Мытищи: История и современность города

The city is located 19 km northeast of Russia's capital Moscow on the Yauza River and the Moscow–Yaroslavl railway.

Mytishchi has a humid continental climate, which is the same as Moscow but usually a few degrees colder due to significantly lesser impact of urban heat island. The city features long, cold winters (with temperatures as low as to occurring every winter and a record low of ), and short, warm hot summers (with a record high of and temperatures reaching every summer). For example, the January daily mean is , with the average maximum of and average minimum of July's daily mean temperature, on the other hand, is , with its average maximum being and its average minimum being .

The first settlement of ancient hunters and fishermen in this location dates back to the 6th–8th millennia BCE, i. e., in the late Stone Age. In the 8th–9th centuries, first Slavic tribes (Vyatichi and Krivichs) began settling here. In and around Mytishchinsky District about a dozen of such settlements from the 11th–13th centuries have been discovered. The modern settlement has been known as the village Mystiche since 1460, and Bolshiye Mytishchi (Большие Мытищи) since the 19th century. The name comes from the so called mytnaya (or "myta") duty that was levied on merchants hauling ships (by wheels, rollers or skids) between the Yauza and Klyazma Rivers, collected at the place now known as Yauza mytishche. The word "Mytische" is a portmanteau of myt (мыта) and a place where there was a residential building with a kiln and a hearth. In 1804, the Mytishchi Moscow aqueduct was built by order of Catherine the Great. It was the first water supply constructed in Russia to provide the Kremlin with pure water. The first enterprises were organized in Mytischi in the middle of the 19th Century. Mytischi station, on the Moscow Yaroslavl railway, opened in 1861, SI Mamontov's car building plant opened in 1896, and Viskova, Russia's first artificial silk company, began work in 1908. Mytischi and its district became a popular summer retreat for Russian holidaymakers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
Mytischi gained city status on August 17, 1925. In 1932, the territory of the city was significantly expanded, according to the decree of the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee No. 8 (minutes No. 56) of October 4, 1932 and the decree of the Presidium of the All Russian Central Executive Committee of November 20, 1932 that approved it. The settlement merged with the villages of Bolshie Mytishchi, Rupasovo, Sharapovo, Zarechnaya Sloboda, Leonidovka, Perlovka, Taininsky settlements, Druzhba and Taininka.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Mytishchi serves as the administrative center of Mytishchinsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with twenty four rural localities, incorporated within Mytishchinsky District as the Town of Mytishchi.

The city is the oblast's largest center for industry (machine building, arms industry in particular) and education. The Mytishchi Machine Building Plant and Metrovagonmash (a manufacturer of train cars) are two large employers.

There are three local TV channels: "Our Mytishchi" the channel that belongs to the town, "The first Mytishchinsky", and "TV Mytishchi" (on the TV channel of Moscow region 360°) district television.

There is Ognivo puppet theatre, FEST drama and comedy theatre, and youth theater Domoy (Homewards).