[clarification needed] The oblast has a classic continental climate, with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry summers.

To support further expansion tsars Feodor I and Boris Godunov initiated the construction of fortified settlements and military outposts in the south of Siberia in order to defend their subjects from raiding nomadic tribesmen and to exert authority over local populations, specifically over the tribute-paying Siberian Tatars of The Baraba Lands.

The first permanent Russian settlement in the region, the city of Tara, was founded in 1594, soon it began to play an important part in fur trade that connected Russia with Central Asia and China.

As Russian settlements continued to spread through the Yenisei, Tobol and Irtysh watersheds in the course of the 18th century, so did the development of the Omsk and the surrounding region.

In 1753 a customs post was established to tax goods brought into the city by the ever-increasing trade with Kazakh tribesmen.

In 1764, when the Siberian provinces of Russia were organized into two governorates with centers in Irkutsk and Tobolsk, the city of Tara and the fortress of Omsk were assigned to the latter.

The authority of the oblast followed further expansion of the empire to Central Asia and included significant parts of modern-day Kazakhstan.

In the 19th century, Omsk, given its strong system of frontier fortresses, became notorious as a premier destination for political exiles and prisoners from the European part of the Russian Empire.

Decembrists, Polish rebels, French prisoners of war and political activists of every stripe found their way to Siberia.

The Siberian Cossack Army was headquartered in Omsk after 1808 and contributed to the development of the city, by the beginning of the 20th century the Cossacks were a dominant component in the society of both the city of Omsk and the surrounding lands, having reached a population of 174 thousand and holding title to five million hectares of agricultural land.

In 1925 the Omsk governorate was dissolved into the newly formed Siberian Krai and again reorganized, this time as an Oblast by order of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on 7 December 1934.

The 1950s saw the creation of the petroleum processing industry, as well as the development of various high-technology facilities that came to define the economy of the Oblast for the remainder of the century.

The independence of Kazakhstan gave Omsk an international border to the south, while continued federal policy aiming to rectify the effects of Stalin era population transfers led to the creation of a national German district in an area with a significant, although not a majority, German population around the town of Azovo.

Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

[15] As of 2008,[update] Omsk Oblast is the 23rd largest economy in Russia, with a gross regional product of 10.2 billion dollars.

The economy of Omsk Oblast is heavily industrial, with well developed, and growing, service and financial sectors.

Economic activity is concentrated in Omsk, with over sixty-six thousand private enterprises registered, ranging from small-scale retailers to billion-dollar manufacturing.

[19] The oblast operates four thermal power plants, which makes it largely self-sufficient from the standpoint of energy generation.

[22] Vital statistics for 2022:[23][24] Total fertility rate (2022):[25] 1.52 children per woman Life expectancy (2021):[26] Total — 69.02 years (male — 64.48, female — 73.45) According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic composition was:[10] According to Russia's 2002 Census, Omsk Oblast has one of the lowest birth rates in Siberia.