The Dobropillia Area. From Sviatohorivka to Dobropillia

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

Dobropillia. The 'By the Stork' Nature Complex

Sometimes you walk along a country road, admiring the tidy homesteads and the front gardens in bloom, and suddenly you see something unusual for the Ukrainian backwoods. Where they remember the history of the village and its founders, where they value the labour of those who came before, the community has created, by its own efforts, historical displays and nature-protection areas. Local landmarks have become the calling cards of small settlements; people are proud of them, they cherish and nurture them, adorn and multiply them. And the old-timers put in their efforts not only for themselves -- a traveller too is curious to look in and learn something new about the cultural traditions of the village.

 

Dobropillia. The "By the Stork" nature-protection complex from the history of the Donetsk land