Rus, Bulgaria and Polovtsians steppe (on the role of conjugal unions at the conclusion of political treaties during the early Middle Ages)

The article deals with the important but poorly developed in the Russian historiography problem of the methods which Rus used when made treaties with her eastern neighbors, first of all, with Polovtsians and Volga Bulgars. It is shown that the most important method was a confirmation of friendly agreements by contracting marriages between elites of the parties. It is underlined that the marriage union was an integral component of rules of law of the early Middle Ages. The version is proved that the term "brak" (marriage) itself is borrowed from the Turkic language and that originally it meant a princely marriage to a Kipchak woman only.