History of Rostov region

Settlement in the Don and Azov land from the Cimmerians to the Cossacks

The Ancient times. The Scythia.

 In ancient times, many European and Asian peoples and nations came across the vast Don land steppes. The land history is peculiar in multiple historical events, when the cultural civilizations were altered with devastation and destruction.
 At the end of the Bronze age these lands were inhabited by the Cimmerian tribes, that were later on forced out by the Scythians, that came here from the East during the Iron age. The Scythia occupied the vast territory from the Danube to the Don rivers; the land was described by the “father of history” Herodotus. The soldiers, skillful craftsmen and indefatigable nomads, the Scythians were greatly influenced by the ancient Greek culture. The Greek outpost, established at the VI b.c. by the Taganrog bay, for a long period was like a cultural bridge, connecting the Greek civilization and the Scythian nomads, thus relating the cultural refinement with the wild temperament of the East. The Scythian main occupation was horse and sheep breeding. Large burial places from the Scythian period were discovered not far from Taganrog, that had bronze Scythian ware, sword scabbard, a variety of gold jewelry, created in the Scythian animal-like style.

 The Ancient Tanais.

 The town of Tanais was founded in I b.c. by the Hellenes. The town was named so after the river it was located at (the Don river was called “Tanais” by the Greeks), at those times it was a large trading centre. Though it was a Greek town, Tanais always welcomed merchants and travelers moving from Asia to Europe and back. The town had a huge number of cellars, with the capacity far beyond the town’s food storage necessity, that fact demonstrates the relevant commercial role of the town. By the end of the IV century, the town was desolated due to the reasons that are still unknown.

 The Middle Ages. The Khazars and the Slavs

The rich Don land nature had always attracted the nomad tribes. Here were the Goths, the Huns, the Avars, etc. In the beginning of the VII century, the land was mainly governed by the Khazars. According to the legend, there was not a single stone, suitable for construction on the site, where later on the capital of the Khazar khaganate – Sarkel – was erected. The Khazars asked the Byzantine Empire for help with the fortress construction on the Don land to protect from their common enemy - the Arabs. The construction was held by the Byzantine and local craftsmen for many years. The town had two defense lines, fortress constructions were unique at those times in irreproachable laying technique and geometric correctness. The legendary troops of the Kiev prince Svyatoslav fought for the town in 965 and captured the Khazar Sarkel, thus opening the way to the Don river. Later on, the Slavic town Belaya Vezha was founded on the site of Sarkel.

However, Svyatoslav could not stay here for a long time. The steppes were associated with great danger, arising from the Pincenates and the Polovtsians, that came to the Don land. The monument of the Old Russian literature “The Song of Igor's Campaign” reflected poetically the dramatic description of one of the multiple battles of the Russian princes with the Polovtsians. The bloody battle of the prince Igor troops with the Polovtsians took place by the bank of the Seversky Donets river, the Don tributary. The monument to the Russians, erected at the top of the Karaul-mountain in Belaya Kalitva, reminds of the glorious event.

 The Middle Ages. The Tatar-Mongols.

The Tatar-Mongols governed on the Don land since XII century. They erected a town of Azak at the Azov sea coast, due to its favorable geographical location, the town became a large trading centre of the Golden Horde.
At the same time, the Genoese-Venetian colony Tana was founded not far from the contemporary town of Azov. The main trading object for the colonists was fish. The tariffs from the Azov fish import to Italy was one of the relevant means for the state treasury replenishment. However, Tamerlan's raids against the Golden Horde led to decline of the both towns – Tana and Azak.

 The Middle Ages. The Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire rule was established at the Azov sea coast in XV century. The Azov sea coast was a stumbling block for many years in the complicated relationship between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish turned Azov into a strong fortress, but it was also a large trading centre, giving the opportunity for the Russian merchants to trade with the East.

 The New Age. The Cossacks.

 Since XVI century, the history of the Don land is unthinkable without the Cossacks. The majority of the steppe territories were not inhabited, that is why the Wild Fields, starting after the Ryazan province, attracted peasants, suffering from the serfdom. The Russian government did have the power at this territory, so the Don land was the land of the Cossack freedom. The peculiar military and political unification of the Cossacks was the Don Cossack Army. The supreme governing body of the Army was the Cossack circle, gathered at the Cossack capital – Cherkassk. Soon the Cossacks became a peculiar military estate with particular privileges and freedoms, comparing to other estates of the country. They had a significant degree of personal freedom, did not have any obligations, did not pay taxes, had the right to wear old style clothing and beard. Besides, they received the state earnings from the tsar for their military service. The powerful Cossack military force, protecting the southern Russian boarders from the Turkish and the Tatars, was of great importance for the state. In general, the Cossacks did not have any regular household, beside the military service they were occupied with fishing, hunting, wild-honey farming and occasional raids. The regular loot for the Cossacks was the Turkish town of Azov. The Cossacks remained in the Azov fortress for five years and left it only by the request of the Moscow government. The town of Azov was occupied only in 1696 after Peter the Great military campaign, that provided Russia the exit to the Azov and the Black seas.
 Since XVIII century the Russian state interfered into the Cossack Army regulations. The Don Cossack Army region was officially unified with the Russian Empire, loosing its autonomy. The Cossacks became a part of the Russian state army as an irregular army. After that period, the Cossacks participated in all the Russian wars.
 Catherine II led active colonialist politics. In 1769 the Russian government made a decision to construct a new fortress of the “Saint Dmitry Rostovskiy”. Later on it became a significant economical and military centre at the Azov land, that was also called the “gateway to the Caucasus”. In 1775 by the Empress decree, the Greeks, that participated in the Russian-Turkish war (1768 - 1774) on the Russian army side, were given land nearby the Azov sea. The similar decree concerning the Armenian resettlement from the Crimea was accepted in four years.

 The Cossacks. Economy.

 The Don land settlement was supplemented by the agricultural development. The main crop was wheat, its production tempos twice exceeded the population growth tempo at that period. By the end of the 19th century, the Don Cossack Army region was one of the leading grain producing and trading regions in Russia. At the end of the 19th century the crops were gathered manually, but already since the first 15 years of the 20th century, the majority of the Cossack households were equipped with agricultural engines. The local Aksay agricultural engineering plant produced plows and harrows, the Taganrog plant also produced tractors. The other relevant agricultural trades were wine-growing and tobacco cultivation. The Don tobacco was peculiar in high quality and was very popular not only in Russia, but abroad as well. The main pride of the region was horse breeding, highly developed due to the long historic tradition of the Cossack military service. For many years the region produced excellent horses not only for the Don Cossack Army, but also for the regular Russian cavalry (dragoon, hussar, uhlan regiments).

 The main agricultural method was the extensive method: enlarging the sowing areas, though the labor productivity remained very low. The main problem for the Don land farmers was drought.

 The industry development was rather slow, the majority of the local enterprises were agricultural products and raw materials processing plants. The rapid industry development started only since the end of the 19th century, due to the introduction of the foreign investments.

 The Don land is very rich in minerals, especially in high quality coal – anthracite (in the Taganrog district). Before 1917 the local mines produced 3/4 of the whole coal output of the Russian Empire. One of the leading coal mining enterprises was “The Catherine’s coal mining society”.

 By 1913, the Don land region (in its contemporary boarders) produced 6,6% of steel, 12,3% of welded pipes, 9,7% of coal, other relevant products were steam boilers, agricultural engines, tobacco. In general, the Don land remained an agricultural region, the total agricultural production volume consisted 80%.

 The Soviet times.

 The First World War and the following revolutions, Civil war, especially embittered at the Don land, resulted in serious regress of the economic development. The Civil war led to great damage of the Don Cossack Army agriculture and industry. More than 6600 of the Cossack household were burned out within the region. By the Communist party decree of 1919 many of the Cossacks were arrested and evicted. The party made the decision to destroy the Cossacks - break down the Cossack way of life, it was prohibited to wear the Cossack uniform, the Cossack villages and homesteads were renamed.

 However, restoration of the damaged industry and agriculture began since 1922, and large industrial construction started since 1926 with the following enterprises: the Rostov shoe factory, thermal power plant in the town of Shakhty, the local steam-locomotive-building plant was gradually reconstructed. The largest in Russia zinc whitewash plant in Rostov (the contemporary “Empils”SC) started functioning in 1926, one of the largest agricultural engineering plant in Europe, plant “Rostselmash” was built in 1930. The combines, produced by the “Rostselmash” plant, were honored by a grand prize at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.

 The regional industry and agriculture were highly developed during the Soviet period. The agricultural engineering plants in 1936 produced 60 times more products than in 1913, by the time, the “Rostselmash” plant produced 11 thousand combines. Regional boiler building became twice more productive than the whole industrial sector in Russia at the pre-revolutionary period, the first 27 steam-locomotives were produced by the Novocherkassk locomotive plant.

 The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 brought great destruction to the region, Rostov was especially damaged. The pre-war population number (2,95 million people) was reached only by 1954, the reconstruction works were completed only by the end of 1960th.