Chelyabinsk city, Russia (Cheliabinsk)

The capital city of Chelyabinsk oblast.

Chelyabinsk overview

Chelyabinsk (other spellings are Cheliabinsk, Cheljabinsk) is a capital city of Chelyabinsk oblast of Russia. The city is located to the east of Ural Mountains on the Miass River. Chelyabinsk is a major transport and industrial center of the region.

Chelyabinsk population is about 1,144,000 (2012), land area - 500 sq. km.

The phone code is +7 351, postal codes - 454000-454999.

Chelyabinsk city flag

Chelyabinsk city coat of arms

Chelyabinsk city map, Russia

Chelyabinsk facts

Chelyabinsk is one of the most polluted cities in Russia. Air and water are polluted due to a great number of industrial plants.

Chelyabinsk is one of the largest transportation centers in the Russian Federation: the city is located at the crossroads of highways and railways which connect Siberia with the European part of Russia and the Urals with Kazakhstan.

The airport is used for air freight, since 1994 it is an international one. Since 1992, Chelyabinsk metro is under construction, it is planned to open it in 2014.

The international airport “Chelyabinsk” (till 2008 - “Balandino”) is located in the northeastern part of the city, about 18 km from the center of the city. The airport is equipped with one of the best runways in Russia (which makes possible landing of all types of planes) and is linked with the largest cities in Russia and foreign countries.

Chelyabinsk history

In 1736, the fortress Chelyaba was built on the place of present Chelyabinsk. The city took its name from that fortress. Chelyabinsk town was one of the centers of building Trans-Siberian Railway at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

In 1930, with the beginning of Soviet industrialization the city experienced fast growth. Such industrial giants as Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant were built.

At the beginning of the World War II (at the end of 1941), it was decided to evacuate a lot of Soviet factories and plants from the western parts of the country to places out of the way of advancing German armies.

The result of factories evacuation was that a lot of new industries and thousands of workers appeared in Chelyabinsk. At that time it was a small town. Because of several large facilities for the production of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers the city became known all over the Soviet Union as “Tankograd” (City of Tanks).

Chelyabinsk city and region were closed to all foreigners until 1992.

Chelyabinsk views

Chelyabinsk city street

Author: Andrey Kalachev

Chelyabinsk view

Author: Angelina Galimzyanova

Chelyabinsk scenery

Author: Aleksey Podbelsky

Chelyabinsk economics

Today Chelyabinsk is one of the most important industrial centers of Russia. Main industry of the city is heavy industry (especially metallurgy and military machinery like Chelyabinsk Electrode Plant, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant).

Chelyabinsk attractions

There are following museums in Chelyabinsk:

Chelyabinsk regional museum of local study;
Museum of applied arts of Urals;
Chelyabinsk regional picture gallery;
Chelyabinsk regional geological museum (address: Truda (Labor) Str., 98).

Main places of interest of the city are:

Kirov street and zero kilometer sign;
“Levsha”, “To the Perished in Afghanistan”, “To Heroes-Tankmen” monuments;
Victory Park;
The monument to Great Patriotic War and the Eternal fire;
Revolution Square and Lenin statue;
Mikhail Glinka Opera and Ballet Theater;
Puppet Theater;
Naum Orlov Drama Theater;
Sergey Prokofyev City Philharmonic Society;
Kurchatov statue at the Recreation Park entrance;
City Park (Pushkin park);
Gagarin Recreation Park;
“The Tale about Urals” statue;
Chamber and Organ Music Hall;
Hero-Pioneers Alley;
Tank on Komsomolskaya Square;
Chelyabinsk city Circus;
Komsomolskaya Square and the monument to Tankograd.

A lot of other unique places of interest and famous names are linked with Chelyabinsk.

Chelyabinsk city of Russia photos

Chelyabinsk places

Chelyabinsk youth palace

Author: Yuri Palmin

Chelyabinsk circus

Author: Nico Kaiser

Chelyabinsk the World War II memorial

Author: Olga Kopp

Chelyabinsk sceneries

Cheliabinsk entrance sign

Author: Alexander Sapozhnikov

Chelyabinsk cathedral

Author: Angie Ambrosio

The comments of our visitors

David Irvin

The ways to draw tourists to Chelyabinsk

I heard an interview with a woman from Chelyabinsk several days after the meteor exploded over your city on February 15th, 2013. She said "We should use this meteor to bring people to our city. We need our own Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty".

I think the meteor could help your city draw tourists, if the city is willing to invest money to make this happen. Specifically, you could build a museum that would:

- show off actual fragments of the meteor
- discuss what it was made of, is it unusual, is it like other meteors that have hit the Earth in the past?
- have large photographs of the damage done at Tunguska in 1908
- compare your meteor with the Tunguska meteor
- have large photographs of Lake Manicouagan (Canada) or Meteor Crater (Arizona, USA), monstrous deformations of the Earth created by meteors or short films of these places seen from airplanes to show their size
- show film clips from American disaster movies involving meteors in a separate room with a very good sound system: "Meteor" (1979) - this involves US/Russian cooperation to stop a meteor from hitting the Earth; "Armageddon" (1998) - an asteroid is heading for Earth; "Deep Impact" (1998) - this one also involves US/Russian cooperation (more scientifically accurate than "Armageddon"), etc.
- have an exhibit about the extinction of dinosaurs 65,000,000 years ago, probably due to a meteor, allowing mammals to develop
- show what would happen if sunlight was blocked for a long period of time
- show that a global nuclear war might do the same thing, this is the "nuclear winter" (and that's why the US and Russia are reducing the number of their atomic bombs)
- have short films of nuclear explosions and compare the power of these with the power of the Tunguska/Chelyabinsk/Arizona meteors

Besides the museum, have boat rides on the lake where pieces of the meteor broke through the ice.