The Formation of the Monumental and Memorial Space of Donetsk

Abstract

Donetsk is a city, which located in the south-eastern part of Ukraine, the beginnings of which can be traced back to the last quarter of the ХVІІІ century. During the ХХ century the city of Yuzivka – Staline – Donetsk turned into an industrial centre in within the Russian Empire and later the USSR. Accordingly, it was formed its monumental-memorial space, the analysis of which is the purpose of this research. Legislative documents and registers have been worked out for its implementation historical and cultural monuments, statistics, periodicals. The article showed that the monumental tradition of Donetsk was formed mostly in the Soviet era, most intensively in the 1950^th – 1980^th. The monuments concerned the significant events of that time – «the Great October Socialist Revolution», «the Civil War», «the Great Patriotic War», many objects are dedicated to work, including mining. They purposefully worked on the formation of Soviet identity of citizens. A tribute to Ukrainian history and culture has been found in the monuments T. Shevchenko, I. Frank, B. Khmelnitsky. However, their installation is small formal – except for the first, these objects were placed on the periphery of Donetsk. It is shown that in the years of independent Ukraine in the city was installed one and a half dozens of monuments dedicated to people whose lives and activities they were related to Donetsk or Donetsk region – A. Solovyanenko, J. Hughes, Holocaust victims, internationalist soldiers, militiamen dead, the mother of women, victims of political repression, victims of Chernobyl catastrophe, rescue hero and others. Сonstruction of monuments in the postsoviet decades focused on fostering pride in prominent countrymens and on this led to the formation of regional patriotism. With Soviet-era monuments have always been preserved alongside new ones memorials, what contributed to the position of the Donetsk City Council, deputies who repeatedly stated the need for the demolition of the Soviet memorials. In the course of the study it was possible to reach a conclusion mainly Soviet filling the monumental and memorial space of Donetsk, which is also on boundaries of the XX–XXI centuries did not undergo significant changes, which influenced the formation specific identity that fit into the notion of local, «Donetsk» patriotism.