The Glamorgan Record Office started collecting documents and information relating to Hughesovka in 1984, when some family papers and photographs relating to life in the settlement were deposited by a descendant of one of the people who had lived there.
Over the next few years, more material was added, as the the Record Office carried out research into the history of Hughesovka and publicised the collection. Contact was made with the descendents of John Hughes, and of other Hughesovka families.
In 1990, a group of descendents of the Hughes and other Hughesovka families made a visit to Donetsk. Susan Edwards, an Archivist at the Glamorgan Record Office, accompanied them, and was able to carry out some research in Donetsk.
The
ruins of the Hughes family house, photographed by Susan Edwards in 1991
In 1991, in conjunction with the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum, the Record Office produced a major exhibition on Hughesovka. At the same time, a documentary film on Hughesovka/Donetsk, which featured some of the records held by the Glamorgan Record Office, was shown on both S4C and BBC2. The exhibition and the film, together with other publicity, resulted in the deposit of further material.
The
Hughesovka exhibition on display in Donetsk Museum, 1992
Using material in the collection, Susan Edwards wrote a book Hughesovka. A Welsh Enterprise in Imperial Russia which was published by the Record Office in 1992. In Spring of that year, with the award of a Churchill Travelling Fellowship, she was able to travel to Russia and the Ukraine for further research. She took with her 24 exhibition boards – a Russian-language version of the Hughesovka exhibition, which was shown in several venues in the Ukraine.
Copies of Hughesovka. A Welsh Enterprise in Imperial Russia are available from the Glamorgan Record Office, price £1