SIBERIA, the name in Russian Sibir, of the chief settlement of the Tatar khan Kuchum, Isker on the Irtysh, which was cap tured by the Cossack Yermak in 1581. Subsequently the term was used to denote the dominions of Russia in northern Asia, which were the first to be absorbed by Russia, the more densely peopled south retaining its independence longer. The term had considerable elasticity as regards its southern boundary, being used sometimes as if it included the steppes of the south and at other times as if the steppes of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk and the Turgai were not included. Administratively it is now divided into the Uralsk Area, which also includes part of European Rus sia, the Siberian Area, the Yakutsk Republic, The Buriat Mongol Republic and the Far Eastern Area, while the steppe region above referred to is incorporated in the Kazakstan S.S.R. (qq.v.). The geography of Siberia is included in the article RUSSIA (q.v.).
(X.) to Radiov, the earliest inhabitants were the Yeniseians who were followed by the Ugro-Samoyedes, who also came originally from the high plateau and were compelled, in the 3rd century B.C., to cross the Altai and Sayan ranges and to enter Siberia. To them must be assigned the remains dating from the Bronze period which are scattered all over southern Siberia. Iron was unknown to them ; but they excelled in bronze, silver and gold work. Their ornaments and implements, often polished, evince artistic taste; and their irrigated fields covered wide areas. On the whole, their civilization stood much higher than that of their more recent successors. Eight centuries later the Turkish stocks of "Tukiu" (the Chinese spelling for "Turks"), Khagases and Uigurs—also compelled to migrate north-westwards from their former seats—subdued the Ugro-Samoyed. They likewise left numerous traces of their sojourn, and two different periods may be distinguished in their remains. They were acquainted with iron, and learned from their subjects the art of bronze-casting, which they used for decorative purposes only, and to which they gave a still higher artistic stamp. Their pottery is much more perfect and more artistic than that of the Bronze period, and their ornaments are accounted among the finest of the collections at the St. Petersburg museum of the Hermitage. This Turkish empire of the Khagases must have lasted until the 13th century, when the Mongols destroyed their civilization. A decline is shown by the graves which have been discovered. In the beginning of the 16th century Tatar fugitives from Turkestan subdued the loosely associated tribes inhabiting the lowlands to the east of the Urals. Agriculturists, tanners, merchants and mollahs (priests) were called from Turkestan, and small principalities sprang up on the Irtysh and the Ob. These were united by Khan Ediger, and con flicts with the Russians, who were then colonizing the Urals, brought him into collision with Moscow ; his envoys came to Moscow in 1555 and consented to a yearly tribute of i,000 sables. As early as the 11th century, the Novgorodians had occasionally penetrated into Siberia ; but the fall of the republic checked the advance of the Russians. On the defeat of the rebel Stenka Razin (1667-71) many who were unwilling to submit to the iron rule of Moscow made their way to the settlements of Stroganov in Perm, and tradition has it that, in order to get rid of his guests, Stroganov suggested to their chief, Yermak, that he should cross the Urals into Siberia, promising to help him with supplies of food and arms. Yermak entered Siberia in 158o with a band of 1,636 men, following the Tagil and Tura rivers. Next year they were on the Tobol, and 5oo men successfully laid siege to Isker, the residence of Khan Kuchum, in the neighbourhood of what is now Tobolsk. Kuchum fled to the steppes, abandoning his do mains to Yermak, who, according to tradition, purchased, by the present of Siberia to Ivan IV., his own restoration to favour. Yermak was drowned in the Irtysh in 1584 and the Cossacks abandoned Siberia. But new bands of hunters and adventurers poured every year into the country, and were supported by Mos cow. To avoid conflicts with the denser populations of the south, they preferred to advance eastwards along higher latitudes; mean while Moscow erected forts and settled labourers around them to supply the garrisons with food. Within 8o years the Russians
had reached the Amur and the Pacific. This rapid conquest is accounted for by the circumstance that neither Tatars nor Turks were able to offer any serious resistance. In 1607-10 the Tunguses fought for their independence, but were subdued about 1623. In 1628 the Russians reached the Lena, founded the fort of Yakutsk in 1637, and two years later reached the Sea of Okhotsk at the mouth of the Ulya river. The Buriats offered some opposition till, in 1643 Poyarkov's boats descended the Amur, returning to Yakutsk by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Aldan, and in I649-5o Khabarov occupied the banks of the Amur. In 1852 a Russian military expedition under Muraviev explored the Amur, and by 1857, a chain of Russian Cossacks and peasants were settled along the whole course of the river. The accomplished fact was rec ognized by China in 1857, and 186o by a treaty. In the same year in which Khabarov explored the Amur (1648) the Cossack Dejnev, starting from the Kolyma, sailed round the north-eastern extremity of Asia through the strait which was rediscovered and described 8o years later by Bering (1728). Cook in 1778, and after him La Perouse, settled definitively the broad features of the northern Pacific coast. Although the Arctic ocean had been reached as early as the first half of the 17th century, exploration of its coasts was begun only in the 18th century The scientific explorations of Siberia, begun in the period 1733 to 1742 by Messerschmidt, Gmelin, and De Lisle de la Croyere, was followed up by Milller, Fischer and Georgi. Pallas, Han steen and Erman (5828-30), Humboldt, Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose also paid in the course of these years short visits to Siberia. Ritter elaborated in his Asien (1832-59), the foundations of a sound knowledge of the structure of Siberia. To Middendorff's journey (1844-45) to north-eastern Siberia—contemporaneous with Castren's journeys for the special study of the Ural-Altaian languages—the expeditions of Akhte and Schwarz (1852), and later on (1854-57) of the Siberian expedition we owe so marked an advance in our knowledge of East Siberia. The Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical Society was founded at the same time at Irkutsk, and afterwards became a permanent centre for the exploration of Siberia; while the opening of the Amur and Sakhalin attracted Maack, Schmidt, Glehn, Radde and Schrenck, whose works on the flora, fauna and inhabitants of Siberia have become widely known.