What are the Khazars in ancient Russia. History and ethnology

Neighboring peoples wrote a lot about the Khazars, but they themselves left practically no information about themselves. How unexpectedly the Khazars appeared on historical stage just as suddenly they left her.

God knows where

For the first time about the Khazars in the 5th century, the Armenian historian Moses Khorensky wrote that “the crowds of Khazars and Basils, united, crossed the Kura and scattered on this side.” The mention of the Kura River, apparently, says that the Khazars came to Transcaucasia from the territory of Iran. The Arab chronicler Yakubi confirms this, noting that “the Khazars again took possession of everything that the Persians had taken from them and held in their hands until the Romans drove them out and installed a king over four Armenias.”
Until the 7th century, the Khazars behaved rather modestly, being part of various nomadic empires - for the longest time in the Turkic Khaganate. But by the middle of the century they had grown stronger and bolder enough to create own state – Khazar Khaganate which was destined to last more than three centuries.

ghost state

The Byzantine and Arabic chronicles describe in all colors the greatness of Itil, the beauty of Semender and the power of Belenjer. True, one gets the feeling that the chroniclers reflected only the rumor about the Khazar Khaganate. So, the anonymous author, as if retelling a legend, answers the Byzantine dignitary that there is such a country called "al-Khazar", which is separated from Constantinople by 15 days of travel, "but between them and us there are many nations, and the name of their king is Joseph."
Attempts by archaeologists to establish what the mysterious “Khazaria” was actively began to be undertaken in the 20-30s of the XX century. But all to no avail. The Khazar fortress Sarkel (Belaya Vezha) turned out to be the easiest to find, since its location was known relatively accurately. Professor Mikhail Artamonov managed to excavate Sarkel, but he could not find traces of the Khazars. “The archaeological culture of the Khazars itself remains still unknown,” the professor stated sadly and suggested continuing the search in the lower reaches of the Volga.

Russian Atlantis

Continuing Artamonov's research, Lev Gumilyov conducts his search for "Khazaria" on the unflooded islets of the Volga delta, but the list of finds attributed to the Khazar culture is small. Moreover, he never managed to find the legendary Itil.
Then Gumilyov changes his strategy and conducts underwater reconnaissance near the part of the Derbent wall, which goes into the Caspian. What he discovered strikes him: where the sea is now splashing, people lived and needed drinking water! Even the medieval Italian geographer Marina Sanuto noted that “the Caspian Sea arrives from year to year, and many good cities already flooded."
Gumilyov concludes that the Khazar state should be sought under the thickness sea water and sediments of the Volga delta. However, the attack was not only from the side of the sea: a drought was approaching Khazaria from land, which completed what the Caspian had begun.

Scattering

What nature failed to do was carried out by the Russian-Varangian squads, which finally destroyed the once powerful Khazar Khaganate and dispersed its multinational composition around the world. Some of the refugees after the victorious campaign of Svyatoslav in 964 were met in Georgia by the Arab traveler Ibn Haukal.
Modern researcher Stepan Golovin notes a very wide geography of Khazar settlement. In his opinion, “the Khazars of the delta mixed with the Mongols, and the Jews partly hid in the mountains of Dagestan, partly moved back to Persia. Alans Christians survived in the mountains of Ossetia, while the Turkic Christian Khazars, in search of fellow believers, moved to the Don.
Some studies show that Christian Khazars, having merged with the Don co-religionists, subsequently began to be called "roamers", and later Cossacks. However, more credible are the conclusions according to which the bulk of the Khazars became part of the Volga Bulgaria.
The Arab geographer of the 10th century Istakhri claims that "the language of the Bulgars is similar to the language of the Khazars". These close ethnic groups are united by the fact that they were the first to create their own states on the ruins of the Turkic Khaganate, which were headed by Turkic dynasties. But fate decreed that at first the Khazars subjugated the Bulgars to their influence, and then they themselves joined the new state.

Unexpected descendants

AT this moment There are many versions about the peoples-descendants of the Khazars. According to some, these are Eastern European Jews, others call the Crimean Karaites. But the difficulty is that we do not know what the Khazar language was: a few runic inscriptions have not yet been deciphered.

Writer Arthur Koestler supports the idea that the Khazar Jews, having moved after the fall of the Khaganate to Eastern Europe became the core of the world Jewish diaspora. In his opinion, this confirms the fact that the descendants of the “Thirteenth Tribe” (as the writer called the Khazar Jews), being of non-Semitic origin, ethnically and culturally have little in common with the modern Jews of Israel.

Publicist Alexander Polyukh, in an attempt to identify the Khazar descendants, took a completely unusual path. It is based on scientific conclusions, according to which the blood type corresponds to the way of life of the people and determines the ethnic group. Thus, Russians and Belarusians, like most Europeans, in his opinion, more than 90% have blood type I (O), and ethnic Ukrainians are 40% carriers of group III (B).
Polyukh writes that group III(C) serves as a sign of peoples who led nomadic image life (where he refers to the Khazars), in which it approaches 100% of the population.

Further, the writer reinforces his conclusions with new ones. archaeological finds Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Yanin, who confirms that Kyiv at the time of its capture by the Novgorodians (IX century) was not a Slavic city, which is also evidenced by "birch bark letters".
Also, according to Polyukh, the conquest of Kyiv and the defeat of the Khazars, carried out by Oleg, suspiciously coincide in terms of timing. Here he makes a sensational conclusion: Kyiv is the possible capital of the Khazar Khaganate, and ethnic Ukrainians are the direct descendants of the Khazars.

Latest finds

However, sensational conclusions may be premature. In the early 2000s, 40 kilometers south of Astrakhan, Russian archaeologists excavated medieval city Saksin discovered "Khazar traces". A series of radiocarbon analyzes dates the cultural layer to the 9th century, the heyday of the Khazar Khaganate. As soon as the settlement was outlined, its area was determined - two square kilometers. Which Big City In addition to Itil, did the Khazars build in the Volga Delta?
Of course, it is too early to rush to conclusions, however, already now the pillars of Khazarology M. Artamonov and G. Fedorov-Davydov are almost sure that the capital of the Khazar Khaganate has been found. As for the Khazars, most likely they simply dissolved in the ethnic culture of neighboring peoples without leaving direct descendants behind them.

KhAZARS, ov, pl. T. n. "persons of the southern nationality". All the bazaars were bought by the Khazars. name an ancient people who lived in the 7th-10th centuries. from the Volga to the Caucasus ... Dictionary of Russian Argo

Modern Encyclopedia

The Turkic-speaking people who appeared in Vost. Europe after the Hun invasion (4th century) and nomadic in the Western Caspian steppe. Formed the Khazar Khaganate ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

KHAZARS, ar, unit arin, a, husband. ancient people, which formed in the 710 centuries. a state stretching from the lower Volga to the Caucasus and Northern Black Sea. | female Khazarka, i. | adj. Khazar, oh, oh. Dictionary Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu.… … Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

KhAZARS, a Turkic-speaking people who appeared in Eastern Europe after the Hun invasion (4th century) and roamed the Western Caspian steppe. They formed the Khazar Khaganate. Source: Encyclopedia Fatherland ... Russian history

Khazars- KHAZARS, a Turkic-speaking people who moved from the Trans-Urals to Eastern Europe after the Hun invasion (4th century) and wandered in the Western Caspian steppe. They formed the state of the Khazar Khaganate, after the defeat of which by Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

A nomadic Turkic tribe that first appeared in the territory north of the Caucasus in the early 4th century. In the 7th century The Khazars conquered the Azov Bulgarians. By the 9th c. they created a strong, prosperous state, stretching from the Crimea to the middle reaches of the Volga, and on ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

Zar; pl. A Turkic-speaking people who appeared in Eastern Europe in the 4th century BC. after the Hun invasion and wandered in the Western Caspian steppe (from the middle of the 7th century it formed the Khazar Khaganate). * How is it assembled now prophetic Oleg revenge unreasonable Khazars… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Khazars- KHAZARS, ar, mn (ed Khazarin, a, m). An ancient Turkic-speaking people that appeared in Vost. Europe after the Hun invasion in the 4th century, wandering in the Western Caspian steppe, living along the Terek River and in the Volga delta (from the middle of the 7th century formed the Khazar ... ... Explanatory dictionary of Russian nouns

A nomadic Turkic-speaking people who appeared in Eastern Europe after the Hun invasion (4th century). In the 60s. 6th c. Kh. were subjugated by the Turkic Khaganate (See Turkic Khaganate). From the middle of the 7th century, they created the Khazar Khaganate. After his fall... Big soviet encyclopedia

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Khazars (2014 ed.), Oleg Ivik, Vladimir Klyuchnikov. The Khazars are one of the most mysterious peoples early Middle Ages. Among scientists there are disputes even about who to call this word. The Khazars did not leave potsherds that would allow their identification ...
Khazars, Oleg Ivik, Vladimir Klyuchnikov. The Khazars are one of the most mysterious peoples early medieval. Among scientists there are disputes even about who to call this word. The Khazars did not leave shards that would allow them ...

Photo: Prince Arpad crossing the Carpathians. The cyclorama was written for the 1000th anniversary of the conquest of Hungary by the Magyars.

Perhaps they would not have been interested in them with such passion if it were not for the assumption that it was the Khazars who were the ancestors of modern Jews. Many scientists agree that they are the progenitors of this people. This opinion is significantly supported by the latest archaeological data, which allow us to reliably say that there was no famous exodus of Jews from the territory of Egypt. There is a people, but its origin is not fully understood.

That is why in the last two decades, the study of the Khazars has begun with redoubled zeal. It is generally accepted that the first reliable report about the Khazars dates back to around 550 AD, when they began to actively manifest themselves in the international arena of those years. Let's try to follow their path.

photo: Map of the Khazar Khaganate around 820 AD

Where did the name "Khazars" come from? The meaning of the word (judging by Dahl's dictionary) "haz" can be understood as "to be rude, to swear." Some sources claim that "haz" is an arrogant, rude person. However, “khaz” could also mean lush, high-quality and expensive goods. Remember the word "unsightly", which just contains a modified suffix "haz", but denotes some kind of scanty, unsightly thing. On the contrary, the word "window dressing" is used when a phenomenon or object appears exaggeratedly magnificent, luxurious.

In addition, the same Dahl argues that the word “get away” is equivalent to the words “walk, loiter”. So how then to interpret the term "Khazars"? The meaning of the word is impossible to know if you do not try to make out the etymology. If we break this word into three components, that is, into “ha”, “z” and “ar”, then we will certainly be very close to the meaning that our ancestors put into this term. If we translate it as “following Ar (Yarila)”, then it turns out that the word “Khazars” can be quite interpreted as “coming from the East”.

So who were the Khazars by origin? It is reliably known that they were a classical nomadic people of Turkic origin. Initially, they lived in the territory located between the Black and Caspian Seas. historical documents they say that after the invasion of the Huns, the Khazars appeared in Eastern Europe. But the combination “appeared after the Huns” is very vague, and the authors of solid scientific treatises keep a truly partisan silence on this matter.

It is quite possible that the Huns and Turkic-speaking peoples who settled in those places suddenly began to be called Khazars, but other options are also not excluded. So this period in their history is perhaps the most mysterious.

photo: P. Gaige. "The Huns fight the Alans".

By the way, who are the Huns themselves? This is also a nomadic people, which was formed in the II-IV centuries. in the Urals. Their ancestors were all the same Turkic-speaking peoples (the Xiongnu people), who arrived there by the second century from Central Asia. In addition, local Ugrians and Sarmatians contributed to the emergence of a new people. The Xiongnu themselves have a rather curious origin, since they are the ancestors of Caucasoid immigrants from North China who left from there about a thousand years before the beginning of our era.

But the research of Chinese archaeologists suggests that if the Xiongnu reached the Urals, it was in the form of disparate multi-ethnic groups, which along the way turned into a classic nomadic people. The fact is that in Northern China this nationality disappeared catastrophically quickly, unable to withstand competition with strong tribes. Thus, the Huns were clearly formed mainly by the Ugrians. This is the generalized name of those Mansi and Khanty who at that time lived in this territory. Most likely, these peoples separated themselves in the third millennium BC.

Initially, the Ugrians lived in the forest-steppes Western Siberia, in some places reaching the Irtysh. The Sarmatians also made a small contribution to the formation of the Khazar people.

Around the sixth century AD, the Khazars were subjugated by the mighty Turkic Khaganate. Oddly enough, the researchers did not find any mention of interethnic fusion, although such a phenomenon could well have been.

A historical paradox: despite all its power, the Khaganate itself lasted for a ridiculously short time by historical standards - from 552 to 745 AD. e. The Turks themselves appeared as a result of the fact that in 460 one of the Hunnic tribes (and again we return to them), which was called Ashina, was conquered by the Juan people. No reliable information has been preserved about the Ashins at all. By a strange coincidence, it was at the same time that most of the Xiongnu were destroyed by the Rourans. After that, the Ashin people were forcibly relocated to Altai.

It was in this area that a strong nomadic people appeared, which is known to us as the "Turks". The generalized name of these tribes comes from the Russian word "tyurya", which our ancestors called the simplest food: crumbled bread or crackers with kvass and onions (or variations). Simply put, by that time the Turks consisted only of the Ugrians and Sarmatian tribes, diluted with semi-mythical Ashins.

In 545, this people defeated the troops of the Uighurs, and in 551, they avenged the Juan for eviction. In the history of those years, the leader Bumyn was especially noted, who during his lifetime proclaimed himself a kagan. This title was accepted only among the Jews. Already in 555, all local peoples were under Turkic rule. " Supreme rate» The kaganate was moved to the upper reaches of the Orkhon River, where almost all Khazars settled. This people actively developed and accumulated military power.

Already in the middle of the sixth century AD, almost all the peoples of Northern China fell into dependence on the kagan. Soon the Turks entered into a military alliance with Byzantium, after which they jointly began a war with Iran for control of the Great Silk Road. Already in 571, the border of the kaganate passed along the Amu Darya. In just five years, the Turks managed to take the Bosporus (Kerch), and in 581 Chersonesos was completely blocked.

Let's go back to the Khazars. What are they doing here? The fact is that historians have a lot of evidence that by that time there was already a Khazar “branch” in the Turkic Khaganate. But who and for what reason gave the conquered people such liberties? The Turks no longer welcomed such a democracy, and there are no logical justifications for the creation of the Khazar Khaganate. However, there is one more or less intelligible explanation ...

The fact is that before the collapse Turkic state only 100 years left. grew internal problems, there were difficulties with holding the borders. Perhaps the subordinate ethnic group was so loyal to the Turks that they allowed them to create their own state of the Khazars in exchange for guarantees of their loyalty in the future.

But even here it is full of contradictions. The fact is that contemporaries spoke of the Khazars only as nomads, who could be a formidable force at the time of the raids, but there was no sensible interaction between them. On the pages of almost all the works of their contemporaries, we see that the lifestyle and occupations of the Khazars were typical for nomads: cattle breeding, constant raids on enemies, internal strife.

Yes, they had a capital, there was a kagan. But he was only "first among equals", and the strength to order representatives large births he just didn't have it. It is doubtful that the Turks could conclude such an important agreement with them. Nevertheless, the Khazars are a rather specific people, like all nomads.

photo: Tribute of the Slavs to the Khazars, miniature in the Radzivilov Chronicle, 15th century

Be that as it may, but in the 7th-8th centuries of our era they were already able to conquer Kyiv and the Crimea. Many historians claim that at that time Slavic tribes began to pay them tribute. But the Khazars themselves did not have anything that at least somehow looked like a strong central state Khazar. How could they collect this very tribute if, in principle, they did not have a more or less developed administrative system?

In the end, they were very, very far from the level of the Golden Horde. Most likely, the “tribute” meant those episodes when the inhabitants of the besieged cities preferred to pay off the next raid of nomads. And the very way of life and occupations of the Khazars did not contribute to the establishment of serious power over other peoples: the kaganate was extremely heterogeneous, and therefore the ruler spent more time keeping this loose structure within at least a relative order.

At the head of the Khazar people then stood the khakan and his "deputy" beg. The capital of the Khaganate was the city of the Khazars Valangiar (Astrakhan), and then Sarkel (it was completely destroyed in 1300). It is known that in those days they were actively trading with India. In 965, the Khazar troops were defeated by the troops of Prince Svyatoslav. In 1016 they were defeated by the combined troops of Russians and Greeks, commanded by Mstislav Tmutarakansky.

Many historical sources It is reported that in the eighth century the Khazars converted to Judaism. But back to the beginning of the article. Prominent Israeli scholars report that the process of merging Jews and Khazars took place only in 1005. But how then did Bumyn convert to Judaism 500 years before? In this regard, historians have a lot of questions. Here are the most common ones:

Who among the Turks and Khazars could practice Judaism in those years, if there were no Jews there yet?

How is it possible to profess Judaism, and yet not be a Jew? All holy books Israelis say that this can not be!

Finally, who was the missionary of Judaism 500 years before the arrival of the Jews?

Unfortunately, there are no clear answers to all these questions yet. Most likely, there is some confusion here. If this is so, there is nothing surprising in this: so few documents that inspire complete confidence have remained since those times that historians have to be content mainly with chronicles. And they definitely do not reflect the whole essence of what was happening, as they repeatedly corresponded to please the ruling persons.

So even now we cannot say with absolute certainty who the Khazars were by origin, since everything is not so simple with their religion. If they did not profess Judaism, then there were no Jews among their ancestors.

photo: slave trade, Khazaria

In Soviet historical monographs, one can come across the theory that the Khazar Khaganate fell due to a banal lack of living space, which disappeared under the waters of the flooded Caspian Sea. The author of this assumption is LN Gumilyov. He suggested that in the 7th-8th centuries, large settlements of the Khazars were simply washed away due to the transgression of soils. However, Gumilyov always put forward very bold hypotheses

Historians of non-Israeli origin make a very curious suggestion. They believe that the collapse of the Khaganate was caused by the adoption of Judaism, which occurred during the time of the ruler Obadiah. Presumably, this kagan began his missionary activity somewhere at the turn of the 9th-10th centuries. References to his activities can be found in the Life of John of Gotha.

The Arab scholar Masudi wrote that after the adoption of Judaism by the kagan, Jews from all over the world began to flock to his kingdom. Jews quickly settled in large quarters of almost all Khazar cities, and there were especially many of them in the Crimea, and the capital of the Khazars (Valangiar) experienced a real "boom" of migration. A lot of people settled in Itil. According to contemporaries, "Jews besieged the throne of Obadiah." They testify that the kagan gave the Jews many privileges, allowed them to settle in any cities. The Kagan contributed to the construction of synagogues and theological schools, warmly welcomed the Jewish sages, generously endowing them with money.

The Jews were educated, well versed in trade ... but their faith turned out to be disastrous for the kaganate. We have already said that the Khazar state was already not particularly developed. administrative unit. The adoption of Judaism by the supreme nobility turned away from them most of the subjects, who already belonged to supreme power without any reverence. For most of the Khazars, the opinion of the elders was key, and they did not have a special love for the Jews.

The struggle for power in the kaganate began. Civil strife arose, part of the Khazars united with the Turks and Hungarians, who lived on Pecheneg land. They entered into mutually beneficial military and political alliances. Contemporaries called them "cabarets". This, in particular, often wrote Konstantin Porfirorodny.

No wonder in flames civil war both Obadiah himself and both of his heirs, Hezekiah and Manasseh, burned down. The power over the bloodless state was taken over by Hanukkah, who was the brother of Obadiah. By that time, the Crimea, which was inhabited by many "provincials" who condemned rapprochement with Judea, came under the protectorate of Byzantium. At that time, hordes of Pechenegs were already advancing on the lands of the Khazars, to whom political and religious strife was absolutely uninteresting.

You must understand that without knowing all these ups and downs, you will not be able to understand who the Khazars were by origin. In the last years of the existence of the kaganate, his ethnic composition became surprisingly colorful. If you carefully read the article, then you yourself probably realized that the Khazars have never been a particularly integral ethnic group. The prevailing peoples and religions were replaced in the Khaganate with incredible speed.

For you to be finally convinced of this, let us give examples from the life of the late Khaganate. So, in 730, Khagan Bulan converted to Judaism. In 737, just seven years later, the Khazars already professed Islam. From 740 to 775 they become devout Christians under the patronage of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Copronymus. From 786 to 809 - again Islam. This time with the blessing of the Baghdad caliph Harun-ar-Rashid. From 799 to 809, the kagan Obadiah, known to us, again actively promotes "Judaism to the masses."

Ethnographers believe that in less than 100 years the Khazars assimilated so much with the peoples who professed Christianity and Islam that practically nothing remained of their original ethnic group. The final defeat of the Khazar Khaganate (more precisely, its self-destruction) once again convincingly proved that a strong state is needed to form a truly powerful state. central authority, which, among other things, knows how to take into account the desires of all its subjects.

photo: Svyatoslav, the destroyer of the Khazars (Lebedev, Claudius Vasilyevich).

Just a year after the last adoption of Judaism, the slow agony of the state began: from 810 to 820, it was tormented by uprisings of the Kabars already known to us; from 822 to 836 there were constant invasions of the Hungarians. Ruled from 829 to 842 Byzantine emperor Theophilus, who brought the final discord into the way of the Khazar Khaganate. In 965, Svyatoslav crushed the Khazar troops, after which Khagan Bulan III proclaimed for the third time state religion Judaism. How did the complete defeat of the Khazar Khaganate happen?

By the end of the tenth century, all this ethnic and religious leapfrog ended with the fact that the Khazars were finally assimilated with the Muslims. Thus, the former Turkic tribes, who were able to create a rather significant public education, completely lost their independence and their own lands.

All of the above indicates that Khazaria could well exist in reality. In addition, the kaganate could indeed be the historical homeland of the Jews. Theologians, on the other hand, believe that the origins of Judaism (as well as Christianity and Islam) in this case were shamanism, which was widespread among nomadic tribes. This, by the way, is very strongly reflected in Christianity: we do not know the name of God, but we assume that he is Everything, and His Grace is everywhere. Thus, the Turkic tribes played extremely important role in the development of modern civilization, for they gave mankind monotheism.

Neighboring peoples wrote a lot about the Khazars, but they themselves left practically no information about themselves. How unexpectedly the Khazars appeared on the historical stage, just as suddenly they left it.

God knows where

For the first time about the Khazars in the 5th century, the Armenian historian Moses Khorensky wrote that “the crowds of Khazars and Basils, united, crossed the Kura and scattered on this side.” The mention of the Kura River, apparently, says that the Khazars came to Transcaucasia from the territory of Iran. The Arab chronicler Yakubi confirms this, noting that “the Khazars again took possession of everything that the Persians had taken from them and held in their hands until the Romans drove them out and installed a king over four Armenias.”
Until the 7th century, the Khazars behaved rather modestly, being part of various nomadic empires - for the longest time in the Turkic Khaganate. But by the middle of the century, they had grown stronger and bolder enough to create their own state - the Khazar Khaganate, which was destined to exist for more than three centuries.

ghost state

Russian Atlantis

Continuing Artamonov's research, Lev Gumilyov conducts his search for "Khazaria" on the unflooded islets of the Volga delta, but the list of finds attributed to the Khazar culture is small. Moreover, he never managed to find the legendary Itil.
Then Gumilyov changes his strategy and conducts underwater reconnaissance near the part of the Derbent wall, which goes into the Caspian. What he discovered strikes him: where the sea is now splashing, people lived and needed drinking water! Another medieval Italian geographer, Marina Sanuto, noted that “the Caspian Sea arrives from year to year, and many good cities are already flooded.”
Gumilyov concludes that the Khazar state should be sought under the thickness of sea water and sediments of the Volga delta. However, the attack was not only from the side of the sea: a drought was approaching Khazaria from land, which completed what the Caspian had begun.

Scattering

Unexpected descendants

At the moment, there are many versions about the peoples-descendants of the Khazars. According to some, these are Eastern European Jews, others call the Crimean Karaites. But the difficulty is that we do not know what the Khazar language was: a few runic inscriptions have not yet been deciphered.

Writer Arthur Koestler supports the idea that the Khazar Jews, having moved to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Khaganate, became the core of the world Jewish diaspora. In his opinion, this confirms the fact that the descendants of the “Thirteenth Tribe” (as the writer called the Khazar Jews), being of non-Semitic origin, ethnically and culturally have little in common with the modern Jews of Israel.

Publicist Alexander Polyukh, in an attempt to identify the Khazar descendants, took a completely unusual path. It is based on scientific conclusions, according to which the blood type corresponds to the way of life of the people and determines the ethnic group. Thus, Russians and Belarusians, like most Europeans, in his opinion, more than 90% have blood type I (O), and ethnic Ukrainians are 40% carriers of group III (B).
Polyukh writes that group III (B) is a sign of peoples who led a nomadic lifestyle (where he also includes the Khazars), in which it approaches 100% of the population.

Further, the writer reinforces his conclusions with new archaeological finds of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Yanin, who confirms that Kyiv at the time of its capture by the Novgorodians (IX century) was not a Slavic city, which is also evidenced by "birch bark letters".
Also, according to Polyukh, the conquest of Kyiv and the defeat of the Khazars, carried out by Oleg, suspiciously coincide in terms of timing. Here he makes a sensational conclusion: Kyiv is the possible capital of the Khazar Khaganate, and ethnic Ukrainians are the direct descendants of the Khazars.

Latest finds

However, sensational conclusions may be premature. In the early 2000s, 40 kilometers south of Astrakhan, Russian archaeologists discovered “Khazar traces” during excavations of the medieval city of Saksin. A series of radiocarbon analyzes dates the cultural layer to the 9th century, the heyday of the Khazar Khaganate. As soon as the settlement was outlined, its area was determined - two square kilometers. What major city besides Itil was built by the Khazars in the Volga Delta?
Of course, it is too early to rush to conclusions, however, already now the pillars of Khazarology M. Artamonov and G. Fedorov-Davydov are almost sure that the capital of the Khazar Khaganate has been found. As for the Khazars, most likely they simply dissolved in the ethnic culture of neighboring peoples without leaving direct descendants behind them.

Khazars Arab. خزر ‎‎ ( Khazar); Greek Χαζαροι (Khazar); Heb. כוזרים ‎ ( Kuzarim); other Russian goats; lat. Gazari, Cosri) are a Turkic-speaking people. Became known in the Eastern Ciscaucasia (plain Dagestan) shortly after the Hun invasion. It was formed as a result of the interaction of three ethnic components: the local Iranian-speaking population, as well as the alien Ugric and Turkic tribes.

The name is a self-name, its etymology is not completely clear. It has been suggested that it ascends:

to the Persian word "Khazar" - a thousand (A.P. Novoseltsev).
to the title of Caesar (A. Polyak, A. Rona-Tash),
to the Turkic verb with the meaning "oppress", "oppress" (L. Bazin)
to the Chechen ideomatic expression "khaz are" - literally "a territory with a favorable climate."

The Khazars were called the Black Sea, less often the Sea of Azov (at that time, the positions of the Khazars in the Crimea were very strong). Also, the name of the Khazars in the Middle Eastern languages \u200b\u200bis called the Caspian Sea - see. On land, the name "Khazaria" remained for the longest time behind the Crimea (in Byzantine and Italian sources until the 16th century).

According to some researchers ( B. N. Zakhoder), the Khazar ethnos had a dualistic basis, uniting two main tribes - white and black Khazars (Kalis-Khazars and Kara-Khazars). Proponents of another point of view (M. I. Artamonov, A. P. Novoseltsev) consider this division not ethnic, but social and point to a more complex organization. AT close connection with the Khazar tribal union were Akatsirs, Bersils, Savirs, Balanjars, etc. Later they were partially assimilated. The closest to the Khazars were the Bersils, paired with whom they are often mentioned in initial period history, and the country of Bersilia appears in the sources as the starting point from which the Khazar expansion in Europe begins, which, however, did not prevent the Khazars from expelling the Barsils from their native lands.

Regarding the origin of the Khazars and their ancestral home, the following hypotheses have been put forward:

The Khazars are descendants of the Hun tribe Akatsir, known in Europe since the 5th century (A.V. Gadlo, O. Pritsak).
The Khazars are of Uighur origin, from the Central Asian people of Ko-sa, mentioned in Chinese sources. (D. Dunlop).
The Khazars are descendants of the Hephthalites who migrated to the Caucasus from Khorasan (Eastern Iran) (D. Ludwig).
The Khazars are descended from a tribal union formed by the Oghurs, Savirs and, at the final stage, the Altai Turks. (P. Golden, M. I. Artamonov, A. P. Novoseltsev).

The latter point of view (in various variations) occupies a dominant position in Russian science

In medieval genealogical legends, the Khazars were erected to the son of Noah Togarma. AT Jewish literature they were sometimes called the descendants of the tribe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars

The Khazars are a Turkic-speaking people who appeared in Eastern Europe after the Hun invasion (IV century) and roamed the Western Caspian steppe. The Byzantines know them in the 7th century. under the name of the Eastern Turks. In this century, they are established on the shores of Pontus (Black Sea), in the VIII century. - master for the most part Taurida (Crimea) and the Northern Black Sea region and form the state of the Khazar Khaganate (mid-7th - late 10th centuries. See) headed by the kagan. The capital is Semender (on the territory of modern Dagestan), from the beginning of the VIII century - the city of Itil (in the Volga delta). The mixture of tribes that made up the Khazar Khaganate corresponded to a mixture of religions: pagan, Mohammedan, Christian, Jewish.

The economic basis for the existence of the Khazar Khaganate was trade with the peoples of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Transcaucasia, etc. In the 2nd half of the first millennium AD. in the vast Euro-African-Asian region, a situation has arisen that has radically changed both the geography of international trade and its significance. The impetus for this was the emergence in Arabia in the 7th century of a new religion called Islam and the Arab expansion that followed.

After the death of Muhammad in 632 the Arabs invaded Mesopotamia and Palestine, inflicting a series of heavy defeats on Byzantium and Persia, took Damascus (635), expelled the Byzantines from Alexandria (642), occupied Chalcedon in 667, already directly threatening Byzantium, in the same year invaded Sicily, won three years later North Africa, and in 711 they invaded Southern Spain. At the same time, the Arabs waged war in Central Asia, which they conquered by 715.

Finally, in 733, after the battle of the northern expedition with Charles Martell, they were stopped almost in the center of the Frankish state near the city of Poitiers. Around the same time, the Arabs were rebuffed by the Khazars in southern Eastern Europe.

Thus, this fierce war interrupted the trade communications that connected Europe with the Near, Middle and Far East and passing traditionally through the Mediterranean. As a result of Arab expansion, the center of gravity economic life The Frankish Empire shifted from southern regions on the coast North Sea. From the 8th century, the Franco-Frisian cities began minting their own coins, while experiencing an acute need for silver, which was associated with a general decline in mining in the era of the Great Migration of Peoples and was aggravated by the capture of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs, from where Europe received the bulk of gold and silver.

Neither war nor ideological differences have abolished the objective necessity economic ties between West and East, which was interested in obtaining iron and furs, grain, etc. In the region of Central Asia fighting Arabs against the "infidels" ended relatively quickly, which contributed to the formation of a stable trade exchange between him and Europe, the emergence in Eastern Europe of new ways of large-scale transit trade bypassing the war-torn Mediterranean. By the end of the 8th century, a system of transcontinental communications with trading centers and intermediate points took shape in Eastern Europe, connecting Europe with the Caucasus and Central Asia and further east.

In the period under review, relations between Russia and the Khazars were determined by trade rivalry. The Khazar Khaganate controlled the beginning of the "silver road" up to the Middle Volga, while the rest of it, which went to the Baltic, was under the rule of Russia. By the middle of the 9th century, in the largest shopping center on the Middle Volga, the city of Bulgar grew up, which became the capital.

The foreign policy of Russia for a long time was characterized by the desire to bypass Khazaria in geographically, i.e. in an attempt to find an alternative to the Volga trade route, on which a significant part of the trade profits was lost in the form of a duty to the Khazars. Archaeological data suggest that at least from the middle of the 8th century to the first third of the 9th century, Arab silver arrived northward, bypassing the Lower Volga along the Seversky Donets to the watershed in the territory of the present Belgorod region. From here, through the Seim and Svapa rivers, a passage opened to the Oka, along it to the areas under the rule of Russia, and along the Desna to the Upper Dnieper and the Western Dvina. It was on these routes that treasures with the earliest Arab coins were found, dating from the period from 786-833. In all likelihood, the transportation of silver was carried out from the transshipment base in the Black Sea region, although not the most convenient, but unguarded route through the Khazar lands. In any case, it seems that the Tmutarakan principality on Taman existed long before its first mention in the annals.

In the 830s, Byzantine engineers built the Khazar brick fortress Sarkel (Belaya Vezha), which was located, according to V.I. /X). The fact that it was later located here main city seems to confirm this assumption. The fortress of Sarkel blocked the "smuggling" trade route, which later lost its significance in connection with the start of development in 964-969 of the large Rammelsberg silver mines in the Harz.

In the 9th century, the southeastern Slavic tribes paid tribute to the Khazars. After the capture of Kyiv in 882 and the formation Old Russian state, the center of which he became, the Khazars are successively forced out of the lands of the northerners and Radimichi.

A detailed bibliography of the Khazar question is available at:.

There were such tolerant-tolerant ...

Khazars, a nomadic Turkic tribe that first appeared in the territory north of the Caucasus in the early 4th century. In the 7th century The Khazars conquered the Azov Bulgarians. By the 9th c. they created a strong, prosperous state, stretching from the Crimea to the middle reaches of the Volga, and in the west to the Dnieper River. The Khazars built important cities in terms of trade and were engaged in trade with Russia and the Byzantine Empire. The ruler of the Khazars, called the kagan, was at the same time the spiritual leader of his subjects. Tolerant of other faiths, the kagans provided shelter to thousands of Jews from Asia Minor and Byzantine Empire as well as Muslims and Christians. These three religious groups competed with each other to convert the Khazars, who professed their traditional religion. In the middle of the 8th c. The kagan and his entourage converted to Islam, but at the beginning of the 9th c. Khagan Bulan declared Judaism the state religion and changed his name to Obadiah. Nevertheless, the Khazar Khaganate continued to adhere to the principle of religious tolerance. It was finally defeated in 965 by the combined efforts of Russia and Byzantium. The last remnants of the Khazars in the Crimea were exterminated by the Byzantines and Russian squads in 1016.

Materials of the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" are used

Not perished, but dispersed

The Khazars were Turko-Tatars by origin. Remaining semi-nomads, they still had large cities for that time and conducted extensive trade with all their neighbors. Trade in "manpower", i.e. slaves was their main specialty. To replenish supplies, the Khazars often had to raid Slavic tribes and steal captives for sale. In the seventh and eighth centuries of our era, Judaism, through the rabbis of Constantinople, began to penetrate into Khazaria, first into the upper classes of the population, and then spread among the people. It is interesting to note that Russian epics sometimes mention the "Great Zhidovin", with whom the Russian heroes had battles in the "Wild Field". It goes without saying that this "Zhidovin" was not a Palestinian Semitic Jew, but a dashing Khazar horseman who plundered Slavic villages.

Driven to despair, the Slavs, under the command of Kyiv prince Svyatoslav and financial assistance Byzantium, which the Khazars also caused a lot of trouble, did in 965. "deep raid" on Khazaria, they burned and plundered the main cities - Itil, Belaya Vezha and Semender, and returned to their home with rich booty.

It is impossible to assume that, contrary to the law and customs of those times, the Slavs did not repay their Khazar tormentors with the same coin and did not steal as many Khazar captives after the raid as they could be caught and captured. If it was difficult to drag black slaves from Africa to the plantations of America, then to overtake the crowds of Khazar successors, putting them on their own carts and horses, across the steppes Southern Russia was the simplest and easiest thing to do. It must be assumed that the “loan” made from Byzantium by Svyatoslav was also paid in the same coin, i.e. Khazar slaves thrown into the market in huge numbers after a brilliant raid.

More than 80 percent of all Jews living in the world belong to the so-called "Ashkenazim", a group of Eastern Jews who differ in many ways from their western group- “Sephardim” not only in customs, but also in appearance.

As some Russian historians have long assumed, most of the "Eastern" Jews are not Semites, but Turko-Tatars, descendants of those Khazars who were first defeated by Svyatoslav, and then finished off by Genghis Khan and fled to Eastern Europe under the onslaught of his hordes.
Even in Israel itself, there are now small groups of people who are convinced of the veracity of this story. Since without exception all the prominent figures of Judaism and Zionism belong to the number of "Eastern" Jews, then, for obvious reasons, this historical truth not very popular among them.

But, to their great chagrin, the writer Arthur Koestler, very famous in the circles of the European intelligentsia, himself an Eastern Jew, recently published his new book under the title "The Thirteenth Tribe", in which he clearly and convincingly proves that he himself and all his Jewish relatives - "Ashkenazim" cannot possibly be Semites, but are direct descendants of the Khazars. As Koestler rightly asserts, such a strong and viable tribe as the Khazars could not disappear from the face of the earth completely without a trace. As nomads, they simply moved west under the onslaught of the Mongols and settled in central Europe, increasing the number of their relatives, who were forcibly taken away by Svyatoslav. Known in Poland and Ukraine as "Yids", these settlers from the lower reaches of the Volga were precisely those "Kids" that our epics mention.

As often happens, the neophytes, having accepted the new faith, began to perform all its rites with even greater zeal than the Jews themselves of Semitic origin did, adding to these rites their own, Khazar customs. It is difficult to assume, of course, that the Eastern Jews do not have an admixture Semitic blood. Many Semitic Jews lived in Khazaria, and part of the Western Jews, fleeing the Crusaders, moved to Eastern Europe and took turns with their co-religionists, the Khazars. But the Turkic-Tatar blood remained dominant among the so-called "Ashkenazim" Jews.
Without suspecting it himself, of course, Koestler, with his historical research, opened a corner of the veil that had so far hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated some strange “customs” of the Khazar rulers of the Kremlin.

So, on page 54 of his book there is the following phrase: “Arab and modern historians agree that the Khazar system of government was of a dual nature: Kagan was a representative of religious power, and Bek was civil”

(epic from the Collection of Folk Songs)