Luhansk

Coordinates: 48°34′N 39°18′E / 48.567°N 39.300°E / 48.567; 39.300

The city of Luhansk (Ukrainian: Луганськ, IPA: [ɫuˈɦɑnʲsʲk]) or Lugansk (Russian: Луганск; IPA: [lʊˈgansk]), formerly known as Voroshilovgrad (1935-1958 and 1970-1990), functions as the administrative center of Luhansk Oblast in easternmost Ukraine. The city itself is also designated as city of oblast significance. Population: 425,848 (2013 est.).

Since 2014, Luhansk is controlled by the forces of the Luhansk People's Republic and is not controlled by the Ukrainian Government. The administration of Luhansk Oblast was moved to Sievierodonetsk.

History

The city traces its history to 1795 when the British industrialist Charles Gascoigne founded a metal factory near the Zaporizhian Cossacks settlement Kamianyi Brid. The settlement around the factory was known as Luganskiy Zavod. In 1882 the factory settlement Luganskiy Zavod was merged with the town of Kamianyi Brid into the city of Luhansk. Located in the Donets Basin, Luhansk developed into an important industrial center of Eastern Europe, particularly as a home to the major locomotive-building company Luhanskteplovoz. The city was occupied by Nazi Germany between July 14, 1942 and February 14, 1943.

FC Zorya Luhansk

FC Zorya Luhansk (Ukrainian: ФК «Зоря» Луганськ [zo'rʲɑ lu'ɦɑnsʲk]), formerly known as Zorya Voroshilovgrad and Zorya-MALS, is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk is based in the city of Luhansk (formerly known as Voroshilovgrad), Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. However, because of the war in Eastern Ukraine, the team is currently playing its games at Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhia.

History

The history of the club takes place at the dawn of the 20th century right after in the city of Luhansk was built the first stadium. The stadium was built in 1922 under the personal order of Vladimir Lenin and later was named after him. The first games that involved participation of the Luhansk's teams first mentioned in 1911 and in 1913 in Kostyantynivka was created the regional football league of Donets basin. During the World War I and the following Soviet and German aggressions the league was suspended until 1920 when the situation in the region had stabilized.

The first Luhansk team was created in the Russian Empire in 1908 when the workers of the Russischen Maschinenbaugesellschaft Hartmann created the "Society of wise recreations". The football section was headed by the Czech specialist Henrich Drževikovski from Prague who was an instructor of gymnastics of the factory's ministerial school. That team played its games and conducted its training on the empty lot near the factory where today is located the sport hall "Zorya".

Ukraine

Ukraine (ⁱ/juːˈkreɪn/; Ukrainian: Україна, tr. Ukraina [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) is a country in Eastern Europe,bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland and Slovakia to the west, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It is currently in dispute with Russia over the Crimean peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but Ukraine and most of the international community still recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km² (233,062 sq mi), making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world, and a population of about 44.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world.

The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was eventually split between Poland and the Russian Empire, and later submerged fully into Russia. Two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II, but both occasions would ultimately see Ukraine's territories conquered and consolidated into a Soviet republic, a situation that persisted until 1991, when Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War.

People's Republic

"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.

Marxist–Leninist People's Republics

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.