LEBEDYAN, a district town of the Tarnboff government in European Russia, situated 132 miles west of Tarnboff, on the bluffs of the right bank of the Don. It possesses a modern cathedral (Kazanskii) and several churches of architectural and antiquarian interest; and in the immediate vicinity is the great Eletskii Troitskii monastery, which under the name Yablonovoi Pustuin was founded in 1621. The prosperity of the town is closely bound up with that of its three annual fairs, of which the first two continue for a month and the last for six days,—many of the inhabitants deriving the better part of their income from the rents paid by their merchant visitors. The chief fair is held near the monastery, and is known as the Troitskaya. The population, returned in 1863 as 5849 (exclusive of the suburbs, with 3046), was 6010 in 1879.

Lebedyan probably dates from the 15th century. It was reckoned a town in the beginning of the 17th; and about 1678 it became the centre of a district.