's map, published in 1549 's map of Asia (published in 1595) as located south of
Perm and
Sibier The
Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich conquered the Tyumen area, originally part of the
Siberia Khanate, for the
Tsardom of Russia in 1585. The fighting completely destroyed both capitals of the
Siberia Khanate, Sibir/
Qashliq and Tyumen/
Chimgi-Tura (the capital in the 15th century). Sibir was never rebuilt - though it gave its name to all concurrent and future lands in North Asia annexed by Russia - but Tyumen was later re-founded. On July 29, 1586, –
tumen. Tyumen stood on the "Tyumen Portage", part of the historical trade-route between Central Asia and the
Volga region. Various South Siberian nomads had continuously contested control of the portage in the preceding centuries, and Siberian Tatar and
Kalmyk raiders often attacked early Russian settlers. The military situation meant that
streltsy and Cossack garrisons stationed in the town predominated in the population of Tyumen until the mid-17th century. As the area became less restive, the town began to take on a less military character. By the beginning of the 18th century, Tyumen had developed into an important center of trade between Siberia and China to the east and Central Russia to the west. A influx of prisoners-of-war from the Swedish army which surrendered after the
Battle of Poltava in 1709 arrived in Tyumen - some of them settled permanently. Tyumen became an important industrial center, known for leatherworkers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen. In 1763, 7,000 people were recorded as living in the town. In the 19th century, the town's development continued. In 1836, the first
steam boat in Siberia was built in Tyumen. In 1862 a
telegraph service reached the town, and in 1864 the first water mains were laid. Further prosperity came to Tyumen after the construction, in 1885, of the
Trans-Siberian Railway. For some years, Tyumen served as the
Russian Empire's easternmost railhead and as the site of transhipment of cargoes between the railway and the cargo boats plying the
Tura,
Tobol,
Irtysh, and
Ob Rivers. By the end of the 19th century, Tyumen's population exceeded 30,000, surpassing that of its northern rival
Tobolsk, and beginning a process whereby Tyumen gradually eclipsed the former regional capital. The rise of Tyumen culminated on August 14, 1944 when the city finally became the administrative center of the extensive
Tyumen Oblast. Early in the
Russian Civil War in 1917, forces loyal to Admiral
Alexander Kolchak and his Siberian
White Army controlled Tyumen. Soviet insurrectionists took control on January 5, 1918; the White Army took over on 20 July 1918; and
Red Army troops drove out Kolchak's forces on 8 August 1919. During the 1930s, Tyumen became a major industrial center of the
Soviet Union. By the onset of
World War II, the city had several well-established industries, including shipbuilding, furniture manufacture, and the manufacture of fur- and leather-goods. World War II saw rapid growth and development in the city. In the winter of 1941, twenty-two major industrial enterprises evacuated to Tyumen from the European part of the Soviet Union. These enterprises went into operation the following spring. Additionally, war-time Tyumen became a "hospital city", where thousands of wounded soldiers were treated. When it seemed that Moscow might fall to German forces during
Operation Barbarossa, in October 1941
Vladimir Lenin's body was secretly moved from
his mausoleum in Moscow to a hidden tomb in what is now the Tyumen State Agriculture Academy. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 20,000 Tyumen natives fought at the front, and some 6,000 were killed. Rich oil- and
gas-fields were discovered in the Tyumen Oblast in the 1960s. While most of these lay hundreds of kilometers away, near the towns of
Surgut and
Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen was the nearest railway junction and so the city became their supply base while the railway was extended northwards. As the result of this economic and population boom, with tens of thousands of skilled workers arriving from across the Soviet Union between 1963 and 1985, the rapid growth of the city also brought a host of problems. Its social infrastructure was limited and the lack of city-planning has resulted in uneven development, with which Tyumen has continued to struggle. ==Geography==