Volnovakha city, Donetsk region

Roadside sign

Summer Park central entrance

Monument Glory to the Guards Tankmen liberators of the city of Volnovakha

Monument to those killed in the Second World War

District Council

Church

House of Pioneers

Museum

Volnovakha– a city of regional significance, a regional center. Administratively, the city is subordinate to the Volnovakha District Council. Located in the southern part of the Donetsk region, at the junction of the Mariupol-Donetsk railway line to Zaporozhye, Odessa, Crimea. The city is located on the Donetsk-Mariupol highway.
Located: Ukraine, Donetsk region.

Name Volnovakha The city received it from the Mokraya Volnovakha River, which originates from the city's locomotive depot. Volnovakha was inhabited already in the Bronze Age, as evidenced by archaeological excavations of an ancient settlement in the south-eastern part of the city and burial in a stone tomb. The found stone statue (baba) speaks of the presence of nomads in this area.

Volnovakha’s birthday was in 1881, when the first Elenovka-Mariupol train passed through the station. Subsequently, Volnovakha merged with the village of Platonovka, founded in 1842, and the village of Karlovka, founded in 1845, which were populated by settlers from the Kyiv, Kharkov, Chernigov and Poltava provinces.

In 1904, in connection with the construction of the Volnovakha - Tsare-Konstantinovka railway, a new depot building was built at the Volnovakha station. There was one lathe in the depot, which was driven by one large wooden wheel and was turned by two workers.

In 1908, the only school on the Yekaterinoslav Railway and the first school in Russia for artel elders (track masters) was opened in Volnovakha. We studied from handwritten textbooks, which were compiled by teachers in one copy. All work on the construction and repair of the railway track was carried out manually.

In 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, workers of the locomotive depot: Matvey Varusha, Martytyuk, Ananiy Glushchenko, Konstantin Milko began to conduct revolutionary propaganda among locomotive workers, using leaflets published by the Ekaterinoslav, Rostov and Yuzovsky committees of the RSDLP.

Before the revolution, the village of Volnovakha had no administrative significance. It was part of the Sretenskaya volost of the Mariupol district of the Ekaterinoslav province.

The Volnovakha railway workers greeted the victory of the October Revolution with joy. At the end of December 1917, local Bolsheviks held re-elections of the Platonov Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. A revolutionary committee is being organized in Volnovakha.

During the years of the civil war and foreign intervention, the Volnovakha railway junction was of great strategic importance and was the object of fierce struggle. In April 1918, when the German-Austrian occupiers began an attack on Ukraine, the Volnovakha defensive region and the Volnovakha group of the Red Army were created by order of the Red Army of the Donetsk basin.

During 1918 - 1920, the Volnovakha station changed hands more than 20 times. During this period, advanced depot workers disabled steam locomotives and rolling stock and distributed Bolshevik Party leaflets.

At the end of 1919 and the beginning of 1920, a revolutionary committee was created in Volnovakha, headed by Andrei Gavrilovich Khavikov.

The first chairman of the Volnovakha volost executive committee was Joseph Matveevich Varusha, who later worked as a foreman of the vegetable-growing brigade of the Chapaev collective farm.

From 1920 to 1928, a committee of homeless villagers was created in the village, headed by Ivan Verna. In 1928, a partnership for joint cultivation of the land was created, and in 1930 the collective farm “Cultural Revolution” was created, the first chairman of the collective farm was a Mariupol worker - twenty-five thousandth worker Fedor Rudas. In 1932, the Transportnik state farm was created, the director of which was Vladimir Grigorievich Kurochkin for many years.

In 1932 - 1934, a radical reconstruction of the Volnovakha railway junction took place:

• new locomotive and carriage depots equipped with the latest technology were built;
• mechanized slide for forming trains,
• water supply has been improved.

Since 1935, Volnovakha station became the center of the Volnovakha branch of the South Donetsk Railway.

The following were built in the city:

• secondary schools,
• Palace of Culture named after K. Marx,
• nursery and kindergarten,
• Lokomotiv Stadium",
• clinic,
• residential buildings, of which 21 are multi-storey.

The flour milling and meat and dairy industries have grown. There were about 20 shops, 3 canteens, a restaurant and a mechanized factory - kitchen in the city.

In August 1930, the Oktyabrsky district was renamed Volnovakha, and in 1938, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Volnovakha became a city of district subordination. Since January 1932, the district newspaper has been published regularly.

The peaceful work of the Soviet people was interrupted by the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on our country. The workers of the city and region also rose to defend the Motherland. Thousands of volunteers went to the front. During the offensive of fascist troops in the Donbass, workers at the railway junction and collective farmers took measures to evacuate rolling stock and station equipment, tractors and livestock to the eastern regions of the country.

On October 11, 1941, the city was occupied by the Nazis. During November - December 1941, the Nazis shot about 100 Soviet citizens suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet regime. At the same time, 35 communists and Komsomol members were captured and executed:

• chairman of the collective farm P. S. Shatsky,
• employee of the military commissar V. S. Mikhalko,
• locomotive driver M. M. Kamenetsky and others.

Volnovakha residents actively participated in the fight against the invaders. They organized sabotage, created underground patriotic groups, and destroyed the Nazis. V.I. Shapinsky, a radio operator-lieutenant, was left in the city for partisan work. His active assistants were I. G. Teslya, I. M. Ezhak, F. S. Strizhak, A. I. Popko.

During the liberation of the area, stubborn fighting took place everywhere. Particularly fierce battles were fought for the city of Volnovakha. On September 9, 1943, the Soviet Army liberated the city from the occupiers.

In total, 1,360 city residents fought against the Nazi invaders on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, of which more than 1,000 were awarded military orders and medals.

The Nazis subjected the region's economy to terrible destruction: collective farm property, all equipment, and agricultural machinery were almost completely destroyed. 49 collective farms, 6 state farms, 3 MTS were damaged.

For the period 1944 - 1948. Over 150 city workers were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.

The city was not only restored, but also transformed. From 1945 to 1953 A House of Culture named after V.I. Lenin, a consumer services plant, and a department store were built in the city.

Over the next ten years, the following were built in the city:

• plant for processing hybrid corn seeds,
• regional department "Agricultural equipment",
• building materials plant,
• asphalt concrete plant,
• energy hub - in connection with the transition of the road to electric traction,
• new railway station building.

From 1958 to 1964 the following were built:

• two new high schools,
• boarding school,
• hospital campus with new medical equipment,
• dozens of new stores,
• kindergartens and nurseries.

There are over three thousand people in the city who have been awarded orders and medals: heroes of the civil war I. I. Byvshev, old Bolsheviks: V. R. Ananyev, A. G. Khavikov, V. G. Kurochkin, V. P. Sinitsyn and many other.

In 1981, in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city of Volnovakha, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, the city was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. For success in fulfilling the tasks of economic and cultural construction and in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city, the following were awarded:

Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR:

• Verveyko I. D. – diesel locomotive driver at the locomotive depot,
• Korzh V.I. – drilling foreman of the Azov State Exploration Exploration Company,
• Swede I.S. – foreman of the collective farm named after Chapaev.

The diploma of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR was awarded to:

• Gudenko I.F. – train compiler at Volnovakha station,
• Kravtsov N. G. – track distance adjuster,
• Krasnopolsky A.S. – Head of the Azov State Expedition,
• Morylev N.N. – director of a correspondence secondary school,
• Pisarenko M.I. – senior nurse of the central district hospital.

For his services in the development of agriculture and active participation in public life, the manager of district agricultural equipment, Viktor Alekseevich Bondarenko, was awarded the honorary title: Honored Worker of Agriculture of the Ukrainian SSR.

For services to the development of rural construction and active participation in public life, the foreman of plasterers PMK-111 Zhaleiko Valentina Grigorievna was awarded the honorary title of Honored Builder of the Ukrainian SSR.

The main enterprises of the city are:

• locomotive depot,
• carriage depot,
• Volnovakha station,
• JSC "Ekoprod",
• OJSC "Volnovakha Bread Products Plant"
• LLC "Vozrozhdenie"
• Avtodor,
• farms for growing and processing agricultural crops.

At the service of the townspeople are: two hospitals, 3 paramedic and obstetric stations, a dental clinic and an ambulance station, a network of pharmacies, shops, and consumer service enterprises.

The city operates:

• 7 secondary schools,
• SPTU,
• 6 preschool institutions,
• regional center of culture and leisure,
• creative youth center,
• House of children's and youth creativity,
• station for young technicians,
• children's and youth sports school,
• regional museum of local lore,
• libraries,
• school of aesthetic education with music and art departments.

There are three Orthodox churches in the city:

• Holy Spiritual,
• Holy Transfiguration,
• Svyato-Tikhvinsky.

There are 18 historical monuments in the city:

• 2 - civil war,
• 12 – Great Patriotic War,
• 2 – to Afghan soldiers K. Babin and V. Berezovsky,
• 3 memorial plates - to two Heroes of the Soviet Union, warriors and liberators of the city Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov and Alexander Denisovich Kanevsky and Hero of Socialist Labor, First Secretary of the Volnovakha District Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Vasily Stepanovich Teteryuk,
• in April, on the day of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, a memorial sign was unveiled in honor of the heroes of Chernobyl.

In the vicinity of the city there is a natural monument - the Velikoanadolsky Forest, in which thousands of citizens and residents of the region vacation every year. This is the first forest plantation in the Ukrainian steppe. Today the Velikoanadolsky forest is the standard of steppe afforestation. Its area is 2500 hectares. Dozens of tree and shrub species grow here. A large collection of their exotic species from around the world is collected in the dendrological park of the forestry.

Volnovakha is surrounded by a forest park. Nearby is one of the highest points of the Azov Upland - the Tomb of Goncharikha (278 m above sea level).

Volnovakh residents are rightfully proud of their fellow countrymen:

• Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, General Director of the Regional Center for Maternal and Child Health, Professor V. K. Chaika,
• Honored figure of science and technology, Hero of Ukraine V. G. Komanov,
• Hero of the Soviet Union S. F. Filippskikh,
• Honored Teacher of the Ukrainian SSR O. I. Putilina,
• Honored Trainer of Ukraine S. G. Chetverikov,
• Honored Tester of Space Technology, Head of the Directorate of the Russian Research Center, Colonel V. G. Kravtsov,
• Honored Transport Worker of Ukraine G. A. Zaichenko and others.

Volnovakha is a city of regional subordination, the center of the region. Located 60 km south of Donetsk. Railway junction. The Zhdanov-Donetsk railway passes through the city, which connects here with the line to Zaporozhye, Odessa, and Crimea. Volnovakha is also crossed by the Zhdanov-Donetsk highway. Population - 25.3 thousand people.

The remains of a settlement on the north-eastern outskirts of Volnovakha and a burial in a stone tomb excavated in the city indicate the settlement of the territory and surroundings of Volnovakha back in the Bronze Age. The found stone statue (“woman”) indicates the presence of nomads in this area (IX-XIII centuries). Volnovakha was founded in the early 80s of the 19th century. In connection with the construction of the Mariupol section (Elenovka-Mariupol) of the Donetsk Coal Railway, 156.1 dessiatines were cut off from the lands of the peasant community of the village of Platonovka (now part of the city). In the spring of 1880, on this site, two miles from the village, at the source of the Mokraya Volnovakha River (the right tributary of Kalmius), they began to lay a railway line, built a water pump to supply water to steam locomotives and several barracks for workers. On March 16, 1881, the foundation stone for the station took place, which, like the village later, received its name from the river - Volnovakha. On November 1, 1882, the railway section from Elenovka to Mariupol was put into operation. Trains went through Volnovakha.

During the first two decades, Volnovakha remained a small linear station. Mainly bread and other agricultural products were sent from here. The main transit cargo passing through the station to the Mariupol port was Donetsk coal. In 1891 alone, more than 11 million pounds were transported. Since the end of the 19th century. After the expansion of the seaport and the construction of metallurgical plants in Mariupol, the volume of transit cargo transported through Volnovakha increased significantly. In this regard, in 1891, telegraph communication was established on the Mariupol-Volnovakha-Yasinovataya section, and in 1895, a small station was built at the Volnovakha station, and a year later - a locomotive depot; in 1900, second tracks were laid between the Yuzovka and Mariupol stations (via Volnovakha). On July 1, 1893, the Donetsk coal railway (Debaltsevo-Yasinovataya-Volnovakha-Mariupol) passed into the hands of the treasury, and in 1903 it was transferred to the management of the Catherine Railway.

In 1905, the Second Catherine Railway was put into operation from Dolgintsevo station through Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye) and Pologi to Volnovakha. Since then, Volnovakha station has become a hub, which contributed to its faster development. Back in 1904, a new locomotive depot building for eight locomotives was built here, and in 1905 a new station was built.

But the station village, which together with the village of Platonovka was part of the Nikolaev volost of the Mariupol district of the Ekaterinoslav province, grew slowly. Even by the beginning of the 20th century, despite the expansion of the station, there were only 45 houses in Volnovakha with a population of about 250 people.

Life was difficult for railway workers. In 1883, the average salary of a railway track worker was 14.6 rubles. per month. This was not enough to feed the family. Living conditions were very bad. Since the local water pumping station supplied only process water to the station, drinking water was brought here once a week in a tank from the Sartana station.

Difficult living conditions encouraged Volnovakha workers to fight for their rights and for higher wages. Their performances were especially active during the October All-Russian political strike of 1905. On October 10, drivers, workers and employees of the locomotive depot, station and track services, and telegraph operators went on strike. The railway junction froze. The Gendarmerie Department reported to the Yekaterinoslav governor that since “October 13, train traffic between the stations of Aleksandroven and Volnovakha has been stopped.”

The events in December 1905 were even more turbulent. At the call of the Combat Strike Committee of the Catherine Railway, on December 8, a strike of railway workers of the Mariupol branch (Yasinovataya-Mariupol), which included the Volnovakha station, began. On December 9, train traffic also stopped on the Second Ekaterininskaya Railway - between the Volnovakha and Aleksandrovsk stations.

On December 15, the Cossacks dismantled the railway line between Yuzovka and Rutchenkovo ​​in order to cut off the fighting squads’ road from Avdeevka and Yasinovataya to Volnovakha and Mariupol, and on December 17, the tsarist government declared Mariupol and other districts of the Yekaterinoslav province under martial law, abandoned the troops and suppressed the performance of the railway workers.

By 1908, the number of workers at the railway junction had increased to 400 people. The station's annual cargo turnover reached 2 million poods. Some measures have been taken to expand it. In 1911, a new water supply line of 11 miles with a water tower was built. But its technical equipment remained backward. The locomotive depot had several squalid workshops with smoke-stained windows and walls. In the forge shop there were two forges, and in the mechanical shop there were several pairs of vices and one lathe, which was driven by a wheel rotated by hand. In the boiler shop, fire and smoke pipes were beaten with sledgehammers, and rivets were riveted on the boilers. The incredible roar and clanging of metal deafened people who worked 12 hours a day. Railway workers' wages remained low.

On January 1, 1915, in the station village, which was part of the Platonovskaya volost, there were 108 households and 634 residents. There was a shop, a market, a small private bakery, and a long row of grain merchants' barns.

Until the beginning of the 20th century. residents of Volnovakha were deprived of medical care. In case of illness, they had to get to the village of Staroignatievki, located 25 versts from the village, where the local doctor, paramedic and midwife lived, serving the villages of six volosts. Although after 1905 an emergency room was opened at Volnovakha station, where a local doctor worked, medical care for the population remained, as before, unsatisfactory. In the first half of 1916 alone, 424 people suffered from epidemic diseases (smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, etc.) in the village. All this was a consequence of difficult living conditions and malnutrition of workers and their families.

Only a few children of railway workers attended the zemstvo primary school in the village of Platonovka, opened in 1887. In 1905, after the station became a hub, the administration opened a one-class school in the village, where in 1906 28 children were studying. It was located in a dilapidated one-story building, occupying only half of it; the second half housed a church. In 1908, a school for artel elders was transferred here from Debaltsevo. It was the only school on the Ekaterininskaya Railway and the first in Russia that trained craftsmen (artel leaders) for the construction of railways and the expansion of station tracks. After six months of training, her students completed a two-year summer internship. Over 30 people studied there at the same time. Since 1910, road builders also began to be trained here.

The First World War brought new hardships to the masses. Working hours have increased and prices have risen sharply. Hunger, devastation, and difficult working conditions increased workers' dissatisfaction with the existing system. Depot workers - M.E. Varusha, P.A. Chernyavsky, P.A. Ugryumov, who had connections with the Bolsheviks of the Mariupol factories "Nikopol" and "Providence", carried out revolutionary propaganda among railway workers. Later, in 1917, they joined the ranks of the RSDLP(b).

After the February bourgeois-democratic revolution, in March 1917, the railway workers of the Volnovakha station and the peasants of the neighboring village of Platonovki elected the Platonovsky volost Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, and also sent a representative to the Mariupol County Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. In August 1917, a Red Guard detachment was created at the station, which included about 15 workers. Its core consisted of local Bolshevik railway workers P. A. Chernyavsky, M. E. Varusha, P. A. Ugryumov, S. S. Gokov and others. During the Kornilov rebellion, in August 1917, they came here to disarm the Cossack trains heading from the front to the Don, a Red Guard detachment of Mariupol workers arrived, led by the Bolsheviks S. L. Sorokin and P. T. Sergeev. Volnovakha railway workers and Red Guards also joined them.

The workers of Volnovakha greeted the news of the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution with great joy. But since the Socialist Revolutionaries and Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists predominated in the volost Soviet, the establishment of Soviet power was delayed. In December 1917, by order of the Central Bureau of the Military Revolutionary Committees of Donbass, detachments of Red Guards occupied junction stations, including Volnovakha, and began to disarm the counter-revolutionary Cossack echelons making their way to the Don. With the help of the Red Guards, Soviet power was established in Volnovakha. In the last days of December 1917, re-elections of the Platonovsky volost Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies took place, and a revolutionary committee was created at the Volnovakha station (chaired by the Bolshevik P. A. Ugryumov). By the end of 1917, the Bolshevik group at the station had grown significantly, and at the beginning of 1918, a party cell was formed here. It included P. A. Ugryumov, P. A. Chernyavsky, S. S. Gokov, Ya. A. Dyudyun, A. G. Belous and others. The first leader of the cell was a former sailor, mechanic of the locomotive depot M. E. Varusha .

During the years of foreign military intervention and civil war, the Volnovakha railway junction, which was of great strategic importance, was more than once the object of fierce struggle. During the offensive of the Austro-German occupiers in April 1918, the Volnovakha defensive region and the Volnovakha group of the Red Army were created. Its task was to protect the area from Pologi station to Volnovakha station from the enemy. The onslaught of the invaders in this area was held back by units of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Army and Red Army and worker detachments created by the Donbass Central Headquarters, as well as a detachment of sailors led by A.V. Polupanov.

On April 18-20, there were battles with Austro-German troops on the approaches to the station. On April 22, the invaders broke into Volnovakha. Together with the Red Army units, a group of railway workers also retreated, and some property of the junction was taken away.

Having captured the village, the occupiers established a regime of robbery and repression. Railway workers and their families were subjected to severe persecution. Livestock was requisitioned from the population and food was taken away. In June 1918, units of the 15th German and 59th Austrian divisions were stationed at the station.

The workers of Volnovakhi did not stop fighting for the restoration of Soviet power. In the summer and autumn of 1918, an underground group operated here, which included local Bolshevik workers P. A. Chernyavsky, P. A. Ugryumov, A. N. Gnatyuk, Kh. A. Marinichev and others. In the summer of 1918, an attack was committed at the station several acts of sabotage - railway workers disabled rolling stock and station tracks. In July 1918, local workers took part in the All-Ukrainian strike of railway workers.

In the fall of 1918, several partisan detachments operated in the Volnovakha area. A detachment created by a teacher from the neighboring village of Novotroitsky, M. T. Davydov, actively fought against the invaders. The partisans broke through to Volnovakha several times. Together with the railway workers, they disarmed the Austro-German soldiers and detained the occupiers' trains with military equipment and food. Soon they had to fight against the White Cossack detachments of Krasnov and Denikin’s “Volunteer Army,” which captured Mariupol in late November - early December 1918, proclaiming their power throughout the entire district, including in Volnovakha.

Throughout January-March 1919, a detachment created by depot workers fought against the White Cossacks and Denikinites. During one battle, in January 1919, punitive forces captured and shot the wounded commissar of the detachment, P. A. Chernyavsky.

At the beginning of March 1919, the troops of the Southern and Ukrainian fronts of the Red Army fought fierce battles in the Volnovakha area against the White Guards, who concentrated large forces here. Regiments of the Trans-Dnieper division under the command of P.E. Dybenko were advancing from the west.

Local rebel groups also attacked the enemy. Between the Volnovakha and Velikoanadol stations they disabled the railway line, attacked a train that was carrying French officers to Taganrog, and a train carrying White Guards.

On March 18, 1919, units of the Trans-Dnieper division liberated Volnovakha from the enemy. A revolutionary committee was created in the village, headed by P. A. Ugryumov. The Bolshevik cell emerged from underground. But the station was always in a war zone, and the railway workers made every effort to help the Red Army. They equipped an armored train, the commander of which was the Bolshevik mechanic M.E. Varusha. The armored train team included Kh. A. Marinichev, I. E. Varusha, V. A. Dyudyun, A. E. Nelepa, T. I. Zubov, I. P. Lyubich, N. A. Novikov and others. 20 km from Volnovakha, near the Karan station, the armored train entered into battle with the White Guard armored train “Ivan Kalita” and caused significant damage to it.

In early April, General Shkuro's cavalry broke through the front in the Yuzovka area and captured Volnovakha on April 12. Denikin's men carried out brutal reprisals against those who helped the Red Army. Arrests and raids were carried out daily. On April 13, a group of workers was shot in the courtyard of a track station.

After fierce fighting, units of the Red Army liberated the station again on April 24, 1919. The Zadneprovskaya brigade of armored trains, whose teams were staffed by Baltic and Black Sea sailors, took part in these battles. The brigade commander was 19-year-old communist S. M. Lepetenko. V.V. Vishnevsky (later a famous playwright) and I.D. Papanin (later a famous Soviet polar explorer) fought in its ranks. As a result of the betrayal of Makhno, who commanded the 3rd Brigade of the Trans-Dnieper Division, on May 19, 1919, Denikin’s troops broke through the front south of Yuzovka and captured Volnovakha at the end of May. These days, a large group of Volnovakha railway workers joined the ranks of the Red Army. P. A. Ugryumov, N. A. Novikov and others died in battles with Denikin’s troops.

In Volnovakha, Denikin’s troops concentrated punitive detachments and huge warehouses of weapons and ammunition. Work stations disabled rolling stock and in every possible way prevented the White Guards from leaving trains. Providing resistance to the enemy, in the fall of 1919, local rebel detachments fought against the White Guards in the Volnovakha area.

Units of the 13th Soviet Army of the Southern Front liberated Volnovakha from Denikin’s troops in early January 1920. During these days, a volost revolutionary committee was created in the village of Platonovka, and a military commandant was appointed at the Volnovakha station. At the end of April, the Platonovsky Volost Council was elected. Railway workers began repairing tracks, locomotives, and carriages. In February, mass cleanup days took place here. The workers organized a detachment that, together with the Red Army soldiers, waged an active fight against kulak banditry. In June 1920, the creation of komnezams began in the village of Platonovka and the volost.

At the beginning of 1920, the village was part of the Mariupol district, and from June - into the Yuzovsky district of the Donetsk province. In August 1920, instead of a volost, the Volnovakha subdistrict of the Yuzovsky district was created and a subdistrict executive committee was elected, and a village council was elected in the village of Platonovka. At that time, 690 people lived in Volnovakha, and 2,339 people lived in Platonovka.

Much organizational work was carried out by the station's communist cell, which resumed its activities at the beginning of 1920. At the end of August it united 10 communists. The cell was headed by former Makeevka miner P. F. Potemin. On August 11, 1920, the bureau of the Volnovakha subdistrict party committee decided to create a Komsomol cell. Its organizer was I.N. Kabuzenko, and the first Komsomol members were P. Valuev, L. Shumakov, Z. Zhemeryakina. A women's council was created in the village. The school doors opened.

In the summer of 1920, when the offensive of Wrangel's army began, the command of the Southwestern Front took measures to strengthen the defense of Donbass. In the second half of June 1920, the 1st Cavalry Corps under the command of D.P. Zhloba arrived in the Volnovakha area, and in mid-July the formation of the Second Cavalry Army under the command of O.I. Gorodovikov began here. To organize a rebuff to Wrangel, on July 14, the commander of the Southwestern Front, A. I. Egorov, and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the front, I. V. Stalin, arrived at the station.

At the end of September, fierce battles broke out here with the Wrangel troops. Some communists and workers went to the front, and the subdistrict executive committee was transformed into a subdistrict executive committee. The party cell and the revolutionary committee provided great assistance to the Red Army in supplying it with food and fodder, and in transporting military cargo. The station was heroically defended by soldiers of the 40th Division of the 13th Army, but the enemy sent the Don Corps here and captured Volnovakha on September 26. However, Wrangel's troops held out here for only eight days. Having stopped the enemy near Yuzovka, units of the 13th Army launched a counteroffensive. On October 1-3, in the Elenovka-Velikoanadol-Volnovakha sector, Soviet armored trains No. 4, 9, 40, 58, 64 successfully fought. With bold blows, they scattered Wrangel’s cavalry and put the infantry to flight. After stubborn fighting, units of the 9th and 40th divisions liberated Volnovakha on October 5, 1920. “Despite all the wealth of equipment generously supplied by the allies, ... Baron Wrangel ... suffered a complete defeat. The valiant units of the 13th Army destroyed the avalanche of Donets and Kubans moving towards the Donetsk basin near Yuzovka and Volnovakha,” wrote M. V. Frunze in an order to the armies of the Southern Front.

The workers of the village again began to restore the destroyed economy. To strengthen the bodies of Soviet power, the Yuzovsky district committee of the CP(b)U and the district executive committee sent a group of communist workers. They became part of the Volnovakha subdistrict committee, which resumed its work on October 11, 1920. A. G. Khavikov became the chairman of the revolutionary committee. He also headed the Volnovakha Subdistrict Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, created in January 1921, to which 35 people were elected.

The party organization began to work, and on October 25, 1920, he was elected as a sub-district party committee headed by A. A. Koval. In October 1920, the subdistrict party organization numbered 12 communists, and at the beginning of 1921 - 23 communists.

The first years of restoration of the national economy were difficult, accompanied by devastation, famine, and excesses of the Makhnovist gangs. In January 1921, near the village of Doli, bandits brutally killed the secretary of the Volnovakha subdistrict party committee A.A. Koval and the head of the public education department of the subdistrict executive committee L.L. Ryzhkevich. Under the leadership of the Volnovakha party organization, the workers of the village courageously overcame difficulties.

At the end of April 1921, in connection with the new administrative division, the Volnovakha district of Yuzovsky district was created. The district committee of the Communist Party (b)U, the district executive committee, and the communists of the node cell unanimously approved the new economic policy. They did a lot of work to restore the economy under the NEP, to fight devastation and hunger. In 1921, workers of the repair and construction train began to restore the railway junction. Small and handicraft industries developed. A consumer cooperative was created in the village, several handicraft workshops, a bakery, a canteen, and a store were opened.

In December 1923, the Communists of Volnovakha strongly supported the Central Committee of the RCP(b) in its fight against the oppositionists, and the following year they unanimously approved the decisions of the XIII Party Conference and the XIII Congress of the RCP(b).

The party cell of the node in 1923 consisted of 29 communists. Replenishing itself with advanced workers, it grew to 92 people by December 1925. During Lenin's conscription alone, more than 50 workers joined the party. The Komsomol organization united 34 members of the Komsomol. There were 450 people in the trade union organization.

In 1923, Volnovakha was classified as an urban-type settlement and included in the Stretensky (renamed in October of the same year to Oktyabrsky) district of the Mariupol district. Soon, district institutions were transferred from the village of Stretenki to Volnovakha, which became the center of the Oktyabrsky district. This played a positive role in the development of the village. If in January 1923 there were 172 houses and 872 people living here, then by the time of the All-Union Population Census on December 17, 1926, there were 459 houses and 1,760 residents. Much work on the development and improvement of the village was carried out by the Volnovakha Village Council. In 1927, it consisted of 36 deputies: 22 workers, 11 employees, 3 peasants, including 15 communists and 3 Komsomol members. There was a hospital, a medical station, and a pharmacy in the village. Construction of a new hospital building has begun. Back in 1920, an elementary school and an orphanage were opened, and in 1925 - a seven-year school. In May 1924, a pioneer organization was created at the Volnovakha school. In the same year, two political schools and an educational school operated in the village and at the station. 90 percent workers subscribed to the magazine “Bolshevik”, newspapers “Pravda”, “Gudok”, etc. At the railway workers’ club. K. Marx organized a Lenin corner, circles of atheists, workers' correspondents, drama, choir and others, a wall newspaper was published, and a library with a reading room operated.

The labor activity of the population increased. Already in 1924, the station's cargo turnover reached two-thirds of the pre-war level.

The Volnovakha railway junction developed especially rapidly during the years of industrialization of the country. Railway workers received and began to master new steam locomotives and heavy-duty cars produced by the domestic industry. A movement for austerity and rationalization of production developed. By 1929, the station's cargo turnover increased 3.3 times compared to 1913 and amounted to 106,371 tons. In 1927, a power plant was built here. In 1929, at the call of the party organization, the workers of the village joined the competition of shock brigades. The Komsomol organization of the node, numbering 150 people, created detachments of “light cavalry”. By February 1930, all workers and employees joined the shock brigades, and Volnovakha soon became a shock railway junction.

In 1930, the peasants of Volnovakha and the village of Platonovka united into the collective farm “Cultural Revolution”, the first chairman of which was the Mariupol worker of twenty-five thousand F. S. Rudas. The working people of Volnovakha fought energetically to fulfill the five-year plans. Already by mid-1932, on a unit of 27 steam locomotives, 26 were transferred to self-financing. The depot drivers brought the average daily mileage of a steam locomotive, which was 63 km at the beginning of 1931, to 153 km. The number of “sick” locomotives by this time had decreased from 33 to 12.5 percent, and the downtime of cars - from 29.5 to 13.9 percent. The best results were achieved by the locomotive brigades of the communist I. E. Varusha and I. I. Burchenko, who fulfilled the locomotive mileage plan by 148 percent. and saved 20 percent. fuel. Komsomol members held several subbotniks and ten-day days, and carriage workers took part in the all-Union competition for the best carriage fleet. During the Second Five-Year Plan, the reconstruction of the site began. In 1933-1934 They built and equipped new locomotive and carriage depots with the latest equipment, also built a mechanized hill for forming trains, a new powerful power plant, office premises, improved the water supply, and completely electrified the unit. To participate in the reconstruction of the site, about 500 Komsomol construction workers arrived in Volnovakha on vouchers from the Central Committee of the LKSMU. By the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, many facilities were put into operation ahead of schedule. At the Second Donetsk Regional Party Conference, held in January 1934, it was noted that “the Komsomol members brought the Volnovakha station to the front lines.” In 1934, the Volnovakha junction became an exemplary one and took first place in the competition of railway stations in the country.

Since 1935, the station became the center of the Volnovakha branch of the South Donetsk Railway. Powerful domestic FD locomotives began to arrive here. Having mastered them, drivers F.Z. Dyrman, S.D. Vinsky, M.P. Mikhalko and others already in 1936 brought the average daily mileage of a steam locomotive to 247 km. A movement of followers of P. F. Krivonos began in the locomotive depot. The initiator of high-speed train driving at the junction was the communist F.Z. Dyrman. For his achievements in work, he was the first among the workers of the Volnovakha branch to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1940-1941 communists P. M. Chichikov, I. E. Varusha, S. D. Vinsky, T. I. Mokry, F. P. Chernyavsky and others brought the average daily mileage of a steam locomotive to 360 km, fulfilling the norm by 133-135 percent. On the eve of the war, over 2 thousand workers worked at the site.

During the years of the first five-year plans, a number of enterprises appeared in Volnovakha, including a bakery and a soft drink factory. The mill in Platonovka was reconstructed, a construction site and a convoy were created. The household workshops of the district industrial plant opened, the district food processing plant and printing house began to operate. Back in August 1930, the Oktyabrsky district was renamed Volnovakha, and eight years later the center of the district, the village of Volnovakha, was classified as a city of regional subordination. The city included the neighboring villages of Platonovka and Karlovka, where the collective farms “Cultural Revolution” and “Chervony Partisan” were located. In 1939, 15,261 people lived in Volnovakha.

The city developed and was improved. During the pre-war five-year plans, two new high schools, a hospital, a kindergarten and kindergarten, a factory-kitchen, a stadium, more than 100 residential buildings, including 19 multi-storey buildings, and a hostel for young workers were built.

Great changes have occurred in the field of medical care and in the cultural life of the population. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, two hospitals and a clinic operated in Volnovakha. There were two secondary and seven-year schools, in which 87 teachers taught about 2 thousand students, the district House of Culture named after. V.I. Lenin, Palace of Culture of Railway Workers named after. K. Marx, built in 1936, three libraries. About 20 shops and 3 canteens were opened. Since January 1932, the regional newspaper “For Bolshovitsky Tempi” was published.

The district party organization on January 1, 1941 numbered 957 communists, united in 54 primary party organizations. Most of the communists (more than 520 people) worked in transport, enterprises and institutions of the city, where 28 primary party organizations were created. In May 1941, 250 communists worked at the railway junction alone. The Komsomol organization of the district grew from 1,040 people in 1932 to 2,840 in 1940.

The settlement was founded as a railway station in 1881 during construction Catherine's Railway. At the beginning of the 20th century. in Volnovakha there were 45 households, about 250 people lived. By 1915 there were 108 households and 634 inhabitants. There was a shop, a bazaar, a private bakery, and a school.

In 1895, a station was built at the station, in 1896 a locomotive depot, and in 1900, second tracks were laid between Yuzovka and Mariupol through Volnovakha.

By 1905 the station became a junction. In 1908, the school of artel elders was transferred to Volnovakha from Debaltsevo, the first school in Russia for training craftsmen (artel elders) for the construction of railways. The development of the railway junction and the village was facilitated by the industrialization of the country. During the first five-year plans, a bakery, a soft drink factory, a food processing plant, and a printing house were built.

Volnovakha received city status in 1938. Its population in 1939 was 15.3 thousand people. There were two secondary and seven-year schools, two hospitals, a clinic, a kindergarten, a stadium, a factory-kitchen, a Palace of Culture, three libraries, and about 20 shops. Within the city there were two collective farms and a state farm.

In the years after the Great Patriotic War, Volnovakha became a major center of the food industry and construction industry.