Formation of Ethnopolitical Identity in Early Medieval Bulgaria

This article contributes to the study of military-political history in Bulgaria by reconstructing the ethno-political model of Danubian Bulgaria and identifying mechanisms for forming political elites, processes of ethnic integration, as well as the role of the Bulgarian-Slavic alliance in regional consolidation on the Balkan Peninsula. Source materials include Byzantine and Eastern Christian chronicles, archaeological findings, and works by Bulgarian, Russian, Turkish, and Western European scholars. Comparative-historical, source-critical, structural, and chronological methods are employed. The relevance of this research lies in its necessity for a comprehensive analysis of interaction between Turkic proto-Bulgarian ruling elite and Slavic populations whose integration formed the basis for stable early state organization and supra-ethnic political identity. It is demonstrated that the Turkic ruling class functioned as an integrative core, establishing effective governance systems and creating conditions for gradual Slavization and transformation of the state's ethnopolitical structure. The scientific novelty of this work consists in interpreting First Bulgarian Empire as a multi-level ethno-political system analyzed with consideration given to diverse historiographical traditions and comparison of written sources.