Why did Russia set up so many cities in Siberia and Far East?

Question

If one takes a casual glance at the Russian population census data, he or she would be astonished to find that a significant part of the Russian population is actually not concentrated west of the Urals but fairly spread out in its Siberia and Far East federal districts. This clearly doesn't make sense economically, as these locations are too inland and the rivers they are sitting on only flow into the Arctic oceans, so transportation relies almost solely on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was built in the late 19th century.

As a hunch, this almost seems like some sort of planned colonization to me, with many cities of highly similar metallurgy/heavy equipment manufacturing industry as the base of the economy with a population around 100,000 to 1,000,000. To me, this almost feels like the original 13 colonies of colonial America. What was the historical reason behind this seemingly half-successful colonization? Why was Russia so insistent in putting people into its vast interior, where it was absolutely safe from enemy invasion and not worth invasion or even nuclear strikes anyway, as opposed to just establishing big military outposts and mining/oil towns like in Alaska?

Answer 1

There are two issues:

As to "how" the establishment of cities in Siberia came about, the Russian/Soviet governments paid much higher wages to workers living in those cities, plus (in the case of the Soviets) priority in getting living quarters west of the Urals in their old age.

As to "why," Russia wanted to establish control over large land areas and resources as a buffer zone against invasions, e.g. the Mongolians or Chinese from the east, or as an "escape hatch" from European invaders such as the Nazis.

Answer 2

Many can state that the population there can be considered more than it should logically be.

It doesn't make sense economically, but it does strategically.

Colonization and planned industrialization made sure that population does evolve in areas that are not strategically viable to be attacked and occupied like many border areas.

That is one of the reasons why any attacking army from Napoleon to WW2 did not manage to defeat them. It's one thing to invade and clean most of everything up to the Urals and it's an entirely different exponential resources requirement to cover all the land.