In the early Middle Ages from the 4th to the 9th centuries, Iranian-speaking, Slavic, German, Finnish, Turkic and Ugric tribes were active participants in the events taking place on the Middle Volga. Some of them came to this region from the west, others from the east. Some found a new homeland in the Volga region, others, rushing through these lands in a fiery whirlwind, left behind only the ashes of the burned villages, and the graves of their relatives killed in battles. New archaeological materials make it possible to take a fresh look at the processes of interaction between the settled (antes, Goths) and nomadic (Huns, Bulgarians) populations of the forest-steppe Volga region in the era of the Great Migration of Peoples.