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A.Gwen Jones’ radiobroadcast on her experiences in Hughesovka from 1889 to 1892. Recorded 9/12/43. Gwen Jones was the daughter of Esther Jones, neé George daughter of Philip and Gwenllian George of Mvddfai and Aberhenwenfach. "Stalino has been recaptured by the Russians!" These words by the B.B.C. announcer thrilled many millions, but they gave me a special thrill, for it took me back more than fifty years, for I had lived there for three years, when it was called Hughesovka. Mr. John Hughes had died in the summer of 1889 a few months before I arrived in the town as tutor to two daughters of Mr. Arthur Hughes, the second of John Hughes’ four sons. I vividly recall arriving at Charsisky in October 1889, after a leisurely journey through Holland, Germany and Poland with Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hughes and family. We stopped at Berlin, at Warsaw, at Kiev with its hundreds of gilded domes and spires and Charkov with its splendid University and renowned Fairs, until we finally reached Charsisky where carriages were waiting to take us to Hughesovka I shall never forget the feeling of utter loneliness which filled me as we drove over the flat dreary treeless steppes. Little wonder that hiraeth for Wales almost overpowered me! Hughesovka at that time was just a small industria1 town, which nevertheless was growing rapidly. It was connected. by rail with Taganrog and Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and. the nearest station was Charsisky, twelve to fourteen miles away (or the Karkov). The standard. of life of the peasants in the town was low and they lived in small, wooden, one-floor houses, with mud floors, devoid of sanitation and amenities. The people were mostly illiterate and I remember one thing which struck me very much at the time that was the signs above the shops of the town. Above the butcher’s shop, for example, you would find the picture of a pig or a cow, and above the others, suitable drawings to give an indication of the commodities on sale there. This, of course, was due to the fact that the majority of the peasants could not read. We lived in a large one-storied house in the town, a short distance from the works. It had spacious grounds with high walls for protection, guarded by watchmen. The country house and estate were some miles away. Life in Hughesovka was by no means monotonous. We were kept in touch with the world by letters and papers from home, which took eleven days to reach us and were often censored before we received them. Then there were the visitors of all nationalities , engineers and students from Petersburg and Moscow and even from Siberia who came to view the new works. Once the Governor of Ekaterinislav, now called Dnepropetrovsk, stayed with us. He arrived in state escorted by a company of Cossack Cavalry. From these visitors we heard the most exciting tales, tales of the Cossacks, of political prisoners escaping from confinement, all very exciting and exhilarating to a young girl. Besides, there was music; I shall never forget how those Russians could sing! We had weekly musical evenings, and I was privileged to hear Madame Yancharsky play the piano-she bad been a pupil of Rubenstein and a personal friend of Paderewsky. Our favourite recreation was hunting foxes and hares. We were occasionally joined by the Cossacks stationed in the town. The hounds had been brought over from the Court Estate, Merthyr Tydfil, and as I had been a pupil at the Court School, you can well imagine that I had a fellow feeling for those hounds! I shall never forget, either, the frill of drives in sledges over the sparkling frozen snow, the bells of the free horses ringing in the clean dry air. There was a touch of adventure in sledging over the steppes as we were often followed by packs of wolfish-looking dogs, and Ivan the coachman had to use his whip to frighten them away. I retain memories of evening drives when the silence would be broken by the singing of folk songs in the distance, mournful melodies in the minor key. These songs haunted me and sent my thoughts back to Wales. Most of the Welsh workers hailed from Dowlais, Merthyr and Rhymney, and I used to enjoy talking to them in our native tongue. Their names still come to mind, John John of Dowlais, Mr. Watkins of Rhymney, Mr. Holland, a chemist at the Dowlais works and others. The workmen were paid once a month and the wages were brought from Taganrog under an armed escort. I recall a visit to the quarries of the iron-ore mines of Krivoi-Rog and the extremes of heat and cold, also the free weeks when we were cut off from the rest of the world because of the snow, and the anxious moments like the bursting of the works dam. I remember especially when we had to escape because of the Cholera Riots. I felt sad to leave friends from whom I had received many kindnesses and I retain much affection for the great land and people of Russia and I rejoice in their triumphs.
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