146 CHAPTER 2
against which in principle (and not only against Khazaria). This notion is based
on past events, as well as on possible options for the future. The great attention
he pays to Khazaria is an indication not of the weakness of the khaganate in
the mid-tenth century, but of its power.
Based on the same account, as well as on the information available
on Byzantine court ceremonies, J. Howard-Johnston opposes the view of
A. Novosel’tsev. In J. Howard-Johnston’s opinion, the account of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus shows that Byzantium regarded the Khazar Khaganate as a
leading force in the north even in the middle of the tenth century.95 Ultimately,
at the time of Sviatoslav’s campaign the only allies the Rus’ had in the Northern
Black Sea region were the Pechenegs, who Ibn Hawqal called “the blade, spike
of the Rus’ ”.96 This is the time when the Pechenegs, along with the Rus’, can be
“blamed” for being among the main causes for the devastation of the Saltovo
culture that led to its demise. According to J. Howard-Johnston, this “fatal”
blow to the Khazar Khaganate was successful not because Khazaria was weak,
but because it was completely unexpected.97
95 Howard-Johnston 2007, 172 and 181–183.
96 Kalinina 1976, 100.
97 Howard-Johnston 2007, 183.