Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (also

History

The city was founded in 1723 by Vasily Tatischev and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of tsar Peter the Great's wife Catherine (Yekaterina). It was renamed Sverdlovsk after the Bolshevik party leader and Soviet official Yakov Sverdlov from 1924 to 1991.

Related Topics:
1723 - Vasily Tatischev - Saint Catherine - Tsar - Peter the Great - Catherine - Bolshevik - Soviet - Yakov Sverdlov

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Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were executed by Bolsheviks in this city.

Related Topics:
Russian Revolution - July 17 - 1918 - Nicholas II - Alexandra - Olga - Tatiana - Maria - Anastasia - Alexei - Bolshevik

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In the 1920s Yekaterinburg became a large industrial center of Russia. Heavy machinery plant Uralmash, the biggest in Europe, was built.

Related Topics:
1920s - Europe

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During World War II, many government technical institutions and the whole plants were evacuated to Yekaterinburg from the war-affected areas (mostly Moscow) and many remained in Yekaterinburg after the war was over.

Related Topics:
World War II - War

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In the 1960s, during the Khruschev government, many similar five-storey apartment blocks were built all around Yekaterinburg. Most of them remain until today in Kirovsky, Chkalovsky, and other residential areas of Yekaterinburg.

Related Topics:
1960s - Khruschev - Apartment block - Residential area

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On May 1, 1960, an American spy-plane U-2, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot over Yekaterinburg. The pilot was captured and later exchanged for Rudolph Abel, a Russian spy, in the United States.

Related Topics:
May 1 - 1960 - American - Francis Gary Powers - Rudolph Abel - Spy

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There was an anthrax outbreak in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) in April and May 1979, which was attributed by Soviet officials to the locals eating contaminated meat. However, American agencies believe that the locals inhaled spores accidentally released from an aerosol of pathogen at a military microbiology facility. Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov's account of the outbreak in his book Biohazard agrees with the American agencies' view.

Related Topics:
Anthrax - Outbreak - April - May - 1979 - Meat - Spore - Aerosol - Pathogen - Microbiology - Kanatjan Alibekov - Biohazard

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