On the eve of war and revolution the Russian Empire was one of the great textile centres of the world, fourth after Britain, America and Germany.1 During the XIX Century the prime factors influencing location were proximity to markets and the availability of cheap labour. Consequently growth was not confined to the original artisanal centre around Ivanovo-Voznesensk, but fanned out into the poor-soil regions of North-European Russia. By the late 1850s Vladimir guberniya (province) had lost its lead to the regions surrounding Moscow and St Petersburg. With the Emancipation of the serfs in 1861, the next decade gave a boost to industrialisation in general and promoted the spread of the factory system in textiles to other provinces;2 by the third quarter of the century the inheritance that was to pass to socialism was taking final shape; concentration of ownership now went hand in hand with the concentration of production in large units.3