Krenholm Manufacturing Company

The Krenholm Manufacturing Company (alternate spelling, Kreenholm; German, Krähnholm, meaning "crow island") is located on the island of Kreenholm in what is now Narva, Estonia, on the border with Russia. It is situated along the banks of the Narva River, by the Narva Falls; the Baltic Sea is approximately 10 miles (16 km) away, and there is a distance of 75 miles (121 km) to Saint Petersburg. It was founded by Ludwig Knoop, a cotton merchant from Bremen. The company's cotton spinning and manufacturing mills were the largest in the world; and Krenholm was considered in its time to be the most important mill in Russia, owning 32,000 acres of land and employing 12,000 people. In its history, the company faced different obstacles. such as the possibility of closure after World War I. In 1994, it was privatised after Estonia regained independence. The company went bankrupt in 2010, but continued limited operations after purchase by a new owner.

The Krenholm mill was founded in 1857 by the pioneer of the Russian cotton industry, Ludwig Knoop, along with Soldatenkov, and Khludov. After the 1872 cholera epidemic which killed 420 workers, the mill's internal police force was disbanded. But when the administration reintroduced it later in the year, a strike ensued, the first major industrial strike in Estonia, which became a riot, and regular troops were called in to end it. A State Commission investigated the situation, and its report concluded that work conditions had to improve and the internal police ceased to exist. In 1893, it contained 340,000 spindles and 22,000 looms, requiring 6,000 horse power, and employing 7,000 people. Professor Gerhart von Schulze-Gävernitz visited the mills in the 1890s stating that, "The whole place is a bit of England on Russian ground."

The mill is located on an island and along the banks of the Narva River. The Baltic Sea is only about 10 miles away, and in the harbor at the mouth of the river large cotton warehouses were erected where cotton, imported directly from the United States or Liverpool, was stored and brought up the river to the mill as needed. The Narva, just before it runs into the sea, has a fall of about 27 feet which provided a source of power. The machinery was distributed through three separate buildings, of brick and stone construction, two of them being five stories and one four.The last mill, devoted entirely to spinning, was of American construction. The carding and spinning machinery was from the firm of Platt Brothers & Co Ltd, in Oldham, England. Some of the looms were English, but most of them were made by the firm in its foundry and machine works, which were an adjunct of the mill.