Siberian Khan Kuchum: biography, years of government

In 1563, after a long and bloody war, in the vast territories lying between the great Siberian river Irtysh and its tributary Tobol, Khan Kuchum, a direct heir of the genus Genghis Khan, and successor of his predatory policy, established his power. The army of the khan, consisting of Kazakhs, Nogais and Uzbeks, terrified the inhabitants of the lands, to which he turned his avid eyes.

The beginning of the seizure of the Siberian lands

Khan Kuchum, whose biography contains, along with historical facts, episodes generated by legends, in many folded about this, in its own bright and unique personality, has always remained in the history of Siberia. However, little is known about his early years. Miserly records of chronicle arches inform only that he was born in 1510-1520 on the shore of the Aral Sea, in the ulus bearing the name of Alty-aul. The chronicle "On the seizure of the Siberian land," compiled by Savva Esipov at the end of the 16th century, specifies that he was a Karakalpak by birth.

In order to become the ruler of the vast Siberian region, Khan Kuchum, at the head of the detachments composed of local tribes under his control, began military operations against the Khan Ediger in 1555, uncontrolled in the lands adjoining the Irtysh. In this he relied on the help of his relative, the Bukharian ruler Abdullah Khan II. This foreigner saw in the seizure of Siberia his economic and political interests, like Khan Kuchum himself. The photos presented in the article give an idea of the originality of the Siberian region, where the actions of the forthcoming historical drama unfolded.

The overthrow of Khan Ediger

This war, as was said above, ended in 1563 with the victory of Khan Kuchum, who took control of the vast territories and became the ruler of the tribes of the Barabans, chats and Ostyaks who lived along the banks of the Irtysh. Since that time, his personal wealth began to grow with incredible speed, since the conquered peoples were obliged to pay regular yasak - a tribute in the form of the most valuable furs of fur-bearing animals.

Since Khan Kuchum was a descendant of Genghis Khan himself, he zealously took his traditions, and, having occupied the city of Kashlyk - the capital of Khan Ediger, began by killing the latter along with his own brother Bedbulat, thus avenging the death of his grandfather, who died a few years earlier from Their hands. He kept his life only to Yediger's nephew Seydyak, but only to send him to Bukhara as a gift to Abdullah Khan for his military assistance.

An attempt to Islamize the Siberian peoples

In the territories under his control, Khan Kuchum, as an orthodox Muslim, first of all took care of the souls of his new tributaries, but did so in the traditions of militant Islam, so famous at the present times - with fire and sword. But the taiga residents historically rooted their beliefs, and the shaman was closer to them than the mullah.

Without entering into theological disputes with them, Kuchum simply cut off the heads of those who showed special persistence. To all the rest, the circumcision laid down by the law of Mohammed was done either on a voluntary basis or forcibly. This was a principle that the Siberian Khan Kuchum continued to follow steadily. Photos of pagan temples of Siberian peoples can be seen in this article.

Mutiny among local tribes

This forced planting of Islam has caused numerous riots among the obedient, and seemingly already reconciled with its position population. The scale of resistance took such a wide scale that Khan Kuchum was forced to seek help from his father - Murtaza. However, the reinforcements sent to him were not enough, and only with the help of the cavalry of the same Bukharian relative Abdullah Khan II managed to cope with the disobedient.

After the troops from Bukhara, numerous Islamic preachers arrived in Siberia and turned to new faith those whom the steel of the yatagans spared. Such energetic actions had the result, but, nevertheless, even after the death of the khan, the inhabitants of Siberia in their overwhelming majority remained pagans.

Ruler of the Siberian Khanate

In the first years of the reign, Khan Kuchum made every effort to expand his possessions and strengthen the state created by him. In this he managed to achieve undoubted success. Soon, in addition to the Tatars and Kipchaks, under his control were the Bashkir and Khanty-Mansi tribes. The formerly free nations formed a powerful Siberian Khanate, stretching to the banks of the Ob River in the north, to the Urals in the west, and to the Baraba Steppe in the south. And everything would be fine, if only not a tribute, which he had to pay to the Russian tsar.

Khan Kuchum was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, who conquered half the world in former times, and his heart was broken when he had to send an ambassador to Moscow every year with a thousand valuable sable pelts. And if the treasury of the khan was able to withstand such a yasak, then the soul does not. Having finally suppressed the centers of resistance in the lands under his control, Kuchum not only refused to pay Russia his due tribute, but also conceived the desire to include part of his territories in his khanate.

Khan Kuchum and Ermak Timofeevich

The first object of his aggression he chose Perm. This provoked a revolt of the Nogai Tatars, who tried to take advantage of the current situation to withdraw from the Russian state. After that, the khan undertook a number of attempts to seize Russian cities, but only attracted the anger of Ivan the Terrible, who immediately sent to curb him the Cossacks, led by the legendary Ermak Timofeevich.

Only in one clash near the Chuvash mountain, which occurred on October 12, 1581, the forces of Khan Kuchum managed to give the Cossacks resistance and repel their attack. But a month later they were completely defeated, after which the army, which held the population of Siberia in obedience , fled. At the entrance to the capital of the Khanate - the town of Isker - Ermak met no resistance. To fight with him, protecting the alien and hated all the khan, there was simply no one.

The reasons for the military superiority of the Cossacks

Such a relatively easy victory, according to historians, is due to several factors. First of all, it should be taken into account that Khan Kuchum headed an army consisting of representatives of a wide variety of peoples, unrelated to each other either religiously or culturally, and often hostile to each other.

The role and treachery of local princes also played a role, considering it more profitable to pay tribute to the Moscow Tsar, than to an alien khan who also relied on supporting Bukhara troops. In addition, realizing that the prospect of plundering Russian cities with impunity proved to be unattainable, they immediately moved to the side of the Cossacks.

And finally, we must not forget that the half-wild Khan horde dealt with well-organized, regular Cossack units that had been trained in combat, who had firearms at their disposal, which was absolutely unknown at that time in the Siberian wilderness. These circumstances and allowed the detachment Ermak, numbering less than a thousand people, in a short time to suppress the resistance of the enemy, greatly exceeding its number.

A new stage in the conquest of the Siberian Khanate

But military happiness, as is known, is changeable, and an easy victory sometimes gives rise to excessive presumption. Broken, lost all his army and barely escaped escape Kuchum took refuge in the Ishim steppes, stretching in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain. There he succeeded in collecting scattered groups of foreigners scattered across the steppe and, promising them a rich booty, to raise them to fight the Cossacks, the movement of which he was informed by local residents. Soon, taking advantage of the right moment, Kuchum attacked them and managed to win.

The news of the military failure reached Moscow and prompted Ivan the Terrible to send reinforcements beyond the Urals, led by two experienced governors - Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasnym. A year later, Danil Chulkov joined them with a detachment of archers. Of course, this decided the outcome of the case and deprived the Khan of hope for revenge. Since then, his military activity has been reduced only to predatory raids, not always, however, which had a successful outcome for him.

The defeat and flight of Kuchum Khan

So, in July 1591, after one of the sorties, the Khan's camp on the Ishim River was surrounded, and was soon captured by the archers under the command of Prince VV Koltsov-Mosalsky. Kuchum himself again fled, leaving the winners as trophies of his two wives and son Abdul-Haira. Three years later, a similar situation occurred on the island of Black, which was in the upper Irtysh. There, in the hope of taking cover from the tsarist troops, the Tartars founded a city. After the storm, undertaken by the detachment of Prince Andrew Yeletsky, he was taken, and again Khan Kuchum disappeared, leaving the streltsy rich prey.

Conscious of the futility of the further struggle, in 1597 Kuchum proposed concluding peace. He undertook to stop the raids, but for this he demanded the return of the prisoners and part of the property seized from him. In the reply he received from Moscow, it was said that peace is possible only if he goes to the service of the Russian Tsar. But, since for the descendant of Genghis Khan this was unacceptable, Kuchum refused and began to save forces for a new blow.

The last years of Kuchum's life

Since that time, the Moscow authorities, convinced of the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the khan, are taking the most active steps to destroy it. In August 1598, Prince Koltsov-Mosalsky managed to storm Khan's fortress on the Irmen River by storm. It is known that in the battle the son, brother and two grandchildren of the khan died, but he managed to escape again. Sagittarius captured many noble prisoners, who were sent first to Tobolsk, and then to Moscow, where, on the occasion of the victory, a thanksgiving service was held.

Subsequently, another attempt was made to persuade the khan to join the Russian service, but it was also unsuccessful. To this end, in October 1598, voevoda Prince Voeikov, on the orders of Boris Godunov, who ascended to the throne by that time, sent a trusted person to Kuchum, but was again refused. The subsequent operation, whose purpose was to capture the Khan, was also unsuccessful, using information obtained from local residents.

Death, hidden from us by history

His death, which followed in 1601, is surrounded by the same uncertainty as birth. There is the most contradictory information about the circumstances under which Khan Kuchum ended his life. His biography breaks off somewhere in the boundless steppes inhabited by tribes of semi-savage nomads. From some sources one can conclude that they were close to him by the blood of the Karakalpaks, but that provoked them to kill the once-powerful, and by that time the lonely and all-abandoned khan is unknown.

The Siberian Khan Kuchum, whose reigns (1563-1568) coincided with the period of the conquest of Siberia and its development by Russian explorers, became an integral part of our history. He joined her along with his sons Ablaykerim and Kirei, after the death of his father, who tried for several decades to hold power in their hands over the taiga region and, like him, forced to give this right to the Russian tsar.

Family ruler of the Siberian Khanate

In conclusion, a few words about the family, surrounded by Khan Kuchum. Biography, nationality, political aspects and stages of the military way - these are the facts that our attention is primarily drawn to when considering a particular historical personality. However, they will be incomplete if you do not take into account the people around her.

The family of Khan Kuchum fully corresponded to his status. For all his life he had eleven wives (slaves and concubines do not count), most of which belonged to noble families. They produced nine daughters and seventeen sons who also played a role in the history of this ancient nomadic people. Legends of the same Khan Kuchum, conqueror of Siberia, have survived to this day, surviving for centuries their creators.