Updated: 20.11.2003

City, Irkutsk Region, east-central Russia. It lies along the Angara River just belowits confluence with the Oka. Pop. (1991 est.) 259,400.

A fort was founded there in 1631, but the settlement remainedunimportant 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 utilise the Bratsk Dam's power.