260 CHAPTER 5
or weakening of the central government”.176 Also, a process of gradual assimi-
lation between Bulgars and Alans can be noted—it was reflected in the
anthropological type and in the burial rites, especially during the ninth and
tenth centuries. It increased with time and therefore the theory of V. Gening
that the Pecheneg invasion put a stop to this process cannot be accepted.177
The Pecheneg invasion probably caused a larger influx of Bulgars to the
Alanian lands. Naturally, the merging of the two ethnic groups should not be
overestimated,178 but the theories, according to which the “Yases”, mentioned
in Russian sources, are a common ethnonym for the Bulgars and the Alans in
the Severski Donets region between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, do
have a point.179 It could be presumed that if the Bulgars and Alans were viewed
as a whole during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they would have had a
common ethnonym. The “Yases” ethnonym was used for the population of the
Don Region, since the Alans lived in close proximity to the lands, controlled
by Kiev. It should, however, be borne in mind that in comparison to the Alans,
the Bulgars were far more numerous in this part of Khazaria, which is also the
most likely location of Black Bulgaria.180
Ultimately, the population in the Don Region consisted of “various ethnic
components that arrived here at different times and in different historical cir-
cumstances. These components were not complete ethno-social organisms.
They were made up of fragmented parts of ethnic communities, which, until
their inclusion in the Khazar Khaganate, were formed and functioned in dif-
ferent economic and political conditions and on different territories. These
Turkic- and Iranian-speaking, Ugric and Slavic components which together
made up quite a numerous population were unified by two factors: the adop-
176 Tortika 2006a, 223–224.
177 Gening 1989, 13.
178 See the review of Flerov and Krasnov 1989, 284. Fedorov and Fedorov 1978, 111 presume
that the Bulgaro-Alanian merging was much more intense in the area of the Lower Sulak
in Dagestan. According to Tortika 2006a, 149, over time between the upper reaches of the
Severski Donets and the Don conditions arose for the emergence of “a synthetic early
feudal nationality—the Alano-Bulgars”.
179 Kravchenko 2004, 269; Pletneva 1989, 269. A similar theory, namely that the Yases from
the Russian sources also included the Black Bulgars, was supported by Mavrodin 1945, 190
already in 1945. It is interesting that Bubenok 1997, 45 rejects Mavrodin’s view, since it was
influenced by the ideas of N. Marr. But in fact, by assuming that the Yases were the bearers
of the steppe version of the Saltovo culture, O. Bubenok argues in favor of the same theory
(Bubenok 1997, 37–44).
180 See more details in chapter 2. According to Tortika 2006a, 127, the Bulgars were “the most
active ethnic levelling element” in the Don Region.