IVANOVO-VOZNESENSK, (I) a province of the Rus sian S.F.S.R., drained by the Volga and its tributary the Unzha. It lies in the taiga or pine forest area, and is thickly forested north of the Volga and east of the Unzha, but in the south-western district the forest remains in patches only. Rye and oats are the main crops, with potatoes, grasses, flax, wheat, barley and buckwheat in much smaller quantities. Sheep, cattle, horses and pigs are reared. A network of electric stations working on the abundant peat fuel of the district is planned, and the town of Ivanovo-Voznesensk is supplied from an electric plant at Teikovo, near Lake Rubsk, on the railway to Moscow via Aleksandrov.
(2) A town, the administrative centre of the province, linked by branch lines with the Moscow to Nizhni-Novgorod and the Moscow to Yaroslavl railways, and also to Kineshma on the Volga river. It has important cotton and linen factories, equipped with
up-to-date machinery, and iron and chemical works connected with its textile industries. Its population is increasing rapidly and was 110,728 in 1926. Originally it consisted of two villages —Ivanovo, dating from the 16th century, and Voznesensk, of more recent date—united into a town in 1861. Its cathedral and the church of the Intercession of the Virgin were formerly asso ciated with an important monastery founded in 1579 and aban doned in