Yermak Timofeyevich (; born between 1532 and 1542 – August 5 or 6, 1584) was a Cossack who led the Russian conquest of Siberia in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Russia’s fur interests fueled their desire to expand east into Siberia. The tsar’s ultimate goal was to extend all the way to the Bering Strait. The Tatar khanate of Kazan was established as the best entryway into Siberia. In 1552, Ivan the Terrible’s modernized army toppled the khanate. After the takeover of Kazan, the tsar looked to the powerful and affluent Stroganov merchant family to spearhead the eastward expansion. In the late 1570s, the Stroganovs recruited Cossack fighters to invade Asia on behalf of the tsar. They elected Yermak as the leader of their armed forces and, in 1582, Yermak set out with an army of 840 to conqu