Having passed through the supposedly impregnable Wall, the Huns took possession of all China, however, the stone dragon digested them in his womb. But that part of the Huns that migrated westward in the 1st century and merged with the Ugric tribes of the Ural and Volga regions, played an important role in the history of Europe.
Europeans knew about the Huns by the middle of the 2nd century. The geographer Dionysius mentions them when listing the tribes wandering in Central Asia and the Caspian steppes. A little later, in the second half of the 2nd century, perhaps based on the testimony of Dionysius, the famous Alexandrian geographer and astrologer Claudius Ptolemy wrote about them. Of course, these authors could not have imagined that in the very near future the nomads grazing their herds somewhere on the edge of the inhabited world would turn into a threat to Western civilization, that even invincible Rome would falter under the onslaught of these eastern barbarians.
At the beginning of the III century. the northeastern borders of the Roman Empire were calm. The Scythian, Sarmatian and Alanian tribes roaming the Black Sea steppes established peaceful relations with the Greek colonies belonging to Rome. The Bosporan Kingdom, which vexed the Romans, was forced to peace. Another neighbors of the Roman Empire, descended from the Southern Baltic, the Germanic tribes of the Goths, settled in the forest and forest-steppe zone of the Black Sea region, where they peacefully cultivated wheat on Ukrainian black soil. But soon trouble came from the east.
In the 70s. In the 9th century, the Huns invaded the Black Sea region. It is quite possible that in addition to the thirst for profit, the Hunnic hordes were also driven by unfavorable natural conditions, which caused hunger and the death of livestock. So, there are reports that the Huns attacked the Crimean cities, crossing the Kerch Strait on the ice. In principle, this is only possible in very harsh winters.
In one winter of 370, all the Greek cities from the Cimmerian Bosporus to the Dniester and the tribes roaming around them were crushed. Part of the nomadic tribes fled across the Dniester, but some joined the Hunnic troops.
A contemporary and, possibly, an eyewitness to the Hunnic invasion, the Roman writer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus describes the appearance of the Huns in the following way: “A hitherto unseen race of people, rising like snow from a secluded corner, shocks and destroys everything that seems to meet, like a whirlwind rushing from high mountains … The Huns surpass any measure of savagery, they became the seed of all misfortunes and the root of various disasters, they all differ in dense and strong limbs, thick heads and in general such a terrible and monstrous appearance that one can take them for two-legged animals roaming the mountains and forests, they learn to endure the cold from the cradle, hunger and thirst; in a foreign land, they do not enter the dwelling, unless it is absolutely necessary, they do not act well in pedestrian skirmishes, but they seem to have grown up with their hardy, but ugly-looking horses, and sometimes, sitting on them like a woman,they do all their usual business; on them, each of this tribe spends the night and day, buys and sells, eats and drinks and, bending down to the narrow neck of his cattle, plunges into a deep sleep If it happens to talk about serious matters, they all consult together in the same usual manner; they do not submit to the strict authority of the king, but are content with the occasional leadership of the noblest and crush everything that comes their way. No one is engaged in arable farming and never touches the plow. All of them, not having a fixed place of residence, wander to different places, as if eternal fugitives, with wagons in which they spend their lives. Here wives weave them miserable clothes, sleep with their husbands, give birth to children and feed them to maturity. None of them can answer the question where is his homeland, he was conceived in one place, born far from there, nurtured even further."
As Ammianus Marcellinus testifies, in 371, the hordes of the Huns, led by their leader, whose name is known in the Roman record as Balamir, “with a sudden onslaught broke into the vast and fertile lands of Ermanarich between the Don and Danube. The attack was sudden and went simultaneously in two directions: part of the Huns attacked the Goths, crossing the Don, and when the Goths gathered their troops to defeat the invaders, the Huns who came from the Crimea hit them in the rear. For a long five years Ermanarich and his troops held back the onslaught of the nomads, but the forces of the defenders were melting away. In addition, the Goths were betrayed by the allied Rosomon tribe, which went over to the side of the enemy. Feeling defeat in the war with the steppe savages, Ermanarich committed suicide and the Gothic tribal union fell apart.
The Goths retreated westward, abandoning their settlements. Pursuing the Goths, the Huns approached the Danube, destroyed several border Roman cities, but could not advance further - apparently due to the weakness of their own troops, because only the advanced units of the Huns reached the Danube, the rest were busy looting the abandoned Gothic dwellings. The Huns came close to the Roman border, but soon migrated to the fertile Black Sea steppes.
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The offensive of the Huns on the lands of the Roman Empire began in the winter of 395. As usual, they attacked from both sides simultaneously, bypassing the Black Sea from the east and west from the Black Sea steppes. One wave of invaders, passing through the Roman border fortifications, invaded Europe and captured Thrace (Eastern and Central Bulgaria), another rushed to the southeast, smashing the rich cities of the Caucasus, the Armenian Highlands, Asia Minor and reached Syria - all of these were Roman lands …
In the spring of 396, the Huns, who plundered the southeastern possessions of the Roman Empire, returned with rich booty from Asia Minor through the Derbent Pass to the Northern Black Sea region. In the same year, their fellow tribesmen who participated in the western campaign returned here - it is quite possible that the Roman troops still managed to squeeze the nomads into the steppe.
However, already in 400 AD the Huns reappeared in the Danube Valley. The advanced detachments of the Huns managed to gain a foothold here. Gradually, the bulk of the Huns settled in the Danube Valley and Northern Pannonia, squeezing out the remains of the Goths from there. Fleeing from physical destruction, the Goths asked for refuge in the territory of the Roman Empire and, crossing the border, settled, with the consent of the Romans, in the Danube Valley. The Romans hoped for their support in the war with the Huns, but the Goths did not fight, but moved further west, to Illyria and the pre-Alpine regions. Meanwhile, the Hunnic hordes began to penetrate into the territory of southern Pannonia. The tribes of the Goths, Vandals and Alans inhabiting here partly joined the Huns, and partly went further west.
The rise of the Huns coincided with great problems within the Roman Empire. Strictly speaking, after 395, there was no longer any single Roman Empire, and in its place there were two empires - Western and Eastern, headed by brothers, sons of the last general Roman emperor Theodosius the Great. Despite the kinship, the emperors competed with each other and could not gather a single army in order to defeat the presumptuous Huns, on the contrary, they bribed individual Hunnic princes to attack the enemy's cities: the Byzantines set the Huns against the cities of the Western Roman Empire, and the Romans - on city of Byzantium. In general, the situation repeated itself, similar to the Chinese one, when the emperors used the Huns in their military-political showdown. As a result, the Romans and the Byzantines lost from this, and the Huns themselves were the winners,enriched in this way by the treasures of both Greece and Rome.
The Roman Empire was unable to unite, and the invasion of aliens from the northeast only aggravated the situation in the provinces. Pannonia was a very convenient habitat for the Huns, since from there it was close enough to the rich cities of Italy and Greece.
For more than half a century, the Hunnic tribes vexed Italy and Byzantium. During this time, the heterogeneous tribes of nomads, who joined the ranks of the Huns, rallied and became a single whole. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that not only the Huns, but also the Germanic tribes, in particular the Goths driven from their lands in the Black Sea region, brought confusion into the Roman Empire. The name of another Germanic tribe - the Vandals - has become a household name to denote lack of culture and cruelty. They migrated from the southern coast of the Baltic, and then besieged and captured Rome, thanks to which they got into the works of Roman historians, and the name became synonymous with senseless cruelty.
By 420, the Hunnic horde had firmly established itself in the steppes of the middle Danube. It consisted of three uluses ruled by independent khans, but one of the three khans - Roila (Rugila) - was considered the main khan. Most likely, the other two khans were his relatives, perhaps even brothers. Their names were Mundzuk and Oktar.
Both the first Rome and the second Rome (Constantinople) tried to appease the Huns. Thus, the Byzantine emperor who ruled in Constantinople sent annual "gifts" (tribute) to the khan in the amount of 350 pounds of gold. Rome as a hostage sent a young officer Aetius to the headquarters of Khan Roila, where he spent several years. Aetius managed to win the favor of the supreme khan and other influential Hunnic leaders. Having established contacts with the Hunnic leaders, Aetius returned to Rome and used his Hunnic connections for political purposes. Upon the death of Emperor Honorius in 423, Aetius sided with a certain John, who was about to be proclaimed the new emperor. At the request of Aetius, Roila sent an army to Rome, but it arrived too late, and the young Valentinian, nephew of the late Honorius, was proclaimed emperor. The Byzantines who supported Valentinian sent a consolidated corps to Rome, commanded by the Alan Ardabur, and he managed to persuade the troops of Khan Roil to leave Italy. The battle did not take place, and Aetius was forgiven and gradually restored his influence at the Roman court. The western Hunnic khans, in contrast to the eastern ones (apparently taught by the experience of the eastern Huns), opposed the fact that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.commanded by Alan Ardabur, who managed to persuade the troops of Khan Roil to leave Italy. The battle did not take place, and Aetius was forgiven and gradually restored his influence at the Roman court. The western Hunnic khans, in contrast to the eastern ones (apparently taught by the experience of the eastern Huns), opposed the fact that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.commanded by Alan Ardabur, who managed to persuade the troops of Khan Roil to leave Italy. The battle did not take place, and Aetius was forgiven and gradually restored his influence at the Roman court. The western Hunnic khans, in contrast to the eastern ones (apparently taught by the experience of the eastern Huns), opposed the fact that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.and Aetius was forgiven and gradually restored his influence at the Roman court. The western Hunnic khans, in contrast to the eastern ones (apparently taught by the experience of the eastern Huns), opposed the fact that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.and Aetius was forgiven and gradually restored his influence at the Roman court. The western Hunnic khans, in contrast to the eastern ones (apparently taught by the experience of the eastern Huns), opposed the fact that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.so that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.so that ordinary Huns entered the military service of the emperors. So, Khan Roila sent his hordes to Thrace, because the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II hired and did not dismiss the Huns from the state military service. However, the campaign was unsuccessful - on the way Roila died, possibly poisoned by a Byzantine agent, and the Hunnic army retreated to Pannonia to elect a new khan. Three co-rulers were elected: Mun-dzuk and his two sons, Attila and Bled.
The name of Attila will forever remain in history; it is perceived as synonymous with a cruel leader and a bloodthirsty winner. There are two versions about the origin of this name. According to the first, it comes from the Turkic "ata" - "father" and is translated approximately as "father", according to the other - it is the same root with the Turkic name r. Volga (Itil or Atil) and comes from the word "water".
The Hunnic headquarters on the Danube became the largest diplomatic center in Eastern Europe. The city itself was built of wood and surrounded by a wooden wall. Attila's spacious log palace was located in the center on a high hill. Near the palaces of Attila, his main wife and the houses of his guards, there were many auxiliary structures - storerooms, servants' dwellings, utility rooms, kitchens, and even a stone bath, built in imitation of the Roman ones.
Like any diplomatic capital of the world, Attila's court was flooded with diplomats of all sizes, including ordinary diplomats and agents of influence, as well as spies and saboteurs, perhaps even hired assassins. In order not to become a victim of political intrigue, Attila was forced to create his own intelligence service. So he managed to uncover several attempts on his life, organized by the Byzantines.
The Roman senator Priscus, who visited the Hunnic capital, was surprised to meet there many Greeks who had been captured by the Huns, but were released and remained in the barbarian capital. Priscus was even more surprised by the fact that the Greeks did not voluntarily want to return to their homeland, since, they said, life among the Huns was easier than life in the empire. The subjects of Attila, unlike the Romans, did not pay taxes, because the Hunnic court received all the necessary wealth through robbery and robbery.
Both the Vandal king and the Persian Shah sought the support of the Huns. One of Attila's secretaries was a Roman aristocrat sent to him by Aetius; in addition, Aetius sent his own son to Attila's court as an honorary hostage. The alliance with Attila was beneficial to Aetius: thanks to the Hunnic cavalry, Aetius successfully defeated in 435-439. Germanic tribes of the Burgundians and Visigoths in southern Gaul.
In 441, the Hunnic cavalry, marching quickly along the Black Sea coast, returned to the Danube valley. Almost without a fight, the important Byzantine fortresses of Singidun (Belgrade) and Viminacium surrendered, which should have blocked the path to Constantinople, and the Hunnic cavalry rushed further south into the valley of the Morava River and soon reached the city of Naissa (Nis). Here is how Priscus describes the capture of Naissa: “Since the inhabitants did not dare to go out to battle, [the Huns], in order to facilitate the passage of their troops, built a bridge across the river [Nishava] on the south side below the city downstream and brought their cars to the walls encircling the city. First, they brought wooden platforms on wheels. On them were soldiers who shot the defenders on the bastions. Behind the platforms there were people who pushed the wheels with their feet and moved the cars where necessary,so that [the archers] could shoot through the screens successfully. So that the warriors on the platform could fight in safety, they were covered with braided willow screens with skins and skins thrown over them to protect them from projectiles and incendiary darts. When many vehicles were brought up to the walls, the defenders left the bastions due to the downpour of projectiles. Then the so-called battering rams were brought. The defenders threw huge boulders from the walls. Some of the cars were crushed along with the servants, but the defenders could not withstand a large number of them. Barbarians burst through a part of the wall, pierced by ram attacks, as well as by means of compound stairs. "they were covered with wicker willow screens with skins and skins thrown over them to protect them from projectiles and incendiary darts. When many vehicles were brought up to the walls, the defenders left the bastions due to the downpour of missiles. Then the so-called battering rams were brought. The defenders threw huge boulders from the walls. Some of the cars were crushed along with the servants, but the defenders could not withstand a large number of them. Barbarians burst through a part of the wall, pierced by ram attacks, as well as by means of compound stairs. "they were covered with wicker willow screens with skins and skins thrown over them to protect them from projectiles and incendiary darts. When many vehicles were brought up to the walls, the defenders left the bastions due to the downpour of missiles. Then the so-called battering rams were brought. The defenders threw huge boulders from the walls. Some of the cars were crushed along with the servants, but the defenders could not withstand a large number of them. Barbarians burst through a part of the wall, pierced by ram attacks, as well as by means of compound stairs. "but the defenders could not withstand a large number of them. The barbarians burst through the part of the wall, punctured by ram attacks, as well as by means of composite ladders.but the defenders could not withstand a large number of them. The barbarians burst through the part of the wall, punctured by ram attacks, as well as by means of composite ladders.
It is not entirely clear how the battering guns got to the Huns. Some historians believe that the Huns became familiar with siege technology in China. It is also possible that siege weapons were trophies taken from Greek cities captured by the Huns. Other researchers think differently: the Huns could use the services of Persian military engineers, who were given at their disposal by the Sassanid shah. Roman and Byzantine engineers - civilians, prisoners and deserters - could also build siege engines. In any case, the use of siege weapons suggests that the Huns learned quickly.
After the capture of Naissa, the Huns moved to Constantinople along the old Roman road and reached the Thracian Chersonesos (Gallipoli). The Byzantines could not resist the Huns, since there were simply no imperial troops. The Huns came at the most inopportune moment: the troops of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius were scattered across the borders. One army fought in Persia against Shah Ezdegerd II, the other was stationed in Sicily and was preparing to land in North Africa in order to recapture Africa from the Vandal king Geiserich. Constantinople was left practically defenseless. Without a doubt, the neighbors of Byzantium, suffering from the constant attacks of the rulers of Constantinople, agreed on joint actions.
In early 442, Emperor Theodosius made peace with the Vandals and withdrew the army from Sicily, which soon landed in Thrace, near Constantinople. Not wanting to risk it, Attila retreated. Perhaps he simply did not want to send his soldiers to their deaths to make life easier for the Shah and the Vandal King.
After the pacification of Byzantium, the main forces of the Huns were thrown into the Northern Black Sea region, where they pacified the rebellious tribes. It is quite possible that the Byzantine diplomats, wishing to remove the young and ambitious ruler of the Huns away from their borders, provoked the uprisings of the nomadic tribe of Akatsi, suggesting that the more Attila gets bogged down in the war with other barbarians, the easier and more peaceful it will be to live in Constantinople.
After the death in 445 of his brother Bleda, Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns. His power is growing. But at that moment the Byzantine emperor, seeing that Attila's troops were far from Constantinople, stopped paying tribute. In 447, having passed through Thrace and Illyria as a hurricane, Attila destroyed about 70 cities and fortresses there - the Huns moved to Constantinople. When there were several days' journey to the capital, the emperor asked the barbarians for peace. Byzantium managed to pay off by paying off the "debt" in tribute in the amount of about two tons of gold and by an oath promise to the khan to catch the deserters of Huns in their lands. Byzantium regularly paid tribute and pushed Attila to war with Rome. But the new emperor of Byzantium, Marcian, suddenly refused to pay tribute, taking advantage of the aggravation of relations between the Huns and Rome.
In 450, the Roman emperor Valentinian III, for political reasons, forcibly engaged his sister Honoria to the man he needed in the Senate. But Honoria, who despised her future husband, decided to turn to Attila for help. She sent her trusted eunuch to the khan with wedding rings and a request for help. Attila swallowed the bait - he immediately sent his ambassador to Rome demanding the hand of Honoria, and as a dowry - no less than half of the Western Roman Empire. Valentinian refused such an alliance and sent Honoria under house arrest. War was brewing. Aetius, who previously used the Huns to fight the Germans in Northern Italy, Gaul and the Alps, now, on the contrary, began to look for allies among the Germans in the fight against the Huns. The German coalition turned out to be very impressive: the Visigoths took the side of Rome,burgundy and francs. True, Attila managed to undermine the unity of the Franks, as well as to maintain loyalty to the Spanish and Provencal Ostrogoths and Vandals, who were on the side of the Huns. The war for the hand and heart of the Roman princess and half of the empire to boot took place in Gaul. Attila rushed to the city of Aurelian (Orleans), which was owned by the Alanian khan Sangaban, who settled in Armorica. Attila assumed that Sangaban would go over to the side of the Huns, but he managed to get to Orleans faster with the Visigoth detachment of Aetius. Attila, bypassing the city, settled down near the modern city of Troyes. Here in June 451 a battle took place, which went down in history as the "Battle of the Nations". On the side of Attila, in addition to the Huns and Eastern Alans, there were Gepids, Ostrogoths, Heruls and part of the Franks. On the side of Aetius, in addition to the Roman legions, recruited by the way not in Rome, but in Gaul and Germany, there were also Visigoths, Burgundians,Franks and part of the Armoric Alans. The battle was bloody but unsuccessful. Aetius insisted that he had won a victory, the Huns said the same, but no one dared to repeat the attack the next day, and a few days later Attila with an army left for Pannonia, and the Visigoths withdrew to Toulouse.
Luck was not always accompanied by Attila, as, for example, Alexander the Great. Nor did he shine in military tactics, and his strength was in an almost countless reserve that he could put into action after seemingly crushing defeats. His power extended not only to Pannonia, but also to those Huns who roamed the Ponto-Caspian steppes, it was from there that he replenished the ranks of his cavalry after heavy losses in the battles with the Romans. In the spring of 452 Attila moved to Rome. Passing through the Julian Alps, he took Aquileia and Mediolan (Milan). According to Christian legend, Pope Leo visited Attila in Mediolana, accompanied by two senators. He, allegedly with the help of the intercession of the apostles Peter and Paul, was able to persuade Attila to retreat. Indeed, after this visit, the Huns left Italy and returned to Pannonia. True,The reason for the Khan's retreat was much more prosaic: due to last year's crop failure and famine, terrible epidemics, including plague, raged in Italy. However, it is possible that the pope simply offered Attila a deal - consent to marriage with Valentinian's sister in exchange for help in the campaign against Byzantium. Perhaps the pope persuaded Attila to retreat also by explaining to him that the Byzantine fortress cities in Illyria (now Slovenia and Croatia) have very strong garrisons that can stab the Huns who have gone deep into Italy in the back.that he explained to him that the Byzantine fortress cities in Illyria (now Slovenia and Croatia) have very strong garrisons that can stab the Huns who have gone deep into Italy in the back.that he explained to him that the Byzantine fortress cities in Illyria (now Slovenia and Croatia) have very strong garrisons that can stab the Huns who have gone deep into Italy in the back.
In 453, the allied tribes of Rome, the Visigoths (Western Goths) and Alans [47] in the battle on the river. Liger (Loire) inflict another crushing defeat on Attila. His cavalry is defeated, and Attila, abandoning his broken army, fled from the battlefield.
Having lost the war with Rome, Attila in 453 decides to gain a foothold in the West through a dynastic marriage with one of the German princesses. The choice fell on the young Burgundian beauty Ildiko. Simultaneously with the reconciliation with the West, Attila is preparing a campaign against Byzantium. But on the morning after their wedding night with Ildiko, Attila, nicknamed the Scourge of God, was found dead. Most likely the hired killer put poison in the drink. The sons who inherited his power after the death of Attila were unable to cope with the rebels (both Rome and Constantinople instigated them to do this) by the former allies of the Huns. The remnants of the Hunnic hordes left Pannonia for the Black Sea steppes. Over the next 100 years, Byzantine and Roman agents of influence set the neighboring tribes of Alans, Germans, and Slavs against the Huns. The remnants of the Huns are gradually dissolving among the local sedentary population and the nomadic Türks arriving from the east.
But back to Attila. It remains for us to dwell on the last riddle of the Huns - the riddle of Attila's grave. It has not yet been found, and researchers put forward several hypotheses about where it might be. Moreover, both professional archaeologists and treasure hunters show interest in Attila's grave, because it contains all the treasures looted by Attila in numerous campaigns. According to the most common version, his grave is located under one of the hills on the territory of what is now Budapest. Other theories suggest that the grave is located somewhere in the steppes of Ukraine. Still others - that the body of Attila and the treasures belonging to him were taken by the Huns on carts even further - to the Volga region, Turkestan or even to Northeastern China.
The Hunnic khan Attila, even after his death, continues to live in the epic of the Germanic peoples - he was immortalized in the "Song of the Nibelungs" and in some Icelandic sagas.
There is a funny story connected with the Hunnic heritage in National Socialist Germany. German ideologists were convinced of the exclusivity of the Aryan race, and only ethnic Germans were recognized as Aryans proper. All other peoples were declared "subhuman" and were subject to forced sterilization or physical destruction. As a basis for racological research, German racists took the appearance of the Germans in Northern Germany - tall, blond hair, blue eyes. In order to prove their theory, they in the 1930s. received from the state budget of the Reich huge appropriations for anthropological research of all Germans in Germany. The data obtained from North and West Germany, on the whole, fit into the Aryan hypothesis. However, in southern and even central Germany (mainly in Bavaria, beloved by the National Socialists, as well as in Austria,Saxony and Thuringia), anthropologists to their horror discovered among ethnic Germans short brunettes with slanting eyes and high-cheekbone Mongolian skulls. The fact is that the Huns settled in these areas of Germany, and their Germanized descendants still retain the features of their distant Mongoloid ancestors. The racological campaign had to be curtailed little by little without drawing undue attention to it.
But most of the Huns remained in Hungary. Until now, the name Attila is a popular male name there. Moreover, in 2008, the descendants of the Huns collected over 2,400 signatures for considering their people in Hungary a national minority. Well, it is quite possible that the disappeared Huns will soon become one of the European nations. And apparently, the descendants of the Huns will rise from oblivion not only in Hungary, but also in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.