Rostov-on-Don is one of the biggest cities of the Russian Federation with the population of 1 million people (according to the census of the population of the year 2002). Its area is 354 square km with the distance to Moscow of 1,226 km. It is a political, economic and cultural centre of the southern region of Russia. People say "Rostov is the port of the five seas" because it is the biggest industrial, scientific and cultural centre, also an important hub of the transport lines. The Don culture has not only the great past, but also the bright present.

At present time, Rostov is one of the biggest industrial centers in Russia. Today the city produces combine harvesters and transport helicopters, furniture and refrigerators, cultivators and footwear, champagne and tobacco goods. The new kinds of communications - paging, cellular, computer networks are developing in Rostov. The city has rich cultural traditions. The old-timers invariably take pride in naming you dozens of illustrious figures in literature, art, science and technology, whose lives and work were associated with Rostov. Here Moussorgsky gave concerts, the great Russian actor Mikhail Shchepkin played in the theatre, Alexander Solzhenitsyn studied at Rostov State University, the famous physiologist Pavlov performed his research. The city also boasts a fine local lore museum, which gives visitors a good idea of Rostov and its environs--their history and terrain. And the Rostov museum of fine arts is rich in exhibits, including some genuine works by such masters of Russian painting as Repin, Surikov, Perov and Levitan.

Rostov's busiest thoroughfare is Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, which bisects the city and runs parallel to the Don from the river Temernik to the vast Theatre Square. Towering over the Square is the Gorky Drama Theatre, a veritable palace of glass and marble, which was built in 1935 to a design by Academicians V. Shchuko and V. Geilfraikh. The Nazis burned the theatre when they retreated but its original appearance was subsequently restored. This superb edifice is set off by the picturesque greenery of Theatre Square.

Rostov as a whole is rich in greenery--with plenty of parks, boulevards and flower gardens-- October Park, Student Park, First of May Park, Pioneer Park, University Park, Gorky Park, the lovely gardens around its central bookstore and on the Gagarin Square and so forth. In Frunze Park a memorial has been designed to those who fell during the Great Patriotic War.

The people of the city take pride in their botanical garden, which features a large selection of trees and bushes from East, South and Central Asia, South Europe, the Caucasus and the Crimea. And its glasshouses have become a second home for some 500 species of tropical plants.

The lower reaches of the Don are indescribably beautiful with their tranquil lagoons ringed by thickets and--on the western bank pebbly strands and rocky outcrops.... And here lies Rostov-on-Don, loved by all who were born there, lived there or whose fate was otherwise bound up with it, and never to be forgotten by all who visit it.

.