Bakhmut

Bakhmut grew beside the Bakhmutka River, a tributary of the Siverskyi Donets. First recorded as a border post in 1571, it became a fortified settlement on the southern edge of the Russian state. A new fort was completed here in 1703. Salt production attracted settlers: in 1704 Peter I ordered Cossacks to settle by the river and work the salt deposits.

The salt works became a centre of conflict in 1705, when Don Cossacks under Kondraty Bulavin seized them and occupied the town before government forces regained control. From 1753 to 1764 Bakhmut administered Slavo-Serbia, a frontier colony settled by people from the Balkans. The town received city status in 1783, and its coat of arms, granted in 1811, recalled the salt on which its early growth depended.