A Welsh engineer was the founder of one of Ukraine's largest cities,
Donetsk.
John Hughes, a successful businessman born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, in 1814, made his money and reputation by developing armour plating for ships.
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| John James Hughes (1814 – 17 June 1889) was a Welsh engineer |
In 1868, Hughes was the manager of the Millwall Iron Works, London, when Alexander II, the Russian Tsar, ordered plating for a naval fortress being built at Kronstadt on the Baltic Sea, from Hughes.
The Tsar was very interested in Hughes' knowledge and expertise, which led to an opportunity for Hughes to develop his own metal works in eastern Ukraine (part of the Russian Empire), including a factory for forging railway lines.
In 1869, Hughes
acquired a piece of land to the north of the Azov Sea and formed a
new company.
Hughes sailed with eight ships, in 1870, to the place where the
new town would be established, carrying equipment and about a hundred ironworkers, miners and their families, mostly from South Wales.
The new town, based around ironworks and collieries, would be called
Hughesovka, after its "creator".
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| John Hughes' home in Hughesovka, c.1900 |
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| Colliery and coke ovens at Hughesovka, Russian Empire, 1912 |
It was the Russian Revolution of 1917 that changed everything. As the metalworks fell to the Bolsheviks, many Welsh workers were forced to return home to Wales.
The name Donetsk was adopted in 1961.
The
Ukrainian government lost control of Donetsk to Moscow-backed separatists after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014.
From April 2014, the area has been part of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”.
With a population of about one million people, Donetsk is now
part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War (2022).
Other names for the town have been Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino.
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| “William George beloved husband of Margaret Waters, late of Hughesoffska, Russia”. |
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| Ruins of John Hughes' house, Donetsk (Hughesoffska) |
