Lesnoy () is a
closed town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in
Sverdlovsk Oblast,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, located north of
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...
on the banks of the
Tura River. Population:
History
It was founded in 1947 when Plant 418 was constructed to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) for the production of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons were also assembled there. In 1954, it became the closed town of Sverdlovsk-45 to support production of nuclear weapons.
['' Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin'', Cochran, Thomas et al., Westview Press, 1995.]
Sverdlovsk-45 remained secret until
President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...
decreed in 1992 that such places could use their historical names; the town had not appeared on official maps until then.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the
framework of the administrative divisions, it is, together with one
work settlement and three
rural localities, incorporated as the
closed administrative-territorial formation of Lesnoy
—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the
districts.
[Law #30-OZ] As a
municipal division, the closed administrative-territorial formation of Lesnoy is incorporated as Lesnoy Urban Okrug.
[Law #85-OZ]
References
Notes
Sources
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{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Sverdlovsk Oblast
Closed cities
Naukograds
1947 establishments in the Soviet Union
Populated places established in 1947