The growth of miners' protests in the post-soviet Russia (1992-1997)

The article deals with the causes, facts and trends of the rise of the protest movement of miners in post-soviet Russia. There is no doubt that negative consequences of the "shock therapy" announced in 1992 were at the heart of the growing dissatisfaction of the coal industry workers. It led to a sharp deterioration of the socio-economic problems. Their natural result was protests widespread among the working and the retired people. Fairly quickly the vanguard of the struggle with the government returned to miners. The period of 1992 to 1997 was the time of the rise of the protest movement. The analysis of its dynamics is the main aim of the study. The analysis of archival documents and literature has shown that the formation of the socio-economic and the political discontent of the coal industry workers took place gradually and unevenly. First, the growth in the number of protests and in their scale often gave way to a decline and localization of the struggle. It would be particularly noticeable in the regions with a high concentration of important coal-mining enterprises. However, the dynamic degradation of the coal industry and other-wordily growth of wage arrears seriously stimulated protests and speeches among the absolute majority of miners. The article emphasizes that from scattered strikes and other subtle protests, which were about social and economic demands, miners came to the all-Russian strikes and radical methods of struggle against the government and the President of the Russian Federation. They were able not only to noticeably organize themselves, but also to create conditions for cross-sectoral actions. According to the author, a turning point in the protest movement of the Russian miners was 1995. Since then, the proportion of miners' participation in strikes and other forms of protest increased significantly. Miners managed to regain their leading position in the protest movement of the working people of the country. However, the effectiveness of the nationwide strikes had relative success: the situation in the coal industry was complicated, the growth of miners' wage arrears continued. Therefore, workers were more likely to put forward political demands and use radical methods of struggle, and their actions often lost a controlled character. The dynamics of the struggle was influenced by the Russian presidential elections in 1996. They moderately stabilized the situation, but not for long. In the last years of the considered period, miners started using such radical forms of protest as "hostage-taking", blockade of major highways and even suicide. At the same time neutralizing the miners' struggle was increasingly difficult for the Kremlin. The final conclusion is that in 1992-1997 workers of the coal industry managed to come close to the mechanisms of pressure on the government they had in the late 1980s. In 1998 the sufficient social-economic and political basis for a powerful outburst of miners' struggle was formed.

Keywords

Authors

References