History of the western steppe
The line between forest and steppe began near the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea and ran northeast toward Kazan and then turned south along the western side of the Ural Mountains.
Between the north end of the Caspian to the Urals is open grassland that connects the area to the central steppe.
The Sea of Azov projects northeast, turning the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe into a kind of peninsula.
The Crimean peninsula extends into the Black Sea and was a link from the steppe to the Byzantine and Turkish empires.
In the far west, the Hungarian plain is an island of grassland separated from the main steppe by the mountains of Transylvania.
Steppe history must be reconstructed from scattered reports from neighboring literate societies, with some help from archeology.
The numerous peoples mentioned were usually some clan or tribe that gained control over its neighbors and became politically significant.
Those north of Crimea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan who in turn was a vassal or ally of the Ottoman Empire.
From around 1525 Russia began expanding south, filling the area with tax-paying peasants, until it annexed Crimea in 1783.
South-flowing rivers are the Dnieper, Don and Volga.
The marking includes a good bit of forest-steppe.
In the far west note the Carpathian Mountains separating the Hungarian plain from the main steppe.
650 AD before the Khazars overthrew the Bulgars. Most sources do not extend the Bulgars this far west
