Slyudyanka

Slyudyanka lies at the southern end of Lake Baikal, where streams descend from the wooded Khamar-Daban mountains to the shore. Its name recalls the mica found in the district. Russian expeditions reached this part of the lake in the seventeenth century, when a small fortified post was established nearby; the precise position and history of that early post remain matters of debate.

In 1802 settlers established winter quarters at Slyudyanka and revived the extraction of mica. At the nearby village of Kultuk, a road across the Khamar-Daban was begun at the end of the eighteenth century. It offered a land route around the southern end of Baikal, although the mountain crossing was difficult. The lake shore thus became a meeting place of mineral extraction and travel between Irkutsk and the country east of Baikal.