Timofeyevich Yermak, Cossack ataman and adventurer
(? - 1585)
We know very little about his youth, not even the year of his birth is known. After years of brigandage in the Volga region, when he was outlawed, he entered the service of the Stroganov family in 1577. These boyars received from Ivan IV. Terrible to build outpost fortresses in the Urals, Ob and Irtysh to protect Russia against raids from the Siberian Khanate, a remnant of the Genghis Khan empire. In return they were given a license to trade with China, from which they became very rich. However, the trade was frequently disrupted by nomadic raiders, and they decided to invest considerable resources in the destruction of the last Tatar state that stood in their way.
Jermak gathered a detachment of Cossacks, 1,680 strong, and in 1581 set out for Kashlyk, which was the capital of the Tatar khanate in Siberia. The khan sent his troops against him, but Jermak and his Cossacks defeated them in a three-day battle on the Irtysh River in October 1582. He then occupied Kashlyk, resulting in the demise of the Siberian khanate. The remnants of the Tatars retreated to the steppe, from where they launched raids against Russian troops. During one such attack on the night of August 6, 1585, Yermak drowned in the Vagai River while attempting to swim across the river in heavy armor.
The Russian troops, which had received no significant assistance from Tsar Ivan IV, then withdrew from Siberia in the autumn of 1595, but the main obstacle to Russian penetration of Siberia, the Tatar khanate, was removed.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Jermak-Timofejevic-t22388#84904
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