Krasnyi Luch is a city in the Luhansk Oblast (province) of south-eastern Ukraine, currently under the control of the Luhansk People’s Republic. It was incorporated as a city of oblast significance. The town was founded as Kryndachivka in the last years of the 19th century. It became one of the most important coal mining centres in the Donets Basin. By December 1920, it was renamed Krasnyi Luch (lit. “red beam”).
The Ukrainian parliament renamed the city to Khrustalny on 12 May 2016 under the decommunization laws, but the name has no practical impact since they don’t control the area.
Here are some photos by Juri Nesterov that show life in Khrustalnyi in the 1980s.
