Ekaterinburg

Ekaterinburg is one of big Russian cities located in the central part of Russia, 1667 km from Moscow. It is an administrative center of Sverdlovk oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, on the Iset river, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District. Its population of 1315100 makes it Russia's forth largest city after Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk, after the Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov.

 

The city was founded in 1723 by Vasily Tatischev as a factory - fortress and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of Tsar Peter the Great's wife Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina). 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 at the Ipatiev House in this city. In 1977 the Ipatiev House was destroyed by order of Boris Yeltsin who later became the first President of the Russian Federation.

 

In the 1920, Yekaterinburg became a large industrial center of Russia. It was the time when the famous Uralmash was built, becoming the biggest heavy machinery factory in Europe. During World War II, many government technical institutions and whole factories were relocated in Yekaterinburg away from the war-affected areas (mostly Moscow), with many of them staying in Ekaterinburg after the victory.

 

Ekaterinburg is a forth largest scientific center in Russia. There are 140 research, design and project institutes and organisations, the Ural centre of the Russian Scientific Academy, the Ural state university, Polytechnical, Mountain, Architectural, Medical, Pedagogical, Agriculture and other Institutes in Ekaterinburg. The cultural life of the city is presented by its theatres: Academic Theatre of Ballet and Opera, Sverdlovsk Theater of Musical Comedy, Academic Dramatic Theater, Theater of Young Spectators. In Ekaterinburg there are more than 30 museums, among which: Regional Museum, Museum of Architecture`s history and Industrial Technics, Photographic Museum, Literary Museum, Mineralogical Museums and others.

 

We recommend you to visit Ekaterinburg, to walk in old streets of the city, to make an unique excursion to the border of Europe and Asia, an interesting excursion to the siberian village of wooden architecture and folk art – Nizhnyaya  Sinyachikha.