There are numerous lakes (approximately 256) in elongated chains that follow the general course of ancient runoff to the northeast.

Before joining to Russia as part of Siberia, the area was inhabited by Tatars and nomadic herders of southern Turkic peoples.

The first mention of Russian settlement is the building of a string of military strongholds in the late 1600s.

Agricultural settlement followed, mostly farmers from central Russia, and the area records the arrival of conscripts who had been involved in Pugachev's Rebellion in the late 1700s.

150 residents killed during the peasant uprising in the 1920s are buried in a mass grave in the central park of Berdyuzhye.