The process of incorporating vast territories of Siberia and the Far East into the Russian state took several centuries. The most significant events that determined the future fate of the region occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In our article we will briefly describe how the development of Siberia took place in the 17th century, but we will present all the available facts. This era of geographical discoveries was marked by the founding of Tyumen and Yakutsk, as well as the discovery of the Bering Strait, Kamchatka, and Chukotka, which significantly expanded the borders of the Russian state and consolidated its economic and strategic positions.

Stages of Russian exploration of Siberia

In Soviet and Russian historiography, it is customary to divide the process of development of the northern lands and their inclusion in the state into five stages:

1. 11th-15th centuries.
2. Late 15th-16th centuries.
3. Late 16th - early 17th centuries.
4. Mid 17th-18th centuries.
5. 19-20th centuries.

Goals of development of Siberia and the Far East

The peculiarity of the annexation of Siberian lands to the Russian state is that development was carried out spontaneously. The pioneers were peasants (they fled from the landowners in order to work quietly on free land in the southern part of Siberia), merchants and industrialists (they were looking for material gain, for example, from the local population they could exchange fur, which was very valuable at that time, for mere trinkets worth a penny). Some went to Siberia in search of fame and made geographical discoveries in order to remain in the memory of the people.

The development of Siberia and the Far East in the 17th century, as in all subsequent centuries, was carried out with the aim of expanding the territory of the state and increasing the population. The vacant lands beyond the Ural Mountains attracted people with their high economic potential: furs and valuable metals. Later, these territories really became the locomotive of the country’s industrial development, and even today Siberia has sufficient potential and is a strategic region of Russia.

Features of the development of Siberian lands

The process of colonization of free lands beyond the Ural ridge included the gradual advance of discoverers to the East up to the Pacific coast and consolidation on the Kamchatka Peninsula. In the folklore of the peoples inhabiting the northern and eastern lands, the word “Cossack” is most often used to designate Russians.

At the beginning of the development of Siberia by the Russians (16-17 centuries), the pioneers advanced mainly along rivers. They walked by land only in watershed areas. Upon arrival in a new area, the pioneers began peaceful negotiations with the local population, offering to join the king and pay yasak - a tax in kind, usually in furs. Negotiations did not always end successfully. Then the matter was resolved by military means. On the lands of the local population, forts or simply winter huts were set up. Some of the Cossacks remained there to maintain the obedience of the tribes and collect yasak. Following the Cossacks were peasants, clergy, merchants and industrialists. The greatest resistance was provided by the Khanty and other large tribal unions, as well as the Siberian Khanate. In addition, there have been several conflicts with China.

Novgorod campaigns to the “iron gates”

Back in the eleventh century, the Novgorodians reached the Ural Mountains (“iron gates”), but were defeated by the Ugras. Ugra was then called the lands of the Northern Urals and the coast of the Arctic Ocean, where local tribes lived. From the middle of the thirteenth century, Ugra had already been developed by the Novgorodians, but this dependence was not strong. After the fall of Novgorod, the tasks of developing Siberia passed to Moscow.

Free lands beyond the Ural ridge

Traditionally, the first stage (11-15 centuries) is not yet considered the conquest of Siberia. Officially, it began with Ermak’s campaign in 1580, but even then the Russians knew that beyond the Ural ridge there were vast territories that remained practically no man’s land after the collapse of the Horde. Local peoples were few in number and poorly developed, with the only exception being the Siberian Khanate, founded by the Siberian Tatars. But wars were constantly raging in it and civil strife did not stop. This led to its weakening and to the fact that it soon became part of the Russian Kingdom.

History of the development of Siberia in the 16th-17th centuries

The first campaign was undertaken under Ivan III. Before this, Russian rulers were prevented from turning their gaze to the east by internal political problems. Only Ivan IV took the free lands seriously, and only in the last years of his reign. The Siberian Khanate formally became part of the Russian state back in 1555, but later Khan Kuchum declared his people free from tribute to the tsar.

The answer was given by sending Ermak’s detachment there. Hundreds of Cossacks, led by five atamans, captured the capital of the Tatars and founded several settlements. In 1586, the first Russian city, Tyumen, was founded in Siberia, in 1587 the Cossacks founded Tobolsk, in 1593 - Surgut, and in 1594 - Tara.

In short, the development of Siberia in the 16th and 17th centuries is associated with the following names:

1. Semyon Kurbsky and Peter Ushaty (campaign in the Nenets and Mansi lands in 1499-1500).
2. Cossack Ermak (campaign of 1851-1585, exploration of Tyumen and Tobolsk).
3. Vasily Sukin (was not a pioneer, but laid the foundation for the settlement of Russian people in Siberia).
4. Cossack Pyanda (in 1623, the Cossack began a hike through wild places, discovered the Lena River, and reached the place where Yakutsk was later founded).
5. Vasily Bugor (in 1630 founded the city of Kirensk on the Lena).
6. Peter Beketov (founded Yakutsk, which became the base for the further development of Siberia in the 17th century).
7. Ivan Moskvitin (in 1632 he became the first European who, together with his detachment, went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk).
8. Ivan Stadukhin (discovered the Kolyma River, explored Chukotka and was the first to enter Kamchatka).
9. Semyon Dezhnev (participated in the discovery of Kolyma, in 1648 he completely crossed the Bering Strait and discovered Alaska).
10. Vasily Poyarkov (made the first trip to the Amur).
11. Erofey Khabarov (assigned the Amur region to the Russian state).
12. Vladimir Atlasov (annexed Kamchatka in 1697).

Thus, in short, the development of Siberia in the 17th century was marked by the founding of the main Russian cities and the opening of routes, thanks to which the region later began to play great economic and defense importance.

Siberian campaign of Ermak (1581-1585)

The development of Siberia by the Cossacks in the 16th and 17th centuries began with Ermak’s campaign against the Siberian Khanate. A detachment of 840 people was formed and equipped with everything necessary by the Stroganov merchants. The campaign took place without the knowledge of the king. The backbone of the detachment consisted of atamans of the Volga Cossacks: Ermak Timofeevich, Matvey Meshcheryak, Nikita Pan, Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov.

In September 1581, the detachment climbed the tributaries of the Kama to the Tagil Pass. The Cossacks cleared their way by hand, at times even dragging the ships on themselves, like barge haulers. At the pass they erected an earthen fortification, where they remained until the ice melted in the spring. The detachment rafted along Tagil to Tura.

The first clash between the Cossacks and the Siberian Tatars took place in the modern Sverdlovsk region. Ermak’s detachment defeated the cavalry of Prince Epanchi, and then occupied the town of Chingi-tura without a fight. In the spring and summer of 1852, the Cossacks, led by Ermak, entered into battle with the Tatar princes several times, and by the fall they occupied the then capital of the Siberian Khanate. A few days later, Tatars from all corners of the Khanate began to bring gifts to the conquerors: fish and other food supplies, furs. Ermak allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies. He imposed taxes on everyone who came to him.

At the end of 1582, Ermak sent his assistant Ivan Koltso to Moscow to inform the Tsar about the defeat of Kuchum, the Siberian Khan. Ivan IV generously rewarded the envoy and sent him back. By decree of the tsar, Prince Semyon Bolkhovskoy equipped another detachment, the Stroganovs allocated another forty volunteers from among their people. The detachment arrived at Ermak only in the winter of 1584.

Completion of the hike and foundation of Tyumen

Ermak at that time successfully conquered the Tatar towns along the Ob and Irtysh, without encountering fierce resistance. But there was a cold winter ahead, which not only Semyon Bolkhovskoy, appointed governor of Siberia, but also most of the detachment could not survive. The temperature dropped to -47 degrees Celsius, and there were not enough supplies.

In the spring of 1585, the Murza of Karacha rebelled, destroying the detachments of Yakov Mikhailov and Ivan Koltso. Ermak was surrounded in the capital of the former Siberian Khanate, but one of the atamans launched a sortie and was able to drive the attackers away from the city. The detachment suffered significant losses. Less than half of those who were equipped by the Stroganovs in 1581 survived. Three of the five Cossack atamans died.

In August 1985, Ermak died at the mouth of the Vagai. The Cossacks who remained in the Tatar capital decided to spend the winter in Siberia. In September, another hundred Cossacks under the command of Ivan Mansurov went to their aid, but the servicemen did not find anyone in Kishlyk. The next expedition (spring 1956) was much better prepared. Under the leadership of governor Vasily Sukin, the first Siberian city of Tyumen was founded.

Founding of Chita, Yakutsk, Nerchinsk

The first significant event in the development of Siberia in the 17th century was the campaign of Pyotr Beketov along the Angara and tributaries of the Lena. In 1627, he was sent as a governor to the Yenisei prison, and the next year - to pacify the Tungus who attacked the detachment of Maxim Perfilyev. In 1631, Pyotr Beketov became the head of a detachment of thirty Cossacks who were to march along the Lena River and gain a foothold on its banks. By the spring of 1631, he had cut down the fort, which was later named Yakutsk. The city became one of the centers of development of Eastern Siberia in the 17th century and later.

Campaign of Ivan Moskvitin (1639-1640)

Ivan Moskvitin took part in Kopylov’s campaign in 1635-1638 to the Aldan River. The leader of the detachment later sent part of the soldiers (39 people) under the command of Moskvitin to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In 1638, Ivan Moskvitin went to the shores of the sea, made trips to the Uda and Tauy rivers, and received the first information about the Uda region. As a result of his campaigns, the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk was explored for 1,300 kilometers, and the Udskaya Bay, Amur Estuary, Sakhalin Island, Sakhalin Bay, and the mouth of the Amur were discovered. In addition, Ivan Moskvitin brought good booty to Yakutsk - a lot of fur tribute.

Discovery of Kolyma and Chukotka Expedition

The development of Siberia in the 17th century continued with the campaigns of Semyon Dezhnev. He ended up in the Yakut prison presumably in 1638, proved himself by pacifying several Yakut princes, and together with Mikhail Stadukhin made a trip to Oymyakon to collect yasak.

In 1643, Semyon Dezhnev, as part of Mikhail Stadukhin’s detachment, arrived in Kolyma. The Cossacks founded the Kolyma winter hut, which later became a large fort called Srednekolymsk. The town became a stronghold for the development of Siberia in the second half of the 17th century. Dezhnev served in Kolyma until 1647, but when he set out on his return voyage, strong ice blocked the route, so it was decided to stay in Srednekolymsk and wait for a more favorable time.

A significant event in the development of Siberia in the 17th century occurred in the summer of 1648, when S. Dezhnev entered the Arctic Ocean and passed the Bering Strait eighty years before Vitus Bering. It is noteworthy that even Bering did not manage to pass through the strait completely, limiting himself only to its southern part.

Consolidation of the Amur region by Erofey Khabarov

The development of Eastern Siberia in the 17th century continued by the Russian industrialist Erofei Khabarov. He made his first campaign in 1625. Khabarov was engaged in buying furs, opened salt springs on the Kut River and contributed to the development of agriculture on these lands. In 1649, Erofey Khabarov went up the Lena and Amur to the town of Albazino. Returning to Yakutsk with a report and for help, he assembled a new expedition and continued his work. Khabarov treated harshly not only the population of Manchuria and Dauria, but also his own Cossacks. For this he was transported to Moscow, where the trial began. The rebels who refused to continue the campaign with Erofey Khabarov were acquitted, and he himself was deprived of his salary and rank. After Khabarov submitted a petition to the Russian sovereign. The tsar did not restore the monetary allowance, but gave Khabarov the title of son of a boyar and sent him to govern one of the volosts.

Explorer of Kamchatka - Vladimir Atlasov

For Atlasov, Kamchatka has always been the main goal. Before the expedition to Kamchatka began in 1697, the Russians already knew about the existence of the peninsula, but its territory had not yet been explored. Atlasov was not a discoverer, but he was the first to traverse almost the entire peninsula from west to east. Vladimir Vasilyevich described his journey in detail and drew up a map. He managed to persuade most of the local tribes to go over to the side of the Russian Tsar. Later, Vladimir Atlasov was appointed clerk in Kamchatka.

About the beginning of the conquest and development of Siberia by the Russians - see the article “Ermak"

Completion of the fight against the Tatars for Western Siberia

Founded in 1587 by governor Danila Chulkov, Tobolsk at first became the main stronghold of the Russians in Siberia. It was located near the former Tatar capital, the city of Siberia. The Tatar prince Seydyak, who was sitting in it, approached Tobolsk. But the Russians repelled the Tatars with shots from arquebuses and cannons, and then made a sortie and finally defeated them; Seydyak was captured. In this battle, Matvey Meshcheryak, the last of Ermak’s four atamans and comrades, fell. According to other news, Seydyak was dealt with in a different way. He allegedly, together with one Kyrgyz-Kaisak prince and former chief adviser (karacha) of Khan Kuchum, planned to capture Tobolsk by cunning: he came with 500 people and settled in a meadow near the city, under the pretext of hunting. Guessing his plan, Chulkov pretended to be his friend and invited him to negotiate peace. Seydyak with the prince, Karacha and a hundred Tatars. During the feast, the Russian governor announced that the Tatar princes had an evil plan in mind, and ordered them to be captured and sent to Moscow (1588). After that, the city of Siberia was abandoned by the Tatars and became deserted.

Having finished with Seydyak, the royal governors set about the former Siberian Khan Kuchum, who, having been defeated by Ermak, went to the Baraba steppe and from there continued to harass the Russians with attacks. He received help from the neighboring Nogai by marrying some of his sons and daughters to the children of Nogai princes. Now some of the Murzas of the orphaned Taibugin ulus have also joined him. In the summer of 1591, Voivode Masalsky went to the Ishim steppe, defeated the Kuchumov Tatars near Lake Chili-Kula and captured his son Abdul-Khair. But Kuchum himself escaped and continued his raids. In 1594, Prince Andrei Yeletsky with a strong detachment moved up the Irtysh and founded a town of the same name near the confluence of the Tara River. He found himself almost in the center of the fertile steppe, along which Kuchum roamed, collecting yasak from the Tatar volosts along the Irtysh, who had already sworn allegiance to the Russians. The city of Tara was of great benefit in the fight against Kuchum. From here the Russians repeatedly launched searches against him in the steppe; They ravaged its uluses, entered into relations with its Murzas, who were lured into our citizenship. The governors more than once sent him with admonitions so that he would submit to the Russian sovereign. A letter of admonition was sent to him from Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich himself. She pointed out his hopeless situation, that Siberia had been conquered, that Kuchum himself had become a homeless Cossack, but if he came to Moscow to confess, then cities and volosts, even his former city of Siberia, would be given to him as a reward. The captive Abdul-Khair also wrote to his father and persuaded him to submit to the Russians, citing as an example himself and his brother Magmetkul, to whom the sovereign granted volosts for feeding. Nothing, however, could persuade the stubborn old man to submit. In his answers, he hits the Russian Tsar with his forehead so that he gives him back the Irtysh. He is ready to make peace, but only with “truth.” He also adds a naive threat: “I am in alliance with the Nogai, and if we stand on both sides, then it will be bad for Moscow’s possession.”

We decided to put an end to Kuchum at all costs. In August 1598, the Russian governor Voeikov set out from Tara to the Barabinsk steppe with 400 Cossacks and serving Tatars. They learned that Kuchum and 500 of his horde had gone to the upper Ob, where he had sown grain. Voeikov walked day and night and on August 20, at dawn, he suddenly attacked the Kuchumovo camp. The Tatars, after a fierce battle, succumbed to the superiority of the “fiery battle” and suffered complete defeat; the embittered Russians killed almost all the prisoners: only some Murzas and the Kuchum family were spared; Eight of his wives, five sons, several daughters and daughters-in-law with children were captured. Kuchum himself escaped this time: with several faithful people, he sailed in a boat down the Ob. Voeikov sent one Tatar Seit to him with new exhortations to submit. Seit found him somewhere in the Siberian forest on the banks of the Ob; with him were three sons and about thirty Tatars. “If I didn’t go to the Russian sovereign at the best time,” answered Kuchum, “then will I go now, when I am blind and deaf and a beggar?” There is something inspiring respect in the behavior of this former Khan of Siberia. His end was pitiful. Wandering in the steppes of the upper Irtysh, a descendant of Genghis Khan stole cattle from neighboring Kalmyks; fleeing from their revenge, he fled to his former allies, the Nogai, and was killed there. His family was sent to Moscow, where they arrived during the reign of Boris Godunov; it had a ceremonial entry into the Russian capital, for show to the people, was treated kindly by the new sovereign and sent to different cities. In the capital, Voeikov's victory was celebrated with a prayer service and the ringing of bells.

Development of Western Siberia by Russians

The Russians continued to secure the Ob region by building new towns. Under Fyodor and Boris Godunov, the following fortified settlements appeared: Pelym, Berezov, in the very lower reaches of the Ob - Obdorsk, on its middle reaches - Surgut, Narym, Ketsky Ostrog and Tomsk; on the upper Tura, Verkhoturye was built, the main point on the road from European Russia to Siberia, and on the middle reaches of the same river - Turinsk; on the Taz River, which flows into the eastern branch of the Ob Bay, there is the Mangazeya fort. All these towns were equipped with wooden and earthen fortifications, cannons and arquebuses. Garrisons were usually made up of several dozen service people. Following the military people, the Russian government transferred townspeople and arable peasants to Siberia. Service people were also given land on which they set up some kind of farming. In every Siberian town, wooden churches were always erected, albeit small ones.

Western Siberia in the 17th century

Along with the conquest, Moscow smartly and prudently carried out the development of Siberia and its Russian colonization. When sending settlers, the Russian government ordered the regional authorities to supply them with a certain amount of livestock, livestock and grain, so that the settlers had everything they needed to immediately start a farm. The artisans necessary for the development of Siberia, especially carpenters, were also sent; coachmen were sent, etc. Due to various benefits and incentives, as well as rumors about the riches of Siberia, many willing people, especially industrial trappers, were drawn there. Along with the development, the process of converting the natives to Christianity and their gradual Russification began. Unable to allocate a large military force for Siberia, the Russian government was preoccupied with attracting the natives themselves to it; many Tatars and Voguls were converted to the Cossack class, provided with land plots, salaries and weapons. Whenever necessary, the foreigners were obliged to deploy auxiliary detachments on horseback and foot, which were placed under the command of the Russian boyar children. The Moscow government ordered to caress and attract into our service the former ruling families of Siberia; It sometimes transferred local princes and murzas to Russia, where they were baptized and became one of the nobles or children of boyars. And those princes and murzas who did not want to submit, the government ordered to catch and punish, and burn their towns. When collecting yasak in Siberia, the Russian government ordered relief to be made to the poor and old natives, and in some places, instead of fur yasak, it imposed on them a certain amount of bread in order to accustom them to agriculture, since too little of their own, Siberian, bread was produced.

Of course, not all the good orders of the central government were carried out in good faith by the local Siberian authorities, and the natives suffered many insults and oppressions. Nevertheless, the Russian development of Siberia was carried out intelligently and successfully, and the greatest merit in this matter belongs to Boris Godunov. Communications in Siberia went along the rivers in the summer, for which many government plows were built. And long-distance communications in winter were maintained either by pedestrians on skis or by sledding. To connect Siberia with European Russia by land, a road was built from Solikamsk through the ridge to Verkhoturye.

Siberia began to reward the Russians who explored it with its natural riches, especially a huge amount of furs. Already in the first years of the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich, a tribute of 5,000 forty sables, 10,000 black foxes and half a million squirrels was imposed on the occupied region.

Colonization of Siberia during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov

Russian colonization of Siberia continued and made significant progress during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, especially after the end of the Time of Troubles. Under this sovereign, the development of Siberia was expressed not so much by the construction of new cities (as under Fyodor Ioannovich and Godunov), but by the establishment of Russian villages and hamlets in the areas between the Stone Belt and the Ob River, such as the counties of Verkhotursky, Turinsky, Tyumensky, Pelymsky, Berezovsky, Tobolsky, Tarsky and Tomsky. Having strengthened the newly conquered region with cities with service people, the Russian government was now concerned about populating it with peasant farmers in order to Russify this region and supply it with its own grain. In 1632, from the Verkhoturye district closest to European Russia, it was ordered to send a hundred or fifty peasants with their wives, children and all the “arable plant” (agricultural tools) to Tomsk. So that their former Verkhoturye arable lands would not remain empty, it was ordered in Perm, Cherdyn and Soli Kama to call hunters from free people who would agree to go to Verkhoturye and land there on the already plowed lands; Moreover, they were given loans and assistance. The governors had to send such newly recruited peasants with their families and movable property on carts to Verkhoturye. If there were few people willing to move to Siberia, the government sent settlers “by decree” from their own palace villages, giving them help with livestock, poultry, plows, and carts.

Siberia at this time also received an increase in the Russian population from exiles: it was under Mikhail Fedorovich that it became primarily a place of exile for criminals. The government tried to rid the indigenous regions of restless people and use them to populate Siberia. It planted exiled peasants and townspeople in Siberia on arable land, and recruited service people into service.

Russian colonization in Siberia was carried out primarily through government measures. Very few free Russian settlers came there; which is natural given the sparse population of the nearby Pokamsky and Volga regions, which themselves still needed colonization from the central Russian regions. Living conditions in Siberia at that time were so difficult that the settlers tried at every opportunity to move back to their native lands.

The clergy were especially reluctant to go to Siberia. Russian settlers and exiles among the semi-savage infidels indulged in all sorts of vices and neglected the rules of the Christian faith. For the sake of church improvement, Patriarch Filaret Nikitich established a special archiepiscopal see in Tobolsk, and installed Cyprian, Archimandrite of the Novgorod Khutyn Monastery, as the first Archbishop of Siberia (1621). Cyprian brought priests with him to Siberia and set about organizing his diocese. He found several monasteries already founded there, but without observing the rules of monastic life. For example, in Turinsk there was the Intercession Monastery, in which monks and nuns lived together. Cyprian founded several more Russian monasteries, which, at his request, were supplied with lands. The archbishop found the morals of his flock extremely dissolute, and in order to establish Christian morality here he encountered great opposition from the governors and service people. He sent the Tsar and the Patriarch a detailed report about the disturbances he found. Filaret sent a letter of reproach to Siberia with a description of these unrest and ordered it to be read publicly in churches.

The corruption of Siberian morals is depicted here. Many Russian people there do not wear crosses and do not observe fasting days. The letter especially attacks family debauchery: Orthodox people marry Tatars and pagans or marry close relatives, even sisters and daughters; service people, going to distant places, pawn their wives to their comrades with the right to use them, and if the husband does not buy his wife back within the appointed time, the lender sells her to other people. Some Siberian servicemen, coming to Moscow, lure their wives and girls with them, and in Siberia they sell them to Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. Russian governors not only do not stop people from lawlessness, but they themselves set an example of theft; For the sake of self-interest, they inflict violence on merchants and natives.

In the same year, 1622, the tsar sent a letter to the Siberian governors prohibiting them from intervening in spiritual matters and ordering them to ensure that service people in these matters submit to the court of the archbishop. He also instructs them that the servants sent to foreigners to collect yasak should not do violence to them, and that the governors themselves should not commit violence and injustice. But such orders did little to restrain arbitrariness, and morals improved in Siberia very slowly. And the most spiritual authorities did not always correspond to the high purpose. Cyprian remained in Siberia only until 1624, when he was transferred to Moscow by Metropolitan Sarsky or Krutitsky to replace the retired Jonah, with whom Patriarch Philaret was dissatisfied for his objections to the rebaptism of Latins at the spiritual council of 1620. Cyprian's successors at the Siberian See are better known for their concerns about acquisitions , rather than caring for the flock.

In Moscow, Siberia, being developed by the Russians, was explored for a long time in the Kazan and Meshchersky palaces; but during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, the independent “Siberian Order” appeared (1637). In Siberia, the highest regional administration was first concentrated in the hands of the Tobolsk governors; from 1629 the Tomsk governors became independent from them. The dependence of the governors of small cities on these two main ones was mainly military.

Beginning of Russian penetration into Eastern Siberia

Yasak made from sables and other valuable furs was the main motivation for the spread of Russian rule to Eastern Siberia beyond the Yenisei. Usually, a party of Cossacks of several dozen people leaves from one or another Russian city, and on fragile “kochs” sails along the Siberian rivers in the middle of wild deserts. When the waterway is interrupted, she leaves the boats under the cover of several people and continues on foot through barely passable wilds or mountains. Rare, sparsely populated tribes of Siberian foreigners are called upon to enter into citizenship of the Russian Tsar and pay him tribute; they either comply with this demand, or refuse tribute and gather in a crowd armed with bows and arrows. But fire from arquebuses and self-propelled guns, friendly work with swords and sabers force them to pay yasak. Sometimes, overwhelmed by numbers, a handful of Russians build a cover for themselves and sit in it until reinforcements arrive. Often, military parties were paved the way to Siberia by industrialists who were looking for sables and other valuable furs, which the natives willingly exchanged for copper or iron cauldrons, knives, and beads. It happened that two parties of Cossacks met among foreigners and started fights that led to fights over who should take the yasak in a given place.

In Western Siberia, the Russian conquest met stubborn resistance from the Kuchumov Khanate, and then had to fight hordes of Kalmyks, Kirghiz and Nogais. During the Time of Troubles, conquered foreigners sometimes made attempts there to rebel against Russian rule, but were pacified. The number of natives decreased greatly, which was also facilitated by newly introduced diseases, especially smallpox.

Yenisei region, Baikal region and Transbaikalia in the 17th century

The conquest and development of Eastern Siberia, accomplished for the most part during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, took place with much less obstacles; there the Russians did not encounter an organized enemy or the foundations of state life, but only semi-wild tribes of the Tungus, Buryats, and Yakuts with petty princes or elders at their head. The conquest of these tribes was consolidated by the founding of more and more new cities and forts in Siberia, most often located along rivers at the junction of water communications. The most important of them: Yeniseisk (1619) in the land of the Tungus and Krasnoyarsk (1622) in the Tatar region; In the land of the Buryats, who showed relatively strong resistance, the Bratsk fort was erected (1631) at the confluence of the river. Oki to the Angara. On the Ilim, the right tributary of the Angara, Ilimsk arose (1630); in 1638, the Yakut fort was built on the middle reaches of the Lena. In 1636–38, the Yenisei Cossacks, led by the foreman Elisey Buza, descended along the Lena to the Arctic Sea and reached the mouth of the Yana River; behind it they found the Yukaghir tribe and imposed tribute on them. Almost at the same time, a party of Tomsk Cossacks, led by Dmitry Kopylov, entered the Aldan from the Lena, then into the Mayu, a tributary of the Aldan, from where they reached the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, paying tribute to the Tungus and Lamut.

In 1642, the Russian city of Mangazeya suffered a severe fire. After that, its inhabitants little by little moved to the Turukhansk winter quarters on the lower Yenisei, which had a more convenient position. Old Mangazeya was deserted; instead, a new Mangazeya or Turukhansk arose.

Russian development of Siberia under Alexei Mikhailovich

The Russian conquest of Eastern Siberia already under Mikhail Fedorovich was brought to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, it was finally approved and extended to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1646, the Yakut governor Vasily Pushkin sent the service foreman Semyon Shelkovnik with a detachment of 40 people to the Okhta River, to the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk to “mine new lands.” Shelkovnik set up (1649?) the Okhotsk fort on this river by the sea and began to collect tribute in furs from the neighboring natives; moreover, he took hostage (amanates) the sons of their elders or “princes.” But, contrary to the tsar’s decree to bring the Siberian natives into citizenship “with affection and greetings,” service people often irritated them with violence. The natives reluctantly submitted to the Russian yoke. The princes sometimes rebelled, beat small parties of Russian people and approached Russian forts. In 1650, the Yakut governor Dmitry Frantsbekov, having received news of the siege of the Okhotsk fort by indignant natives, sent Semyon Enishev with 30 people to Shelkovnik’s rescue. With difficulty he reached Okhotsk and here he endured several battles with the Tungus, armed with arrows and spears, dressed in iron and bone kuyaks. Firearms helped the Russians defeat much more numerous enemies (according to Enishev’s reports, there were up to 1000 or more of them). Ostrozhek was liberated from the siege. Yenishev did not find Silkman alive; Only 20 of his comrades remained. Having then received new reinforcements, he went to the surrounding lands, imposed tribute on the tribes and took amanats from them.

The leaders of the Russian parties in Siberia at the same time had to pacify the frequent disobedience of their own service people, who were distinguished by their self-will in the far east. Enishev sent complaints to the governor about the disobedience of his subordinates. Four years later we find him in another fort, on the Ulye River, where he went with the rest of the people after the Okhotsk fort was burned by the natives. From Yakutsk, Voivode Lodyzhensky sent Andrei Bulygin with a significant detachment in that direction. Bulygin took the Pentecostal Onokhovsky from Ulya with three dozen service people, built the New Okhotsk fort (1665) on the site of the old one, defeated the rebellious Tunguska clans and again brought them under the citizenship of the Russian sovereign.

Mikhail Stadukhin

Moscow's possessions extended further to the north. The Cossack foreman Mikhail Stadukhin founded a fort on the Siberian Kolyma River, imposed tribute on the reindeer Tungus and Yukagirs who lived on it, and was the first to bring news about the Chukotka land and the Chukchi, who in winter move to the northern islands on reindeer, beat walruses there and bring back their heads with teeth. Voivode Vasily Pushkin in 1647 gave Stadukhin a detachment of servicemen to go beyond the Kolyma River. Over the course of nine or ten years, Stadukhin made a number of trips on sledges and along rivers on kochas (round boats); imposed tribute on the Tungus, Chukchi and Koryaks. It flowed through the Anadyr River into the Pacific Ocean. The Russians accomplished all this with an insignificant force of several dozen people, in a difficult struggle with the harsh nature of Siberia and in constant battles with wild natives.

Eastern Siberia in the 17th century

At the same time as Stadukhin, other Russian servicemen and industrial entrepreneurs – “experimenters” – were also working in the same north-eastern corner of Siberia. Sometimes parties of servicemen went mining without permission from the authorities. So in 1648 or 1649, about two dozen servicemen left the Yakut prison from the oppression of the governor Golovin and his successor Pushkin, who, according to them, did not give the sovereign's salary, and punished those who were dissatisfied with whips, prison, torture and batogs. These 20 people went to the Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers and collected yasak there, fought the natives and took their fortified winter huts by storm. Sometimes different parties clashed and started discord and fights. Stadukhin tried to recruit some squads of these experimenters into his detachment, and even inflicted insults and violence on them; but they preferred to act at their own risk.

Semyon Dezhnev

Among these people who did not obey Stadukhin were Semyon Dezhnev and his comrades. In 1648, from the mouth of the Kolyma, sailing up the Anyuy, he made his way to the upper reaches of the Anadyr River, where the Anadyr fort was founded (1649). The following year, he set off from the mouth of the Kolyma on several Kochs by sea; Of these, only one kocha remained, on which he went around the Chukotka nose. The storm washed this Kocha ashore; after which the party reached the mouth of the Anadyr on foot and went up the river. Of Dezhnev’s 25 comrades, 12 returned. Dezhnev warned Bering for 80 years about the opening of the strait separating Asia from America. Often the Siberian natives refused to pay tribute to the Russians and beat up the collectors. Then it was necessary to send military detachments against them again. So Gr. Pushkin, sent by the Yakut governor Boryatinsky, in 1671 pacified the indignant Yukaghirs and Lamuts on the river. Indigirka.

Russian advance into Dauria

Along with the yasak collection, Russian industrialists were so diligently engaged in hunting sables and foxes that in 1649 some Tungus elders challenged the Moscow government to quickly exterminate fur-bearing animals. Not content with hunting, industrialists caught sables and foxes in traps all winter; why these animals in Siberia began to breed heavily.

The uprising of the Buryats, who lived along the Angara and upper Lena, near Lake Baikal, was especially strong. It happened at the beginning of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich.

The Buryats and neighboring Tungus paid yasak to the Yakut governors; but Ataman Vasily Kolesnikov, sent by the Yenisei governor, began to collect tribute from them again. Then the united crowds of Buryats and Tungus, armed with bows, spears and sabers, in kuyaks and shishaks, on horseback began to attack the Russians and come to the Verkholensky fortress. This uprising was pacified not without difficulty. Aleksey Bedarev and Vasily Bugor, sent from Yakutsk to help this fort, with a detachment of 130 people, withstood three “attacks” (attacks) of 500 Buryats along the way. At the same time, the service man Afanasyev grappled with the Buryat horseman-hero, the brother of Prince Mogunchak, and killed him. Having received reinforcements in the prison, the Russians again went to the Buryats, destroyed their uluses and again withstood the battle, which they ended in complete victory.

Of the Russian fortifications built in that part of Siberia, the most prominent was the Irkutsk fort (1661) on the Angara. And in Transbaikalia, our main strongholds became Nerchinsk (1653-1654) and Selenginsk (1666) on the river. Selenge.

Moving to the east of Siberia, the Russians entered Dauria. Here, instead of the northeastern tundras and mountains, they found more fertile lands with a less harsh climate, instead of rare wandering savages-shamanists - more frequent uluses of nomadic or semi-sedentary "Mugal" tribes, semi-dependent on China, influenced by its culture and religion, rich in livestock and bread, familiar with ores. The Daurian and Manchu princes had silver gilded idols (burkhans) and fortified towns. Their princes and khans were subordinate to the Manchu Bogdykhan and had fortresses surrounded by an earthen rampart and sometimes equipped with cannons. The Russians in this part of Siberia could no longer act in parties of a dozen or two; detachments of hundreds and even thousands, armed with arquebuses and cannons, were needed.

Vasily Poyarkov

The first Russian campaign in Dauria was undertaken at the end of the reign of Michael.

The Yakut governor Golovin, having news of the people sitting on the Shilka and Zeya rivers and abundant in bread and all kinds of ore, in the summer of 1643 sent a party of 130 people, under the command of Vasily Poyarkov, to the Zeya River. Poyarkov swam along the Lena, then up its tributary Aldan, then along the Uchura river flowing into it. The swimming was very difficult due to frequent rapids, large and small (the latter were called “shivers”). When he reached the portage, frost set in; I had to arrange a winter hut. In the spring, Poyarkov descended to Zeya and soon entered the uluses of the arable Daurs. Their princes lived in small towns. Poyarkov began to grab amanats from them. From them he learned the names of the princes who lived along Shilka and Amur, and the number of their people. The most powerful prince on Shilka was Lavkai. The Daurian princes paid tribute to some khan who lived far to the south, in the land of Bogdoy (apparently in southern Manchuria), and had a log city with an earthen rampart; and his combat was not only with archery, but also with rifles and cannons. The Daurian princes bought from the khan silver, copper, tin, damask and kumachi, which he received from China, using sable. Poyarkov descended into the middle reaches of the Amur and swam down the land of the Duchers, who killed a lot of his people; then, along the lower course, it reached the sea in the land of the Gilyaks, who did not pay tribute to anyone. The Russians first reached the mouth of the Amur, where they spent the winter. From here Poyarkov sailed through the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the mouth of the Ulya River, where he again spent the winter; and in the spring he reached Aldan with portages and Lenoy returned to Yakutsk in 1646, after a three-year absence. This was an exploratory campaign that introduced the Russians to the Amur and Dauria (Pieto Horde). It cannot be called successful: most of the people died in battles with the natives and from hardships. They suffered severe hunger during the winter near Zeya: there some were forced to feed on the dead bodies of the natives. Upon returning to Yakutsk, they filed a complaint with Voivode Pushkin about Poyarkov’s cruelty and greed: they accused him of beating them, not giving them grain supplies, and driving them out of the prison into the field. Poyarkov was summoned to trial in Moscow along with the former governor Golovin, who indulged him.

Rumors about the riches of Dauria aroused the desire to bring this part of Siberia under the jurisdiction of the Russian Tsar and collect abundant tribute there not only in “soft junk”, but also in silver, gold, and semi-precious stones. According to some news, Poyarkov, before his call to Moscow, was sent on a new campaign in that direction, and after him Enalei Bakhteyarov was sent. Looking for a closer path, they walked from the Lena along the Vitim, the peaks of which are close to the left tributaries of the Shilka. But they did not find the road and returned without success.

Erofey Khabarov

In 1649, the Yakut governor Franzbekov was petitioned by the “old experimenter” Erofey Khabarov, a merchant by origin from Ustyug. He volunteered at his own expense to “clean up” up to one and a half hundred or more willing people in order to bring Dauria under the king’s hand and take yasak from them. This experienced man announced that the “direct” road to Shilka and Amur goes along the tributary of the Lena Olekma and the Tugir flowing into it, from which the portage leads to Shilka. Having received permission and assistance with weapons, having built planks, Khabarov with a detachment of 70 people in the summer of the same 1649 sailed from Lena to Olekma and Tugir. Winter has come. Khabarov moved further on the sledge; Through the valleys of Shilka and Amur they came to the possession of Prince Lavkay. But his city and the surrounding uluses were empty. The Russians marveled at this Siberian city, fortified with five towers and deep ditches; In the city, stone sheds were found that could accommodate up to sixty people. If fear had not attacked the inhabitants, it would have been impossible to take their fortress with such a small detachment. Khabarov went down the Amur and found several more similar fortified cities, which were also abandoned by the inhabitants. It turned out that the Russian man Ivashka Kvashnin and his comrades managed to visit the Tungus Lavkaya; he said that the Russians were coming in the number of 500 people, and even larger forces were following them, that they wanted to beat all the Daurs, plunder their property, and take their wives and children. The frightened Tungus gave Ivashka gifts in sables. Hearing about the threatened invasion, Lavkai and other Daur elders abandoned their towns; with all the people and herds, they fled to the neighboring steppes under the protection of the Manchu ruler Shamshakan. Of their abandoned winter quarters, Khabarov especially liked the town of Prince Albaza due to its strong position on the middle reaches of the Amur. He occupied Albazin. Leaving 50 people to the garrison, Khabarov went back, built a fort on the Tugir portage, and in the summer of 1650 returned to Yakutsk. In order to secure Dauria for the great sovereign, Frantsbekov sent the same Khabarov in the next 1651 with a much larger detachment and with several cannons.

Yakutia and the Amur region in the 17th century

The Daurs were already approaching Albazin, but he held out until Khabarov arrived. This time the Daurian princes put up quite strong resistance to the Russians; a series of battles followed, ending in the defeat of the Daura; The guns especially frightened them. The natives again left their towns and fled down the Amur. The local princes submitted and agreed to pay yasak. Khabarov further strengthened Albazin, which became a Russian stronghold on the Amur. He founded several more forts along Shilka and Amur. Voivode Franzbekov sent him several more human parties. News of the riches of the Daurian land attracted many Cossacks and industrialists. Having gathered a significant force, Khabarov in the summer of 1652 moved from Albazin down the Amur and destroyed the coastal uluses. He swam to the confluence of the Shingal (Sungari) into the Amur, in the land of the Duchers. Here he spent the winter in one city.

Local Siberian princes, tributaries of Bogdykhan, sent requests to China for help against the Russians. Around that time in China, the native Ming dynasty was overthrown by rebellious military leaders, with whom hordes of Manchus united. The Manchu Qing dynasty (1644) was established in Beijing in the person of Bogdykhan Huang Di. But not all Chinese regions recognized him as sovereign; he had to conquer them and gradually strengthen his dynasty. During this era, Khabarov’s campaigns and the Russian invasion of Dauria took place; their successes were facilitated by the then troubled state of the empire and the diversion of its military forces from Siberia to the southern and coastal provinces. News from the Amur forced the Bogdykhan governor in Manchuria (Uchurva) to dispatch a significant army, mounted and on foot, with firearms, in the amount of thirty arquebuses, six cannons and twelve clay pinards, which had a pound of gunpowder inside and were thrown under the walls to explode. Firearms appeared in China thanks to European merchants and missionaries; For missionary purposes, the Jesuits tried to be useful to the Chinese government and built cannons for it.

On March 24, 1653, Russian Cossacks in the Achan city were awakened at dawn by cannon fire - it was the Bogdoy army, which, with crowds of duchers, was going on an attack. “Yaz Yarofeiko...,” says Khabarov, “and the Cossacks, having prayed to the Savior and Our Most Pure Lady Theotokos, said goodbye to themselves and said: we will die, brothers, for the baptized faith and will please the sovereign Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but we will not give ourselves alive into the hands of the Bogdoy people.” . They fought from dawn to sunset. The Manchu-Chinese cut down three links from the city wall, but the Cossacks rolled a copper cannon here and began to hit the attackers point-blank, directed the fire of other cannons and cannons at it and killed a lot of people. The enemies fled in disarray. The Russians took advantage of this: 50 people remained in the city, and 156, in iron kuyaks, with sabers, made a sortie and entered into hand-to-hand combat. The Russians prevailed, the Bogdoi army fled from the city. The trophies were a convoy of 830 horses with grain reserves, 17 rapid-fire arquebuses with three and four barrels, and two cannons. About 700 of the enemies fell; while the Russian Cossacks lost only ten killed and about 80 wounded, but the latter later recovered. This massacre was reminiscent of the previous heroic exploits of Ermak and his comrades in Siberia.

But the circumstances here were different.

The conquest of Dauria involved us in a clash with the then powerful Manchu Empire. The defeat aroused a thirst for revenge; there were rumors about new crowds that were going to attack the Cossacks in Siberia again and suppress them in numbers. The princes refused to pay tribute to the Russians. Khabarov did not go further down the Amur into the land of the Gilyaks, but at the end of April he sat down on planks and swam up. On the way he met reinforcements from Yakutsk; he now had about 350 people. In addition to the danger from China, they also had to contend with the disobedience of their own squads, recruited from walking people. 136 people, outraged by Stenka Polyakov and Kostka Ivanov, separated from Khabarov and sailed down the Amur for the sake of “zipuns”, i.e. They began to rob the natives, which further alienated them from the Russians. On instructions from Yakutsk, Khabarov was supposed to send several people as envoys with a royal letter to Bogdykhan. But the Siberian natives refused to take them to China, citing the treachery of the Russians, who promised them peace, but now rob and kill. Khabarov asked for a large army to be sent, because with such small forces the Amur could not be held. He pointed out the large population of the Chinese land and the fact that it has a fiery battle.

Russians on the Amur

The next year, 1654, the nobleman Zinoviev arrived on the Amur with reinforcements, a royal salary and a gold reward. Having collected the yasak, he returned to Moscow, taking Khabarov with him. He received from the tsar the title of son of a boyar and was appointed clerk of the Ust-Kut fort on the Lena. After him, Onufriy Stepanov was in charge on the Amur. Moscow intended to send a 3,000-strong army to this part of Siberia. But the war with the Poles for Little Russia began, and the dispatch did not take place. With small Russian forces, Stepanov made campaigns along the Amur, collected tribute from the Daurs and Duchers and courageously fought off the incoming Manchu troops. He had to endure particularly strong battles in March 1655 in the new Komarsky fort (lower than Albazin). The Bogdoy army approached there with cannons and arquebuses. His number, together with the hordes of rebel natives, extended to 10,000; They were led by Prince Togudai. Not limiting themselves to cannon fire, the enemies threw arrows with “fire charges” into the fort and brought carts loaded with tar and straw to the fort to set the palisade on fire. The siege of the fort lasted three weeks, accompanied by frequent attacks. The Russians defended themselves courageously and made successful forays. The fort was well fortified with a high rampart, wooden walls and a wide ditch, around which there was a palisade with hidden iron bars. During the attack, the enemies bumped into the bars and could not get close to the walls to light them; and at this time they hit them with cannons. Having lost many people, the Bogdoy army retreated. Many of his fiery charges, gunpowder and cannonballs remained for the Russians. Stepanov asked the Yakut governor Lodyzhensky to send gunpowder, lead, reinforcements and bread. But his requests were little fulfilled; and the war with the Manchus continued; Daurs, Duchers and Gilyaks, refused yasak, rebelled, and beat up small parties of Russians. Stepanov pacified them. The Russians usually tried to capture one of the noble or leading Siberian people into the amanat.

In the summer of 1658 Stepanov, having set out from Albazin on 12 planks with a detachment of about 500 people, sailed along the Amur and collected yasak. Below the mouth of the Shingal (Sungari) he unexpectedly met a strong Bogdoy army - a flotilla of almost 50 ships, with many cannons and arquebuses. This artillery gave the enemy an advantage and caused great devastation among the Russians. Stepanov fell with 270 comrades; the remaining 227 people fled to ships or to the mountains. Part of the Bogdoy army moved up the Amur towards Russian settlements. Our dominion on the middle and lower Amur has almost been lost; Albazin was abandoned. But on the upper Amur and Shilka it survived, thanks to strong forts. At this time, the Yenisei governor Afanasy Pashkov acted there, who with the founding of Nerchinsk (1654) strengthened Russian rule here. In 1662, Pashkov was replaced in Nerchinsk by Hilarion Tolbuzin.

Soon the Russians re-established themselves on the middle Amur.

The Ilimsk governor Obukhov was distinguished by his greed and violence against the women of his district. He dishonored the sister of the serviceman Nikifor of Chernigov, originally from Western Rus'. Burning with vengeance, Nikifor rebelled several dozen people; they attacked Obukhov near the Kirensky fortress on the river. Lena and killed him (1665). Avoiding the death penalty, Chernigovsky and his accomplices went to the Amur, occupied the deserted Albazin, renewed its fortifications and began to again collect tribute from the neighboring Siberian Tungus, who found themselves between two fires: both the Russians and the Chinese demanded tribute from them. In view of the constant danger from the Chinese, Chernigovsky recognized his subordination to the Nerchinsk governor and asked for pardon in Moscow. Thanks to his merits, he received it and was approved by the Albazin chief. Along with the new occupation of the middle Amur by the Russians, hostility with the Chinese resumed. It was complicated by the fact that the Tungus prince Gantimur-Ulan, as a result of Chinese injustices, left the Bogdoi land for Siberia, to Nerchinsk, under Tolbuzin and surrendered with his entire ulus under the royal hand. There were other cases when native families, unable to tolerate the oppression of the Chinese, asked for Russian citizenship. The Chinese government was preparing for war. Meanwhile, there were very few Russian service people in this part of Siberia. Typically, archers and Cossacks were sent here from Tobolsk and Yeniseisk, and they served for 3 to 4 years (including travel). Those of them who wished to serve in Dauria for more than 4 years would receive an increase in salary. Tolbuzin's successor, Arshinsky, reported to the Tobolsk governor Godunov that in 1669 a horde of Mungals came to collect tribute from the Buryats and took them to their uluses; despite this, the neighboring Tungus also refuse to pay yasak; and “there is no one to carry out the search”: in the three Nerchinsk forts (Nerchinsky proper, Irgensky and Telenbinsky) there are only 124 service people.

Russian embassies to China: Fedor Baykov, Ivan Perfilyev, Milovanov

The Russian government therefore tried to settle disputes over Siberia with the Chinese through negotiations and embassies. To enter into direct relations with China, already in 1654 the Tobolsk boyar's son Fyodor Baikov was sent to Kambalyk (Beijing). First he sailed up the Irtysh, and then traveled through the lands of the Kalmyks, along the Mongolian steppes and finally reached Beijing. But after unsuccessful negotiations with Chinese officials, having achieved nothing, he returned back the same way, spending more than three years on the journey. But at least he delivered important information to the Russian government about China and the caravan route to it. In 1659, Ivan Perfilyev traveled to China along the same route with the royal charter. He was honored with a Bogdykhan reception, received gifts and brought the first batch of tea to Moscow. When enmity arose with the Chinese over the Tungus prince Gantimur and the Albazin actions of Nikifor of Chernigov, the son of the boyar Milovanov was sent to Beijing by order from Moscow from Nerchinsk (1670). He sailed up the Arguni; through the Manchu steppes he reached the Chinese Wall, arrived in Beijing, was honorably received by the Bogdykhan and presented with calico and silk belts. Milovanov was released not only with a letter of reply to the tsar, but also accompanied by a Chinese official (Mugotei) with a significant retinue. According to the petition of the latter, the Nerchinsk governor sent Nikifor of Chernigov an order not to fight Daur and Ducher without the decree of the great sovereign. Such a soft attitude of the Chinese government towards the Russians in Siberia, apparently, was explained by the unrest still going on in China. The second Bogdykhan of the Manchu dynasty, the famous Kang-si (1662–1723) was still young, and he had to fight a lot of rebellions before consolidating his dynasty and the integrity of the Chinese Empire.

In the 1670s, the famous journey to China of the Russian ambassador Nikolai Spafari took place.

When writing the article, I used the book by D. I. Ilovaisky “History of Russia. In 5 volumes"

The following details are interesting. In 1647, Shelkovnik from the Okhotsk fort sent industrialist Fedulka Abakumov to Yakutsk with a request to send reinforcements. When Abakumov and his comrades were camped at the top of the Mai River, the Tungus approached them with Prince Kovyrey, whose two sons were atamans in Russian forts. Not understanding their language, Abakumov thought that Kovyrya wanted to kill him; fired from the squeak and put the prince on the spot. Irritated by this, the latter’s children and relatives became indignant and attacked the Russians who were engaged in sable fishing on the river. May, and killed eleven people. And the son of Kovyri Turchenei, who was sitting as an ataman in the Yakut prison, demanded that the Russian governor hand over Fedulka Abakumov to their relatives for execution. Voivode Pushkin and his comrades subjected him to torture and, having put him in prison, reported this to the tsar and asked what he should do. A letter was received from the tsar, which confirmed that the Siberian natives should be brought under the tsar’s high hand with affection and greetings. Fedulka was ordered to be mercilessly punished with a whip in the presence of Turcheney, put in prison, and his extradition was refused, citing the fact that he killed Kovyrya by mistake and that the Tungus had already taken revenge by killing 11 Russian industrialists.

About the campaigns of M. Stadukhin and other experimenters in the northeast of Siberia - see Additional. How. East. III. Nos. 4, 24, 56 and 57. IV. Nos. 2, 4–7, 47. In No. 7, Dezhnev’s reply to the Yakut governor about the campaign on the river. Anadyr. Slovtsev "Historical Review of Siberia". 1838. I. 103. He objects to Dezhnev sailing in the Bering Strait. But Krizhanich, in his Historia de Siberia, positively says that under Alexei Mikhailovich they were convinced of the connection of the Arctic Sea with the Eastern Ocean. About Pushchin's campaign against the Yukaghirs and Lamuts Acts of History. IV. No. 219. You. Kolesnikov - to the Angara and Baikal. Additional How. East. III. No. 15. About the campaigns of Poyarkov and others in Transbaikalia and the Amur Ibid. Nos. 12, 26, 37, 93, 112, and IZ. In No. 97 (p. 349), the servicemen who went with Stadukhin across the Kolyma River say: “And there are many overseas bones lying here on the shore, it is possible to load many ships with these bones.” Campaigns of Khabarov and Stepanov: Acts of History. IV. No. 31. Additional How. East. III. Nos. 72, 99, 100 – 103, 122. IV. Nos. 8, 12, 31, 53, 64 and 66 (about the death of Stepanov, about Pashkov), (about Tolbuzin). V. No. 5 (letter from the Yenisei governor Golokhvostov to the Nerchinsk governor Tolbuzin about sending him 60 archers and Cossacks in 1665. The forts in Dauria are mentioned here: Nerchinsky, Irgensky and Telenbinsky), 8 and 38 (about the construction of the Selenginsky fort in 1665 - 6). and inspection of it in 1667). There is some confusion regarding the Siberian events or their sequence in acts. So, according to one piece of news, Erofey Khabarov had a battle with the Daurs on his first campaign and then occupied Albazin (1650), where he left 50 people who “all lived until his Yarofey’s health,” i.e. until his return. (Ak. Ist. IV. No. 31). And according to another act (Addition III. No. 72) on this campaign he found all the uluses of the desert; nothing is said about Albazin’s occupation. In No. 22 (Addition VI) Albazin is called a “Tracked prison.” In Spafari's journey, the Albazinsky fort is called the "Town Town". In an extensive order of 1651 from the Siberian order sent to the Russian governor of the Daurian land, Afanasy Pashkov, Albazin is mentioned among the Lavable uluses. Pashkov, among other things, is ordered to send people to the river. Shingal to the kings of Bogdoy Andrikan and Nikonsky (Japanese?) to persuade them to “look for his great sovereign’s mercy and salary.” (Russian Historical Bible T. XV). About Baikov's journey to China Acty East. IV. No. 75. Sakharov “The Legend of the Russian People”. P. and Spassky "Siberian Bulletin" 1820. Krizhanich mentions the dishonor of Chernigovsky's sister and his revenge in his "History of Siberia" (the aforementioned Collection of A. A. Titova. 213). And in general about greed, the rape of women in Siberia and the murder of Obukhov by Chernigovsky and his comrades in Additional. VIII. No.73.

The same example of a bribe-taker and fornicator-rapist is presented by the Nerchinsk clerk Pavel Shulgin at the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. The Russian servicemen of the Nerchinsk forts filed a complaint against him to the Tsar for his following actions. Firstly, he appropriates the property of servicemen left after those who died or were killed during the yasak collection. Secondly, he took bribes from some Buryat princes and released their amanats, after which they left for Mongolia, driving away the state and Cossack herds; and to other Buryat clans, namely Abakhaya Shulengi and Turaki, he sent the Tungus to drive away the herds from them. “Yes, his son Abakhai Shulengi sits in Nerchinsk in an amanat and with his wife Gulankai, and he Pavel that amanat wife, and his Abakhai daughter-in-law by force takes him to his bed for a long time, and steams in the bathhouse with her, and That Amanat wife informed your sovereign’s envoy Nikolai Spafaria of Pavlov’s fornication of violence and showed it to people of all ranks all over the world.” For this reason, Abakhai with all his family drove away from the prison and drove away the sovereign and Cossack herds. Further, Pavel Shulgin was accused of smoking wine and brewing beer from state grain reserves for sale, which is why bread has become very expensive in Nerchinsk and service people are suffering from hunger. Shulgin's people "kept the grain", i.e. prohibited gambling. Not content with his Amanat wife, he also “took three Cossack yasyrs (captives)” to a hut, and from here he took them to his place for the night, “and after himself he gave those yasyrs to his people to mock.” He “beats the service people with a whip and batogs innocently; taking five or six batogs in his hand, he orders them to beat the naked on the back, on the belly, on the sides and on the flanks, etc. The Russian service people of Siberian Nerchinsk themselves dismissed this terrible man from the authorities, and in his place they chose the son of the boyar Lonshakov and the Cossack foreman Astrakhantsev by the sovereign decree; confirming their choice, they beat the sovereign with their foreheads. (Addition to Ak. Ist. VII. No. 75). According to this Shulgin’s report, shortly before his displacement in 1675, part of the yasak Tungus, taken by the Mongols from Siberia, then returned to Dauria under Russian citizenship (Acts of History IV. No. 25).In the same 1675 we see examples that the Daurs themselves, as a result of Chinese oppression, asked for Russian citizenship. In order to protect them from the Chinese, the Albazin clerk Mikhail Chernigovsky (successor and relative of Nicephorus?) with 300 service people arbitrarily undertook a campaign or “carried out a search” over the Chinese people on the Gan River (Additional. VI. P. 133).

Exploration of Siberia by Russian pioneers in the 17th century

What is Siberia?

Siberia, in the broad sense of the word, refers to the territory of modern Russia from the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast.

More precise definition of Siberia does not include Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions in the west and the entire Far Eastern Federal District in the east. That is, the Amur, Jewish, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories, Yakutia, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin are not Siberia.

Siberia is usually divided into Western and Eastern Siberia. Western Siberia is the Ob basin. Eastern Siberia - the Yenisei and Lena basins, as well as Transbaikalia.

Siberia - approximately inside the red pentagon

What does the word Siberia mean?

Doesn't mean anything. This is just a toponym, the same as the Ural, Altai, Taganay, Karelia, Volga, etc. Like any toponym, Siberia has several versions of its origin. According to some sources (during Ermak’s campaign of 1582-85), in the area where the Tobol flows into the Irtysh and further to the Ob, there lived an ethnic group that called itself “sypyr”. One of the names of the capital of Khan Kuchum was Sibyr (although historians adhere to the name Isker).

This version is indirectly confirmed by the fact that Ivan the Terrible, after receiving news from Ermak about the capture of the capital of Khan Kuchum called Sibyr, included these lands in his royal title and after... Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan added and Tsar of Siberia . First, the tsar's close associates, then the officials, and then the entire people began to call the eastern lands beyond the Stone Belt Siberia.

The word “Siberia” easily and firmly entered the popular vocabulary also because it is very sonorous, euphonious and easy to pronounce.

Features of the development of Siberia

The main paradox of the annexation of Siberia to the Moscow state is that, unlike other territories (Novgorod, Kazan, Astrakhan...) there was no forced annexation here. Nor was it voluntary. The main driving force was the unorganized colonization of Siberian spaces by Russian people. These spaces were extremely sparsely populated and there was enough land for everyone. The Russians just came and settled here.

Around the same time, Spain, Portugal and England were actively colonizing African and American lands. There, governments initially led the military takeover of new territories. At the same time, colonization was accompanied by the extermination and enslavement of the local population.

In Siberia everything was exactly the opposite. At first, these regions were discovered and developed by “willing people,” that is, volunteers who flocked here mainly for furs, valuable metals, and simply for a better life. And after them came the Moscow administration. In fact, all of Siberia went to the Moscow rulers “for free”. Apart from Ermak’s purposeful military campaign, Siberia “surrendered” to Moscow practically without a fight. Clashes between Cossack detachments of 20-50 people with the local population, who did not want to pay yasak to the “roof” located thousands of miles away, cannot be regarded as a military invasion.

Cossacks - pioneers in Siberia

While in the west of Muscovy there were constant wars for tiny pieces of territory that took away all the resources of the treasury and the forces of the state (Lithuanians, Swedes, Poles, Germans, Crimeans...) then in the east, for about a hundred years, they were developed and annexed to Moscow has gigantic territories, larger in area than both the metropolis itself and the rest of Europe. And it is the Siberian lands that are to this day the main feeding trough for the country.

Objective prerequisites for the settlement of Siberia by Russians

Researchers find quite logical explanations for the paradox of the bloodless annexation of the Siberian expanses to the Russian state.

What attracted Russians to Siberia?

Fur, fur and once again fur, which in those days was called junk. The first to rush to the east were the most active people, who were called industrialists. Their main trade was fur. It was highly valued both in the domestic and foreign markets. Fur was a luxury item; both European monarchs and Asian rulers with their ruling castes paid generously for it. By that time, both Asia and Europe had long ceased to have their own furs.

In addition, furs (unlike, for example, wood or salt) were a very convenient product for individual entrepreneurs of that time - it weighed little, took up little space, was stored for a long time, was expensive, and required few expenses. The junk was bought from the local population for rags, axes and vodka, so the profit could be thousands of percent!

Who populated Siberia?

So, we were the first to rush “along the path of Ermak” industrialists- fur hunters. These were mainly residents of the northern regions, and the remnants of Novgorod merchants, who from time immemorial traded in the Pechora, Vishera basins, the Northern Urals and the Lower Ob. It was easier for them than others to adapt to Siberian climatic conditions. In addition, in the northern regions (Vologda, Arkhangelsk...) there was no strong serfdom; free people lived here, accustomed to earning their bread in harsh climatic conditions.

Cossacks

The next class of people were the Cossacks. They were also free people. Dealing in robbery and robbery was the essence of their existence. Therefore, they were not afraid of possible clashes with the local population. These were combat units, sort of domestic conquistadors.

Foreigners

Another small layer is foreign prisoners of war. They were apparently allowed to replace captivity with “voluntary” exile to Siberia and settle in new lands.

Old Believers

In the second half of the 17th century, after Nikon’s church reform, many adherents of the old church rites did not want to submit to the “new church rites” and “ran” to Siberia, away from the official church with its alien Greek traditions.

Criminals

The Moscow government began exiling convicts to Siberia later, in the 18th century, when prisons had at least been formed and the rudiments of an administrative structure had appeared. And in the 17th century, criminals were simply hiding from justice in the vast eastern lands. Or they joined the Cossacks as “willing people.”

Runaway serfs

The strengthening of serfdom under Ivan the Terrible and then under the Romanovs forced the serfs to flee away from the “rights” of the boyars and landowners. People preferred the uncertainty of a new life to endless slave labor.

The government, by the way, turned a blind eye to those fleeing to Siberia. On the one hand, it did not have the means to capture and return them. On the other hand, any strengthening of the Russian presence in Siberia was enough.

Voivodes and Streltsy

The government, represented by appointed governors, was already on the heels of the pioneers, establishing its power and laws in new lands. The Cossacks built fortified forts, industrialists and free settlers settled under the protection of these fortifications, forming new cities and settlements. Of these, Cossack expeditions continued to “search for new lands” in all directions. And government-appointed governors with regular military detachments, clergy and officials settled in the forts.

This is what Russian forts in Siberia looked like

(analogous to them are American colonial forts)

The first Russian settlements - forts in Siberia

Look at the list of “settlements” that were founded by Russian Cossacks and settlers in the late 16th and 17th centuries in Siberia, and which subsequently grew into cities of regional and regional significance.

1586 - Tyumen - the first Russian city in Siberia

1587 - Tobolsk on the Irtysh

1593 - Berezov (Tyumen region)

1594 - Surgut

1595 - Obdorsk (from 1933 - Salekhard)

1601 - Mangazeya

1604 - Tomsk

1607 - Turukhansk

1619 - Yeniseisk

1626 - Krasnoyarsk

1630 - Kirensk on Lena.

1631 - Brotherly fort on the Angara

1632 - Yakutsk

1653 - Chita and Nerchinsk

1666 - Verkhneudinsky fort (Ulan-Ude, Transbaikalia)

This is the general picture of the spread of the Russian "invasion" of Siberia in the seventeenth century.

History is moved forward, as we know, by extraordinary individuals. And there were enough of them among the Russian pioneers. The names of Pyotr Beketov, Ivan Moskvitin, Ivan Rebrov, Mikhail Stadukhin, Semyon Dezhnev, Vasily Poyarkov, Erofei Khabarov, Vladimir Atlasov are firmly entrenched in the domestic and world history of geographical discoveries.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again travelers of the era of great geographical discoveries

In the 17th century The Siberian mining industry is taking its first steps. Beyond the Urals, the first industry that began to develop was the “salt industry.” This was explained by the daily need of the settlers for salt, and the need to have it in large quantities to procure food for future use, especially fish.

In the south of Western Siberia already in the first quarter of the 17th century. Russians mined self-sedimentary salt of good quality during special expeditions to the upper reaches of the Irtysh to Lake Yamysh. Since the 20s XVII century trips “to the salt” became almost annual, up to several hundred servicemen and “all ranks” of people took part in them. These expeditions had not only fishing, but also trade, as well as diplomatic goals (as already noted, trade and negotiations were conducted with Kalmyks and “Bukharans” near Lake Yamysh).

The arrival at the lake therefore had to take place in a solemn atmosphere. Fireworks were fired and military music was played. Eyewitnesses described the extraction of self-sedimentary salt at Yamysh Lake: “they break it with levers... and carry it with carts on themselves, on horses and on camels, and load it with plows.” The transfer of salt from the lake to the ships was preceded by work on the construction or restoration of forts and other protective structures, since expeditions to Yamysh did not always end peacefully. Salt was mined there not only “for the sovereign” (for the treasury), but also “for oneself”, then it was transported to Western Siberian cities. Since the 20s they completely covered their needs for salt until the 40s. XVII century sent her to Eastern Siberia.

A lot of salt was also obtained from underground sources - “salt springs”. In the Verkhoturye district, salt was not mined from the “springs” for long, but to the east of the Yenisei, salt production acquired a wide scope for those times. Since the 40s thanks to him, Eastern Siberia also began to provide itself with its own salt. The centers of salt production there were the area at the mouth of Kuta and the famous Kempendyai spring on Vilyui, where they obtained salt of very high quality, as well as the area along the Taseyev and Manzee rivers in the Yenisei district.

Salt making was a complex and difficult task. It required the involvement of many people: skilled salt workers with assistants and “cookers”, woodcutters to prepare the large quantities of fuel needed, blacksmiths to repair and make “tsrens” (large frying pans for evaporating salt). The required amount of iron “structure” was not always at hand to produce the necessary equipment. All this increased the cost of East Siberian salt, but was not an obstacle to expanding its production. Thus, over time, several large salt production enterprises of the manufacturing type arose in the Yenisei region. In the 70s a brewery was set up near Irkutsk - in the later widely known “Angarsk Usolye”. At the very end of the 17th century. started salt production in Transbaikalia, near Selenginsk. As a result, both Western and Eastern Siberia were able to completely provide themselves with salt from local resources in a short time.

Having secured a foothold in the Urals, the Russian people immediately tried to develop other types of natural resources of the region. Tsar's decrees ordered the Siberian governors to “seek out and ask all ranks of people and foreigners about gold and silver, and about copper, and tin, and lead ores, and about pearls, and mica, and paints, and about iron, and about saltpeter earth, and about alum, and about other patterns.” The governors, in turn, gave appropriate “instructions” to the servicemen going on campaigns and, in addition, ordered the privets to “click for many days” in city squares. As a result, local authorities received important information about ores, fossil paint and other minerals from knowledgeable people and sent this information to Moscow. And from there new requests were sent to Siberia, which gave impetus to new research.

The settlers carefully looked at the natural resources of the region and “visited” them not only “by the sovereign’s decree,” but also on their own initiative. They first of all tried to ask the indigenous inhabitants about the presence of this or that “land” in the region. Help in discovering various types of valuable raw materials was most often provided by the Evenks - excellent experts on the taiga wilds from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean. There are known cases when Siberian “foreigners”, hoping for a reward, themselves came to representatives of the Russian administration with messages about mineral deposits.

During specially organized expeditions and searches for private individuals beyond the Urals, many “desirable places” were discovered. For example, in Verkhoturye and Tobolsk districts, in Yakutia (in Indigirka, Kolyma), on the Ulye River in the 17th century. rock crystal, carnelian, emeralds and other “colored patterned stones” were “examined.” In the Tura basin on the Neiva River they found an “emery stone” suitable “for any diamond business.” Mineral paints of various colors were discovered on Vitim and in the Baikal region, and building stone was found in Verkhoturye district. On the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in 1668, Yakut servicemen tried to establish a pearl fishery by sending samples of harvested pearls and shells to Moscow.

The Apothecary Order's interest in medicinal plants was reflected in Siberia by collection and shipment to the capital in accordance with government decrees of 1665–1696. detailed information about medicinal herbs and the herbs themselves from the Yakut and Krasnoyarsk districts.

In order to provide the Siberian garrisons with a “potion” (gunpowder) of its own production, in the 17th century. a special search was undertaken for fossil sulfur and “saltpeterine earth”. After reports of the discovery of “saltpeter and sulfur places” on the Olekma River and in the Irkutsk steppes, promises of rewards followed from Moscow and instructions to “look for” such deposits “with great zeal, and start making a potion in order to get intoxicated with the potion without sending it.”

The Moscow government showed even greater interest in “exploring” non-ferrous metal ores in Siberia, especially silver - the main raw material for making money, which Russia was then forced to import entirely from abroad. Expeditions of servicemen, specially equipped to search for silver ore, operated in the 17th century. from the Urals to the Far Eastern lands.

Samples from each deposit were usually carefully studied in the voivodeship offices (“moving huts”) and sent to Moscow. By the end of the century, the study of the region’s natural resources began to be carried out not only more widely, but also more skillfully. Participants in the expeditions had to prepare samples in such a way that “which ore was taken and from which river it was taken, and the ore should not be mixed with ore, put separately... and sign on the labels where it was taken and how deep, and write any information about that ore business.” In addition to the quality of the ore, the government was interested in the economic feasibility of developing the found deposit: “to inspect and survey those places, and describe how many miles and fathoms in length and across and in the depth of which ores... is it possible to set up a fort in that place and all sorts of factories for start melting that ore... and conduct experiments on your own, what will come out of those ores... and send those ores, experiments, and inspection to Moscow.”

Although in the end, successes in the field of non-ferrous metallurgy in the 17th century. and turned out to be quite modest (only test melts of copper and silver were obtained), the significance of the discoveries made by ore miners at that time should not be underestimated. They served as an impetus for new expeditions, for in-depth scientific study and widespread use of the region’s natural resources in the future. It was in the 17th century. For example, the development of Nerchinsk silver deposits began, which later were important for the economy of the entire country.

However, even at the time under review, many deposits “explored” by explorers gave birth to various “industry”. Thus, on Arguni it was possible to establish the smelting of lead from local ore and thereby replenish the ammunition supplies of the surrounding forts. The development of some of those discovered in the 17th century began. mica deposits, especially widely in Western Siberia, the Yenisei and the Baikal region. The Siberians provided themselves completely with mica and even exported it to Europe.

The greatest development was in Siberia in the 17th century. received such a branch of the mining industry as iron ore. And this is quite natural given the need for iron products that the colonized country usually experiences. In close connection with the iron ore industry were other developed branches of the mining industry - salt making and mica. All of them, as a rule, coincided with areas of distribution of iron production. It provided the basis for the development of all industries. In addition, in the 17th century. It was common among artisans to combine various professions, especially related ones. A blacksmith, for example, was often simultaneously a miner, smelter, and salt maker.

The first iron ore deposits in Siberia began to be developed by Russians already in the 20s. XVII century - in Turinsky, Tomsk, Kuznetsk districts. Then other deposits were discovered and developed - in the Eastern Urals, in the Yenisei and Yakut districts, in the Angara and Baikal regions. Siberian iron was often of very high quality. Thus, contemporaries wrote about the Kuznetsk deposit that the metal obtained there was “velmi good... better than Svei,” that is, Swedish, one of the best in Europe. It was smelted beyond the Urals mainly in small furnaces, but nevertheless, by the end of the 17th century, Siberia began to almost completely make do with its own iron.

The main goals of organizing iron production in the region were defined in government orders extremely simply: “to make arquebuses for those arquebuses, and... for the arable peasants... forge plows, and scythes, and sickles, and axes, so that iron along with Rus'... will not be sent forward.” .

Half of Siberian blacksmithing and metalworking was located in cities, half in rural areas. Most of all the masters of “iron crafts” were found in the districts of Western Siberia (in Verkhotursky, Tobolsk, Tyumen), as well as in Yenisei (it was described in a document of 1685 as a place where “there are a lot of blacksmiths and armor makers”). In total in Siberia by the end of the 17th century. More than a thousand people were employed in metalworking. They made openers, scythes, sickles, axes, knives, door hinges, drills, horseshoes, picks, spades, staples, nails, cauldrons, military armor, spears, reeds, cannonballs, repaired and (less often) made squeaks, sometimes made cannons and bells

Iron production, as well as salt production, was carried out by both private individuals and the treasury. It was predominantly small, but there were also relatively large factories: the Nitsyn state-owned plant, the ironworks of the Dolmatov Monastery, the Tumashev plant in the Verkhoturye district on the Neiva River, which was the first large private enterprise in Siberia that used hired labor, and produced up to 1200 pounds of iron per year.

Let us remember that large-scale production also developed in other branches of Siberian industry - in shipbuilding, salt making, leather making... And although manufactories in Siberia in the 17th century. arose infrequently and, as a rule, were short-lived, their role in the development of the Siberian economy should not be underestimated. The very fact of the appearance of enterprises of this kind on the distant eastern outskirts of the Russian state testified to the unity of economic processes on both sides of the Ural Mountains, to the achievement of a qualitatively new stage in Siberian industry in its development.

In a general comparison with European/Russian industrial achievements in Siberia in the 17th century. may, however, seem rather modest. This, however, will not happen if we compare the level of industrial production in pre-Russian (XVI century) and Russian (XVII century) Siberia. With all kinds of comparisons, we must not forget about such circumstances as the small and widely scattered population, and about the conditions in which the Russians established industrial production beyond the Urals. A common occurrence in Siberia at that time was war danger, hunger, and a shortage of the simplest and most necessary things. Taking all this into account, the successes of Siberian industry in the 17th century. cannot be called insignificant. It was already an achievement that by the beginning of the next century, almost all branches of craft were represented beyond the Urals.

Of course, not all of them were well developed on the eastern outskirts of Russia. Both at the end of the 17th century and at a later time, many industrial products, especially textiles, continued to arrive in Siberia. At the same time, a sharp reduction by the end of the 17th century. The import of goods important for Siberians clearly evidenced the formation and success of local crafts.

The significance for the Russian state of “trades and trades” of Siberia in the 17th century. Some contemporaries also understood this well. Caught in 1661–1676 In his Tobolsk exile, the outstanding thinker of his time, Yuri Krizhanich, wrote: “Siberia is still useful to us, but it can become much more useful.” It is significant that, in addition to the benefits from fur trades and trade with southern neighbors, Krizhanich noted the presence of “iron ores” in Siberia, making it possible to “get all kinds of good weapons and iron from there.”

After the Time of Troubles, which shook the Russian land at the beginning of the 17th century, the development of Siberia resumed. In 1621, the Tobolsk Orthodox Diocese was created. This consolidated the position of the Orthodox Church in the reclaimed lands.

From Western Siberia further east, Russian discoverers moved in two ways. The Ustyuzhans walked through Mangazeya in a northeast direction. The Cossacks, in turn, headed to Transbaikalia. In 1625 they met the Buryats.

In the 30s, explorers developed the Lena River basin. And in the first half of the 17th century, cities such as Yeniseisk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Yakutsk were founded. This was the best indicator of the development of new lands. And already in the next decade, Russian people reached the eastern borders of Eurasia. In 1645, the expedition of V.D. Poyarkov descended the Amur and reached the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In 1648-1649, Erofey Khabarov and his people passed the middle course of the Amur.

Moving east, the explorers practically did not encounter any serious organized resistance from the local population. The only exception is the clashes between the Cossacks and the Manchus. They happened in the 80s on the border with China.

The Cossacks reached the Amur and in 1686 built the Albazin fortress. However, the Manchus did not like this. They besieged a fort, the garrison of which numbered several hundred people. The besieged, seeing a well-armed army of thousands in front of them, surrendered and left the fortress. The Manchus immediately destroyed it. But the stubborn Cossacks already in 1688 built a new, well-fortified fort in the same place. The Manchus failed to take it again. The Russians themselves left it in 1689 according to the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

So, in just 100 years, starting from Ermak’s campaign in 1581-1583 and before the war with the Manchus in 1687-1689, the Russian people mastered vast areas from the Urals to the Pacific coast. Russia, with virtually no problems, gained a foothold in these vast lands. Why did everything happen so easily and painlessly?

Firstly, the royal commanders followed the explorers. They unwittingly encouraged the Cossacks and Great Russians to go further and further to the east. The governors also smoothed out individual outbursts of harshness that the Cossacks showed towards the local population.

Secondly, exploring Siberia, our ancestors found in these parts a feeding landscape familiar to them. These are river valleys. The Russians lived along the banks of the Volga, Dnieper, and Oka for a thousand years. Therefore, they began to live in the same way along the banks of Siberian rivers. These are the Angara, Irtysh, Yenisei, Ob, Lena.

Third, Russian settlers, due to their mentality, very easily and quickly established fruitful contacts with local peoples. Conflicts almost never arose. And if there were any disagreements, they were quickly settled. As for national hatred, such a phenomenon did not exist at all.

Conclusion– Over the course of several decades, the Russian people have mastered vast spaces in the eastern part of Eurasia. In the new territories, the Muscovite kingdom pursued a peaceful and friendly policy towards the local population. This was radically different from the policies of the Spanish and British towards the American Indians. Had nothing to do with the slave trade practiced by the French and Portuguese. There was nothing like the exploitation of the Javanese by the Dutch merchants. But at the time when these unsightly acts were carried out, Europeans had already experienced the Enlightened Age and were extremely proud of their civilized world.