Principal cities of Russia

Russia developed a large urban population during the Soviet period, despite government attempts to limit the populations of major urban centers. Today, 76 percent of Russia’s population lives in urban areas. More than ten cities, most in European Russia, have more than 1 million inhabitants. The largest city by far is Moscow, the capital. The next largest city is Saint Petersburg, a leading port and major industrial center situated on the Gulf of Finland; it served as the national capital from 1712 to 1918. Other major cities include Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia; Nizhniy Novgorod, the largest city on the Volga River and a major automotive and shipbuilding center; Yekaterinburg, the largest city in the Urals; and Samara, a commercial center of the middle Volga region and the primary refining center for the Volga-Urals oil fields.

Other large cities include Omsk, western Siberia’s chief petrochemical center; Chelyabinsk, in the foothills of the Ural Mountains; Kazan’, capital of the republic of Tatarstan, located along the middle course of the Volga River; and Perm’, a major industrial center in the Kama River region to the west of the Urals. Ufa is an important petrochemical center in the southern Urals, and Rostov-na-Donu is a commercial, industrial, and transportation center in southern European Russia on the lower stretch of the Don River. Volgograd, a center of machinery production and other industrial activity, lies on the lower course of the Volga River.