Kostroma Flax Combine

(full name, V. I. Lenin Kostroma Flax Combine; formerly the Bol’shaia Kostroma Flax Works), a major Soviet textile enterprise, located in the city of Kostroma.

The Kostroma Flax Combine manufactures more than 40 different types of fabrics (1972): crease-resistant (permanent-press) suit and dress materials, tablecloths and towels, covers, linen for awnings and tents, and printed and Lavsan-flax materials. (Lavsan is the trade name of a polyether filament or staple synthetic fiber produced in the USSR.) Established in 1866, the factory was the largest of its kind in prerevolutionary Russia for the manufacture of flax yarn and various flax linens and was equipped with the largest number of textile spindles. The workers of the plant were active in the revolutionary struggle of the Kostroma textile workers. They went out on strike repeatedly. The first Social Democratic circle was organized at the factory in 1895, and in 1903 a Bolshevik group was created there. In 1927 the factory was renamed after V. I. Lenin. In 1937 the enterprise was reorganized into a flax combine. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 the combine worked for the needs of the front.

In the postwar years the combine was technically reequipped on the basis of the latest technology. Flyer spinning machines were replaced by ring-spinning frames; in weaving, mechanical looms were replaced by automatic looms. New plants were constructed. The combine was the first in the USSR to master the technology of producing yarn and fabric made of (mixed) flax and Lavsan. In 1972 the combine produced 48.3 million linear meters of fabrics. It was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966.