HISTORY, The history of Siberia. an episode in that of the Russian Empire, is a history of national expansion—of adventnre, exploration, settlement, and development—a process still go ing on in all its phases. In the reign of Ivan IV. an enterprising family, the Strogonoff, car ried on an active trade in Eastern Russia, near the Urals, and, favored by liberal concessions from the Crown, they founded towns and de veloped the country. In 1579, with the Czar's permission, they equipped and sent over the Urals into Western Siberia an expedition of about eight hundred men, under the command of an outlaw, Vassili, commonly known as Yer mak, or the 'millstone,' a Russian who had joined the Don Cossacks. With this force Ye•mak de feated the Tatars. captured Isker or Sibir, the capital of Kntchum Khan, and won pardon and honor by giving a new empire to Russia. In the spring of 1582 he sent to Moscow the report of his triumph. Ye•mak was killed in 1584, but Russia held the country he had won. Tobolsk was built on the site of Sibir and many forts, or ostrogs, were located at strategic points. The Siberian tribes had neither the power nor the will to offer any organized resistance to Russian absorption. Southward there was more trouble from the warlike tribes of Central Asia, and this determined the direction of Ruso,ian expansion eastward along the line of least resistance. In 1636 the explorers and fur traders had reached the mouth of the Yenisei, in 1637 they had moved forward to the Lena, two years later they were on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, and before the close of the century the peninsula of liamtchatka had been brought under Russian authority. As in all this region there was no organized government, its conquest was the peace ful work of the pioneer, interrupted by barbarous attacks from hostile natives. Siberia extended then southward to the Irtysh, the boundary of Mongolia, and to the Amur.
When the Russians under Khabaroff reached the Amur in 1651 they came into contact with the Manchu power, which had just conquered China, and the long struggle began for the control of the Anna• and for Manchuria. The advance on the Amur was due to the energy, foresight, and administrative ability of Khabaroff. who successfully withstood the Manchus. In 1689, when Russian interests were in less competent hands, the Treaty of Nertchinsk was made be tween Russia and China. the first treaty made by
the latter Empire with a Western power. By this treaty Russia yielded the middle and lower portions of the river, and the struggle for the A111111• was not resumed until the middle of the nineteenth century. During this period the at tention of Russia was turned more to the west, whither it had been directed by Peter the Great. In 1847 General MuravietT (q.v.) was appointed Go•ernor-1eneral of Eastern Siberia. He ob tained authority for establishing a post of the Russian American Company at the mouth of the for the formation of an effective military force from the Cossack settlers, and finally in 1853 for the occupation of De Castries Bay on the Gulf of Tartary and of the island of Sagha lien. Still the hostile attitude of the Asiatic Department in Saint Petersburg embarrassed Mnravieff until the outbreak of the Crimean War gave him his great opportunity. With a view to the adequate defense of Russian interests on the Pacific, he was empowered to conduct negotia tions with the Chinese Government directly, reference to Saint Petersburg, and to open communication by the Amur between Nert chinsk and the coast and thence with the fortified port of Petropavlovsk in Kamtchatka. In Slay, 1854, he led an expedition down the Shilka, and thence down the Amur, which had been so long closed to Russia. On August 29th an English and French squadron of eight vessels with 236 guns arrived off Petropavlovsk and began an attack Cu September 1st. This attack was devoid of results. It was renewed on the 24th, when the allies, after silencing some of the bat teries by their fire, were repulsed in their land assault with heavy loss—about one-third of the 700 men engaged. Knowing that another attack would be made by the allies in greater force, Muravieff ordered the abandonment of Petro pavlovsk early in the spring of 1S55 and concen trated his strength about the mouth of the Amur. Empowered as a plenipotentiary to ar range a treaty with China, he concluded in Slay, 1858, the Convention of Aigun, which made the .Annir the boundary between the two countries, the left hank to belong to Russia, the right as far as the Ussuri to China, and from the latter river to Korea. Navigation on the frontier rivers was to be open only to Chinese and Russian vessels, and trade on the rivers was to be free.