Ivanovo Region is a small region of Central Russia, located along the
right bank of the Upper Volga in its lower reaches.
Most often,
tourists come to the Ivanovo region during cruises along the Volga, on
the other hand, independent ecological and pilgrimage tourism is
developing, the region is known for good fishing and hunting. It is not
uncommon for travelers to arrive by road for several days, for example,
from Moscow.
The area is a well-known center of textile
production. In addition to the regional center, two more settlements -
Plyos and Palekh - are included in the Golden Ring of Russia. The
city-museum and climatic resort Plyos is closely associated with the
name of the artist Isaac Levitan, and Palekh is world famous for lacquer
miniatures and the school of icon painting. However, the list of
interesting objects does not end here, many cities of the region have
cultural and historical sights.
Ivanovo is the administrative
center of the region, an original city, the center of the textile
industry of the Soviet Union, in this regard, it is often called the
"City of Brides", "Russian Manchester", "textile capital". Ivanov has
the historical epithet "The Motherland of the First Soviet." The city is
part of the Golden Ring of Russia.
Staraya Vichuga
is a city interspersed with factory towns and villages, with the
majestic Church of the Resurrection of Christ.
Gavrilov Posad -
interesting ensemble of the old stud farm.
Zavolzhsk is a small town
on the Volga.
Kineshma is a city on the
Volga, the second largest in the region.
Plyos
- the city of the Golden Ring on the Volga
Furmanov is the birthplace
of the Soviet writer Dmitry Furmanov.
Shuya
is a city with a high single-standing bell tower of the Resurrection
Cathedral. Not far from the city is St. Nicholas-Shartom Monastery.
Yuryevets - beaches and fishing on the Volga and the Andrei Tarkovsky
Museum.
Palekh is a village that is part of the
Golden Ring, famous for its lacquer miniatures and icon painting school.
Kholuy - village, center of lacquer miniature painting on papier-mache
Staraya Vichuga is a town with the palace of Count Tatishchev, a park
and an old pond.
Yuzha - a small town on the shores of Lake Vazal
Mugreevo-Nikolskoye - an ancient village, the patrimony of the Pozharsky
princes
Novo-Talitsy - a village, a suburb of Ivanovo with a
house-museum of the Tsvetaev family
The most ancient inhabitants of the region settled along the banks of
large rivers and lakes. The clusters of lakes in the Teikovsky and
Komsomolsky districts differed in the largest number of sites.
At
Lake Sakhtysh, archaeologists have explored more than a dozen
settlements of the Butovo, Upper Volga, Lyalovo and Volosovo cultures.
Each of them consisted of several dugouts, sometimes connected by
covered walkways.
Beginning of the 2nd millennium BC (Bronze Age)
was marked by a sharp warming of the climate. The territory of the
region was a forest-steppe, where nomadic herders of the Fatyanovo
culture appeared. They moved on wagons, transporting their light
dwellings on them. The family cemetery was the center of the nomadic
territory. The male burials contained drilled stone axes, tools made of
stone and bone, clay spherical vessels. Dishes, household items, as well
as jewelry, including those made of copper, were found in female
burials.
In the 9th-10th centuries, mass migration of the Slavs
to the territory of the region began in two directions. At that time,
huge forests grew here. From the west and southwest, from the
Vladimir-Suzdal Opole, there were Krivichi with a small proportion of
Slovenes. Their movement went along the Nerl and Irmes rivers, then
along the valleys of the Rayok and Koiki rivers in the direction of the
Sakhtysh and Rubsky lakes, as well as along the Uvod and Teza rivers.
The earliest Slavic monuments of the region, which are located in its
southwestern part, are associated with these settlers. From the
north-west to the Volga regions, from the Novgorod land, Slovenes moved
along with the Slavicized Baltic and Finnish tribes. These streams
collided in the center of the region. From the side of Gorodets there
was a resettlement to the eastern territories of the region.
In
the 11th century, the region was on the outskirts of Kievan Rus, and
later became part of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, a significant part
of the population of which was made up of the Slavs and the Merya
peacefully assimilated by them soon. Feudal relations take shape here
quite late, in the 12th-13th centuries. The emergence of the first
cities dates back to the same time.
According to the historian K.
E. Baldin, the most ancient cities of the Ivanovo region are Plyos and
Yuryevets.
The region was devastated during the Mongol invasion
at the beginning of 1238. Most of the towns and villages were destroyed.
According to the historian K.E. Baldin, the cities of Shuya, Lukh and
Kineshma arose during the period of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
In the
XIV century, the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod princes built the Porzdno
fortress. At the end of the XIV century, the first monasteries arose
(Makariev-Reshemsky Monastery, founded by Makariy Unzhensky,
Svyatozersky and Lazarevsky monasteries).
On the territory of the
region there were lands that belonged to the Shuisky princes, prominent
statesmen of the 15th-17th centuries, whose family got its name from the
city of Shui.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the territory
of the region became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1410, the
Plyos customs and defense line was created on the Volga, which allowed
Moscow to take control of the main trade road of Rus'.
In the
15th century, the economy of the region, recovering from the Horde
invasion, was on the rise. Weaving developed. Jewelry production
continued to develop in Plyos. Even at a considerable distance from the
rivers, a high density of settlements was observed, which testified to
the widespread development of agriculture. It is believed that Ivanovo
already existed in the 15th century, but the first known written mention
of it dates back to 1608.
In the 16th century, the fortress of
Soldoga was already outdated; a fortress was built in Kineshma, located
nearby, to replace it. Enemy raids became more frequent in the middle of
the 16th century, but after the capture of Kazan they disappeared. The
internal enemies of the grand duke's power were the Volga and forest
robbers, the oppressed peasants. The unrest intensified when the
region's economy was undermined by the oprichnina.
The region
recovered from the consequences of the Time of Troubles by the middle of
the 17th century. The raids of the Cheremis on Yuryevets stopped and its
stone fortress remained unfinished.
The commercial nature of the
region was determined by its natural geographical reasons: the harsh
climate and poverty of soils made agriculture risky, but there were
convenient river routes and cheap technical raw materials (hemp, flax,
wool, leather, etc.). In the 17th century, when the southern and eastern
regions of the country began to supply bread, the unprofitability of
arable farming began to be felt even more acutely. Peasants began to
abandon arable land for the sake of handicrafts and trade. The rapid
growth of industry was experienced by cities and large villages. Plyos,
Kineshma and Yuryevets became all-Russian centers for the production of
linen fabrics, followed by Ivanovo, Kokhma, Shuya and other settlements.
In Shuya, sheep breeding, dressing of hides and skins, and soap making
also achieved significant development. Kholui became the center of salt
mining. The main river routes, in addition to the Volga, were the Nerl,
Uvod, Teza, Lukh. The Plyos port was of great importance. The Stromynsky
trade route passed through Gavrilovskaya Sloboda (future Gavrilov
Posad), Lezhnevo, Shuya and Lukh.
The plague epidemic in 1654
also affected the Ivanovo region. The deliverance of Shuya from this
disaster is associated with the painting of a miraculous icon, which
later became known as the Shuya-Smolensk icon.
After Nikon's
reform, the region became one of the strongholds of the Old Believers.
The Old Believers played a significant role in the development of local
industry.
In the 18th century, Russian industry began the
transition to manufactory. One of the first textile manufactories was
created in Kokhma in 1720 by the Dutchman I. Tames. Although this
enterprise did not last long, it managed to play its role in spreading
knowledge about the manufacturing business. In 1742, the first
linen-weaving manufactory in the neighboring village of Ivanovo was
opened by a peasant Grigory Butrimov, soon there were enterprises from
other Ivanovo peasants: Grachev, Yamanovsky, Garelin. In the 1750s, the
first manufactories were opened in Shuya and Kineshma. If in Ivanovo
enterprises belonged to peasants, then in other industrial centers -
Shuya, Kineshma, Teykovo, Plyos - to merchants. Local manufactories
occupied an important place in supplying the army and navy with fabrics.
In the first third of the 19th century, Ivanovo and the surrounding
villages and villages, and the county towns of Shuya and Kineshma,
gained a reputation as a textile region. The region produced most of the
cotton products of Russia, it was compared with England, which at that
time was famous for its textiles. At the largest fairs, a “special row”
is opened, called Ivanovo. By the end of the 19th century, as a result
of the rapid development of industry after the emancipation of the
peasants in 1861, a number of large economic regions had developed in
Russia. One of them was the Ivanovo-Voznesensky industrial region,
covering the northern industrial districts of the Vladimir province and
the southern industrial districts of the Kostroma province.
In
1871, the village of Ivanovo and the settlement of Voznesensky received
the status of a city without a county called Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The
process of concentration of industry and the use of steam engines
contributed to the formation and enlargement of industrial centers.
Favorable transport conditions also contributed to the development of
the textile industry. The Volga, Oka and Kama rivers connected the
region with the grain-growing southeast, the mining Urals, the center of
Russia, the Baltic and Caspian seas. In the 1860s, a railway was built,
which gave Ivanovo-Voznesensk a transport outlet to Nizhny Novgorod,
Moscow, and Kineshma.
In the 1870s, a strike movement began in
the region. The most famous are the Ivanovo-Voznesensk strikes; during
the First Russian Revolution, the first city council in Russia was
created there. The Bolsheviks had the greatest influence in the
revolutionary movement.
After the October Socialist Revolution on
June 20, 1918, Ivanovo-Voznesensk Governorate was approved by a
resolution of the Collegium under the People's Commissar for Internal
Affairs, with the center in the city of Ivanovo-Voznesensk as part of
the territories determined by the III Congress of Soviets of the
Ivanovo-Kineshma region. For some time after its appearance, the new
province was called Ivanovo, but soon the name was changed to
Ivanovo-Voznesensk. By this act, an economically homogeneous region was
administratively united with an industrially developed center - the city
of Ivanovo-Voznesensky.
Based on the acquired provincial status,
from the end of 1918, the Ivanovo people began to gradually start the
stopped factories and factories, to establish food supply for the
starving population. The formation of an independent province in
1920-1924 made it possible to completely restore the economic potential
of the region.
In 1918-1920, a polytechnic institute and an
institute of public education (later Ivanovo State University), a
socio-economic technical school, a number of secondary schools, health
care institutions, etc. were opened in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The potential
of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk province was used to industrialize the country
in the late 1920s and into the 1930s.
In 1922, believers clashed
with the forces of the authorities in Shuya, as a result of which
several people died. These events, known as the Shuya case, attracted
the attention of the country's leadership.
In January 1929, after
the liquidation of the provinces, Ivanovo-Voznesensk became the center
of the new Ivanovo Industrial Region (IPO), which united the territories
of the former Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Vladimir, Kostroma and Yaroslavl
provinces. On March 11, 1936, the Yaroslavl Region was separated from
the Ivanovo Industrial Region, and the rest was renamed the Ivanovo
Region. On August 14, 1944, the Kostroma and Vladimir regions were
separated from the Ivanovo region.
In 1932, a strike and a riot
of workers took place in the city of Vichuga, dissatisfied with the
sharp decrease in rationing rations for bread. The strikers, having
seized the building of the city committee of the CPSU (b), the OGPU and
the post office, announced the overthrow of the Soviet government.
Troops were sent to suppress the rebellion, and several hundred workers
were killed during the fighting.
In the 1950s and 1960s,
mechanical engineering and other industries developed. In the late 1950s
and early 1960s, Ivanovo was the center of the Upper Volga Economic
Council, a large regional economic association in the northeast of the
European part of Russia.
The Ivanovo region acquired its modern
borders in 1994 after the transfer of the Sokolsky district to the
Nizhny Novgorod region.
In the National rating of the state of the investment climate in the
regions of Russia, according to the results of 2021, the Ivanovo region
took ninth place.
Gross regional product: 171 billion rubles
(2015)
GRP per capita as of 2019 was the lowest in the Central
Federal District.
The structure of the economy is distinguished
by a high (for central Russia) share of the public services sector
(17.6% of GRP in 2006). About 34.1% of GRP is formed in industry (2006)
(42.2% - in 2005), of which 20.1% in manufacturing industries (primarily
light industry, energy and engineering), 3.9% (2006) - in construction
complex, 9.7% - in the energy sector. The agro-industrial complex
creates 8.0% of GDP (2006) (9.4% - 2005).
Light industry (32.8% - the highest in Russia), electric power industry (24%), mechanical engineering (20%), food industry (18%) and woodworking (3%) stand out in the volume of industrial production.
The largest enterprises: Ivanovo branch of JSC SUN InBev - a
manufacturing plant of popular brands of beer, JSC Shuisky Oil
Extraction Plant closed in 2009, JSC Shuisky Meat Processing Plant was
closed, CJSC Ivanovsky Broiler, JSC Distillery Petrovsky “” is closed,
JSC “Kineshma poultry farm”.
Mechanical engineering and
metalworking
Ivanovo Truck Crane Plant (Ivanovo) - production of
truck cranes; on the verge of bankruptcy. Works at 10%
Kranex
(Ivanovo) - production of caterpillar hydraulic excavators; on the verge
of bankruptcy. Works at 10%
"Professional" (Ivanovo) - production of
attachments for construction equipment;
"Strommashina" (Kokhma) -
production of tower cranes, truck cranes, construction metal structures;
Does not work. Declared bankrupt. Closed
Ivanovo Heavy Machine Tool
Plant (Ivanovo) - production of boring machines and horizontal machining
centers; Does not work. Closed The premises are rented out.
"Upper
Volga Service Metal Center" (Novo-Talitsy) - metalworking;
Rodnikovsky Machine-Building Plant (Rodniki) - production of mining
equipment, buses of the Rodnik brand;
Plant of lifts (Lezhnevo) -
production of self-propelled and non-self-propelled scissor, articulated
and telescopic lifts, lifting tables for various purposes;
"Kineshma
Automotive Components" (Kineshma) - production of components for cars;
Standardplast (Ivanovo, Lezhnevo) — production of noise-insulating
materials for automakers AvtoVAZ, GAZ, LiAZ, UAZ, PAZ, Ford, Volkswagen,
Nissan, Mitsubishi, Hyundai Motor.
The leading industry in terms of output is the textile industry.
The largest enterprises in the industry:
cotton mill
"Shuyskie calico" (Shuya) - a full cycle of cotton processing;
OSB
"Rodniki Tekstil" LLC "Nordteks" (Rodniki) - production of fabrics for
special and corporate clothing;
textile company "Krasnaya Talka"
(Ivanovo) - production of calico, calico, flannel, satin and others;
cotton mill "Teykovskaya Manufactory" (Teykovo) - production of chintz,
calico, flannel, satin, poplin and others;
sewing enterprises:
Yakovlevskaya Manufactory, Sewing Firm Ivanhoe, Polet, Fabrikant,
Shuiskaya Manufactory, Carmil, ShuyaTeks+, Shveinik (Vichuga);
"Ormatek" (Ivanovo, Kokhma) - production of anatomical mattresses,
pillows, mattress covers, beds, furniture.
In January 2023, Rostec
Corporation launched its own production of parachute fabric in the
region.
As of the beginning of 2021, 6 thermal power plants with a total
capacity of 874.9 MW were operated in the Ivanovo region. In 2020, they
produced 1454 million kWh of electricity[37][38].
Electricity in
the Ivanovo region is generated at thermal power plants. The largest
facilities are controlled by PJSC T Plus and JSC Inter RAO - Electric
Power Plants. These are Ivanovskaya CHPP-2 (200 MW, 671.5 Gcal h),
Ivanovskaya CHPP-3 (330 MW, 876 Gcal h) and Ivanovskiye PGU (325 MW
based on a combined cycle plant) (Komsomolsk)
The largest
transmission lines are: VL Kostromskaya GRES - Moscow, VL-500 kV
Kostromskaya GRES - Vladimirskaya Substation, VL 220 Kostromskaya GRES -
Vichuga - 1, VL 220 Kostromskaya GRES - Vichuga - 2, VL 220 kV SS
"Zarya" - Vichuga. The largest substations are located in Vichuga and
Kineshma (JSC FGC UES). The network of internal lines in 2008 amounted
to 15.95 thousand km, 3912 substations operated (Ivenergo branch of IDGC
of Center and Volga Region, JSC). The volume of electricity transmission
through the grids exceeded 2.5 billion kWh per year.
As of January 1, 2021, the rural population is 179,668 people, about
18% of the population of the Ivanovo region.
The leading branch
of agriculture is dairy and meat cattle breeding, flax growing, potato
growing and forestry are represented.
In 2019, agricultural
products amounted to 17.2 billion rubles, of which livestock products -
10.5 billion rubles, crop production - 6.7 billion rubles. The livestock
production index is 98.4%, the average annual milk yield per cow is 4791
kg.
As of January 1, 2020, there were 63.2 thousand heads of
cattle in farms of all categories (74.4% in agricultural enterprises),
of which 26.4 thousand heads of cows (72.0% in agricultural
enterprises), 15.4 thousand pigs (51.1% in agricultural enterprises),
16.1 thousand sheep and 9.3 thousand goats (15.1% in agricultural
enterprises), 0.3 thousand horses, 3.0 million poultry.
In 2019,
farms of all categories of the region produced 38.9 thousand tons for
slaughter of livestock and poultry (in live weight), milk production
amounted to 153.7 thousand tons, egg production amounted to 391.4
million pieces.
In 2019, 82.3 thousand tons of potatoes were
harvested in farms of all categories (in agricultural enterprises). (9.1
thousand tons), vegetables of open and closed ground 39.7 thousand tons.
(7.9 thousand tons).
The gross harvest of grain and leguminous
crops in 2020 amounted to 156 thousand tons, with a yield of 25.5 c/ha.
Agrarians of the region this year harvested the highest grain harvest in
19 years, reaching an absolute record in terms of productivity.
In 2006, in general, the region produced: grain - 80.5 thousand tons,
potatoes - 278.9 thousand tons, vegetables - 123.1 thousand tons,
livestock and poultry in live weight - 34 thousand tons ., milk - 189
thousand tons, eggs - 304.8 million pieces. The output of agricultural
products in 2006 amounted to 7.9 billion rubles (8.4% higher than in
2005).