Narva is the leading industrial town in…
1888 CE to 1899 CE
Narva had begun to develop into a major industrial town in 1857, when Ludwig Knoop established the Krenholm Manufacturing Company.
The factory could use the cheap energy of the powerful Narva waterfalls, and at the end of the century has become, with about ten thousand workers, one of the largest cotton mills in Europe and the world.
In 1872, Krenholm Manufacturing became the site of the first strike in Estonia.
Narva, which forms part of the Saint Petersburg Governorate during Russian rule, had remained in the list of Russian fortifications until 1863, though there was no real military need for it.
The first railway in Estonia, completed in 1870, had connected Narva to Saint Petersburg and to Tallinn.