Ermak years. Ermak and the conquest of Siberia

29.01.2024 | State

Origin

The origin of Ermak is not exactly known; there are several versions.

“Unknown by birth, famous by soul”, 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, with its center in the village of Borok (now in the Vinogradovsky district of the Arkhangelsk region).

A description of his appearance has been preserved, 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 ataman was

“Velmi is courageous, and humane, and visionary, and pleased with all wisdom, flat-faced, black-haired, of average age [that is, height], and flat, and broad-shouldered.”

Probably, Ermak was first the ataman of one of the numerous bands of Volga Cossacks who protected the population on the Volga from arbitrariness and robbery on the part of the Crimean and Astrakhan Tatars. This is evidenced by the petitions of the “old” Cossacks addressed to the Tsar that have reached us, namely: Ermak’s comrade-in-arms Gavrila Ilyin wrote that he “flew” (carried out military service) with Ermak in the Wild Field for 20 years, another veteran Gavrila Ivanov wrote that he served to the king on the field for twenty years with Ermak in the village"and in the villages of other atamans.

Ermak's Siberian campaign

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 at the disposal of the future enemy of the Cossacks, Khan Kuchum, were forces several times larger than Ermak’s squad, but armed much worse. According to 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.

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

Death of Ermak

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.

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.

Notes

Literature

Sources

Letter from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich to the Yugra land to Prince Pevgey and all the princes of Sorykid about the collection of tribute and its delivery to Moscow // Tobolsk chronograph. Collection. Vol. 4. - Ekaterinburg, 2004. P. 6. - ISBN 5-85383-275-1
Letter from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich to Chusovaya Maxim and Nikita Stroganov about sending Volga Cossacks Ermak Timofeevich and his comrades to Cherdyn // Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Vol. 4. - Ekaterinburg, 2004. P.7-8. - ISBN 5-85383-275-1
Letter from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich to Semyon, Maxim and Nikita Stroganov on the preparation for spring of 15 plows for people and supplies sent to Siberia // Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Vol. 4. - Ekaterinburg, 2004. pp. 8-9. - ISBN 5-85383-275-1
“Additions to historical acts”, vol. I, no. 117;
Remizov (Kungur) Chronicle, ed. archaeological commission;
Wed. Siberian Chronicles, ed. Spassky (St. Petersburg, 1821);
Rychkov A.V. Rezhevsky treasures. - Ural University, 2004. - 40 p. - 1500 copies. - ISBN 5-7996-0213-7

Research

Ataman Ermak Timofeevich, conqueror of the Siberian kingdom. - M., 1905. 116 p.
Blazhes V.V. On the name of the conqueror of Siberia in historical literature and folklore // Our region. Materials of the 5th Sverdlovsk Regional Local History Conference. - Sverdlovsk, 1971. - P. 247-251. (historiography of the problem)
Buzukashvili M. I. Ermak. - M., 1989. - 144 p.
Gritsenko N. Erected in 1839 // Siberian Capital, 2000, No. 1. - P. 44-49. (monument to Ermak in Tobolsk)
Dergacheva-Skop E. Brief stories about Ermak’s campaign in Siberia // Siberia in the past, present and future. Vol. III. History and culture of the peoples of Siberia: Abstracts of reports and communications of the All-Union Scientific Conference (October 13-15, 1981). - Novosibirsk, 1981. - pp. 16-18.
Zherebtsov I. L. Komi - associates of Ermak Timofeevich and Semyon Dezhnev // NeVton: Almanac. - 2001. - No. 1. - P. 5-60.
Zakshauskienė E. Badge from Ermak’s chain mail // Monuments of the Fatherland. All Russia: Almanac. No. 56. Book. 1. The first capital of Siberia. - M., 2002. P. 87-88.
Katanov N. F. The legend of the Tobolsk Tatars about Kuchum and Ermak // Tobolsk chronograph. Collection. Vol. 4. - Ekaterinburg, 2004. - P. 145-167. - ISBN 5-85383-275-1 (first published: same // Yearbook of the Tobolsk Provincial Museum. 1895-1896. - Issue V. - pp. 1-12)
Katargina M. N. The plot of the death of Ermak: chronicle materials. Historical songs. Legends. Russian novel of the 20-50s of the XX century // Yearbook of the Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore: 1994. - Tyumen, 1997. - pp. 232-239. - ISBN 5-87591-004-6
Kozlova N.K. About “Chudi”, Tatars, Ermak and Siberian burial mounds // Kaplya [Omsk]. - 1995. - P. 119-133.
Kolesnikov A. D. Ermak. - Omsk, 1983. - 140 p.
Kopylov V. E. Countrymen in the names of minerals // Kopylov V. E. Shout of memory (History of the Tyumen region through the eyes of an engineer). Book one. - Tyumen, 2000. - P. 58-60. (including about the mineral ermakite)
Kopylov D. I. Ermak. - Irkutsk, 1989. - 139 p.
Kreknina L. I. Ermak's theme in the works of P. P. Ershov // Yearbook of the Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore: 1994. - Tyumen, 1997. - pp. 240-245. - ISBN 5-87591-004-6
Kuznetsov E.V. Bibliography of Ermak: Experience of indicating little-known works in Russian and partly in foreign languages about the conqueror of Siberia // Calendar of the Tobolsk province for 1892. - Tobolsk, 1891. - P. 140-169.
Kuznetsov E.V. Information about Ermak’s banners // Tobolsk Provincial Gazette. - 1892. - No. 43.
Kuznetsov E.V. Finding a conqueror’s gun in Siberia // Kuznetsov E.V. Siberian chronicler. - Tyumen, 1999. - P. 302-306. - ISBN 5-93020-024-6
Kuznetsov E.V. Initial literature about Ermak // Tobolsk Provincial Gazette. - 1890. - No. 33, 35.
Kuznetsov E.V. About the essay by A.V. Oksenov “Ermak in the epics of the Russian people”: Bibliography of news // Tobolsk Provincial Gazette. - 1892. - No. 35.
Kuznetsov E.V. Legends and guesses about the Christian name Ermak // Kuznetsov E.V. Siberian chronicler. - Tyumen, 1999. - P.9-48. - ISBN 5-93020-024-6 (see also: the same // Lukich. - 1998. - Part 2. - P. 92-127)
Miller,"Siberian History";
Nebolsin P.I. Conquest of Siberia // Tobolsk chronograph. Collection. Vol. 3. - Ekaterinburg, 1998. - P. 16-69. ISBN 5-85383-127-5
Oksenov A.V. Ermak in the epics of the Russian people // Historical Bulletin, 1892. - T. 49. - No. 8. - P. 424-442.
Panishev E. A. The death of Ermak in Tatar and Russian legends // Yearbook-2002 of the Tobolsk Museum-Reserve. - Tobolsk, 2003. - P. 228-230.
Parkhimovich S. The riddle of the chieftain's name // Lukich. - 1998. - No. 2. - P. 128-130. (about the Christian name Ermak)
Skrynnikov R. G. Ermak. - M., 2008. - 255 s (ZhZL series) - ISBN 978-5-235-03095-4
Skrynnikov R. G. Siberian expedition of Ermak. - Novosibirsk, 1986. - 290 p.
Solodkin Ya. Did Ermak Timofeevich have a double? // Yugra. - 2002. - No. 9. - P. 72-73.
Solodkin Ya. G. To the study of chronicle sources about Ermak’s Siberian expedition // Abstracts of reports and messages of the scientific-practical conference “Slovtsov Readings-95”. - Tyumen, 1996. pp. 113-116.
Solodkin Ya. G. On the debate about the origin of Ermak // Western Siberia: history and modernity: Notes on local history. Vol. II. - Ekaterinburg, 1999. - P. 128-131.
Solodkin Ya. G. Were the “Ermakov Cossacks” remembered outside of Tobolsk? (How Semyon Remezov misled many historians) // Siberian Historical Journal. 2006/2007. - pp. 86-88. - ISBN 5-88081-586-2
Solodkin Ya. G. Stories of the “Ermakov Cossacks” and the beginning of the Siberian chronicle // Russians. Materials of the VIIth Siberian Symposium “Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Western Siberia” (December 9-11, 2004, Tobolsk). - Tobolsk, 2004. P. 54-58.
Solodkin Ya. G. Editors of the synodik “Ermakov Cossacks” (on the history of early Siberian chronicles) // Slovtsov Readings-2006: Materials of the XVIII All-Russian Scientific Local History Conference. - Tyumen, 2006. - pp. 180-182. - ISBN 5-88081-558-7
Solodkin Ya. G. Chronology of Ermakov’s capture of Siberia in Russian chronicles of the first half of the 17th century. //Tyumen Land: Yearbook of the Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore: 2005. Vol. 19. - Tyumen, 2006. - P. 9-15. - ISBN 5-88081-556-0
Solodkin Ya. G.“...AND THESE WRITINGS FOR HIS CORRECTION” (SYNODIX OF “ERMAK’S COSSACKS” AND ESIPOV’S CHRONICLE) // Ancient Rus'. Questions of medieval studies. 2005. No. 2 (20). pp. 48-53.
Sofronov V. Yu. Ermak’s campaign and the struggle for the Khan’s throne in Siberia // Scientific-practical conference “Slovtsov Readings” (Abstracts of reports). Sat. 1. - Tyumen, 1993. - pp. 56-59.
Sofronova M. N. About the imaginary and the real in the portraits of the Siberian ataman Ermak // Traditions and modernity: Collection of articles. - Tyumen, 1998. - pp. 56-63. - ISBN 5-87591-006-2 (see also: same // Tobolsk Chronograph. Collection. Issue 3. - Ekaterinburg, 1998. - P. 169-184. - ISBN 5-85383-127-5)
Sutormin A. G. Ermak Timofeevich (Alenin Vasily Timofeevich). Irkutsk: East Siberian Book Publishing House, 1981.
Fialkov D. N. About the place of death and burial of Ermak // Siberia of the period of feudalism: Vol. 2. Economy, management and culture of Siberia XVI-XIX centuries. - Novosibirsk, 1965. - P. 278-282.
Shkerin V. A. Ermak’s Sylven campaign: a mistake or a search for a way to Siberia? //Ethnocultural history of the Urals, XVI-XX centuries: Materials of the international scientific conference, Ekaterinburg, November 29 - December 2, 1999 - Ekaterinburg, 1999. - pp. 104-107.
Shcheglov I. V. In defense of October 26, 1581 // Siberia. 1881. (to the discussion about the date of Ermak’s campaign in Siberia).

Links

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

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, 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 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

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

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

Painting by V.I. Surikov "Conquest of Siberia by Ermak Timofeevich"

Biography of Ermak Timofeevich

Ermak Timofeevich (1539 - August 6, 1585) - Cossack chieftain, conqueror of Siberia. Most researchers consider him a Don or Volga Cossack, and according to some chronicles he was a native of Central Russia.

From these chronicle sources it follows that Ermak’s grandfather, Afanasy Grigoriev Alenin, was a townsman in Suzdal, then moved to Vladimir, where he became a driver. His sons, Rodion and Timofey, moved to the Chusovaya River, where Timofey had 3 sons: Gabriel, Frol and Vasily (Ermak). Historians have recorded 7 names of Ermak: Ermak, Ermolai, German, Ermil, Vasily, Timofey and Eremey.

The first mentions of his military affairs date back to the 60s of the 16th century. According to some sources, in 1571, together with his squad, he repelled the raid of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey under the walls of Moscow and took part in the Livonian War.

In June 1581, Ermak, at the head of a Cossack squad, fought in Lithuania against the Polish-Lithuanian troops of Stefan Batory. At this time, his friend and associate Ivan Koltso fought in the Trans-Volga steppes with the Nogai Horde.

After the end of the Livonian War, Ermak’s detachment arrives on the Volga and in Zhiguli unites with the detachment of Ivan Koltso. Here they are found by a messenger from the Stroganov merchants with an offer to go into their service. Knowing that for the destruction of the Tsar's caravan, Ermak has already been sentenced to quartering, and Koltso to hanging, the Cossacks accept the Stroganovs' invitation to go to their Chusovsky towns for protection from the attacks of the Siberian Tatars.

On September 1, 1582, a detachment of Ermak and the atamans Ivan Koltso, Matvey Meshcheryak, Bogdan Bryazga, Ivan Alexandrov nicknamed Cherkas, Nikita Pan, Savva Boldyr, Gavrila Ilyin in the amount of 540 people climbed along the Volga and Kama on plows to the Chusovsky towns. The Stroganovs gave Ermak some weapons, but they were insignificant, since Ermak’s entire squad had excellent weapons.

Taking advantage of the opportune moment when the Siberian Khan Kuchum was busy at war with the Nogai, Ermak himself undertakes an invasion of his lands. In just three months, Ermak’s detachment made its way from the Chusovaya River to the Irtysh River. Along the Tagil passes, Ermak left Europe and descended from the “Stone” (Ural Mountains) to Asia.

This turned out to be possible thanks to iron discipline and solid military organization. In addition to the atamans, the Cossacks were commanded by foremen, pentecostals, centurions and esauls.

With the detachment were three Orthodox priests and one priest. During the campaign, Ermak strictly demanded the observance of all Orthodox fasts and holidays.

And now thirty Cossack plows are sailing along the Irtysh, at the forefront the wind is fluttering a Cossack banner: blue with a wide red border, the red is embroidered with patterns, there are fancy rosettes at the corners of the banner; in the center on a blue field are two white figures: a lion standing opposite each other on their hind legs and an Ingor horse with a horn on its forehead, the personification of “prudence, purity and severity.”

Ermak fought with this banner against Batory in the West, and came with it to Siberia.

At this time, Kuchum sent his eldest son Aley with an army to capture the Russian fortress of Cherdyn in the Perm region. Ermak's appearance was a complete surprise to him. Meanwhile, at the mouth of the Tobol River, Ermak’s detachment defeated the hordes of Murza Karachi, the main dignitary of Kuchum. This infuriated Kuchum; he gathered an army and sent his nephew, Prince Mametkul, to meet Ermak.

On October 26, a grandiose battle broke out on the Chuvashov Cape, on the banks of the Irtysh, which was led by Kuchum himself from the opposing side. In this battle, Kuchum’s troops were defeated, Mametkul was wounded, Kuchum fled, and his capital Kashlyk was occupied by Ermak. Soon the Cossacks occupied the towns of Epanchin, Chingi-Tura and Isker, bringing the local princes and kings into submission.

However, in December, when a small detachment of Cossacks led by Ataman Bryazga went to Lake Abalak for fish, they were suddenly attacked by Mametkul and completely destroyed. Having learned about this, Ermak immediately set out on a campaign and on December 5, 1582, defeated the ten-thousand-strong army of Mametkul in a life-and-death battle near Lake Abalak. For each of the Cossacks there were more than twenty enemies. This battle showed the heroism and moral superiority of the Cossacks; it meant the complete and final conquest of Siberia.

In the spring of 1583, Ermak sent a detachment of 25 Cossacks to Ivan IV the Terrible, led by Ivan Koltso, Cherkas Alexandrov and Savva Boldyr. The detachment took the tsar yasak furs and a message about the annexation of Siberia to Russia.

Ivan the Terrible accepts Ermak’s report, forgives him and all the Cossacks for their previous “guilts” and sends a detachment of archers of 300 people, led by Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky, to help.

Winter 1583-1584 Things were especially hard for the Russians in Siberia; supplies ran out and famine began. By spring, all the archers died, along with Prince Bolkhovsky and a significant part of the Cossacks.

In the summer of 1584, Kuchum's dignitary, Murza Karach, deceitfully lured a detachment of Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso to a feast, and at night, attacking them, the sleepy ones cut them all to pieces.

Having learned about this, Ermak sent a new detachment to the Karachi camp led by Matvey Meshcheryak. In the middle of the night, the Cossacks burst into the Karachi camp. Karachi's two sons were killed in the battle, and he himself barely escaped with the remnants of the army. Soon, messengers from Bukhara merchants arrived to Ermak with a request to protect them from the tyranny of Kuchum. Ermak with the rest of the army - less than a hundred people - set off on a campaign. On the banks of the Irtysh near the mouth of the Vagai River, where Ermak’s detachment spent the night, they were attacked by Kuchum during a terrible storm and thunderstorm.

Ermak assessed the situation and ordered to get into the plows. Meanwhile, the Tatars had already broken into the camp. Ermak was the last to retreat, covering the Cossacks. The Tatar archers fired a cloud of arrows. The arrows pierced the broad chest of Ermak Timofeevich. The rapid icy waters of the Irtysh swallowed him up forever...

Arriving in Kashlyk, Matvey Meshcheryak gathered a Circle, in which the Cossacks decided to go to the Volga for help. Already in 1586, a detachment of Cossacks from the Volga came to Siberia and founded the first Russian city there - Tyumen, which served as the basis for the future Siberian Cossack Army.

Nordrus.ru›Biography of Ermak Timofeevich

Ermak is a nickname, his name was Ermil. “Yermil Timofeevich will be the chieftain,” they sing in one song. In another Ermak about himself: “I staggered, tossed, Ermil, I broke, Ermil, bead-ships.” This was during his Don period, and then, when he became famous on the Volga and Siberia, he became Ermak from Ermil. This was especially in fashion on the Don and lower Volga.

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 up the sovereign's state courts of ambassadors and Bukharts 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.”
dlib.rsl.ru

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 making 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.”
dlib.rsl.ru

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 Chuvash Mountain and seeing many visions of his own, he wept bitterly...”
dlib.rsl.ru

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 gang led by an experienced chieftain 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:

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.
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.
Skrynnikov R. G. Ermak. M., 2008.
Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: debatable problems of history and source study. Nizhnevartovsk, 2015.
Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: riddles and solutions. Nizhnevartovsk, 2010.
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.
Shashkov A. T. Ermak’s Siberian campaign: chronology of events of 1581-1582. // News of Ural State University. 1997. No. 7. P. 35-50.

Appeared free people(Cossacks) on the Volga. They came there from the quiet Don, and the Volga at that time was a large trade route. Merchants with goods and ambassadors with gifts traveled along it. It was for the Cossacks on hand, and there was no more free movement of them along the Volga. There were complaints about disorder and robberies. Gangs of southern daredevil robbers robbed everyone indiscriminately - both their own and foreigners.

One large gang of almost a thousand people was especially naughty, the atamans of which were Ermak Timofeev, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak.

The first of them enjoyed special respect for his intelligence and management. Ermak was of average height, stocky and broad-shouldered; His eyes were light and quick, his hair was jet black and curly. A thick beard adorned the intelligent Cossack face...

Ermak knew the Volga well; he knew where to set up his camp, where to choose a place to attack ships sailing by. In one place this river makes a large, very sharp bend, the right bank of which is covered with mountains and forest. This is where, according to legend, the famous Cossack lived, and even one village still bears his name. Ivan the Terrible heard about the robberies on the Volga and ordered the atamans to be caught and hanged. The governor was dispatched with the army.

Ermak and his comrades heard the bad news and sailed from the Volga to the Kama, to their native places, where they spent their youth. He heard a lot about the Siberian kingdom and about the fact that Kuchum did not pay tribute to the Russian Tsar - he wanted to try his luck at non-Russian earth.

Ermak Timofeevich, conqueror of Siberia

The Cossacks who came to the Stroganov estates were a determined, brave people, ready for anything. No wonder they said about them that they fearless of death, indomitable and patient with needs. These were the people the Stroganovs needed in order to conquer the Siberian kingdom beyond the Ural Mountains. They first asked Ermak for protection from the Vogulichs and Tatars, and then showed the Cossacks the royal charter, which allowed them to build forts on the other side of the mountains and settle people. This provoked Ermak and the Cossacks. It was flattering to think that perhaps another rich and vast land could be added to the Russian kingdom. Such a thing was more glorious and profitable than robberies on the Volga. And it stood only for money and supplies; but the rich Stroganovs promised to give all this away. Ermak gladly agreed to their proposal and firmly decided to conquer the little-known country...

On September 1, 1581, Ermak and his squad got into boats and sailed up the Chusovaya River with loud trumpet music.

Ivan the Terrible knew nothing about this, and the Stroganovs almost got into trouble. As luck would have it, on the very day when the Cossacks sailed away, the Vogulichs attacked the Stroganov estates and burned many villages, taking many with them. They reported to Ivan the Terrible that the Stroganovs were holding fugitive Cossacks, and that on the day of the Vogulich attack, these Cossacks left for the Ural Mountains. The king got angry and sent word famous people, so that they do not dare to keep thieves with them, immediately return them from the path, otherwise they would face disgrace...

The strict order did not work because it came late. The news traveled from Moscow to the Stroganov lands for more than a month. The Cossacks did not move quickly along the Chusovaya River, because they had to row against the water, the river is fast and there are high rocky banks all around. The rowers were very tired and wanted to rest a little. They see a large stone on the shore, and underneath it there is a black hole.

The Cossacks landed on the shore and entered a large cave; Here, they say, they spent the winter. This is even sung about in one song. From that time on, the stone was given a nickname after Ermak. And now they show it on Chusovaya Ermakov stone.

There was a rumor among the people that the former chieftain of the daring robbers, during his time on the Volga, managed to loot and accumulate great wealth; they said that Ermak buried a rich treasure in one of the caves on the northern bank of Chusovaya. The peasants there even seemed to know the place where the money was buried and looked for it, but found nothing...

Ermak and his squad sailed for a long time, came out and Siberian way, and yet I met almost no one on the road. Considering that the unknown was ahead, he ordered, just in case he had to retreat back, so that there would be somewhere to hide, to make an earthen town. Soon the town also ripened, because digging a ditch and pouring a rampart on four sides is not a tricky thing. This place began to be called Kokuy-town…

The boats were pulled out of the water and dragged to the small river Zharovlya, and from it they ended up in Tagil, which brought the Russians to Tura, a river of the Siberian kingdom. Until this time, if they came across any kind of people, they were more and more nomadic, but here sedentary people, farmers, began to appear. He was to be feared. The Tatars, Vogulichs and Ostyaks who lived along the river, who had their own prince Epancha, submissive to the Siberian king Kuchum, met the daredevils with arrows from the shore.

These people did not even know what a gun and gunpowder were; they had a fight archery. The Cossacks loaded their cannons and fired. Out of fear, they started to run without looking back: they thought that thunder had struck. Ermak was encouraged by this, he ordered to land on the shore and set off in pursuit of them. The Cossacks ravaged many uluses (villages) and killed many people.

On the Tavda River, which flows into Tura, they caught a Tatar named Tauzak, and began to interrogate where Kuchum was, because the Tatar had pretended to be an employee of the Siberian king. Apparently, Ermak wanted to scare Tauzak: he ordered his military men to shoot from guns at the iron chain mail, and the bullets pierced right through the chain mail.

Tell me everything you know, otherwise it will be bad for you! - they frightened the caught one.

The Tatar was frightened and said that the Tsar of Siberia lives on the Irtysh River, in the city of Siberia or Isker, that the old and blind Kuchum has many different princes under his citizenship, and that the strongest and most fierce of all is the king’s relative, Makhmetkul, such a hero that he cannot be found another equal to him in the entire Siberian land.

Ermak found out that Kuchum was not liked because he was a pagan. Magometov wants to convert the faith. The Ostyaks and Vogulichs prayed to various idols, which they themselves made from wood and dressed in dresses. Samoyeds, for example, smeared their gods with blood so that they would be more merciful to them. Each of these people stood for their faith and were against Mohammedova.

The Tatar said that Kuchum had a lot of troops, but he didn’t have such amazing bows, and that the Siberian king was conducting a big trade in furs with different peoples. And you need to sail to the city of Siberia along the Tavda to Tobol, and from Tobol there is a direct road to the Irtysh.

When Tauzak was released, Kuchum soon learned that Russian people were coming to visit him and bringing with them such arrows, from which thunder can be heard, and nothing can be saved. Like all wild peoples, Kuchum was superstitious, listened to everything that the Siberian people told him shamans, and now I began to remember their prophecies and stories. They assured that there were many signs in the sky: some saw a city with churches, some saw bloody water in the Irtysh. They said that a white wolf came out to fight a black dog, that the wolf came from the Irtysh, and the dog from the Tobol River. They thought that all this was leading to war...

Tsar Kuchum began to gather an army. The Tatars were sent against the Cossacks sailing along the Tobol. Kuchumov's tributaries, in order to hinder the rowers, blocked the entire river in a narrow place with iron chains, and in the meantime they themselves decided to attack Ermak. There were many Tatars. For three days the Russians fought back from the boats. Ermak finally managed to outwit the infidels: he ordered the Cossacks to gather brushwood, tie large bunches of it and dress them in extra Cossack caftans. That’s what they did: they seated the scarecrows in boats, and they themselves secretly went ashore and rushed at the enemy. The Tatars saw that the Russians had arrived, both on the shore and on the water, and they took it and ran...

Moscow and the Tsar rejoiced at Ermak’s successes. All anyone could talk about was him, his rich embassy, and how many peoples he had conquered, how many different things he had obtained. Grozny gave the Cossacks a lot of money, cloth and colored damask. There was no mention of the old anger.

The conquest of Siberia by a small number of Cossacks was an extraordinary thing, out of the ordinary. Therefore, it is no wonder that unprecedented stories circulated about the feat of the Russians beyond the Ural Mountains. So, even in one chronicle of that time it is said that not far from some Vogul town they met a giant, two fathoms tall, who at once crushed up to ten people in his huge paws. They couldn’t take him alive, they say, so they had to shoot this monster with guns...

Ermak spent the night on the banks of the Irtysh. On one side there was a wide and fast river, and on the other, a shallow one filled with water. digging. It was dug by someone a long time ago, and they say it is still visible. The Cossacks pitched their tents and went to bed, without even posting a guard. This was a big mistake on Ermak’s part: he knew that Kuchum was not far away.

That night a terrible storm broke out on the Irtysh. The boats were torn off and carried down, the wind roared, the waves lashed the shore. It started pouring rain. The Cossacks were fast asleep because they were very tired during the day.

Meanwhile, Tsar Kuchum and the Tatars were on the other side of the Irtysh. He did not dare to go to the Russian camp, did not believe that the Russians were sleeping, and sent one Tatar to find out this matter and bring something to prove that they were sleeping. It was also necessary to find a ford. The messenger brought, some say, three squeaks, others - three cups of gunpowder - the first thing that came to hand.

Then Kuchum, taking advantage of the bad weather, moved with his cavalry across the ditch, attacked the sleeping people and cut them off. Only two woke up during the massacre: Ermak and one of the Cossacks, who brought sad news to his people. Several Tatars were killed by Ermak. Seeing that there was no salvation, he rushed to the boats, but there were no boats - they were blown far away by the wind. In despair, Ermak threw himself into the deep and fast Irtysh, hoping to swim to them, but heavy weapons pulled him to the bottom, and he drowned. This happened on August 5, 1585. A week later, Ermak’s corpse was washed up near a Tatar village. A Tatar who was fishing on the shore saw someone’s legs in the water, threw a noose and pulled the man out. The drowned man was wearing iron armor with a copper frame; there was a golden eagle on his chest. Everyone recognized the Cossack chieftain.

They say that the Tatars viciously made fun of the dead man, laid him on a locker and shot arrows at him; Kuchum and the Ostyak princes allegedly came to watch this desecration. Popular rumor says that birds of prey, flocking to the smell of the corpse, did not touch Ermak, and only hovered above him in the heights with a sharp cry; as if the Tatars began to have terrible dreams and visions, and that these dreams and visions forced them to bury Ermak under a curly pine tree. A pillar of fire burned over Ermak’s grave at night, the people said, and the frightened Tatars tried to hide the place where the famous Cossack was buried.

(D. Sadovnikov)

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