Siberia’s steppe fortress briefly held Russia’s anti-Bolshevik gold
Omsk, administrative heart of Omsk Oblast, is southwestern Siberia’s million-plus city—third in Siberia after Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, twelfth in Russia. Imperial governors of Western Siberia and later the Steppes sat here; in 1918–1920 it was capital of the anti-Bolshevik Russian State holding imperial gold reserves.
Omsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Omsk Oblast in southwestern Siberia, home to more than a million people. Only Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk outrank it within Siberia, and it stands twelfth nationally. Trans-Siberian trains stop here, and the Irtysh River gives it a staging post for river traffic. The name comes from the Om river, whose title in the Baraba Tatar dialect means "the quiet one."
The fortress grew out of a push to secure the caravan road to China. Matvey Petrovich Gagarin, who governed Nerchinsk before heading the Siberian order and province, poured energy into that commerce. The usual route ran from Tobolsk down the Irtysh, up the Ob, across the Ket portage, then along the Yenisei to the border, a slow and costly trek. Going up the Irtysh instead was half the distance and far easier, but raiding bands of Kalmyks (Oirats) and Kirghiz-Kaisaks struck caravans above the Ob's mouth, so permanent garrisons were needed.
In May 1714 the tsar agreed to forts along the Irtysh; Gagarin's report of 22 May argued they would shield an expedition bound for Yarkand in search of gold sand beyond the Tien Shan, in the Taklamakan. Success there risked war with China and Dzungaria, and the governor never expected the troops to arrive, but the forts would stay. The tsar's decree put Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Bukholts, a former Guards captain, in charge of building above Yamyshev. Gagarin formally took up his governorship on 2 January 1716, pressed construction at Lake Kosogol and on the Yenisei and Irtysh, and between 8 and 10 January offered the monarch gold looted from burial mounds along the Ishim and Irtysh.
Under the empire Omsk housed the governor general of Western Siberia and afterwards the governor general of the Steppes. In the Civil War the anti-Bolshevik government based itself here and kept the tsarist gold hoard in the city. It remains the see of the bishop of Omsk and Tara and the seat of the Imam of Siberia, and its mayor is Sergey Shelest.
Source: Omsk
