Ural

Beautiful lakes near Chelyabinsk.

Border between Europe and Asia. Beautiful mountain landscapes.

Major city in the central part of Russia, capital of the Ural. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk. The city was founded in 1721 by Vasily Tatischev and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of Tsar Peter the Great's wife Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina). Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed by Bolsheviks at the Ipatiev House in this city. During World War II, many government technical institutions and whole factories were relocated to Yekaterinburg away from the war-affected areas (mostly Moscow), with many of them staying in Ekaterinburg after the victory. City is located on the eastern side of the Ural mountains on the Iset river.

It is a small city in a very picturesque place of the South Ural. Starting of the first nuclear reactor here in 1948 began a history of atomic production of Russia. Today it is a nice closed city on the banks of several lakes disclosing splendid sights on the Ural Mountains.

Chelyabinsk is one of the biggest industrial, cultural and scientific centers of the South Ural. The town is situated on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, on the river Miass (a tributary of the Iset). Chelyabinsk first appeared as a fortress in 1736 during Russian colonization of the South Ural. During The Great Patriotic War Chelyabinsk was called Tankograd, because famous ‘Katjushas’ and tanks T-34 were produces here. The present coat of arm of the city - a camel with a load - reminds of the fact that once The Great Silk Way passed through this place.