Nikolsky Pogost

Nikolsky Pogost stood at the mouth of the Kirenga, where that river joins the Lena. A Cossack wintering place established in 1630 became the beginning of Kirensk, an early Russian settlement on the Lena. The confluence connected routes up the Kirenga toward the Baikal region with the great river leading north and east through Siberia. A stockade later protected the settlement, which grew into a small town during the eighteenth century.