Origins
A winter camp below the rapids
Maxim Perfilyev’s party establishes a winter camp below the Bratsk rapids. It precedes the 1631 fort, not the founding of the modern city.
Read the full story ↗AN INDEPENDENT HISTORY PROJECTSIBERIA / ANGARA
BRATSK
1631—19
91
A CITY THROUGH TIME
A vast history. A human scale.
From a wooden fort to a city that transformed the Angara. People, events and everyday life, decade by decade.
Explore the timeline↓OUR STORY BEGINS BEFORE THE CITY
АНГАРА01.02.1960
01 / THE RIVER02 / THE PEOPLE03 / THE CONSTRUCTION04 / THE MEMORY
1631 — a fort. 1955 — a city.
Between those dates lie a riverside settlement, trade routes, exile, a school and an ironworks. Before them, the history of the Angara’s Indigenous peoples. After them, a dam, a new reservoir, resettlement and a new city. This is where those stories meet.
About the scope and sources ↗THREE WAYS INTO THE STORY1626 → 1991
011630—1890
Before the great construction
↗
021950—1960
The age of firsts
↗CITY CHRONICLE19
80↗FILM / MEMORY / CHANGE
80↗FILM / MEMORY / CHANGE
1970—1991
When a building site became a city
↗Photographs: tower in Kolomenskoye (2011), A. Savin; dam builders (1960), A. Bushkin / RIA Novosti. Licences and originals in the photo archive.
Life behind the dates
Fort and exile. Construction and resettlement. Districts, schools, factories, culture and perestroika.
Read the stories ↗EVENTS. PEOPLE. DETAILS.
105 STORIES / 1626–1991The timeline.
By decade · open a chapter
1620sBefore the first fort2 stories
Origins
Before the fort
These were Buryat and Evenki lands, not an empty map. Pyotr Beketov reaches the Oka mouth and collects fur tribute.
1630sA point on the Angara3 stories
Origins
A fort on the Angara
Maxim Perfilyev’s expedition establishes Bratsk Ostrog, a fortified outpost of Russian expansion along the Angara.
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The fort meets resistance
The early forts become sites of conflict with local Buryat groups. Reconstructions differ on destruction and rebuilding dates; this was not an uninhabited wilderness.
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An alternative relocation chronology
A. A. Pavlov identifies a new fort on the right bank of the Oka in 1636. This scholarly reconstruction must not be silently merged with the commonly cited 1648 relocation.
Read the full story ↗1640sA changing location1 stories
Origins
The fort moves
The fort moves to the right bank of the Angara, far from the modern city’s familiar streets.
Read the full story ↗1650sFortress and exile2 stories
Origins
A new site by the Oka
Dmitry Firsov relocates the fort near the Oka mouth. Researchers continue to refine the history of its early sites.
Read the full story ↗People
Avvakum in exile
Archpriest Avvakum is confined here twice during his Siberian exile.
Read the full story ↗1660sSiberian distances1 stories
Origins
Twelve weeks away
Notes to Pyotr Godunov’s Siberian map describe a twelve-week journey from Yeniseisk to Bratsk Ostrog.
1670sThe road east1 stories
People
On the road to China
Nikolai Spathari’s embassy passes through the fort on its journey to China.
1680sThe river provides1 stories
Everyday life
Grain on the Angara
Merchants buy flour here for Yakutsk. The river is a trading route, centuries before the reservoir.
Read the full story ↗1690sOn the long road1 stories
People
Another embassy
Evert Ysbrants Ides’s embassy visits on both the outward and return journeys to China.
1700sEntering the map1 stories
1710sPassing through to China1 stories
1720sThe force of the current1 stories
Everyday life
The river overflows
The chronicle records a major flood. Long before the dam, the Angara shapes daily life.
1730sConnecting distances1 stories
Everyday life
Post by horse cart
A postal relay is organised in the Bratsk district, with local peasants supplying transport.
1740sLocal livelihoods1 stories
Everyday life
1750sThe rhythm of river life1 stories
Everyday life
Between dates
The source groups these years together: river transport, livelihoods and taxes. It gives no exact year for early iron-ore reports.
1760sLetters and records1 stories
Everyday life
Literacy is rare
The chronicle reports a shortage of literate people in the Bratsk ecclesiastical district.
1770sA summer with frost1 stories
Everyday life
Frost in midsummer
The local chronicle records July frost and destroyed crops in the Bratsk district. For a farming settlement, the short summer could determine food supplies.
Read the full story ↗1780sNotes reach print1 stories
Culture
The Angara region in print
Notes by the Swiss observer Regnier appear in Augsburg, including local traditions. This is the publication year, not an established date of a visit to Bratsk Ostrog.
Read the full story ↗1790sRecorded in a diary1 stories
People
Radishchev returns
Returning from Siberian exile, Alexander Radishchev passes through the fort and records it in his diary.
Read the full story ↗1800sA small centre of a vast land1 stories
Origins
An administrative centre
The Bratsk commissariat is established, administering an area much larger than the settlement itself.
1810sNegotiating the rapids1 stories
Industry
Bypassing Padun
A canal is proposed around the Padun rapids: navigation remains an engineering challenge.
1820sFinding another passage1 stories
Everyday life
1830sLife in forced settlement1 stories
People
A Decembrist in Bratsk
Pyotr Mukhanov lives here in forced settlement after penal servitude. Exile becomes part of the village’s history.
Read the full story ↗1840sThe first iron2 stories
Industry
The Nikolayevsky works begins
Construction begins on the ironworks and foundry on the Dolonovka. Long before aluminium, local production relies on ore, wood fuel and water.
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Iron before aluminium
The Nikolayevsky ironworks makes its first smelts, long before the Soviet construction era.
Read the full story ↗1850sTaking a seat at school1 stories
Everyday life
Two classrooms
A three-year parish school opens in the village, with places for thirty pupils.
Read the full story ↗1860sReading the rocks1 stories
People
An exiled geologist
Aleksander Czekanowski settles in Padun and studies the geology of the Angara valley.
Read the full story ↗1870sSurveying the river1 stories
Industry
Surveying the rapids
Funding from Alexander Sibiryakov supports a survey of the Angara navigation route.
1880sThe ground remembers1 stories
Origins
Older than the fort
Nikolai Vitkovsky conducts archaeological excavations near Bratsk Ostrog.
1890sAn industrial chapter closes1 stories
Industry
The ironworks stops
The Nikolayevsky ironworks halts production, depriving workers and families of their income.
1900sA village and national politics1 stories
1910sMeasuring potential power4 stories
People
Revolution reaches the district
New authorities emerge at the Nikolayevsky works after the February Revolution. Soviet rule reaches the Bratsk district by year’s end, followed by changing regimes and war.
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Measuring the river’s power
Engineer Andrey Velner’s expedition surveys the Angara as a potential source of power.
People
A soviet and nationalisation
The Nikolayevsky works is nationalised and district soviet institutions take shape. Local revolution is far from settled as Siberia’s military and political situation changes that summer.
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The Bratsk road becomes a front
Partisan units fight Kolchak’s forces along the road and near the Nikolayevsky works. They take Bratsk in December; publications give conflicting dates for the day.
Read the full story ↗1920sThe city is still to come5 stories
Industry
Power on paper
Velner prepares a report for GOELRO on Angara water power and its industrial use.
Everyday life
Credit for sowing
Rural cooperatives provide seed loans and credit and arrange produce purchases. Behind political change remain practical questions: how to sow the fields and sell the harvest.
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The district in a new administrative unit
After Irkutsk Governorate is abolished, Bratsk district becomes part of Tulun Okrug. This is the rural district, not the future industrial city.
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Still a village
Bratskoye has 177 households and 887 residents. The industrial city is still in the future.
Industry
Watching the Angara
A hydrometeorological station is established in Bratsk to observe river levels, discharge, ice, temperature and weather.
Read the full story ↗1930sReading local news3 stories
Everyday life
Collectivisation transforms village life
Collective farms are organised in the district. The chronicle describes armed clashes and mobilisation of local activists; its ideological labels require critical reading.
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A local newspaper
A district newspaper launches in July: eight hundred copies, five kopecks per issue.
Culture
A school and museum burn
Fire destroys the school housing a museum collection. District authorities decide to use a church building for temporary classes.
Read the full story ↗1940sThe home front, then surveys4 stories
Everyday life
The village at the start of war
The chronicle records a club, library, hospital and outpatient clinic. War brings military service, supply work, farming and aid collections.
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Mittens for the front
Women in the district knit 1,700 pairs of woollen mittens and socks for the front.
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Angarstroy before Bratskgesstroy
Post-war decisions prepare transport and construction infrastructure for the future industrial region. The city’s history cannot be reduced to the dam alone.
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Surveying the future dam
A Mosgidep expedition begins surveying the site of the future hydroelectric station.
1950sA city begins17 stories
Origins
An urban-type settlement
Bratskoye becomes an urban-type workers’ settlement. City status follows in 1955, while resettlement of old Bratsk ends later.
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Green Town
A tent camp grows near the Padun rapids. Temporary accommodation becomes a settlement with its own institutions, on land destined to be flooded.
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The decision to build the dam
The Bratsk hydroelectric project is approved. Managers, machinery and workers arrive, while housing and roads must be built alongside the works.
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Right Bank, the future Gidrostroitel
The dam project’s production base and workers’ housing grow on the right bank. The settlement later takes the name Gidrostroitel.
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An all-Union construction project
The dam and city are declared an all-Union construction project. Arrivals from across the country transform the scale and composition of the local population.
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Now a city
Bratsk receives city status. Construction settlements begin forming a new urban landscape.
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A settlement above the future water
New Padun is built beside the old village and Green Town, on ground above the future reservoir. The old name survives residents’ relocation.
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A library in a barrack
A library opens in a prefabricated barrack on Khabarova Street in Padun, stocked with help from libraries across the country.
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Training engineers locally
A distance-learning consultation centre opens for engineering and construction students, laying the foundation for local higher technical education.
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A closure from the ice
The right-bank channel is closed from the ice to create a construction pit. This is distinct from the final closure of the Angara in 1959.
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Regular passenger flights
Bratsk airport opens for regular passenger flights, adding air travel to the life of the rapidly growing city.
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A city planned in separate parts
The masterplan separates industrial and residential areas. Microdistricts develop around retained taiga, while distances between settlements shape urban life.
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Concrete for the dam foundation
The first concrete is laid in the dam foundation as preparatory work gives way to the main structures.
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Energetik begins
A settlement for power-station and construction-industry workers begins, initially known as New Town. It becomes one of Greater Bratsk’s distinct residential centres.
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A timber base relocates
The Plekhanov timber-transfer base moves to Zyaba Bay as the reservoir is prepared. Sukhoi develops there; incorporation into the city comes well after 1991.
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The Angara’s final closure
The river is diverted through temporary openings in the dam, a different engineering stage from the ice operation of March 1957.
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The first house in District Eight
The eighth microdistrict’s first two-storey residential building opens. Behind the vast project are individual housewarmings.
1960sA river becomes power17 stories
Industry
Construction through the lens
Photographers document the dam and its builders: a work in progress, not yet a monument to an era.
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The station becomes Gidrostroitel
After its station building is constructed, Osinovka station is renamed Gidrostroitel. Relocated Zayarsk households form a residential area across the railway.
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The last residents leave old Bratsk
The chronicle records the completion of old Bratsk’s evacuation: homes, families and institutions move out of the future reservoir basin.
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The Bratsk Sea’s commemorative birthday
This date becomes the reservoir’s commemorative birthday. Filling was a process, not the instantaneous creation of a full reservoir.
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Industry
The Angara generates power
The first generator delivers electricity. Filling the reservoir transforms the Angara landscape and the lives of riverside communities.
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The first television tests
Bratsk television centre makes its first test transmissions, creating another connection between the scattered districts.
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The first large-panel housewarming
The city’s first large-panel apartment building is occupied. Panel construction becomes one way to replace temporary accommodation with permanent microdistricts.
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Names for the new centre’s streets
The new central residential district gains familiar street names: Mira, Podbelskogo, Komsomolskaya, Yuzhnaya and Kirova. These belong to the new city, not the flooded village.
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A single control room
The station’s central control room enters service. Completing the project means creating an operating control system as well as a concrete dam.
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Timber becomes an industrial system
The Bratsk timber complex takes shape, linking timber processing with pulp and paper production. Its separate commissioning stages cannot be reduced to one founding date.
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Trains cross the dam
Freight and passenger trains cross the crest, making the dam part of the transport connection between the banks.
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Road traffic between the banks
Road traffic opens across the dam, providing an important everyday connection between the city’s separated parts.
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The first aluminium
The Bratsk aluminium plant produces its first aluminium. River power becomes metal.
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The eighteenth unit
The final generating unit comes under load. Permanent commissioning of the complete complex follows in 1967.
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The station is commissioned
The Bratsk hydroelectric complex enters permanent operation, then the world’s largest hydroelectric station.
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The city photographs itself
The Bratsk photography club holds its first exhibition at Lesokhimik Palace of Culture, showing over eighty works.
Culture
The puppet theatre’s first performance
The puppet theatre opens with Merry Little Bears. Its distinct history begins well before the later drama theatre.
Read the full story ↗1970sAfter the great construction6 stories
Culture
A sister city across Asia
Bratsk and Japan’s Nanao sign a sister-city agreement, establishing international civic ties long before 1991.
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A track on Pikhtovaya
The luge track opens. It hosts the first USSR championship two years later; Bratsk’s Valery Dudin wins an Olympic medal in 1984.
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Championship on Pikhtovaya
Tatyana Korneva wins the women’s title at the first national luge championship on Pikhtovaya Hill.
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The Padun urban district
The Padun urban administrative district is created, covering several residential settlements. The district is not identical to Padun settlement itself.
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A trolleybus to the timber complex
Trolleybus service opens between the market and the timber complex, connecting the city’s daily journeys.
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The trolleybus network grows
A third traction substation and additional routes enter service. The transport story continues beyond the ceremonial first journey.
Read the full story ↗1980sLiving, filming, preserving9 stories
Culture
An independent industrial institute
The Bratsk branch of Irkutsk Polytechnic becomes an independent industrial institute. University status belongs to a later period.
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Central District becomes official
The Central urban administrative district is created from the area previously recorded as the city’s undivided part.
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Preserving the Angara
An Evenki exhibition joins Angara Village, a museum preserving the region’s wooden architecture and cultures.
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Valery Dudin’s Olympic bronze
The Bratsk luger wins bronze at the Sarajevo Winter Games, an achievement of the school’s Soviet era rather than its later twenty-first-century successes.
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Drama begins with The Relay
The drama theatre opens in Padun with The Relay, performing in an adapted wooden building.
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The named Angara train
The first named Angara express reaches Anzebi station, connecting Bratsk and Irkutsk.
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A premiere at Bagulnik
A new cinema opens with The Cold Summer of 1953. Perestroika reaches the city through the screen.
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Era cinema in Energetik
A new cinema welcomes its first audience. Bratsk’s cinema history involves distinct buildings, districts and opening dates.
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The political exile house opens
The Ryabikov house museum welcomes its first visitors. A preserved building connects the new city with the old settlement’s history.
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1990sAt a turning point6 stories
Culture
A technical lyceum at the institute
The industrial institute opens the city’s first technical lyceum as local education enters a new decade.
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Museums unite
A state museum association with several branches is established. Preserving history has become a distinct part of the city’s life.
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Thirteen tonnes of salt
Following Nikolai Ryzhkov’s speech, the central retail organisation sells thirteen times its usual amount of salt.
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Local television returns
Bratsk television resumes broadcasts on Channel Seven, initially with recorded video programmes.
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A week under smog
Industrial smog blankets the city. The chronicle records that only a strong wind finally disperses it.
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Gathering the city’s history
The Bratsk local history society is founded, creating another way to preserve the city’s memory.
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