NAKHICHEVAN-ON-THE-DON, a town of southern Russia, situated in the government of Ekaterinoslaff, district of Rostoff, 6 miles by rail to the north-east of the latter town, on the right bank of the Don. It was founded in 1780 by Armenians who emigrated from the Crimea and were allowed to settle on the banks of the Don, forming there an independent district between Azoff and the fort of St Demetrius, now Rostoff; they gave to the chief town of their new settlement the name of the older city in Caucasus. Owing to the fertility of the region, its advantageous situation for trade, and the privileges granted to the settlers, Nakhichevan soon became a wealthy place, and it still is the administrative centre of the “Armenian district,” which extends as a narrow strip along the banks of the Don, with a population of upwards of 25,000, of whom 16,500—principally Armenians, with some 2000 Russians—are settled at Nakhichevan. The town has several tobacco and wadding factories, tallow-melting houses, soap-works, brick-works, and tanneries, with an aggregate annual production of about <£100,000. The chief occupation of the Armenians, however, is trade, which they carry on throughout southern Russia, while the less wealthy of them are renowned as innkeepers on the Caucasus. The rural population depend mainly on cattle-breeding, and to some extent also on fishing.