Editing Donbas (section)

==Demographics and politics==
[[File:UkraineNativeLanguagesCensus2001detailed-en.png|250px|thumb|Districts with a majority of native Russian speakers are shown in red (census 2001).]]
According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. [[Russians in Ukraine|Ethnic Russians]] form the largest minority, accounting for 39% and 38.2% of the two oblasts respectively.<ref name="auto">{{cite web
 |url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/
 |title=About number and composition population of UKRAINE by data All-Ukrainian population census 2001 data
 |date=2004
 |publisher=State Statistics Committee of Ukraine
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217151026/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/
 |archive-date=17 December 2011
}}</ref> In the present day, the Donbas is a predominately [[Russian language in Ukraine|Russophone region]]. According to the 2001 census, Russian is the main language of 74.9% of residents in Donetsk Oblast and 68.8% in Luhansk Oblast.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/|title=Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 – English version – Results – General results of the census –& Linguistic composition of the population|website=2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua}}</ref>

Residents of Russian origin are mainly concentrated in the larger urban centers. Russian became the main language and ''[[lingua franca]]'' in the course of industrialization, boosted by the immigration of many Russians, particularly from [[Kursk Oblast]], to newly founded cities in the Donbas. A subject of continuing research controversies, and often denied in these two oblasts, is the extent of forced emigration and deaths during the Soviet period, which particularly affected rural Ukrainians during the Holodomor which resulted as a consequence of early Soviet industrialization policies combined with two years of drought throughout southern Ukraine and the Volga region.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html|title=Ukrainian 'Holodomor' (man-made famine) Facts and History|website=holodomorct.org|access-date=17 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424093532/http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html|archive-date=24 April 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://faminegenocide.com/resources/causes.html|title=The Cause and the Consequences of Famines in Soviet Ukraine|website=faminegenocide.com|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=15 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315130819/http://faminegenocide.com/resources/causes.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Nearly all Ukrainian Jews either fled or were murdered in [[the Holocaust in Ukraine]] during the [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine|German occupation in World War II]]. The Donbas is about 6% [[Muslim]] according to the official censuses of [[First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union|1926]] and [[Ukrainian Census (2001)|2001]].

Prior to the Revolution of Dignity, the politics of the region were dominated by the pro-Russian [[Party of Regions]], which gained about 50% of Donbas votes in the [[2008 Ukrainian parliamentary election]]. Prominent members of that party, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, were from the Donbas.

[[File:Donetsk dynamics.png|thumb|300px|Demographic changes in [[Donetsk Oblast]]: the upper two columns depict language change over time, the lower two – ethnicity proportions. {{legend inline|OrangeRed|Russian}}, {{legend inline|DodgerBlue|Ukrainian}}, {{legend inline|LightGrey|others}} (according to official censuses in [[First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union|1926]], [[Ukrainian Census (2001)|2001]]).]]

According to linguist [[George Shevelov]], in the early 1920s the proportion of [[secondary schools]] teaching in the Ukrainian language was lower than the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas<ref name=ShevelovSUM14>[http://balticworlds.com/games-from-the-past/ Games from the Past: The continuity and change of the identity dynamic in Donbas from a historical perspective ], [[Södertörn University]] (19 May 2014)</ref> – even though the Soviet Union had ordered{{when|date=September 2014}} that all schools in the [[Ukrainian SSR]] should be Ukrainian-speaking (as part of its [[Ukrainization]] policy).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 Language Policy in the Soviet Union] by [[Lenore Grenoble]], [[Springer Science+Business Media]], 2003, {{ISBN|978-1-4020-1298-3}} (page 84)</ref>

Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbas residents claim to have a "[[Soviet people|Soviet identity]]".<ref>[http://www.taraskuzio.net/Comparative%20Politics_files/SovietCulture_Conspiracy_Yanukovych.pdf Soviet conspiracy theories and political culture in Ukraine:Understanding Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Region] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516205435/http://www.taraskuzio.net/Comparative%20Politics_files/SovietCulture_Conspiracy_Yanukovych.pdf |date=16 May 2014 }} by [[Taras Kuzio]] (23 August 2011)</ref> [[Roman Horbyk]] of [[Södertörn University]] wrote that in the 20th century, "[a]s peasants from all surrounding regions were flooding its then busy mines and plants on the border of ethnically Ukrainian and Russian territories", "incomplete and archaic institutions" prevented Donbas residents from "acquiring a notably strong modern urban – and also national – new identity".<ref name=ShevelovSUM14/>

===Religion===
{{Pie chart
|thumb = left
|caption = Religion in Donbas (2016)<ref name=Razumkov2016>[http://old.razumkov.org.ua/upload/Religiya_200516_A4.compressed.pdf РЕЛІГІЯ, ЦЕРКВА, СУСПІЛЬСТВО І ДЕРЖАВА: ДВА РОКИ ПІСЛЯ МАЙДАНУ (''Religion, Church, Society and State: Two Years after Maidan'')] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422181327/http://old.razumkov.org.ua/upload/Religiya_200516_A4.compressed.pdf |date=22 April 2017 }}, 2016 report by [[Razumkov Center]] in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches. pp. 27–29.</ref>
|label1 = [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]]
|value1 = 50.6
|color1 = Orchid
|label2 = Non-denominational [[Christianity]]
|value2 = 11.9
|color2 = Turquoise
|label3 = [[Islam]]
|value3 = 6
|color3 = Green
|label4 = [[Protestantism]]
|value4 = 2.5
|color4 = DodgerBlue
|label5 = [[Hinduism]]
|value5 = 0.6
|color5 = Orange
|label6 = Not religious
|value6 = 28.3
|color6 = Honeydew
}}
[[File:2016-05-09. День Победы в Донецке 085.jpg|thumb|World War II [[Victory Day (9 May)|Victory Day]] celebration in [[Donetsk]], 9 May 2016]]
According to a 2016 survey of [[religion in Ukraine]] held by the [[Razumkov Center]], 65.0% of the population in the Donbas believe in [[Christianity]] (including 50.6% Orthodox, 11.9% who declared themselves to be "simply Christians", and 2.5% who belonged to [[Protestant]] churches). [[Islam]] is the religion of 6% of the population of the Donbas and [[Hinduism]] of the 0.6%, both the religions with a share of the population that is higher compared to other regions of Ukraine. People who declared to be not believers or believers in some other religions, not identifying in one of those listed, were 28.3% of the population.<ref name=Razumkov2016/>

{{clear}}