Mityakinskaya

Mityakinskaya is an old Don Cossack settlement in the steppe country near the Seversky Donets. Its foundation is traditionally dated to 1549, when Cossacks under the leader Ivan Mityaka are said to have fought Tatars in the area. The settlement bears his name and recalls the early Cossack communities that established fortified places along the rivers of the Don basin. Their river routes connected scattered settlements through a frontier contested by steppe powers and Muscovy.