Yes, Python was strong before Ruby (which I indicated hopefully), but it wasn't as mainstream as it is now when it's everywhere (at least in circles around me).
I back then used it for a lot of things and most weren't related to web. But I think it made the biggest jump after Ruby backslash. From quick peek at TIOBE:
""" "Programming Language of the Year" award winners is shown below. The award is given to the programming language that has the highest rise in ratings in a year. """
Mailman, the original BitTorrent client, Gentoo's Portage/emerge tools, yum, Eve Online, and a large swathe of 90s-era Red Hat Linux system configuration tools have all been written in Python, all predating Django and your "Ruby backlash" timescale by at least 2-3 years. And not one of them is web-related.
Most of the code that gets written in Python has nothing to do with web development. Web development is just high-profile.
I back then used it for a lot of things and most weren't related to web. But I think it made the biggest jump after Ruby backslash. From quick peek at TIOBE:
""" "Programming Language of the Year" award winners is shown below. The award is given to the programming language that has the highest rise in ratings in a year. """
2007 Python 2006 Ruby 2005 Java