Sociologists have calculated that one village disappears in Ukraine every week. There is no work, the young leave, the birth rate falls, and investors are in no hurry to put money into developing dying settlements. The urban-type settlement of Udachne lies in the west of the Donetsk region, in the Pokrovsk district, on the border with the Mezhova district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Like thousands of other small Ukrainian settlements, Udachne has come to a halt in its development, is degrading rapidly and is losing its people.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region |
A fortunate thing for the settlement is the presence of Udachna railway station within its bounds, and a not very fortunate one is the nearness of the seams of black gold worked by the coal industry giant, the «Pokrovske» mine administration.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The «Pokrovske» mine administration |
At the end of the 19th century the railway was built by a French-Belgian company. The main line was laid across fertile lands that belonged to the landowner Karpov. The builders had no easy time laying this section of the line, but they carried out the complex engineering work successfully.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station |
The station settlement of the same name arose in 1890. The first train that passed through the station was a mail train. Now the suburban train Chaplyne-
Avdiivka stops at the station.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The railway service building |
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The waiting hall |
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The station dwelling house |
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The grocery shop |
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The grocery shop |
Udachna received trains with coal, building materials and oil products, but most of all it was grain that was transhipped. Warehouses of the grain-receiving enterprise were built beside the railway. Now the capacious storehouses, 60-100 metres long, stand empty, the roofing has been torn off the former granaries, and the buildings are falling down.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The abandoned grain-receiving works |
The access track to the granaries lies in a thicket of weeds.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Udachna railway station. The abandoned grain-receiving works |
The vertical sinking of shafts in difficult geological conditions in the immediate vicinity of the housing, and the working of the coal seams, have told on the settling of the houses and the appearance of cracks in the walls.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The «Pokrovske» mine administration |
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| The settlement of Udachne. Housing with cracks in the walls and water in the cellars |
The level of the groundwater has risen and water seeps into the basements and cellars. Drainage ditches have been dug within the settlement and along its boundaries.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Drainage of the groundwater |
The neighbouring villages of Molodetske, Muravka, Novomykolaivka and Novoserhiivka come under the Udachne settlement council.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The settlement council |
The «Druzhba» collective farm, whose central estate stood in Udachne, has been reshaped into an agricultural firm bearing the same kindly name.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The park of agricultural machinery and the buildings of the agricultural firm |
The farm fields near the settlement are ploughed and sown.
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| The settlement of Udachne. A farm field and the road |
No such forward movement is to be seen in the livestock sector; most of the cow sheds are in ruins.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The abandoned cattle farms |
It is long since anyone caught the aroma of freshly baked bread from the bakery, where they used to bake enormous round loaves, because the families had many children. Now a lonely ruin on the edge of the settlement is frightening in its forgottenness.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The former bakery |
The fame of Udachne for its salted crunchy cucumbers has died away. Residents used to bring dill, horseradish and garlic from their own vegetable plots to the vegetable-salting point, and the tasty produce was famous beyond the district.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The former vegetable-salting point |
The shops used to be faced with ceramic tiles, and there were far more of them. The settlement's shops stand closed, and some are already without a roof.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The former shops |
No use has been found for the building that housed the «Zahotzerno» grain procurement point. For a time coffins were made in it, but in recent years that enterprise too was closed and the grounds have grown over with scrub.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The former «Zahotzerno» point |
The two-storey school was built in 1972, during Udachne's period of economic upswing, and was designed for 500 pupils. Now 180 schoolchildren study at the school.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The school |
Sports grounds and playgrounds have been made for them.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The five-a-side football pitch |
By the entrance to the school a monument to T. H. Shevchenko was unveiled in 2017, with a portrait of the poet and the collection of verse published in his lifetime.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The school. The monument to T. H. Shevchenko |
A memorial sign to the victims of the Holodomor has been set up on the school grounds. The mass murder by famine, planned by the Bolshevik government, did not pass this village by.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The school. The monument to the victims of the Holodomor |
The settlement has a medical outpatient clinic.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The medical outpatient clinic |
The centre of culture and leisure has been closed for many years now for long-term repairs; the windows are boarded up with profiled iron, the doors are locked, and festive events have not been held there for a long time. For Shrovetide the villagers were invited by their neighbours from Serhiivka to make merry and taste the pancakes.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The closed centre of culture and leisure |
The façade of this hearth of culture is adorned with mosaic panels on the themes of art and sport.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The closed centre of culture and leisure. The mosaic |
The garden square, laid out in the 1970s, has gained a children's playground.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The garden square |
The common grave of Soviet soldiers in Udachne lies next to the house of culture. Crowded places where mass festivities were held and merry music played are not an entirely fitting spot for the burial of those killed in battle and those who died of their wounds. Last year the memorial was restored and the pedestal replaced; the sculptural composition remained. The memorial slabs bear the surnames of about 450 Red Army soldiers who liberated Udachne and the surrounding villages, and of fellow countrymen who fell on the fronts of the Second World War.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The garden square. The war memorial |
The monument to the fallen liberator-soldiers has also been replaced at the cemetery, and the ground around it put in order.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The cemetery. The war memorial |
Among the positive changes worth noting are the installation of a bus shelter, refuse containers and street signs with the new names.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The bus shelter and a refuse container |
Pivnichna Street has a second version, carried over from the Russian — «vul. Sievierna».
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| The settlement of Udachne. The sign for Pivnichna Street |
And for the fifth year now the signs by the highway have been giving the distance to the district and regional centres under their old names.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The sign with distances to towns |
There was probably a church in Udachne in the past, later destroyed by the fighters against God. Now the community comes to services at the Church of St George, housed in adapted premises.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The Church of St George |
A site has been set aside for a new church, the plot has been fenced and a bell tower put up, but for lack of funds the building work has not yet begun.
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| The settlement of Udachne. The Church of St George. The building plot. The bell tower |
Udachne makes no claim to developing green tourism, but the picturesque little gullies around the settlement and the nature reserves of local significance delight the eye with their flowering primroses and steppe grasses.
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| The settlement of Udachne. Gullies and ravines |
According to the statistics, 70% of the Ukrainian peasantry are unemployed and 35% live below the poverty line. The residents of villages and settlements survive thanks to their own hard work. Middlemen buy the produce they grow at laughable prices. The example of the settlement of Udachne makes it obvious that the Ukrainian village is ageing and living without support and without prospects.
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