Omsk was originally founded in 1716 and grew over the next hundred years as the administrative center of Western Siberia, partly because the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was constructed in the 1890's, ran through the city. For a few years during this time, Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- writer of Crime and Punishment -- was exiled to Omsk. The city briefly became the capital of the white forces, or the pro-monarchy forces after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, but when it finally came under control of the red forces, who later became the Soviet Union, many of its administrative functions were shifted to the city of Novosibirsk, who then became the administrative center of Western Siberia instead, halting Omsks development slightly.