Siberia (Sibir) Extensive region of Asian Russia, extending e to w from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and n to s from the Arctic Ocean to the steppes of Kazakstan and the border with Mongolia. The region includes areas of tundra, taiga, and steppe, almost half of it is forested. Drained chiefly by vast north-flowing rivers, Ob, Yenisei, and Lena and their tributaries, Siberia divides into five geographical areas: (1)the w Siberian plain, between the Urals and the Central Plateau, favours dairy farming, but wheat, oats, flax, potatoes, rye, and sugar beet are also grown. Two-thirds of the population live in the sw, where industry concentrates in cities such as Novosibirsk and Omsk, and in the Kuznetz Basin, which has large coal deposits;(2)the Central Siberian plateau, between the Yenisei and Lena rivers. Krasnoyarsk lies on the Yenisei and the city of Yakutsk on the Lena. The region is Russia's chief producer of gold, mica, diamonds, and aluminium, and forestry is an important industry;(3)the ne Siberian mountains lie to the e of the Lena. The region is sparsely populated due to the Arctic climate. Verkhoyansk is the world's coldest permanent settlement. The breeding of reindeer, fishing, and seal-hunting are the chief occupations;(4)the mountains of the s Trans-Baikal region form the watershed between the Pacific and the Arctic. The major city is Irkutsk, close to Lake Baikal;(5)the volcanic and mountainous Kamchatka Peninsula. The Russian Cossacks conquered Siberia between 1581 and 1644, although the Far Eastern territory was held by the Chinese until 1860. Mining developed in the 19th century, and the region became a penal colony for political prisoners of the Russian Empire and its Soviet successors. Settlement on a large scale came only after the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway between 1881 and 1905; Siberia's population doubled between 1914 and 1946. The economic development of the region was rapid. The importance of Siberian grain to Russian agriculture was emphasized during World War 2, and in the 1950s Khrushchev encouraged the cultivation of land in the sw. The 1960s witnessed the development of vast hydroelectric schemes in the Trans-Baikal region. Area: 13,807,000sq km (5,331,000sq mi). Pop. (1994) 35,605,000.