Russell is a home rule-class city[3] on the south bank of the Ohio River in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States.

It has close economic affiliations with its neighbors, Ashland and Flatwoods in Kentucky and Ironton, Ohio.

The hilly site near the confluence of White Oak Creek and the Ohio was chosen by pioneer Jeff Moore in 1823 in order to provide protection for his camp against attacks by local American Indian tribes.

[5][dubious – discuss] In 1829, James E. McDowell, William Lindsay Poage, and his brother erected an iron furnace; they named the foundry and the community that grew up around it "Amanda Furnace" after William's infant daughter.

Ferry service to Ohio began in 1870,[9] local landowners agreed to rename the community after its founder in 1873,[7] and the city was formally incorporated under the name "Russell" in 1874.

[8] The expected C&O spur did not arrive until 1889 but, when it did, it constructed a railyard, roundhouse, and shops and the city grew quickly.

The 1937 flood affected all but 30 homes, and over 500 people were forced to shelter in C&O boxcars and cabooses until the waters receded.

Despite the completion of a bridge to Ironton in 1922 and a floodwall in 1950, Russell was no longer the county's largest municipality by the mid-1950s.

[9] The Fortune 500 company Ashland Oil relocated its headquarters to Russell in 1974,[9] but moved to the Cincinnati suburb of Covington in 1999.

The two-building headquarters was located on Kentucky Route 1725 (Ashland Drive), with another facility on KY 693 (Diederich Boulevard).

[16] The city has a large railroad classification yard, built by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and now owned and operated by CSX Transportation.