This is the Eastern Siberia chapter from Lonely Planet’s Russia guidebook.

Endless ice-bound winters, oven-hot summers and a history of imperial exile and Stalinist brutality - Eastern Siberia may not sound like everyone’s first choice of holiday destination, but there’s much more to this vast region than people would expect.

• wonder at the craftsmanship of ancient Scythian gold displayed at Kyzyl’s National Museum
• maps
• walk, cycle or hitch a lift across frozen Lake Baikal
• transport
• restaurants and accommodation
• admire the ostentatious 19th-century architecture of Irkutsk, once known as the ‘Paris of Siberia’

Coverage includes: Khakassia Republic, Abakan & around, Salbyk, Usinsky Trakt, Tuva, Kyzyl & around, Erzin & around, Valley of the Kings, Krasnoyarsk, Yeniseysk, Divnogorsk, Western BAM, Bratsk, Severobaikalsk & around, Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Taltsy Museum of Architecture and Ethnography, Listvyanka, Port Baikal, Bolshie Koty, Ust-Orda, Olkhon Island, Maloe More, South Baikal & the Tunka Valley, Selenga Delta, Eastern Baikal, Southern Buryatiya & Zabaikalsky Territory, Ulan-Ude & around, Novoselenginsk, Chita & around and Nerchinsk.