| Chelyabinsk (English) Челябинск (Russian) |
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Chelyabinsk
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| City Day | September 13 |
| Administrative status | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Chelyabinsk Oblast |
| Administrative center of | Chelyabinsk Oblast |
| Municipal status (as of February 2008) | |
| Urban okrug | Chelyabinsky Urban Okrug |
| Administrative center of | Chelyabinsky Urban Okrug |
| Head | Mikhail Yurevich |
| Representative body | Council |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 837 km2 (323 sq mi) |
| Population (2010 Census, preliminary) |
1,130,273 inhabitants[1] |
| - Rank in 2010 | 9th |
| Population (2002 Census) | 1,078,300 inhabitants[2] |
| - Rank in 2002 | 9th |
| Density | 1,350 /km2 (3,500 /sq mi)[3] |
| Time zone | YEKST (UTC+06:00)[4] |
| Founded | 1736 |
| Postal code(s) | 454xxx[5] |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 351[6] |
Chelyabinsk (Russian: Челябинск; IPA: [tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk] ( listen)) is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, 210 kilometers (130 mi) south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: 1,130,273 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 1,077,174 (2002 Census);[2] 1,141,777 (1989 Census).[7]
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Fortress Chelyaba, from which the city takes its name, was constructed on the site in 1736; the city was incorporated in 1781. Around 1900, it served as a center for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. According to official statistics the population on 1 January 1913 was 45,000 inhabitants.
For several months during the Russian Civil War, Chelyabinsk was held by the White movement and Czechoslovak Legions, becoming a center for splinters of the Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia. The city later fell to Bolshevik Russian forces. In the decades after the Finnish Civil War in 1918, some 15,000 "Red" Finns defected into the Soviet Union. Most of them were transferred to Chelyabinsk via railway. In 1938, during the Great Purge, some of them were executed. Their mass grave is located near the Zolonyi Gora's former gold mine, and today bears a small memorial.
During the Soviet industrialization of the 1930s, Chelyabinsk experienced rapid growth. Several industrial establishments, including the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, were built at this time. During World War II, Joseph Stalin decided to move a large part of Soviet factory production to places out of the way of the advancing German armies in late 1941. This brought new industries and thousands of workers to Chelyabinsk—still essentially a small city. Several enormous facilities for the production of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers existed in Chelyabinsk, which became known as "Tankograd" (Tank City). Chelyabinsk was essentially built from scratch during this time. A small town existed before this, signs of which can be found in the centre of the city. The S.M. Kirov Factory no. 185 moved here from Leningrad to produce heavy tanks — it was transferred to Omsk after 1962.
Chelyabinsk has had a long association (since the 1940s) with top-secret nuclear research, though this is more properly applicable to Chelyabinsk Oblast as a whole, as nuclear facilities such as Chelyabinsk-70 (Snezhinsk) are, or were, located far outside the city. A serious nuclear accident occurred in 1957 at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, 150 km north-west of the city, which caused deaths in Chelyabinsk Oblast but not in the city. The province was closed to all foreigners until 1992.
| Climate data for Chelyabinsk | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −10.5 (13.1) |
−7.9 (17.8) |
1.0 (33.8) |
10.6 (51.1) |
20.3 (68.5) |
23.9 (75.0) |
25.2 (77.4) |
23.6 (74.5) |
17.2 (63.0) |
9.3 (48.7) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
−6.9 (19.6) |
8.8 (47.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −14.5 (5.9) |
−12.8 (9.0) |
−7.6 (18.3) |
2.8 (37.0) |
11.9 (53.4) |
17.6 (63.7) |
18.2 (64.8) |
16.9 (62.4) |
10.3 (50.5) |
3.9 (39.0) |
−6.7 (19.9) |
−13 (8.6) |
2.3 (36.1) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −19 (−2.2) |
−19 (−2.2) |
−9.3 (15.3) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
7.9 (46.2) |
12.6 (54.7) |
14.5 (58.1) |
13.5 (56.3) |
7.6 (45.7) |
1.4 (34.5) |
−6.2 (20.8) |
−14.2 (6.4) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 17 (0.67) |
16 (0.63) |
19 (0.75) |
27 (1.06) |
47 (1.85) |
55 (2.17) |
87 (3.43) |
43 (1.69) |
41 (1.61) |
30 (1.18) |
26 (1.02) |
21 (0.83) |
429 (16.89) |
| Source: Pogoda.ru.net[8] | |||||||||||||
There are over a dozen universities in Chelyabinsk. The main ones are South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk State University and Chelyabinsk Medical Academy. The oldest one is Chelyabinsk State Agro-engineering Academy, which was founded in 1930. There are 5 faculties at the University.
Chelyabinsk is one of the major industrial centers of Russia. Heavy industry predominates, especially metallurgy and military machinery, notably the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Combinate (CMK, ChMK), Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (CTZ, ChTZ), Chelyabinsk Electrode plant (CHEZ), Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) and Chelyabinsk Forge-and-Press Plant (ChKPZ).
Chelyabinsk also has several electronics plants, including Metran, Polet and Zavod Electromashina, that serve both military and civil needs.
Chelyabinsk started construction of a 3-line subway network in early 1980s. It is proceeding slowly using the New Austrian Tunneling method. Pending financing, the opening of the first section is scheduled for 2017.
Chelyabinsk has a tram/streetcar (since 1932) and trolley bus (since 1942).
The city is served by Chelyabinsk Airport.
Chelyabinsk is twinned with:
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