T HE areal deconcentration of the cotton-textile industry in the U.S.S.R. has long been a goal of Soviet planners. This industry developed almost exclusively in the area around the cities of Moscow and Ivanovo, close to what were then its main markets. Because of its localization, the postrevolutionary redistribution of both the country's population and its garment industry has threatened to create an unfavorable transportation pattern. In an attempt to prevent this, a number of large, vertically integrated enterprises known as kombinaty, which perform all stages of production (spinning, weaving, and finishing), have been constructed in some of the more recently industrialized areas of the country, such as the Transcaucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia. However, countering economic forces simultaneously at play have permitted only a relatively small change in the areal concentration of cotton-textile production over the last forty years. An examination of Soviet efforts to improve the market orientation of this long-established industry provides a measure of insight into the problems encountered, and the degree of success attained, in the practical application of Soviet industrial location theory.