Much has been written about the campaign of Ataman Ermak and his Cossack army to Siberia. Both artistic works and historical research. Ermak, alas, did not have his own , who kept a diary and described in detail the entire circumnavigation of F. Magellan. Therefore, scientists and researchers have to be content with only indirect evidence, checking the texts of various chronicles, royal decrees and memoirs of contemporaries of the campaign.

Historians have quite detailed information about the fighting of the Cossacks in Siberia. But much less is known about the actual transition of Ermak’s squad from the lower reaches of Chusovaya to the banks of the Tobol. But this is a distance of one and a half thousand kilometers!

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

All information on this matter boils down to approximately the following: the Cossacks on plows sailed from the Verkhnechusovsky towns up the Chusovaya River either in the fall or in the middle of the summer of 1579?, 1581? 1582? years, climbed its right tributary of the river. Serebryany to the Ural watershed. Somewhere here they stopped for the winter. In the spring we went down to the Tagil River, along Tagil - to Tura, along Tura - to Tobol, where in October battles began with the troops of the Siberian ruler Kuchum...

All. No specifics, just general phrases. Given such uncertainty, any lover of historical details may have the following questions:

When exactly did Ermak set off on his campaign?

What plows or boats did the Cossacks sail on? With or without sails?

How many miles a day did they travel up the Chusovaya?

How and how many days did you climb Serebryannaya?

How they carried it across the Ural ridge.

Did the Cossacks winter at the pass or not?

If they spent the winter, then why did they reach Siberia only in October?

How many days did they go down the Tagil, Tura and Tobol rivers?

How long did the “forced march” of the Cossacks take to the capital of Siberia?

Let's try to find answers to these questions. We do not have diaries, authentic evidence and direct evidence in our hands. Therefore, our only tool will be logic.

Start time of Ermak's expedition to the east

The exact date of the start of Ermak’s army is not known for certain. It is defined as 1579, 1581 and 1582. Most likely it was 1582. But we are interested not so much in the year as in the start time of the expedition.

The textbook date (according to the Remezov Chronicle) is September 1. According to other sources - mid-summer. This is actually a fundamental question. Let's think sequentially. Let's start with the numerical strength of the Cossack army.

How many people were in Ermak’s squad?

540 Cossacks came from the Yaik to the Sylva (the left tributary of the Chusovaya). Plus, the Stroganovs sent 300 military men to help them. Total about 800 people. Nobody questions this figure. It is very important for further discussions.

On what ships did Ermak’s army go on a campaign?

According to some information, Ermak’s army loaded onto 80 plows. Or about 10 people per ship. What were these “planes”? With a high degree of probability we can assume that these were large oared flat-bottomed boats, suitable for passage along the shallow Ural rivers.

In general, a rowing flat-bottomed boat in the Urals is the most common vessel. There was no sailing “culture” here as such, simply because there was nowhere to sail. A sail requires a mast, and a mast requires rigging, canvas, etc. With a slanting sail on a narrow river you can’t “maneuver” much. A straight sail is only useful when the wind is favorable. On such winding rivers as Chusovaya or Serebryannaya, catching a tailwind is a disastrous proposition. Sails would have been a nuisance in this part of the voyage. Although they could come in handy later - on the Tour, Tobol and Irtysh. Therefore, one should not completely reject the presence of some light sails on Cossack plows. But when moving up the Chusovaya and its tributaries, the main engine was muscle power.

Perhaps this is what the plows on which Ermak’s army marched looked like

Boat design

Chusovaya and other Ural rivers in the middle reaches are rocky and extremely shallow. Therefore, the boat must have a shallow draft. It is given, as already said, only by a punt. In addition, Ermak and his atamans knew that they would have to cross the Ural watershed by portage. Therefore, the boats had to be neither large nor heavy, so that they could be dragged along an unprepared portage. And where necessary - even on your hands.

By the way, look carefully up at the painting by V. Surikov. A Cossack plow is clearly visible in the foreground - the artist presented it as an ordinary boat.

Boat capacity

10 people plus the same amount of cargo. Cargo - supplies, equipment and weapons (arquebuses, small mortars and a large supply of gunpowder and buckshot).

The rowers sat in pairs, with 1 person for each oar. Perhaps there was a helmsman. On small rifts, of which there are plenty on Chusovaya (and especially on Serebryannaya), people went straight into the water and walked along the bottom to pull a boat with equipment.

In September in the Urals, the water in the rivers is already cold. There is no place to dry or warm up while hiking. Rubber boots had not yet been invented. Walking in cold water with bare feet meant getting a whole bunch of illnesses - from colds and arthritis to pneumonia. Ermak could not help but understand this. For this reason alone, the statement about starting the hike at the beginning of autumn, “looking at the winter,” raises great doubts. It was reasonable to have time to cross the shallow Ural rivers in the warm weather.

About movement speed

On a modern kayak downstream on Chusovaya you can do 20-30 kilometers a day if you row for 8 hours straight. The speed of the Chusovaya itself in the middle of summer between rapids is low - from 2 to 5 km/h. The speed of a loaded rowing boat in still water during long, measured rowing is a maximum of 7-8 km/h. (Moreover, an increase in the number of rowers does not add speed in the same proportion; the load on each rower only decreases slightly.)

Then the speed of the Cossack plows moving forward relative to the shore will be ~ 3-5 km/h. Including in those places where boats were dragged on ropes from the shore, like barge haulers. If we assume that they worked with oars and legs for 8-9 hours a day, then the flotilla could move forward approximately 25-30 km per day. But taking into account rolls, run-outs, forced stops, fatigue at the end of the day and other braking moments such as boat repairs, 20 km per day is the most optimistic daily distance. Moreover, by the end of the day, the rowers’ arms should simply fall off from fatigue. But you still need to camp for the night, make a fire, cook food, get a good night’s sleep to regain your strength...

How many days did the journey up Chusovaya take?

The distance from the Verkhnechusovskie towns to the town of Chusovaya along the riverbed is approximately 100 km. From Chusovoy to the mouth of the river. Silver - another 150 versts. Total 250. This distance can be covered in two weeks. (If in reality the path to Mezhevaya Utka was chosen, then another 50 km, or 2-3 days of travel.)

Finally, the main argument is that the wolf is fed by the legs! That’s not why the Cossacks were going on a military campaign, just to hang around in the middle of the taiga for six months!

Cossacks on the river Tagil built themselves a new fleet

There is a version that the Cossacks abandoned their plows while climbing the pass on the river. Serebryanaya, went down on foot to the Tagil River (to the Ermakov settlement or another place) and built new plows here. But in order to build plows, you need boards. In large quantities. This means that the Cossacks had to prudently stock up on saws, nails, impregnation, build a sawmill, carry logs to this very sawmill, and cut so many boards by hand! It’s hard to imagine free Cossack robbers who traded in robbery and war (actually highway bandits!), carrying logs on a ridge and building an entire fleet! Again, the site of such extensive construction would certainly have left traces. But there is nothing...

It is believed that the Cossacks built the rafts. Yes, rafts are easy to make. But the rafts are slow-moving and extremely clumsy. You can't go through shallows and riffles on a raft. And further along Tura and Tobol on wide water - how to maneuver and move on rafts? In addition, rafts are extremely vulnerable to enemy arrows.

So, Ermak and his comrades, having overcome the most difficult section of the road on land, descended to Barancha, then to Tagil, from which they rushed at full speed along the Tura to Tobol. This scenario is also evidenced by the dates of the first clashes between the Cossacks and Kuchum’s soldiers – October 20. And on October 26, the capital of the Siberian Khanate had already fallen under the onslaught of Ermakov’s army.

How long did it take to travel down Tagil, Ture to Tobol?

The entire distance from the mouth of the river. Barancha on Tagil to the mouth of the river. Tura at the confluence with the Tobol is about 1000 km along the riverbed. Downstream you can walk 20-25 km a day without even trying too hard. This means that the entire path from the Ural watershed to Tobol could be covered in 40-50 days, or about a month and a half.

Now we summarize the total time of Ermak’s squad on the campaign:

20 days up the Chusovaya to the mouth of the river. Silver

10 days up Serebryannaya

10 days – organizing a portage and hauling boats across the watershed

50 days down Tagil and Tura

10 days along the Tobol before the confluence with the Irtysh

That turns out to be 100 days or just over three months.

The countdown gives the approximate start date of Ermak's squad from the Verkhnechusovsky towns. We subtract 100 days from October 25 and get approximately mid-July. Taking into account the permissible errors, it could have been the beginning of summer, that is, June-mid-July. Not September 1st.

Conclusions:

Ermak's army reached from the banks of the Kama to Tobol in about 100 days.

The Cossacks moved along the rivers on light oar-sailing plows.

Ermak did not spend any wintering on the Ural watershed.

The beginning of Ermak's campaign is in the middle or beginning of summer, but not autumn!

The campaign of Ermak’s squad was a military raid on enemy territory with the aim of: eliminating the threat of attacks on Russian possessions in the Urals(for the Stroganovs), capture of rich booty(for Cossacks and warriors) , the prospect of expanding the possessions of the Muscovite kingdom

All goals have been achieved. Hike turned out to be successful due to the surprise of the blow inflicted by the Cossacks, their superiority in weapons and methods of warfare, experienced commanders and the personal organizational abilities of Ataman Ermak.

Icebreaker Ermak

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again travelers of the era of great geographical discoveries

The Khanate or Kingdom of Siberia, the conquest of which Ermak Timofeevich became famous in Russian history, was a fragment of the vast empire of Genghis Khan. It emerged from the Central Asian Tatar possessions, apparently no earlier than the 15th century - in the same era when the special kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan, Khiva and Bukhara were formed.

The origin of Ataman Ermak Timofeevich is unknown. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama River, according to another - a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don. Ermak was the chieftain of one of the numerous Cossack gangs that robbed the Volga. Ermak’s squad set out to conquer Siberia after entering the service of the famous Stroganov family.

The ancestors of Ermak's employers, the Stroganovs, probably belonged to the Novgorod families that colonized the Dvina land. They had large estates in the Solvycheg and Ustyug regions and acquired wealth by engaging in salt production, as well as by trading with the Permians and Ugra. The Stroganovs were the largest figures in the field of settling the northeastern lands. During the reign of Ivan IV, they extended their colonization activities far to the southeast, to the Kama region.

The Stroganovs' colonization activities were constantly expanding. In 1558, Grigory Stroganov confronted Ivan Vasilyevich about the following: in Great Perm, on both sides of the Kama River from Lysva to Chusovaya, there are empty places, black forests, uninhabited and not assigned to anyone. The petitioner asked the Stroganovs to grant this space, promising to build a city there, supply it with cannons and arquebuses in order to protect the sovereign’s fatherland from the Nogai people and from other hordes. By a letter dated April 4 of the same year, the tsar granted the Stroganovs lands on both sides of the Kama for 146 versts from the mouth of Lysva to Chusovaya, with the requested benefits and rights, and allowed the establishment of settlements; exempted them from paying taxes and zemstvo duties for 20 years. Grigory Stroganov built the town of Kankor on the right side of the Kama. Six years later, he asked permission to build another town, 20 versts below the first on the Kama, named Kergedan (later it was called Orel). These towns were surrounded by strong walls, armed with firearms and had a garrison made up of various free people: there were Russians, Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. In 1568, Gregory’s elder brother Yakov Stroganov challenged the Tsar to give him, on the same grounds, the entire course of the Chusovaya River and the twenty-verst distance along the Kama below the mouth of the Chusovaya. The king agreed to his request. Yakov set up forts along Chusovaya and started settlements that revived this deserted region. He also had to defend the region from attacks by neighboring foreigners.

In 1572, a riot broke out in the land of Cheremis; A crowd of Cheremis, Ostyaks and Bashkirs invaded the Kama region, plundered ships and beat several dozen merchants. But the Stroganovs’ military men pacified the rebels. Cheremis raised the Siberian Khan Kuchum against Moscow; he also forbade the Ostyaks, Voguls and Ugras to pay tribute to her. The next year, 1573, Kuchum’s nephew Magmetkul came with an army to Chusovaya and beat many Ostyaks, Moscow tribute-bearers. However, he did not dare to attack the Stroganov towns and went back beyond the Urals. Informing the Tsar about this, the Stroganovs asked for permission to expand their settlements beyond the Urals, build towns along the Tobol River and its tributaries and establish settlements there with the same benefits, promising in return not only to defend the Moscow tribute-bearers Ostyaks and Voguls from Kuchum, but to fight and subjugate the Siberians themselves Tatars With a letter dated May 30, 1574, Ivan Vasilyevich fulfilled this request of the Stroganovs, with a twenty-year grace period.

But for about ten years the Stroganovs’ intention to spread Russian colonization beyond the Urals was not realized, until Ermak’s Cossack squads appeared on the scene. According to one Siberian Chronicle, in April 1579 the Stroganovs sent a letter to the Cossack atamans who were robbing the Volga and Kama, and invited them to their Chusov towns to help against the Siberian Tatars. The brothers Yakov and Grigory were then replaced by their sons: Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They turned with the aforementioned letter to the Volga Cossacks. Five atamans responded to their call: Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, who came to them with their hundreds. The main leader of this Cossack squad was Ermak. The Cossack atamans spent two years in Chusov towns, helping the Stroganovs defend themselves against foreigners. When Murza Bekbeliy with a crowd of Vogulichs attacked the Stroganov villages, Ermak’s Cossacks defeated him and took him prisoner. The Cossacks themselves attacked the Vogulichs, Votyaks and Pelymtsy and thus prepared themselves for the big campaign against Kuchum.

It is difficult to say who exactly came up with the idea for the hike. Some chronicles say that the Stroganovs sent Cossacks to conquer the Siberian kingdom. Others say that the Cossacks, led by Ermak, independently undertook this campaign. Perhaps the initiative was mutual. The Stroganovs supplied the Cossacks with provisions, as well as guns and gunpowder, and gave them another 300 people from their own military men, including, in addition to the Russians, hired Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. There were 540 Cossacks. Consequently, the entire detachment was more than 800 people.

The preparations took a lot of time, so Ermak’s campaign began quite late, already in September 1581. The warriors sailed up the Chusovaya, after several days of sailing they entered its tributary, Serebryanka, and reached the portage that separates the Kama River system from the Ob system. We crossed this portage and descended into the Zheravlya River. The cold season had already arrived, the rivers began to become covered with ice, and Ermak’s Cossacks had to spend the winter near the portage. They set up a fort, from where one part of them made forays into the neighboring Vogul regions for supplies and booty, while the other prepared everything necessary for the spring campaign. When the flood came, Ermak’s squad descended down the Zheravleya River into the Barancha rivers, and then into Tagil and Tura, a tributary of the Tobol, entering the boundaries of the Siberian Khanate.

The first skirmish between the Cossacks and the Siberian Tatars took place in the area of ​​the modern city of Turinsk (Sverdlovsk region), where the warriors of Prince Epanchi fired at Ermak’s plows with bows. Here Ermak, with the help of arquebuses and cannons, dispersed the cavalry of Murza Epanchi. Then the Cossacks occupied the town of Changi-Tura (Tyumen) without a fight.

On May 22, Ermak’s flotilla, having passed Tura, reached Tobol. A patrol ship walked ahead, the Cossacks on which were the first to notice the large movement of the Tatars on the shore. As it soon became clear, 6 Tatar Murzas with a large army were lying in wait for the Cossacks in order to unexpectedly attack and defeat them. The battle with the Tatars lasted several days. The Tatar losses were significant. Rich booty in the form of furs and food fell into the hands of the Cossacks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

On September 1, 1581 (according to some sources, September 1, 1582), after serving a cathedral prayer service, Ermak Timofeevich’s expedition embarked on 80 plows in a solemn atmosphere with waving regimental banners, under the incessant ringing of the bell of the Stroganov Cathedral and music, they set out on a campaign. All the residents of Chusovsky town came to see off the Cossacks on their long journey. Thus began the famous campaign of Ermak. The size of Ermak’s detachment is unknown exactly. Chronicles call different data from 540 to 6000 thousand people. Most historians are inclined to believe that Ermak’s squad numbered approximately 840-1060 people.

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

To prevent his troops from falling under the Cossacks' bullets, Khan Kuchum ordered the abatis to be cut down and positioned his main forces, led by his son Mametkul, behind fallen tree trunks. As the battle began, the Cossacks swam to the shore and began to land on it, while simultaneously firing at the Tatars. The Tatars, in turn, fired at the Cossacks with bows and tried to force them to retreat to the plows. Ermak saw that the continuous fire fired by his men did not cause much harm to the enemy holed up behind the fence, and therefore decided to take the Tatars out into the open. Pretending to retreat, Ermak sounded the signal to retreat. Seeing the retreat of the Cossacks, Mametkul, perked up, withdrew his troops from behind the abatis and attacked the Cossacks. But as soon as the Tatar wars began to approach them, the Cossacks lined up in a square, placing riflemen with arquebuses in its center, who opened fire on the advancing Tatars, causing them great damage. The Tatars' attempts to overthrow the square in hand-to-hand combat failed. In this, Prince Mametkul was wounded and almost captured, but the Tatars managed to save him and took him away from the battlefield in a boat. The prince's wound caused panic in the army and Kuchum's wars began to scatter. Khan Kuchum himself fled. On October 26, 1582, Ermak’s detachment entered the deserted capital of the Khanate, Kashlyk.

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

The next year, 1583, was successful for Ermak. First, Tsarevich Mametkul was captured on the Vagai River. Then the Tatar tribes along the Irtysh and Ob were subjugated and the Khanty capital Nazim was captured. After this, Ermak Timofeevich sent a detachment of 25 Cossacks to the Tsar in Moscow, led by his closest ally Ivan Koltso, with a message about the capture of Kashlyk, bringing local tribes under the power of the Russian Tsar, and the capture of Mametkul. Ermak sent furs to the king as a gift.

Having read the letter sent by Ermak, the king was so happy that he forgave the Cossacks all their past offenses, rewarded the messengers with money and cloth, sent the Cossacks to Siberia a large salary, and sent Ermak a rich fur coat from his royal shoulder and two expensive armor and a silver helmet. He also ordered to call Ermak the Prince of Siberia and equipped the governors Semyon Balkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with five hundred archers to help the Cossacks.

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

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

In the spring, Karacha besieged Kashlyk, surrounding it with a dense ring, while carefully ensuring that none of the Khan and Mansi leaders who recognized the power of Ermak entered Kashlyk and brought food there. Karacha did not storm the city, hoping to starve it out, and patiently waited for the besieged to run out of food supplies and hunger to finally weaken them.

The siege lasted from spring until July. During this time, Ermak’s spies managed to find out where the Karachi headquarters were located. And on one summer night, under the cover of darkness, a detachment sent by Ermak, having managed to bypass the Tatar guard outposts, unexpectedly attacked the Karachi headquarters, killing almost all of his guards and two sons. Karacha himself miraculously escaped death. But when morning came, the Cossacks could not get back into the city. Situated on a hillock, they bravely and successfully repelled all the attacks of enemies who outnumbered them many times, who climbed the hillock from all sides. But Ermak, hearing the noise of the battle, began to shoot at the Horde who remained in their positions under the walls of Kashlyk. As a result, by noon the Karachi army lost its battle formation and fled from the battlefield. The siege was lifted.

In the summer of 1584, Khan Kuchum, who had neither the strength nor the courage to enter into an open battle with Ermak, resorted to a trick, sending his people to the Cossacks, who pretended to be representatives of Bukhara merchants, and asked Ermak to meet a merchant caravan on the Vagai River. Ermak, with the surviving Cossacks, whose number, in different sources, ranges from 50 to 300 people, went on a campaign along Vagai, but did not meet any merchants there and returned back. On the way back, during a night's rest on the banks of the Irtysh. The Cossacks were attacked by Kuchum's warriors. Despite the surprise of the attack and the numerical superiority of the Horde. The Cossacks managed to fight back, losing only ten people killed, board the plows and sail to Kashlyk. However, in this battle, covering the retreat of his soldiers, Ataman Ermak died heroically. There is an assumption that he, wounded, tried to swim across the Vagai tributary of the Irtysh, but drowned due to his heavy chain mail. After the death of their chieftain, the surviving Cossacks returned to Rus'.

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

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

His biographical data is unknown for certain, as are the circumstances of the campaign he led in Siberia. They serve as material for many mutually exclusive hypotheses, however, there are generally accepted facts of Ermak’s biography, and such moments of the Siberian campaign about which most researchers do not have fundamental differences. The history of Ermak’s Siberian campaign was studied by major pre-revolutionary scientists N.M. Karamzin, S.M. Soloviev, N.I. Kostomarov, S.F. Platonov. The main source on the history of the conquest of Siberia by Ermak is the Siberian Chronicles (Stroganovskaya, Esipovskaya, Pogodinskaya, Kungurskaya and some others), carefully studied in the works of G.F. Miller, P.I. Nebolsina, A.V. Oksenova, P.M. Golovacheva S.V. Bakhrushina, A.A. Vvedensky and other prominent scientists.

The question of the origin of Ermak is controversial. Some researchers derive Ermak from the Perm estates of the Stroganov salt industrialists, others from the Totemsky district. G.E. Katanaev assumed that in the early 80s. In the 16th century, three Ermacs operated simultaneously. However, these versions seem unreliable. At the same time, Ermak’s patronymic name is precisely known - Timofeevich, “Ermak” can be a nickname, abbreviation, or a distortion of such Christian names as Ermolai, Ermil, Eremey, etc., or maybe an independent pagan name.

Very little evidence of Ermak’s life before the Siberian Campaign has been preserved. Ermak was also credited with participating in the Livonian War, robbery and robbery of royal and merchant ships passing along the Volga, but no reliable evidence of this has survived either.

The beginning of Ermak’s campaign in Siberia is also the subject of numerous debates among historians, which is mainly centered around two dates – September 1, 1581 and 1582. Supporters of the start of the campaign in 1581 were S.V. Bakhrushin, A.I. Andreev, A.A. Vvedensky, in 1582 - N.I. Kostomarov, N.V. Shlyakov, G.E. Katanaev. The most reasonable date is considered to be September 1, 1581.

Scheme of Ermak's Siberian campaign. 1581 - 1585

A completely different point of view was expressed by V.I. Sergeev, according to whom Ermak set out on a campaign already in September 1578. First, he went down the river on plows. Kama, climbed its tributary river. Sylve, then returned and spent the winter near the mouth of the river. Chusovoy. Swimming along the river Sylve and wintering on the river. Chusova were a kind of training that gave the ataman the opportunity to unite and test the squad, to accustom it to actions in new, difficult conditions for the Cossacks.

Russian people tried to conquer Siberia long before Ermak. So in 1483 and 1499. Ivan III sent military expeditions there, but the harsh region remained unexplored. The territory of Siberia in the 16th century was vast, but sparsely populated. The main occupations of the population were cattle breeding, hunting, and fishing. Here and there along the river banks the first centers of agriculture appeared. The state with its center in Isker (Kashlyk - called differently in different sources) united several indigenous peoples of Siberia: Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Voguls, and all of them were under the rule of the “fragments” of the Golden Horde. Khan Kuchum, from the Sheybanid family, which went back to Genghis Khan himself, seized the Siberian throne in 1563 and set a course to oust the Russians from the Urals.

In the 60-70s. In the 16th century, merchants, industrialists and landowners the Stroganovs received possessions in the Urals from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, and they were also granted the right to hire military men in order to prevent raids by the Kuchum people. The Stroganovs invited a detachment of free Cossacks led by Ermak Timofeevich. In the late 70s - early 80s. In the 16th century, Cossacks climbed the Volga to the Kama, where they were met by the Stroganovs in Keredin (Orel-town). The number of Ermak's squad that arrived at the Stroganovs was 540 people.

Before setting out on a campaign, the Stroganovs supplied Ermak and his warriors with everything they needed, from gunpowder to flour. Stroganov stores were the basis of the material base of Ermak’s squad. The Stroganovs’ men were also dressed up for their march to the Cossack ataman. The squad was divided into five regiments led by elected esauls. The regiment was divided into hundreds, which in turn were divided into fifty and tens. The squad had regimental clerks, trumpeters, surnaches, timpani players and drummers. There were also three priests and a fugitive monk who performed the liturgical rites.

The strictest discipline reigned in Ermak's army. By his order, they ensured that no one “through fornication or other sinful deeds would incur the wrath of God,” and whoever violated this rule was imprisoned for three days “in prison.” In Ermak's squad, following the example of the Don Cossacks, severe punishments were imposed for disobedience to superiors and escape.

Having gone on a campaign, the Cossacks along the river. Chusova and Serebryanka covered the path to the Ural ridge, further from the river. Serebryanka to the river. Tagil walked through the mountains. Ermak's crossing of the Ural ridge was not easy. Each plow could lift up to 20 people with a load. Plows with a larger carrying capacity could not be used on small mountain rivers.

Ermak's offensive on the river. The tour forced Kuchum to gather his forces as much as possible. The chronicles do not give an exact answer to the question of the number of troops; they only report “a great number of the enemy.” A.A. Vvedensky wrote that the total number of subjects of the Siberian Khan was approximately 30,700 people. Having mobilized all the men capable of wearing, Kuchum could field more than 10-15 thousand soldiers. Thus, he had a multiple numerical superiority.

Simultaneously with the gathering of troops, Kuchum ordered to strengthen the capital of the Siberian Khanate, Isker. The main forces of the Kuchumov cavalry under the command of his nephew Tsarevich Mametkul were advanced to meet Ermak, whose flotilla by August 1582, and according to some researchers, no later than the summer of 1581, reached the confluence of the river. Tours in the river Tobol. An attempt to detain the Cossacks near the mouth of the river. The tour was not a success. Cossack plows entered the river. Tobol and began to descend along its course. Several times Ermak had to land on the shore and attack the Khucumlans. Then a major bloody battle took place near the Babasanovsky Yurts.

Fights on the river Tobol showed the advantages of Ermak’s tactics over the enemy’s tactics. The basis of these tactics were fire strikes and combat on foot. Volleys of Cossack arquebuses inflicted significant damage on the enemy. However, the importance of firearms should not be exaggerated. From the arquebus of the late 16th century it was possible to fire one shot in 2-3 minutes. The Kuchumlyans generally did not have firearms in their arsenal, but they were familiar with them. However, fighting on foot was Kuchum's weak point. Entering into battle with the crowd, in the absence of any combat formations, the Kukumovites suffered defeat after defeat, despite a significant superiority in manpower. Thus, Ermak’s successes were achieved by a combination of arquebus fire and hand-to-hand combat with the use of edged weapons.

After Ermak left the river. Tobol and began to climb up the river. Tavda, which, according to some researchers, was done with the aim of breaking away from the enemy, taking a breather, and finding allies before the decisive battle for Isker. Climbing up the river. Tavda approximately 150-200 versts, Ermak made a stop and returned to the river. Tobol. On the way to Isker, Messrs. were taken. Karachin and Atik. Having gained a foothold in the city of Karachin, Ermak found himself on the immediate approaches to the capital of the Siberian Khanate.

Before the assault on the capital, Ermak, according to chronicle sources, gathered a circle where the likely outcome of the upcoming battle was discussed. Supporters of the retreat pointed to the many Khucumlans and the small number of Russians, but Ermak’s opinion was the need to take Isker. He was firm in his decision and supported by many of his colleagues. In October 1582, Ermak began an assault on the fortifications of the Siberian capital. The first assault was a failure; around October 23, Ermak struck again, but the Kuchumites repulsed the assault and made a sortie that turned out to be disastrous for them. The battle under the walls of Isker once again showed the advantages of the Russians in hand-to-hand combat. The Khan's army was defeated, Kuchum fled from the capital. On October 26, 1582, Ermak and his retinue entered the city. The capture of Isker became the pinnacle of Ermak's successes. The indigenous Siberian peoples expressed their readiness for an alliance with the Russians.

After the capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate, Ermak’s main opponent remained Tsarevich Mametkul, who, having good cavalry, carried out raids on small Cossack detachments, which constantly disturbed Ermak’s squad. In November-December 1582, the prince exterminated a detachment of Cossacks who went fishing. Ermak struck back, Mametkul fled, but three months later he reappeared in the vicinity of Isker. In February 1583, Ermak was informed that the prince’s camp was set up on the river. Vagai is 100 versts from the capital. The chieftain immediately sent Cossacks there, who attacked the army and captured the prince.

In the spring of 1583, the Cossacks made several campaigns along the Irtysh and its tributaries. The farthest was the hike to the mouth of the river. The Cossacks on plows reached the city of Nazim, a fortified town on the river. Ob, and they took him. The battle near Nazim was one of the bloodiest.

Losses in the battles forced Ermak to send messengers for reinforcements. As proof of the fruitfulness of his actions during the Siberian campaign, Ermak sent Ivan IV a captured prince and furs.

The winter and summer of 1584 passed without major battles. Kuchum did not show activity, since there was restlessness within the horde. Ermak took care of his army and waited for reinforcements. Reinforcements arrived in the fall of 1584. These were 500 warriors sent from Moscow under the command of governor S. Bolkhovsky, supplied with neither ammunition nor food. Ermak was put in a difficult position, because... had difficulty procuring the necessary supplies for his people. Famine began in Isker. People died, and S. Bolkhovsky himself died. The situation was somewhat improved by local residents who supplied the Cossacks with food from their reserves.

The chronicles do not give the exact number of losses of Ermak’s army, however, according to some sources, by the time the ataman died, 150 people remained in his squad. Ermak's position was complicated by the fact that in the spring of 1585 Isker was surrounded by enemy cavalry. However, the blockade was lifted thanks to Ermak's decisive blow to the enemy headquarters. The liquidation of Isker's encirclement became the last military feat of the Cossack chieftain. Ermak Timofeevich died in the waters of the river. Irtysh during a campaign against Kuchum’s army that appeared nearby on August 6, 1585.

To summarize, it should be noted that the tactics of Ermak’s squad were based on the rich military experience of the Cossacks, accumulated over many decades. Hand-to-hand combat, accurate shooting, strong defense, maneuverability of the squad, use of terrain are the most characteristic features of Russian military art of the 16th - 17th centuries. To this, of course, should be added the ability of Ataman Ermak to maintain strict discipline within the squad. These skills and tactical skills contributed to the greatest extent to the conquest of the rich Siberian expanses by Russian soldiers. After the death of Ermak, the governors in Siberia, as a rule, continued to adhere to his tactics.

The annexation of Siberia had enormous political and economic significance. Up until the 80s. In the 16th century, the “Siberian theme” was practically not touched upon in diplomatic documents. However, as Ivan IV received news of the results of Ermak’s campaign, it took a strong place in diplomatic documentation. Already by 1584, documents contain a detailed description of the relationship with the Siberian Khanate, including a summary of the main events - the military actions of Ataman Ermak’s squad against the army of Kuchum.

In the mid-80s. In the 16th century, colonization flows of the Russian peasantry gradually moved to explore the vast expanses of Siberia, and the Tyumen and Tobolsk forts, built in 1586 and 1587, were not only important strongholds for the fight against the Kuchumlyans, but also the basis of the first settlements of Russian farmers. The governors sent by the Russian tsars to the Siberian region, harsh in all respects, could not cope with the remnants of the horde and achieve the conquest of this fertile and politically important region for Russia. However, thanks to the military art of the Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich, already in the 90s. In the 16th century, Western Siberia was included in Russia.

The Stroganov family of wealthy Ural merchants and salt industrialists in the mid-16th century. Tsar Ivan IV granted land holdings bordering the Siberian Khenate. The Stroganovs were obliged to build towns with fortifications (fortifications) here, not at their own expense, and to recruit gunners and squeakers (shooters) to protect themselves from warlike neighbors. In the early 80s. In the 17th century, the Stroganovs hired a detachment of Volga Cossacks led by ataman Ermek Timofeevich.

At that time, the Siberian Khenate was hostile and, moreover, hostile towards Russia. Detachments of the Tatar princes - vassals of the Siberian hen Kuchuma - often disturbed the lands of the Stroganovs with raids and seriously “began the fort” in Cherdyn, an angry stronghold of Russia in the Urals.

In response to this, in the fall of 1582, the Ermake Cossacks set off on a campaign against Kuchum. The ataman had at his disposal only 540 people, or a little more, but these were experienced, seasoned warriors, armed with arquebuses - heavy gunpowder guns, which were a novelty for their enemy. A handful of Kezeks were opposed by troops that outnumbered them many times over, but lacked any combat discipline and had no experience in handling firearms: Kuchume had his own cannons, but neither he nor his warriors were able to use them in battles with Ermak. Within several months, the armed forces of the Siberian Khanate were defeated piece by piece. Ermak and his comrades occupied the capital of the Khanate - the city of Kashlyk. This is not to say that the victory was easy and bloodless. The battle at Lake Abalak with selected warriors of Tsarevich Mametkule in December 1582 was especially persistent; In this battle, several dozen Cossacks fell before success was achieved.

In the summer of 1583, Ermak sent his people to Ivan IV himself with the news that his kezeks “took the kingdom of Siberia and brought many foreign-speaking people living here under his sovereign’s high hand...”.

After a series of defeats in the Livonian War, reports of successes in Siberia were received in Moscow with great joy. The tsar presented the envoys with money and cloth, and a detachment of Prince Semyon Volkhovsky soon set off to help Ermak. However, like this Volkhovskaya, Tek and many of his archers and some Cossacks died in Kashlyk in the winter of 1584 from acute malnutrition and the terrible frosts that prevailed that winter. Despite this, Ermak managed to retain the Siberian capital for a year and a half and repel new Tatar raids.

Kuchum blocked the routes for the supply of bread from Bukhara to Kashlyk. Ermak was forced to go on a new campaign to remove Kuchumov’s barrier, otherwise the Cossacks would face starvation. On the night of August 5-6, 1585, Kuchum suddenly attacked the Cossack camp, who for some reason did not post a guard. Many of Ermake’s comrades fell, while others rushed to the plows (ships) to escape pursuit along the river. The chieftain covered the retreat of his comrades to the end and at the last moment tried to jump into the departing plow. But the jump of the tired, wounded warrior was incorrect - Ermak fell into the water, and the heavy chain mail pulled him to the bottom. This is how the conqueror of Siberia ended his life.

After the death of Ermak, the struggle for Siberia continued for quite a long time. The Russians managed to retake Kashlyk only a few years later, and the remnants of Kuchume’s horde were defeated by Andrei Voeikov’s detachment in 1598.