FROM IZHEVSK WITH LOVE

In the shadow of the Ural Mountains, rivers run in all directions, and before the days of mechanisation, rivers were the vital links for industry. In the sixteenth century, the quaintly named Ivan the Terrible, first Tsar of Russia, and apparently a very naughty boy, took a liking to the areas around the Karlutka and Izk Rivers and set up the community of Izhevsk which today is home to around 650,000 people. With abundant timber and plenty of water to produce steam, Izhevsk soon became a centre for ironworks. By 1760, construction had begun on a major dam, the Izhevsk Reservoir, but the seeds of revolution were already sprouting.

In the Revolution, the ironworks and other major buildings were destroyed, but the dam stayed intact, and at the dawn of the nineteenth century, an