222 Information regarding tie Kirghiz Steppes and Turlcistan. [Ami. 
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Geographical information, regarding the Kirghiz Steppes and Country of 
Turlcistan, afforded by the Boole of the Great Survey* Translated 
from the Russian by Captain W. E. Gowan, IT. M.’s Indian Army. 
The relations of our fatherland with the country of Turkistan are 
very ancient, for they date from a period prior to the formation of what 
is now the Russian Monarchy. The numerous hoards of Asiatic coins, 
relating to times between the 7th and the beginning of the 11th century 
(not later than the year 1012), that have been found in Northern Russia, 
in the tract of country stretching from the province of Kazan, (in which 
dwelt the Bulgarians of the Volga,) to the Baltic Sea and along the shores 
of that sea, testify that, during this period, an active trade was carried on 
between Central Asia and Northern Europe through the country which is 
now called Russia. + Some have supposed that this trade altogether ceased 
in the beginning of the 11th century in consequence of the fall of the 
Khazai Empire, which possessed the low lands of the Volga ; a fall which 
followed the defeat of the Khazai Army by the Russian Grand Duke 
Sviatoslaf in the year 9G9. But in reality this trade did not entirely cease, 
it merely stood still and grew slack. For, at any rate, in the 12th and 
13tli centuries Khivan and Boukharian caravans made their way into Rus¬ 
sia. | To our trade relations with Central Asia there were added, from the 
* Taken from Part I of Vol. XIV, of “ Proceedings of the Imperial Russian 
Geographical Society.” 
t “ Russia and Asia” by V. V. Grigorieff, St. Petersburgh, 1876. See passages 
relating to the Cufic coins found in Russia and the countries bordering on the Baltic 
(1841). 
1 Bulletin du Congres international des Orientalistes—Session de 1876, a St. Poters- 
burgh, 1876. See pages 54, 55. 
