Vilyuysk or Vilyuisk (Yakut. Bүlүү) is a city (since 1783) in the
Russian Federation, the administrative center of the Vilyuisky ulus
of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Forms an urban settlement, the
city of Vilyuysk. It is one of the oldest cities in the northeast of
Asia and the Far East; founded in 1634 by Russian pioneering
Cossacks.
A minor planet in the solar system is named in
honor of the city of Vilyuysk. The Minor Planet was discovered by
astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva in 1978.
It was founded in 1634 as the Vilyuysk Cossack
winter hut, it is also Verkhnevilyuyskoe, since it is located
upstream of the Vilyui River than the Nizhnevilyui winter hut; from
the end of the 18th century the city of Vilyuysk. The toponym comes
from the hydronym of the Vilyui River, the etymology of which is not
fully understood. According to E.M. Pospelov, the Chukchi-Koryak
origin of the hydronym was assumed: the basis of the forks is
associated with trade, since exchange trade between taiga fishermen
and hunters could take place on rivers with names from the forks,
but a more convincing hypothesis based on the Yakut name of the
river - “Byulyuyu”, which is formed from the Buryat-Mongolian
“byuglyuyu” - “deaf taiga, locality”.
A minor planet in the
solar system is named in honor of the city of Vilyuysk. The Minor
Planet was discovered by astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva in 1978.
The city is located on the right bank of the Vilyui River (a tributary of the Lena), 592 km northwest of Yakutsk.
In the 19th century, it was believed that
the city of Olensk in the 18th - early 19th centuries was located at
the mouth of the Olenek River near the Arctic Ocean, that is, it was
removed from Vilyuisk at a distance of over 1000 km. In particular,
on the map of the Irkutsk governorship of 1792, Olensk is shown at
the mouth of the Olenek River. This position was questioned at the
end of the 19th century: then it turned out that, according to the
"travel log" of the sergeant of the Olensk city command for 1794,
the city of Olensk was located on the Vilyue river.
The
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890-1907) reported:
"Olensk - this name was borne for some time by the city of
Vilyuysk." Kalashnikov (Yakutia: Chronicle, Facts, Events, 2000),
based on the surviving maps of the Lena River and the city of
Olensk, claims that Olensk and Vilyuisk are one and the same city.
The "Encyclopedic Lexicon" (St. Petersburg, 1835-1841)
indicated: "Verkhnevilyuisk, or Olensk, the city of the Yakutsk
region, on the right side of the Vilyui river, 610 versts from
Yakutsk ... In 1805 the city was destroyed and a commissioner was
established, which in 1822 again elevated to the status of a city.
Vilyuysk was also called Olensk because at first it was supposed to
place the city administration in Olensk - a place that lies along
the Olenka River, which flows into the Arctic Ocean.
The city of Vilyuysk was founded in the spring of 1634 by the
Yenisei Cossacks, led by Posnik Ivanov (Posnik Gubar Ivanov), who
sailed along the Vilyui River from the Yakutsk prison by order of
the governor of the prison Ivan Galkin for yasak gathering. The
original name of the settlement, from where the city of Vilyuysk
originates, is the Upper Vilyui winter quarters, the first Russian
settlement on Vilyui, a collection point for yasak and an outpost
for the development of the Vilyui river basin by Russian Cossacks.
However, already on the plan of the Lena River in 1794, the
settlement of Olensk on the Vilyui River is indicated.
Thus,
in 1822 Vilyuysk became the administrative center of the Vilyuysk
district, the largest in the Yakutsk region.
Until 1902, the
city of Vilyuysk was under the administrative authority of the
district police department headed by the police chief. From January
1902, the city headman, elected from among the merchant and
bourgeois class, began to manage the city economy. On March 12,
1906, the city of Vilyuysk was included in the list of cities with a
simplified city administration, consisting of 12 elected
representatives.
Since 1920, the management of the city was
entrusted to the City Council of Working People's Deputies, renamed
in 1978 to the City Council of People's Deputies. On January 9,
1930, Vilyuisk became the center of the Vilyuysk region.
Since 1992, the administration of the city of Vilyuysk was formed
with an appointed head of the administration.
In October
2005, the municipality "City of Vilyuysk" was created with an
elected head and a city assembly with elected deputies.