The Myth of the Judeo-Khazar Founding of Kiev

Abstract

This article critiques the idea that the Judaic Khazars of the late 8 ^th - first half of the 9 ^th cc. founded Kiev. That hypothesis was formulated almost a century ago, but was never taken seriously. Wide-scale archaeological investigations in Kiev have since confirmed that the concept of Khazar foundations lost validity even from the point of view of historiography. However, this “original” idea was revived by N. Golb and O. Pritsak in their publication on Judaic Khazar documents of the 10 ^th century. Quite unexpectedly it was presented by these scholars as “widely spread”. Then М. Goldelman, following them, defined it similarly in his entry on the Khazars in “Brief Judaic Encyclopedia”. The authors mentioned have no new documents in their disposal suggesting the outdated supposition that Khazars founded Kiev. A Hebrew letter from Kiev, even if genuine, may be the only evidence of the existence in 10 ^th -century Kiev of a Judaic Khazars’ community. This in no way reveals when and by whom the town was founded. Philological considerations mention a Khazar vezir named Kuia, believed to have been the founder of Kiev, as well as a Khazar tribe called Kavars (Kopyrs), who are thought to have inhabited one of the Kiev’s districts. However, these are purely abstract and do not correspond to the archaeology and historical topography of Kiev. Thus, in the book by N. Gold and 0. Pritsak, the reader encounters a myth concerning the foundation of Kiev by the Judaic Khazars that has nothing in common with historical reality.

Keywords:

• Khazars
• Kiev
• Mythology
• Debates
• Kievan Hebrew Letter
• 8-10^th centuries

Notes

¹. The book first was published in 1982 in English [Norman Golb and Omeljan Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982)]. In 1997, it was republished in Russian by the Jewish publishing house “Gesharim.” Norman Golb and Omel’ian [Omeljan] Pritsak, Khazaro-evreiskie dokumenty X v. Nauchnaia redaktsiia, posleslovie i kommentarii V.Ia. Petrukhina (Moscow/Jerusalem: Gesharim, 1997).

². A short commentary on individual statements by Pritsak was part of my article: P.P. Tolochko, “Spornye voprosy rannei istorii Rusi,” in Slaviane i Rus’ (v zarubezhnoi istoriografii) (Kiev, 1990), pp. 104–08.

³. See commentaries in my article (Tolochko 1990, notes to pp. 96, 217).

a. The author seems unwilling even to cite the offending encyclopedia article by Michael Goldelman: M. Gol’del’mann “Khazary” Kratkaia evreiskaia entsiklopediia 1999. See also Michael (Menashe) Goldelman “On the Location of the Khazarian City of Al-Bayda.” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 1998-99, Vol. 10. For some of the Jerusalem symposium papers, see Peter Benjamin Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai, Andras Róna-Tas, eds. The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives (Leiden: Brill, 2007, Handbook of Oriental Studies 17). For more of V.S. Flërov’s views, see his articles in each issue on our Khazar theme in Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia 2018 Vo1 57, nos. 3, 4.

b. See Samuel Hazzard Cross (author, editor, translator), Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor (editor, translator), The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text (Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 2012 [1930 original].

c. The author, despite his Ukrainian background, seems to be on dangerous linguistic ground here, since the original Russian implies “Russian” as opposed to Rus’ hegemony at this time in Kiev, before Russian and Ukrainian ethnic differentiations were valid. I have neutralized this by referring to geographically correct Rus’ princes.

d. For an idea of why this date was chosen, see the work of Igor G. Semenov in this issue and the previous one.

e. On paying tribute to the Khazars, see S.P. Shchavelev’s article in this issue. The translation of the Primary Chronicle used by Stephan Lang is the accessible Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, eds., and its relevant pages are indicated here. However, Stephan Lang points out that the original Primary Chronicle had first person and more colorful nuances. For example, in this passage, the Khazars were said to have come and directly said: “Pay us tribute.”

f. The Chronicle use of the word “zhid” for Jew was not necessarily derogatory, although precisely this term came to be an ethnic slur in later Ukrainian and Russian usage.