Bratsk Reservoir

Bratsk Reservoir (Russian: Бра́тское водохрани́лище, Bratskoye Reservoir) is a reservoir on the Angara River, located in Irkutsk Oblast,[1] Russia. It is named after the city of Bratsk, the largest city adjacent to the reservoir. It has a surface area of 5,470 square kilometres (2,110 sq mi) and a maximum volume of 169.27 × 10¹² litres (37.2 × 10¹² gallons).[2]

Bratsk Reservoir
Location	Irkutsk Oblast
Coordinates	56°15′N 101°45′E
Type	Hydroelectric reservoir
Primary inflows	Angara River
Primary outflows	Angara River
Basin countries	Russia
Surface area	5,470 square kilometres (2,110 sq mi)
Water volume	169.27 km^3 (137,230,000 acre⋅ft)

The concrete dam of the Bratsk hydroelectric plant was completed in 1967. It is 125 metres (410 ft) high and 4,417 metres (14,491 ft) long. The Baikal Amur Mainline railroad runs along the top of the dam. At the time of its inauguration, the reservoir was the largest artificial lake in the world.[3] Its electrical power capacity is 4,500 MW.[2]

In literature

The epic construction of the Bratsk Dam is the subject of a large eponymous poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Much later (1976), the impact of the reservoir construction on the life of the villagers upstream, many of whom had to be relocated from the flooded areas, or lost some the best lands of their collective farms, became the motive of Valentin Rasputin's novel Farewell to Matyora. [4]

References

1. Partly in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug
2. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, entry on Братское водохранилище
3. George St. George. Siberia: The New Frontier. D. McKay Co, 1969. Page 147.
4. Rasputin, Valentin Grigorʹevich (1995), "Foreword (by Kathleen Parthé)", Farewell to Matyora, Northwestern University Press, p. ix, ISBN 0-8101-1329-5 (Translated by Antonina W. Bouis)

External links

• Description and photo