Iartsevo

Iartsevo

 

a city under oblast jurisdiction and administrative center of Iartsevo Raion, Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR. Located on the Vop’ River, a tributary of the Dnieper, on the Moscow-Minsk highway. Railroad station on the Viaz’ma-Smolensk line.

Iartsevo became famous in the mid-19th century as an industrial settlement of Dukhovshchina District, Smolensk Province, site of the textile mill of the Khludovs. In 1880 one of the largest strikes in Russia occurred there. Designated a city in 1926, Iartsevo now has a cotton combine, a foundry-machine plant, and a piano factory. Construction of a specialized foundry of the ZIL Production Association was undertaken in 1978. An evening textile technicum is located in the city.