What was the capital of Yakutsk from 1805 to 1920?
Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ; , Cokuuskay , ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic , Russia , located about south of the Arctic Circle . Yakutsk with an average temperature of , is the coldest large city in the world . Yakutsk is also the largest city located in continuous permafrost . Yakutsk is located in the Central Yakutian Lowland and is a major port on the Lena River . It is served by the Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Magan Airport . History . The Yakuts , also known as the Sakha people , migrated to the area during the 13th and 14th centuries from other parts of Siberia . When they arrived they mixed with other indigenous Siberians in the area . The Russian settlement of Yakutsk was founded in 1632 as an ostrog ( fortress ) by Pyotr Beketov . In 1639 , it became the center of a voyevodstvo . The Voivode of Yakutsk soon became the most important Russian official in the region and directed expansion to the east and south . Climate . With an extremely continental subarctic climate ( Köppen climate classification : Dfd ) , Yakutsk has the coldest winter temperatures for any major city on Earth . Average monthly temperatures in Yakutsk range from in July to in January . Yakutsk is the largest city built on continuous permafrost , and many houses there are built on concrete piles . The lowest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast of Yakutsk , making it the coldest major city in the world . Although winters are extremely cold and long - Yakutsk has never recorded a temperature above freezing between 10 November and 14 March inclusive – summers are warm , peak travel and occasionally hot ( though short ) , with daily maximum temperatures sometimes exceeding , making the seasonal temperature differences for the region the greatest in the world at . The lowest temperature recorded in Yakutsk was on 5 February 1891 and the highest temperatures on 17 July 2011 and on 15 July 1942 . The hottest month in records going back to 1834 has been July 1894 , with a mean of , and the coldest , January 1900 , which averaged . Yakutsk is possibly the largest city in the world with an average winter temperature of below degrees . Yakutsk has a distinct inland location , being almost from the Pacific Ocean , which coupled with the high latitude means exposure to severe winters and also lack of temperature moderation . July temperatures soar to an above-normal average for this latitude , with the average being several degrees hotter than such more southerly Far East cities as Vladivostok or Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk . The July daytime temperatures are even hotter than some maritime subtropical areas . The warm summers ensure that Yakutsk , despite its freezing winters , is far south of the tree line . In winter , Yakutsk instead is between and colder than the mildest cities on similar latitudes in Scandinavia . The climate is quite dry , with most of the annual precipitation occurring in the warmest months , due to the intense Siberian High forming around the very cold continental air during the winter . However , summer precipitation is not heavy since the moist southeasterly winds from the Pacific Ocean lose their moisture over the coastal mountains well before reaching the Lena valley . With the Lena River navigable in the summer , there are various boat cruises offered , including upriver to the Lena Pillars , and downriver tours which visit spectacular scenery in the lower reaches and the Lena Delta . Economy . Yakutia Airlines has its head office in the city . Culture . There are several theaters in Yakutsk : the State Russian Drama Theater , named after A . S . Pushkin ; the Sakha Theater , named after P . A . Oiyunsky ; the Suorun Omoloon Young Spectators Theater ; and the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater , named after D . K . Sivtsev . There are a number of museums as well : the National Fine Arts Museum of Sakha ; the Museum of Local Lore and History , named after E . Yaroslavsky ; and the only museums in the world dedicated to the khomus and permafrost . The annual Ysyakh summer festival takes place the last weekend in June . The traditional Yakut summer solstice festivities include a celebration of the revival and renewal of the nature , fertility and beginning of a new year . It is accompanied by national Yakut rituals and ceremonies , folk dancing , horse racing , Yakut ethnic music and singing , national cuisine , and competitions in traditional Yakut sports . There is a local punk scene in Yakutsk , with many bands . Demographics . Ethnic composition ( 2010 ) : - Yakuts – 50.6% - Russians – 38.4% - Ukrainians – 1.4% - Kyrgyz – 1.1% - Evenks – 1% - Others – 7.5% Administrative and municipal status . Yakutsk is the capital of the Sakha Republic . As an inhabited locality , Yakutsk is classified as a city under republic jurisdiction . Within the framework of administrative divisions , it is , together with the settlement of Zhatay and eleven rural localities , incorporated as the city of republic significance of Yakutsk—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the districts . As a municipal division , Yakutsk and the eleven rural localities are incorporated as Yakutsk Urban Okrug . The settlement of Zhatay is not a part of Yakutsk Urban Okrug and is independently incorporated as Zhatay Urban Okrug . Transportation . Yakutsk is a destination of the Lena Highway . The citys connection to that highway is only usable by ferry in the summer , or in the dead of winter , by driving directly over the frozen Lena River , since Yakutsk lies entirely on its western bank , and there is no bridge anywhere in the Sakha Republic that crosses the Lena . The river is impassable for long periods of the year when it contains loose ice , when the ice cover is not thick enough to support traffic , or when the water level is too high and the river is turbulent with spring flooding . The highway ends on the eastern bank of Lena in Nizhny Bestyakh ( Нижний Бестях ) , an urban-type settlement of some four thousand people . Yakutsk is connected with Magadan by the Kolyma Highway . A highway bridge over the Lena in the Okrug had been scheduled to be built by the year 2020 . However , as of 2018 , no decision to actually build the bridge has been taken . The bridge had originally been planned to be a dual-use railroad and highway bridge so the Amur Yakutsk Mainline , the North–South railroad being extended from the south , could connect the city with the East–West Baikal Amur Mainline . The railroad reached the settlement of Nizhny Bestyakh , on the opposite bank of the Lena from Yakutsk , in November 2011 . The new river bridge would be over long and would be constructed upriver at Tabaga , where the river narrows and does not create a wide flooded area in spring . In the dead of winter , the frozen Lena River makes for a passable highway for ice truckers using its channel to deliver provisions to far-flung outposts . Yakutsk is also connected to other parts of Russia by Yakutsk Airport . Construction of a road bridge over the River Lena to Yakutsk was approved by president Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2019 . Cost of the bridge and its of approaches was estimated at 63.7 billion Rubles ( 83 billion rubles including VAT [ НДС ] ) , of which a grant of 54.2 billion Rubles was to be provided , with the remainder to be sourced from investors . The bridge was to be toll-free for cars , with a toll for trucks . The 2019 completion of a new rail line to the eastern bank of the Lena permitted the start of passenger rail services between Yakutsk and the rest of Russia . Education and research . M.K.Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University is situated in the city . There is also a branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences , which contains , among other things , the Institute of Cosmophysical Research , which runs the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower installation ( one of the largest cosmic-ray detector arrays in the world ) , and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute , founded in 1960 with the aim of solving the serious and costly problems associated with construction of buildings on frozen soil . In 2020 , with global heating thawing the ground , the Institute is measuring the rate at which the permafrost is thawing , which affects the city as well as the climate . At the primary and secondary levels , the city has a number of UNESCO Associated Schools , including the Sakha-Turkish College , Sakha-French School , Sakha-Korean School , and School #16 . Twin towns – sister cities . Yakutsk is twinned with : - Fairbanks , United States - Harbin , China - Heihe , China - Murayama , Japan - Olympia , Greece - Velingrad , Bulgaria - Yellowknife , Canada - Changwon , South Korea - Caxias do Sul , Brazil