The conqueror of Siberia, Ermak Timofeevich, can hardly be counted among the circle of travelers and discoverers. But it is also impossible to ignore this remarkable historical figure. The name of Ermak opens the list of Russian historical figures who contributed to the transformation of the Moscow kingdom into the powerful and largest Russian Empire in terms of territory.

Although, in fact, all travelers of the 15-16 centuries initially had not research, but purely commercial and aggressive goals - Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan and others were looking for ways to the fabulous riches of Africa, India, China and Japan. They found new lands and conquered them. And geographical discoveries happened as if by themselves, in parallel with the main activity!

History has not preserved much documentary information about Ermak, his origin and his exploits. The gaps between facts, as always, are filled with versions, guesses, myths and, alas, falsifications.

On these pages we will consider the main versions of the origin of Ermak, his activities, his famous crossing of the Ural ridge and his attempt to conquer Siberia. So:

Who is Ermak?

Full name: Ermak Timofeevich Alenin - this is the official version

Years of life: - 1530/1540–1585

Was born:according to one version in the north, in Vologda, according to another - in the Dvina land, according to a third - in the Urals, according to others - he comes from a family of Siberian princes...

Occupation: Cossack chieftain

Name: Considering that the name Ermak, under which this person went down in history, is extremely rare, we can assume that Ermak is not a name, but a nickname. Nickname. The Cossacks were, in essence, highway robbers (only well-organized ones). The presence of a “driver” is a completely normal phenomenon for every member of an “armed gang”.

Origin: nothing is known for certain. Some attribute him to the Don Cossacks, others to the Ural Cossacks (more precisely, to the Yaik Cossacks). The Ural River, before the defeat of the Pugachev uprising, was called Yaik, and the Cossacks who controlled the territories along it were called Yaik. Since the Yaik flows into the Caspian Sea relatively close to the Volga, the Yaik Cossacks also robbed the Volga.

Another version claims that Ermak was a serving ataman in the troops of Ivan the Terrible during the Livonian War. When Stefan Batory went to Rus' in 1579, Tsar Ivan hastily assembled a militia to repel the attack, including the Cossacks. The name of the Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich is quite specifically reflected in the message of the Polish commandant of the city of Mogilev Stravinsky in a report to his king. It was the summer of 1581. From this, historians conclude that Ermak could not begin his campaign in Siberia earlier than the next 1582.

After the successful conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1551-56. Ivan's government IV Grozny completely controlled the Volga as the main trade artery with the East. Russian merchants traded freely, and foreign caravans paid duties to the treasury. The Nogai Horde formally recognized the power of Moscow, but having learned about the difficulties of the Russians in the west, it decided to take advantage of the moment and “grab its own.” Ivan IV sent ambassador V. Pepelitsyn to the Nogai khans with rich gifts to appease the top of the Nogais and prevent an attack. At the same time, the Yaik Cossacks received the unspoken “go-ahead” for armed resistance against the Nogais, if something happened.

The Cossacks, who had long-standing scores to settle with the Nogais, took advantage of the moment. When the Moscow embassy of V. Pepelitsyn, together with the Nogai ambassador, merchants and a strong escort detachment, was heading to Moscow in August 1581, the Cossacks attacked them on the Samara River and killed almost everyone. And the remaining two dozen people reached Moscow and “grieved” to Ivan the Terrible about this lawlessness. And on their list of “offenders” were the names of Cossack chieftains Ivan Koltso, Nikita Pan, Bogdan Barboshi and others.

The king pretended that he had decided to punish the self-willed people. He sent a special detachment to suppress Cossack independence, ordering “to punish the Cossacks with death.” But in fact, he gave the Cossacks the opportunity to go north, to the Perm lands, where they were very useful for protecting Russian possessions on the Kama from the attacks of the Siberian Khan Kuchum.

Some historians claim that the Cossacks went to the Kama on their own initiative and, having arrived there, first “scoured” Stroganov’s possessions. But then we received a specific proposal from Ural industrialists to officially defend them. That is, to become a kind of “private-public security company.”

Unable to control the Urals and the Kama basin, Ivan the Terrible back in 1558 gave these lands to the industrialists Stroganovs (whose ancestors date back to Novgorod Republic hunted in these parts). The king gave them the broadest powers. They had the right to collect tribute, extract minerals, and build fortresses. The Stroganovs themselves defended their territories and their “business”, had the right to create armed formations, automatically protecting the possessions of the Moscow Tsar from encroachments from the east.

The Stroganovs were in dire need of armed men to protect their considerable estates. They came out with the initiative to call on the “guilty” Cossacks to defend their territories. This exit suited all parties and the Cossacks, presumably in 1579-81, arrived at the Stroganovs’ possessions on the Kama. “To earn royal forgiveness and mercy with a sword in hand in the service of the sovereign against adversaries.”

Around the same time, Ermak Timofeevich arrived on the Kama to join his brothers in arms, since the Livonian War had ended by that time. N It is impossible that he received some “indications” from Ivan IV lead the Cossack freemen on the Kama from the raids of Khan Kuchum.Now no one can say what it really was like.

Shibanid, grandson of Ibak - Khan of Tyumen and the Great Horde. His father was one of the last khans of the Golden Horde, Murtaza. Relying on his relative, the Bukhara khan Abdullah Khan II, Kuchum waged a long and persistent struggle with the Siberian khan Ediger, using an army consisting of Uzbek, Nogai, and Kazakh detachments.

In 1563, Kuchum killed Ediger and his brother Bekbulat, occupied the city of Kashlyk (Isker, Siberia) and became the sovereign khan over all the lands along the Irtysh and Tobol. The population of the Siberian Khanate, which was based on the Tatars and their subordinate Mansi and Khanty, viewed Kuchum as a usurper, because his support was a foreign army.

After seizing power in the Siberian Khanate, Kuchum initially continued to pay yasak and even sent his ambassador to Moscow with 1000 sables (1571). But when his wars with local competitors, organized several campaigns into the possessions of Ivan the Terrible and the Stroganovs, and approached Perm closely.

Because best protection- this is an attack, then the Stroganovs, in agreement with Tsar Ivan, decided to “beat the enemy on his territory.” For this, the “guilty” Volga-Yaik Cossacks were ideally suited - organized people who knew how to fight , ready to go anywhere for rich booty.!But Ataman Ermak also had his own thoughts and far-reaching plans on this matter.

How did the idea of ​​Ermak’s campaign to conquer Siberia come about? read more

P.S.

There is, however, such a version. No “special forces” chased away the Yaik Cossacks; Ermak and his comrades came to the Stroganovs’ possessions on their own initiative, slightly plundering their possessions and remaining in them. Apparently, they offered Solikamsk industrialists to “protect” their business. The Stroganovs didn’t have much of a choice - God is high, the Tsar is far away, and the Cossacks are right here.

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The years of Ermak Timofeevich’s life are not known for certain today. According to different versions, he was born either in 1531, or in 1534, or even in 1542. But the date of death is precisely known - August 6, 1585.

He was a Cossack chieftain, he is called a National Hero. It was he who discovered a huge part of our country - Siberia.

According to one version, Cossack Ermak Timofeevich was born in the Middle Urals region. He looked like this: large, broad-shouldered, with a black beard, of average height, with a flat face. We do not know what surname Ermak bore. But one historian is sure that full name sounded like Vasily Timofeevich Alenin.

Ermak was a participant in the Livonian War, commanding the Cossacks. In 1581 he fought in Lithuania. Ermak also participated in the liberation of besieged Pskov. In 1582 he was in the army that stopped the Swedes.

Historical reference

The Siberian Khanate was part of the possessions of Genghis Khan. In 1563, Kuchum began to rule there, but this did not happen in an honest way. Having killed Ediger, a tributary of Moscow, he “pretended to be one of his own.” The government recognized him as a khan and also obliged him to pay tribute. But, having settled well in Siberia, Kuchum decided to make the Khanate independent and independent: he did not pay tribute and attacked other territories. And Moscow now faced the task of returning the Siberian Khanate under its control.

It should be noted that the eastern lands were colonized famous family Stroganovs, industrialists and merchants. Their activities were controlled by Moscow. The Stroganovs were unusually rich. They had their own detachments and fortresses beyond the Kama, which they themselves supplied with weapons. The earth had to be protected somehow. And now Ermak comes to their aid.

Ermak Timofeevich: the conquest of Siberia and the discovery of new lands

How it all began

One of the Siberian Chronicles tells that the Stroganovs sent a letter to the Cossacks. The merchants asked for help against the attacking peoples. A Cossack squad led by Ermak came to Siberia and successfully defended the lands from the Vogulichs, Votyaks, Pelymtsy and others.

Still, it remains unknown exactly how the “deal” took place between the Stroganovs and the Cossack army.

• The merchants simply sent or even ordered Cossack troops to conquer Siberia.
• Ermak and his army himself decided to go on a campaign and forced the Stroganovs to provide the necessary weapons, food and other things.
• Both of them made this decision on conditions beneficial to everyone.

Before the start of the campaign, the Stroganovs allocated weapons (guns and gunpowder), provisions, as well as people - about three hundred people. The Cossacks themselves numbered 540. The strictest discipline reigned in the detachment of eight hundred people.

The campaign began in September 1581. The detachment swam along the rivers, long and hard. The boats got stuck, the water was already starting to freeze. We had to spend the winter near the portage. While some were getting food, others were preparing for spring. The flood came, the boats quickly set off. And so the detachment ended up in the Siberian Khanate.

Getting closer to the goal

In the area of ​​present-day Tyumen, which then belonged to Kuchumov’s relative, Epanch, the first battle took place. Ermak's army defeated the Epanchi Tatars. The Cossacks stubbornly moved forward. The Tatars could only flee and report the attacks to Kuchum. It should be noted that the Tatars did not have gunpowder weapons; they used bows. Therefore, the guns of Ermak’s detachment completely discouraged them, which they reported to the khan. But, on the other hand, the Tatars had a superiority in troops by twenty times or even more. Kuchum, although depressed, as a true leader, quickly gathered all the Tatars under the leadership of Magmetkul and ordered them to go against the Cossacks. And at this time he strengthened the borders of the city of Siberia - the capital of the Khanate.

Magmetkul and the Cossacks fought bloodily and cruelly. The weapons of the former were significantly inferior, so Magmetkul had to flee. Meanwhile, the Cossacks moved further and took a couple of cities. Ermak stops to decide how to proceed. The decision had to be made: go back or move forward. Ataman Ermak Timofeevich feared that there were too many enemies. It was already October 1582. The rivers will soon begin to freeze again, so it is risky to swim back.

And so, early in the morning of October 23, Ermak’s army, with hope for God's help go on the offensive. The fight was incredibly difficult. Ermak’s army was unable to break through the Tatar defenses. But the Russians managed to break through, and the Tatars began to flee the battlefield. Kuchum, seeing all this, also fled, leaving Siberia.

And on October 26, Ermak and his Cossack detachment entered the capital, rich in precious metals and furs. Ermak's banner now fluttered in Siberia.

But it was too early to rejoice. Kuchum, hiding in the steppes, continued to attack the Cossacks. Magmetkul also posed a danger. First, he killed part of the Cossacks in November 1582. But Ermak made a very far-sighted act in the spring of 1853, sending part of the army to attack the Tatars and capture Magmetkul. Cossack army Although it coped with this task, it began to decrease in number and strength. Russian princes with an army of three hundred people were sent to help the detachment. After all, Kuchum did not calm down, and it was necessary to defend the conquered city

Death of Ermak Timofeevich

Here is how it was. Ermak and his detachment walked along the Irtysh. They spent the night at the mouth of the Vagai River. Unexpectedly, in the dead of night, Kuchum attacks the Cossacks and kills them. Only a part managed to escape. Survivors say that the ataman tried to swim to the plows (these are such ships), but drowned in the river. This happened, most likely, due to the heaviness of the armor (Ermak was wearing two chain mail shirts at that time). Of course, it is possible that he was also wounded.

Conquest of Siberia.

Secrets of Siberia. The mysterious grave of Ermak.

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

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

“Unknown by birth, famous in soul,” he, according to one legend, was from the banks of the Chusovaya River. Thanks to his knowledge of local rivers, he walked along the Kama, Chusovaya and even crossed to Asia, along the Tagil River, until he was taken to serve as a Cossack ( Cherepanov Chronicle).

According to another version, he was a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don ( Bronevsky).

The name Ermaka is a colloquial variant of the Russian name Ermolai and sounds like its abbreviation. There is also an opinion that “Ermak” is simply a nickname derived from the name of the cooking pot.

Ermak's surname has not been established, but in those days, and much later, many Russians were called by their father or nickname. He was called either Ermak Timofeev or Ermolai Timofeevich Tokmak.

Probably, Ermak was at first the ataman of one of the numerous and multinational squads of Volga Cossacks, typical for that time, who traded on the trade route along the Volga with robbery and armed attacks on Russian merchant caravans and on the Crimean and Astrakhan Tatars. This is evidenced by the songs and legends of the Don Cossacks about Ermak that have reached us.

Confirmation of the above lifestyle are the petitions of the “old” Cossacks addressed to the tsar, namely: Ermak’s comrade-in-arms Gavrila Ilyin wrote that for 20 years he “flew” (led a free life) with Ermak in the Wild Field, another veteran Gavrila Ivanov wrote that he was “on the field for twenty years with Ermak in the village” and in the villages of other atamans.

Ermak took part in the Livonian War, commanding a Cossack hundred. Under the command of governor Dmitry Khvorostinin, he took part in a successful raid on Lithuania in 1581, reaching down the Dnieper to Mogilev. In the same year, he helped unblock besieged Pskov, and also participated in Khvorostinin’s victory over the Swedes in the Battle of Lyalitsy.

In 1581, a squad of Cossacks ( more than 540 people), under the command of the atamans Ermak Timofeevich, was invited by the Ural merchants Stroganovs for protection from regular attacks from the Siberian Khan Kuchum, and went up the Kama, and in June 1582 arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovsky towns of the Stroganov brothers. Here the Cossacks lived for two months and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from predatory attacks by the Siberian Khan Kuchum. October 26, 1581 - conquest of Siberia.

Ermak Timofeevich died on August 6, 1585. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh. While spending the night at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and destroyed almost the entire detachment. According to one legend, the ataman, who bravely resisted, was burdened with his armor, in particular, the shell donated by the tsar, and, trying to swim to the plows, drowned in the Irtysh. According to Tatar legends, Ermak was mortally wounded in the throat by a spear from the Tatar hero Kutugai.

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Ermak, briefly about the conqueror of Siberia

Ermak Timofeevich short biography for children

Ermak, to put it briefly, is a Cossack ataman, his biography is not known for certain, his activities can be judged from fragmentary descriptions in a few chronicles. Before his famous campaign against the Siberian Khan Kuchum, Ermak, at the head of a Cossack detachment, participated in the Livonian War, fought against the Polish king Stefan Batory and against the Lithuanians, and carried out bandit raids on merchant ships passing along the Volga River.

In 1579, Ermak’s detachment, according to the Strogonov Chronicle, together with other Cossack squads arrived at the Chusovaya River at the invitation of the Strogonov merchants. The fact is that the lands of the Strogonovs were located on the border with the Siberian Khanate, and were regularly subject to raids by nomads. For the Cossacks, this invitation was more than interesting, since by this time their troops were outlaws and were wanted by Moscow governors for robberies of trade and government ships. For two years in the service of the Strogonovs, the Cossacks successfully repelled the attacks of the Siberian nomads on the borders, and in September 1581 they equipped a military detachment on a campaign against the Siberian Khan.

It was this campaign that glorified Ermak, in short, as a skillful commander, thanks to a clear military organization and strict subordination, his army of 540 people acted quickly, efficiently and coordinatedly. The hierarchy of military leaders was clearly built. The Cossacks were divided into dozens, led by foremen, then came Pentecostals, centurions, esauls and atamans. According to some chronicle data (Remizovskaya and Esipovskaya chronicles), this campaign was initiated by Ermak himself, according to other data, the proposal came from the Stroganov brothers, and in addition to the Cossacks, 300 warriors took part in the campaign (Strogonovskaya chronicle). In any case, the campaign was completely financed by the Strogonov merchants.

In three months, Ermak’s detachment quickly walked along the Chusovaya and Serebryannaya rivers and reached the Ob River basin area. Here, according to the Remizovskaya chronicle, the Cossacks spent the winter. And in the spring they continued their campaign beyond the Urals. Ermak won several military victories, and Kuchum sent his nephew Mametkul to meet the Cossacks. In a battle near the Tobol rivers, Mametkul’s military detachment suffered a crushing defeat. But the main battle between Ermak and the Siberian Khan took place later, on October 26, 1582. Both the Siberian Khan Kuchum and his nephew took part in this battle on the banks of the Irtysh River.

The Tatars were put to flight, leaving the capital of the Khanate - the city of Siberia. After this, in the summer of 1583, the Cossacks tried to subjugate the small settlements near the city of Siberia, but met fierce resistance. The last major victory in this direction was the city of Nazim. Since the capture of Siberia, Ermak has been sending official ambassador to Ivan the Terrible.

The Tsar approved of Ermak's actions and sent 300 military soldiers, led by governors Ivan Glukhov and Semyon Bolkhovsky, to help the Cossacks. But reinforcements arrived too late. By the autumn of 1584, when the tsar’s squad approached Siberia, the Cossack detachment was practically defeated as a result of constant enemy attacks. Ermak died on August 6, 1584. His detachment was ambushed on the Irtysh River, the Tatars attacked the sleeping Cossacks and killed them unarmed. Ermak threw himself into the river, but could not swim to his plow and drowned.
Ermak's campaign did not consolidate Moscow's power over the Siberian Khanate, but largely determined the further course of history and the expansion of the Slavs to the east.