Donbass

The Donbass or Donbas (UK: /dɒnˈbɑːs/,[1] US: /ˈdɒnbɑːs, dʌnˈbæs/;[2][3]

Ukrainian: Донба́ с [donˈbɑs];[4] Russian: Донба́ сс) is a historical,
cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia.
The word Donbass is a portmanteau formed from Donets Basin
(Ukrainian: Донецький басейн, romanized: Donets'kyj basejn; Russian:
Донецкий бассейн, romanized: Donetskij bassejn), in reference to the river
Donets that flows through it.[5] Multiple definitions of the region's extent
exist, and its boundaries have never been officially demarcated.

The most common definition in use today refers to the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions of Ukraine, whilst the historical coal mining region
excluded parts of these oblasts, and included areas in Dnipropetrovsk
Oblast and Southern Russia.[6] A Euroregion of the same name is
composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast
in Russia.[7] Donbass formed the historical border between the Zaporizhian
Sich and the Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area
The contemporary media definition of
since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised Donbas in Ukraine overlapping territories
territory.[8] of Sloboda Ukraine

In March 2014, following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and Russian

military intervention, large swaths of the Donbass became gripped by unrest. This unrest later grew into a war between pro-
Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (neither of which are recognized
as legitimate by any of the UN member states[9]), and the post-revolutionary Ukrainian government. Until the ongoing war, the
Donbass was the most densely populated of all the regions of Ukraine apart from the capital city of Kiev.

Before the war, the city of Donetsk (then the fifth largest city of Ukraine) had been considered the unofficial capital of the
Donbass. Large cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) also included Luhansk, Mariupol, Makiivka, Horlivka, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk,
Alchevsk, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Now the city of Kramatorsk is the interim administrative center of the Donetsk
Oblast, whereas the interim center of Luhansk Oblast is the city of Severodonetsk. On the separatist side, Donetsk, Makiivka and
Horlivka are now the largest cities in the Donetsk People's Republic, and Luhansk and Alchevsk in the Luhansk People's
Republic.

Contents
History
Into the Soviet period
In independent Ukraine
War in Donbass (2014–present)

Demographics and politics

Religion
Economy
Occupational safety in the coal industry
Environmental problems
 See also
References
External links

History
The region now known as the Donbass was largely unpopulated until the
second half of the 17th century, when Don Cossacks settled in the area.[10]
The first town in the region was founded in 1676, called Solanoye (now
Soledar), which was built for the profitable business of exploiting newly
discovered rock-salt reserves. Known for being "Wild Fields" (Ukrainian:
дике поле, dyke pole), the area that is now called the Donbass was largely
under control of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate and the Turkic Crimean
Khanate until the mid-late 18th century, when the Russian Empire
conquered the Hetmanate and annexed the Khanate.[11] It named the
conquered territories "New Russia" (Russian: Новоро́ ссия, Novorossiya).
Poor Collecting Coal by Nikolay Kasatkin:
Donbass, 1894 As the Industrial Revolution took hold across Europe, the vast coal
resources of the region, discovered in 1721, began to be exploited in the
mid-late 19th century.[12] It was at this point that the name "Donbass"
came into use, derived from the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian: Донецький вугільний басейн; Russian: Донецкий
каменноугольный бассейн), referring the area along the river Donets where most of the coal reserves were found. The rise of the
coal industry led to a population boom in the region, largely driven by Russian settlers.[13] The region was governed as the
Bakhmut, Slovianserbsk and Mariupol counties of Yekaterinoslav Governorate.

Donetsk, the most important city in the region today, was founded in 1869 by British businessman John Hughes on the site of the
old Zaporozhian Cossack town of Oleksandrivka. Hughes built a steel mill and established several collieries in the region. The
city was named after him as "Yuzovka" (Russian: Юзовка). With development of Yuzovka and similar cities, large amounts of
landless peasants from peripheral governorates of the Russian Empire came looking for work.[5]

According to the Russian Imperial Census of 1897, ethnic Ukrainians comprised 52.4% of the population of region, whilst ethnic
Russians comprised 28.7%.[14] Ethnic Greeks, Germans, Jews and Tatars also had a significant presence in the Donbass,
particularly in the district of Mariupol, where they comprised 36.7% of the population.[15] Despite this, Russians constituted the
majority of the industrial work-force. Ukrainians dominated rural areas, but cities were often inhabited solely by Russians who
had come seeking work in the region's heavy industries.[16] Those ethnic Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were
quickly assimilated into the Russian-speaking worker class.[17]

Into the Soviet period

In April 1918 troops loyal to the Ukrainian People's Republic took control of large parts of the region.[18] For a while, its
government bodies operated in the Donbass alongside their Russian Provisional Government equivalents.[19] The Ukrainian
State, the successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was able in May 1918 to bring the region under control for a short time
with the help of its German and Austro-Hungarian allies.[19]

In the 1917–22 Russian Civil War Nestor Makhno, who had power and more or less consistently fulfilled his promises, was the
most popular leader in the Donbass.[19]
Along with other territories inhabited by Ukrainians, the Donbass was
incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the aftermath of the
Russian Civil War. Ukrainian-speaking cossacks in the region were subjected to
decossackisation during 1919–1921.[20] Ukrainians in the Donbass were greatly
affected by the 1932–33 Holodomor famine and the Russification policy of
Joseph Stalin. As most ethnic Ukrainians were rural peasant farmers (called
"kulaks" by the Soviet regime), they bore the brunt of the famine.[21][22]
According to the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, the population of
the area that is now Luhansk Oblast declined by 25% as a result of the famine,
whereas it declined by 15–20% in the area that is now Donetsk Oblast.[23]
According to one estimate, 81.3% of those who died during the famine in the
Ukrainian SSR were ethnic Ukrainians, whilst only 4.5% were ethnic
Russians.[24]

Donbass was greatly affected by the Second World War. In the lead up to the
A Soviet propaganda poster from
war, the Donbass was racked by poverty and food shortages. War preparations
1921 that says "Donbass is the heart
resulted in an extension of the working day for factory labourers, whilst those
of Russia"
that deviated from the heightened standards were arrested.[25] German Reich
leader Adolf Hitler viewed the resources of the Donbass as critical to Operation
Barbarossa. As such, the Donbass suffered under Nazi occupation during 1941 and 1942.[26] Thousands of industrial laborers
were forcibly "exported" to Germany for use in factories. In what was then called Stalino Oblast, now Donetsk Oblast, 279,000
civilians were killed over the course of the occupation. In Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now Luhansk Oblast, 45,649 were killed.[27]
An offensive by the Red Army in 1943 resulted in the return of Donbass to Soviet control. The war had taken its toll, leaving the
region both destroyed and depopulated.

During the reconstruction of the Donbass after World War II, large numbers of Russian workers arrived to repopulate the region,
further altering the population balance. In 1926, 639,000 ethnic Russians resided in the Donbass.[28] By 1959, the ethnic Russian
population was 2.55 million. Russification was further advanced by the 1958–59 Soviet educational reforms, which led to the
near elimination of all Ukrainian-language schooling in the Donbass.[29][30] By the time of the Soviet Census of 1989, 45% of
the population of the Donbass reported their ethnicity as Russian.[31]

In independent Ukraine
In the 1991 referendum on Ukrainian independence, 83.9% of voters in Donetsk Oblast and 83.6% in Luhansk Oblast supported
independence from the Soviet Union. Turnout was 76.7% in Donetsk Oblast and 80.7% in Luhansk Oblast.[32] In October 1991 a
congress of South-Eastern deputies from all levels of government took place in Donetsk, where delegates demanded
federalisation.[19]

The region's economy deteriorated severely in the ensuing years. By 1993, industrial production had collapsed, and average
wages had fallen by 80% since 1990. Donbass fell into crisis, with many accusing the new central government in Kiev of
mismanagement and neglect. Donbass coal miners went on strike in 1993, causing a conflict that was described by historian
Lewis Siegelbaum as "a struggle between the Donbass region and the rest of the country". One strike leader said that Donbass
people had voted for independence because they wanted "power to be given to the localities, enterprises, cities", not because they
wanted heavily centralised power moved from "Moscow to Kiev".[32]

This strike was followed by a 1994 consultative referendum on various constitutional questions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts,
held concurrently with the first parliamentary elections in independent Ukraine.[33] These questions included whether Russian
should be enshrined as an official language of Ukraine, whether Russian should be the language of administration in Donetsk and
Luhansk oblasts, whether Ukraine should federalise, and whether Ukraine should have closer ties with the Commonwealth of
Independent States.[34] Close to 90% of voters voted in favour of these
propositions.[35] None of them were adopted: Ukraine remained a unitary state,
Ukrainian was retained as the sole official language, and the Donbass gained no
autonomy.[31] Nevertheless, the Donbass strikers gained many economic
concessions from Kiev, allowing for an alleviation of the economic crisis in the
region.[32]

Small strikes continued throughout the 1990s, though demands for autonomy
faded. Some subsidies to Donbass heavy industries were eliminated, and many
mines were closed by the Ukrainian government because of liberalising reforms
pushed for by the World Bank.[32] Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, who won
the 1994 presidential election with support from the Donbass and other areas in
eastern Ukraine, was re-elected in 1999.[32] Kuchma gave economic aid to the
Donbass, using development money to gain political support in the region.[32]
Power in the Donbass became concentrated in a regional political elite, known as
A monument to Don Cossacks in
oligarchs, during the early 2000s. Privatisation of state industries led to rampant Luhansk. "To the sons of glory and
corruption. Regional historian Hiroaki Kuromiya described this elite as the freedom"
"Donbass clan", a group of people that controlled economic and political power in
the region.[32] Prominent members of the "clan" included Viktor Yanukovych and
Rinat Akhmetov. The formation of the oligarchy, combined with corruption, led to perceptions of the Donbass as "the least
democratic and the most sinister region in Ukraine".[32]

In other parts of Ukraine during the 2000s, Donbass was often perceived as having a "thug culture", as being a "Soviet cesspool",
and as "backward". Writing in the Narodne slovo newspaper in 2005, commentator Viktor Tkachenko said that Donbass was
home to "fifth columns", and that speaking Ukrainian in the region was "not safe for one's health and life".[36] It was also
portrayed as being home to pro-Russian separatism. Donbass is home to a significantly higher number of cities and villages that
were named after Communist figures compared to the rest of Ukraine.[37] Despite this portrayal, surveys taken across that decade
and during the 1990s showed strong support for remaining within Ukraine, and insignificant support for separatism.[38]

War in Donbass (2014–present)

From the beginning of March 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and
anti-government groups took place in the Donbass, as part of the aftermath
of the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement.
These demonstrations, which followed the annexation of Crimea by the
Russian Federation, and which were part of a wider group of concurrent
pro-Russian protests across southern and eastern Ukraine, escalated in
April 2014 into a war between the separatist forces of the self-declared
Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR respectively), and
the Ukrainian government.[39][40]
Ukrainian troops in Donbass, March 2015
Amidst the ongoing war, the separatist republics held referendums on the
status of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts on 11 May 2014. In the
referendums, viewed as illegal by Ukraine and undemocratic by the international community, about 90% voted for the
independence of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.[41] (Although the Russian word used,
самостоятельность, (samostoyatel'nost) (literally "standing by oneself"), can be translated as either full independence or broad
autonomy, which left voters confused about what their ballot actually meant.[42][41]) Fighting continued through 2014, and into
2015, despite several attempts at implementing a ceasefire. Ukraine said Russia provided both material and military support to the
separatists, though it denied this.[43][44] The separatists were largely led by Russian citizens until August 2014.[43][44]
In January 11, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers in Ukraine approved a plan for the reintegration of the region and population of
Donbas.[45] The plan would give Russia partial control of the electorate and has been described by Zerkalo Nedeli as "implanting
a cancerous cell into Ukraine’s body."[46]

Demographics and politics

According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the
population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. Ethnic
Russians form the largest minority, accounting for 39% and 38.2% of the
two oblasts respectively.[47] Modern Donbass is a predominately
Russophone region. According to the 2001 census, Russian is the main
language of 74.9% of residents in Donetsk Oblast and 68.8% in Luhansk
Oblast.[48] The proportion of native Russian-speakers is higher than ethnic
Russians because some ethnic Ukrainians and other nationalities also
indicate Russian as their mother tongue.
Districts with a majority of native Russian
speakers are shown in red (census 2001) Residents of Russian origin are mainly concentrated in the larger urban
centers. Russian became the main language and lingua franca in the course
of industrialization, boosted by the immigration of many Russians,
particularly from Kursk Oblast, to newly founded cities in Donbas. A subject of continuing research controversies, and often
denied in these two oblasts, is the extent of forced emigration and deaths during the Soviet period, which particularly affected
rural Ukrainians during the Holodomor which resulted as a consequence of early Soviet industrialization policies combined with
two years of drought throughout southern Ukraine and the Volga region.[49][50]

Nearly all Jews, unless they fled, were wiped out during the German occupation in World War II. Donbass is about 6% Muslim
according to the official censuses of 1926, 2001.

Prior to the Ukrainian crisis in 2013–14, the politics of the region were dominated by the Party of Regions, which gained about
50% of Donbass votes in the 2008 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Prominent members of that party, such as former Ukrainian
president Viktor Yanukovych, were from the Donbass.

According to linguist George Shevelov, in the early 1920s the proportion of secondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian
language was lower than the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians in Donbass[51] – even though the Soviet Union had ordered that all
schools in the Ukrainian SSR should be Ukrainian-speaking (as part of its Ukrainization policy).[52]

Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbass residents claim to have a "Soviet identity".[53]
Roman Horbyk of Södertörn University wrote that in the 20th century, "[a]s peasants from all surrounding regions were flooding
its then busy mines and plants on the border of ethnically Ukrainian and Russian territories", "incomplete and archaic institutions"
prevented Donbass residents from "acquiring a notably strong modern urban – and also national – new identity".[51]

Religion
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine held by the Razumkov Center, 65.0% of the population in Donbass believe in
Christianity (including 50.6% Orthodox, 11.9% who declared to be "simply Christians", and 2.5% who belonged to Protestant
churches). Islam is the religion of 6% of the population of Donbass and Hinduism of the 0.6%, both the religions with a share of
the population that is higher compared to other regions of Ukraine. People who declared to be not believers or believers in some
other religions, not identifying in one of those listed, were 28.3% of the population.[54]
 Religion in Donbass (2016)[54]

Eastern Orthodoxy (50.6%)

Simply Christianity (11.9%)
Islam (6%)
Protestantism (2.5%)
Demographic changes in Donetsk Oblast: the
Hinduism (0.6%)
upper three columns depict language change over
Not religious (28.3%) time, the lower three – ethnicity proportions.
Russian, Ukrainian, others (according to
official censuses in 1926, 2001)

Economy
Donbass is dominated by heavy industry, such as coal mining and metallurgy. The region takes its name from an abbreviation of
the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian: Донецький вугільний басейн, Russian: Донецкий угольный бассейн), and while
annual extraction of coal has decreased since the 1970s, Donbass remains significant supplier. Donbass represents one of the
largest coal reserves in Ukraine having estimated reserves of 60 billion tonnes of coal.[55] Coal mining in Donbass is conducted at
very deep depths. Lignite mining takes place at around 600 metres (2,000 ft) below the surface, whilst mining for more valuable
anthracite and bituminous coal takes place at depths of around 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).[12] Prior to the start of the region's war in
April 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts together produced about 30 percent of Ukraine's exports.[56] Other industries in
Donetsk which may overlap Donbass include blast-furnace and steel-making equipment, railway freight cars, metal-cutting
machine-tools, tunneling machines, agricultural harvesters and ploughing systems, railway tracks, mining cars, electric
locomotives, military vehicles, tractors and excavators. The region also produces consumer goods like household washing-
machines, refrigerators, freezers, TV sets, leather footwear, and toilet soap. Over half its production is exported, and about 22% is
exported to Russia.[57]

In mid-March 2017, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on a temporary ban on the movement of goods to and
from territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic meaning that since
then Ukraine does not buy coal from the Donets Coal Basin.[58]

Occupational safety in the coal industry

The coal mines of Donbass are some of the most hazardous in the world because of the deep depths of mines, as well as frequent
methane explosions, coal dust explosions, rock burst dangers, and outdated infrastructure.[59] Even more hazardous illegal coal
mines became very common across the region in the late 2000s.[8][60]
Environmental problems
Intensive coal mining and smelting in Donbass have led to severe damage to the
local environment. The most common problems throughout the region include:

water supply disruption and flooding due to the mine water

visible air pollution around coke and steel mills
air/water contamination and mudslide threat from spoil tips
Additionally, several chemical waste disposal sites in the Donbass have not been
maintained, and pose a constant threat to the environment. One unusual threat is Coal-mining spoil tips along the
the result of the Soviet-era 1979 project to test experimental nuclear mining in Kalmius river in Donetsk.
Yenakiieve. For example, on September 16, 1979, at the Yunkom Mine, known
today as the Young Communard mine in Yenakiyeve, a 300kt nuclear test
explosion was conducted at 900m to free methane gas or to degasified coal seams into a sandstone oval dome known as the
Klivazh [Rift] Site so that methane would not pose a hazard or threat to life.[61] Before Glasnost, no miners were informed of the
presence of radioactivity at the mine, however.[61]

See also
Donbass Arena
Donetsk People's Republic
HC Donbass, an ice hockey team based in Donetsk bearing the name of the region
Kryvbas, an important economic region in central Ukraine
Luhansk People's Republic
Ruhr, a comparable region in Germany
Russians in Ukraine
War in Donbass

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External links
"Deconstructing the Donbass", overview of the 2014–2015 conflict (http://midwestdiplomacy.com/2015/02/27/dec
onstructing-the-donbass/)
"The coal-mining racket threatening Ukraine's economy" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22170976)
by BBC News

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