The conqueror of Siberia, Ermak Timofeevich, can hardly be counted among the circle of travelers and discoverers. But it is also impossible to ignore this remarkable historical figure. The name of Ermak opens the list of Russian historical figures who contributed to the transformation of the Moscow kingdom into the powerful and largest Russian Empire in terms of territory.

Although, in fact, all travelers of the 15-16 centuries initially had not research, but purely commercial and aggressive goals - Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan and others were looking for ways to the fabulous riches of Africa, India, China and Japan.

They found new lands and conquered them. And geographical discoveries happened as if by themselves, in parallel with the main activity!

History has not preserved much documentary information about Ermak, his origin and his exploits. The gaps between facts, as always, are filled with versions, guesses, myths and, alas, falsifications.

On these pages we will consider the main versions of the origin of Ermak, his activities, his famous crossing of the Ural ridge and his attempt to conquer Siberia.

So: Who is Ermak?

Full name: - 1530/1540–1585

: Ermak Timofeevich Alenin - this is the official versionaccording to one version in the north, in Vologda, according to another - in the Dvina land, according to a third - in the Urals, according to others - he comes from a family of Siberian princes...

Occupation: Cossack chieftain

Name: Considering that the name Ermak, under which this person went down in history, is extremely rare, we can assume that Ermak is not a name, but a nickname.

Nickname. The Cossacks were, in essence, highway robbers (only well-organized ones). The presence of a “driver” is a completely normal phenomenon for every member of an “armed gang”. Origin:

nothing is known for certain. Some attribute him to the Don Cossacks, others to the Ural Cossacks (more precisely, to the Yaik Cossacks). The Ural River, before the defeat of the Pugachev uprising, was called Yaik, and the Cossacks who controlled the territories along it were called Yaik. Since the Yaik flows into the Caspian Sea relatively close to the Volga, the Yaik Cossacks also robbed the Volga. Another version claims that Ermak was a serving ataman in the troops of Ivan the Terrible

during the Livonian War. When Stefan Batory went to Rus' in 1579, Tsar Ivan hastily assembled a militia to repel the attack, including the Cossacks. The name of the Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich is quite specifically reflected in the message of the Polish commandant of the city of Mogilev Stravinsky in a report to his king. It was the summer of 1581. From this, historians conclude that Ermak could not begin his campaign in Siberia earlier than the next 1582. After the successful conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1551-56. Ivan's government IV Grozny completely controlled the Volga as the main trade artery with the East. Russian merchants traded freely, and foreign caravans paid duties to the treasury. The Nogai Horde formally recognized the power of Moscow, but having learned about the difficulties of the Russians in the west, it decided to take advantage of the moment and “grab its own.” Ivan

The Cossacks, who had long-standing scores to settle with the Nogais, took advantage of the moment. When the Moscow embassy of V. Pepelitsyn, together with the Nogai ambassador, merchants and a strong escort detachment, was heading to Moscow in August 1581, the Cossacks attacked them on the Samara River and killed almost everyone. And the remaining two dozen people reached Moscow and “grieved” to Ivan the Terrible about this lawlessness. And on their list of “offenders” were the names of Cossack chieftains Ivan Koltso, Nikita Pan, Bogdan Barboshi and others.

The king pretended that he had decided to punish the self-willed people.

He sent a special detachment to suppress Cossack independence, ordering “to punish the Cossacks with death.” But in fact, he gave the Cossacks the opportunity to go north, to the Perm lands, where they were very useful for protecting Russian possessions on the Kama from the attacks of the Siberian Khan Kuchum.

Some historians claim that the Cossacks went to the Kama on their own initiative and, having arrived there, first “scoured” Stroganov’s possessions. But then we received a specific proposal from Ural industrialists to officially defend them. That is, to become a kind of “private-public security company.”

Unable to control the Urals and the Kama basin, Ivan the Terrible gave these lands back in 1558 to the industrialists Stroganovs (whose ancestors had traded in these areas since the time of the Novgorod Republic). The king gave them the broadest powers. They had the right to collect tribute, extract minerals, and build fortresses. The Stroganovs themselves defended their territories and their “business”, had the right to create armed formations, automatically protecting the possessions of the Moscow Tsar from encroachments from the east.

The Stroganovs were in dire need of armed men to protect their considerable estates. They came out with the initiative to call on the “guilty” Cossacks to defend their territories. This exit suited all parties and the Cossacks, presumably in 1579-81, arrived at the Stroganovs’ possessions on the Kama.“To earn royal forgiveness and mercy with a sword in hand in the service of the sovereign against adversaries.” Around the same time, Ermak Timofeevich arrived on the Kama to join his brothers in arms, since the Livonian War had ended by that time. Grozny completely controlled the Volga as the main trade artery with the East. Russian merchants traded freely, and foreign caravans paid duties to the treasury. NIt is impossible that he received some “indications” from Ivan

Shibanid, grandson of Ibak - Khan of Tyumen and the Great Horde. His father was one of the last khans of the Golden Horde, Murtaza. Relying on his relative, the Bukhara khan Abdullah Khan II, Kuchum waged a long and persistent struggle with the Siberian khan Ediger, using an army consisting of Uzbek, Nogai, and Kazakh detachments.

In 1563, Kuchum killed Ediger and his brother Bekbulat, occupied the city of Kashlyk (Isker, Siberia) and became the sovereign khan over all the lands along the Irtysh and Tobol. The population of the Siberian Khanate, which was based on the Tatars and their subordinate Mansi and Khanty, viewed Kuchum as a usurper, because his support was a foreign army.

After seizing power in the Siberian Khanate, Kuchum initially continued to pay yasak and even sent his ambassador to Moscow with 1000 sables (1571). But when his wars with local competitors, organized several campaigns into the possessions of Ivan the Terrible and the Stroganovs, and approached Perm closely.

Since the best defense is an attack, the Stroganovs, in agreement with Tsar Ivan, decided to “beat the enemy on his territory.” For this, the “guilty” Volga-Yaik Cossacks were ideally suited - organized people who knew how to fight , ready to go anywhere for rich booty.!But Ataman Ermak also had his own thoughts and far-reaching plans on this matter.

How did the idea of ​​Ermak’s campaign to conquer Siberia come about? read more

P.S.

There is, however, such a version. No “special forces” chased away the Yaik Cossacks; Ermak and his comrades came to the Stroganovs’ possessions on their own initiative, slightly plundering their possessions and remaining in them. Obviously, they offered Solikamsk industrialists to “protect” their business. The Stroganovs didn’t have much of a choice - God is high, the Tsar is far away, and the Cossacks are right here.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again travelers of the era of great geographical discoveries

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How difficult is it to distinguish a real story from a skillfully told legend? Especially when both of them concern an absolutely real person. ABOUT Ermak Timofeevich, a Cossack chieftain who lived in the mid-late 16th century, legends were composed by both friends and enemies.

A great warrior and conqueror of Siberia, who fought and died for the glory of his country. There are disputes about his name, the number of troops under his command and the circumstances of his death... But his feat is beyond doubt.

Famine and siege

Siberia, Tatar city of Kashlyk (Isker), 1585. The winter was long and monstrously cold, even by Siberian standards. There was so much snow that it was difficult to walk a few steps, let alone hunt. Both night and day, a dank icy wind blew incessantly.

Previously, due to the incessant autumn fighting, the Cossacks were unable to collect enough supplies. Ermak’s army was not used to grumbling, but there was a catastrophic shortage of food, and there were no more than two hundred people left...

Spring did not bring relief: the Tatars came again, encircling the city. The siege threatened to last for many months, dooming the Cossacks to starvation. But Ermak remained Ermak - as always, wise and cool-headed.

Having waited until June and lulled the vigilance of the Tatars, he sent his closest associate, Matvey Meshcheryak, on a night sortie. Matvey, together with two dozen soldiers, made their way to the camp of Karachi, the Tatar commander, and carried out a massacre.

Karachi escaped with difficulty, but both of his sons died, and the Cossacks disappeared into the night as unexpectedly as they had come.

The siege was lifted, but the issue of provisions remained as acute as in winter. How to feed an army when the Tatars can attack at any moment?

And then in August the long-awaited good news came - a rich trade caravan with supplies for the Cossacks was approaching Kashlyk. We just need to protect him from the enemy...

What's in a name?

It is not known for certain in what year Ermak was born. The dates are given differently: 1532, 1534, 1537 and even 1543. Rumors about the place of his birth also vary - either this is the village of Borok on the Northern Dvina, or an unknown village on the Chusovaya River, or the Kachalinskaya village on the Don. This is understandable, almost every Cossack clan wanted to boast that it was they who gave birth to the legendary chieftain!

Even Ermak’s name is in question. Some historians claim that Ermak is an abbreviation of the Russian name Ermolai, others call him Ermil, and others derive the name from Herman and Eremey. Or maybe Ermak is just a nickname? And in fact, the ataman’s name was Vasily Timofeevich Alenin. It is unknown where the surname came from - in those days they were not in use among the Cossacks.

By the way, about the Cossacks: the word “armak” for them meant “big”, like a common cauldron for meals. Doesn't remind you of anything? And of course, we must not forget about Ermak’s enemies, who, despite all their hatred towards him, respected him immensely. Irmak in Mongolian means “rapidly gushing spring”, practically a geyser. In Tatar, yarmak means “to chop, to dissect.” In Iranian, ermek means “husband, warrior.”

And this is not the whole list! Imagine how many copies historians have broken, arguing among themselves and trying to unearth Ermak’s real name or at least his origin. Alas, the Cossacks rarely kept chronicles, and when information is disseminated orally, something is lost, something is invented, something changes beyond recognition. This is roughly how real history breaks down into dozens of myths. The only thing that cannot be denied is that Ermak’s name turned out to be very successful.

Free Cossack

In the first decades of his mature life, somewhere before 1570, Ermak Timofeevich was by no means an angel. He was a typical Cossack ataman, walking along the free Volga with his squad and attacking Russian merchant caravans and Tatar and Kazakh detachments. The most common opinion is that Ermak, in his youth, entered the service of the then famous Ural merchants Stroganov, guarding goods on the Volga and Don. And then he “went from work to robbery,” gathered himself a small army and went over to the freemen.

However, the controversial period in Ermak’s life lasted relatively short. Already in 1571, he helped the squad repel the attack of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey under the walls of Moscow, and in 1581 he valiantly fought in the Livonian War under the command of governor Dmitry Khvorostinin, commanding a Cossack hundred. And already in 1582, the same Stroganovs remembered the brave chieftain.

Forgetting about all Ermak’s sins, they extremely respectfully asked him to protect the merchant interests of Rus' in Siberia. In those years, the Siberian Khanate was ruled by the cruel and dishonest Khan Kuchum, who overthrew Khan Ediger, who maintained more or less good relations with the Russian kingdom. Kuchum spoke about peace, but in reality he constantly attacked merchant caravans and moved his army to the Perm region.

Ermak agreed with the merchants not only for the sake of a rich reward. The Tatar Khan was a devout Muslim and spread Islam throughout Siberia and wherever he could reach it. For the Orthodox Cossack chieftain, it was a matter of honor to challenge Kuchum and win. Having gathered a relatively small squad - about 600 people - Ermak Timofeevich set out on a great campaign to Siberia.

Thunderstorm of the Siberian Khanate

To describe all the military exploits of Ermak, one article will not be enough. Moreover, as in the case of his place of birth or name, many of them are distorted by retelling, others are downplayed or embellished, there are two or three versions for almost every event. In fact, the incredible happened - six hundred Cossack warriors passed through the huge Siberian Khanate, over and over again defeating the Tatar army twenty times superior to them.

Kuchum's warriors were fast, but the Cossacks learned to be faster. When they were surrounded, they left along the rivers in small mobile boats - plows. They took cities by storm and founded their own fortifications, which then also turned into cities.

In each battle, Ermak used new tactics, confidently beat the enemy, and the Cossacks were ready to follow him through thick and thin. The conquest of Siberia took four years. Ermak broke the resistance of the Tatars and negotiated peace with the local khans and kings, bringing them to the citizenship of the Russian kingdom. But luck could not accompany the ataman forever...

The rumor about a merchant caravan carrying supplies for the starving Cossack army turned out to be a trap. Ermak, together with the rest of his squad, moved out of Kashlyk up the Irtysh River and was ambushed by Kuchum. The Cossacks were attacked under cover of darkness, and although they fought back like mad, there were too many Tatars. Out of 200, no more than 20 people survived. Ermak was the last to retreat to the plows, covering his comrades, and died by falling into the river waves.

Legendary person

Legend has it that the body of the great chieftain, caught from the river by his enemies, lay in the air for a month without beginning to decompose. Ermak was buried with military honors in the cemetery of the village of Baishevo, but behind a fence, since he was not a Muslim. The Tatars respected the fallen enemy so much that his weapons and armor were considered magical for a long time. For one of the chain mails, for example, they gave seven families of slaves, 50 camels, 500 horses, 200 bulls and cows, 1000 sheep...

Ermak lost that fight, but his cause did not die with him. The Siberian Khanate did not recover from the blow inflicted on it by the Cossack army. The conquest of Western Siberia continued, Khan Kuchum died ten years later, and his descendants were unable to provide worthy resistance. Towns and cities were founded throughout Siberia; previously warring local tribes were forced to accept citizenship of the Russian kingdom.

Tales about Ermak were written both during his life and after his death. No, no, and there was a descendant of a descendant of another descendant who knew for certain a certain Cossack from the squad of the great ataman and was ready to tell the whole truth. In my own way, of course. And there are dozens and hundreds of such examples. But is it so important in this case to distinguish reality from fiction? Ermak Timofeevich himself would probably have had a lot of fun listening to stories about himself.

Sergey EVTUSHENKO

Ermak Timofeevich (1532/1534/1542 - August 6, 1585, Siberian Khanate) - Cossack ataman, historical conqueror of Siberia for the Russian state.

Origin

The origin of Ermak is unknown; there are several versions. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Chusovaya River. Thanks to his knowledge of local rivers, he walked along the Kama, Chusovaya and even crossed into Asia, along the Tagil River, until he was taken to serve as a Cossack (Cherepanov Chronicle), in another way - a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don (Bronevsky). Recently, the version about the Pomeranian origin of Ermak (originally “from the Dvina from Borka”) has been heard more and more often; they probably meant the Boretsk volost, the center of which exists to this day - the village of Borok, Vinogradovsky district, Arkhangelsk region.

His name, according to Professor Nikitsky, is a change from the name Ermolai, while Ermak sounded like an abbreviation. V. Gilyarovsky calls him Ermil Timofeevich (“Moscow Gazetnaya”). Other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman and Eremey. One chronicle, considering Ermak's name a nickname, gives him the Christian name Vasily. The same version is played out in P. P. Bazhov’s tale “Ermakov’s Swans”. There is an opinion that “Ermak” is a nickname derived from the name of the cooking pot.

There is a hypothesis about the Turkic (Kerait or Siberian) origin of Ermak. This version is supported by arguments that the name Ermak is Turkic and still exists among the Tatars, Bashkirs and Kazakhs, but is pronounced as “Ermek” - stone. In addition, the male name Ermak (“Yrmag”) is found among the Alan-Ossetians, who widely inhabited the Don steppes until the 15th century.

The version of Ermak’s Turkic origin is indirectly confirmed by the description of his appearance preserved by Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov in his “Remezov Chronicler” of the late 17th century. According to S. U. Remezov, whose father, the Cossack centurion Ulyan Moiseevich Remezov, personally knew the surviving participants in Ermak’s campaign, the famous chieftain was “greatly courageous, and humane, and bright-eyed, and pleased with all wisdom, flat-faced, black-haired, age [i.e. medium height, and flat, and broad-shouldered.”

Ermak was first the ataman of one of the many Cossack squads on the Volga who protected the population from tyranny and robbery on the part of the Crimean Tatars. This is evidenced by reports, petitions of “old” Cossacks addressed to the tsar, namely: Gavrila Ilyin wrote that he “fought” (carried out military service) with Ermak in the Wild Field for 20 years, veteran Gavrila Ivanov wrote that he served the tsar “on the field twenty years with Ermak in the village” and in the villages of other atamans.

In 1579, a squad of Cossacks (more than 540 people), under the command of atamans Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan, Matvey Meshcheryak, Cherkas Alexandrov and Bogdan Bryazga, was invited by the Ural merchants Stroganovs to protect against regular attacks from the Siberian Khan Kuchum , and went up the Kama, and in June 1579 arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovoy towns of the Stroganov brothers. Here the Cossacks lived for two years and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from predatory attacks by the Siberian Khan Kuchum.

By the beginning of 1580, the Stroganovs invited Ermak to serve, when he was at least 40 years old. Ermak took part in the Livonian War, commanded a Cossack hundred during the battle with the Lithuanians for Smolensk. A letter from the Polish commandant Mogilev Stravinsky, sent at the end of June 1581 to King Stefan Batory, which mentions “Ermak Timofeevich - Cossack ataman,” has been preserved.

Conquest of Siberia

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, “The Conquest of Siberia by Ermak.” Canvas, oil

Ermak Timofeevich, conqueror of Siberia. Lubok of the 19th century.

On September 1, 1581, a squad of Cossacks under the main command of Ermak set out on a campaign for the Stone Belt (Ural) from Nizhny Chusovsky Gorodok. According to another version, the campaign of Ermak, Ivan Koltso and Nikita Pan to Siberia dates back to the following year - 1582, since peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was concluded in January 1582, and at the end of 1581 Ermak was still at war with the Lithuanians

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

It is important to note that the future enemy of the Cossacks, Khan Kuchum, had at his disposal forces that were several times larger than Ermak’s squad, but were much worse armed. According to the archival documents of the Ambassadorial Order (RGADA), in total, Khan Kuchum had an army of approximately 10 thousand, that is, one “tumen”, and the total number of “yasak people” who obeyed him did not exceed 30 thousand adult men.

Khan Kuchum from the Sheybanid clan was a relative of Khan Abdullah, who ruled in Bukhara, and, apparently, was an ethnic Uzbek. In 1555, the Siberian Khan Ediger from the Taibugin family, having heard about the Russian conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, voluntarily agreed to accept Russian citizenship and pay a small tribute to the Russian Tsar Ivan IV. But in 1563, Kuchum carried out a coup, killing Ediger and his brother Bekbulat. Having seized power in Kashlyk, Kuchum spent the first years playing a clever diplomatic game with Moscow, promising to submit, but at the same time delaying the payment of tribute in every possible way. According to the Remezov Chronicle, compiled at the end of the 17th century by Semyon Remezov, Kuchum established his power in Western Siberia with extreme cruelty. This caused the unreliability of the detachments of Voguls (Mansi), Ostyaks (Khanty) and other indigenous peoples, forcibly assembled by him in 1581 to repel the Cossack invasion.

The Cossacks rode plows up the Chusovaya River and along its tributary, the Serebryannaya River, to the Siberian portage separating the Kama and Ob basins, and along the portage they dragged the boats into the Zheravlya (Zharovlya) River. Here the Cossacks were supposed to spend the winter (Remezov Chronicle). During the winter, according to the book Rezhevsky Treasures, Ermak sent a detachment of associates to reconnoiter a more southern route along the Neiva River. But the Tatar Murza defeated Ermak’s reconnaissance detachment. In the place where that Murza lived there is now the village of Murzinka, famous for its gems.

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

On October 26, 1582, Ermak entered the city of Siberia (Kashlyk) abandoned by the Tatars.

Four days later the Khanty from the river. Demyanka, the right tributary of the lower Irtysh, brought furs and food supplies, mainly fish, as gifts to the conquerors. Ermak greeted them with “kindness and greetings” and released them “with honor.” Local Tatars, who had previously fled from the Russians, followed the Khanty with gifts. Ermak received them just as kindly, allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies, primarily from Kuchum. Then the Khanty from the left bank regions - from the Konda and Tavda rivers - began to arrive with furs and food. Ermak imposed an annual obligatory tax on everyone who came to him - yasak. From the “best people” (tribal elite), Ermak took “shert”, that is, an oath that their “people” would pay yasak on time. After this, they were considered as subjects of the Russian Tsar.

In December 1582, Kuchum’s military leader, Mametkul, destroyed one Cossack detachment from an ambush on Lake Abalatskoye, but on February 23, the Cossacks dealt a new blow to Kuchum, capturing Mametkul on the Vagai River.

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

Ataman Ermak at the Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia” in Veliky Novgorod

Ivan the Terrible received him very kindly, richly presented the Cossacks and sent Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov, with 300 warriors, to reinforce them. The royal commanders arrived at Ermak in the fall of 1583, but their detachment could not provide significant assistance to the Cossack squad, which had been greatly reduced in battle. The atamans died one after another: first Bogdan Bryazga was ambushed; then, during the capture of Nazim, Nikita Pan was killed; and in the spring of 1584 the Tatars killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov. Ataman Matvey Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with heavy losses forced their leader Karacha, vizier Kuchum, to retreat.

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

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

Performance evaluation

Some historians rate Ermak’s personality very highly, “his courage, leadership talent, iron willpower,” but the facts conveyed by the chronicles do not give any indication of his personal qualities and the degree of his personal influence. Be that as it may, Ermak is “one of the most remarkable figures in Russian history,” writes historian Ruslan Skrynnikov.

Death of Ermak

There is a legend that Ermak’s body was soon caught from the Irtysh by the Tatar fisherman “Yanysh, Begishev’s grandson.” Many noble Murzas, as well as Kuchum himself, came to look at the ataman’s body. The Tatars shot at the body with bows and feasted for several days, but, according to eyewitnesses, his body lay in the air for a month and did not even begin to decompose. Later, having divided his property, in particular, taking two chain mail donated by the Tsar of Moscow, he was buried in the village, which is now called Baishevo. He was buried in a place of honor, but behind the cemetery, since he was not a Muslim. The authenticity of the burial is currently under consideration. The armor with targets (plaques) donated to Ermak by Tsar Ivan, which belonged to the governor Pyotr Ivanovich Shuisky, who was killed in 1564 by Hetman Radziwill in the Battle of Chashniki, first went to the Kalmyk taiji Ablai, and in 1646 was recaptured by the Russian Cossacks from the “thieves’ Samoyed” - the rebels Selkup. In 1915, during excavations in the Siberian capital of Kashlyk, exactly the same plaques with double-headed eagles were found that were on Shuisky’s shell, which Ermak himself could have dropped there.

Memory

The memory of Ermak lives among the Russian people in legends, songs (for example, “Song of Ermak” is included in the repertoire of the Omsk choir) and place names. The most common settlements and institutions named after him can be found in Western Siberia. Cities and villages, sports complexes and sports teams, streets and squares, rivers and marinas, steamships and icebreakers, hotels, etc. are named in honor of Ermak. For some of them, see Ermak. Many Siberian commercial firms have the name “Ermak” in their name.

In Omsk, the Danish entrepreneur Randrup S.H. at the beginning of the 20th century established the production of domestic sewing machines called “Ermak” based on the German sewing machine “ZINGER”;

Monuments in the cities: Novocherkassk, Tobolsk (in the form of a stele, 1848), in Altai in Zmeinogorsk (transferred from the Kazakh city of Aksu, until 1993 it was called Ermak), Surgut (opened on June 11, 2010; author - sculptor K. V. Kubyshkin) . In Veliky Novgorod, on the Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia”, among the 129 figures of the most outstanding personalities in Russian history (as of 1862), there is the figure of Ermak.

Streets in the cities: Belov, Berezniki, Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory), Ivanovo, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk, Novocherkassk (square), Lipetsk and Rostov-on-Don (alleys).

Ermak Hill is one of the attractions of the city of Verkhnyaya Tura (Sverdlovsk region).

Mount Ermak in the Kungur region of the Perm region.

Russian feature film (mini-series) by V. Krasnopolsky and V. Uskov “Ermak” (1996) (in the title role Viktor Stepanov).

In 2001, the Bank of Russia, in the series of commemorative coins “Development and Exploration of Siberia,” issued a coin “Ermak’s Campaign” with a face value of 25 rubles.

Among Russian surnames, the surname Ermak is found.

In 1899, at the shipyard in Newcastle (England), according to the design of Admiral S. O. Makarov, the world's first linear icebreaker, Ermak, was built for Russia, which served until 1960. In 1974, a new diesel-electric icebreaker, Ermak, was built for the Soviet Union at the Finnish shipyard Värtsila.

The world's first linear icebreaker "Ermak"

Stele of Ermak in Tobolsk. In the background is the Tobolsk Kremlin

Monument to Ermak in Novocherkassk

Don money - 100 rubles. Ermak. obverse, 1918. Rostov

Don money - 100 rubles. Ermak. reverse, 1918. Rostov

Based on Wikipedia materials

ERMAK Timofeevich(between 1537 and 1540 - 1585), Russian Cossack chieftain. The campaign of 1582-85 marked the beginning of the development of Siberia by the Russian state. He died in a battle with Khan Kuchum. Hero of folk songs.

ERMAK (Ermolai) Timofeevich, nickname Tokmak (between 1537 and 1540, the village of Borok on the Northern Dvina - August 5, 1585, the bank of the Irtysh near the mouth of Vagai), Russian explorer, conqueror of Western Siberia, Cossack ataman (no later than 1571).

"Born unknown..."

Ermak's surname has not been established, but in those days, and much later, many Russians were called by their father or nickname. He was called either Ermak Timofeev or Ermolai Timofeevich Tokmak. Famine in his native land forced him, a peasant son, a man of remarkable physical strength, to flee to the Volga in order to hire an old Cossack as a “chura” (a laborer in peacetime and a squire in campaigns). Soon, in battle, he got himself a weapon and from about 1562 he began to “fly” - to comprehend military affairs. Brave and intelligent, he took part in many battles, traveling the southern steppe between the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Yaik, probably visited the Don and Terek, and fought near Moscow (1571) with Devlet-Girey. Thanks to his talent as an organizer, his justice and courage, he became an ataman. In the Livonian War of 1581 he commanded a flotilla of Volga Cossacks operating along the Dnieper near Orsha and Mogilev; may have participated in operations near Pskov (1581) and Novgorod (1582).

"Siberian Capture"

At the behest of Ivan the Terrible, Ermak’s squad arrived in Cherdyn (near the mouth of the Kolva) and Sol-Kamskaya (on the Kama) to strengthen the eastern border of the Stroganov merchants. Probably in the summer of 1582 they concluded an agreement with the ataman on a campaign against the “Siberian Sultan” Kuchum, providing them with supplies and weapons. Having led a detachment of 600 people, Ermak began a campaign on September 1 into the depths of Siberia, ascended the Chusovaya River and its tributary Mezhevaya Utka, and moved to Aktai (Tobol basin). Ermak was in a hurry: only a surprise attack guaranteed success. The Ermakovites descended to the area of ​​the present city of Turinsk, where they scattered the Khan’s vanguard. The main battle took place on October 26 on the Irtysh, at Cape Podchuvash: Ermak defeated the Tatars of Mametkul, Kuchum’s nephew, entered Kashlyk, the capital of the Siberian Khanate, 17 km from Tobolsk, and found there many valuable goods and furs. Four days later the Khanty arrived with food supplies and furs, followed by local Tatars with gifts. Ermak greeted everyone with “kindness and greetings” and, imposing a tax (yasak), promised protection from enemies. In early December, Mametkul's warriors killed a group of Cossacks fishing on Lake Abalak, near Kashlyk. Ermak overtook the Tatars and destroyed almost everyone, but Mametkul escaped.

Trip to the Ob and embassy to Moscow

To collect yasyk on the lower Irtysh in March 1583, Ermak sent a party of mounted Cossacks. They met little resistance. After the ice drift, the Cossacks descended the Irtysh on plows, under the guise of tribute, seizing valuables from riverine villages. Along the Ob, the Cossacks reached the hilly Belogorye, where the river, skirting the Siberian Uvaly, turns sharply to the north. Here they found only abandoned dwellings, and on May 29 the detachment turned back. To receive help, Ermak sent 25 Cossacks to Moscow. The embassy arrived in the capital at the end of summer. The Tsar rewarded all participants in the Siberian campaign, forgave state criminals who had sided with Ermak earlier, and promised to send 300 more archers.

Death of Ermak

The death of Ivan the Terrible disrupted many plans, and the Cossack archers reached Ermak only in the fall at the height of the uprising raised by Karachi (Kuchum’s highest adviser). Small groups of Cossacks, scattered over a vast territory, were killed, and the main forces of Ermak, together with reinforcements from Moscow, were blocked in Kashlyk on March 12, 1585. The supply of food stopped, and famine began among the Russians; many died. At the end of June, in a night raid, the Cossacks killed almost all the Tatars and captured a food train; the siege was lifted, but Ermak was left with about 300 fighters. A few weeks later he received false news about a trade caravan heading to Kashlyk. Ermak believed and in July, with 108 Cossacks, he marched to the mouth of the Vagai, defeating the Tatars there. But I didn’t find out anything about the caravan. Ermak won his second victory near the mouth of the Ishim. Soon he again received a message about a trade caravan and again hurried to the mouth of the Vagai. On a rainy night, the treacherous Kuchum unexpectedly attacked the Cossack camp and killed about 20 people, Ermak also died. 90 Cossacks escaped in plows. The death of Ataman Ermak, who was the soul of all campaigns, broke the spirit of the Cossacks and they, leaving Kashlyk on August 15, returned to Rus'.

About Ermak back in the 16th century. legends and songs were composed, and later his image inspired many writers and artists. A number of settlements, a river, and two icebreakers are named in honor of Ermak. In 1904, a monument to him was erected in Novocherkassk (sculptor V. A. Beklemishev, architect M. O. Mikeshin); his figure stands out on the monument to the 1000th anniversary of Russia in Novgorod. By the way, if you need to perform work with a variety of metal structures, then he can help