Go East, Young Cossack! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Free people

In a feudal society, most people had a standing defined by the duties they owed to others, and that others owed to them. The Cossack groups that developed into autonomous communities in southern Russian and Ukraine did not fit into that social structure.

In defense of their independence, they developed into military communities. In many ways, their social structure resembled that of the seafaring pirates, but their activities were land-based. Having them onside was of great assistance for the Tsars trying to expand the territory which they controlled, spreading eastwards from Europe across the top of Asia to the Pacific Ocean.

Answer: Trade for furs and ivory

While the prospect of free land did encourage the population movement that followed the conquest of Siberia, the original interest was engaging in the valuable fur trade, and the prospect of ivory to be gained from the Pacific walrus. Russians expanded eastwards with much the same energy as American and Canadian settlers used in expanding westwards. The Stroganov family of merchants were major financial contributors to the expansion, and helped recruit the Cossacks to carry it out.

During the 18th century, exploitation of mineral resources became a major focus as furs became both less available and less valuable as commodities. The first prisoners were sent to serve their sentences of hard labour in Siberia in 1754 - they had to walk there, a journey of up to three years, during the course of which many died. Siberian prison camps gained a new notoriety in the 20th century, when Stalin reopened the gulag system which had been closed down after the Russian Revolution.

Answer: The expedition was eventually destroyed

It took nearly five years of constant skirmishes before Kuchum Khan killed Yermak and most of his soldiers, in 1585. It was only a temporary victory, however - ten years later another Russian force defeated Kuchum, and took his family hostage in Moscow.

There they were granted the right to call themselves Tsarevichs of Siberia, eventually becoming known as the Sibirsky family, following their conversion from Islam to Christianity. Siberia was opened up for Russian expansion.

Answer: Rivers

The Siberian rivers formed the transport network for explorers, both for travel by boat and for those on horseback, for whom following the river provided the easiest transit. Since the main rivers run north-south, it took some work to find easterly-directed branches, and to locate the shortest overland portages between rivers.) Settlers often had horse-drawn transport, but still usually followed the rivers as far as possible. The early settlements were usually made at points where rivers met, or where there was an easy crossing. Forts set up there were used to house troops who could control the nearby natives, and offer shelter for travellers, as well as storing the 'yasak' (tribute paid to the tsar, usually in the form of furs) collected in the region.

Road building did not start until the 18th century, and proper highways waited for the 20th century. Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891. Although Siberian winters are cold and ice-bound, cross-country skiing was not an appropriate way to cover the vast distances involved in the Siberian conquest. Even now, modern transport is mostly in the southern part of Siberia, and rivers are used for transport into the northern regions.

Answer: False

The indigenous tribes, although spread fairly thinly in the less-than hospitable Siberian territory, nevertheless fought fiercely with each other over the most desirable lands, and there were groups who accepted subjugation by the Russians as a way of avoiding these continual fights.

However, it was more reluctant acceptance of the inevitable than an open-armed welcome. And the further east the Russians went, the stronger the resistance they encountered. The forts they built were regularly attacked, and the troops then retaliated in kind - the expansion was far from peaceful. (Is anyone else reminded of the American Old West?)

Answer: Diseases brought to the area by the explorers

As happened in many parts of the world, indigenous people had little immunity to diseases that the European explorers (and later settlers) brought with them, diseases to which the European population had developed a degree of immunity. Smallpox has been identified as the major killer, with syphilis and tuberculosis also creating serious health problems.

It has been estimated that in some parts of Siberia around two-thirds to three-quarters of the natives died within the first fifty years of contact. Of course, eventually immunity increased, and the indigenous people were not wiped out completely.

In fact, since most settlers stayed in the southern parts of Siberia, there are many regions where the natives outnumber the Russians.

Answer: Okhost (on the Pacific coast)

Since the forts that became towns were set up as the explorers progressed from west to east, the easternmost of the ones listed, Okhost, was the last one settled, in 1649. The others were located at significant points on the rivers that formed the framework for expansion. From (roughly) west to east, Tobolsk was established in 1585, Tomsk in 1604, and Yeniseysk in 1619. Once the region was reasonably secure, settlers started to arrive, including soldiers charged with defending the area, traders, missionaries, freed serfs in search of land, and (later) geologists looking for mineral resources.

Answer: Amur

The Chinese residents had proper artillery, and conquest would have been a major effort for these seekers of fur and easy land. The only other significant resistance came from the Tatars and Buryats in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, and from some of the people on the Pacific coast, such as the Chukchi. Settlers left the Chukchi Peninsula alone for most of the 17th century, as the people were hostile and had little in the way of furs to offer if they could be defeated.

It was only when Russians set up operations in the Kamchatka Peninsula at the start of the 18th century that serious conflict began, only ending in the mid-1760s when Russia abandoned the area, which hadn't proved as profitable as had been hoped.

Answer: China

The Treaty of Nerchinsk, signed on 27 August 1689, established the border between Russia and China, with Russia conceding the territory north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains, but keping the land northwest of the Argun River, extending to Lake Baikal. Russian expansion south from Siberia stopped at that point, but only until 1858, when Russia annexed the land down to the Amur again.

The 1860 Treaty of Beijing gave Russia control of the coast all the way south to Vladivostock.

Answer: Bering Strait

The Chukchi Peninsula is the Asian side of the Bering Strait, with the eastern side being the US state of Alaska. Vitus Bering led several expeditions to map the northeast coast of Asia, and the Arctic coastlines of Asia and North America. As well as the Bering Strait, he has a number of other geographical features named after him, including the Bering Sea, on the southern end of the Bering Strait.

In 1878-9, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld sailed along the northern coast of Siberia, proving that there was no northern land bridge connecting Asia and North America.