The study is devoted to the transformation of the cultural mythology of the cities of the Urals during the years of Soviet industrialization, carried out by the efforts of local publicists, photographers, artists who tried to motivate the builders of socialism and overcome the "provincial complex." Creatively reworking the ideas of pre-revolutionary journalism, describing a new, socialist city, they created for the Urals a new image of the "supporting land." Based on the analysis of a wide range of journalistic and illustrative materials (newspapers, magazines, brochures), as well as the study of the architectural heritage of the Ural industrial cities (Krasnouralsk, Nizhny Tagil, Lysva, Berezniki and many others), the author recreates this mythology in detail, demonstrates its decisive influence on the formation of key concepts of Ural identity. Appendices to the book - newspaper articles about the social cities of the Urals, "buried in periodicals" of the 1930s. and practically unknown to a wide circle of readers.