Description

City of Military Glory is an honorary title bestowed upon the citizenry of Russian cities, where defenders had displayed courage, steadfastness, and mass heroism in the fight for their Fatherland’s freedom and independence during the Second World War.

The region near the mouth of the Don River played an important commercial and cultural role since ancient times. Such settlements as Tanais (a Greek colony), Tana (a Genoese fort), Azak (a Turkish fortress) were situated in the region.

The official date of foundation of Rostov-on-Don is considered to be December 15, 1749, when the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna signed a decree establishing Temernitskaya customs. The Don River connected the northern and southern regions of the Russian Empire. Temernitskiy port became the only Russian port in the south of the country providing trade with the countries of the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas.

In 1760-1761, for the protection of the lower reaches of the Don from the raids of the Turks and Crimean Tatars, construction of a fortress began. The garrison of the fortress consisted of more than four thousand people. The fortress was given the name of Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl Demetrius (1652-1709). Subsequently, the name was transformed: the fortress of Dimitri Rostov, Rostovskaya fortress, simply Rostov, and finally, to distinguish from the ancient town of Rostov the Great located near Yaroslavl, Rostov-on-Don.

During World War II, German forces occupied Rostov-on-Don, at first for seven days from November 21, 1941 after attacks by the German First Panzer Army in the battle of Rostov and then for seven months from July 24, 1942 to February 14, 1943. The town was of strategic importance as a railway junction and a river port accessing the Caucasus, a region rich in oil and minerals. It took ten years to restore the city from the damage during World War II.