Khanty-Mansiysk city is administrative centre of Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrug (district) of Russian Federation in the West Siberian Plain. The second name of the territory is Ugra. This oil boom town is situated on the Irtysh River near its confluence with the Ob River.
The city is fast becoming a modern center of Russian business, sport and tourism. Its population has more than doubled since 1989 to nearly 90,000 people, and with this growth the city has changed tremendously. It has become an alpine centre of importance as an annual site for Biathlon World Cup competitions. It also held the 2010 Chess Olympiads, the largest international chess team tournament in the world. Events such as these bring in tens of thousands of tourists, who flock to the city from all around the world.
The source of this economic growth in a Siberian city is, of course, entirely due to the discovery of oil in the region. The greater Khanty Mansi Autonomous Okrug region contains around 70% of Russia’s developed oil fields, about 450 in total, including Samotlor, which is the largest oil field in Russia and the sixth largest in the world. The region now contributes over 50% of total Russian oil production. Khanty-Mansiysk is home to the ostentatious headquarters of the country’s main oil giants, including Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom-Neft.
Innovative and scientific center
The government of Ugra has started work on a large-scale project with the purpose of establishing a «Research and Innovation Center RAS-Ugra» which is intended for integration of fundamental, applied, and corporate research in oil and gas sphere. The purpose of Ugra innovations development is the creation of innovative hi-tech economy competitive in both domestic and global markets. It would support sustainable social and economic development of the region and improve quality of life of the population.
There are 90 innovation enterprises created in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra. The scientific work is being done in 48 directions in the 14 fields of science. The researches are focused on the needs of the region, including the oil industry.
The purpose of Ugra innovations development is the creation of innovative hi-tech economy competitive in both domestic and global markets, ensuring sustainable social and economic development and improving quality of life of the Autonomous Okrug’s population.
State support of innovative business facilitates growth of the number of innovative companies and stimulates intellectual activity. As at the end novadays there are more 100 innovative SMEs operated in the Autonomous Okrug.
The Okrug is engaged in applied research in the sphere of innovations; supports the work of prototyping centers as the engineering and production groups, cluster development centers, regional engineering centers for the purposes of stimulating use of innovative technologies by SMEs and technological availability improvement.
The core of organizational infrastructure for innovations is the autonomous institution of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug “Ugra Hi-Tech Technopark”. 102 innovative SMEs have been registered as the Hi-Tech Technopark residents, which taken together created 534 new jobs, total sales of innovative products exceeded RUR1 billion, the companies also generated RUR20 million of tax revenues.
Cultural and sport center
As well as the annual sporting events, the city also contains multiple places of interest, including the glittering gold domes of the Church of Christ’s resurrection. It also holds museums on art, such as the artist Gennady Raishev’s gallery; the Geology, Oil and Gas Museum, which traces the history of Western Siberian oil and gas development; and an open air Archeopark, which has bronze sculptures of Pleistocene animals like mammoths and woolly rhino.
The culture of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is the synthesis of the development of the modern art and saving the traditions of the indigenous people of North. There are 487 cultural institutions created in the region: museums, libraries, art galleries, crafts centres, art schools.
In 1998 the Generations Fund with the support of the government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug started a collection of the Russian artists’ pictures, icons and prints buying many of the masterpieces at various foreign auctions. Today all this wealth is exhibited at the State Fine Arts Museum, which is often referred to as the «Siberian Tretjakov Gallery». The connoisseurs of art can enjoy exhibitions featuring pictures by famous Russian artists: F.S. Rokotov, V.A. Tropinin, I.E. Repin, I.K. Aivazovsky, V.I. Surikov, B.M. Kustodiev, V.A. Serov, and examples of the Russian icon painting school from the XVI to the XIX centuries.
There are several unique modern cultural centers in the Okrug. Theater and Concert Hall “Ugra-Classic” (Khanty-Mansiysk) is a multifunctional facility occupying the area of 20,000 sq. m. which offers technical capability for hosting various cultural and conference events of both national and international scale.