Editing Ural Mountains (section)

==Cultural significance==
The Urals have been viewed by Russians as a "treasure box" of mineral resources, which were the basis for its extensive industrial development. In addition to iron and copper, the Urals were a source of gold, [[malachite]], [[alexandrite]], and other gems such as those used by the court jeweller [[Peter Carl Fabergé|Fabergé]]. As Russians in other regions gather mushrooms or berries, Uralians gather mineral specimens and gems. [[Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak]] (1852–1912) and [[Pavel Bazhov]] (1879–1950), as well as [[Alexei Viktorovich Ivanov|Aleksey Ivanov]] and Olga Slavnikova, post-Soviet writers, have written of the region.<ref name=SageUrals>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1177/2158244013486657| title = Three Hundred Years of Glory and Gloom: The Urals Region of Russia in Art and Reality| journal = SAGE Open| volume = 3| issue = 2| pages = 215824401348665| year = 2013| last1 = Givental | first1 = E.| doi-access = free}}</ref>

The region served as a military stronghold during [[Peter the Great]]'s [[Great Northern War]] with Sweden, during Stalin's rule when the [[Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works|Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Complex]] was built and Russian industry relocated to the Urals during the Nazi advance at the beginning of World War II, and as the center of the Soviet nuclear industry during the [[Cold War]]. Extreme levels of air, water, and radiological contamination and [[pollution]] by industrial wastes resulted. Population exodus followed, and economic depression at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but in post-Soviet times additional mineral exploration, particularly in the northern Urals, has been productive and the region has attracted industrial investment.<ref name=SageUrals />