Tobolsk is a large Russian city located at the mouth of the Tobol River in the Irtysh. The city was founded by Cossacks in 1587, making it the second oldest Russian city in Siberia. Tobolsk then became one of the centers of Russia’s colonization of Siberia, and several cities were founded in the region from Tobolsk, such as Surgut and Tara, which were supposed to act as defenses for Tobolsk. The city grew rapidly with its good location on both the Tobol and the Irtysh, and river navigation was profitable, as was Tobolsk’s trade with China to the east and Bukhara to the south.

In 1708, Tobolsk became the capital of the newly formed Siberian governorate, and the following year saw growth in the city with the many Swedish prisoners of war who came here after Sweden’s defeat in the Battle of Poltava. Already from 1719, Tobolsk’s political importance was weakened, as Siberia was divided into several units from there, whereby Tobolsk’s power over the colossal area was reduced, and even the city’s status as the capital of western Siberia was eventually moved. Thus, Omsk became the region’s capital from the 1820s. At the end of the 19th century, Tobolsk was bypassed by the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was instead built through Tyumen and Omsk.

In connection with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Tobolsk entered the history books. After Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication in March, the new provisional government evacuated the Tsar’s family to Tobolsk in August and placed them under house arrest in the city’s former governor’s mansion until April 1918, when the Soviet government moved the family to Yekaterinburg. With the Soviet Union in 1920, Tobolsk lost its status as a regional capital, and the city instead became part of Tyumen Province. At the time, the city had 15,000 inhabitants, and that number has since grown to around 100,000.

Today you can go on some lovely walks and enjoy the sights of Tobolsk. The largest and most famous is the city’s Kremlin, which sits high above the Irtysh. The Kremlin was built in stone as the only one of its kind in Siberia, and it started in 1683-1686, when craftsmen from Moscow built the beautiful Sophia Assumption Cathedral, which with its gilded and star-studded domes is still one of the Kremlin’s finest buildings. At the beginning of the 18th century, walls and towers were built around the area, and it gradually became the Kremlin that you can see today. The most important parts of the complex were behind the solid walls of the facility, while several other buildings were erected around the interesting area.

In the inner courtyard of the Tobolsk Kremlin you can enjoy the view of the many white buildings around the lawns. In addition to the Ascension Cathedral, you can see, among other things, the theological seminary, which opened as a Slavic-Russian school in 1703, and which became a theological school in 1743. One of the other large buildings around the Kremlin is the castle-like shopping arcades, Gostiny Dvor, which became built 1702-1706. You can also see and visit the Bishop’s Residence, which now houses a museum of the history of the Orthodox Church in Siberia. In front of the Kremlin itself, you can see the Governor’s Palace, which is designed as a museum for the history of the government of Siberia.

North of the Kremlin, you arrive to modern Tobolsk, and here you can see the beautifully landscaped Victory Square, with the city’s town hall at one end, and where a park and memorial stretch most of the way to the Irtysh. In the middle of the square, you can see Tobolsk’s war memorial, which stands as a monument to those who fell during the battles of World War II.

The monument was inaugurated in 1987, and in 2010 it was supplemented by the stele, which forms the central part of the facility. You can also walk up the Kremlin steps to the area south of the city’s old center. Here, the Museum of Czar Nicholas II’s Family is open in a former merchant’s palace, which was the residence of Siberian governors from the 19th century, and which housed the Czar family during their house arrest from August 1917 to April 1918.