The Stroganovs, a merchant and factory-owning family, had enlisted the assistance of Yermak Timofeyevich and a band of Cossacks in 1579 to defend its possessions against attacks by Siberian tribesmen.

Yermak had set out with an expeditionary force of eight hundred and forty men on September 1, 1581, and in the spring of 1582 reached the central regions of the Tatar khanate of Sibir, whose head, Kuchum, rules over the local tribes.

Because his men had firearms, Yermak had been able to defeat the numerically superior forces of Khan Kuchum and occupy the capital, Kashlyk (or Sibir), on the Irtysh River.

Although the tsar hand sent Yermak another five hundred men, revolts have flared on all sides.

Kuchum in August 1585 (or 1584) attacks and destroys a small party of Cossacks led by Yermak, who, fighting his way to the boats, is drowned in the Irtysh, apparently by the weight of the coat of chain mail sent to him by the tsar.