North Asia orNorthern Asia (Russian:Северная Азия) is the northern region ofAsia, which is defined ingeographical terms and consists of threefederal districts of Russia:Ural,Siberian, and theFar Eastern. North Asia is bordered by theArctic Ocean to its north; byEastern Europe to its west; byCentral Asia andEast Asia to its south; and by thePacific Ocean andNorthern America to its east. It covers an area of 13,100,000 square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), or 8.8% ofEarth's total land area; and is the largest subregion of Asia by area, occupying approx. 29.4% of Asia's land area, but is also the least populated, with a population of around 37 million, accounting for merely 0.74% of Asia's population.
The region was first populated byhominins in theLate Pleistocene, approximately 100,000 years ago,[6] and modern humans are confirmed to arrived in the region by 45,000 years ago[7][8] with the first humans in the region having West Eurasian origins.[9]
ItsNeolithic culture is characterized by characteristic stone production techniques and the presence of pottery of eastern origin.[9] TheBronze Age began during the 3rd millennium BCE,[10] with influences ofIndo-Iranian cultures as evidenced by theAndronovo culture. During the 1st millennium BCE,polities such as theScythians andXiongnus emerged in the region, who often clashed with its Persian andChinese neighbors in the south.
AfterWorld War II, North Asia played a critical role in Soviet industrialization and military strategy. Major industrial centers were developed inNorilsk,Novosibirsk, andIrkutsk, supported by labor from theGulag system.[b]
TheTrans-Siberian Railway, which spanned fromMoscow toVladivostok, became vital for transporting natural resources such as timber, coal, and metals to western parts of the USSR.[12]
With the collapse of theSoviet Union in 1991, Eastern Russia faced economic turmoil and depopulation. Many towns built around single industries experienced sharp decline.[13]
In the 2000s and 2010s, the region gained strategic importance due to its vast reserves ofnatural gas,oil, andmineral resources. Russia began expanding infrastructure such as thePower of Siberia gas pipeline toChina, marking a strategic pivot to Asia.[14]
As of the 2020s, theRussian government continues efforts to develop the Russian Far East through the "Far Eastern Hectare" program andspecial economic zones, though progress remains mixed due to geographic challenges and demographic decline.[15]
For geographical and statistical reasons, theUnited Nations geoscheme and various other classification schemes will not subdivide countries, and thus place all of Russia inEurope or theEastern Europe subregion. There are no mountain chains in North Asia to prevent air currents from theArctic flowing down over theplains ofSiberia andTurkestan.[16]
Northern Asia is built around the Angara Shield, which lies between theYenisey River and theLena River. It developed from fragments ofLaurasia, whose rocks were mainlyPrecambrian crystalline rocks,gneisses, andschists, andGondwana. These rocks can be found in the Angara Shield, Inner Mongolian-Korean Shield, Ordes Shield, and Southeast Asia Shield. The fragments have been subject toorogenesis around their margins, giving a complex of plateaux and mountain ranges. One can findoutcrops of these rocks in unfolded sections of the Shields. Their presence has been confirmed below Mesozoic and later sediments.[17]
There are three main periods of mountain building in Northern Asia, although it has occurred many times. The outer fold mountains that are on the margins of the Shields and that only affected Asia north of the line of theHimalayas, are attributed to theCaledonian andHercynian orogenies of the latePalaeozoic Era. The Alpine orogeny caused extensive folding and faulting of Mesozoic and earlyTertiary sediments from theTethysgeosyncline. The Tibetan and Mongolian plateaux, and the structural basins ofTarim,Qaidam, andJunggar, are delimited by major east–west lithospheric faults that were probably the results of stresses caused by the impact of theIndian Plate against Laurasia. Erosion of the mountains caused by this orogeny has created a large amount of sediment, which has been transported southwards to produce thealluvial plains of India, China, and Cambodia, and which has also been deposited in large amounts in the Tarim andDzungarian basins.[17]
Physical map of Northern Asia (with parts of Central and East Asia)
Northern Asia wasglaciated in thePleistocene, but this played a less significant part in the geology of the area compared to the part that it played inNorth America andEurope. The Scandinavian ice sheet extended to the east of the Urals, covering the northern two thirds of the Ob Basin and extending onto the Angara Shield between theYenisei River and theLena River. There are legacies of mountain glaciation to be found on the east Siberian mountains, on the mountains of theKamchatka Peninsula, on theAltai, onTian Shan, and on other small areas of mountains,ice caps remain on the islands ofSevernaya Zemlya andNovaya Zemlya, and severalCentral Asian mountains still have individual glaciers. North Asia itself haspermafrost, ranging in depths from 30 to 600 metres and covering an area of 9.6 million km2.[17]
The Angara Shield also underlies the lowlands of theOb River, but to the south and east in the Central Asian mountains and in theEast Siberian Mountains there are folded and faulted mountains ofLower Palaeozoic rocks.[17]
Most estimates are that there are around 33 millionRussian citizens living east of theUral Mountains, a widely recognized geographical divide between Europe and Asia. Of these Russian citizens of Siberia, most areSlavic-originRussians and RussifiedUkrainians.[18] TheTurkic peoples who are native to some parts of Siberia and nativeTungusic andMongolic peoples are now a minority in North Asia due to theRussification process during the last three centuries. Russian census records indicate they make up only an estimated 10% of the region's population, with the largest being theBuryats numbering at 445,175, and theYakuts at 443,852. According to the 2002 census, there are 500,000Tatars in Siberia, but 300,000 of them areVolga Tatars who settled in Siberia during periods of colonization.[19] Other ethnic groups that live in the region and make a significant portion include ethnicGermans numbering about 400,000.[20]
In 1875, Chambers reported the population of North Asia to be 8 million.[16] Between 1801 and 1914, an estimated 7 million settlers moved fromEuropean Russia toSiberia, 85% during the quarter-century beforeWorld War I.[21]
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