the Angara River and Lake Baikal, Four of the. world’s longest rivers intersect the vast region — the Ob, Amur, Lena, and Yenisei. Siberia’s principal lake, Baikal, is the world’s largest and deepest freshwater lake. Siberia produces 10% of the world’s annual fish catch. Siberia has the world’s coldest temperature and the world’s coldest winder. Icy Siberian winds bring cold chills in December-February to tropical countries like the Philippines. Siberia is the natural resources treasure house of Russia. It has the world’s largest deposits of oil and gas, coal and iron, forests as large as all of Europe, half of the world’s gold and diamonds. The best way to see Siberia is through railway. The Trans-Siberian Railway is the world’s longest direct railway line. It has connected Europe with Asia since 1891- 1905, when it was built. Its winding 5,430 mile route passes from Vladivostok, Beijing, Manchuria, Central Asia and Moscow. Two Filipino statesmen, then young men, went on this adventure. For the historic journey of Manuel Quezon and Teodoro Kalaw on the Trans-Siberian Railway, see Kalaw’s first book, Hacia de la Tierra del Tsar (To the Land of the Czar, Manila, 1908) During the days of the Russian Czars, many young communists (including Lenin, Stalin, and others) were exiled to Siberia. In turn, when they became the new leaders, they exiled enemies of the state to Siberia. The cruelties of the communist regime became the subject of Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s famous book, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956. A large part of the Siberian population is now composed of those exiles and their descendants. Previously, no religion was tolerated, but the open economy brought a religious revival, with many churches being built, 115 Siberia the largest being the Orthodox Russian denomination. History. In 1096 AD, the Russians subdued local tribes and began expeditions to conquer Siberia. By the end of the 17th century, Russia had colonized Siberia all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Russia neglected it, except to obtain the valuable animal fur, which was both a necessity and a luxury in the cold winters. To the lucrative government monopoly on fur was added mining and the prisoner camps. The building of the Trans-Siberian Railway (1891-1905) improved ss to the remote frontier, and brought more settlers, who came on their ‘own or followed the prisoners Russian conquest Oraehon hunter Fur store ‘Queen in fur