Osjorsk (Chelyabinsk)

city Osjorsk Озёрск flag coat of arms Federal district Ural Oblast Chelyabinsk Urban district Osjorsk mayor Alexander Kalinin Founded 1945 Earlier names Chelyabinsk-40, Chelyabinsk-65 City since 1954 surface 657.32  km² population 82,164 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 125 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 240  m Time zone UTC + 5 Telephone code (+7) 35130 Post Code 456780-456790 License Plate 74, 174 OKATO 75 543 Website ozerskadm.ru Geographical location Coordinates 55 ° 45 '  N , 60 ° 43'  E Coordinates: 55 ° 45 '0 "  N , 60 ° 43' 0"  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Chelyabinsk Oblast

List of cities in Russia

Osjorsk ( Russian Озёрск ) is a Russian city ​​in the Chelyabinsk Oblast , about 80 km northwest of the regional capital Chelyabinsk . The city is located on Lake Irtjasch and has 82,164 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010).

history

As part of the Soviet Union's nuclear armament program , Base No. 10 was established in 1945 for a few thousand scientists and engineers. The closed city , surrounded by electric fences and security systems, was later only known by the code name Chelyabinsk-40 (a PO box address), then Chelyabinsk-65 . The city only dropped its code name in 2001 and has been officially called Osjorsk (literally "City on the Lake") since then.

Inside the exclusion zone is the formerly secret Mayak nuclear power plant (Russian Маяк , lighthouse), where the Soviet Union's first nuclear reactor went into operation on June 19, 1948 . One of the worst accidents in the history of nuclear technology occurred at the facility on September 29, 1957. The nuclear accident could be kept secret for about 30 years, as the heavier radioactive fallout fell completely on Soviet territory and there were still comparatively few registration options worldwide in the 1950s. In the vicinity of Osyorsk there is also the Karachay Lake , which is described by the Worldwatch Institute as "the most polluted place on earth".

The South Urals nuclear power plant is located a few kilometers from the city . Once the power plant was supposed to be built directly in Osjorsk. But since the plan was rejected, another location near the city had been chosen for the power plant.

During the Soviet era there was a large gulag in Osjorsk . The Kuznetsky ITL (Corrective Labor Camp) was founded in October 1946 and existed until at least 1960. The camp administration was located in the city of Chelyabinsk-40. Up to 20,400 people were imprisoned in the camp who were used for construction work in connection with the state nuclear project, in the extraction of mineral resources, in industrial, civil, hydraulic and housing construction as well as in various industrial companies.

Population development

year	Residents
2002	91,760
2010	82.164

Note: census data

sons and daughters of the town

• Valery Dwoinikow (* 1950), Soviet-Russian sambo fighter and judoka
• Alexander Gunjaschew (* 1959), Soviet weightlifter
• Yevgenia Volkova (* 1987), biathlete

Picture gallery

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  Downtown

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  Older apartment buildings in Osyorsk

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  Mayakovsky Theater

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  Russian Orthodox Church

literature

• Kate Brown: Plutopia. Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. Oxford University Press: Oxford 2012. ISBN 978-0-199-85576-6 Review of H-Soz-Kult

Web links

Commons : Osyorsk  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• City administration website (Russian)
• City web portal (Russian)
• Osjorsk on mojgorod.ru (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)
2. ↑ The best-hushed GAU in history - article in " Die Welt " from September 26, 2007
3. ^ Kusnezki-ITL in the GULAG internet portal of Memorial Deutschland e. V.