Tribute sworn on a bloody sabre
Editorial contextYermak sent the fifty-leader Bogdan Briazga down the Irtysh to bring the Tatar and Ostyak districts under the tsar and collect yasak (fur tribute). At the first district he stormed a strong little town, hanged the best 'mergens' (warriors) by the leg and shot them, collected tribute 'by the sabre', laid the bloody sabre on the table and made the people kiss it as an oath to pay every year. The terror, says the chronicle, silenced the whole district.
And coming to the first, the Aremzian district, he took the strong little town by battle, and hanged many of the best mergens by the leg and shot them, and collected the yasak by the sabre, and laid it, bloody, on the table, and ordered them to kiss it in faith to the sovereign tsar, that they would serve and pay yasak every year
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Original wording
И пріѣхавъ въ первую Аремзянскую волость, и городокъ крѣпкій взялъ боемъ, и многихъ лутчихъ мергеней повѣсилъ за ногу и розстрѣлялъ, и ясакъ собралъ за саблею, и положилъ на столъ кровавую, и велѣлъ вѣрно цѣловати за государя царя, чтобъ имъ служить и ясакъ платить по вся годы
About Cossack Bogdan Briazga and the Tatars and Ostyaks of the lower Irtysh
Keep in mind
The sabre oath (shert) reflects local oath customs that the Russians adopted; the details come from Cossack tradition.
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A Tatar lament: 'five Cossacks'
Editorial contextAt the mouth of the Ishim there was a fierce hand-to-hand fight in which five of Yermak's Cossacks died. The chronicle says the Tatars still sang about it at their gatherings, weeping, with the refrain 'yanym, yanym, bish kazak', which it translates as 'warriors, warriors, five men defeated and ruined'; the song was called 'the tsaritsa's lament'. The Tatar words more likely mean 'my soul, my soul, five Cossacks'.
and about those five men the Tatars sing with weeping at their gatherings, in songs with the refrain: 'yanym, yanym, bish kazak, bish kazak', that is: 'warriors, warriors, five, five men defeated and destroyed'. And this song is called the tsaritsa's lament.
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Original wording
и о тѣхъ пяти человѣкахъ Татара поютъ съ плачемъ при бесѣдахъ въ пѣсняхъ припѣваючи: янымъ, янымъ, бишь казакъ, бишь казакъ, сирѣчь: воины, воины, пять пять человѣкъ побѣдиша и разориша. И ся пѣсня и словетъ царицынъ плачь.
About Siberian Tatars; Yermak's Cossacks
Keep in mind
The chronicler's translation of the Tatar refrain is loose; the song itself is reported, not transcribed in full.
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Tatars keep the law of Muhammad; the Kalmyks, 'I do not know'
Editorial contextEsipov opens with the peoples living along the Tobol, Irtysh and Ob: Tatars, Kalmyks, Mongols, the 'Piebald Horde' (Selkups), Ostyaks and Samoyeds. The Tatars, he says, keep Muhammad's law; as for the Kalmyks, he honestly does not know their faith, since he found nothing written and could not find out. The Ostyaks and Samoyeds, he adds, have no law and worship idols.
Along these rivers live many peoples: Tatars, Kalmyks, Mongols, the Piebald Horde, Ostyaks, Samoyeds and other peoples. The Tatars keep the law of Muhammad; which law or tradition of their fathers the Kalmyks keep, I do not know, since I found nothing written about it and could not find out.
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Original wording
По сихъ же рѣкахъ жителствуютъ мнози языцы: Тотаровя, Колмыки, Мугалы, Пѣгая орда, Остяки, Самоядь и прочая языцы. Тотаровя законъ Моаметовъ держатъ; Колмыки же который законъ или отецъ своихъ преданіе держатъ, невѣмъ, понеже писменно о семъ не обретохъ ни испытати возмогохъ.
About Tatars, Kalmyks, Mongols, the 'Piebald Horde', Ostyaks, Samoyeds
Keep in mind
The editors restore some words from other copies (printed in brackets in the edition).
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Tsar On and a commoner called Chingis
Editorial contextEsipov's history of the Siberian rulers begins with a Muslim 'tsar named On' on the Ishim river, overthrown by a man 'from the simple people' named Chingis, who killed him 'like a robber' and took his realm. A servant saved On's son Taibuga, founder of the Taibugid princes. In this local legend the world conqueror Chinggis Khan has become a Siberian upstart, and the 'Ong Khan' of Mongol history has become a Muslim tsar.
on this river Ishim there was a tsar of Muhammad's law named On. And there rose against him, of his own realm, from the simple people, one named Chingis, and he went against him like a robber with others, and killed Tsar On, and Chingis himself took the realm.
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Original wording
на сей же рѣцѣ Ишимѣ бѣ царь Моаметова закону именемъ Онъ. И воста на него его же державы отъ простыхъ людей именемъ Чингисъ, и шедъ на него, яко разбойникъ, съ прочими, и уби царя Она, и царство самъ приемлетъ Чингисъ.
About Early rulers of the Siberian Tatars: 'Tsar On', 'Chingis', Taibuga
Keep in mind
A dynastic legend told among Siberian Tatars and retold by a Russian; it garbles Chinggis Khan and Ong Khan of the Kereit.
A golden 'Russian god' in a cup
Editorial contextYermak's men besieged Prince Demyan's big hill-town on the lower Irtysh, held by 2000 Tatars, Voguls and Ostyaks. A Chuvash who had been Kuchum's captive told them the defenders prayed to 'a Russian god, cast in gold, sitting in a cup'; they poured water in the cup and drank it, called it Christ, and said it had come from Vladimir's baptism of Rus. Sent to steal it, he reported that it stood on a table surrounded by burning fat and sulphur fumes. The Cossacks never found it.
One of them, a Chuvash who had been with Kuchum, a Russian captive, said: they pray, he said, to a Russian god, and that Russian god is cast of gold, sits in a cup, and they pour water into that cup and drink it, and call him Christ, and they say he was brought from Vladimir's baptism
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Original wording
Одинъ же въ нихъ Чювашенинъ былъ у Кучюма, руского полону, сказалъ: молятся де они рускому богу и тотъ де руской богъ литой золотой, въ чашѣ сѣдитъ, и въ ту де чашу наливши воды пьютъ, и зовутъ его Христомъ, а сказываютъ де привезенъ отъ Владимерова крещенія
About Tatars, Voguls and Ostyaks of Prince Demyan's town; a Chuvash informant
Keep in mind
Third-hand: a captive's report retold a century later. Such metal idols (often looted Christian or Iranian vessels) are known from Ob-Ugrian shrines.
The sky-stone that makes cold, rain and snow
Editorial contextRowing up the Irtysh, Yermak's men came to the little town of Tashatkan, where, they were told, a stone had fallen from the sky, dark red in colour, and from it at times came cold, rain and snow. Yermak and his men marvelled at 'God's work'. Weather stones (the 'yada tash' of Turkic and Mongol lore) were believed to bring rain and snow.
And they rowed to the little town of Tashatkan; and in that town a stone fell from the sky … dark red in appearance, and from it, they say, at times there arises cold, rain and snow. And at this Yermak and his comrades marvelled at God's doing.
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Original wording
И погребоша къ Ташатканскому городку; и въ томъ городкѣ спалъ камень съ небеси … видомъ багровъ, и отъ него де временемъ восходитъ стужа, дождь и снѣгъ. И о семъ Ермакъ съ товарыщи дивился Божію дѣянію.
About Siberian Tatars of Tashatkan town
Keep in mind
Hearsay reported with 'de' ('they say'); the size of the stone is missing in the manuscript.
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Yermak's armour and the Tatars' vow of silence
Editorial contextIn 1651 the Tobolsk officer Ulian Remezov took Yermak's famous mail coat, reclaimed from Tatar princes, as a gift to the Kalmyk ruler Ablai, who kissed it and raised it to his head. Ablai then told his own version of Yermak's death: drowned at the ford, found and shot at, his blood flowing, his armour divided up, miracles from his armour and clothes, and a Tatar oath 'on pain of death' not to tell the Russians about him. Ablai said that as a sick child he was given earth from Yermak's grave to drink and was cured.
And Ablai began to tell stories about him, according to his own history: how he came to Siberia, and fled from Kuchum at the ford, and drowned, and was found, and was shot at, and blood flowed, and they divided up his armour and carried it off, and how there were miracles from the armour and the clothing, and how the Tatars made a vow on pain of death not to tell the Russians about him
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Original wording
И нача Аблай повѣсти дѣяти о немъ по своей исторіи, какъ пріѣхалъ въ Сибирь, и отъ Кучюма на перекопѣ побѣжа, и утопе, и обрѣтенъ, и стрѣлянъ, и кровь течаше, и пансыри раздѣлиша и развезоша, и какъ отъ пансырей и отъ платья чюдесъ было, и какъ Татара смертной завѣтъ положиша, что про него Русакамъ невѣщати
About Ablai, Kalmyk (Oirat) ruler; Ulian Remezov, Tobolsk envoy; Siberian Tatars
Keep in mind
A family story of the Remezovs, told half a century later; the miracles are Tatar and Kalmyk beliefs as Russians reported them.