The development of the territory which now constitutes the oblast began in the early 17th century. Tomsk itself was founded in 1604. Some of the oblast's 316,900 square kilometers (122,400 sq mi) territory is inaccessible because it is covered withtaiga woods andswamps. Tomsk oblast containsVasyugan Swamp, the biggest swamp in the northern hemisphere. The oblast borders withKrasnoyarsk Krai andTyumen,Omsk,Novosibirsk, andKemerovo Oblasts.
The oblast is directly divided into four cities and sixteen districts.[5] The four administrative cities are the administrative center ofTomsk,Kedrovy,Strezhevoy, and theclosed city ofSeversk.[5]
The average annual temperature in Tomsk Oblast is 1.75 °C, with the average temperature in July being 19.4 °C, and the average temperature in January being approximately -19-21 °C.[5] The frost-free season typically lasts 100–105 days.[5] Mean annual precipitation in the oblast is 435 millimeters.[5]
Long before Siberia became part of Russia, the territory of modern Tomsk Oblast was inhabited by people belonging to thetaiga Kulayskoy civilization known for its bronze artifacts.
The development of the region began at the end of the 16th and early 17th centuries. The oldest settlement in the area is thevillage (former city)Narym, founded in 1596.
The administrative center of the province, the city of Tomsk, was founded in 1604 by a decree ofTsarBoris Godunov.[6] From 1719 to 1804 in the province ofTobolsk. In 1782, is formed by Tomskaya oblast in the composition of Tobolsky namestnichestva (from 1796 - Tobolskaya guberniya). In 1804 theTomsk Governorate was founded,[6] which existed until 1925, when it became part of the Siberian region (since 1930 - the West Siberian region). Tomsk Oblast was re-established on August 13, 1944.[6][5] The city grew throughout the mid-20th century due to the migration of many Soviet institutions to Tomsk duringWorld War II, the development of nuclear facilities in the region during the 1950s, as well as the beginning of petroleum production in the oblast during the 1960s and 1970s.[6]
On July 26, 1995 the Oblast's charter was adopted.
During theSoviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Tomsk CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). After the abolition of Article 6 of the Constitution of the USSR in March 1990, the CPSU lost its monopoly on power. The head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside electedregional parliament.
The Charter of Tomsk Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. TheLegislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Duma exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with theConstitution of Russia.
The current Governor of the Tomsk Oblast isVladimir Mazur. The Legislative Duma of the Tomsk Region consists of 42 deputies, and the current chairman isOksana Kozlovskaya.
The deputies of the Duma of the Tomsk Oblast of the VI convocation (2016–2021) formed the following deputy associations:
Tomsk Oblast is rich in natural resources such asoil,natural gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals,peat, and various types of waters.[5] Forests are also among the most significant assets of the oblast: about 20% of the West Siberian forest resources are located in Tomsk Oblast. Industry makes up about half of the regionalGDP, whileagriculture contributes 19% and construction 13%. Chemical and oil industries are the most developed in the region, followed by machine construction. The oblast's major export items are: oil (62.1%),methanol (30.2%), and machines and equipment (4.8%). Oil extraction and lumbering are the major business of the region's joint ventures.
The oblast's main aviation center is theTomsk Airport, which is served by a number of national airlines.[5] The airport was remodeled in April 2013 for the purpose of being capable of handling international flights.[5]
Tomsk Oblast has 4,204 kilometers of hard-surface road, as of 2015.[5] The Russian government has outlined a plan to link up the oblast's disconnected road systems with the rest of the national road network by 2030.[5]
Major ethnic groups living in the oblast are[4]Russians (92.1%),Ukrainian-Belarusian (1.4%),Volga-Siberian Tatars (1.7%) andVolga Germans (0.9%).Slavs,Finns andVolga Germans make up more than 94.4% of the population, while Tatars,Chuvash,Armenians andKhanty make up the remaining part. Additionally, 45,016 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.[10]
After the disastrous situation during the 1990s, the demography of Tomsk Oblast is starting to stabilize. During the first three months of 2009, there were 3,337 births (2.4% higher than that of 2008) and 3,339 deaths (6.7% less than that of 2008).[11]
According to a 2012 survey[15] 33.3% of the population of Tomsk Oblast adheres to theRussian Orthodox Church, 4% areunaffiliated genericChristians, 2% is an Eastern Orthodox Christian believer without belonging to any church or is a member of otherEastern Orthodox churches, 1% adheres to theSlavic native faith (Rodnovery) or local indigenous Siberian folk religions, 1% adheres toIslam, 0.62% toTibetan Buddhism, and 0.4% to theCatholic Church. In addition, 29% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 15% isatheist, and 13.68% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.[15]
The oblast is home to six state higher education institutions and 47 research institutes. The first university inAsian Russia,Tomsk State University, was founded in 1888.[6][17] Twelve years later, the first technological institute in Asian Russia,Tomsk Polytechnic University, was founded.[17] Two years after that, in 1902, the firstnormal university in Asian Russia,Tomsk State Pedagogical University, was founded.[17] Since then city often dubbed the "Siberian Athens" for its unique spirit. Today, more than 100,000 people (or 20 per cent of population of the city) study in Tomsk universities and colleges. In terms of the number of students per 10,000 people Tomsk is ranked third after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Tomsk Region is also ranked first in Russia in terms of the number of people engaged in R&D per capita with 160 researchers per 10,000 citizens.
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