Ivanovo

Ivanovo is an industrial centre of Russia. It is situated not far from Moscow, i.e. (that is) about 317 km (kilometres) north-east of the capital. Now the territory of Ivanovo is about 101 square kilometres and the population is about 500,000 people. Ivanovo lies (is situated) on the banks of the river Uvod which divides Ivanovo into two parts: the former industrial village Ivanovo and the settlement Voznesensk.

The industrial village Ivanovo situated on the right bank of the river Uvod was first mentioned in the documents in the 16^th century. According to the plan of 1774 the boundaries of the village Ivanovo ran along the modern streets - Sadovaya, Varentsova, Pochtovaya and Bubnov street.

The settlement Voznesensk (or Voznesensky Posad) was formed in 1853 on the basis of four “slobodas”. Later, in 1871, a large industrial village Ivanovo and the settlement Voznesenky were united by a Decree of the Tsar to form a town (which was) called Ivanovo-Voznesensk. This name remained till 1932.

Being a large textile centre of Russia now, Ivanovo itself is a monument to the history of the textile industry of the country. The first weaving enterprises appeared in the industrial village Ivanovo in the 18^th century and now there are many textile factories in Ivanovo which produce about 20 per cent of cotton fabrics of Russia. Ivanovo was also called Russian Manchester because both Manchester and Ivanovo used to be large textile centres. Besides textile factories there are some machine-building plants and a chemical plant in Ivanovo today.

Ivanovo is also an educational and a scientific centre. It is sometimes called a town of students, as now there are 7 state higher educational establishments in Ivanovo. There are four universities and three academies. But the first two higher educational establishments were founded in Ivanovo-Voznesensk in 1918. They were the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Teachers’ Institute and the Polytechnical Institute. Later in 1930 the Polytechnical Institute was divided into four separate institutes: the Agricultural institute, the Textile institute, the Chemico-Technological institute and the Power institute. Ivanovo State University was founded in 1974 on the basis of the Teachers’ Training Institute

As a cultural centre Ivanovo has several museums, such as Ivanovo Local Lore museum named after its founder D. Burylin, Ivanovo cotton museum, the Museum Exhibition Centre in Sovetskaya Street, Shchudrovskaya Palatka, the Fine Arts museum, the Prorokov museum and some other exhibition halls and centres.

In Ivanovo there are three theatres – the Drama theatre, the Musical theatre and the Puppet theatre.

Now the town has three cinema-centres, a circus, Ivanovo State Philharmonic society, some sport centres and many libraries. The oldest library in Ivanovo named after its founder Yakov Garelin is more than 130 years old. Some newspapers are published in Ivanovo at present, the oldest is “Rabochy Krai” which was first published in 1905.

There are not many architectural monuments in Ivanovo now. The oldest buildings of the 17^th century in the present Ivanovo are Shchudrovskaya Palatka and the ancient wooden church in Mineyevo. There are some old merchant houses in the centre too.

Ivanovo is included in the Golden Ring of Russia. Tourists like to visit such places as Palekh famous for its lacquer miniatures and Plyos – famous for its beautiful nature and museums.