Kansk, city, Krasnoyarsk kray (territory), central Russia, on the Kan River where it is crossed by the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Founded in 1640 as a Russian fort, it is a centre of the Kansk-Achinsk lignite basin, which in the early 1980s was being developed into one of the largest coal areas of what was then the U.S.S.R. It also has cotton, timber hydrolysis, and food industries. Pop. (2006 est.) 101,580.