53°28N 59°06E, pop (2000e) 442 000. Industrial town in Chelyabinskaya oblast, SW Siberian Russia, on the R Ural; built, 192931; airfield; railway; iron and magnetite deposits; one of the largest centres of the Russian metallurgical industry; clothing, footwear; Palace of Metallurgists (1936).
Magnitogorsk (Russian: Магнитогóрск) is a mining and industrial city by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country.
The rapid development of Magnitogorsk stood at the forefront of Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plans in the 1930s. To solve these issues, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work, including a team of architects headed by the German Ernst May.
Magnitogorsk, according to plans inspired by Pittsburgh, at the time the most prominent center of steel production in the United States, would have followed the linear city design, with rows of similar superblock neighborhoods running parallel to the factory, and with a strip of greenery - or greenbelt - to separate them.
By the time that Ernst May completed his plans for Magnitogorsk, however, construction of both factory and housing had already started.
The city played an important role during World War II.
Years after perestroika brought a significant change in the life of the city. The Iron and Steel Plant was reorganized as a joint-stock company Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MISW or MMK), which helped with the reconstruction of the railway and building a new airport.
With the depletion of the substantial local iron-ore reserves, Magnitogorsk has to import raw materials from Sokolvsko-Sarbaisky deposit in northern Kazakhstan.
Located in the vicinity of the city, Abzakovo is a popular mountain skiing base built by the MMK (see the URL below).
There are three establishments of higher education in Magnitogorsk: Magnitogorsk State Technical University (MSTU), Magnitogorsk State University (MaSU), and Magnitogorsk State Conservatory (MSC).
Metallurg Magnitogorsk is an ice hockey team based in Magnitogorsk, playing in the Russian Hockey Super League.
Bibliography
Scott, John, Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel, Indiana University Press, 1989.The book is about Magnitogorsk, its history and natural resources
Two excellent sources are books by Professor Stephen Kotkin. Steeltown, USSR provides a detailed look into Gorbachev era society through a detailed look at all aspects of everyday life in Magnitogorsk.
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