Revisiting the Role of the Oka-Sura Interfluve in the Ethnopolitical System of Eastern Europe: the Latter Half of 1st - First Third of the 2nd Millennia AD

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of the Oka and Sura River valleys in the ethnopolitical system of Eastern Europe in the latter half of the 1st - first third of the 2nd millennia AD. With evidence from summarized written sources available, materials of archaeological surveys and historiographic works, the paper highlights the periods in the history of the Mordvins when relatively stable relations in political, economic and ethnocultural spheres prevailed which determined the ways of historical process in the region under consideration. The Oka and Sura River valleys are historical homelands of the Mordvins. It has been discovered that during the considered period, the Mordvinic tribes were directly or indirectly influenced by most significant political processes of that time. The main events of the Migration Period (up to the 7th-8th centuries AD) took place relatively far away, but the bulk of massive relocations of ancient populations affected trade and economic relations, boosting minor interregional migrations. The analysis of materials of archaeological surveys concludes that there was some activation of migration processes in the Oka-Sura Interfluve. In the 8th-10th cc. AD, the crucial impact on the life of the region was being made by the Khazar Khaganate, and the Mordvinic tribes were politically subjugated by the state. That was reflected in trade, ethnocultural and supposedly political relations which is confirmed by multiple archaeological data, such as adornments, amulets, weapons, and horse accessories found in Mordvinic burial sites. In the 11th-13th cc. AD, the Oka-Sura Interfluve became a battlefield for the two major states with opposing political orientations - Russian principalities and Volga Bulgaria - that proved a key factor in the formation of the two Mordvinic sub-ethnic groups - Moksha and Erzya. In view of frequent armed hostilities in the territory of the region, there appeared regular military units and defensive fortifications, but no independent state with corresponding administrative mechanisms of coercion was developed.