Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (Екатеринбу́рг, also romanized Ekaterinburg), formerly Sverdlovsk (Свердло́вск) is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District. Its population of which is down from 1,364,621 recorded in the 1989 Census, makes it Russia's fifth largest city. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk (Свердло́вск), after the Bolshevik party leader Yakov Sverdlov.

History


The city was founded in 1723 by Vasily Tatischev and Georg Wilhelm de Gennin and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of Tsar Peter the Great's wife Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina). The official date of the city's foundation is 18 November 1723. It achieved town status in 1796.

Soon after the Russian Revolution, on 17 July 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were executed by the Bolsheviks at the Ipatiev House in this city. In 1977 the Ipatiev House was destroyed by order of Boris Yeltsin, who later became the first President of the Russian Federation. President Yeltsin represented the people at the funeral of the Tsar in 1998.

On 24 August 2007, the BBC reported that Russian archaeologists found the remains of two children of Russia's last Tsar. The remains found in 2007 were in ground close to the site in Yekaterinburg where the tsar, his wife and their three other daughters were found in 1991 along with the remains of four servants. The 2007 discoveries are thought to be those of Prince Alexei and his elder sister Maria. Archaeologist Sergei Pogorelov said bullets found at the burial site indicate the children had been shot. He told Russian television the newly unearthed bones belonged to two young people: a young male aged roughly 10-13 and a young woman about 18-23. Ceramic vessels found nearby appear to have contained sulphuric acid, consistent with an account by one of the Bolshevik firing squad, who said that after shooting the family they doused the bodies in acid to destroy the flesh and prevent them becoming objects of veneration. The Tsar's remains were given a state funeral in July 1998.

In the 1930s, Yekaterinburg became a large industrial center of Russia. It was the time when the famous Uralmash was built, becoming the biggest heavy machinery factory in Europe.

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 Yekaterinburg after the victory. The Hermitage Museum collections were also partly evacuated from Leningrad to Sverdlovsk in July 1941 and remained there until October 1945.

In the 1960s, in the days of Khrushchev's government, a number of lookalike five-story apartment blocks sprung up all over the city. Most of them still remain today in Kirovsky, Chkalovsky, and other residential areas of Yekaterinburg.

On 1 May 1960 an American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers while under the employ of the CIA, was shot down over Sverdlovsk Oblast. The pilot was captured, put on trial, and found guilty of espionage. He was sentenced to seven years of hard labour, though he served only about a year before being exchanged for Rudolph Abel, a high-ranking KGB spy, who had been apprehended in the United States in 1957. The two spies were exchanged at the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, Germany, on 10 February 1962. Since the end of World War II, the Glienicke Bridge was the most popular captive-trading place when the west and the east felt it necessary to negotiate.

There was an anthrax outbreak in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) in April and May 1979, which was attributed by Soviet officials to the locals eating contaminated meat. However, American agencies believe that the locals inhaled spores accidentally released from an aerosol of pathogen at a military microbiology facility. Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov's account of the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak in his book Biohazard agrees with the American agencies' view. In 1992 Boris Yeltsin admitted that the anthrax outbreak was caused by the military. In 1994, a team of independent American researchers led by Matthew Meselson concluded based on a number of sources of evidence that it was conclusive that the illnesses were a result of an anthrax release from the Sverdlovsk-19 military facility.

During the 1991 coup d'état attempt, Sverdlovsk, the home city of President Boris Yeltsin, was selected by him as a reserve capital of Russian Federation in an emergency if Moscow would became dangerous for the Russian government. A reserve cabinet headed by Oleg Lobov was sent to the city, where Yeltsin enjoyed a strong popular support at that time. Shortly after the failure of the coup and subsequent dissolution of the USSR, the city regained its historical name (Yekaterinburg).

Geography and climate
Yekaterinburg is situated in Asia, 1,667 km (1,036 miles) east of Moscow, on the eastern side of the Ural mountains on the Iset river. It is surrounded by partially-wooded plains, mainly cultivated for agricultural purposes, and small lakes. The winter lasts for about 5 months — from November until the middle of April — and the temperature may fall to minus 45 degrees Celsius (minus 49 Fahrenheit), though rarely lower than minus 20 to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 4 to minus 13 Fahrenheit). The summer in the Urals is short and lasts an average of 65–70 days with an average temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit). Due to the city's location "behind" the mountain range and to differing winds, the weather is quite changeable from day to day and from year to year.

Population


Having decreased from 1990s, the demography improves slowly in the 21st century.

Economy


The main areas of the region's industry are machinery, metal processing, and ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy.

Recently commercial business has improved, and business centres like Yekaterinburg-City have been planned. one of the tallest buildings in yekaterinburg Antey 3 is a skyscraper which is now complete, it is the tallest structure in Russia outside of Moscow.

Ural Airlines has its head office in Yekaterinburg.

Education
The Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS) and numerous scientific research institutes and establishments are situated in Yekaterinburg. With its 16 state-owned universities and educational academies, as well as a number of private higher education institutions (as of 2005), Yekaterinburg is considered the leading educational and scientific center of the Urals. These institutions include Ural A.M. Gorky State University, Ural State Technical University, Ural State Pedagogical University, Ural State University of Forestry, Ural State University of Mines, Ural State University of the Railways, Russian State Vocational Pedagogics University, Ural State University of Economics, Military Institute of Artillery, Ural State Conservatory, Ural State Agricultural Academy, Ural State Academy of Law, Ural State Academy of Medicine, Ural State Academy of Performing Arts, Ural Academy of Public Service, Institute of International Relations, and Ural Academy of Architecture.

Transport and accommodation


Yekaterinburg, still called by its Soviet name Sverdlovsk in rail timetables, is an important railway junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway, with lines radiating to all parts of the Urals and the rest of Russia. As the economy grew stronger after the slump of the 1990s, several European airlines started or resumed flying to the city's Koltsovo International Airport (SVX). These include Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Malév, Austrian Airlines, Czech Airlines and Finnair.

Two low-cost airlines are SkyExpress and Avianova.

Yekaterinburg is also served by the smaller Yekaterinburg Aramil Airport.

Yekaterinburg's public transit network includes many tram, bus, trolleybus, Marshrutka routes and Yekaterinburg Metro which opened in 1991.

Today, the Yekaterinburg Metro contains one line, with a total of 7 stations

Culture
The city has several dozen libraries, including the V. G. Belinsky Scientific Library, which is the largest public library in Sverdlovsk Oblast.

Yekaterinburg is famous for its theaters, among which are some very popular theater companies: the Yekaterinburg Academic Ballet and Opera Company, the Sverdlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy (a notable company known in Russia and in ex-Soviet republics as Свердловская музкомедия - Sverdlovskaya muzkomedia), the Yekaterinburg Academic Dramatic Theater, the Yekaterinburg Theater for Young Spectators, the Volkhonka (a popular chamber theater), and the Kolyada Theater (a chamber theater founded by Russian playwright, producer and actor Nikolai Kolyada). Yekaterinburg is the center of New Drama, a movement of the contemporary Russian playwrights Nikolai Kolyada, Vasily Sigarev, Konstantin Kostenko, the Presnyakov brothers, and Oleg Bogayev. Yekaterinburg is also often called the capital of contemporary dance for a number of famous contemporary dance companies residing in the city: the Kipling, the Provincial Dances, the Tantstrest, and a special department of contemporary dance at the Yekaterinburg University of Humanities.

A number of popular Russian rock bands, such as Urfin Dzhyus, Chayf, Chicherina, Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya, Trek, Agata Kristi and Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii, were originally formed in Yekaterinburg (Ural Rock is often considered as a particular variety of rock music; Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg are considered to be the main centers of rock music in Russia). Also, some famous opera singers - Boris Shtokolov, Yuri Gulyayev, Vera Bayeva - graduated from the Urals State Conservatory. The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (currently conducted by Dmitry Liss), founded by Mark Paverman and located in Yekaterinburg, is also very popular in Russia and in Europe, as well as the Ural Academic Popular Chorus, a famous folk singing and dance ensemble.

There are more than 30 museums in Yekaterinburg, including several museums of Ural minerals and jewellery, art galleries, one of the largest collections anywhere of Kasli mouldings (a traditional kind of cast-iron sculpture in the Urals), and the famous Shigirskaya Kladovaya (Шигирская кладовая), or Shigir Collection, which includes the oldest wood sculpture in the world: the Shigir Idol, found near Nevyansk and estimated to have been made about 9,500 years ago.Also only in Yekaterinburg you can see a collection of Nevyansk icons- in the museum " Nevyansk icon",exposed more than 300 icons of 18-20 centuries ( address: Engelsa str. 15, free entrance)

Yekaterinburg also has a circus building, and one of the tallest incomplete architectural structures in the world, the Yekaterinburg TV Tower.

Sports

 * Football club FC Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast plays in the Russian First Division.
 * Futsal club MFK Viz-Sinara Yekaterinburg are the current Russian champions and the champions of UEFA Futsal Cup in 2008.
 * Women basketball club UMMC Ekaterinburg are the current Russian champions and the champions of EuroLeague Women in 2003.
 * Ice hockey club Avtomobilist plays in the Kontinental Hockey League.
 * Bandy club SKA Sverdlovsk is one of the classical teams in which The King of Bandy, Nikolay Durakov played. Recently they have been relegated to the 2nd highest division of the Russian Bandy League.

International relations
The largest city in the Urals and one of the top five in Russia, Yekaterinburg has a number of consulates of major countries. For people wishing to make a visa application and needing to attend interview, this can easily take a half-week off the traveling time to get to the interview (in the event that there are internal flights to Yekaterinburg, they may only be once per week).

Consulates

 * United States Consulate—15 Gogol Street; the first consulate with a visa section in the Urals, established in 1994.
 * United Kingdom Consulate—-established 1997 as a full consulate with a visa section, on 15a Gogol Street.
 * The Federal Republic of Germany Consulate—-a full consulate with a visa section, on 44 Kuybysheva St.
 * Czech Republic Consulate—general—consulate with a visa section, on 15 Gogol Street.
 * Kyrgyzstan Consulate—general—consulate on 105 Bolshakova Street.
 * Bulgaria Consulate—general—consulate on 74 Lunacharskogo Street.
 * The People's Republic of China Consulate—general—consulate with a visa section on 52 Mamina-Sibiryaka Street.
 * The Republic of Hungary Consulate—-a full consulate with a visa section, on 15a Gogol Street.
 * The Republic of Austria Consulate—-honorary consular representation on 16 Turgeneva Street / 13 Pervomayskya Street.
 * The Republic of Armenia Consulate—-honorary consular representation.
 * The Italian Republic Consulate—-honorary consular representation on 28 Kirov Street.
 * The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Consulate—general—consulate on 22 Karl Libknehta Street.
 * The French Republic General—Consulate—-a full consulate with a visa section on 22 Karl Libknehta Street.
 * Spanish Visa Application Center, 36 Gogol Street.

Twin cities
Yekaterinburg is a sister city of
 * 🇨🇿 Plzeň, Czech Republic
 * 🇩🇪 Wuppertal, Germany, since 1993
 * 🇺🇸 San Jose, USA, since 1992
 * Guangzhou, People's Republic of China, since 10 July 2002
 * 🇮🇹 Genoa, Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Ferentino, Italy
 * 🇰🇷 Incheon, South Korea

Notable citizens
This is a short list of the most notable citizens of Yekaterinburg/Sverdlovsk:
 * Pavel Bazhov, famous children's author
 * Evgeny Mikhailovich Malakhin, "The Old Man Bukashkin"
 * Vera Bayeva, famous opera singer
 * Sergei Chepikov, biathlon competitor, Olympic champion
 * Arkady Chernetsky, acting mayor of Yekaterinburg
 * Pavel Datsyuk, professional ice hockey player and alternate captain of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League.
 * Nikolai Karpol, coach of the national women volleyball team and the legendary Yekaterinburg women volleyball club Uralochka (Уралочка)
 * Nikolai Khabibulin, Stanley Cup-winning goalie, currently with the Edmonton Oilers
 * Alexander Korenkov, president, CEO, Dereiter Racing
 * Ilya Kormiltsev, poet, translator, publisher
 * Vladislav Krapivin, children's author
 * Nikolai Krasovsky, prominent mathematician
 * Vladimir Kurochkin, musical comedy and opera producer
 * Gennady Mesyats, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the founders of the contemporary Demidov Prize
 * Eduard Rossel, ex-governor of the Sverdlovsk Oblast
 * Lev Sorokin, famous Ural poet and author
 * Vladimir Tretyakov, ex-rector of the Ural State University
 * Sergei Vonsovsky, prominent physicist
 * Boris Yeltsin, communist leader of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, later first president of Russian Federation
 * Irina Antonenko, Miss Russia 2010

Other

 * A ballistic missile submarine of the Project 667BDRM 'Delfin' class (NATO reporting name: Delta IV) has been named "Ekaterinburg" (K-84/'807') in honor of the city.
 * The asteroid 27736 Ekaterinburg was named in the city's honor on 1 June 2007.

External links and sources

 * Official website of Yekaterinburg government
 * Unofficial website of Yekaterinburg
 * Photos and history of Yekaterinburg
 * Flickr photos tagged Yekaterinburg
 * Geo-targeted photos on panoramio
 * Geo-targeted photos on panoramio