Yakutsk

 

(yəkūtsk') , city (1989 pop. 187,000), capital of the Sakha Republic, E Siberian Russia, a major port on the Lena River. It is also a highway center and has tanneries, sawmills, and brickworks. Yakutsk was founded in 1632. It has a university (founded 1956) and the Yakutsk branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Yakutsk (English) Якутск (Russian) Дьокуускай (Yakut)
Theater
Location of Yakutsk in the Lena watershed
Coordinates 62°2′N 129°44′E / 62.033, 129.733Coordinates: 62°2′N 129°44′E / 62.033, 129.733
Coat of Arms	Flag
City Day: Second Sunday of September
Administrative status
Federal subject In jurisdiction of Capital of	Sakha Republic Sakha Republic Sakha Republic
Local self-government
Charter	Charter of Yakutsk
Municipal status	n/a
Mayor	Ilya Mikhalchuk
Legislative body	City Council of Deputies
Area
Area	n/a
Population (as of the 2002 Census)
Population - Rank - Density	inhabitants 89th n/a
Events
Founded	1632
Other information
Postal code	n/a
Dialing code	+7 4112
Official website
http://www.yakutsk-city.ru/

Yakutsk (Russian: Яку́тск; Yakut: Дьокуускай) is a city in the Russian Far East, located about 4° (450 kilometres) below the Arctic Circle. It is the capital of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (formerly the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), Russia and a major port on the Lena River. It is served by Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Yakutsk Magan Airport. Population: 210,642 (2002 Census); 186,626 (1989 Census).

It is also a highway center and has tanneries, sawmills, and brickworks. Yakutsk was founded in 1632 as a Cossack fort but did not grow into a city until the discovery of large reserves of gold and other minerals in the 1880s and 1890s. These reserves were developed extensively during the industrialisation under Stalin. The rapid growth of forced labour camps in Siberia also encouraged Yakutsk's development.

Additionally, Yakutsk is connected with Magadan in the Russian Far East by the Kolyma Highway, dubbed the Road of Bones, which was constructed by inmates from Gulag and Sevvostlag labor camps. Actually, the city's connection to the Kolyma Highway is available strictly by ferry in the summer, or in the dead of winter, directly over the frozen Lena River, as Yakutsk lies entirely on its western bank, and there is no bridge anywhere in the Sakha Republic that crosses the mighty Lena. The river is impassable for large stretches of the year when it is full of loose ice, or when the ice cover is not sufficiently thick to support traffic, or when the water level is high and the river turbulent with spring flooding. So the Kolyma Highway actually starts on the eastern bank of Lena across and a few kilometres to the south of Yakutsk in Nizhny Bestyakh (Нижний Бестях), an urban-type settlement of some 4 thousand people. A massive dual-use railroad and roadway bridge over Lena is scheduled to be built 80 km upriver at Kerdem by 2010, when AYAM, the North-South railroad being extended from the South, will finally connect the city with the East-West Baikal Amur Mainline. In the dead of winter, the frozen Lena makes for a passable highway for ice truckers using its channel to deliver provisions to far-flung outposts.

The city has a university (founded 1956) and a branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which contains, among others, the Institute of Cosmophysical Research, which runs the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower installation (one of the largest cosmic-ray detector arrays in the world), and the Permafrost Research Institute developed with the aim of solving the serious and costly problems associated with construction of buildings on frozen soil.

Yakutsk is also home to Sakha theater and the Museum of Mammoth. It has offices of many mining companies, including ALROSA, whose diamond mines in Yakutia account for about 20% of the world's rough diamond output.

Yakutsk is one of the coldest cities on earth, with January temperatures averaging − °C (− °F). The coldest temperatures ever recorded outside Antarctica occur in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast. However, July temperatures can often exceed °F (°C), making the region among the greatest in the world for seasonal temperature differentials. Yakutsk is the biggest city built on continuous permafrost. Most houses are built on concrete piles.

With the Lena River navigable in the summer, there are various boat cruises offered, including upriver to the Lena Pillars, and downriver tours which visit spectacular scenery in the lower reaches and the Lena Delta.

Weather averages for Yakutsk
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	-5.8 (22)	-2.2 (28)	8.3 (47)	21.1 (70)	31.1 (88)	35.1 (95)	38.3 (101)	35.4 (96)	27.0 (81)	20.5 (69)	3.1 (38)	-3.9 (25)	()
Average high °C (°F)	-39.5 (-39)	-31.4 (-25)	-14.1 (7)	0.0 (32)	12.1 (54)	21.7 (71)	25.1 (77)	21.5 (71)	11.9 (53)	-3.5 (26)	-24.4 (-12)	-36.8 (-34)	()
Average low °C (°F)	-45.9 (-51)	-41.2 (-42)	-29.8 (-22)	-14.3 (6)	-0.3 (31)	8.3 (47)	11.7 (53)	8.5 (47)	0.7 (33)	-12.3 (10)	-32.8 (-27)	-43.2 (-46)	()
Record low °C (°F)	-63.0 (-81)	-64.4 (-84)	-54.9 (-67)	-41.0 (-42)	-18.1 (-1)	-7.2 (19)	-1.5 (29)	-7.8 (18)	-14.2 (6)	-40.9 (-42)	-54.5 (-66)	-59.8 (-76)	()
Precipitation mm (inch)	9 (0.4)	7 (0.3)	6 (0.2)	10 (0.4)	18 (0.7)	37 (1.5)	39 (1.5)	37 (1.5)	29 (1.1)	20 (0.8)	16 (0.6)	12 (0.5)	()
Source: Pogoda.ru.net[1] 8.09.2007

References

External links

• Commons has media related to Yakutsk
• Flickr photos tagged yakutsk
• Yakutsk State University
• Lena Pillars at Natural Heritage Protection Fund site
• (Russian) Some photos of Yakutsk
• (Russian) Yakutsk past and present: a photo gallery at the site of the Ministry of Construction of the Sakha Republic

	Cities and towns in the Sakha Republic
	Capital: Yakutsk Aldan | Lensk | Mirny | Neryungri | Nyurba | Olyokminsk | Pokrovsk | Srednekolymsk | Tommot | Udachny | Verkhoyansk | Vilyuysk

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