Donetsk, Sep 21 — DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic Culture Ministry supports the initiative to name the annual Donetsk conference “Hughes Readings” after journalist and local history expert Anatoly Zharov who was killed on the front, an official said on Thursday.
“Zharov used to take part in the conference and donated books to the Krupskaya Republican Universal Scientific Library, the organizer of the local history forum, ” DPR Acting Culture Minister Mikhail Zheltyakov told the Donetsk News Agency.
He co-authored an article with Prof Vladimir Sidorov, which was published after “Hughes Readings” 2023, he added.
Zharov was born in Donetsk on April 25, 1970. He mostly devoted his career to journalism and local history studies. He cooperated with the Donetsk Republican Local History Museum for long years, contributed valuable documents and items and participated in its research projects.
Zharov had worked for several periodicals before the Donbass war. Beginning from 2015, he worked for the DPR Information Ministry. He was mobilized in February 2022. On April 1, Zharov was killed in the line of duty.
The DPR has held the Hughes Readings forums since 2014. They bring together politicians, historians, local history experts, representatives of archives, libraries and education institutions and public activists. The forum is often timed with commemorative dates. For example, the first forum marked the 200th anniversary of Donetsk founder John Hughes. A collection of forum speakers' statements or articles is released after the event.*jk