Bülüü

Bülüü stands on the Vilyuy, the great western tributary of the Lena. The river flows through a broad country of forests and lakes, where Sakha communities lived alongside the waterways of the northern interior. Long winters and a short summer mark the rhythm of life in the valley.

In 1634 Russian Cossacks established a winter quarters on the Vilyuy as a base for collecting yasak, the fur tribute demanded from local peoples. The settlement became an administrative centre for the surrounding country. The authorities later moved downstream to the site of Vilyuysk, and the name Olensk came into use after an administrative transfer from the Olenyok. Its status changed more than once in the early nineteenth century: it lost its town status in 1805 and regained it in 1822.