History of Siberia

The early history ofSiberiawas greatly influenced by the sophisticatednomadiccivilizations of theScythians(Pazyryk) on the west of the Ural Mountains andXiongnu(Noin-Ula) on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the common era. The steppes of Siberia were occupied by a succession of nomadic peoples, including theKhitan people,variousTurkic peoples,and theMongol Empire.In theLate Middle Ages,Tibetan Buddhismspread into the areas south ofLake Baikal.

Yermak's Conquest of Siberia,a painting byVasily Surikov

During theRussian Empire,Siberia was chiefly developed as an agricultural province. The government also used it as a place of exile, sendingAvvakum,Dostoevsky,and theDecemberists,among others, to work camps in the region. During the 19th century, theTrans-Siberian Railwaywas constructed, supporting industrialization. This was also aided by discovery and exploitation of vast reserves of Siberian mineral resources.

Prehistory and antiquity

Main article:Prehistory of Siberia

Mount Belukha in theAltai Mountains

According to the field ofgenetic genealogy,people first resided inSiberiaby45,000 BCEand spread out east and west to populate Europe and the Americas, including the prehistoricJomon peopleof Japan, who are the ancestors of the modernAinu.

According toVasily Radlov,among thePaleo-Siberianinhabitants ofCentral Siberiawere theYeniseians,who spoke a language different from the laterUralicandTurkicpeople. TheKetsare considered the last remainder of this early migration. Migrants are estimated to have crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America more than 20,000 years ago.

The shores of all Siberian lakes, which filled the depressions during theLacustrine period,abound in remains dating from theNeolithicage.Countlesskurgans(tumuli), furnaces, and otherarchaeological artifactsbear witness to a dense population. Some of the earliest artifacts found inCentral Asiaderive from Siberia.

The Yeniseians were followed by the UralicSamoyeds,who came from the northernUralregion. Some descendant cultures, such as theSelkup,remain in theSayanregion.Ironwas unknown to them, but they excelled inbronze,silver,andgoldwork. Their bronze ornaments and implements, often polished, evince considerable artistic taste.They developed and managed irrigation to support their agriculture in wide areas of the fertile tracts.

Indo-Iranianinfluences in southwestern Siberia can be dated to the 2300–1000 BCEAndronovo culture.Between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE, the Indo-IranianScythiansflourished in the Altai region (Pazyryk culture). They were a major influence on all latersteppeempires.

As early as the first millennium BCE, trade was underway over theSilk Road.Silkgoods were imported and traded in Siberia.

"MinusinskSteppe ",Vasily Surikov's painting

The establishment of theXiongnuempire in the 3rd century BCE started a series of population movements. Many people were probably driven to the northern borders of the greatCentral Siberian Plateau.Turkic people such as theYenisei Kirghizhad already been present in the Sayan region. Various Turkic tribes such as theKhakaandUyghurmigrated northwestwards from their former seats and subdued the Ugric people.

These new invaders likewise left numerous traces of their stay, and two different periods may be easily distinguished from their remains. They were acquainted with iron, and learned from their subjects the art ofbronze casting,which they used for decorative purposes only.They refined the artistry of this work. Their pottery is more artistic and of a higher quality than that of theBronze Age.Their ornaments are included among the collections at theHermitage MuseuminSaint Petersburg.

Middle Ages

Mongol conquest of Southern and Western Siberia

Main article:Mongol campaigns in Siberia

TheMongol Empire,ca. 1300 (the gray area is the laterTimurid Empire)

TheMongolshad long maintained relations with the people of the Siberian forest (taiga). They called themoin irged( "people of the forest" ). Many of them, such as theBargaandUriankhai,were little different from the Mongols. While the tribes aroundLake Baikalwere Mongol-speaking, those to the west spokeTurkic,Samoyedic,orYeniseian languages.

By 1206,Genghis Khanhad united all Mongol and Turkic tribes on theMongolian Plateauand southern Siberia. In 1207 his eldest sonJochisubjugated the Siberian forest people, the Uriankhai, theOirats,Barga,Khakas,Buryats,Tuvans,Khori-Tumed,andKyrgyz.He then organized the Siberians into threetumens.Genghis Khan gave theTelengitandTolosalong theIrtysh Riverto an old companion, Qorchi. While the Barga, Tumed, Buriats, Khori,Keshmiti,andBashkirswere organized in separate thousands, the Telengit, Tolos, Oirats and Yenisei Kirghiz were numbered as tumens.Genghis created a settlement of ethnicHancraftsmen and farmers at Kem-kemchik after the first phase of theMongol conquest of the Jin dynasty.TheGreat Khansfavoredgyrfalcons,furs, women and Kyrgyz horses for tribute.

Western Siberia came under theGolden Horde.The descendants ofOrda Khan,the eldest son of Jochi, directly ruled the area. In the swamps of western Siberia,dog sledYamstations were set up to facilitate collection of tribute.

In 1270,Kublai Khansent an ethnic Han official, with a new batch of settlers, to serve as the judge of the Kyrgyz and Tuvan basin areas (Ích Lan ChâuandKhiêm châu).Ögedei's grandsonKaiduoccupied portions of Central Siberia from 1275 on. TheYuan dynastyarmy under Kublai'sKipchakgeneral Tutugh reoccupied the Kyrgyz lands in 1293. From then on the Yuan dynasty controlled large portions of Central and Eastern Siberia.

The Yenisei area had a community of weavers of ethnic Han origin. Samarkand andOuter Mongoliaboth had artisans of Han origin.

Novgorod and Muscovy

As early as the 11th century theNovgorodianshad occasionally penetrated into Siberia.In the 14th century the Novgorodians explored theKara Seaand the West Siberian riverOb(1364).After the fall of theNovgorod Republicits communications between Northern Russia and Siberia were inherited by theGrand 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 riversTavda,Tura, Irtysh, up to the River Ob. In 1499 Muscovites and Novgorodians skied to West Siberia, up to the river Ob, and conquered some local tribes.

Khanate of Sibir

Main article:Khanate of Sibir

The Khanate of Sibir in the 15th and 16th centuries

With the breakup of the Golden Horde late in the 15th century, the Khanate of Sibir was founded with its center atTyumen.The non-BorjiginTaybughiddynasty vied for rule with the descendants ofShiban,a son of Jochi.

In the beginning of the 16th centuryTatarfugitives fromTurkestansubdued the loosely associated tribes inhabiting the lowlands to the east of theUral Mountains.Agriculturists, tanners, merchants, andmullahs(Muslim clerics) were brought from Turkestan, and small principalities sprang up on theIrtyshand theOb.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

Main article:Russian conquest of Siberia

Yermak Timofeyevich

In the mid-16th century, theTsardom of Russiaconquered the Tatar khanates ofKazanandAstrakhan,thus anne xing the entireVolga Regionand making the way to theUral Mountainsopen. The colonisation of the new easternmost lands of Russia and further onslaught eastward was led by the rich merchantsStroganovs.TsarIvan IVgranted large estates near the Urals as well as tax privileges toAnikey Stroganov,who organized large scale migration to these lands. Stroganovs developed farming, hunting, saltworks, fishing, and ore mining on theUralsand established trade withSiberiantribes.

In the 1570s, the entrepreneurSemyon Stroganovand other sons ofAnikey Stroganovenlisted manycossacksfor protection of the Ural settlements against attacks by the Tatars of theSiberian Khanate,led byKhanKuchum.Stroganov suggested to their chiefYermak,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 ofSiberiawith a band of 1,636 men, following theTagilandTura Rivers.The following year they were on theTobol,and 500 men successfully laid siege toQashliq,the residence of KhanKuchum,near what is nowTobolsk.After a few victories over the khan's army, Yermak's people defeated the main forces ofKuchumonIrtysh Riverafter a 3-daybattle of Chuvash Capein 1582. The remains of the khan's army retreated to thesteppes,abandoning his domains to Yermak, who, according to tradition, by presenting Siberia to tsarIvan IVachieved his own restoration to favour.

Kuchum was still 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 ownchain 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 WestSiberia,Russians successfully reclaimed all of Yermak's conquests just several years later.

Russian exploration and settlement

Main articles:Russian explorersandSiberian river routes

Siberian river routeswere of primary importance in the process ofRussian explorationandconquest of Siberia.

In the early 17th century, the eastward movement of Russian people was slowed by the internal problems in the country during theTime of Troubles.However, very soon the exploration and colonization of the huge territories of Siberia was resumed, led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuablefursandivory.WhileCossackscame from the Southern Urals, another wave of Russian people came by theArctic Ocean.These werePomorsfrom theRussian North,who had already been makingfurtrade withMangazeyain the north of the Western Siberia for quite a long time. In 1607 the settlement ofTurukhanskwas founded on the northernYenisey River,near the mouth of theLower Tunguska,and in 1619Yeniseyskyostrogwas founded on the mid-Yeniseyat the mouth of theUpper Tunguska.

In 1620, a group of fur hunters led by the semi-legendaryDemid Pyandastarted out fromTurukhanskon what would become 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 (7,970 km) of hitherto unknown large Siberian rivers. He explored some 1,430 miles (2,300 km) of theLower Tunguska(Nizhnyaya TunguskainRussian) and, having reached the upper part of the Tunguska, he came upon the great Siberian riverLenaand explored some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of its length. By doing this, he may have become the first Russian to reachYakutiaand meetYakuts.He returned up the Lena until it became too rocky and shallow, and by land reachedAngara.In this way, Pyanda may have become the first Russian to meetBuryats.He built new boats and explored some 870 miles (1,400 km) of the Angara, finally reachingYeniseyskand discovering that the Angara (aBuryatname) andUpper Tunguska(Verkhnyaya Tunguska, as initially known by the Russian people) were one and the same river.

A 17th-centurykochin a museum inKrasnoyarsk.Kochs were the earliesticebreakersand were widely used by Russian people in theArcticand onSiberianrivers.

In 1627,Pyotr Beketovwas appointedYeniseyvoevodainSiberia.He successfully carried out the voyage to collect taxes fromZabaykalyeBuryats,becoming the first Russian to enterBuryatia.There he founded the first Russian settlement, Rybinskyostrog.Beketov was sent to theLena Riverin 1631, where in 1632 he foundedYakutskand sent his Cossacks to explore theAldanand further down the Lena, to found new fortresses, and to collect taxes.

Yakutsksoon turned into a major base for further Russian expeditions eastward, southward and northward.Maksim Perfilyev,who earlier had been one of the founders ofYeniseysk,foundedBratskyostrog in 1631, and in 1638 he became the first Russian to enterTransbaikalia.In 1639 a group led byIvan Moskvitinbecame the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean and to discover theSea of Okhotsk,having built a winter camp on its shore at theUlya Rivermouth. The Cossacks learned from the locals about the proximity of theAmur River.In 1640 they apparently sailed south, explored the south-eastern shores of the Okhotsk Sea, maybe even reaching the mouth of theAmur Riverand discovering theShantar Islandson their return voyage. Based on Moskvitin's account,Kurbat Ivanovdraw the first Russian map of theFar Eastin 1642. He led a group of Cossacks himself in 1643 to the south of theBaikal Mountainsand discoveredLake Baikal,visiting itsOlkhon Island.Subsequently, Ivanov made the first chart and description ofBaikal.

An antique map ofIrkutskandLake Baikalin its neighbourhood

In 1643,Vasily Poyarkovcrossed theStanovoy Rangeand reached the upperZeya Riverin the country of theDaurs,who were paying tribute toManchuChinese.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 Okhotskcoast to theUlya Riverand spent the next winter in the huts that had been built byIvan Moskvitinsix years earlier. In 1646 they returned to Yakutsk.

In 1644,Mikhail Stadukhindiscovered theKolyma Riverand foundedSrednekolymsk.A merchant namedFedot Alekseyev Popovorganized a further expedition eastward, and Dezhnyov became a captain of one of thekochi.In 1648 they sailed fromSrednekolymskdown to theArcticand after some time they roundedCape Dezhnyov,thus becoming the first explorers to pass throughBering Straitand to discoverChukotkaand theBering 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 theAnadyr Riverand sailed up it in 1649, having built new boats out of the wreckage. They foundedAnadyrskand were stranded there, until Stadukhin found them, coming from Kolyma by land.Later Stadukhin set off to the south in 1651 and discoveredPenzhin Bayon the northern side of theOkhotsk Sea.He also may have explored the western shores ofKamchatkaas early as the 1650s.

The tower of the 17th-century RussianIlimskyostrog,now in Taltsy Museum inIrkutsk,Siberia.

In 1649–50,Yerofey Khabarovbecame the second Russian to explore theAmur River.Through theOlyokma,TungurandShilka Rivershe reached the Amur (Dauria), returned to Yakutsk and then went back to the Amur with a larger force in 1650–53. This time hewas met with armed resistance.He built winter quarters atAlbazin,then sailed down the Amur and found Achansk, which preceded the present-dayKhabarovsk,defeating or evading large armies of DaurianManchuChineseandKoreanson his way. He charted the Amur in hisDraft of the Amur river.

In 1659–65,Kurbat Ivanovwas the next head ofAnadyrskyostrog afterSemyon Dezhnyov.In 1660, he sailed fromAnadyr BaytoCape Dezhnyov.Atop his earlier pioneering charts, he is credited with creation of the early map ofChukotkaandBering Strait,which was the first to show on paper (very schematically) the yet undiscoveredWrangel Island,bothDiomede IslandsandAlaska.

So, by the mid-17th century, the Russian people had established the borders of their country close to the modern ones, and explored almost the whole of Siberia, except easternKamchatkaand some regions north of theArctic Circle.The conquest of Kamchatka would be completed later, in the early 18th century byVladimir Atlasov,while the discovery of the Arctic coastline andAlaskawould be nearly completed by theGreat Northern Expeditionin 1733–1743. 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 byFyodor Minin,Dmitry Ovtsyn,Vasili Pronchishchev,Semyon Chelyuskin,Dmitry LaptevandKhariton Laptev.At the same time, some of the members of the newly foundedRussian Academy of Sciencestraveled extensively through Siberia, forming the so-called Academic Squad of the Expedition. They wereJohann Georg Gmelin,Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidtand others, who became the first scientific explorers of Siberia.

Russian people and Siberian natives

Siberian peoplesas depicted in the 17th centuryRemezov Chronicle.

The main treasure to attract Cossacks to Siberia was the fur ofsables,foxes,andermines.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 payyasak(tribute) in the form of furs. There was a set ofyasachnayaroads, used to transport yasak to Moscow.

A number of peoples showed open resistance to Russian people. 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 Russian people with the local peoples in Siberia.Though the more Russian people advanced to the East, the less developed the local people were, and the more resistance they offered. In 1607–1610, theTungusfought strenuously for their independence, but were subdued around 1623.TheBuryatsalso offered some opposition, but were swiftly pacified. The most resistance was offered by theKoryak(on theKamchatka Peninsula) andChukchi(on theChukchi Peninsula), the latter still being at theStone Agelevel of development.Resistance by local people may have been the result of forced unfair terms, that recorders would have benefitted from omitting.

TheManchu resistance,however, obliged the RussianCossacksto quit Albazin, and by theTreaty of Nerchinsk(1689) Russia abandoned her advance into the basin of the river, instead concentrating on the colonisation of the vast expanses of Siberia and trading with China via theSiberian trakt.In 1852, a Russian military expedition underNikolay Muravyovexplored the Amur, and by 1857 a chain of Russian Cossacks and peasants were settled along the whole course of the river. The accomplished fact was recognised by China in 1860 by theTreaty of Aigun.

Tara Gate inOmskcity, formerly a part of the Omsk fortress

Scientists in Siberia

The scientific exploration of Siberia, commenced in the period of 1720 to 1742 byDaniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt,Johann Georg Gmelin,andLouis de l'Isle de la Croyère,was followed up byGerhard Friedrich Müller,Johann Eberhard Fischer, andJohann Gottlieb Georgi.Peter 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 ofChristopher HansteenandGeorg Adolf Ermanwere the most important step in the exploration of the territory.Alexander von Humboldt,Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg,andGustav Rosealso paid short visits to Siberia, which gave a new impulse to the accumulation of scientific knowledge; whileCarl Ritterelaborated in hisAsien(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 withMatthias 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.

The Siberian branch of theRussian Geographical Societywas founded at the same time in Irkutsk, and afterwards became a permanent centre for the exploration of Siberia; while the opening of the Amur andSakhalinattractedRichard Maack,Schmidt, Glehn,Gustav Radde,andLeopold von Schrenck,who created works on the flora, fauna, and inhabitants of Siberia.

Russian settlement

Siberia in 1636

The 17th-century tower ofYakutskfort.

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

In the 18th century in Siberia, a new administrativeguberniyawas formed withIrkutsk,then in the 19th century the territory was several times re-divided with creation of new guberniyas: Tomsk (with center inTomsk) and Yenisei (Yeniseysk,laterKrasnoyarsk).

In 1730, the first large industrial project — the metallurgical production found byDemidovfamily — gave birth to the city ofBarnaul.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 SiberianAthenes,leavingSpartafor Omsk ".

The same events took place in other cities; public libraries, museums of local lore, colleges, theatres were being built, although the first university in Siberia was opened as late as 1880 in Tomsk.

Siberianpeasantsmore than those in European Russia relied on their own force and abilities. They had to fight against the harder climate without outside help. Absence 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 Blummernoted 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 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.

Russian Empire

Administrative divisions

1905 map of Siberia

TheSiberia Governoratewas established in 1708 as part of theadministrative reformsofPeter I. In 1719, the governorate was divided into three provinces, Vyatka, Solikamsk and Tobolsk. In 1762, it was renamed toTsardom of Siberia(Сибирское царство). In 1782, under the impression ofPugachev's Rebellion,the Siberian kingdom was divided into three separate viceregencies (наместничество), centered atTobolsk,IrkutskandKolyvan.These viceregencies were downgraded to the status of governorate in 1796 (Tobolsk Governorate,Irkutsk Governorate,Vyatka Governorate). Tomsk Governoratewas split off Tobolsk governorate in 1804.Yakutsk Oblastwas 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 formedYeniseysk Governorate.

Decembrists and other exiles

Siberia was deemed a good place to exile for political reasons, as it was far from any foreign country. ASt. Petersburgcitizen would not wish to escape in the 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.

About eighty people involved in theDecembrist revoltwere 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.

"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 everything. 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 an extremely rich country, the land is unusually fruitful, and little work is needed to get a plentiful harvest."

Polina Annenkova, Notes of a Decembrist's Wife

A number of Decembrists died of diseases, some suffered psychological shock and even went out of their mind.

After completing the term of obligatory work, they were sentenced to settle in specific small towns and villages. There, some started doing business, which was well permitted. Only several years later, in the 1840s, they were allowed to move to big cities or to settle anywhere in Siberia. Only in 1856, 31 years after the revolt,Alexander IIpardoned and restituted the Decembrists in honour of his coronation.

Living in the cities of Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk, the Decembrists contributed extensively to the social life and culture. In Irkutsk, their houses are now museums. In many places, memorial plaques with their names have been installed.

Yet, there were exceptions:Vladimir Rayevskywas arrested for participation in Decembrists' circles in 1822, and in 1828 was exiled toOlonkivillage near Irkutsk. There he married and had nine children, traded with bread, and founded a school for children and adults to teach arithmetics 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 Dostoevskywas exiled tokatorganear Omsk and to military service inSemipalatinsk.In the service he also had to make trips forBarnaulandKuznetsk,where he married.

Anton Chekhovwas not exiled, but in 1890 made a trip on his own to Sakhalin through Siberia and visited a katorga there. In his trip, he visited Tomsk, speaking disapprovingly about it, then Krasnoyarsk, which he called "the most beautiful Siberian city". He noted that despite being more a place of criminal rather than political exile, the moral atmosphere was much better: he did not face any case of theft. Blummer suggested to prepare a gun, but his attendant replied:What for?! We are not in Italy, you know.Chekhov observed that besides of the evident prosperity, there was an urgent demand for cultural development.

ManyPoleswere also exiled to Siberia (seeSybirak). In 1866 they incited theBaikal Insurrection.

Trans-Siberian Railway

Main article:Trans-Siberian Railway

Crossing theAngaraatIrkutsk(1886).

The development of Siberia was hampered by poor transportation links within the region as well as between Siberia and the rest of the country. Aside from theSibirsky trakt,good roads suitable for wheeled transport were few and far apart. For about five months of the year, rivers were the main means of transportation; during the cold half of the year, cargo and passengers travelled by horse-drawnsledsover the winter roads, many of which were the same rivers, now ice-covered.

The first steamboat on theOb,Nikita Myasnikov'sOsnova,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 theYeniseiin 1863, on theLenaandAmurin the 1870s.

While the comparably flat Western Siberia was at least fairly well served by the gigantic Ob–Irtysh–Tobol–Chulym riversystem, the mighty rivers of Eastern Siberia –Yenisei,Upper Angara(AngarabelowBratskwas 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 theOb–Yenisei Canalwere 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 Moscow–St. Petersburgrailroad. One of the first wasIrkutsk–Chitaproject, intended to connect the former to theAmurriver and, consequently, to the Pacific Ocean.

Prior to 1880 the central government seldom responded to such projects, due to weakness of Siberian enterprises, fear of Siberian territories' integration with the Pacific region rather than with Russia, and thus falling under the influence of the United States and Great Britain. The heavy and clumsy bureaucracy and the fear of financial risks also contributed to the inaction: the financial system always underestimated the effects of the railway, assuming that it would take only the existing traffic.

Mainly the fear of losing Siberia convincedAlexander IIin 1880 to make a decision to build the railway. Construction started in 1891.

Trans-Siberian Railroad gave a great boost to Siberian agriculture, allowing for increased exports to Central Russia and European countries. It pushed not only the territories closest to the railway, but also those connected with meridional rivers, such as theOb(Altai) and theYenisei(MinusinskandAbakanregions).

Tomskwas the largest Siberian city by the end of the 19th century, but was left aside of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Siberian agriculture exported a lot of cheapgrainto the West. The agriculture in Central Russia was still under pressure of serfdom,formally abandonedin 1861. Another profitable industry is thefur trade,which contributed greatly to the national revenue on top of covering administrative costs in Siberia.

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 inManchuria.This measure changed the form of cereal product export: mills emerged in Altai,Novosibirsk,and Tomsk; many farms switched tobutterproduction. From 1896 to 1913 Siberia on average exported 30.6 millionpoods(~500,000 tonnes) of cereal products (grain, flour) annually.

Stolypin's resettlement programme

One early significant settlement campaign was carried out underNicholas IIby Prime MinisterStolypinin 1906–1911.

The rural areas of Central Russia were overcrowded, while the East was still lightly populated despite having fertile lands. On May 10, 1906, by the decree of the Tsar, agriculturalists were granted the right to transfer, without any restrictions, to the Asian territories of Russia, and to obtain cheap or free land. A large advertising campaign was conducted: six million copies of brochures and banners entitledWhat the resettlement gives to peasants,andHow the peasants in Siberia livewere printed and distributed in rural areas. Special propaganda trains were sent throughout the countryside, and transport trains were provided for the migrants. The State gave loans to the settlers for farm construction.

Not all the settlers decided to stay; 17.8% migrated back. All in all, more than three million people officially resettled to Siberia, and 750,000 came as foot-messengers. From 1897 to 1914 Siberian population increased 73%, and the area of land under cultivation doubled.

Prokudin-Gorsky'spicture ofwindmillsin Western Siberia

Tunguska event

Main article:Tunguska event

The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near thePodkamennaya (Lower Stony) TunguskaRiver in what is nowKrasnoyarsk Kraiof 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 ameteor air burst:the atmospheric explosion of a largemeteoroidorcometfragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3.1–6.2 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.

Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largestimpact eventon 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.

The first recorded expedition arrived at the scene more than a decade after the event. In 1921, the RussianmineralogistLeonid Kulik,visiting the Podkamennaya Tunguska River basin as part of a survey for theSoviet Academy of Sciences,deduced from local accounts that the explosion had been caused by a giantmeteorite impact.He persuaded theSovietgovernment to fund an expedition to the Tunguska region, based on the prospect ofmeteoric ironthat could be salvaged to aid Soviet industry.

Kulik's party reached the site in 1927. To their surprise, nocraterwas to be found. There was instead a region of scorched trees about 50 kilometres (31 mi) across. A few nearground zerowere still strangely standing upright, their branches and bark stripped off. Those farther away had been knocked down in a direction away from the center.

Russian Civil War

For more detailed chronology of the civil war in Siberia, seeSiberian separatism.For Aleksandr Kolchak, seeSiberian Intervention.

By the time of therevolutionSiberia was an agricultural region of Russia, with weak entrepreneur and industrial classes. Theintelligentsiahad 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.

The anti-Bolshevik forces failed to offer a united resistance. WhileKolchakfought against theBolsheviksintending to eliminate them in the capital of the Empire, the localSocialist-RevolutionariesandMenshevikstried to sign a peace treaty with the Bolsheviks, on terms of independence. Foreign allies, though being able to make a decisive effort, preferred to stay neutral, although Kolchak himself rejected the offer of help from Japan.

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

• Siberian Republic (1918)
• Far Eastern Republic,April, 1920 - November 1922
• Provisional Priamurye Government,May 27, 1921 and June 16, 1923

Soviet era

Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970

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,prodrazvyorstkaand 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 inIrkutsk Oblast,the peasants openly said they would participate in anti-Soviet rebellion and hoped for foreign help.In 1929,one such anti-Soviet rebellion took place in Buryatia,the rebellion was put down will the deaths of 35,000 Buryats. It should also be noticed that theKVZhDbuilders and workers were declaredenemies of the peopleby a special orderof the Soviet authorities.

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 the 1930s, the Party started thecollectivization,which automatically put the "kulak"label on the well-off families living in Siberia for a long time. Naturally,raskulachivanieapplied to everyone who protested. From the Central Russia many families were exiled to 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 asEvenkandKhanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrugsand the northern parts ofTomsk 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.

In the cities, during theNew Economic Policyand later, the new authorities, driven by the romantic socialistic ideas made attempts to build new socialistic cities, according to the fashionableconstructivismmovement, but after all have left only numbers of square houses. For example, theNovosibirsk theatrewas initially designed in pure constructivistic style. It was an ambitious project of exiled architects. In the mid-1930s with introduction ofnew classicism,it was significantly redesigned.

After the Trans-Siberian was built, Omsk soon became the largest Siberian city, but in 1930s Soviets favouredNovosibirsk.In the 1930s the first heavy industrialization took place in theKuznetsk Basin(coal miningandferrousmetallurgy) and atNorilsk(nickelandrare-earth metals). TheNorthern Sea Routesaw industrial application. At the same time, with growing number of prisoners,Gulagestablished a large network of labour camps in Siberia.

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 almost immediately after their materials and equipment were unloaded.

Most of the evacuated enterprises remained at their new sites after the war. They increased industrial production in Siberia to a great extent, and became constitutive for many cities, likeRubtsovsk.The easternmost city to receive them wasUlan-Ude,sinceChitawas considered dangerously close to China and Japan.

On August 28, 1941, the Supreme Soviet stated an order "About the Resettlement of theGermans 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 thanGulag.Although 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 theBaikal Amur Mainline.

Industrial expansion

Krasnoyarskhydroelectric powerstation

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 politicians.

The most famous project is theBaikal 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. AfterJoseph Stalin's death, it was again suspended for years to be continued underLeonid Brezhnev.

A cascade ofhydroelectric powerplantswas built in the 1960s–1970s on theAngara River,a project similar toTennessee Valley Authorityin the United States. The powerplants allowed creation and support of large production facilities, such as the aluminium plant inBratsk,Ust-Ilimsk,rare-earth mining in Angara basin, and those associated with the timber industry. The price of electricity in Angara basin is the lowest in Russia. But the Angara cascade is not fully finished yet: theBoguchany power plantwaits to be finished, and a series of enterprises are planned to be set up.

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

There are a number of military-oriented centers like theNPO Vektorandclosed citieslikeSeversk.By the end of the 1980s a large portion of the industrial production ofOmskandNovosibirsk(up to 40%) was composed of military and aviation output. The collapse of state-funded military orders began an economic crisis.

Akademgorodok,a scientific town near Novosibirsk

TheSiberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciencesunites a lot of research institutes in the biggest cities, the biggest being theBudker Institute of Nuclear PhysicsinAkademgorodok(a scientific town) nearNovosibirsk.Other scientific towns or just districts composed by research institutes, also named "Akademgorodok", are in the cities ofTomsk,KrasnoyarskandIrkutsk.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

A new (2003) apartment building inNovosibirsk

Until completion of theChita–Khabarovskhighway, the Transbaikalia was a dead end for automobile transport. While this recently constructed through road will at first benefit mostly the transit travel to and from the Pacific provinces, it will also boost settlement and industrial expansion in the sparsely populated regions ofZabaykalsky KraiandAmur Oblast.

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 toYakutsk.Another large project, proposed already in the 19th century as a northern option for theTranssiberianrailroad, is the Northern-Siberian Railroad betweenNizhnevartovsk, Belyi Yar,LesosibirskandUst-Ilimsk.The Russian Railroads instead suggest an ambitious project of a railway toMagadan,Chukchi Peninsula and then the supposedBering Strait TunneltoAlaska.

While the Russians continue to migrate from theSiberianand Far Eastern Federal Districtsto 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 Chineseliving in the Transbaikalia and the Far East are widespread.

See also

• Age of Discovery
• Education in Siberia
• Explorers of Siberia
• Ket people
• List of Sibir khans
• Russian conquest of Siberia
• Trans-Siberian Railway

Cities in Siberia

• Timeline of Novosibirsk
• Timeline of Omsk

Sources

• Lazaridis; Belfer-Cohen, Anna; Mallick, Swapan; et al. (2018)."Paleolithic DNA from the Caucasus reveals core of West Eurasian ancestry".bioRxiv.doi:10.1101/423079.
• Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor; Potter, Ben A.; Vinner, Lasse; Steinrücken, Matthias; Rasmussen, Simon; Terhorst, Jonathan; Kamm, John A.; Albrechtsen, Anders; Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo; Sikora, Martin; Reuther, Joshua D.; Irish, Joel D.; Malhi, Ripan S.; Orlando, Ludovic; Song, Yun S.; Nielsen, Rasmus; Meltzer, David J.; Willerslev, Eske (January 2018)."Terminal Pleistocene Alaskan genome reveals first founding population of Native Americans"(PDF).Nature.553(7687): 203–207.Bibcode:2018Natur.553..203M.doi:10.1038/nature25173.PMID29323294.S2CID4454580.

Further reading

• Bassin, Mark."Inventing Siberia: visions of the Russian East in the early nineteenth century"American Historical Review96.3 (1991): 763–794
• Bassin, Mark.Imperial visions: nationalist imagination and geographical expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840–1865(Cambridge UP, 1999).
• Bobrick, Benson.East of the Sun: the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia(Henry Holt and Company, 1993); popular history
• Breyfogle, Nicholas B., Abby Schrader and Willard Sunderland (eds),Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland Colonization in Eurasian history(London, Routledge, 2007).
• Cheng, Tien-Fong.A History Of Sino-Russian Relations(1957)
• Diment, Galya, and Yuri Slezkine, eds.Between Heaven and Hell: The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture(3rd ed. 1993)
• Etkind, Alexander (2013).Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN978-0745673547.Retrieved24 April2014.
• Forsyth, James.A history of the peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian colony 1581–1990(Cambridge University Press, 1994)excerpt
• Gibson, James R. "The Significance of Siberia to Tsarist Russia."Canadian Slavonic Papers14.3 (1972): 442–453.
• Goldstein, Lyle, and Vitaly Kozyrev."China, Japan and the scramble for Siberia"Survival48.1 (2006): 163–178
• Hartley, Janet M.Siberia: A History of the People(Yale UP, 2014)excerpt
• Kotkin, Stephen, and David Wolff, eds.Rediscovering Russia in Asia(1995)
• Lincoln, W. Bruce.The Conquest of a Continent(1993), scholarly history
• McAleavy, Henry. "China and the Amur provinces"History Today(1964) 14#6 pp 381–390.
• March, G. Patrick. "Eastern Destiny: Russia in Asia and the North Pacific" (1996)
• Marks, S.G.Road to Power: The Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Colonization of Asian Russia, 1850–1917(1991)
• Naumov, Igor V.The history of Siberia(Routledge, 2006), with bibliography pp 232–234.
• Pesterev, V. (2015).Siberian frontier: the territory of fear.Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London.
• Wood, Alan, ed.The history of Siberia: from Russian conquest to revolution(Taylor & Francis, 1991.)
• Wood, Alan.Russia's frozen frontier: a history of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581–1991(A&C Black, 2011)
• Yakhontoff, Victor A.Russia And The Soviet Union In The Far East(1932)

Primary sources

• Dmitriev-Mamonov, A.Guide to the Great Siberian Railway(1900) also covers the local towns and people
• Dmytryshyn, Basil.To Siberia and Russian America. Three Centuries of Russian Eastward Expansion(3 Vols, Oregon Historical Society, 1985)
  • Russia's Conquest of Siberia 1558–1700(vol 1 online);Russian Penetration of the North Pacific Ocean, 1700–1799(vol 2 online);The Russian American Colonies, 1799–1867(vol 3).
• Dobell, Peter.Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia: with a narrative of a residence in China(H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830)* Norman, Henry.The peoples and politics of the Far East: travels and studies in the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya(Scribner, 1904)

External links

• "Sibirskaya Zaimka"— an internet journal of scientific publications on the Siberian history (in Russian, with a link to an online translated version)
• Siberia (Сибирь)inBrockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary(in Russian)
• Isitt, Benjamin (2010).From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917–19.University of British Columbia Press.ISBN978-0-7748-1802-5.Archived fromthe originalon 2011-07-06.
• Siberian Expeditionwebsite, by Benjamin Isitt