Bolokhovians

The Bolokhovians, Bolokhoveni or Bolokhovens (; Old Slavic: Болоховци, Bolokhovtsy) were a 13th-century ethnic group that resided in the vicinity of the principalities of Galicia, Volhynia and Kiev, in the territory known as the "" centered at the city of Bolokhov or Bolokhovo (not identified yet). Their ethnic identity is uncertain. Archeological evidence and the Hypatian Chronicle (which is the only primary source that documents their history) suggest that they were a Slavic people. Romanian scholars, basing on an interpretation of the ethnonym, identify them as Romanians (who were called Vlachs in the Middle Ages). Their princes, or knyazes, were in constant conflict with Daniel, the prince of Galicia–Volhynia, between 1231 and 1257. After the Mongols sacked Kiev in 1240, the Bolokhovians supplied them with troops, but the Bolokhovian princes fled to Poland. The Bolokhovians disappeared after Daniel defeated them in 1257.

== Etymology == The ethnonym seems to be connected to the place name "Bolokhovo" the Hypatian Codexa source on the history of Kievan Rus'mentioned around 1150. According to historian Victor Spinei, this town may have been the same town as Borokhov, which was recorded by the same chronicle in 1172. Alternatively, Spinei suggests, Bolokhovo may be the same town as Bolechow (now Bolekhiv, Ukraine), which was mentioned as the "town called 'the Vlachs in a Polish charter from 1472.