 |
Novosibirsk
|
|---|
| Population: | 1,400,000 |
| Ethnic Groups: | Russian; |
| Founded: | 1893 |
| Industry: | Machinery Manufacturing
Metallurgy |
|
| Location |
Climate |
| Longitude |
Latitude |
Altitude |
Time Zone |
Temperature |
Precipitation |
| 82° 55' E |
55° 02'N |
600ft.
200 m |
| GMT |
+8 hours |
| Moscow |
+4 hours |
|
| January |
-16° C |
| July |
+20° C |
|
13 inches
35cm |
|
Novosibirsk is city that prides itself on size: it is the third-largest city
in Russia (the biggest city east of the Urals), has the biggest railway
station along the trans-Siberian route, the biggest library in Siberia, and
the biggest opera/ballet theater in all of Russia -- even bigger than Moscow's
Bolshoy. The red-brick Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, while not the
biggest, is considered one of the finest existing examples of pure Russian
Orthodox architecture.
In 1943, the Academy of Sciences opened up its Siberian branch in
Novosibirsk, which signalled the beginning of the city's transformation into
the educational hub of Siberian Russia. While many research institutes are
located within Novosibirsk itself, still many more are clustered in
Academgorodok, a small city founded in the 1950's by the Academy, 30 km south
of Novosibirsk.
At its height, Academgorodok was home to 65,000 scientists and their
families, and was a priviliged area to live in, with well-stocked stores and
dachas for the academic elite. Gorbachev's perestroika was initially conceived
here, by economists who where then relocated to Moscow to author the economic
revolution. In recent years, Academgorodok has fallen on hard times thanks to
slashes in government funding, and many of the younger researchers who once
populated the town have left.
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