IRKUTSK

oblast (province), east-central Russia, occupying an area of 296,500 square miles (767,900 square km) west and north of Lake Baikal. It consists mostly of the hills and broad valleys of the Central Siberian Plateau and of its eastern extension, the Patom Plateau. In the south the oblast extends to the eastern crestline of the Sayan Mountains. Dense taiga dominated by Siberian and Dahurian larch, with pine, stone pine, fir, and spruce occurs throughout the oblast; in the south there are small patches of mixed forest and steppe. Soils nearly everywhere are underlain by permafrost. Climate conditions are strongly continental. Within the oblast is the Ust-Orda Buryat autonomous okrug (q.v.; district), now inhabited mainly by Russians (about 60 percent), but also by Buryats (about 30 percent) and some Tatars, Ukrainians, and Belorussians. Irkutsk city is the administrative centre, and nearly all the oblast's population is concentrated along the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Angara River, where there is a developing industrial region based on Cheremkhovo and Azey coal, Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky iron ore, and local salt and mica deposits. Hydroelectricity is supplied by the Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk dams on the Angara. Petroleum is piped to the oblast from the Volga-Urals oil field. Metallurgical, engineering, and chemical industries have grown rapidly in the main towns. In the northeast, near Bodaybo on the Vitim, gold is mined. Over the rest of the oblast, timber working is the only important industry. Agriculture is largely confined to the vicinity of the oblast's towns. Reindeer herding and hunting are carried on by the Evenks of the north. The BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) Railroad cuts through the centre of the oblast, running east from Ust-Kut. Pop. (1991 est.) 2,863,000. city and administrative centre of Irkutsk oblast (province), east-central Russia. The city lies along the Angara River at its confluence with the Irkut River. It was founded as a wintering camp in 1652, during the first Russian colonization of the area; a fort was built in 1661, and Irkutsk rapidly became the main centre of Cisbaikalia and of the Russian trade route to China and Mongolia. It acquired town status in 1686. Its importance grew after the coming of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1898. Modern Irkutsk is one of the major industrial cities of Siberia and is especially noted for a wide range of engineering products. There are railway, aircraft, ship, and vehicle repair yards. Other industries include mica processing and consumer-goods manufacture. The Irkutsk hydroelectric station on the Angara River is within the city; its reservoir extends back to include Lake Baikal. The city of Irkutsk, with attractive embankments along the river and many surviving wooden houses on its tree-lined streets, is an administrative and cultural centre for Eastern Siberia and of the Russian Far East. Irkutsk State University (1918) and the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences are among the city's many teaching and research institutes. Pop. (1991 est.) 604,500.