Editing Donbas (section)

===Ancient, medieval and imperial Russian periods===
[[File:Yamnaya Steppe Pastoralists.jpg|thumb|270px|Bronze Age spread of [[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya]] [[Western Steppe Herders|Steppe pastoralist]] ancestry<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population |journal=Science |date=21 February 2017 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cumania (1200) eng.png|thumb|A map of the [[Cumania|Cuman–Kipchak confederation]] in [[Eurasia]], {{Circa|1200}}]]
The [[Kurgan hypothesis]] places the [[Pontic steppes]] of Ukraine and southern Russia as the [[linguistic homeland]] of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balter |first1=Michael |title=Mysterious Indo-European homeland may have been in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia |journal=Science |date=13 February 2015 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-indo-european-homeland-may-have-been-steppes-ukraine-and-russia}}</ref> The [[Yamnaya culture]] is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Haak|first1=Wolfgang|last2=Lazaridis|first2=Iosif|last3=Patterson|first3=Nick|last4=Rohland|first4=Nadin|last5=Mallick|first5=Swapan|last6=Llamas|first6=Bastien|last7=Brandt|first7=Guido|last8=Nordenfelt|first8=Susanne|last9=Harney|first9=Eadaoin|last10=Stewardson|first10=Kristin|last11=Fu|first11=Qiaomei|date=2015-06-11|title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe|journal=Nature|volume=522|issue=7555|pages=207–211|doi=10.1038/nature14317|issn=0028-0836|pmc=5048219|pmid=25731166|bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H|arxiv=1502.02783}}</ref> 

The region has been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic tribes, such as [[Scythians]], [[Alans]], [[Huns]], [[Bulgars]], [[Pechenegs]], [[Kipchaks]], [[Turco-Mongol tradition|Turco-Mongols]], [[Tatars]] and [[Nogai Horde|Nogais]]. The region now known as the Donbas was largely unpopulated until the second half of the 17th century, when [[Don Cossacks]] established the first permanent settlements in the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Katchanovski |first1=Ivan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&pg=PA135 |title=Historical Dictionary of Ukraine |last2=Kohut |first2=Zenon E. |last3=Nebesio |first3=Bohdan Y. |last4=Yurkevich |first4=Myroslav |date=2013-07-11 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7847-1 |location=[[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham]] |pages=135–136 |language=en}}</ref>

The first town in the region was founded in 1676, called Solanoye (now [[Soledar]]), which was built for the profitable business of exploiting newly discovered rock-salt reserves. Known for being a [[Cossacks|Cossack]] land, the "[[Wild Fields]]" ({{langx|uk|дике поле}}, {{Transliteration|uk|dyke pole}}), the area that is now called the Donbas was largely under the control of the Ukrainian [[Cossack Hetmanate]] and the Turkic [[Crimean Khanate]] until the mid-late 18th century, when the [[Russian Empire]] conquered the Hetmanate and annexed the Khanate.<ref name="FTdon11">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC&q=history+of+donbass | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=11–13 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hauter |first=Jakob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqjuzwEACAAJ |title=Russia's Overlooked Invasion: The Causes of the 2014 Outbreak of War in Ukraine's Donbas |date=2023 |publisher=Ibidem Verlag |isbn=978-3-8382-1803-8 |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref>

In the second half of the 17th century, settlers and fugitives from [[Cossack Hetmanate|Hetman's Ukraine]] and [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]] settled the lands north of the [[Donets]] river.<ref name="donets">{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=W. E. D. |title=The Ukraine |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107641860 |page=362 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVUHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA362}}</ref> At the end of the 18th century, many [[Russians]], [[Ukrainians]], [[Serbs in Ukraine|Serbs]] and [[Greeks in Ukraine|Greeks]] migrated to lands along the southern course of the Donets river, into an area previously inhabited by nomadic [[Nogai Horde|Nogais]], who were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate.<ref name="donets"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Yekelchyk |first1=Serhy |title=The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0190237301 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTZICgAAQBAJ&pg=PT113}}</ref> Tsarist Russia named the conquered territories "[[New Russia]]" ({{langx|ru|Новороссия|links=no}}, {{Transliteration|ru|Novorossiya}}). As the [[Industrial Revolution]] took hold across Europe, the vast [[coal]] resources of the region, discovered in 1721, began to be exploited in the mid-late 19th century.<ref name="ew2">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Donets Basin | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica | year=2014}}</ref>
[[File:Ukraine-Dyke Pole.png|thumb|A map of the sparsely populated [[Wild Fields]] in the 17th century]]
It was at this point that the name ''Donbas'' came into use, derived from the term "Donets Coal Basin" ({{langx|uk|Донецький вугільний басейн|links=no}}; {{langx|ru|Донецкий каменноугольный бассейн|links=no}}), referring to the area along the [[Donets]] river where most of the coal reserves were found. The rise of the coal industry led to a population boom in the region, largely driven by Russian settlers.<ref name="DbRUK">{{cite journal | jstor=261051| title=The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes | author=Andrew Wilson | journal=Journal of Contemporary History |date=April 1995 | volume=30 | issue=2 | page=274}}</ref>

[[Donetsk]], the most important city in the region today, was founded in 1869 by [[Welsh people|Welsh]] businessman [[John Hughes (businessman)|John Hughes]] on the site of the old [[Zaporozhian Cossack]] town of Oleksandrivka. Hughes built a steel mill and established several [[collieries]] in the region. The city was named after him as Yuzivka ({{Langx|uk|Юзівка|links=no}}) or Yuzovka ({{langx|ru|Юзовка|links=no}}). With the development of Yuzovka and similar cities, large numbers of landless peasants from peripheral [[governorates of the Russian Empire]] came looking for work.<ref name="donbas_id">{{Cite web |last=Klinova |first=Olha |date=2014-12-11 |script-title=uk:Як формувалась регіональна ідентичність Донбасу |trans-title=How the Donbas identity was formed |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2014/12/11/146063/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=[[Istorychna Pravda]]}}</ref>

According to the [[Russian Imperial Census]] of 1897, Ukrainians ("[[Little Russia]]ns", in the official imperial language) accounted for 52.4% of the population of the region, whilst ethnic Russians constituted 28.7%.<ref name="FTdon41">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC&q=history+of+donbass | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=41–42 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref> Ethnic Greeks, [[Black Sea Germans|Germans]], [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Jews]] and [[Tatars]] also had a significant presence in the Donbas, particularly in the [[Uezd|district]] of [[Mariupol]], where they constituted 36.7% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php |title=The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 − Breakdown of population by mother tongue and districts in 50 Governorates of the European Russia |access-date=22 September 2014 |work=Institute of Demography at the National Research University 'Higher School of Economics' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006074450/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref> Despite this, Russians constituted the majority of the industrial workforce. Ukrainians dominated rural areas, but cities were often inhabited solely by Russians who had come seeking work in the region's heavy industries.<ref name="WalkSiegel1">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsDExU_Oji0C | title=Workers of the Donbass Speak: Survival and Identity in the New Ukraine, 1982–1992 | publisher=State University of New York Press | author=Lewis H. Siegelbaum | year=1995 | location=Albany | page=162 | isbn=0-7914-2485-5 | author2=Daniel J. Walkowitz}}</ref> Those Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were quickly assimilated into the Russian-speaking worker class.<ref name="UCreiUK">{{cite book | url=https://www.census.gov/population/international/files/sp/SP90.pdf | title=Ethnic Reidentification in Ukraine | publisher=United States Census Bureau | author=Stephen Rapawy | year=1997 | location=Washington, D.C. | access-date=7 March 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019191328/http://www.census.gov/population/international/files/sp/SP90.pdf | archive-date=19 October 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref>