Origins
An urban-type settlement
Bratskoye becomes an urban-type workers’ settlement. City status follows in 1955, while resettlement of old Bratsk ends later.
Read the full story ↗1950s
A city begins
Selected events and details from published sources. A curated selection, rather than an exhaustive chronicle.
Everyday life
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.
Read the full story ↗Industry
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.
Read the full story ↗Origins
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.
Read the full story ↗Industry
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.
Read the full story ↗Origins
Now a city
Bratsk receives city status. Construction settlements begin forming a new urban landscape.
Read the full story ↗Origins
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.
Read the full story ↗Culture
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.
Read the full story ↗Culture
Training engineers locally
A distance-learning consultation centre opens for engineering and construction students, laying the foundation for local higher technical education.
Read the full story ↗Industry
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.
Read the full story ↗Everyday life
Regular passenger flights
Bratsk airport opens for regular passenger flights, adding air travel to the life of the rapidly growing city.
Read the full story ↗Origins
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.
Read the full story ↗Industry
Concrete for the dam foundation
The first concrete is laid in the dam foundation as preparatory work gives way to the main structures.
Read the full story ↗Origins
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.
Read the full story ↗Origins
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.
Read the full story ↗Industry
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.
Read the full story ↗Everyday life
The first house in District Eight
The eighth microdistrict’s first two-storey residential building opens. Behind the vast project are individual housewarmings.