In the second half of the 4th century. an event occurred that led to the beginning great migration of peoples. From Central Asia, through the great gate of nations between the Ural ridge and the Caspian Sea, the people of the Turanian tribe moved to Europe, Huns. These were wild nomads, dashing riders who robbed and destroyed everything in their path. Their hordes attacked first of all the Slavs who lived to the east of the Germans, and then the Germans, and often the vanquished themselves increased the crowds of the Huns. The Ostrogoths were forced to submit, but the Visigoths, with the permission of the eastern emperor (Valens), crossed the Danube and received lands in Thrace with an obligation to defend the empire (375). Here, however, they soon rebelled against the Roman government, and the emperor himself fell in the same battle with them. This Visigothic indignation was suppressed Theodosius the Great, united both halves of the empire under one scepter for the last time, but when he died (395), and imperial power was divided between his sons ( Arkady in the eastern half and Honorius in the west), the Visigoths again rebelled under the command of their king Alarikha. This new indignation of the barbarians was suppressed by the guardian and commander of the Western emperor, Stilicho, who, however, himself came from the German tribe of Vandals and willingly accepted the Germans into the imperial army. Under him, hordes of Vandals, Burgundians and other barbarians invaded Gaul and Italy, plundering and devastating both countries, but they were also repelled by the troops of Stilicho. Soon after this, he was killed through the machinations of the emperor's courtiers, who accused him of intending to take the imperial crown upon himself, and then Alaric decided to attack Rome itself. The capital of the empire was taken by the Visigoths and was plundered (410). From Rome, Alaric headed to southern Italy, but died here. His successor Ataulf concluded a peace with the emperor, according to which he received the right for his Visigoths to settle in southern Gaul and Spain, where hordes of Vandals and Burgundians had long been raging. In these areas it was formed first barbarian kingdom - Visigothic(412). Around the same time Burgundians established themselves and formed their own kingdom along the Rhone and Sonya. The Visigoths did not immediately occupy Spain: for some time they held out in the south of the peninsula vandals(who gave the name to Andalusia), until a few years later they moved to the former Carthaginian region in Africa, where they also formed their own kingdom (430).

BBC Great Warriors. Attila - Leader of the Huns. Video

6. Invasion of the Huns

Meanwhile, the Huns, whose appearance in Europe caused a great migration of peoples, settled in Pannonia (present-day Hungary), where they continued to live in separate hordes. In the first half of the 5th century, they had an energetic and cruel leader in the person of Attila, who destroyed other leaders and united all the Huns under his rule. At the head of his people and the neighboring Germanic and Slavic tribes, who were forced to submit to the Huns, he undertook campaigns of conquest for the purpose of robbery or ransom. First the Huns attacked the Eastern Empire; Attila retreated from her capital, to which he had extended his raids, only when a rich ransom was sent to him. Then in 451 he attacked Gaul, having under his command an army of half a million Huns and other peoples. On Catalaunian plain(near Chalons-on-Marne) met with the hordes of Attila (under the command Aetia) troops of the Romans and Germans, who settled shortly before within the Western Empire. Attila was defeated and forced to return to Pannonia. In 453 he repeated his invasion of Western Empire, this time moving towards Rome itself. He did not reach this city, however, because epidemic diseases began to rage among his army. He returned again to Pannonia and died soon after. With the death of Attila, the kingdom he founded ended its existence, again breaking up into separate hordes. The Hun invasion made a strong impression on contemporaries and left a memory in posterity in the form of various legends (salvation of Paris St. Genevieve, Intercession for Rome by the Pope Leo I etc.).

7. Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The invasions of the Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals and Huns are terrible weakened the Western Empire. At the beginning of the 5th century, to protect the empire from the barbarians, the Roman legions stationed there were recalled from Britain, and the Angles and Saxons (449) also began to move to this abandoned province from northern Germany, who formed their own kingdoms here. Italy, which barely escaped the Hun invasion, was attacked by Vandals shortly after the death of Attila. they even took Rome(455), causing terrible destruction of art monuments (“vandalism”). The Vandals, however, limited themselves to a simple raid and returned to Africa, but after that the leaders of the mercenary German squads were in charge in Rome itself. One of them, Herul Odoacer, in 476 he overthrew the incapable emperor Romulus Augustulus, sending insignia of imperial dignity to Constantinople. This event was named fall of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer began to rule Italy as a special king (rex), but at the very end of the 5th century Italy was already occupied by the Ostrogoths.

“History is a witness of the past, the light of truth, living memory, teacher of life, messenger of antiquity.” (Cicero)

We will be a prosperous people if we master and inherit our history.

The first stage of the Great Migration, called the Germanic one, began in the 2nd century with the resettlement of the Goths, who migrated from the territory of Central Sweden along the Vistula to the Black Sea coast.

The chronicler Jordan, himself a Goth by origin, tells of the migration of the Goths on three ships from Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea to the region of the lower Vistula. According to legend, “the Goths once came out with their king named Berig. As soon as they got off the ships and set foot on land, they immediately gave the place a nickname. To this day it is called Gotiskanza [the mouth of the Vistula]... When a great multitude of people grew there, and only the fifth king after Berig, Filimir, ruled, he decreed that the army of the Goths, together with their families, should move from there. In search of the most convenient areas and suitable places for settlement, he came to the lands of Scythia, which in their language were called Oium. When entering Scythia, they encountered not the Sarmatians and not the Alans, but "slept". As victors from here already, they move to the extreme part of Scythia, adjacent to the Pontic Sea, and reach Meotida (Sea of ​​Azov).

The story of the Goths relocating on three ships is symbolic. The three ships seem to indicate the division of the Goths into three special tribes: the Gepids, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. Moreover, the division into Orogoths and Visigoths occurred later, already in the Black Sea region.

F. Engels describes the picture of the Great Migration in the following words: “Entire nations, or at least significant parts of them, set off on the road with their wives and children, with all their property. Carts covered with animal skins served them for housing and for transporting women, children and meager household utensils; they were also livestock carried with them men armed with order of battle, were ready to overcome all resistance and defend against attacks; a military campaign during the day, a military camp at night in a fortification built from carts. The loss of life in continuous fighting, from fatigue, hunger and disease during these transitions must have been enormous. It was a life-or-death bet. If the campaign was successful, then the surviving part of the tribe settled on the new land; in case of failure, the migrating tribe disappeared from the face of the earth. Those who did not fall in battle died in slavery».

The Great Migration of Peoples began in the 2nd century. AD, as a result of a passionary impulse. Passionary push – a micromutation that causes the appearance of a passionary trait in a population and leads to the emergence of new ethnic systems in certain regions. These definitions belong to the greatest mind of the twentieth century, Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev. Mainly scientific research In his life, work “Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth,” L. Gumilyov introduces these concepts to explain the physical, social and historical phenomenon that he discovered while studying the processes of the origin and development of ethnic groups. The essence of this phenomenon is that the processes of origin, development and disappearance of ethnic groups proceed the SAME way for all ethnic groups of the planet Earth of the Holocene era. L. Gumilyov's research showed that the lifespan of an ethnos is finite, and according to Gumilyov's statistical calculations, on average it is about 1200-1500 years. It turned out that the ability of ethnic groups for great achievements and numerous historical deeds decreases over time to almost zero. This graph shows that the number historical events in the life of an ethnos per unit time at the initial stage it grows, reaching a maximum approximately 300 years from the beginning of the process of ethnic formation, and then disappears within about 1000 years.

Another characteristic typical feature of the life of an ethnic group is the expansion of the territory of its habitat in the initial period of ethnic formation and the loss of this territory by the end of the life of the ethnic group. The dynamics of changes in the area of ​​residence of an ethnic group correlates with the graph of the passionary tension of the ethnic system. By the end of life, the ethnic group loses its territorial gains.

The Great Migration of Peoples was a combination of movements of many tribes at the end of II - beginning of III centuries AD The Marcomannic Wars (166-180) became a kind of prerequisite for this process. It was during this period that the German tribes of the Goths, Burgundians, and Vandals moved from North-West Europe to the Black Sea. At the turn of the 3rd century, they moved to the Black Sea steppes and became part of a huge union of tribes, which, in addition to them, also united Thracian and Slavic tribes.

The territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea was part of the settlement of the Gothic tribes from the end of the 2nd century AD. It was not only the Goths who poured into the steppes of the Black Sea region. They only led the movement of a large number of Jastorf tribes from the territory of Poland, Germany, and even Denmark. Next to the Goths were the Gepids, Borani, Taifali, Heruli, Vandals, and Skyri. Their appearance everywhere was accompanied by pogroms. Migration to the south went in two directions, and one of them was the provinces of the Roman Empire in the Balkans. The northeastern part of this region is open towards the Black Sea steppes and practically formed an indivisible whole with them. These territories of the Balkans could be a place of influx and accumulation of alien tribes and were a springboard for the invasion of the Empire by many peoples. The northeastern part of the region reached the sea coast through the Danube. From here the path opened to the Aegean and Marmara Seas, the northwestern regions of Asia Minor and the southern coast of Pontus. This was a strategically important area for the Empire to invade.

The Scythian War (238-271) began - a war between the Roman Empire and a coalition of barbarian tribes that raided Asia Minor, Greece, Thrace and Moesia from the regions of the Northern Black Sea region and the Carpathian region. Roman historians called this war Gothic after the name of the most powerful tribe in this barbarian coalition. The Goths, Taifals, Gepids, Peucians, Borani and Heruli attacked from land and sea, appearing seemingly everywhere. Once in the Northern Black Sea region, the Goths became neighbors of the Roman Empire, weakened by the political crisis. The wealth of the Empire attracted the warlike Gothic leaders and their squads. In 238 AD, the Goths, along with the carps, attacked the Roman city of Istros south of the mouth of the Danube. Then the Greek colonies of Olbia at the mouth of the Southern Bug and Tire at the mouth of the Dniester were destroyed. Capturing cities, the Goths plundered them and took their inhabitants prisoner. In 248, the Danube Goths, led by King Ostrogotha, again launched an invasion of the Empire, with assistance from numerous Taifals, Astrings and Carps, who were hostile to the Romans. As a result, Moesia and Thrace were devastated. The Goths are divided into Visigoths (Eastern Goths) and Ostrogoths (Western Goths).

At the head of this double alliance was Ostrogotha's successor, the king of the Western Goths, Kniva. In 250, a large number of Goths crossed the Danube, the border of the Roman Empire. After crossing the ice-bound river, the Goths split into two armies. One reached Thrace (Bulgaria) and besieged its governor, Titus Julius Priscus, in Philippopolis, and Kniva himself moved east to the city of Nova. Trebonian Gall, governor of Upper and Lower Moesia (Moldova), forced him to retreat; then Kniva turned inland and besieged Nikopol on the Danube, where a large number of refugees took refuge. In the summer of 251, during the same campaign, Kniva attacked the Roman army led by Emperor Decius, and a decisive battle took place near the city of Abrittus. Magnificent Roman infantry, well trained, armed short swords, more comfortable in battle than long ones, faced the Goths dressed in skins. The Goths stabbed the Romans with spears, not giving them the opportunity to engage in battle. Kniva used the “Scythian” retreat tactics and soon unexpectedly waylaid the emperor at Beroia. Having managed to lead the Romans into the swamp, they deprived the legions of maneuverability. The Roman army was completely defeated, and Emperor Decius also died.

Initially, the barbarian invasions were aimed at the Balkan possessions of the Romans, but later the Goths and their allies turned their attention to the rich cities of the coast of the Caucasus and Asia Minor.

The most important moment in relations between the Goths and the Romans was the conquest of the Crimean Peninsula by the Ostrogoths around the middle of the 3rd century. Here the Goths established their power at sea. Maritime expeditions on the Black Sea belonged to the Borans. In 256, many small Boran ships sailing from the mouth of the Don crossed the Sea of ​​Azov and appeared in Kerch Strait. The Bosporan authorities hastened to conclude a friendly agreement with the Borans and supplied them with sea vessels. The following year, the Goths, in alliance with the Borans, approached Phasis by sea, where they tried to rob the temple of Artemis, but were repulsed. They turned to Pitiunt, captured the city and many ships, strengthening their flotilla with them. They then headed towards Trebizond, which they took in a surprise night attack. The city was completely sacked, and the Borans and Goths returned home in ships heavily laden with booty and captives.

News of the raid on Trebizond quickly spread among the Goths, both eastern and western. Their group, which controlled the mouth of the Dniester, now decided to create its own fleet. In winter 257-258. ships were built for them by captives and local workers in Tire. In the spring of 258, the Dniester flotilla of the Goths descended to the Black Sea and headed along the western coast. Their army simultaneously moved forward overland until they reached the Bosporus Strait, where they were transported to Asia Minor by local fishermen. Having passed Tomy and Anchial, the Gothic flotilla reached the Greek Thessalonica and, having besieged them, the Goths left with rich booty. Upon learning of the approach of the barbarians, the imperial troops fled. The Goths plundered Chalcedon, after which they burned the rich Nicomedia, abandoned by the inhabitants. Nicaea, Cius, Apamea and Prusa were also captured. The barbarians headed along the Asian coast of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara to Cyzicus, but were stopped by the flood of the Rindak River. Having loaded the carts and ships with booty, the Goths returned home.
Sea raids of the Goths and Borans during the Scythian War. Battle of Abrittus in 251.

At the same time, the pirate raids of the Franks and Saxons on the shores of Gaul and Britain intensified. The tribal union of the Franks was formed north of the Main from the tribes of the Ampsivarii, Bructeri, Hamavii, Hattuarii, Usipeti, Tencteri, and Tubanti. The troops of the Franks and Allemans began to constantly raid not only the border provinces (Upper and Lower Germany), but also deep into Gaul, reaching the Pyrenees Mountains and Northern Spain. In 259–260 Frankish attacks hit the areas between the Rhine and Lahn. However, the main area of ​​the breakthrough was the southern regions of the Decumate fields, bordering Raetia.

Tribal alliances of the Alemanni and Vandals captured the decumate fields (the most fertile lands between the Rhine, Danube and Neckar). Along with them, another enemy of Rome appears here - the Frisians, whose original habitat was the province of Friesland. In the I–II centuries. the Frisians occupied significant areas from the Rhine delta to the river. Ems is next door to the hawks. In the 3rd century, continuing to move east, the Frisians partially assimilated the Hawks. The counter wave of Franks, Angles and Saxons advancing from the east led to the partial displacement of the Frisian tribes. From the beginning of the 290s, the construction of a new defensive line began and this was regarded as a final abandonment of the struggle for the return of the Decumate fields and the consolidation of the Empire on the newly formed borders.

By the middle of the third century, the Goths controlled the entire northern Black Sea coast. The Goths carried out their next invasion, also crowned with success, in 262 and 264, crossing the Black Sea and penetrating the interior provinces of Asia Minor. A major naval campaign of the Goths took place in 267. The Goths reached Byzantium (future Constantinople) with 500 ships. The ships were small vessels with a capacity of 50-60 people. A battle took place in the Bosphorus, in which the Romans managed to push them back. After the battle, the Goths retreated a little back to the exit from the Bosphorus into the sea, and then, with a fair wind, headed further to the Sea of ​​Marmara and took ships to the Aegean Sea. There they attacked the islands of Lemnos and Skyros, and then dispersed throughout Greece. They took Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Argos. During their campaigns in Asia Minor, the Goths returned with a huge number of captives, for whom they later demanded ransom. Among the latter there were many Christians. Along with them, Christianity spread among the Goths. But Arianism won a temporary victory over Orthodoxy.

Arianism- a movement in Christianity in the 4th-6th centuries, which was preached by the Alexandrian priest Arius (hence the German Aryanism). Denying the official teaching of the church about the one essence of the Trinity, Arius argued that Jesus Christ is not equal to the Creator, was created by the will of the Father, is not eternal and is only a mediator between God and people. The Arians converted the Germanic tribes of the Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, and Lombards to Christianity. Only a few decades later, the imperial power of Byzantium switched to the side of Western Christianity, banning Arians in 381 at the Second Ecumenical Council. Elements of Arianism were included in some medieval and modern heresies (eg, Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses).

The second wave of invasions of Rome began in 268, when a large naval armada of the Goths and Heruli supported by ground forces, launched a military campaign against Byzantium, crossed the Dardanelles and carried out a devastating invasion of the Peloponnese. In addition to the Goths, part of the Heruli, who came along with the Goths to Maeotis, played a role. The routes of movement of the Heruls (as well as other Germanic tribes), as well as their choice of allies, were not always determined solely by predatory goals. Already from the middle of the 3rd century. In the historical fate of the Heruls, a standard situation can be seen when one tribe found itself in the sphere of influence of another, stronger one - in this case, the Goths. But the passion of the Heruls was so high that they did not lose themselves in the complex vicissitudes of their wanderings and, after long journeys, returned to their homeland. 269, a coalition of tribes consisting of Peucians, Greuthungi, Austrogoths, Tervingi, Visi, Gepids, Heruli and some Celts, seized by a thirst for prey, invaded Roman land and caused great devastation there. Perhaps some of these tribes wanted to settle within the Empire, for their families also went on the campaign along with the warriors. The hike began from the mouth of the Dniester. The barbarians moved by land and sea. The ground forces proceeded through Moesia. They failed to take Tomy and Marcianople by storm. At the same time, the fleet sailed to the Thracian Bosporus. The attempt to capture Byzantium was unsuccessful, but Cyzicus was taken by storm. Then the fleet entered the Aegean Sea and reached Athos. After resting on Mount Athos, the siege of Thessalonica and Kassandria began. An attack was launched on the coastal areas of Greece and Thessaly.

For several decades, the lands along the lower Danube, as well as the entire Balkan Peninsula, remained the scene of fierce struggle. The position of the empire improved only after Emperor Claudius II in 269 in the battle of city ​​of Naisse (present-day Serbia) inflicted a heavy defeat on the main army of the Goths, and then defeated their fleet. Claudius managed to stop this large-scale German invasion and was the first of the Roman emperors to accept the honorary title of Gothic. At the cost of extreme exertion of forces, using military tricks, the Romans, after a stubborn battle, lured the enemy into an ambush with a feigned retreat. The survivors retreated towards Macedonia. The Roman cavalry continued the pursuit, driving the barbarians into the Gema Mountains, where many of them died of starvation. Another part of the barbarians managed to escape on ships. They continued their campaign, skirting the coasts of Thessaly and Greece, reaching the islands of Rhodes and Crete, but were unable to capture any booty there. They decided to return home through Macedonia and Thrace, where they were caught in a plague epidemic. All survivors were either enlisted in the Roman legions, or were given land and became peasants. After the Battle of Naissus, the surviving Goths and their allied barbarians still harassed eastern Thrace, attacking Nicopolis and Anchial. The last pockets of resistance were suppressed by the commander of the entire Roman cavalry, Aurelian. The Romans are emerging victorious so far, but overall they are unable to stop the advance of the “savage people.”

Victories of the Empire over the barbarians in 269–270. were so significant that the year 270 went down in the history of the Roman state as a time of triumph over the barbarians. Many prisoners were settled in Thrace, Moesia and Pannonia, where they carried out military service on the frontier of the Empire. A stream of Sarmatian tribes rushed to the Middle Danube. Despite his successes, in order to stabilize the situation on the Danube front, the emperor surrendered in 270 the province of Dacia located north of the river (the territory between the Danube, Tissa, Prut and Carpathian rivers), in fact ceding it to the Goths for settlement. Most likely, Aurelian did not consider the steps taken to be final, and the Roman army was going to return to its old places. This assumption is confirmed by the fortifications of the territories north of the Danube during the Tetrarchy, Constantine the Great or Justinian. Rome needed these territories both economically and strategically, but the realities of the 3rd century. were different. The fall of Dacia was a significant victory for all barbarians, including the Germans. With the capture of Dacia, Roman strongholds moved away from vital areas inhabited by the bulk of the barbarian tribal world. From this time on, Dacia became one of the strategically important springboards for German invasions of the Empire. In addition, Dacian resources came at the disposal of these tribes.

The departure of the Romans from Dacia opened up large territories for the movement of the Germans. Thus, the Roman part of Moldova and Muntenia became the object of carp expansion, and the Danube Goths also settled here. Free Dacians - Western Transylvania. The western part of Banat was included in the zone of possession of the Sarmatian tribes on the Tisza. Taifals were located on the territory of Dacia in Oltenia, as well as in the upper reaches of the Seret. The Victuals established themselves in Banat. The tribes that settled in Dacia fought wars among themselves for dominance in the barbarian tribal world, for possession of the best lands. In 275, the tribes living on the shores of Maeotis (the ancient name of the Sea of ​​​​Azov) again opposed Rome. Their flotilla crossed Maeotis and entered Pontus through the Cimmerian Bosporus. The barbarians moved along a familiar road along the eastern shore of Pontus. Having reached Phasis, they attacked the eastern and central regions of Asia Minor. The Roman fleet pursued the Goths and struck them. Around 269, the Goths split into the Ostrogoths, who occupied vast areas in the Northern Black Sea region, and the Visigoths, most of whom moved to the Balkans

. Throughout the 3rd century. In the barbarian world, the process of regrouping forces was very active. Among the Germanic tribes there is a process of unification of tribes into large unions. These were organizations created exclusively for war. Invasions into the Empire were carried out not for the purpose of mass resettlement of tribes, but for the purpose of seizing booty. The Alemanni from the upper reaches of the Rhine moved to the territory between the Rhine and the Danube and began to carry out frequent attacks on Gaul. In 261 they captured the Roman province of Raetia, invaded Italy and reached Mediolan. The Alemanni managed to inflict a heavy defeat on the Romans near Placentia. After this they threatened Central Italy and Rome itself. At the cost of incredible efforts, Emperor Aurelian managed to push the Alemanni back beyond the Alps. The fight against these Germanic tribes was very intense. Some of the tribes - Vandals, Burgundians, Goths - in a fairly short time came close to the borders of the Empire. For predatory incursions, they often used not only individual mobile detachments of squads, but united in coalitions of tribes. Burgundians and Vandals appear on the Upper Danube. The Vandals were a northeastern group of Germans, which included the Warins, Burgundians, Gutons and Carines, Silings, Asdings and Lakrings. In 276, the troops proclaimed one of Aurelian’s closest associates, the Illyrian Probus (276 - 282), emperor. The new emperor was able to successfully repel the invasion of Germanic tribes, Franks and Alamanni in Gaul. After this, he crossed the Rhine with his troops and restored Roman dominance in the area of ​​​​the Decumate fields.

During the III-IV centuries. among the Germanic tribes there is a process of unification of tribes into large unions. 1) A union of Anglo-Saxon tribes was formed on the Lower Rhine and the Jutland Peninsula; 2) on the Middle Rhine - the Frankish union; 3) on the Upper Rhine - the Allemenian Union, which included the Quads, Marcomanni, Sueves; 4) on the Elbe and beyond the Elbe - an alliance of Lombards, Vandals, Burgundians. Alliances also arise to attack one tribe against another. At the end of the 3rd century. Fierce wars broke out among the Germanic tribes located beyond the Danube and the Rhine, which caused them great damage. “The Goths with difficulty expelled the Burgundians, on the other hand, the defeated Alamanni and at the same time the Tervingi are arming themselves, the other part of the Goths, having joined a detachment of Taifals, rushes against the Vandals and Gepids.” Jordan supplemented this meager picture with the following touch: the king of the Gepids “ruins the Burgundians almost to the point of complete extermination.” The Vandal tribe was the main rival of the Goths in seizing convenient Dacian lands. Apparently, the Gepids also experienced a shortage of land, and this aroused their military activity, because in an area of ​​dense settlement it was impossible to obtain land in any other way. Some tribes, which for a long time were at the forefront of migrations, either completely leave the historical scene (such as the Bastarnae) or begin to gradually fade into the background (Marcomanni, Quadi). The Sarmatian tribes strengthened in the Middle Danube. It is possible that tension in the barbarian world was created by the Empire. She increasingly resorted to tactics of neutralizing one tribe by another.

Already at the end of the first stage of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Middle Danube Lowland became the center of the barbarian world, “the middle of the barbarian land.” Migration impulses constantly came from here. From the end of the 3rd century, the Goths gradually emerged as the leaders of the tribal world. The Gothic tribes tried to spread their influence into the regions of Illyricum and pushed back the Sarmatians. Constantine created a system of earthworks in the area between the Danube and the Tisza to keep the Goths out of conflict with the Sarmatians and from their invasions of Pannonia and Moesia. On the left bank of the Danube a rampart was built crossing Banat, Oltenia and Muntenia. A bridge was built on the Danube connecting Esk with Sucidava, as well as camps and fortifications. The Romans built a crossing near Tutrakan, and on the left bank, which was called the “Gothic bank,” they built the fortress of Constantian Daphne. Constantine entrusted the protection of this section of the limes, as the most strategically important, to his nephew Dalmatius.

In the 4th century. The “Gothic question” was central to the Empire. It manifested itself especially clearly after the settlement of the Goths in Dacia. In 322, a treaty was concluded between Constantine the Great and the Visigoths, granting the tribe the status of federates (allies) - this was the usual Roman policy of settling the federates as independent tribes while preserving their social structure on Roman territory. According to a long-standing Roman tradition, under the legions, detachments of allies acted as auxiliaries, that is, those who did not have Roman citizenship, but were obliged, on the basis of an agreement, to allocate soldiers to strengthen the Roman army. This showed the weakness of the empire and its destruction. Indeed, the foederati, for the most part, lived outside the borders of the Roman state and returned there after the end of one or another military conflict or the completion of the task assigned to them by the Roman command. But migrations of federates to the territory of various provinces also took place throughout the 4th century. This is the movement of the Sarmatians to the Danube by Emperor Constantine and Valens - the Goths, long before the Battle of Adrianople. Despite the fact that the Danube Goths were federates, Constantine still took the most energetic measures to strengthen the Limes. Surely there was no complete trust in the Goths.

In the 4th century, a huge Gothic kingdom was formed, created by King Germanaric (265 - 375). This power was one of the most extensive and powerful states of that era. Territory

The huge Gothic state of Germanarich stretched from the south from the Black Sea coast, to the Baltic coast in the north, and from the Urals and the Volga region in the east, to the Elbe in the west. But this information about the size of Ermanaric’s empire cannot be confirmed archaeologically. The northern border of the Chernyakhov culture at that time did not reach either Baltic Sea, not to the Urals. Just as “Gothic” distinguishes between the “own peoples” of the Ostrogoths of Ermanaric, and the peoples of Scythia and Germany he conquered, there is also a difference between the area of ​​settlement of the Ostrogoths in the proper sense of the word, that is, the cultures of the Chernyakhov circle, and the sphere of influence of the power of Ermanaric. Some researchers believe that these lands are similar to the territory of historical Rus'.

How developed the state that existed in this territory was can be judged by the monumental Serpentine (Trayan) ramparts. The total length of the defensive ramparts located from the Vistula to the Don, south of Kyiv in the forest-steppe, is about 2 thousand kilometers .

The time of construction of the Serpentine Shafts is the 2-6th century AD. period of existence of the Gothic state. The Serpentine and Trojan Walls were built by the Goths to protect against the nomadic Huns. During the Great Patriotic War Nazi Germany used this theory to justify territorial claims to Ukraine and Crimea. By political reasons after the war official Soviet history the existence of a Gothic state in the Northern Black Sea region was denied, only the fact of migration of Gothic tribes through these territories was recognized.

During the reign of Germanarich, from the Amal family, the Goths achieved such power that they challenged the hegemony of Rome itself in Europe. The Ostrogoths stood at the head of a power that included the Grevtungs, Visigoths (Visigoths), Vandals, Iazigs, Chud, Mordovians and many other tribes. Carps and Taifals also submitted to Germanarich; the “Rosomons” - “the people of Ros” - were finally conquered, which is confirmed by the “Veles Book”: “And Ruskolan was defeated by the Goths of Germanarich.” The Azov Heruls resisted for a long time. Only after their duke was killed did those who remained recognize the authority of Germanarich. In 362, Germanarich strengthened his power in the southeast in the Kerch Strait and the Bosporus Kingdom. The Bosporus, having become an ally and vassal of Germanarich, bought and resold Gothic and Alan captives. To penetrate the land of the Wends - the region of the upper Vistula - the Ostrogoths had to cross the lands of the Sklavens and Antes. Both the Sklavens and the Antes recognized the authority of Germanarich. The Wends were conquered without much difficulty, after which the Aesti (Balts) also recognized Germanarich as their overlord. (SUZEREN is a state in relation to which another state is in vassal dependence). The tribes that recognized the suzerainty of the Ostrogothic king: the Goltescythians, the Tiudas, the Inunxes, the Vasinabronci, the Merenos, the Mordens, the Imniscars, the Rogi, the Tadzans, the Atouls, the Navegos, the Bubengens and the Kolds, defeated and subject to tribute, were part of the state.

In southeastern Europe in the early 370s, there were two large tribal unions - Ostrogothic and Sarmatian-Alanian. The Iranian-speaking Alans, the former Massagetae, during the era of the Great Migration were the only non-Germanic people who occupied part of Central Asia, the steppes between the Volga and Don and the North Caucasus, and represented a vast association of late Sarmatian tribes (Roxolans, Iazyges, Aorses, Siracs and others).

When the Huns burst into the Northern Black Sea region from the east, the Alans were the first to take the blow, then the Ostrogoths of Ermanaric entered into a clash with a previously unknown formidable enemy. The Alans were a strong opponent, they had powerful fortresses and excellent armored cavalry. The Huns had only light cavalry, but they brought with them from distant Mongolia an invention unprecedented in Europe, a huge compound bow. Arrows fired from such a bow pierced any armor at a distance of up to 700 steps. The Alans were unable to resist; they simply did not have time to attack the Huns, who shot them and their horses at a great distance. They surrendered and many became part of a large army, most of the Alans were destroyed, some retreated to the Caucasus, some crossed the Don and found shelter with the Goths.

The Goths gathered all their forces on the Don. However, their enemy made a deep detour. Legend has it that the Huns, hunting in Taman, wounded a deer. And he, following the shallow water and swimming across deep places, managed to escape from them to the Crimea, showing the way. The army of the Huns easily crossed the strait, and through the Crimea and Perekop broke into the rear of the Goths, crushing and destroying them. The Goths suffered a complete defeat. Some of the Goths submitted to the Huns, some fled to the Crimea. The latter became subjects of Byzantium and lived in Crimea until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Many retreated to the Roman Empire and ended up in Spain. The majority of today's Spanish nobility are of Visigothic origin.

The Visigoths and Gepids retreated west to their possessions. The Ostrogoths went north - to the Donets and Desna, into the possessions of the Rus. And the Heruls switched to the side of the Huns. (The ancient coat of arms of the Don Cossacks depicted a deer wounded by an arrow - perhaps the deer that led the Huns to the Black Sea region and brought deliverance from the Goths).

The powerful state of the Goths perished due to the betrayal of its subjects and the cruelty of the ruler. One of the leaders of the Rosomon tribe, subject to the Goths, left Germanarich. The old king, who did not tolerate betrayal and was terrible in his rage, ordered the leader’s wife to be torn apart by wild horses. The brothers of the deceased, Sar and Amii, avenged their sister. At the royal reception, they approached Germanarich and, snatching swords from under his clothes, pierced him. But they didn’t kill them: the guards managed to stab them to death earlier. However, Germanarich did not recover from his wounds.

In 375, disagreements arose among the Danube Goths on an issue that ultimately determined their historical fate. With the advent of the Huns, the Goths had to decide: to look for a place to resettle within the barbarian world or to finally move to the Empire. Some saw the path to salvation in an alliance with the Empire. A similar position was taken by supporters of one of the leaders of the Goths, Fritigern. Others, led by Athanaric, independent struggle with the Huns.

Some of the Gothic tribes accumulated north of the lower Danube. The lack of vital supplies in those places and the constant threat of Hunnic raids forced them to seek refuge in Roman territory south of the Danube, in eastern Thrace. The Goths sent an embassy to Emperor Valens with a request for settlement on the lands of the empire. The emperor allowed the barbarians to cross the Danube with the intention of using their manpower to strengthen his army. The Roman commanders were supposed to ensure the disarmament of the Goths, but failed to carry out the emperor’s instructions.

In 376, the Goths under the command of Fritigern and Alaviv crossed the Danube and settled in Thrace, baptized according to the Arian confession, since Valens was an Arian.

The Goths were supposed to be provided with land for cultivation and food for the first time, but due to the abuses of the Roman governor in Thrace, Comite Lupicinus, the Goths experienced great hardships and, not receiving food in sufficient quantities, were forced to exchange their children for it. Even the children of elders were taken into slavery, to which their parents agreed in order to save them from starvation. Many Visigoths, "tormented by hunger, sold themselves for a sip of bad wine or for a miserable piece of bread."

A hungry winter and the oppression of Roman officials inspired the Goths to revolt. Riots broke out in the camp of the federates - these people were accustomed to deciding everything by force of the sword. The Visigoths began to plunder and plunder Roman territories. They did not consider either gender or age in their murders; they burned everything along their path to terrible fires, tearing babies from their mothers’ breasts and killing them. They took mothers captive, took away widows, stabbing their husbands to death before their eyes, dragged teenagers and young men over the corpses of fathers, and took away many old people, shouting that they had lived long enough in the world.

Under the walls of Marcianople, the embittered Goths killed a small Roman detachment of soldiers. The forces under Lupicinus were defeated in the first battle near Marcianople.

The Goths were pushed back from Thrace to the lower Danube by fresh Roman forces, where they defeated the Romans near Salicia. From there the Goths again advanced into the center of lowland Thrace, where they dispersed for plunder.

Emperor Valens opposed the rebels, and on August 10, 378, at the Battle of Adrianople, the Romans suffered one of the heaviest defeats in their history. Emperor Valens and his commanders were killed, the remnants of the defeated army fled...

The victory of the Visigoths was key point in the history of the fall of the Roman Empire, northern borders which were now open. The Adrianople disaster was a turning point in the history of relations between the empire and the advancing barbarians. In a series of military clashes and treaties, entire Roman provinces in the Balkans and Danube region actually came under the sole control of the Goths

Having defeated the Romans near Adrianople, the Goths, after an unsuccessful siege of Constantinople, scattered in detachments throughout Thrace and Moesia.

They were driven away from Constantinople by an army under the command of the new emperor Theodosius. Considering the difficult military and political situation of the empire, Theodosius came to an agreement with the Goths, giving them Illyria for settlement. Feodosia learned the military lesson of Adrianople.

The subsequent conclusion of the treaty of 382 and its consequences revealed to the Goths the simple truth that receiving permission from the emperor to settle in the Empire does not at all mean receiving land here. But at the same time, in order to have real power and weight under the emperor, it is not at all necessary to own this land. The paradoxical position of the empire was that while holding back the onslaught of barbarian tribes, it was forced to seek support in the barbarians themselves, which made its existence especially hopeless. The federal allies understood that the Romans were running out of strength, and from allies they became open enemies of the Roman Empire. In order to somehow retain them as allies, Rome was forced to constantly make new concessions.

Under Emperor Theodosius, the final resettlement of the bulk of the Goths to various provinces of the Roman Empire was completed. The first stage of the Great Migration of Peoples has ended.

At the first stage of the Great Migration, predominantly small and not very strong tribes (for example, Gepids, Bastarns) or parts of large tribes (for example, Greuthungs) were accepted into the Empire. For the Empire, accepting entire tribes was far from safe. At first, the Empire managed to incorporate small doses of settlers. (INCORPORATE - connect, merge into one, contain, include, merge; inclusion, inclusion, merger into one composition). They became the main force of the Roman army, its main and not very reliable support. But as resettlement becomes a mass phenomenon, it loses control over this process.

However, at this time, most Germanic tribes could occupy Roman territory for a long time only in the status of federates. Essentially, the German settlers, calling themselves allies of Rome, created semi-independent entities on its territory. Already from the end of the 4th century, trying to settle in the Empire, they demanded not only land for settlement, but also the right to preserve their own land after resettlement. internal organization and management.

During the first stage of the Resettlement, not only the foreign policy and military “portrait” of the German tribes changed. Events of the 3rd–4th centuries. demonstrate changes in their economic and social life. Trade and military contacts with the Empire contributed to the development of tribes, the progress of their craft and agricultural production, and the improvement of military affairs. As a result of the raids, the Germanic tribes significantly enriched their technical and technological knowledge by capturing Roman tools and using the experience of captured artisans. Crafts related to providing for squads developed.

The degree of nobility was still determined primarily by origin, and not by merit. However, everything higher value begins to acquire a person's property status. The material well-being of the nobility was created in two ways: through the exploitation of the labor of dependent persons and through military spoils. The latter, in the conditions of predatory raids on the Empire and its neighbors, provided the greatest opportunities for strengthening the power positions of the nobility, especially tribal leaders and the service layers associated with them.

Definition
The Great Migration of Peoples is a mass migration of tribes within Asia and Europe that took place in the 4th - 6th centuries AD. During these movements of the human masses, the boundaries of the habitat of ethnic groups were erased, ethnic groups were mixed, and the formation of new peoples was laid. The beginning of the existence of modern European nations dates back to the period of the Great Migration of Peoples. In another way, this phenomenon is called “ethnic revolution”.

Reasons
1. Cold snap
Due to a decrease in temperature (by approximately 1.5 degrees), many lands have become unsuitable for cultivation. And people went in search of places with a milder climate. In particular, the Germans from the north of Europe moved to more southern regions.

2. Xiongnu
In the first century BC, a split occurred in the Xiongnu power located next to China. The southern part of their country submitted to China. And the northern part continued to resist its neighbor, but did not survive. Therefore, some northerners were forced to leave their lands and long time wander. Fighting and mixing with other nomads, they formed a new ethnic group - the Huns. This unification of tribes invaded Europe in the 4th century and became one of the main reasons for the great migration of peoples.

3. Weak empire.
The weakening of Rome became obvious already in the 3rd century, during which power in the country was repeatedly usurped by influential military leaders.
In addition, people from Germanic tribes increasingly began to be recruited for military service in the empire. Initially, they were planned to be used as a weapon against the same barbarians. But many of them reached a high position in the army and its full functioning could no longer be imagined without their participation: after all, a German listens better to the orders of a fellow German than a Roman.
And the Romans themselves lost their taste for military affairs and conquests, more willingly indulging in entertainment.
The army, consisting of Germans, and the reluctance of the Romans to fight made the borders of the empire not too great an obstacle to the waves of great migration of peoples that hit Europe.

4. Border voltage.
The borders of the empire did not fall immediately. The corrosion of barbarization corroded them gradually. Weakened after the unrest of the 3rd century, Rome could not control the enormous extent of the borderland. The Germans did not fail to take advantage of this and began to settle in the lands that attracted them. Rome, in order to save face, graciously “allowed” them to live there and even legally secured this right for them. A situation arose when the territory was formally controlled by the Romans, but in reality the barbarians were in charge (and even had “official” permission to do so).

5. Internal aspirations.
Before the cold snap, there was warming, which led to an increase in the number of people in the barbarian tribes. And when the decrease in temperature led to crop failures, a much larger number of barbarians, wanting to survive, were forced to leave their usual habitats. That is why such a large-scale struggle for the promised lands unfolded. The search for and settlement of fertile plains became an internal meaning that united and directed groups of migrating people. In addition, the increased population made the migration of peoples more widespread.

6. Primitive farming.
Researchers under the leadership of M.N. Pokrovsky, analyzing the situation of the struggle of peoples for land, see the source of the reasons for this confrontation not only in climate change, due to which part of the land has become unsuitable for growing food. The main reason lack of land, these scientists imagine the very method of its cultivation. The barbarians' technology for cultivating land was at an extremely primitive level. And to feed large number fellow tribesmen had to be processed large territories. So low productivity agricultural labor, gave rise to the need among peoples to capture more and more large areas. Which led to the great migration of peoples.

7. Barbarian aristocracy.
Scientists from Pokrovsky’s scientific circle consider the processes of transformation within the tribes themselves to be a separate reason. The primitive communal system was becoming a thing of the past. It started wealth stratification, which led to the separation from total mass barbarians the most influential people - the military aristocracy. These military leaders contributed to the unification of disparate groups of barbarians into powerful tribal alliances, acting more coherently and already representing a formidable military force. Manipulation of this power led to wars. Wars and robberies contributed to the enrichment of military leaders and the strengthening of their power.

8. This is what God wanted.
Christian theologians see the great intention of God as the main reason for the great migration of peoples. The Almighty destroyed the Western Roman Empire, mired in sin and depravity. And on its fragments he settled peoples who very soon turned to God. Those who did not accept the righteous faith suffered the fate of Rome. And there is an even deeper observation of Christians. After all, they associate the very completion of the process of the great migration of peoples with the end of the time of domination on Earth Old Testament. According to Christians, the “ethnic revolution”, an unprecedented “shake-up” by God’s hand, brought outdated peoples (mostly pagan) from the historical scene and gave birth to new ones, those who chose the path of faith in Christ, that is, those who revered the New Testament. This means that the veneration of the Old Testament truths was replaced by the will of God with the primacy of the New Testament.
Even if we leave aside for a moment the pathetic tone of the adherents of the theory of divine providence, we can agree that there is some degree of justice in their position.
We must remember that it was Christianity that acted as a unifying force when the Western Roman Empire no longer existed. Baptized barbarian rulers gained power and influence as defenders of the faith, which increased their foreign policy prestige and justified their desire for conquest: they not only conquered new territories, they converted pagans and heretics (Arians) into followers of Christ. This is how Frank Clovis himself and his people were baptized in the 6th century. And already in the 8th century, the Christian-barbarian empire of Frank Charlemagne united almost all Western Europe. Its collapse after the death of the founder gave rise to three European Catholic peoples (French, Germans and Italians).
Thus, Christianity spread its influence in Western Europe and at the same time contributed to the stabilization of the situation that arose after the great migration of peoples.
During the migration itself, many pagan tribes (Avars, Huns, Khazars) disappeared.
And in the vastness of Western Europe, under the influence of the Christianization of barbarians, a new Catholic ethnic group arose, uniting different peoples.

Causes of the Great Migration.

· Decline of the Roman Empire. The power of the emperor weakened, and many wanted to seize the throne. Vast areas of the empire had to be controlled with the help of armies, in which the lion's share were barbarians. In addition, the population increased. And this led to a decrease in forest area and damage to the land. In general, the entire way of life of the Romans deteriorated. They became more interested in entertainment and feasts than in the development of the state and its politics.

· Defeat of the Huns in the Hunno-Chinese wars. These confrontations took place from 200 BC until 180 AD. As a result, the Huns migrated to the western lands, forcing other peoples to move to new lands (“domino effect”).

· The emergence of a new economic center of the Roman Empire - Gaul, trade flourished there. The Germans sought to occupy territories near the border of the Roman Empire and demanded legal support for their right to live on these lands.

· A general cooling of the climate in Europe, which caused crop failures, floods, epidemics, and increased mortality.

Consequences of the Great Migration.

· The Western Roman Empire fell and the “ barbarian kingdoms", some of them became the predecessors of modern European states.

· Resettlement played a role in the formation of many modern languages Western Europe.

· New nationalities and tribes appeared.

· Slavery gave way to feudalism.

· A single language was formed - Latin.

· Spread of Christianity (in the new kingdoms Christianity becomes the state religion).

The results of this process cannot be assessed unambiguously. On the one hand, during the wars, many nationalities and tribes were destroyed - for example, the history of the Huns was interrupted. But on the other hand, thanks to the great migration of peoples, new cultures emerged - having mixed, the tribes borrowed a lot of knowledge and skills from each other. However, this resettlement caused significant damage to the emerging culture of the northern tribes and nomadic peoples. Thus, many tribes of the indigenous peoples of Northern Europe were mercilessly destroyed, the ancient monuments of these peoples - obelisks, mounds, etc. were plundered.

4) The role of the Slavs in the Great Migration of Peoples.

Slavic peoples were direct participants in the Great Migration of Peoples. Although they began to move later than the Germanic tribes. Historians see the reason for the resettlement of the Slavs in the fact that they simply reacted to the movement of the surrounding peoples (Sarmatians, Turks, Illyrians, Thracians).

The Slavs joined the general migration stream in the middle of the fourth century. At this time they were still “friends” with the Goths. But later the Goths and Slavs became opponents. The Slavs joined the Huns.

Due to the invasion of the Hunnic tribes, some of the Slavs were forced to settle in the direction of the west and southwest. And the other part migrated to the Byzantine Empire - to the east.

In the fifth century, the Slavs settled the areas of the Dnieper, Dniester and Danube rivers. And since the 6th century they have been raiding the Balkan Peninsula, approaching the capital of the Byzantine Empire - Constantinople.

By the end of the 6th century, Slavic troops conquered Greece and then developed it. Without stopping there, the Slavs move south. The Balkan Peninsula was completely populated.

The Slavs crossed the Danube, captured new territories and settled them. Among them were Thrace, Macedonia, Hellas. The Slavs also invaded Byzantium.

Thus, the settlement of the Slavs was of a mixed nature: it was both peaceful and military-organized.

2. Describe Polovtsian stone sculpture.

Polovtsian stone sculpture (Polovtsian woman) is a statue symbolizing an ancestor. Such sculptures appeared in the Donetsk steppes in the 9th – 13th centuries. The sculptures are made of gray sandstone and range from 1 to 4 meters in height.

The name of the sculpture – Polovtsian woman – comes from the Turkic “balbal”, which means “ancestor”, “grandfather-father”.

Types of Polovtsian stone women:

· Human figures made from specially selected elongated stones.

· Images of men with mustaches and small beards.

· Images of men are mostly without hats, sometimes with one or more braids down to the waist. On some figures, one or both ears are decorated with earrings, and occasionally a necklace is worn around the neck.

· Images of men dressed in caftans with triangular lapels and narrow sleeves. At the waist there is a belt with a set of decorations, buckles and plaques. Less often in loose clothing with wide sleeves without a belt or weapons.

· Figures with a dagger or saber.

· Figures of a woman sometimes, like the “Chernukhin Madonna” holding a child in her arms.

· Stone women with vessels, which they hold in their right hand, less often in both hands. The shapes of the vessels are varied: cups, bowls, cylindrical vessels. There are several known cases where a perched bird is shown on the right hand.

The oldest types of statues are elongated, flat, with weakly defined features of the figure or without it at all. These were roughly hewn stone pillars, the contours of the face of which were sometimes carved in the shape of a “heart” with a rounded or pointed top like a cap. Faces were not depicted at all, or T-shaped eyebrows and nose, eyes and mouth were depicted in the form of oval depressions. Such figures first appeared in the steppe around the first decades of the 11th century.

The Great Migration of Peoples.

The first centuries of our era became a time of mass migrations across Europe and Asia, called the Great Migration. To refer to this phenomenon, some researchers often use the term “ethnic revolution,” which emphasizes the scale of migration processes at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD and their decisive role in changing the ethnopolitical map of Eurasia. During the global movements of people, especially nomadic peoples associated with the next long cycle (100 years) of drought in the vastness of the Great Asian Steppe, the boundaries of the traditional settlement of many peoples were erased and changed. As a result of migrations and conquests, new state associations collapsed and new ones were created, different ethnic components mixed, and new peoples, ethnic and subethnic communities emerged.

The first wave of the Great Migration, which affected the territories of the Don region and especially the Azov region, was associated with the German tribes of the Goths. In the II - III centuries. AD they moved across the East European Plain, from north to south, from the regions of Scandinavia and the Baltic states, to the Crimea, the Azov region and Ciscaucasia, to the Balkan Peninsula. In the writings of Jordan there is mention of the Mordovians, Meri, Vesi, Esti and the Onega Chud, which then became part of the Gothic kingdom created by the Gothic leader Germanaric.

Under the pressure of the invasion of Turkic nomadic peoples, primarily the Huns, and the activation of the Slavs in the 5th century, the Goths were gradually forced out of the Black Sea region to the west, setting in motion other Germanic tribes bordering the Roman Empire.

In the post-Hun period in the 6th - 8th centuries, the Turkic tribes - Avars, Bulgarians, Torques, Khazars - became military-political leaders on the Eurasian continent. The Turks also stood out in Asian migrations - especially during the settlement of Siberia: Kyrgyz, Uighurs, etc.

The last migration waves of the Great Migration also included the Arab conquests, which began in the 7th century and covered Arabia, Western and Central Asia, Transcaucasia, North Africa. Several stages of Jewish migration from the Middle East also coincided with the era of the Great Migration, although the dispersion of Jews began even before the new era in connection with the Babylonian, Macedonian, and Roman conquests. The Arab campaigns caused several additional waves of exodus of Jews from their ancestral homeland.

The end of the 8th century also saw the first large-scale expeditions of Scandinavian tribes and Normans (Vikings) to both Western and Eastern Europe, including Rus', the Volga region and the Don region. In the 9th century, the Magyars invaded the territory of the Khazar Kaganate and the southern Russian steppes, then the Pechenegs, and in the 11th century - the Cumans (Kypchaks).

Thus, the Great Migration of Peoples at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, from the 4th to the 7th centuries. n. e., opened the “gates” of the “East Asian steppe corridor” to huge masses of Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes. This significantly changed the ethnopolitical panorama of Europe and Asia during the early and partly late Middle Ages, marked the beginning of the ethnogenesis of many modern peoples and the formation of new empires and states of the Middle Ages, modern and modern times.

However, not all nomadic peoples, who lived in the steppes of the Don and Azov regions, left their deep cultural mark on the history of these lands. Sometimes historical memory retained only terrible evidence of their presence - devastated and completely destroyed settlements and forts. They could often transfer only new military technologies to the defeated peoples.

Goths. From the Baltic to the Black Sea steppes in the 2nd century AD. e. The Germanic tribes of the Goths arrived. The Goths fought with the Sarmatians and Alans, but they managed to win only a partial victory. The Goths destroyed the flourishing city-polis of Tanais in the Azov region. In the 4th century AD e. their leader Germanarich formed a kingdom spread over the territory of almost the entire Eastern Europe. From the late 360s, the Christian religion began to actively spread in Gothia. The state of the Goths did not last long, falling under the blows of new nomads from Eurasia, the Turkic Huns.

Huns (Xiongnu). They came from the depths of the “Great Asian Steppe” and in the 4th century AD. e pushed the defeated Goths to the West. These wild, warlike tribes came from the Altai and Mongolian steppes. From there they migrated first to Central Asia and the Southern Urals, where they entered into a military-diplomatic alliance with the Voguls (Mansi), and then to the Azov and Black Sea regions. The famous historian and ethnologist L.N. Gumilyov believed that Southern Urals A completely new ethnic group was created - the Western Huns. They were already “as little similar to the old Asian Xiongnu as Texas cowboys were to English farmers.”

At the end of the 4th century, a powerful Hunnic alliance under the leadership of their leader Attila literally burst through the southern steppes into Europe, causing terrible devastation everywhere. After 70 years of wars and campaigns, the Hunnic union collapsed in the middle of the 5th century. Some of the Huns, remaining on the Danube and in the Black Sea region, were gradually assimilated by their neighbors, while the other part went east. Most historians and ethnologists believe that as a result, part of the Huns transformed into ethnically united tribal unions: Bulgarians, Sovirs, Khazars, for whom the foundations of an early feudal state structure began to take shape.

Turkic Khaganate formed in the middle of the 6th century in Altai and Mongolia, and then expanded its territory to China, the Amu Darya and the Lower Don. With the collapse of the Kaganate, several unions were formed - Avar, Khazar and Bulgar.

Avars, Torques, Berendeys. In the 6th century, these warlike tribes repeated the path of the Huns from Asia to Europe. They settled on what is now the Hungarian Plain and founded the powerful state of the Avar Khaganate, which existed until the beginning of the 9th century. The movement of the Avars across the Eastern European steppes was accompanied by fierce clashes with the Slavs. “The Tale of Bygone Years” tells that the Avars - “obry” enslaved part of the Slavs and subjected them to cruel oppression. Warlike Avars constantly raided Byzantium and Western Europe, their hordes reached the shores of North Sea. In the end, after long wars, the Avars were defeated by the Franks and disappeared from the pages of history. Their death was reflected in Rus' in the saying: “I died like an Aubrey.”

Bulgarian unions. In the 6th century, the Don became the border between the Avar and Great Turkic Khaganates. Having emerged around the 7th century, the Bulgar quasi-state formations were divided into four groups. Two of them roamed the Azov region and the North Caucasus, forming Great Bulgaria in 635, later taking part in the formation of the ethnic Balkars and some other peoples. After the collapse of the union, most of them in the second half of the 7th century submitted to the Khazar Khaganate. The third group went to the Balkans and formed Danube Bulgaria there, where they merged with the Danube Slavs, passing on their ethnonym to them. The fourth migrated to the Middle Volga region, where it subjugated a number of local and Finno-Ugric tribes. The state of Volga Bulgaria was founded by the Bulgars who came to the Middle Volga region around the 7th century. The capital - the city of Bulgar - was a major trading point associated with Russia, northern tribes, southern and eastern nomads. The Bulgars established strong ties with Central Asia, which strengthened after their adoption of Islam in 922. Volga Bulgaria was a multinational state, with the Bulgars and Finno-Ugric peoples “alternately” occupying the same areas, partially assimilating with each other. The modern interstriated coexistence of the Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, and Tatars is rooted in that distant time. Numerically, the Bulgars prevailed. This public education remained until it was destroyed by the Mongol Tatars in 1236. After this, the name “Bulgars” in the Volga region began to gradually disappear under conditions of assimilation. But the people who once bore this name did not disappear; The descendants of the Volga Bulgars, according to a number of scientists, are the Chuvash and Kazan Tatars. The Bulgarian element was noticeable in the process of formation of the Bashkirs, Mari, and Udmurts, who then partially entered the Kazan Khanate.

Finno-Ugric peoples. Magyars-Hungarians and Don Levedia. The widely known “Tale of Bygone Years” listed the peoples who paid tribute to Rus' in the 9th - 11th centuries: Chud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis, Mordovians, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Norova, Lib . The Nikon Chronicle added Meshchera to the number of tributaries of Rus'. All these peoples maintained active economic ties with the Slavs and often entered into military-political alliances. There were processes of cultural and everyday borrowing, and mixed marriages took place. The Finno-Ugric influence is clearly visible in Russian geographical toponymy (Moscow, Oka, Sylva, Protva, Sosva, Lozva, Murom, Vesyegonsk, etc.), in the Great Russian anthropological type, in the dialect of the Great Russians, in Russian mythology (water, goblin, mermaids are a copy of Finnish ideas), in the nature of Russian economic crafts, in their everyday life (steam bath, heater stoves, etc.).

Other Finno-Ugric tribes: Ugrians, Ogors, Magyars, Khanty, Mansi, Voguls in the 7th - 11th centuries. had quasi-state independence, living in the territory approximately between the river. Kama and Ural. Around the end of the 9th century, the Magyars, a very large Finno-Ugric tribe related to the Khanty-Mansi, migrated from the territory of the Southern Urals to the steppes of the Don region, the Azov region and the steppe Ciscaucasia. According to legends, here, after they inflicted a number of serious defeats on the Khazar Kaganate, a fairly powerful, but short-lived quasi-state association was created - Levedia (Levedia, according to a number of researchers, was located on the right bank of the Don, between the Seversky Donets and the bend of the Don as it approached the Volga ). After its weakening, under the pressure of the aggressive Union of Pecheneg Tribes, the Magyars moved further into Europe, their campaign ended with the settlement of Pannonia, where they assimilated part of the local Slavs, eventually founding the Hungarian Kingdom.