Description : Tobolsk (Russian: Тобо́льск, Siberian Tatar: Pîcek-tora) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and is a historic capital of the Siberia region. Population: 99,694 (2010 Census); 92,880 (2002 Census); 94,143 (1989 Census). In 1580, a group of Yermak Timofeyevich's Cossacks initiated the Russian conquest of Siberia, pushing eastwards on behalf of the Tsardom of Russia. They attacked the Vogul (Mansi) and Ostyak (Khanty) peoples in Yugra, and had also captured a tax collector of Kuchum Khan, the king of the large Tatar Khanate of Sibir, the most powerful force in the western Siberia region on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. At the time the Voguls and Ostyaks were subjects of Kuchum, and in response the Tatars carried out retaliation attacks against the Cossacks. After a year of Tatar attacks, Yermak prepared for the conquest of the Khanate of Sibir and a campaign to take the Khanate's capital city, Qashliq. The Cossacks conquered the city on 26 October 1582, sending Kuchum into retreat. Despite the conquest, Kuchum regrouped his remaining forces and formed a new army, launching a surprise attack on 6 August 1584, killing Yermak. There were a series of battles over Qashliq, and it passed between Tatar and Cossack control, before the city was finally abandoned in 1588. Kuchum was eventually defeated by the Cossacks in 1598 at the Battle of Urmin near the River Ob, ending the Khanate of Sibir. The Russians had established control over the western Siberia region.
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