Who are the Ancient Bulgarians – Ethnos or Military Community?

Abstract

The “Proto-Bulgarian problem” is a traditional topic in Bulgarian medieval studies, as well as the questions related to the Bulgarians’ ethnic origin, the location of their ancestral homeland, their early history and their role in the formation of Bulgarian statehood. These topics were and remain the most important ones in the development of the historical consciousness of the Bulgarian people, and at the same time leave many unresolved issues. The purpose of the research is to outline the problematic points which exist in the literature relatively to the origin of the Bulgarians, and to give arguments for our point of view, who the ancient Bulgarians could really be. Research methodology. We used both general scientific methods (analytical, logical), historical (chronological, historical and comparative), and source studies – heuristic, critical. The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that the article substantiates the point of view that the term “Bulgar” was not an ethnos term at the time of the presence of the ancient Bulgars in the Eastern European steppes, but it meant belonging to a certain social status, namely – the military elite. Its maturation into an ethnos term took place later – when the Bulgarians moved to the Balkans and began the process of their own state formation. Formations similar to the medieval Bulgarian military class existed in other nations until the Middle Ages and later. The Conclusion. The results of our study gave grounds for the following conclusions. The ancient Bulgarians were not an ethnic but social-class union, a military community; the term “military order” could be used. The tradition to create such military orders resided in the Indo-Aryan tribes and their ancestors from ancient times and can be traced back to the end of the Middle Ages in the community of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich by the Russian authorities in the ХVІІІth century interrupted this ancient tradition forever.