Bulgaria 

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Bulgaria - the land of Bulgars, Slavs and Thracians. Well, going by 
Chronological order: 



The Thracians 
 
Btw that, "Celthian" i.e. Celtic, Kingdom is Tylis. That's where Bulgaria's 
bagpipe tradition, among other things, comes from. 


The earliest people recorded in the Balkans belonged to three tribal groups--the 
Illyrians, Thracians, and Dacians. Historians are still out on the question if 
Thracians and Dacians were the same people or just closely related, Illyrians 
and Thracians were also related and are often refered to as "Thraco-Illyrian". 
A German proverb says, Location is destiny. Bulgaria's location has destined her 
to be in the vortex of history. In the Eastern Mediterranean, which is the home 
of some of the greatest cvilizations the world has ever seen, and at the western 
edge of the Eurasian steppe, which is the melting pot of Eurasia and home to 
some of the greatest wariors that ever lived. 
According to historians, the people of Bulgaria used to trade with the 
Mediterranean, and almost the whole of Europe and Asia as early as 7000 years 
BC. Bulgaria was populated by amazing ancient cultures. In 1972 after a tractor 
accidentally unearthed a stunning Chalcolithic cemetery near {Bulgaria's port 
city} Varna, archaeologists discovered the oldest gold treasure in the world c. 
4500-4000 BC. 
 
If the size of his burial trove and the scepter in his right hand are anything 
to judge by, this 6,000-year-old skeleton was once an important ruler in the 
ancient Balkans. His grave site was excavated along with about 300 other 
burials, stocked with over 3,000 gold artifacts: bracelets, beads, pectorals and 
appliques - the oldest hoard of gold ever found in the world. The rich 
assortment of gold and copper ornaments found in many of the graves reveal that 
Bulgaria was a center of wealth and metallurgy 6 thousand years ago. 
It is assumed that by {approximately} 3200BC Bulgaria was already populated by 
Thracians. 
 
This is what a Thracian warrior is supposed to have looked like. The hat he's 
wearing is a fox­-skin hat. Bulgaria's climate is known for it's hot summers and 
cold winters, the highest mountain peak in the Balkans - Musala, is also in 
Bulgaria. It is cool up there, even on the hottest summer's day. 
 
Here's what Casson says about the difference in climate between Thrace and 
Greece: "The extremes, however, are great. A mean temperature in winter months 
only a little above freezing point, and a summer mean maximum well above 80 
degrees, is such as to eliminate the unfit. Southern Greece has no such 
extremes." It was in southern Thrace that Xenophon operated: "... and a number 
of Greeks lost their noses and ears through frostbite. It was then easy to see 
why the Thracians wear fox-­skins around their heads and ears, and why they have 
tunics {zeira} that cover their legs and not only the upper part of the body." 
{Greek tunics covered only the upper body.} 
It is still possible to see people wearing fox-skin caps in the Rhodope 
Mountains today, although it is very rare now, the ones from the stores are 
cheaper and the better ones are warmer. The high leather boots {embades} were 
also important for the Thracian winter. 



An Indo-European people, the origins of the Thracians are obscure. Bulgaria's 
position at the meeting place of Europe, Africa and Asia, placed her in a region 
which gave birth to countless peoples, cultures, and civilizations. The graves 
of several shan-y?vated in the Selenga River valley in southern Siberia have 
been found to contain remains of Chinese, Persian, and Greek textiles, 
demonstrating the amazing cultural contacts of the steppe nomads who traded with 
some of the world's most advanced civilzations, from Greece to China. The Takla 
Makan Mummies of China are of Caucasoid origin. These 3,000-year-old people 
celebrated fertility in Western China, at reproductive fertility rite ceremony 
sites, where they drew figures virtually identical to 4,000-year-old figures 
found in Bulgaria and the Ukraine. The Horse was first domesticated on the lands 
which were part of the Thracian home range, the Ukranian Steppes, man 
domesticaded horses here between 4500 and 2500 BC. The fierce Cimmerians also 
originated on these lands. Most likely the first ever nomads, the origin of the 
Cimmerians is obscure. Linguistically they are usually regarded as Thracian or 
as Iranian, or at least to have had an Iranian ruling class. They probably lived 
in the area north of the Black Sea. The Cimmerian's culture influenced the 
Celts, 

the Thracians, 

and the Skythians 

who defeated and assimilated the Cimmerians in a 30 year war around the 7th or 
8th centuries BC. Just imagine for a moment, that you are a Thracian living 
around the confluence of the Danube, on the Black Sea coast, trading with Nomads 
who bring in goods from as far away as China, and trading with salesmen who deal 
with Middle-Eastern and north African goods all on the same day. 



As amazing as the oportunities offered by these lands were, the dangers were 
equaly great. Bulgaria's location produced a history which elimites all but the 
strongest. 
 
The Thracians were an awe inspiring people. Until 46 AD {when Thrace became a 
Roman province} the Greeks and Romans lived in fear of a dark Thracian cloud 
descending from the north, devastating civilisation in the Balkans. Fortunately, 
this only happened twice. 
Accordign to Herodotus: "... after the Indian, the Thracian people are the most 
numerous". He goes on to say that: "Were they under one ruler, or united, they 
would, in my judgement be invincible and the strongest nation on earth." 
But the Thracians never united. And that cost them dearly. The destiny of 
Bulgaria's lands is such as to mercilessly punish any weakness. The price that 
the Thracians paid for their failure to unite as one nation, was an end to their 
independent existence, the ultimate price. The Thracians did not unite into a 
single nation untill they were assimilated into the state of the Salvs and 
Bulgars. The Bulgars who's national conciousness helped them found not one but 3 
states by the same name. The Thracians contributed greatly to the new state, 
they passed on a lot of their culture, customs, and traditions to the new 
nation. But it was a new nation, not a Thracian one. It was that 
Thraco-Slavo-Bulgarian nation, that managed to survive 1300+ years as a single 
unified nation, withstanding everything Bulgaria's location could throw at it. 
But long before the Bulgars crushed Byzantine to found their state south of the 
Danube, the Thracians had these lands all unto themselves. 
  
These two artifacts are dated to aproximately between 5000 and 4100 BC. They 
hold inscriptions which, are older then the oldest inscriptions on the island of 
Crete, and could easily be the oldest writing in all of Europe. 
Probably in the III-rd millennium BC, the Thracian language formed a close group 
with the Baltic {resp. Balto-Slavic}, and the "Pelasgian" languages. More 
distant were its relations with the other Indo-European languages, and 
especially with Greek, the Italic and Celtic languages, which exhibit only 
isolated phonetic similarities with Thracian; the Tokharian and the Hittite were 
also distant. 
The Pelasgians were a pre-Hellenic people who inhabited the area of modern 
Greece long before the Greek migrations to the area started.The Dorians claimed 
that the Ionians were Pelasgian or at least mainly so, and that they themselves 
(Dorians) were true Greeks. It is unclear just how closely (or not) Thracians 
and Pelasgians were related, or how closely (if at all) the Pelasgian and 
Mycenaean cultures were related. 
Today Thracian is known mainly from proper names, glosses in Greek writings, and 
a small number of inscriptions, some of which appear on coins; these sources 
date from as early as the 6th century BC. It is assumed that the Thracians had 
no alphabet of their own. Maybe the Thracian ruling elite did have something, 
maybe they didn't, we don't know. The few inscriptions in Thracian that we have, 
were made using the Greek alphabet. 
 
This inscription was found in the 1912 excavation of a mound near the village of 
Ezero, Prvomaj district. Dated at around the V-th c. BC, it consists of eight 
lines and 61 letters engraved on a golden ring. There were over 20 different 
attempts at translating it. 
Another golden ring, probably dating to the V-th c. BC, was found next to the 
left hand of a skeleton in the Arabadzhjiska mound at the village of Duvanli, 
Plovdiv district. The Thracian Hero {Horseman} is clearly depicted on the ring 
but an inscription surrounding the image is very smudged. The text is: "eys, ie 
' dele, mezenai" and here's one attempt at translating it: 
'(You) powerful, help ' protect, (you) horseman!' 
The image of the horseman clarifies the word mezena as meaning 'a horseman'. The 
Thracian mezena {mezenai in the text} is almost identical to the name {the 
epithet} of the Messapian deity of {Iuppiter} Menzana, the 'horse deity' to 
which were sacrificed horses. It also corresponds to the Albanian {The Albanians 
are direct descendants of Illirians, who's language is some times included in a 
common, Thraco-Illiran group.} mess, mezi {'a stallion'} and the Romanian 
{Latinized Dachian} mnz {'a stallion'}. The latter is Dacian in origin from the 
mend(i)- 'a horse'. The Thracian mezena and the Messapian Menzana - from the 
mendiana mean 'a horseman'. 
The last traces of the Thracian language surviving today are place names, such 
as the Bulgarian river names: Iskr, Panega, Osm, Etr {Jantra}, Ibr {the upper 
course of Marica}, Marica {Hebros (The continent of 'Europe' was named after the 
river 'Hebrus' or 'Hebros' a.k.a. 'Éśros'.)}, Strjama, Tundzha, Arda, Struma, 
Nestenica {Mesta?s tributary}, and Bregalnica. Then there are the names of 
mountains: Ossogovo and Rhodopes. The ancient name of the Balkan mountains - 
Hemus, has survived in the rare form of Im{-planina=mountain in Bulgarian}, 
attested by N. Gerov in his ?Dictionary of Bulgarian language? (vol. II, p. 32). 
Thracian are also the names of some settlements: Nessebr, Plovdiv, Silivrija 
{transmitted via the Greek}, etc. There are reasons to believe that Thracian are 
also some geographical names, which were not attested in the ancient sources: 
V?leka {a river}, N?sla {a village, named after the neighboring river}, Batkun 
{a village near the Bulgarian town of Pazardzhik}, Pirdop, etc. 



There isn't much information about events in 3000BC. Most of what we know about 
ancient history comes after the Dorian invasion of Greece circa 1100BC. But what 
we lack in written sources from earlier times, we can make up in treasures. 
 
This hoard of 13 ritual gold vessels, including cups and lids, is dated to 
aproximately 1500 BC and probably belonged to a Thracian king. It is 
distinguished by the simplicity of the shapes of vessels, and also by the 
subtlety of design. Some vessels have closest parallels in Mycenae. It clearly 
testifies for the extensive cultural contacts of Thrace with the Mycenaean 
world. The treasure almost certainly had a strong religious significance. 
Thracian religion centered around life, death, and fertility. Dionysus, the 
Horseman, and Orpheus, are the three most prominent dieties in Thracian worship. 




Dionysus The Thracian 
The god of the here and now, of overwhelming immediacy, who is at the same time 
the god of inexpressible distance, the god of eternity­ the god who holds life 
and death together. The bringer of liberation, ecstasy, inspiration and the most 
blessed deliverance is also the bringer of madness, wildness, terror. 
In his most ancient form Dionysus is a dark and angry god. A phallic diety, 
always depicted with an erect phallus, he is the god who fertilizes the great 
mother godess so that the earth can be born. 
Rituals part of that belief still survive in modern Bulgaria. Most notable among 
them are those from the Strandja mountain range. Specificaly, the festivities 
(orgies) associeted with Saint Marina. According to legend she was born and grew 
up in a cave. Her mother had asked the sun to give her a child, which was born 
in the cave. This legend is a vivid description of ancent beliefs connected to a 
recently discovered cave shaped like a uterus, with an opening through which the 
sun produces the image of a phallus which grows and shrinks seasonaly. Also in 
the same region of Bulgaria, the traditional white Mummer dances with a giant 
red phallus and "fertilizes" the soil. 
Later in history, around the 6th. century BC, Dionysus becomes a much gentler, 
more festive god. The strange legends of his birth and death and his marriage to 
Ariadne, in origin a Cretan goddess, suggest that his origin is of a 
pre-Hellenic, Minoan nature religion. Later, Hellenic tragedy and comedy were 
developed from the Dionysian cult introduced in Greece from Thrace. 
Dionysus was also the god of wine. 
 
"Thracian" seems to have been synonymous with "drinker". The Greeks were 
disgusted by the Thracian custom of drinking vine undiluted with water. You see, 
the Thracians were making wine and drinking it undiluted long before the French 
and Greeks knew a grape from something coming out the southern end of a north 
pointing goat. 
Dionysus died each winter and was reborn every spring, his rebirth was a time of 
great celebration. As Dionysus represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element 
in nature, lavish festal orgies in his honor were widely instituted. These were 
known as Dionysia, a lot later, when the Romans ripped off all of Hellenic 
culture they became known as Bacchanalia, and amongst Romans, Dionysus became 
known as Bacchus. If you like cheap rip offs you can use the Roman names, if you 
like originals, stick to the original Thracian and Greek names. 
The Dionysia custom still survives in modern Bulgaria. When Bulgaria became 
Christian, the church changed all the names of gods and holidays to something 
Christian. In Dionysus' case the new name is St. Trifon. Every year between Feb. 
1st. and 3rd. Bulgarians in the Rhodopa mountains climb a peak, get drunk and 
try to climb back down. Bulgarians from the low lands simply get drunk straight 
away. Somehow the ritual cutting of vines is also involved but I was always too 
drunk to handle a knife. 
 
From what I managed to remember before I got drunk: The vines are blessed, cut 
and sprinkled with wine, all to encourge fertility. 
One of Dionysus' major miracles was turning water into wine. Can you name a 
major modern religion which usurped that miracle? So apparently wine as the 
lifeblood was fine for the Church but orgiastic worship and the maenads had to 
go!?! Hopefuly we can bring both of those back.



The Hero 
The Hero god, also known as the Thracian Horseman, as he was worshiped by the 
Thracians, was not a specific person. Although ancestor worship of real people 
who had done great deeds bled into it, the Thracian Hero was an abstract figure, 
the idea of a Hero. It is this metaphysical entity around which worship 
centered. The Hero was no doubt the central figure in Thracian religion, the 
hope and faith of the people. Their hero was all­seeing and all­hearing, he was 
the sun and also the ruler of the nether world, he was the protector of life and 
health, and kept the forces of evil at bay. In modern Bulgaria he continues to 
perform that function going by the name of St. George. 
The Thracian Hero was depicted all the time, all over the place. Always on a 
horse, slaying something, slaying anything, usually with a spear. Over 1500 
stone reliefs and more than 100 bronze statuettes of the Horseman have been 
uncovered on the territory of present-day Bulgaria. From antiquity, through 
Roman times, through the middle ages, and today, the immage of the Horseman is 
inescapable in Bulgaria. 
The Thracian Hero is also responsible for the Greek word 'Heros' from which the 
English word 'hero' is derived. 
 
This hero-god was a war-god, he was the son of Bendis {The Great Mother of Gods} 
and her lover. He was worshipped at hundreds of sanctuaries, peasants are still 
making pilgrimages to one of Bulgaria's main Thracian Horseman sanctuaries, in 
fact that is how a lot of Thracian archeological sites in Bulgaria have been 
found. Arheologists just followed the local people to the places where they 
performed their "Christian" rituals, in fact the rituals and celebrations were 
{Like St. Trifon} Christian only by name. In most cases the peasants didn't even 
know that the places they went to were ex-Thracian altar sites, they had simply 
been going there since time in memorial, only after the archeologists dug the 
site, did the people see the Thracian altars. 1000 years earlier the Church had 
done a very good job of burying "pagan" alters, and erasing the "pagan" names, 
but it couldn't change, or eliminate the culture and rituals. Today St. George 
is the Hero's new name. You can see images of St. George on a horse, slaying a 
dragon, all over Bulgaria. 
Here's the evolution of the Thracian Hero over the centuries. 

 
The Thracian Horseman. 
.. 
 
The Madara Rider. 
 
St. George. 



Bendis 
 
The Great Mother Goddess 
Goddess of the Moon 
The fierce Huntress of the Two Spears 
Bendis, the Thracian goddess of the moon, as well as a The Great Mother Goddess. 
She had power of heaven and earth. The Greeks equated her with their goddess 
Artemis. Her cult involved orgiastic rites. She was the mother of The Hero, she 
is often represented holding two spears. Apart from Thrace, the cult of Bendis 
gained prominence only in Athens. The Athenians allowed the founding of a 
sanctuary for the goddess and shortly afterward created a state festival, the 
Bendideia, for her, it provided the dramatic setting for Plato's Republic. 



Orpheus 
The Poet of Rhodope 
Born in the Rhodopes, traditionally Orpheus was the son of a Muse {probably 
Calliope, the patron of epic poetry} and Oeagrus, a king of Thrace {other 
versions give Apollo}. According to some legends, Apollo gave Orpheus his first 
lyre. Orpheus' singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees 
and rocks moved about him in dance. 
Orpheus joined the expedition of the Argonauts, saving them from the music of 
the Sirens by playing his own, more powerful music. On his return he married the 
beautiful nymph Eurydice. But on their wedding day a poisonous snake bit her and 
she died. Desperate to be reunited with his beloved Eurydice, Orpheus journeyed 
to the Underworld to beg the king and queen there to return Eurydice to him. As 
he sang his plea and played his lyre, even the cold spirits of the Underworld 
wept. The king and queen granted the couple permission to leave together on the 
condition that Orpheus must not look back at Eurydice until they were both 
completely out of the Underworld. Silently they made the arduous, dark climb. 
But at the opening to the world, Orpheus, in his love for Eurydice, turned and 
looked at her. She slipped back into the darkness. Orpheus returned to his 
world, where his music became even more moving, reflecting his suffering over 
the loss of Eurydice. He wandered despondent through the woods and refused the 
love of other women. He refused the advances of Thracian Maenads, of the 
Ciconian tribe. This so angered them that they, in an omophagiastic Dionysia, 
tore Orpheus to pieces and tossed his head and lyre into the Hebrus river. Still 
singing out the name of Eurydice, his head floated out to sea, floated to 
Lesbos, where an oracle of Orpheus was established. The head prophesied until 
the oracle became more famous than that of Apollo at Delphi, at which time 
Apollo himself bade the Orphic oracle stop. The dismembered limbs of Orpheus 
were gathered up and buried by the Muses. His lyre they had placed in the 
heavens as a constellation. Orpheus' shade passed a second time into Tartarus, 
where he sought out his Eurydice and embraced her with eager arms. They roam the 
happy fields together now, sometimes he leading, sometimes she; and Orpheus 
gazes as much as he will upon her, no longer incurring a penalty for a 
thoughtless glance. 
Today in Bulgaria, there's the annual "Golden Orpheus" international competition 
for pop songs and singers and the Children's Orpheus days. The children's days 
thing also has something to do with music, not omophagia... I think. 



Baba Marta 
 
According to modern tradition, March is an angry old lady who rapidly changes 
her mood from bad to good and back again. She is Grandmother Marta, in Bulgarian 
"Baba Marta." People believe also that Baba Marta would visit only a very clean 
and tidy house. That's why people clean their houses thoroughly at the end of 
February. Symbolically this is a spring cleaning from all bad, old and unfertile 
stuff from the past year. Baba Marta had specific requirements to the people she 
was going to meet the very first day in March. The old people didn't go out 
early in the morning because they could get her mad. She liked to meet young 
girls and women on the first of March which meant that the weather would be warm 
and nice. 
On the first of March everybody should wear martenitsa, especially young 
children, just married couples or newly born domestic animals. Some of the fruit 
trees, the handles of the door, the vineyard also have their own martenitsa. 
Regional variations of this custom have special places where you can put 
martenitsa: on the wrists, on your neck as a necklace or on your left side of 
your dress. In some regions of Bulgaria there are special amulets according to 
people's social status. Young unmarried girls wear their martenitsa on the left 
side of their dress whereas young unmarried lads wear them on their left hand 
small finger, married men put martenitsa in their right sock. Martenitzas from 
Moesia are red and white, in Macedonia and Thrace traditionaly they are red and 
black. {Many Thracian tombs are painted in red and black.} Red is a color 
thought to posses magical qualites. 
People wear martenitsa for a certain period of time. Usually the end of the 
period is connected with the first signs of the coming spring - blossomed trees, 
meeting of the first spring birds like storks, swallows or cranes. Then people 
remove their martenitsa and tie them to a blossomed fruit tree. 


The custom originated with the ancient Thracians, and the first martenitzas had 
silver or gold coins attached to them. The exact origins of the ritual are 
obsucre. It is theorized that wars began as the days got warmer in March. 
Wariors wore Martenitzas as amulets which offered protection from injury. The 
colors symbolized life and death. 
Some people theorize that originaly, in Thracian times, "Baba Marta" didn't mean 
Grandmother Marta, but that it refered to the Thracian God Ares a.k.a. Mars. 
"Baba" in old Bulgarian means father/old man/clan leader. Other languages have 
simmilar sounding words: baba=father in Turkish, and papa=father in many Eurpean 
languages. Honerign God Mars {or Mart, or Marco, or Ares}, who was one of the 
chief Thracian dieties, involved natural formations: Rock formations connected 
to water, springs, rivers, etc. {One main Bulgarian river is called Marica.} 
Martenizas were an importan part of everyone's attire during the moth of Mars. 
At the end of the month the Martenitza was most often tied on a tree near a 
spring or brook and in this way Mars was asked to bless and bring health to the 
wearer of the Marteniza. 



Kuker
The Mummer 
 
The Bulgarian ritual, known as kukeri, is of Thracian origins and consists of 
elaborately masked performers who transverse the village to ward off evil and 
insure fertility. 
 
At each house they are treated to food and drink. The esoteric meaning in KUKERI 
is that through a prayer to the god of vegetation together with magical 
operations there may be obtained a sympathetic influence over nature using the 
energy of phallic dances performed within orgiastic rites as well as in the 
final act of plowing and sowing (which is the same through the direct magical 
connection phallus-plow / vagina-earth / semen-grain) in order to increase 
fertility. As recently as the end of the 19th century, the importance of the 
Kukeri was so considerable that fightings between two different Kukeri groups 
from neighboring villages often resulted in real, not imitative murders. 
 
The main goal of any self respecting kuker is to make as much noise as possible, 
the cow bells around the hips of this procession of kukers is sure to aid in 
that goal. 
 
More bells, more noise, more is better. 
 
Here's some more masks. Today the whole thing is a once yearly event, around 
newyears with a lot of dancing, screaming, and shaking from side to side (the 
heavy swaying of the main mummer is meant to represent wheat heavy with grain). 



The Greeks could not conceive that a god as blood?thirsty and wild as Ares could 
be a product of the Greek imagination. He must be, they presumed, Thracian. 
Other Thracian gods include Boreas the wind god, Zalmoxis, and many other 
deities. I don't have the resources to do a complete treatment on Thracian 
religion. But I will conclude this short overview by quoting Herodotus: "This 
same people {The Thracians}, when it lightens and thunders, aim their arrows at 
the sky, uttering threats against the gods..." 
He also informs us that when a child was born, the Trausi {"who in all else 
fulfil the customs of other Thracians"} lament for the ills it must suffer "but 
the dead they bury with jollity and gladness, for the reason that he is quit of 
so many ills and is in perfect blessedness." In Bulgaria today, despite 
Christianity and the sadness that comes with every death, burials still have a 
festive feel to them. It was because of their religion, that strange mix of 
Dionysian madness and deliverance, and Hero-worship, that the Thracians calmly 
and even of their own will accepted death. 



We don't know many deatails about Thracian history before 500BC. It is around 
513BC-512BC that Darius invades Thrace in preparation for the war which would 
end up giving the Greeks a national consciousness. The Thracians did not offer 
much if any resistance to the Persians because they knew Darius was out to get 
the Greeks, the Thracian city of Doriscus was relinqushed without a fight. The 
Getae did offer some resistance but it was crushed. That would establish a 
pattern in Thracian history. The tribes never unifed fell one by one to foreign 
invades. Although no one ever quite managed to controll them all simultaniously. 
One or two big tribes would be conqered but another two or at leat one would 
resist or rebel and generaly make life miserable for the would be conqerors. But 
divided Thracian tribes would fall. The harsh history of the Balkans tolerates 
no weakness, especialy not disunity. 
Around 490-479 BC Xerxes set out to fight the Greeks. When passing through 
Thrace the Thracians knew that Xerxes's primary goal was to destroy the powerful 
city of Athens, far to the south, and so they offered no resistance to the 
Persian army. 
Persian control over Thrace was rather loose. After the Persian Wars, in 480-460 
BC the first powerful Thracian state was founded by King Teres, the Kingdom of 
the Odrysae. Teres managed to unite the many Thracian tribes under his rule and 
to include in his realm the area of eastern Thrace, plus other regions as far as 
the Danube. Teres was the first Thracian king to unify several of the big 
powerful Thracian tribes, starting with his own Odrisians. As Herodotus informs 
us: "Teres, the father of Sitalces, was the first to establish the great kingdom 
of the Odrysians on a scale quite unknown to the rest of Thrace, a large portion 
of the Thracians being independent." Herodotus also informs us that Teres' 
daughter marries Octamasadas, the Skythian king. There is evidence which sugest 
a close cultural conection between the hero-horseman worshiping Thracians and 
the nomadic Skytians. Teres created a mighty army and forged political and 
comercial relations with the Greek cities, the Macedonians and the Scythian 
chieftains. 
 
This is a Thracian treasure from the end of the 5th c. BC, found near Plovdiv. 



Teres was succeeded by his son, Sitalkes (455-424 BC), as energetic and powerful 
a leader as his father. Some Thracian tribes which had defected, such as the 
Thyni, the Asti, the Nipsaii and others, were forced to acknowledge his 
sovereignty. The frontiers of the kingdom spread from the Strymon to the Euxine 
Ponttus and from the Aegean to the Danube. He built up a large army and cavalry 
and laid many roads for the development of trade. 
In 431 BC, through the mediation of Nymphodoros from Abdera Sitalkes allied with 
the Athenians, and in 429 BC organized a campaign against the Macedonians, with 
100,000 infantry and 50,000 cavalry. In late autumn 429 BC, in response to an 
Athenian request for help, Sitalkes' 150,000 warriors poured into Macedonia, 
carrying all before them. Travelling with the army were Amyntas, the nephew of 
the Macedonian king Perdiccas, and Hagnon, an Athenian general. Sitalkes 
proposed to install Amyntas as the new King of Macedonia, while Hagnon was to 
command the allied Athenian fleet and army. Alarm spread throughout Greece. The 
peoples of central and northern Greece prepared for war; terrified Athenian 
enemies further south discussed what to do in the face of a combined Athenian 
?Thracian army. However, Sitalkes had reached the Chalcidian peninsula (the 
three tongued land spit near Thessalonica) to find that no Athenian army and 
fleet awaited him. This was because either (as Thucydides says) the Athenians 
didn?t expect Sitalkes to fulfil his promise to attack the Chalcidian cities, or 
because the Athenians were frightened by the size of Sitalkes? army. Without the 
Athenians, Sitalkes was unable to take the Chalcidian cities. Instead, he forced 
the inhabitants to retire behind their fortifications while he ravaged their 
land for eight days. At the same time, as his army was running short of food and 
suffering from cold, he opened negotiations with Perdicaas. Perdicaas bribed 
Sitalkes? nephew and second in command, Seuthes, to advise a retreat. Sitalkes 
took Seuthes? advice, and, after only thirty days, the campaign ended. 
As powerful a king as Sitalkes was, Thracian nationhood eluded him. The powerful 
north-western Thracian tribe, the Triballi, were not part of his kingdom. A few 
years after the Macedonian campaign, during a battle with the fierce Triballi, 
Sitalkes was slain in battle. 
One recently discovered Thracian sanctuary, believed to be the largest yet found 
in the area of the Balkan peninsula, probably belongs to Sitalkes I. 
 
Sitalkes was very rich - his annual income was about half that of the Athenian 
empire at its height. 



Later Seuthes married the Macedonian king Perdicaas? daughter and succeeded 
Sitalkes, but the Thracians were a very independed minded people and Seuthes was 
unable to keep Sitalkes? empire intact. A modern Bulgarian proverb says: "It's 
not important if I'm well, what is important is that my neighbor is worse off 
then me." That's the spirit that kept the Thracians divided and cost them dearly 
in the long run. 
Athens encouraged rival Odrysian princes to fight one another so that the 
Athenians could retain control of the coastal cities. 
During the reign of Seuthes I (424 - 415 BC) the kingdom of the Odrysae enjoyed 
a period of prosperity and glory. The king's gold and silver coinage bear 
witness to the accumulation of wealth from the sale of agricultural and animal 
produce, and the mining of metal ores. Thucydides remarks characteristically 
(II, xcvii, 5): "Consequently the kingdom attained to a great degree of power". 
The Athenians sought the friendship of Seuthes I, for which reason they declared 
him an Athenian citizen. He also maintained amicable relations with all the 
neighbouring peoples. 
On Seuthes' death the Odrysian state lost its unity and was divided into three 
parts, ruled by Amadokos, Maides and Euryzelmes I. Xenophon describes his 
meeting with Maisasades' son, Seuthes II (405-391 BC) and refers to the 
agreement with the Thracians, their joint operations against the Thyni and 
Seuthes' violation of the agreement, which forced the Greeks to return to Asia 
Minor. 



Kotys I (384-359 BC) was an ally of the Athenians and gave his daughter as a 
bride to the general Iphikrates, for helping him establish his authority from 
the Strymon to the Euxine Pontus. 
This treasure was a gift given by Kotis I ( 383 - 359 BC.) to a local Gethic 
ruler. It consists of five vessels, some of which are presented on the 
jug-rhyton. This fact allows a suggestion to be made that the treasure 
represents a ceremonial set, designed for those initiated into the mysteries 
aboout the Thracians'belief in immortality. The amphora-rhyton is decorated with 
images ordered in two friezes, one under the other, which encircle its entire 
surface. The central composition, a ritual feast in which Dionisis, his mother 
Semela, the God Zalmoxis, two eroses-cupbearers and an old Silen are 
participating, is situated on the lower frieze. On the upper one a Dionisian 
procession of singing and dancing maenads, silens and satyrs is presented. There 
is a dotted inscription on the jug's neck: KOTYOSEXBE 
 
Found in 1974, near Borovo, it consists of a set of five silver-gilt wine 
vessels dating from ca.375-350 BC. Included are three rhyta or drinking vessels 
with their lower ends {protomes} shaped as a horse, a bull, and a sphinx. There 
are also a large two-handled cup, and an amphora-rhyton with scenes from the 
mysteries of Dionysus. Four of the vessels are inscribed in Greek, saying they 
were given to the Thracian king Kotys I by inhabitants of the town of Beos in 
southeastern Thrace. 
Kotis I later dissolved his alliance with the Athenians and took control of the 
Thracian Chersonese, together with the Athenian naval base of Sestos. After his 
assassination he was succeeded by his son, Kersobleptes (359-341 BC). In order 
to curb his power the Athenians supported his brothers, Bresides and Amadokos, 
and forced him to share his kingdom with them. In the beginning Kersobleptes 
assisted Philip II to capture Amphipolis, but later he became an ally of the 
Athenians. In the end he was subjugated by the Macedonians. Philip gradually 
captured all the great cities of Thrace - Abdera, Maroneia, Ainos, Perinthos and 
Byzantion. He also managed to conquer most of the rest of Thrace. {He's also 
supposed to have killed the last lion in the Europe, when he was hunting in 
Thrace. (Oh yes, the Eurasian Lion ranged from India all the way to the Balkans 
and today there's a tiny pocket of lions still living wild in India.)} Phillip 
conquered the Thracian city of Pulpudeva and renamed it Philippopolis. {Philip's 
City} 
 
But when the Slavs invaded, they re-renamed it Plovdiv. {Once again, the mangled 
Slavic pronunciation, of the Thracian word Pulpudeva. (Pulpudeva --> Puldiv --> 
Puldin --> Plovdiv)} but Philip's attempt to conquer the Tribali went horribly 
wrong. 



During the 1st millennium BC the Macedonian region was populated by a mixture of 
peoples--Thracians, Illyrians, and Greeks. Between 356BC and 342BC Philip II of 
Macedon would venture deep into Thrace. He would also conquer most of Greece, 
creating the League of Corinth, an offensive and defensive alliance of all the 
Greek states except Sparta, organized in 337 BC. The Greeks hated the barbarian 
Philip, and were especialy agrivated by his thick accent when speaking Greek. 
Philip II tried to force a passage through the Triballi's land. But they 
inflicted a heavy defeat on him, scaring him for life. 
 
Philip was pursued by the Thracians. He ordered the rear rank, when the 
trumpeter sounded to retreat, to lower its spears and remain in place, and the 
rest to retreat, in order to stop the enemy's pursuers and to provide a head 
start for his own men. 



The biggest find of it's kind, amassed by the Triballoi {Triballi} from the 5th. 
century BC to the middle of the 4th. century BC. discovered in the winter of 
1985/86 in northwest Bulgaria, the gorgeous Thracian Treasure from Rogozen is 
the largest single collection of ancient treasure ever found in Europe. 
 
The 165 pieces of silver in this hoard weigh almost 20 kilograms. The great 
majority of objects were phialai and jugs, 
 
thirty-one of which are gilded, one of the gilded vessels is inscribed "Property 
of Cersebleptes". The Rogozen items were found in two groups of 100 and 65, 
placed five meters apart at only 0.4 meters depth. This immense hoard, includes 
vessels from specific workshops in Anatolia, Eastern Greece, Southern Thrace 
{Odryssi}, and Northwestern Thrace. Most of the jugs are native Thracian, with 
the great majority taken from other Thracian burial mounds or tumuli. Scenes 
depicted include a remarkable 'boar hunting' scene, 
 
and the Great Thracian Goddess shown riding a lioness, 
 
elsewhere in a quadriga, or 4-horse chariot. 
 
Many Rogozen Treasure vessels are inscribed in Greek with punched lettering, 
 
showing several royal Thracian names and geographical sites in southeast Thrace. 

 




When Philip II of Macedon died, his son, Alexander the Great set out to conquer 
the world. 
 
He succeeded his father as head of the league of Corinth. The Greek contribution 
of soldiers to Alexander's Asian campaign was neither significant nor 
dependable. That's why the first thing he had to do, was conquer the Triballi, 
he was afraid they would attack him from the back, once he went east. Alexander 
succeeded in conquering the Triballi and the Thracians provided him with 
valuable light-armed troops during his conquests. Many promiment Thracians took 
part in Alexander the Great's campaign, such as the Odrysian Sitalkes who 
followed Alexander with cavalry, peltasts and lighly armed foot-soldiers. 
Alexander's conquests would take him as far as Bukhara. 
But the Thracian tribes didn't remain quiet for long. The Getae were formidable 
warriors, they successfully fought off Alexander the Great when he attempted to 
quell a rebellion amongst their southern neighbors, the Triballi. The Getae 
remained a thorn in the side of the Macedonians for decades. 
During Alexander's expedition, Thrace fell again under the sway of Seuthes III, 
King of the Odrysians, and it was only in 313 that the Macedonian supremacy was 
re-established by Lysimachus. 
Here's a treasure thought to Belong to King Seuthes III. 
 
Discovered accidentally in 1949 near Panagyurishte by workmen digging up clay 
for the production of bricks. Made of pure gold, it weighs 6.164 kg. The 
amphora-rhyton, the four rhytons shaped like animal heads or fore-parts and 
decorated with mythological scenes, the three jugs-rhytons shaped like women's 
heads and the phiale decorated with a black head and acorns compose a ceremonial 
set. Here's three close ups of some of the items: 
 
 
After the death of Alexander the Great, Lysimachos assumed the administration of 
Thrace. In 309 BC he built a new state capital, Lysimacheia, which lay a short 
distance from the Melana GuIf and the Propontis, for which reason it became a 
thriving commercial centre. In 306 BC he declared himself King of Thrace and, 
following his victory at Ipsos, became master of a large part of Asia Minor. By 
waging war against Demetrios and Pytrhos he added Macedonia and part of Thessaly 
to his realm. Lysimachos was defeated and killed at the battle of Koros, fought 
against Philetairos and his son Alexander in 281 BC. He was succeeded by the 
Ptolemy Keraunos, who married Lysimachos' widow, Arsinoe. 
In 280 BC the Galatian incursions into Macedonia and Thrace began. Ptolemy was 
taken prisoner and murdered. The Gauls (Celts) continued their predatory raids 
and managed to create a state in Thrace, in 273 BC, with Tylis or Thylis as 
capital and Komontorios as ruler. Antigonos Gonatas, King of Macedonia, drove 
out the Gauls from the Chersonese and captured Lysimacheia. The Gauls passed 
into Asia Minor and settled in the northern pan of Great Phrygia, where they 
built their capital, Ankara. 
In 180 BC Kotys II became King of the Odrysae and allied with Perseas against 
the Romans, assisting his army in the battle of Pydna (168 BC). After Perseas' 
defeat and the break up of the Macedonian state, Kotys made a truce with the 
Romans and acknowledged their sovereignty. The Romans were in no hurry to make 
Thrace a Roman province, but all its kings were their vassals and instruments, 
such as Kotys III, Raiskouporis I, Raskos, Roimetalkes I and Raiskouporis II. 
During the reign of the last king there was a revolt of the Bessi, led by the 
priest at the Oracle of Dionysos. Raiskouporis II was killed by the rebels, 
while Roimetalkes I was saved in the Chersonese. With the help of the Romans he 
supressed the uprising and became king of all Thrace(7 BC -AD12). 
The next king, Kotys IV (AD 12-19), was surnamed the Great. He was a friend and 
ally of Augustus. His court at Vizye was frequented by orators, authors, poets, 
painters and musicians. The poet Ovid, in one of his letters, praises the 
virtues of King Kotys. After his death the Romans shared Thrace between 
Raiskoupores III and Kotys V. However, because the first assassinated the 
second, he was exiled by Tberius and died in Alexandria, Egypt. Thrace remained 
divided, its heirs being Roimetalkes II and the sons of Kotys V. 
Another revolt of the Thracians against Roimetalkes II was quashed by the 
Romans. In AD 38 the next Roman emperor, Caligula gave the throne to Roimetalkes 
III, who was the last King of Thrace. When his wife was murdered in AD 46 the 
Romans dissolved the Thracian state for ever and declared Thrace a Roman 
province. 
The Thracians never put a Thracian nation above their tribe, but they were a 
freedom loving people and for a very long period individual tribes repelled the 
attempts of the Roman empire to conquer them. Thracian disunity ensured that 
Rome allied with some Thracian kings while fighting others but despite this 
Thracian weakess it was two centuries after they first set foot on the Balkans, 
that the Romans finally succeeded in subjugating all Thracian lands. 
Even after Rome "conquered" it, Thrace remained a wild and woolly place: the 
birthplace of the violent war god, Ares, the home of the man-eating mares of 
Diomedes. The geography of the Balkans not only protected and preserved the 
Thracians over the millenia, it also shrouded them in mystery and awe. The 
Thracians "were regarded as warlike, ferocious, and savagely bloodthirsty". 
Warlike temper, courage, and soldierly qualities are generally recognized to 
have been characteristic of the Thracians. The Thynians and Bithynians were 
Thracian immigrants from the opposite shore, and had the same characteristics as 
their European cousins, savage hardihood, wild abandonment to the frenzy of 
religion and war. The terror of them kept the Greeks from making any settlement 
along their coast from Calchdon to Heraclea, and woe betide any mariner driven 
there. Could there be a more convincing personification of Ares' spirit than the 
warlike Thracians? As early as the seventh century BC the poet Achilochus called 
the Thracians {in this case Abantes}, the gods of battle. And was not ashamed to 
admit having once fled from the field, leaving his shield as booty to a Thracian 
warrior. The ancients were hard put to it to decide which of the Thracian tribes 
was the most valiant: the Getae, Odomanti, Thyni, or Odrysae. 



All Thracian tribes built amazing tombs for their rulers. The burial mounds in 
the Kazanluk area alone number more than 500. Most of the Thracian tombs are of 
the Mycenaean beehive type. 
 
Built in the first half of the 3rd century BC, for a Thracian king, the tomb 
from Svesthari is richly ornamented. The chamber was decorated as a facade of a 
temple which depicted a horseman who takes a golden garland from the hands of a 
goddess with a religious procession following her. Two funerary beds, human 
bones and grave offerings were discovered in the central chamber. It probably 
belongs to the Getae tribe. 



The Kazanluk tomb on the other hand, probably belongs to the Odrysian tribe. 
   
Built in the 4th century BC. it's murals depict three racing chariots and the 
rites of the burial feast. It's located near Kazanluk in the Valley of Roses. 



The latest Thracian tomb to be opened {Another 80 to 100 thousand still to go!} 
is located near the village of Aleksandrovo and is dated to approximately the 
first half of the IV century BC. 
 
The Thracian horseman/hero is depicted on the hunt. 
 
The twin-bladed axe, 
 
the elk and the dogs, 
 
are all symbols of the ruler's power. 
 
Not all the tombs in Bulgaria belong to Thracian kings, an estimated 22 Thracian 
tribes had a heredetary monarchy. Of the 70 tombs that have been excavated, most 
are dated between the 3rd. millenium BC and the IV century AD. 



This is a tomb from Silistra, it contains a 
 
Thracian vaulted sepulchre dating back to the 4th c. The rich mural painting 
decoration depict geometrical, animal and human figures, hunting scenes, a 
family couple and their maid-servants. 



After Thrace became a Roman province, the Triballi retained enough strength to 
cause trouble to the Roman governors of Macedonia. Many rebelions against the 
Roman empire broke out in Thrace. According to Florus [Florus II, XXVII], after 
one of these rebellions had been crushed, "[the Thracians] showed their mad rage 
even in captivity; for they punished their own savagery by trying to bite 
through their fetters." 
It is most likely here that the history of Thracians and Dachians diverges most. 
Some of the Thracians were Latinized by the Roman empire, they were called 
Vlachs. But the Dachians were much more thoroughly Latinized by Rome. It is 
possible the deals Rome made with some Thracian kings to conquer other Thracian 
tribes, the wide degree of independence Thrace preserved for a long time within 
the empire, and the constant Thracian rebellions against Rome, are all reasons 
why, unlike the Dachians, most of the Thracians were not Latinized. In fact the 
term 'Vlach' still has somewhat of a negative meaning in Bulgaria today. It is 
possible Thracians who were Latinized were marginalized by the rest. The 
Romanians, {Romania means 'land of the Romans'.} on the other hand, are proud of 
their Latin heritage today. Romanian is the closest to Latin, in a grammatical 
sense, of all the Romance languages. 



The Thracians had a strong influence on Roman history and culture, for one, 
there were the Gladiators. The gladiator was often 
 
the object of female adoration. This is clear in the following graffiti from 
Pompeii: Celadus the Thracian, three times victor and three times crowned, 
adored by young girls. 
And the most famous of all the gladiators Spartacus, was a Thracian. Spartacus, 
it seems most likely, came from the Medi tribe which inhabited the areas along 
the Strouma River. Most of the insurgent slaves in the great slave uprising 
{74-71 BC} were Thracians and Gauls. 
And could the Roman empire have expanded, as much as it did, without the sons of 
Ares? 
Virgil, Aeneid 
Then, fearing guilt for some offense unknown,
With pray'rs and vows the Dryads I atone,
With all the sisters of the woods, and most
The God of Arms, who rules the Thracian coast,
That they, or he, these omens would avert,
Release our fears, and better signs impart.

The Thracians were employed in the Roman auxiliary troops, and from the second 
century onwards in the legions. 
It was the Thracian armies which secured the throne for Emperor Septimius 
Severus. Finally, the first barbarian who became Caesar {Emperor} was Maximinus 
the Thracian. In 235 AD, the legions raised him to the purple. Maximinus had 
begun his career as a common soldier. According to the legends about him, he was 
eight-and a-half feet tall, could crumble stones in his hands and break a 
horse's leg with a kick of his heel, and each day ate forty Pounds of meat and 
drank nearly eight gallons of wine. {Your typical Thracian, in other words.} 
Thrace and the Thracians were thriving as a part of the Roman empire in the 3rd 
century AD, but only one century later, Rome would fall to the Hunnish tribal 
confederacy and Thrace would be invaded by Slavs and Bulgars... 



The Slavs 
The most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe, extending 
from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean. There are two subdivisions of Slavs. 
East and west Slavs. The south Slavs are a completely geographic division. West 
and east Slavs migrated south and were later separated by Hungary and Romania, 
in this purely geographic division, Bulgarians {though of mixed origin} belong 
to the east Slavs while Serbs, Croats and Slovenes are west Slavs. 
 
The origins of the Slavs are obscure, a long, long, long time ago, somewhere at 
the border of Europe and Asia, in the far north, Caucasoid people originated, 
then the Slavs forced the other Caucasoid peoples to move west and south. Around 
5000 to 3000 BC, the Slavs expanded further west, occupying the best {most 
fertile} land, which was mainly the east European steppes. Thus the Slavs became 
the biggest body of peoples in Europe. Socially the Slavs were organized as 
exogamous clans {based on marriages outside blood relationship} or, more 
properly, as sibs {groups of lineages with common ancestry} since marriage did 
not cancel membership in the clan of one's birth--a type of organization unique 
among Indo-European peoples. The elected chief did not have executive powers. 
The world had been created, in the Slavic view, once and for all, and no new law 
ought to modify the way of life transmitted by their ancestors. Since the social 
group was not homogeneous, validity and executive power were attributed only to 
decisions taken unanimously in an assembly, and the deliberations in each 
instance concerned only the question of conformity to tradition. Ancient Slavic 
civilization was one of the most conservative known on earth. 
A sedentary, agricultural people, the Slavs were dominated in succession by the 
Scythians and the Sarmatians {both Iranian tribes}. Both Scythians and 
Sarmatians, being nomadic peoples, didn't do much actual ruling, their 
domination expressed itself mostly as raiding, that's what nomads do. Never the 
less, this ancient Iranian influence has left a strong mark on all the Slavs. 
Just a few examples are words like "Bog" {God in Slavic and an Indo-Iranian word 
signifying riches, abundance, and good fortune.} and "mir" {In Slavic peace and 
cosmos (Space station MIR, get it now?), also the ancient Iranian god of love 
and peace.} which are thought to be of ancient Iranian origin. 
The Slavs are a Nordic people, but over the millennia they have mixed heavily 
with Iranian peoples, the Skythians, Sarmatians, then the tribal confederacy of 
the Huns which also included Turkic and Mongolian tribes, etc. Here's how a 
Greek historian by the name of "Prokopije" describes the Slavs bordering 
Byzantine territory: 
"The Slavs are tall and of slim stature, as well as sturdy. Their complexion is 
not exactly white, nor dark, but rather between fair and olive." 
Obviously there is a lot of variation amongst Slavs, some being more olive and 
others more Nordic. Those Slavs who have been smack in the middle of the way of 
the Skythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Kozaks, etc. are generally 
mostly olive and those more out of the way, in the far north, are generally very 
Nordic. 
No one knows for sure what the word "Slav" is supposed to mean. In all the 
Slavic languages, it and its derivations have many meanings - 'glory', 'word', 
etc. The most likely meaning is "The speaking ones". Because in Slavic, the 
words 'German' and 'mute' are synonymous. As Slavs and Germans have been 
neighbors for a looong time, it is thought that the Slavs referred to their 
neighbors as mute because they could not understand their language, and called 
themselves the speaking ones. 
Speaking of things common to all Slavs, rituals and belief still alive today in 
most if not all modern Slavic nations have very ancient origins: 



According to a primitive Slavic belief, a forest spirit, leshy, regulates and 
assigns prey to hunters. Its food-distributing function may be related to an 
archaic divinity. Though in early times the leshy was the protector of wild 
animals, in later ages it became the protector of flocks and herds. In early 
20th-century Russia, if a cow or a herdsman did not come back from pasture, the 
spirit was offered bran and eggs to obtain a safe return. Equally ancient is the 
belief in a tree spirit that enters buildings through the trunks of trees used 
in their construction. Every structure is thus inhabited by its particular 
spirit: the domovoy in the house, the ovinnik in the drying-house, the gumenik 
in the storehouse, and so on. The belief that either harmful or beneficial 
spirits dwell in the posts and beams of houses is still alive in the historic 
regions of Bosnia and Slovenia and the Poznan area of west central Poland. Old 
trees with fences around them are objects of veneration in Serbia and Russia and 
among the Slavs on the Elbe River. In 19th-century Russia a chicken was 
slaughtered in the drying house as a sacrifice to the ovinnik. This vegetal 
spirit is also present in the sheaf of grain kept in the "sacred corner" of the 
dwelling under the icon and venerated along with it, and also in noncultivated 
plant species that are kept in the house for propitiation or protection, such as 
branches of the birch tree and bunches of thistle. Such practices evidence the 
preagrarian origin of these beliefs. Similar to the leshy are the field spirit 
(polevoy), and, perhaps, the water spirit (vodyanoy). Akin to the domovoy are 
the spirits of the auxiliary buildings of the homestead. But lets go to the 
Gods: 



Rod 
Creator of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. Comes out of the Egg bringing 
Fire. He was the god who created both the world and life: he created man, 
established the family and gathered the nation together. He was represented as 
being "seated in the air", throwing down little pieces of an unidentified 
substance which created children. He was responsible, there fore, for the 
nation's increase. He was also closely linked with the worship of ancestors. Rod 
had a wife called Rozanica; but since this word is always plural and polygamy 
was common among the Slavic people, it actually implies that he had several 
wives. Swarog gained control later on, seemingly, with Rod's permission. Rod 
survived as a sort of Slavic penate, household god. His worship was at the 
center of the older ancestor cults. The Slavs continue to honor the Egg by 
incorporating it into the celebration of Easter. The ultimate expression of the 
Egg are those created by the House of Faberge for the Tsars, used as Easter 
presents beginning with Aleksandr III. 



Lada 
Mother of the gods. Lada is the Slavic goddess of love and beauty. In Russia, 
when a couple is happily married, it is said they "live in lada", in love. Lad 
is also a word meaning "peace, union, harmony" as in the proverb "When a husband 
and wife have lad, they don't require klad (Treasure)". She is said to reside in 
the underworld, vrij, until the Vernal Equinox, Maslenica, when she returns, 
bringing the lark and springtime with her. She is also said to be responsible 
for the 'rising' in animals and men in the spring. Lada is often portrayed as a 
goddess who is born and dies yearly. Her sacred tree is the lime/linden, 
supposedly because its leaves are shaped like hearts. Linden trees are all over 
Bulgaria, and all the other Slavic nations. Just try and walk down any street, 
in any Slavic city without finding a linden tree. 



Svarog 
Chief god of the heavens. From "svargas" - radiant sky, "svarati" - gleams. His 
name survives in the Romanian word for sunburnt or hot - sfarog. {Romanians, 
like Hungarians, have a lot of Slavic in them.} A smith god, he was associated 
with fire & with it's generative power, particularly sexual. He is the father of 
the celestial and hearth fires, respectively. A master craftsman, he could 
shapeshift into the wind, a golden-horned aurochs (ox), boar, horse, or the 
falcon, Varagna which was his main incarnation. Svarog was honored in numerous 
towns. He may be a manifestation of the aurora borealis. Following military 
campaigns the standards of the armies were laid down in his temples, and the 
priests would perform sacrifices of domestic animals and sometimes men. Swarog 
was concerned only with heavenly affairs and left the earthly ones to his son. 
Unfortunately for his children, Perun was a much stronger war god and took over 
the role as chief deity of the warrior classes. 


Perun 
God of lightning, warriors, and storms. Perun is a son of Svarog. The 
thunder-god of the ancient Slavs, a fructifier, purifier, and overseer of right 
and order. He is described as a rugged man with a copper beard. He rides in a 
chariot pulled by a he-goat and carries a mighty axe, or strely, sometimes a 
hammer. This axe is hurled at evil people and spirits and will always return to 
his hand. His lighting bolts were believed to pass through the earth to a 
certain depth and return gradually to the surface in a specific period of time - 
usually 7 yr. 40 days. People, rocks and trees struck by lightening are 
considered to be sacred for the heavenly fire remains inside them. All big trees 
were sacred to Perun, but he especially loved the oak. There are records of oaks 
being fenced in as sacred to him. Sacrifices to him usually consisted of a 
rooster, but on special occasions, bear, bull or he-goat might be killed. The 
sacrificed animal was then communally eaten as they were seen to be imbued with 
the power of their patron God. Eating the god's animal to absorb the god's 
essence is similar to and predates the ritual of Holy Communion. Perun's arch 
enemy was the zaltys, a great serpent curled at the base of the world tree. 
Somehow, this also put him on Volos' blacklist and worship of these two gods had 
to be kept separate. Temples to Perun tended to be octagonal and on high ground. 
An idol of him set outside the castle of Vladmir was said to have a silver head 
and gold moustache - in some accounts, gold mouth. When Vladmir tore down the 
idol, it was tied to a horse's tail and dragged to the Dnieper. Amid much 
weeping it was then tossed in as men with poles made sure that he was not washed 
ashore or pulled out. It eventually floated down river and was blown onto a 
sandbank still known as Perun's bank. Perun's holy day is Thursday, his feast 
day is the 20th of July. His actions are perceived by the senses: seen in the 
thunderbolt, heard in the rattle of stones or the bellow of the bull or the 
bleat of the he-goat (thunder), and felt in the touch of an ax blade. The word 
for Thursday in the Polabian language was per?ndan. Polish piorun and Slovak 
parom denote "thunder" or "lightning." In Polish, piorun, the lightning, is 
derived from the name of Perun, and not vice versa. In the Primary Russian 
Chronicle, compiled c. 1111, Perun is mentioned as having been invoked in the 
treaties of 945 and 971, and his name is the first in the list of gods of St. 
Vladimir's pantheon of 980. He was worshipped in oak groves by western Slavs, 
who called him Prone, which name appears in Helmold's Chronica Slavorum (c. 
1172). In the Christian period the worship of Perun was gradually transferred to 
St. Elijah (Russian Iliya), but in folk beliefs, his fructifying, 
life-stimulating, and purifying functions are still performed by his vehicles: 
the ax, the bull, the he-goat, the dove, and the cuckoo. Sacrifices and communal 
feasts on July 20 in honor of Perun or Iliya continued in Russia until modern 
times. 



Dazhbog 
In the ancient Russian mythology Dazhdbog appears as a son of the Almighty Perun 
and a mermaid named Ros. He is a Gift-Lord, The God of Gifts. A God of sun and 
warmth. He is regarded as the ultimate ancestor of the Russian people, and even 
today a poetic reference to Russians can be made using the phrase "children" or 
"grandchildren of Dazhdebog". Ros is also a name of the river which is still 
alive and doing well. It is in Ukraine, and it is one of the many branches of 
the river Dnepr. Look for the town called Belaya Tserkov (White Church) on the 
map and you will immediately see the river. One brunch of Slavs that lived near 
Ros called themselves rosichi or later rusichi that finally gave a name to the 
state of Rus, its Peter the Great's modification Rossiya (Russia) and to all 
Russkie (Russians). 



Volos 
God of agriculture/animal husbandry/the dead. The Slavic Horned lord, ruled 
horned animals, wealth and the underworld. He is believed to have survived from 
the time of a common Indo-European pantheon. He was also a god of trade and 
oaths were sworn in his name. Weles is also the God of poets and bards and is 
often associated with magic. He was later associated with St. Blas, guardian of 
cattle. At Kiev, his statue was not among those on the hill outside the palace 
but was instead, erected in the marketplace. This is supposedly because he and 
Perun are great enemies and couldn't be worshipped together. 



Lesser Deities 
Zora - actually three Zori: Evening, Morning, and Night who guard the Wild Dog 
(sometimes identified as Simargl) held captive in the Little Dipper to prevent 
him from eating the world. [Probably borrowed, the Romans called this 
constellation Ursa Minor (Little Bear) and Simargl was imported from Persia.] 
Rusalka - Water Fairy - beautiful maiden, one per body of water or river. 
Baba Yaga - Evil witch of great power who lives in a chicken-legged hut in a 
marsh. Eats people and is generally disagreeable. 
Rorag - Roc/Firebird/Phoenix - eagle with fiery plumage, associated with Rod's 
Egg. 
The Wolf - truly Slavic, a shape-shifter with great wisdom. 
Diado Mraz - Grandfather Frost. {Also known as Diado Koleda.} The Slavic 
personification of winter, became merged with Santa, but this is one case where 
the pagan name won out and so today Santa is called Diado Mraz in all Slavic 
countries. The Christian Santa has barely made a dent in the tradition of Diado 
Mraz, mainly because he was known to give gifts of treasure to people who 
deserved it, long before Christ was born, so all the stories about Diado Mraz 
have survived virtually unchanged. 
White God and Black God White God from "bialy" - white. God of the waxing year. 
He would defeat his brother, the Black God in battle every Koleda to take his 
place as ruler of the waxing year. At Kupalo, they would battle again, but the 
Black God would win to rule the waning half. He was said to appear as an old man 
with a long white beard, dressed in white and carrying a staff. He was said to 
appear only by day and often assisted travelers in finding their way out of dark 
forests or reapers in the fields. The Black God survives in numerous Slavic 
curses and the White God's, aid is sought to obtain protection or mercy in 
Bulgaria, Serbia, and Pomerania. 



Other Slavic Customs 
The number Three: Slavs really like the number three, and tend to group things 
in threes whenever possible. Nine is the second most popular, being three 
threes. Many folk tales are about three brothers, with the youngest always 
winning. Heaven-Earth-Underworld, Rod-Lada-Svarog, Svarog's sons, the Zori, all 
triads. Faith, hope and love are depicted as three young women, in a Slavic 
triad which became tied in with Christianity. One interesting modern cultural 
note here, is that if you're offered a box of chocolates in a Slavic country, 
you're supposed to take.... you guessed it, three. Western Europeans sometimes 
interpret that as rude, but that's just 'cause they're ignorant a******s. 
Burial rituals - The early Slavs cremated the dead to help the soul rise up to 
Heaven, also a reasonable practice when bears and wolves live in the area. The 
Christian practice of burial can't have been an easy sell, a grave was closer to 
the Underworld, further from Heaven, and not easy to dig six months of the year 
because of frozen ground. It would not be surprised to find that for an extended 
period after the Baptism of the Rus, locals told the priest that a bonfire was 
needed to thaw the ground for burial, whereupon they cremated the body in secret 
and buried an empty coffin with the priest in attendance. Hell must have been 
another problem, as fire was sacred to the Slavs, and cold was death. I'm not 
sure how much of a threat burning in Hell was to most Slavs. It was probably 
similar to imprisoning a Orthodox monk. Prison would be a general improvement in 
living conditions for most Orthodox monks, who tended to live in hand-dug caves 
with barely enough room to crouch in. 
Bears have been trained by the Slavs for millennia. The primary use of bears in 
elder times was to locate bee hives. The Slavs traded honey to the Vikings, who 
used it to make mead, and the wax was traded to the Byzantine Empire, to be made 
into candles. The Russian word for bear is Medved, a compound word derived from 
the roots of Honey and Seer/Witch, reflecting the bears use in the search for 
honeycombs. 



Among the heavenly bodies the primary object of Slavic veneration was the moon. 
The name of the moon is of masculine gender in Slavic languages (Russian 
mesyats; compare Latin mensis). The word for sun (Russian solntse), on the other 
hand, is a neuter diminutive that may derive from an ancient feminine form. In 
many Russian folk songs a verb having the sun as its subject is put in the 
feminine form, and the sun is almost always thought of as a bride or a maiden. 
It is to the moon that recourse is had to obtain abundance and health. The moon 
is saluted with round dances and is prayed to for the health of children. During 
lunar eclipses, weapons are discharged at the monsters who are said to be 
devouring the moon, and weeping and wailing express the sharing of the moon's 
sufferings. In Serbia the people have always envisioned the moon as a human 
being. Such appellations as father and grandfather are customarily applied to 
the moon in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian folk songs. At Risano 
(modern-day Risan, Yugos.) in the days of the 19th-century writer Vuk 
Karadzic--the father of modern Serbian literature--it was said of a baby four 
months old that he had four grandfathers. In Bulgaria the old people teach small 
children to call the moon Dedo Bozhe, Dedo Gospod ("Uncle God, Uncle Lord"). 
Ukrainian peasants in the Carpathians openly affirm that the moon is their god 
and that no other being could fulfill such functions if they were to be deprived 
of the moon. In two Great Russian supplications the sickle moon is invoked as 
"Adam"--the final phase of a fully developed moon worship in which the moon 
becomes the progenitor of the human family. 



The custom of communal banquets has been preserved into modern times in Russia 
in the bratchina (from brat, "brother"), in the mol'ba ("entreaty" or 
"supplication"), and in the kanun (a short religious service); in the Serbian 
slava ("glorification"); and in the sobor ("assembly") and kurban ("victim" or 
"prey") of Bulgaria. Formerly, communal banquets were also held by the Poles and 
the Polabs (Elbe Slavs) of Hannover. In Russia the love feasts are dedicated to 
the memory of a deceased person or to the patron saint of the village and in 
Serbia to the protecting saint from whom the rod or pleme ("clan") took its 
name. Scholars no longer have any doubts of the pre-Christian nature of these 
banquets. The Serbian slava is clearly dedicated to a saint held to be the 
founder of the clan. These saints are patrons or founders and are all men who 
have died. When the Serbs celebrate the slava of the prophet Elijah or of the 
archangel Michael, they do not set out the "dead man's plate" (the koljivo, 
boiled wheat), because Elijah and Michael are not considered dead. In certain 
localities in Serbia, even the women given in marriage to another clan, the 
so-called odive, have to be present at the slava. They return with their 
children (according to the ancient matrilineal conception of the offspring), but 
not with their husbands, who belong to another clan and celebrate another slava. 
More akin to the ancient pagan feasts of the Baltic is the Serbian seoska slava, 
or "slava of the village," in which the whole community participates and 
consumes in common the flesh of the victims prepared in the open air. Such 
feasts are votive. In Russia sometimes the animals (or their flesh) are first 
brought into the church and perfumed with incense. Even at the beginning of the 
20th century, there were small villages in Russia where cattle were butchered 
only on the occasion of these festivities, three or four times a year. The Slavs 
did not record genealogies, and the founders of their clans were mainly 
legendary. The social unit sought to assure for itself the favor of powerful 
figures of the past, even of more than one, representing them in several forms 
on the same pillar or giving to their statues supernumerary bodily parts that 
would express their superhuman powers. A hollow bronze idol, probably ancient 
Russian, was found at Ryazan, Russia. The idol has four faces with a fifth face 
on its breast. 



The system of idolatry of the Baltic area was essentially manistic (pertaining 
to worship of ancestors). It is not irrelevant that until the 19th century there 
survived here and there throughout the Danubian-Balkan region the custom of 
reopening graves three, five, or seven years after interment, taking out the 
bones of the corpses, washing them, wrapping them in new linen, and reentering 
them. Detailed descriptions of this procedure have come particularly from 
Bulgaria and Slovenia. In Bulgaria one vivid description of taking out bones, 
washing them in milk, wrapping them and reinterring them, comes from the book 
{And subsequent movie.} Vreme Razdelno. Among East and West Slavs only faint 
echoes of the custom of a second interment survive in folk songs. In the former 
guberniya (province) of Vladimir, east of Moscow, as late as 1914, when a grave 
was to be dug, a piece of cloth was taken along with which to wrap the bones of 
any earlier corpse that might be unearthed in the process of digging. Such 
corpses would then be reinterred with the newly deceased. In protohistoric times 
the tumuli (mounds) of the mortuaries of the Krivichi, a populous tribe of the 
East Slavs of the northwest, the so-called long kurgans (burial mounds), 
contained cinerary urns buried in the tumulus together and all at one time. Such 
a practice could occur only as the consequence of collective and simultaneous 
cremation. There must, therefore, have existed a periodic cremation season or 
date, as for the opening of the tombs in Bulgaria and as has been verified 
elsewhere in comparing the South Asian areas of second interment, in preparation 
for which the corpses are temporarily exhumed. The cremations by the Krivichi 
are of exhumed bones. In the Volga region today the Mordvins still burn the 
disinterred bones of the dead in the flames of a "living fire" ignited by 
friction. 
Considering the religious past of the Slavs, it is not surprising that manism 
was strong enough to epitomize and overwhelm all or practically all of their 
religious views. The seasonal festivals of the Slavs turn out to be almost 
entirely dedicated to the dead, very often without the participants realizing 
it, as in the case of the Koleda (Latin Kalendae)--the annual visit made by the 
spirits of the dead, under the disguise of beggars, to all the houses in the 
village. It is possible that the bones of the disinterred were kept for a long 
period inside the dwellings and that the sacred corner--now occupied by the 
icon--was the place where they were kept. 
The spirits of the departed are not only venerated but also feared, especially 
the spirits of those who were prematurely deprived of life and its joys. It is 
believed that such spirits are greedy for the good things thus lost and that 
they make attempts to return to life--to the peril of the living. They are the 
prematurely dead, the so-called unclean dead. Particularly feared are maidens 
who died before marriage and are believed to be addicted to the kidnapping of 
bridegrooms and babies. The older sister of my grand mother died before 
marriage. She returned to yell at my grand mother when she borrowed her shoes 
and got mud all over them. {My grand mother was asleep during the time of the 
"visit".} In one other dream, my grandmother was led by a deceased man, she had 
known, over a fence featuring the same ornaments which were on the grave stone 
of her older sister. He led her to her sister's house, where she was told by her 
sister that she was gong to marry a young man who was alive at the time, the 
older sister also told her the date of the wedding. After that the old man led 
my grand mother back over the fence, and she woke up. She recorded the date on a 
calendar, but as it was months away she forgot about it. She did not remember it 
until the young man died in a motorcycle accident, and yes it was on the date... 
or so I was told. 
Vampires are of Central Asian origin but as the Slavs have been under the 
domination of Central Asian nomads for thousands of years, vampires are often 
confused to be of Slavic origin. According to the Slavs, the dead person who 
does not decompose in the grave becomes a vampire. To save the living from a 
vampire's evil deeds, it is necessary to plant a stake in the grave so that it 
passes through the heart of the corpse or else to exhume the corpse and burn it. 
Since the classes of unclean dead are believed to have been constantly 
increasing, then all of the dead--once objects of veneration and piety--will at 
some point be in danger of rancor, fear, and eventual disregard. A Christian 
clergy that has lent its presence at the exhumation and destruction of vampires 
has thereby contributed unwittingly to the preservation of this last phase of 
Slavic paganism into modern times. 
There are other rites associated with second interment of which the Slavs have 
forgotten the purpose, such as the cemetery pyres--fires lit on top of the 
tombs--or the assiduous watering of graves. In Polynesia and South America where 
second interment is practiced, these same acts have the purpose of fostering 
decomposition of the corpses in order to hasten exhumation. 
Numerous other ritual acts are performed by the Slavs, for the most part related 
to this complex of beliefs. In 19th-century Russia, if a man encountered the 
procession of naked women who were plowing a furrow around the village at night 
in order to protect it from an epidemic, he was inevitably killed. It was a 
chthonic (underworld) being to which, in those same times, human sacrifices were 
offered in Russia (more rarely in Poland and Bulgaria), since the victims were 
often buried alive. In most cases they were either voluntary victims or chosen 
by lot from among the devotees. Since such acts were punished by the law of the 
state, the sacrifices were performed in secrecy and are difficult to document. 
In Bulgaria living people where some times {most of those times of their own 
free will} literally built into {That is buried alive with bricks and mortar.} 
important structures that were supposed to last longer. 



The Slavs lived north of the Carpathian Mountains until the first centuries AD, 
when they began to expand rapidly, first to the west and east, then southward 
through the Carpathians, appearing all along the Danube River. But first, lets 
look at the Bulgars: 



The Bulgars 
The Huns destroyed the Roman empire and changed the world. The period of time 
between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Rennaisance has been 
characterized as somewhat 'static' in terms of cultural development and the 
advancement of arts and sciences. In fact, some describe this period as 
characterized by 'stifling dogmatism.' These so-called 'Dark Ages' were 
restricted to what we term as the 'West.' There were flourishing cultural 
activities in the 'East' {The Islamic Empire, India, China, Japan, etc.} After 
the fall of Rome and the emergence of the Byzantine Empire, much of Western 
Europe plunged into a period characterized by strife, lack of cultural 
development, and domination by feudal lords. 
The Bulgars invaded Europe c. AD 370 {About 135 years after Maximinus Thrax 
became Emperor.} as a part of the tribal confederacy of the Huns. During the 
next seven decades The Huns built up an enormous empire. 
 
The Huns first quickly overthrew the empire of the Ostrogoths between the Don 
and the Dniester, then about 376 they defeated the Visigoths. For half a century 
after the overthrow of the Visigoths, the Huns extended their power over many of 
the Germanic peoples of central Europe and fought for the Romans. By 432 the 
leadership of the various groups of Huns had been centralized under a single 
king, Rua, or Rugila. When Rua died in 434 he was succeeded by his two nephews, 
Bleda and Attila. The joint rulers negotiated a peace treaty at Margus 
(Pozarevac) with the Eastern Roman Empire, by which the Romans agreed to double 
the subsidies {Since Ammianus' time the Huns had acquired huge sums of gold as a 
result of their treaties with the Romans.} they had been paying the Huns. The 
Romans apparently did not pay the sums stipulated in the treaty, and in 441 
Attila launched a heavy assault on the Roman Danubian frontier, advancing almost 
to Constantinople. 
About 445 Attila murdered his brother Bleda and in 447, for unknown reasons, 
made his second great attack on the Eastern Roman Empire. He devastated the 
Balkans and drove south into Greece as far as Thermopylae. 
In 451 Attila invaded Gaul but was defeated by Roman and Visigothic forces at 
the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, or, according to some authorities, of 
Maurica. This was Attila's first and only defeat. And what is even more 
incredible is that Romans and Germans were united against the Huns. I guess that 
is what it took to win even one battle against them. In 452 the Huns invaded 
Italy and sacked several cities, but a sudden outbreak of dysentery compelled 
them to leave. In 453 Attila died. His many sons divided up his empire and at 
once began quarreling among themselves. At this point in time, many of the 
tribes which were part of the Hunish confederacy, wanted to go their own way. 
Attila's sons then began a series of costly struggles with their subjects and 
were finally routed in 455 by a combination of Gepidae, Ostrogoths, Heruli, and 
others in a great battle on the unidentified river Nedao in Pannonia. 
Historians often say that the Huns ceased to play any significant part in 
history after that. In some ways that is true but in other ways it is completely 
wrong. The confederacy definitely fell apart. But at least some of the tribes 
which had made up that confederacy went on to create great empires of their own. 
The Bulgars are one of those tribes and they created not one but three great 
empires -- Great Bulgaria, Volga Bulgaria, and Bulgaria. Hungary, created by the 
Magyars and other Hunish tribes, is also alive and well. 



The Hunnish-Bulgarian association existed throughout the period between 377-453 
AD - the time of the Hunnish hegemony in Europe. 
The mythical predecessor of Khan Kubrat - Avitohol, who according to The name 
list of Bulgarian Khans lived for 300 years, probably refers to Attila. {In the 
Niebelungen saga known as Etzel.} According to legend, Avitohol was nurtured by 
a doe after he was left in the deep woods to die. Deer show up all the time in 
Skythian and Sarmatian art, they have a powerful religious significance. 
Avitohol's son Ernich probably refer's to Attila's youngest son Ernas. He is 
followed by Gostun and he in turn by Kubrat. 
After 455, the association between Bulgars and Huns was definitely over. The 
Bulgars retreated to the steppes of eastern Europe, north of the Danube, and 
went on with their marry ways. The Slavs who also lived on these lands, had been 
living with nomads for millennia and in that respect the Bulgars were no 
different. The Slavs and Bulgars got along splendidly. 
In the mean time, Ostrogoths had invaded the East Roman empire {Byzantine}. The 
Ostrogoths had settled in Thrace, the Thracians couldn't care less, but it made 
the Romans very nervous. Romans are easily scared by barbarians and the 
Ostrogoths being Germanic barbarians, were very unsettling to the Byzantines. 
Now what?s a Roman to do with a problem like that? I personally imagine a 
meeting in a castle, in Constantinople, that went something like this: 
Emperor: What do we do about the Ostrogoths? 
Some general: I dunno know! 
Some other guy: Hey, let's get the Barbarian's barbarians to fight the 
Ostrogoths! 
Emperor: What?!? 
The guy: Well, remember how the Huns beat up the Germans? Let's pay them to do 
it again! 
Emperor: Hmmm.... that just might work!!! 
Thus in 480 AD Byzantium signed its first agreement with the Bulgars. That 
turned out to be a very smart move because the respect the Bulgarian troops 
enjoyed in those days can be felt in the enthusiastic eulogy by the Ostrogothic 
poet Enodius. It is about an Ostrogothic leader who was only slightly wounded by 
a Bulgarian commander in a battle. This laudation describes the Bulgarians as 
supermen and as invincible in war. The Bulgar army consisted of all physically 
strong and battle-fit men but, in critical times, young women were also known to 
have been recruited. 
So in 482 Zeno, Emperor of the Byzantines, called the Bulgars to aid him in the 
fight against the Goths. Apparently Enodius wasn't kidding, the Ostrogoths were 
ravaged by the Bulgars and in 488 AD the Goths were forced by the Byzantines and 
the Bulgars to move away from the Balkan Peninsula for good. 
Great for the Romans, right? Not quite, during the year-long campaign against 
the Goths, the Bulgars being Byzantium allies, had been eligible to walking 
freely across Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia and they had evidently grown to like 
these lands. That's easy to understand, these lands were great, fertile, rich, 
etc. Bulgarians still love these lands today, it was love at first sight :-) 
Only five years after the Goths had been driven out, the Bulgarian troops 
invaded Thrace, defeated the Byzantine army and killed their leader, Julian. 
Outch! Byzantium could sense the new frightful danger and emperor Anastasius I 
manifested unprecedented activity in the construction of fortresses. But in 499 
AD a new attack of the Bulgars led up to another humiliating rout - the whole 
Illyrian army perished in the battle by the river Zurta. In 502 AD the 
Bulgarians conquered and plundered all of Thrace. From 513 AD onwards the 
Bulgarian raids against the European possessions of the empire became annual, 
but from 540 AD a basically new feature became apparent: the Bulgarians were no 
longer satisfied whit only looting and taking away the population from the rural 
areas, but adopted besiege techniques and started conquering the forts, too. 
Thus, only during the year quoted, in the region of Illyricum alone, they 
managed to seize 32 of these forts and to carry away their population together 
with abundant loot. Ouch, again! It sucks to be Roman right now. 
After the Kutrigur {or Kutriguri} Bulgar attack of 540, Emperor Justinian worked 
to extend a system of fortifications that ran in three zones through the Balkans 
and as far south as the Pass of Thermopylae. Fortresses, strongholds, and 
watchtowers were not, however, enough. The Slavs plundered Thrace in 545 and 
returned in 548 to menace Dyrrhachium; in 550 the Sclaveni, a Slavic people, 
reached a point about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Constantinople. The major 
invasion came in 559, when the Kutrigur Bulgars, led by Khagan Zabergan, 
accompanied by Sclaveni, crossed the Danube and divided their force into three 
columns. One column reached Thermopylae; the second gained a foothold on the 
Gallipoli Peninsula near Constantinople; and the third advanced as far as the 
suburbs of Constantinople itself, which the aged Belisarius had to defend with 
an unlikely force of civilians, demesmen, and a few veterans. Worried by Roman 
naval action on the Danube, which seemed to menace the escape route home, the 
Kutrigurs broke off the attack, returned north, and found themselves under 
attack from the Utigurs - another Bulgar tribe. The reason for the attack was 
Byzantine diplomacy. And the Bulgarians would get to know this hallmark of 
Byzantine diplomacy very well over the centuries to follow. In fact, today in 
Bulgaria the term 'Byzantine' means back stabbing and two-faced. Byzantine 
diplomacy would take a heavy toll on Bulgaria in the coming millennia, with the 
final blow being an attack of Ottoman Turks, hired by the Byzantines to fight 
the Bulgars. And this would also be the Byzantine's last act of diplomacy as it 
backfired even worse then the hiring of the Bulgars in 482, the Ottomans sacked 
Constantinople and brutally ruled Greece for 400 years. But more on all of that, 
later on. 
The millions upon millions of Slavs now spilled south. Covering the area between 
Italy and the Black Sea. This Slavic invasion reached as far south as Greece 
proper, but those Slavs were eventually completely absorbed by the Greeks. The 
rest co-existed with the Thracians and opposed the Roman empire. 
Avars invading from the east, now incorporated the Bulgar tribes of Utiguri, 
Kutriguri, and Saber into their tribal confederacy. Gostun who was from the 
Kutriguri tribe was appointed as Khan of the Kutriguri. The Avars built an 
empire in the area between the Adriatic and the Baltic Sea and between the Elbe 
and Dnieper rivers. And what do nomads do best? That's right - the Avars engaged 
in wars against Byzantium, almost occupying Constantinople in 626. Once again, 
Bulgar troops were the muscle behind the Avars. 
 
The Avar Khagnate had weakened as a consequence of the internal skirmishes for 
the throne, the Bulgars had gained strength and in 632 the Utigurs {or 
Unogonduri, or Unogondurs} broke loose from the Avar khanate. Khan Kubrat, who 
was from the Dulo {or Dub, or Dubo} clan, belonged to the Utigurs tribe. Attila 
himself was also from House of Dub, in fact the Dulo clan was a very highly 
regarded family among all the nomads. Kubrat was now the Khan of the newly 
independent Unogondur Bulgars, and all the other Bulgar tribes of that region. 
This unification of the Bulgarian tribes can not be seen as unusual. As great 
and outstanding a leader as Kubrat was, all Bulgars have always had a very 
strong national consciousness. The exact oposite of the Thracian tribes in other 
words. That is why the Bulgar nation around the confluence of the Volga was 
named Bulgaria with its capitol city Bulgar. That is why the Bulgar nation south 
of the Danube was named Bulgaria, why the Bulgar nation in the Caucasus is named 
Balkaria, why so many towns, families, and even mountains, in modern Italy carry 
the name Bolgar. The national identity of the Bulgars has always been very 
strong. 
 
After that, probably in the period of 632-635 Khan Kubrat succeeds in putting 
under his rule the Kutrigurs. And now the two most powerful Bulgar tribes are 
free and united. Then quickly he also succeeds in integrating the Bulgar Kotrags 
who lived to the west of the river Don. And so Khan Kubrat creates the biggest 
Bulgarian country ever. To the east it reached out to the river Kuban, to the 
west to the river Dnepr, to the north to the river Donetsk, and to the south to 
the Azov and the Black Sea. The capital was the magnificent Fanagoria on the 
Taman Peninsula. 
This newly created union of Bulgarian tribes was called Great Bulgaria. 
 
Kubrat became Khana Subigi {or Suvigi, or any dammed spelling} i.e. Khan of 
Khans, the second man in the administrative hierarchy, was the Kavkhan. The 
third man was the Ichirguboyl. Both of them were high-ranking officers in the 
administration and in the chain of command. In time of war they were in charge 
of large army units. The practice of combining administrative and military 
responsibilities was applied to all ranks down the hierarchy ladder, too. Kubrat 
maintained peaceful relations with the East Roman {Byzantine} empire and was 
honored with the title of patrician by the Roman Emperor. Upon the death of the 
emperor in 642 AD, Khan Kubrat supported his widow Martina and their children to 
whom he had been strongly attached, in their battle for the emperor's throne. 
According to the Ethiopian chronicler Joan Niciusky, just the news of khan 
Kubrat backing up Martina and her children had risen in arms in their support 
the people and the army of Constantinople under a certain Jutalius, the son of 
Constantine. 
Kubrat died in 651 AD. In 1912 an exceptionally rich burial was discovered in 
the sand dunes of the Vorskla river near the Ukrainian village of Malaya 
Pereshchepina, 13 km away from the town of Poltava. The deceased was buried in a 
wooden coffin, set with 250 rectangular gold plates, 6.5x5.5 cm each. A 
considerable number of utensils made of precious metals (20 silver and 17 gold), 
arms inlaid with precious metal, a gold horn and a gold spoon - symbols of 
authority, 69 gold coins, a gold buckle weighing almost half a kilogram, gold 
rings, etc. were arranged around the body. The find obviously made its first 
researchers specify the burial as the last abode of not only a rich or high-born 
chieftain, but also the head of state of any one of the barbarian formations 
which had possessed those lands for any length of time. The utensils were of no 
great importance for determining the precise 'age' of the treasure since they 
had obviously been collected over a 200-year period. However, the 'youngest' 
coins of emperor Constantine II of Byzantium were dated 647 AD. This gave clear 
proof that the burial had taken place after that date. The above facts alone 
lead to the conclusion that of all possible potentates who had ruled tribes or 
states in those times, khan Kubrat was the one corresponding to the 
archeological findings concerning the burial near Malaya Pereshchepina. In 1983 
Dr W. Seibt of the Byzantine Studies Institute in Vienna managed to puzzle out 
the monograms on the two gold signet rings as Kkubratu, and Khubratu Patrichiu. 
There was no further doubt that in 1912 the Russian archeologists had discovered 
the tomb of khan Kubrat, the founder of Great Bulgaria. 
Kubrat had five sons, but only one of them could become Khan of Khans. The 
transition from the great ruler Kubrat to who ever would be the new ruler of all 
Bulgars could lead to infighting amongst prominent clans and/or tribes. If all 
of that wasn't enough, there were the Khazars too. Yet another one of the 
ex-Hunish tribes, which broke away from the Avars at about the same time the 
Bulgars did. The lands of Great Bulgaria were all plains offering no natural 
shelters, perfect ground for every nomad and damn near impossible to defend. 
Kubrat's sons were aware that their lands occupied a strategic position at the 
major junction of routes called the Great Road of the peoples migrating from 
Asia and Europe, and that even if the Khazar raids against them were stopped and 
the Khazars completely destroyed, other peoples would soon rush to take their 
place at lightning speed. And so the sons of Kubrat agreed to split up. The 
Bulgars split up into many parts, but two Bulgar hordes managed to create states 
worthy of Great Bulgaria's legacy. Kubrat's son Kotrag, led his Bulgars up the 
Volga. Asparuh {or Isperikh} led his Bulgars to that land they had liked so 
much. The one between the great river Danube, the Black Sea and the great 
mountain that stretched from the river all the way to the sea - the Balkan. 



 
Asparuh acquired experience in politics and statesmanship in Great Bulgaria. In 
the 10th century the Khazar ruler Joseph left a written statement that the 
greatest part of the Bulgars had followed Asparukh. In fact according to him: 
"...these Bulgarians were as numerous as the sand on the shores of the sea, ..." 
In the mean time, the Slavs who had invaded these lands, had set up large tribal 
alliances, among which the seven Slavic tribes and the Severians, inhabiting the 
lands between the Danube and the Balkan range, were the most powerful. At the 
end of the 670s Asparuh made an alliance with the tribal alliance of the seven 
Slavic tribes and the Severians. 
 
The Slavs had lived with/been ruled by Nomads for millennia, so this was nothing 
new to them. The Bulgars were the militarily dominant group of people and thus 
they became the ruling class. The name of the new state, consisting of Bulgars, 
Slavs and Thracians {Vlachs} was Bulgaria. The peoples of this new state had 
nothing in common. They did not have a language in common, they did not have a 
history in common, they did not have a culture in common, they had nothing in 
common. Add to that the fact that they were living on the focal point of Europe, 
Asia and Africa, surrounded by powerful enemies, and you can begin to imagine 
the survival chances this new state had. Bulgaria had two possible paths to 
take, one led to doom, the other led to the unification of it's people and the 
chance to fight another day. 



As we all should know by now, Romans don't like Barbarians. Especially not the 
ones founding states in their back yard. The Romans decided to go to war, they 
imagined their mighty Roman legions would squash the barbarians and Byzantine 
would get these lands back under complete control. But that's not quite how it 
went... 
Legions don't do well against nomads. The Bulgar troops were mainly 
horse-mounted. Besides the light cavalry {Mongolian ponies} which was customary 
with the peoples in the steppes, the Bulgarians had contingents of heavily-armed 
soldiers with both men and horses {Sarmatian draft horses} covered in 
chainarmour made of iron or felt. A blow delivered by the heavily armed cavalry 
{in Khan Krum times at the beginning of the 9th century it was about 30 
000-strong} could be compared with the effect of the blow a contemporary tank 
army would have on lightly-armed infantry divisions. In fact, the repeated 
Bulgarian victories over Byzantium were mainly due to the blows struck by the 
heavy cavalry. The Byzantine army had never had more than 400 heavily-armed 
warriors on horseback. 
In 680 AD, Bulgarian cavalry and Slav infantry contingents struck a series of 
stunning blows on the Byzantine troops under the personal command of emperor 
Constantine IV Pogonatus. The military operations were shifted to Thrace. While 
the capital city of Pliska - the new state-administrative and political center 
was under construction in the northeastern part of Moesia, the rumble of the 
Bulgarian cavalry reverberated more and more often over the hills off the 
Bosphorus. In the autumn of 681 AD Byzantium was forced to conclude a peace 
treaty with the Bulgarians. It officially recognized the detachment of Moesia 
from the empire and Byzantine had to pay annual tribute to Bulgaria. 
 
At this point in history, 681 AD, there were only three officially recognized 
states in all of Europe. Oh there were many peoples, but only 3 officially 
recognized, independent, states - The West Roman Empire, The East Roman Empire, 
and Bulgaria. 
 
The supreme power in the new state was given to the Bulgar aristocracy as 
recognition for its merits in the struggle against the external enemies of the 
state and the real military force supporting it. The state administration was 
headed by a Khan whose power was hereditary. There was also a council of twelve 
great Boyls {or Boyars} representing the noble families. The decisions of 
paramount state importance were made by the so-called people's assembly - a 
meeting of representatives of all Bulgarian noble families and the princes of 
the Slav tribes dwelling in the Bulgarian state. 
Asparuh kept an ardent watch over the Bulgar-Slav alliance and severely punished 
any violation of it. A tireless builder and a just arbitrator, he was the 
perfect leader of an emerging state. The first ruler of Bulgaria died in 700 AD 
in one of the many battles in defense of the new state... 
 
Dating from approximately 750 AD the subject of this composition relates to the 
religious notions of the Bulgars - a shaman visits the spirits' world 
accompanied by the holy horse, his mediator between Earth and Heaven. 



 
Tarvel {or Terval} of the Dulo dynasty, son of Asparuh, succeeded his father to 
the throne. Tervel ascended the throne in 700 or 701, he ardently continued his 
father's lifework. 
During his reign Bulgaria would be occupying {to the humiliation of Byzantium} 
lands south of the Danube into the Thracian plain. While the Bulgars had thus 
deprived the empire of control in the north and central Balkans, the Romans were 
lucky to have them as neighbors. 
At this time, in the west, the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula to be 
checked only by Charles Martel in the battle at Poitiers in 732 AD. It was going 
to take a few hundred years to drive them out of Spain. The situation in the 
east was even more dramatic. About 716 AD the whole of Byzantium was trodden 
over by Arab cavalry hooves and its capital squeezed in the steel belt of siege 
and starvation ready to surrender. And then I imagine a meeting, in 
Constantinople, that went something like this: 
Emperor: What do we do about the Arabs? 
Some general: I dunno know! 
Some other guy: Hey, let's get the Barbarian's barbarians to fight the Arabs! 
Emperor: What?!? 
The guy: Well, remember how the Bulgars beat up the Ostrogoths? Let's pay them 
to do it again, with the Arabs! 
Emperor: Hmmm.... that just might work!!! 
In, 716 AD, the Bulgarian heavy cavalry under the command of Khan Tervel came 
forward at the porte of Constantinople. The Arab horse-mounted troops, on their 
light, desert-sand adapted horses, never stood a chance against the armored 
Bulgar cavalry. In a crucial battle in 718 AD the Bulgarian cavalry defeated the 
Arabs. "The Bulgars assaulted the Arabs, slaying many of them... They were more 
afraid of the Bulgars than of the Byzantines," reads the account of an Arab 
chronicler of Khan Tervel's sweeping victory which left some 30 000 Arabs dead. 
The rest of the Arab army was finished off by the Bulgarians in the next couple 
of days. This blow put an end to the Arabs attempting to penetrate into the Old 
Continent through the Balkan Peninsula. 
The grateful Byzantines welcomed the Bulgarian Khan in Constantinople with great 
honors, putting a royal mantle on his shoulders and showering him with gifts. 
Under the new treaty Bulgaria received, for the first time, lands south of the 
Balkan range: the region of Zagora in Eastern Thrace, through which many 
strategic routes passed. Furthermore, the Khan was awarded the title of Caesar. 
This was the first time in Byzantine history that a foreigner was bestowed such 
a title, and a lead seal reading "Mother of God, help the Caesar Tervel" attests 
to the honor. 
 
Khan Tervel's rule was marked by a growing prosperity of both the Khan and the 
people, and a Byzantine chronicler would later write of the wealthy ruler: 
"Tervel, commander of the Bulgars, was at the apogee of his prosperity... He 
would turn the shield he used in times of war hollow side up, put his whip onto 
it and pour money until both were covered. He would put his spear on the ground 
and pile silk garments at its two ends. He would fill boxes with gold and silver 
coins and give it out to the soldiers, throwing gold with his right hand and 
silver with his left." 



After Tervel's rule, Bulgaria was racked by internal fighting among the nobles. 
Khans came and went, falling victim to their rivals or seeking refuge in 
Constantinople. Khan Chourmesius, who was from the Dulo clan, reigned from 721 
to 738, he maintained peace with Byzantium. Khan Sevar reigned from 738 to 753, 
he was the last ruler from the Dulo dynasty, the Bulgar Khanate expanded, but 
the Boyars deposed him after he lost a battle against Byzantine. Khan Kormisosh 
reigned from 753 to 756. He was from the Vokhil clan. His reign was the first 
dynasty take over. The Vokil clan, replacing the Dulo clan as the ruling family. 
Khormish led continuous wars with Byzantium. Khormish loses the throne after 
another take over. 
Khan Winech reigned from 756 to 762 He was from the Oulhiil kin . He became Khan 
after the last take over. Vinech loses the battle in 756 by the Markeli 
fortress. But he is victorious against Byzantine in 759. 
First a little background information. The Bulgar Khans Dragon and Kuber from 
the Doulo clan, {respectively in the 5th and 7th c.} had settled in the Bitola 
and Ohrid Regions - Prespa and Korca. Kuber moved to Pannonia around 670-680. 
These Bulgars lived in the south-eastern part of Pannonia near the Morava and 
the Vardar rivers. Their main city was Sirmium, which they called Onoguria. The 
Bulgars were settled in the border areas as border guards, they founded Nandor 
White Fort {Nandorfeh?rvar} In a 1366 document it was called Nandor-albenses. 
For many a years, Khan Kuber's people, the Kotragoi Bulgars, who controlled the 
regions north of Thessalonike, {Kuber failed to take Thessalonike in the one 
attempt he made on it.} took part in the struggle of the Slavic tribes against 
the Byzantenes. In 850 AD, during the reign of Khan Presian, the Slavs and 
Macedonians, intermingling with Kuber's Bulgars, joined the Bulgarian State 
where their kindred Slavs, Thracians and Bulgars lived. 
But first, in 759 the Macedonians call on Bulgaria for help, and are answered. 
The Byzantines in Macedonia are defeated. Despite his victories, Vineh didn't 
last long. Khan Vinek and all his kin were assassinated. 
Khan Telez ruled from 762 to 765, he was from the Ugain clan. In 762 he seized 
southern Thrace. But Teletz loses a battle against Byzantium near Anhialo and 
because of this loses the throne and is killed by the Boyars. {That's the faith 
of all Khans who lose important battles. If you're in command of the army, don't 
screw up!} Khan Sabbin lasted from 765 to 766. He established a disadvantageous 
peace pact with Byzantium, where he later escaped. Khan Umor lasted 40 days. 
Khan Toctu reigned from 766 to 767. He rebelled against the political influence 
of Byzantium on Bulgaria. Expelled by his opposition, he was killed near the 
Danube. Khan Pagan, 767-768 maintains peace with Byzantium. Khan Telerig ruled 
from 768 to 777. He established a peace pact with Byzantium. But then he tricked 
and captured the Byzantine agents and killed them. Later he runs away to 
Constantinople. 



 
Khan Kardam took the helm in the midst of this chaos and ruled from 777 to 803. 
When Kardam put an end to internecine fights, the young state once again rallied 
around it's ruler. 
In 789 Khan Kardam defeated the Byzantine army in the valley of the Struma 
river. The local Slavic tribe of Strimonians welcomed the Khan and his warriors. 
Enraged, Emperor Constantine VI himself led his army in a march on Bulgaria. A 
fierce battle ensued in July 796, near the fortress of Markella in Eastern 
Thrace, and the Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat. The elite of Byzantine 
commanders were killed. The Bulgarians captured part of the Byzantine army, the 
treasure hoard, horses, and the royal tent and servants, reads the gloomy 
account of the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes. 
Emperor Constantine VI returned to Constantinople humiliated. He signed a peace 
treaty with Khan Kardam under which he was to pay him annual tribute. Later the 
Byzantines attempted to ignore the annual taxes they had to pay to Bulgaria and 
the Bulgarian ruler sent them a warning: "Pay your dues or I'll ravage Thrace". 
Khan Kardam spent the last years of his life in venerability and peace, happy 
that he had consolidated the state and the power of the Khan. He was the first 
Bulgarian ruler in the second half of the VIII century who provided a decade of 
peaceful development for Bulgaria. 
 
Dated to 700 AD - 800 AD, made of bronze, the belt ornaments were an 
indispensable part of the clothing of the ruling class and military estate in 
Bulgaria. They have been worn as distinctive signs of their possessor's social 
position. 



 
Khan Krum was in power from 803 to 814. He layeth the smack down on Byzantine! 
But first, Khagan Krum joined forces with the Frankish empire of Charles the 
Great and destroyed the Avar Khanate. Krum annexed the Avar Khanate's lands and 
incorporated Transylvania into Bulgaria; in 812 he pushed the frontiers of his 
domain all the way north to the Tisza {or Tisa, or Theiss} River. Thus 
Bulgaria's territory was expanded to cover the lands between the Danube and the 
Carpathians. A common border was established with the empire of Charles the 
Great and Bulgaria became an outstanding power in Europe. It is understandable 
that now the Byzantine emperor felt very alarmed. 
Nicephorus I Genik's planned campaign against Bulgaria was prevented by 
infighting amongst the Byzantines. But Khagan Krum wasn't going to sit still and 
wait, attack is the best means of defense. In 808-809 the Khan's soldiers 
defeated the Byzantine army in the Struma valley, seizing an immense loot and 
much gold. The defenders of Sredets {Serdika} laid down their arms and 
surrendered the town which was later to become Bulgaria's capital. Not long 
after that Nish and Belgrade fall into the hands of the Bulgarians. Krum was 
ready to march on Macedonia. 
Nicephorus I made a retaliatory move when in 811 the Byzantine army crossed the 
Balkan range through unguarded side passes and headed towards the capital, 
Pliska. The Khan was not in Pliska at that moment, he had his hands full with a 
war on Bulgaria's eastern frontier. After a fierce battle over Pliska the 
Bulgarians were forced to retreat. The Byzantines slayed women, children and old 
people, burned the capital and destroyed the Khan's palace. Despite all of that, 
Krum sent the following message to the basileus: "Alright, you won. Take what 
you please and go in peace." But Nicephorus rejected the proposal. 
Vengeance time! The Khan quickly defeated his enemies on the eastern frontier 
and turned west to meet Nicephorus. In the mean time, Nicephorus had happily 
continued his pillaging and managed to work his way into one of the Balkan 
passes. Khagan Krum positioned his army on the high ridges above the pass and 
during the night of the 25th. of July they laid siege on the Byzantine army in 
the Vurbitsa pass. The Byzantines were crushed like never before. The Emperor 
and most of his commanders were killed. One Byzantine historian remarked that 
Nicephorus and his soldiers could not have escaped Krum's attack even if they 
had turned into birds. To celebrate his victory, the Khan had the emperor's 
skull lined with silver and made into a vine cup. He drank from it when he 
hosted the Slavic princes, at his palace. 
Having taken his revenge, Krum proposed peace. When met with a refusal, he led 
his army south to the area between the Struma and the Maritsa, seizing Byzantine 
towns and strongholds. The population was sent to territories beyond the Danube, 
so as to incorporate new lands more easily into the Bulgarian state. Then Krum 
extended another proposal for peace. Despite his victories, he set a very modest 
condition: renewal of the treaty from Khan Tervel's time. When the new emperor 
refused, the Bulgarians turned on the fortress of Messembria {Nessebar}. A 
memorable battle was fought by the town of Versinikia, not far from Adrianople, 
on 22 June 813. Once again the Byzantine army was routed and the Khan triumphed. 
Bulgaria had Thrace and Northern Macedonia detached from the empire of the 
Romans. 
Having besieged Adrianople, in a few days the Bulgarians reached the walls of 
Constantinople, filling the hearts of Byzantines in the besieged capital with 
horror. The emperor proposed peace negotiations with the perfidious intention to 
kill the Bulgarian Khan. Krum avoided the trap but was enraged by the Emperor's 
plot. And now Krum was going to teach the Romans a very important lesson: Don't 
mess with the Khan! The Bulgarians ravaged the lands between Constantinople and 
Adrianople, looting and taking prisoners. Adrianople fell, giving Krum the 
nickname of Strashny {the Terrible}: a stern ruler, merciless to his enemies. 
In 813 Krum's army stood outside the walls of Constantinople, but the Khan's 
sudden death {brain anurism? hart attack?} on 13 April 814 prevented the 
Bulgarians from sacking Constantinople, the planed attack was never initiated. 
Khagan Krum's most important contribution to Bulgaria was probably - Bulgaria's 
first written laws. Khan Krum's laws protected private property and made slander 
and drinking severely punishable. His laws were applicable to all Bulgarians and 
ensured subsistence to beggars and unique state protection to the poor. Krum's 
laws allowed him to unite Bulgarians and Slavs into a strong, integrated and 
centralized state and gained him the reputation of a remarkable and magnanimous 
ruler. Starting with Khan Asparuh, the Bulgars knew that if their state was to 
survive, they had to forge Slavs, Thracians and Bulgars into one nation. Krum's 
son Omurtag would continue this task. 
 



 
Kanasubigi Omurtag, who succeeded his father Krum to the throne in 814, ruled 
till 831. Omurtag waged successful wars against the Frankish Empire and the 
Khazars, and the new borders of the Bulgarian state were established further 
northwest near Belgrade and Branichevo. To the east the state expanded all the 
way to the Dnieper. Those wars were started by Bulgaria's enemies and, according 
to historical sources, Khan Omurtag's ships sailed up to the middle reaches of 
the Danube. Only the wars with Byzantium were a failure, and the results marked 
a turning point in Bulgarian diplomacy. 
A peace treaty was signed for a period of thirty years, alleviating tension at 
the Bulgarian-Byzantine border. Byzantine prisoners were exchanged for Slavs 
from the imperial territories. When concluding the peace treaty, the two rulers 
expressed their respect for each other, each taking oath by the other's ritual 
the Byzantine Emperor performed the Bulgarian pagan rite and Khan Omurtag's 
envoys went through the Christian ceremony. 
Here's a famous exchange Khan Omurtag had with Cinamon of Byzantium. ?If you 
praise the Sun and the Moon {as gods} - says Cinamon to Omurtag - and make me 
wonder at their magnificence, and I do wonder, I still find them creations and 
servants not only to God but also to us, the human beings.? To which Khan 
Omurtag answers: ?Do not abase our gods! Their power is great and you can judge 
about it from the fact that we, who pay homage to them, conquered the whole land 
of the Romans.? 
Moreover, the Bulgarian army helped suppress a peasant revolt against the 
basileus in Constantinople, led by Thomas the Slav. With diplomatic skill and 
military power Omurtag managed to handle the Hungarians too, thus maintaining 
peace for his subjects. He took firm control of internal affairs, completing the 
process of Bulgaria's consolidation as a unified and powerful state. He married 
a Slav and then gave his firstborn son a Slavic name: Enravotha, but then he 
also gave a Slavic name to his second son: Zvinitsa. Now that carried powerful 
symbolism. Here was the Khan of Bulgaria, giving Slavic names to his children! 
It is clear that the Bulgars, who were the ruling elite, were hell bent on 
making one nation out of the peoples of Bulgaria. And because they were the 
ruling elite, they were going to push the Slavic agenda. The Bulgars pushed for 
Slavic names, Slavic culture and especially the Slavic language, because the 
Bulgars were the ruling class. That is why modern Bulgarian is so lexically 
dominated by the language of the Slavs. 
Omurtag's rule was firm, whoever dared to encroach on Bulgaria's territory or to 
impair the power of the state was punished severely. From the beginning, 
religious freedom reigned in Bulgaria, everyone was free to worship whom ever 
and how ever they wanted. Everyone except the Christians that is. Bulgarians saw 
Christians, Christian priests especially, as agents of Byzantine. And they were 
right. Byzantine was the Holy Christian Roman empire, it went out of it's way to 
convert everybody, and used religion as a political tool. Khan Omurtag 
persecuted the preachers of Christianity who came to Bulgaria from neighboring 
Byzantium. Even his firstborn son Enravotha who had dared to adopt Christianity 
fell victim to this persecution and was denied succession to the throne. 
The years of peace allowed the Khan to engage in active construction. The large 
constructions of the Bulgarians in Pliska, Madara and Preslav are from this 
period. 
 
Of all the things Khan Omurtag had built, the Madara rider is probably the most 
famous one. There is still a lot of controversy over who it depicts. Is it Khan 
Krum and his triumph over the Roman Emperor, or is it Khan Tervel and his 
triumph over the Roman Emperor? The lion being killed represents the Roman 
Emperor. The dog following relates to the religions beliefs of the Bulgars. The 
inscriptions surrounding the figures, talk about the "Uncles in Macedonia...", a 
reference to Dragon and Kuber. The whole thing was constructed where an 
important Thracian site of worship used to be. Clearly this was Omurtag's 
attempt to merge the Thracian hero-horseman worship with the Bulgars. Yet 
another example of the lengths to which he went to unify and merge the peoples 
of Bulgaria. 
The capital, which had been burned by the Byzantines, was restored. A new 
palace, a ceremonial hall and an internal fortified wall were erected. The new 
palace-fortress on the river Ticha was adorned with two lions standing on four 
pillars - a symbol of Bulgarian power. An inscription on a stone pillar found 
near the construction site reads: 
"May God let the ruler he put into power trample upon the emperor as long as the 
Ticha flows, as long as.. .he reigns over the multitude of Bulgarians and 
overcomes his enemies." 
The Khan erected another fortified palace on the Danube. The memorials of his 
time provide a precious account of the way of life of medieval Bulgarians, of 
their culture and of Khan Omurtag's hope that the new state would endure. 
Inscriptions on pillars and stones have immortalized the deeds of the Khan and 
his men. Conscious of the transience of human life and the imperishability of 
what has been made by human hands, he ordered the following inscription to be 
made on a pillar in 831: 
 
"A good life though he may have led, a man shall die and another shall be born. 
May the later-born who see this remember its creator". 
 
This gold medallion mimicked the way the Byzantine Emperors were represented. 
The medallion was worn by a person close to Khan Omurtag as a sign of honor. 



 
Khan Malamir was the youngest son of Omurtag and ruled between 831 and 836. He 
maintained the peace with Byzantine and continued the persecution of Christians. 

Khan Presiyan succeeded his uncle Malamir to the throne, his right-hand man was 
the old Kav-Khan Isbul who had been the indispensable aide of his grandfather 
Omurtag. Perssian put an end to the peace with the Roman empire. The Slavic 
tribes within the empire were rebelling and their chiefs were looking north to 
Bulgaria where they could find protection together with other Slavs. Now that 
tells you how successful the policy of the Bulgar ruling elite was and how good 
relations were between the Slavs and Bulgars, even Slavs outside Bulgaria 
rebelled just to get to join Bulgaria! 
As soon an he ascended the throne in 837, Pressian sent his army under the 
command of Kav-Khan Isbul to the Aegean coast of Macedonia. There, they aided 
the Smolyans, whose revolt had shaken Byzantine rule in the Western Rhodopes and 
Aegean Thrace. When the emperor sent an army against the rebels, his forces were 
met by the Kav-Khan-led Bulgarian army. Inscriptions on stone plates tell of 
fierce battles at Philippi and Siar, the elation of the victories reflected in 
the engraved words: "Perssian, through the will of God ruler of many 
Bulgarians... 
The Bulgarian frontiers were now extended to the region of the Vardar, the Black 
Drin, Prilep, Ohrida, and part of the Struzmi region. This expansion brought the 
Bulgarians into contact with the Serbs, who in that period used to live in small 
principalities. In face of the increasing power of the Bulgarians they now 
united and defended their territories. It makes you wonder how Serbia's history 
would have turned out if the Serbs hadn't been motivated to unite because of 
Bulgaria. Perssian waged a war with the Serbs from 839 to 842, this was the 
first war in the history of the two countries' relations. The war did not result 
in any gain of territory for Bulgaria. 
Khan Persian annexed to Bulgaria its present-day mountains to the south: 
Rhodopes, Rila and Pirin, as well as the northern coast of the Aegian and 
Macedonia, including the towns Ohrid, Prilep and Bitola. Kossovo Pole also 
became part of Bulgaria. Thus in Khan Pressian's state, the Slavs from the 
"Bulgarian" group, inhabiting Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia achieved long-sought 
unity. 
Thus by 852 Bulgaria, comprising the territories of Panonnia {present-day 
Hungary}, Transilvania, Wallachia {present-day Romania}, Moldavia, Moesia, 
Thrace and Macedonia with their numerous inhabitants, became a European 
super-power. 
 
This treasure, dated to approximately 800 AD, of twenty-three golden vessels was 
found in 1799 in the region of Banat {Hungary} near the village of Naggy Sent 
Miklos which in the 9th century was a part of Bulgaria. The vessels probably 
belonged to the Bulgar tribal aristocracy. 
 



 
Khan Boris {or Bars} ascended the throne in 852, he was Presian's son. Boris I 
was not an outstanding military commander. He often suffered defeat but the 
state's borders remained unchanged. 
Boris I was a skillful diplomat. But his greatest act of diplomacy was a 
domestic one. Boris was surrounded by Christians, Christians everywhere! To the 
west of him, the Pope, to the east - the Byzantine Patriarch. Bulgaria was a 
pagan island in an ocean of Christianity. 
When Boris inherited the throne from his father, Bulgaria's territorial, 
military, and political potential had made it one of the largest states in 
Europe. Bulgaria's approximate frontiers were the Dnieper River in the 
northeast, the Carpathian Mountains in the north, the Tisa {Tisza} River in the 
northwest, the Adriatic Sea in the west, and the Tomorr {Tomor}, Belasica, 
Pirin, Rhodope, and Strandzha mountains in the south. Many Slavic tribes lived 
within the boundaries of the state, together with the Thracians {Vlachs}, and 
the Bulgars. All of them had different religions, etnicities, and languages. 
Because of this - the Christians, all the Bulgarian peoples and Boris' goal to 
merge them all into one undistinguishable mass of Bulgarians; Boris decided to 
make a truly radical change in Bulgaria's attitude towards Christianity. The 
Khans preceding him, had persecuted Christians, but Boris I was going to make 
Christianity a compulsory religion for all Bulgarians. This would not go over 
well with a lot of people in Bulgaria. In fact Boris' eldest son and heir 
Vladimir {Yet another firstborn Bulgar with a Slavic name.} with the help of 
like minded Boyars attempted to revive pagan worshipping. Boris, who had 
abdicated in 889, then returned to active politics. With the aid of Boyars loyal 
to him and the army, Boris drove his son from the throne. Vladimir was blinded, 
unfitting him for rule, and was replaced by Boris' third son, Simeon. To make a 
point, Boris ordered the execution of fifty-two Boyars, together with their 
families, who had remained faithful to Vladimir and pagandom. After his death in 
907 Boris I was proclaimed the first Bulgarian saint, and traces of his cult 
during this period can be found as far away as Ireland. 
 
Khan Boris had a detailed plan for the conversion of Bulgaria. His ultimate goal 
was not just the forging of one singular Bulgarian ethnicity {What all Khans 
since Asparuh had wanted.} but also the creation of an autocephalous Bulgarian 
church. The Khans before him had persecuted Christians precisely because 
Byzantine used the church as a political tool. But if he could create an 
autonomous Bulgarian church, he could in fact immunize Bulgaria against the 
religious-political influence of the Roman empire. 
Khan Boris took the throne in 852, and in a late autumn night of 864 Boris and 
his closest associates, his family, and the Boyars who supported his policy were 
baptized in the palace in Pliska. 
 
And he was Boris no more, he took the Biblical name Mihail {English Michael} and 
the Roman title Tsar {or Tzar, or Czar} i.e. Caesar. There was serious 
opposition by both the nobility and the common people to Boris' attempt to 
enforce mass baptism. A pagan rebellion broke out, but Mihail managed to 
surpress it. That is one important difference to keep in mind about Christianity 
and Bulgaria. While other nations like Germany and Ireland for example were 
converted from the "bottom up", the Bulgarian's faith came in the form of a 
government order. Devoted preachers, like St. Patrick and the guy who cut down 
Odin's oak in Germany, worked hard to convert everyday people to Christianity. 
But Bulgarians were converted by force and Bulgaria's church was born 
independent and that is why if nobody told you, today you would be hard pressed 
to tell that Bulgarians are Christians. The names of all the Gods were changed 
to the names of Christian saints, pagan religious altars were destroyed and/or 
buried, a lot of churches were built, but that was pretty much it. All the 
rituals and customs remained virtually unchanged. 
Mihail was quite active in inculcating the Christian faith among the Bulgarian 
people, in organizing the Bulgarian church as an independent institution, and in 
building churches throughout the country. He would also take the old Bulgar 
ruling elite motto: "We are the ruling elite and that is why we will push the 
language and culture of the Slavs." to it's ultimate end. Bent on introducing 
Slavonic liturgy and determined to foster the development of Slavonic language 
{Like all Bulgar Khans before him.} Mihail sought out the help of the brothers 
Cyril and Methodius. Byzantine Monks, natives of Thessalonica, with 
Slavic-Bulgarian roots, they were commissioned to create an alphabet, based on 
the Slavic language, to replace the Greek alphabet, which had been used in 
Bulgaria. And so the brothers invented an alphabet in which to write the Slavic 
language which became known as Old Bulgarian. The Bible was translated into Old 
Bulgarian. This new language was readily adopted in other Slavic regions, where, 
with local modifications, it remained the religious and literary language of 
Orthodox Slavs throughout the European Middle Ages. After it's adaptation in 
other Slavic regions Old Bulgarian became known as the Old Church Slavonic 
language. Old Church Slavonic was the first Slavic literary language. This 
language has continued as a liturgical language into modern times and it has had 
significant influence on the modern Slavic languages, especially on the Russian 
literary language that grew out of a compromise style incorporating many Church 
Slavonic elements into the native Russian vernacular. 
The Cyrillic  alphabet and Old Bulgarian made Bulgaria the first center of 
Slavonic literature and culture. As a result of the intensive work of scholars, 
and through Mihail's will, Old Bulgarian replaced Greek in church services and 
in literary life and became the country's official language. And that is why 
modern Bulgarian is so lexically dominated by Slavic. 
Soon, in the years to come, the peoples of Bulgaria would merge into one 
ethnicity, with one language, one culture, and one religion. But not before 
Vladimir's rebellion. After Vladimir was deposed and blinded, Boris convened a 
council that confirmed Christianity as the religion of the state and moved the 
administrative capital from paganist Pliska to the Slavic town of Preslav. 
 
The council conferred the throne on Boris' third son, Simeon, and Boris retired 
permanently to monastic life, making generous grants to the Bulgarian Church and 
patronizing Slav scholarship. The Bulgar ruling elite had pushed everything 
Slavic since 681. But it was Khan Krum's great grand son, Omurtag's grand son, 
the son of Presian, Boris who made the decisive hammer stroke that forged the 
unified Bulgarian ethnicity. 



 
Caesar Simeon continued his father's life work. Simeon encouraged the building 
of palaces and churches, the spread of monastic communities, and the translation 
of Greek books into Bulgarian. Simeon was closely involved in the activity of 
the Preslav literary circle. One of the most distinguished writers of that 
circle was an unidentified monk by the name of Chernorizetz Hrabr, the 
mysterious identity of the monk has led many scholars to seriously consider the 
possibility that Chernorizez Hrabar was a pseudonym of Simeon himself. 
Preslav was made into a magnificent capital that observers described as rivaling 
Constantinople. The artisans of its commercial quarter specialized in ceramics, 
stone, glass, wood, and metals. Bulgarian tile work in the "Preslav style" 
surpassed it's contemporary rivals and the artisans' work was eagerly imported 
by Byzantium and Kievan Rus. 
 
This item from Preslav is dated to between 900 and 960. Made of gold and pearls 
this ornament from the Bulgarian capitol, stands out with it's perfection of 
techniques and artistic flair. 
Simeon succeeded his elder brother Vladimir in 893. Simeon is the Bulgarian form 
of the Biblical name Simon. After what happened to Vladimir and 52 Boyar 
families, Simeon, who had just turned 27 when he took the helm, had two main 
goals: to break away from Byzantine political and religious influence and to 
turn Bulgaria into a powerful rival of the Roman empire. He raised the 
archbishop of Bulgaria to the rank of a patriarch. 
In 893 the Byzantines moved the market for Bulgarian goods from Constantinople 
to Thessaloniki, subjecting Bulgarian tradesmen to higher taxes. In the 
subsequent prolonged war, the first one in Europe to be fought for economic 
reasons, the initial battles were won by the Bulgarians. For two decades Simeon 
fought with the Byzantines, repulsed the attacks of Hungarians and entered into 
an alliance with the Pechenegs against Byzantium. After a crushing victory of 
the Bulgarians in 896 near Bulgarophygon in Eastern Thrace, the Byzantine 
emperor had no choice but to sue for peace. The market was returned to 
Constantinople and Byzantium had to pay annual tribute to Bulgaria. 
The hostilities were often reopened by both sides and after a series of battles 
Simeon pushed the border of the Bulgarian state to within twenty kilometers of 
Thessaloniki. He was striving to destroy Byzantium and build a Bulgaro-Byzantine 
empire. In 913 his banner was unfurled in front of the gates of Constantinople. 
In the imperial palace he received the patriarch's blessing and the title of 
Caesar {Tsar} of Bulgaria. 
Shortly thereafter, the Byzantines attempted to form an alliance with the 
Pechenegs and the Serbs against Bulgaria. Enraged, Simeon took Adrianople. After 
luring the Serbian king and the Pecheneg chief to his side, Simeon fought a 
decisive, bloody battle on 20 August 917 by the river Achebi, between Anchialo 
and Messembria. The imperial army suffered a heavy defeat. The Byzantines were 
put to chaotic flight in which many were trampled or met death at the hands of 
their enemies, reads a chronicle by Scylitzes. 
Simeon marched against Byzantine towns and demolished them, posing an immediate 
threat to Constantinople. In his ambition to sit in the imperial palace, he 
sought an alliance with the Arabs and negotiated with the emperor, the patriarch 
and the pope. He vented his anger on Byzantium's ally, the Serb prince, who 
after a short war was forced to cede part of his territory to Bulgaria. It was 
at the height of the preparations for the storm of Constantinople that he died 
of a heart attack on the 27th of May in 927. 
 
When Simeon The Great died he was master of the northern Balkans, including the 
Serbian lands, and styled himself "Tsar of the Bulgars and Autocrat of the 
Greeks." 



 
After the remarkable rule of Simeon, Bulgaria fell into decay. Many historians 
tend to blame the son of Simeon the Great, Tsar Peter I, for the decline of the 
country. They describe him as weak, sickly, meek and unstatesmanlike. Indeed, he 
did not have his father's dash, his abilities as a military commander, his 
diplomatic skill or his immense erudition. Yet that quiet and modest monarch 
remained on the throne longer than any other medieval Bulgarian ruler: from 927 
to 970. 
The reason for Bulgaria's unhappy lot should not be reduced to the faults of 
Simeon's son. While many years of wars led to an unprecedented expansion of the 
state, the peasantry, which constituted the main source of soldiers for the 
army, was depleted. Human losses, suffering, taxes and the draining of the 
nation's vital resources was the price Bulgaria paid for the victories of Simeon 
the Great. 
Under Peter I the Boyars and the higher clergy amassed wealth, while the general 
population grew poorer. Hermits who defied the church dwelled in the mountains. 
A priest of the name of Bogomil spread a teaching which was to accumulate the 
contempt for the Tsar, the Boyars and the clergy for centuries. Bogomilism 
repudiated the state and the church, believing them to be a creation of Evil, of 
Satan. The numerous followers of Bogomilism were disastrous for state order, 
while famine, droughts and Boyars' unrest were undermining the power of the 
state. 
To the profound distress of the Tsar, two plots against him were organized by 
his own brothers. He found no support in the Boyars, either. Simeon's nobles 
accused him of reconciling with Byzantium's supremacy and of making no plans for 
expansion. Others, however, insisted that the state would thrive and prosper in 
peace with Byzantium. 
Bulgaria also faced a number of external enemies that Tsar Peter was unable to 
handle. At the very beginning of his reign he lost the Serb lands. As a result 
of fierce Hungarian onslaughts from the north, Bulgaria lost important 
territories beyond the Danube, including the rich Transylvania. The Danube 
became the northern border of the state, and the Pechenegs repeatedly raided and 
plundered Dobroudja. 
Relations with Byzantium at the time were basically peaceful, as immediately 
after ascending the throne in 927, Tsar Peter married the grand-daughter of 
Emperor Romanus Lecapenus. A thirty-year peace treaty was signed, acknowledging 
the title of Tsar for the Bulgarian ruler. However, this was far from the 
grandeur Simeon the Great had dreamed of. The treaty never kept Constantinople 
from thwarting the efforts of Bulgarian diplomacy and encouraging Bulgaria's 
enemies. 
By the end of Peter's rule, Bulgarian-Byzantine relations were on the verge of 
severing. The Tsar's two sons, Boris and Roman, were taken hostages in 
Constantinople. The machinations of Emperor Nicephorus Phocas incited Prince 
Svyatoslav of Kiev to attack Bulgaria's northeastern border. Tsar Peter's army 
suffered a defeat in Dobroudja, which fell under Russian rule. The Russian army 
took some eighty fortresses and Prince Svyatoslav set up his headquarters in 
Preslavets. Upon hearing that the Russians were pillaging Bulgarian lands, the 
Tsar suffered a stroke and took monastic vows. Soon afterwards he died and was 
canonized by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. 



Tzar Boris II ruled from 970 to 971. The son of Tsar Peter is kept prisoner in 
Constantinople from 968 to 970, and again captured and stayed prisoner between 
971 and 977. He escaped with his brother to the free Bulgarian lands, But was 
killed by mistake by the Bulgarian soldiers near the border. 
Czar Roman reigned from 977 to 991. The second son of Czar Peter, practically 
does never rule. He died in prison in 997. 



 
"If you want to know someone, give him power." Tsar Roman had been rendered 
impotent as a prisoner in Constantinople and in 978, though technically still 
Czar, he voluntarily surrendered the power to his military commander Samuil. 
Though not a member of a royal family, Samuil proved born to rule. He came from 
the free southwestern lands {Macedonia}. His father Nikola was head of the 
Sredets komitat {administrative region}. During the tumultuous reigns of Peter 
and Boris, when invaders were harassing the Bulgarian outlands, Nikola's four 
sons zealously fought for Bulgaria's independence. After ten years of ceaseless 
battles they succeeded in liberating the northeastern territories. However, soon 
afterwards the sons Moses and David were killed in the battles with the 
Byzantines. The third son, Aaron, was accused of treason and was killed together 
with his family on Samuil's order. Only Aaron's son, Ivan Vladislav, was spared 
owing to the fervent pleads of Samuil's son Gavril Radomir. 
Samuil continued to repulse Byzantine attacks. He persevered for almost four 
decades, though the Byzantine empire was at the height of its power. In the 
battle for the survival of his people and his state, Samuil gained the 
reputation of an able commander and politician and earned the love of his 
subjects. He was a restless, militant man, reads his description in a Byzantine 
chronicle. Indeed, for many years the Bulgarians took fortress after fortress in 
Thrace and around Adrianople. Much of the empire's western territories came 
under Bulgarian control. Samuil's horsemen went south all the way to Peloponnese 
and Corynth, and they unfurled his flag in Larissa, a key fortress for the 
control over Thessaly. 
The Bulgarians were again victorious in the battle at Troyanovi Vrata. On 17 
August 986 Emperor Basil II fled, leaving behind his treasure hoard and a supply 
train. Byzantine chronist John Geometres lamented over the defeat: "May those 
ominous trees and mountains vanish from the face of earth! The Istrum {Bulgaria} 
grabbed the crown from Rome. The Moesian {Bulgarian} arrows proved stronger than 
Byzantine spears..." 
Elated by their victory, the Bulgarians won a series of battles. Strongholds 
like Vereia and Servia in southern Macedonia fell to their assaults. Samuil 
reached the Aegean coast when his troops overran the region of Drach. A 
successful campaign against the Serbs forced their prince to accept the 
patronage of the Bulgarian Tsar. That campaign marked the end of a tumultuous 
decade in Bulgaro-Byzantine relations. Under Samuil, Bulgaria was again 
established as a great power in the Balkans. "Samuil waged prolonged wars with 
the Greeks and drove them out of Bulgaria, so that in his time they did not even 
dare set foot on Bulgarian soil," a Byzantine chronicler wrote. 
However, when Basil II recovered from the defeat at Trayanovi Vrata, he set out 
to put the internal affairs of the empire in order. In a new drive against 
Bulgaria, Tsar Roman was again taken captive and later died in prison in 
Constantinople. He was the last of Simeon's dynasty. In 997 Samuil had himself 
crowned as Tsar. His title was recognized by the Holy See. A brief suspension of 
hostilities with Byzantium allowed him to turn his efforts to the internal 
concerns of his state. 
Samuil's state spread from the northeastern most Bulgarian territories to 
Southern Macedonia. The Boyars and their fortified towns submitted to Samuil's 
supreme authority. The nobles actively supported their Tsar in the fights with 
Byzantium, for they knew the advantages of unity. Samuil moved his capital from 
Sredets {Sofia} to Voden, to Prespa and finally to Ohrid, in reaction to the 
developments in the war with Byzantium. 
In the newly erected palace in his last capital, Ohrid, Samuil developed and 
enforced the state system devised in Simeon's times. The Kav-Khan remained the 
highest dignitary, the Tsar's right-hand man. The Church was headed by a 
patriarch. In the heart of the state - the lands around Sofia and in Macedonia - 
fortified castles were erected to repel Byzantine attacks. Numerous churches, 
stone carvings and paintings in Ohrid, Prespa and Kostur testify to the Tsar's 
concern about the spiritual aspect of Bulgarian life. 
Meanwhile, Emperor Basil II once again raised an army and started a new campaign 
against Bulgaria in 1001. Samuil fought fiercely but was forced to retreat and 
give away lands. Many of his nobles, like Krakra of Pernik, heroically defended 
their strongholds. Others chose to become traitors in order to survive. Disunity 
gradually depleted Samuil's state. The fatal moment came in the summer of 1014 
when the Bulgarian army suffered a crushing defeat in a gorge of the Strumitsa 
river near the village of Klyuch in Macedonia. Upon victory, Emperor Basil II 
ordered the 14,000 Bulgarian prisoners blinded. One in every hundred men was 
left with one eye in order to lead the men home. At the sight of the blinded 
soldiers. Samuil suffered a heart attack and died. His son, Gavril Radomir, 
spent only a year on the throne before being killed by Ivan Vladislav, the man 
whose life he had once saved. When Tsar Ivan Vladislav was killed in a battle in 
1018, his sons continued the resistance against Byzantium, but they lost the 
war, nothing could stop the Emperor from taking Ohrid. His cruelty won him the 
name of Bulgaroctonus: Slayer of the Bulgars; Bulgaria became part of the Roman 
empire. 
 



Boris/Mihail's immunization worked! The new alphabet, all the churches built, 
the translation of the Bible into Bulgarian, they all not only unified the 
Bulgarians but also kept them from loosing their national identity during the 
Byzantine rule. When the Roman empire swallowed Bulgaria, the Bulgarians were 
one nation that could effectively oppose foreign rule. 



Initially the Byzantine emperor issued an order that the tax system of the Old 
Bulgarian kingdom continue to be applied in the occupied Bulgarian lands. It 
was, undeniably, much fairer than its Byzantine analogue. The Bulgarian 
patriarchal was downgraded to an archbishopric. Called Ohridska, meaning 'of or 
belonging to Ohrida', it retained its autocephalous status. Hundreds of 
Bulgarian aristocracy retained their position of landlords in their feudal 
possessions. Moreover, the better part of the Bulgarian lands, comprising mainly 
the lands of Macedonia, was joined in administrative districts called 'Bulgaria 
themes'. Troops were recruited mainly from the Bulgarian population. 
Only ten years later the Byzantine tax system was introduced into the Bulgarian 
lands, too. Strangers were appointed incumbents of the Ohrida archbishopric. The 
Bulgarian literacy, liturgy and traditions were subjected to ruthless 
persecution. The greed and selfishness of the Byzantine officials, commissioned 
to work in the Bulgarian lands, gradually ruined the local economy. To most of 
them the years of service there meant no more than a golden opportunity to make 
a fortune. 
The Bulgarian aristocracy had slowly but consistently been removed from its 
lands. Many of them were sent on 'assignments' in other realms of the empire 
remote enough from the Balkans, while others were bribed to pass over to the 
Byzantines. 
This situation gave rise to discontent among all Bulgarian population strata. 
Mass rebellions aimed at restoring the Bulgarian state broke out. The first one 
rose in Belgrade in 1040. It was headed by Peter Delyan, grandson of glorious 
Tsar Samuel, and it ended with his being proclaimed a Bulgarian Tsar. Peter 
Delyan reigned for two years {1040-1041} and succeeded in liberating a great 
part of the Bulgarian lands. The insurrection collapsed quickly when the Tsar 
was treacherously blinded by one of his relatives aspiring to the Bulgarian 
throne. 
Another massive insurgence broke out in 1072. Its standard was raised by Georgi 
Voiteh in the town of Skopje. It took two years of fighting before it was 
crushed. In 1074-1078 and in 1084-1086 fresh revolts broke out in the areas of 
modern Silistra, Plovdiv and Nessebur. These were also put down by the Byzantine 
authorities. 
At the end of the 11th century the Byzantine domains in the Balkans which, for 
nearly a century, had comprised chiefly Bulgarian lands, became the arena of 
fierce hostilities. Bulgaria, being in the middle of the crossroad or the world, 
had acted as a buffer since Khan Asparuh's times. Keeping everybody away from 
everybody else. Nomads, like the Khazars were kept away from the Byzantine 
empire, the Arabs were kept out of Europe, etc. But now, with Bulgaria gone, the 
buffer was gone: 
The Normans were invading from the south and the knights of the First 
{1096-1097} and then the Second {1146-1147} crusade advanced along the trans- 
European route with swords drawn and fire blazing. Most frightful of all, 
however, were the renewed raids of the Nomads from the steppes, raids unseen in 
those lands since the 7th century. In times gone the Bulgarian state had 
reliably safeguarded not only Byzantium but also the whole of Europe against the 
raids of Nomads. The now emasculate Byzantine imperium was no longer in the 
position to effectively defend the territory of the empire, so the burden of 
safeguarding the metropolitan mainstays fell on Bulgarian shoulders. During the 
11th century all attempts at organizing a liberation movement had stopped. The 
Bulgarians were busy organizing their life-and-death struggle to keep body and 
soul together. At the cost of numerous lives lost they managed to restrict, 
within certain limits, the advance of the crusaders along their mapped-out 
routes and to crush or beat off the raids of the Uzes, the Pechenegs and the 
Kumans. A paradoxical situation arose at the end of the 12th century. Formally 
Byzantium was the sovereign of the Bulgarian lands, but in some big provinces 
{Moesia, Dobrudja and Macedonia} Byzantine power was nominal. There ruled 
representatives of the Bulgarian aristocracy - harsh warriors who had been 
through dozens of battles. The population, inured to the privations of war and 
inspired by spurious accounts, supported them. Some fabulous chronicles told of 
how intelligent patriots wistfully imagined the Bulgarian kingdom by 
idealistically representing it as a piece of Eden. 
The insurgent sea of patriotism pervades some of the political pamphlets which 
have come down to us, thanks to Khan Boris, in the form of Christian religious 
prophecies. Their spirit is of Messianic nature as it is sustained in them that 
out of the three kingdoms in the world - the Alemanic {German}, the Roman 
{Byzantine} and the Bulgarian, the first two would go to rack and ruin as they 
had departed from Christian canons and had lapsed into depravity. Resurrection 
and eternal life were awaiting the Bulgarian kingdom which would have the 
mission to redeem and, then, render imperishable the values of the Christian 
civilization. 
In this atmosphere, at the end of the 12th century just a spark was needed to 
flare up a fresh liberation uprising. 



 <- Tsar Peter II & Tsar Ivan Assen I ->  
Petar and Asen ruled from 1185 to 1197. The names of the two brothers reveal an 
interesting aspect of Bulgarian family life. Peter is a Biblical name but his 
brother Ivan Assen {or Asen} has a Slavic first name {Ivan is as Slavic a name 
as there is.} and a Bulgar middle name {Asen}, of Iranian origin. The same man 
had names of different ethnic origins. But on top of all that, it turns out that 
the brothers were from Thracian {Vlach} origin. This indistinguishable merging 
of Bulgarian cultures had become evident by their time. One could make the 
argument, that already, the different etnicities in Bulgaria had become one. 
When you think of revolutions, what's the first cause on your mind? Many people 
{Americans} would say taxes! On a November day in 1185 hundreds of Bulgarians 
amassed in front of the newly erected Church of St. Demetrius in Turnovo. They 
came to celebrate the church's inauguration, but cheered even louder at the 
appearance of two nobles, the brothers Todor and Assen {also known as Belgun}. 
Although the crowd had gathered for a religious purpose, everybody there knew 
the two nobles had other plans in mind. Someone in the crowd drew a sword and 
spoke prophetic words: "This is not the time to stay idle; it's time that we 
took up arms and fought the Byzantines!" 
The two nobles' elder brother, Todor, was crowned Tsar and took the name of 
Peter. After 167 years of Byzantine domination, the Bulgarians again had a state 
of their own. After a century and a half of humiliation, suffering and many 
suppressed revolts, the memory of Krum and Simeon brought the Bulgarian state 
back to life. 
It is no coincidence that the two brothers, with a trace of Kumanian blood in 
their veins, chose to call a revolt at the time when Byzantium was in a state of 
decline, weakened by internal conflicts and by Hungarian and Norman assaults. 
Heavy taxes and political oppression and persecution had stirred up discontent 
in the Bulgarian lands. When in 1185 another tax was levied on the population 
north of the Balkan range, the two brothers saw the opportune moment for a new 
uprising. 
In the battles for Bulgaria's liberation, which spanned a whole decade, Peter 
and Assen demonstrated both strong will and military talent. Their patriotism 
won them the confidence of the nation and their calls for troops met with an 
active response throughout the territories north of the Balkan range. First they 
liberated the northern part of Bulgaria and temporarily withdrew beyond the 
Danube with their troops. Then, after recapturing their lands and the new 
capital of Turnovo, 
 
Peter and Assen drove the Byzantine army south to Eastern Thrace and fought 
their way to the Prosek fortress in the Vardar region of Macedonia. 
 
A decisive battle was fought in 1187 near the town of Lovech. After a 
three-month siege Emperor Isaac II Angelus failed to crush the resistance of the 
defenders of the fortress, fighting for their newly liberated state. In the end, 
the basileus was forced into a treaty, but he took the two leaders' younger 
brother Kaloyan to Constantinople to guarantee good behavior from his neighbor. 
The most important gain from the 1187 battles was the recognition of the 
Bulgarian state. With self-confidence boosted by their triumph, the two brothers 
appointed an archbishop of the now independent Bulgarian church. 
In the hard times when the Second Bulgarian State was regrouping from Byzantine 
domination, the two brothers joined their efforts for the consolidation of the 
new dynasty. A man of noble spirit, Peter recognized his younger brother's 
superior skills as a commander and statesman. Assen was crowned Tsar, and most 
of the Bulgarian lands came under his control. Peter retained his throne and the 
lands around the one-time capital Preslav. 
In the fight with Byzantium the two brothers took advantage of the alleviation 
of Byzantine pressure owing to the passage of the Third Crusade through the 
Balkans, and urged the Kumanians to send their swift cavalry against the 
Byzantines. Glorious victories were won in the battles in the Tryavna pass and 
near Arcadiople {Eastern Thrace}. The borders of the state extended far south 
into Thrace and the Aegean region. Even the battle-hardened Hungarians were 
unable to put up resistance to the army of Assen and Peter, and after a series 
of Bulgarian-won battles, were forced to give back to Bulgaria the regions of 
Belgrade and Branichevo. 
The Byzantine chronicler Nicetas Choniates wrote that the brothers were striving 
to unite the three Bulgarian regions: Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia under their 
rule, as it had been in earlier times. They did not conceal their ambition to 
restore Bulgaria to its one-time glory. The whole of the rebellious Bulgarian 
people stood behind them. 
The founders of the new dynasty did not die in battle, at the hands of their 
enemies. Alarmed and annoyed by the resurgence of the Bulgarian state, the 
Byzantines incited the Boyars to plot against the Tsar. In 1196 Tsar Assen I was 
murdered by his cousin Ivanko. Some 700 years later, during the period of 
national revival, a writer of the name of Vassil Droumev depicted the story in 
the first Bulgarian drama: Ivanko, Assen's Murderer. Tsar Peter sent the cousin 
into exile but before a year had elapsed, himself became the victim of a 
conspiracy. However, by that time the Bulgarian state was back on its feet 
again. 
Meanwhile, having escaped from Constantinople, the younger brother Kaloyan was 
riding fast towards Bulgaria. 



 
By finishing the war of liberation his brothers had started, Tsar Kaloyan, who 
ruled from 1197 to 1207, proved himself a deserved leader. In the beginning, 
Tsar Kaloyan tended to avoid confrontation with Byzantium in order to subdue the 
splinter Boyars and to strengthen his state against the Boyars' opposition. 
Unified, the Bulgarian army won a series of battles far south into Byzantine 
territories. Just five years after his ascension to the throne, Kaloyan had 
restored the one-time borders, and his state comprised today's northern 
Bulgaria, parts of Macedonia and Thrace and the regions of Belgrade and 
Branichevo. 
In the spring of 1204, when Byzantium collapsed under the onslaught of the 
western knights of the Fourth Crusade, the young Bulgarian ruler was faced with 
a historic choice. Should he cross swords with the new Latin empire, just 
established on the former Byzantine territories, or should he choose the 
complexity of high diplomacy? He opted for the second, demonstrating sober 
political mind and good reason. Rather than clash with the empire, he sought 
union with the Pope. In 1204 a nuncio of Pope Innocent III crowned him King, and 
Kaloyan was presented with a scepter and a flag. Archbishop Vassily, the head of 
the Bulgarian church, was given the title of Primas. 
However, Kaloyan preferred to style himself Emperor. Moreover, he was recognized 
as ruler not only of Bulgaria but of Vlachia, the lands north of the Danube, as 
well. Pope Innocent II himself wrote that "Kaloyan and his forerunners Peter and 
Assen have restored most of the country by right of their ancestors." The 
coronation amounted to a recognition of Bulgaria's independence, while ordinary 
Bulgarians maintained their Orthodox faith. 
Kaloyan's diplomatic maneuvers temporarily averted the threat posed by the 
crusaders and strengthened the defense of the northwestern border where Catolic 
Hungarians still found it hard to put up with the loss of Belgrade and 
Branichevo. And most important of all, he gained time for preparation for the 
inevitable clash with the crusaders, already casting an eye on Thrace. He raised 
a strong army. 
Meanwhile, negotiations were underway for an alliance with the Kumanians and the 
Seljuq Turks. The talks with Byzantine nobles provided further encouragement - 
Kaloyan was promised to be crowned in Constantinople as Byzantine Emperor in 
case he defeated the crusaders, an unprecedented promise in the history of 
Bulgarian-Byzantine relations. 
Step by step Kaloyan was preparing for the victory that was finally won on 14 
April 1205 near Adrianople. The Bulgarian shield clashed with the amour of the 
Latin knights, headed by Emperor Baldwin I. The Bulgarians crushed the heavily 
armored knights, who had previously been considered invincible. 
 



The Latin army was well fortified in Constantinople, Emperor Baldwin I told his 
knights not to engage the Bulgarians! What ever happens, do NOT ride after them. 

The Bulgarian light cavalry attacked the knights, shot arrows at them, and 
immediately rode away, on their fast horses. This really annoyed the knights. It 
went on for days! Finally the Latins had had enough! They put on their armor, 
put the armor on their horses and waited for the next Bulgarian attack. When it 
came, the knights pursued. The light Bulgarian cavalry had no trouble keeping 
ahead of the armor clad knights, the Bulgarians rode into and through a swamp. 
The knights followed and to their surprise, their huge, armored, draft horses, 
got stuck! 
The woods surrounding the marsh were filled with Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were 
armored with hooks designed to make pulling knights off their horses easy and 
convenient. Another fact, which came as a surprise to the Latins, was that 
armored knights tend to sink and/or get stuck in swamps. 
"The cream of Latin chivalry was killed in that battle," wrote Robert de Claris. 
The emperor himself was captured and taken to Turnovo. 



The battle of Adrianople, which revealed Kaloyan's exceptional talent as a 
military commander, echoed throughout Europe. The Latin empire was delivered a 
heavy blow and was to collapse a few years later. In Rome the Pope had to give 
up his hopes of gaining control over the Eastern Orthodox Church. But it was not 
only fame Kaloyan fought for at Adrianople. His mind was focused on Bulgaria's 
survival next to the mighty Latin empire. As a result of the victory Bulgaria 
became a force to be reckoned with. The fortresses of Seres, Skopje Ver and 
Muglen fell in succession. The following year the Bulgarians took Dimotica, 
Philipopolis, Cheraclea, Arcadiople and other strongholds. In the battle at 
Seres the Thessalonian King Bonifacius of Montferrat was killed. The Bulgarians 
controlled almost the whole of Thrace, and Kaloyan often cast an eye on the 
walls of Constantinople. However, he knew that without a fleet, a siege of 
Constantinople would result in an immense loss. 



Tsar Boril reigned from 1207 to 1218. he married his uncle's widow to legalize 
his power. He also lost territories around Beograd and Branichevo . Boril 
organized a church council against the bogomil sect. He was dethroned and 
blinded by Ivan Asen and Alexander. 



 
Ivan Assen II was one of the greatest statesmen of medieval Bulgaria. He would 
never use a sword where reason, humanness and patience would do, for he would 
not have Bulgarian blood shed in vain. 
The son of Tsar Assen I ascended the throne in 1218 after dethroning the 
mediocre Boril with the assistance of Russian and Kumanian troops. His lot was 
not an easy one: to restore the country, devastated by the incompetent rule of 
his forerunner. Ivan Assen II's ideas of state and governance far outshined 
those of neighboring rulers. His flexible diplomacy, eye for strategic marriages 
and good-will in relations with neighbors preserved the vital force of the 
nation. 
The crusaders had settled in Constantinople, the once-mighty Byzantine empire 
was waning, divided into weak and constantly warring small countries, among 
which Nicea and Epirus were the most outstanding. Through negotiations and a 
daughter's marriage, Tsar Ivan Assen II regained the regions of Belgrade and 
Branichevo from the Hungarian king. A treaty with the despot of Epirus 
temporarily secured peace to the south-west. To achieve the same to the 
southeast, he had his daughter Elena betrothed to the Latin emperor. 
Then the famous battle of Klokotnitsa took place, a culminating point in 
Bulgaria's medieval power. Ivan Assen II was not eager to fight, but the Despot 
of Epirus, the Byzantine noble Todor Comnenus, embarked on a campaign against 
Bulgaria, hoping to restore the once glorious empire. "He was a brazen and 
tactless man... who would easily violate his oath and the treaties with his 
neighbors," Georgius Acropolites, a Byzantine notable, wrote about Comnenus. He 
had been bound by a treaty and through the marriage of one of Ivan Assen's 
daughters to his brother to keep the peace. When Comnenus breached that treaty, 
dishonesty and honor clashed at Klokotnitsa, near today's Haskovo. According to 
the ruthless law of the Middle Ages Todor Comnenus claimed that might made 
right. To Ivan Assen II, punishing the perjurer was a matter not only of 
personal revenge but of averting the invader-posed threat to his people. 
The battle was fought on 9 March 1230. When the Tsar raised his hand, a soldier 
carrying the violated treaty spit onto a spear, led the troops forward. The 
Byzantines fought desperately but in the one-to-one combat the spirit and skill 
of Ivan Assen's soldiers, fighting for their native land, finally prevailed. "It 
was a sweeping victory. Todor was crushed... and taken prisoner. Also, a number 
of his relatives and notables with all their wealth were captured by the 
Bulgarians. Ivan Assen, however, was merciful and let most of the soldiers, the 
ordinary ones, go...," reads the Byzantine chronicler Georgius Acropolites's 
account of the event. 
To celebrate his victory, the Tsar completed the construction of the Church of 
the Forty Holy Martyrs in Turnovo. On one of its pillars one can still see the 
inscription in which Ivan Assen II proudly styled himself "Tsar and lord of the 
Bulgarians". 
His noble gesture of releasing the captured won Assen popularity among ordinary 
people of Byzantium so that when he followed the defeated Byzantine army, it was 
a bloodless campaign. Adrianople surrendered; Dimothiki Prilep, Seres and 
Pelagonia followed suit. The battle at Klokotnitsa and the subsequent campaign 
made Bulgaria the greatest power in the Balkans and Eastern Europe again. 
Bulgaria regained the lands that had been lost during Boril's brief and 
disastrous rule. Ivan Assen II succeeded in building up the internal unity of 
the vast state. Its borders now reached the Adriatic, the Aegean and Black Sea, 
an apogee comparable only to Simeon's glory. The new state incorporated all 
territories inhabited by Bulgarians. In The Life of Ilarion of Muglen it is said 
that "Ivan Assen II reigned over Bulgarians, Greek, Franks, Serbs and Albanians 
and over all towns from sea to sea..." 
Ivan Assen II went on to call himself Tsar of the Bulgarians and Greeks, to put 
an end to the Hungarian raids and to thwart insidious plots against Bulgaria. He 
besieged Constantinople, entered into an alliance with the Latin Empire and 
Nicea and rejected a Union with the Pope. The Bulgarian Patriarchate was 
restored. 
The rebellious nobles were finally subdued and their support was won by means of 
new lands and privileges. The persecution of the Bogomils ceased. Peace brought 
prosperity to the people, and trade with the Mediterranean region became brisk. 
The Tsar minted coins and embarked on the construction of fortresses and 
monasteries. Royal deeds were issued for generous grants of land to the Church. 
The capital town of Turnovo was second only to Constantinople. 
Numerous biographies and eulogies were written about Ivan Assen during his 
lifetime and after his death in 1241. Georgius Acropolites wrote: "He was 
marveled and extolled by all, for he never drew a sword against his subjects, 
neither was he stained by the slaughter of Byzantines... Thus he was loved not 
only by the Bulgarians, but by the Byzantines and other peoples as well". 
 



Tsar Koloman I Asen ruled between 1241 and 1246. The son of Ivan Asen II, he 
succeeds to the throne at the age of 7. His reign matches the start of the 
Mongol raids on Bulgaria and the attacks of the Nikea Empire . He stopped the 
spreading of Catholicism in the Bulgarian lands. Died in 1246, probably 
poisoned. 
Czar Michail Asen ruled from 1246 to 1256. The son of Ivan Asen II from the 
marriage with Irina Komnina. He received the crown with the help of his mother 
and she is a leading figure in his reign. The state again lost territories. 
Killed in 1256 by his cousin Koloman II Asen. 
Tzar Koloman II Asen ruled in 1256 for one year only. Abandoned by his Boyars he 
was killed. 
Tsar Misho Asen reigned from 1256 till' 1257. The son in law of Ivan Asen, he 
was defeated by Constantine Tih. He then emigrated to Byzantium. 



 
In the last days of Ivan Assen's rule, the threat of a Mongolian invasion loomed 
over Bulgaria. His underage sons Koloman and Mihail II Assen, from his first and 
second marriage respectively, ascended the throne one after the other, and 
failed to stop the Mongolian onslaught from the north. With internal peace 
shattered by Boyars' unrest, the hard-gained prosperity of Ivan Assen II was 
dwindling quickly. The Nicean Empire occupied lands in Macedonia and the 
Rhodopes. The Comnenus family took away Epirus and Albania, while the Hungarian 
king seized Belgrade and Branichevo. 
In 1257 internecine strifes brought to the throne Konstantin Tih, a Boyar from 
Skopje. He was a mediocre ruler, unable to save the state. The Byzantine Empire, 
restored in 1261, seized a number of towns in Thrace and along the Black Sea 
coast. Autocratic Boyars governed independently in the different regions of a 
disunited Bulgaria. The Mongols continued their pillaging raids. To replenish 
the depleted treasury, Tsar Konstantin Tih imposed heavier taxes on the 
population. 
It was during this time that the peasant Ivailo ascended the throne. Byzantine 
chroniclers did not write much about his earlier years. They do mention that he 
used to be a swineherd in his native Dobroudja. However, the illiterate 
swineherd was a born orator who cared for his country. He managed to convince 
the peasants he was God's elect who was to liberate them from the tax burden, 
the rulers' arbitrariness and the foreign invaders. 
It was perhaps due to the exhaustion of the people's patience that a revolt 
broke out spontaneously in 1277, when Ivailo and his men repelled the raid of a 
large Mongol horde. A valiant warrior and a talented commander, the peasant 
leader inflicted a series of defeats on the Mongols, temporarily discouraging 
them from further attacks. 
Ivailo's fame mounted quickly. Thousands of peasants joined his army. He slowly 
gained sufficient self-confidence to challenge the Tsar and the Boyars. Before 
he set out for Turnovo the peasants proclaimed him Tsar. Georgius Pachimeres 
wrote: "Whenever he seized a town, he was celebrated as Tsar and leader. One 
after the other the regions placed themselves under his command, believing they 
would thrive under his rule." 
The peasants believed that the young and energetic Ivailo could easily defeat 
the old and inactive Konstantin Tih whose rule had been a disaster for the 
state. The dream of the good Tsar, so common during the Middle Ages, was revived 
once again. The peasants regarded Ivailo as a patriot, ready to stand up for the 
state and the people. 
In the battle between the rebel army and the Tsar's troops, Ivailo was 
victorious and Tsar Konstantin Tih died on the battlefield. Mercenary Boyars 
joined Ivailo in order to preserve their power and privileges. The rebels 
besieged the capital. 
In light of the internecine fighting in Bulgaria, the basileus attacked Eastern 
Thrace, threatening the rebels' rear. In the face of uncertainty, fighting on 
two fronts, Ivailo was compelled to seek reconciliation. 
Ivailo was crowned and ruled as Tsar from 1278 to 1280. He was forced to wage 
wars all the time, either against the Byzantines to the south, or against the 
Mongols to the north. After fierce fights in the Balkan passes his commanders 
Momchil, Kuman, Stan, Damyan and Kuncho managed to break off the offensive of 
the Byzantines. Then his army drove the Mongols beyond the Danube. 
However, the next year the Byzantine army reached Turnovo. The emperor's protege 
Ivan Assen III seized the throne. Fighting his way out of the besieged 
stronghold of Drustur {today's Silistra} on the Danube, Ivailo headed for 
Turnovo in 1280. Again thousands of peasants joined his army. But the situation 
in Turnovo had changed. The Boyar Georgi Terter dethroned Ivan Assen III and 
unified the nobles. The Byzantine chronicler Pachimeres wrote of numerous 
successful fights of Ivailo's army against the Byzantines, but they failed to 
ward off the Byzantine threat. Frustrated and discouraged, the peasants deserted 
Ivailo. Lacking in experience as a statesman, he sought a way out. He turned to 
his one-time enemies, the Mongols, and was murdered in their camp on the order 
of Khan Nogay. 
For several decades Ivailo's fame would not subside in the neighboring countries 
and rebel leaders used his name to attract supporters. However, none of these 
leaders could match him, and none of them ever made it to the throne. 



Tzar Ivan Asen III reigned between 1279 and 1280. The grandson of Ivan Asen II, 
he was given the title by the Byzantine emperor Michail VIII Paleolog, married 
his daughter Irina. He was expelled by Ivailo. 
Czar Georgi Terter I reigned from 1280 to 1292. Of Kuman origin, he was the 
leader of the strategy of the Cherwen stronghold. Chosen by all Boyars to be the 
Tsar of the Bulgarians after the escape of Ivan Asen III. 
Tzar Smilez ruled between 1292 and 1298, he was declared Czar by Nogay Khan. 



 
In the early spring of 1300 a young Bulgarian was wandering about in the camp of 
the Golden Horde. Tsar Georgi Terter's son had been sent there as a hostage of 
the powerful Khan Nogay. In Turnovo Tsar Georgi Terter was a vassal of the 
Golden Horde. Apprehensive about the Tsar's freedom-loving character, in 1292 
Khan Nogay had him replaced by the Boyar Smilets who was faithful to the Mongols 
and Georgi Terter had to seek refuge in Byzantium. Since the start of the 
Mongolian raids into Bulgaria, the Boyars were split between those who didn't 
mind a vassal status to the vast Mongolian empire and those who could not live 
with anything less then full independence. 
During his days as hostage in the camp of the Golden Horde, Todor Svetoslav 
fully realized the wisdom in the old saying: "Before learning to give orders, 
one should learn to submit." He hated his fatherland's vassal status to the 
Mongol empire. By this time in history the Bulgarians were one nation that could 
not tolerate anything less then absolute independence for Bulgaria. But for the 
time Todor was unable to drive the Mongols out by force, so he had only one 
option left: to engage in an involved political game. When a power struggle 
broke out in the Golden Horde, he fled to Turnovo with Nogay's son Chaka. He 
needed the support of Chaka's troops to dethrone Smilets. 
The time had not yet come for Svetoslav to ascend the throne, so he had Chaka 
crowned instead. But Chaka was not to rule long, for Todor Svetoslav was already 
negotiating with his enemy, Khan Toktu. Chaka's head was the price paid for the 
good will of the new Mongol Khan. Thus at the end of 1300 AD Todor Svetoslav 
victoriously ascended the throne. 
His rule lasted until 1321. The new peace with the Mongols secured the northern 
border. He gradually eliminated the Mongolian influence, taking advantage of the 
power struggles in the Golden Horde. 
The Tsar could then see to the problems with his domestic enemies, as internal 
security was crucial to handling the Byzantine threat. Todor Svetoslav defeated 
his opponents, the Boyars from the Smilets family, and promptly consolidated his 
power in the lands south of the Balkan range. Even his uncle, Despot Eltimir, 
submitted and his fortress Krun and the surrounding lands were incorporated into 
Bulgaria. A traitorous patriarch, who had collaborated with the Mongols, was 
sentenced to death. The north-western lands alone remained an independent 
principality under Shishman, in alliance with Serbia. 
Then the time came to settle another score in the centuries-long conflict with 
Byzantium. Thrace was once again turned into a battlefield. Success was on the 
side of Todor Svetoslav, and soon Bulgarian sovereignty over a number of towns 
along the Black Sea was restored. 
In the summer of 1304, Andronicus II sought revenge with his new army. Tsar 
Smilets's brother fought on his side. In the battle in the valley of Skafida 
{today's Fakiiska river} the Byzantines were routed and Bulgaria annexed new 
territories. The hostilities continued until 1307 when a peace treaty was 
concluded and was kept for fifteen years. The long-awaited peace brought about 
economic growth. 
A far-sighted politician, Todor Svetoslav developed Bulgaria's contacts with 
Serbia and with the Italian republics of Venice and Genoa. Internal and external 
trade flourished. The population evidently prospered, the Tsar himself grew 
richer. He died peacefully in 1231, happy with the aggrandizement of the state's 
power and prosperity from the time of Ivan Assen II. His rule was marked by the 
victory of order over chaos and by a consolidation of the state after almost 
half a century of turmoil. 



 
Following the early death of Svetoslav's son, Georgi Terter II, Tsar Mihail 
Shishman took over. He spent the years of his rule, from 1323 to 1330, almost 
entirely on his war horse, the peaceful years under Todor Svetoslav were a thing 
of the past. The Despot of Vidin Mihail Shishman was elected Tsar by the Boyars. 
His enthroning marked the beginning of a new dynasty, the Shishmans, which was 
to hold power until the decline of the Second Bulgarian State. Mihail Shishman 
fought many battles, knew the joy of victory and the frustration of defeat. His 
first battles with the Byzantines in Thrace showed the basileus the strength and 
experience of his opponent. Constantinople acknowledged Bulgaria's gains south 
of the Balkan range. Despot Voisil who was holding several fortresses in the 
Sub-Balkan valley was subdued, too. Several years later the hostilities between 
Bulgaria and Byzantium were reopened and Mihail Shishman was forced to turn to 
an old ally, the Mongols, for help. The Bulgar-Mongol association would continue 
through the first half of the 1300s, but the Mongols concentrated their empire 
building in the east and abandoned Europe. 
The Mongol-Bulgarian raids in Thrace, in the region of Adrianople, harassed the 
empire, which was at that time torn by internal struggles. However, it seemed 
Mihail Shishman was unable to hold the seized territories and he proposed peace. 
The 1324 treaty was sealed by Mihail Shishman's marriage to the sister of the 
young Emperor Andronicus, Teodora, the widow of Tsar Todor Svetoslav Thus peace 
was secured from the south and the new dynasty was formally recognized. Later 
Mihail Shishman became involved in the internecine struggles with the secret 
hope of conquering Constantinople. However, he proved to be a poor diplomat. 
After an unsuccessful campaign in Thrace he worked to restore peace and the 
alliance with the emperor. 
Peace with Byzantium was vital because of Bulgaria's strained relations with 
Serbia. It already controlled the larger part of Macedonia, and King Stefan 
Decanski was preparing for a war against Bulgaria. The Bulgarians accepted the 
challenge and the army headed for Velbuzhd {today's Kyustendil}, expecting the 
allied Byzantine army to arrive. 
However, dramatic events followed with grave consequences for Bulgaria. At the 
end of July 1330, after clashes between the two armies, their commanders agreed 
upon a truce. But the Serbian army violated the truce and launched a surprise 
attack which caught the Bulgarian army off-guard. The Byzantine army never 
showed up. The Serbian king fought fiercely, seeking vengeance for his sister 
Anna-Neda, the estranged first wife of the Bulgarian Tsar. Mihail Shishman 
fought valiantly and died in the battle. 



Tsar Ivan Alexander ruled from 1331 to 1371. He divided Bulgaria between his two 
sons Ivan Shishman and Ivan Srazimir. 



 
An old Russian proverb says that the thirst for power is the hardest to quench. 
Ivan Shishman, Ivan Alexander's firstborn son from his second marriage, craved 
power. But his proved to be a short brush with power. He succeeded his father to 
the throne in Turnovo, but the state had become a shadow of one-time great 
Bulgaria. Almost all ties with the other two Bulgarian states, Ivan Sratsimir's 
Vidin principality and the Dobroudja principality of Despot Dobrotitsa, had been 
severed. Ivan Shishman's struggle to survive under the pressure of the Ottoman 
offensive soon turned into a desperate and valiant, though hopeless fight. 
The Ottomans were the final infamous act of Byzantine diplomacy. They were hired 
by the Byzantines to fight against the Bulgarians. And the hiring of the 
Ottomans backfired on the Byzantines even worse then the hiring of the Bulgars 
in 482. The Ottomans finally succeeded in sacking Constantinople {They renamed 
it Istanbul.} and the Empire named after Byzas the Thracian came to an end. The 
Ottoman empire went on to rule Hungary for 200 years, Greece for 400, and 
Bulgaria for 500. 
 
At the end of September 1371 a messenger brought the news that at the village of 
Chernomen in the valley of the Maritsa river, Sultan Murad's army had defeated 
the troops of the brothers Vulkashin and Uglesha from Macedonia. The two 
defeated nobles were the first to face and fight the invader. The Turks ravaged 
the Bulgarian lands, leaving terror and ruin behind them. Ivan Shishman watched 
them conquer Macedonia and the Rhodopes, aware that he was not strong enough to 
help Bulgarian strongholds in the Rhodopes against the assailants. Northern 
Thrace and the Zagore region also fell prey to the invader. "And indeed, those 
still alive were envying those already dead...," wrote the monk Issay. During 
this entire ordeal the fact that the Bulgarian ruling elite had forgotten Khan 
Kubrat's warning and thus had divided Bulgaria, didn't exactly help. Who knows, 
if Bulgaria had been united, maybe the Ottoman empire would have been stopped 
like the Arabs were in 718. But internal divisions delivered Bulgaria to the 
Ottomans. 
The son of Ivan Alexander was to suffer the consequences of dissent between him 
and the Balkan rulers. Ivan Shishman himself, in the face of the common threat, 
found it hard to extend a hand to his neighbors. He was compelled to make peace 
and to suffer the humiliation of becoming vassal to the Sultan, even allowing 
the Sultan to marry his sister Kera Tamara. Soon afterwards the Turks violated 
the treaty. After heavy fighting, Ivan Shishman surrendered Ihtiman, Samokov and 
Sofia. He fought desperately to defend the western part of the Balkan range, but 
Murad's troops overran Nish and Prilep and headed for the heart of the Balkans. 
Only then did Ivan Shishman and the other Balkan rulers finally manage to join 
forces. King Lazar of Serbia, the Bosnian King and Despot Ivanko of Dobroudja 
offered an alliance to Ivan Shishman, which he entered though unable to supply 
troops. In 1387 the allied Balkan forces routed the Turks at Plocnik {Serbia}, 
proving that the Sultan's army was not immune to defeat. Tsar Ivan Shishman 
could heave a sigh of relief, see to his rump of a kingdom and encourage 
Patriarch Euthymius to keep the Turnovo art school going, for the sake of 
Bulgaria's people. 
However, the Turkish army, once recovered from the defeat, took the offensive 
again. It penetrated the Balkan passes and conquered some of northeastern 
Bulgaria around the fortress of Drustur on the Danube. Ivan Shishman was forced 
to confirm his submission as vassal to the Sultan. 
Now the Bulgarians allied with the Serbian empire of King Stefan Dushan. Stefan 
Dusan ascended to the throne in 1330. Under Stefan Dusan Serbia reached it's 
greatest expansion. Dusan styled himself the "master of Romania" {Byzantium}, 
and by the end of 1345, had proclaimed himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. 
With the approval of the patriarch of Turnovo and the {Byzantine} archbishop of 
Ohrid, he elevated the archbishop of Pec to the rank of patriarch and - with 
them performing the ceremony of investiture - had himself crowned emperor in a 
solemn ceremony, at a synod in Skoplje on Easter of 1346. But his Serbian empire 
was not to last long. In the epic battle at Kossovo Pole the Serbian and 
Bulgarian troops could not rout the Ottomans and King Stefan Dusan was killed. 
His great empire lasted a mere 59 years. 
After the tragic defeat of the Serbo-Bulgarian army at Kossovo Pole {Serbia} in 
June 1389 the Bulgarian troops returned home fewer in number and frustrated. The 
defeat of the allied Balkan forces paved the way for the total domination of the 
Balkans by the Ottoman Turks. 
The Tsar in Turnovo was in a bind. He was a good warrior and diplomat, but he 
was not strong enough to prevent the Ottoman conquest. In July 1393, after three 
months in siege under the courageous leadership of Patriarch Euthymius, the 
capital Turnovo finally fell. 
According to legend the key to the city of Turnovo was given to the Ottoman 
Sultan by a Bulgarian traitor. The agreed upon price was a bag of precious 
stones, but the traitor pointed out just how great a city he had betrayed and 
asked for two bags. The Sultan was so disgusted by the traitor that he told his 
right-hand man to give the traitor what he really deserved. He cut the traitor's 
head off. 
In the besieged stronghold of Nikopol, the Tsar heard of the massacred Boyars 
and of the population sold as slaves. Ivan Shishman held this last piece of 
Bulgarian land in the ancient fortress on the Danube for months, while Turkish 
attempts to crush the resistance failed. But so did Ivan Shishman's efforts to 
form an alliance with the Hungarian King Sigismund against the Turks. He watched 
the principality of Dobroudja collapse and the invaders close the ring around 
the Vidin kingdom. The Second Bulgarian State was perishing before his eyes. 
In 1395 Ivan Shishman finally succumbed to the army of Sultan Murad and died in 
captivity. The Bulgarian people sang songs about Tsar Ivan Shishman and his army 
which took the blow and temporarily saved Europe from the Ottoman invaders. 



 
Czar Ivan Strashimir's state spanned the lands between the Timok and the Iskar. 
He was crowned Tsar in Vidin at the request of his father Ivan Alexander. During 
his lifetime he had attempted to settle the relationship between his two sons 
from different marriages by making the elder one ruler of the northwestern 
Bulgarian lands. However, distrust and resentment persisted. In times of ordeal, 
Ivan Sratsimir and Ivan Shishman failed to come to agreement, making things 
easier for the conqueror. 
Ivan Strasimir has been the subject of much debate by historians. Was he an able 
or a mediocre ruler? Either way, however, the tiny kingdom would have been too 
frail an obstacle to the advancement of Sultan Murad and his successor Bayazid. 
In the spring of 1365 the Hungarian king Ludovik overran the tiny kingdom and 
incorporated it into his state, taking the Bulgarian ruler captive. Ivan 
Sratsimir was imprisoned in Croatia and forced to convert to Catholicism. 
Several years later Ivan Alexander, assisted by Vlach troops, restored his son 
to the throne. After his father's death in 1395, Ivan Sratsimir became a Tsar in 
his own right. 
In the two decades that followed there is no evidence in the chronicles of 
successful military campaigns against the Turks. Conscious of the weakness of 
his army, in 1388 Ivan Sratsimir declared himself vassal to Sultan Murad and 
allowed the Turks to enter the fortress of Vidin. His aim was to guard his 
throne and save his subjects from death at the hands of the Turks. For a while 
he even took Sofia away from the Turnovo kingdom in the hope that, of the three 
fragments of the Bulgarian state, his would survive. His hopes were soon dashed. 
The wave of Turkish invasion menacingly approached the borders of his small 
kingdom. At the beginning of 1396, the Western European rulers finally realized 
that the Ottoman hordes were a threat to them too and with the Pope's blessing 
the Hungarian King Sigismund led a crusade against the Turks. The knights headed 
southeast, to the Balkans, filling Ivan Sratsimir with hope. He renounced his 
vassal status, slaughtered the Turkish soldiers in the Vidin fortress and joined 
the crusaders. However, the European army was disunited, each commander seeking 
personal fame and achievement. On the 25 th of September 1396 the Turks routed 
the European army at Nikopol. Vidin fell, too. Bulgaria's last medieval ruler 
was taken captive and died in Asia Minor. Bulgaria fell under five centuries of 
Ottoman rule. 
 
The Ottomans went on to besiege and almost take Vienna. The Ottoman empire 
became one of the most powerful empires in the world. At its height the empire 
included most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including modern 
Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania, Greece, and Ukraine; Iraq, Syria, Israel, and 
Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and most of the Arabian Peninsula. 
The term Ottoman is a dynastic appellation derived from Osman {Arabic: 'Uthman}, 
the nomadic Turkmen chief who founded both the dynasty and the empire. 
As the Ottoman empire devoured Byzantine, it's scholars fled west. Ancient Greek 
literature as still survives, including that of all the historians, was 
preserved by the Byzantine scholars. When, around the year 1400, the teaching of 
Greek was introduced into Italian universities by Byzantine scholars, they 
brought also their superior techniques of literary scholarship, transforming 
thereby the study of Latin authors as well as introducing into western Europe 
the treasures of Greek literature. One result was the emergence of the new 
Renaissance historiography. 



In the 7 centuries preceding the Ottoman conquest, the descendants of Khan 
Asparuh had managed to forge a nation on the most contended land on the European 
continent. Against all odds, on the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, 
despite invasions, wars, migrations of peoples, empires, and the danger of 
religious and cultural conquest - Thracians, Slavs and Bulgars were forged into 
one nation. One nation with it's own language, alphabet and church. And that is 
why the Bulgarian nation survived the Ottoman empire. 



The Making Of A Nation 
The merging of Bulgars, Slavs and Thracians produced a unique and fascinating 
culture. The Bulgarian language is the keystone of that culture and of the 
Bulgarian identity. The modern Bulgarian language is almost identical to the one 
created by Khan Boris/Mihail. The Old Bulgarian language was created by a Bulgar 
ruling elite with a distinct emphasis on the Slavic element of the country. From 
the Thracian language only a handful of words an place names entered Bulgarian. 
The language of the Bulgars influenced Bulgarian in a very surprising way. A few 
thousand Bulgar words entered the language but the vast majority of words in 
Bulgarian are of Slavic origin and easily understood by native speakers of other 
{East} Slavic languages. But the Bulgarian grammar is unique amongst all other 
Slavic languages! Slavic languages are said to be synthetic {i.e., they express 
grammatical information through word endings}, but Bulgarian is analytic {i.e., 
it expresses grammatical information more through word order}. 
One especially curious trait of the Bulgarian language is the double 
Bulgar-Slavic expression. Those are words which are in fact compound expressions 
of one Slavic and one Bulgar word, both meaning the exact same thing. When you 
ask someone how they are, the usual reply is: "Well!" That's the way it is in 
Bulgarian too, except that the standard reply in Bulgarian translates as: "Well 
and Well!" That is because the standard reply to how are you, in Bulgarian is: 
"Zdrav i Chitav!" Where "Zdrav" is the Slavic word for "Well" and "Chitav" is 
the Bulgar word for "Well". {'i' means "and" in Bulgarian} 
In the region where I grew up, there was a peak named "Vrushka-Chuka". Actualy 
it was an extinct volcano. The region surrounding it is very flat except for 
this thing sticking out in the middle of it. It's impossible to miss and the one 
word that is inevitably going to be on the tip of your tongue, when you spot it, 
is "Peak". And that's how the Bulgarians named it: "Peak-Peak", where "Vrushka" 
is the Slavic word for "Peak" and "Chuka" is the Bulgar word for "Peak". 
Christianity also helped the Bulgarian nation outlast the Muslim Ottoman empire. 
It became the religious difference, between the oppressed and the oppressor, 
around which the Bulgarians could rally. It's hard however to find things 
typically Christian in Bulgarian culture, that's because of the way Christianity 
was forced upon the Bulgarian nation. But it is easy to see all the customs of 
the Thracians, Bulgars and Slavs. When I was a kid, I had no idea about any of 
this. All I knew was that the bronze statuette of St. George slaying a dragon, 
in our living room, looked cool. I knew that every Koleda I would get a great 
excuse the smack the hell out of the adults thanks to Suruvakane, the custom 
with the battle cry: "SURVA, SURVA GODINA!" And with every "Surva!" you swing 
the "blessing stick" as hard as you can! A great holiday for kids. And I knew 
that every Trifon Zarezan my parents would let me drink way too much for a 
little kid. While I was enjoying my childhood, I had no idea that St. George was 
the Thracian Hero incarnate, that Dyonysis' re-birth was the reason my parents 
allowed me to drink too much on Trifon Zarezan day, that Koleda was a Slavic 
holiday and that Surva is a Bulgar word meaning fair, pure, holy. 
What do modern Bulgarians look like, you ask? Being a people of mixed origin 
Bulgarian do not have as common a "look" as other, geographicaly more isolated, 
nations. Bulgarians vary greatly from the blue eyed, fair haired Slavic look, 
over the Thracian Mediterenean type, all the way to the Iranic looks of the 
Bulgars. Here's a good aproximation of the typical Bulgarian juxterposed with 
other European peoples: 
 



So the making of the Bulgarian nation was complete when Bulgaria became part of 
the Ottoman empire. And initially things weren't that bad. In accordance with 
Islamic law the non-Muslem population of the empire provided most of the tax 
revenue, that is why the Ottoman Turks were not in a great hurry to convert 
everybody to Islam. People in North-Western most Bulgaria, seldom if ever, even 
saw Turks. But the more time passed the worse things got. And things got very 
bad indeed. Initially the Ottoman empire was a very advanced state as it has 
just assimilated the great Arabic and Persian civilizations, but the more time 
passed, the further behind western Europe, the Ottoman empire got. Turks began 
settling in South-Eastern most Bulgaria. The Sultans of the Ottoman empire loved 
to hunt in that region and Islamic law mandated that the Sultan must be served 
by Muslims. That is why the local Bulgarian population was forcefully converted 
to Islam. Today's name for Bulgarians of the Islamic faith is 'Pomaks'. The term 
means 'The suffering ones', it is derived from the word 'maka' meaning 
suffering, and it refers to the great suffering those Bulgarians had to endure 
during their forced conversion. One form of taxation in the Ottoman empire was 
especially gruesome. The Ottomans taxed children. Tax collectors would take 
young boys {early teens and less} as a form of tax. For the rest of their lives 
they would be trained for the Ottoman army. Some of the boys if taken late, at 
an older age, and if everything went right for them, would make it to important 
positions in the empire and become great benefactors to the regions they come 
from. Sadly most of the time that is not what happened. The boys were converted 
to Islam, brain washed and abused to become the Ottoman shock troops known as 
Yanichari {or Janissary}. These Yanichari later often became tax collectors and 
returned to the places they came from. In a perverted form of insecurity and 
inferiority complexes these Yanichars were out to prove that they were NOT from 
the lowest classes of the empire, but that they were pure Turks, better Turks 
and more Turkish then any of their fellow Turks. Because of that, and the way 
they were raised {to become shock troops}, the Yanichars would often commit 
hideous crimes upon the very people they came from, often their own kin. 



Once again the Bulgarian nation could not tolerate oppression and countless 
Bulgarians were willing to give their lives for independence. The struggle for 
Bulgaria's independence was fought on two fronts, with the sword and the 
feather. Some of Bulgaria's best {revolutionary} poetry was written during this 
time. 
 
Let's hope they discover my rifle,
my rifle, my mother, my sword,
then wherever they meet with the foe
they can welcome him with a bullet,
give him a sword's caresses? 
Obviously, it loses a lot in the translation. Still you can get a fairly good 
picture of what motivated this man, by the name of Hristo Botev, to give his 
life for his country. He also happens to be one of Bulgaria's greatest poets. He 
was leading his small band of revolutionaries through the Balkan, when he was 
killed in a skirmish with Ottoman troops. 
Here's an excerpt from another one of his poems. It's about a wounded freedom 
fighter dying in the Balkan. Wondering what has happened to his friend named 
Karadja, he is visited during the night by mystical {Magical maidens who live in 
the forests} Bulgarian creatures called 'Samodivas': 
They clap their hands and then embrace,
and singing songs towards heaven they take flight,
flying and singing until dawn arrives,
they search for Karadja's soul...




But at the beginning of the 15th century the Ottoman empire prostrated from 
India to Gibraltar and from the mouth of the Volga to Vienna, the only 
resistance Bulgaria could mount was in the form of guerilla warfare. 
 
Bulgarian guerrillas would hide in the mountainous terrain {The Balkan} and 
attack Ottoman outposts, military units, tax collectors, etc. Then they would 
quickly retreat into the Balkan again. The Ottoman Turks attempted to find them 
but rarely succeeded, therefore the most frequent Ottoman response to guerilla 
raids was to punish the local Bulgarian population suspected of aiding and 
obeting the guerillas. That in turn only motivated more young men to join the 
resistance and thus the cycle was completed. 
Besides the constant guerilla warfare, uprisings were a frequent occurrence. Big 
liberation uprisings broke out in 1408, then significant uprisings, proclaiming 
the independence of Bulgaria, took place again in 1598, 1686, 1688 and 1689. But 
they were never coordinated and they were put down by the Ottoman Turks in 
bloody battles. 
One of the most infamous revolts was the April uprising of 1876. Once again, 
there was no national coordination to synchronize the uprisings. The Batak 
revolt was put down. Ottoman troops were told to slaughter men, women and 
children on top of a hill until their blood reached the feet of the Ottoman 
commander, standing at the foot of the hill. You can see the skulls of the men, 
women and children today if you visit the Batak church which was their last 
stand. 



Finally, one man had the vision to build a national revolutionary network. To 
synchronize the resistance in all of Bulgaria. 
 
The Apostle Vasil Levski, roomed with Hristo Botev in an old shack in Romania 
over one bitter winter. With no heating and the bitter winter winds sweeping 
across the Danubian plain, Levski would wake up singing. Every morning Botev was 
amazed at Levski's happy demeanor despite the brutal cold and their lack of 
food. 
Levski, together with Lyuben Karavelov, organized the Bulgarian Central 
Revolutionary Committee, which established a network of agents in Bulgaria. 
Levski spoke fluent Turkish. He would often act as a double agent and was brazen 
enough to join, as just another Turk, the very Ottoman troops that were looking 
for him! 
Levski was siting in a tavern when he was betrayed to Ottoman troops, by a 
Bulgarian priest. Levski managed to get out of the tavern and jumped across it's 
fence, just as it looked like he would escape yet again, his shoelace became 
tangled in the fence and he was caught. 
During his questioning he did not reveal a single name of fellow 
revolutionaries. When asked why he devoted his life to this task, he answered: 
"If I win, all the people will win, if I lose, I will lose myself alone." 
 
He was hanged on the 6 th. of February, 1873 in the outskirts of Sofia. No one 
knows where his bones lie. Botev wrote one of his best poems on 
The Hanging Of Levski 
O you, my Mother, my Native Land, 
Why is your cry so sad and heart-rending!
And you, O Raven, accursed bird,
On whose grave croak you of ill impending?

I know, ah I know, you weep, my Mother,
Because you're a slave in bondage lying,
You weep because your sacred voice
Is a helpless voice in a desert crying.

Weep on, weep on! Near Sofia town
A ghastly gallows I have seen standing,
And your own son, Bulgaria,
There with dreadful force is hanging.

The raven gives its grim hoarse croak,
Dogs yelp, wolves howl, the sky is bleak,
Old men in prayers their God invoke,
Women shed tears, the children shriek.

The winter sings its evil song,
Squalls chase the thistles in the plain,
And cold and frost and hopeless tears
Wring and twist your heart with pain.




One great Bulgarian author who lived through Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman 
rule was Ivan Vazov. One of his best works is the novel Under the Yoke. He was 
lucky enough to die in a free Bulgaria. 
The Russo-Turkish War 
In 1877 Russia came to the aid of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria in their 
rebellions against Turkish rule. The Russians attacked through Bulgaria, and 
after successfully concluding the Siege of Pleven they advanced into Thrace, 
taking Adrianople {now Edirne, Tur.} in January 1878. In March of that year 
Russia concluded the Treaty of San Stefano with Turkey. This treaty freed 
Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro from Turkish rule, gave autonomy to Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, and created a huge autonomous Bulgaria under Russian protection. 
 
The treaty was opposed by Austria-Hungary, which disliked encouragement of Slav 
nationalism, and by the British, who feared the new Bulgarian state would become 
a powerful Russian ally and a threat to Istanbul. All of Europe was alarmed by 
the possibility of a powerful Bulgaria becoming an influential power in this 
strategic region of the world. Not only that, but there were whispers of 
Bulgaria once again regaining its ancient glory and becoming the 7th. Great 
European Power! 
That was unacceptable to the rest of Europe! Just as Bulgaria once again had 
Moesia, Macedonia, and Thrace as part of an independent state, the other great 
European powers dismembered the new state. The Berlin treaty divided the 
Bulgarian people into three parts. The northern Bulgarian lands {Moesia} were 
made into the principality of Bulgaria - an independent state under Turkish 
suzerainty. The lands of Thrace, called Eastern Rumelia, were made an autonomous 
province under the rule of the Turkish sultan. Macedonia and part of Thrace were 
unconditionally returned to the Turkish administration. The Austro-Hungarian 
empire got to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. But Europe would soon pay dearly 
for its greed and disregard of Balkan ethnography. It was this triumph of 
Western European Imperialism, and the borders it forced upon the people of the 
region, that made the Balkans into a gunpowder barrel. The mockery of ethnic 
borders in Europe's own backyard doomed the continent to war - World War I. 
Between 1878-1885 the people in the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia were 
engaged in a powerful movement for their unification with Bulgaria. They did not 
allow any Ottoman troops to come back into the province. 
 
At the beginning of September 1885, the people's volunteer forces and regular 
troops overthrew the government of Eastern Rumelia and declared its unification 
with the principality of Bulgaria. The prince and the Bulgarian government 
instantly accepted that act and assumed the reins of the provincial government 
straight away. 
 
The unification of Bulgaria led to political crisis almost unparalleled in the 
European history. Bulgaria and the Bulgarians, as it was, had taken a stand 
against an all-European treaty and thus, face-saving reasons alone could easily 
cause the Great Powers to barge in to return the status quo. For political 
reasons {Disagreements with Bulgaria's prince Alexander} Russia too declared 
itself against the unification of Bulgaria. Britain immediately availed itself 
of the Russian politicians' folly seeing in it an opportunity to displace Russia 
from one of its traditional regions of influence. Britain - chief architect of 
the Berlin treaty which had Bulgaria ruthlessly dismembered and a perennial 
warrantor of the Ottoman territorial integrity, negotiated a curve in its 
policies and supported the act of the unification. At the international 
conference, convened to counter the block of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany 
all wanting to restore the status quo, Britain resolutely opposed and thus 
helped turn down a motion inauspicious for Bulgaria. 
But the sudden enlargement of Bulgaria was unacceptable. Already this little 
state was effectively opposing all of Europe and growing! On 2 November 1885 
Serbia, encouraged by Austria-Hungary, attacked Bulgaria by surprise. In those 
days, only a few years after the liberation of the state from Ottoman rule, the 
highest rank of Bulgarian-born officers was that of a captain. 
It was no longer the unification but the whole future of Bulgaria that was at 
stake. At that time, Bulgaria had no troops at its border with Serbia. With all 
its available forces located at the Turkish border, its capital was stark 
unprotected only 70 km away from Serbian raiding troops. Moreover, the 
efficiency of the Bulgarian army was questioned for good reasons - it was 
organized only 5-6 years before and had no senior instructing and commanding 
officers. 
But border-sentry detachments and local volunteer forces were able to check 
Serbian crack divisions at the fortified locality of Slivnitsa - the avenue of 
approach to the Bulgarian capital. It took the Bulgarian army only a few days to 
make wearisome marches to the west and once there, to go into action. Then, as 
it had already happened in glorious times gone, just a few days of hard fought 
fields at Slivnitsa, Dragoman, Pirot, Nis and Vidin led up to Serbia's utter 
defeat. The road to Belgrade was open. At this point Austria-Hungary saved 
Serbia by sending an ultimatum which demanded cease-fire without delay. 
Bulgaria's victory in this captains-versus-generals war had Europe 
wonder-struck. The Huns are back! 



In less than quarter of a century after liberation, industry, considerable for 
that time and for the scope of the country, had been developed. Bulgaria's gross 
national product significantly exceeded in volume the GNPs of all Balkan 
neighboring countries which had been liberated some decades before it. 
The main foreign political problem confronting Bulgaria throughout the period 
until World War I, was the fate of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia and 
Eastern (Edirne) Thrace that had remained under the rule of Turkey. 
 
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was formed on the 23rd of 
October 1893, when six people - Dame Gruev, Ivan Hadzhinikolov, Andon Dimitrov, 
Hristo Tatarchev, Petur Poparsov and Hristo Batandzhiev - met in Hadzhinikolov's 
room on Chelebi-Bakal street, Salonika {that is within Ottoman Macedonia} to 
plan a revolutionary organization, essentially based on Levsky's past model. 
The organization was first officially known (1897) as the 
"Bulgarian-Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization" 
(Bulgarsko-Makedonsko-Odrinsko revoliutsionna organizatsiia). The title was 
changed in 1902 to "Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization" 
(Taina Makedonska-Odrinska revoliutsionna organizatsiia). After 1905 sources 
also referred to it as the now familiar IMRO (Vutrehsnata Makedonska 
revoliutsionna organizatsiia). The IMRO organized the resistance in Thrace and 
Macedonia. 
The Ilinden uprising broke out in Macedonia and Thrace in August 1903. Its aim 
was to incorporate those regions into Bulgaria. After three months of fierce 
battles the Turkish army crushed the uprising committing all customary cruelties 
and outrages over the population. 



In 1910 Bulgaria's population of only 4,5 million was indeed beyond comparison 
with that of Turkey which was 25 million or nearly six times greater. War was 
declared in October 1912. I include here David Johnson's complete article, which 
deals with the first Balkan War: 



'Splendid Fellows, Splendidly Led' 
In 1878, Bulgaria had no army. By 1913, it had one of the most formidable land 
forces in Europe. 
By David Johnson 
On the eve of the First Balkan War, Bulgaria had been an independent nation for 
only 34 years. Its army had been created from scratch and had so little on which 
to build that in the first seven years after Bulgaria gained its independence in 
1878, the senior positions in the army had to be filled by officers on loan from 
Russia. 
During 400 years of Turkish occupation, most Bulgarian males had been denied a 
military career, since Christians were not allowed to serve in the armies of the 
Porte. From 1878 on, however, military service was universal and 
compulsory--officially from the age of 18 until 46, though in practice it 
usually began at 20. Muslims might be exempted on payment of 20 pounds sterling, 
but few of them could afford to pay that sum. 
The field army was divided into the active army and the active reserve. For the 
infantry, the terms of service were two years in the active army and 18 years in 
the reserve--for all other branches, three years and 16. The reserve built up by 
that system became one of the largest of any European army, and it was of good 
quality; command was exercised by officers who had transferred from the active 
army, by young men who had passed the necessary qualifying examinations, and by 
sergeant majors who had served in the active army for 10 years or more. Every 
year, segments of the reserve were called out in rotation for the annual 
district maneuvers, which were followed by grand maneuvers at the end of 
September. When his service in the reserve was finished, a man passed into the 
militia, which, unlike the field army, could only operate inside Bulgaria's 
frontiers. 
The country was divided into nine military districts, each of which housed a 
division; each division was comprised of four infantry regiments in two 
brigades, two squadrons of cavalry, a regiment of field artillery, and an 
engineer battalion with telegraph, pontoon, railway, balloon and mining 
sections. A peacetime infantry regiment had two battalions--each made up of four 
rifle companies, a machine-gun company of two guns and a service company. On 
mobilization, two extra divisions were formed--the 10th, with two brigades, and 
the 11th with three. With the addition of reservists, the 72 battalions of the 
peacetime establishment expanded to 288 battalions of 1,000 men each; the basic 
machine-gun detachment doubled in size, from two 8mm Maxims to four. A rifle 
company numbered 270 men, plus eight pioneers; a regiment consisted of 70 
officers and 4,550 men, of whom 4,000 were riflemen. The service company 
strength was three officers and 200 men. 
According to an Austrian military analyst, in 1909 the Bulgarian field army had 
a potential strength of 378,000 troops, and the militia 57,600. The backbone of 
the active army's field artillery was 81 batteries of Schneider-Canet 75mm 
quick-firing cannons, with a total of 324 guns. There were also 324 Krupp field 
guns in 54 six-gun batteries. The mountain artillery consisted of 54 Krupp guns 
in nine batteries; 36 Schneiders, also in nine batteries, and 54 older guns, 
possibly Russian or Turkish. There were nine batteries each of four quick-firing 
howitzers and five batteries each of six field howitzers, making a grand total 
of 858 guns in 176 batteries. In addition to the field artillery, the Bulgarians 
had three groups of fortress artillery; each group had two batteries and each 
battery four 155mm howitzers, with 12 munition wagons. Foreign observers at the 
annual maneuvers were always impressed by the skill of the mounted artillery 
drivers, who galloped into action at 15-yard intervals and turned the guns 
around before they were unlimbered. 
The cavalry was comprised of three Guard squadrons and 10 line regiments, of 
which the first four regiments had four squadrons each and formed a division. 
Regiments 5 through 10 had three squadrons each, and those 18 squadrons were 
attached in pairs to the nine divisional districts. 
At the beginning of the 20th century, Turkey still possessed large holdings in 
the Balkans, including all of what is now Albania and northern Greece, and the 
treatment of her Christian subjects there, especially in Macedonia, left much to 
be desired. In 1912, inspired by their hatred of Turkey and her oppressive rule, 
the Balkan kingdoms of Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria buried their old mutual 
enmities to form a military alliance. All three had territorial designs on 
European Turkey. For Bulgaria, ousting the Turks from the stretch of Macedonian 
coastline adjoining her southern border would give her access to the Aegean Sea 
and the fine port of Kavala. In northern Macedonia was Monastir, traditionally 
dear to Bulgarian hearts and full of pro-Bulgars. Just across Bulgaria's 
southeastern frontier, in Turkish Thrace, lay the glittering prize of 
Adrianople. 
In August 1912, the small independent Serb kingdom of Montenegro agreed to join 
the Balkan League, as the defensive alliance against Turkey was called. On 
October 7, following warnings from Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov of the Russian 
Foreign Office about the growing danger of a Balkan war, the Western powers 
informed the League that they would not countenance action against Turkey or any 
change in the territorial status quo. On the very next day, however, Montenegro 
declared war on Turkey and set the Balkans alight. 
In Bulgaria, mobilization had been ordered as early as September 30, by the 
simple expedient of posting notices on public buildings and churches. Within 12 
hours, the entire male population eligible for arms was on the way to the 
centers, aboard trains composed of anything from 45 to 60 carriages, traveling 
at 15 miles an hour. Civil traffic on the railways had been suspended some days 
earlier, but no trains had been allotted to particular units. No tickets were 
needed. 
Each train was crammed to its utmost capacity, not only inside but even on the 
roofs of the carriages. Each man had with him sufficient food, taken from his 
own home, for the journey. On the roads, long streams of country carts, drawn by 
bullocks or horses, poured in toward the centers. Although Bulgarian enthusiasm 
was intense, it was severely restrained; there was little singing or cheering. 
Among the foreign observers to witness the mobilization was a British colonel 
who was deeply impressed by the Bulgar soldiery. He described them as: "Fine, 
broad, deep-chested, hairy men, reared on sour milk and brown bread, with clear 
pale skins and resolute brown eyes. Splendid fellows, splendidly trained and 
led." 
The First Army concentrated near Harmanlu, a small town close to the Turkish 
frontier, with the Second and Third armies and the cavalry division gathered at 
Yamboli. War was declared on October 17. On the 21st, the Third Army crossed the 
frontier and encamped on Turkish soil. 
On the 23rd, the Bulgarians launched a night bayonet attack on the Turkish 
trenches in front of Kirk Kilissa. Following the Bulgar-Serb war in 1885, it had 
been rumored that the Serbs had abandoned their trenches as soon as they heard 
the strains of the Bulgar national hymn, Shumi Maritza; whatever the truth of 
that, on October 24, the entire Turkish garrison of Kirk Kilissa retired. 
"General [Colmar Freiherr] von der Goltz said Prussian soldiers would take this 
place in three days," a Bulgarian officer remarked to a war correspondent. 
"We've done it in three hours." 
The euphoria lasted until the 28th, when stiff Turkish resistance was met at 
Lulé Burgas, and a prolonged and bloody battle developed. For a week the Turkish 
infantry endured murderous barrages from the Bulgarian artillery, but by 
November 3, they were in full retreat toward the lines of Tchataldja, the last 
line of defense before Constantinople, which lay only 30 kilometers to the 
south. 
The Bulgarian achievements up to this point were fairly summarized by a British 
war correspondent: "A nation with a population of less than five million and a 
military budget of less than two million pounds per annum placed in the field 
within fourteen days of mobilization an army of 400,000 men, and in the course 
of four weeks moved that army over 160 miles in hostile territory, captured one 
fortress and invested another, fought and won two great battles against the 
available armed strength of a nation of twenty million inhabitants, and stopped 
only at the gates of the hostile capital. With the exception of the Japanese and 
Gurkhas, the Bulgarians alone of all troops go into battle with the fixed 
intention of killing at least one enemy." 
All in all, the Bulgar soldiers would have been entitled to feel that the 
prophecy contained in a Bulgarian cradle song had been fulfilled. 
"The Turks came and the ravished me 
Because I was young and comely 
Sleep, my little one, sleep; 
Soon you will grow tall and strong 
And avenge your mother..." 
On November 17 and 18, the Bulgarians attacked the Tchataldja lines but could 
make no headway against them. Meanwhile, in the northern theaters of war, the 
Greeks had taken Salonica and the Serbs had won a victory at Monastir; the Serbs 
now sent strong forces of infantry and siege artillery to assist the Bulgars 
besieging Adrianople. Though not a fortress of the first rank, it had defenses 
that had been modernized by German military engineers; Shukri Pasha's 58,000-man 
garrison was comprised of six regular infantry regiments, three reserve 
divisions, five regiments of fortress artillery, two battalions of engineers, 
five machine-gun companies, one company of sapper/telegraphists and five 
squadrons of cavalry. 
On December 3, the siege was suspended when Bulgaria and Serbia both agreed to 
an armistice with Turkey. Eight weeks later, however, the fighting--and the 
siege of Adrianople--resumed under appalling conditions, with 6 feet of snow in 
the siege trenches and the temperature under 18 degrees below freezing. Some 
sentries in forward positions had to have fingers and toes amputated. The sick 
and wounded suffered agonies as the rough-hewn wheels of the ox carts jolted 
over rutted dirt roads to the field hospitals. Owing to the shortage of horses 
in Bulgaria, much of the army's transport was drawn by oxen and driven by 
civilians; the vehicles keeping the heavy guns supplied before Adrianople could 
only take six shells at a time, and the journey to the outlying batteries of 
siege artillery lasted six days each way, over a swampy plain inundated by the 
Maritza River. 
The weather improved in March 1913, and preparations for the final assault were 
begun, in accordance with a plan drawn up by the Bulgarian commander in chief, 
General Mikhail Savoff. Adrianople was defended by 53 battalions, 612 guns, 50 
machine guns and extensive barbed-wire entanglements--the latter a formidable 
obstacle for the Bulgarian infantry in their thin sandals. The first phase would 
be a general attack on the Turks' advanced positions. Next, the Turkish 
commander had to be tricked into thinking that the main thrust would be made 
against his southern sector, because the key objectives were really in the 
northeastern salient of his defenses--the forts of Ai-Yolou and Aivas-Baba. To 
aid a surprise attack on those forts, the Bulgarian and Serb artillery in the 
eastern sector, of which the Turks were as yet unaware, would be kept masked 
until the last possible moment. 
At 11:30 on the night of March 23, General Nikola Ivanoff (Second Army) informed 
his subordinates, "The infantry will attack during the night of 24/25th March, 
at 3 in the morning." He knew that, in the moonlight, his men would be visible 
to the naked eye for 400 paces, and to binoculars for 600, so the advance would 
have to be rapid, barbed wire or no barbed wire. The advancing infantry would 
signal to the artillery with colored lanterns--white for "Carry on firing" and 
red for "Cease fire." 
At 1 p.m. on the 24th, the barrage opened, with the field guns targeting the 
Turks' forward positions, while the siege guns fired on the objectives allotted 
to them. 
Shukri Pasha had several reasons to expect Ivanoff's main attack to come from 
the south, where the heights of Kartal Tépé dominated the plain and the first 
line of defense. He knew that Ivanoff's headquarters and the 1st and 3rd 
brigades of the crack 8th Division were opposite his southern sector, and the 
terrific concentration of enemy artillery fire on it finally convinced him. 
Meanwhile, the 8th Division's 2nd Brigade was waiting with fixed bayonets to 
attack the forts in the northeastern salient, supported by three infantry 
brigades detached from the Tchataldja front--a total of 52 battalions, backed up 
by 112 siege guns, 72 field pieces and seven squadrons of cavalry. 
The assault on the forts was led by the 8th Division's 10th and 23rd regiments. 
Some of the barbed wire had been flattened by the barrage; what the Bulgar 
sappers had failed to cut, the infantry would have to cover with their 
greatcoats. The 23rd Regiment's advance was brilliantly assisted by Commandant 
Droumeff's mounted battery of "seventy-fives," which galloped into action under 
the muzzles of the Turkish guns and poured shrapnel onto the enemy trenches and 
onto a dangerous strongpoint. Ai-Yolou, the first of the two forts, was taken by 
the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Regiment at 1 a.m. on March 26th. Just after 6 
a.m., the officer commanding the Aivas-Baba fort informed his sector commandant 
by telegraph that the Turkish guns on his front were destroyed, the gunners were 
lying dead, and Bulgarian infantrymen were entering his fort. He then destroyed 
the telegraph and shot himself. In this and many other sectors, the Turkish 
gunners had fought to the end; three successive teams had served the guns in 
Batteries 41 and 42, and all were lying dead in the emplacements where the 
Bulgarian shrapnel had caught them. 
No account of the taking of Adrianople can exclude the astonishing exploit of 
Colonel Genko Markholeff, the first Bulgarian to enter the place, leading his 
Guard cavalry squadrons with drawn swords through streets teeming with Turkish 
soldiery, pausing here and there to capture and interrogate a general; 
Markholeff posted some of his men on the Toundja and Maritsa bridges, detached 
others to protect the women and children sheltering in the Sultan Selim mosque, 
galloped on his superb Irish charger through vast empty corridors; he climaxed 
his performance by finally running the Turkish general to ground in the fort of 
Haiderlik and taking him prisoner. 
In grim contrast to so outrageously romantic an episode, Bulgarian sappers had 
been cut in two by Nordenfeldt guns as they tried to sever barbed wire, and a 
great concentric entrenchment in the southern sector contained the bodies of 730 
Turkish soldiers, bayoneted to death there before dawn on the 26th. 
A graphic account of the Bulgarian infantry's predilection for the bayonet was 
written by an Austrian war correspondent. "When it came to realities the 
Bulgarian infantry raised their charging shout 'Na nosh!' ('With the knife!' 
i.e. the bayonet), paying no regard to modern tactical theory. Four hundred 
paces or even more in front of the enemy's position, whole regiments in the 
firing line would rise up and hurl themselves upon the Turks in one irresistible 
rush, without pausing, without firing, and disdaining all cover. Each Bulgar 
longed to run his bayonet into the body of a Turk, and officers were powerless 
to control the excitement of their men. Even a regiment that was following in 
support would raise the wild battle cry and hurl itself upon the enemy, perhaps 
at the call of one of its sergeants, taking no notice whatever of the officers' 
orders to halt and lie down These attack methods of the Bulgarian infantry were 
in the highest degree responsible for the enormous losses the army had to suffer 
in this war." 
During one action in Thrace, as the Bulgarian infantry was preparing to fix 
bayonets, the preliminary command, "Pret na nosh!" repeated all along the line, 
was heard by the Turkish in the opposing trenches. "What are they saying?" 
Turkish troops asked a comrade who understood some Bulgarian. Mistaking the word 
pret for a number, pet, he replied, to their horror, "They're saying, 'Five on 
each bayonet!'" 
Several French officers acting as observers in the First Balkan War mention the 
lethal sharpness of the broad-bladed Bulgarian bayonet, but the most penetrating 
comment on the war's weaponry came for the French military artist Georges Bertin 
Scott, who had noticed men in the trenches trying to protect their heads with 
shovels when they heard the sound of shrapnel. "One thing this war had proved 
time and time again," he wrote, "is that rifle bullets don't necessarily kill, 
but the use of shrapnel has profoundly changed battle conditions. This dense 
rain of mitraille riddles every inch of ground, breaking skulls, crushing 
brains, bringing certain death. In future the helmet will be no longer just a 
parade headdress, but a piece of defensive armor." 
With the taking of Adrianople, Bulgaria held all Macedonia east of Salonica, and 
all Thrace up to the Tchataldja lines. Three weeks later, Bulgaria signed an 
armistice with Turkey and the rest of the League followed suit. On May 20, 
representatives of the Great Powers assembled in rooms provided for them at St. 
James' Palace to apportion the spoils of war, and a treaty was signed on the 
30th; but the presence of Greeks in Salonica and Serbs in Monastir goaded 
Bulgaria into further action. At the end of June, Czar Ferdinand secretly 
ordered General Savoff to move against Bulgaria's recent allies, and the night 
attacks went in on the 29th. 
The outbreak of this Second Balkan War gave Romania an unexpected opportunity to 
acquire some spoils for herself--she promptly invaded Bulgaria. Meanwhile, Enver 
Bey led the Turks out of the Tchataldja lines by forced marches and retook 
Adrianople. 
It was all over by July 30. Bulgaria's defeated regiments returned to a hero's 
welcome, marching grim-faced through the packed streets of Sofia. Contemporary 
photographs showed Czar Ferdinand and his generals riding at their head, on 
saddles and saddlecloths decked with flowers, the czar smiling broadly at the 
wildly cheering crowds. 
By the treaty signed in August, Bulgaria had to cede to Romania the fortress of 
Silistria and the ethnically Bulgarian southern part of the Dobrudja. For the 
next few years, at least, she was allowed to retain a part of the Thracian 
coastline and her access to the Aegean, but via the second-rate port of 
Dedeagatch instead of Kavala, which went to Greece. 
All the signatories looked on both treaties of the Balkan wars as mere scraps of 
paper that would only generate further conflict, and they were right. Bulgaria, 
the former protégé of Russia, now sought the friendship of Austria-Hungary. In 
1915, the Bulgarians entered World War I and fought as allies of Austria-Hungary 
and Germany, and their once-bitter enemy, Turkey. 



 
In the first Balkan war the Bulgarians defeated the main Ottoman forces, 
advanced to the outskirts of Constantinople {now Istanbul} and took {the German 
engineered and considered untakable} Adrianople. But it was the great mistake of 
Bulgarian diplomacy to organize a war against the Ottoman Empire without first 
clearly resolving competing territorial claims. 
Yet again, Bulgaria had made huge territorial gains. And as we all know - that 
is unacceptable. On June 1, 1913, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance against 
Bulgaria. They amassed their troops along their respective borders with Bulgaria 
and begun to ethnically cleanse Bulgarians from Macedonia. The Bulgarian King 
Ferdinand was convinced Serbia and Greece were about to attack Bulgaria. He 
ordered the exhausted Bulgarian troops to cross all of Bulgaria and attack 
Serbian and Greek forces in Macedonia. Thus Bulgaria was forced to make the 
first strike. That in turn gave Serbia and Greece the excuse they needed to 
justify their land grabbing. The second Balkan war began on the night of June 
29/30, 1913, Turkey immediately attacked and re-took Adrianople {Edrine}. 
Romania saw a free-for-all and decided to join in! Not even Bulgaria was capable 
of fighting a war on all sides, against 4 enemies, simultaneously, all after 
crushing Turkey's main forces in the first Balkan war. 
Serbia took most of Macedonia and started to apply Macedonism. Over 500 000 
refugees from Serbian occupied Macedonia poured into Bulgaria. On that, and the 
Balkan wars, and more, I recommend reading Henri Pozzi's: Black Hand Over 
Europe. Also good to read are the Carnegie Endowment reports on the Balkan wars. 
A recent book they published was titled: The Other Balkan Wars: A 1913 Carnegie 
Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect. The betrayal of Bulgaria's Christian neighbors 
led to a change in strategic policy. At the end of the Balkan Wars, Mustafa 
Kemal was appointed Military Attach? in Sofia (27th October 1913). It is said 
that after watching a Bulgarian opera, he remarked that now he finally 
understood why Bulgaria was able to defeat Turkey. Kemal Ataturk later became 
one of the most important Turkish leaders of all time. Thanks to Greece and 
Serbia's back stabbing, a lot of Bulgarian politicians thought that maintaining 
good relations with Turkey was now very important. Mushanov, a former Bulgarian 
prime minister, said the following. "During my visit to Ankara he {Ataturk} 
expressed the view that Bulgaria and Turkey should be friends. An enemy of 
Bulgaria, he said, is an enemy of Turkey." 



Because of Balkan War II, Bulgaria had little choice but to join W.W.I on the 
side of Germany. 
 
The peace terms imposed on Germany after W.W.I left her {and Bulgaria} little 
choice but to go to war again. Bulgaria was forced to give up land to Greece, 
which cut off Bulgaria's access to the White Sea. Serbia helped itself to what 
is now known as the "Western Lands". 
During W.W.II Bulgaria managed to save her Jewish population. Sadly the newly 
conquered regions were under German administration and Jews from those lands 
were not saved. 
 
The world learned a lesson and the peace terms imposed on Germany after W.W.II 
were very different. That's why today Germany is democratic and a US ally. 
 
But things didn't go that well for Bulgaria. Greece and Serbia once again were 
awarded Bulgarian lands. Bulgaria was occupied by the Soviet Union, communism 
was imposed. The effect communism had can be summed up as one 45 year long war 
that sucked the life out of the country. The first 7 - 8 years after 1989 were 
wasted in political chaos, corruption and other fun things. But now things are 
slowly {very slowly} getting better. 



Where are the Asirians? The Hitites? All the other great peoples and empires? 
The Roman empire? How many 5000 year old customs, besides Kukeri, can you name? 
How many nations which were part of the great migration of peoples are still 
with us? How many nations have more then one state? How many have a state by the 
same name on two different continents? 
All in all, over the millennia, Bulgarians have done pretty well for themselves. 
Outlasted the Byzantine empire, invented a calendar which gives a deviation of 1 
day for a period of 10 000 years, the Owesta was written by Zartusht-e-Balkhi, a 
Bulgarian-American invented the computer, etc. Bulgaria is a state which has 
existed, on the same place, under the same name for 13 centuries. If you include 
Great Bulgaria and Balkh, that's 3000 years right there. But let's keep it to 13 
centuries, for simplicity's sake. That's over one thousand years on the most 
violent, war torn, contested land in Europe, probably the world. All our 
neighbors want our doom but we don't hold back either. When you come around 
these part of the world try calling the Serbs - Albanians, the Romanians - wanna 
be Latins, and the Greeks - quasi-Hellens, it never fails :-) But after boasting 
while insulting all of my neighbors, I have to say a few nice things about them: 

A lot of people say they have been to Europe. And then when you ask them where 
exactly in Europe, most of them tell you they've been all over the British 
Isles.... Then there are others who actually have been on the continent. And 
they have been all over... western Europe. Oh but now a few actually go as far 
east as... imagine this... Poland!!! 
Well, that's all wonderful. When you go to Europe, I encourage you to travel all 
over western Europe. See the British Isles, go to Germany, swing around Denmark 
and Holland, enjoy the food, enjoy the people, climate and cultures. Immerse 
yourself in all the different Germanic languages and yes, do enjoy the 
Germano-Romance tongue that is French. Enjoy the friendliness, the order, the 
culture, the controlled - almost geometric buildings, art, ... people. And when 
you're done, keep in mind that in the 1820s, the Austrian statesman Metternich 
said, "The Orient begins at the Landstrasse," the royal highway leading from 
Vienna east into Hungary. 
So go there, see Austria, but when you get to the end of the Landstrasse - stop. 
You see today, The Balkans is a loaded term, and it seems the mantra of every 
east European country is "the west", what ever that means. But I don't see it 
that way. When you get to the end of the Landstrasse, you're about to leave 
Europe and enter the Balkans. When you step over the border and enter Hungary, 
watch out! The transitions in the west have not prepared you for this, but the 
Balkans are just a bit more diverse. 
You're not in Europe anymore. As a matter of fact, you're not even in the 
Indo-European language family anymore. Now enjoy the food, people, history art 
and architecture. Keep going east! When you get to Romania, be careful, a Balkan 
transition again. You'll be back in the Indo-European language family, not only 
that, Romanian is the language closest to Latin. Immerse yourself in the culture 
and history, keep going east but take a turn south. When you get to the Danube, 
stop! More Balkan transitions, the name of the country is not Indo-European, 
it's Altaic. But lexically the language is Slavic, the grammar though is unique. 
When you enter Bulgaria, you must enjoy the food. Don't be satisfied with the 
standard four meals people offer foreigners just to show off, really explore the 
local cuisine. Keep going south, see the river that named the continent, 
experience the history, see the Black Sea, stop when you get Turkey. Now you'll 
leave the Indo-European language family again. But do enjoy the culture and the 
people, see Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, the city that spans two 
continents. Then turn west, once again, you'll be going back to the European 
language family, a language going back to the 5th. century BC. See the history 
and culture, "the west" wished it had. Keep going west. Go to Albania, the land 
of Illirians. Today their economy is in shambles, but don't let the current 
financial situation of the people get to you. They, together with the Thracians, 
are the oldest people in the Balkans, they have lived through much worse and 
they'll be back on their feet soon, they'll be here for a long, long, time. Turn 
north and go to Serbia, see the people that couldn't be broken by the Ottomans, 
the Nazis, and NATO. Go west and see the Adriatic coast of Croatia. Go through 
Slovenia, even though they keep repeating that they're not in the Balkans, I 
still love them. Keep going west and you'll be in Italy, back in western Europe 
again, but still in southern Europe. See Rome, then take a swing through Spain 
and go home. And when people ask if you've been to Europe, say no. When they ask 
you where you've been, tell them you went to the Balkans. And if they ask you 
where the Balkans are... tell them ... no one knows. 



And that's pretty much all I can say about Bulgaria. If you ask me, it's a great 
place to be born and grow up in. And I think it's a pretty good place to visit 
too. But there's no rush, it'll be here for a while... To conclude my little 
piece of HTML, here's some Bulgarian art: 

 
Vladimir Maistora is one of Bulgaria's best painters. Bulgarian music is pretty 
good too. Try some Bulgarian folk music: Hubava Mavruda MP3, Kaval Sviri MP3 and 
a Bulgarian bagpipe. You can get more here. 
 



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