Siberian Soviet Encyclopedia was the forerunner of the regional republican encyclopedias of the USSR. For the first time, the question of the need to create a separate Siberian encyclopedia was initiated in 1919 by the Institute for the Study of Siberia at a congress in Tomsk with the support of the head of the white movement, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, the program began in 1920, but ceased with the advent of Soviet power. In 1926, among the educated strata, a movement began again in support of the creation of fundamental work on Siberia, an organizing bureau met, and, in April 1927, an editorial board of leading local scientists was approved.