{{no footnotes, date=July 2017 Bravlin (apparent Cyrillic: "Бравлин") was an

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l overlord of the Rus' who supposedly devastated all the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

from

Kerch Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...

to Sougdaia in the last years of the 8th century but was paralyzed when he had entered the church of St. Stephen in Sougdaia. His Crimean campaign is mentioned in only one source, the Russian version of the Life of St. Stephen of Sougdaia ( Stephen of Surozh in Russian), tentatively dated to the 15th or 16th centuries.

Vasily Vasilievsky Vasily Grigorievich Vasilievsky (also spelled ''Vasiljevskij'' and ''Wasiliewski''; russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич Василье́вский) was a Russian historian who founded the St. Petersburg school of medieval studies an ...

, who was the first to publish this manuscript in the 19th century, reasoned that the core of the narrative might stem from the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

, reflecting a vague memory of some 10th-century Russo-Byzantine conflict. Since St. Stephen died in 786 and Bravlin's invasion is said to have happened "several years" after his death (during the term of Stephen's successor, archbishop Philaret), this Rus' expedition is usually dated to the 790s. Among those historians who view Bravlin as a historical figure, Nikolay Belyaev attempted to trace in his fanciful name some allusion to the Battle of Bravalla (770). Anyway, the name Bravlin is obviously of non-Slavic origin and may be attributed only to Vikings who at that time represented a serious force on ancient Slavic lands. Alexander Vasiliev discarded the account of this campaign as a typical pious legend, whose interest is purely literary rather than historical.

Constantine Zuckerman Constantin Zuckerman (; born 1957) is a French historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. Biography Academic rank: professor. Highest degree: doctorate. Job title: The Deputy Director of the Cen ...

casts further doubts on the historicity of Bravlin and his raid against the Crimea.

References

*Васильевский В.Г. Русско-византийские исследования. St. Petersburg, 1893. * Vernadsky, G. ''The Problem of the Early Russian Campaigns in the Black Sea Area''. // American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Feb., 1949), pp. 1–9. *Vasiliev А.А. ''The Russian Attack on Constantinople in 860.'' Cambridge Mass., 1946, pp. 81–83. *Беляев Н.Г. Рорик Ютландский и Рюрик начальной летописи. // Seminarium kondakovianum. Сборник статей по археологии и византиноведению, издаваемый семинарием имени Н.Г.Кондакова. III. Прага, 1929. С. 220-221 Medieval Crimea Rus'–Byzantine wars 8th-century rulers in Europe History of the Rus' people 8th-century Slavs Legendary rulers Slavic warriors