Omsk

Omsk stands where the Om joins the Irtysh, on the southern edge of the West Siberian plain. Its position at the meeting of river routes and the steppe made it a centre of Russian military and administrative power. The town grew from a fortress into a place where traders, soldiers and the peoples of the surrounding steppe came into contact.

In 1715 Ivan Buchholz led an expedition up the Irtysh toward Lake Yamyshev. After Dzungar forces besieged the expedition’s winter camp, the survivors withdrew downstream. In 1716 they built a fort near the mouth of the Om. The first fortress stood on the southern bank of the smaller river, and service people settled between it and the Irtysh. It became a key point in the fortified line established along the frontier. A second fortress was begun on higher ground on the opposite bank of the Om in 1768. The river junction continued to serve movement along the Irtysh and into the steppe, while administrative and commercial functions grew around the military settlement. Omsk’s history reflects both the expansion of Russian control and the complex relations that developed across the Kazakh and Siberian frontier.