The Khanate or the Kingdom of Siberia, the conquest of which Yermak Timofeevich became famous in Russian history, was a fragment of the vast empire of Genghis Khan. It stood out from the Central Asian Tatar possessions, apparently not earlier than the 15th century - in the same era when the special kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan, Khiva and Bukhara were formed. The Siberian horde, apparently, was closely related to the Nogai. It was formerly called Tyumen and Shiban. The last name indicates that the branch of the Genghisids dominated here, which descended from Sheibani, one of the sons of Jochi and brother of Batu, and which ruled in Central Asia. One branch of the Sheibanids founded a special kingdom in the Ishim and Irtysh steppes and extended its limits to the Ural ridge and Ob. A century before Ermak, under Ivan III, Sheiban Khan Ivak, like the Crimean Mengli-Girey, was at enmity with the Golden Horde Khan Akhmat and was even his murderer. But Iwak himself was killed by a rival in his own land. The fact is that a part of the Tatars under the leadership of the noble bey Taybuga separated from the Shiban horde even before that. True, the successors of Taibugi were called not khans, but only beks; the right to the highest title belonged only to the descendants of Chingisov, that is, the Sheibanids. The successors of Taibuga withdrew with their horde further north, to the Irtysh, where the town of Siberia became its center, below the confluence of the Tobol with the Irtysh, and where it subjugated the neighboring Ostyaks, Voguls and Bashkirs. Iwak was killed by one of Taibuga's successors. There was a fierce enmity between these two clans, and each of them was looking for allies in the Bukhara kingdom, the Kirghiz and Nogai hordes and in the Moscow state.
Oath of the Siberian Khanate to Moscow in the 1550-1560s
These internal civil strife explains the readiness with which the prince of the Siberian Tatars, Ediger, a descendant of Taibuga, recognized himself as a tributary of Ivan the Terrible. A quarter of a century before the campaign of Yermak Timofeevich, in 1555, Ediger's ambassadors came to Moscow and beat their foreheads so that he would take the Siberian land under his protection and take tribute from it. Ediger sought support from Moscow in the fight against the Sheibanids. Ivan Vasilievich took the Siberian prince under his arm, imposed a tribute on him a thousand sables a year and sent Dimitri Nepeitsin to him to swear in the inhabitants of the Siberian land and to rewrite the black people; their number extended to 30,700. But in subsequent years the tribute was not delivered in full; Ediger justified himself by the fact that he had been fought by the Shiban prince, who had taken many people into captivity. This Shiban prince was the future enemy of Ermak's Cossacks. Kuchum, grandson of Khan Ivak. Having received help from the Kirghiz-Kaisaks or Nogai, Kuchum defeated Ediger, killed him and took possession of the Siberian kingdom (about 1563). At first, he also recognized himself as a tributary of the Moscow sovereign. The Moscow government recognized him as a khan as a direct descendant of the Sheibanids. But when Kuchum firmly established himself in the Siberian land and spread the Mohammedan religion among his Tatars, he not only stopped paying tribute, but also began to attack our northeastern Ukraine, forcing the neighboring Ostyaks, instead of Moscow, to pay tribute to him. In all likelihood, these changes for the worse in the east did not take place without the influence of failures in the Livonian War. The Siberian Khanate came out from under the supreme Moscow power - this later made it necessary for Yermak Timofeevich's campaign to Siberia.
Stroganovs
The origin of the ataman Ermak Timofeevich is unknown. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama, according to another - a native of the Kachalinskaya stanitsa on the Don. His name, according to some, is a change in the name of Ermolai, other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman and Eremey. One chronicle, considering the name of Ermak a nickname, gives him the Christian name of Vasily. Ermak was at first the ataman of one of the many Cossack gangs who plundered on the Volga and robbed not only Russian merchants and Persian ambassadors, but also royal ships. After joining the service, the Yermak mob turned to the conquest of Siberia to the famous family of the Stroganovs.
The ancestors of the employers of the Ermak Stroganovs probably belonged to the Novgorod families who colonized the Dvina land, and in the era of the struggle between Novgorod and Moscow, they went over to the side of the latter. They had large holdings in the Solvycheg and Ustyug regions and gained great wealth by being engaged in salt production, as well as trading with foreigners from Perm and Ugra, from whom they exchanged expensive furs. The main nest of this family was in Solvychegodsk. The wealth of the Stroganovs is evidenced by the news that they helped the Grand Duke Vasily the Dark to redeem himself from Tatar captivity; for which they received various awards and privileges. Luka Stroganov is known under Ivan III; and under Vasily III, the grandchildren of this Luke. Continuing to engage in salt production and trade, the Stroganovs are the largest figures in the field of settling the northeastern lands. During the reign of Ivan IV, they spread their colonization activities far to the southeast, to the Kama region. At that time, the head of the family is Anikius, the grandson of Luke; but he was probably already old, and his three sons act as leaders: Yakov, Gregory and Semyon. They are no longer ordinary peaceful colonizers of the Zakamsk countries, but they have their own military detachments, build fortresses, arm them with their own cannons, and repel the raids of hostile aliens. Ermak Timofeevich's gang was hired a little later as one of such detachments. The Stroganovs represented a family of feudal owners in our eastern outskirts. The Moscow government willingly provided enterprising people with all the benefits and rights to defend the northeastern borders.
Preparation of Ermak's campaign
The colonization activity of the Stroganovs, whose highest expression soon became the campaign of Ermak, was constantly expanding. In 1558, Grigory Stroganov beats Ivan Vasilyevich with his forehead about the following: in Velikaya Perm, on both sides of the Kama River from Lysva to Chusovaya, there are empty places, black forests, uninhabited and unsubscribed to anyone. The petitioner asks the Stroganovs to welcome this space, promising to build a city there, supply it with cannons and squeaks in order to protect the sovereign's homeland from the Nogai people and other hordes; asks permission to cut wood in these wild places, plow arable land, set up yards, call on people who are not written and not taxed. By a diploma dated April 4 of the same year, the tsar granted the Stroganovs lands on both sides of the Kama for 146 versts from the mouth of the Lysva to Chusovaya, with the requested 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 that the right to try the Slobozhany belonged to the same Grigory Stroganov. This letter was signed by the okolnichy Fyodor Umny and Alexey Adashev. Thus, the energetic efforts of the Stroganovs were not without connection with the activities of the Chosen Rada and Adashev, the best adviser to the first half of the reign of Grozny.
Ermak Timofeevich's campaign was well prepared by this energetic Russian exploration of the Urals. Grigory Stroganov built the town of Kankor on the right side of the Kama. Six years later, he asked permission to build another town, 20 versts lower than the first one on the Kama, called Kergedan (later it was called Eagle). These towns were surrounded by strong walls, armed with firearms, and had a garrison made up of various free people: there were Russians, Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. When the oprichnina was established, the Stroganovs asked the tsar to include their cities in the oprichnina, and this request was fulfilled.
In 1568, Grigory's elder brother Yakov Stroganov beats the Tsar with his forehead about giving him, on the same basis, the entire course of the Chusovaya River and a twenty-verst distance along the Kama below the mouth of the Chusovaya. The king agreed to his request; only the grace period was now set for ten years (hence, it ended at the same time as the previous award). Yakov Stroganov set up prison along Chusovaya and started settlements that revived this deserted land. He had to defend the region from the raids of neighboring foreigners - the reason why the Stroganovs then called on the Cossacks of Ermak. In 1572, a riot broke out in the land of Cheremis; a crowd of Cheremis, Ostyaks and Bashkirs invaded the Kama region, plundered ships and beat several dozen merchants. But the soldiers of the Stroganovs pacified the rioters. Cheremis raised the Siberian Khan Kuchum against Moscow; he also forbade the Ostyaks, Voguls and Ugras to pay tribute to her. In the following year, 1573, Kuchum's nephew Magmetkul came with an army to Chusovaya and beat many Ostyaks, Moscow tributaries. However, he did not dare to attack the Stroganov towns and went back to the Stone Belt (Ural). Notifying the tsar of this, the Stroganovs asked for permission to expand their settlements beyond the Belt, build towns along the Tobol River and its tributaries and establish settlements there with the same benefits, promising in return not only to defend the Moscow tributaries of the Ostyaks and Voguls from Kuchum, but to fight and subjugate the Siberian Tatars. With a diploma dated May 30, 1574, Ivan Vasilyevich fulfilled this request of the Stroganovs, this time with a twenty-year grace period.
Arrival of Ermak's Cossacks to the Stroganovs (1579)
But for about ten years, the Stroganovs' intention to spread Russian colonization beyond the Urals did not materialize until Yermak's Cossack squads appeared on the scene.
According to one Siberian chronicle, in April 1579 the Stroganovs sent a letter to the Cossack atamans who were robbing on the Volga and Kama, and invited them to their Chusovye towns to help against the Siberian Tatars. The place of the brothers Yakov and Grigory Anikiev was then taken over by their sons: Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They turned to the Volga Cossacks with a commemorated letter. Five atamans responded to their call: Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, who arrived with their hundreds in the summer of the same year. The main leader of this Cossack squad was Yermak, whose name then became next to the names of his older contemporaries, the conquerors of America Cortez and Pizarro.
We do not have exact information about the origin and previous life of this remarkable person. There is only a dark legend that Ermak's grandfather was a townsman from Suzdal, who was engaged in a carriage; that Ermak himself, in baptism Vasily (or Herma), was born somewhere in the Kama region, was distinguished by bodily strength, courage and the gift of speech; in his youth he worked in plows that walked along the Kama and Volga, and then became the chieftain of robbers. There are no direct indications that Ermak belonged to the Don Cossacks proper; rather, he was a native of northeastern Russia, who, with his entrepreneurial spirit, experience and courage, had resurrected the type of the ancient Novgorod volunteer.
Cossack atamans spent two years in Chusovy towns, helping the Stroganovs to defend themselves against foreigners. When Murza Bekbeliy with a crowd of Voguli attacked the Stroganov villages, Yermak's Cossacks defeated him and took him prisoner. The Cossacks themselves attacked the Voguls, Votyaks and Pelymians, and so prepared themselves for a big march on Kuchum.
It is difficult to say who exactly belonged to the main initiative in this enterprise. Some chronicles say that the Stroganovs sent the Cossacks to conquer the Siberian kingdom. Others - that the Cossacks, headed by Yermak, independently embarked on this campaign; and the threats forced the Stroganovs to supply them with the necessary supplies. Perhaps the initiative was mutual, but on the part of the Cossacks of Ermak it was more voluntary, and on the part of the Stroganovs it was more compelled by circumstances. The Cossack squad could hardly carry out a boring guard service in Chusovy towns for a long time and be content with meager prey in the neighboring foreign lands. In all likelihood, it soon became a burden for the Stroganov region itself. Exaggerated news about the river expanse beyond the Stone Belt, about the riches of Kuchum and his Tatars and, finally, the thirst for exploits that could wash away past sins from oneself - all this aroused the desire to go to a little-known country. Ermak Timofeevich was probably the main engine of the entire enterprise. The Stroganovs, on the other hand, got rid of the restless crowd of Cossacks and fulfilled the long-standing idea of their own and of the Moscow government: about postponing the struggle with the Siberian Tatars for the Ural ridge and punishing the khan who had fallen away from Moscow.
The beginning of the campaign of Ermak (1581)
The Stroganovs supplied the Cossacks with provisions, as well as guns and gunpowder, gave them another 300 people from their own military men, among whom, in addition to the Russians, were hired Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. There were 540 Cossacks. Consequently, the whole detachment was more than 800 people. Ermak and the Cossacks realized that the success of the campaign would have been impossible without strict discipline; therefore, for violating it, the atamans established punishments: disobedient and fugitives were supposed to be drowned in the river. The impending dangers made the Cossacks their pious; it is said that Ermak was accompanied by three priests and one monk, who performed divine service every day. Preparations took a lot of time, so Yermak's campaign began quite late, already in September 1581. The soldiers sailed up the Chusovaya, after several days of sailing they entered its tributary, the Serebryanka, and reached the portage that separates the Kama river system from the Ob system. It took a lot of work to get over this portage and go down into the river Zheravlya; quite a few boats got stuck on the portage. It was already a cold time, the rivers began to be covered with ice, and near the portage Ermak's Cossacks had to winter. They set up a prison, from where one part of them undertook searches in the neighboring Vogul regions for supplies and booty, and the other manufactured everything needed for the spring campaign. When the flood came, Ermak's squad descended by the river Zheravlya into the Barancha rivers, and then to Tagil and Tura, a tributary of the Tobol, entering the Siberian Khanate. The Ostyak-Tatar yurt of Chingidi (Tyumen), owned by a relative or tributary of Kuchum, Yepancha, stood on Tura. Here the first battle took place, which ended in a complete defeat and flight of the Epanchin Tatars. Tura Cossacks of Ermak entered Tobol and at the mouth of the Tavda had a successful deal with the Tatars. The Tatar fugitives brought Kuchum the news of the coming of Russian soldiers; moreover, they justified their defeat by the action of rifles unknown to them, which they considered special bows: “when the Russians shoot from their bows, then fire is plowed from them; arrows are not visible, but they inflict mortal wounds, and no military harness can be used to protect oneself from them. " These news saddened Kuchum, especially since various signs already predicted the arrival of the Russians and the fall of his kingdom.
The khan, however, wasted no time, gathered from everywhere Tatars, subject Ostyaks and Voguls and sent them under the command of his close relative, the brave Tsarevich Magmetkul, to meet the Cossacks. And he himself built fortifications and notches near the mouth of the Tobol, under the Chuvasheva mountain, in order to block Ermak's access to his capital, a Siberian town located on the Irtysh, slightly below the confluence of the Tobol. A series of bloody battles followed. Magmetkul first met the Cossacks of Yermak Timofeevich near the Babasany tract, but neither the Tatar cavalry nor the arrows resisted the Cossacks and their pishchal. Magmetkul ran to the notch under the Chuvasheva mountain. The Cossacks sailed further along Tobol and seized the Karachi ulus (chief adviser) of Kuchum on the road, where they found warehouses of all kinds of goods. Having reached the mouth of the Tobol, Yermak first avoided the aforementioned notch, turned up the Irtysh, took the town of Murza Atik on its bank and settled down here to rest, thinking over a further plan.
Map of the Siberian Khanate and Ermak's campaign
The capture of the city of Siberia by Ermak
A large crowd of enemies, entrenched under Chuvashev, made Ermak think about it. The Cossack circle gathered to decide whether to go forward or to return. Some advised me to retreat. But the more courageous reminded Ermak Timofeevich of the vow given before the campaign to stand rather to fall to a single person than to run back with shame. Deep autumn was already approaching (1582), soon the rivers were to be covered with ice, and the return voyage was becoming extremely dangerous. On October 23, in the morning, Yermak's Cossacks left the town. When clicks: "Lord, help your slaves!" they struck on the spot, and a stubborn battle began.
The adversaries met the attackers with a cloud of arrows and moved many. Despite desperate attacks, Ermak's detachment could not overcome the fortifications and began to faint. The Tatars, considering themselves already victors, broke the notch in three places and made a sortie. But here, in desperate hand-to-hand combat, the Tatars were defeated and rushed back; the Russians broke into the spot. The Ostyak princes were the first to leave the battlefield and went home with their crowds. The wounded Magmetkul escaped in a boat. Kuchum watched the battle from the top of the mountain and ordered the Muslim mullahs to read prayers. Seeing the flight of the entire army, he himself hastened to his capital, Siberia; but did not stay in it, for there was no one to defend it; and fled south to the Ishim steppes. Upon learning of the flight of Kuchum, on October 26, 1582, Yermak entered the empty city of Siberia with the Cossacks; here they found valuable booty, a lot of gold, silver, and especially furs. A few days later, the inhabitants began to return: the first came the Ostyak prince with his people and brought gifts and food to Ermak Timofeevich and his squad; then, little by little, the Tatars returned.
The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895
So, after incredible work, the detachment of Ermak Timofeevich hoisted Russian banners in the capital of the Siberian kingdom. Although firearms gave him a strong advantage, one must not forget that on the side of the enemies there was a huge numerical superiority: according to the chronicles, Ermak had 20 and even 30 times more enemies against him. Only the extraordinary strength of spirit and body helped the Cossacks to defeat so many enemies. Long trips along unfamiliar rivers show to what extent the Cossacks of Yermak Timofeevich were hardened in hardships, accustomed to the struggle with northern nature.
Ermak and Kuchum
However, the war was far from over with the conquest of Kuchum's capital. Kuchum himself did not consider his kingdom lost, which half consisted of nomadic and wandering foreigners; the vast neighboring steppes gave him a safe refuge; from here he made sudden attacks on the Cossacks, and the struggle with him dragged on for a long time. The enterprising prince Magmetkul was especially dangerous. Already in November or December of the same 1582, he lay in wait for a small detachment of Cossacks who were engaged in fishing, and killed almost everyone. This was the first sensitive loss. In the spring of 1583, Ermak learned from a Tatar that Magmetkul camped on the Vagai River (a tributary of the Irtysh between Tobol and Ishim), a hundred miles from the city of Siberia. A detachment of Cossacks sent against him suddenly attacked his camp at night, killed many Tatars, and captured the prince himself. The loss of the brave prince temporarily secured the Cossacks of Ermak from Kuchum. But their number has already greatly diminished; stocks were depleted, while there were still many labors and battles ahead. There was an urgent need for Russian help.
The conquest of Siberia by Yermak. Painting by V. Surikov, 1895. Fragment
Immediately after the capture of the city of Siberia, Ermak Timofeevich and the Cossacks sent news of their successes to the Stroganovs; and then they sent the ataman Ivan to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich himself a Ring with expensive Siberian sables and a request to send them tsarist warriors to help them.
Cossacks Ermak in Moscow with Ivan the Terrible
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that after the departure of Yermak's gang there were few military men left in the Perm Territory, some Pelym (Vogul) prince came with crowds of Ostyaks, Voguls and Votyaks, reached Cherdyn, the main city of this region, then turned to Kamskoye Usolye, Kankor, Kergedan and Chusovsky towns, burning out the surrounding villages and taking the peasants prisoner. Without Ermak, the Stroganovs barely defended their towns from the enemies. Cherdyn voivode Vasily Pelepelitsyn, perhaps dissatisfied with the privileges of the Stroganovs and their lack of jurisdiction, in a report to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich blamed the devastation of the Perm Territory on the Stroganovs: they, without a royal decree, summoned Yermak Timofeevich and other Kuchum was sent and pulled up. When the Pelym prince came, they did not help the sovereign cities with their military men; and Ermak, instead of defending the Perm land, went to fight to the east. The Stroganovs sent from Moscow a disgraceful tsarist charter, marked on November 16, 1582. The Stroganovs commanded from now on not to keep the Cossacks at home, but to send the Volga chieftains, Ermak Timofeevich and his comrades, to Perm (ie, Cherdyn) and Kamskoye Usolye, where they should not stand together, but separate; they were allowed to keep no more than a hundred people. If this is not done exactly, and again some trouble from the Voguls and the Siberian Saltan will befall the Permian places, then a "big disgrace" will be imposed on the Stroganovs. In Moscow, apparently, they did not know anything about the Siberian campaign and demanded that Ermak be sent to Cherdyn with the Cossacks who were already located on the banks of the Irtysh. The Stroganovs were "in great sorrow." They hoped for the permission given to them before to set up towns beyond the Stone Belt and fight the Siberian Saltan, and therefore they let the Cossacks go there, not getting in touch with either Moscow or the Perm governor. But soon the news arrived from Yermak and his comrades about their extraordinary luck. With her, the Stroganovs personally hurried to Moscow. And then the Cossack embassy arrived there, headed by the ataman Koltso (once condemned to death for robberies). Of course, opals were out of the question. The sovereign received the ataman and the Cossacks affectionately, rewarded them with money and cloth and again released them to Siberia. They say that he sent Yermak Timofeevich a fur coat from his shoulder, a silver goblet and two shells. To reinforce them, he then sent Prince Semyon Volkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with several hundred military men. The captured Tsarevich Magmetkul, who was brought to Moscow, was granted fiefdoms and took a place among the serving Tatar princes. The Stroganovs received new trade benefits and two more land grants, Bolshaya and Malaya Salt.
Arrival to Ermak of the detachments of Volkhovsky and Glukhov (1584)
Kuchum, having lost Magmetkul, was distracted by the renewed struggle with the Taibugi clan. Ermak's Cossacks, meanwhile, finished taxing the Ostyak and Vogul volosts, which were part of the Siberian Khanate. From the city of Siberia they walked along the Irtysh and Ob, on the banks of the latter they took the Ostyak city of Kazym; but then on the attack they lost one of their chieftains, Nikita Pan. The number of Ermak's detachment was greatly reduced; barely half of it remained. Ermak was looking forward to help from Russia. Only in the fall of 1584 did the Volkhovskaya and Glukhovs sailed on plows: but they brought no more than 300 people - help is too insufficient to consolidate such a vast space behind Russia. It was impossible to rely on the loyalty of the newly conquered local princelings, and the irreconcilable Kuchum still acted at the head of his horde. Ermak gladly met the Moscow military men, but had to share with them the meager food supplies; in winter, from a lack of food, mortality in the city of Siberia was discovered. The prince of Volkhovskaya also died. Only in the spring, thanks to the abundant catch of fish, game, as well as bread and livestock delivered from the neighboring foreigners, did Ermak's people recover from hunger. Prince Volkhovskaya, apparently, was appointed a Siberian governor, to whom the Cossack chieftains were to surrender the city and submit, and his death saved the Russians from the inevitable rivalry and disagreement of the chiefs; for the chieftains would hardly willingly renounce their leading role in the newly conquered land. With the death of Volkhovsky, Ermak again became the head of the united Cossack-Moscow detachment.
The death of Ermak
Until now, luck accompanied almost all enterprises of Ermak Timofeevich. But happiness finally began to change. Continuous luck weakens constant precaution and breeds carelessness, the cause of disastrous surprises.
One of the local princely tributaries, a Karacha, that is, a former khan's adviser, conceived treason and sent ambassadors to Ermak with a request to defend him from the Nogai. The ambassadors swore that they do not think any evil against the Russians. The atamans believed their oath. Ivan Koltso and forty Cossacks with him went to the town of Karachi, were affectionately received, and then treacherously all were killed. To avenge them, Ermak sent a detachment with Ataman Yakov Mikhailov; but this detachment was exterminated. After that, the neighboring foreigners bowed to the exhortations of the Karachi and raised an uprising against the Russians. With a large crowd the Karacha laid siege to the city of Siberia itself. It is quite possible that he was in secret relations with Kuchum. Ermak's squad, weakened by losses, was forced to withstand the siege. The latter dragged on, and the Russians were already experiencing a strong shortage of food: the Karacha hoped to starve them out.
But despair lends determination. On one June night, the Cossacks split into two parts: one remained with Yermak in the city, and the other, with the ataman Matvey Meshcheryak, imperceptibly went out into the field and crept to the Karachi camp, which stood several miles from the city, separate from the other Tatar ones. Many enemies were beaten, the Karacha himself barely escaped. At dawn, when in the main camp of the besieging they learned about the sortie of Yermak's Cossacks, crowds of enemies rushed to the aid of the karache and surrounded the small squad of Cossacks. But Yermak fenced himself off with a Karachi wagon train and met the enemies with rifle fire. The savages broke down and scattered. The city was freed from the siege, the 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 Yermak Timofeevich returned to the city of Siberia, the news came that a caravan of Bukhara merchants was going to the city with goods, but stopped somewhere, because Kuchum did not give him a way! The resumption of trade with Central Asia was highly desirable for Ermak's Cossacks, who could exchange woolen and silk fabrics, carpets, weapons, spices for furs collected from foreigners. Ermak in early August 1585 personally with a small detachment sailed to meet the merchants up the Irtysh. Cossack plows reached the mouth of the Vagai, however, without meeting anyone, they swam back. One dark, stormy evening, Yermak landed on the shore and then found his death. Its details are semi-legendary, but not devoid of some plausibility.
Yermak's Cossacks landed on an island on the Irtysh, and therefore, considering themselves safe, plunged into sleep without placing guards. Meanwhile, Kuchum was there. (The news of the unprecedented Bukhara caravan was almost launched by him in order to lure Ermak into an ambush.) His scouts reported to the khan about the Cossacks' lodging for the night. Kuchum had one Tatar condemned to death. The khan sent him to look for a horse ford on the island, promising pardon in case of success. The Tatar crossed the river and returned with the news of the complete carelessness of Yermak's people. At first Kuchum did not believe it and ordered to bring proof. The Tartar set off a second time and brought three Cossack squeaks and three little bags with gunpowder. Then Kuchum sent a crowd of Tatars to the island. With the noise of the rain and the howling of the wind, the Tatars crept to the camp and began to beat the sleepy Cossacks. The awakened Yermak rushed into the river to the plow, but fell into a deep place; having iron armor on him, he could not swim out and drowned. With this sudden attack, the entire Cossack detachment was exterminated along with its leader. This is how this Russian Cortes and Pizarro died, the brave, "velleum" ataman Ermak Timofeevich, as the Siberian chronicles call him, who turned from robbers into a hero whose glory will never be erased from the people's memory.
Two important circumstances helped Yermak's Russian squad during the conquest of the Siberian Khanate: on the one hand, firearms and military training; on the other hand, the internal state of the khanate itself, weakened by civil strife and the discontent of local pagans against Islam, which was forcibly introduced by Kuchum. Siberian shamans with their idols reluctantly gave way to Mohammedan mullahs. But the third important reason for success is the personality of Yermak Timofeevich himself, his irresistible courage, knowledge of military affairs and iron strength of character. The latter is clearly evidenced by the discipline that Yermak was able to establish in his squad of Cossacks, with their violent morals.
Retreat of the remnants of Ermak's squads from Siberia
The death of Yermak confirmed that he was the main engine of the entire enterprise. When news of her reached the city of Siberia, the remaining Cossacks immediately decided that without Yermak, with their small numbers, they would not be able to hold out among the unreliable natives against the Siberian Tatars. Cossacks and Moscow warriors, including no more than a hundred and fifty people, immediately left the city of Siberia with the streltsy head Ivan Glukhov and Matvey Meshcheryak, the only one remaining of the five atamans; by a distant northern route along the Irtysh and Ob, they went back for the Kamen (Ural ridge). As soon as the Russians cleared Siberia, Kuchum sent his son Alei to occupy his capital city. But he did not stay here for long. Above, we saw that the prince of Taybugin of the Ediger clan, who owned Siberia, and his brother Bekbulat perished in the fight against Kuchum. Bekbulat's little son, Seydyak, found refuge in Bukhara, grew up there and became an avenger for his father and uncle. With the help of the Bukharians and Kirghiz, Seydyak defeated Kuchum, expelled Alei from Siberia and took possession of this capital city himself.
Arrival of Mansurov's detachment and consolidation of the Russian conquest of Siberia
The Tatar kingdom in Siberia was restored, and the conquest of Yermak Timofeevich seemed lost. But the Russians have already experienced the weakness, the diversity of this kingdom and its natural wealth; they were quick to return.
The government of Fyodor Ivanovich sent one detachment after another to Siberia. Still not knowing about the death of Ermak, the Moscow government in the summer of 1585 sent to his aid the governor Ivan Mansurov with a hundred riflemen and - most importantly - with a cannon. On this campaign, the remnants of Yermak's detachments and ataman Meshcheryak, who had gone back beyond the Urals, united with him. Having found the city of Siberia already occupied by the Tatars, Mansurov sailed past, went down the Irtysh to the confluence of the Ob and built a town here for wintering.
This time, the matter of conquest went easier with the help of experience and along the paths laid by Ermak. The nearby Ostyaks tried to take the Russian town, but were repulsed. Then they brought their main idol and began to make sacrifices to him, asking for help against Christians. The Russians pointed their cannon at him, and the tree, along with the idol, was smashed into chips. The Ostyaks scattered in fear. The Ostyak prince Lugui, who owned six towns along the Ob, was the first of the local rulers to go to Moscow to beat him with his forehead, so that the sovereign would accept him as one of his tributaries. He was treated kindly and paid a tribute of seven forty sables.
Foundation of Tobolsk
Ermak Timofeevich's victories were not in vain. Following Mansurov, the governors Sukin and Myasnaya arrived in the Siberian land, and on the Tura River, on the site of the old town of Chingiya, they built a fortress Tyumen and erected a Christian church in it. In the next 1587, after the arrival of new reinforcements, the head Danil Chulkov set off from Tyumen further, went down the Tobol to its mouth and here on the banks of the Irtysh founded Tobolsk; this city became the center of Russian possessions in Siberia, thanks to its advantageous position in the junction of Siberian rivers. Continuing the work of Ermak Timofeevich, the Moscow government used its usual system here too: to spread and consolidate its dominion by gradually building fortresses. Siberia, contrary to fears, was not lost to the Russians. The heroism of Yermak's handful of Cossacks opened the way for Russia's great eastward expansion, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Articles and books about Ermak
Solovyov S. M .. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 6. Chapter 7 - "The Stroganovs and Ermak"
Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. 21 - Ermak Timofeevich
Kuznetsov E.V. Initial poetry about Ermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1890
Kuznetsov E. V. Bibliography of Ermak: Experience of indicating little-known works in Russian and partly in foreign languages about the conqueror of Siberia. Tobolsk, 1891
Kuznetsov E. V. About the essay by A. V. Oksenov "Ermak in the epics of the Russian people." Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892
Kuznetsov E.V. To information about the banners of Ermak. Tobolsk Provincial Gazette, 1892
Oksenov A. V. Ermak in the epics of the Russian people. Historical Gazette, 1892
Article "Ermak" in the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Author - N. Pavlov-Silvansky)
Ataman Ermak Timofeevich conqueror of the Siberian kingdom. M., 1905
Fialkov DN About the place of death and burial of Ermak. Novosibirsk, 1965
Sutormin A.G. Ermak Timofeevich (Alenin Vasily Timofeevich). Irkutsk, 1981
Dergacheva-Skop E. Brief stories about Yermak's campaign in Siberia - Siberia in the past, present and future. Issue III. Novosibirsk, 1981
Kolesnikov A.D. Ermak. Omsk, 1983
Skrynnikov R.G. Siberian expedition of Ermak. Novosibirsk, 1986
Buzukashvili M.I. Ermak. M., 1989
Kopylov D.I. Ermak. Irkutsk, 1989
Sofronov V. Yu. Ermak's campaign and the struggle for the khan's throne in Siberia. Tyumen, 1993
Kozlova NK About “Chudi”, Tatars, Ermak and Siberian burial mounds. Omsk, 1995
Solodkin Ya. G. To the study of chronicle sources about the Siberian expedition of Ermak. Tyumen, 1996
Kreknina L. I. Theme of Ermak in the works of P. P. Ershov. Tyumen, 1997
Katargina M.N. The plot of the death of Ermak: chronicle materials. Tyumen, 1997
Sofronova M.N.On the imaginary and real in the portraits of the Siberian chieftain Ermak. Tyumen, 1998
Shkerin V. A. Yermak's Sylven campaign: a mistake or a search for a way to Siberia? Yekaterinburg, 1999
Solodkin Ya. G. To the disputes about the origin of Ermak. Yekaterinburg, 1999
Solodkin Ya. G. Did Ermak Timofeevich have a double? Ugra, 2002
Zakshauskienė E. Badge from Ermak's chain mail. M., 2002
Katanov N.F. Legend of the Tobolsk Tatars about Kuchum and Ermak - Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Issue 4. Yekaterinburg, 2004
Panishev E.A.Ermak's death in Tatar and Russian legends. Tobolsk, 2003
Skrynnikov R.G. Ermak. M., 2008
). The Stroganov merchants took an active part in equipping the detachment with everything necessary. Ermak's Cossacks arrived in the Perm Territory at the invitation of the Stroganovs in 1579 to protect their possessions from attacks by the Voguls and Ostyaks. The campaign was carried out without the knowledge of the central authorities, and Karamzin called its participants "a small gang of vagabonds." The backbone of the conquerors of Siberia consisted of five hundred Don Cossacks, led by such atamans as Ivan Koltso, Matvey Meshcheryak, Nikita Pan, Yakov Mikhailov. In addition to them, the Tatars, Germans and Lithuania took part in the campaign. The army was loaded into 80 plows
Crossing the "Stone"
Defeat of the Siberian Khanate
The first skirmish of the Cossacks with the Siberian Tatars took place in the area of the modern city of Turinsk (Sverdlovsk region), where the warriors of Prince Yepanchi fired at Yermak's plows from bows. Here Ermak, with the help of squeaks and cannons, dispersed the cavalry of Murza Yepanchi. Then the Cossacks occupied the town of Chingi-turu (Tyumen district) without a fight. Many treasures were taken from the site of modern Tyumen: silver, gold and precious Siberian furs.
Hungry winter
In the winter of 1584/1585, the temperature in the vicinity of Kashlyk dropped to -47 °, icy northern winds began to blow. Deep snows made hunting in the taiga forests impossible. In the hungry winter time, wolves gathered in large flocks and appeared near human dwellings. Sagittarius did not survive the Siberian winter. They perished without exception without taking part in the war with Kuchum. Semyon Bolkhovskoy himself, who was appointed the first governor of Siberia, also died. After a hungry winter, the number of Yermak's detachment dramatically decreased. To save the surviving people, Ermak tried to avoid clashes with the Tatars.
The uprising of Murza Karach
After the hike
At the end of September 1585, 100 servicemen arrived in Kashlyk under the command of Ivan Mansurov, sent to help Yermak. They did not find anyone in Kashlyk. When trying to return from Siberia by way of their predecessors - down the Ob and further "through the Kamen" - the servicemen were forced, due to the "freezing of the ice", to place "a hail over the Ob opposite the mouth of the river" of the Irtysh and in it the "wintering season". Having withstood a siege here "from many Ostyaks", the people of Ivan Mansurov returned from Siberia in the summer of 1586.
The third detachment, which arrived in the spring of 1586 and consisted of 300 people under the leadership of the governor Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasny, brought with them the "writing head of Danila Chulkov" "for the establishment of business" on the spot. The expedition, judging by its results, was carefully prepared and equipped. To establish the power of the Russian government in Siberia, she had to found the first Siberian government prison and a Russian city.
and his death
The possessions of the Stroganovs and the Kuchumov kingdom
A significant role in the advancement of the Russians far beyond the "Stone" and in the annexation of Western Siberia was played by
merchants Stroganovs... One of them, Anika, in the 16th century. became the richest man Vychegodskaya salt, v Komi-Zyryan country who have long maintained a relationship with "stony" peoples - with the Mansi (Vogulichi), Khanty (Ostyaks) and Nenets (samoyad)... Anika also bought furs (quick, or soft junk) and became very interested in the favorable places beyond the Stone Belt, rich in fur-bearing animals. He bribed some foreigners and sent scouts with them for the "Stone", and then clerks with marketable goods, and they reached the lower Ob, where they profitably exchanged goods for furs. Profiting large capital from salt mines and "stony" trade, Anika began to expand its holdings to the east. Through him, but, undoubtedly, in other ways, already in the middle of the XVI century. Moscow knew about Siberian affairs.
In the royal title of 1554 - 1556.
Ivan IV Vasilievich, by the way, is called not only as the sovereign of "Obdorskaya, Kondinskaya and many other lands", but also as "The sovereign of all northern shores", and in the title of 1557 "Obdorskaya, Kondinskaya and all Siberian lands, the lord of the Northern side"... There is direct evidence that some regions of Siberia paid tribute to Moscow and recognized the power of the tsar long before the campaign. Ermak. (The conqueror of the Siberian kingdom was probably called Yermolai, although sources name five more Orthodox names, including Vasily. He went down in history under the nickname Ermak (artel road tagan, i.e. boiler ). Ermak's origin is also unknown. According to the latest data, his homeland is the village of Ignatievskoye on the Northern Dvina).So, in 1555 he voluntarily submitted to Moscow and promised to pay a tribute of 1000 sables annually. "The prince of the whole Siberian land" - Khan Ediger (Edigar), who was looking for Russian help against the Bukharians who were advancing on him.
Not later than 1556 Dmitry Kurov was sent from Moscow to Siberia for tribute. He returned in 1557 together with the Siberian ambassador, who delivered an incomplete tribute to the tsar (700 sables) and justified himself by invading Ediger's possession Shiban prince Kuchum and took away many local people. In 1568, new ambassadors from Ediger brought a full tribute (1000 sables), road duties and
"Certificate of honor" - an oath of allegiance... But Ediger was no longer the master in his domain. It was during these years that he was defeated and then killed by Kuchum, who proclaimed himself the Siberian Khan. Russians from that time began to call it "Siberian saltan". But Kuchum did not send tribute to Moscow, prevented the Siberian "populists" from doing this and organized raids into the basin of the upper Kama.The core of the Kuchum kingdom was a part of the West Siberian Plain between Tobol and Irtysh, soon the power of Kuchum spread to neighboring regions.He forced the Mansi and Khanty who lived on both sides of the Irtysh, north of the mouth of the Tobol, and even along the lower Ob to pay tribute. In the west, Kuchum subdued the tribes along the river. Tavda and Ture, almost to the "Stone". In the east, his power was recognized by the tribes that lived between the Irtysh and Ob, in the Barabinsk steppe. The southern borders of the Kuchumov kingdom probably reached the Kazakh hills.
The main headquarters of Kuchum is the city of Kashlyk (Isker), which was called the Russians "The city of Siberia", which arose on the right (northern) bank of the Irtysh, less than halfway between the mouths of its southern tributaries, the Tobol and Nagai.
West of the "Stone" the basin of the upper Kama belonging to Russia -
Ermak crossing through the Middle Urals
After the conquest Kazan and Astrakhan tsarist possessions stretched to the Caspian Sea and the entire Volga became a Russian river. Trade with the Lower Volga region, Trans-Volga region and Iran intensified, the route to Central Asia was explored. Only on the western borders was the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and there were concentrated large military forces of Russia. In the campaign against Mogilev in the summer of 1581, among many regiments, she took part and Cossack squad of Ataman Ermak... After the conclusion of an armistice (early 1582), at the behest of Ivan IV, his detachment was redeployed to the east, in the sovereign fortress Cherdyn, located near the mouth of the river. Kolva, a tributary of the Vishera, and Sol-Kamskaya, on the river. Kame... They also broke through there Cossacks Ataman Ivan Yurievich Ring... In August 1581, near the river. Samara, they almost completely destroyed the military escort of the Nogai mission, heading to Moscow, accompanied by the tsarist ambassador, and then destroyed Saraichik, the capital of the Nogai Horde... For this, Ivan Koltso and his associates were declared "thieves", that is, state criminals, and sentenced to death.
Meanwhile, the trading activities of the Stroganovs and Western Siberia grew into the oppression of the Mansi tribes and outright robbery. This caused a natural reaction, the Mansi uprising, supported by the Trans-Ural tribesmen and Khan Kuchum, began. The villages and settlements of the Stroganovs along the Chusovaya and its tributaries were on fire. Possessions suffered the most Maxim Yakovlevich Stroganov on the river Silva, which forced him to turn to the Cossacks. Offering them a campaign to Siberia against Kuchum and the rebellious Mansi, M. Stroganov most likely did not aim at the entire Siberian Khanate, but assumed only to intimidate the khan, to put pressure on him. The proposal to go "beyond the Stone" apparently coincided with the intention of the Cossacks to get a livelihood: in peacetime, the tsar's salary was not due to them.
Probably in the summer of 1582, M. Stroganov concluded a final agreement with the ataman on a campaign against the "Siberian Saltan". By the 540 Cossacks, he added his people with "leaders" (guides) who knew "that Siberian way", and interpreters of the "Busurman language", supplied the detachment with weapons and supplies. The Cossacks built large ships ("good planes"), carrying 20 men with supplies, and many small ones. Consequently, the flotilla consisted of more than 30 ships. The river voyage led by a detachment of about 600 people Yermak began on September 1, 1582, the guides quickly led the plows up the Chusovaya, and then along its tributary Serebryanka (at 57 ° 50 "N), the navigable upper reaches of which began not far from the rafting R. Baranchi (Tobol system) flowing to the southeast. The Cossacks were in a hurry: only a swift movement and an unexpected attack guaranteed them the success of the whole enterprise, which looked quite adventurous, since for every Russian there were 10 - 15 Kuchum soldiers. Having dragged all the supplies and small vessels through an even and short (10 versts) dragging, Ermak and his associates descended along Barancha, Tagil and Tura to about 58 ° N. NS. Here, near present-day Turinsk, they first encountered Kuchum's vanguard and scattered it. The main task of taking the "language" to determine the number and combat capability of the Khan's troops was not fulfilled. And Kuchum soon already knew about the forces of the Russians, but did not show concern about the intentions of the Cossacks moving towards his capital. To defend Kashlyk, he managed to expose detachments of some vassal princelings; the main forces of the khan, led by his eldest son Alei, with attached cannons, were on a campaign in the Perm Territory.
A decisive battle took place on the banks of the Irtysh, near the Chuvashev cape, slightly above the mouth of the Tobol. At the disposal Makhmet-Kula (Mametkul), Kuchum's nephew, commander of the army, there were two detachments - foot and horse. The Cossacks alternately defeated both detachments, but lost more than 100 people. After the battle, the allies of the Tatars, the Irtysh Khanty, who were in the army of Kuchum, dispersed to their villages. Kuchum with the surviving Tatars fled through Kashlyk to the left bank of the Irtysh and went far south to the Ishim steppe.
On October 26, 1582, the Cossacks entered the deserted "city of Siberia". Four days later, the Khanty from the r. Demianki, a right tributary of the lower Irtysh, brought furs and food supplies, mainly fish, as a gift to the conquerors. Ermak greeted them with “affection and greetings” and let them go “with honor”. Local Tatars, who had previously fled from the Russians, reached for the Khanty with gifts. Ermak accepted 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 also began to appear with furs and food - from rivers Konda and Tavda... Ermak imposed a mandatory annual tax on everyone - yasak. (Yasak usually collected with furs, mainly sables. If there was a shortage of sables, it was allowed to replace them with other furs, according to a certain calculation).
From the "best people" (the tribal elite) Yermak took "Wool", that is, an oath,the fact that their "people" will pay yasak on time. After that, they were considered as subjects of the Russian tsar.
Embassy of Ivan Cherkas
By December 1582 a vast area along the Tobol and the lower Irtysh was subdued to Yermak. But the Cossacks were few. To retain power, people, food and military supplies were required. Ermak, bypassing the Stroganovs, decided to get in touch with Moscow. True, he nevertheless notified M. Stroganov, but apparently did not ask for help, knowing what small forces he had. Undoubtedly, Ermak and his Cossack advisers correctly calculated that the victors are not judged and that the tsar would send both help and forgiveness to all the participants in the campaign for the previous "theft". At the head of the embassy to Grozny, which consisted of 25 Cossacks, Ermak put ataman Ivan Alexandrovich Cherkas, his colleague and, probably, the historiographer of the campaign. (According to other sources, his name was Cherkas Alexandrov Korsak, the author of the Cossack"Writings" , i.e. a description of the campaign created around 1600. The previous version, according to which the embassy was headed by a state criminal ataman Ivan Ring sentenced to death is now rejected). They drove all collected yasak (its dimensions are unknown). Ermak, his chieftains and Cossacks beat the great Emperor Ivan Vasilyevich with their brows Siberian kingdomand asked for forgiveness for past crimes. December 22, 1582 I. Cherkas with a detachment set off on a sled with a reindeer team and on skis. With the help of local residents, they walked"Wolf road"(unbeaten paths, forest paths), probably up the Tavda, Lozva and one of its tributaries to the "Stone", crossed the mountains and went to the upper Vishera. This "wolf road" was chosen, perhaps, due to the fact that in the north a small detachment did not fear meeting with "non-peaceful peoples". Along the Vishera valley, the Cossacks descended to Cherdyn, and from there down the Kama to Perm and arrived in Moscow, probably even before the spring of 1583.
Previously, the government considered the campaign to Siberia a private enterprise of the Stroganovs, apparently even harmful to the tsarist Perm possessions. Moscow's attitude to the Siberian campaign changed dramatically after the arrival of I. Cherkas. They received the Cossacks very graciously and kept them at the expense of the state. All participants in the campaign were forgiven, awarded with money and cloth cuts. Ermak Ivan IV sent through the ambassador, together with a gracious letter of gold and ordered to appear in Moscow. Rumors about a free life in Siberia spread throughout Russia. It is possible that already on the way back from Moscow to Siberia, crowds of "walking people" joined the embassy, that is, not assigned to any class - runaway peasants, debtors hiding from debt bondage, etc. Makhmet- At that time, Kul wandered with a small detachment in the lower reaches of the Nagai, which falls into the Irtysh above the Tobol. The Cossacks sent by Yermak attacked the Tatars at night, killed many, and captured the prince. He was sent to Moscow, kindly received there, and later became a Russian regimental commander.
Bogdan Bryazgi's hike to the lower Irtysh and Ob
Most of the Tatar uluses on the lower Irtysh were in no hurry to become Russian tributaries. And then, to collect yasak, Ermak decided to send 50 Cossacks under the command esaul Bogdan Bryazgi... In March 1583, the detachment set out from Kashlyk to the north, down the Irtysh. Bryazga first met significant resistance from the Irtysh Tatars and took one of their towns by storm. For the sake of an ostracism, he executed the "best people" and "leaders", while he took the "wool" (oath) from the rest, and forced them to kiss a saber splattered with blood. The collected yasak, the taken stocks of bread and fish, Bryazga sent to Kashlyk. After that, the lower Tatars accepted citizenship: the nearest without resistance, more distant after a minor rebuff. Even further down the Irtysh, the country was inhabited by some Khanty. The Cossacks, apparently, freely descended to the river. Demianki. A group of Khanty settled in a fortified town, 30 km below the mouth of the Demyanka, but after three days ceased resistance.
The Cossacks stayed in the Demyansk town because of an ice drift (spring 1583) and built light ships, and when the ice passed, they began rafting down the Irtysh. In the riverside villages, Bryazga brought the Khanty to the "wool" and took away all valuable things from them under the guise of yasak. Near the mouth of the Irtysh, on May 20, early in the morning, the Cossacks occupied a large Khanty town; interrupting the sleeping guard "guarding" him, they broke into the house of Samara , the main prince of all Irtysh and Ob Ostyaks, and killed him. Most of the inhabitants of the town fled, and the rest promised to give yasak. The Cossacks spent a week in the Samarov town. Bryazga appointed the rich prince Alacha as the head of the local Khanty. (According to the royal charter, his descendants received power over a number of villages along the lower Ob and great privileges.)
Along the lower Ob, Bryazga reached only Belogorie, a hilly area, where the mighty river, skirting the Siberian Uvaly, turns sharply to the north. It is possible that the Cossacks were looking for the legendary "Golden woman".In Belogorie, the Khanty had, according to the chronicler, "a great prayer to the ancient goddess, naked, with her son sitting on a chair." But the Cossacks found only abandoned dwellings: in the spring, during floods, the Khanty went to the lakes to fish. And below the banks of the Ob River seemed uninhabited, so on May 29 Bryazga turned back. He explored the riverside areas along the lower Irtysh at 700 km from the mouth of the Tobol, including a small section of the lower Ob to Belogorye.
The death of Ermak and the retreat of the Russians from Siberia
The dating of further events before Yermak's death was controversial for a long time: according to one, traditional version, he died in 1584, according to the other - in 1585; in this case, Yermak's campaign in the summer and autumn of 1584 on mansi who lived on Tavda and its upper reaches - Pelym; conceived for reconnaissance of convenient routes to Russia, the Pelym campaign ended in failure. Below is given precisely this version, which is now accepted by the majority of Soviet historians.
In the spring of 1584, Moscow intended to send three hundred military men under the command of Semyon Dmitrievich Bolkhovsky... But the death of Ivan the Terrible (March 18, 1584) disrupted all plans. The rank of S. Volkhovsky, having missed the spring flood, was able to overcome the Ural portages only in the autumn flood. That is why the archers on 15 plows arrived in Kashlyk only in November 1584, when a massive Tatars uprising broke out in Siberia, raised by the Siberian"Karachi" , the supreme adviser of the khan, who earlier - imaginary or really - detached himself from Kuchum and strengthened on the Irtysh near the river. Containers.
Karachi deceived 40 Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso and killed them all.
He also killed small Cossack detachments, scattered among the Tatars and Khanty in the vast territory conquered by Yermak, and blocked the Russians in Kashlyk, cutting off the path to settlements and fishing grounds. In the winter of 1584 - 1585. the supply of food to the city stopped and famine began among the Russians. Many, including S. Bolkhovskaya, died of diseases.
On March 12, 1585, the combined forces of the Tatars and Khanty under the command of Karachi besieged Kashlyk. More than a month has passed. In the beginning of May Cossacks ataman Matvey Meshcheryakmade a successful night sortie and broke into the camp of the Karachi ... Almost all the Tatars were killed, the Karachi with several people fled after Ishim. The Cossacks captured his wagon train and returned safely to Kashlyk. The Karachi allies scattered across their villages, and the siege of Kashlyk ended. This victory for a short time improved the position of the Russians, whose number, after a difficult wintering, was probably reduced to 300 people; the rest died of hunger and disease. Local residents began to deliver food to the Cossacks.
A few weeks after the defeat of the Karachi, a Tatar sent by Kuchum brought false news to Yermak, as if to Kashlyk across the river. A Bukhara trade caravan is sent to Vagai, but the khan does not let him through. Ermak believed and in July with 150 Cossacks set out to meet the caravan. Reaching the mouth of the Vagai, he defeated the Tatar detachment there, but did not learn anything about the Bukharians and moved up the Irtysh. Then the Cossacks won a second victory over the Tatars near the mouth of the Ishim and captured without a fight higher along the Irtysh the town of Tashatkan... Ermak stopped near the mouth of the river. Shish, almost 400 km from Kashlyk, and turned back because the locals struck him with their poverty. On the way back, in Tashatkan, Ermak was again brought the false news that Bukhara merchants were going down the Vagai, and he hurried to its mouth.
On the banks of the Irtysh, near the mouth of the Vagai, on August 5, 1585, the detachment stopped for the night. It was a dark night and it was pouring rain. According to local legend, a Tatar scout took three squeaks and three bags from the sleeping Cossacks and delivered them to the khan. Then Kuchum attacked at midnight mill Ermak. In order not to make a fuss, the Tatars simply strangled the sleeping Russians. But Ermak woke up and made his way through the crowd of enemies to the shore. He jumped into a plow standing near the shore, one of Kuchum's warriors, armed with a spear, rushed after him; In the battle, the ataman began to overpower the Tatar, but received a blow in the throat and died. Yermak's squad escaped in plows, and only "others" perished in the night battle.
Further events showed that Yermak was the soul of the enterprise.The eldest among the Moscow service people was the head Ivan Vasilievich Glukhov, the eldest among the Cossacks - Matvey Meshcheryak. On August 15, by decision of the military circle, they withdrew the remnants of the united detachment, only 150 people, from Kashlyk and set off on the return journey on plows. Fearing the Tobolsk Tatars, I. Glukhov did not go the same way - along Tavda or Tura. The detachment sailed along the Ob to its lower reaches, crossed the Yugorsky Kamen (Northern Urals), reached the Pechora and from there returned to Russia. However, the Tatars did not manage to use their victory.
Discord broke out among them again. Kuchum sent his son Alei to Kashlyk with a small detachment, but he was soon expelled from there Prince Seid-Akhmat (Seydyak), nephew of Ediger Khan, deposed and killed by Kuchum.
From Moscow, where they did not yet know about the death of Yermak and the retreat of the Russians, in 1585 the voivode Ivan Mansurov went to Siberia with 700 servicemen and several guns, but he did not find the Russians on the Irtysh. It was late autumn, the river became. Mansurov overwintered on the bank of the Ob River, opposite the mouth of the Irtysh, built there the Ob town - the first Russian prison beyond the Kamenny Belt ... In the spring of 1586 Mansurov's detachment left the town and sailed down the Ob. Having reached the Yugorskaya land, he crossed the "Stone" and returned to Moscow. The business of annexing Siberia had to start from the beginning. But the river routes of Western Siberia and the riverside areas were already well explored by the Russians.
Behind the Ural mountains, on the banks of the Irtysh and Tobol, there was a large Siberian Khanate. After the fall of Kazan, the Siberian Khan Ediger submitted to Ivan IV and began to pay tribute in furs. Soon he was overthrown by Khan Kuchum. He refused to obey Moscow, stopped paying tribute, and killed the Russian ambassador. Kuchum's military detachments made predatory raids on Russian lands. In 1558, Ivan IV granted vast Russian lands beyond the Volga along the banks of the Kama and Chusovaya to wealthy merchants and industrialists, the Stroganovs. The Stroganovs organized the extraction of salt, copper and iron there. In 1574 Ivan the Terrible gave the Stroganovs a certificate of honor for the lands beyond the Urals. He allowed them to keep a small army, send people to Siberia, build fortresses there.
Once a detachment of free people - Cossacks, led by the ataman Ermak Timofeevich - came to the Kama. The Stroganovs proposed to Ermak to make a campaign for the Urals and conquer the kingdom of Khan Kuchum. Ermak agreed. The Stroganovs gave him to a detachment of 840 people, sabers, squeaks, three cannons, helmets, chain mail, a large amount of gunpowder, lead and food.
In September 1581, Ermak set out on a campaign. Khan Kuchum sent detachment after detachment to meet the Cossacks, trying to prevent their advance to the center of the Siberian Khanate. From the banks, the Tatars showered the Cossacks sailing on rowing ships with a rain of arrows. The Cossacks responded with fire from the squeaks. Firearms terrified the Tatars.
In October 1582, Ermak's detachment approached the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Kashlyk. Not far from the town, Kuchum erected fortifications made of wood and stone and concentrated more than ten thousand troops there. Ermak landed on the shore and led a detachment to storm the fortifications. Under a hail of arrows, the fearless Cossacks went on the attack. But they failed to take the fortifications. Ermak ordered to withdraw. The Tatars rushed after the retreating Cossacks and left the fortifications. Having lured the enemy into an open field, Ermak unexpectedly turned and again threw the detachment into battle. Hand-to-hand combat continued for several hours. The Tatars could not stand it and retreated.
Kuchum with all the inhabitants of Kashlyk and the remnants of the army left for the steppe. Ermak occupied the deserted capital. Some Tatar khans and princes of neighboring tribes - Khanty and Mansi came to him with great gifts and declared their obedience. Ermak also gave them gifts and assured them that he would not offend the civilian population of Siberia. At the end of 1582, Yermak sent an embassy to Moscow, led by his faithful assistant Ivan Koltso, to inform the tsar of the defeat of Kuchum. The tsar thanked Ermak and his comrades with valuable gifts and rewards. In 1583, a detachment of 500 archers arrived at Ermak.
Khan Kuchum began to attack individual groups of Cossacks. In August 1584, Yermak himself with a handful of comrades fell into a Tatar ambush. Ermak, trying to escape, rushed into the Irtysh and drowned. The remnants of his detachment returned to Russia. · Ermak's trip to Siberia was of great importance. The defeat of the kingdom of Kuchum opened the way for the resettlement of the Russian people beyond the Ural Mountains. Cossacks, peasants, craftsmen went to Siberia and built fortresses there - the cities of Tyumen and Tobolsk. They contributed to the economic and cultural development of the region. The annexation of Siberia to Russia was the last, bright joy of Ivan the Terrible. In the winter of 1584, Ivan Vasilievich fell ill. In February he was still engaged in business, but in the first half of March he gathered the boyars and dictated his will to them. This last act of the sovereign turned out to be timely - on March 18, at the 54th year of his life, Ivan IV died.
The image of the freedom-loving chieftain, who with a handful of brave men risked to cross the Stone Belt - the Ural Mountains - and delve into a truly unknown hostile country, does not fade in popular memory, lives in legends and songs. Some documents have also survived, there are chronicle testimonies (in many respects contradictory), there is an extensive literature.
According to the chronicler, Ermak was "a great courageous and reasonable, and humane, and pleased with all wisdom." Apparently, Yermak is not his name (there is no such name in the Orthodox calendar), but a nickname: but Dalyu, "Yermak" is an artel cauldron or a millstone of a hand mill. It is believed that he comes from the Don. It is reliably known that in 1579 a group of Cossacks under his leadership, pushing the tsarist troops from the Volga, went to the Urals and was accepted there for service by the merchants and industrialists Stroganovs to protect their possessions from the raids of the "Siberian Saltan" of Khan Kuchum ("Priyasha them with honor and deyahu to them the gifts are many and brishna, and their enjoyment is abundant in drinking ”).
According to the Stroganov Chronicle, the ataman with his 510 Cossacks served the new masters for "two summers and two months", defended the eastern border of the Kama region, and in the meantime began to explore ways to the east - to Siberia.
Having from Ivan the Terrible gracious permission to build towns beyond the Urals ", the Stroganovs, who had sent their clerks to the east - down to the bottom of both - for many years, gathered their strength and decided to strike at the very heart of the khanate, equipping for this a detachment of Ermak (along the way they got rid of and from the most restless Cossack freemen, who apparently annoyed them pretty much).
According to the chronicle, according to the debt list, the Cossacks were given 3 pounds of pure gunpowder and lead the same amount for each “pure gunpowder,” another 3 pounds of rye flour, two pounds of cereal and oatmeal, and salt, and salted pork, half a ton, and a steelyard (about 1 kg) butter for two. " The Stroganovs reinforced a detachment of 300 of their people, among whom were the "leaders leading that Siberian path" (guides) and the "interpreters of the Busurmansky language" (translators). The expedition received "guns" and squeaks - the main weapon in the battles with the army of the khan, who had no firearms. The "little people" of the Stroganovs helped the Cossacks to build "good planes". From the later (1584) letter it is clear that these planes were lifted by "twenty people with supplies." Thus, it can be assumed that Yermak's fleet consisted of at least 20 such ships.
On September 1, 1581, under the thunder of cannons, escorted by the entire population of the Chusovo towns, the detachment set off. Going out on a hike in the fall, and not earlier, is explained by the fact that it was possible to collect the necessary supply of flour only after harvesting. In addition, the autumn flood raised water in small rivers and facilitated the passage of shallow areas.
The most detailed description of the campaign is given in the Pogodinsky Chronicle, which says that, having passed the Chusovaya and Serebryanka, the detachment overwintered at the mouth of the Kukuy and in the spring of 1582 made a drag along the tributary of the Barancha Zhuravlik and along Barancha, Tagil, Tura and Tobol went to the Irtysh. Kuchum was defeated and its capital, Isker, was occupied. Ermak began to swear in the local population, ruled in the name of the tsar and expanded his dominions. In early August 1584, while returning from one of the campaigns, the small detachment of Ermak was taken by surprise. The ataman died in the stormy waters of the Irtysh. However, the work of the pioneers, their sacrifices were in vain.
The way to Siberia was opened, enterprising industrialists and settlers moved there after the military detachments, life began to boil, small towns arose. The development of a huge region began, about which Lomonosov would later say, "that Russia's power will grow in Siberia."
1981-1982 the 400th anniversary of Yermak's campaign is celebrated. There is a great deal of interest in long-standing events. And in this regard, it should be noted that in the surviving materials and in the scientific literature about the campaign there are many serious discrepancies. In particular, according to almost all sources, it turns out that the path to the khan's capital was covered by Yermak in two seasons with wintering at the watershed, and according to the last works of Dr. ist. sciences RG Skryntsikova it turns out that Ermak set off on a campaign a year later (1IX 1582) and managed to fight with battles to pass the 1500-meter path in less than two months.
Is this possible with the movement of such a cumbersome detachment? After all, Yermak had a chance to walk at least 300 km against the current along small and fast rivers, rolling down from the watershed to the west. Follow them, escorting the heavy-loaded rope boats! How can we not recall the legends of antiquity, where it is said that we had to erect dams - drive in stakes and stretch sails sewn with each other across the river in order to raise the water even in a small area. And the dragging himself? After all, this is at least a 20-kilometer path across rough terrain, not in vain called the Ural ridge.
Again and again we reread the sources, we turn to folklore. The song about Ermak says:
“Where is Ermak to look for ways?
He should look for ways on the Silver River.
We went along Serebryanka, we reached Zharovlya,
They left the Kolomenka boats here
On that Baranchinskaya crossing. "
It turns out that on the portage Ermak had to abandon the "good planes" and load supplies on the hastily made rafts and smaller boats, and then, having descended to Tagil, build new planes. Here is what is said about this in the epics: "They dragged one (boat-kolomenka), but they hoisted, they left it there, and at that time they saw the Barancha River and were delighted." And further:
“We made pine bots and heap boats,
They swam along the Barancha River and soon swam into the Tagil River,
That Bear-stone. at Magnitsky.
And on the other side they had a rafting ground,
They made big kolomenki so that they could get away altogether. "
In principle, the places mentioned are described in our local history literature, however, apparently, it never occurred to anyone to cross the Stone Belt, exactly following the path of Ermak. Without visiting the watershed and not seeing what kind of Serebryanka, and Zharovlya and Barancha, without examining the place of the drag, it was impossible to definitely accept this or that point of view.
Why not visit? This is how the idea of the expedition was born, which was organized and carried out in July - August 1981 jointly by the Geographical Society of the USSR, the Leningrad Tourist Club and the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers.
So, setting off on a long journey, the members of the expedition set themselves the main goal - to cordon off the possibility of passing the entire path in two months (of course, from the point of view of modern water tourists), to determine the place of the drag. In addition, there was a task from the Hydrological Institute - to clarify on certain sections of rivers their width, flow rate, and the height of water rise during floods.
The study of the route showed that the entire route of Ermak from the Chusovsky towns to the Tobolsk region was 1580 km. Our group simply did not have the necessary time for the water to travel this entire path. It was decided to seal from the watershed, and then go through Serebryanka and Chusovaya. not upstream, like Yermak, but downstream. After that, return by train to the watershed, scout the portage and, starting from the village of Nizhne-Baranchinsky, go east.
On July 5, we boarded the train. We are the crews of seven kayaks. The youth part of the expedition consisted of 11 schoolchildren - members of the Planeta children's club under the Geographical Society of the USSR. Most of them were tenth graders: the youngest - cameraman Sasha Kurashkevich - 15 years old. And the oldest member of the expedition (the author of these lines) is much more - 72.
At heart it is easy and gratifying - all the troubles are behind!
We crossed the Ural ridge. The places are such that the guys cannot be dragged away from the windows of the carriage!
We left at the Goroblagodatskaya station and ended up in the city of Kushva. I would like to call this city of miners and metallurgists old, but it is younger than our Leningrad - founded in 1735 in connection with the discovery of the largest magnetic iron ore deposit by the Mansi hunter Stepan Chumin - Mount Blagodat (352 m).
On the same day, we climbed the mountains by car - we reached the village of Kedrovka (27 km). On the way, to the general delight, we stopped at a chapel that marks the border between Europe and Asia.
Here is the beginning of the active part of our route, now we will descend from the ridge to the west along Serebryanka. The length of the river is 136 km. It starts about 50 km north of Kedrovka versts, and flows into Chusovaya on the right, 311 km from its mouth. It flows among the picturesque hills covered with mixed forest. In some places, rocks approach the shore. Before the village of Serebryanka, there are dumps from dredging works - this is what distinguishes the current landscape from the one seen by Yermak. Today the dredge is working somewhere above us - the water in the river is muddy. In the upper reaches, the width is only 10-15 m, the current is fast, there are many rifts.
We drank, leaving one person in each kayak to reduce the draft, but only soon we had to get out or not. As recorded in the journal of the expedition, "almost the entire Serebryanka - about 70 km - went on foot: the kayaks were pulling on a rope."
I describe the first stage of our journey in more or less detail, since many will certainly want to visit these tempting places where everything breathes history. So, in the first three days we passed 38 small rifts, of which we managed to overcome only two on the move, and we had to take kayaks through all the rest. In addition, we had to make one pass over the dam (25 m), and at the second dam we had to drag over a huge blockage. After passing another 7 rifts, we entered a large flood, where a temporary dam blocked the further path. It was made four days before our appearance, to get a sump for suspended particles that clog the water during dredging works. Below the dam, the riverbed is dry. Making sure that it would take a very long time to wait for water here, we decided to look for a truck at the forest site, disassemble the kayaks and get to the village. Serebryansky. This is a large village, picturesquely located among the mountains, the only settlement after Kedrovka; there is a shop and post office.
From here, 51 km remain to the mouth. We pass the most beautiful part of Serebryanka. The river flows in high wooded banks. In some places close to the water cliffs covered with forest and sheer cliffs, inferior in beauty to the famous "stones" of Chusovaya, come close to the water. The banks are clean, the forest is wonderful. Yes, worth a visit! Although our guys are experienced tourists, they are delighted with Serebryanka.
There is still little water in it and there are many - too many - rifts. For the most part, the first numbers of the crews walk along the shore, wading through the bushes and tall grass, and where it is impossible to pass - the rocks go out to the water, sit in kayaks. On this site, we "registered" 68 rifts (5 of them passed on the move) and a number of small stretches, in which we had to maneuver among the stones. At the mouth on the right bank there is the abandoned village of Ust-Serebryanka.
In conclusion, about the first stage of the journey, it should be said that Serebryanka is worth kayaking only in high water!
Coming to Chusovaya, the crews for the first time really took their places in the kayaks. Chusovaya is one of the most beautiful and largest rivers on the western slope of the Ural ridge. Its length is 735 km. This is the left tributary of the Kama. The current is fast, there is enough depth in the reaches, but you need to walk carefully, as you come across rocky shoals.
Ural legends call one of the coastal rocks Kamp Ermak. Here, allegedly, he spent the night and almost overwintered in a cave. We stopped specifically for the inspection and filming of this place and were disappointed. The entrance to the cave is somewhere in the middle of the height of a 40-meter rock, you can get there only by going down on a rope from above. I don’t know how it all looked under Yermak, but now it’s not easy to climb the rock: of us, only an experienced climber Dzhemma Melnikova managed to get to the very top! According to those who have visited the cave, it is very small: two people can hardly squeeze in. No, this does not look like the wintering place of the head of a large detachment!
We easily do an average of 40 km a day. Up to Oslyanka we meet many tourist groups and individuals descending from the tourist center in Kaurovka. Below - there are few tourists; mostly motorboats of local residents are found. After the wild beauty of Serebryanka, the guys liked Chusovaya much less. It is crowded here, and there are too many traces of human activity (in fairness, it is worth mentioning that many picturesque places of Chusovaya are located much higher than Serebryanka). The banks are low, the forests have disappeared, the current carries the kayaks no longer so fast.
We decided to end our acquaintance with this river in the city of Chusovoy, a large industrial center of the Urals. Its history is connected with the laying in 1878 of a mining-and-works railway, which supplied ore from the Grace Mountain, and the construction of a large iron-making plant.
We go by bus (80 km) to the village. Chusovsky towns - I really want to see and shine the places from which Yermak's trek began. This is one of the oldest Russian settlements in the Urals. It was founded by the Stroganovs as a fortress, it was famous for its salt production - the remains of old salt pans have survived. We are told that most of the inhabitants here have two surnames: Oto or Ermakovs, or Kuchumovs.
Returning to Kuvshu, we devote two more for reconnaissance of the possible route of the drag. We examine the tributaries of Serebryanka and Barancha mentioned in the legends - Kukui and Zharovlya (also known as Zhuravlik). Today these are almost dry streams, but it is clear that they were not full-flowing rivers even 400 years ago! All around there are hills, a forest, but in principle the most convenient place for dragging is seen quite definitely: we will put it on the map.
At the end of the second day, we transfer the kayaks to the left bank of Barancha by car - we collect them just below the village. Nizhne-Baranchinsky, next to the rest house.
Barancha (66 km long) flows into Tagil on the left, 288 km from its mouth. The river is narrow, the current is weak, and there are often rocky shoals. The banks are hilly, covered with mixed forest, alternating with pretty glades. There are many forest debris. We went all Baranchu in four days, and it was not an easy voyage! It was necessary to overcome 16 small rapids and 26 full-fledged forest heaps, of which two turned out to be impassable (passing 120 and 30 m). In addition, there was also a drainage of the pumping station dam (words 40 m). We stopped on the outskirts of the village. Estyunikha.
The next day we went by bus to Nizhniy Tagil, visited one of the country's oldest Museum of History and Local Lore. The beginning of the industry of this region was laid in 1699 by the decree of Peter I on the construction of the Nevyansk state-owned plant. Returning to the camp, we made a 100-meter walk-around of the bridge along the right bank (Barancha was taken into a pipe in this place), then we went down the river 6.5 km with escorting ships through 4 small rifts and got into the left, shallow branch of Tagil (with a very dirty water), and a little later into the main channel.
Tagil - the right tributary of the Tura - originates on the eastern slope of the ridge at an altitude of 520 m. The length of the river is 414 km. Slope 0.001. Its width is 60-80 m, depth is from 1.5 m to 0.2 on the rifts. To the village. Verkhne-Tagilsky has a typical mountainous character. In the middle reaches, the banks are hilly; closer to the mouth they go down, the forest moves to the side. In the area of villages - fields and meadows. We assumed that Tagil would be a full-flowing, easy-to-navigate river, but our hopes were not justified. There was little water, and immediately there was a short (25 m) rapids, passable along the main stream, and 4 small rolls with a tack between the stones.
We stopped on the right bank at the foot of the Bear-stone. After all, according to legend, it was here that Yermak stood and made new plows instead of those thrown on the drag. On the left bank, where there was a rafting ground, we met an archaeological expedition of Nizhny Tagil schoolchildren, led by Amalia Iosifovna Razsadovich. She said that she had been working here, on excavations, for about thirty years, and the study of the settlement by scientists began in the first post-war years. Since then, more than 1000 items from 400 years ago have been found. We all looked with excitement at the round lead zeros, spearheads, examined the iron-smelting furnace of the Yermakov craftsmen. At the request of A.I. Razsadovich, our guys carried out measurements and made a plan for another Yermak settlement down the river.
We walked for four days to the Tagil Cordon, where they had to carry out a roundabout of the bridge under construction. On this site, there were 14 rifts (25-50 m each), of which we were able to overcome 9 on the move. After the village. Balakino water became clearer, black stripes disappeared along the banks. Some stretches are heavily overgrown. The banks are beautiful, the forest on them is mixed, there are a lot of raspberries. It is better to take water from numerous springs.
Another 4 days walked to Mikhnevo - a large urban-type settlement. There were 25 more rifts, 15 of them were quite difficult: the most difficult one was Novozhilovskiy - 2 km long. the rest are short, from 15 to 200 m long. More and more often, abandoned villages (Morshinino, Brekhovo, Kamelskaya) began to appear. The banks are gradually going down. I remember a very beautiful turn of Tagil near the village. Tolmachevo. On the left, large white stones are protruding from the water.
There are no rifts below, the river becomes wider, there are shoals. The banks are low. let's go to the fields. It takes another two days to reach the Tagil estuary. There is a new obstacle in front of the village of Kishkinka: a floating bridge, which had to be flooded. Then, near the abandoned village of Cheremisino, the river was blocked by the destruction of the dam of the old mill. After a preliminary examination, they risked passing it through the gap along the vowel stream. As you approach the mouth of the coast. willow and alder overgrown with bushes, go down. The large village of Volotovo is located 0.7 km from the estuary on the right bank.
It is curious that at the confluence the Tagil looks more solid than the Tura, although it is its tributary. The Tura is a right tributary of the Tobol. Its length is 1030 km. The river is narrow. winding. The right bank is mostly elevated, left !! - roll-call with flooded meadows. The current is weak. The channel is sandy, in places silty.
It is immediately evident that we are in an old industrial area - the forest has long been cut down, only in some places there are small groves. Water is not suitable for cooking, and there are few springs (water has to be stored in villages). The banks are boring and monotonous. There are no obstacles. We make a decision; the water part of the route ends in Zhukovo.
Two hours on the highway - and we are in Turnis. This is one of the oldest cities in the Urals (25 thousand inhabitants): it was founded in 1600, but the history of these places is closely related to the topic of interest to us. Yermak's detachment following the Tura on plows was continually attacked by the Tatar prince Yepanchi, whose capital was located exactly in the place where Turinsk later arose. It is known that in order to exacerbate Yermak ordered the "Epanchin town" to be burned to the ground ...
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. Turinsk served as a place of political exile. We visited an old park, according to legend, planted by the Decembrists, a local history museum, a match factory.
Another 4.5 hours by bus - and our expedition ends up in Tyumen, founded in 1586 on the site of the ancient Tatar settlement of Chimgi-Tura (Tsarevo settlement). There are many interesting historical and architectural monuments - Trinity Cathedral, Znamenskaya and Spasskaya churches, the building of the Museum of Local Lore, the Art Gallery. But modern Tyumen is also a large, rapidly developing industrial center. It has about 400 thousand inhabitants. We are proudly shown the new House of Culture for Oil Workers. We were introduced to today's Tyumen by excursions to the exhibition "Oil Development of the Region" and to the Oil Refueling Station.
Then we follow by train, so we don't see the place where Tura flows into Tobol - the railway runs to the north. We read a lot about the fierce battles of Ermak and the Tatar detachments that took place at the mouth of the Tura. Actually, it was one fight, which lasted several days with varying success. If you believe the legends, having won, the Cossacks seized so much loot that it was impossible to take it away, and somewhere here a treasure is still buried.
Then the train passes approximately where, already on Tobol, about 30 km below the confluence of the left tributary of the Tavda, in July 1582 there was a five-day battle with the army of Kuchum. In the end, the Tatars were completely defeated, however, this battle was not the last ...
We are hospitably greeted by Tobolsk, founded in 1587, a year later than Tyumen. At the very edge of the high bank are the stone walls and towers of the Kremlin, erected at the beginning of the 18th century. captured by the Swedes. A steep staircase - the so-called Nikolsky platoon - leads along a wide ravine to the white massifs of ancient walls, high watchtowers, stone buildings of "public places". On the other side of the hollow, on the Chukmansky cape, there is a city garden surrounded by high cliffs, planted with old larches and cedars. At the very beginning there is a monument to Ermak - a high obelisk visible from afar against the backdrop of greenery.
In the local History and Local Lore Museum, according to the richness of the collection, the best of all examined during this journey, a whole hall is dedicated to Yermak's campaign. It is interesting that more than a dozen portraits of Yermak are exhibited, but the images are not at all similar to one another. However, it is not surprising; all these portraits were painted in the 18th century!
We learned a lot about modern Tobolsk, got acquainted, in particular, with the construction of a huge oil and gas plant. In a word, you can talk a lot about the old and new Tobolsk, but this would lead us away from the main topic.
We visited the Chuvashev Cape, where on October 24-25, 1582, in the decisive battle, Ermak defeated the hordes of Kuchum. This victory made it possible in a couple of days to occupy the main city of the Siberian Khanate, Isker or Kashlyk, abandoned by Kuchum and by all the inhabitants, which the Russians call "the city of Siberia". And now 400 years later we are standing on the high right bank of the Irtysh. Somewhere here was this noisy eastern city, which gave the name to the whole great Siberia. Here Yermak, just a few days after the victory, "with affection and greetings" met the first envoys of the local Khanty and Tatars, here he took "shert" from the "best people", that is, an oath and an obligation to pay "yasak" on time, from here he sent a messenger with a report about the victory of the great Emperor Ivan Vasilievich. We read that back in the middle of the 18th century. one could distinguish the triple ramparts and moats protecting the city. Now, of course, there are no traces of fortifications in sight. And only the deep valley of the rare Sibirka, which covered the city from the north, remained in place.
Now it remains for us to go to the crossing and take a bus to the mouth of the Wagai. Somewhere here, on a dark rainy night, from 5 to 6 August 1684, the Cossacks returning from the campaign were taken by surprise by the warriors of Kuchum: they burst into Yermak's camp and began to chop down the sleeping. Yermak, according to the chroniclers, woke up, managed to pave the road to the shore with a sword, but, trying to swim to the plow, he drowned, as he was wearing an expensive heavy armor (a tsar's gift) ...
Our 45-day journey along the path of Ermak has ended. We visited the Chusovsky towns, from where he began the legendary campaign, visited an unnamed island in the mouth of the Vagai, where he died. The guys were able not only to truly delve into the history of the Motherland, but also to see with their own eyes the scope of the construction site today, to get acquainted with the glorious deeds of Soviet people who were looking into the future. This is, of course, the main thing.
As for the answer to the controversial question about the possibility of Yermak overcoming the 1,580-kilometer route through the Urals to the Irtysh in just 53 days. then, as it seems to the participants of the Leningrad expedition, this is hardly real. So we formulated our conclusion, reporting on December 18 the results of the work done at a meeting in the Geographical Society of the USSR.