Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk), capital city of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, on the Iset River. Located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in a mineral-rich region, Yekaterinburg is a major industrial centre and a station on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Among the large industrial plants located in the city are platinum refineries, copper and iron smelters, and factories producing electrical equipment, chemicals, and heavy machinery. Yekaterinburg's educational institutes include the Urals A. M. Gorky State University (1920) and the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute (1931).

The city was founded in 1721 by tsar Peter I as an ironworking centre and was named Yekaterinburg after his wife, who was later proclaimed Empress Catherine I. Industrial development was spurred by the construction of the Great Siberian Highway in the late 18th century and the Trans-Siberian Railway in the late 19th century. Tsar Nicholas II and his family were held captive in the city by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and were executed here in 1918. The city was renamed Sverdlovsk in 1924 in honour of the Bolshevik and Soviet leader Yakov M. Sverdlov. During World War II, industry from threatened European areas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was transferred here. Following the disintegration of the USSR at the end of 1991, the city's name was changed back to Yekaterinburg. Population 1,304,251 (2004 estimate).