Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (Russian: Екатеринбу́рг; IPA: [jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk]), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg, is the fourth-largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast, located in the middle of the Eurasian continent, on the border of Europe and Asia. At the 2010 Census, it had a population of 1,349,772.

Yekaterinburg is the main industrial and cultural center of the Ural Federal District. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was named Sverdlovsk (Свердло́вск) after the Communist party leader Yakov Sverdlov.

History

Imperial Russia

Vasily Tatishchev and Georg Wilhelm de Gennin founded Yekaterinburg in 1723 and named it after the wife of Tsar Peter the Great, Yekaterina, who later became empress regnant Catherine I. The official date of the city's foundation is November 18, 1723. It was granted town status in 1796.