Editing Irkutsk Oblast (section)

===18th century===
From the 18th century trades and crafts began to develop, and gold- and silver-smiths appeared. As the Russian state expanded to the east of Irkutsk, the city became the capital of enormous territories from the [[Yenisey River]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]], and played an important role in the exploration and securing of vast Eastern-Siberian and Far-Eastern territories for Russia. Gradually, Irkutsk gained more importance as the main transportation- and trade-center of Eastern Siberia; it became a center of trade routes from [[Kamchatka]], [[Chukchi Peninsula|Chukotka]], [[Sakha Republic|Yakutia]] to [[Mongolia]], and [[China]]. The administrative importance of the city also increased, and it became a center of a fifth of the [[Governorate (Russia)|province]]s of Siberia; in 1764 it became the center of an independent province, the [[Irkutsk Governorate]].

For Irkutsk the 18th century was a time of research expeditions. Some of the organization of [[Vitus Bering]]'s [[First Kamchatka expedition|first]] (1725–1730) and [[Great Northern Expedition|second]] (1733-1743) expeditions to the shores of Kamchatka took place in Irkutsk.

A merchant class developed in the city of Irkutsk. In the second half of the eighteenth century, the Irkutsk industrial and merchant companies of [[Shelikhov-Golikov Company|Golikov]], Trapeznikov, {{ill|Ivan Stepanovich Bechevin|ru|Бечевин, Иван Степанович}}, {{ill|Nikolai Prokofevich Mylnikov|ru|Мыльников, Николай Прокофьевич}}, {{ill|Sibirakovy|ru|Сибиряковы}} began to explore the [[Aleutian Islands]] and later [[Alaska]]. In 1799 the merchant companies came together in a [[Russian-American Company]] "for the trades on the territory of the Aleutian and [[Kuril islands]] and the rest of the [[Bering Sea|North-Eastern sea]], belonging to Russia by the right of discovery". [[Grigorii Ivanovich Shelikhov]], an outstanding seafarer, played an important role in controlling enormous spaces of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. He founded the first colonies of [[Russian America]] through the [[Shelikhov-Golikov Company]]. In 1727 the Russian Orthodox Church established the Irkutsk [[Eparchies and Metropolitanates of the Russian Orthodox Church|Eparchy]].

During the 18th century, schools, professional-technical education colleges, science museums, libraries, theaters, and book-printers developed in Irkutsk. Educational and cultural organizations opened. In 1725 the first school in Eastern Siberia, attached to the {{ill|Voznesensky monastery|ru|Вознесенский монастырь (Иркутск)}} (founded in 1672), opened, and in 1754 sea (navigation) schools and secondary schools opened throughout the Irkutsk area. The 1780s saw the opening of the second public library in provincial towns in Russia, as well as a regional museum and an amateur theater. In Irkutsk outstanding citizens appeared, still remembered today. These included the architect, geographer and historian {{ill|Anton ivanovich Losev|ru|Лосев, Антон Иванович}} (1765–1829), the writer {{ill|Ivan Timofeevich Kalashnikov|ru|Калашников, Иван Тимофеевич}} (1797–1863), and the teacher Semyon Semyonovich Schukin (1789—1863). Siberian science buildings opened. A.G. Laxman, [[Mikhail Lomonosov|Lomonosov's]] apprentice, one of the first Siberian mineralogists, worked in Irkutsk.

The city landscape of Irkutsk was changing. The {{ill|Irkutsk Spassky church|ru|Спасская церковь (Иркутск)}} of 1706 (one of the oldest stone buildings in Eastern Siberia), the unique {{ill|Irkutsk Krestovozdvizhenskaya church|ru|Крестовоздвиженская церковь (Иркутск)}} (1747), the "[[Prikaz]]naya izba" (order house), the first stone construction, and the Triumph gate were built.