 John Hughes Legendary Ukrainian Businessman By Serhiy Kharchenko |
After his death in 1889 at the age of 75, this entrepreneur from Wales continued to be a legend in the southeastern part of Ukraine for decades. This Ukrainian territory, better known as Donbas (Donets Basin), is a center for heavy industry and has a population of over five million people. The residents of the region have been producing coal, smelting metal and constructing gigantic machines for 150 years.
The Welshman John Hughes was the first to build ironworks in Ukraine and the first to use coke in the metallurgical process in the Russian Empire. According to the newspaper Ukraine - Business, John Hughes had grandiose plans. He started producing rails and steam engines. His aim was to build a rail network, as the seemingly boundless empire was doomed to backwardness without it.
Thousands of peasants were taught working professions at Hughes's plants, as they were both free and available after the abolition of serfdom in 1861.
At the same time John was creating his own capital Yuzovka. He dreamed of turning the workmen's village into a cozy town.
The businessman invested his capital for these purposes. After the death of Sir John, his heirs followed his major principle : the prospect of business comes first, the profit comes second. The secret of the legendary John Hughes lies in that simple rule.
During the Revolution of 1917, all plants belonging to the family of Hughes were expropriated by the Soviet government. The modern owners of the Donbas metallurgical plants cannot hope for the success of the legendary Englishman. They are destined to oblivion just like many other Hughes's contemporaries - Ukrainian, German, and Belgian businessmen of the 19th century who based their business in Ukraine on immediate profits only.
According to the newspaper Shlyakh Peremogy (The Way of the Victory), the technologies used in the beginning of the 20th century still dominate in the metallurgical sector of Donbas today. There are almost no open-hearth furnaces left in the world. They have been replaced by electric metallurgy. But in Donbas these "monsters" are still poisoning the environment and squandering money. Judging from the publication in the Kievskie Vedomosti, the owners of the metallurgical complex of Donbas have made no plans to change from the open-hearth furnaces because they bring good profit. Experts say that within five years the technical deficiencies of Ukrainian metallurgy production against the more modern plants, facilities and processes used by foreign competitors will be critical. The experience of a John Hughes would be useful now: he always adjusted his business activities according to the demands required by the circumstances.
However, for the sake of objectiveness, the Ukraine - Business stresses that the Welshman started his business career quite traditionally. At the age of 28 he became the owner of the shipbuilding yard. At 36, he acquired a foundry and a metallurgical plant in his native Wales. From that start, he then focused on the production of metals and alloys. The risky decisions Hughes made allowed him to produce high-quality armored sheets for the battleships of the Kingdom.
But there was not enough space for the successful businessman in England. Hughes was attracted by the countless coalfields and iron fields in the southeastern Ukrainian steppe. These riches were being slowly explored by Ukrainian and foreign businessmen. Russians traditionally preferred to invest in their "favorite", the Urals.
John Hughes recognized the southeast of Ukraine as his "niche" and managed to make his plan come true, primarily owing to his engineering talents. In 1886, he became famous for constructing a gun carriage for heavy armament, the so-called "Hughes's stringer". This fact caused St. Petersburg to invite Hughes to Russia as an instructor of works for modernization of the Russian fleet. The Russian Admiralty viewed the English engineer as assiduous and energetic.
In due course, John Hughes was accepted in the highest governmental circles of St. Petersburg. There he acquired many supporters for his ambitious plans. Soon, John James Hughes became the managing director of the Novorossiysk joint-stock company, which made him a monopolist in the production of metal in the southern portion of the Russian Empire.
The Ukraine - Business also says the Englishman was very energetic while he was building his new enterprise. In 1869, the foundation of the first blast furnace was laid. John started building a workmen's village. In 1873, Yuzovka's metallurgical plant switched to the so-called complete cycle: pig iron to steel. In one year John Hughes was the biggest producer of metal in the Russian Empire.
Sir John skillfully combined thriftiness and charity. In the middle of the 80s his enterprise became the multifunctional industrial complex and tripled its output. This required additional labor force.
Sir John solved the labor problem in a simple way. He paid his workers higher salaries: Yuzovka's metallurgists and miners earned 28 rubles per month at a time when a suit from the best fabric cost 3 rubles.
In 1870, when the blast furnace was being built, John Hughes insisted on the construction of a plant hospital, a school for the workmen's children and an Orthodox Church.
The village of Yuzovka, which later became a city, later bore the name Stalino after the dictator. In 1961 the city received its final "neutral" name Donetsk. Today, this fourth largest Ukrainian city is known all-over the world for its industrial, cultural and sport potential.
In the Soviet Union the name of John Hughes was purposely obscured. He was only mentioned in guidebooks and museum expositions as the "exploiter of the working class". But according to old-aged witnesses, the population of Donetsk obstinately called their city Yuzovka, ignoring the name Stalino.
The people considered John Hughes their "real master".
In 2004, John Hughes returned to his city as a dissident from the communist regime. A monument to Sir John was erected on the central street of Donetsk. He is portrayed as a young sturdy Welshman holding a heavy hammer placed on an anvil. This detail is not accidental, as the smithy was the first "workshop" for Hughes before the construction of the metallurgical plant in the desolate Ukrainian steppe.
Like the legendary American Henry Ford, John Hughes belongs to the constellation of those businessmen who can count their money but who are also able to invent and apply their know-how.
Ukraine probably lacks such managers today.
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A heat wave in Ukraine
"The Spirit of Hollybush" Comes to Donetsk
The new wave of Labor Migration
Home Discoveries
Asserting dignity
New Public Health for the New Ukraine
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