Expansion of Russia (1500–1800)

The steppe and forest-steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia is good agricultural land, but it was traditionally held by pastoral nomads. Any state that could drive off the nomads and fill the land with tax-paying peasants would expand its power enormously. During the period 1500–1800, this region was taken under Russian control.

"The history of Russia is the history of a country being colonized....migration and colonization of the country have been fundamental facts of our history.." Vasily Klyuchevsky, Kurs russkoy istorii, I, 20–21.

In the absence of a good map, locations will be given as approximately so many kilometers directly south of Moscow, and then so many kilometers east or west of that line. Thus, Kyiv is about 600 south and 500 west, while Perekop at the head of the Crimean peninsula is 1100s and 250w. For contrast, France is not quite 1,000 kilometers from north to south and Moscow is about 1,000 kilometers south of the White Sea. Since these numbers are estimates, they should not be cited or copied.

Pre-history

The pre-history of the Eurasia is characterized by a pattern of migration, invasion, melding of population and displacement and this is attributed to its location. Its plains, which are nestled between the Baltic and Black seas, offer a wealth of natural resources and room for expansion, especially with easy access to river routes. This explains the consistent settlement of this region. On the other hand, the location did not offer natural barriers, making the settlements easy prey for invaders.

The Eurasian Steppe first appears in written history about 600 BC with the founding of Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea. These cities traded Greek goods for Scythian grain. The Scythians were replaced as a ruling group by the Sarmatians, Goths, Avars, Petchenegs, Cumans and Khazars. At some point the dominant language changed from the Iranian language of the Scythians to Kipchak Turkic. About 860 A.D. Vikings entered what is now Russia and established trade routes to Persia and Byzantium. They adopted the local language and formed a state (Kievan Rus) which gradually broke up into a set of linked principalities.

There are historical accounts that show how the Kievan Rus was founded by the Scandinavian Varangians in the ninth century. In its early years, the state paid the Khazars tribute but by tenth century, the Kyivan prince Sviatoslav overthrew their rule and ended their empire. He also caused the fall of the Bulgarian empire and conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, the Alans and the Volga Bulgars.

Around 1240 the whole area was conquered by the Mongols. Much of the Slavic population was driven north and west into the forested lands where they were relatively safe from Mongol raiding. As the Mongol Empire broke up, its western part became the Golden Horde with its capital on the lower Volga. These people adopted Islam about 1315. By 1500, the Golden Horde was in the process of breaking up.

The players

''The steppe nomads'' lived on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas and raided north into the forest-steppe. It was their constant raiding that kept the southern lands free of peasants. With the end of the Great Horde in 1502, they were organized as the independent Nogais north of the Caspian and those north of the Black Sea who were more or less subjects of the Crimean Khan.

''The Cossacks:'' The Slavs who lived on the frontier became known as Cossacks. By about 1500 they had formed two military polities: the Ukrainian Zaparozhian Sich on the Dnieper bend and the Russian Don Cossacks on the Don River bend. There is a good reason why these two communities were so far from the settled lands. Many of the Cossacks on the upper Don had recently left the settled lands and were still in reach of the Russian government. Most of those on the lower Don had been on the steppe for generations, knew no other way of life and were out of reach of the government. The same applies to the Zaporozhians with respect to Poland.

''The Khanate of Crimea:'' This new Khanate quickly became a vassal or ally of the Turks. The Khan had limited control over his nobles and even less over his Nogai vassals. Crimea could put up to 80,000 horsemen into the field and could conduct large-scale raids into Russia and Poland, especially with Nogai assistance. Many Crimean wars were largely slave raids. The export of captives to Turkey was a major factor in the Crimean economy. For a list of raids see Russo-Crimean Wars.

''The Turks:'' This was a peripheral area for the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans had some control over Moldavia and Crimea, held a southern strip of the Crimean peninsula including the great slave port of Kaffa, and held a fort at Azov. Turkish armies entered the steppe only twice during our period, although janissaries would sometimes accompany the Crimean Khan. The Turks were important because of their partial control of Crimea, their wars with Poland in the west, their implied threat to Russia if it moved too far south, and because they were the ultimate destination of slaves captured in Russia and Poland.

''The Poles:'' The Poles, who expanded from the west, had a number of disadvantages. The core of the Polish state was in the west and Poland was often distracted by wars with western powers, especially Sweden. Poland was almost an aristocratic republic. Its nobles sought to protect their liberty by weakening the king, which also weakened the Polish army and made a consistent frontier policy difficult. Their main problem was the alienation of the eastern population. The core of Poland was Catholic, but the eastern lands were mostly Orthodox. Society in the Polish core was based on serfdom, but there was greater freedom in the east. Lords with land grants in the east would offer easy terms to attract peasants. Many people in the Polish east were runaway serfs or adventurers who had reason to distrust a strong state. By the 16th century, Polish claims extended east of the Dnieper to a point south of Moscow, although the area was thinly settled and barely administered.

''The Russians:'' In the early 15th century Tsardom of Russia gradually expanded, defeating various khanates in the process. Its autocracy gave it a fairly effective army. Russia also had a conflict between serfdom and frontier liberty, but its political consequences turned out to be less important. Also like Poland, Russia was frequently distracted by unprofitable wars in the west. Brian L. Davis suggests that Moscow's ultimate advantage was the comparative absence of restraints on its ability to command resources for war.

''A Raiding Economy:'' In addition, the wars recorded in history books, there was a massive amount of petty raiding which kept much of the area depopulated. Raiding and tribute were a major source of goods that could not be produced on the steppe. Crimeans and Nogais raided Russia and Poland. Crimean nobles launched private raids without regard to the Khan. Nogai and Kalmuck clans raided each other. Cossacks raided Crimeans and Nogais, rebelled against Poland and Russia, and hired out for various private and public wars. The Bashkirs were also involved. Capture by Tatar raiders was a constant threat. The market at Kaffa, with its cheap water transport to areas of demand, increased the value of captives. Some were ransomed back to Russia and some were sold east as far as Bukhara. By one estimate some 150,000 to 200,000 captives were taken from Russia in 1600–1650, but of course there are no exact figures. The numbers for Poland would be comparable.

''Forest and Steppe:'' There was no clear line between steppe and forest, but rather a broad transition zone of forest-steppe. Zones ran from southwest to northeast. The steppe proper began as a narrow band near the Danube. In the east, there were patches of grassland almost as far north as Kazan. Fingers of forest extended south down the river valleys. Slavic settlers preferred the river valleys because of better protection, transportation, firewood, game, and soil (steppe grass can be quite difficult to plow).

1450–1550

''The Breakup of the Golden Horde:'' As the Golden Horde weakened, the more settled areas broke off as follows: 1438: Khanate of Kazan on the upper Volga, 1441: Khanate of Crimea on the Black Sea, 1452: Qasim Khanate on the Oka (a Russian vassal),1466: Astrakhan Khanate on the lower Volga. The steppe remnant became known as the Great Horde. From 1480 to 1519 Russia and Crimea were allied against the Great Horde and Poland-Lithuania. In 1480 the Great Horde failed in an attempt to invade Muscovy (Great Stand on the Ugra River), a date that is conventionally taken as the end of Tatar rule over Russia. The last Khan of the Great Horde was killed by the Crimeans in 1502. The steppe peoples then became known as the Nogai Horde. The Nogais on the Volga had their own Beg, while those north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. The removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state brought Russia and Crimea into direct confrontation.

''Consolidation North of the Oka'' By 1450 the Grand Duchy of Moscow held most of the land north of the Oka, except for an enclave about 150 km north and west of Moscow. The enclave was annexed: Yaroslavl(1463), Rostov(1474), Tver (1485). Novgorod (300n,300west) was taken in 1470–1480 and Pskov (250n,500w) in 1510. Ryazan (100s,124e) on the Oka fell in 1521. During the Russo-Lithuanian Wars (1492–1522), Moscow took the northeast part of Lithuania, including the Upper Oka Principalities, Smolensk(1514,120s,250w), Novgorod Seversky(1503,400s,400w) and Chernihiv(1503,480s,300w). Thus by 1521 Moscow held all the forested land north of the Oka from its mouth at Nizhny Novgorod (50n,400e) to the Oka bend at Kaluga and west almost to the Gulf of Finland. In addition, there was a bulge west of the Oka down to Chernihiv.

''The Bank or Oka Line:'' The main line of Muscovite defense had always been the crossings of the Oka River. With the removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state, Crimea became the main enemy, and work was begun to strengthen the Oka defenses. By 1533 about 250 km of the bank was extensively fortified, mainly from Kaluga (150s,75w) on the Oka bend to Kolomna (65s,75e). There were weaker fortifications in the west along the Ugra River and east down the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod(400e,75n). In addition, there was an 'out-fort' at Tula (193s) along the main invasion route. From 1522 the military headquarters was at Kolomna. The bank was manned during the spring-to-fall raiding season. Troops were mostly horse archers drawn from the land-owning class, with increasing numbers of artillery and musketeers.

''The Abatis Line or Zasechnaya cherta:'' After 1533 work began on the Abatis Line. From the 1550s troops began mustering on the emerging Abatis Line. This was about 100 km south of the Oka, in two sections. The first ran from the north-flowing part of the Oka south of Kaluga from Peremyshl(160s,75w) or Belyov(225s,75w) roughly along the Upa River (200s,50w), Krapivna (200s,25w), the great fort of Tula(193s), and then past Venyov (150s,33e) to the Oka at Ryazan(125s,125e). The second started southwest of Ryazan and ran from Skopin(founded 1597,200s,100e) through Ryazhsk(1502,233s,150e) and Sapozhok(200s,200e) to Shatsk(1552,200s,250e). The Abatis Line underwent a major reconstruction in 1638 and again in 1659–60. (Note that this account of the course of the Line may not be exact since Davies (see references), who seems to be the only good source, appears to contradict himself in a few places).

From the 1550s there was a line of sorts from Shatsk to Alatyr (1552,150s,550e).

1550–1618: Down the Volga

''Down the Volga:'' There were numerous Russo-Kazan wars, usually involving Moscow and Crimea backing various claimants for the Kazan throne, but Kazan (700e, 25s) was too far away to be dealt with easily. Advanced forts were built at Vasilsursk on the Volga below Nizhny Novgorod (1523: 533e) and Sviyazhsk (1551: 675e, 25s) near Kazan. Kazan was conquered in 1552. In 1554 Moscow installed a Nogai prince on the throne of Astrakhan. When he rebelled, Russia annexed Astrakhan (1556: 700e, 1000s). (This enormous expansion to the southeast presumably depended on river transport down the Volga, but this is not clear from the English sources.) In the First Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570), the Ottomans tried and failed to retake Astrakhan for Islam. Following the Livonian War, intermediate forts were built on the Volga: Samara (1586: 300s, 800e), Saratov (1590: 450s, 500e), Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) (1589: 800s, 400e). Between the Volga and Urals Ufa (350s, 1100e) was founded in 1574.

''The Nogai Horde:'' The independent Nogais on the lower Volga were happy to support whatever regional power suited their immediate interests. Moscow managed them with a mixture of bribes and threats. From the 1530s, some Nogais would ally with Russia, apparently finding more profit in trading than raiding (In 1555 Ismail sent 20,000 horses to Moscow.). Nogai help or indifference was an important factor in the conquest of Kazan. Ismail assisted Russia in the first Astrakhan campaign. This provoked the hostility of Yosuf on the Yaik. Friends of Ismael murdered Yosuf in 1555 and Ismail declared himself Beg of all the Nogais. Yosuf's sons went after him and reduced him to near poverty. This mutual raiding was made worse by a famine. In 1557 Kazy Mirza broke off and established the Lesser Nogai Horde on the Kuban as a Crimean vassal. In 1600 Russia 'appointed' a Nogai Beg for the first time. The Begship disappears from the English sources in 1618. Around 1630 the Kalmyks migrated from Dzungaria and took over most of the Nogai lands on the lower Volga. The remaining Nogais were then nominally Crimean vassals, either north of the Black Sea, or in the Small Nogai Horde on the Kuban.

''To Siberia:'' There was a slow and steady expansion east and north from Kazan into the Kama River lands toward the Urals. In 1582 the Urals were crossed and the conquest of Siberia began. See Siberian River Routes, History of Siberia.

1550–1618: Center

''The Livonian War and Time of Troubles:'' Instead of consolidating his gains in the southeast, Ivan the Terrible turned west (Livonian War 1558–1583). After some initial successes, the war degenerated into a free-for-all among all the Baltic powers. At war's end, Russia returned, exhausted, to its original frontiers. The strain of this war, Ivan's erratic behavior, and other factors led to the Time of Troubles (1598–1613). This confusion led to a fair number of people to flee south of the Oka, but, as usual, we have no numbers.

''Crimea:'' In 1556 Moscow, in alliance with Dmytro Vyshnevetsky of the Zaporozhian Cossacks attempted several raids on the Black Sea coast. This policy was abandoned after the start of the Livonian war. In 1571, while troops were away in Livonia, Crimea broke through the Oka Line and burned Moscow (Russo-Crimean War (1571)). This led to a strengthening of southern defenses which blocked the next raid (Battle of Molodi).

''South of the Abatis Line:''With the end of the Livonian War in 1583 attention could be turned to the east and south. New forts were built along and east of Volga (Samara, Saratov, and Tsaritsyn and Ufa). The conquest of Siberia began in 1582. To the south, forts were built along the main Tatar raiding trail at Elets(1592:350s,50e)), Voronezh(1586:450s,100e), Belgorod (1593:575s,75w) and Stary Oskol (1593:490s). These were used as refuges for peasants and livestock during Tatar raids. Sorties from these forts could sometimes deal with smaller war parties and rescue captives. In the far south, Tsarev Borisov(750s) was founded in 1599 and abandoned after 1618.

''Rangers:'' The practice of sending out long-range patrols appears to have started in the early 16th century at Putivl near the upper Oka. In 1541 a patrol provided enough warning to block a Tatar raid. By 1551 patrols had become a regular practice. A ranger patrol usually consisted of a captain and a few dozen men who covered great distances with no fixed route. When they detected signs of a raiding party they sent messengers back to the nearest garrison. Patrols were made more systematic after the Tatar raid in 1571. A starozha typically consisted of two to six horsemen who operated from a fixed point and systematically surveyed an area with a radius of up to 70 km. Starozha beats interlocked. By 1623 there were 180 of them. The ranger patrols in the south gave early warning while the starozhas detected most penetrations and sent word north to the garrisons and defense lines. The growing number of Cossacks on the upper Don provided an additional source of intelligence.

''Colonization:'' Peasants in the settled lands were generally serfs who could not legally leave their lords, but, given the weakness of police and record-keeping at this time, once a peasant ran away, it was quite difficult to find him and bring him back. Frontier landowners and garrison commanders who needed peasants would often protect any runaways that showed up. Runaways blended into the general class of adventurers, drifters, discharged soldiers, and other unclassifiable who lived along the frontier. Many peasants went only a short way south and remained connected to the economic and political system of the settled lands, while a few went further south into the truly wild lands and became full Cossacks. Moscow vacillated between protecting the interests of its landowners and encouraging frontier settlement. Growing military presence in the south reduced the Tatar threat and increased the number of peasants who were willing to try their luck on the frontier. A proper history of Russia's southward expansion would need a table showing population by region and decade, but such numbers do not seem to be available.

1618–1686: The Belgorod Line

''Time of Troubles and Reconstruction:'' During the Time of Troubles (1598–1613) Moscow lost control of much of the southern area. Various towns were sacked by the Poles, Tatars, and Zaporozhian Cossacks. The Truce of Deulino ended the Russo-Polish War (1605–1618) and Russia lost Smolensk, Seversk, and Chernihiv. During the period of reconstruction (1618–33) the south continued to be neglected. The only significant new fort was Lebedyan.

''Smolensk War (1632–34):'' During this war, Russia tried and failed to retake Smolensk. Westward diversion of troops led to two major Crimean raids. The one in 1633 was apparently the last to cross the Oka. The war also saw the first use of foreign- formation troops (European mercenary officers and paid soldiers using Dutch-style drill) that were to be important for the next 75 years. At the start of the war, Russia could field about 100,000 men: 27,000 traditional servicemen, 33,000 musketeers, 4,000 artillerymen, 11,000 Cossacks, and about 20,000 Tatar irregulars (up from 35,000 in 1500).

''Belgorod Line:'' With the end of the Smolensk War in 1634 and the Tatar raid of 1633, Moscow turned its attention south. Frontier troops were more than tripled to 17,500. In 1638 there was a major rebuilding of the Abatis Line. Forts south of the Abatis Line were linked up. Eleven new garrison towns were founded in 1635–37. Tatar raids in 1644 showed that fortification was incomplete and eighteen new forts were founded by 1653. From 1646 frontier deployment was moved south to the Belgorod line. From 1650 command was centered at Belgorod. Standards were relaxed to attract settlers, many people being granted lands as 'odnodvortsy' (roughly yeomen).

The completed Belgorod Line was shaped like a reversed 'L'. It ran south down the Voronezh River

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