SIBERIA

BY

ANDHRA RESEARCH UNIVERSITY is one of the significant modern institutions of national and international education established in India. It is under the auspices of the Nobility and Aristocracy, with Maharajahs and Rajahs as its sponsors, and differs in its scope from the many universities controlled or subsidized by the Government.

It is organized as a non-profit institution, its Professorship and Lectureship being undertaken in a spirit of self-dedication and pure altruism, for the benefit of adults devoting themselves to post-graduate research and creative scholarship rather than to merely technical or professional training .

The University, accordingly, awards its Master's and Doctor's degrees, and other diplomas in recognition of adequate studies and after acceptance of theses in different fields of exposition.

These distinctions are considered as high and honorable recognition for virtue of learning and service in the advancement of knowledge and are not designed to promote any merely economic advantage on the part of the recipients in India or elsewhere.

Andhra Research University has a two-fold purpose. In the national field it stands for the promotion and interpretation of the ancient and modern culture of India primarily through the medium of the Indian languages. In the International field, it seeks contact and collaboration of eminent scholars and scientists, academies and unversities, by the exchange of cultural data and authentic cultural interpretation between East and West.

Its object is the revival of the famous Upanishadic type of University which was a glory of Ancient India—a seat of learning international in its scope, spiritual in its character, based on the faith that man should acquire knowledge in order to be able to manifest the Divine Light and Energy in him for the good of Humanity.

B. seshagibi rao
Provost.
A. subyanabayanamubty,
Registrar.

INTRODUCTION

This is the age of enlightened internationalism. In spite of mluch chaos and conflict, the world nevertheless is moving towards a spiritual rapprochement, and it is obvious that the major work in this behalf must be done by the thinkers and scholars. As H. G. Wells said; "All intellectual men belong to the same state."-

India, which Max Muller: called the cradle of civilization, is doing her part in this great international cultural renaissance. In the East and West alike, a supreme task is the consolidation of goodwill among nations, based upon knowledge and true culture.

It gives us sincere pleasure to present the lecture on "S i b e r i a" by Dr. George Grebenstchikoft, universally recognized author, professor of Russian History and Literature at Florida Southern College and Fellow of the International Faculty, at this particular moment, when interest toward Russia is growing hourly all over the world.

Perhaps it will be appropriate to mention that since XVIII century the United States of America and Russia have been living in constant, real and sincere friendship, and during all this time not once has a cloud hovered to darken their friendly and cultural relations. Even Alaska did not serve as an object of dispute or struggle but quite to the contrary it became a golden link that connected these two great countries.

The people of America will never forget that the Russian Empress Catherine II joined the so-called "League of Neutral Powers", which event contributed to overcome the obstinacy of King George III and of British statesmen and forced them to recognize the independence of the United States.

The people of America will not forget either that Emperor Alexander I saved its trade when, defying Napoleon's wrath, he refused to adopt restrictive measures against American ships visiting the ports of the Baltic Sea.

But the greatest merit of the dynasty of Romanoff as regards our Republic was achieved by the Emperor Alexander II at the most critical moment of our history, when the French Emperor was applying all his efforts to persuade the British Government to back the Southern slave States. Emperor Alexander, the Liberator of the Russian peasants, took decidedly the part of the Northern States- the Russian ambassadors in Paris and London were ordered to declare categorically that Russia would be opposed to any tentative division of the North American Union.

At the same time the Russian Fleet was sent to New York and a squadron to San Francisco.

The meaning of this is that the Russian Czar had manifested his firm intention to enter into war to maintain the integrity of the Union. There is no doubt that this step of the Czar averted a great danger threatening the United States, and gave much moral support to the cause of the Union; it put life and strength into the people of the North. Every one felt that America had a friend in Russia.

Such were the relations for the past century and a half of frienship. We hope for the benefit of the world and suffering humanity they will become closer and more intimate in the future.

Once again the victorious armies of the United States of America and Russia are allied for the same cause, American and Russian soldiers-brothers in Arms. Like heroes of ancient Greece, falling on the field of honor, they leave the message:

"Stranger! Tell to the people of the world, that we die in all parts of the globe, true to the laws of God and our Fatherland."

woldemab baron DE babkow, ph.d,, LL.D., F.S.D., litt.d.

FOREWORD

The Russians themselves call Siberia only a portion of their Asiatic possessions. These possessions are geographically subdivided into Western and Eastern Siberia, Yakutia, Kamchatka, the Amur Region, the Steppes or Kirghizia, and Turkestan. Each of these large geographic units is characterized by certain topographical features, climate, flora, fauna, population, and by the historical past. However, in conformity with the tradition of the English speaking countries the geographical term "Siberia" is used in the present work to denote Asiatic Russia as a whole.

Siberia is an extremely interesting country from the point of view of geography, economics, history, archeology, anthropology, and political science. Siberia is fabulously rich in such boreal animals as the s able, the arctic fox and other fox species, the otter, the fur-seal, and the ermine. There are also copious agricultural products. Here abound various grains, especially wheat, rye, and oats. Turkestan produces cotton and fruits, and Western Siberia has meat, butter, and hides. Thus Siberia is a vast commissary for many other countries besides Russia. It is a well-known fact that before the present war England purchased all of her butter and eggs from Siberia. Agriculture is rapidly developing and may be able to satisfy the world-market demands of the future.

Siberian archaeology is interesting and important in the tracing of the origins, migrations, and culture diffusion of many ancient peoples. Siberian archaeological finds have great antiquity, the culture here dating to the Mousterian Period or 100,000 B.C. The famous American anthropologist A. Hardlick and others made a special trip to Siberia to study the Neanderthal Man recently found there. Southern Siberia has many Bronze Age sites, a quite advanced Bronze civilization having flourished in the Altai Region. An American Archaeological Expedition headed by R. Pumpelly discovered an ancient civilization at Anau, Turkestan, the beginning of which dates back to 8000 B.C. According to recent archaeological discoveries Turkestan was the cradle of the Aryan or Indo—European peoples. Here they lived until about 2000 B.C. and then migrated to India, Iran, and to Europe. Many other ancient peoples lived in or migrated through Siberia, such as the Scythians in 800 B.C. and the Sarmatians from 300 to 200 B.C. Turkestan and the central Asiatic portion of Siberia was a center from which as from a beehive many peoples swarmed out, invading Europe and other countries. In a long succession came the Huns, the Avars, the Magyars, the Bulgars, the Khozars, the Pechenegs, the Polovtsi or Cumans, the Mongols, and the Kalmucks. The Turks also came from Siberia, their native land being the Altai Region from which first came the Seljuk Turks in the tenth century and then in the fourteenth century the Osmanli Turks who founded the Ottoman Empire. The upper Ussury was the territory of the ancient Bohai and the southern part of Eastern Siberia consequently belonged to the Hiung-nu (c. 200 B.C. to the sixth century A.D.), the Tukiue (546-744), the Uighurs (744 to the thirteenth century), the Khitans (the ninth to the thirteenth centuries) after whom the Russians called China "Kitai," and to the Mongol conquerors of the thirteenth century. The native country of Genghis Khan was in the Siberian province of Transbaikalia.

Southern Siberia and Turkestan are the habitat of several domestic plants and animals. Some important basic culture inventions were made there in the Neolithic Period and thence diffused. The peoples of Siberia and Turkestan acted as the transmitters of metallurgy, cattle, especially the horse, grain, and other important culture traits and complexes. Siberia, therefore, has always been the country where the East meets the West. In the near future it will no doubt be the base from which Russia will establish commercial contact and close cultural cooperation with all of the neighboring countries, and especially with the United States.

Ivan A. Lopatin, ph.d. University of Southern California

Russia, which has always been the active link between Asia and Europe, and which, herself, has the right to be called Eurasia, is one of the greatest stages for the re-establishment of the universal scenery in the nearest future. Particularly is this true concerning Asiatic Russia, that is, Siberia.

Now, when the United States of America has just accomplished the building of a highway acros Canada to Alaska, Americans should become aware of the tact that the Asiatic continent of Russia is the nearest port to America. Just consult the map, and calculate the distance between those two small Diomede islands in the Bering Sea, and you will realize that Russia and America are separated by the space of only two miles.

More than that. When you have became aware of the fact that the population of Siberia, between the first and second World Wars increased from fifteen to ninety millions, you might even be frightened by that magic development of Asiatic Russia in spite of, or because of, the last destructive decade.

Is it not the moment to study some of the pages of history of that unlimited and unknown country comprising, in its area, a territory twice as large as that of the United States and enjoying all the climates of the globe? This great and virgin continent geographically appears as the area for the development of the great dramatic events of the world's history, and historically as the intercessor for the turbulent avakening of all Asia.

It would not be practical and convincing to make a prediction of the future without a reasonable and unprejudiced review of the past. The reader may gain in the following pages some insight concerning the inevitable and logically clear events to transpire in the nearest future, which carry with them imports of universal significance.

A noble and daring task is set before us: not only to study the history of Siberia, but to outline the possibilities, and to begin the building of the future. And if, with faith, we send forth the wish that a hundred years hence in the Far North, somewhere beyond the Arctic region, temples and palaces of yet unknown architecture be build, they certainly will be constructed. Because the seed of thought cast about by us will, in a hundred years or even less, grow and blossom into a beautiful garden. And, as a hundred years in eternity is only an instant, so that which we wish is already built, and we are separated from it only by that instant of a score of years. Man's immortality itself becomes irrefutable when we know that what we are now building in thought will only begin to materialize in a hundred years. Were not all the modern mechanical wonders we now see in America and throughout the world, once also thoughts? Does there not live with us the spirit of those men whose creative ideas are now embodied in life?

Therefore we can boldly say that from the moment in which we have conceived the dream of Siberia's future, by that thought we are starting the building of a new country and of a new culture for the men who are yet unborn, but who will take our places just as tomorrow will occupy the place of today. And do we not come into contact through our thoughts with the hosts of future generations waiting for their time in the Cosmos, who will be, our flesh and blood? And is it not the greatest of the great mysteries and joys to be able to begin now to live and work for these future kindred generations, and by that secure for them, not the terrible inheritance of after-war destruction, a thirst for vengeance and an international hatred, but instead the dream of building a new, beautiful, yet unknown, future life which they, themselves will strengthen and perfect? It is still better and more joyful to do this without expecting any gratitude, but feeling thankful to our forefathers, who in spite of the hardships of their time, have prepared tor us our life, and have sown the thoughts which ilumine our creative power.

But, of course, before beginning any kind of building, one should first examine the soil and dig deeply into the ground to lay the foundation. Also in order to understand a new country one should first love it; and to love it, one should learn to know not only its present, but also its remote past, because only in learning to know it, can one understand how to prepare and broaden the way to the future.

Not long ago, comparatively speaking, Siberia was a country entirely unknown, an unexplored, deserted plain of Central Asia. Looking far into the mist of past centuries we do not find even the name Siberia. On examining all the collected data of archeology* we see that Siberia had no ancient civilization, no large cities, stone temples, nor signs of settled life of a definite race. All the monuments of the past indicate that the nomad camps and towns scattered on the blossoming plains of the country, and inhabited by the numerous peoples of the "In the Museum of Siberia in the city of Minusinsk, province of Tomsk, founded by N. N. Martianov. Eeast, South, and North, were of a temporary nature. In the drift of time they must have dispersed in all directions like flocks of migratory birds or like the dry grass of Siberia called "rolling stone".

Neither in the days of early Christianity nor before, does history know of any other civilizations in the East, than those of ancient China, India, and the countries bordering the Caspian Sea. Only at times, like a thunderbolt, there flashed forth the glory of such conquerors as Attila, Chenghiz-Khan, Batiy, and Mamay, as well as Tamerlane, but even their all-wrecking hordes swept across the wilderness of the plains like tornadoes, and vanished, leaving no visible life behind. Again for centuries the limitless expanse of Siberia showed no signs of any kind of constructive development or of any one people settling for a long term. No traces are found even of the persevering and far-sighted Vikings, who, in times long before Christ was born, sailed the seas, and supplied all the sovereigns of the globe with ship-builders and navigators. The Vikings or Varangians were the first to come and settle on the European continent. The Vikings formed the war-like Germany; the Vikings taught commercial navigation to the English; and the Vikings bridled the restless tribes of the Slavs and, organized the first government of Russia. The gray-blue foaming waves of the "Varangian Sea", were, at one time, the school through which went the navigators who discovered America. And these same Vikings or Varangians, their blood mixed with that of the Novgorod Slavs, were the first to go into Siberia, laying the corner-stone of its conquest by Russia.

As we listen attentively to the hardly audible rustle of the remote past, we involuntarily discern in it the roaring of the breakers and the pealing octave in the song of the "Varangian Guest"" in Riinsky-Korsakoffs opera, "Sadko":

"Shields of iron, sharp arrows have the Varangians..."

And the song of the "Indian Guest" in the same opera seems to attract and smile upon the Varangians like a dream set in pearls:

"Countless are the diamonds in the stone caves where India's wonders are gathered...".

Thus through the roar of historical storms, to the continuous music of the dulcimer played by the legendary Sadko, the Varangian Vikings and the guests from Novgorod sailed forth in their strugy* across the seas and along rivers toward the diamonds of India, the beavers and the sables of the East-North, the gold and the silver of Altai, and the eternal source of spiritual exaltation of the Far East. For, although the Vikings depended upon their sea gods to aid them through storms and stress, they, nevertheless, were attracted by the spiritual radiance of the sages of the East.

Yet, the progress of the centuries was slow and confused. The immense pagan empire, Russia, was being forged in the North of Europe at the same time that Asia was producing a series of whirling hordes of conquerors who, at times, tumbled off the unknown heights of Pamir and Altai into the plains of the West, crushing and wrecking all that stood in their way. Those who remained from such avalanches settled like islands upon the continent of Europe, and partly mixed with the northern tribes who, in turn, may also have come from the heights of Asia. But the great majority of them, having left behind the wilderness of Altai and Tarbagatay, settled on the other side of the Ural mountains and in the plains of the Volga River. It is from that time that the Scyths began to disappear and Russia was subjected to the Nogays, the Bashkirs, and the Tartars.

It may be difficult to believe, but it is a fact, that although Russia had been subjected many times and for whole centuries

* Sort of large barge.

to various hordes, yet she did not blend with any of them. And still more surprising is to learn that the Khans of the Golden Horde were tolerantly inclined towards Christianity. Not only did the Khans give letters of inviolability to Russian appanaged princes who continually fought among themselves arid came to the Horde with their petitions, but they also gave such letters' to Christian monasteries and established, by their power, the judicial right to existence of the bishops and metropolitans.

The trips of the Russian princes to the Khans were usually taken with the advice and benediction of the Russian priests and bishops who invariably tried to avoid bloodshed, recommending to the princes not to fight among themselves, not to provoke the savage Tartars, and in every way to show genuine submission to the Khans until the hour of liberation should come.

More than two centuries elapsed before the hour of freedom struck. The Prince Dimitry, called Donskoy, who had been twice set up by the Khan Murat as Suzerain Prince of Moscow, seeing the merciless way in which the Tartars oppressed and ruined the Russians, destroyed their churches, and carried away prettiest Russian girls and women, went to the monastery to ask the saintly hermit-monk Sergius what to do. The hermit, who had secluded himself at a short distance from the little Moscow of those days, and who shunned the world's affairs, listened to the prince with meekness, and said: "One should have patience to the end, give to the Khan everything possible and beg him for mercy."

"I have already done so," replied the Suzerain Prince.

The recluse turned to God, and after a few moments of silent prayer replied:

"If that is so, then go against the foe and thou wilt win." and he blessed Dimitry .*

*The Life of St. Sergius by Archimandrite Nikon.

On the eighth day of September, thirteen eighty, Dimitry, with a great sacrifice of his army, defeated the numerous forces of Mamay, and this victory marked the beginning of Russia's liberation from the Tartars and Mongols.

This historical moment can be considered as the starting point of Russian colonization of Siberia. During the years when the princes were going to pay their respects to the Khans they were often accompanied by several drujhinas* who, while on the way, hunted sables and beavers, and investigated the wealth of the countries they crossed. Also the retreating Tartars had carried away with them, beyond the Ural mountains, many Russian prisoners of whom some escaped, hiding in the dense forests of Siberia, and building hermitages. And Russia, encouraged by her victory, slowly but surely followed the Tartars and, attracted by the natural wealth of the country, penetrated further and further into Siberia.

Meanwhile the Varangians from Great Novgorod and the Russian Pomors**, sailing their light boats, reached through the "Cold Sea" the mouths of the rivers Ob and Yenisei by the same route that was established six hundred years later by the modern Norvegian Viking, Fridtjof Nansen, and began a barter in furs with the Ostiaky and Samoyedy, having thus already in the thirteenth century, in an economical sense, conquered all the north of Siberia. And in the second part of the fourteenth century, that is in the time of St. Sergius, namely in thirteen hundred nad sixty-four, according to the chronicle; "The people of Novgorod warred up the river Ob and down to the Sea, and levied a tribute from the Voguly." A little later (thirteen hundred and sixty-seven) Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich went with his drujhina to visit, or rather to pay his respects to, the

Khan of the Golden Horde at Karakurum, across all Siberia, beyond the Altai ridge, and his men heard about "people walking under the ground in the mountains", i. e. working silver and gold mines in the Altai region. It was also then that Yaroslav

saw for the first time on a drawn map a city by the name of Siberia.

However, judging by ancient maps, drawn by educated foreigners, Siberia as a country, even under another name, did not exist at that time. China on these maps was usually indicated as beginning immediately beyond the Urals. Only at the end of the fifteenth century did there appear the first map, drawn in England, upon which was shown the "Great Tartaria". This Great Tartaria became afterwards our Siberia. As we shall see later, Siberia derived its name from a small Tartar tribe, Chibir, situated not far from the place now occupied by the city of Tobolsk. The tribe itself was named for Chibir Khanum, a beautiful and legendary wife of the Kahn. Also in the chronicle

of fourteen hundred and seven, it is recorded that; "Tokhtamish was killed in the Siberian land".*

Soon afterwards Russian hermits came to Zakamenie (Land beyond Urals) searching, like St. Sergius Radonejsky, for remote isolated spots on which to build their hermitages, and many of them died the death of martyrs at the hands of ignorant tribes. Thus, in the chronicle of fourteen hundred and fifty-five we read that "The Vogul prince Asika killed Pitirim, the bishop of Perm, in the town of Ust-Vime"** (The establishment in the Urals of a Russian episcopate indicates that there was already a whole network of Russian churches and monasteries.)

The murder of a Russian bishop served as a stimulating spur for the organization of military expeditions to chastise the

' Tokhtamish was the last Khan who held Russia in subjection. °° Professor S. M. Seredonin, "Asiatic Russia".

infidel Voguls and Ugrians. However, owing to the conditions of that time, when expeditions were made on skis, on Eskimo sledges and on foot, and when the distance from Moscow to the land of the Ugrins was about four thousend miles, it took one such an expedition ten years to reach its destination (146)*. The expedition was successful, and the Russians returned with their halberds and the staffs of their banners decorated with sables and martens**. Such military expeditions were repeated, spreading the Russian possessions in the north of the Urals, and adding many new names to the title of the Russian Czar. Thus, at the end of the fifteenth century, the "Great Hosudar" of Moscow, besides many other titles, had also those of "Permsky" and "Obdorsky".

Meanwhile the Pomors, acting upon their own initiative, opened a permanent way from Archangelsk to the bay of Ob, and from there reached the gulf of Taza, and went up the Taza river to its source from where, after dragging their boats across dry land, they reached the upper part of the river Turukhan, and levied tribute on the Tungus, Samoyedy, Makasei, and other tribes of northern Siberia- It would be appropriate to remark here that following the tracks of the Pomors, Norvegian, English and Dutch navigators sailed the Arctic ocean to the mouths of Ob and Yenisei, but as their boats were much larger and heavier, they could not keep pace with the Pomors. The latter kept close to the shore and often, without doubling the Yalmal peninsula, they crossed it by the river Mutnaya, passing from its source into the source of the river Zelenaya, while the English and Norvegian navigators, doubling Yalmal, were caught by the icebergs, and often returned or perished together with thier ships.

* Note that it was twenty-seven years later that Columbus came for the first time to the shores of America.

°° P. A. Slovzov; "Historical Survey of Siberia.''

Furthermore, the valuable fur-bearing animals in retreating before the Russian hunters, led them deeper and deeper into the northeastern region of Zakamenie. At the same time these vagrant volunteer drujhinas were acquiring more and more zest for the new lands, and pursuing the game, they fell into the practice of conquering peaceful tribes whom, upon their own authority, they forced to swear allegiance to the Great Suzerain of Moscow, and more often than not, they remained there as local princes or rulers.

On the whole, surveying the past of Russia with impartial eyes, we can now see that the country was built and gathered up, not so much by the princes and the Czars, as by the people themselves, who had understood at the opportune time all the benefits derived from national unity and development.

The famous salt-makers, the merchants Stroganovs, had reached the upper part of the river Kama by the same way as many "volunteer-voevodas"*. At the head of similar plunderers, seeking easy gain at the expense of the over-credulous Petchors of Zirians, the Stroganovs took possession of a whole region and could also have appointed themselves reigning princes. But having organized a State in a State, they presented it to the Czar, thus securing for themselves a well protected rear, as well as sanctioning their plundering, and outlawry by giving it the character of valor and service of the Czar.

In the State Archives of that time there has been preserved a petition from the merchants Stroganovs**, who having discovered silver ore along the river Sosvey and iron in the upper part of the river Tura, begged the Czar Ivan the Terrible: "to grant us the rivers Tura, Lozva, Tavda, and Tobol as a patrimonial

* A voevoda was a governor of a province. ** "Asiatic Russia".

estate". A rather high handed request to be presented with the whole future kingdom of Siberia!

Looking back upon these truly fantastic dimensions of the merchants' holdings one is involuntarily amazed by the daring and vision of these men, and by that system of peaceful, almost bloodless conquest of the country in which they lived and worked, surrounded entirely by unfriendly peoples Besides, this was the time when Russia was suffering from the heavy hand of the "opritchina"" and from brutal executions, and when the Czar fought relentlessly against treason within and outside of Russia.

Ivan the Terrible could have been named "the most sensitive conscience" of his century, and the embodied thirst for justice. He was the most conscientious and best educated man of his epoch: his library consisted of thousands of volumes, and was known as the most valuable library of the world, containing collections of the rarest books and manuscripts.

But this sovereign, who in the beginning of his reign was full of unlimited faith in good, soon discovered all the ignorance surrounding him, all the criminal corruption, treason and moral laxity. At first, he fought it only with kindness, but becoming convinced that kindness tends to make men still worse, he exactly reversed his method and had recourse to the most harsh measures to fight evil. Yet, as he was a profoundly religious man with an extremely sensitive conscience, he suffered, intolerably for his cruelty and that hardened him still more. The legends about his harshness and his piety spread far beyond the boundaries of the Moscow czardom; not only governors and appanaged princes trembled at the mention of his name, but even the Khans of the Golden Horde were afraid of him, and

"Opritchina"—a body of guards of the Czar Ivan the Terrible, who had unlimited power over the population.

the rulers and kings of Europe tried many a time to plot against his life.

In campaigns Ivan always led his troops himself. In the year fifteen hundred and fifty-two he took Kazan, the impregnable capitol of the still redoubtable Tartars; four years later he conquered all the expanse of the Volga down to the Caspian sea, and the great city Astrakhan, the stronghold of the invincible Kalmiks, descendants of Oyrot, who, three hundred years earlier, came there with Chenghiz Khan from the Altai mountains. From that moment the name of Ivan the Terrible swept across the world like a fire-ball, and was whispered about as a menacing terror, although everybody knew that, dressed in a peasant coat, the Czar continued to visit the villages to learn how his people lived. He was kind to the mujhiks, and, in fact, he was often godfather to their children.

How then, could, all these who had wilfully deserted his troops, or who were guilty of outlawry and plundering, hide from such a Czar, and whence could they go? They all knew that no confession, no petition whatever, could gain their pardon from Ivan who punished cruelly treason and injustice.

The chief of a free Cossack drujhina, Vassily Timofeivitch Ermak, knew this only too well. He was the son of an exiled boyar**, Olenin, nicknamed Povoljhsky, who lived at the mouth of the river Kama with almost no means of livelihood.

Russian history has always covered with a cloak of valor and national heroism the true features of the audacious bandit-leader Ermak, and we can only guess the grim tragedy which drove five hundred and forty picked desperadoes to unite under his leadership for an expedition across the Ural to escape from the ever vigilant and punitive eye of Ivan the Terrible.

* Peasants. ** Nobles.

History never solved the question relative to the condition under which the agreement was made between Ermak and the merchants Stroganovs concerning the campaign into Siberia. But, perhaps, the Russian history of today has taught us to understand how the merchants felt, although they had their own troops, when they were confronted with the bandit drujhina of five hundred and forty well matched dare-devils who had nothing to lose but their heads. To maintain such an army in which everyone was his own master, and therefore could not be down-trodden as a slave, meant complete ruin for the merchants. Moreover, who could have guaranteed that many of the Stroganovs' subjected and maltreated slaves would not pass to the side of Ermak? Besides, how could the merchants, who considered themselves servants of the Czar, have overtly concealed five hundred and forty state criminals? That spelt rebellion against the Czar. On the other hand it was unthinkable to chase away such a band who expected the influential Stroganovs at least to intercede for them before the Czar. Therefore it might well be that the far-seeing and clever merchant? prompted Ermak to go after gold or some other gain to the Siberian Khans. By this plan they saw a means of getting rid of tha troublesome and all-devouring drujhina. Also they well understood that Ermak and his men would be a good scarecrow for the Bashkirs, Nogays, and Voguls, who interfered with their trade. And last, but not least, they expected, in case of a successful expedition, to assign to themselves all the credit for the conquest of Siberia. They gave Ermak a whole flotilla, supplied him with provisions to last for a year, and added three hundred warriors from those of their servants who were useless or trouble-makers.

We can now understand that by no showy patriotic enthusiasm was the army of Ermak propelled toward the distant source of the Kama river, pushing with difficulty upstream, in September, when the Urals were beginning to be covered with snow; but that a. tragic necessity hastened him to reach, as quickly as possible, the canyon of the river Chusovaya, and disappear in the mountanious wilds of the Urals.

In this campaign, begun on September 1, 1581, under the colors of George the Victorious, Ermak was fulfilling a mission foreordained by fate and the history of Russia, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that thereafter Ermak decided to achieve his exploits prompted more by duty than fear. The banner of Ermak, which has been. preserved indicates that he undertook his campaign to Siberia no more as a bandit or highwayman, but as a soldier. How difficult was the expedition can be judged from the fact that for two years, continually repelling and fighting countless tribes, Ermak advanced to the headquarters of the Khan Kuchum, and the city Isker, or Siberia, was taken only on the twenty-fifth of October, 1583, i.e. twenty-six months after he had left the domain of the Stroganovs.

During these two years of continual warfare, Ermak sent a messenger to Ivan the Terrible only after the fall of Isker, when the Czar had heard repeatedly about his exploits, and was ready to send him reinforcements. Unfortunately, the Czar had no man who could equal Ermak in leadership, and it was only the remnant of an army that reached Siberia, so that its help was of no avail. Moreover, the best warriors of Ermak were either killed, or had perished from disease, cold, and hunger, and the famous chief found himself again surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Ermak drank his cup to the dregs; many were the battles and the privations during the two years of his Siberian expedition, yet he had always been victorious. But now came the day when, at the end of an unsuccessful skirmish at the river Irtish, Ermak, seeing all his men dead around him, and knowing what was in store for him at Kuchum's camp, decided not to give himself up alive into the hands of the enemy. So, having fired the last shot with his halberg*, Ermak threw himself

in full armor into the river. But he could not swim across it.

His coat of mail and his munitions were too heavy, and Ermak

Timofeivitch was forever buried under the turbulent waves of the Siberian river.

Yet a short-lived triumph,.was that of the Siberian Khan over Ermak and his army, for suddenly new reinforcements came from Moscow, this time so strong that Ermak's victories and sacrifices were definitely established. But the far-reaching results of these victories were gained not so much by mere force as by bitter experience and the skill of the Russian Czar and his people and Ambassadors in handling 'the peaceful population. Great honors were conferred upon the Khans who made submission to the Czar, and they were taken with pomp to Moscow for a visit, where attention and presents were showered upon them, and they were accompanied to their respective khanates by entire detachments. In such cases the Russians would endeavor to find out by and by the rules and regulations of the government, would pay long visits to the khans, would levy under-cover tribute from them, and by their bright costumes and generous presents to the servants of the khans would completely dazzle the half-savage tribes in whose minds the grandeur of the invincible White Czar rose to greater* and greater heights.

Meanwhile the White Czar was shifting his frontiers further and further into the expanses of Siberia.

Until the end of his days Ivan the Terrible avoided fighting with Siberia. And he transmitted this policy of friendly

relations with the Siberian khans to his son, Feodor Ivanovitch, who, with the aid of Boris Godunov, not only strengthened these relations, but also regularized the administration of Siberia. He also had many churches built. Before becoming Czar, and during his reign, Boris Godunov was farsighted enough to pass several laws for Siberia, to establish a control over the viceroys, to organize a stage service, to diminish the amount of tribute from the peoples of Siberia, and to institute several new provinces and the episcopate of Tobolsk. As these wise provisions made it possible for new cities to be built in Siberia, so already in 1585 was built Tumen, in 1587 Tobolsk, in 1593 Beresov and Surgut, in 1594 Tara, in 1596 Narim, in 1600 Turinsk, and Mangazea in the Turukhan regions.

The short reign of Godunov was the wisest and the most beneficial for the expansion and the establishment of Russia's rights over Siberian lands; yet his innovations were not devoid of tragedy. One of the most poignant was due to the refusal of the government clerks, the Cossacks, and the soldiers to remain in Siberia for a long time because there were no women.

To satisfy this lack, Boris Godunov introduced a women's recruitment.

Hundreds of the prettiest, healthiest girls and young widows were picked out, torn away from their homes, and, like slaves under convoy, forced to go to the distant, gloomy, cold Siberia where they were quickly snatched away by the soldiers. Thus, the first Russian women came to Siberia across rivers made by their tears, to build a new hearth of Russian life. Sometimes battles were fought between detachments for the possession of one woman, and many were the tragedies when women were driven away by force to serve as a decoy for an inimical governor or as a precious gift for a brave conqueror.

But right or wrong the Russians were rapidly populating Siberia, advancing along river valleys further and further to the north, to the east, and to the south. At that time there were no established ways of communication except waterways and paths or trails made by wild animals; yet, the Russians not only managed to communrcate with one another, but also traded in furs, precious metals and necessities of life.

The conditions of life in the new country forced these pioneers to become keen-eyed, resourceful and exceptionally energetic. Beside the northern route into Siberia along Petchora and Shugor there existed one more way—the one that Ermak took, across the Urals. But, in 1598, boyarin Artemy Babikov discovered a third way, still more to the south, across Verkh-oturie. From that time the flow of the Russians to Siberia increased still more. In the limitless forests of the new land the Russian axe was heard, building up new villages and towns;

Russian telegas* squeaked along the heretofore untilled steppes, and furrows of ploughed fields grew more and more numerous. And as though at the wave of a magic wand, almost simultaneously in places remote, one from the other, shone forth in the sunlight the crosses of Russian churches and still more quickly rose up new towns spreading far into the northeast.

In 1604 Tomsk was founded as the outpost which immediately entered into friendly relations with the then powerful peoples of Altai—the Jhungars, Kalmiks, and Kirghiz.

Just then began in Russia the Troubled Period, and although it was only twenty-five years since the foundation of the first Siberian city, Russia looked upon Siberia as upon her bulwark, her hope, as her reserve whereto she could retire in case of necessity. The short-lived rulers of the Troubled Period sent letters, asking the Siberian governors for help or demanding subordination, and the reinforcement of the state treasury by sending

pelts, thus offering another proof that Siberia must have had a large Russian population, which, in itself, constituted a strong unit, as a province of the Russian empire. Also, in 1613, at the ascension to the throne of Michail Romanov, according to the historian Slovzov, "...during three days all Siberia sang thanksgiving in all the churches with the chime of the bells...". Thus, again is confirmed the surmise that the life of the Russians in Siberia was stable and firm.

Some thirty-five years passed, and the Russians were already at the banks of the river Anadir, on the shores of the Arctic ocean, and at the banks of the river Amur. How right is professor Seredonin* when he says that, in order to conquer similar expanses Alexander the Great, Chenghiz-Khan, and Batiy would have needed armies of a hundred thousand men, but for the Russians, a hundred men were enough, because, in this case, the people, who, although levied tributes from individual tribes, yet carried forth the idea of great national unity and peaceful development. Also private and trade capital participated in the majority of the expeditions or detachments going to conquer new territory. Merchants of Moscow and Siberia at their own expense equipped entire caravans, clothed and fed an army, and built ships as well as temporary settlements. Of course, on conquering some tribes and adding new lands to the Russian possession, these men recovered their expenses with a nice profit, thus extending their business, and trading with the natives.

Yet many of them lost, in such enterprises, not only all their capital, but their lives as well. Not to mention that a small detachment would often strike some wilderness or deserted place where no food could be found. Now and then some members of the expeditions would catch small-pox in some of the Tunghus tents, or would be carried off on ice cakes. Others

again would perish in the wreck of the primitive, frail barges and boats in which these dare-devils undertook to sail from the mouth of the Ob River to the beginning of the Bering straits, as did the Cossack Dejhnev, for example. Sometimes the expeditions were attacked by hordes of the war-like Chukchy or Kamchadals, or devoured by the wild animals of some deserted island upon which the bold explorers of the new lands would come unexpectedly. There were many real Russian Robinson Crusoes who lived for years in unknown deserted lands, in much more difficult conditions than did Defoe's Robinson Crusoe who lived in a warm climate. Among others, there were four Pomors—two brothers, Himkovs, S. Sharapov, and F. Verigin— who in 1743 landed on the shore of Spitzbergen, when suddenly their boat was carried off by a movement of the ice, and they were left on a deserted island with provisions for only a few days, with one gun and twelve cartridges, one knife, one axe, one flint, and one kettle to cook food. Thus, without any hopes of rescue, without any means for hunting, they fought a desperate fight for self-preservation, and succeeded in spending six years on that island. They made a bow out of the root of a fir tree, arrows from fish bones, and a cord from the sinews of a white bear killed in a hand-to-hand fight. Gradually they settled into a half animal life; yet during all these years only one of them, Verigin, became sick of the scurvy, and died a short

time before the others were rescued by a Russian boat.*

Beside the famous Russian travellers, after whom northern lands and islands have been named, as for instance, Bering, Cheluskin, Dejhnev, Panchistchev and his wife and many others, the history of the struggle of the Russian men with nature and the elements mentions a number of other glorious names; yet a great many of them have remained unknown.

It was about that time that Russia experienced another break, although it was of a religious rather then a political character, when the liberal Patriarch Nikon gave order to revise and correct the old church books. The fierce antagonist of Nikon, a famous archpriest, Avvacum, was the first political exile to the remote Dauria region, in the northeastern region of Siberia.

This exile, and the journey of the Old Believers' archpriest on foot, in peasant cart, and on boat, a journey which lasted several years, has left a deep impression in the history of Russia and Siberia. Beside the fact that the archpriest Avvacum— later brought back to Russia and burned alive—had left the most literary description of his voyage to Siberia, his exile served as a signal for all his followers. Old Believers, who disagreed with Nikon. From that time there started a mass-

* Although against his will, there was a tragic civil war between the New and the Old Believers.

migration into Dauria, Transbaikalia, Altai, and other unpopulated corners of Siberia, of firm, pious Russian Christians, mostly farmers, cattle-breeders, and keepers of bees, who brought with them the old Russian way of life, the purity of the Russian language, the architecture, and a peculiar national art.

After the hard epoch of Nikon's religious innovations followed a still harder period of Peter the Great's reforms.

Despite the peaceful reign of his father, Peter, the youngest son of Czar Alexei, had, from chidhood, seen all the injustice and treason that surrounded the Czar's court. But falconry, a love of open spaces, and the exceptional physical strength and stature of the Prince had awakened in him a thirst and curiosity to learn first what was beyond the walls of the palace and then beyond the frontiers of the czardom. Beyond the walls of the palace he saw and learned to love the common people, and beyond the confines of the czardom, another, better order of things, and a love for work and progress. Having grown fond in early youth of all kinds of handicrafts, Peter made the court artisans teach him their trades, and astonished his German teachers by his knowledge of forging and carpentry. Although born and brought up in Moscow, a town which had only a slow, muddy river, Peter, by some intuition, knew and loved the tempestuous expanse of the sea and the art of shipbuilding.

The religious persecutions and fanaticism of his early days prompted Peter to issue among his first decrees one on religious tolerance: "We do not want to constrain anybody's conscience, and are willing to allow everyone to take care of his own salvation." Certainly such an ukaze could not meet with the approval of the clergy and the majority of the boyars. Taking advantage of this attitude, his sister Sophia, the former Regent, whom Peter had deposed, incited the army against her brother, and brought about the famous rebellion of the 'streltzi" which, however, was crushed by Peter at its very beginning, with merciless cruelty."

The rumor spread among the people that an infidel, an anti-Christ, had ascended the throne, and that the Czar was selling Russia to the Germans. In fact the reforms of Peter the Great were in a way a revolution coming from above and involving many victims and sacrifices.

Surveying the situation with the eye of a statesman, Peter saw how ignorant, lazy, torpid, and poor the Russians were. At the same time, he realized the necessity of a war with the Swedes who were crowding Russia from the north, and could deprive her of an outlet to the sea, and to the only bay there was—the Gulf of Finland, or even to the Lake of Ladoga. When preparing for war, Peter did not find among the Russians a sufficient number of experienced army commanders, and often he presided himself in the township and district commissions during the recruiting. Although he saw all the poverty and ignorance of the people, Peter, on the other hand, also realized the lavishness and luxury of the boyars' and governors' lives. Personally content with very little,'wearing a patched coat and economizing with every cent, Peter began in 1703 to build St. Petersburg, challenging by it the Swedes, as well as cutting through a window into Europe. At the same time Peter saw where most of the wealth went, namely the expensive furs brought as revenue in kind from Siberia—the only colony upon which the treasury of the Czars of Moscow could lean. It was a custom for the boyars to wear long-lapped sable coats, trimmed with the best matched beavers, martens, and squirels. In order to rival the others a boyar had a new fur coat each time he came to court, and even impencunious governors or commanders of the streltzi never had less than ten such

* The execution of the streltzi has been portrayed on the famous picture by the Siberian painter, Surikov.

coats. Of course, with such use of furs only tliose of poor quality would remain for the treasury and the trade,

In other branches of the state affairs, the situation was the

same, and the thrifty Czar—builder was exasperated. He issued a decree ordering the boyars and officials to exchange the long coat for a short one.* This, of course, provoked the outspoken indignation of the boyars, and a great number of them, disobeying the ukaze, continued to wear the long, expensive fur coats. Then the determined Peter ordered the laps to be cut off from the long coats no matter where the boyars, wearing the old fashioned coats, should be found—in churches, at the market-place, at court, or in the streets.

Similar other actions of Peter's only aroused the hatred of the old fashioned Russian aristocracy, and it was in this antagonistic and bitter atmosphere that the Czar began the war with Karl XII, one of the strongest and cleverest of the Vikings. This war went on during almost all the time of Peter's reign;

yet, in spite of many defeats, Peter completely routed the Swedes at Poltava City within the boundaries of Russia.

History has not yet been able to estimate, at its true value, the work of Peter the Great, leader, strategist, ruler, reformer, and builder. Only the genius of Pushkin revealed the significance of Peter's work for the world when he wrote his poem; "The Iron Horseman."** When all his army was surrounded by Karl XII, Peter escaped capture by foreseeing that the spring thaw would drive the ice down the river. Using this knowledge, his army crossed the river at the very beginning of the moving of

" Some of the contemporary Americans may see with astonishment, in Peter's activity, a fine example to follow in the prosperous America of 1943.

°° At the present time, however, Peter is vividly portraiyed by Count Alexis Tolstoy, the Soviet novelist.

the ice, and when the pursuing Swedes came to the river they were unable to pass it as the ice was moving very fast. Then, in another instance, when the corps which was under Peter's personal command, was in danger of being captured, the Czar sent an ukaze to Moscow in which he instructed his ministers not to obey any of his orders as they might be written on compulsion.

This Czar, who beat his ministers with a stick, who turned yesterday's courtiers into common servants, and who know how to make great statesmen out of peasants and common servants— this Czar not only conducted a fierce war, participating in it personally by directing the attacks and presiding at the military commissions for recruiting, but also found it possible to devote himself to the colonization and study of Siberia and the pacification of whole tribes within the country and at the borders, spreading the Russian frontiers still further and further. The first industrial plan for developing the Siberian lands was made by the order of Peter the Great. It was he who ordered the building of the first iron foundry in the Urals, and who discovered that there were gold and silver deposits in the Altai mountains and in Yarkend. It was Peter who sent one expedition after another to the South of Siberia with directions to each: "not to become excited, not to lose men uselessly, and not to cause damage."

At that time the steppes leading to the Caspian Sea were almost impassable, yet Peter decided to take possession of them. For this purpose he equipped a military expedition to Khiva, as his far-seeing eyes were trying to discover the former bed of the river Amur-Daria, which had, somehow, disappeared. His orders were to find this bed, and, through a system of dams and sluices, to lead the river to the coast, thus opening a waterway to the sea, and making it possible to reach Yarkend and, perhaps India. Of course this expedition was not entirely suc-

cessful, but as a result of it many Russian towns sprang up in Central Asia, among them Omsk, Semipalatinsk, and Ustkamen-ogorsk in the southern region of Altai. About the same time, due to the influence of Peter, the metalurgic industry was started in Siberia, in the Altai mountains, and the district of Nerchinsk by Akinfiy Altufiev, the son of the Tula gunmaker, Nikita Altufiev, who later was rewarded with the name of Count Demidov.

But, perhaps, one of the greatest examples of Peter's genius and foresight was his idea that the lands of America and Siberia must be joined somewhere by a continent; that sooner or later these two great and young empires, Russia and America, must possess common interests in Alaska and Siberia, perhaps for the purpose of bringing about a universal culture.

Peter the Great not only made the educated Swedish war-prisoners, among them the private secretary of Karl XII, write scientific essays on Siberia, but he strongly encouraged learned foreigners, whom he brought from abroad, in their work of civilizing the country. Among these foreigners was a young Danish navigator, Bering, whom Peter placed at the head of an expedition to the far north of Siberia, and gave him the following instructions written out in his own hand: "1. Two skiffs with decks must be built in Kamchatka or some other place not far from there. 2. Sail on these boats close to the shore which leads north, and in all probability, this land (as its boundaries are not known} will prove to be part of America. 3. In order to find where this land joins America, and how to reach a city belonging to some European power, and, in case of seeing an European ship, find out the name of this post, and, taking a permit, visit the aforesaid post personally, and making an authentic report, enter it on the map, and return here.—Peter."

The Czar did not see the return of the expedition, as he died two weeks after Bering's departure, and Bering returned to St. Petersburg only in 1730. The results of his expedition are well known. Captain Bering established the fact that America and Siberia are connected by lands of Alaska, and we know now that America, the country lying the fartherest from Russia, is also the nearest to it through Siberia, and that two great countries—Alaska and Siberia—can expect a brilliant future as the result of bringing together the cultures of two great nations. Perhaps now, after more than 200 years, the dream of Peter the Great will be realized, because the tremendous work and sacrifices that our forefathers have undergone for our sakes oblige us to use them to the best advantage of the generations to come, who, in their turn, some two hundred years hence, will advance the civilization of mankind, and especially the spiritual culture, much further than were the descendants of Peter able to do in the two hundred years following his death.

Nevertheless, the Russians, looking back upon these two centuries, can proudly say that whatever the estimation of the events proceeding our days may be, it is certain that Russia has accomplished a deed of tremendous importance, and has made many sacrifices, in order to transform a great wilderness into a mighty Russian borderland, and, in my opinion, into a country with a great future.

Although the outstanding events of Russian history could not fail to be reflected in Siberia, yet it must be noted that, in times of upheaval, as well as in moments of success, Siberia continued her slow, but sure growth as a Russian colony, until this decade of ours, when we ourselves may witness the heavy and rapid pace of Russian history and realize that Siberia is destined to become an unlimited bulwark for all Russia. In fact, during last few years, through sacrifice and the straining energy of the Russian people, Siberian development has been so surpis-ingly successful that the reader who has heard Siberia called a rigorous and wild land of punishment and exile would never believe it.

But this is another subject for careful study and for a special .chapter of current history.

As a matter of fact, the greatness of the future of Siberia is a vivid evidence of its commencement.