The Huns are a people leading a nomadic lifestyle and descended from the nomadic tribes of Central Asia (Mongolia, Northern China). In the second half of the fourth century, the tribes of the Huns became the catalyst for the great migration of peoples.

History: rise and fall

For the first time the tribes of the Huns are mentioned in Chinese sources of the third century BC. The Huns are also the first nomadic people to create a vast empire, which was divided at the beginning of the first century. Constant wars with China and a crushing defeat forced the Huns to move west.
European sources first spoke about the Huns in the second century AD, when they appeared off the coast of the Caspian Sea. But the heyday of the invasion of the Huns falls on the fourth century AD. At the end of the fourth century, the Hun tribes conquer the Alans (nomadic tribes in the North Caucasus). The next under the blow of the Huns was the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, led by Harmanaric. The Ostrogoths failed to resist the onslaught, and the kingdom fell, Germanaric himself committed suicide, unable to save his kingdom.
Having learned about the threat of the Huns, the Visigoth tribes were forced to retreat to Thrace. At the very end of the fourth century, the Huns devastated one of the Roman provinces in Syria and Cappadocia (Turkey). Then the main horde of the Huns stopped in the territory of Panonia (modern Croatia, Hungary). At the beginning of the fifth century, the Huns formed an alliance with the Western Roman Empire and helped in the war against the Germanic tribes. At the same time, the Hun tribes constantly raided the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire.
By the beginning of the fifth century, the Huns had already conquered a large number of tribes and imposed a considerable tribute on them, among them were: Sarmatians, Ostrogoths, Bulgars, Gepids and others. All of them were not only subject to tribute, but were also forced to participate on the side of the Huns in military campaigns.
In 422, the Huns attack the Eastern Roman Empire (Thrace), and Emperor Theodosius was forced to pay tribute to the Huns in exchange for peace. In 445, the legendary Attila became the leader of the Huns - a man who, at the head of the Huns, would shake the entire then known world.
In just two years, the hordes of the Huns captured and plundered about 60 cities in the Balkans. The threat of the Huns grew more and more, and by 450 they imposed tribute on the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
The turning point in the invasion of the Huns was the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451. The combined army of the Romans and the Visigoths was able to defeat the hordes of Attila. It was possible to stop the Huns only thanks to the talent of Flavius ​​Aetius. This Roman general is called the last of the Romans.
Flavius ​​Aetius - the great Roman commander, who, having small detachments at his disposal, repulsed barbarian attacks on the Western Roman Empire for several decades. Shortly after his assassination (by the emperor Valentenian), Rome was completely sacked, and twenty years later the empire was destroyed. Flavius ​​was the best general of those times, and it is not strange that it was he who managed to stop the Hun tribes.
Having lost Aetia, the Huns launched an invasion of Italy and plundered it, but were forced to retreat. Attila died in 453 and the Germanic tribes took advantage of his death, defeating them at the Battle of the Nedao River. The Huns were forced to retreat to the Black Sea steppes, further attempts to invade the empire failed.
Then the tribes of the Huns quickly dissolved among the nomadic tribes of the east, awakened by the great migration.

Religious beliefs of the Huns

All the Huns were pagans, and their main deity was Tengri-Khan (the god of thunder and plants). The Huns deified the Sun, fire, water, the Moon, revered the road. Sacred trees were greatly revered and horses were sacrificed to them. They did not have human sacrifices.
The Huns wore various amulets (made of gold, silver) in the form of animals. The Huns also had clergy: sorcerers, shamans, healers, sorcerers.
During the funeral, they organized tournaments, sword fights, archery, horse racing. Relatives of the dead, as a sign of grief, inflicted injuries on themselves with a dagger.

The lifestyle of the Huns and military affairs

The entire civilized world was afraid of the Hunnic tribes and considered them the embodiment of barbarism and fear. No tribe of barbarians inspired such fear in the hearts of the Romans as the Huns. These tribes never engaged in agriculture and led a nomadic way of life.
The Romans considered the Huns not even people, but real demons. Roman historians write about them as strongly built warriors, with powerful arms and legs, and their appearance was really terrible, and sometimes they could be mistaken for two-legged beasts.
Almost the entire life of the Huns took place in long campaigns, because of this they were not at all whimsical in food and they definitely should not be called culinary specialists. On campaigns, they did not even eat boiled food. Not on campaigns, food was cooked in large bronze cauldrons.
The Roman historian Priscus suggests interesting, but not confirmed by anyone else information. He says that the Huns built Big city from quality logs and boards. He also says that the Huns were a very courteous people and offered all their guests first wine and then honey. When a guest arrived, they immediately got up and filled his goblet.
The social organization of the Hunnic society was based on a large patriarchal family. Priscus says that they had polygamy. The famous European historian Engels says that in form political system, the empire of the Huns was a military democracy.
The warfare of the Huns deserves special attention, since all of them were extremely warlike and devoted their lives to military raids and campaigns. In battle, the Huns fought on horseback, they had infantry as such. Only Attila, besieging Roman cities, fought in on foot.
The main weapon of the Huns was a short compound bow, and with its help it was possible to shoot not only on foot, but also while riding a horse. Despite its small size, the Hunnic composite bow had a very high destructive power, and it was the last mistake of the Huns' enemies to underestimate it. Arrowheads were bronze, bone and iron.
For intimidation, the Huns attached balls with drilled holes to their arrows. When flying, such arrows emitted a strong specific whistle. Many ancient military men, commanders and historians called the Hunnic compound bow one of the most perfect species weapons of this period.
The first Roman general to use this compound bow was the famous Flavius ​​Aetius. This new type of weapon helped him for a long time to repel the attacks of the barbarian tribes for several decades, and then he defeated the Huns led by Attila.
Based on the above, we can conclude that the Huns are a very warlike nomadic tribe that came from Central Asia. They became the catalyst for the great migration of peoples. From the fourth century AD, they began to pose a serious threat to the Roman Empire. The heyday of the empire of the Huns falls on the fifth century. Becoming a leader, Attila practically destroyed the Roman Empire and shuddered the whole existing world. His empire fell shortly after his death, and the Huns assimilated with other nomadic tribes.

But in the last quarter of the 4th c. the Huns again gathered on a campaign. The Alans (Sarmatian tribes), who had settled by that time in the lower reaches of the Volga, were the first to be hit. Some of them sought salvation in the Caucasus (and became the ancestors of today's Ossetians), others were forced to join the Huns.

The Ostrogoths were next on the path of the increased multi-tribal horde. After the temporary cessation of massive attacks on the lands of the Roman Empire by the end of the 3rd century, their possessions stretched from the Don to the Carpathians and the lower Danube, and the tribes subject to their famous leader (king) Germanaric, including Finnish and Slavic, lived from the Volga region to the Baltic (about this " power of Germanarich ”we were told by the Ostrogoth historian of the 6th century Jordan).

The Goths, led by the old king, went out to meet the Huns. In the battle that broke out (370), it was once again proved that the aliens had no equal yet. The Ostrogoths were defeated, Germanaric committed suicide in despair (as we read in Ammian Marcellinus. According to Jordan, the king was mortally wounded by two brothers, his own soldiers: they avenged their sister, who was executed on the orders of Germanaric).

After the defeat, part of the Ostrogoths and another Germanic tribe, the Heruli, recognized the power of the Huns. Others, together with the joined Burgundians, began to retreat to the lower reaches of the Dnieper. The further way to the west was blocked by the Antes Slavs. The Germans, led by the new king Vinitary, attacked them.

In the first battle, the Slavs defeated, but in the next, decisive, they were utterly defeated. For the purpose of intimidation, the victors committed an act of atrocity: the captive Antes leader Boz (Bus), his sons and seventy other leaders and elders were crucified.

The Huns, meanwhile, hit the Visigoths, who settled along the Dniester. They were defeated, began to hastily retreat - and now they are the whole tribe, with their wives and children, with cattle and belongings on the northern bank of the Danube, on the border of the Roman Empire (376).

But now they are not conquerors, but refugees crying out for mercy. Their leader, Atanarichus, begs the Romans to allow them to cross the river and settle in Thrace (in the east of the Balkan Peninsula). The authorities of the province communicated with the emperor Valens.

Valens was considered the ruler of the East - his brother Emperor Valentinian, having ascended the throne in 364, handed over to him power over the eastern provinces, leaving the western ones to himself: both brothers were called emperors.

Valens decided to heed the pleas - judging that the settlers could be used to guard the border. The crossing and resettlement began, but the Roman officials in charge of the process demonstrated well-known professional features to us. Firstly, according to the terms of the agreement, the Germans had to hand over their weapons - the stewards left them for bribes. And secondly, they did not provide the newcomers with the promised bread, and they began to have a terrible famine. It came to the point that the unfortunate began to sell their wives and children into slavery in order to save them and save themselves from starvation. Bureaucrats were the first to buy goods known for their health and strength.

But it ended with what they did not think about in their thieving deeds, but what was to be expected. Enraged, the barbarians burst into Thrace with weapons in their hands, ruining everything in their path. Here, having heard about what was happening, their fellow Ostrogoths arrived in time, followed by the Alans.

On August 9, 378, a decisive battle took place near Adrianople. The mighty Gothic-Alanian cavalry broke through the line of legions (for the future, this became an example of the superiority of heavy cavalry over foot soldiers in open battle). Two-thirds of the Roman army fell. The wounded emperor Valens was taken out of the battlefield and sheltered in some kind of shack. But the enemies set fire to it in passing, and the ruler of the East perished in the fire.

With great difficulty, the situation was rectified by the new eastern emperor Theodosius, a gifted man (346-395, ruled in 379-395). He acted in the same way as his later successors, the cunning Byzantine basileus. By diplomatic maneuvers, he managed to separate the enemy forces - the Alans went north, to Bessarabia. Theodosius restored the army, and it now looked quite menacing. So the remaining aliens, mostly Goths, managed to be called to order.

They were given new lands, and they settled there, in the status of “federates of the empire”. The Visigoths now became inhabitants of Thrace and, the Ostrogoths, of Pannonia. As originally intended, at the same time they guarded the borders - for which they received some salary.

Meanwhile, the Huns liked the steppes between the Dniester and the lower Volga. They did not sit still, they constantly visited Transcaucasia, and in 395 they even reached Syria.

Among them were subjugated tribes of the Goths, Alans and other nationalities. The Slavs living in the neighborhood also recognized their power, and were often not averse, following the example of their old acquaintances of the Alans, to join a long campaign.

The history of the Huns is very interesting. For the Slavic people, it is interesting in that 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 on our origin, because according to the existing history, our distant ancestors before the arrival of Rurik were a weak and uneducated nation that did not have culture and traditions. According to some scholars, things were even worse, since the disunity of the ancients prevented the independent management of their lands. Therefore, the Varangian Rurik was called, who laid the foundation for a new dynasty of rulers of Russia.

For the first time, a major study of the Hunnic culture was carried out by the French historian Deguigne. Ono found a similarity between the words "Huns" and "Xiongnu". 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 on the territory of the lower Volga and the Urals. The Huns were a powerful nomadic people.

Relations between the Huns and China

Representatives of this tribe for many centuries pursued an aggressive policy towards China and had a fairly active lifestyle. They carried out unexpected raids on the provinces of the country and took everything they needed for life. They set fire to dwellings and made slaves of the inhabitants of local villages. As a result of these raids, the lands were in decline, and for a long time the smell of burning and the ashes lifted up hovered over the earth.

It was believed that the Huns, and a little later the Huns, are those who do not know anything about pity and compassion. The conquerors quickly left the plundered settlements on their undersized and hardy horses. In one day, they could travel 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 disintegrated, as a result of which 4 branches were formed. There was a more active ousting of them by other, stronger peoples. In order to survive, the Northern Huns headed west in the middle of the 2nd century. The second time the Huns appeared on the territory of Kazakhstan in the 1st century AD.

Unification of the Huns and Ugrians

Then, once a strong and huge tribe, the Ugrians and Alans met on the way. With the second relationship they did not work out. But the Ugrians gave shelter to the 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 Ugric peoples, while military science was mostly taken over 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, the poet put all the strength and power of the galloping horse into the blow. It was a very effective tactic that almost no one could resist.

The Huns are tribes that have come up with an absolutely opposite tactic, less effective in comparison with the Sarmatian. The people of the Huns focused more on the exhaustion of the enemy. The manner of fighting was in 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 at a considerable distance from their opponents. At the same time, they fired at the enemies with bows and, with the help of lassoes, threw riders to the ground. Thus, 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, the formation powerful alliance tribes. But in it the Huns belonged to far from dominant positions. Approximately in the seventies of the 4th century, the Huns migrated across the Don. This incident was 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 those who had to make significant changes in world geography and ethnography.

The next victims of the Huns are 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 seek help from Emperor Valentine.

The Ostrogoths put up a worthy resistance to the Huns. But they were awaited by the ruthless reprisal of the Hun king Balamber. Following all these events, peace came to the Black Sea steppe.

Background of the great conquests of the Huns

Peace continued 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, who had many other prerequisites:

• the end of an age-old drought;
• a sharp increase in humidity in the steppe regions;
• expansion of the forest and forest-steppe zone and narrowing of the steppe;
• a significant narrowing of the living area of ​​the steppe peoples who led a nomadic lifestyle.

But somehow you had to survive. And compensation for all these costs could be expected only from the rich and satisfying Roman Empire. But in the 5th century, it was no longer such a powerful power as it was two hundred years ago, and the Hun 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 Rugil as a very intelligent and far-sighted politician who died in 434. After his death, two sons of Mundzuk, the ruler's brother, Atilla and Bleda, became candidates for the throne.

Rise of the Huns

This was the beginning of a twenty-year period, which was characterized by an unprecedented rise of the Hunnic people. The policy of subtle diplomacy did not suit the young leaders. They wanted to have absolute power, which could only be obtained by force. Under the leadership of these leaders, there was a union of many tribes, which included:

• Ostrogoths;
• tracks;
• Heruli;
• gepids;
• Bulgars;
• acacia;
• Turklings.

Roman and Greek warriors also stood under the Hunnic banners, who had a rather negative attitude towards the power of the Western Roman Empire, considering it mercenary and rotten.

Who was Attila?

Atilla's appearance was not heroic. He had narrow shoulders, short stature. Since in childhood the boy spent a lot of time on horseback, he had crooked legs. The head was so large that it was barely supported by a small neck - it swayed all the time on it like a pendulum.

His lean face was embellished rather than ruined by deep-set eyes, a pointed chin, and a wedge-shaped beard. Attila, the leader of the Huns, was a rather intelligent and decisive person. He knew how to control himself and achieve his goals.

In addition, he was a very loving person, having a large number of concubines and wives.

More than anything, he valued gold. Therefore, the conquered peoples were forced to pay tribute to him exclusively with this metal. The same applied to the conquered cities. For the Huns gems were ordinary, worthless pieces of glass. And to gold there was a completely opposite attitude: this weighty precious metal had a noble luster and symbolized immortal power and wealth.

The murder of a brother and the seizure of power

The Huns' invasion of 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 were fabulously enriched. 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 begins the period of his sole rule.

In 447, an agreement was concluded between the Huns and Theodosius II, which was very humiliating for the Byzantine Empire. According to him, 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 treaty was terminated. But Atilla 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.

Hike to Gaul

Atilla, 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, therefore it was a tasty prey. But here all events began to develop not according to the plan of a smart and cunning leader.

The talented commander Flavius ​​Aetius, the son of a German and a Roman, commanded. Before his eyes, his father was killed by the rebellious legionnaires. The commander had a strong and strong-willed character. In addition, in the distant times of exile, they were friends with Attila.

The expansion was prompted by Princess Honoria's request for a betrothal. Allies appeared, among whom was King Genseric and some Frankish princes.

During a campaign in Gaul, the kingdom of the Burgundians was defeated and razed to the ground. Then the Huns 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 barbarian invasion of Italy and the capture of the strongest fortress of Aquileia. The whole valley was robbed. Due to the insufficient number of troops, Aetius was defeated and offered the invaders a large ransom for leaving Italian territory. The trip ended well.

Slavic question

After Attila was fifty-eight years old, his health was seriously undermined. In addition, the healers were unable to cure their ruler. And it was not as easy for him to cope with the people as before. Constantly flaring uprisings were suppressed quite cruelly.

The foreman's son Ellak, along with a huge army, was sent to reconnaissance towards the Slavic territories. The ruler was looking forward to his return with great impatience, as 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 patronage to the Slavic princes. He planned to create them united state in the empire of the Huns. But the Slavs refused, as they valued their freedom very much. After that, Atilla decides to marry one of the daughters of the prince of the Slavs and thus close the issue of owning the lands of the recalcitrant people. Since the father was against such a marriage of his daughter, he was executed.

Marriage and death

The wedding, like the way of life of the leader, had the usual scope. At night, Atilla and his wife retired to their chambers. But the next day he didn't come out. The soldiers were worried about his so long absence and knocked out the doors of the chambers. There they saw their ruler dead. The cause of the warlike Hun's death is unknown.

Modern historians suggest that Atilla suffered from hypertension. And the presence of a young temperamental beauty, an excessive amount of alcohol and high blood pressure became the explosive mixture that provoked death.

There is 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 body of the ruler, a lot of expensive jewelry and weapons were placed in the coffin, and the body was covered with gold. After the funeral, the riverbed was restored. All participants in the funeral procession were killed in order to avoid disclosing 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, the Hunnic state began to decline, 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 crumbled. Those state formations that exist thanks to robberies and robberies, moreover, have no other economic ties, instantly collapse immediately after the destruction of just one link.

454 is known for the fact that there was a separation of motley tribes. This led to the fact that the tribes of the Huns could no longer threaten the Romans or the Greeks. This could be the main cause of death of the commander Flavius ​​Aetius, who was mercilessly stabbed to death by the sword of the emperor of the Western Roman Empire Valentinian during a personal audience. It is said that the emperor cut off his own right hand left.

The result of such an act was not long in coming, since Aetius was practically the main fighter against the barbarians. All the remaining patriots in the empire were 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. She was more of a fragment 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 know that this is far from being the case. The king of the Huns was the most ordinary person who really wanted to command 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 given land, "the territory of the Huns", and this is where the history of this nomadic tribe ends. A new historical stage began.

It is impossible to completely refute either of the two theories of the origin of the Huns. But we can say for sure that this tribe had a strong influence on world history.

This period European history opens with a powerful wave of invasion of the wide expanses of the South of Eastern Europe Asian nomads. The migration of huge hordes of nomads from Central Asia went down in history as the Hun invasion. The first mention of the Huns by European authors dates back to the middle of the 2nd century BC. AD, when separate groups of them penetrate into the Caspian and Lower Volga steppes and settle there. In the second half of the 4th c. already huge masses of the Hunnic population, united in a large tribal union, rushed to South-Eastern Europe. On the way from Central Asia to the Urals and the Caspian region, the Asian warlike tribes were joined by the Huns who had previously settled here, as well as local Alans and Ugric tribes.

Having crossed the Volga around 370, the Huns rush to Ciscaucasia and the Don region. The Alano-Sarmatians, who lived in the Don lands, at first tried to resist the Hunnic hordes, but the suddenness of the invasion and the huge numerical superiority led to the victory of the Huns. The Azov Iranian-speaking population was partially exterminated, partly dispersed, and some of its groups joined the Huns and participated in their further advance in the western direction (Fig. 104).

At the same time, another large group of Huns headed for the Taman Peninsula and, crossing the ice Kerch Strait, invaded the Crimea. The rich cities of the Bosporus were subjected to devastating pogroms, the population - a massacre. Panticapaeum from big city, as it was in the middle of the 4th century, turned into a small village. Many ancient cities finally perished in the fires of conflagrations.

In 375, the Huns "sudden onslaught" invaded the possessions of the Gothic king Germanaric. They met at first stubborn resistance. However, the combat power of Germanarich was based on the military detachments of various northern Black Sea tribes, and at the first powerful blows from the Huns, the Rosomons withdrew from the Gothic army. As a result, the Ostrogothic public education was defeated, and Germanaric was forced to commit suicide. Part of the Ostrogoths was conquered by the Huns, and the rest, led by Vitimir, retreated to the west. A part of the Alanian population also joined them. Pursuing the Ostrogoths, the Huns reached the Dniester, crossed it and forced the retreating retreat to the spurs of the Carpathians. In 376, a significant part of the Vezigots, apparently also in connection with the attacks of the Huns, with the permission of the emperor Valens, moved to Moesia within the boundaries of the Roman Empire.

The question of the essence and limits of the state of Germanarich is discussed in historical literature. There are simply no grounds for identifying this political association with the Chernyakhov culture, which has been repeatedly speculated about, at the disposal of science. Chernyakhov culture was an education, primarily due to the development of provincial Roman handicraft activities. The state association of Germanarich, apparently, was an amorphous, short-lived military-political formation. Modern historians know nothing about him, and only Jordanes tells, which clearly embellishes the history of the Goths. There is no doubt that the Gothic Union settled somewhere within the Chernyakhiv area, most likely in the northwestern part of the Black Sea region and on the Lower Dnieper.

The Hun invasion affected the entire Chernyakhiv area. The pogrom of the northern Black Sea lands by the Huns devastated this territory, most of the Chernyakhov settlements ceased to exist, the craft centers that supplied the wide district with their products were completely destroyed, the flow of imported things was interrupted. The destruction of the life and culture of the population of the Northern Black Sea region by the Hunnic hordes was the end of the Chernyakhov culture. “The defeated Scythians were exterminated by the Huns,” wrote Eunapius, a contemporary of the Hun invasion, “and most of them died: some were caught and beaten along with their wives and children, and there was no limit to the cruelty when beating them; others, having gathered together and turned to flight, numbering no less than 200,000 of the most capable of war ... "moved to other lands, mainly beyond the Danube. Living conditions in the forest-steppe regions of the Dniester-Dnieper interfluve have changed radically. The situation was aggravated by the enmity of the Goths who remained on the lower Dnieper and submitted to the Huns with the Ants. One of the episodes, when the Antes were defeated by the Gothic king Vinitary, was mentioned above. The attempts of this part of the Goths (some Alan tribes also joined them) to free themselves from the Hunnic dependence were unsuccessful - in the last battle on the Erak River, the Goths were defeated by the Hun leader Balamber and the Gothic king Vitimir died in battle. The northern Black Sea steppes are in the complete power of the nomads. Of the Hunnic tribes that settled in the steppes of South-Eastern Europe, the most significant were the Akatsirs, localized by Priscus of Panius very vaguely in Pontic Scythia.

The main hordes of the Huns continued to move west (Fig. 104). Having defeated the Visigoths somewhere on the lower Dniester, the Huns reached the Danube and invaded the boundaries of the Roman Empire, ruining several border fortresses. Having passed through Thrace with fire and sword, the Huns settled in the steppe expanses of the Lower Danube, and after the Alans, who constituted the vanguard group of the Hunnic army, left Pannonia in 406, having moved together with the Vandals to Gaul, the Hunnic hordes also mastered the steppe expanses of the Middle Danube . Soon the Hunnic power increases, the Huns subjugate the neighboring peoples and expand their territory. In 434 they besieged Constantinople. The result of the activities of the famous leader of the Huns, Attila (445-454), was the creation of a powerful Hun state. Organized several trips to Central Europe, this Hun ruler significantly expanded the subject territory. He overthrew the kings and included in his power the defeated peoples - the Franks, Burgundians, Thuringians and, obviously, part of the Slavs who lived in the upper reaches of the Vistula and Oder. The Huns, who settled in Central Europe, also kept the northern Black Sea tribes in their power. Attila appointed his eldest son Ellak as the ruler of the Akatsirs and other Black Sea peoples. Jordan notes that the Huns held the entire barbarian world in power.

The concept of "Great Migration of Peoples" has long been established in science, which is usually dated to the 4th-7th centuries. Obviously his chronological framework should be expanded in both directions, since large-scale movements of tribes (mainly from the east), which led to significant changes in the ethnic and political map of Eurasia, began as early as the 1st-2nd centuries. AD In addition, we are talking about the movement of the Hunnic hordes over vast expanses from Mongolia to the Volga, which falls precisely on this period. The concept of the "Great Migration of Nations" should obviously include the movement of the Goths from the Baltic to the Black Sea, as well as the synchronous and subsequent movements of the Germanic tribes to the west, followed by the Slavs to the Elbe in the west and along the East European Plain in the east.

However, among all these migrations, the Hun invasion occupies a special place.

The ancestors of the Huns - the Turkic people of the Xiongnu, lived on the territory of modern Mongolia, Buryatia and North. China, where they created their mighty power. The question of the ethnicity of the Huns is still not clear. Most likely, among them were the proto-Turks, more precisely, the ancestors of the Turks and Mongols common for that time, as well as the Manchurian tribes.

During the I-II centuries. The Huns fought against China and at the same time against other neighbors: the Sakas, the Proto-Mongols and the ancient Kirghiz tribes of the Yenisei basin. Ultimately, weakened in this struggle, the Huns in the middle of the 2nd century. n. e. were defeated by the proto-Mongolian Xianbei tribes and were pushed back to the west, within the borders of modern Kazakhstan. In this movement, they carried away the Saks they defeated, most of which were subjected to Turkization, as well as the Ugrians, who were apparently allies of the Huns. In the II century. Western sources (Dionysius and Ptolemy) record the Huns in the Caspian region.

Part of the Huns retreated to the west and formed a new state on the lands of present-day East Kazakhstan - the inhabitants of which began to be called the Huns. And the tribes that decided to move on, i.e. towards Central Asia, and then to Europe, became known as the Huns.

Moving west, the Huns fight and defeat the neighboring peoples, among which the main ones were the so-called Yueji - related to the Scythians. The Yueji, in turn, had to withdraw to the west, to the borders of Central Asia. On the long way from Mongolia to the Volga, the Huns carried with them a lot of other tribes, primarily Ugric and Iranian.

In the course of such a struggle, the Huns somewhere around the 2nd century. AD went to the Volga. On the banks of which the Huns were forced, however, to linger for almost two centuries, since they met with powerful resistance from the Alans, who then lived between the Volga and the Don. The Alanian tribal union was a strong political association. The Alans, like the Huns, were nomads. Both those and others had cavalry as the main force, and among the Alans, part of it was heavily armed, where even the horses had armor. However, in the 70s of the IV century. the outcome of the two-century rivalry was decided in favor of the Huns: they defeated the Alans. In this defeat, the western opponents of the Alans - Goths played a large role. The Huns, after the defeat of the Alans, fell upon their unwitting allies - the Goths and the "Chernyakhovites" subject to the latter. Already in 375, the Huns forced the Goths to either submit or flee to the west. The Goths left their places and began the era of their wandering around Europe and even North Africa.

After the Huns rushed to the settlements of the Chernyakhovites. Ethnically, the "Chernyakhovites" were close to the Iranians, however, there could be other peoples among them, including the Proto-Slavs. The high concentration of the population, and high level The development of agriculture and early crafts created the prerequisites for the creation of statehood, but the original civilization could not resist the blows of the Huns. Almost unknown before this tribe, they became the scourge of European peoples.

In their battles, the Huns used the long-standing tactics of the nomads: they drove the newly subdued tribes to the front line against the next enemies, while they themselves remained behind, spurring their subordinates and helping them at the most decisive moments. This protected them from significant losses in people. Thus, growing like a snowball, they also appeared in Central Europe and no longer represented a homogeneous ethnic mass. Among them were the Ugrians, related to the Finnish tribes of the forest zone of Eastern Europe, the Proto-Turks and other older inhabitants of the steppe and forest-steppe zone of Eastern Europe - the Iranians. If we add here a wide movement to the east in the V-VII centuries. Slavs, Balts, partly Finno-Ugric peoples, then the picture will become even more complicated.

The Huns, however, did not remain in our southern steppes and moved further west, making Pannonia (present-day Hungary) the central region of their "empire". This historical region has long been a haven for many tribes and peoples. In the V centuries. Slavs lived there, part of the descendants of the Sarmatians, probably Celts, Germans and other tribes. The Huns constituted only the dominant stratum there. Very warlike Huns led a nomadic lifestyle, however, being influenced by the cultures of the conquered peoples, they gravitated more and more to the benefits of civilization. The famous Attila already had palaces and other attributes of settled life. Thus, we can talk about the appearance on the world map by the 4th-5th centuries. Hunnic state that stretched to the borders of the Roman Empire

In a word, the Hun state in the IV-V centuries. was a complex conglomeration of peoples, in which the newcomer Huns were already a minority. In 434 Attila united the Huns and most of the barbarian tribes north of the Danube and the Black Sea, and because of this, the Huns began to pose a serious threat to the existence of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. In the 440s, Attila devastated the possessions of Byzantium in the north of the Balkans, until in 448 peace was concluded with the emperor Theodosius on the terms of paying an annual tribute. In 451, Attila turned his cavalry to Gaul, proclaiming the goal of the invasion to defeat the Vezegots. His hordes included Goths, Alans, and many other tribes. By 450, Gaul was a country politically torn apart Germanic tribes and Attila was well aware of this.

Attila's attempt to conquer Western Europe ended with the battle on the Catalan fields (northern France, Champagne) in 451, where the equally multinational Roman armies led by Aetius blocked the path of Attila's hordes. According to Jordan, 165 thousand soldiers from both sides fell in the battle. Attila was not defeated, but was forced to leave Gaul.

Having circled the Alps, he attacked in the next 452 Northern Italy from Pannonia. But the Huns were forced to stop the campaign in Italy because of the outbreak of the epidemic. The following year, the Visigoths and Alans on the Liger (Laura) River inflicted a crushing defeat on Attila and forced him to flee from the battlefield. Returning to Pannonia, the Hun ruler soon died.

The death of Attila in 454 was a turning point in the history of Eastern Europe. Subject tribes rebelled against his sons, who divided the inheritance. A battle took place between the Huns and the rebels on the Nedao River, in which Attila's eldest son Ellac was killed. The surviving Huns were taken by his brothers to the lower reaches of the Dnieper. They attempted to reassert their authority over the Goths in Pannonia, but were repulsed. The Hun association collapsed in the 50s of the 5th century. In the late 60s - early 70s. 5th century many Hunnic tribes began to cross the Danube in order to enter into the citizenship of Byzantium. They were given land in Dobruja. The main part of the Hunnic horde after that went to the Black Sea steppes, where complex processes of ethnic interaction began to emerge. And this is where the story of the Hun invasion ended.

Consequences of the Hun invasion

The Hun invasion played a major role in the "Great Migration of Nations", which was a kind of social explosion, which led to the formation of unions of tribes and barbarian states of different languages ​​and origins.

The country of the Alans was subjected to a terrible pogrom. Part of the Alans was pushed back to the regions of Ciscaucasia, the other had to submit to the conquerors and then, together with them, move on a campaign to the west. Finally, a considerable part of the defeated, together with the defeated Goths, also rushed to the west. In the V-VI centuries. we meet Alans both in Spain and in North Africa.

The forced migration of the mass of the Alanian population to the foothills of the Caucasus meant a radical break in the economy: the former extensive cattle breeding did not have even a minimal base here, and the steppe firmly passed into the hands of new nomads - the Turks. The only way to survive lay through settling on the ground and the transition to a new economic system based on the predominant role of agriculture in combination with transhumance and handicrafts. The Alans embarked on the path of familiarization with the higher, traditionally agricultural culture of the autochthonous population of the Caucasus. The fusion of Alanian and Caucasian traditions turned out to be fruitful and brought to life that bright material and spiritual culture, which we usually call Alanian in relation to the second half of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd millennium. So the upheavals and negative factors of the Hun invasion set in motion the forces of "reverse action", which subsequently prepared the formation and rise of North Caucasian Alania and its culture.

A similar fate befell and is ready. The so-called Visigoths went first to the Balkans, within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, and then further 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 Crimea and Taman alone, where their descendants are still known in some places until the 16th century.

Archaeological data show pictures of the terrible defeat of the country of "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 newcomers. The high concentration of the population, as well as the high level of development of agriculture and early crafts created the prerequisites for the creation of statehood, but the original civilization could not resist the blows of the Huns.

Hun invasion at the end of the 4th c. led to great shifts in the southeast of Europe. There is no need to talk about the negative consequences of this conquest, they are well known. The undermining of productive forces, the disruption of existing economic, cultural and ethnic ties, the elimination of a number of political entities and their replacement by new ones (primarily by the nomadic empire of Attila), changes in the distribution and correlation of ethnic groups and cultures - a considerable list of those historically negative phenomena that we observe as a result of the invasion of the Huns. But this or that truly destructive invasion of the barbarians and the subsequent processes caused or stimulated by this invasion are not unambiguous phenomena that require specific historical analysis and evaluation.

But, as recent research shows, devastating consequences of the Hun invasion by late antique authors are still exaggerated. The Huns destroyed the cities, destroyed the fortified settlements on their main route to the west, but they were not able to destroy everything and everyone. As in the thirteenth century the Mongols exterminated or drove to the west the Kipchaks who resisted them, but left the surrendered in place, and in the 4th century. the Huns came with the local population of the south of Eastern Europe. The strategy and tactics of the nomads were in principle always the same, as was generally the same and their level community development in the 4th and 13th centuries, for both the Huns and the Mongols experienced in different time the same stage in the development of the tribal system and the formation of an early class society.

In a word, the period of the Hun invasion and subsequent centuries is a time of complex ethnic changes, the restructuring of the ethnic map of Europe. At the same time, various tribes closely interacted with other ethnic groups (Iranians, Thracians, Balts, etc.), and the resulting cultures and public structures should be considered as a product of complex synthesis.