a city and administrative center of Rovno Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, situated on the Ust’e River of the Pripiat’ River basin. Railroad junction, with connections to Zdolbunov, Kovel’, and Sarny; center of a highway network, with connections to Kiev, Brest, and L’vov. There is also an airport. Population, 155,000 (1975; 43,000, 1939; 56,000, 1959; 116,000, 1970).

Rovno has been known since 1282, when it was part of the Galich-Volynia Principality. During the second half of the 14th century, it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1569 part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city became part of the Russian Empire in 1793, and in 1797 was a district capital of the province of Volyn’. In accordance with the Treaty of Riga of 1921, Rovno became part of Poland. In 1939 it was reunited with the Ukrainian SSR as part of the Western Ukraine and in December of that year became the oblast administrative center. On June 28, 1941, the city was captured by fascist German troops and became the German administrative headquarters for the occupied part of the Ukraine. The partisan detachments of D. N. Medvedev and the secret agent N. I. Kuznetsov operated in the surrounding region, and three underground patriotic organizations, led by T. F. Novak, P. M. Miriushchenko, and N. M. Ostafov, were active inside the city. There was also an underground party oblast committee, whose first secretary was V. A. Begma. Rovno was liberated by the Soviet Army on Feb. 2, 1944.

During the years of Soviet power, Rovno has been transformed from a district capital with cottage-type industries into one of the republic’s industrial centers. Its machine-building and metalworking plants turn out, among other things, high-voltage apparatus and spare parts for tractors. The chemical industry is represented by a chemical combine and a factory for nonwoven materials, and light industry, by a major flax-processing combine and a clothing factory. The food-processing industry has a vegetable-drying and canning combine, a meat-packing combine, and a milk plant. Furniture and building materials are also produced.

Of architectural interest are the wooden Church of the Assumption (1756) and the former Gymnasium, which was built in the classical style (1839). During the Soviet period, the design of the city’s central portion was improved with Lenin Street and Mir Prospekt (1963, architects R. D. Vais, O. I. Filipchuk), and a number of large-scale administrative and public buildings were erected. There are monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War (1948, sculptor I. Ia. Matveenko), to N. I. Kuznetsov (bronze and granite, 1961, sculptor V. P. Vinaikin et al), and to the victims of fascism (1968, sculptors A. I. Pirozhenko, B. V. Rychkov, architect V. M. Gerasimenko). There is also a war memorial (1975, architect N. A. Dolganskii, sculptor M. L. Farina).

Rovno is an important cultural center. The city has a pedagogical institute, an institute for hydraulic engineers, and a cultural-educational department, which is part of the Kiev Institute of Culture. There is a cooperative technicum as well as technicums for automotive transport, commerce, textiles, and agriculture. The city also has a music school and a medical school. Other cultural institutions include the N. Ostrovskii Oblast Theater of Music and Drama, a philharmonic society, a museum devoted to the secret agent and Hero of the Soviet Union N. I. Kuznetsov, and a museum of local lore.