 The original town of Yekaterinoslav was founded in 1777 by the Azov Governor (in office 1775-1781) on the orders of Grigory Potemkin, not in the current location, but at the confluence of the River Samara with the Kilchen River near Loshakivka, north of the Dnieper.The city was named in honor of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great.By 1782 the city had a population of 2,194.