Resources
Below can be found a series of external resources relating to John Hughes. Additional information and resources are also available via our social media channels on both Facebook and Twitter Additional video resources can be found in the video section of this website here
Below can be found a series of external resources relating to John Hughes. Additional information and resources are also available via our social media channels on both Facebook and Twitter Additional video resources can be found in the video section of this website here
Dziga Vertov: "Enthusiasm, The Symphony of Donbass"
Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass [Russian: Энтузиазм: Симфония Донбасса or Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa] is a 1930 Soviet sound film, directed by the renowned Dziga Vertov. The film was the director's first sound film and is also notable for the fact that it is a documentary filmed on location.
The film's score is considered experimental and avant-garde because of its incorporation of factory, industrial, and other machine sounds. Human speech plays only a small role in the film's sounds. Vertov himself described Enthusiasm as "the lead icebreaker in the column of sound newsreels" and considered the film's "complex interaction of sound with image" to be the work's most significant achievement. The director viewed the film as an extended experiment in which the juxtaposition and misalignment of sound were completely intentional.
A new score for the film has been written by leading contemporary Russian composer Artem Ananiev. As part of the Hughes 2019 project, it is aspired that Ananiev's new score for strings and piano will be transcribed for brass and performed, together with a reduced version of Enthusiasm during 2019. Further information on this project will be made available here soon.
The full version of "Enthusiasm", together with the original 1930s soundtrack, can be viewed below. Further information on the film and its background is available here
Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass [Russian: Энтузиазм: Симфония Донбасса or Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa] is a 1930 Soviet sound film, directed by the renowned Dziga Vertov. The film was the director's first sound film and is also notable for the fact that it is a documentary filmed on location.
The film's score is considered experimental and avant-garde because of its incorporation of factory, industrial, and other machine sounds. Human speech plays only a small role in the film's sounds. Vertov himself described Enthusiasm as "the lead icebreaker in the column of sound newsreels" and considered the film's "complex interaction of sound with image" to be the work's most significant achievement. The director viewed the film as an extended experiment in which the juxtaposition and misalignment of sound were completely intentional.
A new score for the film has been written by leading contemporary Russian composer Artem Ananiev. As part of the Hughes 2019 project, it is aspired that Ananiev's new score for strings and piano will be transcribed for brass and performed, together with a reduced version of Enthusiasm during 2019. Further information on this project will be made available here soon.
The full version of "Enthusiasm", together with the original 1930s soundtrack, can be viewed below. Further information on the film and its background is available here
Glamorgan Archives: The Hughesovka Research Archive
Glamorgan Archives is a local authority archive service for the counties of Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taff and the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales. The archives hold a considerable collection of material relating to John Hughes and Hughesovka. Their introduction to that archive is as follows:
Introduction
John Hughes was a Welsh Industrialist whose life’s work continues to influence modern day affairs. Born 200 years ago in Merthyr Tydfil, John had worked for and owned a number of industrial concerns in both South Wales and London when in 1869 he acquired a concession from the Imperial Russian Government to develop a metal works in the largely unpopulated Donbas region on land to the north of the Azov Sea on the banks of the Kalmius river. The area was known as Novorossiya (literally New Russia) and had been conquered by Russia from the Zaporizhians, Crimean Tartars and the Ottomans within the previous century. By the mid 19th century Russians were colonizing the area in great numbers building towns and industries.
John Hughes founded the ‘New Russia Company Ltd’ and in 1870 sailed in a fleet of 8 ships to Russia. On board was all the equipment needed to establish an ironworks, along with skilled Welsh ironworkers and miners. Construction of the new ironworks began immediately, and developed into a state of the art facility with eight blast furnaces capable of a full production cycle. It produced its first pig iron in 1872. During the 1870s collieries, iron ore mines and brickworks were constructed and the area was became a self supporting industrial centre. The town that grew to support the concern was known as Hughesovka (Юзовка) after its founder.
The town prospered and by the early 20th century was producing nearly three quarters of Russia’s iron. After John Hughes’ death in 1889 the works were managed by four of his sons, but with the Bolshevik revolution the family’s connection with the works came to an end. In the years preceding this many Welsh and British workers had also emigrated.
Most left after the revolution although descendants of British workers can still be found locally. The city was renamed Stalino in 1924, and changed again in 1961 to its current name, Donetsk. Interestingly, the local football team, Shakhtar (Miners) Donetsk, is a Europa cup regular. Nicknamed the moles because of the area’s mining connections, their strip supposedly matches that of South Wales' Newport County, as John Hughes’ first business was based in in the town of Newport.
Donetsk came under the control of Ukraine following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It now finds itself in the centre of world news attention again, due to tensions between Ukraine and Russia over this Eastern Ukrainian province from 2014 on.
Two of the seventy-five accessions in the Glamorgan Archives relate to Hughesovka and form part of a large collection of material. To find out more about Hughesovka and the related documents held at Glamorgan Archives, visit the Hughesovka Research Archive web pages at
www.glamarchives.gov.uk/hughesovka/hka-index.html
https://glamarchives.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/the-hughesovka-research-archive/
Glamorgan Archives is a local authority archive service for the counties of Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taff and the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales. The archives hold a considerable collection of material relating to John Hughes and Hughesovka. Their introduction to that archive is as follows:
Introduction
John Hughes was a Welsh Industrialist whose life’s work continues to influence modern day affairs. Born 200 years ago in Merthyr Tydfil, John had worked for and owned a number of industrial concerns in both South Wales and London when in 1869 he acquired a concession from the Imperial Russian Government to develop a metal works in the largely unpopulated Donbas region on land to the north of the Azov Sea on the banks of the Kalmius river. The area was known as Novorossiya (literally New Russia) and had been conquered by Russia from the Zaporizhians, Crimean Tartars and the Ottomans within the previous century. By the mid 19th century Russians were colonizing the area in great numbers building towns and industries.
John Hughes founded the ‘New Russia Company Ltd’ and in 1870 sailed in a fleet of 8 ships to Russia. On board was all the equipment needed to establish an ironworks, along with skilled Welsh ironworkers and miners. Construction of the new ironworks began immediately, and developed into a state of the art facility with eight blast furnaces capable of a full production cycle. It produced its first pig iron in 1872. During the 1870s collieries, iron ore mines and brickworks were constructed and the area was became a self supporting industrial centre. The town that grew to support the concern was known as Hughesovka (Юзовка) after its founder.
The town prospered and by the early 20th century was producing nearly three quarters of Russia’s iron. After John Hughes’ death in 1889 the works were managed by four of his sons, but with the Bolshevik revolution the family’s connection with the works came to an end. In the years preceding this many Welsh and British workers had also emigrated.
Most left after the revolution although descendants of British workers can still be found locally. The city was renamed Stalino in 1924, and changed again in 1961 to its current name, Donetsk. Interestingly, the local football team, Shakhtar (Miners) Donetsk, is a Europa cup regular. Nicknamed the moles because of the area’s mining connections, their strip supposedly matches that of South Wales' Newport County, as John Hughes’ first business was based in in the town of Newport.
Donetsk came under the control of Ukraine following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It now finds itself in the centre of world news attention again, due to tensions between Ukraine and Russia over this Eastern Ukrainian province from 2014 on.
Two of the seventy-five accessions in the Glamorgan Archives relate to Hughesovka and form part of a large collection of material. To find out more about Hughesovka and the related documents held at Glamorgan Archives, visit the Hughesovka Research Archive web pages at
www.glamarchives.gov.uk/hughesovka/hka-index.html
https://glamarchives.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/the-hughesovka-research-archive/
Welsh Metallurgist
John Hughes entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hughes-Welsh-metallurgist
John Hughes entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hughes-Welsh-metallurgist
Hughesovka: The City Founded By Welsh Migrants
BBC News feature
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40345030
BBC News feature
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40345030