Kuchum, the last ruler of the Siberian Khanate in the 19th century, left a strong mark on the history of Russia's conquest of Asia. This descendant of the Golden Family was indeed a bloody hero in the fight against the Russian invasion.
First, the great revenge will be repaid, and the hero will rise
In the not-too-long history of the Siberian Khanate, power has been in the hands of the descendants of the Shapan. By the middle of the 15th century, Ibak Khan, whose family was spread across the sea, was killed by the Taibuga family in the country, and Ibak Khan's son Multaza had to flee to Central Asia and defect to the Khanate of Bukhara, which was also ruled by the descendants of The Shabaan, where he gave birth to the protagonist of the story, Kuchum Khan.
In terms of blood, Kuchum Khan was a well-deserved descendant of the Mongol Golden Family, and in 1555, the young and vigorous Kuchum, with the support of the Khanate of Bukhara, decided to send an army for revenge. At this time, Siberia was under the rule of the Taibuga dynasty, and the ruler Yadigail was powerless to stop the imposing Kuchum, so he turned to Russia and sought the protection of Ivan the Terrible. He gained ivan the support of Ivan the Terrible at the expense of a huge fur tribute to Moscow, but the Russians were now preoccupied with attacking the volatile Astrakhan Khanate and simply did not have the ability to send troops to the Irtysh River to help Siberia.
The huge tribute offered by Yadigail did not bring him salvation, but rather intensified his contradictions with the surrounding ruled peoples. In 1563, under the attack and encroachment of Kuchum, the embattled Yadigail army was defeated and killed, and the rule of the Taibuga dynasty in Siberia ended, and Kuchum fulfilled his long-cherished wish to avenge his grandfather, representing the Shiban family as the last Khan of the Siberian Khanate.
Second, Tsarist Russia invaded and resisted aggression
The Siberian Khanate under Kuchum Khan, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Ob River in the east, was a small country, but its population of more than 30,000 was more modest than the size of the territory. Most of the Siberian minorities, whose main mode of production was fishing and hunting, were still at the end of primitive society, and even under Kuchum's western conquests, the Siberian Khanate annexed part of the territories of the Hants and Mansi in the west and the Tatars in the east, but for the backward Siberian khanates, this level of strength was still difficult to compete with the Russians.
The Russian Tsar Ivan The Terrible, who had long noticed the political changes that had taken place in Siberia and coveted the fur resources of Siberia, was helpless to fall into the vortex of the Western Livonian War and was unable to escape. The Tsar had no choice but to use the concessions of the land and fur trade as a bargaining chip to encourage the tycoons of the GreatEstroganov family to invade the east.
The Stroganov family was already troubled by Kuchum's harassment and plundering from time to time, and with the encouragement and support of the Tsar, they quickly drew together a group of Cossack bandits led by Yermak, and with the blessing of muskets and cannons, a war of disparity in strength began.
In 1582, the prepared Yermak marched his mixed army along the Tobol River into the territory of the khanate, and on October 26, Kuchum led his warriors recruited from the Tatars and other peoples to fight against the attack of Yermak at the chuvash headland at the mouth of the river.
At the beginning of the war, the artillery fire of the Cossack soldiers did not cause too many casualties to the Siberians, and the Siberians became the active attacking side. However, the well-trained Cossacks quickly shot the Siberian soldiers from the arranged vehicle formation in turn, and with the sound of gunfire, the khanate soldiers soon collapsed, and Kuchum Khan, who was in command, was unable to fight any more and led his cronies to flee the battlefield.
Knowing that he could no longer fight, Kuchum Khan abandoned the capital city of Kashrek and fled to the Barabinsk steppe further east. The victorious Yermak paused for a moment and then marched majestically into the capital of the Khanate, which was declared extinct.
Third, adhere to the faith, always fight
In August 1585, Yermak received information that Kuchum Khan was preparing to attack a caravan from Central Asia, so he led Cossack soldiers to encircle and suppress the Wagai River. In fact, this is a "fake news" released by Kuchum. That night, Khan himself led some able-bodied Tatars to infiltrate the Cossack camp with lightning and thunder, and the Cossacks in the night were almost completely destroyed unprepared, and Yermak himself fell into the turbulent waters on the way to escape and died.
With the victory at the Battle of the Wagai River, the remnants of yermak retreated to the west of the Ural Mountains, and Kuchum Khan once again became the master of the land. However, Russia, which had emerged from the Livonian War, had enough energy to fight against Kuchum Khan, and the descendants of the Taibuga dynasty, which had been destroyed by Kuchum, also took the opportunity to occupy the old capital of the khanate, Kashrek.
Moscow initially adopted a conciliatory attitude towards Kuchum Khan, promising him the title of nobility and certain material conditions. But Kuchum scoffed at this, whether it was because of the indomitable blood of Genghis Khan flowing in his body, or because of his Muslim belief in refusing to surrender to the Orthodox regime, in short, Kuchum still wandered the territory of the old khanate, waiting for the opportunity to restore the country again.
Fourth, the hero ends the curtain and the beautiful performance
Kuchum did not wait for another chance to restore the country, and Russia adopted fortress tactics in the ensuing conquest of Siberia. The Fortresses of the Russians, such as Tyumen, Tobolsk, and Tara, stood on the land that originally belonged to the Siberian Khanate, seriously compressing the living space of the indigenous people represented by Kuchum.
Every time Kuchum encountered an army of Russians, he would lose dozens or even hundreds of soldiers before fleeing to the southeast or south. In order to capture Kuchum, the Russians set fire to his town. But the khan did not give up, did not ask for the favor of the royal family, and did not participate in peace negotiations. In fact, Kuchum's attacks on Russian-controlled areas were neither frequent nor dangerous, but the Tsarist government feared this elusive and stubborn enemy, and the local government exaggerated his strength and ability to seek more support from Moscow on this ground.
Although Kuchum himself did not submit to the Russians, there was a split within his camp, and the Siberian peoples, at the instigation of the Russians, began to make overtures to the Tsar, which was a helpless move for the weak peoples to survive, and was also related to Kuchum's forcible introduction of Islam in Siberia, where shamanism was deeply rooted. By 1598, the rebellious Kuchum was driven to the Ob River by the army of the new Tsar Boris Godunov, and in the battle known as the Battle of the Ilmen River, Kuchum Khan's family and guards were swept away by the Russians, leaving only 3 sons and the last 30 warriors left in Kuchum.
After the war, the Russians again sent a letter of persuasion, and by this time Kuchum Khan was old and blind, but he remained unmoved.
Kuchum, who had been a warrior all his life, sent his sons to the Khanate of Bukhara in Central Asia, which had always supported him, and resolutely returned to the steppes. Regarding the final outcome of Kuchum Khan, some say that he died in the pursuit of the Kalmyks, and that some say that he became a ghost under the knife of the Turks. But what we can know is that since the Battle of the Ilmen River, Kuchum has not been able to return to his old homeland, and the Siberian generation of tyrants has not escaped destruction in front of the Russians.
The siberian khanate's struggle against Russia was a microcosm of Russia's conquest of the entire Siberian region, and for the Russians, the fall of Kuchum opened the door to a more distant East, and the road of conquest from the Ob River to the Pacific Ocean was henceforth unimpeded, and the greedy and brave colonists scrambled to plunder the property left by nature, and there was nothing to stop Russia's endless expansion.