Siberia was scarcely known to the Russians before the middle of the sixteenth century[68]. For although an expedition was made, under the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch I. into the North Western Parts of that country, as far as the river Oby, by which several Tartar tribes were rendered tributary, and some of their chiefs brought prisoners to Moscow; yet this incursion bore a greater resemblance to the desultory inroads of barbarians, than to any permanent establishment of empire by a civilized nation. Indeed the effects of that expedition soon vanished; nor does any trace of the least communication with Siberia again appear in the Russian history before the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II. At that period Siberia again became an object of attention, by means of one Anika Strogonoff, a Russian merchant, who had established some salt-works at Solvytshegodskaia, a town in the government of Archangel.
Anika Strogonoff trades with the People of Siberia.
This person carried on a trade of barter with the inhabitants of the North-Western parts of Siberia, who brought every year to the abovementioned town large quantities of the choicest furs. Upon their return to their country Strogonoff was accustomed to send with them some Russian merchants, who crossed the mountains, and traded with the natives. By these means a considerable number of very valuable furs were procured at an easy rate, in exchange for toys and other commodities of trifling value.
This traffic was continued for several years, without any interruption; during which Strogonoff rapidly amassed a very considerable fortune[69]. At length the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch II. foreseeing the advantages which would accrue to his subjects, from establishing a more general and regular commerce with these people, determined to enlarge the communication already opened with Siberia. |Second Irruption of the Russians into Siberia in the Reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II.| Accordingly he sent a corps of troops into that country. They followed the same route which had been discovered by the Russians in the former expedition, and which was lately frequented by the merchants of Solvytshegodskaia. It lay along the banks of the Petschora, and from thence crossed the Yugorian mountains, which form the North Eastern boundary of Europe. These troops, however, do not seem to have passed the Irtish, or to have penetrated further than the Western branch of the river Oby. Some Tartar tribes were indeed laid under contribution; and a chief, whose name was Yediger, consented to pay an annual tribute of a thousand sables. But this expedition was not productive of any lasting effects; for soon afterwards Yediger was defeated, and taken prisoner by Kutchum Chan; the latter was a lineal descendant of the celebrated Zinghis Chan; and had newly established his empire in those parts.
This second inroad was probably made about the middle of the sixteenth century; for the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch assumed the title of Lord of all the Siberian lands so early as 1558, before the conquests made by Yermac in that kingdom[70]. But probably the name of Siberia was at that time only confined to the district then rendered tributary; and as the Russians extended their conquests, this appellation was afterwards applied to the whole tract of country which now bears that name.
For some time after the above-mentioned expedition, the Tzar does not appear to have made any attempts towards recovering his lost authority in those distant regions. But his attention was again turned to that quarter by a concurrence of incidents; which, though begun without his immediate interposition, terminated in a vast accession of territory.
Strogonoff forms Settlements upon the Kama and Tchussovaia.
Strogonoff, in recompence for having first opened a trade with the inhabitants of Siberia, obtained from the Tzar large grants of land; accordingly he founded colonies upon the banks of the rivers Kama and Tchussovaia; and these settlements gave rise to the entire subjection of Siberia by the refuge which they not long afterwards afforded to Yermac Timofeeff.
This person was nothing more than a fugitive Cossac of the Don, and chief of a troop of banditti who infested the shores of the Caspian sea. But as he was the instrument by which such a vast extent of dominion was added to the Russian Empire, it will not be uninteresting to develop the principal circumstances, which brought this Cossac from the shores of the Caspian to the banks of the Kama; and to trace the progress which he afterwards made in the distant regions of Siberia.
By the victories which the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch had gained over the Tatars of Casan and Astracan, that monarch extended his dominions as far as the Caspian Sea; and thereby established a commerce with the Persians and Bucharians. |Yermac is driven from the Shores of the Caspian Sea. A. D. 1577.| But as the merchants who traded to those parts were continually pillaged by the Cossacs of the Don; and as the roads which lay by the side of that river, and of the Volga, were infested with those banditti; the Tzar sent a considerable force against them. Accordingly, they were attacked and routed; part were slain, part made prisoners, and the rest escaped by flight. Among the latter was a corps of six thousand Cossacs, under the command of the above-mentioned Yermac Timofeeff[71].