Yakutsk
Yakutsk names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Yakutsk a province in east Siberia
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a province in east Siberia, Russia, embracing the valley of the Lena river; bounded by the Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Transbaikal, and Amur provinces, by the Arctic Arctic Ocean, and by a narrow strip of the district of Ochotsk. The population consists mainly of Yakuts, Yukagirs, and Tunguses, occupied in hunting, fishing, and as nomads overseeing large herds of cattle and horses. The country is rugged, consisting mainly of an elevated plateau, covered with forests and marshes. These marshes are frozen to a depth of several hundred feet. The forests abound in fur-bearing wild animals; the rivers with fish. Gold mining is carried on extensively in the S. W. Yakutsk is the largest Siberian province, embracing nearly one-third of Siberia, and is nearly as large as European Russia; area, ea, 1,533,397 square miles; pop. about 400,000.
Yakutsk a city and capital of the province of Yakutsk
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and capital of the province of Yakutsk, Siberia; on a branch of the Lena river, 4 miles from the main stream. The city was founded in 1632 as a Cossack station and is the seat of the governor and provincial authorities. It has regularly laid out streets, wooden houses, a cloister cathedral, a pro-gymnasium for boys and girls, and several primary schools. It is the trading center of northern and eastern Siberia, and carries on an extensive commerce in hides, furs, tallow, fish, mammoth bones, and reindeer. Before the World War a great fair was held here annually from June 22 to Aug. 13, frequented by the natives from all over the province. Pop. about 10,000.
Yakutsk ya-kootsk', the capital of the Siberian province of that name
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ya-kootsk', the capital of the Siberian province of that name. It is situated near the central point in the course of the Lena at about sixty-two degrees of north latitude. The name is derived from the native inhabitants, Mongolian people known as Yakuts. During the short summer season Yakutsk is a trading town. The exports are chiefly gold, furs, and the ivory of the mammoth. The population is about 5,000. See Siberia ; Mammoth
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's put the city's population at about 10,000 in 1921 and Aiton's at 5,000 in 1910; Yakutsk today has roughly 355,000 residents and is the largest city in the world built on continuous permafrost, its apartment blocks raised on piles driven into the frozen ground the old accounts described as "frozen to a depth of several hundred feet." The province is now the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), a federal subject of Russia and still the largest subnational division on earth at about 1.2 million square miles, with roughly a million inhabitants. The furs, tallow and mammoth ivory of the old fair have been overtaken by diamonds: deposits found in the 1950s around Mirny made Yakutia the source of most of Russia's diamond output, alongside gold and gas. Thawing permafrost, which now buckles roads and buildings, has turned the region into a much-studied bellwether of Arctic warming.
Written for this edition, 2026.