Updated: 10.11.2003

City and administrative centre of Irkutsk region, Siberia. The city lies along the Angara River at its confluence with the Irkut River. Pop. (1997 est.) 591,000.

Irkutsk was founded as a wintering camp in 1652, during the first Russian colonisation of the area; a fort was built in 1661, and it rapidly became the main centre of Cisbaikalia and of the Russian trade route to China and Mongolia. It acquired town status in 1686.

Its importance grew after the coming of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1898.

Modern Irkutsk is one of the major industrial cities of Siberia and is especially noted for a wide range of engineering products. There are railway, aircraft, ship, and vehicle repair yards. Other industries include mica processing and consumer-goods manufacture. The Irkutsk hydroelectric station on the Angara River is within the city; its reservoir extends back to include Lake Baikal.

The city of Irkutsk, with attractive embankments along the river and many surviving wooden houses on its tree-lined streets, is an administrative and cultural centre for Eastern Siberia and of the Russian Far East. Irkutsk State University (1918) and the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences are among the city's many teaching and research institutes.

See also on Rusnet encyclopedia::

Irkutsk Region