Ермак Тимофеевич
Russia's eastward expansion encountered little resistance. In 1581, the Stroganov merchant family, interested in the fur trade, hired a Cossack leader, Yermak Timofeyevich, to lead an expedition into western Siberia. Yermak defeated the Khanate of Sibir and claimed the territories west of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers for Russia.