Kovrov is a Russian town in the Vladimir Region.

It is located on the high bank of the Klyazma River (inflow of Oka), 64 km to the east of Vladimir. It has a pier and a railway junction.

Kovrov ranks second after Vladimir as regards population and industrial importance in the Vladimir Region.

It has a motor-cycle racing track and Klyazminsky desman wildlife area.

Its population is 145 214 people (as of 2010).

History of Kovrov

Kovrov was founded on the place of Elifanovka Village (which appeared in the 12th century, as a legend goes). Later it became a village named Rozhdestvenskoe after its church (Nativity, i.e. Rozhdestvenskaya Church).

From the first half of the 16th century it belonged to the Kovrovs princes and was named Kovrovo. In the first half of the 17th century it was presented by Prince Ivan Kovrov to the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiyevsky Monastery. From 1764 it was an economic village. From 1778 it was the district town Kovrov of the Vladimir Province.

In 1856 the district town of Kovrov of the Vladimir Province had 2 churches, 242 houses, and 120 shops.

In 1863 the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod railroad passed through Kovrov. In the second half of the 19th century in connection with railroad construction large railway workshops where built in Kovrov, where one of the first freight cars and passenger cars in Russia were built.

A weaving mill was opened in Kovrov in 1883.

During the pre-war five-year periods a small iron-plant operated there and was later reconstructed into a large factory of the all-Union importance. Railroad workshops were reorganized into repair and production of digging cars (excavators, etc.) plant.