The Pechenegs In Khazar History 145
I. Baranov agrees with the information, given by the Khazar ruler Joseph
regarding the Khazar influence in the Crimea. He believes that the begin-
ning of the end of the Khazar domination in that region “was initiated by
Sviatoslav’s eastern campaign from 965, which resulted in the destruction of
the main forces of the Khazar Khaganate and its allies in the Volga Region,
Khazaria itself, along the Don River and in the Northern Caucasus”.90 He bases
his assumption on the traces of widespread fires and destruction of the Saltovo
settlements in the Crimea. Until then “the Bulgars were the mainstay of the
Khazar Khaganate in Taurica and stood in the way of the interests of both the
Rus’ and the Byzantines”.91 V. Maiko believes that “the territory of Khazaria
reached its maximum size precisely in the 940s and 950s”.92 Like I. Baranov,
A. Tortika also assumes that the demise of the Saltovo monuments in the Don
Region is a result of the Khazaro-Russian conflict and more specifically of the
campaign of the Kievan prince Sviatoslav from 965.93
A. Novosel’tsev, however, is of a completely different point of view. Based
on Constantine Porphyrogenitus’ account regarding the peoples and nations
that could have fought with Khazaria, including Black Bulgaria and Alania,
he regards the Khazar Khaganate as a secondary force that was of interest
to Byzantium only in connection with the safety of its Crimean domains.94
Nonetheless, the account of the Byzantine emperor should not be interpreted
in such a way. He is showing the political possibilities before Byzantium and
not the political reality at the time of the creation of his work and even less
thereafter. The emperor is simply indicating which peoples could be used
90 Baranov 1990, 153.
91 Baranov 1990, 153.
92 Maiko 1997, 114. The Khazar authority in the Crimea during the tenth and even the elev-
enth centuries is disputed by a number of scientists (see for instance Aibabin 2003;
Naumenko 2004b; Novosel’tsev 1990, 109–110, 133; Romashov 2002–2003, 143 and 2004, 256;
Gertsen 2002; Makarova 2003). Still, I. Baranov and V. Maiko are the main researchers of
the Saltovo monuments in the Crimea (see additionally Baranov and Maiko 2001, 98–110;
Maiko 2000, 87–93).
93 These events led to a significant displacement of Alano-Bulgar population from the Don
Region, since excavations have shown that most of the settlements inhabited by these
peoples were deserted voluntarily (there are no signs of destruction). The scholar pre-
sumes that later some Bulgar “families” were “integrated” in the unions of the Pechenegs
or the Oghuz (Tortika 2006a, 110, 182, 229, 505, and 510).
94 Novosel’tsev 1990, 219. Constantine Porphyrogenitus writes that those who could fight the
Khazars included the Uz (ch. 9 and 10), Alania (ch. 10 and 11) and Black Bulgaria (ch. 12),
in Litavrin and Novosel’tsev 1989, 51 and 53.