NIZHNY TAGIL

also spelled Niznij Tagil, city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), western Russia. Nizhny Tagil lies along the Tagil River. One of the oldest smelting centres of the Ural Mountains region, it was founded in 1725 in connection with the construction of a metallurgical factory that used the iron ore of Vysokaya Gora. It became a city in 1917 and is now an important iron and steel centre noted for metallurgy and engineering. The city's manufactures include machine tools, railway cars, and building materials. Teacher-training and mining colleges are located in the city, along with an applied-arts college and a regional museum. Pop. (1995 est.) 409,400.