Pliska of the 9th Century and Kiev of the 10th Century: the Comparison of Capitals of Krumid's and Rurikid's Chiefdoms

The paper suggests a historical and typological comparison of the two capitals of the chiefdoms: Old Bulgarian Pliska, the center of the Krumid polity of the 9th century, and Old Russian Kiev, the center of the Rurikid polity of the 10th century. In both cases, a new center was created on the site of an existing settlement and experienced "explosive" growth, which correlates with the development of a new centralized polity and the intensification of its military expansion. Bulgarian Pliska and Russian Kiev were typical residences of leaders such as Heorot of the Danish king Hroogar, the "wooden palace" of the ruler of the Huns Attila and other similar capitals of different "barbarian kingdoms". For about a hundred years they remained the centers of pagan chiefdoms, but Kiev retained its "capital" status in the Christian Old Russian early state of the 11th century, but Pliska in the Christian Old Bulgarian early state of the 10th century lost it to Preslav.