Danilovka

Danilovka stands on the right bank of the Medveditsa, among the lands of the Don Host. In 1747 Empress Elizabeth granted land here to the Don ataman Danila Yefremov, who established a peasant sloboda bearing his name. The settlement marked the spread of estate farming into a river country previously associated chiefly with Cossack communities. Yefremov sought permission to build a church dedicated to Saint John the Theologian, providing a parish for the people of the new sloboda.