Yekaterinburg is the fourth largest city in Russia, speaking of population - right after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Former Sverdlovsk has become one of the industrial and cultural centers of Russia, but it has remained compact and comfortable: although more than one and a half million people live there, you can get across the city in just half an hour. In the center of Yekaterinburg, Soviet architecture intertwines in a strange and charming way with pre-revolutionary and modern buildings, creating what has now become the image of the city.
The history of Yekaterinburg started more than three hundred years ago. In the early 18th century, several iron ore processing factories were founded on the site of the current capital of the Urals, and by the middle of the century the city had become one of the main administrative centers, a kind of outpost of civilization in the Ural taiga. Like many other distant cities from the capital, Yekaterinburg became a refuge for exiles - someone came there himself, someone was sent to penal servitude. Despite this, Yekaterinburg of the 21st century is one of the most modern cities in Russia. There are many theaters, museums and art galleries. The city center welcomes guests in a European way with clean streets, shining shop windows of expensive boutiqes and restaurants for every taste. The country's largest universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg could envy the university campus. On the banks of the Iset, the Yeltsin Center rises, the only museum in Russia dedicated to the last president of the USSR; on the outside, it looks like futuristic buildings from fantastic films - the digital facade of the building also contributes to this - and inside, anyone can get acquainted with the realities of life in Russia in the 90s of the 20th century.
The main thing in this city, however, is its inhabitants. Yekaterinburg is not without reason called the "capital of the Urals": having arrived here, everyone can feel the good nature and hospitality inherent in the inhabitants of the Ural Mountains. Life in the Urals is slower and calmer than in Moscow or St. Petersburg - perhaps this, coupled with remoteness from both capitals, has caused a wonderful phenomenon: the Urals in general and Yekaterinburg in particular are the "small homeland" of many famous Russian musicians, which are also famous abroad. It was in Yekaterinburg that the groups Agatha Christie, Nautilus Pompilius, Chayf and many others began their music careers. By the way, the famous figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya, who won the gold medal at the Olympics in 2014, is also from Yekaterinburg.
Yekaterinburg is an amazing city full of contrasts. New buildings of glass and concrete in the center are adjacent to pre-revolutionary mansions. Located one and a half thousand kilometers from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, perhaps, far more reflects the essence of Russia than the capital itself. If you want to know what real Russia is, you should definitely visit the capital of Urals.