In all likelihood, this ‘torod’ played a very important role in the Boltar trade, since the first Bulgarian coin that has come down to us was minted in Suvar 1). Where this torus was located, it is possible to determine with precision the possibilities yet. It is possible, to a certain extent, to assume that Suvar stood or there, where now there is a settlement of Balymer with quite significant elds of Ukrainian hillforts, or on the branches of the Simbirsk settlement, on the left side of the Volga, 18 vertices below the current city of Simbirsk 2). But Bulgarian cities also existed on the right side of the river. Volga. Among them was Oshel, located below the mouth of the Kama, at the confluence of the Volga river. Kirelki; It is heavily fortified with a double oak wall, a rampart and a ditch 3). These were important centers of the Bulgarian land in political or commercial and industrial terms. But a lot of traces of other settlements have been preserved in the form of ruins of stone buildings, ramparts and ditches, etc. "). Most of these settlements are completely unknown to us by name. However, there are also takle torodas, whose names have come down to us, but there is no way to identify them from photographs found. So the Arab Mukadessi says 0 'some' city, lying on the bank of another river, which was larger than Bulgar and Suvar 5). The name of this torod is read Khodar 5). In the theography of the Arabic scholar Edrisi, among other things, says that “in the country of Bulgar there was a city named Tabun (or Hamuni), which: Ukrainian villages, located on the tops of one mountain, are surrounded by fertile fields and settlements 7). Among the same cities, the size of which cannot be determined at the present time, one must include the city of Torchesv, mentioned in our chronicle 8), which lay, undoubtedly, to the south of the Kama River, as a people.
t) See below.
2) For various guesses about the whereabouts of Suvar, see Shtsilevsky: “Ancient Cities,” pp. 50-52. Assumed by Nevostruev { “On the settlements of other Volga-Bulgarian kingdoms”, Proceedings of Arch. With. vol. 2, p. 552) that this one. the city was located in the Voronezh or Tambov province, completely contrary to the famous Al-Balkhi and Mukadessi. That Suvar was located south of the Bulgar is proven by the circumstances of the wars between the Suzdal people and the Bulgarians.
3) Lavrent. lVtop. ed. 1872, p. 422; Shlilevsy: “Ancient Cities”, p. 152.
*) See the above-mentioned works of Nevostruev and Oe Razii.
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8) Shpilevsvy; “Ancient cities”, p. 53, note. 1.
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3) Ipaltiev. letop. ed. 1871 p. 423,
trading, they understood the meaning of p®k, the most convenient ways of communication at that distant time. Such trade routes were the Volga and Kama. The last war flowed through the Samats of the Bulgarian kingdom, dividing it into two parts, southern and northern. That is why almost at the mouth of the Kama we find UkrVilene Tukhchin 1). In the northern part of the Bulgarian land there were cities: (both, Kul, Tyamti, the memory of which was preserved in the names of the villages, lay to the north of the Kama River and, obviously, on the sites where the mentioned cities once stood). fortifications 3).
It is impossible to determine the political border between Bulgaria and Tsaretva with precision. In the era of its prosperity, then from the 10th century. and before the beginning of the 19th century, its southern border extended to the Ural River, on which there was a permanent Bulgarian guard. "It can be assumed with some probability that the power of the Boltgar king extended far to the north. In the extreme world, there is a renewed belief that the banks of the sharp Kama, along almost its flow from north to south, were occupied by Bulgarian cities 5). How far to the west the ruling Bulgarians went, it is possible to say only approximately. Probably, the border of the Bulgarian kingdom itself reached the Sura River 5). After the fall of the Khazareka Katanata, they moved from the south to the Bulgarian lands. To the east and north of Bver there lived the Greek peoples, partly under the rule of the Bulgarians, who hoped to preserve their independence. These were the Perm, Ugra, Votyaks, and Cheremis. These people, even recognizing their dependence on the Bulgarians, retained their tribal princes and expressed their submission only with payment. tribute, which consisted mainly of
*) Lavretev. letoi. ed. 1872, pp. 369-370; Shpilevsky: “Ancient than the city,” p. 139.
2) Ipatiev. letop. p. 423; Shpilevsyumy “Ancient Cities”, page 144: