Siberia

The origin of the name is uncertain.{{cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Siberia|title=Siberia}} In the Russian language, it was adopted as a toponym through contact with the Khanate of Sibir (Сибирское ханство) since the 15th century.Vasmer M. J. Этимологический словарь русского языка. Том 3 (Муза—Сят) // М. Прогресс. 1964 [1950—1958]. с. 616. The Russian name Yugra was applied to the northern lands east of the Urals, which had been known of since the 11th century or earlier, while the name Siberia is first mentioned in Russian chronicles at the start of the 15th century in connection with the death of the khan Tokhtamysh, in "the Siberian land".{{cite book |last1=Rasputin |first1=Valentin |title=Siberia, Siberia |date=29 October 1997 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-1575-0 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzchffZ3BFQC |language=en}}

Some sources say that "Siberia" originates from the Siberian Tatar word for 'sleeping land' (Sib-ir), but this discourse does not correspond to the actual Siberian Tatar language.Сагидуллин М. А. Русско-сибирскотатарский словарь: ок. 15000 слов. Тюмень: Мандр и К, 2010, С 55, 175. Mongolist György Kara posits that the toponym Siberia is derived from a Mongolic word sibir, cognate with modern Buryat sheber 'dense forest'.{{Cite web |title=The Multilingual Far East: An Interview with Professor György Kara |url=https://reei.indiana.edu/news-events/newsletter/archive/spring-2019/An%20Interview%20with%20Professor%20Gy%C3%B6rgy%20Kara.html |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute |language=en}} A different hypothesis claims that the region was named after the Sibe people.{{cite book |last=Crossley |first=Pamela Kyle |title=The Manchus |series=Peoples of Asia |volume=14 |year=2002 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-23591-0 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KHLEvqvET8C |edition=3rd |author-link=Pamela Kyle Crossley |access-date=28 December 2013}} Another account sees the name as the ancient tribal ethnonym of the Sihirtia or Sirtya (also Syopyr [sʲɵpᵻr])), a hypothetical Paleo-Asiatic ethnic group assimilated by the Nenets.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

The Polish historian Jan Chyliczkowski has proposed that the name derives from the Proto-Slavic word for 'north' (cf. Russian север sever),{{cite book |last1=Czaplicka |first1=Marie Antoinette |title=Aboriginal Siberia : a study in social anthropology |date=1914 |publisher=Oxford : Clarendon Press |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/aboriginalsiberi00czap |language=en}} as in Severia. Anatole Baikaloff has dismissed this explanation. He said that the neighboring Chinese, Turks, and Mongolians, who have similar names for the region, would not have known Russian. He suggested that the name might be a combination of two words with Turkic origin, su 'water' and bir 'wild land'.{{cite journal |last=Baikaloff |first=Anatole |title=Notes on the origin of the name "Siberia" |journal=Slavonic and East European Review |date=Dec 1950 |volume=29 |issue= 72|page=288}}

{{Main|Prehistory of Siberia|History of Siberia|List of Russian explorers}}

File:Steppes horseman hunting.jpg horse trappings, southern Siberia, 280–180 BC. Hermitage Museum.{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia: Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27–29 October 2017 |date=21 January 2021 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-648-6 |pages=218–219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6MWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 |language=en|quote=Inv. nr.Si. 1727- 1/69, 1/70}}{{cite journal |last1=Francfort |first1=Henri-Paul |title=Sur quelques vestiges et indices nouveaux de l'hellénisme dans les arts entre la Bactriane et le Gandhāra (130 av. J.-C.-100 apr. J.-C. environ) |journal=Journal des Savants |date=1 January 2020 |page=37 |url=https://www.academia.edu/45042820 |url-access=registration |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Ollermann |first1=Hans |title=Belt Plaque with a Bear Hunt. From Russia (Siberia). Gold. 220-180 B.C. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/menesje/48600859087/in/album-72157600220307177/ |date=22 August 2019}}]]

Siberia in Paleozoic times formed the continent of Siberia/Angaraland, which fused to Euramerica during the Late Carboniferous, as part of the formation of Pangea.{{Cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Yan |last2=Han |first2=Bao-Fu |last3=Liao |first3=Wen |last4=Li |first4=Ang |date=March 2022 |title=The Serpukhovian–Bashkirian Amalgamation of Laurussia and the Siberian Continent and Implications for Assembly of Pangea |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022TC007218 |journal=Tectonics |language=en |volume=41 |issue=3 |doi=10.1029/2022TC007218 |bibcode=2022Tecto..4107218X |issn=0278-7407 |s2cid=247459291}}

The Siberian Traps were formed by one of the largest-known volcanic events of the last 251 million years of Earth's geological history. Their activity continued for a million years and some scientists consider it a possible cause of the "Great Dying" about 250 million years ago,{{cite web |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/others/others_07.html |title=Yellowstone's Super Sister |access-date=17 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050314025022/http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/others/others_07.html |archive-date=14 March 2005 | quote = [...] the Siberian Traps is the prime suspect in wiping out 90 percent of all living species 251 million years ago – the most severe extinction event in Earth's history.}}. Discovery Channel. – estimated to have killed 90% of species existing at the time.{{cite book|title= When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time|publisher= Thames & Hudson|year=2005|isbn= 978-0-500-28573-2|last=Benton |first= M. J.}}{{qn|date=April 2018}}

The region has paleontological significance, as it contains bodies of prehistoric animals from the Pleistocene Epoch, preserved in ice or permafrost. Specimens of Goldfuss cave lion cubs, Yuka the mammoth and another woolly mammoth from Oymyakon, a woolly rhinoceros from the Kolyma, and bison and horses from Yukagir have been found.{{cite web |title = Meet this extinct cave lion, at least 10,000 years old – world exclusive |url = http://siberiantimes.com/science/others/news/n0464-meet-this-extinct-cave-lion-at-least-10000-years-old/ |website = siberiantimes.com |access-date = 30 January 2016}} Remote Wrangel Island and the Taymyr Peninsula are believed to have been the last places on Earth to support woolly mammoths as isolated populations until their extinction around 2000 BC.{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Y |last2=Pedersen |first2=M.W. |last3=Alsos |first3=I.g. |display-authors=etal |date=2021 |title=Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics. |url=https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x |journal=Nature|volume=600 |issue=7887 |pages=86–92 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x |pmid=34671161 |pmc=8636272 |bibcode=2021Natur.600...86W }}

At least three species of humans lived in southern Siberia around 40,000 years ago: H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis, and the Denisovans."

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8583254.stm DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman']," BBC News. 25 March 2010.

In 2010, DNA evidence identified the last as a separate species.{{Cite book|last=Richards|first=Michael P.|title=Archaeological Science|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2020|isbn=9780521195225|page=23|quote=In early 2010, researchers published a complete mitochondrial genome sequence retrieved from a hominin excavated from the Denisova cave in Siberia....The results demonstrated that the Denisovan lineage diverged early from the modern humans and Neanderthals}}

Late Paleolithic southern Siberians appear to be related to Paleolithic Europeans and the Paleolithic Jōmon people of Japan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281036097|title=Jomon Culture and the peopling of the Japanese archipelago: advancements in the fields of morphometrics and ancient DNA|website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2019-08-18}} Ancient DNA analysis has revealed that the oldest fossil known to carry the derived KITLG allele, which is responsible for blond hair in modern Europeans, is a 17,000 year old Ancient North Eurasian specimen from Siberia.{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Gavin |title=Skin Deep: Dispelling the Science of Race |date=2019 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=139 |isbn=9781786076236 |edition=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jB-9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT139}}| Ancient North Eurasian populations genetically similar to Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Afontova Gora were an important genetic contributor to Native Americans, Europeans, Ancient Central Asians, South Asians, and some East Asian groups (such as the Ainu people). Evidence from full genomic studies suggests that the first people in the Americas diverged from Ancient East Asians about 36,000 years ago and expanded northwards into Siberia, where they encountered and interacted with Ancient North Eurasians, giving rise to both Paleosiberian peoples and Ancient Native Americans, which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.{{Cite book |last=Raff |first=Jennifer |url=https://www.twelvebooks.com/titles/jennifer-raff/origin/9781538749715/ |title=Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas |date=2020-06-09 |publisher=Twelve |isbn=978-1-5387-4971-5 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Sapiens |date=2022-02-08 |title=A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas |url=https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ancient-dna-native-americans/ |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=SAPIENS |language=en-US}}

File:Choris, Tschuktschen.jpg, one of many Indigenous peoples of Siberia. Representation of a Chukchi family by Louis Choris (1816)]]

During past millennia, different groups of nomads – such as the Enets, the Nenets, the Huns, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, and the Yugur – inhabited various parts of Siberia. The Afanasievo and Tashtyk cultures of the Yenisey valley and Altay Mountains are associated with the Indo-European migrations across Eurasia.{{cite journal|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians|first=Ann|last=Gibbons|date=10 June 2015|title=Nomadic herders left a strong genetic mark on Europeans and Asians|journal=Science|publisher=AAAS}} The proto-Mongol Khitan people also occupied parts of the region.

In the 13th century, during the period of the Mongol Empire, the Mongols conquered a large part of this area.{{cite book| last1 = Naumov| first1 = Igor V.| translator1-last = Collins| translator1-first = David Norman| chapter = The Mongols in Siberia| editor1-last = Collins| editor1-first = David Norman| title = The History of Siberia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4498YjPq6mgC| series = Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe| location = London| publisher = Routledge| date = 2006a| page = 44| isbn = 9781134207039| access-date = 11 June 2019| quote = In 1207 Chinggis Khan sent his troops north under the command of his elder son Jochi to subjugate the 'forest peoples'. Jochi was able to do so in the space of three years. The only exception was the remote northern tribes. Most of Siberia became part of the Mongol Empire.}} With the breakup of the Golden Horde, the autonomous Khanate of Sibir was formed in the late-15th century. Turkic-speaking Yakut migrated north from the Lake Baikal region under pressure from the Mongol tribes from the 13th to 15th centuries.{{citation-attribution|1={{Cite journal| last1 = Pakendorf | first1 = B.| last2 = Novgorodov| first2 = I. N.| last3 = Osakovskij | first3 = V. L.| last4 = Danilova | first4 = A. B. P.| last5 = Protod'Jakonov | first5 = A. P.| last6 = Stoneking | first6 = M.| doi = 10.1007/s00439-006-0213-2| title = Investigating the effects of prehistoric migrations in Siberia: Genetic variation and the origins of Yakuts| journal = Human Genetics| volume = 120| issue = 3| pages = 334–353| year = 2006| pmid = 16845541| s2cid = 31651899}}}} Siberia remained a sparsely populated area. Historian John F. Richards wrote: "it is doubtful that the total early modern Siberian population exceeded 300,000 persons".[https://books.google.com/books?id=i85noYD9C0EC&pg=PA538 Richards, 2003] p. 538.

{{Further|Russian conquest of Siberia}}

The first mention of Siberia in chronicles is recorded in the year 1032.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|p=53}} The city-state of Novgorod established two trade routes to the Ob River, and laid claim to the lands the Russians called Yugra.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|p=53|loc=The Russians named it Yugorskaia Zemlitsa (Yugor Land or Yugra)... The Novgoroders established two main routes to Siberia... to the lower reaches of the River Ob}} The Russians were attracted by its furs in particular.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|p=53|loc=The Russians were attracted to Siberia by its furs}} Novgorod launched military campaigns to extract tribute from the local population, but often met resistance, such as two campaigns in 1187 and 1193 mentioned in chronicles that were defeated.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|p=53}} After Novgorod was annexed by Moscow, the newly emerging centralized Russian state also laid claim to the region, with Ivan III of Russia sending expeditionary forces to Siberia in 1483 and 1499–1500.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|pp=53|loc=After Novgorod had been annexed by the newly emerging centralized Russian state in 1478, its government, located in Moscow, tried to lay claim to Yugor Land as well... In 1483 Prince Ivan III sent a large expeditionary force to Siberia... In 1499–1500 Ivan III sent another large force}} The Russians received tribute, but contact with the tribes ceased after they left.{{sfn|Naumov|2006|pp=53–54}}

The growing power of Russia began to undermine the Siberian Khanate in the 16th century. First, groups of traders and Cossacks began to enter the area. The Russian army was directed to establish forts farther and farther east to protect new Russian settlers who migrated from Europe. Towns such as Mangazeya, Tara, Yeniseysk, and Tobolsk developed, the last becoming the de facto capital of Siberia from 1590. At this time, Sibir was the name of a fortress at Qashliq, near Tobolsk. Gerardus Mercator, in a map published in 1595, marks Sibier both as the name of a settlement and of the surrounding territory along a left tributary of the Ob.Asia ex magna Orbis terrae descriptione Gerardi Mercatoris desumpta, studio & industria G.M. Iunioris Other sources{{which|date= September 2017}} contend that the Sibe, an Indigenous Tungusic people, offered fierce resistance to Russian expansion beyond the Urals. Some suggest that the term "Siberia" is a russification of their ethnonym.

File:Coat of Arms of Siberian Tsarstvo 1882.svg

File:Map Siberian route english.jpg in the 18th century (green) and the early 19th century (red)]]

By the mid-17th century, Russia had established areas of control that extended to the Pacific Ocean. Some 230,000 Russians had settled in Siberia by 1709.{{cite web |author= Sean C. Goodlett |url = http://falcon.fsc.edu/sgoodlett/courses/hist1100/lect08.html |title= Russia's Expansionist Policies I. The Conquest of Siberia |publisher= Falcon.fsc.edu |access-date= 15 May 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110511182349/http://falcon.fsc.edu/sgoodlett/courses/hist1100/lect08.html |archive-date= 11 May 2011 |df= dmy-all }} Siberia became one of the destinations for sending internal exiles. Exile was the main Russian punitive practice with more than 800,000 people exiled during the nineteenth century.For example: [https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21705305-prison-without-roof?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/prisonwithoutaroof Prison without a roof]

{{cite book

| last1 = Barker

| first1 = Adele Marie

| editor1-last = Barker

| editor1-first = Adele Marie

| editor2-last = Grant

| editor2-first = Bruce

| series = The World Readers

| title = The Russia Reader: History, Culture, Politics

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=B-jWhJMt_9EC

| location = Durham, North Carolina

| publisher = Duke University Press

| date = 2010

| page = 441

| isbn = 9780822346487

| access-date = 11 June 2019

| quote = Throughout Russian history there is a long-standing tradition of imprisoning and sentencing to internal exile (within the country proper) political and religious dissidents. [...] Among those sentenced to internal exile were [...] the Decembrists [...]. Several were executed; others were exiled to Siberia, the Far East, and Kazakhstan.

}}

The first great modern change in Siberia was the Trans-Siberian Railway, constructed during 1891–1916. It linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly industrialising Russia of Nicholas II ({{reign | 1894 | 1917}}). Around seven million Russians moved to Siberia from Europe between 1801 and 1914.{{cite journal|title= Review: The Great Siberian Migration: Government and Peasant in Resettlement from Emancipation to the First World War|journal= The American Historical Review|volume= 63|issue= 4|pages= 989–990| jstor = 1848991 |last1 = Fisher |first1 = Raymond H.|last2= Treadgold|first2= Donald W.|year= 1958|doi= 10.2307/1848991}} Between 1859 and 1917, more than half a million people migrated to the Russian Far East.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jce4rBWjG5wC&pg=PA62 The Russian Far East: A History]. John J. Stephan (1996). Stanford University Press. p.62. {{ISBN|0-8047-2701-5}} Siberia has extensive natural resources: during the 20th century, large-scale exploitation of these took place, and industrial towns cropped up throughout the region.Fiona Hill, [http://www.theglobalist.com/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=3727 Russia — Coming In From the Cold?] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130424175110/http://www.theglobalist.com/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=3727 |date= 24 April 2013 }}, The Globalist, 23 February 2004.

At 7:15 a.m. on 30 June 1908, the Tunguska Event felled millions of trees near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River (Stony Tunguska River) in central Siberia. Most scientists believe this resulted from the air burst of a meteor or a comet. Even though no crater has ever been found, the landscape in the (sparsely inhabited) area still bears the scars of this event.Farinella, Paolo; Foschini, L.; Froeschlé, Christiane; Gonczi, R.; Jopek, T. J.; Longo, G.; Michel, Patrick (2001). "Probable asteroidal origin of the Tunguska Cosmic Body" (PDF). Astronomy & Astrophysics. 377(3): 1081–1097. Bibcode:2001A&A...377.1081F. {{doi|10.1051/0004-6361:20011054}}.

File:Novosibirsk-Karimov.jpg family in Novosibirsk]]

In the early decades of the Soviet Union (especially in the 1930s and 1940s), the government used the Gulag state agency to administer a system of penal labour camps, replacing the previous katorga system.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gG6cPY2RpzUC&pg=PA3 The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements]. Lynne Viola (2007). Oxford University Press US. p.3. {{ISBN|0-19-518769-5}} According to semi-official Soviet estimates, which did not become public until after the fall of the Soviet government in 1991, from 1929 to 1953 more than 14 million people passed through these camps and prisons, many of them in Siberia. Another seven to eight million people were internally deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union (including entire nationalities or ethnicities in several cases).Robert Conquest in "Victims of Stalinism: A Comment," Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 49, No. 7 (Nov. 1997), pp. 1317–1319 states: "We are all inclined to accept the Zemskov totals (even if not as complete) with their 14 million intake to Gulag 'camps' alone, to which must be added four to five million going to Gulag 'colonies', to say nothing of the 3.5 million already in, or sent to, 'labour settlements'. However taken, these are surely 'high' figures."

Half a million (516,841) prisoners died in camps from 1941 to 1943Zemskov, "Gulag," Sociologičeskije issledovanija, 1991, No. 6, pp. 14–15. during World War II.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} At other periods, mortality was comparatively lower.Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. [https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA206 Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression]. Harvard University Press, 1999. p. 206. {{ISBN|0-674-07608-7}} – "300,000 known deaths in the camps from 1934 to 1940." The size, scope, and scale of the Gulag slave-labour camps remain subjects of much research and debate. Many Gulag camps operated in extremely remote areas of northeastern Siberia. The best-known clusters included Sevvostlag (the North-East Camps) along the Kolyma and Norillag near Norilsk, where 69,000 prisoners lived in 1952.Courtois and Kramer (1999), [https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA239 Livre noir du Communisme, p.239. ] Major industrial cities of Northern Siberia, such as Norilsk and Magadan, developed from camps built by prisoners and run by former prisoners.

{{cite web

| url= http://www.arlindo-correia.org/041003.html

| title= Dark side of the moon

| last1 = Chamberlain

| first1 = Lesley

| date = 27 April 2003

| publisher= Arlindo-correia.org | access-date= 11 June 2019

| quote = Today's major industrial cities of Noril'sk, Vorkuta, Kolyma and Magadan, were camps originally built by prisoners and run by ex-prisoners.

}}

{{Expand section|date=March 2025}}

On 2 December 2019, the 'Power of Siberia' gas pipeline started functioning. The project was started in 2014 to supply natural gas from Siberia to China.{{cite web | url =https://www.rbth.com/business/331382-power-of-siberia | title=The ‘Power of Siberia’ gas pipeline: Everything you need to know | website =Russia Beyond | date =December 6, 2019 | access-date = April 15, 2025 }}

{{further|Geography of Russia}}

{{Physical map of Siberia|width=166}}

File:Хайыракандан барыын талаже көрүш.jpg , Tuva]]

File:Волшебное Кучерлинское озеро.jpg ]]

File:Республика Бурятия, Баргузинский залив.jpg ]]

File:Vasyugan.jpg in the southern West Siberian Plain]]

File:Kamchatka Volcano Koryaksky (24231533812).jpg volcano towering over Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula]]

Siberia spans an area of {{Convert|13.1|e6km2|mi2}}, covering the vast majority of Russia's total territory, and almost 9% of Earth's land surface ({{Convert|148940000|km2|abbr= on|disp= comma}}). It geographically falls in Asia, but is culturally and politically considered European, since it is a part of Russia. Major geographical zones within Siberia include the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau.

Eastern and central Sakha comprises numerous north–south mountain ranges of various ages. These mountains extend up to almost {{convert|3000|m|ft}}, but above a few hundred metres they are almost completely devoid of vegetation. The Verkhoyansk Range was extensively glaciated in the Pleistocene, but the climate was too dry for glaciation to extend to low elevations. At these low elevations are numerous valleys, many of them deep and covered with larch forest, except in the extreme north where the tundra dominates. Soils are mainly turbels (a type of gelisol). The active layer tends to be less than one metre deep, except near rivers.

The highest point in Siberia is the active volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Its peak reaches {{convert|4750|m}}.

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Altai Mountains
• Anadyr Highlands
• Baikal Mountains
• Khamar-Daban
• Chersky Range
• Chukotka Mountains
• Dzhugdzhur Mountains
• Kolyma Mountains
• Koryak Mountains
• Sayan Mountains
• Tannu-Ola Mountains
• Ural Mountains
• Verkhoyansk Mountains
• Yablonoi Mountains

{{div col end}}

{{see also|Great Russian Regions}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Central Siberian Plateau
• Central Yakutian Lowland
• East Siberian Lowland
• East Siberian Mountains
• North Siberian Lowland
• South Siberian Mountains
• West Siberian Lowland

{{div col end}}

{{Main|Rivers in Russia}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Alazeya
• Anabar
• Angara
• Indigirka
• Irtysh
• Kolyma
• Lake Baikal
• Lena
• Nizhnyaya Tunguska
• Novosibirsk Reservoir
• Ob
• Podkamennaya Tunguska
• Popigay
• Upper Angara
• Uvs Nuur
• Yana
• Yenisey

{{div col end}}

• Ukok Plateau—part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site{{cite web |url=http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?list=type&type=83 |title=Altai: Saving the Pearl of Siberia |website=Pacific Environment |access-date=30 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322160629/http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?list=type&type=83 |archive-date=22 March 2007}}

The West Siberian Plain, consisting mostly of Cenozoic alluvial deposits, is somewhat flat. In the mid-Pleistocene, many deposits on this plain resulted from ice dams which produced a large glacial lake. This mid- to late-Pleistocene lake blocked the northward flow of the Ob and Yenisey rivers, resulting in a redirection southwest into the Caspian and Aral seas via the Turgai Valley.[http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/lake.html Lioubimtseva E.U., Gorshkov S.P. & Adams J.M.; A Giant Siberian Lake During the Last Glacial: Evidence and Implications; Oak Ridge National laboratory] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061213101647/http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/lake.html |date= 13 December 2006 }} The area is very swampy, and soils are mostly peaty histosols and, in the treeless northern part, histels. In the south of the plain, where permafrost is largely absent, rich grasslands that are an extension of the Kazakh Steppe formed the original vegetation, most of which is no longer visible.{{why?|date= April 2015}}

File:2006-07 altaj belucha.jpg]]

File:Yakutia - DSC 6164.jpg]]

The Central Siberian Plateau is an ancient craton (sometimes named Angaraland) that formed an independent continent before the Permian (see the Siberian continent). It is exceptionally rich in minerals, containing large deposits of gold, diamonds, and ores of manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum. Much of the area includes the Siberian Traps—a large igneous province. A massive eruptive period approximately coincided with the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The volcanic event is one of the largest known volcanic eruptions in Earth's history. Only the extreme northwest was glaciated during the Quaternary, but almost all is under exceptionally deep permafrost, and the only tree that can thrive, despite the warm summers, is the deciduous Siberian Larch (Larix sibirica) with its very shallow roots. Outside the extreme northwest, the taiga is dominant, covering a significant fraction of the entirety of Siberia.C. Michael Hogan. 2011. [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Taiga?topic=58071 Taiga. eds. M.McGinley & C.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC] Soils here are mainly turbels, giving way to spodosols where the active layer becomes thicker and the ice-content lower.

The Lena-Tunguska petroleum province includes the Central Siberian platform (some authors refer to it as the "Eastern Siberian platform"), bounded on the northeast and east by the Late Carboniferous through Jurassic Verkhoyansk foldbelt, on the northwest by the Paleozoic Taymr foldbelt, and on the southeast, south and southwest by the Middle Silurian to Middle Devonian Baykalian foldbelt.Meyerhof, A. A., 1980, "Geology and Petroleum Fields in Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian Strata, Lena-Tunguska Petroleum Province, Eastern Siberia, USSR", in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade: 1968–1978, AAPG Memoir 30, Halbouty, M. T., editor, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, {{ISBN|0891813063}}{{rp|228}} A regional geologic reconnaissance study begun in 1932 and followed by surface and subsurface mapping revealed the Markova-Angara Arch (anticline). This led to the discovery of the Markovo Oil Field in 1962 with the Markovo—1 well, which produced from the Early Cambrian Osa Horizon bar-sandstone at a depth of {{convert|2156|m|ft}}.{{rp|243}} The Sredne-Botuobin Gas Field was discovered in 1970, producing from the Osa and the Proterozoic Parfenovo Horizon.{{rp|244}} The Yaraktin Oil Field was discovered in 1971, producing from the Vendian Yaraktin Horizon at depths of up to {{convert|1750|m|ft}}, which lies below Permian to Lower Jurassic basalt traps.{{rp|244}}

{{main|Climate of Russia}}

File:Kuysumy mountains and Torgashinsky range. View from viewing platform on Kashtakovskaya path (Stolby reserve, Krasnoyarsk city) 4Y1A8757 (28363120875).jpg ]]

File:Russia vegetation.png}} {{legend0|#9fd6c9|tundra}} {{legend0|#a7bddb|alpine tundra}} {{legend0|#006d64|taiga}} {{legend0|#3c9798|montane forest}} {{legend0|#a4e05d|temperate broadleaf forest}} {{legend0|#f7ec6f|temperate steppe}} {{legend0|#9b8447|dry steppe}}
Vegetation in Siberia mostly consists of taiga, with a tundra belt on the northern fringe, and a temperate forest zone in the south.]]

The climate of Siberia varies dramatically, but it typically has warm but short summers and long, brutally cold winters. On the north coast, north of the Arctic Circle, there is a very short (about one month long) summer.

Almost all the population lives in the south, along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The climate in this southernmost part is humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa/Dfb or Dwa/Dwb) with cold winters but fairly warm summers lasting at least four months. The annual average temperature is about {{convert|0.5|C|F|1}}. January averages about {{convert|−20|C}} and July about {{convert|+19|C}}, while daytime temperatures in summer typically exceed {{Convert|20|C}}.{{cite web|url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N55E082+1102+29634W |title= Novosibirsk climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}}{{cite web| url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N54E073+1202+0004115G2 |title= Omsk climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}} With a reliable growing season, an abundance of sunshine and exceedingly fertile chernozem soils, southern Siberia is good enough for profitable agriculture, as was demonstrated in the early 20th century.

By far the most commonly occurring climate in Siberia is continental subarctic (Koppen Dfc, Dwc, or Dsc), with the annual average temperature about {{convert|−5|°C|°F}} and an average for January of {{convert|−25|C}} and an average for July of {{convert|+17|C}},{{cite web|url= http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N56E107+1102+30337W |title= Kazachengoye climate |publisher= Worldclimate.com |date= 4 February 2007 |access-date= 15 May 2010}} although this varies considerably, with a July average about {{Convert|10|C}} in the taiga–tundra ecotone. The business-oriented website and blog Business Insider lists Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, in Siberia's Sakha Republic, as being in competition for the title of the Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold. Oymyakon is a village which recorded a temperature of {{convert|−67.7|°C|F}} on 6 February 1933. Verkhoyansk, a town further north and further inland, recorded a temperature of {{convert|−69.8|°C|F}} for three consecutive nights: 5, 6 and 7 February 1933. Each town is alternately considered the Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold – the coldest inhabited point in the Northern hemisphere. Each town also frequently reaches {{convert|30|C}} in the summer, giving them, and much of the rest of Russian Siberia, the world's greatest temperature variation between summer's highs and winter's lows, often well over {{Convert|94|-|100|C-change|disp=preunit|6=+}} between the seasons.{{cite web |work=Business Insider |date=6 February 2014 |title=This Tiny Town In Russia Is The Most Miserable Place In The World |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/verkhoyansk-russia-most-miserable-place-2014-2 |last=Badkar |first=Mamta |access-date=28 August 2021 }}{{failed verification|date= December 2016}}

Southwesterly winds bring warm air from Central Asia and the Middle East. The climate in West Siberia (Omsk, or Novosibirsk) is several degrees warmer than in the East (Irkutsk, or Chita) where in the north an extreme winter subarctic climate (Köppen Dfd, Dwd, or Dsd) prevails. But summer temperatures in other regions can reach {{convert|+38|C}}. In general, Sakha is the coldest Siberian region, and the basin of the Yana has the lowest temperatures of all, with permafrost reaching {{convert|1493|m|ft}}. Nevertheless, Imperial Russian plans of settlement never viewed cold as an impediment. In the winter, southern Siberia sits near the center of the semi-permanent Siberian High, so winds are usually light in the winter.

Precipitation in Siberia is generally low, exceeding {{convert|500|mm}} only in Kamchatka, where moist winds flow from the Sea of Okhotsk onto high mountains – producing the region's only major glaciers, though volcanic eruptions and low summer temperatures allow only limited forests to grow. Precipitation is high also in most of Primorye in the extreme south, where monsoonal influences can produce quite heavy summer rainfall.

{{Weather box

| location=Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city

| metric first=yes

| single line=yes

| Jan high C = −12.2

| Feb high C = −10.3

| Mar high C = −2.6

| Apr high C = 8.1

| May high C = 17.5

| Jun high C = 24.0

| Jul high C = 25.7

| Aug high C = 22.2

| Sep high C = 16.6

| Oct high C = 6.8

| Nov high C = −2.9

| Dec high C = −8.9

| year high C = 7.0

| Jan mean C = −16.2

| Feb mean C = −14.7

| Mar mean C = −7.2

| Apr mean C = 3.2

| May mean C = 11.6

| Jun mean C = 18.2

| Jul mean C = 20.2

| Aug mean C = 17.0

| Sep mean C = 11.5

| Oct mean C = 3.4

| Nov mean C = −6.0

| Dec mean C = −12.7

| year mean C = 2.4

| Jan low C = −20.1

| Feb low C = −19.1

| Mar low C = −11.8

| Apr low C = −1.7

| May low C = 5.6

| Jun low C = 12.3

| Jul low C = 14.7

| Aug low C = 11.7

| Sep low C = 6.4

| Oct low C = 0.0

| Nov low C = −9.1

| Dec low C = −16.4

| year low C = −2.3

| precipitation colour=green

| Jan precipitation mm = 19

| Feb precipitation mm = 14

| Mar precipitation mm = 15

| Apr precipitation mm = 24

| May precipitation mm = 36

| Jun precipitation mm = 58

| Jul precipitation mm = 72

| Aug precipitation mm = 66

| Sep precipitation mm = 44

| Oct precipitation mm = 38

| Nov precipitation mm = 32

| Dec precipitation mm = 24

| year precipitation mm = 442

| source 1 ={{cite web |url=http://meteoinfo.ru/NovosibirskClimat |script-title=ru:Гидрометцентр России |access-date=8 January 2009 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627063054/http://meteoinfo.ru/NovosibirskClimat |archive-date=27 June 2008 |url-status=dead }}

| date=August 2010

}}

Researchers, including Sergei Kirpotin at Tomsk State University and Judith Marquand at Oxford University, warn that Western Siberia has begun to thaw as a result of global warming. The frozen peat bogs in this region may hold billions of tons of methane gas, which may be released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.Ian Sample, "[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/aug/11/science.climatechange1 Warming hits 'tipping point']". The Guardian, 11 August 2005. In 2008 a research expedition for the American Geophysical Union detected levels of methane up to 100 times above normal in the atmosphere above the Siberian Arctic, likely the result of methane clathrates being released through holes in a frozen "lid" of seabed permafrost around the outfall of the Lena and the area between the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea.{{cite news | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html | title= Exclusive: The methane time bomb |last= Connor |first= Steve |date= 23 September 2008 |newspaper= The Independent |access-date= 3 October 2008}}N. Shakhova, I. Semiletov, A. Salyuk, D. Kosmach, and N. Bel'cheva (2007), [http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2007/01071/EGU2007-J-01071.pdf?PHPSESSID=e Methane release on the Arctic East Siberian shelf], Geophysical Research Abstracts, 9, 01071.

Since 1988, experimentation at Pleistocene Park has proposed to restore the grasslands of prehistoric times by conducting research on the effects of large herbivores on permafrost, suggesting that animals, rather than climate, maintained the past ecosystem. The nature reserve park also conducts climatic research on the changes expected from the reintroduction of grazing animals or large herbivores, hypothesizing that a transition from tundra to grassland would lead to a net change in energy emission to absorption ratios.Sergey A. Zimov (6 May 2005): [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1113442 "Pleistocene Park: Return of the mammoths' ecosystem"] In: Science, pages 796–798. Article also to be found in [http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/ – Materials.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103172534/http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ |date=3 November 2016 }} Retrieved 5 May 2013.

According to Vasily Kryuchkov, approximately 31,000 square kilometers of the Russian Arctic has been subjected to severe environmental disturbance.

{{See also|List of birds of Russia}}

File:Tetrao urogallus (mating display) (26738644457).jpg inhabit much of the Siberian taiga]]

• Hazel grouse{{cite web|title=Northern Hazelhen (Tetrastes bonasia). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=147&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Siberian grouse{{cite web|title=Siberian Grouse (Falcipennis falcipennis). Photo Gallery.Birds of Russian Far East.|url=https://fareastru.birds.watch/v2taxgal.php?s=2&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=fareastru.birds.watch}}
• Black grouse{{cite web|title=Northern Black Grouse (Lyrurus tetrix). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=143&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Black-billed capercaillie{{cite web|title=Black-billed Capercaillie (Tetrao urogalloides). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=1458&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Western capercaillie{{cite web|title=Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=146&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Willow ptarmigan{{cite web|title=Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=141&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Rock ptarmigan{{cite web|title=Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta). Photo Gallery.Birds of Siberia.|url=https://sibirds.ru/v2taxgal.php?s=142&l=en&p=0|access-date=18 June 2020|website=sibirds.ru}}
• Daurian partridge
• Grey partridge
• Altai snowcock
• Japanese quail
• Common quail
• Ring-necked pheasant

{{See also|List of mammals of Russia}}

File:Camel1111111 01.jpgd Bactrian camels shedding their coats in the Altai mountain range]]

File:Овцебыки - самые грозные млекопитающие Таймыра.jpg on Bolshoy Begichev Island in Laptev Sea]]

• Moose
• Bactrian camel
• Red deer
• Wild boar
• Siberian roe deer
• Manchurian wapiti{{cite book|author=Valerius Geist|title=Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&pg=PA211|date=January 1998|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-0496-0|page=211|access-date=30 January 2016}}
• Siberian musk deer{{cite iucn |last=Nyambayar |first= B. |last2=Mix |first2= H. |last3=Tsytsulina |first3= K. |date=2015 |title=Moschus moschiferus |volume=2015 |page=e.T13897A61977573 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T13897A61977573.en |access-date=12 November 2021}} Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of vulnerable.

• Grey wolf
• Tundra wolf
• Arctic fox
• Red fox

File:Panthera tigris altaica 13 - Buffalo Zoo.jpg and cub]]

• Snow leopard
• Amur leopard{{cite journal|last1=Uphyrkina |first1= O.|last2=Miquelle |first2= D.|last3=Quigley |first3= H.|last4=Driscoll |first4= C.|last5=O'Brien |first5= S. J.|title=Conservation Genetics of the Far Eastern Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)|url=http://dobzhanskycenter.bio.spbu.ru/pdf/sjop/MS458_Uphyrkina.pdf|doi=10.1093/jhered/93.5.303|year=2002|journal=Journal of Heredity|volume=93|issue=5|pages=303–11|pmid=12547918|access-date=30 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204102124/http://dobzhanskycenter.bio.spbu.ru/pdf/sjop/MS458_Uphyrkina.pdf|archive-date=4 February 2016|url-status=dead|doi-access=free}}
• Siberian tiger{{cite iucn |last=Miquelle |first= D. |last2=Darman |first2= Y. |last3=Seryodkin |first3= I |date=2011 |title=Panthera tigris ssp. altaica |volume=2011 |page=e.T15956A5333650 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T15956A5333650.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}
• Eurasian lynx
• Pallas cat

• Least weasel
• Stoat
• Mountain weasel
• Siberian weasel
• Steppe polecat
• Sable
• Eurasian river otter
• Asian badger
• Wolverine

File:Kamchatka Brown Bear near Dvuhyurtochnoe on 2015-07-23.jpg at Kamchatka Peninsula]]

File:Белое отражение.jpg on Wrangel Island]]

• Asian black bear{{cite iucn |last=Garshelis |first= D. |last2=Steinmetz |first2= R. |date=2020 |title=Ursus thibetanus |volume=2020 |page=e.T22824A166528664 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22824A166528664.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}
• Brown bear{{cite iucn |last=McLellan |first= B.N. |last2=Proctor |first2= M.F. |last3=Huber |first3= D. |last4=Michel |first4= S. |date=2017 |title=Ursus arctos |volume=2017 |page=e.T41688A121229971 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T41688A121229971.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}
• Polar bear

{{See also|:Category:Flora of Siberia|l1=Category:Flora of Siberia}}

File:Kem-004.jpg, Kemerovo Oblast]]

• Larix sibirica
• Larix gmelinii
• Picea obovata{{Cite iucn |last=Farjon |first= A. | title = Pinus pumila | volume = 2013 | page = e.T42405A2977712 | date = 2013 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42405A2977712.en }}
• Pinus pumila{{Cite iucn | author = A. Farjon | title = Picea obovata | volume = 2013 | page = e.T42331A2973177 | date = 2013 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42331A2973177.en }}

{{main|Siberian regionalism}}

• Xianbei state (1st–3rd century CE)
• First Turkic Khaganate (6th–7th century)
• Eastern Turkic Khaganate (7th century)
• Second Turkic Khaganate (7th–8th century)
• Kyrgyz Khaganate (8th–13th century)
• Mongol Empire (13th–14th century)
• Khanate of Sibir (1468–1598)
• Tsardom of Russia (1598–1721)
• Russian Empire (1721–1917)
• Russian Republic (1917–1918)
• Siberian Republic (1918)
• Russian State (1918–1920)
• Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1918–1922)
• Far Eastern Republic (1920–1922)
• Tuvan People's Republic (1921–1944)
• Soviet Union (1922–1991)
• Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1922–1991)
• Russian Federation (1991–present)

File:Siberian Cities Map.svg

File:Siberian Cities Graph.svg]

The term "Siberia" has both a long history and wide significance, and association. The understanding, and association of "Siberia" have gradually changed during the ages. Historically, Siberia was defined as the whole part of Russia and North Kazakhstan to the east of Ural Mountains, including the Russian Far East. According to this definition, Siberia extended eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the border of Central Asia and the national borders of both Mongolia and China.[https://archive.today/20120713173752/http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/brokminor/article/36/36372.html?text=%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%80%D1%8C Малый энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона] (The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, in Russian)

Soviet-era sources (Great Soviet Encyclopedia and others)[http://bse.sci-lib.com/article101866.html Сибирь — Большая советская энциклопедия] (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in Russian) and modern Russian ones[http://otpusk-info.ru/journey/dictionary/geographic-names/articles/181/sibir.htm Сибирь- Словарь современных географических названий] (in Russian) usually define Siberia as a region extending eastward from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between Pacific and Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the national borders of both Mongolia and China. By this definition, Siberia includes the federal subjects of the Siberian Federal District, and some of the Ural Federal District, as well as Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, which is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Geographically, this definition includes subdivisions of several other subjects of Urals and Far Eastern federal districts, but they are not included administratively. This definition excludes Sverdlovsk Oblast and Chelyabinsk Oblast, both of which are included in some wider definitions of Siberia.

Other sources may use either a somewhat wider definition that states the Pacific coast, not the watershed, is the eastern boundary (thus including the whole Russian Far East), as well as all Northern Kazakhstan is its subregion in the south-west or a somewhat narrower one that limits Siberia to the Siberian Federal District (thus excluding all subjects of other districts).{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/si/Siberia.html |title=Siberia |access-date=4 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000824090623/http://www.bartleby.com/65/si/Siberia.html |archive-date=24 August 2000 }}, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition In Russian, 'Siberia' is commonly used as a substitute for the name of the federal district by those who live in the district itself, but less commonly used to denote the federal district by people residing outside of it. Due to the different interpretations of Siberia, starting from Tyumen, to Chita, the territory generally defined as 'Siberia', some people will define themselves as 'Siberian', while others not.

A number of factors in recent years, including the fomenting of Siberian separatism have made the definition of the territory of Siberia a potentially controversial subject.{{cite web |title=Siberian separatism: whether federal center can hold remote regions – Robert Lansing Institute |url=https://lansinginstitute.org/2020/10/27/siberian-separatism-whether-federal-center-can-hold-remote-regions/ |website=lansinginstitute.org |language=en |date=27 October 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901222523/https://lansinginstitute.org/2020/10/27/siberian-separatism-whether-federal-center-can-hold-remote-regions/ |archive-date=Sep 1, 2022}} In the eastern extent of Siberia there are territories which are not clearly defined as either Siberia or the Far East, making the question of "what is Siberia?" one with no clear answer, and what is a "Siberian", one of self-identification.{{cite web |author1=Douglas Causey |title=Russian Far East – Siberia Class |url=http://www.siberiaclass.org/siberia-yesterday-and-today/far-east |format=Lecture |website=www.siberiaclass.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020104152/http://www.siberiaclass.org/siberia-yesterday-and-today/far-east |archive-date=2021-10-20}}

File:Оперный театр4.jpg is the largest city in Siberia]]

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Federal subjects of Siberia (GSE)

|-

! Subject

! Administrative center

|-

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Ural Federal District

|-

| {{Flag|Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug}}

| Khanty-Mansiysk

|-

| {{Flag|Kurgan Oblast}}

| Kurgan

|-

| {{Flag|Tyumen Oblast}}

| Tyumen

|-

| {{Flag|Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug}}

| Salekhard

|-

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Siberian Federal District

|-

| {{Flag|Altai Krai}}

| Barnaul

|-

| {{Flag|Altai Republic}}

| Gorno-Altaysk

|-

| {{Flag|Irkutsk Oblast}}

| Irkutsk

|-

| {{Flag|Khakassia|Republic of Khakassia}}

| Abakan

|-

| {{Flag|Kemerovo Oblast}}

| Kemerovo

|-

| {{Flag|Krasnoyarsk Krai}}

| Krasnoyarsk

|-

| {{Flag|Novosibirsk Oblast}}

| Novosibirsk

|-

| {{Flag|Omsk Oblast}}

| Omsk

|-

| {{Flag|Tomsk Oblast}}

| Tomsk

|-

| {{Flag|Tuva|Tuva Republic}}

| Kyzyl

|-

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| Far Eastern Federal District

|-

| {{Flag|Buryatia}}

| Ulan-Ude

|-

| {{Flag|Sakha Republic|name=Sakha (Yakutia)}}

| Yakutsk

|-

| {{Flag|Zabaykalsky Krai}}

| Chita

|}

File:Хабаровск, летом на набережной Амура.JPG waterfront in Khabarovsk]]

File:VladivostokGoldenHorn.jpg, Primorsky Krai ]]

File:Якутск. Вид на центральную часть города (2).JPG is the capital of the Sakha Republic]]

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Federal subjects of Siberia (in wide sense)

|-

! Subject

! Administrative center

|-

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| Far Eastern Federal District

|-

| {{Flag|Amur Oblast}}

| Blagoveshchensk

|-

| {{Flag|Chukotka Autonomous Okrug}}

| Anadyr

|-

| {{Flag|Jewish Autonomous Oblast}}

| Birobidzhan

|-

| {{Flag|Kamchatka Krai}}

| Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

|-

| {{Flag|Khabarovsk Krai}}

| Khabarovsk

|-

| {{Flag|Magadan Oblast}}

| Magadan

|-

| {{Flag|Primorsky Krai}}

| Vladivostok

|-

| {{Flag|Sakhalin Oblast}}

| Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

|-

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Ural Federal District

|-

| {{Flag|Chelyabinsk Oblast}}

| Chelyabinsk

|-

| {{Flag|Sverdlovsk Oblast}}

| Yekaterinburg

|}

The most populous city of Siberia, as well as the third most populous city of Russia, is the city of Novosibirsk. Present-day Novosibirsk is an important business, science, manufacturing and cultural center of the Asian part of Russia.

Omsk played an important role in the Russian Civil War serving as a provisional Russian capital, as well in the expansion into and governing of Central Asia. In addition to its cultural status, it has become a major oil-refining, education, transport and agriculture hub.

Other historic cities of Siberia include Tobolsk (the first capital and the only kremlin in Siberia), Tomsk (formerly a wealthy merchant's town) and Irkutsk (former seat of Eastern Siberia's governor general, near lake Baikal).

Other major cities include: Barnaul, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk, Tyumen.

Wider definitions of geographic Siberia also include the cities of: Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, and even Petropavlovsk in Kazakhstan and Harbin in China.

File:RF NG pipestoEU.gif and gas pipelines in use]]

Novosibirsk is the largest by population and the most important city for the Siberian economy; with an extra boost since 2000 when it was designated a regional center for the executive bureaucracy (Siberian Federal District). Omsk is a historic and currently the second largest city in the region, and since 1950s hosting Russia's largest oil refinery, the Omsk Refinery.

Siberia is extraordinarily rich in minerals, containing ores of almost all economically valuable metals. It has some of the world's largest deposits of nickel, gold, lead, coal, molybdenum, gypsum, diamonds, diopside, silver and zinc, as well as extensive unexploited resources of oil and natural gas.[http://www.statista.com/statistics/159771/yamal-peninsula-in-western-siberia-development-of-gas-fields/ Statistics on the Development of Gas Fields in Western Siberia], Daily Questions on Energy and Economy Around 70% of Russia's developed oil fields are in the Khanty-Mansiysk region.{{cite news|first=Simone |last=Schlindwein |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-city-built-on-oil-eu-russia-summit-visits-siberia-s-boomtown-a-562248.html |title=The City Built on Oil: EU-Russia Summit Visits Siberia's Boomtown |publisher=Spiegel |date=26 August 2008 |access-date=8 August 2014|newspaper=Spiegel Online }} Russia contains about 40% of the world's known resources of nickel at the Norilsk deposit in Siberia. Norilsk Nickel is the world's biggest nickel and palladium producer.{{cite news| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/norilsk-russia-output-idUSLDE60S0DU20100129 |title=Norilsk raises 2010 nickel output forecast |work=Reuters |date=29 January 2010 |access-date=8 August 2014}}

Siberian agriculture is severely restricted by the short growing season of most of the region. However, in the southwest where soils consist of exceedingly fertile black earths and the climate is a little more moderate, there is extensive cropping of wheat, barley, rye and potatoes, along with the grazing of large numbers of sheep and cattle. Elsewhere food production, owing to the poor fertility of the podzolic soils and the extremely short growing seasons, is restricted to the herding of reindeer in the tundra—which has been practiced by natives for over 10,000 years.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} Siberia has the world's largest forests. Timber remains an important source of revenue, even though many forests in the east have been logged much more rapidly than they are able to recover. The Sea of Okhotsk is one of the two or three richest fisheries in the world owing to its cold currents and very large tidal ranges, and thus Siberia produces over 10% of the world's annual fish catch, although fishing has declined somewhat since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.{{cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/naso_russiafed/en#tcN700AD |title=FAO  National Aquaculture Sector Overview (NASO) |date=16 January 2005 |access-date=14 January 2016}}

Reported in 2009, the development of renewable energy in Russia is held back by the lack of a conducive government policy framework,{{Cite book|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289325179|title=Russian renewable energy: The potential for international cooperation |last1=Overland |first1=Indra |last2=Kjaernet |first2=Heidi |publisher=Ashgate |year=2009}}{{needs update|date=March 2021}} {{As of|2011}}, Siberia still offers special opportunities for off-grid renewable energy developments. Remote parts of Siberia are too costly to connect to central electricity and gas grids, and have therefore historically been supplied with costly diesel, sometimes flown in by helicopter. In such cases renewable energy is often cheaper.{{Cite journal |last=Overland |first=Indra |date=2011 |title=The Siberian Curse: A Blessing in Disguise for Renewable Energy? |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263524693 |journal=Sibirica |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=1–20 |via=ResearchGate |doi=10.3167/sib.2010.090201}}

File:Pujacs and Safronov 2011-12-04 Amur-Sibir KHL-game.jpeg game HC Sibir Novosibirsk vs Amur Khabarovsk]]

The Yenisey Krasnoyarsk basketball team has played in the VTB United League since 2011–12.

Russia's third most popular sport, bandy,{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rusbandy.ru%2Fnews%2F7438|title=Google Translate|access-date=14 April 2016}} is important in Siberia. In the 2015–16 Russian Bandy Super League season Yenisey from Krasnoyarsk became champions for the third year in a row by beating Baykal-Energiya from Irkutsk in the final.{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.rusbandy.ru/news/9039&prev=search|title=Google Translate|access-date=14 April 2016}}[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_Y0lhvnE7pU/hqdefault.jpg Photo with no context]{{reliable source|date=August 2021}} Two or three more teams (depending on the definition of Siberia) play in the Super League, the 2016–17 champions SKA-Neftyanik from Khabarovsk as well as Kuzbass from Kemerovo and Sibselmash from Novosibirsk. In 2007 Kemerovo got Russia's first indoor arena specifically built for bandy.{{cite web|url=http://www.rusbandy.ru/stadium/42/|title=Информация о стадионе "КЛМ стадиона "Химик", Кемерово – Реестр – Федерация хоккея с мячом России|work=rusbandy.ru|access-date=14 April 2016}} Now Khabarovsk has the world's largest indoor arena specifically built for bandy, Arena Yerofey.{{cite web|url=http://www.rusbandy.ru/stadium/96/|title=Информация о стадионе "Арена "Ерофей", Хабаровск – Реестр – Федерация хоккея с мячом России|work=rusbandy.ru|access-date=14 April 2016}} It was venue for Division A of the 2018 World Championship. In time for the 2020 World Championship, an indoor arena will be ready for use in Irkutsk. That one will also have a speed skating oval.{{cite web | url=https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.rusbandy.ru/news/12317/ |title = Google Translate}} Krasnoyarsk is also one of the centres of Rugby in Russia, with 2 of the largest clubs in the country, STM Enisei and Krasny Yar, are both based in the city.

The 2019 Winter Universiade was hosted by Krasnoyarsk.

{{Main|Demographics of Siberia}}

{{See also|Siberians|Indigenous peoples of Siberia}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;" style="float:right"

|+ Population of Siberia{{cite web|title=Национальный состав населения|url=https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx|publisher=Federal State Statistics Service|accessdate=30 December 2022}}Including Siberian Federal District, Tyumen Oblast, Kurgan Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, Buryatia and Sakha.

|-

! Ethnicity

!Population !! %

|-

| align="left" | Slavic

| align="right" |18,235,471|| align="right" | 86.2%

|-

| align="left" | Turkic

| align="right" |1,704,665|| align="right" | 8.1%

|-

| align="left" | Mongol

| align="right" |454,312|| align="right" | 2.1%

|-

| align="left" | Uralic

| align="right" |131,430|| align="right" | 0.6%

|-

| align="left" | Other

| align="right" |637,992|| align="right" | 3.0%

|}

{{Historical populations|7=1959|8=30759112|9=1970|10=30758745|11=1979|12=36901468|13=1989|14=41544390|15=2002|16=39129729|17=2010|18=37631081|19=2021|20=37077502|type=|footnote=Historical population of the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts}}According to the Russian Census of 2010, the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts, located entirely east of the Ural Mountains, together have a population of about 25.6 million. Tyumen and Kurgan Oblasts, which are geographically in Siberia but administratively part of the Urals Federal District, together have a population of about 4.3 million. Thus, the whole region of Siberia (in the broadest usage of the term) is home to approximately 30 million people."[http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/Documents/Vol1/pub-01-05.pdf Census 2010 official results (Russian)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228070637/http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/Documents/Vol1/pub-01-05.pdf |date=28 February 2013 }}" It has a population density of about three people per square kilometre.

File:Street Scene in Tomsk - Russia.JPG, one of the oldest Siberian cities, founded in 1604]]

The largest ethnic group in Siberia is Slavic-origin Russians, including their sub-ethnic group Siberians, and russified Ukrainians.{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2003/180304.shtml |title=Ukrainians in Russia's Far East try to maintain community life] |website=The Ukrainian Weekly |date=4 May 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051255/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2003/180304.shtml |archive-date=4 March 2016 |first1=Maryna |last1=Makhnonos }} Slavic and other Indo-European ethnicities make up the vast majority (over 85%) of the Siberian population. There are also other groups of Indigenous Siberian and non-Indigenous ethnic origin. A minority of the current population are descendants of Mongol or Turkic people (mainly Buryats, Yakuts, Tuvans, Altai and Khakas) or [[Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East|

northern Indigenous people]]. Slavic-origin Russians outnumber all of the Indigenous peoples combined, except in the Republics of Tuva and Sakha.

According to the 2002 census there are 500,000 Tatars in Siberia, but of these, 300,000 are Volga Tatars who also settled in Siberia during periods of colonization and are thus also non-Indigenous Siberians, in contrast to the 200,000 Siberian Tatars which are Indigenous to Siberia.{{cite web |url=http://newasp.omskreg.ru/hist/fotatlas/rezumeen.htm |title=Siberian tatars |access-date=21 February 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020227012304/http://newasp.omskreg.ru/hist/fotatlas/rezumeen.htm |archive-date=27 February 2002 }} Of the Indigenous Siberians, the Mongol-speaking Buryats, numbering approximately 500,000, are the most numerous group in Siberia, and they are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic.[http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,49709eae2,49749cc4c,0.html World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Russian Federation: Buryats]. According to the 2010 census there were 478,085 indigenous Turkic-speaking Yakuts.[http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2eff2,49749cb441,0.html World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Russian Federation: Yakuts]. Other ethnic groups Indigenous to Siberia include Kets, Evenks, Chukchis, Koryaks, Yupiks, and Yukaghirs.

About seventy percent of Siberia's people live in cities, mainly in apartments.{{Cite book|last=Gutman|first=Garik|title=Regional Environmental Changes in Siberia and Their Global Consequences|publisher=Springer Netherlands|year=2012|isbn=9789400745698|page=20}} Many people also live in rural areas, in simple, spacious, log houses. Novosibirsk{{cite web|url=https://english.novo-sibirsk.ru/ |title=Official website of the city of Novosibirsk |publisher=English.novo-sibirsk.ru |date= |accessdate=2022-05-25}} is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.6 million. Tobolsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Omsk are the older, historical centers.

{{See also|Shamanism in Siberia|Religion in Russia}}

File:Khabarovsk Transfiguration Cathedral 2011-08 1314207088.jpg]]

There are a variety of beliefs throughout Siberia, including Orthodox Christianity, other denominations of Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism and Islam.

{{cite book

| last1 = Arnold

| first1 = Thomas Walker

| author-link1 = Thomas Walker Arnold

| title = The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith

| url = https://archive.org/details/preachingofislam00arnouoft

| location = Westminster

| publisher = Archibald Constable and Company

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/preachingofislam00arnouoft/page/206 206]–207

| access-date = 11 October 2015

| quote = Of the spread of Islam among the Tatars of Siberia, we have a few particulars. It was not until the latter half of the sixteenth century that it gained a footing in this country, but even before this period Muhammadan missionaries had from time to time made their way into Siberia with the hope of winning the heathen population over to the acceptance of their faith, but the majority of them met with a martyr's death. When Siberia came under Muhammadan rule, in the reign of Kuchum Khan, the graves of seven of these missionaries were discovered [...]. [...] Kuchum Khan [...] made every effort for the conversion of his subjects, and sent to Bukhara asking for missionaries to assist him in this pious undertaking.

| year = 1896

}} The Siberian Federal District alone has an estimation of 250,000 Muslims. An estimated 70,000 Jews live in Siberia,{{cite web |url= http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=136974 |title= Planting Jewish roots in Siberia |publisher= Fjc.ru |date= 24 May 2004 |access-date= 15 May 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090827113526/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=136974 |archive-date= 27 August 2009 |df= dmy-all }} some in the Jewish Autonomous Region."[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0607/Why-some-Jews-would-rather-live-in-Siberia-than-Israel Why some Jews would rather live in Siberia than Israel]", The Christian Science Monitor. 7 June 2010 The predominant religious group is the Russian Orthodox Church.

Tradition regards Siberia the archetypal home of shamanism, and polytheism is popular.Hoppál 2005:13 These native sacred practices are considered by the tribes to be very ancient. There are records of Siberian tribal healing practices dating back to the 13th century.{{cite web|url=http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/secrets-of-siberian-shamanism|title=Secrets of Siberian Shamanism {{!}} New Dawn : The World's Most Unusual Magazine|website=www.newdawnmagazine.com|access-date=9 January 2017|date=16 May 2013}} The vast territory of Siberia has many different local traditions of gods. These include: Ak Ana, Anapel, Bugady Musun, Kara Khan, Khaltesh-Anki, Kini'je, Ku'urkil, Nga, Nu'tenut, Num-Torum, Pon, Pugu, Todote, Toko'yoto, Tomam, Xaya Iccita and Zonget. Places with sacred areas include Olkhon, an island in Lake Baikal.

Many cities in northern Siberia, such as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, cannot be reached by road, as there are virtually none connecting from other major cities in Russia or Asia. Siberia can be reached through the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Trans-Siberian Railway operates from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east. Cities that are located far from the railway are reached by air or by the separate Baikal–Amur Railway (BAM).

Stroganina is a raw fish dish of the Indigenous people of northern Arctic Siberia made from raw, thin, long-sliced frozen fish.{{cite book | last1=Rasputin | first1=V. | last2=Winchell | first2=M. | last3=Mikkelson | first3=G. | title=Siberia, Siberia | publisher=Northwestern University Press | year=1997 | isbn=978-0-8101-1575-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzchffZ3BFQC&pg=PT294 | pages=322–323}} It is a popular dish with native Siberians.{{cite book | last1=Motarjemi | first1=Yasmine |first2=Gerald |last2=Moy |first3=E. C. D. |last3=Todd |location=Amsterdam |title=Encyclopedia of Food Safety | publisher=Elsevier Science, Academic Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-12-378613-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mX1XAQAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA176 | page=176}} Siberia is also known for its pelmeni dumpling; which in the winter are traditionally frozen and stored outdoors. In addition, there are various berry, nut and mushroom dishes making use of the riches of abundant nature.

{{Portal|Siberia|Russia|Geography}}

• Siberian regionalism
• Tunguska Basin

{{Clear}}

{{reflist}}

• {{citation |last1=Baievsky |first1=Borris |last2=Squire |first2=E.C. |title=Siberia Its Resources and Possibilities |publisher=Government Printing Office |series=Trade Promotion Series No. 36|date=June 30, 1926 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nU7aG1LuyCYC|location=Washington, DC|work=United States Department of Commerce Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce}}
• {{cite book |last=Batalden |first=Stephen K. |year=1997 | title=The Newly Independent States of Eurasia: Handbook of Former Soviet Republics| others=Contributor: Sandra L. Batalden| edition=revised| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFjPAxhBEaEC| isbn=978-0897749404| access-date=24 April 2014}}
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• Bobrick, Benson. [https://archive.org/details/eastofsunepiccon00bobr East of the Sun: the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia] (Henry Holt and Company, 1993); popular history
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• Diment, Galya, and Yuri Slezkine, eds. Between Heaven and Hell: The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture (3rd ed. 1993)
• {{cite book| title= A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990 |first= James| last=Forsyth| edition=Illustrated, reprint, revised| year=1994| publisher=Cambridge University Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC| isbn=978-0521477710| access-date=24 April 2014}}
• Forsyth, James. A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony, 1581–1990 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994).
• {{cite book |title=Yearbook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beJAAQAAIAAJ |publisher=International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |year=1992 |access-date=24 April 2014}}
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• Lincoln, W. Bruce (1993) [https://archive.org/details/conquestofcontin00linc The Conquest of a Continent]. Scholarly history.
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• {{cite book |last1=Naumov |first1=Igor V. |title=The History of Siberia |date=22 November 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-20703-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4498YjPq6mgC |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last=Pesterev |first= V. |year=2015 | title=Siberian frontier: the territory of fear | publisher=Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London| url=https://www.academia.edu/14482632}}
• {{cite book |last=Stephan |first= John J. |year=1996 | title= The Russian Far East: A History | edition=Illustrated, reprint | publisher=Stanford University Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jce4rBWjG5wC| isbn=978-0804727013| access-date=24 April 2014}}
• Wood, Alan (ed.)(1991). The History of Siberia: From Russian Conquest to Revolution. London: Routledge.
• {{cite book |last=Wood |first=Alan |title=Russia's Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581–1991 | edition=illustrated| year=2011| publisher=A&C Black| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZZLAQAAQBAJ| isbn=978-0340971246| access-date=24 April 2014}}

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