Rus' Khaganate
Similarly in the 11th century, a Tengriist Oghuz clan—referred to as Uzes or Torks in the chronicles of Rurikid Kievan Rus'—overthrew Pecheneg supremacy in the steppes of Rus' Khaganate. Harried by another Turkic people, the Kipchaks, these Oghuz penetrated as far as the lower Danube, crossed it and invaded the Balkans, where they were struck down by an outbreak of plague, causing the survivors either to flee or to join the Byzantine imperial forces as mercenaries (1065).