SVERDLOVSK (formerly Ekaterinburg), the chief town of the Uralsk Area of the Russian S.F.S.R. on the eastern foothills of the Ural mountains. It is the centre of a gold, platinum, copper and coal-mining district; its population rose from 55,488 in 1897 to 400,800 in 1933. The important Verkhne-Iset copper mine, unlike most other copper mines in Russia, is still working (1928). An electric power station was opened in 1925-26, with a capacity of 6,000 kw., and supplies the numerous industrial undertakings which include iron, copper smelting, platinum refin ing, the manufacture of machinery and linen goods. There is also a jewel cutting and polishing industry, Sverdlovsk emeralds being specially famous. The town has a chemical laboratory for the assay of gold, a mining school and a magnetic and meteoro logical observatory.
Mining was developed here by Peter the Great in 1721 and the town was named Ekaterinburg in honour of his wife Catherine I. In 1735 a government mint for copper coinage was established and later a government engineering works, and an imperial factory for the cutting and polishing of malachite, jasper, marble, por phyry and other ornamental stones. In 1763 the Siberian high
way was diverted to the town from Verkhoturye. This gave a great impetus to the two annual trading fairs, dealing mainly in cattle, cereals, iron, woollen and silk goods, and products from Siberia and Central Asia. Later the town became a railway centre and developed rapidly; it is well built, with wide streets. The Cathedral of St. Catherine's was completed in 1758, and that of the Epiphany in 1774. Sverdlovsk was a storm centre during the civil wars following the 1917 revolution; and it was captured by the Czech army under Gajda. In July 1918, the Czar Nicholas II., his wife, their four daughters and only son, were executed in a house formerly belonging to a merchant named Ipatiev.