Stepanevka

The steppe around Stepanevka lies near the narrow divide between the Don and Volga. Travellers and armies crossed this dry country at the portage where the two great rivers approach one another. In 1569 an Ottoman force attempted to construct a canal between them during its campaign against Astrakhan, but the project was abandoned. The surrounding land remained part of the contested frontier of the lower Don and Volga; the later village of Stepanevka belongs to another age.