Usolye-Sibirskoye

Ussolje - Sibirskoye (Russian Усолье - Сибирское ) is a city in the eastern Siberian Irkutsk Oblast (Russia) with 83 327 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ).

Geography

The city is situated on the edge of the northern foothills of Sayan on the left bank of the Angara River, near the city Angarsk about 75 km in a north-westerly direction away from the Oblasthauptstadt Irkutsk.

Ussolje - Sibirskoye is the administrative center of the Rajons Ussolje.

History

The town was founded in 1669 under the name Ussolje as one of the oldest Russian settlements in Angaragebiet of the Cossack brothers Michaljow that a saline source discovered here and started the salt-works. Referred to by the place name: sol is in Russian for salt; Ussolje is a - now obsolete - the name for places where salt occurs or is boiled.

In the 18th century the Moscow tract, the end of the 19th century, the Trans-Siberian Railway was passed through the town.

1925, the city charter was granted. When the same place Ussolje Kamagebiet in 1940 also received a city charter, was to avoid confusion rename the Siberian Ussolje ( literal translation ) in Ussolje - Sibirskoye.

From 1947 to 1953 existed in Ussolje - Sibirskoye a detention camp in the Gulag system.

Demographics

Note: Census data ( rounded to 1939 )

Culture and sights

In the town there is a museum on the history of salt mining in Siberia.

Economy and infrastructure

Since the start of underground mining 1956 Ussolje became the largest salt supplier Russia. Even on the basis of salt mining resulted in several chemical plants, such as Ussoljechimprom. In addition, there are farms of mechanical engineering ( Ussolmasch, for mining equipment ), the woodworking, light and food industries.

Ussolje - Sibirskoye is a station on the Trans -Siberian Railway ( Route 5117 km from Moscow). Through the city also leads the highway M53 from Novosibirsk via Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk, part of the Trans-Siberian road link.

A part of public transport of the city is carried out from the tram Ussolje - Sibirskoye.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Eduard Khrennikov (born 1973 ), a ski orienteers
• Nadezhda Tschischowa ( born 1945 ), track and field athlete and Olympic gold medalist ( shot put )
• Albert Pakejew (* 1968), Boxer
• Alexei Kriwtschenkow ( born 1974 ), ice hockey player