“Black sky regime” extended in seven cities of the Chelyabinsk region

Chelyabinsk region is one of the few regions of Russia where, next to settlements bearing Russian or Bashkir names, you can see regional centers and villages named after European capitals. Only the Southern Urals have their own Varna , Paris , Berlin and Leipzig .

So you can make a date under the arches of the Eiffel Tower , or walk through autumn Berlin , eat fried sausages on the outskirts of Leipzig and breathe the fresh air of Varna without a passport and without leaving the country’s borders.

Content

• 1 Millionaire cities 1.1 Chelyabinsk

How to get there?

It’s better to go not through Yuzhnouralsk , but through Varlamovo : the road is not so busy, sometimes completely empty, and the surface is better. But don’t forget the right shoes to knead the mud. ⠀ You need to leave Chelyabinsk along the Ufa Highway , in the Bishkil go left following the sign for Varlamovo . In general, there is a lot of interesting things along that road: from uranium mines to restored shops of gold miners.

Medium-sized cities 20-100 thousand people

Ozyorsk (Chelyabinsk region)

There are other settlements with this name, see Ozyorsk.

Population 79,518 people (2016).

Troitsk (Chelyabinsk region)

There are other settlements with this name, see Troitsk.

Population 75,825 people (2016).

Snezhinsk

Population 50,323 people (2016).

Satka

Population 42,437 people (2016).

Chebarkul

Population 40,612 people (2016).

Kyshtym

Population 37,809 people (2016).

Yuzhnouralsk

Population 37,716 people (2016).

Korkino

Population 35,186 people (2016).

Trekhgorny

Population 32,521 people (2016).

Asha

Population 30,146 people (2016).

Yemanzhelinsk

Population 29,487 people (2016).

Kartaly

Population 28,697 people (2016).

Verkhniy Ufaley

Population 28,267 people (2016).

Ust-Katav

Population 22,627 people (2016).

Sverdlovsk region

Forest

Lesnoy from the regional center by more than 250 kilometers to the north of the region, and tourists are separated from the most picturesque taiga forests and a high layer of concrete.

Photo source: GorodaRus

The idea to populate the taiga wilderness came to the government in 1947, along with the idea of ​​​​building a scientific enterprise here for electromagnetic isotope separation. Gulag prisoners proceeded surprisingly quickly - by the beginning of 1950, a giant magnet weighing 3 thousand tons had already been installed, and by the end of the year the enterprise produced its first product - the uranium-235 isotope . In parallel with the enterprise, the village was rebuilt, which in 1954 was given the status of a city and named Sverdlovsk-45 .

Naturally, the activities of the enterprise, as well as its existence in principle, were unknown. The existence of a small town was revealed only 47 years after its founding.

Now, although the city has appeared on the map, it is still quite difficult to walk along its streets. get into Lesnoy , and the rest of the Ural ZATOs, with a pass, which is easiest to get if you have close relatives in the city or as part of a group.

Novouralsk

This city is located 80 kilometers from Yekaterinburg and is one of the first centers of the nuclear industry in the Urals .

Author of the photo: Andrey Kanatov

Although the city initially appeared for completely different reasons - in the early 1940s, the construction of a plant for melting light metal scrap began here. However, already in December 1945, production was curtailed, and in its place, Russia gaseous diffusion plant for uranium enrichment was erected.

Over the entire period of its existence, the city has taken on many names - “ Department No. 2 ”, “ Base No. 5 ”, “ Construction No. 865 ”, “ Plant No. 484 ”, Sverdlovsk-44 . The city also received its secret number name in 1954 along with city status. And since 1994, it was named Novouralsk , although people called it “ Atomic Switzerland ” - in honor of the incredible landscapes and main activities.

Svobodny village

The village acquired its rather ironic name in 1994 - before it was known (albeit to a limited circle of people) as Nizhny Tagil-39 .

Photo source: Nizhny Tagil-39 (Svobodny village)

Its history began relatively recently - in 1960, when the 42nd Missile Division, belonging to the strategic forces, was deployed to this area. Until October 2022, Svobodny had the status of a workers’ settlement; now it has been changed to an urban-type settlement.

Uralsky village

The village of Uralsky its history in the dense forest of the Beloyarsky district as the Pyany Bor tract . The tract existed until 1959, when military construction began here. A year later, the secret village of Kosulino-1 - a garrison of military unit 56653 , part of the USSR Strategic Missile Forces .

Under this name, the village existed for 35 years, after which it was declassified and given the official name - Uralsky village .

Small towns up to 20 thousand people

Bakal

Population 19,942 people (2016).

Kusa

Population 17,521 people (2016).

Plast (city)

Population 17,483 people (2016).

Kasli

Population 16,488 people (2016).

Katav-Ivanovsk

Population 16,333 people (2016).

Sim

Population 13,365 people (2016).

Yuryuzan

Population 11,908 people (2016).

Nyazepetrovsk

Population 11,901 people (2016).

Karabash

Population 11,336 people (2016).

Minyar

Population 9,459 people (2016).

Verkhneuralsk

Population 9,321 people (2016).

see also

• Chelyabinsk region
• Cities of Russia

Chelyabinsk region

Ozersk

Ozersk in Russia to visit . It is here that the first industrial facility of the domestic nuclear industry is located, which has been producing components for nuclear weapons for 75 years. In addition to industry lovers, the city also attracts dark tourists who are not averse to touching the area where one of the most famous man-made disasters occurred.

The city appeared in 1945 on the shores of Lake Irtyash , under the secret name Baza-10 . Mayak chemical plant , consisting of three secret facilities - a reactor, a plant for processing uranium into plutonium, and a plant for purifying plutonium and creating nuclear weapons. In 1954, the settlement was renamed Chelyabinsk-40 and received city status.

Over the history of its existence, Mayak has survived more than one emergency situation: for example, in 1953, employees were overexposed, and in 1955, as a result of an accident, part of the building collapsed, but the largest emergency occurred in September 1957. As a result of the incident, which later became known as the Kyshtym accident , about 20 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the air, spreading throughout the Chelyabinsk , Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions. Interestingly, Chelyabinsk-40 was not damaged.

9 years after the accident, the city received a new name - Chelyabinsk-65 , which it bore until declassification in 1994. Due to the large accumulation of lakes in this area, the city was given the official name - Ozersk .

Snezhinsk

Snezhinsk is considered one of the most famous cities in Russia , and not only closed ones. After all, it was here that “ Kuzka’s Mother ” was developed - the most powerful weapon in the entire history of mankind.

Author of the photo: Igor Karionov

The city was founded in 1955 under the name Residential Village No. 2 . Since then, it has changed many names - Kasli-2 , Chelyabinsk-50 , Chelyabinsk-70 - until in 1994 it was called Snezhinsky . During this time, more than half of the nuclear warheads in service with the Russian Army . Now one of the largest enterprises in the nuclear industry is located here: the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics named after Academician E. I. Zababakhin .

The desire to visit this city is caused not only by a touch of mystery, but also by incredibly beautiful nature - it is considered the most beautiful of all the cities under the auspices of Rosatom . It is surrounded by dense forests and thirteen lakes, including Itkul , Sinara , Sungul and others.

Trekhgorny

In 1952, among tall pines and wide firs, an enterprise was founded that was to produce atomic bombs. A workers' settlement was built next to the production, which three years later became a city. Previously, the city was called Zlatoust-36 , and before that - Zlatoust-20 . In October 1993, the secret city was reclassified as closed and received the name Trekhgorny .

The modern city-forming enterprise is an instrument-making plant, where a number of different goods are produced - from the most complex special equipment products to metal structures for churches .