Olyokminsk

Oljokminsk (Russian Олёкминск, Yakut Өлүөхүмэ ) is a small town in the Republic of Sakha ( Yakutia ) (Russia) with 9494 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ).

Geography

The city lies on the southern edge of the Lena Plateau, about 650 km southwest of the capital of Republic of Yakutsk on the left bank of the Lena few kilometers upstream of the confluence of its right tributary Oljokma.

The city is the administrative center of the Oljokminsk Rajons same ( Ulus ).

Oljokminsk has a small airport.

History

Oljokminsk in 1636 by a troop of Cossacks under Pyotr Beketov (about 1610-1656 ) founded as a small Ostrog opposite the mouth of the Oljokma. Later, the settlement was moved to a more convenient, less commonly suffering from floods location. At the intersection of major shipping routes - along Lena and Oljokma - lying, the place was the starting point for Russian expansion in the direction of the Amur and later became an administrative and commercial center on the road to Yakutsk.

1783 was Oljokminsk town and the administrative center of a Ujesds, 1822 of a circle ( okrugs ) of the Yakutsk Oblast. In the city the Decembrist Nikolai Chizhov and Andrei Andreyev were banished. In 1897 the town had 120 houses, 26 yurts, two churches, a hospital with eight beds, a church and two other schools. Each year, the regionally significant Oljokminsker fair was held.

Demographics

Note: Census data

Culture and sights

In the city a number of wooden structures is obtained with carvings on windows and doors. Also worth seeing is the Saviour Cathedral ( Sobor Spassky, 1860) and the Alexander Nevsky Chapel ( Tschassownja Alexandra Nevskogo, 1891). There is a local history museum.

Economy

In Oljokminsk there are companies in the timber industry and the food industry as well as a power station. The city is the center of an agricultural region (grain, vegetables, cattle, horses, reindeer).

Sons and daughters of the town

• Vladimir Yakovlev (* 1944), politician, former governor of St. Petersburg