II. 2. The real conquest of the Urals and Siberia

Before the defeat of the European part of the Horde, i.e., the khanates and Cossack republics of Central Russia, the Black Sea region, the Caspian Sea and the North Caucasus, there was no open military the expansion of the Russian Empire - the former Muscovy - to the east, in the Volga region, could not have been. By military reform Alexei Mikhailovich among 9 ranks (that is, the current military districts) there was not a single one beyond the Volga. The Siberian Order of Muscovy had the functions of a department of the modern Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that is, beyond the Volga it was located foreign state - the Siberian "Kingdom" - in fact, a confederation of separate "free Cossack" and "Tatar" Hordes, and designated on foreign maps until the middle of the 18th century. From 1644 to 1775, these Hordes were partly in vassal dependence on Muscovy or on another part of the former Great Horde - Manchuria and were indicated on all foreign maps of that time under the general name Great Tartaria.

The Siberian province of Peter I, with its center in the city of Si(n)birsk, founded in 1648 as a border fortress, had no subdivisions, and Romanov’s history calls the Sinbir and Zakamskaya features (i.e., the borders of the “Kazan Khanate”) its eastern borders , moreover, the Cossack Belatyr at the confluence of the Ufa and Belaya rivers was the border town - this is how the Cossacks called this city, founded in 1587, and that is how it is indicated on the French map of 1692. Now it is Ufa, the official name of which appeared after the defeat of the troops Siberian Kingdom by Suvorov in 1775–1777, along with the massive renaming of other cities, which was necessary Catherine II to write the "necessary" history. Saratov (1590) and Penza (1663), Orenburg and Orsk (since 1742), Pavlodar (1752), etc. until 1777 were actually not cities, but fortresses-outposts of future conquests (remember Griboedov’s: “To my aunt! In the wilderness, in Saratov!»).

It is noteworthy that in 1780 Sinbirsk was renamed to Simbirsk. Why was this renaming necessary? The difference seems to be small, but it should be noted that in the XVIII century. the intervocalic "b" was preceded by a nasal vowel. Siberia, for example, in German Zinbirsk was pronounced, which is why it was designated on German maps as Sinbirsk, similar to, for example, English Mensen, denoting Mr. Mezen. So both Sinbirsk and Simbirsk are the nasal pronunciation of the word Siberian, as well as colloquial e (n) that, inci (n) dent, competent etc.

Here it is worth dwelling in more detail on the most ancient etymology of the word Siberia itself, which can be traced following the method of E. Benveniste (see the article "Ancient" and medieval population of Europe and its rulers.) This word, most likely, came from the common Indo-European (and Proto-Slavic) root xhr(with a nasal vowel), which is present, in particular, in words dick, chicken And tsar. This root is an extension of the root xx with the meanings "one's own", "genus", from where, after the dissimilation of the initial palatal X and current Russians con, on chat, child, own, himself etc., as well as Finno-Ugric Komi, Saami And suomi. With parallel dissimilation of not only the initial X, but also the nasal vowel, phonetic variants were formed kjmar And eat, and with further giving an explosive character to the sonorant "m", variants of the intervocalic m - mv - mb - b: 1) with initial To: self-designation of the Celts kimry(Celt. Cymry"comrades", by the way, in Udmurtia there is a place Celts denoting homeland Celts, and in Western Siberia - g. Tara, historical homeland of the Scots), Cimbri (« Germanic tribe»), Cimmerians("Thracian tribe"), Khmer(V South-East Asia), "ancient" Sumerians, Greek chimeras, city names Kimry(Tver region), kimmerik(supposedly located in ancient times on the Kerch Strait, and, most likely, the current Temryuk on the Taman peninsula), Cambridge etc.; 2) with initial With: city Samara and the former name of Khanty-Mansiysk - Samaro, R. Samara tributary of the Volga and the river. Samara tributary of the Dnieper Samar Kand, Assyrian queen Semira mida ( Shammur-amat, she is also, perhaps, the legendary Obskaya Golden Baba), Mr. Sambor Lvovskaya, and Chemer sheep of the Khmelnytsky regions of Ukraine, etc. Therefore, Siberia, And Samara meant the same thing, namely: "Kingdom", i.e. the Great Horde from Far East to Iceland. And Japanese samurai- this is a military know Samara, i.e. Siberia, i.e. the Kingdom-Horde, as well as their commander-in-chief - shogun- it's the same kagan, khan etc. Belarusian syabry, South Russian scrapers- this is the original name of the neighbors - Siberians. (The self-name of the indigenous population of the current Samaria in Israel - sabras. Judeo-Orthodox land Galich"and Judeo-Muslim land" Samara" - This prototypes biblical Galilee And Samaria that make up Israel, i.e. the entire non-Catholic world, in contrast to Judeo-Catholic Western Europe, the prototype of biblical Judea. In this they differ from earlier, pagan names of the cities of Eurasia: Finno-Ugric legendary Thule and real years. Tula, Taldom, Taldy-mound, French Toulya, Toulouse And Toulon, spanish Toledo etc., whose name comes from the root tul"receptacle", cf. body, snuggle, crowd, rear, sleeve, thick, etc.)

Another name for the capital of Siberia - Isker goes back to the same root xxr, which is the word Siberia, and means "old, well-deserved", as well as asker, askar, oscar, and the name of the village Eshar near Kharkov (former Sharukhani, i.e. Tsar-Khani). And Japanese sakura means "royal", and Chechen Ichkeria. yes and english Esq.(English) esquire, i.e. "royal servant") from the same root, and not supposedly from Late Latin scutarius"shield bearer". This is a sign of belonging to old The Horde Guard, in contrast to the Janissary Junkers, i.e., the "young army" (cf. in Russian young cara). Honored commanders used to settle near the capitals, and now this custom has been preserved in our generals' settlements.

All this is the legacy of the Great Horde, as, by and large, and former USSR, and the current Russia, China, India, the USA, Brazil, and all other states of Eurasia, Africa and America, except, perhaps, Australia. Siberia as the mother of civilization will remain forever, i.e. in Italian, in Spanish and in Portuguese semper.

Why did the Horde "United Nations" come to an end? The global cause of political change, as always, is the economy, namely: the appearance in the middle of the XV century. capital and rapid development in the XVI century. capitalist relations, which did not have in the Horde, and which served as the driving force behind its collapse. The traditional concept of the development of civilization - from the primitive communal system through slavery and feudalism to capitalism fundamentally wrong: both primitive-communal, and slave-owning, and feudal relations existed from the very beginning of the Neolithic era - the productive activity of Homo sapiens, and still exist. They are united by one common basic economic concept - labor. And only with the achievement of such a level of productive forces, when a surplus product appeared, did the concept of capital.

The pre-Petrine Romanovs did not at first take up the development of capitalist relations according to English pattern, but by strengthening their dynasty by planting Bourbon absolutism, destroying the free (“black-eared”) peasantry by distributing land to their noble henchmen and enslaving the peasants. In 1649, Alexei Mikhailovich, with the Cathedral already obedient to him, adopted the “Cathedral Code”, in which the old Horde principles of “cathedralism” (Cossack circle = kurultai = thought), “religious tolerance” and any freedom of the peasant producer .

To strengthen their power, the Romanovs were in dire need of money for the maintenance of a mercenary army. But when, using their monopoly right to set prices, they quadrupled the price of the most important strategic product - salt, a sharp antitrust the reaction that went down in history as the "salt riot". The rebellion was suppressed, prices were not reduced, but the economy is inexorable: the volume of salt smuggling from the south along the Muravsky Way immediately increased.

The Siberian "Kingdom" in 1631 founded largest at that time in the world The Irbit annual fair (Irbit, Sverdlovsk region, at the confluence of the Irbit river with the Tura), which operated until 1930, and in terms of turnover occupied first place in Russia until 1817, when the Nizhny Novgorod fair was just opened. Through the Irbit Fair, in particular, he entered not only Muscovy, but throughout Europe the whole Chinese and Indian tea before the beginning of the 18th century. It is in feature films that the introduction of a new drink - coffee - is explained by the whim of Peter I to follow European fashion. But the fact is that at that time Chinese tea in Russia turned out to be expensive Brazilian coffee precisely because of the monopoly prices of the Irbit Fair. And Peter I could not do anything with the "recalcitrant" Siberia military way.

And in terms of the development of culture, Siberia in the 18th century. by no means inferior to Muscovy, and in some ways ahead of her. For example, the history of the Russian theater begins not with the amateur troupe of F. Volkov in Yaroslavl in 1750, and not with the opening of the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg in 1756, but with the construction of a permanent theater in St. Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia in 1705, i.e. on half a century earlier than in the European part of Russia! This three-tiered (!) wood theater built by old Siberians, and about which did not know Petersburg under Peter I, served without interruption for 290 years almost until the end of the 20th century, when it was burned by the "new Russians". When, under Anna Ioannovna, in 1732, the “correct post” was established between St. Petersburg and Tobolsk, it turned out that in Tobolsk the theater (both in terms of repertoire and in the architecture of the hall) is not inferior to the Vienna one, and in St. Petersburg there is nothing close to it. Therefore, they began to look for nuggets in Moscow, but they finally found them in Yaroslavl, because they knew about the Tobolsk theater from eyewitnesses from across the Volga. And Peter I, who welcomed European innovations so much, for some reason did not know about the Tobolsk Theater ... It is noteworthy that even at the end of the 18th century. the future Russian emperor Paul I danced famously at the imperial ball in Vienna the most fashionable European dance at that time - the Tatar(!)quadrille …

But the economic expansion of Muscovy to the East in the XVII-XVIII centuries. was carried out slowly but surely - by buying up and occupying secretly land for factories and mining. A major economic flaw in Peter I's Russia was the lack of its own gold and silver. The mining legalization of Peter I of November 2, 1700 ordered "to search for gold and silver and copper ores in Moscow and other cities." On December 10, 1719, the “Mountain Privilege” of the Berg Collegium was published: “everyone is allowed and everyone is given free will, no matter what rank and dignity he was, in all places, both on his own and on strangers lands - to look for, dig, melt, boil and clean all kinds of metals: in other words - gold, silver, copper ... ”(my italics. Note. Auth.)

Peter I was a man of practical mind - and the "gold rush" began, so much so that already in 1721 one of the large gold medals in honor of the Peace of Nishtad was minted "from homemade gold" - this was the first artisanal gold of the Nerchinsk mine. With the general enslavement of the people, the "gold rush" gave hope not only for freedom, but also for prosperity. People from serf Muscovy rushed to the Siberian Kingdom - 50 years before the beginning of the development of the "Wild West" in America. They were not exiled to Siberia at that time, but sent. But when the ore places were seized, the breeders were given permission to enslave any "free prospector", that is, who did not have a "Moscow residence permit".

In such a secret order, factories and mines were built, protected private guards of the Stroganoff, Demidov, Remezov, etc. So gradually the Siberian "Kingdom" fell into full economic dependence on European Russia. At the same time, sometimes by bribery, and sometimes by direct liquidation of the local nobility (Yugorsk and Turkic princes and Cossack atamans) or by replacing them with pro-Russian "voivods", it was no longer Moscow, but Petersburg, that put under their control the lands east of the Volga, and, above all , land to the Stone (otherwise Earthly) Belt, i.e. the Urals.

Having transferred the capital from Moscow to the West, Peter cut through Not absolutely geographically unnecessary "window to Europe", and a window from Western Europe to the East - and not to Moscow, but to the richest Siberia, thereby both economically and politically attracting the Siberian nobility, traditionally hostile to the Moscow boyars. His policy of "carrot and stick" combined with the involvement militant churches for the forced baptism of "foreigners" gradually advanced its outposts to Bashkiria and the territory of the Kazakh Khanate (it is also "ancient" Turkic Khaganate.)

The official history of the "voluntary" accession to the Russian Empire of the Younger and Middle Zhuzs (tribal territories) of Kazakhstan is very dark and doubtful. According to some sources, the Younger Zhuz joined the Russian Empire in 1731, and the Middle Zhuz "joined" for three whole years in 1740-1743, according to other sources, both zhuzes joined in 1732. The completely destroyed the capital of the khanate, the city of Manas near Lake Zaisan, which still existed on the map of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1771 (the city of Zaisan is now in this place). And it was not by chance that the Senior (main) zhuz of Kazakhstan resisted the Romanovs until 1869, uniting with the khans of Khiva, and then Kokand to protect themselves from aggression. In particular, in 1716–1717, the troops of the Khiva Khan completely destroyed the 6000th expeditionary force of Prince A. Bekovich-Cherkassky sent by Peter I to Central Asia.

Real story this "voluntary accession" is associated with the activities famous diplomat I. I. Neplyuev, who was the Russian resident in Istanbul in 1721-1734. Through the efforts of Neplyuev, in particular, the already mentioned division of Persia between Peter I and Sultan Akhmat III was prepared. In 1730, he was a direct participant in the Janissary coup that brought Mahmud I to power. However, Mahmud I, as you know, refused to recognize Anna Ioannovna as empress. Neplyuev, feeling that his career was hanging in the balance, began to convince Anna Ioannovna that the Sultan would be stubborn because of Peter's Persian acquisitions. He wrote to Anna Ioannovna that "the climate there is bad for Russian soldiers”, therefore, he proposed to return to Persia the entire previously captured coast of the Caspian Sea in exchange for the non-interference of Persia in the Central Asian expansion of Russia, which was done according to the Resht Peace of 1732.

At the same time, Neplyuev agreed on joint actions with the friendly Oirat Khan, who was a vassal of the Middle (Chinese) Empire of the Qing dynasty, which came to power in China back in 1644 instead of the old Horde dynasty with the support of Romanov Muscovy. After this agreement, the Russian troops in 1731 moved to the southeast and actually occupied part of Kazakhstan, and the Oirat troops began to torment the Kazakh Khanate from the rear. Under these conditions, the Sultan of the Younger Zhuz (Western Kazakhstan) Abulkhair was forced to recognize himself as a vassal of the Russian Empire. By 1740, the Middle and Senior zhuzes were already under the threat of destruction. In 1735, the fortress of Orenburg was founded, and the same Neplyuev became the governor of the newly formed Orenburg province with carte blanche powers. In 1743, the Middle Zhuz surrendered to Russia, and the Elder went under the protection of the Khan of Kokand. It was subsequently founded new capital Senior Zhuz - Ak-Mosque (1820–1869).

It is noteworthy that this city, renamed after the conquest of the Senior Zhuz into Petrovsk in 1869, received its expressive current name under Soviet power - Kyzyl-Orda! Truly inscrutable are the ways of the Lord - indeed, in 1925 there already existed Red Horde, i.e. the USSR.

In general, the Romanov "development" Central Asia how two drops of water is similar to the "development" of the American Indian wild West, just like the civil war between North and South in America largely copies the development of Catherine wild Fields, i.e., the Chernozem zone of Russia.

Immediately after the conquest of Central Russia, Russian empire began to conquer Siberia from the south: the first Catherine's city ​​of Siberia - Barnaul (1771). The aggressive policy of Catherine II and before that could not but disturb Siberia. When, by 1772, the peasants and the Cossacks of Central and Southern Russia felt not the taste of a carrot in the form of liberation from serfdom, promised by the “Great, wise mother of the Fatherland” Catherine in 1767 at the opening of the “Coordinated Commission”, but the cruelty of a military whip, people reached out beyond the Volga, to Siberia. The situation in European Russia was further aggravated by the outbreak of the plague of 1771.

In 1773, the largest civil war of the 18th century began, which went down in history as the “Pugachev uprising”. In fact, two parts of the former Rus'-Horde fought in it: the European monarchical empire of the Romanovs, which was gaining power, and the weakening Asian Horde federation of Siberia. Official documents about this war exist, but still remain sealed. The French and British archives relating to the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 also remain closed. and the American Revolutionary War 1775–1783. This circumstance alone indirectly testifies to the validity of the concept of considering the “Pugachev War” first expressed by G. Nosovsky and A. Fomenko, and then developed by G. Kasparov in the context of the global redistribution of the world and the final destruction of the Great Horde.

This concept also includes the struggle for the former Horde colonies between the British and French blocs in the Seven Years' War, and the military colonization of Siberia after the defeat of Pugachev's army, and the rapid colonization of the Indian territories of the Wild West in North America. In other words, the industrialized parts of the former Great Horde turned the more underdeveloped parts into their appendages-colonies. And here, due to objective geographical reasons, the interests of the monarchical Russian Empire and the republican USA coincided. England and France were objectively interested in the colonization of Africa, including at the expense of Ottoman Empire, so in first Russian-Turkish war second half of the 18th century. they were on the side of the Russian Empire. The old Horde Czar-Grad was defeated and could not help the Horde Siberia cut off from it.

Siberia was doomed to defeat for both external and internal reasons. Despite the fact that three-quarters of the industrial enterprises of both parts of Russia, related, in modern language, to the sphere of the military-industrial complex, were located on the territory of Siberia, they belonged to the industrialists of the Russian Empire. The military-industrial machine of the Horde Siberia worked for its enemy - imperial Russia. Therefore, when the population of Siberia, inspired by Pugachev's liberation manifesto, seized almost all the weapons factories in the Urals, instead of an immediate increase in the production of weapons and ammunition, the rebels began to destroy factories and mines. The Military College formed by Pugachev simply did not have time to immediately take control of the military industry.

Despite this, Siberia not only put up serious resistance to Catherine's troops - Pugachev's troops went on the offensive, isolating the fortresses of Orenburg, Ufa, occupying (or rather, defended) part of the Volga cities, including Samara, and then Kazan in July 1774. Government newspapers of the Russian Empire repeatedly reported: "Pugachev is defeated and flees." Pushkin, studying the available materials of the hostilities of 1773–1774, wrote about it this way: “Pugachev fled, but his flight seemed like an invasion.” Pugachev also controlled the Middle Volga region - Alatyr, Saransk, Penza, Saratov.

Catherine's entire imperial plan was in jeopardy. I had to stop the successfully developing war with Turkey. The official historiography writes that "Turkey, with the support of England and France, disrupted peace negotiations in 1771 after the conquest of the Crimea by the Russian Empire, which meant the end of the war." It's a lie. There were no serious negotiations, and the end of the war was not foreseen either in 1771 or in 1772. Ekaterina had absolutely no intention of stopping in the Crimea, since her general plan the expulsion of the Turks from all the European territories they occupied, including Istanbul, and the “reconstruction of the Greek empire on them,” at the head of which she later dreamed of placing her second grandson Constantine. England and France, before the start of the war with Siberia, still helped not the Ottoman, but the Russian Empire under secret protocols concluded at the end of the Seven Years' War: without these protocols, in particular, the Russian Baltic the squadron in 1770 could not easily and unexpectedly for the Turks pass through the Øresund, Kattegat, Skagerrak, English Channel and Gibraltar straits, enter the Mediterranean Sea, block the Dardanelles and destroy the Turkish squadron in the Chesme Bay, and in 1772 the Russian Empire could not divide Poland with Austria and Prussia on your own.

It turned out to be impossible to fight on two fronts even after Suvorov in 1774 defeated the Ottoman Danubian army of the grand vizier at Kozludzha and opened a direct road to Istanbul, which Catherine dreamed of. Suvorov, summoned to headquarters, offered to temporarily interrupt the war with Turkey, to go into negotiations himself and drag them out in every possible way until he, with selected units removed from the Turkish front, carried out a special operation to eliminate Pugachev's headquarters.

This plan was carried out: Suvorov's marching regiments cut off Pugachev (Vorotynsky? Galitsky? Kurbsky?) near Yelets-Galich from his main forces and destroyed his headquarters. Characteristically, in her letters to Voltaire, Catherine called Pugachev "marquis" without quotes. This means that she recognized him foreign nobleman, for the title of marquis in France was given foreigners- just like the title "baron" in Russia.

Further fate Pugachev and his closest associates is known. The decapitated army of Siberia was finished off in the Urals for another three years. After that, the conquest of Siberia took place without the tireless Suvorov, who was already marching to conquer North Caucasus and voluntarily annex Georgia. Only after The Caucasian successes of the Russian Empire in 1783 England and France rebuilt their policies in support of the weakened Turkey, as Russia opened the way to India and Iran.

During the armistice with Turkey 1775–1787. The Russian Empire just managed to systematically conquer almost all of Siberia, cutting it into "slices" and moving from strongholds - fortresses in the upper reaches of the Siberian rivers to the north. This is evidenced by the rapid growth in the number of provinces and cities, primarily in the Urals and Western Siberia: the first "post-Pugachev" city in 1775 was Uralsk (i.e., renamed Kosh-yaitsk, which existed at least since 1584. , and not some provincial "Yaitsky town"). Nogai capital city Saraichik was completely destroyed, and Guryev appeared in its place. This was followed by Ust-Sysolsk, Glazov, Sarapul (1780), etc.

On the contrary, the city of Vyatka existed under this name even before 1781 - this is how it is indicated on foreign maps both in 1706 and in 1692, and not under the name Khlynov (Khlynov plant), as well as Perm (supposedly the former village Egoshikha, i.e. Egoshikha plant). The current Verkhneuralsk (renamed in 1781) is a former large Bulgar-Bashkir city Sbakarchik, exactly as indicated on the French map of 1706, but named in the “Catherine’s edition” of the Verkhneyaitskaya fortress, allegedly founded only in 1734. The cities of Omsk, Semipalatinsk and Berezovo (1782), Chelyabinsk (1787), etc. e. The former "embassies of Russia" - prisons were precisely in it time turned into hard labor prisons.

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It is traditionally believed that the "development" of Siberia by Europeans ("Russians") began under Ivan the Terrible. However, this "history" from the middle of the XVI to early XIX V. sewn with white thread.

What does traditional history tell us, for example, about the annexation of Siberia to Muscovy? Until the middle of the XVI century. Muscovy, in general, peacefully coexisted with the Siberian Khanate. And then Khan Ediger allegedly in 1555 voluntarily recognized his vassal dependence on Moscow, which was then severed in 1572 by his successor Khan Kuchum. After the "conquest of Kazan" and the "annexation of Astrakhan", Ivan the Terrible allegedly gives the merchant-industrialists Stroganovs "for their special merits" letters of ownership of lands along the river. Tobol. With their own money, the Stroganovs hire a gang of robbers (600, according to other sources 840 "free Cossacks"), led by Yermak Timofeevich, who in 1581 "penetrate" the Siberian Khanate and defeat Khan Kuchum, having conquered in 1582 his capital city of Siberia(17 km from the current Tobolsk), she Qashlyk(i.e. winter hut, cf. also village and, for example, English castle). At the same time, Yermak himself died heroically in battle in 1585 (according to other sources, he drowned while swimming across the Irtysh to iron shell). Kuchum, after the defeat, "runs to the Nogai Horde", where he lives quietly, at least until 1598 (the city of Siberia itself existed well even in the 18th century, in particular, it was marked on the French academic map of 1706) .

Following a highly dubious story private Yermak's expeditions, any subsequent real expedition of civilian "pioneers" to Siberia in the 17th century. in official historiography, it is considered “the annexation of new lands to the Muscovite state”, as if no human had set foot there before. This is the "pillar of Siberian sites" of the 17th century. like two drops of water similar to the “development” of America: the natives (whether Indians, whether the indigenous population of Siberia) are savages, therefore the appearance of a “white man” (pioneer, missionary) on their land is already act of accession. "Historical calendar for schoolchildren - ten centuries Russian history”(compiled by V. A. Alekseev and V. V. Stepanov, Donetsk, Stalker ICF, 1996) generally claims that in 1633 (!) All Siberia was annexed to Moscow up to Kamchatka. On this "conquest of Siberia" in the XVI century. ends, and the next wave of its development begins at the end of the 17th century. - after the execution of Stepan Razin in 1671 and the annexation of Kamchatka in 1697 (this is the traditional date of "annexation of Siberia"). Meanwhile, the well-known expedition of Khabarov in Transbaikalia, only founded, as it is believed, Albazinsky (1651) and Nerchinsky (1653) prisons. The Albazinsky prison was then demolished "at the request Chinese”under the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689, however, the border of “Russia” with “China” remained “extremely uncertain” until 1858.

However, on the Russian map of Eurasia, most likely made in Siberia around 1710 (Petersburg is already shown on the map, but Moscow is still indicated as the capital), a clearly defined state border between Muscovy And Siberia passes approximately meridian Mezen - Penza.

And on the French map of 1706 (published by the French Academy of Sciences), the eastern border of Muscovy with Siberia runs from White Sea along the river Mezen, further south, crossing the Northern Ridges and the Volga at Nizhny Novgorod, further up the Oka to Kasimov (and not down the Volga to Astrakhan!), from Kasimov along the meridian south to Boguchar on the Don. To the left of Boguchar, up the Don, Muscovy bordered on Cossack lands, i.e., with wild field, and in the interval Tula - Kaluga with Vorotyn. At the same time, it is known that neither the Wild Field nor Vorotyn Muscovy did not pay taxes and taxes, i.e., were independent.

Down the Don to the confluence of the Seversky Donets, the border of Siberia and the Wild Field passed. The interfluve of the Don and the Volga and the North Caucasus were occupied by Cherkassia, and the interfluve of the Don and the Dnieper belonged to the Crimean Khanate. Located to the east of the Mezen-Penza meridian, Cherkassia, the Astrakhan kingdom, the Bulgar principality, the Kazan kingdom, the principalities of Vyatka, Perm, Zyryaniya and Yugoria were officially part of the Siberian Confederation, and not Muscovy. The entire territory beyond the Urals from the present Guryev to Verkhneuralsk and further east to the confluence of the Zeya and the Amur was not dependent at all. neither from Siberia, nor, moreover, from Muscovy. The capital of this Independent Tataria was Shed- the current Guryev, allegedly only founded in 1740. Above him along the river. Yaik was located the Cossack fortress Kosh-yaitsk (the so-called "Yaitsky town").

The well-known stormy reformist and conquest activity of Peter I is not at all turned to the east - to Siberia. And real state"development of Siberia" begins no earlier than 1760, when Elizaveta Petrovna graciously allows the landlords "the exile of peasants to a settlement in Siberia against recruitment." This decree speaks directly about stimulating colonization Siberia and completely similar simultaneous with him to the order of the English king George III, concerning colonization India and Canada. At the same time, although in the full title of Empress Elizabeth (as of 1752) the “Queen of Siberia” appears, but all of Siberia is still considered one (!) Province.

The very pronunciation of the titles "king" (fr. czaar), “queen” is not Russian, but Jewish (instead of the phonetic variants kaisar, kaiser, caesar or caesar) and means “viceroy” (see the article “Ancient and medieval population of Europe and its rulers”). That is why the Romanovs introduced the concept of "tsar Orthodox", creating his own church in Muscovy. Therefore, in the title of Elizabeth, as in the title of Peter I from 1722, the concept of "empress" (i.e., sovereign) referred only to the territory of the original Muscovy of the Romanovs (that is, "All Rus'"), and its vicegerent, not at all possessive rights in Siberia, Kazan or Astrakhan, recognized by the sultan, were designated as "Queen of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia".

And Catherine II, in her "Notes", describing her accession in 1762, names among her 10 initial provinces the only Zakamskaya- Siberian. The list of provinces of Catherine II in 1762 is of particular interest for another reason. Here is what she writes in 1791: “The whole empire was divided into the following provinces: Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, Belogorodskaya, Novogorodskaya, Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, Livonia, Vyborgskaya, Kievskaya; Little Russia, i.e. Novgorod Seversky and Chernigov, was in charge of the Hetman. In the original, the word "next" is crossed out and "only ten" is written at the top. If you do not count Little Russia as the province, which was “in charge of the Hetman”, then the provinces are listed 12, not 10. Even if we take into account that there was no separate Vyborg province (this is part of St. Petersburg), then they appear (before Catherine’s own correction of the number) doesn't matter one more than in reality, namely: in 1762, the Belgorod province, as under Elizabeth, did not yet exist. The southernmost province of Azov, declared in 1708 by Peter I, also did not exist, since Azov belonged to Turkey at that time. Belgorod province, which was mentioned by Catherine in 1791, appeared as part of the Russian Empire only after 1770.!

The fact that the border of Muscovy and Siberia crossed the Volga near Nizhny Novgorod not only in 1706 (as shown on the academic French map), but also in 1762, is evidenced by the Romanov history itself: at the beginning of her reign, Catherine II, following the example of Peter I go around my possessions while traveling along the Volga from Tver to Simbirsk(and not to Samara, Saratov or Tsaritsyn not to mention Astrakhan!). At the same time, foreign ambassadors accompanying her on a trip are not even allowed into Nizhny Novgorod and, under a plausible pretext, are sent back. About Nizhny, Yekaterina writes that the location is advantageous, but the city itself is terrible, about visiting Kazan in the report of Yekaterina’s trip, she does not mention, and about Simbirsk she writes that there are “too many houses in mortgage". This segment of the journey contrasts sharply with the description of the “ceremonial” section of the journey: about the rejoicing of the people at a meeting with the empress, for example, in Kostroma and Kimry. In Yaroslavl, Catherine not only communicates with the people, but also “creates judgment”: on the complaint of the merchants, she removes the governor from work, although the Yaroslavl province as such does not yet exist. (In Yaroslavl, Catherine could only dismiss the governor of Nizhny Novgorod.) From this trip, it is clear that the relationship of Muscovy with Kazan and Astrakhan differed sharply from the relationship of Muscovy with the Nizhny Novgorod province subordinate to her.

• Further expansion of borders to the south and east
• Military conflicts in the far northeast of Asia
• Geographical discoveries and scientific achievements
• The Great Northern Expedition and the activities of Academician G.-F. Miller in Siberia

Further expansion of borders to the south and east .
Among the foreign policy tasks of the Russian Empire, an important place was occupied by the issue of the defense of the Siberian borders. In the first decades of the 18th century Russian penetration into the Kazakh steppes and Altai intensified. After the Dzungarian Khan Galdan died in the fight against China, his nephew who took power Tsevan-Rabdan relocated to the south a significant part Yenisei Kirghiz, thus freeing the upper reaches of the Yenisei, which the Russians were not slow to take advantage of. TO 1710 were built here Minusinsky, Abakansky And Sayan prison. The advance to the sources of the Ob was marked by the appearance of the first Russian settlements and fortresses on the territory of modern Novosibirsk region - Umrevinsky prison(1703) , Kolyvan (1713) , Berdsk prison (1716) and etc. Dzhungars, of course, they did not want to put up with the Russian advance to the south and tried to prevent it: in 1709 besieged Kuznetsk, and in 1710 destroyed Bikatun fortress. However, Peter I persistently sought the transfer of the steppes under the rule of Russia, especially after he received a message from the governor, Prince. M. P. Gagarina about the presence of rich gold placers in the Dzungarian possessions Yarkand city.
For reconnaissance, it was decided to send a detachment of Colonel I. D. Buchholz numbering almost 3 thousand people. In summer 1715 he moved from Tobolsk up the Irtysh and reached the lake. Yamysh, where he laid Yamyshevskaya fortress. However, being besieged there by a large army of Dzhungars, Buchholz was forced to leave the fortress and retreat down the Irtysh to the mouth of the river. Omi where at 1716 laid down Omsk fortress. In the following years, a whole chain of Russian fortresses was built along the Irtysh, stretching to its upper reaches, including Semipalatinsk (1718) . And in 1720 major I. M. Likharev from Tobolsk with a detachment of 440 people. reached the lake Zaisan and on the way back built Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress. Thus, the entire right bank of the Irtysh was assigned to Russia. Dzungar Khanate, having lost the war with China in 1718-1723 were forced to make concessions. Russian embassy captain I. Unkovsky 1722 to Dzungaria and the reciprocal embassy of the Dzungars 1724 Petersburg contributed to the reconciliation of the parties, especially since China remained the main opponent of Dzungaria, and the Irtysh fortified line prevented the penetration of nomads into Russian lands.
It was also restless in the southwestern section of the Siberian border, where in the 18th century. revolted several times Bashkirs- V 1704-1711 And 1735-1740 At the same time, I had to fight off constant raids Kazakhs to border lands. Peter I was interested in the possibility of including Kazakhstan in the sphere of influence of Russia, speaking on this subject in the following way: "The Kyrgyz-Kaisak horde ... to all Asian countries and lands ... the key and the gate; for that reason, this de horde needs to be under Russian protection ...". Large political associations on the territory of Kazakhstan - zhuzes, in the 30s - 40s. 18th century one after another took Russian citizenship. Active fortress construction continued: from the Irtysh to the Tobol, Ishimskaya fortified line.
When in the 50s. Dzungaria was finally defeated by China, and there was a danger of a direct military clash with a new powerful enemy. The Manchus even managed to achieve the acceptance of Chinese citizenship (albeit purely nominally) by the population of East Kazakhstan. A new one is being built in the steppes Presnogorkovskaya line of fortifications, and to protect the Altai is being built Kolyvano-Kuznetskaya fortified line that went from the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress to Biysk. In addition, Gorny Altai has long been mastered by Russian settlers - first of all, runaway soldiers, peasants, workers Siberian factories. The Russian government turned a blind eye to this unauthorized settlement, since there were not enough people in Siberia, as before, and in 1792 the settlers agreed with officials authorized by Catherine II to accept Russian citizenship in exchange for exemption from state duties. It turned out to be not difficult to reach an agreement, since in order to replenish the garrisons of Siberian fortresses, for example, at that time they actively resorted to the services of even fugitive schismatics (Old Believers), without interfering with their faith. Also, part of the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. In a word, even elements strongly opposed to the imperial government contributed to the development and defense of Russian possessions in southern Siberia.
developed in a peculiar way throughout the 18th century. relations with China. After the Manchus captured northern Mongolia and came close to the borders of Russian possessions in Transbaikalia, the government of Peter I tried to agree on establishing a clear border between the two states. This was done after the death of the first Russian emperor, when in 1727 count's embassy S. L. Vladislavich-Raguzinsky managed to conclude Kyakhta treaty. He established the border line from the Sayan to the Amur and determined the conditions for Russian-Chinese trade, which soon developed in the same Kyakhta. However, this treaty did not solve all the problems, since there was a constant flight of the Mongols from under the Manchu rule to Russia. Robbery raids by Mongol gangs were not uncommon, and smuggling trade bypassing border posts, which was very willingly engaged in by the population on both sides. Finally, Russia still did not give up the idea of ​​extending its power to the Amur in order to use this route to communicate with Kamchatka and other northeastern lands.
Even in the first half of the century, research parties were sent to the Amur, which found out that there were no Manchus on the adjacent lands, and the local residents did not obey anyone. And in the 50s. an attempt was made to organize the navigation of Russian ships along the Amur - a secret Nerchinsk expedition under the leadership of the former vice-president of the Admiralty Board F. I. Soymonova began to study the fairway. Naturally, all this, having become known in Beijing, did nothing to improve relations with Russia. On the official request of the Russian government to allow navigation on the Amur, China responded with a categorical refusal. And when, after the defeat of the Dzungar Khanate, the Manchu armies reached the borders of Russian possessions in Western Siberia, the parties found themselves on the brink of war. However, in the future, the government of Catherine II decided to abandon the confrontation due to the clear numerical superiority of the enemy. In addition, having Turkey as its main adversary, the Russian Empire could not afford to wage war on several fronts at once, so the Amur region was forgotten again, returning to this issue only in the 19th century. Nevertheless, measures were taken to strengthen the Trans-Baikal border - 7 more fortresses were built there, and then, according to the project of the Irkutsk governor, a separate Trans-Baikal Cossack army was established.
This is how things developed on the southern borders of Russian possessions in Siberia. The advance to new lands, as we see, went on in the 18th century. much slower than in the previous century, but still went on. And the progressive weakening of China and the precarious position of the small Central Asian states gave hope for the increment of Russia's possessions at their expense in the future.

Military conflicts in the far northeast of Asia .
In the north-east of Siberia, it would seem, things should have been much more successful, because here the Russians did not encounter civilized peoples who had their own statehood, but with "wild" natives who were at the lowest levels of social development - Itelmens, Koryaks and Chukchis, the conquest of which could not meet with difficulties. However, in reality, it turned out just the opposite: it was here that the Russian colonialists met the most fierce resistance, and it was here that the Russian armed forces were defeated in a full-scale war with the natives: the only case in Siberian history.
hike Atlasova to Kamchatka at the very end of the 17th century. could not, of course, lead to the automatic subjugation of this territory. When the Cossack detachments rushed in his footsteps, then Itelmens (Kamchadals) tried to give them an armed rebuff. The Cossacks had to build fortified fortresses here, but even so, the natives repeatedly raised uprisings - in the first half of the 18th century. there were at least five of them. These uprisings were suppressed with great difficulty and by the actual extermination of the recalcitrant. For some half a century, the number of Itelmens as a result decreased from 13 to 6 thousand people. The peculiar system of social and family relations that existed then among the natives of the north-east of Siberia also played its role in this. So, the system of taking hostages did not work here at all ( amanats), since the life of even the closest relatives among the Chukchi, Koryaks and Itelmens was valued no higher than the life of a stranger. Therefore, they refused to pay tribute in order to save the lives of their captive relatives. And having been defeated in battle, the men of the tribe first killed their wives and children, after which they themselves committed suicide. Of course, such a system of relations was perceived by the Russians as wild and inexplicable, although it, of course, had its own foundations that had developed in the process of centuries of development. social order of these peoples and associated both with the specifics of their way of life and with those natural and geographical conditions in which they were forced to exist.
Kamchatka was eventually pacified, after which the Russian government turned its attention to Koryaks living north of the peninsula and along the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. Most of them stubbornly refused to recognize Russian authority and pay yasak, and also often attacked Cossack detachments passing through their lands, thus creating a threat to overland communication with Kamchatka from Yakutsk. By the 20s. 18th century managed to subdue part of the tribal groups of the Koryaks, but others continued to resist. And here the Russians had to first build several fortresses and even send units of the regular army to help the Cossacks before launching a decisive offensive. From the 30s. a systematic offensive of Russian troops on the Koryak lands began, which was crowned with success in the end. By the 60s. 18th century Koryak resistance was broken. In addition to the irreparable losses suffered by the aborigines (the number of Koryaks decreased from almost 13 thousand to only 5 thousand people), inter-clan strife contributed a lot to this, since part of the Koryaks assisted the Russians in defeating other hostile groups. Finally, the Chukchi also made their contribution, almost annually raiding the camps of the Koryaks and driving away their deer herds. But even under these conditions, it took almost 30 years to bring the Koryaks under Russian rule.
But the most stubborn resistance to the Russians was Chukchi- a people capable of fielding no more than 2 thousand soldiers. Clashes with them, which began in the second half of the 17th century, continued into the early 18th century. The Chukchi robbed their neighbors - the Yukagirs and the Koryak yasaks. They appealed to the Russian authorities, but the Cossack detachments that went on retaliatory campaigns usually suffered defeat from the Chukchi. Moreover, the latter are expanding the territory under their control, appearing in the immediate vicinity of Anadyr prison- the extreme stronghold of the Russians in the north-east of Siberia. Therefore, in 1727 the Russian government decided on the need for a complete defeat and subjugation of the Chukchi military force, for which a military expedition of 400 soldiers was sent there, led by the Yakut Cossack head A. F. Shestakov and captain of the Tobolsk Dragoon Regiment D. I. Pavlutsky. Shestakov in spring 1730 with a detachment of 150 people, in which there were only 20 Cossacks, the rest were allied Yakuts, Tunguses, Lamuts and Koryaks - very unreliable allies, moved against almost 2 thousand Chukchi warriors. The battle took place on March 14 and ended with the complete defeat of Shestakov's detachment, and the commander himself died in battle. Captain Pavlutsky led a campaign against the Chukchi, which took place in 1731
215 Russian servicemen went on the campaign, as well as more than 200 Koryaks and Yukaghirs allied to them. During the campaign, Pavlutsky inflicted several heavy defeats on the Chukchi: their losses in each battle amounted to hundreds of dead. His detachment returned in the fall of that year, without suffering much loss. However, Chukotka made a depressing impression on Pavlutsky, and in his report to the Tobolsk provincial office, he spoke bluntly: "It is impossible to bring the Chukchee into citizenship ...". In addition, he, being an army officer, was hardly able to call on the Chukchi in yasak payment "with kindness and greetings", preferring to rely on military force. Yes, and ordinary participants in the campaigns sought, first of all, to obtain military booty by robbing the natives. It is clear that in such conditions there was no way to force the Chukchi to recognize Russian power and pay yasak, since they preferred to die rather than submit to the conquerors. The development of these trends eventually led to the fact that in 1742 the government issued a decree ordering "to eradicate the non-peaceful Chukchi altogether," that is, they officially staked on war and the wholesale extermination of the recalcitrant people.
However, this decree was never implemented. Despite the efforts made in 1744 And 1746 punitive campaigns, it was not possible to completely destroy the Chukchi, but March 14, 1747 the commander of the Anadyr party, Pavlutsky, who by that time had already become a major, also died in battle. This made a sobering impression on the Russian authorities, making it clear that the Chukchi could not be defeated by force of arms. Therefore, from the beginning of the 50s. the government tried to start peace negotiations with the enemy. They lasted more than 20 years and were very difficult. To achieve success, it was necessary to go to liquidation in 1771 Anadyr prison and the withdrawal from Chukotka of all Russian armed forces. Finally, in 1778 Chief Chukchi Toyon A. Hergyntov and Russian captain T. I. Shmalev signed a peace treaty. The following year, Catherine II officially announced the acceptance of the Chukchi into Russian citizenship, which, however, was purely formal: they did not recognize the Russian administration, they paid yasak only at their own request and often in exchange for gifts of even greater value. This situation, by the way, persisted until the first half of the 20th century. Only due to the fact that the Chukchi gradually became involved in trade with the Russians, it was possible to maintain more or less permanent contacts with them. Thus ended the longest armed conflict on the territory of Siberia, which with good reason can also be called a war that the Russians eventually lost - an exceptional case, and for the 18th century, when the glory of Russian weapons thundered all over the world, especially.

Geographical discoveries and scientific achievements .
Along with attempts to establish themselves in the extreme northeast, they actively went in the 18th century. and marine research. ships Russian fleet reached the shores of North America, discovered Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Already from the middle of the century, a large-scale fur trade began there. Well, by the end of the century, the scene appears G. I. Shelikhov, whose name is associated with the Russian colonization of Alaska and the emergence of the so-called Russian America. It is worth dwelling on the life and work of this man, whom contemporaries called nothing more than the Russian Columbus. Coming from poor merchants of the Kursk province, Shelikhov in his youth made acquaintance with the famous I. I. Golikov- also a merchant who wrote a 12-volume history of the reign of Peter I. Under his patronage, Shelikhov in the 70s. ended up in Irkutsk, where he launched his own entrepreneurial activity, and from there - to Okhotsk, where he began to equip expeditions for furs. Over time, he came up with the idea to organize permanent bases in the Aleutian Islands and on the American coast. And in 1784 on three ships he went to O. Kodiak, where he managed to convince the natives of his friendship and peaceful intentions, after which he founded a fortress and a village there. Returning to Russia, Shelikhov obtained an audience with Catherine II, convincing her of the need to create a monopoly trading company and actively populate North America with Russians. The empress, being an opponent of trade monopolies, did not support his idea, but did not reject it either, giving him the opportunity to act on his own initiative. Shelikhov took advantage of this, and by the end of the century there were already 6 Russian settlements on the islands and in Alaska.
Shelikhov died in 1795 However, his work did not disappear and continued to develop. IN 1796 on O. Sitka the capital of Russian America was built Novoarkhangelsk, and in 1799 by decree of Emperor Paul I created Russian-American company, united all Siberian merchants who traded in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and received monopoly rights to trade services for Russian possessions in North America and the colonization of new territories. Under the wing of the company, the extraction of furs and sea animals expanded, trade with the Indians and with the colonies of other European powers developed, their own fleet was started, etc. Russian merchants in Siberia exchanged the furs obtained in the Pacific Ocean for Chinese tea, which was then sent for sale in central Russia and Europe. After Shelikhov, A.A. Baranov, who managed the Russian settlements in America, persistently expanded the company's possessions to the south, reaching even the northern part of modern California, where in 1812 Fort Ross was founded.
But not only new successes in colonization and the further expansion of Russian borders are remarkable in the history of Siberia in the 18th century. It also became the time for the organization of large-scale scientific expeditions with the aim of possibly more thorough study of the Siberian lands that still remained largely "unknown and unknown". It was no coincidence that contemporaries called this century the era of the "second discovery of Siberia." Of course, in the XVII century. quite a few useful information could be found in the unsubscribes and tales of Russian explorers, in the article lists of embassies, etc., but all of them, settling in the Siberian order, became the property of the archives and were hardly used. By the beginning of the XVIII century. even Dezhnev's voyage was forgotten. The first work intended for use in everyday affairs government controlled, became "Drawing book of Siberia"1701 compiled by the Tobolsk boyar son S. U. Remezov and included the plans of almost all Siberian cities with districts. And in the reign of Peter I, the study of Siberia was elevated to the rank of the most important state event, so that there was a fundamental change in the views of the Russian government on the eastern half of the empire.
The main question that personally occupied Peter I was "whether Asia got along with America?". To resolve it, first 1711-1721 several expeditionary detachments studied Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, which were for the first time accurately plotted on geographical map. And at the very beginning 1725, already before his death, Peter instructed V. Bering, Danish captain in the Russian service, finally find out the answer to this question. During First Kamchatka expedition 1725-1730 Bering discovered O. St. Lawrence, passed through the strait, later named after him, and entered the Arctic Ocean, thus confirming Dezhnev's news that Asia was separated from America by the strait. Two of the members of this expedition 1732 having sailed from Kamchatka, they reached the shores of northwestern Alaska. Bering himself continued to stay in Eastern Siberia to soon lead the Second Kamchatka Expedition.
At the same time, the survey of the interior regions of Siberia began. IN 1719 a doctor was sent here under a contract for 7 years D. G. Messerschmidt, who studied the geography and natural resources of the region, its history, the life of the Siberian peoples, etc. The huge natural-historical and ethnographic collections he collected in 1727 were placed at the disposal of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. A captured Swedish officer who fell into Siberian exile Stralenberg also collected a lot of information on the history and ethnography of Siberia, and after returning to his homeland, he published them in the book "Northern and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia" on German. But the main event in Siberian history in the first half of the 18th century was, of course, Great Northern Expedition 1733-1743, consisting of one land "academic" detachment (which included several independent groups) and six naval detachments. The land detachment was entrusted with the task of exploring, if possible, the entire territory of Russian possessions beyond the Urals, while sea expeditions were to search for lands to the east and south of Kamchatka, and also to find out whether there was a sea route from the northern shores of Siberia to India and South America.

The Great Northern Expedition and the activities of Academician G.-F. Miller in Siberia .
The "academic" detachment consisted of European scientists who entered the Russian service. Among them were professors G. F. Miller(historian and philologist) and I. G. Gmelin(natural scientist), academician Delisle de la Croyer(geographer and astronomer), adjunct of the St. Petersburg Academy I. E. Fisher and G. W. Steller, translator of the Senate J. Lindenau. Under their supervision were Russian students, surveyors, artists, translators. Having traveled almost the entire territory of Siberia, they collected gigantic material on the branches of knowledge that interested each of them: they compiled huge collections of samples of minerals, flora and fauna, recorded observations and conclusions regarding the history and ethnography of both the natives and the Russian population of Siberia in expedition diaries, conducted a geographical and astronomical photography of many localities, etc. Even more important was the fact that most of these materials were published, amounting, without exaggeration, to the golden fund of European science of the 18th century. Gmelin, upon his return, published a multi-volume work "Flora of Siberia", S. P. Krasheninnikov, who participated in the expedition as a student, published in 1755"Description of the Land of Kamchatka". But main figure As part of the expedition, of course, G. F. Miller became, who is called, like Herodotus, "the father of Siberian history."
Miller was born in 1705 in Westphalia, and already at the age of 20, having graduated from the University of Leipzig, he moved to Russia. IN 1731 he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, then went to Siberia, and upon his return received 1747 the official position of a historiographer. WITH 1766 and until his death in 1783 supervised the archives of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. His scientific activity was extremely diverse: he published historical monuments, edited magazines, wrote research articles. his crown research activities was the fundamental work "History of Siberia", in which he collected and summarized the unique materials he received in Siberia - a whole set of historical, ethnographic and geographical information. In addition, during a trip to Siberia, Miller examined local archives, and the documents he took out of there subsequently formed the contents of significant funds of central state archives in Moscow and Petersburg. Without referring to these funds, it is impossible to study the history of Siberia in the 17th-18th centuries. even today.
Miller not only personally studied archival documents in Siberian cities, but also conducted special surveys of voivodship offices, sending their chiefs his questionnaires with a requirement to give written answers to the questions formulated there. As the scientist himself later wrote, "I reasoned for good that in order to obtain detailed and reliable statements about the true state of each city, it is necessary to demand them from the offices in each city." First of all, Miller was interested in the history of the founding of cities and settlements: it was required to indicate when, by what decrees and by whom the city or settlement was founded, and to do this according to extracts from original documents and old cases. Then there were questions about the current state of the city - its buildings, the state of affairs in the office, the composition of its servants, the safety of archival files. Miller requested information about the population according to the categories he had identified: service, Russian taxable and aboriginal yasak. He was also interested in the volume of annual taxes and customs duties, income and expenses of the local treasury. Already from this enumeration, one can conclude how valuable the information collected by Miller turned out to be for subsequent generations of scientists, because most of the documents of the Siberian archives of the 17th-18th centuries. did not reach us - they died from fires, rotted, decayed, etc. However, their content can be found in extracts made by Miller, as well as in his diaries and travel descriptions.
Less successful were the actions of the naval detachments of the Great Northern Expedition. It was not possible to pass along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Arkhangelsk to Chukotka - in the 18th century. there was a sharp cooling of the Siberian climate, so that the sea routes, which the Russians freely used in the previous century, were now impassable. Second Kamchatka expedition Commander Bering and A. I. Chirikova, working in the North Pacific 1741-1742, again went to the shores of America. Bering could not get there, having crashed near a desert island, where many members of the crew, led by the commander, died of starvation. Chirikov reached the American coast, but could not land there, after which he undertook a voyage to the Aleutian Islands. IN 1743 By government decree, the activities of the Great Northern Expedition were terminated. Thanks to the results achieved by it, the government and educated circles of Russia got an idea of ​​​​a huge part of the empire, which was practically unknown before, domestic and European science was enriched by the remarkable results of the research carried out by its participants, and the discoveries made by them are rightfully on a par with the great world geographical discoveries of the XVI- 17th century

As soon as the entire Volga region came under Russian rule, eastern border kingdom became the Ural Range. But already in the middle of the 16th century, merchants and industrialists of the Russian North penetrated into the lower reaches of the Ob. They were not the first - back in the 15th century, the first explorers headed east. On boats, like their distant ancient Russian ancestors, they moved along the rivers, passing even beyond the Stone Belt - the Urals.

The southern Trans-Urals remained under the rule of the Siberian Khanate. Its expanses were huge - from Tyumen to the Caspian and from the Urals to the Middle Ob. Until the middle of the 16th century, the Siberian Khanate did not come into contact with Russia in any way, but in 1558 Ivan the Terrible confirmed all the privileges that his grandfather and father had granted to the richest merchants of the Stroganovs, and assigned Anikey Stroganov vast lands between the Kama and the Urals. Now Rus' and the Siberian Khanate had a common border, although not marked in any way.

In 1563, Kuchum seized power in the khanate, who decided to profit from Stroganov's possessions. His detachments more and more often crossed the Urals and appeared on the Kama. By the seventies of the 16th century, a war had actually begun there. The Stroganovs recruited mercenaries - Cossacks and all "eager" people of any rank, from Tatars to Germans. In 1581, a detachment led by ataman Yermak came to the service of the Stroganovs.

Although Yermak had few troops, the ataman acted very successfully and soon captured the stronghold of Kuchum - the city of Isker, which was located not far from present-day Tobolsk. The Stroganovs informed the sovereign about the annexation of vast lands in Siberia, and in 1583 the tsarist governors with a small detachment joined Yermak. Kuchum, however, did not give up and in 1584 lured Yermak's detachment into a trap. Ataman died, but this defeat did not change the whole picture as a whole.

Godunov's government looked at the development of Siberia with much more interest than Ivan the Terrible. At the end of the 16th century, the first Russian fortresses appeared in Siberia. The first was the town at the mouth of the Irtysh, which was founded by the governor Mansurov, then for several years - Tyumen, Tobolsk, Pelym, Berezov, Surgut, Tara, Narym. And in 1591, Kuchum suffered a final defeat from the troops of Prince Koltsov-Mosalsky.

The Troubles interrupted the development of Siberia for some time, but soon it resumed with renewed vigor.

The Russians mastered Siberia in two ways - along the northern coast, which was mainly explored at their own risk by Pomor industrialists, and along the southern borders of Siberia, where the Cossacks and archers were more often the pioneers. These military detachments practically did not encounter any opposition to their advancement; no more than 200 thousand people lived on the entire territory of Siberia, before it was mastered by the Russians.

Peasants followed the Cossacks. There were many free lands then in the south of the country, but they sought to Siberia in order to be away from the authorities and from serfdom. The government provided benefits to immigrants - exemption from taxes, subsidies. Beckoned people and the possibility of fur trade.

Just as in Russia, the peasants first of all mastered the river valleys. The population grew rapidly, and in 1621 it became possible to create the Tobolsk diocese.

Then in Siberia there were about 70 thousand people. By 1650, the Russians had already quite well mastered the comparatively different favorable climate the Amur basin and would have moved on, but faced with China, which had long extended its influence to the southern Amur region. As a rule, the settlers did not have serious conflicts with the local population: there were too few of both.

P. G. Deinichenko. "Russia. The Complete Encyclopedic Reference"

Development of Siberia (briefly)

Exploration of Siberia (short story)

After the successful campaigns of Yermak, the further development of Siberia began to gain momentum. The advance of the Russians took place in the eastern direction of Siberia, in the tundra and taiga sparsely populated areas richest in fur-bearing animals. After all, it was furs that were one of the main incentives for the development of this region at that time.

Moscow service people, Pomors and Cossacks in twenty years were able to break through from the Ob and the Irtysh to the Yenisei, erecting there first Tobolsk and Tyumen, and then Tomsk, Surgut, Narym, Tara and Berezov. In the first half of the seventeenth century, Krasnoyarsk, Yeniseisk and other cities appeared.

In the thirties and forties, explorers led by I. Moskvitin were able to reach the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnev opened the strait between America and Asia. During the development of Siberia, the Russians made many geographical discoveries, and also established a connection with the peoples who for a long time inhabited the territories of the Far East and the Urals. At the same time, development went in both directions. Distant peoples could get acquainted with Russian culture.

In the southern regions of Siberia, more favorable for agriculture, Russian settlers laid the foundation for agricultural land development. So by the middle of the seventeenth century, Russia was turning into the Russian state, but not Russian, since from now on the country included territories that were inhabited by various peoples.

At the same time, the spontaneous colonization of Siberia by the inhabitants of Russia often outpaced the colonization of the government. Sometimes “free industrialists” walked ahead of everyone, and only after some time in their wake did detachments of service people come out, who brought local residents under the sovereign’s hand. In addition, servicemen taxed local residents with quitrent or yasak.

From 1615 to 1763, a special Siberian order functioned in Russia, which dealt with the management of new land territories. Later, Siberia was actually ruled by governors-general, who were not even obliged to live there, transferring their management privileges to the commissioners.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, N. Bestuzhev argued that Siberia was not a colony, but a colonial country mastered by the peoples of Russia. But the Decembrist Batenkov, speaking of Siberia, emphasized the term colony, noting the exploitation natural resources and low population.