Налаштування
Donetsk Highlands Archive is an independent digital space dedicated to the memory, culture, and history of the region.
PHOTO: SVITLANA SULAKOVA
We collect photographs, documents, testimonies, stories of cities, and materials about the cultural and industrial heritage of the region. The Archive helps preserve them in digital space and return them to our shared memory.
We find photographs, documents, memories, and materials related to the cities of Donetsk region.
We digitize and organize materials so they are not lost along with their physical originals.
We make the history of the region accessible to residents, researchers, and everyone who cares about Donetsk region.
From Cossack settlements and saltworks to industrial development, cultural resistance, and the modern struggle to preserve Ukrainian memory.
Origins
17th–18th centuries
Author: Vasyl Lenchenko The territory of present-day Donetsk region was part of the Cossack frontier. Important routes crossed the steppe, while winter settlements, fortifications, and permanent communities emerged. The Tor and Bakhmut saltworks became economic centers around which trade, crafts, and local communities developed.
Industry
1869
Photo source: Open sources In 1869, John Hughes began construction of a metallurgical plant near Oleksandrivka. Yuzivka — the future city of Donetsk — grew alongside the enterprise. Coal, railways, and foreign investment accelerated the development of mines, factories, and new cities, transforming the region into a major industrial center.
State-Building
1917–1921
Photo source: Wikipedia During the Ukrainian Revolution, the Donbas became part of the struggle for statehood. In the spring of 1918, units of the Ukrainian People's Republic Army liberated Sloviansk, Bakhmut, and other cities from the Bolsheviks. Ukrainian administration and state institutions were restored in the liberated territories.
Culture
1960s–1980s
Photo source: Open sources
Donetsk region became an important center of Ukrainian intellectual resistance. Vasyl Stus, Ivan Dziuba, Oleksa Tykhyi, and other figures defended the Ukrainian language, culture, freedom of speech, and human dignity. Their civic stance became part of the broader Ukrainian resistance to totalitarianism.
Independence
1989–2013
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The miners' strikes of 1989 became part of the social changes preceding independence. Over the following decades, cities across Donetsk region underwent economic transformation, modernized their infrastructure, and developed new cultural initiatives, gradually rethinking their own identity.
Resistance
2014 — Present
Author: kryvokulskyi
Since 2014, Donetsk region has been on the front line of Ukraine's struggle for independence. Russian aggression has brought occupation, the destruction of cities, and the loss of cultural heritage. Preserving photographs, documents, and personal stories has become a way to protect the memory and Ukrainian identity of the region.
People, media, and organizations that help the Archive preserve, explore, and bring the history of Donetsk region back into focus.
Coming soon.
Friend of the Archive
“Zaboy” is a clothing brand from Donetsk region whose goal is to create high-quality clothing for people from Donetsk and residents of the region.
Coming soon.
Donetsk region is a mosaic of cities and communities, each with its own history, architecture, and cultural memory. The museum presents both major urban centers and smaller communities that together form a complete picture of the region.
Explore
Photo source: Espreso
We bring together fragments of the past and present to reveal a complete picture of the region in all its detail.
Photo source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A photo archive documenting moments of transformation: from industrial grandeur to the scars of war and the first signs of recovery.
