In Russia, it is very difficult to find a person who would not hear about the “harsh Chelyabinsk” and its no less harsh inhabitants. But what is this city really like? What he lives and what is interesting?
City Chelyabinsk: a brief description
Chelyabinsk - the largest industrial, transportand the cultural center of the Urals. This 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 replete with similar sayings and witty phrases. In fact, they are all very far from the true appearance of the city and its inhabitants. Chelyabinsk is not at all what many people represent it. This is not at all a solid and faceless industrial zone, but rather a beautiful and comfortable city, with a 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 villages (Kashtak, Sosnovka, Pershino and others).
The time in Chelyabinsk is two hours ahead of Moscow time (time zone: +05). That is, when it is ten o'clock in the capital of Russia, it is already midnight in the Urals city.
The population of Chelyabinsk and its historical dynamics
The city on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains wasfounded 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 first All-Russian censuspopulation (1897), in Chelyabinsk at that time lived about 20,000 people. In the next three decades, the number of city residents tripled. In the 1930s, rapid industrialization began in the USSR, which did not bypass Chelyabinsk. Here, like mushrooms after rain, dozens of factories and enterprises have grown. Of course, thousands of workers were required for their work. In general, from 1930 to 1970, the population of Chelyabinsk grew eight times!
October 13, 1976 Chelyabinsk added to the list of cities-millionaires of Russia. As of 2016, 1.19 million people live here.
Ethnic composition and migration processes
If the first settlers of Chelyabinsk were Cossacks,then at the beginning of this century representatives of almost hundreds of different nationalities and ethnic groups live in the city. Of course, Russians (86%) are in the lead among them. They are followed by Tatars (5%), Bashkirs (3%), Ukrainians (1.5%), Belarusians, Germans, Armenians and Tajiks.
The problem is acute enough in Chelyabinskthe outflow of its indigenous people. Chelyabinsk actively move to other, more comfortable and promising cities in 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 Kalininsky district (222 thousand), and the smallest - in Central (about 100 thousand).
Chelyabinsk - a tourist center?
Why not!The city of Chelyabinsk has all the prospects to become a full-fledged tourist center, at least on a regional scale. Many travelers and local historians call it one of the most undervalued (in terms of tourism) cities in Russia.
What can be interesting Chelyabinsk?First of all, it is notable for its beautiful architecture of the Stalin era. A popular blogger and traveler, Varandey, calls this city one of the best high-stanance 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, built in 1943.
The main tourist axis of Chelyabinsk isfamous Kirovka (local Arbat). Walking along this clean pedestrian street is incredibly pleasant and interesting. Here are preserved samples of the pre-revolutionary architecture of Chelyabinsk. They will help the tourist to imagine how this city was in the XIX century. Another nice feature of Kirovka is its numerous sculptures. So, on this street you can meet a small shoe polisher, a brooding veteran with a hat or Lefty with his flea.
Chelyabinsk is also interesting with its temples.For example, the cathedral Simeonovskiy Cathedral is notable for decorative relief panels and colorful majolica inserts on the walls. But the Alexander Nevsky Church is a classic example of pre-revolutionary brick style. There is in Chelyabinsk and its own mosque - the most important in the whole of the Urals.
Interesting facts about Chelyabinsk
Finally, we bring to your attention the 10 most interesting facts about this glorious city-worker:
- On the flag of severe Chelyabinsk shows a camel.
- The city has a boulevard named after John Lennon.
- Chelyabinsk is among the ten most criminogenic cities in Russia.
- The city is located on two different geological structures: one part of it is on the “granite shield”, and the other is on a thick layer of sedimentary rocks.
- In February 2013, the city reminded of itself to the whole world when a fragment of a meteorite exploded directly above it. Dozens of videos from different angles captured the fall of the “Chelyabinsk meteorite”.
- Chelyabinsk is the only megapolis of the country, in the center of which the real forest is preserved (today it is the Gagarin park).
- The founder of the city is Tatar Murza Aleksey Tevkelev.
- In Chelyabinsk, for the first time in the world, a method of treatment for anthrax was found.
- In 1936, local party leaders had the idea to rename the city to Kaganovichgrad, but Joseph Stalin did not approve this initiative.
- The famous Czech writer J. Hasek lived for some time in Chelyabinsk, and even worked in one of the city newspapers.
