Rostov (Russian: Росто́в; Old Norse: Rostofa) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, 202 kilometers (126 mi) northeast of Moscow. Population: 31,791 (2010 Census preliminary results); 34,141 (2002 Census); 35,707 (1989 Census).

While the official name of the town is Rostov, it is better known to Russians as Rostov Veliky, i. e. Rostov the Great. This name is used to distinguish it from Rostov-on-Don, which is now a much larger city. Rostov Yaroslavsky is the official name of its railway station (due to its position in Yaroslavl Oblast); the town itself is hardly ever called by that name.

Rostov was predated by Sarskoye Gorodishche, which some scholars interpret as the capital of the Merya tribe, while others believe it was an important Viking trade enclave and fortress guarding the Volga trade route. First mentioned in the year 862 as an already important settlement, by the 13th century, Rostov became capital city of one of the most prominent Russian principalities. It was incorporated into Muscovy in 1474.

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (Ukrainian: Андрі́й Рома́нович Чикати́ло; 16 October 1936 – 14 February 1994) was a Soviet serial killer, nicknamed The Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper and The Rostov Ripper who committed the murder of a minimum of 52 women and children between between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR. Chikatilo confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings in April, 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death for 52 of these murders in October 1992 and subsequently executed in February 1994.

Chikatilo was known by such titles as The Rostov Ripper and The Butcher of Rostov because the majority of his murders were committed in the Rostov Oblast of the Russian SFSR.

Andrei Chikatilo was born in the village of Yablochnoye (Yabluchne) in modern Sumy Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. He was born soon after the famine in Ukraine caused by Joseph Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture. Ukrainian farmers were forced to hand in their entire crop for statewide distribution. Mass starvation ran rampant throughout Ukraine and reports of cannibalism soared. Chikatilo's mother, Anna, told him that his older brother Stepan had been kidnapped and cannibalized by starving neighbors, although it has never been independently established whether this actually happened.