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. As, however, it was not 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 in the thousands!

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

Russia's activity on the southern and western borders was simultaneously accompanied by a less noticeable for foreigners, but no less significant, penetration of Russian influence to the east, into Siberia. This was caused by several circumstances. Firstly, Siberian fur was one of the main sources of replenishment of the treasury. In conditions when fur-bearing animals were almost exterminated in the areas of their former production, the riches of Siberia acquired special significance. Secondly, flight to the outskirts, where the heavy hand of the Moscow authorities had not yet reached, was one of the consequences of growing social oppression, as well as urban uprisings and peasant unrest.

For this reason, the development of Siberia at the initial stage was not so much the result of state colonization, but rather the work of free industrialists and Cossacks, who, at their own peril and risk, went on long expeditions through uncharted lands. This was an extremely difficult matter. The only transport arteries in Siberia were rivers, and when they were covered with ice, travelers had to stop and spend the winter. At the wintering sites, settlements arose, gradually turning into cities. Thus, in 1587, Tobolsk was founded, which became the capital of Siberia for a long time, and Tyumen, Surgut, Narym, and Tomsk arose almost simultaneously. At the mouth of the Ob, the city of Mangazeya was built, which turned into the main trade and transshipment point.

Before the arrival of Russian explorers, different, very dissimilar tribes lived on the territory of Siberia. Along the banks of the Ob lived the Khanty and Mansi (the Russians called them Ostyaks and Voguls), to the north of them the Nenets (Samoyeds), further to the east - the Evenks (Tungus). The Yakuts settled along the Lena River, and the Buryats settled around Lake Baikal. The Yakuts and Buryats were engaged in cattle breeding, they already had tribal nobility and princes - “noyons”. Other tribes were still at the stage of the tribal system. The main activity of the Evenks and other tribes of the forest zone continued to be hunting; the Nenets and Chukchi, who inhabited the extreme north-eastern tip of the continent, were engaged in reindeer herding.

Russian penetration into Siberia was not always peaceful. The indigenous population was forced to pay yasak - tribute in furs. More than once the Siberian tribes rebelled against the aliens, but the Cossacks’ firearms usually provided them with an advantage. Fortress cities arose further and further to the east, becoming the support of Russian power. In 1628 Krasnoyarsk was founded, in 1632 Yakutsk, in 1652 the Irkutsk winter quarters were built on the Angara River, on the site of which the city of Irkutsk later grew.

Expeditions of industrialists and Cossack explorers made it possible to map vast territories. In 1648, the Cossacks under the command of Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnev six kochas (light ships) set out to sea from the mouth of the Kolyma River. Going north, they rounded the cape, which they called Big Stone Nose. Now this cape is the eastern point of the Asian continent and bears the name of Dezhnev. In 1644, Vasily Poyarkov’s detachment, leaving Yakutsk, reached the lower reaches of the Amur. Six years later, the expedition of Erofey Khabarov marked the beginning of the development of the middle Amur region. The cities of Nerchinsk and Albazin were built here.

In the Amur region, Russian possessions came directly close to the borders of China. Already Khabarov’s detachment had several skirmishes with the Chinese. In subsequent years, clashes became even more frequent. In order to relieve tension on the border, in 1676 a Russian embassy was sent to Beijing under the leadership of Nicholas Spafari. The ambassadors were received by the Chinese emperor, but they failed to resolve controversial issues. Moreover, in 1683, Chinese soldiers attacked Albazin, took the city and took the Cossacks who defended it captive. Only in August 1689 was an agreement signed between Russia and China in Nerchinsk. According to its terms, the Amur River was declared the border between the two countries. The Russians pledged to leave Albazin, but retained Nerchinsk and other settlements in the area.

It took less than a century to annex a vast territory from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean to Russia. Of course, Siberia remained a deserted and sparsely populated region for a long time. But the annexation of lands in the east was very important for Russia. In addition to furs and huge reserves of land, Siberia was rich in ore and other minerals. In the vicinity of Nerchinsk, silver began to be mined already at the end of the 17th century. The development of Siberia became the basis of growing Russian power.

The defeat of Kuchum made a huge impression on the local population, who hastened to voluntarily accept Russian citizenship. However, calm was never established on the South Siberian borders. Throughout the 17th century, Kuchum's descendants continued to harass Russian villages and Tatar uluses with raids.

From the end of the 16th century, Western Mongolian tribes (Oirots or Black Kalmyks) began to penetrate into the Irtysh region, and began to demand tribute from the Baraba Tatars. From the 20s of the 17th century they began to displace the Tatars from the river. Omi to the north, smashing their uluses. “In the Kalmyk steppes,” wrote G.N. Potanin, “there were many slaves from the Barabins, who, at the request of the Russian border authorities, were returned in hundreds by the Kalmyk authorities to their homeland, to Siberia.” In the border volosts there was always a detachment of servicemen from Tara “on guard”.

In 1601, the son of the boyar V. Tyrkov was sent to the Tomsk Tatars, who established relations with the local nobility. In 1603, Prince Tayan arrived in Moscow and asked to build a Russian fort in the Tomsk land. In 1604, the leader of the detachment, Pisemsky, reported to Moscow that the Tomsk fort had been built. Tomsk became the military-administrative center of the Tomsk district. Its garrison provided security for the city and the population of the county. The Russian authorities learned that weapons were supplied to the nomads by the Shors “Kuznetsk Tatars”, who fell into vassal dependence on the Oirot feudal lords. By order of Moscow, at the end of 1617, a combined detachment under the command of O. Kharlamov moved from Tomsk to the mouth of the river. Condoms. By May 1618, the Kuznetsk fortress was built. The creation of Kuznetsk marked the beginning of the annexation to Russia of a vast territory in the south of Western Siberia from the headwaters of the Irtysh in the west to the headwaters of the Tom in the east. However, at that moment the Russians did not have sufficient forces to decisively repel the hordes of nomads, and the government ordered local authorities to avoid conflicts in every possible way.

Further advance of the Russians to the south turned out to be impossible because in the 30s of the 17th century, the Western Mongols created the strong state of Dzungaria. The supreme ruler of Dzungaria, the kontaisha, sought to create a vast empire that included Mongolia, Altai, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The cautious policy pursued by the Moscow government caused discontent among the local population, who were forced to pay tribute to both the Russians and the Mongols. Due to the constant military danger, the territory of the current Novosibirsk region remained outside the main zone of Russian settlement. Only at the end of the 17th century did agricultural colonization approach the border of the Novosibirsk region of the Ob region. One of the first who decided to do this was the boyar's son Alexey Kruglik, who in 1695 founded arable land above the Urtamsky fort on the river. Ixe. This year can be considered the date of foundation of the village of Kruglikova, Bolotninsky district, NSO. Almost simultaneously the smells of the Russians on the river became black. Oyash, Inya and the villages of Pashkova, Krasulina, Gutovo appeared.

However, due to the threat of raids by nomads, the owners of arable land preferred to live permanently near the forts. To ensure the safety of Russian settlers at the mouth of the river. When he died in 1703, the Umrevensky fort was erected. Soon after the construction of the Umrevinsky sharp, the first Russian settlement appeared on the territory of the future Novosibirsk, the village of Krivoshchekovskaya. The village got its name from the nickname of the serviceman Fyodor Krivoshchek. Around the same time, the first permanent settlement appeared on the river. Berd village Morozovo. In 1709, the Russians built the Bikatun fortress at the mouth of the Biya and Katun rivers, which became a thorn in the side of the rulers of Dzungaria. During one of the raids, the Oirots burned it. Realizing that only the construction of a complex of fortified points could protect the civilian population, the Tomsk commandant Trakhiniotov in 1713 ordered the nobleman Lavrentyev to find a place to build a fort at the mouth of the river. Chaus. Lavrentiev considered it expedient to build a fort in the newly settled Anisimova village. 30 Cossacks were transferred to the Chaussky prison for service. Ostrog became an important transport point on the Moscow-Siberian highway. By 1720, in the area of ​​the Chaussky fort there were the villages of Bolshaya and Malaya Oyashinsky, Ust-Inskaya, Yarskaya, 11 in total. Over the next 20 years, 28 villages arose (Bozoiskaya, Krokhalevskaya, Skalinskaya, Pichugova, Krivodanovo, Chikovskaya, etc.) Population in consisted largely of runaway peasants, coachmen and commoners. In the 20s of the 18th century, many residents of the city of Tara settled in the district, who refused to swear allegiance to Catherine I after her coronation by Peter I in 1722 and, fleeing the search, were forced to flee. The Cossacks of the Chaussky garrison were white-local Cossacks, i.e. They did not receive a salary, but served “from the ground and from the grass,” i.e. they were provided with land plots. They were given a variety of duties such as guard duty, maintaining winter quarters, and repairing ships.

The security of the more southern regions of the Novosibirsk Ob region was ensured by the Berdsky fort, built in 1710 (opinion of N. A. Minenko). The Beloyarsk and new Bikatun fortresses were built in 1718. As a result, by 1718, the area between the Ob and Tom rivers was firmly assigned to Russia. At the same time, the Omsk (1716), Zhelezninsk (1717), Semipalatinsk (1718), Ust-Kamenogorsk (1720) fortresses grew on the Irtysh, which contributed to the stabilization of the situation in the south of Western Siberia, although the external danger remained and the Russian administration put up with the double-dealing of the Barabinsky people. In 1722, three more Russian fortifications were built in Baraba: Ust-Tartass, at the confluence of the river. Tartas into Om, Kainskoye at the confluence of the river. Kainki in Om and Ubinskoye southwest of Lake Ubinskoye. Cossacks lived in the fortresses, protecting the uluses of the Baraba Tatars. In 1729, the Cossacks sent to the Uba outpost submitted a request to the Tomsk governor to transfer them to Kargat, where living conditions were better - this is how the new Kargat outpost appeared.

Near the outposts, villages and winter huts arose, where peasants lived who kept horses for government travel.

The main occupation was agriculture. They plowed with a wooden plow with iron tips. They sown mainly rye, less oats, barley, and wheat. Various vegetables were grown in the gardens: onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage, turnips, cucumbers. The shifting system of farming was widely used, in which, after several years of use, people were abandoned for a long time for “rest.” No fertilizers were applied, because virgin lands produced relatively high yields. Wealthy peasants sold a considerable part of the grain to Siberian cities and fortresses located in the north: Tomsk, Narym, Surgut, Berezov, where prices for it were high. By the end of the 17th century, the Tomsk district was already getting by with its own bread. In Kuznetsk district there was not enough bread of its own during this period. In general, by the end of the 17th century, Siberia began to make do with its own bread, refusing to import it from European Russia. In 1685, the obligation to supply grain to Siberia was removed from Pomeranian cities. Now the task was to redistribute grain within Siberia from producing areas to consuming ones. In isolated cases, the local population tried to conduct farming according to the Russian model. Nor was it involved in forced labor in the sovereign's and monastic fields. Through the hands of a Russian man, Siberia later turned into a grain-producing land.

The most important branch of the economy was sedentary livestock raising with the storage of hay for the winter. They kept horses, cattle, sheep, and goats. This gave the peasants draft power for cultivating fields, transporting goods, and provided them with meat, milk, leather, and wool. Rich peasants had large herds of livestock on their farms.

Hunting and fishing played a supporting role. The peasant economy was of a subsistence nature: almost all household items were made there. The land that watered and fed the peasant did not belong to him. It was state-owned. For using it, the peasant performed certain duties. Initially, these were taxes in kind and money, which were assessed on each household, and since 1724, a per capita tax was paid from each male soul. Farmers also performed other duties for the benefit of the state: transporting government cargo and building roads.

The annexation of Western Siberia to Russia was not only a political act. A more significant role in the process of incorporating Siberia into Russia was played by the economic development of the territory by the Russian people. Since the 90s of the 16th century, a massive influx of immigrants from the European part of the country to Siberia began. The overwhelming majority of the West Siberian population was made up of free settlers who fled feudal oppression. Government efforts to transfer and refer to the arable land did not produce significant results. Despite the enormous difficulties for new settlers, the settlement and economic development of Western Siberia in the late 16th century - early 18th century developed successfully. The economic activities of the Russians also had a charitable impact on improving the economy of the aborigines.

Scheme of state administration of Siberia in the 1720-1760s.

The most extensive region of Russia in the 17th century. was Siberia. It was inhabited by peoples at different stages of social development. The most numerous of them were the Yakuts, who occupied a vast territory in the basin of the Lena and its tributaries. The basis of their economy was cattle breeding; hunting and fishing were of secondary importance. In winter, the Yakuts lived in wooden heated yurts, and in the summer they went to pastures.

The Yakut tribes were led by elders - toyons, owners of large pastures. Among the peoples of the Baikal region, the Buryats occupied first place in number. Most of the Buryats were engaged in cattle breeding and led a nomadic lifestyle, but among them there were also agricultural tribes. The Buryats were going through a period of formation of feudal relations; they still had strong patriarchal-tribal remnants.

In the vast expanses from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean lived the Evenks (Tungus), who were engaged in hunting and fishing. The Chukchi, Koryaks and Itelmens (Kamchadals) inhabited the northeastern regions of Siberia with the Kamchatka Peninsula. These tribes then lived in a tribal system; they did not yet know the use of iron.

The expansion of Russian possessions in Siberia was carried out mainly by the local administration and industrialists who were looking for new “land lands” rich in fur-bearing animals. Russian industrial people penetrated into Siberia along the high-water Siberian rivers, the tributaries of which are close to each other. Following in their footsteps were military detachments that set up fortified fortresses, which became centers of colonial exploitation of the peoples of Siberia. The path from Western Siberia to Eastern Siberia followed a tributary of the Ob, the Keti River. The city of Yeniseisk arose on the Yenisei (originally the Yenisei fort, 1619). Somewhat later, another Siberian city, Krasnoyarsk, was founded on the upper reaches of the Yenisei. Along the Angara or Upper Tunguska the river route led to the upper reaches of the Lena. The Lensky fort (1632, later Yakutsk) was built on it, which became the center of administration of Eastern Siberia.

In 1648, Semyon Dezhnev discovered “the edge and end of the Siberian land.” The expedition of Fedot Alekseev (Popov), the clerk of the Ustyug trading people Usovs, consisting of six ships, set out to sea from the mouth of the Kolyma. Dezhnev was on one of the ships. The storm scattered the expedition's ships, some of them died or were thrown ashore, and Dezhnev's ship rounded the extreme northeastern tip of Asia. Thus, Dezhnev was the first to make a sea voyage through the Bering Strait and discovered that Asia was separated from America by water.

By the middle of the 17th century. Russian troops penetrated into Dauria (Transbaikalia and Amur region). Vasily Poyarkov's expedition along the Zeya and Amur rivers reached the sea. Poyarkov sailed by sea to the Ulya River (Okhotsk region), climbed up it and returned to Yakutsk along the rivers of the Lena basin. A new expedition to the Amur was made by the Cossacks under the command of Erofei Khabarov, who built a town on the Amur. After the government recalled Khabarov from the town, the Cossacks stayed in it for some time, but due to lack of food they were forced to leave it.

Penetration into the Amur basin brought Russia into conflict with China. Military operations ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689). The treaty defined the Russian-Chinese border and contributed to the development of trade between the two states.

Following industrial and service people, peasant migrants headed to Siberia. The influx of “free people” into Western Siberia began immediately after the construction of Russian towns and especially intensified in the second half of the 17th century, when “many numbers” of peasants moved here, mainly from the northern and neighboring Ural counties. The arable peasant population settled mainly in Western Siberia, which became the main center of the agricultural economy of this vast region.

Peasants settled on empty lands or seized lands that belonged to local “yasak people.” The size of arable plots owned by peasants in the 17th century was not limited. In addition to arable land, it included dead fields and sometimes fishing grounds. Russian peasants brought with them the skills of a higher agricultural culture compared to that of the Siberian peoples. Rye, oats and barley became the main agricultural crops of Siberia. Along with them, industrial crops appeared, primarily hemp. Livestock farming has been widely developed. Already by the end of the 17th century. Siberian agriculture satisfied the needs of the population of Siberian cities for agricultural products and, thus, freed the government from the expensive delivery of bread from European Russia.

The conquest of Siberia was accompanied by the imposition of tribute on the conquered population. Payment of yasak was usually made in furs, a most valuable commodity that enriched the royal treasury. The “explaining” of the Siberian peoples by service people was often accompanied by outrageous violence. Official documents admitted that Russian merchants sometimes invited “people to trade and took their wives and children, and robbed their bellies and cattle, and inflicted many violence on them.”

The vast territory of Siberia was under the control of the Siberian Prikaz. The intensity of the robbery of the peoples of Siberia by tsarism is evidenced by the fact that the income of the Siberian Prikaz in 1680 amounted to more than 12% of the total budget of Russia. The peoples of Siberia, in addition, were exploited by Russian merchants, whose wealth was created by exchanging handicrafts and cheap jewelry for fine furs, which constituted an important Russian export. The merchants Usovs, Pankratyevs, Filatievs and others, having accumulated large capitals in Siberian trade, became owners of salt boiling factories in Pomorie, without stopping their trading activities at the same time. G. Nikitin, a native of black-growing peasants, at one time worked as E. Filatiev’s clerk and in a short time rose to the ranks of the Moscow merchant nobility. In 1679, Nikitin was enrolled in the living room hundred, and two years later he was awarded the title of guest. By the end of the 17th century. Nikitin’s capital exceeded 20 thousand rubles. (about 350 thousand rubles in money from the beginning of the 20th century). Nikitin, like his former patron Filatyev, became rich in the predatory fur trade in Siberia. He was one of the first Russian merchants to organize trade with China.

By the end of the 17th century. significant areas of Western and partly Eastern Siberia were already populated by Russian peasants, who had developed many previously deserted areas. Most of Siberia became Russian in its population, especially the black earth regions of Western Siberia. Relations with the Russian people, despite the colonial policy of tsarism, were of enormous importance for the development of the economic and cultural life of all the peoples of Siberia. Under the direct influence of Russian agriculture, the Yakuts and nomadic Buryats began to cultivate arable land. The annexation of Siberia to Russia created conditions for the further economic and cultural development of this vast country.

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 composed 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 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, occurred 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 yasak 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 the 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 he fought not only with bows, but also with rifles and cannons. The Daurian princes bought from the khan silver, copper, tin, damask and calico, 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 by 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 route, 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 a sledge; Through the valleys of Shilka and Amur they came to the possessions 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) in the person of Bogdykhan Huang Di was established in Beijing. 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 deal 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 are now robbing and killing. 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 strengthened Russian rule here with the founding of Nerchinsk (1654). 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 Baikov, 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 to confirm their choice (Addition to Ak. Ist. VII. No. 75, 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). asked for Russian citizenship. In order to protect them from the Chinese, the Albazin clerk Mikhail Chernigovsky (successor and relative of Nikifor?) with 300 servicemen arbitrarily undertook a campaign or “repaired a search” over the Chinese people on the Gan River (Additional. VI. P. 133).