The biography of Yermak Timofeyevich, the Cossack ataman and the conqueror of Siberia, is still unknown. Legend has it, he was born along the banks of the Chusovaya River in 1532. Historians mention several variants of Yermak’s real name: Yermak, Yermolay, German, Yermil, Vasily, Timofey, and Yeremey.
In the middle of the 1570-s, Yermak worked on strugas (flat-bottomed sailing and rowing boats), sailing the Volga and the Kama. He knew local rivers well.
On the Volga, he gathered a squad, with which he raided merchant ships. Fearing the tsar’s punishment, Yermak went to the upper Kama where he started to work for the Ural merchants Stroganovs and protect their lands from the Siberian khan Kuchum.
In 1582, Yermak went to the Siberian khanate with a small team. The Stroganovs supplied the expedition with food and ammunition.
At that time the Cossack’s equipment consisted of a chain mail, a helmet, a sword, a dirk and a firearm — a bladed weapon.
Yermak’s squad crossed the Urals and by strugas began to sail along the Siberian rivers to Kuchum’s capital 一 the city of Isker (Qashliq) on the Irtysh. On their way, the Cossacks fought with the khan’s forces. On October 26, 1582, there was a decisive Battle of Chuvash Cape near Isker, where the Cossacks defeated the khan of Siberia. Kuchum had to retreat, though he didn’t lay down his arms. As a result, the Khanate of Siberia fell. The Khanty, Mansi, and some Tatar uluses expressed their willingness to accept Russian citizenship. The vast territory of the Lower Ob and Irtysh regions became part of the Russian state.
Yermak Timofeyevich died on August 6, 1585. He went along the Irtysh with a small team of 50 men. During an overnight stay on the shore at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and killed almost the entire squad. According to the witnesses of the events, the ataman drowned in the Irtysh, trying to swim to the strugas in heavy chainmail. Yermak was possibly wounded with an arrow.
The portrait of ataman Yermak displayed in the museum is made by an unknown painter in a Western (“fryazhsky”) manner. This was the name of the style formed in icon painting in the 17th一18th centuries. It was characterized by realistic images of people and the world. In 1992, the portrait was renovated in the Irkutsk workshop of Svetlana Tyutikova.
In the middle of the 1570-s, Yermak worked on strugas (flat-bottomed sailing and rowing boats), sailing the Volga and the Kama. He knew local rivers well.
On the Volga, he gathered a squad, with which he raided merchant ships. Fearing the tsar’s punishment, Yermak went to the upper Kama where he started to work for the Ural merchants Stroganovs and protect their lands from the Siberian khan Kuchum.
In 1582, Yermak went to the Siberian khanate with a small team. The Stroganovs supplied the expedition with food and ammunition.
At that time the Cossack’s equipment consisted of a chain mail, a helmet, a sword, a dirk and a firearm — a bladed weapon.
Yermak’s squad crossed the Urals and by strugas began to sail along the Siberian rivers to Kuchum’s capital 一 the city of Isker (Qashliq) on the Irtysh. On their way, the Cossacks fought with the khan’s forces. On October 26, 1582, there was a decisive Battle of Chuvash Cape near Isker, where the Cossacks defeated the khan of Siberia. Kuchum had to retreat, though he didn’t lay down his arms. As a result, the Khanate of Siberia fell. The Khanty, Mansi, and some Tatar uluses expressed their willingness to accept Russian citizenship. The vast territory of the Lower Ob and Irtysh regions became part of the Russian state.
Yermak Timofeyevich died on August 6, 1585. He went along the Irtysh with a small team of 50 men. During an overnight stay on the shore at the mouth of the Vagai River, Kuchum attacked the sleeping Cossacks and killed almost the entire squad. According to the witnesses of the events, the ataman drowned in the Irtysh, trying to swim to the strugas in heavy chainmail. Yermak was possibly wounded with an arrow.
The portrait of ataman Yermak displayed in the museum is made by an unknown painter in a Western (“fryazhsky”) manner. This was the name of the style formed in icon painting in the 17th一18th centuries. It was characterized by realistic images of people and the world. In 1992, the portrait was renovated in the Irkutsk workshop of Svetlana Tyutikova.
