Tobolsk

Introducing Tobolsk

Tobolsk was once Siberia's capital and remains its most memorable city. Highlights are its handsome kremlin and a charmingly decrepit old town. Tobolsk is off the trans-Siberian mainline but direct overnight trains to both Yekaterinburg and Omsk make stopping here a perfectly viable option when crossing Russia.

An early visitor to the city was Yermak Timofeevich, whose band of Cossack mercenaries sacked the nearby Tatar stronghold of Sibir in 1582. Tobolsk's original fort was built five years later. Although locals were predominantly Muslim Tatars, Tobolsk became the seat of Siberia's first bishopric in 1620 as Christianity strove to stamp out incest, wife-renting and spouse-stealing by sexually frustrated Cossacks.

Tobolsk also became the region's politico- military hub but its strategic importance started to wane in the 1760s, when it was bypassed by the new Great Siberian Trakt (post road). However, until the early 20th century, it remained significant as a centre for both learning and exile. Involuntary guests included Fyodor Dostoevsky en route to exile in Omsk, and deposed Tsar Nicholas II who spent several doomed months here in 1917.

Hospitable Muslim Tatars still form 30% of the city's population, many living in the quaint, if mosquito-blighted, old town. A handy local greeting is istimissis (hello); thank you is rakhmat.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009