Map - Balagansky District (Balaganskiy Rayon)

Balagansky District (Balaganskiy Rayon)
Balagansky District (Балаганский райо́н) is an administrative district, one of the thirty-three in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Balagansky Municipal District. The area of the district is 6634.7 km2. Its administrative center is the urban locality (a work settlement) of Balagansk. Population: 9,973 (2002 Census). The population of Balagansk accounts for 44.7% of the district's total population.

Balagansk was founded in 1654 by the Kazak detachment led by Dmitry Firsov on the left bank of the Angara River opposite to the mouth of the Unga River, in the course of Russian colonization of Siberia. The name Balagansk originates from the Bulagat, literally sable hunters, a Buryat tribe. From 1655, mass settlement started in the area; eventually, a colony was built and iron mining developed. Balagansk Fortress (ostrog) was built in Balagansk, to which the Buryats were attached to and they paid tributes to the Russians. Buryats grew to dominate the area and on April 1, 1818, seventeen clans of the Balagansk Buryats met and adopted a memorandum to submit to the Russian authorities. In their memorandum they raised six issues and also provided action to be taken on each of them which related to courts, private law, criminal law, the rights and duties of the chief Taisha and heads of clans.

In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, the territory was included into Siberia Governorate. In 1764, Irkutsk Governorate split off, and in 1775, Balagansk was granted town status and became the seat of Balagansky Uyezd of Irkutsk Governorate. In 1924, the uyezds was abolished, the governorate split into districts, and Balagansk was moved to Ziminsky District. In 1925, it lost town status and was downgraded to a selo. In 1926, Balagansky District was established, and Balagansk became the district's administrative center.

During the construction of Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station Balagansk disappeared under water. The name was inherited by a new settlement, which was previously known as Novobalagansk. It was founded in 1957 several dozens kilometers south of the original location of Balagansk, and on June 5, 1962 it was renamed Balagansk and granted urban-type settlement status. In 1962, Balagansky District was abolished and split between Zalarinsky and Ust-Udinsky Districts. Balagansk was transferred to Zalarinsky District, and in 1965 it was moved to Ust-Udinsky District In 1989, Balagansky District was re-established, with the administrative center in Balagansk.

 
Map - Balagansky District (Balaganskiy Rayon)
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Russia (Россия,, ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering 17098246 km2, and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan.

The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union (with three other Soviet republics), within which it was the largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialization in the 1930s, and later played a decisive role for the Allies of World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for global ideological influence; the Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space.
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