In Russia it is very difficult to find a person who would not hear about the “harsh Chelyabinsk” and its no less severe inhabitants. But what is this city really like? How does he live and what is interesting?
City Chelyabinsk: a 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 harsh that ..." - the Russian Internet is replete with such 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 think it is. This is not at all a continuous and featureless industrial zone, but a rather beautiful and well-equipped 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 villages (Kashtak, Sosnovka, Pershino and others).
Time in Chelyabinsk is two hours ahead of Moscow (time zone: +05). That is, when it’s ten o’clock in the capital of Russia, it’s already midnight in the Ural city.
The 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 next 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 population census (1897), about 20,000 people lived in Chelyabinsk at that time. In the next three decades, the number of inhabitants of the city tripled. In the 1930s, rapid industrialization began in the USSR, which did not pass by Chelyabinsk. Here, like mushrooms after rain, dozens of factories and enterprises grew. For their work, of course, thousands of workers were required. In general, from 1930 to 1970, the population of Chelyabinsk grew eight times!
October 13, 1976 Chelyabinsk added to the list of millionaire cities in Russia. As of 2016, 1.19 million people live here.
National 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. Among them, of course, are the Russians (86%). They are followed by the Tatars (5%), Bashkirs (3%), Ukrainians (1.5%), Belarusians, Germans, Armenians and Tajiks.
Acute enough in Chelyabinsk is the problem of the outflow of its indigenous people. Chelyabinsk citizens 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 difficult criminal situation in the city.
Administratively, Chelyabinsk is divided into seven districts. The largest number of residents was recorded in the Kalinin district (222 thousand), and the smallest - in the Central (about 100 thousand).
Chelyabinsk - a tourist center?
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 of Russia.
What can be interesting Chelyabinsk? 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 reserves of "high staliance" 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 tourist axis of Chelyabinsk is the famous Kirovka (local Arbat). Walking along this clean pedestrian street is incredibly pleasant and interesting. Here are preserved examples of pre-revolutionary architecture of Chelyabinsk. They will help tourists 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 little shoe cleaner, a thoughtful veteran in a hat, or a Lefty with his flea.
Chelyabinsk is also interesting for its temples. For example, the Cathedral of Simeonovsky 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. Chelyabinsk also has its own mosque - the most important in the whole Urals.
Interesting facts about Chelyabinsk
Finally, we bring to your attention the 10 most interesting facts about this glorious hard-working city:
- The flag of harsh Chelyabinsk shows a camel.
- There is John Lennon Boulevard in the city.
- 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 the “granite shield”, and the other is on a thick layer of sedimentary rocks.
- In February 2013, the city reminded itself of the whole world when a meteorite fragment exploded directly above it. Dozens of videos from different angles captured the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
- Chelyabinsk is the only metropolis of the country, in the center of which a real forest has been 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 of this initiative.
- The famous Czech writer J. Hasek lived in Chelyabinsk for some time, and even worked in one of the city newspapers.