"Without universities, Tomsk would have died out," Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg once wrote, commenting on the city's far away location, off the Transsiberian railway track that irrigates Russia's sprawling territory east of the Urals.

But Tomsk, which was first established by cossacks on marshy land exactly four hundred years ago, is still very much alive and kicking, thanks to the 100,000 students that make up a fifth of its population.

Walk into one of the city's Internet cafes at 10 am -- still the early hours of the morning by most Russians' standards -- and you will have a hard time finding a free computer, as students are already busy themselves behind the screens.

It is not, however, as though Tomsk had not gone through some rough times.

It used to receive up to 40 percent of its tax revenues from Russian oil giants such as Yukos, which is heavily implanted throughout Siberia. But a change in legislation aimed at reorienting tax money towards Moscow saw that percentage fall to just 16 percent.

And as the prospect of bankruptcy looms ever higher over the company as a result of an all-out judiciary assault launched against it by the Russian authorities, even that could soon come largely to an end.

So Tomsk is trying to make the best possible use of the one advantage it has -- brains.

"Given the distance between us and the world out there, we can only bet on innovation and on producing high tech goods for which transport cost is not a serious issue," said Tomsk region deputy governor Vyacheslav Nagovitsin.

And the bet is starting to bring in results, as corporate Tomsk lines up its first success stories.

Recently, local company Elesi won a tender to manage the automated control of national pipeline monopoly Transneft's network. Another Tomsk company, Mikran, which was initially set up on a shoestring by a handful of researchers, now turns out telecommunications equipment and multiplexers.

The technology behind scanners used in airports worldwide to check luggage content under the Heimann brand was created in Tomsk.

Other companies export their expertise, like Exoft, which creates computer programs on order, and also functions as back-office for other companies.

It bills its offshore programmers' work 20 dollars an hour, as opposed to 40 dollars for the same work in the west, but only five to 10 dollars in India and China, says CEO Igor Seredkin.

But Tomsk's most financially successful company is Art life, which manufactures shampoos, vitamin cocktails and other health-related products. While he invests some five million dollars into his company each year, 43-year-old owner Alexander Avstrievskikh will not disclose the company's turnover.

However, a visit to Art-Life's highly securized 8,000 square meters premises, all packed with state-of-the art Swiss, German and US equipment, does not fail to impress.

This is the moment you pinch yourself to believe you really are deep in the heart of Siberia.

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