The future city of Ivanovo appeared as a small peasant village next to an Orthodox monastery in the 17th century. Gradually, this village grew due to the development of local textile production. Since the XIX century, it is a large industrial center and an important economic hub of the country.
First mention
The documented history of the city of Ivanovo began in 1609, when this settlement was first mentioned in the annals written in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. According to this source, a small place was founded by runaway peasants who left the estates of the monastery villages. In order not to confuse this Ivanovo with other settlements with similar names, it was sometimes called Ivanovo-Kokhomsky (nearby was the Kokhma fortress).
The first mention of the village is connected with the Time of Troubles, when Russia suffered from civil war and Polish intervention. Foreign invaders even reached Ivanovo itself. Russia was in a terrible plundered condition, the country did not have a strong army that could defeat and drive out the invaders. In 1608–1609 the village was used as a stronghold for the army of Poles, Lithuanians and Cossacks from among the supporters of False Dmitry II. Already in the XX century, archaeologists found in the city uniforms of the time, made according to the Western European model. In 1609 (the year Ivanovo was founded), the village was tiny and for a while remained inconspicuous. But further economic growth made it an important center for textile production.
Boyar patrimony
Even before the beginning of the Troubles, the places around Kokhma belonged to the influential princes Skopin-Shuisky. In the XVI century, the Pokrovsky monastery was founded here. It is believed that the famous commander Mikhail Vasilievich Skopin-Shuisky spent his childhood in this region. The history of the city of Ivanovo is a typical example of a peasant town on the periphery of the Russian state. Local residents were engaged in the manufacture and dyeing of linen fabric, from which canvases were made. Agriculture here was underdeveloped due to low fertility soils.
Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, a census was carried out, information about which has been preserved in the sources. Thanks to such documents, the history of the city of Ivanovo is reproduced today. In the first half of the XVII century there were more than a hundred yards, which is a considerable figure for such a remote place.
Abode of the Old Believers
The main waterway of Ivanovo is the navigable river Uvod. Thanks to her, the inhabitants of the town were able to establish strong economic ties with neighboring regions. As mentioned above, the soil in these places did not allow to grow bread, but it was an excellent environment for collecting a large crop of flax.
In 1638, after the Skopins-Shuysky family died away, the village passed to the princes of Cherkassky. After another 30 years, the population of Ivanovo was already 800 people, not counting the administration and the clergy. New temples continued to appear. It was their number that was the main indicator of the growth and enrichment of any Russian village of that time. When there was a church schism in the country associated with the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, the Old Believers swept the place. The then history of the city of Ivanovo was closely connected with the movement of the priests. These people fled to the outskirts of the country away from the central government, which repressed heretics.
The capital of textile production
The development of weaving led to the appearance in the village of masters for canvas packing. Using this method, patterns and color patterns were applied to future clothing. The city of Ivanovo, as the textile capital of Russia, took place already in the 17th century. Local goods were sold at fairs in various regions of the country. These fabrics were in significant demand among the general population.
Gradually, profit more and more settled in Ivanovo, making it richer and more. The local craftsmen traded with Astrakhan, and through it with the eastern countries - Persia, the Caucasus, etc. These economic relations influenced the art of printing. Ivanovo goods began to bear the imprint of oriental culture.
At the beginning of the XVIII century, Tsar Peter I took up the reorganization of the textile industry. Under him, the village of Ivanovo received its own customs hut. Her employees collected trade duties that went to the treasury. At the same time, another wave of workers poured into it, new public places began to appear, for example, taverns. Like all other Russian settlements of that time, the village suffered from frequent fires. For example, in 1723, fire consumed more than 200 yards, leaving many residents homeless and without a roof over their heads.
Industrial Revolution
Oddly enough, the economic importance of Ivanovo increased due to the Patriotic War of 1812. When Napoleon’s army captured Moscow and set up a colossal fire there, Moscow weaving enterprises also burned in the fire. After that, Ivanovo industrialists did not meet competition in the domestic and foreign markets for a long time. They confidently occupied economic niches, which they then gave away to no one.
If in 1810 the sale of Ivanovo fabrics brought 1 million rubles, then 7 years later this figure increased 7 times. Local factory dynasties appeared - the Kuvaevs, Polushins, Garelins, etc. They invested money not only in their own production, but also in urban infrastructure. They began to come to local factories not only from neighboring cities and Moscow, but even from foreign countries.
Although belatedly, in Ivanovo in the XIX century began its own Industrial Revolution. The owners of enterprises gradually abandoned manufactories with manual labor and opened machine production. New enterprises allowed to increase the turnover of products and profit from trade. New factories began to appear that were not directly related to textiles, but performed auxiliary functions. These were chemical, metalworking, mechanical and paper spinning factories. Even before the abolition of serfdom, many Ivanovo peasants, thanks to their weaving economy, bought themselves free and even became merchants. Poor people and jobs from neighboring cities got jobs at new enterprises. These people settled in the outskirts, the number of which was steadily increasing.
In city status
In 1872, Tsar Alexander II signed a decree establishing the city of Ivanovo-Voznesensk. With this act, he formally secured a fait accompli. The village has long grown, and its economic potential was too great for a small inconspicuous place in the Vladimir province. The struggle for the creation of the city was waged by local authorities for several decades.
As early as 1853, several settlements around the village were united in the Ascension Posad. Its population was 3.5 thousand artisans and workers. There were twice as many inhabitants in the village, but economically it was more backward. In the Posad, the Posad Duma began to sit, whose chairpersons were influential manufacturers.
It was a private initiative of industrialists that gave new impetus to the development of Ivanovo. Russia in the 1860s experienced several fundamental reforms. The economy has embarked on modern capitalist tracks. With a private patronage of money, a hospital for workers, a real school for their children, and a public library were founded. Today these buildings are monuments of Ivanovo.
Due to the American Civil War, the cotton there was almost ceased to be brought to Russia. This somewhat reduced the topics of economic growth in Ivanovo. However, the textile capital of Russia began to grow due to the abolition of serfdom and the outflow of peasants to factories. It was the population growth and the increase in the number of enterprises that made the central government pay attention to the village and give it urban status.
Proletarian riots
In the rapidly expanding Ivanovo-Voznesensk all new workers arrived. Due to the large number of factories and a special place in the country's economy, the city was even called the “Russian Manchester”. At the same time, an increase in the working mass led to an increase in social tension. That is why during the revolutions of the beginning of the 20th century, all areas of Ivanovo shook from strikes, strikes and other types of proletarian protest against the authorities.
The city has become a place of attraction for supporters of radical political ideas. In 1892, the first Marxist circle appeared here, after another 6 years a committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party arose. The first Russian revolution in 1905 for Ivanovo was marked by a mass strike. It lasted 72 days. According to various estimates, 30 thousand dissatisfied workers participated in the protest. Their requirements were standard for that time - to agree on a minimum wage threshold, introduce an eight-hour work day, etc.
The manufacturers refused to make concessions to the protesters. Then the protesters held their own elections and elected 151 representatives. Those created the Ivanovo-Ascension City Council of Workers' Deputies. This was the first such organization in the history of the country. Under Soviet rule, Ivanovo events of 1905 were given special attention. The memorial ensemble "Red Talka" was created in the city. It includes numerous monuments of Ivanovo dedicated to the history of the revolutionary movement. In 1905, a young Bolshevik Mikhail Frunze was in the city at party work. Later, he will become one of the most prominent military leaders and leaders of the Soviet Union. His career as a revolutionary began precisely in Ivanovo.
The establishment of the power of the Bolsheviks
After the abdication of Nicholas II, dual power was established in Ivanovo, which was characteristic of most of the country. On the one hand was the Council of Workers' Deputies, and on the other, representatives of the Provisional Government. At first, the influence of the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks was great in the city. When re-elections to the local Council took place in the summer, most of the seats in it were taken by the Bolsheviks. They were ready for the news of the October coup in Petrograd and immediately created a revolutionary headquarters. The civil war barely affected these places. The power passed to the Bolsheviks without any bloodshed, and the whites did not reach the city.
In 1918, the Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya province was created. She became the center of the textile industry of Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks created a new subject of the federation, based on its economic independence and isolation from neighboring provinces. The new status immediately affected the life of the city. Pedagogical and polytechnic institutes were founded in it. New schools, medical facilities, museums and libraries began to appear. In the 20s. own water supply was opened, and after it public transport in the form of buses.
New textile factories attracted workers from neighboring regions to the city. Among them there were many women who were employed as seamstresses, etc. Therefore, in Soviet times, Ivanovo received the popular name - “city of brides”. Local authorities were rapidly getting rid of everything that could remind the tsarist era. Therefore, in 1932, Ivanovo-Voznesensk was finally renamed Ivanovo. The former toponym bore the imprint of the former Orthodox religiosity and annoyed the Bolsheviks.
Soviet regional center
In the years of the first five-year plans, Ivanovo also received the status of the "third proletarian capital" after Moscow and Leningrad. This was due to the large number of factories and enterprises that opened. At that time, the Soviet leadership planned to transfer the administrative center of the RSFSR to some other city, while leaving the capital of the USSR in Moscow. Among the "applicants" for this title was Ivanovo, although this project was never implemented.
Nevertheless, it was in the 20-30s. the city experienced its largest rise. Ivanovo was significantly rebuilt. Soviet architects looked at it as a training ground for their own experiments. Thanks to this, today in the regional center there are many monuments of early socialist constructivism. Other highlights of the city were the country's largest circus and a unique school for children from foreign communist families (Interdom).
The Bolshevik perestroika of Ivanovo did not spare many temples and churches built in the Tsarist era. For example, the Pokrovsky monastery was destroyed, around which at one time a settlement was formed, which later became the regional center. Its building was demolished, and in its place was built the Drama Theater, opened in 1939.
During the Great Patriotic War, Ivanovo was a typical rear city. Here opened a mass of hospitals for the Red Army and evacuated civilians. Often they occupied the premises of schools and other public buildings. In 1942, the base for the French Normandie-Niemen aviation regiment was created at the Ivanovo airport. Foreign pilots fought on the side of the Soviet Union against the Axis countries. In Ivanovo they lived in separate dormitories.
Modernity
After the end of World War II, in Ivanovo began to open not only the usual textile enterprises, but also engineering plants. The emergence of new factories led to the rapid expansion of urban housing stock in the 1980s. Most of these enterprises operate today.
The modern city has incorporated the features of all previous eras. There is still a discussion among the townspeople whether it is necessary to return Ivanovo to its historical name Ivanovo-Voznesensk. This initiative comes from activists and activists of the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite this, modern residents of Ivanovo believe that the current name suits the city much more than the old one.
Symbols of the city
In 1970, the coat of arms of Ivanovo was adopted . Its peculiarity was that it was not filled with typical Soviet drawings - a sickle, a hammer, a star, etc. Instead, they depicted a symbol of the first Russian revolution - a torch, as well as a weaving shuttle.
After that, the coat of arms of Ivanovo changed only once. In 1996, the image of a young woman in a red dress and kokoshnik was taken. In her hands is a spinning wheel - a symbol of numerous textile enterprises. The female image on the coat of arms is another confirmation that the status of “city of brides” was given to him for a reason. The city is famous for its female weavers. The Ivanovo flag, adopted in 2003, duplicates this concept.