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Stepping over the remote ages our city has two interpretations
of its remarkable name - Bratsk. Historically the word
'brat' (brother) derives from old Russian pronunciation
of the word "buryat" and traces its roots back to the
foundation of the ostrog (stockaded fort). The Russian
Cossack chieftain Maxim Perfiliev reported about the completion
of its construction by the Padun Rapids of the Angara
to the Yenisei waywodeship in 1631. Since that year the
share of Bratsk ostrog in the sable treasury of Old Russia
amounted to 10798 silver fells of most valuable fur.
In 1636 owing to fear of being washed out the ostrog
was removed from the right bank to a higher left bank
of the Oka. It was in this ostrog where the leader of
Old Belief archipriest Avvakum served his sentence. Among
deportees to Bratsk ostrog there were a Decembrist Mukhanov,
Russian thinker Radishchev, revolutionary Ryabikov, Polish
scientist Chekanovsky ...
An amazing rise has made the land of Bratsk: from
the Avvakum's 'terrific land full of stagnation and repose'
to the Naimushin's 'it's the best and most radiant place
on the Earth'. A rise from an undistinguished river to
the Bratsk Sea, from the turbulent Padun Rapids to the
world greatest Hydroelectric Power Plant, from Nikolaiyevsky
iron foundry to Bratsk Aluminium Plant, from a power-saw
bench of the 'Angara' industrial co-operative to the Timber
Industry Complex, from 'Ozerlag' narrow gauge railway
to the gate of BAM. Bratsk HPP became a starting point
for the spiritual meaning of our place-name that is rooted
in the brotherhood.
We know and remember that. We are growing and bringing
up the new generation of Bratsk - young, talented and
daring. The generation that, I am sure, will experience
the attraction of Bratsk.
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