We opened the world map, and the first feeling was that Russia was big! It's so big! It's so big! How big is it? It is almost equivalent to the total area of China and the United States, and even larger than the area of Pluto. Russia is large, but if you cut down Siberia east of the Ural Mountains, it has less than 4 million square kilometers left, which is only slightly larger than India.
That is to say, the main body of Russia's territory is in Siberia. It is 7,000 kilometers long from east to west and more than 3,000 kilometers from north to south, with a total area of 13.22 million square kilometers, accounting for 77% of Russia's total area. You may not know that such a large place was conquered by a group of folk forces, this group of people is the world-famous Cossacks. The Russian Empire coveted the wealth of Siberia, encouraged the Cossacks to cross the Ural Mountains, and encouraged them to go all the way to the east, and finally inadvertently won this vast and rich land for the Russian Empire.
01 Over "Stone Mountain"
"Stone Mountain" is what Russians called the Ural Mountains in the early days. At that time, they referred to the region west of the Pejera River basin and the lower Ob River as the Ugra region, which was inhabited by the ancestors of today's Hants and Mansi peoples, who collectively referred to them as the Ugra people. In the vast tundra from the White Sea in the west to the Yenisei River in the east, the Samoyeds lived, who were the ancestors of the present-day Nenets and other peoples.
Although remote and the climate was harsh, the Rus' founded Principality of Novgorod was associated with them early on. As early as 1032, the Duchy of Novgorod sent people to the Region of Ugra. After that, some industrialists and merchants went even further, all the way to the insurmountable swamps, snow, and forests. Then there is a question, why do they have to run so far without hesitation and cold? What are they drawing?
Because the Ural Mountains are rich in "sables, silver rats, arctic foxes, white wolves and sea tusks" on both sides of the Ural Mountains, especially those animal furs, it is a bestseller in the European market.
Before the popularization of cotton, if the ancients wanted to survive the long winter, the poor could only wear linen clothes, the middle people could wear sheepskin jackets, and the high-ranking officials and nobles could wear expensive mink or fox fur coats. At that time, there was a great demand for fur in Europe, especially some valuable furs could often be sold at a high price. Because of the high quality of fur produced in the Eugra region, the coveted Russians regard it as a source of "Golden Fleece".
In order to plunder the precious fur resources, Novgorod constantly sent people to the Yugra region and the Samoyed region to the north. In 1456, Novgorod was incorporated into the Muscovite Principality, and Ivan III immediately infiltrated the Ughera region. Ivan III made three expeditions to the region of Eugrates, to which his successor Vasily III frequently used troops. Although the Russians achieved some results, they still did not have the strength to annex the region.
Later, in the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River, various forces and powers were also consolidated, and eventually, Kuchum Khan unified the Siberian Khanate, the capital of which was initially the city of Chimki (Tyumen) and later moved to Kashrek. Kuchum Khan gradually broke with Russia, killed Russian envoys, stopped paying tribute to the insatiable Russia, and constantly took the initiative to harass the neighboring Russian border areas.
In 1547, Ivan IV proclaimed himself Tsar and annexed the Kazan Khanate and then the Astrakhan Khanate, expanding its territory dramatically. Since Russia had been fighting with Poland, Livonia, Sweden and ottoman Turkey in the south, it did not have much energy to colonize Siberia. Thus, an important folk force from the steppe of southern Russia, the Cossacks, appeared.
02 Yermak
The word Cossack is of Turkic origin and means "free man" or "brave man". They were bohemian, heroic, and able to fight, but they were also mercenary, murderous, and notorious, and it was the Tsar who used them to conquer Siberia.
In 1556, Ivan IV summoned the Stroghanov family, which bordered the Siberian Khanate, inquired about the situation on the border, authorized him to resist the Siberian Khanate, and ordered him to build fortifications on the border of the Siberian Khanate, recruit troops, and wait for the opportunity to invade the Siberian Khanate.
On September 10, 1581, the Stroganov family sent the Cossack Yermak to lead an expedition of 840 men on the crusade. In a fleet of 30-38 flat-bottomed wooden boats, they followed the Kama River and its tributaries all the way east, over the Ural Mountains, and through the not too far away Lianshui Dry Road into the Ob River Valley.
The following spring, the Cossacks suddenly appeared in the city of Chimki (near present-day Tyumen), much to the shock of Kuchum Khan, who fell. After looting the area, Yermak led his team into the Tobol River and went down the river. On 8 July, at the Battle of Sentinel Cliff, Yermak was defeated and then won, and then the Tatars were severely damaged at the Battle of Babasan. After capturing several cities, the Cossacks invaded the Irtysh River and marched into the khanate's capital, Kashrek.
On November 1, the battle officially began. Despite the sheer numbers of the Siberian Khanate and the best efforts of Kuchum Khan, bows and arrows, spears, and sabers could not withstand the bullets, and Kashrek eventually fell.
Although the capital of the Khanate fell, the broad masses of the people did not yield and still waged an indomitable struggle. As a result of Yermak's successive victories, the Tsar pardoned him and his subordinates for the death penalties and gave him an expensive fur, two sets of ornate armor, a goblet, and a large amount of money.
The flattered Yermak thanked the Tsar and vowed to always be "loyal to the Tsar". Several more victories followed, including one capture of the prince of the Siberian Khanate.
The constant victories made Yermak complacent, so he lost his vigilance, and finally was attacked at night during a camp in August 1584, and he fell into the water in panic, wearing two pairs of bulky armor, and finally drowned in the gushing river.
After Yermak's death, the Tsar gave him the title of Duke of Siberia and was posthumously awarded the title of Grand Nobleman of Military Service. In this way, a vicious robber became a father who contributed to the Tsar's expansion of the border, and to this day, yermak's statues still stand all over Russia, and are admired as the greatest conqueror in Russian history.
03 Conquest of the Ob River
After Yermak's death, the Cossack conquest suffered a certain setback. In the spring of 1585, the new Tsar Ivanovich sent the Overseer Mansourov to Siberia. In early 1586, the Russians established the small city of Ob on the right bank of the Ob River, the first Russian fortress established by the Russians in Siberia. Since then, the Russians have adopted a strategy of steady and steady fighting, step by step, gradually encroaching on and digesting Siberia.
Mansourov then built six more castles on the lower Ob River. Later, the Russian government sent the Overseer Sugin across the Ural Mountains to replace Mansourov, and the combined army advanced by water to the hinterland of the khanate.
On July 8, 1586, Sugin led his army to the city of Chimki at the mouth of the Tula River, which the Russians renamed Tyumen. At this time, the Russian government was planning a complete conquest of the Siberian Khanate, was preparing to increase its strength to build forts, garrison troops, and send the clerical officer Churkov to lead 500 people to the Irtysh River.
Churkov built the famous Tobolsk more than a dozen kilometers away from Kasrek, the capital of the Siberian Khanate, across the tobol River, which later developed into the administrative, economic and military center of Siberia.
At this time, the prince of Sejdyak, who was stationed in Kashrek, was still in a state of ignorance, did nothing, and even let down his guard to attend the banquet of the Russians. As a result, all the Tatars were captured and slaughtered at the feast, and Kashrek fell.
After that, the speed of construction of the russians accelerated. In 1590, Lozvinsky Fort was established on the banks of the Lozvá River, a tributary of the Tavda River, in 1592 the city of Perem was established at the mouth of the Lozva River; and in 1595, the city of Berezov was established at the mouth of the Sosva River.
While using troops on the lower reaches of the Ob River, the Russians also went up the river, successively establishing the cities of Surgut and Narem, and constantly expanding their power to the upper banks of the Ob River.
Tobolsk
In order to completely defeat Kuchum Khan, the Russians established the city of Tara at the mouth of the Angakar River, which was finally completed in 1594. In the spring of 1595, the Russians organized an expedition to the Balabin steppe, and the Russians entered a vast area between and to the Ob rivers and south of the Irtysh Andi Rivers, severely damaging Kuchum Khan.
In 1598, the Russians again defeated Kuchum Khan, who had to flee to the southern steppes, where he died shortly there, and the Siberian Khanate was declared completely extinct. In 1600, the Russians established the city of Turinsk at the mouth of the Tula River, which, like other cities, was established as a county. As a result, the entire middle and lower Ob River and the middle and lower Irtysh River were conquered by Russia.
04 Conclusion
The Ob River is one of the three major rivers in Siberia. If the Irtysh River is calculated, the total length of the Irtysh River is 5410 kilometers, ranking second in Russia and 8th in the world; the basin area is 2.973 million square kilometers, ranking first in Russia and ranking 6th in the world; the annual average runoff is 385 billion cubic meters, ranking third in Russia and ranking first in the world. Therefore, no matter which indicator is viewed, the Ob River is the undisputed world river.
The Russians began sending Cossacks to invade the Siberian Khanate in 1581 and did not completely conquer the region until 1598. The demise of the Siberian Khanate also heralded the incorporation of most of the Ob River basin into the Russian Empire. And the Cossacks and russian governments, who have tasted the sweetness, will not stop their heavy steps, and their next target is the Yenisei River. Now the Cossacks are gazing at the eastern skyline, and the trumpets that are heading east have sounded... (To be continued)
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Text/Source Teacher said 123, more wonderful content, stay tuned.