Novocherkassk (Новочеркасск in Russian) is a former capital of the Don Cossacks, now a town in the Rostov Oblast in Russia, located on the right bank of the Tuzlov River and Aksai River . Population: 178,000 (1974), 123,000 (1959), 81,000 (1939), 52,000 (1897).

Novocherkassk was founded in 1805 as an administrative center of the Don Voisko Lands, when the inhabitants of the Cherkassk stanitsa were compelled to leave their abodes on the banks of the Don on account of the frequent inundations .

During the Russian Civil War, Novocherkassk was the heart of the Don counterrevolution. The Red Army finally ousted the Whites from this town on January 7, 1920. During the World War II, Novocherkassk was occupied by the German army between July 24, 1942 and February 13, 1943. In 1962, the local food riots were brutally suppressed by the Soviet Army in the event known as Novocherkassk Massacre .

Novocherkassk was once an archiepiscopal see of the Greek Orthodox Church and has a cathedral (1904), the palace of the ataman of the Cossacks, and monuments to Matvei Platov and Yermak Timofeyevich (1904).

External link

• The Novocherkassk Tragedy, June 1-3 1962