- published: 08 Oct 2014
- views: 446507
Donetsk (Ukrainian: Донецьк Ukrainian pronunciation: [doˈnɛt͡sʲk], translit. Donets’k; Russian: Доне́цк, tr. Donetsk; IPA: [dɐˈnʲɛtsk]; former names: Aleksandrovka, Yuzovka, Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names)) is an industrial city in Ukraine on the Kalmius River. The population was estimated at 953,217 (2013 est.) in the city, and over 2,000,000 in the metropolitan area (2011). According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, Donetsk was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine. Since April 2014, the city is the administrative centre of and effectively administered by the Donetsk People's Republic.
Administratively, it has been the centre of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbas) region. Donetsk is adjacent to another major city of Makiivka and along with other surrounding cities forms a major urban sprawl and conurbation in the region. Donetsk has been a major economic, industrial and scientific centre of Ukraine with a high concentration of companies and a skilled workforce.
"People's Republic" is a title used by certain republican states. Initially associated with populism (people's movements: Völkisch movement, Narodnik, others), it eventually became associated with countries adhering to communism, after the creation of the Soviet Union, such as China. However, the term is not unique to communist states. Many countries adopted the title given its rather generic nature, like Bangladesh, which was founded as a liberal parliamentary republic after a popular war of independence.
The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist–Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist–Leninist republic is a people's republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions; Albania, for instance, used both terms, "socialist" and "people's", in its official name from 1976 to 1991. In the West, countries governed by Marxist–Leninists are referred to as "Communist states", though they never actually used this name for themselves and used the term countries of people's democracy. In the 1990s, many of the self-styled "People's Republics" of Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria) and Mongolia dropped the term and became known simply as "Republics" as they adopted liberal democratic systems of government — the term "People's Republic" being associated with the former Communist regimes.