Aim. To evaluate the effect of blood pressures (BP) on the risk of cardiovascular death (CVD) in a Tyumen open population through a 12-year prospective follow-up study. Subjects and methods. Standard methods were used to make a cardiac screening of a representative sample of 25-to-64-year-old Tyumen citizens in 1996. The response rate was 80.4% or 1608 persons. CVD cases were recorded in 85 (10.69%) men and 33 (4.06%) women during the 12-year subsequent prospective follow-up study. The Cox regression model was used to assess the relative risk (RR) for CVD. Survival rates were analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method. Results. In the men, RR for CVD statistically significant increased from the 4th quintile of the distribution of systolic blood pressure (SBP) (2.88) and from the 3rd quintile of that of diastolic BP (DBP) (2.33). The women showed a statistically significant increase in RR for CVD only in the 5th quintile both of SBP and DBP (11.0 and 7.95%, respectively). Analysis of the absolute risk showed that SBP made a greater contribution to CVD that DBP in both the men and women (52.8 and 46.9% for the men and 92 and 83.8% for the women, respectively). Conclusion. The open population from Tyumen was ascertained to have a high RR for CVD starting with a SBP of ≥141 mm Hg and a DBP ≥86 mm Hg for the men and with a SBP of ≥152 mm Hg and a DBP of ≥95 mm Hg for the women, which determined a lower survival in the population with elevated SBP and elevated DBP.