About our region

Sverdlovsk Oblast (Russian: Свердло́вская о́бласть, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in the Urals Federal District. Given that the bulk of the oblast lies on the Asian side of the Urals (only its south-western extremity is on the European side of the mountains) it should be recognized as the most populous oblast within Asian Russia.
Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg (pop. 1,293,537), formerly named Sverdlovsk.
Most of the oblast lies on the Eastern slopes of the Middle and North Urals and the Western Siberian Plain. Only in the southwest does the Sverdlovsk oblast stretch onto the Western slopes of the Ural Mmountains.
The oblast is rich in natural resources, particularly in metals (iron, copper, gold, platinum), minerals (asbestos, gemstones, talcum), marble and coal. It is mostly here that the bulk of Russian industry was concentrated in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The oblast's industry is diverse although could be more modern. 12% of Russia's iron and steel industry is still concentrated in Sverdlovsk oblast. Iron and copper are mined and processed here and the logging industry and wood-processing are important, too.
Yekaterinburg is a prominent road, rail and air hub in the Urals region. As the economic slump subsides, several European airlines started or resumed flights to the city. These include Lufthansa, British Airways, CSA, Turkish Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Finnair and Malév Hungarian Airlines.
The area enjoys continental climate patterns, with long cold winters (average temperatures reaching 15 to 25 degrees below zero on the Western Siberian Plain) and short warm summers. Only in the SE of the oblast do temperatures reach 17 degrees in July.