VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The city of Chelyabinsk was founded on September 13, 1736 as a fortress on the trade routes from the east of the Urals to Orenburg. It is part of the Urals Federal District and the administrative centre of the Chelyabinsk Region. It consists of seven districts, has a total area of 500.9 square kilometers. Its population was 10,095,900 as of January 1, 2010, making it the second most populous city in the Urals Federal District and the ninth most populous in Russia.
Chelyabinsk is located on the eastern slopes of the Urals Mountains on both sides of the Miass River on the geological boundary between the Urals and Siberia. It is surrounded by a pine forest on the west and north. The waterways within the city limits, in addition to the Miass River, include the Shershnevo Reservoir, Lakes Smolino, Pervoye and Sineglazovo and numerous other bodies of water. Water occupies 18% of the city's area.
Chelyabinsk is a major transport hub linked by rail and road with the whole of the Eurasian continent. It has an international airport, Chelyabinsk, and sits on the federal M5, M36 and M51 motorways. The Chelyabinsk branch of the South Urals Railway is the largest transport hub on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Chelyabinsk is one of the top three Russian megalopolises with the best developed transport infrastructure. It has trolleybuses, trams, buses, shuttle buses and taxis. A metro system is under construction. During the past century Chelyabinsk has developed mainly as an industrial centre, a city of metallurgy and machine-building.
The main production in the city is metallurgy and production of metal goods, which now accounts for more than 60% of the total output of the city's industries.
Chelyabinsk is one of the country's largest producers of high-grade alloys, heat-proof and stainless steels, high-grade and sheet rolled steel. The industrial giants of Chelyabinsk are known far beyond the region and the country. They include the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical and Electric Metallurgy Plants, the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant, the Trubodetal Plant and others.
Machine-building accounts for about 13% of Chelyabinsk's industrial output. Among the major enterprises are the Chelyabinsk Forging and Press Plant, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant Uraltrak, the Kolyushchenko Rolled Machinery Plant, the Chelyabinsk Automated and Mechanical Plant and the Chelyabinsk Mechanical Plant.
In spite of the economic crisis, many industrial enterprises in the city in 2009 managed not to curtail investment projects and have continued to modernize existing production facilities installing new equipment both at their own cost and with money borrowed from economic entities, and launched new competitive products.
Among the more significant projects in terms of the city's economy is the building of the pipe electric welding shop for the production of large diameter pipes by the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant called Vysota-239 and a multipurpose rail and girder rolling mill at the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant.
Chelyabinsk has a developed food industry and services and retailing sectors. Popular among consumers in Russia are the products of the confectionery Yuzhuralkonditer, the agro-industrial group Makfa, the food industry centre Ariant and Soyuzpishcheprom Association.
For many years Chelyabinsk has been among the leaders of the general education system in Russia. Two of the city's schools (colleges 31 and 11) are among the top secondary schools in Russia. Chelyabinsk has 36 higher education institutions, the largest of which are the South Urals State University and Chelyabinsk State University.
Chelyabinsk is known as one of the most sporting cities in Russia. More than 400,000 people in Chelyabinsk, practically one in two, practice physical fitness or sports. Chelyabinsk has about 1800 sports facilities including a 7,500-seat modern ice arena, Traktor, and the Urals Lightning Palace so called in honour of the famous Chelyabinsk speed skater Lidiya Skoblikova.
