Yakutsk

People lived in the Tuymaada valley long before Russians arrived: more than 200 archaeological sites have been explored within the city. The Sakha, a Turkic people who mixed with the Evenks and Yukaghirs, settled the valley between the 13th and 16th centuries.

In September 1632 a Cossack detachment under Pyotr Beketov built the Lensky fort on the right bank of the Lena, about 70 km downstream of today's city. In 1638 it became the seat of a new Yakutsk voivodeship, and in 1642–43, under the governor Pyotr Golovin, the fort was moved across the river to the Tuymaada valley. From here the tsar's men set out on expeditions into the Far East and the far north. Yakutsk received town status in 1708, when work also began on the stone Holy Trinity Cathedral; in 1851 it became the capital of a separate Yakutsk province. Birch-bark letters from the governor's chancery, lost in a fire of 1700, were found in the city in 2024.

Soviet power came in 1918, fell, and returned in December 1919; in 1922–23 the White general Anatoly Pepelyayev's march on Yakutsk was the last campaign of the Russian Civil War. The Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in April 1922 with Yakutsk as its capital. In March 1986 a fight at Teploye Lake grew into three days of ethnic clashes. In December 1991 the republic was renamed Sakha (Yakutia); since 1980 the city's population has almost doubled, and in 2019 passenger trains began running to the far bank of the Lena.

Yakutsk is the capital of Sakha culture. The Sakha Academic Theatre performs in Yakut, alongside a Russian drama theatre, an opera and ballet house and a children's theatre, and Yakut musicians give concerts across the city. The khomus, the Sakha jaw harp, has its own museum, and Olonkho, the Yakut heroic epic recognised by UNESCO, is honoured everywhere from the Victory Stele to the Arctic Center of Epos and Arts, whose construction began in 2021. The city also has a punk scene and a regional film industry, nicknamed "Sakhawood", whose films have drawn international attention.

Ysyakh, the midsummer festival of renewal and the Sakha new year, is the high point of the year. At Us Khatyn on the edge of the city, crowds watch a blessing ceremony, greet the sunrise, dance the osuokhai in great circles, drink kumis, race horses and compete in Yakut archery, stick fighting and khapsagai wrestling. Freestyle wrestling is strong — Yakutsk has hosted Soviet and Russian championships — and since 1996 the city has staged the Children of Asia international games.

Faith is mixed. Orthodox Christianity is the largest religion, and the city is the seat of an Orthodox diocese restored in 1993; traditional Sakha belief and Rodnovery have large followings, the world's largest temple of the Aiyy faith stands here, a mosque has served the Muslim community since 2005, and a Catholic parish dates from 1993, on a tradition begun by exiled Poles. Many residents are not religious at all.

Yakutsk had about 355,000 people at the 2021 census and about 373,000 by a 2025 estimate, more than a third of everyone in the Sakha Republic. Yakuts make up about 59 per cent and Russians about 26 per cent, with Kyrgyz, Evenks, Tajiks, Chinese and Armenians among the rest; people from the republic's villages have been moving to the capital since the early 1990s, and many migrants from Central Asia, the Caucasus and China work in trade and services. Growth has outpaced the city's housing, kindergartens, schools and hospitals.

The city is the republic's capital and its centre of trade rather than heavy industry: mining companies for diamonds, gold and coal have their headquarters here, diamond cutting is a significant local business, and around 60 per cent of working-age residents are employed in trade and services. Yakutia Airlines is based here, and the city is home to the North-Eastern Federal University and many research institutes.

Permafrost shapes everything. Modern buildings stand on concrete piles with an unheated ground floor so that their warmth does not thaw the soil beneath. In winter people wear thick furs, spend as little time outdoors as possible, and fog can hang over the city for days; the city has never recorded a thaw between mid-November and mid-March. Summer brings white nights, river trips and outdoor life on the lakes. The thawing of the permafrost under the city, measured by the Permafrost Institute, is one of its long-term worries.

Sakha cooking is built on dairy, meat, fish and what can be gathered, prepared by boiling, fermenting or freezing. Its best-known dish is stroganina: long, thin shavings of raw frozen fish — whitefish such as nelma, muksun, chir or omul — also made with foal meat and liver. Indigirka is a salad of frozen fish cubes with onion, salt and pepper, sometimes topped with caviar. The Yakutian horse, a breed that survives the winter without shelter, is reared mainly for its meat, a local delicacy, and khaan, a blood sausage made from horse or beef blood and intestines, is a popular dish. Other Sakha dishes include salamat, a thick mixture of flour and dairy products, crucian carp cooked the Yakut way, and Yakut flatbreads.

Milk has always mattered most: it is drunk fresh and turned into butter, curds and suorat, a thick yogurt. Kumis, fermented mare's milk, is drunk widely and at Ysyakh, and kierchekh, cream with berries and sugar, is one of the most popular desserts. Russian settlers brought bread, sugar, tea and vodka, and Russian dishes and sausages are part of everyday eating.

Most people eat out rarely, mainly for special occasions, and restaurant customers are mostly younger people. Sushi is everywhere and popular with younger people, made with frozen fish, and there are Chinese and Korean restaurants, pizzerias, plentiful coffee houses known for their cakes, and public canteens in office buildings serving simple, inexpensive meals. Fresh local produce is sold at the Krestyansky market.