Tobolsk (English) Тобольск (Russian)
-  Town[1]  -
Tobolsk Kremlin. A photo taken by Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia.
Location of Tyumen Oblast in Russia
Tobolsk Location of Tobolsk in Tyumen Oblast
Coordinates: 58°11′43″N 68°15′29″E / 58.19528°N 68.25806°E / 58.19528; 68.25806Coordinates: 58°11′43″N 68°15′29″E / 58.19528°N 68.25806°E / 58.19528; 68.25806
Town Day	Last Sunday of June[citation needed]
Administrative status (as of November 2011)
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Tyumen Oblast[1]
Administratively subordinated to	City of Tobolsk[1]
Administrative center of	Tobolsky District,[citation needed] City of Tobolsk[1]
Municipal status (as of December 2011)
Urban okrug	Tobolsky Urban Okrug[2]
Administrative center of	Tobolsky Urban Okrug[2]
Head of Administration[citation needed]	Ivan Olenberg[citation needed]
Representative body	Tobolsk Duma[citation needed]
Statistics
Area	222 km2 (86 sq mi)[citation needed]
Population (2010 Census, preliminary)	99,698 inhabitants[3]
- Rank in 2010	166th
Population (2002 Census)	92,880 inhabitants[4]
- Rank in 2002	179th
Density	449 /km2 (1,160 /sq mi)[5]
Time zone	YEKT (UTC+06:00)[6]
Founded	1580s[citation needed]
Postal code(s)	626150-626159[citation needed]
Dialing code(s)	+7 3456[citation needed]
Official website
Tobolsk on WikiCommons

Tobolsk (Russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: 99,698 (2010 Census preliminary results);^[3] 92,880 (2002 Census);^[4] 94,143 (1989 Census).^[7]

History[link]

It was founded by Yermak Timofeyevich's Cossacks in 1585–1586 during the first Russian advance into Siberia near the ruins of the Khanate of Sibir's capital, Qashliq. It became the seat of the Viceroy of Siberia and prospered on trade with China and Bukhara. It was there that the first school, theater, and newspaper in Siberia were established. After the Swedish defeat at Poltava in 1709, large numbers of prisoners were sent to Tobolsk. They numbered about 25% of the total population. Many POWs were not repatriated until the 1720s, and some of them settled permanently in Tobolsk.

A map from a 1773 atlas showing Tobolsk as the center of a large Tobolsk okrug and of an even larger so-called "Province of Tobolsk", as well as the "Capital of Siberia"

After administrative division of the territory, Tobolsk remained the seat of the Governor-General of Western Siberia until the seat was moved to Omsk in the 1820s or 1830s. Bowing to the city's authority, many Siberian towns, including Omsk, Tyumen, and Tomsk, had their original arms display the Tobolsk insignia. Omsk honors the legacy to this day.

View of Tobolsk in the 1910s

Until the October Revolution of 1917, the town served as the capital of Tobolsk Governorate. The chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev and the painter Vasily Perov are the most famous natives of the city. Some of the Decembrists were exiled and lived there as well. The town's importance declined when the Trans-Siberian Railway bypassed it in the 1890s.

In August 1917, after the February Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were brought here to live in relative luxury in the former house of the Governor-General. After the White Army approached the city in spring of 1918, the royal family was moved to Yekaterinburg and shot there, ending the Imperial Romanov Dynasty.

Administrative and municipal status[link]

Administratively, along with one urban-type settlement, it is incorporated as the Town of Tobolsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.^[1] Municipally, the Town of Tobolsk is incorporated as Tobolsky Urban Okrug.^[2]

Economy[link]

The economy of modern Tobolsk centers on a major oil refinery. Some traditional crafts, such as bone-carving, are also preserved.

Main sights[link]

The Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, where the Russian Imperial family was held in captivity between August 1917 and April 1918

Tobolsk is the only town in Siberia and one of the few in Russia which has a standing stone kremlin (Tobolsk Kremlin): an elaborate city-fortress from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Its white walls and towers with an ensemble of churches and palatial buildings spectacularly sited on a high river bank were proclaimed a national historical and architectural treasure in 1870.

The principal monuments in the kremlin are the Cathedral of St. Sophia (1683–1686), a merchant courtyard (1703–1705), an episcopal palace (1773–1775; now a museum of local lore), and the so-called Swedish Chamber, with six baroque halls (1713–1716). The town contains some remarkable baroque and Neoclassical churches from the 18th and 19th centuries. Also noteworthy is a granite monument to Yermak, constructed to a design by Alexander Brullov in 1839. The town's vicinity is rich in ancient kurgans and pagan shrines, some of which date back to the 10th century BCE.

Trivia[link]

In The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe made Robinson Crusoe stay in Tobolsk from September 1703 to June 1704.

Notable people[link]

• Alexander Zakin, pianist

International relations[link]

Twin towns and sister cities[link]

Tobolsk is twinned with:

• Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States
• Peć, Serbia

References[link]

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Тюменская областная Дума. Закон №53 от 4 ноября 1996 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Тюменской области», в ред. Закона №75 от 9 ноября 2011 г «Об упразднении деревни Вяткина Малоскарединского сельского поселения Аромашевского муниципального района Тюменской области и внесении изменений в отдельные Законы Тюменской области». Вступил в силу с момента официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Тюменские известия", №220, 12 ноября 1996 г. (Tyumen Oblast Duma. Law #53 of November 4, 1996 On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Tyumen Oblast, as amended by the Law #75 of November 9, 2011 On Abolishing the Village of Vyatkina of Maloskaredinskoye Rural Settlement of Aromashevsky Municipal District and on Amending Various Laws of Tyumen Oblast. Effective as of the moment of official publication.).
• Тюменская областная Дума. Закон №263 от 5 ноября 2004 г. «Об установлении границ муниципальных образований Тюменской области и наделении их статусом муниципального района, городского округа и сельского поселения», в ред. Закона №90 от 5 декабря 2011 г «О внесении изменения в Закон Тюменской области "Об установлении границ муниципальных образований Тюменской области и наделении их статусом муниципального района, городского округа и сельского поселения"». Вступил в силу 1 января 2005 г. Опубликован: "Тюменская область сегодня", №213 (без приложений), 12 ноября 2004 г. (Tyumen Oblast Duma. Law #263 of November 5, 2004 On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations of Tyumen Oblast and on Granting Them the Status of a Municipal District, Urban Okrug, and Rural Settlement, as amended by the Law #90 of December 5, 2011 On Amending the Law of Tyumen Oblast "On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations of Tyumen Oblast and on Granting Them the Status of a Municipal District, Urban Okrug, and Rural Settlement". Effective as of January 1, 2005.).

Further reading[link]

• Brumfield, William. Tobolsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs. Moscow: Tri Kvadrata, 2006. ISBN 5-94607-063-0

External links[link]

• Official website of Tobolsk (Russian)
• Information and entertainment portal of Tobolsk (Russian)
• Tobolsk: Siberia's first capital

v t e Cities and towns in Tyumen Oblast Administrative center: Tyumen Ishim Tobolsk Tyumen Yalutorovsk Zavodoukovsk

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