old great bulgaria - Disintegration and successor states
The events that unfolded following Kubrat's death are described by the Byzantine Partiarch Nicephorus I ⁴ . In the times of Emperor Constantine IV, he narrates, Kubrat died and Batbayan, the eldest of his five sons, was left in charge of the state. Under strong Khazar pressure, Kubrat's other sons disregarded their father's advice to stay together in order to resist the enemies and soon departed, taking their own tribes.

Kotrag, the leader of the Kutrigurs (or Kotrags) left for Middle Volga, where he later established Volga Bulgaria at the Volga-Kama confluence, a state which was to become very prosperous. The Volga Bulgars or the Silver Bulgars as they were called at the time, converted voluntary to Islam in the 9th century and managed to preserve their national identity well into the 13th century, by repelling the first Mongol attacks in 1223, thus becoming the only people to ever defeat Chingis khan. However, they were eventually subdued, their main city Bolghar became a capital of the Golden Horde Khanate and the Bulgars mixed with the Tatars. The citizens of the modern Russian republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of those Bulgars.

Kuber with another part of the Kutrigurs seceded firstly in Pannonia, seemingly recognising the authority of the Avar Khaganate and later, after a unsuccessful attemp to take hold of the Khaganate, resettled in Macedonia. There he had settle the region of Keremisia and made unsuccessful attempt to capture the city of Thessaloniki. Later his state had merged with Danubian Bulgaria (809).

Other Bulgars led by Altsek sought refuge from the Avars with the Lombards, near Ravenna and later moved further south, finally settling north-east of Naples and eventually mixing with the Italians.

BatBayan's people, the so called Black Bulgars, remained in their homeland and were soon subdued by the Khazars. Some believe that present days Balkars are the descendants of the Batbayan horde even though they call themselves Malkars (after the river Malka) and speak a Turkic language of the Kipchak type.

Asparuh, the successor to Kubrat, subsequently conquered Moesia and Dobrudja from the Byzantine Empire in 680 and formed the First Bulgarian Empire.

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