The history of Tobolsk will be important to anyone interested in how our country has developed. After all, this city, located on the territory of the modern Tyumen region, used to be considered the capital of Siberia. He was one of the main settlements in the eastern part of Russia.
How it all began...
The history of Tobolsk dates back to 1587. It was then that the city was founded seventeen kilometers from the Tatar settlement called Siberia or Kashlyk, at that time the capital of the Siberian Khanate. He appeared closer to the mouth of Tobol, lower along the Irtysh River.
According to tradition, the history of the emergence of Tobolsk is associated with the feast of the Holy Trinity. The city was decided to establish near the place near which the soldiers of Yermak landed during the battle on the Chuvashev Bridge.
This is an important battle between the Cossack units from the Don and the Siberian Tatars led by Khan Kuchum. It took place five years earlier, ended with the victory of Ermak, becoming one of the key moments in the fall of the Siberian Khanate, as a result of which it was annexed to Russia. Such is the story of the founding of Tobolsk.
Governor Chulkov
The actual founder of the city is called the governor, whose name was Danila Chulkov. According to the Stroganov Chronicle, the voivode fought against the Tatars for several years.
The Tobolsk prison, established under Chulkov, became the second in Siberia after the Tyumen prison, which appeared a year earlier. An important symbolic act, which meant the transfer of power over this region from the former khan’s capital Tobolsk, was the capture of the last Siberian king, a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Kasimov’s khan Uraz-Mohammed.
The first stone building in the city was the Trinity Church. The same name was used to name the cape there.
Colonization of Siberia
Telling briefly the history of Tobolsk, it should be noted that initially this city was the de facto center of all Siberia. Soon he was even called the capital of this part of the country.
In 1708, such a title was officially secured when the reform of local government organized by Peter I was completed. By its results, Tobolsk was declared the administrative center of the Siberian province, which at that time was the largest in the country. It included territories from the Vyatka River to the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, the so-called Russian America.
Peter I was very interested in the development of Siberia, so he provided all kinds of protection to the city, which played an important role in the history of Tobolsk. The head of state sought to give him a representative appearance, for which he ordered the construction of the Gostiny Dvor and the Order Chamber.
In 1711, the first governor of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, arrived in the city. Under him, construction began to actively develop. Large enterprises of those times began to appear in the environs and in Tobolsk itself — glass and stationery manufactories, the Treasury plant, candle, tannery and salotene plants. Even his own weapons company appeared.
The heyday of Tobolsk
Wealth and fame came to this city in the 18th century. Due to the intensive development of the mining industry, it was through Tobolsk that silver and gold began to be sent to the Moscow mint; they even traded sand gold in the local market.
In fact, it was crossed by the so-called Siberian Highway, which played an important role in the history of the city of Tobolsk, making it a major shopping center.
At their own expense, two regiments were kept here at once - St. Petersburg and Moscow. Later they were renamed Tobolsky and Yenisei, respectively. Among his officers were such famous personalities as the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin Ibrahim Hannibal, the historian Vasily Tatishchev.
In addition to performing administrative functions, Tobolsk had a significant impact on the development of local culture. When Peter I was just planning to restore the theater in 1705, theatrical productions were already going on here. In 1899, the building of the Tobolsk Drama Theater was built, which for many years was considered an architectural masterpiece, was the only wooden theater in the territory of the Soviet Union. It has not survived to our time, burned down in 1990.
In 1743, a theological seminary began to work, and from 1789, one of the first literary magazines in Siberia and in the provinces in general, began to be published, entitled "The Irtysh, Turning into Hippocrene."
In 1810, a men's gymnasium was founded in Tobolsk, which became the first in all of Siberia. In Tomsk, a similar educational institution appeared only after 28 years.
By stage
In the history of the city of Tobolsk there are many bright and remarkable facts. It was from here that the infamous exile to Siberia started. The first one to set off on the stage was the bell, which raised the people against the tsar in Uglich, when the young prince Dmitry, the only rightful heir to Fyodor Ivanovich at that time, was mysteriously killed. They returned it from exile only in the century before last.
In 1616, the failed queen, the bride of Mikhail Fedorovich Maria Khlopova, was forcibly sent here.
Since the 1720s, this city has become a place where massively brought Swedish soldiers and officers captured. It was the Scandinavians who played a role in the history of Tobolsk, participating in the construction of stone buildings and the development of culture. In their honor, one of the chambers of the local Kremlin is even called Swedish.
Over time, Tobolsk became a permanent transit point for exiles. From here, Siberia opened for them. Many famous people passed through a hard labor prison in this city, including Vladimir Korolenko, Fedor Dostoevsky and others.
What led to the decline?
It is worth noting that the fate of most Siberian cities directly depended on the transfer of major roads and tracts. In briefly covering the history of the city of Tobolsk, it must be recognized that its decline was directly related to several factors. The main one was the transfer of the Siberian tract. The reason for this is a change in the nature of Siberia’s development, over time there has been a significant shift in economic life and population to the forest-steppe, to the south of the region.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Tobolsk was primarily known as the administrative center of the native province of Rasputin. About six months ago, the last Russian emperor and his family spent in exile here.
In the years 1921–1922, during the Civil War, Tobolsk became one of the centers of a peasant uprising directed against the Bolsheviks.
Current state
The current development of Tobolsk depends on industry, tourism and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Of great importance was the fact that in 1994 the Holy Synod proclaimed the city one of the most important spiritual centers of the country, along with two capitals. Today it is an important educational center of the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest theological seminary in Siberia operates here.
Due to its natural landscapes and unique architecture, the city has become an attractive tourist attraction. Young people and adults are attracted by the combination of a variety of museum, architectural, religious, archaeological and memorial routes in the Irtysh River region. Around the city there are a large number of recreation centers, summer camps, cultural and sports centers.
In terms of industry, the main hopes are assigned to the petrochemical plant, which in recent years has begun to revive. Since 2013, the country's largest enterprise for the production of polypropylene has been operating, a state program is being implemented to create one of the world's largest gas chemical complexes.
sights
The city has many monuments and objects of antiquity. The main one, of course, is the local Kremlin. In all of Siberia, the stone Kremlin was just this one.
Its construction has been carried out since 1683. It dragged on for decades, intermittently from time to time. As a result, it was finally completed only in 1799.
Among other attractions, it is worth noting the Church of the Seven Youths of Ephesus, the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, Vvedensky Convent, St. Nicholas Church of the Znamensky Monastery.