Kostroma

Kostroma (kəstrəmä`), city (1989 pop. 278,000), capital of Kostroma region, E European Russia, on the Volga at the mouth of the Kostroma River. It is a major linen-milling and textile machinery center. Founded in 1152, it was the capital of a principality in the 13th and 14th cent. It became an important commercial center after it was annexed by Moscow in 1364. At Kostroma in 1613, Michael Romanov was elected czar. Among the ancient buildings of Kostroma are the Ipatyev monastery (16th cent.) and the Uspensky Cathedral (c.1250).

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Kostroma

a city in W central Russia, on the River Volga: fought over bitterly by Novgorod, Tver, and Moscow, until annexed by Moscow in 1329; textile centre. Pop.: 280 000 (2005 est.)

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Kostroma 

a city, center of Kostroma Oblast, RSFSR. Located on both banks of the Volga River; a port; a railroad station, 372 km northeast of Moscow. Population in 1972, 231,000 (41,000 in 1897; 74,000 in 1926; 121,000 in 1939; and 172,000 in 1959).

Kostroma was founded in the 12th century and is first mentioned in the Voskresensk and Tver’ chronicles of 1213. Kostroma suffered from repeated raids and pillage by the Tatars, Novgorod river pirates, Polish-Lithuanian troops, and others from the early 13th to late 17th century. Kostroma was the center of the Kostroma appanage principality in the mid-13th century and became part of the Muscovite state in the mid-14th century. During the Polish-Swedish intervention in the early 17th century, Kostroma played a prominent role in the organization of the militia of Kuz’ma Minin and D. M. Pozharskii, with both material resources and the participation of the inhabitants of Kostroma in the militia. The Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin performed patriotic feats in the struggle against the interventionists.

Since the 17th and 18th centuries Kostroma has been an important Russian city, with well-developed textile, metalworking, and leather industries. (The first linen factory was opened in 1751. Metalworking establishments included blacksmiths and silversmiths.) Kostroma became the center of Kostroma Subprovince of Moscow Province in 1719 and of Kostroma Province in 1778. The textile workers of Kostroma took part in the Revolution of 1905–07; in 1905 one of the first soviets of workers’ deputies to be formed in Russia was organized in Kostroma. The Kostroma strike of 1915 was an important event in the life of the city. Soviet power was established on Oct. 29 (Nov. 11), 1917.

During the prewar five-year plans Kostroma’s textile industry (mainly linen) was further developed. The metalworking industry grew. Old plants were reconstructed and new ones were built, including ship-machinery and needle-board plants and a plant producing machines for the chemical industry.

Kostroma is one of the largest linen-processing centers of the country, accounting for approximately 13 percent of the USSR’s production of linen cloth in 1971. It also has a significant machine-building and woodworking industry. The main textile enterprises are the Lenin Linen Combine, the Zvorykin Linen Combine, and four textile factories. Machine-building enterprises are mainly of construction machinery (the Rabochii Metallist Excavator Plant and the Strommashina Plant) and textile machinery (the Tekstil’mash Plant and dyeing and finishing equipment). Other machine-building enterprises produce automated lines and woodworking machines. As of 1973, the Motordetal’ Plant and an instrument-making plant were under construction. Other industries in the city include plywood, furniture, shoes, food, clothing, and construction materials. There is a steam power plant in Kostroma, and a second one is under construction. The Kostroma State Regional Electric Power Plant is located 40 km southeast of the city.

Kostroma’s architectural monuments include the cathedral of Bogoiavlenskii Monastery (1559–65; murals, 1672) and the Ipat’evskii Monastery, including stone walls and towers (16th to 17th centuries), the Troitskii Cathedral (1650–52; murals by G. Kineshemtsev and others, 1685), a belfry (1603–05), and cellarers’ quarters (1586–90). Part of a museum-preserve with monuments of wooden architecture is now located in the monastery. Other architectural monuments include the Voskresenie na Debre Church in a “patterned style” (1652) and the Church of loann Bogoslov (1681–87).

Kostroma was built in the classical style according to a regular plan, which was developed in 1781–84, with a fan-shaped system of streets and with merchants’ rows (1770’s-1830’s), offices (1806–09), guardhouses (1824–25), a fire observation tower (1825–28, architect, P. I. Fursov), and the Dvorianstvo (nobility and gentry) Assembly (1838). Soviet housing construction includes the Privokzal’nyi (1957–66), the Oktiabr’skii (1963–65), and other mikroraions (neighborhood units in urban planning). There are monuments to V. I. Lenin (bronze and granite, 1927; sculptor, M. F. Listopad and others) and Ivan Susanin (granite, 1967; sculptor, N. A. Lavinskii and others).

Among the city’s educational institutions are an engineering institute, an agricultural institute (in the settlement of Karavaevo), and a pedagogical institute, as well as ten specialized secondary schools, including chemical-machinery, timber-machinery, textile, auto-transport, architectural-construction, Soviet trade, and engineering technicums. There is also a linen industry research institute, a museum of fine arts, and a historical-architectural museum-preserve. Kostroma also has the A. N. Ostrovskii Drama Theater and a puppet theater.

REFERENCES

Lukomskii, V. K., and G. K. Lukomskii. Kostroma: Istoricheskii ocherk. St. Petersburg, 1913.
Skvortsov, L. Materialy dlia istoriig. Kostromy, part 1. Kostroma, 1913.
Ivanov, V. N., and M. V. Fekhner. Kostroma. Moscow, 1955.
[Orekhova, M.] Revoliutsionnaia Kostroma: PutevoditeV. Kostroma, 1958.
Ivanov, V. N. Kostroma. [Moscow, 1970.]

I. V. POZERN and P. A. TEL’TEVSKII

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Kostroma 

a river in Kostroma Oblast, RSFSR, partly along its border with Yaroslavl Oblast, a left-bank tributary of the Volga. Length, 354 km; basin area, 16,000 sq km.

The Kostroma River arises in the Galich highland and flows over a marshy lowland, meandering widely. With the construction of the Gorky Reservoir, the broad Kostroma Bay was formed at the river’s lower reaches. To prevent the flooding of adjacent agricultural lands, the river banks along the lower stretches have been diked. The Kostroma’s waters comes from a variety of sources, primarily from snow. The average rate of flow at the city of Bui (124 km from the mouth) is 71 cu m per sec, with a maximum rate of 1,620 cu m per sec. It freezes in November and thaws in April or early May. Its waters are suitable for flotation of logs and are navigable as far as Bui. The city of Soligalich is located along the river.