Citta di Yakutsk. Asia Vol VII.

Title

Citta di Yakutsk. Asia Vol VII.

Description

Decorative view of the city Yakutsk, (the coldest city in the world in winter), at the river Lena.

ca. 1830

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Yakutsk was founded in 1632 on the right bank of the Lena by Cossack troops under the command of the scout Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov. Later, a fortress was built to enable the collection of the Yasaq, the tax imposed on the indigenous people by the Russian tsar. In this case, the population groups subject to this tribute were the Yakuts, the Evens and the Evenks. It developed mainly in the second half of the 19th century thanks to the gold and coal mines in the region and then, under the communist government, through the exploitation of forced labor from the gulags .