Tagged: hughesovska
Welsh publishers Y Lolfa recently released a book Dreaming a City: The Story of Hughesovks/Stalino/Donetsk that traces the towns growth from patriarchal beginnings through the Russian revolutions, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Nazi occupation and the collapse of Communism, Nineties rising Ukraine nationalism, to Ukraine post-independence in the present market economy. Partly a revisiting of the making of the television series Hughesovka and the New Russia , this book is Russian and Welsh social and political history; travel journalism, and a tribute to Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams. Above all, though, it explores the tensions between a belief in social change and the danger implicit in utopian visions. Probing important themes such as capitalism and communism; internationalism and nationalism, in addition to freedom and exploitation, the author uses the city as a metaphor to explore a retreat from political idealism, and the nature of hope and disillusion. It also includes a DVD of the award winning documentary.
Dreaming a City is available on www.ylolfa.com for 9.95
A preview of the documentary can be seen here:-
"The name of Colin Thomas...a guarantee of intelligence and scrupulous integrity" (The Financial Times)
‘It began last Autumn. I was asked by school authority to do some research work and all of a sudden, the topic of the history of our city, that has been suffering so much recently came to my mind. But what new things can we write about if there is so much information? We started our pursuit for new facts that were not translated into Russian.’ explained Liliya.
‘We were surfing the Net when we came across the part of Colin Thomas's video about his work to create the film about Hughsovka. We got interested at once!’ she continued.
Having recieved information about Colin himself and after realising it would be impossible to obtain his book on their city given the current situation in Ukraine, Liliya was put into contact with him via Susan Edwards at the Glamorgan Archive. The archives at Glamorgan had an extensive section on Hughesovka/Stalino/Donetsk.
‘Myself, along with my student Polina Pavlolva, contacted Colin and collected the information and Polina assembled the research.’ said Liliya.
‘When we received the letter from Colin, we got excited at once! We are currently reading his book and thinking about the second part of our research work.’
Dreaming a City by Colin Thomas is the history of one Ukraine town, a microcosm of Russia. Hughesovka (later Stalino and Donetsk) was a mining and steel town founded in the 1870s by Welsh entrepreneur John Hughes and seventy Welsh workers.
The book traces the town's shifts from patriarchal beginnings through the Russian revolutions, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Nazi occupation and the collapse of Communism and 1990s' rising Ukraine nationalism, to Ukraine post-independence.
Difficulties with crossing the border and sending parcels and packages to Liliya at her Kharkov address meant that she had to recieve a digital copy of the book.
‘The situation in Donetsk has improved a little but still we have military men in the streets and no peace treaty.’ said Liliya.
‘I read about what has happened to Donetsk with great sadness.’ added Colin Thomas.
‘Colin’s work is very important for our region’ said Liliya ‘If we don’t know our past we will not have a future. In the past information about the origin of Donetsk has been concealed and reduced to maybe 2-3 lines in a school textbook. A lot of common people didn’t think what city they lived in.’
‘Even today we still have a lot of work to tell people the truth about the origin of their city. As a teacher, I am going to prepare some tests based on Colin’s book and will include in my work to popularize our history!’ she continued.
Dreaming a City is a mixture of Russian and Welsh social and political history; travel journalism, as well as a tribute to Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams. Probing important themes such as capitalism and communism; internationalism and nationalism, in addition to freedom and exploitation, the author uses the city as a metaphor to explore a retreat from political idealism, and the nature of hope and disillusion.
Dreaming a City by Colin Thomas (£9.95, Y Lolfa) is available now.
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Donetsk was originally founded by Welshman John Hughes . Born and brought up in Merthyr, he began work as an apprentice in the Cyfarthfa ironworks, developed his own business in Newport and then London and finally, with the help of hundreds of Welsh workers, established the centre of the coal and steel industry in Ukraine – the city of Hughesovka .
Following the 1917 revolution, it became Stalino and Hughes was written out of its history but, since it changed its name again to Donetsk , the city has been prepared to acknowledge that it was founded by a Welsh capitalist and a statue has been erected to him there.
Lily Revenko became aware of Y Lolfa’s book on her city through an enquiry to the Glamorgan Record Office and its author Colin Thomas eventually managed to get a copy to her across the Ukraine/ Russia battle lines in eastern Ukraine.
Of the book, Lily said, ‘One of the strengths of the book is the combination of the past and the present - historical events and the process of making the book, a dialogue with the reader.’
The book comes with a DVD of the BBC’s three part series Hughesovka and the New Russia presented by the late Professor Gwyn Alf Williams.
‘The brave and artistic voice of Gwyn Williams does the same – you feel yourself part of the past and of the present.’ added Lily.
Over 9000 people have died in the Donetsk region since it became a centre of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in 2014. Despite what Lily Revenko calls ‘this horrible war’, she has just set her pupils a series of questions about Dreaming A City.
‘Our readers need this book – it will teach them not only about the past but also will teach them how to live in the present, how to work in a way that will make sparks fly.’ she said.
Dreaming a City by Colin Thomas (£9.95, Y Lolfa) is available now.
John Hughes statue
Thursday 26 November sees the Cardiff launch of Y Lolfa’s first book-DVD package, at Womanby Street’s bar, Y Fuwch Goch. Multi-prize-winning TV documentary film maker Colin Thomas’ awards include three from BAFTA Cymru, as well as the Prix Europa, the Gold Award at Houston International Film Festival, and the Jury Award at the Celtic Film and TV Festival. Now for the first time, his documentary Hughesovka and the New Russia , presented by Professor Gwyn Alf Williams, is available to keep. First transmitted in English to the UK network on BBC2 in 1991, the three-part series won BAFTA Cymru’s inaugural Best Documentary Award of that year. The DVD is published together with Colin Thomas’ first book, Dreaming a City: From Wales to Ukraine, which brings the story of Hughesovka, the town established by Welsh people in Ukraine, up to the present day.
Colin Thomas and Gwyn Alf Williams had a long and productive working relationship respectively as film producer and presenter, mainly on popular Welsh history programmes such as The Dragon has Two Tongues, made by the co-operative company Teliesyn. But they also formed a strong friendship, and this honest account of the bonds – and occasional blow-ups – of this creative relationship in television from 1981 to the Professor’s death in 1995, make Dreaming a City a fitting tribute to a fine historian and well-loved figure.
Author Colin Thomas said,
" I have always thought that what happened to the city founded by John Hughes and his Welsh workers told a much bigger story. But I have been surprised to discover, in writing a book about a place that has fascinated me for years, the degree of personal revelation involved. I have found myself exploring my own hopes for a better world. For many years I shared some of those dreams with the late great Prof Gwyn Williams and I''m delighted that this book/DVD package will form a tribute to Professor Williams, as well as bringing the Hughesovka story bang up to date ."
Both DVD and book tell the remarkable tale of a city created in the 1870s by Welsh capitalist John Hughes and his team of seventy Welsh miners and steelworkers. Its transition from Hughesovka in Russia, to Stalino in the Soviet Union, and then to Donetsk in the newly-independent Ukrainian nation, is a story of Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union in microcosm. Dreaming a City traces the town’s growth from patriarchal beginnings through the Russian revolutions, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Nazi occupation and the collapse of Communism, Nineties rising Ukraine nationalism, to Ukraine post-independence in the present market economy. Partly a revisiting of the making of the television series Hughesovka and the New Russia, this book is Russian and Welsh social and political history; travel journalism, and a tribute to Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams, as well as being a personal memoir of a life in TV and history. Above all, though, it explores the tensions between a belief in social change and the danger implicit in utopian visions.
Extracts from Hughesovka and the New Russia will be shown at the launch, which commences at 7.30pm at Y Fuwch Goch/The Red Cow, Womanby St, Cardiff. The book/DVD package is available at good bookshops and from amazon, gwales and www.ylolfa.com .
John Hughes on Wikipedia
John James Hughes (1814 – June 1889) was a Welsh engineer, businessman and founder of a city in Ukraine. The city was originally named Yuzovka or Hughesovka (Юзовка) after Hughes, ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes) but was renamed Stalino in 1924 (in 1961 the name was changed again, to Donetsk).... more here
