Bridging Europe and Asia

Part 1 of 5 : Moscú – Novosibirsk

AUTHORS
Fernanda Insua | Alpinismonline Staff
Carlos Eduardo Gonzalez | Alpinismonline Staff
Production date : July 2019

COVER PHOTO: NOVOSIBIRSK STATION
The Trans-Siberian Railway completes its first leg from Moscow to Novosibirsk, after 3,300 kilometres and almost two days of travel. The city with more than one and a half million inhabitants, on the banks of the Ob River, is the gateway to Siberia. The Rossiya enters its most attractive stretch. (Photo: AlexDrone for videoblocks.com)

A journey on the longest and most famous train in the world

The Rossiya. A train with more than a hundred years of history, where different cultures mix along its more than nine thousand kilometers of route. The Trans-Siberian is not just a tourist route. For decades it has been the only means of communication in a country with six time zones, a bridge between Europe and the Pacific. We take you on a dream trip. Let’s go to the Rossiya!

A fascinating experience

… is about to begin. In the largest country in the world, we could not be otherwise than facing the longest and most exciting railway journey. A century-old service that started back in 1904 and that extends to the present day on three main branches and a new one added a few years ago.

Based on the Moscow-Vladivostok route, the main stretch of 9,288 kilometers, we will develop this journey on an express that has the quality of hosting customs and diversity of cultures. Some use it out of pure necessity, others as a tourist destination clearly dealing with the exotic, since tourists from all over the world daily flock to the only accessible means that will allow them to access those lands so far away and so exciting.

The heart of Siberia beats in the “Rossiya”, a term that broadly characterizes the Trans-Siberian Railway and simply means “Russia”. Russia is also the Trans-Siberian Railway, which in turn is culture, customs, knowledge and millennia-old tradition.

Immersing ourselves in Rossiya means adapting our knowledge and customs to a world framed in a brief, subtle, extremely limited cabin, but which is the window to a world that will pass by on the other side of the glass, in many cases only accessible to the eyes; in others it will allow us to touch with our senses that very diverse culture.

In those four walls, in those narrow corridors and in the usual transit through the moving cars, to and from the dining car, an endless number of sensations, languages, aromas and sounds converge, under the constant creaking of the wheels on those century-old rails, which have taken to and from the great capital of Soviet Russia, and even Tsarist Russia in its beginnings, stories of life and survival under a system that today seems to have been left in memory, but which Rossiya itself brings to the present at every moment.

Moscú

It is the capital and the most populous federal entity of Russia. The city is an important political, economic, cultural and scientific centre of Russia and the continent. It is the second most populous city in Europe after Istanbul, and the sixth in the world, with a population of over twelve million inhabitants.

Moscow is situated on the banks of the Moskva River, which flows for just over 500 kilometres across the East European Plain in the centre of the country. Forty-nine bridges span the river and its canals within the city limits.

Throughout its history, the city has been the capital of a succession of states, from the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the Middle Ages, the Russian Tsardom and the Soviet Union, except for the period of the Russian Empire.

The city has an extensive transport network, including three international airports, nine railway stations and one of the most extensive metro systems in the world, the Moscow Metro, second only to Tokyo in terms of passenger numbers. Its underground system is recognised as one of the richest and most architecturally varied, with 215 stations spread across the city. According to Forbes 2011, Moscow is the second largest city in the world in terms of the number of billionaires.

Among the most famous places in Moscow are the Kremlin, the fortress of the Tsars, which contains several palaces such as the Grand Kremlin Palace or the Palace of Facets; as well as several temples such as the Cathedral of the Dormition, the Cathedral of the Annunciation or the Bell Tower of Ivan III of Russia, also known as Ivan the Great. Surrounding all the buildings is the Wall, which includes the Kremlin towers. Since 1990, the Kremlin has been included, together with the Red Square complex, on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Next to the Kremlin is Red Square, with the famous St. Basil’s Cathedral, completed in 1561 and world-famous for its coloured domes. This square is also home to the National History Museum, Lenin’s Mausoleum and the GUM, one of the largest shopping centres in the world, built in the Soviet era and later privatised, where the most elite brands took over. The building has a bridge and innovative metal and glass domes. Its architect, Vladimir Shukhov, was responsible for building several of Moscow’s hallmarks during the Soviet era; among them the Shukhov Tower, just one of many hyperboloid towers designed by Shukhov. The National History Museum, meanwhile, was commissioned by Emperor Alexander II in 1872. The museum’s rooms are faithfully recreated and decorated with motifs from the different periods it represents, from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. It is considered a national treasure of Russia.

There are many churches and monasteries in Moscow, although many have been lost to Soviet demolitions, such as the Miracle-Working Monastery and the Monastery of the Ascension of Christ in the Kremlin. However, many religious buildings of undoubted historical value have been preserved. One of the best preserved is St. Daniel’s Monastery, which dates back to 1282. Alexander Nevsky’s son Daniel was buried there. It was later transferred to the Kremlin and restored by Ivan the Terrible. The Upper Monastery of St. Peter was founded by Daniel’s son Ivan I Kalita, although it was named after Peter the Great.

Another notable monastery in the city is the New Monastery of Our Saviour, which looks out over Moscow from the shore. It was built in the 15th century and is the final resting place of the Romanov family. There is also the Novodevichy Monastery, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004. Last but not least are the monasteries in the Moscow area: the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in Sergiyev Posad (considered the Mecca of the Russian Orthodox Church and a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Volokolamsk Monastery of St. Joseph and the New Jerusalem Monastery near the city of Istra.

The city has, in addition to some architectural gems from antiquity, examples of Soviet architecture such as the Soviet-Stalinist skyscrapers known as the «seven sisters» because they are seven buildings of similar design; among them the Moscow State University and the Ukraine Hotel stand out. Another work of Soviet times is the Moscow Metro, a sumptuously decorated subway system and called by Stalin «the palaces of the people.» Gorky Park offers its gardens for rest and recreation.

Yaroslavsky Station: Welcome to the «Rossiya»

Yaroslavsky railway station is one of nine railway stations located in Moscow. It is located opposite Komsomolskaya Square. It is the busiest of all and the one that connects the capital with the Russian Far East via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The white, blue and red tricolour band decorating the carriages of the Rossiya, Russian Railways train 001/002, and the Cyrillic inscription (POCCHR) on the top of each train carriage, makes it very easy for passengers to identify it. Before private luxury trains came on the scene, this train offered the highest quality service on the week-long route between Moscow and Vladivostok. It is clearly intended to be above all a tourist train, showcasing the stunning beauty of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Rossiya is known as a tourist train where the train drivers speak English, apart from Russian. Meals are included in the price of the first and second class tickets. There are clean toilets with all their accessories.

Covering 9,259 kilometres and connecting two continents, the train passes through 14 regions, 90 cities and six time zones. It is a real adventure to travel directly from Moscow to Vladivostok, as the entire journey takes a week.

But of course, there is a good alternative to make this journey and be able to take advantage of everything it has to offer. Usually, many travelers make the journey in stages, getting off at some cities to learn about part of their history and then resuming the trip to the next point of interest, thus being able to discover much more of the great cities they pass through. Something very similar to what we are going to do!

Starting from Yaroslavsky

It is 11:45 p.m. The Rossiya is leaving Moscow for Vladivostok. We have a 144-hour journey ahead of us to the easternmost tip of Asia. We are still in Europe though! We board the second-class carriage No. 7.

Second class, also known as the coupe carriage, consists of nine separate quadruple compartments, with four bunks (two on the bottom and two on top), a folding table and a sliding door. Other amenities include personal reading lights, storage space (built-in shelves above the door, boxes under the lower bunks, shelves on the wall next to each bunk).

Upper Second Class

A standard compartment in a superior carriage. Seats: 2 lower and 2 upper berths 70 cm wide. Bunk bed arrangement. Service included: food, hygiene kit, printed press. Car: 8-10 compartments, air conditioning, bio-toilets.

Vladimir may be too close to Moscow to plan a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but those who choose to get off the train at this point will have the opportunity to enter Russia’s Golden Ring, one of the most historically, culturally and artistically significant areas in the entire country.

Among the cities that form the ring, the most notable are Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Suzdal, Vladimir, Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky and Rostov Veliky, although our visit was limited to Vladimir and Suzdal, towns separated by only 36 kilometers.

The first historical references to Vladimir date back to the beginning of the 12th century, when it was merely a defensive outpost of the Rostov-Suzdal principality. However, by the mid-13th century, the city had already become an important capital in the northeast of the declining Kievan Rus, the Slavic state in which the Ukrainian, Russian and Byelorussian nationalities took root.

Vladimir has a rich cultural heritage. The place was inhabited since the Paleolithic, as the settlement of Sungir existed more than 25,000 years ago. The present city of Vladimir was founded in 1108 by the Kievan prince Vladimir Monomakh, although recent studies date its foundation to 990 by Vladimir the Great, considered the father of Russian Orthodoxy. Its importance reached its zenith under Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who made Vladimir the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and consequently the most important city in Russia, from 1157 until the Mongol invasion in 1238. From then on, the city began a gradual decline in favour of Moscow. It was still the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church until 1325 and the Grand Prince of Russia was crowned in Vladimir until 1432. The subsequent decline of the city helped preserve its medieval monuments. Vladimir is one of the cities of the Golden Ring and has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The restaurant car is located in the middle of the train and is easily accessible from any sleeping car. It is open 24/7 and the staff is always happy to help you with your orders. There is a wide selection of traditional Russian food and drinks, and vegetarian and baby menus are also available upon request.

Most of its main monuments were built during its heyday by both Russian and foreign architects. We will take a tour of the centre to discover the most interesting places, such as the Golden Gate. It was built in 1158 as the main entrance to the city, forming part of its 12th-century walls. It is crowned by a small church dedicated to the deposition of the Virgin Mary’s Mantle. It was formerly covered with gold plates.

The Assumption (Dormition) Cathedral, built by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky – who is buried there – in the former Vladimir Kremlin, was designed as the centre of the Russian church. Its paintings are among the most beautiful in Russian art. After the original frescoes that decorated its walls were destroyed by the Mongols in 1238, new ones were commissioned in 1408 from the great master Andrei Rublev. A beautiful baroque iconostasis was added in 1774. The church is considered one of the most important in Russia and has inspired many other churches and cathedrals throughout the country, starting with its namesake cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

St. Dimitri’s Cathedral. Built in 1194 as a royal church for Prince Vsevolod III, its treasure is the set of stone bas-reliefs that cover its façade, dedicated to King David, Alexander the Great and Samson, as well as the 12th-century frescoes inside, dedicated to the Last Judgement.

Near this last monument, crowning one of the best viewpoints in Pushkin Park, is an elegant statue in memory of Vladimir the Great (958-1015), a figure of vital importance in the Christianisation of Kievan Rus. In fact, Vladimir came to the throne as a pagan king who had hundreds of wives, and if it were not for the good impression that the Christians of Constantinople made on him, he could well have opted for any other influential religion in his domains.

However, the name of the municipality of Vladimir does not come from Vladimir the Great, but from his great-grandson Vladimir II of Monomachus (1053-1125), who founded and fortified the city, laying the foundations for its future rise.

Nizhny Novgorod

It is the capital of the oblast of the same name and of the Volga Federal District. With 1.25 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous city in the country, after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.

The city was founded in 1221 by Prince Yuri II of Vladimir. In 1612 Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized a large army to liberate Moscow from the Poles. In 1817, Nizhny Novgorod became a major center of trade and industry in the Russian Empire. It was also the birthplace of one of the greatest exponents of Soviet literature, Maxim Gorky; in fact, the name of the city was changed to “Gorky” from 1932 to 1990, during the time of the USSR.

The Gorky Automobile Plant was built in the city. During World War II, Gorky was the largest supplier of military equipment to the Eastern Front. Because of this, the Luftwaffe constantly bombed the city. The majority of German bombs exploded at the Gorky Automobile Plant. Although most of the buildings were completely destroyed, the townspeople rebuilt the factory in 100 days.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990, the city was renamed Nizhny Novgorod.

It has good museums and a lively cultural and gastronomic scene. It could almost go unnoticed by travellers were it not for its restored red-brick Kremlin (citadel in Russian), high up, overlooking the confluence of two great rivers: the Volga, the longest and most voluminous river in Europe, and the Oka. Another of its curiosities is the apartment of Andrei Sakharov, where you can see a peculiar exhibition about the life of this scientist-dissident who was exiled to this city in the 1980s.

Among its most striking monuments are exquisitely finished stone churches, such as the Rozhdestav Ioanna Predtechi or the Smolensk Icon of the Virgin, whose incredible view adjoins the solemn monument to Minin and Pozharsky, Russian heroes whose troops liberated Moscow from the Polish invasion in the 17th century. It is worth noting that there is another similar monument in Moscow’s Red Square.

Walking through its streets we find various monuments and peculiar buildings, Prokrovka Street being especially interesting; it has many places for tourists, such as cafes, souvenir shops and places that prepare international food, such as Chinese, Italian or Mexican. Nizhny Novgorod is a city of contrasts; it impresses us with its modern commercial buildings and delights us with its streets and monuments, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. For this reason, it is an excellent stop for the traveler on the Trans-Siberian route as well as a perfect place for lovers of history, river navigation and traditional architecture.

It has a well-preserved old city center, with many unique historical, architectural and cultural monuments that have led UNESCO to include Nizhny Novgorod on the list of 100 cities in the world that represent the world’s historical and cultural value.

Kotelnich

A city and river port in Kirov Oblast, the administrative center of the Kirov Oblast. Kotelnich is located on the right bank of the Vyatka River, near its confluence with the Moloma.

The village of Koksharov was first mentioned in a document in 1143. It was renamed Kotelnich in 1181, when settlers from the Novgorod Republic took over the village. This name may be derived from the Russian word kotiol, meaning depression or gorge.

The history of the town from the 12th to the 15th century is little known. It is mentioned again in a Russian document, when it was incorporated into the Muscovite domain by troops of Vasily II. After this event, the town developed somewhat due to its favourable geographical location on the Viatka, which made it a commercial town, which organised an annual agricultural fair from the 17th century, called Alekseyevska in honour of Tsar Alexei I.

For the restaurant car, it is important to note that only cash is accepted on board the train, so make sure you get it before boarding the train. If you are travelling in the 1st class compartment, you can order food from the restaurant car to be delivered to your cabin.

In 1715 it was attached to the Simbirsk guberniya, and in 1780 it was granted city status. At the end of the 19th century the first factories were built and at the beginning of the 20th century it was connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The arrival of the railway made the city lose its commercial importance.

On May 26, 1926, a huge fire destroyed two-thirds of the city, leaving 7,000 people homeless. It was rebuilt with donations from all over Russia. The fair was held for the last time that year.

On the banks of the Vyatka River, where the city is located, very important discoveries of pareiasaurus, reptiles from the Upper Permian, were made.

Kirov

City and administrative center, capital of the homonymous oblast. It is located in the center of European Russia. It has 501,000 inhabitants and was founded in 1174 with the name of Khlynov. It was renamed Vyatka (after the Viatka River) in 1780 and Kirov in 1934, in honor of Sergei Kirov.

The Khlynov Fortress, situated in the western Ural Mountains, was founded by merchants from Novgorod in 1374. The town is first mentioned in documents from 1457. Khlynov was incorporated into the Moscow Principality in 1489 and became known throughout Russia for its clay figurines. The oldest monument of the town is the Assumption Cathedral (1689), an imposing building crowned by five globular domes.

Smoking is strictly prohibited on all Russian trains and there is no special area where you can do so. If you are a smoker, the only option is to smoke outside while the train is stopping (but don’t miss your train by doing so!).

In 1781 Catherine the Great renamed Khlynov Vyatka and made it a separate government («guberniya»). The town also served as a place of exile for Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. Towards the end of the 19th century, it was an important station for the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In December 1934, it was renamed the Kirov Palace after the assassination of Soviet leader Sergei Kirov. The Imperial Orchestra, the largest orchestra in the world, was also founded here.

Glazov

Located in Udmurtia, north of its capital, Izhevsk, it is situated on the banks of the Cheptsa River, the main tributary of the Vyatka, which is a tributary of the Kama, which in turn is the main tributary of the Volga.

It was first mentioned in the 17th century as a village, and was granted city status in 1780. During the Russian Civil War, it had considerable military importance, being conquered by Anatoly Pepelyavev and General Aleksandr Kolchak on 2 June 1919.

Perm

A city and administrative centre of Perm Krai, situated on the Kama River in the European part of Russia, near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was known as Molotov, named after Vyacheslav Molotov. It is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

According to the 2010 census, the city was the 13th most populous city in Russia. When Perm was founded, it was already destined to become a major city, as it was located on the communication lines between Moscow and Siberia.

Tsar Michael IV of Russia was held captive here, and was murdered nearby on 10 June 1918, along with his secretary Nikolai Johnson, by the communist revolutionary authorities. During the Soviet era, the town was named Molotov.

In 2005, it ceased to be the capital of the Perm Oblast and became the capital of the Perm Krai, the result of the union of Permakia and Perm Oblast. Although it was a closed city during the Soviet era, it now has a vibrant cultural life and is vying to become an artistic reference in the country.

The city is home to a large number of museums. One of the most famous is the Perm State Gallery of Fine Arts. This gallery has a unique collection of wooden sculptures (called Permian sculpture, from the beginning of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century), created by craftsmen from the northern part of the Perm region. There are also works by Ilya Repin, Isaac Levitan, Alexei Savrasov, Valentin Serov and a very rich collection of Russian Orthodox icons.

The Perm Museum of Territorial Ethnography has several branches, including the Museum of Wooden Architecture in Khlovka, where works of wooden architecture from the Russian Empire, which have almost disappeared from the country, have been transferred. Other museums include the Museum of the Motovilija Factories (representing the works of these plants, mainly artillery), the Museums of the Perm State University (paleontological, zoological, university history), the Museum of the Doll Theatre, etc.

Bathrooms with small sinks are located at each end of the car. There is no shower on board, which is why it is recommended to split your train journey into a couple of sections in the main towns along your way.

Perm, the spirit of the Urals

Perm is considered to be the prototype of the fictional city of Yuryatin from Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago. For some time, the Nobel Prize winner worked at the Perm Motovilykha plant. In 2005, geologist and writer Semyon Vaksman published the book Yuryatin’s Guide at the Perm publishing house Knizhny Mir.

According to local legend, the inhabitants of the Russian city of Perm have salty ears. As an industrial capital close to some of the largest metal and salt mines, workers were said to have carried so many sacks of salt to Perm on their backs that a salty coating had stuck to their skin.

Before the Russians began exploiting these salt mines, this region was known as Great Perm after the Komi, a Finno-Ugric people who share ethnic and linguistic ties with Hungarians and Estonians. The Komi lived on the Kama River, which runs through the modern city of Perm, and in the surrounding Ural Mountains, one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges that separates Europe from Asia.

Today, the city of one million is shedding its image as a working-class town and reinventing itself as a cultural capital to rival Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It is one of the best places in Russia to see ballet and is the hometown of the famous theatre promoter Sergei Diaghilev. The town has a museum dedicated to Diaghilev and you can catch a performance at the Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre originally founded in part with a donation from Diaghilev’s grandfather.

Just outside the city lies Perm-36, Russia’s only gulag that is officially open to visitors. During Stalin’s years of repression, thousands of dissidents and intellectuals were sent to gulags, or labor camps. Rolls of barbed wire still surround the original building of Perm-36, concrete cells where prisoners were held.

PERM THIS IS WHY WE GOODBYE TO EUROPE! (Photo: Slavorum)

WE LEFT EUROPE BEHIND
WE ENTER ASIA AND SIBERIA

First city in Asia. We enter Siberia.

EKATERINBURG THIS IS HOW ASIA WELCOMES US! (Photo: Alexei Vladykin – AP)

Ekaterimburgo

The capital of the Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District. It is the fourth most populous city in the country, after Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk. It is located in the eastern part of the Ural mountain range, therefore, in the Asian sector of Russia.

The city was founded on 7 November 1723 by Vasili Tatíshchev and its name alludes to Catherine I of Russia, the second wife of Emperor Peter the Great, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

After the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Aleksandra Fyodorovna and their children, Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexey were executed by Bolsheviks in the Ipatiev House, located in this city.

Later, Boris Yeltsin, who was President of the Russian Federation, ordered the demolition of the Ipatiev House. Later, the Orthodox Church recognized the land where the house stood as holy ground and now an Orthodox church known as the Cathedral of Spilled Blood has been erected in its place.

When travelling on the Trans-Siberian, you should think about food and water during the journey. There is a restaurant car with daily specials, but for most it is better to bring non-perishable food for the journey. You can always ask the car attendant for some tea/coffee and a snack.

In the 1920s, Ekaterinburg became an important industrial center of Russia. The largest heavy machinery factory in Europe, Uralmash, was built here. From 1924 until 1991, the city was named Sverdlovsk after the Bolshevik leader Jakob M. Sverdlov and was a closed city cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union due to its strategic and military importance.

On May 1, 1960, an American U2 spy plane was shot down near Ekaterinburg and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was arrested and spent a year in prison serving a sentence of forced labor until he was exchanged in Potsdam (Germany) for a KGB officer detained by the FBI in the United States.

It is the administrative, industrial, cultural, scientific and educational centre of the region. The Ural branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located in Yekaterinburg, and there are several scientific and educational institutions, including the Ural State Technical University. The city is home to the Yekaterinburg-Koltsovo International Airport and a metro system opened in 1991. It is also an important stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Yekaterinburg is home to the Volga-Urals Military District Command of the Russian Ground Forces.

It is one of the sports centers of Russia. There are more than 1,700 sports facilities, including 16 stadiums, more than 400 indoor sports halls and 45 swimming pools. It was one of the 11 cities chosen to host the 2018 World Cup.

Visiting nearby points of interest requires a three-day stop, and at least a week if you want to explore part of the region.

THE MURDER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY In the 1880s, Ivan Redikortsev, an official involved in the mining industry, commissioned a two-storey house to be built on the side of a hill. The length of the façade was 31 metres. In 1898, the mansion passed to Sharavyev, a gold merchant with a tarnished reputation. Ten years later, the house was acquired by Nikolai Nikolaevich Ipatiev, a military engineer, who converted the ground floor into his office. It seems to have been on the basis of information supplied by Pyotr Voikov that Ipatiev was summoned to the office of the Ural Soviet in late April 1918 and ordered to vacate what was soon to be called the house of special purpose. The Tsar, his wife Alexandra Romanova, their four daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and their son Alexei, as well as Dr. Yevgeny Botkin, his assistant Demidova, the cook Kharitonov and the butler Trupp were murdered in the Ipatiev House by a Cheka squad under the command of Yakov Yurovsky on 17 July 1918. In 1997, the then First Secretary of the region, Boris Yeltsin, ordered the demolition of the Ipatiev House. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Church on Blood was built on the site, a site of pilgrimage for those wishing to honour the memory of the last Tsar and his family.

Tyumen

City and administrative center of Tyumen Oblast. It is located in Western Siberia on the Tura River – a tributary of the Tobol, which is a tributary of the Irtysh, which in turn is a tributary of the Ob – 2,104 kilometers from Moscow. It was founded in 1586 – making it the first Russian city in Siberia – and received city status in 1782.

The Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) Railway and the Trans-Siberian Railway pass through Tyumen, and it also has Roshino International Airport and the local Plekhanovo Airport.

As the administrative and economic centre of a region with large oil and gas production, Tyumen is the unofficial oil and gas capital of Russia.

Omsk

Located in south-central Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, capital of the eponymous oblast. With just over a million inhabitants, it is the seventh most populated in the country, behind Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. It is located on the banks of the Irtysh River, in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain.

During the time of Imperial Russia, it was the seat of the Governor-General of Western Siberia and later of the Governor-General of the Steppes. For a brief period during the Russian Civil War of 1918–19, it was proclaimed the capital of Russia and held the Empire’s gold reserves. Omsk is the administrative centre of the Siberian Cossacks, the seat of the Bishopric of Omsk and Tara and the Imam of Siberia. It was the site of the first nuclear reactor for civilian use in 1954.

The Omsk Vrubel Museum of Fine Arts has the largest art collection in Siberia, which includes the collection of foreign and Russian art from ancient times to the present day. The vast funds of the museum store paintings by outstanding masters of the brush, sculpture, original graphics, rare engravings, palace furniture, porcelain, glass and other unique objects of art.

At each stop on the Trans-Siberian you can get off at the predetermined time for each stop. On the platforms you will usually find local stalls selling all kinds of products, especially food. It is also a very good option at lunchtime. You can plan it perfectly by knowing the times and schedules of the stops.

The museum is located in two buildings in the centre of Omsk. One of them is the former palace of the General Governor, built by Wagner. In 1923 the building was handed over to the Museum of Western Siberia. On the second floor, in the large hall, there were about 90 works by outstanding Russian artists. The intellectual elite of the city had long dreamed of this, and in 1916 they gathered together to form the «Society of Artists and Lovers of Fine Arts of the Steppe Lands». The works collected by them formed the collection of the museum, opened in the Vrubel Art-Industrial College, which was opened in 1920.

By the mid-19th century, Omsk had become a center of Siberian exile. Probably one of the most famous names we will recognize from this period is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This literary god wrote some of the most famous Russian literature of all time, including Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. As was the case in those years, Dostoyevsky was sent into exile in Siberia because he belonged to the Petrashevsky group, a number of people accused of reading works that criticized Russian politics and religion. He spent four years in Katorga, a forced labor camp in Omsk.

The State Museum of Dostoyevsky Literature in Omsk is housed in one of the oldest buildings in the city – the house that was built for the commandants of the Omsk prison. The museum opened in 1983. Although it is dedicated to the history of Siberian literature, the core collection focuses on Fyodor Dostoyevsky, particularly his works relating to his time in Omsk. Pieces on display include a first edition of “Memoirs from the House of the Dead”, “Notes from the Motherland”, along with many magazine articles.

And finally…

…we are arriving… . The Rossiya is stopping after having travelled the first 3303 kilometres of its long journey to the Pacific. The third part of the journey is covered and we have travelled it with you. We have visited cultural sites, got off at each of the points of interest… which were practically all of them.

Rossiya has brought us a great part of Russia, of Russian history and culture, of its people, of its customs. And this has only been the first part, as incredible as it may seem, there are still four more to come!

But there is still a little bit left. Yes, the great city of Siberia. The third in Russia. A city that will surprise you, that will exercise your capacity for wonder. The simple fact of thinking that in the middle of that frozen territory, this great metropolis can rise. We leave you with Novosibirk, the epilogue of «Uniting Europe and Asia» and we meet again «In the heart of Siberia»

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is the new city of Siberia, located in south-central Russia, capital of the oblast of the same name and of the Siberian federal district. With just over one and a half million inhabitants, it is the third most populated city in the country, behind Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It is located on the Ob Plateau, on the banks of the river of the same name, near the Novosibirsk Reservoir formed by the Novosibirsk Hydroelectric Power Station Dam, and is the scientific, cultural, industrial, transport and financial centre of Siberia.

Founded in 1893 as a settlement for the builders of the railway bridge over the Ob River, Novosibirsk received a major boost in its development as a city following the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Between 1893 and 1925 it was known as Novonikolaevsk in honour of Tsar Nicholas II. It has the largest railway station along the Trans-Siberian route, the largest library in Siberia and the largest opera and ballet theatre in the country, surpassing even the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Also located in Novosibirsk is the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, considered one of the finest examples of Russian Orthodox Church architecture.

Novosibirsk is one of the major industrial centers of the Russian Federation. The main industries are energy, gas, water, metals, metallurgy and machine-building, which accounted for 94% of the total industrial output. It is also the scientific center of Russia. The city is home to more than 100 scientific research organizations, an Academic City, the Presidium of the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and more than 1,500 doctors of sciences and 3,400 candidates of doctorate of sciences live and work there.

One of the curiosities of the city is that it has one of the longest and straightest streets in the world. The length of Red Avenue (Krasny Prospekt), the central street of Novosibirsk, reaches almost 7 kilometers.

Another notable structure is the longest metro bridge in the world. The metro bridge across the Ob River connects two metro stations in Novosibirsk – “Studencheskaya” and “Rechoy vokzal”. The total length of the structure is 2,145 meters.

Due to the sheer size of the Novosibirsk Opera House, the largest in Russia with 1,762 seats in the main hall, it is commonly referred to by locals as the «Siberian Coliseum». The construction of the theatre was completed in 1944 after 10 years of work and the building soon became a symbol of the city.

The building has a total area of ​​11,837.8 square metres and is 60 metres high. The building’s dome is an excellent work of engineering that is supported without the need for columns or beams and is only 8 centimetres thick, making it a unique construction of its kind. The main hall is decorated with arches and columns that delimit the space and mark the entrance for the public to the seats. As decoration, between the columns there are 16 impressive white statues.

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk is an Orthodox cathedral and was one of the first buildings in the city to be built of stone. It was built between 1896 and 1899 in the neo-Byzantine style, but it was not until 1915 that it acquired the status of a cathedral. It is characterised by its brick walls and its large gold-coloured dome. The exterior appearance makes the interior surprising both for its large size and for its chromatic variety. The cathedral is named after one of the most famous Russian leaders of the Middle Ages, who became a saint, Alexander Nevsky, but the cathedral was also built in honour of Tsar Alexander III, the precursor of the Trans-Siberian railway thanks to which the city of Novosibirsk was founded.

On the other hand, there are six museums that cannot be missed: the West Siberian Railway Museum, the Novosibirsk State Museum of Nature and Local History, the Museum of the Dead, the Birch Wood Museum, the Galileo Park, the Museum of Art

A two- or three-day stopover will give you a good idea of ​​the city (another two days if you detour to nearby Tomsk). If you have a week or more, you can take a bus to the Altai Republic; its Mongol-Turkic heritage provides an interesting cultural contrast on this route.

Novosibirsk emerges from the clouds

Video Credits: Vadim Makhorov Youtube Channel

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