I suppose modern man is trained to see any picture with any kind of caption on screen and instantly believe it. You don't have to do any research to learn that

I suppose modern man is trained to see any picture with any kind of caption on screen and instantly believe it. You don't have to do any research to learn that it is a satellite city to giant plants which appeared during rapid industrialization and were moved during the war. > Magnitogorsk was to become a one-industry town modeled after two of the most advanced steel-producing cities in the United States at that time: Gary, Indiana, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 100 year old industry processes usually can't be easily updated to cleaner ones. Especially if no one has actually bothered to fix anything. > Magnitogorsk was mentioned in the Blacksmith Institute's 2007 survey of the world's worst polluted cities, placed in the report's unranked list of the 25 most-polluted places outside the top ten. It has only left the list of 20 most polluted Russian cities 5 years ago, when official pressure to do better started (and “better than before” is not “great”). Reportedly, one third of emissions was cut, which leaves the other two thirds. Buildings from '30s and '50s are great if they have been well kept, which is rare because of lackluster approach in the late decades of Soviet era, and economic turmoil afterwards. Otherwise they can get quite nasty. Other option is major renovation, but developers are not interested in keeping low rise blocks (if they can't erect a 20 storey building at the same place). Local videos like this are easy to find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d39wq7x9uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d39wq7x9uk What's more important, Russia is extremely centralized. There is not a lot one can do Most people with money, ambitions, or desires move to Moscow. Second option is St. Petersburg, third one is a small number of other big cities. Exactly that seemed to happen here.