In the previous article "Ancient Cossack ancestors" on the basis of numerous chronicles, chronicles, legends, works of Cossack historians and writers, and other sources, it was shown that in a foreseeable retrospective the roots of such a phenomenon as the Cossacks are unambiguously Scythian-Sarmatian, then the Turkic factor was strongly superimposed, then Horde. In the Horde and post-Horde periods, the Don, Volga and Yaitsk Cossacks became strongly Russified due to the massive influx of new fighters from Russia. For the same reason, the Dnieper Cossacks not only became Russified, but also strongly blinded due to the influx of new fighters from the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There was such a kind of ethnic cross-pollination. The Cossacks of the Aral Sea region and from the lower reaches of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya could not become Russified by definition, for religious and geographical reasons, therefore they survived as Kara-Kalpaks (translated from Turkic as Black Klobuki). They had very little contact with Russia, but they diligently served Khorezm, the Central Asian Chingizids and Timurids, about which there are many written testimonies. The same is the Cossacks of the Balkhash, who lived along the shores of the lake and along the rivers flowing into Balkhash. They strongly re-mongolized due to the influx of new fighters from Asian lands, strengthening the military power of Moghulistan and creating the Cossack Khanates. So history de facto divorced the Cossack ethnos into different ethno-state and geopolitical apartments. In order to de jure divide the Cossack sub-ethnoses, only in 1925, by a Soviet decree, the non-Russianized Central Asian Cossacks (called in tsarist times the Kirghiz-Kaisaks, that is, the Kirghiz Cossacks) were renamed Kazakhs. Oddly enough, but the roots of the Cossacks and Kazakhs are the same, the names of these peoples are pronounced and written in Latin (until recently, and in Cyrillic), but the ethno-historical pollination is very different.
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In the 15th century, the role of the Cossacks in the regions bordering on Russia sharply increased due to the incessant raids of nomadic tribes. In 1482, after the final collapse of the Golden Horde, the Crimean, Nogai, Kazan, Kazakh, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates arose.
Rice. 1 The disintegration of the Golden Horde
These fragments of the Horde were in constant enmity with each other, as well as with Lithuania and the Moscow state. Even before the final disintegration of the Horde, during the internal Horde strife, the Muscovites and Litvins put part of the Horde lands under their control. The statelessness and turmoil in the Horde were especially remarkably used by the Lithuanian prince Olgerd. Where by force, where by intelligence and cunning, where with a bribe he included in his possessions many Russian principalities, including the territory of the Dnieper Cossacks (former black hoods) and set himself broad goals: to end Moscow and the Golden Horde. The Dnieper Cossacks made up the armed forces of up to four topics or 40,000 well-trained troops and proved to be a significant support for the policy of Prince Olgerd. And it was from 1482 that a new, three-century period of Eastern European history begins - the period of the struggle for the Horde inheritance. At that time, few could have imagined that the out-of-the-ordinary, albeit dynamically developing, Moscow principality would eventually turn out to be the winner in this titanic struggle. But already less than a century after the collapse of the Horde, under Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Moscow will unite all the Russian principalities around itself and conquer a significant part of the Horde. At the end of the 18th century.under Catherine II, almost the entire territory of the Golden Horde will be under Moscow rule. Having defeated the Crimea and Lithuania, the victorious nobles of the German queen put a fat and final point in the centuries-old dispute over the Horde inheritance. Moreover, in the middle of the 20th century, under Joseph Stalin, for a short time, the Muscovites will create a protectorate over the entire territory of the Great Mongol Empire, created in the 13th century. labor and genius of the Great Genghis Khan, including China. And in all this post-Horde history, the Cossacks took the most lively and active part. And the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy believed that "the whole history of Russia was made by the Cossacks." And although this statement, of course, is an exaggeration, but looking at the history of the Russian state, we can state that all significant military and political events in Russia were not without the active participation of the Cossacks. But all this will come later.
And in 1552 Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible undertook a campaign against the most powerful of these khanates - the heirs of the Horde - Kazan. Up to ten thousand Don and Volga Cossacks participated in that campaign as part of the Russian army. Reporting on this campaign, the chronicle notes that the Tsar ordered Prince Peter Serebryany to go from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan, "… and with him the children of boyars and archers and Cossacks …". Two and a half thousand Cossacks were sent from Meshchera to the Volga to block the transports under the command of Sevryuga and Elka. During the assault on Kazan, the Don chieftain Misha Cherkashenin distinguished himself with his Cossacks. And the Cossack legend tells that during the siege of Kazan, a young Volga Cossack Yermak Timofeev, disguised as a Tatar, entered Kazan, examined the fortress, and, returning, indicated the places most favorable for blowing up the fortress walls.
After the fall of Kazan and the annexation of the Kazan Khanate to Russia, the military-political situation changed dramatically in favor of Muscovy. Already in 1553, Kabardian princes arrived in Moscow to beat the king with their foreheads so that he would accept them as citizenship and protect them against the Crimean Khan and the Nogai hordes. With this embassy arrived in Moscow and ambassadors from the Greben Cossacks who lived along the Sunzha River and were neighbors with the Kabardians. In the same year, the Siberian tsar Edigei sent two officials to Moscow with gifts and pledged to pay tribute to the Moscow tsar. Further, Ivan the Terrible set a task for the governors to capture Astrakhan and conquer the Astrakhan Khanate. The Muscovite state was to be strengthened along the entire length of the Volga. The next year, 1554, was eventful for Moscow. With the help of the Cossacks and Moscow troops, Dervish-Ali was placed on the throne of the Astrakhan Khanate with the obligation to pay tribute to the Moscow state. After Astrakhan, hetman Vishnevetsky joined the service of the Moscow Tsar with the Dnieper Cossacks. Prince Vishnevetsky came from the Gediminovich family and was a supporter of the Russian-Lithuanian rapprochement. For this he was repressed by King Sigismund I and fled to Turkey. Returning from Turkey, with the permission of the king, he became the headman of the ancient Cossack cities of Kanev and Cherkassy. Then he sent ambassadors to Moscow and the tsar accepted him with "Cossacks" into the service, issued a certificate of protection and sent a salary.
Despite the betrayal of the Russian protege Dervish-Ali, Astrakhan was soon conquered, but shipping along the Volga was completely in the power of the Cossacks. The Volga Cossacks were especially numerous at that time and so firmly "sat" in the Zhiguli Hills that practically not a single caravan passed by without ransom or was robbed. Nature itself, having created the Zhiguli loop on the Volga, took care of the extreme convenience of this place for such a craft. It is in this connection that the Russian chronicles for the first time especially note the Volga Cossacks - in 1560 it was written: “…The Volga Cossacks consider 1560 to be the year of seniority (education) of the Volga Cossack Host. Ivan IV the Terrible could not jeopardize the entire eastern trade and, driven out of patience by the attack of the Cossacks on his ambassador, on October 1, 1577, sent steward Ivan Murashkin to the Volga with the order "… to torture, execute and hang thieves' Volga Cossacks." In many works on the history of the Cossacks, there is a mention of the fact that, due to government repressions, many Volga free Cossacks left - some to the Terek and Don, others to Yaik (Ural), others, led by the ataman Ermak Timofeevich, to Chusovskiye towns to serve to the merchants Stroganovs, and from there to Siberia. Having thoroughly destroyed the largest Volga Cossack army, Ivan IV the Terrible carried out the first (but not the last) large-scale decossackization in Russian history.
VOLZHSKY ATAMAN ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH
The most legendary hero of the Cossack atamans of the 16th century, undoubtedly, is Ermolai Timofeevich Tokmak (by the Cossack nickname Ermak), who conquered the Siberian Khanate and laid the foundation for the Siberian Cossack Host. Even before he became a Cossack, in his early youth, this Pomor resident Yermolai, son of Timofeev, for his remarkable strength and fighting qualities received his first and not sickly nickname Tokmak (Tokmak, Tokmach - a massive wooden mallet for ramming the earth). Yes, and in the Cossacks Yermak, apparently, also from a young age. No one knew Yermak better than his comrades-in-arms - the veterans of the "Siberian capture". In their declining years, those who were spared by death lived in Siberia. According to the Esipov chronicle, compiled from the recollections of Yermak's still living comrades-in-arms and opponents, before the Siberian campaign, the Cossacks Ilyin and Ivanov already knew him and served with Yermak in the villages for at least twenty years. However, this period of the chieftain's life is not documented.
According to Polish sources, in June 1581, Yermak, at the head of the Volga Cossack flotilla, fought in Lithuania against the Polish-Lithuanian troops of King Stephen Batory. At this time, his friend and associate Ivan Koltso fought in the Trans-Volga steppes with the Nogai Horde. In January 1582 Russia concluded the Yam-Zapolsky peace with Poland and Yermak got the opportunity to return to his native land. Ermak's detachment arrives on the Volga and in Zhiguli connects with the detachment of Ivan Koltso and other "thieves' Atamans". To this day, there is the village of Ermakovo. Here (according to other sources on Yaik) they are found by a messenger from the wealthy Permian salt producers, the Stroganovs, with an offer to go to their service. To protect their possessions, the Stroganovs were allowed to build fortresses and keep armed detachments in them. In addition, a detachment of Moscow troops was constantly stationed within the Permian land in the Cherdyn fortress. The appeal of the Stroganovs led to a split among the Cossacks. Ataman Bogdan Barbosha, who until then was Ivan Koltso's chief assistant, resolutely refused to hire Perm merchants. Barbosha took several hundreds of Cossacks with him to Yaik. After Barbosha and his supporters left the circle, the majority on the circle went to Yermak and his villages. Knowing that for the defeat of the tsar's caravan, Ermak had already been sentenced to quartering, and the Ring to be hanged, the Cossacks accept the invitation of the Stroganovs to go to their Chusovo towns to protect themselves from the raids of the Siberian Tatars. There was another reason as well. At that time, a grandiose uprising of the Volga peoples had been blazing on the Volga for several years. After the end of the Livonian War, in April 1582, the tsar's ship raids began to arrive on the Volga to suppress the uprising. Free Cossacks found themselves, as it were, between a rock and a hard place. They did not want to participate in actions against the rebels, but they did not take their side either. They decided to leave the Volga. In the summer of 1582, a detachment of Ermak and atamans Ivan Koltso, Matvey Meshcheryak, Bogdan Bryazga, Ivan Alexandrov, nicknamed Cherkas, Nikita Pan, Savva Boldyr, Gavrila Ilyin in the amount of 540 people along the Volga and Kama rises on plows to the Chusovsky towns. The Stroganovs gave Yermak some weapons, but it was insignificant, since the entire squad of Ermak had excellent weapons.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Siberian prince Alei with the best troops went on a raid on the Perm fortress Cherdyn, and the Siberian Khan Kuchum was busy with the war with the Nogai, Yermak himself undertakes a daring invasion of his lands. It was an extremely daring and daring, but dangerous plan. Any miscalculation or accident deprived the Cossacks of any chance of return and salvation. Had they been defeated, contemporaries and descendants would easily have written off him as a madness of the brave. But the Yermakites won, and the winners are not judged, they are admired. We will also admire. The Stroganov merchant ships have long been sailing the Ural and Siberian rivers, and their people knew very well the regime of these waterways. In the days of autumn floods, the water in mountain rivers and streams rose after heavy rains and mountain passes became accessible for dragging. In September, Ermak could have crossed the Urals, but if he had lingered there until the end of the floods, his Cossacks would not have been able to drag their ships over the passes back. Yermak understood that only a swift and sudden attack could lead him to victory, and therefore he was in a hurry with all his might. Ermak's people more than once overcame a multi-verst crossing between the Volga and the Don. But overcoming the Ural mountain passes was fraught with incomparably great difficulties. With an ax in their hands, the Cossacks made their own way, cleared debris, fell trees, chopped a clearing. They did not have the time and energy to level the rocky path, as a result of which they could not drag ships along the ground using rollers. According to the participants in the expedition from the Esipov Chronicle, they dragged the ships up the mountain "on themselves", in other words, on their hands. Along the Tagil passes, Ermak left Europe and descended from the “Stone” (Ural Mountains) to Asia. In 56 days, the Cossacks covered more than 1,500 km, including about 300 km against the current along the Chusovaya and Serebryanka and 1,200 km along the course of the Siberian rivers, and reached the Irtysh. This became possible thanks to iron discipline and solid military organization. Ermak categorically forbade any minor skirmishes with the natives on the way, only forward. In addition to the atamans, the Cossacks were commanded by the foremen, Pentecostals, centurions and esauls. With the detachment there were three Orthodox priests and one pop-defrocked. Ermak in the campaign strictly demanded the observance of all Orthodox fasts and holidays.
And now thirty Cossack plows are sailing along the Irtysh. In the front, the wind rushes the Cossack banner: blue with a wide red red border. Kumach is embroidered with patterns, at the corners of the banner there are fancy rosettes. In the center, on a blue field, there are two white figures standing opposite each other on their hind legs, a lion and an ingor-horse with a horn on its forehead, the personification of "prudence, purity and severity." Ermak fought with this banner against Stefan Batory in the West, and came with him to Siberia. At the same time, the best Siberian army, led by Tsarevich Alei, unsuccessfully stormed the Russian fortress Cherdyn in the Perm region. The appearance on the Irtysh of Yermak's Cossack flotilla was a complete surprise for Kuchum. He hastened to gather Tatars from nearby uluses, as well as Mansi and Khant princes with detachments, to defend his capital. The Tatars hastily built fortifications (spotting) on the Irtysh near the Chuvashev Cape and placed many foot and horse soldiers along the entire coast. On October 26, on the Chuvashov Cape, on the banks of the Irtysh, a grandiose battle broke out, led by Kuchum himself from the opposite side. In this battle, the Cossacks successfully used the old and beloved "rook army" technique. Part of the Cossacks with scarecrows made of brushwood, dressed in Cossack dress, sailed on plows clearly visible from the shore and continuously fought with the shore, and the main detachment unnoticed landed on the shore and, on foot, swiftly attacked from the rear the horse and foot army of Kuchum and overthrew it … The Khant princes, frightened by the volleys, were the first to leave the battlefield. Their example was followed by the Mansi warriors who took refuge after the retreat in the impassable Yaskalba swamps. In this battle, Kuchum's troops were utterly defeated, Mametkul was wounded and miraculously escaped captivity, Kuchum himself fled, and Yermak occupied his capital, Kashlyk.
Rice. 2 Conquest of the Siberian Khanate
Soon the Cossacks occupied the towns of Epanchin, Chingi-Tura and Isker, bringing the local princes and kings into submission. Local Khanty-Mansi tribes, burdened by the power of Kuchum, showed peacefulness towards the Russians. Four days after the battle, the first prince Boyar with his fellow tribesmen came to Kashlyk and brought with him a lot of supplies. Tatars, who fled from the vicinity of Kashlyk, began to return to their yurts with their families. The dashing foray was a success. Rich booty fell into the hands of the Cossacks. However, it was too early to celebrate the victory. At the end of autumn, the Cossacks could no longer set out on their way back. The harsh Siberian winter has begun. Ice bound rivers, which served as the only routes of communication. The Cossacks had to pull the plows ashore. Their first difficult winter quarters began.
Kuchum carefully prepared to inflict a fatal blow on the Cossacks and liberate his capital. However, willy-nilly, he had to give the Cossacks more than a month's respite: he had to wait for the return of Alei's troops from beyond the Ural ridge. The question was about the existence of the Siberian Khanate. Therefore, messengers galloped to all ends of the vast "kingdom" with an order to gather military forces. All who were able to bear arms were called under the khan's banners. Kuchum again entrusted the command to his nephew Mametkul, who had dealt with the Russians more than once. Mametkul set out to liberate Kashlyk, having more than 10 thousand soldiers at his disposal. The Cossacks could defend themselves from the Tatars by sitting in Kashlyk. But they preferred the offensive to the defense. Yermak on December 5 attacked the advancing Tatar army 15 versts south of Kashlyk in the area of Lake Abalak. The battle was difficult and bloody. Many Tatars were killed on the battlefield, but the Cossacks also suffered heavy losses. With the onset of night darkness, the battle ended by itself. The countless Tatar army retreated. Unlike the first battle at Cape Chuvashev, this time there was no panicky flight of the enemy in the midst of the battle. There was no question of capturing their commander-in-chief. Nevertheless, Ermak won the most glorious of his victories over the united forces of the entire Kuchum kingdom. The waters of the Siberian rivers were covered with ice and impenetrable snow. Cossack plows have long been pulled ashore. All escape routes were cut off. The Cossacks fiercely fought with the enemy, realizing that either victory or death awaited them. For each of the Cossacks there were more than twenty enemies. This battle showed the heroism and moral superiority of the Cossacks, it meant the complete and final conquest of the Siberian Khanate.
To inform the tsar about the conquest of the Siberian kingdom in the spring of 1583, Ermak sent a detachment of 25 Cossacks to Ivan IV the Terrible, led by Ivan Koltso. This was not a random choice. According to the Cossack historian A. A. Gordeeva, Ivan Koltso - this is the nephew of the disgraced Metropolitan Philip who fled to the Volga and the former Tsar's okolnichy Ivan Kolychev, the scion of the numerous but disgraced boyar family of the Kolychevs. Gifts, yasak, noble captives and a petition were sent with the embassy, in which Ermak asked forgiveness for his previous guilt and asked to send the voivode with a detachment of troops to Siberia. Moscow at that time was very upset by the failures of the Livonian War. Military defeats followed one after another. The success of a handful of Cossacks who defeated the Siberian kingdom flashed like lightning in the darkness, striking the imagination of contemporaries. Ermak's embassy headed by Ivan Koltso was received in Moscow very solemnly. According to contemporaries, there has been no such joy in Moscow since the conquest of Kazan.“Ermak and his comrades and all the Cossacks were forgiven by the tsar for all their previous faults, the tsar presented Ivan the Ring and the Cossacks who arrived with him with gifts. Ermak was granted a fur coat from the tsar's shoulder, battle armor and a letter in his name, in which the tsar encouraged the ataman Ermak to write as a Siberian prince … . Ivan the Terrible ordered to send to the aid of the Cossacks a detachment of archers, numbering 300 people, led by Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky. Simultaneously with the Koltso detachment, Ermak sent ataman Alexander Cherkas with the Cossacks to the Don and Volga to recruit volunteers. After visiting the villages, Cherkas also ended up in Moscow, where he worked long and hard and sought to send help to Siberia. But Cherkas returned to Siberia with a new large detachment, when neither Ermak nor the Ring, who had returned to Siberia earlier, were alive. The fact is that in the spring of 1584 great changes took place in Moscow - Ivan IV died in his Kremlin palace, unrest broke out in Moscow. In the general confusion, the Siberian expedition was forgotten for a while. Almost two years passed before the free Cossacks received help from Moscow. What allowed them to stay in Siberia with small forces and resources for such a long time?
Yermak survived because the Cossacks and chieftains had the experience of long wars both with the most advanced European army of that time, Stephen Batory, and with nomads in the "wild field". For many years their camps and winter quarters were always surrounded by gentry or Horde people from all sides. The Cossacks learned to overcome them, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy. An important reason for the success of Yermak's expedition was the internal fragility of the Siberian Khanate. Since Kuchum killed Khan Edigei and took possession of his throne, many years have passed, filled with incessant bloody wars. Where by force, where by cunning and cunning Kuchum humbled the recalcitrant Tatar Murzas (princes) and imposed tribute on the Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. At first, Kuchum, like Edigei, paid tribute to Moscow, but after gaining power and receiving news of the failures of the Moscow troops on the western front, he took a hostile position and began to attack the Perm lands belonging to the Stroganovs. Having surrounded himself with a guard of Nogai and Kirghiz, he consolidated his power. But the very first military failures immediately led to the resumption of internecine strife among the Tatar nobility. The son of the murdered Edigei, Seid Khan, who was hiding in Bukhara, returned to Siberia and began to threaten Kuchum with revenge. With his help, Yermak restored the former trade communication of Siberia with Yurgent, the capital of the White Horde, located on the shores of the Aral Sea. Near Murza Kuchum Seinbakhta Tagin gave Yermak the location of Mametkul, the most prominent of the Tatar military leaders. The capture of Mametkul deprived Kuchum of his reliable sword. The nobles, afraid of Mametkula, began to leave the khan's court. Karachi, the chief dignitary of Kuchum, who belonged to a powerful Tatar family, ceased to obey the khan and migrated with his warriors to the upper reaches of the Irtysh. The Siberian kingdom was falling apart before our eyes. The power of Kuchum was no longer recognized by many local Mansi and Khant princes and elders. Some of them began to help Ermak with food. Among the allies of the ataman were Alachi, the princes of the largest Khanty principality in the Ob region, the Khanty prince Boyar, the Mansi princes Ishberdey and Suklem from the Yaskalbinsky places. Their help was invaluable for the Cossacks.
Rice. 3, 4 Ermak Timofeevich and the oath of Siberian tsars to him
After long delays, governor S. Bolkhovsky with a detachment of 300 archers arrived in Siberia with a great delay. Ermak, burdened by the new noble captives led by Mametkul, hastened them immediately, despite the coming winter, to send them to Moscow with the arrow head Kireev. The replenishment did not please the Cossacks much. The archers were poorly trained, they lost their supplies on the way, and difficult trials awaited them ahead. Winter 1584-1585in Siberia it was very harsh and for the Russians it was especially difficult, the supplies ran out, and famine began. By the spring, all the archers, along with Prince Bolkhovsky, and a significant part of the Cossacks died of hunger and cold. In the spring of 1585, Kuchum's dignitary, the Murza of Karacha, deceived a detachment of Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso to a feast, and at night, attacking them, slaughtered everyone who was sleepy. Numerous detachments of Karachi kept Kashlyk in a ring, hoping to starve the Cossacks to death. Ermak patiently waited for the moment to strike. Under cover of night, the Cossacks sent by him, led by Matvey Meshcheryak, secretly made their way to the headquarters of Karachi and defeated it. In the battle, two sons of Karachi were killed, he himself barely escaped death, and his army fled away from Kashlyk on the same day. Ermak won another brilliant victory over numerous enemies. Soon, messengers from Bukhara merchants arrived to Yermak with a request to protect them from the arbitrariness of Kuchum. Ermak with the remainder of the army - about a hundred people - set out on a campaign. The end of the first Siberian expedition is shrouded in a dense veil of legends. On the banks of the Irtysh near the mouth of the Vagai River, where Ermak's detachment spent the night, Kuchum attacked them during a terrible storm and thunderstorm. Ermak assessed the situation and ordered to get into the plows. Meanwhile, the Tatars had already broken into the camp. Ermak was the last to leave, covering the Cossacks. Tatar archers fired a cloud of arrows. The arrows pierced the broad chest of Yermak Timofeevich. The swift icy waters of the Irtysh swallowed him up forever …
This Siberian expedition lasted three years. Hunger and deprivation, severe frosts, battles and losses - nothing could stop the free Cossacks, break their will to victory. For three years, Ermak's squad did not know defeat from numerous enemies. In the last night skirmish, the thinned detachment retreated, suffering minor losses. But he lost a tried and tested leader. The expedition could not continue without him. Arriving in Kashlyk, Matvey Meshcheryak gathered a Circle, on which the Cossacks decided to go to the Volga for help. Ermak brought 540 soldiers to Siberia, and only 90 Cossacks survived. With the ataman Matvey Meshcheryak, they returned to Russia. Already in 1586, another detachment of Cossacks from the Volga came to Siberia and founded the first Russian city there - Tyumen, which served as the basis for the future Siberian Cossack Host and the beginning of the incredibly sacrificial and heroic Siberian Cossack epic. And thirteen years after the death of Ermak, the tsarist governors finally defeated Kuchum.
The history of the Siberian expedition was rich in many incredible events. The fates of people underwent instant and incredible changes, and the zigzags and freaks of Moscow politics never cease to amaze even today. The story of Tsarevich Mametkul can serve as a vivid example of this. After the death of Grozny, the nobility ceased to reckon with the orders of the feeble-minded Tsar Fyodor. Boyars and noblemen in the capital started parochial disputes for any reason. Everyone demanded the highest posts, referring to the "breed" and service of their ancestors. Boris Godunov and Andrey Shchelkalov eventually found a means to bring the nobility to their senses. By their order, the discharge order announced the appointment of serving Tatars to the highest military posts. On the occasion of the anticipated war with the Swedes, a list of regiments was drawn up. According to this painting, Simeon Bekbulatovich took the post of the first commander of a large regiment - the commander-in-chief of the field army. The commander of the left-hand regiment was … "Tsarevich Mametkul of Siberia." Twice beaten and defeated by Yermak, captured and put in a pit by the Cossacks, Mametkul was treated kindly at the royal court and was appointed to one of the highest posts in the Russian army.
FORMATION OF THE EGG TROOPS
One of the first mentions of the Cossacks on Yaik is associated with the name of the legendary Cossack chieftain Gugni. He was one of the glorious and bravest Cossack commanders in the horde of the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. After Tamerlane's campaigns against the Golden Horde and the defeat of Tokhtamysh, Gugnya, along with his Cossacks, migrated to Yaik, taking these lands as his inheritance. But he received legendary fame for another reason. At that time, the Cossacks kept a vow of celibacy. Having brought a new wife from the campaign, they drove away (or sold, sometimes even killed) the old one. Gugnya did not want to betray his beautiful Nogai wife, entered into a legal marriage with her, and since then the former cruel custom was abandoned by the Cossacks. In the families of the enlightened Ural Cossacks, a toast to grandmother Gugnikha, the patroness of the Ural Cossacks, is still known. But mass settlements of the Cossacks on Yaik appeared later.
The years 1570-1577 are noted in Russian chronicles as the years of the struggle of the Volga Cossacks with the Big Nogai Horde, whose nomadic camps began immediately beyond the Volga. From there, the Nogai constantly invaded the Russian lands. The ruler of the Great Nogai Horde, Khan Urus, broke off peaceful relations with Moscow long ago. His ambassadors pounded the thresholds of the khan's palace in Bakhchisarai. They solicited the sending of a new Turkish-Tatar army to Astrakhan and promised that the Nogai Horde would provide them with effective assistance this time. The Crimeans played their game with Russia and did not trust the promises of the Nogai too much. The actions of the free Cossacks tied the forces of the Nogai Horde and generally met Moscow interests in the Volga region. Taking advantage of the favorable moment, the Volga Cossacks attacked the capital of the Nogai Horde three times - the city of Saraichik - and burned it three times, freeing the Russian people driven there from the Nogai captivity. The campaigns to Saraichik were led by atamans Ivan Koltso, Savva Boldyr, Bogdan Barbosha, Ivan Yuriev, Nikita Pan. However, in 1578, the atamans Ivan Yuriev and Mitya Britousov again defeated Saraichik … but paid on the block with their heads - the Moscow Tsar at that moment was not profitable with the Nogai. The royal ambassadors negotiated the participation of the Nogai troops in the Livonian War. The raid took place at the wrong time and the chieftains fell victim to "high politics".
In 1577, fearing reprisals by the government troops of the steward Murashkin, part of the "thieves" Volga Cossacks under the command of the atamans Koltso, Nechai and Barbosha went to the mouth of the Yaik (Ural), to the northern coast of the Caspian Sea. Together with them, the gangs of the Volga atamans Yakuni Pavlov, Yakbulat Chembulatov, Nikita Usa, Pervushi Zeya, Ivan Dud left for Yaik. In 1582, after the Yermakians left for Siberia, and Barbosha and other atamans went to Yaik, the war with the Nogais began to boil with renewed vigor. Barbosha's detachments once again defeated the capital of the Nogai Horde Saraichik and, having built a fortified town upstream of the Yaik, founded the Yaitskoye (Ural) Cossack Host. Khan Urus was beside himself with anger when he found out about this. Several times he tried to knock the Cossacks off the kuren, but to no avail. In 1586, new hordes of the Horde approached the Yaitsky town - several thousand against four hundred Cossacks … However, the Nogai could not take the fortress, and the Cossacks did not sit out for a long time in it. In equestrian order, they left the walls, divided into six detachments and defeated the enemy. The defeat of Urus on the Yaik was as important for the fate of the southern Urals as the defeat of Kuchum for the fate of Siberia. The tsarist government hastened to take advantage of all the victories of the free Volga Cossacks over the Nogai horde. Already in the summer of 1586, the Moscow envoy notified Khan Urus that Tsar Fyodor had ordered the building of fortresses in four places: "in Ufa, but on Uvek, and on Samara, and on Belaya Volozhka." So it was the highest commanded to found the current Russian cities with a population of over one million Ufa, Samara, Saratov and Tsaritsyn. Khan Urus protested in vain. He was busy with an unsuccessful war with Barbosha and the tsarist governors could build fortifications without fear of attacks by nomads. The Nogays in vain hoped for the help of the Crimeans. Bloody feuds broke out in the Crimea. Saving his life, Tsarevich Murat-Girey fled from the Crimea to Russia and became a vassal of the king. Moscow began preparations for a large offensive against the Crimean horde. Voivods with regiments arrived in Astrakhan. The appearance of large forces sobered Khan Urus. Murat-Girey, who went to Astrakhan after the governors, persuaded him to again go under the protection of Moscow. But the Cossacks were not aware of these zigzags of Moscow policy.
Rice. 5 Ural Cossacks
The discharge order ordered to attract Volga and Yaik free Cossacks for the campaign to the Crimea. The voivode of the newly built Samara fortress hastily dispatched a messenger with a letter to Yaik. Inviting the atamans to the sovereign's service, the voivode swore that the king "for their service orders their guilt to be separated from them." A circle has gathered in the Cossack town on the Yaik. The fellows were noisy again, the old chieftains threw their hats on the ground. Bogdan Barbosha and other "thieves" atamans took over. They did not want to serve the tsar, as before they did not want to go "for hire" to the Stroganovs. But part of the Cossacks, led by the ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak, went to Samara for the tsarist service. In 1586, the governor, Prince Grigory Zasekin, founded the Samara fortress at the mouth of the Samara River at its confluence with the Volga River. The garrison of the fortress consisted of urban Cossacks, foreign noblemen and Smolensk gentry, who were recruited into the Cossack service. The tasks of the garrison-fortress of Samara were: defense from nomadic raids, control over the waterway and trade, as well as over the Volga Cossack freemen, if possible, attracting her to the sovereign's service or punishing her for disobedience. It should be noted that the city Cossacks “did not hesitate” to catch “thieves” Cossacks for reward, considering it a completely normal phenomenon and a suitable service (this is where the famous game “Cossacks-robbers” started). Thus, the hero of many Nogai campaigns, the ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak, on the way to the sovereign's service, drove a shoal of horses in the Nogai nomads of more than 500 heads. Arriving on the Volga, he camped not far from Samara. The Nogai Khan lodged a complaint against the Cossacks with the governor Zasekin. The Moscow state then did not need a conflict with the nogai, and by order of Zasekin Matyush Meshcheryak and five of his comrades were captured and imprisoned in the Samara prison. Sitting in prison, Matyusha Meshcheryak makes a desperate attempt to save himself. He manages to plot to capture the fortress. The Cossacks imprisoned in prison managed to enter into an agreement with a part of the Samara garrison, dissatisfied with Zasekin. Messengers were sent to the Zhiguli Hills to the free Volga Cossacks with a request for help. Accident failed the conspiracy. In the “questioning” about the torture, the Cossacks admitted their “guilt”. The incident was reported to Moscow. The sovereign's letter, brought by Postnik Kosyagovsky, read: "Matyush Meshcheryak and some of their comrades Pushyh (the Sovereign) ordered to be executed before the ambassadors by death …". In March 1587 in Samara, on the city square, in front of the Nogai ambassadors, the Moscow authorities hanged the dashing Yaitsk ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak and his comrades, who were sacrificed to the "high" Moscow politics. Soon, for the defeat of the Persian ambassadorial caravan, Ermak's longtime rival, Ataman Bogdan Barbosha, was captured and executed. Other chieftains became more accommodating.
The first mention of the "sovereign" service of the Yaik Cossacks dates back to 1591, when, according to the decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the voivods - boyar Pushkin and Prince Ivan Vasilyevich Sitsky - were ordered: “… and for the service, the Tsar ordered the Yaitsk and Volga chieftains and Cossacks to go to Astrakhan to the camp …, to collect all the Cossacks for the Shevkal service: the Volga - 1000 people and the Yaiks - 500 people”. It is 1591 that is officially the year of the beginning of the service of the Yaik Cossacks. From him the seniority of the Ural Cossack Host is calculated. In 1591, the Volga Cossacks, together with the Yaiks, took part in the campaign of the Russian troops against Dagestan against Shamkhal Tarkovsky. Performing "service to the sovereign", they participated in the capture of the capital of Shamkhalism - the city of Tarki. In 1594, they again, in the amount of a thousand people in the detachment of Prince Andrei Khvorostinin, fought with Shamkhal.
The departure to Yaik and to Siberia of a part of the Volga Cossacks (mostly "thieves") did not greatly weaken the Volga Cossacks, if we assume that only in the headquarters of the ataman Ermak (the modern village of Ermakovo in the Zhigulevsky mountains of the Samara region) at that time there were more than 7,000 Cossacks. Moreover, despite the exodus and government repressions, the Volga Army continued to remain strong enough at a later time - in the 17th-18th centuries. Another part of the Volga Cossacks, who went to the Terek, to the “ridges” of the Caucasus Mountains, served as the basis for the formation of the Tersk and the replenishment of the Grebensk Cossack Troops. But that is another story.
A. A. Gordeev History of the Cossacks
Shamba Balinov What was the Cossacks
Skrynnikov R. G. 'Expedition to Siberia of Ermak's detachment'
