The monument is dedicated to the founder of the city, Don ataman Matvey Platov. It is notable for the fact that it was originally erected back in 1853. In 1923, the monument was removed from the pedestal and moved to the Don Museum, and a few years later it was melted down. Only in the early 1990s the composition was installed again, on the same pedestal, maximally similar to the original. It depicts a life-size figure of an ataman in a general's uniform with a saber in his hand.