At the Center of it All

If you want to understand Yekaterinburg and the Urals, begin by

acquainting yourself with Eduard Rossel, governor of Sverdlovsk region. This tough, independent politician is the very model of a modern Russian regional governor. And much of his life mirrors the last half century of Russian history.

Rossel was born at the very height of the Great Terror in 1937. His family was ethnic German and his father, then 20, was executed in the purges, not long before Eduard was born. His mother was sent to the camps and Rossel bounced from orphanage to orphanage. In 1947, his mother was released from the camps and she undertook a nationwide search for Rossel, finally locating him in Kirov oblast. He was 11 years old and spoke very little Russian. Nonetheless, he went on to become an excellent student.