| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
From the very beginning the relations between Southern and Western Rus/Ukraine have been far from simple and can be best described as ambivalent. We all know that Rus as a political unit came into existence amid incessant clashes with nomadic Turkic tribes-Pechenegs (Becheneks), Torks (Uzes), and Polovtsians (Kumans or Kypchaks)-pressing in from the Asian steppes. The Kievan rulers were no "meek lambs" either: they destroyed the Kingdom of the Khazars, the state with Turkic ethnic roots. Prince Svyatoslav's inroad in the 960s into their lands when he captured Sarkel and plundered Itil and Semender was a weighty contribution to the Khazars' sad fate.
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