Timeline Siberia
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There are 29 indigenous groups in Siberia.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A12)
Chukchi: The people have a traditional breakfast dish made from
the semi-digested contents of reindeer's stomach plus blood, fat and
bits
of the small intestine.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
Evenk: A small group of Tungus-speaking hunters and reindeer
herders of Siberia. The word "shaman" comes from their language. Their
cousins, the Sitting Evenks, are fish eaters.
(NH, 3/97, p.36)(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
Eveny: a herding tribe of the Sakha semiautonomous Republic.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A8)
Sakha: (Yakut) A tribe of far eastern Siberia.
(NH, 3/97, p.38)
Samoyeds: The people live in the coldest regions and have an
Eskimo taste for pure fat.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
Yakut: The Yakut nation is a Turkish-speaking people.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
Yukaghir, a tribe of northeastern Siberia. Their first reaction
to the camera was to call it "The 3-legged device that draws a
person's
shadow to stone."
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
260-250 Mil In 2005 scientists
reported that a steady decline in the number of living species occurred
during this period followed by a sudden plunge 250 million years ago.
The interval corresponded to a period of prolonged volcanic activity
over a third of Siberia.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.A4)
c250 Mil BP The worst mass extinction in Earth’s
history occurred about this time. 90% of life in the oceans and 70% of
land animals disappeared within a million years due to a suspected
asteroid impact. This was later called the "Permian-Triassic
Extinction" and "The Great Dying." Scientists later suspected that an
eruption of flood basalt in Russia, the Siberian Traps, caused the
massive extinction. [see 225 and 200 mil]
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/10/02, p.A6)
c28,000BCE In 2001 Russian and Norwegian
archeologists reported evidence of humans camped at Mamontovaya Kurya
on the Usa River at the Arctic circle. A tusk was dated at 36,600 years
of age and plant remains at 30,000.
(SFC, 9/6/01, p.E2)
c28,000BCE In 2003 Russian scientists reported
evidence of a hunting site on the Yana River, Siberia, 300 miles north
of the Arctic Circle.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A2)
21000BC-18000BC In 2008 researchers reported that DNA
evidence indicated that 95% of native Americans had descended from 6
women of this period. It was believed that the women had lived in
Beringia, a land bridge that stretched from Asia to North America
during this time.
(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A12)
20000BC Some scientists believe that ancient people
from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge about this time and began
their southward migration into the Americas.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)
16000BC The west coast of North America deglaciated
by this time allowing people, who had crossed the Bering Strait land
bridge, to move south.
(SFC, 4/4/08, p.A4)
12000BC The last ice age ended about this time
flooding the land bridge between Alaska and Siberia.
(SFC, 4/4/08, p.A4)
1000BC Bronze age nomads erected mysterious megaliths
throughout regions of Mongolia and southern Siberia about this time.
Some scholars believed them to be the work of Iron Age peoples who
appeared by 700BC.
(Arch, 1/06, p.17)
c1000 The Yakut nation, a
Turkish-speaking people, wandered north about this time to avoid the
Mongols.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
1411-1430 Yishiha, a eunuch commander of the Ming
dynasty, took several expeditions down the Amur River, which the
Chinese called Heilongjiang (Black Dragon).
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.72)
1580 Jul, Some 540 Cossacks under
Yermak invaded the territory of the Vogels, subjects to Kutchum, the
Khan of Siberia. They were accompanied by 300 Lithuanian and German
slave laborers, whom the Stroganoffs had purchased from the Tsar.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1581 Russia began the conquest of
Siberia. Cossacks under Yermak subdued Vogul towns and captured a tax
collector of Khan Kutchum.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 May, Cossacks under Yermak
advanced on the capital of Sibir. A coalition of 6 Tatar princes
attacked them but lacked guns and were routed after several days of
battle.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Jun 29, Tatar forces attacked
invading Cossacks on the Tobol River but Cossack gunfire again repelled
them.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Sep, Tatar forces that
included Voguls and Ostiaks gathered at Mount Chyuvash to defend
against invading Cossacks.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Oct 1, Cossacks attempted to
storm the Tatar fort at Mount Chyuvash, but were held off.
(ON, 2/04, p.4)
1582 Oct 23, Cossacks attempted to
storm the Tatar fort at Mount Chyuvash for a 4th time when the Tatars
counterattacked. Over a 100 Cossacks were killed but their gunfire
forced a Tatar retreat allowed the capture of 2 Tatar cannons.
(ON, 2/04, p.4)
1582 Nov, Tsar Ivan IV sent an
official letter to the Stroganoff brothers accusing them of provoking
the Voguls and Ostiaks by sending Yermak and his Cossacks into Siberia.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1583 Envoys of Yermak reached Tsar
Ivan IV and presented him with valuable bundles of furs from Siberia.
Ivan wrote a full pardon for Yermak and his men and promised to send
reinforcements and supplies to Siberia.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1585 Aug 7, Tatar forces of Khan
Kutchum attacked a sleeping Cossack expedition under Yermak near the
mouth of the Vagay River in Siberia. The Cossacks were decimated and
Yermak drowned wearing a suit of armor given him by Tsar Ivan.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1640 Russia completed its conquest
of Siberia and reached the Pacific Ocean.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1643 Piotr Golovin, the Cossack
governor of Russia’s Yakutsk province, sent an expedition under Vasily
Poyarkov into the far eastern Amur watershed. After 3 winters Poyarkov
returned to Yakutsk with fewer than a quarter of his 160 men.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1685 Jun, Qing Emperor Kangxi sent
Manchu, Chinese and Daurian forces in a siege against Russians at
Albazino on the far eastern Amur River. Some 100 of 800 Russians were
killed on the first day of the attack. The survivors surrendered and
returned to Nerchinsk.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1686 Russians returned to Albazino
on the far eastern Amur River and were again attacked by the Manchus.
After a year’s siege they surrendered with only 40 of 900 alive.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1689 Russian and Manchu delegates
met at Nerchinsk and drew up a treaty in Latin. This was China’s first
treaty with a European power. China agreed to open up trade in exchange
for Russia’s withdrawal from the Amur.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1806 Apr, Nicolai Rezanov (42), a
director of the Russian-American Co., arrived in SF aboard the Juno. He
had proposed a California outpost to serve the Russian colonies in
Alaska and sailed south to establish a settlement on the Columbia River
but could not land there due to difficult seas. He sailed south to the
Presidio at Monterey and negotiated a trade deal with Commander Jose
Arguello. He also fell in love with Commander Arguello’s daughter and
proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)
1854 Nikolai Muraviev, a governor
of eastern Siberia, raised an 800-strong Cossack unit and floated
barges down the Shilka River to the mouth of the Amur River. Through
encroachment, diplomacy and impudence he secured the Amur Basin for the
Tsar.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.72)
1856 Lothar von Faber of Germany
bought a graphite mine in Siberia to secure raw material for his pencil
manufacturing operations.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.73)
1860 Perry McDonough Collins
(b.1813) authored “A Voyage Down the Amoor.” It told of his 1856-1857
journey down the river shortly before it was annexed by Russia. Perry
McDonough Collins was the visionary behind the Russian American
Telegraph of 1865-1867. The failed venture aimed to connect America to
Europe by telegraph via the Bering Strait.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1794606)(Econ, 12/19/09,
p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Collins)
1897-1902 The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was made
to study the biological and cultural connections between peoples on
each side of the Bering Strait. It was one of the first instances where
a camera was used in such a study.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1904 Jul 21, After 13 years, the
4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway was completed. [see Jul 31]
(MC, 7/21/02)
1904 Jul 31, The Trans-Siberian
railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, was
completed. [see Jul 21]
(HN, 7/31/98)
1908 Jun 30, An explosion near the
Tunguska River in Siberia incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled
the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It
flattened some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage
equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb. The explosion in Siberia,
which knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people
unconscious some 40 miles away, is believed by some scientists to be
caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.
(NH, 9/97, p.85)(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A15)(HN,
6/30/98)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.123)
1918 Jul, The US War Dept.
assigned some 9,000 soldiers from California and the Philippines for
duty in Siberia.
(Ind, 5/4/02, 5A)
1918 Sep 1, US troops landed in
Vladivostok, Siberia, and stayed until 1920. [see Sep 2]
(MC, 9/1/02)
1918 Sep 2, Some 9,000 soldiers
from California and the Philippines began arriving at Vladivostok under
Gen. William S. Graves. His orders said to stay out of trouble.
(Ind, 5/4/02, 5A)
1919 Nov 14, Red Army captured
Omsk, Siberia.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1920 Feb 7, Adm. Alexander Kolchak
(b.1874), commander of the White Army in Siberia during the civil war
that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was executed by a firing
squad in Irkutsk about a month after relinquishing command of
anti-Bolshevik forces. He was condemned in Soviet law as a
counterrevolutionary. In 2004 efforts began to exonerate him.
(AP, 12/7/04)(www.firstworldwar.com/bio/kolchak.htm)
1927 Dec, Leonid Kulik (d.1942),
Russian expert on meteorites, delivered his report to the Russian
Academy of Sciences on his 2nd trip to the Tunguska site in Siberia
regarding the 1908 meteorite explosion. He estimated that the meteorite
had weighed several thousand metric tons and convinced the academy to
sponsor another expedition in 1928.
(ON, 6/08, p.8)
1930 Jan 9, Johannes ("John")
Charles, Siberian contra-basso, snake handler, faith healer, grandson
of Rasputin, was born.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1947 Feb 12, A daytime fireball
& meteorite fell and was seen in eastern Siberia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1949-1951 In Moldova SSR 2 waves of deportations were
carried out, with some 40,000 Moldovans sent to Siberia and what is now
Kazakhstan.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1955 Jan 31, A document thus dated
stated that Yuri Rastvorov, a Soviet defector, told Eisenhower
administration officials in a private Jan 28 meeting that US and other
UN POWs were held in Siberia during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
(SFEC, 5/5/96, World p.1)
1957 AndreÏ Makine, writer,
was born in Siberia. He emigrated to Paris in 1987 where he authored
"Dreams of My Russian Summers" (1994), "The Crime of Olga Arbyelina"
(1998) and "Music of a Life" (2002).
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.M3)
1979 In Sverdlovsk, Siberia, there
was an explosion at Compound 19, a biological weapons lab. 96 people
were stricken from the release of anthrax bacterium and at least 66
[68] died. The name of the town was later changed to Yekaterinburg.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)
1982 Jun, "Farewell," a C.I.A.
campaign of computer sabotage, stayed secret because the blast,
estimated at three kilotons, took place in the Siberian wilderness,
with no casualties known. "The pipeline software that was to run the
pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire," writes Reed,
"to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far
beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result
was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from
space." "At the Abyss," by Thomas C. Reed, was published by Random
House in 2004.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/opinion/02SAFI.html)
1989 Jun 3, An explosion of a
liquefied gas pipeline engulfed two Trans-Siberian Railroad trains
parked outside the Central Asian city of Ufa in the Soviet Union. 575
people were killed.
(AP, 4/23/04)
1991 In Soviet times the Sakha
Republic was known as Yakutia. It is 4 times the size of Texas with
about one million inhabitants.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A8)
1992 Liantor, Siberia, was
incorporated as a town. Oil had been discovered in the 1980s and the
population grew to 15,000. The area had been inhabited by the Khanty
tribe, a Finno-Ugric speaking people.
(WSJ, 7/1/98, p.A1)
1994 Mar 23, A Russian Airbus
A-310 crashed in Siberia and some 70 people were killed.
(www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe?6223)
1997 Oct 19, It was reported that
Aman Tuleyev was elected as Communist governor of Kemerova, also known
as Kuzbass, a region in western Siberia.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A9)
1999 Oct 21, It was reported that
a French-led expedition chopped clear the fully preserved carcass of a
woolly mammoth, the "Jarkov Mammoth," from the permafrost of Siberia at
Khatanga, Russia. The project was financed in part by the Discovery
Channel and an int'l. TV broadcast was scheduled in Mar, 2000.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.C1)
1999 Apr 19, The number of
Siberian tigers living in the wilderness was reported to be less than
20. Loss of habitat due to deforestation was blamed.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Colin Thubron authored "In
Siberia."
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.93)
2001 Oct 4, A chartered Russian
Tupelov-154 airplane crashed in to the Black Sea and all 78 people
aboard were killed. The Sibir Airlines jet was bound to Novosibirsk
from Tel Aviv. An accidental missile strike from Ukrainian military
forces was suspected but denied by Ukraine officials. Pres. Putin said
terrorists might have been responsible. Later evidence indicated that
flight 1812 was hit by an S-200 missile. On Oct 12 Ukraine and Russia
acknowledged that an errant missile was the probable cause. In 2003
Ukraine agreed to pay $200,000 for each Israeli killed.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 11/21/03,
p.A1)(www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/100501crash.shtml)
2003 Apr 7, In the northern
Siberian republic of Yakutia a fire engulfed an old wooden school,
killing 21 students and a teacher.
(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Jun 16, An explosion
collapsed the ceiling in the Ziminka mine in the town of Prokopyevsk,
one of central Siberia's oldest coal mines, killing 11 miners and
trapping 4 others, who were later rescued.
(AP, 6/17/03)(AP, 6/18/03)
2004 Feb 26, In Siberia at least
15 people were killed and 17 more injured in a cafe explosion, which
apparently was caused by a natural gas leak.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Mar 18, It was reported that
only 40 of 426 Middle Chulym people continued to speak their native
language. Only 35 of 600 Tofa people still spoke their native language.
(SFC, 2/18/04, p.A7)
2004 Apr 10, In Siberia an
apparent methane blast ripped through a coal mine, killing at least 44
miners.
(AP, 4/11/04)(AP, 4/12/04)
2004 Aug 5, A helicopter
conducting a forest survey crashed in northern Siberia after apparent
engine trouble, killing all 15-16 people aboard.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2004 Oct 28, In western Siberia 13
coal miners died after an explosion ripped through a coal mine.
(AP, 10/28/04)
2004 Nov 10, In Siberia a fire in
a wooden apartment building left at least 26 dead in the Tuva region
capital, Kyzyl.
(AP, 11/13/04)
2005 Feb 9, An explosion ripped
through a mine in a coal-rich region of Siberia, killing at least 18
workers and leaving eight missing.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Jul 30, A Russia newspaper
reported that a strain of bird flu harmful to humans has been found in
an outbreak of the disease in Siberia.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Aug, Mikhail Yevdokimov, the
governor of the Altai region of Siberia, was killed when the speeding
car he was riding in smashed into a tree after colliding with the car
driven by Oleg Shcherbinsky. In 2006 Shcherbinsky was sentenced to four
years in a labor camp for his role in the car crash. Shcherbinsky had
testified that the governor was traveling at least 125 mph and that he
had no time to avoid the collision.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Jul 9, A Russian passenger
plane skidded off a rain-slicked Siberian runway and plowed through a
concrete barrier, bursting into flames. At least 118 people were killed
and about 14 still unaccounted for.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Siberia a blaze
broke out in the Darasun gold mine in the Chita region. 64 miners were
working underground when the fire broke out. 31 were rescued or
evacuated, including 15 who were hospitalized. Rescuers recovered 12
bodies. Eight miners emerged from the burning mine after two days. The
fate of at least nine others remained unknown in the accident that
killed at least 16. Rescuers on Sep 10 found the bodies of the last
four miners trapped deep underground at a remote Russian gold mine,
bringing the final death toll to 25. On Sep 11 Rescuers recovered the
bodies of the last of 25 miners.
(AP, 9/8/06)(AP, 9/9/06)(Reuters, 9/10/06)(AP,
9/11/06)
2006 Sep 13, A helicopter crashed
in Siberia, killing three of the four people aboard, an emergency
official said. The MD-600 helicopter crashed about 12 miles from the
city Novokuznetsk in the Kemerovo region about 1,850 miles east of
Moscow.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 30, In Siberia Enver
Ziganshin, chief engineer for Rusia Petroleum, was found shot dead at
his country home. Rusia Petroleum an affiliate of BP PLC’s Russian
joint venture, faced problems over its license to produce natural gas
at the large Konvykta field.
(WSJ, 10/3/06, p.A6)
2006 Dec 10, In Siberia 9 patients
of a clinic for the mentally ill died in a fire.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2007 Mar 19, A methane gas
explosion ripped through a Siberian coal mine, killing 110 miners in
the country's worst mining disaster in more than a decade.
(WSJ, 3/21/07, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/08)
2007 Apr 24, At a conference in
Moscow titled “Megaprojects of Russia’s East,” supporters proposed a
68-mile tunnel under the Bering Strait. The tunnel linking Alaska and
Siberia would cost $65 billion and take some 20 years to build.
(SFC, 4/25/07, p.A6)
2007 May 24, A methane explosion
tore through a coal mine in southern Siberia, killing 38 miners and
injuring seven others. One worker died days later raising the toll to
39.
(AP, 5/24/07)(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 Jul 21, Attackers dressed in
dark clothes and wielding metal pipes raided a camp of environmental
protesters near Angarsk, Siberia, leaving one dead and several injured.
Over 20 demonstrators had been camped out by a reservoir, about 2,600
miles east of Moscow, to protest nuclear waste processing at the
state-owned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2008 Jan 17, In Germany officials
said a troubled teen (16) is spending nine months in remote Siberia as
part of efforts to turn him away from violence. "If he doesn't hack
wood, his place is cold. If he doesn't get water, he can't wash."
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jul 29, Russian news said 2
small, manned submarines reached the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world's
deepest freshwater lake. The "Mir-1" and "Mir-2" submersibles descended
1.05 miles (1,680 meters) to the bottom of the vast Siberian lake.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2009 Jan 9, A Russian helicopter
owned by the state gas giant Gazprom crashed while on a hunting trip in
the mountains of Western Siberia, killing eight aboard. 3 people
survived. The crash involved government officials on an illegal hunt.
(AP, 1/11/09)(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 13, Russia’s Kontinental
Management said it has closed for good its Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill,
located on the southern edge of Lake Baikal. It halted production in
October. The plant has polluted the world's largest freshwater lake
with chemical effluent for decades.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 May 3, A gas explosion tore
through a Siberian apartment block and sparked a fire that engulfed the
building, killing eight people, including two children.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 29, Russian and American
officials formally dedicated a high-tech plant in southern Siberia,
built with the help of $1 billion from the US and designed to destroy
about 2 million chemical weapons shells.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Russia powerful
explosion took place during repair work at the Sayano-Shushinskaya
hydroelectric plant in southern Siberia. The death toll soon reached 69
with 6 still missing and feared dead after an engine room was suddenly
flooded. The accident produced an oil spill and the slick that floated
down the Yenisei River.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/21/09)(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Nov 1, A Russian heavy-lift
military cargo plane crashed on takeoff in Siberia, killing all 11 crew
members on board.
(AP, 11/1/09)
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