What Is the Difference Between Two Russian Cities: Omsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

What is the difference between two Russian cities: Omsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk?

Russia is the biggest country by landmass consisting of 85 regions and 1100 cities. Russia provides a good example of different city patterns and lifestyles all over its territory. We woud like to compare Omsk, a city in Siberia, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, located on the Sakhalin island.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is located in the Far East of Russia on the Sakhalin island and is the capital of Sakhalin region. On the other hand, Omsk is the largest city in West Siberia  and the administrative center of Omsk oblast'.

First and the most obvious difference is the size. Omsk with a population of 1,154,116 is Russia's second-largest city east of the Ural Mountains after Novosibirsk, and seventh by size nationally. On the other hand, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the sixth largest city in the far East with the population of 192 734 people.

Secondly, these two cities differ by the architecture. Omsk is mainly covered with buildings of ancient architecture, similar to St. Petersburg, but they are mixed with the modern buildings. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is filled with modern design low-rise buildings, however there are some instances of Japanese architecture, because Sakhalin was a Japanese territory in the past.

Thirdly, we can distinguish these cities by culture. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk cultures of Korean, Japanese and Russian nationalities are mixed with inserts of culture of indigenous population of Sakhalin such as the Ainu and Nivkh. Sakhalin is greatly influenced by Asian cultures because of its close location to Asian countries.  As for Omsk,

As for the similarities, Omsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk have similar climate specialties such as cold winters,  the average annual temperature ( 2,8 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and 2,1 in Omsk) and a lot of snowfalls during winter time.  Summer in both cities are warm with temperatures around 25-30 degrees.