Mountain Factory Civilization

The Urals are the most industrialized zone on the planet Earth. The total industrialization of the region began with the reforms of Peter I, and under Catherine II, thanks to the Urals, the Russian Empire emerged as a world industrial leader. In domestic history, this happened only once — at the end of the 18th century. By that time, more than two hundred mining factories had been built in the Urals. The Russian authorities achieved such an outstanding result through quite specific methods. National industry, both private and state-owned, was placed outside the laws of the empire and organized as a state within a state. A state of mining factories was established in the Urals, with its own legislation and its own court, its own bureaucratic hierarchy and administrative division, with its own capital — the "ideal city" of Yekaterinburg.