Siberia

I

Introduction

Siberia (Russian Sibir’), vast region comprising the Asian portion of Russia as well as northern Kazakhstan. Siberia is a treasure trove of natural resources, with huge deposits of oil, gas, and minerals and vast stands of timber. Historically, the region was notorious as a bleak place of exile for Russian criminals, and, when the area was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), for those considered opponents of the Communist regime. Siberia is bounded on the west by the Ural Mountains; on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Strait; and on the south by China, Mongolia, and the hills of north central Kazakhstan. The name Siberia comes from the Tatar term Sibir, meaning 'sleeping land.'

II

Land and Resources

The region of Siberia spans 13,488,500 sq km (5,207,900 sq mi) and is even larger than Canada, which is the second largest country in the world after Russia. The region is divided into three major geographic areas. In the west, between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey River, is the West Siberian Plain, which contains large amounts of swampland. Between the Yenisey and Lena rivers lies the Central Siberian Plateau, with elevations ranging between 300 and 1200 m (1000 and 4000 ft). And to the east is a complex system of mountain ranges and uplands extending from the Lena River to the Pacific coast.

Siberia has several major mountain ranges. The mountain chain composed of the Yablonovyy and Stanovoy ranges extends from just north of the Mongolian border northeast to the Sea of Okhotsk. Also on the Mongolian border, south of the Central Siberian Plateau, are the Sayan Mountains. The highest mountains in Siberia are generally in the Altay range, south of the West Siberian Plain. Spanning portions of Russia’s borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China, the Altay Mountains generally measure between 3000 and 4000 m (10,000 and 13,000 ft) in height, reaching their highest elevation at Mount Belukha (4,506 m/ 14,783 ft). At Siberia’s northeastern extreme, a chain of volcanic peaks—some of which are still active—extends along the entire length of the Kamchatka Peninsula. One volcano, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, is the tallest peak in Siberia at 4,750 m (15,584 ft).

Siberia is traversed from north to south by three great rivers, whose tributaries intersect like branches of huge spreading trees. From west to east, these rivers are the Ob’, the Yenisey, and the Lena, all of which flow north and drain into the Arctic Ocean. The three rivers are frozen from six to nine months of each year. Of Siberia's major rivers, only the Amur flows east, following a sharply winding course to the Pacific Ocean. Southeast of the Central Siberian Plateau, near the Mongolian border, is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake. Lake Baikal holds one-fifth of the earth's fresh surface water and contains a great diversity of plant and animal species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else on earth.

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Except in the south, Siberia experiences long, cold winters that last for seven to eight months in most parts of the region and even longer in the far northeast. Summers in Siberia are short and generally moderate. The average temperature tends to rise as one moves south. In Tomsk, in the West Siberian Plain, the average temperature in January is -21° C (-6° F), and the average temperature in July is 18° C (64° F). Irkutsk, in central Siberia, has an average January temperature of -21° C (-6° F) and an average July temperature of 16° C (61° F). And Verkhoyansk, in the far northeast, averages -51° C (-60° F) in January and 14° C (57° F) in July. The vast Siberian interior receives scant snowfall. Precipitation is usually light, except along the Pacific coast.

Major vegetation zones extend in bands from east to west across all of Siberia. Extending south from the Arctic Ocean for a distance of about 430 km (about 270 mi) is the tundra, a belt of treeless marshy plains. Most of the tundra is in a permafrost condition, perpetually frozen to great depths; however, the top 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 ft) thaws enough in the summer to permit mosses, lichens, flowering plants, stunted shrubs, and hordes of mosquitoes to flourish. To the south, the tundra shades into the taiga, a vast belt of mainly coniferous forests, in which the most common trees are larch, pine, Siberian cedar, and fir. Along the southern edge of the taiga is a transitional forest belt with deciduous trees, such as birch, willow, and poplar. This area then shades into the steppe, or grasslands, of the southwest, which contains Siberia’s richest farmland.

Siberia is rich in animal life. Among its more common mammals are foxes, otters, wolves, hare, moose, reindeer, polar and brown bears, sable, seals, and walruses. Leopards, tigers, and antelope inhabit the Amur River region. Sturgeon, salmon, and rare freshwater seals inhabit Lake Baikal.

Vast oil and gas deposits constitute Siberia’s most valuable natural resources. The region also has huge reserves of mineral resources, most notably coal, gold, copper, and iron ore. Siberian mines have placed Russia, and before it the USSR, among the world's leading producers of gold.

Since the 1960s vast deposits of petroleum and natural gas have been discovered along the Vilyui River in the Russian republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in eastern Siberia and in western Siberia between the Ob’ and Yenisey rivers. In western Siberia, the city of Tyumen’ serves as a gateway to the oil fields of Samotlor and the natural gas reserves of Urengoy. The cities of Tomsk and Tobol’sk have huge petrochemical complexes. Siberia has significant deposits of uranium, nickel, manganese, diamonds, tin, and cobalt. Huge hydroelectric complexes were built in the 1970s and 1980s on the Angara River at Bratsk and Ust’-Ilimsk, and on the Yenisey River at Krasnoyarsk and Sayano-Shushenskoye.

III

Population

Overall, the region is sparsely inhabited, with the population concentrated mainly along the Trans-Siberian Railroad in southern Siberia, and in the southwest, where the climate is relatively mild. Most major cities lie along or near the Trans-Siberian Railroad. From west to east, these include Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok. Yakutsk and Yeniseysk are located farther north, on the Lena and Yenisey rivers.

The great majority of Siberia’s population is Russian. Other groups in the region include the Kazakhs, of northern Kazakhstan and neighboring Russian territory; the Buryats, most of whom live near Lake Baikal; and the Yakuts, a farming people in the middle Lena basin. Peoples of northern Siberia include relatively small populations of Tungus, Chukchi, and Koryaks. While Russian is the dominant language in the region, the non-Russian peoples speak a variety of other languages of the Paleo-Asiatic, Uralic, Altaic, and Indo-European language families.

IV

Economy

As the source of most of Russia’s oil and natural gas, Siberia plays a major role in the country’s developing free-market economy. Nevertheless, the remoteness of many of Siberia’s oil and gas deposits makes access and transport expensive. The Russian government has encouraged companies from other countries, including Japan and South Korea, to invest in projects to develop Siberia’s raw materials.

From its widely dispersed sources of raw materials, Siberia's industries produce metal and metal products, textiles, vehicles, agricultural equipment, and construction materials. Industrial areas include the Kuznetsk Basin, the Yenisey River valley, and the Lena River valley near Yakutsk. Noril’sk is a major center for metal production.

Farming in Siberia is limited mainly to the west and southwest, where wheat, rye, oats, barley, and sunflowers are cultivated intensively. A prosperous dairy industry, which developed in the early 20th century, is located in this area. Farther east, potatoes, grain, sugar beets, and flax are grown, and in the far eastern part of the region, people herd reindeer for their milk, flesh, and hides. Siberia also has significant lumber and fishing industries.

The backbone of Siberia’s transportation system is the Trans-Siberian Railroad (completed in 1905), which is now supplemented by the Turkistan-Siberian line (1931), the South Siberian line (early 1950s), the Central Siberian line (1980), and the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM; 1989). Because constructing roads and railroads on permafrost is difficult, air transportation has become increasingly important in supplementing Siberia's overworked railroads. A number of Siberia’s airports are located along the Trans-Siberian Railroad at Tyumen’, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and near the Chinese border at Khabarovsk. Other airports include one at Yakutsk and one at Magadan, a port city on the Sea of Okhotsk.

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