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Chelyabinsk - History

Passing through a rather quick stage as a military settlement (1736-1781), for over 100 years Chelyabinsk was a small rather insignificant district town in Orenburg Krai. Until the railroad was built, it was known only as a place where political exiles were sent. In particular, participants in the 1863 Polish Kingdom Uprising were exiled to Chelyabinsk and all exiles traveling to Siberia under guard, passed through Chelyabinsk. Consequently, such well-known Bolsheviks as I. Stalin, A. Bybnov, and E. Preobrazhenskyi were located in exile in the Chelyabinsk prison at the turn of the century.

For the majority of Russian commoners, Chelyabinsk became visible with the launching of the trans-Siberian railroad. At this time, a settler's town grew around the train station complete with a church, hospital, and living quarters. Reflecting a new role, as an important intermediate point of traffic, Chelyabinsk was actively supported by the state.

During the Civil War, bloodshed took place near the city in the so called "Chelyabinsk Battle" between the third division of the Red Army, under the command of Tykhacheskyi (future marshal), and Admiral Kolchak's army ending in a destructive victory for the "Reds".

In the 1930s, during the first five-year-plan, Chelyabinsk was on the mind of everyone in the country. Construction of the "giant industry" attracted various people to Chelyabinsk, from Stalin's cabinet ministers (Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Bybnov) to entertainers and artists (as well, the rather well-known L. Aragon visited Chelyabinsk). Chelyabinsk played an important supporting role in WW II when many factories from the center of the country were evacuated and assigned to Chelyabinsk, such as the Leningradskyi Kirovskyi, Kharkovskyi Diesel, Kalibyir,a Moscow factory, and many others.

Today, unfortunately, the city cannot claim a great deal of historic or cultural monuments. From pre-revolutionary architecture there is a fragment of stone merchant buildings still standing on Kirova Ulitsa, giving us a feel for the merchant city at the beginning of the twentieth century. As well, there are religious edifices scattered throughout the city: Alexsandrovskii Church, architect A.N. Pomerantsev, 1907; Troitskii Church, architect P.A. Saraev, 1909; a mosque, 1899; a synagogue, 1900-1910. The first electric power station of the city is a good example of industrial architecture at the beginning of the twentieth century and the most intriguing example of Chelyabinsk's modern architecture is a building built at the beginning of this century which was owned by Dontsiger-Vyisotskyi (1 Pushkin Ulitsa). From the Soviet period, the following buildings should be noted: the Opera Theater (architect N. Kyrennoi, murals under the direction of the architect Deineki), the Drama Theater, the sports complex Yunost, the trade center, and the building which houses the circus. 

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