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In January 1604 the leader of the most numerous group of the Tomsk Tatars was sent with a petition to the tsar Boris Godunov. They asked to defend them and to build a Russian town in the lower part of the Tom river. Boris Godunov sent a military detachment led by Gavrila Pissemky and Vasily Turkov to find a place for a fortress. The southwestern crest of the hill on the right bank of the Tom was chosen as the most suitable site.
By 27 September 1604, the construction work was completed. A wooden quadrangular fortress was reinforced by walls 210 meters long and with towers in the four corners. Access to the fortress was from the side of the White Lake. By the end of the 18th century, the population was five thousand people, the majority merchants and craftsmen. For a long time Tomsk remained a trading center and a place of exile.
Tomsk today is a industrial, academic, scientific and cultural center of Western Siberia, with a population of more than half a million. The main sectors of the economy are oil and gas, chemical and petro-chemical, timber and woodworking. Tomsk production is well known not only domestically. but abroad.
Tomsk is also a town of students. There are 20 higher research institutes and many specialized technical schools and schools training specialists in medicine, education, art, and other subjects. About 70,000 students live and study in Tomsk. The people of Tomsk are proud of the many outstanding scientists (Obrutchev V.A., Krylov P.N., Kuznetsov V.D. and others) who have lived and worked there. Tomsk is a city of the old and the new. One of the most historical centers of Siberia, it is also a city of youth and modernization. The strong academic centers and development in science and technology draw some of Russia's most talented to study and work in Tomsk, and this is leading the development of the city. Find Out More!
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