1983-2000

The Time of Change

Tyumen, like the entire country, found itself in a prolonged transitional period. In the first half of the 1990s, Tyumen faced a systemic crisis, but compared to other regions, the decline in production there was less severe. The potential and raw material resources laid down during the Soviet era helped the region survive the “wild 1990s.”
The political reforms and economic difficulties of the late twentieth century also affected Tyumen. Empty shop shelves became a symbol of the transition from the 1980s to the 1990s. The first cooperatives emerged during this period.
In the first half of the 1980s, one of the defining features of the country’s political and social life was the succession of deaths and funerals of several General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Meanwhile, industrial output continued to grow in the mid-1980s. Between 1986 and 1988, industrial production increased by 15%, while the housing stock grew by 28%.
The Days of Literature in the Tyumen Region became an annual tradition, beginning in 1970. Well-known poets and writers, as well as literary figures from other countries, took part in these events. During the 1980s, the Tyumen writers' organisation expanded. By 1985, it had 19 members. In December 1989, the first periodical published by Tyumen writers appeared: the newspaper Tyumen Literary. It published works by local writers, literary criticism, and information about the activities of the Tyumen writers' organisation. One of the newspaper’s founding organisations was the regional Society of Russian Culture.
In 1988, the city held its first women’s beauty contest, Image. In 1990, the fourth power-generating unit at Tyumen Combined Heat and Power Plant No. 2 (CHP-2), which had been under construction since 1981, was commissioned.
In 1989, a Popular Front organisation was established in Tyumen.

In 1991−1992, Tyumen ranked second among Russian cities in terms of the number of newly opened banks. In autumn 1990, the Tyumen Commodity and Stock Exchange, the first of its kind in the region, began operating. Private businesses were becoming increasingly active in all areas of economic life.

At the same time, prices rose and consumer demand fell. The first unemployed people were officially registered in 1991, and an Employment Centre was established.
At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, certain positive changes took place within the regional party organisation. For the first time in the party’s history, delegates to the 28th Congress were elected through a competitive process with alternative candidates. In April 1990, the 22nd Regional Party Conference also elected the First Secretary of the Regional Committee through an alternative vote. However, these changes remained superficial and did not alter the fundamental nature of the political course pursued by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

When the August 1991 coup took place, communist party leaders were among those who failed to voice any protest against the actions of the "coup leaders". August 1991 revealed just how far removed from reality the slogan "The people and the Party are one" had become. By decree of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, the activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were suspended.

A little earlier, in October 1990, the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) ceased to exist, including its regional organisation in the Tyumen Region.
By early 1992, 25 political parties and 820 public organisations had been registered in the Russian Federation. Similar organisations were emerging in Tyumen and throughout the Tyumen Region. Between 1986 and 1989, the environmental movement gained momentum, and associations dedicated to the revival of languages, customs, and cultural traditions were established.

At the same time, the perestroika measures introduced by the central authorities throughout the second half of the 1980s were spontaneous and inconsistent. The most significant of these were the development of the cooperative movement and the transition to a system of leasing arrangements. The large-scale establishment of cooperatives began in the Tyumen Region, as elsewhere in the country, after 1987. Between 1988 and 1990, several hundred cooperatives were formed. The number of people employed by them increased from 1,400 to 120,000. In 1990, the Tyumen Region ranked sixth in Russia in terms of the scale of its cooperative movement.
In 1990−1991, amendments to the country’s legislation established a wider range of forms of ownership. The government also announced a policy of breaking up monopolies and privatising enterprises. As a result, most central industrial administrations were abolished, including Glavtyumenneftegaz and Tyumengazprom. The former was transformed into the Tyumenneftegaz Association, which brought together 10 of the 11 production associations engaged in oil and gas extraction. At the initiative of its management, the Gazprom concern was established on the basis of the Ministry of the Gas Industry. It incorporated all enterprises in the sector and gained control over stocks of materials, equipment, and other resources, becoming their sole distributor.
In 1991, Soviet rule came to an end, and in 1994 the City Duma held its first meeting. That same year, Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', visited Tyumen.
By the end of 1992, 50 industrial enterprises had been sold, 12 of which had been partially or fully privatised. Their total value amounted to approximately 2 billion roubles. In the retail trade and catering sectors, more than 140 enterprises were privatised during the year. At the same time, enterprises that retained their state-owned status were granted greater independence. In 1992, more than 1,000 retail and catering enterprises gained legal independence and opened their own settlement accounts. In the consumer services sector, 286 tailoring shops and workshops also gained this status.

In 1992, M. M. Birman established the Tyumenconcert company. An important event in the region’s musical life was the staging of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s opera Aleko to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth. The production was directed artistically by V. A. Orlov, an Honoured Artist of Russia.

At the end of the twentieth century, several new factories began operating, manufacturing mineral wool, welding electrodes, pharmaceutical products, and polyethylene pipes. One in every five disposable syringes was manufactured in Tyumen.