The history of the Huns is very interesting. For the Slavic people, it is interesting because there is a high probability that the Huns are. There are a number of historical documents and ancient writings that reliably confirm that the Huns and Slavs are one people.
It is very important to conduct constant research into our origins, since according to existing history, our distant ancestors, before the arrival of Rurik, were a weak and uneducated nation that had no culture and traditions. According to some scholars, things were even worse, since the disunity of the ancients prevented independent management of their lands. That’s why the Varangian Rurik was called, who founded a new dynasty of rulers of Rus'.
For the first time, a major study of Hunnic culture was carried out by the French historian Deguinier. Ono found similarities between the words “Huns” and “Syunni”. The Huns were one of the largest peoples who lived on the territory of modern China. But there is another theory, according to which the Huns were the ancestors of the Slavs.
According to the first theory, the Huns are a mixture of two peoples, one of which is the Ugrians, and the second is the Huns. The first lived in the territory of the lower Volga and Urals. The Huns were a powerful nomadic people.
Relations of the Huns with China
Representatives of this tribe for many centuries pursued a policy of conquest towards China and had a fairly active lifestyle. They carried out unexpected raids on the provinces of the country and took away everything they needed for life. They set fire to homes and made slaves of local villagers. As a result of these raids, the lands were in decline, and the smell of burning and raised ashes hung over the ground for a long time.
It was believed that the Huns, and somewhat later the Huns, are those who do not know anything about pity and compassion. The conquerors quickly left the plundered settlements on their short and hardy horses. In one day they could cover more than a hundred miles, while engaging in battle. And even the Great Wall of China was not a serious obstacle for the Huns - they easily bypassed it and carried out their raids on the lands of the Celestial Empire.
Over time, they weakened and collapsed, as a result of which 4 branches were formed. Their more active oppression by other, stronger peoples was observed. In order to survive, the northern Huns headed west in the mid-2nd century. The Huns appeared on the territory of Kazakhstan for the second time in the 1st century AD.
Unification of the Huns and Ugrians
Then, once a strong and huge tribe, the Ugrians and Alans met on their way. Their relationship with the latter did not work out. But the Ugrians gave shelter to wanderers. In the middle of the 4th century, the state of the Huns arose. The priority position in it belonged to the culture of the Ugrians, while military affairs were largely adopted from the Huns.
In those days, the Alans and Parthians practiced the so-called Sarmatian battle tactics. The spear was attached to the body of the animal, so the poet put all the strength and power of a galloping horse into the blow. This was a very effective tactic that almost no one could resist.
The Huns are tribes that came up with completely opposite tactics, less effective in comparison with the Sarmatian ones. The Huns focused more on exhausting the enemy. The manner of fighting was the absence of any active attacks or attacks. But at the same time, they did not leave the battlefield. Their warriors were equipped with light weapons and were located at a considerable distance from their opponents. At the same time, they fired at the enemies with bows and with the help of lassos they threw the horsemen to the ground. In this way they exhausted the enemy, deprived him of his strength, and then killed him.
Beginning of the Great Migration
As a result, the Huns conquered the Alans. Thus, a powerful alliance of tribes was formed. But the Huns did not have a dominant position in it. Around the seventies of the 4th century, the Huns migrated across the Don. This incident marked the beginning of a new period of history, which in our time is called Many people at that time left their homes, mixed with other peoples and formed completely new nations and states. Many historians are inclined to think that the Huns are the ones who were supposed to make significant changes in world geography and ethnography.
The next victims of the Huns were the Visigoths, who settled in the lower reaches of the Dniester. They were also defeated, and they were forced to flee to the Danube and turn to Emperor Valentine for help.
The Ostrogoths offered worthy resistance to the Huns. But they were awaited by the merciless reprisal of the Hun king Balamber. Following all these events, peace came to the Black Sea steppe.
Prerequisites for the great conquests of the Huns
The peace lasted until 430. This period is also known for the arrival on the historical stage of such a person as Attila. It is directly associated with the great conquests of the Huns, which had many other prerequisites:
- the end of a century-long drought;
- a sharp increase in humidity in the steppe regions;
- expansion of the forest and forest-steppe zones and narrowing of the steppe;
- a significant narrowing of the living area of the steppe peoples who led a nomadic lifestyle.
But somehow it was necessary to survive. And compensation for all these costs could only be expected from the rich and satisfying Roman Empire. But in the 5th century, it was no longer such a powerful power as two hundred years ago, and the Hunnic tribes, under the control of their leader Rugila, easily reached the Rhine and even tried to establish diplomatic relations with the Roman state.
History speaks of Rugilus as a very intelligent and far-sighted politician who died in 434. After his death, two sons of Mundzuk, the ruler’s brother, Attila and Bleda, became candidates for the throne.
Period of the rise of the Huns
This was the beginning of a twenty-year period, which was characterized by the unprecedented rise of the Hunnic people. The policy of subtle diplomacy was not suitable for the young leaders. They wanted absolute power, which could only be obtained by force. Under the leadership of these leaders, many tribes united, which included:
- Ostrogoths;
- tracks;
- Heruli;
- gepids;
- Bulgars;
- Akatsir;
- Turklings.
Under the Hunnic banners there were also Roman and Greek warriors who had a rather negative attitude towards the power of the Western Roman Empire, considering it selfish and rotten.
What was Attila like?
Attila's appearance was not heroic. He had narrow shoulders and short stature. Since as a child the boy spent a lot of time riding horses, he had crooked legs. The head was so large that it could barely be supported by the small neck - it kept swinging on it like a pendulum.
His thin face was enhanced rather than marred by deep-set eyes, a pointed chin, and a wedge-shaped beard. Atilla, the leader of the Huns, was a fairly intelligent and determined man. He knew how to control himself and achieve his goals.
In addition, he was a very loving man, having a large number of concubines and wives.
He valued gold more than anything in the world. Therefore, the conquered peoples were forced to pay tribute to him exclusively with this metal. The same applied to conquered cities. For the Huns, precious stones were ordinary, worthless pieces of glass. And a completely opposite attitude was observed towards gold: this weighty precious metal had a noble shine and symbolized immortal power and wealth.
Murder of brother and seizure of power
The invasion of the Huns on the Balkan Peninsula was carried out under the command of a formidable leader with his brother Bleda. Together they approached the walls of Constantinople. During that campaign, more than seven dozen cities were burned, thanks to which the barbarians became fabulously rich. This raised the authority of the leaders to unprecedented heights. But the leader of the Huns wanted absolute power. Therefore, in 445 he killed Bleda. From that time on, the period of his sole rule began.
In 447, a treaty was concluded between the Huns and Theodosius II, which was very humiliating for the Byzantine Empire. According to it, the ruler of the empire had to pay tribute every year and cede the southern bank of the Danube to Singidun.
After Emperor Marcian came to power in 450, this agreement was terminated. But Attila did not get involved in the fight with him, because it could be protracted and take place in those territories that the barbarians had already plundered.
March to Gaul
Attila, the leader of the Huns, decided to make a campaign in Gaul. At that time, the Western Roman Empire was already almost completely morally decomposed, and therefore was a tasty prey. But here all events began to develop not according to the plan of the smart and cunning leader.
The commander was the talented commander Flavius Aetius, the son of a German and a Roman. Before his eyes, his father was killed by rebel legionnaires. The commander had a strong and strong-willed character. Moreover, in the distant times of exile, he and Attila were friends.
The expansion was prompted by Princess Honoria's betrothal request. Allies appeared, among whom was King Genseric and some Frankish princes.
During the campaign in Gaul, the kingdom of the Burgundians was defeated and razed to the ground. The Huns then reached Orleans. But they were not destined to take it. In 451, a battle took place on the Catalaunian Plain between the Huns and the army of Aetius. It ended with the retreat of Attila.
In 452, the war resumed with the invasion of the barbarians into Italy and the capture of the strongest fortress of Aquileia. The entire valley was plundered. Due to insufficient numbers of troops, Aetius was defeated and offered the invaders a large ransom for leaving Italian territory. The trip ended successfully.
Slavic question
After Atilla turned fifty-eight years old, his health seriously deteriorated. In addition, the doctors were unable to cure their ruler. And it was no longer as easy for him to deal with the people as before. Constantly breaking out uprisings were suppressed quite brutally.
The elder's son Ellak, together with a huge army, was sent on reconnaissance towards the Slavic territories. The ruler was looking forward to his return with great impatience, since it was planned to carry out a campaign and conquer the territory of the Slavs.
After the return of his son and his story about the vastness and wealth of these lands, the leader of the Huns made a rather unusual decision for him, offering friendship and protection to the Slavic princes. He planned the creation of their unified state in the Hunnic Empire. But the Slavs refused, since they valued their freedom very much. After this, Attila decides to marry one of the daughters of the prince of the Slavs and thus close the issue of owning the lands of the rebellious people. Since the father was against such a marriage for his daughter, he was executed.
Marriage and death
The wedding, like the leader’s lifestyle, was on an ordinary scale. At night, Attila and his wife retired to their chambers. But the next day he didn’t come out. The warriors were concerned about his long absence and knocked down the doors of the chambers. There they saw their ruler dead. The cause of death of the warlike Hun is unknown.
Modern historians suggest that Atilla suffered from hypertension. And the presence of a young, temperamental beauty, excessive amounts of alcohol and high blood pressure became the explosive mixture that provoked death.
There is quite a lot of conflicting information about the burial of the great warrior. The history of the Huns says that the burial place of Attila is the bed of a large river, which was temporarily blocked by a dam. In addition to the ruler’s body, a lot of expensive jewelry and weapons were placed in the coffin, and the body was covered with gold. After the funeral, the river bed was restored. All participants in the funeral procession were killed in order to avoid the disclosure of any information about the burial place of the great Atilla. His grave has not yet been found.
End of the Huns
After the death of Attila, a time of decline began in the Hunnic state, since everything was based solely on the will and mind of its deceased leader. A similar situation was with Alexander the Great, after whose death his empire completely collapsed. Those state formations that exist thanks to robberies and robberies, and also do not have any other economic ties, instantly collapse immediately after the destruction of just one connecting link.
The year 454 is known for the separation of motley tribes. This meant that the Hunnic tribes could no longer threaten the Romans or Greeks. This may have been the main reason for the death of the general Flavius Aetius, who was mercilessly stabbed to death by the sword of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian during a personal audience. They say that the emperor cut off his right hand with his left.
The result of such an act was not long in coming, since Aetius was practically the main fighter against the barbarians. All the patriots remaining in the empire rallied around him. Therefore, his death was the beginning of the collapse. In 455, Rome was captured and sacked by the Vandal king Genseric and his army. In the future, Italy as a country did not exist. It was more like fragments of the state.
For more than 1500 years there has been no formidable leader Atilla, but his name is known to many modern Europeans. He is called the “scourge of God,” which was sent to people because they did not believe in Christ. But we all understand that this is far from the case. The king of the Huns was a very ordinary man who really wanted to rule over a huge number of other people.
His death is the beginning of the decline of the Hunnic people. At the end of the 5th century, the tribe was forced to cross the Danube and ask for citizenship from Byzantium. They were allocated land, the “territory of the Huns,” and this is where the story of this nomadic tribe ends. A new historical stage was beginning.
Neither of the two theories of the origin of the Huns can be completely refuted. But we can say for sure that this tribe had a strong influence on world history.
The Huns thus became neighbors of the eastern Roman Empire. The Romans hastened to enter into friendly relations with them and used their help against other barbarians and in internal strife. The Romans and Greeks thus had the opportunity to become well acquainted with these barbarians, and therefore the information reported about the Huns by Roman and Greek writers is especially valuable. Ammianus Marcellinus reports more about the Huns than others. “When male children are born to them,” he writes, “they cut their cheeks to destroy every hair germ. Therefore, all Huns grow up and grow old beardless, disgusting and ugly in appearance, like eunuchs. However, they all have a stocky figure, strong limbs, a thick neck, and a huge head; the back is so stooped that it gives the structure of their body something supernatural. I would rather say that these are two-legged animals, and not people, or stone pillars, roughly hewn in the image of a person, which are displayed on bridges. This disgusting appearance corresponds to their habits, characteristic of cattle: they eat food uncooked and unseasoned; instead of ordinary food supplies, they are content with wild roots and the meat of the first animal they come across, which they put under their seat on the horse and soften it that way. They have no houses, not even reed huts, and no roof covers them. They live roaming among forests and mountains, hardened by cold and hunger. They wear clothing like a tunic made of linen or fur and, once they have put their head through it, they do not let it fall from their shoulders until it falls off in rags. They cover their heads with fur hats with edges and wrap their hairy legs in goatskin. Such shoes, of course, make walking difficult, which makes them generally unable to fight on their feet on foot. But on their horses, awkward but strong, they seem to be chained; they correct all sorts of matters on their backs, sometimes sitting like women. Day and night they live on a horse, they sell and buy on it; They sleep like that, lying down only on the lean neck of their horse, and dream there calmly. On horses they discuss all their affairs together. They do not know the royal power, but they obey the elected leaders.” Having talked about the swiftness of their attack, the accuracy of their shooting and the dexterity in throwing lassos, Ammianus Marcellinus continues: “The Huns do not engage in arable farming and none of them touches the plow. All of them, without shelter, without a homeland, without any habit of a sedentary life, wander in space, as if everyone were running further, carrying their carts behind them, where their wives work for them, give birth to and raise their children. .. Fickle and treacherous in contracts, the Huns immediately change their course of action as soon as they sense where the profit is: they understand no more than animals what is fair and what is dishonest. The conversation itself is ambiguous and mysterious. No religion binds them in any way. They believe in nothing and worship only gold. Their morals are so fickle and quarrelsome that on the same day they quarrel and make peace without any reason.”
I.
The Huns are usually seen as the Turkic people Xiongnu or Huing-nu, mentioned in Chinese chronicles several centuries BC. Under the onslaught of the Han Empire, the Huns allegedly gradually migrated from Inner Asia to the west, incorporating conquered peoples - Ugrians, Mongols, Turkic and Iranian tribes - into their horde. Around 370 they crossed the Volga, defeated the Alans and then attacked the Ostrogoths.
This point of view is held mainly by scientists of the “Eurasian” school to illustrate their conceptual constructions. However, written sources and archeology say that the historical destinies of the Sunnu ended at the beginning of our era. e. somewhere in Central Asia. The entire first century AD. e. - this is an era of continuous decline of the once powerful tribal association. Hunger, lack of food and internal strife led to the fact that in the middle of the 1st century. The Xiongnu power, covering Southern Siberia, Mongolian Altai and Manchuria, collapsed. Part of the Xiongnu migrated to the west, to a certain country “Kangju” (presumably on the territory of Kyrgyzstan). Here, one of their detachments of 3,000 soldiers, led by the Shanyu Zhi-Zhi, was defeated by the Chinese and completely destroyed (1,518 people were killed and over 1,200 were captured). Other Xiongnu hordes migrated to the area during the 1st century. were subordinated to the Xianbi tribal union. It is characteristic that the sources do not report anything about the further advance of the Huns to the west. Only their leaders, the Chanui, flee “to no one knows where,” while the bulk of the tribe remains in place. Thus, the largest horde of the Xiongnu, numbering 100,000 tents, after its defeat in 91 “took the name Xianbi,” that is, joined this tribal association. No archaeological sites of the Xiongnu have been found west of Central Asia. Thus, the kinship of the Huns and the Xiongnu/Hyung-nu is based by Eurasians solely on some similarity in their names. Therefore, those researchers are right who believe that “their identification (with the Hyung-nu people. - S. Ts.), uncritically accepted by many scientists... is actually not justified and contradicts the data of linguistics, anthropology and archeology...” [Code of the most ancient written news about the Slavs. Compiled by: L. A. Gindin, S. A. Ivanov, G. G. Litavrin. In 2 vols. M., 1994. T. I, 87-88].
The question of the ethnic and linguistic affiliation of the Huns remains controversial to this day. I am of the opinion that the European Huns of the 4th-5th centuries. should be identified with the Xiongnu tribe, which was already mentioned in the middle of the 2nd century. wrote Ptolemy, placing it in the territory “between the Bastarnae and Roxolani,” that is, significantly west of the Don, probably somewhere between the Dniester and the Middle Dnieper. Apparently, these Huns belonged to the Finno-Ugric language family. In the languages of some Ural peoples, the word “gun” or “hun” means “husband”, “man” [Kuzmin A.G. Odoacer and Theodoric. In the book: Pages of the past. M., 1991, p. 525]. But the Xiongnu horde was, of course, heterogeneous in its ethnic composition. Most likely by the middle of the 4th century. The Huns subjugated the Ugric and Bulgar tribes of the Don and Volga regions. This tribal association received the name “Huns” in Europe.
Invasion of the Huns Northern Black Sea region and Crimea was like a falling stone that caused a mountain avalanche. The Huns' military advantage was ensured by their tactics. At the beginning of the battle, avoiding hand-to-hand combat, they circled around the enemy and showered him with arrows until the enemy battle formations were in complete confusion - and then the Huns completed the rout with a decisive blow from the mounted masses gathered into a fist; in hand-to-hand combat they wielded swords, “without any thought for themselves,” as Ammianus Marcellinus notes. Their swift invasion took not only the Romans by surprise, but also the tribes Northern Black Sea region. In this regard, contemporaries unanimously write about a “sudden onslaught”, a “sudden storm” and liken the Hun invasion to a “snow hurricane in the mountains”.
In 371, the Huns broke into the possessions of the Gothic king Ermanaric. A number of early medieval authors, including Jordan and Procopius of Caesarea, cite in this regard a funny incident that helped the Huns penetrate into Crimea. One day, the Hun youth were hunting deer on the shores of Maeotida (Sea of Azov) and pressed one female to the water itself. Suddenly she rushed into the water and forded the sea, dragging the hunters with her. On the other side, that is, already in the Crimea, she disappeared, but the Huns were not upset: after all, now they learned something that they had not suspected before, namely, that you can get to the Crimea, to the Ostrogoths, bypassing the well-guarded Perekop Isthmus. Returning to their relatives, the hunters reported their discovery, and the Huns as a whole horde invaded Taurida along the path shown to them by the animals. The story of the deer, unless it is, of course, a legend, could only have happened in one place - in the Sivash Bay, through which the Arabat Spit stretches from north to south - a narrow and long spit, in the north very close to the seashore. This once again confirms that the Ostrogoths attacked the Huns of Ptolemy, and not the Huns who came from beyond the Volga, who in this case should have appeared in the Crimea from the direction of Taman.
The Kingdom of the Ostrogoths was turned into a pile of ruins by the Huns, the population was subjected to massacres, and the elderly Ermanaric himself committed suicide in despair. Most of the Ostrogoths retreated west, to the Dniester; those who remained recognized the power of the Huns, and only a small part of the Ostrogoths, fortified on the Kerch Peninsula, managed to maintain their independence (their descendants were known as the Trapezite Goths * even in the 16th century).
* In ancient times, Mount Chatyrdag in southern Crimea was called Trebizond; Jordan also knows the Crimean city of Trebizond, destroyed by the Huns.
It is here, in Attila’s steppe camp, that we hear the first Slavic word that has flown to us from the abyss of time. And it means - oh, Rus', it’s you! - intoxicating drink. Priscus, one of the participants in the Byzantine embassy of 448 to Attila, says that on the way to the Huns’ camp the embassy stopped to rest in “villages”, the inhabitants of which gave the ambassadors a drink instead of wine, called in the native language “medos”, that is, Slavic honey . Unfortunately, Priscus says nothing about the ethnicity of the hospitable and hospitable inhabitants of the “villages,” but this passage from his work can be compared with the later news of Procopius of Caesarea that Roman troops crossed the Danube to set fire to Slavic villages and ravage their fields . Therefore, the ethnicity of their Transdanubian neighbors was not a secret to the Byzantines.
Another Slavic word was brought to us by Jordan. He says that after the death of Attila, his corpse was exposed in the middle of the steppe in a tent, and the horsemen, riding around him, organized something like a festivities, mourning him in funeral chants in which the deeds of the deceased were extolled. “After he was mourned with such sobs,” writes Jordan, “they arrange a great feast at the top of his mound, which they themselves call strava, and, combining alternately the opposite, they express funeral grief mixed with joy, and at night the corpse, secretly hidden in the ground, surrounded by covers - the first of gold, the second of silver, the third of strong iron... And in order for such riches to be preserved from human curiosity, they, rewarding with infamy, destroyed those intended for this deed, and instant death followed with the buried for those who buried."
Jordan is only partly right in attributing the murder of the organizers of Attila’s grave to the desire of the Huns to hide the burial place of their leader. More precisely, before us is the ancient custom of killing the leader’s servants to accompany him to the afterlife. For example, Menander, under 576, reports that on the day of the ruler’s burial Western Turkic Kaganate of Dizabul killed the horses of the deceased and four prisoners, who were sent to the afterlife to tell him about the funeral feast performed in his honor. As part of the funeral ritual for the nobility, this custom was also recorded among the Rus at the beginning of the 10th century.
Despite the fact that the description of Attila’s funeral has ethnographic parallels in the funeral rites of not only nomads, but also many peoples of antiquity in general, the term “strava” in the sense of “funeral feast, wake” is known only in Slavic languages. So, in Polish and Czech it means “food”. Perhaps the Huns borrowed it from the Slavs along with some features that enriched their own funeral rites [Code, I, p. 162-169].
Aware of the weakness of both parts of the divided Roman Empire, Attila behaved like a true ruler of the world. With a knife at his throat, he demanded that the Western and Eastern emperors fulfill all their demands and even their whims. One day he ordered the Byzantine emperor Theodosius to give him a rich heiress, whom one of his warriors had coveted: the frightened girl fled to death, but Theodosius, in order to prevent war, was forced to find a replacement for her. Another time, Attila demanded from the Western Roman emperor Valentinian the sacred vessels saved by the bishop of the city of Sirmium during the plunder of that city by the Huns. The emperor replied that such an act would be sacrilege on his part and, trying to satisfy the greed of the Hun leader, offered to pay double their cost. “My cups - or war!” - Attila answered. In the end, he wanted to receive a fabulous tribute from Theodosius, and from Valentinian his sister Honoria and half the empire as a dowry. Having been met with a refusal of his claims from both, and being, in addition, enraged by the attempt of one of the members of Priscus’s embassy to poison him, he decided to attack both of his enemies at once. Two Hun envoys appeared one day before Theodosius and Valentinian to tell them on behalf of their master: “Attila, my master and yours, orders you to prepare the palace, for he will come.”
Medieval images of Attila
And he really came in the terrible year 451. Shocked contemporaries claim that his arrival was heralded by comets, a lunar eclipse and bloody clouds, among which ghosts armed with flaming spears fought. People believed that the end of the world was coming. They saw Attila in the form of an apocalyptic beast: some chroniclers gave him the head of a donkey, others a pig's snout, others deprived him of the gift of speech and forced him to emit a dull roar. They can be understood: it was no longer an invasion, but a flood, Germany and Gaul disappeared in a whirlpool of human masses, horse and foot. "Who are you? - St. Loup shouts to Attila from the heights of the walls of Troyes. “Who are you, who scatters nations like chaff and breaks crowns with the hoof of your horse?” - “I am Attila, the Scourge of God!” - sounds in response. “Oh,” the bishop answers, “blessed be your coming, Scourge of the God I serve, and it is not I who will stop you.”
In addition to the Huns, Attila brought with him the Bulgars, Alans, Ostrogoths, Gepids, Heruls, part of the Frankish, Burgundian and Thuringian tribes; modern sources are silent about the Slavs, but there is no doubt that they were present as auxiliary units in this multi-tribal horde. According to Jordan, the Huns held power over the entire barbarian world.
Aetius
And yet this time the Hesperia survived. The commander Aetius, the last of the great Romans, opposed the Hunnic horde with a coalition of Germanic tribes - the dying civilization had to be defended by barbarians. The famous Battle of the Nations took place in June 451 on the vast Catalaunian fields in Gaul, near modern Troyes (150 km east of Paris). Its description by contemporaries is reminiscent of Ragnarok - the last grandiose massacre of the gods in German mythology: 165 thousand killed, streams swollen with blood, Attila, mad with rage, circling around a giant fire of saddles, into which he intended to throw himself if the enemy broke into the Hunnic camp. .. The opponents failed to break each other, but a few days later Attila, without resuming the battle, led the horde back to Pannonia. The sun of ancient civilization slowed down its bloody decline.
Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. Medieval miniature
The following year Attila devastated Northern Italy and, burdened with booty, returned again to the Danube steppes. He was preparing to strike at Byzantium, but in 453 he suddenly died, the day after his wedding with the German beauty Ildiko, whom rumor accused of poisoning the “Scourge of God” and the “orphan of Europe.” However, Ildiko was hardly a new Judith. Most likely, as Jordan testifies, Attila died in his sleep from suffocation caused by his frequent nosebleeds. After his death, the Hunnic Empire quickly disintegrated. Soon, having been defeated by the Goths on the Nedao River, the Huns left Pannonia back to the southern Dnieper region and to the lower reaches of the Dniester and the middle reaches of the Dnieper.
The Xiongnu tribes, or Huns, have been known to the Chinese since BC. Their warlike nomadic alliance took shape somewhere on the northern borders of China back in the 5th - 3rd centuries. BC At that time, the population of what is now Western Mongolia and Northwestern China spoke mainly Indo-European languages (Iranian, Tocharian, etc.). Indo-Europeans lived in the west within what is now Kazakhstan. To the north of them lived the Ugric peoples, from whom only the Hungarians and small West Siberian ethnic groups - the Khanty and Mansi - have survived today. Previously, their relatives lived in both the Southern Urals and Southern Siberia.
The Xiongnu, or Huns, fought the Chinese for a long time with varying degrees of success. The latter often accompanied the nomads due to the fact that almost the entire male population were potential warriors, and the light cavalry made it possible to maneuver and defeat the Chinese infantry. At the same time, long-term contacts with the Chinese were not limited to wars, but between the nomads and the settled population there was a mutually beneficial exchange of goods and skills, including military ones. Because of this, the Huns have long learned a lot from the Chinese, who at that time were one of the most civilized peoples on earth.
The question of the ethnicity of the Huns is still unclear. Most likely, among them were proto-Turks, more precisely, the common ancestors of the Turks and Mongols at that time, as well as Manchu tribes.
In the II century. BC The Huns suffered serious defeats in clashes with the Chinese and, under their pressure, rushed to the west, fighting and defeating neighboring peoples, among whom the main ones were the so-called Yuedzhi - related to the Saka-Scythians. The Yueji, in turn, had to retreat to the west, to the borders of Central Asia and present-day Kazakhstan. During such a struggle, the Huns somewhere around the 2nd century. AD went to the Volga, where some ancient authors recorded them for that time. On the long journey from Mongolia to the Volga, the Huns carried away with them a lot of other tribes, primarily Ugric and Iranian. So the nomads who came to the threshold of Europe were no longer a homogeneous ethnic mass.
On the banks of the Volga, the Huns were forced to linger for almost two centuries, because they encountered powerful resistance from the Alans, who then lived between the Volga and Don. The Alan tribal union was a strong political union. The Alans, like the Huns, were nomads, and it is no coincidence that the authors of the 4th century, describing the Huns and Alans as tribes completely different in racial type, emphasize their almost identical nomadic life. Both of them had cavalry as their main force, and among the Alans part of it was heavily armed, where even the horses had armor. The Alans rushed into battle shouting “marga” (death) and became worthy opponents for the eastern nomads, nurtured in centuries of battles with the Chinese.
However, in the 70s of the 4th century. the outcome of the two-century rivalry was decided in favor of the Huns: they defeated the Alans and, crossing the Volga and then the Don, rushed to the settlement "". Written sources write about the defeat of the Goths in the war with the Huns, noting that the very appearance of the Huns, unusual for Europeans, terrified the Goths and their allies.
A major role in the victory was played by the superiority of the Hun cavalry, which, after the defeat of the Alans, attacked the peaceful settlements of the Chernyakhovites, where the Goths were politically dominant. Before this, the country of the Alans was subjected to a terrible pogrom. Some of the Alans were pushed back to the regions of Ciscaucasia, others had to submit to the conquerors and then go on a campaign to the west with them. Finally, a considerable part of the vanquished, along with the defeated Goths, also rushed to the west. In the V - VI centuries. we meet Alans in both Spain and North Africa. A similar fate befell the Goths. The so-called Visigoths went first to the Balkans, within the Roman Empire, and then further to the west (first to Gaul and then to Spain). Another part of them, the so-called Ostrogoths, initially submitted to the Huns and fought with them in Europe, including against their fellow tribesmen. Finally, a small part of the Goths remained in the mountainous Crimea and Taman, where their descendants were somehow still known until the 16th century.
Archaeological data show pictures of the terrible defeat of the country of the Chernyakhovites. A very promising early civilization was destroyed, the carriers of which were forced to hide in the forest-steppe zone, leaving the steppe at the disposal of newcomer nomads. The Huns did not remain in our southern steppes, and went further to the west, making Pannonia (present-day Hungary) the central region of their “empire”. This historical region has long been a refuge for many tribes and peoples. In the IV - V centuries. Slavs lived there, some of the descendants of the Sarmatians, probably Celts, Germans and other tribes. The Huns constituted only the dominant stratum there. Scientists believe that the ethnic type of the Huns and their language changed during the period of their migrations from Mongolia to Europe. The Huns themselves came under the civilizational influences of the local sedentary population. The famous Attila already had palaces and other attributes of a settled life. It has been proven that the name Attila is translated from the Gothic language and means “father”. When Attila set out on a campaign against the Roman Empire, his horde included Goths, Alans, and many other tribes. Attila's attempt to conquer Western Europe ended with the Battle of the Cataluan Fields (northern France, Champagne) in 451, where equally multinational Roman armies led by Aetius blocked the path of Attila's hordes. They returned to Pannonia, the Hun ruler Attila died (453).
Attila's heirs quarreled with each other. The conquered peoples took advantage of their infighting and forced the bulk of the Huns to go east to the Black Sea steppes.
Only in the central Caucasus did a powerful mass of the Alan (Iranian) ethnic group survive, which left after the Hun pogrom and recreated its political unification - the Alan Union.
In the western Ciscaucasia in the 6th century. The Bulgars took a dominant position. After the collapse of the Turkic Kaganate, it was the Bulgar Union that began to play a major role in the North Caucasus, and the weakness of the Bulgars’ habitat received the name Great Bulgaria. It occupied approximately the territory of the present Krasnodar Territory, north of the Kuban River. Perhaps part of the Circassians who lived on the left bank of this river also obeyed the Bulgars.
The Bulgars competed with the Western Turks, although this rivalry was relatively modest. Most likely, the Bulgars sought to establish their dominance to the west, in the steppes of present-day Ukraine to the Danube, which they did in the first half of the 7th century. succeeded after the death of the Anta Union. At the same time, throughout the 6th - early 7th centuries. Various hordes of mixed origin periodically walked through these steppes to the west, most often called Avars (Obras according to Slavic sources).
The ethnicity of the Avars is also unclear. Most likely, it was some kind of Ugric horde breaking through to the west through the hostile Turkic environment dominating the Turkic Khaganate. In the west, in Pannonia, the Avar Khaganate arose, whose rulers, together with the Bulgars, became allies of Iran during the Iranian-Byzantine wars of the first third of the 7th century. In 626, the famous siege of Constantinople by the Avars took place, in which the Slavs also participated as the latter’s allies.
UPD (10/09/2018) The photo shows exhibits of the exhibition “Nomads of the Arkaim Steppes” from the funds of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University (website “Real Time” https://realnoevremya.ru/galleries/941)
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The Huns are an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded Eastern Europe in late antiquity (370s).
The Huns were Asians by origin, and their language, according to most scientists, belonged to the Turkic group.
Also, most researchers recognized that the Huns were descendants of the Central Asian Xiongnu, known from their wars with the Chinese Empire.
Huns in Europe
The invasion of the Huns radically changed the history of European civilization. It was the beginning of the so-called Great Migration - a process in which “barbarian” European tribes, primarily the Germans, settled in different places of the continent and invaded the Roman Empire.
As a result, the once integral empire was divided into several geographical parts, separated by barbarian settlements, which in some cases formed their own states.
On the other hand, many Germanic tribes wanted to become Roman citizens, so the government allowed them to settle in the outlying areas of the empire, in exchange for which they pledged to protect the borders from other barbarian tribes.
Nevertheless, the Huns managed to subjugate a number of European peoples, who with great difficulty were able to free themselves from their rule. More precisely, the state of the Huns weakened and collapsed after the death of Attila, the most powerful and famous Hun ruler, and this allowed the Germans to gain freedom.
The Alans and Germanic tribes were the first to suffer from the onslaught of the Huns:
- Ostrogoths;
- Burgundy;
- Heruli.
Asian nomads organized real “races of peoples for survival.” The final result of this process, in particular, was the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the consolidation of the Slavs and Germans throughout Europe.
Origin of the Huns
While most scholars recognize the Huns as an ancient Turkic tribe, some researchers tend to connect them with the Mongol and Manchu peoples. Linguistic data testify to the Turkic origin of the Huns, but the material culture is too different from the traditional Turkic one.
For example, all ancient Turks were characterized by round housing “ib”, which later became the prototype of the yurt; The Huns lived in dugouts with an L-shaped bed.
Rulers
The first known Hunnic ruler is Balamber. It was he who subdued the Ostrogoths in the 4th century and forced the Visigoths to retreat to Thrace. The same king devastated Syria and Cappadocia (at that time Roman provinces), and then settled in Pannonia (the territory of present-day Hungary) and Austria. Information about Balamber is legendary.
The next famous ruler is Rugila. Under him, the Huns concluded a truce with the Eastern Roman Empire, but Rugila threatened to break it if Emperor Theodosius II did not hand over to him the fugitives pursued by the Huns. Rugila did not have time to put his threat into action because he died in time.
After him, his nephews Bleda and Attila began to rule the nomads. The first died in 445 for an unknown reason during a hunt, and from that moment Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns. This ruler, in the words of one Roman author, was “born to shake the world.”
For the imperial authorities, Attila was a real “scourge of God”; his image was used to intimidate the masses who inhabited the remote provinces of both Roman empires (Eastern and Western) and were thinking about winning independence.
In the 6th – 8th centuries, a certain “kingdom of the Huns (Savir)” existed on the territory of Dagestan. Its capital was the city of Varachan, but most of the inhabitants of the state continued to maintain a nomadic way of life. The ruler of the state bore the Turkic title Elteber. In the 7th century, the next ruler of Alp-Ilitver, having received an embassy from Christian Caucasian Albania, himself deigned to convert to Christianity.
After the 8th century, there is no reliable information about the fate of the Dagestan “kingdom of the Huns”.
Lifestyle
The Huns were absolute nomads. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus reports that they never built any buildings for themselves and even in conquered cities they tried not to enter houses; According to their beliefs, it was unsafe to sleep indoors. They spent most of the day on horses, often even spending the night on them.
However, the Roman ambassador to the Huns, Priscus, wrote that Attila and some of his military leaders had huge and richly decorated palaces. The Huns practiced polygamy. The basis of their social system was a large patriarchal family.
It is reported that the Huns were well acquainted with cooking, but their nomadic life taught them to be unpretentious in food. Apparently, the Huns knew how to cook food, but refused to do so due to lack of time.
Religion
The Huns were pagans. They recognized the common Turkic Tengri as the supreme god. The Huns had amulets with images of fantastic animals (primarily dragons), and had temples and silver idols. According to Movses Kalankatvatsi (Armenian historian of the 7th century), the Huns deified the sun, moon, fire and water, worshiped the “gods of the roads,” as well as sacred trees.
They sacrificed horses to trees and gods; however, the Huns did not practice human sacrifice, unlike their supposed Xiongnu ancestors. Perception of the Huns The Huns inspired real horror in the European population, even the “barbarian” ones. Because of their Mongoloid characteristics, they seemed to the noble Romans not like people, but like some kind of monsters, tightly attached to their ugly horses.
The Germanic tribes were outraged by the onslaught of the nomadic Huns, who were not even familiar with agriculture and flaunted their savagery and lack of education.
