Long Reads 2 min read
The Steel Buckle: the Story of the Circum-Baikal Railway
Lake Baikal was the greatest obstacle on the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. First, trains were ferried across on an icebreaker; once, rails were laid across the…
Articles
Long Reads
Longer stories
Long Reads 1 min read
Listvyanka at 300: an anniversary year on the shore of Baikal
A parade of ships, a viewing platform at the Vampilov stone, the “V Listvyanke Yest” festival and a record-breaking ukha.
Long Reads 1 min read
Baikal: 30 years on the World Heritage List
A congress under the auspices of UNESCO, a dictation with 20,000 participants, returning seal haul-outs and trails built without concrete.
Long Reads 1 min read
Who is saving historic Irkutsk: investors, an agency and preferential loans
28 buildings in 13 years, 33 monuments under the DOM.RF programme and private stories — from a burnt-out 1880s house to architect Kudelsky’s adobe house.
Long Reads 1 min read
A year of openings at the regional museum: from Russian America to children’s archaeology
New exhibitions, a children’s centre, an interactive icebreaker and a bus route to Baikal — what is new at the museum of local history.
Long Reads 1 min read
Slyudyanka: a marble station, a steam locomotive and a water tower
One of the most beautiful stations in Russia is getting a locomotive as a neighbour, and the tower built by exiled Poles may become a Circum-Baikal Railway museum.
Long Reads 1 min read
For the diocese’s 300th anniversary: how Irkutsk’s oldest churches are being restored
The Church of the Saviour, the Epiphany Cathedral and the Kharlampievsky Church — three monuments of federal significance, three different restoration stories.
Long Reads 1 min read
Taltsy at 60: a museum that is still being built
The most visited museum in the Irkutsk Region keeps growing: settlers’ farmsteads, a synagogue from Zima and opera by the walls of the Ilimsk fort.
Long Reads 1 min read
Irkutsk at 365: the anniversary year in museums and archives
An artistic chronicle, building design plans, the history of the main street and merchant estates — how the city told its own story in 2026.