Berezov uyezd in 1595: the rebellion of «foreigners» and the service people

In 1595, shortly after founding, the Berezov fort was besieged by the Ostyaks (probably under the command of the Kunovat-Lyapin prince Shatrov Luguev) and the Samoeds. A quarter century later, three servicemen from Berezov evidenced in the Kazan Prikaz that the siege, during which the ‘foreigners’ burned the fort, lasted over six months. Contrary to the common opinion, the reliability of this evidence can be doubted because it does not completely agree with the news on Shatrov Luguev’s assault of Berezov in 1594–1595. Moreover, the garrison of the fortress on the Severnaya Sosva river was rather numerous (three hundred Cossacks and ‘Lithuanians’) and it is likely that they were able to make the assaulters retreat. The agitation among the local Ostyaks and Samoyeds subsided, probably, only a few months later, and Moscow considered it expedient to send a punitive detachment, commanded by Prince P.I. Gorchakov, to the Urals. In 1596, together with the Kodi Ostyaks and, apparently, the Berezovites, Gorchakov defeated the Obdor principality and founded the Obdor (Nosovoy) fort.