Russian expeditions to western Siberia post. Ermak and the conquest of siberia. Preparation of Ermak's campaign

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again travelers of the era of the great geographical discoveries

"Russia will grow with Siberia!" - exclaimed the brilliant Arkhangelsk man Mikhailo Lomonosov. To whom do we owe such a valuable "increment"? Of course, you will tell Ermak and ... you will be mistaken. A hundred years before the legendary ataman, the "ship's men" of Moscow governors Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin made an unparalleled campaign from Ustyug to the upper reaches of the Ob River, annexing western Siberia to the possessions of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III.

By the end of the 15th century, the mountains of the Urals became the border between Russia and the Pelym principality - a tribal union of the Voguls (Mansi). The Russians were troubled by the raids of restless neighbors. Together with the Voguls, the Tyumen and Kazan khans attacked our borders: from the northern Urals to the Volga, a single anti-Russian front was formed. Ivan III decided to crush the Pelym principality and cool the warlike ardor of his allies, the khans.

The Grand Duke put the experienced governors Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin at the head of the army. We don't know much about them, but it's a pity: these people deserve more than a few lines in encyclopedias. Fyodor Semenovich Kurbsky-Cherny belonged to a noble boyar family, excellently proved himself in battles with Kazan. Voivode Ivan Ivanovich Saltyk-Travin also diligently served the fatherland. He more than once had the occasion to command the "ship's army", he also fought with the Kazan khan, led the campaign to Vyatka.

The city of Ustyug was chosen as the place of gathering of the warriors. They prepared for the campaign in detail: they equipped river vessels - ears (there were no roads in Siberia, the army could only move on water), they hired experienced helmsmen familiar with the steep nature of the northern rivers. On May 9, 1483, many oars churned the water of the frozen Sukhona. The great Siberian campaign began. At first, they walked easily and cheerfully, since the land around them was inhabited. But now they passed the last border towns, the wilderness began. Rapids and shoals were common, soldiers had to drag ships along the shore. But all these were "flowers", "berries" had a chance to taste on the Ural passes, when the ears were dragged along the mountains. Hard work, hard labor, and there is a long way ahead through unknown and hostile Siberia.

Finally, the cursed passes were left behind, again the ships glided along the water surface of the Siberian rivers - Kol, Vizhay, Lozva. The monotonous landscape did not change for hundreds of miles: steep banks, forest thickets. Only closer to the mouth of the Lozva began to come across the first settlements of the Voguls. The decisive battle took place near the Vogul capital - Pelym. The Russians had nowhere to retreat: victory or death. Therefore, the "ship's men" attacked fiercely and swiftly, defeating the enemy in a fleeting battle. In the Vologda-Perm Chronicle we read: “I came to the Vogulichi in the month of July at 29, and the battles took place. And you run out of vogulichi. " The Ustyug chronicler adds: "In that battle, 7 people were killed in the Ustyuzhan people, and there were a lot of vogulich pads."

It is not worth explaining the easy victory only by the superiority of Russian weapons: the cannons squeaked for the Voguls, who more than once invaded Moscow possessions, did not come as a surprise. The fact is that, unlike the princelings and their warriors who live off the military booty, simple Voguls - hunters and fishermen - strove for peace with the Russians. Why go on long hikes, rob and kill neighbors, if your own rivers are full of fish, and the forests are abundant with game? Therefore, the Russian chronicles do not mention any significant clashes with the Voguls after Pelym. The Tyumen khan also pacified and did not dare to come to the aid of the allies.

Having dealt with the Pelym principality, the governors went north to the Ugra lands. The chronicler reports: "We went down the Irtysh-river down, fighting, but on the great Ob-river ... they took a lot of good and full." There is still not a word about the combat losses of Russian warriors, people died not in battles, but from illness and hardships of a long campaign: "In Ugra, many Vologda residents died, but all of the Ustyuzhans left." The most dangerous enemy was not the Voguls with the Ugra people, but the immense Siberian distances.

We went back along the Malaya Ob and Severnaya Sosva. On the Ural passes, they again had to drag ships heavily laden with war booty, but the souls of the soldiers were easy: after all, they were returning home. Having passed a string of large and small northern rivers, on October 1, 1483, the victorious "ship's army" returned to Ustyug. In five months, the brave Russian pioneers covered, according to the most conservative estimates, over 4.5 thousand kilometers. An unheard-of, unparalleled feat!

The military tasks of the campaign were successfully solved, it remains to wait for its political results. They did not wait long: already in the next year, 1484, "the princes of Vogul and Yugorsk came to Moscow with a petition." The rulers of western Siberia beat Ivan III with their foreheads, who "paid tribute to them, but granted them, letting them go home." So, thanks to the military labors of the soldiers Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin, our country began to grow into Siberia.

Dmitry Kazyonnov

As a resident of Siberia, I have always been interested in its development. After all, the history of its accession is not limited to single campaigns or short-term wars. The design of these territories lasted more than four centuries and does not end to this day. Siberia and the Far East are the territories of a country that was once located within Eastern Europe and developed only vertically (from north to south). But what was the impetus for the development of the eastern territories?

The beginning of the Russian campaigns in Siberia

The first movements of the masses to the East of the country began during the reign of Ivan III. At that time, centralization and the process of enslaving the peasants were actively pursued. The peasants who fell under the rule of the landowner had to pay double tax (to both the feudal lord and the sovereign). Therefore, many sought to move to less inhabited territories. In addition, the state encouraged such migrations. After all, at the expense of the settlers, the borders of the country were strengthened, and new territories were developed.

Another reason was that in the eastern lands there were fragments of the once great Golden Horde, which had to be subdued and finally disarmed.

The first trip to Siberia

For the same reasons, a regiment of Cossacks was equipped in 1581, headed by Yermak Timofeevich. Historians still cannot come to a consensus regarding this event. There are several versions of the development of events:

Despite the great many versions, internal colonization was indeed carried out, and quite successfully.

At the end of the 15th century. Moscow governors led a large march to Western Siberia.

They discovered the highest part of the Urals and were the first to determine its true direction "from sea to sea", that is, from north to south.

At the end of the 15th century. Russians penetrated the Irtysh, and at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. - in the lower reaches of the Ob.

At the same time, Russian industrialists-Pomors in search of furs through the straits of the Yugorsky Shar or the Kara Gates penetrated the Kara Sea, entered the mouths of the Ob and Taz and founded Mangazeya in those places.

After the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan by the Russians, the tsarist possessions stretched to the Caspian Sea and the entire Volga became part of them.

Especially a lot of information has been preserved about the campaign to Siberia of the Cossack Yermak Timofeevich.

Ermak's detachment studied well all the river routes of Western Siberia, all riverine areas.

In a clash with the Tatar Khan Kuchum on the banks of the Irtysh, near the mouth of the Vagai, Ermak died, his detachment retreated, but the main thing was done - the way to Siberia was explored.

Over three seas

In 1458, supposedly the merchant Afanasy Nikitin went from his native Tver to the Shirvan land (on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan). He has with him travel letters from the Grand Duke of Tver Mikhail Borisovich and from the Archbishop of Tver Gennady. There are also merchants with him - in total they go on two ships. They move along the Volga, past the Klyazminsky monastery, pass Uglich and get to Kostroma, which was in the possession of Ivan III. His governor lets Athanasius pass further.

Vasily Panin, the grand duke's ambassador to Shirvan, to whom Athanasius wanted to join, had already walked down the Volga. Nikitin is waiting two weeks for Hasan-bek, the Tatar Shirvanshah's ambassador. He goes with gyrfalcons "from the Grand Duke Ivan, and he had ninety gyrfalcons." Together with the ambassador, they move on.

On the way, Athanasius makes notes about his voyage across the three seas: “the first sea is Derbent (Caspian), Daria Khvalisskaya; the second sea - Indian, Daria Gundustanskaya; the third Black Sea, Daria of Istanbul ”(in Persian, Daria is the sea).

Kazan passed without obstacles. Horde, Uslan, Saray and Berenzan passed safely. The merchants are warned that the Tatars are trapping the caravan. Hasan-bek gives gifts to informants so that they can lead them in a safe way. They took the wrong gifts, but the news of their approach was given. The Tatars overtook them in Bohun (on a sandbank at the mouth of the Volga). In the skirmish, there were killed on both sides. The smaller ship, on which Athanasius was also luggage, was plundered. The large ship reached the sea and ran aground. And he was also plundered and four Russians were taken prisoner. The rest were released "with their bare heads into the sea." And they went, crying ... When the travelers came ashore, and then they were taken prisoner.

In Derbent, Afanasy asks for help from Vasily Panin, who safely reached the Caspian Sea, and Hasan-bek, to intercede for the people captured and return the goods. After much trouble, people are released, but nothing else is returned. It was believed that what came from the sea was the property of the owner of the coast. And they parted in all directions.

Some stayed in Shemakha, others went to work in Baku. Afanasy, on his own, goes to Derbent, then to Baku, "where the fire burns inextinguishable", from Baku across the sea - to Chapakur. He lives here for six months, a month in Sari, a month in Amal, about Rhea he says that the descendants of Muhammad were killed here, from whose curse seventy cities were destroyed. He lives in Kashan for a month, a month in Ezde, where "livestock are fed with dates." He does not name many cities, because "there are many more big cities." By sea he gets to Hormuz on the island, where “the sea comes on it twice every day” (for the first time he sees the ebb and flow), and the heat of the sun can burn a person. A month later, "after Easter on the day of Radunitsa," he sets out on a tave (Indian ship without an upper deck) "with horses across the Indian Sea." They reach Kombey, "where paint and varnish will be born" (the main export products, except for spices and fabrics), and then go to Chaul.

Athanasius has a keen interest in everything related to trade. He studies the state of the market and is annoyed that they lied to him: "They said that there is a lot of our goods, but for our land there is nothing: all the goods are white for the non-German land, pepper, and paint." Athanasius brought a stallion "to the Indian land" for which he paid one hundred rubles. In Junnar, the khan takes away the stallion from Athanasius, having learned that the merchant is not a Muslim, but a Rusyn. Khan promises to return the stallion and give another thousand gold coins in addition if Athanasius converts to the Muslim faith. And he appointed the term: four days on Spasov Day, on the Assumption Fast. But on the eve of Spasov's day, the treasurer Mukhamed, a Khorasanian, arrived (his identity has not yet been established). He stood up for the Russian merchant. The stallion was returned to Nikitin. Nikitin believes that "the Lord's miracle happened on Spas Day", "The Lord God took pity ... did not leave me, a sinner, by his mercy."

In Bidar he is again interested in the commodity - “horses, damask (cloth), silk and any other commodity and black slaves are sold at the auction, but there is no other commodity here. The goods are all Gundustan, and only vegetables are edible, but for the Russian land there are no goods here "...

Nikitin vividly describes the manners and customs of the peoples living in India.

“And here is an Indian country, and ordinary people walk naked, but their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, and everyone walks around with bellies, and children are born every year, and they have many children. Of the common people, men and women are all naked and all black. Wherever I go, many people follow me - they marvel at the white man. "

Everything is available to the curiosity of a Russian traveler: agriculture, the state of the army, and the way of waging war: “The battle is being conducted more and more on elephants, themselves in armor and horses. The elephants are tied to their heads and tusks with large forged swords ... and they dress the elephants in damask armor, and turrets are made on the elephants, and in those turrets there are twelve men in armor, all with cannons and arrows. "

Athanasius is especially interested in questions of faith. He conspires with the Hindus to go to Par-wat - "this is their Jerusalem, the same as Mecca is for the desermen." He wonders that there are seventy-four faiths in India, "and people of different faiths do not drink, eat, marry with each other ...".

Athanasius grieves that he has lost the Russian church calendar, the sacred books disappeared during the plundering of the ship. “I do not observe Christian holidays - neither Easter, nor the Nativity of Christ; I do not fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. And living among the non-believers, I pray to God that he will keep me ... "

He reads the starry sky to determine the day of Easter. At the "fifth Easter" Athanasius decides to return to Russia. And again he writes down what he saw with his own eyes, as well as information about different ports and trading from Egypt to the Far East, received from knowledgeable people. Notes where "silk will be born", where "diamonds will be born", warns future travelers where and what difficulties await them, describes wars between neighboring peoples ...

Wandering around the cities for another six months, Athanasius gets to the port - the city of Dabhol. For two gold pieces, he goes to Hormuz by ship through Ethiopia. They managed to get along with the Ethiopians, and the ship was not robbed.

From Hormuz, Athanasius goes on dry land to the Black Sea and reaches Trabzon. On the ship, he agrees to go to Kafa (Crimea) for a gold one. Taking him for a spy, he is robbed by the head of the city's security. Autumn, bad weather and winds make it difficult to cross the sea. “We crossed the sea, but the wind brought us to Balaklava itself. And from there we went to Gurzuf, and we stood here for five days. By the grace of God, I came to Kafa nine days before Filippov's fast. God is the creator! By the grace of God, I passed three seas. God knows the rest, God knows the patron. Amen!"

The Khanate or the Kingdom of Siberia, the conquest of which Yermak Timofeevich became famous in Russian history, was a fragment of the vast empire of Genghis Khan. It stood out from the Central Asian Tatar possessions, apparently not earlier than the 15th century - in the same era when the special kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan, Khiva and Bukhara were formed. The Siberian horde, apparently, was closely related to the Nogai. It was formerly called Tyumen and Shibanskaya. The last name indicates that the branch of the Genghisids dominated here, which descended from Sheibani, one of the sons of Jochi and brother of Batu, and which ruled in Central Asia. One branch of the Sheibanids founded a special kingdom in the Ishim and Irtysh steppes and extended its limits to the Ural ridge and Ob. A century before Yermak, under Ivan III, the Sheiban Khan Ivak, like the Crimean Mengli-Girey, was at enmity with the Golden Horde Khan Akhmat and was even his murderer. But Iwak himself was killed by a rival in his own land. The fact is that a part of the Tatars under the leadership of the noble bey Taybuga separated from the Shiban horde even before that. True, the successors of Taibugi were called not khans, but only beks; the right to the highest title belonged only to the descendants of Chingisov, that is, the Sheibanids. The successors of Taibuga withdrew with their horde further north, to the Irtysh, where the town of Siberia became its center, below the confluence of the Tobol with the Irtysh, and where it subjugated the neighboring Ostyaks, Voguls and Bashkirs. Iwak was killed by one of Taibuga's successors. There was a fierce enmity between these two clans, and each of them was looking for allies in the Bukhara kingdom, the Kirghiz and Nogai hordes and in the Moscow state.

Oath of the Siberian Khanate to Moscow in the 1550-1560s

These internal civil strife explains the readiness with which the prince of the Siberian Tatars, Ediger, a descendant of Taibuga, recognized himself as a tributary of Ivan the Terrible. A quarter of a century before the campaign of Yermak Timofeevich, in 1555, Ediger's ambassadors came to Moscow and beat their foreheads so that he would take the Siberian land under his protection and take tribute from it. Ediger sought support from Moscow in the fight against the Sheibanids. Ivan Vasilievich took the Siberian prince under his arm, imposed a tribute on him a thousand sables a year and sent Dimitri Nepeitsin to him to swear in the inhabitants of the Siberian land and to rewrite the black people; their number extended to 30,700. But in subsequent years the tribute was not delivered in full; Ediger justified himself by the fact that he had been fought by the Shiban prince, who had taken many people into captivity. This Shiban prince was the future enemy of Ermak's Cossacks. Kuchum, grandson of Khan Ivak. Having received help from the Kirghiz-Kaisaks or Nogai, Kuchum defeated Ediger, killed him and took possession of the Siberian kingdom (about 1563). At first, he also recognized himself as a tributary of the Moscow sovereign. The Moscow government recognized him as a khan as a direct descendant of the Sheibanids. But when Kuchum firmly established himself in the Siberian land and spread the Mohammedan religion among his Tatars, he not only stopped paying tribute, but also began to attack our northeastern Ukraine, forcing the neighboring Ostyaks, instead of Moscow, to pay tribute to him. In all likelihood, these changes for the worse in the east did not take place without the influence of failures in the Livonian War. The Siberian Khanate came out from under the supreme Moscow power - this later made it necessary for Yermak Timofeevich's campaign to Siberia.

Stroganovs

The origin of the ataman Ermak Timofeevich is unknown. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama, according to another - a native of the Kachalinskaya stanitsa on the Don. His name, according to some, is a change in the name of Ermolai, other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman and Eremey. One chronicle, considering the name of Ermak as a nickname, gives him the Christian name of Vasily. Ermak was at first the chieftain of one of the many Cossack gangs who plundered on the Volga and robbed not only Russian merchants and Persian ambassadors, but also royal ships. After joining the service, the Yermak gang turned to the conquest of Siberia to the famous family of the Stroganovs.

The ancestors of the employers of the Ermak Stroganovs probably belonged to the Novgorod families who colonized the Dvina land, and in the era of Novgorod's struggle with Moscow, they went over to the side of the latter. They had large holdings in the Solvycheg and Ustyug regions and gained great wealth by being engaged in salt production, as well as trading with foreigners from Perm and Ugra, from whom they exchanged expensive furs. The main nest of this family was in Solvychegodsk. The wealth of the Stroganovs is evidenced by the news that they helped the Grand Duke Vasily the Dark to redeem himself from Tatar captivity; for which they received various awards and privileges. Luka Stroganov is known under Ivan III; and under Vasily III, the grandchildren of this Luke. Continuing to engage in salt production and trade, the Stroganovs are the largest figures in the field of settling the northeastern lands. During the reign of Ivan IV, they spread their colonization activities far to the southeast, to the Kama region. At that time, the head of the family is Anikius, the grandson of Luke; but he was probably already old, and his three sons act as leaders: Yakov, Gregory and Semyon. They are no longer ordinary peaceful colonizers of the Zakamsk countries, but they have their own military detachments, build fortresses, arm them with their own cannons, and repel the raids of hostile aliens. Ermak Timofeevich's gang was hired a little later as one of such detachments. The Stroganovs represented a family of feudal owners in our eastern outskirts. The Moscow government willingly provided enterprising people with all the benefits and rights to defend the northeastern borders.

Preparation of Ermak's campaign

The colonization activity of the Stroganovs, whose highest expression soon became the campaign of Ermak, was constantly expanding. In 1558, Grigory Stroganov beats Ivan Vasilyevich with his forehead about the following: in Velikaya Perm, on both sides of the Kama River from Lysva to Chusovaya, there are empty places, black forests, uninhabited and unsubscribed to anyone. The petitioner asks the Stroganovs to welcome this space, promising to build a city there, supply it with cannons, squeaks, in order to protect the sovereign's homeland from the Nogai people and from other hordes; asks for permission to cut down the forest in these wild places, plow arable land, set up yards, call people unwritten and non-taxable. By a diploma dated April 4 of the same year, the tsar granted the Stroganovs lands on both sides of the Kama for 146 versts from the mouth of the Lysva to Chusovaya, with the requested privileges and rights, allowed them to establish settlements; freed them for 20 years from paying taxes and from zemstvo duties, as well as from the court of Perm governors; so that the right to try the Slobozhany belonged to the same Grigory Stroganov. This letter was signed by the okolnichy Fyodor Umny and Alexey Adashev. Thus, the energetic efforts of the Stroganovs were not without connection with the activities of the Chosen Rada and Adashev, the best adviser to the first half of the reign of Grozny.

Ermak Timofeevich's campaign was well prepared by this energetic Russian exploration of the Urals. Grigory Stroganov built the town of Kankor on the right side of the Kama. Six years later, he asked permission to build another town, 20 versts lower than the first one on the Kama, called Kergedan (later it was called Eagle). These towns were surrounded by strong walls, armed with firearms, and had a garrison made up of various free people: there were Russians, Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. When the oprichnina was established, the Stroganovs asked the tsar to include their cities in the oprichnina, and this request was fulfilled.

In 1568, Grigory's elder brother Yakov Stroganov beats the tsar with his forehead about giving him, on the same basis, the entire course of the Chusovaya River and a twenty-verst distance along the Kama below the mouth of the Chusovaya. The king agreed to his request; only the grace period was now set for ten years (hence, it ended at the same time as the previous award). Yakov Stroganov set up prison along Chusovaya and started settlements that revived this deserted land. He had to defend the region from the raids of neighboring foreigners - the reason why the Stroganovs then called on the Cossacks of Ermak. In 1572, a riot broke out in the land of Cheremis; a crowd of Cheremis, Ostyaks and Bashkirs invaded the Kama region, plundered ships and beat several dozen merchants. But the soldiers of the Stroganovs pacified the rioters. Cheremis raised the Siberian Khan Kuchum against Moscow; he also forbade the Ostyaks, Voguls and Ugras to pay tribute to her. In the following year, 1573, Kuchum's nephew Magmetkul came with an army to Chusovaya and beat many Ostyaks, Moscow tributaries. However, he did not dare to attack the Stroganov towns and went back to the Stone Belt (Ural). Notifying the tsar of this, the Stroganovs asked permission to expand their settlements beyond the Belt, build towns along the Tobol River and its tributaries, and establish settlements there with the same benefits, promising in return not only to defend the Moscow tributaries of the Ostyaks and Voguls from Kuchum, but to fight and subjugate the Siberian Tatars. With a diploma dated May 30, 1574, Ivan Vasilyevich fulfilled this request of the Stroganovs, this time with a twenty-year grace period.

Arrival of Ermak's Cossacks to the Stroganovs (1579)

But for about ten years, the Stroganovs' intention to spread Russian colonization beyond the Urals did not materialize until Yermak's Cossack squads appeared on the scene.

According to one Siberian chronicle, in April 1579 the Stroganovs sent a letter to the Cossack atamans who were robbing on the Volga and Kama, and invited them to their Chusovye towns to help against the Siberian Tatars. The place of the brothers Yakov and Grigory Anikiev was then taken over by their sons: Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They turned to the Volga Cossacks with the commemorated letter. Five atamans responded to their call: Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, who arrived with their hundreds in the summer of the same year. The main leader of this Cossack squad was Yermak, whose name then became next to the names of his older contemporaries, the conquerors of America Cortez and Pizarro.

We do not have exact information about the origin and previous life of this remarkable person. There is only a dark legend that Yermak's grandfather was a townsman from Suzdal, who was engaged in a carriage; that Ermak himself, in baptism Vasily (or Herma), was born somewhere in the Kama region, was distinguished by bodily strength, courage and the gift of speech; in his youth he worked in plows that walked along the Kama and Volga, and then became the chieftain of robbers. There are no direct indications that Ermak actually belonged to the Don Cossacks; rather, he was a native of northeastern Russia, who, with enterprise, experience and courage, resurrected the type of the ancient Novgorod volunteer.

Cossack atamans spent two years in Chusovy towns, helping the Stroganovs to defend themselves against foreigners. When Murza Bekbeliy with a crowd of Voguli attacked the Stroganov villages, Ermak's Cossacks defeated him and took him prisoner. The Cossacks themselves attacked the Voguls, Votyaks and Pelymians, and so prepared themselves for a big campaign against Kuchum.

It is difficult to say who exactly belonged to the main initiative in this enterprise. Some chronicles say that the Stroganovs sent the Cossacks to conquer the Siberian kingdom. Others - that the Cossacks, headed by Yermak, independently embarked on this campaign; and the threats forced the Stroganovs to supply them with the necessary supplies. Perhaps the initiative was mutual, but on the part of the Cossacks of Ermak it was more voluntary, and on the part of the Stroganovs it was more compelled by circumstances. The Cossack squad could hardly carry out a boring guard service in Chusovy towns for a long time and be content with meager prey in the neighboring foreign lands. In all likelihood, it soon became a burden for the Stroganov region itself. Exaggerated news about the river expanse beyond the Stone Belt, about the riches of Kuchum and his Tatars and, finally, the thirst for exploits that could wash away past sins from oneself - all this aroused the desire to go to a little-known country. Ermak Timofeevich was probably the main engine of the entire enterprise. The Stroganovs, on the other hand, got rid of the restless crowd of Cossacks and fulfilled the long-standing idea of ​​their own and of the Moscow government: about postponing the struggle with the Siberian Tatars for the Ural ridge and punishing the khan who had fallen away from Moscow.

The beginning of the campaign of Ermak (1581)

The Stroganovs supplied the Cossacks with provisions, as well as guns and gunpowder, gave them another 300 people from their own military men, among whom, in addition to the Russians, were hired Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. There were 540 Cossacks. Consequently, the whole detachment was more than 800 people. Ermak and the Cossacks realized that the success of the campaign would have been impossible without strict discipline; therefore, for violating it, the atamans established punishments: disobedient and fugitives were supposed to be drowned in the river. The impending dangers made the Cossacks their pious; it is said that Ermak was accompanied by three priests and one monk, who performed divine service every day. Preparations took a lot of time, so Yermak's campaign began quite late, already in September 1581. The soldiers sailed up the Chusovaya, after several days of sailing they entered its tributary, the Serebryanka, and reached the portage that separates the Kama river system from the Ob system. I had to use a lot of work to get over this portage and go down into the river Zheravlya; quite a few boats got stuck on the portage. It was already a cold time, the rivers began to be covered with ice, and near the portage Ermak's Cossacks had to winter. They set up a prison, from where one part of them undertook searches in the neighboring Vogul regions for supplies and booty, and the other manufactured everything needed for the spring campaign. When the flood came, Ermak's squad descended by the river Zheravlya into the Barancha rivers, and then to Tagil and Tura, a tributary of the Tobol, entering the Siberian Khanate. The Ostyak-Tatar yurt of Chingidi (Tyumen), owned by a relative or tributary of Kuchum, Yepancha, stood on Tura. Here the first battle took place, which ended in a complete defeat and flight of the Epanchin Tatars. Tura Cossacks of Ermak entered Tobol and at the mouth of the Tavda had a successful deal with the Tatars. The Tatar fugitives brought Kuchum the news of the coming of Russian soldiers; moreover, they justified their defeat by the action of rifles unknown to them, which they considered special bows: “when the Russians shoot from their bows, then fire plows from them; arrows are not visible, but they inflict mortal wounds, and no military harness can be used to protect oneself from them. " These news saddened Kuchum, especially since various signs already predicted for him the arrival of the Russians and the fall of his kingdom.

The khan, however, wasted no time, gathered from everywhere Tatars, subject Ostyaks and Voguls and sent them under the command of his close relative, the brave Tsarevich Magmetkul, to meet the Cossacks. And he himself built fortifications and notches near the mouth of the Tobol, under the Chuvasheva mountain, in order to block Ermak's access to his capital, a Siberian town located on the Irtysh, slightly below the confluence of the Tobol. A series of bloody battles followed. Magmetkul first met the Cossacks of Yermak Timofeevich near the Babasany tract, but neither the Tatar cavalry nor the arrows resisted the Cossacks and their pishchal. Magmetkul ran to the notch under the Chuvasheva mountain. The Cossacks sailed further along Tobol and seized the Karachi ulus (chief adviser) of Kuchum on the road, where they found warehouses of all kinds of goods. Having reached the mouth of the Tobol, Yermak first avoided the aforementioned notch, turned up the Irtysh, took the town of Murza Atik on its bank and settled down here to rest, thinking over a further plan.

Map of the Siberian Khanate and Ermak's campaign

The capture of the city of Siberia by Ermak

A large crowd of enemies, entrenched under Chuvashev, made Ermak think about it. The Cossack circle gathered to decide whether to go forward or to return. Some advised me to retreat. But the more courageous reminded Ermak Timofeevich of the vow given before the campaign to stand rather to fall to a single person than to run back with shame. Deep autumn was already approaching (1582), soon the rivers were to be covered with ice, and the return voyage was becoming extremely dangerous. On October 23, in the morning, Yermak's Cossacks left the town. When clicks: "Lord, help your slaves!" they struck on the spot, and a stubborn battle began.

The adversaries met the attackers with a cloud of arrows and moved many. Despite desperate attacks, Ermak's detachment could not overcome the fortifications and began to faint. The Tatars, considering themselves already victors, broke the notch in three places and made a sortie. But here, in desperate hand-to-hand combat, the Tatars were defeated and rushed back; the Russians broke into the spot. The Ostyak princes were the first to leave the battlefield and went home with their crowds. The wounded Magmetkul escaped in a boat. Kuchum watched the battle from the top of the mountain and ordered the Muslim mullahs to read prayers. Seeing the flight of the entire army, he himself hastened to his capital, Siberia; but did not stay in it, for there was no one to defend it; and fled south to the Ishim steppes. Having learned about the flight of Kuchum, on October 26, 1582, Yermak entered the empty city of Siberia with the Cossacks; here they found valuable booty, a lot of gold, silver, and especially furs. A few days later, the inhabitants began to return: the first came the Ostyak prince with his people and brought gifts and food to Ermak Timofeevich and his squad; then, little by little, the Tatars returned.

The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895

So, after incredible work, the detachment of Ermak Timofeevich hoisted Russian banners in the capital of the Siberian kingdom. Although firearms gave him a strong advantage, one must not forget that on the side of the enemies there was a huge numerical superiority: according to the chronicles, Ermak had 20 and even 30 times more enemies against him. Only the extraordinary strength of spirit and body helped the Cossacks to defeat so many enemies. Long trips along unfamiliar rivers show to what extent the Cossacks of Yermak Timofeevich were hardened in hardships, accustomed to the struggle with northern nature.

Ermak and Kuchum

However, the war was far from over with the conquest of Kuchum's capital. Kuchum himself did not consider his kingdom lost, which half consisted of nomadic and wandering foreigners; the vast neighboring steppes gave him a safe refuge; from here he made sudden attacks on the Cossacks, and the struggle with him dragged on for a long time. The enterprising prince Magmetkul was especially dangerous. Already in November or December of the same 1582, he trapped a small detachment of Cossacks who were engaged in fishing, and killed almost everyone. This was the first sensitive loss. In the spring of 1583, Ermak learned from a Tatar that Magmetkul camped on the Vagai River (a tributary of the Irtysh between Tobol and Ishim), a hundred miles from the city of Siberia. A detachment of Cossacks sent against him suddenly attacked his camp at night, killed many Tatars, and captured the prince himself. The loss of the brave prince temporarily secured Ermak's Cossacks from Kuchum. But their number has already greatly diminished; stocks were depleted, while there were still many labors and battles ahead. There was an urgent need for Russian help.

The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895. Fragment

Immediately after the capture of the city of Siberia, Ermak Timofeevich and the Cossacks sent news of their successes to the Stroganovs; and then they sent the ataman Ivan to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich himself a Ring with expensive Siberian sables and a request to send them tsarist warriors to help them.

Cossacks Ermak in Moscow with Ivan the Terrible

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that after the departure of Yermak's gang there were few military men left in the Perm Territory, some Pelym (Vogul) prince came with crowds of Ostyaks, Voguls and Votyaks, reached Cherdyn, the main city of this region, then turned to Kamskoye Usolye, Kankor, Kergedan and Chusovsky towns, burning out the surrounding villages and taking the peasants prisoner. Without Ermak, the Stroganovs barely defended their towns from the enemies. Cherdyn voivode Vasily Pelepelitsyn, perhaps dissatisfied with the privileges of the Stroganovs and their lack of jurisdiction, in a report to Tsar Ivan Vasilievich blamed the devastation of the Perm Territory on the Stroganovs: they, without a royal decree, summoned Yermak Timofeevich and other Kuchum was sent and pulled up. When the Pelym prince came, they did not help the sovereign cities with their military men; and Ermak, instead of defending the Perm land, went to fight to the east. The Stroganovs sent from Moscow a disgraceful tsarist charter, marked on November 16, 1582. The Stroganovs commanded from now on not to keep the Cossacks at home, but to send the Volga chieftains, Ermak Timofeevich and his comrades, to Perm (ie, Cherdyn) and Kamskoye Usolye, where they should not stand together, but separate; they were allowed to keep no more than a hundred people. If this is not done exactly, and again some trouble from the Voguls and the Siberian Saltan will befall the Permian places, then a "big disgrace" will be imposed on the Stroganovs. In Moscow, apparently, they did not know anything about the Siberian campaign and demanded that Ermak be sent to Cherdyn with the Cossacks who were already located on the banks of the Irtysh. The Stroganovs were "in great sorrow." They hoped for the permission given to them before to set up towns beyond the Stone Belt and fight the Siberian Saltan, and therefore they let the Cossacks go there, not getting in touch with either Moscow or the Perm governor. But soon the news arrived from Yermak and his comrades about their extraordinary luck. With her, the Stroganovs personally hurried to Moscow. And then the Cossack embassy arrived there, headed by the ataman Koltso (once condemned to death for robberies). Of course, opals were out of the question. The sovereign received the ataman and the Cossacks affectionately, rewarded them with money and cloth, and again released them to Siberia. They say that he sent Yermak Timofeevich a fur coat from his shoulder, a silver goblet and two shells. To reinforce them, he then sent Prince Semyon Volkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with several hundred military men. The captured Tsarevich Magmetkul, who was brought to Moscow, was granted fiefdoms and took a place among the serving Tatar princes. The Stroganovs received new trade benefits and two more land grants, Bolshaya and Malaya Salt.

Arrival to Ermak of the detachments of Volkhovsky and Glukhov (1584)

Kuchum, having lost Magmetkul, was distracted by the renewed struggle with the Taibugi clan. Ermak's Cossacks, meanwhile, finished taxing the Ostyak and Vogul volosts, which were part of the Siberian Khanate. From the city of Siberia they walked along the Irtysh and Ob, on the banks of the latter they took the Ostyak city of Kazym; but then on the attack they lost one of their chieftains, Nikita Pan. The number of Ermak's detachment was greatly reduced; barely half of it remained. Ermak was looking forward to help from Russia. Only in the fall of 1584 did the Volkhovskaya and Glukhovs sailed on plows: but they brought no more than 300 people - help is too insufficient to consolidate such a vast space behind Russia. It was impossible to rely on the loyalty of the newly conquered local princelings, and the irreconcilable Kuchum still acted at the head of his horde. Ermak gladly met the Moscow military men, but had to share with them the meager food supplies; in winter, from a lack of food, mortality in the city of Siberia was discovered. The prince of Volkhovskaya also died. Only in the spring, thanks to the abundant catch of fish, game, as well as bread and livestock delivered from the neighboring foreigners, did Ermak's people recover from hunger. Prince Volkhovskaya, apparently, was appointed a Siberian governor, to whom the Cossack chieftains were to surrender the city and submit, and his death saved the Russians from the inevitable rivalry and disagreement of the chiefs; for the chieftains would hardly willingly renounce their leading role in the newly conquered land. With the death of Volkhovsky, Ermak again became the head of the united Cossack-Moscow detachment.

The death of Ermak

Until now, luck accompanied almost all the enterprises of Ermak Timofeevich. But happiness finally began to change. Continuous luck weakens constant precaution and breeds carelessness, the cause of disastrous surprises.

One of the local princely tributaries, a Karacha, that is, a former khan's adviser, conceived treason and sent ambassadors to Ermak with a request to defend him from the Nogai. The ambassadors swore that they do not think any evil against the Russians. The atamans believed their oath. Ivan Koltso and forty Cossacks with him went to the town of Karachi, were kindly received, and then treacherously all were killed. To avenge them, Ermak sent a detachment with Ataman Yakov Mikhailov; but this detachment was exterminated. After that, the neighboring foreigners bowed to the exhortations of the Karachi and raised an uprising against the Russians. With a large crowd, the Karacha laid siege to the city of Siberia itself. It is quite possible that he was in secret relations with Kuchum. Ermak's squad, weakened by losses, was forced to withstand the siege. The latter dragged on, and the Russians were already experiencing a strong shortage of food: the Karacha hoped to starve them out.

But despair lends determination. On one June night, the Cossacks split into two parts: one remained with Yermak in the city, and the other, with the ataman Matvey Meshcheryak, imperceptibly went out into the field and crept to the Karachi camp, which stood several miles from the city, separately from the other Tatar ones. Many enemies were beaten, the Karacha himself barely escaped. At dawn, when in the main camp of the besieging they learned about the sortie of Yermak's Cossacks, crowds of enemies rushed to the aid of the karache and surrounded the small squad of Cossacks. But Yermak fenced himself off with a Karachi wagon train and met the enemies with rifle fire. The savages broke down and scattered. The city was freed from the siege, the neighboring tribes again recognized themselves as our tributaries. After that, Yermak undertook a successful trip up the Irtysh, perhaps to search for Kuchum. But the indefatigable Kuchum was elusive in his Ishim steppes and built new intrigues.

The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895. Fragment

As soon as Ermak Timofeevich returned to the city of Siberia, the news came that a caravan of Bukhara merchants was going to the city with goods, but stopped somewhere, because Kuchum did not give him a way! The resumption of trade with Central Asia was highly desirable for Yermak's Cossacks, who could exchange woolen and silk fabrics, carpets, weapons, spices for furs collected from foreigners. Ermak in early August 1585 personally with a small detachment sailed to meet the merchants up the Irtysh. Cossack plows reached the mouth of the Vagai, however, without meeting anyone, they swam back. One dark, stormy evening, Yermak landed on the shore and then found his death. Its details are semi-legendary, but not devoid of some plausibility.

Yermak's Cossacks landed on an island on the Irtysh, and therefore, considering themselves safe, plunged into sleep without placing guards. Meanwhile, Kuchum was there. (The news of the unprecedented Bukhara caravan was almost launched by him in order to lure Ermak into an ambush.) His scouts reported to the khan about the Cossacks' lodging for the night. Kuchum had one Tatar condemned to death. The khan sent him to look for a horse ford on the island, promising pardon in case of success. The Tatar crossed the river and returned with the news of the complete carelessness of Yermak's people. At first Kuchum did not believe it and ordered to bring proof. The Tartar set off a second time and brought three Cossack squeaks and three little bags with gunpowder. Then Kuchum sent a crowd of Tatars to the island. With the noise of the rain and the howling of the wind, the Tatars crept to the camp and began to beat the sleepy Cossacks. The awakened Yermak rushed into the river to the plow, but fell into a deep place; having iron armor on him, he could not swim out and drowned. With this sudden attack, the entire Cossack detachment was exterminated along with its leader. This is how this Russian Cortes and Pizarro died, the brave, "velleum" ataman Ermak Timofeevich, as the Siberian chronicles call him, who turned from robbers into a hero whose glory will never be erased from the people's memory.

Two important circumstances helped Yermak's Russian squad during the conquest of the Siberian Khanate: on the one hand, firearms and military training; on the other hand, the internal state of the khanate itself, weakened by civil strife and the discontent of local pagans against Islam, which was forcibly introduced by Kuchum. Siberian shamans with their idols reluctantly gave way to Mohammedan mullahs. But the third important reason for success is the personality of Yermak Timofeevich himself, his irresistible courage, knowledge of military affairs and iron strength of character. The latter is clearly evidenced by the discipline that Yermak managed to establish in his squad of Cossacks, with their violent morals.

Retreat of the remnants of Ermak's squads from Siberia

The death of Yermak confirmed that he was the main engine of the entire enterprise. When news of her reached the city of Siberia, the remaining Cossacks immediately decided that without Ermak, with their small numbers, they would not be able to hold out among the unreliable natives against the Siberian Tatars. Cossacks and Moscow warriors, including no more than a hundred and fifty people, immediately left the city of Siberia with the streltsy head Ivan Glukhov and Matvey Meshcheryak, the only remaining of the five atamans; by a distant northern route along the Irtysh and Ob, they went back for the Kamen (Ural ridge). As soon as the Russians cleared Siberia, Kuchum sent his son Alei to occupy his capital city. But he did not stay here for long. Above, we saw that the prince of Taybugin of the Ediger clan, who owned Siberia, and his brother Bekbulat perished in the fight against Kuchum. Bekbulat's little son, Seydyak, found refuge in Bukhara, grew up there and became an avenger for his father and uncle. With the help of the Bukharians and Kirghiz, Seydyak defeated Kuchum, expelled Alei from Siberia and took possession of this capital city himself.

Arrival of Mansurov's detachment and consolidation of the Russian conquest of Siberia

The Tatar kingdom in Siberia was restored, and the conquest of Yermak Timofeevich seemed lost. But the Russians have already experienced the weakness, the diversity of this kingdom and its natural wealth; they were quick to return.

The government of Fyodor Ivanovich sent one detachment after another to Siberia. Still not knowing about the death of Ermak, the Moscow government in the summer of 1585 sent to his aid the governor Ivan Mansurov with a hundred riflemen and - what is especially important - with a cannon. On this campaign, the remnants of Ermak's detachments and ataman Meshcheryak, who had gone back beyond the Urals, joined with him. Having found the city of Siberia already occupied by the Tatars, Mansurov sailed past, went down the Irtysh to the confluence of the Ob and built a town here for wintering.

This time the matter of conquest went easier with the help of experience and along the paths laid by Ermak. Nearby Ostyaks tried to take the Russian town, but were repulsed. Then they brought their main idol and began to make sacrifices to him, asking for help against Christians. The Russians pointed their cannon at him, and the tree, along with the idol, was smashed into chips. The Ostyaks scattered in fear. The Ostyak prince Lugui, who owned six towns along the Ob, was the first of the local rulers to go to Moscow to beat him with his forehead, so that the sovereign would accept him among his tributaries. He was treated kindly and paid a tribute of seven forty sables.

Foundation of Tobolsk

Ermak Timofeevich's victories were not in vain. Following Mansurov, the governors Sukin and Myasnaya arrived in the Siberian land, and on the Tura River, on the site of the old town of Chingiya, they built a fortress Tyumen and erected a Christian church in it. In the next 1587, after the arrival of new reinforcements, the head Danil Chulkov set off from Tyumen further, went down the Tobol to its mouth and here on the banks of the Irtysh founded Tobolsk; this city became the center of Russian possessions in Siberia, thanks to its advantageous position in the junction of Siberian rivers. Continuing the work of Ermak Timofeevich, the Moscow government used its usual system here too: to spread and consolidate its dominion by gradually building fortresses. Siberia, contrary to fears, was not lost to the Russians. The heroism of Yermak's handful of Cossacks paved the way for Russia's great eastward expansion, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Articles and books about Ermak

Solovyov S. M .. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 6. Chapter 7 - "The Stroganovs and Ermak"

Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. 21 - Ermak Timofeevich

Kuznetsov E.V. Initial poetry about Ermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1890

Kuznetsov E. V. Bibliography of Ermak: Experience of indicating little-known works in Russian and partly in foreign languages ​​about the conqueror of Siberia. Tobolsk, 1891

Kuznetsov E. V. About the essay by A. V. Oksenov "Ermak in the epics of the Russian people." Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892

Kuznetsov E.V. To information about the banners of Ermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892

Oksenov A. V. Ermak in the epics of the Russian people. Historical Gazette, 1892

Article "Ermak" in the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Author - N. Pavlov-Silvansky)

Ataman Ermak Timofeevich conqueror of the Siberian kingdom. M., 1905

Fialkov DN About the place of death and burial of Ermak. Novosibirsk, 1965

Sutormin A.G. Ermak Timofeevich (Alenin Vasily Timofeevich). Irkutsk, 1981

Dergacheva-Skop E. Brief stories about Yermak's campaign in Siberia - Siberia in the past, present and future. Issue III. Novosibirsk, 1981

Kolesnikov A.D. Ermak. Omsk, 1983

Skrynnikov R.G. Siberian expedition of Ermak. Novosibirsk, 1986

Buzukashvili M.I. Ermak. M., 1989

Kopylov D.I. Ermak. Irkutsk, 1989

Sofronov V. Yu. Ermak's campaign and the struggle for the khan's throne in Siberia. Tyumen, 1993

Kozlova NK About “Chudi”, Tatars, Ermak and Siberian burial mounds. Omsk, 1995

Solodkin Ya. G. To the study of chronicle sources about the Siberian expedition of Ermak. Tyumen, 1996

Kreknina L. I. Ermak's theme in the works of P. P. Ershov. Tyumen, 1997

Katargina M.N. The plot of the death of Ermak: chronicle materials. Tyumen, 1997

Sofronova MN About the imaginary and the real in the portraits of the Siberian chieftain Ermak. Tyumen, 1998

Shkerin V. A. Yermak's Sylven campaign: a mistake or a search for a way to Siberia? Yekaterinburg, 1999

Solodkin Ya. G. To the disputes about the origin of Ermak. Yekaterinburg, 1999

Solodkin Ya. G. Did Ermak Timofeevich have a double? Ugra, 2002

Zakshauskienė E. Badge from Ermak's chain mail. M., 2002

Katanov N.F. Legend of the Tobolsk Tatars about Kuchum and Ermak - Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Issue 4. Yekaterinburg, 2004

Panishev E.A.Ermak's death in Tatar and Russian legends. Tobolsk, 2003

Skrynnikov R.G. Ermak. M., 2008