nomadic confederation · Poland, Lithuania and Russia

Pechenegs

860 CE – 1091 CE (approx.)

Turkic nomads who dominated the Black Sea steppe for two centuries, killed Sviatoslav of Kiev and were crushed by Byzantium in 1091.

Origins

The Pechenegs lived between the Volga and the Ural until the Oghuz and Khazars drove them west around 890. Allied with the First Bulgarian Empire, they expelled the Magyars from their lands between the Dnieper and the Danube around 895 and took over the steppe north of the Black Sea.

Rule and society

Constantine VII describes eight tribes, each with its own chief, grouped into two wings either side of the Dnieper. Byzantium paid them to hold back the Rus' and the Bulgarians, and they controlled the Dnieper rapids, where in 972 their chief Kurya killed Sviatoslav I and made his skull into a drinking cup.

Decline and legacy

Defeated outside Kiev by Yaroslav the Wise in 1036, and pressed by the Oghuz and Cumans, many Pechenegs moved into the Balkans. In 1091 Alexios I Komnenos and his Cuman allies annihilated them at Levounion, and a final defeat in 1122 ended them as a people. Survivors settled in Hungary and Byzantium.

Lineage

Khazar Khaganate 650 CE – 969 CEOghuz Yabgu State 750 CE – 1055 CEPechenegs

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Pechenegs. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pechenegs
MLA
“Pechenegs.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pechenegs. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Pechenegs.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pechenegs.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Pechenegs’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pechenegs (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻