Novoselenginsk

Selenginsk is the name of two places on the Selenga River south of Lake Baikal.

• Seleginsk proper was an important settlement in early Siberia.
• Modern Seleginsk was founded downriver in 1961.

Selenginsk fort: Selinginsk (ru:Новоселенгинск) was founded as an Ostrog (fortified settlement) (ru:Селенгинский острог) in 1655 by Gavril Lovtsov on the Selenga River about halfway between the later towns of Ulan-Ude and Kyakhta at a point where the Chikoy River comes in from the south. It is about 20km southeast of Lake Gusinoye and 85km southeast of Lake Baikal. The Selenga River soon became part of the main Russo-Chinese trade route(by boat through Siberia to Lake Baikal, up the Selenga and then by caravan southeast to Peking).

In 1677-1680 a secondary fort was built downriver at what later became Ulan-Ude.

In 1688 it was beseiged by the Khalka Mongols for two months, but they had to withdraw when their main territory was attacked by the Western Mongols. (The Khalkas, who at this time were vassals of the Manchus, attacked because the Russians had taken control of their kinsmen and vassals, the Buriats and because the Russians were giving asylum to fugitives. The defence was led by Demian Mnohohrishny, an exiled cossack who had previously played an important part in Ukrainian history. He died and was buried here in 1703. Also present was Fedor Golovin. The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) would have been negotiated here, but Golovin was forced to move east to Nerchinsk so that the Manchu ambassadors could avoid the fighting in Mongolia.)

In 1727-1730 Abram Petrovich Gannibal, Alexander Pushkin's African great-grandfather, was exiled here after Peter the Great's death. He was involved in shifting the fortress to a new location.

In 1729 it was a center for the negotiation of the Treaty of Kyakhta. This led to the foundation of Kyakhta on the Russo-Chinese border upstream which later became a more important town.

By 1745 it was the largest town east of Lake Baikal with 4,000 inhabitants. State caravans ran through here until 1755. Two large fires in 1783 left only 15 houses and parts of the fort standing. Many merchants moved north to Ulan-Ude where a fair had been established in 1780.

The site was prone to flooding. In 1840 the town was moved across the river to the west bank. The old site came to be called Staroselenginsk and the new one, Novoselenginsk. Today Novoselenginsk is a small villiage and Staroselenginsk has only a few inhabitants.

Modern Selinginsk: (ru:Селенгинск (Кабанский район Бурятии)) is at the head of the Selenge River delta about 30km from Lake Baikal and about 50km northwest of Ulan-Ude. It is on the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Trans-Siberian Highway. Population in 2008 was 15,000. It was started in 1961 as a Komsomol project around a paper mill. In post-Soviet times the paper mill was seen as a major source of pollution.