The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1952-11-21

| ent TobolSk). Here vast quantities OF
the finest furs were captured and
the free-booters moved in to the for
titled palisade they had stormed. A
small party with so sacks of choicest
fur was sent back to Moscow where it
made peace with the Gar.
Yermak was named Governor of
the vast territory he had partially
conquered and 500 soldiers were sent
in as reinforcements. Hard winters,
near starvation and continuous fight
ing cut down the Yermak forces I'M
til only sub leader and a hundred men
were left. Then Yermak and fifty
men were surprised in a night camp
and persisted except one man. Yermak
fought his way out but was drowned
when he jumped into the nearby river
while wearing a coat of mail. He must
have spent anywhere from to Is
years in the Siberian wilderness. He
lives in Russian memory as the Cos
sack who conquered the opening of
the way to the Pacific ocean.
Two years after Yermack's death
tured Sibir and founded a town at
Tobolsk. Here monestary was built
in 1901 and a Siberian diocese found
GU Ill IOAOs LINZ OCs 11Oulo IOI OllC
American march westward, Tobolsk
became the jump off place for Rus
sian march eastward. Over a period
of 200 years and by successive steps,
region after region, in the great river
valleys of the OBJ, Yenisei, and Lena
were explored to the Arctic and the
Amur river to the Pacific. Each re-
gion was partially conquered and eff
fectively looted of its supply of furs,
valuable minerals, precious stones and
Of ivory from mastadons frozen into
the tundra.
Always Cossack bands spear-head-
ed the drive eastward. Their primary
purpose was riches from loot. To the
successive Cars it was percentage
of the loot-generally twenty per
cent-discovery of a trade route to
China and land where new colonies
could be planted. Not always did the
Gar get his full percentage of the
take. Cossacks found a way to get
this into China long before he did.
The pattern of conquest was al
ways the same. Cossacks moved into
a new area, killed the native warriors
who interfered, enslaved such native
women as they wanted and picked up
everything that had trade value. At
far spaced strategic points they set
up forts and trading posts which OPP
Grated about the same as the early
days fur companies in America Sew
eral years later came Russian troops
and some semblance of military gov
eminent. Then few colonists, with
a liberal sprinkling of exploiters of
all kinds, and finally a migration of
thousands of people and their trap
pings of civilization.
Along the $500 miles from Ural
to Pacific Coast success
i've jump-off places developed at To-
oolsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkusk,
Yakutsk, Okhotsk, on the shore of
Ohkotsk Sea and Petropavlovsk on
Pacific side of Kamchatka. The latter
two become departure points for ships
that explored northward to Bering
Straits, the Aleutian and Pribloff
stands and finally landed near Sit
"a, Alaska, which later become the
;eat of Russian Government in Ameri
"a. The island on which Sitka is To-
lated was first seen by the Russians
n 1741 but not settled until, 1899.
Dates when founded are not given,
)ut, by 1850 Russia had a half do
zen main trading posts along the Pa
,ific coast from Yukon river to San
francisco Bay and supply base in
he Hawaiian Islands. They had a
lream of ownership and domination
# the whole North Pacific Ocean and
4djoining lands. This was shattered bv
American migration to Oregon in the
840's and the gold rush to California
n 1905. Moreover the trade route
o China had finally been established.
30 the Gar sold his>American hold
ngs and his subjects departed in
867.
Left behind were the names for
hundreds of geographical spots they
as discovered. Not left behind was
he intimate knowledge they had ac-
luired of this country and thousands
t the hardest and toughest fight
rs the world has ever known. Against
nuch greater odds and climatic hard
hip these had battled all the Wav
rom the Ural Mountains across ST.
eria, on into Alaska and down the
'est coast to San Francisco. Thew
id that while our pioneers were
onquering half that distance. These
ussian pioneers are dead now but
lillions of their survivors live on and