Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir

The Khanate of Sibir was a Muslim state located just east of the middle Ural Mountains. Its conquest by Yermak Timofeyevich in 1582 was the first event in the Russian conquest of Siberia.

The players

Russia

Kama River and Perm

The republic of

Stroganovs

were given a large fief in the area and began to develop it. There was scattered native resistance. In 1573 the Khan of Sibir sent his nephew to raid the Stroganov lands. Moscow responded with a charter that effectively authorized the Stroganovs to launch a private war against the Khan, but this was not acted on.

Siberia

The middle Urals at the latitude of Perm are fairly low and easy to cross. The area was inhabited by the Voguls (

Kuchum

, a Shaybanid, defeated his Taibugid opponent and seized the throne. Before 1571 the Khanate paid limited tribute to Moscow.

The

Siberian Chronicles are incomplete and contradictory as are the secondary sources in English. This account follows Lantzeff ^[1]

which seems to be the fullest account in English. Lantzeff follows S. V. Bakhruskin. The main problems are the year the expedition started, details of the route, and the location of the battle at Sibir.

Capture of Sibir

Muscovy. Ermak arrived at Perm sometime later (possibly 1579^[2]

). His purpose in invading Siberia is not clear. It seems to have been a sort of reconnaissance in force that evolved into a conquest when the Khanate proved weak. It is not clear whether Ermak went on his own initiative, whether he was sent by the Stroganovs, or the Stroganovs encouraged him to go to get rid of a dangerous body of armed men. Ermak had 540 Cossacks. The Stroganovs provided most of the supplies and another 300 men, mostly so-called 'Litva', or prisoners-of-war held by the Stroganovs.

Ermak left Perm probably in the summer of 1581. (Fisher

Tavda River

. Twenty miles below the Tavda they fought another battle and then captured a native village where they rested for a month. (this delay so close to the enemy, if it happened, seems very strange.)

Leaving camp, they sailed 12 miles

Kuchum fled during the night and the Russians entered his capital the next morning. This was probably in October 1582. The Russians had lost 107 men. {Battle of Chuvash Cape gives a slightly different account. Grousset^[6]

has the battle at 'a fortified camp at the mouth of the Tobol to protect the approaches to Sibir'. Naumov has it 'not far from Sibir'. A fort may have guarded the town further upriver, but the matter is not clear.}

Occupation

Over the next several months various native chieftains offered their submission. Ermak, perhaps unexpectedly, found himself the ruler of a Khanate and sent Ivan Koltso, 50 men, and 5,200 furs to Moscow to announce his conquest. Meanwhile, the Ostyaks and Voguls had been raiding the Perm territories. Ivan the Terrible thought that Ermak had provoked that and sent an angry letter to the Stroganovs that demanded Ermak's recall to protect Perm. A few days later, Ermak's envoys reached Moscow. The Tsar immediately changed his mind and promised to send a Voyevoda and troops. He sent Ermak gifts, including the famous suit of armor.

The Cossacks sent out raiding parties to collect Yasak. Bogdan Bryazga went north down the Irtysh as far as its junction with the Ob. Ermak explored the Tavda.

Kuchum's whereabouts at the time is uncertain. His nephew, Mamet-Kul, attacked the Russians several times, but was captured on the Vagai River and sent to Moscow, where he later had an honorable career under the

name Sibirsky. Seid Akhmat, Kuchum's Taibugid rival, returned to the area and gained some supporters. 'The Karacha' (one of Kuchum's former officials) sent a request to Ermak for help in fighting the steppe nomads. When the forty Cossacks under Ivan Koltso arrived, they were murdered. A punitive expedition was defeated, which seems to have set off a general uprising and it became unsafe to leave the fort at Sibir. About this time (November 1584) 500 reinforcements, including Streltsy

, arrived from Russia. Food was inadequate and there were many deaths over the winter. In March the Karacha besieged Sibir. Two months later, it was broken by a sortie (Naumov has the sortie in March).

In August 1585, Ermak heard that a caravan was arriving from the south and that Kuchum was waiting to plunder it. He went up the Irtysh to capture either the caravan or Kuchum but found that there was no caravan. Returning, he camped at the mouth of the Vagai River about 25 miles upstream from Tobolsk. The night was stormy and the watch inadequate. Kuchum's men attacked and most of the Russians were killed in their sleep. The story, which may be true, is that Ermak tried to flee to a river boat and was drowned by the weight of the armor that the Tsar had sent him.

Abandonment of Sabir

Command passed to Ivan Glukhov. With only 150 surviving men, he thought it was impossible to hold out and so he sailed down the Irtysh and Ob and crossed into Russia over the northern Urals. Ali, Kuchum's son, reoccupied the town.but was driven out by Seid Akhmat (Naumov calls him Seidiak).

Reinforcements under Mansurov arrived but were not strong enough to do anything. They wintered somewhere on the Ob and crossed the Urals the following spring, in 1586 (Naumov has Glukhov and Mansurov meeting and returning to Russia together).

Reoccupation

Ermak had failed, but the Khanate of Sibir had been broken up, and Seid Akhmat could not restore it. The area was left to native chiefs, who had few firearms. The Russians' policy was based on systematic fort-building and were using that method to expand south of Moscow. In 1586, three hundred Russians built an Ostrog (fortress) at Tyumen, and in 1587, they built another fort at Tobolsk. In 1588, Seid Akhmat and the Karacha were invited to Tobolsk, captured, and sent to Moscow.

In 1594,

Konda River Mansi were annexed. In 1594 Surgut, at the junction of the Ob and the Irtysh was founded. That year, the Prince of Pelym

was defeated.

Kuchum made a number of attacks but was defeated on the

Yenisei River. For the rest, see Siberian River Routes and History of Siberia

.

References

^ George V. Lantzeff and Richard A. Pierce,'Eastward to Empire, 1973
^ Igor Naumov (David N Collins, editor),The History of Siberia,2006
^ Raymond H Fisher,The Russian Fur Trade,1943
^ W. Bruce Lincoln, 'The conquest of a Continent',1994 This may reflect later scholarship, but the book has obvious errors.
^ On 17mar17 an anonymous editor changed 12 miles to 130km. He said this 12 was a medieval mile of 10-11km. I cannot identify a ‘medieval mile’. Lanzeff, page 98, puts the camp at Karacha-Kul, an oxbow lake 12 miles above the mouth of the Tobol. There is now an oxbow lake at Karachino about 8 miles above the mouth. 130km would be about the mouth of the Tura.
^ Rene Grousset, 'The Empire of the Steppes',1970,page 489

[1] George V. Lantzeff and Richard A. Pierce,'Eastward to Empire, 1973

[2] Igor Naumov (David N Collins, editor),The History of Siberia,2006

[3] Raymond H Fisher,The Russian Fur Trade,1943

[4] W. Bruce Lincoln, 'The conquest of a Continent',1994 This may reflect later scholarship, but the book has obvious errors.

[5] On 17mar17 an anonymous editor changed 12 miles to 130km. He said this 12 was a medieval mile of 10-11km. I cannot identify a ‘medieval mile’. Lanzeff, page 98, puts the camp at Karacha-Kul, an oxbow lake 12 miles above the mouth of the Tobol. There is now an oxbow lake at Karachino about 8 miles above the mouth. 130km would be about the mouth of the Tura.

[6] Rene Grousset, 'The Empire of the Steppes',1970,page 489

[1]

[2]

[6]