Novosibirsk Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Novosibirsk Region (formed in 1937) is located in the very center of the country. It has an area of 178 000 km2, which is about half the size of Japan or Germany and larger than Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland put together. The region has 14 cities.
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It is a land of taiga, impassable bogs, thousands of lakes and rivers, the ancient Salair Ridge, and the Kulunda steppes. A huge reservoir, the Ob Sea, extends for 230 km through the region. Lakes occupy more than 5% of its territory; among them is Chany Lake, one of the world's largest lakes.
Nearly half (48%) of the region's territory consists of agricultural land. A relatively mild climate and a sunny period only slightly less than in Krasnodar Region create favorable conditions for agriculture. The average daytime temperature in July is +25 °C, but can reach +40 °C in the south; the average January temperature is -20 °C.
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The region has a population of 2.8 million people, more than 2 million of whom live in urban areas. Russians make up 92% of the population; there are also more than 60 000 Germans living in the region.
The regional center is Novosibirsk, the largest industrial, scientific, cultural, and administrative center in Siberia, with a population of nearly 1.7 million people. Residents celebrated the city's 100th anniversary in 1993. Eighty percent of the region's industrial potential is concentrated here, and major transportation routes pass through it. The Siberian divisions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences are all located in Novosibirsk. Novosibirsk also has seven theaters, and it is no coincidence that one of them, the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (called the Bolshoi Theater of Siberia), is the city's architectural symbol.
Novosibirsk is the fourth-largest city in Russia in population and the third largest in area behind Moscow and St. Petersburg. The grand buildings of the railway station, Lenin House with its 100 apartments, city and regional executive committees, and the central square complex, which includes the opera theater, define the architectural character of Novosibirsk. Prerevolutionary buildings such as the regional museum of local history, the Officers' House, and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral have also been preserved. The modern buildings of the Young People's Theater, the regional council, the State Public Science and Technology Library, the circus, and the Rossiya State Department Store (GUM Rossiya) form the city's architectural exterior.
Novosibirsk Region has more than 2500 cultural and historical monuments, about 70% of them archeological monuments. Many of them (836) are under government protection, and government conservation agencies have registered 1381 as newly discovered historical and cultural monuments.
HISTORY
The first Russian settlers arrived in Siberia in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Russians began actively developing the territory in the late 17th century, when the first fortified towns (Urtamsky and Umrevinsky) appeared and colonists began settling close to them. The first villages grew up on the banks of the Oyash, Chaus, and Inya rivers. The village of Krivoshchekovskaya, the first Russian settlement on the site of the future city of Novosibirsk, was founded around 1710.
In 1893, the village of Aleksandrovsky (renamed Novonikolaevsky in 1895) appeared in connection with the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway line from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok and a railway bridge over the Ob River, both of which required large workforces. The bridge was opened for traffic in spring 1897. Owing to its convenient geographic location at the intersection of the Trans-Siberian railway, the great Ob River, and the Moscow road, the bridge's commercial and economic significance grew rapidly, and Ob Station became Siberia's largest railway station for freight traffic. Commercial capital rapidly developed the area along the Great Siberian Route, turning the small village into a city, which in December 1903 received the status of a self-administered city of Tomsk Province. Within the first 20 years of its existence, Novonikolaevsk had already become Siberia's leading city. A telephone exchange and power station began operating in the city, along with a race track, printing presses, movie theaters, and amateur theaters.
Banking capital also began concentrating in Novonikolaevsk. In 1906, there was only a single Siberian Bank, but by 1915, there were already five commercial banks and two agricultural banks.
The population of Novonikolaevsk grew rapidly, and by the time of the February Revolution, it had become a city of 80 000 people. It was a commercial, industrial, and traffic center in which, along with agricultural processing companies, a municipal power plant, the Trud iron foundry, a commodity exchange, banks, and trading and shipowning firms, there were seven Orthodox churches, a Catholic church, several movie theaters, 40 elementary schools, a gymnasium, a teacher's college, and the Romanov House vocational school. In 1913, Novonikolaevsk became one of the first communities in the Russian Empire to introduce compulsory elementary education.
The city continued its peaceful and successful development right up to 1915-1917. Stores were full of merchandise, and markets overflowed with bread, meat, and fat (salo). Merchants of Novonikolaevsk who had become rich on military supplies, were contemplating the construction of a tram line, while city residents were discussing the construction of a nursing home. This building concerned the people of Novonikolaevsk more than war or revolutions. They showed little enthusiasm when they heard that the Bolsheviks had come to power in the capital.
However, the city could not remain apart from political and social upheavals. The Novonikolaevsk Council (Soviet) seized power in December 1917. The city's population subsequently declined drastically during the Civil War years. The White and Red terror, military operations, and terrible typhus and cholera epidemics claimed thousands of lives. The bridge over the Ob was blown up.
After 1921, with the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP), Novonikolaevsk once again became a commercial, industrial, and traffic center where thousands of farm carts loaded with grain and butter gathered. Workers who had scattered to neighboring villages returned to the depots and factories, and the Siberian office of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) [TsK VKP(b)] and the Siberian Revolutionary Committee (Sibrevkom) relocated to the city from Omsk.
Novonikolaevsk was renamed Novosibirsk in 1926. The first Siberian radio broadcasting station and the Siberian Radio Center (Sibradiotsentr) began operating at that time, and the city had a population of 100 000. The city's appearance changed dramatically as monumental, architecturally striking four- and five-story buildings appeared. During the era of Stalinist industrialization, Novosibirsk was transformed from a commercial to an industrial center of Siberia. Well-known giants were built here, like the Siberian Combine Factory (Sibkombain), a mining equipment factory, numerous metalworking, light industry, and food industry companies, and a powerful cogeneration plant.
Service on the Moscow-Novosibirsk-Krasnoyarsk air route (part of the future Berlin-Moscow-Peking route) began in 1928. The personnel of the Siberian State Opera and Siberian State Publishing House were transferred here. Eight higher educational institutions and ten technical schools opened in Novosibirsk in the 1930s, and research institutes and laboratories were established in connection with construction of the Ural-Kuznetsk Industrial Combine (Uralo-Kuznetsky kombinat) in the city.
Construction of the Bolshoi Theater of Siberia began in the city's central square in 1931, and the theater was officially opened on May 12, 1945.
More than 170 000 new settlers arrived in Novosibirsk during the famine of 1932-1933. Then, during the Second World War, 50 factories were evacuated here, including the Kramatorsky Heavy Engineering Plant (Kramatorsky zavod tyazhelogo mashinostroeniya)), Zaporozhe Steel Works (Zaporozhstal), the Sestroretsk Tool Plant (Sestroretsky instrumentalny zavod), Elektrosignal from Voronezh, and the Sedin Machine Tool Plant of Krasnodar (Krasnodarsky stankostroitelny zavod im. Sedina). The city also gave shelter to more than 140 000 refugees.
Old industrial enterprises were expanded and modernized. The Chkalov Aircraft Plant of Novosibirsk (Novosibirsky aviazavod im. Chkalova), which turned out Yak-3, Yak-7, and Yak-9 fighters during the war, became one of the largest aircraft plants in the country. The Pushkin Drama Theater of Leningrad and the Central Children's Theater operated here during the war, and the West Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was established. In addition, 26 hospitals that treated more than 112 000 soldiers were deployed here between 1941 and 1945.
New industrial giants grew up around previously evacuated and newly built facilities, e.g., the Kuzmin Metallurgical Plant (MZ im. A.N. Kuzmina), the Efremov Plant (Tyazhstankogidropress), a turbogenerator plant (Sibelektrotyazhmash), and chemical plants. Novosibirsk's role as Siberia's largest traffic center also increased. Seven loading stations within the city and the Inskaya railway yard, the largest in the eastern part of the country, handled enormous amounts of freight.
Novosibirsk began developing as a unified urban center only after the bridge over the Ob was rebuilt in 1955. Construction activity shifted to the industrial base, and large-panel house building became the standard form of residential construction. All this construction changed the city's environment. For example, a hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 400 000 kW was built on the Ob in the mid-1950s, resulting in the formation of the vast Ob Sea reservoir.
A new airport terminal was built in 1956-1957 to service local airlines, and local electric train service began in 1958. A local TV station, a new city newspaper Novosibirsk Evening (Vecherny Novosibirsk), new higher educational institutions, theaters, and a symphony orchestra all started up in the same period.
In 1957, construction began on a major research center of the Siberian division of the USSR Academy of Sciences known as Academic Town (Akademgorodok). Fourteen research institute complexes, a university, residential districts, public buildings, a commercial center, and a Scientists' House sprang up in the community. Progressive research along priority lines with continuing state support led to the establishment of world-renowned Siberian scientific schools. Novosibirsk was transformed into a major Siberian research center where nearly one-third of the region's scientific potential was concentrated. In 1992, its members included 32 research institutes and 5 engineering and design institutes, making Novosibirsk the third-largest university town in Siberia after Tomsk and Irkutsk.
Tolmachevo Airport was built near the city between 1960 and 1963.
The city's population reached 1 million in the early 1960s, and new architectural complexes and research centers of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences were built in the following years.
In 1969, a decision was made to establish the Siberian division of the All-Union Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences [VASKhNIL; now the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (RASKhN)]; construction of the research institutes and a residential community called Krasnoobsk began in 1970. In 1992, the Novosibirsk center consisted of nine institutes and production facilities.
A third Siberian academic center, the Siberian branch, later (1979) the Siberian division, of the Academy of Medical Sciences, was established in 1970. In 1992, the center included nine research institutes and a special design bureau.
A second highway bridge known as the Dimitrovsky Bridge was built across the Ob River between 1971 and 1978. Construction of the first subway in Siberia began in 1979, with the first line opening in December 1985.
The population of Novosibirsk reached nearly 1 400 000 in 1982; and in the 1990s, Novosibirsk was one of Russia's largest cities, a center of advanced science and science-intensive industry, and a major transit center between Western Europe and East Asia.
Novosibirsk, the largest city in Asian Russia, turned 100 in 1993, entering its second century in a period of large-scale social, political, and economic changes. The transition to a market economy and changes in ownership forms had a profound influence on the city's habitual way of life.
The economic history of Novosibirsk Region is a leap from wooden plows to giant factories producing tractors and satellites. The future of Novosibirsk, like the future of Russia, is tied to the new socioeconomic system.
RESOURCES
Novosibirsk Region has few mineral resources. About 20 different kinds have been identified, but not all of them are slated for commercial development. The region has large quantities of various kinds of clay, as well as large peat deposits and small oil and gas fields in the northern districts. Building materials such as stone, gravel, sand, limestone, and clay shale are quarried in the eastern part of the region, where there are also small marble deposits. Coal, including valuable anthracite, is produced here as well. There are small gold deposits in the Salair Ridge. The region has valuable underground reserves of mineral water (for medical purposes) and thermal water (for heating); and cooking salt and soda are extracted from saline lakes in the southwest. Some of these saline lakes also contain therapeutic mud used in medicine. A well-known resort operates on saline Lake Karachi.
The region's soils are varied and quite patchily distributed. Podzolic, boggy, gray forest, saline, and alkali soils are among the predominant types. Various kinds of black earths (chernozems) are used for agricultural purposes. Precipitation in the forest steppe of Siberia is irregular, going from drought to days of rain, so harvests here are relatively small.
The primary grain crop is spring and winter wheat; oats, barley, rye, peas, millet, and buckwheat are also sown. Large areas are sown with potatoes, other vegetables, and feed crops. Flax, sunflowers, and mustard are grown in the region; and currants, sea buckthorn, raspberries, and apples are cultivated in gardens and orchards. Watermelons grow in southern districts. Beef and dairy cattle farming and poultry farming are well developed, and there is some beekeeping.
The flora of Novosibirsk Region differs slightly from that of Central Europe in that certain exclusively Siberian species are encountered here. Nearly 1200 species of higher wild plants are known to grow here, while forests cover about 20% of the region's territory. The most widespread trees are birch, pine, and aspen, but cedar, fir, spruce, mountain ash, hawthorn, and various other species are also encountered. The common trees of Central European forests, such as oak, elm, linden, and ash, do not grow here naturally and are found only in plantations. There is a moderate amount of logging activity in the forests.
The region's vegetation cover varies from north to south. Boggy, dark coniferous taiga consisting of spruce, fir, and cedar is found in the far northern parts of the region, while birch, pine, and aspen prevail further south. Various kinds of mosses and lichens grow luxuriously in the swampy northern forests, and shrubby plants like Labrador tea, ferns, lingonberry, and cranberry are common. However, the most widespread native zone is forest steppe, where you may encounter valuable herbs such as St.-John's wort, wild marjoram, burnet, milfoil, lungwort, and adonis. The Baraba forest steppe has many wet meadows and bogs with beds of reeds, rushes, and other moisture-loving plants. The steppe zone begins with the Kulunda steppes in the southwestern part of the region on the border with Kazakhstan. Characteristic steppe species include drought-resistant plants like sagebrush, feather grass, and licorice. An interesting flora of salt-loving species is found near salt lakes.
The low-mountain taiga of the Salair Ridge, consisting mainly of fir and aspen, forms a distinct zone. Tall grasses up to the height of a person grow in the moist forest clearings of the Salair. Belts of pine forest stretching along the Ob River are another characteristic feature of the region. These beautiful forests have an abundance of berries, mushrooms, and herbs. In addition to the natural vegetation, there are also broad expanses of fields used for cultivated crops.
Some 430 rivers flow through Novosibirsk Region, including one of the world's largest rivers, the Ob. Other large rivers include the Inya, Berd, and lowland rivers of the left bank of the Ob such as the Tara, Om, Kargat, and Karasuk. The region is known as "lake territory" because of the huge number of lakes. These lakes are mainly located in the Baraba Lowlands and are typically shallow with overgrown marshy shores. There are also many salt and bitter salt lakes in the southwest. Chany Lake, the largest lake in Western Siberia is somewhat brackish. In winter, the rivers and lakes are covered with ice up to a meter thick. Bogs cover about 30% of the region. The boggy northern districts are sparsely populated.
The fauna of Novosibirsk Region resembles that of Central and Northern Europe with some fundamental differences. The taiga and steppe zones lie 200 km apart, and each have their own distinct fauna: northern taiga species in the north (reindeer, sable, moose, and grouse) and steppe species (jerboas, pelicans, and steppe and corsac foxes) in the south.
The territory's largest arthropod is the Danube crayfish. Crayfish inhabit various water bodies, including the Ob River.
The taiga tick poses a real hazard in the Siberian forests in spring and early summer. Ticks are also common in the forests around Novosibirsk. The largest spider in the country, the tarantula, inhabits the steppes and forest steppes.
Several thousand species of insects are found in Novosibirsk Region, including many agricultural and forest pests. Butterflies number about 150 species; among them are two representatives of the exotic swallowtail family: the Old World swallowtail and the Apollo butterfly. Anthills of the red forest ant, sometimes up to 2 m high, are often encountered in the forests. Countless bloodsucking insects (mosquitoes, midges, and horseflies) also inhabit this land of lakes and bogs.
Thirty-five species of fish and 2 species of cyclostomes (lampreys) are found in the rivers and lakes. Among them are the sterlet, Manchurian trout, whitefish, humpbacked whitefish, and Siberian grayling. Largest of all is the Siberian sturgeon of the Ob River, which can be up to 2 m long. Other large fish inhabiting the Ob basin include the burbot, pike, pike-perch, white salmon, and taimen [a member of the salmon family]. The most common fish are perch, carp, and bream.
Amphibians and reptiles are represented by only a few species: three frog species, two toad species, the common newt, the Siberian newt, two lizard species, and two snake species (grass snake and adder).
Owing to the variety of natural zones, nearly 300 species of birds have been recorded in Novosibirsk Region. Most of them are migratory, but there are permanent residents as well. Forty-five species are considered game birds; another 22 are classed as rare and protected, e.g., the black stork, osprey, sea eagle, white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, and pelican. Exotic flamingos are rare visitors from Kazakhstan. Waterfowl are especially abundant in the region because of the large number of rivers, lakes, and bogs. These include various species of grebes, geese, ducks, gulls, and sandpipers, as well as bitterns, gray heron, swans, and the Arctic loon. A flyway for many migratory birds passes over the lakes of the Baraba Lowlands; therefore, the Chany Lake system is of international significance as an important waterfowl habitat.
Birds of prey include 10 species of owls and 21 species of diurnal predators, such as falcons, hawks, buzzards, and eagles. Birds like the hazel, black, and wood grouse, oriole, cuckoo, woodpecker (6 species), nightjar, and many small birds are found in the forests.
About 80 species of mammals also inhabit Novosibirsk Region. Many are small mammals, such as shrews, mice, voles, hamsters, and ground squirrels. There are two hedgehog species, ten bat species, and two types of hare (the varying hare and brown hare). Red squirrels, the rarely encountered flying squirrel, and chipmunks live in the forests; jerboas are found on the steppes; and marmots make their burrows on dry hillsides. The country's largest rodent, the beaver, lives on the banks of small forest streams. Representatives of the marten family include the sable, badger, stoat, Siberian weasel, polecat, wolverine (the largest member), and least weasel (the smallest). Foxes and wolves are found throughout the region. The largest predator of Southern Siberia is the brown bear, whose body can reach a length of 2 m. Bears are encountered in the northern forests of the region and in the forests of the Salair Ridge. The lynx is the only wildcat inhabiting the region's forests. The reindeer, roe deer, and moose are all found in Novosibirsk Region.
ECONOMY
By historical measures, Novosibirsk has grown very rapidly in the 100 years of its existence. It is the largest industrial center east of the Urals located at the intersection of the country's main railway lines and highways. A well-developed system of waterways used for delivering goods to the north ensures trouble-free operation for oil companies.
Tolmachevo Airport is Siberia's largest airport. The itineraries of politicians, business people, scientists, artists, and tourists journeying to various parts of the earth intersect here. The airport currently services routes from 79 cities in CIS and other foreign countries, and six airlines have representative offices here (Aeroflot, Transaero, Sibir, Uzbek Airlines, Armenian Airlines, Lufthansa, and Shinjiang Airlines of China). A free customs (unbonded) area has been established at Tolmachevo.
A modern transportation system helps maintain foreign economic ties with many foreign countries, in particular, Germany, the United States, France, Japan, Austria, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and China.
The region's foreign trade turnover is steadily increasing. Organic and inorganic compounds, other inorganic chemical products, ferrous metals and ferrous metal items, mechanical and electrical machinery, machine tools, turbogenerators, particle accelerators, timber and timber products, and other goods are shipped from here to the foreign market. The region's largest exporters include AO Khimkontsentratov, Novosibirsk Tin Smelter (Novosibirsky olovokombinat), Novosibirsk Electrode Plant (Novosibirsky elektrodny zavod), Sibbiofarm in Berdsk. Barachinsky Eletromechanical Works (BEMZ), Vega, Antares in Barabinsk, Astral-S, an electrode plant in Iskitim, the Kuibyshev Chemical Plant (Kuibyshevsky khimzavod), and Listvyanskoe Mine Management (Listvyanskoe shakhtoupravlenie). The region imports clothing, TV and radio sets, household appliances, optical instruments and devices, cameras, movie-making equipment, furniture, and food products from abroad.
The region's industrial sector comprises companies in the power industry, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, engineering and metalworking, and the construction, fuel, chemical, medical, forest, woodworking, pulp and paper, light, and food industries. For the most part, these are companies in manufacturing and processing sectors. They account for 98% of all industrial output.
Many companies in the spheres of radioelectronics, instrument making, various branches of the engineering industry, and the aircraft, chemical, and nuclear industries are unique for their high technology and skilled personnel.
Engineering and metalworking, the food industry (including cereal and feed milling), and the building material industry account for more than 80% of the region's industrial output.
Agriculture occupies an important place in the regional economy.
The primary agricultural products are grain, potatoes, vegetables, flax, milk, eggs, wool, beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. Horse breeding, beekeeping, and fur and fish farming are of only minor importance.
Nearly half of all agricultural land in Novosibirsk Region (2 691 300 hectares) is under crop. Most of this land belongs to agricultural enterprises (2 503 100 hectares), with much smaller shares belonging to farms, and private holdings (4.67% and 2.31%, respectively). Another 488 100 hectares are fallow.
The distribution of agricultural enterprises depends to a considerable extent on natural climatic conditions and the location of various districts in the region. This has a particularly strong influence on grain production. Hard varieties of wheat are grown in the dry southern districts, rye in the north, and mainly soft varieties of wheat in the remaining steppe districts.
Agricultural enterprises in the central districts specialize in producing potatoes, vegetables, and milk, which keeps the city of Novosibirsk supplied with these perishable products. A large-scale pork supplier, the Kudryashovsky Hog Farm (Kudryashovsky svinokompleks), and a large number of poultry farms are also located here.
AUTHORITIES
The Administration of Novosibirsk Region headed by the Governor is the region's executive body, and the Novosibirsk Regional Council of Deputies is the legislative (representative) body.
CULTURE AND ART
Novosibirsk is the largest cultural center in Siberia and the Far East. The city has theaters, a state conservatory with an associated music school, important institutions like the world-class State Public Science and Technology Library, and artistic associations that unite writers, artists, musicians, actors and other theater workers, architects, designers, and film-makers. Novosibirsk is closely linked with the name of the outstanding Russian writer and survey engineer N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, who surveyed the line of the future Great Siberian Route. The largest writers' organization in Siberia has functioned here for many years. Literary works of scientists add distinctive local color to the intellectual life of Novosibirsk.
The region has 2209 cultural institutions and organizations and more than 4800 creative groups, 130 of which are considered national and master groups.
The annual Russia-Germany music festival is of great significance in developing international cultural ties.
The Novosibirsk State Choreographic School (founded in 1957) is one of Russia's leading ballet schools. Other cultural institutions include the Chaldony ensemble, with its rich program of songs and dances, the State Circus, the Circus on Stage, the local history museum, 92 children's music and art schools, numerous folk art groups, clubs for various interests, and amateur and other associations. National cultural centers like the Center for Russian Folklore and Ethnography, the Russian House of Folk Traditions, the Ukrainian Cultural Center, the Tatar Cultural Center, and the German Cultural Center are doing a great deal to revive national culture.
The first International Young Violinists' Competition (60 competitors from 13 countries) in Russia was held in Novosibirsk in 1995; and the first Novosibirsk International Christmas Arts Festival was held in December of the same year. Novosibirsk is also known for its jazz groups.
The pride of the city is the acclaimed Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic under the direction of National Artist of the USSR Prof. A.M. Kats.
The city takes pride in having Siberia's largest art gallery, with its collection of more than 6000 works by Russian and foreign painters. Its greatest treasure is a collection of paintings by N. Rerikh donated to the city by the artist's son.
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