Ural factories as actors of the regional sociocultural modernization in the XVIII - XX centuries

The article dwells on the contribution of the Ural metallurgical complex in the social and cultural modernization of the region. The factories of the Urals are considered as main actors of social, cultural progress: it is shown that the companies not only produced products of their main profile, but directly contributed to raising the educational level of the population, ensured their health care, provided with the opportunities for creative and physical development in accordance with the needs of modern society. In a broad sense, all this is evaluated as a legacy of industrial civilization, the result of the development of the regional industrial complex. The author identifies the steps in the process of social and cultural modernization that began in the imperial period, but to full extent was developed in the Soviet era. The study fits the Ural case into the global context. It is noted that in recent times the plants are undergoing the process of transformation from the subjects (actors) of sociocultural process into its objects.