Alchevsk ( uk, Алчéвськ, translit. ''Alchevs'k''; russian: Алчéвск) is a city of significance in the

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast ( uk, Луга́нська о́бласть, translit=Luhanska oblast; russian: Луганская область, translit=Luganskaya oblast; also referred to as Luhanshchyna, uk, Луга́нщина) is the easternmost oblast ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. It is located approximately from the oblast capital,

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...

Alchevsk is one of the largest industrial centers in the Donbas, and comprises a quarter of the entire oblast's production. The city economy depends on OJSC "Alchevsk

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

Steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

Works" (a trade blockade by Ukrainian activists during the

war in Donbas War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

has all but halted production of this plant in February 2017) and "Alchevsk Coke-Chemical Plant" companies. The city was known as Voroshylovsk ( uk, Ворошиловськ) from 1931 to 1961, and then Kommunarsk ( uk, Комунарськ) until 1991.

History

Alchevsk was founded in 1895 with the establishment of an iron works and named after the Russian industrialist Oleksiy Alchevsky who founded the Donetsk–Yuryev Metallurgical Society.Pospelov, p. 27 A local newspaper is published in the city since 1930. In 1931, Alchevsk was renamed Voroshilovsk, after

Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (, uk, Климент Охрімович Ворошилов, ''Klyment Okhrimovyč Vorošylov''), popularly known as Klim Voroshilov (russian: link=no, Клим Вороши́лов, ''Klim Vorošilov''; 4 Februa ...

, a Soviet military and party figure. As Voroshilov's personality cult was diminishing, the town was renamed Kommunarsk in 1961. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the original name was restored in 1992.

Winter disaster of 2006

On 22 January 2006 the

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating a ...

system of the city almost entirely collapsed after an underground

heat pipe A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that employs phase transition to transfer heat between two solid interfaces. At the hot interface of a heat pipe, a volatile liquid in contact with a thermally conductive solid surface turns into a vapor ...

line cracked in unusually cold weather (nearly ). As a result, heating equipment in the majority of Alchevsk's buildings was frozen and ruptured, leaving about 60,000 residents with only the protection of individual electric heaters. A few days later the

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

system also froze due to a lack of warm tap water. An investigation revealed the massive, long-time negligence of the city authorities. The whole heating system was designed in a hyper-centralized way, depending on only two

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s and few main pipelines. Moreover, the

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

company failed to react to the pipe incident properly: the water from the system wasn't immediately dumped to prevent further freezing. The Ukrainian government took massive emergency actions to protect Alchevsk residents from freezing. Engineering teams sent by cities and industrial companies from other regions of the country were gradually restoring heating appliances in every apartment affected. Hundreds of children together with their schoolteachers were evacuated to the resorts and hotels in the warmer regions of Ukraine. According to the governor of Luhansk Oblast G. Moskal, it has been the worst human-made disaster in the history of independent Ukraine.

War in Donbas (2014–present)

Starting mid-April 2014, pro-Russian separatists captured and occupied several towns in the Luhansk Oblast, including Alchevsk. In the following

, the city became a part of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.

Economy

The main branches of Alchevsk industry –

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

and chemical. Electromechanical, light and food industry is also developed. Currently the city has 17 industrial enterprises.

Demographics

As of the Ukrainian Census of 2001: ;Ethnicity *Russians: 51.6% *Ukrainians: 44.7% *Belarusians: 1.1% ;Language *

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: 83.6% *

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: 15.3% * Belarusian: 0.1% *

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

: 0.1% *

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

: 0.1%

Education

The

Donbas State Technical University Donbas State Technical University (DonSTU) ( uk, Донбаський державний технічний університет) is an institution of higher education located in Lysychansk, Ukraine. Today, the university is a major regional ...

, founded in 1957, is located in Alchevsk.

Sports

Alchevsk is home to the football team

FC Stal Alchevsk FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

which currently participates in the

Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( uk, Перша ліга) or Ukrainian First League is a professional football league in Ukraine and the second tier of national football competitions pyramid. Members of the league also participate in the Ukrainian Cup. It is t ...

, the second tier of national football competitions.

Twin towns and sister cities

Alchevsk is twinned with: *

Dąbrowa Górnicza Dąbrowa Górnicza is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula, see ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Dunaújváros Dunaújváros (; also known by other alternative names) is an industrial city in Fejér County, Central Hungary. It is a city with county rights. Situated 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Budapest on the Danube, the city is best known for its ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

References

Sources

*Ye. M. Pospelov. "Имена городов: вчера и сегодня (1917–1992). Топонимический словарь." (''City Names: Yesterday and Today (1917–1992). Toponymic Dictionary.'') Москва, "Русские словари", 1993.

External links

Official site of town authoritiesUnofficial town pageAnother unofficial town pageAlchevsk winter disaster pageMap of Alchevsk
{{Authority control Cities in Luhansk Oblast Populated places established in 1895 Yekaterinoslav Governorate Cities of regional significance in Ukraine 1895 establishments in the Russian Empire Populated places established in the Russian Empire City name changes in Ukraine Former Soviet toponymy in Ukraine