Summary

Kradin, Nikolay N. Imperiia Hunnu [The Hsiung-nu Empire]. Moscow, 2001

This study was supported by Giants of Soros Foundation # Z16000/542 and # H2B741, RGNF # 93-06-10313, RFFI # 97-06-96759 and # 99-06-99512, and the Russian Federal Program «Integration»* M422-06.

Introduction

The Hsiung-nu history is one of the most interesting pages of the history of the Eurasia steppe's people in the ancient epoch. On the boundary between III and II centuries ВС. the Hsiung-nu have established the first steppe empire which has consolidated many ethnoses of the Inner Asia. Over a period of 250 years, a dramatic confrontation between Hsiung-nu and southern neighbour – Chinese dynasty Han. At the end of the first century AD, the Hsiung-nu era in the Inner Asia was over but from this point a new stage of their history – the Hun invasion to the West and their devastating conquests in the Old World begins.

Basic sources on the Hsiung-nu history [Лидай 1958] are data of the which was made into basic languages [Бичурин 1950/1851; Groot 1921; Watsin 1961; Материалы 1968, 1973], as well as materials of archaeological excavations on the territories of Mongolia, Russia and China [Доржсурэн 1961; Unehara 1960; Rudenko 1969; Коновалов 1976; Давыдова 1995; 1996; Миняев 1998 etc.]. At present, there are several great papers [Egami 1948; Бернштам 1951; Гумилев 1960; Ma Чаншоу 1962; Давыдова 1985; Сухбаатар 1980 etc.], in which different aspects of the history and culture of the Hsiung-nu society are elucidated. However, many questions remain as before unsolved and debatable. This book will consider some of these problems.