Insurance for miners in Siberia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries

The article considers a poorly known question of labor history in Siberia - insurance against accidents and occupational diseases for workers in mining enterprises in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The author shows that the insurance industry in Siberia was not equal for all categories of mining and metallurgical workers; it depended on the status of enterprises: imperial, state and private. Imperial and state-owned factories and mines had alms-houses. If workers at such factories had complete or partial disability they could rely on pensions and lump sums both in case of an injury and of a professional disease. However, such enterprises were few in Siberia in the early twentieth century. Most miners worked in the fields of private gold and coalmines, where workers had the right to compensation only for injuries from accidents. In 1903, the insurance law on the reward of maimed workers spread in Siberia. The employees could receive up to two-thirds of their annual salary in case of a complete disability as pensions. There was also a compensation for funeral costs of 30 rubles for adults and 15 rubles for young workers. The pension of the widowed equaled to one third of a worker's pension, children and relatives in a direct line could get one-sixth the size of the pension. The pension was replaced for a lump sum pension tenfold at the request of the injured party. In case employees were insured by insurance companies and institutions, entrepreneurs were exempted from payments by law, the duties were assumed to the insurance company. Most workers preferred to receive lump-sum benefits. In case of disability due to old age or a professional disease, miners could only count on charitable societies which gave pensions to a maximum of two hundred workers out of the thousands in need. The Mutual Insurance Society was organized in the mines of Yenisei Province. Pensions and benefits for different mountain fields in Siberia were about the same. These pensions were three times bigger (10-120 rubles per year) than for factory workers in European Russia (32-35 rubles per year at the beginning of the twentieth century). Even the meager pension of the Tomsk Welfare Society, 36-60 rubles per year, was higher than Russian. The author concludes that the life and health insurance for miners in Siberia was obviously insufficient to provide the families of victims in the workplace, but it was generally in line with Russian standards.

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