History of Lugansk region

Polovtsian stone woman XI-XIII centuries.

The Lower Paleolithic includes a series of locations of the Middle Podontsovye located within the Stanichno-Lugansk and Krasnodonsky districts of the Lugansk region near the villages of Vishnevy Dol, Makarovo, Pionerskoye, and Red Derkul ^[1] .

During the work of the expedition of the Voroshilovgrad Regional Museum of Local Lore (A.F. Gorelik, T.N. Klochko) in 1977, when examining the location of Sirotino-IV, the left bank of the Urazova River (a tributary of the Oskol River), a morphologically early Paleolithic massive flake "with a tortoise-like the back of the Levallois type , covered with a milky white patina. "

Near the village of Demino-Alexandrovka, archaeologists found 4 sites of primitive people. Paleontological sites and tools found belong to the monuments of the gravetta cultural tradition ; probably, to the epigravet of Eastern Europe, according to the version of its origin on the basis of eastern gravette in the broad sense. A detachment of the Seversko-Donetsk archaeological expedition led by M. I. Gladkikh in 1974 discovered and explored 11 locations near the village of Sirotino, Troitsky district. Most of these locations date back to the Late Paleolithic period ; some of them contain finds from the earlier Moustier .

A schematic representation of a woman was found on slate tiles from the final Paleolithic site of Rogalik ^[2] .

Novodanilovskaya culture dates back to the Eneolithic ^[3] .

The Bronze Age is represented by the monument to the Mergel ridge , which is a sanctuary of the solar cult of the catacomb culture ^[4] . They were replaced by the tribes of the Srubnaya culture , who lived here in the XVI-XIV centuries BC. e. ^[five]

In the Late Bronze Age, the Cimmerians lived on the territory of the Lugansk region. In the Popasnyansky area near the village of Belogorovka, archaeologists have discovered traces of their stay, dated X-IX centuries BC. e. ^[6]

With the beginning of the Iron Age , nomadic tribes of Iranian origin appeared - Scythians and Sarmatians , then - Alan-Bulgarian tribes ( Prabolgars ).

In the early Middle Ages (VIII century) in the Stanichno-Lugansk region there was a Khazar settlement ^[7] . In the IX – XIII centuries, the basin of the Seversky Donets was inhabited by nomadic tribes of Turkic origin: the Pechenegs , Torques , and Polovtsy . On the territory of the region, the Polovtsian burial mounds were identified and investigated, near which, as a rule, were stone statues ( women ).

After the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the Polovtsy obeyed the new conquerors. In the 1360s, Abdulakh Khan, near the modern village of Shipilovka in the Popasnyansky District, temporarily moved the capital of the Golden Horde ^[8] .

Since the mid-15th century, as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Donetsk steppes found themselves in the center of a fierce struggle between the Great Horde and the Crimean Khanate. Constant wars have led to the fact that these lands began to be called the " Wild Field ". The territory of the future Lugansk region was under the control of the Crimean and Nogai Tatars. Seversky Donets divided the Sub-Don into the left-bank — Nogai and right-bank — Crimean, where they grazed cattle in the summer. Sakma, the Crimean military roads, also ran through the Wild Field. In the middle reaches of the Seversky Donets there were numerous Tatar transports and climbs that delivered the Tatars to Russia.

Until the sixteenth century, the territory of the Luhansk region was inhabited mainly by the Turkic-speaking population, who had replaced the Iranian-speaking population, which is evidenced not only by political history, according to which these lands entered the Dzhuchiev Ulus until its fall, but also many geographical names - in particular, the names of rivers Aidar , Yevsug , Kovsug , Derkul (locals pronounce Derkul), and the highest point of Donbass is called the Tomb of the Mosque . After the reign of Khan Uzbek, the inhabitants of Dzhuchiev Ulus were Islamized , and the Tatars, Christians who did not want to change their religion, moved to the Moscow state , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , to Poland , etc., even a part of Muslims followed them after the Great Memorial. However, echoes of the Iranian-speaking culture can also be found in the folk art of the Russian-speaking inhabitants of the region, which is apparently connected with the preservation of the Iranian-speaking cultural substrate among the Cossacks (as an example, we can cite the legendary chieftain Kudeyar, who was the most popular character of folk art among the inhabitants of the region, - the names Kudiyar, Bukhtiyar and others themselves, found in folklore and surnames, are of Iranian origin). The Tatar population , which was mainly the descendants of the Polovtsy , began to decline after the middle of the XIV century, when the plague epidemic, which began during the reign of Khan Dzhanibek, caused significant damage to its population. After the Great Jamble in the second half of the 14th century and the invasion of the Temerlan Temnik Edigey at the end of the 14th century, the region lost a significant part of its population, and Dzhuchiev Ulus began to disintegrate, turning into several independent states by the middle of the 15th century. With the confrontation of the Russian lands united by Lithuania and Russia during this period and the fragmented Tatar state, the widespread distribution of the Russian population in the steppe zone in the 16th century is connected.

Intensive settlement of the eastern part of the “Wild Field” by Russian-speaking residents began no later than the beginning of the 17th century, when Don Cossacks began to build their settlements here. It should be considered that for the most part the migrants were the Verkhov Cossacks, whose resettlement was associated not with expansion, but with resettlement - the core of the Verkhov Cossacks was made up of fugitive stellates and especially Ryazans , whose mass exodus from their lands began after the suppression of the Bolotnikov uprising in 1607— 1608 and the reaction of the Romanovs against the Sever and Ryazan clans, which were the stronghold of the impostors of the Time of Troubles , which lasted until 1614. This is also connected with the fact that the first villages here were more often called towns. For example, Shulginsky town was founded by Ataman Shuleyko, Bolotnikov’s associate, after Bolotnikov’s defeat from the tsarist forces near Tula in 1607 (the Shulginsky town was destroyed, along with several other towns and dozens of smaller settlements during tsarist repressions after the Kondraty Bulavin uprising in 1707-1708 ., and a new settlement on this site - the village of Shulginka - was founded in 1719). also at that time Christian monasteries began to appear in the Luhansk region (Svatovsky district) ^[9] From the beginning of the 17th century, towns of Don Cossacks appeared on the banks of the Seversky Donets (Cossacks consider all these lands to be their original and no one else - on the Seversky Donets border with the Moscow state was near "transportation of the Ambassadors" (about the Holy mountain , a Moscow-border point-fortress was Tsarev-Borisov ), among them: Lugansk , Teplinsky , Aydarovsky , Trohizbensky , Bohr , Krasnensky . Then the oldest towns of the Don Cossacks hundred and appearing on flowing into the Seversky Donets rivers - Red, Stallion, Borova, Aidar, White, Kovsug, Evsug, Derkul and others.

In the third quarter of the XVII century. Ukrainian immigrants joined the process of Russian expansion, resettling to save themselves from the reaction of the Polish authorities to the Khmelnytsky uprising and accepted by the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Tishaysh as Cherkasy refugees with their subsequent privileged resettlement in large areas of the Sloboda regiments formed at that time - the region received in this connection name Sloboda Ukraine . Therefore, the mass population of the region with the Russian population was associated not so much with the relocation of the excess population to the deserted Tatar lands, but rather with the political reasons for the decline of the Seversky land , Ryazan land , the Ruin in Ukraine, as well as the exodus from the central lands of the Moscow kingdom and resettlement to remote and adjacent lands more than half a million Old Believers after the split of the Russian church in the middle of the XVII century.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Crimean Tatars were finally driven out of the territory of the Middle Pribedzhye.

Don Cossacks settled along the Seversky Donets and in its left tributaries Derkul , Aydar , Borovaya . One of the most dramatic pages of their history is related to the fact that they willingly accepted and used peasants who fled from the landowners to work on their farms. The landlords complained to Emperor Peter I about these illegal actions. At their request, tsarist troops were sent under the command of Prince Vasily Dolgorukov in order to return the serfs to their owners.

The conflict reached its climax in 1707. Residents of the Don villages and towns, and with them the serfs, united in a detachment led by ataman Kondraty Bulavin , decided to oppose the tsarist troops . A brutal reprisal followed: Peter I, having concentrated his troops, with the help of the top of the Cossacks, defeated the Donskoy’s troops, and their leader Bulavin was forced to shoot himself. By decree of the emperor, all Cossack towns whose inhabitants took part in the riot were ravaged and burned. About 500-600 families left with Ignat Nekrasov in the Kuban, later forming ethnic groups of Nekrasovites in Dobrudja and Turkey.

Only in the 1730s did the re-settlement of these lands begin. It was carried out by expanding the borders of the Ostrogozhsky Sloboda regiment , although returning former residents also participated in it, sometimes under alien names (this is connected with the phenomenon of double surnames among the Cossacks of the Seversky Donets, when two surnames are used in one genus - one dating back to the time before the Bulavin uprising and the other Slobodskaya: Adonins and Prussians, Popovs and Gaychuki, Borodins and Morozovs, etc.).

In the middle of the XVIII century, there are Cossack Zaporozhye settlements Kamenny Brod and Vergunka . The lands are part of the Kalmius palanch of the Zaporizhzhya Sich ; the power of the hetman Kirill Razumovsky extended to these territories.

Since 1752, in contrast to the Crimean Tatars, lands to the east of Bakhmut have been allocated by the tsarist government for military settlements of immigrants from the Balkans attracted to Russia. Here Slavoserbius is created, led by Colonels Ivan Shevich and Raik Depreradovich, among whose trenches are Kamenny Brod and Vergunka, as well as Slavyanoserbsk (the old one, located on the site of modern Lugansk, and the new one, created after flooding by the flood of the old).

1775-1783 Slavic Serbia is transferred to the subordination of the Azov province .

In the first quarter of the XVIII century, work began on the study of coal deposits in the region, the first industrial development of which was begun in 1790 in the area of ​​Lisi Bayrak ( Lisichansk ) for the needs of the Black Sea Fleet.

1790 year. The Scottish engineer Carl Gascoigne, who was invited to the Russian service, was instructed to conduct an exploration of ore and coal deposits in the Slavian-Serbia region. Gascoigne fulfilled the order and assured the authorities that the discovered reserves of iron ore and coal promise a huge amount of these minerals of the best quality.

On November 14, 1795, permission was obtained to establish the first iron foundry in the south of the Empire, the creation of which is most often associated with the foundation of the city of Lugansk . The villages of Kamenny Brod (1755) and Vergunka were the first settlements, took builders and workers of the Lugansk foundry. In 1796, Karl Gascoigne began the construction of the Lugansk foundry, the working village of which subsequently grew into the city of Lugansk. In October 1800, the plant produced the first cast iron. For the first time in Russia, coke scorched in Lisichansk was used for smelting metal. Since that time, the Luhansk region has intensively developed as a coal-metallurgical complex.

Of the earth. In the first half of the 19th century, the lands of the region were part of different provinces: Starobelsky Uyezd — part of Kharkov , Slavyanoserb and Bakhmut Uyezd — part of Yekaterinoslav ; part of the Voronezh province included part of the Belovodsky district. The Region of the Don Army included the lands of Stanichno-Lugansk , Sverdlovsk , Anthracite regions.

Railway. 1878 year. Inauguration of the Donetsk Coal Railway with a total length of 389 miles. It was the first railway in eastern Ukraine, in 1878 three sections were opened: Nikitovka - Debaltsevo - Dolzhanskaya , Debaltsevo - Popasnaya -Kramatorskoye, and Debaltsevo -Lugansk Plant. A railway station was built in Lugansk, a railway department was created, and a railway school was established near the station. Actually, from that time the countdown of the history of the Donetsk railway began .

Plants. In 1895, an ammunition plant was built in Lugansk, and in 1896 - a steam engine plant . In these years, an alcohol-refining, brewing and other factories began to operate.

Donbass after the February Revolution

On March 3-5 (16-18), the bodies of the tsarist administration were abolished throughout Ukraine, executive power passed to the provincial and district commissars appointed by the Provisional Government ^[10] . “Civic” and “public” committees were created in county centers. At the same time, in cities, towns, and mines, councils of workers' deputies began to be formed as representative bodies of revolutionary democratic forces. Initially, representatives of moderate socialist parties — Socialist - Revolutionaries and Mensheviks — prevailed in their composition. So, in the Lugansk Council of 60 deputies, the Bolsheviks were only a quarter - 15 people ^[11] .

In March-April, Soviets were formed in Lisichansk , Kadievka , Sorokin , Bryanka , Krindachevka , Svatov , Ekaterinodon and other settlements. Some of them - Bryansk, Kadievsky, Rovenkovsky volost Soviets of workers 'and peasants' deputies - were headed by the Bolsheviks; others are the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. And while the Bolsheviks sought to turn the Soviets into local authorities, the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries supported the Provisional Government through them ^[11] .

During March, almost all enterprises formed factory and mine committees that addressed issues of supplying workers with food, increasing wages, regulating working hours, improving working conditions, and in some cases established control over production. Subsequently, the district and central councils of factory committees were created ^[11] .

The February revolution led to the activation in the territory of Donbass of various political parties and organizations, including national ones. The most numerous Ukrainian political force became USDLP . In addition to it, the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries , the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Federalists , and Enlightenment functioned in the region. However, the Ukrainian national forces in the Donbass relied mainly on the rear units of the Ukrainianized military units. In particular, the 25th reserve Bakhmut regiment was stationed in Lugansk, the commander of which V. Malashko declared himself a Ukrainian Social Revolutionary, a smoking ataman of the local “free Cossacks” and chairman of the “district council”. This body did not have any real influence and self-dissolved shortly after the October Revolution. Some support for the "Ukrainian movement" in the Luhansk region was distributed only among railway workers. When a local Ukrainian group appeared with their blue-yellow flag at the May Day demonstration in Lugansk, the workers demanded to take it off, because “only red banners can fly at a workers’ demonstration ” ^[11] .

Armed labor squads began to form in the cities. Lugansk by the summer totaled about 300 people, the Alchevsk “Red Guard Guards”, headed by Alexander Strokotenko, more than 100 people ^[11] .

The July events in Petrograd resulted in the persecution of the Bolsheviks who were considered “German spies” and “enemies of the Russian revolution” ^[12] . The interim government used these events to attack the rights of workers. Industrialists used massive lockouts and winding up production. By the end of July, work was stopped at most mines, many factories; coal export decreased by more than a third. Hundreds of unemployed were thrown into the street ^[11] .

The positions of the Bolsheviks in the Luhansk region gradually strengthened, as evidenced by the municipal elections. Out of the 75 elected vowels, 29 were Bolsheviks in the August 6 elections to the Lugansk City Duma. The Socialist-Revolutionaries together with the Jewish party "Serp" received 18 mandates, the Mensheviks and Bundists - 10; cadets - only 2 places. On August 23, Clement Voroshilov was elected Chairman of the Duma, and Bolshevik Alexander Chervyakov was elected mayor. Lugansk became the first city in Ukraine, where the Bolshevik headed the city duma ^[11] .

During the Kornilov revolt, the Bolsheviks took energetic actions to organize an armed rebuff to the counter-revolution. On August 29, in Lugansk, from the representatives of the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, the City Duma, and factory committees, the Committee for the Salvation of the Revolution was created, which assumed all power. The Commissioner of the Provisional Government Nesterov was arrested, and then forced to leave the city; the "public committee" ceased to exist. Were arrested prokornilovskie officers of the local garrison, representatives of the big bourgeoisie and senior officials; the commissioners of the committee were sent to the bank, to the post office and telegraph to suppress attempts to sabotage; The Red Guard took over the protection of factories, plants, and the railway. To head the Red Guard detachments created on the basis of previously existing combat workers' squads, a headquarters was formed, headed by Alexander Parkhomenko . On September 14, a review of the combat workers of the Almaznyansky Metallurgical Plant, Bryansk mine, mines and factories of Lozova Pavlovka was conducted by the Lozovo-Pavlovsky Revolutionary Committee ^[11] .

The failure of the Kornilov putsch strengthened the position of the Bolsheviks, who changed their political slogans, promising to stop the war immediately if they came to power, to liquidate the landowner tenure and equalize the division of land between peasants, and turn Russia into a union of free republics. The Bolshevization of the Soviets began . In September, the Lugansk Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies became Bolsheviks (82 out of 120 deputies were Bolsheviks here), the Belyansky Gornozavodsky Sub-District Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the Bokovo-Khrustalsky Council of Workers' Deputies, the Yekaterinodon Council of Workers' Deputies, the Kadievsky District Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , Lozovo-Pavlovsk Subregional Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, Makeevsky Council, etc. In the autumn, at a meeting in the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), the authorized representatives of the Central Committee for Donbass were Artyom, Voroshilov and Grigory Petrovsky are listed. Representatives of other left-wing parties of the Donbass — Socialist-Revolutionaries, Menshevik-internationalists, and united internationalists — also began to take the side of the Bolsheviks. ^[11]

At the same time, the first detachments of the Free Cossacks arose in Lugansk, Lysychansk and rural areas.

October Revolution and Civil War

Rebel Movement (1917-1921)

However, part of the population rose against the Bolshevik government. In 1918-1921, the north of the Luhansk region was swept by a mass armed movement in which mainly peasant-anarchist formations took part. At the same time, some units were subordinate to the armed forces of the UPR. With some interruptions, the rebel movement lasted until 1931.

Lugansk Region in the Soviet era

See also: Donetsk province

In order to unite the coal regions of the basin into one, in February 1919 the Donetsk province was formed with the center (from January 4, 1920) in the city of Lugansk , which existed from 1919 to 1925. From 1925 to 1930 there was a Luhansk district

June 3, 1938 the Stalin region was divided into Stalin and Voroshilovgrad, which included 4 cities, 28 districts. As of January 1939, 1 million 837 thousand people lived in the region, of which 65.8% of the rural population, 34.2% of the urban population.

In 1958, it was renamed the Lugansk region, in 1970 - the Voroshilovgrad region, and since 1991 - again to the Lugansk region ^[13] .

Independent Ukraine

During the Euromaidan, residents of the Luhansk region and its governor Vladimir Pristyuk supported the power of Yanukovych. At the end of January, national squads were created in the region to protect public order ^[14] . April 6, 2014 in Lugansk the building of the SBU was seized with the requirement of federalization ^[15] . At the end of April 2014, an active movement for self-determination of the Luhansk region began in the region .

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