Tobolsk state museum is one of the oldest museums in Siberia. It was founded on April, 21, 1870. Its founder was Ivan Yushkov - a generous enthusiast, historian, secretary of the regional statistics committee. Originally there were five departments in the museum: natural history dept., ethnographical dept., archeological dept., industrial and educational dept.
The museum comprises 31 historical buildings of federal value. Its fund counts more than 300 thousand museum items. The most precious ones are ethnographical, archeological, paleontological collections, manuscripts, collections of the things that used to be in the possession of the czar family, bone-carving works. The structure of the museum is as follows: memorial room - Nicholas' 2 Museum, Arts Museum, the Museum of Spiritual History of Western Siberian Ethnical Settlements, Prison, Youth Educational Center, Exhibition Hall. More than 230 thousand people visit the museum annually, that is twice as much as the city total population.

The study museum of Nicholas' 2.
On August,6, 1917, Russian emperor Nicholas 2 and his family came to Tobolsk. The czar family lived in the Governor`s house. They occupied the first floor of the house, the ground floor served as a dining room (there were also rooms for servants). The interior of the last Russian emperor's study has been restored to the smallest detail.

The Book Museum
The Book Museum consists of two showrooms. One of them restores the study atmosphere of the first Tobolsk publisher, merchant Vasily Kornilyev. The other is devoted to the most outstanding and oldest published works of centuries 18-19 . There are more than 50 thousand items in the museum. The crown jewel of the museum is the works by Remezov "The Brief Siberian History" (1880) and "Siberian Map" (1882).

Art Museum
The most valuable asset of this museum is the collection of bast pictures collected in settlements of the Tobolsk province at the end of X1X century, pictures of the local artists. - P.P.Chukomina, M.S.Znamensky, D.P.Shelutkova, etc.

The Prison Castle
This is the place where all political rebellions were exiled to. It was also used as a penal-transfer prison. In the beginning of century 18 the first rebellion settlements appeared in Tobolsk. A lot of Decembrists were sentenced to capital punishment in this castle. Currently the prison castle is one of the most famous tourist routs in Tobolsk. Here one can see shackles and handcuffs of convicts.

The city of Tobolsk is an ancient capital of Siberia. The peculiarity of the landscape resulted in formation of two parts of the city - the lowland and highland. There is the Tobolsk Kremlin, St. Sofia Cathedral, Belltower, The Bishop's House, a complex of buildings of the former Deputy Palace, Gostinyi Dvor on the highland. The Pryamskoi vzvoz divides Troitsky cape into two parts. There are 198 wooden steps on the Pryamskoi vzvoz. The steps are surrounded by the brick walls. For the first 100 years there were no steps on the Pryamskoi vzvoz, the road on the way up was covered with clay. That's why it was absolutely impossible to get to the highland on rainy days. The first wooden step which was constructed by Jacob Ukusnikov appeared in 1671.

The State Chamber
The building of The State Chamber was erected by captured Swedes. The construction was planned by Tobolsk architect Semen Remezov. It took three years to construct the building (1714-1717). It was the first building that combined features of Scandinavian Medieval architecture, ancient Russian architecture and architecture of Peter the Great epoch. The Gostiny dvor was also erected by Semen Remezov's project in 1703-1708. The building has two eastern and western gates. There are two stores in the building. There used to be a hotel on the first floor and shops (boutiques) on the ground floor. The artic was used as a warehouse. The composition of the Gostiny Dvor is a mixture of old Russian Architecture and Eastern Bokharan caravan-sheds. Currently the building is in the possession of the Tobolsk museum.

St. Sofia Cathedral
St. Sofia Cathedral is the earliest architectural building in Siberia (1686). It was supposed to be the major building in Siberia. Its project was connected with the arrangement of Siberian managerial center. St. Sofia Cathedral is the replica of the Voznesensky Cathedral in Moscow.

Cathedral Bell Tower
The Bell Tower was constructed at the same time as St. Sofia Cathedral. Skilled and professional masters Gerasim Sharypin and Gavrila Tutin were sent from Moscow to supervise the construction of the building. The first building of the Bell Tower bore the bells for 110 years and then got ruined as the bells were too heavy for the construction. The second building had the same fate. Currently there is a building erected in 1797 according to the project suggested by F. Utkin. There were 15 bells with the biggest and heaviest one all over Siberia that weighed 16.124 kg and 800 gr. The bell consisted of copper and silver, the latter made the sound of the bell clear and distinct (a silver timbre).

The Pokrovsky Cathedral (Winter cathedral)
The cathedral was erected in 1743. This building is marked by the beginning of a new period of Siberian architecture - the stone architecture. Baroque style replaced standoffish Peter the Great architecture. The baroque style was used then in construction of all buildings of that time. There is the Consistory Building in the center of St.Sofia Cathedral that was constructed in 1787. The consistory supervised all church activities directed to the struggle with heretics and dissenters in Siberia.

The Little Bell Tower ("belltowerlet")
Next to the Consistory Building there is a so called "Belltowerlet" built in 1869. This building is famous for "the exiled" bell from Uglich. The reason why the bell was exiled is as follows: in century 16 peasants used this bell to announce their rebellion against the existing czar regime. The czar was so furious that he ordered the bell be punished with a birch-rod, its "tongue" be torn out, its "ears" cut off and the beaten bell be exiled to Siberia.

The Bishop Palace (The Archiereisky Palace)
This building has a nickname "drifting palace" as its four predecessors appeared and disappeared in different parts of St. Sofia Dvor. The fifth building was laid in 1773 and finished in 1775. That was the final building which is now a historical monument.

The Hospital Part of the Prison Castle
The project of the Prison castle was carried out by architect Veihell assistant in 1838. The Prison Castle is a complex of five buildings reflecting the late classical style. The hospital part of the Prison castle is now used as a scientific library and a regional archive.

Provincial Court Chamber
There were two stone buildings on the territory of the Small town. Those were a drugstore and a guard-house. They were deeply damaged in the fire that occurred in 1788. In 1820 an architect from Saint Petersburg suggested a plan of reconstruction of those buildings and erected the currently existing Provincial court chamber.


Outstanding personalities who influence the course of history in Siberia and Tobolsk particularly.

Ermak Timofeevich was the Cossack ataman, the conqueror of Siberia. Unfortunately there are no exact data on his origin and life before he came to Siberia. The first historical record touching upon this personality dates back to 1560-1570. Later Ermak and his armed squad went to the Urals to protect the Stroganovs' patrimonial estates (so called ancestral lands) from attacks and robberies carried out by local tribes. In 1582 Ermak with his squad defeated khan Kuchum's settlements that occupied the city of Isker. Khan Kuchum managed to run away. Ermak started in pursuit of him. That pursuit turned out to be death-dealing for Ermak. He was trapped by false rumors about the location of khan Kuchum and his army. Khan Kuchum army used the advantage to be the first to attack Ermak. The fight was severe and hard. Ermak drowned in the Vagay river. According to historical data later his body was found by tatars. It was a real "feast of revenge" for them. They scoffed at Ermak's body. But a kind of miracle occurred - Ermak's body remained undecayed till the very funeral. Consequently Ermak was buried on a Saint tatar cemetery next to the Mausoleum of Muslim Saints.

Semen Remezov was one of the most prominent scientists in Siberia. The end of century 17 was marked by the beginning of stone building because of frequent fires that would destroy all buildings in Tobolsk. In 1697 Semen Remezov got the assignment to make a project and estimate of the stone Kremlin. The core complexity of the task was to combine diverse architectural buildings situated on the Troitsky Cape into one architectural and military unity. By 1714 he had constructed Prokaznaya Chamber, Gostiny Dvor and Rentereya. However he was forced to stop the work as Peter the Great had ordered to stop the erection of stone buildings throughout Russia except Saint Petersburg. But pretty soon he was allowed to continue his work.

D.I. Mendeleyev. Mendeleyev is a world known scientist who invented the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. It's worth mentioning that Mendeleyev dreamt about the original variant of the Table of Chemical Elements.








P.I. Ershov. He was a poet and story-teller. Ershov is the author of "Humpbacked Little Horse" fairy-tale. Originally the fairy-tale was abolished by the Government and it took too long to publish the book. Ershov was a talented and gifted teacher. In his teaching practice he used up-to-date and efficient teaching methods and organized Gymnasia theatre for school students.





M.I. Znamensky was a gifted artist who created a lot of imperishable works.










Alexander Alyabyev was a prominent composer whose songs are known all over Russia, for example his famous romance