Chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk, city in south-west Siberian Russia, on the Miass River, in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. It is the administrative centre of the Chelyabinsk province. Situated on the Trans-Siberian Railway in a rich coal-mining region, it is one of the chief industrial centres of Russia. Factories produce iron and steel, tractors and other agricultural machinery, aircraft, and chemicals. Chelyabinsk was founded in 1736 as a fortress on the Russian frontier. Large-scale industrialization began in the 1890s. Population 1,095,053 (2004 estimate).