Lysychansk

Lysychansk is popularly believed to have been settled permanently starting in 1710, with the founding of the Cossack settlement of Lisya Balka. In 1721, the settlement gained notoriety when the first ever coal in the entirety of the Donbas was discovered there, and in 1795, under orders by Empress Catherine II, the first ever mine in the Donbas was also set up in the area. The intended purpose of the mine was to supply the foundry in the also newly established city of Luhansk. Over the next few decades, the settlement would rapidly grow as a regional mining centre, eventually transitioning into the name Lysychansk in the 1850s–60s. After the October Revolution, it was claimed by the Soviet Union after a change of hands in late 1919.