Donbas as a Region of Economic Imagination

• In Event: (Re)Imagining Donbas: Discourses, Representations, and Memory of a Contested Region

Abstract

Since the days of John Hughes in the late 19th century Donbas has been associated with mining and heavy industry. However, the greater meaning of coal deposits and steel production in Donbas have been contested since the dawn of industrialization in this region. Actors like German imperial authorities, Soviet economic planners or Ukrainian national actors have interpreted the economic value of Donbas and the role it should play within a larger political entity differently. These visions for the development of Donbas had huge repercussions for other areas of Ukraine, as well. To make a case in point: increased investment in mining and heavy industry in Donbas during the first Soviet five-year plans meant less investment in agriculture and light industries in Central and Western Ukraine and therefore created an economic hierarchy not only between the different Soviet republics but between single regions within Ukraine, as well. The consequences of such decisions – like declaring Donbas the machine-room of the industrialization of other Soviet regions in the late 1920s – were controversially discussed under different political regimes. This paper analyzes different imaginations of the economic value of Donbas and their repercussions in the 20th century and asks the following questions: Who were the subjects behind the idea of Donbas as a potent economic space at what time? What ideas did these actors associate with Donbas and the role it should play within a larger imperial or national entity?

Author

• Max Trecker, U of Pittsburgh