Where is it? Ivanovo Oblast, or region, is located in western Russia, northeast of Moscow. It is bordered by Kostroma Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Vladimir Oblast, and Yaroslavl Oblast, and the Volga River flows through the northern part of the region. It is in the Moscow time zone, and you can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Ivanovo, which has a population of 431,721 as of the 2002 census, out of some 1.3 million inhabitants in the region at large. Other major cities are Kineshma (pop. 95,233) and Shuya (pop. 62,449).

Who lives here? Mostly ethnic Russians.

What do they do here? Textiles: Ivanovo city was one of the earliest sites for the making of linen in Russia and the fabric of the city continues to be built around fabric. Forestry and tourism are also big industries.

Does it have any English-language news sources? None that I have found.

How do I see what it looks like? The Ivanovo pages on Flickr contain a mix of pictures from Ivanovo, Russia and a Bulgarian city of the same same.

How do I get here? The runways at Ivanovo Yuzhny Airport can handle only the mid-size jets that service regional flights, but there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of air service. Luckily, the region is close enough to Moscow that most prospective adoptive parents come by the overnight train or by car.

Which adoption agencies work here? ABC Adoption Services, Adoption of Babies and Children and Adoption Source.

Which Russian adoption bloggers have been here? Mike and Melissa at "Russian Adoption Journey", Eric and Paula at "The Winter Family Blog" and Jo at "Urban Moms". So has Adoption.com member Mjkkbbr. Dan and Mary at "Time For Kids" are hoping for an Ivanovo referral. There are also two Yahoo! groups, Ivanovo_Adoption and Post_Adopt_Ivanovo.

Truly trivia: Ivanovo is part of Russia's legendary Golden Ring, and known in Russia and abroad for the icon painting that happens in the village of Palekh.

Need more information? "Way To Russia" has an Ivanovo guide. Kommersant has a nicely detailed profile. You can check the region's Web site, in Russian, here. Here's the current weather in Ivanovo; there's also a handy chart of monthly temperature averages on this MSN Weather page, so you can plan ahead.

Image Credit: Musatych