|
|
 |
It was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob, and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
By the time of the bridge's opening Novonikolaevsk's population was 7,800 people. The year 1906 saw the first bank of Novosibirsk being established and by 1915 there were already five banks. In 1907 it became a city with all the rights of self-government and population of 47,000. The pre-November Revolution period saw Novosibirsk with a population of 80,000 and was the largest commercial and industrial center having an agricultural processing industry, power station, iron foundry, commodity market, banks, commercial and shipping companies, 7 Orthodox churches, one Roman-Catholic church, several cinemas, 40 primary schools, a high school, teachers' seminary and the Romanov House' non-classical secondary school. Novosibirsk was one of the first towns in Russia that accepted the compulsory primary education in 1913.
The Russian Civil War took a toll on the town, with several typhus and cholera epidemics which took thousands of lives. The famous Ob bridge was blown up, and for the first time since the beginning of its history Novonikolaevsk's population fell. In December of 1917 the Soviet Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of Novonikolaevsk seized the town. In May, 1918 Czechoslovak prisoners of war set up an opposition and together with White Guards captured Novonikolaevsk. It was taken by the Red Army in 1919.
Novonikolaevsk began reconstruction in 1921 at the start of Lenin's New Economic Policy. It was given a new name, Novosibirsk, in 1926.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk
|
