Bratsk, city in eastern Russia, in the southwest region of Eastern Siberia, in western Irkutsk Oblast. Bratsk is located along the Bratsk Reservoir created by the Bratsk Dam, a hydroelectric facility on the Angara. The city is a center of heavy industries specializing in aluminum smelting, wood-pulp processing, and cellulose production. Industrial emissions have made Bratsk one of the most polluted cities in Russia and have caused damage and death among the city's coniferous trees. Rail lines in Bratsk link to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and there is an airport with domestic flights to Moscow and other major cities in western Russia. Bratsk has technical training schools for industry-related skills. Attractions include a puppet theater and an open-air ethnographic museum.
In the 1950s the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) developed remote areas of Eastern Siberia for industry. The construction of Bratsk and its hydroelectric station in the mid-1950s figures prominently in Soviet lore of frontier development. Construction brigades composed of volunteer members of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) worked in the harsh subarctic environment to complete the project. Bratsk's population grew rapidly, rising to about 43,000 people by 1959. Population (1995) 301,742.
