Stakhanov, Ukraine

Before 1937 the city was known as Kadiivka. From 1937 to 1940 the city was named Sergo (Ukrainian: Серго, romanized: Serho) in honor of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, and then from 1940 to 1978 the city was again known as Kadiivka.

On 15 February, 1978 the city was named after the Soviet miner Alexey Stakhanov, who started his career there.[2]

Since 2014 the city is captured by Russian-backed militia troops as a part of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). Whereas Ukraine doesn't control the territory of LPR, it is internationally recognized as a part of Ukraine by all member states of the United Nations.

On May 12, 2016 Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada within the process of decommunization change its name back to Kadiivka.[3][4] The name is not recognized locally.

A local newspaper has been published in the city since September 1930.[5]

Kadiivka has been a city since 1932.[6][7]

During the Second World War, the city was occupied by German troops from July 1942 until September 1943. A Soviet labor camp for German prisoners of war operated at Kadievka during the Second World War.[8][9]

In 1985, the city was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[6]

In January 1989, the population was 112 023 people,[10] while the largest industrial enterprises were coal mines, a railway car building works, ferroalloy plant and a coke-chemical plant.[7]

In 1991, the population was 112,700 people.[11]

In 2013, the population was 77,593 people.[12]

Starting mid-April 2014 pro-Russian separatists captured several towns in Donetsk Oblast;[13][14] they took over Stakhanov on 2 May 2014.[15][16]

According to reports on September 16, 2014, the city, which had been occupied by Luhansk People's Republic-affiliated Don Cossacks, seceded from the LPR on 14 September.[17] It was said Don Cossacks there proclaimed the Republic of Stakhanov, and that a "Cossack government" now ruled in Stakhanov.[18][17] However the following day this was claimed to be a fabrication, and an unnamed Don Cossack leader stated the September 14 meeting had, in fact, resulted in 12,000 Cossacks volunteering to join the LPR forces.[19]

In October 2015, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine opened a Forward Patrol Base in the city, meaning that a small number of international monitors are permanently based here.[20]

As of the Ukrainian Census of 2001:[21]

Ethnicity

• Ukrainians: 46.1%
• Russians: 50.1%
• Belarusians: 1%
• Other: 2.9%

Language

• Russian: 85.3%
• Ukrainian: 13.0%
• Belarusian: 0.1%
• Armenian: 0.1%

The Municipality of Stakhanov also includes two other cities:

• Almazna
• Irmino

Notable people that were born or lived in Stakhanov include:

• Grisha Filipov (1919–1994), Bulgarian politician