History of the conquest of Siberia. Accession of Western Siberia to the Russian state

The development of Siberia is one of the most significant pages in the history of our country. Vast territories that now make up most of modern Russia, in early XVI centuries were, in fact, a "blank spot" on geographical map. And the feat of Ataman Yermak, who conquered Siberia for Russia, became one of the most significant events in the formation of the state.

Ermak Timofeevich Alenin is one of the most poorly studied personalities of this magnitude in Russian history. It is still not known for certain where and when the famous ataman was born. According to one version, Yermak was from the banks of the Don, according to another - from the vicinity of the Chusovaya River, according to the third - the Arkhangelsk region was his place of birth. The date of birth also remains unknown - in the historical chronicles the period from 1530 to 1542 is indicated.

It is almost impossible to recreate the biography of Yermak Timofeevich before the start of his Siberian campaign. It is not even known for certain whether the name Yermak is his own or whether it is still the nickname of the Cossack chieftain. However, since 1581-82, that is, immediately from the beginning of the Siberian campaign, the chronology of events has been restored in sufficient detail.

Siberian campaign

The Siberian Khanate, as part of the disintegrated Golden Horde, for a long time coexisted in peace with the Russian state. The Tatars paid an annual tribute to the Moscow princes, but with the coming to power of Khan Kuchum, the payments stopped, and Tatar detachments began to attack Russian settlements in the Western Urals.

It is not known for certain who initiated the Siberian campaign. According to one version, Ivan the Terrible instructed the merchants Stroganovs to finance the performance of the Cossack detachment into unexplored Siberian territories in order to stop the Tatar raids. According to another version of events, the Stroganovs themselves decided to hire Cossacks to guard property. However, there is another scenario for the development of events: Yermak and his comrades plundered the Stroganov warehouses and invaded the territory of the Khanate in order to profit.

In 1581, having risen on plows up the Chusovaya River, the Cossacks dragged the boats into the Zheravlya River of the Ob basin and settled there for the winter. Here the first skirmishes with the detachments of the Tatars took place. As soon as the ice melted, that is, in the spring of 1582, a detachment of Cossacks reached the Tura River, where they again defeated the troops sent to meet them. Finally, Yermak reached the Irtysh River, where a detachment of Cossacks captured main city khanates - Siberia (now Kashlyk). Left in the city, Yermak begins to receive delegations from the indigenous peoples - Khanty, Tatars, with promises of peace. The ataman took the oath of all those who arrived, declaring them subjects of Ivan IV the Terrible, and obliged them to pay yasak - tribute - in favor of the Russian state.

The conquest of Siberia continued in the summer of 1583. Having passed along the course of the Irtysh and the Ob, Yermak captured the settlements - uluses - of the peoples of Siberia, forcing the inhabitants of the towns to take the oath to the Russian Tsar. Until 1585, Yermak fought with the Cossacks against the detachments of Khan Kuchum, unleashing numerous skirmishes along the banks of the Siberian rivers.

After the capture of Siberia, Ermak sent an ambassador to Ivan the Terrible with a report on the successful annexation of the lands. In gratitude for the good news, the tsar presented not only the ambassador, but also all the Cossacks who participated in the campaign, and Yermak himself donated two chain mail of excellent workmanship, one of which, according to the court chronicler, belonged to the previously famous governor Shuisky.

The death of Yermak

The date of August 6, 1585 is marked in the annals as the day of the death of Yermak Timofeevich. A small group of Cossacks - about 50 people - led by Yermak stopped for the night on the Irtysh, near the mouth of the Vagay River. Several detachments of the Siberian Khan Kuchum attacked the Cossacks, killing almost all of Yermak's associates, and the ataman himself, according to the chronicler, drowned in the Irtysh, trying to swim to the plows. According to the chronicler, Yermak drowned due to royal gift- two chain mail, which, with their weight, pulled him to the bottom.

The official version of the death of the Cossack ataman has a continuation, however, these facts do not have any historical confirmation, and therefore are considered a legend. folk tales they say that a day later, a Tatar fisherman fished Yermak’s body from the river and reported his find to Kuchum. All the Tatar nobility came to personally verify the death of the ataman. Yermak's death was the cause of a great celebration that lasted for several days. The Tatars had fun shooting at the body of a Cossack for a week, then, taking the donated chain mail that caused his death, Yermak was buried. At the moment, historians and archaeologists consider several areas as the alleged burial places of the ataman, but there is still no official confirmation of the authenticity of the burial.

Ermak Timofeevich is not just a historical figure, he is one of the key figures in Russian folk art. Many legends and tales have been created about the deeds of the ataman, and in each of them Yermak is described as a man of exceptional courage and courage. At the same time, very little is reliably known about the personality and activities of the conqueror of Siberia, and such an obvious contradiction makes researchers again and again turn their attention to national hero Russia.

Ermak Timofeevich(1542 - August 6, 1585, Siberian Khanate) - Cossack chieftain, historical conqueror of Siberia.

The origin of Yermak is not exactly known, there are several versions. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Chusovaya River. Thanks to the knowledge of local rivers, he walked along the Kama, Chusovaya and even crossed to Asia, along the Tagil River, until they were taken away to serve as Cossacks ( Cherepanov Chronicle), in another way - a native of the Kachalinsky village on the Don (Bronevsky). Recently, the version about the Pomeranian origin of Yermak (originally “from the Dvina from Borku”) has been heard more and more often, probably referring to the Boretsky volost, the center of which exists to this day - the village of Borok Vinogradovsky district Arkhangelsk region.

The name Ermak, according to Professor Nikitsky, is a colloquial version of the Russian name Yermolai and sounds like an abbreviation for it. The famous Russian writer, a native of the Vologda region, V. Gilyarovsky calls him Ermil Timofeevich("Moscow Newspaper"). Other historians and chroniclers derive his name from Herman and Yeremeya (Yerema). One chronicle, considering the name Yermak as a nickname, gives him the Christian name Vasily. According to the Irkutsk historian A. G. Sutormin, the full name of Yermak allegedly sounded like Vasily Timofeevich Alenin. The same version is played out in the tale of P. P. Bazhov "Ermakov's Swans". There is also an opinion that "Ermak" is just a nickname derived from the name of the boiler for cooking.

There is also a hypothesis about the Turkic origin of Yermak. In favor of this version, arguments are made that this typically Turkic name still exists among the Tatars, Bashkirs and Kazakhs, but is pronounced as “Ermek” - fun, fun. In addition, the male name Ermak (“Yrmag”) is found among the Alan-Ossetians, who widely inhabited the Don steppes until the 14th century.

The version about the Turkic origin of Yermak is indirectly confirmed by the description of his appearance, preserved Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov in his "Remezov chronicler" of the end of the 17th century. According to S. U. Remezov, whose father, the Cossack centurion Ulyan Moiseevich Remezov, personally knew the surviving participants in Yermak’s campaign, the famous ataman was “very courageous, and humane, and transparent, and is pleased with all wisdom, flat-faced, black-bearded, age [that is, height] is medium, and flat, and broad-shouldered.

Probably, Yermak was at first the chieftain of one of the numerous Volga Cossack squads that protected the population on the Volga from arbitrariness and robbery from the Crimean and Astrakhan Tatars. This is evidenced by the petitions of the “old” Cossacks addressed to the tsar that have come down to us, namely: Yermak’s comrade-in-arms Gavrila Ilyin wrote that he “fielded” (carried out military service) with Yermak in the Wild Field for 20 years, another veteran Gavrila Ivanov wrote that he served king" on the field for twenty years at Ermak in the village" and in the villages of other chieftains.

In 1581, a squad of Cossacks (more than 540 people), under the command of atamans Yermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan, Matvey Meshcheryak, Cherkas Alexandrov and Bogdan Bryazga, was invited by the Ural merchants Stroganovs to protect against regular attacks from the Siberian Khan Kuchum, and went up the Kama, and in June 1582 arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovoy towns of the Stroganov brothers. Here the Cossacks lived for two years and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from predatory attacks by the Siberian Khan Kuchum.

By the beginning of 1580, the Stroganovs invited Yermak to serve, then he was at least 40 years old. Yermak participated in the Livonian War, commanded a Cossack hundred during the battle with the Lithuanians for Smolensk. A letter from the Lithuanian commandant Mogilev Stravinsky, sent at the end of June 1581 to King Stefan Batory, has been preserved, in which “Ermak Timofeevich is the Cossack chieftain” is mentioned. .

Conquest of Siberia

On September 1, 1581, a squad of Cossacks under the general command of Yermak set out on a campaign for the Stone Belt (Ural) from Nizhny Chusovsky Gorodok. According to another version proposed by the historian R. G. Skrynnikov, the campaign of Yermak, Ivan Koltso and Nikita Pan to Siberia dates back to 1582, since peace with the Commonwealth was concluded in January 1582, and at the end of 1581 Yermak was still fighting with Lithuanians.

The initiative of this campaign, according to the annals of Esipovskaya and Remizovskaya, belonged to Yermak himself, the participation of the Stroganovs was limited to the forced supply of supplies and weapons to the Cossacks. According to the Stroganov Chronicle (accepted by Karamzin, Solovyov and others), the Stroganovs themselves called the Cossacks from the Volga to Chusovaya and sent them on a campaign, adding 300 military men from their possessions to Yermak's detachment (540 people).

It is important to note that at the disposal of the future enemy of the Cossacks, Khan Kuchum, there were forces that were several times superior to Yermak's squad, but armed much worse. According to the archival documents of the Ambassadorial Order (RGADA), in total, Khan Kuchum had an army of about 10,000, that is, one "tumen", and total strength"yasak people" who obeyed him did not exceed 30 thousand adult men.

Khan Kuchum from the Sheibanid clan was a relative of Khan Abdullah, who ruled in Bukhara, and, apparently, was an ethnic Uzbek. In 1555, the Siberian Khan Ediger from the Taibugin family, having heard about the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan by Russia, voluntarily agreed to accept Russian citizenship and pay a small tribute to the Russian Tsar Ivan IV. But in 1563, Kuchum made a coup, killing Yediger and his brother Bekbulat. Having seized power in Kashlyk, Kuchum played a clever diplomatic game with Moscow for the first years, promising to submit, but at the same time delaying the payment of tribute in every possible way. According to the Remezov Chronicle, compiled in late XVII century Semyon Remezov, Kuchum established his power in Western Siberia with extreme cruelty. This led to the unreliability of the detachments of the Voguls (Mansi), Ostyaks (Khanty) and other indigenous peoples, forcibly gathered by him in 1582 to repel the Cossack invasion.

Lion and unicorn on the banner, Yermak, who was with him during the conquest of Siberia (1581-1582)

The Cossacks climbed on plows up the Chusovaya and along its tributary, the Silver River, to the Siberian portage separating the basins of the Kama and Ob, and dragged the boats along the portage into the Zheravlya (Zharovlya) river. Here the Cossacks were supposed to spend the winter (Remezov Chronicle). During the winter, according to the book Rezh treasures, Ermak sent a detachment of associates to reconnoiter a more southerly route along the Neiva River. But the Tatar Murza defeated Yermak's reconnaissance detachment. At the place where that Murza lived, the village of Murzinka, famous for its gems, is now located.

Only in the spring of 1582, along the rivers Zheravl, Barancha and Tagil, they sailed to Tura. They defeated the Siberian Tatars twice, on the Tura and at the mouth of the Tavda. Kuchum sent Mametkul against the Cossacks, with a large army, but on August 1, this army was also defeated by Yermak on the banks of the Tobol, near the Babasan tract. Finally, on the Irtysh, near Chuvashev, the Cossacks inflicted a final defeat on the Tatars in the Battle of Chuvashev Cape. Kuchum left the notch that protected the main city of his khanate, Siberia, and fled south to the Ishim steppes.

On October 26, 1582, Yermak entered the city of Siberia (Kashlyk) abandoned by the Tatars. Four days later, the Khanty from the river. Demyanka, a right tributary of the lower Irtysh, brought furs and food, mainly fish, as a gift to the conquerors. Yermak greeted them with "kindness and greetings" and released them "with honor." The local Tatars, who had previously fled from the Russians, reached out for the Khanty with gifts. Yermak received them just as kindly, allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies, primarily from Kuchum. Then the Khanty from the left-bank regions, from the rivers Konda and Tavda, began to appear with furs and food. Yermak imposed an annual mandatory tax on all those who came to him - yasak. From the "best people" (the tribal elite), Yermak took a "shert", that is, an oath that their "folk" would pay yasak in a timely manner. Thereafter, they were treated as subjects of the Russian Tsar.

In December 1582, Kuchum's commander, Mametkul, exterminated one Cossack detachment from an ambush on Lake Abalatskoye, but on February 23, the Cossacks struck a new blow at Kuchum, capturing Mametkul on the Vagay River.

Yermak used the summer of 1583 to conquer the Tatar towns and uluses along the Irtysh and Ob rivers, meeting stubborn resistance everywhere, and took the Ostyak city of Nazym. After the capture of the city of Siberia (Kashlyk), Yermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the tsar, Ataman Ivan Koltso.

Ataman Yermak at the Monument "1000th Anniversary of Russia" in Veliky Novgorod

Ivan the Terrible received him very affectionately, richly endowed the Cossacks and sent the prince to reinforce them. Semyon Bolkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov, with 300 warriors. The royal governors arrived at Yermak in the autumn of 1583, but their detachment could not deliver significant assistance to the Cossack squad, which had greatly diminished in battles. Atamans perished one by one: first, Bogdan Bryazga was ambushed; then, during the capture of Nazim, Nikita Pan was killed; and in the spring of 1584, the Tatars killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov. Ataman Matvey Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with heavy losses forced their leader Karacha, vizier Kuchum, to retreat.

Death of Yermak

On August 6, 1585, Ermak Timofeevich himself died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh. During an overnight stay at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and exterminated almost the entire detachment. According to one legend, the ataman, who courageously resisted, was burdened with his armor, in particular, the shell donated by the king, and, trying to swim to the plows, drowned in the Irtysh. According to Tatar legends, Yermak was mortally wounded with a spear in the throat by the Tatar hero Kutugai.

There were so few Cossacks left that Ataman Meshcheryak had to march back to Russia. After two years of possession, the Cossacks ceded Siberia to Kuchum, only to return there a year later with a new detachment of tsarist troops.

Performance evaluation

Some historians place Yermak's personality very highly, "his courage, leadership talent, iron willpower", but the facts transmitted by the annals do not indicate his personal qualities and the degree of his personal influence. Be that as it may, Yermak is “one of the most remarkable figures in Russian history,” writes historian Ruslan Skrynnikov.

The process of incorporating vast territories of Siberia and Far East into the Russian state took several centuries. The most significant events that determined further fate region, occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In our article, we will briefly describe how the development of Siberia took place in the 17th century, but we will state all the available facts. This era of geographical discoveries was marked by the founding of Tyumen and Yakutsk, as well as the discovery of the Bering Strait, Kamchatka, Chukotka, which significantly expanded the borders of the Russian state and consolidated its economic and strategic positions.

Stages of development of Siberia by Russians

In Soviet and Russian historiography, it is customary to divide the process of developing the northern lands and incorporating them into the state into five stages:

1. 11th-15th centuries.
2. Late 15th-16th centuries
3. Late 16th-early 17th centuries
4. Mid 17th-18th centuries
5. 19th-20th centuries.

The goals of the development of Siberia and the Far East

The peculiarity of the accession of the Siberian lands to the Russian state is that the development was carried out spontaneously. The pioneers were the peasants (they fled from the landowners in order to work quietly on free land in the southern part of Siberia), merchants and industrialists (they were looking for material benefits, for example, the local population could exchange fur, which was very valuable at that time, for mere knick-knacks worth a penny). Some went to Siberia in search of fame and made geographical discoveries to remain in the memory of the people.

The development of Siberia and the Far East in the 17th century, as in all subsequent ones, was carried out with the aim of expanding the territory of the state and increasing the population. Free lands beyond the Ural mountains attracted high economic potential: furs, valuable metals. Later, these territories really became the locomotive of the country's industrial development, and even now Siberia has sufficient potential and is a strategic region of Russia.

Features of the development of the Siberian lands

The process of colonization of free lands beyond the Ural Range included the gradual advance of the discoverers to the East to the very Pacific coast and consolidation on the Kamchatka Peninsula. In the folklore of the peoples inhabiting the northern and eastern lands, the word "Cossack" is most often used to refer to Russians.

At the beginning of the development of Siberia by the Russians (16-17 centuries), the pioneers moved mainly along the rivers. By land, they walked only in places of the watershed. Upon arrival in a new area, the pioneers began peaceful negotiations with the local population, offering to join the king and pay yasak - a tax in kind, usually in furs. Negotiations did not always end successfully. Then the matter was decided by military means. On the lands of the local population, prisons or simply winter quarters were arranged. A part of the Cossacks remained there to maintain the obedience of the tribes and collect yasak. The Cossacks were followed by peasants, clergy, merchants and industrialists. The greatest resistance was offered by the Khanty and other large tribal unions, as well as the Siberian Khanate. In addition, there have been several conflicts with China.

Novgorod campaigns to the "iron gates"

The Novgorodians reached the Ural Mountains (“iron gates”) back in the eleventh century, but were defeated by the Yugras. Yugra was then called the lands of the Northern Urals and the coast Arctic Ocean where the local tribes lived. From the middle of the thirteenth century, Ugra had already been mastered by the Novgorodians, but this dependence was not strong. After the fall of Novgorod, the task of developing Siberia passed to Moscow.

Free lands beyond the Ural ridge

Traditionally, the first stage (11-15 centuries) is not yet considered the conquest of Siberia. Officially, it was started by Yermak's campaign in 1580, but even then the Russians knew that there were vast territories beyond the Ural Mountains that remained practically unmanaged after the collapse of the Horde. Local peoples were few and poorly developed, the only exception was the Siberian Khanate, founded Siberian Tatars. But wars were constantly boiling in it and internecine strife did not stop. This led to its weakening and to the fact that it soon became part of the Russian Tsardom.

The history of the development of Siberia in the 16-17 centuries

The first campaign was undertaken under Ivan III. Prior to this, domestic political problems did not allow Russian rulers to turn their eyes to the east. Only Ivan IV took seriously free lands, and even then in the last years of his reign. The Siberian Khanate formally became part of the Russian state back in 1555, but later Khan Kuchum declared his people free from tribute to the tsar.

The answer was given by sending Yermak's detachment there. Cossack hundreds, led by five atamans, captured the capital of the Tatars and founded several settlements. In 1586, the first Russian city, Tyumen, was founded in Siberia, in 1587, the Cossacks founded Tobolsk, in 1593, Surgut, and in 1594, Tara.

In short, the development of Siberia in the 16-17 centuries is associated with the following names:

1. Semyon Kurbsky and Peter Ushaty (campaign to the Nenets and Mansi lands in 1499-1500).
2. Cossack Ermak (campaign of 1851-1585, development of Tyumen and Tobolsk).
3. Vasily Sukin (was not a pioneer, but laid the foundation for the settlement of the Russian people in Siberia).
4. Cossack Pyanda (in 1623, a Cossack began a campaign through wild places, discovered the Lena River, reached the place where Yakutsk was later founded).
5. Vasily Bugor (in 1630 he founded the city of Kirensk on the Lena).
6. Pyotr Beketov (founded Yakutsk, which became the base for the further development of Siberia in the 17th century).
7. Ivan Moskvitin (in 1632 he became the first European who, together with his detachment, went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk).
8. Ivan Stadukhin (discovered the Kolyma River, explored Chukotka and was the first to enter Kamchatka).
9. Semyon Dezhnev (participated in the discovery of Kolyma, in 1648 he completely passed the Bering Strait and discovered Alaska).
10. Vasily Poyarkov (made the first trip to the Amur).
11. Erofey Khabarov (secured the Amur region to the Russian state).
12. Vladimir Atlasov (in 1697 annexed Kamchatka).

Thus, in short, the development of Siberia in the 17th century was marked by the laying of the main Russian cities and the opening of ways, thanks to which the region later began to play a great national economic and defense value.

Siberian campaign of Yermak (1581-1585)

The development of Siberia by the Cossacks in the 16-17th centuries was started by Yermak's campaign against the Siberian Khanate. A detachment of 840 people was formed and equipped with everything necessary by the merchants Stroganovs. The campaign took place without the knowledge of the king. The backbone of the detachment was the chieftains of the Volga Cossacks: Yermak Timofeevich, Matvey Meshcheryak, Nikita Pan, Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov.

In September 1581, the detachment climbed along the tributaries of the Kama to the Tagil Pass. The Cossacks cleared their way by hand, at times they even dragged ships on themselves, like barge haulers. They erected an earthen fortification on the pass, where they remained until the ice melted in the spring. According to Tagil, the detachment rafted to Tura.

The first skirmish between the Cossacks and the Siberian Tatars took place in the modern Sverdlovsk region. Yermak's detachment defeated the cavalry of Prince Epanchi, and then occupied the town of Chingi-tura without a fight. In the spring and summer of 1852, the Cossacks, led by Yermak, fought several times with the Tatar princelings, and by the autumn they occupied the then capital of the Siberian Khanate. A few days later, Tatars from all over the Khanate began to bring gifts to the conquerors: fish and other food, furs. Yermak allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies. All who came to him, he overlaid with tribute.

At the end of 1582, Yermak sent his assistant Ivan Koltso to Moscow to inform the tsar about the defeat of Kuchum, the Siberian khan. Ivan IV generously endowed the envoy and sent him back. By decree of the tsar, Prince Semyon Bolkhovskoy equipped another detachment, the Stroganovs allocated forty more volunteers from among their people. The detachment arrived at Yermak only in the winter of 1584.

Completion of the campaign and the foundation of Tyumen

Ermak at that time successfully conquered the Tatar towns along the Ob and the Irtysh, without encountering violent resistance. But there was a cold winter ahead, which not only Semyon Bolkhovskoy, who was appointed governor of Siberia, but also most of the detachment could not survive. The temperature dropped to -47 degrees Celsius, and there were not enough supplies.

In the spring of 1585, Murza Karacha rebelled, destroying the detachments of Yakov Mikhailov and Ivan Koltso. Yermak was surrounded in the capital of the former Siberian Khanate, but one of the atamans made a sortie and was able to drive the attackers away from the city. The detachment suffered significant losses. Less than half of those who were equipped by the Stroganovs in 1581 survived. Three out of five Cossack atamans died.

In August 1985, Yermak died at the mouth of the Vagai. The Cossacks, who remained in the Tatar capital, decided to spend the winter in Siberia. In September, another hundred Cossacks under the command of Ivan Mansurov went to their aid, but the servicemen did not find anyone in Kishlyk. The next expedition (spring 1956) was much better prepared. Under the leadership of the governor Vasily Sukin, the first Siberian city of Tyumen was founded.

Foundation of Chita, Yakutsk, Nerchinsk

First significant event in the development of Siberia in the 17th century was the campaign of Peter Beketov along the Angara and the tributaries of the Lena. In 1627, he was sent as a governor to the Yenisei prison, and the next year - to pacify the Tungus who attacked Maxim Perfilyev's detachment. In 1631, Peter Beketov became the head of a detachment of thirty Cossacks, who were to pass along the Lena River and gain a foothold on its banks. By the spring of 1631, he had cut down a prison, which was later named Yakutsk. The city has become one of the centers of development Eastern Siberia in the 17th century and later.

Campaign of Ivan Moskvitin (1639-1640)

Ivan Moskvitin participated in Kopylov's campaign in 1635-1638 to the Aldan River. The leader of the detachment later sent a part of the soldiers (39 people) under the command of Moskvitin to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In 1638, Ivan Moskvitin went to the shores of the sea, made trips to the Uda and Taui rivers, and received the first data about the Uda region. As a result of his campaigns, the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk was explored for 1300 kilometers, and the Uda Bay, Amur Estuary, Sakhalin Island, Sakhalin Bay, and the mouth of the Amur were discovered. In addition, Ivan Moskvitin brought good booty to Yakutsk - a lot of fur yasak.

Discovery of Kolyma and Chukotka expedition

The development of Siberia in the 17th century continued with the campaigns of Semyon Dezhnev. He ended up in the Yakut jail, presumably in 1638, proved himself by pacifying several Yakut princes, together with Mikhail Stadukhin made a trip to Oymyakon to collect yasak.

In 1643, Semyon Dezhnev, as part of the detachment of Mikhail Stadukhin, arrived in Kolyma. The Cossacks founded the Kolyma winter hut, which later became a large prison, which was called Srednekolymsk. The town became a stronghold for the development of Siberia in the second half of the 17th century. Dezhnev served in Kolyma until 1647, but when he set out on the return voyage, strong ice blocked the way, so it was decided to stay in Srednekolymsk and wait for a more favorable time.

A significant event in the development of Siberia in the 17th century occurred in the summer of 1648, when S. Dezhnev entered the Arctic Ocean and crossed the Bering Strait eighty years before Vitus Bering. It is noteworthy that even Bering did not manage to pass the strait completely, limiting himself only to its southern part.

Securing the Amur region by Yerofei Khabarov

The development of Eastern Siberia in the 17th century was continued by the Russian industrialist Yerofey Khabarov. He made his first campaign in 1625. Khabarov was engaged in buying furs, discovered salt springs on the Kut River and contributed to the development of agriculture on these lands. In 1649, Erofey Khabarov went up the Lena and Amur to the town of Albazino. Returning to Yakutsk with a report and for help, he assembled a new expedition and continued his work. Khabarov treated harshly not only the population of Manchuria and Dauria, but also his own Cossacks. For this, he was transferred to Moscow, where the trial began. The rebels, who refused to continue the campaign with Yerofey Khabarov, were acquitted, he himself was deprived of his salary and rank. After Khabarov filed a petition to the Russian Emperor. The tsar did not restore the monetary allowance, but gave Khabarov the title of son of a boyar and sent him to manage one of the volosts.

Explorer of Kamchatka - Vladimir Atlasov

For Atlasov, Kamchatka has always been the main goal. Before the start of the expedition to Kamchatka in 1697, the Russians already knew about the existence of the peninsula, but its territory had not yet been explored. Atlasov was not a pioneer, but he was the first to pass almost the entire peninsula from west to east. Vladimir Vasilyevich described his journey in detail and compiled a map. He managed to persuade most of the local tribes to go over to the side of the Russian Tsar. Later, Vladimir Atlasov was appointed clerk to Kamchatka.

In 1581-1585, the Moscow kingdom, headed by Ivan the Terrible, significantly expanded the borders of the state to the East, as a result of the victory over the Mongol-Tatar khanates. It was during this period that Russia first included Western Siberia in its composition. This happened thanks to the successful campaign of the Cossacks, led by ataman Ermak Timofeevich against Khan Kuchum. This article proposes short review such a historical event as the annexation of western Siberia to Russia.

Preparation of Yermak's campaign

In 1579, a detachment of Cossacks consisting of 700-800 soldiers was formed on the territory of Orel-town (modern Perm Territory). They were headed by Ermak Timofeevich, previously former chieftain Volga Cossacks. Orel-town was owned by the merchant family of the Stroganovs. It was they who allocated money for the creation of the army. The main goal is to protect the population from the raids of nomads from the territory of the Siberian Khanate. However, in 1581 it was decided to organize a retaliatory campaign in order to weaken the aggressive neighbor. The first few months of the campaign - it was a struggle with nature. Very often, the participants of the campaign had to wield an ax in order to cut a passage through impenetrable forests. As a result, the Cossacks suspended the campaign for the winter of 1581-1582, creating a fortified camp Kokuy-gorodok.

The course of the war with the Siberian Khanate

The first battles between the Khanate and the Cossacks took place in the spring of 1582: in March, a battle took place on the territory of the modern Sverdlovsk region. Near the city of Turinsk, the Cossacks completely defeated the local troops of Khan Kuchum, and in May they already occupied the large city of Chingi-tura. At the end of September, the battle for the capital of the Siberian Khanate, Kashlyk, began. A month later, the Cossacks won again. However, after a grueling campaign, Yermak decided to take a break and sent an embassy to Ivan the Terrible, thereby taking a break in joining Western Siberia to the Russian kingdom.

When Ivan the Terrible learned of the first skirmishes between the Cossacks and the Siberian Khanate, the tsar ordered the "thieves" to be recalled, referring to the Cossack detachments that "arbitrarily attacked the neighbors." However, at the end of 1582, Yermak's envoy, Ivan Koltso, arrived at the tsar, who informed Grozny about the successes, and also asked for reinforcements for the complete defeat of the Siberian Khanate. After that, the tsar approved Yermak's campaign and sent weapons, salaries and reinforcements to Siberia.

History reference

Map of Yermak's campaign in Siberia in 1582-1585

In 1583, Yermak's troops defeated Khan Kuchum on the Vagai River, and his nephew Mametkul was completely captured. The khan himself fled to the territory of the Ishim steppe, from where he periodically continued to attack the lands of Russia. In the period from 1583 to 1585, Yermak no longer made large-scale campaigns, but included the new lands of Western Siberia in Russia: the ataman promised protection and patronage to the conquered peoples, and they had to pay a special tax - yasak.

In 1585, during one of the skirmishes with local tribes(according to another version, the attack of the troops of Khan Kuchum) Yermak's small detachment is defeated, and the ataman himself dies. But the main objective and the task in the life of this man was solved - Western Siberia joined Russia.

The results of Yermak's campaign

Historians identify the following key results of Yermak's campaign in Siberia:

1. Expansion of the territory of Russia by annexing the lands of the Siberian Khanate.
2. Appearance during foreign policy Russia a new direction for aggressive campaigns, a vector that will bring great success to the country.
3. colonization of Siberia. As a result of these processes, a large number of cities are emerging. A year after Yermak's death, in 1586, the first Russian city in Siberia, Tyumen, was founded. It happened at the place of the khan's headquarters, the city of Kashlyk, former capital Siberian Khanate.

The annexation of Western Siberia, which happened thanks to campaigns led by Ermak Timofeevich, has great importance in the history of Russia. It was as a result of these campaigns that Russia first began to spread its influence in Siberia, and, thereby, to develop, becoming the largest state in the world.

Accession of Siberia to Russia

“And when a completely ready, populated and enlightened land, once dark, unknown, appears before the astonished humanity, demanding a name and rights for itself, then let the story of those who erected this building be interrogated, and they will also not try, just as they did not try, who set up pyramids in the desert... And creating Siberia is not as easy as creating something under the blessed sky...» Goncharov I.A.

History assigned the role of a pioneer to the Russian people. For many hundreds of years, the Russians discovered new lands, settled them and transformed them with their labor, defended with weapons in their hands in the fight against numerous enemies. As a result, vast areas were settled and developed by Russian people, and the once empty and wild lands became not only an integral part of our country, but also its most important industrial and agricultural regions.

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At the end of the XVI century. began the development of the Russian people of Siberia. It opened one of the most interesting and bright pages in the history of our Motherland, filled with examples of the greatest stamina and courage. “A handful of Cossacks and several hundred homeless peasants crossed at their own peril and risk the oceans of ice and snow, and wherever tired heaps settled on the frozen steppes, forgotten by nature, life began to boil, the fields were covered with fields and herds, and this is from Perm to Pacific Ocean» , - this is how the process of the initial development of Siberia seemed to the outstanding Russian revolutionary-democrat A.I. Herzen.

Hundreds, and then thousands of people went from the end of the XVI century. to the East- "meet the sun"- through mountain ranges and impassable swamps, through dense forests and boundless tundra, making our way through sea ​​ice overcoming river rapids. It was incredibly difficult at that time to advance through the gloomy expanses of North Asia. Behind the "Stone" (as the Urals were called), the Russians were waiting for wild and harsh nature, meetings with a rare but warlike population. All the way to the Pacific Ocean was littered with unknown graves of pioneers and pioneers. But, in spite of everything, the Russian people went to Siberia. They pushed the borders of their fatherland farther to the east and transformed the desert and cold land with hard work, established mutually beneficial ties with its indigenous population, leading it out of centuries of stagnation and isolation.

It was a swift, grandiose movement. Like stubborn, inexhaustible streams, a stream of people's colonization spilled over the boundless Siberian expanses - the settlement and development of empty outlying lands. In just half a century, he made his way to the Pacific coast, and subsequently brought brave pioneers to the American continent. In one century, they tripled the territory of Russia, laid the foundation for everything that Siberia gives and will give us.

Country Siberia

Siberia is now called part of Asia with an area of ​​​​about 10 million km 2, stretching from the Urals to the mountain ranges of the Okhotsk coast, from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan and Mongolian steppes. However, in the XVII century. "Siberian" were considered even more extensive territories, they included both the Far East and the Urals.

This whole gigantic country, 1.5 times the size of Europe, was distinguished by its severity and at the same time an amazing diversity. natural conditions. Its northern part was occupied by desert tundra. To the south, across the main territory of Siberia, endless impenetrable forests stretched for thousands of kilometers, making up the famous "taiga", which eventually became a majestic and formidable symbol of this region. In the south of Western and partially Eastern Siberia, forests gradually turn into arid steppes, closed by a chain of mountains and hilly uplands.

Western Siberia is basically a heavily swampy lowland. Eastern Siberia, on the other hand, is predominantly a mountainous country with many high ridges, with frequent rock outcrops; in the 17th century it made the strongest, even eerie impression on a Russian who was accustomed to the lowland life. All this space stretching from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, diverse in landscapes and living conditions, frightened with its wild beauty, overwhelmed with grandeur and ... beckoned with wealth. Before a Russian man found himself in Siberia, there were forests filled with fur-bearing animals, rivers filled with unthinkable fish, meadows, as if intended for grazing many livestock, beautiful but unused arable land.

What does the name "Siberia" mean? There have been many opinions about its origin. At present, two points of view are most common. Some scholars deduce the word "Siberia" from the Mongolian "shibir" ("forest thicket") and believe that in the time of Genghis Khan, the Mongols so called the part of the taiga bordering on the forest-steppe. Others associate the word "Siberia" with the name of the "Sabirs" or "Sipyrs" - a people who possibly inhabited the forest-steppe Irtysh region. Be that as it may, but the spread of the name. "Siberia" to the entire territory of North Asia was associated with the Russian advance beyond the Urals from the end of the 16th century.

First steps beyond the Urals

Russian people could first get acquainted with Siberia at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries. In any case, information has been preserved in the annals that the Novgorodians just at that time went “beyond Yugra and Samoyed” (that is, they penetrated into the Northern Trans-Urals). It is known for certain that in the XIV century. their warships were already sailing at the mouth of the Ob.

In the XV century. beyond the Urals, the northern "through-stone" route was also sent more than once by Moscow governors with military men. The largest campaign was undertaken by them in 1499. Four thousand warriors went under the leadership of Semyon Kurbsky, Peter Ushaty and Vasily Zabolotsky in winter to the Yugra land on skis. The main part of the Moscow army chose the shortest path and, despite the blizzards and frosts, went through the "Stone" where the mountains reached their highest height. Having hardly passed them along one of the gorges, Russian warriors during the winter “took” 42 fortified settlements in the Yugra land, captured 58 “princes” and for some time forced the Khanty-Mansiysk population of the lower reaches of the Ob to recognize dependence on the Russian state. However, in this territory due to its remoteness and inaccessibility in the XV-XVI centuries. it was impossible to create a base for a firm hold on the Urals and further advancement into the depths of Siberia.

The situation changed radically after the fall of the Kazan Khanate in 1552: shorter and more convenient routes to the east along the Kama and its tributaries (which were close to the western tributaries of the Tobol) opened up for the Russians. But there were difficulties here. Russia immediately came into contact with another fragment of the Golden Horde - the Siberian Khanate, which subjugated not only the Tatars, but also some Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. In 1555, impressed by the victories won by the Russian troops, the "Siberian Yurt" (as the Tatars called their state) recognized vassal dependence on Moscow. But in 1563, Genghisid (a descendant of Genghis Khan) Kuchum, a native of Bukhara and an ardent opponent of Russia, seized power in it. Because of the Urals, devastating raids began to be made on Russian settlements.

A detachment of Volga Cossacks (about 600 people) headed by ataman Ermak Timofeevich set out on a campaign against Kuchum. They were called to their “service” and helped to equip the rich Kama salt producers and merchants Stroganovs, whose lands suffered from the raids of the “Siberians”. However, well-armed and hardened in campaigns and battles, free Cossacks behaved like an independent formidable force. Having left the Stroganovs' possessions on the Kama, the Cossacks moved on river boats - plows - up the Chusovaya, Serebryanka rivers, with great difficulty overcame smaller rivers and portages Ural mountains, descended along Tagil to Tura, and then to Tobol, defeated the main forces of the Siberian Khanate and in the late autumn of 1582 occupied its capital Kashlyk (“city of Siberia”, as the Russians called it).

The feat of the "Yermakov Cossacks" made a stunning impression on their contemporaries, and Yermak himself soon became one of the most beloved heroes of folk legends, songs, epics. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. Russian troops then suffered defeat in the protracted and devastating Livonian War. Not only the southern and eastern outskirts, but also the central regions of the country were subjected to devastating raids by the Crimeans and Nogais. Ten years before the "capture of Siberia" Crimean Tatars burned Moscow. The horrors of the Mongol-Tatar yoke were still fresh in the memory of the people. The people also remembered the enormous difficulties that the troops led by the tsar himself had to overcome during the capture of Kazan. And then the whole Tatar kingdom, which kept the surrounding tribes and peoples in fear, seemed so powerful and strong, collapsed - it suddenly crumbled, and not as a result of a campaign of government troops, but from a daring blow from a handful of Cossacks.

But the meaning of "Ermakov's take" was wider than his understanding by his contemporaries. An event of great historical importance has taken place. As Karl Marx wrote, "the last Mongol king Kuchum ... was defeated by Yermak" and this "The foundation of Asiatic Russia was laid."

Ermak's squad in Siberia invariably won victories, but quickly melted away, losing people in battles, from hunger, frost and disease. In August 1585, during an unexpected attack by enemies, Yermak himself died (drowned), having spent the night with a small detachment on a river island. Having lost their leader, the surviving Cossacks (about 100 people) hastily returned "to Russia". However, the blow inflicted by Yermak turned out to be fatal for the Tatar kingdom of Siberia. Being extremely fragile, based on bare violence and conquests, it quickly (and finally) disintegrated under the blows of the very first detachments of the tsarist troops who followed the path paved by Yermak.

In 1585, a relatively small but well-equipped detachment of military men led by Ivan Mansurov arrived in Siberia. They were sent by the government to help Yermak and, not finding any of his Cossacks, sailed to the mouth of the Irtysh. Winter overtook them. Service people quickly "cut down" the "town", later called Obsky, where they were immediately besieged by a large Ostyak army.

The battle for the town lasted all day, and only in the evening, with great difficulty, Mansurov's detachment managed to fight back. Such a fierce onslaught of the Ostyaks was explained simply: the Russians fortified themselves in the so-called Belogorye - a large religious and political center of Western Siberia, the place where one of the most important sanctuaries of the region was located. Owning it meant a lot in the eyes of the surrounding population.

Having failed during the first assault, the Ostyak "princes" the next day resorted to the "help" of the famous "Belogorsk shaitan" - a wooden idol, which enjoyed special reverence among the Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. This immediately decided the outcome of the case. A cannon was aimed at the "shaitan", and a well-aimed shot blew it to pieces. The siege was immediately lifted. Impressed by what happened local residents as a sign of obedience, she brought yasak to Mansurov, and representatives of six "towns" along the lower reaches of the Ob and Northern Sosva went to Moscow the following year with a request for Russian citizenship.

After Mansurov returned "to Russia", the Moscow government realized that Siberia could not be conquered with one blow, and switched to a different, life-tested tactic. It was decided to gain a foothold on new lands, building fortress cities, and relying on them, move on, building more and more strongholds as needed.

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Accession to Russia of Western Siberia

In 1586, a new detachment was sent to Siberia by order from Moscow - 300 people. Voevodas Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasnoy stood at its head, and among the military people subordinate to them "behind the Stone" were again the "Ermakov Cossacks" - those who survived, who returned from the Trans-Ural campaign. Soon fate scattered them across the Siberian land, making them active participants in further events.

Sukin and Myasnoy in 1586 built a fortress on the Tura, which gave rise to Tyumen, the oldest of the existing Siberian cities. In 1587, Russian warriors received reinforcements and, led by Danila Chulkov, moved on, building another fortress near the capital of the Siberian Khanate - the future Tobolsk.

At that time, Seydyak, a representative of the local Tatar dynasty, who competed and was at enmity with Kuchum, settled in Kashlyk at that time. Chulkov managed to lure and capture a new contender for the Siberian throne, after which Kashlyk became empty and lost its former importance, and Tobolsk became the main city of Siberia for a long time.

The representatives of the Tatar nobility (including Seydyak) taken prisoner by the Russians received high ranks in Moscow and generously complained "for their service." Meanwhile, deprived of the throne and the support of most of his former subjects, Khan Kuchum did not think of laying down his arms. He invariably refused proposals to become a ruler dependent on the Moscow "sovereign" (even on the condition of returning the Siberian throne to him) and intensified opposition to the Russians. The people of Kuchum cruelly took revenge on the Tatar population for passing into allegiance to the "white king" and once even approached Tobolsk, killing several people there.

Since the 90s 16th century the Russian government moved to more decisive action to annex the Trans-Ural lands. In 1591, a detachment, consisting of Tobolsk service people who accepted Russian citizenship of the Tatars, led by voivode Vladimir Koltsov-Mosalsky, overtook Kuchum's army on Ishim and inflicted a severe defeat on him near Lake Chilikula.

In 1593, troops were specially formed in the northern Russian districts and the Urals, directed against the Pelym principality, a strong Vogul association that actively supported Kuchum and caused great damage to Russian villages in the Urals. In the center of this principality, on the banks of the Tavda, servicemen built the City of Pelym, which, however, soon lost its military significance.

Soon, the territory of the "Piebald Horde" was annexed to Russia. In Russian documents, this was the name given to the association of the Selkups, headed by the militant and, apparently, allied Kuchum "prince" Vonya. In the center of the Piebald Horde, the military people built the Narym fortress, and later Ketsk not far from it. This significantly weakened the position of Kuchum, who by that time had migrated to the possessions of Von, but could no longer count on a joint performance with him.

The final defeat of the Siberian “king” took place in August 1598. A combined Russian-Tatar detachment of 400 people led by voivode Andrey Voeikov left Tara and after a long search, Kuchum’s army (500 people) “came down” in the Baraba steppe near the Ob. The fierce battle lasted half a day and ended in a crushing defeat for the Kuchum people. The khan himself, in the midst of the battle, fled with his neighbors in a small boat and disappeared. Abandoned by everyone, poor and sick, he soon died under unclear circumstances. Several sons managed to avoid death and captivity.

Kuchum, but they were not soon able to recover from the blow and resume raids on Russian possessions (this became possible later, when the "Kuchumoviches" found allies among the Kalmyks). At the same time, an energetic search was underway for the most convenient routes "from Russia" to Siberia, and serious measures were taken to make progress along them as convenient and safe as possible. By the beginning of the XVII century. many paths "beyond the Stone" were identified, but rare of them met the increased requirements. The volume of all kinds of transportation increased sharply with the beginning of the colonization of the region, and what could satisfy merchants, fishermen and detachments of military people who occasionally visited Siberia was not suitable for organizing permanent communication, for regular transfer a large number people and goods.

First of all, the northern “through-stone” paths, the most ancient ones, laid around the Kazan Khanate long before the annexation of Siberia, did not meet this goal. They were difficult to access and too remote from the economically developed regions of the Russian state. On the Pechora routes (with access along the eastern tributaries of the Pechora to the lower Ob Sobya or Northern Sosva), it was possible to send reports, small cargoes (for example, furs), but only “commercial and industrial” people could widely use them. There was and sea ​​route to Siberia - "Mangazeya sea ​​passage". They went from the White Sea to the mouth of the Taz River, to the area called "Mangazeya". At the same time, ships usually did not go around the Yamal Peninsula, but crossed along rivers and portages. However, to maintain a constant communication with Siberia by the sea was only possible for the coast-dwellers, accustomed to this kind of voyages, moreover, only during the very short period of summer navigation for the Russian North and Siberia. The Kama routes (along the eastern tributaries of the Kama) were at that time the most suitable for establishing regular links with Siberia. But even among them it was not immediately possible to choose the most successful one. The path along which the "Ermakov Cossacks" walked (through the Tagil portage) largely passed along small and stormy rivers. However, until the 90s. 16th century nothing better was found, and the main transportation was carried out along it. In 1583, to secure it, the Verkhtagilsk town was even set up, which stood for seven years, until a more convenient Cherdyn route was found and mastered. Vessels were dragged along it from Vishera to Lozva, and from it, along Tavda and Tobol, it was possible to get both to Tura and to the Irtysh. This road was declared the main one, and in 1590 the town of Lozva was built on it. But he didn't last long either.

In 1600, to better ensure transportation halfway between Verkhoturye and Tyumen, another city was built - Turinsk (it was also called Epanchin for a long time). Tyumen could also be reached "from Russia" along the old Kazan road. True, it passed through the steppes and therefore was quite dangerous - because of the threat of an unexpected attack by nomads. In 1586, a city (Ufa) was built on this road by the Russians, and subsequently it began to be used in special occasions- for the urgent transfer of troops, sending messengers, etc.

Accession to Russia of Eastern Siberia

The next stage of the annexation of Siberia began with the entry of the Russians to the Yenisei. Industrialists began to develop its northern part, like the lower reaches of the Ob, even before the annexation of Western Siberia to the Russian state - immediately after the opening of the Taz River. The area adjacent to the Taz - "Mangazeya" - was well known in Russia already in the 70s. 16th century (Initially, the Russians called this area "Molgonzei"; its name apparently goes back to the Komi-Zyryan "Molgon" - "extreme" "final" - and means "outlying people".). At the same time, the first mention of "Tungusia" appeared in documents (the Tungus lived beyond the Yenisei). With Taza, it was possible to drag to Turukhan, and on it to sail to the Yenisei. Further, the way to Taimyr, to the Lower Tunguska and other rivers of Eastern Siberia was opened. Its development by the Russians, therefore, began from the northern regions and was also associated with Mangazeya, where Russian and Komi-Zyryan industrialists created their base. To late XVI in. they got used to Mangazeya so thoroughly that they built their own towns there, established a brisk trade with local residents, and even subjugated some of them and, as it turned out later, "they took tribute from them ... on themselves." From the Yenisei deep into Eastern Siberia, the Russians advanced rapidly. This movement, as before, was greatly slowed down only as it approached the steppe zone, inhabited by strong and warlike nomadic tribes, but in the eastern and northern directions it went with incredible speed. Unusual were not only the pace of progress: the very process of annexing the East Siberian lands was distinguished by great originality. If for Western Siberia the Moscow government carefully developed a plan for the annexation of one or another "land" and often sent troops directly from European Russia to implement it, then in Eastern Siberia it became difficult to use such methods, and then completely impossible. The Russian detachments were too far from “Rus”, the size of the region that opened before the explorers was too large, the indigenous population was too rare and scattered over it. And as they deepened into the East Siberian taiga, the local administration received more and more power, and instead of detailed instructions the voivods more and more often found themselves instructed to act "depending on the case there." Local management became more flexible and faster, however, representatives of the Siberian administration now often lost coordination of actions. The movement to the east became not only more rapid, but also more spontaneous, often simply chaotic. In search of "zemlitsy" not yet explained and rich in sable, small (sometimes several people) detachments of service and industrial people, ahead of each other, covered huge distances in a short time. They penetrated unknown rivers to anyone except local residents, into “distant, from time immemorial, unheard of lands”, set up hastily fortified winter huts there, “brought under the high sovereign hand” the tribes and peoples they met on the way, fought and traded with them , took yasak and hunted sable themselves, in the spring after the opening of the rivers they went further, acting, as a rule, at their own peril and risk, but always on behalf of the “sovereign”. They spent years on such campaigns, and when, exhausted by the hardships that had befallen them, they returned to their cities and prisons, they excited others with stories about their discoveries, often adding to what they saw received from the indigenous people and absolutely incredible information about the wealth of the "land" not yet "tested". The spirit of entrepreneurship flared up with new force. In the footsteps of the pioneers, new expeditions set off and, in turn, found obscure and sable-rich lands. Detachments of explorers were often associations of service and industrial people. During joint campaigns, the famous pre-revolutionary historian N. I. Kostomarov wrote, "industrialists and merchants were comrades of service people in their amazing feats of discovering new lands and together with them withstood the heroic struggle against a terrible cold ... and wild peoples" However, these groups often competed and were at enmity with each other. Nevertheless, all of them, in the end, pushed the limits of the world known to them and increased the number of lands and peoples subject to the Russian tsar.

Advance to the east in the 20-40s. acquired such a large scale that it soon became more rapidly than commercial development of the region. The industrialists who hunted sable lingered on the “explored” lands, while the service people moved further and further. However, the actions of the Cossacks and archers gradually fell under the control of the government administration. During campaigns, however, she did not greatly constrain the will of the servicemen. Like the Cossacks of the Don or Yaik, the “sovereign’s service people” in Siberia often decided, having gathered “in a circle”, many important issues and, for example, they could “by the verdict of the whole partnership”, “the whole army” change the route of the campaign and its goals. The authorities reckoned with the orders that existed in the service environment, brought to Siberia by free Cossacks from the "Ermakov's Take", but with all this, they played in the organization of military expeditions important role. The administration supplied (albeit not always and not completely) the “serving men” who were “rising” on the campaign with weapons, ammunition, food, and after the completion of the campaign, mindful of the awards and promotion, sought to “make the sovereign a lot of profit” by consolidating the results achieved: the construction and settlement of new prisons, the organization of local government, yasak and customs duties, state arable land, communications, etc.

From the Yenisei to the Lena and the Pacific Ocean

The movement of explorers to the east from the Yenisei went in two main, often closing streams - northern (through Mangazeya) and southern (through Yeniseysk).

In Mangazeya, already in 1621, vague information about “ big river» Lene. By the 20s. There is also a legend about an amazing trip to this river by an industrial man Penda (or Pyanda). He accomplished an outstanding geographical feat. At the head of a detachment of 40 people, Penda for three years, overcoming the opposition of the Evenks, made his way up the Lower Tunguska, in the fourth year he reached the Lena along the Chechuy portage, sailed downstream to the place where Yakutsk arose in the future, returned to the upper reaches of the Lena, the Buryat steppe crossed to the Angara, and then along the already familiar Russian Yenisei reached Turukhansk. The news about this campaign may seem fantastic because of its range and duration, but it is confirmed by separate documentary records, including the names of the winter quarters based on this path (Upper-Pyandinsky and Nizhne-Pyandinsky), which outlived their founder for a long time.

In the 30s. Several groups of yasak collectors from Mangazeya passed along Vilyui and Lena. They set up several prisons and winter huts, around which, in turn, there were winter huts of commercial and industrial people who rushed to the Prilensky Territory after the campaign of Dobrynsky and Vasiliev.

In 1633, on the same "for the ridge" (i.e., located beyond mountain ranges) of the river in a different, more northern way - from the Lower Tunguska to Vilyui, bypassing the Chona, a new Tobolsk expedition consisting of 38 people headed by Voin Shakhov set off. Divided into several small groups, this detachment for six years strengthened the power of the "great sovereign" in the Vilyui region, building winter huts. Taking yasak from the Tungus and Yakut tribes and the "tenth duty" (ten percent tax) from Russian industrialists. Shakhov's expedition was equipped for only two years, so the service people quickly used up both food and gifts to "foreigners" (a necessary condition at that time to pay yasak), stocks of gunpowder and lead. By 1639, only 15 people survived from the detachment. Occasionally, the flour bought from the industrialist was spent by servicemen on “amanats” (hostages from subordinate families), while they themselves ate only fish and wild grass - “borscht” and tearfully asked in letters sent to Tobolsk for a replacement.

By this time, detachments of service and industrial people had achieved much greater success, advancing deep into the East Siberian taiga by more convenient southern routes from Yeniseisk.

In 1627, 40 Cossacks led by Maxim Perfilyev traveled along the Angara to Ilim. There they took yasak from the surrounding Buryats and Evenks, set up a winter hut, and a year later they returned to the steppe in Yeniseisk, giving impetus to new campaigns in the "explored" lands.

In 1628 foreman Vasily Bugor went to Ilim with ten servants. From the tributary of the Ilim Idirma, the Cossacks went through the portage to Kuta, and having set off along it, they got to Lena and, collecting where they could, yasak, sailed along the river to Chaya. In 1630, Bugor returned to Yeniseisk, leaving two people for "service" on the upper Lena in a winter hut at the mouth of the Kuta, and four people at the mouth of the Kirenga.

In 1630, the Ilimsky prison was built near the portage to the Lena - an important stronghold for further advancement to this river. In the same year, on the orders of the Yenisei voivode Shakhovsky, a small but well-equipped detachment led by ataman Ivan Galkin was sent to Lena "for the sovereign's yasash collection and guard supplies." In the spring of 1631, he reached Lena, opening a shorter route from Ilim to Kuta, set up a small (for 10 people) "industrial winter hut" at the mouth of Kuta and sailed along the Lena much further than the Bug - to the "Yakut land". There, Galkin immediately met the resistance of the five united "princes", but soon subdued them, after which he undertook campaigns along the Aldan and up the Lena, collecting yasak from the Yakuts and Tungus and repelling the attacks of their individual associations. In the summer of 1631, the shooter centurion Pyotr Beketov arrived from Yeniseisk to replace Galkin with an additional detachment of 30 people and began to send service people up and down the Lena. Using both the force of arms and an outstanding diplomatic talent, Beketov brought several more Yakut, Tungus, and Buryat clans “under the sovereign’s hand” and, in accordance with the royal decree, set up in 1632 a prison in the center of the Yakut land in its most populated area.

Ivan Galkin, who returned with his former powers to Lena, in 1634 ordered that this fortress (future Yakutsk) be moved to a less flooded place. He gathered a significant force in those conditions (about 150 people) from the servicemen and industrial people accumulated in the new prison and took energetic actions to consolidate royal power in Yakutia, relying on those Yakut "princes" who were "directed to the sovereign." The Russians who found themselves on the Lena this time had a very hard time. They made horse trips, buying horses, as it was later reported, “for their last comrades”, they took well-fortified Yakut towns during two- and three-day assaults, they themselves sat under siege for months, fighting off “cruel attacks”, “die of starvation”, "peretsynzhali", etc. But in the end, the service people managed to get along with the local nobility, and the Yakut land became part of the Russian state.

Rumors about the wealth of the Lena lands attracted the most various people from a variety of places. So, even from distant Tomsk, a detachment was equipped on the Lena in 1636: 50 Cossacks, led by ataman Dmitry Kopylov, despite the discontent and opposition of the Yenisei authorities, who did not favor competitors, reached the upper reaches of the Aldan, where they built the Butal winter hut.

From there, 30 people, led by Ivan Moskvitin, went further east in search of obscure lands. They went down the Aldan to the mouth of the Maya, climbed two months upstream to the mountain pass of the Dzhugdzhur ridge, crossed it to the upper reaches of the Ulya River and along it, overcoming the rapids and making a new ship, two weeks later in 1639 the first of the Russians went to the Pacific coast.

While on Aldan, Dmitry Kopylov's detachment was drawn into an inter-tribal conflict, which then led to an armed clash with the Yenisei service people who were in the neighborhood. This was no accident.

At their own peril and risk, the Mangazeya, Tobolsk and Yenisei detachments, in search of "new non-yasak lands", climbed into the most remote and remote corners of the Prilensky Territory, traded and fought with "foreigners", challenged each other's right to collect yasak from them and the duty from the Russians they met industrialists.

As a result, the local population was forced to pay tribute two or even three times and went bankrupt, while the servicemen, as it became known to the authorities, “were rich in many wealth, and the sovereign brought little from that much of their wealth.” In the strife between individual groups Russians were involved in the indigenous people, it often came to real battles. In Moscow, they soon learned that “between those Tobolsk and Yenisei and Mangazeya service people ... there are fights: each other and industrial people who trade on that Lena River are beaten to death, and new yasak people are put into confusion, tightness and confusion, and they are driven away from the sovereign.

In the course of the advance of the Russians across Siberia, such a situation developed in some of its other regions (for example, somewhat later in Buryatia). The Moscow government was seriously alarmed, clearly seeing serious losses for the treasury in this state of affairs. It was decided to prohibit unauthorized trips to the Lena from Siberian cities and create an independent province in Yakutia. This was done in 1641. As a result, the Yakut prison became not only a solid base for the further development of Eastern Siberia, but also the center of the largest county in the Russian state.

To Baikal and the Amur region. To Kamchatka

Further development southern routes was primarily associated with the consolidation of the Russians in the Baikal region, followed by access to Transbaikalia and "Dauria" (Amur region). The beginning of the annexation of these lands was laid by the construction of the Verkholensky prison (1641) and the first Russian campaign against Baikal, carried out in 1643.

Baikal was discovered for Russia and the whole world by the Yakut Pentecostal Kurbat Ivanov, who led a detachment of service and industrial people in this campaign. A significant part of the Baikal Buryats agreed without resistance then to accept Russian citizenship, but in 1644-1617. relations with them deteriorated. The main reason for this was the arbitrariness and abuse committed against the Buryats sent from Yeniseisk by Ataman Vasily Kolesnikov. But his expedition had positive results for the development of the region: it reached northern shores Lake Baikal, where in 1647 the Upper Angara prison was built.

In the same year, a detachment from the Yenisei Ivan Pokhabov made a transition across the ice to the southern shore of Lake Baikal. In 1648, Ivan Galkin circled Baikal from the north and founded the Barguzinsky prison. In 1649, the Cossacks from Galkin's detachment reached Shilka.

In the middle of the XVII century. in Transbaikalia, several more detachments of service and industrial people operated. One of them, headed by the founder of Yakutsk, Pyotr Beketov, in 1653 undertook a trip south up the Selenga, and then turned east along the Khilok, where he founded the Irgen prison (near Lake Irgen) in its upper reaches, and in the area of ​​​​the future Nerchinsk - Shilkinsky ("Shilsky").

The entry of the lands adjacent to Lake Baikal into the Russian state took place in a fairly short time and was soon secured by the construction of a number of strongholds - Balagansky, Irkutsk, Telembinsky, Udinsky, Selenginsky, Nerchinsky and other prisons. What is the reason for such a rapid annexation of this relatively densely populated region to Russia? The fact is that a significant part of its indigenous inhabitants sought to rely on the Russians in the fight against the devastating raids of the Mongol feudal lords. A chain of fortresses built in the Baikal region long time and ensured the protection of the population from enemy invasions.

Simultaneously with the consolidation of the Russians in Transbaikalia, complex and dramatic events played out in the Amur region. Rumors about the presence in this area of ​​​​a large and “bread” river, silver, copper and lead ore, fossil paint and other “land” reached the Siberian governors from various groups service and industrial people since the 30s. and could not but excite the imagination. However, the first reliable and detailed information about the Amur and its tributaries was obtained as a result of the campaign of the “written head” (the so-called assistant governors who performed special assignments) Vasily Poyarkov with a detachment of Yakut servicemen and a small number of “eager people” in 1643-1646.

A well-equipped and large detachment (according to Siberian notions) (132 people) climbed the Aldan, Uchur, rapids Gonam to the portage to Zeya.

The main result of this campaign was that the Russian authorities learned not only about the real wealth of the "Daurian land", but also about the political situation in it. It turned out that the banks of the Amur were mainly inhabited by virtually independent tribes.

Rumors about discovered by the expedition Poyarkov fertile lands spread throughout Eastern Siberia and stirred up hundreds of people. New more convenient paths were laid on the Amur. According to one of them, in 1649, a detachment of an industrialist from the Ustyug peasants Yerofei Khabarov set off.

Khabarov in 1652 utterly defeated a large Manchu detachment, which "approached" him with a "fiery battle"; only the killed enemies lost 676 people, while the Cossacks lost 10; however, it was clear that more severe trials awaited the Russians on the Amur.

The Manchurian invasion intensified and aggravated the damage done to the economy of the local population by the actions of the Khabarovsk freemen. In order to deprive the Russians of a food base, the Manchus used a method familiar to their strategy: they forcibly resettled Daurs and Duchers in the Sungari Valley and completely destroyed the local agricultural culture.

In 1653, Khabarov was removed from the leadership of the "army" and taken to Moscow. The king, however, rewarded him, but did not allow him to return to the Amur. Representatives of the tsarist administration began to dispose of the Khabarovsk Cossacks there. grand total these turbulent events was the accession to Russia of the Amur region and the beginning of the mass resettlement of Russian people there.

At the end of the 17th century, new vast lands began to join Russia in the northern regions of the Far East. At times visited by Russians since the 60s. Kamchatka in the winter of 1697 "to search for new non-tributary people" set off from the Anadyr prison on reindeer 60 servicemen and industrialists, as well as 60 Yukaghirs. At the head of the expedition was the Cossack Pentecostal Vladimir Atlasov. It lasted a total of three years. During this time, Atlasov traveled thousands of kilometers through the most populated areas of Kamchatka (not reaching only about 100 km to the southern tip of the peninsula) "fought" only tribal and tribal associations and took yasak "with kindness and greetings" from others. In the Upper Kamchatka prison founded in the central part of the peninsula, he left 16 people (three years later they died on way back), and he, accompanied by 15 Russians and 4 Yukaghirs, returned with a rich yasak to the Anadyr prison, and from there to Yakutsk, where he provided detailed information about the lands passed and some news about Japan and " big land(probably America).