In Progress: Map of German Settlements in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive geographical region spanning much of Eurasia and North Asia. Siberia has historically been a part of modern Russia since the 17th century.
How many people work in Siberia?
From 1929 to 1953, over 14 million people worked in these camps. Today Siberia has a population of 36 million people and it is divided into several different districts. The region also has a number of major cities, of which Novosibirsk is the largest with a population of 1.3 million people.
What is the history of the Siberian settlement?
From its very beginning, the history of the Siberian settlement became synonymous with the history of Russian exile, forced settlements, labor camps and prisons.
How many people moved from Russia to Siberia?
From 1801 to 1914, about seven million people moved from European Russia to Siberia and from 1859 to 1917 (after the construction of the railroad was complete) over 500,000 people moved to Siberia.
What are the biggest cities in Siberia?
Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over 13.1 million square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), but home to merely one-fifth of Russia's population. Novosibirsk and Omsk are the largest cities in the region.
How many towns are in Siberia?
Today there are more than 130 cities in Siberia. The largest ones are Novosibisrk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Abakan, Barnaul, Omsk, Tomsk and many other small autonomies. Besides, Siberia is divided into several region: Buryatia, Tuva, Khakassia, Yakutia and many other small autonomies.
Are there any towns in Siberia?
The other large cities in Siberia include Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Tyumen, Khabarovsk, Novokuznetsk and Kemerovo. Below are the top three leading cities in Siberia regarding population.
How many regions are in Siberia?
Siberia falls into four major geographic regions, all of great extent. In the west, abutting the Ural Mountains, is the huge West Siberian Plain, drained by the Ob and Yenisey rivers, varying little in relief, and containing wide tracts of swampland.
How was Siberia settled?
Russian settlement In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Russian people that migrated into Siberia were hunters, and those who had escaped from Central Russia: fugitive peasants in search for life free of serfdom, fugitive convicts, and Old Believers.
What is the main city in Siberia?
NovosibirskNovosibirsk, city, administrative centre of Novosibirsk oblast (region) and the chief city of western Siberia, in south-central Russia. It lies along the Ob River where the latter is crossed by the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
What language is spoken in Siberia?
Abstract. Although Russian today is the dominant language in virtually every corner of North Asia, Siberia and the Northern Pacific Rim of Asia remain home to over three dozen mutually unintelligible indigenous language varieties.
Is Siberia bigger than Canada?
SIBERIA, INCLUDING the Russian Far East, covers 4.9 million square mi (12.8 million square km), an area that is three-fourths of the Russian Federation or onethird larger than the UNITED STATES and one-fourth larger than CANADA.
What's the capital of Siberia?
NovosibirskNovosibirsk was founded in 1893 on the Ob River crossing point of the future Trans-Siberian Railway, where the Novosibirsk Rail Bridge was constructed. Originally named Novonikolayevsk, the city grew rapidly into a major transport, commercial, and industrial hub.
What are the 3 Siberian regions?
The region is divided into three geographic areas: Northeast Siberia (Bering Strait to the Verkhoyansk Range), Eastern Siberia (Verkhoyansk Range to the Yenisei valley), and the Western Siberian Plain (Yenisei valley to the Urals).
Who got Siberia for Russia?
Ermak's troops defeated those of Khan Kuchum in a three-day battle on the Irtysh River in October 1582, an event that essentially opened the gates of Siberia to the Russians.
What percent of Russia is Siberia?
77%In total Siberia covers 5.1 million square miles (13.1 million sq km) or 77% of Russia's territory.
How many Jews live in Siberia?
Today the population of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, like that of most of Siberia, continues to decline. According to the 2010 Russian census, its population was just over 175,000 people, of whom only 1,600 (less than 1%) registered as Jews living in one of its twenty-four settlements or speaking Yiddish.
What's the capital of Siberia?
NovosibirskNovosibirsk was founded in 1893 on the Ob River crossing point of the future Trans-Siberian Railway, where the Novosibirsk Rail Bridge was constructed. Originally named Novonikolayevsk, the city grew rapidly into a major transport, commercial, and industrial hub.
How cold does it get in Siberia?
According to The Siberian Times, the lowest officially recorded temperature in Oymyakon was minus 89.9 F (minus 67.7 C) in 1933. In Yakutsk, the city's lowest temperature of this cold stretch was minus 58 F (minus 40 C) on Jan.
How cold is it in Siberia right now?
It is 81 degrees fahrenheit, or 27 degrees celsius and feels like 81 degrees fahrenheit. The barometric pressure is 30.06 - measured by inch of mercury units - and is falling since its last observation. The humidity is 47.88 percent with a dew point of 59 degrees fahrenheit that is rising since the last report.
What is the coldest place in Siberia?
Oymyakon, a Russian settlement of around 500 people, reached a frosty minus 96.2 F (minus 71.2 C (opens in new tab)) in 1924.
What is the history of Siberia?
The early history of Siberia was greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians ( Pazyryk) on the west of the Ural Mountains and Xiongnu ( Noin-Ula) on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the Christian era.
What were the people of Siberia?
The steppes of Siberia were occupied by a succession of nomadic peoples, including the Khitan people, various Turkic peoples, and the Mongol Empire. In the late Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism spread into the areas south of Lake Baikal . During the Russian Empire, Siberia was chiefly developed as an agricultural province.
What was the main purpose of the Russian Empire in Siberia?
During the Russian Empire, Siberia was chiefly developed as an agricultural province . The government also used it as a place of exile, sending Avvakum, Dostoevsky, and the Decemberists, among others, to work camps in the region. During the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railway was constructed, supporting industrialization. This was also aided by discovery and exploitation of vast reserves of Siberian mineral resources.
Why was Siberia considered a good place to exile?
Siberia was deemed a good place to exile for political reasons, as it was far from any foreign country . A St. Petersburg citizen would not wish to escape in vast Siberian countryside as the peasants and criminals did. Even the larger cities such as Irkutsk, Omsk, and Krasnoyarsk, lacked that intensive social life and luxurious high life of the capital.
How many people were involved in the Decembrist Revolt?
About eighty people involved in the Decembrist revolt were sentenced to obligatory work in Siberia and perpetual settlement here. Eleven wives followed them and settled near the labour camps. In their memoirs, they noted benevolence and prosperity of rural Siberians and severe treatment by the soldiers and officers.
Why were dog sleds used in Siberia?
In the swamps of western Siberia, dog sled Yam stations were set up to facilitate collection of tribute. In 1270, Kublai Khan sent a Chinese official, with a new batch of settlers, to serve as judge of the Kyrgyz and Tuvan basin areas ( 益蘭州 and 謙州 ).
Where did the Indo-Iranian Scythians live?
Between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE, the Indo-Iranian Scythians flourished in the Altai region ( Pazyryk culture ). They were a major influence on all later steppe empires. As early as the first millennium BCE, trade was underway over the Silk Road. Silk goods were imported and traded in Siberia.
How many people live in Siberia?
Today Siberia has a population of 36 million people and it is divided into several different districts. The region also has a number of major cities, of which Novosibirsk is the largest with a population of 1.3 million people.
How long has Siberia been around?
Evidence of some of the earliest human species has been found in southern Siberia that dates back to about 40,000 years ago. These species include Homo neanderthalensis, the species before humans, and Homo sapiens, humans, as well as a currently unidentified ...
What is the highest mountain in Siberia?
The highest point in Siberia is Klyuchevskaya Sopka, an active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, at 15,253 feet (4,649 m). Siberia is also home to Lake Baikal - the world's oldest and deepest lake. Lake Baikal is estimated to be around 30 million years old and, at its deepest point, it is 5,387 feet (1,642 meters) deep. It also contains about 20% of the Earth's non-frozen water.
Why is Siberia so rich?
Siberia is rich in minerals and natural resources which led to its early development and makes up the majority of its economy today as agriculture is limited due to permafrost and a short growing season. As a result of the rich mineral and natural resource supplies, the region today has a total population of 36 million people.
What is the geographical area of Siberia?
The major geographical zones of Siberia, however, are the West Siberian Plateau and the Central Siberian Plateau. The West Siberian Plateau is mainly flat and swampy. The northern portions of the plateau are dominated by permafrost, while the southern areas are comprised of grasslands.
What was the main economic practice of Siberia in the early 1900s?
In the early to mid-1900s, Siberia continued to grow in population as natural resource extraction became the main economic practice of the region. In addition, during the time of the Soviet Union, prison labor camps were set up in Siberia that were similar to those created earlier by Imperial Russia.
What is the climate of Siberia?
Most of Siberia's climate is subarctic and precipitation is low except for the Kamchatka Peninsula.
How many people live in Siberia?
Siberia has an area of 5,100,000 square miles and is home to approximately 40 million inhabitants. With about 7.8 inhabitants per square mile, Siberia is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world.
Which city has the most people in Siberia?
The Largest Siberian Cities. Of the 12 largest cities in Siberia, Novosibirsk tops the list with almost 1.5 million inhabitants while Tomsk is at the bottom of the list with a little over half a million inhabitants according to the 2010 Census.
What is the Siberian region?
Siberia is a vast geographical region that accounts for 77% of Russia's land area and 27% of its population. Siberia, which is also known as North Asia, has been a part of the nation of Russia since the 17th century. The Siberian territory stretches from the Ural Mountains to the drainage divide between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.
What is the area of Siberia?
Siberia has an area of 5,100,000 square miles and is home to approximately 40 ...
Why did the Russians start building cities in Siberia?
Most cities in Siberia started to appear as a result of the Russians tsars' decrees. The cities that were established in places with beneficial industry, trade, and defense characteristics began to flourish. The growth of cities in Siberia was attributed to population and was majorly supported by economic factors.
What is the largest city in Siberia?
Novosibirsk. With a population of 1,473,754 according to the 2010 Census, Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia. Novosibirsk is the third largest city by population in Russia behind Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Where is Novosibirsk located?
Novosibirsk is situated on the Ob River banks next to the Ob River Valley in the southwestern region of Siberia. The city is also near a large water reservoir created by the dam which supports the Novosibirsk Hydro Power Plant. Novosibirsk covers an area of 193.9 square miles and is divided into ten districts.
Why did Jews settle in Siberia?
Despite the law of 1812 that allowed Jewish craftsmen and merchants to leave their villages in the western guberniyas (regions) of the Russian Empire and settle in Siberia, exiled Jews continued to be the main reason for the increase in the Jewish population of Siberia. As a rule, new Jewish settlers maintained close relationships with relatives whom they had left behind in their former places of residence.
How many Jews were in Siberia in 1897?
According to the population census of 1897, the Jewish inhabitants of Siberia numbered 34,477 persons, the majority of whom were city dwellers and represented 0.6% of the total Siberian population. Following the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railroad (1904), many Jewish merchants, traders, artisans, and agricultural workers from the Pale of Settlement started to arrive in Siberia. The Jewish population increased to 50,000 in 1911 and continued to grow in the early years of the 20th century. Some 84% of Siberian merchants were Jews.
What were the new destinations for Jewish forced settlement?
The Omsk and Tobol’sk guberniyas were selected as the new destinations for Jewish forced settlement. In order to increase the population of Siberia and to simultaneously encourage Jews from the overpopulated western Russian guberniyas to settle in the new areas, a special decree was issued in November 1836.
What were the problems faced by the new settlers of Siberia?
Setting up a family was one of the problems facing new male settlers. Numerous shadkhanim (matchmakers) wandered all over Siberia to provide Jewish men with brides from western Russian guberniyas for a sum of 50-200 rubles in gold. Despite the fact that the Jews of Siberia were known as “wealthy grooms,” not everybody was ready to pay such a large amount of money to a shadkhan. In April 1817, the government issued a special decree by which all the new inhabitants of Siberia, including Jews, were permitted to marry women from the native population on the condition that they converted to either Christianity or Judaism. Very often, these newly proselyte women became more religious than their husbands and their devoutness became proverbial. Jewish men were forbidden to marry Christian women and were not allowed to follow their exiled wives. Only Jewish wives with female children were allowed to follow their Jewish husbands to the Siberian exile.
What was the history of Siberia?
From its very beginning, the history of the Siberian settlement became synonymous with the history of Russian exile, forced settlements, labor camps and prisons. While the burgeoning Moscow principality achieved its first victories against the Polish Lithuanian kingdom in the early 17th century, Mikhail Romanov (1613-1645), the first Romanov Tsar, established a separate Ministry for Siberian Affairs. By a special decree issued in 1635, all captured war prisoners – Lithuanians, Germans and Jews – were sent to forced settlement in Siberia. This policy was intended to strengthen the developing Moscow principality by bringing about a colonization of Siberia as well as by getting rid of all undesirable political opponents. The next tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Alexei Romanov (1645-1676), continued with this strategy. Following an extended internal struggle for the throne, Alexei resolved to punish his political opponents and their supporters by banishing them to Siberia. Subsequently, several dozen Jews and Germans from the German Sloboda district (till the beginning of the 18th century, all foreigners in Russia were called “Germans”) were expelled to Siberia in 1659 as numerous opponents of the tsar sought shelter in the houses of “foreigners”.
What were the natural resources of Siberia?
These expeditions discovered vast natural resources of gas, coal, gold, iron, silver, copper, etc. As a result, it was decided that a network of state-owned enterprises should be immediately established with the aim of encouraging the industrial development of the region by taking full advantage of the newly discovered natural resources. Such enterprises were founded in Nerchinsk, Achinsk, Kainsk, Kansk (Krasnoyarsk), Nizhneudinsk. The work force was mainly composed of administrative and political prisoners, and was later augmented with criminals as well.
Where did the Susskin brothers live?
One of the Susskin brothers, a rich dominant family in Harbin, Manchuria. Came to Eretz Israel in 1920. The Oster Documentation Center, ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, courtesy of Noemi Sinclair, Harbin. Ida Nudel, a refusenik, during exile in Kriboshenino, Siberia, 1978.
Who explored Siberia?
The expedition allowed cartographers to create a map of most of the northern coastline of Russia, thanks to the results brought by a series of voyages led by Fyodor Minin, Dmitry Ovtsyn, Vasili Pronchishchev, Semyon Chelyuskin, Dmitry Laptev and Khariton Laptev. At the same time, some of the members of the newly founded Russian Academy of Sciences traveled extensively through Siberia, forming the so-called Academic Squad of the Expedition. They were Johann Georg Gmelin, Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt and others, who became the first scientific explorers of Siberia.
Who was the first Russian to enter Buryatia?
In 1627 Pyotr Beketov was appointed Enisey voevoda in Siberia. He successfully carried out the voyage to collect taxes from Zabaykalye Buryats, becoming the first Russian to enter Buryatia. There he founded the first Russian settlement, Rybinsky ostrog. Beketov was sent to the Lena River in 1631, where in 1632 he founded Yakutsk and sent his Cossacks to explore the Aldan and further down the Lena, to found new fortresses, and to collect taxes.
Who was the first Russian to reach the Amur River?
In 1643, Vasily Poyarkov crossed the Stanovoy Range and reached the upper Zeya River in the country of the Daurs, who were paying tribute to Manchu Chinese. After wintering, in 1644 Poyarkov pushed down the Zeya and became the first Russian to reach the Amur River. He sailed down the Amur and finally discovered the mouth of that great river from land. Since his Cossacks provoked the enmity of the locals behind, Poyarkov chose a different way back. They built boats and in 1645 sailed along the Sea of Okhotsk coast to the Ulya River and spent the next winter in the huts that had been built by Ivan Moskvitin six years earlier. In 1646 they returned to Yakutsk.
Who was the first explorer to discover the Bering Sea?
In 1644 Mikhail Stadukhin discovered the Kolyma River and founded Srednekolymsk. A merchant named Fedot Alekseyev Popov organized a further expedition eastward, and Dezhnyov became a captain of one of the kochi. In 1648 they sailed from Srednekolymsk down to the Arctic and after some time they rounded Cape Dezhnyov, thus becoming the first explorers to pass through Bering Strait and to discover Chukotka and the Bering Sea. All their kochi and most of their men (including Popov) were lost in storms and clashes with the natives. A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the mouth of the Anadyr River and sailed up it in 1649, having built new boats out of the wreckage. They founded Anadyrsk and were stranded there, until Stadukhin found them, coming from Kolyma by land. Later Stadukhin set off to the south in 1651 and discovered Penzhin Bay on the northern side of the Okhotsk Sea. He also may have explored the western shores of Kamchatka as early as the 1650s.
Who explored the Amur River?
In 1649–50 Yerofey Khabarov became the second Russian to explore the Amur River . Through the Olyokma, Tungur and Shilka Rivers he reached the Amur (Dauria), returned to Yakutsk and then went back to the Amur with a larger force in 1650–53. This time he was met with armed resistance. He built winter quarters at Albazin, then sailed down the Amur and found Achansk, which preceded the present-day Khabarovsk, defeating or evading large armies of Daurian Manchu Chinese and Koreans on his way. He charted the Amur in his Draft of the Amur river.
Overview
Russian exploration and settlement
In the early 17th century, the eastward movement of Russian people was slowed by the internal problems in the country during the Time of Troubles. However, very soon the exploration and colonization of the huge territories of Siberia was resumed, led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. While Cossacks came from the Southern Urals, another wave of Russian people came by the Arctic Ocean. These were Pomors from the Russian North, who had already b…
Prehistory and antiquity
According to the field of genetic genealogy, people first resided in Siberia by 45,000 BCE and spread out east and west to populate Europe and the Americas, including the prehistoric Jomon people of Japan, who are the ancestors of the modern Ainu. Genetic data suggests that Siberia was populated during the Terminal Upper-Paleolithic (36+-1,5ka) period from both, a deeply European-related population, which was once widespreaded in Northern Eurasia, and from an early East A…
Middle Ages
The Mongols had long maintained relations with the people of the Siberian forest (taiga). They called them oin irged ("people of the forest"). Many of them, such as the Barga and Uriankhai, were little different from the Mongols. While the tribes around Lake Baikal were Mongol-speaking, those to the west spoke Turkic, Samoyedic, or Yeniseian languages.
By 1206, Genghis Khan had united all Mongol and Turkic tribes on the Mongolian Plateau and sout…
Khanate of Sibir
With the breakup of the Golden Horde late in the 15th century, the Khanate of Sibir was founded with its center at Tyumen. The non-Borjigin Taybughid dynasty vied for rule with the descendants of Shiban, a son of Jochi.
In the beginning of the 16th century Tatar fugitives from Turkestan subdued the loosely associated tribes inhabiting the lowlands to the east of the Ural Mountains. Agriculturists, tanners, merchant…
Russian Empire
The Siberia Governorate was established in 1708 as part of the administrative reforms of Peter I. In 1719, the governorate was divided into three provinces, Vyatka, Solikamsk and Tobolsk. In 1762, it was renamed to Tsardom of Siberia (Сибирское царство). In 1782, under the impression of Pugachev's Rebellion, the Siberian kingdom was divided into three separate viceregencies (наместничество), centered at Tobolsk, Irkutsk and Kolyvan. These viceregencies were downgrad…
Russian Civil War
By the time of the revolution Siberia was an agricultural region of Russia, with weak entrepreneur and industrial classes. The intelligentsia had vague political ideas. Only 13% of the region's population lived in the cities and possessed some political knowledge. The lack of strong social differences and scarcity of urban population and intellectuals led to the uniting of formally different political parties under ideas of regionalism.
Soviet era
By the 1920s the agriculture in Siberia was in decline. With the large number of immigrants, land was used very intensively, which led to exhaustion of the land and frequent bad harvests. Agriculture wasn't destroyed by the civil war, but the disorganization of the exports destroyed the food industry and reduced the peasants' incomes. Furthermore, prodrazvyorstka and then the natural food tax contributed to growing discontent. In 1920–1924 there was a number of anti-co…
History of Siberia
Geography and Climate of Siberia
- Siberia has a total area of over 5.1 million square miles (13.1 million sq km) and as such, it has a highly varied topography that covers several different geographic zones. The major geographical zones of Siberia, however, are the West Siberian Plateau and the Central Siberian Plateau. The West Siberian Plateau is mainly flat and swampy. The northern portions of the plateau are domi…
Economy and People of Siberia
- Siberia is rich in minerals and natural resources which led to its early development and makes up the majority of its economy today as agriculture is limited due to permafrost and a short growing season. As a result of the rich mineral and natural resource supplies, the region today has a total population of 36 million people. Most of the people are of Russian and Ukrainian descent but the…