Ural Federal University Employees Create Encyclopedia for the 300th Anniversary of Ekaterinburg

A new, significantly expanded and enlarged edition of the encyclopedia of the history of Ekaterinburg will be prepared for the 300th anniversary of the city. Specialists from universities, museums, and scientific organizations of the Ural capital, including UrFU, are involved in the work.

“20 years ago, the first and only edition of the encyclopedia was published; leading experts of the city took part in its creation. The initiator and editor-in-chief was Victor Maslakov, a graduate of the Ural University’s Department of History and the founder of a major endowment fund of Ural Federal University. And now, as the 300th anniversary is taking place, he has proposed a new edition, vastly expanded and improved. A year and a half of work went on; I must say, that’s fast for such a big undertaking. Of course, this work could not do without the university. By the way, our rector Victor Koksharov is a member of the encyclopedia’s editorial board,” says Konstantin Bugrov, professor at the Department of Russian History at Ural Federal University and deputy editor-in-chief.

The work was supported by the city administration and the V. V. Maslakov’s Foundation “Neighbourliness”, coordinated by the Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural branch of Russian Scientific Academy. Data on the city are presented in an encyclopedia for 300 years. The distinctive feature of the concept is attention to the last century of the city’s life, when Ekaterinburg became a millionaire and the largest industrial, cultural, scientific center. There is information about factories – small and large, about scientific institutes – design, industry, academic – and about universities. Most of the articles are biographies, selected on the basis of a number of criteria.

University experts supervised the preparation of several thematic blocks. Experts from the Department of Art History, Cultural Studies and Design were responsible for the articles related to the history of fine arts. In the section devoted to the history of the city’s literature, the leading authors were scientists from the Department of Philology of Ural Federal University. The sections on the city’s demography and religion were prepared by Professor Elena Glavatskaya of the Faculty of History. A number of articles related to the history of engineering science and technology were authored by Professor Vladimir Zapariy of the Department of Russian History. These are just some of the Ural Federal University specialists who were involved in creating the text of the encyclopedia. Young researchers, who dedicate their research to the history of Ekaterinburg, also took part in preparing this publication. The university itself is significantly represented in this new edition as an object of description.

“When you look at this whole data, you see what a huge role Ural Federal University played in the history of our city, what a huge number of people came out of its walls… The book contains a lot of biographies of people who were professors at UrFU, former Ural State University and UPI, and especially its graduates – design engineers, journalists, public figures, and businessmen. Ekaterinburg is a real university city,” notes Konstantin Bugrov.

Now the experts are finalizing the manuscript of the updated encyclopedia. The final text is very extensive, more than 4 million characters. More than 400 images illustrate 300 years of history. Thanks to the help of the Sverdlovsk Region Archives Department, the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, and a number of departmental depositories, a representative visual series has been created.