Special Sub-Topic: Siberia, Land of Exile Authored by: Angarsk Sub-topic of: Asia - Regions

Which mountain range divides European Russia from Siberia?

Urals. The Urals also divide Europe from Asia; there is an obelisk marking the point where the two continents meet along the Trans-Siberian railway line. Family members saying farewell to departing exiles in Tsarist times were not allowed to accompany them beyond this point.

Siberia was opened up largely thanks to the building of the Trans-Siberian railway line. From which Moscow railway station do the Trans-Siberian trains depart?

Yaroslavsky station. The "official" Trans-Siberian is train number 2, which crosses the whole of Siberia and terminates in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East. The whole trip takes about seven days to complete.

The remoteness of Siberia has made it a favoured place of exile throughout Russia's history. Dostoyevsky was exiled for four years in which Siberian city?

Omsk. Dostoyevsky was exiled to Omsk for four years in 1849. He wrote a book based on his experiences as a prisoner there.

Eastern Siberia contains the world's largest freshwater lake. What is it called?

Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is 640 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide at its widest point. It is a mile deep, and contains twenty percent of the world's fresh water supplies. It is fed by 300 different rivers, but the Angara river is the only one which flows out of it.

Lake Baikal is home to many species of plant and animal which are found nowhere else on earth. One is a fish which locals consider a tasty delicacy. What is it called?

omul. The Baikal sturgeon can grow up to two metres in length. Golomanka is a cold water fish containing a special oil which locals believe can help to ease rheumatism. They also use it as fuel for lamps. Omul is a type of salmon.

In December 1825 a group of noblemen revolted against the Tsar. The uprising was suppressed, and many of its instigators exiled to Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia. What was the group known as?

Decembrists. In Irkutsk, you can visit the house [now a museum] where the leaders of the Decembrists, Sergei Troubetskoy and Sergei Volkonsky, lived in exile. Many of the Decembrists' wives followed them into exile although to do so was forbidden by law. Any children born to them in exile were reduced to serfdom. The Decembrists were officially pardoned in 1856.

Much of Siberia is covered by vast swathes of mainly coniferous forest. What is it called in Russian?

taiga. The taiga covers three million square miles, and accounts for over 20 percent of the world's total forest area. The tundra is a vast, treeless expanse of land, much of which lies in Siberia, and the steppes are vast grasslands in Russia and other countries of the CIS.

Many of the most notorious Soviet labour-camps were scattered throughout Siberia. Many thousands of prisoners died in the gold and uranium mines of which area?

Kolyma Peninsula. There were also many labour camps in Vorkuta; Yakutia is known more particularly for its diamond mines, and the Kamchatka Peninsula was until very recently a closed military area containing some of the world's most spectacular active volcanoes and the world-renowned Valley of the Geysers.

Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918 in a Western Siberian city which was subsequently named after the official who ordered their execution. After the fall of the Soviet Union it reverted to its pre-revolutionary name. What is it?

Yekaterinburg. Only in the last few years has an official monument to mark the event been built. The only remaining traces of the original site were erased in Soviet times by the mayor of what was then called Sverdlovsk - one Boris Nikolaievich Yeltsin.

The Eastern Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk stands on a river which is, in volume, the largest in Russia, and is 4129 kilometres long. What is it called?

Yenisei. Some of the world's most impressive rivers flow across Siberia, including the Yenisei, the Kolyma, the Angara, the Lena, and the Ob-Irtysh. Krasnoyarsk is still a major supplier of electricity to other parts of Russia.