Pleven [key], city (1993 pop. 130,354), N Bulgaria. A commercial center for a fertile agricultural region, it has food-processing industries and manufactures cotton textiles, cement, and wood and rubber goods. An old Thracian settlement, Pleven was later occupied by the Romans. It became a trade center under Turkish rule (15th–19th cent.). The city is famous for its defense by the Turks against Russian and Romanian troops in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. Its fall (1877) to the Russians after four months of fighting caused the Turks to demand an armistice.
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