INTRODUCTION 
 
 
  
 
Tomsk (pop. 520,000) and Vladivostok (pop. 700,000) are two cities in the former USSR which have very different origins but which experienced similar levels of growth, development processes and urban planning schemes especially after the Bolshevik Revolution. Tomsk, the earlier city, was founded in 1604 as a military stockade located on the right bank of the Tom’ River, about 60km above its confluence with the Ob’ (Murashova, 1954). For its first eight decades, the Tomsk stockade protected the local fur trade routes; classified as a town in 1629, it remained of little importance until the eighteenth century, when its administrative functions expanded in tandem with the development of its Siberian hinterland (Gorod Tomsk, 1912). More recently, Tomsk has been a centre for wood processing, engineering and petro-chemical industries, as well as nuclear research at Tomsk-7. 

Vladivostok, a naval port, was not founded until 1860. Its initial growth was haphazard and the settlement did not achieve significant importance in the region until after the coming of the railway and military development following the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Today it is the Russian Federation’s largest city on the Pacific seaboard and owes this status to its excellent natural harbour and location at the far south-eastern extremity of the Russian land mass, where it is the terminus of the Trans Siberian Railway. Until recently, Vladivostok’s industries included ship repair yards, railway works and furniture production (Figure 1). 


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Figure 1: Location of Tomsk and Vladivostok in the Russian Federation 
 

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