Jakoutsk

Title

Jakoutsk

Description

A partial view of the city of Yakutsk, situated on the River Lena, which is the coldest major city in the world in winter.

ca. 1830

Artist

Dolfino L.

Dolfino was a 19th-century Italian artist and draughtsman who worked as an illustrator (often in Florence or Naples). Active circa 1840–1865.

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 .