Cities of the Urals. Problems of the district


1. Geographers argue that the city-millionaires have an advantageous geographical position. Confirm this by analyzing the geographical location of Yekaterinburg and Perm or Perm and Chelyabinsk.

These cities consistently arose in the beginning of the XVIII century, the first two – with the direct participation of the outstanding organizer of mining, the historian and geographer VN Tatishchev. Ekaterinburg is located in the center of the Urals, in a place most convenient for crossing the ridge roads. Here, the height of the mountains is minimal – no more than 400 m. Perm was founded as a port city on the Kama, along which the ships were rafted to the Volga and further across Russia, and along the neighboring Chusovaya the connection was made with the industrial Urals. Chelyabinsk grew after the Trans-Siberian Railway passed through it.

2. Group the cities of the Urals on several grounds. What indicators do you base on? Which cities will you highlight? Is the

regularity of their location visible on the map?

The cities of the Urals can be grouped by size, by industrial specialization, by geographical location and by the patterns of their location.

So, after four cities of millionaires, you can find only one city with a population of 500 thousand to 1 million – Orenburg. Then follows a large group of cities with a population of 100 to 500 thousand – Serov, Nizhny Tagil, Pervouralsk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Zlatoust, Miass, Kurgan, Sterlitamak, Salavat, Novotroitsk, Orsk.

In terms of industrial specialization, it is possible to distinguish centers of forestry and pulp and paper industry in the north of the district: Kudymkar, Ivdel, Sosva,

New Lyalya, Gaina, Krasnovishersk, Turinsk; centers of non-ferrous metallurgy: Krasnoturinsk, Kirovograd, Rezh, Kyshtym, Karabash, Mednogorsk, etc., centers of ferrous metallurgy: Nizhny Tagil, Magnitogorsk, Orsk, etc.

By geographical position, it is possible to divide settlements in the Urals and Trans-Ural regions; Northern, Middle and Southern Urals; outline the chain of cities along the rivers. For example,

the cities on the Kama: Gayna, Solikamsk, Bereznyaki, Perm, Tchaikovsky, Sarapul, Neftekamsk. On the Ural River – Magnitogorsk, Sibay, Orsk, Orenburg. In each of these cases there will be their patterns of placement.

3. Highlight two republics in the Urals region on the map. Compare their geographical position, natural conditions and resources, economic specialization and the functions of their capitals. Can the differences be explained on the basis of geographical knowledge?

Two republics in the Ural region are Udmurtia and Bashkiria, located in the Urals. It is convenient to compare them with the help of general geographic and socio-economic maps. Udmurtia is much smaller in size and population, located north of the southern taiga and mixed forests. Bashkiria extends through zones of mixed, broad-leaved forests, forest-steppes and steppes. In both republics there are oil fields.

The main specialization of Udmurtia and its capital is machine building and metalworking, the production of small arms, ferrous metallurgy, timber, woodworking, oil production, chemical, glass, light and food industries.

Bashkiria stands out by the oil-producing, oil-refining and petrochemical industries, engineering and metalworking, and ferrous metallurgy.

In Udmurtia there are crops of wheat, rye, buckwheat, flax, fodder crops. Grow potatoes, vegetables. Milk and meat cattle breeding, pig breeding, poultry farming and beekeeping are developed. Forests occupy 47% of the territory.

Bashkiria is a large agricultural area. Crops of grain and industrial crops alternate with the areas of potato growing, vegetable growing, and fruit growing. In animal husbandry, along with milk and meat cattle, poultry and beekeeping, meat-wool sheep breeding appears.

Udmurts are the people of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural-Yukagir language family. Believers are Orthodox. Bashkirs belong to the Turkic group of the Altaic language family. Believers profess Islam.

4. Highlight the problems of the Urals, associated with its old-industrial character. What problems of the Urals, in your opinion, can be solved at the regional, and which at the state and interstate levels? Why?

The main ones are the problems of exhausting resources and supplying factories with raw materials, selling finished products, unemployment, updating technologies and reconstructing production and pollution. In a market economy, most problems must be solved at the regional level.

State care requires the adoption of effective laws on environmental protection, which will make pollution of nature economically unprofitable.


1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Cities of the Urals. Problems of the district