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Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in
Chelyabinsk Oblast Chelyabinsk Oblast (russian: Челя́бинская о́бласть, ''Chelyabinskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia in the Ural Mountains region, on the border of Europe and Asia. Its administrative center is the ...
, Russia, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the
Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
by the
Ural River The Ural (russian: Урал, ), known before 1775 as Yaik (russian: Яик, ba, Яйыҡ, translit=Yayıq, ; kk, Жайық, translit=Jaiyq, ), is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan in the continental border between Europe and Asia ...
. Its population is It was named after Mount Magnitnaya, a geological anomaly that once consisted almost completely of
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...
, around 55% to 60%
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
. It is the second-largest city in Russia that is not the
administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
of any federal subject or
district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
. Magnitogorsk contains the largest iron and
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
works in the country:
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (russian: Магнитогорский металлургический комбинат, Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat), abbreviated as MMK, is an iron and steel company located in the city of Magni ...
. The official motto of the city is "the place where Europe and Asia meet", as the city occupies land in both Europe and Asia. Magnitogorsk is one of only two planned socialist realist settlements ever built (the other being Nowa Huta in Poland).


History


Foundation

Magnitogorsk was founded in 1743 as part of the
Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the border with Kazakhst ...
Line of forts built during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth. By 1747 the settlement had grown large enough to justify the building of a small wooden chapel, later named "the Church of the Holy Trinity". Russian iron-ore mining in this region dates back to 1752, when two entrepreneurs named Tverdysh and Myasnikov decided to explore the feasibility of mining in the area. They took advantage of the fact that Mount Magnitnaya did not belong to anyone at that time; they secured it for themselves by way of petition to Empress Elizabeth. In 1759 the petition was accepted, and they launched iron-ore production.


Growth

The city underwent rapid change in the 1930s, when according to Stalin's Five-Year-Plans, Magnitogorsk was to become a one-industry town modeled after two of the most advanced steel-producing cities in the United States at that time:
Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along th ...
, and
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. At this time, hundreds of foreign experts streamed in to implement and direct the work. In 1928 a Soviet delegation arrived in
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...
to discuss with American consulting company Arthur G. McKee a plan to set up in Magnitogorsk a copy of the US Steel steel-mill in Gary. The contract was increased four times, and eventually the new plant had a capacity of over four million tons annually. It was a showpiece of Soviet achievement. Huge reserves of
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...
in the area made it a prime location to build a steel plant capable of challenging its Western rivals. However, a large proportion of the workforce, as ex-
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasa ...
s, typically had few industrial skills and little industrial experience. To solve these issues, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work, including a team of architects headed by the German
Ernst May Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
. According to the original plans, the city was to have followed the
linear city Linear city may refer to: * Linear settlement * Linear city (Soria design), an 1882 concept of city planning * Linear city (Graves and Eisenman design), a 1965 proposal for a settlement in New Jersey * The linear city model of Hotelling's law See ...
design, with rows of similar superblock neighborhoods running parallel to the factory, with a strip of greenery, or greenbelt, separating them. Planners would align living and production spheres so as to minimize necessary travel time: workers would generally live in a sector of the residential band closest to the sector of the industrial band in which they worked. However, by the time that May completed his plans for Magnitogorsk, construction of both factory and housing had already started. The sprawling factory and enormous cleansing lakes had left little room available for development, and May therefore had to redesign his settlement to fit the modified site. This modification resulted in a city being more "rope-like" than linear. Although the industrial area is concentrated on the left bank of the river Ural, and most residential complexes are located on its right bank, the city inhabitants are still subjected to noxious fumes and factory smoke. The book ''Behind the Urals'', by John Scott, documents the industrial development of Magnitogorsk during the 1930s. Scott discusses the fast-paced industrial and social developments during Stalin's first five-year plan and the rising paranoia of the Soviet regime preceding the
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
of the late 1930s.


Closed city

In 1937 foreigners were told to leave, and Magnitogorsk was declared a
closed city A closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight. Such places may be sensitive military establishments or secret research ins ...
. There is little reliable information about events and development of the city during the closed period. The city played an important role during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
because it supplied much of the steel for the Soviet war effort. Furthermore, its strategic location east of the
Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
made Magnitogorsk safe from seizure by the
German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
.


Re-opening

During
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
, the closed-city status was removed, and foreigners were allowed to visit the city again. The years after perestroika brought a significant change in the life of the city; the Iron and Steel Plant was reorganized as a joint-stock company
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (russian: Магнитогорский металлургический комбинат, Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat), abbreviated as MMK, is an iron and steel company located in the city of Magni ...
(''MISW'' or ''MMK''), which helped with the reconstruction of the railway and the building of a new airport. With the depletion of the substantial local iron-ore reserves, Magnitogorsk has to import raw materials from Sokolvsko-Sarbaisky deposit in northern
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
.


Magnitogorsk building collapse

On December 31, 2018, an
apartment block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
in the city of Magnitogorsk suffered a gas explosion and
collapse Collapse or its variants may refer to: Concepts * Collapse (structural) * Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept * Collapsing manifold * Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects * Collapsing user interface elements ** ...
which killed 39 of its residents, and injured 17 more.


Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the
City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
of Magnitogorsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the
districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
.Resolution #161 As a municipal division, the City of Magnitogorsk is incorporated as Magnitogorsky Urban Okrug.


Transportation

The city is connected by the Magnitogorsk International Airport and by a railway. Public transportation includes trams, buses, and taxis. The city is ranked 8th in the world and 2nd in Russia for automobile congestion.


Education and culture

There are two establishments of higher education in Magnitogorsk: Magnitogorsk State Technical University (MSTU) and Magnitogorsk State Conservatory (MSC). Magnitogorsk State University (MaSU), founded in 1932, in 2013 was merged with MSTU and ceased to exist as a separate university. There are also three theatres: Pushkin Drama Theatre (the oldest in the city), the Opera and Ballet House, and the Puppet Theatre. The Church of the Ascension of the Lord opened in 2004.


Sports

Metallurg Magnitogorsk is an
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...
team based in Magnitogorsk, playing in the
Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...
. Evgeni Malkin (b. 1986) of the
Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...
and
Nikolai Kulemin Nikolay Vladimirovich Kulemin (russian: Николай Владимирович Кулёмин; born 14 July 1986) is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL ...
(b. 1986) of the
New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conferenc ...
both used to play for the club and both are Magnitogorsk natives. Metallurg Magnitogorsk won the Gagarin Cup in
2013–14 KHL season The 2013–14 KHL season was the sixth season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The league's 28 teams played a 54-game balanced schedule. The regular season began on 4 September with the Lokomotiv Cup between last year's finalists Dynamo Moscow a ...
and 2015-16 KHL season. The town's football team is
FC Magnitogorsk FC Magnitogorsk (russian: ФК «Магнитогорск») is a Russian football team from Magnitogorsk. It played professionally from 1948 to 1949, 1959 to 2003 and in 2005. It plays in the Amateur Football League. It played on the second-high ...
, playing in the
Amateur Football League Russian championship among amateur football clubs (III division) (russian: Первенство России среди любительских футбольных клубов (III дивизион)) is the fourth overall tier of the Russian f ...
. Located in the vicinity of the city, Abzakovo is a popular mountain skiing base built by the ''MMK''. Several sports clubs are active in the city:


Pollution

Magnitogorsk was mentioned in the Blacksmith Institute's 2007 survey of the world's worst polluted cities, placed in the report's unranked list of the 25 most-polluted places outside the top ten. Pollutants include
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
,
sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic a ...
, heavy metals and other air pollutants. According to the local hospital, only 1% of all children living in the city are in good health. The Blacksmith Institute says that, according to a local newspaper report, "only 28% of infants born in 1992 were healthy, and only 27% had healthy mothers". However, according to Blacksmith Institute, plant managers have upgraded much of their equipment in recent years and emissions have been reduced by about 60%.


Climate

Magnitogorsk has a distinct four-season
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...
( Dfb) with relatively severe winters for the latitude. This climate type is typical for southerly Russian areas far from large bodies of water. The average July high is around with lows of with January averages ranging from in daytime high to in average low. Temperatures approaching or above have been measured from May to September with real severe frosts below have been measured in all other months than that except transitional months April and October.


Demographics

Ethnic composition (2010):.


Twin towns – sister cities

Magnitogorsk is twinned with: *
Atyrau Atyrau ( kk, Атырау, ', ; russian: Атырау, ), known until 1991 as Guryev (russian: Гурьев, ), is a city in Kazakhstan and the capital of Atyrau Region. Atyrau is a transcontinental city, at the mouth of the Ural River on the C ...
, Kazakhstan *
Brandenburg an der Havel Brandenburg an der Havel () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, which served as the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg until it was replaced by Berlin in 1417. With a population of 72,040 (as of 2020), it is located on the banks of the ...
, Germany *
Daugavpils Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the ...
, Latvia *
Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the o ...
, Belarus *
Huai'an Huai'an (), formerly called Huaiyin () until 2001, is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province in Eastern China. Huai'an is situated almost directly south of Lianyungang, southeast of Suqian, northwest of Yancheng, a ...
, China


References


Notes


Sources

* *Scott, John, ''Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel'', Indiana University Press, 1989. *Degtyarev A. G., ''Letopis' gory Magnitnoy i goroda Magnitogorska'', 1993. *Kotkin, Stephen. ''Steeltown, USSR:Soviet Society in the Gorbachev Era'' *Kotkin, Stephen, ''Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization.''


Further reading

* Kotkin, Stephen Steeltown, USSR date 1991. Publisher U. of California Press.


External links


Official Magnitogorsk Administration Site
*http://www.dialogpress.ru/ Magnitogorsk Main News *http://macalester.edu/courses/geog61/aritz/magnitogorsk.html Macalester College site about Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk and Vicinity (Abzakovo, Bannoye)Magnitogorsk Photos
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Chelyabinsk Oblast Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Transcontinental cities Populated places established in 1743