Pages: 226-235

The eastern campaign of Svjatoslav is commonly viewed as a matter of bilateral Rus-Khazar relations that put an end to Khazarian state. Meanwhile the study of muslim sources containing information about the collapse of Khazaria and the international situation in the Lower Volga region in the second half of the Xth century shows that the disappearance of Khazaria from the political map of Eastern Europe exceeded the limits of bilateral Rus-Khazar relations. It was a result of interaction of several forces involved in the struggle for «khazarian heritage» — the Rus, Khwarezm, the Volga Bulghars, the Turks, Sharvan. Svjatoslav managed to draw the western regions of Khazaria into the zone of russian influence but his further extention to the east was only a relative success and in the end did not lead to the strengthening of the Rus in the Lower Volga region.