Ust-Ordyn-Buryat Autonomous Area, former administrative division, 9,000 sq mi (24,000 sq km), S Siberian Russia, in the Irkutsk region. Formed in 1937, it stretched from the Baykal Mts. to the...

Oka, river, c.600 mi (970 km) long, rising in the Sayan Mts., Buryat Republic, S central Siberian Russia. It flows N through Irkutsk oblast to join the Angara River below Bratsk. The lower Oka...

Angara, river, c.1,150 mi (1,850 km) long, SE Siberian Russia, the outlet of Lake Baykal. After leaving the southwestern end of Lake Baykal, it flows north past Irkutsk and Bratsk, then turns ...

Nureyev, Rudolf, 1938–93, Russian ballet dancer, b. near Irkutsk, Siberian USSR (now Russia). Nureyev studied in Ufa and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and in 1958 he became a soloist with th...

Kolchak, Aleksandr Vasilyevich, 1874–1920, Russian admiral, leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces in W Siberia during the civil war (1918–20). He distinguished himself in the Russo-Japanese War,...

Trans-Siberian Railroad, rail line, linking European Russia with the Pacific coast. Its construction began in 1891, on the initiative of Count S. Y. Witte, and was completed in 1905. The compl...

Siberia, Rus. Sibir, vast geographical region of Russia, covering c.2,900,000 sq mi (7,511,000 sq km) and having an estimated population (1992) of 32,459,000. Historically it has had no offici...

Russian Far East, formerly Soviet Far East, federal district (1989 est. pop. 7,941,000), c.2,400,000 sq mi (6,216,000 sq km), encompassing the entire northeast coast of Asia and including the ...

Russia, officially the Russian Federation, Rus. Rossiya, republic (2005 est. pop. 143,420,000), 6,591,100 sq mi (17,070,949 sq km). The country is bounded by Norway and Finland in the northwes...