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Monday 15 January 2018

Siberia

The territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific. It stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the national borders of Mongolia and China.


HISTORY

In 1581 the Cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich conquered Siberia for Russia. The conquest expanded Ivan the Terrible's empire to the east and allowed him to style himself "Tsar of Siberia" in the ruler's very last years.

By the mid-17th century, Russia had established areas of control that extended to the Pacific. Some 230,000 Russians had settled in Siberia by 1709.

Siberia has been used since the 18th century to house political and criminal prisoners.

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.

The Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok was constructed during 1891–1916. The railway linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly industrializing Russia of Nicholas II.

Siberian peasants watching a train at a station, 1902

Around seven million people moved to Siberia from European Russia between 1801 and 1914.

In 1955 Soviet geologists discovered the Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR and the second largest excavated hole in the world, in Eastern Siberia.

FUN SIBERIA FACTS

Siberia covers 77 per cent of Russia. If Siberia were independent, it would be the largest country in the world.

Siberia is home to just 40 million people—27% of Russia's population. The territory has a population density of less than eight people per square mile.

Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population near 1.5 million.

Novosibirsk  by Imdestroy 

Lake Baikal in Siberia is 400 miles long, 50 miles wide and a mile deep. It is the world's largest freshwater lake and contains 20 per cent of the world's non-frozen fresh water supplies.

The highest point in Siberia is the volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka, considered sacred by many locals as the place the Earth was created.

More than 25% of the world's forests are found in Siberia.

Siberia has extensive natural resources. It has some of the world's largest deposits of coal, diamonds, gold, lead, nickel, silver and zinc, as well as extensive unexploited resources of oil and natural gas

Siberia is well known primarily for its long, harsh winters, with a January average of −25 °C (−13 °F),

Pixiebay
Kindergartners in Siberia run outside in their underwears and dump freezing water over themselves to strengthen their immune systems.

Yakutsk in Siberia is said to be the coldest city on Earth. The average January temperature is around –40C, though it can be hot in summer.

The coldest permanently inhabited place is the Siberian village of Oymyakon (pop. 4000) in Russia, where the temperature reached -68°C (-90°F) in 1933 (the coldest ever recorded outside Antarctica)


The Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Vladivostok takes a week to complete its journey.

Stroganina, a thinly shaved raw, frozen fish or meat, has long been a favorite snack in northern Siberia.

The Siberian tiger is the largest member of the cat family. Only about 500 remain in the wild.

Source Daily Express

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