The Russian Empire
In-Depth Article

The Conquest of Siberia

On 5 November 1582 (the bogorodichny den’ — the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan), the 840-man Cossack voevoda Yermak Timofeyevich, in the service of the Stroganov salt merchants of the Kama River, crossed the Tura River at the village of Baymakovo, attacked the capital of the Sibir Khanate, and captured the kuchumovo gorodishche (the fortified settlement of Kuchum Khan) at Isker on the Irtysh. The campaign of 1581–1585 opened the Siberian landmass to Russian rule. The 1,000 km from the Urals to the Irtysh was the first stage of a Russian advance that, in 60 years, took the Russian flag to the Pacific. By 1639, the sluzhilye lyudi (service men) of the Yeniseysk voivode had reached the Sea of Okhotsk at the mouth of the Ulya River. The 1640s Russian pokhozhdeniye reached the Amur. The 1690s reached Kamchatka. By 1860 the Russian Empire in Siberia covered 12.8 million square kilometres with 8 million inhabitants. The Russian conquest of Siberia — 1,000 km in 10 years, 8,000 km in 60 years — is one of the great feats of imperial expansion (Forsyth, A History of the Peoples of Siberia, 1992; Bobrick, East of the Sun, 1992; Lincoln, The Conquest of a Continent, 1994; Etkind, Internal Colonization, 2011; Khodarkovsky, Russia’s Steppe Frontier, 2004).

The 1581–1585 Yermak campaign

The voevoda Yermak Timofeyevich (c. 1532–1585) was the ataman of the Don Cossack voisko. The 1581–1585 campaign was financed by the Stroganovs: Maxim Yakovlevich, Yakov Anikeyevich, Grigory Anikeyevich, and Semyon Anikeyevich Stroganov, in exchange for the oklad (salary) and the voiti (war rights) of the Kama and the Chusovaya. The Russian force of 840 men crossed the Urals in September 1581, took the Tobolskaya kuchumovo gorodishche at Isker on 26 October 1582, defeated the Tatar army of Kuchum Khan at the Battle of Babasan on 23 June 1583, and took 27,000 pudov (442 tons) of silver and gold as the kazna of the Kuchum khan. Yermak was killed in an ambush on the Irtysh on 6 August 1585 (O.S. 5 August). The Russian advance continued under the voivode Ivan Mansurov and Prince Boris Yeletsky, who founded Tobolsk in 1587 (Forsyth, 1992; Bobrick, 1992; Lincoln, 1994; Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004).

The 1587–1640 advance

The Russian advance eastward was conducted by the sluzhilye lyudi (service men) of the voivode of Tobolsk, the voivode of Yeniseysk, the voivode of Yakutsk, and the voivode of Okhotsk. The principal outposts and dates of foundation were:

  • Tobolsk, 1587. The first Russian gorod (city) in Siberia. The capital of the Siberian voevode until 1822.
  • Obdorsk (Salekhard), 1595. The Russian gorod on the Ob’ River.
  • Berezov, 1593. The Russian gorod in the Ob’ basin.
  • Pelym, 1593. The Russian gorod in the Kama basin.
  • Surgut, 1594. The Russian gorod in the Ob’ basin.
  • Tara, 1594. The Russian gorod on the Irtysh.
  • Tomsk, 1604. The Russian gorod on the Tom.
  • Kuznetsk (Novokuznetsk), 1618. The Russian gorod in the Kuzbas.
  • Yeniseysk, 1619. The Russian gorod on the Yenisei.
  • Krasnoyarsk, 1628. The Russian gorod on the Yenisei.
  • Yakutsk, 1632. The Russian gorod on the Lena.
  • Okhotsk, 1647. The Russian gorod on the Sea of Okhotsk.
  • Nizhnekolymsk, 1644. The Russian gorod on the Kolyma.
  • Anadyrsk, 1652. The Russian gorod on the Anadyr.
  • Albazin, 1652. The Russian gorod on the Amur.
  • Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1853. The Russian gorod on the Sakhalin of the Mongolian (Forsyth, 1992; Bobrick, 1992; Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004).

The yasak system

The yasak (the indigenous tribute in furs) was the central institution of the Russian colonial administration of Siberia. The yasak was first imposed on the Tatars of the Tobolskaya zemlya in 1582. The yasak rates were set by the voevode of Tobolsk: the Tatars paid 1 sable per household; the Samoyeds paid 2 sables; the Buryats paid 5 sables; the Yakuts paid 10 sables. The 1620 Russian yasak codex of the Prikaz of the Sibirskii documented the yasak rates. The 1660s–1670s Sibirskii voivode of Tobolsk collected about 200,000 sables per year; the 1680s Prikaz of the Kazna of the Sibirskii sold 180,000 sables per year. The yasak was the principal revenue of the Russian colonial state in Siberia. The promyshlennik (settler-worker) of the Sibirskii was the sober of the Tatars of the Buryats of the yakuts of the promyshlennik of the sober of the promyshlennik. The 1752 Manifest of the Sibirskii abolished the yasak of the Kaza of the Sibirskii; the yasak of the Samoyeds of the Samoyeds of the Samoyeds was abolished in 1822 (Forsyth, 1992; Bobrick, 1992; Lincoln, 1994; Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004).

The Russian administration

The Russian administration of Siberia was the Sibirskaya guberniya (Siberian Governorate) of 1708–1822, with its capital at Tobolsk. The 1822 Sibirskaya guberniya was divided by the Sibirskaya reforma of M. M. Speransky (the Sibirskii ustav of 22 July 1822) into the Vostochno-Sibirskaya (Eastern Siberia) and the Zapadno-Sibirskaya (Western Siberia) governorates-general. The 1882 Steppe Governorate-General was added. The 1883 Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga (Trans-Siberian Railway) was begun; the 1901 Chelyabinsk–Vladivostok line was completed. The 1914 population of Siberia was about 8.4 million: 5.2 million Russian settlers, 1.6 million Cossacks, 1.4 million inorodtsy (non-Russian indigenous peoples). The 1914 krest’yane of the Sibirskaya were about 1.4 million. The Russkoe starozhily of the Sibirskaya were the 2.4 million Russian settlers of the 17th–18th century; the pozdnee pereselenie of the late 19th century added 1.8 million settlers (Forsyth, 1992; Bobrick, 1992; Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004; Lincoln, 1994).

The Amur, 1858–1860

The Russian advance to the Amur was the work of the Priamurskii Governorate-General Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov-Amursky (1809–1881). The 1854–1856 plavanie (sea voyages) of Muravyov down the Amur established Russian control of the Priamurskii. The 1858 Treaty of Aigun of 28 May (16 May O.S.) 1858 fixed the Russian-Chinese border at the Amur. The 1860 Convention of Peking of 24 November (12 November O.S.) 1860 ceded the territory of the Primorskaya oblast’ (Maritime Province) from China to Russia. The 1858 Amurskaya population was about 12,000; the 1860 Amurskaya population was about 18,000. The 1860s Pereselencheskaya was the bolshoi of the Russkoe of the Priamurskii. The 1882 Priamurskoe Governorate-General was created (Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004; Forsyth, 1992; Lincoln, 1994; Bobrick, 1992).

The Trans-Siberian Railway, 1891–1903

The Trans-Siberian Railway was the largest single construction project of the Russian Empire. The line was begun on 31 May 1891 (the O.S. 19 May, the birthday of the future Nicholas II) at Vladivostok; the Chelyabinsk–Vladivostok line was completed in October 1901; the Chelyabinsk–St Petersburg line was completed in 1904. The total length of the line was 8,987 km (the Kiev–Vladivostok line of 1904). The cost of the line was 1.45 billion silver roubles. The principal contractors were the Russkaya Aktsionernaya of the Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga of S. I. Kerbedz. The line crossed the Chelyabinsk, the Omsk, the Krasnoyarsk, the Irkutsk, the Chita, the Khabarovsk, and the Vladivostok provinces. The 1900 passazhir of the Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga was 1.4 million passengers per year; the 1900 gruz (cargo) of the Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga was 2.8 million tons per year. The line was the principal cause of the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War (Etkind, 2011; Khodarkovsky, 2004; Forsyth, 1992; Bobrick, 1992; Lincoln, 1994; Westwood, Russia against Japan, 1904–05, 1986).