Elektrostal
celebrates its 75th birthday in 2013. It is an
industrial city nearly 40 miles east of Moscow. It is built on
both sides of a rail spur going north off the Moscow-Nizhni Novogorod
line. The rail spur provides passenger access to Elektrostal and its
older sister just to the north, Noginsk, but also provides freight
service to the industrial plants around which Elektrostal
gradually developed, starting with the building of the first two
factories in 1916. The original settlement was called Zatishie; it was
renamed Elektrostal in 1928 and given official city status in 1938.
According to Elektrostal's official
Web site, the city has
146,370 inhabitants. Of those, about 29,000 work in industry. The city
has both government and independent schools through undergraduate
university level. Among the independent schools is the New Humanities Institute with its three faculties--Linguistics and Intercultural
Communication, Design, and Tourism.
Elektrostal is served by
an extensive network of bus routes, along with a large number of
passenger vans (marshrutki). Trains connect Elektrostal with Moscow
several times a day (even more frequently from the rail junction at
nearby Fryazevo village), and buses leave for Moscow every 20-30
minutes.
The steel foundry that
originally gave Elektrostal ("electro-steel") its name celebrated its
90th anniversary in 2007; visit the English-language section of their
web site here. Elektrostal also played
an
important role in the Soviet Union's nuclear science program. One of
the most prominent local businesses, Mashinostroitel'ny
Zavod (Elemash
for short), specializes in fuel rods and related products for nuclear
power plants. Its parent company supplies about 17% of the world's
commercial nuclear fuel.
During much of the Soviet era,
Elektrostal's importance as a center of military industry made it a
closed city. In the first years after the end of the USSR, several of
its major plants went into decline, but in recent years the city has
enjoyed an industrial and economic revival.
