TOBOLSK

city, Tyumen oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Irtysh and Tobol rivers. Founded in 1587, it was one of the chief centres of early Russian colonization in Siberia because it lay along an important river route to the east, but it declined when bypassed by the Trans-Siberian Railroad in the 1890s. Today it is a river port and station on the Tyumen-Surgut railway. One of Russia's largest petrochemical complexes, using natural-gas liquids from the West Siberian oil fields, is located there. Pop. (1991 est.) 96,800.