Donbass acquired the image of a rebellious region long before the start of the current war. Back in 1989, miners' strikes greatly shook the Union and became a harbinger of the collapse of the Soviet economy. Then the miners put forward a number of economic and political demands, many of which now seem ridiculous. The miners, for example, 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 government was seriously scared and made significant concessions. The result of the strikes was the law on “Economic independence of the Ukrainian SSR”, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on August 3, 1990, which became the prologue to Ukrainian independence.
However, the independence of Ukraine did not solve the problems of the Donbass coal industry, and could not solve them. The industry crisis was too deep. All hell broke loose in the Donbass in the 1990s, and miners' strikes rocked Ukraine almost every year for the next decade.
As in the USSR, in Ukraine miners continued to put forward not only economic, but also political demands. Moreover, the tendency towards separatism remained in them. In the first major strike since independence, which occurred in 1993, the miners demanded a referendum on the regional independence of Donbass. If in 1989 the workers thought that Moscow was fattening on their money, now the anger of the proletariat has switched to the new capital.
The strikes of the 90s were essentially food riots. In 1993, miners rebelled from sharp jump prices for sausage (the cost of a kilogram of smoked sausage became approximately equal to 15% of a miner’s salary). In 1995-96 prices stabilized, but delays in payment began. In 1998, when wage arrears to miners reached 12-20 months, another strike in Lugansk ended in a large-scale fight between workers and the local Berkut on Independence Day. The police mercilessly beat the strikers, and only the most desperate dreamer could imagine then that 16 years later those same Luhansk miners would shout “Glory to Berkut” in the squares, welcoming exactly the same bestial beating of students on the Kiev Maidan.
After 1993, the miners no longer put forward political demands, and insisted only on payment of wages and recourses. Gradually the strike movement faded away completely. The mines closed one after another, and there were fewer and fewer miners, trade unions disintegrated, the industry weakened and lost its former strength. By the early 2000s, the economic situation gradually stabilized, and the Donbass long years calm. From the most troubled region of the country, on the contrary, it has turned into a citadel of “stability” in the negative sense of the word to which we are accustomed. In 2004, Donbass acquired the image of a reactionary and conformist region, and miners who had previously taken part in strikes turned into strikebreakers and participants in all kinds of “anti-Maidan”.
Such a sharp turn can be easily explained. After ten years of terrible poverty, when miners were forced to steam feed for children for lunch and collect scrap metal in order to somehow survive the hungry months, even relatively small, but regular money began to be perceived as an incredible benefit. In addition, the most violent activists, on occasion, were usually the first to be laid off, and thus the industry was gradually cleared of rebels.
However, the assertion, popular since the 80s, that the working Donbass feeds everyone and receives less than it gives, remains alive in the miners’ environment. And later it turned into an ideological cliche, which populist politicians gladly adopted. It was this false belief that determined the line of behavior of the miners during the events of the spring-summer of 2014. The miners for the most part supported the separatists in one way or another and became victims of both Russian propaganda and specific stereotypes that existed among the miners.
Coal industry workers were frightened not only by Kolomoisky’s black transplants and crucified boys, but also by the impending closure of mines at the request of the IMF, which will certainly be carried out new government. In the locker rooms, they were happy to pass on from mouth to mouth “reliable information” that the Maidan was organized with Soros’s money, because the West’s goal is to turn Ukraine into a colony and close all its mines and factories. The roots of these fears go back to the 90s, when the World Bank actually financed the restructuring of the mines in the Donbass, and the mines were really barbarically destroyed. True, Donetsk ministers and governors then led the process “from their guts,” in whose pockets a significant part of the loan funds remained, but the miners’ memory no longer retained this. Global capital remained to blame for everything, and any hint of the possibility of a repeat of the nightmare of the 90s caused horror among the miners.
At the same time, the separatists were promoting another horror story - “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. But the ideology “we work, and the rest wipe their pants” turned out to be too tenacious and attractive, and later began to work against Ukraine itself.
In the spring, miners regularly raised the topic of “feeding lazy people from Galicia.”
When anti-state protests began in the cities of Donbass, both sides of the conflict tried to win over the miners to their side, citing as an argument the thesis - “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. The only rally at which miners spoke out against the “DPR” was a meeting of workers of the Komsomolets Donbassa mine on June 22 in Kirovsky. There, people expressed dissatisfaction after militants carried out a robbery at the mine. True, Kirovsky itself claims that the action was carried out on a command from above and was not a spontaneous protest.
Miners participated in DPR rallies much more willingly. Of course, there was nothing similar to the strikes of the 90s, but in general, some of the mine workers joined the anti-Ukrainian protests. Thus, on May 28 in Donetsk, several hundred workers from the Skochinsky, Abakumov and Trudovskaya mines took part in a rally against the ATO. But more often, miners at separatist rallies simply disappeared into the general crowd, without in any way highlighting their professional affiliation.
After power in part of the territory of Donbass completely passed into the hands of pro-Russian militants, and the mines began to stop due to hostilities, salaries at state mines stopped being paid. Many businesses were shut down and flooded.
The head of the Independent Trade Union of Donbass Miners, Nikolai Volynko, predicted back in the summer that such a situation could lead to miners’ strikes against the separatists, but no protests have yet followed.
I hope that the miners will truly have their say. Resistance begins to grow. The other day in Shakhtersk, “DPR members” wanted to hold a rally in support of theirs, as many as three people came to this rally. This is an indicator that the population, although silently, is beginning to resist,” he said in an interview.
Since then, the economic situation in the occupied territories has only worsened, but the miners have not come out to protest. According to trade union leader Mikhail Volynets, miners at state-owned enterprises have not received wages since June. The situation in private mines is better - in Rinat Akhmetov’s coal associations “Krasnodonugol”, “Rovenkianthracite” and “Sverdlovskanthracite”, coal mining and wage payments continue. However, in Pervomaisk, Kirovsk, Torez, Shakhtersk, Krasny Luch, and Snezhny, miners do not see any money.
However, the miners are in no hurry to blame the occupation administration for this. Like most residents of Donbass, they blame Kiev for the lack of money and believe that it is not the “DPR” and “LPR” that owe them money, but Ukraine. In addition, many miners actually not only morally support the separatists, but also become members of various gangs. The same Volynets spoke about this in particular.
It is impossible to say that they do not support the separatists. There are some miners who go to checkpoints and barricades, who fight, and among them there are dead. They are deceived and different ways involved there,” he said.
More than once, militants have stated that within the DPR military formations there is an entire battalion called “Kalmius”, supposedly consisting entirely of miners. Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote about this in particular.
If this information is true, it becomes clear why miners in Donbass do not go on strike. This would effectively mean going on strike against ourselves. So the miners are in no hurry to admit responsibility for their actions and prefer to continue to blame Ukraine exclusively for everything.
However, the situation may still change due to the unstable situation within the self-proclaimed republics. 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 the wave of popular anger may well turn against them and lead to another change of power in the Donetsk ghetto.
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, similar “women’s riots” have already taken place in several cities in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. This means that it is quite likely that in winter we will still see harsh workers, sprinkled with coal dust, on the streets, demanding that the operetta “governments” solve their problems or leave.
Great changes took place in the mines of Donbass, in miners' work and in miners' life. They quickly got used to them; other things are no longer astonishing. Only old-timers, when comparing the “present century” and the “past century”, are still touched in the old man’s way.
Take at least one simple, seemingly ordinary fact from Everyday life: there is no longer a shortage of workers in the Donbass mines! The mine ceased to be a “passable yard”, the miner ceased to be a nomadic, seasonal worker, and began to grow all his roots into the Donetsk land.
Once upon a time, a family miner was a rarity in the Donbass. The Oryol peasant, whom evil need had driven here to work, stubbornly considered himself a temporary man at the mine. Fiercely yearning underground, he dreamed (and most often - in vain!) of that golden time when, having ridden his horse, he would finally return to his native village and live as his own master according to his entire will. In those years, people did not look for lasting, settled happiness in the mine. The words “happiness” and “mine” fatally did not fit together. In coal they were looking only for a long ruble, luck, “chance”, in a word - luck, and in a vain search for it they wandered from mine to mine, still hoping to find one where the coal was softer, the earnings were higher, the foreman was kinder... Even in the years of the first five-year plans The turnover still continued to rattle and feverish the coal Donbass. People unexpectedly came to the mine, unexpectedly, without saying a word to anyone, they left; and the site manager never knew how many miners he would have on shift today.
But now... Nowadays it’s completely different. At one of the Gorlovka mines, in an elegant one, we had the opportunity to observe a remarkable scene. A young, efficient and, apparently, experienced lad came to hire a job. The head of the department began to carefully study his documents, meticulously inquiring about the reasons for each change of profession; there were a lot of changes.
- Why are you finding fault, Ivan Fedorovich? — the boy suddenly became offended. - But I’m not going to university. I'm going to the mine. To the miners!
- That’s it, go to the mine! - Ivan Fedorovich answered grumpily. “We also need reliable people at the mine.” In modern times, brother, miner is a proud title. A miner wears a uniform like a soldier. That's how it is!
Yes, great, great changes have taken place in Donbass before our eyes. Donetsk mines have become brighter, cleaner and more joyful. Underground work has become easier. The life of a miner has become more fun and richer. Happiness has arrived.
A young miner came to the mine for the first time.
Here he is standing at the mine office. It's easy to tell where he's from by his clothes. A sailor's belt or a tanker's cap will say without words that the guy has been demobilized from the army; a craftsman's overcoat - that came from school; embroidered Hutsul shirt under a short fur coat - that came from afar, from western regions Ukraine. Different roads led the young man to the mine, but he firmly believes that any of them is the road to happiness. I came for happiness.
He has already been accepted and assigned to work as an electrician, logger, slaughterer. Where to go now? Where to sleep? Where to live? Where to eat?
Each of these questions was once a painful problem. In the old days, a lad would have looked for a relative or fellow countryman, would have lived in parasites or hid somewhere in a booth, in a dugout, and would have slept on a cot in line with a fellow gang member. In 1940, a newcomer would have been immediately assigned to a dormitory. There were good and bad hostels. They did not have a dining room.
And now - now there is a boarding school for young, lonely workers at every mine. This unfortunate, non-Russian and incomprehensible word, however, denotes a great and good deed, an entire phenomenon in the life of miners’ youth.
What is a boarding school? This is a large, bright, spacious house, where every young bachelor miner will find shelter, a table, comfort, and affection. Here they will give him a bed with an excellent, clean bed linen in a warm and well-furnished room for two or three people. And for this he will pay only 46 rubles a month. Here, in the boarding school, he will receive three good meals a day, and he will receive it at any time, whenever he comes home from work. And for this he will pay (after a new price reduction) 390 rubles per month. The boarding school has a bathhouse and a hairdresser; Here you can have your personal linen washed and repaired. There are special classrooms here for those studying in evening school or courses. There is a Lenin corner. There is its own equipped sports ground. There is a political instructor who takes care of the education, recreation and entertainment of young people. There are educators - usually old miners, experts in telling stories about the past. Often the boarding school also has its own orchard, with a hundred roots, or just a little garden with herbs and flowers, which every miner is a passionate lover of.
That's what a boarding school is. It truly became a home for young miners. And these youth are now demanding! She came mainly from FZO schools, where she was used to living in “comfort,” as young miner Alexander Bogachev says. Arriving at the Kochegarka, he and his comrades spent a long time and meticulously inspecting all three boarding schools of the mine.
“The director of the mine, seeing us off, called us this: demand, they say, the best hostel for yourself.” You're supposed to.
However, the boarding school at the Kochegarka mine satisfied even the demanding Bogachev. He looked around like a proprietor, walked around everything, felt everything with his hands and only then said:
- Cosy! - It is his favorite word. He pronounces it in the southern way: “Vyutno” - Gorlovka is a Viutno city. — The head of the mine greeted us calmly.
And in the boarding schools "Stoker" it is really cozy, even elegant. Freshly painted and polished floors. Carpets. Paths. Maps on the walls. Purity. In the bedrooms there are two or three beds, bedside tables, tables with books, a gramophone, someone's button accordion, a guitar on the wall, on the rug; There are pots of flowers on the windows. In the Lenin corner there is a piano, chess tables, soft, comfortable sofas. On the wall is a schedule of lectures and conversations. And everything - every little thing - bears the stamp of great and touching Bolshevik concern for young miners, for their comfort, for their happiness. It’s not for nothing that all the residents of the boarding school lovingly call the assistant head of the “Stoker” D.E. Shevelev - Erofeich - their own dad. It is not for nothing that the most frequent and most welcome guest at the boarding school is the party organizer of the “Stoker” Ya. I. Nerozin.
So, the young man settled in a boarding school. Started working in a mine. In the first month he will earn little. True, this is more than enough for food. But the young miner now has different needs. Oh, how many dreams and plans he has! Three to four months will pass before he can begin to implement them.
Here is the budget of the young slaughterer Leonid Shimansky, a black-browed, brown-eyed guy. He is only twenty years old. He earns 3500 - 3800 rubles a month. For food and service - 46 rubles. For cigarettes - 60 rubles. For theater, cinema and other expenses another 250 - 300 rubles. Every month he sends his mother 700 rubles. And after all these expenses, he has a total monthly income of 1,500 - 1,800 rubles.
In the first months of his miner's life, he spends them almost entirely on getting dressed. Young miners love to dress up! Coarse-haired, cheap goods are not in use among them. They require Cheviot, Boston, Covercott from trading organizations. Leonid Shimansky, like his comrades, already has several suits in which he is not ashamed to go out in public, he has a good coat, shoes, shoes, and boots. It is interesting to note that even the miner’s work clothes, his overalls, are not at all what they once were. Nowadays you won’t see those picturesque rags on a miner that the artist N.A. Kasatkin once so picturesquely depicted. Previously, the miner himself bought the overalls, but now the state gives them to him. Nowadays a miner works in overalls or in canvas “miner’s clothes”; Miners on thin seams make cavalry leis on their trousers, from old car tires or from ordinary rubber.
Previously, all this work clothes were kept at home, they were put on and went to the outfit, and then to the mine. Now at Kochegarka you cannot come to the outfit in dirty clothes. At first the old people grumbled out of habit, but then they agreed that it was better this way. And this is understandable: the smart one at Kochegarka is a real workers’ palace. Stucco ceilings, tiled floors, walls decorated with white tiles, flowers, paintings... There is also a cinema hall, a library, a party office, and all the utility facilities of the plant.
Nowadays the miner comes to work in his usual suit and leaves it in the “clean dressing room” where he has his own place. Then he puts on overalls and goes into the mine. After work, he leaves his dirty overalls in the locker room and goes to the bathhouse. And the overalls will be dried, washed, disinfected and even repaired free of charge: in the household factory there are tailors and shoemakers.
Previously, a miner's entire life was spent in the dirt. It was dirty in the outfit, dirty and wet in the mine, dirty and damp in the dugout, dirty and smelly in the village, on the streets, in the tavern and even in the church.
Now dirt has gradually begun to disappear from the life of a miner. Of course, coal remains coal, but now the human hand almost never touches it: everything is made by machines. Gone are the terrible mining professions: gas-burner, luger, horse-driver, butcher. The formerly difficult work of a miner has now, as a result of the party’s many years of concern for mechanization, become much easier. The mines have become cleaner and drier. The streets of the villages began to be covered with asphalt. Parks are being created everywhere. Flower beds and fountains appeared in the mine yard. Mining towns have turned green. There is less dust and soot in Donbass. And the young miners began to dress up in white suits and light hats in the summer - I never saw this at the mine as a child!
Of course, there are still many unpaved streets, neglected courtyards, puddles and dirt, but previously this was considered normal, even inevitable in a mining village, but now it causes indignation. The Gorlovka City Party Committee is actively and passionately involved in issues of improvement. And the most precious thing that you see now in Gorlovka is the universal, unanimous, passionate desire to completely remake the life of a miner, to make it even brighter, even purer, more joyful and beautiful.
So, our young man became a real miner. He got used to the mine and loved it. He has a reliable profession in his hands. He modestly says about himself: “I’m not one of the laggards,” and fulfills one and a half to two norms. He makes good money. He is dressed, shod, well fed. He got a savings book. He has free money.
But the needs have also grown. There are book lovers in the boarding school: they collect their own personal libraries. Many people dream of having their own motorcycle and even their own car. This dream is completely achievable. In Gorlovka, many miners bought themselves "Muscovites" and "Pobeda". It has already become a tradition: a column of motorcyclists and miners - car owners - takes part in the festive demonstration.
There are also music lovers in the boarding school. Logger Kolya Nepein bought himself a good button accordion. His friend, slaughterer Ivan Vashchenko, also has a button accordion.
“Soon we’ll be giving a concert at the boarding school!” - says Vashchenko.
Other guys are no longer interested in the button accordion. The boarding school will now have a group of people who want to learn to play the piano.
- What then? - said the same Vashchenko, laughing. “Before, the miner worked with rough tools: a hammer and a hammer, and he had only one music: the accordion. And now we work on delicate mechanisms: buttons, keys. Now we have a piano in our hands!
The interests of young miners are varied. Among them are inveterate athletes, for example, the famous combine operator Efim Starodubtsev, laureate Stalin Prize, is a good weightlifter; there are chess players; Almost all of them are lovers of the theater, and especially cinema; they go to the cinema collectively, as a whole boarding school. In the evenings at the boarding school you can hear heated debates about films, actors, books, football, girls, new mining machines, the war in Korea, what is stronger: love or friendship? - Yes, young people don’t argue about anything! They often talk, argue and dream about the future - their own and the common one - about communism.
Everyone understands that everyone's fate is in their own own hands. They don't need to "get out there." They are already respected people at the mine. Each of them has their own strong place here, their own settled, good happiness. You can be satisfied with it, or you can achieve even more. You can study.
Perhaps this is the most wonderful thing we saw in Gorlovka: everyone is learning! And those who don’t study (there are, of course, such people) admit it guiltily, embarrassed: “But I haven’t decided yet... I haven’t gotten ready... I haven’t even taken time off after the army...” Actually, there are no other explanations No. A young miner can study right there, at the mine, without interrupting work: there is a whole network of courses, schools, and a technical school.
Komsomol electrician Misha Posokhov studies at evening school; he is now in the ninth grade. Miner Andrey Sergeenko is taking a mining masters course. Gennady Bizyuk is already working as a mining foreman. He just graduated from college. Here is Valentin Reznikov, a young man from Novokhopersk. He arrived in Donbass only five years ago. Until then I had never thought of being a miner. Here he quickly and successfully graduated from the FZO. Received a slaughterer's certificate. I worked in lava and wanted to study further. I entered technical school. Now he is in his fourth year. He will be a mine construction technician.
In the boarding school “Stokers”, together with the young workers, live young, single technicians and engineers: the head of the site Gamlei Ninikashvili, the mining technician Yakov Levertovsky, the same Bizyuk and others. This young miner's intelligentsia in the boarding school does not keep to themselves and does not shy away from the “ordinary” miners. Everyone lives together, works together, and has a lot of fun in the evenings.
But the young man decided to get married. Here, at the mine, he met a girl he liked. She promises him to be a faithful friend. She agrees that building the future family life it is necessary here, on Donetsk soil. Well, you can have a wedding!
True, it’s a pity to part with the boarding school and with my comrades; I’m a little afraid to set out on my own everyday voyage. But the mine will help the newlyweds here too. Housing is still a bit difficult, but the young couple will definitely be given an apartment. Donbass loves weddings!
It's worse with furniture. Stores don’t often have good wardrobes, chests of drawers, and sofas. But the young man from the boarding school is used to living “in comfort”—cheap furniture will not suit him.
“It would be nice if the mine administration gave the young people furnished rooms.” And the cost of furniture would be deducted from the salary. Then we would get married more boldly! - says Alexander Bogachev.
But even without that, the guys get married boldly and willingly. They get married, settle down and live happily and richly.
At mine No. 4/5 "Nikitovka" (not far from "Kokegarka") we met miner Ivan Berlovich. He is a Belarusian by birth and came to Donbass in 1947. Studied at the FZO school. He lived, like everyone else, in a boarding school. On the very first day in the mine, he was assigned to a serious task: punching a gesenk.
“If you can work well in Gesenka,” the mentor told him, “it will be completely easier for you in the mine.”
Soon Ivan Berlovich became a famous slaughterer: hesenki became his specialty. He got married. He was given a two-room apartment in a mine building. Children appeared: Volodya and Kolya. Family! Berlovich thought and thought, consulted with Olya, his wife, and decided: we need to get our own house!
He earned well: five to seven thousand a month. There is money in the savings book. Land plot they will give it for free. The mine will help with timber and materials. I talked to the party organizer of the mine: he blessed Berlovich for a good deed. He also promised to help.
And last year - one fine summer morning - the construction of slaughterer Ivan Berlovich’s own house began.
As is common practice in the Donbass, comrades came to help the developer. It's done like this. On a day off, in the morning, neighbors, relatives and friends from the brigade come to the construction site. An accordion player is required to be invited. And to the cheerful music of the button accordion, work begins to boil: a mass of slag and cement is kneaded and poured into the frame of the future house, which has already been put together by carpenters. And at this time the hostess is preparing a treat. And when the work ends at dusk, the miners' fun begins.
The house was soon ready. It has three nice, bright rooms and a large kitchen. There is a cellar, barn, etc. A garden has already been planted near the house: twenty roots - cherries, apricots, apple trees.
That summer, next to Berlovich’s house, the houses of his neighbors grew up: a slaughterman and a driver. The village is new, but it already has electricity. Plumbing is being installed. The whole street is dug up.
— Our street is still being formed! - Berlovich says, smiling. However, everything around is being “formed” and improved. More and more villages are springing up. Merging together. They are connected by asphalt highways. Essentially, a new one is emerging Big city, including mines No. 4/5, No. 19/20, "Komsomolets" ... In this city, not only elegant residential buildings are being built, but also palaces of culture, clubs, cinemas, shops, and stadiums. baths, parks... Everything is growing! Ivan Berlovich also grew up while his house was being built: Ivan switched from a jackhammer to a combine harvester and became a machinist. Now he is studying on-the-job at courses for technicians of a narrow specialty. He will soon graduate, receive the rank of junior mining technician, but will not leave the combine. The combine requires well-trained craftsmen.
Now Ivan Berlovich will not leave the mine that has become his home. Will never leave! The apple and cherry trees will bloom in his garden and the children will grow up. Ivan Berlovich will become an honorary miner. And a new mining dynasty will appear in the new mining city.
There is in Gorlovka, in the very center of the city, a street named after Nikita Izotov. It is also called the street of honorary miners. Here, in little white houses immersed in greenery, covered with elegant eternite, live the miners' guard of Gorlovka, its color, its beauty and pride.
The honorary communist miner Joseph Sergeev, the eldest of the Sergeev family of miners, also lives here. More than twenty years ago he came here from the Kursk region to earn money. Came for a temporary life. And he stayed forever. And soon he moved his entire large family to Gorlovka: his wife, father and mother, younger brothers.
Joseph Sergeev also remembers the Gorlovka labor exchange, remembers the dog house, remembers how he lived as a parasite with a fellow countryman, how he walked barefoot for a month until he earned enough money to buy his boots. He remembers Nikita Izotov, his first teacher, well, and always speaks of him with tenderness and warmth.
Everything that has changed in Gorlovka over these twenty-odd years has changed before Sergeev’s eyes. Now miner Joseph Sergeev is an honorary miner, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. For his long service at the mine, he receives an additional thirty percent of his wage rate. His old age is assured. He knows that when he retires, he will receive a good pension. The house in which he lives on Nikita Izotov Street is not his property. This is the mine house. But it is assigned to him and his family for life as the family of an honorary miner. Every year - for six years in a row - the mine sends him to a resort in Sochi.
— Everyone in Sochi already knows me!
Joseph Sergeev's father died, his mother is alive. In addition to Joseph, his three brothers, also slaughterers, work at Kochegarka. Yakov and Anatoly are married. Mikhail is still hacking away. The eldest Sergeev has three children, Anatoly has one child. The Sergeevs often gather as a large, friendly family with their elder, on Nikita Izotov Street, and, looking at these cheerful, healthy, well-dressed, cheerful people, you involuntarily say to yourself: here it is, finally, happiness has come to the miners!
One warm spring Sunday we sat at Sergeev’s and talked with the brothers about miner’s life, about the past, present and future.
“No, you’d better explain this to me,” Sergeev Sr. suddenly said. - What kind of time are we having? After all, I earned good money before, and I was never a drunkard, I lived regularly. But my mood was somehow different... As if I was younger now, or what? Previously, it used to be that I wasn’t drawn anywhere from the house, except to visit... But now I definitely need to go to the theater with my old woman. both to the cinema and to the club. But what about it? It is forbidden! Now the people have a completely different culture. Yes, and I am now a party member. And my wife, Domna Andreevna, is an activist. And there’s nothing to say about young people. They now have great demands on culture! Their education is not the same as that of us old people.
We began to ask the Sergeevs who and how many of them studied, and suddenly, unexpectedly, a wonderful, literally symbolic picture was revealed to us. The eldest Sergeev did not receive any education; he is self-taught. Yakov graduated from four classes of school; the next one, Anatoly, is already six; the youngest, Mikhail, is seven. And Joseph’s son, Gennady, is in the ninth grade and has no intention of quitting his studies. For what? He will graduate from high school and go to college.
- Why shouldn’t he study? Now there is an opportunity!
These simple facts seem to contain the whole history of what the Bolsheviks did and Soviet authority for the miner's happiness.
Yes, Gennady Sergeev, a Gorlovka boy, the son of a miner, now has the opportunity to study - the Bolsheviks gave it to him. A shining future is open to him. He will not have to go into the mine as a child, “in harness.” He has a youth - bright, joyful, happy - the Bolsheviks gave it to him. With good excitement and slight, good envy, we look at this curly-haired, handsome, brave little boy. He was tired of sitting with the “old people.” So he took his bicycle out into the street, dashingly jumped on it and rushed off! IN bon voyage!
He will now ride all over Gorlovka, through the new city in which he was born. He will not see here now either Sobachevok, or Nakhalovok, or slums, or dugouts, or booths - they were destroyed by the Bolsheviks. He will ride his dazzling bicycle along the new highways, along the alleys of parks, along elegant avenues - they were built by the Bolsheviks. He will see a transformed mine, he will meet illuminated people on his way, crowds of cheerful peers will join him... And together with them on this first, gentle, spring day, Gennady Sergeev, the son of a Donetsk miner, the happy young man of ours, will circle around the city for a long time. era.
What we saw in Gorlovka can be seen in Makeyevka, Yenakiyevo, Chistyakov, and in general at any mine in Donbass. Everywhere great changes took place in the life of miners.
Now there are warm spring days in Donbass. The May Day holiday is approaching, and with it come celebrations, housewarmings, and weddings. Already now, Yenakievo miners in their own cars come from distant mines to the city to shop for the holiday. We need to furnish new apartments, we need to dress up.
I want to decorate not only my apartment, but also my city, my village. And hundreds of workers, mainly miners’ wives, took to the streets of the village “Red Star” (Chistyakovo); they plant young ones ornamental trees. they plant flower beds, fence them with pickets, pave sidewalks, and repair roads.
Good news is coming from the mines in these pre-May days. Petrovka miners fulfilled their obligations ahead of schedule on April 15 and are now producing thousands of tons of coal above the plan. The socialist competition for the speedy passage of mine workings, initiated by the miners of mine No. 40 "Kurakhovka", is spreading more and more widely.
New machines are being introduced. Following the Donbass miner, designed for the development of gently dipping seams, a miner for thin seams, UTK-1, appeared and earned good fame. Now, finally, the turn has come for the steeply dipping seams - for the first time in the world, the “steep-diving” workers received a wonderful KPP-1 combine with a pneumatic engine. And more than one miner said his great thanks to the designers.
Miners' health resorts are getting ready for spring. Stadiums are being improved. Hundreds of thousands of miners are already “rooting” for their home team with all their hearts. Regular steamship service Zhdanov - Sochi opened, and the first ship already took the miners to relax on the warm sea.
The mining capital of Donbass is being built, growing, and becoming prettier. New squares, new architectural ensembles, new parks and reservoirs appear in it. You look at this beautiful city and involuntarily remember the old, dusty, smoky Yuzovka, you remember that just recently, just eight and a half years ago, this city lay in ruins - and you think with delight: what a great, creative power lies in our people, what an indestructible, unbending will to victory our party has, what a joy it is to live, to create, to build in our unique time!
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 the new government would certainly implement. 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 Ukrainian Language Society 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 Ukrainian language teaching... 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, the Donetsk People's Republic, want to leave
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 - 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.
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