Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northeast of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River, on the border of Europe and Asia. Population:

The fortress of Chelyaba, from which the city takes its name, was founded at the location of the Bashkir village of Chelyaby by colonel Alexey (Kutlu-Muhammed) Tevkelev to protect the surrounding trade routes from possible attacks by Bashkir outlaws. During Pugachev's Rebellion, the fortress withstood a siege by the rebel forces in 1774, but was eventually captured for several months in 1775. In 1782, as a part of Ufa Viceroyalty that was later reformed into Orenburg Governorate, Chelyabinsk became a seat of a its own uyezd and finally was granted town status and its current name in 1787.