BRATSK

city, Irkutsk oblast (province), east-central Russia. It lies along the Angara River just below its confluence with the Oka. A fort was founded there in 1631, but the settlement remained unimportant until 1954, when the Tayshet-Lena railway through Bratsk was built and work started on the Bratsk hydroelectric station (completed in 1964), one of the world's largest. A huge aluminum works and a timber-processing plant were built to utilize the Bratsk Dam's power. Pop. (1991 est.) 259,400.