Cheliabinsk

Chelyabinsk (Челя́бинск) is a Russian city just to the east of the Ural Mountains. It is the adminitrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast.

Geographic location: 55°03'-55°19' N, 61°08'-61°17' E
Population: 1,078,300 (2002)

First noted as a fortress in 1736 city located in 1781.

Chelyabinsk is one of major industrial centers of Russia. Heavy industy predominates. During the World War II, Stalin decided to move a lot of Russian factory production to places out of the way of the advancing German armies - Chelyabinsk was one of the factory cities that was built pretty much from scratch at this time. A small town existed before this - this can be found in the centre of the city. Several enormous facilities for the production of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers existed in Chelyabinsk, and it gained the town nickname "Tankograd." A nuclear accident many many years ago still has effects on the population, although not as severe as Chernobyl.

A metro system is under construction.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=6825000.97047513&Y=7350000.12074452&scale=1000000&coordsys=mercator

Some Latin alphabet publications spell the city's name as Cheljabinsk.