Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Novosibirsk Oblast known for?

Novosibirsk Oblast is known for its place in Western Siberia and for Novosibirsk, the third-largest city in Russia, which sits at its centre. The region gathers the country of southwestern Siberia around that single large city, a young federal subject drawn together in 1937. Siberia sets the scale.

Its borders run to Kazakhstan in the southwest and to Omsk Oblast, Tomsk Oblast, and Kemerovo Oblast, marking a wide region of the Russian Federation. One city holds the middle.

Where is Novosibirsk Oblast?

Novosibirsk Oblast lies in southwestern Siberia, a wide region of the Russian Federation set among its neighbours on every side. It borders Kazakhstan to the southwest and Omsk Oblast to the west, with Tomsk Oblast lying to the north. Land rings it all around.

To the east it meets Kemerovo Oblast and to the south Altai Krai, so the oblast sits enclosed by other regions rather than by any coast, deep in the Siberian interior. The city fixes the centre. Novosibirsk stands at the centre of the oblast, the third-largest city in Russia and the point from which the surrounding country of southwestern Siberia is reckoned.

Distance defines the rest. From that hub the region spreads outward toward its many borders, a broad stretch of Siberia bound into the Russian Federation and measured from one great city at its heart.

What is Novosibirsk Oblast like?

Novosibirsk Oblast feels like Siberia gathered around one big city. The region speaks Russian and lives at the pace of the Russian Federation, but its scale is Siberian, its distances long and its winters part of the character. Space defines it.

Novosibirsk, the third-largest city in Russia, concentrates the life of the oblast, so that the country toward Kazakhstan and the neighbouring oblasts reads as the quieter frame around a single busy centre. One centre carries the weight. As a young federal subject drawn together in 1937, Novosibirsk Oblast took shape around its central city rather than around any older provincial capital, giving southwestern Siberia a modern hub in place of a long-settled one.

The new city leads. Life here is the life of Russia stretched across Siberian ground, ordered by one large town and the wide region of the Russian Federation around it.

What is the history of Novosibirsk Oblast?

Novosibirsk Oblast was drawn together in 1937, a young region carved from the wider country of southwestern Siberia. It formed around the city of Novosibirsk, which stands as the third-largest city in Russia and the centre the oblast was built to serve. Novosibirsk predated the oblast that formed around it.

From 1937 the territory was governed as one federal subject of the Russian Federation, its shape set by the borders it shares with Kazakhstan and the neighbouring oblasts. A new region on old Siberian ground.

What is the climate of Novosibirsk Oblast?

Novosibirsk Oblast has the sharp continental climate of the Siberian interior, far from any sea to soften it. Winters run long and cold across southwestern Siberia, holding the region in frost and snow through the dark half of the year. Summers are short and warm.

The distance from the coast swings the year hard between its ends, so Novosibirsk and the country toward Kazakhstan share a climate of deep cold and brief heat rather than any mild middle. Extremes mark the seasons.

How do you get to Novosibirsk Oblast?

Novosibirsk is the way into the oblast, the third-largest city in Russia and the point where travel across southwestern Siberia converges. Most journeys into Novosibirsk Oblast run first to that city, since the region's links gather on the hub rather than on the wide country toward Kazakhstan and the neighbouring oblasts. The city is the gate.

From there the routes lead outward across the Siberian distances of the Russian Federation, reaching the towns spread through the region. Reach the hub, then go on.