Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. — 366 pp. — (Series: Studies of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University; Book 1). — ISBN 0-691-05554-8 (v. 1).In 1870 the Welsh ironmaster John James Hughes left his successful career in England and settled in the barren and underpopulated Donbass region of the Ukrainian steppe to found the town of Iuzovka and build a large steel plant and coal mine. Theodore Friedgut tells the remarkable story of the subsequent economic and social development of the Donbass, an area that grew to supply seventy percent of the Russian Empire's coal and iron by World War I. This first volume of a planned two-volume study focuses on the social and economic development of the Donbass, while the second volume will be devoted to political analysis. Friedgut offers a fascinating picture of the heterogeneous population of these frontier settlements. Company-owned Iuzovka, for instance, was inhabited by British bosses, Jewish artisans and merchants, and Russian peasant migrants serving as industrial workers. All these were surrounded by Ukrainian peasants resentful of the intrusive new ways of industrial life. A further contrast was that between relatively settled, skilled factory workers and a more volatile and migratory population of miners. By examining these varied groups, the author reveals the contest between Russia's industrial revolution and the striving for political revolution.Contents:
The Rise of the Donbass, 1869-1914
Introduction: The Donbass before Iuzovka.
The Genesis of Iuzovka.
The New Russia Comes of Age: Economic Development to 1914.
Life in the Donbass
Iuzovka: The Settlement and Its Society.
Housekeeping, Diets, and Budgets.
Education and Culture.
Working in the Donbass
The Donbass Labor Force: Origins and Structure.
Organization of Work, Physical Conditions, Wages, and Веnefits.
The Growth of the Donbass Community: An Interim.
Summary.
