Rostov-on-Don[a] is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia.

Rostov-on-Don has a population of over one million people and is an important cultural, educational, economic and logistical centre of Southern Russia.

In 1749, a custom house was established on the Temernik River, a tributary of the Don, by edict of the Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great,[2] in order to control trade with Turkey.

[14] In 1756, the "Russian commercial and trading company of Constantinople" was founded at the "merchants' settlement" (Kupecheskaya Sloboda) on the high bank of the Don.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, with the incorporation of previously Ottoman Black Sea territories into the Russian Empire, the settlement lost much of its militarily strategic importance as a frontier post.

[2] During the 19th century, due to its river connections with Russia's interior, Rostov developed into a major trade centre and communications hub.

During the Russian Civil War, the Whites and the Reds contested Rostov-on-Don, then the most heavily industrialized city of South Russia.

The town was of strategic importance as a railway junction and a river port accessing the Caucasus, a region rich in oil and minerals.

[17] On June 24, after reaching a negotiated settlement with the Russian government and military, the Wagner Group withdrew from the city.

In June 1996, the Rostov-on-Don City Duma adopted a variant of the coat-of-arms in which a tower represents the St. Dimitry Rostovsky Fortress.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries the home guard regiments, which defended the Southern borders of Russia, were raised under this flag.

[citation needed] Rostov's favourable geographical position at trading crossroads promotes economic development.

Rostov-on-Don is a trading port for Russian, Italian, Greek and Turkish merchants selling, for example, wool, wheat and oil.

[29] Public transport in Rostov-on-Don includes buses, trolleybuses, trams, and marshrutkas (routed minibus, usually a 17-passenger Mercedes Sprinter).

At the end of 2021, the Government of the Rostov Region and the Sinara company signed an agreement on the creation of a high-speed tramway in Rostov-on-Don on a concession basis.

By signing this agreement, the regional government put an end to the idea of developing the metro in the city in favour of the tram.

[32] The Bataysk military aerodrome (which is located 5.0 miles (8.0 km) northwest of the city center) may be developed into a new airport hub for Southern Russia.

[needs update] Platov International Airport was opened in late 2017 as part of preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The "Rostov-Novoshakhtinsk" starts from the Northern housing block area of the city running north to connect with the M-4 "Don" route between Shakhty and Novoshakhtinsk.

The Ministry of Regional Development of Russia has prepared a program to create eight multimillion conglomerate population centees or 'super cities'.

"The Greater Rostov" metropolitan area will include the cities of Rostov-on-Don, Novocherkassk, Taganrog, Aksay, Bataysk, and Azov.

The most conspicuous architectural feature of the central part of the city is the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1860–1887), designed by Konstantin Thon.

Other religious facilities in Rostov-on-Don are the Roman Catholic "Church of the Lord's Supper", the Old Believers' temple, a synagogue,[53] a mosque, and the Diamond Way Buddhist Center of the Karma Kagyu Tradition.

See also List of synagogues in Russia and History of the Jews in Rostov-on-Don The construction of the Rostov TV centre began in 1956 and was completed on 26 April 1958.

Apart from the new stadium, the city built a camping area for fans arriving for the World Cup, the Southern and Western Bypasses, and new hotels.

Reconstruction works were carried out at the bridge crossing over the Don River (expanding the traffic way to 6 lanes), a number of healthcare facilities, and the embankment area.

Authors of Rostov-on-Don include Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Sholokhov, Yuri Kazarnovsky, Zakrutkin, Fadeyev, Safronov, Kalinin, Alexander Pushkin, Maxim Gorky, Sergey Yesenin, Shushanik Kurghinian, Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Yuri Zhdanov, and Mikael Nalbandian.

Musicians from Rostov-on-Don include violinist Efrem Zimbalist,[61] Mikhail Gnessin, Semyon-Samuel Zaslavsky, Kim Nazaretov, Modest Mussorgsky, composer Andrey Pashchenko (1885–1972),[62] film composer Nadezhda Simonyan, Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova (born 1909), pop music singer Irina Allegrova (1952), classical conductor and violist Yuri Bashmet, songwriter and disc jockey Bogdan Titomir (1967), Eva Rivas (1987), Mikhail Puntov (1995), the post-punk rock band Motorama, rapper Basta, and the rap band Kasta.

Actors and playwrights of Rostov-on-Don include Maretskaya, Mikhail Shchepkin, Yevgeniya Glushenko, Alexander Kaidanovsky (1946–1995), Evgeny Shvarts (1896–1958), Nikolai Sorokin (1952–2013), Konstantin Lavronenko (1961), film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov (1969) winner of the Best Actor award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and Sergey Zhigunov (1963).

Scientists and explorers include, doctors N. Bogoraz and S. Fedosov, scientists Dmitri Mendeleev, A. S. Popov, and I. P. Pavlov, George Sedov, the Arctic Sea explorer, Yakov Frenkel (1894–1952), a solid-state physicist, Svyatoslav Fyodorov (1927–2000), ophthalmologist, Sabina Spielrein (1885–1942), psychoanalyst, and Yuri Oganessian (a nuclear physicist who is the namesake of oganesson (element 118)).