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In the 15th century, the role of the Cossacks in the areas bordering Russia was sharply increasing due to the incessant raids of nomadic tribes. In the 1482 year, after the final collapse of the Golden Horde, the Crimean, Nogai, Kazan, Kazakh, Astrakhan and Siberian Khanates emerged.
Fig. 1 Disintegration of the Golden Horde
These fragments of the Horde were in constant hostility among themselves, as well as with Lithuania and with Moscow State. Even before the final disintegration of the Horde, during the inter-war strife, the Muscovites and Litvins placed part of the Horde lands under their control. The beginninglessness and turmoil in the Horde was especially remarkable for the use of the Lithuanian prince Olgerd. Where by force, where by intelligence and cunning, where, among other things, he incorporated many Russian princedoms into his domain, including the territories of the Dnieper Cossacks (former black hoods) and set himself broad goals: do away with Moscow and the Golden Horde. The Dnieper Cossacks were armed forces to four topics or 40000 well-trained troops and proved to be a strong support for the policy of Prince Olgerd. And it is with 1482 that a new, three-century period of Eastern European history begins - the period of the struggle for the Horde inheritance. At that time, few could have imagined that the state-of-the-art, although dynamically developing, Moscow principality would ultimately prove to be the winner in this titanic struggle. But less than a century after the collapse of the Horde, with Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Moscow will unite all the Russian principalities around itself and conquer a significant part of the Horde. At the end of the XVIII century. under Catherine II, almost the entire territory of the Golden Horde would be under Moscow authority. Having defeated the Crimea and Lithuania, the victorious grandees of the Queen-German put a fat and final point in the centuries-old dispute over the Horde inheritance. Moreover, in the middle of the 20th century, under Joseph Stalin, for a short time the Muscovites would create a protectorate over the whole territory of the Great Mongol Empire, created in the 13th century. the work and genius of the Great Genghis Khan, including China. And in all this postordyn history the Cossacks took the most lively and active part. And the great Russian writer L. N. Tolstoy believed that "the whole history of Russia was made by the Cossacks." And although this statement is certainly an exaggeration, but, taking a close look at the history of the Russian state, it can be stated that all significant military and political events in Russia did not go without the active participation of the Cossacks. But all this will be later.
And in 1552, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible undertook a campaign against the most powerful of these khanates, the heirs of the Horde, Kazan. Up to ten thousand Don and Volga Cossacks participated in that campaign as part of the Russian army. Reporting on this campaign, the chronicle notes that the Sovereign ordered Prince Peter Serebryany to go from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan, “... and with it the children of boyars and archers and Cossacks ...”. Two and a half thousand Cossacks under the command of Sevriuga and Yolki were sent from Meshchera to the Volga to overlap the traffic. During the storming of Kazan, he distinguished himself with his Cossacks Don Ataman Misha Cherkashenin. A Cossack legend tells that during the siege of Kazan, a young Volga Cossack Yermak Timofeev, disguised as a Tatar, penetrated Kazan, examined the fortress, and, returning, indicated the places most beneficial for the explosion of the fortress walls.
After the fall of Kazan and the annexation of the Kazan Khanate to Russia, the military-political situation changed dramatically in favor of Muscovy. Already in 1553, the Kabardian princes arrived in Moscow to beat the king with his forehead, so that he would take them into subjection and defend them against the Crimean Khan and the Nogai hordes. With this embassy, ambassadors from the Grebensky Cossacks, who lived along the Sunzha river and were neighbors with Kabardians, arrived in Moscow. In the same year, the Siberian Tsar Edigei sent two officials to Moscow with gifts and pledged to pay tribute to the Moscow Tsar. Then Ivan the Terrible set the task for the governors to take Astrakhan and conquer the Astrakhan Khanate. Muscovy was supposed to strengthen the entire length of the Volga. The next 1554 year for Moscow was eventful. With the help of the Cossacks and the Moscow troops, Dervish Ali was implanted to the throne of the Astrakhan Khanate with the obligation to pay tribute to the Moscow State. After Astrakhan, the hetman of Vishnevetsky went to the service of the Moscow Tsar with the Dnieper Cossacks. Prince Vishnevetsky was descended from the Gediminovich family and was a supporter of the Russian-Lithuanian rapprochement. For this, he was repressed by King Sigismund I and fled to Turkey. Returning from Turkey, with the permission of the king, he became the elder of the ancient Cossack cities of Kanev and Cherkasy. Then he sent ambassadors to Moscow and the tsar accepted him with "kazatstvo" to the service, issued a security certificate and sent a salary.
Despite the betrayal of the Russian protege of Dervish-Ali, Astrakhan was soon subdued, but shipping along the Volga turned out to be in full power of the Cossacks. The Volga Cossacks at that time were especially numerous and so firmly “sat” in the Zhiguli mountains that practically no caravan passed by without ransom or was plundered. Nature itself, having created the Zhiguli loop on the Volga, took care of the extraordinary convenience of this place for such fishing. It is precisely in this connection that the Russian chronicles first of all note the Volga Cossacks for the first time - in 1560 it was written: "... Cossacks thieves along the Volga ... The pious Sovereign sent their governor with many military people to them and led them to imatis and veshati .. . " 1560 year Volga Cossacks consider the year of seniority (education) of the Volga Cossack Army. Ivan IV the Terrible could not jeopardize the entire eastern trade and, taken out of patience by the attack of the Cossacks on his ambassador, October 1 1577 sends the stewardman Ivan Murashkin to the Volga with the order "to torture, hang and hang the Volga Cossacks." In many works on the history of the Cossacks, there is a mention that due to government repression, many Volga free Cossacks left - one to Terek and Don, others to Yaik (Ural), and others, led by ataman Ermak Timofeevich, to Chusovskie towns for service to the merchants Stroganov, and from there to Siberia. Thoroughly pogroming the largest Volga Cossack army, Ivan IV the Terrible conducted the first in Russian history (but not the last) large-scale rasskazachivanie.
VOLGA Ataman Ermak Timofeevich
The most legendary hero of the Cossack chieftains of the XVI century, undoubtedly, is Yermolai Timofeevich Tokmak (cossack nickname Ermak), who conquered the Siberian Khanate and initiated the Siberian Cossack Army. Even before making up for the Cossacks, in early youth, this Pomeranian resident Yermolai, the son of Timofeev, for his remarkable strength and fighting qualities received his first and not sickly nickname Tokmak (tokmak, tokmach - a massive wooden beater for tamping the land). Yes, and in the Cossacks Ermak, apparently, also from a young age. No one knew Yermak better than his comrades - veterans of the "Siberian capture." In their declining years, those who were spared by death lived in Siberia. According to the Esipovskaya chronicle, compiled according to the recollections of the still living associates and opponents of Yermak, before the Siberian campaign the Cossacks Ilyin and Ivanov already knew him and served with Yermak in the villages for at least twenty years. However, this period of life of the chieftain is not documented.
According to Polish sources, in June 1581, Ermak headed the Volga Cossack flotilla He fought in Lithuania against the Polish-Lithuanian troops of King Stephen Batory. At this time, his friend and associate, Ivan Ring, fought in the Trans-Volga steppes with the Nogai Horde. In January 1582, Russia concluded the Yam-Zapolsky peace with Poland, and Yermak was given the opportunity to return to his native land. Yermak’s detachment arrives on the Volga and in Zhiguli it connects with Ivan Koltso’s detachment and other “thieves Atamans”. To this day there is the village of Ermakovo. Here (according to other sources on Yaik) they are found by a messenger from the rich Perm salt industrialists Stroganovs with an offer to go to their service. To protect their possessions, the Stroganovs were allowed to build fortresses and contain armed detachments in them. In addition, within the Permian land there was constantly a detachment of Moscow troops in the Cherdyn fortress. The appeal of the Stroganovs led to a split among the Cossacks. Ataman Bogdan Barbosha, who until then was Ivan Ring's chief assistant, resolutely refused to go to Perm merchants. Barbosha took with him several Cossack hundreds to Yaik. After Barbosha and his supporters left the circle, the majority in the circle passed to Yermak and his villages. Knowing that Yermak has already been sentenced for quartering for defeating the tsar’s caravan, and the Ring has been hanged, the Cossacks accept the Stroganov’s invitation to go to their Chusovsky towns to protect them from raids by the Siberian Tatars. There was another reason. At that time, a grand rebellion of the Volga peoples was already blazing on the Volga for several years. After the end of the Livonian War, from April 1582, tsarist ship rati began to arrive on the Volga to suppress the uprising. Free Cossacks were as if between a rock and a hard place. They did not want to participate in actions against the rebels, but did not take their side. They decided to leave the Volga. In the summer of 1582, a detachment of Yermak and the chieftains of Ivan the Ring, Matvey Meshcheryak, Bogdan Bryazgi, Ivan Alexandrov, nicknamed Cherkas, Nikita Pan, Savva Boldyr, Gavrila Ilyin, in the amount of 540 people along the Volga and Kama, rises on plows to Chusovsky towns. The Stroganovs gave Ermak some weapons, but it was insignificant, since the whole Ermak squad had excellent weapons.
Taking advantage of a convenient moment, when the Siberian prince Alei with the best troops went into raid on the Perm fortress of Cherdyn, and the Siberian khan Kuchum was busy with the war with his feet, Ermak himself undertakes a bold invasion of his lands. It was an extremely audacious and courageous, but dangerous plan. Any miscalculation or accident deprived the Cossacks of any chance of return and salvation. Brought to them to suffer defeat contemporaries and descendants would easily have written it off on the madness of the brave. But the Germans won, but the winners are not judged, they are admired. We admire and we. The Stroganov merchant ships had long been plowing the Ural and Siberian rivers, and their people knew the regime of these waterways perfectly. In the days of the autumn flood, water in mountain rivers and streams rose after heavy rains and mountain passes became accessible for perevoloki. In September, Yermak could cross the Urals, but if he had lingered there before the end of the floods, his Cossacks would not be able to drag their ships back through the passes back. Yermak understood that only a swift and sudden attack could lead him to victory, and therefore he was in a hurry with all his might. The people of Yermak more than once overcame the multi-curving transfer between the Volga and the Don. But overcoming the Ural mountain passes was fraught with incomparably great difficulties. With an ax in their hands, the Cossacks themselves made their way, cleared debris, cut down trees, chopped a clearing. They did not have the time and strength to level the stony path, as a result of which they could not drag ships along the ground using rollers. According to the participants of the trip from the Esipovskiy chronicle, they dragged the ships uphill "on themselves", in other words, in their hands. According to Tagil passes, Yermak left Europe and descended from the “Stone” (Ural Mountains) to Asia. In 56 days, the Cossacks overcame more than 1500 km, including about 300 km against the current along the Chusovaya and Serebryanka and 1200 km along the Siberian rivers and reached the Irtysh. This was made possible thanks to iron discipline and solid military organization. Yermak categorically forbade any minor skirmishes with the natives on the way, only forward. According to the chieftains, the Cossacks were commanded by foremen, Pentecostals, centurions and captains. With the detachment there were three Orthodox priests and one pop strider. Yermak in the campaign strictly demanded the observance of all Orthodox fasting and holidays.
And now thirty Cossack planes are sailing along the Irtysh. In the wind at the front, the Cossack banner is rinsed: blue with a wide jacket edge. Kumach is embroidered with patterns, in the corners of the banner are fancy sockets. In the center on the blue field are two white figures facing each other on their hind legs, a lion and an ingor horse with a horn on his forehead, the personification of “prudence, purity and severity.” With this banner, Yermak fought against Stefan Batory in the West, and with him came to Siberia. At the same time, the best Siberian army led by Tsarevich Aleev unsuccessfully stormed the Russian fortress Cherdyn in the Perm region. The appearance on the Irtysh of the Cossack flotilla Ermak was for Kuchum a complete surprise. He hurried to gather in defense of his capital the Tatars from the neighboring uluses, as well as the Mansiysk and Khanty princes with troops. The Tatars quickly built up fortifications (a notch) on the Irtysh near Chuvashev Cape and set many foot and horse soldiers along the entire coast. October 26 on the Chuvashov Cape, on the banks of the Irtysh, a fierce battle broke out, which from the opposite side was led by Kuchum himself. In this battle, the Cossacks successfully used the old and favorite method of “rook rati”. Part of the Cossacks with scarecrows stuffed with twigs, dressed in a Cossack dress, floated on struga well visible from the shore and continuously fought with the shore, and the main detachment unnoticed landed on the shore and on foot rapidly attacked Kuchum from the rear and knocked him down and Kuchum overturned him . The Khanty princes, frightened by volleys, were the first to leave the battlefield. Their example was followed by the Mansiysk warriors who had taken refuge after retreating in the impassable Yaskalba marshes. In this battle, Kuchum's troops were utterly defeated, Mametkul was wounded and miraculously escaped captivity, Kuchum himself fled, and his capital Kashlyk occupied Ermak.
Fig. 2 Conquest of the Siberian Khanate
Soon the Cossacks occupied the towns of Yepanchin, Chingy-Tury and Isker, resulting in the submission of the local princes and kings. The local Khanty-Mansiysk tribes, who were under the power of Kuchum, showed peacefulness towards the Russians. Four days after the battle, the first prince Boyar with his compatriots came to Kashlyk and brought a lot of supplies with him. The Tatars, who fled from the Kashlyk area, began to return to their yurts with their families. A dashing foray was a success. In the hands of the Cossacks fell rich booty. However, the triumph of victory was premature. At the end of autumn, the Cossacks could not make the way back. The harsh Siberian winter began. Ice bound the rivers that served as the only means of communication. The Cossacks had to pull the planes ashore. Their first difficult wintering began.
Kuchum carefully prepared to deliver a fatal blow to the Cossacks and free his capital. However, he, willy-nilly, had to give the Cossacks more than a month's respite: he had to wait for the return of the Aley units from behind the Ural Mountains. The question was about the existence of the Siberian Khanate. Therefore, messengers galloped off to all ends of the vast "kingdom" with orders to gather military forces. Under the khan's banners were called to all who were able to wear weapon. Kuchum again ordered the command of his nephew Mametkulu, who had dealt with the Russians more than once. Mametkul went to free Kashlyk, having at his disposal more than 10 thousands of soldiers. Cossacks could defend themselves from the Tatars, sowing in Kashlyk. But they preferred the offensive defense. Yermak 5 December attacked the advancing Tatar army 15 versts south of Kashlyk near Lake Abalak. The battle was difficult and bloody. Many Tatars fell on the battlefield, but the Cossacks suffered heavy losses. With the onset of night darkness the battle stopped by itself. The innumerable Tatar army retreated. Unlike the first battle, the Chuvashev Cape this time did not have an enemy stampede at the height of the battle. There was no talk about the capture of their commander in chief. Nevertheless, Yermak won the most glorious of his victories over the combined forces of the whole Kuchum kingdom. The waters of the Siberian rivers were covered with ice and impassable snow. Cossack plots have long been pulled ashore. All retreat routes were cut off. Cossacks fiercely fought with the enemy, realizing that they are waiting for either victory or death. Each of the Cossacks accounted for more than twenty enemies. This battle showed the heroism and moral superiority of the Cossacks, it meant the complete and final conquest of the Siberian Khanate.
To notify the tsar about the conquest of the Siberian kingdom in spring 1583, Ermak sends to Ivan IV the Terrible a detachment of Cossacks in 25 a man led by Ivan Koltso. It was not a random choice. According to the Cossack historian A.A. Gordeeva, Ivan Koltso is the nephew of the disgraced Metropolitan Philip, who was fleeing to the Volga, and the former royal tsarist Okolnichy, Ivan Kolychev, the son of the numerous, but disgraced boyar family of the Kolychevs. With the embassy, gifts, tribute, notable captives and a petition were sent, in which Yermak apologized for his previous guilt and asked to be sent to Siberia to help the governor with a detachment of troops. Moscow at that time was experiencing hard failures of the Livonian war. Military defeats followed one after another. The success of a handful of Cossacks who defeated the Siberian kingdom flashed like lightning in the darkness, striking the imagination of its contemporaries. The Ermak Embassy, headed by Ivan Koltso, was taken in Moscow very solemnly. According to contemporaries, in Moscow there was no such joy since the conquest of Kazan. “Yermak, with his comrades and all the Cossacks, the king was forgiven for all their previous guilt, the king gave Ivan the Ring and the Cossacks who arrived with him. Yermak was granted a fur coat from the tsar's shoulder, combat armor and a letter in his name, in which the tsar commanded ataman Yermak to write to the Siberian prince ... ”. Ivan the Terrible ordered to send in the Cossacks a detachment of archers 300 people led by Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky. Simultaneously with the Kolts detachment, Yermak sent ataman Alexander Cherkas with the Cossacks to the Don and the Volga for recruiting volunteers. After visiting the stanitsas, Cherkas also ended up in Moscow, where he long and stubbornly bothered and sought to send help to Siberia. But Cherkas returned to Siberia with a new large detachment, when neither Yermak nor the Ring, who had returned to Siberia before, was already alive. The fact is that in the spring of 1584 in Moscow there were big changes - Ivan IV died in his Kremlin palace, in Moscow there were unrest. In the general confusion, the Siberian expedition was temporarily forgotten. Almost two years passed before the free Cossacks received help from Moscow. What allowed them to stay in Siberia with small forces and resources for such a long time?
Yermak survived because the Cossacks and Atamans had the experience of long wars both with the most advanced European army of that time, Stefan Batory, and with the nomads in the “wild field”. For many years their camps and winter huts from all sides were always surrounded by gentry or Horde. The Cossacks learned to overcome them, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy. An important reason for the success of the expedition Ermak was the internal fragility of the Siberian Khanate. Since Kuchum killed Khan Edigey and seized his throne, many years have passed, filled with uninterrupted bloody wars. Where by force, where by cunning and deceit, Kuchum humbled the recalcitrant Tatar murzas (princes) and laid tribute to the Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. Initially, Kuchum, like Edigey, paid tribute to Moscow, but after entering into force and receiving news of the failures of the Moscow troops on the western front, he took a hostile position and began to attack the Permian lands that belonged to the Stroganovs. Surrounding himself with a guard of the Nogai and Kirghiz, he strengthened his power. But the very first military setbacks immediately led to the resumption of internecine struggle among the Tatar nobility. The son of the murdered Edigey Seyid Khan, who was hiding in Bukhara, returned to Siberia and began to threaten Kuchum with revenge. With his help, Yermak restored the former trade communication of Siberia with Yurgent, the capital of the White Horde, located on the shores of the Aral Sea. Middle Murza Kuchum Seinbakht Tagin gave Yermak the seat of Mametkul, the most prominent of the Tatar military leaders. Mametkul's captivity deprived Kuchum of a reliable sword. Know, afraid Mametkula, began to leave the Khan's court. Karachi, Kuchum’s chief dignitary, who belonged to the powerful Tatar clan, ceased to obey the khan and migrated with his warriors to the headwaters of the Irtysh. The Siberian kingdom was falling apart. Many local Mansi and Hunt princes and elders ceased to recognize Kuchum’s authority. Some of them began to assist Yermak with food. Among the allies of the chieftain were Alaci, princes of the largest Khant princedom in Priobye, Khant prince Boyars, Mansi princes Ishberdey and Sukle from Yaskalbinsky places. Their help was invaluable for the Cossacks.
Fig. 3,4 Yermak T. and the oath of his Siberian kings
After long delays, voivode S. Bolkhovsky arrived in Siberia with a big delay with a detachment of archers in 300. Yermak, new notable captives led by Mametkul, hurried them immediately, despite the coming winter, to send to Moscow with the shooter's head Kireev. Replenish little pleased Cossacks. Sagittarius were poorly trained, in the way they squandered their supplies, and in front of them were grave trials. Winter 1584-1585 in Siberia it was very harsh and for the Russians it was especially hard, supplies ran out, famine began. By spring, all the archers together with Prince Bolkhovsky and much of the Cossacks died of hunger and cold. In the spring of 1585, Kuchum's dignitary Murza Karacha fraudulently lured a Cossack detachment headed by Ivan Koltso to a feast, and at night, after attacking them, he cut everyone to sleep. Numerous detachments of Karachi kept Kashlyk in the ring, hoping to starve the Cossacks. Ermak patiently waited a moment to strike. Under the cover of night, the Cossacks sent to them, led by Matthew Meshcheryak, secretly made their way to the Karachi headquarters and defeated it. In the battle, two sons of Karachi were killed, he himself barely escaped death, and his army fled from Kashlyk the same day. Ermak won another brilliant victory over numerous enemies. Soon messengers from Bukharan merchants arrived to Yermak with a request to protect them from Kuchum’s arbitrariness. Ermak with the rest of the troops - about a hundred people - marched. The end of the first Siberian expedition is shrouded in a dense veil of legends. On the banks of the Irtysh River near the mouth of the Vagai River, where a detachment of Ermak spent the night, Kuchum attacked them during a terrible storm and thunderstorm. Ermak appreciated the situation and ordered to sit in a plane. Meanwhile, the Tatars have already rushed into the camp. Ermak was the last to leave, covering the Cossacks. A cloud of arrows fired Tatar archers. Arrows pierced Ermak Timofeevich's broad chest. The fast icy waters of the Irtysh swallowed him forever ...
This Siberian expedition lasted for three years. Hunger and hardship, severe frosts, battles and losses - nothing could stop the free Cossacks, break their will to win. Three years the squad Ermak did not know defeat from numerous enemies. In the last night skirmish, the depleted squad retreated, sustaining small casualties. But he lost a proven leader. Without it, the expedition could not continue. Arriving at Kashlyk, Matvey Meshcheryak gathered a circle, on which the Cossacks decided to go to the Volga for help. Yermak brought 540 fighters to Siberia, and only 90 Cossacks survived. With ataman Matvey Meshcheryak they returned to Russia. Already in 1586, another Cossack detachment from the Volga came to Siberia and founded the first Russian city there, Tyumen, which served as the basis for the future Siberian Cossack Army and the beginning of the incredibly sacrificial and heroic Siberian Cossack epic. And thirteen years after the death of Yermak, the royal governors finally defeated Kuchum.
The history of the Siberian expedition was rich in many incredible events. The fates of people underwent instant and incredible changes, and the zigzags and frills of Moscow politicians do not get tired of surprising even today. The story of Prince Mametkul can serve as a vivid example. After the death of Grozny, the nobility ceased to reckon with the orders of the feeble-minded Tsar Feodor. Boyars and metropolitan nobles for any reason started localism disputes. Everyone demanded top positions for themselves, referring to the "breed" and the service of their ancestors. Boris Godunov and Andrei Schelkalov eventually found a means to reason with the nobility. By their order, the discharge order announced the appointment of service Tatars to the highest military posts. On the occasion of the expected war with the Swedes was painted regiments. According to this painting, Simeon Bekbulatovich took the post of the first governor of a large regiment - commander-in-chief of the field army. The commander of the regiment of the left hand was ... "Prince Mametkul Siberian." Twice beaten and defeated by Yermak, captured and planted by the Cossacks in a pit, Mametkul was treated at the royal court and appointed to one of the highest posts in the Russian army.
EGG TRAINING
One of the first mentions of the Cossacks on Yaik is associated with the name of the legendary Cossack chieftain Gugni. He was one of the glorious and bravest Cossack commanders in the horde of the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh. After Tamerlan’s campaigns to the Golden Horde and the defeat of Tokhtamysh, Gugnya, along with his Cossacks, migrated to Yaik, taking these lands as his inheritance. But the legendary fame he received on another occasion. At that time, the Cossacks kept a vow of celibacy. Having brought a new wife from a campaign, they chased away (or sold, sometimes even killed) the old one. Gugnya did not want to change his Nogai beauty-wife, entered into legal marriage with her, and since then the former cruel custom has been abandoned by the Cossacks. The families of the enlightened Ural Cossacks still have a toast to Grandma Gugnikha, the patroness of the Ural Cossacks. But mass settlements of the Cossacks on the Yaik appeared later.
The years of 1570-1577 are noted in the Russian chronicles as the years of the struggle of the Volga Cossacks with the Great Nogai Horde, whose nomad camps began just beyond the Volga. From there, the legs constantly invaded the Russian lands. The ruler of the Great Nogai Horde, Khan Urus, has long broken off peaceful relations with Moscow. His ambassadors knocked the thresholds of the Khan's palace in Bakhchisarai. They sought to send new Turkish-Tatar troops to Astrakhan and promised that the Nogai horde would provide them with effective assistance this time. Crimeans conducted their game with Russia and did not trust the promises of the Nogai too much. The actions of the free Cossacks were tied by the forces of the Nogai Horde and generally met Moscow interests in the Trans-Volga region. Using an auspicious moment, the Volga Cossacks three times attacked the capital of the Nogai Horde, the city of Saraichik, and burned it three times, freeing Russian people who were hijacked there from Nogai captivity. Atamans Ivan Koltso, Savva Boldyr, Bogdan Barbosha, Ivan Yuriev, Nikita Pan led the hikes to the Shed. However, in 1578, atamans Ivan Yuryev and Mitya Britousov again defeated Saraichik ... but paid with their heads on the scaffold - at the time the Tsar of Moscow was at a disadvantage with the Nogai war. The royal ambassadors negotiated the participation of the Nogai forces in the Livonian war. The raid took place at the wrong time and the chieftains fell victim to “high politics”.
In the 1577 year, fearing reprisals by the government troops of the steward, Murashkina, part of the “thieves” Volga Cossacks under the command of atamans Koltso, Nechay and Barboshi goes to the mouth of the Yaik (Urals), on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. Together with them, Yaik left the ranks of the Volga atamans Yakuni Pavlov, Yakbulat Chembulatov, Nikita Usa, Perushi Zeya, Ivan Dud. In 1582, after the Yermakivtsi left for Siberia, and Barboshi and other chieftains on Yaik, the war with the Nogai began to boil with a new force. The Barbashi detachments smashed once again the capital of the Nogai Horde Shed and, having built a fortified town upstream of the Yaik, founded the Yaitsky (Ural) Cossack Army. Khan Urus was beside himself with anger when he found out about it. Several times he tried to knock the Cossacks off the heel, but without success. In 1586, the new hordes of the Horde came to the town of Yaitsky - several thousand against four hundred Cossacks ... However, they could not take the legs, and the Cossacks did not sit long in it. In the equestrian order out over the walls, divided into six troops and defeated the enemy. The defeat of Urus on Yaik was of the same importance for the fate of the southern Urals, as was the defeat of Kuchum for the fate of Siberia. The tsarist government hastened to use the fruits of all the victories of the voluntary Volga Cossacks over the Nogai Horde. In the summer of 1586, the Moscow envoy notified Khan Urus that Tsar Fedor ordered to build fortresses in four places: “on Ufa, and on Uvek, and on Samara, and on White Volozhka”. So it was commanded to establish the current Russian million-plus cities of Ufa, Samara, Saratov and Tsaritsyn. Khan Urus vainly protested. He was busy with an unsuccessful war with Barbos and the royal governors could build fortifications without fear of attacks by nomads. The Nogais hoped in vain for the help of the Crimeans. In Crimea, bloody strife erupted. Saving a life, Prince Murat Giray fled from the Crimea to Russia and became a vassal of the king. Moscow began preparing a large offensive against the Crimean horde. The governors with regiments arrived in Astrakhan. The appearance of large forces sobered Khan Urus. Murat Giray, who went to Astrakhan after the governors, persuaded him to once again go under the auspices of Moscow. But the Cossacks were not aware of these zigzags of Moscow politics.
Fig. 5 Cossacks Ural
The discharge order ordered to attract Volga and Yaik free Cossacks to the march to the Crimea. The voivode of the newly built Samara fortress hastily sent a courier with a diploma to Yaik. Inviting the atamans to the sovereign's service, the voivode swore that the king “orders their guilt to separate them for their service”. A circle gathered in a Cossack town on Yaik. Well done again, the old chieftains were throwing their hats to the ground. Top took Bogdan Barbosh and other "thieves" atamans. They did not want to serve the king, as they did not want to go "hired" to the Stroganovs. But part of the Cossacks, led by ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak, went to Samara for royal service. In 1586, the voivode Prince Grigory Zasekin at the mouth of the Samara River in the place of its confluence with the Volga River founded the Samara fortress. The garrison of the fortress consisted of the city Cossacks, noblemen-foreigners and Smolensk gentry, who were appointed to Cossack service. The tasks of the garrison-fortress of Samara were: defense against the raids of nomads, control over the waterway and trade, as well as the Volga Cossack freemen, if possible attracting her to the sovereign's service or punishing disobedience. It should be noted that the city Cossacks “did not hesitate” to catch for reward “thieves” Cossacks, considering this to be quite normal and suitable service (from there the famous game “Cossacks-robbers” went). Thus, the hero of many Nogai campaigns, the ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak, on the way to the sovereign's service hijacked a horse-shoe of more than 500 heads in Nogai wanderings. Coming to the Volga, he camped near Samara. Nogai Khan appealed to the Cossacks voivode Zasekina. The Moscow state then did not need a conflict with the legs, and by order of Zasekin Matyusha Meshcheryak and his five comrades were captured and imprisoned in the Samara ostrog. While in prison, Matyusha Meshcheryak makes a desperate attempt at salvation. He manages to plot to seize the fortress. Sharpened Cossacks in prison were able to collude with a part of the Samara garrison, unhappy with Zasekin. The messengers were sent to the Zhiguli Mountains to the free Volga Cossacks asking for help. Accident failed plot. In the “questioning” of torture, the Cossacks admitted their “guilt”. The incident was reported to Moscow. The Tsar's letter, brought by Postnik Kosyagovsky, read: “Matusha Meshcheryak and their other comrades of the Pushcha (Sovereign) ordered the ambassadors to execute the death penalty ...”. In March, 1587 of the year in Samara, in the town square, in front of the Nogai ambassadors, the Moscow authorities were hanged by the dashing Yaitsky ataman Matyusha Meshcheryak and his comrades, who were sacrificed to “high” Moscow politics. Soon after the defeat of the Persian embassy caravan, the longtime rival of Yermak, ataman Bogdan Barbosh, was captured and executed. Other chieftains became more compliant.
The first mention of the “sovereign” service of the Yaik Cossacks dates back to 1591, when by decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the governors — the boyar Pushkin and Prince Ivan Vasilievich Sitsky — were ordered: “... To send a non-observant Tatar prince Shevkalsky to send seven years from Terek Sovereign Yaitsky and Volga atamans and Cossacks went to Astrakhan for their service for their service, and to gather all Cossacks for the Shevkale service: Volga — 1000 man and Yaik — 500 man. ” 1591 is the year that is officially the year of the beginning of the service of the Yaik Cossacks. From him the seniority of the Ural Cossack Army is calculated. In 1591, the Volga Cossacks, along with Yaik, participated in the campaign of the Russian troops against Dagestan against Shamkhal Tarkovsky. Performing “the service of the sovereign”, they participated in the capture of the capital of Shamkhalism, the city of Tarki. In the 1594 year, they again, in the amount of thousands of people in the detachment of Prince Andrey Khvorostinin, fought against Shamkhal.
The departure of the Volga Cossacks (mainly “thieves”) to Yaik and Siberia did not greatly weaken the Volga Cossacks, assuming that only at the rate of ataman Yermak (the modern village of Yermakovo in the Zhiguli Mountains of the Samara Region) at that time were over 7 000 Cossacks. Moreover, despite the outcome and government repression, the Volga Army continued to remain quite strong and at a later time - in the XVII-XVIII centuries. The other part of the Volga Cossacks, who had gone to the Terek, on the “ridges” of the Caucasian mountains, served as the basis for the formation of the Terek and the replenishment of the Grebensky Cossack Troops. But that's another story.
http://topwar.ru/22250-davnie-kazachi-predki.html
http://topwar.ru/21371-sibirskaya-kazachya-epopeya.html
Gordeev A.A. History of the Cossacks
Shamba Balinov What was the Cossacks?
Skrynnikov R.G. 'Expedition to Siberia of the Ermak Detachment'