Irkutsk Oblast.

History

Irkutsk began in 1661 with a fort built by Yakov Pokhabov, and by the end of the 17th century it was a significant settlement. After the 1825 revolt many Decembrists were exiled here, and they did much to shape the city's cultural life. The Trans-Siberian Railway arrived in 1898, soon followed by the Circum-Baikal Railway along the lakeshore, with dozens of tunnels and hundreds of bridges. By 1900 Irkutsk was being called 'the Paris of Siberia'. The oblast was created on 26 September 1937, and in Soviet times large hydroelectric dams were built on the Angara at Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk.

Culture & traditions

Irkutsk's historic centre, with its wooden houses and hand-carved decoration, is on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list. The city has the Okhlopkov Drama Theatre, one of Russia's oldest, many museums and a botanical garden with more than 5,000 plant species. Most of the oblast's people are Russian; about 3.6 per cent are Buryats, who have their own Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug. The tiny Tofalar people number only around 660.

Nature

Baikal is a lake of superlatives: up to 1,642 metres deep, 25–30 million years old, and holding some 22–23 per cent of the world's fresh surface water. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Its endemic species include the Baikal seal, the omul whitefish and the deep-water golomyanka. Olkhon Island, 72 kilometres long, is the world's third-largest lake island, and from January to May Baikal lies under ice.

Sport

Irkutsk is a bandy city: matches of Baykal-Energiya have drawn crowds of up to 30,000. The city is also home to the women's bandy team Rekord.

Food & drink

Baikal's signature fish is the omul, regarded as a delicacy across Russia. It is eaten salted and smoked, shaved frozen as stroganina, served raw in a salad called saguday, or roasted on a wooden skewer over the fire. Since 2017, commercial and amateur fishing for omul has been banned to protect the population.

Practical information

Irkutsk has an international airport, and the Trans-Siberian Railway and highway run through the city. Local and tourist trains use the surviving stretch of the Circum-Baikal Railway between Slyudyanka and Baikal station. Local time is five hours ahead of Moscow (UTC+8). The climate is continental, with cold winters and warm summers: Irkutsk averages about −18 °C in January and +19 °C in July. Summer suits trips to Olkhon and along the shore, while from January to May Baikal is frozen.

What to see

• Lake Baikal — the oldest and deepest lake on Earth
• Olkhon Island — the world's third-largest lake island
• Circum-Baikal Railway — tunnels and stone galleries along the lakeshore
• Historic Irkutsk — carved wooden houses and the Decembrist legacy
• Listvyanka — a popular tourist village on the shore of Baikal

Cities on the map

• Irkutsk 605,708