[4] The city was founded in 1720 at the confluence of the Irtysh and Ulba rivers as a fort and trading post named Ust-Kamennaya.

[5] It was established according to the order of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great, who sent a military expedition headed by major Ivan Mihailovich Likharev in the search of Yarkenda gold.

The Ust-Kamennaya Fortress appeared on the map of the Russian Empire, the very southern end of the Irtysh line.

An explosion at the UMW's beryllium production line in 1990 led to the diffusion of a highly toxic beryllium-containing "cloud" over the city.

Processing of non-ferrous metals, especially uranium, beryllium, tantalum, copper, lead, silver and zinc remain important.

[19] The city has three cinemas (although during the Soviet era, there were a lot more), three museums, and a drama theater with Russian and Kazakh (since 2000) troupes.

Torpedo is the alma mater of NHL players Nik Antropov, Vitali Kolesnik, Evgeni Nabokov, Alexander Perezhogin, and Konstantin Pushkaryov.

[20][21] With ethnic Russians comprising the demographic majority of the population, Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion of Oskemen.

[22] However, in 2017 a court fined and banned Oskemen's New Life Protestant Church for singing religious songs at a summer camp.

The most extensive network, with more than 35 lines, is at the railway station, which is located by the Sports Palace on Novoshkolnaya Street.

With a poor urban ventilation (the average percentage of calm 48%),[14] with a large number of vehicles and stationary sources relevance of air pollution in Oskemen is not in doubt.

The soil close to the industry territories holds the solid wastes of the firms and becomes less suitable for planting.

[14] Oskemen is known to be the leader in Kazakhstan by the number of people having respiratory problems and the diseases of immune system.