Siberia was scarcely known to the Russians before the middle of the sixteenth century. For although an expedition was made, under the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch I. into the northwestern parts of that country, as far as the river Ohy, by which several Tartar tribes were rendered tributary, and some of their chiefs brought prisoners to Moscow; yet this incursion bore a greater resemblance to the desultory inroads of barbarians, than to any permanent establishment of empire by a civilized nation. Indeed the effects of that expedition soon vanished; nor does any trace of the least communication with Siberia again appear in the Russian history before the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II. At that period Siberia again became an object of attention, by means of one Anika Strogonoff, a Russian merchant, who had established some salt works at Solvytshegodskaia, a town in the government of Archangel.

This person carried on a trade of barter with the inhabitants of the north-western parts of Siberia, who brought every year to the above-mentioned town large quantities of the choicest furs. Upon their return to their country, Strogonoff was accustomed to send with them some Russian merchants, who crossed the mountains, and traded with the natives. By these means a considerable number of very valuable furs were procured at an easy rate, in exchange for toys and other commodities of trifling value.