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The region was first settled during the early Palaeolithic era. Twenty-five monuments from the Neolithic period (8th cent. B.C.) notably burial grounds near Mariupol have been uncovered. In the 7th cent. B C. the territory of the region was inhabited by Scythian tribes; in the 2nd cent. B.C. - by the Sarmatians. The Huns appeared in the region in the 4th cent., and in the 6th-7th cent., the Avars and Bulgarians. In the 8th-10th cent. the area was inhabited by tribes of the Saltiv culture. In the late 9th cent. the Pechenegs invaded the area, and in the 11th cent., the Polovtsian. In the 11th-13th cent. some territories of Donets region were part of the Polovtsian lands. In 1185 a battle was fought between the prince of Novhorod-Siversky Ihor Svyatoslavych's armies and the Polovtsians, which was masterfully described in the epic "The Lay of Ihor's Campaign." In 1223 the princes of Kyiv fought the Tatars at the river Kalka (now Kalchyk river). In the 16th-18th cent. the southern lands were controlled by the Crimean Khans and the right bank was ruled by the Zaporozhian Kozaks. The northern territories of the region formed part of Slobidska Ukraine. In 1707-08 the town of Bakhmut (now Artemivsk) was one of the centres of a popular uprising led by K.Bulavin. The uprising was crushed and the Kozak towns and settlements were fumed by order of Tsar Peter I. With the establishment of the Ukrainian defence line against the Turks in 1731, the Donets lands began to bsettled by foreign colonists, especially the Germans. The development of coal mines, metallurgical plants and railroads brought an influx of Russian businessmen and workers to the Donets region. Thus began the gradual Russification of the region and the Ukrainian language eventually disappeared from educational institutions, businesses, and factories. From: http://www.freenet.kiev.ua:8080/ciesin/Ukraine/don-hist.html |
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Copyright © 2002 Lori Bragg
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