Nizhny Tagil is situated in the western Sverdlovsk Region, in the valley of the Tagil River on the eastern slopes of the Urals Mountains. The city is 20-25 kilometres from the conventional border between Europe and Asia and 150 kilometres to the northwest of Yekaterinburg.
The area was first settled in October 1722, when Nikita Demidov began construction on the Vyya Copper Plant. 1722 is therefore considered the year Nizhny Tagil was founded. The Nizhny Tagil Cast Iron and Iron Plant began operation in December 1725 and later became one of Russia's largest factories. Nizhny Tagil gradually developed as a metalworking centre. Tagil iron, known as Old Sable and later CCNAD, was valued both in Russia and Europe.
In 1807 the Nizhny Tagil mining district was established with its centre at Nizhny Tagil. The district encompassed the Nizhny Tagil, Vyya, Nizhnyaya Salda, Verkhnyaya Salda, Chernoistochinsk, Visim, Visimo-Utkinsk and Laya factories. The district belonged to the heirs of Nikita Demidov.
Since the Mednorudnyansk copper mine began operations in 1814, copper and malachite mining have been important in Nizhny Tagil. In the 1820s mining for gold and platinum began in the district.
In 1919 Nizhny Tagil was granted status as a town, becoming the centre of the Nizhny Tagil Uyezd in 1920 and the Tagil District between 1923 and 1930.
In 1931 construction began on the Novy Tagil Steel Mill (NTMZ) and Uralvagonzavod (UVZ). In 1936 UVZ produced its first freight cars, and in June 1940 NTMZ began producing cast iron. In the pre-war years, the Mount Vysokaya copper mine, the old Kuibyshev metal works, the Mount Vysokaya Mechanical Plant and other industrial facilities were reconstructed.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 to 1945 dozens of factories were evacuated to Nizhny Tagil, where together with UVZ they organised mass inline -production of T-34 tanks, the best tanks of WWII. During the war factories producing plastic, medical instruments, slag, cement and many other goods were established in the city. A puppet theatre and the Ural College of Applied Arts also opened in Nizhny Tagil. At least one million prisoners were incarcerated at the notorious Tagillag labour camp between 1941 and 1953.
The population of Nizhny Tagil is now 379,700.
Valentina Isayeva has been the mayor of Nizhny Tagil since March 2008.
The city is divided into three districts, specifically the Dzerzhinsky, Leninsky and Tagilstroyevsky Districts. Nizhny Tagil is the centre of the Gornouralsky Urban District and the Gornozavodskoi Administrative District.
Present-day Nizhny Tagil is an important industrial and transport centre for the Middle Urals. Heavy industry plays the most important role in the city's economy, while the light and food industries are also present. Leading enterprises in the city include the Nizhniy Tagil Iron and Steel Works, Uralvagonzavod, the Mount Vysokaya Ore Mining and Processing Works, the Nizhny Tagil Chemical Plant Planta, the Nizhny Tagil Metal Structures Plant, the Ural Chemical Company, the Nizhny Tagil Boiler and Radiator Plant, the Nizhny Tagil Bread Factory and the Nizhny Tagil Institute of Metal Testing. There are several dozen construction contractors in the city, including Tagilstroy.
Nizhny Tagil is the location of a unique open-air museum compound telling the history of mining in the Middle Urals, which includes of a factory museum (an former factory owned by the Demidovs and in operation until 1987), the main mine at Mount Vysokaya, a local history museum, storehouses for provisions, a museum of the history of trays, a museum of mining and miners' daily life, as well as other museums.
Nizhny Tagil is the birthplace of several talented and prominent inventors and persons of note, including the Cherepanovs, who founded the Russian steam locomotive industry, hydraulic engineer Stepan Kozopasov, who invented the boom applicator, Yegor Kuznetsov, who designed such rarities as an astronomic clock and a musical droshky, Fotiy Shvetsov, a distinguished metallurgist and entrepreneur, and the Khudoyarovs, who were famous ironwork painters. The famous metallurgists Vladimir Grum-Grzhimailo and Konstantin Polenov also lived and worked in Nizhny Tagil. Finally, the famous writer Alexei Bondin was born in Nizhny Tagil.