By the time of the Bronze Age, Siberia was already settled by sophisticated cultures like the Scythians, who controlled parts of the Silk Road. But in 209 BC the Scythians were defeated by a loose Mongol coalition that ruled parts of Siberia for the next thousand years. As the Mongols grew stronger, they adopted a more formal government, headed by Khans (kings). The greatest of the kings—Genghis Khan—expanded the Mongol Empire until it covered roughly 22% of the earth’s landmass. By the time of Genghis’ death in 1227, the empire included most of southern and western Siberia. These lands, given to Genghis’ son Jochi, became known as the Golden Horde.
The decedents of the Golden Horde—the Tatars—raided and overcame the Slavic peoples that lived in modern-day European Russia. The only Russian state able to resist the Golden Horde was the Muscovy, named for its capital, Moscow. Assisted by the Orthodox Church, the Muscovy fought back, and won the decisive Battle of Kulikovo in 1389. The Golden Horde subsequently collapsed into smaller states, including the Khanate of Sibr. Today’s Siberia is named for this Tatar state.
By 1555, the roles of Siberia and Moscow were reversed when the Khan of Sibr agreed to pay tribute to Moscow. It was the Khan’s way of trying to hold off military action by the Moscow ruler, now called the Tsar. But the inevitable came in the 1581 when the Tsar Ivan IV’s forces marched into western Siberia.
During the 1600s, explorers and early settlers began to push further east from Russia. In addition to traders, convicts, and peasants, these settlers included a religious group known as the Old Believers (known as such because they rejected a series of reforms passed by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1666). Another famous group forced into Siberia was the Decembrists, members of an 1825 revolt against Tsar Nicolas I. As former elites—many were aristocrats—they brought learning and culture the frontier, where they founded schools and even a hospital.
With the creation of the Trans-Siberian railway, more and more Russians migrated to Siberia—as many as five million total by 1914. Most came to take advantage of a 1906 law that allowed farmers to claim Siberian land cheaply or even for free. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Siberia briefly declared its independence from the rest of Russia, but in the end it was incorporated into the USSR in 1922 under Vladimir Lenin.
With Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power and soon launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia. But with the dawn of World War II, the region suddenly became a safe area far removed from the fighting. Many factories were relocated, and Siberia became a new center of industry.
During the Cold War period, Siberian industry expanded into large-scale projects, like hydroelectric dams and vast agricultural improvements. But with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, parts of Siberia lost their industrial core and became backwaters. Today Siberia’s economy, which relies on scientific and computer industries, is showing hopeful signs.