ABSTRACT
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Muscovy’s territory increased more than 30 times to become an empire that included very different social groups, customs, religions and climates. Although distances were already huge west of the Urals, the fact that Siberia dwarfed all other annexed territories exacerbated the problems of governance. During the early modern period, governance was restricted by many factors in countries such as France or Germany, therefore the question of how Siberia was integrated into the realm and what institutions made its government possible is even more salient. Additionally, in Siberia the only officially sanctioned armed forces were the various Cossack bands, while the rest of the population bore weapons as well. For economic reasons, the tsar could not send an army to discipline Siberian towns. Yet there were economic motives that urged the Siberian towns to remain under the suzerainty of the tsar. Since the main markets for fur and a considerable part of the supply of foodstuffs, weapons and others were located in the west, they always sought some sort of agreement with Moscow. Because any accord was apt to be renegotiated, institutions enabling Cossacks to communicate with the chancellery and the tsar had to be flexible. However, they also had to confirm the expectation prevalent in autocratic Muscovy that only God’s laws bound the tsar.
