Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
O
Ob River
A river that rises in southwestern Siberia on the
northern side of the Altai Mountains and flows
into the Arctic Ocean, the Ob is joined by the
Irtysh River in western Siberia to form a river
system of about 3,400 miles, the largest in Asia
and the fourth-largest in the world. In its early
stages the Ob drains more populated regions of
Siberia, flowing in a northern direction past the
cities of Barnaul, Novosibirsk, and Tomsk. Past
Tomsk it flows in a generally northwestern direc-
tion through western Siberia before joining with
the Irtysh at Khanty-Mansiisk, after which it
turns sharply to the north for the last 500 miles
of its course before emptying into the Gulf of Ob,
an arm of the Arctic Ocean, near the town of
Salekh. In its total course the Ob drains a vast area
of more than 1 million square miles and, although
navigation is closed in the winter months, it serves
as the region's main route for the transportation
of lumber and grain. The lower reaches of the Ob
formed the easternmost part of the vast trade
network developed by Novgorod merchants and
peasants across northern Russia in the centuries
before 1450. In turn, the upper basin of the Ob
was part of the Khanate of Siberia, one of the
successor states to the Mongols'
GOLDEN HORDE
,
until 1582, when the Khanate was conquered by
the Muscovite state. In the early 17th century,
the Ob river basin was the staging point for the
further Russian exploration and conquest of
Siberia. During the
STALIN
years, the vast unpop-
ulated area spreading between the right bank of
the Ob and the Arctic Ocean was the site of hun-
dreds of camps of complete isolation for political
prisoners.
October Revolution
(1917)
The second of two revolutions in 1917, the Octo-
ber Revolution (also known as the
BOLSHEVIK
Revolution) led to the establishment of a Bol-
shevik-led Soviet government that in 1923
became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, or Soviet Union, which ruled Russia
and the lands of the former Russian Empire until
1991. The seeds of the October Revolution were
planted in the inability of the Provisional Gov-
ernment, formed during the
FEBRUARY REVOLU
-
TION
, to effectively establish its authority in the
city of Petrograd (
ST
.
PETERSBURG
) and across Rus-
sia during the spring and summer of 1917. Its
authority was already limited by the system of
“dual power” that had been created as a result of
the
FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
, by which the Provi-
sional Government shared de facto power with
the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers'
Deputies, the leading members of a nationwide
network of soviets that sprang out in the early
months after the fall of the monarchy. Unable to
stop rampant inflation and improve the supply of
food to the cities, the Provisional Government
also lost much of its meager political capital
because of its continuing commitment to fighting
World War I, a policy with which the leader of
the Provisional Government, Aleksandr
KEREN
-
SKY
was closely identified. During the summer of
1917, the government beat back a premature
Bolshevik-supported rising in Petrograd, known
as the
JULY DAYS
, which temporarily weakened
the leftist forces allied to the Bolsheviks and
forced Vladimir
LENIN
to seek refuge in Finland.
By August 1917, however, the Provisional Gov-
ernment was now being threatened from the
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