In Russia it is very difficult to find a person who has not heard about the "severe Chelyabinsk" and its no less harsh inhabitants. But what is this city really like? How does he live and what is interesting?
City of Chelyabinsk: brief description
Chelyabinsk is the largest industrial, transport and cultural center of the Urals. It is the fourteenth largest city in Russia. The population of Chelyabinsk exceeds one million people. And according to this indicator, the city ranks seventh in the country.
"Chelyabinsk mosquitoes are so severe that…" - the Russian Internet is full of such sayings and witty phrases. In fact, all of them are very far from the true image of the city and its inhabitants. Chelyabinsk is not at all what many people imagine it to be. This is not a continuous and faceless industrial zone, but rather a beautiful and comfortable city, with good infrastructure and interesting architecture.
The total area of Chelyabinsk is 530 square kilometers. The city is divided into seven administrative districts. It also includes a number of settlements (Kashtak, Sosnovka, Pershino and others).
Chelyabinsk is two hours aheadMoscow (time zone: +05). That is, when it is ten o'clock in the evening in the capital of Russia, it is already midnight in the Ural city.
Population of Chelyabinsk and its historical dynamics
The city on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains was founded in 1736 on the site of the old Bashkir village of Chelyaba. The following year, the population of Chelyabinsk was already 379 souls. And by the end of the XVIII century, it reached five thousand people.
According to the data of the first All-Russian population census (1897), about 20,000 people lived in Chelyabinsk at that time. In the next three decades, the city's population tripled. In the 1930s, rapid industrialization began in the USSR, which did not bypass Chelyabinsk. Here, like mushrooms after the rain, dozens of factories and enterprises have grown. Their work, of course, required thousands of workers. In general, during the period from 1930 to 1970, the population of Chelyabinsk increased eight times!
On October 13, 1976, Chelyabinsk joined the list of Russia's millionaire cities. As of 2016, 1.19 million people live here.
Ethnic composition of the population and migration processes
If the first settlers of Chelyabinsk were Cossacks, then at the beginning of this century, representatives of almost a hundred different nationalities and ethnic groups live in the city. The leaders among them, of course, are Russians (86%). They are followed by Tatars (5%), Bashkirs (3%), Ukrainians (1.5%), Belarusians, Germans, Armenians and Tajiks.
Quite sharp in Chelyabinskthere is a problem of outflow of its native inhabitants. Chelyabinsk residents are actively moving to other, more comfortable and promising cities of the country. The main reasons for such migrations are low wages, poor ecology and a rather complicated criminal situation in the city.
Administratively, Chelyabinsk is divided into seven districts. The largest number of residents was recorded in the Kalininsky district (222 thousand), and the smallest - in the Central (about 100 thousand).
Chelyabinsk is a tourist center?
And why not! The city of Chelyabinsk has every prospect of becoming a full-fledged tourist center, at least on a regional scale. Many travelers and local historians call it one of the most underestimated (in terms of tourism) cities in Russia.
What can Chelyabinsk be interesting for? First of all, it is notable for its beautiful architecture of the Stalin era. The popular blogger and traveler Varandey calls this city one of the best “high steel” nature reserves in the entire post-Soviet space. Almost the entire center of modern Chelyabinsk is built up with monumental buildings of the 30-50s of the last century. And the main monument of this architectural style in the city is, of course, the building of the South Ural State University, erected in 1943.
The main touristic axis of Chelyabinsk is the famous Kirovka (local Arbat). Walking along this clean pedestrian street is incredibly pleasant and interesting. Samples of pre-revolutionary architecture of Chelyabinsk have been preserved here. They arewill help the tourist imagine what this city was like in the 19th century. Another nice feature of Kirovka is its numerous sculptures. So, on this street you can meet a small shoe shiner, a pensive veteran in a hat, or Lefty with his flea.
Chelyabinsk is also interesting for its temples. For example, the Simeonovsky Cathedral is notable for its decorative relief panels and colorful majolica inlays on the walls. But the Alexander Nevsky Church is a classic example of the pre-revolutionary brick style. Chelyabinsk also has its own mosque - the most important in the entire Urals.
Interesting facts about Chelyabinsk
Finally, we bring to your attention the 10 most interesting facts about this glorious city-worker:
- A camel is depicted on the flag of harsh Chelyabinsk.
- The city has a John Lennon boulevard.
- Chelyabinsk is one of the ten most criminogenic cities in Russia.
- The city is located on two different geological structures: one part of it is on a "granite shield", and the other is on a thick layer of sedimentary rocks.
- In February 2013, the city reminded the world of itself when a fragment of a meteorite exploded right above it. Dozens of videos from different angles captured the fall of the "Chelyabinsk meteorite".
- Chelyabinsk is the only metropolis in the country, in the center of which a real forest has been preserved (today it is the Gagarin Park).
- Tatar Murza Alexey Tevkelev is considered the founder of the city.
- In Chelyabinsk for the first time in the world wasfound a cure for "anthrax".
- In 1936, local party leaders had an idea to rename the city to Kaganovichgrad, but Joseph Stalin did not approve of this initiative.
- The famous Czech writer J. Gashek lived in Chelyabinsk for some time, and even worked in one of the city newspapers.
