Leaving Lake Baikal near the settlement ofListvyanka, the Angara flows north past the Irkutsk Oblast cities ofIrkutsk,Angarsk,Bratsk, andUst-Ilimsk. It then crosses theAngara Range and turns west, entering Krasnoyarsk Krai, and joining the Yenisey nearStrelka, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south-east ofLesosibirsk.
Four dams of major hydroelectric plants - constructed since the 1950s - exploit the waters of the Angara:
Irkutsk Dam, forming theIrkutsk Reservoir, which floods the valley of the river from its source to Irkutsk, and slightly raises the water level in Lake Baikal
The reservoirs of these dams flooded a number of villages along the Angara and its tributaries (including the historic fort ofIlimsk on the Ilim), as well as numerous agricultural areas in the river valley. Due to its effects on the way of life of the rural residents of the Angara valley, dam construction was criticized by a number of Soviet intellectuals, in particular by the Irkutsk writerValentin Rasputin - both in his novelFarewell to Matyora (1976) and in his non-fiction bookSiberia, Siberia (1991).
Embankment of the Angara inIrkutskThe Angara at Talzy, near Lake Baikal
The Angara is navigable by modern watercraft on several isolated sections:[8][9][10]
from Lake Baikal to Irkutsk
from Irkutsk to Bratsk
on the Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir
from the Boguchany Dam (Kodinsk) to the river's fall into the Yenisey.
The section between the Ust-Ilimsk Dam and the Boguchany Dam has not been navigable due to rapids. However, with the completion of the Boguchany Dam, and filling of its reservoir, at least part of this section of the river will become navigable as well. Nonetheless, this will not enable through navigation from Lake Baikal to the Yenisey, as none of the existing three dams has been provided with aship lock or aboat lift, nor will the Boguchany Dam have one.
The historical significance of the Angara and theIlim as water routes is attested by a chain of villages along them (many of which, as well as the town ofIlimsk, were flooded by modern dams) on this map from 1773. Note that the lower course of the Angara is labeled asNizhnyaya Tunguska – the name which is currently applied toanother river
Despite the absence of a continuous navigable waterway, the Angara and its tributary theIlim were of considerable importance for Russian colonization of Siberia since ca. 1630, when they (and the necessary portages) formedimportant water routes connecting the Yenisey with Lake Baikal and theLena. The river lost its transportation significance after the construction of an overland route betweenKrasnoyarsk andIrkutsk and, later, theTrans-Siberian Railway.
