In August 1598, Voivode Andrey Voeykov defeated the remnants of Khan Kuchum's army on the Irmen River, thereby putting an end to the unprecedented expedition of ataman Ermak. This battle historically confirmed the rule of the Russian tsar over the vast territories of Siberia, the annexation of which to the Russian state was finally a fait accompli.

Unfortunately, an important event, the 400th anniversary of which we celebrated in 1998, went almost unnoticed in a society gripped by the economic crisis and political battles. And once again we have to state that many of our modern troubles are due to unconsciousness, from a careless attitude to the past. Only one thing saves us in such cases - the enthusiasm of ordinary Russian people, their unselfish desire to serve their people and Fatherland, to remind ourselves who we are and where our roots come from.

The equestrian campaign, which will be discussed later, along the route of voivode Andrey Voeykov, which he passed in the autumn of 1598 from the prison of Tara to the Irmen River through the Barabinsk steppes, was the final stage of a series of events dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the defeat of Khan Kuchum. It was attended by residents of Novosibirsk from the public-historical organization "Ermak", Cossacks and enthusiasts who love their history and their region.

Before describing this event, I want to note that in Siberia, and in the Urals, from where Ermak Timofeyevich set off from the Chusovaya River to Kuchum's capital, Kashlyk, interest in this feat has never waned and does not wane. Following historians and archaeologists along the routes of the legendary chieftain and his followers, groups of amateur researchers follow almost every summer. Especially noticeable are the expeditions of the Argonauts of Siberia Club, which has existed for many years under the Siberian Cadet Corps. The permanent head of the club, Andrey Mikhailovich Nekrasov, not only teaches cadets about maritime affairs, which in itself is exotic in the Siberian regions. In boat trips along local rivers, historical research is carried out, and a love for the region's past is instilled. So, in their third navigation, the Argonauts-cadets followed the path laid by the squad of Ermak Timofeyevich through the city of Tara to the mouth of the Vagai, where they erected an Orthodox cross on the site of the death of the ataman.

It is clear that the expeditions of the Siberian Argonaut cadets were carefully planned and developed. The children enthusiastically read Siberian chronicles, historical works dedicated to this period, scientists R. G. Skrynnikov, V. S. Sinyaev, G. F. Miller, and works of modern historians, in particular

Sergey Vladimirovich Kolontsov, archaeologist, leading specialist of the Center for the preservation of historical monuments in Novosibirsk and the region. His works especially interested the children, because the next part of the campaign, which they planned, was to pass through the places where Kuchum's troops were defeated. With the help of S. V. Kolontsov, we will also look at the end of the XVI century on the territory of Siberia.

"...Siberia, late 16th century. Khan Kuchum killed Khan Yediger, who regularly paid Moscow yasak. Expelled by Yermak from the capital of Kashlyk, Kuchum retreats to the Upper Irtysh steppes and continues his struggle there. The death of Ermak seemed to give the deaf and blind old man strength. However, the vast Siberian expanses were getting closer and more dangerous for Kuchum every year..."

"In 1598, a new voivode, Prince Ivan Massalsky-Koltsov, arrived in the fortress city of Tara (now in the Omsk region), who received in August a royal decree ordering him to gather a sufficient number of warriors and send them against the fugitive saltan of Siberia - Kuchum. And already on August 4, 1598, a detachment of 400 people, consisting of Streltsy, Cossacks and serving Tatars, led by voivodes Kuzmin and Voeikov, marched out of Tara. With the detachment was the military head Cherkas Alexandrov-a former member of the Ermak expedition, " yes, three sons of boyars, yes, three atamans."

"In the Turash ulus within the Barabinsk forest-steppe, the detachment managed to capture two Kuchumovichi, who, after an inquiry and torture, showed that the Khan wanders on the Black Waters (the modern Karasuk River in the Novosibirsk region), and with him 500 of his people and 50 Bukhara merchants. Having received this news, the detachment began to move quickly along the right bank of the Om River, then turned to the northeast and on the fifteenth of August suddenly appeared on the banks of Ubi Lake (Uoinskoe Lake of the Chulymsky district of the Novosibirsk region) and captured the Tatars who served the khan. Through them, Voeykov learned that Kuchum, along with his children and his people, had left the Black Waters for the Ob River, where he had "sown bread" and sheep flocks roam.

Day and night the dusty, sweaty, tired warriors hurried through the sun-scorched Ob River, making only short stops to rest and feed their horses. And finally, after many hardships, the detachment reached the Irmen River (now the Ordynsky district of the Novosibirsk region). And I myself am your serf, - Voeykov will later write to the king, - having left my kosh on Lake Ika, and came to the king's Kuchum, hastily and day and night, and the throne of Kuchum, the king, on the Ob on the river above, three bottoms on the meadow of Ormen (Irmen River)..."

Let's interrupt the story of the historian Sergey Kolontsov for a while. Let's go back to the present day. It was at this place, which is described above, that Voeykov's decisive battle with Kuchum took place. It was here that many historians, researchers and those who are not indifferent to our glorious distant past were directed their eyes. Above, we have already talked about the "Argonauts of Siberia" from the cadet corps, who installed a nine-meter cross at the site of Yermak's death. Even earlier, four years ago, they performed such a sacred act-I can't call it anything else-on the bank of the small Irmen River, which we have already mentioned many times. Anatoly Dmitrievich Shevelev, a retired major General from St. Petersburg who participated in the Great Patriotic War, wrote about this in a local newspaper: "I can't help but please the Siberians with my find, which I discovered last year during a trip to my native village of Pichugovo, Ordynsky district, Novosibirsk region. I knew that the village itself was located at the bottom of the Ob Sea, but when I arrived at the place, I saw a four-meter-high cross on the shore with the inscription: On August 20, 1598, at the mouth of the Irmen River, a battle took place between the Siberian Khan Kuchum and a Cossack army led by the colonel of the Tarsky voivode Andrey Voeykov. As a result of this battle, Western Siberia became part of the Russian state. This cross was erected and consecrated on July 14, 1993." This event (the installation and consecration of the cross and the fact of almost 400 years of annexation of Western Siberia to the Russian state) deserves wide popularization not only in Siberia, but also in Russia as a whole. I would like to know who is the initiator of the installation of the cross?

We have already answered this question. Let us only add that the good historical and patriotic deeds of the cadets are not of a one-time, campaigning nature. This is a whole line of education preached by a glorious educational institution. By the way, six months before the four-hundredth anniversary of the event we are describing, a whole program was drawn up in the Siberian Cadet Corps in connection with this. On February 20, for example, last year, the eleventh class of the Siberian Cadet Corps "Argonauts of Siberia", who had dinghy trips on the Tom, Ob and Irtysh Rivers, went skiing to the very memorial cross that was installed on the bank of the Irmen...

No less significant was the event that completed the program of events dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Voeikov's battle with Kuchum. We are talking about a horse crossing along the route of the glorious voivode, with which we began our story. But more on that later. Let's go back in time again.

Historian Sergey KOLONTSOV:

"...Before the eyes of the Cossacks opened the vast camp of Kuchum. Tatar yurts and tents were scattered in a wide ring all along the shore. Far away, in the middle of a green lawn, stood Kuchum's tent with a long pole, at the top of which fluttered a snow-white horse's tail...

Voeykov's order was issued to check the armor and prepare the weapons for battle. A minute later, steppe dust began to swirl under the horses ' hooves. The warriors rushed like an unstoppable avalanche to the camp of Kuchum. With a terrible Mongolian cry of "Hurrra' " they burst into the ranks of tents and yurts, overturning people who ran out at the noise, jumping over scattered packs and saddles, trampling the simple household utensils of nomadic pastoralists into the ground...

In total, on the twentieth of August, the Tatars fell in battle: 10 murzas, 150 soldiers, more than 100 people drowned in the Ob, 50 were taken prisoner. Almost all the sons of the Siberian khan aged from 5 to 20 years were captured: Shaim, Asmanak, Bibadsha, Kumysh, Mola, eight queens - wives of Kuchum, wives of Kuchum's eldest sons, eight princesses-his daughters.

But Kuchum and his three other sons were not among the dead or captured. The Cossack hundred of the son of the boyar Moisey Glebov and ataman Tretyak Zhareny returned empty-handed, chasing and beating to death fifty Tatars who tried to leave down the Ob River.

Meanwhile, Khan Kuchum was still alive. Two of his loyal servants, in the midst of the battle, put him in a boat and sailed with him down the Ob River to the lands of the Chat Tatars.

When Voeykov himself and the people sent to search for Kuchum returned empty-handed, he ordered Tul-Mametu, Kuchum's nephew who had accepted Russian citizenship, to find the khan and persuade him to become a subject to the Russian tsar. Comparing the course of events and written sources, it can be argued that Tul-Mamet found Kuchum "across the Ob River, in the forest, down the Ob River, from Kuchumov I beat two bottoms, and with Kuchum all three sons and his people about thirty people." To the suggestion of Tul-Mamet about Kuchum's transfer to the tsarist service, he replied:: "I did not go to the sovereign according to the sovereign's charter, of my own free will, at that time I was completely unharmed, and I had nothing to go to the sovereign for a saber, but now I have become deaf and blind, and without any stomach: they took from me an industrialist, my son Asmanak tsarevich: at least all my children would be caught, and I would have one Asmanak left and I would still live about him, and now I am going to Nagai, and I am sending my son to Bukhara..."

Further traces of Kuchum are lost. There are several versions of his death. According to one legend, he died in the Nogai Horde, according to another, the Kalmyks lured him and killed him. Another legend says that the khan, dying, allegedly ordered to bury him in the most remote and inaccessible place in the forest, among the swamps. Together with the remains of Kuchum, a horse and a ram, cast from red gold, are allegedly buried...

Be that as it may, but the name of Khan Kuchum after his defeat on the Irmen River is not mentioned anywhere else. The victory over the Siberian saltan itself is of great historical significance. And it is a pity that not by the decrees of those in power, but only by the good will of enthusiasts, commemorative crosses are being installed today, solemn events, expeditions, and hikes are being held to visit the places of former glory of the Russian Cossacks-pioneers. We have already told you about one of these enthusiasts, Andrey Mikhailovich Nekrasov, who created the Argonauts of Siberia club in the cadet corps. It is impossible not to tell about another one - Anatoly Mikhailovich Alekseev, a history teacher from Novosibirsk.

More than ten years ago, he created the Ermak club, first at a vocational school, and later in the Zheleznodorozhny district of Novosibirsk. The goal of the club was obvious: to instill patriotic feelings in children by hiking along the route that Ermak Timofeyevich and his squad passed. Until August 1998, Anatoly Alekseev and his students traveled all the way of the brave Russian warriors: from a small island that was lost in the middle of the Chusovaya River in the Urals, and to Tobolsk, to the very place where the capital of Kuchum Khan, Kashlyk (Ysker), was located nearby in the XVI century. Needless to say, Anatoly Alekseev immediately caught fire with an idea that was just in the air - to complete the route of ataman Voeykov by horse-riding and precisely at the time and in those days in which the brave Russian warrior did it in 1598. Unfortunately, this idea almost collapsed due to the political ambitions of local heads of administrations.

But anyway, on July 23, 1998, a prayer service was served in the military church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and the expedition's marching banners were consecrated. Father Viktor (Smetannikov), the same one who visited Chechnya several times and installed an Orthodox cross at the North Pole by skydiving, blessed the participants of the historic campaign and handed the ataman a banner with the image of the Savior. By the way, Anatoly Alekseev was unanimously elected marching ataman. At the construction site near the temple, beautiful girls from the Novosibirsk women's Organization "Yaroslavna" handed out homemade bread to participants and Cossacks, according to an old Slavic custom. From the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the column marched with unfurled banners to dashing Cossack songs to the railway station. It was decided to go to Tara by train, and from there, as it was four hundred years ago, move through two regions to the Irmen River, having previously purchased and prepared horses for the campaign.

From the hiking diaries of "Ermakov"

"...And so it began, let's go... The Tara regional center was empty. No one met us. However, there was one meeting that was worth a lot. An old Cossack and a participant of the Great Patriotic War came up to us in uniform and with orders. With tears, he apologized for the once Cossack city, for its administration...

We go further and further. Behind the villages of Yekaterinskoye, Kukarka, Sidelnikovo, overnight stays among the swamps in the mosquito inferno. We have to adjust the route: Keyzes, Petropavlovsk, Rogozin, Elnichnoye - the last village in the Omsk region. The border of our native Novosibirsk was crossed without much celebration, the Russian Empire of these subjects of the Federation has not known for centuries...

An unfamiliar environment, swamps and swamps plunge into the atmosphere of ancient centuries. Alexey Chernov sends patrols ahead to search for passable trails. At night, as it should be, guard duty. Moreover, the guard is not a historical event, but a vital necessity. Take a nap and the gypsies will lead the horses away. Well done, our Cossacks, Masha and Natasha, have learned their job well, they cook quickly and cook deliciously... Hardest of all, of course, the guys from the Berd club "Rusich" - just after all the boys, but they do not give the appearance, they are attached...

..We've reached it! Withstood! It was from this place that Voivode Voeykov saw the Kuchumov tents. A thousand kilometers behind!.."

Thus end the campaign notes of the Yermakovites, a small part of which we have given here. Then there will be a solemn assembly at the Orthodox cross, a prayer service and a huge awareness not only of the path that they passed, but also of the path that their ancestors passed. Now they can safely look back. There is no emptiness in the past for them now, which means that there will be no emptiness in the future.

Summing up the above, I would like to quote the words of another historian - B. S. Sinyaev: "As a result of Voeikov's campaign, Kuchum's state finally collapsed. The Kuchumovichi who continued to fight no longer represented the state... Thus, with Voeikov's campaign, a new, well-defined stage in the colonization of Siberia begins. The Russians came to the border with numerous and strong nomads of Southern Siberia, who had fairly developed feudal relations... Now it was important to hold the border here, to ensure that the explorers could go east, " meet the sun."

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