Berdsk

Berdsk began as a fortified settlement near the mouth of the Berd, where that river joins the upper Ob. Russian settlers sought an outpost on this frontier, and the fort is conventionally dated to 1716; the historian Gerhard Müller recorded its construction in 1717. It became the centre of a district on the right bank of the Ob.

As Russian settlements spread southward, the fort served as a military and administrative base. Abuses of authority helped provoke the Berdsk revolt of 1725–26. Later in the century the town was called Kolyvan and served as the centre of Kolyvan province from 1783 to 1797. Roads linking the Altai works with the Siberian route passed through the area, and the settlement continued as a trading village after the province was abolished.