At the turn of the IX-Xth century in the middle part of the Land along the Volga there formed a state of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. At the same time in Europe appeared the knights. In our parts began to form the Kiev Russia.

The territory of the Volga Bulgaria stretched from the right bank of the river Kama in the north to the Samara Bend in the south, from the upper waters of the left tributaries of the river Sviyaga in the west to the river Zy in the east. The Bulgarian tribes, which came to the territory of the Volga in the second half of the VIIth century from the shores of the Sea of Azov, are considered the founders of the state of the Volga Bulgaria. Primarily, these tribes created their own state in the lands near the Sea of Azov, but then they had to leave their places because of the constant raids of the nomadic tribes upon their territory. Some part of them moved to the land along the Danube, where they became assimilated to the local Slavonic population and formed

The other part of the Bulgarian tribes settled on the territory of the middle part of the Land of the Volga, namely on the Samara Bend. The reason they choose those places was a suitable location of the territory. The water, indented gullies and mountains protected the Samara Bend on three sides. The people used the tops of the Jiguli Mountains as watching points from which they could see the surrounding locality. There the people also built fortress, which due to their location were more unassailable. At last, the local forests and gullies served as reliable shelters in case of the enemy’s invasion.

Besides, on the Samara Bend there were favourable conditions for farming: the wide Volga’s flood-lands served as excellent pastures and hayfields; the terraces were fit for crop-raising; the waters of the Volga were rich in fish, in the local forests dwelled many wild animals, birds, and grew mushrooms and berries.  

Migration of the Bulgarian tribes from the lands near the Azov Sea to the territory of the middle part of the Land along the Volga is proved by the finds that archaeologists discovered during the excavations. The earliest monuments of this culture refer to the second half of the VII-VIIIth centuries and are situated near the villages Brusyany, Small Ryazan, Novinki, Shilovka and Uren. In the burial-mounds were found some mouldings made of gold and silver; weapon (swords, arrows); household articles (the dish, candlesticks, knives); articles used for decorating the horse’ harness. The collection of bone plates, which have been found by R. S. Bagautdinov in one of the burial places near the village Shilovka, roused great interest among the archaeologists. On those plates were depicted some plot scenes with real and fantastic animals (a bear killing a fallow-deer, the fight of dragons) and people. To Bagautdinov’s mind, these scenes reflect cosmogonical ideas of the first Bulgarians about the world.

In the IX-Xth centuries, the Bulgarians became assimilated to the local inhabitants who lived near the river Kama and formed the Volga Bulgaria where in the Xth century the first cities, such as Bulgar, Bilyar, Suvar and many others sprang there. From the very first day of their existence, these cities had been leading power and supremacy struggle with each other.  The strongest contradiction was between Bulgar and Bilyar, which were the two political centers, and each had its own ruler and the mint. Suvar lost its sovereignty at the end of the Xth century, in 976 and Bulgar became the only capital of the state.

The most southern city of the state was the Murom town, on the Samara Bend. Its square was much larger than that of Kiev during the time of its blossoming forth. What is more, the Murom town was one of the largest cities of the state of the Volga Bulgaria.

 I.I. Lepehin and P.S. Pallas who were the participants of the academic expedition that was held in the XVIIIth century described the Murom town. K.I. Nevostruev also mentions it in his work “About sites of ancient towns of the Volga-Bulgarian and Kazan reigns” (1871) and in the work by V.N. Polivanov “Archaeological map of the Siberia province” (1900).

The excavations that were taken in 1928-29 by the expedition society of Archaeology, Ethnography and Science under V.V. Golmsten’ s leadership, and in 1971-79 by the expedition of the Kuibyshev university under G.I. Matveeva’s leadership, let the scientists get rich material about the history and culture of the city.

The inhabitants of the local villages called the Murom town so. Its name that it had during the middle ages is not known. The founder of the city, as the local legends say, was the Russian warrior Ilia Muromets in whose honor the city is supposed to have been called.

      Just after it was build, the city was fortified: it had three rows of earth walls and ditches. The peculiarity of the city was in its location: the Murom town was situated at almost equal distance from the northern and southern boundaries of the Samara Bend, on a plain where there is much territory and not on a high hilled locality where it would be easier to defend. The point is that the Murom town was build as an administrative and trade center, and if it would be built as a fortress on a mountain, it could not hold the large amount of merchants, artisans, peasants, officials. Nevertheless, the first consideration was the defence of the city. That is why the people built the city near the gullies that served as defences. Several rows of earth walls and ditches joined to their ends. Alike usage of gullies as defences was characteristic of many cities of the Volga Bulgaria: Bolgar, Bilyar, Suvar and others.

For the city the people choose the locality where the two largest gullies were situated rather close to each other: the Apple-tree gully that stretched up to the Volga in the northern part of the Samara Bend, and the Dry Brusyana that stretched up to the southern end of it. These gullies were the natural system of fortification and barred the way to the Bend from the west. Fox better effect, on the edges of the gullies around the city were made three high earth walls with ditches.

The Murom city rather quickly became an important administrative center of the state of Bulgaria. Due to its geographical location, the city was a very important trade, craft and cultural center. In the XIth century, the Murom city became one of the most important cities of Bulgaria. In the XII century, its square was 150 hectares, and more than 300 hectares including suburbs and villages.

The city was divided into three parts: the most ancient part of it was the inner city that was defended with gullies on both sides, as it has been already said. Exactly this part was the most populous. The springing up of the inner city dated from the Xth century. Almost at the same time was settled the northern part of the outside city. In the north, it was defended with a gully, and in the north-west – with an earth wall and a ditch. Later, there appeared the southern part of the outside city. Tradesmen, administration, fighting men and artisans lived in the inner city, peasants and shepherds – in the outside.

Such crafts as ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and metalworking, jewelry, pottery, bone cutting, woodworking, leatherworking and many others had been finally arranged by the IXth century. The chief role belonged to metallurgy and metalworking. The Bulgarians used marsh ore as raw material for getting iron. In this case, charcoal was used as fuel. Metallurgy industry was dispersed in the western part of the inner city. There have been found more than 400 pieces of iron slag, small furnaces and braziers for ore drying.

In the western part of the inner city, have been also examined two furnaces where the ancient Bulgarians smelted copper. One of the furnaces is in the shape of a dome. It was filled with coal and copper ore. In the pit under the furnace, the archaeologists have found fragments of thick-walled crucibles. Another furnace was of the cylindrical shape. It was made of clay and limestones, and had a hole for clay nozzles in the middle part. This furnace might be also used for iron smelting. All these facts prove that the Bulgarian artisans achieved a high level of metal smelting. They already knew the way of riveting and steel smelting.

The Arabian traveler Ibn-Fadlan, who visited the Volga Bulgaria in the Xth century, affirmed that the main food of the Bulgarians was millet and horse-flash. This reveals that plough crop-growing and cattle-raising was the bases of their farming. Besides horses, the Bulgarians also raised cows and goats, the archaeologists have even found the bones of a camel. From Central Asia, the Bulgarians accept Islam that prohibits eating pork.

The Bulgarians raised wheat, millet, barley and oats. After harvesting, they ground the grain and got flour for making food. As the Russian annals run, the Kiev Russia bought large amounts of Bulgarian grain at the time of poor crop. The Bulgarians worked the land with a heavy plough, which they used to turn up the soil, a light wooden plough that had two iron tips for light soils, hoes, sickles and other tools.

The making of ceramics, which was already rather sophisticated at that time, was the other main activity of the Bulgarians. They moulded it on a potter’s wheel. First, the people prepared the clay but a special one. Before being moulded, the clay was left until autumn, for rain and frost made it crumbly and rich. Then the people drenched it 15 or 6 hours to get it rid of different admixtures. After that, they added some pound shell, fine sand and chopped vegetation to make the clay more plastic, to prevent it from cracking, and let it preserve the shape.

Then the moulding of the dish began. First, the people traced an ornament on raw clay in form of lines, dots, waves and fillets. The last step was firing. On the territory of the town were found fragments of two furnaces. Both they had alike two-storied construction. In the lower chamber, the people made fire. The hot air rose up through special passes into a firing chamber where ready-made vessels were put. Here the temperature achieved 850-950 degrees. Regulation of the temperature, first low, then high, let the people get the dish of different color: from brown-black and grey up to brick-red and light-grey. On the territory of the Murom town archaeologists have found more than 10 kinds of the dish – jugs, bowls, lighting appliances, braziers and others. The Bulgarian artisans achieved a high level of ceramics working. On the territory of the Murom town was found the dish that had the handles in form of animals (such dish is nowadays kept in the museum of regional studies). Stamping of the dish was also widely spread.

The geographical position of the Volga Bulgaria let it be in business with other countries. The most important trade and traffic ways of Russia were the rivers Volga and Kama that keep on performing this function so far. In 1006 the Volga Bulgaria concluded an agreement with the Kiev Russia that allowed the merchants of these two countries trade freely in both states. This document has preserved till our days. On having found it, the scientists drew a conclusion that Russia was one of the main trade partners of the Volga Bulgaria. Some details of Russian ancient spinning appliances, which have been found on the territory of the Murom town, prove that fact. Besides, there has been found amber that was brought from the Land near the Baltic Sea, fragments of Byzantine bracelets, Arabian and German coins, the glazed dish that was produced in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, and some details of spring-balance and set of weights.

In the Xth century, in Bulgaria were made silver coins that are found not only on the Bulgarian territory but also in Russia and in the Land near the Baltic Sea. The merchants supplied the market with articles made by artisans, weapon (for the nomads), wheat and furs.

In the Xth century, the Bulgarians accept Islam that is why the Central Asiatic manner of architecture is characteristic of that of the Volga Bulgaria. Houses were built in shape of a square of large-measured brick and clay mortar. The houses with heating were the most noteworthy. Under the floor in the central part of such buildings were set channels-flues of the heating system. The bases of this system were two main channels that stretched from the firebox, which was added to the building. From the main channels in both directions stretched narrow flues 25-35 meters wide. The floor was built of brick and covered with a coat of lime-alabaster watertight mortar. These buildings must have been built as bathhouses.

Mosques, bathhouses, a market, peasant houses, smithies, pottery workshops, barracks, the building of administration and houses of the city inhabitants formed the architectural face of the city.

In the Xth century, pine-tree and reed were the basic material for building of the permanent establishment. There was found a kind of a land house without a cellar and with open furnaces that were faced with limestones. The dwellings consisted of two halves, one of which was lived-in. There also might be houses with cellars that had a shape of a cylinder, half dugouts where the floor deepened into the ground, and walls were faced with wooden boards. As Ibn-Fadlan affirmed and according to the excavations, there also existed a kind of a simple land building – yurta (nomad tent). It was used mostly in summer. It could be a tent with wooden frame, covered with skin of animals and felt. According to the facts of ethnography and written sources, the entrance to the yurta was from the eastern side. Inside the yurta was divided into the left “men’s” and right “women’s” quarters. In the central part of the yurta were a hearth and a hole in the ceiling above it.

By the house were situated the household buildings. They were of a cylindrical shape, had an annealed bottom and walls. Sometimes the bottom was sprinkled with sand. Above they must have had a wooden ceiling or lid. In these cellars, the people kept grain foodstuffs. There were also special cellars for keeping perishable food products. They had a wooden ceiling and, often, special stairs for comfortable descent.

However, an arrangement of the buildings in the Bulgarian farmstead remains vague. Household buildings, most likely, did not form a single unity with dwellings, though pit-repositories were concentrated in one row and arranged chessboard fashion. In the yard, there were also open hearths or fires for cooking hot food.

There was little furniture in the yurta. The people sat on rugs, felt or animals’ skins that were spread on the floor. For eating, they probably used small and low tables. In a permanent dwelling, a house interior was simpler. Benches, shelves on the walls, chests and small caskets were the only furniture. There could be used also small eating tables for one person.

Existence of things made of felt and cloth assumed an existence of curtains, warm coverings and decorative articles. Inhabitants that were more well-to-do could afford the metal dish, namely boilers that were hung with metal chains to a ceiling beam or on a special beam above the hearth.

The lighting of the house was performed with the help of the clay open lighting appliances that were filled with melted fat and had a wick. It was necessary to constantly air the dwelling because of the soot that was given both by the hearth and lightning appliances.

In the middle of the XIIIth century, the Volga Bulgaria quitted its existence because of the invasion of the Mongolian-Tatar hordes. Several times the state was exposed to the raids of the savage nomads. In 1224 and 1227, the Bulgaria managed to repulse an attack, but in 1236 it was finally conquered by the Mongolian troops. The majority of the Bulgarian cities were burnt up including the Murom city. A large layer of soot and finds of humans’ skeletons with Mongolian arrows’ tips stuck in their bones witness about its sudden destruction. The city did not revive again.

After destruction of the Murom city, some part of the Bulgarian population left the Samara Bend and settled to the south and east of it on the left shore of the Volga.

In the Volga Bulgaria the power of the Golden Horde’ khans were much harsher and crueler than that in Russia. The Bascacs and Darugs (Mongolian tax collectors) bossed everywhere and were the representatives of the central government. The Mongolians took the Bulgarian slaves and sold them to other countries. Harm that made the Mongolians to the Volga Bulgaria was large and irretrievable. Many settlements like the Murom city never revived again.

The Volga Bulgaria began gradually revive only after the return of the Mongolian troops from the campaign that they made to the west and forming of a strong feudal state of the Golden Horde whose center was in the low Land along the Volga. However, that Volga Bulgaria was not already a sovereign state. Then it become one of the administrative unites of the Mongolian state. At that time, the whole territory of the Samara Land along the Volga was part of the Golden Horde.  The Bulgarians who survived the Mongolian invasion occupied the northern forest regions, the valleys of the rivers Sok, Kondurcha and Kinel.