Balezino

Balezino (Finn. Palesiino) is the smallest of four settlements with city status in Udmurtiya North, Uralica. Situated just east of Highway UH-4, it has had a long history of being important to the transportation industry - besides being a major centre for the production of road-building materials and equipment, it is also an important railway stop-off point between Perm' and Kirov in a line that runs as far west as Nizhny Novgorod.

At one point it was also an important strategic location close to Uralica's southern border, but this has changed over time with Uralica's expansion to cap size. Still, the armed forces are a major provider to the city's economy. There is also a decent-sized agriculture sector.

Culture
Russians and Udmurts dominate the population of Balezino, but there are also minorities of Finns, Bashkirs, and Tatars in the city. There is much diglossia in the city, as the average Balezino resident speaks no fewer than four languages - usually Russian, Finnish, English, and Udmurt.

Although it is a relatively young settlement, having attained town status in 1938, there is a decent historical museum in the town, and a few more modern tourist traps such as Udmurt-language theatre and cinema complexes and a rather large skate park in the northeast of the city.