lettered by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Written source · Russian

The Kungur Chronicle: Yermak's conquest of Tatar Siberia

A short illustrated Siberian chronicle, written around 1700, telling how Yermak's Cossacks took Kuchum's Tatar khanate in the 1580s.

Full title Short Siberian (Kungur) Chronicle with 154 drawings (photolithographic facsimile of the Academy of Sciences manuscript, 1880)

Краткая сибирская летопись (Кунгурская) со 154 рисунками

Semyon Remezov (attributed); preface A. Zost, Archaeographic Commission

Read the 4 passagesOpen the original book

An anonymous short chronicle of Yermak's campaign against Khan Kuchum of Sibir (1580s), preserved in a manuscript with 154 drawings that G. F. Müller brought from Tobolsk to the Academy in 1744 and attributed to the Tobolsk nobleman Semyon Remezov. It was written more than a century after the events, from older chronicles, Cossack tradition and Tatar hearsay, and mixes plausible detail (towns, rivers, tribute) with visions and miracles. This corpus copy is the 1880 St Petersburg photolithographic facsimile, which prints the text in ordinary type at the back; the drawings themselves are not readable in the OCR.

How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
The Siberian Tatars of Kuchum's khanate on the Tobol, Irtysh and Ishim, clearly distinguished from Voguls, Ostyaks, Samoyeds, Kalmyks and the Kazakh horde.
Why read it
It shows how Russians around 1700 remembered the Tatar capital Kashlyk (Isker) and the Tatar towns along the Irtysh, and how miracle stories were woven into the conquest.
Watch out
Written about 120 years after 1582 by a Russian Orthodox author hostile to Kuchum; the preface warns that it mixes reliable facts with legends and that the copyist garbled the language. OCR of the pre-reform type is imperfect.

What it says: 4 passages

CitiesIsker (Kashlyk), near Tobolskbefore 1580 (narrated c. 1700)

Who built Kashlyk, the Tatar capital of Sibir

Editorial contextThe chronicle credits a Tatar ruler, Mamet, with founding the town of Kashlyk at the mouth of the little Sibirka river after defeating a khan of Kazan. From this town, it says, the whole land took the name Sibir. The author says he took this from a 'Muslim history', meaning Tatar tradition.

Tsar Mamet defeated Alim, tsar of Kazan, and built the town of Kashlyk at the mouth of the little river Sibirka, spreading his realm in Siberia and making subjects; and from then Siberia and its tsars began to be more famous, as the Muslim history tells.

Working translation

Original wording

Маметь царь казанскаго царя Алима побѣдилъ, и на усть рѣчки Сибирки градъ Кашлыкъ учинилъ, царство въ Сибири распространивъ и поддани учинилъ; и оттолѣ нача славнѣе зватися Сибирь и цари, ихъ же бусурманская исторія повѣдаетъ.

Kungur (Remezov) chronicle, article 17 (1880 printed text)
See the original page (p. 6)

About Siberian Tatars (khans of Sibir)

Keep in mind

The chronicler reports Tatar tradition second-hand; Kashlyk is the town known in other sources as Isker or Sibir.

Daily lifeIshim river mouth, Irtysh1580s (song reported c. 1700)

A Tatar lament for five slain Cossacks

Editorial contextAfter a hand-to-hand fight at the mouth of the Ishim in which five of Yermak's Cossacks died, the chronicle says the Tatars still sang about it at their gatherings, weeping, with a Tatar refrain that it translates. The song was known as 'the Tsaritsa's lament'. It is a rare glimpse of Tatar oral memory of the war.

and about those five men the Tatars sing with weeping at their gatherings, with the refrain: 'yanym, yanym, bit kazak, bit kazak', that is: 'warriors, warriors, five, five men we defeated and destroyed.' And this song is called the Tsaritsa's Lament.

Working translation

Original wording

и о тѣхъ пяти человѣкахъ Татара поютъ съ плачемъ при бесѣдахъ въ пѣсняхъ припѣваючи: янымъ, янымъ, битъ казакъ, битъ казакъ, сирѣчь: воины, воины, пять пять человѣкъ побѣдиша и разориша. И сія пѣсня и словетъ царицынъ плачь.

Kungur (Remezov) chronicle, article 100 (1880 printed text)
See the original page (p. 28)

About Siberian Tatars

Keep in mind

The refrain is Tatar in Russian letters; the other scan of this edition (T0442 n95) reads 'бишь', closer to Tatar 'bish' (five), which fits the chronicler's own gloss. The translation of the Tatar words is the chronicler's.

The nameWestern Siberia (Tura, Tobol, Irtysh, Ob)c. 1580 (narrated c. 1700)

Tatars by the rivers, reindeer people to the north, camel herders on the steppe

Editorial contextWhat Yermak is said to have heard about Siberia before setting out: a map in words that sorts the peoples. The Tatars live along the Tura, Tobol and Irtysh and travel by boat and horse; the Ostyaks and Samoyeds of the Ob ride reindeer and dogs and live on fish; Kalmyks, Mongols and the Kazakh horde ride camels on the steppe. 'Tatar' here is one people among many, not a label for all Siberians.

and along the Tura and the Tobol live Tatars, who travel in boats and on horses. The Tobol falls into the Irtysh; and on the Irtysh near its mouth is a tsardom and many Tatars; the Irtysh falls into the Ob, and the Ob falls into the sea by two mouths, and along it live Ostyaks and Samoyeds, who ride reindeer and dogs and feed on fish; and on the steppe the Kalmyks and Mongols and the Kazakh horde, who ride camels

Working translation

Original wording

по Турѣ же и по Тоболу живутъ Татара, ѣздятъ въ лодкахъ и на коняхъ. А Тоболъ палъ въ Иртышъ; и на Иртышѣ царство близь устья и многіе Татара, и Иртышъ палъ въ Обь, а Обь рѣка пала въ море двѣма устьи, а по ней живутъ Остяки и Самоѣдь, ѣздятъ на оленяхъ и псахъ и кормятся рыбами; а по степи Калмыки и Мунгалы и казачья орда, ѣздятъ на вельбудахъ

Kungur (Remezov) chronicle, article 9 (1880 printed text)
See the original page (p. 4)

About Siberian Tatars, Voguls, Ostyaks, Samoyeds, Kalmyks, Mongols, Kazakhs

Keep in mind

Framed as hearsay Yermak gathered from people on the Chusovaya; written down long afterwards.

Strange talesTobolskbefore 1582 (narrated c. 1700)

A shining Christian city seen in the sky over the Tatar capital

Editorial contextThe chronicle claims that the Tatar khans, princes and Muslim clergy saw, year after year, a glowing Christian city with churches and ringing bells hovering in the air over the spot where Tobolsk cathedral later stood. It is a foretelling legend written to show that God had given the land to the Russians, not an eyewitness report.

In their time, every year, the tsar and the princes, akhuns, mullahs, abyzes and the other Muslims saw visions: on the place where the town of Tobolsk and the cathedral church up to its bell tower now stand, a Christian city appeared in the air with light, with churches and a great ringing, so that they marvelled and were terrified, not knowing what it would be.

Working translation

Original wording

При сихъ во вся лѣта видѣнія царь и князи, агуны, муллы и абызы и протчіе бусурманы на томъ мѣстѣ, идѣже нынѣ градъ Тоболескъ и соборная церковь до колоколни, видѣшася христіанскій со свѣтомъ градъ въ воздухѣ, и церкви и звонъ велій, яко ими дивитися и ужасно недоумѣя, что будетъ се.

Kungur (Remezov) chronicle, article 18 (1880 printed text)
See the original page (p. 6)

About Siberian Tatars (Muslim clergy and nobles of Sibir)

Keep in mind

A pious prophecy legend composed after the conquest; the same page adds a pillar of fire and gold and silver sparks on the town site.

The fine print

How we know

compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.

retrospective illustrated history of Yermak (c. 1700) using Esipov and Tobolsk tradition plus the Kungur chronicle of Cossack oral origin

Research notes
  • Attribution to Remezov by Miller on the basis of a colophon note; Kungur articles are a separate interpolated source; images are late 17th century imaginative reconstructions, not eyewitness.

Why it matters

Only illustrated Siberian chronicle; its 154 drawings depict Tatar towns, Kuchum and Yermak, frequently reproduced in alternative-history media without their textual context.

Places named

Western Siberia; Irtysh; Tobolsk; Urals

Peoples named

Golden Horde and its Tatar successor khanates
Rus, Muscovy and the Russian Empire
Indigenous peoples of Siberia and the North Pacific

Siberian Tatars; Kuchum; Cossacks; Ostyaks; Voguls

Keep exploring

The witness before
1581 to 1659The Siberian Chronicles: Yermak and the fall of Kuchum's khanateSeventeenth-century Russian chronicles of the Cossack conquest of the Siberian Tatar khanate (1581 to 1585) and of the towns and rulers that came before it.Compiled from others · 11 passages
The witness after
1581 to 1582A papal envoy's report on Muscovy, bound with a Polish envoy's description of the Crimean TatarsJesuit legate Antonio Possevino's report on Ivan IV's Muscovy (1581 to 1582), with Marcin Broniewski's eyewitness account of the Crimean khanate (1578 to 1579) in the 1595 edition.Part eyewitness · 20 passages
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