Tomsk is much smaller than Novosibirsk, walkable almost, famous for its +100 years wooden houses (https://www.tripsavvy.com/tomsk-the-hidden-russia-1502232). Khodorkovsky said it's his favorite Russian city. It has six universities and it's considered "the Boston" of Russia, not far, 250km, from Novosibirk.
There is also a Akademgorodok (translated: "Academic-city"), a city district of Tomsk with both a (nice) residential area and a zone with tech companies that get tax cuts. Some firms there exist for many, +20 years, and work on deep tech, like audio and video codecs: https://www.elecard.com/
There are also newly founded Ethereum/crytpo-companies located there; one I met personally rents a villa full of coders: https://playmarket.io
Also, Tomsk has quite a lot of bars and places to spend time. Although it can be -40°C in winter, it's very dry and you get by easily with good clothes. (-18°C in St. Petersburg feels colder due to the humidity)
The good thing about places like Siberia is that many people who live there are offspring of folk who opposed the Zar or the communists and have a non-conformist attitude. People there try to be as little dependent on Moscow as possible which is often hard to do.
Tomsk is much smaller than Novosibirsk, walkable almost, famous for its +100 years wooden houses (https://www.tripsavvy.com/tomsk-the-hidden-russia-1502232). Khodorkovsky said it's his favorite Russian city. It has six universities and it's considered "the Boston" of Russia, not far, 250km, from Novosibirk.
There is also a Akademgorodok (translated: "Academic-city"), a city district of Tomsk with both a (nice) residential area and a zone with tech companies that get tax cuts. Some firms there exist for many, +20 years, and work on deep tech, like audio and video codecs: https://www.elecard.com/
There are also newly founded Ethereum/crytpo-companies located there; one I met personally rents a villa full of coders: https://playmarket.io
Also, Tomsk has quite a lot of bars and places to spend time. Although it can be -40°C in winter, it's very dry and you get by easily with good clothes. (-18°C in St. Petersburg feels colder due to the humidity)
The good thing about places like Siberia is that many people who live there are offspring of folk who opposed the Zar or the communists and have a non-conformist attitude. People there try to be as little dependent on Moscow as possible which is often hard to do.