Tomsk

About Tomsk

Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom River. Population: 544,566 (2025); 556,478 (2021 census); 524,669 (2010 census); 487,838 (2002 census); 501,963 (1989 Soviet census).

Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six universities, with over 100,000 students, including Tomsk State University, the oldest university in Siberia.

The city is named after the Tom River, whose name may derive either from the Ket word toom ("river"), from the Russian word tyomny ("dark"), or from the Turco-Mongol word tom (great, major).

Tomsk originated with a decree by Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604 after Toian, the Tatar duke of Eushta Tatars, asked for the Tsar's protection against Yenisei Kyrgyz and Oirats. The Tsar sent 200 Cossacks under the command of Vasily Fomich Tyrkov and Gavriil Ivanovich Pisemsky to construct a fortress on the bank of the Tom River, overlooking what would become the city of Tomsk. Toian ceded the land for the fortress to the Tsar.

In 1804, the Imperial Russian government selected Tomsk as the seat of the new Tomsk Governorate, which would include the modern cities of Novosibirsk...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.