History of Siberia

History of Siberia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and others.

The early history of Siberia is greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians (Pazyryk) and Xiongnu (Noin-Ula), both flourishing before the Christian era. The steppes of South Siberia saw a succession of nomadic empires, including the Turkic Empire and the Mongol Empire. In the late Middle AgesTibetan Buddhism spread into the areas south of Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal http://www.pbase.com/

Tree near Lake Baikal

Tree near Lake Baikal  http://www.pbase.com/dimitrisokolenko/image/33960584

A milestone in the history of the region was the arrival of the Russians in the 16th and 17th centuries, contemporaneous and in many regards analogous to the European colonization of the Americas. During the Russian Empire, Siberia was an agricultural province and served as a place of exile, among others for AvvakumDostoevsky, and the Decembrists. The 19th century witnessed the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, industrialization and the discovery of vast reserves of Siberian mineral resources.

File:Surikov Pokoreniye Sibiri Yermakom.jpg


File:Berg Belucha.jpg

Mount Belukha in the Altai Mountains

According to the field of genetic genealogy, people first resided in Siberia by 45,000 BCE and spread out east and west to populate the Americas and Europe. According to Vasily Radlov, among the earliest inhabitants of Central Siberia were the Yeniseians, who spoke a language different from the later Uralic and Turkic peoples. The Kets are considered the last remainder of this early migration.



The shores of all Siberian lakes which filled the depressions during the Lacustrine periodabound in remains dating from the Neolithic age. Countless kurgans (tumuli), furnaces, and other archaeological artifacts bear witness to a dense population. In fact some of the earliest artifacts found in Central Asia derive from Siberia

Sayan Mountains

Sayan Mountains http://www.pbase.com/dimitrisokolenko/image/33960726

The Yeniseians were followed by the Uralic Samoyedes, who came from the northern Uralregion. Some traces of them, like the Selkup, remain in the Sayan region. They are credited with leaving behind the very numerous remains dating from the Bronze Age which are scattered all over southern Siberia. Iron was unknown to them, but they excelled in bronzesilver, and gold work. Their bronze ornaments and implements, often polished, evince considerable artistic taste, and their irrigated fields covered wide areas in the fertile tracts.

Indo-Iranian influences in southern Siberia can be dated as far back as the 2300–1000 BCE Andronovo culture. Between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC 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 BC silk goods began turning up in Siberia having traveled over the Silk Road.


Minusinsk Steppe”, Vasily Surikov‘s painting

The establishment of the Xiongnu empire in the 3rd century BCE started a series of population movements. Many peoples were probably driven to the northern borders of the great Central Siberian Plateau. Turkic peoples like the Yenisei Kirghiz had already been present in the Sayan region. Various Turkic tribes such as the Khakas and Uyghur migrated north-westwards from their former seats and subdued the Ugric peoples. These new invaders likewise left numerous traces of their stay, and two different periods may be easily distinguished in their remains. They were acquainted with iron, and learned from their subjects the art of bronze-casting, which they used for decorative purposes only, and to which they gave a still higher artistic stamp. Their pottery is more artistic and of a higher quality than that of the Bronze period, and their ornaments are accounted included in the collections at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

Middle Ages

Mongol conquest

Further information: Mongol conquest of Central Asia
File:Mongol dominions1.jpg

The Mongol Empire, ca. 1300 (The gray area is the later Timurid Dynasty).

The Mongols had long maintained intimate relations with the peoples of Siberian forest (taiga). They called those in the forest “People of the forest” (Oin irged). Many of them, such as the Barga and Uriankhai, were little different from the Mongols. While the tribes aroundLake Baikal were Mongol speaking, those to the west spoke TurkicSamoyedic, orYeniseian languages.

By 1206, Genghis Khan had conquered all Mongol and Turkic tribes in Mongolia and southern Siberia. In 1207 his eldest son Jochi subjugated the Siberian forest people, theUriankhai, the OiratsBargaKhakasBuryatsTuvans, Khori-Tumed, and Kyrgyz. He then organized the Siberians into three tumens. Genghis Khan gave the Telengit and Tolos along the Irtysh River to an old companion, Qorchi. While the Barga, Tumed, Buriats, Khori,Keshmiti, and Bashkirs were organized in separate thousands, the Telengit, Tolos, Oirats and Yenisei Kirghiz were numbered as tumens. Genghis settled a colony of Chinese craftsmen and farmers at Kem-kemchik after the first phase of the Mongol-Jin Dynasty War. The Great Khans favored gyrfalcons, furs, women and Kyrgyz horses for tribute.

Western Siberia came under the Golden Horde. The descendants of Orda Khan, the eldest son of Jochi, directly ruled the area. 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 colonists, to serve as judge of the Kyrgyz and Tuvan basin areas. Ogedei’s grandson Kaidu occupied portions of Central Siberia from 1275 on. The Yuan army under Kublai’s Kipchak general Tutugh reoccupied the Kyrgyz lands in 1293. From then on the Yuan Dynasty controlled large portions of Central and Eastern Siberia.

Novgorod and Muscovy

As early as the 11th century the Novgorodians had occasionally penetrated into Siberia. In the 14th century the Novgorodians explored theKara Sea and the West-Siberian river Ob (1364). After the fall of the Novgorod Republic its communications between Northern Russia and Siberia have been inherited by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. On May, 9, 1483 the Moscow troops of princes Feodor Kurbski-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travin moved to West Siberia. The troops moved on the rivers Tavda, Tura, Irtysh up to the river Ob. In 1499 Muscovites and Novgorodians skied to West Siberia up to the river Ob and subdued some local tribes.

Khanate of Sibir

Main article: Khanate of Sibir
File:Siberian Khanate map English.svg

Khanate of Sibir in 15th-16th centuries

With the breakup of the Golden Horde late in the 14th century, the Khanate of Sibir was founded with its center at Tyumen. The non-Borjigin Taybughid dynasty vied for rule with the descendants ofShiban, 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, merchants, and mullahs (Islamic clerics) were called from Turkestan, and small principalities sprang up on theIrtysh and the Ob. These were united by Khan Yadegar Mokhammad of Kazan.Conflicts with the Russians, who were then colonising the Urals, brought him into collision withMuscovy. Khan Yadegar’s envoys came to Moscow in 1555 and consented to a yearly tribute of a thousand sables.

Yermak and the Cossacks

In the mid-16th century the Tsardom of Russia conquered the Tatar khanates of Kazan andAstrakhan, thus annexing the entire Volga Region and making the way to the Ural Mountains open. The colonisation of the new easternmost lands of Russia and further onslaught eastward was led by the rich merchants StroganovsTsar Ivan IV granted large estates near the Urals as well as tax privileges to Anikey Stroganov, who organized large scale migration to these lands. Stroganovs developed farming, hunting, saltworks, fishing, and ore mining on the Urals and established trade withSiberian tribes.

In the 1570s the entrepreneur Semyon Stroganov and other sons of Anikey Stroganov enlisted manycossacks for protection of the Ural settlements against attacks by the Tatars of the Siberian Khanate, led by Khan Kuchum. Stroganov suggested to their chief Yermak, hired in 1577, to conquer the Khanate of Sibir, promising to help him with supplies of food and arms.

In 1581 Yermak began his voyage into the depths of Siberia with a band of 1,636 men, following theTagil and Tura Rivers. The following year they were on the Tobol, and 500 men successfully laid siege to Qashliq, the residence of Khan Kuchum, near what is now Tobolsk. After a few victories over the khan’s army, Yermak’s people defeated the main forces of Kuchum on Irtysh River after a 3-day battleBattle of Chuvash Cape in 1582. The remains of the khan’s army retreated to the steppes, abandoning his domains to Yermak, who, according to tradition, by presenting Siberia to tsar Ivan IV achieved his own restoration to favour.

Kuchum still was strong and suddenly attacked Yermak in 1585 in the dead of night, killing most of his people. Yermak was wounded and tried to swim across the Wagay River (Irtysh‘s tributary), but drowned under the weight of his own chain mail. Yermak’s Cossacks had to withdraw from Siberia completely, but every year new bands of hunters and adventurers, supported by Moscow, poured into the country. Thanks to Yermak’s having explored all the main river routes in West Siberia, Russians successfully reclaimed all Yermak’s conquests just several years later.

Russian Empire

Administrative divisions

File:086 sibirien (1905).png

1905 map of Siberia

The Siberian Governorate was established in 1708 as part of the administrative reforms of Peter I. In 1719, the governorate was divided into into three provinces, Vyatka, Solikamsk and Tobolsk. In 1762, it was renamed to Siberian kingdom (Сибирское царство). In 1782, under the impression of Pugachev’s Rebellion, the Siberian kingdom was divided into three separate viceregencies (наместничество), centered at TobolskIrkutsk and Kolyvan. These viceregencies were downgraded to the status of governorate in 1796 (Tobolsk GovernorateIrkutsk Governorate,Vyatka Governorate). Tomsk Governorate was split off Tobolsk governorate in 1804. Yakutsk Oblast was split off Irkutsk Governorate in 1805. In 1822, the subdivision of Siberia was reformed again. It was divided into two governorates general, West Siberia and East Siberia. West Siberia comprised the Tobolsk and Tomsk governorates, and East Siberia comprised Irkutsk Governorate, and the newly-formed Yeniseysk Governorate.

Exploration of Siberia



In the early 17th century the eastward movement of Russians was slowed by the internal problems in the country during the Time of Troubles. However, very soon the exploration and colonisation 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 Russians came by the Arctic Ocean. These were Pomors from the Russian North, who already had been making fur trade withMangazeya in the north of the Western Siberia for quite a long time. In 1607 the settlement of Turukhansk was founded on the northern Yenisey River, near the mouth of the Lower Tunguska, and in 1619 Yeniseysky ostrog was founded on the mid-Yenisey at the mouth of the Upper Tunguska.

In 1620 a group of fur hunters led by the semi-legendary Demid Pyanda started out from Turukhansk on what would became a very protracted journey. According to folk tales related a century after the fact, in the three and a half years from 1620 to 1624 Pyanda allegedly traversed the total of 4,950 miles (8,000 km) of hitherto unknown large Siberian rivers. He explored some 1,430 miles (2,300 km) of the Lower Tunguska (Nizhnyaya Tunguska in Russian) and, having reached the upper part of the Tunguska, he came upon the great Siberian river Lena and explored some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of its length. By doing this, he may have become the first Russian to reach Yakutia and meet Yakuts. He returned up the Lena until it became too rocky and shallow, and by land reached Angara. In this way, Pyanda may have become the first Russian to meet Buryats. He built new boats and explored some 870 miles (1,400 km) of the Angara, finally reaching Yeniseysk and discovering that the Angara (a Buryat name) and Upper Tunguska (Verkhnyaya Tunguska, as initially known by the Russians) were one and the same river.

File:Krsk koch.JPG

A 17th century koch in a museum in Krasnoyarsk. Kochs were the earliest icebreakers and were widely used by Russians in the Arctic and on Siberian rivers.


Yakutsk soon turned into a major base for further Russian expeditions eastward, southward and northward.Maksim Perfilyev, who earlier had been one of the founders of Yeniseysk, founded Bratsky ostrog in 1631, and in 1638 he became the first Russian to enter Transbaikalia. In 1639 a group led by Ivan Moskvitinbecame the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean and to discover the Sea of Okhotsk, having built a winter camp on its shore at the Ulya River mouth. The Cossacks learned from the locals about the proximity of the Amur River. In 1640 they apparently sailed south, explored the south-eastern shores of the Okhotsk Sea, maybe even reaching the mouth of the Amur River and discovering the Shantar Islandson their return voyage. Based on Moskvitin’s account, Kurbat Ivanov draw the first Russian map of the Far East in 1642. He led a group of Cossacks himself in 1643 to the south of the Baikal Mountains and discovered Lake Baikal, visiting its Olkhon Island. Subsequently Ivanov made the first chart and description of Baikal.

File:Baikal sea.gif

An antique map of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal in its neighbourhood

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 theSea 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.


File:Taltsy Museum Irkutsk Ostrog Tower 200007280018.jpg

The tower of the 17th century Russian Ilimsky ostrog, now in Taltsy Museum in IrkutskSiberia.

In 1649-50 Yerofey Khabarov became the second Russian to explore the Amur River . Through theOlyokmaTungur 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.


So, by the mid-17th century the Russians had established the borders of their country close to the modern ones, and explored almost the whole of Siberia, except eastern Kamchatka and some regions north of the Arctic Circle. The conquest of Kamchatka would be completed later, in the early 18th century by Vladimir Atlasov, while the discovery of the Arctic coastline and Alaska would be nearly completed by the Great Northern Expedition in 1733-1743. The expedition allowed cartograhers 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 MininDmitry OvtsynVasili PronchishchevSemyon ChelyuskinDmitry 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 GmelinDaniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt and others, who became the first scientific explorers of Siberia.

Russians and Siberian natives

File:IstSib005 3.jpg

Siberian peoples as depicted in the 17th century Remezov Chronicle.

The main treasure to attract Cossacks to Siberia was the fur of sablesfoxes, and ermines. Explorers brought back many furs from their expeditions. Local people, submitting to the Russian Empire, received defense from the southern nomads. In exchange they were obliged to pay yasak (tribute) in the form of furs. There was a set of yasachnaya roads, used to transport yasak to Moscow.

Mikhail Pananto with his grandchildren at Kaiettyn, Chukotka, 2001.

Photo courtesy of Patty Gray.

A number of peoples showed open resistance to Russians. Others submitted and even requested to be subordinated, though sometimes they later refused to pay yasak, or not admitted to the Russian authority.


There is evidence of collaboration and assimilation of Russians with the local peoples in Siberia.Though the more Russians advanced to the East, the less developed the local people were, and the more resistance they offered. In 1607–1610, the Tungus fought strenuously for their independence, but were subdued around 1623. The Buryats also offered some opposition, but were swiftly pacified.



The most resistance was offered by the Koryak (on the Kamchatka Peninsula) and Chukchi (on theChukchi Peninsula), the latter still being at the Stone Age level of development. Resistance by local people may have been the result of forced unfair terms, that imperial recorders would have benefitted from omitting.




File:Omsk Tarskiye gates.jpg


Scientists in Siberia

The scientific exploration of Siberia, commenced in the period of 1720 to 1742 by Daniel Gottlieb MesserschmidtJohann Georg Gmelin, and Louis de l’Isle de la Croyere, was followed up by Gerhardt Friedrich Müller, Fischer, and Johann Gottlieb GeorgiPeter Simon Pallas, with several Russian students, laid the first foundation of a thorough exploration of the topography, fauna, flora, and inhabitants of the country. The journeys of Christopher Hansteen and Georg Adolf Erman were the most important step in the exploration of the territory. Alexander von HumboldtChristian Gottfried Ehrenberg, and Gustav Rose also paid short visits to Siberia, which gave a new impulse to the accumulation of scientific knowledge; while Carl Ritter elaborated in his Asien (1832–1859) the foundations of a sound knowledge of the structure of Siberia. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Middendorf‘s journey (1843–1845) to north-eastern Siberia—contemporaneous with Matthias Castrén‘s journeys for the special study of the Ural-Altaic languages—directed attention to the far north and awakened interest in the Amur, the basin of which soon became the scene of the expeditions of Akhte and Schwarz (1852), and later on of the Siberian expedition, advanced knowledge of East Siberia.




Russian settlement


The 17th-century tower of Yakutsk fort.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Russians that migrated into Siberia were hunters, and those who had escaped from Central Russia: fugitive peasants in search for life free ofserfdom, fugitive convicts, and Old Believers. The new settlements of Russians and the existing local peoples required defence from nomads, for which forts were founded. This way forts of Tomsk and Berdsk were founded.

In the beginning of the 18th century the threat of the nomads’ attacks weakened; thus the region became more and more populated; normal civic life was established in the cities.


Photo: A Siberian tiger grooming


In the 1730, the first large industrial project—the metallurgical production found by Demidovfamily—gave birth to the city of Barnaul. Later, the enterprise organized social institutions like library, club, theatre. Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, who stayed in Barnaul in 1856–1857 wrote: “The richness of mining engineers of Barnaul expressed not merely in their households and clothes, but more in their educational level, knowledge of science and literature. Barnaul was undoubtedly the most cultured place in Siberia, and I’ve called it Siberian Athenes, leaving Sparta for Omsk”.


Siberian peasants more than those in European Russia relied on their own force and abilities. They had to fight against the harder climate without outside help. Lack of serfdom and landlords also contributed to their independent character. Unlike peasants in European Russia, Siberians had no problems with land availability; the low population density gave them the ability to intensively cultivate a plot for several years in a row, then to leave it fallow for a long time and cultivate other plots. Siberian peasants had an abundance of food, while Central Russian peasantry had to moderate their families’ appetites. Leonid Blummer noted that the culture of alcohol consumption differed significantly; Siberian peasants drank frequently but moderately: “For a Siberian vodka isn’t a wonder, unlike for a Russian peasant, which, having reached it after all this time, is ready to drink a sea.” The houses, according to the travellers’ notes, were unlike the typical Russianizbas: the houses were big, often two-floored, the ceilings were high, the walls were covered with boards and painted with oil-paint.!

Decembrists and other exiles

File:Krasnoyarsk prosp Mira 98.jpg

Krasnoyarsk has preserved the historical centre full of houses in the 19th century style.



“Travelling through Siberia, I was wondered and fascinated at every step by the cordiality and hospitality I met everywhere. I was fascinated by the richness and the abundance, with which the people live until today (1861), but that time there was even more expanse in evertything. The hospitality was especially developed in Siberia. Everywhere we were received like being in friendly countries, everywhere we were fed well, and when I asked how much I owed them, they didn’t want to take anything, saying “Put a candle to the God”.”
“…Siberia is extremely rich country, the land is ususually fruitful, and a few work is needed to get a plentiful harvest.”

Polina Annenkova, Notes of a Decembrist’s Wife




Yet, there were exceptions: Vladimir Raevskiy was arrested for participation in Decembrists’ circles in 1822, and in 1828 was exiled to Olonkivillage near Irkutsk. There he married and had nine children, traded with bread, and founded a school for children and adults to teach arythmetics and grammar. Being pardoned by Alexander II, he visited his native town, but returned to Olonki.

Despite the wishes of the central authorities, the exiled revolutioners unlikely felt outcast in Siberia. Quite the contrary, Siberians having lived all the time on their own, “didn’t feel tenderness” to the authorities. In many cases, the exiled were cordially received and got paid positions.

Fyodor Dostoevsky was exiled to katorga near Omsk and to military service in Semipalatinsk. In the service he also had to make trips forBarnaul and Kuznetsk, where he married.



Trans-Siberian line

Bashkir switchman near the town Ust’ Katav on the Yuryuzan River between Ufaand Cheliabinsk in the Ural Mountains region, ca. 1910

 Trans-Siberian Railway
Bridge over Kama River, near Perm in 1912
Bridge over Kama River, near Perm in 1912
Trans-Siberian line in red; Baikal Amur Mainline in green
Trans-Siberian line in red; Baikal Amur Mainline in green
Line length: 9,259 km (5,753 mi)
Gauge: Broad 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 56 in)
km Station
Head station
0 [show]Yaroslavsky Terminal, Moscow
Station on track
284 Yaroslavl
Transverse water Bridge over water Transverse water
289 [show]Volga River
Station on track
957 [show]Kirov
Station on track
1436 [show]Perm
Station on track
1816 [show]Yekaterinburg
Station on track
2144 [show]Tyumen
Transverse water Bridge over water Transverse water
2706 Irtysh River
Station on track
2712 [show]Omsk
Transverse water Bridge over water Transverse water
3332 Ob River
Station on track
3335 [show]Novosibirsk
Station on track
4098 Krasnoyarsk
Transverse water Bridge over water Transverse water
4101 [show]Yenisei River
Station on track
4516 Taishet
Junction to left Transverse abbreviated in this map
4520 [show]Baikal Amur Mainline junction
Station on track
5185 [show]Irkutsk
Station on track
5642 Ulan Ude
Transverse abbreviated in this map Junction to right
5655 [show]Trans-Mongolian line junction
Station on track
6199 [show]Chita
Transverse abbreviated in this map Junction to right
6312 [show]Trans-Manchurian line junction
Junction to left Transverse abbreviated in this map
7273 [show]line to BAM
Transverse abbreviated in this map Junction to right
7875 [show]line to Blagoveshchensk
Station on track
8351 [show]Birobidzhan
Transverse water Unknown route-map component "eGRENZE+WBRÜCKE" Transverse water
8515 Amur J.A. Oblast – Khabarovsk Krai border
Station on track
8521 [show]Khabarovsk
End station
9289 Vladivostok


Services to North Korea continue from Ussuriysk via:

  • Primorsk (9,257 km, 6 days 14h, MT+7)
  • Khasan (9,407 km, 6 days 19h, MT+7, border with North Korea)
  • Tumangang (9,412 km, 7 days 10h, MT+6, North Korean side of the border)
  • Pyongyang (10,267 km, 9 days 2h, MT+6)


  • Some trains would leave Moscow from Kazansky Rail Terminal instead of Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal; this would save some 20 km off the distances, because it provides a shorter exit from Moscow onto the Nizhny Novgorod main line.
  • One can take a night train from Moscow’s Kursky Rail Terminal to Nizhny Novgorod, make a stopover in the Nizhny and then transfer to a Siberia-bound train
  • From 1956 to 2001 many trains went between Moscow and Kirov via Yaroslavl instead of Nizhny Novgorod. This would add some 29 km to the distances from Moscow, making Vladivostok Kilometer 9,288.
  • One can bypass Yekaterinburg altogether by travelling via SamaraUfaChelyabinsk, and Petropavlovsk; this was historically the earliest configuration.


File:Irkutsk pereprava.jpg

Crossing the Angara at Irkutsk (1886).



The first steamboat on the Ob, Nikita Myasnikov’s “Osnova”, was launched in 1844; but the early starts were difficult, and it was not until 1857 that steamboat shipping started developing in the Ob system in the serious way. Steamboats started operating on the Yenisei in 1863, on the Lena and Amur in the 1870s.

Chick of Siberian owl

Chick of Siberian Owl

While the comparably flat Western Siberia was at least fairly well served by the gigantic Ob-IrtyshTobolChulym river system, the mighty rivers of Eastern Siberia —YeniseiUpper Angara River (Angara River below Bratsk was not easily navigable because of the rapids), Lena — were mostly navigable only in the north-south direction. An attempt to somewhat remedy the situation by building the Ob-Yenisei Canal were not particularly successful. Only a railroad could be a real solution to the region’s transportation problems.

The first projects of railroads in Siberia emerged since the creation of the MoscowSt. Petersburg railroad. One of the first was IrkutskChitaproject, intended to connect the former to the Amur River and, consequently, to the Pacific Ocean.

Siberian Cedar

Siberian Cedar




File:Tomsk Lenin Avenue.jpg





Thus, to defend it and to prevent possible social destabilization, in 1896 (when the eastern and western parts of the Trans-Siberian did not close up yet), the government introducedChelyabinsk tariff break (Челябинский тарифный перелом)—a tariff barrier for grain inChelyabinsk, and a similar barrier in Manchuria. This measure changed the form of cereal product export: mills emerged in Altai, Novosibirsk, and Tomsk; many farms switched tobutter production. From 1896 to 1913 Siberia on average exported 30.6 million poods(~500,000 tonnes) of cereal products (grain, flour) annually.

Russian Orthodox Church (Pokrov na Nerli)

Russian Orthodox Church (Pokrov na Nerli)

Stolypin’s resettlement programme




File:Gorskii 03965u.jpg

Prokudin-Gorsky’s picture of windmills in Western Siberia

Tunguska event

Main article: Tunguska event
File:Tunguska event fallen trees.jpg


The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near thePodkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m. (0:14 UT, 7:02 a.m. local solar time) on June 30, 1908 (June 17 in theJulian calendar, in use locally at the time).

The cause of the explosion is controversial, and still much disputed to this day. Although the cause of the explosion is the subject of debate, it is commonly believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 miles) above the Earth‘s surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object’s size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.

Last night of the second millennium in Siberia (December 31, 2000)


Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largest impact event on land in Earth‘s recent history, impacts of similar size in remote ocean areas would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s. Because the event occurred in a remote area, there was little damage to human life or property, and it was in fact some years until it was properly investigated.

Winter in Siberia



Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal http://www.pbase.com/dimitrisokolenko/image/33960651

Kulik’s party reached the site in 1927. To their surprise, no crater was to be found. There was instead a region of scorched trees about 50 kilometres (30 miles) across. A few near ground zero were still strangely standing upright, their branches and bark stripped off. Those farther away had been knocked down in a direction away from the center.

40 below zero

40 below zero http://www.pbase.com/dimitrisokolenko/image/33960279

Russian Civil War

By the time of the revolution Siberia was an agricultural region of Russia, with weak entrepreneur and industrial class. 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 difference, scarcity of urban population and intellectuals led to uniting of formally different political parties under ideas of regionalism.

Photograph of Red Army soldier about to be
executed by members of the White Army.


The anti-Bolsheviks forces failed to offer a united resistance. While Kolchak fought against the Bolsheviks intending to eliminate them in the capital of the Empire, the local Socialists-Revolutioners and Mensheviks tried to sign a peaceful treaty with Bolsheviks, on terms of independence. The foreign allies, though being able to make a decisive effort, preferred to stay neutral, although Kolchak himself rejected the offer of help from Japan.

For more detailed chronology of the civil war in Siberia, see articles on Siberian separatismAleksandr Kolchak and Siberian Intervention

After a series of defeats in the Central Russia, Kolchak’s forces had to retreat to Siberia. The resistance of SR-s and waning support from the allies, the Whites had to evacuate from Omsk to Irkutsk, and finally Kolchak resigned under pressure of SR-s, who soon submitted to Bolsheviks.

Map during the Civil War of Russia

Above: Map during the Civil War of Russia

A division arose between the Bolsheviks or Communists and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries over the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in which Russia had made sizeable land concessions to Germany. The LSR left the coalition. There were two main groups opposed to Lenin.

The White Army

Above: Picture of the White Army

The non-Bolshevik left was annoyed with Lenin for having dissolved the Constituent Assembly and the White Rightists had their own grievances to grudge. The latter’s main strength was its army of volunteers stationed in the Kuban Steppes. The group had suffered greatly, was reduced in numbers but under General Denikin was still an efficient force to contend with.

Location of Murmansk

Above: A map showing the location ofMurmansk (click map to enlarge)

In western Europe the Germans had opened a new offensive and to detract this move the Western Allies were anxious to open a front in the east. To do so they were willing to rejuvenate the Russian army. Events moved fast. In March 1918 the British landed at Murmansk with Soviet approval but on 5th April Japan arrived at Vladivostok without any invitation.

Leon Trotsky

Above: Picture of Leon Trotsky

The Czechoslovakian Legion further complicated matters. It comprised of Czech and Slovak deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army who had been encouraged by the former Russian governments to form independent units. The Bolsheviks told these units to leave via the Far East but on 29th May, Trotsky ordered them to surrender arms. They refused and seized control of the Trans-Siberian rail route. Taking advantage of the chaos there appeared on the scene two anti-Bolshevik representatives. The first one was the liberal West Siberian Commissariat of Omsk and the other Socialist members of the Constituent Assembly stationed at Samara.

Victims of Red Terror Operation

Above: Corpses of victim lain at the sidewalk during the Red Terror Operation

All these incidents caused Moscow to descend on the non-Bolshevik socialists with a strong arm. Their deputies were expelled from the soviets at central and local levels and a halt given to all their political movements. In September the government stepped up its Red Terror operations. Hostages were shot the political police or Cheka were given extra powers to arrest, stage a trial and carry on executions with impunity. The first victims were the members of the Tsar’s family. At first they were removed to Tobolsk in August 1917 and thence to Yekaterinburg in the spring of 1918. But when anti-Bolshevik movement raised its head in Siberia the fate of Tsar Nicholas and his family was sealed. Fearful of their liberation the Communists had them shot in the cellar.

US Army in Arkhangelsk 1918

Above: US Infantry marching inArkhangelsk1918

On the war front the Red Army hastily reorganized itself and recovered most of the regions in eastern Europe, which had belonged to Russia. Omsk had meanwhile become a centre for anti-Communist activity and with the help of Britain and USA a new army was got ready for operations. At Murmansk Britain was at war with the Reds. More British troops arrived at Arkhangelsk. In the Far East Japan began to take up threatening postures.

Admiral Kolchak

Above: Picture ofAdmiral Kolchak

The Socialist Revolutionaries and Kolchak at Omsk found it more and more difficult to get along with each other. Kolchak lumped the Socialists with the other Communists and termed them all as ‘Red’ enemies. On 18th November 1918 Kolchak openly broke away from the uneasy alliance and declared himself as dictator. His coup came at a time when Germany fell and the European War came to an end.

Red Army Parade

Above: Red Army infantry and armored-cars parade inEkaterinoslav, Russia

The end of World War I saw the Red Army marching into Ukraine in early 1919. The rag tag of the Socialist Revolutionaries under Petlyura fell back towards the west to join up with the nationalist forces of Ukraine from Galicia. The combined army clung to parts of Ukraine for few months while other regions became the playground for anarchist bands led by Makhno. The Communists controlled the principal urban centres through a puppet local Ukraine government in Kharkiv. With the Germans out of the way, the Allies found the Black Sea route open. Under French command forces landed at Odessa, Sevastpool and later on at Kherson and Nikolayev.

Victims of Massacre in Kiev, Ukraine

Above: Unburried bodies of victim of Massacre by Russian Bolshivek inKiev, Ukraine(1919)

At this point of time the Russian situation was totally confused. The Allies had to settle on a plan of action. With the collapse of Germany the opening of a front in the east was no longer necessary. On the other hand the Allies were under great pressure from Russian exiles who wanted them to keep their word to the pre-Bolshevik government and extend a helping hand. They stressed the point that the loyalty of the latter should be likewise reciprocated. That apart they strongly pointed out the economic angle. A Communist regime would be a threat to Europe as a whole. The virus of revolution could well become a spreading infection.

Initially, in 1919, France and Italy were for strongly supporting the Whites. They were for supplying the former with arms and necessities rather than with manpower. Britain and USA took a more cautious line and hoped for some sort of reconciliation.

Submarine E11 in the Sea of Marmara

Above: Russian Submarine E11 sneaking in theSea of Marmara

Taking the lead, USA proposed talks between all the Russian warring parties at Prinkipo on the Sea of Marmara. The Reds agreed but the Whites refused. A US diplomat visited Moscow and came back with peace proposals but the Allies were not ready to talk. Relationship worsened with the Allies giving open support to Kolchak and Denikin.

The Allies did not directly intervene except on a very small scale. Bewildered by the infighting between the Reds, Whites and Ukrainian nationalists, the French withdrew from the Ukraine without making a sound. Britain did make its presence somewhat felt in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk but it hardly left any impact on the civil war. Soon she withdrew her forces in autumn 1919.

The real threat came from the Japanese who steadily entrenched themselves in the Far Eastern regions. The east occupied the centre stage when Kolchak successfully entered the Urals. In April the Reds took a stand and Ufa fell by the middle of the year. Kolchak now began to retreat through Siberia and was waylaid constantly by Red supporters. Soon the retreat became a disorganized rout. Kolchak propped up an administrative centre at Irkutsk only to have it soon overthrown by the revolutionaries. He was captured and shot in February 1920.

General Nikolai Yudenich

Above: Picture of General Nikolai Yudenich

Denikin however tried to put up a last stand towards the middle of 1919 in European Russia. Large portions of Ukraine were taken over by the Whites but the local nationalists did not care for Deniken. Petlyura was openly hostile to him but the Galicians preferred him to the Poles. To them the real enemies were the Poles. In September the march towards Moscow began – from the Ukraine and the lower Volga. On October Oryol was taken. Simultaneously General Yudenich, coming from Estonia reached the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg. But the Reds defended both the cities forcing Yudenich and Denikin to retreat. Deniken’s communications were cut off and soon his withdrawing troops lost all semblance of order. The last remnants of his forces had to evacuate Novorossiysk.

General Peter von Wrangell

Above: Picture of General Peter von Wrangell

General Wrangel still commanded a clobbered up regular White army in the Crimea and managed to march northwards and occupy parts of Ukraine and Kuban. But Wrangle could not hold on against the battery by the Reds. However his tenacity in the rear allowed for the evacuation of 150,000 soldiers and civilians from Crimea. This marked the end of the Russian Civil War in November 1920.

The Red victory meant the end of many nationalist movements of the non-Russians. The Tatar and Bashkirs inhabiting the Kazan area in the southern Urals lost all hopes for self-determination under the weight of Communist dictatorship. Promises had been made but none were kept once they were occupying the seats of power. Tashkent became a breeding ground of guerilla Muslim band of insurgents known as the Basmachi.

Map of Democratic Republic of Armenia

Above: Map of Democratic Republic of Armenia (click map to enlarge)

Turkey’s fall had led to the rebirth of three separate Trans-Caucasian Republics – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. But Moscow was not prepared to tolerate their independence for long and was waiting for the right opportunity to strike. When a rebellion broke out in Baku the Red Army bared its fangs and the Azerbaijan government was forced to surrender. Armenia met the same fate when those portions that had once belonged to Russia was incorporated into Soviet Russia and the other parts were recognized as part of Turkey. Georgia too capitulated and succumbed to the operations of the Red Army, which lasted from February to April 1921.

The inhabitants living in the area around Lake Baikal and to the east of it was in reality under the thumb of Moscow but somehow the fiction persisted that they belonged to an independent Far Eastern Republic. But the dream broke when after the withdrawal of Japan from the territories of Russia it had occupied, following the Washington Conference of Pacific States (1921-22) the assembly formally voted the Far Eastern Republic out and opted for union with Soviet Russia.


Above: Pictures of Central Committee of the Communist Party 1917 (click image to enlarge)

In this manner came into existence the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. The reality was that the soviets were of little or no consequence. Real power lay in the hands of the Communist Party. Its members occupied all the top posts in the administration. The Central Committee dominated by Lenin ruled the party. Next to him stood Trotsky, Commissar for war. He had full power over the armed forces, supplies and organizing recruitments. Technically the Red Army was far superior to the Whites. The Reds were in occupation of the central heartland of Russia and as such their communication lines remained uninterrupted. On the other hand their opponents on the border areas were cut off from each other and were definitely at a disadvantage.

Soviet era

1920s and 1930s

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-communistic riots in rural areas, with up to 40,000 people involved. Both old Whites (Cossacks) and old “Reds” partisans, who earlier fought against Kolchak, the marginals, who were the major force of the Communists, took part in the riots. According to a survey of 1927 in Irkutsk Oblast, the peasants openly said they’d participate in anti-Soviet rebel and hoped for the foreign help. It should be noticed also that the Soviet authorities declared by a special order the KVZhD builders and workers enemies of the people.

The youth, that had socialized in the age of war, was highly militarized, and the Soviet government pushed the further military propaganda byKomsomol. There are many documented evidences of “red banditism”, especially in the countryside, such as desecration of churches and Christian graves, and even murders of priests and believers. Also in many cases a Komsomol activist or an authority representative, speaking with a person opposed to the Soviets, got angry and killed him/her and anybody else. The Party faintly counteracted this.

In 1930s, the Party started the collectivization, which automatically put the “kulak” label on the well-off families living in Siberia for a long time. Naturally, raskulachivanie applied to everyone who protested. From the Central Russia many families were exiled in low-populated, forest or swampy areas of Siberia, but those who lived here, had either to escape anywhere, or to be exiled in the Northern regions (such asEvenk and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs and the northern parts of Tomsk Oblast). Collectivization destroyed the traditional and most effective stratum of the peasants in Siberia and the natural ways of development, and its consequences are still persisting.

File:Teatro novosibirsk 1945.jpg

Novosibirsk opera and ballet theatre was the largest building (1945) in Russia



World War II

In 1941, many enterprises and people were evacuated into Siberian cities by the railroads. In urgent need of ammunition and military equipment, they started working right after being unloaded near the stations. The workshops’ buildings were built simultaneously with work.


On August 28, 1941 the Supreme Soviet stated an order “About the Resettlement of the Germans of Volga region“, by which many of them were deported into different rural areas of Kazakhstan and Siberia.

By the end of war, thousands of captive soldiers and officers of German and Japanese armies were sentenced to several years of work in labour camps in all the regions of Siberia. These camps were directed by a different administration than Gulag. Though, Soviet camps hadn’t the purpose to lead prisoners to death, the death rate was significant, especially in winters. The range of works differed from vegetable farming to construction of the Baikal Amur Mainline.

Industrial expansion

In the second half of the 20th century, the exploration of mineral and hydroenergetic resources continued. Many of these projects were planned, but were delayed due to wars and the ever changing opinions of Soviet policans.

File:Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station.jpg

Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric powerstation

The most famous project is Baikal Amur Mainline. It was planned simultaneously with Trans-Siberian, but the construction began just before World War II, was put on hold during the war and restarted after. After Joseph Stalin‘s death, it was again suspended for years to be continued under Leonid Brezhnev.


The downside of this development is the ecological damage due to the low standards of production and excessive sizes of dams (the bigger projects were favoured by the industrial authorities and received more funding), the increased humidity sharpened the already hard climate. Another powerplant project on Katun Riverin Altai mountains in the 1980s, which was widely protested publicly, was cancelled.

There are a number of military-oriented centers like the NPO Vektor and closed cities like Seversk. By the end of 1980s a large portion of the industrial production of Omsk and Novosibirsk (up to 40%) was composed of military and aviation output. The collapse of state-funded military orders began an economic crisis.

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Akademgorodok, a scientific town near Novosibirsk

The Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences unites a lot of research institutes in the biggest cities, the biggest being the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics inAkademgorodok (a scientific town) near Novosibirsk. Other scientific towns or just districts composed by research institutes, also named “Akademgorodok”, are in the cities of Tomsk,Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. These sites are the centers of the newly developed IT industry, especially in that of Novosibirsk, nicknamed “Silicon Taiga“, and in Tomsk.

A number of Siberian-based companies extended their businesses of various consumer products to meta-regional and an All-Russian level. Various Siberian artists and industries, have created communities that are not centralized in Moscow anymore, like the Idea(annual low-budged ads festival), Golden Capital (annual prize in architecture).

Recent history

File:Novosibirsk Kommunisticheskaya 50.jpg

A new (2003) apartment building in Novosibirsk


Expansion of transportation networks will continue to define the directions of Siberian regional development. The next project to be carried out is the completion of the railroad branch to Yakutsk. Another large project, proposed already in the 19th century as a northern option for the Transsiberianrailroad, is the Northern-Siberian Railroad between NizhnevartovskBelyi YarLesosibirsk and Ust-Ilimsk. The Russian Railroads instead suggest an ambitious project of a railway to Magadan, Chukchi Penunsula and then the supposed Bering Strait Tunnel to Alaska.

While the Russians continue to migrate from the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts to Western Russia, the Siberian cities attract labour (legal or illegal) from the Central Asian republics and from China. While the natives are aware of the situation, in Western Russia myths aboutthousands and millions of Chinese living in the Transbaikalia and the Far East are widespread.[39]Thus it is not uncommon in the Russian society, especially to the West of the Urals, to be anxious about a supposed Chinese annexation of the South-East Siberia.

Get To Know Peoples Of Siberia


Pictures of Siberian peoples life taken in the beginning of the 20th century.

Home made distiller

2 thoughts on “History of Siberia

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