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Gusinoozyorsk (Buryatsky: Galuuta, Galuta) is a city and
administrative center of the Selenginsky District of the Republic of
Buryatia, Russia, located on the northeastern shore of Lake Gusinoe,
110 kilometers (68 miles) southwest of Ulan-Ude. Population: 24,582
people (2010 census)
Gusinoozyorsk was founded as a
settlement of Shakhty in 1939, when the development of a brown coal
deposit began nearby. Since 1953 - the city of Gusinoozyorsk.
It is located on the northeastern shore of Lake Gusinoe, 110 km
south-west of Ulan-Ude on the Kyakhtinsky tract - the A340 federal
highway.
Gusinoozersk is the second city in terms of economic
importance and population in Buryatia. The main city-forming
enterprise is the Gusinoozyorskaya TPP.
Tamchinsky datsan
Bultumur datsan
Deer stone
Rock Englishwoman
Agsurg spring
Atsula tract
Temnikovskaya cave
Goose lake
Pike lake
Hara-Hapsagay
Mount Slain
Geser's parking lot
Novoselenginsky Museum of the
Decembrists
Old Selenginsk
Chikoy arrow
Park of culture and
rest
City sports complex
Sports complex GRES
Museums
Museum of the city of Gusinoozyorsk
Theaters
House of
Culture "Shakhtar".
Puppet theater "Rodnichok".
City leisure
center "Russia".
Leisure Center "Rus".
Oykonym Gusinoozyorsk was formed by
tracing the limnonym Galuuta Nuur from the Buryat language. The
Buryat name, in turn, is due to the fact that the inhabitants of the
surrounding uluses collected goose feathers on the shores of the
lakes, which later formed the Goose Lake.
The first
information of Russian and European travelers that the waves of the
Goose Lake throw "hard earth coal" on the shore date back to 1772.
In the 1890s, the geologist V.A.Obruchev conducted a study of the
Gusinoozersk brown coal deposit and pointed out the possibility of
its industrial development.
In 1932−1935, the geologist I.
Ya. Sotnikov conducted preliminary exploration on the eastern shore
of Lake Goose in the area of the Bain-Zurkhe hill (Southern
section). On August 26, 1934, the Bureau of the Buryat-Mongolian
Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks
transferred the Gusinoozyorskoye coal deposit to the Vostsibugol
trust. In September, the laying of the mine and the construction of
the village began, but due to the remoteness and difficulties in
transportation, work at the mine near the Bain-Zurkhe fell was
suspended.
On February 17, 1938, the Bureau of the
Buryat-Mongolian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party
of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the use of local mineral
fuel" and set the task of comprehensive development of the
Gusinoozyorskoye deposit. In August-September, on the site of the
present city, exploration and production mines No. 2 and No. 5 are
laid. In November 1938, the Council of People's Commissars of the
USSR transferred the development of the deposit from the Vostsibugol
trust to the Bukachachinsky correctional labor camp of the GULAG of
the NKVD of the USSR, later transformed into Gusinoozerlag
(1940-1942 ).
In 1939, the construction of a village began on
the Northern section (the village of Northern Shakhty). The first
trains with coal went along the railway line to the Zagustai
station.
During the Great Patriotic War, over two thousand
prisoners worked at the mines of Gusinoozerlag. In 1942, work on the
development of the deposit was again transferred to the Vostsibugol
trust. At the end of the war, one and a half thousand repatriated
Soviet prisoners of war and three hundred Japanese prisoners of war
of the Kwantung Army arrived. The Japanese worked in mines, built
residential and public buildings in the village, many of which still
exist today.
In the post-war years, the settlement grew and
developed. A power plant with a capacity of 1000 kW was launched, a
FZO school, a hospital, a canteen, a cinema, etc.
On April
28, 1948, the settlement of Shakhty was assigned to the category of
workers' settlements. In the autumn of the same year, the
deportation of Japanese prisoners of war took place. The memory of
them remained in the buildings they built and the name of the
Yaponka tract on the southern outskirts of the city.
On June
15, 1953, the working settlement of Shakhty was transformed into a
city of regional subordination and named Gusinoozerskoye after Lake
Gusino, on the banks of which it is located.
By the decree of
the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated June 21,
1961, the administrative center of the Selenginsky aimag of the
Buryat ASSR was moved from the village of Novoselenginsk to the city
of Gusinoozyorsk.
In 1966, open development of the
Kholboldzhinsky coal deposit began south of the Bain-Zurkhe hill on
the eastern shore of Lake Gusinoe. In November 1968, the
construction of a thermal power plant began at the mouth of the
Zagustai River. On December 22, 1976, the Power Engineer's Day, the
first stage of the Gusinoozyorskaya TPP was launched.
The
1970-1980s were marked by the growth of the city's economy. In
addition to coal and energy enterprises, a radio factory, a bakery,
a dairy, a brick factory, a garment factory, a timber processing
enterprise, and construction organizations operated. The territory
of Gusinoozyorsk is significantly increasing. Neighborhoods of power
engineers, coal miners, workers of a radio plant with five-story
residential buildings, schools, kindergartens and shops are being
built.
On December 27, 1977, Gusinoozersk was transformed
into a city of republican (ASSR) subordination and removed from the
Selenginsky region.
On February 24, 1982, the ulus Tukhum of
the Zagustai City Council was included in the city of Gusinoozyorsk.
In the 1990s, with the collapse of the USSR, the main
enterprises of the Soviet period were closed due to the
unprofitability of production. Due to the low quality of the new
coal seams, the work of the Gusinoozyorsk mines is terminated. In
2000, the Kholboldzhinsky coal mine was closed, which was one of the
main enterprises of the city for more than two decades.
In 1998, Gusinoozyorsk ceased to be a city of republican
subordination and was included in the Selenginsky district.
In 2013, an interdistrict vascular center was opened in the city,
where residents of the Selenginsky, Kyakhtinsky, Dzhida and
Zakamensky districts undergo treatment.
In February-March
2015, the XIII Republican Winter Rural Sports Games were held in
Gusinoozyorsk.
Geography
It is located in the
Gusinoozerskaya depression on the northeastern shore of Lake Gusin,
110 km south-west of Ulan-Ude, on the Kyakhtinsky tract - the A340
federal highway, 6 km southeast of the Zagustai railway station.
The central part of the city is located on the southwestern
steppe ridge of the Monostoy ridge of the Selenginsky midlands,
gently descending to the shore of Lake Gusinoe and to the estuarine
floodplain of the Zagustai River. The part of the city adjacent to
the lake is built up mainly with houses of the private sector,
across the river Zagustai there is the Gusinoozyorskaya GRES, the
Zagustai station and the village of Zaozyorny.
Climate
The
city is located in a zone of sharply continental climate. Winters
are snowy, cold, with dry frosts; summers are short and often hot.
The average temperature in summer is +19 ºС, in winter –22 ºС.
Annual precipitation is 250 mm on average.
Transport
How
to get there
6 km northwest of the city is the Zagustai station
of the East Siberian Railway on the southern Ulan-Ude - Naushki
line.
There is a bus station in the city, from which buses
regularly depart in all directions of the region and to Ulan-Ude.