From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Although there is evidence of prior settlement in 1556, the first official   
   mention of Bakhmut dates from 1571, when Ivan the Terrible, in order to   
   protect the southern border of the Russian state from Crimean–Nogai slave   
   raids, ordered the creation of    
   border fortifications along the Aidar and Siverskyi Donets rivers. The   
   settlement was described then as a guard-fort (storozha) named after the   
   nearby Bakhmutka River, a tributary of the Siverskyi Donets, and located at   
   the mouth of a stream called the    
   Chornyi Zherebets.   
      
   The history of Bakhmut before the 18th century is sparse. It was initially a   
   border post that later became a fortified town. In 1701, Peter I ordered the   
   fort at Bakhmut to be upgraded and the adjacent sloboda (free village) of   
   Bakhmut be designated a    
   city. The new fort was completed in 1703 and housed 170 people. In 1704, Peter   
   commanded some Cossacks to settle at the Bakhmutka River and mine salt. The   
   population of Bakhmut doubled, and the town was assigned to the Izium   
   Regiment, a province of    
   Sloboda Ukraine.   
      
   In the autumn of 1705, Bakhmut became one of the centers of the Bulavin   
   Rebellion. A detachment of Don Cossacks headed by Ataman Kondraty Bulavin   
   captured the Bakhmut salt mines and occupied the city until 7 March 1708, when   
   it was retaken by government    
   troops.   
      
   From 1708 to 22 April 1725, Bakhmut was assigned to the Azov Governorate. On   
   29 May 1719, it became the administrative center of Bakhmut Province within   
   the Azov Governorate. From 1753-1775, it was the administrative center of   
   Slavo-Serbia, a short-lived    
   territory that was settled by thousands of colonists from the Balkans,   
   predominantly Serbs.   
      
   In 1783, Bakhmut became a city within the Yekaterinoslav province   
   (Novorossiysk Governorate). At this time the city contained 49 great houses   
   and five factories that produced bricks, candles, and soap. The city had about   
   150 shops, a hospital, and three    
   schools: two private boarding schools for children of wealthy parents, and a   
   Sunday school for children of workers. Bakhmut had a large city center where   
   fairs were held twice a year, on 12 July (Day of the Apostles Peter and Paul)   
   and 21 September (Day    
   of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary). The city's annual turnover was   
   about 1 million rubles.   
      
   On 2 August 1811, a coat of arms of Bakhmut was approved, featuring symbolism   
   evoking the salt reserves of the city. On 25 January 1851, the city became a   
   municipality, with Vasily I. Pershin as mayor. In 1863, a large synagogue was   
   built in the city, as    
   a place of worship for Bakhmut's Jewish community of 1,560 people. In 1875, a   
   municipal water system was installed. In 1876, large deposits of rock salt   
   were discovered in the Bakhmut Basin, leading to a rapid increase in the   
   number of salt mines.    
   Bakhmut soon produced 12% of the total Russian output of salt.   
      
   Streets were paved in Bakhmut in 1900. The construction of the K   
   arkiv-Bakhmut-Popasna railroad encouraged production of alabaster, plaster,   
   brick, tile, and soda ash in Bakhmut. At the beginning of the 20th century,   
   the city developed a metal-working    
   industry. By 1900, the city had 76 small industrial enterprises, which   
   employed 1,078 workers, as well as four salt mines, which employed 874 workers.   
      
   By 1913, the population consisted of 28,000 people. There were two hospitals   
   with 210 beds, four secondary and two vocational schools, six single-class   
   schools, four parish schools, and a private library. In April 1918, after the   
   collapse of the Russian    
   Empire, troops loyal to the Ukrainian People's Republic took control of   
   Bakhmut. Later, it was captured by White movement soldiers led by Pyotr   
   Krasnov, who were eventually defeated by Soviet forces.   
      
   From 1920-1925, Bakhmut was the administrative center of the newly created   
   Donets Governorate of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1923, there were 36 enterprises in   
   Bakhmut, including a "Victory of Labor" factory that formerly made nails and   
   spikes, a "Lightning"    
   factory that produced castings for agriculture, as well as brick, tile, and   
   alabaster factories, and one shoe factory. Local mines were renamed "Karl   
   Liebknecht and Sverdlov", "Shevchenko", and "Bakhmut salt".   
      
   In 1924, the city's name was changed from Bakhmut to Artemivsk, in honour of   
   the communist revolutionary figure Comrade Artem. The city's synagogue was   
   shuttered in 1928. 3,255 residents of Artemivsk died as a result of the   
   Holodomor. During Stalin's    
   Great Purge in the late 30s, over 500 residents of Artemivsk were victims of   
   the repressions. In 1938, a man named Moskalenko was the First Secretary of   
   the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in Artemivsk. In   
   1941, Vasily Panteleevich    
   Prokopenko was First Secretary of the City Committee of the Communist Party.   
      
   During WWII, at the beginning of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in   
   1941, Artemivsk's population included 5,300 Jews, making up almost 10% of the   
   total population. The majority of these were either drafted into the Red Army   
   or evacuated into the    
   interior areas of the Soviet Union.   
      
   On 31 Oct 1941, Nazi German troops began their occupation of Artemivsk. On 19   
   November, the occupation authorities issued a decree forcing the remaining   
   local Jews to register at the local commandant's office and wear armbands   
   marking them as Jewish. On    
   9 January 1942, under the pretext of needing to gather in one place for   
   relocation, Artemivsk's Jewish population was gathered in the city park, where   
   they were forced to hand over all their valuable possessions, then were locked   
   in the cellar of a    
   former NKVD building. They were locked in the "freezing" cellar for three days   
   without food or water. During this period, according to Haaretz, local   
   residents threw lumps of snow through the windows in an attempt to provide   
   some sort of drinkable water    
   to the imprisoned Jews. A few residents risked their lives to rescue some   
   Jewish children, a feat for which they would later receive the title of   
   Righteous Among the Nations from Israel.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)