140 CHAPTER 2
Crimea.67 In addition, Kievan Rus’ accepted the obligation not to let them
into the Byzantine domains there.68 It can be said with certainty that a large
part of the Saltovo settlements in the Crimea were Bulgar until the mid-tenth
century.69 V. Maiko, however, convincingly demonstrates that the Bulgar popu-
lation (Christian by belief ) left the peninsula (or the territory controlled by
the Khazars) in the early 940s, and not as a result of a Pecheneg attack, but
due to the strained and complex political situation in the Crimea in light of
the conflict between Byzantium and Khazaria. In place of the Bulgars came
ethnic Khazars and Alans who had probably migrated from the area along the
lower reaches of the Volga.70 This clarification is important, because it helps
define more accurately the lands of the Black Bulgars. They were most prob-
ably located along the Severski Donets and the Don and did not include the
Bulgar community on the southern coast of the Crimea, most of which left the
peninsula in the mid-tenth century. It could be presumed that the two Bulgar
communities differed from each other not only in their religious affiliation, but
also in their political beliefs.
67 On the extensive Byzantine missionary work in the Crimea during the ninth century, see
Ivanov 2001, 30. Unfortunately, Ivanov’s book “Vizantiiskoe missionerstvo. Mozhno li sdelat’
iz “varvara” khristianina?” (Moscow, 2003) remained unattainable for me. On archaeologi-
cal monuments that support the spread of Christianity among the Bulgars in the Crimea
and the Christian temples there, see Baranov 1990.
68 In this relation, until recently quite a few scholars regarded the treaty of 944 between
Kievan Rus’ and Byzantium as evidence for the existence of Crimean territories, subordi-
nate to the Rus’. On the inconsistency of this statement, see Gadlo 1968.
69 Maiko 1997, 109; Gadlo 1968, 64; on the Bulgars in the Crimea, see also Baranov 1990;
Aibabin 2003. Unfortunately, the work of A. Aibabin “Etnicheskaia istoriia raneevizanti-
iskogo Kryma” (Moscow, 1999) remained unattainable for me.
70 Maiko 1997, 109–112 and 2002, 41–47; Baranov and Maiko 2001, 109–110. Aibabin 2003, 77 is
of a similar point of view. He also believes that the Bulgar settlements in the Crimea were
destroyed in the middle of the tenth century as a result of the campaign of the Khazar
commander Pesakh. Still, it cannot be stated with certainty that after the mid-tenth cen-
tury no Christians (Bulgars) remained in the Khazar part of the Crimea. This is supported
by accounts from the early eleventh century regarding Georgius Tzul. In the chronicle of
John Skylitzes he is mentioned as the ruler of Khazaria. At the same time, seals found with
his name on them connect him more to the Byzantine administration on the peninsula.
The seals in question are two and contain the text: “Georgius Tzul, imperial protospath-
arius and strategus of Chersonesus” and “Georgius Tzul, protospatharius of Bosporus”
(Sokolova 1971, 68–74). These records hardly demonstrate that the Christian community
in the Crimea was preserved after the 940s under Khazar rule. Rather, the seals confirm
the spread of the Byzantine influence in the Crimea after the 960s, which could also infer
the return of a part of the Bulgar Christian population that had emigrated earlier.