Verkhotomsk

Verkhotomsk recalls the Russian fort on the Tom River between Tomsk and Kuznetsk. The fort was built in the seventeenth century to protect settlements and maintain communication along the river; historians have proposed several dates for its foundation. It soon became a centre for farming settlement. In 1670 officials ordered state fields to be established there with the labour of thirty exiles, and over time the military post developed into a farming village.