Sources
The Siberian Khanate was unlucky in the historical arena during its lifetime, it is unlucky even after death - in the field of historiography. Literature about the khanate - once, and too many. For the most part, old, pre-revolutionary studies are not readily available and are outdated.
New works began to appear only very recently, and most often they are very tendentious. Historians have the more opportunities for arbitrariness, the less authentic sources have survived, and in fact, very few of them have survived from the Siberian Khanate. We have almost no authentic written sources even about the life of the Kazan Khanate, which is geographically “European”; from the Siberian Khanate, its own sources did not reach at all, and there were very few indirect sources, and mainly from the moment the Russians began to conquer it. Therefore, when they start talking about the Siberian Khanate, they immediately talk about either Kuchum or Ermak, as if nothing had ever been there before. Russian so-called "Siberian chronicles" are, of course, not any chronicles compiled by weather and eyewitnesses, but summarizing stories,written mainly by the participants or descendants of the participants in Yermak's campaigns, and often by order of the Siberian clergy, who intended to canonize Yermak, who collected material for this, but did not succeed in this. So, Archbishop Cyprian in 1622 "ordered to ask the Yermakov Cossacks how they came to Siberia … and whom the filthy killed in a fight." In response to a request, the Cossacks brought him their recorded memoirs, which became for Cyprian the basis of his “synodikon”, and for historians - “Siberian chronicles”. Less tendentious are the works of the Tobolsk nobleman Semyon Remizov, but they were created only at the end of the 17th century. Archbishop Cyprian in 1622 "ordered the Yermakovs' Cossacks to be questioned how they came to Siberia … and whom the nasty ones killed in a fight." In response to a request, the Cossacks brought him their recorded memoirs, which became for Cyprian the basis of his “synodikon”, and for historians - “Siberian chronicles”. Less tendentious are the works of the Tobolsk nobleman Semyon Remizov, but they were created only at the end of the 17th century. Archbishop Cyprian in 1622 "ordered the Yermakovs' Cossacks to be questioned how they came to Siberia … and whom the nasty ones killed in a fight." In response to a request, the Cossacks brought him their recorded memoirs, which became for Cyprian the basis of his “synodikon”, and for historians - “Siberian chronicles”. Less tendentious are the works of the Tobolsk nobleman Semyon Remizov, but they were created only at the end of the 17th century.
On the other hand, it is no better with archaeological sources, because practically nothing has been dug, except for one or two peripheral settlements. Tyumen itself is not defiantly dug, during construction work there is not even a custom to invite archaeologists, the museum does not have a showcase about pre-Russian Tyumen (and the museum itself is now waiting for a move and is closed).
There are no numismatic sources in relation to the Siberian Khanate: like the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates, it did not mint its own coins. About two years ago I happened to hear about the allegedly discovered coin minted in Tyumen by the Tatar rulers, but since then I have not seen it. What is left? Scraps, fragments, and oral legends, which are extremely difficult to tie to a chronological scale. Well, with this baggage, let's go ahead.
Turks in Western Siberia before the Mongol conquest
For a long time, the prevailing opinion in science was that the Tatars came to Western Siberia only with the Mongolian army (it was based on what was heard about the early Tatars in the vicinity of Mongolia; the first mention was an inscription from the middle of the 6th century BC). Actually, the same was said about the Kazan Tatars, denying their connection with the ancient Bulgars. Both the second and the first are obviously wrong. It is another matter that the very name “Tatars” really appeared only after the Mongol conquest; this is the name of the Turkic population of the Golden Horde.
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The Turks themselves appeared in Western Siberia much earlier. When? The earliest states of the Turks, the "Khaganates", were located in Central Asia and closer to Mongolia, and even their extreme borders did not reach the limits of Western Siberia, where autochthonous tribes, probably of Finno-Ugric origin, lived. The Türks of Western Siberia are most likely the Huns, who at first lived near China, but, driven out from there, moved to the west in two waves. The first wave settled here about 93 BC, the second - at 155 BC. Those who did not want to stay in Siberia left to the west, and in the 4th century AD they terrified Europe. There were still many waves of Turkic settlers.
By the beginning of the Mongol invasion, the steppes of Eastern Europe were inhabited by the Kipchak Turks, who made up the population of the Golden Horde. It is important to understand that exactly the same Turks (different in culture, in occupation, but ethnically the same) settled in the areas of the south of Western Siberia. When I drove around Tyumen, I noticed that, despite the relative severity of the landscape, in principle it differs little from the steppes of Ukraine. You can wander - this is the main thing that attracted the Turks. That is why they settled here.
Did these Turks have a state before the subjugation of the Mongol Empire? The issue remains controversial. The historian from Kazan G. Fayzrakhmanov writes that “the Turalian, Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba Tatars, presumably at the end of the 11th-beginning of the 12th centuries, created their own political union - the state of Siberian Tatars was formed”. To substantiate these words, the author cites data from “one Siberian chronicle” (in the list of references, instead of the name of this “chronicle,” the reader is referred to the newspaper Tobolsk Provincial Gazette for 1883, where, apparently, this source was cited).
Figure 1 Kyzyl Tura. Drawing from the Remizov chronicle, scan from G. Fayzrakhmanov's book.
So, this “one Siberian chronicle” says that the Turks built a city on the Ishim River - Kyzyl Turu (literally “Beautiful City, Figure 1). It is identified with a settlement 16 km from the present Tobolsk. Excavations of the settlement confirm the date - the beginning of the 12th century. Please note that the word “tura” has survived to our time in the name of a shakhvat figure, similar to a fortress tower - this is the “fortress”. Look again at the drawing from the Remiz Chronicle depicting the city of Kyzyl Turu. We see that in the center of the quadrangular fortress there is a large yurt of the ruler, peripheral defense systems go in semicircles around the fortress, and between them are the yurts of the townspeople. This is very similar to the Mongolian capital Karakokum, described by travelers, so the drawing can be considered real.
The name of the first ruler of this state, like the name of the state itself, is unknown. G. Fayzrakhmanov cites Abulgazi's testimony that the state bore the name “Turan”, but for some reason himself suggests calling it “conditionally” the Ishim Khanate. G. Fayzrakhmanov's book contains a list of the khans of the Ishim state, which we reproduce here without comment:
Unknown ruler - Kyzyl-tin (Red-bodied) - Devlet - Yuvash - Ishim - Mamet - Kutash - Allagul - Kuzey - Ebardul - Bakhmur - Yakhshimet - Yurak - Munchak - Yuzak - Munchak and On-son (other variants of the name - He, and even "Ivan").
The latter, She, Siberian chronicles are already called a Muslim. In principle, this is not surprising: the ties of Siberia with the Volga Bulgaria are also recorded archeologically. These rulers, if, of course, the list is real, should have held power in the interval from about the end of the 11th century to the 1230s, because Ong-Son, apparently, submitted to Genghis Khan. In other words, there are 16 rulers for 130-140 years, that is, each ruled for an average of 8-9 years, which seems acceptable.
But how real is the very fact of the existence of such a state? To be honest, I was very skeptical about this until I talked with the Penza archaeologist Gennady Belorybkin. He told me that on the territory of the Volga Bulgaria there was a constant presence of squads of military mercenaries - Askiz, from Gorny Altai. The fact itself is completely new and has not yet been realized, but it is important for us that it has been established: the Askiz constantly kept in touch with Altai. The fashions in Altai were changing - the Bulgar "diaspora" immediately reacted to this. Such a situation would have been impossible, had it not been for a “buffer” state between Altai and Volga Bulgaria, which helped to carry out constant relations. Thus, at the turn of the 12-13th centuries, there actually was a state in the south of Western Siberia.
Figure 2 Idols from excavations near Tyumen, 9-13 centuries, the time of the "Ishim Khanate". Photo from the brochure “Tyumen. Regional Museum of Local Lore.
Unfortunately, its history and life can only be judged by the “chronicle” to which G. Fayzrakhmanov refers (Figure 2). It says about Khan Yuvash that, having gathered a squad of 300 people, he went to conquer neighboring tribes. These neighbors are obviously Khanty and Mansi. In fact, it was impossible to hesitate with their conquest, because the northerners owned real northern gold - furs. Khan Yurak managed to impose a tribute on everyone within Western Siberia. Under Yuzak, the inhabitants of the khanate switched to agriculture, which is confirmed by archaeological finds (for example, a 9th century cast-iron opener was found, brought from China; from there, they could invite “agronomists”).
Probably, at the time of the growth of the "Ishim Khanate" he was not worried about dynastic conflicts. When the country reached the natural limits of expansion, contradictions were revealed within the ruling house. Both of Yuzak's sons, Munchak and On-son, claimed the throne. During the struggle, On-sleep was pushed back from Kyzyl Tura, and went to the mouth of the Ishim, where he formed a separate yurt (not in the place of the present city of Ust Ishimsk?), And then, according to G. Fayzrakhmanov, subdued his brother and took the throne alone of the entire Ishim Khanate. As in Russia, on the eve of the Mongol conquest, internal contradictions in the state reached their limit.
Western Siberia after the Mongol conquest
How exactly the conquest of Western Siberia by the Mongols took place, we practically do not know. Probably, as in the 16th century, the Russians, in the 13th century, the Mongols needed very limited forces to bring this weak and sparsely populated territory into submission, and the campaign of a small detachment simply did not make it into the official Mongolian chronicles. There is no need to harbor illusions that the Mongols could not or did not want to conquer the Ishim Khanate. The name Siberia is mentioned in the form of Shibir in the "Secret Legend" of the Mongols, which means that the Mongols did their job here too.
Perhaps our knowledge of the Mongol conquest will be supplemented by the Siberian chronicles. However, there are several variants of the “myth”, and we need to make our choice.
Figure 3. Map of the second half of the 14th century, which shows the city of Siberia.
The first option, the most unreliable, is reflected, in particular, in the group of the Esipov Chronicles. He says that his subject Chinggis rebelled against On-son - “his own powers from ordinary people”, in which Genghis Khan should really be seen. Genghis killed On-son, and began to rule over his khanate. Ong-son has a son, Taibuga, who was miraculously saved from the massacre. He wandered for a long time to distant places, then Chinggis found out about him, called him to him, surrounded him with trust, gave land, mainly after Taibuga, on his behalf, conquered the Ostyaks. It was Taibuga who built a city on Tura, which he named Chimgi Tura (the ancestor of today's Tyumen). This is how the Tyumen, or Turin yurt was formed on the “special lands” of Taibuga.
The Remizov Chronicle presents everything in a different way. He dies peacefully, his successor in the Ishim Khanate becomes the Irtyshak, and this Irtyshak is killed by the Tyumen (?) Khan Chingis.
Finally, the third version (in the annals of Peter Godunov), in my opinion, is the most reliable, reports that after Chingiz conquered Bukhara, a certain Taibuga begged Chingiz for an inheritance along the Ishim, Irtysh and Tura rivers. The descendants of Taibuga continued to rule these lands. Everyone talks about the origin of Taibugi differently, but in general they are similar. Taibuga is then called the prince of the Kirghiz-Kaisak horde, the son of Khan Mamyk. They say that his father's name was Shah Murad, and both lived in Bukhara. This "Bukhara" Taibuga set out to conquer the "Ishim Khanate" with 500 soldiers, among whom were muftis. Obviously, Taibuga is the leader (khan) of a small nomadic horde that moved near Bukhara, and then helped Chingiz Khan to conquer it.
So, Genghis Khan acts in all three versions. This is not accidental - it was then that the Taibugi dynasty came to Siberia. Obviously, the conquest of the “Ishim Khanate” was discussed after the fall of Bukhara (February 10, 1220). In the later Siberian Khanate, merchants from Bukhara were constantly present. It was probably the same before the Mongols. It was the merchants who could tell the Mongols that there is a country in the north that it would not hurt to conquer. The leader of one of the hordes as part of the Mongol army, local, roaming near Bukhara, volunteered to conquer these lands. Genghis granted them to him. What did this “award” mean? The same as granting Eastern Europe to his son Jochi - although Eastern Europe was yet to be captured. Chingiz allowed Taibuga to conquer the Ishim Khanate, Taibuga pledged to pay taxes to Chingiz. After the conquest, Taibuga founded on the site of the defeated “Ishim Khanate” a Tyumen yurt, that is, an inheritance, a principality, as part of the Ulus Juchi (Golden Horde), which, in turn, was part of the great Mongol empire.
What kind of obligations did Taibuga undertake? The answer lies in the term "Tyumen" itself. In general, “tumen” is “10 thousand”. Probably, Taibuga undertook either to expose 10 thousand soldiers from his possessions, or simply to pay tax on 10 thousand people. The latter seems much more likely. Since, besides Siberian Tyumen, there are several others, in the North Caucasus, in the lower reaches of the Volga, in the south of Kazakhstan, such “Tyumen” should be considered every time as centers of vassal principalities that paid taxes on 10 thousand people. Other etymological delights, such as the origin of the word "Tyumen" from "tomen" (Altai "lower"), or from the Turkic - "remote province", must be discarded without pity.
Of course, the old dynasty represented by On-son was exterminated. Since that time, Taibuga and his descendants, people who have played an outstanding role in Siberian history, have taken the throne as a Juchid vassal. The old capital Kyzyl Tura fell into decay, instead Taibuga built a new one, Chingi Tura (or Chimgi Tura - the City of Chingiz; other etymologies cannot be recognized as working), on the site of present-day Tyumen. The transfer of the capital was practiced by the Mongols during the conquest of territories and symbolized the change of the elite. The date of the founding of Tyumen should be counted, therefore, from about 1220, but not from the 14th century, as they say in popular books.
Was the Tyumen yurt a part of the Golden Horde, or a part of another horde of the Mongol Empire? No, it was in the composition of the Golden Horde, Ulus Jochi. The boundaries of Ulus Jochi in Siberia are not well known, but the region of modern Tyumen is definitely included in these boundaries.
The Tyumen yurt, unified in the 13th century, was divided by the beginning of the 14th century. In the first half of the 14th century, the geographer al-Omari compiled a complete list of the uluses of the Golden Horde, mentioning among them the uluses of Siberia and Ibir (Figure 3). In addition to this stable combination, the sources contain the designations “bilad Siberia” (“Siberian region”), or as-Siberia. The "double" form survived until the beginning of the 15th century - even Johann Schiltberger gives the Bissibur-Ibissibur form. What does this “split” mean? Siberia at a later time was called the city of the same name (its other name is Isker), near Kyzyl Tura, only closer to Tobolsk. It can be concluded that at the beginning of the 14th century, the old capital, destroyed during the conquest, had not yet risen from the ashes, but another city grew up next to it, which soon became the center of an independent yurt, emerging from the possessions of the descendants of Taibuga. Taibuga could himself contribute to this, giving part of his possessions to his son. The founding of Siberia-Isker, therefore, also dates back to around 1220.
Almost nothing is known about the life of remote yurts. Patchwork references to foreigners, for example, Marco Polo's remark about the Tatar “king” in Siberia (the turn of the 13-14 centuries), do not save the day. Even the list of the rulers of the yurt is practically unknown. So, G. Fayzrakhmanov gives the following list:
Taibuga - Khoja - Mar (or Umar) - Ader (Obder) and Yabalak (Eblak); brothers, did not rule - Muhammad - Angish (Agai) - Kazy (Kasim) - Ediger and Bek Bulat (brothers, ruled at the same time) - Senbakta - Sauskan.
It is immediately striking that after Taibugi immediately comes Haji, that is, Haji Muhammad, who ruled at the beginning of the 15th century (we will talk about him later). It turns out that we simply do not know a single name of yurt owners in 150 years. Nevertheless, the Taibugi clan did not die out - until the middle of the 16th century, the Taibugids did not leave the pages of historical chronicles.
Despite the remoteness from the main centers of civilization, it would be wrong to see some provincials in the inhabitants of the Tyumen yurt. It was at this time that stone construction was developing in Siberian cities. The remains of these cities, fortified settlements, are known in Western Siberia quite a lot, but which of them are of the Horde period, and which later are not always clear. The city of Chingi Tura on the site of modern Tyumen has never been archaeologically explored, therefore the excavations in Isker are indicative. The thickness of its cultural layer reaches 2 meters; the finds of the Golden Horde time are quite representative. In addition to these two points, V. Yegorov distinguishes the nameless settlement of Tontur on the Omi River (Barabinsk steppe), also with the Golden Horde layers, and a lot of settlements, such as, for example, a settlement with the ruins of a stone mosque on the Irtysh River, 20 versts below the mouth of the Ishim.
The most important event in the life of the yurt of those years was the attempt by the central authorities of the Golden Horde to introduce Islam. The very first shoots of Islam started, probably even under Ona - together with merchants and preachers from Volga Bulgaria. But that was probably a very superficial Islamization. In the era of the Golden Horde, the first preachers were supposed to come here under Khan Uzbek, when the mass Islamization of the entire state began.
Most likely, in Siberia, Uzbek's undertakings, which were successful almost everywhere, had less result. This can be judged by the fact that at the end of the 14th century a real holy war broke out here. As the Tatar legends say, in 797 AN (1393-1394 AD) 336 sheikhs arrived in the yurt, accompanied by the soldiers of “Khan Sheiban” (apparently, the descendants of Sheiban). They met resistance, 330 sheikhs and 1148 soldiers were killed. The headquarters of the sheikhs was located in the city of Siberia (Isker). The mausoleums of the saints who died in those wars are scattered throughout Western Siberia, and it is possible to trace the geography of the sheikhs' campaigns to the most remote nomadic camps of pagan worshipers. In total, the graves of 39 sheiks were found, the rest were lost already at that time. Over the graves, local supporters of Islam have erected monuments in the form of multifaceted log cabins,named "Astana" (compare with the name of the new Kazakh capital).
Probably, the armed resistance of the pagans was suppressed, since three sheikhs risked staying in Siberia for permanent work, but the rest chose to return to Bukhara. But on the whole, the mission was not fulfilled: even in the 16th century, Kuchum had to invite preachers from Bukhara.
Tokhtamysh and the formation of the Siberian Khanate
The Great Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh was a native of the Kok-Ora (Blue Horde) adjacent to the Tyumen yurt. Kok-Orda in the 13-14 centuries was part of the Ulus Jochi (Golden Horde). Having her own khan, a vassal to the ruler in Sarai, she never showed separatism.
Tokhtamysh's reign on the throne of the Golden Horde was both brilliant and bitter. His "European" career ended in 1399, when he and the Lithuanian prince Vitovt suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Timur Kutluk and Edigei in the Battle of Vorskla. Tokhtamysh fled and hid in Western Siberia.
Where exactly did he live, and what did he do there? Some sources say that he moved “within the Tyumen limits”, referring to the entire Tyumen yurt (Siberia + Ibir), others specify that it is still about Siberia (Isker).
The question of Tokhtamysh's status is even more complicated. Did he live like a simple political emigrant, or took the throne? Although the sources are silent, the first must be admitted as completely incredible. Undoubtedly, Tokhtamysh, using his charisma and relying on the remnants of his army, took the throne in Siberia (Isker), possibly leaving only Chingi Turu to the descendants of Taibuga. In the region of Tomsk, mounds are still shown, which folk memory associates with the name of Tokhtamysh. True, Tomsk is far from both yurt capitals.
In 1406, “Tsar Shadibek [ruled 1399-1407 - EA] killed Tsar Tokhtamysh in the Simbirsk land,” as the Trinity Chronicle says. The death of Tokhtamysh was sought by Edigey (Idiku), the founder of the Nogai Khanate. The Nogai did not have Chingizids in their elite, so they had to scour the hordes, look for the descendants of Genghis Khan, and invite them to their throne. Shadibek, khan of the Kok-Horde, and then of the entire Golden Horde, was a puppet of Edigei. Another puppet, Chokra, also from the khans of Kok-Orda, appears in the Golden Horde in 1414 (briefly - for a year). Apparently, before that, in 1407-1413, Chokra sat on the throne of the Tyumen yurt, where Shadibek put him, at the direction of Edigei. V. Trepavlov directly writes that in "Chingi Tura, beklyaribek Edige, the founder of the Nogai ruling dynasty, seated puppet khans on the Horde throne." Thus, Edigei set up an "incubator" here,where he drew personnel for his European projects.
Under Edigey and his closest successors, the Siberian and Nogai thrones were paired - the occupation of one almost always meant the occupation of the other. However, we do not know who succeeded Chokra on the throne of Siberia after his departure to Europe. Maybe no one.
In 1420, Edigei perishes, and in 1421 his son Mansur puts on the throne both the Nogai Horde and Siberia, Hadji Muhammad. Unexpectedly, Haji Muhammad chooses not Siberia (Isker) as his capital, but the ancient Kyzyl Tura. It looks mysterious, but fact is fact.
In 1428, Hadji Muhammad was killed by the leader of the “nomadic Uzbeks” (ancestors of the Kazakhs) Abul-Khair. Like Haji Muhammad himself, Abul-Khair descended from the Sheibanids, the descendants of a relative of Genghis Khan Shiban.
Abul-Khair was a great khan who set the state of “nomadic Uzbeks” to an unheard-of height neither before nor after. However, he probably had to give up his ownership of Siberian yurts. According to the widespread version, in the same year 1428, the sons of the killed Haji Muhammad, Mahmutek and Ahmad, rebelled against Abul-Khair, drove him out of Kyzyl Tura, and sat on the kingdom themselves. I consider the likelihood of such a scenario insignificant: everyone in the region trembled before Abul-Khair, and it was not for the peripheral princes to fight him. Most likely, Muhammad's sons simply begged his father's yurt, taking him as a vassalage. How long they ruled, together or separately - all this remains completely unknown.
Ibak
The grandson of Haji Muhammad, meanwhile, was in the south, in the Nogai Horde, and actively participated in political life. His name was Hajja Muhammad Ibrahim, or simply Ibak. In 1468 or 1469, together with the Nogai, he seizes the throne in Kyzyl Tura - and in the Nogai Horde too - and begins his long reign. From whom exactly he takes the throne remains unclear. Most likely, the descendants of Mahmutek and Ahmad, or some of them.
At the same time, we see in another Siberian capital, Chingi Tura, a certain Mara, a descendant of Taibuga, who has ruled here since 1460. Most likely, all the time, while the throne in Kyzyl Tur after Tokhtamysh was owned by the Sheibanids attracted by the Nogai, the taibugins did not let Chingi Turu out of their hands, probably positioning themselves as vassals of the ruler who was sitting in Kyzyl Tur.
At first, we see that Mar is trying to introduce himself towards Ibaku as a vassal. He marries Ibaka's sister. Ibak accepts this play until he feels strong enough. In 1480, Ibak organizes a campaign against Chimgi Tura, kills Mara and unites the two thrones, demonstrating his remarkable ambitions and true goals. It is interesting that Ibak chooses the capital of the Mar, Chingi Turu, behind which fact, probably, is the recognition of the supremacy of this particular throne in Siberian affairs. The sons of Mar, Ader and Ebalak, fled somewhere to the outskirts, and from there, they probably got in touch with Ibak, and begged to retain some kind of border possessions. It was a big mistake on Ibak's side. Taibugins, not completely destroyed, played a subversive role in the history of the Siberian state, the same as the war of the parties in Kazan,which ultimately led to the rapid weakening of the state and its death at the hands of a handful of invaders.
Ibak was a very bright ruler, no worse than Kuchum. It was he who put an end to the fate of the Golden Horde (Great Horde) by killing the last great khan of this state, Ahmad. In 1480, Akhmad stood for several months on the Ugra River, never daring to attack Moscow. In the late autumn of 1480, he went to his place on the Lower Volga, and settled down for the winter. On January 6, 1481, Ibak attacked him and killed him, plundered the Big Horde, and "the Ordabazar will lead with them to Tyumen." By informing Moscow of the victory over Akhmad, Ibak laid the foundation for diplomatic relations between the Siberian Khanate and Russia. It is extremely significant that in a letter to Ivan III Ibak presents himself as occupying the throne of Batu (after all, the Big Horde was indeed the political successor to this throne).
It was a brilliant time in the history of the Siberian Khanate, its finest hour. First, the victory over the Great Horde. Secondly, the unification of the resources of the entire Siberian yurt (in fact, already a khanate) and the Nogai Horde, whose khan Ibak was at the same time as he was at his Siberian post. Thirdly, active interference in the affairs of Kazan, over which the Russians established a protectorate (some sources even call him “Kazan Khan”, although he certainly did not occupy this throne for a minute, and even was not in Kazan). All this shows the Siberian state is strong, and Ibaka is an international figure.
It was this power that killed Ibaka. Sources give reason to say that he put himself above his Nogai patrons, although in fact he owed everything to the Nogais. This could not but irritate them. In 1490 or so, the Nogais remove him from the throne of their Horde, and although Ibak continues to rule in Siberia, the purely puppet Aminek sits on the throne in the Horde instead. True, in 1493, at the request of a number of backers, Ibak was returned to the Nogai throne. And in 1495 Ibak was killed. He should have had plenty of enemies. He kept political fugitives from Kazan, many in Siberia might not like it. In 1493, for some reason, his campaign to Astrakhan was disrupted, where the descendants of Akhmad, who was killed by Ibak, took refuge - probably Ibak turned the troops, fearing the contradictions within his camp. But these are indirect reasons. The main reason will become clearwhen we look at the identity of the killer. This is Muhammad, from the Taibugi clan, a descendant of Mar who was killed by Ibak. So, the peace worked, laid by Ibak under the foundation of the state, the future of which promised to be so brilliant. Of course, Chingiz Khan's advice is cruel to destroy enemies to the last descendant, but there is a sense in it.
Between Ibak and Kuchum
After the murder of Ibak, the first thing Muhammad did was to leave Chingi Turu (Tyumen) and move the capital to the bank of the Irtysh, to the city of Isker (now a settlement 19 km from Tobolsk), known since the time of the Golden Horde, which sources also call Kashlyk or Siberia (as we remember, this was the capital of one of the two yurts in the Golden Horde time, but Hadji Muhammad unexpectedly chose to revive Kyzyl Tur). Why did he do this? Probably, he was afraid of the congestion in Chingi Tour of Kazan citizens, who took too much power, and whose discontent, as mentioned above, could become the reason for the murder of Ibak. Another reason is the danger from the Nogai, since relations with the Nogai Horde, of course, immediately deteriorated.
On the one hand, from that moment on, the state can be formally called the Siberian Khanate - the city of Siberia becomes the capital, now to the end. On the other hand, in the eyes of the then public the Taybugids were not khans at all - for example, the Russian chronicles clearly distinguish between the "kings" of the Sheibanids and the "princes" of the Taybugids. The fact is that the Taybugids were not Chingizids, so they could claim the maximum title of “beks” (in Russian translation, this is “prince”).
Ibak's brother, Mamyk (Mamuk), an active participant in his international projects, and a backerback under Ibak in the Nogai Horde, was out of work. There is reason to believe that the Nogai snatched the Chingi Turu from the Taibugids, turning it into a principality, where they settled Mamyk, his relatives and descendants. In fact, the Taibugids seem to have had a panic fear of their feet. The meaning of the principality's existence was that the Nogai did not lose hope of placing their protege on the Siberian throne, displacing the Taybugids.
Mamyk immediately began to act. In the same year 1495, when Ibak was killed, he - from Chingi Tura - marched with an army to Kazan, and became a khan there. It was a gamble, so obvious that even many influential nogai did not like it, some of whom almost by force tried to stop Mamyk's army. Probably, Chingizid had far-reaching plans - having seized Kazan, dealt with Muhammad and unite the Siberian and Kazan Khanates. But the reign of Mamyk in Kazan was short and extremely unsuccessful - the citizens of Kazan themselves kicked him out. He immediately started many senseless wars with the Kazan feudal lords, and also raised taxes. According to the sources, he seemed to the citizens of Kazan some kind of savage who does not understand how the “modern” state works. Still, the cultural level of Kazan and Tyumen cannot be compared. During the campaign against the Arsk principality (vassal in the Kazan Khanate), the Kazan citizens simply locked the gates of the city and did not let Mamyk back. He returned home after just a few months. After these events, we no longer see Mamyk. Not the fact that he was killed. His relatives continue to act from time to time, apparently out of their “kingship” in Chingi Tour. So, in 1499, Mamyk's brother Agalak tried to take Kazan, but the Moscow troops did not give it. In 1502, Akhmet ben Mamyk robbed the Crimean embassy heading for the Nogai steppes. From about 1502 to 1530 we see the Sheibanid Kuluk Saltan in the “Tyumen-Nogai principality”. After his death, the Taybugids liquidated this state formation. After these events, we no longer see Mamyk. Not the fact that he was killed. His relatives continue to act from time to time, apparently out of their “kingship” in Chingi Tour. So, in 1499, Mamyk's brother Agalak tried to take Kazan, but the Moscow troops did not give it. In 1502, Akhmet ben Mamyk robbed the Crimean embassy heading for the Nogai steppes. From about 1502 to 1530 we see the Sheibanid Kuluk Saltan in the “Tyumen-Nogai principality”. After his death, the Taybugids liquidated this state formation. After these events, we no longer see Mamyk. Not the fact that he was killed. His relatives continue to act from time to time, apparently out of their “kingship” in Chingi Tour. So, in 1499, Mamyk's brother Agalak tried to take Kazan, but the Moscow troops did not give it. In 1502, Akhmet ben Mamyk robbed the Crimean embassy heading for the Nogai steppes. From about 1502 to 1530 we see the Sheibanid Kuluk Saltan in the “Tyumen-Nogai principality”. After his death, the Taybugids liquidated this state formation.heading for the Nogai steppes. From about 1502 to 1530 we see the Sheibanid Kuluk Saltan in the “Tyumen-Nogai principality”. After his death, the Taybugids liquidated this state formation.heading for the Nogai steppes. From about 1502 to 1530 we see the Sheibanid Kuluk Saltan in the “Tyumen-Nogai principality”. After his death, the Taybugids liquidated this state formation.
The exact date of Bey Muhammad's death is unknown. After him, Angish and Qasim ruled, whose dates of reign are also a subject of debate. In 1530 they were succeeded by Ediger (Yadgar ben Gazi), who ruled together with his brother Bek Bulat. Yediger was finally able to forge a more friendly relationship with the Nogai. Caravans moored between Siberia and Nogai. The rulers of the two states also became related through marriages. However, as we will see later, this did not prevent the Nogai from overthrowing the Taybugids at the first opportunity.
During the reign of the brothers, Moscow had to conquer Kazan and Astrakhan. This made such a strong impression on Ediger that in 1555 he congratulated Ivan IV, hardly sincerely, on his victory, and offered … to impose a tribute on himself. Grozny did not refuse, and ordered to collect from the Siberian "bekstvo" 1 thousand sables, and a thousand squirrels. Dmitry Nepeitsyn was sent from Moscow to collect tribute to Siberia, who, moreover, conducted a census of the khanate. There were only 30,700 taxable souls in it (many, presumably, “did not give the number,” that is, they avoided the census). Moscow imposed a tribute on Siberia - 1000 sables a year directly to the Moscow Tsar, and 1000 squirrels to his envoy.
It is interesting that Moscow did not hesitate for a minute, taking on the role of "tribute taker", which was previously played only by the Chingizid states. Of course, sables are not lying on the road, however, this fact cannot be seen as ordinary greed. This is a bright touch of the fact that in Moscow they really imagined themselves as a "real Golden Horde", headed by the true Tsar, and which has the right to impose tribute on all the fragments of the old Golden Horde, moreover, it has the right and even the historical duty to eliminate these fragments, these separatists, to annex them, to return them to the “big ulus”, the capital of which is now not in Sarai - in Moscow.
Of course, Ediger had his own calculation - he, unlike a Muscovite, understood the situation in a completely different way. The Sheibanids, driven out of the Siberian Khanate in 1530, were still invited khans in the Nogai Horde, and, of course, dreamed of regaining influence in Siberia, relying on the forces of the Nogai. Moscow's help would be helpful. However, the payment of the tribute to Moscow provoked discontent in Siberia, and Moscow's assistance was ephemeral. Then Ediger gave the command to quietly sabotage. In 1556, instead of a thousand sables, the ambassador brought only 700. This angered the Moscow Tsar. In 1557, the Siberians preferred to bring the tribute in full. Finally, Moscow has learned on itself how unpleasant it is when you impose a tribute, and they are cunning with you. And earlier, when Sarai themselves were deceiving, they considered themselves to be almost an example of “truth” in the “wrong” world.
In 1557, the Sheibanids became active. The Khan of Bukhara, Sheibanid Abdullah bin Iskander, set out to restore the power of his dynasty wherever it ruled before. The Sheibanid troops occupied Kyzyl Tura, or at least roamed alongside it. The capital Isker is only a few tens of kilometers from there. Murtaza ben Ibak was proclaimed Khan of Siberia, even before the capital was occupied. He was recognized in Bukhara. But Murtaza was already old. It became clear that he could not bear the campaign against Isker. Hope was pinned on Kuchum bin Murtaza. As it turned out, the hopes are not unfounded.
In 1558 the Taybugids sent an embassy to Moscow. No tribute. Therefore, the ambassadors were simply arrested. Of course, there was no question of help from Moscow to the Taibugids. However, only in 1563, after a long positional struggle, Kuchum finally captured Isker. Ediger and Bek Bulat were killed on his orders. Thus began the brilliant era of Kuchum - unfortunately, the last in the history of the independent Siberian state. He was independent all the more since, unlike his grandfather Ibak, he was free from the burdensome "post" of the Nogai Khan - the Nogai Horde had already refused the invited khans by that time. The only one to whom he owed, and whom Kuchum (nominally) can be considered a vassal, was the Bukhara Khan Abdullah.
Kuchum
Let's take the point of view of Moscow. To impose a tribute on the Taybugids is not bad, but not prestigious, they are not Chingizids. But in Siberia, a real Chingizid, Kuchum, came to power. If you make him pay tribute, or even conquer his yurts, like Kazan, that would be a real victory. Since Kuchum perfectly understood the true goals of Moscow, but did not yet feel strong enough, he preferred to pay tribute at first, and in full, thereby keeping Moscow in a state of blissful confidence.
Kuchum's weakness lay in the fact that he faced opposition within the khanate. There is information that Chingi Tura did not want to obey for some time, because the last Taibugids were sitting there. At the same time, the Ostyak princes in the north became more active. But Kuchum managed to bring them all to submission.
In 1569, Kuchum, having suppressed the resistance of internal enemies, stopped paying tribute. After a series of diplomatic notes, he paid tribute as early as 1571, but did not do it again. An especially daring step on his part was the expedition led by his nephew to Perm, in the possession of the Stroganovs, in 1573. Although the expedition killed only the Permians, and not the Russians, it was extremely painful: it was the Permians, the taxable population, who paid tribute to the Stroganovs. In the same 1573, Moscow sent a man to the Kazakh khan with a proposal to organize a united front against Kuchum. Then the same ambassador arrived at Kuchum himself, assuming that he knew nothing, but he knew, and the ambassador was killed. Kuchum went to the Kazan rebels, or rather to the Tatars of the former Kazan Khanate, who remained unconquered after 1552 somewhere on the outskirts. From there he brought peopletwo guns and another wife. Probably, it was at this time that his brother Akhmet-Girey ben Murtaza replaced him on the throne, who is called the ruler of the Isker yurt in Tatar legends, and the time of his reign by modern historians is presumably calculated as 1574-1578. Kuchum also brought preachers of Islam from the former Kazan Khanate, who began to eradicate the remnants of the pagan religion.
Then he turned to the Bukhara khan Abdullah, who, at the request of Kuchum, sent preachers to Isker three times, accompanied by soldiers. The preachers sent from Bukhara were not simple, but seids, that is, the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, which sharply raised the authority of the khanate. It is said that Kuchum, meeting the delegations with the seids, personally swam across the Irtysh, expressing his respect. The invited seids in the Siberian Khanate held the post of “head of religion” (sheikh ul-Islam), and we can name the names of these “Islamic patriarchs” who played no less a role than the Christian patriarchs in Moscow: Yarym (1572-1574) and Din Ali (1574 before the conquest of the Khanate by Yermak).
If the Kazan Khanate was conquered by Russia at the time of its maximum weakening, the Siberian, on the contrary, under Kuchum reached political and economic heyday. Internal resistance was defeated: it seems that in the face of Russian expansion, everyone recognized the power of Kuchum. According to the chronicles, there were 15 cities in the khanate, each of which was primarily a rather powerful fortification. Agriculture appeared in the khanate, it is not known when, but the chronicle mentions Kuchum's nomadic migrations to the places “where his bread was sown”. Quite a lot of agricultural tools were also found during the Isker excavations. The relationship with the Nogai was strong and peaceful. Many Nogai Mirz moved to Siberia. The aristocrats of the Siberian Khanate and the Nogai Horde acquired family ties, the Nogai did not interfere with the trade relations of the Khanate with the south,including sending pilgrims to Mecca. The only weakness in Kuchum's position lay in the hostile Kazakh Khan Hakk-Nazar, however, after his death this problem became a thing of the past, because the successor of Hakk-Nazar, Shigai bin Jadik, was a vassal of Bukhara, like Kuchum.
People under Kuchum, apparently, lived well. Much later, the Russian conquest of Siberia, the aborigines fought with them under the flag "so that everything was like under Kuchum." But Kuchum could not get enough guns, let alone learn how to produce them. This turned out to be fatal for the state.
Conquest of the Siberian Khanate
It is wrong to think that the war between Yermak and Kuchum was the first, and already immediately successful, attempt by Russia to fight in Siberia. The Russians had the experience of wars in the north from the Novgorodians, who by the pre-Mongol time held vast territories near the Arctic Ocean under their control. At the end of the 15th century, the warriors of the Moscow principality made several deep raids into Western Siberia, not against the Tatars, but against the Ostyaks and Voguls. The raid of 1483 was especially daring, when the governors Kurbsky and Travin passed by Chingi Tura, heading from north to south by waterway. In 1499, after the Ostyaks and Voguls broke their tributary relations, the campaign was repeated, and again the path ran past Chingi Tura. Then the Russians destroyed 41 towns, conquering 58 princes. When we see how the capital of the Siberian Khanate "walked", we sometimes do not understandthat exactly two campaigns directly next to Chingi Tura could force the Siberians to take the capital to another place.
But those were only raids. The task of conquering the Siberian Khanate was only up to the Stroganovs. Paradoxically, but in fact deeply natural, the ancestors of the Stroganovs are most likely from the service nobility of the Golden Horde. There is a legend that a certain Tatar Murza spread to the Novgorodians, then began to fight with his former fellow tribesmen, was captured by them and was disfigured, why his son, who was born in Novgorod after his father's death, received the “surname” Stroganov, that is, “planed” disfigured. However, I do not exclude that specialists in surnames can refute this version, which is adhered to by Tatar historians.
Whether the Stroganovs came from the Horde or not is not so important, because their policy, in fact, exactly continued the old experience of the so-called Akhmatov settlements. Let me remind you that at the end of the 13th century, a certain Murza Akhmat founded some settlements in the border lands of the Kursk principality, where, attracted by economic benefits, both Russians and Tatars rushed. In fact, these were free economic zones. The Kursk prince did not like this, and he either fought with Akhmat, then asked the khan to close the zone, and got his way. In this example, we see the clearest case of purely “economic” thinking of the Golden Horde, and non-economic, more precisely pre-economic, of the Russian princes.
Representing the Stroganov empire, we imagine it, from books and films, as of the 18th century. Hence the opinion that peasants were discharged from the central regions of Russia under duress. And so it was, but only at the very end of the existence of the Stroganov empire. At the very beginning, in the 16th century, the border state of the Stroganovs was an exact copy of the Akhmatovs' settlements, and people came there themselves, because there they could work freely and earn good money. People followed economic freedom.
If Akhmat was allowed to carry out his idea to the end, he would end up the same as the Stroganovs: the economic power of his settlements would result in political influence, and as a result he would subjugate the entire Kursk principality to his power. Nobody interfered with the Stroganovs, and they really created a buffer state almost independent of the Moscow Tsar near the outskirts of Russia. In fact, the Stroganov empire was essentially the same buffer principality that we analyzed in detail, speaking, for example, about Tula. So, this principality collided with the Siberian Khanate. It is clear that they interfered with each other. The Stroganovs raided the territory of the khanate, and even organized one scientific expedition, a Dutch scientist was invited for this. In turn, the Tatar princes and the “Samoyed” princes carried out several aggressive actions against the “empire” of the Stroganovs. And the Stroganovs began to think about what to do with it.
May 30, 1574 is a great day for Moscow to realize its geopolitical mission. On this day, Ivan IV, like Genghis Khan in his time, gave a "label" - a "letter of gratitude" to the Stroganovs on the territory that still had to be conquered. To the lands of the Siberian Khanate. You remember that at one time Chingiz himself did this, granting the rights to seize Siberia to Taibuge. It is difficult to say whether Ivan knew about this, but, most likely, he knew, and acted like Chingiz, quite deliberately. The Stroganovs began to prepare for war.
It is very indicative that the “alien” person, and also a Horde by origin, Ermak, became the “engine” and hero of this new war. Much is said about Ermak (Tokmak - this is his Turkic nickname), but it is not known whether this can be believed. Allegedly, he was from Suzdal (probably from the Tatar settlement, which were in all the northwestern cities), robbed in Murom, was in prison, then fought with a "gang" on the Volga …
There is no unified chronology of Yermak's campaigns against the khanate recognized by all researchers. Let us outline the international situation and the early stage of Yermak's activities according to A. Shashkov. In our opinion, he built an impeccable chronology, however, he hardly correctly placed accents in the motivation of the actions of our heroes. Therefore, adhering to the chronological outline, we will build the interpretation according to our own understanding.
A year before coming to the Stroganovs, in 1580, we see Ermak and his comrades on the Volga. They kidnap 1000 horses from the Nogai, killing a noble Nogai, the Karachi. In the spring of 1581, Yermak's Cossacks were going to go to war in Ukraine, and before that they stole another 60 horses from the Nogai. From there they went to Ukraine, but in August the “war” ended, and the troops were given the command to retreat to Russia.
Meanwhile, back in May 1581, Moscow received information that the Nogais were constantly plundering Russian lands. The Stroganovs also began to have problems - with the Siberian tribal princes, incited by Kuchum. In the 20th of July, a revolt of the Voguls under the leadership of Begbelia Agtagov began in their possessions. Having plundered the surroundings of several Stroganov towns, the rebels, however, were soon defeated. Meanwhile, in the Volga region, meadow and mountain cheremis (Mari and Chuvash), incited by legs, were agitated. Finally, at the end of the summer, the Stroganovs were disturbed by the Pelym prince Ablegirim, a vassal of Kuchum. He began plundering townships on September 1, and continued to do his business in November, killing civilians.
Moscow, having no other way to punish the Nogayev and Kuchum, who was clearly at the same time with them, gave complete freedom to the free Cossack camps like the Yermak detachment. Having received the "indulgence", at the end of June the Cossacks plundered Saraichik, the capital of the Nogai. Ermak himself, leaving the Ukrainian theater, immediately got carried away in pursuit of the Nogai detachment, and by mid-August he was at the crossing of the Volga in the area of Pine Island (near the Samara River). There he met with another squad who had just done something that could not be justified even within the framework of indulgence. He destroyed the Russian-Bukhara-Nogai embassy.
The embassy moved to Moscow - together with the Russian ambassador Pelepelitsyn, 300 nogai, a caravan (“Ordabazar”) of Bukhara merchants followed to the capital. When the embassy was forwarded across the Volga in the area of Pine Island, Cossacks attacked them and beat everyone up. Fearing punishment from Moscow for arbitrariness, they stood and thought what to do when Yermak approached them.
He advised to go to Yaik, where the two united Cossack detachments moved, and from where they returned to the Volga at the end of August 1581, sat down on plows, went to the Urals, where in the fall they encountered some parts of Ablegirim, Kuchum's vassal, and killed them. They spent the winter on Sylva, in a place that after that was known among the people as the Ermakov settlement. At this moment, Yermak's people met the Stroganovs, who were just looking for warriors capable of fulfilling an ambitious plan: to punish the Siberians.
Throughout the winter, Ermak trained in small campaigns against the Voguls, finally, in the spring of 1582, preparations began for a big war. For a long time, in one private collection, the now lost pishchal with the inscription “In the city of Kergedan on the Kama river I present, Maxim Yakovlev son of the Stroganov, to the chieftain Ermak of summer 7090 (1582)” was kept. To know exactly the number of this gift - for sure it was the day when Yermak and the Stroganovs spoke frankly, and decided to do what was so brilliantly done.
At the end of the summer, the Cossacks planned a campaign against the Pelym principality, however, at the same time, Ali ben Kuchum himself attacked the possessions of the Stroganovs. Very handy for revenge - the Pelym prince Ablegirim was with Ali. Ermak, apparently, was already "sharpened" not for defense, but for an offensive campaign. He could not properly resist the invading army: it scattered, inflicted great damage on Salt Kamskaya and on September 1 besieged Cherdyn. On the same day, Ermak and his comrades, who were far from Cherdyn, suddenly moved to the very heart of the Kuchum kingdom (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Fight of Ermak (right) with Kuchum. Miniature of the Remiz Chronicle, scan from G. Fayzrakhmanov's book.
His squad was only 840 people. With him were not only his own Cossacks, but Lithuanians and Germans (probably military engineers), as well as the Tatars themselves, which can already be considered a system (the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates were taken mainly by Tatar troops in the Russian service). Having crossed the Urals, Ermak went down the Tour. The first clash was with a strong and numerous group of Murza Yepanchi. Epanchi, despite this, was defeated, his estate was plundered.
Soon Yermak approached Chingi Toure. There are different points of view whether Ermak had a battle with the Tatars for this city. Most researchers believe that no, and that Ermak just passed by. Modern Tatar scholars adhere to the version that Yermak occupied Chingi Tura with a fight and made it his base. Here he kept supplies of food and the captive people of Kuchum, the first of which was the tribute collector Kutugai, captured in the Tarkhan town (irony - "Tarkhan" - a man free from tribute). In front of Kutugai, they shot from guns, and let him go to Kuchum along with gifts. The “ambassador” came to the khan, brought gifts and told how many firearms the Cossacks had.
All winter Kuchum strengthened Isker. In May of the following year, 1583, a big battle took place for several days at the confluence of Tura and Tobol. The Cossacks won, as they won in a number of subsequent battles, however, in none of them did Kuchum himself command the battle. He probably considered it beneath his dignity. After all, Kuchum is the 13th descendant of Genghis Khan, and Ermak, whatever one may say, could not boast of such a genealogy.
However, in a battle on the banks of the Irtysh, on the Chuvash Cape, Kuchum decided to lead himself - it was too bad for him (October 23, 1583). He managed to collect a huge army. He had two cannons, but the Tatars did not know how to shoot them, and they simply pushed them like a load onto the Cossacks climbing the slope. The defeat of Kuchum's huge army from a handful of Cossacks was terrible. But the Cossacks also lost 107 people, which was very large in terms of the number of their detachment. On October 24, a mass desertion began from the Kuchum army, primarily the Vogul, Ostyak and peripheral Tatar princes. On the night of October 26, Kuchum left Isker and left in a direction unknown to the Cossacks. He acted like Kutuzov, who left Moscow.
Cossacks entered the deserted city, finding in it many furs - "Siberian gold". In November, Murza Mametkul with a detachment tried to attack the Cossacks who had retreated from the city, but was defeated. That autumn was the only attempt not even to recapture the capital, but to pat the Cossacks. After her, neighboring princes began to flock to Isker, with gifts and expressions of humility. Ermak behaved like a new ruler of the state - he accepted shert (loyalty), imposed a tribute (Figure 5). Probably, he received such rights from Stroganov. As for the rare atrocities against the civilian population, there was no need to get permission for this (Figure 6 is quite eloquent). On December 22, 1583, a message was sent to Moscow about the conquest of Siberia. In Moscow, this news was greeted with the same enthusiasm as the message at one time about the occupation of Kazan. Reinforcements went from Moscow to Siberia, which reached Isker in 1584.
Figure 5 Yermak instead of Kuchum receives tribute from the conquered tribes. Miniature from the Remizov Chronicle, scan from G. Fayzrakhmanov's book.
Figure 6. Ermak's reprisal against Kuchum's supporters, drawing from the Remizov Chronicle, scan from the book of G. Fayzrakhmanov.
In turn, the first noble prisoner, Mametkul, went to Moscow. In 1590 we see how he leads the regiments against the Swedes, and in 1598 even against almost his fellow tribesmen, the Crimean Tatars - the tsar did not scatter valuable personnel. Kuchum himself, meanwhile, went to the partisans.
In March 1584, in Isker, Ermak laid siege to Karacha Kuchum ("prime minister"), unknown by name, who had previously tried to exterminate as many Cossacks as possible, resorting to even the lowest tricks (for example, he pretended to be a friend of the Cossacks and asked Ermak for 40 soldiers allegedly for the battle with Kuchum, and upon arrival killed them). In an open battle, Karacha invariably lost: the Cossacks easily repulsed that siege.
When Voevoda Bolkhovsky arrived from Moscow in the spring of 1584 and brought 500 people with him, he saw that the affairs of the Cossacks had become worse, and reinforcements would not save him. The main enemy of the Cossacks is hunger. The country's economy was completely destroyed. The Cossacks did not know how to sow, and they could not in a military situation, and the reserves were melting.
The forces of the Cossacks were melting. Ermak died, killed by Kuchum's cunning. He was ambushed on the night of 5-6 August 1584. Kuchum spread a rumor that his people had captured a caravan of Bukhara merchants heading to Isker. Ermak went to free him, and at night, while spending the night on the banks of the Irtysh, his detachment was subjected to a night raid. Ermak almost ran away, jumping on a plow, but he turned over, and Ermak, being in armor, drowned. The death of Yermak made a heavy impression on the Cossacks who fled from Siberia, leaving the already conquered country to its fate.
The death of the khanate
So, 150 Cossacks who survived in the meat grinder left Isker and Siberia in general, returning to Russia. Isker was again occupied by the Tatars. Triumph? However, Kuchum failed to take advantage of the unique chance. It seems that he lost power for a while, and did not even appear from the woods. First, Kuchum's son Ali sat in Isker. But, as we remember, Kuchum at one time killed Taybugid Ediger. His nephew Seydyak was in Bukhara all this time. He came to Siberia, smoked Ali from Isker, and proclaimed himself a prince. Chaos began in the country.
The Russians, however, were not going to give up the already almost finished business. But, having no information about the deplorable situation in the khanate, they acted very carefully. At the end of 1585, the voivode Mansurov arrived in Siberia, who advanced to the Ob, set up a town there, then left it and returned to Russia in the spring of 1586. Nevertheless, this was the first Russian wintering in Siberia in a fortress built with their own hands.
At the beginning of the same 1586, a detachment of 300 archers led by Vasily Sukin, Ivan Myasny and Danila Chulkov on June 29 occupied the abandoned Chingi Tura. On the same day, a little far from the old fortress, they founded a city that received the ancient and not yet forgotten name of this entire region - Tyumen. Thus, Tyumen is considered the first full-fledged Russian city in Siberia.
Tobolsk was founded in the spring of 1587 near another capital, Isker. At this time, Seydyak was quietly sitting in Isker, and the chronicle in the summer of 1588 sees him surrounded by brilliant murzas engaged in falconry. Seeing Seydyak doing this, the Russians invited him to a feast, where they captured him. Seidyak's army scattered, and Isker has since been deserted forever, forever becoming a purely archaeological monument.
But Kuchum proved to be a glorious partisan. On June 23, 1590, he first loudly declares himself, plundering the area near Tyumen. To capture him, very significant efforts were made, but they went to dust. Kuchum also rejected the negotiations. On August 20, 1598, Kuchum, along with a large detachment and all his nobility, was ambushed in some wilderness. Only he and his son Ali managed to escape, his other son and many nobles were captured or perished. After that, Kuchum announced that he was old, deaf and blind, and was leaving big politics. Ong advised his son Ali to leave for Bukhara, and he himself began to wander between his former subjects, the Nogais and Kalmyks, being expelled from there and from here, and yet from time to time inflicting sensitive blows on the Russian positions. This 13th descendant of Genghis Khan died in the first year of the 17th century (1601),when he came to the Nogais. The Nogai killed him with the words - “if the Russians find out that you are with us, they will do it for you and for us”. Paradoxically, the success of Kuchum's partisan war is explained precisely by the help of the Nogai, with whom he, as Kuchum himself said, was “in unity”. The Nogai asked the Russians to return Kuchum to the throne, promising to vouch that he would pay yasak, and most importantly, they were actively spying in new Russian cities in his favor.
The war against the Russians did not end with the death of Kuchum. Upon learning of the death of his father, Ali, who at that moment was somewhere near Ufa, declared himself khan. This was not recognized by all Tatars: in 1603, a Tatar informant informs the Russians that Ali is not favored, since the mother of his family is ignorant, and they believe that it would be better to put another son of Kuchum, Kanai, as king. In 1603, he received help from the Nogai and was going to attack Tyumen, but he was restrained by the news that the Russians had released several of Kuchum's wives from captivity, which Ali was going to achieve with his performance. In 1616, he still fell into Russian captivity, and for a long time he lived in the estate granted to him near Yaroslavl, retaining the title of "Tsarevich of Siberia".
After his capture, the Khan of Siberia declared himself Ishim. A man, one might say, of Russian culture. In 1601, Ishim ben Kuchum traveled to Moscow to see what life was like for honorary prisoners in Russia. What is amazing is that he was released back to Siberia so that he told his relatives how good it was in the Russian capital. It is not surprising that immediately after Ali's capture, his first impulse was to surrender to the Russians on honorable terms, but while negotiations were going on, he confessed with the Kalmyks, enlisted their military support, and was filled with aggression. When he gave up his formally khan dignity, it was not possible to establish precisely. In 1628, we already see the Tatars under the leadership of a certain Ablai ben Ishim, apparently his son.
In general, the entire first half of the 17th century is a struggle of small, but very biting partisan detachments under the leadership of the sons ("princes") of Kuchum, of whom he had at least 15. So, a major performance took place in 1648 under the leadership of Tsarevich Davlet Girey. The last, and very serious uprising in 1662-1664, when the Bashkirs rose, to which the last unbroken Kuchumovichs joined. There was a plan to capture all Russian cities, to make Tobolsk the capital, putting Davlet Girey on the throne there. With great difficulty it was suppressed, and with a special, remembered cruelty.
It is not surprising that the small Russian peasant settlements of Western Siberia were in constant danger throughout the 17th century. The cities were well defended, but an effective defense system for the villages was never invented. The nomads plundered in the summer, the Russians preferred to make raids in the spring, clearing the area when the nomads were weakened by the winter. This was done by small detachments of 20-30 archers, who slowly drove around the neighborhood and languidly robbed the Tatars, who seemed suspicious. The only defense for the peasants were small earthen fortresses with low palisades, so that the enemy could be seen through it. Example from 1664: “April 26. Seven peasants went to their old ruined settlement. They were run over by 20 Tatars, there was a battle, 4 peasants were killed, and 3 ran to the Nevyansk prison”.
However, even among the most implacable partisans, armed struggle became less and less popular. Moscow respected the Chingizids among the princes, and with honor invited them to the capital. The alternative is this: either run through the swamps, risking death even more from the Kalmyks or Nogai than from the Russians - or sit on the throne in the Kasimov Khanate, as one of Ali's sons managed to do, or at worst get a piece of land near Moscow, what happened to almost dozens of princes. Of course, in the end, almost everyone chose the well-fed share.
Abulkhair was the first to be captured in Moscow (1591). Five sons and 8 wives arrived under an honorary escort to Moscow in 1599. The life story of Kuchum's descendants in Russia is interesting, but beyond the scope of our story. Sometimes they played a rather significant role in the Russian state.
So the Siberian Khanate ended. It must be admitted that the struggle for the restoration of statehood in Siberia was even more fierce than in Kazan. However, in reality this war did not greatly affect the economic development of the Russian territory. Russians quickly learned to live at home in Siberia, paying no more attention to raids than Florida residents to hurricanes.
End of the Taybugids
After the expulsion of the Taybugids from the throne by Kuchum ben Murtaza, they were not exterminated or subjected to repression, but quietly continued to live in their domains, cooperating with Kuchum. But, of course, such “cooperation” did not work out with the Cossacks. Taybugids, both rulers and people subordinate to them, fled to the Nogai. This is how the Taibugin yurt appeared in the Nogai Horde, which put the researchers at a standstill. Everything was clarified when V. Trepavlov showed that by “yurt” one should understand not so much the territory in the Nogai Horde allotted to the descendants of Taibuga, but the people themselves, the wagons themselves, who found shelter in the Horde.
The Nogai took the fugitives very seriously. Uraz Muhammad, one of the most influential people of the Horde, muddied the situation, because he considered himself deprived of power functions. The taybugids came in very handy - the nogai immediately invented the post of the governor over the taybugids, whom they called, without further ado, “taybugin”, imposed taxes on new subjects, and made Uraz Muhammad the first taybugin. This was the third person in the power hierarchy of the Horde.
Already in the summer of 1584, in a letter to the Russian tsar, this Uraz Muhammad boasts of this advancement in the career ladder. The fugitives themselves, as Trepavlov writes, were placed on the northeastern outskirts of the Nogai nomads, somewhere in the very upper reaches of the Tobol and Ishim.
The position of the taibugi remains in the Nogai Horde until 1640. Bitter irony, but true: in recent years, taybugin has been appointed by Russian officials, and the ceremony itself takes place in the embassy hut in Astrakhan - the Nogai Horde becomes dependent on Russia.
Ancient Chingi Tura
As has been said more than once, I have never been dug. It was located where the district with the speaking name Tsarevo settlement is now located. Why Tsarevo is understandable, because the Russians called the Horde khans "tsar" even after they themselves found a tsar in the person of Ivan the Terrible. Nowadays there is nothing royal in the Tsarevo Gorodishche. An area with old, wooden buildings from the 19th century, very littered, in the middle of ravines. The landmark is the Geolog stadium, during the construction of which in the 1980s the last remnants of the cultural layer of Chingi Tura were destroyed. When you are in Tyumen and start looking for this stadium, do not fall into the same trap as me. There are two “Geologists” in Tyumen - you need a large stadium on Kommuna Street, not a sports complex of the same name in a completely different area.
Take a walk - only in the daytime - in this strange area of Tyumen, which even now has a peculiar air, a special physiognomy. Look at the map of the city - even the street grid is located here at a different angle than outside this triangle. It is clear that the houses of the 19th century involuntarily reproduce the urban planning grid of the pre-Russian period.
The ramparts of the settlement, especially the one that fenced it off from the only, unprotected side of nature, approximately along the line of the present Tovarny Highway, was seen back in the 18th century, but now there is no trace of them. At the same time, the statements found in the old literature that the rampart, visible as early as the 19th century, from Lake Lyamina (now covered up; it was near the former Spasskaya Street - now Lenin) stretching to Tura, was the remains of a Tatar city, are erroneous: judging by location, it was about the ramparts of the Russian city.
In addition to the ramparts, the Tatar capital, as local historians of the 19th century correctly noted, was protected by “gullies”, or natural ravines. Each such gully in Russian time (as well as in Tatar) had its own name: Tyumenka, Vishnevy and Dedilov. The first and the last are probably the names left over from the Tatar time. In the old days there was water in the gully Tyumenka, apparently, it's still not just a ravine, but an ancient moat. The city of Chingi Tura was located just between Tyumenka and Vishnev.
The old local historians, following the local residents, also considered the numerous mounds in the vicinity of the city (then: now they are within the boundaries of Tyumen, in Gorky Park) as remnants of the khan's time. People said that the tsars of Siberia were buried here. This, of course, is impossible: the Tatars did not bury in the kurgans, for this they built mausoleums, in Siberia most often from wood. In the 20th century, the mounds were excavated, and they turned out to be related to the 8-7 centuries BC, and had nothing to do with the Siberian Khanate.
Russian fortress
The Russians did not place Tyumen exactly on the site of the Tatar Chinga Tura. The Cossacks did not like how Chingi Tura stood. The Tyumenka River formed a clear peninsula, which God himself intended for the construction of fortifications. The Tatars did not use this peninsula. The Cossacks, of course, chose this ideal, especially empty space (Figures 7, 8, 9). At the same time, they probably laughed at the Tatars, whose city stood in the depths of Tura, among some ravines and swamps. In vain. Tura is a treacherous river, but to understand this, you need to live here for several decades.
Like the Neva, from time to time the Tour spills over. Floods can be terrible. We do not know the date of the first flood. But in rare photographs of the 19th century we see a mirror of solid water, three kilometers overflowing from the river bed. Since then, dams began to be built around the city, so recklessly placed. But in 1979 the dam almost collapsed. 9.15 meters from the calm level - this was the highest spill in the entire history of Tyumen. The Kremlin, built by Sukin and Myasny, is no longer in principle - since then Tura has eaten about 200 meters of the coast, and their city stood on the very edge.
A striking fact that has yet to be comprehended: the layout of the Russian fortress has practically no analogues among the serf construction of that time. Tyumen resembles a “snail”, “a shell of a rapana” (this is clearly seen in the old engraving at the top of this page). Tyumenka and Tura form two diverging “shell walls”, which are overlapped across by several “tiers” of fortifications. Amazingly, in the entire East European Plain and throughout the Middle Ages, there were only two cases when the fortress was erected in the same way. These are the Zolotarevskoe settlement in the Volga Bulgaria, which took shape by the 13th century, and the Tatar Kyzyl Tura (see Figure 1). What follows from this fact? Only what is before us are echoes of some very ancient urban planning tradition. The builders of Russian Tyumen probably originated from the Volga. Most likely, these first Cossacks and Streltsy were Turks by nationality, descendants of the Bulgars, and retained the concept of how they built fortresses in their homeland. If the reader finds my explanation unsatisfactory, he may suggest a better one.
The first fortress, founded in June 1586, was probably primitive. The real one, with towers, was erected in 1593-1595. The wall went along the modern Semakov Street, from the Tura side the city had no walls for a long time. The “river” wall appeared only in 1624: the fortress turned out to be closed. In the place where there was a ferry across the Tura from the Bukhara Sloboda (about it below), two towers stood on the shore - something like a port fortification in the manner of Constantinople.
From the side of the posad, just outside the fortress wall, in 1620 a wooden nunnery appeared - Alekseevsky (Ilyinsky; on the site of the present hotel "Oilman"). In 1668, after a big fire, the fortress was expanded by drawing new walls along the line of the current Chelyuskintsev street (however, there are only two blocks between Chelyuskintsev and Semakova). But the old wall was not destroyed either. The central, Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin was moved entirely to a new place, apparently, dismantled by logs, and in its place they built another, equipped with a gate bell tower, which is clearly visible on the old plans of the city. The Znamensky Passage Gate stood at the intersection of Chelyuskintsy and Volodarsky, which is reminiscent of the Znamensky Church on Volodarsky.
After the expansion of the fortress, the Ilyinsky Monastery found itself within its limits, and since it was also surrounded by a log wall, it turned out to be a kind of “citadel”. The monastery was abolished after a fire in 1695.
After the fire of 1687, the authorities did not begin to restore the chopped prison, considering that it was too expensive, instead they erected a cheaper “city prison”. I am not a great specialist in fortification, and I cannot grasp the difference between these two types of prison construction.
In 1699, the project of the stone Tyumen Kremlin appeared, but it was never implemented in brick. The wooden walls, as in other Russian cities, were gradually dismantled during the 18th century.
In the history of the Tyumen fortress, there are not many cases when the fortification was useful to repel the enemy: the nomads, in principle, did not like to take fortresses. In 1603, the Nogai wanted to take Tyumen, but they did not even reach it, limiting themselves to plundering villages, and the Tyumen Cossacks pursued them. In 1607, the Kuchumovichs unsuccessfully attacked Tyumen, in the next 1608 - the Nogais. In 1609, the Tatars, Ostyaks and Voguls were also forced to confine themselves to plundering the suburbs. In 1634, after the fortress had just been renovated in 1630, some nomads came to Tyumen, who only “scrabbled against the bumps”, that is, “scratched” against the walls.
The year 1635 was more successful for the Tatars, when they held Tyumen under siege. The siege itself did not harm the Russians - it was soon removed. The Cossacks began to pursue them, and then the Russians were in for real trouble, because all the pursuers fell into a trap and were killed.
As already mentioned, it is impossible to wander through the territory of the heart of the old fortress: it is washed out by Tura. But to find at least approximately its place is not difficult: the old museum of local lore and the Victory obelisk will serve as a reference point. Now there is also a monument to Ermak and his Cossacks. Some elements of antiquity are visible in the building of the Gostiny Dvor (1835), since the main bargaining of the Russian fortress was, of course, in the fortress itself or very close to it.
Fortifications are inseparable from temple construction. The wooden church of the Nativity of the Virgin was erected at the very moment of the foundation of the city. In 1600 and 1601, instead of the narrow one, two new ones were erected, but also wooden: again the Nativity of the Virgin directly in the fortress, in the place of the old one, and Borisoglebskaya in the posad.
Another important temple, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, once stood on the very bank of the Tura. Built at the direction of local authorities in brick in 1700, in the place where the river was intensively undermining the city. Already in 1765, the cathedral had to be overhauled. It was fortified many more times, and in 1932 it was blown up. As they say in Siberia, “paint and throw away”.
Under the Annunciation Cathedral there is a system of underground passages that stretch for many hundreds of meters and have not been properly explored. The author of these lines has no doubts that they were built not by Russians, but by Tatars, as in Kazan, where the system of "holes" has not yet been fully studied. Tatars were great masters in this matter.
The system of underground passages, as A. Ivanenko writes, is located under the Square of the Fighters of the Revolution, and is also located within the limits of the Russian fortress. The Tyumen ethnographer connects them with the Church of the Archangel Michael (erected in wood - at the beginning of the 17th century, in stone - in the 1780s, now being restored), standing at the corner of Lenin and Turgenev streets. The moves allegedly go from this church to the Znamensky Cathedral (on Volodarsky Street). They say that these passages were also used by the tsarist gendarmes, in particular, through them they were taken to the river, to the boat, and taken out of the city the exiled Leon Trotsky. I have no doubt that they were used and even repaired, but they were built by the Tatars, and their connection with the cult buildings of the Russian time is explained by the fact that churches were erected on the site of the destroyed mosques of the old Chingi Tura.
Posad
Posad Tyumen began to form immediately after the construction of the fortress (Figure 10). It was a sea of wooden houses. Back in the 1960s, Tyumen was said to be the “capital of villages” (Figures 11, 12). Even now, the city does not give the impression of a powerful metropolis. “The spilled sea of wood”, - wrote the then guidebooks, trying to prevent the impression of a tourist and to soften it to some extent. There is no sea now, there are still puddles that are trying, and not without success, to dry thoroughly. It's a pity to tears. First, in Tyumen, the cultural layer, apparently irrevocably, of the pre-Russian city was destroyed, and now in a few years we will not see the Russian, old Tyumen either.
To walk around the old settlement, you need to go behind Chelyuskintsev Street, and, keeping to Lenin (Spasskaya) Street, make sure: very little survived from ancient Tyumen.
On October 25 Street there is the oldest civil building in Tyumen (house number is either 10, or 6, I myself did not manage to reach it and take a picture). This is a simple "hut" built in the middle of the 18th century. On Lenin Street, there is still the Savior Church, which once gave the whole street its name (Figure 13). It was built in stone in 1794, most likely, it also had a wooden prototype. The Church of Michael the Archangel, which was briefly mentioned above, was also a posad. Interestingly, in 1911, a mosque was finally built on Spasskaya Street, which occupied, together with a madrasah and a hotel for pilgrims, almost a block (today it is house 15). After the revolution, the minaret of the mosque was dismantled, and now it is not easy to separate it from the civil development.
The fortress wall, passing along Ordzhonikidze Street, also served as the border of the posad. It was erected when other estates were also surrounded by walls - in 1640-1642. Street layouts change dramatically outside this long defunct wall, and you only need to look at a modern map to understand the boundaries of the old settlement.
Zatyumenka, Yamskaya Sloboda
This area was settled in 1605 by coachmen. It is interesting to tell where they came from in Tyumen (Figure 14).
It is clear that it made sense to talk about the drivers when the permanent road to Europe was finally built. Despite the fact that the country had long been conquered and almost pacified, there was no good road to Russia. In 1595, the tsar announced a competition to find the road, and it was won by a certain posad from Sali Kamskaya, who received a contract for its construction. The “construction” was to make the trail fit for coachmen. In two years the road was ready. It was named Babinovskaya, after the surname of this posad, and it was used for several hundred years.
At first, only Tatars drove along it. The Yamskoye affair, as you know, was an invention of the Horde, and it was no accident that until 1601 the local authorities forced the local Tatars to be chased. Those complained that it was painful for them. Complaints went to the king. On January 28, 1601, in the same year as Kuchum died, the tsar issued an order to set up a permanent Yam station with professional coachmen in Tyumen.
They brought 50 Russian coachmen to the city from afar, gave them arable land in Zatyumenka and allowed them to build houses. There were about a dozen of driver's villages, all with Russian names, now most of them no longer exist. But, as often happens, the household has distracted them from the profession. Then they again gradually forced the Tatars to carry mail and passengers - for some reason the Tatars did it better. They began to grumble again, and only in 1630 did the authorities finally form a professional, and not on a national basis, coachmen's workshop. Some of these people had accumulated enough money by the 18th century (fighting for higher wages throughout the 17th century) to become merchants, while others even got so rich that they took up pure science, as, for example, the Cherepanovskaya Chronicle was written in 18th century. Amazingbut in Western Siberia the coachman profession disappeared only in the 1950s.
On the outskirts of Zatyumenya, almost outside the city, there is Babarynka Street (the old name is Barynka, after the name of the river), located almost outside the city. The name was mentioned in the letters of the 17th century, when the tsar was resolving the dispute between the Tatars and the coachmen, who should mow in this place. As A. Ivanenko notes, there is no way to guess this word toponymically, except perhaps from the Tatar “crossing”, and that is not very good. Probably, after all, there was some kind of crossing here in the Tatar times, perhaps to the other side of the Tura. There is also a river of the same name.
Trinity Monastery
The Preobrazhensky (from the 18th century - Trinity) Monastery became the decoration and serious protection of Zatyumenka. Amazingly, this is the only complete preserved monastery in the Tyumen region. Only I managed to visit it without haste, walk around, look, and apart from him, I really did not see anything in Tyumen.
The monastery was founded in 1616. In 1708-1717, the Trinity Cathedral was erected in stone (Figure 15). As in other buildings in Siberia of this time, the composition of the temple dates back to the ancient proper Russian samples, while the external decor is decided in the traditions of Ukrainian architecture, which together makes an inexpressible impression. The appearance of the "Ukrainian" domes proper contrasts with the bell tower, which rather resembles the Volga samples of the "colonization" style, which developed when the peoples of Chuvashia and Tatarstan were converted to Orthodoxy. The temple has preserved frescoes, probably made in the 18th or 19th centuries, over which the communists once mocked (Figure 16). Now this painting, late by the standards of Central Russia, but extremely expressive and original, is gradually being restored.
Another church on the territory of the monastery, Zosima and Savvaty, or the Forty Martyrs, was erected in the same year 1717. She also resembled Ukrainian samples. Unfortunately, in Soviet times, when the monastery had a waste disposal station, the church was completely destroyed.
In 1741, a monumental stone defensive wall stretched around the monastery. In Central Russia, such walls were no longer built in the 18th century. In the best case, in Russia they were limited to simple brick walls without loopholes, devoid of fortification significance. In Tyumen, it seems, it was meant to build a real stone fortress - there is even a fighting move. The gateway Peter and Paul Church with a bell tower (Figure 17) and the gates that appeared in the same year (Figure 18) are good.
The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross is located at a distance from the monastery, on the very edge of Zatyumenka, closest to the old Chingi Tura. Built in 1790 (Figure 19).
Bukhara and Kozhevennaya settlements
They are located behind Tura. In 1640-1642, they were also included in the fortress system through the construction of walls. But where they came from, and what they meant for the city, its culture and economy - these are the most interesting questions (Figure 20).
To be a trade bridge between East and West - we see this mission of Western Siberia back in the days when the Ishim Khanate served as a transmission link between the Askiz in Altai and Bulgaria. Tatar cities under Taibuga, Ibak, Kuchum and any other ruler were swarming with merchants from China, especially Central Asia, and Muslim merchants from the Volga. The Russians did not penetrate here. At one time, as we have seen, Bukhara merchants helped to establish Taibuge here. We cannot even imagine how great was the importance of merchants in the political life of the khanate, due to the lack of sources. When Ermak appeared, of course, the merchants left.
But not for long. Already in 1595, the Bukharians turned to the Russian authorities with a request to return to Tyumen. As usual, they sent for permission to ask the king himself. The latter reacted very quickly. By a decree of August 31, 1596, the Bukharans were allocated bargaining for Tura (probably for the safety of the townspeople), at the very place where, most likely, there was a battle for Chingi Tura (according to the Kungur chronicle). The decree ordered the Cossacks to treat the Bukharians well, in particular, not to drive them out before they sold their goods. But at the same time, the decree obliged to ensure that merchants did not “climb” and did not sell weapons to the Tatars, even protective ones. Using the permission, the Bukharans first set up their temporary wagons and benches, then they began to gradually sit down on the ground, and thus a permanent settlement, consisting of Central Asians, turned out.
In 1609, the Bukhara settlement became even more extensive: Tatars from the old Chingi Tura and other small villages were resettled here to live with the Bukharians. The economic significance of this settlement cannot be overestimated. Asian merchants were primarily attracted by the opportunity to buy furs here. In turn, they brought goods from China, Dzungaria, India, Arab countries, Kalmykia. The share of oriental goods reached 98 percent at fairs in Tyumen and Tobolsk. Sources name 86 trade items. These are, first of all, fabrics, ready-made clothes, leather, bows and knives, horses, cattle, Chinese porcelain, tea, cauldrons and metal dishes … When we are amazed at how in the 17th century there was such an abundance of oriental objects in Russian everyday life, primarily dishes for pilaf (which are passed off as shields in local history museums),where so many Bukhara weapons come from - thank Siberia, and the Bukhara settlement in Tyumen in the first place. Of course, the market has not been equal to itself in different years. So, after 1671, Arab goods are no longer transported through Siberia. But the market replaced them with others. Since by that time the famous Makaryevskaya Fair on the Volga had already risen to its feet, the Bukhara Sloboda became the “nourishment” of the All-Russian Volga market, which turned it into a first-class commercial enterprise for a country that needed almost a full range of imported goods. The Bukhara Sloboda became that “nourishment” of the all-Russian Volga market, which turned it into a first-class commercial enterprise for a country that needed almost a full range of imported goods. The Bukhara Sloboda became that “nourishment” of the all-Russian Volga market, which turned it into a first-class commercial enterprise for a country that needed almost a full range of imported goods.
Kozhevennaya stood next to the Bukhara trading settlement, and this neighborhood is easy to explain. Leather dressing was an original Tatar craft. Even Prince Vladimir the Baptist saw Bulgarian warriors in excellent boots, and to this day in modern Arabic good leather is called “Bulgari”. In Moscow, the concentration of the tanning industry is clearly traced to the Horde settlement. The same is in Tyumen. The masters who served the Tatar nobility gradually came to the Russians. The construction of a fortress wall around these also "foreign" settlements became an indicator of trust in the Tatars. This, however, is understandable: Bukharians and Tatars began to receive baptism little by little. In the 17th century (it is not known exactly when) a wooden church appears on Beregovaya Street, exactly between the Bukhara and Kozhevennaya settlements,which in 1789 dresses in stone and takes the name of Voznesenskaya (or Georgievskaya - the abundance of names in one church is for some reason characteristic of Tyumen). Today it is practically destroyed.
The leather settlement already in the 18th century became the real curse of Tura. The tannery pollutes the water, so long before the real industrial revolution, Tours became a stinking ditch. A. Ivanenko writes that when they dug a foundation pit for the workshop of a chemical-pharmaceutical plant, they found a layer of tree bark, which was used for tanning leather, 1.5 meters thick.
But, despite baptism, Islam cannot be erased from the map. Further beyond the Bukhara settlement is the Yanaul region, or New Yurts (New village, on the map it is also called Parfenovskaya). This is, in fact, an old Tatar village, founded unknown when, of those that are mentioned near Tyumen by the first Russian chronicles. Today the village is decorated with the minaret of the mosque, but it is new (1989).
Conclusion
I was still a child when a glimpse of a line in a history textbook struck me with its very fact: there was an independent khanate in Siberia, in the wilderness!
Russian historical science has not yet been able to understand the geopolitical significance of the khanate. It seems to the author that history itself provided the future Eurasian empire with several alternatives, several dozen “flowers,” which, if we recall Mao Zedong, should blossom together. We were, as it were, being told - but it is possible to live like that, and to build relationships with the world like that … Everything was not a decree for us. This is how the Soviet and post-Soviet Western Siberia appeared as a result: oil, gas and … and that's all.
Evgeny Arsyukhin