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Zelenograd (, , ) is a city and administrative okrug of Moscow, Russia. The city of Zelenograd and the territory under its jurisdiction form the Zelenogradsky Administrative Okrug ( ZelAO), an exclave located within Moscow Oblast, north-west of central Moscow, along the M10 highway. Zelenograd is the smallest administrative okrug of Moscow by area, the second-lowest by population, and the largest Moscow exclave by area and by population within Moscow Oblast. Zelenograd, if it were a separate settlement, would be the fifth-largest city in Moscow Oblast and one of the 100 largest cities of Russia. Before the expansion of the territory of Moscow in 2012, Zelenograd occupied second place among the administrative okrugs of Moscow, second only to the Eastern Administrative Okrug, in terms of the share of greenery in its total area (approximately 30%).
Zelenograd was founded in 1958 as a new town in the Soviet Union, and developed as a center of electronics, microelectronics and the computer industry known as the "Soviet/Russian Silicon Valley". It remains an important center of electronics in Russia. The city color is green and its emblematic animal is the squirrel.
The city was planned as a center of the textile industry initially, but in 1962, Alexander Shokin (Chairman of State Committee of Electronic Technology, then first Minister of Electronic Technology) proposed to change the line of future city business to electronics. Some researchers of Soviet electronics history mentioned that a similar idea was proposed to the Soviet government by two fugitive Silicon Valley engineers—Alfred Sarant (more known in Russia as Philip Staros) and Joel Barr ( Joseph Berg).
On January 15, 1963, the city received official city status and name Zelenograd, and on November 25, 1968, Zelenograd received the status of district of Moscow (one of the 30 districts) simultaneously.
In 1988, Zelenograd incorporated the former village of Kryukovo, one of the important sites during the Battle of Moscow (October 1941 – January 1942). Several monuments to the Defenders of Moscow and the heroes of the Great Patriotic War are located in Zelenograd and the surrounding area, the most famous of which is the Shtyki Memorial, from which the remains of the Unknown Soldier were taken for reinterment at the Kremlin Wall in the Alexander Garden in Moscow.
Before 1989, Zelenograd was a de facto closed city in some aspects: it was prohibited to take photos in the central parts of the city, near the plants, teaching and research facilities, and foreigners were not admitted into the city.
In 1991, Zelenograd was reformed in one of the administrative okrugs of Moscow.
The first four districts (about 2/3 area and population) are unofficially formed Old City, and Kryukovo District (separated by Saint Petersburg – Moscow Railway) is unofficially named New City. The most of postal address in city has no name of street or square—the most of buildings have only 3- or 4-digit number: the first one or two digits are number of microdistrict, the last two ones are number of building within microdistrict borders. There is no 13th microdistrict in Zelenograd.
Zelenograd was the headquarters of Sitronics Concerne since its founding in 1997 until 2005 (when its headquarters moved to Moscow) and Zelenograd is the headquarters of Mikron Group and Angstrem—both largest Russian integrated circuit manufacturers.
Zelenograd is one of technical-innovative type special economic zones. Since December 21, 2005 SEZ "Zelenograd" officially consists of 2 areas: Area "Alabushevo" (), a main area for new plants and research centers; and Area "MIET" (), a technology park (mostly MIET spin-off enterprises).
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