Donetsk

I made one last research trip to Donetsk, about four hours away by high speed train, before I left Ukraine for the holidays. It was my goal to conduct interviews in all of my target cities in the East this semester and then next semester I will conduct interviews in the West and South of the country. Donetsk is one of the most polluted cities in the former Soviet Union and located in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Donbas stands for Donets basin and is the most industrialized region of Ukraine. Thus, I was also trying to limit the exposure to my lungs so a wintry trip there when everything was frozen was a good choice. Well I arrived on a very wintry snowy day and didn't really get to see much because visibility was low due to snow  and I had back to back meetings scheduled throughout the day.

  

This is the Cathedral Transfiguration of Jesus was founded in 1883 but like many churches it was destroyed in 1933 by the Soviets. It was rebuilt from scratch and finished in 2006.

 The Donetsk Opera House.

 The requisite statue of Lenin in front of the Donetsk Regional Administration Building.

During one of the interviews, my contacts showed me this game which is played with Ukrainian school children to educate them about human trafficking. It is called Crossing  Europe.

 

I also had a brief visit to the Rotary Club in Donetsk where I met a fellow Jayhawk and gave a speech. Sadly, I couldn't stay very long because I had to run to catch my train back to Kharkiv!