turning point and a starting point of historical time in the fate of the Eastern Slavs. By the end of the X century, Kievan Rus bordered in the northeast with the Volga Bulgaria, in the north and northwest it reached the Baltic and White Seas, in the west Russia bordered on Poland, in the south in some places its borders reached the Black Sea, from which it separated by nomads who lived in the Northern Black Sea region. Pechenezh tribes lived in the steppes from the Dniester to the Dnieper, to the east of the Dnieper was the land of the Khazar Kaganate. The course of the Dnieper itself did not belong to anyone.
Ancient Russian helmets of the 9th and 10th centuries.
Russian vigilante of the X century.
Warrior Svyatoslav.
At the beginning of the 9th century, the wealthy Jew Obadiya took power in Khazaria and made Judaism the state religion of Khazaria. From that time on, the Khazars began to hire a military force. Khazaria in 822 fought with the Magyars, in 824 - with the Avras, from 820 - with the Pechenegs, who first appeared in the Northern Black Sea region in 889 and fortified there to such an extent that in 897 the Magyars were completely defeated in the Black Sea steppes, while time wandering between the Don and the Dnieper. In 834, the Khazar fortress Sarkel was built on the Don, which became the mainstay of Khazaria in the west of the kaganate.
In 939, the leader of the Rus Igor took the Khazar city of Samkerts, located on the Taman Peninsula. The Khazar commander Pesach liberated Samkerts, threw the Rus to the north, in 940 he invaded the Crimea through the Kerch Strait, took three Greek cities, but stopped at Chersonesos, which he could not capture. Exterminating the local population, Pesach passed along the southern coast of Crimea, through Perekop went out to the Russian lands, reached Kiev and imposed tribute on the ancient Russian principality.
The return campaign against the Khazars of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich to the Khazar Kaganate began in 964. Together with his allies, the Pechenezh and Guz tribes, Svyatoslav at the confluence of the Akhtuba River into the Volga defeated the Khazar army and took the capital of the Khazar Kaganate - Itil, occupied the second Khazar city - Semender, located on the Terek, and, returning home, captured the third Khazar city - Sarkel (near the village of Tsimlyanskaya), renaming it Belaya Vezha. Kievan Rus became an independent state again. The Khazar Kaganate lost the Volga region, the lands near the Terek and Don, leaving behind the Kuban, the northern Crimea and the Taman peninsula. As a result of the campaigns of Svyatoslav in 965 and his son Vladimir in 981 - 988, after the creation of the Tmutarakan principality, Khazaria no longer recovered and gradually lost its lands along the shores of the Black and Azov seas. In 1016, the son of Vladimir Svyatoslavich Mstislav, with the help of the fleet sent by the Byzantine emperor Vasily to the Sea of Azov, defeated the Khazar army and captured the Khazar military leader George Tsulo, who supported the anti-Byzantine rebellion in Chersonesos. Khazaria lost all of Crimea. The remnants of the Khazars, concentrated in the Crimean cities at the end of the 10th century, in 1079 captured in Tmutarakan Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, who had fought with the great Kiev prince Vsevolod. The Khazars killed their brother Oleg and gave the prince himself to Constantinople. In 1083, Oleg Svyatoslavich returned to Tmutarakan and destroyed all the Khazars. From that moment on, the Khazars are no longer mentioned in the sources.who supported the anti-Byzantine rebellion in Chersonesos. Khazaria lost all of Crimea. The remnants of the Khazars, concentrated in the Crimean cities at the end of the 10th century, in 1079 captured in Tmutarakan Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, who had fought with the great Kiev prince Vsevolod. The Khazars killed their brother Oleg and gave the prince himself to Constantinople. In 1083, Oleg Svyatoslavich returned to Tmutarakan and destroyed all the Khazars. From that moment on, the Khazars are no longer mentioned in the sources.who supported the anti-Byzantine rebellion in Chersonesos. Khazaria lost all of Crimea. The remnants of the Khazars, concentrated in the Crimean cities at the end of the 10th century, in 1079 captured in Tmutarakan Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, who had fought with the great Kiev prince Vsevolod. The Khazars killed their brother Oleg and gave the prince himself to Constantinople. In 1083, Oleg Svyatoslavich returned to Tmutarakan and destroyed all the Khazars. From that moment on, the Khazars are no longer mentioned in the sources. From that moment on, the Khazars are no longer mentioned in the sources. From that moment on, the Khazars are no longer mentioned in the sources.
Grand Duke Svyatoslav.
