Salsk

Town in Rostov oblast, regional subordination, rayon (sector) centre, 180 km south-east of Rоstоv-nа-Dоnu. Located at the north of Ciscaucasia, in Salsk steppes, on the Sredny Yegorlyk River (the left inflow of the Manych River, the basin of the Don). A junction of railway lines (to Rostov-on-Don, Tikhoretsk, Volgograd) and highways. Population (1992 est.) 62.2 thousand, (1926 est.) 7 thousand, (1939 est.) 11 thousand, (1959 est.) 35 thousand, (1970 est.) 50 thousand, (1979 est.) 57 thousand.

Founded in 1830 as a settlement at the railway station of Torgovaya, it was transformed into the town of Salsk in 1926. An industrial centre, the centre of a large agricultural area (cultivation of grain, including strong and hard wheat, sunflower, rice, corn; cattle breeding, including distant-pasture one in the south-east of the oblast. The town has enterprises processing agricultural raw materials (a mill house, a meat-processing plant, a dairy, a winery, a fruit cannery, a feed factory), a press-forging plant, a brickworks, a furniture factory, a fur factory, a shoe factory, a small-ware weaving mill, a clothes factory.

The present regular layout of the verdant town includes 5 microdistricts with 1-9-storeyed houses.