Siberian River Routes - Southwest

Southwest

After the conquest of Astrakhan in 1566, Russia expanded southeast around the southern base of the Urals. This involved increasing political control over the Nogai Horde, the Kalmyks and the northern Kazakhs, followed by varying degrees of peasant colonization. Another route was up the Irtysh toward the Altai country (Semipalitinsk, 1718).