The history of Tobolsk will be important to everyone who is interested in how our country developed. After all, this city, located on the territory of the modern Tyumen region, was previously considered the capital of Siberia. It 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 the Tobol, down the Irtysh River.
According to the legend that has come down to us, the history of the emergence of Tobolsk is connected with the feast of the Holy Trinity. It was decided to establish the city not far from the place near which Yermak's soldiers landed during the battle on the Chuvashev bridge.
This is an important battle between the Cossack detachments from the Don and the Siberian Tatars led by Khan Kuchum. It took place five years earlier, ended with the victory of Yermak, becoming one of the key moments in the fall of the Siberian Khanate, as a result of which it was annexed to Russia. Takovathe history of the founding of Tobolsk.
Voevoda Chulkov
The actual founder of the city is called the governor, whose name was Danila Chulkov. According to the Stroganov Chronicle, the governor fought against the Tatars for several years.
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 of Tobolsk, was the capture by Chulkov of the last Siberian king, a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Kasimov Khan Uraz-Mohammed.
The Trinity Church became the first stone building in the city. The same name was given to the cape there.
Colonization of Siberia
Telling briefly the history of Tobolsk, it should be noted that initially this city was the actual center of all Siberia. Soon it was even called the capital of this part of the country.
In 1708, this title was officially fixed when the reform of local self-government organized by Peter I was completed. According to 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 the city with all kinds of patronage, which played an important role in the history of Tobolsk. The head of state sought to give him a representative appearance, for which he orderedbuild Gostiny Dvor and the Order Chamber.
In 1711, the first governor of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, arrived in the city. Under him, construction began to develop actively. Large enterprises for those times began to appear in the vicinity and in Tobolsk itself - a glass and paper manufactory, a state-owned factory, a candle factory, a tannery and a fire-baking factory. There was even an own arms factory.
Flourishing Tobolsk
We alth 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, and even sand gold was traded on 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.
Two regiments at once were kept here at their own expense - St. Petersburg and Moscow. Later they were renamed Tobolsk and Yenisei, respectively. Among his officers were such famous personalities as Alexander Pushkin's great-grandfather Ibragim Gannibal, historian Vasily Tatishchev.
Besides performing administrative functions, Tobolsk had a significant impact on the development of local culture. When Peter I only planned to restore the theater in 1705, theatrical performances 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, it was the only wooden theater onterritory of the Soviet Union. It has not survived to our time, having 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 general in the province began to be published, called “The Irtysh Turning into Hippocrene.”
In 1810, it was in Tobolsk that a men's gymnasium was founded, which became the first in all of Siberia. In Tomsk, a similar educational institution appeared only 28 years later.
Step by step
There are many bright and remarkable facts in the history of Tobolsk. It was from here that the infamous exile to Siberia started. The first to go through the stage was the bell that raised the people against the tsar in Uglich, when the young Tsarevich Dmitry, the only legitimate heir of Fyodor Ivanovich at that time, was mysteriously killed. He was returned 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 Swedish soldiers and officers who were captured are brought en masse. It was the Scandinavians who played a certain role in the history of Tobolsk, taking part 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 the exiles. From here, Siberia opened up for them. Many famous people passed through the hard labor prison in this city, including Vladimir Korolenko, Fyodor Dostoevsky andothers.
What caused the decline?
It is worth noting that the fate of most Siberian cities directly depended on the transfer of main roads and tracts. Briefly covering the history of the city of Tobolsk, it must be admitted that its decline was directly related to several factors. The main one was the transfer of the Siberian tract. The reason for this lies in the change in the nature of the development of Siberia, over time there was a significant shift in economic life and the 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 Rasputin's native province. The last Russian emperor and his family spent about six months here in exile.
In 1921-1922, during the Civil War, Tobolsk turned into one of the centers of the peasant uprising against the Bolsheviks.
Current State
The current development of Tobolsk depends on industry, tourism and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The fact that in 1994 the Holy Synod proclaimed the city one of the most important spiritual centers of the country, along with the two capitals, was of great importance. Today it is an important educational center of the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest theological seminary in Siberia operates here.
Thanks to natural landscapes and unique architecture, the city has become an attractive tourist destination. Young people and adults are attracted by a combination of a variety of museum, architectural, confessional, archaeological andmemorial routes in the area of the Irtysh River. A large number of recreation centers, summer camps, cultural and sports centers operate around the city.
In terms of industry, the main hopes are placed on the petrochemical plant, which has begun to revive in recent years. Since 2013, the country's largest enterprise for the production of polypropylene has been operating, and a state program is being implemented to create one of the world's largest gas chemical complexes.
Attractions
There are many monuments and objects of antiquity in the city. The main one, of course, is the local Kremlin. In all of Siberia, there was only this stone Kremlin.
Its construction has been going on since 1683. It dragged on for decades, interrupted from time to time. As a result, it was finally completed only in 1799.
Among other sights it is worth noting the Church of the Seven Youths of Ephesus, the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, the Vvedensky Convent, the St. Nicholas Church of the Znamensky Monastery.
