Siberia (,
Sibir'), is the vast region constituting almost all of
Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the
Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the
USSR from its beginning, and the
Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century.
It includes a large part of the
Eurasian Steppe and extends eastward from the
Ural Mountains to the
watershed between
Pacific and
Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the
Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central
Kazakhstan and the national borders of both
Mongolia and
China. It makes up about 77% of Russia's territory (13.1 million square kilometres), but only 25% of Russia's population (36 million people).
Origin of the name
Some sources say that it originates from the
Turkic for "sleeping land." Another version is that this name was the tribal name of the
Sibilla, ancient
Turkic nomads later assimilated to
Siberian Tatars. It has also been asserted that the name Siberia is connected to the
Sabir people.
Shaman Akkanat, one of the last shamans in western Siberia and a leading figure in the indigenous society of the region, claims that Siberia got its name from his nation, the
Sibirga people. The modern usage of the name appeared in the Russian language after the conquest of the
Siberia Khanate.
Borders and administrative division
The term
Siberia has a very long history, and its meaning has gradually changed during ages.
Historically, Siberia was defined as the whole part of Russia to the east of
Ural Mountains, including the
Russian Far East. According to this definition,
Siberia extended eastward from the
Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the border of Russian
Central Asia and the national borders of both Mongolia (which included
Tuva) and China.
Soviet-era sources (
GSE and others) and modern Russian ones usually define
Siberia as a region extending eastward from the Ural Mountains to the
watershed between
Pacific and
Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central
Kazakhstan and the national borders of both
Mongolia and
China. Correspondingly, Siberia includes the
federal subjects of the
Siberian Federal District, and some of the
Urals Federal District, as well as
Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, which is a part of the
Far Eastern Federal District. This definition also includes geographically (but not administratively) subdivisions of several other subjects of Urals and Far Eastern federal districts. This definition excludes
Sverdlovsk Oblast and
Chelyabinsk Oblast, both of which are included in some wider definitions of Siberia.
Other sources may use either a somewhat wider definition that states the Pacific coast, not the watershed, is the eastern boundary (thus including the whole Russian Far East) or a somewhat narrower one that confines
Siberia to the Siberian Federal District (thus excluding all subjects of other districts). However, in Russian the word for
Siberia is never used to substitute the name of the federal district.
Major cities include:
History
Siberia was occupied by differing groups of nomads such as the
Yenets, the
Nenets, the
Huns, the
Iranian Scythians, and the
Turkic Uyghurs. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern
Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed
Kubrat as
Khagan in
Avaria in 630. The area was conquered by the
Mongols early in the 13th century. With the break up of the
Golden Horde, the
autonomous Siberia Khanate was established in late 14th century.
The tower of ostrog, a 17th-century Russian fort, in
Yakutsk.
The growing power of
Russia to the west began to undermine the
Siberian Khanate in the 16th century. First, groups of traders and
Cossacks began to enter the area, and then the Russian army began to set up forts further and further east. Towns like
Mangazeya,
Tara,
Yeniseysk, and
Tobolsk sprang up, the latter being declared the capital of Siberia. By the mid-17th century, the Russian-controlled areas had been extended to the
Pacific. The total
Russian population of Siberia in 1709 was 230,000.
Siberia remained a mostly undocumented and sparsely populated area. During the following few centuries, only a few exploratory missions and traders entered Siberia. The other group that was sent to Siberia consisted of prisoners exiled from western Russia or Russian-held territories like
Poland (see
katorga). In the 19th century, around 1.2 million prisoners were deported to Siberia.
The first great modern change to Siberia was the
Trans-Siberian railway, constructed in 1891–1916. It linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly-industrializing Russia of
Nicholas II. Between 1801 and 1914 an estimated 7 million settlers moved from
European Russia to Siberia, 85% during the quarter-century before
World War I. Siberia is filled with natural resources and during the 20th century large scale exploitation of these was developed, and industrial towns cropped up throughout the region.
Katorga and Gulag
Russia, later the Soviet Union, operated a series of labor camps, known as the
GULAG, which is an acronym for Main Camp Administration. They became so common that "Siberia" came to be used as a reference for exile and punishment, e.g., "a bureaucratic Siberia." Soviet authorities deported millions of people, including entire nationalities, from western areas of the USSR to
Central Asia and Siberia. More than 18 million people passed through the
Gulag from 1929 to 1953, with a further 6 million being
deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
By analogy, one working-class district of downtown
Stockholm,
Sweden, earned the name
Sibirien (Siberia) in the late 19th century, referring to its low-cost tenement houses being built in outlying areas.
Geography and geology
thumb|right|Altai, Lake Kutsherla in the Altai Mountains.
With an area of 13.1 million km² (5.1 million
square miles), Siberia makes up roughly 77% of the total area of Russia. Major geographical zones include the
West Siberian Plain and the
Central Siberian Plateau. Siberia covers almost 10% of Earth's land surface (14,894,000 km²).
The West Siberian Plain consists mostly of
Cenozoic alluvial deposits and is extraordinarily low-lying, so much so that a
sea level rise of fifty metres would cause all land between the Arctic Ocean and
Novosibirsk to be inundated. Many of the deposits on this plain result from
ice dams; having reversed the flow of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers, so redirecting them into the
Caspian Sea (perhaps the
Aral as well). It is very swampy and soils are mostly peaty
Histosols and, in the treeless northern part,
Histels. In the south of the plain, where
permafrost is largely absent, rich grasslands that are an extension of the
Kazakh Steppe formed the original vegetation (almost all cleared now).
The Central Siberian Plateau is an extremely ancient
craton (sometimes named
Angaraland) that formed an independent
continent before the
Permian (see
Siberia (continent)). It is exceptionally rich in minerals, containing large deposits of
gold,
diamonds, and ores of
manganese,
lead,
zinc,
nickel,
cobalt and
molybdenum. Much of the area includes the
Siberian Traps which is a
large igneous province. The massive eruptive period was approximately coincident with the
Permian–Triassic extinction event. The volcanic event is said to be the largest known
volcanic eruption in
Earth's
history. Only the extreme northwest was glaciated during the
Quaternary, but almost all is under exceptionally deep
permafrost and the only
tree that can thrive, despite the warm summers, is the deciduous
Siberian Larch (
Larix sibirica) with its very shallow roots. Outside the extreme northwest, the
taiga is dominant. Soils here are mainly
Turbels, giving way to
Spodosols where the active layer becomes thicker and the ice content lower.
Eastern and central Sakha comprise numerous north-south mountain ranges of various ages. These mountains extend up to almost three thousand metres in elevation, but above a few hundred metres they are almost completely devoid of vegetation. The
Verkhoyansk Range was extensively glaciated in the Pleistocene, but the climate was too dry for glaciation to extend to low elevations. At these low elevations are numerous valleys, many of them deep, and covered with larch forest except in the extreme north, where
tundra dominates. Soils are mainly Turbels and the active layer tends to be less than one metre deep except near rivers.
The highest point in Siberia is the active
volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka, in the
Kamchatka peninsula. Its peak is at .
Russian researchers warn that
Western Siberia has begun to thaw as a result of
global warming. The frozen
peat bogs in this region may hold billions of tons of
methane gas, which may be released into the atmosphere. Methane is a
greenhouse gas 22 times more powerful than
carbon dioxide. In 2008, a research expedition for the
American Geophysical Union detected levels of methane up to 100 times above normal in the Siberian Arctic, likely being released by methane clathrates being released by holes in a frozen 'lid' of seabed
permafrost, around the outfall of the
Lena River and the area between the
Laptev Sea and
East Siberian Sea.
Climate
The climate of Siberia varies dramatically. On the north coast, north of the
Arctic Circle, there is a very short (about one-month-long) summer.
150px|thumb|[[Taiga near
Lake Baikal.]]
Almost all the population lives in the south, along the
Trans-Siberian Railway. The climate here is
subarctic (Koppen
Dfc or
Dwc), with the annual average temperature about and roughly average in January and in July. With a reliable growing season, an abundance of sunshine and exceedingly fertile
chernozem soils, Southern Siberia is good enough for profitable agriculture, as was proven in the early twentieth century.
The southwesterly winds of Southern Siberia bring warm air from Central Asia and the Middle East. The climate in West Siberia (Omsk, Novosibirsk) is several degrees warmer than in the East (Irkutsk, Chita). With a lowest record temperature of ,
Oymyakon (
Sakha Republic) has the distinction of being the coldest town on
Earth. But summer temperatures in other regions reach . In general, Sakha is the coldest Siberian region, and the basin of the
Yana River has the lowest temperatures of all, with permafrost reaching . Nevertheless, as far as Imperial Russian plans of settlement were concerned, cold was never viewed as an issue. In the winter, southern Siberia sits near the center of the semi-permanent
Siberian High, so winds are usually light in the winter.
Precipitation in Siberia is generally low, exceeding only in
Kamchatka where moist winds flow from the
Sea of Okhotsk onto high mountains – producing the region's only major
glaciers – and in most of
Primorye in the extreme south where monsoonal influences can produce quite heavy summer rainfall. Despite the region's notorious cold winters, snowfall is generally quite light, especially in the eastern interior of the region.
Lakes and rivers
Mountain ranges
Grasslands
Economy
Siberia is extraordinarily rich in minerals, containing ores of almost all economically valuable
metals—largely because of the absence of Quaternary glaciation outside highland areas. It has some of the world's largest deposits of
nickel,
gold,
lead,
coal,
molybdenum,
gypsum,
diamonds,
silver and
zinc, as well as extensive unexploited resources of
oil and
natural gas. Most of these are in the cold and remote eastern part of the region, with the result that extraction has proven difficult and expensive.
Agriculture is severely restricted by the short growing season of most of the region. However, in the southwest where soils are exceedingly fertile black earths and the climate is a little more moderate, there is extensive cropping of
wheat,
barley,
rye and
potatoes, along with the grazing of large numbers of
sheep and
cattle. Elsewhere food production, owing to the poor fertility of the
podzolic soils and the extremely short growing seasons, is restricted to the herding of
reindeer in the tundra — which has been practised by natives for over ten thousand years. Siberia has the world's largest
forests. Timber remains an important source of revenue despite the fact that many forests in the east have been logged much more rapidly than they are able to recover. The
Sea of Okhotsk is one of the two or three richest fisheries in the world owing to its cold currents and extremely large
tidal ranges, and thus Siberia produces over 10 percent of the world's annual fish catch, though fishing has declined somewhat since the collapse of the USSR.
Demographics
Siberia has a population density of about three people per square kilometer. Most Siberians are
Russians and Russified
Ukrainians. There are approximately 400,000 ethnic
Germans living in Siberia. Such
Mongol and
Turkic groups as
Buryats,
Tuvinians,
Yakuts, and
Siberian Tatars lived in Siberia originally, and descendants of these peoples still live there. The
Buryats number 445,175, which makes them the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia. According to the
2002 census there are 443,852
Yakuts. Other
ethnic groups include
Kets,
Evenks,
Chukchis,
Koryaks, and
Yukaghirs. See the
Northern indigenous peoples of Russia article for more. Officially, 40,000 Chinese live in the
Russian Far East, but the actual figure is believed to be much higher.
About 70% of Siberia's people live in cities. Most city people live in apartments. Many people in rural areas live in simple, but more spacious, log houses.
Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million.
Tobolsk,
Tomsk,
Krasnoyarsk,
Irkutsk and
Omsk are the older, historical centers.
Religion
There are a variety of beliefs throughout Siberia including
Orthodox Christianity,
Islam,
Tibetan Buddhism, and other denominations of Christianity. An estimated 70,000
Jews live in Siberia. The predominant group is the
Russian Orthodox Church. However, native religion dates back hundreds of years. The vast terrority of Siberia has many different local traditions of gods. These include:
Ak Ana,
Anapel,
Bugady Musun,
Kara Khan,
Khaltesh-Anki,
Kini'je,
Ku'urkil,
Nga,
Nu'tenut,
Numi-Torem,
Numi-Turum,
Pon,
Pugu,
Todote,
Toko'yoto,
Tomam,
Xaya Iccita,
Zonget. Places with sacred areas include
Olkhon, an island in
Lake Baikal.
Transport
Many cities in Siberia, such as
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, cannot be reached by road from other major cities in Russia or Asia. The best way to tour Siberia is through the
Trans-Siberian Railway. The Trans-Siberian Railway operates from Moscow in the West to
Vladivostok in the East. The train has 2nd class 4-berth compartments, 1st class 2-berth compartments, and a restaurant car. Cities not nearby the Railway are best reached by air.
Famous people born in Siberia
- Evgeniya Kanaeva born in Omsk in 1990 a rhythmic gymnast winner of the gold medal in the individual all around competition at the 2008 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships and also the individual all around competition at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games
See also
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