Tomsk is the administrative capital of Tomsk Region, which is located at the geographical center of Russia – in Siberia.


The Region

Tomsk Region’s territory is more than 300 000 square kilometers (over 120 000 sq miles), that is a little bit bigger than Italy, for instance. More than a half of territory is densely covered in taiga woods.

The greatest part of its 1 000 000 population lives in Tomsk city and its vicinities.

Natural resources are the main treasure of the Tomsk Region. Oil, natural gas, ferrous metals, timber, peat, and underground waters make resource extraction and processing industries a main drive for the economy, along with agriculture. The chemical and oil industries are the most developed in the region, followed by machine construction.


The City

One of the oldest Siberian cities, Tomsk was established in 1604 as a military stronghold outpost on the bank of river Tom, becoming a capital of enormous governorate by the beginning of XX century. The very first bookstore in Siberia, the first public library, the first Drama Theatre, and the first University – all these were opened here, in Tomsk. Later, with the arrival of evacuated major plants and facilities from the Soviet warzone during World War II, Tomsk received a great boost to its industrial development.

Modern Tomsk is a major center for education, science and technology innovation.

There are six state universities in Tomsk today. Recently, Tomsk State University and Tomsk Polytechnic University both were granted the status of a National Research Institution. It’s no wonder that Tomsk is the most youthful city in Russia: every fifth inhabitant is a student! And for those who graduated, but haven’t quenched their thirst for knowledge yet, there are 50 Research Institutes where in pursuing a scientific career they can apply all their skill and abilities.

Tomsk Special Economic Zone for Technical Innovations has been operating since 2005, gradually building up a cluster of hi-tech enterprises for IT and electronics, medicine and biotechnology, nanotechnologies and nano-materials, and resource saving technologies.

Technology parks, business incubators, centers for technology innovation, multiple-access computing centers, business support centers, and venture funds – these things are all common to Tomsk, living up to its century-old nickname “Siberian Athens” for proudly carrying forward the educational and scientific traditions of the ancient Greeks.

The climate in Tomsk is strongly continental, with cold snowy winters and mild to hot summers. The average temperature is -19 C (-2 F) for winter and +18 C (65 F) for summer.

Culturally Tomsk is world famous for its gorgeous historical wooden architecture.