Tomsk Cardiology Institute, Siberian Federal District

Siberia has been part of modern Russia since the latter half of the 16th century. Tomsk was founded in 1604 along the five-hundred-mile long river Tom, at the command of Tsar Boris Godunov, the protagonist of the tragic opera of the same name. At the beginning of the 19th century, it became the administrative center of Tomsk Province, a vast territory. Tomsk remained the most important city in Siberia enjoying rapid economic, social, and intellectual development. Although the Trans-Siberian railway by-passed the city in the 1890s, Tomsk remained a vibrant cultural center with theaters, newspapers, and libraries.

Self-sustaining pediatric site: our third
Area served: 2 million square miles 
Population served: 19 million
Beginning of collaboration: 2006
Self-sustainability reached: 2012
Size of first team trained: 50+
Children saved to date: 5,700+

In the Soviet period (1917–1991), during WWII, 30 major factories that lay in the path of Hitler’s invading armies were relocated to Tomsk, leading to another industrial boom. The city is a notable educational and scientific center with more than 100,000 students attending six universities including the oldest universities in Siberia. Thanks to the mix of its young students and old roots, the city was given the nickname, Siberian Athens. In 2005, the Tomsk that greeted Heart to Heart was a city on the move, having recently ranked among the top ten Russian areas in GDP per capita.

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