Kniaz Alexander Dondukov Boulevard begins between the Sheraton Hotel and Tsum shopping mall. It has the Presidency and the Council of Ministers buildings on either side and Vassil Levski Boulevard slices it in two before it continues up to Chavdar bridge. The National Opera has an entrance on Dondukov Boulevard.

Originally Dondukov Boulevard was called Kapanska Street but after Bulgaria's liberation from the Turks in 1883 it was renamed after the Russian Kniaz. In 1933, a section of the street, from the junction with present day Vassil Levksi Boulevard (then called Volgograd) to the Chavdar Bridge (over General Danail Nikolaev Boulevard), was renamed Karl Shvedski (Karl of Sweden). This part was renamed Marshal Biryuzov in 1951 and in 1991 the whole street was named after Kniaz Dondukov once more.

Kniaz (Prince) Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov was one of the founders of contemporary Bulgaria.

The Russian aristocrat was born in 1820 in St. Petersburg, Russia's cultural capital. His military career spanned the Crimean war (1853-1856), and the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878), in which he commanded the 13th division of the Russian Army. From 1869 to 1876 he was governor of three Russian regions. The San Stefano peace treaty of March 3, 1878, ended the Russo-Turkish war and the transfer of power to the Bulgarian people was completed between May and June, 1879.

The Russian emperor Alexander II realized that the freed Bulgarian territories faced a difficult transition to a new type of civil government. He offered Russia's help, which at the same time allowed Russia to control the situation and ensure future domination over the country.

A temporary Russian administration was established to help the transition. It was initially intended to last two years, but was cut to nine months in accordance with the Congress of Berlin (1878), which significantly decreased the territories under Bulgarian rule. The Russian emperor appointed Kniaz Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov special Russian commissar to Bulgaria and made him head of the temporary administration.

One of his first steps was the creation of central managing headquarters, which had the function of a Cabinet and included a Military Department, a Department of Interior Affairs, a Judiciary Department, a Department for Education and Spiritual Matters, a Finance Department, and a Customs Department.

Under Dondukov's supervision, the creation of the Bulgarian army was initiated. The first Bulgarian military school was established in July 1878. Obligatory military service was also introduced and in 1878 more than 30,000 people were trained.

A police force was organized and the justice system was reorganized. A thorough change in the taxation system was also initiated. The Bulgarian National Bank was established and primary education became obligatory for children of both sexes.

Kniaz Alexander Dondukov was also one of the people that drafted the first Bulgarian constitution, the so-called Turnovska constitution, named after the town of Veliko Turnovo (Northern Bulgaria), which was the capital of the country at the time.

The temporary Russian administration succeeded in accomplishing its main goal of building the foundations of a new successful state, administrative, judiciary and financial order, and creating the conditions for an independent Kingdom of Bulgaria to exist.

After he left Bulgaria in 1879, Kniaz Dondukov was head of the army in the Kavkaz (Caucasus) military region, which was then within the borders of the Russian empire. From 1890 he was made a member of the State Council. He died in 1893 in the village of Polonaia, in the Pskovska region.