How Ivan the Terrible liquidated the Astrakhan Khanate
460 years ago, 2 July 1556, Tsar Ivan the Terrible annexed Astrakhan to the Russian state and liquidated the Astrakhan Khanate. Astrakhan and the whole Khanate were annexed to the Russian state without any peace or other treaty. As a result, even the minimal Astrakhan autonomy was not preserved. The Russian voivode was imprisoned, the Russian administration was introduced. The whole Volga became Russian, the Russian state directly gained access to the Caspian Sea and to the borders of the Caucasus.
The rapid and relatively bloodless (compared to the Kazan Khanate) liquidation of the Astrakhan Khanate led to an acceleration in the pace of the movement of the Russian state to the south and east. Soon the Nogai Horde recognized its dependence on Moscow, whose territory was located between the rivers. Bulak and Yaik (Ural), followed by Bashkiria, located north of the Nogai Horde, in the basins of the White and Ufa Rivers. Thus, the border of Russia in the east began to pass along the river. Ural, and in the south (southeast) - on the river. Terek. Thus, the question was raised, firstly, about the joining of the Trans-Urals, and secondly, about the advancement of the Terek and Kuban, i.e. to the North Caucasus. The accession to Russia of Kazan and Astrakhan eliminated the threat to the Russian state from the east and reduced the danger from the south, where the Crimean Khanate still remained.
Of stories Astrakhan Khanate
The Astrakhan Khanate segregated at the end of 1459 - the beginning of 1460, shortly before the final fall of the Golden Horde, as an independent inheritance of the Khan of the Horde - Makhmud (1460 - 1470-e). After the final collapse of the Golden Horde in 1480 and the killing of its last Khan, Akhmat in 1481, the Astrakhan Khanate turned into an independent state entity. The Astrakhan Khanate gained complete independence at the beginning of the 16th century, after the final defeat of the Great Horde by the Crimean Tatars (1502 year).
Astrakhan Khanate was the smallest fragment of the Golden Horde. The territory of the Khanate in the west stretched to the river. Kuban and the lower reaches of the river. Don, in the east reached the river. Buzan, bordering the Nogai Horde, in the south - to r. Terek, and in the north did not reach a little latitude Perevoloki - the narrowest place between the Volga and the Don. Its population, concentrated mainly in the Volga Delta, was approximately 15-20 thousand people. Therefore, Khan could put no more than 1,5-3 thousand soldiers. As a result, Astrakhan tried not to interfere in major conflicts, and was dependent on stronger neighbors - the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, to which the Astrakhan khans had to turn for help. The Astrakhan Tatars, as an auxiliary contingent, more than once participated in the campaigns of the Crimean and other Tatar hordes on Russian lands.
The capital of the Khanate was Astrakhan, which gave the country its name. The mound in the Volga delta already existed in the 9th — 10th centuries. in the days of the Khazar Khaganate and repeatedly postponed, all the time coming closer to the Caspian Sea. At the beginning it was the city of Atel, or Itil, 70 km above present-day Astrakhan, on Akhtuba. In the era of the Golden Horde, the city was moved downstream of the Volga to 60 — 65 km and became known as Ashi-Tarkhan, As-tarkhan, Khadzhi-tarkhan, and in the Russian chronicles as Astorokan. Most likely, the city received the name As-Tarkhan from the fact that in these parts aces lived - descendants of Sarmatian tribes who received a diploma from the Batu-Khan (Tarkhan). It was the aces who received the Tarkhan letter and gave the name to the city. Already after the capture of Astorokani by the Russian troops under Ivan the Terrible, the city was transferred even further downstream of the Volga to 12 — 13 km, at the confluence of the Volga River. Kutum, on the "island" of Sain, or Saints Hills (Rabbit Hills).
Favorable location and lack of competition contributed to building trade relations between Astrakhan and Khorezm, Bukhara, Kazan and Moscow. Astrakhan was part of the Great Volga Route. Slaves from the Crimea, Kazan, the Great Horde, the Nogai Horde were brought to the slave market in Astrakhan. Under Ivan III from Moscow, the ships for salt every year went to Astrakhan from Moscow along the rivers Moscow, the Oka and the Volga. The common population was engaged in nomadic cattle breeding.
The Astrakhan Khanate was in military dependence on the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate. The Crimea, which claims to be the heir to the Golden Horde and its lands, tried to subjugate Astrakhan by dynastic means - asserting on the throne of Crimean appointees representatives of the Crimean dynasty Girey. This caused opposition to the Nogai Horde, which is also interested in introducing its henchmen in Astrakhan. In order to maintain relative independence and oppose strong neighbors, Astrakhan began a rapprochement with a “distant” Moscow, which seemed completely safe, and could serve as a counterweight to the Crimea and the Nogai. Therefore, in 1533, the Astrakhan Khanate concluded a trade and political agreement on union and mutual assistance with the Russian state. In Astrakhan was formed at the court of the so-called. "Russian party", actively supported by Moscow and serving as a conductor of Moscow influence.
The conquest of Astrakhan
In the middle of the 1540-s, a radical change occurred in the eastern policy of the Russian state. Moscow began to move from defense to offensive, responding to raids and campaigns of the steppe inhabitants with retaliatory strikes and making preventive expeditions to eliminate predatory nests. So, from attempts to build mutually beneficial relations with Kazan, to establish the power of the pro-Russian Khan and the “party”, Moscow switched to a strategy of power submission to the Kazan kingdom, in order to stop the predatory invasions in the east once and for all. During the war 1547-1552's. as a result of several Kazan campaigns, Kazan was taken and made Russian.
Next to the Kazan Khanate, in the lower reaches of the Volga, there was another Tatar state - the Astrakhan Khanate. After the construction of the fortress of Sviyazhsk and the forced consent of the Kazan leadership to accept vassal dependence on Moscow, the Astrakhan Khan Yamgurchi (Yamgurchi, Emgurchi) reigned in 1546-1547, 1550-1554), beat John the Terrible and expressed a desire to serve him. But in 1554, the Astrakhan khan broke a treaty with Moscow, robbed the Russian embassy and attacked the Nogai wanderings, which held the hand of the Russian tsar. Nogai Murza appealed for help to Ivan the Terrible and offered to build on the Astrakhan throne Tsarevich Dervish Ali, who lived in the Russian state in Zvenigorod. He already occupied the Astrakhan table with the help of the Nogais in 1537-1539. In 1552-1554 lived in Russia, owned Zvenigorod. Noghais viewed Dervish-Ali as a loyal person, and therefore did not give up the idea of returning him to Astrakhan.
In Moscow, the conquest of the Astrakhan Khanate was considered from a strategic point of view of control over the entire Volga basin and obtaining direct access to the Caspian Sea. In the spring of 1554, the Boyar Duma decided to take a punitive campaign against Astrakhan Khan Yamgurchi, who violated a peace treaty with Moscow, robbed the Russian embassy and attacked the Nogai regions. "And the king, the great ambassador, Derbysh, was the king to Astorokhan, and with him the governor sent his prince Yury Ivanovich Pronsky-Shemyakin with his comrades, and ordered him to go on three regiments: in the large regiment Prince Yury Ivanovich Pronskaya and Mikhailo Petrovich Golovin, and in the advanced regiment bedtels Ignatey Mikhailovich Vishnyakov and Shiryay Kobyakov, in the guard regiment Stefan Grigoriev is the son of Sidorov and Prince Andrei Bulgak-Boryatinskaya, and with them the nobles of the royal court and the children of the boyars from the rosy cities of choice, but the archers and the Cossacks. Yes, with Prince Yury, Prince Alexander Vyazemsky ordered to be from the vyatcha. And the sovereign ordered Prince Yuryu and his comrades to go on how the ice would break out. ”
In the spring of 1554, the ice on the Volga was barely gone, 30-mc marched on the march on Astrakhan. army under the command of Prince Yuri Ivanovich Shemyakin Pronsky. 29 June 1554, the Russian troops, coming to Perevolok between Don and Volga, sent forward the forward detachment under the command of Prince Alexander of Vyazemsky and Daniil Chulkov, and take the children of the boyars and atamans from the Cossacks, search for the people and look for languages and search for them, ” there is a long-range intelligence. Around the Black Isle, the Vyazemsky and Chulkov advanced regiments encountered the Astrakhan detachment under the command of Sakmak, who was walking up the Volga with a similar goal, “to spend the war on the tsar”. Russian warriors utterly routed the Astrakhan detachment; more than one person could not leave. Sakmak himself and many others took “tongues”.
The captives captured in the battle near Black Island were taken to the commander and in questioning said that “they were sent by the Emgurchay-king to send Moscow's discovery, and the Emgurchay-king builds five miles below the city of Azstorohani, and they said few people but all the people are sitting on the islands. " Having received important information about the location of the enemy, the Front Regiment, reinforced by detachments of Prince David Gundorov, Timofey Kropotkin and Grigory Zhelobov, marched on the Astrakhan Khan, while the rest of the Russian troops rushed to Astrakhan left without protection.
2 July 1554 Russian troops approached Hadji Tarkhan. Russian troops landed above and below the fortress and took her into a tight ring. "And the Azstorokhans from the city ran ... they took the city, and they walked away the people on foot and beat many, and killed others." Also successfully acted troops, which were sent to attack the camp of Astrakhan Khan, who was on the island in one of the arms of the Volga delta. Astrakhan troops did not resist the Russians. Astrakhan Khan escaped, seeing that the Russians were coming at him. Russians overtook and captured the khan's harem, khan's children, stocks weapons, but Yamgurchi was able to slip away. The pursuit was looking for Khan on his way to Tyumen, and he fled to Azov, under the protection of the Ottoman sultan.
The new khan for the third time was Dervish Ali. His authority recognized the nobility and the local population. Dervish-Ali fulfilled the main demand of the Russian Tsar: he freed from captivity all the Russian captives who were in his country. He also pledged to annually pay tribute to Moscow in 40 thousand altyn (1200 silver rubles) and 3 thousand Volga fishes ("sturgeon in sazhen"). The Russians received the right to fish from Kazan to Astrakhan - across the Volga - duty-free and without a turnout (that is, without notifying about it and without asking permission from the Astrakhan authorities). A month later, the Russian troops left Astrakhan, leaving a detachment under the command of commander Peter Turgenev in the city.
In the spring of 1555, Khan Yamgurchi, enlisting the support of the Crimean Khanate and Turkey, tried to regain the throne and attacked Astrakhan twice. In his army there were not only Astrakhan and Nogai warriors, but also Turkish janissaries. In April, 1555, the Russian troops fought off the first assault and turned the enemy to flight. In pursuit of the enemy, the son of Dervish Ali walked, and informed the Moscow about the attack.
After that, there was an unexpected turn. Dervish-Ali was able to lure to his side those who were in the war of the enemy Nogai Murza. In gratitude for their help in the fight against Yamgurchi, Dervish-Ali allowed the Nogai to cross the Volga, where they began fighting against the ally of the Russian tsar, the Nogai bey (prince) Ishmael. To help Ivan Turgenev from Moscow was sent a detachment of Strelets head of Grigori Kaftyrev and Cossack ataman Fyodor Pavlov. However, they met the Astrakhan governor Turgenev on the Volga, on the way to Moscow. He reported that Dervish-Ali had gone over to the side of Russia's long-time enemies - the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Kaftyrev led troops in Astrakhan. The city was abandoned by the inhabitants.
The Russian voivode was able to convey to Dervish-Ali that peace could be restored with Moscow and Astrakhan. Astrakhans returned to the city. But in March 1556, the Nogai prince Ishmael informed Moscow that the dervish-Ali had completely betrayed the Russian tsar: “And he ordered Ismail, the prince and all myts to the tsar, the grand prince, beat his forehead and the citizen to Derbysh, the tsar, that he did not accept the tsar and the grand prince and the great ones need them to do, so that their sovereign from Derbysh would defend and perpetuate his people on Astorohani as well as in Kazan. ” Indeed, incited by the new Nogai allies and the “Prokrim party”, Dervish Ali attacked the Russian detachment of Mansurov in Astrakhan and forced him to retreat from the khanate. Fearing punishment from the Moscow Tsar, Dervish-Ali asked for help from the Crimean khan Devlet-Girya, he sent a small detachment to Astrakhan (700 Tatars and 300 janissaries), who composed the Astrakhan Khan's guard.
In the meantime, a new campaign was organized in Astrakhan. Russian troops led by Ivan Cheremisinov. The Russian army included the Streltsy orders of Ivan Cheremisinov and Timofey Teterin, the Vyatka army of the commander Pisemsky and detachments of the Cossacks Mikhail Kolupayev and the Volga ataman Lyapun Filimonov. In general, only about 3 of thousands of soldiers were sent to the second campaign, which indicates the purely punitive nature of the campaign and the military weakness of the Astrakhan Khanate. The detachments were sent in the spring of 1556. Each of their places of deployment, independently of each other, in order to then unite near Astrakhan: 1) archers went (floated) from Moscow; Vyatka militiamen - from Khlynova (v. Vyatka); Cossacks — on horses from the Don through Perevoloku to the Volga, and then on barges to Astrakhan.
Cossack detachment Filimonova first suddenly approached the city. Khan's warriors did not even have time to shut up in the fortress. The Cossacks defeated the Astrakhan army and broke into Astrakhan. The shooters came to the rescue and Don Cossacks secured success. After several skirmishes, Dervish-Ali fled to Azov, hoping to assemble a new detachment and fight off the city when the Russians withdraw the main forces. The Noghai, who served the Astrakhan Khan, betrayed him, agreed with Prince Izmail, and in order to obey the Russian voivods, attacked Dervish Ali. With the remnants of his troops, the last Astrakhan Khan fled to Azov.
Results
After this victory, the Astrakhan Khanate was liquidated. Moscow no longer entrusted the throne to the "friendly" Khan. The lands in the lower reaches of the Volga became part of the Russian state. The entire Volga route became Russian. Russia came to the Caspian. After the conquest of Astrakhan, the Russian influence spread to the Caucasus. In 1559, the princes Pyatigorsk and Cherkasy asked Ivan the Terrible to send a detachment to defend them against the raids of the Crimean Tatars and priests to maintain their faith. Soon the Nogai Horde and Bashkiria became part of the Russian state.
The title of Astrakhan king with 1557, began to wear Russian kings. Governors were appointed to govern Astrakhan. Residents of Astrakhan swore allegiance to the Russian state, which guaranteed quiet nomadic and profitable trade. Soon envoys from Urgench, Shemakha, Derbent began arriving in Astrakhan to establish friendship, peace and trade. Thus, the task of mastering the Volga route from Kazan to Astrakhan was successfully solved and was a major foreign policy success of the Russian state. Moscow was well aware of the role and importance of Astrakhan as the main transit point in trade with Eastern states.
In the history of Astrakhan, a new stage in history begins. The city has become an important trading and border center of Russia. To keep the city under its power - neither the Crimea nor Turkey left hope to seize the city, the search began for a place to build a fortified fortress capable of restraining the onslaught of the enemy. Such a place was found on the island of Sain (Shaban-Bugre), the Russians called it Hare. The first Astrakhan voivode Cheremisinov asks for permission at the chosen place to begin the construction of the fortress city and sends the king how-to-be drawings. The project was approved and ships and carts with people, food, ammunition, and various goods went from central Russia. The first fortress was wooden and strengthened by earthen ramparts. In 1558, the new voivode Ivan Grigorievich Vyrodkov arrived, famous in the “Kazan case” (the explosion of the walls of the Kazan Kremlin). In Astrakhan, he began to build powerful defensive fortifications that could protect the state’s borders and ensure the safety of residents. Thus, Astrakhan became a strong Russian fortress on the southern frontiers. Subsequent attempts of the Crimean-Turkish troops to take Astrakhan did not lead to success.
In the future, Astrakhan strengthened even more. In 80-ies of the XVI century. built stone Astrakhan Kremlin, built on the site of wooden-earthen structures. It was built "on the model of the Moscow Kremlin." This Kremlin was an example of Russian defense architecture and ranked with the strongest fortresses of medieval Russia.
Gradually, Astrakhan became the largest center of trade with eastern countries. Large trade was conducted by Khiva merchants. Since the XVII century. in Astrakhan appear living courtyards of the Persians, Armenians, Indians, established trading companies. In the same century, the Astrakhan region is intensively settled. For many years after the Astrakhan Khanate was annexed to Russia, Astrakhan was the only major settlement from Kazan to the Caspian Sea. And only in the late 20-ies of the XVII century in the Astrakhan region appeared the first towns-forts. In 1627, a small fortress of Cherny Yar was built, located in 250 versts north of Astrakhan, in 1665-1667. For the protection of Astrakhan and the protection of fisheries from the east, the fortress Krasny Yar is built.
The rapid and relatively bloodless (compared to the Kazan Khanate) liquidation of the Astrakhan Khanate led to an acceleration in the pace of the movement of the Russian state to the south and east. Soon the Nogai Horde recognized its dependence on Moscow, whose territory was located between the rivers. Bulak and Yaik (Ural), followed by Bashkiria, located north of the Nogai Horde, in the basins of the White and Ufa Rivers. Thus, the border of Russia in the east began to pass along the river. Ural, and in the south (southeast) - on the river. Terek. Thus, the question was raised, firstly, about the joining of the Trans-Urals, and secondly, about the advancement of the Terek and Kuban, i.e. to the North Caucasus. The accession to Russia of Kazan and Astrakhan eliminated the threat to the Russian state from the east and reduced the danger from the south, where the Crimean Khanate still remained.
Of stories Astrakhan Khanate
The Astrakhan Khanate segregated at the end of 1459 - the beginning of 1460, shortly before the final fall of the Golden Horde, as an independent inheritance of the Khan of the Horde - Makhmud (1460 - 1470-e). After the final collapse of the Golden Horde in 1480 and the killing of its last Khan, Akhmat in 1481, the Astrakhan Khanate turned into an independent state entity. The Astrakhan Khanate gained complete independence at the beginning of the 16th century, after the final defeat of the Great Horde by the Crimean Tatars (1502 year).
Astrakhan Khanate was the smallest fragment of the Golden Horde. The territory of the Khanate in the west stretched to the river. Kuban and the lower reaches of the river. Don, in the east reached the river. Buzan, bordering the Nogai Horde, in the south - to r. Terek, and in the north did not reach a little latitude Perevoloki - the narrowest place between the Volga and the Don. Its population, concentrated mainly in the Volga Delta, was approximately 15-20 thousand people. Therefore, Khan could put no more than 1,5-3 thousand soldiers. As a result, Astrakhan tried not to interfere in major conflicts, and was dependent on stronger neighbors - the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, to which the Astrakhan khans had to turn for help. The Astrakhan Tatars, as an auxiliary contingent, more than once participated in the campaigns of the Crimean and other Tatar hordes on Russian lands.
The capital of the Khanate was Astrakhan, which gave the country its name. The mound in the Volga delta already existed in the 9th — 10th centuries. in the days of the Khazar Khaganate and repeatedly postponed, all the time coming closer to the Caspian Sea. At the beginning it was the city of Atel, or Itil, 70 km above present-day Astrakhan, on Akhtuba. In the era of the Golden Horde, the city was moved downstream of the Volga to 60 — 65 km and became known as Ashi-Tarkhan, As-tarkhan, Khadzhi-tarkhan, and in the Russian chronicles as Astorokan. Most likely, the city received the name As-Tarkhan from the fact that in these parts aces lived - descendants of Sarmatian tribes who received a diploma from the Batu-Khan (Tarkhan). It was the aces who received the Tarkhan letter and gave the name to the city. Already after the capture of Astorokani by the Russian troops under Ivan the Terrible, the city was transferred even further downstream of the Volga to 12 — 13 km, at the confluence of the Volga River. Kutum, on the "island" of Sain, or Saints Hills (Rabbit Hills).
Favorable location and lack of competition contributed to building trade relations between Astrakhan and Khorezm, Bukhara, Kazan and Moscow. Astrakhan was part of the Great Volga Route. Slaves from the Crimea, Kazan, the Great Horde, the Nogai Horde were brought to the slave market in Astrakhan. Under Ivan III from Moscow, the ships for salt every year went to Astrakhan from Moscow along the rivers Moscow, the Oka and the Volga. The common population was engaged in nomadic cattle breeding.
The Astrakhan Khanate was in military dependence on the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate. The Crimea, which claims to be the heir to the Golden Horde and its lands, tried to subjugate Astrakhan by dynastic means - asserting on the throne of Crimean appointees representatives of the Crimean dynasty Girey. This caused opposition to the Nogai Horde, which is also interested in introducing its henchmen in Astrakhan. In order to maintain relative independence and oppose strong neighbors, Astrakhan began a rapprochement with a “distant” Moscow, which seemed completely safe, and could serve as a counterweight to the Crimea and the Nogai. Therefore, in 1533, the Astrakhan Khanate concluded a trade and political agreement on union and mutual assistance with the Russian state. In Astrakhan was formed at the court of the so-called. "Russian party", actively supported by Moscow and serving as a conductor of Moscow influence.
The conquest of Astrakhan
In the middle of the 1540-s, a radical change occurred in the eastern policy of the Russian state. Moscow began to move from defense to offensive, responding to raids and campaigns of the steppe inhabitants with retaliatory strikes and making preventive expeditions to eliminate predatory nests. So, from attempts to build mutually beneficial relations with Kazan, to establish the power of the pro-Russian Khan and the “party”, Moscow switched to a strategy of power submission to the Kazan kingdom, in order to stop the predatory invasions in the east once and for all. During the war 1547-1552's. as a result of several Kazan campaigns, Kazan was taken and made Russian.
Next to the Kazan Khanate, in the lower reaches of the Volga, there was another Tatar state - the Astrakhan Khanate. After the construction of the fortress of Sviyazhsk and the forced consent of the Kazan leadership to accept vassal dependence on Moscow, the Astrakhan Khan Yamgurchi (Yamgurchi, Emgurchi) reigned in 1546-1547, 1550-1554), beat John the Terrible and expressed a desire to serve him. But in 1554, the Astrakhan khan broke a treaty with Moscow, robbed the Russian embassy and attacked the Nogai wanderings, which held the hand of the Russian tsar. Nogai Murza appealed for help to Ivan the Terrible and offered to build on the Astrakhan throne Tsarevich Dervish Ali, who lived in the Russian state in Zvenigorod. He already occupied the Astrakhan table with the help of the Nogais in 1537-1539. In 1552-1554 lived in Russia, owned Zvenigorod. Noghais viewed Dervish-Ali as a loyal person, and therefore did not give up the idea of returning him to Astrakhan.
In Moscow, the conquest of the Astrakhan Khanate was considered from a strategic point of view of control over the entire Volga basin and obtaining direct access to the Caspian Sea. In the spring of 1554, the Boyar Duma decided to take a punitive campaign against Astrakhan Khan Yamgurchi, who violated a peace treaty with Moscow, robbed the Russian embassy and attacked the Nogai regions. "And the king, the great ambassador, Derbysh, was the king to Astorokhan, and with him the governor sent his prince Yury Ivanovich Pronsky-Shemyakin with his comrades, and ordered him to go on three regiments: in the large regiment Prince Yury Ivanovich Pronskaya and Mikhailo Petrovich Golovin, and in the advanced regiment bedtels Ignatey Mikhailovich Vishnyakov and Shiryay Kobyakov, in the guard regiment Stefan Grigoriev is the son of Sidorov and Prince Andrei Bulgak-Boryatinskaya, and with them the nobles of the royal court and the children of the boyars from the rosy cities of choice, but the archers and the Cossacks. Yes, with Prince Yury, Prince Alexander Vyazemsky ordered to be from the vyatcha. And the sovereign ordered Prince Yuryu and his comrades to go on how the ice would break out. ”
In the spring of 1554, the ice on the Volga was barely gone, 30-mc marched on the march on Astrakhan. army under the command of Prince Yuri Ivanovich Shemyakin Pronsky. 29 June 1554, the Russian troops, coming to Perevolok between Don and Volga, sent forward the forward detachment under the command of Prince Alexander of Vyazemsky and Daniil Chulkov, and take the children of the boyars and atamans from the Cossacks, search for the people and look for languages and search for them, ” there is a long-range intelligence. Around the Black Isle, the Vyazemsky and Chulkov advanced regiments encountered the Astrakhan detachment under the command of Sakmak, who was walking up the Volga with a similar goal, “to spend the war on the tsar”. Russian warriors utterly routed the Astrakhan detachment; more than one person could not leave. Sakmak himself and many others took “tongues”.
The captives captured in the battle near Black Island were taken to the commander and in questioning said that “they were sent by the Emgurchay-king to send Moscow's discovery, and the Emgurchay-king builds five miles below the city of Azstorohani, and they said few people but all the people are sitting on the islands. " Having received important information about the location of the enemy, the Front Regiment, reinforced by detachments of Prince David Gundorov, Timofey Kropotkin and Grigory Zhelobov, marched on the Astrakhan Khan, while the rest of the Russian troops rushed to Astrakhan left without protection.
2 July 1554 Russian troops approached Hadji Tarkhan. Russian troops landed above and below the fortress and took her into a tight ring. "And the Azstorokhans from the city ran ... they took the city, and they walked away the people on foot and beat many, and killed others." Also successfully acted troops, which were sent to attack the camp of Astrakhan Khan, who was on the island in one of the arms of the Volga delta. Astrakhan troops did not resist the Russians. Astrakhan Khan escaped, seeing that the Russians were coming at him. Russians overtook and captured the khan's harem, khan's children, stocks weapons, but Yamgurchi was able to slip away. The pursuit was looking for Khan on his way to Tyumen, and he fled to Azov, under the protection of the Ottoman sultan.
The new khan for the third time was Dervish Ali. His authority recognized the nobility and the local population. Dervish-Ali fulfilled the main demand of the Russian Tsar: he freed from captivity all the Russian captives who were in his country. He also pledged to annually pay tribute to Moscow in 40 thousand altyn (1200 silver rubles) and 3 thousand Volga fishes ("sturgeon in sazhen"). The Russians received the right to fish from Kazan to Astrakhan - across the Volga - duty-free and without a turnout (that is, without notifying about it and without asking permission from the Astrakhan authorities). A month later, the Russian troops left Astrakhan, leaving a detachment under the command of commander Peter Turgenev in the city.
In the spring of 1555, Khan Yamgurchi, enlisting the support of the Crimean Khanate and Turkey, tried to regain the throne and attacked Astrakhan twice. In his army there were not only Astrakhan and Nogai warriors, but also Turkish janissaries. In April, 1555, the Russian troops fought off the first assault and turned the enemy to flight. In pursuit of the enemy, the son of Dervish Ali walked, and informed the Moscow about the attack.
After that, there was an unexpected turn. Dervish-Ali was able to lure to his side those who were in the war of the enemy Nogai Murza. In gratitude for their help in the fight against Yamgurchi, Dervish-Ali allowed the Nogai to cross the Volga, where they began fighting against the ally of the Russian tsar, the Nogai bey (prince) Ishmael. To help Ivan Turgenev from Moscow was sent a detachment of Strelets head of Grigori Kaftyrev and Cossack ataman Fyodor Pavlov. However, they met the Astrakhan governor Turgenev on the Volga, on the way to Moscow. He reported that Dervish-Ali had gone over to the side of Russia's long-time enemies - the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Kaftyrev led troops in Astrakhan. The city was abandoned by the inhabitants.
The Russian voivode was able to convey to Dervish-Ali that peace could be restored with Moscow and Astrakhan. Astrakhans returned to the city. But in March 1556, the Nogai prince Ishmael informed Moscow that the dervish-Ali had completely betrayed the Russian tsar: “And he ordered Ismail, the prince and all myts to the tsar, the grand prince, beat his forehead and the citizen to Derbysh, the tsar, that he did not accept the tsar and the grand prince and the great ones need them to do, so that their sovereign from Derbysh would defend and perpetuate his people on Astorohani as well as in Kazan. ” Indeed, incited by the new Nogai allies and the “Prokrim party”, Dervish Ali attacked the Russian detachment of Mansurov in Astrakhan and forced him to retreat from the khanate. Fearing punishment from the Moscow Tsar, Dervish-Ali asked for help from the Crimean khan Devlet-Girya, he sent a small detachment to Astrakhan (700 Tatars and 300 janissaries), who composed the Astrakhan Khan's guard.
In the meantime, a new campaign was organized in Astrakhan. Russian troops led by Ivan Cheremisinov. The Russian army included the Streltsy orders of Ivan Cheremisinov and Timofey Teterin, the Vyatka army of the commander Pisemsky and detachments of the Cossacks Mikhail Kolupayev and the Volga ataman Lyapun Filimonov. In general, only about 3 of thousands of soldiers were sent to the second campaign, which indicates the purely punitive nature of the campaign and the military weakness of the Astrakhan Khanate. The detachments were sent in the spring of 1556. Each of their places of deployment, independently of each other, in order to then unite near Astrakhan: 1) archers went (floated) from Moscow; Vyatka militiamen - from Khlynova (v. Vyatka); Cossacks — on horses from the Don through Perevoloku to the Volga, and then on barges to Astrakhan.
Cossack detachment Filimonova first suddenly approached the city. Khan's warriors did not even have time to shut up in the fortress. The Cossacks defeated the Astrakhan army and broke into Astrakhan. The shooters came to the rescue and Don Cossacks secured success. After several skirmishes, Dervish-Ali fled to Azov, hoping to assemble a new detachment and fight off the city when the Russians withdraw the main forces. The Noghai, who served the Astrakhan Khan, betrayed him, agreed with Prince Izmail, and in order to obey the Russian voivods, attacked Dervish Ali. With the remnants of his troops, the last Astrakhan Khan fled to Azov.
Results
After this victory, the Astrakhan Khanate was liquidated. Moscow no longer entrusted the throne to the "friendly" Khan. The lands in the lower reaches of the Volga became part of the Russian state. The entire Volga route became Russian. Russia came to the Caspian. After the conquest of Astrakhan, the Russian influence spread to the Caucasus. In 1559, the princes Pyatigorsk and Cherkasy asked Ivan the Terrible to send a detachment to defend them against the raids of the Crimean Tatars and priests to maintain their faith. Soon the Nogai Horde and Bashkiria became part of the Russian state.
The title of Astrakhan king with 1557, began to wear Russian kings. Governors were appointed to govern Astrakhan. Residents of Astrakhan swore allegiance to the Russian state, which guaranteed quiet nomadic and profitable trade. Soon envoys from Urgench, Shemakha, Derbent began arriving in Astrakhan to establish friendship, peace and trade. Thus, the task of mastering the Volga route from Kazan to Astrakhan was successfully solved and was a major foreign policy success of the Russian state. Moscow was well aware of the role and importance of Astrakhan as the main transit point in trade with Eastern states.
In the history of Astrakhan, a new stage in history begins. The city has become an important trading and border center of Russia. To keep the city under its power - neither the Crimea nor Turkey left hope to seize the city, the search began for a place to build a fortified fortress capable of restraining the onslaught of the enemy. Such a place was found on the island of Sain (Shaban-Bugre), the Russians called it Hare. The first Astrakhan voivode Cheremisinov asks for permission at the chosen place to begin the construction of the fortress city and sends the king how-to-be drawings. The project was approved and ships and carts with people, food, ammunition, and various goods went from central Russia. The first fortress was wooden and strengthened by earthen ramparts. In 1558, the new voivode Ivan Grigorievich Vyrodkov arrived, famous in the “Kazan case” (the explosion of the walls of the Kazan Kremlin). In Astrakhan, he began to build powerful defensive fortifications that could protect the state’s borders and ensure the safety of residents. Thus, Astrakhan became a strong Russian fortress on the southern frontiers. Subsequent attempts of the Crimean-Turkish troops to take Astrakhan did not lead to success.
In the future, Astrakhan strengthened even more. In 80-ies of the XVI century. built stone Astrakhan Kremlin, built on the site of wooden-earthen structures. It was built "on the model of the Moscow Kremlin." This Kremlin was an example of Russian defense architecture and ranked with the strongest fortresses of medieval Russia.
Gradually, Astrakhan became the largest center of trade with eastern countries. Large trade was conducted by Khiva merchants. Since the XVII century. in Astrakhan appear living courtyards of the Persians, Armenians, Indians, established trading companies. In the same century, the Astrakhan region is intensively settled. For many years after the Astrakhan Khanate was annexed to Russia, Astrakhan was the only major settlement from Kazan to the Caspian Sea. And only in the late 20-ies of the XVII century in the Astrakhan region appeared the first towns-forts. In 1627, a small fortress of Cherny Yar was built, located in 250 versts north of Astrakhan, in 1665-1667. For the protection of Astrakhan and the protection of fisheries from the east, the fortress Krasny Yar is built.
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