The perception of history by professional historians and amateur historians differs primarily in that professionals perceive history as a kind of abstract picture. The truth for them is what is written in the works of their predecessors and in textbooks. For them, where exactly Rurik came from, from Sweden or from the Baltic states, is only a matter of a new article. Whereas amateurs perceive history as a living process. First of all, the process that led to our current life, the process that ensured the appearance of the things and conditions surrounding us. Every object, every phenomenon has its own history, and amateurs - as a rule, are amateurs because they are carried away by the history of something that concerns them, and therefore for them the question of where exactly Rurik came from is no longer just a scientific-abstract question , and the question of the origin of our statehood, the question of the history of our ancestors... Of course, they are more biased - but also more passionate; on the other hand, those who are not passionate about what they do also turn out to be biased, but to something else... So, everything has a history, and by unwinding time back for any phenomenon around us, we can get to the moment where " everything is unclear." Here professional historians fall silent, in the sense that since they cannot say unambiguously where the threads of the history of the people or phenomenon in question lead, they believe that “everything was different there.” However, an amateur cannot stop at this result. Of course, then everything becomes very speculative and probabilistic - but at least imagining how it COULD have been there, earlier, a step deeper from the known, is necessary. For example, the country of Hungary. Let me make a reservation right away that a country is a territory, a people, state institutions, and a language - and they all may have a different history. That is, the ancestors of those who now live here came here from somewhere (at one time). Once (and somewhere) their language developed. And before that there could have been other peoples who, by mixing, gave rise to the present one; and other peoples lived on this territory... So, it is surprising that Hungary is a country where the official language is a language classified as Finno-Ugric, but at the same time there are entirely Slavs around. And in Hungary itself there are many Slavic communities and names, and the language has almost more Slavic vocabulary than Finno-Ugric. True, it is curious that a sort of “belt of non-Slavs” is being formed, cutting the Slavic lands in two: Austria, Hungary, Romania, to the south of which are Slavic Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, etc., to the north - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (yes and we are with Ukraine and Belarus). The belt from the sea to the Alps, where then the “possession of Germanic languages” begins. This situation had to arise somehow! That is, purely theoretically there can be three options. Perhaps the Slavs penetrated from south to north or from north to south, bypassing already established non-Slavic states. But it is also possible that speakers of other languages “cut up” the already established Slavic massif. So, it turns out that the history of Hungary is very closely connected with the history of the Slavs. I deliberately did not consider anything that is already known - analyzing only the existing situation, verified directly by our experience (I had the opportunity to listen to Polish, Bulgarian, and Hungarian speech in order to assess the similarity of the first two to ours - and the dissimilarity of the third, although with intersecting words). Language does not arise instantly and at the request of one person - it is a complex system that serves for people to communicate with each other. Where and when could the Hungarian language have developed so that even after 1000 years of existence surrounded by the Slavs (as well as under the influence of Turkish, German - when Hungary belonged to Turkey, Austria) - to preserve its originality? So, according to both our chronicles and Western chroniclers, the Hungarians came to Pannonia in the 9th-10th centuries (the exact date can be debated - the first raid in Europe in 862 - on Carinthia, but they “settled” only after the defeat on Lech in 955 -m, although “Hungary” was mentioned already in 920 by Ekkehard). Before that, they were mentioned as living somewhere near the Pechenegs (Konstantin Porphyrogenitus calls them “Turks”, and we need to take this into account - I suspect that many tribes considered “Turkic” are considered as such precisely because of this name given to them by Constantine, but in reality the language of these “Turks” is Hungarian, or rather, related, ancestral to Hungarian). We have now reached the limit of the “written history of the Hungarians” and enter the realm of speculation and archaeology. Konstantin Porphyrogenitus writes most fully about the Hungarians before their appearance in Hungary. True, we still need to find out that his Turks and the Hungarians of Western sources are one and the same entity. So, in the chapter “about the peoples neighboring the Turks,” Konstantin writes: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus11/Konst_Bagr_2/frametext13.htm According to the description, this is definitely Hungary (it was the Hungarians who destroyed Great Moravia and settled in it at the beginning of the 10th century). On the other hand, Konstantin writes about the “Turks” themselves:
| The Turk people had an ancient settlement 1 near Khazaria, in an area called Levedia - after the nickname of their first governor 2. This governor was called by his personal name Levedia, and by the name of his dignity he was called a governor, like others after him. So, in this area, already called Levedia, flows the river Hidmas, which is also called Hingilus 3. In those days they were not called Turks, but for some unknown reason were called Savart-Asfals 4. The Turks were seven tribes, 3 but they never had an archon over them, either their own or someone else’s; They had certain governors, 6 of whom the first was the above-mentioned Levedia. They lived with the Khazars for three years 7, fighting as allies of the Khazars in all their wars 8... The Pachinakis, formerly called Kangars (and the name Kangars was given to them in accordance with nobility and courage) 10, moved against the Khazars in war and being defeated, they were forced to leave their own land and populate the land of the Turks 11. When a battle took place between the Turks and the Pachinakites, then called Kangars, the Turkish army was defeated and divided into two parts. One part settled to the east, in the regions of Persia - they are still called Savarts-Asfals by the ancient nickname of the Turks, and the second part settled in the western region along with their governor and leader Levedia 12, in places called Atelkuzu 13, in which now The Pachinaki people live here. |
The question of where the name that its neighbors give to the people comes from is always a subject of debate among scientists. The name that representatives of the people give themselves is usually shrouded in no less mystery.
This article provides some information about what the European people of Magyars, who are the state-forming people in Hungary, call themselves and what other European nations call them, as well as interesting facts from the history of the centuries-old wanderings of the Hungarian people, their relationships with various states and the creation of their own country.
The article also contains a brief description of the national culture of Hungary and its traditions, that is, it contains the answer to the question: “Who are the Magyars?”
Second name
There are a great many examples of the parallel existence of two or more names of the same nation.
So the tribes of Celts who lived in the Middle Ages on the territory of modern France were called Gauls by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire. The name Germany also comes from Latin. The indigenous people of this country themselves call each other “Deutsch”.
The name "Germans" has Russian roots. This is how all people who spoke foreign, incomprehensible languages were called in ancient Rus'.
The same thing happened to the Chinese people. The Chinese themselves call their nation “Han”. The Russian name “Chinese” is the Russified name of the dynasty that ruled China during the first visits of Russian travelers to this country.
The word "China", which is used in English, originated in a similar way. European merchants first came to the Chinese Empire when rulers from the Chin dynasty were in power.
What are Magyars?
As for the history of the origin of the Magyars and the name of this people, the existence of many names for them is due to the fact that for many centuries the Hungarians led a nomadic life, every now and then, moving to a new place. They either found themselves conquered by other tribes, or they themselves acted as conquerors. Contacting other peoples, each of whom gave this tribe a name corresponding to the rules of phonetics of a given language, they moved forward from the banks of the Volga River to the place of their current residence.
Thus, Magyars are the name of the Hungarians, which they themselves use.
Language will bring you to Kyiv...
Despite the significant geographical distance that this people had to go through in the process of long migration, the Magyars' language remained unchanged. And today Hungarians speak the same language of their ancestors, which was adopted in ancient times in the Volga region. This language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of Indo-European languages. The closest relatives of the Magyar language are the languages spoken today by the Khanty and Mansi peoples living on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Of course, with such a long existence in conditions of nomadic life, he could not help but absorb some elements of foreign languages. It is known that most of the borrowings in the Hungarian language have Turkic roots. The reason for this was that in the Middle Ages the Hungarians were constantly raided by various nomadic Turkic tribes, including the Khazars, who repeatedly attacked Rus'.
Bashkirs are relatives of the Magyars
It is interesting that in medieval Persian chronicles there is a mention of the Magyars, who are also called Bashkirs in the same documents. Historians believe that the ancient Hungarians could well have been pushed back by the Pecheneg tribes from their ancestral territory to the area where modern Bashkiria is located. In Hungary itself, even in the thirteenth century, oral folk traditions were preserved that in ancient times their people lived in other lands and had their own state, called Great Hungary.
This country was located in the Urals. Modern historians say that the hypothesis of the origin of the Bashkirs from the peoples of the Ugric group sounds quite plausible. The Bashkirs could change their language to the current one, belonging to the Turkic group, after the migration of part of the people to the Black Sea region.
Another relocation
After leaving the Urals, the Magyars settled in an area called Levadia. This territory was occupied by various tribes before them, including those of Slavic origin. It is possible that it was at this time that the European name for the Magyars - Hungarians - appeared.
Over many years of wanderings and military conflicts with neighboring tribes, the Magyars turned into skilled warriors. It happened that countries with which the Hungarians had established trade relations turned to them with the aim of using them as mercenary soldiers.
The long-term military alliance of the Magyars with the Khazars is known, when the Khazar king sent Magyars troops, first to pacify the rebel inhabitants of one of the cities under his control in the Crimea, and then to war with the Pechenegs in the territory where the Hungarian state was later formed.
Traditional activities
A few words should be said about the culture of the Magyars and their traditional activities.
This will help to better understand the question “who are the Magyars?”
In the Middle Ages, when the tribes of the ancient Magyars lived in the Volga region, their traditional activities were fishing and hunting. In this they differed little from all other Ugric tribes. Later, during the time of their resettlement, one of the main activities of the Hungarians became military raids on peoples less developed in terms of the manufacture of weapons and military crafts. When the Hungarians settled in the current territory, their sedentary lifestyle allowed them to engage in cattle breeding and agriculture. Hungarians are known as excellent horse breeders, as well as experienced winemakers. In the twentieth century, a powerful leap in the development of technology allowed many Hungarians to leave agricultural work and find employment in the manufacturing sector. According to the latest Hungarian census, most of the country's citizens live in large and small cities.
The most popular occupation among modern Magyars has become work in the service sector and production work.
Costume
The national women's costume of the Hungarians consists of a short linen shirt with wide sleeves. Also, the national women's clothing of this country is characterized by spacious skirts, and in some areas they even wore several skirts. Mandatory elements of a traditional men's suit are a shirt, a narrow vest and trousers. The headgear most often used was a straw hat in the summer and a fur cap in the winter. The appearance of women in public without a headdress was considered unacceptable.
Therefore, Hungarian women always wore scarves or caps. This style of clothing is typical for many peoples of Transcarpathia. Bram Stoker describes well what kind of people the Magyars are, the folk traditions and life of this people in his famous novel “Dracula”.
Many sources indicate that the most striking feature of the national mentality of the Hungarians is their pride in the fact that they belong to this particular nationality.
Musicians and poets
Speaking about the folk culture and art of the Magyars, it is worth mentioning the numerous forms of oral creativity: these are lyrical ballads and folk tales about brave warriors, which exist in both poetic and prose forms. Thus, the Magyars are a very gifted people from a poetic point of view.
Musical works also gained worldwide fame. Created by the Hungarian people. The most famous Hungarian national dances, which have become popular far beyond the country's borders, are the Csardas and Verbunkos.
The Magyars are a highly musical nation.
In Hungarian works of musical culture one can hear echoes of the influence of the musical traditions of other peoples, including Gypsy, French and German music.
Where did they come from? The answer to this question was obtained by chance, when the kinship of the languages of the Hungarians and a number of peoples of the Far North of Russia was discovered. It’s hard to believe, but nomadic reindeer herders came to Europe, becoming one of the most distinctive peoples of the Old World.
The beginning of the 1st millennium AD in Eurasia was marked by the invasion of the Huns and a significant cold snap, which marked the beginning of the Great Migration of Peoples. The wave of movement was also picked up by the Ugric ethnic group, which inhabited the territories on the border of the southern taiga and forest-steppe of Western Siberia, from the Middle Urals to the Irtysh region - the proto-Ugrians. From those who went north came the Khanty and Mansi, and those who moved west to the Danube were the ancestors of the Hungarians, or Magyars, as they call themselves - the only representatives of the Finno-Ugric language family in Central Europe.
Relatives of the Magyar
The very names of the Mansi and Magyars come from the common root “Manse”. Some scientists believe that the words “Voguls” (an outdated name for the Mansi) and “Hungarians” are consonant variants of the same name. Gathering, hunting and fishing - this is what the ancestors of the Magyars, Mansi and Khanty did. The vocabulary associated with the last two activities has been preserved in the Hungarian language ever since. Basic verbs, words describing nature, family ties, tribal and community relations are also of Ugric origin. It is curious that the Hungarian language is more similar to Mansi than to Khanty. The first two languages turned out to be more resistant to borrowings from others and retained more of their ancestor language.
The mythology of the Hungarians, Khanty and Mansi also shows common features. They all have an idea of dividing the world into three parts: in the Khanty-Mansi myths these are the air, water and earthly spheres, and in the Hungarian ones - the upper (heavenly), middle (earthly) and lower (underground) worlds. According to Magyar beliefs, a person has two souls - a soul-breath and a free soul-shadow, which can leave a person and travel, the same existence is mentioned in Mansi myths, with the difference that in total men can have 5 or 7 souls, and for women - 4 or 6.
Neighbors of the Hungarians, their influence on culture
Moving along the Volga region, the ancestors of the Hungarians met on their way the Scythians and Sarmatians - peoples of Iranian origin who taught them cattle breeding, agriculture and metal processing - copper, bronze and subsequently iron. It is very likely that the proto-Hungarians in the second half of the 6th century were members of the Western Turkic Khaganate and, together with the Turkic people, actively participated in Central Asian and Iranian politics. Iranian motifs and themes can be traced in Hungarian mythology and fine arts, and in Hungarian chronicles, Persia is often mentioned as the country where the “relatives of the Magyars” live. Arminius Vambery, a famous Hungarian traveler and orientalist, searched for them while traveling in Central Asia and Iran in the second half of the 19th century.
Having mastered cattle breeding in the steppes east of the Southern Urals, the ancestors of the Magyars led a nomadic lifestyle, and hunting and farming began to play a supporting role in the economy. Probably, after the uprising of part of the Ugric tribes against the Turkic Khaganate, by the end of the 6th century, the proto-Hungarians appeared on the territory of modern Bashkortostan, in the Lower Kama basin, the Southern Cis-Urals, partly on the eastern slopes of the Urals. Presumably in this area was Great Hungary (Hungaria Magna) - the ancestral home of the Hungarians, which is mentioned in the report of the medieval monk-diplomat Giovanni Plano Carpini and in the Hungarian chronicle “Gesta Hungarorum”. Some researchers locate Greater Hungary in the North Caucasus, others believe that it did not really exist, because in the Middle Ages scientists were inclined to look for the ancestral homeland of all peoples. The first, most widespread version is supported by the discovery of the Bayanovsky burial ground in the lower reaches of the Kama.
Russian and Hungarian archaeologists examined it, found in it similarities with the burials of Hungarians of the 9th-10th centuries, as well as objects of clearly Hungarian origin, and believe that the finds speak of the common ancestors of the population of the Cis-Urals and European Hungarians. Similar tribal names of the Bashkirs and Hungarians and the same geographical names in Bashkiria and Hungary confirm the former proximity of these peoples.
Expansion and migration of the Magyars
In the 6th-7th centuries, the Magyars gradually migrated to the west, to the Don steppes and the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, where they lived next to the Turkic Bulgars, Khazars, and Onogurs. Partial mixing with the latter gave the Magyars another name for the ethnic group - Hungarians, this is especially noticeable in the Latin Ungari, Ungri, English Hungarian(s) and other European languages, and the Russian language borrowed the Polish węgier. On the new land - Levedia (named after the outstanding leader of one of the Hungarian tribes), the Hungarians recognized the power of the Khazar Kaganate and participated in its wars. Under the influence of new neighbors, the structure of society, legal norms and religion gradually became more complex. The Hungarian words “sin”, “dignity”, “reason” and “law” are of Turkic origin.
Under pressure from the Khazars, the territory of residence of the Magyars shifted to the west, and already in the 820s they settled on the right bank of the Dnieper, where they used to be. About 10 years later, the Hungarians left the power of the Khazar Khaganate, and by the end of the 9th century they gradually settled in the steppes between the Dnieper and Dniester.
They named their new homeland Atelkuza - in Hungarian Etelköz means “between the rivers”. The Magyar tribal union took part in the Byzantine wars. In 894, the Hungarians and Byzantines launched a crushing attack on the Bulgarian kingdom on the Lower Danube. A year later, when the Magyars went on a long campaign, the Bulgarians, led by Tsar Simeon I, together with the Pechenegs, struck back - they ravaged Atelkuza and captured or killed almost all the young women. The Hungarian warriors returned and found their lands devastated, their pastures occupied by enemies, and only a small part of the entire people remained. Then they decided to leave these lands and move to the Danube, where the Roman province of Pannonia had previously been located, and later the center of the Hunnic Empire.
The direction was not chosen by chance, because, according to Hungarian legend, the blood of the Huns flows in the Magyars. Perhaps there is some truth in it, because after the defeat of the troops remaining after the death of Attila, the remaining Huns, led by his son, settled in the Northern Black Sea region and lived there as a separate nation for about two hundred years, until they were completely assimilated with the local residents. It is likely that they could have intermarried with the ancestors of modern Hungarians.
As stated in the Hungarian chronicles of the Middle Ages, the Magyars went to the Danube region to take away the legacy of their leader Almos, descended from Attila. According to legend, Yemesha, Almos's mother, dreamed that she was impregnated by the mythical bird Turul (from the Turkic "hawk") and predicted to the woman that her descendants would be great rulers. Thus the name Almos was given, from the Hungarian word “àlom” - sleep. The exodus of the Hungarians occurred during the reign of Prince Oleg and was noted in 898 in ancient Russian chronicles as a peaceful departure through the Kyiv lands to the west.
In 895-896, under the leadership of Arpad, son of Almos, seven Magyar tribes crossed the Carpathians, and their leaders concluded an agreement on an eternal union of tribes and sealed it with blood. At that time, there were no major political players on the Middle Danube who could prevent the Hungarians from taking possession of these fertile lands. Hungarian historians call the 10th century the time of finding the homeland - Нonfoglalas. The Magyars became a settled people, subjugated the Slavs and Turks who lived there and mixed with them, because they had practically no women left.
Having adopted much of the language and culture of the local residents, the Hungarians still did not lose their language, but, on the contrary, spread it. In the same 10th century, they created a writing system based on the Latin alphabet. Arpad began to rule in his new homeland and founded the Arpadovich dynasty. The seven tribes that came to the Danube lands numbered 400-500 thousand, and in the 10th-11th centuries 4-5 times more people began to be called Hungarians. This is how the Hungarian people appeared, who founded the kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000. In the 11th century, they were joined by the Pechenegs, expelled by the Polovtsians, and in the 13th century - by the Polovtsians themselves, who fled from the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The Paloce ethnic group of the Hungarian people are their descendants.
In the 90s of the 20th century, genetic studies were carried out to search for the ancestors of the Hungarians, which showed that the Hungarians are a typical European nation, taking into account some distinctive features of the inhabitants of the north of Hungary, and the frequency of a group of genes characteristic of peoples speaking Finno-Ugric languages, among the Hungarians it is only 0.9%, which is not at all surprising, considering how far fate took them from their Ugric ancestors.
This is what some Hungarian scientists think
The Kazakhs, indeed, often use the name Madiyar (Magyar)
Hungarians have Kazakh roots
Kazakhs and Hungarians are brother nations, says the famous Hungarian orientalist scholar and writer Mikhail Beike, author of the book “Turgai Magyars.”
We managed to meet with the famous writer, interviewing him.
We offer fragments of this conversation to the reader.
What is your new book about?
The fact is that the scientific schools existing in the world today give completely different interpretations of where the Hungarian people originate. Some confidently classify us as a member of the Finno-Ugric language group, identifying us with such peoples as the Khanty and Mansi. Other scientists, of which I include myself, suggest that our common ancestors were the Turks of the ancient world. The search for evidence ultimately led me to Kazakhstan. But there is a little backstory here.
The very name of our state, Hungaria, as the Hungarians call it, according to one scientific hypothesis is translated as the country of the Huns, or Huns - in Russian transcription. As is known, it was the Huns, who emerged from the steppes of Central and Central Asia, who are the ancestors of the entire family of Turkic peoples inhabiting the territories from the foothills of the Altai and Caucasus to the borders of modern Europe. But this is just one theory. There are other assumptions. Since ancient times, among our people there has been a legend about two brothers - Magyar and Khodeyar, which tells how two brothers hunting for a deer parted on the road. Khodeyar, tired of the chase, returned home, while Magyar continued the pursuit, going far beyond the Carpathian Mountains. And here's what's interesting. It is here, in Kazakhstan, in the Turgai region, that the Magyars-Argyns live, in whose epic this legend is repeated, as in a mirror. Both we and they identify themselves as one people - the Magyars. Children of Magyar. This is what my book is about.
Is it possible to be more specific?
As scientists suggest, in the 9th century, the united Magyar people divided into two groups, one of which migrated west, to the lands of modern Hungary, the other remained in its historical homeland, presumably somewhere in the foothills of the Urals. But already during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, this part of the Hungarian tribes became part of two large tribal federative unions of Argyns and Kipchaks on the lands of Kazakhstan, while maintaining self-identification. Scientists call them that: Magyars-Argyns and Magyars-Kipchaks. Until now, on the gravestones of the deceased, these people, essentially Kazakhs in all respects, indicate that the deceased belonged to the Magyar clan. Now comes the fun part. If the ancestors of the Magyars who remained in their historical homeland were not related in language, culture and way of life to the peoples included in these tribal formations, do you think they would have been accepted there? And the second question. Why did the Kipchaks, who defended Otrar, flee from the retribution awaiting them from Genghis Khan in 1241-1242 not just anywhere, namely to Hungary, under the protection of King Bel IU? The presence of family ties is clearly visible here.
It is difficult to imagine Hungarians as nomads.
Nevertheless, it is true. Until the 11th century, Hungarians followed a nomadic lifestyle. Our people lived in yurts, milked mares, and raised cattle. And only later, with the adoption of Christianity, our ancestors switched to a sedentary lifestyle. The same Kipchaks living today in Hungary, with regret we have to admit, for the most part do not know folk customs and have forgotten their native language. But at the same time, among Hungarians there is a growing interest in everything connected with our distant history. The collection of Kazakh folk songs, compiled by Janos Shipos, caused a huge resonance in our country. Publications about modern Kazakhstan and its history are increasing. About Kazakhs, Kazakh-Magyars. Back in the distant 13th century, the monk Julian first made an attempt to find his historical roots, equipping two expeditions to the East. Unfortunately, both of them did not bring results. A new wave of interest in the search for one's historical ancestral home erupts in Hungarian society at the turn of the eighteenth century. Searches are being conducted in various regions of the planet, including a large part of Asia, Tibet and India. And only in 1965, the famous Hungarian anthropologist Tibor Toth discovered a Magyar village in the Turgai region of Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to conduct serious research at that time. The Turgai region in those days was closed to foreigners. And only with the collapse of the USSR and the Republic of Kazakhstan gaining independence, long-term scientific expeditions of Hungarian scientists to your country became possible.
It took you about two years to finish your photo-heavy book. Could you tell us about the trip to the Turgai steppe itself? And what particularly stuck with you on this trip?
We, I and the Scientific Secretary of the Central Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Babakumar Sinayat uly, who accompanied me on the trip, visited there in September. We talked to many people. We visited the grave of the famous Kazakh political figure Mirzhakup Dulatov from the Magyars-Argyns family, paying tribute to the man who openly opposed the tyranny committed during Stalin’s times. And this is what struck me to the depths of my soul - how many Magyars-Argyns in those years fell under the rink of repression. And how few of them are left today. Many of these people served seventeen, twenty-five years in Stalin’s camps and learned to remain silent. It was very difficult to get them to talk. And I consider the legend I heard here, in the steppes of Turgai, about two brothers, Madiyar and Khodeyar, told to me by old people, to be a genuine scientific find. Repeating its Hungarian version word for word.
Is this your fourth book on a Kazakh theme?
Yes. Previously, I published your President’s book “On the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century,” translated into Hungarian. In 1998, the book “Nomads of Central Asia” by Nursultan Nazarbayev was published. In 2001, the book “In the footsteps of the monk Julian.” And finally, my last scientific work, “The Torgai Magyars,” was published in 2003 by the TIMP KFt publishing house in Budapest.
P.S. Let us add that this book was published in four languages: Hungarian, English, Russian, Kazakh, and was released in a trial edition of 2500 copies. Presumably it will be republished.
The Hungarians appeared on the pages of written sources only at the end of the 9th - 10th centuries AD, when Arab geographers and the Byzantine Emperor Constantine mentioned them as one of the nomadic peoples of the Black Sea steppes. In the initial Russian chronicles, a story about the passage was preserved black Ugrians past Kyiv approx. 896 during their movement from the Dnieper-Don steppes to the Carpathians. Apparently, until the 9th century, the ancient Hungarians did not represent an independent association, but were part of alliances where the Turkic (Bulgar) tribes were the dominant force (for example, Constantine Porphyrogenet calls the Hungarians exclusively Turks Such an association, first of all, was the one that existed in the Lower Don and Azov regions in the second half of the 6th - first half of the 7th centuries. Great Bulgaria- an independent state entity led by the Bulgars, which arose on the western periphery of the Turkic Kaganate. This region, obviously, was inhabited by many multilingual tribes (Alans, Bulgars, Khazars, Ugrians, Slavs, etc.), which left several local archaeological complexes, united by researchers in Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture.Great Bulgaria in the second half of the 7th century. became dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, which leads to the migration of part of the Bulgars led by Khan Asparuh to the Danube, where, after the subjugation of the local Slavic population, a state was formed in 681 Danube Bulgaria- a process that was practically repeated by the Hungarians 200 years later. Due to the military defeats that the Khazars suffered from the Arabs in the 30s. VIII century, and later - from the Turks who lived to the east - goose, and the general instability of the political situation in the Kaganate in the 8th-9th centuries. the remnants of the Bulgars moved at this time up the Volga to the north, where they founded a state Volga Bulgaria. Obviously, at the same time and due to the same reasons, somewhere in the Azov steppes, a tribal union headed by the Ugric tribe separated and left the Khazar power magyar / megyer, which, however, certainly included Turkic groups (see below). According to the reports of medieval Hungarian pseudo-historical works (Gesta Hungarorum), which, in addition to the fiction of their unknown authors, contain, presumably, real information, at the time the ancient Hungarians gained “independence” at the beginning of the 9th century, they lived in the country Levedia, which modern researchers localize, as a rule, in the lower Don region. The Khazars, trying to regain power over the Hungarians, used a third force against them - defeated in the Volga-Ural steppes by the same goose Turkic- Pechenegs. In 889, the Pechenegs forced the Hungarians to leave Levedia and move to the country called in medieval Hungarian writings Atelkuza(the modern “corrected” Hungarian form is Etelk?z; obviously - from the tune. * etil“Volga; big river” and Hung. k?z“between” – lit. “Mezhdurechye”), which is usually localized in the steppes of the lower Dnieper region. Already at this time, the Hungarians became an active military-political force in Europe, participating in wars on the territory of the Balkan Peninsula and in Moravia. In 895, the Hungarian army was defeated by the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, which the same Pechenegs did not fail to take advantage of, attacking the Hungarian nomad camps that remained practically defenseless. The Hungarians had no choice but to leave Atelkuzu and, passing by Kyiv (see above), under the leadership of the leaders Kursana (Kursz?n), who had the title kende(apparently the title of the elder of the two leaders), and Arpada (Arp?d), called gyula, in 896, cross the Carpathians and occupy the territory of Pannonia and Transylvania, where, after the defeat of the Avars by the Franks, scattered Slavic tribes lived, most of them subjugated to new newcomers from the east. This is how the “conquest” or “gaining” of the homeland by the Hungarians took place (Hung. honfoglal's The prehistory of the Hungarians until the 8th century is no longer covered by written sources, and the fact that they were in close contact with the Turkic-speaking (and in an earlier era, judging by the presence of borrowings in the Hungarian language, with the Iranian-speaking) population of the Eurasian steppes limits the possibilities the use of archaeological and paleo-anthropological material in historical reconstructions. According to the work “Gesta Hungarorum”, the origins of the Hungarians were associated with the country Hungaria Major / Hungaria Magna(“Great Hungary”), located further to the east than the later ancestral homelands of the Hungarians - Levedia And Etelk?z. On the other hand, in the works of Arab and Persian geographers and travelers, starting from the 10th century, the names Magyar And Bashkir are used to refer to the same people. These two circumstances led to the fact that already in the Middle Ages Greater Hungary began to be associated in literature with the country of the Bashkirs - for the first time, apparently, with brother John of Plano Carpini (mid-13th century): “ Bascart or Hungaria Magna" In fact, the self-names of Hungarians, magyar, and Bashkirs, bash?ort, have nothing in common with each other, and the confusion of these ethnonyms in Arabic and Persian literature has an explanation in the phonetics of the Turkic intermediary languages and the peculiarities of Arabic graphics. In addition, the addition of tradition about Hungaria Magna in the Volga-Ural region should be associated with the tendency of medieval scientists to look for the ancestral home of all peoples, especially those who are known to have appeared relatively late in Europe, such as the Hungarians, in the East. This trend has found its reinforcement in the real presence in the Middle Volga region Great Bulgaria, corresponding Danube Bulgaria It should be noted that there is a whole layer of tribal names among the Bashkirs, which, without a doubt, have a common origin with the tribal names of the Hungarians (more precisely, with the names of the tribes of that obviously multilingual union led by Arpad, who at the end of the 9th century “conquered his homeland” Hungarians in Pannonia), while most of these names are of Turkic origin. Considering the fact that neither in the culture, nor in the anthropological type, nor in the language of the Bashkirs there are any real traces of Hungarian (or Ugric) influence, and the significance of the Turkic component in the genesis of the Hungarian language and people is beyond doubt, these data can be interpreted as evidence participation in the formation of the Bashkirs and Hungarians of the same, predominantly Turkic, tribal groups, which is quite natural: both of these peoples were formed as unions of nomadic tribes at approximately the same time (in the second half of the 2nd millennium AD) on close territories (Hungarians - between the Volga and Dnieper, Bashkirs - between the Aral region and the Urals). Thus, the problem of “Great Hungary” is rather a subject of historiographical and textual research and should be considered separately from the problem of the ancestral homeland of the Hungarians and the former presence of proto-Hungarian groups in the Urals and Volga region . What deserves real attention is the message of the Hungarian traveler Brother Julian that in the 20s of the 13th century, during his journey to Volga Bulgaria (undertaken specifically to search for the Hungarians “remaining” in the east), he met pagans in one of the cities on the right bank of the Middle Volga, spoke Hungarian. It finds a response in the materials of Russian documents of the 15th-16th centuries concerning the regions of the right bank of the Middle Volga and Prikazanye, which mention the ethnonym mochars / Mozhary- next to the Mordvins, Cheremis, Bashkirs, Besermyans. This ethnonym seems to be irreducible from the self-name of the Tatars - Mishars mish?r and from the title of the chronicle Meshchera, but can be seen as a reflection of the ancient form of the self-name of the Hungarians Magyar and is thus evidence of the presence in this territory, if not of the direct descendants of Julian’s “Hungarians,” then at least of people who still retained the ancient Hungarian self-name. After the “conquest of the homeland” and short-lived (late 9th - mid 10th century) , but during the turbulent period of military campaigns, when Hungarian troops struck fear into the inhabitants of Europe from France to Constantinople, the Hungarians settled on the territory of Pannonia and Transylvania that had been assigned to them, and their mixing with the local Slavic population began, during which the Hungarian agricultural culture gradually took shape, and In the victorious Hungarian language, a powerful layer of Slavic borrowings was formed, comprising, in particular, agricultural terms. The process of settlement and stabilization found its completion in the adoption of Christianity ( kende Geza converted to Catholicism in 973) and the formation of a single kingdom (St. Stephen received the crown from the Pope in 1000). Christianity was finally established after the suppression of a pagan uprising in 1046, and the kingdom was freed from the suzerainty of the German emperor under King Endre I (1046–1060). With the spread of Christianity and centralized power, the first written monuments of the Hungarian language appeared - at first fragmentary (Charter of Tihany Abbey, ca. 1055), then containing fairly extensive coherent texts ("Funeral Oration", late 12th century, etc.) The borders of the state expanded: at the beginning of the 12th century, Croatia and Dalmatia came under the rule of the Hungarian kings. In addition to the Slavs and Hungarians, the Germans took part in the formation of the population of Hungary (in particular, settlers from Saxony to Transylvania in the 12th century under Geza II), the Turks, both those who came with the Hungarians, and later settlers: Khorezmians, Khazars, Bulgars, Polovtsians. The Mongol invasion (1241–1242), although it devastated the country, did not make it dependent on the invaders. Hungary reached its greatest power under the kings of the Angevin dynasty, especially Louis (Hung. L?jos) I (1342–1382). In 1428, the Turks for the first time threatened the borders of Hungary, at the same time the claims of the Austrian Habsburgs to the Hungarian throne increased. During the reign of the Hunyadi dynasty (János Hunyadi became regent in 1446), the country managed to restrain the Turks and Austrians, but after the defeat at Mohács in 1526 and the capture of the country's capital, Buda, by the Turks (1541), Hungary was actually divided into several parts: most of today's Hungary under Turkish control, the independent principality of Transylvania, a chain of “border fortresses” along the northern borders of Hungary in the union, and then under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs. During the joint struggle with the Turks, Transylvania also came under the hands of the Austrian emperors at the end of the 16th century, but under the governor Istvan Bocskai and Prince Zsigmond Rakoczi, it regained independence at the beginning of the 17th century. The movement for the restoration of national unity and independence takes on the character of a people's war (movement Kurutsev, Hung. kuruc). In 1686, Buda was liberated, and in 1699, as a result of successes Kurutsev and the victories of the Austrian prince Eugene of Savoy, Hungary was again recognized as an independent state by the Treaty of Karlowitz. The struggle of the Hungarians under the leadership of Ferenc Rakoczi against Austrian domination did not lead to success: according to the Peace of Santmar in 1711, Hungary was finally included in the Habsburg Empire as an autonomous territory. The movement for national revival especially intensified in Hungary at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. First of all, this affected the revival of the Hungarian language: in 1805 a code of laws was first published in Hungarian, in 1825 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was founded, in 1839 the Hungarian parliament approved a law giving the Hungarian language official status on the territory of Hungary. Suppression by the Austrians and Russians troops of the national democratic revolution of 1848-1849. led to the establishment of direct rule by the Austrian emperor on the territory of Hungary - only in 1861 did the Hungarian parliament reconvene. The restoration of Hungary's state independence occurred as a result of the revolutionary events of 1918, when, due to the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War, the empire collapsed, and national states arose on its ruins. The current borders of the Hungarian Republic correspond to the decisions of international treaties (Paris and Potsdam), taking into account Hungary’s participation in both world wars on the side of the coalitions that were defeated in these wars, as a result of which a significant number of Hungarians live today in addition to Hungary (more than 10.5 million people) in Serbia (mainly in the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, more than 400 thousand people), Romania (Transylvania, 1.8 million people), Slovakia (more than 500 thousand people), in Ukraine (Transcarpathia, more than 150 thousand people) and in other countries. The total number of Hungarians in the world appears to be approaching 15 million. Links
