Donets'k Things to Do

Located in front of the Cathedral of Christ Transfiguration, the statue was presented to Donetsk by Kiev in approximately 2002. The Archangel Michael is a symbol of protection. Considering everything Ukraine has had to indur, he probably needs a better suited job.

Located on the main street of Artyomo, the Church was originally constructed in 1883 as an Orthodox Church. However, it was torn town during the Soviet Anti Religion campaign in 1933. It was rebuilt starting in 1997 and completed in 2006.

I wish my home town would have a big a$$ cannon like the Tsar Cannon in Donetsk. Actually we could because the Tsar Cannon in Donetsk is only a replica of the original 16th century one. This one was only built in 2001. It is cast iron, painted to imitate tarnished bronze. I think I am going to talk to my home town city council about getting our own Tsar Cannon.

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Walk along the Calmius embankment and then up to Lenin Square and Artiom Street, the main thoroughfare of the city.
You will see a replica of the Czar Cannon that stands in the Kremlin in Moscow.
The replica was commissioned in Izhevsk, Russia, in 2001 and was presented to the people of the Donets Basin as a symbol of the inviolable friendship of the Russian and the Ukrainian peoples.
The Ukrainian version of the Czar Cannon stands in Artem Street - the central street of Donetsk.
Who would have thought that replicas of the old unique monuments are possible!

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Walking along Artem Street, the main city street, you will see this monument to Artiom (the Communist paty name of Fiodor Sergeyev).
You can marvel at the six-meter-high (20 feet) statue of Fiodor Sergeyev who became one of the Communist symbols of the Donets Basin.
The monument was created by sculptor V.M.Kostin and architect M.K.Yakovlev in 1967.
Artiom (in Russian; in Ukrainian: "Artem") was an outstanding Soviet Communist leader who lived and worked in the Donets Basin and died in 1921. Also, he was an adopted son of Joseph Jugashvili who later became Joseph Stalin.
Artem was revered by the Soviet authorities and is remembered as one of the Soviet "saints" now.

Fiodor Andreyevich Sergeyev (Artiom) became the Chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissars (the Prime-Minister) of Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Socialist Republic (DKSR).
This republic existed on the map from the end of January till the middle of March 1918. It was a part of the Russian Federation and included Kharkiv Region, Yekaterinolav Region, a part of Kherson Region and the areas of the Russian Don Cossacks.
This republic became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic on March 19, 1918, but by the middle of April 1918 the whole republic was occupied by German troops according to the Treaty of Brest, a separate peace treaty between the Bolsheviks and Germany.

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You can see construction sites almost everywhere in Donetsk now. Even in the Old City brand new apartment houses are being built and put into operation.
I wouldn’t call these apartments very cheap. The apartments on the 18th floor of the brand new apartment house at 155d Artem Street are the most expensive ones: 1 sq.m costs about $3,500.
There are lots of modern and ultramodern buildings in Donetsk now, both office buildings, shopping malls and apartment houses.
Lots of ultramodern apartment houses are being built now in different districts of the city.

See also: Elite Apartment Houses

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Visiting Coalminers Square that is located at the beginning of the main street is a must for a city visitor too.
You can see a very special and unique coalminer monument, the new chapel and watch the busy traffic at that junction.

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Take a look at the monument to Archangel St.Michael that was brought to Donetsk from Kiev.
Archangel St.Michael is the patron saint of the Ukrainian Capital.
It stands in Artyom Street, the main street of Donetsk, as a symbol of the Ukrainian Renaissance.
The statue stands in front of an Orthodox Cathedral built recently in the main street.

Our cab driver explained to us during our city tour that the cathedral was given a lucky space in the main street. That space had been banned from any construction site for years.
The thing is the public garden located there was built at the place of a former Nazi cemetery. Several years ago the City Council adopted a resolution the beginning of the construction of a new cathedral, thus destroying all the graves of the Nazis who fell in 1943 when the city was liberated from the invaders by the Soviet Army.

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If you have some time downtown, especially in summer when it is very hot, you can go to the Fine Arts Museum located at 35 Pushkin Boulevard.
The museum contains seventeen halls: Russian and foreign art, mainly copies, but also some originals such as Ivan Shishkin's works and Ivan Aivazovsky's marine landscapes.
Donetsk Arts Museum is one of the largest museums in Ukraine and the cultural hub of Donetsk.
It is located downtown opposite the building of the Regional Administration, not far from Shevchenko monument that is located in Artiom Street.
The museum was dedicated on September 23, 1939.
During the Nazi occupation the museum suffered a lot. The Nazi invaders plundered the collections and destroyed the museum itself.
The restored museum was dedicated again in 1960.
The museum contains a lot of copies as well as original works and gifts from artists.
There are eleven thousand paintings, graphic and sculptural works as well as works of decorative and applied arts.
The 17-hall museum exposition is divided into four sections:
Russian and Ukrainian art of the 16th – early 20th centuries
Local art of the 20th century
Ukrainian decorative and applied arts of the 18th-20th centuries
West European art of the 17th-20th centirues.
The museum is located at 35 Pushkin Boulevard and is open from 9 a.m. till 4.30 p.m. (except Monday and Tuesday).
(see also the travelogue).

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Visiting the city stadium in Artyom Street you can see the statue of Sergey Bubka in front of the stadium.
Sergey Bubka is a famous Olympic champion, a pole vault jumper, an IOC member, Hero of Ukraine, who lives and works in Donetsk.
I think this is the only monument to a living Ukrainian hero at present.
The inscription at the foot of the monument reads,
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Sergey Bubka,
outstanding sportsman of the 20th century,
multiple World and Olympic Champion.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Joseph Cobzon monument near the “Youth Palace” concert hall in Cheliuskintsev Street is another monument to an outstanding contemporary.
The monument is very democratic and has no pedestal. The statue’s left hand is well polished by the people who have their photo taken.
The monument to Archangel St.Michael located in front of an Orthodox Cathedral in the main street was brought from Kiev where it used to stand in Independence Square, the capital’s main square.

Another must-see monument is Lenin monument in Lenin Square. I would say it’s one of the biggest Lenin monuments in Ukraine. Its height is about 15 meters I guess.
You can approach it from different angles and take a lucky picture of it and the obelisk with Lenin’s words on how important the Donets Basin is.