Yermak's trip to Siberia was organized at the expense of entrepreneurs. Exploration of Siberia by Yermak. Ermak Timofeevich's campaign in the Siberian Khanate
Siberian campaign of Yermak
Since 1573, Russian settlements in the area of the Kama River have been systematically subjected to raids by the troops of the Siberian Khan Kuchum. Also, the Siberian Khan opposed the alliance of the Siberian tribes with Russia: he killed, took them prisoner, and imposed heavy tribute on them.In 1574, Ivan the Terrible secured land on the eastern slopes of the Urals along the Tobol River and its tributaries to the wealthy Stroganov merchants. The Stroganovs were granted the right to build fortresses in the Trans-Urals and ensure the protection of these lands. For the defense and development of the Trans-Urals, the Stroganov Cossack detachment led by Yermak.
Different dates are given for the start of Yermak's campaign, but September 1, 1581 is generally accepted. It was on this day that Yermak's squad, with a total of 840 Cossacks, set out on a campaign against Siberia. Having crossed the Ural Range, due to the onset of winter, the detachment remained on the Chusovaya River. In the spring, the squad began moving east.
On plows (Russian flat-bottomed sailing and rowing vessel), the Cossacks passed along the Siberian rivers Tagil, Tura, Tobol. The Cossack detachment was heading to the capital of the Siberian Khanate. On the way, Yermak's detachment took several major battles with Kuchum's troops. The decisive battle with Kuchum took place on November 4, 1582. The local population did not support the Siberian Khan, and Kuchum was defeated. Khan Kuchum fled to the southern steppes.
On November 8, 1582, Yermak's detachment occupied Kashlyk, the capital of the Siberian Khanate. A few days later, the Khanty (indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia) came with gifts to Ataman Yermak. Yermak met them with respect. Following the Khanty, local Tatars came with gifts. Yermak also treated them with respect, allowed them to return to their villages and promised protection from Kuchum. The peoples who recognized the Russians, Yermak imposed an obligatory tribute. From that moment on, they were considered subjects of the Russian Tsar.
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Conquest of Siberia by Yermak
Modern historians cannot reliably determine who exactly owned the idea of \u200b\u200btraveling to the Siberian lands: the ataman Yermak Timofeevich, the industrialists Stroganovs, or the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible the Fourth. Most likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle, because all of these parties had their own interests. So, the monarch of Russia wanted new territories and vassals, Yermak and his Cossacks wanted to profit from local wealth, hiding behind a state pretext, and the Stroganovs wanted security for their own business.
As the main goals pursued by the Siberian campaigns of Yermak, the researchers distinguish:
- the formation of a springboard for the subsequent conquest of Siberia;
- establishing full control over the Ob River, which is the main Siberian water artery;
- imposition of tribute on the Siberian peoples and bringing them into vassalage;
- protection of the possessions and production of the Stroganovs.
In addition, another possible version is considered, according to which, Yermak was actually not a simple rootless Cossack ataman, but a native of the princes of Siberia, who had previously been exterminated by the Bukhara protege Kuchum when he seized power in the Siberian lands. Thus, the ataman had legal rights to the throne occupied by the invaders, which radically changes the very meaning of the campaign.
Supporters of the version described above cite as arguments the fact that the Russian detachments in Siberia practically did not meet with serious resistance from the local population, who could understand that it would be better for him to live according to the laws of “his” Yermak than according to the orders of Kuchum.
At the same time, in the event of the successful establishment of Ermak's power over Siberia, he was automatically transferred from the category of robbers to the soldiers of the "regular" army, becoming sovereign people with a lot of privileges. Perhaps for this reason, the Cossacks endured the harsh difficulties of the campaign.
The beginning of Yermak's military campaign
In the early autumn of 1581 (according to other sources, in the summer of 1552), Ataman Yermak went on a military campaign. At that time, his army included five hundred and forty Cossack forces, as well as three hundred people from the Stroganovs. The detachments went up on plows along the Chusovaya River. According to some documents, there were a total of eight dozen plows with ten people on each.
Map: Conquest of Siberia by Yermak
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Historians believe that Yermak's troops moved along the Tagil River to Tura, where they won their first victory over the Tatar detachments. From the memoirs of the participants of the campaign, semi-legends about the strategic mind of the ataman and his tactics came to light. So, Yermak planted specially prepared effigies on plows, dressing them in Cossack clothes, hiding his army on the shore and attacking the Tatars from the rear. However, the first major battle with the army of Khan Kuchum, according to documents, takes place in October 1582.
All subsequent military operations Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich was also fought not from a position of strength, but according to a strictly developed detailed plan. That is why, according to most researchers, he managed to successfully fight a superior enemy in foreign territory.
As a result of Yermak's campaigns, Kuchum was expelled from his capital Kashlyk, which, according to some sources, was also called Siberia or Isker and of which there is no trace left today. At the same time, archaeologists note that, most likely, it was located seventeen miles from modern Tobolsk.
Further continuation of the Siberian campaigns of Yermak
Having removed his main enemy from the road by 1583, Ataman Yermak decided to bring the matter to an end and conquer all the Vogul and Tatar towns that were located along the banks of the Ob and Irtysh. Somewhere the Cossack army met good-natured local residents, and somewhere - a tough fighting rebuff.
Having expelled Kuchum, the chieftain sent messengers with a report to the tsar and the Stroganovs. Ivan Vasilyevich was very pleased with the outcome of the military campaign and generously endowed the Cossacks who came to him, sending them three hundred warriors with governors Ivan Glukhov and Semyon Bolkhovsky to reinforce them.
Although the reinforcements sent by the monarch arrived in the Siberian lands in the autumn of 1583, which was relatively fast, the governors could no longer correct the situation. Numerous Tatar detachments separately defeated the Cossack detachments by their arrival, having killed all the main chieftains.
After the death of Ivan the Fourth the Terrible in the spring of 1584, the Moscow government abandoned the idea of developing the Siberian direction, which made it possible for Kuchum to regain his strength again and finish off the rest of the Russian army in Siberia.
A year later, the ataman himself died. With fifty soldiers, he was forced to stop for a halt on the banks of the Vagai River, which flows into the Irtysh, where the Tatar troops suddenly attacked the detachment at night and killed most of the Cossacks.
The surviving warriors later said that Yermak jumped into the river to get to the plows, but two chain mail put on him pulled him to the bottom.
One of the important tasks foreign policy Ivana IV Grozny for a long time remained the development of vast expanses in the east. AT 1558 year, after the capture of Astrakhan and Kazan, the tsar granted a charter for the possession of vast territories along the Tobol River to the rich merchants Stroganovs. Those, in turn, 1579 year assembled a detachment numbering from 600 before 840 a man to protect the borders of his possessions from the Vogulichs (modern Mansi) and Ostyaks (Khanty). The basis of the detachment was made up of representatives of the free Cossacks, and the ataman Yermak Timofeevich was placed at the head. Interestingly, the detachment was formed without the knowledge of the royal authorities.
At the beginning September 1581 year, the entire army, loaded on 80 sailing and rowing ships - a plow, having risen along the tributaries of the Kama, reached the Tagil Pass in the Ural Mountains. From there, the ships had to be transported overland, overcoming rocky terrain and dense forest. According to eyewitnesses, the Cossacks independently cut down clearings, and from fallen trees they built skating rinks, which made it easier to drag heavy ships through rocky terrain. Where the advance was especially difficult, the Cossacks had to carry the ships on their own shoulders. Finally, by the onset of winter, the detachment founded Kokuy-gorod - an earthen fortification for a halt. Having survived the cold season, the Cossack army rafted down the Tagil River, and from there got to Tura.
By the middle of spring, when the army was in the area of modern Sverdlovsk region, the first skirmishes with the Siberian peoples began. Yepancha became the first Murza defeated by Yermak's army. After that, the fame of a strong and formidable army so influenced the minds of the local population that the small town of Chingi-Tura surrendered without a fight, as soon as Yermak approached its walls. Later, Tyumen was founded on the site of this settlement.
4 October Khan Kuchum, having gathered an army in 15 thousand people, met a Cossack detachment at the Chuvash Cape near the confluence of the Irtysh and Tobol rivers. However, already during the battle, most of the troops who promised support to the khan left him and fled. Kuchum himself had to flee the Ishim steppe.
AT 1582 year, 26 October On November 5, a detachment under the command of Yermak occupied the capital of the Siberian Khanate, the city of Kashlyk. Since then, the local population has been obliged to pay tribute in valuable fur - yasak. Gradually, representatives of various Siberian villages began to bow to Yermak with a request for protection in exchange for obedience. Yermak supported such conditions, and took an oath from the tribal nobility that her people would pay yasak in a timely manner. These treaties made the Siberian peoples subjects of the Russian Tsar.
Despite the fact that during the life of Yermak it was not possible to defeat Kuchum, after the death of the ataman, the Russian troops defeated the khan. It was this event that became the point in the long process of joining Siberia.
Researchers cannot give an affirmative answer to the question “who had the idea to launch a campaign in Siberia” (the industrialists Stroganovs, ataman Yermak Timofeevich, or Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself). Historians agree that the campaign was beneficial to all parties. Grozny - new vassals and lands, Yermak and the Cossacks - the possibility of profit, covering it with state necessity, and the Stroganovs - security.
So, in September 1581 (according to other sources, in the summer of 1582), Ataman Ermak went on a military campaign. His troops included three hundred militias from the Stroganovs, as well as five hundred and forty of their own Cossacks. The army advanced on plows along the Chusovaya River. From the towns located along the riverbed, the detachment reached the Silver River, climbed along it into the Barancha River (according to another version, Yermak's army reached the Mezhevaya Duck River, then crossed the plows into the Zhuravlik River and reached the Vyu River).
Along the Tagil River, the Cossacks descended to the Tura, fighting there for the first time with the Tatar detachments. The victory was for Yermak. As the legend says, the ataman put stuffed animals on the plows, and he himself attacked from the shore and defeated the Tatars from the rear. However, the first serious battle took place in October 1582 near the Tavda River, when the flotilla entered Tobol.
After Ermak expelled Kuchum from the city of Kashlyk, he began to conquer one by one the Vogul and Tatar cities located along the Ob and Irtysh, where he was greeted more than once by the local population, wanting to come under the rule of Moscow themselves. After the capture of Yermak Kuchum by the army, he sends an ambassador (ataman Ivan Koltso) to the tsar, as well as messengers to the Stroganovs. The tsar was pleased with the outcome of the hostilities and sent Yermak not only expensive gifts (including the chain mail of Prince Shuisky), but also the governor of Glukhov and Bolkhovsky, and with them three hundred warriors.
The tsarist reinforcements that arrived in Siberia in the autumn of 1583 were unable to correct the situation. The outnumbered detachments of Kuchum separately defeated the Cossack hundreds, killing all the chieftains. In March 1584, Ivan the Terrible died, and the Moscow government completely abandoned Siberia.
Yermak died on August 6, 1585, stopping with fifty soldiers at the mouth of the Vagai River, which flows into the Irtysh. Detachments of Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks, and Yermak himself drowned in the Irtysh, trying to get to the plows (according to eyewitnesses, the ataman was wearing two chain mail, which did not allow him to reach the goal).
Historical film: The development of Siberia by the Cossack Yermak
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 Tyumenskaya and Shibanskaya. The latter name indicates that that branch of the Genghisids, which descended from Sheibani, one of the sons of Jochi and brother of Batu, dominated here, and which ruled in Central Asia. One branch of the Sheibanids founded a special kingdom in the Ishim and Irtysh steppes and extended its borders to the Ural Range and the Ob. A century before Yermak, under Ivan III, the Sheiban Khan Ivak, like the Crimean Mengli Giray, was at enmity with the Golden Horde Khan Akhmat and even was his killer. But Ivak 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 bek Taybuga had already separated from the Shiban horde. True, the successors of Taybuga were not called khans, but only beks; the right to the highest title belonged only to the offspring of Chinggis, i.e., the Sheibanids. Taibuga's successors withdrew with their horde further north, to the Irtysh, where the town of Siberia became its center, below the confluence of the Tobol into 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 kingdom of Bukhara, the Kirghiz and Nogai hordes and in the Muscovite state.
The oath of the Siberian Khanate to Moscow in the 1550-1560s
These internal strife explain the willingness with which the prince of the Siberian Tatars Yediger, a descendant of Taybuga, recognized himself as a tributary of Ivan the Terrible. Even a quarter of a century before the campaign of Yermak Timofeevich, in 1555, the ambassadors of Yediger came to Moscow and beat with 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 Vasilyevich took the Siberian prince under his hand, imposed on him a tribute of a thousand sables a year and sent Dimitry Nepeitsin to him to swear in the inhabitants of the Siberian land and enumerate the black people; their number extended to 30,700. But in subsequent years, the tribute was not delivered in full; Yediger justified himself by the fact that he was fought by the Shiban prince, who took many people into captivity. This Shiban prince was the future opponent of the Cossacks Yermak Kuchum, grandson of Khan Ivak. Having received help from the Kirghiz-Kaisaks or Nogays, Kuchum defeated Ediger, killed him and took possession of the Siberian kingdom (about 1563). Initially, he also recognized himself as a tributary of the Moscow sovereign. The Moscow government recognized him with the title of 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 Ostyaks neighboring it, instead of Moscow, to pay tribute to him. In all likelihood, these changes for the worse in the east did not occur without the influence of failures in Livonian War. 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 Ataman Ermak Timofeevich is unknown. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama, according to another - a native of the Kachalinsky village on the Don. His name, according to some, is a change of the name Yermolai, other historians and chroniclers derive it from German and Yeremey. One chronicle, considering the name Yermak as a nickname, gives him the Christian name Vasily. Ermak was at first the chieftain of one of the numerous Cossack gangs who robbed on the Volga and robbed not only Russian merchants and Persian ambassadors, but also the royal courts. Yermak's gang turned to the conquest of Siberia after entering the service of the famous Stroganov family.
The ancestors of Yermak's employers, the Stroganovs, probably belonged to Novgorod families that colonized the Dvina land, and in the era of the struggle between Novgorod and Moscow went over to the side of the latter. They had large possessions in the Solvycheg and Ustyug regions and amassed great wealth by being engaged in salt mining, as well as trading with foreigners, Permians and Ugra, from whom expensive furs were exchanged. The main nest of this family was in Solvychegodsk. The wealth of the Stroganovs is evidenced by the news that they helped Grand Duke Vasily the Dark to redeem himself from Tatar captivity; for which they received various awards and preferential letters. Under Ivan III, Luka Stroganov is known; and under Basil III, the grandchildren of this Luke. Continuing to engage in salt mining and trade, the Stroganovs are the largest figures in the field of settling the northeastern lands. In 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 Anikiy, the grandson of Luke; but he was probably already old, and his three sons act as figures: Yakov, Grigory and Semyon. They no longer act as simple peaceful colonizers of the Zakamian countries, but have their own military detachments, build fortresses, arm them with their own cannons, repel the raids of hostile foreigners. As one of these detachments, a gang of Yermak Timofeevich was hired a little later. The Stroganovs represented the 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 limits.
Preparation of Yermak's campaign
The colonization activity of the Stroganovs, whose highest expression soon became Yermak's campaign, was constantly expanding. In 1558, Grigory Stroganov beats Ivan Vasilyevich with his forehead about the following: in Great Perm, on both sides of the Kama River from Lysva to Chusovaya, there are empty places, black forests, not inhabited and unsubscribed to anyone. The petitioner asks the Stroganovs to allow this space, promising to set up a city there, supply it with guns, squeakers, in order to protect the sovereign's homeland from the Nogai people and from other hordes; asks for permission to cut down forests in these wild places, plow arable land, set up yards, and call on unwritten and non-taxable people. By a letter dated April 4 of the same year, the tsar granted the Stroganovs lands on both sides of the Kama for 146 miles from the mouth of the Lysva to Chusovaya, with the requested benefits 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 the right to judge the Slobozhans belonged to the same Grigory Stroganov. This charter was signed by devious Fyodor Umnoy and Aleksey Adashev. Thus, the energetic efforts of the Stroganovs were not without connection with the activities of the Chosen Rada and Adashev, the best adviser of the first half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible.
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 miles below the first on the Kama, named Kergedan (later it was called Orel). 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 have their cities included in the oprichnina, and this request was fulfilled.
In 1568, Grigory's elder brother Yakov Stroganov beats the tsar with his brow about giving him the entire course of the Chusovaya River and a twenty-verst distance along the Kama below the mouth of the Chusovaya on the same grounds. The king agreed to his request; only the grace period was now set to ten years (hence, it ended at the same time as the previous award). Yakov Stroganov set up fences along the Chusovaya and started settlements that revived this deserted region. He also had to defend the region from the raids of neighboring foreigners - the reason why the Stroganovs then called Yermak's Cossacks to their place. 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 military men of the Stroganovs pacified the rebels. Cheremis raised the Siberian Khan Kuchum against Moscow; he also forbade the Ostyaks, Voguls and Yugras to pay tribute to her. The following year, 1573, Kuchum's nephew Magmetkul came with an army to Chusovaya and beat many Ostyaks, Moscow tribute-payers. However, he did not dare to attack the Stroganov towns and went back behind the Stone Belt (Urals). Notifying the tsar, the Stroganovs asked permission to spread their settlements beyond the Belt, build towns along the Tobol River and its tributaries, and set up settlements there with the same benefits, promising in return not only to defend the Moscow tribute-payers of the Ostyaks and Voguls from Kuchum, but to fight and subjugate the Siberian Tatars. By a letter dated May 30, 1574, Ivan Vasilievich fulfilled this request of the Stroganovs, this time with a twenty-year grace period.
Arrival of Yermak's Cossacks to the Stroganovs (1579)
But for about ten years, the intention of the Stroganovs to spread Russian colonization beyond the Urals was not carried out 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 chieftains who were robbing the Volga and Kama, and invited them to their towns in Chusovye to help against the Siberian Tatars. The place of the brothers Yakov and Grigory Anikiyev was already taken by their sons: Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They turned with the aforementioned letter to the Volga Cossacks. Five chieftains responded to their call: Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, who arrived with their hundreds in the summer of that 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, Cortes 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 carting; that Yermak himself, in baptism Vasily (or Germa), was born somewhere in the Kama region, was distinguished by bodily strength, courage and the gift of words; in his youth he worked in plows that walked along the Kama and the Volga, and then became the ataman of the robbers. There are no direct indications that Yermak belonged to the Don Cossacks proper; rather, it was a native of northeastern Russia, with enterprise, experience and prowess resurrecting the type of the ancient Novgorod freeman.
The Cossack chieftains spent two years in the Chusovy gorodki, helping the Stroganovs defend themselves against foreigners. When Murza Bekbelii attacked the Stroganov villages with a crowd of Vogulis, Yermak's Cossacks defeated him and took him prisoner. The Cossacks themselves attacked the Vogulichi, Votyaks and Pelymians and thus 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 Cossacks to conquer the Siberian kingdom. Others - that the Cossacks, with Yermak at the head, independently undertook this campaign; moreover, the Stroganovs were forced by threats to supply them with the necessary supplies. Perhaps the initiative was mutual, but on the part of Yermak's Cossacks it was more voluntary, and on the part of the Stroganovs it was more forced by circumstances. The Cossack squad could hardly carry out a boring guard service in the Chusovye towns for a long time and be content with meager booty in the neighboring foreign regions. In all likelihood, it soon became a burden for the Stroganov region itself. Exaggerated news about the expanse of the river beyond the Stone Belt, about the wealth 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 the Moscow government: to postpone the fight against the Siberian Tatars for the Ural Range and punish the khan who had fallen away from Moscow.
The beginning of Yermak's campaign (1581)
The Stroganovs supplied the Cossacks with provisions, as well as guns and gunpowder, gave them another 300 people from their own military people, among whom, in addition to Russians, were hired Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. There were 540 Cossacks. Consequently, the entire detachment was more than 800 people. Yermak and the Cossacks realized that the success of the campaign would have been impossible without strict discipline; therefore, for the violation of it, the atamans established punishments: disobedient and fugitives were supposed to be drowned in the river. The impending dangers made the Cossacks devout; they say that Yermak was accompanied by three priests and one monk, who performed the divine service daily. Preparations took a lot of time, so Yermak's campaign began quite late, already in September 1581. The warriors 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 labor to get over this portage and go down to the river Zheravlya; quite a few boats got stuck on the portage. It was already cold time, the rivers began to become covered with ice, and the Cossacks of Yermak had to winter near the portage. They set up a prison, from where one part of them undertook searches in the neighboring Vogul lands for supplies and prey, and the other made everything necessary for the spring campaign. When the flood came, Yermak's squad descended along the Zheravlei river into the Barancha rivers, and then to Tagil and Tura, a tributary of the Tobol, entering the Siberian Khanate. On the Tura stood the Ostyak-Tatar yurt of Chingidi (Tyumen), which was owned by a relative or tributary of Kuchum, Yepancha. Here the first battle took place, which ended in a complete defeat and the flight of the Yepanchin Tatars. The Tura Cossacks of Yermak entered the Tobol and at the mouth of the Tavda had a successful deal with the Tatars. Tatar fugitives brought Kuchum news of the coming of Russian soldiers; moreover, they justified their defeat by the action of guns unfamiliar to them, which they considered special bows: “when the Russians shoot from their bows, then fire plows from them; arrows are not visible, and the wounds are fatal, and it is impossible to protect yourself from them with any military harness. These news saddened Kuchum, especially since various signs had already predicted the arrival of the Russians and the fall of his kingdom.
Khan, however, did not waste time, gathered Tatars from everywhere, subject to the Ostyaks and Voguls, and sent them under the command of his close relative, the brave prince Magmetkul, to meet the Cossacks. And he himself arranged fortifications and notches near the mouth of the Tobol, under the Chuvashev mountain, in order to block Yermak's access to his capital, a Siberian town located on the Irtysh, somewhat below the confluence of the Tobol into it. A series of bloody battles followed. Magmetkul first met the Cossacks of Ermak Timofeevich near the Babasany tract, but neither the Tatar cavalry, nor the arrows could resist the Cossacks and their squeakers. Magmetkul fled to the notch under the Chuvashev mountain. The Cossacks sailed further along the Tobol and by the road took possession of the ulus of the Karachi (chief adviser) Kuchum, where they found warehouses of all sorts of goods. Having reached the mouth of the Tobol, Yermak first evaded the aforementioned notch, turned up the Irtysh, took the town of Murza Atik on its bank and settled down here to rest, considering his further plan.
Map of the Siberian Khanate and Yermak's campaign
The capture of the city of Siberia by Yermak
A large crowd of enemies who fortified near Chuvashev made Yermak think about it. The Cossack circle gathered to decide whether to go forward or turn back. Some advised to retreat. But the more courageous reminded Yermak Timofeevich of the vow given before the campaign to stand to fall down to a single person rather than run back in shame. Deep autumn was already approaching (1582), soon the rivers were to be covered with ice, and the return voyage became extremely dangerous. On October 23, in the morning, Yermak's Cossacks left the town. At cliques: "Lord, help your servants!" they hit the notch, and a stubborn battle began.
The enemies met the attackers with a cloud of arrows and wounded many. Despite desperate attacks, Yermak's detachment could not overcome the fortifications and began to languish. The Tatars, considering themselves already winners, broke the notch themselves in three places and made a sortie. But then, in a desperate hand-to-hand combat, the Tatars were defeated and rushed back; Russians broke into the notch. The Ostyak princelings 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 hurried to his capital Siberia; but did not remain in it, for there was no longer anyone to defend it; and fled south to the Ishim steppes. Upon learning of the flight of Kuchum, on October 26, 1582, Yermak with the Cossacks entered empty city Siberia; here they found valuable booty, a lot of gold, silver, and especially furs. A few days later, the inhabitants began to return: the Ostyak prince came first with his people and brought gifts and food to Yermak Timofeevich and his squad; then, little by little, the Tatars also returned.
The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895
So, after incredible labors, the detachment of Yermak Timofeevich hoisted Russian banners in the capital of the Siberian kingdom. Although firearms gave him a strong advantage, we must not forget that there was a huge numerical superiority on the side of the enemies: according to the chronicles, Yermak had 20 and even 30 times more enemies against him. Only the extraordinary strength of mind and body helped the Cossacks to overcome so many enemies. Long trips along unfamiliar rivers show to what extent the Cossacks of Ermak Timofeevich were hardened in hardships, accustomed to fighting with northern nature.
Yermak and Kuchum
However, the war was far from over with the conquest of the Kuchum capital. Kuchum himself did not consider his kingdom lost, which half consisted of nomadic and wandering foreigners; vast neighboring steppes gave him a safe haven; from here he made sudden attacks on the Cossacks, and the fight against him dragged on for a long time. The enterprising prince Magmetkul was especially dangerous. Already in November or December of the same 1582, he lay in wait for a small detachment of Cossacks engaged in fishing, and killed almost everyone. It was the first significant loss. In the spring of 1583, Yermak learned from a Tatar that Magmetkul camped on the Vagai River (a tributary of the Irtysh between Tobol and Ishim), about 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 the Cossacks of Ermak from Kuchum. But their number has already greatly diminished; supplies were depleted, while there was still much work and battle to be done. 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 ataman Ivan Koltso to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich himself with expensive Siberian sables and a request to send them royal warriors to help.
Yermak's Cossacks in Moscow near Ivan the Terrible
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that in the Perm Territory, after the departure of the Yermak gang, there were few military people left, 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 Chusovskie towns, burning the surrounding villages and capturing the peasants. Without Yermak, 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 Vasilyevich, blamed the devastation of the Perm Territory on the Stroganovs: without a royal decree, they called the thieves' Cossacks Ermak Timofeevich and other atamans to their prisons, on Vogulichs and Kuchum was sent and they were bullied. When the Pelymsky prince came, they did not help the sovereign cities with their military people; and Yermak, instead of defending the Permian land, went to fight to the east. The Stroganovs were sent from Moscow a merciless royal letter, marked on November 16, 1582. It was ordered that the Stroganovs no longer keep the Cossacks at home, but the Volga atamans, Yermak Timofeevich and his comrades, should be sent to Perm (i.e. Cherdyn) and Kamskoye Usolye, where they should not stand together, but separated; they were allowed to leave no more than a hundred people. If, however, this is not exactly carried out, and again some misfortune is caused over the Permian places from the Voguls and the Siberian Saltan, then a “great disgrace” will be imposed on the Stroganovs. In Moscow, obviously, they did not know anything about the Siberian campaign and demanded that Yermak be sent to Cherdyn with the Cossacks, who were already located on the banks of the Irtysh. The Stroganovs were "in great sorrow." They relied on the permission given to them before to establish towns beyond the Stone Belt and fight the Siberian Saltan, and therefore they released the Cossacks there, without communicating 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 hastened to Moscow. And then the Cossack embassy arrived there, headed by Ataman Koltso (once sentenced 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 a fur coat from his shoulder, a silver goblet and two shells to Ermak Timofeevich. To reinforce them, he then sent Prince Semyon Volkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with several hundred military men. The captive prince Magmetkul, brought to Moscow, was granted estates and took his place among the serving Tatar princes. The Stroganovs received new trade benefits and two more land awards, Big and Small Salt.
Arrival to Ermak detachments of Volkhovsky and Glukhov (1584)
Kuchum, having lost Magmetkul, was distracted by the renewed struggle with the Taibuga family. Ermak's Cossacks, meanwhile, completed the taxation of tribute to the Ostyak and Vogul volosts that were part of the Siberian Khanate. From the city of Siberia, they went along the Irtysh and the 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 Yermak's detachment was greatly reduced; hardly half of it remains. Yermak was looking forward to help from Russia. Only in the autumn of 1584, Volkhovskaya and Glukhov sailed on plows: but they brought no more than 300 people - the help was too insufficient to secure such a vast space for Russia. It was impossible to rely on the loyalty of the newly conquered local princes, and the implacable Kuchum was still acting at the head of his horde. Yermak gladly met the Moscow military people, but had to share with them meager food supplies; in winter, from a lack of food, mortality opened up in the city of Siberia. Prince Volkhovskoy also died. Only in the spring, thanks to a plentiful catch of fish, game, as well as bread and livestock delivered from the surrounding foreigners, did Yermak's people recover from hunger. Prince Volkhovskoy, apparently, was appointed Siberian governor, to whom the Cossack chieftains were supposed to surrender the city and submit, and his death saved the Russians from the inevitable rivalry and disagreement of the chiefs; for it is unlikely that the atamans would willingly give up their leading role in the newly conquered land. With the death of Volkhovsky, Yermak again became the head of the united Cossack-Moscow detachment.
The death of Yermak
Until now, luck has accompanied almost all the enterprises of Ermak Timofeevich. But happiness finally began to change. Continued good luck weakens constant precaution and breeds carelessness, the cause of disastrous surprises.
One of the local tributary princes, a karach, i.e., a former khan's adviser, conceived treason and sent envoys to Yermak with a request to defend him from the Nogais. The ambassadors swore that they did not think of any evil against the Russians. Atamans believed their oath. Ivan Koltso and forty Cossacks with him went to the town of Karachi, were affectionately received, and then treacherously all were killed. To avenge them, Yermak sent a detachment with ataman Yakov Mikhailov; but this detachment was exterminated. After that, the surrounding foreigners bowed to the admonitions of the Karachi and raised an uprising against the Russians. With a large crowd, the Karacha laid siege to the very city of Siberia. It is very possible that he was in secret relations with Kuchum. Yermak's squad, weakened by losses, was forced to withstand the siege. The last dragged on, and the Russians were already experiencing a severe shortage of food supplies: the Karacha hoped to starve them out.
But despair gives determination. One June night, the Cossacks were divided into two parts: one remained with Yermak in the city, and the other, with Ataman Matvey Meshcheryak, quietly went out into the field and crept to the Karachi camp, which stood a few miles from the city separately from the other Tatars. Many enemies were beaten, the Karacha himself barely escaped. At dawn, when in the main camp of the besiegers 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 off the Karachi convoy and met the enemies with rifle fire. The savages could not stand it and dispersed. The city was freed from the siege, the surrounding 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 the way! Resumption of trade with Central Asia It was very desirable for the Cossacks of Yermak, who could exchange woolen and silk fabrics, carpets, weapons, spices for furs collected from foreigners. Yermak in early August 1585, personally with a small detachment, sailed towards the merchants up the Irtysh. The Cossack planes reached the mouth of the Vagai, however, having met no one, they swam back. One dark, stormy evening, Yermak landed on the shore and then found his death. Its details are semi-legendary, but not without some plausibility.
Yermak's Cossacks landed on the island on the Irtysh, and therefore, considering themselves safe, fell into a dream without posting guards. Meanwhile, Kuchum was nearby. (The news of the unprecedented Bukhara caravan was almost launched by him in order to lure Yermak into an ambush.) His scouts reported to the khan about the Cossacks' lodging for the night. Kuchum had one Tatar condemned to death. Khan sent him to look for a horse ford on the island, promising pardon if he was lucky. The Tatar crossed the river and returned with news of the complete carelessness of Yermak's people. Kuchum did not believe at first and ordered to bring proof. The Tatar went another time and brought three Cossack squeakers and three caskets of gunpowder. Then Kuchum sent a crowd of Tatars to the island. With the sound of rain and the howling of the wind, the Tatars crept up to the camp and began to beat the sleepy Cossacks. The awakened Yermak rushed into the river to the plow, but ended up in a deep place; having iron armor on him, he could not swim out and drowned. During this sudden attack, the entire Cossack detachment was exterminated along with their leader. So this Russian Cortes and Pizarro perished, the brave, “veleum” 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 the Russian squad of Yermak in the conquest of the Siberian Khanate: on the one hand, firearms and military hardening; on the other hand, the internal state of the khanate itself, weakened by internecine strife and discontent of local pagans against Islam forcibly introduced by Kuchum. Siberian shamans with their idols were reluctant to give 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 Yermak's squads from Siberia
The death of Yermak confirmed that he was the main engine of the entire enterprise. When the news of her reached the city of Siberia, the remaining Cossacks immediately decided that without Yermak, with their small numbers, they would not be able to hold out among the unreliable natives against the Siberian Tatars. The Cossacks and Moscow warriors, no more than one and a half hundred people, immediately left the city of Siberia with the head of the archery Ivan Glukhov and Matvey Meshcheryak, the only remaining of the five atamans; by the far northern route along the Irtysh and Ob, they set off back for the Stone (Ural Range). As soon as the Russians cleared Siberia, Kuchum sent his son Alei to occupy his capital city. But he didn't stay here long. We have seen above that the prince of Taibugin of the Ediger family, who owned Siberia, and his brother Bekbulat died in the fight against Kuchum. The little son of Bekbulat, Seydyak, took refuge in Bukhara, grew up there and was an avenger for his father and uncle. With the help of the Bukharans and Kirghiz, Seydyak defeated Kuchum, expelled Aley from Siberia and took possession of this capital city himself.
The arrival of the Mansurov detachment and the consolidation of the Russian conquest of Siberia
The Tatar kingdom in Siberia was restored, and the conquest of Ermak Timofeevich seemed lost. But the Russians have already experienced the weakness, the heterogeneity of this kingdom and its natural riches; they were not slow to return.
The government of Fyodor Ivanovich sent one detachment after another to Siberia. Still not knowing about the death of Yermak, the Moscow government in the summer of 1585 sent the governor Ivan Mansurov to help him with a hundred archers and - most importantly - with a cannon. On this campaign, the remnants of Yermak's detachments and Ataman Meshcheryak, who had gone back beyond the Urals, joined him. Finding the city of Siberia already occupied by the Tatars, Mansurov sailed past, went down the Irtysh to the confluence with the Ob and built a town here for the winter.
This time, the matter of conquest went easier with the help of experience and along the paths paved by Yermak. The surrounding 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 the 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 with his forehead, so that the sovereign would accept him among his tributaries. They treated him kindly and imposed on him a tribute of seven forty sables.
Founding of Tobolsk
The victories of Ermak Timofeevich were not in vain. Following Mansurov, governors Sukin and Myasnaya arrived in the Siberian land and on the Tura River, on the site of the old town of Chingia, they built the Tyumen fortress and erected a Christian church in it. In the following 1587, after the arrival of new reinforcements, the head of Danila Chulkov went further from Tyumen, went down the Tobol to its mouth and founded Tobolsk here on the banks of the Irtysh; this city became the center of Russian possessions in Siberia, due to its advantageous position in the junction of the Siberian rivers. Continuing the work of Yermak Timofeyevich, the Moscow government also used its usual system here: to spread and strengthen its dominion by gradually building fortresses. Siberia, contrary to fears, was not lost to the Russians. The heroism of a handful of Yermak's Cossacks opened the way for Russia's great eastward expansion all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Articles and books about Yermak
Solovyov S. M. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 6. Chapter 7 - "The Stroganovs and Yermak"
Kostomarov N. I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. 21 - Ermak Timofeevich
Kuznetsov E. V. Initial piitika about Yermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1890
Kuznetsov E. V. Yermak's bibliography: The 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. Oksyonov “Ermak in the epics of the Russian people”. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892
Kuznetsov E. V. To information about the banners of Yermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892
Oksenov A.V. Ermak in the epics of the Russian people. Historical Bulletin, 1892
Article "Ermak" in encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus-Efron (Author - N. Pavlov-Silvansky)
Ataman Ermak Timofeevich conqueror of the Siberian kingdom. M., 1905
Fialkov D.N. On the place of death and burial of Yermak. 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. Ermak's Siberian expedition. Novosibirsk, 1986
Buzukashvili M.I. Ermak. M., 1989
Kopylov D.I. Ermak. Irkutsk, 1989
Sofronov V. Yu. Yermak's Campaign and the Struggle for the Khan's Throne in Siberia. Tyumen, 1993
Kozlova N. K. About the “chud”, Tatars, Ermak and Siberian barrows. Omsk, 1995
Solodkin Ya. G. To the study of chronicle sources about the Siberian expedition of Yermak. Tyumen, 1996
Kreknina L. I. The theme of Yermak in the work of P. P. Ershov. Tyumen, 1997
Katargina M.N. The plot of the death of Yermak: chronicle materials. Tyumen, 1997
Sofronova M. N. On the Imaginary and the Real in the Portraits of the Siberian Ataman Yermak. 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 Yermak. Yekaterinburg, 1999
Solodkin Ya. G. Did Ermak Timofeevich have a double? Yugra, 2002
Zakshauskene E. Badge from Yermak's chain mail. M., 2002
Katanov N. F. The legend of the Tobolsk Tatars about Kuchum and Yermak - Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Issue. 4. Yekaterinburg, 2004
Panishev E. A. The death of Yermak in Tatar and Russian legends. Tobolsk, 2003
Skrynnikov R. G. Ermak. M., 2008
