Village and city coexist
The 1959 census lists two different places: Bratsk city with 51,455 residents and Bratsk workers’ settlement in the rural district with 15,814. They are not competing estimates of one population. The new city grew while the older settlement prepared to move; adding the figures without explanation erases that distinction.
Relocation is more than moving
Homes, institutions and livelihoods moved out of the future basin. Yuri Ryabov’s research distinguishes organisation, compensation, heritage preservation and new settlements. These issues explain why one total of flooded villages cannot tell the story: counting territories, buildings’ fates and families’ circumstances differed.
29 August and 1 September
The chronicle dates the completion of old Bratsk’s evacuation to 29 August 1961. The reservoir’s commemorative birthday is 1 September. Filling continued gradually; the anniversary does not mean the entire basin reached its final depth overnight. People on the new shores retained memories of the former valley.
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