Novosibirsk is Russia's third-largest city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast. It is also the largest city in Siberia and the administrative center of Siberian Federal District, in the southwest of which it is located.

The city was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob, and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Saint Nicholas. Also, it was the name of the Tsar ruling at that time Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.