Ermak Timofeevich (according to some sources Ermak Timofeevich Alenin) (1530/1540-1585) - Cossack ataman, leader of the Moscow army, who, on the orders of Tsar Ivan IV, successfully started a war with the Siberian Khan Kuchum, as a result of which the Siberian Khanate ceased to exist, and the Siberian lands entered into the Russian state. IN different sources named differently: Ermak, Ermolai, German, Ermil, Vasily, Timofey, Eremey.

According to some sources, he was born in the Vologda land, according to others - in Dvina. According to one of the legends, in his youth Alenin was an artel cook on a plow, for which he received the nickname Ermak (i.e. “road artel tagan” or “artel boiler”). According to another interpretation, since the lexeme “ermak” is of Turkic origin and means “breakthrough,” the nickname characterizes him as a person special properties(“a breakthrough, not a person”).

Father-hope, great light, sir!
Don't favor me with cities and villages
And large estates -
Perhaps you are our father, quiet Don
From top to bottom, with all the rivers and streams.
With all the green meadows
And with those dark forests! (from folklore)

Ermak Timofeevich

The origin of Ermak is controversial. According to N.M. Karamzin, “Ermak was unknown to his family, but had a great soul.” Some historians believe that he was a Don Cossack, others a Ural Cossack, and still others see him as a descendant of the princes of the Siberian land. In one of the handwritten collections of the 18th century. a legend has been preserved about the origin of Ermak, allegedly written by him (“Ermak wrote news about himself, where his birth came from...”). According to him, his grandfather was a Suzdal townsman, his father, Timofey, moved “from poverty and from poverty” to the estate of the Ural merchants and salt industrialists Stroganovs, who in 1558 received the first charter for “the Kama abundant places”, and by the early 1570s - to the lands beyond the Urals along the Tura and Tobol rivers with permission to build fortresses on the Ob and Irtysh. Timofey settled down on Chusova’s hand, got married, and raised his sons Rodion and Vasily. The latter was, according to the Remizov Chronicle, “very courageous and intelligent, and bright-eyed, flat-faced, with black hair and curly hair, flat and broad-shouldered.” He “went with the Stroganovs on plows to work along the Kama and Volga rivers, and from that work he took courage, and having collected a small squad for himself, he went from work to robbery, and from them he was called ataman, nicknamed Ermak.”

In the 1550-1570s he headed a Cossack village, “flying” between the Volga and Don. According to some sources, in 1571, together with his squad, he repelled the raid of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey from Moscow, participated in the Livonian War (1558-1583) in the battles of Orsha and Mogilev, and raided the Nogais.

In 1577, the Stroganov merchants invited him to return to Siberia to hire him to protect their possessions from the raids of the Siberian Khan Kuchum. Previously, the Siberian Khanate maintained good neighborly relations with the Russian state, expressing its love of peace by sending an annual tribute of furs to Moscow. Kuchum stopped paying tribute, beginning to oust the Stroganovs from the Western Urals, from the Chusovaya and Kama rivers.

According to one version, having received the tsar’s permission to recruit Cossacks to protect their possessions (the funds made it possible to arm about 1000 people), the Stroganovs ordered Ermak to create a strong combat detachment, since Kuchum’s army, according to rumors, reached 10 thousand people. Ermak gathered an army of 540 people. According to another version, no one hired Ermak and he went on a campaign without permission, destroying the Stroganovs’ estate together with his squad and seizing bread, flour, weapons, and things. The backbone of Ermak’s detachment was made up of Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso, Matthew Meshcheryak, Bogdan Bryazga and Nikita Pan, who had previously robbed Nogai and Russian merchants and came to Ermak to replenish his “Siberian squad” in the hope of profiting themselves from the expected campaign.

In June 1579 (according to other sources - in September 1581) Ermak went on a military campaign. Having crossed the Ural ridge, he invaded the possessions of the Siberian Khan, using waterways - the rivers Chusovaya, Serebryanka, Zharovl. At the passes, the Cossacks carried boats in their arms. Along Tagil they reached Tura, where for the first time they fought with the Tatar princes and defeated them. According to legend, Ermak planted effigies in Cossack clothes on the plows, and he himself with the main forces went ashore and attacked the enemy from the rear. Ermak’s success is explained both by the presence of firearms (arquebuses) among the Cossacks, and by the correctly chosen tactics, when the enemy was forced to engage in battle where he could not use cavalry.

Ermak's next battle was in the town of Yurty Babasan, where Ermak defeated Mamet-kul, Kuchum's nephew. The decisive battle was the battle at the mouth of the Tobol on October 23-25, 1582, where Ermak captured a small fortified town and turned it into a stronghold for the conquest of the capital of the Siberian Khanate - Kashlyk. Kuchum and Mamet-kul, having captured some valuables, fled to the Ishim steppes. On October 26, the Cossacks entered Kashlyk. Its capture turned out to be the most important milestone in the development of Siberia: the Khanty, Mansi and some Tatar uluses wished to accept Russian citizenship. The territory of the lower Ob region became part of the Russian state and, along with other developed territories, began to pay tribute (yasak) to Moscow. In 1583 the lands up to the mouth of the Irtysh were subjugated. The Siberian Khanate collapsed. Ivan the Terrible rewarded all participants in the campaign, forgave the criminals who sided with Ermak, promised assistance of 300 archers, and awarded Ermak himself the title “Prince of Siberia.”

In 1585, Kuchum managed to gather new forces to fight Ermak. To lure the Cossacks out of the fortification, Kuchum began to spread false rumors that the Tatars had detained a Bukharan trade caravan heading to the Cossacks. Ermak with a detachment of 150 people, having spent the winter with difficulty in Siberia (food quickly ran out, hunger began in the detachment), went up the Irtysh and reached the mouth of the Shish River. Here, on August 6, 1585, Kuchum suddenly attacked Ermak’s detachment at the mouth of the Volaya River (a tributary of the Irtysh). Being wounded, Ermak tried to swim across Vagai, but the heavy chain mail - a gift from Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible - pulled him to the bottom (“he was dressed in royal armor, but his plow sailed from the shore and he drowned before reaching it”). According to the chronicles, Ermak’s body was discovered by the Tatars and the “festival of revenge” lasted six weeks (arrows were shot into the dead body). Ermak was buried, according to legend, at the “Baishevsky cemetery under a curly pine tree.”

The meaning of ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH in Brief biographical encyclopedia

ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH

Ermak Timofeevich - conqueror of Siberia. The origin of Ermak is unknown exactly: according to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama River (Cherepanovskaya Chronicle), according to another - a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don (Bronevsky). His name, according to Professor Nikitsky, is a change from the name “Ermolai”; other historians and chroniclers derive it from Herman and Eremey. One chronicle, considering Ermak's name a nickname, gives him christian name Vasily. Ermak was at first the chieftain of one of the numerous Cossack gangs that plundered on the Volga and robbed not only Russian merchants and Persian ambassadors, but also royal ships. Fleeing from the Moscow governors, a squad of Cossacks (more than 500 people), under the command of atamans Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, went up the Kama and in June 1579 arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovsky towns of the brothers Stroganov. Here the Cossacks lived for two years and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from attacks by neighboring foreigners. On September 1, 1581, a squad of Cossacks, under the main command of Ermak, set out on a campaign beyond the Stone Belt (Ural). The initiative of this campaign, according to the Esipovskaya and Remizovskaya chronicles, belonged to Ermak himself; The Stroganovs' participation was limited to the forced supply of supplies and weapons to the Cossacks. According to the Stroganov Chronicle (accepted by Karamzin, Solovyov and others), the Stroganovs themselves called the Cossacks from the Volga to Chusovaya and sent them on a campaign, adding 300 military men from their possessions to Ermak’s detachment (540 people). The Cossacks rode plows up the Chusovaya River and along its tributary, the Serebryannaya River, to the Siberian portage separating the Kama and Ob basins, and along the portage they dragged the boats into the Zheravlya (Zharovlya) River. Here the Cossacks were supposed to spend the winter (Remizov Chronicle) and only in the spring, along the Zheravle, Barancha and Tagil rivers, they sailed to Tura. They broke it twice Siberian Tatars, on Tura and at the mouth of the Tavda. Kuchum sent Mametkul with a large army against the Cossacks, but this army was defeated by Ermak on the banks of the Tobol, at the Babasan tract. Finally, on the Irtysh, near Chuvashev, the Cossacks inflicted a final defeat on the Tatars. Kuchum left a fence that protected main city his khanate, Siberia, and fled south to the Ishim steppes. On October 26, 1582, Ermak entered Siberia, abandoned by the Tatars. In December, the military leader Kuchuma Mametkul destroyed, from an ambush, one Cossack detachment on Lake Abalatskoye; but the following spring the Cossacks dealt a new blow to Kuchum, capturing Mametkul on the Vagai River. Ermak used the summer of 1583 to conquer the Tatar towns and uluses along the Irtysh and Ob rivers, meeting stubborn resistance everywhere, and took the Ostyak city of Nazim. After the capture of Siberia, Ermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the Tsar - Ataman Ring. John IV received him very kindly, richly presented the Cossacks and sent Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov, with 300 warriors, to reinforce them. The royal commanders arrived at Ermak in the fall of 1583, but their detachment could not provide significant assistance to the Cossack squad, which had diminished in battle. The atamans died one after another: during the capture of Nazim, Nikita Pan was killed; in the spring of 1584, the Tatars treacherously killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov. Ataman Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with heavy losses forced their khan, Karacha, to retreat. On August 6, 1584, Ermak Timofeevich also died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh; Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks at night and destroyed the entire detachment. Ermak, according to legend, threw himself into the river and drowned before reaching his plow. There were so few Cossacks left that Ataman Meshcheryak had to march back to Rus'. After two years of possession, the Cossacks ceded Siberia to Kuchum, only to return there a year later with a new detachment of tsarist troops. Some historians rate Ermak’s personality very highly, “his courage, leadership talent, iron willpower”; but the facts conveyed by the chronicles do not give any indication of his personal qualities or the degree of his personal influence. - Wed. Siberian Chronicles, published by Spassky (St. Petersburg, 1821); Remizov (Kungur) Chronicle, published by the archival commission.; Additions to acts of history, vol. I, ¦ 117; Miller "Siberian History"; Nebolsin "Conquest of Siberia"; Nikitsky "Journal of the Ministry public education" 1882; ¦ 5; Bronevsky "History of the Don Army", vol. I; Butsinsky "Settlement of Siberia"; "Perm Antiquity", issue 3 and 4. N. Pavlov-Silvansky.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

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Date of birth: 1531.
Place of birth: unknown.
Date of death: August 6, 1585.
Place of death: Khanate of Siberia.

Ermak Timofeevich- conqueror of Siberia, traveler.

The exact date of Ermak’s birth and his origin are still not known. According to one version, he was from the Kama, according to another, from the Don.

Ermak is an abbreviation for the name Ermolai. But some writers and researchers claim that Ermak’s name was Vasily. His last name is also unknown - the versions are called Alenin, Timofeev and Tokmak.

Ermak began his service as an ataman as part of one of the squads that robbed merchants along the Volga.

Then he began to command a hundred Cossacks in the Livonian War. In 1581 he reached Lithuania and Mogilev, and then lifted the siege from Pskov.

In 1582 he took part in the battle of Lyalitsy with a squad of more than 550 people. Then this squad went at the invitation of the Ural merchants the Stroganovs to protect them from Kuchum, the Siberian Khan.

On September 1, 1581, Ermak and his squad moved beyond the Urals. Against their 500-man squad, Khan Kuchum had an army of 10 thousand. Kuchum was very cruel towards the indigenous peoples of Siberia, so they asked for protection from the Cossacks, and were also part of the Khan’s army, which ensured his unreliability.

Ermak's squad sailed up the Chusovaya River to the Siberian portage, where the Kama and Ob separated. There they wintered and along the way scouted the southern route. There they were attacked by the Tatars, and only in 1582 they headed to Tura. Along the way, they were attacked by the Tatars 2 times, but Ermak successfully resisted them.

On August 1, they defeated one of Kuchum’s troops, then, when approaching the Irtysh, his main army, and the khan had to flee to Ishim.

On October 26, 1582, Ermak entered the city of Siberia, and 4 days later the indigenous peoples began to bring him gifts. Ermak received everyone and promised to protect them from the khan. In return, the peoples were obliged to pay tribute and be considered subjects of the Russian Tsar.

In December 1582, another Tatar detachment tried to defeat Ermak’s army, but they fought back.

In 1583, Ermak continued to conquer Tatar cities throughout the Irtysh.

Then he sent a messenger to Ivan the Terrible, who sent the squad rich rewards and armor.

In 1584, Ermak’s luck turned away - one by one his atamans died, and only by miracle did he manage not to surrender.

On August 6, 1585, Ermak also failed to survive. His army marched along the Irtysh, and during an overnight stay they were treacherously attacked. According to legend, Ermak was wearing double chain mail, given to him by the king, and escaped by swimming down the river, but drowned.

Kuchum again took possession of Siberia, but a year later the Cossacks returned there with a new detachment.

According to legend, Ermak's body was caught by the Tatars, who violated him and then buried him. Ermak was buried in the village of Baishevo, and recently a version appeared about a grave in Bashkortostan.

In 1915, near the city of Kashlyk, the same chain mail donated by Ivan the Terrible was found.

Achievements of Ermak Timofeevich:

The first to conquer Siberia

Dates from the biography of Ermak Timofeevich:

Around 1531 - birth
1581 - the first mention of an ataman and a participant in hostilities
1582 - campaign in Siberia
October 26, 1582 - repulse Kuchum’s troops and conquest of Siberia
August 6, 1585 - died

Around the origin of Ermak and his name alone, even in scientific literature, not to mention folklore, there has been a huge amount versions. Some historians considered him a Pomor, a native of the Russian North, others - a native of the Urals, who came from the Kama and Chusovaya rivers in his youth. There is also a version about the Turkic origin of Ermak. The sonorous name of the legendary chieftain is considered to be a derivative of Ermolai, Ermil, Eremey, and is even recognized as the nickname of a Cossack baptized by Vasily. The great Russian historian N.M. Karamzin cited in his “History of the Russian State” a description of Ermak’s appearance: “He had a noble appearance, dignified, average height, strong muscles, broad shoulders; had a flat but pleasant face, a black beard, dark, curly hair, bright, quick eyes, the mirror of an ardent, strong soul, a penetrating mind.” This portrait definitely reconciles any disputes about Ermak’s small homeland. It is described poetically, but Karamzin himself called the chapter on Siberia a poem.

However, no matter where Ermak Timofeevich was born and no matter what he looked like, we can say with confidence that at first he led the Cossack squad on the Volga, robbed merchant ships following the river and was quite pleased with it. What happened next?

This is how brothers meet

In the spring of 1581, smoke rose into the sky from the roofs of Russian settlements in the estates of the Stroganov merchants in the Kama region, which were being ravaged by the Nogai Tatars. A little later, the Voguls rebelled there, the Cheremis in the Volga region, and at the end of summer the Pelym prince Ablegirim descended on the Urals: “ the prince with an army, and with him seven hundred people, their settlements on Koiva, and on Obva, and on Yaiva, and on Chusovaya, and on Sylva, they burned out all the villages, and beat people and peasants, captured women and children, and horses and the animal was driven away...". The Stroganovs informed Moscow about this at the end of the year, but by that time the formidable tsar was already aware of the evil deeds going on. At the turn of June - July 1581, the Cossacks burned the capital of the Nogai Horde, Saraichik.

Parsun Ermak Timofeevich, created in the 18th century. Unknown author The portrait depicted the ataman in Western equipment, which became the basis for the emergence of a version about the participation of the Germans in the Siberian campaign

At the same time, the ambassador of the Russian kingdom to the Nogais, V.I. Pelepelitsyn, got ready to set off on a journey to Moscow with the envoys of Prince Urus, an abundant guard of three hundred horsemen and Bukhara merchants. On the Volga, near present-day Samara, the caravan was attacked and robbed by dashing Cossacks: “Ivan Koltso, and Bogdan Borbosha, and Mikita Pan, and Savva Boldyrya and his companions...”. Among the names of Ermak's future associates, he himself is not mentioned, although a year earlier he stole a caravan of a thousand heads from the Nogai Murza, and in the spring of 1581 - sixty more horses. Speedy horses were useful to the Cossacks on the western outskirts of the kingdom.

Probably, Ermak took part in the battles of the Livonian War, being not an ordinary Cossack, but a centurion. The most important thing evidence - the text of a letter from the commandant of Mogilev, sent in 1581 to Stefan Batory, which mentions "Ermak Timofeevich - Cossack Ataman".

Lion and unicorn on the banner of Ermak, which was with him during the conquest of Siberia

By August 1581, the village, which was headed by Ermak, according to the historian A.T. Shashkov, along with other troops, was sent by Ivan IV to the Volga. They went to Sosnovy Island, where the free Cossacks took the Russian-Nogai embassy by surprise. It was there that Ermak and his faithful comrades in the Siberian campaign met. Some of the Horde managed to escape to Yaik. The united Cossacks pursued them. The atamans understood: the tsar would not pat their heads for a raid on the embassy caravan; rather, their heads would roll off the chopping block. At the council it was decided to proceed to the Urals. Along the Volga, the Cossacks reached the Kama, upstream they reached the Chusovaya River, then Sylva, and here they clashed with the people of the Vogul prince Alegirim: “Someone was in Siberia and the Pelym prince Aplygarym fought with his Tatars in Perm the Great”.

"Seven Cossacks"

Behind Lord Pelym stood the Siberian Khan Kuchum. Having seized power over the expanses around the Irtysh and Tobol back in 1563, he continued to pay yasak to the Moscow Tsar. But the suppression of pockets of resistance to the usurper in Siberia among the Tatars, Khanty and Mansi freed his hands. The eastern Russian outskirts began to burn.

Fragments from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880). Left: “Hearing Ermak from many Chusovlyans about Siberia as the king is the owner, beyond the Stone the rivers flow in two, to Rus' and to Siberia, from the portage of the river Nitsa, Tagil, Tura fell into Tobol, and the Vogulichi live along them, ride deer...” . On the right: “Assemblies of soldiers in the summer of 7086 and 7, with Ermak from the Don, from the Volga and from Eik, from Astrakhan, from Kazan, stealing, breaking up the sovereign's state courts of ambassadors and Bukharts at the mouth of the Volga river. And hearing those sent from the king with execution and howling from them, many others fled to various cities and towns.”
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The Stroganovs beat Ivan the Terrible with their foreheads, first asking for warriors for protection, and soon for permission to hire them themselves. Right then Ermak and his comrades came to Chusovaya. The merchants were careful not to mention them in the petition: taking the sovereign’s robbers at their expense would be more expensive for themselves. At the end of 1581, Tsar Ivan gave the Stroganovs the go-ahead not only to hire warriors, but also to take retaliatory measures: « And those Vogulichs come to their forts with war and make troubles... And the Vogulichs would come against them, and I will deal with them... besiege them with war, and it is not a good idea for them to steal in the future.”. At the same time, a new governor arrived in the Urals, in Cherdyn - none other than V.I. Pelepelitsyn. He did not forget what he had experienced, although he was in no hurry to recall his grievances to Ermak’s people. They spent the winter on Sylva, periodically organizing forays into the Vogul uluses. The spring of 1582 broke up the ice on the rivers, and after this came a letter from the tsar. The Stroganovs crossed themselves and sent an embassy to the Cossacks. Having accepted the invitation of the merchants, on May 9 they left the camp on Sylva and went down to the mouth of Chusovaya. Initially, the agreement boiled down to a trip to Pelym to repay Ablegirim in the same coin. Salt industrialists were ready to supply the Cossacks with weapons and supplies conscientiously.

It took most of the summer to get ready. At the end of August, the Siberians with the Voguls themselves attacked Russian towns, just like a year ago. The raid was led by the eldest son of Khan Kuchum Alei. The people of the Pelym prince also took part in it. “At this time, Ermak’s squad, which repelled the attack of Aley’s army at the Nizhnechusovskaya fort and thereby fulfilled its obligations to M. Ya. Stroganov, changed its plans regarding the campaign against Pelym,”- writes Shashkov. - “The Volga Cossacks decided to respond blow to blow. And therefore their main goal has now become Siberia.”.

For the Stone!

To call the expedition an adventure is to say nothing. Historians still argue about the size of Ermak’s army. The minimum is usually considered to be 540 “Orthodox warriors”, which are often “reinforced” by three hundred Poles, Lithuanians and Germans. The Stroganovs allegedly bought prisoners of war from the front of the Livonian War from the Tsar, and then entrusted them to the ataman. The main argument is the similar Western European equipment of Ermak and his warriors in later images. True, according to Semyon Remezov, all participants in the campaign, and primarily its leader, had such armor and helmets. Well, the mentioned number is indirectly supported by the number of plows on which Ermak’s comrades went “for the Stone”: 27 ships, 20 soldiers on each.

The path was incredibly difficult. Up the Chusovaya the Cossacks went to the Serebryanka River, from which the plows had to be dragged on dry land for as much as 25 versts (1 verst is equal to 1.07 km) to the Baranchi River, from it to Tagil, then to Tura, from Tura to Tobol... « Cossack plows, adapted for sailing on the seas, sailed, maneuvering around numerous river turns,”- noted the outstanding Soviet historian R. G. Skrynnikov. - “The rowers, replacing each other, leaned on the oars”.

Fragment from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880): “When the spring came, like the brave Cossacks, they saw and understood that the Siberian country was rich and abundant in everything and the people living in it were not warriors, and the Mayans swam down the Tagil in 1 day, breaking up the courts in Tura and before the first prince Epanchi, where Epanchin Useninovo now stands; and that many Hagaryans gathered and put up the battles for many days, like a great bow, uphill for 3 days, and in that bow the Velmi fought until they left, and overcame that Cossacks.”
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The beginning of Ermak’s Siberian campaign is still often dated to the autumn of 1581: with a long journey and wintering in the mountains, waiting until the ice broke up on Tagil, and so on. Despite the complexity of the Cossacks’ path, this version should be considered an exaggeration. The campaign did not drag on for a whole year - it proceeded as it began, quickly and decisively. The journey to the capital of Kuchum would have been greatly slowed down by skirmishes with soldiers from the uluses submissive to him, but the Pogodin Chronicle does not contain descriptions of any serious battles. The first of these was a meeting with Epanchin. According to the description carried out by the clerks of the Ambassadorial Prikaz in Moscow from the words of associate Ermak, « rowed to the village to Epanchina... and here Ermak and the Totara had a fight with the Kuchyumovs, but the Tatar language was not confiscated". One of the khan's subjects managed to escape. He probably brought the news to Kashlyk about aliens with strange bows that burst with fire, blow smoke and sow death with invisible arrows.

Ermak lost the precious effect of surprise, a clear advantage in a fight with a strong superiority of enemy forces. But neither the ataman retreated from his plan, nor Kuchum was greatly alarmed: after all, he had already made his move, throwing Aley and his army into the Russian settlements. Moscow was waging a difficult war in the west and could not afford the luxury of scattering squads in the east - perhaps this is how the khan reasoned. Nevertheless, Kuchum hastened to call together all the Siberian uluses capable of holding a bow and blade to fight back. But the fact that he called the Khanty and Mansi villages under his banner today raises doubts among historians. Soon the sails of the Cossack plows glittered on the surface of Tobol. The place of the historical meeting of the Cossack atamans was the crossing on the Volga, and the khan went with his army to the bank of the Irtysh, to Cape Chuvashev.

The date of the battle is another subject of dispute among historians. It is not exactly known until now; it is “assigned” by various authors to different days, but most chroniclers and scientists agree on October 26 (November 5, new style) 1582. According to one version, Ermak even deliberately timed the slaughter to coincide with the day of remembrance of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki. « Russian scribes, most likely, tried to give symbolic meaning to “The Capture of Siberia,”- notes historian Ya. G. Solodkin.

Fragments from the “Brief Siberian Chronicle” by Semyon Remezov (St. Petersburg, 1880) about the battle on Cape Chuvashev. Left: “All the Cossacks were contemplating a perfect blow, and behold the 4th battle from Kuchyumlyany. Kuchyumu is standing on the mountain and with his son Mametkul at the fence; When the Cossacks, by the will of God, left the city... And they all collapsed together, and there was a great battle...". On the right: “The Kuchumlyans didn’t have any weapons, just bows and arrows, spears and sabers. Chuvash has 2 guns. The Cossacks said nothing to them; They threw them from the mountain into the Irtysh. Standing Kuchyum on the Chuvashskaya mountain and seeing many visions of his own, he cried a lot...”
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There were ten or even twenty times fewer Cossacks than Siberians. However, they had nowhere to retreat, and besides, Ermak had comrades firearms. At the beginning of the battle, when the Cossacks, like the marines, landed on the shore from plows, the “fiery battle” did not bring special harm to opponents hiding behind a log tine. However, when the Khan’s nephew Mametkul led the Siberian Tatars out from behind cover and launched an attack, the Cossacks fired several more successful volleys from arquebuses. This was enough for the Ostyak and Vogul warriors. Their princes began to lead people away from the battlefield. Kuchum's lancers tried to save the situation with a desperate blow led by Mametkul, but the bullet overtook him too. The wounded Siberian military leader was almost captured. The Khan's army dispersed. Kuchum left the capital and fled. Sometimes historians allow up to two days between the battle and the entry into Kashlyk, although it is unclear why the Cossacks hesitated so much. On the same day, the atamans and their comrades entered the abandoned Siberian settlement.

Legends of a legend

The subsequent history of Ermak’s expedition is no less epic than its prehistory and progress to Cape Chuvashev. This definition is not accidental: even well-known events considered traditional cause researchers to argue until they are hoarse. For example, on December 5 of the same 1582, Mametkul, who had recovered from his wound, at the head of a detachment attacked the Cossacks of Ataman Bogdan Bryazga, who had gone fishing on Lake Abalak. They were killed. The angry Ermak rushed in pursuit. Was it a battle that overshadowed Cape Chuvash, or a minor skirmish? Sources provide basis for both points of view.

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

Next, the famous 1583 embassy to Moscow from the Cossacks, bowing at the feet of Ivan the Terrible in Siberia. Alexey Tolstoy in “Prince Serebryany” excellently described this ray of light in the darkening kingdom on the eve of the Troubles with the arrival at the court of first the Stroganovs, and then the dashing ataman Ivan Ring: "CThe king extended his hand to him, and the Ring rose from the ground and, in order not to stand directly on the scarlet foot of the throne, first threw his lamb’s cap on him, stepped on it with one foot and, bending low, put his mouth to the hand of John, who hugged him and kissed my head". In fact, even the winners of Kuchum would hardly have reached the capital without a travel document or a letter from the sovereign. The diploma, by the way, was disgraced. In it, Ivan the Terrible, from the words of Voivode Pelepelitsyn, accused both the Stroganovs and the Cossacks: “And this was done by your treason... You took the Vogulichi and Votyaks and Pelymtsy away from our salaries, and bullied them and came to fight them, and with that fervor you quarreled with the Siberian Saltan, and, having called the Volga atamans to you, hired thieves into your prisons without our decree."

Ivan Ring allegedly died at the hands of the servants of Khan Kuchum Karachi’s adviser, who treacherously lured the ataman and 40 other Cossacks into a trap. However, if the envoys of Karachi came to Kashlyk, as stated in the work of Semyon Esipov, they should have literally encountered there the people of the governor Semyon Bolkhovsky, who had arrived exactly to help Ermak. In addition, could a dashing gang led by an experienced ataman be flattered by the promises of an enemy nobleman? Be that as it may, what happened was a legend already for the first chroniclers of the campaign.

“The Ermakov ambassadors - Ataman Ring and his comrades beat Ivan the Terrible with their foreheads to the Kingdom of Siberia.” 19th century engraving

Finally, the date of death of Ermak himself is approximately clear - it overtook the winner Kuchum in August 1584. Her circumstances are shrouded in the fog of uncertainty. It is likely that the chieftain drowned in the river during the battle. However, the legend about the death of Ermak due to the heavy shell donated by Ivan the Terrible allegedly dragging him to the bottom should remain among the legends.

In conclusion, I would like to return to the debate about Ermak’s small homeland: perhaps, they are not accidental after all. A simple Cossack was destined to become, without exaggeration, a national hero, the personification of Russia’s movement to the east, “beyond the Stone”, to Pacific Ocean- and a pioneer on this path. Ermak’s Siberian campaign took place on the eve of the Time of Troubles. It crippled the state, but did not erase the track trodden by the ataman. In a certain sense, two dates - November 5, the day of the capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate by Ermak, and November 4, now the Day national unity, - V Russian history It’s not just the calendar that brings us together.

Literature:

1. Zuev A.S. Motivation of actions and tactics of Ermak’s squad in relation to Siberian foreigners // Ural Historical Bulletin. 2011. No. 3 (23). pp. 26-34.
2. Zuev Yu. A., Kadyrbaev A. Sh. Ermak’s campaign in Siberia: Turkic motifs in the Russian theme // Bulletin of Eurasia. 2000. No. 3 (10). pp. 38-60.
3. Skrynnikov R. G. Ermak. M., 2008.
4. Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: debatable problems of history and source study. Nizhnevartovsk, 2015.
5. Solodkin Ya. G. “Ermakovo capture” of Siberia: riddles and solutions. Nizhnevartovsk, 2010.
6. Solodkin Ya. G. Ostyat princes and Khan Kuchum on the eve of the “Capture of Siberia” (on the interpretation of one chronicle news // Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2017. No. 1 (28). P. 128-135.
7. Shashkov A. T. Ermak’s Siberian campaign: chronology of events of 1581-1582. // News of Ural State University. 1997. No. 7. P. 35-50.

full name

• Vasily Timofeevich Alenin. Historians know seven names of Ermak: Ermak. Ermak, Ermolai, German, Ermil, Vasily, Timofey and Eremey. "Ermak" cannot be classified as the first. nor to the second category of nicknames. Some researchers tried to decipher his name as a modified Ermolai, Ermila and even Hermogen. But, firstly, the Christian name was never changed. They could use its various forms: Ermilka, Eroshka, Eropka, but not Ermak. Secondly, his name is known - Vasily, and his patronymic is Timofeevich. Although, strictly speaking, in those days a person’s name in conjunction with his father’s name should have been pronounced as Vasily Timofeev’s son. Timofeevich (with “ich”) could only be called a person of a princely family, a boyar. His nickname is also known - Povolsky, that is, a man from the Volga. But not only that, his last name is also known! In the “Siberian Chronicle”, published in St. Petersburg in 1907, the surname of Vasily’s grandfather is given - Alenin: his name was Afanasy Grigoriev’s son.

If you put all this together, it turns out: Vasily Timofeev, son of Alenin Ermak Povolsky. Impressive!

period of life

• 16th century

place of birth

• Ermak's origins are unknown. According to some sources, Ermak (real name Vasily Alenin) was born in the Vologda land, according to others - in Dvina. For example, they consider it theirs in the Pomeranian village of Borok, which has been standing on the Dvina for the ninth century. It is also claimed that the legendary warrior comes from the Komi-Zyryans. Suzdal residents, Don Cossacks, and even... Jews claim the honor of being the hero’s homeland. Recently a version was born that Ermak is the son of their fellow tribesman from Kerch, Timothy Colombo, and is the great-nephew of Christopher Columbus. His confession, however, is attributed to him as Catholic. Here it is, glory! But laughter is laughter, and in order not to be mistaken, let’s say that Ermak’s Fatherland is the Russian land.

place of death

• Siberia. The first Siberian expedition lasted three years. Hunger and deprivation, severe frosts, battles and losses - nothing could stop the free Cossacks, break their will to victory. For three years, Ermak’s squad did not know defeat from numerous enemies. In the last night skirmish, the thinned squad retreated, suffering minor losses. But he lost a proven leader. The expedition could not continue without him.

nickname

• Ermak.

The very name Ermak (or nickname) appears repeatedly in chronicles and documents. Thus, in the Siberian chronicle it is recorded that at the foundation of the Krasnoyarsk fort in 1628, Tobolsk atamans Ivan Fedorov son Astrakhanev and Ermak Ostafiev participated. It is possible that many Cossack atamans were nicknamed “ermak”, but only one of them became a national hero, glorifying his nickname with the “capture of Siberia.” In our case, the most interesting thing is that the name Vasily was replaced by the nickname Ermak, and the surname Alenin was rarely used at all. So he remained in people's memory as Ermak Timofeevich - Cossack ataman.

belonging

• The son of a Vladimir cab driver, according to some sources, began to fight the Crimean horde in 1571 near Moscow. He is not known about him too much. Before coming to Siberia, Ermak fought in Lithuania at the head of a Cossack squad. After participating in the Livonian War, he allegedly accepted the Stroganovs’ invitation to go to their Chusovsky towns for protection from the attacks of the Siberian Tatars.

Ermak Timofeevich was a controversial person. Suffice it to remember that even before he accepted the invitation of the Stroganov family to move with his retinue to Siberia, he was sentenced by the Tsar to be quartered for attacking the Tsar’s caravans.

We find the first reliable evidence of his life before the conquest of Siberia in the Polish “Diary of Stefan Batory”. It contains the full text of the letter to King Stephen from Mr. Stravinsky from Mogilev. It's about that the Poles were attacked by the tsarist commanders and Cossack leaders, among whom was “Ermak Timofeevich, Otoman...”.

years of service

• late 16th century

rank

• Cossack chieftain

battles

• LIVONIAN WAR. Before coming to Siberia, Ermak, at the head of a Cossack squad, fought in Lithuania. After participating in the Livonian War, he allegedly accepted the Stroganovs’ invitation to go to their Chusovsky towns for protection from the attacks of the Siberian Tatars.

• CAMPAIGN TO SIBERIA. The first serious attempt to detain Russian army Khan Kuchum undertook near the mouth of the Tura River. The main forces of the Siberian army came here. This attempt was doomed to failure. The Cossacks, firing from arquebuses, passed the ambush and entered the Tobol River. But even further, down the Tobol, it was quite difficult to swim. Every now and then the Cossacks had to land on the shore in order to scare off the enemy. The tactics used by Ermak were very important in this. The fact is that Ermak led fighting strictly following a specific plan. Most often, during a battle, Ermak attacked in two “runs”. First, the squeaks entered the battle, with the blows of which very large number enemy warriors were killed, then there was a lightning-fast infantry offensive, desperately imposing hand-to-hand combat on the enemy. The Tatars did not like hand-to-hand combat and were terribly afraid of it.

After waging sometimes rather protracted battles, Ermak took Karachin with an unexpected blow. A fortified town just sixty kilometers from Isker. Kuchum himself tried to recapture the city, but he had to retreat and return to the capital. Then Ermak's warriors captured another fortified town that covered the Siberian capital - Atik. The time of the battle, which was destined to decide the fate of the Siberian Khanate, was approaching. Kuchum's forces were still quite significant, the city was well fortified...

The first attack of the Cossacks failed. The assault was repeated and again it was not possible to break through the trenches. It was after this that Mametkul, who defended the Chuvash Cape, made a major military mistake. Encouraged by the failures of the Russian attacks and the small number of Ermak’s squad, he decided on a big foray. The Tatars themselves dismantled abatis in three places and led their cavalry into the field. The Cossacks took up a perimeter defense and stood in dense ranks. Firing from the squeakers was carried out continuously: the squeakers took cover inside the square, reloaded their weapons and again went out to the front ranks to meet the attacking cavalry with a volley. The Tatars suffered heavy losses, but were unable to break through the dense layer of Cossacks. The leader of the Tatar cavalry, Mametkul, was wounded in the battle.

Failure in the field battle at the Chuvash Cape turned out to be disastrous for Khan Kuchum. The forcibly assembled Khan's army began to scatter. The Vogul and Ostyak detachments, which made up a significant part of it, also fled. Selected khan's cavalry died in fruitless attacks.

At night, Khan Kuchum left his capital, and on October 26, 1582, Ermak and his retinue entered the capital of the Siberian Khanate.

In these difficult conditions, Ermak proved himself not only to be a far-sighted military leader, but also a diplomat and political figure. It was possible to stay in the fortress, thousands of kilometers away from Russia, only with the support of the local population, and Ermak immediately tried to establish friendly ties with the Vogul and Ostyak “princes”. The hatred of the inhabitants of Western Siberia for Khan Kuchum contributed to this.

Ermak used the defeat of the large Tatar army to bring neighboring lands under his rule. He sent out to different sides Cossack detachments that “cleared” the lands of the remnants of the horde. Russian losses in these campaigns were minimal.

In the summer of 1583, Cossack troops moved on ships along the Irtysh, subjugating the local princes...