The idea of ​​Yermak's campaign in Siberia

Who owned the idea of ​​a trip to Siberia: Tsar Ivan IV , industrialists Stroganovs or personally ataman Ermak Timofeevich - historians do not give a clear answer. But since the truth is always in the middle, then, most likely, the interests of all three parties converged here. Tsar Ivan - new lands and vassals, the Stroganovs - security, Ermak and the Cossacks - the opportunity to live under the guise of state necessity.

At this point, a parallel of Ermakov's troops with corsairs () simply suggests itself - private sea robbers who received letters of protection from their kings for the legalized robbery of enemy ships.

Goals of Yermak's campaign

Historians consider several versions. With a high degree of probability, this could be: preventive defense of the Stroganovs' possessions; the defeat of Khan Kuchum; bringing the Siberian peoples into vassalage and taxing them with tribute; establishing control over the main Siberian water artery Ob; creation of a springboard for the further conquest of Siberia.

There is another interesting version. Ermak de was not at all a rootless Cossack ataman, but a native of the Siberian princes, who were exterminated by the Bukhara henchman Kuchum during the seizure of power over Siberia. Yermak had his legitimate views on the Siberian throne, he did not go on an ordinary predatory campaign, he went to win back from Kuchum my earth. That is why the Russians did not meet with serious resistance from the local population. It was better for him (the population) to be "under his own" Yermak than under the stranger Kuchum.

If Yermak's power was established over Siberia, his Cossacks would automatically turn from robbers into a "regular" army and become sovereign people. Their status would change dramatically. Therefore, the Cossacks so patiently endured all the difficulties of the campaign, which did not at all promise easy gain, but promised them much more ...

Campaign of Yermak's troops to Siberia through the Ural watershed

So, according to some sources, in September 1581 (according to other sources - in the summer of 1582) Yermak went on a military campaign. It was precisely a military campaign, and not a robbery raid. The composition of his armed formation included 540 of his own Cossack forces and 300 "militias" from the Stroganovs. The army rushed up the Chusovaya River on plows. According to some reports, there were only 80 plows, that is, about 10 people in each.

From the Lower Chusovskie towns along the riverbed of the Chusovaya Yermak's detachment reached:

According to one version, to the Silver River, he climbed along it. They dragged the plows on their hands to the Zhuravlik River, which flows into the river. Barancha - the left tributary of Tagil;

According to another version, Yermak and his comrades reached the Mezhevaya Duck River, climbed it and then crossed the plows into the Kamenka River, then into the Vyya, also a left tributary of the Tagil.

In principle, both options for overcoming the watershed are possible. No one knows exactly where the plows were dragged across the watershed. Yes, it's not that important.

How did Yermak's army move up the Chusovaya?

Much more interesting are the technical details of the Ural part of the campaign:

On what plows or boats did the Cossacks go? With or without sails?

How many versts per day did they cover up the Chusovaya?

How and for how many days did you climb Silver?

How did they carry it over the ridge.

Did the Cossacks winter on the pass?

How many days went down the rivers Tagil, Tura and Tobol to the capital of the Siberian Khanate?

What is the total length of the campaign of Yermak's rati?

Answers to these questions are given a separate page of this resource.

Strugs of Yermak's squad on Chusovaya

Military actions

The movement of Yermak's squad to Siberia along the Tagil River remains the main working version. Along Tagil, the Cossacks descended to Tura, where they first fought with the Tatar detachments and defeated them. According to legend, Yermak planted stuffed animals in Cossack clothes on the plows, and he himself went ashore with the main forces and attacked the enemy from the rear. The very first serious clash between Yermak's detachment and the troops of Khan Kuchum took place in October 1582, when the flotilla had already entered Tobol, near the mouth of the Tavda River.

Subsequent fighting Yermak's squads deserve a separate description. Books, monographs, and films have been written about Yermak's campaign. Enough information on the Internet. Here we will only say that the Cossacks really fought "not by numbers, but by skill." Fighting on foreign territory with a superior enemy, thanks to well-coordinated and skillful military operations, they managed to defeat and put to flight the Siberian ruler Khan.

Kuchum was temporarily expelled from his capital - the town of Kashlyk (according to other sources, it was called Isker or Siberia). Now there is no trace left of the town of Isker itself - it was located on the high sandy bank of the Irtysh and was washed away by its waves over the centuries. It was located about 17 miles up from the current Tobolsk.

Conquest of Siberia by Yermak

Having removed the main enemy from the road in 1583, Yermak set about conquering the Tatar and Vogul towns and uluses along the Irtysh and Ob rivers. Somewhere he met with stubborn resistance. Somewhere the local population itself preferred to go under patronage Moscow, in order to get rid of the newcomer Kuchum - a protege of the Bukhara Khanate and an Uzbek by birth.

After the capture of the city of the "capital" of Kuchum - (Siberia, Kashlyk, Isker), Yermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the king - ataman Ivan Koltso. Ivan the Terrible received the ataman very affectionately, generously endowed the Cossacks and sent the governor Semyon Bolkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov with 300 warriors to reinforce them. Among the royal gifts sent to Yermak in Siberia were two chain mail, including chain mail, which once belonged to Prince Peter Ivanovich Shuisky.

Tsar Ivan the Terrible receives an envoy from Yermak

Ataman Ivan Ring with the news of the capture of Siberia

Royal reinforcements arrived from Siberia in the autumn of 1583, but could no longer remedy the situation. The outnumbered detachments of Kuchum defeated the Cossack hundreds individually, killed all the leading chieftains. With the death of Ivan the Terrible in March 1584, the Moscow government was "not up to Siberia." The unfinished Khan Kuchum grew bolder, and began to pursue and destroy the remnants of the Russian army with superior forces ..

On the quiet bank of the Irtysh

On August 6, 1585, Ermak Timofeevich himself died. With a detachment of only 50 people, Yermak stopped for the night at the mouth of the Vagai River, which flows into the Irtysh. Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and killed almost the entire detachment, only a few people escaped. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the ataman was wearing two chain mail, one of which was a gift from the king. They dragged the legendary ataman to the bottom of the Irtysh when he tried to swim to his plows.

The abyss of waters hid forever the Russian hero of the pioneer. The legend says that the Tatars fished out the body of the chieftain and mocked him for a long time, shooting at him with bows. And the famous royal chain mail and other armor of Yermak were dismantled for themselves as valuable amulets that bring good luck. The death of Ataman Yermak is very similar in this regard to the death at the hands of the natives of another famous adventurer -

The results of Yermak's campaign in Siberia

For two years, Yermak's expedition established Russian Muscovite power in the Ob's left bank of Siberia. The pioneers, as almost always happens in history, paid with their lives. But the claims of the Russians to Siberia were first indicated precisely by the warriors of Ataman Yermak. Behind them came other conquerors. Soon enough, the whole of Western Siberia "almost voluntarily" went into vassal, and then into administrative dependence on Moscow.

A brave pioneer Cossack ataman Yermak became over time mythical hero, a sort of Siberian Ilya-Muremets. He firmly entered the consciousness of compatriots as national hero. There are legends and songs about him. Historians write works. Writers are books. Artists are paintings. And despite many white spots in history, the fact remains that Yermak began the process of joining Siberia to the Russian state. And no one after that could take this place in the people's mind, and the adversaries - to lay claim to the Siberian expanses.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again Travelers of the Age of Discovery

History is, in a certain sense, the sacred book of nations: the main, necessary; a mirror of their being and activity; the tablet of revelations and rules; the covenant of the ancestors to their offspring; addition, explanation of the present and an example of the future.

Ya. M. Karamzin

Map of Siberia from the "Drawing Book" (south - above, north - below, west - on the right, east - on the left).

The Siberian Chronicles contain eight chronicles about the campaign of Yermak Timofeevich in Siberia, and even more, the chronicles tell about what happened after the death of the ataman of the Cossacks Yermak Timofeevich, this is a storehouse of unique historical essays, a particularly valuable detailed historical source.

Ermak Timofeevich, conqueror of Siberia. Lubok of the 19th century.

List of Siberian chronicles.

1) RUMYANTSEV CHRONICLE
2) CHRONOGRAPHIC STORY
3) POGODINSKY CHRONICLE
4) STROGANOV CHRONICLE
5) BUZUNOVSKIY CHRONICLE
6) PUSTOZERSKIY CHRONICLE
7) DESCRIPTION OF SIBERIA
8) Kungur chronicler

Lion and unicorn on Yermak's banner, which was with him during the conquest of Siberia (1581-1582)

This is how Yermak was depicted in many portraits of the same type of the 17th-18th centuries.

History reference about modern word Siberia, rooted in the modern understanding of the Siberian land, as follows from the chronicles, Siberia is primarily the city of the ruler Khan Kuchum, who was later killed by the Kalmyks for ruining and robbing his wards at the end of his inglorious life, Kuchum stole a herd of horses for this atrocity, Kalmyk The soldiers overtook him and killed him.

“Tsar Kuchum tried many times to return Siberia and take revenge. Once (he) gathered an army, came to Siberia, reached the Irtysh River, ruined several Basurman villages and went home. they caught up with him on the border with the Steppe, and attacked, killed his people, and seized from him two queens and a son and huge wealth... Kuchum himself fled with a small detachment, and having reached his ulus, he took the rest of the army, and when he went through the Kalmyk uluses, then he stole the horse herds. The Kalmyk warriors caught up with him, and the troops defeated him, and won back their horses. Then Tsar Kuchum fled to Nogai and was killed by them."

Siberia (Kashlyk, Sibir, Siber, Iber, Isker) city, capital of the Siberian Khanate. It was located on the right bank of the Irtysh at the confluence of the Sibirka River, 17 km above modern Tobolsk in Tyumen region, now a monument of archeology "Kuchumovo settlement".

At that time, there were often raids by the Kuchumov tribes on Perm and the Perm Russian lands, which, as a result, suffered constant ruin, suffered violence and human grief, this worried Ivan Vasilyevich, after some questions from the Stroganov brothers about the Siberian kingdom, and about the possibility of protection from Bashkir raids , Ostyaks, Vaguls, Tatars, Nagais, Siberian detachments, and other nomads, Ivan Vasilievich gives the go-ahead by letters with sovereign gold seals to the lands from the mouth of the Chusovaya River up both banks up to the source and along the tributaries to (their) sources, and in those places, from the Kama up the Chusovaya - 80 versts along the right and left banks to build fortifications to protect and defend against the raids of the infidels, gives complete freedom of action, and protection by all available means, after which the construction of fortifications begins, the supply of the necessary resources, and recruitment is carried out detachments.

From that moment on, ataman Ermak appears on the scene with his associates, who often robbed, smashed and robbed on the Volga, Oka and sea rivers, ships, penal servitudes, merchant trade caravans with a gang of 5,000 people, thinking to go to Kyzylbashi along with the Don and Yaik Cossacks, to dominate the sea, but this did not happen, robbing merchants, including the state treasury and other Orthodox people, shedding Christian blood, these exploits become known to the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Russia Ivan Vasilyevich, the sovereign is furious and angry.

In the future, these events determined the fate of Ermak Timofeevich and his associates to go to the service of the Stroganovs, to protect the lands from raids by motley tribes, and in the future to carry out a military campaign in Siberia.

As a result, Yermak and his associates enter the service of the Stroganovs to make amends, perhaps out of fear that he was angry Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, in one case or another, Yermak defends the Russian land and Perm the Great, breaks up nomadic detachments and conquers nearby nomadic tribes, after which an expedition to the Siberian Khanate of Kuchum is equipped, and then there are bloody and terrifying battles with Khan Kuchum and nomads, who many times outnumbered the forces of Yermak with his comrades-in-arms, often the Cossacks before the battle with the enemy, knelt down with a prayer on their lips, and then desperate courage followed in the battle (there was nowhere to retreat), so they took the opposing side, it is worth noting that help in the Siberian land Ermak had no one to wait for, after each fight, comrades-in-arms died.

I note that eight chronicles about Siberia provide a variety of information, often complementing each other, as a result, a general picture of the chronology in events is formed, what happened in such a distant time, who was Yermak, his origin, what did he do, what happened after the death of ataman Yermak with comrades-in-arms in the Siberian land, no Wikipedia, no movie will tell the full picture about this.

What do living modern Siberians know about this? I doubt that most of the contemporaries have heard anything about the historical Siberian chronicles, especially what is described inside.

Postscript: After the conquest of the Siberian lands, expeditions were made to the edge and end of the Siberian land, Siberia was actively developed by the Russian Tsardom (development was carried out along the rivers - Tobol, Irtysh, Ob, Yenisei, Amur), new fortress cities of Tyumen (1586), Tobolsk (1587) were founded ), Berezov and Surgut (1593), Tara (1594), Mangazeya (1601), Tomsk (1604), Kuznetsk (now Novokuznetsk) (1618), Krasnoyarsk (1628), churches, monasteries, residential and industrial buildings are rebuilt, Cossacks are settled , merchants, industrial and service people, Cossacks, merchants, farmers, peasant settlers, and other people.

Drawing of all Siberian cities and lands from the atlas of Semyon Remezov, compiled in 1701.

The route starts at Tobolsk, passes through the settlement of Isker (Tobolsk region), the village of Abalak of the Tobolsk region, the village of Suzgun of the Tobolsk region, the village of Vagay. Then there is the possibility of going to the Tyumen-Omsk highway (Golyshmanovo village)
The campaign of Yermak's squad in Siberia is one of the most interesting pages in the history of Russia. The people created many legends, tales, songs, where the name of Yermak is placed next to the epic heroes - Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets. Over time, historical songs about Yermak began to resemble a heroic epic. In Siberia and the Urals, many rivers, caves and settlements bear the name of the legendary ataman.
In 1582-1585, a detachment of Cossacks under the command of Yermak made a military campaign along the rivers of the Urals and Siberia. The Cossacks landed on the banks of the Irtysh and 15 km from Tobolsk. In a three-day battle (October 23-25, 1582) on the Irtysh near the Chuvash town of Potchevash, Yermak's squad utterly defeated the army of the Siberian Khan Kuchum, occupying his capital, the city of Kashlyk. Khan's troops migrated to the steppe. Some local tribes, as well as part of the Tatar feudal lords, went over to the side of Yermak. For another three years, Yermak's expedition established Russian Muscovite power in the Ob's left bank of Siberia. On a rainy night on August 6, 1585, Khan Kuchum unexpectedly attacked the camp of the Cossacks and killed about 20 people, Yermak also died. It was the only and last win khan.
The legendary campaign of Yermak in Siberia was of great importance for the history of Russia: the defeat of the kingdom of Kuchum opened the way for the resettlement of Russian people beyond Ural mountains.

. Tyumen region, Tobolsk, pl. Red, 1
The Tobolsk Kremlin is the only stone kremlin in Siberia, a unique example of Siberian architecture. It was founded over 300 years ago. In its ensemble one can see the features of ancient Russian, Byzantine and Western European architecture. Today it is part of the Tobolsk State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve.

Obelisk to Yermak. Tyumen region, Tobolsk, Ermak's garden
A 16-meter 187-ton obelisk in honor of the conqueror of Siberia was erected in 1839. It is made of light gray marble, the only decoration of the monument is embossed palm branches. The order to build the memorial was given personally by Emperor Nicholas I. It took several years to make the obelisk.

Suzgun-tura. Tyumen region, Tobolsk, Irtysh microdistrict
During the conquest of Siberia by the Cossacks of Yermak, a small prison was located on the mountain. According to legend, the beautiful princess Suzge lived in it - the beloved wife (or sister) of the last Siberian Khan Kuchum. When Yermak's Cossacks laid siege to the prison, Suzge gave her valuables to the servants for ransom, and committed suicide herself. Suzge Hill is a mound over her grave, which grateful maids applied in their hands with handfuls of earth.

Chuvash Cape (Potchevash). Tyumen region, Tobolsk, st. Lenin(end of the street, on the bank of the Irtysh river to the left).
It was here in October 1581 that the decisive battle took place between the troops of the Siberian Khanate and the Cossack squad of Yermak. The Tatars were waiting for the advance of the Russian detachment, hiding behind the trunks of fallen trees. But Yermak's army, armed with squeakers, was able to inflict significant damage on the enemy even before the start of hand-to-hand combat, and most importantly, injure the Tatar commander-in-chief Mametkul. This caused panic and chaos in the ranks of the Khan's soldiers.

"Kuchumovo settlement". Tyumen region, Tobolsk district, Siberian log, on the bank of the river Irtysh between the village of Sibiryak and with. Preobrazhenka (17 km from Tobolsk)
Isker Settlement (Sibir or Kashlyk) is the former capital of the Siberian Khanate. After the defeat of the Siberian troops, the city was occupied by Yermak. When the Cossack ataman was killed, the Taibugin dynasty in the person of Seyd Akhmed, who was captured in Tobolsk in 1588, tried to establish itself in the city again. Since then, Kashlyk has become deserted and began to fall apart, partly washed away by the river. According to historical sources, Isker was finally abandoned by the inhabitants in 1588.
Excavations at Isker were first carried out in the summer of 1881 by the artist M.S. Znamensky. They provided rich material for the Tatar way of life. After the opening of Tomsk University, Znamensky's materials were purchased for 300 rubles. However, in 1897, after the death of Mikhail Stepanovich, his relatives sold the remains of the collection for 3,000 rubles. to the Finnish National Museum. In 1915, excavations at the settlement were carried out by the secretary-manager of the Tobolsk Provincial Museum V.N. Pignatti.
Until now, the place where the town stood is covered with amateur excavations, pits and pits. And like their grandfathers - great-grandfathers, children from the surrounding villages come to Isker to look for the treasures of Khan Kuchum.

Holy Znamensky Abalak Monastery. Tyumen region, Tobolsk district, Abalak village
This is one of the oldest and revered monasteries in Siberia. Its origin is associated with the development of the region by Russian settlers in the 17th century. The first building of the monastery was the Church of the Sign, which was built in 1636 on the site of a dilapidated wooden church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Abalak village. Tyumen region, Tobolsk district (30 km from Tobolsk)
Abalak was a fortified Tatar town, where, having learned about Yermak's approach to the Siberian capital, Khan Kuchum hid his elder wife Sambula. On December 5, 1584, a decisive battle between the Cossacks and the horde of Prince Mametkul took place near the walls of Abalak, ending in the victory of Yermak's squad. Now built here wooden fortress, which is a reconstruction of the Siberian prison from the time of the conquest of Siberia.
International Festival of Historical Reenactment "Abalak field". It takes place annually on the first Saturday of July on the territory of the Abalak tourist complex (Abalak village, Tobolsk district, Tyumen region).
Interregional festival of Cossack culture "Heirs of Yermak". It takes place annually in early August on the territory of the Abalak tourist complex (Abalak village, Tobolsk district, Tyumen region).

Vagay village. Tyumen region (80 km from Tobolsk, on the Irtysh river)
The village of Vagay is considered the place where Yermak died. On August 5-6, 1585, the Cossack ataman led a small detachment on plows along the Irtysh. At the mouth of the Vagai River, the squad stopped for the night. The Cossacks did not suspect that Kuchum was preparing an ambush and was watching their every move. Under the cover of night, the khan attacked the sleeping detachment and exterminated it. Ermak Timofeevich did not escape death either.

The Khanate or the Kingdom of Siberia, the conquest of which Yermak Timofeevich became famous in Russian history, was a fragment of the vast empire of Genghis Khan. It stood out from the Central Asian Tatar possessions, apparently not earlier than the 15th century - in the same era when the separate kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan, Khiva and Bukhara were formed.

The origin of Ataman Ermak Timofeevich is unknown. According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Kama, according to another - a native of the Kachalinsky village on the Don. Yermak was the chieftain of one of the many Cossack gangs that robbed on the Volga. Ermak's squad went to conquer Siberia after entering the service of the famous Stroganov family.

The ancestors of Yermak's employers, the Stroganovs, probably belonged to the Novgorod families that colonized the Dvina land. They had large holdings in the Solvycheg and Ustyug regions and amassed wealth by being engaged in salt mining, as well as trading with the Permians and Ugra. The Stroganovs were the largest figures in the field of settling the northeastern lands. In the reign of Ivan IV, they extended their colonization activities far to the southeast, to the Kama region.

The colonization activities of the Stroganovs were constantly expanding. In 1558, Grigory Stroganov lobbied Ivan Vasilyevich about the following: in Great Perm, on both sides of the Kama River from Lysva to Chusovaya, there are empty places, black forests, not inhabited and unsubscribed to anyone. The petitioner asked the Stroganovs to allow this space, promising to set up a city there, supply it with guns, squeakers, in order to protect the sovereign's homeland from the Nogai people and from other hordes. By a letter dated April 4 of the same year, the tsar granted the Stroganovs lands on both sides of the Kama for 146 miles from the mouth of the Lysva to Chusovaya, with the requested benefits and rights, allowed them to establish settlements; freed them for 20 years from paying taxes and from zemstvo duties. Grigory Stroganov built the town of Kankor on the right side of the Kama. Six years later, he asked permission to build another town, 20 miles below the first on the Kama, named Kergedan (later it was called Orel). These towns were surrounded by strong walls, armed with firearms and had a garrison made up of various free people: there were Russians, Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. In 1568, Grigory's elder brother Yakov Stroganov lobbied the tsar for the return to him on the same grounds of the entire course of the Chusovaya River and a twenty-verst distance along the Kama below the mouth of the Chusovaya. The king agreed to his request. Yakov set up fences along the Chusovaya and started settlements that revived this deserted region. He also had to defend the region from the raids of neighboring foreigners.

In 1572, a riot broke out in the land of Cheremis; a crowd of Cheremis, Ostyaks and Bashkirs invaded the Kama region, plundered ships and beat several dozen merchants. But the military men of the Stroganovs pacified the rebels. Cheremis raised the Siberian Khan Kuchum against Moscow; he also forbade the Ostyaks, Voguls and Yugras to pay tribute to her. The next year, 1573, Kuchum's nephew Magmetkul came with an army to Chusovaya and beat many Ostyaks, Moscow tribute-payers. However, he did not dare to attack the Stroganov towns and went back beyond the Urals. Informing the tsar, the Stroganovs asked permission to expand their settlements beyond the Urals, build towns along the Tobol River and its tributaries, and set up settlements there with the same benefits, promising in return not only to defend the Moscow tribute-payers of the Ostyaks and Voguls from Kuchum, but to fight and subjugate the Siberian Tatars. By a letter dated May 30, 1574, Ivan Vasilievich fulfilled this request of the Stroganovs, with a twenty-year grace period.

But for about ten years, the intention of the Stroganovs to spread Russian colonization beyond the Urals was not carried out until Yermak's Cossack squads appeared on the scene. According to one Siberian chronicle, in April 1579 the Stroganovs sent a letter to the Cossack chieftains who were robbing the Volga and Kama, and invited them to their towns in Chusovye to help against the Siberian Tatars. The brothers Yakov and Grigory were then replaced by their sons: Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigoryevich. They turned with the aforementioned letter to the Volga Cossacks. Five atamans responded to their call: Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, who came to them with their hundreds. The main leader of this Cossack squad was Yermak. The Cossack chieftains spent two years in the Chusovy gorodki, helping the Stroganovs defend themselves against foreigners. When Murza Bekbelii attacked the Stroganov villages with a crowd of Vogulis, Yermak's Cossacks defeated him and took him prisoner. The Cossacks themselves attacked the Vogulichi, Votyaks and Pelymians and thus prepared themselves for a big campaign against Kuchum.

It is difficult to say who exactly owned the idea of ​​the campaign. Some chronicles say that the Stroganovs sent Cossacks to conquer the Siberian kingdom. Others - that the Cossacks, with Yermak at the head, undertook this campaign on their own. Perhaps the initiative was mutual. The Stroganovs supplied the Cossacks with provisions, as well as guns and gunpowder, gave them another 300 people from their own military people, among whom, in addition to Russians, were hired Lithuanians, Germans and Tatars. There were 540 Cossacks. Consequently, the entire detachment was more than 800 people.

Preparations took a lot of time, so Yermak's campaign began quite late, already in September 1581. The warriors sailed up the Chusovaya, after several days of navigation they entered its tributary, the Serebryanka, and reached the portage that separates the Kama River system from the Ob system. We crossed this portage and descended into the Zheravlya River. It was already cold time, the rivers began to become covered with ice, and the Cossacks of Yermak had to winter near the portage. They set up a prison, from where one part of them undertook sorties to the neighboring Vogul lands for supplies and booty, and the other made everything necessary for the spring campaign. When the flood came, Yermak's squad descended along the Zheravley River into the Barancha River, and then to Tagil and Tura, a tributary of the Tobol, entering the Siberian Khanate.

The first skirmish between the Cossacks and the Siberian Tatars took place in the area modern city Turinsk ( Sverdlovsk region), where the soldiers of Prince Epanchi fired at Yermak's plows with bows. Here Yermak, with the help of squeakers and cannons, dispersed the cavalry of Murza Yepanchi. Then the Cossacks occupied the town of Chingi-tura (Tyumen) without a fight.

On May 22, Yermak's flotilla, having passed the Tura, entered Tobol. A patrol ship was ahead, the Cossacks on which were the first to notice big move Tatars on the shore. As it turned out soon, 6 Tatar murzas with a large army lay in wait for the Cossacks in order to unexpectedly attack and defeat them. The battle with the Tatars continued for several days. Tatar losses were significant. Rich booty in the form of furs and food fell into the hands of the Cossacks.