Sverdlovsk

Sverdlovsk (nowadays Ekaterinburg; pop. 1,367,000), industrial city in the eastern Ural Mountains of Russia. The western terminus of the Trans-Siberian railroad, Sverdlovsk is a major industrial center, with over 200 factories producing machinery, turbines, diesels, and a variety of engineering products. The city was founded in 1721 and called Ekaterinburg, after Tsarina Catherine I. It was renamed in 1924 after Sverdlov, a Bolshevik leader. It was in Sverdlovsk that Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed in 1918, during the Russian civil war. The city was renamed Ekaterinburg in 1991. The inhabitants of the area want more autonomy, but so far Yeltsin has refused.

See also: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.