Due to its advantageous geographic location at the crossing of the transportation lines, the village experienced rapid growth during the 1870s, turning into a trade center.

Its role increased after the railroad connecting Khabarovsk and Vladivostok (now a part of the Trans-Siberian Railway) was built, and in 1898 it was granted town status and renamed Nikolsk-Ussuriysky (Нико́льск-Уссури́йский).

By the beginning of the 20th century the town's population totaled 15,000 people, and the annual turnover of its trade enterprises was equal to three million rubles.

Enterprises were established processing agricultural products such as mills, dairies, soap-boiling plants, and tanneries, as well as macaroni and sausage factories and breweries.

With Nikita Khrushchev's ascent to power after Stalin's death the city's name was changed in 1957 to Ussuriysk after the Ussuri River, which is more than 140 km away.

Ussuriysk is still second only to Vladivostok as a theatrical and higher-educational center (it is home to the Pedagogical and Agricultural Institutes, and the Higher Military School).

The largest enterprises of light industry are Primorsky Sakhar (which provides the Russian Far East with sugar, producing 160,000 tonnes per year), Dalsoya (which produces vegetable oil, margarine, and soap), Ussuriysky Balsam (24 kinds of liqueur and vodka products, and balsams made of a blend of dozens of herbs).

There are approximately thirty specialized and multipurpose trade bases, many of which had developed contacts with foreign partners before the external economic policy was liberalized in Russia.

[citation needed] On the central square there is a monument to the Red Guards and partisans, who died in the battles at Ussuriysk in June 1918.

Steam locomotive YeL 629 is set on plinth as a memorial to three Bolshevik revolutionaries (Lazo, Lutsky, and Sibirtsev) who were allegedly burned alive by the White Guards in its firebox in 1920.

[citation needed] Ussuriysk is very green because of many trees (such as poplars, elms, and jasmine, that were transplanted here from the taiga) and ranked third after Arsenyev and Vladivostok.