Ermak Timofeevich

The origin of Ermak is not exactly known; there are several versions about this. “A genus unknown, a famous soul” : Russian folklore compares Ermak Timofeevich with the epic hero Ilya Muromets . Most researchers of Yermak’s personality note his average height, stockiness, dark and curly hair, black beard, eyes, quickly grasping everything around him, caution, foresight, courage, courage, indomitability, the desire for justice, nobility, unconditional respect for the beauty and purity of soul. Ermak was a man of outstanding intelligence and character: his like-minded people and his opponents recognized this. He was undoubtedly a legendary person ^[1] .

According to one legend, he was from the banks of the Chusovaya River. Thanks to the knowledge of local rivers, he walked along the Kama , Chusovoy and even crossed to Asia, along the Tagil River, until he was taken to serve-Cossack ( Cherepanovskaya Chronicle ). According to another version, he was a native of the Kachalinskaya village on the Don (Bronevsky) ^[2] .

The surname of Ermak is not reliably established. In those days in Russia, a small number of people had surnames: people from the upper class of society or foreigners who arrived for permanent residence in Russian lands. Many Russians were called by their father or by nickname, or by type of activity. It is known only that he was called either Ermak Timofeev or Ermolai Timofeevich Tokmak. The real nickname of the chieftain is known from the documents of the Ambassadorial order used by the compiler of the Pogodinsky annals. In connection with the first mention of the name of Ermak, its author made a remark: "Tokmak had the nickname for him."

In particular, in the historical work of E. P. Karnovich, "Family names and titles in Russia and the merger of foreigners with Russians," states:

The news has survived in Siberian chronicles that the first Russian conqueror of Siberia, Ermak Timofeevich Povolsky, was granted the title of Prince of Siberia from Ivan IV Vasilyevich. Such news, however, is very doubtful .... . However, in the historical work of A. V. Antonov, “Monuments of the History of the Russian Service Class”, in excerpts from the synodic of the Assumption Rostov Cathedral, there is a record of commemoration: to PRINCESS ataman Ermak and Soroka, who had mercifully plundered, eternal memory.

The description of Yermak’s appearance, given by Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov in his “ Remezovsky chronicler ” of the late 17th century, has been preserved.

According to S.U. Remezov, whose father - the Cossack centurion Ulyan Moiseevich Remezov - personally knew the surviving participants in Yermak’s campaign, the famous chieftain was

"Velmi is courageous, and humane, and full of sight, and pleased with all wisdom, flat-faced, black with bastard, middle [that is, height] middle, and flat, and shoulder-length."

The same text states that Yermak’s surname is Povolsky or Povolsky, and his real name is German ^[3] . Other historians and chroniclers produce his name from Yeremey ( Yerema ). Irkutsk historian A. G. Sutormin claims that the full name of Ermak sounded like Vasily Timofeevich Alenin ^{[4] [5] [6]} . The same version of the name of Ermak is played out in the tale of P. P. Bazhov “Ermakov swans”.

Ermak was probably the first ataman of one of the numerous Volga Cossack squads typical of that time. Ermak’s comrade-in-arms Gavril Ilyin wrote in a petition addressed to the Tsar that for 20 years he “vole” (led a free life) with Ermak in the Wild Field ; another veteran Gavrila Ivanov wrote that he was “ on the field for twenty years at Yermak in the village ” and in the villages of other atamans ^[7] . Ethnographer Iosaf Zheleznov , relying on Ural traditions, gave an example of the fact that ataman Ermak Timofeevich was considered by the Cossacks to be a “useful sorcerer” and “had in obedience a small fraction of Shishig (devils). Where rati did not reach, there he exhibited them ” ^[8] .

Ermak fought in the Livonian War , commanding a Cossack hundred . Under the command of the governor Dmitry Hvorostinin, he participated in a successful attack on Lithuania in 1581, went down the Dnieper to Mogilev and fought in the battle of Shklov . The letter of the Lithuanian commandant Mogilev Stravinsky, sent at the end of June 1581 to King Stefan Batory , which mentions “Ermak Timofeevich - the ataman of the Cossacks” ^{[7], has been} preserved. In the autumn of that year, Yermak participated in the lifting of the siege of Pskov , and after that - in the battle of Lyalitsy in February 1582, in which the Russian army, led by Hvorostinin, stopped the advance of the Swedes. According to Ruslan Skrynnikov , Yermak fought under the leadership of Khvorostinin ten years earlier at the Battle of Molodi as part of the Don Ataman Mikhail Cherkashenin ^[9] .

In 1582, the Cossack squad (more than 540 people), gathered under the command of the chieftains Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso , Jacob Mikhailov , Nikita Pan , Matvey Meshcheryak , Cherkas Aleksandrov and Bogdan Bryazgi , was invited by the Ural merchants Stroganovs to protect themselves from regular attacks from the Siberian side Kuchuma went up the Kama , and in June 1582 she arrived on the Chusovaya River, in the Chusovsky towns of the Stroganov brothers. Here the Cossacks lived for two months and helped the Stroganovs defend their towns from predatory attacks by the Siberian Khan Kuchum.

On September 1, 1581 , a well-equipped Cossack squad under the command of Yermak set out on a campaign for the Stone Belt ( Urals ) from the Stroganov residence Orel-Gorodok ^{[10] by} water along the Kama, Chusova and Serebryanka ^[11] . According to another version proposed by the historian R. G. Skrynnikov , the campaign of Ermak, Ivan Ring and Nikita Pan to Siberia dates back to the next year , 1582 , since the world with the Commonwealth was concluded in January 1582, and at the end of 1581 Ermak was still at war with the Lithuanians ^[12] .

The initiative of this campaign, according to the annals of Esipovskaya and Remizovskaya, belonged to Yermak himself, the participation of the Stroganovs was limited to the forced supply of supplies and weapons to the Cossacks. According to the Stroganov Chronicle (accepted by Karamzin , Solovyov and others), the Stroganovs themselves called the Cossacks from the Volga to Chusovaya and sent them on a campaign, adding 300 military men from their possessions to the Yermak detachment (540 people) ^{[13] [14]} .

Behind the chieftain was a well-armed and, apparently, a very disciplined half-thousand squad with rather large supplies of food and equipment. The whole farm and the squad itself were sunk in rooks-plows , this was also conceived because in the depths of Siberia, through the central part of the unknown Ural Range, only one path was known - the water one. After the squad overcame this mountain-water path, it was called "Ermakova Voda" . At the very beginning of the voyage, and after a difficult pass over the ridge, this more than a thousand-kilometer way was the shortest and most reliable in the center of Western Siberia, to the main headquarters of the Siberian Khan ^[10] .

It is important to note that at the disposal of the future enemy of the Cossacks, Khan Kuchum , there were forces that were several times superior to Yermak's squad, but armed much worse. According to the archival documents of the Ambassadorial Order ( RGADA ), in total Khan Kuchum had about 10 thousand army, that is, one tumen , and the total number of "lasar people" who obeyed him did not exceed 30 thousand adult men ^[15] .

Khan Kuchum from the Sheibanid clan was a relative of Khan Abdullah, who ruled in Bukhara , and, apparently, was the leader of a group of ethnic Kazakhs , since chronicles report his departure to the Cossack Horde after the loss of Siberia. In 1555, the Siberian Khan Ediger from the Taibugin clan, hearing about the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan by Russia, voluntarily agreed to accept Russian citizenship and pay a small tribute to the Russian Tsar Ivan IV . But in 1563, Kuchum made a coup, killing Ediger and his brother Bekbulat. Having seized power in Kashlyk , Kuchum for the first years led a deft diplomatic game with Moscow , promising to obey, but at the same time delaying the payment of tribute. According to the Remez Chronicle , Kuchum established his power in Western Siberia with extreme cruelty. This led to the unreliability of the units of Voguls ( Mansi ), Ostyaks ( Khanty ) and other indigenous peoples, forcibly collected by him in 1582 to repel the Cossack invasion.

The combined Cossack forces rose in plows up Chusova and along its tributary, the Serebryanaya River, to the Siberian dragging that separates the Kama and Ob basins, and dragged boats along the dragging river to the Zheravlyu ( Zharovlya ) river. Here the Cossacks were to stay the winter (Remezovskaya Chronicle). During the winter, Yermak sent a group of associates to scout the more southern route along the Neiva River. But the Tatar Murza defeated the reconnaissance detachment of Yermak. At the place where that murza lived, now there is the village of Murzinka known for its gems .

Only in the spring of 1582 did the Cossacks sail on the rivers Zheravle , Baranche and Tagil to Tura . They twice defeated the Siberian Tatars , on the Tour and at the mouth of Tavda . Kuchum sent Mametkul against the Cossacks, with a large army, but on August 1, this army was also defeated by Yermak on the shore of Tobol , at the Babasan tract. Finally, on Irtysh , near Chuvashev, the Cossacks inflicted a final defeat on the Tatars in the battle on the Cape Chuvashev . Kuchum left a hatch that defended the main city of his khanate, Siberia, and fled south to the Ishim steppes.

October 26 ( November 5 ), 1582 , Ermak entered the abandoned Tatars city of Siberia ( Kashlyk ) ^[16] . Four days later, the Khanty from the river. The demyanka , a right tributary of the lower Irtysh, brought furs and edible supplies, mainly fish, to the Cossacks. Ermak "kindly and hello" met them and released "with honor." The local Tatars, who had previously fled from the Russians, reached for the Khanty with gifts. Ermak received them just as kindly, allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies, primarily from Kuchum. Then the Khanty from left-bank districts began to appear with furs and food - from the Konda and Tavda rivers. Ermak levied all who came to him with an annual mandatory tax - yasak . From the “best people” (tribal elite) Ermak took the “ wool ”, that is, the oath that their “people” would pay yasak in a timely manner. After that, they were regarded as subjects of the Russian Tsar ^[16] .

In December 1582, Kuchum’s commander, Mametkul, exterminated one Cossack detachment on the Abalatsky lake from an ambush , but on February 23, the Cossacks struck a new blow to Kuchum, capturing Mametkul on the Vagae River.

Ermak used the summer of 1583 to conquer the Tatar towns and uluses along the Irtysh and Ob rivers, meeting stubborn resistance everywhere, and took the Ostyak city Nazym . After the capture of the city of Siberia (Kashlyk), Yermak sent messengers to the Stroganovs and an ambassador to the tsar - ataman Ivan Ring .

Ivan the Terrible received him very affectionately, richly gifted the Cossacks and sent Prince Semen Bolkhovsky and Ivan Glukhov, with 300 warriors, in support of them. Among the royal gifts sent to Yermak to Siberia, there were two chain mails at once, including chain mail that once belonged to Prince Peter Ivanovich Shuisky. This gift came just in time; Ermak, continuing his difficult campaign, wore, according to the testimony of his associates, both chain mail (one on top of the other) day and night. The royal governors arrived at Yermak in the fall of 1583, but their detachment could not deliver substantial assistance to the Cossack squad, which had greatly diminished in battle. Atamans perished one after another: at first Bogdan Bryazga was ambushed; then, during the capture of Nazim , Nikita Pan was killed; and in the spring of 1584 the Tatars killed Ivan Koltso and Yakov Mikhailov . Ataman Matvey Meshcheryak was besieged in his camp by the Tatars and only with great losses forced their leader Karachu, the vizier of Kuchum, to retreat.

Banners of Ermak

In the Armory there are three blue banners of Ermak, under which he was in 1581-1582. conquered the Siberian Khanate of Kuchum. The banner plates have a length of more than 3 arshins .

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  Lion and unicorn ready for battle
  (one of two banner options)

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  Reconstruction of a banner with a lion and a unicorn

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  The image of St. Michael
  (Hall 1. Showcase 2)

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  The banner of Ermak’s squad from the Sytin Military Encyclopedia

On August 6 ( 16 ), 1585 , Yermak Timofeevich himself also died. He walked with a small detachment of 50 people along the Irtysh . During an overnight stay on the shore at the mouth of the Vagay River, Kuchum attacked sleeping Cossacks and destroyed almost the entire detachment. Only a few Cossacks managed to escape. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses of the events of that night, the ataman was burdened with his armor, in particular, two chain mail donated by the tsar, and, trying to swim to the plows, he drowned in Irtysh. It is possible that Ermak was also wounded, because he, as a military commander, was primarily shot with bows.

There were so few Cossacks that the ataman Meshcheryak, after a lap convened, was supposed to come back to Russia. After a two-year tenure, the Cossacks temporarily ceded Siberia to Khan Kuchum in order to return there with renewed vigor.

According to legend, the body of Yermak was soon caught from Irtysh near the village of Yepanchina, a fisherman-Tatar Yanysh, Begishev grandson ^[17] . To look at the body of the chieftain gathered many noble Murza, as well as Kuchum himself. The Tatars shot at the body for several days with bows and feasted, but, according to eyewitnesses, his body lay in the air for a month and did not even begin to decompose. Later, dividing his property, in particular, taking two chain mail donated by the Russian tsar, he was buried in the village, which is now called Baishevo . He was buried in a place of honor, but behind the cemetery, since he was not a Muslim . The issue of the authenticity of the burial is currently under consideration.

A version recently appeared that Yermak’s burial is located in the Miyakinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan ^{[18] [19]} .

Presented to Yermak by Tsar Ivan the Terrible, chain mail with targets (plaques), belonging to the governor Petr Ivanovich Shuisky , who was killed in 1564, first got to the Kalmyk taiji Ablai, and in 1646 was recaptured by the Russian Cossacks from the “thieves samoyadi” - rebel Selkups . In 1915, during the excavations of the Siberian capital Kashlyk, the exact same plaque with a double-headed eagle was found that was on Shuisky's chain mail, which Yermak himself could drop there ^[15] .

Some historians place Ermak’s personality very highly, “his courage, leadership talent, iron willpower”. Ermak is “one of the most remarkable figures in Russian history” (Skrynnikov) ^[20] .

Chronicler Semyon Remezov recorded in detail the story of his father, Ulyan Moseevich Remezov , about Ermak, his exploit, his death and his chain mail. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich entrusted the archery centurion Ulyan with a responsible task: to find a safe road from China to Russia from Russia. July 18, 1651 he left Tobolsk in the southern steppes at the head of his streltsy detachment, which was entrusted with delivering royal gifts and a chain mail to Ablai (one was found, the other disappeared without a trace) in response to the request of the Ablai ambassadors who arrived in Tobolsk in 1650 ( the ambassadors named the owners of these chain mail - the heirs of the service Murza Kaidaul and Kondinsky Prince Alat). Here is how this record sounds in translation from Old Slavic to Old Russian ^[21] :

When Ulyan arrived at Urga , a meeting was arranged with honor with the custom of Ablai and refreshments. When they brought gifts [data] on the order, Ablai asked Ulyana:

"Is Yermak's carapace listed? He is unworthy to be among the [other] gifts."

Then Ulyan read out a list of [gifts]. Ablai then violated the entire order of the transfer of gifts, [saying]:

"Give me the shell."

And [he] was served. He accepted him with reverence, kissed him and lifted him above his head, giving praise to the royal majesty and love, because he received great comfort. The carapace is skillfully forged in 5 rings, 2 arshins long, on the shoulders there are arshins with a quarter, on the chest and on the back there are imperial seals, golden eagles, along the hem and sleeves there is a copper edge with 3 points .

And again Ablai asks:

“Do you know Ulyan where your Ermak lies?”

Ulyan, resourceful and wise in business, answered the question:

“We still don’t know where he was buried, and how he died . ”

And Ablai began to tell about him [Yermak], according to his legends: how he came to Siberia and ran from the Kuchum and drowned, and was found, and shot, and the blood flowed, and the shells were divided and carried, both from shells and from a dress miracles were, and how the Tatars vowed death that they could not speak Russian about him. And Ablai, having taken the carapace, spoke about Yermak to Ulyana who was standing here. Ulyan, on the other hand, asked Ablai for a written letter signed and stamped; he [Abay] promised to expound everything about Ermak.

Having accepted the rest of the presents, they finished the ceremony and sat down. [Ablai] was delighted with his family, because the great sovereign kindly listened to him, sent on September 4, 1651 a detailed story in his own language about Ermak: how he lived and how he died, “according to our stories”, how miracles were found and worked.

“I’ve been trying for many years. When I was still small and sick with the womb, they gave me a drink from the earth taken from his grave, and I have become healthy until now. When I go to war with the land taken from this grave, I win; if there is no land, I return almost empty, without prey. And so he asked the czar’s shells to go [war] to the Cossack Horde . “Your Ermak lies in the Baishevsky cemetery under a pine tree, and in your parental days there is a pillar of fire above him [Ermak], and in other [days] the candle seems to Tatars, but does not seem to Russians.”

In this he attached his seal.

- Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov

Under the archbishop of Nectaria , a church custom was established - to proclaim the eternal memory of Yermak and his squad ^[11] .

The memory of Yermak lives in the Russian people in legends, songs (for example, " Song of Yermak " is included in the repertoire of the Omsk choir) and toponyms. The most often settlements and institutions named after Yermak (cities and villages, sports complexes and sports teams, streets and squares, rivers and marinas, steamboats and icebreakers, hotels, etc.) can be found in Western Siberia. For some of them, see Ermak . Many Siberian commercial firms have the name "Ermak" in their own name.

• In the city of Omsk, in the St. Nicholas Cossack Cathedral until 1918, the banner of Ermak was stored, which was lost during the Civil War.
• In Omsk, Danish entrepreneur Randrup S. Kh. Launched production of domestic sewing machines under the name Ermak at the beginning of the 20th century on the basis of the American Singer sewing machine.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, the name Yermak was given to the village of Aksu in the Pavlodar district of the Semipalatinsk (now Pavlodar) region. In 1961, the village was transformed into the city of Ermak of regional subordination . In 1993, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Kazakhstan, the city ​​of Yermak was renamed Aksu .
• The stopping point Ermak on the Sverdlovsk railway.
• Near the village of Ust-Shish (Omsk Region), at the mouth of the Shish River, a memorial sign was installed - the southernmost point on the Irtysh River, where Yermak’s detachment reached in the last expedition of 1584.
• Streets in cities: Belovo , Berezniki , Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory) , Nizhny Tagil , Mezhdurechensk , Novokuznetsk , Novosibirsk , Omsk , Tomsk , Shadrinsk , Perm , Novocherkassk (area and avenue), Lipetsk and Rostov-on-Don (lanes), Khanty -Mansiysk , Kiev (Ukraine), Biysk , Yalutorovsk and [[Tyumen] (street).
• Ermak stadiums in Angarsk and Novocherkassk and a sports complex in Tomsk.
• Yermak hill is one of the attractions of Verkhnyaya Tura ( Sverdlovsk region ).
• Ermak Stone is a rock massif on the banks of the Sylva River in the Kungursky District of the Perm Territory .
• The Russian feature film (mini-series) by V. Krasnopolsky and V. Uskov " Ermak " (1996) (starring Victor Stepanov ).
• In 2001, the Bank of Russia in the series of commemorative coins “Development and exploration of Siberia” issued a coin “ Trekking Ermak ” with a face value of 25 rubles.
• Among Russian surnames there are surnames Ermak and Ermakov, as well as the surname Tokmakov, which became widespread through the nicknames of participants in campaigns of Ermak Timofeevich ^[22] .
• In the city of Omsk, the name of Ermak is the name of the sports training base for MMA fighters, the MMA Federation of Siberia.
• In 1899, at the shipyard in Newcastle (England), according to the design of Admiral S. O. Makarov , the world's first linear icebreaker Ermak was built for Russia, which served until 1960. In 1974, a new diesel-electric icebreaker Ermak was built for the Soviet Union at the Finnish shipyard of Vyartsila.
• In Novosibirsk, the name 19 Ermak named special forces of the Russian Guard .

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  The world's first linear icebreaker "Ermak"

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  Don money - 100 rubles. Ermak. obverse , 1918 . Rostov

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  Don money - 100 rubles. Ermak. reverse , 1918 . Rostov

Monuments

Monuments to Yermak are installed in cities and towns:

• Irkutsk (on the embankment of the Angara River);
• Novocherkassk ^[23] ;
• Tobolsk (in the form of a stele in the garden of Ermak , 1848)
• Tara (2019)
• Zmeinogorsk (the monument was moved from the Kazakh city of Aksu , which until 1993 was called Yermak);
• Surgut (the monument was unveiled on June 11, 2010; the author is the sculptor K.V. Kubyshkin) ^[24] ;
• Chusova (the monument was unveiled in June 2013) ^[25] ;
• Великий Новгород (на памятнике «1000-летие России» );
• Новосибирск (в аэропорту Толмачёво );
• Томск ;
• Омск (бюст в Советском парке, открыт 03.08.2016, дата рождения Ермака ошибочно указана как 1542)
• Орёл-Городок (Пермский край, на берегу реки Камы )

На пермской земле есть памятник с изображением Ермака, открытый в 1964 году в честь 400-летия Орла-Городка — одной из первых русских крепостей в Прикамье . Автор памятника-обелиска — Лев Семёнович Мартынов. Четыре двадцатиметровых лиственичных ствола, заострённых в верхней части, представляют часть крепостной стены. В нижней части её металлический барельеф погрудного портрета Ермака. На обратной стороне обелиска литой металлический щит с надписью ^[26] :

.

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  Стела Ермаку в Тобольске. На заднем плане — Тобольский кремль

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  Памятник Ермаку в Новочеркасске

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  Атаман Ермак на Памятнике «1000-летие России» в Великом Новгороде

Fiction

• Алмазов Б. А. Атаман Ермак со товарищи. — СПб.: Азбука, 1997. — 596 с. — (Отечество). — ISBN 5-7684-0429-5 .
• Гнутов В. П. Подвиг Ермака . Исторический роман. — Ростов-на-Дону: Ростовское книжное изд-во, 1986. — 366 с.
• Гриц Т. С. Ермак . Историческая повесть. - 2nd ed. — Новосибирск: Западно-Сибирское книжное изд-во, 1981. — 72 с.: ил.
• Краснов П. Н. С Ермаком на Сибирь . Исторический роман. — М.: Вече, 2012. — 416 c.: ил. — (Серия исторических романов). — ISBN 5-905820-29-8 [ориг. ed. — Париж, 1929 г.]
• Сафонов В. А. Дорога на простор. Novel. — М.: Вече, 2006. — 4-е изд. - 384 p. — (Сибириада). — ISBN 5-9533-1387-X .
• Свиньин П. П. Ермак или Покорение Сибири: исторический роман XVI столетия. — СПб., 1834. — 4 т.
• Софронов В. Ю. Кучум. Исторический роман. — М.: Культура-Элтра, 1993. — 432 с.: ил.
• Фёдоров Е. А. Ермак . Исторический роман. — Новосибирск: Западно-Сибирское книжное изд-во, 1966. — 576 с.: ил. — (Библиотека сибирского романа).
• Чарская Л. А. Грозная дружина. Историческая повесть. — М.: Современник, 1994. — 288 с. — (История России в романах для детей). — ISBN 5-270-01768-7 .
• Чмырев Н. А. Атаман волжских разбойников Ермак, князь Сибирский. Развенчанная царевна. Развенчанная царевна в ссылке. Роман, повести. — М.: Современник, 1995. — 488 с.: ил. — (История Отечества в романах для детей).
• Ян В. Г. Поход Ермака . — СПб.: Ленинградское издательство, 2011. — 336 с. — ISBN 978-5-9942-0830-4 .
• Рылеев. К. Ф.- Смерть Ермака

Movies

• «Ермак» (режиссёры: Валерий Усков , Владимир Краснопольский ) — историческая драма , фильм-биография . — Мосфильм, 1996 год. — 257 мин.

Opera

• «Ермак» опера в 2-х действиях, Красноярский государственный театр оперы и балета имени Дмитрия Хворостовского, автор Александр Чайковский, режиссер Георгий Исаакян. Премьера состоялась 27 июня 2019 года.

Sources

Research

• Атаман Ермак Йармак (Ермак)
• Кольцо Сибири. Ермак, освоение Сибири
• Сказ о казаке-разбойнике
• Кто же ты, Ермак Аленин?
• Павлов-Сильванский Н. П. Ермак Тимофеевич // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Савельев Е. П. Кто был Ермак и его сподвижники.
• Суржик Д. В. Ермак Тимофеевич (неопр.) . Project RVIO and VGTRK "100 great commanders . " Archived on June 16, 2013.