a city in Ivanovo Oblast, RSFSR, stretching 15 km along the right bank of the Volga River. River port and terminal station on the railroad line from Aleksandrov. Population, 97,000 (1972; 34,000 in 1926).

Kineshma is known from the early 15th century as a sloboda (tax-exempt settlement). In 1429 it was devastated by the Tatars. In 1504 it was granted by Ivan III to the prince F. M. Bel’skii; subsequently, it was given by Ivan IV to prince Ivan P. Shuiskii, after whose death it reverted back to the tsar (1587). In 1608 Kineshma was captured by the Poles twice. In 1708 it was made part of Arkhangelogorodsk Province, and in 1719 it was included in laroslav’l Province. Beginning in 1778 it was an administrative center of a district in Kostroma Province.

Kineshma is one of the oldest industrial centers of the Upper Volga Region. It is the second largest city in Ivanovo Oblast (after the city of Ivanovo) and second in industrial importance. A major cotton textile center, it has the Krasnovolzhskii Combine comprising a spinning factory and two spinning and weaving factories. There is production of paper-making machinery and electrical engineering equipment. Kineshma has a wood chemical plant and enterprises of the food-processing industry (flour mills, grain elevators, a meat-packing combine). There is also the manufacture of prefabricated houses and building materials. Schools include a technicum of chemical technology; economics, technological, and evening textile technicums; and medical and pedagogical schools. Kineshma has a museum of local lore and a dramatic theater. The A. N. Ostrovskii museum-estate is located in the village of Shchelykovo, 20 km north of Kineshma.