The mysterious territory from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean has long attracted attention with its inaccessible wealth. It still does not cease to amaze with its open spaces, accommodating all the natural zones of the earth: mountains, steppes, forests, tundra, desert.
What does the word Siberia mean? Not so long ago, it inspired horror and a shudder among a simple person, representing a place of exile with eternal frosts. Today it is an economically developed region of Russia with great prospects, in which more than 25 million people live.
Country beyond the Hyperborean Mountains
The rich land of Siberia is famous for its diversity and has a rich history. The ancient world designated it as an unknown land at the end of the world, a country of cold and darkness. Many were interested in the country beyond the Hyperborean mountains, and the Russians were no exception. The chronicler in the XI century tells the story of the Ugra people who live in the Ural Mountains. He claimed that even by Alexander the Great this people had been driven into the mountains, where it settled.
The most ancient settlements in Siberia arose almost 25 thousand years ago. Times have changed and the peoples inhabiting this land have been replaced. And everyone left their mark. Locations were associated with pastures, lakes and rivers. Archaeological finds have been discovered in cities and villages along the path of peoples' migration.
For the civilized world, Siberia was discovered a little later than America. The indigenous population was a nomadic tribe of the Mongoloid type, which were at the stage of the primitive communal system. But the backwardness of the tribes did not prevent the Russians from engaging in trade relations with them through exchange.
What does the word Siberia mean?
There is an assumption that Siberia originates from the Russian word siver, which means cold wind. The consonance of these words gives reason to think that this is how the name of the cold region appeared. But such a version is not officially taken into account.
An interesting interpretation was provided by A.G. Mitroshkina words Siberia from the Mongolian word seber - "beautiful, beautiful." Another version of the origin of the word is on behalf of the Hunian tribe of Sabira. A local historian N.A. Abramov relates the meaning of the word Siberia to the Tatar verb sibirmak, which is understood as cleansing. Russian geographer V.N. Tatishchev also compares Siberia with the Tatar word senbir - you are the first.
Another bold assumption that Siberia comes from the word cathedral is to collect. The time when Russia increased due to the collected land. The process is called Siberia.
No matter how convincing these assumptions may sound, they do not have any substantial justification under them and do not withstand historical and linguistic expertise.
First mention
The word Siberia was first used by Iranian authors in their sources at the end of the 12th century. With the beginning of the Mongol-Tatar conquest, mention is also found in Russian chronicles. Around 1495, as a result of civil wars of Turkic tribes, the Siberian Khanate was formed , headed by Mahmet. Where the Tobol and Irtysh rivers meet, he built the Isker fortress. In various sources, this capital appears under the name Siberia or Kashlyk.
In Russian manuscripts of the 15th century, the area in the lower reaches of the Tobol River and along the middle Irtysh was called Siberian land. And in 1570, Ivan the Terrible, in his message to the Queen, listing numerous titles, calls himself the sovereign of all Siberian lands. The name Siberia here refers not only to the nationality, but also to the lands.
Origin version
The origin of the word Siberia to this day does not have exact certainty and causes a lot of discussion. According to one version, Europeans first heard the word in the 13th century during the time of Marco Polo. The opinions of scientists are divided.
Assumption Z.A. Boyarshinova, also supported by other researchers, deserves attention. It connects Siberia with the people of the ancient Ugric Sipyrs.
Another option is that the word Siberia means the land of lakes, rivers and swamps, if we make a breakdown into two components of Siberia and Ir. The first is regarded as a modified ancient Turkic sub - water, and the second comes from the common Turkic ir - land. And this version does not differ from the Mongolian Siberian, which means a swamp, a damp plain.
Joining the Russian state
Many still tend to think that this name is taken from the Siberian Khanate with the capital Isker (Siberia). At the end of the 16th century, Russian industrialists and merchants began to actively develop land on the Irtysh and Ob rivers. And to protect the acquired property from the encroachments of the Siberian Khan, Yermak's Cossack detachments were hired. They managed to win and capture the khanate, including its lands in the Russian state.
But the Russians did not stop there. Deepening east and north, they spread the name of uncharted territory with the word Siberia. Following the first explorers, peasants and artisans did not wait for themselves, fleeing the oppression of the boyars, using the opportunity to live a free life.
Traditions of the Tatars
To find out what the word Siberia means, we turn to history. In troubled times, when the Roman Empire perished under barbarian tribes, the Asiatic tribe of Savira came to Europe. Nothing more is known about him. And in the legends of the Tatars it is narrated that when the army of Genghis Khan marched on the earth, treacherously defeating everyone in its path, it replaced the Siberian people who lived north of Altai. By the way, this moment is also mentioned in other ancient manuscripts. Unable to fight back, the vanquished went even further north, but their name remained forever behind the lost land. It is interesting that the legends of the Tobolsk Tatars echo Mongol traditions.
An interesting fact is that in Russia until the 18th century, all Siberian peoples were called Tatars. This means that the word Siberia was not attributed to a direct ethnic definition.
What does the word Kamchatka mean?
Another rich and mysterious region of the Russian state. The name Kamchatka in the middle of the 17th century was related only to the river, and only in the 1690s did the Russian conquerors who came by that name all the peninsula.
Like Siberia, the origin of Kamchatka has many speculations and hypotheses. At the end of the 19th century, the version of the local historian V.P. Margaritova. He believed that the Cossacks, when they first visited Kamchatka, noting the roughness of the terrain, called it Kamchatka. But this assumption was soon refuted, putting forward a more significant one.
In the dictionary of N.I. Berezina says that Kamchatka originates from the Koryak word ending. The Koryaks called the natives of a harsh land - people on the edge. Many supported this assumption, but it is not considered reliable. And here is another option that Kamchatka got its name in a hurry, as the Greeks once called the Black Sea when they saw it in a storm. The old Turkic word ko meaning this and the word nachar in the meaning of bad, bad combination give this bad place. It is likely that someone got acquainted with the land in severe weather.
Despite all the versions and speculations, what the words Siberia and Kamchatka mean to this day remains a mystery, and continues to cause controversy among historians.