The founder of Donetsk - John Hughes - did not mortgage, but dug up a plant in Donbass?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

As you know, the official date of the foundation of Donetsk is considered to be 1869. The most common version associates this with the beginning of the construction of a metallurgical plant by John Hughes. But is it true that the foot of the British Hughes, shod in an English boot, then stepped from a German chaise onto the completely deserted and bare steppes of Donetsk lands?

The topic of buried cities is being actively developed by numerous alternative researchers. We present to the readers of the Kramol portal another interesting study on this topic, which was carried out by an attentive resident of Donbass.

So, John Hughes (Jonh Hughes) in 1869 redeems for a large reward - 24 thousand pounds - a concession for the construction of a plant for the manufacture of iron rails from local materials from Prince Sergei Viktorovich Kochubei. In the same year he founded his plant, and already in 1872 he produced the first batch of cast iron.

Sergey Kochubey sold his concession - but not to John Hughes personally, but to the Novorossiysk Society, which was formed by the adoption of the Charter on May 29, 1869. When it was formed, seven people were among the main subscriber-shareholders: Daniel Gooch, Thomas Brassi, Alexander Ougilvy, a member of the British Parliament Thomas Brassi Jr., Charles F. Gooch, W. S. Wiseman, Joseph Whitworth.

According to the charter, the board consisted of six people, of whom four were elected by shareholders of the privileged category "A" and two - by shareholders of the usual category "B". The last two were the managing directors of the plant. They were John Hughes and John Viret Gooch. The managing directors were paid a salary of £ 1,000 a year and 1,000 grade B shares guaranteeing 10% of the income. They were entrusted with the responsible duties of overseeing the plant and managing the affairs of the Society. Holders of A-grade shares were guaranteed 15% per annum income.

Prince Sergei Kochubei became the honorary director of the Company, who received 980 shares for a total of 240,000 rubles.

The Novorossiysk society is not a bunch of amateurs who dream of getting rich in the vastness of Russia. These were seasoned sir-peers and princes, and the deal was supervised directly by the Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov, who was the brother of Emperor Alexander, who also followed the Society.

Why did these people, associated with the industrial and power elite of that time, strive precisely here, in the godforsaken village of Aleksandrovka? An alternative exploration of this question can be seen in the two parts below: