In order to protect Siberian territories from frequent Tatar's attacks, the powerful Ural merchants Stroganovs sent the Cossack army under Yermak's direction to fight against Tatars. Yermak’s campaign opened the way to Russian colonization of Siberia.

The first Russian fort in Siberia was founded here in 1586. It later became the first Russian city in Siberia and was called Tyumen. Since 1590s Tobolsk founded in 1587 becomes the center of Siberia. Tobolsk and Tyumen started to grow rapidly and already in the 17th century they are equal to major European cities of the time. Starting from the end of the 17th century new stone buildings appear in Tobolsk and Tyumen. Tobolsk was the only Siberian city with its own Kremlin.

The history of the Western Siberia has one peculiarity – it served as a deportation place for unwanted citizens and statesmen. Gannibal, Menshikov, protopope Avvakum, Decembrists Annenkov, Muraviev, Pushchin etc. were exiled to Siberia in the18-19th centuries.

Located on the juncture of important trade ways between East and West, Tyumen became and industrial and commercial center, a kind of 'gates to Siberia'. In the 19th century the city started to develop due to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Tyumen Region is the place of birth of many famous Russians – chemist Mendeleev, poet Yershov, and Rasputin, the cult figure of Russian aristocracy in the early 1900s.