UST-ORDA BURYAT

also called Ust-ordynsky Buryat, autonomous okrug (district) in Irkutsk oblast (province), east-central Russia. It lies west of Lake Baikal and extends across the Angara River. The okrug was created in 1937. Its plateau relief is partly in boreal forest, or taiga, of larch, spruce, fir, pine, and birch and partly in forest-steppe. Coal is mined in the west, where the Trans-Siberian Railroad crosses the okrug. Timber working is well developed, but agriculture, mainly pig husbandry and dairying, is confined to the forest-steppe of the west and south. The indigenous Buryat live mostly in rural areas, and the urban population is mainly Russian. Ust-Ordynsky city is the capital of the okrug. Area 8,600 square miles (22,400 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 143,000.