Kartaly

Year of foundation - 1944

Territory - 4737 sq.km

Nearest railway station - Kartaly

Distance to the region center - 261 km

Population - 52,3 thousand people

City status - from 17.04.1944

Kartaly is the city of railwaymen.

The city is situated in the South Ural in the valley of the river Kartaly-Ayat (left tributary of the Tobol), 260 km to the south-west of Chelyabinsk at the crossroads from the Middle Ural to Orenburg and from the center of Russia to Kazakhstan. It is a railway junction.

The city appeared in 1810 as a settlement on the river Kartaly-Ayat. Untill 1917 it was a cul-de-sac station of the Samaro-Zlatoust railroads. They say that the name of the city comes from Turkic "kartaly" meaning "black willow"; "ayat" is the Kazakh tribal group and a male name.  

The importance of the city grew with the construction of the railway Akmolinsk-Kartaly before the beginning of the World War II.

City's economy

The leading branches are transport and communications, the industry of building materials, machine-building and metal-working, light industry.  

In 2001 industry comprised 4,9%, agriculture - 9,4%, building - 10,3%,  transport and communications - 70,6% and trade and public catering - 0,5% in the structure of production.

Enterprises: railway transport, production of builing materials, depot units for agricultural machinery, carpeting.  

The production of grain and potatoes prevails in agriculture. Dairy and meat farming is developed.