About Tomsk
Tomsk scored 73th position in the Best Student Cities 2019 rankings, the third best in Russia after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.
Tomsk is a city in Western Siberia, the administrative center of Tomsk region. It is situated on the right bank of the River Tom, 50 km from the place of its confluence with the River Ob.
Highlights
- 1 airport, 1 train station, 4 hours by bus to Novosibirsk
- Area – 300 sq.km
- Population — approx. 560,000
- Leo Tolstoy Street in Tomsk runs along the meridian 85 degrees east.
- 49 museums
- Tomsk among TOP 500 the most innovative cities worldwide
Tomsk is an industrial center. Its leading spheres are the oil and gas industry, instrumentation, energetics, engineering, pharmaceutical and food industries.
The largest enterprises are Vostokgazprom, Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk, Tomskneftehim, Polus SPC, Sibelectromotor, Tomsk Electromechanical Factory, EleSi, Micran APF, Virion NGO, Tomskhimfarm, Tomskoe Pivo JSC, etc. Also, a candy factory and bakeries, and poultry farms operate in Tomsk.
Tomsk is well- known for it fast developing IT sector. Tomsk has at least 100 exporting IT companies. About 60 of them export their products outside of Russia, 40 - outside the Tomsk region. They are engaged in the development of software, services and applications, working in the field of telecommunications and production. For last couple of years, Tomsk attracts the greatest minds in the field of IT for International Conference “Gorod IT” (IT City).
Having said this, it is important to explain why Tomsk is proud to be called one of the best student cities in Russia and worldwide. Tomsk is an educational, scientific and innovation center. There are six state universities in the city (TSU, TPU, SibMed, TUSUR, TSUAB and TSPU), three non-state universities, nine branches of nonresident HEIs, 11 scientific and research institutes of the SB RAS and SB RAMS. There are six business incubators, centers of commercialization, technology transfers and other elements of the innovation infrastructure. A special economic zone for technology was opened in Tomsk in 2006.
Every year more than 60 000 students come to Tomsk for studies, 20% of them are international students. Worth saying that every 8th citizen of Tomsk is somehow related with University life; it is a student, a teacher or a professor. Tomsk attracts not only talented students but, also, international staff and projects.
Tomsk is a cultural center
Tomsk is a cultural center. The city has museums of local history and art, art galleries, exhibition halls, the Tomsk Museum of Wooden Architecture, Museum of the History of Tomsk, Memorial Museum “Remand prison of the NKVD”, museums in universities, and the Siberian Botanical Garden.
Spectators can visit the Theater of Drama, Theater of Young Spectators, Theater of puppet and actor “Skomorokh”, chamber theater, theater “Versiya”, and the theater of living puppets “2 plus Q”. The Philharmonic has an organ hall, there are several cinemas and there is a Palace of Shows and Sports. There are Orthodox churches, a mosque, a synagogue, a Catholic church and a Lutheran church in Tomsk. National-cultural autonomies and centers of national culture were created – about 25 associations in all.
A modern athletics arena "Harmony", indoor ice-court “Crystal”, 17 stadiums, 22 swimming pools, 35 ski lodges, 2 rowing bases, a ski jump, 6 tennis courts and about 500 gyms operate in Tomsk. The “Trud” stadium holds home matches of Tom FC – the club in the national league.
The main sight of Tomsk is wooden architecture
The main sight of Tomsk is wooden architecture. The city has preserved a unique array of wooden buildings, which transform whole areas into an open air museum of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are wonderful stone buildings – Voskresenskaya Church, the main buildings of TPU and TSU, the Research Library of TSU, House of Science, House of Officers, City Hall of Tomsk. The University Park, stone bridge over the River Ushaika and the White Lake are also among the many sights of Tomsk.
Original monuments have been erected in Tomsk: the monument to A.P. Chekhov stands at the waterfront of the River Tom. There is a monument to the patroness of students St. Tatyana, and monuments to Happiness, Baby in a Cabbage, Wooden Ruble and Home Slippers.
A little about the weather
Despite all the rumors about eternal winters in Siberia, Tomsk is quite unique place with regards to whether conditions. Here one can truly experience all four seasons. Summer can be very warm. The average temperature in summer is about +19°C (66,2 Fahrenheit), the highest recorded temperature was +37.7°C (99,86 Fahrenheit, July 2004). In autumn the temperature can fall down little below 0°C, sometimes it is quit rainy. The most beautiful month is September. It is called “Golden Autumn” because of the yellow colors and autumn leaf fall. Winters may be harsh. In January average temperature can be -17 °C Celsius (1,4 Fahrenheit) and sometimes the temperature can drop lower. However, already in the end of March and beginning of April, the temperature starts going up and the snow pile melt down. Interesting to know that in Tomsk the sun shines for more than 2000 hours a year - almost half of the possible time.
