a city under oblast jurisdiction and administrative center of Slobodskoi Raion, Kirov Oblast, RSFSR. Landing on the right bank of the Viatka River; railroad station 35 km northeast of the city of Kirov. Population, 36,000(1974). Slobodskoi has long been a center of the leather and fur industry and is the site of the Belka Fur Factory one of the largest such factories in the Soviet Union. The city also has a plywood combine and a furniture factory. Food-processing, building-materials, and metalworking industries are being developed. Slobodskoi has a pedagogical school and a museum of local lore. [23–1678–]