Omsk

Situation

The town of Omsk extends along banks from the river Irtych, on the level of its junction with the river Om. The river crosses the city of the south to north by describing a light loop. The center town is along the river, primarily on its Right Bank, at an altitude of 87 meters.

The city includes/understands five districts (okrug/округ) of which four are located on Right Bank of Irtych :

Tsentralny (271 400 inhabitants) includes/understands the north-eastern downtown area and part.
Oktiabrski (162 400 inhabitants) in the east of the downtown area.
Sovietski (256 100 inhabitants) in the North-West of the downtown area.
Leninski (194 400 inhabitants) in the south of the downtown area.
Kirovski (238 000 inhabitants) located on left bank of the river.

Climate

The climate, continental and dry, is characterized by changes of brutal times. The average temperatures are of 20°C in July and -19°C in January with specific extremes to this type of climate of 45°C in summer and -45°C in winter (averages calculated over the thirty last years). 300 days ago shone upon per annum and it annually falls 315 mm from rain.

History

The history of the city begins in 1716, when a fortress out of wooden is built to protect and sit the Russian influence in the Asian steppes threatened by the raids of Mongolian djungars. At the end of the century, Omsk is the place of Siberia best strengthened with a fort from now on in masonry of which there remains today two doors. Thereafter, whereas the borders of the empire were pushed back more in the east, Omsk becomes the seat of a bagne receiving many famous prisoners among whom Fédor Dostoïevski which took as a starting point its stay to write there its work Souvenirs of the house of dead the .

XIXe century

In second half of the 19th century the government of Western Siberia is transferred from Tobolsk to Omsk. The city develops slowly until the arrival of the Transsibérien in 1894. The city which counts then: 30000 inhabitants quickly will develop. The train, just like the rivers Om and navigable Irtych from China and the Central Asia, will play a great part in the economic development of the agglomeration, which becomes the turntable Siberian commercial at the beginning of the 20th century; the city counts then in its walls of many merchants and foreign investors, of the consulates are opened by the foreign powers. Within the framework of an exposure of agriculture and industry of Siberia organized in the city in 1910, a complex of buildings and fountains is built in the city. Many buildings of this time remained and gives to the city a seal which distinguishes it from the other towns of Siberia.

It is in Omsk that Jules Verne gives birth to the main character from the novel of the same name, Michel Strogoff . One of the key scenes of the history is held there. The work, having been written according to an abundant documentation, having been checked by the embassy of Russia and several Russian authors like Tourgueniev, one can suppose that the description of the city is faithful in its state of the years 1870.

Soviet era

During the civil war, the admiral Koltchak raises in Omsk an army of four hundred and thousand men - of which many Cosaque S - partly financed by the imperial gold reserve which had been folded up in the city become briefly the capital of the Russian Empire after the takeover of the Bolsheviks. The city which constitutes a key position for the control of Siberia east taken again in 1919 by the Bolsheviks and Kolchak must be folded up via the Trans-Siberian one in the east towards Iskoutsk.
In 1921 the Soviet government transfers the seat from Western Siberia to Novonikolaevsk (fame since Novossibirsk) of more recent creation, which makes lose in Omsk of many administrative employment like some of its educational and cultural activities. The competition between these two cities generated by this decision remained until our days.

During the Second world war, the German projection during the Opération Barbarossa involves the transfer to Omsk of many factories of construction of material militaire ; those turned to full mode partly thanks to the labor consisted the many refugees. The population of the city was multiplied at that time by three. Among moved industries in particular factories of construction of tank were. The concentration of arms factories did not have only advantages: the city was closed the abroads until in the Nineties and the collapse of the USSR with in corollary the reduction in the military investments involved a strong increase in unemployment.

In the years 1950, following the development of the oil fields and gas of Siberia, a refinery and a whole district dedicated to the employees of petrochemical industry are built in the north of the city along Irtych. It is the greatest complex of this type in Russia and the third by the size in Europe. The Gazprom company became the first employer of the city and uses his strong position in its relationship with the regional authorities and local elections

Contemporary period

Since the Nineties, Omsk, like all Russia, fights to find its place in the Russian new business. The former heads of the Communist party, new the businessmen and the criminal world together took the control of the most advantageous companies of the city. The most known case is that of Sibneft and was described by the NewYork Times . Until 2000, the enmity between the municipal authorities and regional made it possible to the inhabitants to have at least two points of view and certain work was completed for the public property like the creation of the international Siberian marathon (SIM), the celebration of the festival of the city and the construction of new recreation parks and the restoration of the downtown area. But the argument exhausted the financial resources of the city, two mayors was obliged to leave their station and was replaced by a person designated by the governor of the area, in station since the Soviet era. Currently all the levers of the area, including justice and the media, are between the hands of the regional government. The city knows a growth lower than the average Russian growth.

Monuments

The downtown area is located along the river, primarily on its Right Bank, with the site of the old fortress whose walls disappeared but which left many buildings of 18th and 19th centuries. The Lyubinsky prospekt (the street Lénine) is bordered of buildings of the end of 19th or the beginning of the 20th century sometimes capped with surmounted monumental green domes arrows, and pavements delimited by small low walls. Buildings of insurance companies, banks and companies built at the same time border the adjacent streets. The vastest religious building and most opulent is the cathedral Dormition, a pompeux building built in 1896 and capped with five domes, which had been destroyed at the time Soviet but who has just been méticuleusement restored with the beginning of the year 2000.

The Nikolsky prospekt , always bordered of shops out of wooden of tradesmen, leads to neo-classic the Saint Nicolas's Day cathedral of style, works ordered by the Cossacks and drawn by Vassili Stasov in 1840. One also finds samples of modern architecture like the concert hall in the shape of springboard and the market of trade built in the Eighties.

The town of Omsk contains 83 libraries, 9 museums and several theaters, oldest built 130 years ago. The reputation of the philharmonic orchestra and the chorus of Russian traditional songs exceed the borders of Siberia.

The museum of art is installed in the imposing palate of the governor builds between 1859 and 1862. The important exposed collection includes/understands works of Ilia Iefimovitsch Repin, Ivan Konstantinovitch Aivasovski, Vassili Ivanowitsch Surikov as well as many paintings of Michail Alexandrowitch Vrubel The archaeological museum and of popular arts exposes inter alia the skeleton of a mammoth, an archaeological collection and works of the Russian avant-garde.

Transport

The city is served by the two branches of Trans-Siberian and is located at the intersection of important roads serving the center of Russia. The M5 highway connects the city to Moscow via the capital of the the Ural Tcheliabinsk.

Boats of goods and passengers use the river which is thrown in Ob to transport the ores and the coal extracted the mines of Kazakhstan as well as oil the natural gas and the timber come from north from Siberia.

The airport (code AITA: WHO) connects the city with the principal Russian agglomerations as well as international destinations (especially of the German cities). All these facilities make of Omsk an entrance point for Siberia.

Public transport of the city is managed in direct control by the municipal authorities. The public transport rests primarily on the buses and the trolley buses. The tram lines are declining. The construction of an underground line was launched in 1992 but sorrow to succeed fault of financial means: 4 stations should be open in 2008.

There exist four bridges crossing Irtych on the territory of the city. The bridge of Leningrad is located at height of the Downtown area. The bridge of the 60e birthday of the victory is located at 2,5 km in north and will be borrowed, in the future, by the subway. The bridge of the organization of Soviet youth Lénine is 4 km more in north and connects the residential district located on left bank with the industrial park located at north. A loop line crosses the river 12 km to the south of the bridge of Leningrad . Between these two bridges is located a railway viaduct.

Economy

Industry

In the Fifties and Sixties, a large petrochemical complex settled in the city. In addition the principal industrial sectors present are the manufacture of machine tool, instruments, of electronics, light industry, the agro-alimentary one and the transformation of wood. One also finds construction aerospace, the manufacture of engines, agricultural machinery as well as material of drilling

The city constitutes the fourth economic pole of the country after Moscow, Saint-Petersbourg, Iekaterinbourg. The principal companies having their seat with Omsk are:

the oil conglomerate Gazprom Neft (formerly Sibneft)
a manufacturer of bus working with Volvo
the manufacturer of armament Transmash
the brewery Siberian Crown
Of many companies of aerospace, working leather and agro-alimentary.

Teaching

An inhabitant on four in Omsk studies in one of the 20 establishments of the higher education or university of the city. That Ci also includes/understands 44 research institutes of which an appendix of the Academy of Science of Moscow. Principal the establishment are in addition to the four universities (railway, technical, traditional and teaching), the academy of medicine, the Faculty of Law and the institute of the sports.

Sport

Each year proceeds in winter the Marathon of the Ices of Siberia. It is about a half-marathon which is run by an average temperature of -20°C which strongly requests the organizations. The test of 2001 beat in this field a record since the race proceeded by -42°C.

Omsk has with the team of Avangard Omsk a team of hockey of foreground which gained the national championship in 2004. The team belongs to the Roman Abramovitch billionaire who also holds the FC Chelsea. The football team of Omsk is the Irtych . The Olympic champions Alexei Tichtchenko (boxes), Irina Thachtchina (gymnastic) and Dmitri Likin (shooting) are children of the cities.

Population

Today eighty percent of the inhabitants of the area are of origin Russian, with strong minorities German and Ukrainian representing each one five percent of the population.

Children of the city

Margarita Breitkreiz (1980-), German actress.
Vissarion Chebaline (1902-1963), type-setter.
Valentina Talyzina (1935-), actress.
Mikhail Vroubel (1856-1910), Russian painter of the school of symbolism.
Jewsei Lwowitch Zeitlin (1948-), writer.
Valerian Kouïbychev (1888-1935), Soviet politician.

External bonds

IT Omsk.
Description and photographs of the city.
Phone book of Omsk

Be-X-old: Омск Simple: Omsk

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