The Dobropillia Area. From Sviatohorivka to Dobropillia via Kryvorizhzhia and Zelene. The Most Important Things

The history of our people and our state has been denied and silenced since time immemorial, and to this day the enemy destroys our cultural heritage. Even the smallest village, the humblest of houses, has its own master and its own story, one that bears witness to the past and to memory, to the dignity and the morality of a person. We do not always treat our history with awe and respect; through rebuildings and innovations we destroy our moral bearings and our national traditions, and from generation to generation we pass on a deformed and distorted understanding and perception of our roots. 

Through the example of the villages of the Dobropillia area, let us look at how the historical and cultural monuments are being preserved, and at what the community has managed to keep alongside powerful agricultural and industrial enterprises.

 

The village of Dobropillia. Donetsk region

The Dobropillia area — until 2020 an administrative-territorial unit in the north-west of the Donetsk region, now part of the Pokrovsk district. The route starts in Sviatohorivka, near the spring of St Panteleimon, one of the shrines of the Dobropillia area, known for more than 100 years. People come to the spring in the bed of the Byk from all over the region, amid a lack of water supply and a worsening of water quality. Through the efforts of the parishioners of the Holy Dormition Church a font has been built; on the former wasteland flower beds have been laid out, avenues have been paved, an exhibition of millstones has been created and benches have been set up.

 

Sviatohorivka. The spring of St Panteleimon

In 1911 a four-grade zemstvo school opened in the village, and its building still houses a wing of the Sviatohorivka general-education school.

 

Sviatohorivka. The school building. A former zemstvo school

Another zemstvo building, which has not lost its authentic architectural decoration — a brick cornice running around the perimeter and pediments above the windows — is occupied by a bank branch.

Sviatohorivka. An "Oschadbank" branch. A former zemstvo building

In the place of the oil mill that once fed the village — ruins and oblivion.

 

Sviatohorivka. The ruins of the oil mill

The bright paintings on the bus stop recall the Cossack era, when life sprang up on the bank of the Byk on the site of a border watch-post.

 

Sviatohorivka. The bus stop

Along the bed of the Byk, a tributary of the Samara, other settlements grew up too, which we shall see on our journey. Virivka also delighted us with the brightness of its bus shelter.

 

Virivka. The bus shelter

In 2019 a church of the icon of the Mother of God "Troyeruchnytsia" (the Three-Handed) opened in the centre of the village, built of timber — something you do not often meet in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

 

Virivka. The church of the icon of the Mother of God "Troyeruchnytsia"

Further on, the way heads south-west to Kryvorizhzhia, an old Cossack village set at the confluence of the Byk and the Vodiana.

Kryvorizhzhia. The signposts

At the entrance to Kryvorizhzhia rises a new church of St Nicholas with a built-in four-tier bell tower. The alternation of horizontal stripes of red and white brick lends the building a decorative quality and a sense of volume.

 

Kryvorizhzhia. The church of St Nicholas

In the centre of the village, in honour of the first machine operators, a monument-tractor "Universal" has been set up, which marks the agricultural bent of the economic and social development of Kryvorizhzhia.

 

Kryvorizhzhia. The monument-tractor "Universal"

Kryvorizhzhia. The central street

An IS-8 tank on a pedestal was unveiled in memory of the liberator-soldiers of the 33rd Rifle Corps under the command of I. S. Semenov. The memorial plaques are in Russian and are due to be replaced. 

Kryvorizhzhia. The monument-tank

Another Orthodox church, consecrated in honour of St Andrew the First-Called, is set in the building of a former volost administration, with a built-in altar.

 

Kryvorizhzhia. The church of St Andrew the First-Called

Nearby stands the building of a former zemstvo school. The Soviet-era plaster has fallen away and laid bare the red-brick structure.

Kryvorizhzhia. A former zemstvo school

The entrance to the three-storey school of 1965 is set off with new paving tiles, a tidy fence and evergreen spruces.

 

Kryvorizhzhia. The school

One might have got to know the historical records in the school museum, but according to a former teacher the exhibition has been broken up. It is a great pity that through indifference and neglect precious museum collections are vanishing. In other regions I have seen how, crumb by crumb, grain by grain, enthusiasts and initiators gather the evidence of the glorious past of their communities and create local-history and ethnographic exhibitions and museum rooms.

 

An exhibition of millstones in the village of Zelene

From the abandoned house of culture came the voices of teenagers, who always feel a need for company and for spectacle, which is exactly what a village club ought to provide. Judging by the broken windows and the collapsed roof, this centre of culture has gone dark and is becoming dangerously dilapidated.

Kryvorizhzhia. The neglected house of culture

For a fine example of the preservation of historical monuments, one can drive to Zelene, which lies 6 kilometres to the north-west of Kryvorizhzhia. The local landscape is cut by picturesque gullies and winding ravines, and the hills are covered with woodland plantations. Ploughed and sown fields give way to islands of protected wild spots and nature-conservation zones. In the steppe and among the fields one can still see the earthen burial mounds, which are constantly under threat of being ploughed up.

 

The Dobropillia area. Burial mounds near the village of Zelene

In Zelene a matchless example of cultural heritage has "stayed alive" — the estate house of the Mennonite Heinrich Suderman. The old manor has withstood the collective-farm and perestroika 20th century and is being restored by its new owners. On the facade of the house the date the building was finished is given — 1914 — along with three letters, H M S — Heinrich, Maria, Suderman. The house is not lavish with architectural excess, but it has survived in its original form. Arched stone decoration adorns the windows, and on the high porch two columns lend the building a majesty. In 2008 a settler from Donetsk, Anatolii Kurhanov, took up the restoration of the estate, and his son Ruslan carried on his father's work. The entrepreneurs' aim was to revive the farmstead and to open the historical monument for visits by tourists. A mini-zoo has been created, a poultry yard and a sheep farm have been rebuilt, and one can ride horses. The shop sells cheese, milk, oil and eggs.

 

Zelene. The Suderman estate house

Further on we move in a south-easterly direction through Kryvorizhzhia, past villages spread along the Vodiana river, which is drying up and barely forces its way through the reed thickets.

 

The Dobropillia area. The Vodiana river near Kryvorizhzhia

A stop in Novofedorivka gave us a find of the "monumental art" variety. A brick building that now houses a paramedic station is decorated with mosaic pictures. A panel on a medical theme, showing a doctor and patients against a backdrop of orchards, fields and livestock farms, glorifies agricultural labour and testifies to a caring attitude towards the health of the people. The periwinkle symbolises resilience, eternity and beauty, and is bound up with many folk beliefs. Another mosaic fresco declares that the building once housed a village shop that sold household appliances, footwear and something else besides, but the lost fragment of the picture will no longer tell us the former range of the trading establishment.

 

Novofedorivka. Mosaic panels on the facade of the paramedic station

At the entrance to the village of Dobropillia, on the western side, a rest area has been created, and by the well a stork greets travellers. To the Dobropillia bird, as a herald and a continuer of the family line, brides and married couples come to make a wish and have their photograph taken. Villagers come here to bow to the victims of the man-made famine of 1933 and to remember their fellow soldiers who fell in war. On this spiritually important spot a chapel has appeared, where in prayer one can light a candle before the holy image. Sadly, not a single information plaque "By the Stork" turned up. I would like to thank the founders, the creators and all who look after the good order of this historical and nature-conservation complex.

 

Dobropillia. At the Stork

The oldest of the more or less surviving church buildings of the Dobropillia area stands in the centre of the village. The Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God was built in 1865 at a landowner's expense and underwent many rebuildings. In the godless period the church lost its domes and its furnishings, and the house of prayer was converted into a utility building. The place of worship was returned to the faithful in a half-ruined state in the 1990s.

 

Dobropillia. The Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. 1865

The Sunday school is housed in the building of a former zemstvo administration, on whose gable the number "1911" marks the date of construction. The ceramic-tile facing of the brick base has not escaped decay. There are no memorial markers of any historical significance on the building. The chief spiritual testimonies are in need of repair and of respectful treatment, because each object is unique and carries the memory of a bygone age.

 

Dobropillia. The Sunday school. A former zemstvo administration

No use was found for a sound house of white brick; the empty shell gapes with the black holes of its broken windows.

 

Dobropillia. An abandoned building

The wrecked "Bravo" cafeteria stirs no delight — a place that in the past cheerfully received guests from morning until midnight.

 

Dobropillia. The abandoned "Bravo" cafeteria

Not every village can boast of having an aircraft. The plane stands at a crossroads without any information plaque, probably in honour of pilots who died, or as a memorial after the aircraft was taken out of service.

 

Dobropillia. The monument-aircraft

We could not find out what social activity goes on in the two-storey village club with its renovated facade, because of the locked doors.

 

Dobropillia. The house of culture

From a conversation with local residents I learned that the school once had a museum of the village's history. Whether it still works remains an open question — perhaps a reader can tell me.

 

Dobropillia. The school

To preserve the memorable places and the great heritage of Ukrainian history for our descendants, we need to carry out research, watch over the condition of the sites, popularise them, hold events aimed at preserving cultural values and strengthen the responsibility for their damage and destruction. The role of historical monuments in our life is beyond price. The protection and preservation of cultural heritage is the face of every city, town and little village — and the Dobropillia area has much to be proud of and much to show.

Dobropillia. A sculpture of the Mother of God