Tyumen Oblast.

History

Before the Russians came, this was the Khanate of Sibir, conquered by Russia in 1582; the Siberian Tatars are its heirs. Tyumen was founded on 29 July 1586 on the site of the Tatar town of Chingi-Tura, becoming the first Russian settlement in Siberia. A year later Cossacks under Daniil Chulkov founded Tobolsk, which remained the centre of Siberia until the 1820s–30s. In 1917 the family of Nicholas II was exiled to Tobolsk. The discovery of oil and gas in the 1960s turned Tyumen into a major industrial city, and the oblast itself was formed in 1944.

Culture & traditions

The architectural centrepiece is the Tobolsk Kremlin, the only standing stone kremlin in Siberia, with the St Sophia Cathedral of 1683–1686 and the Swedish Chamber. Tobolsk was the birthplace of chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, composer Alexander Alyabyev and writer Pyotr Yershov. Tyumen itself is a city of theatres, museums and universities.

Nature

The south of the oblast is Western Siberian plain, crossed by the Tura, on which Tyumen stands, and the Tobol. Together with the okrugs, Tyumen Oblast counts some 70,000 rivers longer than 10 km and roughly as many lakes. The south has a humid continental climate, while the north is subarctic and Arctic.

Food & drink

The cooking of the southern oblast blends Russian and Siberian Tatar traditions. Siberian Tatars prize barley, noodles, peremech, boortsog and kattama, along with dairy foods such as kaymak and qurut. Fish has long been part of the local diet too.

Practical information

The main airport is Roshchino, named after Dmitri Mendeleev, 13 km west of Tyumen; the city is on the Trans-Siberian Railway, its station dating from 1885. Local time is Moscow plus two hours. Winters are cold (about −17°C in Tyumen in January) and summers mild (about +19°C). Summer and early autumn are the best times to visit.

What to see

• Tobolsk Kremlin — Siberia's only stone kremlin, with St Sophia Cathedral and the Swedish Chamber
• Governor's Mansion, Tobolsk — where Nicholas II's family lived in exile in 1917
• Tyumen on the Tura — the first Russian town in Siberia
• Yalutorovsk — an old town on the Tobol, founded in 1659

Cities on the map

• Tyumen 847,488
• Tobolsk 98,886