Count Matvey Ivanovich Platov (1753-1818) was the ataman of the Don Cossack Army from 1801 and a general of cavalry from 1809. He participated in all the wars of the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. In 1805, Platov founded Novocherkassk, where he moved the capital of the Don Cossack Army.

Platov was born in Cherkassk, the capital of the Don Cossacks (now the stanitsa of Starocherkasskaya in the Aksai District of Rostov Oblast), and was baptized in the Church of Peter and Paul, which still stands today. He came from a family of elders of the Don Army; his father was a military elder. By birth, he belonged to the Old Believers with priests, but he did not publicize this due to his position.

On April 3, 1774, a battle took place on the banks of the Kalala River (now the Krasnogvardeysky District), which historians call unique. Two Cossack regiments, numbering about a thousand men, faced the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, which outnumbered them by more than twenty times. The Cossacks were commanded by the then-unknown young Matvey Platov.

In the 1807 campaign, Platov commanded all the Cossack regiments of the active army. After the battle of Preussisch Eylau, he became known throughout Russia. He was celebrated for his daring raids on the flanks of the French army, in which he inflicted defeats on several detachments. After retreating from Geylsberg, his detachment covered the rear guard, repelling constant French attacks.

In Tilsit, where peace was concluded, Platov met Napoleon, who, in recognition of his merits, gifted him a precious snuffbox. However, Platov refused the French Order of the Legion of Honor, stating: "I did not serve Napoleon and cannot serve him." During the Patriotic War of 1812, he commanded all the Cossack regiments. For his merits, on November 10, 1812, Platov was elevated to the rank of count of the Russian Empire.

At the end of December 1817, Matvey Ivanovich moved to his estate Yelanchik near Taganrog, where he died on January 15, 1818. His body was taken to the Mishkinsky country house. In January, amidst frosts and snows, the road from the house to the under-construction stone Ascension Cathedral in Novocherkassk was cleared. On January 10, 1818, his battle comrades carried the coffin with his body to the family crypt, where he was buried with honors. In 1830, a tombstone was erected near the crypt. In 1875, he was reburied in the crypt of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and later in the new Ascension Cathedral.

During the Soviet years, Platov's burial was desecrated and destroyed, and his monument in front of the Ataman Palace was demolished. Only in 1993 were his remains ceremoniously returned to the Ascension Cathedral, and the monument was restored. Today, Platov's burial attracts the attention of local residents and city guests. Over the past decades, monuments to him have been erected not only in Novocherkassk but also in other cities of Russia. His name is once again known and revered as a symbol of victory over Napoleon.