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:

There are about ten million inhabitants. They also inhabit Romania (about 2 million people), Slovakia and many other territories not only on the Eurasian continent, but also in America and Canada.

How many are there?

In total, there are about fourteen million Magyars on the globe. Their main language is Hungarian. There are also many dialects, which make speech varied depending on the area.

The Magyars are a very ancient people, whose history can be long and fascinating to understand. Writing has been developing since the tenth century. The most common religion is Catholicism. Most of the rest are followers of the Lutheran and

Where did they come from?

Modern Magyars describe their origin as follows: previously they were nomadic small tribes, mainly engaged in raising livestock. They came from lands east of the Urals.

At the dawn of the first millennium, these people followed to the Kama basin, then settled on the northern shore of the Black Sea. At this time, they had to obey the ruling peoples in that territory. At the end of the ninth century, the Magyars rose to and settled on the banks of the Danube River.

Here they stayed for a long time, because this territory had everything for a sedentary lifestyle. The Magyars are, at their core, farmers. In the eleventh century these people became part of the Hungarian state and converted to Catholicism.

Thus, the ancient Magyars merged with the Hungarian people, creating enclaves. Local residents accepted them. It is worth noting that in the Hungary of that time, even without the Magyars, there were many different nationalities that were mutually enriched culturally and spiritually.

Officially, Latin was used for writing first, and then German. It was from them that I learned many terms. The Magyars are part of a huge seething cauldron, the contents of which have changed and flowed from one place to another over the centuries.

Also, some representatives of this people left the territory of Hungary in order to settle in the beautiful lands of the Eastern Carpathian region. In the 16th century, the Ottoman yoke reigned, it also affected Hungary, so that its citizens had to flee towards the north and east.

There are significantly fewer people in the state. When the Austro-Turkish War ended and the liberation movement was suppressed, the Habsburgs took possession of the Hungarian lands. German colonists were settled on the territory of Hungary. Over time, the Magyars changed as a people. History and cultural heritage experienced significant changes at that time, because national contradictions only grew.

The strength of the state grew stronger, and all the peoples being resettled underwent Magyarization. Thus Hungary became an independent republic.

Which one of them was good at what?

Various groups of Hungarians began to form. The Magyars are not a small cluster of inhabitants, but a whole people, as numerous as they are heterogeneous. Since the eighteenth century, these groups have maintained their distinctive characteristics. Of course, each settlement had its own strong point, something in which they were different and in which they were more successful than their fellow citizens.

For example, the inhabitants of the mountains (palotsi and mother) were distinguished by their great skill in embroidering on leather and linen. The Sharköz people are mainly remembered by posterity for their excellent skills in creating decorative arts and clothing. To the west of the Transdanubia region, during the Middle Ages, groups were formed in the territories of Hetes and Gocey. In terms of achievements in material culture, they were most similar to their neighbors - the Slovenes.

On the territory washed by the rivers Rab and Danube, the Rabaköz people are located. The Cumans, also known as Kuns, descendants of the Cumans, feeling the onslaught of the Tatar-Mongols in the thirteenth century, as well as the Yases, were awarded land from the kings of Hungary. Like a sponge, they absorbed culture and language. This is how the guides appeared.

What about today?

And now, centuries later, what is the Hungarian nation like? The Magyars do not forget their origins and honor history. Today Hungary is considered a fairly developed state. Industry and the service sector operate at a high level. However, agriculture also plays a large role, because these lands are still fertile and fertile, and technological progress only opens up new opportunities for its cultivation. Both cattle breeding (which began to feed the Hungarians first) and agriculture are well developed.

How did it all start?

In ancient times, the lowland territories of the country in the east were distinguished by the development of cattle breeding. Horse breeding was especially popular in southern Hungary. There are many benefits from pig farming. The Hungarians gained knowledge about the art of cultivating the land from the Turkic-speaking proto-Bulgarians, as well as the Slavs. This is reflected even in the then vocabulary of the peoples listed above.

Wheat fed the Magyars most of all. The main feed crop was corn. In the eighteenth century, potatoes began to be grown. Winemaking, growing garden trees and various vegetables did not go unnoticed. Flax and hemp were processed. Special attention can be paid to the beautiful and unique embroidery, lace, and works. The Magyars were also excellent at working with leather. Modern Hungarians respect their traditions and try to preserve ancient customs.

What conditions did they live under?

The villages of the Hungarians were quite large, and they also settled in farmsteads (mostly in the eastern part of Hungary). Today, the overwhelming majority of the state's population are city dwellers. Cities such as Pecs, Buda, Győr and others have survived from the Middle Ages to the present day.

In addition, settlements have emerged that are radically different from the classical idea of ​​megacities. In the past, they were inhabited by peasants, so hence the name - agricultural towns. Today the difference between the two types of cities is not felt so strongly.

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.

October 12th, 2012 , 05:16 pm

Migration of peoples and history of the Magyars.

It is not customary to call the modern era, like, say, the period at the beginning of our era, the time of the Great Migration of Peoples. Today's ethnic groups have, for the most part, occupied their geographic territories for a long time. This does not mean, however, that mass migrations are not taking place even now. Tens of millions of people in our century alone have moved from Europe and, to a lesser extent, from Asia to the countries of America, from China, to South and Southeast Asia, etc. In our country, only over the last three decades, millions of Russians and Ukrainians moved to Kazakhstan. None of us will be surprised to meet a Georgian beyond the Arctic Circle, or to meet a Yakut, Mordvin or Azerbaijani in Kushka.

And history knows cases when an entire people or a large part of it moves from its place at once. For examples of this, it is not at all necessary to look back to the very distant past. In 1916, during the First World War, the authorities of the Turkish Empire began to exterminate the Assyrian people (Aisors) living in the eastern part of Asia Minor and Iran. The chauvinistic leaders of the empire, Muslim fanatics, took advantage of the war frenzy in the country to try to destroy the Assyrian Christians, as well as the Armenian Christians. The Assyrians resisted desperately, took up a perimeter defense, and for two years “repelled, retreating, the attacks of the regular Turkish army and “free” detachments of thugs. And then they left their homeland, or more precisely, from that part of it that belonged to Turkey. This is how Assyrians appeared in Russia, the USA, Iraq, Syria and many other countries.

Our planet has a turbulent past; more than once or twice, peoples found themselves in the same position as the Isors in 1916 - under the threat of destruction or enslavement. And they walked away from this threat.
Even the Huns, who later became formidable conquerors of half the world, rushed west from their Mongolia after being defeated by the Chinese armies there. Along the way, they, in turn, became a threat to many tribes, also forced to move - sometimes as part of the Hunnic hordes, sometimes ahead of them, sometimes these tribes “spread to the sides”, went north and south from the path of the ferocious conquerors.
After the Mongols conquered the Middle Volga region, the Volga Bulgars who lived here largely moved north, becoming one of the parts of the emerging Chuvash people. Many similar examples can be given here.
But often the migrations of tribes and peoples have other reasons. Thousands of people, who are not at all threatened by an external enemy, are rising up and looking for a better life in new places. This is how the North of the European part of Russia and Siberia were developed by the Russian people. This is how the Scythians once came to the Northern Black Sea region, expelling or dissolving the Cimmerian tribes that lived here before them. This is how the German tribes of the Goths moved from the Northern Baltic to the south, to the Black Sea, at the beginning of our era.
At the same time, the settlement of the people itself can occur slowly, stretching over centuries?
In our country, forest hunters and reindeer herders—Evenks—live in small groups throughout almost the entire vast Siberia. The impenetrable taiga became their homeland within a few hundred years, after the Evenks, who had previously lived only in the south of Siberia, managed to find ways of hunting and movement that made them masters of the forests.
In the preface to the book of the Soviet Evenki scientist-historian A.S. Shubin, Professor E.M. Zalkind writes: “It seems almost incredible how tribes at such a level of development could conquer colossal spaces, overcome the difficulties of many months, and sometimes many years of travel . But in fact, the further into history, the less important the distance factor is. Wherever the Evenk went in his taiga wanderings, he found moss moss for his reindeer, animals for hunting, bark and poles for tents. And it was all the easier for him to set off on a long journey, since at that time the time factor did not play any role. years spent in one place, years spent traveling to new places, all this did not change anything in the usual way of life.”
Of course, words about the role of time and distances can be applied not only to the Evenks, but also to many other nomads.
Isn’t it true, this explains a lot about the relative ease with which the ancient tribes moved from this place in search of better – or at least not worse – places on the face of the earth.
The Kipchaks (Polovtsians) march from Siberia in the 9th-11th centuries in a single strike wedge to the west, become masters of most of Central Asia and the Northern Black Sea region, the Oghuz Turks pushed back by them move to Iran, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor.
The creation of a single state in Norway forced part of the freedom-loving nobility there to go to Iceland with their households. The unification of the former Castile, Aragon, Leon in the Spanish Kingdom and its conquest of the south of the Iberian Peninsula led to the mass expulsion of the Muslim Arab-speaking population from there to Africa.
In the 16th century, a strange story happened, but only at first glance. From the west of Central Asia, nomadic tribes rushed into its eastern part. They won and expelled its ruler, Emir Babur, from Fergana (and they themselves, having mixed with the local settled population, became one of the ancestors of modern Uzbeks). The unfortunate exiled emir, by the way, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur, forced to abandon both his native places and hereditary possessions, fled with the remnants of his army to the south, to Afghanistan and India. and became the founder of a grandiose empire, which received the name of the Mughal power.
We will talk in more detail here about the centuries-old movement of the Magyar people, and then about the resettlement of the Gypsies.
From the Yenisei to the Danube In 1848, a year of rapid revolutionary upsurge in almost all European countries, the Hungarians rebelled against the Austrian monarchy that ruled their land. The Hungarian revolution was crushed, despite the heroic resistance of its defenders. A teenager runs away with a limp from a city occupied by Austrian soldiers, cursing these warriors as executioners in all the languages ​​he knows. And he knew a lot of languages, because he had studied them since childhood. This homeless lame boy's name was Arminius Vamberi. A name that will become big, at least for geographers, historians, orientalists and linguists around the world. Arminius Vamberi, a remarkable linguist and passionate explorer, will make amazing journeys, disguised as an Arab dervish, a Turk, or a Persian; he will amaze Western ministers with his knowledge. eastern emirs. And then. “In a field near the Danube he met several soldiers who had escaped captivity. They were dusty, and defeat was visible on their faces.
“It’s all over,” they said, “we’ll lie down and die.” Our freedom is disappearing!
Then the old shepherd stood up and croaked to them in a voice shaking with age:
- Stop, children! Always, when we are in trouble, the old Magyars from Asia come to our aid: after all, we are their brothers, rest assured, they will not forget us now.”
This is how the Soviet poet and prose writer Nikolai Tikhonov described this scene in the story “Vambery”.
In his wanderings through Central and Central Asia, through mysterious and often forbidden places for Europeans at that time, Arminius Vambery tried to find these “old Magyars from Asia,” the memory of whom lived in the heart of the Hungarian shepherd.
Ancient Hungarian chronicles speak of the Magyars as relatives of the Huns and claim that other relatives of the Magyars live in Persia.
It is clear that for the ancient chronicler the word Persia could mean not only the country that we know by this name, but a significant part of Asia.
During their wanderings, the legendary brothers Hunor and Magyar captured two daughters of the Alan king (the Alans, as you remember, are one of the Sarmatian tribes). From these women, says the chronicle of Simon Kazai, all the Huns, “they are Hungarians,” descended.
In Hungary, for many hundreds of years, not only scientists, but also the people remembered the arrival of their ancestors here from afar, from the east, from Asia, and they not only remembered, but associated special hopes with their distant homeland and unknown relatives. Perhaps precisely because in Central Europe the Magyars-Hungarians are the only people belonging to the Finno-Ugric language family. The Magyar island is surrounded on all sides by the Indo-European Sea. On one side live the Slavs, on the other - the Germans and Austrians, on the third - the Romanians.
And the geographically closest people of the same family live many kilometers to the north; in the Baltics. These are Estonians. And then the Estonians - in linguistic terms - are by no means the closest relatives of the Magyars. Closer ones (Khanty and Mansi) live in the northeast of the European part of the USSR and in the extreme northwest of Asia - even further than the Estonians.
Today, Hungarian anthropologists, linguists and archaeologists travel again and again to the Volga, the Urals, the Arctic, Western Siberia and Central Asia, wanting to find traces of their ancestors and better study undisputed and alleged relatives. But many hundreds of years ago, Hungarian kings and bishops also sent their representatives far to the east and for the same purpose. However, the then representatives of the Hungarian crown and the church also pursued political goals, and, moreover, cared about saving the souls of the supposed Asian Magyars. Perhaps the most striking of these expeditions “for the ancestors” was the trip to the east of the Dominican monk Julian. It was both a feat and an adventure.
Julian walked through lands engulfed by successive wars of extermination, crossed steppes infested with robbers, or rather, nomads who did not miss the opportunity to get rich. He lost his companions along the way, lost his money, but, defenseless, lonely and poor, he walked east with the stubbornness of the Julierne captain Hatteras, striving for the North Pole. In order to find at least some food and protection from the steppe inhabitants, Julian joined the caravans and served their owners, earning the right to go further and further through labor and humiliation.
On the Volga, among the Bulgars, Julian meets an “Asian Magyar” who is married to a Bulgar. With the help of her and her relatives, he discovers “Great Hungary” in the Urals - the ancestral home of his people, hears Magyar speech, tells these newly discovered relatives, although not fellow countrymen, about the powerful Hungarian state on the Middle Danube, preaches Christianity.
But this remarkable discovery, made more than seven hundred years ago, was almost too late. The Western Magyars seemed to have found the eastern “Great Hungary,” only to soon find out that it was gone. The terrible Batu invasion also fell on the land of the Ural Magyars.
It should also be noted that immediately after the conquest, the Tatar-Mongols included the Magyar warriors, according to their long tradition, into their own army. For some time, in the Tatar Golden Horde, among other “national”, as we would say today, military units there was also a Magyar one.
The defeated and scattered Magyars apparently eventually mixed with the surrounding peoples, mainly the Bashkirs. However, back in the 12th century, a century before Batu’s campaign, some Arab travelers considered the Bashkirs themselves to be the Asian Magyars.
Geographical names once again confirm the connection between the Magyars and the Urals. For example, in Bashkiria there is the Sakmara River, a tributary of the Urals. And this same word, which serves as the name of the Bashkir river, is repeated more than once on the map of modern Hungary.
Little of. Three of the twelve main Bashkir clans known to history bore the same names as three of the seven Magyar tribes that came to the Danube.
The Magyars also came to the Urals from somewhere. Traces of these Pramagyars are in Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. On the left bank of the Kama, in its lower reaches, an ancient Magyar burial ground was recently discovered.
According to researcher E. A. Khalikova, the territory of Great Hungary covered the left bank of the Lower Kama, the Southern Cis-Urals - and partly the eastern slopes of the Urals. E. A. Khalikova believes that the Proto-Hungarians appeared in the Southern Urals at the end of the 6th century - perhaps after some Ugric tribes of the Turkic Kaganate rebelled against his power and suffered a severe defeat.
Insurrection. this covered a number of areas in Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
Before him, E. A. Khalikova believes, the ancestors of the ancient Hungarians “in the second half of the 6th century. most likely they were part of the Western Turkic Khaganate and, together with the Thuriots, played a large role in the political life of Central Asia and Sasanian Iran (how can one not recall Persia, which is mentioned in the Hungarian chronicles. - Author). This era left its mark on the subsequent culture of the ancient Hungarians: Iranian motifs and themes are strong in its various elements - mythology, fine arts."
The ancestors of the ancient Hungarians came to Central Asia and Kazakhstan back in the 4th century AD. e., when a stream of nomads swept across Southern Siberia tore them away from their relatives - the Ob Ugrians.
E. A. Khalikova especially emphasizes that the Ural “Great Hungary” of the late 6th - early 9th centuries maintained connections with the forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan, where Ugric tribes closely related to the ancient Hungarians remained. This is clearly evidenced by materials from excavations in the Urals, confirming the exchange between these distant regions.
We know much more about the fate of the Magyars who left the Urals to the west, although also relatively little.
Apparently, in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. part of the Ural Magyar tribes left their native places. Maybe because the Magyars were pushed by the next wave of the Great Migration of Peoples. Perhaps because after the Hunnic invasion and plunder, many fertile lands to the west of the Urals turned out to be relatively sparsely populated. Maybe because the climate has changed in the Urals. One way or another, moving to new places could not be too difficult for the Magyar nomads.
In the middle of the 1st millennium, the Magyars already lived in the Volga basin. This Magyar new country on the right bank of the Volga has a beautiful name - Levedia Etelkuza. Soon the local tribes recognized the power of the Khazar Kagan, then the ruler of a great power that covered the North Caucasus, part of the Volga region and neighboring lands and soon entered into a struggle with the Arabs for Transcaucasia. At that time, several Khazar tribes roaming nearby became part of the Magyar association and adopted the Magyar language.
In the same era, apparently, a new ethonym was added to the ancient self-name of one of the tribes - “Magyars” - “Hungarians” on behalf of the Turkic people of the Onogurs, on whose lands the Magyars lived for about a century.
Gradually, the center of settlement of the Magyars shifted to the west. New Levedia is already located on both sides of the Don, located approximately on the territory from Kyiv to Voronezh. The Magyars live among the Slavic tribes, perhaps even interstriated with them. The Magyar Union of Tribes maintains friendly relations with Byzantium, and this power draws nomads into its wars.
Fulfilling an agreement with Byzantium, the Magyars in the 9th century dealt a heavy blow to the Bulgarian kingdom on the Lower Danube. The Bulgarians, who had suffered a severe defeat, responded a few years later with a merciless raid on Levedia, undertaken in alliance with the Pechenegs, who had appeared shortly before in the same Black Sea steppes where the Magyars lived. The Bulgarians and Pechenegs chose a very opportune moment to attack. The Magyar army, almost all men capable of carrying weapons, was on a long march at that time. Levedia was defenseless.
When the army returned to their homeland, they saw that they were left without people. The Pechenegs not only ravaged the country as best they could, they also took captive or killed all the young women.
And the Magyars decided to leave the lands where they could no longer feel safe. Where were they supposed to go? Legends claim that the resettlement was by no means spontaneous. Even the address, apparently, had been planned in advance: a country in the middle reaches of the Danube, an area where the Roman province of Pannonia was once located. Later there, on the Middle Danube, there was the center of the great Hunnic power (and even later - the Avar Kaganate).
Strange as it may sound, it is possible that the Magyars were brought to Pannonia by the legend that they descended from their family. from Attila. There is still a legend among the Hungarian people that the Magyars descend from the Huns. Historians usually shrug their shoulders in response and say that, of course, a number of Ugric tribes were involved in the great migration of peoples, that Attila’s armies probably included Magyars, but that the Huns themselves, like their leaders, were not Magyars, of course. were.
However, it must be said that, firstly, after the death of Attila and the defeat of his armies, the remnants of the Huns, led by one of the surviving sons of the formidable king, left for the Northern Black Sea region. Here they existed as a separate nation for about two more centuries, until they finally dissolved among the then population of these places. The Huns could, which by no means be considered proven, meet the Magyars in the Black Sea region and mingle here with them. It is possible that this could become the basis of the legend about the relationship between the Huns and Magyars.
It is worth adding, secondly, that some Hungarian scientists now believe that the first Magyars appeared in the Carpathians and to the west of them back in the 7th century. If this is so, the bulk of the Magyars at the end of the 9th century really went west along the path that had already been trodden by their relatives.
It was also hypothesized that this group of Onogur Turks, from whom, as you know, the name passed on to the Hungarians, appeared on the Danube around 670 along with the Bulgar Turks.
Scientists of our days argue, but in the Hungarian medieval chronicles it is directly reported that the Magyars went to the Danube to take possession of the legacy of the first leader of the Almus (Almos) family - Attila. At the same time, Almus is declared a descendant of the “King Magog.” The names of the giants Gog and Magog, taken from the Bible, were often used in the Middle Ages to name nomadic tribes that were formidable to sedentary Europeans. Tradition connected Magog with the Huns; the chronicler, proud of his descent from the Huns, reflected the Hungarian tradition that had already developed in his time, but... which the name Magog did not frighten, but, on the contrary, one could boast of such an ancestor.
The exodus of the Magyars from the Don occurred around 895, when Prince Oleg ruled in Rus'. The ancient Russian information here does not contradict the Hungarian chronicles. The Old Russian chronicler placed it under the year 898. message about the peaceful departure of the Magyars through the Kyiv lands to the west.
Along the way, by the way, they took it with them and kept it to this day. Old Russian names for fishing gear, and at the same time they began to call - and are still calling - the Poles in the Old Russian manner.
Through the mountain passes in the Carpathians, the nomads finally emerged into the vastness of Pannonia. Their main force consisted of seven tribes, among them tribes with “Bashkir” names: Yurmatians, Kese, Yeney. The seven leaders of these tribes bound themselves and their tribes to an eternal treaty of alliance, sealed with blood.
According to Hungarian legend, the Magyars allegedly bought Pannonia from the Slavic prince of Moravia for a white horse, saddle and bridle, but the prince then violated the agreement, and the Hungarians “had” to reconquer the country.
Historians still argue how big a role purely military actions played in deciding the fate of Pannonia. The three-volume “History of Hungary” states that often, probably, things got done without bloodshed. At the moment when the Magyars came to the Middle Danube, there was no real political force here that could prevent them from taking possession of this territory.
The reports of some chroniclers about the ancient, even for them, very heroic battles of aliens with the aborigines of the country, according to many historians, are exaggerated. In the Middle Ages they loved to glorify the past and, as a rule, exaggerated the role of military actions in history.
We must not forget that the number of aliens was relatively small. After all, the Magyars were nomads, and nomadic peoples are usually much smaller in number than settled peoples, occupying equal territory. On the fertile land near the Danube, a place was found for new tribes who quickly settled on the earth. The Magyars easily mixed with the local population, mostly Slavic - people from the Don, strictly speaking, had no choice here, since after the Bulgarian-Pecheneg attack the Magyars were left almost without women. And, it must be said, in the Hungarian language almost all words related to housing and food, agricultural labor and government are Slavic in origin.
Mixing with the Slavs naturally affected the Magyar language. The Hungarian historian E. Molnar wrote: “If a Hungarian peasant looks out the window, goes out into the hallway, goes into the cellar, into the kitchen or into the room, into the closet, goes out into the yard or onto the street, if he speaks, calls his godfather, looks for his neighbor , turns to a friend, feasts in a tavern, dances a czardash, looks around on the plain or in the steppe, becomes a shepherd, a robber, carries food supplies with him, lives on a farm, throws a rope around the neck of a foal, harnesses an ox to a yoke, drives it home The herd picks up the scythe, lays the haystack, gives the cattle food, pulls the wheelbarrow if it is working or finishing work. he does things that are expressed in words adopted from the Slavic language.”
It is worth noting that excavations of Hungarian burial grounds of the 10th century on the Middle Danube showed that the ancient Magyars at that time were similar in anthropological appearance to the Sarmatians who lived at the beginning of our era in the Lower Volga region, Ukraine and the southern shores of the Aral Sea. That is, the Hungarians came to the Danube as fairly typical Caucasians. Meanwhile, the Ugrians who left southern Siberia possessed many Mongoloid features. The Magyar ethnic group gradually lost most of them, mixing on the way to the west with tribes that were Caucasian in appearance.
So, Pannonia became the new homeland of the Magyars - forever.
This area in the center of Europe has an amazing history. (However, what country does not have an amazing history behind it?) At the very beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. the lands on the Middle Danube were conquered by the Romans. But the inhabitants of the new Roman province did not obediently obey the “rulers of the world” for long. Soon they rebelled and forced the Roman Empire to strain all its forces in the fight against the “rebels”. The Romans of that time considered the war with the Pannonians to be difficult for themselves after the Punic Wars, in which Carthage opposed Ram, who once brought the state of its enemies to the brink of destruction. The world power still won here, but until the end of the Roman Empire, Pannonia with its rebellious inhabitants remained one of the weak points in the Augustan possessions.
During the Great Migration of Peoples, Pannonia was freed from Roman rule, but not foreign rule. As its masters, Sarmatians and Goths, Vandals and Roxolani, Iazyges and Carps, Bastarnae and Marcomanni and many other tribes replaced each other (or shared the country with each other). These tribes, most of them now known only to specialists, once made the hearts of the rulers of Rome and Constantinople tremble. Then the Huns reigned here, but they were driven out by the end of the 5th century AD. e. Gepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians and Squiri.
It was from Pannonia that the leader of the union of the Rugians and Squiri, Odoacer, went to Italy and, after many victories over the powerless empire, deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. So Pannonia still “took revenge” from Rome - not even five centuries had passed. Later, Pannonia was the center of the Avar power, founded by newcomers from Central Asia in the 6th century. At the beginning of the 9th century, the army of Emperor Charlemagne came here, placing the baptized Kagan on the shaky Avar throne. Here the last Avars were dissolved by the Slavs. And here the Magyars included the local Slavs in their composition.
Arpad, the son of Almus, the leader of the strongest of the seven tribes, called "Medier", founded the Arpadovich dynasty, and the name of his tribe was adopted by all the people. But the formation of the Hungarian Kingdom did not yet put an end to the migration of more and more tribes to the land of Pannonia.
The Hungarian kings, having forgotten past grievances, accepted on their land in the 11th century the Pecheneg Turks, expelled from the Northern Black Sea region by their own relatives, the Cumans, also Turks in language. And two hundred years later, in the 13th century, the hospitable Danube valley also received a wave of Polovtsians who went west from the Mongol invasion (some of them later left Pannonia, moving to other lands, primarily to Bulgaria). Until now, among the Hungarian people, an ethnic group of their direct descendants stands out - the Palocians.
The nomads were probably attracted to the famous Hungarian steppe - Pashta, and the Hungarian kings also needed warriors to fight their own large vassals.
From century to century, the fertile land on the Middle Danube retained its attractiveness for more and more new peoples. How many roads that began in the center of Asia ended here, in the center of Europe!
At times, the Kingdom of Hungary became in size and influence one of the great powers of medieval Europe. Hungarian kings sometimes also occupied the thrones of Poland, Naples in Italy, and extended their influence to Czech, Romanian, Croatian, Ukrainian and Serbian lands.
At the beginning of the 16th century, part of the Magyar lands came under the rule of the Turkish Empire, later Hungary was part of the Habsburg Empire along with Austria and the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia, part of Ukraine and part of Serbia, etc.
Coexistence with other peoples as part of one power was reflected, of course, in the culture and language, and to some extent also in the appearance of the Magyars. But over the last millennium, the Magyars have not changed their homeland. And between the Yenisei and the Danube, archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists and historians together clarify the location of at least three ancestral homelands of the Magyars: Don, Volga and Ural, plus they are looking for traces of a fourth, even more ancient ancestral home, Central Asian or Western Siberian.
The migration of the Magyars began at the time, which is called the time of the Great Migration of Peoples, and ended at the end of this era.

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.