276 Conclusion
conquered peoples, albeit recognizing the khagan’s authority, maintained
their way of life and their social structures. The khaganates thus managed to
ensure periods of relative peace. It is quite possible that the subjugation of the
Khazars and the Bulgars to the Turkic and Avar Khaganates (neither the Turks
nor the Avars settled permanently in the lands north of the Black Sea or north
of the Caucasus) eventually made possible for the formation of Great Bulgaria
and the Khazar Khaganate during the seventh century.
We often “observe” various tribes during periods of movement (migration).
Quite naturally, at such times stock-breeding dominated their economy. The
transition from agriculture to stock-breeding (and vice-versa) sometimes took
decades. The nomads followed the main routes for grazing (winter and sum-
mer ones), thus passing through various geographical areas (mountains, plains
and deserts). Where possible and when necessary, they created a more or less
productive agricultural sector, often combining it with a developed settlement
system (as was the case in Khazaria). In the steppes, cities initially emerged
as administrative centers. Depending on their proximity to international
trade routes, they grew into significant centers, attracting a large and multi-
ethnic population of craftsmen and merchants. They supported themselves
and received food supplies from their own agricultural periphery (especially
judging by the data on Khazaria). In many cases the produced agricultural and
handicraft goods not only met the domestic demand, but were also used for
export.
The sedentarization process in the steppe communities was not unidirec-
tional. As A. Khazanov points out, sedentarization and the transition towards
nomadism can develop simultaneously in the same community.33 Examining
the development of nomadism in the Mediterranean world, F. Braudel notes
a constant fluctuation between different forms of pastoralism, as well as that
such changes can take centuries. These are the so-called “slow” movements
that remain scarcely perceptible to science.34
A. Khazanov compares the Khazar economy to that of the Third Scythian
Kingdom.35 And according to S. Tolstov, the economy of the Oghuz along the
lower reaches of the Syr Darya was similar to the Khazar one.36 In this con-
text, quite significant is the definition of S. Pletneva, according to whom the
khaganates (the steppe empires) were at the designated by her third stage
33 Khazanov 1975, 13; see also Stepanov 2002b, 25–28.
34 Braudel 1998, 96.
35 In this case the nomadic society became increasingly urban-agricultural (Khazanov 1975,
13, 249, and 258–261).
36 Tolstov 1947a, 75 and 100.