The Communal Bridge, back then (late 1970s)

The Communal Bridge, nowadays.

The unofficial capital of Siberia, the city of Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 with the initial population of only 8,000 people. By the time of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917,  it grew to the population size of 80,000. The name, literally meaning New Siberian City, was adopted in 1926 — and since then, the town had become to grow and prosper.By 1962, Novosibirsk became the youngest city in the world to have the population of 1 million — it only took about 70 years. Now it is an important industrial, cultural and socioeconomic hub of the country.

We realise that today’s post is a little different from our usual format, as the modern pictures of the city are, well, modern and not of the Soviet epoch. It is still nice to see, however, how the city has been changing over the past hundred years — and the old photographs are still full of life and very easy on the eye.

Apartment block nicknamed “The house of porters”. Late 1930s

“The house of porters” now

The Architecture Academy, 1929.

The Architecture Academy now.

The Train Terminal. Early 1930s.

The Train Terminal nowadays.

Now the three images of the City Trade Complex.

Back in those days, the city was called Novo-Nikolaevsk

The City Trade Complex in late 1920s

The Labour Day Parade, 1938.

Still one of the prettiest buildings around.

The Siberian Military HQ. 1940s = please note the horse carriage.

The Siberian Military HQ building, now.

Stalin Street (later renamed as Lenin St). 1938.

Lenin St Now.

Another view of then-Stalin St. Please note the green building of the Opera and Ballet Theatre.

A modern close up of the Opera and Ballet Theatre — it is the largest theatre of the kind in Europe.

The city centre. Note the parking lot for the coachmen.

The same street photographed from a similar spot much later — a modern photo.

And finally some shots of the main street of Novosibirsk — the Krasnyi (“Red”) Road.

1927.

Exactly the same spot — now

The house of the merchant Mashtakov. Late 1920s.

The house of the merchant Mashtakov nowadays.

1960s

1960–1965

The Krasnyi Road now.

Most images are courtesy of Egor Egoshin, and we are very grateful for that.

Related posts:

1. Best of Winter 2009–2010
2. How Khrushchev Had Killed the “Vampire”
3. May, 1st: Soviet Labour Day.

Since 1956 the enormous territory of the Soviet Union consisted of fifteen union republics — the large administrative and political units — officially known as Soviet republics.  By far the largest and most important of the union republics was the Russian Republic, containing about 51 percent of the population. Primarily because it encompassed Siberia, the Russian Republic alone accounts for 75 percent of the Soviet territory and formed the heartland of both the European and the Asian portions of the Soviet Union. Although in 1989 the Russians made up over 51 percent of the Soviet population and were in many ways the dominant nationality, they were just one of more than 100 nationality groups that made up the Soviet society.

Fourteen other major nationalities also had their own republics: in the European part there were the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Moldavian republics; the Georgian, Azerbaydzhan, and Armenian republics occupied the Caucasus; and Soviet Central Asia was home to the Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kirgiz, and Tadzhik republics.

The Soviet system also provided for the territorial and administrative subdivisions called autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, autonomous okruga, kraia, or most often oblasts. These subdivisions allowed the government to  manage the country easier and, arguably, more efficiently. In terms of political and administrative authority, more than 130 oblasts and autonomous oblasts resembled the counties of the United States, to some degree. Many oblasts, however, were about the size of the American states. For example, Tyumenskaya Oblast, the storehouse of Soviet fuels, was only slightly smaller than Alaska. A more appropriate comparison with counties, in terms of numbers and area, can be made with the more than 3,200 of raion, the Soviet Union’s smallest administrative and political subdivision.

Click image below to see full size map (1887px × 1313px, 412Kb).

Map of USSR, 1989

Related posts:

1. Soviet Union Timeline
2. Viticulture of the Soviet Union in Old Ad Posters
3. Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?