Torez

Torez [Торез]. Map: DBIII-5. A city (2013 pop 80,781) in Donetsk oblast. It originated in the 1770s as a settlement of runaway serfs and was first called Oleksiivka. In 1840 it was renamed Oleksiieve-Leonove, and in 1867, Chystiakove. Since the discovery of anthracite deposits in the 1860s, a large mining industry has developed in the region. By 1907 the settlement had been linked by railway to Debaltseve. In 1932 Chystiakove was granted city status, and in 1964 it was renamed Torez in memory of Maurice Thorez (1900–64), the leader of the French Communist party. Today the city has 10 mines and 4 coal enrichment factories, an electric-machine plant, a hard-alloys foundry, a concrete shaft-reinforcing parts plant, and a food industry.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]