Chystyakove

Chystiakove (, ; ), formerly Torez (Ukrainian and ) until 2016, is a city in Donetsk Oblast, in eastern Ukraine. The city is a center of the regional coal industry and much of its economy relies on mining, despite a recent drop in the number of employed miners. The city has a population of

Founded in 1778, the city was named ''Chystiakove'' in 1868. It was renamed ''Torez'' in 1964 in honor of Maurice Thorez, a leader of the French Communist Party. In 2016, the Ukrainian parliament restored the name ''Chystiakove'' due to decommunization laws.

Pro-Russian separatists took control of Chystiakove in June 2014.Letters From Donbas
Radio Free Europe (11 December 2014)

History

The region was settled in 1778 at the confluence of the Sevostyanivka and Orlova Rivers (which drain into the Mius River) by runaway serfs from southern Russia and Ukraine. By 1800 the settlement, with 225 residents, was known as the sloboda Oleksiivka after a son of landowner and founder S. Leonov. From 1840 it was named Oleksiieve-Leonove, and from 1868 Chystiakove.

By the 1860s the town, now known as Chystiakove for a merchant and owner of a local manor, was a coal-mining hub. In 1875, two mining companies were founded: Chystiakovs'ke (which operated two coal mines) and Oleksiivs'ke, which was renamed Nadiya in 1907. The mines produced 4.7 million pounds of coal in 1909, and 76.8 million pounds by 1916.

In 1924 the Chystiakove mining industry had 142 settlements, with a total of 44,679 residents. Eight years later the settlements became a town, and the town's ten coal-mining quarries were incorporated into the Chystyakovugol Industrial Trust a year after that.

During the 1940s, the town had three administrative districts:
* Chervona Zirka (Red Star)
* Pivdenna Grupa (Southern Group)
* Chystiakove Station (Railway)

During World War II, Chystiakove was occupied by the German Army from 31 October 1941 to 2 September 1943. In 1942, the Germans operated the Stalag 385 prisoner-of-war camp in the town, which was then relocated to Nikopol.

In 1964 Chystiakove was renamed Torez in honor of Maurice Thorez, the longtime leader of the French Communist Party who purported in his autobiography to have been a coal miner.

In 2012, the city's population was 81,761, down from a 1970 peak of about 120,000.

In mid-April 2014 pro-Russian separatists captured several towns in Donetsk Oblast, including Chystiakove in June 2014. On 23 May 2014, a pro-Ukrainian militia endorsed by Oleh Lyashko killed a pro-Russian separatist and left another badly wounded amidst the separatists' takeover of the city hall.

On 17 July, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, was hit by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile launched from separatist-controlled territory. The plane crashed near Chystiakove and all 298 people aboard were killed.

Demographics

As of the 2001 Ukrainian census

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