Shakhtar Donetsk U19

Names and etymology

The team has played under the following names: Stakhanovets (1936–46), Shakhtyor (Shakhtar) (1946–92), and FC Shakhtar (1992–present). It has a meaningful association with the Donets Basin underground coal-mining using vertical mining shafts, called Schacht in German. This was taken over into Cyrillic Шахтн, end re-transcribed into Latin letters as, for example, shakt in English use. As part of the so-called Stalin industrialisation and Stakhanovite movement, in 1936 the local football teams of Dynamo sports societies of Horlivka and Stalino (today Donetsk) established a joint team that represented the mining volunteer sports society Stakhanovets (later Shakhter). The team was transferred from the sports society for the NKVD to a trade union "volunteered sports society" (DSO).

Following the World War II, the DSO Stakhanovets changed its name to DSO Shakhter which in the Ukrainian SSR had its local corresponding nomenclature as DSS Shakhtar. The word "Shakhter" or "Shakhtar" means a coal miner working at a sub-surface mine, shafted mine, shakhta is a derivative of shaft.

During the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1989–1992), the Donetsk club was reorganized and commercialized as a professional football team. It also made its Ukrainian name as its only name, Шахтар Донецьк, with Shakhtar Donetsk in English, Schachtar Donezk in German and Szachtar Donieck in Polish, the latter two being languages of countries that hosted international "home" games for the club due to the situation since 2014.

Early years – first two decades

The Shakhtar club was originally formed on a decision of the All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sports of 3 April 1936. It was initially named Stakhanovets, meaning "the participant of Stakhanovite movement", which derived from Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal-miner in the Donbas and propaganda celebrity in 1935. The first team was based upon two other local teams, the participants of the All-Ukrainian Spartakiads: Dynamo Horlivka and Dynamo Stalino. The first game was against Dynamo Odesa as part of the 1936 Cup of the Ukrainian SSR (at that time known as Ukrainian spring challenge) and took place on 12 May 1936 at Balitsky Stadium in Horlivka (the first home stadium). The team that played as Stakhonovets Horlivka lost 3–2 after scoring the first goal by Mykhailo Pashchenko, the second goal belonged to Boris Terentiev.

Its first league game in Group V took place on 24 May 1936 against Dynamo Kazan was even more disappointing, which miners lost 4–1. Stakhonovets that had on its roster 15 players left for Kazan by train on 20 May. Beside players, as part of delegation there were representative of regional council of physical culture Gololobov and republican referee I.Rozanov. The team returned to Stalino on 28 May and the same day Gololobov in interview to newspaper "Stalinskiy rabochiy" told that "... the game in Kazan with local "Dynamo" was witnessed by 3,000 spectators. With the first minutes, the field hosts offered a high pace.

The "Miners", who were road weary, could not respond with the same. On the 13th minute they conceded the first goal and by the end of first half, two more. In many respects the reason was poor performance of right halfback Kutsev (who played instead of K.Pashchenko) and right outside forward Korotynsky. Through their flank Dynamo players successfully attacked. In the first half Stakhanovets forwards looked bleak and uncertain. In the second half the game equalized and on 55th minute Fedor Manov opened score to Donetsk team goals. Final score is 4–1 in favor of the hosts."

Nonetheless, the selective job conducted constructively by the club's administration allowed the club to compete successfully at the top level by the end of the 1930s. During the war championship of 1941, which was interrupted unexpectedly, the club defeated Soviet champions Dynamo Moscow and after about ten games were placed in fifth in the league. In the last game of that championship, played on 24 June, two days after the start of the Great Patriotic War, which they lost at home to Traktor Stalingrad. During the war many players went to frontlines and perished among which are Ivan Ustinov, Ivan Putyatov, Volodymyr Shkurov, Ivan Horobets, Mykhailo Vasin and others. From the pre-war squad in 1945 there were left only three players Georgiy Bikezin, Mykola Kuznetsov, and Petro Yurchenko.

The All-Union coal mining society of Stakhanovite (Stakhanovets) had changed its name in July 1946 to Shakhtyor (Shakhter) and so did the Sports Society of Donbas Miners. The term Shakhtar or Shakhter (Russian variation) is occupational referring to a miner working in a subterranean mining shaft (see shaft mining), the word "shakhtar" is a local adaptation and derivative of shaft. In the Soviet Union, due to an elevated risk working underground, a subterranean mining job was more compensated in relation to other unskilled work and always in demand.