Editing Irkutsk (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Иркутский драматический театр.JPG|thumb|Irkutsk Academic Drama Theater]]

===Television and mass media===
There are state-owned and privately owned television stations in Irkutsk, including state company IGTRK<ref>{{cite web |url=http://irkutsk.rfn.ru/ |title=IGTRK – Irkutsk branch of the State Television and Radio Broadcast Company |publisher=Irkutsk.rfn.ru |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=April 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130417131413/http://irkutsk.rfn.ru/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and private ones, such as AS Baikal TV,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://as.baikal.tv |title=AS Baikal TV |publisher=AS Baikal TV |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324001045/http://as.baikal.tv/ |archive-date=March 24, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> TV company AIST,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aisttv.ru/ |title=TV Company AIST |publisher=Aisttv.ru |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=March 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301113202/http://www.aisttv.ru/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> TV company Gorod,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gorodtv.ru/en/ |title=gorodtv.ru. Domain is, probably, for sale |website=gorodtv.ru |access-date=December 11, 2018 |archive-date=January 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111073214/http://gorodtv.ru/en/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and also other media outlets, like the VSP Newspaper Agency.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vsp.ru/ |title=VSP Newspaper Agency |publisher=Vsp.ru |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=February 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140208014650/http://vsp.ru/ |url-status=live }}</ref> There is also a live webcam broadcasting from the city center.<ref>[http://as.baikal.tv/webcam/ Live webcam in Irkutsk] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060401043702/http://as.baikal.tv/webcam/ |date=April 1, 2006 }}</ref>

===Education===
Irkutsk is home to the [[Irkutsk State Pedagogical College|East Siberian Education Academy]] (since 1909), [[Irkutsk State University]] (1918), [[Irkutsk State Medical University]] (1918), [[Baykalsky State University of Economics and Law]] (since 1932), [[Irkutsk State Technical University]] (since 1939), [[Irkutsk State Academy of Agriculture]], [[Irkutsk State Linguistic University]] (1948), [[Irkutsk State Railway Transport University]] (since 1975), and a number of private colleges: [[Siberian Institute of Law, Economics and Management]] (since 1993), [[Institute of Economics of ISTU]] (since 1996), and others.

===Science===
As Irkutsk is within the influence of the Siberian Division of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]], there are nine research institutes located in the Irkutsk Academgorodok suburb: the [[V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS|Institute of Geography]], the [[Energy System Institute]], the [[Institute of Geochemistry]], the [[Institute of System Dynamics and Control Theory]], the [[Earth's Crust Institute]], the [[Solar-Terrestrial Physics Institute]], the [[Institute of Chemistry]], the [[Limnological Institute]] (formerly located on Lake Baikal's shore), the [[Institute of Plant Physics]], [[Laser Physics Institute]] (a Branch of the Institute of Laser Physics in Novosibirsk).
A number of institutes conduct research within [[Irkutsk State University]]: the Institute of Biology, the Institute of Oil and Coal Chemistry and Synthesis, the Laboratory of Quantum Chemistry, the Institute of Applied Physics, the Interregional Institute of Social Studies, the Astronomical Observatory, and the Botanical Gardens.
The [[East-Siberian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences]] is also located in Irkutsk and is represented by the following research organizations: the Scientific Center for Medical Ecology, the Institute for Paediatrics and Human Reproduction, the Institute for Microbiology and Epidemiology, the Institute for Medicine of the Workplace and Human Ecology, the Institute of Reconstructive and Restorative Surgery, the Institute of Surgery, and the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics. Also, the [[Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Scientific and Technical Center]] has a branch in Irkutsk. Additionally, there are R&D institutes including [[GAZPROM]] [[R&D Institute]] (a Branch of a Moscow-based institute), the Irkutsk Institute of Rare and Precious Metals and Diamonds (Irgiredmet), part of the [[Petropavlovsk plc|Petropavlovsk]] Group of Companies.,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.petropavlovsk.net/ru/in-house-expertise.html |title=Аналитическая служба |publisher=Petropavlovsk.net |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914132145/http://www.petropavlovsk.net/ru/in-house-expertise.html |archive-date=September 14, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the Vostoksibacademcenter of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences that publishes the Project Baikal journal.

===Literature===
Irkutsk plays a crucial role in Jules Verne’s 1876 novel ''Michael Strogoff''. In the novel Strogoff is the heroic courier of the Czar Alexander II entrusted with delivering a critical dispatch to the Czar’s brother in Irkutsk with vital information about a rebellion brewing in Siberia. Irkutsk was home to Russian writer [[Valentin Rasputin]]; many of his novels and stories take place in the [[Angara River|Angara]] Valley. An essay on the cultural history of Irkutsk (and another one about the nearby Lake Baikal) is included in Rasputin's non-fiction collection [[Siberia, Siberia]], which is also available in an English translation. Irkutsk also figures prominently in descriptions by foreign travelers, including the so-called British "Blind Traveler" [[James Holman]], who was suspected of spying and conducted back forcibly to the frontiers of [[Poland]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
<ref>Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne, Charles Scribner's and Sons, 1927 </ref>

===Museums===
[[File:Exaltation of the Cross Church, Irkutsk, Russia.jpg|thumb|The Church of the Cross (1747–60) is a pinnacle of the [[Siberian Baroque]] architecture]]

Irkutsk<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/siberia/irkutsk |title=Irkutsk – Lonely Planet Travel and Information Guide |publisher=Lonelyplanet.com |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=December 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231202842/http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/siberia/irkutsk |url-status=live }}</ref> is a point of interest for tourists with its numerous museums and old architecture. The [[Taltsy Museum]] ({{langx|ru|[[:ru:Тальцы|Тальцы]]}}), located on the Angara {{convert|47|km|sp=us}} south of Irkutsk, is an open-air museum of Siberian [[vernacular architecture|traditional architecture]]. Numerous old wooden buildings from villages in the Angara valley, which have been flooded after the construction of the [[Bratsk Dam]] and [[Ust-Ilimsk Dam]], have been transported to the museum and reassembled there. One of the centerpieces of the collection is a partial recreation of the 17th-century ''ostrog'' (fortress) of Ilimsk, which consists of the original Spasskaya Tower and the Church of Our Lady of Kazan transported from the flooded ''ostrog'' in the mid-1970s, to which an exact modern copy of another tower of the  ''ostrog'' and the Southern wall of the fortress were added in the early 2000s.<ref>[http://babr.ru/?pt=news&event=v1&IDE=3423 В «Тальцах» завершается реконструкция южной стены Илимского острога] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214032721/http://babr.ru/?pt=news |date=February 14, 2009 }} (Re-creation of the southern wall of the Ilimsk ''ostrog'' in the Taltsy Museum is approaching its completion) {{in lang|ru }}</ref>

The [[Botanic Garden of the Irkutsk State University]] known as the "Irkutsk Botanic Garden" is the only [[botanic garden]] as a living [[museum]] in Irkutsk Oblast and Baikalian [[Siberia]]. Its mission is "to protect and enrich the flora of the Lake Baikal area and the world for people through public education, collection, propagation, research, and conservation of plants". The garden is mainly an educational and scientific tool for the [[Irkutsk State University]] and maintains the largest plant collection of living plants in Eastern [[Siberia]] (more than 5,000 plant taxa), a herbarium, and a seed bank. It occupies {{convert|27|ha|acre}} within Irkutsk city, {{convert|70|km|0|abbr=on}} west of Lake Baikal. It has a federal status of especially protected land and a nature memorial of Irkutsk.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

===Theaters===
Irkutsk is home to several theaters, including the Okhlopkov Drama Theater, one of Russia's oldest.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/beyond_moscow/irkutsk.html |title=Irkutsk: Libertine Legacy by the Lakeside &#124; Beyond Moscow |newspaper=The Moscow Times |access-date=March 26, 2013 |archive-date=May 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503093506/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/beyond_moscow/irkutsk.html |url-status=live }}</ref>