Makeevka

Makeevka

 

a city, directly subordinated to the oblast center, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Located on the Gruzskaia River (a left tributary of the Kal’mius River). Makeevka has a railroad station. Population, 396,200 (1972; 79,000 in 1926 and 240,100 in 1939).

Makeevka arose on the site of the workers’ settlement of Dmitrievskii, which was founded with the construction of a metallurgical plant, the Makeevka Metallurgical Works, in the region of a coal mine (put in operation in 1859) and the workers’ sloboda (tax-exempt settlement) of Makeevka (founded in 1777) adjoining the plant. In 1903, Artem (F. A. Sergeev) founded one of the first Marxist circles there. At the time of the Revolution of 1905-07, Makeevka was the site of workers’ demonstrations, which were suppressed by troops. A committee of the RSDLP was set up there in November 1915. On Aug. 30, 1917, the Makeevka soviet was the first soviet in the Donbas to go Bolshevik, and Soviet power was established on Oct. 26 (Nov. 8), 1917. Makeevka was captured by Denikin’s troops in the summer of 1919, but Soviet power was restored on Dec. 31, 1919.

In 1920 the workers’ sloboda of Makeevka and the settlement of Dmitrievskii were merged into the city of Dmitrievsk, which was renamed Makeevka in 1931. In the years of socialist construction, industrial giants were created in Makeevka, such as the first big mechanized blast furnaces in the USSR and the first Soviet-made blooming mill. In the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), Makeevka was occupied by the fascist German troops from Oct. 22, 1941, to Sept. 6, 1943, and suffered enormous damage at the hands of the invaders.

Under the postwar five-year plan Makeevka was fully restored and became one of the biggest industrial cities of the Donbas and an important center of the metallurgical and coal industries. At present it and the cities of Donetsk, lasinovataia, and Avdeevka form a single industrial complex. Makeevka is the site of a coal combine, the huge S. M. Kirov Metallurgical Works, the V. V. Kuibyshev Pipe-casting Plant, coke and cement plants, and coal-dressing factories. There are also enterprises of the food industry (a meat combine and a winery) and of light industry, including the biggest footwear factory in the Donbas. Makeevka’s cultural institutions are represented by a construction engineering institute, an evening mining technicum, metallurgical and construction technicums, medical and pedagogical schools, a young people’s theater, and a museum of local lore. The city is located in a ring of parks, gardens, and squares; a park forest stretches several kilometers in the north, wooded tracts are to be found in the south, and the lasinovskii wood and ponds are located in the western part.

REFERENCE

Zaporozhets, M. Ia. Makeevka. Donetsk, 1969.