Mountain Manufacturing Civilization

The Urals are the most industrialized area on the planet Earth. The total industrialization of the region began with the reforms of Peter the Great, and under Catherine the Great, the Ural region helped the Russian Empire become one of... the world’s industrial leaders. In domestic history, this occurred only once — in the late 18th century. By this time, more than two hundred mining factories had been built in the Urals. The Russian authorities achieved such an outstanding result through rather specific methods. The national industry, both private and state-owned, was exempted from the laws of the Empire and organized as a state within a state. A state of mining factories was built in the Urals, with its own legislation and judiciary, its own bureaucratic hierarchy and administrative divisions, with its own capital — the 'ideal city' of Yekaterinburg.