In Russia the Cossacks had already advanced to the pacific ocean by the mid-1600s. They moved in teams of around hundred men building forts some of which, like Tobolsk, Krasnoyarsk and Nerchinsk, would grow into cities. The Siberian Tract between these old settlements could indeed well be called Russia's Oregon trail.

When did exploratory expeditions begin?

The initial push behind the Urals was done during Ivan the Terrible by Yermak Timofeyevich. It was a mercenary leading about a thousand men hired by the Stroganov merchant family to put an end to the Sibir khanate. He acted like they would in the west. He won one major battle and took residence in what used to be his enemy's capital city - Kishlyk. In the winter a great part of his army starved and Yermak himself drowned while trying to hide from an ambush. He was clad in an armor set sent as a present by the tsar.

Each of the subsequent cossack conquistadores^1 and explorers, instead, built forts and relied on trade. Sometimes they would try to pacify local tribes by taking hostages or through raids but each of them has a unique story reminiscent indeed of what you also hear from their colleagues in America.

^1 f.e.: Pyotr Beketov; Vassiliy Poyarkov; Mikhail Stadukhin; Yerofey Khabarov

To what extent, if at all, did Moscow encourage Russians to settle in the East? Was there an organized effort to "Russianize" Siberia?