While the economic growth of Hughesovka was pioneered by the choices and actions of men, the community that grew around Hughe’s steel works was cultivated by the families of the workers he employed. The women of Hughesovka, who followed their husbands or fathers to a foreign land, completed the now incomprehensible task of raising families and making homes in a place in which it had never been down before.
A generation of women was then also born to the Donbass. British by blood but born and raised in Russia, speaking their language, attending their schools, dealing with their politics and weather and war.
The voices of the women of Hughesovka give specific insight into the lived experiences of this expat community. The biographies they left behind tell a far more intimate story than any contract or court document ever could, portraying their unique perspectives in a time and place that now feels so far removed from our reality