Yenakiieve is an important regional centre of coal mining, metallurgy, chemical production and manufacturing. The city's outdated industry has caused accidents like that of a gas explosion which occurred in June 2008 at one of Yenakiieve's coal mines. Yenakiieve was founded in 1898 when numerous workers' settlements around the Peter's Iron and Steel Works were united into a single settlement named after Fyodor Yenakiyev [ru]. Its first coal mines dated from 1883. The settlement was incorporated as a city in 1925. By 1958, the city and factories had expanded significantly and overtook the outlying villages of Simyukuo, Yevrah, and Tsiminyenny, all of which were resettled in their entirety when local livestock could not survive the expanding steel mills' runoff and pollution. One of the oldest metallurgical factories of Ukraine — the Yenakiieve Iron and Steel Works operates in Yenakiieve.
Permanent settlements on the territory of present-day Yenakiieve were founded in 1783. In 1858, the Sofiyevsky coal mine opened there. At the same time the Petrovsky cast-iron plant was built, today known as the Yenakiieve Iron and Steel Works. In 1895, engineers F. Yenakiev and B. Yalovetsky and several Belgian businessmen founded a Russian-Belgian metallurgic company which by 1897 constructed the new Petrovsky cast-iron plant around Fyodorovka. Coal mines were opened around the plant. Settlements were formed near them and in 1898 they were united into one called Enakievsky after the founder of the Russian-Belgian metallurgic society. The writer A. I. Kuprin, who worked at the plant in 1896, described workers’ lives in the story “Molokh”. Before World War I several plants were built in Yenakiieve: coke chemical, brick, beer brewing and butter making. The Petrovsky plant became one of the largest metallurgic plants (3rd place) in southern Russia. In 1913 it produced 349,200 tons of cast-iron and 316,400 tons of steel. As a result of ruin after World War I and the Civil War of 1919–1921, Petrovsky plant was the only one producing steel. By 1925 the population in Yenakiieve was 34,000, and it was referred to as a town.
In 1928, the town was renamed into Rykovo, after Soviet party- and statesman Alexei Rykov. After Rykov was arrested in 1937 the town was renamed Ordzhonikidze after another Soviet leader, Sergo Ordzhonikidze. The name Yenakiieve was returned to the town in 1943. By 1939 the population of the town was 88,200.
During World War II Yenakiieve was under siege from Italian army auxiliary units that were seconded to the German Army. They were followed by German units. The city was attacked from 31 October 1941 and not freed until 3 September 1943. Street fighting was fierce between the end of November and beginning of December 1941. “Recruitment” of civilians as Ostarbeiter began in December 1941. In 1950, about twelve Italian POWs (prisoners of war) were put on trial, over atrocities in Yenakiieve including the destruction of a hospital. Apparently no convictions were registered, and by 1954 all Italian POWs were returned to Italy.
In the 1950s, several plants were put into operation: of ferro-concrete items, of construction material, of house building and automobile-repair. On September 16, 1979, on the territory near Yenakiieve in the mine «Yuny Communar» there was one of the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy—an object «Klivazh». In 2002 the mine was closed as non-perspective and environmentalists worried about the danger of filling the mine with water. It might cause radioactive pollution of the underground water, so pumps continue to pump water out of the abandoned mine.
On August 7, 2014, separatists shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 in the sky over Yenakiieve, presumably from the Buk complex provided by the Russian side; the pilot tried to divert the plane away from residential areas.[4][5] On August 13, the metallurgical plant was stopped, according to a statement from the management, "in order to prevent a man-made disaster and save the lives of the townspeople." The work of the treasury and banking system was completely stopped in the city, and the activities of a number of enterprises were suspended. There is a shortage of products.[6] On November 18, the first hunger strike took place in the city.[7] On November 14, Yenakiieve was included in the list of settlements in the East of Ukraine, where the Ukrainian authorities are temporarily not operating.[8]
Demographics
At the time of the 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Yenakiieve was 104,266. Its composition was as follows:[9]
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