Novosilbirsk

Wednesday 9 August.

Having spent all day yesterday on the train (and learning how to write names in Russian and a few Russian phrases from our guide, Marina), this morning we continued through lush and heavily wooded Siberian forests travelling North West towards our next stop, Novosibirsk (New Siberia).

What is the name of this station? (Answer is in next blog)

Novosibirsk is Russia’s third largest city after Moscow and St Petersburg with a population of over 1.5 million.

Until the Trans Siberian was built, Novosibirsk didn’t exist and its rapid growth in the 20^th century is almost fully due to the railroad.  The population did suffer badly in the 1920s - 30,000 died due the civil war then 60,000 from a typhus epidemic that quickly followed. The town was originally named Novo-Nikolayevsk (in honour of the succession of the new Tsar) in the 1890s and renamed Novosibirsk in 1925.

Between 1926 and 1939 the population mushroomed due to access to rail transport and industry being set up - smelting furnaces were built and coal was supplied from the nearby Kuznetsk Valley and iron ore from the Urals. During WWII many military based industries were moved from West of the Urals and other venerable locations to Novosibirsk. Many remained after the war since their prior locations were severely damaged.

A branch line, the Turksib Railway was built in the early 1930s. It ran across Kazakhstan to fertile valleys in Central Asia near Almaty. Trade mainly was local grain being sent south in exchange for cotton.

During WWII many civilians & complete factories were shifted to Novosibirsk from European Russia and the city growth continued with the city now being the area’s busiest river port and major industrial center with engineering and metals production being major employers.

The later start to city planning and township growth allowed many large buildings to be built: Russia’s largest Opera house, a massive railway station and many wide and long streets. It has a large student populations and many fine dining establishments. It is also a ‘centre of scientific excellence’ for research in both science and medicine with a major facility located nearby in a purpose built lakeside town.

On arrival at the station there was light rain however a local group entertained us with singing and dancing.

Di dancing with the locals (Movie avail on our return home)

We visited the rail bridge that was built across the Ob River and the impressive statue of Alexander III in a park on the bank.

Behind Lenin Square the large majestic Opera and Ballet theatre is located. It was built in 1945 and is the largest theatre in Russia, even larger than the Bolshoi in Moscow.

At Lenin Square there are enormous statues of Lenin with his coat blowing behind him in the cold Siberian wind, and flanked by three arrogant-looking partisans the right and two ‘Peace’ figures on the left.

We passed the tiny Chapel of St Nicholas in the middle of the road and said to be the geographic center of Russia when it was built in 1915. (no longer correct after the breakup of the Soviet Union). It was demolished in 1930 and rebuilt in 1993 for Novosibirsk’s centenary.

It started to rain heavily so went to a local hotel had coffee and did "an ET” (phoned home) … then returned to the station to continue travelling West.

Rail station interior ..Cheers Vernon!