Irkutsk: an essay on the culture of the place Authors Elena Bagina Ural Federal University named after B. N. Yeltsin Downloads PDF (Russian) DOI: https://doi.org/10.51461/issn.2309-3072/88.2785 Published 2026-06-12 Issue No. 88 (2026): local cultures Section refereed articles License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. How to Cite Bagina, E. (2026). Irkutsk: an essay on the culture of the place. Project Baikal, 23(88), 64-69. https://doi.org/10.51461/issn.2309-3072/88.2785 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver AMA Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Keywords: Irkutsk, local culture, cultural interaction, passionaries, passionate impulse Abstract The local culture of Irkutsk developed in the context of the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Buryat and, more broadly, European and Asian cultures. The influence of major personalities in the history of Irkutsk is greater than in central Russia, since not all aspects of life were determined by the central government. The city and its culture were formed as a result of several passionate impulses that occurred successively in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Yakov Pokhabov’s Cossacks, enterprising merchants, Old Believers, exiled Decembrists, the Polish “Sybiraks”, exiles of the 1930s, architects of the sixties initiated the phenomenon of passionate impulses, as a result of which Irkutsk received an impulse to development. References Avimskaya, M. A. (2021). The Polish diaspora in Western Siberia at the end of the XIX – mid XX century. Postsovetsky materik, 1(29). Retrieved March 10, 2026, from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/polskayadiaspora-v-zapadnoy-sibiri-v-kontse-hih-seredine-hh-vv/viewer Belogolovy, N. (1890). Vospominanie sibiryaka o dekabristakh [A Siberian’s memory of the Decembrists]. Retrieved February 11, 2026, from https://www.litres.ru/book/nikolay-belogolovyy/iz-vospominaniysibiryaka-o-dekabristah-3022625/chitat-onlayn/ Boldyrev-Kazarin, D. A. (1924). Narodnoe iskusstvo v Sibiri: (Iz ocherkov po istorii rus. Iskusstva v Sibiri) [Folk art in Siberia (From essays on the history of Russian art in Siberia). Irkutsk: East-Siberian Branch of Russian Geographшс Society. Bukh, V., & Grigoryeva, E. (Eds.). (2013). Vladimir Pavlov. Yekaterinburg: Tatlin. Kamenskaya, E. (2007). Dekabristy v Irkutske (K istorii voprosa) [Decembrists in Irkutsk (To the history of the issue)]. Scientific and Technical Journal of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, (36), 72-77. Retrieved February 10, 2026, from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/dekabristy-v-irkutske-k-istorii-voprosa Korytny, L. M. (2019). Geographical encyclopedia of the Irkutsk region. From A to Z. Irkutsk: Publishing House of the V. B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS. Kruzhalina, A. A. (2014). Christianization of native population of Siberia (the second half of the XIX-th century). Bulletin of the Buryat State University, (7), 93-99. Namaev, D. D. (2000). Buryaty. Etnogenez i etnicheskaya istoriya [Buryats. Ethnogenesis and ethnic history] [Doctoral dissertation]. Retrieved March 15, 2026, from https://www.dissercat.com/content/buryaty-etnogenez-i-etnicheskaya-istoriya Pikunova, V. (2023). Korennoe naselenie Irkutskoi oblasti [The indigenous population of the Irkutsk region]. Retrieved February 5, 2026, from https://vc.ru/id2482453/886625-korennoe-naselenie-irkutskoioblasti Revzin, G. (2024). Gorod bolshogo mifa i bolshoi obidy [A city of great myth and great resentment]. Kommersant. Retrieved February 12, 2026, from https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6836394 Ryabtseva, V. A. (2013). Migratory flows of Old Believers to Western Siberia. Vestnik KemGUKI, (24). Retrieved February 10, 2026, from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/migratsionnye-potokistaroobryadtsev-v-zapadnuyu-sibir%20(1).pdf Sobor Neporochnogo Serdtsa Bozhiei Materi [Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://xn--h1ajim.xn--p1ai/