On May 15, 2018, the Bakhmut Central City Library hosted a presentation of the second edition of the book “STOUPKY. The Fourth Dimension”, dedicated to the history of the Dutch salt mine “Peter the Great”. The mine was built by Dutch entrepreneurs in 1886 in the village of Stoupky near Bakhmut (formerly Artemivsk) in the Donetsk region.
The presentation was attended by Peter van den Oudenrijn, the chairman of the Dutch initiative group. Mr Van den Oudenrijn in 2006 established connection online between Bakhmut activists and the Dutch descendants of the founders of the mine. Also at the presentation were the members of the Bakhmut Salt initiative group, co-authors of the book, local historians and descendants of local mine workers from Stoupky.
The book was published with the financial support of Pieter van den Oudenrijn, grandchildren of the Dutch co-owners of the mine, the Van den Muyzenberg family, and Galina Bentsa, the granddaughter of the mine worker Panteley Fedorishchev.
The first edition of this book was published in 2010. This second edition, revised and expanded, sheds light on the true reasons for the mine’s gradual closure after 1917. The book contains both emotional family stories and a large body of material on the history of salt mining in Bakhmut district, the founding of the Dutch society, and the construction, equipment, operation, and closure of the mine.
Samples of the book were handed in to the city and school libraries of Bakhmut, as well as to everyone at the presentation.
Photo report by Olexander Dyachenko from the book presentation.
