Who are you Avars? Avars - obra of ancient Russian chronicles
Avars. 6th–7th centuries
In the middle of the 6th century, various tribes of nomads poured into Southern Europe, into the valley of the Lower and Middle Danube, following the weakened and scattered Huns because of the Volga, through the Black Sea steppes, which were united by Hagan Bayan on the territory of modern Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine to Old Turkic Avar Khaganate, existed from 562 to 823.
Avars(other - Rus. Obry) - a nomadic people, composed of Sarmatian-Alanian tribes of Central Asian origin with a large admixture of Turkic-speaking tribes, who moved in the VI century in Central Europe. Ethnicity avar causes controversy among historians, different groups of which consider the Avars to be either a Mongol-speaking, or an Iranian-speaking, or a Turkic-speaking ethnic group, but agree that the Avars in any case did not represent a homogeneous tribe. The Avars, pushed to the west by the ancient Turks, appear in 555 in the steppes of western Kazakhstan. In 557, their nomad camps were transferred to the western bank of the Volga in the steppes. North Caucasus where they enter into an alliance with the Alans. This confirms the opinion of L. N. Gumilyov a that the Avars are related to the Sarmatian tribes of the Alans.
In 559, the Avars passed through the lands of the northerners (Sabirs) to Voronezh, occupied by the Goths, and together with the Russian squads of Pride and the Alanian squads of Scoten took the city by storm. Not daring to overcome the “serpent ramparts”, under the leadership of the Khagan Bayan, around 560, the Avars and Kutrigurs invaded the lands of the Dulebs and Ants in Volhynia, located at the sources of the Bug, Pripyat and Dniester. The Volyn principality was ruled by Prince Mezamir, son of Idarizius and brother of Kelagast.
During the attack of the Avars, the Ants found themselves face to face with the enemy and fell into distress. Trying to avert the final defeat, Prince Mezamir went to the Avars as an ambassador in 561 to negotiate peace and ransom his captive tribesmen. In the camp of the Avars, Mezamir was killed. The Byzantine historian spoke about the circumstances of the murder of Mezamir Menander Protector. (See chapter “Ants, Croats, Tivertsy. V-VI centuries.»)
The further movement of the Avars led to the migration of other tribes, among which were probably the Antes, who inhabited the Black Sea lands and the regions of the Lower Danube, where the Avars hordes passed. At this time, the Ants in the Dnieper region continued to fight with the Goths advancing from the Crimea.
The Avars on the Danube entered into an alliance with the Goths and in 562 attacked the settlements of the Slavs in Lesser Scythia, on the western coast of the Black Sea near the Danube Delta, in later times known as Dobruja. The Slavs of Lesser Scythia, leaving their huts, hid in the forests, and then fled to Prince Dobrita, where Slavic squads gathered to repulse the enemy.
At the end of the 6th century, the Avars from the mouth of the Danube go to the Middle Danube to Pannonia, where another part of the Avar horde comes from the east through Galicia. Bayan was founded on the Danube by the Avar Khagan Avar Khaganate(VI-IX centuries), located on the territory of modern Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine and existed until 823. The capital of the kaganate was a hring (fortified military camp) on the territory of Timisoara. The Avars made a number of raids from there to the Carpathians and Volhynia, to the areas of settlement of the Dulebs. In 568, after the departure of the Lombards to Italy, the Avars, led by their Khagan Bayan, became the masters of the entire Transdanubia, which turns into the main focus of their attacks on Byzantine possessions. In the 580s, the Avars conquered all of Pannonia, and on the Dniester in Galicia, the lands of the Croats and Dulebs. In 582, the Avars, together with the subject Slavs, captured the strategic Byzantine outpost of Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica), and the next year they devastated Illyria. In 597, the Avars captured Dalmatia, flooding it with Croats. In 599 they besiege Tomis on the Black Sea coast.
At the end of the VI century, the Avars invaded the empire, passed through Thrace and Macedonia and reached Constantinople. In 600, a shameful peace for Byzantium was concluded. The Avar Khaganate terrorized the peoples of Europe for more than 200 years. The Antes Slavs, the Slavic population of the Czech Republic and Moravia and a number of regions of the Eastern Carpathians fell under the rule of the khans of the Avar Khaganate and in the 6th-7th centuries. were obliged to recruit warriors into the army of the Avars.
The Avar Khaganate was a multi-ethnic power, in which the majority of the population was Slavic, which is confirmed by the spread in the Middle Danube in the 6th-7th centuries. Slavic ceramics, layered on the cultural layers that existed before in a number of areas of the Middle Danube Slavic population. In some regions of the distribution of the Slavic-Avar culture, the Slavs, apparently, constituted the main core of the population. The distribution of these antiquities over a vast territory from the Adriatic to the Dnieper, according to Yugoslav researchers, reflects Slavic settlement 7th century and determines the direction of migration from the east, from the northern Black Sea lands to the west, in the region of the Danube and the Balkan Peninsula. According to Byzantine sources, historians early medieval sometimes the Avars meant Slavic Antes.
The Avars mainly fought long wars in the Balkans, fighting with Constantinople and suppressing individual local tribes. Having conquered the kingdom of the Gepids in alliance with the Lombards, the Avars went along the Tisza to the southern borders of Slovakia and around 600, together with the Horutan Slavs, settled Inner Norik. But then the Avars began to suffer defeats from the Greeks, and the uprisings of the conquered tribes finally undermined the forces of the Avars. In 623 (according to Mauro Orbini in 617) the Western Slavs, led by Samo raise an uprising of the Slavs against the Avars and on the territory of modern Czech Republic and Lower Austria a strong Slavic State of Samo(631–658), ancestral confederation of modern Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Serbs and Slovenes Prince Samo waged successful wars with the Avars and Franks, in particular, after the victory in 631, he conquered the lands inhabited by Lusatian Serbs from the Franks. The Slavs expelled the Avars from Illyria and settled in the historical Slavic lands of Croatia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Dalmatia and Macedonia. Samo named Slav in anonymous Salzburg treatise of the ninth century. "Conversion of the Bavarians and Karantans". After the death of Samo in 658, the state he had created collapsed under pressure from the Avars.
As a result of a series of defeats from Byzantium, Slavs, Croats and Franks, the Avar Khaganate, decomposed by internal strife, began to disintegrate in the middle of the 7th century. Khan Alzek leaves it with his horde of Kutrigurs. By 632 Khan Kubrat, having united the Bulgar tribes Kutrigur, Utigur and Onogur, creates medieval state Great Bulgaria, ousting the Avars from the Northern Black Sea region and the Lower Danube. By 640, the Croats had driven the Avars out of Dalmatia. The Avar Khaganate suffered a final defeat at the end of the 8th century as a result of the Franco-Avar war. The Avars resisted fiercely and suffered catastrophic casualties. They rebelled several more times against the rule of the Franks, but in 803-804. the Bulgarian ruler KhanKrum seized all the Avar lands up to the Middle Danube and the remnants of the Avars quickly assimilated among the ethnically related Proto-Bulgarians. The Avar Khaganate ceased to exist around 823.
The territory of modern Hungary with the collapse of the Avar Khaganate was inhabited by significant groups of Slavs. It is known that in the interfluve of the Sava and Drava in the 9th century. there was a Slavic principality. In Pannonia in the middle of the 9th century. a Slavic principality arose with a center in the area of the city of Zalavar, headed by Pribina and his son and successor Kotsel. At the beginning of the ninth century Timochan Slavs settled in the Zala river basin. Large masses of the Slavic population concentrated on the hilly outskirts of the Carpathian basin, the center of which continued to serve as a pasture for the remnants of the Avar population. During the ninth century the remnants of the Avars are gradually dissolving among the Slavic settlers who have flooded into the Transdanubia. The expression of the Russian chronicle is widely known: “ died like a find, they have no tribe, no heir.
After several previous chapters describing the history of the invasion of nomadic peoples in the 4th-7th centuries. in the Black Sea region, I cannot help but give opinions on this issue Yu. I. Venelina, Russian historian of the XIX century. He believed that the times of dominance in the Black Sea region of the Huns, Bulgars, Khazars and Avars (the same Indo-Europeans, related to the Slavs-Rus) were actually the time of the birth of the early state formation of the Russian people on the Russian Plain, i.e. it was Russia.
From the book Slavic Europe of the 5th-8th centuries author Alekseev Sergey ViktorovichAvars in Europe Nomadic tribes of Uar and Khuni (Varhonites) became known in Europe under the name Avars. By the middle of the 6th century, nomads united under the rule of the Altai Turks (Turkut) in the Asian steppes. The Turkuts conquered many of their kindred, as well as Iranian and
From the book Ancient Russia author6. Avars, Slavs and Byzantium in the first quarter of the seventh century In 602, riots broke out in the Byzantine army stationed on the banks of the Danube. The soldiers were annoyed that they had not received pay for several months, and a message came from the capital that in the future they
From the book Ancient Russia author Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich7. Great Bulgaria, Avars and Slavs in the second quarter of the seventh century The campaign of 626 was the last attempt of the Avars to capture Constantinople. Both the prestige of the kagan and the power of his army were severely undermined by this defeat, and it was from this moment that the decline of the Avar began.
From the book Ancient Russia author Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich7. Byzantium and Bulgars, Franks and Avars, 739-805 From the fate of the Don and Azov lands, we must now turn again to the Danube region and the Balkans in order to take up the consideration of the Bulgaro-Ante state. With the death of Khan Sevar (739), the Dulo dynasty ended, and
From the book Millennium around the Caspian [L/F] author Gumilyov Lev Nikolaevich50. True and False Avars The inertial phase of the ethnogenesis cycle we are describing was embodied not only in the “Eternal El” created by the Turkic heroes. 6th-7th centuries became the era of khaganates throughout the Great Steppe from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea. And all of them: Khazar and
From the book History of the Byzantine Empire. T.1 author From the book Empire of the Steppes. Attila, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane author Grousset ReneAvars The steppes of southern Russia are for the geographer nothing more than a continuation of the Asian steppes. The same is true for the historian. We have already seen this in antiquity, in relation to the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns. This fact also applies to the period of the early Middle Ages, from the Avars to
From the book Secrets of Great Scythia. Historical Pathfinder's Notes author Kolomiytsev Igor PavlovichWho are you Avars? We found out that they once lived near the borders of great China and were called zhuan or zhuan-zhuan in the ancient chronicles of this distant country. The historian Lev Gumilyov, on the contrary, considered them to be sedentary farmers, the Chionites, who lived in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River.
From the book Invasion. Harsh Laws author Maksimov Albert VasilievichAVARS * Avar invasion * Huns and inventions of historians * Laws of the victors
From the book Barbarian Invasions on Europe: German Onslaught by Musset LucienB) Avars The Lombard invasion of Italy became a pretext - if not the real reason- for the aggression of the Avars in the heart of Europe. This nomadic people in the middle of the 7th century. located north of the Caspian Sea. The pressure of the Turks prompted him to move to the west, and when the Khagan Bayan
From the book History of the Byzantine Empire. Time to crusades before 1081 author Vasiliev Alexander AlexandrovichSlavs and Avars Important events played out after the death of Justinian in the Balkan Peninsula. Unfortunately, sources provide only fragmentary information about them. Earlier it was said that under Justinian the Slavs carried out frequent attacks on the regions of the Balkan
From the book Book 2. The heyday of the kingdom [Empire. Where did Marco Polo actually travel? Who are the Italian Etruscans. Ancient Egypt. Scandinavia. Rus-Horde n author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich1.2. Avars and Ruthenia = Russia-Horde Brugsh describes the conquest of “Ancient” Egypt by the Hyksos in this way: “According to Manetho ... at some time a wild and rude people, COMING FROM THE EAST, flooded the lower lands with their MOBs, attacked the native kings who were sitting in their cities, and took over all
From the book Origin of the Slavs author Bychkov Alexey AlexandrovichAvars. Slavs The appearance of nomadic Avars in the Balkans was greatly facilitated by Byzantium, which tried to use them to fight against other "barbarians". Incited by her, the Avars, led by the kagan Bayan, around 560 broke the Antian tribal union and advanced to the mouth
From the book Frankish Empire of Charlemagne ["European Union" of the Middle Ages] author Levandovsky Anatoly PetrovichAvars According to Eingard, the biographer of Charlemagne, the Avar war should take the first place in terms of duration and difficulties after the Saxon war. And the truth, which lasted more than eight years, was complicated by external circumstances and forced the king, as in Saxony,
From the book Slavs: from the Elbe to the Volga author Denisov Yury NikolaevichWhere did Avars come from? There are quite a lot of references to the Avars in the works of medieval historians, but the descriptions of their state structure, way of life and class division are completely insufficient, and information about their origin is very contradictory.
From the book Slavs and Avars. The second half of the 6th - beginning of the 7th century. author Alekseev Sergey ViktorovichAvars in Europe Under the name Avars in Europe, the nomadic tribes of yap and Khuni (Varhonites) became known. By the middle of the 6th century, nomads united under the rule of the Altai Turks (Turkut) in the Asian steppes. The Turkuts conquered many of their kindred, as well as Iranian and
Lived in the Aral Sea region and united with the Ugrians. Mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus in the 4th century. n. e.;
At the same time, all theories allow for the possible influence of different ethnic elements and agree that the Avars, in any case, did not represent a homogeneous tribe and, as they moved towards Europe, they experienced a strong influence of Turkic-speaking tribes.
Traditionally, among historians, it is customary to identify the Avars with the Central Asian people Zhuan-Zhuan (Zhou-Zhan) - (Chinese exercise 蠕蠕, pinyin: Ruǎnruǎn, or whale. ex. 柔然, pinyin: Rouran). This opinion was shared by B. Spuler, J. Markwart, W. Eberhard, R. Grusset, K. Menges, P. Pello, E. A. Khelimsky. According to the point of view of the above researchers, the Mongol-speaking of the Jurans is undoubted. On linguistic material, the theory finds confirmation in the early Mongolian borrowings in Slavic languages: for example, the words "gonfalon" and "cart", and also indirectly in the existence of the title kagan, which was known among the Rourans.
Scientists who are skeptical of the Rouran hypothesis admit that a certain contribution of the Rourans to the Avar union is possible, but they believe that it was not the main one. So, attention is drawn to the mention in the Chinese chronicle of the tribe hua(Chinese ex. 滑, pinyin: Hua), which migrated from the Tarim Basin to Afghanistan and was a branch of the Yuezhi or Hephthalites. Turkish researcher Mehmed Tezcan believes that hua acted as the political name of the Heftalite group.
A significant contribution to the justification of the Iranian language of most of the early Avars and the presence of their kinship with the "White Hun" ( White Huns, Aryan Huns) by the tribes of Afghanistan and adjacent areas: Ephthalites, Chionites, Kidarites were introduced by the works of the Japanese researcher Katsuo Enoki. In essence, the same position is defended by Nikolai Kerrer, K. Tsegled, A. Hermann and others. In A. Hermann's Atlas of China, the eastern territories of Khorasan, Tokharistan and other lands adjacent to them are indicated as the patrimony of the Afu / Hua / Avars people /ephthalite
A number of researchers, based on the reports of the Byzantine historians Fiofilakt Simokatta and Menandor, believe that “pseudo-Avars” acted in Europe - Varhonites (Uar and Khuni tribes), who appropriated the name Avars to frighten their neighbors.
When Emperor Justinian occupied the royal throne, some of the Huar and Hunni tribes fled and settled in Europe. Calling themselves Avars, they gave their leader the honorary name of kagan. Why they decided to change their name, we will tell, without departing from the truth. Barselt, the Unnugurs, Sabirs and, besides them, other Hunnic tribes, seeing only a part of the Uar and Hunni people who fled to their places, were imbued with fear and decided that the Avars had moved to them. Therefore, they honored these fugitives with brilliant gifts, hoping thereby to ensure their safety. When the Uar and the Hunni saw how favorable the circumstances were for them, they took advantage of the mistake of those who sent embassies to them and began to call themselves Avars; they say that among the Scythian peoples the tribe of Avars is the most active and capable. Naturally, even up to our time, these pseudo-Avars (as it would be correct to call them), having appropriated the leading position in the tribe, have retained various names: some of them, according to an old habit, are called Uar, while others are called Hunni.
Avar language
Data on the Avar language are very scarce and do not allow us to judge with certainty about its belonging. The Avar titles and personal names preserved in written sources are universal for the Altaic language family. According to archeological data, the Avars used a kind of runic writing, but all the inscriptions found are very short and cannot be deciphered. The only monument, according to which they are trying to reconstruct the Avar language of the European period, is the inscription made in Greek letters on a vessel from the Nagy-Saint-Miklos treasure. The conclusions of linguists are different. The Russian linguist E. Khelimsky attributed her language to the Tungus-Manchu group. O. Mudrak, on the contrary, defined it as typically “Bulgarian” (that is, belonging to the Turkic Oghur “Bulgarian” group). .
The Bulgarian researcher Zh. Voynikov made a translation of this inscription:
So, the meaning of the expression: Boyla zhupan put, made, or engraved an inscription, according to custom, or as a sign of trust, for the use of the Boyta zhupan bowl, respectively for pleasure, satisfaction, or purification.
Anthropological data
Hungarian archaeologists define the Avars as Caucasoids (in the majority) and note that a small stratum, apparently the dominant one, retained a pronounced Mongoloid type, such as that of modern Buryats and Mongols (Tungids). However, even more often among representatives of the same dominant group, the so-called Turanian (Central Asian) type of facial structure was noted.
Culture Features
Avar men grew their hair long and braided it.
Political history
On the arena of world history, the Avars appear in 555 as a nomadic people pushed to the west by the ancient Turks. Then they still wandered in the steppes of western Kazakhstan. In 557, their nomad camps are transferred to the western bank of the Volga in the steppes of the North Caucasus, where they enter into an alliance with the Alans against the Savirs and Utigurs. A tribe related to the Avars mentioned in Byzantine sources Zabender, possibly related to the emergence of the city of Semender in the Caspian Dagestan.
Avar heritage
Avars played an important role in the ethnogenesis of the Hungarian people
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Notes
- For a summary of opinions, see
- www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/Tezcan_Apar.pdf.
- The Origin of the White Huns or Hephthalites. Roma: -East and West, IV. 1955, no. 3; see also On the nationality of the Hephthalites. Tokyo: Memories of the Department of the Toyo Bunko, N18,1959
- TSB. T.1 M., 1969.
- Hungarians and Europe in the Middle Ages. CEU Press
- Theophylact Simocatta (translated by S. P. Kondratiev). .
- Alano-Old Bulgarian writing, V. Tarnovo, ed. Faber. 2010, pp. 157-159
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary. T. 2. Publishing house "Nauka". Leningrad branch. Leningrad 1975. Responsible. editor V. I. Tsintsius. Compiled by: V. A. Gortsevskaya, V. D. Kolesnikova, O. A. Konstantinova, K. A. Novikova, T. I. Petrova, V. I. Tsintsius, T. G. Bugaeva. Scanning: Alexander Lidzhiev (Elista), 2005. All files are in pdf format and range in size from 300 Kb to 5 Mb. Website: , pp. 204, 149
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary. T 2. Pg. 218, 219, 221.
- M. R. FEDOTOV "Etymological dictionary of the Chuvash language" (volume 2 C-Z pdf, 22 Mb) Cheboksary - 1996 Website: , p.204
- Altaic etymology. S. Starostin. Copyright 1998-2003. The etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages, on which a group of researchers - S. Starostni, A. V. Dybo, O. A. Mudrak and I. Shervashidze - have been working for about four years. This database contains a large number of still quite raw material, which the authors hope to polish in the final edition, but are ready to put this material on public display so that the latest achievements of Altaic studies become publicly available.
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary, p. 176.
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary. T. 1. P. 333.
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary. T 2. Pg. 229, 241, 173, 223.
- Comparative dictionary of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Materials for the etymological dictionary. T 2. Pg. 240-241.
- LN Gumilyov Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe.
- S. E. Tsvetkov. Historical Moment: Twelve Centuries of Our History in Twelve Months.
- V. M. Beilis. From the history of Dagestan VI-XI centuries. (Sarir) // Historical notes. - 1963. - T. 73.
Literature
- History of Hungary / Ed. ed. V. P. Shusharin. - M.: Nauka, 1971. - T. I. S. 75-80.
- - the newspaper "History", No. 19'2001 (one of the versions of the origin of the Avar tribes).
- Erdeli I.// Nature, 1980, No. 11.
- Erdeli I. Avars // Disappeared peoples: Collection of articles (based on the materials of the journal "Nature") / Comp. cand. philosophy Sciences S. S. Neretina; Ed. Dr. ist. Sciences P. I. Puchkov; Artistic issued E. L. Goldina. - M .: Science, 1988. - S. 99-110. - 176 p. - 25,000 copies. - ISBN 5-02-023568-7.(reg.)
- Breuer, Eric Byzanz an der Donau. Eine Einführung in Chronologie und Fundmaterial zur Archaeologie im Frühmittelalter im mittleren Donau Raum. Tettnang, 2005. - ISBN 3-88812-198-1 (Neue Standardchronologie zur awarischen Archaeologie, Standardwerk)
- Die Awaren am Rand der byzantinischen Welt. Studien zu Diplomatie, Handel und Technologietransfer im Frühmittelalter. Innsbruck 2000. - ISBN 3-7030-0349-9
- Lovorka Bara, Marijana Perii, Irena Martinovi Klari, Siiri Rootsi, Branka Janiijevi, Toomas Kivisild, Jüri Parik, Igor Rudan, Richard Villems and Pavao Rudan: Y chromosomal heritage of Croatian population and its island isolates, European Journal of Human Genetics (2003) 11, 535-542. (Medizinische Studie zu Genvergleichen, von Fachleuten eher kritisch beurteilt)
- Nikolajev S. L., Starostin S. A. A North Caucasian Ethymological Dictionary. - Moscow, 1994
- Pohl, Walter: Die Awaren, Ein Steppenvolk in Mitteleuropa 567-822 n.Chr. München 2002. - ISBN 3-406-48969-9
- Rasonyi, Laszlo. Tarihte Türkluk. Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1971
- Reitervölker aus dem Osten. Hunnen + Awaren. Burgenländische Landesausstellung 1996, Schloss Halbturn. Eisenstadt 1996.
- Sinor, Denis The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990.
- Szentpeteri, Jozsef (Hrsg.): Archaeologische Denkmäler der Awarenzeit in Mitteleuropa. Varia archaeologica Hungarica 13. Budapest 2002. - ISBN 963-7391-78-9 , ISBN 963-7391-79-7
Links
- Ancient Turkic dictionary. Leningrad - 1969 Authors: Nadelyaev V. M., Nasilov D. M., E. R. Tenishev, Shcherbak A. M., Borovkova T. A., Dmitrieva L. V., Zyrin A. A., Kormushin I. V., Letyagina N. I., Tugusheva L. Yu. Leningrad 1969. Website: . All files are presented in pdf format. Scanning - Ilya Gruntov, 2006
- For the origin of the Nirun clans and Genghis Khan, see
- For the Avars as the last wave of Iranian nomads, see
- For the similarity of Mongolian military tactics with the Avar, see
- Studien zur Archäologie der Awaren (1984 ff.) und zahlreiche weitere Publicationen von
- (Anm: Die nördliche und nordwestliche Grenze des Awarenreichs ist auf dieser recht vereinfachten Karte falsch eingezeichnet, sie verlief viel südlicher)?
- For the results of craniological studies of the Avars, see
- On the anthropological appearance of the Avars and the social status of the Mongoloid Avars, see.
- Avars, Germans, Byzantines and Slavs in the Carpathian Basin, see:
- For Avar descendants in Croatia, see
- Map of the Avar Khaganate
An excerpt characterizing the Avars
Pierre got down and, stopping, talked to the doctor, explaining to him his intention to participate in the battle.The doctor advised Bezukhov to turn directly to his lord.
“Why, God knows where you are during the battle, in obscurity,” he said, exchanging glances with his young comrade, “but the brightest still knows you and will graciously accept you. So, father, do it, - said the doctor.
The doctor seemed tired and in a hurry.
- So you think ... And I also wanted to ask you, where is the very position? Pierre said.
- Position? the doctor said. - It's not my thing. You will pass Tatarinov, there is a lot of digging. There you will enter the barrow: you can see it from there,” said the doctor.
- And can you see it from there? .. If you ...
But the doctor interrupted him and moved to the britzka.
- I would accompany you, yes, by God, - here (the doctor pointed to his throat) I am galloping to the corps commander. After all, how is it with us? .. You know, count, tomorrow there is a battle: for a hundred thousand troops, a small number of twenty thousand wounded must be counted; and we have no stretchers, no beds, no paramedics, no doctors for six thousand. There are ten thousand carts, but you need something else; do as you wish.
That strange thought that out of those thousands of people alive, healthy, young and old, who looked with cheerful surprise at his hat, there were probably twenty thousand doomed to wounds and death (perhaps the very ones he saw), Pierre was startled.
They may die tomorrow, why do they think of anything other than death? And suddenly, due to some secret connection of thoughts, he vividly imagined the descent from the Mozhaisk mountain, carts with the wounded, ringing, slanting rays of the sun and the song of the cavalrymen.
“The cavalrymen go to battle and meet the wounded, and do not think for a minute about what awaits them, but walk past and wink at the wounded. And of all these, twenty thousand are doomed to death, and they are surprised at my hat! Weird!" thought Pierre, heading further towards Tatarinova.
At the landowner's house, on the left side of the road, there were carriages, wagons, crowds of batmen and sentries. Here stood the brightest. But at the time Pierre arrived, he was not there, and almost no one from the staff was there. Everyone was in prayer. Pierre rode forward to Gorki.
Driving up the mountain and driving out into a small village street, Pierre saw for the first time militia men with crosses on their hats and in white shirts, who, with a loud voice and laughter, were animated and sweaty, were working something to the right of the road, on a huge mound overgrown with grass .
Some of them were digging the mountain with shovels, others were carrying the earth along the boards in wheelbarrows, others were standing, doing nothing.
Two officers stood on the mound, directing them. Seeing these peasants, obviously still amused by their new military situation, Pierre again remembered the wounded soldiers in Mozhaisk, and it became clear to him what the soldier wanted to express, saying that they wanted to pile on all the people. The sight of these bearded men working on the battlefield with their strange clumsy boots, with their sweaty necks and some of their shirts unbuttoned with slanting collars, from under which the tanned bones of the collarbones could be seen, had an effect on Pierre more than anything he had seen and heard so far. about the solemnity and significance of the present moment.
Pierre got out of the carriage and, past the working militias, ascended the mound from which, as the doctor told him, the battlefield was visible.
It was eleven o'clock in the morning. The sun stood somewhat to the left and behind Pierre and brightly illuminated through the clean, rare air the huge panorama that opened before him like an amphitheater along the rising terrain.
Up and to the left along this amphitheater, cutting through it, the big Smolenskaya road wound, going through a village with a white church, lying five hundred paces in front of the mound and below it (this was Borodino). The road crossed under the village across the bridge and through the descents and ascents wound higher and higher to the village of Valuev, which could be seen six miles away (Napoleon was now standing in it). Behind Valuev, the road was hidden in a yellowed forest on the horizon. In this forest, birch and spruce, to the right of the direction of the road, a distant cross and the bell tower of the Kolotsky Monastery glittered in the sun. Throughout this blue distance, to the right and left of the forest and the road, different places smoking bonfires and indefinite masses of our and enemy troops could be seen. To the right, along the course of the Kolocha and Moskva rivers, the area was ravine and mountainous. Between their gorges, the villages of Bezzubovo and Zakharyino could be seen in the distance. To the left, the terrain was more even, there were fields with grain, and one could see one smoking, burned village - Semenovskaya.
Everything that Pierre saw to the right and to the left was so indefinite that neither the left nor the right side of the field fully satisfied his idea. Everywhere there was not a share of the battle that he expected to see, but fields, clearings, troops, forests, smoke from fires, villages, mounds, streams; and no matter how much Pierre disassembled, he could not find positions in this living area and could not even distinguish your troops from the enemy.
“We must ask someone who knows,” he thought, and turned to the officer, who was looking with curiosity at his unmilitary huge figure.
“Let me ask,” Pierre turned to the officer, “which village is ahead?”
- Burdino or what? – said the officer, addressing his comrade with a question.
- Borodino, - correcting, answered the other.
The officer, apparently pleased with the opportunity to talk, moved towards Pierre.
Are ours there? Pierre asked.
“Yes, and the French are farther away,” said the officer. “There they are, they are visible.
- Where? where? Pierre asked.
- You can see it with the naked eye. Yes, here, here! The officer pointed with his hand at the smoke visible to the left across the river, and on his face appeared that stern and serious expression that Pierre had seen on many faces he met.
Oh, it's French! And there? .. - Pierre pointed to the left at the mound, near which troops were visible.
- These are ours.
- Ah, ours! And there? .. - Pierre pointed to another distant mound with a large tree, near the village, visible in the gorge, near which fires were also smoking and something blackened.
"It's him again," the officer said. (It was the Shevardinsky redoubt.) - Yesterday was ours, and now it's his.
So what is our position?
- Position? said the officer with a smile of pleasure. - I can tell you this clearly, because I built almost all of our fortifications. Here, you see, our center is in Borodino, right here. He pointed to a village with a white church in front. - There is a crossing over the Kolocha. Here, you see, where rows of cut hay lie in the lowlands, here is the bridge. This is our center. Our right flank is where (he pointed steeply to the right, far into the gorge), there is the Moskva River, and there we built three very strong redoubts. The left flank ... - and then the officer stopped. - You see, it's hard to explain to you ... Yesterday our left flank was right there, in Shevardin, over there, you see where the oak is; and now we have taken back the left wing, now out, out - see the village and the smoke? - This is Semenovskoye, yes here, - he pointed to the mound of Raevsky. “But it’s unlikely that there will be a battle here. That he moved troops here is a hoax; he, right, will go around to the right of Moscow. Well, yes, wherever it is, we will not count many tomorrow! the officer said.
The old non-commissioned officer, who approached the officer during his story, silently waited for the end of his superior's speech; but at this point he, obviously dissatisfied with the words of the officer, interrupted him.
“You have to go for tours,” he said sternly.
The officer seemed to be embarrassed, as if he realized that one could think about how many people would be missing tomorrow, but one should not talk about it.
“Well, yes, send the third company again,” the officer said hastily.
“And what are you, not one of the doctors?”
“No, I am,” Pierre answered. And Pierre went downhill again past the militia.
- Ah, the damned! - said the officer following him, pinching his nose and running past the workers.
- There they are! .. They are carrying, they are coming ... There they are ... now they will come in ... - suddenly voices were heard, and officers, soldiers and militias ran forward along the road.
A church procession rose from under the mountain from Borodino. Ahead of all, along the dusty road, the infantry marched harmoniously with their shakos removed and their guns lowered down. Church singing was heard behind the infantry.
Overtaking Pierre, without hats, soldiers and militias ran towards the marchers.
- They carry mother! Intercessor! .. Iberian! ..
“Mother of Smolensk,” corrected another.
The militia - both those who were in the village and those who worked on the battery - having thrown their shovels, ran towards the church procession. Behind the battalion, which was marching along the dusty road, were priests in robes, one old man in a klobuk with a clergy and singers. Behind them, soldiers and officers carried a large icon with a black face in salary. It was an icon taken from Smolensk and since that time carried by the army. Behind the icon, around it, in front of it, from all sides they walked, ran and bowed to the ground with bare heads of a crowd of soldiers.
Having ascended the mountain, the icon stopped; the people holding the icon on towels changed, the deacons lit the censer again, and a prayer service began. The hot rays of the sun beat down sheer from above; a weak, fresh breeze played with the hair of open heads and the ribbons with which the icon was removed; the singing resounded softly under open sky. A huge crowd with open heads of officers, soldiers, militias surrounded the icon. Behind the priest and the deacon, in the cleared place, stood officials. One bald general with George around his neck stood right behind the priest and, without crossing himself (obviously a German), patiently waited for the end of the prayer service, which he considered it necessary to listen to, probably to excite the patriotism of the Russian people. Another general stood in a warlike pose and shook his hand in front of his chest, looking around him. Between this official circle, Pierre, standing in a crowd of peasants, recognized some acquaintances; but he did not look at them: all his attention was absorbed by the serious expression on the faces of this crowd of soldiers and militants, monotonously greedily looking at the icon. As soon as the tired deacons (who sang the twentieth prayer service) began to lazily and habitually sing: “Save your servant from troubles, the Mother of God,” and the priest and deacon picked up: “For we all come running to you, like an indestructible wall and intercession,” - at all faces flashed again the same expression of awareness of the solemnity of the coming minute, which he saw under the mountain in Mozhaisk and in fits and starts on many, many faces he met that morning; and more often heads drooped, hair was shaken, and sighs and blows of crosses on the breasts were heard.
The crowd surrounding the icon suddenly opened up and pressed Pierre. Someone, probably a very important person, judging by the haste with which they shunned him, approached the icon.
It was Kutuzov, making the rounds of the position. He, returning to Tatarinova, went up to the prayer service. Pierre immediately recognized Kutuzov by his special figure, which was different from everyone else.
In a long frock coat on a huge thick body, with a stooped back, with an open white head and with a leaky, white eye on a swollen face, Kutuzov entered the circle with his diving, swaying gait and stopped behind the priest. He crossed himself with his usual gesture, reached the ground with his hand and, sighing heavily, lowered his gray head. Behind Kutuzov was Benigsen and his retinue. Despite the presence of the commander-in-chief, who attracted the attention of all the higher ranks, the militia and soldiers, without looking at him, continued to pray.
When the prayer service ended, Kutuzov went up to the icon, knelt down heavily, bowing to the ground, and tried for a long time and could not get up from heaviness and weakness. His gray head twitched with effort. Finally, he got up and, with a childishly naive protrusion of his lips, kissed the icon and bowed again, touching the ground with his hand. The generals followed suit; then the officers, and behind them, crushing each other, trampling, puffing and pushing, with excited faces, soldiers and militias climbed up.
Swaying from the crush that engulfed him, Pierre looked around him.
- Count, Pyotr Kirilych! How are you here? said a voice. Pierre looked back.
Boris Drubetskoy, cleaning his knees, which he had soiled with his hand (probably, also kissing the icon), approached Pierre smiling. Boris was dressed elegantly, with a hint of marching militancy. He was wearing a long frock coat and a whip over his shoulder, just like Kutuzov's.
Kutuzov, meanwhile, went up to the village and sat down in the shade of the nearest house on a bench, which one Cossack ran at a run, and another hastily covered with a rug. A huge, brilliant retinue surrounded the commander-in-chief.
The icon moved on, accompanied by the crowd. Pierre stopped about thirty paces from Kutuzov, talking to Boris.
Pierre explained his intention to participate in the battle and inspect the position.
“Here’s how to do it,” said Boris. - Je vous ferai les honneurs du camp. [I will treat you to the camp.] The best way to see everything is from where Count Bennigsen will be. I'm with him. I will report to him. And if you want to go around the position, then go with us: we are now going to the left flank. And then we will return, and you are welcome to spend the night with me, and we will form a party. You know Dmitri Sergeyevich, don't you? He is standing here, - he pointed to the third house in Gorki.
“But I would like to see the right flank; they say he is very strong,” said Pierre. - I would like to drive from the Moscow River and the entire position.
- Well, you can do it later, but the main one is the left flank ...
- Yes Yes. And where is the regiment of Prince Bolkonsky, can you tell me? Pierre asked.
- Andrey Nikolaevich? we'll pass by, I'll take you to him.
What about the left flank? Pierre asked.
“To tell you the truth, entre nous, [between us] our left flank, God knows in what position,” said Boris, lowering his voice trustingly, “Count Benigsen did not expect that at all. He intended to strengthen that mound over there, not at all like that ... but, - Boris shrugged his shoulders. – His Serene Highness did not want to, or they told him. After all ... - And Boris did not finish, because at that time Kaisarov, Kutuzov's adjutant, approached Pierre. - BUT! Paisiy Sergeyevich, - said Boris, turning to Kaisarov with a free smile, - And here I am trying to explain the position to the count. It's amazing how his Serene Highness could so correctly guess the intentions of the French!
– Are you talking about the left flank? Kaisarov said.
- Yes yes exactly. Our left flank is now very, very strong.
Despite the fact that Kutuzov expelled all the superfluous from the headquarters, Boris, after the changes made by Kutuzov, managed to stay at the main apartment. Boris joined Count Benigsen. Count Benigsen, like all the people with whom Boris was, considered the young Prince Drubetskoy an invaluable person.
There were two sharp, definite parties in command of the army: the party of Kutuzov and the party of Bennigsen, the chief of staff. Boris was with this last game, and no one, like him, was able, paying obsequious respect to Kutuzov, to make it feel that the old man was bad and that the whole thing was being conducted by Benigsen. Now came the decisive moment of the battle, which was to either destroy Kutuzov and transfer power to Bennigsen, or, even if Kutuzov won the battle, make it feel that everything was done by Bennigsen. In any case, big awards were to be distributed for tomorrow and new people were to be put forward. And as a result, Boris was in an irritated animation all that day.
After Kaisarov, other of his acquaintances approached Pierre, and he did not have time to answer the questions about Moscow with which they bombarded him, and did not have time to listen to the stories that they told him. Every face showed excitement and anxiety. But it seemed to Pierre that the reason for the excitement expressed on some of these faces lay more in matters of personal success, and he couldn’t get out of his head that other expression of excitement that he saw on other faces and which spoke of not personal, but general questions. , matters of life and death. Kutuzov noticed the figure of Pierre and the group gathered around him.
“Call him to me,” said Kutuzov. The adjutant conveyed the wish of his Serene Highness, and Pierre went to the bench. But even before him, an ordinary militiaman approached Kutuzov. It was Dolokhov.
- How is this one? Pierre asked.
- This is such a beast, it will crawl everywhere! answered Pierre. “Because he is disgraced. Now he needs to get out. He submitted some projects and climbed into the enemy’s chain at night ... but well done! ..
Pierre, taking off his hat, bowed respectfully before Kutuzov.
“I decided that if I report to your grace, you can drive me away or say that you know what I am reporting, and then I will not be lost ...” Dolokhov said.
- Well well.
- And if I'm right, then I will benefit the fatherland, for which I am ready to die.
- Well well…
“And if your lordship needs a man who would not spare his own skin, then if you please remember me ... Maybe I will be useful to your lordship.
“So ... so ...” repeated Kutuzov, looking at Pierre with a laughing, narrowing eye.
At this time, Boris, with his courtly dexterity, advanced next to Pierre in the vicinity of the authorities, and with the most natural look and not loudly, as if continuing the conversation that had begun, said to Pierre:
- The militia - they directly put on clean, white shirts to prepare for death. What heroism, Count!
Boris said this to Pierre, obviously in order to be heard by the brightest. He knew that Kutuzov would pay attention to these words, and indeed the brightest turned to him:
What are you talking about the militia? he said to Boris.
- They, Your Grace, in preparation for tomorrow, for death, put on white shirts.
- Ah! .. Wonderful, incomparable people! - said Kutuzov and, closing his eyes, shook his head. - Incredible people! he repeated with a sigh.
- Do you want to smell gunpowder? he said to Pierre. Yes, nice smell. I have the honor to be an admirer of your wife, is she healthy? My retreat is at your service. - And, as is often the case with old people, Kutuzov began to absently look around, as if forgetting everything he needed to say or do.
Obviously, remembering what he was looking for, he lured Andrei Sergeyich Kaisarov, the brother of his adjutant, to him.
- How, how, how are Marina's poems, how are poems, how? That he wrote on Gerakov: “You will be a teacher in the building ... Tell me, tell me,” Kutuzov spoke, obviously intending to laugh. Kaisarov read ... Kutuzov, smiling, nodded his head in time with the verses.
When Pierre moved away from Kutuzov, Dolokhov, moving towards him, took his hand.
“I am very glad to meet you here, Count,” he said to him loudly and not embarrassed by the presence of strangers, with special determination and solemnity. “On the eve of the day on which God knows which of us is destined to remain alive, I am glad to have the opportunity to tell you that I regret the misunderstandings that have been between us, and would like you not to have anything against me. Please forgive me.
Pierre, smiling, looked at Dolokhov, not knowing what to say to him. Dolokhov, with tears in his eyes, hugged and kissed Pierre.
Boris said something to his general, and Count Benigsen turned to Pierre and offered to go with him along the line.
“You will be interested,” he said.
“Yes, very interesting,” said Pierre.
Half an hour later, Kutuzov left for Tatarinov, and Bennigsen, with his retinue, including Pierre, rode along the line.
Benigsen descended from Gorki along the high road to the bridge, to which the officer from the mound pointed out to Pierre as the center of the position, and near which rows of mowed grass, smelling of hay, lay on the bank. They drove across the bridge to the village of Borodino, from there they turned left and past a huge number of troops and guns drove to a high mound on which the militiamen were digging the ground. It was a redoubt, which did not yet have a name, then it was called the Raevsky redoubt, or barrow battery.
Pierre did not pay much attention to this redoubt. He did not know that this place would be more memorable for him than all the places in the Borodino field. Then they drove across the ravine to Semyonovsky, where the soldiers were pulling away the last logs of huts and barns. Then, downhill and uphill, they drove forward through the broken rye, knocked out like hail, along the road to the flushes [a kind of fortification. (Note by L.N. Tolstoy.) ], also then still dug.
Bennigsen stopped at the fleches and began to look ahead at the Shevardinsky redoubt (which had been ours yesterday), on which several horsemen could be seen. The officers said that Napoleon or Murat was there. And everyone looked eagerly at this bunch of riders. Pierre also looked there, trying to guess which of these barely visible people was Napoleon. Finally, the horsemen drove off the mound and disappeared.
The Avars, with their aggressive policy, brought a lot of trouble to powerful neighbors. For more than two centuries they terrorized Byzantium, the Bulgarian kingdom and the Frankish empire, until they "dissolved" in the process of the formation of early feudal Europe.
aliens
The chronicles accurately recorded the last day of the Lombards' stay in the lands of the Roman province of Pannonia (the territory of modern Hungary, as well as a number of neighboring states) - April 1, 568. A day later, they moved to northern Italy, where they created the Lombard Kingdom (present-day Lombardy).
Their place on both banks of the Danube was taken by the Avars who came from the east, who by that time had already settled throughout the Carpathian basin. The aliens managed to create a strong state here, subordinating the tribes that lived on these lands, including the Slavs and Gepids, to their influence.
The Avar Khaganate occupied an advantageous trading position. According to some information, important trade routes passed through the Carpathians, connecting the East with the West. According to the traditions of the nomadic peoples, the Avars levied a duty on trade caravans, as a result of which the wealth and prestige of the state only grew.
Now no one will undertake to say exactly where the Avars came to Europe from. However, the main versions of the origin of the Avars are similar in the direction of their migration - from east to west.
According to one of the hypotheses, the Avars are part of the Rourans defeated by the Turks, who, after the defeat in 555, were forced to flee through the whole of Central Asia. Another version says that the Avars are a cross between the Ugric Uvar tribe and the Iranian-speaking ethnos of the Chionites, who originally lived in the Aral Sea region.
The Hungarian historian András Rona-Tash suggests that the Avars, at least in the late period of their existence, acquired a significant admixture of the Turkic element. One way or another, all theories admit that as the Avars moved into Europe, they were influenced by heterogeneous ethnic components.
Mysterious ethnicity
Oddly enough, there is no mention of the Avars who lived on the territory of modern Hungary in the Hungarian annals. Determine the ancient territory of the settlement of this tribe and imagine it everyday life Byzantine and Latin chronicles, as well as archeological data, help us.
According to the Byzantine chronicles, the Avars were able to establish friendly relations with the Proto-Bulgarians, who moved to the Danube lands from the territories of the Khazar Khaganate in the late 70s of the 7th century. Archaeological material suggests that the Proto-Bulgarians had a significant impact on the Avar culture, moreover, they presumably took part in the formation of the Avar ethnos.
Excavations of the Avar burials led archaeologists to the conclusion that the traditions of organizing large burial grounds, burying horses separately from humans indicate the Mongolian roots of the Avars.
Indeed, the reconstruction of the skulls from most of the burial grounds of the Avar era allows us to attribute them to the Mongoloids. But in some cemeteries this type is rare. Skulls from another category of Avar burials indicate that they belonged to Caucasoids of the Mediterranean, East Baltic and North European types.
The results of archaeological research can speak not only about the active mixing of the Avars with other tribes, but also about their ethnic heterogeneity. That is why scientists still cannot reconstruct the reliable anthropological appearance of this people.
According to the studied remains average duration Avar life was short: for men - 38 years, for women - 36 years. Children often died before the age of two. However, this is not much different from the demographic situation in Europe at that time.
War
The military art of the Avars, which many peoples of Europe encountered, has much in common with the tactics used by the nomads: exhausting the enemy with numerous maneuvers, avoiding close combat, massive shelling of enemy positions with long-range bows.
Especially striking were the counterattacks of the heavily armed plate cavalry of the Avars, which entered the battle at the most unexpected moment, dissecting and demoralizing the ranks of the enemy. The Byzantines considered the Avar methods of warfare to be extremely effective and adopted whole line tactical innovations.
In Constantinople, they wanted to see the Avars as allies, it is no coincidence that in 558 an agreement was concluded between the Byzantines and the Avars, according to which the latter were to fight on the side of the empire. However, very soon the Avars, together with the Kutrigurs, began to attack the allies of Byzantium - the Carpathian and Danubian Antes.
For some time, the Avars manage to force Constantinople to pay tribute. According to some estimates, 1/75 of the gold reserves of Byzantium were paid as tribute to the Avars (the annual flow of gold to the treasury of the empire at that time averaged 37 thousand kilograms of gold).
In 565, rounding the Carpathians from the north, again, in alliance with the Kutrigurs, the Avars penetrated into Thuringia and Gaul, where they committed complete ruin. As a trophy, the conquerors managed to capture the Frankish king Sigisbert I.
The expansive intentions of the Avars grew stronger from year to year. In 567, together with the Lombards, they smash the Gepids, in 570, having failed negotiations, they declare war on Byzantium, in 595, in alliance with the Slovenes, they begin to fight the Bavarian tribes, and two years later they capture Dalmatia.
Only in 626 did the Avars slow down their warlike fervor when they were defeated by the Byzantines while trying to capture Constantinople.
The fall
The unsuccessful campaign against Constantinople seriously affected the state of the Khaganate itself. Inside the state, there is a split into the Avar and Kutrigur groups, each of which supports its own pretender to the throne.
In 640, the Avars were forced out of Dalmatia by the Croats and continued to lose their lands in the future. Very soon, the vast Avar possessions are compressed to the territory of modern Hungary.
For almost a century and a half, the Avars disappear from chronicles and appear on the pages of the chronicles only in 788, when they conclude an alliance with the Bavarian Duke Tassilon III against the Franks. This idea failed, and the Frankish king Charlemagne begins to develop a plan for the final destruction of a dangerous enemy.
In 791, the Franks marched towards the Avar Khaganate with two large armies, gradually capturing the fortifications along the Danube. For some time, the advance of the armies was halted by the uprising of the Saxons, arranged within the Frankish empire. However, the turmoil seized the Avar Khaganate itself, which brought its imminent fall closer. In 804-805, the Bulgarian Khan Krum takes possession of the eastern lands of the Avars, which actually divides the Khaganate into two parts - Bulgarian and Frankish.
In one of the Byzantine chronicles of the 9th century, curious information about the reasons for the disintegration of the kaganate has been preserved. One of the old Avar warriors who fell into Bulgarian captivity, to the question of Khan Kurum, why their masters and their people were ruined, answered: “At first, because of a quarrel that deprived the kagan of faithful and truthful advisers, power fell into the hands of wicked people. Then the judges were corrupted, who were supposed to defend the truth before the people, but instead fraternized with hypocrites and thieves; the abundance of wine gave rise to drunkenness, and the Avars, having weakened physically, also lost their minds. Finally, the passion for trade began: the Avars became traders, one deceived the other, brother sold brother. This, our lord, has become the source of our shameful misfortune.
In 882 the Avars last time are mentioned in the chronicles as a tribe dependent on the Franks. And then the traces of the people, who at one time inspired fear in the powerful states of Europe, are completely lost.
tribal union of nomadic, and mostly Turkic-speaking tribes. They raided the Slavs, Franks, Byzantium. In the 6th c. formed the Avar Khaganate in the Danube basin, retaining part of the land in the Northern Black Sea and Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. The subjugated dulebs were treated cruelly. At the end of the 8th c. defeated by the Franks, at the beginning of the 10th century. conquered by the Hungarians.
Story
In the middle of the 6th c. A. invaded the steppes of the Western Caspian Sea and further into the Northern Black Sea region, the Danube region and the Balkans. In the 50-60s. 6th c. they devastated the lands of the Savirs, Antes, Gepids and other European tribes. At the same time, in Pannonia (the territory of part of modern Hungary, Yugoslavia and Austria), the Avar Khaganate was created - a tribal association of the type of "barbarian empires". It was headed by a major commander, Khan Bayan. Relying on the system of Pannonian fortresses (“hrings”), A. raided the Slavs, Franks, Lombards, Georgians, and also Byzantium. The Kaganate rested only on the military subordination of various tribes and bribery of the tribal elite. Its own economic base was extremely weak and was limited to extensive nomadic pastoralism. This predetermined the internal weakness and fragility of the kaganate. Despite the enrichment of the tribal elite, the process of forming a class society in Azerbaijan was not completed. Major victories in Dalmatia, Illyria, and Moesia (late 6th century) were followed by a decline in the military might of Armenia. In the first half of the 7th century. they suffered a number of defeats from the side of Byzantium, Slavs, Franks, Bulgarians. Within the kaganate, strife began, which contributed to its collapse. In the middle of the 7th c. The Bulgarians were ousted from the northern Black Sea region, and the power over Pannonia was limited by the Bulgarian kingdom, established in 680 on the Danube. In the 90s. 8th c. A. were finally defeated by the Franks of Charlemagne, in 796 the main of the “hrings” fell. Subsequently, the Africans were completely assimilated by the peoples of the Western Black Sea region and the Danube region.
Avar language
Data on the Avar language are very scarce and do not allow us to judge with certainty about its belonging. The Avar titles and personal names preserved in written sources are universal for the Altaic language family. According to archeological data, the Avars used a kind of runic writing, but all the inscriptions found are very short and cannot be deciphered. The only monument from which attempts are made to reconstruct the Avar language of the European period is the inscription made in Greek letters on a vessel from the Nagy-Saint-Miklós hoard. The conclusions of linguists are different. The Russian linguist E. Khelimsky attributed her language to the Tungus-Manchurian group. O. Mudrak, on the contrary, defined it as typical Bulgar (Turkic).
Settlements and economy
At present, the location of several hundred Avar settlements of the 7th-9th centuries is known. The largest excavations in Hungary were carried out near the city of Dunauj-Varosha, where the remains of 37 dwellings have been preserved. In their settlements, the Avars lived in semi-dugouts with wooden walls, inside of which stoves-heaters were stacked. Grain pits were found in many dwellings, and adobe hearths were found between the buildings. In the 7th century, dwellings in each village were located in a circle. Semi-nomadic Avars returned to these winter settlements with their cattle after grazing on summer pastures. From spring to autumn they lived in easily portable yurt-like structures.
The basis of the Avar economy was semi-nomadic cattle breeding. Gradually, the semi-nomadic lifestyle was replaced by a sedentary one. Therefore, part of the population (mainly the descendants of the Romans, Sarmatians and Slavs) was also engaged in agriculture.
The horse played an important role in Avar life. According to the bone remains, it was established that these were horses, mainly of eastern blood, fast, suitable for movement in the steppe and on sandy soils. It was these horses that were depicted by bone and silver carvers of the early Avar era.
In addition to horse breeding, the Avars bred cattle, sheep, goats, small chickens - painted eggshells were found more than once in the burials.
A study of the bones of a pig found among the remnants of food that was supplied to the deceased on a long journey through the afterlife showed that Slavic livestock breeders of the Avar era crossed a South European breed of domestic pig bred in the Neolithic with a North European one. Since then, the Alföld fat-bearing pig breed, which was widespread in the middle of the 20th century, has existed.
Little is known about the crop production of the Avars. The remains of crops are usually found in a charred state. So, grains of millet (this crop was grown by both Avars and Slavs), wheat (VI-VII centuries), rye and oats (IX centuries) have been preserved.
The land was plowed with a wooden plow with an iron coulter. On the territory of Hungary, such a coulter has been known since the 9th century, and in ancient Moravia even earlier. Wheat was reaped with a sickle.
Avar (Kagan?) with signs of artificial deformation of the skull and Yenisei (Asiatic-Hunnic) facial features
Reconstruction after Elvira H. Toth - Istvan Horvath
Most of the burials were found good quality clay vessels, a significant part of which in the late Avar period was made on a potter's wheel. Some vessels were imported from nearby places, not from far away, since clay products do not withstand long transportation.
On the territory of Hungary of that time, the remains of an iron-smelting blast furnace for the manufacture of raw materials for weapons and agricultural implements were also found.
Goods were produced not only to meet their own needs, but also for exchange. In the Avar burials there are many things imported from other places. Among them are gold, silver and bronze earrings, bracelets, rings, buckles, hats, colored glass beads. Obviously, silk fabrics and other material for clothing were brought in, which have not survived to this day. They paid for all this, apparently, with cattle, horses, skins, and wool.
From Latin sources, trading and market places are known where Avars appeared with their goods - itinerant merchants and artisans. The burial of one of them was found in the vicinity of the village of Kunsentmarton. Among the finds was lamellar chest mail: the roads in the country were not always safe for travelers.
Merchants came to the Avar Khaganate from afar, from the East. According to some reports, important trade routes to the West passed through the Carpathians. According to the custom of all nomadic peoples, the Avars levied a duty on trade caravans. As a result, the prestige of the rulers of certain regions of the country and the kagan himself increased significantly.
The Avars themselves did not mint their own money. Some researchers believe that the Avars were engaged in counterfeiting Byzantine gold coins. However, no more than a dozen such fakes were found throughout the territory of the khanate, and this is not enough to finally resolve the issue, especially since counterfeit money was also found among neighboring peoples.
Beliefs
Very little is known about the beliefs of the Avars and other peoples of the Avar Khaganate. One source mentions a chief shaman; another testifies that the Avars were idolaters.
It is clear that the Avars, as it were, doubled the world: in addition to the earthly, they thought for themselves the afterlife. Together with the deceased, food, a horse with weapons, were usually placed in the grave so that the warrior could continue his journey and battles. The underworld, according to shamanistic beliefs, consisted of several levels located one above the other. The dead could get to the upper level only after various tests. Arrows helped to move upwards - that's why they were placed in a quiver next to the buried.
Before the funeral rite or during it, the grave pits were "cleansed" of evil spirits with the help of fire or burning coals.
Different peoples, according to their beliefs, buried people with their heads to one or another part of the world - towards the center of the world or in the direction from which the resurrection was expected. The Avars did not have a single orientation - they were too diverse; burial took place with the head both to the east and to the west. In many cases, magical acts were performed on the dead. After the burial, the grave was opened, the skull of the buried was taken out and spells were read over it. The fear that the deceased might return from the next world prompted sometimes to bury the dead flat on their stomachs.
In order to preach Christianity among the Avars, a bishopric was established in Salzburg as early as 739. The conversion of the Avars to Christianity accelerates at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th centuries, along with falling under Frankish rule.
Art of the Avar era
The Avars were good bone carvers, on horn plates. As the chronicles testify, they made magnificent carpets, embroideries, fabrics, were engaged in artistic processing silver and wood. None of this has survived to this day, but beautiful metal jewelry has survived - Byzantine-style earrings, bracelets, rings, rings; colored glass beads and necklaces, apparently made in the East. Free warriors of the 6th-9th centuries wore belts decorated with metal plaques. Horse harnesses were covered with the same plaques. In the late Avar period, plaques were made using the artistic casting method. It is difficult to find two identical ones among them. Large cast tips with floral ornaments, figurines of people or depictions of animal struggles were fastened to the waist belts. The swords and quivers of the leaders were covered with gold, ordinary soldiers - with silver. Even the iron stirrups were artistically forged, and some were inlaid with silver.
Pottery (pottery kilns were found near the town of Szekszard) was poorly ornamented.
We found out that they once lived near the borders of great China and were called zhuan or zhuan-zhuan in the ancient chronicles of this distant country. The historian Lev Gumilyov, on the contrary, considered them to be sedentary farmers, the Chionites, who lived in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River. But whoever these inventors of stirrups and sabers may be, it is obvious that these are people of an ancient, extremely high culture, unusually warlike and very skillful.It's time to look into the graves of aliens, take a closer look at their appearance or, as scientists say, their anthropological type. And Tibor Toth will help us in this - a Hungarian anthropologist, a representative of a miraculously preserved profession, whose conclusions we have already referred to once. The book written by him (in collaboration with Firshtein) is called “Anthropological data on the question of the Great Migration of Peoples. Avars and Sarmatians.
He begins his work with a description of what was done before him by his predecessors. Hungarian archaeologists studying the Avar burial grounds already knew by that time that the inhabitants of the kaganate were not pure Mongoloids and were a racially mixed type of people, and scientists determined the proportion of Mongoloids at 30-50%. It was assumed that it fell on the actual Avars - newcomers from the depths of Asia. At the same time, as Toth notes: “The conclusions of the listed studies are based mainly on visual morpho-typological definitions.” Simply put, this percentage, as well as the degree of Mongoloidity, was determined “by eye”. We have in historical science The 21st century is in the yard, why do we need computers and complex techniques - he looked at the skull and expressed his competent opinion.
Hence, as a result, "some researchers have accepted the position of the significant role of the Mongoloid big race in shaping the anthropological appearance of the ancient ethnic groups of the Danube basin."
The anthropologist was obviously modest, in fact, not “some”, but almost all historians attributed to the Avars both Mongoloidity and, as a result, the Turkic language. Further, the scientist talks about the methodology underlying his work. Craniology, a science that studies racial characteristics from ancient skulls, like other anthropometric disciplines, was at one time declared almost an "accomplice of Nazism." No wonder that after the victory over fascist Germany, she was subjected to a formal defeat. It is no coincidence that, until very recently, there were no unified qualification principles and generally accepted methods for producing the necessary measurements in anthropology. Hence the inevitable confusion.
Tibor Toth uses the method of the prominent Soviet anthropologist Debets, where the main signs of distinguishing between two large races are considered not the width of the face itself, a very relative sign, but “horizontal profiling of the facial skeleton” and “protrusion of the bone nose”. Simply put, a flat (pancake) or opposite European face protruding in profile and a Mongolian flattened or slender European nose that is familiar to us.
For processing on very complex formulas the anthropologist took one thousand one hundred skulls from 55 burial grounds - most of the bone remains of people from the time of the Avar Khaganate known to science. Having studied skulls from various parts of Hungary one by one, the scientist came to a conclusion that surprised even himself about the overwhelming predominance of representatives of the Caucasoid large race among the population of this state. For example, in Eastern Hungary, out of 150 skulls, only one can be considered Mongoloid. Only ten representatives of this region have signs of Mongoloidity. In the Tisza-Danube interfluve, out of 545 studied skeletons, 16 skulls (mostly of the fair sex) have signs of Mongoloidity, and only 8, also mostly women, are pronounced Mongoloid.
In general, the anthropologist was convinced that his predecessors, who did not take any measurements and visually determined the percentages of representatives of different races, “still significantly overestimated the proportion of the Mongoloid element ... Without denying the presence of the Mongoloid element in the composition of the population of the Avar Khaganate, it should be noted that these local groups are very small and are lost in the total mass of the Caucasoid population of the Avar Khaganate.
The scientist also discovered interesting feature: Mongoloids, as a rule, were buried in separate burial grounds, and such cemeteries turned out to be the smallest. Previously, many Hungarian archaeologists believed that it was these graves that belonged to the Avars proper, because they found jewelry with the so-called "griffin-vegetative" ornament, as well as with "things from Southern Siberia, Northern Mongolia and especially the Altai-Sayan Highlands." (I would very much like to know where the notorious “Syr Darya Chionites” of Gumilyov could get them?)
However, the studies of Thoth confirmed the indisputable fact that Caucasoids mostly rested in this kind of burials. Therefore, there is no doubt that in most cases we are talking about the spread of things and traditions from the region of the Altai-Sayan Highlands or Central Asia, which was not accompanied by a mass migration to the Carpathians of Mongoloid ethnic groups. Elements of the Caucasoid large race in the population of the Avar Khaganate are associated not only with the autochthonous (that is, not alien, local) population, since a significant part of the Avars was also Caucasoid. The share of the Mongoloid element in the composition of the ancestors of the Avars greatly decreased even before they came to the Carpathians.
Why were scientists so grossly mistaken in the past? The fact is that the Avars were not quite typical Caucasians. “In favor of the opinion about the significant role of Mongoloid elements in the anthropological appearance of the Avars, the large value of the zygomatic diameter speaks.” That is, in other words, a wide face, which some scientists considered a sign of exclusively Mongoloids. “However,” Tibor Toth notes quite rightly, “according to the observations of Soviet anthropologists, a wide face is characteristic not only for different craniological types of the Mongoloid trunk, but also for the Proto-European type of the Paleometallic era. It is known that there was a broad-faced, but Caucasoid Andronov type. Andronovites in ancient times were common in the steppes from the Urals to Altai, and it is they who are considered the ancestors of the later Sarmatians and Scythians.
Let's recap what we've learned about these mysterious aliens.
In the middle of the 4th century AD, on the borders of the Chinese Empire, a certain new people, the Juan, appeared, calling themselves yap, or Avars. They are clearly Caucasians, which is why the Chinese consider them to be relatives of the mestizos - the Xiongnu. They speak one of the Indo-European languages of the Iranian group. They are excellent riders, excellently wielding a bow and a spear, as well as a short sword-dagger. Most likely, it was they who invented stirrups, and with them a new tactic of cavalry combat.
The original type of protective equipment for these riders is hryvnias - “necklaces with the rarest threads of flax”, which the Emperor Mauritius liked so much. The Avars pay great attention to their belts, decorating them with gold, gilded and silver-plated overlays with images of outlandish animals - griffins and various Greek mythological scenes.
The psychology of these people is unique - it is not for nothing that the ancient Russian chronicle notes that the “obras” were “proud of the mind”, that is, arrogant, considered themselves the most glorious of peoples. Despite the conquest of many countries, cities and lands, they remained faithful to the traditional nomadic way of life.
Physically, the Avars also did not at all resemble the Mongoloid tribes surrounding them - the proto-Mongols, the ancient Turks and the late Huns. On the contrary, they were tall and slender, “great in body,” according to the first Russian chronicle. Since by the 6th-7th centuries the Great Steppe belonged undividedly to the Mongoloid nomads of the yellow race, the Caucasoid, Iranian-speaking Avars are perhaps the last of the "white" nomadic tribes.
But these horsemen, natives of the Altai Highlands, strongly remind us of someone! Let's remember what else we know about the Avars? Numerous nomadic tribes of the Northern Black Sea region were terribly afraid of them. Of course, the Juan were not the weakest of the ancient nomadic peoples, but we do not observe any very significant successes during their stay in the northern Chinese steppe. Once, it is true, they defeated the Savirs, but why suddenly such a commotion caused their invasion decisively among all the Hunnic tribes? As Simokatta wrote there: “Barselt, Utigurs, Sabirs and, besides them, other Hunnic tribes, seeing only a part of the yap and Hunni people, were imbued with fear and decided that the Avars had moved to them. Therefore, they honored these fugitives with brilliant gifts ... ".
Why, almost the entire Black Sea steppe came to bow to the Avars! What was it in the distant past of this tribe that so many peoples trembled before them, and peoples far from being timid. But the Byzantine Simokatta obviously wanted to tell us something else, some important information about this tribe. As he says there: "... they say that among the Scythian peoples, the Avars tribe is the most active and capable." What kind of tribe was considered the most-most among all the Scythians?
My God, but in front of us are the “royal Scythians” of Herodotus! How could they not be recognized? The same horsemen-shooters, only, of course, somewhat more heavily armed - progress requires. The same bows and exclusively Scythian quivers are gorites, which the meticulous emperor Mauritius describes as "cases of two compartments: for bow and arrows." Before the appearance of the Avars in Europe, not a single people could reproduce the Scythian type of armored shooting archer, not a single one had a gorita in its weapons. It was a unique "know-how" of the royal Scythians.
All the same ancestral home - Altai, a region with which both Scythian and Avar tribes turned out to be closely connected.
The same love for belts and hryvnias. Although, of course, both of them have changed their appearance somewhat.
The same short akinaki swords, which eventually turned into daggers (later the Cossacks and mountain peoples would adopt them), and even the same vice - addiction to intoxicating drinks.
The same love for the severed heads of opponents - the Juanians (early Avars) still make lacquered table bowls from the skulls of their worst enemies.
Of all the Eastern Iranian tribes, only the royal Scythians wore long hair, this was their difference from the Sarmatians and other relatives, an ancient symbol of power. But after all, the Avars - the last surviving of the Aryan nomadic tribes - also let go of long curls, only braid them into braids. And this is a sign of valor and freedom for the aliens.
If Attila still remembered the royal Scythians and rejoiced at finding their sacred sword, then is it any wonder that his descendants were so afraid of the return of this illustrious tribe to their places of such a long stay. And after all, mind you, it was the inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region who were terribly afraid of the Avars, and not some other region.
So, the version is certainly good, but it does not interfere with checking it from all sides. The mentality of the Avars, their arrogance and national pride, rather, speaks in favor of our assumption - such a psychology can only develop among a people accustomed to long-term domination over all neighbors. Contempt for the enemy, refusal to take advantage of his difficulties - even the Byzantine army was saved from starvation ... But there was a similar episode in Scythian history, when the royal Scythians deliberately threw up supposedly stray herds to King Darius from time to time so that he would not run away ahead of time from their earth. The situations, of course, are somewhat different, and the goals that the nomads sought are different, but one thing is common - the unwillingness to achieve victory with anything other than weapons.
But psychology is an intangible thing. Let's turn to practical things. With the advent of the Avars in the Northern Black Sea region, the Scythian animal style is being revived here. Moreover, it turned out to be so close to the classics that, for example, images of horses and a “dancing man” from the Martynovsky treasure, discovered in Ukraine in the vicinity of Kyiv and dating from the Avar era - the 7th century AD, ended up in the albums of art critics as typically Scythian jewelry. Next to these curious objects, scientists found a hilt and scabbard of a typical Avar broadsword saber.
The favorite symbol of the aliens was the griffin. But this creature, as you know, was the constant companion and patron of the Scythian tribe. Burials without burial mounds are a minus for our version. But after all, eight centuries have passed since the owners of these places left the southern Russian steppes. In addition, his horse, or at least parts of a horse carcass, are buried in the grave with an Avar warrior, the pit itself is lined with pieces of wood - that is, the funeral rite is close to the early Scythian and what was practiced by the inhabitants of the east of the Great Steppe - the Huns.
Let us turn to those Avar names that we know. Bayan or Bayan - does not give us anything, except for one more indication of the Iranian-language ending "an", however, like many Avar titles - kagan, tarkhan, zhupan, ban. Some of these names will be borrowed by the Turks, and from the latter, in turn, by the Tatar-Mongols, some will become titles of nobility Bulgarians and South Slavs.
One of the close associates of the kagan, the first ambassador of this tribe, bore the name Kandikh. And Kandak was the name of the leader of the Alanian tribes, whose secretary was Jordan. Well, one more Avaro-Iranian (more precisely, Sarmatian) parallel, especially if we take into account the well-known fact that the endings are often distorted during translation.
Which of the prominent Avars do we still know? Of course, the wise Targitius - the ambassador to the Byzantines on the eve of the siege of Sirmium, the constant adviser to the Khagan Bayan!
Eureka! Indeed, almost the same - Targitai - was the name of the legendary progenitor of the Scythian tribe. The name of the first was written in Greek TAPXITAOS, the name of the second - TAPXITIOS. For nine letters, the difference is one - the penultimate one, in the ending, which, as we know, is often transformed during translations. Without a doubt, before us - the same name. But the name of the first was recorded by Herodotus according to ancient Scythian legends in the fifth century BC, the name of the second was recognized by Simokatta in the sixth century AD. Between them - a millennium. What kind of moral strength, a propensity to preserve their own traditions and customs, should the people have in order to preserve the memory of their ancestors during such a time period, despite all the vicissitudes of their history?
Meanwhile, the name of the legendary progenitor could be popular only among one ethnic group on Earth - the tribe of royal Scythians. This is their legend, their pride. Not once in history does it surface again among any other, even related, Iranian-speaking peoples. True, a certain female ruler named Tirgitao, a Meotian, the daughter of the leader of the Xomat tribe, existed in the history of the Black Sea region of the 4th century BC, but this was in the era of the direct domination of the royal Scythians there, among the people who experienced their strong influence, directly subordinate to them. And then, as we see, the nickname of the Meotian woman is greatly distorted in comparison with the original. However, this always happens if one people borrows names from another.
When, almost nine centuries after the disappearance of the Herodotus Scythians - cut off from the Northern Black Sea region, a certain tribe suddenly appears in these parts, one of the leaders of which is called Targitius - Targitai, what should we think about this?
There is only one thing: the royal Scythians have returned to us!
Indeed, this tribe could not have disappeared without a trace. The heirs of the glory of the great kings Prototius, Madiya, Idanfirs and Atey could not just leave history without showing themselves in the following centuries. And we did not notice their majestic return to Europe solely because of our own blindness and the witchcraft of the insidious Mirages - the names of the peoples whose magic fascinates the minds and dazzles the eyes. Now, if the Avars, having appeared to the Romans, called themselves “royal Scythians”, and not “yap”, we would immediately understand who we are dealing with. But such a turn of events is excluded for the simple reason that the tribe ruling among the Scythians never called itself that way. In ancient times, they were called skolots, then, under Herodotus, they changed their tribal name to “paralats, traspians, katiars, avhats”, and only all together they were called by the Greeks “royal Scythians”.
The Greeks did not recognize their old friends during the historic meeting with the embassy in 558, not only because the Scythians have changed so much, but also because the Hellenes themselves have also changed quite a lot over the years. They even called themselves in a different way - the Romans, that is, the Romans. Not to mention the fact that the Christian religion radically changed the psychology of the former admirers of Zeus and Athena. In addition, the bright and eventful Hun era almost completely replaced the memory of the peoples who lived in antiquity on the shores of the Black Sea among contemporaries. But the aliens tried, to the best of their ability, to explain who they are. Remember: "The people of Uar come to you, the greatest and strongest of the peoples, the Avar tribe is irresistible." The cry that has come down to us through the centuries: "It's us - the invincible royal Scythians!"