06 May 2003, 00:39
Zernograd
Rayon (sector) centre in Rostov oblast (province), 71 km south-east of Rostov-on-Don. Located in the north of Ciscaucasia, in the Salsk Steppes. Railway station in the Bataysk - Salsk line; on the Rostov-on-Don - Stavropol highway. Population (1992 est.) 22.7 thousand, (1979 est.) 24.8 thousand.
Arose in 1915 as a halt of Verblyud due to driving of the Rostov-on-Don - Torgovaya railway; in 1933, renamed into the settlement of Zernovoy and attached to the training and experimental grain state farm, established in 1929. Town since 1951. Got the name of Zernograd in 1960. Agricultural centre (cultivation of grain and technical crops, including sunflower, castor-oil plant, etc.; a dairy and meat cattle production, horse-breeding). At the beginning of the 1990s, Zernograd had a factory of agricultural machines and a factory of hydraulic units, Azov-Black Sea Institute of Agricultural Mechanisation (an educational establishment).
