The Chukchi turned out to be the most difficult enemy for the Russian Cossacks
The conquest of Siberia went on very briskly for a long time. Local peoples agreed to pay the tsarist voivods the same yasak as the previous invaders (Tatars). This was until the Russian explorers approached Kolyma and Anadyr. It was here that they met the Chukchi.
Since the 15th century, the Moscow state has been constantly expanding its borders. Moreover, if in the western direction the business did not advance very quickly, then the breakthrough to the east was calculated in thousands of kilometers. Back in 1552, the Volga was a Tatar river, and the regiments of Ivan the Terrible stormed Kazan. And already in 1644 the Cossack Mikhail Stadukhin brought to the Yakutsk prison everything about the new people - "chyukoch".
Deer kidnappers
The foreigners themselves called themselves oravetlat ("people) or luoravetlat (" real people "). The western border of their territory was the Kolyma River, the southern border was the Anadyr River.
They were divided into those who lived on the ocean shore and rode dog sleds (they were called "ankalyn"), and those who raised deer - "chow-chu" ("rich in deer"). By the way, they began to engage in reindeer husbandry for oravetlat shortly before the arrival of the Cossacks - before that they simply hunted deer. Their way of life was, in fact, still primitive, most of the products were stone or bone.
Russian explorers followed the trail of the sable, simultaneously levying tribute to the local population with the skins of fur animals in favor of the Moscow Tsar. Merciless extermination rapidly reduced the population of fur-bearing animals. But this did not bother the earners - they moved further, to the east.
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The Chukchi turned out to be a fundamentally new enemy. They did not have permanent cities, not a single leader, by capturing or killing whom, it would be possible to force the entire tribe into submission. Not familiar with civilization, they have not paid tribute to anyone, and they did not know what it is.
Being hunters since childhood, they perfectly wielded a spear and a bow. Broad-shouldered, well built, they spent a lot of time exercising. According to ethnographers' records, some "Chauchis" were trained as "runners" so that they could run with a herd of deer all day, overcoming 40 kilometers or more across a snow-covered field. Others were trained as "fighters", so that those, if something happened, could defend the honor of the camp (clan, tribe) in single combat with a representative of another tribe.
An interesting story is how one day they “teach” a reindeer pasture from the Koryaks. One Koryak strongman, in order to assert the claims of his tribe to the territory, grabbed a huge stone and carried it to the nearest hill (while it, however, strained). Imagine the horror of the Koryaks when, a few days later, they found the unfortunate stone on another hill, higher! After that, the Koryaks admitted defeat and migrated to the sea.
However, it was not always possible to resolve friction between tribes peacefully. The Chukchi were literally reclaiming their place under the sun. According to some data, for almost 50 years, from 1725 to 1773, the Chukchi managed to recapture about 240 thousand reindeer from the Koryaks (however, there is no statistical data on how many Koryaks recaptured reindeer from the Chukchi during the same period).
The whole life of the Chukchi was spent hunting or hiking. In winter, sleigh rides - to the Koryaks and Yukagirs. In summer on canoe - against the American Eskimos. In their sea raids, they reached the shores of modern Canada. By the way, the last Chukchi-Eskimo war happened already in 1947, and the Chukchi won it! As for the Koryaks, they say that the detachment of the Moscow Cossacks, "Chauchi" and they gave battle.
Spears against guns
For the time being, the Russians and the Chukchi exchanged raids. But in 1727, when Russia had already become an empire, it was ordered to deal with the "non-peaceful chukochi" for real. On this occasion, the Senate even issued a decree: “… and the following reasons for the possession of such peoples and lands: 1. That those lands were attached to Russian possession and were not subject to …; 2. For the profit of the state, in those places the sable and protchas the beast of the parent …; 3. For the knowledge of the eastern sea by sea, from which commerce with Japan or China Korea may follow …; 4. Especially for the future capture, while they are of other lands, and especially from the Chinese side, like bordering Siberia, they did not set foot in those newly found lands …"
The base for the subsequent attack on the Chukchi was the Anadyr prison. At the head of the military expedition were the Yakut Cossack head Afanasy Shestakov and the dragoon captain Dmitry Pavlutsky. Under their command there were 400 soldiers and Cossacks (not counting the "yasak people"). But with the beginning of the expedition, the Russian side was haunted by setbacks. First
Shestakov and Pavlutsky quarreled over powers, as a result of which they split up and began to act independently. On March 14, 1730, on the Egach River, Shestakov's detachment (20 Cossacks and 113 Yasak Yakuts, Tungus and Koryaks) was defeated by 2 thousand Chukchi (according to the losers). In a hot battle, 10 Cossacks and 18 yasak people were killed, the rest fled. Shestakov himself was seriously wounded by an arrow in the throat, and then killed.
Pavlutsky conducted several punitive campaigns on the Chukchi Peninsula, but he did not manage to bring the Chukchi to citizenship. And then there was a pogrom. The Chukchi stole a herd of reindeer from the Koryaks, which also contained reindeer belonging to the Anadyr garrison. Pavlutsky personally, with a detachment of about 100 people, rushed in pursuit. But it looks like it was a trap. On March 14, 1747 (exactly 17 years after the death of Shestakov's detachment!) Pavlutsky came across an army of about 500 people at the mouth of the Orlova River. He attacked them, but after a rifle salvo, the Chukchi did not rush in all directions, but went on the Russians in a spear attack.
"The enemies of the Chukchi went on spears, and they also went against them, the enemies of the Chukchi, went on spears and fought with them for a long time." As a result, Major Pavlutsky himself, 40 Cossacks and 11 Koryaks died. 13 Cossacks and 15 Koryaks were wounded, one Cossack was captured. The victors managed to capture part of the convoy of Pavlutsky's detachment, including one iron cannon and a banner. The Chukchi later said that “ours unexpectedly attacked, defeated, slaughtered everyone, they only took the chief alive to torture …” But this is just a legend. In fact, they only got the mail of the deceased, which was kept as a relic for a long time. Only in 1870 did the Chukotka foreman, who inherited it from his grandfather, presented it to the Kolyma police chief, Baron Maydel. From 1748 to 1755, the Russians went on a campaign against the Chukchi three more times, but they skillfully avoided decisive battles. It became clearthat a military hand cannot pacify them.
Abolished prison
In 1760, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Christia-novich Plenisner became the head of Anadyr. He figured it out with his German mind and suggested that the Siberian governor abolish the Anadyr party altogether. According to Plenisner's calculations, 1,381,007.49 rubles were spent on its maintenance during its existence, and only 29,152.54 rubles were received for the yasach and other fees for the same period. At the same time, the Chukchi were not only not pacified, but the confrontation with them only intensified.
By 1771, the Anadyr prison was liquidated. The garrison was transferred to other fortresses, and the fortifications were destroyed. Thus ended the military epic of the Russian-Chukchi confrontation. The Chukchi immediately took advantage of the departure of the military, penetrating into Anadyr, displacing the Koryaks to the Gizhiga River, and the Yukaghirs to the Kolyma.
Under Empress Catherine II, the "Chukoch" was ordered to be converted into Russian citizenship by "affection". By order of the Empress, they were exempted from yasak for 10 years and retained complete independence in internal affairs. But even after 10 years the Chukchi did not want to pay yasak.
The tsarist government, doing nothing, extended the "tax breaks", and has done so more than once in the future. According to
The Chukchi lived according to their own laws and were judged by their own courts in the 1822 "Charter on the Administration of Foreigners" Yasak - fox skin from a bow (that is, from a man) - was paid by the indigenous people of Chukotka only at their request.
And later, in the code of laws of the Russian Empire, the Chukchi referred to the peoples "not completely conquered", who "pay yasak, in the quantity and quality they themselves want." However, with the help of exchange trade, clever merchants learned to lure out of the Chukchi much more than with the help of yasak.
Journal: Mysteries of History. Andrey Podvolotsky