Tayshet, Russia

 

Tayshet is a city in Russia, the administrative center of the Tayshet district of the Irkutsk region. Population - 32 671 people. (2020). The city is located in the western part of the Irkutsk region, 680 km from the regional center - Irkutsk and 320 km from the center of the neighboring region - Krasnoyarsk. The area of the city is 7572 hectares. Large railway junction.

 

History

Taishet arose in 1897 in connection with the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway as a small station village Taishet. The village got its name from its location on the Taishetka River (the right tributary of the Biryusa). The name of the river, in turn, comes from the Kottian language, which is close to modern Ket: tha - "cold", shet - "river".

In 1903, a locomotive depot was built in Taishet. In 1906, Taishet became a village in the Alzamay volost.

Since 1910 - the center of the Taishet volost of the Kansk district of the Krasnoyarsk district of the Yenisei province.

In 1937 it received the status of a working village, the status of a city - on March 2, 1938. In the period 1930-50-ies Taishet was the center of two parts of the GULAG - YuzhLAG and OzerLAG. On the basis of YuzhLAG, the construction organization "Angarstroy" subsequently emerged.

The city becomes the starting point of the BAM. Japanese prisoners of war (soldiers of the former Kwantung Army), as well as German prisoners of war (they were repatriated to their homeland after a visit to the USSR by German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1955) took part in the construction of the Taishet-Bratsk railway.

On February 4, 1960, it was classified as a city of regional subordination.

Since 2005, with the entry into force of the 131st Federal Law, the municipal district "City of Taishet" was transformed into the Taishet urban settlement and reassigned to the Taishet district.

 

Physical and geographical characteristics

The territory of the city is located within the Taishet foothill plain between the tributaries of the Biryusa River - Taishetka and Akulshetka.

Soils - heavy loam, leached chernozem. Clay, loam, sand and gravel mixtures, limestones are found near the city.

The climate is sharply continental. The average July temperature is +17 ... + 20 ° C, the average January temperature is −28 ... −30 ° C. The average annual precipitation is 484.1 mm. Relative air humidity - 72.1%.

 

Transport

In Taishet, there is a railway junction and a large out-of-class marshalling yard, where highways of four directions converge. The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from west to east, the Baikal-Amur Mainline begins in Taishet (the first kilometer of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is located in Taishet), the South Siberian Mainline is located in the south, connecting BAM with Kuzbass, Altai, Northern and Central Kazakhstan, and also with the South Urals (ends in Magnitogorsk).

In the immediate vicinity of the city is the federal highway P255 Siberia. All long-distance trains stop at Taishet station, except for international ones, following in the Moscow - Ulan Bator and Moscow - Beijing route.

In addition, Taishet is the starting point of the Eastern oil pipeline (there is an oil pumping station in the city).

 

Economy

A significant number of the population is employed at the enterprises of the railway transport of the Taishet station of the Eastern Railway (wagon repair and maintenance depot, locomotive depot, sleeper impregnation plant and other enterprises).

The following industrial enterprises also operate in the city:
OJSC "Taishet plant for the repair of road-building machines" (in 2012 it was declared bankrupt);
LLC Construction Diversified Enterprise No. 621;
food industry enterprises;
forest industry enterprises.

In 2007, at the industrial site in Taishet, the Russian Aluminum company began construction of the Taishet aluminum plant with a capacity of 750 thousand tons per year. The cost of the project was estimated at about $ 2 billion. The commissioning of the first stage was originally scheduled for 2009, later it was postponed to 2011. As of July 2009, the readiness of the first start-up complex of the plant was estimated at 60%. In 2012, it was announced that the launch of the plant would be carried out only in the second half of 2014. In December 2021, the first stage of the Taishet aluminum smelter was launched in the integrated testing mode.

 

Education

Schools
Secondary school No. 1
Secondary school №2
Secondary school №5
Secondary school №14
Secondary school №23
Secondary school №85
Private educational institution boarding school №24
Special (correctional) boarding school №19

technical schools
Taishet Medical College
Taishet Industrial and Technological College

 

Culture

The city has a museum of local lore, which presents a small exposition that tells about the history of the region and the main events of the city. Near the museum there are several military guns.

The city is home to the Orthodox Peter and Paul Church and a Muslim mosque.

 

Architecture

The part of the city located north of the railway station is built up with brick apartment buildings no higher than five floors. To the south of the railway station, the city is represented by wooden buildings with one or two floors.

Several buildings of pre-revolutionary construction have been preserved in the city, for example, a water tower.

 

Prominent natives

Oleg Larionov (1950-1991) - lieutenant colonel of the Soviet army, posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star.