Ust-Kut

Ust-Kut stands at the mouth of the Kuta, where it joins the Lena in the forested interior of Siberia. The confluence became an early Russian foothold on the Lena and a departure point for journeys farther down the river. Salt springs near the Kuta also gave the settlement an industry of its own.

In 1631 Ivan Galkin established winter quarters at the mouth of the Kuta; the post developed into a stockade. From this foothold Pyotr Beketov’s detachment travelled down the Lena as Russian expeditions advanced into the lands farther east. Salt production began nearby in the seventeenth century, and the Ust-Kut works became a long-lived source of salt for the region. The settlement joined the practical value of its river junction to the resources found along the Kuta.