The government is preparing large-scale transformations of the mining industry. What awaits small mining towns, where apart from the mining enterprises there is nothing? Novohrodivka — a mining town in the Donetsk region. Located 6 kilometres from the town of
Selydove, with which it is linked historically and economically. The absence of reforms in the coal industry, the inefficiency of the product-sales system and the lack of system in financing have a negative effect on the social situation of small towns and settlements. As a result of ineffective state policy, many enterprises of the mining industry are doomed to closure, and the mining towns to extinction.
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| Novohrodivka. Donetsk region. Mine No. 1-3 "Novohrodivska" |
The first geological survey and study of coal reserves in the area of present-day Novohrodivka were carried out in 1927-1932. With the construction of mine No. 1 "Novohrodivska" in 1939, the mining settlement of Hrodivka was founded. At first these were 2 barracks.
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| Novohrodivka. Shakhtarska Street |
During the Hitlerite occupation the mine workings were flooded, and the production and residential premises destroyed. In the post-war period the residents of Hrodivka and the neighbouring settlements set about restoring the enterprise.
In 1949 mine No. 1 came into operation. In 1948 the construction of mine No. 3 "Novohrodivska" began, and it was commissioned in 1953 with a design capacity of 1000 tonnes of coal per day.
In 1964 the enterprises merged.
An administrative-amenities complex was built.
The workers received flats in new residential buildings. The "Uholiok" club, a kindergarten, a school and a workers' canteen opened.
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| Novohrodivka. The "Uholiok" club |
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| Novohrodivka. School No. 8 |
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| Novohrodivka. The former canteen |
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| Novohrodivka. Kindergarten |
The mine's team was famed for its labour victories and its above-plan extraction of black gold.
Mine No. 2 bordered mines No. 1-3 along its coal seams. At the enterprise the seams were worked at a maximum depth of 570 metres. From 2001 mine No. 2 ceased extracting the solid fuel.
The freight-and-passenger railway station of Hrodivka, when it opened in 1895, was listed in the category of siding No. 3. At present, suburban trains stop at the station,
Avdiivka-Chaplyne and Avdiivka-Pokrovsk.
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| Novohrodivka. Hrodivka railway station |
Novohrodivka received town status and its present name in 1958.
From this time the mining town was actively built up and improved.
A large part of the buildings were put up during the period of Novohrodivka's economic growth.
On the buildings of the 1950s the construction dates have survived.
Some of the two-storey houses are decorated with stucco depicting fruit.
In 1958 a pompous House of Culture opened. According to old-timers, this hearth of culture was built by prisoners who lived next to the construction site. In time the building lost its grand appearance, despite the stucco and the colonnade at the entrance. The pediment is decorated with images of mining symbols and elements of socialist realism.
The House of Culture is adorned with a bright mural panel.
In the House of Culture a museum of labour and battle glory has been created, which preserves the memory of the veterans of war and of production.
In front of the House of Culture, on Shakhtarska Square, mass events and festive concerts are held.
In Novohrodivka there are 4 comprehensive schools. Once the coal enterprises acted as patrons over the educational institutions.
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| School No. 10 named after Shevchenko |
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| School No. 9 |
In times favourable for the demographic situation, architecturally attractive preschool institutions were built. The "Zolotyi Kliuchyk" kindergarten is decorated with mosaic panels on fairy-tale themes.
On the grounds of the kindergarten, modern play equipment has been installed.
In the years of the coal mines' unprofitability, an outflow of population occurred in the mining towns. The "Zirochka" kindergarten was built in the 1970s by craftsmen from Western Ukraine, who supplemented the design with architectural embellishments characteristic of medieval castles and town halls. The two-tier broken roof is covered with red tiles and decorated with loopholes and dormer windows. No use was found for the building; it is not mothballed and is visibly falling into ruin.
The park bears the name of the national poet T. H. Shevchenko.
In 2001 the people of Novohrodivka received as a gift a sculptural image of the Kobzar from the residents of the Subcarpathian town of
Kalush.
In the park, recreation zones have been created and children's play complexes set up. In memory of the miners who died at the coal enterprises and the victims of the Chornobyl NPP disaster, memorial signs have been installed.
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| Memorial sign to the victims of the Chornobyl NPP disaster |
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| Memorial sign to the fallen miners |
Sports lovers spend their leisure at the "Shakhtar" stadium.
From 1970 the workers of the coal industry had the chance to improve their health at a sanatorium-preventorium.
In the town there are 3 Orthodox churches. In an adapted residential building the church of Saint Barbara — the patroness of miners — has been arranged.
In 1998 a community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine took shape. Services are held in the premises of a former shop on Parkova Street, 25. On Likarniana Street, by the efforts of the community, a standard church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin was built in 1991.
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| Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin |
Under market relations, the reduction of budget spending on the development of the coal industry deepens the crisis in small towns, where the life of most residents is bound up with the coal-mining enterprises.
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| Novohrodivka. Town council |
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