Some facts

Vast territory

Due to its enormous territory Siberia is usually compared to Canada, the second biggest country in the world.
In the broadest sense Siberia is usually regarded as the whole eastern part of Russia. However, there exists the Siberian Federal District.

Unique nature

Baikal, the biggest freshwater lake in the world is a natural miracle. Two thirds of the species living in the lake are endemics, that is, they live only there. There is a number of unique animals like omul, golomyanka and nerpa. The birds living there are also unusual. Sable is a mammal known all over Russia, for it used to serve as currency in the period of exploration of Siberia.
Besides, you can observe enormous steppes, out-of-the way taiga, beautiful coasts of pure Sibe-rian rivers and glaring snow tops of the mountain ranges as well as blue bottomless sky. No wonder, Siberian nature attracts more and more tourists each year.

Religion for everybody

Siberia usually impresses by the number of religions practiced. Orthodox Christianity still plays a great role here, but apart from it various beliefs include Catholicism, Protestantism, denomina-tions of Christianity, Islam and others. Buddhism plays a great role, the biggest and the most im-portant temples are situated in the territory of Siberia. Native beliefs are of particular interst. They are various and present different local traditions of gods. Shamanism is the most consider-able one. Shamans practice worship, using strange and mystical techniques. Besides, there is a number of sacred places like Olkhon.

Urbanism and countryside

Most of the Siberians live in the cities with all kinds of modern facilities. Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million. The biggest cities include Tobolsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Omsk. All of them are of great historical and cultural interest

High-tech and science

To show an example of what Siberian technology is, we can observe the project that implies building a supercomputer Cyberia in Tomsk by companies “T-Platform”, Intel and Microsoft. It’s gonna be a base of the regional efficient equipment center. It’ll be the most powerful com-puter in the Commonwealth of Independent States and eastern Asia.

Subcultures

How do you think Siberian youth behaves? Not very different fron boys and girls shouting under your window we suppose. In Siberia different subcultures are represented by our youth. One can always meet goths, punks, emo-kids and others on the streets of Siberian cities. There are some places where they usually spend time, like clubs where different performances take place. A special event is an annual fetival that takes place on the isle of Olkhon in lake Baikal. It’s a great opportunity to feel the unity of all kinds of subcultures. Boys and girls as well as adults come and stay there with their camps for several days listening to the live music.