Omsk is located in southwestern Siberia. The city is more than 2,000 kilometers from Moscow. The population in
Omsk is about 1,150,000 people.
The wooden fort of Omsk was built in 1716 by a cossack unit led by Ivan Buchholz. Omsk was granted town status in 1782. In 1822 Omsk became an administrative capital of Western Siberia and later in 1882 the center of the vast Steppes region.
Omsk
stretches along the banks of the north-flowing Irtysh at its confluence with
the smaller Om River. The waterways connect Omsk with the coal and
mineral-mining towns further up the river in Kazakhstan, as well as with the
oil, natural gas of northern Siberia.
As a
prominent educational center, Omsk has a large number of museums, theaters, and
educational institutions.Among Omsk's
museums, the most notable are:
The State
Museum of Regional History
The
Dostoyevsky Museum of Literature and
The Vrubel
Museum of Fine Arts.