Onufriy Stepanov

Onufriy Stepanov (

Russian–Manchu border conflicts

.

1653: After

Ducher country in order to procure food and building materials. Stepanov succeeded in his mission, but not without skirmishes with the Duchers, exacting a considerable yasak

from them. Here he built winter quarters.

1654: In the summer of 1654, Stepanov sailed back to the Sungari River to find grain and was joined by another band of 50 cossacks. After sailing up the Sungari for three days he met a

Kamora River

, and wintered at the half-ruined Kamora fortress (Каморский острог).

1655: Fearing attack, Stepanov began rebuilding the desolate settlement and its fortifications. These precautions paid off, when a Manchurian army of 10,000 soldiers led by Mingandali besieged the Kamora fortress on March 13, 1655. The outnumbered defenders repulsed several assaults, but the Manchus ran short of food and lifted the siege the on April 3, 1655, after destroying the Russian boats.

1655–58: After this incident Stepanov ordered a few of his men to travel to Moscow, Arica and deliver the yasak, collected during his stay in the Amur region. Meanwhile, fifty

Alexei Mikhailovich

thanked Stepanov and his subordinates for their great service and instructed them to "conduct themselves bravely". Soon enough, the Cossacks grew completely desperate and began to run away from their leader. Negotiations between Moscow and the Manchus stalled, help was nowhere in sight, and natives’ animosity towards the Cossacks grew stronger every day.

1658: Stepanov began preparations for an advance towards a region with a more favorable and friendly environment. On June 30, 1658, below the mouth of the Sungari, Stepanov's 11-boat fleet with 500 Cossacks aboard was surrounded by 40 (or 45,

harquebuses.^[3]

Exhausted and demoralized, Onufriy Stepanov and his Cossacks could not offer any serious resistance and were defeated. Stepanov was either killed during the fight or drowned while trying to cross the Amur River. The Manchus captured the Russian's yasak and released over a hundred

Ducher women kept by the Cossacks on their boats.^[4]

270 Russians were lost and 222 escaped, of whom 180 formed themselves into outlaw bands that lived by raiding the natives in the Zeya area until they were largely wiped out by the Manchus in 1660.

Such a tragic finale of the Stepanov party discouraged the Russian leaders from collecting yasak from the natives of the Amur region and made them abandon its official conquest for the next 15 or so years. A number of cossacks continued to live and raid in the area unofficially.

Notes

^ Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Šarhûda" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. p. 632.
^ Mancall, page 28
^ A. M. Pastukhov, "Корейская пехотная тактика самсу в XVII веке и проблема участия корейских войск в Амурских походах маньчжурской армии Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today " (Korean infantry tactic samsu (三手) in the 17th century, and the issues related to the Korean troops' participation in the Manchus' Amur campaigns) (in Russian)
^ Дневник генерала Син Ню 1658 г - первое письменное свидетельство о встрече русских и корейцев Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine (General Shin Ryu's 1659 diary, the first written account of a meeting between Russians and Koreans) (in Russian)

References

Mark Mancall, Russian and China: Their Diplomatic Relations to 1728 (Harvard East Asian series) , Harvard Univ. Press 1971
ISBN 9780674781153

Степанов Онуфрий (Кузнец) (Onufriy "Kuznets" Stepanov); based on the book: А.Р. Артемьев (A.R. Artemyev), Города и остроги Забайкалья и Приамурья во второй половине XVII - XVIII вв. (Cities and ostrogs of the Transbaikalia and Amur Lands in the second half of the 17th and the 18th centuries). This page also contains links to the texts of Onufriy Stepanov's reports, which serve as the main source for all later literature about him. (in Russian)

This article includes content derived from the Russian Biographical Dictionary, 1896–1918.

[hum-1] Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Šarhûda" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. p. 632.

[2] Mancall, page 28

[pas-3] A. M. Pastukhov, "Корейская пехотная тактика самсу в XVII веке и проблема участия корейских войск в Амурских походах маньчжурской армии Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today " (Korean infantry tactic samsu (三手) in the 17th century, and the issues related to the Korean troops' participation in the Manchus' Amur campaigns) (in Russian)

[ryu-4] Дневник генерала Син Ню 1658 г - первое письменное свидетельство о встрече русских и корейцев Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine (General Shin Ryu's 1659 diary, the first written account of a meeting between Russians and Koreans) (in Russian)

[3]

[4]