“Chelyabinsk peasants are so harsh …” - this expression, which was first heard in one of the popular Russian stechkoms, quickly became a kind of visiting card and even a brand of residents of the capital of the South Urals, Chelyabinsk. Meanwhile, the television humorous characters "Doolin" and "Mikhalych" are far from the most famous natives of the city, which unexpectedly again became a border in the early 90s. Yes, and bright events in Chelyabinsk, formed in 1736, whose coat of arms is a camel, is also enough.
Under the sign of the camel
The date of foundation of the originally border Ural fortress called Chelyabinsk is considered to be 1736. But legally it became a city only half a century later - in 1787. And five years earlier, a camel first appeared on the emblem of Chelyabinsk, past which, along the Great Silk Road, once passed through thousands of caravans of merchants, as a symbol of a trading city. At the beginning of the 21st century, the camel returned to the modern coat of arms of Chelyabinsk. And this is the earliest attraction of the largest settlement in the Southern Urals and the second largest, after Yekaterinburg, the city of the entire Urals.
More than a million people live in modern Chelyabinsk, located on an area of 837 square kilometers not far from the state border with Kazakhstan. And it is known not only for active trade, for which it was once nicknamed the "Gateway to Siberia", and for the beautiful surrounding lakes, but also as a center of ferrous metallurgy. Added Chelyabinsk world fame, albeit not entirely positive and expected, the fall in February 2013 in its vicinity of a meteorite. According to official figures, almost 70 people suffered from it.
Tankograd
Chelyabinsk acquired truly all-Union glory and respect during the Great Patriotic War. From 1941 to 1945, it housed several of the country's main defense commissariats - ammunition, medium-sized machine building, power plants and the tank industry. It was in Chelyabinsk, where part of the shops and workers of the Leningrad Kirov plant and the entire electric motor plant from Kharkov were evacuated, that in just a little over a month mass production of T-34 tanks and self-propelled units was launched.
According to estimates of military statisticians and historians, every fifth Soviet combat vehicle on tracks left the assembly line and went to the front at the ChTZ, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. And the city itself received the honorary nickname Tankograd. Among the numerous natives of Chelyabinsk and the region, who have become famous in science and industry, stand out the head of the Soviet atomic project, physicist Igor Kurchatov, physician Stepan Andreevsky, who at the end of the 18th century discovered anthrax and invented a serum for its treatment, and Russian Minister of Labor Alexander Pochinok.
Between Paris and Varna
Chelyabinsk soldiers managed to distinguish themselves not only in the second, but also in the first Patriotic War of 1812, as well as during the liberation of Bulgaria from the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. And after returning from overseas trips, in memory of a not quite tourist visit to Europe and numerous victories, they named their Ural villages Leipzig, Berlin, Ferschampenoise, Varna, Chesma and Paris. And in the latter, they even installed a copy of the symbol of France - the Eiffel Tower.
Chelyabinsk also entered the history of the Civil War. After all, the signal for its beginning was the armed uprising, raised on May 14, 1918 at the railway station of the city by units of the Czechoslovak corps passing by. They were commanded by a Russian colonel, and later a general of the Czechoslovak army, Sergei Voitsekhovsky. It is curious that one of the participants in the uprising and subsequent battles of the corps with the Red Army was the future Minister of Defense and President of the already socialist Czechoslovakia - Ludvik Svoboda, who fought on the side of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
In the Book of Military Valor of Chelyabinsk residents, you can also enter the names of the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War - General of the Army Boris Shaposhnikov, the legendary Soviet sniper who distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad, Hero of the Soviet Union Captain Vasily Zaitsev, who died in Chechnya, the chief of intelligence 108 airborne regiment, Hero of Russia - Major Evgeny Rodionov.
In the land of magnolias
Chelyabinsk made a contribution to Soviet and Russian art not only thanks to the duet of Sergei Svetlakov and Mikhail Galustyan, who played on the screen funny roles of the harsh Chelyabinsk men "Doulin" and "Mikhalych". It was in the Chelyabinsk region that the future famous opera singer Leonid Smetannikov and film director Sergei Gerasimov were born. And the regional center became the birthplace of the singer Alexander Gradsky and the musical group "Ariel", popular in Soviet times, led by Valery Yarushin, who performed such hits as "The Old Record", "On the Buyan Island" and in the "Land of Magnolias".
Sports field
Talking about the achievements of Chelyabinsk citizens, one cannot but recall the famous athletes who grew up in the region, who shone or continue to do this in a variety of sports. Dozens of outstanding masters from the South Urals became world and European champions, winners and prize-winners of the Olympic Games. The most representative group of stars among them are hockey players - Viktor Shuvalov, Vyacheslav Bykov, brothers Sergei and Nikolai Makarov, Sergei Mylnikov, Sergei Starikov, Sergei Gonchar, Evgeny Davydov, Valery Karpov, Nikolai Kulemin, Danis Zaripov, Evgeny Malkin and others.
The legendary speed skater Lydia Skoblikova, volleyball players Svetlana Nikishina and Vadim Khamuttskikh, high jumper Elena Yelesina, biathletes Svetlana Ishmuratova and Mikhail Tikhaylov, and basketball players, mini-ball players, and basketball players Svetlana Ishmuratova and Mikhail Tikhaylov, and basketball players … Cyclist Gaynan Saidkhuzhin, who died in the storming of his 12th world peak with a height of more than eight thousand meters, "snow leopard" Anatoly Bukreev and 12th world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, has many titles and titles.
