Over 150 years ago in the summer of 1870, a Welsh man names John Hughes embarked on a project that would drastically change the lives of numerous Welsh families and revolutionise the Russian railway network, leaving an imprint on Eastern Europe that is still felt to this day.
The Hughesovka Research Archive is one of our most used collections at Glamorgan Archives. It details the story of a town called Hughesovka, a settlement that grew around John Hughe’s New Russia Company Limited Ironworks which was built on the empty steppe of the Donbass region in what is now modern-day Ukraine.
Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil around 1815 and learned his craft at Cyfarthfa Ironworks. He later moved to Ebbw Vale in Newport and founded/managed Uskside Iron Works at Pill. He married Elizabeth Lewis of Newport in 1844 and together they had 8 children.
By the 1860s Hughes had solidified his reputation as a successful businessman in the industry. He sat on the board of the Millwall Engineering and Shipbuilding Company in London and gained a reputation for himself as an innovator.
It was also during this time that he was approached by Imperial Russia, with a proposal to build and manage a works that would make materials to revolutionise the country’s railroad. In April 1868 a formal agreement was signed and on the 3rd of July 1869 The New Russia Company Limited was registered in London with a capital of £300,000 (6,000 shares at £50). In 1870 Hughes sailed to Russia with a team of skilled workers who he had recruited from Britain, a large majority of which were from his hometown in South Wales.
The story of Hughesovka had officially begun!
The British community that worked in the town lived alongside the locals in a kind of truce, but as tensions in Russia grew the town became increasingly unsafe for its British citizens. Revolution went hand in hand with epidemics of typhus and cholera, all culminating in deadly riots and desperate escapes when the revolution began in 1917.
However, amongst the political chaos a close-knit thriving community developed. A town with a prosperous economy, a diverse population, schools, churches, clubs and more. Many Welsh families who travelled over in the 1870/80’s raised two generations of their families within the town’s borders and the tales those people have to tell of their time there paint a very adventurous picture indeed.
To learn the full story and see more of this fantastic collection keep an eye on Glamorgan Archive’s Instagram @glamarchives and TikTok @glamroarchives for the release date of this upcoming exhibition!
