November 4, 1582

[Martin Antonenko]

Jermak Is Victorious...!


On November 4, 1582, the Cossack warriors under Yermak Tomofejewitsch ...



... on the Chuvash Peninsula won a great victory over that of Khan Mametkul ...



... the son of the chief Khan Kuchum ...



... commanded Tatars resident there ...:





The victory means that the Cossacks can take the nearby capital of the Sibir Khanate, Isker (and thus have safe winter quarters) ...:



A so-called "Ostrog", a wooden Cossack fortress, is being built nearby ...


... and from it over the years today's Tobolsk ...:





**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Part II


We know surprisingly little about the man who gave Russia the greatest territorial expansion in its history - Siberia. We don't know his real name, we have to speculate about his origin and there is no authentic picture of him ...:







Probably his real name was Wassilij Timofejewitsch Alenin.

His grandfather is said to be an impoverished city citizen from Suzdal on the Volga ...





... was called Afanassij Alenin, who ran away to the Cossacks and got by as "Rasbojnik" (robber or Volga pirate) ...:



His son Timofej and his grandson Wassilij - our Yermak Timofejewitsch, who was born around 1540 - also embarked on a career as a robber - initially as Volga pirates. In doing so, Wassilij adopted the code name "Yermak" and soon became the leader of a gang of pirates. This is what it could have looked like:



Since the authorities did not like to see the goings-on of the Rasbojniki so much and pursued them mercilessly ...



... Yermak looked around for something else to earn a living and was later taken over by the very wealthy Stroganov brothers Spiridon and Fyodor ...



... who financed an 840-strong desperado army from Cossacks, subordinate them to Yermak and commissioned him to conquer Siberia ...:



The Stroganovs were tired of paying for the most valuable Siberian raw material “fur”, but wanted to conquer it.

Khan Kuchum will continue to resist - and lose battle after battle. Firearms, even cannons, were not owned by his people ...:







In the early morning of August 6th, 1585, Kuchum's warriors attacked the camp of the Cossacks near the present-day town of Qaschliq, almost completely killing them ...:



Yermak, will drown if you try to escape - he wore gold armor ...



... which Tsar Ivan IV had sent him as a present after he learned of Yermak's successful campaign of conquest.

But it was precisely this armor that now became the doom of the Cossack leader! When he tried to save himself by jumping into the Irtysh River ...



... pulled it him underwater and he drowned ...:



The Cossacks say of Yermak: "As long as he was free as a bird he was successful. But the favor of the Tsar in stone Moscow meant his undoing."

But the conquest of Siberia will continue - because now Ivan IV will send regular soldiers ...

 

[Nap]

Fighting Cossacks certainly not a good idea , must been scary seeing them for sure

Perhaps a good subject for a modelling project ?

Cheers

Martin

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Perhaps a good subject for a modelling project ?

 

[Airkid]

Interesting post. Some of that artwork is superb and as Nap says, good reference for modelling projects.

Phil