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The first Europeans in the area arrived in 1623, intending to collect taxes from the local Buryat population. Permanent settlement began with the construction of an ostrog (fortress) in 1631 at the junction of the Oka and Angara rivers. Several wooden towers from the 17th-century fort are now exhibited in Kolomenskoye Estate of Moscow.
During World War II, there was an increase in industrial activity in Siberia, as Soviet industry was moved to the lands east of the Ural Mountains. After the war's end, development slowed as resources were required in the rebuilding of European Russia.
In 1947, the Gulag Angara prison labor camp was constructed near Bratsk, with capacity for up to 44,000 prisoners for projects such as the construction of the railway from Tayshet to Ust-Kut via Bratsk (now the western section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline).
The city's rapid development commenced with the announcement in 1952 that a dam and hydroelectric plant would be built at Bratsk on the Angara River. Town status was granted to Bratsk in 1955. The city of Bratsk was formed from separate villages, industrial and residential areas according to a 1958-61 masterplan. These areas were in certain cases far away from each other, leading to the large territorial area of the Bratsk municipal region, and explaining why there are unsettled areas of taiga between city districts.
The 4,500-megawatt Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station was built between 1954 and 1966, bringing numerous workers to the town. Other industries in the city include an aluminum smelter and a pulp mill.
Bratsk originally comprised the following regions, with the idea being that they would each grow, and merge, to form the city of Bratsk.
- Green Town - Named after the color of the 159 tents which were erected on the left banks of the river Angar, the Padunsky region, in 1954. The tents were originally intended to be short-term resident, but they stood for two years, before the area became built up with timber huts. Green Town eventually fell into abandonment, and in 1961 was flooded by a reservoir and ceased to exist.
- Padun - In 1956, wooden cottages began to be erected in the left bank settlement known as Pursey, then Permanent - because it was built on stable, non-flooded land, next to Green Town and the village of Padun, which were being demolished.
- Bratsk Sea - Founded in 1961 and later merged into Padun. Only the train stop bearing the name 'Bratsk Sea' reminds that it was once a separate area.
- Gidrostroitel - Originally called the Right Bank, construction began in 1955 and grew rapidly due to construction workers on the Bratsk hydroelectric plant being based there.
- Osinovka - Originated from a peasant hut, adjoining aspen groves, and islets of fields among taiga and hayfields in the floodplain of the Angara River, which were later occupied by the settlement of Gidrostroitel. Osinovka was originally populated by residents of the village of Zayarsk and the Angarstroy administration. When the area was being connected by railway, Osinovka was classified as within the Gidrostroitel area, and thus the station was named Gidrostroitel and Osinovka was largely incorporated into that area.
- Sukhoy - Founded in 1959, during the preparation of the Bratsk reservoir. For many years a geological exploration expedition was located in Sukhoy.
- Central District - Initially built for workers of the timber industry complex (the Central District was called the LPK area), workers of an aluminum plant and residents of flooded settlements. Later it became the administrative center of the city.
- Chekanovsky, Porozhsky, Stroitel regions - quickly constructed to deal with the housing shortage in the other parts of the city. They were initially built of wood, in regions of dangerous ecology of the city. The location, and construction of these developments would prove to be a problem for their future development, and often led to resettling rather than development.
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