Where is it? Chelyabinsk Oblast is at the crossroads of the European and Asian sides of Russia, at the foot of the Urals mountains. Chelyabinsk is two hours ahead of Moscow and you can find the local time here.

What's the biggest city? Chelyabinsk, whose population includes some 1 million of the region's 3.6 million people, according to the 2002 census.

Who lives here? Ethnic Russians account for more than 80% of the population, but there are large groups of Tatars, Bashkirs and Ukrainians.

What do they do here? Heavy industry and academia are prominent in Chelyabinsk. The northwestern part of the region was a key site for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program and in 1957 was the site of a serious accident at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. It is alleged that the region's nuclear work led to widespread health problems in the region and radiation contamination of its water. But this article, by a radiation expert, says the risk of radiation effects on adopted children is low.

Does it have any English-language news sources? There are a limited number of articles on the Russia News Service.

How do I see what it looks like? Flickr has almost 200 shots, showing the city's development and architecture.

How do I get here? Chelyabinsk Balandino Airport is served by Aeroflot out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. You can fly from Moscow's other airport, Domodedovo, on S7 Airlines or Urals Airlines. Aviaprad flies from Frankfurt and Hanover, Germany.

Which adoption agencies work here? Children's Hope International, Gladney Center for Adoption and the World Association for Children & Parents (WACAP)

Which Russian adoption bloggers have been here?
Zack and Laura are writing about their efforts to bring home a son now, and the folks at "Our Littlest Matryoshkas" are trying to adopt two girls. David and Linda adopted from here in 2005. There is also a Yahoo! group, Chelyabinskadopt.

Truly trivia: Chelyabinsk was the birthplace of three current or former players for National Hockey League teams: Dmitry Kalinin, Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Nazarov.

Need more information? Chelyabinsk is off the beaten trail for "Way To Russia" but Kommersant has plenty of details here.The United States maintains a "virtual" consulate for Chelyabinsk, with information in English here but some of it has not been updated in a while. Here's the current weather in Chelyabinsk.

Image Credit: chelyabinsk00