the Bulgars, asssimilation, etc

so after the Christianization of the Turkic Bulgars, they were quickly assimilated into the Slavic population they ruled. I think this was because with the adoption of Orthodox Christianity, the Slavonic alphabet, and all that, they had no separate identity to preserve their Turkic-ness.


but what if, instead of Boris I retiring to the monastery, he is killed in 893 by Magyar raiders, or some other people. there is no one to stop Vladimir-Rasate from staging his anti-Christian measures, burning churches, persecuting the clergy. without Boris to return from the monastery to depose Vladimir-Rasate, he manages to kill the non-compliant aristocracy and destroy Christianity in Bulgaria. in the process of repression of Christianity, much of the Slavic Orthodox population is killed.

with the reduced Slavic population and the influence of the Orthodox church gone, would this have been enough to preserve the Turkic Bulgars, or is the late 890s too far gone, had they all been assimilated by then?

please don't not respond, that happens to 99% of my threads. please contribute.
 
so after the Christianization of the Turkic Bulgars, they were quickly assimilated into the Slavic population they ruled. I think this was because with the adoption of Orthodox Christianity, the Slavonic alphabet, and all that, they had no separate identity to preserve their Turkic-ness.


but what if, instead of Boris I retiring to the monastery, he is killed in 893 by Magyar raiders, or some other people. there is no one to stop Vladimir-Rasate from staging his anti-Christian measures, burning churches, persecuting the clergy. without Boris to return from the monastery to depose Vladimir-Rasate, he manages to kill the non-compliant aristocracy and destroy Christianity in Bulgaria. in the process of repression of Christianity, much of the Slavic Orthodox population is killed.

with the reduced Slavic population and the influence of the Orthodox church gone, would this have been enough to preserve the Turkic Bulgars, or is the late 890s too far gone, had they all been assimilated by then?

please don't not respond, that happens to 99% of my threads. please contribute.

some kind of chimp

Must admit I would have thought the Bulgars had been converted before then? However if not and the massacres go ahead then I think the Bulgars, or at least the pagan ones would be largely wiped out. Think they were very much in a minority compared to the Slavic population so would be very difficult for the pagans to maintain control under such circumstances. Especially since the Byzantines and possibly some of the northern areas would seek to intervene, both to protect fellow Christians and gain influence.

If there was a major bloodletting, depopulating large areas I think the empire would be the main gainer. The Bulgar threat would be largely removed and while the Serbs and whatever steppe tribes were north of the Danube would contest the area I think the empire would have the best chance to secure permanent gains.

Steve
 
I think the process of de-christianizing both the bulgar populous and the balkans would be a very easy way to completely destroy the bulgars as an independt power within a generation or two. Not only would the bulgars go through a very bloody civil war in order to do so, they will have to purge their indigent subject peoples. Given this, any intervening Christian power would look like a god given savior, hence I would imagine the Byzantine empire would be primed to exploit it. Not to mention the emergence of the Magyer's could see Bulgars being pressed between the byzantine hammer and Hungarian anvil.
 
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