It all started with watching a film about Yermak - I didn’t like it for its lubok. And before that, I traveled to almost all the places where, since 1618, for a hundred years, Russian prisons were set up on the Yenisei. Later, by chance, in the collection of folklore songs by Kirsha Danilov (published in 1804), I read that Yermak died in the "Yenisei River" - they confused him with Yermak Ostafyev, who drowned in the Yenisei during the battle with the local "Tatars". And from childhood I worried about the majestic "The storm roared..."- I always thought that this song was folk, but it turned out to be written by the Decembrist K. Ryleev. And then it always seemed strange to me that about Columbus or about the same conquistador Francisco Pissarro, who conquered Peru, we know almost everything, and in the story of Yermak, even his very name is in doubt.

So the campaign along the path of Yermak, from which the cruel colonization of Siberia began, has long been ripe in my subconscious. After all, what was Russia like before him? A small Slavic state, desperately fighting for its independence. And it became a huge Eurasian power, plunged by an irresponsible chieftain into a 150-year war of conquest with primitive tribes, for whom, judging by the preserved folklore, all Russians and, especially, Cossacks, forever remained a collective image of a cruel and ruthless enemy.

Yes, and I wanted to check the newfangled scientific version, which began to differ too much from what was written in the annals. In accordance with it, this robber without any obligations, easy in life, free and independent, is suddenly hired to serve the Stroganov oligarchs. For two years, with his gang, he has been on their payroll, and when the need for his army finally arose, he carelessly leaves the owners to their fate at the peak of the Siberian Tatar raids. On the other hand, with a powerful raid in less than two months (and not in a year, as in the annals), he conquers the Tobolsk Siberia previously granted to them by Ivan the Terrible. But for some reason he reports this not to his sponsors, who paid all the costs, but directly to the king. Looks like he paid off "Crimes of a Violent Life". It turns out that the chieftain tried for the state, and not for the sake of profit. And then for almost three more years, Yermak was in Siberia, losing his comrades (out of a thousand people, ninety remained). And this is for what? After all, they did not have any common idea that everyone would share. As a result, the Cossacks fled from Siberia immediately after the death of the ataman. But not to the Stroganovs. Because before the campaign they signed "bondage" - promissory notes for issued food and equipment. The Cossacks had nothing to pay. The furs went to the king, they themselves wore and ate something, and therefore they did not acquire any valuables in the campaign. Come back without return, and then there is only one road: under the Stroganov court, into prison or into slavery. This is such a fresh "truth" of life ...

Last summer, I almost ventured on this trip, but the company did not gather. Yes, and the anniversary date - 425 years of the historical expedition, will be fulfilled only this fall. Or maybe it was too early for me, not ripe.

I didn't prepare much for the trip. Only a month has passed since I returned from Karabakh. The work on the essay about that journey was very intense and ended literally on the last day before leaving for the Urals. And yet, in the meantime, I contacted the cyclists of Perm, Yekaterinburg and Tyumen, so that they would also join the topic. As usual, I made a book with materials about Yermak, collected from publications on the Internet and what I found in libraries. Through the employees of the Omsk Museum, they managed to get a photograph of one of the five military banners of the Yermakovites (the Cossacks Stroganovs were given "to every hundred according to the banner") and make a small copy of it. And also to lure Sergei Dubovsky, a Cossack centurion from Lesosibirsk, who has long dreamed of a pilgrimage along the Yermak path, and members of our club Dima (Dimonster) and Masha (naima) on a trip.

Our plans were to try to repeat the main part of Yermak's path: from the place where his campaign began (it was yet to be decided) to the capital of the Siberian Khanate, the city of Isker.

After its capture, Yermak traveled around Siberia for a long time, bringing the Ostyaks, Voguls and Tatars "under the sovereign's high hand." But this is probably a topic for other cycling trips.

Where did the "Siberian capture" begin?

We leave Krasnoyarsk by train. It is raining lightly, and a broad rainbow shines in the sky. So, everything will work out for us.

We got to Perm in 1.5 days. We immediately moved from the station to the bus station and took the next bus to Solikamsk. This is the former county town of Sol-Kamskaya, founded in 1430 as an industrial settlement. For six centuries, Permyanka salt was mined here, which fed the whole of Russia. And the Komi-Permyaks used this deposit in the 10th century.

We ran around the museums and admired the majestic temples of the Solikamsk Kremlin with a “bug” ornament (in the form of the letter “Ж”, which means “life”). Such an ornament is also found on the churches of the neighboring city of Usolye and nowhere else. And only here the churches are decorated with tiled images of the Slavic half-maiden-half-bird Sirin - a resident of paradise.

In the Trinity Church near the ancient fold with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, I happened to be left alone. According to legend, the fold was sent to the inhabitants of Solikamsk by Ivan the Terrible. It suddenly occurred to me that it would be necessary to pray to the intercessor of the wanderers, as the Cossacks did. Silently whispering: “Lord, protect me, do not leave me,” I suddenly clearly heard a clear and low voice: “BE BOLD!” I even rushed. And the museum is already closing... All that remains in my head is: to be brave means to be both courageous and resolute, that is, in the broadest sense of the term. But what does this have to do with me? It seems that there is enough determination, since he ventured on a hike. Yes, and we roll along the roads, without much risk and danger. Maybe this wish applies to Yermak? After all, I only think about how to feel what the chieftain felt, to penetrate not only into the event itself, but also into something ephemeral, hidden from us by time. To penetrate into the thoughts, ideas and aspirations that moved the participants of this unique campaign, which gave rise to the development of vast Siberian territories.

We also want to go to the village of Ust-Borovskoye to see the world's only Salt Museum. Wells, brine-lifting towers, salt pans, and a salt chest have been preserved there since the 19th century. But - failure. It turns out that the museum burned down, is under restoration and is closed to visitors. So we are content with a set of postcards.

For the first time, salt was mined in these places more than a hundred years before the appearance of the Stroganov clan. Initially, at the beginning of the 15th century, the fishing was organized by the Vologda merchants brothers Kalinnikovs. And already their descendants were supplanted by the quick-witted Anikey Stroganov, who had been engaged in the salt industry since the age of 17 (1515) and by the time he came to the Kama, he owned 10 varnits in Solvychegodsk, iron-blowing and forging production.

In 1558, shortly after the Kazan Khanate fell (1955) and the Bashkirs (1555) and the Kama Udmurts (1557) voluntarily joined Russia, Anika sent his son Grigory to Ivan the Terrible with a request to give them lands along the Kama and Chusovaya, on which, allegedly, no one lives. The tsar agreed, on the condition that the Stroganovs would not develop ores and take in fugitives, thieves and robbers.

After spending the night on the sandy spit of the Kama reservoir, Sergei and I moved to the town of Usolye (founded in 1606). This place is unfortunate - 7 times the city completely burned out along with all the salt works. Historically, like Solikamsk, it was federal property.

There are also interesting churches and museums in Usolye, in one of which we were unexpectedly lucky. His guide led us to the local historian Nina Ivanovna Dubinkina, who has been dealing with the topic of Yermak for many years. But before meeting her, we also went to Oryol-gorodok, where we took pictures at a wooden stele, erected more than 40 years ago in memory of the Siberian capture.

This town, unfortunately, turned out to be completely different from where Yermak had been. The current one was moved here at the beginning of the 18th century due to the flooding of the old settlement by Kama, founded as a fortress in 1564. Yermak undoubtedly visited Orel, as in other Stroganov’s possessions (there is a mention of Yermak’s house on Adamova Gora, which is located opposite , in present-day Berezniki). But his campaign obviously did not start from here, as they draw on the diagrams in museums. Still, far from these places to get to the Chusovaya, the only one of all the rivers flowing through the Ural Mountains. But it was there that the Stroganov Chusovskie towns (Upper and Lower) were located, from which only 200 versts remained to the Urals. Therefore, there was no point in lugging extra 400 km of provisions and weapons that could be taken there, on the spot. Yes, and Maxim Stroganov himself, who wrote a letter to Yermak with an invitation to serve, did not live in Orel, but owned the Nizhny Chusovsky town.

The idea of ​​the "Siberian capture" probably originated in Orel. Because this town was at that time the "senior" in the Stroganov estate. It was built in the form of a powerful fortress on a cape formed by the arrow of Kama and Yayva and had its own garrison, perfectly provided with firearms made here, in the Stroganov workshops. It was here, on the Kama, where Yermak was hiding from the royal investigation, that the first negotiations between the Stroganovs and the robber chieftain were to take place.

It is quite obvious that the initiative of the campaign did not belong to the homeless tramp Yermak-Yermolai (under this name he is recorded in the memorial church synod), but by the Stroganovs themselves. Relatives thought strategically, calculating their business for many years to come. At one time, their ancestors received these lands for temporary use on the terms of a 20-year tax exemption. In 1579, the benefit ended. Therefore, five years before the deadline, in 1574, entrepreneurs received a royal charter, according to which they were granted “... places beyond the Yugorsky stone, in Siberian Ukraine ... and the Tobol river with rivers and lakes, from the mouth to the top ... In the Siberian kingdom itself, the conquest of it under the Russian state should have diligence, also along the Irtysh River and along the Ob Great, on both sides of those rivers, to inhabit people and plow arable land and own land ". What was beneficial for both the Stroganovs and the tsar - to master Siberia with the wrong hands. There were not enough of their own resources in the state devastated by the Livonian War.

However, at that time the salt producers did not have the necessary military force either. And soon, one after another, in 1577 and 1578, the brothers die, leaving a legacy to 22-year-old Maxim and 16-year-old Nikita. The division of property between them and their elder relative Semyon, who lived in Solvychegodsk, took place only in 1579. And only then, in accordance with the permission to create their own army, the Stroganovs were hired "violent ataman of the Volga" Yermak with his 6,000-strong pirate gang. It was in this year that he fled to the Kama, having heard about the punitive expedition organized against the Cossacks by Ivan the Terrible for their attack on the Nogai caravan and the Russian embassy (the same 1579), after which the Nogais refused to supply horses for the Russian army. So the king ordered "exterminate these predators".

There was nothing strange in the fact that free filibusters hired to serve the oligarchs. First, they needed somewhere to hide. And then it was possible to hide from the royal punishers only on Yaik, Terek or Kama - in the Ural estate of the Stroganovs. The last option was the most preferred. Indeed, in Muscovy it was a kind of state within a state. None but the king, beyond jurisdiction, ruled by his own court, entitled to his own armed forces "to save from raids" and, though unclear, the boundaries that needed to be defended.

And secondly, the Cossacks, in fact, were not hired by the salt producers, they did not have a salary from them, and they received payment for security services already provided or - in advance, on account of future services to seize the Siberian territory.

According to the modern version, "two summers and two months" a large gang missed without thrills. And they worked on the arable land of the Stroganov estates (supposedly they plowed fields as much as 70 miles), and went on trial trips to find a convenient road beyond the Ural-Kamen. And when the Stroganovs only hinted at giving the Cossacks real help in their campaign in Siberia, they agreed without hesitation. And after the decision was made, the flywheel of fees could no longer be stopped. Gathered in a hurry, for 2 weeks. It seems to be like a long-time compressed spring, which was suddenly released from fasteners, straightened out. On a hike, on a hike! Tatars attacked Russian towns? Destroy and kill? To hell with them! New peasants will be born, not the first time. After all, only 10 years have passed since the Crimean Tatars burned Moscow. But already rebuilt. On a campaign, to Siberia, to fight Kuchum! While his main army is here and ravages Solikamsk, besieges Cherdyn and Chusovskie towns, there, beyond the Urals, the khan will not be able to offer serious resistance. This means that the Cossacks will have rich booty. Not plowed labor is their element, but the robbery of the Tatars rich in all sorts of goods, trading with Bukhara merchants.

And now nothing can make the spring return to its previous state. The stingy Maxim Stroganov tried to save at least a little on the financing of the training camp, but he almost lost his head. The impudent Cossacks, threatening to shoot Maxim “on the clock”, took the supplies “giz” (forcibly). And to hell with them, they would leave faster, unbridled.

From the very beginning, it was a typical robbery raid - “zavoruy” ( "with a return, they thought of running to Siberia to break"), which, unexpectedly for the Cossacks themselves, led to the collapse of the formidable Siberian kingdom - the last "shard" of the Golden Horde.

True, there is another version - the ataman, allegedly, wanted to create his own "freemen" in Siberia - a state free from the arbitrariness of the tsarist power, based on the principles of communalism characteristic of Russian people (for example, like the Novogorodsk Republic: elective self-government, complete equality of all , disregard for the advantages of origin, mutual defense against external enemies).

But a quarrel with the Siberian Khan was not part of the plans of the Russian Tsar. Ivan the Terrible, having learned about Yermak's arbitrariness, spoke out categorically against it. The situation was not conducive to having another enemy. Russia did not finish the war with Sweden, Russian cities were captured by the Poles, the southern borders were constantly violated by the Crimeans and Nogais, in the Lower Volga region, the Cheremis rebelled. Accordingly, in a letter dated November 16, 1581, the tsar severely reproaches the Stroganovs for accepting the Cossacks and arming them against the peoples who pay tribute. After all, even before Yermak there was a history of relations between the Russian state and Siberia. Moreover, at least a century.

The name of the country "Siberia" does not come from a modified word Isker, as some believe. When the Ostyak-Khanty migrated here, the Sibir tribes (Sebers, Sabir-Ugrians) already lived here. Siberia is mentioned as a geographical name in Russian chronicles in 1407. However, there is no such name on the first maps of the Trans-Ural region. And there is the "Great Tartaria". It was a relatively small territory from the Tura along the Tobol to the Irtysh, first conquered by Moscow archers during the campaign of 1483. And long before that, the lands along the Irtysh, Tura and Tobol were conquered by the soldiers of Genghis Khan and transferred to the possession of the prince of the Cossack (Kyrgyz-Kaisatsky) horde Taybuga at his request. And he left these possessions to his descendants. So before the Russian invasion, for two and a half centuries it was the territory of the Mongol protectorate.

The capital of the Siberian country at first was the city of Tsingy (Chimgi)-tura (now Tyumen is located on this site), which means “the greatest city” in Tatar. Presumably, it was built in the 13th century. And only at the end of the 15th century the Siberian Khan Mamuk moved the capital to Isker.

In January 1555, the ambassadors of the Siberian prince Yediger, who came from the Taibuga family, came to the Russian tsar and, congratulating him on the capture of the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms, asked to take their territory "in their own name." Which was natural, since the Siberian Khanate was part of Kazan. Unfortunately, the diversion to the wars with the Crimean Tatars, Poles and Swedes did not allow the tsar to take effective measures to strengthen his power in the Siberian region. Yes, this was not required then.

Eight years later (1563) the Siberian Khanate was captured by Khan Kuchum, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, who had previously roamed near the Aral Lake. Since he did not swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar, he did not pay tribute to him either. In 1569, after Kuchum subjugated the Yugrs, Ostyaks and Vogulis, tributaries of Moscow, the tsar sent a letter to the new khan, reminding him of yasak obligations: “Before this, the Siberian Prince Yediger looked at us, and every year he sent tribute to us from the Siberian land from all over”. And Kuchum agreed. In 1572, he was officially sworn in and paid tribute in full, in the same amount as his predecessor had paid. And in the same year, the Russians broke their word. Despite the agreement “Prince Afanasy Lychenitsyn went to fight Tsar Kuchum, only without luck, he lost a lot of people, all the guns and the potion”. Since then, he refused to supply yasak to Tsar Kuchum.

Moreover, the following year, Mametkul (Kuchum's brother) beat the Ostyaks who paid tribute to the tsar, the tsar's envoy Tretyak Chabukov, and the serving Tatars who were traveling with him. Then he approached the Chusovsky towns. But, having learned from the Russian prisoners about the counteroffensive being prepared against him, he returned back.

Instead of apologizing and trying to resolve the issue peacefully, the tsar in 1574 entrusts his decision to the Stroganovs. Why does he give them, in exchange for the complete, without any restrictions, the development of the Siberian lands with a 20-year exemption from taxes, the obligation to conduct with Kuchum "an offensive war, send eager people, Ostyaks, Vogulichs, Yugrs and Samoyeds with hired Cossacks and outfit".

So, if the tsar had not been so aggressive and dishonorable, Kuchum would not have tried to make a coup. Accordingly, Yermak would not have been required to expel this "invader of Russian lands", and the development of Siberia by the Russians would occur in a natural and peaceful way. However, history cannot be reversed. And so there would be another Russian republic on the territory of the Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions with the sonorous name "Siberia" - such as Khakassia or Tuva.

In a strange way, in the history of the “Siberian capture”, the plans of the treacherous Russian tsar, the cynical and prudent Stroganovs, the mercenary Yermak, the independent Kuchum, and the disenfranchised Voguls were intertwined into one knot. In this whole story, only they really suffered, having forever lost their statehood.

It is not known whether Yermak knew about the history of the conquest of Siberia by the Russians and, in general, about the political situation of that time. But since he acted at his own peril and risk, he acted very wisely, sharing military booty with the king. If he had been decent, he could have paid off with the Stroganovs. The tsar forgave the former "thief", bestowed many state gifts and appointed "Prince of Siberia". As the fugitive oligarch B. Berezovsky once remarked: "It is not friends that are permanent, but political interests".

Returning to Usolye, on the same day we also went to Pyskor, a settlement founded in 1558 by Grigory Stroganov, the son of the progenitor Ioanikiy (Anikey, Anekei, Aniki), on the site of the ancient Komi-Permyak settlement of Kankor. Then there was a monastery there for a long time, and during the Soviet era a cinema was set up in the church. In Pyskora there were not only salt works, but also the first copper smelter in Russia, built in 1640.

The patrimony of the Stroganovs began precisely with Pyskor in accordance with the letter of Ivan the Terrible, which he, in the year of the start of the Livonian War (the tsar was not up to the development of the Perm Territory then), granted Stroganov "Kamu river from the mouth of the Lasva to the Chusovye rivers", and after 10 years, he additionally transferred the entire Chusovaya "From Mouth to Top".

From Pyskora to the city of Berezniki fifteen kilometers (here, in general, all the towns are nearby). There we found the local historian recommended to us.

75-year-old Nina Ivanovna, a native of Orel-town, lives in her house with her granddaughter, a promising young artist. Word for word, tea, photographs, and we stay overnight, reading the grandmother's unpublished manuscript "Stroganov's Mittens". The author believes that Yermak was an ordinary smart Russian peasant: to the best of faith, to the best of the king and rulers honoring. Upon learning that a film about Yermak was being shot in Moscow, she even took her script there, but the filmmakers refused it, since the shooting was already in full swing.

The next morning, Nina Ivanovna connected us with another local historian, Natalya Vladimirovna Nikulina from Chusov, and led us to Berezniki tourists who, 25 years ago, managed to almost completely follow the route of Yermak on motor board boats. The expedition was carried out in two stages. In 1981, tourists from the club "Parma" JSC "Azot" managed to swim only to the mouth of the river. Silver, and the next year - completely to Tobolsk. A photo report about these trips has recently been posted on www.ermak-400.narod.ru (sorry, no diaries).

The photographer of the expedition Keiser Moisei Abramovich and the radio operator Shishmarev Sergey Viktorovich, who hosted us, have long since become pensioners. Like the leader of the campaign, Vladimir Plushev, from whom, at the time of his youth, a local sculptor sculpted a statue of ... Pavlik Morozov.

The second campaign lasted from May 28 to July 17, 1982, 50 days. During this time, the travelers ran out of their money and they earned money by repairing televisions and radios in the villages. In total, travelers from Berezniki to Tobolsk traveled 2,400 km.

Ours have arrived!

Sergey and I reached Perm in 2 days, having already 320 km on the bike computer. The road is boring and monotonous, it rains every day. Only one impression remained, that the "Tree of Lovers" standing on the side of the road, tied with ritual rags. In Soviet times, party officials cut down the knots hung with them, and since then the shreds have been tightly tied around the forked trunks of the old larch.

With enviable regularity there are information plates about oil producing enterprises and oil pipelines. There are a great many of them here. Sometimes we see the "rocking chairs" themselves.

A road sign warns of the need to be careful: 255 people died in car accidents here. Not a lot. But on the same shield, which we come across again after 60 km, for some reason the figure is already 49 people.

As if to confirm, we meet a completely broken “ninety-ninth” recently removed from the ditch. And although the steering wheel and the driver's seat are almost stuck together, no traces of blood are visible. So the driver is lucky. We didn't see any more accidents.

We spent the night in an abandoned house in the village of Yarino, having previously gotten wet under a two-hour downpour. It is unusual to sleep in a house where no one has lived for a long time, the roof has collapsed, but children's toys and shoes remain, and the closet is full of all kinds of clothes. The calendar for 1991 still hangs on the wall - this house, like many others, was ruined by "perestroika".

In the morning we leave for a drizzle that accompanies us all the way to Perm. The word "Perm" came from the Finnish-speaking Veps, who inhabited the land between the Onega and Ladoga lakes. It was here that the first paths of Novgorodians to the European North passed. Having met the Vepsians, the Novgorodians, naturally, were interested in the even more distant northern land. In the language of the Vepsians, the distant land, or land abroad, was called "perama". The Vepsian "perama" was converted first into "perem", and then into "perm".

In the evening, in the area of ​​the Kama hydroelectric power station, we met with the son of M. A. Keyser Roman, who was given a detailed television interview for NTV.

After that, we went to the Motovilikha microdistrict and looked at the museum of the Perm gun factory.

Actually, it was closed, but the watchman, a kind person, showed us all the expositions. The plant began in 1736 as a copper smelter (metal was supplied to the mint in Yekaterinburg), in 1863 it was transformed into a state-owned steel cannon plant, building steamships and steam locomotives, huge connecting rods and engine shafts for battleships and cruisers, armored trains, dredges and excavators.

But the main products of the enterprise have always been still guns, shells, ballistic missiles and launchers, which fought in the Imperialist, and in the Civil, and in the Second World War, and modern wars. A Motovilikha missile shot down an American spy plane piloted by Francis Powers (1960). All this military equipment is exhibited in the courtyard of the museum, including a huge ship's cannon, into the muzzle of which I freely climbed. Still, because its diameter is comparable to the size of a bicycle wheel.

In the next building there is a museum of the inventor of electric arc welding N. G. Slavyanov (also closed).

After the museum, Sergei phoned the Cossacks of the Kama separate Cossack district (chief of staff of the Perm city department, captain Vladimir Elagin), who sheltered us in the Nagornaya Chapel (Industrialny district of the city). They slept on the benches, right under the images.

In the morning we visited the museum of local lore (we recommend it to everyone). I was especially interested in the Permian geological period (286-248 million years ago), which gave birth to oil, and the finds of dinosaurs (they appeared 60 million years later), as well as samples of jewelry from the Permian animal style (8th century BC - 4 century AD), borrowed from the Scythians, who roamed the territory of present-day Khakassia and Altai. The figurines are simple and severe. Neither the grace of poses, nor the flexibility of lines, only power and strength lies in these laconic forms, compressed by rigid symmetry. And I spent a lot of money on bronze copies of iconic figurines.

Then we went to the art gallery. It is worth seeing only one exposition - an exhibition of Perm wooden sculpture. Only here, to facilitate the peaceful Christianization of the Ostyaks and Voguls, wooden images of the God of hosts, Christ, the Mother of God, etc. were made in the form of sculptures similar to the pagan idols of local gods. The masterpieces of Perm wooden sculpture are distinguished by their humanity and charm, the deep features of the folk life of the Kama region. Characteristic in this regard is the crucifixion of I. Christ, taken from the city of Usolye. He has a wide-cheeked Permian face, a sparse mustache and a wedge-shaped beard.

In total, the museum has collected about 370 such sculptures, which scientists and tourists from all over the world come to look at.

By lunchtime, as agreed in advance, Masha and Dima arrived in Perm. We met them at the station together with a Permian from Velomax, Maxim Kimerling.

Then Max drove us around the city and we looked at a lot of original city sculptures (the coolest of all - "Permyak salty ears" and a monument to the "people's doctor" F. Kh. Gral), again visited Motovilikha - examined the diorama of the events of 1905 and trampled the pedal in the local museum a wooden bicycle (it is not known where it came from and when it was made), gave an interview to another television, had lunch near a store, met Perm cyclists and, finally, we were collectively escorted far out of town so as not to get lost.

We camped for the night on the banks of the Chusovaya (“chus-va” - fast water), where we were mercilessly bitten by the descendants of those blood-sucking mosquitoes that once also ate Yermak “with comrades”.

The development of Siberia is one of the most significant pages in the history of our country. The vast territories that currently make up most of modern Russia were, in fact, a “blank spot” on the geographical map at the beginning of the 16th century. 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, payments ceased, 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 to the Zheravlya River in 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 the main city of the Khanate - 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 obliging 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, Ermak drowned because of a 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 say that a day later, a Tatar fisherman caught 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 the national hero of Russia.

After the victory over the Kazan Khanate of Russia, a shorter and more convenient path to the Siberian Khanate was opened, which was formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde by Genghisides from the family of Batu's brother Shiban in the early 20s. 15th c. on a vast territory from the Urals to the Irtysh and the Ob.

In 1555, the Siberian Khan Yedygeri, obviously counting on Moscow's help in the political struggle against his enemy Kuchum, who came from the Shibanid clan and claimed power in the Siberian Khanate, turned to Ivan the Terrible through his ambassadors with a request to accept all of his Siberian land into Russian citizenship and pledged to pay tribute in sables. Ivan the Terrible agreed to this. But in 1563, Edygei, friendly to Moscow, was overthrown by Kuchum. Since the Livonian war did not allow Ivan IV to provide Edygei with timely military assistance.

In the first years of his reign, Khan Kuchum demonstrated his loyalty to the Moscow sovereign, called him his elder brother, and even sent him a thousand sables in 1569 as a tribute. But already in 1571, Kuchum broke off diplomatic relations, having killed the Moscow ambassador who came for tribute with Russia. After that, relations between Moscow and the Siberian Khanate become openly hostile. Kuchum switches to the usual Horde policy - predatory raids.

In 1573, Kuchum's son Mametkul raided the Chusovaya River. The Stroganov Chronicle reports that the purpose of the raid was to reconnoiter the roads that could be used with the army to Great Perm and to the fortresses of Jacob and Grigory Stroganov, who received in 1558 from the Moscow sovereign a letter of ownership along the rivers Kama, Chusovaya and Tobol, to ensure trade routes to Bukhara . At the same time, the sovereign gave the Stroganovs the right to extract minerals on the granted lands, collect yasak, build fortresses and hire armed detachments for protection. Taking advantage of the rights given to them by the tsar, the Stroganovs built a number of fortress cities to protect their possessions and populated them with Cossacks hired to guard them. For this, in the summer of 1579, he invited 549 Volga Cossacks, led by their ataman Ermak Timofeevich Alenin, to serve him.

In 1580 and 1581, the Yugra princes, subject to Kuchum, made two predatory raids on the Perm land. The Stroganovs were forced to turn to Ivan IV with a request that he allow the Siberian land to fight for the sake of defense from the Tatar Khan and the Russian people for profit. Having received news of Kuchum's frequent attacks on Perm land, which bring a lot of ruin, misfortune and grief, the sovereign was very saddened and sent the Stroganovs a letter of commendation with his permission, and even freed their future lands from all dues, taxes and duties for a period of twenty years. After that, the Strogonovs equipped an excursion at their own expense, under the guidance of Yermak, giving them everything they needed for a successful campaign in abundance: armor, three cannons, squeaks, gunpowder, food supplies, salaries, guides and translators.

Thus, in addition to the expansion of the territory, the economic development of Siberia, the extraction of furs, which historians rightly point to, one of the main reasons for the development of Siberia was the elimination of the military threat from the Siberian Khanate.

On September 1, 1581 (according to some sources, on September 1, 1582), having served a cathedral prayer service, the expedition of Yermak Timofeevich plunged into 80 plows in a solemn atmosphere with developing regimental banners, to the incessant ringing of the bell of the Stroganov Cathedral and music set out on a campaign. All the inhabitants of the Chusovsky town came to see off the Cossacks on a long journey. Thus began the famous campaign of Yermak. The number of Ermak's detachment is not exactly known. Chronicles give different data from 540 to 6000 thousand people. Most historians are inclined to believe that Yermak's squad consisted of approximately 840-1060 people.

Along the rivers: Chusovaya, Ture, Tobol, Tagil, the Cossacks fought their way from the Nizhne-Chusovsky town deep into the Siberian Khanate, to the capital of Khan Kuchum - Kashlyk. The wars of Murza Epachi and Tauzak, subject to Kuchum, who had never heard of firearms, immediately fled after the first volleys. Justifying himself, Tauzak told Kuchum: “Russian warriors are strong: when they shoot from their bows, the fire blazes, smoke comes out and thunder is heard, you can’t see arrows, but they stung with wounds and beat them to death; ". But the chronicles also note several major battles of the Yermak detachment. In particular, among them is mentioned the battle on the banks of the Tobol near the yurts of Babasan, where the Cossacks who set out on a campaign unsuccessfully tried to detain Tsarevich Mametkul sent by Kuchum. In this battle, Mametkul had a huge numerical superiority, but the Cossacks, not afraid of the superiority of the Horde, gave them a fight and managed to put Mametkul's ten thousandth cavalry to flight. “The gun triumphed over the bow,” wrote S.M. Solovyov. Moving further into Siberia, the Cossacks took possession of the ulus of the chief adviser of Khan Kuchum Karachi and the fortress of Murza Atik. Comparatively easy victories for the Cossacks were ensured by the advantage of firearms, and Yermak's careful attitude towards his squad, protecting it from all sorts of accidents, personally setting up reinforced guards and personally checking them, vigilantly making sure that the weapons of his soldiers were always well polished and ready for battle. As a result, Yermak managed to maintain the fighting capacity of the squad until the decisive battle with the main forces of Khan Kuchum, which took place on October 23, 1582, near the Chuvash cape on the right bank of the Irtysh. The number of Ermak's detachment was approximately 800 people, while there were more than three thousand Siberian Tatars.

So that his troops would not fall under the bullets of the Cossacks, Khan Kuchum ordered to cut down the notch and positioned his main forces, led by his son Mametkul, behind the fallen tree trunks. In the battle that began, the Cossacks swam to the shore and began to land on it, simultaneously firing at the Tatars. The Tatars, in turn, fired at the Cossacks with bows, and tried to force them to retreat to the plows. Yermak saw that the continuous fire that his people were doing did not cause much harm to the enemy who had settled down behind the notch, and therefore decided to bring the Tatars to the open area. Pretending to retreat, Yermak blew the signal to retreat. Seeing the retreat of the Cossacks, perked up, Mametkul withdrew his troops from behind the notch and attacked the Cossacks. But as soon as the Tatar wars began to approach them, the Cossacks lined up in a square, placing shooters with squeakers in its center, who opened fire on the advancing Tatars, causing them great damage. Attempts by the Tatars to overturn the square in hand-to-hand combat failed. In this, Prince Mametkul was wounded and almost captured, but the Tatars managed to save him and took him out of the battle in a boat. The wounding of the prince caused panic in the army and Kuchum's wars began to scatter. Khan Kuchum himself fled. On October 26, 1582, Yermak's detachment entered the deserted capital of the Khanate, Kashlyk.

Already on the fourth day after the capture of the capital, the Ostets prince Boyar came to Yermak with an expression of humility and yasak. His example was soon followed by other khans, and the leaders of the Mansi tribes. However, the establishment of control over the capital of the Siberian Khanate and the territory adjacent to it did not yet mean the complete elimination of the Siberian horde. Kuchum still had significant military forces. The southern and eastern regions of the khanate, as well as part of the Yugra tribes, still remained under his control. Therefore, Kuchum did not give up further struggle and stop resistance, but migrated to the upper reaches of the Irtysh, Tobol and Ishim rivers, inaccessible to Yermak's plows, while carefully observing all his actions. At every opportunity, Kuchum tried to attack small Cossack detachments and inflict maximum damage on them. Sometimes he succeeded. So his son Mametkul, in December 1582, managed to destroy a detachment of twenty Cossacks on Lake Abalak, led by Yesaul Bogdan Bryazga, who had set up a camp near the lake and were engaged in winter fishing. Ermak quickly learned about what had happened. He caught up with the Tatar troops and attacked them. The battle lasted for many hours and was much more tenacious than the battle of Chusovskaya and ended only after dark. The Horde were defeated and retreated, having lost ten thousand people in this battle, according to the documents of the embassy order.

The next year, 1583, was successful for Yermak. First, Prince Mametkul was taken prisoner on the Vagay River. Then the Tatar tribes along the Irtysh and the Ob were subjugated, and the capital of the Khanty, Nazim, was captured. After that, Ermak Timofeevich sent a detachment of 25 Cossacks, led by his closest associate Ivan Koltso, to the tsar in Moscow, with a message about the capture of Kashlyk, bringing the local tribes under the rule of the Russian tsar, and capturing Mametkul. Yermak sent furs to the king as a gift.

After reading the letter sent by Yermak, the tsar was so delighted that he forgave the Cossacks for all their past faults, granted the messengers money and cloth, sent a large salary to the Cossacks in Siberia, and Yermak a rich fur coat from his royal shoulder and two expensive armor and a silver helmet. He also ordered Yermak to be called the prince of Siberia and equipped the governor Semyon Balkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with five hundred archers to help the Cossacks.

However, Yermak's forces, forced to fight continuously for several years, were depleted. Experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition, clothing and footwear, Yermak's squad inevitably lost its combat capability. In the winter of 1584, the Cossacks ran out of food supplies. In severe winter conditions and a hostile environment, their replenishment was temporarily impossible. As a result of the famine, many Cossacks died. But their difficulties did not end there.

In the same year, a former adviser to Kuchum Karach, asked Yermak for help in the fight against the Kazakh horde. His ambassadors arrived in Kashlyk for negotiations, but seeing what a plight the Cossacks were in, they reported this to Karach, and he, having learned that the Cossacks were weakened by hunger and could barely stand on their feet, decided that the time had come to end Yermak. He deceitfully destroyed a detachment of forty people sent to help him by Yermak, led by Ivan Koltso, who had returned from Moscow, treacherously attacking them during a feast given in their own honor.

In the spring, Karacha laid siege to Kashlyk, surrounding it with a dense ring, while carefully making sure that none of the Khan and Mansi leaders who recognized Yermak's authority penetrated into Kashlyk and brought food there. Karacha did not storm the city, hoping to starve him out, and patiently waited for the besieged to run out of food supplies and starvation would finally weaken them.

The siege lasted from spring to July. During this time, Yermak's scouts managed to find out where the Karachi headquarters was located. And one summer night, under the cover of darkness, a detachment sent by Yermak, having managed to bypass the Tatar guard outposts, unexpectedly attacked the Karachi headquarters, killing almost all of his guards and two sons. Karacha himself miraculously escaped death. But with the onset of morning, the Cossacks could not fight their way back to the city. Having settled down on a hillock, they bravely and successfully repulsed all attacks of enemies many times superior in number to them, who climbed onto the hillock from all sides. But Yermak, having heard the noise of the battle, began to shoot at the Horde, who remained in their positions under the walls of Kashlyk. As a result, by noon, the Karachi army lost its battle order and fled from the battlefield. The siege was lifted.

In the summer of 1584, Khan Kuchum, not having the strength or courage to enter into an open battle with Yermak, went to the trick, sending his people to the Cossacks, who pretended to be representatives of Bukhara merchants, and asked Yermak to meet a merchant caravan on the Vagay River. Yermak, with the surviving Cossacks, whose number, according to various sources, ranges from 50 to 300 people, poisoned himself on a campaign along Vagai, but did not meet any merchants there and returned back. On the way back, during a night's rest on the banks of the Irtysh. The Cossacks were attacked by the soldiers of Kuchum. Despite the suddenness of the attack and the numerical superiority of the Horde. The Cossacks managed to fight back, having lost only ten people killed, sit on the plows and sail to Kashlyk. However, in this battle, while covering the retreat of his soldiers, Ataman Yermak heroically died. There is an assumption that he was wounded and tried to swim across the tributary of the Irtysh Vagay, but drowned because of the heavy chain mail. After the death of their ataman, the surviving Cossacks returned to Russia.

Yermak left a good memory of himself, becoming a national hero for the people, about whom numerous legends and songs were composed. In them, the people sang Yermak's devotion to his comrades, his military prowess, military talent, willpower and courage. He forever remained in the annals of Russian history as a brave explorer and winner of Khan Kuchum. And the words of the legendary ataman came true, who said to his comrades-in-arms, "Our memory will not fail in these countries."

Yermak's campaign has not yet led to the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state, but it became the beginning of this process. The Siberian Khanate was defeated. Another fragment of the Golden Horde ceased to exist. This circumstance secured the borders of Russia from the attacks of the Siberian Tatars from the northeast, created favorable conditions for the wide economic Siberian region and the further expansion of the living space of the Russian people. In the wake of Yermak's retinue, trade and military service people, industrialists, trappers, artisans, and peasants were drawn to Siberia. Intensive settlement of Siberia began. In the next decade and a half, the Muscovite state completed the final defeat of the Siberian horde. The last battle of the Russian troops with the Horde took place on the Irmen River. In this battle, Kuchum was completely defeated by the governor Andrey Voeikov. From that moment on, the Siberian Khanate ceased its historical existence. Further development of Siberia took place relatively peacefully. Russian settlers developed lands, built cities, planted arable land, entered into peaceful economic and cultural relations with the local population, and only in very rare cases did clashes with nomadic and hunting tribes take place, but these clashes did not change the general peaceful nature of the development of the Siberian Territory. As a whole, Russian settlers developed good neighborly relations with the indigenous population, this is explained by the fact that they came to Siberia not for robbery and robbery, but for peaceful labor.

Behind the Ural mountains on the banks of the Irtysh and Tobol 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, killed the Russian ambassador. The military detachments of Kuchum 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 charter of 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 came to Kama - Cossacks, led by ataman Ermak Timofeevich. The Stroganovs offered Ermak to make a campaign beyond the Urals and conquer the kingdom of Khan Kuchum. Yermak 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, Yermak went on a campaign. Khan Kuchum sent detachment after detachment towards the Cossacks, trying to prevent their advance into the center of the Siberian Khanate. From the shores, the Tatars showered the Cossacks sailing on rowboats with a rain of arrows. The Cossacks responded with fire from squeakers. Firearms terrified the Tatars.

In October 1582, Yermak's detachment approached the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Kashlyk. Not far from the town of Kuchum, he set up fortifications made of wood and stone and concentrated more than ten thousand troops there. Yermak 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. Yermak ordered to withdraw. The Tatars rushed after the retreating Cossacks and left the fortifications. Having lured the enemy into an open field, Yermak unexpectedly turned and again threw the detachment into battle. Hand-to-hand fighting 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 went to the steppe. Yermak occupied the deserted capital. Some Tatar khans and princes of neighboring tribes - Khanty and Mansi came to him with large gifts and declared their obedience. Yermak 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, headed by his faithful assistant Ivan Koltso, to inform the tsar of the defeat of Kuchum. The king thanked Yermak and his comrades with valuable gifts and rewards. In 1583, a detachment of 500 archers arrived at Yermak.

Khan Kuchum began to attack separate 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 rest of his detachment returned to Russia. · Yermak's campaign in Siberia was of great importance. The defeat of the kingdom of Kuchum opened the way for the resettlement of Russian people beyond the Ural Mountains. Cossacks, peasants, artisans 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 Vasilyevich fell ill. In February, he was still busy with business, but already 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.

Ermak crossing the Ural Range