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Tomsk Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Tomsk Region is located in the southeastern part of the West Siberian Plain and borders on Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Kemerovo regions and Krasnoyarsk Territory. It was formed as an administrative and territorial unit on August 13, 1944, and has an area of 314 400 km2.
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The climate is temperate continental and cyclical, with considerable daily and yearly variations and long winters (100-110 days). The average annual temperature is 0.6 °C; the average July temperature is +18.1 °C, and the average January temperature is -19.2 °C. Long, severe winters are characteristic of the northern part of the region. Average annual precipitation is 500 mm.
The administrative center is the city of Tomsk located in the southern part of the region on the bank of the Tom River. Tomsk is one of Siberia's most important economic and administrative centers. The region has a population of 1 073 600 people representing 80 nationalities; nearly half of the population lives in Tomsk.
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A large part of the region (57%) is covered with forests with well-defined central taiga, southern taiga, and forest steppe zones. The areas of Tomsk region bordering on Tyumen and Omsk regions and part of Novosibirsk Region extend over a mostly boggy, nearly uninhabited plain. The region stretches about 600 km from north to south and 780 km from west to east.
The main natural resources are oil, gas, timber, peat, and minerals, while the main industrial sectors are the oil refining, petrochemical, instrument-making, and engineering industries.
Agricultural land covers an area of 1 373 000 hectares, including 680 000 hectares of cropland. The principal grain-growing areas are concentrated in the southern part of the region. Domestic grain production meets half of regional demand. Potatoes and vegetables are grown everywhere in the region. Animal products make up 70% of gross agricultural production.
Tomsk continues to be a scientific and educational center, annually graduating 5000 specialists with higher education and an equal number with secondary vocational education.
City districts, especially the old ones, are covered with greenery; and Beloe Lake, which has become a favorite recreation area for local residents, is located within the city limits. A memorial complex in memory of those who fell in the Second World War has been built in Lagerny Garden. Restoration of churches and historic buildings is ongoing in Tomsk.
Over a period of 400 years, Tomsk has risen to the level of the cities of Central Russia in both importance and economic, social, and cultural development. Architecturally, the city represents a mixture of styles from various historical periods.
As you walk along the quiet streets, you will be charmed by the mysterious music of old wood and stone and by the famous palaces with their picturesque silhouettes, and by elegant carved decor.
Despite economic difficulties, Tomsk is preparing for two anniversaries that will be observed in 2004-the city's 400th anniversary and the 200th anniversary of Tomsk Province.
HISTORY
Tomsk was founded in 1604 by Tsar Boris Godunov, who gave orders to "look for a suitable place for a city, mark it on a drawing, order the place to be cleared, and after asking God's grace, build the city in a strong place."
Two hundred Cossacks commanded by Vasily Tyrkov and Gavrila Pisemsky arrived in Tomsk land in spring 1604. The Cossacks decided to build a fortified town on a ledge of an ancient riverbank above the Tom River. The ledge (later named Voskresenskaya Hill) had three steep sides and was protected by quagmires on the east and the small Ushaika River on the south. On the northern, most dangerous side, the Cossacks built a high stockade of sharpened posts. The new settlement arose on the lands of a local Tatar prince, Toyan, who became a Russian citizen and promised to help Tsar Boris consolidate Russian power in Siberia.
According to historians, Tomsk fortress repeatedly repulsed attacks by the Kirghiz and other steppe peoples. Its significance as a border fortress declined with the founding of Eniseisk and Krasnoyarsk in the first half of the 17th century.
Mail service was inaugurated in 1738, and all freight now passed through Tomsk, resulting in the appearance of a large service corps for the Moscow-Siberia highway, e.g., coachmen, blacksmiths, and other tradesmen. Coaching inns and huge warehouses were set up, and the city and its population expanded. In addition to Voskresenskaya Hill, the city now occupied other districts named Yurtochnaya Hill, Peski, Urzhatka, Zaozerye, Zaistok, and Upper (Verkhnyaya) and Lower (Nizhnyaya) Elan.
A new period of the city's history began in 1804, when it was chosen as the administrative center of a new province and developed into a center with city and town councils and a police department. Stone buildings appeared among the wooden ones, first of all churches and administrative buildings and then the houses of prosperous townspeople. By the mid-19th century, Tomsk had eight churches and construction of Trinity (Troitsky) Cathedral (razed after the Revolution) and 50 stone houses had begun. Tomsk was famous for its churches, and people from surrounding villages would come to pray here. Unfortunately, few of these churches survived the Revolution and the two wars that followed it; most of them were either abandoned or used as warehouses. Restoration work began only in our time. Several Orthodox churches, a Catholic church, a Baptist church, and a mosque currently function in the city. There are also a number of monasteries, one of which is located within the city limits.
Prominent industrialists and merchants donated funds to build charitable and educational institutions and equip the streets with modern amenities. Distilleries, brickyards, sawmills, flour mills, and cable factories sprang up.
Tomsk Province occupied a huge territory that included the present-day Altai Territory, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, East Kazakhstan, and Tomsk regions and part of Krasnoyarsk Territory. Tomsk grew especially rapidly in the 1830s, when gold mines in Tomsk and Enisei provinces were being intensively developed. By the turn of the 20th century, Tomsk was ahead of all other Siberian cities in its social and cultural development. The first bookstore, public library, and printing office in Siberia were opened here in 1873.
Grain, fish, salt, wine, tallow, honey, wax, and leather from Tomsk Province went to neighboring provinces and regions; pine nuts and furs were sent to European Russia and abroad. Tomsk Province was also the main Siberian butter producer and supplied up to 60% of Russian butter exports. Siberian butter competed successfully with the best Danish and Dutch brands.
The Trans-Siberian railway was built through Tomsk Province in the 1890s, passing south of Tomsk to make a detour around forested and swampy areas. A branch line joined Tomsk to the main line in 1896. This seemingly unimportant event was of great significance for the development of the village of Novonikolaevsk (the future Novosibirsk), which became the province's main transportation hub. Having been left off the main route, Tomsk began to lag behind other Siberian cities in its economic growth.
Despite rapid economic development, the population of Tomsk Region grew mainly due to exiles. The number of exiles was especially high in the first half of the 19th century (nearly 30 000 men and more than 7000 women), such that every fifth resident of Tomsk and surrounding areas was an exile.
The laying of the foundation stone of Siberian University took place in 1880. Moscow academician A.K. Bruni designed the main building, but even before construction started, the famous university library began taking shape. Count A.G. Stronganov, the descendant of an old family of Russian industrialists, donated a splendid book collection to the future university.
Eight years later, in 1888, Emperor Alexander III gave the imperial command to open Tomsk University, the first university in Siberia. At first, it consisted only of a faculty of medicine with 72 students and 2 auditors. The famous Russian scientist V.M. Florinsky played an enormous role in establishing the university.
This was followed in 1900 by the opening of the first technological institute (now a polytechnic university) east of the Urals and then a teacher's college, a medical school, and a construction institute.
By the early 20th century, Tomsk ranked first in Siberia in the number of educational institutions (104) and had a rich cultural life. There were four newspapers, four theaters, five movie theaters, seven libraries, and three amusement parks.
In 1911, 1001 commercial enterprises and 189 factories were registered in Tomsk. The city covered an area of 15 km2, and its center had electricity, telephones, a water supply system, and centralized heating. The population had increased to 110 000 people of various faiths, as evidenced by 23 Orthodox churches, a Catholic church, a Lutheran church, two mosques, and three synagogues. Brockhouse and Efron's encyclopedia notes that Tomsk surpassed all other Siberian cities as a cultural, commercial, and industrial center. After the Revolution of 1917, Tomsk became part of the Siberian and later the West Siberian territory. Then in 1937, Tomsk and adjoining territories became part of Novosibirsk Region. According to historians, "after being reduced to a city under regional jurisdiction in the prewar period…Tomsk lost many opportunities for economic and cultural development."
As early as 1932, Ilya Ehrenburg wrote that, "The fate of various cities was easily discerned at the railway station: it was enough to look at what kind of bread the local residents were eating. The bread in Tomsk was black, soggy, and heavy: the five-year plan had bypassed Tomsk and Tomsk was dying." However, the famous writer added, "Tomsk might have died, but there was a university in Tomsk…" Just prior to the Second World War, Tomsk already had a reputation as a city of science and higher educational institutions, where 1 in every 12 residents was a student.
Thirty factories were evacuated to Tomsk in the first year of the war, laying the foundation for the city's industrial development; industrial output tripled during the war years.
New sectors such as the electrical, optomechanical, and rubber industries arose; and engineering, metalworking, and the light and food industries expanded significantly.
Tomsk Region's postwar development was mainly associated with the start of commercial production of oil and gas fields. The first commercial oil came on stream at the Sosninskoe field near the village of Aleksandrovskoe in August 1962, and the Tomskneft Production Association (PO Tomskneft) was formed in 1966.
The Aleksandrovskoe-Anzhero-Sudzhensk oil pipeline, the Nizhnevartovsk-Parabel-Kuzbass gas main, and bridges over the Ob and Tom rivers were built in the following decades.
The decree creating Tomsk Region was signed on August 4, 1944. The new region had an area of 316 900 km2, and Tomsk once again became one of Siberia's most important economic and administrative centers. It had a population of nearly 500 000 people, or nearly half the region's population.
Tomsk was awarded the status of historic city in 1991, with a protected area of 950 hectares. This historical preserve has retained the unique city landscape of stone buildings from the provincial capital of the 19th and early 20th centuries and wooden buildings decorated with traditional "wooden lace" carving.
RESOURCES
Potential geological resources are estimated at 3.1-3.4 billion tons and gas resources, at 1.7 billion m3. Recoverable resources amount to 300 million tons of oil and 518 million m3 of gas. Forty-seven percent of the geological oil and gas resources have been explored, and specialists are predicting a further increase in hydrocarbon reserves. The region has 98 hydrocarbon deposits, including 78 oil fields, 8 gas fields, and 12 oil and gas condensate fields. Most of the oil fields have small reserves; nearly 45% of the reserves are concentrated in the Sovetskoe, Pervomaiskoe, Luginetskoe, and Igolsko-Talovoe fields.
Tomsk Region has the largest peat reserves in Russia. Most of the peat is produced from the Vasyuganskoe deposit.
Twelve metal ore deposits have been discovered in Tomsk Region. Probable reserves of the Bakcharskoe iron ore deposit are estimated at up to 110 billion tons. Titanium ores have been discovered in the Tuganskoe and Georgievskoe alluvial deposits. Scandium, hafnium, vanadium, lanthanides, kaolin, and glassmaking sand can also be extracted from these ores along with titanium and zirconium. Reserves of quartz sand and rare earth elements of the Tuganskoe deposit total 5.1 million tons. A comprehensive commercial development project that includes construction of an ore mining and processing complex has been worked out for this deposit.
Tomsk Region has large reserves of iron ore that are concentrated in four tentatively established deposits: Bakcharskoe, Kolpashevskoe, Parabel-Chuzikskoe, and Parbigskoe. Deposits of gold, copper ores, manganese, zinc, antimony, brown coal, sand-gravel mixtures, and refractory and brick clays have also been discovered in the region.
Forest land covers a total area of 19.5 million hectares. A large part of this area consists of commercial forests in which coniferous species such as pine, cedar, spruce, and fir predominate. Reserves of mature and overmature growth are estimated at 1.8 billion m3. The most prospective raw material sources are located in the basins of the Ket and Chulym rivers and in Aleksandrovsky District. Substantial available reserves have led to the formation of a large, regionally important woodworking, pulp and paper, wood chemical, and furniture industry.
The main kinds of plant products harvested or prepared in Tomsk Region consist of pine nuts, mushrooms, nut oil, turpentine, and wild herbs such as birch buds, nettle leaves, lingonberries, coltsfoot, mountain ash berries, bird cherries, rose hips, and milfoil.
According to specialists, these resources are decreasing year by year. The list of animals for which hunting is permitted includes 24 mammal and 30 bird species. There have been noticeable declines in squirrel, hare, beaver, and reindeer populations; and the number of sable has fallen by nearly half in five years.
The region's fish resources consist of 15 commercial species, including valuable species such as white salmon, whitefish, sturgeon, and sterlet. The annual catch is more than 2000 tons. Fish stocks in Tomsk Region have been above average in recent years. The commissioning of the Novosibirsk Hydroelectric Power Plant (Novosibirskaya GES) has caused major changes in the natural environment of the Ob River floodplain.
The protected areas of Tomsk Region play an important role in animal and plant conservation and reproduction. These areas include 16 reserves; 144 regionally important natural sites; and the unique plant collection of the Siberian Botanical Gardens, the oldest botanical gardens east of the Urals.
ECONOMY
Tomsk Region is part of one of Russia's largest economic districts, the West Siberian district.
Nearly 200 large and medium companies form the region's industrial structure. Industry employs 28% of all workers, owns 55% of all fixed assets, and generates nearly 60% of regional GDP. Development of the oil refining and chemical sectors has had a major impact on industrial development as a whole. Companies in the oil refining and chemical industries provide more than 30% of the tax revenues to budgets of all levels. Oil production is currently the only profitable sector in a number of districts in the region, a situation that has led to excessive dependence on the state of the oil market. Other important industrial sectors besides oil and gas production include petrochemicals, metalworking, power generation, woodworking, and pharmaceuticals.
The gas production industry began forming in the region in 1995. A comprehensive program is being implemented to develop gas and gas condensate fields in the northern part of the region, supply cheap feedstock to the Tomsk Petrochemical Plant (Tomsk neftekhimichesky kombinat), which is one of the largest in Russia, and supply gas to communities. This program is of great significance to both Tomsk Region and other parts of Western Siberia. Gas production levels could be as much as 5-6 billion m3 per year.
Development of the Myldzhinskoe field began in 1998. Annual production will amount to 1.5 billion m3 of gas and 540 000 tons of condensate. Deliveries of 1.5 million m3 of gas and 300 000-450 000 tons of condensate from the Luginetskoe field to the gas main will begin simultaneously.
The Severo-Vasyuganskoe field started production in 2001, which will bring total gas production to 7-7.5 million m3 per year.
The Siberian Chemical Complex (Sibirsky khimichesky kombinat) is one of Russia's largest nuclear industry enterprises. It began operations in 1953, when the first phase of the separation plant started up and the first enriched uranium was obtained. The first nuclear reactor, the I-1 (Ivan the First), was commissioned in 1955; the second, in 1958; and the third, in 1961.
The reactors formed the basis of operations of the Siberian Nuclear Plant (Sibirskaya atomnaya stantsiya), the country's first commercial nuclear heating and power plant. Nuclear Power Plant 2 (AES-2), which was twice as powerful, was commissioned between 1961 and 1965 and still supplies heat and power to the cities of Seversk and Tomsk. Sublimation, radiochemical, metallurgical chemical, and other plants were gradually added to the separation plant. The entire complex received the official name of Siberian Chemical Complex in 1967.
The complex has unique experience in processing fissionable materials and operating power reactors and facilities. Innovative technologies for obtaining superdispersed metal oxide powders of copper, iron, cesium, and magnesium have been developed here in the course of conversion. Research in the fields of piezoceramics and high-energy magnets is proceeding successfully.
The Tomsk Petrochemical Plant plays an important part in the regional economy.
The region's main engineering companies once belonged to the military-industrial complex. Engineering and metalworking products account for 8.9% of total commercial (industrial) output. Thirty-one engineering companies in the region produce electric motors, bearings, instruments and automation equipment, wire and cables, electric light bulbs, metal-cutting tools, medical electronics, communication equipment, power sources of various kinds (including solar and wind-driven units), and semiconductor devices and systems.
The principal woodworking industry in the region is timber sawing, which is dominated by nine large companies. As before, the forest industry employs the third-largest number of workers among the region's industrial sectors. The main woodworking companies are concentrated in Tomsk, Asino, Kolpashevo, Bely Yar, and Kargasok.
Logging activity has decreased 2.5 times in recent years. The slump in the logging and woodworking sectors is connected to a considerable extent with the shortcomings of tax and lending policy, high transport tariffs, and the unpreparedness of most personnel for working in the new economic conditions.
The natural climatic conditions in Tomsk Region are favorable for agriculture, mainly in the more developed and populated southern districts, e.g., Kozhevnikovsky, Tomsky, and Shegarsky districts. More than 80% of the cropland is concentrated in these areas, where spring wheat, winter rye, oats, buckwheat, and millet are grown. Potatoes and vegetables are grown throughout the region.
About 11% of the workforce is employed in agriculture. Nearly 150 joint stock companies and cooperatives and 2300 farms specializing mainly in fattening cattle and producing milk have been set up. Beef and dairy farming is the primary agricultural sector in Tomsk. The availability of land for feed crops, natural hayfields, and pastures creates favorable conditions for expansion of this sector. Poultry farms and stock-raising facilities for commercial beef, pork, and poultry production are located in suburban areas around Tomsk. The food industry includes companies in the meat and dairy, confectionery, baking, and distilling sectors. Up to 40% of all agricultural produce comes from residents' private holdings.
There has been a decrease in the area under crop in recent years. Tomsk Region is located in a high-risk farming zone, and harvests are very dependent on weather conditions. The decrease in the sown area is the result of reforestation and swamping of farmland and increased rates of land expropriation for industrial, transportation, and other nonagricultural purposes.
More pressing problems include reclamation of construction quarries and control of surface and gully erosion in southern districts, where washout of the fertile layer of up to 50 m3 per hectare of cropland from slopes has been recorded and crop yields have decreased as much as 15-20% in some places. Gully erosion is also an urgent problem in Tomsk and its surroundings, where there are 80 large gullies and many shallow ones.
Two experimental breeding stations operate in the region. Stable growth of agricultural production is only possible through the diversified use of natural, biological, technical, and labor resources. This increases the role of science in solving socioeconomic problems in both rural and urban areas.
AUTHORITIES
The Administration of Tomsk Region is the highest executive body. It exercises the government powers assigned to the governor of the region, who is the head of the executive branch.
The regional State Duma is the legislative body of Tomsk Region. The Chairman of the State Duma of Tomsk Region is the highest official of the legislative branch of government.
TOURISM
The city of Tomsk stands out from other cities for its wealth of historical monuments and large number of higher educational institutions and cultural centers. Much has been written about it, and many famous people have spent time here. Pushkin's great grandfather Hannibal was exiled here, and Chekhov made notes in his diary in a Tomsk hotel. Korolenko, Uspensky, Shishkov, Garin-Mikhailovsky, and many other outstanding Russian writers worked here.
Modern-day Tomsk with its well-developed infrastructure provides even the most demanding residents and guests with a multitude of opportunities for full relaxation. So you will never be bored when you visit this city.
Tourist agencies offer a large number of sightseeing tours to historic places.
Churches of various faiths coexist peacefully in Tomsk. You will be able to visit a Catholic church, a synagogue, a mosque, and Orthodox churches and hear accounts of different religions.
Tomsk is considered to be the "Athens of Siberia" and a student city. Tour guides will recount the history of the city's higher educational institutions and acquaint you with the latest professions you can acquire there.
Any trip in the city for a tourist begins at the hotel. The city's hotels will welcome you as a valued guest and offer a wide range of high-level services.
In addition to numerous health resorts, the region also has children's health camps. For vacationers without health problems, there are recreation centers with comfort levels close to foreign standards of service. While relaxing, you can visit the city's theaters, museums, and exhibitions.
There are also plenty of leisure activities for young people in Tomsk. The city offers a wide choice of cafes, bistros, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and discotheques.
Tourists who like an active vacation in nature traveling through the forests or along the waterways will long remember sailing on a pleasure boat, fishing, and majestic pine forests with their variety of plants and wonderful animal life.
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