|
|
|
|
Stephen Rapawy Historical Background Donetsk began as a small Cossack village late in the 17th century. Initially, farming and raising cattle were principal industries, with the settlement and adjacent lands being named Oleksandrovka in 1779. By 1820, small scale coal mining began, with annual output of about 7,000 metric tons by the mid-1850's. The local economy further diversified in 1869 when the New Russia Company was formed to mine coal, smelt iron, produce rails, and operate a railroad. Skilled workers and technicians were brought from Britain to expand the coal mines and build a steel mill. A new settlement, Yuzivka (from the company's owner, Welshman John Hughes), was built to house workers. In 1924, the town was renamed Stalino, and finally Donetsk, in 1961. Blast furnaces and other equipment were imported from Britain and smelting started in 1872. Proximity to iron ore, high quality coal, water from the Kalimius River, and construction of local railroad lines all contributed to rapid industrial growth. By 1876, the plant produced more iron than any other in the Russian Empire. The company introduced Martin furnaces in 1879, and by 1899 annual output of pig iron reached 289,926 metric tons. While Yuzivka was a Hughes company town, there were other companies as well--several coal mines were owned and operated by individual proprietors, some by a French mining company, and a factory manufacturing mining equipment was established by foreign investors. [Belgians, British and French were the leading investors in the region, but no data are available on the nationality of foreign investors in the city.] Plants that produced food and other consumer goods were owned by native entrepreneurs. In Yuzivka, living conditions were difficult. Working class families lived in cottages near places of work and single men frequently lived in barracks. Only the most affluent areas had any street lighting. The town was unsanitary, with unpaved streets and unclean drinking water causing outbreaks of cholera, abdominal typhoid and dysentery. Medical facilities were inadequate, with just a 12 bed clinic (opened in 1871) until a public hospital opened in 1911. A skeletal education system was another problem. The first school opened in 1877 and 2 years later had eighty pupils. There was also a school for English workers. By 1904, there were only four elementary schools with 800 pupils, in a town of 210,000. The situation improved just before the war, with enrollment increasing to over 2,000 in eleven schools by 1913. Elementary education was supplemented by four secondary schools (three academic and one commercial). Poor working conditions, low wages, and leftist agitation provoked labor unrest. Strikes occurred first among miners in 1874 (for higher wages), and in 1898, steel mill workers demanded a shorter workday (the agreement reduced the workday from 12 to 10.5 hours). Stoppages became more common during the 1900-03 recession, with nine strikes. Unrest peaked during the 1905 Revolution, as armed workers repeatedly battled troops and Don Cossacks. From 1906 to 1917, strikes and labor unrest abated. The fall of the Tsarist regime in March 1917 plunged what is now Donetsk into prolonged chaos and civil war. Armed workers (Red Guards) seized control of the city in November 1917 by disarming police of the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks organized a force of 3,000, aided by arms and ammunition from Russia; and with the help of other Red forces in the region captured the city. Their control of the region and the city were short-lived, as the Germans occupied Donetsk in April 1918. Prior to that, the Bolsheviks shipped coal, equipment from weapon factories, and other assets, and sent them by rail to Russia. After the Germans evacuated in November 1918, the city changed hands several times between the Reds and Whites until the Red Army finally prevailed in January 1920.
Population and Labor Force Rapid population growth in Donetsk was quickly reversed by war. The population grew from 47,000 in January 1910 to 113,000 by the outbreak of World War I (70,000 workers and 43,000 family members). The draft created labor shortages that were mitigated somewhat by POW's, women, and children. The Yuzivka district had 29,000 workers on September 1, 1916, including 7,000 POW's and 3,000 women and children. In addition to the draft, the population declined due to fatalities from hostilities and typhus, as well as an exodus from the city. By 1923, Donetsk city had just 32,100 residents, less than half the pre-war total. As the main iron and coal region in the USSR, Donetsk was rebuilt and expanded quickly during industrialization. The population skyrocketed from 80,085 in 1925 to 472,000 in 1939. World War II caused severe population losses, when the Red Army recaptured the city in the fall of 1943, the population fell to 175,000. Post-war recovery sparked another boom and in 1979, Donetsk had 1,021,000 residents. During the following decade, the increase slowed considerably and the population has remained basically unchanged for the last few years. In fact, the population fell slightly between 1993 and 1994, from 1,121,000 to 1,114,000. Historically, Donetsk has been largely a Russian city (Figure 1). Russian migration and rapid assimilation of Ukrainians moving to towns from the countryside caused Russification of Ukrainian cities. These processes occurred in Donetsk as well, but the share of Russians entering the city before the Russian Revolution (1917) seems greater than in most other cities. Russian migration continued during the Soviet period, but the degree to which the population movement was spontaneous or centrally planned is unclear. The last few years have seen serious problems throughout Ukraine and in Donetsk. The number of marriages decreased, the divorce rate increased, while fertility has dropped and mortality both for infants and adults increased. The total fertility rate (TFR) in Ukraine, the average number of children per woman in a lifetime, decreased from 2.1 in 1985/86 to 1.6 in 1992/93, well below the replacement level. The TFR for the urban population of Donetsk Oblast dropped to 1.5 in 1991/92. Infant mortality, deaths of children up to 1 year of age, in the oblast increased from 12.8 per 1,000 in 1990, to 15.3 in 1993. More unusual is the increased mortality among working ages--16 to 55 for women and 60 for men--rates increased 23 percent between 1990 and 1993, compared to a 14 percent rise for the other age groups. These factors with the 1,600 negative migration balance reduced both the city and the oblast population. A labor force survey conducted in March-April 1994 indicated that 62 percent of the population (aged 18 and older) are employed, 25 percent are on pension, and 2 percent are unemployed. The remainder are distributed among various categories--homemakers (4 percent), women on maternity leave (3 percent), students (3 percent). Fewer than one percent (six individuals) were not seeking work (which by Western standards would exclude them from the survey). The 1989 census reports that among the urban population in the oblast 15 years and older, 10 percent had higher education (next to the last among the 25 oblasts). For the city, among those aged 18 and older, 21 percent had higher education. By occupation, 12 percent were in management or supervisory positions, 9 percent were professionals, 11 percent were clerical workers, and 53 percent were blue collar workers. Most people, 86 percent, are in government, while 13 percent are in the private sector. Private sector employment is concentrated in leased or privately owned entities, while 16 percent are self employed and 14 percent work in cooperatives (Figure 2).
Political Landscape Donetsk is pivotal to Ukrainian politics. The city is located at the heart of the most densely populated and industrialized region of the country. Its aging industrial base, centered on coal and steel, faces greater economic difficulties than many other regions. Wages continue to be artificially high (presumably to forestall unrest). Yet the government cannot continue indefinitely to pay inflated wages in industries with declining output. As Ukraine reduces output of weapons and equipment for heavy industry, demand for coal and steel will continue to shrink. Economic problems are complicated further by language and ethnicity. Russians comprised 54 percent of the city's population in 1989, and those claiming Russian as their native language totaled 81 percent. In the 1991 referendum on Ukraine's independence, 77 percent of the oblast voters opted for independence, well below the national average, 90 percent. Difficult economic conditions in the last few years eroded support for independence, helping leftists and communists make strong showings in the 1994 election. Donetsk, like the rest of Ukraine, has numerous political groups, each with its own agenda and small number of ardent supporters. Politics are muddied further by an election procedure which permits an individual who was nominated by at least 10 people, and who secured 300 signatures, to be placed on the ballot. These minimal requirements produced 563 candidates for the oblast's 47 seats to the national parliament. Left-wing parties captured 28 of 43 seats filled in the 1994 election. The Communist Party of Ukraine won the most (22 seats), advocating the restoration of the Soviet Union, and less dramatically, dual citizenship with Russia, making Ukrainian and Russian the official languages, and Ukraine's entry into the ruble zone. The Socialist Party of Ukraine captured three seats, calling for a single Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) currency, the two official languages, and significant autonomy for Donetsk within Ukraine. The Labor Party of Ukraine won two seats, favoring economic union with Russia, regional autonomy and the two state languages, and the Peasant Party of Ukraine elected one candidate, who advocates economic union with the CIS and opposes dismantling collective farms. Two other leftist parties, the Civic Congress, and The Strike Committee, reportedly representing 120,000 miners, were shut out of the new parliament. Centrist groups did not elect any parliamentary candidates. The Interregional Bloc for Reforms, headed by current President Leonid Kuchma and Volodymyr Hrynov, was expected to do well based on pre-election polls. The Bloc proposed coordination of military, foreign, and economic policies with Russia, greater regional political and economic powers and two official languages. Kuchma received 79 percent of the vote in the presidential run-off, but his success did not translate into parliamentary success. The Congress of National-Democratic Forces favors economic and political reforms, including the separation of power among branches of government, local governments' economic rights and improved relations with Russia. Preservation of Ukrainian independence is their primary concern. The Congress of the Ukrainian Nationalists represents pro-reform, nationalist groups. Both organizations failed to elect any delegates, but 12 independents were elected. The left-wing parties' success in the national parliamentary election did not extend to oblast and local elections. The Communists won nine seats, and the Socialists and the Civil Congress each won a single seat of 75 filled in the oblast (no data are available on party affiliation of other winners). Of the 75 delegates to the city council, the Communists elected seven, the Labor Party elected six, and the remaining members have not declared their party affiliation. The pattern of leftists doing better in the national election than in local elections has occurred in several industrialized and Russified eastern oblasts. The reasons are unclear, but may be due to weak organization and a lack of ideological commitment by the electorate, with these elections decided by personalities rather than issues or ideology. Local elections produced several reformist leaders. Foremost is Voladymyr Sheherban, chairman of the oblast council. He advocates privatizing agriculture and giving coal miners greater independence, including the right to sell some of their output. These proposals garnered support from reformers as well as coal miners. Volodymyr Rybak, Shcherban's pro-reformist ally, was reelected mayor of Donetsk, as well as a deputy-chairman of the oblast council. They are close political allies, which should help them survive politically and implement some reforms. Some success in reforming an economy of an oblast with smoke- stack industry and more than 10 percent of the country's population would stimulate reforms throughout Ukraine.
Education and Culture After the Civil War, the city's education services grew rapidly. Enrollment increased from 3,500 students in 18 general education schools (primary and secondary schools) at the end of 1923 to over 70,000 students in 113 schools by the beginning of 1941. Technical education also was bolstered to meet the requirements of expanding industry. The Mining Technical Institute, established in 1922, provides semi-professional and professional training. In 1935, the school was expanded and renamed the Donetsk Polytechnical Institute, offering training in mining and numerous branches of engineering. Today the school is the city's largest higher educational institution, with an enrollment of 18,000 (1979) and regional branches in several major cities of the oblast. The FZU, a factory school, was established in 1923 with 160 students in 6-12 month training programs for highly skilled jobs. A medical institute opened in 1930, and by 1941 had graduated approximately 1,100 physicians. Donetsk's educational system recovered quickly from damage inflicted by World War II. By 1950, over 75,000 students were enrolled in 139 general education schools. There also were 10 specialized secondary schools, providing semi-professional training, and 3 higher educational institutions with 11,000 students. By the mid-1970's, 6 higher institutions had 45,000 students. The city, at the time, had 24 research institutes and 26 design institutes employing approximately 19,000 scientists, engineers, and other technical personnel. The State University of Donetsk was established in 1965, and was based on the Donetsk Pedagogical Institute, founded in 1937. The university offers training in about thirty fields covering physical sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Educational systems and the level of enrollment has essentially remained the same during the early 1990's (Figure 3). Donetsk had 162 general education schools in 1992 and an enrollment of 124,500. The changes that did occur were limited to greater use of Ukrainian as a language of instruction. Throughout the Soviet period, language in education was a controversial issue and the government withheld data. Occasionally, figures would appear in secondary literature, to obfuscate the issue. Statements, for example, would claim that about 80 percent of general education schools taught in Ukrainian, well above the share of Ukrainians in the population, neglecting to point out that these were largely rural schools with small enrollments. Less than half of all students were taught in Ukrainian in the last few years of the Soviet Union. Unofficial 1987 data for 1,611 general education schools in oblast capitals show that 264 schools taught in Ukrainian, 158 used both Russian and Ukrainian, and the remaining 1,189 schools used only Russian. Of the 146 schools in Donetsk, all taught in Russian; the city was one of five regional capitols without a single Ukrainian school. There have been reports that few Ukrainian schools were established in the last few years but exact figures are unavailable. Cultural institutions in Donetsk were virtually non-existent before the Revolution, with just a few libraries, and an English Club for British employees and their families working at the Hughes enterprises. During the Soviet period, the government gradually established numerous cultural institutions. The Donetsk Musical Touring Theater was organized in 1932 and reorganized in 1941 as the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater. The Artem Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater was first established in Kharkiv in 1927 and relocated in Donetsk in 1933. The Donetsk Puppet Theater was established in 1958. The city has two major museums and 15 smaller museums, some attached to educational institutions. The Donetsk Museum of Natural History was organized in 1924 and now has several regional branches in the oblast. The museum had over 80,000 items in 1979, representing natural and human history of the region. The Donetsk Art Museum, established in 1960, displays paintings, mostly by Soviet artists, and decorative art. The city features 506 libraries, containing 12 million books. In addition, various clubs, twenty movie houses, and numerous
Living Conditions Living standards have declined, but the extent is unclear due to a lack of data. City-level data are rare. High inflation makes even adjusted data difficult to interpret. Actual employment is concealed, as payrolls include unpaid workers and many private sector activities are unreported. Nevertheless, people in Donetsk appear better off than in other cities in Ukraine. Wages increased by a multiple of 328 between 1991 and 1993 in Ukraine and by a multiple of 386 in Donetsk Oblast. The larger increase is caused by greater increases for coal miners, steel workers, and machine builders, whose industries are concentrated in Donbas and in Donetsk. At the end of 1993, 3.1 million workers were receiving supplementary pay and free food. Of these, 1.9 million were employed in these three industries. Income from outside employment or business activities has become quite important, increasing from 3 percent in 1990 to 22 percent in 1992. The distribution of expenditures also has changed in recent years. Expenditures for food are rising, and in the fourth quarter of 1993, reached 57 percent of the family budget in Ukraine. Outlays for personal services and savings are decreasing, an indication of growing impoverishment. As the economy privatizes and subsidies to heavy industry are eliminated, Donetsk likely will suffer more than other parts of Ukraine. Housing shortages persisted during the Soviet era as rapid industrialization swelled the urban population. Housing and other social services were shortchanged in favor of industry, particularly military industry, although sanctioned private housing construction slightly eased housing shortages. Despite the economic slowdown, housing availability has barely improved since independence. Per capita total living space increased slightly, from 17.9 square meters in 1990 to 18.1 square meters in 1993 for an urban dweller in Donetsk Oblast, about one square meter above the national average. The share of privately owned housing increased from 33 percent in 1990 to 42 percent in 1993, due to privatization rather than new construction. Total available housing during those 3 years rose just 1.4 percent. And apartment buildings remain austere and poorly maintained, as in the Soviet era. The incidence of basic amenities remains unchanged from the end of the Soviet period: 95 percent of homes have indoor plumbing; 91 percent have central heating; and 80 percent have hot water. Health data provide little insight into the heath care situation either in Ukraine or in Donetsk. Statistics are reported by broad categories such as the incidence of physicians or hospital beds. Donetsk Oblast has slightly more health care resources than elsewhere in Ukraine. Per 10,000 people, the oblast had 46 physicians, compared to 44.4 for Ukraine, and 133.2 hospital beds compared to 130.9 for the whole country. However, demand for health services is increasing in Donetsk Oblast. Mortality rates from cardiovascular disease among the general population and working age groups of 23 and 29 percent slightly exceeded national levels of 22 and 28 percent for the 3 year period. The oblast is among the leaders in deaths caused by accidents and adverse effects but ranks low in mortality caused by respiratory diseases, a strange phenomenon since coal mining is a major industry. Tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, and some other infectious diseases are on the rise, but their effect on mortality at this point is minimal. Pollution is a serious problem in Ukraine, but the current economic slowdown has reduced water and air pollution emissions considerably. Fresh water consumption fell 19 percent from 1990 to 1993 in the oblast and in Ukraine, but the share of recycled water used in industry remained virtually unchanged, increasing from 87 to 88 percent in the oblast during the 3 year period. Over one billion cubic meters of untreated or partially treated water was released into streams in 1993, 46 percent of total emissions. Discharges of air pollutants from buildings and factories fell 15 percent during the 3 year period in the oblast and auto emissions dropped 57 percent. In the city, 171,000 tons of air pollutants were emitted in 1990 from stationary sources, placing Donetsk eleventh among Ukrainian cities and much lower on a per capita basis. By 1993, air pollution from these sources fell 55 percent, to 94,200 tons. Solid pollutants totaled 12,5000 tons while gaseous emissions were 81,700 tons. Carbon monoxide was the largest pollutant, accounting for 27 percent of the gaseous pollutants. Once the economy recovers, the emissions presumably will increase. Crime is steadily increasing in Ukraine, as well as in Donetsk, albeit at a lower rate. Reported crime in Ukraine jumped 46 percent between 1990 and 1993. Crime rose 33 percent in Donetsk Oblast, and amounted to 58,700 cases in 1993 (city-level crime data are unavailable). Most (62 percent) crimes in Ukraine were thefts. The Economy Donetsk's smoke-stack economy is in decline. Industrial output fell 13 percent in Donetsk Oblast and 11 percent in the city between 1990 and 1993 (indexes are based on the value of output, adjusted for inflation, but their accuracy is uncertain). Whatever the current level of production, Donetsk is known for heavy industry. But products such as coal, steel, machine building, chemicals, produced at two hundred factories are in the city, have seen their markets decline with the loss of traditional domestic (Soviet) customers, as well as the sector's overall technological deterioration. The Donetsk Metallurgical Plant is the flagship of the city's iron and steel industries. The plant, formerly state-of-the-art with the world's first furnace evaporation cooling system in 1952, and in 1960, the world's largest continuous steel pouring process, has more recently been in decline. Although plant-level data are not available, if this leading plant has been permitted to decline, the same is most likely true for other nearby plants as well. These problems are part of the reason for the oblast's declining output of cast iron and steel, which fell 16 percent and 41 percent, respectively (in tonnage of output), between 1990 and 1992. Despite the sharp drop, ferrous metallurgy accounted for 35 percent of industrial output and 15 percent of employment. Machine building and metal working produced 20 percent of the value of products and accounted for 25 percent of employment. The chemical industry is another important sector, producing a wide-range of industrial and consumer products. Donetsk city and oblasts' heavy industry tends to overshadow their sizable light and food industries. Light industry in 1992 produced 9 percent of industrial output in the oblast, the food industries share was 10 percent, while accounting for 5 percent and 4 percent of employment, respectively. The Donetsk Cotton Cloth Combine, the largest in the country, does both spinning and weaving. The combine had 244,000 spindles in 1977, spinning 16,3000 tons of yarn and weaving 76 million square meters of finished cloth. The current level of output has not been reported, however, the manufacture of cotton cloth in the oblast decreased from 145 million meters in 1990 to 110 million meters in 1992. Manufacture of garments, footwear, and furniture are other major industries. The city is a major producer of refrigerators. Between 1990 and 1993, the number of refrigerators and freezers produced annually increased from 381 to 404 thousand; the only product of any consequence to increase. The food industry is engaged in production or preparation of most major foods--meat packing and processing, milling, baking, dairy products, beer, fish, among others. Since independence, the output of various food decreased, usually from one-quarter to one-third, with the exception of bread, which actually increased. Economic reforms in Donetsk, thus far, have made little progress. But the 1994 elections put in office reform-minded officials on the national and local levels who are starting to introduce economic changes. In March 1995, an auction of 101 Donbas region enterprises (including 25 in Donetsk oblast) occurred (although information on the outcome is not available). In another attempt to reform, the Ukrainian Coal Ministry ordered the closing of 16 unprofitable mines in the Donbas. This is the beginning of a difficult retrenchment in a troubled industry that in 1992 employed over 300,000 workers in the oblast. However, the decline in demand for products in these industries seems likely to outstrip the pace of reform. Job losses in coal, steel, and machine-building coupled with the shortage of capital needed to start new industries will create hardships for the population and also create social and political tensions, putting Donetsk's reform minded leaders to new tests.
|
|
Copyright © 2002 Lori Bragg
|