How artists painted Siberia

This harsh land has always attracted artists with its huge size, wild and beautiful nature, and a variety of climates.

Russians came to Siberia en masse in the second half of the 16th century. After overcoming the Ural Mountains, the tsarist troops and Cossack detachments began to slowly but surely move east.

Along the way, they founded small fortresses, which later turned into large cities (such as Irkutsk and Yakutsk). More than four centuries have passed since then, but even today the vast region remains underdeveloped and sparsely populated.

In the era of the Russian Empire, Siberia served as a place of exile for political opponents of the supreme power, participants in riots and rebellions, as well as all kinds of revolutionaries and anarchists. Until the early 1960s, this was also practiced in the Soviet Union.

Today Siberia is the treasury of Russia. There are huge reserves of various minerals, including lead, platinum, peat, coal, copper, gas, silver, and, of course, "black gold".

8 PHOTOS

1. The conquest of Siberia by Ermak Timofeevich, 1895. Vasily Surikov.

2. Taiga near Baikal, 1900 Konstantin Korovin.

3. Russian development of new lands, 1904. Claudius Lebedev.

4. Avvakum's journey through Siberia, 1898. Sergei Miloradovich.

5. Lake Karakol, 1916 Grigory Choros-Gurkin.

6. Siberia, 1894. Apollinary Vasnetsov.

7. Irtysh River, 1928 Vikenty Trofimov.

8. View of the Nikolsky Monastery on Lake Baikal, 1806. Andrey Martynov.