Pyotr Beketov (born c. 1600 died c. 1661), the founder of Siberian cities, Pyotr Beketov entered the service of the Sovereign in 1624 in the archery regiment. He was sent to Siberia in 1627. In 1628, he was sent by the Yenisei governor to the Trans-Baikal Buryats to impose yasak on them. Beketov coped with the task more successfully than his predecessor Maxim Perfilyev, collected a rich yasak, and besides, he became the first person to overcome the Angara rapids. Here, on Buryat land, Beketov built the Rybinsk prison. In 1631, Beketov was again sent from Yeniseisk on a distant campaign. This time, at the head of thirty Cossacks, they had to go to the great Lena River and gain a foothold on its banks. The well-known historian of Siberia of the eighteenth century, I. Fisher, regarded this business trip as recognition of the merits and abilities of a person who had done quite a lot for the state. In the spring of 1632, Beketov's detachment was already on the Lena. Not far from the confluence of the Aldan River, the Beketov Cossacks cut down a small fortress. This prison played an enduring role in all further discoveries, became for Russia a window to the Far East and Alaska, to Japan and China. The activity of Pyotr Beketov in Yakutia does not end there. Being a clerk in the Yakut prison, he sent expeditions to Vilyui and Aldan, founded Zhigansk in 1632, and Olekminsk in 1636. After I. Galkin arrived to replace him, our hero returned to Yeniseisk, from where in 1640 he took yasak worth 11 thousand rubles to Moscow. In Moscow, Beketov received the rank of archer and Cossack head. In 1641, Pyotr Beketov was granted a boyar son. In 1652, again from Yeniseisk, P.I. Beketov, whose skill and diligence were already known, again set out on a campaign against the Transbaikal Buryats. Coming to the mouth of the Selenga, Beketov and his comrades founded the prison of Ust-Prorva. After that, his detachment moved up the Selenga, climbed up the Khilok to Lake Irgen. Near the lake in 1653 the detachment founded the Irgen prison. In late autumn, having crossed the Yablonovy Ridge, his detachment of 53 people descended into the valley of the river. Ingoda. The path from Irgen to Ingoda traversed by Beketov later became part of the Siberian Route. Since the Ingoda had risen from the frost, the Ingoda Zimovye was founded in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpresent-day Chita. In November 1654, 10 Cossacks of the Beketov detachment, led by Makim Urasov, reached the mouth of the Nerchi River, where they laid the Nelyudsky prison (now Nerchinsk). A painting and a drawing was drawn up for the Irgen Lake and other lakes on the Kilka River (R. Khilok), which fell from the Irgen Lake, and the Selenga River, and other rivers that fell into the Vitim River from the Irgen Lake and from other lakes .

In the Shilkinsky prison, Beketov and his comrades survived a difficult winter, not only suffering from hunger, but also holding back the siege of the rebellious Buryats. By the spring of 1655, having improved relations with the Buryats, the detachment was forced to leave the prison and, in order not to die of hunger, go to the Amur. From this moment on, the data of different authors about the life of the ataman diverge. In the capital of Siberia, Tobolsk, the exiled archpriest Avvakum, sent there in 1656, met with Beketov. In his book The Life of Archpriest Avvakum… he writes that, while in Yeniseisk, P. Beketov came into conflict with the fiery archpriest in order to protect his ward from the anathema, after which… he left the church and died a bitter evil death…. I.E. Fisher names a much later date, when P.I. Beketov was still alive. According to him, after wandering along the Amur, in 1660 Beketov returned to Yeniseisk through Yakutsk and brought with him a lot of sables, which served as protection for him to avert punishment, which he feared for leaving the prison. In the same place, in Tobolsk, Yuri Kryzhanich, a Serb, a Catholic priest who was exiled to Siberia in 1661, met with Beketov. I personally saw the one who first erected a fortress on the banks of the Lena, he wrote. 1661 is the latest mention of Beketov's name in historical literature. If we allow ourselves to assume that none of our informants is mistaken and does not lie, then it turns out that the conflict between Beketov and Avvakum, who was returned from exile to Moscow in 1661, occurred at the very end of the Siberian epic of the latter, and Yuri Kryzhanich saw Beketov shortly before his death. All the data converge, and it turns out that in 1660 Beketov from Yeniseisk left for service in Tobolsk, where in 1661 he met both Avvakum and Kryzhanich. Thus, we can consider at least approximately the date of death of a person who has done so much to consolidate Russian state on its eastern borders. Unfortunately, the date of birth of the founder of Chita is unknown ... But if we assume that in 1628 he was at least thirty years old (no one would put an inexperienced youth at the head of a serious expedition), then in 1661 he was already an old man, so death from the upheaval caused by a major conflict does not seem surprising. The fact that Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov was an outstanding person is evidenced by many authors. P. Slovtsov writes about him: Servant with zeal. G. Miller notes the diplomatic and military talents of the centurion. Even Archpriest Avvakum, a man extremely strict in assessing people, calls him the best boyar son, and writes about the conflict with him: There is still grief for my soul ....

I.Fischer, one of the first historians of Siberia, was not shy at all in enthusiastic assessments of the personality and activity of Pyotr Beketov. Indeed, how much diplomatic talent, military cunning worthy of Odysseus, human courage he showed for a long period of service to Russia! And how much fortitude he needed to have, a man of the seventeenth century, an old man, in order to stop the anathema from the lips of the fiery archpriest in the main temple of Tobolsk, an anathema against the man whom Beketov was instructed to only protect! In Moscow there is a monument to Yuri Dolgoruky, in St. Petersburg to Peter I, in Lvov to Prince Danila Romanovich, in Kyiv to Kiy, Schek and Khoriv ... Most Russian and European cities honor the memory of their founders or, if they are unknown, the first rulers. In Chita, even somewhere in the backyards, in the middle of nowhere, there is no monument, bust, or even a memorial plaque to the founder of the city. Did not deserve? Special thanks to Andrei Bukin for the information provided. We wish success to his project Staraya Chita

As you know, at the end of the 16th century, a regular offensive movement of Russians into Siberia began. Together with the Cossack detachments, industrialists and all sorts of "eager people" went there. All this people moved in separate and small parties and detachments.

The rivers served him as a means of communication. Through the watersheds, the seekers of "new lands" "drag" and fell, thus, from one river system to another.

At more convenient and central points, they set up fortifications: prisons and winter quarters, from which prisons later grew, and then cities. Everyone was attracted to Siberia by an irresistible desire to use the country's wealth. Often the initiative in finding new lands and peoples belonged not to the military, but to industrialists and other "eager people."

Industrial and hunting people chased valuable furs, farmers - spacious and fertile lands ... Cossack military detachments made their way along with them, who sought out new peoples and taxed them with yasak - a tribute to the Moscow government. All these Russian explorers were distinguished by strong will, perseverance, great endurance, and, on the other hand, greed, greed for prey and complete promiscuity in the means of achieving it.

Such, undoubtedly, were those Russian people who ended up on Lena. Fortified in Western Siberia, the Russians moved further east. From Mangazeya (founded in 1600-1601), Russians made their way to the North and in the 20s. XVII centuries were already in Khatanga.

Scheme of land, river and sea routes of Western Siberia in the 17th century.

1 - river sea route from Tobolsk to Mangazeya, 2 - Mangazeya sea route, 3 - "Through the Stone Way", 4 - river routes.

In general, with the development of the river basin. Yenisei, the period of penetration of Russians towards the river begins. Lena. From Novaya Mangazeya (Turukhansk), having risen up the Yenisei, the Russians pass to its large eastern tributaries - pp. Lower and Podkamennaya Tunguska; from here, having overcome the watershed between the Yenisei and Lena, they fall through the river. Chonu on the river. Vilyui, a tributary of the river. Lena. It was in 1620 at the initiative of the Mangazeya Cossacks. It was then that the Russians definitely learned about the river. Lena and the Yakuts. By the way, the Russians had vague information about Lena, more of a fantastic nature, back in 1619 in Yeniseisk. The Russians also got to Lena in other ways. So, for example, earlier in 1630 he was on the river. Lena, near the present city of Yakutsk, the Turukhansk industrialist Pantelei Pyanda with 40 people, who got here through the Chechuy portage.

At the end, the third way, south, through the river. Ilim on the river. Lena, from the side of present-day Ust-Kut, was discovered by the Yenisei in the late 1920s. XVII century. Of these two, through the river. Vilyuy and r. Ilim, became the main ways of advancing the Russian people to Lena. Later, the Ilimsky portage acquired exceptional significance and became a well-trodden road to the Lena, to the Yakuts.

Thus, from 1620, and especially from the end of the 20s, they began to carry out campaigns on the river. Lena, both military and industrial people who were heading here from the river basin. Yenisei.

Rumors about the fabulous wealth of the "great Lena River", which abounded with the best sables in Siberia, attracted separate parties of Russian "hunters" here. This movement intensified even more because at that time in Western Siberia the sable had already been “hunted” and it was necessary to look for new rich hunting places. These turned out to be on the river. Lena.

Petr Ivanovich Beketov

Among the pioneers of Eastern Siberia, in terms of merit, talent, and results, Petr Ivanovich Beketov should be put in the first place. Quite deservedly, monuments were erected to him in Chita, Nerchinsk, Yakutsk.

The turbulent fate of the conqueror of "non-peaceful lands" is fraught with riddles that still have no answer. He was probably born in Tver into a family of hereditary nobles in 1609 (perhaps several years earlier). From the age of 14 he was an archer. It is not known what prompted him to decide to apply for the vacant position of the archery centurion in the distant Yeniseisk. In 1627, he submitted a petition (petition) to Moscow in the Order of the Kazan Palace on his appointment as a centurion in Yeniseisk. His rival was a clerk from Yeniseisk Maxim Perfiliev, already proved itself in campaigns on "non-peaceful lands".

Pyotr Beketov received the position of centurion, Maxim Perfilyev received the position of chieftain. The governor of Tobolsk was ordered to pay P. Beketov money (10 rubles) and grain allowance and send him to Yeniseisk.

In 1628, the garrison of Yeniseisk consisted of the centurion P. Beketov, ataman M. Perfiliev and 105 archers, but already in 1631 it increased 3 times and by the end of the 1630s reached 370 people. In 1690, 3,000 people already lived in Yeniseisk.

In the spring of 1628, P. Beketov sets out on his first campaign on a punitive mission. The Tungus attacked M. Perfiliev's detachment returning from Ilim in 1627, the ataman fought back, but the detachment suffered losses.

Beketov from the voivode was ordered not to start hostilities, but to influence the Tungus with persuasion and "caress".

P. Beketov successfully coped with this task, returned with amanats (hostages) and collected yasak. Yasak at that time and subsequently was equivalent to approximately one full-fledged sable per year per person.

In the autumn of 1628 until 1630, P. Beketov undertook a campaign to collect yasak from the local population along the Angara. The reason for the hasty campaign was the desire to get ahead of competitors. From Moscow under the leadership of the former governor of Yeniseisk, a miner Yakova Khripunova a large detachment of Cossacks was sent to these places to explore deposits of gold and silver ores and collect yasak. They acted mercilessly - with fire and sword. It was assumed that this detachment would cross Baikal and go to the Daurian lands, where, according to rumors, there were silver ores. The extension of the campaign did not take place due to the unexpected death of Y. Khripunov.

Having overcome the rapids, P. Beketov went to the Oka River (a tributary of the Angara), along it to the mouth of the Uda River. Winter huts were set up in the places of the later built Nizhneudinsk and Bratsk prisons. Along the way, P. Beketov brought tribes of natives into Russian citizenship, collected yasak from them. The first of the Russians came into contact with the Buryats.

Here, for the first time, he collected yasak from several "brotherly" princes. Later, in a letter to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, P. Beketov writes that in this campaign they were left without means of subsistence and ammunition, perhaps they crashed on the Angara rapids, ate grass and roots for 7 weeks, wandering through the taiga.

In 1630, Beketov "rests" in Yeniseisk, a detachment I. Galkina goes to the Lena, and the detachment of M. Perfiliev to the Angara and Oka.
In May 1631, to replace I. Galkin with Lena, P. Beketov set out with a detachment of thirty people. He was sent to "distant service to Lena for one year." The campaign lasted 2 years and 3 months. During this time, Beketov's military and diplomatic talents were fully manifested, combined with his personal ability to wield a saber. Pyotr Ivanovich did not want to yield to his colleague in any way, his rival ataman I. Galkin, known for his desperate courage.

In the spring of 1632, on the Lena, not far from the mouth of the Aldan River, 70 km from the location of modern Yakutsk, he cut down the Lensky (Yakutsky) prison.

Being a clerk in the Yakut prison, he sent expeditions to Vilyui and Aldan. In 1632 he founded the settlement of Zhigansk on the Lena beyond the Arctic Circle. During this time, he collected a large yasak with furs, bought with money and bought a lot of sables for trinkets, and also carried out tithe fees from many industrial people.

In June 1633, Beketov handed over the Lena jail to replace his boyar son P. Khodyrev, and in early September he was in Yeniseisk.
In 1635-1636, he built the Olekmensky prison, made trips along the Vitim, Bolshoy Patom and other rivers. In the spring of 1638, he went to the annual service as a clerk in the Lensky prison to replace Galkin. The clerk was supposed to regulate, in addition to organizing economic life and collecting taxes, the public and private life of the population of prisons.

In 1640, Beketov was sent to Moscow with the Yenisei sable treasury. The Siberian Order, taking into account all his merits, appointed him the head of the Yenisei foot Cossacks, bestowed the title of son of a boyar. The monetary allowance due to him was 20 rubles (I. Galkin began to receive the same amount), instead of the grain allowance, a land allotment of feeding “from arable land” was allocated. Work was added to provide the service troops with everything necessary, to organize campaigns to acquire new lands. Peter Ivanovich coped with all this regularly. There were no complaints from anyone. P. Beketov had a family in Yeniseisk, a large farm where hired people and serfs worked.

In 1649-1650, Beketov was in the annual service in the Bratsk prison, which he moved closer to the Oka River ..

In 1650, Beketov again traveled to Moscow with yasak.
To establish the power of the Russian tsar in Transbaikalia in June 1652, P. Beketov with a large detachment (more than 140 people) was sent on his last trip to Irgen - the lake and the great river Shilka.
Despite the fact that the detachment was moving in a hurry, they reached the Bratsk prison only two months later. We decided to spend the winter on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, in Prorva Bay. A winter hut was built in the area of ​​​​the Manturikha river. At the site of the death of the embassy, ​​the Beketovs erected a chapel and built the Ust-Prorvinsky prison. There was an idea to build a prison at the mouth of the Selenga, but there was no timber there.
In June 1653, a detachment along Baikal entered the Selenga delta and began to rise against the current to the mouth of the Khilok River. Further along the Khilok, they reached Lake Irgen at the end of September 1653. A winter hut was built here and the Irgen prison was built, which in 1656 was burned by the natives.

During this period, along with the confluence of the Chitinka River into the Ingoda, P. Beketov founded the village of Plotbishche, which eventually became the site of the Chita prison.

Part of the detachment worked on the construction of a small Nelyudinsky prison on Shilka at the mouth of the Nercha River.
P. Beketov is credited with the discovery of silver ores in the Nerchinsk region.

In May 1654, Beketov was already on Shilka in the small Nelyudinsky prison, he was going to build a large Nerchinsk prison. But his detachment was besieged by the Tungus tribes, who burned and trampled the sown bread, drove away the horses, and did not give the opportunity to fish. Famine began among the Cossacks. The only way to retreat was to go down the Shilka to the Amur on rafts.

At the mouth of the Shilka, the Shilkinsky prison was built. With the participation of the detachment of Beketov, together with the detachment of the Amur ataman Onufry Stepanov, the Kumar prison was built on the Amur in 1654. This fortress withstood a long siege in 1655 by ten thousand Manchu troops.

It is known that Beketov participated in 1655 together with Stepanov in the war with the Manchus.

Further, the fate of Peter Beketov is based on some conflicting facts. According to some reports, he died in battle along with Stepanov and other dead Cossacks, among 270 people who were ambushed by the Manchus at the mouth of the river in 1658 on the Amur. Songhua.

According to other information recorded in the book "Siberian History" by G. Miller, P. Beketov did not die in that vindictive battle, but through Yakutsk with the collected yasak he reached Yeniseisk in 1660 and moved to serve in Tobolsk.

Beketov went down the Shilka to the confluence with the Onon and was the first Russian to leave Transbaikalia for the Amur.

I followed the top. the course of the great river to the confluence of the Zeya (900 km), he joined with the Cossacks of the foreman O. Stepanov, who was appointed instead of Khabarov "the commanding officer ... of the new Daurian land." A man of independent character, Beketov knew how to appease his pride for the sake of business. When he, with the remnants of his detachment in the summer of 1654, from "grain scarcity and need ... descended" to the Amur, he stood under the command of Stepanov, although his rank was much higher than his new commander. The united detachment (no more than 500 people) spent the winter in the Kumar prison, set up by Khabarov about 250 km above the mouth of the Zeya, at the mouth of the rights. tributary of the Amur River. Kumara (Khumarhe).

In March-April. 1655 A detachment of 10,000 Manchus surrounded the prison. The siege lasted until April 15: after a bold sortie by the Russians, the enemy left. In June, the combined forces of the Russians descended to the mouth of the Amur, to the land of the Gilyaks, and cut down another prison here, where they stayed for the 2nd winter. Beketov, with his Cossacks and collected yasak, moved up the Amur in August and arrived at Yeniseisk through Nerchinsk. He was the first to trace the entire Amur, from the confluence of the Shilka and Argun to the mouth (2824 km) and back. Upon his return to Tobolsk (early 1656) he was appointed to the "bailiff" to the deacon of the St. Sophia Cathedral I. Strune.

“Beketov's life was cut short quite tragically.

In the winter of 1656, having caught a cold on the way, he was sick and returned from Yeniseisk to Tobolsk. Trouble awaited here. His friend, former comrade on campaigns, and now clerk of the Judgment Order of the Sofia House of the Siberian Archbishop Simeon, Ivan Struna, on the denunciation of the notorious archpriest who was then exiled in Tobolsk Habakkuk was arrested.

Of course, neither the archpriest nor Struna were holy people. For a long time they lived in harmony, not without benefit to each other. But a month before the arrival of Archbishop Simeon from Moscow, a feud broke out between them because of hidden unshared money. The archpriest managed to gain confidence in Simeon and accused the far from disinterested, but rustic Ivan Struna of various “violent” sins. The string was arrested and handed over “for bailiffs” to Beketov, who was supposed to guard him. March 4, 1656 in the main cathedral of Tobolsk, Ivan Struna was anathematized - a terrible punishment for those times. Pyotr Beketov, who was present right there in the cathedral, could not stand it and began to openly scold the archpriest and the archbishop himself, "barking obscenely like a dog." A man who was not afraid of either bullets, or arrows of "foreigners", or the wrath of the governor ... could afford this. There was a noise. The frightened archpriest hid, and the enraged Beketov left the cathedral. And, as the same Habakkuk writes, on the way Peter “... went mad, going to his court, and died a bitter evil death.” Apparently, from a strong shock (and besides, he was already sick), he had a heart failure. The overjoyed archpriest hurried to the scene. Simeon ordered the corpse of Beketov, as a "great sinner", to give to the dogs on the street, and forbade all Tobolsk residents to mourn Peter. For three days the dogs gnawed at the corpse, while Simeon and Avvakum “prayed diligently” and then “honestly” buried his remains.” According to F. Pavlenkov, Beketov is the maternal ancestor of the poet A. A. Blok.

Serbian Catholic priest Yuri Kryzhich testifies that in Tobolsk in 1661: "I personally saw the one who first erected a fortress on the banks of the Lena." The exiled archpriest Avvakum spoke in his book about last days Peter Ivanovich in Tobolsk.
In Transbaikalia, the memory of the "lucky man Pyotr Beketov" lived for hundreds of years. The elders told how “Nerchinsk silver itself opened up” to him, how lucky and skillful P. Beketov was on the hunt. A tradition was born in the families of fishermen to call their first son Peter, so that he would get a piece of "lucky".

The name of Peter Beketov is among those explorers of the 17th century, to whom Russia owes the annexation of vast territories of Eastern Siberia. In the scientific literature on the Russian colonization of Siberia, P.I. Beketov is often mentioned, and this creates the impression that his fate and activities are well studied. Meanwhile, the only special work about this pioneer contains erroneous interpretations and on present stage development of science seems outdated.

Monument to Peter Beketov in Yakutsk

Against the background of the increased interest of Siberian scholars in the genre of biographical research, the personality of P.I. Beketov, of course, deserves close attention. But it is not only a matter of systematizing and supplementing the facts accumulated by historians. The turbulent fate of the conqueror of "non-peaceful lands" is fraught with riddles to which researchers still do not have definite answers.

Violating the generally accepted scheme for presenting biographies, let's start with the circumstances of the death of P.I. Beketov, which seem to be textbook known thanks to the wonderful "Life" of Archpriest Avvakum. Avvakum's version, often repeated by historians, boils down to the fact that at the beginning of March 1655, Pyotr Beketov, "the son of the boyar lutchi", lived in Tobolsk in his courtyard and was appointed bailiff to the deacon of the Tobolsk archbishop's house, Ivan Struna. The latter, being put on a chain for "humility" by Archbishop Simeon, fled to the civil voivodeship authorities and announced the "sovereign's word" both to Avvakum and to the archbishop himself. That is why the governors did not give him back to Simeon, but appointed a bailiff to him.

According to Habakkuk, on March 4, 1655, the archbishop anathematized Struna "in the big church." This procedure provoked a protest on the part of Beketov, who scolded Simeon and Avvakum in church, after which he "fell mad, going to his court, and die a bitter evil death." Beketov's body allegedly lay on the street for 3 days and only then was buried by the compassionate lord and archpriest. Meanwhile, the well-known Yenisei explorer son of the boyar Peter Beketov at that time was on the Amur in the "army" of Onufry Stepanov. From March 13 to April 4, 1655, he "fought clearly" in the defense of the Kumar prison besieged by the Manchus, as evidenced by the preserved and trustworthy documents. The story of Avvakum about the death in Tobolsk of the explorer Beketov should be recognized as unreliable. However, any other Peter Beketov, who served in the 1650s. in Siberia, is unknown to historical science today.

Doubts about the truth of Avvakum's story about Beketov's death were expressed by A.K. Borozdin, who noted that in 1655 "we find some boyar son Pyotr Beketov acting on the Amur under the command of Afanasy Pashkov." VC. Nikolsky, objecting to Borozdin, tried to understand the circumstances of this case. He correctly pointed out that in 1652 Beketov was sent from Yeniseisk to Transbaikalia and in 1654 left the Shilka River, and that in 1655 the governor Pashkov was still in Yeniseisk. But since Nikolsky did not know that Beketov did not go to Yeniseisk, but further to the Amur, his following constructions about the fate of the explorer (in accordance with the "Life" of Avvakum) turn out to be incorrect. V.G. Izgachev, the author of an article about Beketov (very confused in places), did not pay attention to Avvakum's information.

Modern researcher D.Ya. Rezun, in one of his works, following conflicting sources, claims that Beketov was present in March 1655 at the same time on the Amur and in Tobolsk. In the encyclopedic article about Beketov, its authors (D.Ya. Rezun and V.I. Magidovich) apparently noticed contradictions in the sources and tried to destroy them by moving the time of Beketov’s death in Tobolsk to March 1656. However, it is known that the exiled archpriest was sent from Tobolsk further to Eastern Siberia on June 29, 1655. On June 27, 1655, the Tobolsk authorities received a letter from Moscow about the transfer of Avvakum and his family to the Yakut prison. IN AND. Khilkov, he carried out the decree on the same day. Avvakum, accompanied by the Krasnoyarsk son of the boyar Miloslav Koltsov, went to Yeniseisk by the usual water route along the Irtysh, the Ob and through the Makovsky portage on the Ket River.

Avvakum spent the winter of 1655/56 in Yeniseisk, where another decree came from Moscow - to place the archpriest under the command of the former Yenisei governor A.F. Pashkov, who at that time was forming a regiment for a campaign in Transbaikalia. Avvakum, by the way, remembered well that he went from Tobolsk to the Yakut exile on Peter's Day (June 29), and with the governor Pashkov from Yeniseisk - "for another summer." Pashkov set out from Yeniseisk on July 18, 1656. It is unlikely that Avvakum and his family covered the distance from Tobolsk to Yeniseisk (in the presence of a heavy portage) in 3 weeks. Finally, it was completely uncharacteristic for the practice of voivodship administration to delay the execution of such decrees for a whole year. Thus, this fragment of the "Life", even if it were reliable, cannot refer to 1656. The stubborn trust of historians in the story of Avvakum is obviously due to the absence of any other evidence about the circumstances of the explorer's death.

About the beginning of the life path of P.I. Beketov, as well as about its completion, little is known. In the genealogical charts of the noble family of the Beketovs, compiled, apparently, on the basis of family traditions under Catherine II and Paul I, Peter Ivanovich is not mentioned. I must say that the Beketovs in the XVIII-XIX centuries. generally had a vague idea of ​​their origin, especially since in the famous Velvet Book late XVII in. for some reason they were not recorded. The outlines of the Beketovs' genealogy can be outlined primarily from documents of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1641, Pyotr Beketov himself indicated in a petition: "And my parents, sir, serve you ... in Tver and Arzamas, according to the yard and by choice."

Thus, the older relatives of Peter Ivanovich were listed in the lists of "yard" and "elected" children of their boyar districts. In the then hierarchy of ranks-titles of service people "according to the fatherland" below them were the city children of the boyars, above them were the tenants and nobles of Moscow. The reliability of the testimony of Peter Ivanovich about family ties is confirmed by the surviving letter of commendation(dated August 30, 1669) "veritin" Bogdan Beketov: for military merit during the war with Poland, part of the local lands of Bogdan was granted to him as a fiefdom. In several acts for 1510-1541. Dmitrovsky landowner Konstantin Vasilievich Beketov and his son Andrey were noted. It seems that the Beketovs in the 16th century. and should be sought among the Tver and Dmitrov boyar children. Some of the representatives of this family could have been transferred to Arzamas after the city was founded in 1578.

So, there is reason to believe that the closest ancestors of P.I. Beketov belonged to the layer of provincial boyar children. We do not know when and where the future explorer began his career as a service man. In the already mentioned petition of 1641, he calculated the term of service in Siberia at 17 years. This figure is, perhaps, the fruit of someone's mistake, since in two very important petitions for him in 1651, Beketov confidently speaks of his service only in Yeniseisk and only from 7135 (1626/27)16. What prompted the boyar’s hereditary son to link his fate with Siberia, we still don’t know, but in January 1627 Beketov personally filed a petition with the order of the Kazan Palace with a request to appoint him a shooter centurion in the distant Yenisei jail: “So that I, your serf, dragging myself between court, did not die of starvation.

About the place of the centurion, Beketov did not fuss at random, but knowing about the vacancy that had appeared. In the autumn of 1625, ataman Pozdey Firsov, who held this position, drowned in the Ob. The Yenisei garrison filed a petition to the governor, in which he asked to appoint a local clerk, Maxim Perfilyev, as a centurion, who had already proved himself in campaigns against "non-peaceful lands." Voevoda A.L. Oshanin agreed with the choice of the Yenisei archers and sent their petition to Moscow for consideration. In the capital, however, preference was given to Peter Beketov. Presumably, the rank of son of a boyar, more honorable than the position of clerk, contributed to a favorable decision for him (Perfilyev, however, received the position of the Yenisei ataman). In connection with the appointment of Beketov as a centurion in the Siberian garrison, which consisted largely of masterful and exiled people, the approximate date of his birth indicated in the literature, 1610, seems incredible. It should be attributed at least to the end of the 16th century. In January 1627, the governors of Tobolsk (then the only discharge center in "Siberian Ukraine") were instructed to give Beketov a monetary and grain salary and send him to Yeniseisk.

Founded in 1619, the Yenisei prison was at that time an outpost of Russian colonization, from where small detachments of service people stubbornly advanced along the Angara, bringing numerous, but scattered families of Evenks and Buryats into Russian citizenship. In 1628, the Yenisei garrison consisted of the centurion Beketov, ataman Perfiliev and 105 archers, but already in 1631 it increased 3 times. By the end of the 1630s. the number of servants of Yeniseisk reached 370 people, however, in connection with the establishment of the Lena (Yakutsk) voivodeship, the emergence of Ilimsk and fraternal prisons, their number decreased by the 1650s. up to 250 people. In the spring of 1628, Beketov went on his first campaign at the head of a detachment of 30 servicemen and 60 "industrial" people. The purpose of the campaign was to pacify the Lower Angara Tungus (Evenks), who in 1627 attacked the detachment of M. Perfiliev returning from the mouth of the Ilim; The ataman fought back, but the detachment suffered losses. Beketov was instructed by the governor not to start hostilities, but to influence the Tungus with persuasion and "caress". Peter Ivanovich successfully coped with this task, and his detachment built Rybinsk Ostrozhek in the lower reaches of the Angara. Beketov returned to Yeniseisk with Tungus amanats and collected yasak.

The rest in Yeniseisk turned out to be short, since in the fall of 1628 Beketov was again sent up the Angara, having only 19 service people under his command. Setting out on a campaign in the fall (usually done in the spring) indicates the hasty and extraordinary nature of the expedition. The fact is that in the summer of 1628 a detachment of Ya.I. Khripunov, who, after wintering in Yeniseisk, was supposed to go to the Angara to search for silver deposits.

The numerous detachment of Khripunov (150 people) could be a serious competitor in reconnaissance and explaining the new "zemlitsy". V.A. Argamakov suspected (later his suspicions were justified) that Khripunov's "regiment", which was not subordinate to him, could disrupt the system of collecting yasak from the peoples of the Angara region, which was established with great difficulty. In the summer of 1628, M. Voeikov with 12 Cossacks, a reconnaissance detachment sent by Khripunov, proceeded through Yeniseisk to the Bratsk threshold. Beketov followed him to the large Angara rapids.

During this campaign, it was Beketov who for the first time had the opportunity to represent the Russian authorities in front of the ancestors of modern Buryats. Collecting yasak from the Tungus along the way, Beketov's detachment overcame the Angara rapids and reached the mouth of the Oka River. Here, for the first time, yasak was collected from several "fraternal" princes (albeit modest in size). Later, Pyotr Ivanovich recalled that he "went from the Bratsk threshold along the Tunguska up and along the Oka River and along the Angara River and to the mouth of the Uda River ... and brought brotherly people under your sovereign's high hand", while 7 weeks, "walking in Brotherly land, they suffered hunger - they ate grass and roots. In the Baikal and Transbaikalia there are several rivers with the same name Uda.

In this case, we are talking about the Uda, which flows into the Angara on the right in the area of ​​the modern settlements of Ust-Uda and Balagansk. Subsequently, Beketov, not without pride, emphasized: "And before, sir, no Russian person had ever been to me in those places." It is not known exactly where Beketov wintered with his Cossacks; apparently, somewhere near the Fraternal threshold or at the mouth of the Ilim. In January 1629, Argamakov sent small reinforcements to Beketov, led by V. Sumarokov. The latter brought to the centurion an order for the urgent construction of a new prison, "so that Yakov Khripunov does not take away the Ilim river and does not send yasak along the Ilim to take." But Beketov did not force the tired Cossacks to build a prison, and in the spring and summer of 1629 he returned to Yeniseisk, handing over 689 sable skins to the treasury.

Russian pioneers discovered boundless lands in Eastern Siberia inhabited by unknown peoples. Foreman Vasily Bugor and ataman Ivan Galkin, with the help of the Tunguses, find the drag ways from the Ilim to the upper reaches of the Lena. In 1630, Beketov "rests" in Yeniseisk, and the detachments of I. Galkin and M. Perfilyev set off for the Lena and along the Angara to the mouth of the Oka. In Yeniseisk itself, during these years, often no more than 10 Cossacks remained. The petition of the Yenisei archers dated July 26, 1630 (the first on the list is Pyotr Beketov) has come down to us, in which they indicated, not without reason, that "there are such necessary (heavy. - E.V.) and cruel services that in the Yenisei jail , and not in all of Siberia", and asked to increase their monetary and grain salaries, equating it with the salary of the Siberian horse Cossacks.

Through the efforts of mainly Yenisei service people in the 1630s. the lands of central Yakutia are annexed. Having reached the basin of the Middle Lena in 1631, Ivan Galkin could not help but be surprised: "The places are crowded and the lands are wide and the end is unknown to them ..." To replace Galkin on May 30, 1631, Beketov set out from Yeniseisk with a detachment of 30 people. He was sent to "distant service on the Lena River for one year", but the campaign lasted 2 years and 3 months. During this time, Beketov's military and diplomatic talents, combined with his personal ability to wield a saber, were fully manifested. Pyotr Ivanovich did not want to concede in anything to his colleague-rival ataman Galkin, known for his desperate courage.

In September 1631, Beketov, taking 20 Cossacks with him, set off from the Ilim portage up the Lena. The detachment dared to move away from the river and went to the uluses of the Buryats-Ekherites. However, the Buryat princes refused to pay yasak to the distant tsar, declaring through four Tunguses who were with Beketov that they themselves collect yasak "from many lands." A small detachment managed to build some kind of "support" and for 3 days sat under siege. 60 people arrived at the fortification, led by princes Bokoy and Borochei, who resorted to a military trick. They became "strapped into the support", supposedly for the delivery of yasak. However, having penetrated the fortification and secretly carrying sabers with them, the Buryat leaders threw only 5 “underdogs” to the Cossacks and arrogantly declared: “We will take you to our serfs, we will not let you out of our land.” Since the Yenisei were "ready with a gun", the battle, apparently, began with the only possible volley and continued with hand-to-hand combat.

The onslaught of the Cossacks, who were in a desperate situation, was swift. Subsequently, with various replies, Beketov reported that the Buryats had lost from 40 to 56 people (this is probably an exaggeration). In the battle, 2 Tungus were killed and one Cossack was wounded. Taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, the servicemen captured the Buryat horses and traveled for a day to the mouth of the Tutura River. Here Beketov set up a small prison, awaiting further action from the Eherites. The latter, having heard about the prison, preferred to migrate to Baikal, but the Tungus-Nalyagirs "sovereign" who had previously paid tribute to them high arms frightened" and brought yasak to Beketov.

In April 1632, Beketov received Zh.V. Kondyrev reinforcements of 14 Cossacks and a decree to go down the Lena. The Yakut epic of the Beketov detachment deserves separate consideration. Preserved detailed description this campaign, coming from Peter Ivanovich himself. I will point out the main results of Beketov's stay in Yakutia. The summer of 1632 passed in active explanation of the Yakut toins of the Middle Lena. Some of them accepted citizenship without risking to fight; others resisted. Luck accompanied Beketov's Cossacks - "by God's grace and sovereign happiness" they emerged victorious from military clashes with the Yakuts.

In September 1632, Beketov built the first sovereign prison in Yakutia (on the right bank of the Lena, 70 km below Yakutsk), transferred in 1634 by I. Galkin to a new location. A total of 31 toyon-princes recognized the Russian authorities as a result of the actions of the Beketov detachment. In addition to collecting yasak, Beketov took up the tenth duty in Yakutia from the sable trades of private industrialists and Cossacks. He also sorted out the disputes that arose between them, and honestly handed over the duty "from court cases" (96 sables) to the Yenisei treasury. In June 1633, Beketov handed over the Lensky prison to his son P. Khodyrev, who had come to replace him, left 23 Cossacks in Yakutia for various services, and on September 6 he was already in Yeniseisk with the rest. One of the results of the long campaign of the archer centurion across the lands of the Tungus and Yakuts was the delivery of 2471 sables and 25 sable fur coats to the treasury.

By 1635-1636. Beketov's new service applies. During these years, he sets up the Olekminsky prison, makes trips along the Vitim, Bolshoi Patom and "other side rivers" and returns with almost 20 forty sables. The stay in Yeniseisk, where Pyotr Ivanovich's family lived, again turns out to be short-lived. According to the apparently established sequence, in the spring of 1638 he went to the annual service in the Lensky prison to replace I. Galkin. It is interesting to note that by this time Beketov had already lost the rank of centurion and was simply the Yenisei boyar son. In the absence of sources, it is difficult to assess this change in Beketov's service career. On the Middle Lena, Beketov found an alarming situation.

Several local toyons from the "sovereign's hand" were deposited, attacked the Russian people and the yasak Yakuts. Moreover, shortly before the arrival of Beketov, the Yakuts "came in an attack" under the Lensky prison. The initiator of the "wobbly" was the prince of the Nurikteysky volost Kirinei, who left with his family from Lena to Aldan. That is why Galkin and Beketov, having united their detachments, made a trip to Kirinei. It is wrong to consider this event as a masterful Cossack "campaign for zipuns".

Prince Kirinei was brought into Russian citizenship by Beketov as early as 1632. His "pogrom" in 1638, with the capture of 500 cows and 300 mares, was, of course, in the nature of an unseemly punitive action, but from the point of view of the central government, it was completely legal. Beketov spent a year as a clerk in the Lena jail, collecting during this time a yasak of 2250 sables and 456 foxes. In addition, he bought 794 sables and 135 foxes for the treasury, spending only 111 rubles. (in Yeniseisk, this fur was valued at 1247 rubles). The most expensive sable skins brought by Beketov cost 8 rubles each. a piece.

In 1640, Beketov was sent with the Yenisei sable treasury to Moscow. Siberian service people, as a rule, did not miss the opportunity, being in the capital, to personally take care of their needs and career. At the beginning of 1641, Beketov submitted 2 petitions to the Siberian order. From the first it turns out that in Yeniseisk Beketov had a wife, children and "little people" (ie, serfs). In the absence of the explorer, the governors took horses from his yard to perform the underwater service, which died on the Ilim portage. Pyotr Ivanovich asked to save his court from the "drag cart", as well as from the standing of service people who were going to Eastern Siberia.

In another petition, Beketov succinctly outlined all his Siberian campaigns and asked for his appointment as a Cossack head in place of B. Bolkoshin, who is "old and crippled, he cannot serve such your sovereign long-distance service." The position of head in Yeniseisk appeared, obviously, in connection with an increase in the number of service people in the 1630s. In the Siberian order, a detailed certificate was drawn up, confirming the veracity of the petitioner. Official businessmen scrupulously calculated that Beketov's campaigns brought the state a profit of 11,540 rubles. Beketov's request was granted, and on February 13 he received a memory of the appointment of the head of the Yenisei foot Cossacks. Previously, the explorer's salary was 10 rubles, 6 quarters of rye and 4 quarters of oats. The new salary was 20 rubles, but instead of a grain salary, Beketov was to receive land for arable land.

The 1640s were probably the calmest in Beketov's life. Since Yakutia had its own voivodeship with a large garrison, the attention of the Yenisei switched to Baikal. Ataman Vasily Kolesnikov, who in 1632 was an ordinary Cossack in the detachment of Beketov, went to the northern shores of Lake Baikal and founded in 1647 the Verkhneangarsky prison. The lands of Transbaikalia were actively "visited" by Ivan Galkin and Ivan Pokhabov. Judging by well-known sources, Beketov did not take part in these expeditions. However, the position of the Cossack head was by no means a sinecure. Beketov had to monitor the recruitment of the garrison and the state of weapons, establish the order of official parcels, sort out fights and small claims between the Cossacks, and stop illegal trade in wine and gambling in the service environment. In other words, the Cossack head in the Yenisei was the first assistant to the governor in military affairs.

Pyotr Ivanovich also took care of his household. It is known that in 1637 he had 18 acres of arable land and 15 fallows. The arable land was cultivated, most likely, by hired peasants. Beketov sold some part of his lands (apparently received after 1641 as a grain salary) to the peasants S. Kostylnikov and P. Burmakin. 2 collective petitions of the Yenisei from 1646, signed by Peter Beketov, have survived.

The first dealt with the Spassky Monastery, created on a secular initiative, which served as an almshouse for some of the aged service people. Petitioners asked to provide the monastery with funds for the purchase of "every church building." In the second case, the Yenisei Cossacks asked to cancel the ban on the trade in yasyr (i.e. slaves from aboriginal peoples, captured or illegally bought by service people).

Moscow did not respond to both requests. In July 1647, Beketov received a letter sent to him from Moscow with an unusual prescription. He was instructed to imprison governor Fyodor Uvarov for 3 days, who was guilty of writing his replies to the discharge governors of Tomsk with "obscene speech." If Beketov's report is to be believed, he conscientiously carried out this decree, which put him in an ambiguous position.

Soon, however, unpleasant changes took place in Beketov's career. In 1648, he was "resigned from the headship without guilt, it is not known why," and, according to Pyotr Ivanovich, "changed without a petition." It is not entirely clear what kind of petition is meant here: Beketov himself or a candidate for his place. In addition, the former head could mean the petition of the Yenisei Cossacks with possible complaints against him. The latter seems unlikely. During the long service of Beketov in Siberia, we are not aware of a single complaint or complaint against him (unlike, for example, Erofei Khabarov, Ivan Pokhabov and many others). Perhaps the former voivode Uvarov, who was replaced by F.I. Polibin.

The latter should not be suspected of intrigue against Beketov, since in 1650 he calmly sent Pyotr Ivanovich with replies to Moscow. Be that as it may, Beketov again returned to the rank of son of a boyar with a decrease in monetary salary to 10 rubles. This fact, undoubtedly, was the reason for his trip to the capital, where he arrived on January 1, 1651. In the Siberian order, the aging explorer filed 2 petitions, somewhat different in content. In one, he asked to be reinstated in the position of head, and in the other, to assign him his former salary. In 1649-1650. he managed to attend the annual service in the Bratsk prison, so he attached a letter to his petitions about the prospects for the development of agriculture in the Baikal region.

Times have changed - instead of a feverish collection of yasak from the "newly found lands", it is time to think about the sustainable economic development of the region. The Moscow bureaucrats once again compiled a certificate of Beketov's services and, apparently, felt some inconvenience from the injustice committed against him. Pyotr Ivanovich was given "good English cloth", and was given a salary of 20 rubles. and 5 pounds. salt, "and for our grain salary he was ordered to serve from the arable land." In addition to Beketov, a salary of 20 rubles. in the Yenisei garrison, only Ivan Galkin, who had reached the rank of boyar son, had. However, the position of the head of Beketov was not returned, and he went to Yeniseisk, where the new governor, Afanasy Filippovich Pashkov, was already sitting.

Winter 1651-1652 Beketov spent at home, and in the spring he began to prepare for a long trip. Voivode Pashkov, like many of his Siberian colleagues, wanted to distinguish himself before the central government, adding to his track record the annexation and obligation of new territories. The clerk of the Barguzinsky prison, V. Kolesnikov, suggested to Pashkov the idea of ​​​​founding a new prison near Lake Irgen. The Cossacks who arrived from Kolesnikov - Yakov Sofonov, Ivan Chebychakov, Maxim Urazov, Kirill Emelyanov, Matvey Saurov - were carefully questioned by Pashkov about the routes to the Irgen and the Shilka River, since they had already been there. According to the Cossacks, it turned out that Lake Irgen and the Nercha River, which flows into the Shilka, could be reached from Yeniseisk in one summer.

Pashkov finally came up with the idea of ​​organizing an expedition, which was supposed to establish 2 prisons in the indicated places. In April 1652, Pashkov informed the Tomsk governor that he was going to send 100 people to Transbaikalia. Beketov was put at the head of the expedition, whose tasks included the exploration of silver deposits. Along with the Cossacks, "eager industrial people" entered the detachment. Pentecostals Ivan Maksimov, Druzhina Popov, Ivan Kotelnikov and Maxim Urazov were under Beketov's supervision. Among the foremen, we will specially note Ivan Gerasimov, the son of Chebychakov. At the beginning of June 1652, the Yenisei boyar son Pyotr Beketov set out on his last campaign.

Beketov's detachment consisted of about 130-140 people; it means that the expedition went up the Angara on 7-8 boards. Despite the fact that the Cossacks were "hurriedly kind", they reached the Bratsk prison only after 2 months. It became clear to Beketov that the detachment would not be able to reach the final goal during the summer, and he decided to spend the winter on the southern shore of Lake Baikal. However, even from the Bratsk prison, he sent 12 Cossacks led by I. Maksimov "lightly through the Barguzinsky prison to Irgen Lake and to the great Shilka River."

Sofonov and Chebychakov, who had already been on the Irgen, were walking with Maximov. Pyotr Ivanovich's calculation was quite understandable. Having Pashkov's instructions to go to the Selenga and Khilok (in the sources of the 17th century - the Kilka River), Beketov did not have anyone in the detachment who knew this water route. Maximov was supposed to go through the Trans-Baikal steppes to Lake Irgen, where the upper reaches of the Khilok were located, and go down this river towards Beketov.

The main detachment of Beketov, having passed the left tributary of the Angara Osu, was attacked at night by "fraternal thieves' obscure peasants" who wandered "to the edge of Lake Baikal". The Cossacks withdrew with a fight, while the Buryats "boasted" not to let the servicemen through Baikal. Following tenacious in Siberia XVII century. traditions of Cossack self-government, Beketov "talked" with service people, "so that over those brotherly obscure peasants to make him search." The retaliatory action carried out by I. Kotelnikov proved to be successful. The Cossacks attacked the "stans" of the Buryats, killed 12 people in battle, captured several prisoners, and themselves "from that parcel came all healthy." Among the prisoners was the wife of the Verkholensky yasak prince Toroma (who did not arrive on time to visit), about which a correspondence arose between Pashkov and the Ilimsk governor Oladin. Pashkov justified Beketov's actions, especially since he returned the woman to the Verkholensky prison.

Beketov crossed Baikal and stopped for the winter at the mouth of the Prorva. To identify this river with modern geographical names should refer to folklore sources. Among the old-timers of Transbaikalia, a historical legend has been preserved about a certain royal after Erofei, who was killed near Prorva. Tradition says that it was here that later a village arose, which is now Posolsky village. This legend is based on a completely reliable historical event. In 1650, near Lake Baikal, the Buryats killed the embassy of the Tobolsk son of the boyar Erofey Zabolotsky, who was heading to one of the rulers of Northern Mongolia. Thus, Beketov wintered in the area of ​​the current village of Posolsky, located on Bolshaya Rechka (historical river Prorva).

In April 1653, he sent three Cossacks who knew the Tungus, Buryat and Mongolian languages ​​to the Trans-Baikal steppes. The Cossacks were supposed to call all the surrounding clans and tribes into Russian citizenship, and also announce that Beketov was going "not with war and not with battle," but was carrying out an embassy mission. Beketov ordered the Cossacks to spread false information that his detachment consisted of 300 people. The Cossacks had to justify the large number of "embassies" without hesitation by the fact that "foreigners, brotherly and Tungus people are stupid, stupid, as they see few sovereign people, and they beat the sovereign service people ..."

In the end, Beketov's scouts went to the yurts of the Mongolian prince Kuntutsin and were well received by him. When the prince was Lama Tarkhan, who traveled in 1619-1620. to Moscow and who knew about the scale of that state, which was represented by three Cossacks who had come on foot. Of course, Kuntutsin refused to transfer his Buryat and Tungus kishtyms to Russian citizenship, but let the service people go in peace.

After the return of reconnaissance, on June 11, 1653, Beketov set out from his winter hut on Prorva. In half a day, the detachment along Baikal reached the mouth of the Selenga and climbed it for 8 days. Near the mouth of the Khilok, Beketov stopped, hoping for the arrival of Maximov, who actually sailed on top of the Khilok on July 2 with people weakened by hunger. Nevertheless, Maksimov brought 6 magpies of sables and a drawing of new lands. From the mouth of the Khilok, Beketov sent 35 servicemen to Yeniseisk, headed by Maximov. On the Angara, they were again attacked by the Buryats. Maximov fought back and kept the sable treasury, although during the battle 2 Cossacks were killed and 7 wounded. The Cossacks quickly made their way along the course of the rivers and already on August 22 they appeared before Pashkov. The latter sent Maksimov to Moscow, where the Yenisei Pentecostal arrived on January 10, 1654. The incredible mobility of the Siberian Cossacks of the 17th century. can only evoke surprise.

Meanwhile, the epic of the Beketov detachment continued. For the shallow Khilok, the planks had a too deep draft, so it took 3 weeks to convert them into flat-bottomed vessels. Swimming against the current along the Khilok proved difficult, and the expedition reached its destination only at the end of September 1653. By mid-October, the Irgen prison was set up, and on October 19, the Cossacks began to descend the Ingoda on rafts. Beketov, obviously, expected to reach the mouth of the Nercha before winter. However, having sailed along the Ingoda for about 10 versts, the detachment was met by an early freeze-up of the river. Here, a winter hut with fortifications was hastily erected, where part of the reserves were laid down. 20 people remained in the winter hut, another 10 Cossacks under the command of M. Urazov were sent to the mouth of the Nercha, and with the rest Beketov returned to the Irgen prison. At the end of 1653, Urazov built a “small prison” not far from the mouth of the Nercha, on the right bank of the Shilka, which he reported to Beketov. The latter stated this in a reply to Pashkov, assuring the voivode that in the spring of 1654 he would set up a large prison in the place chosen by Urazov.

During the winter, Beketov did not waste time - he collected yasak from the local Tungus and the tenth duty from the crafts of the people who were with him. He was apparently engaged in the search for silver. It is curious that the folklore legend, written down in the middle of the 20th century, attributed the discovery of the Nerchinsk deposits to Beketov ("about how he went to the Amur, now no one remembers, but about how he discovered silver on the Nerch, everyone knows" ). On May 9, 1654, Pyotr Ivanovich sent the sable treasury and replies to Yeniseisk with a detachment of 31 Cossacks. Among them were the Pentecostals D. Popov, M. Urazov and all the foremen, with the exception of Ivan Chebychakov.

This fact requires an explanation. In total, Beketov sent 65 Cossacks to Yeniseisk, among them the most experienced. It seems that there were several reasons for this decision. The sable treasury - an important criterion for the service of an explorer - was supposed to reach Yeniseisk intact. Before the campaign, Pashkov issued a salary to the Cossacks for 2 years; one must think that many of them have already talked about returning to Yeniseisk. Obviously, Pyotr Ivanovich was not one of those commanders for whom the opinion of his subordinates meant nothing. Mostly "Cossack mercenaries" and "eager service people" remained with Beketov, i.e. persons who were not part of the Yenisei garrison. The prudence of an experienced explorer paid off. While sailing along the Khilok, Urazov and his comrades were attacked by "brotherly non-peaceful peasants, the ulus people of Turukai Tabun." The battle lasted all day, but in the end the detachment saved itself and the sable treasury. The Yenisei arrived home on June 12 and handed over furs worth 3,728 rubles to the governor.

And Beketov was already on Shilka, where he was going to build, in accordance with Pashkov's order, a large prison. The intentions of Peter Ivanovich are evidenced by the fact that the Cossacks even sowed spring bread in the chosen place. However, the construction of Russian fortifications and the winter collection of yasak forced the Tungus tribes to take up arms. The Cossacks did not have time to build a prison, when "many Tungus people arrived exiled from the war." The Russian detachment was under siege (probably in the prison built by Urazov). The Tungus drove the horses away and trampled on the bread. Famine began among the Cossacks, since the Tungus did not allow fishing. In opponents Beketov recognized those who had recently brought him yasak. The Yenisei had neither riverboats nor horses. They had the only way to retreat - on rafts, down the Shilka to the Amur. Did Beketov leave some part of the detachment in the Irgen prison before leaving for Shilka? I do not have such information, but A.P. Vasiliev points out that Beketov left 18 Cossacks there.

On the Amur at that time, the most serious Russian force was the "army" of the clerk Onufry Stepanov, the official successor to E.P. Khabarova. The Amur current brought Beketov's Cossacks to him. It is possible that a split occurred in the detachment of the Yenisei explorer already on Nerchi, and part of the servicemen broke away from him. At least, Beketov's Cossacks arrived at Stepanov in different groups. In the 1650s the Russian population of Eastern Siberia was engulfed in "Daurian fever"; not only parties of free industrialists went to the Amur, but also detachments of service people who had fled from their garrisons.

It can be assumed that under the circumstances and in connection with the threat of starvation, Beketov could no longer restrain people who had heard about the fertile Daurian "land". At the end of June 1654, 34 Yenisei joined Stepanov, and a few days later Pyotr Beketov himself appeared, who "beat the entire Cossack army with his forehead so that he could live on the great Amur River until the sovereign's decree." All "Beketovites" (63 people) were accepted into the combined Amur army. The hereditary boyar son and former head of the Yenisei garrison, without ambition, submitted to Stepanov, who until recently was only a gunner with the rank of Yesaul. Behind this and other scanty evidence, Beketov's character is visible - a balanced and even gentle person. But the steel core of this character is beyond doubt.

Why did Beketov himself remain on the Amur in Stepanov's army? Only relatively reliable assumptions can be made about this. Circumstances did not allow the explorer to complete the task of Pashkov in full and build a prison at the mouth of the Nercha. The garrison of the Irgen prison was left to itself. Under such circumstances, Beketov, apparently, did not want to return to Pashkov, who could put an end to his further service. On the Amur, a war broke out with the Manchus, during which it was possible to distinguish themselves and make amends for an involuntary misconduct. A characteristic detail - having joined Stepanov, Beketov handed over to him 10 sables, collected by him already during the voyage along the Amur. However, not everything in life is measured by selfish and career interests. Who knows if the aging pioneer was beckoned by new unknown lands, where there were neither arrogant governors, nor Moscow clerks looking at Siberia like a big chest with "soft junk"?

The fate of Beketov on the Amur can be traced only up to a certain point. In the autumn of 1654, Stepanov's army, which numbered just over 500 people, built the Kumar prison (at the confluence of the Khumarkhe River with the Amur). On March 13, 1655, the fortress was besieged by a 10,000-strong Manchu army. The Cossacks withstood many days of bombardment of the prison, fought off all the attacks and themselves made a sortie. Having failed, the Manchurian army on April 3 left the prison. Immediately after this, Stepanov compiled a personalized list of Cossacks who "fought clearly." This list confirms my assumption about the split of Beketov's detachment, since 30 Cossacks who were subordinate to him on Shilka are recorded here separately.

27 people remained faithful to Beketov, 12 of them were "eager service people." Therefore, apparently, the latter are absent in the petition, which Beketov compiled on behalf of the Yenisei service people and added to Stepanov's replies. In addition to Pyotr Ivanovich himself, the petition was signed by foreman Ivan Gerasimov Chebychakov and 14 ordinary Cossacks. In this document, Beketov briefly outlined the reasons for leaving Shilka and asked for gratitude for the service shown in the defense of the Kumar prison. The meaning of the petition is clear - to bring to the attention of the official authorities the fact that he and his people continue to be in the sovereign's service. This document, dated April 1655, is so far the last reliable news about Beketov. Still it's clear to finish my life path in March of this year in Tobolsk, Pyotr Ivanovich could not.

Having received Beketov's replies in June 1654, Pashkov had every reason to believe that he had successfully completed his task. In accordance with the usual practice, the voivode sent new yearlings to replace him, led by the son of the boyar Nikifor Koltsov. The detachment consisted of about 40 servicemen and 2 exiled peasants, who should have been "put" on arable land. Following the example of Beketov, Koltsov spent the winter on the Prorva and a certain prison arrived in the Irga by the autumn of 1655. Apparently, Koltsov set up a new prison on the Shilka, which was located above the mouth of the Nercha. For unknown reasons, Koltsov did not wait for the next shift. In the early spring of 1656, he released 20 people to Yeniseisk (these were, most likely, those "Beketovites" who remained in the Irgen prison).

Then, on March 30, Koltsov himself set off on the return journey with 10 Cossacks, leaving only 26 people on Irgen and Shilka. In the winter hut on the Prorva, Koltsov met V. Kolesnikov, who was sent in 1655 to replace him and to build a prison at the mouth of the Khilok. Here the clerks witnessed a riot, which was raised by 53 Cossacks, led by Filka Poletai. The latter took Kolesnikov's weapons and all his supplies, "and they said among themselves that they wanted to flee to Daury." In the summer, the rebels went up the Selenga. Kolesnikov's expedition carried with it a "farm plant" (seed grain, sickles, scythes, coulters), which had to be left on Prorva under little guard. Koltsov and Kolesnikov with 18 servicemen went to Yeniseisk. The rebellion and flight from the service of Kolesnikov's Cossacks, thus, thwarted Pashkov's plans for a strong military foothold in Transbaikalia and the establishment of agriculture there.

Abandoned to the mercy of fate, Koltsov's Cossacks did not leave the Irgensky and Shilksky prisons. In the first there were 9 servicemen, in the second - 14, headed by foreman Kalina Poltinin. In mid-September 1656, the "thieves'" Cossacks of F. Poletai, who wanted to attach a small garrison, proceeded past the Shilksky prison. Poltinin and his comrades "wept with tears from them, thieves." Poletai limited himself to the confiscation of the drum and the new plow; in addition, 4 Cossacks Poltinin voluntarily joined the rebels. Sailing along the Shilka, the fugitive Cossacks "pogromized" the people of the Evenk Prince. Gantimur, capturing prisoners and cattle. The service people who were sitting in prisons had to pay for this.

On October 10, the Tungus, led by the shaman Zyagara, captured and burned the Irgen prison. Only Peter of Novgorod and Nikita Sitnik managed to escape, who, being wounded, reached Ingoda and went down on a raft to the Shilksky prison. On the night of December 18, 7 Cossacks left the prison, sent by Poltinin to Pashkov with a formal reply. The reply said that 6 people remained on Shilka - Kalina Poltinin, Grishka Antonov, Grishka Fedorov, Petrushka and Oska Kharitonovs, Mikitka Trofimov - who are under siege and eat "pine, grass and roots." Nevertheless, the service people hoped to hold out until spring and only then, in the absence of help, leave the fortification. But even before the onset of spring, Ostrozhek was taken by the Tungus, and all its defenders perished. The Cossacks sent by Poltinin safely escaped the dangers and on May 10, 1657, handed over the replies to Pashkov, who, now as the future Daurian governor, wintered with his "regiment" in Bratsk prison (Pashkov surrendered Yeniseisk to the new governor on August 18, 1655, and went on a campaign published July 18, 1656).

In May 1657, Pashkov's boarders moved to Baikal. In a reply sent from the road, the voivode mentioned with an unkind word those Cossacks who arbitrarily fled to the Amur. Among them was Beketov: "In the past, in 162, from the great Shilka River, from Lake Irgen, leaving your sovereign prisons, the Yenisei son of the boyar Petrushka Beketov with ... service people with 70 people fled to the Daurian land ... " . The governor suggested that the families of such "traitors" be imprisoned, and the "thieves" themselves, if they show up in Siberian cities, be sentenced to death. So Beketov, with the light hand of Pashkov, was on a par with M. Sorokin and F. Poletai, the leaders of the Cossack freemen. Obviously, this assessment is incorrect.

Pashkov's expedition reached Lake Irgen only in the autumn of 1657. Here Pashkov set up a new Irgen prison, with residential huts and gouges around it, "in the most pleasing place near the big fish catchers." Leaving 20 servicemen in the prison, the voivode at the end of winter crossed over to Ingoda by dragging. In the spring of 1658, the banks of the Ingoda resounded with the sound of axes. By order of Pashkov, the Cossacks cut down the forest at once into 2 prisons, which were to be placed near the mouth of the Nercha and in Dauria. On the last one, 8 towers and 200 sazhens of the city forest were cut down on the walls. For the Verkhneshilsky prison (as the future Nerchinsk prison was first called), 4 towers and walls were completely prepared. The entire prison forest was tied up in 170 rafts.

The journey along the Ingoda to Nercha took 3 weeks; there were only 2-3 people on each raft, so the rafts often broke. At the beginning of the summer, the Verkhneshilsky prison was set up. Only now, from his own experience, Pashkov was convinced that it was impossible to keep the Trans-Baikal Tungus in Russian citizenship with small forces. In his next reply to Moscow, he put forward the idea of ​​settling 300 servicemen in the Irgensky and Verkhneshilsky prisons. According to him, he treated "non-peaceful foreigners" with "affection and greetings." On the other hand, Pashkov carried out a punitive action against those who burned the first Russian prisons in these parts. Several Tungus, in the presence of their fellow tribesmen, were hanged in the Verkhneshilsky prison.

However, the "Daurian" voivode never got to the Amur. On June 18, 1658, he sent 30 Cossacks, led by his son Yeremey, to find out where a prison could be set up on the Amur. Returning on July 13, the younger Pashkov reported that, in his opinion, a prison could be built on the Albazinsky settlement. Simultaneously with Yeremey, the Pentecostal A. Potapov with a small detachment went in search of the Amur army of Stepanov on light plows. It was he who brought on August 18 the sad news of the defeat ("Bogdoy pogrom") suffered by the Amur Cossacks from the Manchus. Pashkov vainly expected that the remnants of Stepanov's army would come to join him.

His tyranny and harsh treatment of the Cossacks (which Archpriest Avvakum colorfully described) served as a sufficient obstacle to entering under his command. When Pashkov crossed Baikal, about 500 service people (and 70 of his servants) went with him. The new clerk in the Trans-Baikal jails, L. Tolbuzin, in May 1662 received 75 people from Pashkov. Hunger, disease, death from Tunguska arrows - all this led to the death of most of the Pashkov detachment. The sovereign voivode left Transbaikalia, leaving 3 prisons (Irgensky, Nerchinsky, Telembinsky) and several hundred servicemen who died and who knows where disappeared.

An interesting assessment of the results of Pashkov's expedition was given by the Cossacks of the Yenisei garrison, who filed a collective petition in July 1665. In it, they recalled that it was the Yenisei who explored the paths to Transbaikalia, and Pyotr Beketov and Nikifor Koltsov set up the Irgensky and Shilksky prisons; they also began to bring the local Tungus into a tributary state. According to the Yenisei, Pashkov, “before reaching the Daurian land, stopped on the great river Shilka and on Lake Irgen and set up new prisons in the same places where we, your lackeys, had previously set up prisons, Ofonasya.” Thus, Pashkov "took away that service from the Yenisei prison" and deceived Moscow, calling the area of ​​his operations "the new Daurian land and the Chinese border."

All known materials about Pashkov's Trans-Baikal campaign suggest that Beketov did not join this expedition. Thus, Avvakum, who was with Pashkov, did not personally meet Beketov in Siberia, but he probably heard his name more than once. It remains a mystery why, many years later, the memory of the long-suffering archpriest enrolled Beketov in the ranks of his opponents. Where did the life path of the explorer end? As already mentioned, the last reliable information about Beketov refers to April 1655.

I.E. Fisher, whose work is an abbreviation and transcription of G.F. Miller, argued: "In 1660, returning he (Beketov - E.V.) through Yakutsk and Ilimsk back to Yeniseisk, brought with him quite a few sables, which served him as protection to avert punishment, which he feared for leaving the prison." This opinion has not yet been confirmed by any sources. L.A. Goldenberg noticed in passing that on the famous Tyrsky cliff in the lower reaches of the Amur in the winter of 1655-1656. Cossacks Beketov and Stepanova visited and found the ruins of an ancient temple there. Unfortunately, the researcher did not indicate the source of his information.

It seems to me that Beketov never returned from Amur. In 1655-1658. O. Stepanov with his army literally roamed the Amur. The Cossacks spent the winter in hastily built prisons and collected yasak from the tribes of different ethnicities, who suffered greatly from the hostilities between the Russians and the Manchus. The threat of famine and the Manchu danger constantly hung over Stepanov's army. Amur peoples, angry with the cruelty of E.P. Khabarov, mercilessly exterminated small detachments of Cossacks who risked acting at their own risk. In July 1656, Stepanov reported to Yakutsk: “And yet everyone in the army was starving and impoverished, we eat grass and roots ... And we don’t dare to go anywhere from the great Amur River without the sovereign’s decree, and the Bogdoy military people stand close to us, and we were against them ... to stand and there was nothing to fight, gunpowder and lead were not at all. The tragic finale of the epic of the Amur Cossacks was approaching, among which, probably, Beketov continued to remain.

Historians present the details of the defeat of Stepanov's army and the immediate subsequent events in somewhat different ways, due to contradictions in the testimony of A.F. Petrilovsky and his comrades, given in October 1659 in Yeniseisk and September 1660 in Moscow. Taking into account the full text of Petrilovsky's survey in the Siberian Prikaz, which I have restored, this event can be reconstructed as follows. In June 1658 Stepanov's Cossacks were moving up the Amur from the mouth of the Sungari. Having received information from the duchers that a flotilla of the Manchus was advancing on him, Stepanov sent a reconnaissance detachment (180 people) led by Klim Ivanov on light plows.

The latter parted ways with enemy ships in the islands. The attack of 47 Manchu ships on Stepanov's clumsy boards, who did not expect an attack, was crushing. Before the boarding battle, in which the Cossacks could still have a chance to win, it did not come. Shot from cannons, servicemen tried to get to the shore, but drowned along with the planks. Together with Onufry Stepanov, 270 Cossacks were killed. Artemy Petrilovsky (nephew of Yerofey Khabarov) and 45 other people, many of whom were wounded, went to the Amur hills. They managed to escape the persecution on the plank, on which the Spasskaya field church and 40 Cossacks were located.

The returning detachment of K. Ivanov stumbled upon the ships of the victors, blocking the entire river. Having deployed the plows, the Cossacks went up the Amur and after 3 days met A. Potapov, sent from Pashkov. Obviously, the Amur servicemen were not at all eager to be in Pashkov's "regiment", as they were ordered through Potapov. The detachment split up: 37 people went to Pashkov, and the rest again sailed to the lower reaches of the Amur. During the campaign, Ivanov died in a collision with the duchers, but Petrilovsky and his Cossacks joined the detachment. After spending the winter in a prison built in the lands of the Gilyaks and Zhuchars, the remnant of Stepanov's army again moved up the Amur, supposedly to join Pashkov.

Along the way, Petrilovsky met those 40 Cossacks who had escaped from the "pogrom" on the Spassky plank. The detachment happily missed the ships of the Manchus, who were striving to finally defeat the Russians on the Amur. In the Kumar prison, the detachment split up: 120 Cossacks went to the Zeya River to "feed", and 107 people, led by Petrilovsky, sailed towards Pashkov, but then changed their minds and went through the Tugir portage to Olekma and further to Ilimsk. The local governor sent the elected ataman Petrilovsky and 5 ordinary Cossacks with the Amur yasak treasury to Moscow. Already on October 3, 1659, the village arrived in Yeniseisk, where the voivode I.I. Rzhevsky.

Attention should be paid to the fact that among the 5 Cossacks who accompanied Petrilovsky was Ivan Gerasimov Chebychakov. Let us recall that from 1652 to 1655 foreman Chebychakov was invariably under the command of Pyotr Ivanovich. His return to Yeniseisk without Beketov meant, apparently, that the commander was no longer alive. Perhaps luck betrayed the old explorer on that memorable day, June 30, 1658. How did the Yenisei boyar son P.I. We most likely will never know the Beckets ...

It is true that in the 1660s. Beketov, contrary to the opinion of I.E. Fisher, was no longer listed among the Yenisei service people. For example, the mentioned petition of 1665 was signed by the boyar children I. Galkin, I. Maksimov, Ya. Pokhabov, N. Koltsov and others; Beketov is not among them. In the census book of the Yenisei district of 1669, the widow of the son of the boyar Peter Beketov was named among the sellers of land. Perhaps, after the death of her husband, she went back beyond the Urals, which is why we do not find the descendants of Pyotr Ivanovich in the service environment of Yeniseisk.

The folklore image of Beketov - a pioneer, "a man with a good soul" and an unprecedentedly successful hunter - has been preserved for centuries in the historical traditions of Russian old-timers of Transbaikalia. Narrator F.E. Gorbunov (1875-1948) conveyed the following belief: "It used to be something in hunting families: the first son will be born, which means that they will definitely be called Peter. Let, they say, he will be as lucky as that Cossack Beketov."

Tsukanova Anna

The material is a message on the history of the Trans-Baikal Territory. recommended to use in the lessons of Transbaikal studies and classroom hours dedicated to the study of their native land.

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Municipal budgetary educational institution

"Secondary school No. 17" city of Chita

ESSAY

Founders of the Trans-Baikal Territory

4th grade students

MBOU secondary school No. 17

Tsukanova Anna

I decided to choose this topic because I am interested in the history of Transbaikalia. Namely, about P.I.Beketov, because we must take an example from him. He founded many Siberian cities, resisted many enemies from other lands. At school, we passed the founders of the Trans-Baikal Territory and went to various competitions, olympiads, quizzes. I learned a lot about Beketov and the founders of other cities. And yet I wanted to know even more about all this: about how they lived, where and in what family they were born, what feats they accomplished, received awards, where and from what they died, and much more.

Beketov Pyotr Ivanovich (born c. 1600–1610, died c. 1656-1661) explorer, from service people. The exact date of birth has not been established. The closest ancestors of P.I. Beketov belonged to the layer of provincial boyar children. In 1641, Pyotr Beketov himself indicated in a petition: “And my parents, sir, serve you ... in Tver and Arzamas, according to the yard and by choice.” Beketov is an old surname formed from the nickname of an ancestor. The surname Beketov comes from the worldly non-calendar name of the founding ancestor of the clan - Becket or Becket. Worldly names or nicknames were widespread in the old days in Russia. As a rule, they took the place of modern surnames, that is, they were often passed on to descendants in an unchanged form, but there were also nicknames derived from baptismal names.

Pyotr Beketov from the age of 14 he was an archer.He entered the service of the Sovereign in 1624 in the Streltsy Regiment.It is not known what prompted him to decide to apply for the vacant position of the archery centurion in the distant Yeniseisk.He was sent to Siberia in 1627. In 1628, he was sent by the Yenisei governor to the Trans-Baikal Buryats to impose yasak on them.

Three hundred years ago, before the arrival of the Russians, the indigenous population of the Buryats and Evenks numbered only a few thousand people in Transbaikalia. The Evenks, apart from the Daurian tribe, lived in a tribal system and were engaged in hunting and fishing. The social system of the Buryats had more high level. It had the character of class stratification. The nobility had slaves. There were also changes in the introduction of the economy: the Buryats switched from hunting to cattle breeding and even to the beginnings of agriculture (they cultivated millet). The Russians entered the territory where the modern Trans-Baikal Territory is located from two sides - from the north and from the west. One of the first Russians who penetrated into Transbaikalia was Maxim Perfilv, whose search contributed to the collection of information about the Evenki Daur tribe and the Amur River.

Beketov coped with the task more successfully than his predecessor Maxim Perfilyev, collected a rich yasak, and besides, he became the first person to overcome the Angara rapids. Here, on Buryat land, Beketov built the Rybinsk prison.

In 1631, Beketov was again sent from Yeniseisk on a distant campaign. This time, at the head of thirty Cossacks, they had to go to the great Lena River and gain a foothold on its banks. The well-known historian of Siberia of the eighteenth century, I. Fisher, regarded this "business trip" as recognition of the merits and abilities of a person who had done quite a lot for the state. In the spring of 1632, Beketov's detachment was already on the Lena. Not far from the confluence of the Aldan River, the Beketov Cossacks cut down a small fortress. This prison played an enduring role in all further discoveries, became for Russia a window to the Far East and Alaska, to Japan and China. The activity of Pyotr Beketov in Yakutia does not end there. Being a "customer" inYakut prison , he sent expeditions to Vilyui and Aldan, founded Zhigansk in 1632, and Olekminsk in 1636. After I. Galkin arrived to replace him, our hero returned to Yeniseisk, from where in 1640 he took yasak worth 11 thousand rubles to Moscow. In Moscow, Beketov received the rank of archer and Cossack head.

In 1641, Peter Beketov was granted headship in the Yenisei prison among the Cossacks.

In 1652, again from Yeniseisk, P.I. Beketov, "whose skill and diligence were already known," again set out on a campaign against the Transbaikal Buryats. Coming to the mouth of the Selenga, Beketov and his comrades founded the prison of Ust-Prorva. The following year, Beketov moved up the Selenga River and its tributaries Khilka and Chikoyu to Lake Irgen.

The fact that Chikoy was surveyed by Cossack explorers is evidenced by the fact that by the time the Red Chikoy was founded (1670), the Selenga Cossacks knew not only the place where the Chikoya River flows into the Selenga, but also its sources. And this could be found out only during the first expedition of Beketov. True, no forts or settlements were immediately founded on Chikoy. There was no particular need for this. But Chikoy and Khilok in the 17th century served as a means of Russian advancement in Eastern Transbaikalia, and later - a constant means of their communication and exchange between Western and Eastern Transbaikalia. This is also evidenced by the fact that the origin of the word "Chikoy" is not of Buryat or Even origin, but of Russian. The word “Chikoi” was pronounced by Russians in those days as “chuku” or “chika” and it meant a river that originated in Chuka, i.e., in the Chukondo bald mountain. Later, the char became known as Sohondo. The name, apparently, was born at the time of the construction of the Selenginsky prison at the mouth of the Chikoy.

In mid-October 1653, near Lake Irgen, the Cossacks set up the Irgen prison, which laid the foundation for the city of Chita. In late autumn, having crossed the Yablonovy Ridge, his detachment of 53 people descended into the valley of the river. Ingoda. The path from Irgen to Ingoda traversed by Beketov later became part of the Siberian Route. Since Ingoda got up from the frost, the Ingoda Zimovye was founded in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpresent-day Chita.

In November 1654, 10 Cossacks of the Beketov detachment, led by Makim Urasov, reached the mouth of the Nerchi River, where they laid the Nelyudsky prison (now Nerchinsk). A “painting” and a “drawing” were drawn up for the Irgen Lake and other lakes on the Kilka River (R. Khilok), which fell from the Irgen Lake, and the Selenga River, and other rivers that fell into the Vitim River from the Irgen Lake and from other lakes. In the Shilka prison, Beketov "and his comrades" survived a hard winter, not only suffering from hunger, but also holding back the siege of the rebellious Buryats. By the spring of 1655, having improved relations with the Buryats, the detachment was forced to leave the prison and, in order not to die of hunger, go to the Amur.

In March 1655, the Beketovites fought the Manchus at the Kumar jail, who had a 10,000-strong army against 500 serving Russian people. We already learn this latest information from Stepanov's "Reply". The document is dated April 1655. Beketov did not return to Yeniseisk, one must think that, most likely, he laid down his head on the Amur. There are other details of his death, but they are doubtful.

The data of different authors about the life of the ataman diverge. In the capital of Siberia - the city of Tobolsk, the exiled archpriest Avvakum, who was sent there in 1656, met with Beketov. In his book "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum ..." he writes that, while in Yeniseisk, P. Beketov came into conflict with the "fiery" archpriest in order to protect his ward from the anathema, after which "... he went out of the church and died bitter evil death..."

I.E. Fisher names a much later date, when P.I. Beketov was still alive. According to him, after wandering along the Amur, in 1660 Beketov returned to Yeniseisk throughYakutsk and "brought with him a lot of sables, which served as protection for him to avert punishment, which he feared for leaving the prison."

In the same place, in Tobolsk, Yuri Kryzhanich, a Serb, a Catholic priest who was exiled to Siberia in 1661, met with Beketov. "I personally saw the one who first erected a fortress on the banks of the Lena," he wrote. 1661 is the latest mention of Beketov's name in historical literature.

If we allow ourselves to assume that none of our "informants" is mistaken and does not lie, then it turns out that the conflict between Beketov and Avvakum, who was returned from exile to Moscow in 1661, occurred at the very end of the latter's "Siberian epic", and Yuri Kryzhanich saw Beketov shortly before his death. All the data converge, and it turns out that in 1660 Beketov from Yeniseisk left for service in Tobolsk, where in 1661 he met both Avvakum and Kryzhanich. Thus, we can consider at least approximately the date of death of a person who did so much to consolidate the Russian state on its eastern borders. Unfortunately, the date of birth of the founder of Chita is unknown. But if we assume that in 1628 he was at least thirty years old (no one would put an inexperienced youth at the head of a serious expedition), then in 1661 he was already an old man, so death from the shock caused by a serious conflict does not seem surprising.

In the census book of the Yenisei district of 1669, the widow of the son of the boyar Peter Beketov was named among the sellers of land. Perhaps, after the death of her husband, she went back beyond the Urals, which is why we do not find the descendants of Pyotr Ivanovich in the service environment of Yeniseisk.

The fact that Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov was an outstanding person is evidenced by many authors. P. Slovtsov writes about him: "Servant with zeal." G. Miller notes the diplomatic and military talents of the centurion. Even Archpriest Avvakum, a man extremely strict in assessing people, calls him "the best boyar son", and writes about the conflict with him: "There is still grief for my soul ...". I.Fischer, one of the first historians of Siberia, was not shy at all in enthusiastic assessments of the personality and activity of Pyotr Beketov.

Indeed, how much diplomatic talent, military cunning worthy of Odysseus, human courage he showed for a long period of service to Russia! And how much fortitude he needed to have, a man of the seventeenth century, an old man, in order to stop the anathema from the lips of the "fiery" archpriest in the main temple of Tobolsk - an anathema against the man whom Beketov was only instructed to protect!

In Siberia, bloody feuds did not stop for an hour. And although big wars there were no small skirmishes "for yasak", that is, for furs, there were plenty of them. Orthodox priests and shamans did not have time to escort the dead to the other world. And you just wonder how Beketov "and his associates" could survive in battles, where no "fiery battle" could destroy elementary law numerical superiority. And he survived because the tactics of Beketov and his squad were based on the centuries-old experience of the Cossacks. It included both hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship, but most importantly, a solid defense, high maneuverability of detachments for those times, skillful use of the terrain and, of course, knowledge of enemy tactics. And although Pyotr Ivanovich did not like praise addressed to him (otherwise more information would have been preserved about him), the fame of his invincibility went ahead, which contributed a lot to success.

The name of Peter Ivanovich Beketov has not sunk into oblivion. He is remembered and honored both in Siberia and in Transbaikalia.The image and deeds of the remarkable explorer Beketov are reflected in folk tales and folklore.More than three and a half centuries have passed since the time when the Cossack explorers of Beketov entered our region in search of the Dahurian land. Since that time Mother Shilka has taken a lot of water to the boundless Amur. But if someone's idle mind set out to invent a restless fate and subject to constant dangers, then he would have to admit that the life of Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov is more amazing and more dangerous, and more restless than any invented fate. What a man he was!

In the center of Chita, on a low earthen hill, stands an unusual monument. And although he wears collective image, the townspeople know - the monument is dedicated to the explorer Peter Ivanovich Beketov.

Beketov Pyotr Ivanovich (approximate date of birth and death - 1610-1656), boyar son, archery centurion, written head in Yeniseisk (1642-1644), founder of the Yakut prison (1632), pioneer of Siberia, who discovered lands in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpresent Bratsk.

The exact date of birth has not been established. The closest ancestors of P.I. Beketov belonged to the layer of provincial boyar children. In 1641, Pyotr Beketov himself indicated in a petition: "And my parents, sir, serve you ... in Tver and Arzamas, according to the yard and by choice"
In January 1627, Beketov personally submitted a petition to the order of the Kazan Palace with a request to appoint him as a shooter centurion in the Yenisei jail. In the same year, he was promoted to archery centurion with a monetary and grain salary and sent to Yeniseisk.
In 1628-1629 he participated in the campaigns of the Yenisei service people up the Angara. Laid Rybinsk prison (1628). Here, for the first time, yasak was collected from several "fraternal" princes. Later, Pyotr Ivanovich recalled that he "went from the Bratsk threshold along the Tunguska up and along the Oka River and along the Angara River and to the mouth of the Uda River ... and brought brotherly people under your sovereign's high hand."
May 30, 1631 Beketov with a detachment of 30 people from Yeniseisk was sent to serve on the Lena River. The Lena campaign lasted 2 years and 3 months. It was not immediately possible to bring the local Buryats "under the sovereign's hand". In September 1631, Beketov, with a detachment of 20 Cossacks, moved from the Ilim portage up the Lena. The detachment went to the uluses of the Buryats-Ekherites. However, the Buryat princes refused to pay tribute to the king. Having met resistance, the detachment managed to build a "string" and for 3 days sat under siege. A detachment of Buryats led by princes Bokoy and Borochey, using military cunning, penetrated the fortress. The fight continued with hand-to-hand combat. The onslaught of the Cossacks was swift. In the battle, 2 Tungus were killed and one Cossack was wounded. Taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, servicemen, having captured Buryat horses, reached the mouth of the Tutura River. Here Beketov set up a Tutur prison. The latter, having heard about the prison, preferred to migrate to Baikal, but the Tungus-Nalagirs, who had previously paid tribute to them, "the sovereign's high hands were frightened" and brought Beketov yasak. From this area, the Cossacks returned to the mouth of the Kuta, where they spent the winter.
In April 1632, Beketov received Zh.V. Kondyrev reinforcements of 14 Cossacks and a decree to go down the Lena.

In September 1632, Beketov built the first sovereign prison in Yakutia (on the right bank of the Lena, 70 km below Yakutsk). In total, as a result of the actions of the Beketov detachment, 31 toyon-princes recognized Russian power. In June 1633, Beketov handed over the Lensky Ostrozhek to his son P. Khodyrev, who arrived to replace him, and on September 6 he was already in Yeniseisk.
By 1635-1636. Beketov's new service applies. During these years, he sets up the Olekminsky prison, makes trips along the Vitim, Bolshoy Patom and "other side rivers"
In the spring of 1638, he went to the annual service in the Lena prison to replace I. Galkin. Beketov spent a year as a clerk in the Lensky prison.
In 1640, Beketov was sent with the Yenisei sable treasury to Moscow. Beketov enjoyed great prestige not only in his service environment, but also with the government. On February 13, 1641, taking into account all his previous merits, the Siberian order appointed him the head of the Yenisei foot Cossacks.
In July 1647, Beketov received a letter sent to him from Moscow with an unusual prescription. He was instructed to imprison governor Fyodor Uvarov for 3 days, who was guilty of writing his replies to the discharge governors of Tomsk with "obscene speech." If you believe Beketov's report, he faithfully complied with this decree.
In 1649-1650. Beketov was in the annual service in the Bratsk jail.
In 1650 Pyotr Beketov again traveled to Moscow with yasak.
To establish the power of the Russian tsar in Transbaikalia in June 1652, by order of the Yenisei governor A.F. Pashkov, Beketov and a detachment were sent to the Irgen Lake and the great Shilka River. Beketov’s detachment consisted of about 130-140 people. Despite the fact that the Cossacks were "hurriedly kind", they reached the Bratsk prison only after 2 months. It became clear to Beketov that during the summer the detachment would not be able to reach its final goal, and he decided to spend the winter on the southern coast of Lake Baikal at the mouth of the Selenga, where he laid the Ust-Prorvinsky prison. However, even from the Bratsk prison, he sent 12 Cossacks, led by I. Maksimov, light through the Barguzinsky prison to Irgen Lake and Shilka. Maximov was supposed to go through the Trans-Baikal steppes to Lake Irgen, where the upper reaches of the Khilok were located, and go down this river towards Beketov.
On June 11, 1653, Beketov set out from his winter hut on Prorva. The expedition approached its destination only at the end of September 1653. By mid-October, the Irgen prison was set up, and on October 19, the Cossacks on rafts began to descend the Ingoda. Beketov, obviously, expected to reach the mouth of the Nercha before winter. However, having sailed along the Ingoda for about 10 versts, the detachment was met by an early freeze-up of the river. Here, a winter hut with fortifications was hastily erected, where part of the reserves were laid down. 20 people remained in the winter hut, another 10 Cossacks under the command of M. Urazov were sent to the mouth of the Nercha, and with the rest Beketov returned to the Irgen prison. At the end of 1653, Urazov built a “small prison” not far from the mouth of the Nercha, on the right bank of the Shilka, which he reported to Beketov. The latter stated this in a reply to Pashkov, assuring the voivode that in the spring of 1654 he would set up a large prison in the place chosen by Urazov.
In May, Beketov was already on Shilka, where he was going to build, in accordance with Pashkov's order, a large prison. The Cossacks even sowed spring bread in the chosen place. However, the construction of Russian fortifications and the winter collection of yasak forced the Tungus tribes to take up arms. The Cossacks did not have time to build a prison, when "many Tungus people arrived exiled from the war." The Russian detachment was under siege (probably in the prison built by Urazov). The Tungus drove the horses away and trampled on the bread. Famine began among the Cossacks, since the Tungus did not allow fishing. The Yenisei had neither riverboats nor horses. They had the only way to retreat - on rafts, down the Shilka to the Amur.
On the Amur at that time, the most serious Russian force was the "army" of the clerk Onufry Stepanov, the official successor to E.P. Khabarova
At the end of June 1654, 34 Yenisei joined Stepanov, and a few days later Pyotr Beketov himself appeared, who "beat the entire Cossack army with his forehead so that he could live on the great Amur River until the sovereign's decree." All "Beketovites" (63 people) were accepted into the combined Amur army.
A man of independent character, Beketov knew how to appease his pride for the sake of business. When he, with the remnants of his detachment in the summer of 1654, from "grain scarcity and need ... descended" to the Amur, he stood under the command of Stepanov, although his rank was much higher than his new commander. In the autumn of 1654, Stepanov's army, which numbered just over 500 people, built the Kumar prison (at the confluence of the Khumarkhe River with the Amur). On March 13, 1655, the fortress was besieged by a 10,000-strong Manchu army. The Cossacks withstood many days of bombardment of the prison, fought off all the attacks and themselves made a sortie. Having failed, the Manchurian army on April 3 left the prison. Immediately after this, Stepanov compiled a personalized list of Cossacks who "fought clearly." Beketov, on behalf of the Yenisei service people, compiled a petition and added Stepanov to the replies. In this document, Beketov briefly outlined the reasons for leaving Shilka and asked for gratitude for the service shown in the defense of the Kumar prison. The meaning of the petition is clear - to bring to the attention of the official authorities the fact that he and his people continue to be in the sovereign's service. This document, dated April 1655, is so far the last reliable news about Beketov.
The further fate of the pioneer Pyotr Ivanovich Bektov is not known for certain. Most likely, Beketov never returned from Amur. The story of Avvakum about the death in Tobolsk of the explorer Beketov should be recognized as unreliable.
In the census book of the Yenisei district of 1669, the widow of the son of the boyar Peter Beketov was named among the sellers of land. Perhaps, after the death of her husband, she went back beyond the Urals, which is why we do not find the descendants of Peter Ivanovich in the service environment of Yeniseisk.