In 1586, by decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the city of Tyumen, the first Russian city in Siberia, was founded on the Tura River, about 300 kilometers east of the Ural Mountains. At first, it was inhabited mainly by service people, who constantly fought off the raids of nomads. Then the Russian frontier went far to the east, and Tyumen turned into a provincial town.
New life was breathed in by the transfer of a traffic intersection from Tobolsk, located to the north. The arrival of the Trans-Siberian Railway gave a new impetus to the development of the city. Finally, the development of oil and gas fields in the second half of the 20th century made Tyumen a prosperous city, whose population is growing even during the period of demographic and economic crises.
In the 21st century, the appearance of Tyumen has changed. All significant historical monuments, cultural sites, hotels in Tyumen, the railway station and the airport were reconstructed. The city has a huge drama theater, a beautiful embankment and the largest water park in Russia. According to the assessment of the quality of life, Tyumen is invariably among the leaders.
1. The urban agglomeration of Tyumen, which includes 19 urban settlements adjacent to Tyumen, covers an area of 698.5 square meters. km. This makes Tyumen the sixth largest city in Russia. Only Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Perm and Ufa are ahead. At the same time, urban development and infrastructure occupy only a quarter of the total territory - Tyumen has room to expand.
2. At the beginning of 2019, 788.5 thousand people lived in Tyumen - a little (about 50 thousand) more than in Togliatti, and about the same less than in Saratov. In terms of population, Tyumen ranks 18th in Russia. At the same time, at the end of the 19th century, the city occupied the 49th position in the Russian Empire, and since the 1960s, the population of Tyumen has almost quadrupled. The city is dominated by the Russian population - almost 9 out of 10 Tyumen residents are Russians.
3. Despite the fact that Tyumen is already Siberia, the distance from the city to other large Russian cities is not as great as it might seem. To Moscow from Tyumen 2,200 km, to St. Petersburg - 2900, at the same distance from Tyumen is Krasnodar. Irkutsk, quite distant for the inhabitants of the European part of Russia, is located from Tyumen at the same distance as Sochi - 3,100 km.
4. Tyumen residents often call their region the largest in Russia. There is an element of guile in this. First, the combination “the largest region” is subconsciously perceived as “the largest region”, “the largest subject of the federation”. In fact, the Republic of Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory are larger in territory than the Tyumen Region, which, therefore, takes only third place. Secondly, and this third place is taken by the Tyumen region, taking into account the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous districts included in it. Among the “clean” regions, excluding the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Tyumenskaya takes 24th place, slightly behind the Perm Territory. 
Map of the Tyumen region with the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The Tyumen region itself is the southernmost section
5. Already at the end of the 19th century, there was a real circus and an amusement park in Tyumen. The circus - a canvas tent, stretched over a high pillar - was located in the same place where the Tyumen circus is located now. An amusement park with a booth (now such an institution would be called a variety theater) was located nearby, at the intersection of the current Khokhryakova and Pervomayskaya streets. Now there is a school instead of carousels and attractions.
6. Despite the fact that Tyumen was a distant outpost of the Russian state for a long time, there were never any stone fortifications around the city. The residents of Tyumen had to fight exclusively with nomads, and they did not know how and did not like to storm the fortifications. Therefore, the Tyumen governors limited themselves to the construction of chopped or hewn forts and their repair and renovation. The only time the garrison had to sit down was in 1635. The Tatars plundered the villages and broke through to the walls, but that was all. The assault attempt was repulsed, but the Tatars took their trick. Pretending to retreat from the city, they lured the Tyumen people who were pursuing them into an ambush and killed every single one.
7. Formally, the water supply system in Tyumen started working in 1864. However, this was not the usual piping around the city, but just a pumping station that delivered water along the current Vodoprovodnaya street to a cast-iron pool in the city center. We took water from the pool ourselves. It was a serious progress - it was very difficult to carry Tura into the water from the steep bank. Gradually, the water supply system was improved, and by the end of the 19th century, the richest residents of Tyumen, as well as offices and enterprises, had separate pipes with water for themselves. The payment for water was absolutely outrageous. The townspeople in private houses paid from 50 to 100 rubles a year, from enterprises they fought for 200 and 300 rubles. The archives preserved a letter from the Tyumen branch of the State Bank of Russia with a request to lower the annual water fee from 200 to 100 rubles. At the same time, all the work on the installation of the water supply system was carried out by residents and enterprises at their own expense.
8. The Tyumen region appeared in 1944 during the administrative reform of the Omsk region, which was simply huge. The newly formed region included Tyumen, the decayed Tobolsk, several cities to which this status was assigned in advance (like a very small then Salekhard), and many villages. In the party and economic environment, the saying “Tyumen is the capital of the villages” was immediately born - they say, a seedy region. The fact that Tyumen was and remains the very first Russian city in Siberia, apparently, was not taken into account.
9. Tyumen is the capital of oil workers, but in Tyumen itself, as they say, there is no smell of oil. The nearest oil field to the city is located about 800 km from Tyumen. Nevertheless, one cannot say that Tyumen is appropriating the glory of oil workers. The main supply of oil workers is carried out along the Trans-Siberian Railway passing through the city. And a couple of decades ago, it was Tyumen that was the first city that oil and gas workers saw when returning from their watch. 
Even the first TV tower in Tyumen was a real oil rig. Now only a memorial sign remains of her
S. I. Kolokolnikov
10. The first and only car in Tyumen until 1919 was owned by a hereditary merchant Stepan Kolokolnikov. The owner of a large trading house, however, was known to Tyumen people and not only because of his car. He was a major philanthropist and benefactor. He financed the women's gymnasium, the People's and Commercial schools. Kolokolnikov allocated large sums for the improvement of Tyumen, and his wife herself taught lessons in schools. Stepan Ivanovich was a deputy of the First State Duma, after the Vyborg appeal he served three months in the Tyumen Central Prison - the tsarist regime was cruel. And in 1917, the Bolsheviks offered him a one-time payment of an indemnity of 2 million rubles. Kolokolnikov with his family and the first Prime Minister of the Provisional Government Georgy Lvov managed to escape to the United States. There he died in 1925 at the age of 57.
11. The fire service in Tyumen has existed since 1739, but the Tyumen firefighters could not boast of any particular success. The wooden city was built very crowded, in summer it is very hot in Tyumen, it is difficult to get to the water - ideal conditions for fires. According to the recollections of a resident of Tyumen, Alexei Ulybin, at the beginning of the 20th century, fires were almost weekly in the summer. And the tower that has survived to this day is the second in the history of the city. The first, like the entire fire department, burned out from the butt of a drunk driver who fell asleep in the hayloft of the fire brigade. Only under Soviet rule, when houses began to be built of brick and stone, the fires were curbed.
Libra tyumen
12. Scales "Tyumen" can be considered the embodiment of Soviet trade. Anyone who has ever been to a Soviet grocery store will remember this monumental device with a large and small bowls on the sides and a vertical body with an arrow in the middle. In the province of Libra Tyumen can be seen now. No wonder - from 1959 to 1994, the Tyumen Instrument-Making Plant produced millions of them. Scales "Tyumen" were even exported to South America. They are still produced in small quantities, and the plant in Novosibirsk produces its own scales, but under the brand name "Tyumen" - a brand!
13. Modern Tyumen is a very comfortable and comfortable city. And according to polls of residents, the city, and according to various ratings, it regularly occupies the highest places in Russia. And pre-revolutionary Tyumen, on the contrary, was famous for its filth. Even the central streets and squares were literally buried in the ground with thousands of feet, hooves and wheels of mud. The first stone pavements appeared only in 1891. The heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II, was returning from a trip east through Siberia. There was a possibility that the heir's route would pass through Tyumen. In haste, the central streets of the city were paved with stones. The heir eventually drove to the European part of Russia through Tobolsk, and the pavements remained in Tyumen.
14. Tyumen can be considered the biathlon capital of Russia. A modern biathlon complex “Pearl of Siberia” has been built not far from the city. It was supposed to host the 2021 Biathlon World Cup, but due to doping scandals, the right to host the World Cup was taken away from Tyumen. Due to doping, or rather, “inappropriate behavior”, the Olympic champion, a native of Tyumen, Anton Shipulin, was not allowed to participate in the 2018 Olympics. The title of Olympic champion in biathlon is also borne by the current deputy director of the Tyumen sports department, Luiza Noskova. Alexei Volkov and Alexander Popov, who were born in the region, are also considered Tyumen residents. Anastasia Kuzmina was also born in Tyumen, but Anton Shipulin's sister now brings sports fame to Slovakia. But sports Tyumen is strong not only in biathlon. Olympic champions Boris Shakhlin (gymnastics), Nikolai Anikin (cross-country skiing) and Rakhim Chakhkiev (boxing) were born in the city or region. Particularly ardent patriots of Tyumen count even Maria Sharapova among Tyumen residents - the famous tennis player was born in the city of Nyagan, located in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. True, she started playing tennis at the age of 4 after moving to Sochi, but no one can cancel the fact of birth.
Monument to A. Tekutyev
15. The Tyumen Bolshoi Drama Theater is really big - it works in the largest theater building in Russia. The official date of the theater foundation is considered to be 1858 - then the first theatrical performance in Tyumen took place. It was staged by an amateur troupe. The professional theater was founded in 1890 by the merchant Andrey Tekutyev. Until 2008, the theater worked in a room converted from one of Tekutyev's former warehouses, and then moved to the current palace. Such Evgeny Matveev and Pyotr Velyaminov played at the Tyumen Drama Theater. And in honor of Andrei Tekutyev in Tyumen, a boulevard is named, on which a monument to the patron of the arts is erected. 
16. Tyumen was a city of different ranks, there were practically no nobles, and even more noble ones in the city. On the other hand, the overall average standard of living was higher than in European Russia. Not the richest Tyumen merchants and officials usually celebrated holidays by inviting 15 to 20 families. The guests were served simple dishes, but not at all simple volumes. Congratulations drank several glasses of alcohol in the hallway, where several types of sausages, cold meat, pickles, smoked meats, etc. were waiting for them. At the table they also ate simply - ear, noodles, and meat made from them. This was followed by dessert, dances, cards, and closer to the end of the evening, hundreds of dumplings were served, which were happily absorbed by the guests. Unlike the capitals, residents of Tyumen started the holiday at 2 - 3 pm, and by 9 pm they usually went home.
17. Judging by the description given by Jules Verne in the story “Mikhail Strogoff”, Tyumen was famous for its bell and bell production. Even in Tyumen, according to the popular writer, it was possible to cross the Tobol River by ferry, which actually flows much southeast of the city. 
Monument to Tyumen schoolchildren who died in the war
18. Already on June 22, 1941, the military enlistment office of Tyumen, in addition to the prescribed mobilization measures, received about 500 applications from volunteers. In a city with a population of about 30,000 people, 3 rifle divisions, an anti-tank division and an anti-tank fighter brigade were gradually formed (taking into account the natives of the surrounding settlements and the evacuees). They had to join the battle in the most difficult months of the war. More than 50,000 natives of Tyumen and the region are officially considered dead. The natives of the city, Captain Ivan Beznoskov, Sergeant Viktor Bugaev, Captain Leonid Vasiliev, Senior Lieutenant Boris Oprokidnev and Captain Viktor Khudyakov were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
19. According to the questionnaire of one of the local newspapers, a person can consider himself a Tyumen citizen if he knows that Tsvetnoy Boulevard is the central street in the city, and not one of the streets of Moscow, on which there is a circus; Tura is the river on which Tyumen stands, and the chess piece is called a "rook"; in Tyumen there is not the tallest, but the tallest, namely, a bronze monument to Vladimir Lenin. The statue, almost 16 meters high, not only pays tribute to the leader of the world proletariat, but also reminds that Lenin's body during the Great Patriotic War was kept in Tyumen, in the building of the Agricultural Academy.
20. The climate in Tyumen is sharply continental. With an average value of summer temperatures of +17 - + 25 ° С and winter temperatures of -10 - -19 ° С, in summer the temperature can rise to +30 - + 37 ° С, and in winter it can drop to -47 ° С. The residents of Tyumen themselves believe that in recent decades, the climate, primarily in winter, has become much milder, and the bitter frosts are gradually turning into the category of grandmother's stories. And the duration of sunny days in Tyumen is now a third longer than in Moscow.
