Yelets

Town in the Lipetsk oblast (region) of the western Russian Federation, 78 km/48 mi west of Lipetsk on the Sosna River; population (1996 est) 118,000. Yelets is famous for its lacemaking, practised here since early 19th century, and there are also light-engineering industries in the town.

Yelets was established as a fortified town in 1146; it was sacked repeatedly by the Tatars in the Middle Ages. The most notable building in the town is the imposing 19th-century Ascension Cathedral, and there are several churches, public buildings, and houses here from the same period.

Before the 1917 Revolution, Yelets was the centre of a flourishing grain trade, and was the first town in Russia to have a grain silo (1888).