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Message about the development of Russian Siberia. Geographical description of Eastern Siberia

In the development of Siberia and the Far East by the Russians, free spontaneous settlement and resettlement by “sovereign decrees” were closely intertwined. The local population was either directly conquered or voluntarily became part of the Russian state, hoping to find protection from warlike neighbors.

Russian people became acquainted with the Trans-Ural region at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries, but mass settlement from European Russia to the east began at the end of the 16th century, after the campaign against the Siberian Khan Kuchum of the Cossack squad led by Ataman Ermak Timofeevich. In October 1582, the detachment occupied the capital of the Khanate, Siberia (Kashlyk, Isker). Ermak’s campaign (he himself died in one of the skirmishes) dealt a mortal blow to Kuchumov’s “kingdom”: it could no longer successfully resist the tsarist troops, who, having included Ermak’s surviving comrades-in-arms, moved along the paved path. in 1586, Tyumen was founded by the sovereign's servants; in 1587, Tobolsk arose not far from the former capital of Kuchum, which soon also became the main city of Siberia. More northern regions- in the upper reaches of the Tavda and in the lower reaches of the Ob - were assigned to the Russian state in 1593-1594, after the construction of Pelym, Berezov and Surgut, the more southern ones - along the middle Irtysh - were covered in 1594. new city Tara. Relying on these and other, less significant, fortresses, service people (Cossacks, archers) and industrial people (fur-bearing animal hunters) began to quickly advance the borders of Russia “meeting the sun,” building new strongholds as they advanced, many of them soon turned from military administrative centers to centers of trade and craft.

The weak population of most of the regions of Siberia and the Far East was main reason the rapid advance of small detachments of servicemen and industrial people into the depths of North Asia and its comparative bloodlessness. The fact that the development of these lands was carried out, as a rule, by seasoned and experienced people also played a role. In the 17th century The main migration flow beyond the Urals came from North Russian (Pomeranian) cities and districts, whose residents had the necessary fishing skills and experience of moving both along the Arctic Ocean and along taiga rivers, were accustomed to severe frosts and midges - the real scourge of Siberia in summer time.

With the founding of Tomsk in 1604 and Kuznetsk in 1618, Russia’s advance to the south of Western Siberia in the 17th century was basically completed. In the north, Mangazeya, a city founded by servicemen near the Arctic Circle in 1601 on the site of one of the winter quarters of industrialists, became a stronghold in the further colonization of the region. From here, a few Russian bands began to move deeper into the East Siberian taiga in search of “unexplored” and sable-rich “zemlits”. The widespread use of southern routes for the same purpose began after the construction of the Yenisei fort in 1619, which became another important base for the development of Siberian and Far Eastern lands. Later, Yenisei servicemen set out from Yakutsk, founded in 1632. After the campaign of a detachment of Tomsk Cossack Ivan Moskvitin in 1639 along the river. Hive to the Pacific Ocean, it turned out that in the east the Russians had come close to the natural limits of Northern Asia, but the lands north and south of the Okhotsk coast were “explored” only after a number of military and fishing expeditions sent from Yakutsk. In 1643-1646. a campaign of Yakut servicemen led by Vasily Poyarkov took place, exploring the river. Amur. He made more successful trips there in 1649-1653. Erofey Khabarov, who actually annexed the Amur region to Russia. In 1648, the Yakut Cossack Semyon Dezhnev and the “trading man” Fedot Alekseev Popov set off on a voyage around the Chukotka Peninsula from the mouth of the Kolyma. About 100 people went with them on seven ships to the goal of the campaign - the mouth of the river. Anadyr - only the crew of the Dezhnevsky ship made it - 24 people. In 1697-1699, the Siberian Cossack Vladimir Atlasov walked almost the entire Kamchatka and actually completed Russia’s access to its natural borders in the east.

By the beginning of the 18th century. the number of migrants throughout the entire space from the Urals to Pacific Ocean amounted to about 200 thousand people, i.e. equal to the number of indigenous inhabitants. At the same time, the density of the Russian population was highest in Western Siberia and decreased significantly as it moved east. Along with the construction of cities, laying roads, establishing trade, a reliable communication and management system, the most important achievement of Russian settlers at the end of the 17th century. became the spread of arable farming throughout almost the entire strip of Siberia and the Far East suitable for it and the self-sufficiency of the once “wild land” with bread. First stage rural economic development North Asian lands took place under strong opposition from the nomadic feudal lords of southern Siberia, Mongolia and the Manchu dynasty of China, who sought to prevent the strengthening of Russian positions in the adjacent and most suitable territories for arable farming. In 1689, Russia and China signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk, according to which the Russians were forced to leave the Amur. The fight against other opponents was more successful. Relying on a rare chain of forts in Tarsk, Kuznetsk and Krasnoyarsk districts, the Russians managed not only to repel the raids of nomads, but also to advance further to the south. IN early XVIII V. Fortress cities of Biysk, Barnaul, Abakan, and Omsk arose. As a result, Russia acquired lands that later became one of its main granaries, and gained access to the richest mineral resources of Altai. Since the 18th century there they began to smelt copper and mine silver, which Russia so needed (it previously did not have its own deposits). Nerchinsky district became another center of silver mining.

The 19th century was marked by the beginning of the development of gold deposits in Siberia. Their first mines were opened in Altai, as well as in the Tomsk and Yenisei provinces; since the 40s XIX century gold mining began on the river. Lena. Siberian trade expanded. Back in the 17th century. the fair in Irbit, located in Western Siberia, on the border with the European part of the country, gained all-Russian fame; No less famous was Transbaikal Kyakhta, founded in 1727 and becoming the center of Russian-Chinese trade. After the expeditions of G.I. Nevelsky, who proved in 1848-1855. the island position of Sakhalin and the absence of the Chinese population in the lower reaches of the Amur, Russia received convenient access to the Pacific Ocean. In 1860, an agreement was concluded with China, according to which lands in the Amur and Primorye regions were assigned to Russia. At the same time, the city of Vladivostok was founded, which later turned into the main Pacific port of Russia; Previously, such ports were Okhotsk (founded in 1647), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (1740) and Nikolaevsk (1850). By the end of the 19th century. There have been qualitative changes in the transport system throughout North Asia. In the 17th century River communication was the main one here, from the 18th century. it was increasingly competed with by land roads laid along the expanding southern borders of Siberia. In the first half of the 19th century. they formed into the grandiose Moscow-Siberian tract, which connected the largest southern Siberian cities (Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Nerchinsk) and had branches both to the south and to the north - up to Yakutsk and Okhotsk. Since 1891, beyond the Urals, separate sections of the Great Siberian railway track. It was built parallel to the Moscow-Siberian highway and was completed at the beginning of the 20th century, when a new industrial stage began in the development of North Asia. Industrialization continued until very recently, confirming the prophetic words of M.V. Lomonosov that “Russian power will grow through Siberia and the Northern Ocean.” A clear confirmation of this is Tyumen oil, Yakut diamonds and gold, Kuzbass coal and Norilsk nickel, the transformation of the cities of Siberia and the Far East into industrial and scientific centers of global significance.

There are also dark pages in the history of the development of Siberia and the Far East: not everything that happened in this territory over the past centuries had and has a positive significance. IN lately territories beyond the Urals cause great concern due to accumulated environmental problems. The memory of Siberia as a place of hard labor and exile, the main base of the Gulag, is still fresh. The development of North Asia, especially at the initial stage of Russian colonization of the region, brought a lot of troubles to the indigenous inhabitants. Once part of the Russian state, the peoples of Siberia and the Far East had to pay a tax in kind - yasak, the amount of which, although inferior to the taxes imposed on Russian settlers, was heavy due to the abuses of the administration. For some clans and tribes, previously unknown drunkenness and infectious diseases brought by settlers, as well as the impoverishment of fishing grounds, inevitable during their agricultural and industrial development, had disastrous consequences for some clans and tribes. But for most peoples of North Asia, the positive consequences of Russian colonization are obvious. The bloody strife stopped, the aborigines adopted more advanced tools from the Russians and effective ways management. The peoples who were once unliterate and lived in the Stone Age 300 years ago now have their own intelligentsia, including scientists and writers. The total number of the indigenous population of the region also grew steadily: in the middle of the 19th century. it has already reached 600 thousand people in the 20-30s. XX century - 800 thousand, and currently amounts to more than a million. The Russian population of North Asia increased even faster over the years and in the middle of the 19th century. numbered 2.7 million people. Now it exceeds 27 million, but this is the result not so much of natural growth as of intensive resettlement of natives of European Russia beyond the Urals. It took especially large sizes in the 20th century, there are several reasons for this. This is the Stolypin agrarian reform, dispossession in the late 1920-1930s; widespread recruitment of labor for the construction of factories, mines, roads, and power plants in the east of the country during the first five-year plans; development of virgin lands in the 1950s, development of oil and gas fields, giant new buildings in Siberia and the Far East in the 1960s-1970s. And today, despite all the difficulties, the development of the harsh, but fabulously rich and far from exhausting its potential region, which became Russian soil 300 years ago, continues.

The annexation of the peoples inhabiting Eastern Siberia to Russia took place mainly during the first half of the 17th century; the outlying territories in the south, east and northeast of Siberia became part of Russia in the second half of the 17th century, Kamchatka and the adjacent islands - in the very end of the 17th - first half of the 18th century.

The annexation of Eastern Siberia began from the Yenisei basin, primarily from its northern and northwestern parts. In the second half of the 16th century. Russian industrialists from Pomerania began to penetrate into the Gulf of Ob and further east to the lower reaches of the Yenisei. Industrialists reached the specified area either by sea (through the Yugorsky Shar, Kara Sea and the Yamal Peninsula), or through the Urals. In 1616-1619. The Russian government, fearing the penetration of ships of English and Dutch companies into the mouth of the Ob, banned the use of the sea route.

Entire generations of Pomeranian industrialists were successively associated with fur trade in the Yenisei region. They founded numerous winter quarters and even “towns” that served as strongholds and transshipment points, and established various connections with local residents - economic, everyday, and sometimes family. In the first decades of the 17th century. Russian industrialists began to vigorously develop areas along the largest eastern tributaries of the Yenisei - the Lower and Podkamennaya Tunguska, and also move along the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the northeastern shores of Taimyr.

Government activities to establish political dominance began only at the turn of the 17th century. Industrialists, trying to maintain a monopoly on the exploitation of local fur trades, apparently managed to organize the action of the Samoyed tribes against the establishment of domination over them by the tsarist government. Despite the initial defeat, Russian troops still managed to gain a foothold in this area and in 1601 they founded the city of Mangazeya on the banks of the Taz River, which became the local administrative center and the most important trade and transshipment point.

The bulk of the indigenous population of Mangazeya district at that time were the ancestors of three modern ethnic groups northern Samoyeds-Nganasans, tundra and forest Enets, ancestors of modern Kets-Ostyaks and ancestors of modern Evenks-Tungus. The settlement of this population, fragmented and without any strong tribal organizations, nevertheless dragged on until the 1630s.

By 1607, Turukhanokoye and Enbatskoye (Inbatskoye) winter quarters were founded on the lower Yenisei, and the yasak regime was extended to most of the Entets and Ostyak clans. Tunguska clan associations that lived east of the Yenisei until the mid-20s of the 17th century. The tribute regime was practically unknown. After the formation of a permanent garrison in Mangazeya in 1625, local authorities generally completed the process of explaining the indigenous population in the lower reaches of the Yenisei; only the northern group of the Samoyed population - the Yuraks (Nenets) became part of the yasak population in the middle of the 17th century. Thus, the territory in question politically became part of the Russian state at a time when the fur trade of Russian industrialists and their economic ties with the local population were already in full bloom. As the main fur-trading areas moved eastward, Mangazeya began to lose its importance as a trade and transshipment point in the 30s; it was abandoned, its role passed to the Turukhansk winter quarters in the lower reaches of the Yenisei.

The penetration of Russians into the basin of the middle reaches of the Yenisei began in the 17th century. After the founding of Surgut (1594) and Narym (1596) in the Ob basin, and somewhat later Tomsk (1604) and Ketsk (1602), Russian troops reached the Yenisei. Simultaneously with the founding of Mangazeya in the first decade of the 17th century. A few clan associations of the Ostyaks, as well as the Arin people, who lived up the Yenisei in the area where the Krasnoyarsk fort was later founded, became part of Russia. The annexation of these regions was hampered by the opposition of some Tungus, Buryat, Oirat and Kyrgyz princes, who considered the Yenisei population as subject to them and mercilessly ruined it. The Tungus prince Tasei fought especially stubbornly. However, his irreconcilable position did not meet with support from other representatives of the tribal Tungus elite. In 1628, on the Angara, the “non-peaceful” Tungus were defeated and probably concluded an agreement with the Russians, according to which the Tungus princes finally joined Russia, receiving the right to independently collect yasak from their tribal groups and hand it over to yasak collectors. The annexation of the Pita, Vargagan and Angara Tunguses, as well as the Asans, who lived along the tributaries of the Angara, occurred during the 20s of the 17th century.

By this time, the Yenisei fort had become an important transshipment center for Russian industrialists, and Russian production began to develop around it. agriculture. The permanent Russian population on the middle reaches of the Yenisei was initially concentrated around the Yenisei fort. Until the middle of the 17th century. Russian villages and settlements arose on the main fishing and trade routes stretching from Western Siberia through the Makovsky fort to the Yenisei and from there further east along the Angara or north down the Yenisei. In the second half of the 17th century. After the construction of the Kem and Velsky forts in 1669, the basin of the Kemi and Belaya began to be most intensively populated, attracting settlers with “great and grain-bearing” fields, an abundance of mowing and construction “red forest”. The second most populated area was the area between the Yeniseisk and the mouth of the Angara and the third - along the lower Angara and its tributary Taseyeva, from which the Kan steppes stretched to the south. By 1719, there were already 120 villages in the Yenisei district. The total Russian population of the district by this time reached 18 thousand people.

The annexation of small Turkic tribal formations to the Russian state - Tubins, Arints, Kamasins, Motorts and others who lived in the Yenisei basin south of Krasnoyarsk, dragged on for many decades. Until the end of the 17th century. in this area there was a fierce struggle caused by the aggression of the Kyrgyz princes, who relied on the strong political entities that had developed in Western Mongolia, first on Altyn Khan, and in the second half of the 17th century. - on the Dzungar khans. Until 1640, it was complicated by the invasions of the strong Buryat prince Oilan into the Kan River basin. The aggression of the Kyrgyz and Buryat princes spread along the Yenisei even into the territory of the Ostyak clans. The strengthening of Russian statehood in this area brought security to the local population from extortion and prevented their physical destruction. In 1628, the Russian authorities, after four years of preparation, founded the Krasnoyarsk fort on the Yenisei, which later became the main stronghold of the Russian defense of the Yenisei region in the south. After the founding of this fort, the struggle with the Kyrgyz princes intensified and continued until 1642. It was accompanied by almost annual raids by Kyrgyz troops on the outskirts of Krasnoyarsk, sieges of the fort itself, extermination and captivity of the indigenous and Russian population, seizure of livestock and horses, and destruction of crops. The local population, driven away by the Kyrgyz or leaving with them under the pressure of their threats, as a rule, every time after the military successes of the Krasnoyarsk servicemen, sought to return back to their “ancestral” lands. In 1642, Tomsk troops in a decisive battle for the Bely Iyus River (a tributary of the Chulym River) defeated the Kyrgyz princes. However, as a result of this victory, only the Arins and in 1647 the Kachins managed to finally become part of Russia.

The annexation of the population along the Kan River to the Russian state began immediately after the construction of the Krasnoyarsk fort, but in the fight against the Tuba and Buryat princes and the troops of Altyn Khan, Russian servicemen managed to gain a foothold there only in 1636-1637, when the Kansky fort was built. After the victory over the Kyrgyz princes, the Krasnoyarsk troops, together with the Arin, Kachin and Kan population, in August 1645, after a difficult three-week campaign to the east, somewhere “between the Oka River”, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Buryat prince Oilan and forced him to give “wort forever.” Seven years later, in 1652, the Krasnoyarsk militia, consisting mainly of yasak people (Arinians, Kachins, etc.), defeated Oilan’s younger relatives and finally secured the Kan basin from the east.

In the 1660s, the Kyrgyz princes, relying on the strengthened Dzungar khans, who defeated Altyn Khan in 1667, resumed the war. Among them, Erenyak, the son of Ishei, one of the initiators of the fight against the Russians in the 1620-1640s, stood out for his energy in organizing predatory raids. This war was the longest and most difficult of all the military clashes that took place in the south of Siberia with nomadic feudal formations. The Kyrgyz and Tuba princes sought not only to return under their power the local indigenous population, who sought salvation in Russian citizenship, but also to devastate areas of intensive Russian settlement. The Yenisei and Krasnoyarsk authorities were forced to carry out serious fortification work, strengthen the artillery of the forts and the garrison of Krasnoyarsk. For 3 decades, the armed struggle continued with varying success. However, the determination and consistency of the Russian offensive forced the Kyrgyz princes to seek peace (1701). It became obvious that the Kyrgyz and Dzungarian aggression was collapsing, which its initiators could not fail to understand. In addition, the Dzungar ruler Galdan (Boshoktu Khan), who entered into a war with the Manchus over Northern Mongolia, after a series of brilliant military successes, was driven back by the Manchus from the Great Wall of China, suffered a heavy defeat and died in 1697. Under these circumstances, the further struggle of the Kyrgyz princes with Russia could be regarded by Galdan’s successor, his nephew Tsevan-Raptan, as too dangerous. Therefore, in 1702, Tsevan-Raptan took part of the Yenisei Kirghiz away from the Abakan steppe. The remaining indigenous population, which later formed the basis of the Khakass, became subject to Russian citizenship. The construction of the Abakan (1707) and Sayan (1709) forts finally ensured the safety of the Russian and yasak population of the Yenisei region.

The development by Russians of the lower and middle parts of the Yenisei basin was an important stage in the process of annexing the peoples of Siberia who inhabited the Lena and Baikal basins to Russia. The annexation of Yakutia and Buryatia to Russia began almost simultaneously, but it took place under unique conditions and had its own characteristics.

Russian industrialists first entered Yakutia in the early 20s of the 17th century. from Mangazeya, along the Lower Tunguska. Initially, the Toyon nobility tried to defend the exclusive right to exploit their relatives and actively opposed the Russians, who began to exterminate the local population.

This struggle did not at all reflect the whole essence of the process of annexing Yakutia to Russia. Russian troops were so few in number that, despite their superiority in weapons, they were practically unable to establish control over the local population. Even the most large detachments consisted of 30-50 people. Not all Yakut clans took part in the struggle. Its aggravation was often explained by inter-tribal strife, the desire of individual princes to use Russian troops in internecine feuds, either going over to the side of the Russians or fighting against them.

The failures of the Yakut princes showed the difficulty of fighting the Russians, but it was not the main reason for the end of their resistance. Most of the Yakut population quickly became convinced of the benefits of peaceful ties with the Russian population who came to Yakutia - industrialists and merchants. Despite all the “untruths” perpetrated by Russian industrialists, unequal exchanges, and armed clashes in the fields, the benefits of contact with them were obvious and accelerated the annexation of Yakutia to Russia. Formation of the Yakut Voivodeship in 1641. completed the initial stage of the process of joining Yakutia to Russia.

The bulk of the Yakuts, who became part of Russia in 1632-1636, lived in a compact area in the central part of Yakutia on both banks of the Lena. The accession of other groups of the Yakut population and Yukaghirs in the north and northeast, as well as the Tungus population living in the east, in areas adjacent to the Sea of Okhotsk, was associated mainly with the same process of commercial entrepreneurship. It dragged on until the middle of the 17th century. and was marked by remarkable geographical discoveries.

Due to climatic and natural conditions in most of the territory of Yakutia, Russian development was predominantly of a commercial nature. With the decline of sable crafts, Russian industrialists during the second half of the 17th century. began to leave Yakutia. However, on distant rivers in the areas most favorable for hunting and fishing, separate groups of industrialists began to settle, who by now end of XVII V. formed a permanent Russian population in Anadyr, Kolyma, in the lower reaches of the Lena and Olenek. In the early 1640s, the Russians identified areas in Yakutia in which farming was possible.

The Yakut Cossacks and industrialists first came into contact with the population of the extreme northeast and Kamchatka (Chukchi, Koryaks, Eskimos, Itelmens, Kuril Ainu). Some groups of Koryaks and Itelmens (Kamchadals) began to pay yasak already at the end of the 17th century. In the second decade of the 18th century. The Kuril and Shantar Islands were annexed to Russia. The Chukchi and Asian Eskimos finally accepted Russian citizenship at the end of the 18th century.

The annexation of Buryatia to Russia, which also began in the late 20s of the 17th century, was complicated external circumstances. The Buryat princes subjugated part of the Angara Evenks and even sought to take possession of the Yenisei Turkic population. In turn, the Buryats were subjected to constant raids by Mongol and Oirat feudal lords. Broad sections of the Buryat population were certainly interested in an alliance with the Russians in order to, with their help, protect themselves from the constant predatory invasions of their stronger southern neighbors, as well as expand trade ties. A significant part of the Buryat princes adhered to the same position. However, they did not want to lose their tributaries and opposed their inclusion in common system yasak relations established by the Russian authorities. Intertribal strife among the Buryats complicated the situation, which was exploited by the Oirat and Mongol feudal lords. Therefore, the annexation of Western Buryatia dragged on until the middle of the 17th century.

The first attempts to penetrate the Angara into Buryatia were made in 1625-1627. from Yeniseisk, then the Russians failed to overcome the Shaman rapids, but they collected interesting data about the Buryat land, its wealth, internal political situation and trade relations.

The Russian detachments that first entered Western Buryatia in 1628 to the Oka and then Ust-Ud Buryats were met there peacefully and received yasak. However, the frequent violence of the Krasnoyarsk Cossacks, who followed to Buryatia in 1629, caused opposition from the local population. During the founding of the Lensky (Ilimsky, 1630) and Bratsky (1631) forts and the expansion of yasak taxation, the position of the Buryat princes began to change, despite the desire of the Russian administration to rely specifically on the Buryat tribal elite. At this moment, the Buryat princes, from whom the Russian authorities began to demand payment of yasak in full, managed to keep the Tungus dependent on them under their influence and opposed the Russian troops. In 1634 They managed to win and burned the Bratsk prison. A detachment sent from Yeniseisk in 1635 restored the fort, but in 1638 the “brotherly” princes again “became disobedient.” However, at this time, the princes began to gradually lose contact with their Tungus tributaries, and the ulus Buryats began to establish permanent peaceful relations with the Russians.

The Buryat population of the areas immediately adjacent to Lake Baikal came into contact with the Russians from the early 1640s, when the Verkholensky fort was founded in the upper reaches of the Lena (1641). Some Verkholensk and Olkhon Buryat princes tried to maintain their exclusive right to exploit the ulus population, but in general the Buryat population itself offered to “make peace” and paid yasak. Immediately after the construction of the Verkholensky fort, the surrounding Buryats paid a significant tribute, and in 1643, the Baikal Buryats Khorin and Batulin offered tribute at the first appearance of Russian troops.

In 1654 at the mouth of the river. Ungi on the Angara the Balagansky fort was built, and in 1661 the Irkutsk fort was built on the right bank of the Angara, which became the administrative center of the Irkutsk district and an important trading point in Eastern Siberia. The construction of these strongholds accelerated the annexation of the Angara Buryats to Russia and helped strengthen the security of the entire Buryat population. From the middle of the 17th century. Western Mongolian feudal lords began to intensify raids on the Buryat lands, which accelerated the final entry of the entire Western Buryat population into Russia. This fact was of great importance for the further history of the Buryats and the development of their culture.

In 1645-1647 In Transbaikalia, peaceful contacts were established with the Buryat and Tungus populations and the Mongol princes, who sought to extend their power to the local population. Even peaceful relations began with the strong Mongol Tsetsen Khan. Subsequently, the Mongol khans, who were very interested in diplomatic and trade ties with Russia, as a rule, avoided serious clashes with the Russians and did not interfere with the accession of the Trans-Baikal Buryats and Tungus to Russia. The speed with which the Transbaikal population joined Russia was explained primarily by the desire of the eastern Buryats and a significant part of the Tungus to receive protection from the raids of the Mongol feudal lords and to expand trade relations with the Russians.

The annexation of the Amur region to Russia was also not without force of arms. The independent Daurian princes resisted. Clashes with them caused damage to the economy of the local population, which was greatly aggravated by the invasion of the Manchu troops on the Amur in 1652. The Manchu Qing dynasty was delayed by military action in the 50s of the 17th century. the spread of Russian colonization along the Amur River and provoke the uprising of the indigenous population. However, in the 60s, Manchu troops left the Amur, and the Russian population resumed the development of the deserted Amur lands.

The annexation of Transbaikalia and the Amur region was completed in the 60s of the 17th century. From the late 70s and throughout the 80s, the situation in Transbaikalia and the Amur region again became complicated as a result of the intensification of the aggressive policies of the Manchu Qing dynasty. In the 80s, the Russian population had to endure a difficult struggle with Manchu troops on the Amur, and with Mongol troops in Transbaikalia. The decisive position of the Buryat and Tungus population, who acted together with the Russians in defense of their “ancestral” lands, greatly helped the Russian authorities organize the defense of Transbaikalia and achieve the conclusion of the Nerchinsk Peace Treaty (1689). Under the terms of the treaty, Russian settlers on the Amur had to leave part of the territory they had developed. At the same time, fleeing the Manchu yoke and the bloody internecine struggle of the Khalkha and Oirat feudal lords, the Mongol population began to leave for Russia. Threats to Russian settlements in Transbaikalia and the Amur from the Manchus required serious defensive measures and the concentration of military forces. Therefore, service people in Transbaikalia and the Amur region in the 17th and early 18th centuries. made up a significant part of the population.

The annexation of Siberia to the Russian state was not only a political act. Russian explorers in the 17th century. not only reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean and “brought... under the high sovereign hand” most of the modern territory of Siberia, but they populated and initially developed it. Already during the annexation, Siberia became both in terms of population and economically an organic part of the Russian state. The Russian settlement of Eastern Siberia, as well as Western Siberia, proceeded from north to south. In the 17th century The Russian permanent population settled mainly in the taiga regions.

The entry of Siberia into Russia, and in a relatively short time, was explained not only by the policy of the feudal Russian government, aimed at seizing new territories and expanding the scope of robbery, not only by the aspirations of Russian merchant capital, but also by the establishment of diverse economic ties between the Siberian peoples and those migrating to the east significant masses of the Russian population. As a rule, the annexation of various regions of Siberia was directly dependent on the intensity of Russian people's colonization, settlement and economic development of the Siberian land by Russian settlers.

The need to combat the raids of stronger neighbors, the desire to avoid intertribal strife, the need for economic relations in turn, they encouraged the Siberian peoples to unite with the Russian people. Thus, the process of annexing Siberia to the Russian state was a multilateral phenomenon, due to a number of circumstances historical development Russian and Siberian peoples.

Russian colonization of Western Siberia

The article uses materials from the site protown.ru

Development of Siberia

In the development of Siberia by the Russians, free popular spontaneous settlement and resettlement by “sovereign decrees” were closely intertwined. The local population was either directly conquered or voluntarily became part of the Russian state, hoping to find protection from warlike neighbors.

Russian people became acquainted with the Trans-Ural region at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries, but mass settlement from European Russia to the east began at the end of the 16th century, after the campaign against the Siberian Khan Kuchum of the Cossack squad led by Ataman Ermak Timofeevich. In October 1582, the detachment occupied the capital of the Khanate, Siberia (Kashlyk, Isker). Ermak’s campaign (he himself died in one of the skirmishes) dealt a mortal blow to Kuchumov’s “kingdom”: it could no longer successfully resist the tsarist troops, who, having included Ermak’s surviving comrades-in-arms, moved along the paved path. in 1586, Tyumen was founded by the sovereign's servants; in 1587, Tobolsk arose not far from the former capital of Kuchum, which soon also became the main city of Siberia. The more northern areas - in the upper reaches of the Tavda and in the lower reaches of the Ob - were assigned to the Russian state in 1593-1594, after the construction of Pelym, Berezov and Surgut, the more southern ones - along the middle Irtysh - were covered in 1594 by the new city of Tara. Relying on these and other, less significant, fortresses, service people (Cossacks, archers) and industrial people (fur-bearing animal hunters) began to quickly advance the borders of Russia “meeting the sun,” building new strongholds as they advanced, many of them soon turned from military administrative centers to centers of trade and craft.

The weak population of most of the regions of Siberia and the Far East was the main reason for the rapid advance of small detachments of servicemen and industrial people into the depths of Northern Asia and its comparative bloodlessness. The fact that the development of these lands was carried out, as a rule, by seasoned and experienced people also played a role. In the 17th century The main migration flow beyond the Urals came from North Russian (Pomeranian) cities and districts, whose residents had the necessary fishing skills and experience of moving both along the Arctic Ocean and along taiga rivers, were accustomed to severe frosts and midges - the real scourge of Siberia in summer time.

By the beginning of the 18th century. the number of immigrants throughout the entire space from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean was about 200 thousand people, i.e. equal to the number of indigenous residents. At the same time, the density of the Russian population was highest in Western Siberia and decreased significantly as it moved east. Along with the construction of cities, laying roads, establishing trade, a reliable communication and management system, the most important achievement of Russian settlers at the end of the 17th century. became the spread of arable farming throughout almost the entire strip of Siberia and the Far East suitable for it and the self-sufficiency of the once “wild land” with bread. The first stage of agricultural development of North Asian lands took place under the strongest opposition of the nomadic feudal lords of southern Siberia, Mongolia and the Manchu dynasty of China, who sought to prevent the strengthening of Russian positions in the adjacent and most suitable for arable territories. In 1689, Russia and China signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk, according to which the Russians were forced to leave the Amur. The fight against other opponents was more successful. Relying on a rare chain of forts in Tarsk, Kuznetsk and Krasnoyarsk districts, the Russians managed not only to repel the raids of nomads, but also to advance further to the south. At the beginning of the 18th century. Fortress cities of Biysk, Barnaul, Abakan, and Omsk arose. As a result, Russia acquired lands that later became one of its main granaries, and gained access to the richest mineral resources of Altai. Since the 18th century there they began to smelt copper and mine silver, which Russia so needed (it previously did not have its own deposits). Nerchinsky district became another center of silver mining.

The 19th century was marked by the beginning of the development of gold deposits in Siberia. Their first mines were opened in Altai, as well as in the Tomsk and Yenisei provinces; since the 40s XIX century gold mining began on the river. Lena. Siberian trade expanded. Back in the 17th century. the fair in Irbit, located in Western Siberia, on the border with the European part of the country, gained all-Russian fame; No less famous was Transbaikal Kyakhta, founded in 1727 and becoming the center of Russian-Chinese trade. After the expeditions of G.I. Nevelsky, who proved in 1848-1855. the island position of Sakhalin and the absence of the Chinese population in the lower reaches of the Amur, Russia received convenient access to the Pacific Ocean. In 1860, an agreement was concluded with China, according to which lands in the Amur and Primorye regions were assigned to Russia. At the same time, the city of Vladivostok was founded, which later turned into the main Pacific port of Russia; Previously, such ports were Okhotsk (founded in 1647), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (1740) and Nikolaevsk (1850). By the end of the 19th century. There have been qualitative changes in the transport system throughout North Asia. In the 17th century River communication was the main one here, from the 18th century. it was increasingly competed with by land roads laid along the expanding southern borders of Siberia. In the first half of the 19th century. they formed into the grandiose Moscow-Siberian tract, which connected the largest southern Siberian cities (Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Nerchinsk) and had branches both to the south and to the north - up to Yakutsk and Okhotsk. Since 1891, beyond the Urals, separate sections of the Great Siberian Railway began to come into operation. It was built parallel to the Moscow-Siberian highway and was completed at the beginning of the 20th century, when a new industrial stage began in the development of North Asia. Industrialization continued until very recently, confirming the prophetic words of M.V. Lomonosov that “Russian power will grow through Siberia and the Northern Ocean.” A clear confirmation of this is Tyumen oil, Yakut diamonds and gold, Kuzbass coal and Norilsk nickel, the transformation of the cities of Siberia and the Far East into industrial and scientific centers of world importance.

There are also dark pages in the history of the development of Siberia and the Far East: not everything that happened in this territory over the past centuries had and has a positive significance. Recently, the territories beyond the Urals have caused great concern due to accumulated environmental problems. The memory of Siberia as a place of hard labor and exile, the main base of the Gulag, is still fresh. The development of North Asia, especially at the initial stage of Russian colonization of the region, brought a lot of troubles to the indigenous inhabitants. Once part of the Russian state, the peoples of Siberia and the Far East had to pay a tax in kind - yasak, the amount of which, although inferior to the taxes imposed on Russian settlers, was heavy due to the abuses of the administration. For some clans and tribes, previously unknown drunkenness and infectious diseases brought by settlers, as well as the impoverishment of fishing grounds, inevitable during their agricultural and industrial development, had disastrous consequences for some clans and tribes. But for most peoples of North Asia, the positive consequences of Russian colonization are obvious. The bloody strife stopped, the aborigines adopted more advanced tools and effective management methods from the Russians. The peoples who were once unliterate and lived in the Stone Age 300 years ago now have their own intelligentsia, including scientists and writers. The total number of the indigenous population of the region also grew steadily: in the middle of the 19th century. it has already reached 600 thousand people in the 20-30s. XX century - 800 thousand, and currently amounts to more than a million. The Russian population of North Asia increased even faster over the years and in the middle of the 19th century. numbered 2.7 million people. Now it exceeds 27 million, but this is the result not so much of natural growth as of intensive resettlement of natives of European Russia beyond the Urals. It assumed especially large proportions in the 20th century, for several reasons. This is the Stolypin agrarian reform, dispossession in the late 1920-1930s; widespread recruitment of labor for the construction of factories, mines, roads, and power plants in the east of the country during the first five-year plans; development of virgin lands in the 1950s, development of oil and gas fields, giant new buildings in Siberia and the Far East in the 1960s-1970s. And today, despite all the difficulties, the development of the harsh, but fabulously rich and far from exhausting its potential region, which became Russian soil 300 years ago, continues.

Beyond the great Stone Belt, the Urals, lie the vast expanses of Siberia. This territory occupies almost three quarters of the entire area of our country. Siberia is larger than the second largest country (after Russia) in the world - Canada. More than twelve million square kilometers contain inexhaustible reserves of natural resources, which, if used wisely, are sufficient for the life and prosperity of many generations of people.

Trekking beyond the Stone Belt

The development of Siberia began in recent years reign of Ivan the Terrible. The most convenient outpost for moving deeper into this wild and uninhabited region at that time was the middle Urals, the undivided owner of which was the Stroganov family of merchants. Using the patronage of the Moscow kings, they owned vast territories of land, on which there were thirty-nine villages and the city of Solvychegodsk with a monastery. They also owned a chain of forts that stretched along the border with the possessions of Khan Kuchum.

The history of Siberia, or more precisely, its conquest by the Russian Cossacks, began with the fact that the tribes inhabiting it refused to pay the Russian Tsar yasyk - the tribute that they had been subject to for many years. Moreover, the nephew of their ruler, Khan Kuchum, with a large detachment of cavalry, carried out a series of raids on villages that belonged to the Stroganovs. To protect themselves from such unwanted guests, rich merchants hired Cossacks led by ataman Vasily Timofeevich Alenin, nicknamed Ermak. Under this name he entered Russian history.

First steps in an unknown land

In September 1582, a detachment of seven hundred and fifty people began their legendary campaign beyond the Urals. It was a kind of discovery of Siberia. Along the entire route, the Cossacks were lucky. The Tatars who inhabited those regions, although superior in numbers, were inferior militarily. They practically didn't know firearms, so widespread by that time in Russia, and fled in panic every time they heard a volley.

The khan sent his nephew Mametkul with an army of ten thousand to meet the Russians. The battle took place near the Tobol River. Despite their numerical superiority, the Tatars suffered a crushing defeat. The Cossacks, building on their success, came close to the khan's capital, Kashlyk, and here they finally crushed their enemies. The former ruler of the region fled, and his warlike nephew was captured. From that day on, the Khanate practically ceased to exist. The history of Siberia is taking a new turn.

Fights with foreigners

In those days, the Tatars were subject to a large number of tribes that they conquered and were their tributaries. They did not know money and paid their yasyk with the skins of fur-bearing animals. From the moment of the defeat of Kuchum, these peoples came under the rule of the Russian Tsar, and carts with sables and martens reached distant Moscow. This valuable product has always and everywhere been in great demand, and especially in the European market.

However, not all tribes accepted the inevitable. Some of them continued their resistance, although it weakened every year. The Cossack detachments continued their campaign. In 1584, their legendary ataman Ermak Timofeevich died. This happened, as often happens in Russia, due to negligence and oversight - no sentries were posted at one of the rest stops. It so happened that a prisoner who had escaped a few days earlier brought an enemy detachment at night. Taking advantage of the Cossacks' oversight, they suddenly attacked and began to slaughter the sleeping people. Ermak, trying to escape, jumped into the river, but a massive shell - a personal gift from Ivan the Terrible - carried him to the bottom.

Life in a conquered land

From that time on, active development began. Following the Cossack detachments, hunters, peasants, clergy and, of course, officials flocked to the taiga wilderness. Everyone who found themselves beyond the Ural ridge became free people. There was no serfdom or landownership here. They paid only the tax established by the state. Local tribes, as mentioned above, were taxed with a fur yasyk. During this period, income from the treasury from Siberian furs was a significant contribution to the Russian budget.

The history of Siberia is inextricably linked with the creation of a system of forts - defensive fortifications (around which, by the way, many cities subsequently grew), which served as outposts for the further conquest of the region. Thus, in 1604 the city of Tomsk was founded, which later became the largest economic and cultural center. After a short time, Kuznetsk and Yenisei forts appeared. They housed military garrisons and the administration that controlled the collection of yasyk.

Documents from those years testify to many facts of corruption of government officials. Despite the fact that, by law, all furs had to go to the treasury, some officials, as well as Cossacks directly involved in collecting tribute, inflated the established norms, appropriating the difference in their favor. Even then, such lawlessness was strictly punished, and there are many cases where covetous people paid for their deeds with freedom and even their lives.

Further penetration into new lands

The process of colonization became especially intense after the end of the Time of Troubles. The goal of everyone who dared to seek happiness in new, unexplored lands was this time Eastern Siberia. This process proceeded at a very rapid pace, and by the end of the 17th century the Russians reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. By this time, a new government structure had appeared - the Siberian Order. His responsibilities included establishing new procedures for managing controlled territories and promoting governors, who were locally authorized representatives of the tsarist government.

In addition to the fur collection, furs were also purchased, the payment for which was made not with money, but with all kinds of goods: axes, saws, various tools, as well as fabrics. History, unfortunately, has preserved many cases of abuse here too. Often, the arbitrariness of officials and Cossack elders ended in riots of local residents, which had to be pacified by force.

Main directions of colonization

Eastern Siberia was developed in two main directions: to the north along the sea coast, and to the south along the borders with neighboring states. At the beginning of the 17th century, the banks of the Irtysh and Ob were settled by Russians, and after them large areas adjacent to the Yenisei. Cities such as Tyumen, Tobolsk and Krasnoyarsk were founded and began to be built. All of them were destined to become major industrial and cultural centers over time.

Further advance of the Russian colonists was carried out mainly along the Lena River. Here in 1632 a fort was founded, which gave rise to the city of Yakutsk - the most important stronghold at that time in the further development of the northern and eastern territories. Largely thanks to this, just two years later the Cossacks, led by them, managed to reach the Pacific coast, and soon they saw the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin for the first time.

Conquerors of the Wild Land

The history of Siberia and the Far East preserves the memory of another outstanding traveler - the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev. In 1648, he and the detachment he led on several ships circumnavigated the coast of North Asia for the first time and proved the existence of a strait separating Siberia from America. At the same time, another traveler, Poyarov, passed along the southern border of Siberia and climbed up the Amur, reaching the Sea of Okhotsk.

After some time, Nerchinsk was founded. Its significance is largely determined by the fact that as a result of moving east, the Cossacks came closer to China, which also laid claim to these territories. By then Russian Empire reached its natural limits. Over the next century, there was a steady process of consolidating the results achieved during colonization.

Legislative acts related to new territories

The history of Siberia in the 19th century is characterized mainly by the abundance of administrative innovations introduced into the life of the region. One of the earliest was the division of this vast territory into two governor generals, approved in 1822 by a personal decree of Alexander I. Tobolsk became the center of the Western, and Irkutsk became the center of the Eastern. They, in turn, were divided into provinces, and those into volost and foreign councils. This transformation was a consequence of the well-known reform

In the same year, ten legislative acts were published, signed by the tsar and regulating all aspects of administrative, economic and legal life. Much attention in this document was paid to issues related to the arrangement of places of deprivation of liberty and the procedure for serving sentences. TO 19th century hard labor and prisons became an integral part of this region.

The map of Siberia in those years is replete with the names of mines in which work was carried out exclusively by convicts. These are Nerchinsky, and Zabaikalsky, and Blagodatny and many others. As a result of the large influx of exiles from among the Decembrists and participants in the Polish rebellion of 1831, the government even united all Siberian provinces under the supervision of a specially formed gendarmerie district.

The beginning of industrialization of the region

Of the main ones that received widespread development during this period, gold mining should be noted first of all. By the middle of the century, it accounted for the majority of the country’s total production. precious metal. Also, large revenues to the state treasury came from mining enterprises, which by this time had significantly increased the volume of mineral extraction. Many other branches are also developing.

In the new century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the impetus for the further development of the region was the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The history of Siberia in the post-revolutionary period is full of drama. A fratricidal war, monstrous in its scale, swept across its expanses, ending with the liquidation of the White movement and the establishment of Soviet power. During the Great Patriotic War Many industrial and military enterprises are being evacuated to this region. As a result, the population of many cities is increasing sharply.

It is known that only for the period 1941-1942. More than a million people arrived here. In the post-war period, when numerous giant factories, power plants and railway lines were built, there was also a significant influx of visitors - all those for whom Siberia became their new home. On the map of this vast region appeared names that became symbols of the era - the Baikal-Amur Mainline, Novosibirsk Akademgorodok and much more.

The beginning of the development of Siberia by the Russians is associated with the campaign of Ermak’s squad. This campaign took place in 1581 - 1585, at the very end of the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible. At this time, Russia was active foreign policy aimed at expanding the territory of the state. This process sometimes developed into wars. And wars were accompanied by large financial costs and led to the impoverishment of the state treasury.

Improve financial situation Russia during this period could, for example, sell domestic furs to Western Europe. The fur of fur-bearing animals was in high demand in the West at that time, and therefore it was not by chance that it was called “soft gold.”

In European Russia, there were already few fur-bearing animals, which is explained by centuries-old hunting for them, which sometimes took on the character of predatory extermination.

But Siberia in this sense was a completely undeveloped and inexhaustible region, as it seemed then. Therefore, the eyes of the Moscow government were turned to the east.

The initiative to organize Ermak’s campaign came not only from the tsar, but also from the wealthy merchants and salt industrialists Stroganovs, who in the 50-60s of the 16th century were “granted” by Ivan the Terrible lands in the middle reaches of the Kama to the mouth of the Chusovaya and along the Chusovaya from the mouth to the sources . This is the territory of the Urals and the Urals proper.

Immediately the tsar ordered the Stroganovs to strengthen their “towns”, recruit and maintain military people to protect against raids by the Nogais and “Siberians” Letter from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich to Chusovaya Maxim and Nikita Stroganov about sending Volga Cossacks Ermak Timofeevich and his comrades to Cherdyn // Ekaterinburg, 2004 . - P.7-8.. Attacks on the lands of the Stroganovs along the Kama and Chusovaya began during the construction of their fortresses. Local peoples took part in the raids - Cheremis, Bashkirs, Ostyaks and Voguls, led by their “princelings”. But since the 70s, these attacks have become more frequent and more devastating.

In 1573, Mametkul, the nephew of the ruler of the Siberian Khanate Kuchum, “Mametkul - Kuchum’s son,” came to Chusovaya. See "Siberian Chronicles". St. Petersburg. 1907. - P. 53, . He destroyed the yasak Voguls and Ostyaks, and took their wives and children captive. These were representatives of the local population who transferred to Russian citizenship and paid tribute - yasak. Also during this raid, members of the Russian embassy led by Tretyak Chubukov were exterminated. This embassy was sent to the Kazakh Horde.

But Mametkul did not dare to attack the Stroganov fortresses, and the Stroganovs, in turn, did not pursue him without the royal decree.

The main source for Ermak’s campaign is the Siberian chronicles. According to the Stroganov Chronicle, it turns out that it was after Mametkul’s raid, in 1573, that Grigory and Yakov Stroganov asked the Tsar to send a decree allowing him to pursue the enemy on his territory, that is, in the Siberian Khanate, and to build fortified points there, to bring the Siberian peoples into Russian citizenship, collect the "sovereign's tribute" from them G. Krasinsky. Conquest of Siberia and Ivan the Terrible. “Questions of History”, 1947, No. 3. - P. 80-81..

Compliance with certain formalities was necessary because here we were talking about an invasion of foreign territory, and this would inevitably lead to a war with the Siberian Khanate.

But first it was necessary to protect the Stroganovs' possessions from the attacks of the "Siberians".

For this purpose, in 1579, the Stroganovs “summoned” Cossacks from the Volga under the command of Ataman Ermak. Most Siberian chronicles indicate the number of Cossacks at 540 people. Ermak had four chieftains equal to him - Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan, Matvey Meshcheryak. The “Kungur Chronicler” also mentions Ataman Ivan Groza. Atamans commanded units of about 100 people. And Ermak was considered the “eldest” of the atamans. Was in Ermak’s squad and military organization, and strict discipline by A. A. Vvedensky. The Stroganovs, Ermak and the conquest of Siberia. “Historical collection”, No. 2. Kyiv state university named after T. G. Shevchenko. Kyiv. 1949..

The Cossacks were engaged in robbery on the Great Volga trade route. There they plundered merchant ships, and before leaving for the Stroganovs they attacked the tsar's ambassador, killed him, and plundered the treasury, cash and gunpowder. The Tsar began to pursue the Cossacks, and they had no choice but to accept the Stroganovs’ proposal to protect their possessions from attacks by the “Siberians.” They repelled enemy attacks quite effectively.

At the same time, preparations were underway for an expedition to Siberia. This preparation was entrusted to Maxim Stroganov, who supplied the Cossacks with food, ammunition, and weapons. The Stroganovs gave Ermak an additional detachment of 300 people, providing them with everything they needed.