VLADIMIR, the chief town of the above province, known in history as Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma, to distinguish it from Vladi mir in Volhynia. It is picturesquely situated on the Klyazma and Lybed, in 56° 8' N., 20' E. Pop. (1926) 35,319. The town is a trading centre on the railway and river between Moscow and Nizhniy-Novgorod. There are factories for knitted goods, fruit juice and bricks, and there are oil-pressing and saw-milling indus tries. extensive cherry orchards occupy the surrounding slopes, and in each is a small watch-tower, with cords drawn in all direc tions to be shaken by the watcher when birds alight. The citadel stands on a hill and contains two very old cathedrals—the Uspen skiy (I I 5o; restored in 1891), where all the princes of Vladimir have been buried, and the Dmitrievskiy (1197; restored in 35). Several churches date from the 12th century.
Vladimir first comes into notice in ii5i, when Andrei Bogolyub skiy secretly left Vyshgorod—the domain of his father in the principality of Kiev—and migrated to the newly settled land of Suzdal, where he became ("57) grand prince of the principali ties of Vladimir, Suzdal and Rostov. Although Ivan Kalita (1328 41) made Moscow the real head of the Rus States, Vladimir re mained the coronation city of the grand princes until 1431, and Simeon the Proud, Ivan the Good, Dmitri of the Don and Vasili I. were crowned here.