[POST]Industrial Urals: Marketplace in Polevskoi

A copper-smelting plant, which gave rise to the town, was founded on the Polevaya River in 1708. The first written mention of Polevskoi dates back to 1699.

The villagers of Aramilskaya and Utkinskaya, Sergei Babkin and Kuzma Suleyev, discovered a copper ore deposit near the Polevaya River in 1702.

The construction of the Seversky ironworks, located 7 km from the Polevskoi Plant, began in 1735. It gave the beginning to the village of Seversky, which is now the northern part of the town.

As the matter of fact, Polevskoi is composed of two towns; Polevskoi itself in the south and Seversky in the north. Officially, they are called Leninsky and Seversky districts.

Seversk is the main part of the town of Polevskoi and much larger than the original village of Polevskoi. The Seversky Pipe Plant is one of Russia's oldest metal works.

Many towns in the Urals, as well as in the rest of Russia, have marketplaces where residents buy clothes and, occasionally, food products.

Most of the assortments are cheap clothes from China. Sometimes you can see people selling traditional Russian goods, such as valenki (felt boots) and shawls.

Prices at such marketplaces are lower than in shops, and this is what draws people to shop there. Buyers at the marketplace mostly belong to an older generation of the city residents, but sometimes you could see young people as well. The assortments do not usually differ from one seller to another.

The surroundings of Polevsky were an inspiration for Pavel Bazhov, a well-known Soviet author, who based his works on Urals folk tales.

"The Malachite Casket" ("Urals Tales"), based on Urals miners' folklore, is one of Bazhov's main works.

The population of Polevskoi has decreased in recent years to 62,000 in 2014.