Omsk
Omsk is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, and the twelfth-largest city in Russia. It is an important transport node, serving as a train station for the Trans-Siberian Railway and as a staging post for the Irtysh River.
During the Imperial era, Omsk was the seat of the Governor General of Western Siberia and, later, of the Governor General of the Steppes. For a brief period during the Russian Civil War in 1918–1920, it served as the capital of the anti-Bolshevik Russian State and held the imperial gold reserves.
Omsk serves as the episcopal see of the bishop of Omsk and Tara, as well as the administrative seat of the Imam of Siberia. The mayor is Sergey Shelest.
Etymology
The city of Omsk is named after the Om river. This hydronym in the dialect of Baraba Tatars means "the quiet one".History
Imperial period
The creation of the Omsk fortress, like other Upper Irtysh fortresses, was caused by the urgent need to strengthen the trade route to China. The credit for their arrangement belongs entirely to the Siberian governor, Prince M.P. Gagarin. However, he also bears a large share of the responsibility. Gagarin, being the governor in Nerchinsk and then the head of the Siberian order and the Siberian province, devoted a lot of time and effort to trade with China. And above all, he organized the trade route to this country.The main route passed from Tobolsk, down the Irtysh, then up the Ob, then along the Ket portage to the Yenisei, and on to the border with China. The journey was long, difficult, and expensive. There was also a second option - up the Irtysh, twice shorter and much easier. Kalmyk, Kyrgyz-Kaisak and Chinese chiefs were interested in this route as they all had their share of international trade. However, above the mouth of the Ob, trade caravans were attacked by free detachments of Kalmyks and Kirghiz-Kaisaks, which their rulers could not cope with. A reliable guard was needed with its placement in stationary fortifications.
In May 1714, the Siberian governor received the tsar's consent to build fortresses along the Irtysh and to the existing trade route. In his report to the tsar on May 22, 1714, Gagarin substantiated the need to build fortresses along the Irtysh to ensure communication and safety of the expedition going to the city of Yarkand for the golden sand.
The gold deposit was behind the Tien Shan ridges, on the territory of a neighboring state, in the Taklamakan Desert. Prince Gagarin understood the consequences of this adventure. With a positive result, this would threaten a military conflict with China and Dzungaria. Of course, the Siberian governor did not expect the military expedition to reach Yarkand. It was almost impossible and unnecessary. The fortresses along the trade route would remain. The tsar believed in the governor and signed a decree organizing an expedition under the command of a former captain of the Guards, Army Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Bukholts, about the construction of fortresses along the Irtysh above Yamyshev.
On January 2, 1716, Matvey Petrovich Gagarin took up his governor's duties and actively took up the construction of fortresses in Siberia including those on Lake Kosogol, and the Yenisei and Irtysh rivers. Between January 8–10, 1716, the prince met with the king and made him an offer as a golden collection from the ancient burial mounds plundered along the Ishim and Irtysh.
At the meeting, Gagarin reported to Peter about his plans for the development of Siberia and received the tsar's permission, presumably as the highest resolution. On January 27, 1716, Peter I left for Europe, where he stayed until October 1717 and ceased receiving timely and reliable information from Siberia. In January 1716, Gagarin issued his own orders for the construction of a fortress on the frontier of Kosogol Lake and in April on the construction of the fortresses on the Upper Yenisei.
On April 28, the Buholz detachment abandoned the Yamyshev fortress and moved down the Irtysh to the territory of the Tarsky district. Gagarin assessed the situation and gave instructions to Lieutenant Colonel Buholz and the Tara commandant to build a fortress at the mouth of the Om and sent recruits to reinforce them. By the end of 1716, the first fortress was built in the modern river station. It comprised an earthen pentagonal fortress, powder and food stores, barracks for soldiers, and houses for officers.
The first Omsk fortress was practically a copy of the fortress erected in 1715 near Yamyshevskoye Lake. However, it also had a significant drawback: the fortifications were scattered and the outer fence was weak. When the enemy attacked, the entire garrison would have to defend the fortress with objects separate from each other. This actually happened in 1716 during the defense of the Yamyshevskaya fortress. The unsuccessful layout of the first Yamyshev and Omsk fortresses was explained by the lack of fortification experience among the construction managers.
At the beginning of 1717, the dragoon captain, Ilya Gavrilovich Aksakov, was requested to make the trip from Russia. The Governor conferred a major on him and directed him to supervise the construction of a new fortress at the mouth of the Om.
In the summer of 1717, the Omsk garrison under the command of Stupin went to the upper Irtysh to build fortresses. Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Buholz categorically refused to lead a new expedition. In March 1717, he was sent from Tobolsk to the capital. There is very little information about the foundation of the Omsk settlement and the construction of the second fortress. One of the most valuable sources of information is the inventory of documents of the Tara Chancellery, copied for Professor G.F. Miller in 1734. This inventory was mentioned by Professor in 1960, and in 2015 it was published by the Barnaul scientists V.B. Borodaev and A.V. Kontev. However, there are no drawings and it is not known where and how the new city was built. From Tara to the Omsk fortress, a drawing was sent "On the structure of the Omsk fortress beyond the Omya river prison and courtyards in a line."
In 1722, this drawing was used by the captain-engineer, Paul de Grange, in the plan's development of the fortress on the right bank of the Om. At the end of the summer of 1717, Gagarin ordered the production of six bells for the Yamyshevskaya and Omsk fortresses. Bells were made by the military department, in the amount of three pieces per fortress. According to the drawing of the Omsk fortress in 1717, there was a triangular guard redoubt at the mouth of the Om, a quadrangular fort at the crossing over the Om, and a pentagonal fortress in the yard. At the beginning of 1718, seven bells were made. Perhaps the seventh was intended for the Omsk Sloboda on the right bank of the Om. There is no information about whether the quadrangular fort and the triangular redoubt were built. However, it is known that the fortress was built pentagonal, although not as regular as in the drawing. This is clear from the plans of 1745 and 1755. The entire settlement had the shape of an irregular, broken quadrangle.
In 1768 Om fortress was moved. The original Tobolsk and the restored Tara gates, along with the original German Lutheran Church and several public buildings, are left. Omsk was granted town status in 1782.
In 1822, Omsk became an administrative capital of Western Siberia and later in 1882 the center of the vast Steppes region and Akmolinsk Oblast acquiring several churches and cathedrals of various denominations, mosques, a synagogue, the governor-general's mansion, and a military academy. But as the frontier receded and its military importance diminished, the town fell into disarray. For that reason, Omsk became a major center of the Siberian exile. From 1850 to 1854, Fyodor Dostoyevsky served his sentence in an Omsk katorga prison.
Inside the Omsk settlement, a military settlement - the Omsk fortress - lived on its own for approximately 150 years. By 1845, the structures of the Omsk fortress were half destroyed, which prompted the engineering department of the military department to petition for the abolition of the fortress. In 1864, the fortress was destroyed.
The development of the city was generated by the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s. This move led to the significance of Omsk as a logistic hub. Many trade companies established stores and offices in Omsk which came to define the character of the city center. British, Dutch, and German consulates were established roughly at the same time to represent their commercial interests. The pinnacle of development for pre-revolutionary Omsk was the Siberian Exposition of Agriculture and Industry in 1910. The popularity of the World Fair contributed to the image of Omsk as the "Chicago of Siberia."
After the October Revolution, anti-Bolshevik White forces seized control of Omsk. The "Provisional All-Russian Government" was established in Omsk in 1918, headed by the Arctic explorer and decorated war hero Admiral Kolchak. Omsk was proclaimed the capital of Russia, and its central bank was tasked with safekeeping the former empire's gold reserves. These were guarded by a garrison of former Czechoslovak POWs trapped in Siberia by the chaos of World War I and the subsequent Revolution. Omsk became a prime target for the Red Army, which viewed it as a major focus of their Siberian campaign and eventually forced Kolchak and his government to abandon the city and retreat along the Trans-Siberian eastward to Irkutsk. Bolshevik forces entered the city in 1919.
Soviet period
The Soviet government preferred the young Novonikolayevsk as the administrative center of Western Siberia, prompting the mass transfer of administrative, cultural, and educational functions from Omsk to Novonikolayevsk. This directive stunted Omsk's growth and sparked a continuing rivalry between the two cities. Omsk received a new life because of World War II. Because it was both far from the fighting and had a well-developed infrastructure, Omsk provided a perfect haven for much of the industry evacuated away from the frontlines. Contingency plans were made to transfer the provisional Soviet capital to Omsk in the event of a German victory during the Battle of Moscow. At the end of the war, Omsk remained a major industrial center, subsequently becoming a leader in Soviet military production.Military industries that moved to Omsk included part of the OKMO tank-design bureau in 1941, and S.M. Kirov Factory no. 185 from Chelyabinsk, in 1962. The Kirov Factory and Omsk Transmash design bureau produced T-80 tanks from the 1970s, and handled the BTR-T, TOS-1, and the prototype Black Eagle tank. Omsk Transmash declared bankruptcy in 2002.
In the 1950s, following the development of the oil and natural gas field in Siberia, an oil refinery complex was built, along with an entire "town of oil workers", expanding Omsk northward along the Irtysh. It is currently the largest such complex in Russia. Gazprom Neft, the parent company, is the largest employer in the city, wielding its tax rates as leverage in negotiations with municipal and regional authorities. The nearby parts of the city close to the complex were nicknamed Neftezovodskaya by refinery workers.
Omsk-Severnyy, a Soviet then Russian Air Force base, is located nearby.