 Omskaya Oblast is situated in the south of the West Siberian plain on the middle current of Irtysh.
Minerals are clay, sand, marl and peat.
The climate is continental, rather cold. Winters are long and severe with the average temperatures of January about 20 degrees below zero. Summers are short, and the average temperature of July is about 20 degrees centigrade.
Extension of the territory from the north to the south (450-500 km) results in significant fluctuations of the climate.
All the rivers pertain to the basin of Irtysh that crosses the region over more than 1 thousand kilometers. The largest tributaries are the rivers of Om and Tara.
Forests and bushes occupy more than 1/4 of the territory of the oblast. The main sorts are the cedar, fur-tree, fir, birch and aspen.
The most valuable animals are the squirrel, Siberian weasel, ermine, fox, roe, elk, wolf, bear, hare, polecat and suslik. In numerous lakes and pools there are a lot of ducks, geese, blackcocks, partridges and wood-grouses.
Omskaya Oblast was founded on December 7, 1934. Its area is 139,7 thousand sq. km. (0,82 % of the total area of the Russian Federation). The oblast borders upon Kazakhstan, Tyumenskaya Oblast in the west and the north, Tomskaya and Novosibirskaya Oblasts in the east. It is divided into 31 districts, includes 6 cities and 17 urban villages. The regional centre is Omsk. Distance to Moscow is 2555 km.
The culture of the Irtysh region began to develop long before our times. The Huns, Avars, Urars, Turkis and Mongols left their traces here. After the collapse of the Tatar Siberian Khanate in the end of XVI century here began to develop the culture of Cossacks. After the Revolution, in 1924, the Omsk province was in rather good shape. Now Omskaya Oblast is the largest industrial and cultural centre of Siberia.
In the region people of many nationalities live side by side preserving and developing their national traditions and culture. There are more than 970 public political, national and cultural organizations. Largest of them are the Centre of Russian Culture, the Tatar and Bashkir Cultural Centre, the Kazakh branch of the International Society "Kazakh - Tili", the Ukrainian Cultural Centre "Prosvita", the German Cultural Societies "Soglasiye" and "Wiedergeburg", the Jewish Cultural Society "Shalom", the Society of the Russian Latvians, the Finnish Cultural Centre and the Armenian Cultural Centre "Luis".
Many talented people live here. Among them are directors and artists, poets and writers, singers and composers: Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich (1856-1910, Russian poet Vasiliyev Pavel Nikolayevich (1910-1937). Here was born Dravert Peter Ludovikovich (1879-1945), Karbyshev Dmitry Mikhailovich (1880-1945, Pevtsov Mikhail Vasiliyevich (1843-1902).
Here live such modern talents and honored artists of Russia as Vladimir Fedorovich Vitko, People's artists of Russia Belov Kondraty Petrovich and Liberov Alexey Nikolayevich, composers Brysov Konstantin Leonardovich, Sirman Alexey Viktorovich, Orlov Yuri Valeriyevich and many, many others.
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