Editing Irkutsk (section)

==Geography==
Irkutsk is located about {{convert|850|km|mi}} to the south-east of [[Krasnoyarsk]], and about {{convert|520|km|mi}} north of [[Ulaanbaatar]], the capital of [[Mongolia]]. The city proper lies on the [[Angara River]], a [[tributary]] of the [[Yenisei River|Yenisei]], {{convert|72|km|sp=us}} below its outflow from [[Lake Baikal]] and on the bank opposite the suburb of Glaskovsk.<ref name=EB1911/> The river, {{convert|580|m|sp=us}} wide, is crossed by the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Dam and three other bridges downstream.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The [[Irkut River]], from which the town takes its name, is a smaller river that joins the Angara directly opposite the city.<ref name=EB1911/> The main portion of the city is separated from several landmarks—the monastery, the fort and the port, as well as its suburbs—by another tributary, the Ida (or Ushakovka) River. The two main parts of Irkutsk are customarily referred to as the "left bank" and the "right bank", with respect to the flow of the Angara River.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Irkutsk is situated in a landscape of rolling hills in the thick [[taiga]] that is typical in Eastern Siberia.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Frazier |first=Ian |date=August 3, 2009 |title=Travels in Siberia—II |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/10/travels-in-siberia-ii |access-date=January 7, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107153257/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/10/travels-in-siberia-ii |url-status=live }}</ref>

The population has been shrinking since the late 1980s: {{ru-census|p2010=587,891|p2002=593,604|p1989=622,301}}. According to the regional plan, Irkutsk city will be combined with its neighboring industrial towns of [[Shelekhov]] and [[Angarsk]] to form a metropolitan area with a total population of over a million.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

===Urban layout===
[[File:Cerkiew Kazańska w Irkucku 04.JPG|left|thumb|220px|Cathedral of the Theotokos of Kazan]]
The center of the historical part of the city is Kirov Square. In that place on July 6, 1661, Yakov Pokhabov laid a prison for collecting [[Yasak]], a tax collected from the local population with fur.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pribaikal.ru/events-culture0/article/10916.html |title=О ПРЕДЫСТОРИИ ИРКУТСКОГО ОСТОРГА |publisher=// pribaikal.ru |access-date=November 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110104347/http://pribaikal.ru/events-culture0/article/10916.html |url-status=live |archive-date=November 10, 2013 }}</ref> The architectural appearance of present-day Irkutsk has been born since the days of the wooden prison. The historic center of the city is now in its place. By the beginning of the 18th century, it had turned into a wooden fortress, which protected the inhabitants from the raids of nomads. A major fire of 1716 almost completely destroyed the fortifications, but in just a year new ones were built, already made of stone. 

Of the buildings on the territory of the Irkutsk Kremlin of that time, the Savior Church has survived, the stone building of which was laid in 1706 in the north-western corner of the fort. Along with the Epiphany Cathedral, erected behind the eastern wall of the fortress and also preserved to this day, this is one of the oldest stone buildings in Siberia. The protective palisade and the moat, which once defended the Irkutsk fortress from the south, from the Angara bank to the Ushakovka River, existed until the middle of the 18th century. 

In early Irkutsk there were no streets at all, the buildings approached the driveways with random turns and only with subsequent alterations were turned around with front facades. The first settlers did not orient their houses in relation to neighboring buildings either. When building a new house, the owners usually adhered only to the orientation of the windows to the south side. This is how the layout of the oldest part of the city took shape — from Angara to modern Karl Marx Street: the main directions of the streets repeat the outlines of the coastline, which, in turn, are crossed by transverse passages connecting the outskirts of the city with the center and overlooking the Angara bank. 

The curvature of the central streets and the disparity of the quarters formed by them, shows the spontaneous process of their formation. This is especially noticeable in the example of Basninskaya Street (now Sverdlova Street), which they tried to straighten with each new attempt to streamline the development. And it simply repeated the outlines of the log that once was here, formed, possibly, by the old lady of the Gryaznushka river, which connected Ushakovka and Angara.<ref>[Дамешек Л. М. и др. Иркутск в панораме веков: очерки истории города / Под ред. Л. М. Дамешек. — И.: Восточно-Сибирская издательская компания, 2002]</ref><ref name="irkipedia.ru"/>

In 1726, defensive fortifications (palisade) were built in Irkutsk, behind which the barracks of the local garrison were taken out. The construction of the palisade changed the process of the spontaneous evolution of buildings and influenced the formation of the city's layout in the most significant way. After the fortification was dismantled in 1790,<ref>Дамешек Л. М. и др. Иркутск в панораме веков: очерки истории города / Под ред. Л. М. Дамешек. — И.: Восточно-Сибирская издательская компания, 2002.</ref> a complete mismatch of street directions in the old and new parts of the city was revealed.

The state of development of the "pre-palisade" period is reflected in the first of the known plans of Irkutsk in 1729. Its main advantage is the fixation of the city's borders, which ran along the line of the modern Karl Marx Street. Between 1729 and 1768 in the space between Angara and Ushakovka, the first "zapalisadny" row of blocks is formed. A spontaneous settlement appears near the soldiers' barracks, first along the roads that approached the Mill and Overseas gates, and then between them. The development proceeded unevenly, the closest to the current state at that time were the fragments of buildings located in the area of Zamorskaya (Lenin st.) And Institutskaya (Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsii st.) Streets. Now it is, roughly, quarters No. 90, 91, 92.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The last third of the 18th century was significant both for the history of the city as a whole and for the formation of its buildings. With the formation of the Irkutsk province in 1764, Irkutsk became the center of the largest region in Russia—Eastern Siberia, which included Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the entire northeast to the Pacific Ocean. Irkutsk needed to expand, and by that time there were no enemies ready to lay claim to the city. The palisade was dismantled, and in its place appeared Bolshaya Preshpektnaya Street, now Karla Marxa Street, the only straight street in modern Irkutsk. The devastating fire of 1879 made its own adjustments to the construction laws as it was from here that the border began, beyond which it was forbidden to build from wood. This has divided the old Irkutsk into two parts: closer to the Angara river, mainly stone buildings remained, and on the other side, where there were once outskirts, the wooden Irkutsk grew.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.culture.ru/institutes/5658/istoricheskii-centr-irkutska |title=Исторический центр Иркутска. Подробная информация: расписание, фото, адрес и т. д. на официальном сайте Культура.РФ |access-date=December 1, 2020 |archive-date=October 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019191107/https://www.culture.ru/institutes/5658/istoricheskii-centr-irkutska |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://tochka-na-karte.ru/Attractions/344-Istoricheskij-tsentr-Irkutska.html |title=ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ ЦЕНТР ИРКУТСКА |access-date=December 1, 2020 |archive-date=March 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305195455/https://tochka-na-karte.ru/Attractions/344-Istoricheskij-tsentr-Irkutska.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Climate===
Irkutsk has a borderline [[humid continental climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification]] ''Dwb'', bordering ''Dwc'', [[Trewartha climate classification]] ''Dcbc'', bordering on ''Ecbc'').

Irkutsk is characterized by an extreme variation of temperatures between seasons. It can be very warm in the summer, and very cold in the winter. However, [[Lake Baikal]] has a tempering effect, giving Irkutsk temperatures that are slightly less extreme than at similar latitudes elsewhere in Siberia. The warmest month of the year is July, when the average temperature is {{convert|+19|C}}; the highest temperature recorded being {{convert|+37.2|C}}. The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is {{convert|−17.6|C}}, and record low of {{convert|−49.7|C}}. [[Precipitation (meteorology)|Precipitation]] varies widely throughout the year, with July being the wettest month, when precipitation averages {{convert|107|mm|sp=us}}. The driest month is February, when precipitation averages only {{convert|9|mm|sp=us}}. Almost all precipitation during the Siberian winter falls as fluffy, dry snow.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

{{Weather box|location=Irkutsk (1991–2020, extremes 1820–present)
|metric first=yes
|single line=yes
|width = auto
|Jan record high C = 2.3
|Feb record high C = 10.2
|Mar record high C = 21.1
|Apr record high C = 29.2
|May record high C = 34.5
|Jun record high C = 35.6
|Jul record high C = 37.2
|Aug record high C = 34.7
|Sep record high C = 29.7
|Oct record high C = 25.6
|Nov record high C = 14.4
|Dec record high C = 5.3
|year record high C = 37.2
|Jan high C = −12.7
|Feb high C = −7.5
|Mar high C = 1.2
|Apr high C = 10.5
|May high C = 18.1
|Jun high C = 23.8
|Jul high C = 25.7
|Aug high C = 22.9
|Sep high C = 16.1
|Oct high C = 7.9
|Nov high C = -2.7
|Dec high C = −10.8
|year high C = 7.7
|Jan mean C = -17.6
|Feb mean C = -14.1
|Mar mean C = -5.5
|Apr mean C = 3.6
|May mean C = 10.4
|Jun mean C = 16.4
|Jul mean C = 19.0
|Aug mean C = 16.4
|Sep mean C = 9.5
|Oct mean C = 2.0
|Nov mean C = -7.6
|Dec mean C = -15.4
|year mean C = 1.4
|Jan low C = −21.4
|Feb low C = −19.1
|Mar low C = −11.1
|Apr low C = -1.9
|May low C = 3.7
|Jun low C = 10.1
|Jul low C = 13.5
|Aug low C = 11.4
|Sep low C = 4.6
|Oct low C = -2.4
|Nov low C = −11.5
|Dec low C = −19.1
|year low C = -3.6
|Jan record low C = −49.7
|Feb record low C = −44.7
|Mar record low C = −37.3
|Apr record low C = −31.8
|May record low C = −14.3
|Jun record low C = −6.0
|Jul record low C = 0.4
|Aug record low C = −2.7
|Sep record low C = −11.9
|Oct record low C = −30.5
|Nov record low C = −40.4
|Dec record low C = −46.3
|year record low C = −49.7
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 14
|Feb precipitation mm = 9
|Mar precipitation mm = 12
|Apr precipitation mm = 21
|May precipitation mm = 36
|Jun precipitation mm = 69
|Jul precipitation mm = 107
|Aug precipitation mm = 96
|Sep precipitation mm = 53
|Oct precipitation mm = 21
|Nov precipitation mm = 20
|Dec precipitation mm = 19
|year precipitation mm = 477
|Jan snow depth cm = 24
|Feb snow depth cm = 28
|Mar snow depth cm = 18
|Apr snow depth cm = 1
|May snow depth cm = 0
|Jun snow depth cm = 0
|Jul snow depth cm = 0
|Aug snow depth cm = 0
|Sep snow depth cm = 0
|Oct snow depth cm = 1
|Nov snow depth cm = 8
|Dec snow depth cm = 18
|year snow depth cm = 28
|Jan humidity = 81
|Feb humidity = 74
|Mar humidity = 63
|Apr humidity = 54
|May humidity = 53
|Jun humidity = 65
|Jul humidity = 72
|Aug humidity = 76
|Sep humidity = 75
|Oct humidity = 71
|Nov humidity = 78
|Dec humidity = 84
|year humidity = 71
|Jan rain days = 0
|Feb rain days = 0.04
|Mar rain days = 1
|Apr rain days = 9
|May rain days = 15
|Jun rain days = 18
|Jul rain days = 18
|Aug rain days = 17
|Sep rain days = 16
|Oct rain days = 9
|Nov rain days = 2
|Dec rain days = 0
|year rain days = 105
|Jan snow days = 21
|Feb snow days = 16
|Mar snow days = 13
|Apr snow days = 11
|May snow days = 3
|Jun snow days = 0.2
|Jul snow days = 0
|Aug snow days = 0
|Sep snow days = 2
|Oct snow days = 10
|Nov snow days = 20
|Dec snow days = 23
|year snow days = 119
|Jan sun = 108.8
|Feb sun = 157.3
|Mar sun = 226.6
|Apr sun = 248.1
|May sun = 276.2
|Jun sun = 275.2
|Jul sun = 267.9
|Aug sun = 233.1
|Sep sun = 181.7
|Oct sun = 156.5
|Nov sun = 95.4
|Dec sun = 74.8

|source 1 = Pogoda.ru.net<ref name="pogoda">{{cite web |url=http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/30710.htm |title=Pogoda.ru.net- Climate Data for Irkutsk 1991–2020 |access-date=November 8, 2021 |publisher=Weather and Climate (Погода и климат) |language=ru |archive-date=September 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924140802/http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/30710.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
|date=August 2010
|source 2 = [[NOAA]]<ref name = NOAA >
{{cite web |url=https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0216/0253808/2.2/data/0-data/Region-2-WMO-Normals-9120/RussianFederation/CSV/Irkutsk_30710.csv |title=Irkutsk Climate Normals 1991–2020 |publisher=[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] |date=November 2, 2023 }}</ref>
}}