Khazar campaign of Svyatoslav Igorevich

Around 960, the Khazar king Joseph, in a letter to the dignitary of the Cordoba caliphate, Hasday Ibn Shafrut, said that he was waging a “stubborn war” with the Russians, not letting them into the sea and by land to Derbent , otherwise they, according to him, could conquer all Islamic lands to Baghdad . In the previous century, the Russians gradually reassigned to themselves almost all of the East Slavic associations that were previously Khazar tributaries. In Khazaria there were other key objectives of the expansion of the Rus: the Kerch Strait and the Don region . These circumstances made an open clash between the two countries inevitable.

The conflict erupted during the prince of prince Svyatoslav Igorevich . The course of the war can be reconstructed in various ways. Perhaps there was one big campaign, which began in 965, led by Svyatoslav. Or there were two trips. The first - in 965 , directed against Sarkel (the Khazar outpost on the Don ), the second - the main one in 968/969 against the territory of the Khazars in the Caspian region. It could take place without the direct participation of Svyatoslav, since according to the Russian annals the prince was in Kiev at that time. In the course of hostilities, the Russians defeated the Khazar army led by the kagan, captured Sarkel, which from that time became the Russian city of Belaya Vezha, and subjugated the jars and Kasogs in the Kuban region.

“In the summer of 6473 (965) Svyatoslav went to the Khazars. Hearing, the Khazars went out to meet him with their prince kagan and got together to fight, and in the battle Svyatoslav defeated the Khazars, and took their capital and White Vezha . And he defeated the Yasov and the Kasogov ” ^[1] .

Further, as follows from the message of the Arabian author Ibn Haukal, the Rus sacked both parts of the Khazar capital Itil, another large Khazar city in the Caspian Sea - Semender and the territories up the Volga - the country of the Burtases and the city of Bulgar.

“The Bulgar is a small city, it does not have numerous districts, and was known for being a port for the above-mentioned states, and devastated its Rus and came to Khazaran , Samandar and Itil in the year 358 ( 968/969 ) and set off immediately after to the country of Rum and Andalus ... And al-Khazar is the side, and there is a city in it called Samandar, and it is in the space between it and Bab al-Abwab, and there were numerous gardens in it ... but the Rus came there, and not neither grapes nor raisins remained in the city ” ^[2] .

According to modern historians, the author of the Tale of Bygone Years does not know anything about Svyatoslav’s actions in the Volga and Dagestan, and Ibn Haukal , in turn, has no idea about the campaign of the Russians on Sarkel, Kasogov and Alans ^{[3] [4]} . The historian A.S. Korolev, considering the speed of movement, indicated that it was difficult for Svyatoslav and his army to overcome such a route so quickly and, moreover, to gain a foothold in these territories. ^[3]

Some historians believe that there were two campaigns: the first - on the Vyatichi, Volga region, Pridononsky and Prikuban lands, which was headed by Svyatoslav in 964-965, the second - on the Bulgars and Burtases in the Middle Volga region and the Khazars in the Lower Volga region, without Svyatoslav’s participation in 968/969 (V.V. Bartold, A. Yu. Yakubovsky, M.I. Artamonov, V.F. Minorsky, A.N. Sakharov). Other historians are of the opinion that there was a single approach, and the description of the PVL, in principle, can be interpreted in the sense that Svyatoslav still reached the center of Khazaria. V. Ya. Petrukhin depicts the campaign as follows: first, the capture of the Vyatichi on the Oka, then along the Volga to the lower reaches, where Itil was defeated, then the ascent along the Volga, to Perevolok to the Don, and the capture of the White Vezha, as well as the subjugation of jars in the Don region and Kasogov in Kubanie. In historiography, the idea was also expressed that part of the troops could be autonomous - from Chernigov or Tmutorokani. I. G. Konovalova noted the likely heterogeneity of the composition of the Russian troops: part - soldiers from Kiev who were freed from the Bulgarian front, part - Rus detachments in the Khazar service in Itil ^[5] .

The sources do not say about the conquest of Taman, but shortly after the campaign the Russian principality of Tmutarakan arose there, which existed until the beginning of the 12th century. The reign of the Khazars on the Volga was restored in the 980s. with the help of Shirvan and Khorezm at the cost of the refusal of the Khazar nobility from Judaism in favor of Islam. In 985, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich made a trip to the Khazaria and imposed tribute to it ^[6] . Soon after this, the Khazaria ceased to exist as a state.

In 2005, on the occasion of the 1040th anniversary of the Khazar campaign of Svyatoslav in the Belgorod region, a monumental sculpture of Prince Svyatoslav was mounted on a horse, striking a Khazar warrior. The monument was created by the sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov .

• Russia (people)
• Russian-Byzantine wars
• Caspian hikes of the Rus