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Landmark indicating the border between Europe and Asia in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Most of the oblast is spread over the eastern slopes of the Middle and North Urals and theWestern Siberian Plain. Only in the southwest does the oblast stretch onto the western slopes of theUral Mountains.
The highest mountains all rise in the North Urals, Konzhakovsky Kamen at 1,569 metres (5,148 ft) and Denezhkin Kamen at 1,492 metres (4,895 ft). The Middle Urals is mostly hilly country with no discernible peaks; the mean elevation is closer to 300 to 500 metres (980 to 1,640 ft) above sea level.[9] Principal rivers include theTavda, theTura, theChusovaya, and theUfa, the latter two being tributaries of theKama.
Rich in natural resources, the oblast is especially famous for metals (iron,copper,gold,platinum), minerals (asbestos,gemstones,talcum),marble andcoal. It is mostly here that the bulk of Russian industry was concentrated in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The area hascontinental climate patterns, with long cold winters (average temperatures reaching −15 °C (5 °F) to −25 °C (−13 °F) on the Western Siberian Plain) and short warm summers. Only in the southeast of the oblast do temperatures reach +30 °C (86 °F) in July.
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View a machine-translated version of the Russian article.
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Wooden sculpture dated to 11,500 years ago may have stood more than 5 m high
The territory of the region has been inhabited since ancient times. Numerous sites of ancient people were discovered, dating from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age. The Upper Paleolithic includes the Garinsky site on the right bank of theSosva river near the village ofGari, the site in the Shaitansky grotto, and the site in the Bezymyanny cave (X millennium BC).[10][11] In 1890, the 11 thousand years old (Mesolithic)Shigir idol was discovered.[12]
A settlement and a burial ground in the Kalmatsky Brod tract are located on the right bank of theIset river and date back to the Sarmatian time (from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD). They belong to the Kalmak archaeological culture. In the Kalmatsky Brod burial ground, the skeletal skulls were strongly deformed by tight bandaging in early childhood, which indicates the penetration of steppe ethnic elements to the north.[13]
Pictograms on the Neyva River
There are numerouspictograms on the Koptelovsky stone, on the Oblique stone, on the Two-eyed stone, Starichnaya, Serginskaya, the rock paintings of the Bronze Age on the Neyva River, Tagil River (villages Brekhovaya, Gaevaya, Komelskaya), rock carvings on Shaitan-Kamen on the right bank of the Rezh river tied to indigenous Ural population, possibly speakers of aUgric language.[14][15] The Gostkovskaya Pisanitsa refers to the Middle Ages.[12]
Before the first Russian colonists arrived to the region, it was populated by variousTurkic andUgrian tribes. By the 16th century, when the Middle Urals were under influence of variousTatar khanates, the strongest local state was theVogul Pelym principality with its center inPelym.
The Russian conquest of theKhanate of Kazan in the 1550s paved the way further east, which was now free from Tatar depredations (seeYermak Timofeyevich). The first surviving Russian settlements in the area date back to the late 16th – early 17th centuries (Verkhoturye, 1598;Turinsk, 1600;Irbit, 1633;Alapayevsk, 1639). At that time, those small trading posts were governed underSiberian administration inTobolsk. After the 1708 administrative reform, Verkhoturye, Pelym and Turinsk became a part of the newSiberian Governorate, in 1737 their territories were assigned to theKazan Governorate.
During the 18th century, rich resources of iron and coal made Ural an industrial heartland of Russia. After getting control over Ural mines, theDemidov family put the region in the forefront of Russian industrialization.Yekaterinburg,Nevyansk andTagil ironworks, founded in the 1700s to 1720s, soon joined the ranks of the major producers in Europe. Throughout the 18th and 19th century those newly founded factory towns enjoyed a status of special mining-metallurgical districts allowed to have a certain rate of financial and proprietary autonomy. During the 1781 reform middle Ural finally got its own regional administration in the form of thePerm Governorate.
When in 1812 the Russian government legalized gold digging for its citizens, Middle Ural became a center of gold mining. Entrepreneurs of the Perm Governorate also started the gold rush in West Siberia, soon Yekaterinburgers began to dominate the Russian market of precious metals and gemstones.
After theemancipation reform of 1861, major Middle Uralian industries that were heavily dependent on serf labor entered decline, although it also allowed light industry to thrive. In 1878,Perm and Yekaterinburg were connected with a railroad, in 1888, railroads reachedTyumen, and ultimately, in 1897, Yekaterinburg joined theTrans-Siberian network. Emergence of railroad transportation helped to revitalize economy of Ural.
TheBolsheviks established their power in Yekaterinburg and Perm during the first days of theOctober Revolution of 1917. In early 1918 the dethroned CzarNicholas II and his family were transferred under custody to Yekaterinburg. Local Bolsheviks decided autonomously toexecute the royal family on July 17, 1918, to prevent its rescue by the approachingWhite Army forces. Ten days later Yekaterinburg was captured by theCzechoslovak troops ofSergei Wojciechowski. For the next year the anti-Bolshevik forces took control over the region. On 19 August 1918, Provisional Government of Ural was formed in Yekaterinburg by a coalition of liberal and democratic socialist parties, it was supposed to serve as a buffer between theKomuch andProvisional Siberian governments. After theKolchak coup d'état in Omsk in November 1918, the Government of Ural was disbanded.[citation needed]
In July 1919, in the course of the Yekaterinburg offensive, Yekaterinburg and the surrounding areas were recaptured by theRed Army forces under command ofVasily Shorin. On July 15 the Perm Governorate was split by the Soviets and the east, for the first time in history, became a separate region, the Yekaterinburg Governorate. It was soon abolished and replaced by theUral Oblast (1923-1934).[citation needed]
T-34 tanks on the conveyor belt of theUralmash plant (1942)
In the 1930s many industrial enterprises were established and built with the help of forced labour.[16] Local industry received another impetus during World War II, when important producing facilities were relocated here from the European part of Russia to safeguard them from the advancing Germans (for example,IMZ-Ural,Kamensk-Uralsky Metallurgical Works). In the postwar period much of the region was off-limits to foreigners. It was over Sverdlovsk that theAmerican U-2 spy plane pilotGary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960, while on a reconnaissance mission.[citation needed]
In 1979, there was ananthrax outbreak caused by an accident in a facility to develop biological weapons.[17]
In 1993, GovernorEduard Rossel responded to perceived economic inequality by attempting to create a "Ural Republic." Sverdlovsk led the "Urals Five" (Kurgan Oblast,Orenburg Oblast,Perm Krai,Chelyabinsk Oblast and Sverdlovsk) in a call for greater regional power. They argued that theoblasts deserved as much power as the ethnic homelandrepublics. The Urals Republic Constitution went into effect on October 27, 1993. Then Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsin dissolved the Urals Republic and the Sverdlovsk Parliament 10 days later (on November 9).
There were twenty-one recognized ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each in the oblast. Residents identified themselves as belonging to a total of 148 different ethnic groups, including:[20]
232,978 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.[26]
The oblast's Charter, adopted on 17 December 1994, with subsequent amendments, establishes the oblast government. TheGovernor is the chief executive, who appoints the Government, consisting of ministries and departments. The Chairman of the Government, commonly referred to as the Prime Minister, is appointed with the consent of the lower house of thelegislature, a process similar to the appointment of thefederal Prime Minister. But the Governor cannot nominate the same candidate more than twice, yet he/she can dismiss the house after three failed attempts to appoint the Premier.[needs update]
TheLegislative Assembly is theregional parliament of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Until 2011, it was abicameral legislature consisting of the Oblast Duma, thelower house, and the House of Representatives, theupper house.[29] Before the reform, members of the legislature served four-year terms with half of the Duma re-elected every two years. The Duma (28 members) was elected in party lists. The 21 members of the House of Representatives were elected in single-seat districts in afirst-past-the-post system. The Legislative Assembly was the first bicameral legislature outside an autonomous republic, and the first regional legislature in Russia to elect members based on bothparty lists andsingle-seat districts. As of 2021, the Legislative Assembly is aunicameral legislature with a total of 50 seats, with half of the members elected by single-mandate constituencies and the other half elected in party lists for five-year terms.[30][31]
Compliance with the Charter is enforced by the Charter Court. The existence of such regional courts in Russia, formed and functioning outside the federal judiciary, although challenged, has been upheld and persisted successfully in most constituent members of the Federation where they were established.
Until PresidentPutin's reforms of 2004, the Governor was elected by direct vote for terms of four years.Eduard Rossel has been the only elected governor (first elected governor for an oblast in Russia) since 1995 (appointed in 1991 and dismissed in 1993 by PresidentYeltsin), re-elected in 1999 and 2003.
Since March 2025, the oblast's Acting Governor isDenis Pasler.
In the 1990s, the Oblast's population was distinguished by relatively high support for parties and candidates of theright anddemocratic persuasion. In the 1996 presidential election,Boris Yeltsin, a native of the region who lived in Sverdlovsk until the 1980s, won over 70% of the vote. In the regional elections in 2010 in the Sverdlovsk Oblast,United Russia received minimal support relative to other regions - only 39.79% of votes.[32]
Even though it could do with modernizing, the region's industries are quite diverse. 12% of Russia's iron and steel industry is still concentrated in Sverdlovsk oblast. Iron and copper are mined and processed here, the logging industry and wood-processing are important, too.
^Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", No. 20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
^Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
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