Background history of Tomsk and Tomsk oblast

Tomsk was founded in1604 by decree of the Russian tsar Boris Godunov on the right bank of the river Tom at the confluence of the Tom and the Ushaika. According to historian Miller G.F., “even by a longer search one couldn’t have found a better place in this area”. In order to build a fortress, two hundred Cossacks arrived here under the command of V. Tyrkov and G. Picemsky. Since that time Tomsk took on special significance in conquest of people of other ethnic groups who were living to south of Tomsk.

There were a lot of ups and down in the history of Tomsk. The status of a town Tomsk obtained in 1629 and in 1643 the town burnt down. On this place a new one was built, which was a fortress, surrounded by a wooden wall with 6 towers and the diameter of about 50 sazhens.

In 1738 Coachmen Service appeared in Tomsk. It stimulated the development of numerous attendants along the Moscow-Siberia route: coachmen, blacksmiths and craftspeople. There appeared coaching inn. The town kept on growing.

In 1804 by the decree of Emperor Alexander Tomsk became the administrative center of a new Gubernia that included the present Altai Territory, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, East-Kazakhstan and Tomsk Oblasts and part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. A new leaf in its history was turned. Town council, town hall, police department were established; among wooden houses stone houses began to appear: at first these were churches and administrative buildings and then houses of well-off people.

Since the end of ХIХ century Tomsk became a large scientific-enlightening center of Siberia: in 1888, Emperor Alexander III "by his sovereign will" opened the Tomsk University, the first behind the Ural Mountains. Afterwards technological, teachers training, medical and building universities were established.

After the revolution of 1917 Tomsk became part of the Siberian Territory and later of the West-Siberian Territory. In 1937 Tomsk and its nearby neighbors became part of the Novosibirsk Oblast.

Strong industrial growth began after 30 enterprises had been evacuated to Tomsk within the first year of the war. By the end of the war the industrial output was trebled. New branches of industry, such as electrical engineering, optomechanics and rubber engineering were developed, and machine building and metalworking as well as light and food industries expanded.

In August, 1944 an order was issued which decreed the formation of the Tomsk Oblast, since that time Tomsk had regained its status of one of the largest economic and administrative centers in Siberia.

Tomsk continues to be the town of science and human resources. Soon after the Great Patriotic War Tomsk became the world known center of nuclear research and production.

The post-war development of the Tomsk Oblast is in many ways connected with exploration and commercial development of oil and gas deposits. The first commercial oil influx occurred in the August of 1962 at the Sosninskoye oil field near the settlement of Alexandrovskoye. The settlement of Strezhevoy was selected for the support base for the development of commercial oil production. In 1966 the Oil Field Management Agency TOMSKNEFT was established.

In 1991 Toms was granted the status of the historical town. Its protective zone occupies the area of 950 ha. This historic reserved part preserved the townscape originality of stone buildings of the provincial town at the end of XIX – beginning of XX centuries and of wooden buildings decorated with ancient carving.

Tomsk scientific center of the Russian Academy of Science gained big popularity. It comprises: Institutes of Atmospheric Optics, Institute of Petroleum Chemistry, High Current Electronics Institute, Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science and other acknowledged in the scientific world research centers.