Chelyabinsk (city)

Capital city, economic and cultural centre of Chelyabinsk oblast (region), Russian Federation, 240 km/150 mi south of Yekaterinburg on the Miass River; population (2002) 1,104,600. Chelyabinsk is a major industrial centre in the Urals and an important rail centre. The main branches of industry are engineering (tractors, aircraft, machine tools), and metallurgy (steel, ferro-alloys, zinc). There is a large lignite-fired power station nearby. The important Chelyabinsk coal basin (first exploited in 1906) lies 15 km/9 mi to the east of the city. Waste from the city's plutonium plant makes it possibly the most radioactive place in the world.

Formerly a Tatar village, Chelyabinsk became a Cossack fortress in 1736. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which began here in 1886, established the city's commercial importance. The first industries (flour mills, railway workshops) appeared around this time, and Chelyabinsk supplanted Tyumen as the ‘Gateway to Siberia’ for goods and settlers. Industrial development under Stalin's Five-Year Plans in the 1930s and the relocation of factories here during World War II brought further growth.