On July 21, a researcher I.D. Muhametshin gave a lecture “The invasion of the Huns in Europe” for the guests of the Bolgar Museum-Reserve. During the lecture, the audience learned about the important historical processes that led to the Turkification of the steppes and the formation of Eurasian Turkic states. The Huns (Xiongnu) were a historical community of various nomadic peoples who lived in the steppes of Eurasia. A part of the Xiongnu moved westward, marking the beginning of the Great Migration. In the 2nd century, a mass migration of Xiongnu tribes began to the west. From this time, i.e., from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the movement of the eastern tribes began to be felt by the tribes of the Volga region and the Urals.
Among the Xiongnu-Turkic tribes that moved to the northern coast of the Caspian Sea in the 2nd century AD, the majority were the Proto-Bulgar tribes. At the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, the Huns occupied the steppe zone north of the Black Sea, from the Danube to the Volga, and engaged in numerous internal and external local wars. In the 3rd century, the Huns gained strength and became a significant power, and in 375, they reached the borders of the Roman Empire. In 445, Attila became the ruler of the Hunnic Empire. During his reign, the Hunnic Empire reached its peak. However, after Attila’s death in 454, the empire began to disintegrate. The evidence of this is the Hun cauldrons, which we can see in the museum halls.
Ten people attended the lecture.