Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 as a future site of a railroad bridge crossing the great Siberian River Ob. It officially became a town in 1903. The first Russian village on the territory of the future Novosibirsk region appeared in 1695, and the first settlement on the territory of the future Novosibirsk, the village Krivoshchekovskaya, in 1701.

The powerful impetus towards cultural and economic development of the region was given by the setting in 1891-1897 of the Trance Siberian railroad. And Novosibirsk city prompt development was due to the construction of the iron road bridge over the Ob, the largest river of Russia. In 1903 it achieved the independent city status, and in 1908 received the full urban status and started growing at even greater speed. In 1912 Novo-Nikolaevsk became the first city of Russia in which the comprehensive elementary education was introduced.

The first attempt to establish Soviet authority in Novonikolaevsk failed under the impact of counterrevolutionary forces, but the next attempt in 1919 was successful, after the coming of the Red Army into the city the authority passes to emergency governmental body - Novonikolaevsk revolutionary committee.

By 1920 Novonikolaevsk turns into a valuable factory and industrial centre with large consumption of raw materials.

And with the formation in 1925 of the Siberian region the young ambitious city becomes an administrative centre of the whole Siberia and cannot carry the old "tsarist regime" name anymore, so in 1926 it receives the new symbolical name of Novosibirsk meaning “the city of the new Siberia”.

The city starts concentrating in it all financial and economic resources, and lays the foundations for the development of scientific potential. In 1930, in connection with the administrative division of the Siberian region, Novosibirsk becomes the center of the Western part of the-Siberian region.

In the years of Stalin's Industrialization Novosibirsk from large commercial city turned into a big industrial center of Siberia. Many industrial giants were built here: the Sibkombain plant, mining tools plant, metal processing plant, food processing and other plants and factories, and a high power station also. In 1932-1933, when the terrible hunger broke out in Central Russia, more then 170 thousand refugees arrived at Novosibirsk. They settled down in barracks in the town outskirts, in shacks and huts. The slum rose as quick as mushrooms after rain: Big Nakhalovka, Little Nakhalovka and others.

Novosibirsk started as integrated architectural complex only after1955, when the Kommunalny bridge, main city bridge across Ob, was built. Just from that time the town chose the way of total renovation and improvement. Activity of building companies acquired really industrial basis. Large-panel construction became the main kind of house building.

In 1957 the building of a large science center was started on the bank of the Ob Sea; it was the Siberian Branch of Science Academy of the USSR, so called Academgorodok. That new part of the town included 14 research institutes, a university, dwelling and public buildings also, a department store and a Scientists House.

In 1990 Novosibirsk received the honourable status of a historical city. Despite of its youthfulness, the city has 145 monuments of architecture, history, monumental art and archaeology, all taken under the state protection. Especially valuable are 47 monuments of the wooden carved architecture which were preserved in the city from the end of XIX century, represent the beginnings of XX century. Besides, 144 monuments of history and culture and 86 objects of valuable historical city environment are now under state protection as newly found.

In 2000 in Novosibirsk the Representation of the President of the Russian Federation was placed and it became the Center of the Siberian Federal district.