International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

THE FIRST BULGARIAN EMPIRE
Chairs: 
Vassil Gjuzelev, Kirił Marinow
Kirił Marinow
, 
Geopolitics of the First Bulgarian State, Seventh-Eleventh Centuries
Zofia Brzozowska
, 
The Image of Maria Lekapene, Peter and the Byzantine-Bulgarian Relations 
Between 927 and 969 AD in the Light of Old Russian Sources
Jan Wolski, 
Tsar Peter, Monastic Tsardom and Byzantinisation. A Historiographical Survey
Mirosław J. Leszka – Kirił Marinow
, 
Спорные вопросы правления болгарского царя Петра I (927–969)
Trendafil Krastanov
, 
Apostolic Diocese to Moravian Archbishops in Illyric St. Methodius, Gorazdus, John Exarch 
and St. Clement, Bishop of Tiberioupolis (893) and Velitza (906) in Provincia Bulgaria Occidental
Karina Kapsalykova
, 
The Slavic Military Commander in Byzantium: Dragshan of Voden
Plamen Pavlov
, 
Presian ІI – The Last Ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire (1018) and Pretender for Byzantine 
Crown
Rumen Yordanov
, 
Magistros Presiyan the Bulgarian and His Role in the Byzantine Empire (1018‒1030)

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Kirił Marinow
University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland; 
[e-mail]
Geopolitics of the First Bulgarian State, Seventh-Eleventh Centuries
One of the topics to be investigated under the research grant NCN DEC-2014/14/N/HS3/00758 
(
The Bulgarian state in the years 927-969. The Epoch of Tsar Peter the Pious
) concerns political 
geography of the early medieval Bulgarian state. In the period in question, Bulgaria encompassed 
the areas lying in the north-eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. Among these areas, exhibiting 
diversified topographical features, one can specify:
a) Dobruja forming the final part of the steppes that extended from central Asia, along the 
northern coasts of the Black Sea, to the Balkan Peninsula. It lied at the end of the migration 
corridor used in the early Middle Ages by different nomadic tribes heading for the Balkan 
area. It is from this direction that the state founded in the lower part of the river Danube was 
in danger of being invaded.
b) The Danubian Plain, whose southern part, the one lying between the lower Danube valley and 
the mountain range known as 
Stara Planina
, formed – with the exclusion of the epoch of the 
Kometopouli dynasty – the nucleus of the Bulgarian statehood in the early Middle Ages. It was 
the so-called “inner area” of the Bulgarian state. Most densely populated, the area was home to 
the country’s political centres, including its capitals – Pliska and Great Preslav.
c) The Foothills of the Stara Planina, the mountains of the Stara Planina and the mountain range 
of Sredna Gora, all of which were referred to in the Middle Ages as Haimos. The Stara Planina 
served as a natural barrier that blocked access to the Bulgarian interior. Similarly, the range 
of Sredna Gora constituted a barrier separating the areas of northern Thrace from the Sofia 
Valley. It formed an obstacle to be overcome by those who travelled from the north-west to the 
south-east.
d) The Sofia Field. It was a long basin with Sredetz as its most important political centre. Two 
important routes intersected within the area – one, used for military purposes, ran from the 
north-west to the south-east; the other led from the north-east to the south-west, that is, from 
the Danube Plain, through the western part of the Stara Planina, to Macedonia.
e) The Upper Thrace forming the hinterland of the western coast of the Black Sea. Filipopol was 
its most important urban centre, but the cities of Verroia and Stilvnos also managed to rise to 
a significant position. The rivalry between Bulgaria and Byzantium naturally took place in the 
Northern Thrace.
f) A strip of the western coast of the Black Sea, from the Danube delta to the eastern ridges of the 
Strandja mountains. In its northern part, between a great river and Cape Emine, it was made 
up of a line of cliffs, thus making the interior difficult to access from the sea. The southern 
coast was more open towards the sea, having a number of important harbors along its length 
– Messembria, Anchialos, Sozopolis and Develtos. These harbours had a very important role 
to play in the relations between Bulgaria and Byzantium.

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g) Rhodope Mountains occupying most of the southern area of the north-eastern part of the 
Balkan Peninsula. The mountains were bounded to the west by the Alpine massif of Rila and 
Pirin, constituting the so-called Rilo-Rhodope massive.
h) Macedonia, a picturesque land of valleys and mountains. Its partition resulted in the 
development of settlement separatism. From the mid-ninth century Macedonia formed an 
integral part of the Bulgarian state and from the end of the tenth to the second decade of the 
eleventh centuries it was the nucleus of the Bulgarian statehood, with Prespa and Ohrid as its 
main centres. Its geographical formation helped the Bulgarians resist the Byzantine aggression 
over a long period.
i) The lower Danube, stretching between the so-called Iron Gate in the west and the river’s delta 
in the east, cutting the Danube Plain in half and forming the northern, natural border of the 
nucleus of the Bulgarian state. The Danube was not an important demarcation line. In cultural 
terms, both of its banks developed in a similar fashion.
j) Transylvania, stretching over the upland area, in the central part of contemporary Romania. 
Following the fall of the Avar Khaganate the Bulgarians ruled the land until the arrival of the 
Hungarian tribes. The issue of how long the region remained in their hands is still open to 
debate. It formed the northern border of the Bulgarian state, and due to its rich deposits of salt 
and silver it played, it appears, an important role in the economic life of the country.