In which I found some answers to questions about the miners of Donbass, their mentality, their way of life. I share some points from it.
Donbass has been a rebellious region since the late USSR (1989). Then the miners put forward a number of economic and political demands: they demanded that the government provide every miner’s family with an apartment by the year 2000, allow miners to retire at 45, and also better provide the Donbass with food. The miners were sure that #Moscow was "fatten" on their funds. The result of those strikes was the law on “Economic independence of the #UkrSSR”, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on August 3, 1990.
Coal industry workers were frightened by the impending closure of mines at the request of the IMF, which will definitely be implemented new government. The roots of these fears go back to the 90s, when the International Fund actually financed the restructuring of the mines in the Donbass, and the mines were actually destroyed. True, the process was led by Donetsk ministers and governors, in whose pockets a significant part of the loan funds remained, but the miners’ memory no longer retained this. But now any hints about the possibility of a repeat of the nightmare of the 90s cause horror among miners.
At the same time, another horror story was being promoted - “Donbass is working for Galicia and Kyiv.” Today, few people remember that in the late 80s, a similar argument only against Moscow and Russia was actively used by agitators from the People's Movement, who thus incited miners to vote for the independence of Ukraine in 1991. Then the miners, just as willingly as now, heeded the call not to feed the Center, and voted for independence actually for economic, but not ideological, reasons.
From Wikipedia:
The leaders of the miners' strike committees became delegates and guests of the founding congress of the People's Movement of Ukraine for Perestroika, one of them, Pyotr Poberezhny, even spoke at the Founding Congress.In the process of fighting the communist bureaucracy, the Donetsk Regional Society Ukrainian language appealed in 1990 for support to the Donetsk miners' strike committee. The latter supported the Society - a general appeal (signed by the co-chairs of the DTUM V. Biletsky and V. Tikhy, co-chairs of the strike committee M. Volyn and A. Kolomytsev) appeared to the power structures of all republican levels:
“The strike committee of miners and the Ukrainian Language Society of Donetsk are concerned about the problem surrounding the opening of a single high school with the Ukrainian language of instruction... We demand that the unfinished premises of the House of Political Education be transferred to the first Ukrainian school-lyceum in Donetsk...”
When anti-state protests began in the cities of Donbass, both sides of the conflict tried to win the miners to their side, citing the thesis as an argument - “your mines will not work.” Supporters of territorial unity argued that Russia would not need Donbass coal, while separatist supporters insisted that the mines would be closed by the new Ukrainian government, which hates Donbass. The miners believed the second version. There were no mass protests by workers against separatism.
After control over part of the Donbass was lost and the mines began to shut down due to hostilities, salaries at state mines stopped being paid. Many businesses were shut down and flooded. The situation in private mines is better - in Rinat Akhmetov’s coal associations “Krasnodonugol”, “Rovenkianthracite” and “Sverdlovskanthracite”, coal mining and wage payments continue.
Even if miners sympathize with the ideas of separatism in general, they often have a sharply negative attitude towards individual militant leaders. Groups warring among themselves can take advantage of these sentiments. If the leaders of the “LPR” and “DPR” fail to resolve financial issues and restart the stopped mines, then a wave of popular anger may well turn against them and lead to another change of power.
In the 90s, miners' strikes often began with "women's riots" - protests by miners' wives. The spouses, unlike their husbands, were not afraid of #dismissal, and organized spontaneous protests under the mine administrations demanding payment of debts. Today, the same “women’s riots” have already taken place in several cities in the #Donetsk and #Lugansk regions.
P.S. They say that #history develops in a spiral. It seems to me that this works with Donbass.
P.P.S. Science and technology do not stand still. Over the past 50 years, there have been giant leaps in technology development. And now DTEK Renata Akhmetova is going to build the largest solar power plant in Ukraine. But the Donbass mines themselves are unprofitable; the rock here is not of very high quality. Similar mines in Rostov region closed a long time ago. Now imagine what will happen here when the mines are closed. The miners for the most part are poorly educated, have no specialty, and many are also drinkers. Will there be another strike? And who will they blame for not thinking about their future?
The miners support the Donetsk People's Republic.
State Administration - Regional State Administration - and announced the founding of the Donetsk People's
Republic.
They supported the rebels - the Donetsk People's Republic.
Revolutions and proclamation of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Interviewed a deputy of the Republic in the building of the Regional State Administration
Cities of Donetsk - Regional State Administration.
Question about Renat Akhmetov - a local Donetsk oligarch, owner of many Donbass
Mines and various types of businesses in the Donetsk region.
Deputy: - We talked with Renat, he came here, persuaded him to surrender, but he
Nobody here supported. Renat - he wants to preserve his financial empire, his
Business - and stay in Ukraine. We, Donetsk People's Republic, we want to get out
Ukraine and join Russia. Tsarev also came to us at the Regional State Administration, but he is here
Everyone booed. Tsarev wants the federalization of Donbass, but as part of Ukraine...
I asked the question that had been tormenting me all the way: about the miners...
Deputy: - With miners complex issue. They are all for us, for the Donetsk People's Party
"Shakhterskaya-Glubokaya". But the mine administration, on the orders of Akhmetov, categorically
She was not allowed to participate in rallies in support of the Donetsk Republic. If anyone
If he participates, he is immediately fired. This is the wolf's order. But the miners are all for us.
Whenever strength is needed, they will support everyone as one. They will not be afraid of the administration.
What are the immediate tasks of the DPR?
The most immediate task is the organized implementation in Donetsk and Lugansk
Areas of referendum on separation from Ukraine. Deputies of the Donetsk City Council
In the afternoon, a large rally took place on the square near the Regional State Administration building, in which
Thousands of residents of the cities of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Artemovsk,
Slavyansk and others. People came here from all the small satellite towns of Donetsk.
Posters and slogans: “We will defend Donbass”, “For Russian unity”, “No to fascism, and
Others,” “Let’s Defend the Truth!”
I walked along the square in front of the Regional State Administration building - three rings of barricades mostly made of
tires, slogans and appeals also hang on the barricades...
I approach a group of miners in red-orange helmets. They're standing here, of course.
No weapons. I meet the leader - his name is Igor Klekta.
I ask when and where they came from.
We are from the city of Shakhtersk, from the Shakhterskaya-Glubokaya mine.
– Do the miners support the Donetsk Republic?
Igor Klekta answers:
Yes, the miners all support the DPR. We already have Kyiv
I'm tired of power. Donbass miners are all for the Republic.
How do the miners feel about Renat Akhmetov, who is supposedly considered
Dear oligarch?
Yes, we all hate him already. there was never a love, but
Everyone is against him, especially when Akhmetov spoke out against Donetsk
Republic.
I was truly pleased with these responses. Rarely, but some “scientific” liberals from
Moscow, Kyiv and Kharkov just recently proved to me that miners are not
They support the DPR, that they strongly support Renat Akhmetov, that the miners
Subsidized from Kyiv...
Nonsense! These are simple working people. I believe them, not these “learned” gentlemen!
Who are these miners who came to support the Republic? I often hear from
The liberals are talking about some stuff: the fakes have arrived from Moscow.
“Shakhterskaya-Glubokaya” State Enterprise “Shakhterscanthracite” put into operation 4th
Eastern lava of formation h-8 of the central block. The expected daily load
The production face will amount to 1,100 tons of coal. In its editing they participated, so to speak,
“the whole world”, that’s why they were able to implement it in short time- for one and a half
Months. Together with the team of the mining works site (chief Igor
Sidorenko, foreman Nikolai Annenkov) worked the miners of control unit No. 1 with
Brigadier Konstantin Syrdyuk and miners of mining site No. 3 in
The chapter with Igor Klekta, for whom, in fact, this lava was prepared.”
The Shakhterskaya-Glubokaya mine stands here on the square near the Regional State Administration building and expresses
Interests of Donbass miners.
I ask Igor:
– And the miners participated in the rallies that were held
“Russian Bloc”, “Donbass Militia” and “Slavic Unity” in Donbass?
No, some comrades only participated, but not collectively. A
Now, when it is clear that the situation is difficult and our Regional State Administration formed the DPR... How
It is said in Hard time miners are always with the people. Previously, there were no shares
We took part, but now there is information that there will be an assault on the building, we decided
Come. We believe that they are fighting for our interests here.
I couldn’t understand why the miners cursed the old government so vehemently and
Kyiv authorities. Then I understood. main reason- poverty, miner's poverty
Life. They, the miners, do not see the future and they are tired of such Kiev authorities. Here
The main argument.
I was traveling by bus from Kharkov to Donetsk, passing through the cities of Izyum, Gorlovka, Slavyansk,
Artemovsk and others. The road is rough in places and full of bumps. And around between cities
Beautiful places, dotted with small, squat, sand-lime brick huts.
Yes, made of sand-lime white brick, huts. They heat here mainly with coal from the mines. I
I saw only one red brick house. The people traveling on the bus, ordinary people,
I wasn't happy. Poorly dressed, increasingly silent.
Yes, exactly, the miners are fed up with poverty and a gloomy life with hard work. The miners in the face are like revolutionary sailors on a ship: “Brothers, worms!..” What happened next in the famous story about the battleship Potemkin - everyone knows. Disappointing ending...
The acting assistant chief of the site was found without signs of life.
VTB-1, born in 1958. A. Makarenkov said that the deputy head of the site
VTB-1 reported the situation to the site manager, who, while inspecting the route
No. 4 and discovered the acting assistant chief of the site without signs of life.”
This is how people easily end their lives in the slaughterhouse. And it's not just one the only case- There is
There are also mining accidents with killed and wounded, which are widely covered in the press.
The miners have been at war for a long time. The salaries of Donetsk miners range from
2500 to 4000 hryvnia. Converted to dollars - from 250 to 450 US dollars. Prices
The products are the same as in Russia, a little cheaper. (For 60 hryvnia, a taxi driver in Donetsk carries a client
Half an hour).
But wages are also delayed and often. And many mines are closed, and the unemployed
A lot is the reason for dissatisfaction with the authorities.
I also read the Ukrainian press: “11/19/13 Donetsk miners picket the treasury:
"We've been without money for six months. It's unbearable to survive." About 50 Gorlovsky employees
The mine construction department picketed the regional department of the state treasury in
Donetsk. The miners demanded payment of wages for the last six months.”
Here is the answer to the question why Donbass miners support the Donetsk Republic and
They will fight to the death for her. DPR is their mining power!
In Artemovsk, next to the bus station square, there is a beautiful white church with three
Bell towers. In the square in front of the bus, many stalls were laid out
Various clay mugs, horseshoes and souvenirs of Slavyansk. This one played in Artemovsk
A short guy on the violin, with stubble on his face, dressed in blue shabby pants and
Shirt. Moreover, he played and sang and composed on the go.
The violinist played sad songs.
When I was returning on the Donetsk-Moscow train, I was traveling with a neighbor. He introduced himself
"retired racketeer." The man was from Donetsk, just over forty years old, had served time in prison and had seen a lot in
Life, with a big belly and wolfish grips. We were traveling in those days when it was just beginning in Slavyansk fighting and there was already one killed and several wounded from the militia of the Donetsk Republic. Then this “retired racketeer”, having heard about the first losses of the militia in mobile phone from his brothers, yawning widely, he says:
Well, the Beast has been released! Miners are cool people! In general, I don’t care that Ukraine is splitting up. Only I don’t like that in Russia life imprisonment is 28 years, but in Ukraine it’s only 20! And so, after Easter we should expect that Putin will send in troops. Yes!"
Having heard his last exclamations, I thought for a long time and decided that society was split and
In Ukraine and Russia, those who want to change everything in their country, and those for whom everything
He is satisfied with his life and the life of the country as a whole.
This is how the border runs.
The miners want changes in their lives and they are FOR THE REVOLUTION!
The miners are ALL for the revolutionary Donetsk People's Republic!
Miners at the mine face are like revolutionary sailors on a ship...
Alexander Barkov, leader of the Slavic Klin movement.
"Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"More than a quarter of a century ago, on the same land as today, but in a different state, there were miners' strikes. Having started in Kuzbass (RSFSR), they almost instantly spread to Donbass (Ukrainian SSR). Hundreds of thousands of participants, hundreds of stopped mines. The social and economic demands of the protesters inevitably and quickly grew into political demands - the resignation of Gorbachev, the dissolution of the USSR Parliament, changes to the Constitution (in particular, on the leading role of the CPSU) and the granting of independence to the Republics.
Speech by miners on Khreshchatyk, Kyiv, April 18, 1991
A week after the start of the strikes in Kuzbass (July 19, 1989), 67 mines and mine departments, as well as a number of mine construction departments, stopped working in the Donetsk region. The total number of miners who left their jobs during the strike exceeded 222 thousand people.
After a meeting in the Kremlin (July 24) between representatives of the striking Donbass and the Council Chairman Ryzhkov, the strike was ended, and by the end of July all mines resumed work. On July 29, “a commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions considered the demands of the miners’ strike committees from the Donetsk and Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk - M1) regions and signed protocols of agreed measures. The government commission... reported that decisions made... will be extended to all coal-mining regions of Ukraine.”
And already on August 3, 1989, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Law “On the Economic Independence of the Ukrainian SSR.” The first step towards the collapse of the state was taken by the very “leading and directing” party that the miners demanded to remove from the authorities. Which even in nightmare could not have imagined what their strikes and political demands, which were gradually replacing economic and social ones, would lead to.
Member of the Donetsk strike committee Alexander Kalinin, in an interview with the newspaper “Dnevnik Priazovya” (Mariupol) in the spring of 1991, said that radical political demands are due to the fact that the state leadership has brought the people “to the fatal line” with empty promises. The permanently striking miners of Donbass were supported by the miners of the Lviv region (Galicia). 
In March-May 1991, 49 mines in the region went on strike (40% total number): 15 mines and 3 mine-building organizations in Donetsk, 8 mines in Selidovo, 7 in Krasnoarmeysk, 4 in Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region, one each in Khartsyzsk and Lisichansk, 22 coal enterprises in the Lviv region.
At the same time, the strikers worked closely with the nationalists. Along with demands for Gorbachev’s resignation and the dissolution of parliament, demands emerged for the state sovereignty of Ukraine. Representatives of the strike committees even took part in the founding congress of the People's Movement of Ukraine for Perestroika (NRU). We also collaborated at the local level. Thus, in Donetsk, the strike committee supported the demand of the local Ukrainian Language Society “to transfer the unfinished premises of the House of Political Education for the first Ukrainian school-lyceum in Donetsk...”. The co-chairman of the "Society", an activist of the RUKH Biletsky V.S. wrote about this in the book "We are coming! Drawings on the history of the Donetsk Regional Partnership of Ukrainian Language named after T. G. Shevchenko."
On March 1, 1991, the start of another general strike of Donbass miners was announced. The miners, in particular, demanded the resignation of the president, the dissolution of the Council of People's Deputies of the USSR and the constitutional formalization of the declaration of state sovereignty of Ukraine.
In a few years, already in the “long-awaited independent Ukraine,” striking miners will demand regional independence. And without any success. All the protests that followed these events were skillfully nullified or redirected into the mainstream of the same nationalist forces (for example, “Ukraine without Kuchma”). And only the de facto successful completion of the anti-Kuchma protests in the form of the first Maidan and the seizure of power by nationalists led to the demarcation of the miners and the Nazis. And 10 years after the “Orange Revolution”, Donbass looks at the heirs of “Rukh” exclusively through the sights of machine guns.
And again, as in the late 80s and early 90s, the miners became one of the forces that would destroy the very state whose creation they once demanded.
P.S. It is important to remember here that it was Donbass that became the center of the mining movement that began in Kuzbass. It was here that on June 16-17, 1990, the first congress of miners in the history of the USSR was held, which adopted a statement on the need to get rid of the Communist Party, since: “Since the worker, under the leadership of the country of the CPSU, became not the owner of the country, but remained in the position of labor, but any attempt to change this status - the actions of workers in accordance with communist ideology, wanting to be a collective owner - encounters opposition from the CPSU and the administration of enterprises" [from the documents of the Congress].
In the autumn of the same year, a second congress was held in Donetsk, which was transformed into the Founding Congress of the Miners' Trade Union, at which the Independent Trade Union of Miners of the USSR was established. 
The year that followed ended with the collapse of the USSR. The miners who remained in Russia actively supported Boris Yeltsin, who was triumphantly marching to power, and those who remained in Ukraine... those who remained on the other side of the border today do not want to have anything in common with THIS Ukraine.
P.P.S. What should be remembered is that neither the miners nor the population of the Ukrainian SSR wanted to break off relations with the RSFSR - people sought to renew the Union. That is why the first referendum in 1991 was “FOR” the USSR, and the second was not against it at all. The question of supporting the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine was then raised in the Ukrainian SSR. The final paragraph of which sounded like this: “The principles of the Declaration on the sovereignty of Ukraine are violated to establish a union agreement".
De jure and de facto, this provision of the Declaration was not implemented - the Parliament did not ratify the agreement on accession to the CIS, and then to the Customs and Eurasian Unions.
There has been a quiet hunger riot in Vugledar for several months now. The wage debts of the miners have long exceeded tens of millions, but some workers were “pleased” with an advance payment of 50 hryvnia.
They are afraid to hold a rally here - the rioters are immediately caught by the SBU, and therefore caring Ukrainians rushed to the aid of the underground workers living in starvation.
Journalists Ukrainian Internet Strana publications spoke with the families of miners to find out the details of the current situation.
"We have nothing to eat!"
The population of the small town of Ugledar in the Donetsk region is no more than 14 thousand people, half of them are miners who work in the region at two state-owned mines - "Yuzhnodonbasskaya" and named after Surgai. The work, as the locals say here, is "never begun" , every day, cars load coal. At one site alone, 40 tons of coal were mined in two months - but there is no money for salaries for the miners.
"Our mine was paid for the last time wages December 17th was the balance for October, we didn’t receive anything else. My husband, and he is a mining hoist worker, earns about 6 thousand net. I’m on maternity leave with three children, and every month I only receive 860 UAH,” says Anna.
Disruptions in payments began simultaneously with military operations in the Donbass. The miners first tried to demand their blood from the management. But the director of the mine turned out to be a resident of the capital, so it was not possible to catch him at work.
“This year we went to the mayor several times, wrote letters to the prime minister. They paid a little money in the spring after our visit, but now again they don’t pay anything. The thing is that we always have an initiative group of no more than ten people, These are mostly miners' wives. The rest don't come with us because they're all intimidated," says Anna
A prolonged period of non-payments left the miner’s family’s refrigerator almost empty, and then journalist Vasily Apasov told about this story on his Facebook page. In a matter of hours, caring Ukrainians raised several thousand, and Anna was able to buy food for her family.
“In half a day, about 11 thousand hryvnia arrived on the family’s card, which completely covered the salary of the head of the family. But I was also struck by the fact that people themselves asked to stop this process and said that they no longer needed it. Otherwise, it’s not fair. And they took part of the money transferred to another family in the same situation,” Apasov wrote.
Miner's family in Ugledar
On the last working day of the year, the management at the mine could not be found. Over the phone, Strana was informed that the director was absent, and they could not comment on delays in salaries. But the miner Alexander was told that the problem was all in the ministry - they say they are the ones who don’t pay the money. Although this summer it became known that his mine refused any government subsidies, declaring its ability to exist independently.
“Yesterday I came to the trade union and said: “I have nothing to eat, I can’t put together a brake for the mine.” In response, they just shrugged their shoulders. We know that money comes to the mine, but they don’t give it to us, it’s circulating somewhere from bank to bank. I called the ministry and they told me that last week everything was listed. Everyone knows about this, but they are afraid to talk, and if we go on strike, they will immediately fire us. Before Miner's Day, one of the workers provoked the others to go down into the mine and do not go out until the salary is paid. The delay was then 2.5 months. The director, with the help of the head of the section, identified the instigator and fired him. Another time, when the highway was blocked in order to pay the money, the next day an SBU officer came to people and tried to hang them three articles at once for a total period of 8 years,” Alexander tells Strana
In Vugledar there are no more than four thousand miners, whose salaries do not exceed 9 thousand hryvnia. The debt currently stands at 76.5 million. But workers are “pampered” only occasionally, and only with meager advances.
“Explain how you can live without money? They wrote to the Prime Minister about this, Volynets (head of the miners’ trade union - ed.) wrote, Nasalik (Minister of Energy - ed.) we write on Viber, but he reads it and remains silent. Sometimes they give an advance, about 10%, and for some it may be 1500 UAH, for others 800 UAH. I received 50 UAH on the card, what can I do with it? We live 40 km from Ugledar, which is only one road away. Children want to eat, they need to be dressed and put on shoes. My son still wears autumn sneakers,” Victor (name changed) tells Strana.
According to the head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners, Mikhail Volynets, miners are not paid throughout the country. Of the 33 state mines, only 4 are conditionally unprofitable, including Yuzhnodonbasskaya.
“The mine made money, but did not receive any state support. But assets worth UAH 140 million were taken away from them. Plus, the debt of UAH 40 million is growing,” says Volynets.
Miner's riots across the country
The trade union leader is right - what is happening in Ugledar is only special case general catastrophe with miners' wages in Ukraine. For example, in parallel with the state of emergency in Ugledar, miners from Kurakhovo are starving.
Miners from "Kurakhovskaya". Photo by Mikhail Volynets
This only happened in the 90s. And it started again in 2014, with the arrival of the new government.
The situation has worsened since the summer of 2018. Then the government owed the miners more than a billion hryvnia. This is according to trade unions - and the Ministry of Energy underestimated this figure three times. Nevertheless, miners staged mass protests in Kyiv.
After this, the Rada allocated 1.7 billion state subsidies for the coal industry (Poroshenko signed this law on August 17). However, these amounts did not save the situation. In the fall, coal riots swept across the Lviv region, Volyn, Donbass and Krivbass: roads were blocked, and miners refused to leave the mine. Later the Cabinet of Ministers added another half a billion.
What is the cause of debt? All 33 state mines are officially unprofitable. They can earn a maximum of UAH 500 million from the sale of coal. per month. And their expenses for maintaining mines and salaries are twice as high - about 1 billion UAH. And this despite the fact that miners’ salaries, to put it mildly, are low.
The unprofitability of mining is explained by the fact that state mines produce little coal - one mine on average produces no more than 350 tons per day. But three times more is needed for a coal enterprise to feed at least itself. The reason is due to worn out equipment. More modern private mines produce several thousand tons per day.
Systematically, about 7 billion hryvnia are needed to solve this issue, experts have calculated. In fact, the 2019 budget allocated 1.6 billion for the coal industry.
What way out do the authorities see? By and large, there is only one way - to close state mines. Such thoughts have been expressed for a long time, but they practically do not begin to do so, fearing a social explosion. The second option is the creeping privatization of the state-owned coal stake.
It was previously reported that this may be one of the reasons why state mines are underfunded - because then the “right people” will be able to buy them at a bargain price.
Among these " the right people"First of all, they name a businessman from Torez, Vitaly Kropachev, who in the media is often called the “oversight” of the coal industry from Bankova. As well as a deputy from the BPP, Efimov (who last year bought part of the energy assets of the Yanukovych family).
Kropachev’s main trump card was his friendship with right hand President Igor Kononenko.
Not so long ago, the company Ukrdoninvest, which belongs to him, has already absorbed Krasnolimanskoye LLC, which is the main supplier of coal to the Centerenergo company (Kropachev was among the participants in its failed privatization).
Experts do not rule out that Kropachev may also get other promising enterprises in the coal mining industry. And further deterioration of the situation in this market could further depreciate even quite liquid assets.
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