It is a major industrial and commercial centre served by the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Manufactures include aircraft, motor vehicles, textiles, building materials, mining equipment, and leather goods. A large hydroelectric facility is here.
A regional cultural centre, the city has history and art museums, theatres, a symphony orchestra, and several institutions of higher learning, including a university.
Irkutsk was founded in 1652 as a cossack outpost and developed as a fur- and gold-trading centre on the route to Mongolia and China; it was also used by the Russian government as a place of exile. Industrialisation accelerated after the coming of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1898.
Irkutsk video
