Irkutsk, The ‘Paris’ of Siberia
For those of you who have played the board game, “Risk,” you know that there is a mysterious land on the right side of the board, in the heart of Asia, named Irkutsk. The name was taken from a real Russian province with its eponymous capital, Irkutsk, nicknamed, “the ‘Paris’ of Siberia” by Anton Chekov. Founded 350 years ago (1661) as a Cossack garrison on the bank of the Angara River (the same Angara River that flows out of Lake…