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 ↗1620s
Before the first fort
Selected events and details from published sources. A curated selection, rather than an exhaustive chronicle.
Origins
Before the fort
These were Buryat and Evenki lands, not an empty map. Pyotr Beketov reaches the Oka mouth and collects fur tribute.