Battle of Silistra

Battle of Silistra
	Part of Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria
	; Rus' invasion of Bulgaria
Date	spring 967/968
Location	near Silistra, Bulgaria or Romania
Result	Rus' victory disputed in siege;
Belligerents
Bulgaria	Kievan Rus
Commanders and leaders
Peter I of Bulgaria	Sviatoslav Igorevich
Strength
30,000	10,000-60,000
Casualties and losses
Heavy	Heavy

The Battle of Silistra occurred in the spring of 968 near the Bulgarian town of Silistra, but most probably on the modern territory of Romania. It was fought between the armies of Bulgaria and Kievan Rus' and resulted in a Rus' victory. Upon the news of the defeat, the Bulgarian emperor Peter I abdicated. The invasion of the Rus' prince Sviatoslav was a heavy blow for the Bulgarian Empire, which by 971 lost its eastern provinces to the Byzantine Empire.

Origins of the conflict[edit]

From the 940s the Magyars began repeatedly to launch pillage raids into the Bulgarian Empire. Emperor Peter I was unable to stop them and as the Byzantines were unwilling to send any help he finally allied with the Magyars and gave them safe passage through Bulgaria to attack Byzantine Thrace. In 968 the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas paid the Kievan knyaz Sviatoslav Igorevich to attack Bulgaria in answer of the alliance between the Bulgarian emperor Peter I and the Magyars.

Battle[edit]

Sviatoslav Igorevich gathered 10,000 or 60,000 troops and started his campaign in the early spring of 968. He met the Bulgarians, who were less than his army , near Silistra. The battle continued the whole day and until dark the Bulgarians seemed to have overwhelmed the Kievans, but, elated by Sviatoslav's personal example, the latter were victorious. The loss forced the Bulgarian tsar to shut himself up in Druster. During this time, Svetoslav plundered the Bulgarian lands unhindered, but soon a message about a Pecheneg attack on Kiev made him return to his homeland, taking with him a rich booty.^[9]

Aftermath[edit]

The Rus' forces continued their victorious campaign. According to the Bulgarian historian Vasil Zlatarski, Sviatoslav seized 80 towns in northeastern Bulgaria. They were looted and destroyed but not permanently occupied. Tsar Peter I suffered an epileptic stroke when he received news of the defeat.^[10] The Rus' wintered at Pereyaslavets,^[11] while the Bulgarians retreated to the fortress of Dorostolon (Silistra).^[12] Sviatoslav Igorevich was eventually forced to return to Kiev after Bulgarian diplomacy inspired the Pechenegs to besiege his capital. During his absence, the new Bulgarian ruler Boris II used to temporarily retake the fortress of Pereyaslavets.

Siege[edit]

The reality of what happened during the siege remains a debatable issue, Russian sources claim that after the victory in the battle, the Rus' warriors took the remaining Dorostolon and other cities in Bulgaria,^[5]^[7]^[13] Bulgarian sources claim that the Bulgarians successfully repelled the siege of the Rus.^[14]^[15] Some sources do not mention the siege at all after the battle.^[16]

References[edit]

^ Zlatarski 1971, pp. 554–55521. For the year of Svetoslav's first campaign in Bulgaria, two data are currently known: 1) in the Russian annals with: "Vol . 6475 [by S.M. = 957 AD]. Svyatoslav is coming to Bolgary” and 2) of Ivan Skilitsa.( Skyl.—Cedr ., ibid., II, p. 372 12–14 ). The eleventh indiction gives the year 958, which lasted from 1. IX. 967 to 31. VIII. 968, hence the event refers at the latest to the month of August 968, which fully corresponds to the third data, namely the fifth year of the reign of Nicephorus Phocas: the latter ascended the throne on August 16, 963 or the 5 year ended on August 15, 968, therefore Svetoslav's march refers to the first half of August 968, i.e. before the end of the 5th year. Leo the Deacon does not give any chronological data about this event, however, from the course of the presented facts the following considerations can be made. He writes: "Having said this, he sent them [the Bulgarian envoys] to go back to the country. Sam himself, having collected an experienced [team — ] army, went against the Mizis and on the way captured the fortresses that were border [neighboring] the Romans, with an attack" ( Leo Diakonos , ibid., p. 62 10-13 ). And so the Bulgarian envoys appeared in Constantinople in the first half of 966 (in April or May), and the campaign of Nicephorus followed, as it appears from the words of Leo the Deacon, recently after their dispatch from Constantinople, i.e. in the same 966 Indeed, the Bulgarian campaign of Nicephorus, according to Ivan Skilitsa, is placed in ( Skyl.—Cedr ., ibid., p. 372 3–4 ), i.e. in June of the 10th indiction, or in 957. But that date can hardly be accepted, because Nicephorus could hardly wait after the gross violation of the peace on his part for more than a year, because, as has been said, he was afraid of being surprised by the Bulgarians in some war. Therefore, if in the given month of June we see the beginning of Nikiforov's campaign, which required at least three or four months (July, August and September), then the end of the campaign must be referred to September at the earliest; in such case as the 10th indiction, which continued from 1. IX. 955 to 31. VIII. 937, as well as the fourth year of Nicephorus' reign, which began on August 15, 935, rightly indicate that Nicephorus returned from his Bulgarian campaign in September 966 at the earliest. This conclusion makes it possible to establish another date, namely that Kalokir left Constantinople for Kherson in late 966 or early 967 and could have arrived in Kiev no earlier than the spring of the same 967, or he met Svetoslav precisely at that time, when the latter, according to N. Znoyko's calculations, returned from their long march to the east, after subduing the Vyatichi under their power, i.e. in the spring of 967. In order to prepare such a large army of 60 thousand people and the boats needed for it, Svetoslav had enough time, i.e. a whole year from the spring of 967 to the spring of 968, or he could not have gone on a campaign against Bulgaria earlier than the spring of 968; therefore, the month of August given by Ivan Skilitsa should be accepted as the end of Svetoslav's advance, when he had already settled in Northeastern Bulgaria. — That the first campaign of Svetoslav should be attributed to 968, cf. "On the death of Svyatoslav Igorevich, the great prince of Kiev", Chronolog. searches by N. Lambina, A. Kunina and V. Vasilevsky , St. Petersburg, 1876, p. 163. — N. Znoyko , O posolstve, ibid., pp. 249-252; also "Oh I walked", ibid., pp. 265-268.
^ Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.
^ Pavlov, Plamen (2014). Векът на цар Самуил [The century of tsar Samuel] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Изток и запад. p. 33. ISBN 978-619-152-502-7.
^ Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.
^ ^a ^b ^c Егоршина 2023, p. 9.
^ ^a ^b Velichko et al. 1912.
^ ^a ^b Karamzin 2020, p. 62.
^ Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.
^ Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.
^ Zlatarski 1971, pp. 554–555
^ "It is not my pleasure to be in Kiev, but I will live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube. That shall be the centre of my land; for there all good things flow: gold from the Greeks [Byzantines], precious cloths, wines and fruits of many kinds; silver and horses from the Czechs and Magyars; and from the Rus' furs, wax, honey and slaves." – Sviatoslav, according to the Primary Chronicle, Stephenson 2000, p. 49
^ Whittow 1996, p. 260
^ Gumilev 2023, p. 67.
^ Pavlov, Plamen (2014). Векът на цар Самуил [The century of tsar Samuel] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Изток и запад. p. 33. ISBN 978-619-152-502-7.
^ Velikova, Neli. "Druster - the glorious palace on the Danube". Bulgarian history."However, in 969, the Kiev prince Svetoslav was in front of the walls of the city and managed to capture it".
^ Wasilewski T. Historia Bułgarii. — Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1983. — P. 62. — ISBN 83-0402466-7

Bibliography[edit]

Zlatarski, Vasil (1971) [1927], "Part II. From the Slavinization of the Country to the Fall of the First Empire (852–1018).", History of the Bulgarian state in the Middle Ages, Volume I. History of the First Bulgarian Empire (in Bulgarian) (2nd ed.), Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, OCLC 67080314
Obolensky, Dimitri (1971), The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453, New York: Praeger Publishers, ISBN 978-0-297-00343-4
Stephenson, Paul (2000), Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-77017-3
Whittow, Mark (1996). The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20496-6.
Атанас Пейчев и колектив, 1300 години на стража, Военно издателство, София 1984.
Йордан Андреев, Милчо Лалков, Българските ханове и царе, Велико Търново, 1996.
Божидар Димитров, Българите-първите европейци, София, 2002.
Егоршина, Петрова (2023). История русской армии [The history of the Russian Army] (in Russian). Moscow: Edition of the Russian Imperial Library. ISBN 978-5-699-42397-2.
Karamzin, Nikolay (2020) [1824]. История Государства Российского [History of the Russian state]. St.Petersburg: Азбука. ISBN 978-5-389-10418-1.
Gumilev, Lev (2023) [1992]. От Руси к России [For Rus' to Russia]. Эксклюзивная классика (revised ed.). Moscow: AST. ISBN 978-5-17-153845-3.
Velichko, Konstantin; Novitsky, Vasily; Schwartz, Alexey von; Apushkin, Vladimir; Schoultz, Gustav von (1912). "ДОРОСТОЛЪ" [The Dorostol]. Sytin Military Encyclopedia (in Russian). Vol. 9: Двина Западная-Елец. Типография Т-ва И. Д. Сытина. p. 195.

Notes[edit]

^ Russian sources give the date 967, and Bulgarian sources 968

[1] Zlatarski 1971, pp. 554–55521. For the year of Svetoslav's first campaign in Bulgaria, two data are currently known: 1) in the Russian annals with: "Vol . 6475 [by S.M. = 957 AD]. Svyatoslav is coming to Bolgary” and 2) of Ivan Skilitsa.( Skyl.—Cedr ., ibid., II, p. 372 12–14 ). The eleventh indiction gives the year 958, which lasted from 1. IX. 967 to 31. VIII. 968, hence the event refers at the latest to the month of August 968, which fully corresponds to the third data, namely the fifth year of the reign of Nicephorus Phocas: the latter ascended the throne on August 16, 963 or the 5 year ended on August 15, 968, therefore Svetoslav's march refers to the first half of August 968, i.e. before the end of the 5th year. Leo the Deacon does not give any chronological data about this event, however, from the course of the presented facts the following considerations can be made. He writes: "Having said this, he sent them [the Bulgarian envoys] to go back to the country. Sam himself, having collected an experienced [team — ] army, went against the Mizis and on the way captured the fortresses that were border [neighboring] the Romans, with an attack" ( Leo Diakonos , ibid., p. 62 10-13 ). And so the Bulgarian envoys appeared in Constantinople in the first half of 966 (in April or May), and the campaign of Nicephorus followed, as it appears from the words of Leo the Deacon, recently after their dispatch from Constantinople, i.e. in the same 966 Indeed, the Bulgarian campaign of Nicephorus, according to Ivan Skilitsa, is placed in ( Skyl.—Cedr ., ibid., p. 372 3–4 ), i.e. in June of the 10th indiction, or in 957. But that date can hardly be accepted, because Nicephorus could hardly wait after the gross violation of the peace on his part for more than a year, because, as has been said, he was afraid of being surprised by the Bulgarians in some war. Therefore, if in the given month of June we see the beginning of Nikiforov's campaign, which required at least three or four months (July, August and September), then the end of the campaign must be referred to September at the earliest; in such case as the 10th indiction, which continued from 1. IX. 955 to 31. VIII. 937, as well as the fourth year of Nicephorus' reign, which began on August 15, 935, rightly indicate that Nicephorus returned from his Bulgarian campaign in September 966 at the earliest. This conclusion makes it possible to establish another date, namely that Kalokir left Constantinople for Kherson in late 966 or early 967 and could have arrived in Kiev no earlier than the spring of the same 967, or he met Svetoslav precisely at that time, when the latter, according to N. Znoyko's calculations, returned from their long march to the east, after subduing the Vyatichi under their power, i.e. in the spring of 967. In order to prepare such a large army of 60 thousand people and the boats needed for it, Svetoslav had enough time, i.e. a whole year from the spring of 967 to the spring of 968, or he could not have gone on a campaign against Bulgaria earlier than the spring of 968; therefore, the month of August given by Ivan Skilitsa should be accepted as the end of Svetoslav's advance, when he had already settled in Northeastern Bulgaria. — That the first campaign of Svetoslav should be attributed to 968, cf. "On the death of Svyatoslav Igorevich, the great prince of Kiev", Chronolog. searches by N. Lambina, A. Kunina and V. Vasilevsky , St. Petersburg, 1876, p. 163. — N. Znoyko , O posolstve, ibid., pp. 249-252; also "Oh I walked", ibid., pp. 265-268.

[3] Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.

[:0-4] Pavlov, Plamen (2014). Векът на цар Самуил [The century of tsar Samuel] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Изток и запад. p. 33. ISBN 978-619-152-502-7.

[5] Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.

[FOOTNOTEЕгоршина20239-6] Егоршина 2023, p. 9.

[FOOTNOTEVelichkoNovitskySchwartzApushkin1912-7] Velichko et al. 1912.

[FOOTNOTEKaramzin202062-8] Karamzin 2020, p. 62.

[9] Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.

[10] Kolev, Ivomir. "The fall of Preslav - the blow that shaped Bulgarian history (In Bulgarian)". Bulgarian History.

[11] Zlatarski 1971, pp. 554–555

[12] "It is not my pleasure to be in Kiev, but I will live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube. That shall be the centre of my land; for there all good things flow: gold from the Greeks [Byzantines], precious cloths, wines and fruits of many kinds; silver and horses from the Czechs and Magyars; and from the Rus' furs, wax, honey and slaves." – Sviatoslav, according to the Primary Chronicle, Stephenson 2000, p. 49

[13] Whittow 1996, p. 260

[FOOTNOTEGumilev202367-14] Gumilev 2023, p. 67.

[15] Pavlov, Plamen (2014). Векът на цар Самуил [The century of tsar Samuel] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Изток и запад. p. 33. ISBN 978-619-152-502-7.

[16] Velikova, Neli. "Druster - the glorious palace on the Danube". Bulgarian history."However, in 969, the Kiev prince Svetoslav was in front of the walls of the city and managed to capture it".

[17] Wasilewski T. Historia Bułgarii. — Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1983. — P. 62. — ISBN 83-0402466-7

[2] Russian sources give the date 967, and Bulgarian sources 968

[1]