Donetsk
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Donetsk (Template:Lang-ua, Donets'k; Template:Lang-ru) is a city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the Donets Basin region, or Donbass. The city's name is often simplified to Donetsk.
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Contemporary Donetsk
The city has 970,000 inhabitants (2004); the metropolitan area has 1,566,000 inhabitants (2004). It is the fourth-largest city in Ukraine. Donetsk and the surrounding territories are heavily urbanized and agglomerated into conurbation. The workforce is heavily involved with heavy industry, especially coal mining, but the city is very green and lightly-polluted for being a major industrial city. Donetsk has one of the highest standards of living in the region.
The metro construction beneath Donetsk is underway, but no station is yet operational. Donetsk lies 95 km north of the Sea of Azov, a popular vacation spot for the city's inhabitants. The city's football teams are FC Shakhtar Donetsk, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, and FC Metalurg Donetsk.
History
Donetsk was founded in 1869 when the Welsh businessman John Hughes built a metallurgical plant and several coal mines near a Cossack settlement Alexandrovka. The town initially was given the name Yuzovka ("Yuz" being a phonetic rendering of Hughes). By the beginning of the 20th century Yuzovka had approximately 50,000 inhabitants, and attained the status of a city in 1917. In 1924 it was renamed to Stalino (after Joseph Stalin). The Nazis' invasion during World War II almost completely destroyed the city, which was practically completely rebuilt on a large scale at the war's end. After Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956, the name Stalino lost popularity, and in 1961 the city's name was changed to Donetsk, after the Donets river, a tributary of the Don.
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Ethnopolitics
While the majority of people in central and western Ukraine speak Ukrainian, many residents of Donetsk and the surrounding region are Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russian immigrants; the Russian language is dominant in eastern Ukraine. Residents of this region tend to be more pro-Russian in political leanings. During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the citizens of Donetsk supported Viktor Yanukovych instead of his rival Viktor Yushchenko.
Twin cities
From 1962–1996 Donetsk had economic partnerships with Magdeburg in Germany. Donetsk is currently twinned with:
- Bochum (Germany)
- Sheffield (United Kingdom)
- Charleroi (Belgium)
- Taranto (Italy)
- Pittsburgh (United States)
External links
- History of Donetsk and the story of the founder Hughes (http://www.geocities.com/abcuni_school/1about_donetsk1.htm)
- Donetsk National Technical University (http://donntu.edu.ua/english/Donetsk/donetsk.html)
Template:Ukraine-geo-stubda:Donetsk de:Donezk eo:Donecko fr:Donetsk nl:Donetsk no:Donetsk pl:Donieck ru:Донецк (Украина) uk:Донецьк sv:Donetsk