Vandals Tear Down Monument of Khan Kubrat, Founder of 7th Century Old Great Bulgaria, in Today’s Ukraine

Unknown vandals have torn down the monument of Ancient Bulgar leader Khan Kubrat (r. 632 – 665 AD), the founder of the so called Old Great Bulgaria, which was erected in 2012 in the town of Mala Pereshchepina, Poltava District, in today’s Central Ukraine, and is the site of Kubrat’s grave and the Ancient Bulgar Pereshchepina Treasure.

The destruction of Khan Kubrat’s Momunment has been taken as a serious crime in Bulgaria, leading the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to file an official protest with the Ukrainian Authorities.

As leader of the Onogur Bulgars in the early 7^th century, ca. 632 AD Khan Kubrat established the so called Old Great Bulgaria, a state union of Ancient Bulgars in the territories to the north of the Black Sea, in today’s Ukraine and Southwest Russia.

Kubrat’s Old Great Bulgaria managed to survive for several decades in the main route for the migration of peoples from Asia to Europe between the 4^th and the 7^th century AD, a development referred to in English with the term “Migration Period” (also mentioned with the German term “Voelkerwanderung”), and known in Bulgarian as “The Great Resettlement of Peoples”.

In the second half of the 7^th century, Kubrat’s Old Great Bulgaria began to crumble under pressure from the east by the Khazars, leading Kubrat’s sons and successors to move parts of the Ancient Bulgar population and/or to shift the focus of the territories that they controlled towards outside regions.

Thus, part of the Ancient Bulgars led by Khan Kubrat’s third son, Khan Asparuh (r. ca. 680 – ca. 700 AD), moved southeast towards the Balkans, while also appearing to have held onto the westernmost parts of Old Great Bulgaria.

Asparuh’s shifting towards Southeast Europe, i.e. the Balkan Peninsula, resulted in the rising of Old Great Bulgaria’s most resilient successor – the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018 AD) followed by the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 – 1396/1422), and succeeded by modern-day Bulgaria which was restored in 1878/1908. To differentiate today’s Bulgaria from the other “Bulgarias” that existed over the ages, it is sometimes referred to as “Danube Bulgaria” in historical contexts. The early Bulgarian capitals in the Balkans, , Pliska (680-893) and Veliki Preslav (893-970) are located in today’s Northeast Bulgaria.

Another of Kubrat’s sons, Kotrag, moved with his subjects to the northeast towards the Volga River in the region of today’s Kazan in Russia founding the so called Volga Bulgaria, which survived until the 13^th century.

Another of Kubrat’s sons, Kuber, is believed to have led another part of the Ancient Bulgars to settle in what is today the Republic of North Macedonia, in the region around Bitola.

Khan Altsek, another Ancient Bulgar leader from the 7^th century, of whom there are hypotheses that he was another of Khan Kubrat’s sons, led Ancient Bulgars to settle in the region of Pannonia in Central Europe, and from there to the Italian Peninsula in today’s Italy. A monument of Khan Altsek was opened in the Italian town of Celle di Bugheria in 2016.

The dominant interpretation of the history of the Ancient Bulgars during the communist period (1944 – 1989) was heavily influenced by the communist and pan-Slavism ideology, and claimed that the Ancient Bulgars were of Turkic origin – an allegation that has been disproved, with possibly the most plausible hypothesis being that they were of Iranian (Persian) origin).

Back in 2016, a number of top Bulgarian historians demanded changes in history books to reflect new findings and the freedom from ideological indoctrination, indicating, among other things, that the history of the Ancient Bulgar state goes back to 165 AD. This demand was based on recent research in Ancient Armenian sources as well as the Nominalia of Bulgarian Khans, a medieval source setting the beginning of Ancient Bulgar statehood precisely in 165 AD, among others.

In addition to having been a great political leader of the Ancient Bulgars, Khan Kubrat is known for having been in close relations with then Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor Heraclius (r. 610 – 641 AD), and is alleged to have been a Christian (together with his First Bulgarian Empire successors Asparuh and Tervel (r. 700 – 721 AD).

A great testimony to the existence, life, and achievements of Khan Kubrat as the leader of the mid-7^th century Old Great Bulgaria in the region north of the Black Sea has been the discovery by accident in 1912 of his presumed grave and the Pereshchepina Treasure, a massive hoard of gold and silver artifacts, including rings bearing crosses, a Christian symbol, and inscriptions of the name “Kubrat”.

According to some source, Kubrat adopted Christianity and befriended Heraclius while spending time in the Byzantine court in Constantinople in his youth.

The Pereshchepina Treasure, most of which is kept today at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is considered the most significant known treasure of the Ancient Bulgars. Among other things, it contains gold artifacts with a combined total weight of 25 kilograms and silver artifacts with a combined total weight of 50 kilograms. The known artifacts which were part of Kubrat’s burial treasure number more than 800.

The Monument of Khan Kubrat in the town of Mala Pereshchepina, Poltava Oblast (District) in Central Ukraine, was erected in 2012 on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary since the discovery of Kubrat’s grave and the Pereshchepina Treasure, in what was back then the Russian Empire.

The monument was championed by the association of ethnic Bulgarians living in Ukraine, and was funded by private sponsors. An international private foundation named after Khan Kubrat was established for the purpose in 2008.

Precisely the monument in question has now been knocked down by unknown perpetrators. The crime was reported on April 5, 2021, by the Mayor of Mala Pereshchepina to the police in the Ukrainian district of Poltava.

Photos from the local police, who have launched an investigation into the act of vandalism, show that the entire monument has collapsed after its foundations were deliberately undermined. Under Ukraine’s legislation, the perpetrators face a fine or prison terms of up to 2 years.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry has reacted officially to the destruction of Khan Kubrat’s Monument with a note to the government of Ukraine.

“The Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria categorically condemns the act of vandalism against the Monument of Khan Kubrat in Mala Pereshchepina in Ukraine’s Poltava District,” the diplomatic service in Sofia stated on April 6, 2021, a day after the crime was reported to the Ukrainian police.

“We expect Ukraine’s respective authorities to establish the perpetrators of this act of hooliganism, and to hold them accountable,” Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry adds.

“Bulgaria attributes great important to the observing of the rights and historical and cultural identity of the 200,000-strong Bulgarian community in Ukraine, which contributes to the excellent relations between our two countries,” the statement reads.

Bulgarian media reporting on the monument’s destruction point out that the Monument and grave site of Khan Kubrat has been visited by Bulgarians from around the world, especially in recent years.

The historic minority of ethnic Bulgarians in today’s Ukraine is descendants of Bulgarians who fled from the Ottoman Empire in the 18^th and 19^th century to the region of Bessarabia (hence the name “Bessarabia Bulgarians”) in today’s Ukraine and Moldova, back then part of the Russian Empire, also to the Crimean Peninsula (also known as the Taurica Peninsula, hence the name “Taurica Bulgarians”). The latter community, however, is nowadays virtually non-existent.

Learn more about the hypotheses about the origin of the Ancient Bulgars in the Background Infonotes below!

Also check out these articles:

Renowned Historians Seek Major Changes in History Textbooks, Say Bulgaria Was Established in 165 AD

Monument of Ancient Bulgar Leader Altsek Opened in Italy’s Celle di Bulgheria to Celebrate Ancient Bulgar Heritage

Bulgarian Toponyms in Italy: Legacy from the Ancient Bulgars and Their Leaders, Khan Altsek and Khan Kubrat*

‘Unseen Treasures’ Showcased for 35th Anniversary of History Museum in Bulgaria’s Shumen

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Ivan Dikov, the founder of ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com, is the author of the book Plunder Paradise: How Brutal Treasure Hunters Are Obliterating World History and Archaeology in Post-Communist Bulgaria, among other books.

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Background Infonotes:

(The following is a very brief account of the main (groups of) theories about the origin of the Ancient Bulgars.)

The question about the precise origin of the Ancient Bulgars, a powerful steppe people with a strong social and military organization and a highly sophisticated calendar, remains resolved and a matter of discussion among Bulgarian and international historians.

Unfortunately, in the past it has been marred and even perverted by political and ideological motives stemming from the fact that in the 20^th century Bulgaria was under foreign (mostly Soviet) domination. There are numerous theories about the Ancient Bulgars’ origin, the main ones stipulating either a Turkic (Mongol), or an Iranian (Aryan) origin, or a combination of the two.

The theory about the Turkic origin of the Bulgarians was overwhelmingly promoted during the communist period by historians in the Soviet Union and its satellite, the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Scientific arguments aside, its political motivation was to denigrate the role of the Bulgars and to promote the role of the Slavs in Bulgaria’s formation in order to prove the stronger ties of 20^th century Bulgaria with Russia (the Soviet Union). This is contrasted with the trends in the 1930s when some Bulgarian historians and scholars sympathetic to Nazi Germany sought to deny altogether the role of the Slavs in the formation of the Bulgarian nation.

While still defended by a number of older generation historians, the theory about the Turkic (Mongol) origin of the Ancient Bulgars has been largely discredited since the fall of the communist regime. Taking advantage of the newly established academic freedom, a number of Bulgarian historians and archaeologists have formulated and explored the theory about the Iranian (Sarmatian, Scythian), i.e. Aryan origin of the Bulgars. This theory actually originated with a group of Russian historians in the mid 20^th century but was not part of the “official history” during the communist period, and was only given greater publicity and developed further in the 25 years since the fall of communism in 1989.

There is also a third major theory uniting the first two which stipulates that the Ancient Bulgars originated from Iranian tribes in Central Asia in the 1^st-4^th century AD which were later involved in the tribal union of the Huns and exposed to Turkic influence as they moved into the steppes of Eastern Europe. This hypothesis explains the Turkic elements discovered in Ancient Bulgar archaeological remains which also exhibit features typical of the Iranian tribes (Sarmatian, Scythian).

There are also a number of other theories about the origin of the Ancient Bulgars such as the one stipulating that they were in fact Ancient Thracians; however, those theories appear to be largely pseudo-scientific.

Today’s Bulgarian society has adopted a more balanced approach to the issue, with the theories stipulating the Iranian (Aryan) origin of the Ancient Bulgars (with or without Turkic influences) appearing to dominate the public discourse.

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