Editing Lake Baikal (section)

====As part of Russia====
[[File:Letts-Popular-Atlas-1883-Russia-in-Asia-Chinese-Empire-etc.jpg|thumb|An 1883 British map using the ''[[wikt:море|More]] Baikal'' (Baikal Sea) designation, rather than the conventional ''Ozero Baikal'' (Lake Baikal).]]
Russian expansion into the Buryat area around Lake Baikal in 1628–1658 was part of the [[Russian conquest of Siberia]].<ref>George V. Lantzeff and Richard A. Price, 'Eastward to Empire', 1973</ref> It was done first by following the Angara River upstream from [[Yeniseysk]] (founded 1619) and later by moving south from the Lena River. Russians first heard of the Buryats in 1609 at [[Tomsk]]. According to folktales related a century after the fact, in 1623, [[Demid Pyanda]], who may have been the first Russian to reach the Lena, crossed from the upper Lena to the Angara and arrived at Yeniseysk.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.randewy.ru/karta/geogr24.html |script-title=ru:Открытие Русскими Средней И Восточной Сибири |publisher=Randewy.ru |access-date=2 January 2012|language=ru}}</ref>

The [[Russian explorers]] Vikhor Savin (1624) and [[Maksim Perfilyev]] (1626 and 1627–28) explored [[Evenks|Tungus]] country on the lower Angara. To the west, [[Krasnoyarsk]] on the upper Yenisei was founded in 1627. A number of ill-documented (poorly recorded) expeditions explored eastward from Krasnoyarsk. In 1628, [[Pyotr Beketov]] first encountered a group of Buryats and collected ''[[yasak]]'' ([[tribute]]) from them at the future site of [[Bratsk]]. In 1629, Yakov Khripunov set off from Tomsk to find a rumored [[silver mine]]. His men soon began plundering both Russians and natives. They were joined by another band of rioters from Krasnoyarsk, but left the Buryat country when they ran short of food. This made it difficult for other Russians to enter the area. In 1631, Maksim Perfilyev built an ''[[ostrog (fortress)|ostrog]]'' at Bratsk. The pacification was moderately successful, but in 1634, Bratsk was destroyed and its [[garrison]] killed. In 1635, Bratsk was restored by a punitive expedition under Radukovskii. In 1638, it was besieged unsuccessfully. In 1638, Perfilyev crossed from the Angara over the Ilim portage to the [[Lena River]] and went downstream as far as [[Olyokminsk]]. Returning, he sailed up the [[Vitim River]] into the area east of Lake Baikal (1640) where he heard reports of the Amur country. In 1641, Verkholensk was founded on the upper Lena.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In 1643, [[Kurbat Ivanov]] went further up the Lena and became the first European to see Lake Baikal and [[Olkhon Island]].<ref>Raymond H. Fisher, The Voyage of Semon Dezhnev, The Haklyut Society, 1981, p. 246, {{ISBN|0904180123}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irkutsk.org/baikal/research.htm |title=Research of the Baikal |publisher=Irkutsk.org |date=18 January 2006 |access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> Half his party under Skorokhodov remained on the lake, reached the [[Upper Angara]] at its northern tip, and wintered on the [[Barguzin (river)|Barguzin River]] on the northeast side.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In 1644, Ivan Pokhabov went up the Angara to Baikal, becoming perhaps the first Russian to use this route, which is difficult because of the [[rapids]]. He crossed the lake and explored the lower [[Selenge River]]. About 1647, he repeated the trip, obtained guides, and visited a 'Tsetsen Khan' near [[Ulan Bator]]. In 1648, Ivan Galkin built an ''ostrog ''on the Barguzin River which became a center for eastward expansion. In 1652, Vasily Kolesnikov reported from Barguzin that one could reach the Amur country by following the Selenga, Uda, and Khilok Rivers to the future sites of [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]] and [[Nerchinsk]].{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In the past, the Baikal was referred to by many Russians as the "Baikal Sea" ({{lang|ru|море Байкал}}, ''More Baikal''), rather than merely "Lake Baikal" ({{lang|ru|озеро Байкал}}, ''Ozero Baikal'').<ref name=tooke>{{Cite book|first=William |last=Tooke|author-link=William Tooke|publisher=Printed by A. Strahan, for T. N. Longman and O. Rees|year=1800|title=View of the Russian empire during the reign of Catharine the Second, and to the close of the eighteenth century|url= https://archive.org/details/viewrussianempi01conggoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/viewrussianempi01conggoog/page/n241 203]}}</ref> This usage is attested already in the ''Life of Protopope [[Avvakum]]'' (1621–1682),<ref>"On the Baikal Sea I was in a shipwreck again" (На Байкалове море паки тонул), in the ''Life of Protopope Avvakum, Written by Himself'' ([[:ru:s:Житие протопопа Аввакума|Житие протопопа Аввакума, им самим написанное]])</ref> and on the late-17th-century maps by [[Semyon Remezov]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=L. Bagrov|title=Imago mundi|editor-last=International Society for the History of Cartography |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1964|volume= 1|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2zZCAAAAIAAJ|page=115}}</ref> It is also attested in the famous song, now passed into the tradition, that opens with the words ''Славное море, священный Байкал'' (Glorious sea, [the] sacred Bajkal). To this day, the strait between the western shore of the Lake and the [[Olkhon]] Island is called "Maloye More" (''Малое море''), i.e. "the [[Small Sea Strait|Little Sea]]". Lake Baikal is nicknamed "Older sister of Sister Lakes (its sister being [[Lake Khövsgöl]])".<ref>''Lake Baikal: Siberia's Great Lake'', {{ISBN|978-1-84162-294-1}}, p. 4.</ref>

The [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] was built between 1896 and 1902. Construction of the scenic [[Circum-Baikal Railway|railway around the southwestern end of Lake Baikal]] required 200 bridges and 33 tunnels. Until its completion, a [[train ferry]], the [[SS Baikal]], transported railcars across the lake from [[Port Baikal]] to [[Mysovaya]] for a number of years. As the railway was built, a large hydrogeographical expedition headed by F.K. Drizhenko produced the first detailed [[contour map]] of the lake bed.<ref name="touchstone"/>

The lake became the site of the minor [[Battle of Lake Baikal|military engagement]] between the [[Czechoslovak legion]] and the [[Red Army]] in 1918. At times during winter freezes, the lake could be crossed on foot, though at risk of [[frostbite]] and deadly [[hypothermia]] from the cold wind moving unobstructed across flat expanses of ice. In the winter of 1920, the [[Great Siberian Ice March]] occurred, when the retreating [[White movement|White Russian Army]] crossed frozen Lake Baikal. The wind on the exposed lake was so cold, many people died, freezing in place until spring thaw. Beginning in 1956, the impounding of the [[Irkutsk Dam]] on the Angara River raised the level of the lake by {{Convert|1.4|m|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref name="his">{{cite web|title=Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station History|url=http://en.irkutskenergo.ru/qa/1008.2.html|publisher=Irkutskenergo|access-date=7 September 2010|archive-date=25 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325234405/http://en.irkutskenergo.ru/qa/1008.2.html}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Khagdaev 02.jpg|[[Buryats|Buryat]] [[shaman]] on [[Olkhon Island]]
File:Baikal sea.png|Russian map ''circa'' 1700, Baikal (not to scale) is at top
File:КБЖД 17.jpg|Steam locomotive on the [[Circum-Baikal Railroad]]
File:Ledokol Angara.jpg|''{{ill|Angara (icebreaker)|lt=Angara|ru|Ангара (ледокол)}}'' was launched in 1900 and is one of the oldest surviving [[icebreaker]]s
File:DEM Baikal lake.png|A [[digital elevation model]] of Lake Baikal region, [[NOAA]] 2006
</gallery>