Baykalsk ( rus, Байкальск, p=bɐjˈkalʲsk) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Slyudyansky District of

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and N ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, located from Slyudyanka, the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the district. Population:

History

Baykalsk was founded in 1961 concomitant with the building of a paper mill there, called Baykalsk Paper and Pulp Mills. In 1966 the mill became operational, and the settlement received "city" status. At its peak, the mill employed about 3,500 people. In the late 2000s, Baykalsk faced a series of well-documented economic crises stemming from its status as a

monotown A monotown (a calque from Russian моногород, ''monogorod''; ''gorod'' meaning "town") is a city/town whose economy is dominated by a single industry or company. This means that most employments (except for service to residents like sch ...

entirely dependent on the declining and then closed paper mill.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Baykalsk is subordinated to Slyudyansky District.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Formations of Irkutsk Oblast'' As a municipal division, the

of Baykalsk, together with two rural localities in Slyudyansky District, is incorporated within Slyudyansky Municipal District as Baykalskoye Urban Settlement.Law #72-oz

Economy

Baykalsk Paper and Pulp Mills was a major source of pollution of Lake Baikal. About 3,500 people were directly employed by the plant. The plant was closed in 2009 after new expensive waste water treatment equipment made the factory unprofitable after the global economic downturn. In

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

times, the factory management was primarily responsible for the town's maintenance. The town and plant administrations were independent from one another but 95% of the town's budget used to come from the plant in the form of taxes. In January 2010, following disturbances, the Russian government with the cooperation of its private owner reopened the factory and exempted it from pollution rules but lowered the workers' wages. In September 2013, the mill underwent a final bankruptcy, with the last eight hundred workers slated to lose their jobs by December 28, 2013.

Infrastructure

There are nine kindergartens, three theaters, and a new sports center in the town. The residential parts mostly consist of three- and five-story apartment blocks.

References

Notes

Sources

* * *
Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Formations of Irkutsk Oblast
'

External links

Official website of Baykalsk

Directory of organizations in Baykalsk
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Irkutsk Oblast Populated places established in 1961 Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Monotowns in Russia Populated places on Lake Baikal