Origin

Conquest of Siberia

Performance evaluation

Death of Ermak

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

Origin

Origin Ermak unknown exactly, there are several versions. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama. 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 of name Ermolai, but Ermak sounded like an abbreviation. Other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman And Eremeya. One chronicle, considering Ermak's name a nickname, gives him the Christian name Vasily. 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. This speaks in favor of the theory preserved by the Turks of Russia and Kazakhstan that Ermak was a traitor and was baptized, from which he became an outcast (Cossack), which is why he managed to lead Russian troops through the territories of the Turkic khanates. The theory is also supported by the fact that the name Ermak was not and is not used in Russia when naming babies.

Ermak was first the ataman of one of the many Cossack squads on the Volga who protected the population from tyranny and robbery by the Crimean Tatars. In 1579, a squad of Cossacks (more than 500 people), under the command of atamans Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak was invited by the Ural merchants the 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, then 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.

Conquest of Siberia

On September 1, 1581, by order of Ivan the Terrible, a squad of Cossacks under the main command of Ermak set out on a campaign beyond the Stone Belt (Ural) from Orel-gorod. According to another version, proposed by the historian R. G. Skrynnikov, the campaign of Ermak, Ivan Koltso and Nikita Pan to Siberia dates back to 1582, since peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was concluded in January 1582, and at the end of 1581 Ermak was still fighting 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).

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 (Remizov 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, along the rivers Zheravle, Barancha 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 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 Siberia, abandoned by the Tatars. In December, Kuchum’s commander, Mametkul, destroyed one Cossack detachment from an ambush on Lake Abalatskoye, but the following spring 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, encountering stubborn resistance everywhere, and took the Ostyak city of Nazim. After the capture of the city of Siberia, Ermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the Tsar, Ataman Koltso.

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 diminished in battle. The atamans died one after another: during the capture of Nazim, Nikita Pan was killed; in the spring of 1584, the Tatars killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov. Ataman Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with heavy losses forced their khan, Karacha, to retreat.

On August 6, 1585, Ermak Timofeevich also died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh. During an overnight stay at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and destroyed the entire detachment.

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” (Skrynnikov).

Death of Ermak

According to the latest data, after Ermak drowned in the Irtysh, downstream (according to Siberian-Tatar legends) a Tatar fisherman caught him with a net not far from the site of the bloody battle where he fell. 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 question of the authenticity of the burial is currently being considered.

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.

• Monuments in the cities: Novocherkassk, Tobolsk (in the form of a stele), 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).
• High relief on the frieze of the monument “Millennium of Russia”. 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: Omsk, Berezniki, Novocherkassk (square), Lipetsk and Rostov-on-Don (alleys).
• Feature film “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.

Ermak is an act that in its scale can only be compared with the conquest of America by Hernan Cortez. However, if you can find a lot of biographical information about the famous Spanish conquistador, then only a few facts are known for certain about the life of the Russian chieftain, and even then they are quite contradictory.

Where was Ermak born?

As you know, the conquest of Siberia took place in the 16th century. Unfortunately, in those days, such an event as the birth of a child in a peasant family usually did not find any documentary reflection. Therefore, it is not surprising that today it is impossible to give an exact answer to the question: “Where did Ermak’s family live at the time of his birth?” Some information on this issue is in the Cherepanov Chronicle, which tells how the grandfather of the future ataman helped the Murom “dashing people”, for which he was imprisoned, and his family settled in the estates of the Stroganovs. However, many researchers are not inclined to trust this manuscript, especially since its authors include a certain competent coachman from Tobolsk, Ilya Cherepanov. Another document - “The Legend of the Siberian Land” - points to Suzdal as the place where Ermak’s family lived long before his birth. Further in the chronicle it is narrated that his grandfather, together with his sons, one of whom was named Timofey, moved to Yuryevtse-Povolsky, where he had five grandchildren, including Vasily. As stated in the “Tale,” it was this boy who was later to become the conqueror of Siberia.

Pomeranian version of the origin of the chieftain

Some researchers believe that the question of where Ermak’s family lived should be answered: “In the village of Borok, Arkhangelsk region.” According to the same version, the chieftain’s real name was Ermolai, or Ermil, and he ended up on the Volga, trying to escape the famine that had gripped the Russian North. There the young man became a “chury” (servant-squire) to an elderly Cossack, and from 1563 he began to go on campaigns.

Life of Ermak before the Siberian campaigns

The only reliable information regarding the biography of the ataman before his appearance on the lands of the Stroganovs is the memoirs of his fellow Cossacks. In particular, two veterans claimed to have spent their youth serving in the Volga villages under the conqueror of Siberia. Thus, to the question of where Ermak lived around 1565, we can answer that he was in the Volga region and was already an ataman. This means that at that time he was no less than 20 years old. More information has been preserved about Ermak’s military exploits. Thus, from a letter from the Lithuanian commandant of the city of Mogilev to King Stefan Batory, you can find out that he participated as a Cossack centurion and distinguished himself during the siege of the Mogilev fortress. Later, his detachment helped Khvorostinin stop the advance of the Swedes. As for whether Ermak’s wife and children existed, there is no mention of them in any source.

Ermak and the Stroganovs

In 1582, the famous merchants Stroganov invited a Cossack squad consisting of 540 Cossacks to serve. Their leader was Ataman Ermak, who was already famous as a fearless warrior and an excellent commander. The Stroganovs' goal was to ensure the protection of their lands from frequent attacks by troops of the Siberian Khan Kuchum. The army arrived in the Chusovsky towns in the summer of 1582 and remained there until September, after which it went to fight for the Stone Belt, as it was called in those days. There are records that the Stroganovs “opened their barns for the military men” and supplied them with everything necessary for the campaign.

Conquest of Siberia

Ermak's army used plows as a means of transportation. In total, the Cossacks had 80 ships, on which 840 people of different nationalities went on a campaign. Having risen through the water to the Tagil Pass, Ermak’s squad was forced to drag the plows along the ground to the Zheravlya River and then get to Tobol, on the banks of which a battle took place with the army of the Siberian Khan Kuchum. Having won the battle, the Cossacks captured the city of Kashlyk. Then representatives of local peoples began to come to bow to Ermak, whom the ataman “met kindly” and forced to swear allegiance. In 1582, he sent one of his comrades with the good news about the conquest of Siberia. The king was delighted with the news received and sent Ermak rich gifts and 300 military men to help. The detachment arrived in Siberia in the fall of 1583. However, by this time fortune had turned away from the ataman, many of his commanders were killed in battles with the Tatars.

Where Ermak drowned: what the Cossacks said

At the time of his death, the famous ataman was already a fairly well-known person, therefore, several years after the last battle of the Cossacks with the army of Kuchum, on the orders of the Tobolsk Archbishop Kipriyan, an investigation was carried out and the surviving comrades of Ermak were interrogated. In addition, the Tatars who fought as part of the Khan’s army also gave testimony.

If we combine all the facts presented by eyewitnesses, the following picture emerges: the last battle took place on the Vagai bow, where the Cossacks spent the night. They set up “canopy” tents on the banks of the Irtysh, not far from their plows, on which each warrior had his own specific place and his own pilot. That night a storm broke out, and therefore Kuchum’s detachment managed to take them by surprise. Despite this, most of the Cossacks managed to get on their ships and sail away. Further, contradictions begin in written sources. In particular, in an earlier document, recorded from the words of the surviving veterans of Ermak’s army, it is indicated that they reproach themselves because they abandoned the ataman and a small handful of comrades, and they themselves left the scene of the battle on the plows. Completely different information is contained in the synodial record, which the deacons compiled later, and there you can read that all the Cossacks died along with Ermak, and only one of them escaped and spoke about the defeat of the detachment.

The death of Ermak according to the Tatars

The most interesting thing is that information about the death of the ataman in the waves of the Irtysh near the Vagai bow is found only in records made from the words of the Tatars. In particular, many former soldiers claimed that Ermak nevertheless defeated the attackers and, trying to get to the sailing Cossack ships, went to the bottom. However, there are no records indicating whether the chieftain was wearing armor at that moment.

Legends about the conqueror of Siberia

Both the life and death of the great ataman over the past centuries have become overgrown with many myths. For example, one of the legends mentions Ermak’s failed wife. As stated in the Cossack legend, one day the Tatar Murza of the Sargach volost, wanting to secure Ermak’s friendship, brought his beautiful daughter to his camp and offered to take her as his wife. However, the chieftain rejected this proposal and sent the girl home. In addition, everyone knows the story about the chain mail, allegedly given to Ermak by Ivan the Terrible and causing the death of the hero. As some historians claim, even if the ataman ended up at the bottom of the Irtysh because of heavy armor, it could not possibly have been a gift from the tsar.

History is a book that will never be completely written. Moreover, it has many blank pages that meticulous researchers can fill in. Perhaps they will someday be able to find out where Ermak’s family lived, or they will be able to tell us some other interesting facts regarding the personality of this national hero of Russia, who conquered the vast expanses of Siberia for his homeland.

Ermak Timofeevich

E Rmak Timofeevich - conqueror of Siberia. The origin of Ermak is unknown exactly: according to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama River (Cherepanovskaya Chronicle), according to another - a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don (Bronevsky). His name, according to the professor, is a change from the name “Ermolai”; other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman and Eremey. One chronicle, considering Ermak's name a nickname, gives him the Christian name Vasily. Ermak was at first the chieftain of one of the numerous Cossack gangs that plundered on the Volga and robbed not only Russian merchants and Persian ambassadors, but also royal ships. Fleeing from the Moscow governors, a squad of Cossacks (more than 500 people), under the command of atamans Ermak Timofeevich, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and, went up the Kama and in June 1579 arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovsky towns of the brothers. Here the Cossacks lived for two years and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from attacks by neighboring foreigners. On September 1, 1581, a squad of Cossacks, under the main command of Ermak, set out on a campaign beyond the Stone Belt (Ural). 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, etc.), 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). 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 (Remizov Chronicle) and only in the spring, along the Zheravle, Barancha and Tagil rivers, they sailed 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 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. 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 Siberia, abandoned by the Tatars. In December, the military leader Kuchum Mametkul destroyed, from an ambush, one Cossack detachment on Lake Abalatskoye; but the following spring the Cossacks dealt a new blow to Kuchum, capturing Mametkul on the Vagai River. Ermak used the summer of 1583 to conquer the Tatar towns and uluses along the Irtysh and Ob rivers, meeting stubborn resistance everywhere, and took the Ostyak city of Nazim. After the capture of Siberia, Ermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the Tsar - Ataman Ring. received him very kindly, richly presented the Cossacks and sent the prince 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 diminished in battle. The atamans died one after another: during the capture of Nazim, Nikita Pan was killed; in the spring of 1584, the Tatars treacherously killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov. Ataman Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with heavy losses forced their khan, Karacha, to retreat. On August 6, 1584, Ermak Timofeevich also died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh; Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks at night and destroyed the entire detachment. Ermak, according to legend, threw himself into the river and drowned before reaching his plow. 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. 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 or the degree of his personal influence. - Wed. Siberian Chronicles, published (St. Petersburg, 1821); Remizov (Kungur) Chronicle, published by the archival commission.; Supplements to Acts of History, vol. I, no. 117; "Siberian History"; Nebolsin "Conquest of Siberia"; "Journal of the Ministry of Public Education" 1882; No. 5; "History of the Don Army", vol. I;

The origin of Ermak is not known exactly, therefore the date of his birth is unknown; there are several versions on this matter. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama River, according to another, he was a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don. But recently, the version about Ermak’s Pomeranian origin has been heard more and more often.

There is also controversy over his name: there is an opinion that “Ermak” is a nickname derived from the name of a cooking pot. And some researchers tried to decipher his name as a modified Ermolai, Ermila and even Hermogenes. Ermak Timofeevich Alenin was born, according to different versions, in 1532, 1534 or 1542.

At first he was the chieftain of one of the many Cossack squads. On the Volga he protected the population from arbitrariness and robbery by the Crimean Tatars. In 1579, a squad of Cossacks under his command was invited by the Ural merchants Stroganov to defend against regular attacks from the Siberian Khan Kuchum. In June 1579, the squad arrived at the Chusovaya River. Here the Cossacks lived for two years and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from predatory attacks. Ermak also took part in the Livonian War, commanding a Cossack hundred during the battle with the Lithuanians for Smolensk.

Cossack squad On September 1, 1581, under the main command of Ermak, she set out on a campaign beyond the Urals. The initiative of this campaign, according to the Esipovskaya and Remizovskaya chronicles, belonged to Ermak himself. 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. During the winter, 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. Only in the spring, along the rivers Zheravle, Barancha 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 this army was defeated by Ermak on the banks of the Tobol, at the Babasan tract. Finally, on the Irtysh, the Cossacks inflicted a final defeat on the Tatars in the Battle of Cape Chuvashev. On October 26, 1582, Ermak entered Siberia, abandoned by the Tatars.

Ermak used the summer of 1583 to conquer the Tatars 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, Ermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the Tsar. Ivan the Terrible received the ambassador very kindly, richly presented the Cossacks with gifts and sent reinforcements with 300 warriors to reinforce them. The royal governors arrived at Ermak in the fall of 1583, but their detachment could not help the Cossack squad.

The atamans died one after another, and on August 16, 1585, Ermak Timofeevich also died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh. During an overnight stay at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and destroyed the entire detachment. 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.

Around the origin of Ermak and his name alone, even in scientific literature, not to mention folklore, a huge number of versions have developed. Some historians considered him a Pomor, a native of the Russian North, others - a native of the Urals, who came from the Kama and Chusovaya rivers in his youth. There is also a version about the Turkic origin of Ermak. The sonorous name of the legendary chieftain is considered to be a derivative of Ermolai, Ermil, Eremey, and is even recognized as the nickname of a Cossack baptized by Vasily. The great Russian historian N.M. Karamzin cited in his “History of the Russian State” a description of Ermak’s appearance: “He had a noble appearance, dignified, average height, strong muscles, broad shoulders; had a flat but pleasant face, a black beard, dark, curly hair, bright, quick eyes, the mirror of an ardent, strong soul, a penetrating mind.” This portrait definitely reconciles any disputes about Ermak’s small homeland. It is described poetically, but Karamzin himself called the chapter on Siberia a poem.

However, no matter where Ermak Timofeevich was born and no matter what he looked like, we can say with confidence that at first he led the Cossack squad on the Volga, robbed merchant ships following the river and was quite pleased with it. What happened next?

This is how brothers meet

In the spring of 1581, smoke rose into the sky from the roofs of Russian settlements in the estates of the Stroganov merchants in the Kama region, which were being ravaged by the Nogai Tatars. A little later, the Voguls rebelled there, the Cheremis in the Volga region, and at the end of summer the Pelym prince Ablegirim descended on the Urals: “ the prince with an army, and with him seven hundred people, their settlements on Koiva, and on Obva, and on Yaiva, and on Chusovaya, and on Sylva, they burned out all the villages, and beat people and peasants, captured women and children, and horses and the animal was driven away...". The Stroganovs notified Moscow about this at the end of the year, but by that time the formidable tsar was already aware of the evil deeds going on. At the turn of June - July 1581, the Cossacks burned the capital of the Nogai Horde, Saraichik.

Parsun Ermak Timofeevich, created in the 18th century. The unknown author of the portrait depicted the ataman in Western equipment, which became the basis for the emergence of a version about the participation of the Germans in the Siberian campaign

At the same time, the ambassador of the Russian kingdom to the Nogais, V.I. Pelepelitsyn, got ready to set off on a journey to Moscow with the envoys of Prince Urus, a plentiful guard of three hundred horsemen and Bukhara merchants. On the Volga, near present-day Samara, the caravan was attacked and robbed by dashing Cossacks: “Ivan Koltso, and Bogdan Borbosha, and Mikita Pan, and Savva Boldyrya and his companions...”. Among the names of Ermak's future associates, he himself is not mentioned, although a year earlier he stole a caravan of a thousand heads from the Nogai Murza, and in the spring of 1581 - sixty more horses. Speedy horses were useful to the Cossacks on the western outskirts of the kingdom.

Probably, Ermak took part in the battles of the Livonian War, being not an ordinary Cossack, but a centurion. The most important evidence of this is the text of a letter from the commandant of Mogilev, sent in 1581 to Stefan Batory, which mentions "Ermak Timofeevich - Cossack Ataman".

Lion and unicorn on the banner of Ermak, which was with him during the conquest of Siberia

By August 1581, the village, which was headed by Ermak, according to the historian A.T. Shashkov, along with other troops, was sent by Ivan IV to the Volga. They went to Sosnovy Island, where the free Cossacks took the Russian-Nogai embassy by surprise. It was there that Ermak and his faithful comrades in the Siberian campaign met. Some of the Horde managed to escape to Yaik. The united Cossacks pursued them. The atamans understood: the tsar would not pat heads for a raid on the embassy caravan; rather, heads would roll off the chopping block. At the council it was decided to proceed to the Urals. Along the Volga, the Cossacks reached the Kama, upstream they reached the Chusovaya River, then Sylva, and here they clashed with the people of the Vogul prince Alegirim: “Someone was in Siberia and the Pelym prince Aplygarym fought with his Tatars in Perm the Great”.

"Seven Cossacks"

Behind Lord Pelym stood the Siberian Khan Kuchum. Having seized power over the expanses around the Irtysh and Tobol back in 1563, he continued to pay yasak to the Moscow Tsar. But the suppression of pockets of resistance to the usurper in Siberia among the Tatars, Khanty and Mansi freed his hands. The eastern Russian outskirts began to burn.

Fragments from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880). Left: “Hearing Ermak from many Chusovlyans about Siberia as the king is the owner, beyond the Stone the rivers flow in two, to Rus' and to Siberia, from the portage of the river Nitsa, Tagil, Tura fell into Tobol, and the Vogulichi live along them, ride reindeer...” . On the right: “Assemblies of soldiers in the summer of 7086 and 7, with Ermak from the Don, from the Volga and from Eik, from Astrakhan, from Kazan, stealing, breaking the sovereign's state courts of ambassadors and Bukhartsov at the mouth of the Volga river. And hearing those sent from the king with execution and howling from them, many others fled to various cities and towns.”
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The Stroganovs beat Ivan the Terrible with their foreheads, asking first for warriors for protection, and soon for permission to hire them themselves. Right then Ermak and his comrades came to Chusovaya. The merchants were careful not to mention them in the petition: taking the sovereign’s robbers at their expense would be more expensive for themselves. At the end of 1581, Tsar Ivan gave the Stroganovs the go-ahead not only to hire warriors, but also to take retaliatory measures: « And those Vogulichs come to their forts with war and make troubles... And the Vogulichs would come against them, and I will deal with them... besiege them with war, and it is not a good idea for them to steal in the future.”. At the same time, a new governor arrived in the Urals, in Cherdyn - none other than V.I. Pelepelitsyn. He did not forget what he had experienced, although he was in no hurry to recall his grievances to Ermak’s people. They spent the winter on Sylva, periodically organizing forays into the Vogul uluses. The spring of 1582 broke up the ice on the rivers, and after this came a letter from the tsar. The Stroganovs crossed themselves and sent an embassy to the Cossacks. Having accepted the invitation of the merchants, on May 9 they left the camp on Sylva and went down to the mouth of Chusovaya. Initially, the agreement boiled down to a trip to Pelym to repay Ablegirim in the same coin. Salt industrialists were ready to supply the Cossacks with weapons and supplies conscientiously.

It took most of the summer to get ready. At the end of August, the Siberians with the Voguls themselves attacked Russian towns, just like a year ago. The raid was led by the eldest son of Khan Kuchum Alei. The people of the Pelym prince also took part in it. “At this time, Ermak’s squad, which repelled the attack of Aley’s army at the Nizhnechusovskaya fort and thereby fulfilled its obligations to M. Ya. Stroganov, changed its plans regarding the campaign against Pelym,”- writes Shashkov. - “The Volga Cossacks decided to respond blow to blow. And therefore their main goal has now become Siberia.”.

For the Stone!

To call the expedition an adventure is to say nothing. Historians still argue about the size of Ermak’s army. The minimum is usually considered to be 540 “Orthodox warriors”, which are often “reinforced” by three hundred Poles, Lithuanians and Germans. The Stroganovs allegedly bought prisoners of war from the front of the Livonian War from the Tsar, and then entrusted them to the ataman. The main argument is the similar Western European equipment of Ermak and his warriors in later images. True, according to Semyon Remezov, all participants in the campaign, and primarily its leader, had such armor and helmets. Well, the mentioned number is indirectly supported by the number of plows on which Ermak’s comrades went “for the Stone”: 27 ships, 20 soldiers on each.

The path was incredibly difficult. Up the Chusovaya the Cossacks went to the Serebryanka River, from which the plows had to be dragged on dry land for as much as 25 versts (1 verst is equal to 1.07 km) to the Baranchi River, from it to Tagil, then to Tura, from Tura to Tobol... « Cossack plows, adapted for sailing on the seas, sailed, maneuvering around numerous river turns,”- noted the outstanding Soviet historian R. G. Skrynnikov. - “The rowers, replacing each other, leaned on the oars”.

Fragment from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880): “When the spring came, like the brave Cossacks, they saw and understood that the Siberian country was rich and abundant in everything and the people living in it were not warriors, and the Mayans swam down Tagil in 1 day, breaking up the courts in Tura and before the first prince Epanchi, where Epanchin Useninovo now stands; and that many Hagaryans gathered and put up the battles for many days, like a great bow, uphill for 3 days, and in that bow the velmi fought until they left, and overcame that Cossacks.”
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The beginning of Ermak’s Siberian campaign is still often dated to the autumn of 1581: with a long journey and wintering in the mountains, waiting until the ice broke up on Tagil, and so on. Despite the complexity of the Cossacks’ path, this version should be considered an exaggeration. The campaign did not drag on for a whole year - it proceeded as it began, quickly and decisively. The journey to the capital of Kuchum would have been greatly slowed down by skirmishes with soldiers from the uluses submissive to him, but the Pogodin Chronicle does not contain descriptions of any serious battles. The first of these was a meeting with Epanchin. According to the description carried out by the clerks of the Ambassadorial Prikaz in Moscow from the words of associate Ermak, « rowed to the village to Epanchina... and here Ermak and the Totara had a fight with the Kuchyumovs, but the Tatar language was not confiscated". One of the khan's subjects managed to escape. He probably brought the news to Kashlyk about aliens with strange bows that burst with fire, blow smoke and sow death with invisible arrows.

Ermak lost the precious effect of surprise, a clear advantage in a fight with a strong superiority of enemy forces. But neither the ataman retreated from his plan, nor Kuchum was greatly alarmed: after all, he had already made his move, throwing Aley and his army into the Russian settlements. Moscow was waging a difficult war in the west and could not afford the luxury of scattering squads in the east - perhaps this is how the khan reasoned. Nevertheless, Kuchum hastened to call together all the Siberian uluses capable of holding a bow and blade to fight back. But the fact that he called the Khanty and Mansi villages under his banner today raises doubts among historians. Soon the sails of the Cossack plows glittered on the surface of Tobol. The place of the historical meeting of the Cossack atamans was the crossing on the Volga, and the khan went with his army to the bank of the Irtysh, to Cape Chuvashev.

The date of the battle is another subject of dispute among historians. It is not known exactly until now; it is “assigned” by different authors to different days, but the majority of both chroniclers and scientists agree on October 26 (November 5, new style) 1582. According to one version, Ermak even deliberately timed the slaughter to coincide with the day of remembrance of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki. « Russian scribes, most likely, tried to give symbolic meaning to “The Capture of Siberia,”- notes historian Ya. G. Solodkin.

Fragments from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880) about the battle on Cape Chuvashev. Left: “All the Cossacks were contemplating a perfect blow, and behold the 4th battle from Kuchyumlyany. Kuchyumu is standing on the mountain and with his son Mametkul at the fence; When the Cossacks, by the will of God, left the city... And they all collapsed together, and there was a great battle...". On the right: “The Kuchumlyans didn’t have any weapons, just bows and arrows, spears and sabers. Chuvash has 2 guns. The Cossacks said nothing to them; They threw them from the mountain into the Irtysh. Standing Kuchyum on the Chuvashskaya mountain and seeing many visions of his own, he cried a lot...”
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There were ten or even twenty times fewer Cossacks than Siberians. However, they had nowhere to retreat, and besides, Ermak’s comrades had firearms. At the beginning of the battle, when the Cossacks, like the marines, landed on the shore from the plows, the “fiery battle” did not bring much harm to the opponents who had taken refuge behind the log tine. However, when the Khan’s nephew Mametkul led the Siberian Tatars out from behind cover and launched an attack, the Cossacks fired several more successful volleys from arquebuses. This was enough for the Ostyak and Vogul warriors. Their princes began to lead people away from the battlefield. Kuchum's lancers tried to save the situation with a desperate blow led by Mametkul, but the bullet overtook him too. The wounded Siberian military leader was almost captured. The Khan's army dispersed. Kuchum left the capital and fled. Sometimes historians allow up to two days between the battle and the entry into Kashlyk, although it is unclear why the Cossacks hesitated so much. On the same day, the atamans and their comrades entered the abandoned Siberian settlement.

Legends of a legend

The subsequent history of Ermak’s expedition is no less epic than its prehistory and progress to Cape Chuvashev. This definition is not accidental: even well-known events considered traditional cause researchers to argue until they are hoarse. For example, on December 5 of the same 1582, Mametkul, who had recovered from his wound, led a detachment and attacked the Cossacks of Ataman Bogdan Bryazga, who had gone fishing on Lake Abalak. They were killed. The angry Ermak rushed in pursuit. Was it a battle that overshadowed Cape Chuvash, or a minor skirmish? Sources provide basis for both points of view.

"Conquest of Siberia by Ermak." Artist Vasily Surikov, 1895

Next, the famous 1583 embassy to Moscow from the Cossacks, bowing at the feet of Ivan the Terrible in Siberia. Alexey Tolstoy in “Prince Serebryany” perfectly described this ray of light in the darkening kingdom on the eve of the Troubles with the arrival at the court of first the Stroganovs, and then the dashing ataman Ivan Ring: "CThe king extended his hand to him, and the Ring rose from the ground and, in order not to stand directly on the scarlet foot of the throne, first threw his lamb’s cap on him, stepped on it with one foot and, bending low, put his mouth to the hand of John, who hugged him and kissed my head". In fact, even the winners of Kuchum would hardly have reached the capital without a travel document or a letter from the sovereign. The diploma, by the way, was disgraced. In it, Ivan the Terrible, from the words of Voivode Pelepelitsyn, accused both the Stroganovs and the Cossacks: “And that was done by your treason... You took the Vogulichi and Votyaks and Pelymtsy away from our salaries, and bullied them and came to fight them, and with that fervor you quarreled with the Siberian Saltan, and, having called the Volga atamans to you, hired thieves into your prisons without our decree."

Ivan Ring allegedly died at the hands of the servants of Khan Kuchum Karachi’s adviser, who treacherously lured the ataman and 40 other Cossacks into a trap. However, if the envoys of Karachi came to Kashlyk, as stated in the work of Semyon Esipov, they should have literally encountered there the people of the governor Semyon Bolkhovsky, who had arrived exactly to help Ermak. In addition, could a dashing band led by an experienced ataman be flattered by the promises of an enemy nobleman? Be that as it may, what happened was a legend already for the first chroniclers of the campaign.

“The Ermakov ambassadors - Ataman Ring and his comrades strike Ivan the Terrible with their foreheads for the Kingdom of Siberia.” 19th century engraving

Finally, the date of Ermak’s own death is approximately clear - it overtook the victor Kuchum in August 1584. Her circumstances are shrouded in the fog of uncertainty. It is likely that the chieftain drowned in the river during the battle. However, the legend about the death of Ermak due to the heavy shell donated by Ivan the Terrible allegedly dragging him to the bottom should remain among the legends.

In conclusion, I would like to return to the debate about Ermak’s small homeland: perhaps, they are not accidental after all. A simple Cossack was destined to become, without exaggeration, a national hero, the personification of Russia’s movement to the east, “beyond the Stone,” to the Pacific Ocean - and a pioneer on this path. Ermak’s Siberian campaign took place on the eve of the Time of Troubles. It crippled the state, but did not erase the track trodden by the ataman. In a certain sense, two dates - November 5, the day Yermak captured the capital of the Siberian Khanate, and November 4, now National Unity Day - are brought together in Russian history not only by the calendar.

Literature:

1. Zuev A.S. Motivation of actions and tactics of Ermak’s squad in relation to Siberian foreigners // Ural Historical Bulletin. 2011. No. 3 (23). pp. 26-34.
2. Zuev Yu. A., Kadyrbaev A. Sh. Ermak’s campaign in Siberia: Turkic motifs in the Russian theme // Bulletin of Eurasia. 2000. No. 3 (10). pp. 38-60.
3. Skrynnikov R. G. Ermak. M., 2008.
4. Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: debatable problems of history and source study. Nizhnevartovsk, 2015.
5. Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: riddles and solutions. Nizhnevartovsk, 2010.
6. Solodkin Ya. G. Ostyak princes and Khan Kuchum on the eve of the “Capture of Siberia” (on the interpretation of one chronicle news // Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2017. No. 1 (28). P. 128-135.
7. Shashkov A. T. Ermak’s Siberian campaign: chronology of events of 1581-1582. // News of Ural State University. 1997. No. 7. P. 35-50.