Donetsk Metallurgical Plant
48.0° N
37.8° E
- Type
- Industrial
- Region
- Donbas
- Country
- UA
- Coordinates
- 47.9823, 37.8106
In 1869, the British engineer and entrepreneur John Hughes began the construction of a metallurgical plant and a railway. During Yuz's time, the city was divided into two parts: Factory, "English Colony" - a place where workers who came to Yuzivka from Great Britain lived, and "New World" - an area where local workers lived. The creation of the plant was the cause of mass migration of workers from Wales to the future Donetsk.
The future center of industrial Donbass - Yuzivka was founded in 1869 by the Welsh entrepreneur-innovator John Hughes, who bought the village of Oleksandrivka from the Russian prince Sergei Kochubey and received the right to build a factory for the production of railway rails here. But, taking into account the coal deposits, he established here the full-cycle production, now characteristic of Donbass: coal - coke - metal. For this purpose, J. Hughes created the "Novorossiysk Society of Coal, Iron and Rail Production", which at the beginning of the 20th century. became the leader in steelmaking in the Russian Empire. Equipment for the plant and coal mines was imported from Great Britain without paying duty (this was a government privilege).
Hundreds of Welshmen, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Belgians and Germans came here for prestigious and highly paid work as engineers and craftsmen. Several generations of Europeans lived here until the Bolsheviks took away their industrial facilities in the early 1920s.
After J. Hughes, the French also began to invest in the region, buying up mines and developing the coal industry.
Thus, the growth of Donetsk industry was primarily influenced by foreign capital, primarily French, but also Belgian, German, British, and others. Foreign shareholders organized the trusts "Prodvgulya" (in 1904 it owned 75% of coal production in Donbass) and "Prodamet". In 1872, the joint-stock company "Novorossiysk Coal, Iron and Rail Production Company", managed by the Briton J. Hughes in 1869–1889, established the first metallurgical plant within the boundaries of modern Donetsk, which 20 years later became one of the largest in the Russian Empire (now CJSC "Donetskstal Metallurgical Plant").
