Asbest


Asbest is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Bolshoy Reft River on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, northeast of Yekaterinburg. Population: It was previously known as Kudelka .

Etymology

The town is named for its asbestos industry.

History

It was founded in 1889 as Kudelka. It was given its present name in 1928 and granted town status in 1933.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of the administrative divisions, it is, together with the work settlements of Malysheva and Reftinsky and five rural localities, incorporated as the Town of Asbest—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.
As a municipal division, Asbest and two rural localities are incorporated as Asbestovsky Urban Okrug. The urban-type settlement of Malysheva, together with three other rural localities, is incorporated separately as Malyshevsky Urban Okrug, and the urban-type settlement of Reftinsky is incorporated separately as Reftinsky Urban Okrug.

Economy

Today's Asbest is a large industrial center. Joint-stock company Uralasbest is the main industrial enterprise. The chrysotile mine adjacent to the town is the subject of published, peer-reviewed scientific investigations about its detrimental health impact on the local population and is said to be the world's largest. The adjacent open-pit Uralasbest mine is said to be "seven miles long and 1 to 1.5 miles wide, it is nearly half the size of Manhattan — and more than a thousand feet deep".
Other factories include UralATI, Zarechny, Asbostroy, Asbestovskaya poultry processing plant, and a ferroconcrete production factory. Asbestos, bricks, porcelain, furniture, metal constructions, and other products are produced in Asbest.

Education and recreation

The town is home to the Uralasbest stadium, which seats ten thousand people. Educational facilities include music schools, a school of art, an Olympic school, an institute of science and research, professional schools, and colleges of mining and economics. There are two museums: a geological museum and a museum of local lore.

History

Walter Arnold Rukeyser, an engineer with extensive experience with asbestos in Quebec, worked in Asbest in 1929, and again in 1930. His memoir of his times there, Working for the Soviets ; an American engineer in Russia, was published in 1932 and reprinted in 1952.
Following World War II, the Soviet Union operated the prisoner-of-war camps 84 and 314 near Asbest. In addition, from May 1950 until April 1953, up to 7700 inmates were imprisoned in the Bazhenovsky ITL gulag. Inmates had to work for the local asbestos industry, more than 15,000 died due to the conditions, including asbestos-related diseases.