Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (, also transliterated Ekaterinburg or Jekaterinburg) is a major city in the central part of the Russian Federation, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, at , it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District. Its population of 1,293,537 (2002 Census) makes it Russia's fifth largest city. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk (), after the Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov.

History

The city was founded in 1723 by Vasily Tatischev and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of tsar Peter the Great's wife Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina). It was renamed Sverdlovsk after the Bolshevik party leader and Soviet official Yakov Sverdlov from 1924 to 1991.

Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were executed by Bolsheviks in this city.

In the 1920s Yekaterinburg became a large industrial center of Russia. The heavy machinery factory Uralmash, the biggest in Europe, was built.

Between 1932 and 1937, Chiang Ching-kuo, president of the Republic of China from 1978 until 1998, worked in Ekaterinburg on the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant (Uralmash). In Ekaterinburg he met his wife Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva.

During World War II, many government technical institutions and whole factories were evacuated to Yekaterinburg from the war-affected areas (mostly Moscow) and many remained in Yekaterinburg after the war was over.

In the 1960s, during the Khruschev government, many similar five-storey apartment blocks were built around Yekaterinburg. Most of them still remain today in Kirovsky, Chkalovsky, and other residential areas of Yekaterinburg.

On May 1, 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 via the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, Germany, on February 10, 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 1994, a team of independent American researchers lead 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.Matthew S. Meselson, et al., "The Sverdlovsk Anthrax Outbreak of 1979", Science 266:5188 (18 November 1994): 1202-1208.

Geography and Climate

Yekaterinburg is situated 1,667 km (1,036 miles) east of Moscow, on the east side of the Ural mountains on the Iset river. It is surrounded by forests, mainly taiga, and small lakes. The winter lasts for about 5 months - from November until the middle of April and the temperature may fall to minus 35-40 degress Celsius (minus 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit). The summer on the Urals is short and lasts an average of 65-70 days with an average temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit). Due to the city's location and different winds the weather is very unstable from day to day and from year to year.

Economy

The city produces heavy machinery, steel, chemicals, tires, and petroleum. Gem cutting is a well-developed light industry.

Education

Urals 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 (2005), Yekaterinburg is considered the leading educational and scientific center of the Urals. Urals A.M. Gorky State University, Ural State Technical University, Urals State Pedagogical University,Urals State University of Forestry, Urals State University of Mines, Urals State University of the Railways, Russian State Vocational Pedagogics University, Urals State University of Economics, Military Institute of Artillery, Urals State Conservatory, Urals State Agricultural Academy, Urals State Academy of Law, Urals State Academy of Medicine, Urals State Academy of Performing Arts, Urals Academy of Public Service, and Urals Academy of Architecture are among them.

Transportation and accommodation

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

Yekaterinburg's public transit network includes the Yekaterinburg Metro which was opened in 1991, and many streetcar, bus, and trolleybus routes.

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 travelling time to get to the interview (in the event that there are internal flights to Yekaterinburg, they may only be once per week).

Yekaterinburg is a sister city of San Jose, California, U.S.A., and Pilsen, Czech Republic.

Notable citizens

The following people were either born in Yekaterinburg or made names for themselves while residing there. Note that many of the ice hockey players listed play in North America's National Hockey League.

Pavel Datsyuk, ice hockey player
Irina Denezhkina, author
Alexander Dolsky, poet
Nikolai Khabibulin, ice hockey goaltender
Vladislav Krapivin, children's author
Vladimir Malakhov, ice hockey player
Georgi Misharin, ice hockey player
Ivan Polzunov, inventor
Vera Sessina, gymnast
Pyotr Tayozhny, sculptor
Alexei Yashin, ice hockey player
Boris Yeltsin, Russian president
Rimma Zhukova, speed skater
Irina Lashko, silver winner (diving) at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Music

The music scene in Yekaterinburg is not exceptionally large or prolific, though a number of popular Russian rock bands, such as Чайф, Chicherina, Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya, and Smyslovye Gallucinacii, were originally formed there.

Consulates

United States Consulate—15 Gogolya Street; the first consulate in the Urals, established in 1994.
United Kingdom Consulate—established 1997 as a full consulate with a visa section, on 15a Gogolya Street.
German Consulate—a full consulate with a visa section, on 44 Kuybysheva St.
Czech Republic Consulate— general consulate with a visa section, on 15 Gogolya Street;

Notes

External links and sources

1723.ru - Website dedicated to Yekaterinburg. Numerous photogalleries.
Yekaterinburg for travellers
Yekaterinburg Information Portal
Flickr photos tagged yekaterinburg
Travel guide to Ekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg | Cities and towns in Sverdlovsk Oblast | Eponymous cities | 1723 establishments

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