Novoaidar

Novoaidar grew from a fortified Cossack settlement on the Aidar River, a tributary of the Seversky Donets. Don Cossacks established it in the 1680s, in a frontier country where Ukrainian and Don Cossack hunters and fishermen had traveled earlier. A nearby crossing at Old Aidar was known to Tatars, showing the river's importance to movement across the steppe. A 1703 report counted seventy Don Cossacks in military service at the fortified town.

Men from New Aidar joined the uprising led by Kondraty Bulavin in 1707. Among Bulavin's commanders were Ivan Loskut and Grigory Bannikov, Cossacks of the settlement. Their participation linked the small river stronghold to a revolt that spread through the Don country against Russian authorities and the pursuit of fugitives.