IndustrialHeritage UK

2/6 I'll start with my own memories. I was born and spent my childhood in a small mining town in Donbas. Indeed, there were many Russians among the population — or people who identified as Russian. Most had relatives in Russia, and the overwhelming majority spoke Russian. But here's what's interesting: everyone who had relatives in Russia was a descendant of migrants from Russia, not the other way around. These were people who had moved to Donbas in the 20th century, rather than locals whose families had emigrated to Russia. As for truly local people — those whose roots stretched back to the 19th century or earlier in this land — there were very few. My great-grandmother was one of them. She had a distinctly Ukrainian surname and spoke Ukrainian. Even from these personal observations, it's clear that Donbas only became partially Russian in the 20th century. How exactly that happened will be explained through historical facts further in this thread.