In 1776, long-established Zaporozhian settlers together with migrants from the Poltava and Chernihiv provinces founded the sloboda of Zaitsevo, to which, in 1778, the government relocated single-homestead peasants from the village of Soldatskoye in Belgorod Uyezd. By decision of the village assembly house, the sloboda was named Nikitovka after one of them, the energetic Nikita Yakovlevich Devyatilov. In the second half of the 19th century, a railway station built near the village also received the name Nikitovka.
Founded in 1899, the "Society of the Nikitovka Coal Mines," with a share capital of 10 million francs, built two large mines near Nelepovka (the Nelepovsky and the Severny Nikitovsky), equipping them with mechanical hoists, dewatering, and ventilation. The plan was for an annual output of 40 million poods.
The Consumers' Society of the Northern Mine was established in 1908. The number of members in 1919 was 1,195. Share capital: 69,623.84 rubles. Turnover for 1918: 1,245,326.19 rubles. The mine population as of March 15, 1923 was 2,642 people. Today, the shafts of the Northern Mine are territorially located in the area of Dzerzhinsk.