Zernograd

(until 1960, Zernovoi), a city, the administrative center of Zernograd Raion, Rostov Oblast, RSFSR. It has a railroad station (Verbliud) 71 km southeast of Rostov-on-Don. Population, 20,000 (1970). Zernograd emerged as a settlement in 1933 as part of the organization of an experimental educational sovkhoz for grain (1929); in 1951 the settlement became a city. It has a farm-machine plant and a dairy. The Azov-Black Sea Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, the All-Russian Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture, the North Caucasian Machine-testing Center, and an experimental selection station are located in Zernograd.