Editing Siberia (section)

==History==
{{Main|Prehistory of Siberia|History of Siberia|List of Russian explorers}}
===Prehistory===
[[File:Steppes horseman hunting.jpg|thumb|300px|Horseman hunting, with characteristic [[Xiongnu]] [[horse trappings]], southern Siberia, 280–180 BC. [[Hermitage Museum]].<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>]]

Siberia in [[Paleozoic]] times formed the continent of [[Siberia (continent)|Siberia/Angaraland]], which fused to [[Laurasia|Euramerica]] during the Late [[Carboniferous]], as part of the formation of [[Pangea]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>

The [[Siberian Traps]] were formed by one of the largest-known volcanic events of the last 251&nbsp;million years of [[Earth's geological history]]. Their activity continued for a million years and some scientists consider it a possible cause of the "[[Permian–Triassic extinction event|Great Dying]]" about 250&nbsp;million years ago,<ref>{{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&nbsp;million years ago – the most severe extinction event in Earth's history.}}. Discovery Channel.</ref> – estimated to have killed 90% of species existing at the time.<ref>{{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}}
</ref>

The region has [[Paleontology|paleontological]] significance, as it contains bodies of [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] animals from the [[Pleistocene]] [[epoch (geology)|Epoch]], preserved in ice or [[permafrost]]. Specimens of [[Panthera leo spelaea#Specimens|Goldfuss cave lion cubs]], [[Yuka (mammoth)|Yuka]] the mammoth and another [[woolly mammoth]] from [[Oymyakon]], a [[woolly rhinoceros]] from the [[Kolyma (river)|Kolyma]], and [[bison]] and [[horse]]s from [[Yukagir]] have been found.<ref name=Thesiberiantimes2015>{{cite web |title = Meet this extinct cave lion, at least 10,000&nbsp;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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

At least three species of humans lived in southern Siberia around 40,000 years ago: ''[[Homo sapiens|H. sapiens]]'', ''[[Neanderthal|H. neanderthalensis]]'', and the [[Denisovans]].<ref name="Woman X">"
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8583254.stm DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman']," BBC News. 25 March 2010.
</ref>
In 2010, DNA evidence identified the last as a separate species.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 

Late Paleolithic southern Siberians appear to be related to Paleolithic Europeans and the Paleolithic [[Jōmon people]] of Japan.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Evans2019">{{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}}|</ref> 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 [[Genetic history of East Asians|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 Beringian|Ancient Native Americans]], which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

===Early history===
[[File:Choris, Tschuktschen.jpg|thumb|right|[[Chukchi people|Chukchi]], one of many [[Indigenous peoples of Siberia]]. Representation of a Chukchi family by [[Louis Choris]] (1816)]]
During past millennia, different groups of [[nomad]]s – such as the [[Enets]], the [[Nenets people|Nenets]], the [[Huns]], the [[Xiongnu]], the [[Scythians]], and the [[Yugur]] – inhabited various parts of Siberia. The [[Afanasievo culture|Afanasievo]] and [[Tashtyk culture]]s of the [[Yenisey]] valley and Altay Mountains are associated with the [[Indo-European migrations]] across Eurasia.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The proto-Mongol [[Khitan people]] also occupied parts of the region.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

In the 13th century, during the period of the [[Mongol Empire]], the Mongols conquered a large part of this area.<ref>{{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.}}</ref> With the breakup of the [[Golden Horde]], the autonomous [[Khanate of Sibir]] was formed in the late-15th century. Turkic-speaking [[Yakuts|Yakut]] migrated north from the [[Lake Baikal]] region under pressure from the Mongol tribes from the 13th to 15th centuries.<ref>{{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}}}}</ref> 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".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=i85noYD9C0EC&pg=PA538 Richards, 2003] p. 538.</ref>

====Early Russian exploration====
{{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 Republic|Novgorod]] established two trade routes to the [[Ob (river)|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 [[Fur trade|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 [[Principality of Moscow|Moscow]], the newly emerging centralized Russian state also laid claim to the region, with [[Ivan III of Russia]] sending [[Yugra campaigns|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 [[Cossack]]s 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, Omsk Oblast|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 (river)|Ob]].<ref>''[[:File:CEM-15-Asia-Mercator-1595-Russia-2533.jpg|Asia ex magna Orbis terrae descriptione Gerardi Mercatoris desumpta, studio & industria G.M. Iunioris]]''</ref> Other sources{{which|date= September 2017}} contend that the [[Sibe people|Sibe]], an Indigenous [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic people]], offered fierce resistance to Russian expansion beyond the Urals. Some suggest that the term "Siberia" is a russification of their ethnonym.<ref name=manchus213/>

===Russian Empire===
[[File:Coat of Arms of Siberian Tsarstvo 1882.svg|thumb|left|upright=0.3|Coat of arms of Siberia, which was a part of the Russian Imperial Coat of Arms until 1917]]
[[File:Map Siberian route english.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75| Map of the [[Siberian Route]] 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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> Siberia became one of the destinations for sending internal [[exile]]s. Exile was the main Russian punitive practice with more than 800,000 people exiled during the nineteenth century.<ref>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]</ref><ref>
{{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.
}}
</ref>

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 of Russia|Nicholas II]] ({{reign | 1894 | 1917}}). Around seven million Russians moved to Siberia from Europe between 1801 and 1914.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Between 1859 and 1917, more than half a million people migrated to the Russian Far East.<ref>''[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}}</ref> Siberia has extensive natural resources: during the 20th century, large-scale exploitation of these took place, and industrial towns cropped up throughout the region.<ref>Fiona Hill, [http://www.theglobalist.com/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=3727 Russia&nbsp;— 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.</ref>

At 7:15&nbsp;a.m. on 30 June 1908, the [[Tunguska Event]] felled millions of trees near the [[Podkamennaya Tunguska|Podkamennaya Tunguska River (Stony Tunguska River)]] in central Siberia. Most scientists believe this resulted from the [[meteor air burst|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.<ref>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}}.</ref>

===Soviet Union===
[[File:Novosibirsk-Karimov.jpg|thumb|left|Siberian [[Cossack]] 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 camp]]s, replacing the previous [[katorga]] system.<ref>[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}}</ref> According to semi-official Soviet estimates, which did not become public until after the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|fall of the Soviet government]] in 1991, from 1929 to 1953 more than 14&nbsp;million people passed through these camps and prisons, many of them in Siberia. Another seven to eight million people were [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|internally deported]] to remote areas of the Soviet Union (including entire nationalities or ethnicities in several cases).<ref>[[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."</ref>

Half a million (516,841) prisoners died in camps from 1941 to 1943<ref>Zemskov, "Gulag," ''Sociologičeskije issledovanija,'' 1991, No. 6, pp. 14–15.</ref> during [[World War II]].{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} At other periods, mortality was comparatively lower.<ref>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."</ref> 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 (river)|Kolyma]] and ''[[Norillag]]'' near [[Norilsk]], where 69,000 prisoners lived in 1952.<ref>Courtois and Kramer (1999), [https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&pg=PA239 ''Livre noir du Communisme,'' p.239. ]</ref> Major industrial cities of Northern Siberia, such as Norilsk and [[Magadan]], developed from camps built by prisoners and run by former prisoners.<ref>
{{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.
}}
</ref>

===Russian Federation===
{{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]].<ref>{{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 }}</ref>