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There are many chapters in Russian history that, under the pressure of political reality, were either hushed up or relegated to the periphery of historical consciousness. This is precisely the theme of the enslavement of the local population during the "annexation" (a tricky term replacing the politically awkward word "conquest") of Siberia. According to popular belief, the Russian colonization of Siberia proceeded quite differently from the European colonization of America, Africa, and Asia. The Russian empire, they say, was built differently and on entirely different foundations.

The quintessence of this concept about the special nature of the Russian Empire we find, of course, from the distinguished historical publicist Vladimir Medinsky: “…For the common people, ‘entering the Empire’ always had many advantages: abolition of the slave trade, the end of bloody tribal strife, and, of course, a gigantic boost to socio-economic development... This strikingly distinguishes the Russian Empire from European colonization, which was accompanied by land seizures, famine, and the extinction of the indigenous population. By integrating the outskirts, Russia opened up the opportunity for their inhabitants to enter the "big world," offering its subjects "security and development".

Abolition of the slave trade, security and development... Well then. Let's look at the "integration" of the largest of Russia's "outlying regions." Siberia. Is it true that it was "annexed" and colonized without slavery?

"...641 people, big and small, were chopped down to the stump, and the women, old and young, were taken as prisoners, 243 girls, and 118 small children."This pioneer, Yerofey Khabarov, reports to the Siberian Prikaz in 1652 about a successful punitive operation against the "fierce Daurians." They chopped them down and, in the process, took "yasyr"—captives whom the Cossacks sometimes released for ransom, but more often kept for themselves, like other spoils, and used for various farming needs. In other words, as slaves.

Something needs to be clarified right away here.

Firstly, the slave trade in Siberia and Southeast Asia flourished before the arrival of the Russians, just as it existed in Africa and the New World before the arrival of the Europeans. For the Dzungar Khanate in particular, it was one of the main sources of income.

Secondly, there was no plantation slavery in Siberia; slaves were used more as servants or, if a slave was a master of some craft, he was used for his intended purpose.

Thirdly, slaves in Russia were called “kholops” and their status changed throughout history.

In Russia in the 17th-18th centuries, serfs were divided into three categories: indentured serfs These were serfs who were dependent on their owners on the basis of indentured servitude. In 1597, the authorities began to show interest in the development of indentured servitude, which indicated a change in the legal status of serfs. Ancient serfs — This category of serfs, whose rights and status could be unclear due to the lack of documents confirming their dependence. Owners often lacked documents confirming their rights to former serfs, allowing the latter to be considered dependents under voluntary servitude. Reporting serfs — This is a relatively new category that was not widespread and encompassed only a small, privileged group of the population. Their status was formalized by special documents, but this type of serfdom gradually disappeared.

Siberian serfs were predominantly indentured, as they were usually purchased from the Dzungars or Kyrgyz, or captured during campaigns like the one Khabarov carried out against the Daurians.

One of the first mentions of “taking yasak people as slaves” is connected with the very beginning of the 17th century, in the “reply” to Tsar Vasily Shuisky from the Tomsk governors Vasily Volynsky and Mikhail Novosiltsov.about the violence of former Tomsk mayors Matvey Rzhevsky and Semyon Bartenev'"And Matvey and Semyon, they say, take your people, the sovereign's yasak people, as slaves, ... and they sell those foreigners and profit from them." In the second half of the 17th century, the famous Slavic thinker Yuri Krizhanich, who was in Siberian exile in 1661-1676, wrote: "There is not a single person in Siberia with any means whatsoever who does not have one or more Kalmyk slaves."And this is not the only evidence that slavery flourished in Siberia in the 17th century.

Initially, the Russians in Siberia used two main forms of enslavement: capturing prisoners and purchasing slaves. Enslaving people for debt was also a common practice. Slaves acquired from slave traders at the border were considered purchased—they were in hereditary slavery and could be alienated.

The most prominent figure of the Siberian Regional Movement, historian and ethnographer Seraphim Shashkov, in his article “Slavery in Siberia. (Historical essay)", describes an incident in 1680, when a boyar's son, Leonty Trifonov, made a campaign against the Tungus"and in the battle he took 10 boys of the male sex, 20 girls, and 10 women».

He also analyzes the report of the Siberian conquistador Khabarov. Here's more about the action against the Daurians.On June 2, having carried out trials large and small, and asking God for mercy, we sailed from Albasin" and after two days they reached the yurts, from which "The Daurian people all left, and we only just captured the yasyr [yasyr – captive, editor's note], Daurian woman"...And more. In the uluses of the princes of Baldachan and Tolga"170 yasyrey were renamed, except for small children"…Swimming on, "We sailed through 21 uluses, and in the last uluses we captured some people, slaughtered others, and seized yasyr. And the next day, we sailed through all the uluses to the mouth of the Shingal, and began to drive out yasak, and they refused us, and we seized their peasants as yasyr and killed many people. And we sailed down the Amur, and sailing for two days and a night, we smashed all the uluses, killed people, and seized yasyr. And we sailed for seven days from Shpigalu - all large uluses, with 70 and 80 yurts, and we chopped them down to stumps, and seized their wives and children and cattle."They chopped it down to the stump, took the cattle, took the yaz... The everyday life of a "land explorer".

"While opening military operations against completely peaceful foreigners, the Russians acted with even greater shamelessness and cruelty against savages who had rebelled or were preparing to revolt. The very term by which these actions were designated describes their barbaric nature: they said then that they would not pacify the traitors, but, for the most part, exterminate the traitors. But only men were exterminated; women and children were carried off into slavery.", — we read in Shashkov.

It's not as if the Moscow authorities welcomed the enslavement of the local population of Siberia. Slaves ceased to be "yasak people," that is, they stopped paying a tax in kind in the form of furs to the treasury. But fur For that empire, it was the same as oil is for the current one. Even its share of the treasury's revenue was roughly the same as oil production's today.

 In 1623, the royal decree prohibited:Buy Tatars and Tatarchenkos for men of all kinds and don’t take them for free from anyone", but since this decree was actually ignored, in 1649 another decree allowed: "Tatars and Tatarchons are still being bought».

On December 26, 1695, the order was issued:On the non-execution and torture of Siberian yasak-paying foreigners in any cases without reporting to the Sovereign, on protecting them from insults, taxes and oppressionThis decree emphasized the desire to protect yasak-paying people from arbitrary and cruel treatment. However, despite these decrees, lawlessness and arbitrary administration prevailed locally, leading to uprisings and the brutal suppression of resistance. And, incidentally, to a new "yasyr." Ultimately, the central government capitulated, and the order to the Tobolsk governor on September 1, 1697, confirmed the right to purchase slaves from the Dzungars.people of all ranks", but forbade this to the governors and officials.

When enslaved, indigenous Siberians were usually forcibly baptized; there was even a term “baptize into captivity"This gave the baptizer full ownership of the person he baptized; the baptizer owned such a slave, sold him, or left him as an inheritance under a will. In 1693, in Nerchinsk, a Cossack, Vaska Khamun, bowed before the governor, and in his petition it was written: "in the past there were 200 (1692) In the year the Nerchinsk foot Cossack, Borisko Ignatiev, died by the will of God, and upon departing this world, in his spiritual writing he wrote to his godson of the Muslim race, Vaska Borisov, in the Trinity Monastery on the Ust-Tunguska River" The voivode wrote to the monastery: “how... the newly baptized and Vaska Borisov will come to you in the Monastery, and you will possess that guy, Vaska, spiritually and from this memory, forever unhindered"In this regard, it was the church authorities who welcomed the spread of serfdom to the Siberian peoples, "through which the Christian law is glorified; for they were formerly idolaters and Mohammedans and will become Christians by purchasing them».

In the 18th century, capturing captives ceased to be a significant source of slaves, as most of Siberia was conquered. Yet slaves continued to be taken. From among the unconquered Chukchi, or during the suppression of the Koryak uprising of 1745-1756, as well as during "military searches," when Russian Cossack and regular detachments captured Kazakh women and children. And the Siberian Provincial Chancellerythe people gave the taken loot to them for division"In the 18th century, the enslavement of prisoners gradually became a rare and semi-legal phenomenon and was not unconditional: they could be exchanged for Russian prisoners or simply released by order of the administration.

During the 1718–1724 census, kholops (slaves), the property of Russian residents of Siberia, were included in the per capita tax. In 1719, there were 4097 male kholops (slaves), and they were considered equal to serfs. The per capita tax abolished slavery in Russia. This meant that there was no longer complete personal dependence that was not tied to work for the state.

However, the Russian conquest of the southern territories of Siberia and Russia's growing interaction with Dzungaria and the Kazakh state entities once again intensified the slave trade on the border. Empress Anna Ioannovna legalized this practice with her decree of November 16, 1737:Kalmyks and other nations, who, as is known, are baptized and the owners get mostly minors... anyone is allowed to buy such people, baptize them and keep them without any payment of poll taxes, with one note in the provincial and voivodeship offices».

Essentially, this decree authorized the acquisition of slaves from the Volga Kalmyks, who were vassals of Russia, and also confirmed the right to purchase slaves on the border with Dzungaria, which had existed since the 17th century. Thus, the social group of slaves was reestablished, who differed from serfs in that they were not included in the per capita tax. The decree further stated:Those who have learned a craft and can earn money independently should be enrolled in workshops and included in the per capita tax."That is, slaves who possess or have learned any craft can be freed and must in this case be registered as guild artisans.

On May 12, 1744, a new decree was adopted, clarifying the one issued in 1737. According to this decree, slaves assigned to their owners under the provisions of the previous decree, if they presented themselves for inspection and requested release without their owners' consent, were to be subject to corporal punishment and returned to their owners. Thus, the legal aspects of the status of purchased "Kalmyks" were defined.

However, there was one restriction on slave ownership: a decree of July 7, 1749, prohibited Siberian residents, governors, and clerks serving in Siberia from exporting acquired slaves to European Russia. This was done to ensuremultiplication of the people" in Siberia. Such export was permitted only to military personnel.

In 1763, a commission under the leadership of Second Major A. Shcherbachev was created to organize the collection of yasak in Siberia. It was called the "First Yasak Commission." The commission submitted a report to the Senate stating that "They turned out to be infidels of the yasak-paying Tatar breed, taken away by various means in their infancy", after which they were assigned to their owners by decree of 1737. They were passed off as having been purchased abroad, but the commission doubted their origin. It asked the Senate to decide what to do if the investigation revealed that these people were indeed yasak payers.

On February 12, 1764, a decree was issued requiring legally acquired Asians to remain with their owners. If yasak-paying people or their children were found in someone's possession, they were to be freed and enrolled in the yasak tax system. This decree put an end to the attempts to enslave the indigenous peoples of Siberia that had occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. The government permitted the purchase of people who were not Russian subjects, but prohibited any form of enslavement of yasak-paying people or their children, even if they had not yet been enrolled in the yasak tax system. This was done to avoid losing potential taxpayers.

In the mid-18th century, the Chinese Qing Dynasty defeated Dzungaria, and the Chinese-Manchu army committed a full-scale genocide against the Dzungars, who fled to the steppe to save themselves. At this time, the Kirghiz-Kaisaks, as the Kazakhs were then called, had the opportunity to settle accounts with their long-time enemies, the Dzungars. They galloped across the steppe, rounding up groups of Dzungar refugees and selling them into slavery, including to Russians. This led to the issuance of the decree of 1757, which became the main basis for Siberian slavery. According to this decree, due to a shortage of people in Siberia who, according to the decrees, were required to own serfs, the right to buy and exchange captives of various nationalities brought by the Kirghiz-Kaisaks was granted to people of any class. This meant that this right extended not only to nobles, but also to merchants, commoners, Cossacks, and tradesmen. Muslims living in Siberia were permitted to acquire slaves only of their own faith.

At the end of the 18th century, the slave trade on the Russian-Kazakh border continued. A. N. Radishchev, who stopped in Tobolsk on his way to exile in 1791, wrote that the Kazakhs "“They often bring in captured Kalmyks of all ages,” which "Russian merchants exchange with them».

As mentioned earlier, slaves primarily performed household chores and heavy physical labor. Their situation was similar to that of the landowners' household servants in European Russia. Slaves were generally not involved in production. However, in the 18th century, farms based on slave labor occasionally emerged in Siberia. These were few in number because, firstly, there were relatively few slaves in Siberia, and secondly, the slaves were mostly nomads, who were not suited to agriculture.

In the early 19th century, as a result of internal conflicts within Kazakh society, impoverished Kazakhs began selling their children and younger relatives to the Khanate of Khiva and Russian residents of border areas. This alarmed the Russian government, which believed that such a practice was contrary to Russia's interests, since the Kazakhs of the Younger and Middle Zhuzes were formally its subjects.

Several projects were proposed to exploit the plight of the nomads to Russia's advantage. One of the most progressive was proposed by P. E. Velichko, director of the Orenburg customs office, in 1805. He proposed allowing Russian subjects to purchase Kazakh children equally with other Asian captives, but with the condition that they would all be released upon reaching adulthood.

In 1805–1806, Orenburg military governor G.S. Volkonsky advocated that only nobles could acquire Kazakh children, and that these children would remain in perpetual captivity. He opposed Velichko's proposal to purchase children for a limited period, believing that in that case, there would be no takers.

All these projects and reports served as impetus for the abolition of slavery. On May 23, 1808, a decree was issued prohibiting the sale of Kazakh children to Khivans, but permitting the purchase of Kazakh children with the condition of their emancipation upon reaching the age of 25. Interestingly, this decree was enforced by the Orenburg military governor, G.S. Volkonsky, and the Siberian governor-general, I.B. Pestel; their children later became Decembrists.

The 1808 decree did not apply to "Kalmyks" and other peoples, so in 1819 it was extended to all slaves, and in 1825 and 1828, the purchase of new slaves was prohibited. Slaves acquired before 1808 remained in bondage for life or until the death of their owner, but their numbers were insignificant. Most slaves were freed either immediately or upon reaching the age of 25. After the 30s, references to slaves disappear.

Of course, slavery in Siberia was on a smaller scale than in the tropical colonies of European countries. However, it was the norm of its era, an integral part of colonization, and carried with it just as much grief and inhumanity.

M. Sibiryak