Russia owes the increment of Siberia not to Ermak at all. A hundred years before the legendary ataman, the army of the Moscow governors Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin passed from Ustyug to the upper reaches of the Ob River, annexing western Siberia to the possessions of Ivan III.
Prince Fyodor Semyonovich (Black) Kurbsky - voivode of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, in 1483, together with Ivan Ivanovich Saltyk-Travin, led a campaign against the Pelym principality (Ugra land) - the first historically reliable transition of Russian troops through the Middle Urals.
By the end of the 15th century, the mountains of the Urals became the border between Russia and the Pelym principality - a tribal union of the Voguls (Mansi). The Russians were troubled by the raids of restless neighbors. Together with the Voguls, the Tyumen and Kazan khans attacked our borders: from the northern Urals to the Volga, a united anti-Russian front was formed. Ivan III decided to crush the Pelym principality and cool the warlike ardor of his allies, the khans.
The Grand Duke put the experienced governors Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin at the head of the army. We know little about them, but it's a shame: these people deserve more than a few lines in encyclopedias. Fyodor Semenovich Kurbsky-Cherny belonged to a noble boyar family, excellently proved himself in battles with Kazan. Voivode Ivan Ivanovich Saltyk-Travin also diligently served the fatherland. He more than once had the occasion to command the "ship's army", he also fought with the Kazan khan, led the campaign to Vyatka.
In 1483 he was put together with I. I. Saltyk-Travin at the head of a large campaign for the Urals. The purpose of the campaign was to eliminate the threat from the Voguls, whose "Grand Duke" Asyka disturbed the Great Perm with raids, and the strengthened Siberian Khanate, as well as to persuade local rulers to recognize the vassalage from the Grand Duke.
The city of Ustyug was chosen as the place of gathering of the warriors. They prepared for the campaign in detail: they equipped river vessels - ears (there were no roads in Siberia, the army could only move on water), they hired experienced helmsmen, who were familiar with the steep nature of the northern rivers. On May 9, 1483, a "ship's army" sailed from Ustyug, which, in addition to the grand ducal servicemen and Ustyuzhan, included contingents from Vologda, Dvinskaya land, Cherdyn and Komi. At first, they walked easily and cheerfully, since the land around them was inhabited. But now they passed the last border towns, the wilderness began. Rapids and shoals were frequent, the soldiers had to drag ships along the shore. But all these were "flowers", "berries" had a chance to taste on the Ural passes, when the ears were dragged along the mountains. It is hard work, hard labor, and there is a long way ahead through unknown and hostile Siberia.
Finally, the cursed passes were left behind, again the ships glided along the water surface of the Siberian rivers - Kol, Vizhay, Lozva. The monotonous landscape did not change for hundreds of miles: steep banks, forest thickets. Only closer to the mouth of the Lozva began to come across the first settlements of the Voguls. The decisive battle took place near the Vogul capital - Pelym. The Russians had nowhere to retreat: victory or death. Therefore, the "ship's men" attacked fiercely and swiftly, defeating the enemy in a fleeting battle. In the Vologda-Perm Chronicle we read: “I came to the Vogulichi in the month of July at 29, and the battles took place. And vogulichi runaway. " The Ustyug chronicler adds: "In that battle, 7 people were killed by the Ustyuzhan people, and there were a lot of vogulich pads."
It is not worth explaining the easy victory only by the superiority of Russian weapons: the cannons squeaked for the Voguls, who more than once invaded Moscow possessions, did not come as a surprise. The fact is that, in contrast to the princelings and their warriors who live off the military booty, ordinary Voguls - hunters and fishermen - strove for peace with the Russians. Why go on long hikes, rob and kill your neighbors, if your own rivers are full of fish, and the forests are abundant in game? Therefore, the Russian chronicles do not mention any significant clashes with the Voguls after Pelym. The Tyumen khan also pacified, did not dare to come to the aid of the allies.
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Having passed along the northern rivers and dragging ships through the Ural Mountains, the governors defeated Asyka's army on July 29, 1483 in a battle near the Pelym town (presumably located on the site of the modern village of Pelym), the detachment moved on to the Ob, into the possession of the "Grand Duke" Moldan and other Siberian "princes". According to the chronicle, the governors "the princes of the Ugra fought and led to the full," "they caught the prince Moldan on the Ob River and the princes Ekmycheevs caught two sons." The chronicler reports: "We went down the Irtysh-river down, fighting, but on the great Ob-river … they took a lot of good and full." There is still not a word about the combat losses of Russian warriors, people died not in battles, but from illness and hardships of a long march: "In Ugra, many Vologda residents died, but all of the Ustyuzhans left." The most dangerous enemy turned out to be not the Voguls with the Ugra people, but the immense Siberian distances.
Having collected a large yasak and seized without a fight the capital of the Ugra "prince" Pytkei, the Moscow detachment turned back in order to have time to go back before the freeze-up began. We went back along the Malaya Ob and Northern Sosva. On the Ural passes, they again had to drag ships heavily laden with war booty, but the souls of the soldiers were easy: after all, they were returning home. Passing a string of large and small northern rivers. On October 1, 1483, the "ship's army" returned to Ustyug, having overcome about 4.5 thousand km during the campaign. The results of the campaign were the recognition (in the spring of 1484) by the "princes" of Western Siberia of dependence on the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the annual payment of tribute. Therefore, starting with Ivan III, the titles of the Grand Dukes of Moscow (later - Tsars) reflected the claims to the Urals and Western Siberia (“Grand Duke Yugorsky”, “Prince Udorsky, Obdorsky and Kondinsky”).
If Siberia was partially annexed to Russia before Yermak, then the question arises, what was the true goal of the campaign for Yermak? FACT IF YOU CAREFULLY READ ABOUT YERMAK'S GOING TO SIBERIA BY ALEXEY LEVSHIN, YERMAK DIDN'T AT ALL FIGHT WITH THE "TATARS" - AND WITH THE COSSACKS FROM THE "COSSACK ORDA" WHICH ALSO CALLED BOUNDS IN THE SAME TIME!