__NOTOC__ Nakhichevan-on-Don (, ''Naxičevan’-na-Donu''), also known as New Nakhichevan (, ''Nor Naxiĵevan''; as opposed to the "old" Nakhichevan), was an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

-populated town near

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

, in southern Russia founded in 1779 by Armenians from Crimea. It retained the status of a city until 1928 when it was merged with Rostov.

History

left, Monument to Catherine the Great and the Gregory the Illuminator cathedral on the city's main square">alt=f In the summer of 1778, after the Crimean Khanate">Gregory the Illuminator">Catherine the Great and the Gregory the Illuminator cathedral on the city's main square">alt=f In the summer of 1778, after the Crimean Khanate was made a Russian vassal state, some 12,600 Armenians in Crimea, Armenians of the Crimean peninsula were Emigration of Christians from the Crimea (1778), resettled by General Alexander Suvorov in the Don region. The Russian Empire sought to strengthen

Novorossiya Novorossiya rus, Новороссия, Novorossiya, p=nəvɐˈrosʲːɪjə, a=Ru-Новороссия.ogg; , ; ; ; "New Russia". is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later becom ...

, which was vital in completely absorbing the Crimea. Empress

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

granted some 86,000 ha of land to the Armenians by a November 14, 1779 decree. The project of resettlement was promoted and financed by Count Hovhannes Lazarian. A third of the Armenians perished en route and during the first winter. The settlement of New Nakhichevan was founded by the survivors. It "rapidly grew into an important town with its own cathedral and seminary." In 1894 the Armenian community erected the

Alexander Column The Alexander Column (, ''Aleksandrovskaya kolonna''), also known as Alexandrian Column (, ''Aleksandriyskaya kolonna''), is the focal point of Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The monument was raised after the Russian victory in the w ...

in Nakhichevan-on-Don to celebrate the Emperor

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Grand Du ...

. Around the turn of the twentieth century it was part of the

Don Host Oblast Don Host Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Russian Empire which consisted of the territory of the Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with present-day Rostov Oblast in Russia. Its administrative center was Cherkassk, and later Nov ...

. In 1896 it had an estimated population of 32,174, of which 14,618 (45.4%) were native residents and 17,556 (54.6%) were nonresidents. The

Armenian Apostolic The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic Church, belongs to the Arme ...

population was estimated at 18,895 (58.7%),

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

at 10,965 (34.1%), others (

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants) at 2,314 (7.1%). According to the 1897 Russian Imperial census the city had a population of 28,427. East Slavic-speakers (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) made up around two-thirds of the population (19,224), while

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

(8,277) comprised a significant minority (29.1%).

Merger with Rostov and later history

By the late 19th century it was "engulfed by the growth of Rostov." As early as 1897, the entry in the ''

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' (35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopaedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in the Russian Em ...

'' said about the city: "Currently, Nakhichevan-on-Don has merged with Rostov so that the boundaries of the two cities can only be determined by a plan approved 11 May 1811." On 28 December 1928, Nor Nakhichevan was officially made part of Rostov. In 1929, the area was redesignated as the Proletarsky

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

(Пролетарский район), Rostov's largest district. As of 2001, it amounted to a "kind of Armenian quarter within the city." According to the 2010 Russian census, of the 41,553 Armenians in the city of Rostov-on-Don, 10,008 or almost 25% of all Armenians live in the Proletarsky district, where they make up more than 8% of the population, well above the city's total percentage of Armenians (at 3.8%).

Notable people from Nakhichevan-on-Don

Raphael Patkanian Raphael Patkanian (, – ), also known by the penname Gamar Katipa (), was a nineteenth-century Russian Armenian writer and educator. He was born into a noted family of Armenian intellectuals in Nakhichevan-on-Don and began writing in his stude ...

(1830–1892), Armenian writer *

Mikayel Nalbandian Mikayel Nalbandian (; ) was a Russian-Armenian writer, poet, political theorist and activist. Nalbandian was born in Nakhichevan-on-Don, an Armenian town in southern Russia, and traveled extensively, although he visited Armenia itself only on ...

(1839–1866), Armenian writer * George VI of Armenia (1868–1954), Catholicos of All Armenians *

Martiros Saryan Martiros Saryan (; ; – 5 May 1972) was an Armenian painter, People's Artist of the USSR (1960), member of the USSR Academy of Fine Arts (1947), president of the Artists' Union of Soviet Armenia (1945-1951), the founder of a modern Armenian nat ...

(1880–1972), Armenian painter *

Simon Vratsian Simon Vratsian (; 1882 – 21 May 1969) was an Armenian politician and activist of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He was one of the leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) and served as its last prime minister for 10 days ...

(1882–1969),

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

of the

First Republic of Armenia The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was an independent History of Armenia, Armenian state that existed from May (28th ''de jure'', 30th ''de facto'') 1918 to 2 December 1920 in ...

* Sargis Lukashin (Srabionian) (1883–1937), chairman of the

Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...

(1922–1925) * Sergei Galadzhev (1902–1954), Soviet general * Gevork Vartanian (1924–2012), Soviet intelligence agent *

Alexander Miasnikian Alexander Fyodori Miasnikian or Myasnikov (28 January February1886 – 22 March 1925), also known by his revolutionary ''nom de guerre'' Martuni, was an Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary, military leader and politician. During the Russian Civi ...

(1886–1925), chairman of the

(1921–1922) of the

Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

* Ervand Kogbetliantz (1888–1974), mathematician and first president of

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; , , ), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919, it is the largest university in the country. It is thus informally known as Armenia's ...

Nina Garsoïan Nina G. Garsoïan (April 11, 1923 – August 14, 2022) was a French-born American historian specializing in Armenian and Byzantine history. In 1969 she became the first female historian to get tenure at Columbia University and, subsequently, b ...

(1923–2022), historian *

Mikhail Chailakhyan Mikhail Khristoforovich Chailakhyan (, ; 1902–1991) was a Soviet Armenian scientist who is widely known for proposing the existence of a universal plant hormone that is involved in flowering. He named this hormone florigen Florigens (or flowe ...

(1902–1991), scientist *

Marietta Shaginyan Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan (; , April 2, 1888 – March 20, 1982) was a Soviet writer, historian of Armenian descent. She was one of the "fellow travelers" of the 1920s led by the Serapion Brotherhood and became one of the most prolific co ...

(1888–1982), historian and writer * Ashot Melkonian (1930–2009), artist * Miron Merzhanov (1895–1975), personal architect to Stalin *

Constantin Alajalov Constantin Alajálov (born Konstandin Alaǰalyan, ; 18 November 1900 — 23 October 1987) was an Armenian-American painter and illustrator. He was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, and immigrated to New York City in 1923, becoming a US citize ...

(1900–1987), Armenian-American painter and illustrator; created more than 70 front covers for

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

* Stepan Kechekjan (1890–1967), lawyer and historian * Avet Ter-Gabrielyan (1899–1983), violinist and founder of the

Komitas Quartet The Komitas Quartet is a string quartet musical ensemble founded in Moscow in November 1924, and is the oldest-established string quartet in the world still performing. It is now in the third and fourth generation of membership. Original line-u ...

* Gayane Chebotaryan (1918–1998), composer and musicologist * Ashot Melkonian (1930-2009), artist *

Alexander Kemurdzhian Aleksandr Leonovich Kemurdzhian (; 4 October 192125 February 2003) was a Soviet mechanical engineer who worked at the VNIITransmash institute for most of the second half of the 20th century. He is best known for designing the metal chases for ' ...

(1921–2003), mechanical engineer who designed

Lunokhod 1 ''Lunokhod 1'' (Russian language, Russian: Луноход-1 "Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203") was the first rover (space exploration), robotic rover lunar rover, on the Moon and the first to freel ...

, the first ever planetary rover for space exploration * Gregorio Sciltian (1900–1985), painter

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakhichevan-On-Don Armenian diaspora communities Armenian diaspora in Russia Cities and towns in Rostov Oblast 1779 establishments in the Russian Empire Populated places established in 1779

History

Merger with Rostov and later history

Notable people from Nakhichevan-on-Don

See also

References