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Novocherkassk is a city in the Rostov region, is a city of
regional significance with the status of an urban district.
Population - 167 355 people. (2019), the area of the urban
district is more than 13.5 thousand hectares.
Novocherkassk
has an officially approved coat of arms, flag and anthem.
In
1944-1963 Novocherkassk was the regional center of the Novocherkassk
region.
On June 2, 1962, in Novocherkassk, a demonstration of
workers' protest against price increases was brutally suppressed
(see Novocherkassk execution).
In the urban boundaries of
Novocherkassk, settlements were included as microdistricts: the
Khotunok farm (in 1962), the urban-type settlements of Oktyabrsky
(in 1966) and Donskoy (in 2004).
Novocherkassk (Russian pre-reph. Novocherkask) was founded on May
18 (30), 1805 as the capital of the Oblast of the Don Army (Don
Cossacks), the founder of the city was Ataman Matvey Platov.
Before that, the capital was located in Cherkassk (now the village
of Starocherkasskaya). The need to move the capital was caused by
many economic, socio-political and natural circumstances. The main
reason was the almost annual long-term flooding of Cherkassk with
the waters of the overflowing Don in spring. As a protection against
floods, an attempt was made to erect a protective earthen wall
according to the design of Antony Ludwig de Romano, but its
construction was not completed due to its high cost and
unreliability. Another reason was the frequent fires in the former
Cossack capital, built chaotically, without a general plan, in the
fire of which up to half of the wooden buildings burned out. In
addition, there were no reliable overland access roads to Cherkassk.
Despite the fact that ten of the eleven representatives of the
villages that were part of the Cherkassk town, on the Cossack Circle
refused to move the capital, Platov nevertheless made a presentation
to the emperor with a request to allow him to move Cherkassk to
another place. The permission was given in the highest decree of
Alexander I of August 23, 1804.
Soon, engineer Lieutenant
General F.P.Devolan, who had a rich experience in urban planning,
arrived on the Don with the Tsar's instructions: together with
Platov, choose a place for the future capital of the Don Army Land
and draw up a plan for a new city. The commission of 12 people
examined a number of places: the Aksai and Cherkassky mountains,
areas of the villages of Zaplavskaya, Manychskaya, etc. She was
attracted by the Biryuchiy Kut tract ("wolf's den") - a hill
encircled by the Tuzlov rivers and the Don Aksay branch,
advantageously dominating the surrounding steppe, which was
important for defense in the event of an enemy attack. It was
decided to recommend this place to the king.
On November 7,
1804, Devolan and Platov presented the plan of the future city and
an extensive report to the emperor for consideration, which clearly
embellished the advantages of the area chosen for construction. The
city was designed in the best traditions of European urban planning,
with spacious squares, wide avenues and boulevards buried in
greenery. Devolan, calling the future Novocherkassk "little Paris",
put squares in the logical basis of the city, on each of which there
should be a church, and from each of the squares there should be
radial streets. On December 31, 1804, having considered the plan and
report of Platov and Devolan, Alexander I wrote with his own hand:
“To be like this. Alexander".
On May 18 (30), 1805, on the
day of the great Orthodox holiday of the Ascension of the Lord, the
historic celebration of the laying of the new capital of the Don and
the military church took place. By order of Platov, representatives
of more than thirty villages with banners and military regalia were
summoned to participate in the ceremony. In order to preserve the
evidence of this event, three teenagers were present from each
village. Furrows were plowed to mark the first avenues, streets and
lanes. The laying of the foundation stone of the cathedral, then -
the Gostiny Dvor, the Military Chancellery and the gymnasium. In a
specially built crypt under the cathedral, a "silver-plated board"
with a gilded coat of arms of the Don Army was immured, as well as
gold and silver coins minted in 1805.
The text on the plate
read:
“The city of the Don army, named New Cherkassk, was founded
during the reign of the Sovereign Emperor and the autocrat of
All-Russia Alexander the First, in the summer of 1805 May 18 days,
which until now existed for 235 years on the banks of the Don on an
island from this place directly to the south, a distance of 20
versts under the name of Cherkassk ".
A festively arranged
move to Novy Cherkassk took place on May 9, 1806. With a cannon
salute, Old Cherkassk accompanied the solemn procession to the new
capital. New Cherkassk met the first settlers, led by Voiskov Ataman
M.I. Platov, one hundred and one cannon rounds. The historical act
of the successive transfer of the military, cultural, moral and
other traditions of the Don Cossacks from the inhabitants of the
former capital to the new one took place.
The construction of the city proceeded slowly, primarily due to
the reluctance of the Cossacks to leave their habitable places, and
besides, the new capital was located twenty kilometers from the Don,
with which the Cossacks were closely connected throughout their
history, because of this there were even plans to deepen Aksai. on
the banks of which the new city was located. In fact, it was
supposed to put the Don on a different channel, but due to a lack of
funds, this plan was not implemented, and for more than three
decades the question of the place of the capital of the Land of the
Don Cossack remained unresolved. In 1837 it already seemed that the
project of transferring the capital to the village of Aksayskaya,
which was also on a hill, but adjacent to the Don, had triumphed.
However, in the same 1837, Emperor Nicholas I personally examined
Novocherkassk and the village of Aksayskaya and, after returning to
St. Petersburg, ordered to keep the capital in its original place,
because of the difficulties and futility of its transfer.
In
the first half of the 19th century, the city was built only as a
military center, there were administrative buildings, guest houses,
taverns, wine cellars, hotels, houses of generals and nobles, city
gardens, etc., only in the 1850s industrial buildings appeared in
Novocherkassk. enterprises, however, all these industries employed
less than one thousand people with almost twenty thousand
inhabitants of Novocherkassk.
In 1870, by a decree of the
Government Senate, the Land of the Don Cossacks was renamed into the
Region of the Don Cossacks.
On the eve of the October
Revolution, about sixty thousand people lived in Novocherkassk.
About half (more than twenty-five thousand people) were service
Cossacks with families. Noblemen - about three thousand people,
persons of clergy - more than five hundred people. There were
practically no merchants and peasants.
During the Civil War,
Novocherkassk became one of the centers of the white movement for
everyone who did not want to come to terms with the seizure of power
by the Bolsheviks. During this time, the city's population almost
doubled and amounted to more than one hundred thousand people. The
Cossacks, under the leadership of Ataman Kaledin, preferred to
isolate themselves from Soviet power by creating an independent Don
region with a center in Novocherkassk. Later, under the leadership
of Lavr Kornilov and General Mikhail Alekseev, the Volunteer Army
was formed in Novocherkassk, which began the struggle against the
Bolshevik regime. Throughout the war, Novocherkassk several times
passed to the Bolsheviks, then to the White Guards.
On
January 8, 1920, Novocherkassk finally passed into the hands of the
Bolsheviks, having lost the status of the capital of the Don
Cossacks.
In the summer - fall of 1941, due to the rapid
offensive of the Germans, most of the enterprises were evacuated and
the construction of new facilities (for example, a city tram) was
frozen, however, in the fall of 1941, German troops were transferred
to Rostov due to the advance of the Red Army, and only on July 25,
1942 the city was occupied by the Germans. Novocherkassk became the
center of the formation of the Cossack Camp - a military formation
on the side of the Wehrmacht. Novocherkassk was liberated by Soviet
troops on February 13, 1943.
In 1962, a mass demonstration of
workers took place in the city, known as the "Novocherkassk
execution", which was brutally suppressed by the authorities with
the participation of troops on the orders of Khrushchev.
On
October 5-6, 1991, the Grand Circle of the Union of Cossacks of the
Don Cossack Region took place, where Novocherkassk was assigned the
status of a historical and modern center of the Don Cossacks.
On July 17-18, 1993, the United Supreme Circle of the Cossack
troops of Russia and Abroad was held in Moscow, as a result of which
Novocherkassk was proclaimed the world capital of the Cossacks.