A Journey Across Siberia

Russia is by far the largest country in the world, in terms of geographical land area. The country spans two continents. The western part of Russia is in Europe and the eastern part in Asia. The dividing line between the two continents is the Ural Mountains. Siberia is usually defined as the part of Russia that is in Asia.

Did you know that when you look at a full moon you are looking at an area that is just about exactly the size of Russia?

As far as physical geography goes, Europe and Asia are not really separate continents. It is more like Eurasia is one land mass. But there is a definite division between the two with regard to history and culture and, for this reason, we usually consider Europe and Asia as separate continents.

Siberia is a vast land area, comprising maybe 1 / 7 of the earth's total land area. But it is, on the average, sparsely populated. The European part of Russia is only about 1 / 4 of Russia's total land area, but has about 3 / 4 of the country's population.

While the average population density of Siberia is low it's population is concentrated in cities with the southern, and warmer, part of the region holding most of the population. Russia's two most populous cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, are both in European Russia, but the next two cities by population are in Siberia.

Siberia is known today for being very rich in resources. Much of the region is seafloor that was forced upward by tectonic movement, which made room for oil and natural gas to collect underground. Aside from energy, there are also vast mineral resources.

It was in the Sixteenth Century that the Rurik Dynasty of Russia began to explore and build outposts in lands far to the east of Moscow. This policy was continued by the following Romanov Dynasty.

One thing that we can see just by looking around Siberia is that it seems to be more conservative in outlook than European Russia. For one thing, there are still statues of Lenin in city squares that are usually no longer seen in European Russia.

The city of Ufa is actually on the European side of the Ural Mountains but it was one of the eastern outposts and settlements established during the time of Ivan the Terrible, who first proclaimed the Tsardom of Russia from territories that had been consolidated by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The following scenes are in the central area of Ufa.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.7351488,55.9587644,3a,75y,283.82h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMwQ4B2461mhnDPz6MOrpJGFOpTMhqYph9tQbRn!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMwQ4B2461mhnDPz6MOrpJGFOpTMhqYph9tQbRn%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya3.073558-ro-0-fo100!7i10000!8i5000

The name of Yekaterinburg, sometimes spelled as Ekaterinburg, means "The City of Catherine". This city is just on the Asian side of a gap in the Ural Mountains and so is sometimes considered as the "gateway to Siberia". The Catherine that the city is named for is Catherine I. She was the wife of Peter the Great, who founded St. Petersburg. Catherine I is not the same as the later Catherine the Great.

Had anyone thought about the irony that the city named for Catherine I is primarily known today as the place where the last Romanov emperor and his family were executed in 1917. But then Boris Yeltsin, who ended the Communism in Russia that had begun with the Bolsheviks who had executed the Romanovs and restored the Romanov flag as Russia's national flag, was from the Yekaterinburg area.

On maps and atlases from before the 1990s this city is named Sverdlovsk, which is what the Communists called it. During the following presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the name of Yekaterinburg was restored. The house where the Romanovs had been staying and were executed, the Ipatiev House, has since been demolished but the site is marked with the Cathedral on the Blood.

But this city is far more than just the place where the Romanovs were executed. Today it is the fourth-largest city in the country by population, and is known for it's prosperity and for being a good place to live. This is central Yekaterinburg.

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.8372815,60.5950196,3a,75y,129.48h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sm9y-O8Yn4e_lomJVP84S-w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dm9y-O8Yn4e_lomJVP84S-w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D146.41267%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The city of Chelyabinsk was in the news in 2013 when a meteor entered the atmosphere and exploded above the city, doing quite a bit of damage. Siberia as a whole is known for the Tunguska Event, although this was not near Chelyabinsk. A large meteor or, as I believe, a small comet exploded in the atmosphere. The shock waves were felt across the world and the force of the explosion knocked over millions of trees over thousands of square kilometers in Siberia.

Theories are still being put forth today about this great explosion of 1908 in the sky above a remote part of Siberia. The lack of an impact crater seems to indicate that it was a comet, made primarily of ice that turned to water, rater than a meteor made of rock or metal. But some claim that there is a small lake that was not there before and that this is the impact crater.

At any rate, here is the city of Chelyabinsk.

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.1602905,61.4026636,3a,75y,246.86h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPuAEU2MNiA_BlvvNkyQ_ig!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DPuAEU2MNiA_BlvvNkyQ_ig%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D233.20198%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Tyumen is one of the cities that grew from outposts established in Siberia in the late Sixteenth Century.

https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1565084,65.5337392,3a,75y,184.26h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sNdIRgr3EksSNLVBQ3UII9A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DNdIRgr3EksSNLVBQ3UII9A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D182.31348%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Tobolsk, another Siberian city originating in the Sixteenth Century, is where the Romanov family was originally sent, for their own safety during the Russian Civil War, before being moved back westward to Yekaterinburg. The following scenes begin in the Tobolsk Kremlin. Remember that the best-known Russian kremlin is the one in Moscow, but a kremlin actually means a fortified citadel that is found in some other Russian cities as well.

https://www.google.com/maps/@58.1999795,68.2510578,3a,75y,86.83h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPSVC8jcHUXFLplGeaOi225U7PuVoEKFukEeqA-!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPSVC8jcHUXFLplGeaOi225U7PuVoEKFukEeqA-%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi23.887123-ya76.45351-ro24.537546-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

Omsk is not as old as some of the other Siberian cities, having been founded in the Eighteenth Century.

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.9840209,73.388351,3a,75y,140h,110t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sobxebt8_xPttqaqN3zSTvQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dobxebt8_xPttqaqN3zSTvQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D140%26pitch%3D-20%26thumbfov%3D100

Novosibirsk is a newer city, from the late Nineteenth Century, but is today the largest city in Siberia and the third largest city in Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg.

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.030126,82.920433,3a,75y,40h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPYnbR56MBCO0sFcJh_s_oZX9KiU_SKMmEjZRmm!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPYnbR56MBCO0sFcJh_s_oZX9KiU_SKMmEjZRmm%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya132.00002-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

The cities in Siberia that are further to the west, closer to European Russia, grew from outposts that were founded in the Sixteenth Century. As exploration of Siberia proceeded further eastward, other cities were founded in the following century. This is the city of Tomsk.

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.4867216,84.9506999,3a,75y,126.28h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFVCJjXX30b13oHKPK2g1mQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DFVCJjXX30b13oHKPK2g1mQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D143.04652%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Krasnoyarsk is another city that first began in the Seventeenth Century. Here are some modern residential buildings

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.0404483,92.902209,3a,75y,152.67h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ssUu5LSUiqYwHkgaewfz-eg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DsUu5LSUiqYwHkgaewfz-eg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D163.8971%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Irkutsk originated in the mid-Seventeenth Century.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.2865103,104.2815225,3a,75y,290.43h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s56n_PAdYqg_4hv1DyrtY9w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D56n_PAdYqg_4hv1DyrtY9w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D301.33633%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Finally, we arrive on Russia's Pacific coast. This is the city of Vladivostok. It is not a very old city, only from the Nineteenth Century. But it is Russia's window on the Pacific Ocean and the Far East, and is possibly the most strategically-located city in the world. St. Petersburg, at the opposite end of Russia, is over 6500 km, or 4,000 miles, away.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1234979,131.8779782,3a,75y,160h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO-U5L8LeOrmfeje2i2ZPtV5baVrNKxR2qWucxU!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO-U5L8LeOrmfeje2i2ZPtV5baVrNKxR2qWucxU%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya230-ro0-fo100!7i7076!8i3538