146 articles
Abakan
Abakan (Абака́н), capital of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, at the Abakan-Yenisei confluence. Founded as a 1675 ostrog, a city since 1931; about 187,000 residents, sharply continental climate, major rail, air, and road hub.
Al’met’yevsk
Al’met’yevsk (Альметьевск) is a city in southeastern Tatarstan, Russia, on the Zay River, center of Almetyevsky District and of Tatarstan's oil industry; city since 3 November 1953, home of Tatneft, start of the Druzhba pipeline.
Aldyn-Bulak
Aldyn-Bulak (Алдын-Булак, "Golden Source") is an ethnocultural yurt complex opened 2011 on the Ulug-Khem river 45 km from Kyzyl, Tuva; also a Tuva locality and a Kyrgyz village.
Anadyr (Анадырь) (town)
Anadyr (Анадырь), founded 1889 as Novo-Mariinsk, is the capital and easternmost city of Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, on the Anadyr Estuary; about 13,500-16,000 residents, airport across the estuary, no road links to the rest of Russia.
Angarsk
Angarsk (Ангарск) is an industrial city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, founded in 1945, city since 1951, on the Angara river 46 km from Irkutsk, home to the Rosneft-owned Angarsk Petrochemical Company, East Siberia's largest refinery.
Arkhangelsk (Архангельск)
Arkhangelsk (Архангельск), also Archangel, is a Russian city and seaport on the Northern Dvina River 27 km from the White Sea. Founded 1584 as New Kholmogory, it was Russia's only port in the 16th-17th centuries and remains a major Arctic port.
Armavir, Krasnodar Krai
Armavir (Армавир), city in southeastern Krasnodar Krai, Russia, on the Kuban River near the Urup mouth, 202 km from Krasnodar. Founded 1839 by Cherkesogai Armenians, city status 1914; railway engineering and food industry center, population about 204,000.
Arzamas-16
Arzamas-16, now Sarov in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, was the closed Soviet city where the first Soviet atomic bomb and early hydrogen bombs were developed, beginning in 1946.
Astrakhan (Астрахань)
Astrakhan (Астрахань; Ḥāǰǰī Tarḵān) is a Russian city on the Volga about 100 km from the Caspian Sea, capital of Astrakhan Oblast. Former khanate capital annexed by Russia in 1556; major Caspian port, caviar, shipbuilding, and North-South corridor hub.
Balakovo
Balakovo (Балаково) is a city on the left bank of the Volga River in eastern Saratov Oblast, Russia, the third largest after Saratov and Engels and a major energy center hosting the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant.
Balashikha
Balashikha (Балашиха) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, east of Moscow; founded 1830 by Prince Trubetskoy's textile factory, city status 1939, merged with Zheleznodorozhny in 2015, over 500,000 residents.
Barnaul
Barnaul (Барнаул), administrative center of Altai Krai, Russia, on the left bank of the Ob River; founded with Akinfy Demidov's 1739 copper-silver smelting works, population about 689,000 in 2024, a manufacturing-led Siberian industrial city.
Belgorod
Belgorod (Белгород) is a Russian city of about 340,000 on the Seversky Donets, founded as a 1596 fortress, capital of Belgorod Oblast, 40 km from Ukraine, and since 2022 regularly struck in the war.
Berezniki
Berezniki (Березники), city in Perm Krai, Russia, on the Kama River; chemical and potash mining center formed in 1932, known for mine flooding since 2006 that caused sinkholes and subsidence.
Beslan (Беслæн)
Beslan (Беслæн) is a town of about 35,000 in North Ossetia–Alania, Russia; founded 1847 as Tulatovo, a railway junction and industrial town, known for the 2004 School No. 1 hostage siege.
Birobidzhan (Биробиджан)
Birobidzhan (Биробиджан) is the capital of Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast, on the Bira River and Trans-Siberian Railway. Founded as Tikhonkaya station in 1912, renamed 1931, city 1937; center of a Soviet Jewish settlement project.
Biysk
Biysk (Бийск) is a city in southeastern Altai Krai, Russia, on the Biya River. Founded as a fortress in 1709, it is Altai Krai's second largest city.
Blagoveshchensk (Благовещенск)
Blagoveshchensk (Благовещенск), administrative center of Amur Oblast in the Russian Far East, founded 1856, city 1858, on the Amur River opposite Heihe, China; only Russian oblast capital on a state border, linked to Heihe by a 2019 road bridge.
Bratsk
Bratsk (Братск) is a city of about 219,000 people in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, on the Angara River in Eastern Siberia, formed in 1955 around the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.
Bryansk
Bryansk (Брянск), city and administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, on the Desna River 379 km from Moscow; founded 985, first mentioned 1146; about 373,000 residents, machine-building economy, City of Military and Partisan Glory.
Cheboksary
Cheboksary (Чебоксары; Chuvash Shupashkar), capital of the Chuvash Republic on the Volga; 507,183 residents in 2024, first chronicled 1469, Russian fortress 1555, industrial and transport hub.
Chelyabinsk (Челябинск)
Chelyabinsk (Челябинск) is a major industrial city in Russia and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, in the South Urals on the border of Europe and Asia, with about 1.2 million residents.
Cherepovets
Cherepovets (Череповец) is an industrial city in Vologda Oblast, Russia, on the Sheksna River; town status 1777, home of Severstal's CherMK steel combine and Apatit fertilizers, largest city of the oblast.
Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai
Chita (Чита) is the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, at the Chita-Ingoda river confluence. Founded 1653 by Pyotr Beketov, city from 1851, Trans-Siberian railway hub since 1900, Far Eastern Republic capital 1920-22, about 321,800 residents, one of Russia's 12 Clean Air project cities.
Derbent (Дербент)
Derbent (Дербент; Darband, دربند) is an ancient fortress city on the western Caspian coast in Dagestan, Russia, founded by Sasanian Persia in 438 CE, famed for its Naryn-Kala citadel, parallel defensive walls, and 2003 UNESCO World Heritage inscription.
Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk
Dimitrovgrad (Димитровград), formerly Melekess, is Russia's Ulyanovsk Oblast's second city, renamed in 1972 for Georgi Dimitrov; about 111,000 residents, home to the RIAR nuclear research institute and MBIR reactor project.
Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Dzerzhinsk (Дзержинск), formerly Rastyapino, is Russia's second city of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, a planned Soviet chemical-industry city chartered 30 March 1930, a WWII munitions hub, and a site of major chemical-waste remediation.
Elektrostal
Elektrostal (Электросталь, formerly Zatishye) is an industrial city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 52 km east of Moscow. Founded 1916 by Vtorov, city status 26 December 1938; population about 156,000; known for steel, nuclear fuel, and heavy machinery plants.
Engels
Engels (Энгельс) is a city in Saratov Oblast, Russia, on the left bank of the Volga opposite Saratov, founded in 1747 and renamed in 1931 after Friedrich Engels.
Grozny
Grozny (Грозный), capital of the Chechen Republic on the Sunzha River; founded 1818 as a Russian fortress, grew into a major oil city, was destroyed in the Chechen wars, and rebuilt with Moscow funds.