The truth about Bulgaria

WHO ARE THE BULGARIANS?

"The Bulgarians, a Turanian race, akin to the Tatars, Huns, Petchenegs and Finns, made their appearance on the banks of the Pruth in the latter part of the Seventh century. They were a horde of wild horsemen, fierce and barbarous, practicing polygamy, and governed despotically by their Khans (chiefs) and Boyars or Bolyars (nobles). Their original abode was the tract between the Ural mountains and the Volga, where the Kingdom of Great (or Black) Bolgary existed down to the Thirteenth century. In 679, under their Khan Asparukh (or Isperikh), they crossed the Danube, and, after subjugating the Slavonic population of Moesia, advanced to the gates of Constantinople and Salonica. " * * The invading horde was not numerous, and during the next two centuries it became gradually merged in the Slavonic population. Like the Franks in Gaul the Bulgars gave their name and a political organization to the more civilized race which they conquered, but adopted its language, customs and local institutions, not a trace of the Ugrian or Finnish element is to be found in the Bulgarian speech. The complete assimilation of a conquering race may be illustrated by many parallels.

The Bulgarians, therefore, are that portion of the Slavonic race, which is found till the present time in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia.

The Christian religion was officially adopted in Bulgaria in 964, through Bysantia. "Morally, Bulgaria was slowly but surely undermined by its intercourse with the Bysantine empire. The nobles and the priesthood were most affected by this sinister influence, and it is noticeable that in the old as in the new Bulgaria the ablest men have usually sprung from the virgin soil of the peasantry." 

The Bulgarians have a very interesting history before their subjugation by the Turks, but its recital is of no importance for our present discussion.