Ust-Kut is a Russian town (from 1954), the administrative center of the Ust-Kut District of the Irkutsk Region.

The town is located in the north of the Lena-Angara Plateau, at the confluence of River Kut into the Lena River, 610 km away from Irkutsk. It is a river port on Lena, a railway station, and a point of transshipment of river and railway freights.

It has the population of 44 301 people (as of 2013) and takes the area of 56 sq km.

The climate is sharply continental, with the average temperature of - 25C in January, and + 17C in July. The average annual precipitation amounts to 350 mm, mostly in summer.

3 km away from Ust-Kut there is a same-name balneo-mud therapy resort. Mineral water sources were discovered there in the 17th century by the Russian path-finder E.P. Khabarov. They have been used for treatment purposes since 1908. The resort was founded in 1925.

History of Ust-Kut

In 1628 the foreman Vasily Bugor bult winter quarters at the mouth of River Kut. In 1631 Russian path-breakers headed by ataman Ivan Galkin founded a stockaded town of Ust-Kut there. The hydronym of Kut is associated with the peculiarity of the river valley: in the Evenki language “kuta” means “a peat bed, a bog”.

In 1639 servicemen of E.P. Khabarov open saltworks near the stockaded township.

In the mid 17th century the town lost its military value and became an important pier, the hub for freights going from Ishim and Top Lena Rivers.

It became an industrial township in 1943 and a town in 1954. It was formed by union of townships of Ust-Kut and Osetrovo (an industrial township since 1938).

Architecture and Sights

Ust-Kut extends 30 km along the Lena River and consists of separate residential districts connected by a uniform road street.