Ekaterinburg В is the fourth-largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast, located in the middle of the Eurasian continent, on the border of Europe and Asia.
With a population of 1,500,000, Yekaterinburg is the main industrial and cultural center of the Ural Federal District. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was named Sverdlovsk after the Communist party leader Yakov Sverdlov.
The official date of the city’s foundation is 7th November 1723, when one of Europe’s then biggest iron-manufacturing plants was put in to operation. Ekaterinburg subsequently became an important centre for the development of the vast areas of the Ural Mountains and Siberia.
Ekaterinburg’s heavy-transport and chemical-engineering plants, non-ferrous metallurgical works, and military industrial enterprises occupy leading roles in the national economy. The city has about 15 institutions of higher education, and is the location of the Ural Federal University. It is also the seat of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.