to the east, it represented the southern limit of Russian expansion in the Yenisei basin during the seventeenth century. In a letter to Tsar Michael I the Cossacks reported:
:...The town of trunks (log buildings) we have constructed and around the place of fort, we the servants of thee, our Lord, have embedded posts and fastened them with double bindings and the place of fort have strengthened mightily...

The settlement was granted town status in 1690.