(from the Russian name for the Buriats—bratskie liudi, meaning fraternal people), a city in Irkutsk Oblast, RSFSR. Port on the shore of the Bratsk Reservoir; railroad station on the Taishet-Lena line. Population, 155, 000 (1970; 43, 000 in 1959). The city arose in 1955 in connection with the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Plant north of the old settlement of Bratsk (founded by the Russians as a fort in 1631), which was flooded by the waters of the Bratsk Reservoir. Bratsk is developing as one of the centers of the Bratsk-Taishet industrial region. The forest resources of the Angara Region have been the basis for the development of a large industrial lumber complex with a full cycle of wood processing—from sawmilling to the production of cellulose, cardboard, and other products. Bratsk also has an aluminum plant. Educational institutions include a pulp and paper and woodworking technicum, a medical school, a pedagogical school, and a music school. There is a puppet theater in the city.

According to the general plan, drawn up in 1958-61 by the Moscow Institute for Urban Planning, Bratsk is divided into an industrial and a development zone. The development zone has the House of Soviets, a theater, a motion picture theater, a trade complex, and a hotel. Also in this zone are residential neighborhood units with four-to-nine-story prefabricated and brick houses, schools, and children’s institutions, built around preserved taiga sectors. The building up of the city center on the territory facing the reservoir has begun. The settlement of Energetik, the northern residential section of Bratsk, is situated near the hydroelectric power plant. It has four neighborhood units, a Palace of Culture (1963), the Rossiia movie theater (1960’s), and an educational complex (1965-66).