Donbas

Having noticed the Azeris, the Armenians and their troubles a few times recently, today it is the turn of the Ukrainians. With the map on the left showing how mixed up the country on the right is. Full blooded Ukrainians, Russian speaking Ukrainians and Russians - plus a whole raft of oddments, particularly in the south west.

I believe the area in contention is the Donbas to the east, not so long ago fairly empty, now the home to once important coal, iron and steel industries. Lots of pollution, smoke stacks and decay. Industries which once sucked in lots of labour from the country, particularly Russian speaking country. And still important in the Ukrainian scheme of things.

I was interested to learn that one of their industrial pioneers was a Welsh entrepreneur, something of an expert in the armour plate used on ships and forts in the second half of the nineteenth century, one John Hughes, for whom Donetsk was once named, Donetsk being one of the larger cities in the disputed Donbas.

His house, albeit ruined, can still be seen there. Google Street View not permitted, but Satellite View finds it at 47°58'19.0"N 37°48'51.0"E, as snapped above, and Wikipedia has it at reference 4. Perhaps the heritage people are not permitted in the area either.

The Don Cossocks, for whom 'And Quiet Flows the Don', noticed a couple of times at reference 5, is something of an elegy, lived just to the east, with the Don flowing into the sea middle right. My memory is that at the time of the first world war there was a fair amount of pushing and shoving between the Ukrainians and the Cossacks, apt to get into serious fights at markets, mills and such like. Just as in Švejk, from just about the same time, there is a fair amount of pushing and shoving between the Czechs and the Hungarians. Hitting an officer when drunk was almost a capital offence, but since the officer in question was a Hungarian artillery officer, perhaps the matter could be dropped. The offender being from a proper, Czech line regiment, known, as it happens, for its parrot-green facings, and so as the 'Parrots'.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/04/theres-trouble-with-them-thar-beets.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donetsk.

Reference 4: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%AE%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=Sholokhov.