Slavs - indigenous peoples of Europe
The Slavs are one of the indigenous peoples of Europe. When we speak of an all-Slav land
of origin we mean the lands between the Carpathians and the Baltic Sea. In Greek and Roman
written sources of two thousand years ago they are cited as Veneds. They began to call
themselves Slavs after the fifth century.
If we trace the ethnic origins of the Bulgarian people, we first of all come across its
kinship with the Eastern Slavs - the distant forefathers of Russians, Ukrainians and
Byelorussians; with the Western Slavs - the ancient predecessors of Poles, Czechs,
Slovaks; and with the rest of the Southern Slavs - the peoples of present-day Yugoslavia.
Linguistic, archaeological and ethnographic research indicates that the process of the
differentiation of the two major groups of South Slavs set in as early as the fifth to
seventh century: the Serbo-Croat group (Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Montenegrins) and the
group of the Bulgarian Slavs, so called because they became a part of the Bulgarian state,
which was formed later. The migration of the Slavs to the South of the Danube was in fact
so pervasive that Byzantium lost considerably its control over the better part of the
Peninsula. The thinning numbers of the local Thracians merged completely with the Slavs.
Only a few small groups of Thracians survived in the mountain regions, where they survive
to this day as, nomadic stock-breeders: they are known as Walaohians (Romanised Thracians)
or as Karakachans (Hellenised Thracians). The thousand-year history of the Thracians found
its continuation in the birth and growth of the new Bulgarian state. Individual elements
and features of the Thracian culture left their imprint on the formation and consolidation
of the Bulgarian nation. In present times the Thracian heritage is being re-discovered to
become part of the 'historical memory' of the Bulgarians and is being widely publicized.
The Slavification of the Balkans was something more than an ethno-demographic
transformation; it served as a unique catalyst which accelerated the evolution of
production relationships and led to a change in the social system of Byzantium itself
which enabled it to survive the Western half of the Empire by a whole millennium. With the
arrival of the Slavs, slave forms of dependence of farmers on the big landowners in the
Balkans were replaced by the free rural communes. The free peasant emerged as the basic
producer. The communal form of ownership over the basic means of production - the land -
and the appearance of improved tools of production, were but a step from a superior form
of ownership - feudalism. The Slavs, on their part, coming in touch with a more civilized
world, quickly mastered the new instruments of labour and the art of warfare. By the
mid-seventh century the Slavs of the Bulgarian group were almost two centuries ahead of
the rest of the Slavs, standing on the threshold of the formation of a state organization.
On 18 March 681, the Roman emperor departed Sixth Oecumenical Council of the Christian Church in Constantinople to destroy the Bulgarian settlement at the delta of Danube, pretending that this violated the wholeness of the empire. Quite a bizarre argument knowing that more than 2.5 million Slavonic people have been violating the wholeness of the empire for more that 3 centuries. The real reason for the emperor’s decision was the defensive federal alliance concluded between the Bulgarians and the seven Slavonic tribes living in Thrace and Moesia, as well as with the Slavonic tribe of Severi living in the plain between the Carpathians and the Danube river. The Slavo-Bulgarian alliance created a federal structures imposing the rule of law in the former Roman provinces of Moesia, Thracia and Daciae as well as in the lands between Danube and Dnepr river. Even more important, the alliance combined the large but sluggish and undisciplined infantry troops of Slavonic tribes with the fast, hard-hitting and well-organized Bulgarian cavalry.
Although surprised by the sudden and unprovoked attack and amazed at the multitude of cavalry and ships, the Bulgarians organized their forces and resisted the Roman army. On the fifth day of the battle khan Asparukh headed the counterattack of Bulgarian cavalry and utterly routed the Roman legions. The emperor Constantine IV hardly escape fleeing on a boat and abandoning his army.
Severely defeated by the Bulgarians, Constantine barely escape fleeing on a boat and abandoning his army. The conflicts continued in the following year, spreading south of the Balkan Range. This is cited in the Acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council of the Christian Church in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). This council, over the course of almost a year, debated and asserted - in opposition to the monotheistic heresy - the official thesis that Christ had two wills, one divine and the other human.
Bulgarian triumph over the Roman emperor Constantine IV, 681 AD
Nikephoros, c. 36, ed. Mango, pp. 88-91
'When [the Byzantine emperor] Constantine became aware that the people which had settled by the Danube (Istros) was attempting to devastate by its incursions the neighbouring places that were under Roman [Byzantine] rule, he conveyed an army to Thrace and, furthermore, fitted out a fleet and set out to ward them off. On seeing the multitude of cavalry and ships, and amazed as they were by the unexpected suddenness [of the attack], the Bulgarians (Boulgaroi) fled to their fortifications and remained there for four days. Since, however, the Romans were unable to engage them in battle because of the difficulty of the terrain, they regained strength and eagerness. Now the emperor was seized by an attack of gout and being in much pain, sailed off to the city of Mesembria for treatment after giving orders to the officers and soldiers to keep on investing the fort ... But a rumour spread that the emperor had fled, and being on this account thrown into confusion they fled headlong ... Seeing this the Bulgarians pursued them in strength, killing those that they caught and wounding many others. After crossing the Danube in the direction of Varna ... and perceiving how strong and secure was the inland area thanks to the river and the great difficulty of the terrain, they settled there. They subjugated the neighbouring Slavic tribes (Sklavenon ethnon), some of which they directed to guard the area in the vicinity of the Avars and others to watch the Roman [Byzantine] border. So, fortifying themselves and gaining in strength, they attempted to lay waste the villages and towns of Thrace. Seeing this the emperor was obliged to treat with them and pay them tribute.' (Nikephoros, c. 36, ed. Mango, pp. 88-91)
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